One thing that John and I look forward to most on the weekends is a proper breakfast. From Monday to Friday we’re starting the day with coffee and a muffin, or sometimes a breakfast sandwich. When Saturday and Sunday roll around, we either take a morning trip to the market or try out some of our city’s best eateries to get our dose of eggs.

The Egg Farmers of Canada have recently launched a mobile application (for iPhone and Android) that helps you cook eggs at home. Whether you’re boiling, poaching, frying, scrambling, or combining them with other ingredients, the app set out to educate Canadians about the seemingly endless array of egg preparations – for any meal.

Egg Timer iPhone App

I downloaded the free app to give it a whirl. It caught John’s eye right and we played around with the settings. We usually get our eggs over medium so I clicked on the pre-set timer. You could just use your iPhone’s default timer for this, but the benefit of using the one within the app is that it will pair up with recipes, and let you know when to flip.

I do cook from home often and I use various recipe applications. The Egg Timer app has dozens of recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, kids meals, and quick snacks. It’s been added to my food app arsenal for my future endeavours with quiche, macaroni bake, risotto, gnocchi, or burger melts.

Egg Timer iPhone App

To promote this new tool, the Egg Farmers of Canada have offered up 5 egg-tastic prize packages to give away. Each package includes:

• A Get Cracking apron
• A cookbook: The Perfect Egg Cookbook, by Alex Barker
• A cookbook in French: Les Oeufs, Plus de 130 recettes, par Michel Roux
• A microwave egg cooker
• Spiced French Toast mix
• A Get Cracking egg turner

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post naming your favourite place to eat eggs in Vancouver. You could say eggs benedict at Cafe Medina, the big bowl breakfast at White Spot, a frittata from Campagnolo, or the scrambled eggs you make with your kids at home.

I will draw 5 winners next Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:00am. Prize packages will be delivered to each of the winner.

Update The winners are Shelley, Rachel, Jan, Mike, and Vaughn!

The BC Ministry of Health has recently launched a free mobile application that helps residents locate their nearest health services.

I took a quick spin around the BC Health Service Locator and did a search for something I had to find before. I looked for the travel clinic I found last February when I needed to get my Yellow Fever vaccination for my trip to Ghana. The results came up within a couple clicks on the app and included the location, hours, link to the clinic’s website, and a button to save this information to my iPhone’s contacts.

Search results appear in a list view but you can click on the settings icon (that looks like a cog) and change it to a map view or “Sort by Distance”. For this feature to work you’ll need your location settings turned on so it can give you directions. You can also click to get the latest government health alerts, direct from BC HealthLink.

It’s a handy tool for those on the go. Having this information in the palm of your hand is useful since you’ll need to call to make appointments and it can easily locate services that are closest to you.

The BC Health Services App is free to download from the iTunes store but I haven’t been able to find it on my desktop iTunes, only directly from the app store on my iPhone. I also haven’t been able to locate a link to any other mobile marketplaces from the HeathLink BC website but I have sent an email to one of the volunteers who worked on the app to find out if they have plans for an Android version. The official launch is January 20, 2012 so I’m sure more information will be available after that time.

Update Thanks to Gillian for the additional information. The application has now officially launched and there is a website available with additional information.

The beloved Woodward’s Windows return to various locations around downtown Vancouver this year as a part of Christmas at Canada Place. The classic, animatronic displays that have been a part of the holidays for decades have been restored and setup at nine different venues.

The main displays are at Canada Place but you can also find them at Bentall One, Bentall Three, Bentall Four, London Drugs at the old Woodward’s location, and the Vancouver Christmas Market. Make your way to each stop with the help of the Christmas at Canada Place iPhone & Android app or this brochure (which can be downloaded).

Click to download the iPhone & Android app

On the app, you can “check-in” to each location to receive a virtual ornament. Check into every location and you’ll be entered to win a $2,000 shopping spree at London Drugs. The app will tell you how close you are to a window, the hours of the venue (in case you want to get close up) and register your check-in.

If you don’t use the app, there are paper contest entry forms at each Woodward’s Window. Fill out the skill-testing-question for each and you can enter to win as well. You can visit every location until January 4, 2012 except for the Vancouver Christmas Market which will close December 24, 2011. Brochures are also available at Starbucks locations around the downtown core.

Grab the kids, some hot chocolates, download the app, and do the self-guided tour this season for your chance to win the shopping spree.

Miss604 is proud to once again partner with Christmas at Canada Place and sponsor the Woodward’s Windows and Breakfast with Santa which supports the Strathcona Community Centre’s Food Security Program.

The Woodward’s Windows returned in 2010 after being tucked away for years following the closure of the Woodward’s department store in Vancouver.

February is Heart Month across Canada and through various campaigns and promotions the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon hopes to raise awareness about heart health. 

Two days ago, my 89 year old grandmother had a heart attack and we have been in and out of the hospital to visit her. My family is taking this very hard as she’s not only the matriarch whom even my childhood friends refer to as “Oma”, but we lost my Opa to a heart attack when I was a teenager. I was already planning on running a promotional campaign with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the events this week are even more reason for me to write about Hearth Month.

To find out if you are at risk, please download the free “My Heart&Stroke Health” application for your smart phone. It will take 8-10 minutes to fill out the survey and find out if you have any risk factors.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon website also provides recipes, fitness tips, and tools for healthy living. Things as simple a taking the stairs versus the elevator in your building can make a different when it comes to heart health. Please take the time to look through some of this information and consider donating to this cause. 

One of the many lifestyle choices that can help us reduce our risk is being physically active for that reason we have teamed for a contest offering up a hotel stay in Whistler, one of the most active communities around. You can take walks around the village, ski or snowboard, snowshoe, and hike in the summer months (which is one of my favourite activities).

The winner and a guest will enjoy a one night stay at the luxurious Four Seasons Resort in Whistler (approximate value $685) as well as two one-day EDGE cards for Whistler Blackcomb. March is Family Month in Whistler with a focus on active and healthy lifestyles.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

I will draw one winner at random from all entries next Thursday, February 17, 2011. I sincerely thank you for considering this cause, and your own heart health.

Update I jumbled up some scheduling while away in Africa so I will actually be keeping this contest open until February 19th – keep those helpful entries coming!

Update The winner is Michael (@striverecruit) – congratulations!

Fine print for the hotel contest: Subject to space availability, not redeemable for cash and may not be re-sold, subject to cancellation without notice if sold or otherwise auctioned, excludes applicable taxes and gratuity, not replaceable in case of loss. Please present the gift certificate upon check-in (no copies). Gift certificate is non-transferable to another Four Seasons Hotel or Resort. Open only to residents of BC & Yukon.

The official Vancouver 125 anniversary year campaign kicked off last week and everyone from the Parks Board to Vancouver Archives is participating or organizing celebratory campaigns of their own. This includes CBC Vancouver who has launched an iPhone application called “Vancouver 125″ featuring archived video footage (synced with Google Map locations) of significant, televised moments in our city’s history.

“This free mobile app allows you to experience Vancouver’s history through the CBC Archives. From Vancouver’s first major protests and riots, to royal visits, to Olympic celebrations. The videos stretch back to Vancouver’s incorporation 125 years ago, and take you to the present day. Use the Map to show where the events took place, and explore your history.”

It would be great if the information they provided on the site that promotes the app would also be included in the application (things like podcast audio and images). Also, there are only a handful of listings but since this is version 1.0, I hope they will continue expand the listings throughout the year. Since I’m a sucker for the Miracle Mile footage I’m pretty pleased with it so far, I just hope they add a few more gems.

You can check it our for yourself by downloading the CBC Vancouver 125 for free from the app store.

Metro Vancouver recently released an iPhone application to feature its 22 regional parks. Since I have been profiling Metro Vancouver Parks for a few years now (city, regional, or provincially-run) I thought it would be worth checking out.

Parks managed by the region range from Bowen Island and Lynn Headwaters to Aldergrove Lake and the Matsqui Trail.

The application can pinpoint your current location and provide directions via a Google Map. It also shows which activities and facilities are available at each location and provides alerts with information about wildlife, traffic, or construction.

It’s a great start but I would like to see a search by activities or facilities function like they have on the main website. Also, there are no events yet in the listings but once they’re filled in it should add a lot to the app.

You can try the free iParks Explorer application for yourself from the iTunes app store.

I discovered a new iPhone app today called Mo Discovers: Stanley Park and as I spend much time trekking through Stanley Park’s trails, slipping in its mud, photographing its natural beauty and have blogged about it for the last five years so, I figured this application was worth a download.

The Mo Discovers: Stanley Park was produced by the folks at CellMap Inc., whom I’ve heard of thanks to various tech events around town. It features a very basic map of Stanley Park along with video highlights of several areas of interest: Beaver Lake, Storm Damage, Salmon Stream, Lost Lagoon, Nature Centre and Seawall.

When you click on any of these destinations you get a great-looking video with information provided by hosts Peter Graham-Gaudreau and Jennifer-Juniper Angeli. The 1-2 minute clips show some of the park’s captivating scenery while providing history notes and other facts researched by Margo Langford and the Stanley Park Ecology Society.

I can see this being useful for children (since there are some cute icons like Mo) for locals who want a refresher about the city’s crown jewel, and for tourists.

However personally, I was really hoping for a full trail map and maybe even other highlighted points of interest like Siwash Rock, or the Seven Sisters. Something like the trail map would make the app continuously useful (for each trip we take in the park) instead of just a one-time viewing experience.

If you’d like to check it out for yourself, it’s available in the iTunes App Store for $2.99.

Disclosure: I purchased the app for review