Thursday, June 18, 2009

Fruit Snacks, Julie-style!

esterday, my good friends, Cath and Jason stopped by. Cath and I headed out for a hilly bike ride, while Mike and Jase drank coffee and bought tools at the local hardware shop! Hahahahahahaha!!

I was so excited to be done with our bike ride because I had planned a special surprise for my buds...

Now over the years, Cath and Jase would stop by our place en route from Calgary to Fernie. Often times, they would be exhausted from the flight from London and arrived at my humble abode ravenous.

It is with great pride that I take sole credit for introducing my English friends to the wonder and joy of Hamburger Helper. Hahahahahahaha!!

Poor Jase is quite the cook, and I remember the look on his face when he took the first bite and said, "Well that's quite tasty." LMAO!!! I can only imagine how hungry he must have been. Hee-hee!

Well, it's been a running joke with us now, I always say I'll be making Hamburger Helper, would they like to come for dinner?

Yesterday, however, I was inspired by a creation my friend Charmaine and I had busied ourselves with the day before. I helped her prepare this dish for her daughter's birthday party and was so excited by it, I HAD to make it for Jason and Cath.

As I was preparing it, I started giggling to myself because I knew how awesome it would be and how surprised Jason would be. Mike was in the other room and came over to see what I was laughing about -- and then he just shook his head and started laughing.

Are you ready?????

First I created my masterpiece -- the Watermelon Basket!!!



Then, you chop up all kinds of fruit to make fruit kabobs. Top with a strawberry dipped in chocolate. (See how gleeful I am! Hahahahaha! I already donned my cycling jersey and shorts so I wouldn't be worried about getting ready for the bike ride...)



Final step: Load some skewers in the basket and place extras around it. Hee-hee!!



I swore Mike to secrecy and made him promise that he wouldn't tell Jason about the surprise until Cath and I returned. :) I even covered the whole thing in foil to hide it from prying eyes if anyone went into the fridge.

Mike kept his promise and I was just about wriggling with excitement to get home and serve my watermelon basket!! Hahahahahaha!! I giggled to myself as I brought out the tray of fruit kabobs. They promptly disappeared, but I realized afterward that I should have made something else. Poor Jason was still ravenous -- I could tell by the sharp glean in his eyes. I should have whipped up a batch of Hamburger Helper after all, eh? Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Well, I'm off to Penticton tomorrow for a training camp -- I'll be gone 10 days! YAY!!! I am so excited for this camp and the opportunity to learn a ton and gain more fitness. :) :)

I'm going to be sharing a room with another of Sara's athletes -- Tessa. I first met Tessa when I was at the Arizona training camp, but never got to know her that well...That situation was rectified this weekend however!

Tessa also raced at Wasa and we accidentally met up on Saturday -- I was standing in the outhouse line wearing my bathing suit, and Tessa must have recognized my bum from Arizona because I heard her voice yell, "Julie!" Hahahahahahaah!!

I invited her to bunk with me at a motel in Cranbrook to cut costs and she agreed. You never know just how well you are going to get along with someone however....I KNEW we were two peas in a pod when at dinner, we each placed our respective lip balms on the table at the same time. Hahahahaha!!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend...

Keith -- GO LIKE A ROCKET!! You have a solid game plan. Once you are out of the swim, pedal like you mean it. Solid and strong. Run the entire course -- even if that means running at a pace barely discernible from walking, you CAN DO IT!!! As my friend Kerry tells me, "Lay down the law!" :) :) :) :) :)

Susi -- Have a great, great race! Strong and steady the whole way my dear!!! :) :)

Shannon -- Good luck and make sure you poop before you start the run!! Hahahaha!! No walking allowed even if that means you are clenching butt cheeks! LMAO!!!

Is there anyone else I missed? If I did, tell me, and I will personally wish you good luck as well!

GOOD LUCK GUYS!!!

7 comments:

Susi said...

thanks for the good wishes sweetpea! i aboslutely love the photo of you with the kabob, so sweet! you rock. have a blast in penticton - i can't wait to hear about it when you are back!
xoxo

Cath said...

Everyone - they were the BEST fruit kebobs ever (though I have to say the kebob thing is a bit funny - as we call it kebab - I thought you were just pronouncing it funny yesterday Julie - hahahahahaha!) ANyhow, they were perfect after a hilly ride - looked great, tasted great and were served by a perfect buddy! It was so good to ride with you, I always ride on my own and we've talked about those rides we could do together for sooooo long it was kind of surreal when we did it!

Anyhow, you have a fab time in Penticton - don't gorget about the running pulley - lol :) Have a great time, I know you'll work hard and enjoy every minute of it :)

Amy said...

LOVE the fruit kababs! I think I'm going to copy you sometime this summer and make them . YUM!

KK said...

This reminds me of one of my favorite movie qoutes: "I don't know why they call this stuff Hamburger Helper, it does just fine by itself!" LOL. (That was Uncle Eddie from the first Vacation movie.)

Have fun at camp-sounds like you'll learn a lot AND have fun-awesome!

Cath said...

Julie - can I borrow your blog to leave a message for Keith - I don't have the access to leave it on his site...:)

Hey Keith - well done for keeping going, that's what takes real guts. It's easy to race well when things are going to plan, not so easy when that's not the case - that's when the real toughies show their true colours! If you do decide to do the Canmore race (I assume it's the one on 18th July) I'll be there as well, so we could say hi!

Take care and keep at it - as my coach says to me, don't focus too much on looking back, just think about what you'll differently next time and concentrate on looking forward.

PS - also just seen you were in London last year - shame we didn't know, I'd have met up with you - I worked just around the corner near Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Westminster - oh well eh? You could have even stayed at our gaff!

Take care, well done again and hey maybe see you on the 18th! Cath x

Keith said...

Cath,

Thanks for the kind words. I'm still mulling over the Canmore tri, but am leaning towards doing it. Mainly because I've paid for it already, but don't think I bought the cancellation insurance. I bought it, I might as well get the experience and treat it as a big training day.

We enjoyed London, stayed in my brothers flat in Feltham, trained in to Waterloo. It was fun! Hope to see you in Canmore.

I'm sure Julie doesn't mind us using her blog. She's away right now, training her buns off, and the blog is just sitting there, lonely, feeling abandoned, wondering if the owner has taken up with a spiffy new blog that works much better and this one is going to be put out in the rain.

Chris Cuvelier said...

I love the watermelon basket - always fun to get creative with your fruit! :)

If you ever need some healthy post/pre run smoothie recipe ideas, I encourage you to check out my blog: http://theblenderdiaries.com