Adventures in Double Trouble Town

Chocolate chip cookies, mermaid hair flips, nail painting, pizza and dancing. That’s what our girls night in looked like.

When my co-worker Julie and I get together, it’s not uncommon that we get titled as Double Trouble by our peers. Though, it was pretty tame when we had our girls night in at her house last night.

Our first stop after we got off work was to the grocery store. We dropped into Loblaws/Zehrs to pick up some essentials for a fun night in. You know, things like nail polish and cranberry juice.zehrs

I shop at this location of Zehrs quite often and didn’t realize that the beauty section got an overhaul. A nail bar with polishes from Sally Hansen, Nicole by OPI, to Zehrs brand Joe Fresh polishes. There was even a fragrance  and mascara bar too. All with this one stream lined looked which was very Sephora-like, right? Nail-Bar-at-Zehrs

Julie stopped to smell the roses chocolate chip scented perfume.fragrance-bar-at-zehrs

Difficult decisions to make. Sparkle? Brights? Pastels? It took me a while to decide on a new nail polish color. picking-out-polishes

I ended up going with Barracuda by Sally Hansen which is a pure robin’s egg blue shade, and Jules picked up two other colors by Nicole by OPI and some Sally Hansen salon effects (stickers for your nails). All perfect for a spring manicure. Hey wishful thinking right? As I write this as it snows outside.

Since when did nail polishes at the grocery store have salon type prices? All those nail polishes and stickers we bought were $8.99-$9.99.Nail-polish-at-Zehrs

Time to pick up some mix for our beverages! That’s cranberry juice for me. Giggity giggity.cranberry-juice-at-zehrs

Oh, and a quick pit-stop at the lotto place for Jules. Here’s hoping you win the millions!Julie-shopping-at-Zehrs

We are all giggles, all the time. You’d think we haven’t seen each other in years. When in reality our offices are right across the hall from one another. At one point we had our cashier laughing so much too. So naturally we asked her to take our photo. Friends-at-Zehrs

Alright, time to use self-checkout. Clearly we like to document everything. I’m surprised no one asked us to stop snapping away. self-checkout-at-Zehrs

Julie’s husband requested that we head out to grab some beer on the way home, and we noticed these two men behind us who came in with a serious amount of empties to cash in. They weren’t sorted, and Julie gave them heck for it. The men asked us if we wanted the empties and we certainly didn’t decline to that. $14 worth of empties! Score.beer store

After our errands we immediately got started on our nails after we arrived to Julie’s house. At first I suggested doing Julie’s nails and vice versa, but since I’ve never painted any one elses nails before, I thought it was a recipe for disaster. I could picture nail polish just strewn right over her newly painted walls. We stuck to doing them ourselves.

Step 1. Remove polish, do not forget any fingers. removing-polish

Step 2. Pose for photos before getting our nails wet. Jules-and-I-kitchen

Step 3. Read instructions and apply. So far so good! The sticker pattern is called ‘Kitty Kitty’. Rawr. Sally-Hansen-nail-effects

Step 4. Paint the rest of our nails, and wait for pizza to arrive. nail-painting

I was indecisive and went with a nail sticker on one nail, and polka-dots on the other. Julie just had a polish party on her nails. Ever single one was different. our-nails

We chowed down on a few pieces of our delivered pizza and  sprinkled some Chia seeds on top for a bit of added goodness. Some nice pizza too. I’m still thinking about it today.eating-pizza

After supper, we headed to the basement where mermaid hair flips were put into action. This was sooo hard to photograph you guys. We took about 15 photos each, and started getting dizzy. mermaid-hair-flip

Ever play Dance Central on xbox or the wii? It has to be the most addicting, fun game I’ve played! You mimic the moves on the screen and get points towards new songs and new levels. PURE. AMAZING.dance-central

We spent the entire night there after, dancing to music from Amy Winehouse, The Beatles, Kenny Rogers to  Nirvana and Green Day.dancing-with-julie

Oh, and doing endless cartwheeels and catching Julie as she jumped into my arms. No big deal. Double trouble adventures, always guaranteed fun nights when you have us two around. catching-julie-mid-air

What are your plans for this weekend?

When’s the last time you had a Girls Night?

I even created a Google+ album of our evening last night.

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.

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Honey mustard chicken ‘n beer

 

Today? I’m going to show you guys how to make this scrumptious meal!

Was anyone else adding an extra hour onto your work/school day? Due to the time–change I kept thinking to myself when it was 1:00 but really, it’s 2pm and all day I was like that! Especially yesterday since we didn’t set the clocks back yet. It made the day seem extra long which is so wonderful being that it was Sunday.

We had a pretty low key day yesterday, because on Saturday we drove to Toronto to check out the Dinosaur exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum.

I also stopped by one of my favorite stores. You’ll have to wait and see what’s inside this pink bag!

It was like my childhood dream came true. I loved the exhibit and I loved imagining the dinosaurs coming to life and stomping on my head, or scooping me up like King Kong. I’m so excited to share the photos with my nephews, they’re at the perfect age right now and know much more dinosaur names than I do, so it’s pretty impressive.

We decided to get out of the house for a bit and stock up on some sale items at Sobeys.

Cereal sale! Time to get an abundance of it.

Don’t be fooled by those 3 boxes. We picked up I think 11 in total. Hey, a deals a deal. Gotta stock up when you can grab them for a great price, right?

Cheese was on for $4.99 — cheapest we’ve seen the bricks in a while.

Since I had all the time in the world to cook a meal that evening I’ve decided to whip up some random concoction and pray that it tastes good. Plus, doesn’t hurt to surprise those tastebuds once in a while.

I’ve been on the hunt for new recipes to make in the kitchen, and it couldn’t have come at a better time when I was chosen to be one of the bloggers to shop at The Beer Store and cook up something with beer, and share it with you all. Perfect opportunity to change things up in the otherwise typical meal.

Dang straight I’m including beer in my recipe with you guys today. Let’s get crack-a-lackin’.

First up, I have to be honest. It’s been more than a few years since I’ve stepped inside a beer store. I do have to say I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t ID-ed. Guess I’m past the age of looking 25 of younger. Shame.

When I walked into the store I got in the wrong line up immediately. This one above was for returns to get cash back from your bottles/cans. Ha, oops!

Standing alongside of the beer returns aisle, you could get closer to see the selection of beer choices to buy. Whether it be in cans, bottles, or tall boys.

I didn’t know you could buy just one beer, singly. The middle photo posted above had a cooler full of them. Kinda neat, especially if you’re a lightweight or just don’t drink all that often and want just one or two.

Here I am waiting for “The Beer Man” (heh heh) to bring us out the beer we ordered and paid for. The boyfriend was with me, so he ended up choosing Rickard’s White tall boys.

Cooking with beer? So easy. If you have a recipe that calls for water, and want to add a bit more flavour — substitute it with beer!

I think this would be a great recipe to bring to a holiday party. Just the fun-factor of calling it Honey Mustard Chicken ‘n Beer is enough to make me giddy. I’m sure a lot of the guys would love it too.

That’s all you need!

I honestly would’ve never thought this would’ve tasted as good as it did. I lunged into the Boyfriend arms as soon as he came home from work, telling him that it was RESTAURANT QUALITY. I don’t know how to describe the taste other than semi-sweet, and one of the better meals I’ve made.

Honey Mustard Chicken ‘n Beer:

  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp garlic
  • ¼ tsp ginger
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 ½ tsp soy sauce
  • 2 cooked chicken breasts

You’ll notice there’s two kinds of mustard in the mix. I found dijon mustard in the fridge, as I was putting away the yellow mustard, so I added it in!

Directions:

  • Cook chicken (I used a grill) and set aside but keep warm.
  • Heat up your oil, garlic and ginger
  • Add in honey, mustard, and dijon mustard and whisk it together in your pan.
  • Add the soy sauce then beer
  • Cook it all together until it starts to bubble

  • Add in your cooked, sliced chicken breasts, keep the heat on medium-medium high and flip your chicken when you feel like it (after 5 minutes or so)
  • Make sure your sauce has coated the chicken and serve!

The sauce was very runny so if you want to add thickness to it add 1tsp of corn starch with a drop of water to a glue-like consistency, and then add it to your sauce mixture. This will shine up the sauce, if you were having guests over and wanted your presentation to be pretty ;)

It was so easy! I served the chicken with some quinoa and a spinach salad.

Whaddya say, folks? Dig in.

I added a few more pieces of chicken to our plates after I snapped some shots of my wonderful creation. Ahh… the perfect way to end the weekend, am I right?

(Baked Garlic Beer Fries from Life & Kitchen)

If you’re feeling beerave (ha, see what I did there?) you could also make these Baked Garlic Beer Fries I found online too. Since I didn’t want too much beer flavours happening in my mouth, I decided to stick to just the Honey Mustard Chicken ‘n Beer concoction and add a bit of quinoa and spinach salad to the mix.

Super easy, super flavourful and quick prep & cook time!

Have you ever cooked with beer?

What is your favourite type of beer?

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.

 

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Golden Arches hunt for #EqualCanada #CBias

What a weekend! There are now just a few more days until Christmas and a few more days until our holiday break from work. Of course, the malls and everywhere in between are jam-packed with shoppers finishing up the majority of their Christmas shopping. But it wasn’t as bad as you may think. Yesterday, Scott and I ended up heading out to shop and, at first, the mall was pretty busy.  That is, until the traditional mall closing time of 6pm when the crowds suddenly began to thin out. I’m not sure everyone realizes how late the stores stay open for Christmas shoppers!

We hit up a bunch of places including Walmart to pick up a few groceries for the rest of the week. We didn’t need too much; just a few essentials.

As we were finishing up our shopping, supper time had come and passed and our tummies were growling a bit. I think my tummy was growling at the impatient shoppers. But that’s a topic for another day. I thought this was a perfect time to treat Scott and I to a feed of McDonalds, thanks to #EqualCanada and #Cbias. I’m always a fan of stopping at McDonalds since they offer free wi-fi and I can use my iPad.

Hmm, what to order? Scott ended up using a free Big Mac Meal coupon he had, and I got my specialty: the McDouble, plain. Only cheese please.

I give my extra burger patty to Scott since it’s cheaper to order a McDouble (2 patties) than it is to order a cheeseburger. (I think…maybe it’s just because Scott likes to have an almost-double Big Mac).  He went for an extra McDouble as well for good measure.

Love free re-fills. Did I get the Coke Zero, or the Barq’s? Take a guess!

When I placed my second order of the evening, I decided to get a coffee so we could take it to go, and bring it with me to sip on as we finished up our shopping.

After I placed my order I asked the cashier if there was Equal available instead of sugar. He honestly had no idea what #EqualCanada even was. It was funny. He asked me and I said it was a sweetener. He then asked me why I’d rather Equal than any other options and I told him that it just tastes better in my opinion. He nodded and smiled as he was ringing my coffee through. One of the credit card machines was down so we continued to chat.

From there, I asked him if there was a comment card that I could fill out. He called out to the manager who came over to greet me (they were both super friendly and great to deal with), but the manager apologized and said they didn’t have any comment cards. I thought that was a bit strange, because aren’t they usually hung up in a little holder on the wall where you can grab one and fill it out yourself? I told him it was okay and I suggested that I could just fill out the survey mentioned on the back of the @McD_Canada receipt instead to suggest that McDonalds carry a variety of sweeteners to give customers more selection.

The situation got more silly at this point because I ordered a medium black coffee, but the guy filling my order said there weren’t any medium cups in stock either.  So, as a bonus, I ended up getting a large, filled to the brim with coffee.  We were both laughing.

Sweet, upsized for free! The one thing I really enjoy about McDonalds coffee is not only the taste, but the cups are from the future. The lids are not flimsy and the top easily pops up and stays with the lift of your finger.

And no asking for double-cupped cups anymore since they are already two layer insulated!

As soon as we got home from our shopping excursion, I did fill out a McDonalds survey. They don’t put it on the back of their receipts for nothing, right?

Hearing feedback from customers is important to any business and a really great way to interact with large corporations.

Have you ever filled out the McDonalds survey before?

I hope everyone is almost finished up the majority of their Christmas shopping. Does anyone have people left to buy for?

If interested, here is some more information about Equal. Visit Equal online, tweet @EqualCanada, and @McD_Canada or like Equal Canada on Facebook.

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias. All opinions are my own.

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