What I Bought This Week #20

May is usually the month that sees me coming out of hibernation. The combination of Mother's Day and lots of birthdays means hubby and I end up going out to eat a lot more. As a result, I didn't buy much for the home this week. I'm not saving any more money per se, but at least I'm not accumulating any stuff in the home!

What's in My Overnight Bag

Just a quick video on what I packed on a recent overnight trip to the Niagara wine region!

What I Bought This Week #19

The theme this week was HOT & SPICY. We bought lots of hot sauce and still have a bunch on our list to try or buy. Admittedly, we've probably accumulated a bit too much, but I'm sure we'll use it up.

Now that we're done with our no processed junk food challenge, we've been slowly relaxing the rules. While we're still not buying chips or bagged popcorn, we did purchase some instant noodles, as per hubby's request. He had mentioned our fire noodle challenge (regular and 2x spicy) to one of his coworkers and she was curious to try the 2x spicy noodles, so we picked some up to share with her. We'd also heard good things about the curry version so we figured we would try that too. We ended up giving a few packs to hubby's family, so we're only keeping 5 of the 10 packs we purchased. :)

We also purchased some Yakult, which is a yogurty-type drink I used to love when I was young. We were talking with my family about this drink during dinner yesterday, but hubby's never tried it so I grabbed some on impulse as we were waiting to check out. Definitely more of an occasional treat as it's rather sweet, but I love the funky sour milky flavour.

Lastly, hubby and I tried a whole bunch of Filipino baked goods from Valerio's Tropical Bakeshop -- and EVERYTHING was DELICIOUS. I wish we bought more. We can't wait to go back and try a few more things.

What I Bought This Week #18

This was a very minimal week in terms of purchases. I was volunteering at the Hot Docs film festival from Monday to Friday, so I didn't get chance to do much shopping. Hubby and I did manage to find some time to catch a few films though! The Wandering Chef is a touching documentary about Jiho Im -- documented over a 12-year period, the film culminates in this Korean chef cooking 108 dishes in 24 hours as part of his grieving process after he loses a loved one. We also checked out a DocX VR experience at the Autodesk Technology Centre (it was ok) and watched Avengers: Endgame (we enjoyed this). We got lots of takeaway this weekend, so I had a bit of a break from cooking. We tried Kothu roti (a traditional Sri Lankan dish) for the first time, which was FANTASTIC! I'm sure there will be lots of Kothu roti in our future. We also ate way too many burritos in celebration of Cinco de Mayo today. All in all, it was a busy but fun week... but I'm ready to get back to routine.

What I Bought This Week #17

I'm a little late with this update as Hubby and I spent the weekend in St. Catherines. We visited a couple wineries and a brewery -- and stocked up on booze for patio season. I am SO EXCITED to dine al fresco once the weather warms up. We also purchased a lot of groceries this week. Since we had the car, we took a trip to Costco and stocked up on meat for our freezer, as well as other miscellaneous foodstuff. I love buying salad greens from Costco due to the low price. At some point during the week, I purchased a bunch of groceries from Loblaws and spent $47.56 -- I showed this haul in my vlog on Authenblissity but unfortunately forgot to take a photo for this series.

What I Bought This Week #16

Now that the weather is warmer, we've been going out a bit more -- this week was a little light on groceries as a result. I've also been forgetting to take photos of free things that we bring into our home, but I remembered this week. The first two photos are complimentary items we received last week -- a bunch of samples from Sample Source (I had put everything away, but I *think* I was able to gather everything I received) and a couple Kind bars from Lunchtime Yoga Classes at the Sony Centre. I won't be eating these Kind bars until May (i.e., after my no processed junk food challenge), but I love Kind bars, so my April challenge didn't stop me from bringing one home after each class. The doughnut from Timmie's is coconut raspberry and it was delicious! Hubby and I would normally have purchased two doughnuts, but we're trying to be good, so we bought one to share. Progress!

Hope you are having a wonderful Easter long weekend. x

What I Bought This Week #15

CHEESE was the name of the game this week! Hubby and I have been mad about cheese lately. I've also been trying to cook more plant-based meals, so I placed a big Walmart order and stocked up on a variety of beans and grains. Hubby still eats meat almost every day, but I've been gravitating towards going meat-free a few days a week. I don't intentionally try to exclude meat most days, but I have been trying to increase my intake of fruit and veggies so the amount of meat (and grains) I consume has experienced a corresponding decrease as a result. It feels good to be eating so much more fruit and vegetables -- this has been a background goal of mine for ages and I finally feel like I'm making some headway. I'm always hungry though so I've had to up my cooking quite a bit. Since I wake up early now, I've shifted a bunch of my cooking to the morning before hubby gets up. It's a great time to get things done, and it feels like moving meditation, so it's kind of the perfect combination of relaxing while also being productive.