Hallo again

This weekend I came down with a case of gastro and spent  my Saturday at home, being sick. I started feeling better Sunday and went into work but I was still really tiered and out of it and have been since. Today seems like a new start and I can get back to normals life. Its crazy how quickly being sick can throw you out of balance and out of your routine.

For the last week, I had no desire to sit down and write anything here and my meals were all measly if there at all. I also have not exercised all week and I really need a good kick in the butt to get me moving again or I might just sit here eating ginger cookies until I die a very plump old lady.

Anyways,

Besides all that, the only news is that I am going to be selling these cakes at a vegetarian takeout place called Juicy Lotus. I’m really ecstatic since this is exactly what I have seen myself doing and it will give me some experience in this field so maybe I can expand my business and sell in more places around the city.  I can’t wait to see where this take me!

SO now for the mish mash of meals I managed to picture this week.

This is a plate of salads I picked up after work on sunday from Juicy Lotus which is conveniently right across the street from where I work!. One was sesame carrot, the other was roasted vegetable and the last is vermicelli with mushrooms and vegan shrimp (they were really and shrimp-y to my surprise!).

Monday, I had leftover spaghetti which had a creamy cashew spinach sauce and some confetti sprouts with a side of quinoa, topped with hummus and n.y. and the odd-looking salad is actually a spring roll that I took the wrapper off of because it was hard and its topped with some peanut sauce.

Random lunch, but I really liked how the red and white quinoa mix turned out.

A be-eutiful salad with spiralized zucchini on top.

And last but definitely not least,

my ginormous lunch today

It may not look like much but there were a lot of vegetables in that bowl.

It had broccoli, brussels, carrots, and I threw half a head of steamed cauliflower in the blender with some salt and hummus to make a mock potato mash. I topped all this with some confetti sprouts and hummus sauce. Yummy!

and I  just had one of these now

These bars are really light and not at all too sweet. Their all natural, GMO-free, sweetened with agave and I can recognize everything on the ingredients list and its all whole foods. All in all I really like them, and I’m not one to buy packaged food as you probably have guessed, but these always seem to get into my shopping basket!

I’ll be heading out on a run..

around 3 if I can drag my lazy bum off this couch! It’s really a beautiful sunny day so I hope that it will be enough to motivate me but if I’m feeling lazy I might just got for a walk which has been  the only thing my body had wanted to do as far as exercise this past week.

All for now!

Emma

Carrot Mania

So the last few days have been great, I managed to create a perfected version of my carrot cake. I also made two batches of cookies.

My fridge now has two cakes and my freezer is overflowing with cookies. Guess I’ll have to get busy and do some serious eating.

So aside from all the tasting and snaking on my goodies, I put together some pretty healthy looking meals.

Tuesday Eats

This was Tuesday lunch. Mini pita filled with avocado, some greens with balsamic and steamed veggies.

I snacked on these leftovers from lunch while I cooked.

I was craving something sweet after all that baking so I had Oatmeal with banana, flax, crumbled up ginger cookies and some raisins for dinner.

I also may or may not have had a slice of cake number 1.

It was good but not sweat enough.More like a breakfast cake than dessert. It was a good filling snack though.

Wednesday Eats

Breakfast was a bowl of banana flax milk with a scoop of my granola

I also had a second bowl of just granola and almond milk and then a ginger bread cookie.

I was really full from eating so much at breakfast so I only ate about half of this after my noon spin class.

Carrots an humus

I had a mini lunch at 3 which was quinoa drizzled with humus cheese, peas and Ezekiel bread

Before

After

My second go at the cake

It turned out fabulous if I do say so myself. Perfectly moist and spiced with just enough sweetness to consider it a dessert.

Yummy!

I’m in a hurry this morning since I want to be on time for work.

The bake sale was great I’m looking forward to see how much we raised.

Later,

Emma

Bake Sale Day!

If  you want to make a difference and help the millions people in need of food, shelter and care that were left homeless and alone after the earthquake in Haiti,

You can make a difference today!

Click Here To Bid

There are so many delicious looking sweets to choose from!

Really, there is something for everyone’s taste.

Here’s a complete description of my donations,

Lemon, Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These are honestly decadent. Think of your classic chewy chocolate chip cookie with a little added lemon zest to the base and then a mountain of dried cranberries to go with the many mini dark chocolate chips.

They are made with spelt flour which is easier to digest than whole wheat and all my ingredients are organic right down to the non-aluminum baking powder.

Marbled Brownies

These have to be the best brownies ever, vegan or not.  I whipped them up one night for a dinner party and everyone wanted the recipe.  These will have one batch of brownie batter, marbled in with a batch of Blondie batter.

Made with spelt and organic ingredients.

Date-Sweetened Berry Patch Granola

I don’t know about you but I absolutely love granola. I would even say I like it a little too much, meaning once I start I can’t stop eating it! The sugar content in most granola’s is really high and though crunchy and delicious it is not exactly healthy. So I made a granola I could eat and know it was good for me. It’s sweetened with date syrup only, meaning just purred dates, no artificial sweeteners or sugar added. It is perfect on yogurt or  in some soy milk for breakfast.

It has walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and raisins. The base is rolled oats and oat bran.

Happy Bidding!

Reappearing act

Well here I am again.

Things got a little hectic this week/ weekend with work and feeling sick and all. I really didn’t think much about blogging and sleep was the only thing on my mind after work every night.

On Friday, I came home and literally crashed, I was in bed at 5 pm and I slept right through to 7 am. When I woke up all the weirdness was gone and I felt refreshed and alive again.

My eating has also been scattered and weird with a few skipping meal.

So I figure that now it’s about time I get back into my regular routine.

All weekend I brought these into work.

Green Monster in a porta cup.

Yummy! Just look at all that green-ness.

This one had a bunch of kale (like the entire bunch) then one banana, two kiwi and a few scoops of flax seed. I was trying to do some major flushing to get the cold out,  hence all the green.

I alsobought a lot of  Brussels sprouts on sale at work. I’ve had them with pretty much every meal but luckily I absolutely love brussels sprouts.

Lunch was this beautiful ensemble

Arn’t those pita just the cutest?

I think they are so petite. I filled these with avocado and nutritional yeast but….banana and almond butter worked great also .

I had them along with  fresh mango,  leftover mung curry and Mount Everest of steamed veggies.

Dinner was similar.

A light spinach salad topped with Dijon dressing, a soyarie burger and some turmeric rice.

There is so much wonderful information out there about turmeric out there, it has incredible anti-inflammatory properties, is used to treat depression and detoxified the liver to name only a few of its benefits.

My mom however, thinking she was cleaver, added one entire tablespoon of it to one little pot of rice! That sure was some turmeric-ky rice I’ll tell you. At least  it will do my inflamed joints some good!

This week, I am starting a little challenge.

I want to eat less fats, and increase my carb and protein intake. My diet contains about 30% fat on any given day. Thia is really high for anyone who is as active as I am. My goal is to eat 20-25% fats, 60-65% carbohydrates and 15-20% protein.

Who’s with me?

I think part of the problem is that I don’t eat enough. You might have noticed my meals today were huge. I used to barely fill my plates and even then I often couldn’t bring myself to finish what I had plated. The reason is that fat is filling, heavy and hard to digest. The body uses fat as a secondary fuel source so it’s nowhere near as efficient as carbs. I needmore complex carbohydrates so that my body can quickly turn them into the glucose and therefore increased energy (I hope).

I want to get used to eating bigger quantities of vegetable carbs and less fats. I was always getting enough calories but they were coming mostly from fat so the same amount of calories took up a lot less space on my plate and in my stomach.

I hope this experiement will give me more energy and I really look forward to being able to eat more food.

Now, on another note…

The other night I was craving a little something sweet.

I happened to find this beauty lying around. (now how did that get there?)

SO I opened my first ever carton of Almond Breeze and inspired by Heather I made myself a wonderfully warming cup of hot chocolate. Except before heating it up, I blended it with a bit of guar and xanthan gum to make it thicker and creamier.

Ooh La La is right!

This stuff was good and really hit the spot.

New favorite dessert? I think so!

I have a full day planned tomorrow!

A nice long run to start.

Au Revoir,

Emma

Lunch feast

I had a Disassembled Sandwich for lunch which including leftover tempeh, avocado, tahini dip and bread with some coconut butter.

Not really filling enough for me today even with the tempeh.

I decided to fast for 24 hours starting tonight. I used to do it once a week awhile ago just to give my body a chance to rest and recover. I remember having incredible energy while I was doing it.

Also, instead of doing a full day with no food which is really hard for me, I will not eat from 3 pm on tonight and then have an early dinner tomorrow.

Fasting is definitely NOT for everyone. People with fast metabolisms will just crash and burn without their fuel. I really do feel like my body appreciates the rest though.

Sp before heading off to my trade work I made myself a treat.

It was honestly delicious.

Banana Hammock with pumpkin seed butter, dark chocolate and dried cranberries.

What an awsome combo.

So I might have sort-of lied yesterday when I said I’d be posting all my eats today. I did post them all but it was not exactly the three rounded meals you would expect (unless you count the BH).

The posts will resume as usual tomorrow evening though! Promised .

Later!,

Emma

It’s a pearfect da-ay

…nothings standing in my wa-ay.

Have you guessed the subject of the day yet?

No?

Well before we get to that,

My morning stated with a 5 k run. The legs were definetly soar from yesterday’s run but I ended up finishing it in 32.56 anyways. Considering a lot of it was uphill I think it went well.

I decided to try to not to eat before my morning runs. I was waking up extra early just to give myself time to digest before heading out and on days where I start work at 9 it meant getting up at 6:15 which was just too early for me.  I didn’t noticed a big difference in performance and there were no weird stomach reactions,  so far so good.

Besides, it means I can have an extra-large bowl of hot oats when I get home!

Pear-fect Porridge

was what I had in mind for today

Start by preparing your oats as usual.

I used 1/3 cup oats in about 1 cup of water and added 4-5 drops of stevia.

Meanwhile,

Whip out your blender and add

1/2 cup soy milk

1 ripe pear

about 1/4 cup silken tofu

(optional, but makes it creamier and richer)

and 1 tbsp ground flax seed

Then blend, blend, and blend it some more until it gets all nice and frothy,

Pour the mixture over your cooked oats

Sprinkle with cinnamon and cacao nibs.

Mix it all up

Et voila! Un grand bole de Gruau au Poire.

And just check out this guys fab stats!

Calories 478

Total Fat 18.7g

Saturated Fat 4.1g

Carbs 87.9g

Dietary Fiber 17.5g

Sugars 16.8g

Protein 22.8g

If you want a lighter breakfast, eliminating the cacao nibs will bring the calories down to 400 and the saturated fats to only 1.1 grams.

Have a pear-tastic day.

(okay I promise no more pear jokes)

My nutrition course starts tonight!

I’ll let you know all the details tomorrow,

-Emma

Christmas Re-run

I headed straight to my girlfriends house after work yesterday to meet up with everyone for a Christmas gift exchange. We are definitely running  a bit late this year but we still had a blast and no one complained about the present coming late.

We all got completely spoiled by my lingerie store employed friend.

She got all of us  bathrobes, adorable cupcake mugs, fuzzy slippers and some comfy pj/yoga pants.

Along with that I got some Lush bath goodies.

and Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I got everyone some maple and chocolate scented body butters and a face mask with a few food goodies on the side.

All in all a great night not to mention I got to spend quality time with some old friends.

I slept in until 10 today!

Probably because we only got to going to sleep at 3 am. Nothing like a girls night in to throw off your sleep clock.

We had a slow morning and I eventually made my way home in the afternoon.

Where I was greeted by a less than happy Parrot,

Apparently he didn’t get his regular breakfast this morning since we were all out of my last batch of bird bread.

I thought I’d better make something to fill his tummy quickly before he jumped out of his skin feathers.

Feathered Friend Mini Muffins

This was a basic muffin recipe I modified using ground bird pellets instead of flour and baby food for added vitamins.

He went absolutely crazy for them. Good thing too because I made about 4 dozen!

I got Chico off an internet classified at the beginning of the summer. They had him advertised as a semi-trained bird with some behavior problem. I saw a picture and knew I needed to call them and find out more. They warned me he only liked men and would scream and bite if you went near him. I took a chance and turns out they were keeping him with 30 other birds in their small house! No wonder he was stressed and would scream and bite! Anyways he has never had any problems since we got him. He never fails to make me laugh and loves snuggling in my hair, taking showers  and joining into the noises of the Galaxy nature channel.

He has been known to, ride my dog, Ginger, around the house while she tries desperately to get him off, dance to swing music, try to take baths in my teacup and he will do anything for some sunflower seed butter (like mother like parrot).

Birds really are great pets if you can handle the mess they make and the occasional noise. They also take some commitment since even the smaller species live up to 30 years and needs regular company and lots of love.

Who couldn’t love a face like face?

After the baking, I settled in with my new book and a big mug of ginger, lemon and cinnamon tea.

Oh!

Went and got fitted for some real runners today!

Highlighter yellow! Stylish don’t you think.

I took them out for a spin at 5. What a difference! I felt like I was being propelled forward. I know that I ran faster and I had no pain in my arches for once.

I ended up doing 5 miles with no walking. It took me 51.22.

I was also eying the Nike Ipod accessory in the running store but decided to wait and think about it.

I’ll be going back on Sunday for the morning running club anyways.

My after run dinner tonight was

Root vegetable soup with flax meal, some avocado sprinkled with nutritional yeast and brags , a few Shefu tofu slices cut into stick and my usual handful of baby carrots.

One handful of dried fruit was dessert.

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out this post  and don’t forget to tune in on the day of  the sale.

I will start posting my full day of eats again tomorrow,

See you later,

Emma

Ugly Oats.

The past few days have been kind of random foodwise.

It included many bowls of ugly tasty Oat bran,

and this stuff

Ugly Duckling Pudding

…which was actually really good and I liked how easy it was to make.

Ugly Duckling Pudding

• One mashed banana
• 1 tbsp cacao nibs
• 2 tbsp carob powder
• 2 scoops protein powder
• 1 cup soy milk
• Stevia to taste.

I  also discovered that I absolutely LOVE Tempeh!

It had to be one of the most interesting foods I’ve tasted and you can add it to practically anything to boost the protein content or just eat it alone with some Tahini Dipping sauce.

Just preheat your oven to 425F.

Brush the 3 grain tempeh and veggies with olive oil and salt if you wish.

Bake for  15-20 minutes, flipping halfway.

Whip up some of your favourite dipping sauce.

A handful of walnuts

And you have yourself a delicious, nutritious and filling meal.

Honestly the tempeh is so filling, I was so stuffed after this meal.

Friday I made some muesli wheat free cookies.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup  flax seeds, whole
• 1/2 cup Museli
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour or other gluten-free flower of choice
  
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Soak the first four ingredients in hot water for 2 hours.
Drain.
Add the Next four ingredients and combine.
Combine the next 6 ingredients and stir into the wet mixture along with the vanilla. Adjusting quantities to desired consistency.
Shape into 20 cookies
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 cookies

Calories 157

Calories from Fat 43

Total Fat 4.9g

Saturated Fat 0.4g

Cholesterol 0.0mg

Sodium

Total Carbohydrate 26.1g          -

Dietary Fiber 3.3g

Sugars 11.8g

Protein 3.9g             -

Oh and did i mention I ran 10k! It took me just over an hour and it was hard but I really enjoyed it and was so happy I actually did it.

I ended up feeling really sick for the rest of the day though. I ended up not eating very much and woke up this morning feeling very drained. I skipped my planned first time spin class and just took it easy.

There’s a yoga class tonight after work . It’s a short 60 minute class and boy could I use some stretching!

And be sure to check out THIS POST.

Bye for now!

Emma

Baking for Haiti

Diana of The Chic Life had the wonderful idea of  hosting an online bake sale to collect donations for Haiti relief.  All the proceeds are to be donated to the American Red Cross and the sale will be help on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 all day – from 12:01 am till 11:59pm ET.

I have decided to give four items and I’ve been searching for the perfect recipes for each one. Some are twists on the classic bake sale items and others will be healthy snacks. All will be 100% vegan and wheat free.

I can also ship them anywhere within Canada and the United States.

My Contributions to the Bake for Haiti Sale are:

Lemon-Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Marbled Brownies

Date-Sweetened Berry Patch Granola

Tropical Granola Bars

These will be made entirely with spelt flour and all will contain only organic ingredients.

These will be items you don’t want to miss out on.

This is an opportunity to reach out and do your part in whatever way you can. Whether you’re a fantastic baker or just love the final product, your time or money will be appreciated. All the details are listed on Diana’s page and you can decide to bake something for the sale up to the night before it begins.

See you all at the sale!

The heat is definetly on.

Yesterday I worked my trade at the yoga studio where I take my hot toga classes. The deal is I go in once a week and clean for 4 and a half hours and I get the week free of unlimited classes. It’s a pretty sweet deal and not only do I get to meet some awesome people but they throw parties for us! The one this Saturday will be the first one I’m attending but they’re ordering from a local, small take out business which makes amazing vegetarian take out meals.  I’ll also get to meet the other notorious trades that I have passed in the studio but never got a chance to talk to and see others that I haven’t seen in a while.

Anyways all that to say by the end of my trade, the class I had planned to take seemed much too hard for my aching body and I passed.

Instead I came home and made myself a mish mash dinner of leftovers.

Basically it was baby spinach, avocado and lentil sprout sprinkles with nutritional yeast and brags, black beans with tomato sauce and a slice of gluten-free rice bread with coconut oil.

Quick and tasty.

Dessert was an apple and peanut butter.

This morning I woke up at 6:15 so I could get a run in before work.

Soy yogurt and some granola was for snack before heading out.

I ran a 4.4 mile loop.

Afterward, I felt really drained. I think maybe I pushed myself too hard.

Two pieces of Ezekiel with Pb and a banana later, I felt a little better.

After work, still feeling stiff I decided to sweat it out in a nice long 90 minute yoga class.

Today was a community class where new teachers are given a chance to practice on a full class. The other such ones I’ve been to were easy, laid back stretching with minimal strength training. The new teachers almost seemed scared to push anyone out of their comfort zone.

Let me tell you this was NOT one of those teachers. She got all of us sweating like crazy and kept the heat cranked up the whole time!   You know its been a good class when you hear signs echoing through the room, even five minutes after the class ends!

I know it wasn’t exactly what  my body needed but it was a really great class!

When I got home at 3:30 I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast! Yikes.

Leftovers to the rescue!

One ugly overstuffed four season roll,

one chocolate chip Clif bar,

and a few almonds made up lunch.

I made dinner a few hours later but wasn’t very hungry since lunch was so late but I also felt like I needed some serious protein.

So in comes  protein bran, carrots and a few rice cracker cakes.

With a deeelicious organic Bosc pear for dessert.

I said I would make some treats for people at work tomorrow so I’d better get cracking! Its getting late already and I’ll probably do the 6 am wake up again which means early to bed.

Bye for now!

Emma