I could spend a small fortune at Old Navy this fall….

…on….

Women’s Satin Polka-Dot Ballet Flats ($19.50USD each, probably $24.50CAD)
I saw these in store and they are as cute as pictured. And, so far as I could tell from slipping my feet into them, not uncomfortable. Though I did not notice them the yellow pair probably does not translate very well in-person. I can’t remember which colour The Boy approved of and it was quite possibly the green pair! The only pair I don’t like from the website is the black pair… so I didn’t upload that picture!

Women’s Sateen A-Line Trench Coat ($39.50USD, was ~$49.50CAD)
Once upon a time when Old Navy was not everywhere (i.e., it was not yet in Smallville), I had their trench coat that no one else could get. By pure ineptitude, I washed and dried it and it got wonky bubbles in the fabric. =(
This sateen coat sits perfectly on my person. In store, I saw a dark gray and black coat. Surprisingly, The Boy advocated the black over the gray one I tried on. I’ve never had a gray one but I might go back and get the black one!

Women’s Quilted Clutches ($12.50USD, probably $19.50CAD?)
I was so eager to get to the store when I first received the email with the fall line (when I saw in-store the trench coat and flats) to see this clutch in particular! I didn’t find it =( and, really, you can get clutches everywhere. But I’m pretty suckered by the Old Navy brand and I certainly don’t mind the prices! The deep red really attracted me so much – it’s so warm.

Women’s Quilted Totes ($22.50USD, $29.50CAD?)
Again, the red one drew me in and I didn’t see it in the store on that visit (on the day I received the email). I’m iffy about getting a tote bag despite matchy-matchy whispering to me to get it! You see, recently, I purchased a black laptop bag and have not even used it yet so another tote bag is technically overkill. From the pictures, I’m not overly fond of the gray colour and it’s the red or “camel” that draws me in.

Women’s Wrap-Front Shirt ($24.50USD, so… $32.50CAD?)
It’s the “Koala bear” shade (the gray-ish one) that drew me in by colour and name! I haven’t gotten around to get one stylish and practical wrap-dress but I can imagine a wrap shirt is more versatile (and cheaper). I’m kind of drawn by the shade of green on the website as well. It is also available in white and black, both of which don’t thrill me in part because of what I already have in my closet.

Women’s Pleated Sateen Minis ($29.50USD, probably $34.50CAD)
Ooof, these little skirts are hefty in price but they promise hidden side pockets (but no lining?). They are definitely the item that could be hit-or-miss. While the khaki one is pretty in the picture, I have little faith for the in-person version. Same goes for the supposedly-slimming black that will shine and widen you instead. I’m looking forward to seeing “Coffee Grounds” brown in person.

Women’s V-Neck Sweaters ($24.50USD, probably $32.50CAD)
In the pictures, there are curious white flecks apparent on the green (er, “Wet Leaf”) and “Regal Teal” and I’m don’t know what I think of that. The “Malachite” (light blue) colour drew me in and even, to some extent, the crazy “Gray Combo”. =P I’m pretty sure the “Gray Combo” would widen me. =S Of course, there is white (er, “Oxygen”) and black, but I don’t want those.

… finally ….

Women’s Lightweight Roll-Up Shirts (On sale for $20USD — regularly $24.50, so regularly $32.50CAD)
All the colours are nearly equally appealing to me! That’s the trouble I got into with some of their oxford shirts a couple of years ago and I got too many and experienced buyer’s remorse =(. I definitely like the brown (“Bitter Chocolate”) and blue (“Moody Blue”) while the khaki seems too plain, the green is somehow off to me, and “Candy Apple” probably sounds better than it is!

Coffee on the go: Second Cup Cafe Delights granola bars

I’m not much of a coffee-drinker so when I recently rediscovered chocolate-covered espresso beans, I was enamoured and thought it was a brilliant concept: coffee without the mess!

Being the novelty-seeker that I am, when I saw the Second Cup Cafe Delights granola bars at Safeway, I had to buy all the flavours I could see even at full price. I’m sure to see them on sale for about 60% of full price sometime in the future.

Might I remind you that Second Cup is a great coffee shop chain originating in Toronto and, alas, hasn’t made a dent in the Vancouver market? Nutso Starbucks fans sending their money to the southern green-logo’ed corporation!

So far, I’ve had a full Vanilla Bean Latte bar and half a Moccaccino bar. Both were gooey and satisfyingly delicious with maybe the former slightly edging out the latter. And with only 140 calories per bar, I prefer them to those penny-thin 100-calorie servings of chocolate, cookies, what-have-you that are all the rage these days.

That said, I wish I could trade in the 90 or so Nature Valley Sweet & Salty bars in my pantry for Second Cup Cafe Delight bars!

Price: $3.89 (5 bars)
Vendor: Safeway

Activia Italy… oh my!

I’m a huge fan of Danone Activia yogurt and the Pear flavour in particular. Despite the fact my local Safeway would like to charge upwards of $4 for a carton at regular price, I have managed to buy it on sale most of the time.

Whew. Because I can and do eat Activia day in and day out. (Except for that sad week when I didn’t find it on sale and I have to try another brand.) Some people are adverse to the more solid texture that this yogurt has but I love it. When I added crunchy All-Bran strips in, it made a tasty snack that even The yogurt-adverse Boy would munch on it.

More recently, I picked up an 8-pack of single servings of the fat-free version with some wariness. Fat-free always tastes different. In this case, I was right as the Fat-free version has the consistency and pungent taste reminiscent of other brands of yogurt. Yech.

I might point out that in a 100g serving, the regular Activia has 3g of fat (amongst it 2g of bad saturated fat and 0.1g of very bad trans fat). Meanwhile, the “Fat-free” version has 0.3g of fat with 0.2g saturated fat and 0g trans fat.

I go for the taste, personally.

Price: As low as $3.00 per carton
Vendor: Safeway

My daily craving: Tim Hortons’ Chocolate Danish

I can be persuaded to give up Wendy’s Frosties (taste artificial and thus very unsatisfying for 330 cals in the small size) and their Broccoli & Cheese Baked Potato (awful synth cheese that separated from its oil – yech).

But I hanker day in and out about Tim Hortons’ Chocolate Danish.
It doesn’t matter that I had one just yesterday.
The fact that it contains 430 calories and 24g. of fat glosses over me because the chocolate is SO good
There are only two reasons why I can refrain today….
…. the Tim Hortons is not in my building and my laziness is just strong enough to stop me from heading over
…. I don’t have change… or cash, for that matter.
It was heaven on earth to bring a danish back to work and nibble on it while reading a fantastic book during an impromptu “coffee break”.
They suggest that there is an addictive additive to Tim Hortons’ coffee… for me, it’s in the chocolate danish.
Tomorrow, the struggle renews.

Price: $1.40
Vendor: Tim Hortons

Terra Chips: Where a rainbow of colours is not a good thing

I remember my first experience with Terra Chips. Was walking around a dingy Zellers and casually perusing the chips aisle — for new flavours, natch — when it just popped out at me. How could it not when the bag is smaller than others, shiny, and advertises a rainbow-coloured assortment of fried root vegetables?

They say that in order to eat healthy to seek out colourful food/vegetables. Terra Chips meets the colour quotient with a crunch! Nutritionally, of course, it fails as woefully as chips do.

I’m so in love with these chips and cannot possibly be made to choose a favourite amongst the vegetables used: sweet potato, parsnip, batata, taro, or yuca. Of course, the ones I recognize regularly are the sweet potato, melty-est of the choices, and taro, which is rather crispy.

I think I would like love to try Terra Blues, made from blue potatoes and are the official snack served on JetBlue flights. I would also love to try Sweets & Beets, a blend of sweet potato and beet chips. Unfortunately — or fortunately? — I don’t find these other flavours (regularly) at my usual shopping and grocery haunts!

Price: $3.99 (170 g)
Vendor: London Drugs

Cheecha Krackles: Gluten-free goodness

Usually “gluten-free” bodes for very bad things….

While I was looking in the “alternative chips” section, primarily for Terra Chips, my eyes landed upon the oddly named Cheecha Krackles claiming air-popped goodness. It was cheaper than the Terra Chips, I like the “hint of lime”, and I love to try new things, so I bought it in addition to Terra.

I serving of Krackles is an ample 2 cups with only 87 calories per serving. Even if you ate the whole bag in one sitting it was only 304.5 calories. Just imagine if you ate a whole bag of regular potato chips….

Each chip is large but light. It takes some time to get through a serving and you needn’t feel guilty afterwards for having indulged.

Price: $2.69 (70g bag)
Vendor: London Drugs

Scary: Listerine Whitening Pre-Brush Rinse

Did a side-by-side comparison of my teeth with Lil’ Sis’ and I came up short. Her secret is to use a good whitening toothpaste (like Crest Vivid White Toothpaste) once a day and to use the new Listerine Whitening Pre-Brush Rinse.

Intrigued because I have my caveats about applying whitening like nail polish or missing crevices with whitening strips, I asked her the all-important question where Listerine is concerned, “Does it sting your mouth to us it?”

No, it doesn’t, but she said it sloughs skin off that you can feel when you swish it around. That sounds rather gross but she apparently got over that.

So this isn’t a product review but I’m very intrigued. Will probably pick up a smaller size for trial and come back with comments… and gleaming white teeth? =D

Price: $9.99 (946 mL)
Vendor: London Drugs

The New Orleans Lifestyle: Zatarain’s Rice Dinner Mixes

Just a short while ago, I participated in a consumer survey about side dishes. You know, products like Lipton’s Sidekicks and Uncle Ben’s Bistro Express. It seemed that they focused their survey on a product I had never really noticed, Zatarain’s.

Like psychological clockwork, the next time I was at the market, the clouds parted and the spotlight shone on the Zatarain’s products in the same aisle that I sneek my coming week’s fix of KD and/or Lipton’s Sidekicks.

I did some quick Supermarket Deduction and figured that the invitation to “Add meat for a complete meal!”, that it was rice and not pasta, and the sauce was not creamy all amounted to a Healthier Dinner.

I started with some Smothered Chicken and Rice. Added tofu to that and we found it tasty and fabulous. Then I tried the Jambalaya Rice. It had some heat but was still good. Next trip, I picked up Dirty Rice. That was not that special and the second time around, Smothered Chicken tasted too salty.

This time, since I had to find something to go with the tofu that was nearing expiry in my fridge and some asparagus, I picked up Black Bean and Rice. I added soft tofu that broke upon mixing, and diced asparagus. It alarmed me that the liquid would not reduce but it actually worked out quite well with leftovers that normally tend to dehydrate.

The Black Bean mix was not too salty but savoury and the beans were a hearty addition.

Unfortunately, it’s still a Heart Attack in a Box. It takes some restraint but in the interest of extending my $ as far as it can go, I got 4 servings out of it. Still, the recommended serving of 1/3 of the mix had ample calories (230 cal.) and acceptably low fat (1 g.). Most shocking is the sodium content: 1,080mg, or 45% of your daily intake based on a 2,000-calorie daily diet. Oy. I need to find me a reasonably easy and flavourful recipe.

Price: Around $2.00.
Vendor: Safeway

Dairy Queen Blizzards

When I’ve done 20KM in a single training session, The Boy treats me. (Little does he know about the treats I liberally give myself in the interim, between 20KM sessions.) I like to make really good on the treat — no two lumps of gelato for me, for $6 no less — so we walked 2.6KM each way yesterday to the local DQ.

I like to try their monthly feature if it sounds appetizing but to me, this month’s Banana Cream Pie didn’t sound appetizing. I’ve never had the real thing. I was going to order the Strawberry Cheesequake but inquired about the French Silk Pie ingredients: chocolate fudge, crispy pieces, and whipped cream! So I ordered a small size.

After just one bite, I knew I had maximized my chocolate quotient for a Blizzard. I didn’t like the fudge chunks so much as they weren’t sastifyingly chocolatey crunchy. I liked the crunchy cookie pieces and the chocolate flakes. I liked the whipped cream that I ate first to get to the ice cream.

Looking for a picture of that particular Blizzard, I learned that the medium size has a blistering 960 calories, 420 of them from fat! Fortunately right after polishing it off, I couldn’t think of chocolate and hope/fancy that that feeling will last for minimum one week.

I did, however, find a picture of the Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Blizzard that was no longer featured but still available. Aside from the Clodhoppers Blizzard that probably wasn’t not very popular, the Chocolate/Strawberry Blizzard has been my favourite. So the strawberries aren’t actually chocolate-dipped — instead strawberries and slices of chocolate were tossed in together and blended — but it’s the match-made-in-heaven of chocolate and strawberries in one dessert.

Price: Under $4 for the small size
Vendor: Dairy Queen

Body & Earth Spa Vanilla Sugar Body Scrub

I’m the non-girly girl who can’t usually be bothered to use exfoliator though I know it’s supposed to make you just shine if you regularly slough off your dull, dead skin cells.

I used the Body & Earth Spa Vanilla Sugar Body Scrub once all over and reveled in the strong scent and gel-texture with the invigorating but gentle exfoliating feeling.

More recently, I’ve taken to “rewarding myself” after my most strenuous workout on Sundays with facial exfoliation instead of the prim-and-proper Spectrojel routine. It’s been most excellent. I love how the gel is thick and doesn’t run off before you get to massage it in.

Price: $3.99 (480mL container)
Vendor: London Drugs