Healthy

This month's Real Simple includes a list of the 30 healthiest foods (think mushrooms, skim milk, almonds and edamame). The feature has me looking forward to many delicious and nutritious (and simple!) snacks and side dishes in our future. I'm particularly excited by the prospect of:

• Kiwi sliced thinly and drizzled with honey and topped with toasted coconut;
• Broccoli tossed with olive oil, garlic and crushed red pepper, roasted until tender, and sprinkled with grated Parmesan before serving;
• Avocados halved, drizzled with soy sauce and fresh lime juice, and sprinkled with sesame seeds;
• Black beans tossed with olive oil, ground cumin and salt, and roasted until crispy; and
• Sweet potatoes steamed with cut up apples, and then pureed with maple syrup and crushed red pepper.

Do you have any delicious go-to healthy snacks and sides? I'm so curious.

Ice

After replenishing the ice cub trays in our fridge, I'm reminded of a cute find at The Tin Box yesterday - Gal Pal Retro Ice Packs. Aren't they super cute? I think they're the perfect remedy for a headache, sore knee or bumped elbow. 

Post-Its

Romy pretended to have invented them on Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, the Project Runway Canada designers made dresses out of them for charity auction last season, and one of my former employers prohibited their use - I'm talking about Post-Its. Post-Its are displayed all around our home. Greg and I use them to write messages to each other when we're travelling for work. It's become a fun tradition to write messages to each other and post the notes throughout our apartment so that the other can find them while we're away. 

This author in Singapore places one Post-it note of 'Things We Forget' throughout the city every day. The random messages help spread sunshine and positive reminders to those who stumble upon them. These are messages of how to best live your life; check it out. I know I often need these reminders. 

Mountains

A long weekend in the fantastic Jasper National Park requires no wordy recap; instead, here is our photo diary of Victoria Day Weekend 2009.

Water

I should drink more water; Greg reminds me of this reality all the time. I sometimes think keeping lemon and lime slices cut in the fridge and a bag of ice chips in the freezer would make me drink more water. After all, am I the only one who thinks a glass of water in a restaurant tastes better than one served from your own kitchen?

To encourage myself to drink more water, I undertook a bus adventure in Ottawa with a number of friends about seven years ago. On our first day in the city, we armed ourselves with a handful of bus tickets and headed for Mountain Equipment Co-op. We got lost (at least once... though my memory is fuzzy on the details) and I almost got hit by a bus. The trek was all in the name of purchasing a Nalgene bottle, which were not readily available in St. John's at the time.

After a spell of freezing water in the fridge at night and toting it to class, we're all informed that the bottle's polycarbonate plastic is hazardous to our health, and suddenly those concerns lead to a decline in my water intake. Sadly, I've yet to replace my water bottle with one of the stainless steel variety.

In lieu, I grab glasses of water from the cooler in my office's kitchen when I remember. Otherwise, I've jumped on the trend wagon and am downing Vitamin Water like the masses. While I know they should contain less sugar and calories, they make me feel like I'm doing something at least half healthy and that has to count for something... right?