Sunday 17 August 2014
Sunday 27 July 2014
Sunday Dinner
I made a great Sunday dinner tonight! Lots of compliments on all the dishes, so I wanted to share.
1. Ham & green beans
Asian inspired green beans & ham. I added them together as I originally bought only enough fresh green beans for two people & tonight's dinner was 5. I would definitely do it again.
- boil about 3 big handfuls of fresh green beans in water on stove for about 4 minutes, then drain & rinse under cold water to cool, drain & set aside.
- cut up a Black Forest ham into bite sized pieces.
- in a blender or magic bullet, combine 1/4 cup pistachio nuts, 2 tsp sesame oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup mayonnaise & 2 I so water.
- in a wok, simmer ham in 1/2 of the sauce until it is evenly heated & browned on the edges, about 15-25 minutes.
- add in green beans & remaining sauce. Cook until beans are tender & sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes.
2. Roasted potatoes
- cut 1-1 1/2 pounds of washed, unpeeled potatoes into 1 inch chunks, or use halved baby potatoes.
- place potatoes in a sock pot, fill with water until potatoes are covered. Bring to a boil & simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
- drain & place in a large bowl.
- add to the bowl, 1 tbsp Olive oil, 1/2 tsp roasted garlic, 1/2 tsp adobo seasoning.
- add potatoes & lightly toss in Olive oil mixture until evenly coated.
- place on parchment-lined, or non stick baking sheet. There should be no overlapping of potatoes.
- place in 450 degree pre heated oven for 20 minutes or until potatoes are beginning to brown. For crispy potatoes, broil for 2-3 minutes.
- remove from oven & season with sea salt & freshly ground pepper.
3. Tomato salad.
- 6 Roma tomatoes, sliced into even bite sided pieces.
- add in 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp fresh oregano and salt & pepper. Stir gently & store in refrigerator until just ready to serve.
- add freshly grated Parmesan just before serving.
4. Cucumber salad
- 1-2 thinly sliced cucumbers
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, minced
- optional, 1/4 cup thinly sliced white onion.
Mix all ingredients together, cover & place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. For best results make the night before.
1. Ham & green beans
Asian inspired green beans & ham. I added them together as I originally bought only enough fresh green beans for two people & tonight's dinner was 5. I would definitely do it again.
- boil about 3 big handfuls of fresh green beans in water on stove for about 4 minutes, then drain & rinse under cold water to cool, drain & set aside.
- cut up a Black Forest ham into bite sized pieces.
- in a blender or magic bullet, combine 1/4 cup pistachio nuts, 2 tsp sesame oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup mayonnaise & 2 I so water.
- in a wok, simmer ham in 1/2 of the sauce until it is evenly heated & browned on the edges, about 15-25 minutes.
- add in green beans & remaining sauce. Cook until beans are tender & sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes.
2. Roasted potatoes
- cut 1-1 1/2 pounds of washed, unpeeled potatoes into 1 inch chunks, or use halved baby potatoes.
- place potatoes in a sock pot, fill with water until potatoes are covered. Bring to a boil & simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
- drain & place in a large bowl.
- add to the bowl, 1 tbsp Olive oil, 1/2 tsp roasted garlic, 1/2 tsp adobo seasoning.
- add potatoes & lightly toss in Olive oil mixture until evenly coated.
- place on parchment-lined, or non stick baking sheet. There should be no overlapping of potatoes.
- place in 450 degree pre heated oven for 20 minutes or until potatoes are beginning to brown. For crispy potatoes, broil for 2-3 minutes.
- remove from oven & season with sea salt & freshly ground pepper.
3. Tomato salad.
- 6 Roma tomatoes, sliced into even bite sided pieces.
- add in 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp fresh oregano and salt & pepper. Stir gently & store in refrigerator until just ready to serve.
- add freshly grated Parmesan just before serving.
4. Cucumber salad
- 1-2 thinly sliced cucumbers
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, minced
- optional, 1/4 cup thinly sliced white onion.
Mix all ingredients together, cover & place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. For best results make the night before.
Thursday 30 January 2014
Saturday 18 January 2014
Food
Why is it so difficult to find good nutrition information? Everyone has an opinion and there are so many different schools of thought.
Some say vegan or vegetarian is the way to go, others say whole foods, some including meats, some not, then there's juicing & fasting & even the trusty old food pyramid has some merit. How do you decide what's best without trial & error?
I love juicing, or I guess smoothie making as I'm working with a magic bullet. It's fun, I can make so many different varieties of healthy drinks & I do find an energy boost from it.
But then I worry about getting enough protein & iron which I've struggled with in the past during my vegetarian years. I don't eat a lot of meat anyway & really would be more content without it but how do I know I'm getting everything my body needs on a regular basis?
Then there's always the Celiac Question. My body has a hard time properly digesting everything from years of gluten consumption when I didn't know it was so harmful for me. So I think about that as well.
I know I eat WAY healthier than I did even just a few years ago. I actually think about the benefits I'm giving my body by putting good food into it. Kale is actually a favourite food, 3 years ago I had no idea kale even existed! Veggie smoothies are a staple in my diet & my trusty magic bullet lives on the countertop now (being a clean freak, it's a huge thing when I decide to regularly leave small kitchen appliances out on the counter).
I still love my GF pizza but I've scaled back the frequency with which I enjoy it. Drinking coffee as a daily ritual is something I changed about 6 months ago now & that has stuck. I still drink coffee a little but it's only with friends or when Nick decides to pick up Tim Horton's on his way home from work. It's not something I HAVE to have.
I guess I'm still finding my path through the food jungle, it would just be nice to have a guide occasionally!
Some say vegan or vegetarian is the way to go, others say whole foods, some including meats, some not, then there's juicing & fasting & even the trusty old food pyramid has some merit. How do you decide what's best without trial & error?
I love juicing, or I guess smoothie making as I'm working with a magic bullet. It's fun, I can make so many different varieties of healthy drinks & I do find an energy boost from it.
But then I worry about getting enough protein & iron which I've struggled with in the past during my vegetarian years. I don't eat a lot of meat anyway & really would be more content without it but how do I know I'm getting everything my body needs on a regular basis?
Then there's always the Celiac Question. My body has a hard time properly digesting everything from years of gluten consumption when I didn't know it was so harmful for me. So I think about that as well.
I know I eat WAY healthier than I did even just a few years ago. I actually think about the benefits I'm giving my body by putting good food into it. Kale is actually a favourite food, 3 years ago I had no idea kale even existed! Veggie smoothies are a staple in my diet & my trusty magic bullet lives on the countertop now (being a clean freak, it's a huge thing when I decide to regularly leave small kitchen appliances out on the counter).
I still love my GF pizza but I've scaled back the frequency with which I enjoy it. Drinking coffee as a daily ritual is something I changed about 6 months ago now & that has stuck. I still drink coffee a little but it's only with friends or when Nick decides to pick up Tim Horton's on his way home from work. It's not something I HAVE to have.
I guess I'm still finding my path through the food jungle, it would just be nice to have a guide occasionally!
Wednesday 15 January 2014
Sick Day
From Yesterday:
Exercise: 5 slow sicky miles - ultimately not a good idea
Food:
Breakfast:
Kale, lemon, ginger, cucumber, apple smoothie
Lunch/dinner:
Carrot, lemon, celery smoothie
I took a sick day today since I cannot seem to shake this flu. I did lots of sleeping & watched Netflix & YouTube. I feel a little better although I'm afraid to get up & moving as that might wear off. I need to take Lilo for a walk soon so we shall see.
I got a bit hooked on this Australian TV show on Netflix called 'Dance Academy' it's geared toward a teen audience but it's actually entertaining for those times when you are stuck in bed & a little bored. There's an actual story line & 2 actors from the show 'Camp' (well I guess they were in this first) so yeah I'm pretty sure I will burn through the 24 episodes pretty fast.
The purolator guy delivered my 2 new pairs of Asics & swim suit today, it's like the world is telling me to exercise or something.
I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on running form & watched 'Spirit of the Marathon' again.
Not a productive day, except for the flu recovery part.
Exercise: 5 slow sicky miles - ultimately not a good idea
Food:
Breakfast:
Kale, lemon, ginger, cucumber, apple smoothie
Lunch/dinner:
Carrot, lemon, celery smoothie
I took a sick day today since I cannot seem to shake this flu. I did lots of sleeping & watched Netflix & YouTube. I feel a little better although I'm afraid to get up & moving as that might wear off. I need to take Lilo for a walk soon so we shall see.
I got a bit hooked on this Australian TV show on Netflix called 'Dance Academy' it's geared toward a teen audience but it's actually entertaining for those times when you are stuck in bed & a little bored. There's an actual story line & 2 actors from the show 'Camp' (well I guess they were in this first) so yeah I'm pretty sure I will burn through the 24 episodes pretty fast.
The purolator guy delivered my 2 new pairs of Asics & swim suit today, it's like the world is telling me to exercise or something.
I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on running form & watched 'Spirit of the Marathon' again.
Not a productive day, except for the flu recovery part.
Tuesday 14 January 2014
veg day
Its a veg day! But not like sitting on the couch - veggies like cucumbers, kale, and celery!
Smoothie this morning was awesome. I had about 1/3 of a cucumber, 1 apple, 1/2 a lemon, a chunk of ginger, a giant leaf of curly kale, coconut water and 3 stalks of celery all shoved into my magic bullet and turned into yummy green awesomeness! I feel so bad for giving my body junk food over the holidays, it didn't like it, so its time to give it some veggie love.
Last night we went grocery shopping and all I bought were fruits and veggies and some coconut water. That felt good.
Smoothie this morning was awesome. I had about 1/3 of a cucumber, 1 apple, 1/2 a lemon, a chunk of ginger, a giant leaf of curly kale, coconut water and 3 stalks of celery all shoved into my magic bullet and turned into yummy green awesomeness! I feel so bad for giving my body junk food over the holidays, it didn't like it, so its time to give it some veggie love.
Last night we went grocery shopping and all I bought were fruits and veggies and some coconut water. That felt good.
Monday 13 January 2014
New Year Slow Start
So.. Here I sit in bed feeling gross with the flu & realizing I'm already 57 miles behind my goal of 2014 in 2014. By this point I should be about 66 miles in but this far I've completed one run on New Years of 15K (about 9 miles).
Since I finished my no sugar no starch healthy eating challenge mid December, I've had 2 colds & the flu. Yuck.
I did fall off the responsible eating bandwagon over the past few weeks, enjoying things like Cherry Coke, cinnamon Chex, & eating chips, nachos with salsa & GF raisin bread. I'm still eating fruits & veggies & salads but the amount of bad food is taking over and my resulting poor health & general blah feeling simply isn't worth it.
I have a marathon in 20 weeks & I need to be ready for it. With the amount I travel with work this makes training super difficult as sticking to a regular plan is tricky. I'm home weekends & usually Monday mornings & Friday nights so it's the Tuesday to Thursday runs & workouts that are a challenge. I can make those cross training days for two of those & then the other a rest day that just means I'm then fitting in runs Friday, Saturday Sunday which further down the line is going to eat up a fair amount of weekend/family time. I will tackle that as the mileage increases. (This doesn't look so bad now that I've typed it out, thanks blog!)
As I'm a fan of small successes, I'm forcing myself to look no further than the next 2 weeks. In that time these are my goals:
- get healthy
- go back to 100% fruits & veggies.
- follow my training plan.
The plan is:
This week
- 11 mile long run on Sunday
- 5 miles/day once flu is gone
Next week:
- 6 miles Monday, Friday
- NTC Tuesday, Wednesday, rest day Thursday.
- 7 miles Saturday
- 12 mile long run Sunday
That's it! Super simple.
Since I finished my no sugar no starch healthy eating challenge mid December, I've had 2 colds & the flu. Yuck.
I did fall off the responsible eating bandwagon over the past few weeks, enjoying things like Cherry Coke, cinnamon Chex, & eating chips, nachos with salsa & GF raisin bread. I'm still eating fruits & veggies & salads but the amount of bad food is taking over and my resulting poor health & general blah feeling simply isn't worth it.
I have a marathon in 20 weeks & I need to be ready for it. With the amount I travel with work this makes training super difficult as sticking to a regular plan is tricky. I'm home weekends & usually Monday mornings & Friday nights so it's the Tuesday to Thursday runs & workouts that are a challenge. I can make those cross training days for two of those & then the other a rest day that just means I'm then fitting in runs Friday, Saturday Sunday which further down the line is going to eat up a fair amount of weekend/family time. I will tackle that as the mileage increases. (This doesn't look so bad now that I've typed it out, thanks blog!)
As I'm a fan of small successes, I'm forcing myself to look no further than the next 2 weeks. In that time these are my goals:
- get healthy
- go back to 100% fruits & veggies.
- follow my training plan.
The plan is:
This week
- 11 mile long run on Sunday
- 5 miles/day once flu is gone
Next week:
- 6 miles Monday, Friday
- NTC Tuesday, Wednesday, rest day Thursday.
- 7 miles Saturday
- 12 mile long run Sunday
That's it! Super simple.
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