Tzatzkiki

This recipe is one of my absolute favourites! Its wonderful as a dip, as salad dressing, as a spread, on sandwiches as a substitute for mayo, and all around delicious! Its fat free, full of cucumber, and has tons of garlic, which aside from being delicious is great at helping to stave off colds and naturally boost your immune system!

We love to combine this with balsamic grilled vegetables, a meat (such as my turkey-pork sausage, although we omit the nutmeg for this dish) and wilted spinach on a pita or a bed of quinoa for a Mediterranean meal!

Here is my famous tzatziki recipe for one of my fellow (and lovely!!) brides Ms Lavender. I've been promising this recipe to her for so long, and continually forget to post it! Enjoy!

Tzatziki: 
1 c fat free plain yogourt
1 cup shredded cucumber (drained)*
1 - 2 tsp dill weed
3 (or more) cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp lemon juice
pepper to taste

1) Grate the cucumber and let it sit suspended (above a sink or bowl) in a cheese cloth for 15 mins. This allows some of the water from the cucumber to drain out. (save the water to add to a smoothie later!) Wring the cucumber out in the cheese cloth after it has sit.
2) Mix the lemon juice into the yogourt while you let the cucumber sit.
3) Add the dill, garlic (the more the merrier in my mind!) & pepper to the yogourt, and mix in the drained cucumbers.
4) Optional: blend the whole thing with an immersion blender. (Personally I am partial to the chunks of cucumber, but some people prefer a smooth texture, so feel free to blend away!)

It should keep in the fridge for a week or so, but ours rarely stays that long since we eat it yo so quickly!

*You definitely don't have to drain the cucumber if you are in a pinch for time, you'll just end up with a more liquidy tzatziki, which is great for salads. As a spread it works best if you get a lot of the water out, otherwise you end up with soggy bread. You can always drain some of the liquid later, as it tends to separate from the yogourt while its being refrigerated. I always find that this dip tastes better after a day or two when the flavours have had a chance to fully blend together.

My Typical Day

A few people have been asking what a "typical" day looks like for me, so I've decided to come up with an average day. What I eat, what I do for exercise and some of the boring mundane things in between! I also have to admit that I'm a grazer (which I honestly think is healthier than eating three giant meals!!). One essential that I keep with my constantly is my water bottle. I basically drink only water throughout the day, with the exception of sometimes a decaf coffee (with a touch of milk) or herbal tea (plain) for breakfast. Water is super super important for your body! I usually have 3 or more litres a day!


Breakfast: Although I know its the most important meal of the day, I've really never been much of a breakfast person. I feel nauseous if I put anything other than water into me until I've been awake for a few hours.
Anyways this is what I often eat for breakfast

• A smoothie (check out my post on smoothies here) 
• Yogourt with granola 
• 1 fat free or law fat yogourt cup with a large handful of sugar-free granola or oats
• Banana with peanut butter
• Oatmeal with berries and honey
• Cereal with skim milk (I really like Cheerios, Mueslix, Special K, Oat Squares...)
• Water

Lunch: Lunch usually happens at school for me, and since I am horrible at either getting up early enough to pack my lunch, or being efficient enough to pack my lunch the night before, its often a bit random. What we do though is ensure that we have lots of healthy foods and snacks at home so I'm not tempted to grab a bag of chips or something equally unhealthy. Overall we try to keep our house free of "unhealthy" foods, so there really are only good options!

• A sandwich of some sort, usually on pita 
• meat, lettuce, veggies, mustard & sometimes cheese
• egg or tuna salad made with mustard or vinegarette dressing instead of mayo
• all natural PB with homemade jam or local honey
• A piece of fruit
• apples, bananas, berries, peaches, nectarines, bananas...
• Carrot or celery sticks
• A "treat" like healthy homemade muffins, homemade granola, 100% fruit bars, 100% fruit snacks 
• Water

Supper: Supper is one of my favourite meals of the day. My husband and I love cooking together, so we often get creative and experiment with food ideas! The best part is trying to come up with healthy and nutritious meals together!

For supper we try to keep at least half of our plates as veggies. To clarify this, we count potato and corn as starches, so they don't count. A typical plate is 1/2 veggies, 1/4 - 1/3 protein and the rest a starch. 

• Meats: we like to keep this varied, but we never fry things in oil, we usually bake or broil or "fry" in chicken or vegetable stock. We make the majority of our sauces from scratch, and try to use store bought and pre-made seasonings as little as possible. 
• Chicken breast
• Pork loin
• Steak
• BBQ Ribs 
• Roast
  
• Vegetables: we like to vary this, otherwise it gets boring, and there are so many to choose from! We do use a lot of frozen vegetables in the winter especially (as we can't exactly harvest our own under 3 feet of snow!)
• Peas
• Green beans
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Asparagus
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Yams
  
• Starch: We like to vary this as well, and try to keep our starches healthy by limiting the oil & butter that we put into them! I usually limit how much starch I put on my plate, and never let it go over 1/2 cup (with the exception of when we cook pasta, I usually have about 1c cooked)  I almost never eat potato since I'm not a huge fan, and prefer to put more complex starches like Quinoa or brown rice on my place. 
• Corn
• Baked or mashed potato
• Brown or wild rice
• Quinoa
• Couscous
• Lentils
• Beans (like chickpeas, red beans, kidney beans etc)
• Whole wheat pasta

Snacks: I love to snack. I usually start eating lunch as soon as I have eaten my drawn out breakfast, and make that continue until I start cooking supper. This doesn't mean that I eat 17 bowls of cereal for breakfast or 9 sandwiches for lunch, it just means that I eat a small bit at a time. So my snacks often consist of my lunch, and I really try to keep things healthy! I like things that I can just snack on the best, and actually hate sitting down for lunch or breakfast throughout the day.

• yogourt
• pita or melba toast with peanut butter 
• celery/carrot sticks
• cheese &  meat with melba toast
• leftovers from last night's delicious supper

Sweets: I have a huge sweet tooth, and cannot resist dessert. My solution is to have a lot of healthier options for dessert at home. I usually have fat-free frozen yogourt in the freezer, that way if I want a sweet dessert, I can reach for that rather than fill a bowl with ice cream. I also keep a lot of home baked healthy treats around (I often make larger batches and freeze them). That way I can feed the sweet craving, but still keep my health in check! That being said, I do indulge in some dark chocolate and wine every now and then. I still enjoy some bad things every now and then! 

More recipes to come!!


-J 

Happy 1st Birthday to a Healthy Lifestyle!!

Well its pretty hard for me to believe, but it was one year ago this week that I decided to get up off my butt and get back on the fitness train! It seems like just yesterday that I woke up and decided that I was unhappy buying bigger jeans rather than making the old ones fit, and that there was actually something that I could do about it.

The biggest thing that I have learned is that you are as strong as you want to be. I've read a lot of health and fitness blogs over the past year, and I see a lot of people trying fad diets, wanting to shed pounds fast, and thinking only about the scale, and not about health. One of my best friends is a size 0, 5'5' and is the healthiest person I know. And yet she weighs 140lbs (looking at her you'd think she was barely 110lbs). She runs marathons, is strong, muscular and healthy. Don't base everything on the scale, but rather on your ability to be fit. That is not to say that numbers don't matter, but there are a battery of different scales to look at. For the average person your BMI is far more important than your weight (although this scale doesn't work well for the extremely athletic or muscular). Don't weight yourself every day, especially if you're trying to lose weight. Weigh yourself at most once a week (did you know the average adult human body can fluctuate about 2-3 lbs in a given day!!) in order to see actual change. Its also important to weight yourself at the same time every day, after the same activities (such as when you first wake up, or when you get home at the end of the day) so you have the same amount of food or water in your system.

I've also learned a lot about eating the right way too. How you feel is all about what you put in. We buy premium fuel for our nice cars, choosing that over plain old "regular" gas, and yet don't bat an eye when we shove fried food down our throats. How on earth can our bodies work at maximum efficiency and be pristine if we put nothing but garbage into them?

Lastly, learn to embrace yourself, be proud of what you have accomplished and stay motivated. Its all worth it in the end.

Here's my tips from the last year:

• Drink lots of water, and I mean lots of water. I usually drink between 3 and 5 litres a day. Yes this means I am constantly going to the bathroom, but we bathe the outsides of our bodies, so why not the insides of us too?
• Health isn't necessarily about pounds, and weight and pant size, but rather about being active, eating well and feeling healthy.
• You don't need a fancy cleanse, or diet to be healthy and shed a few pounds. I've come across everything from "The Cookie Diet" , to a guy drinking only beer and eating nothing, to a guy blogging about trying to only eat cereal for a year, to living only on lemonade mixed with cayenne pepper and maple syrup. While you might feel really awesome for about three days, our bodies need real food and real nutrients to be healthy, and no one can survive on these things forever! 
• Don't limit yourself too much, but don't let yourself cheat too often either. My trick was to eat real meals, and real food. The less packaging the better, if its fresh, and home prepared, its probably pretty healthy, even if its a hamburger! If you know what goes into your food, you can control it, portion it, and make sure its good for you!
• You have to earn it! Sure you can drop 10 pounds in 10 days by starving yourself, but is that really healthy? And really what you want? Fad diets and crazy weight loss plans are no way to stick to things and get healthy. 
• Try to cut out as much processing as possible. Limit pre-packaged & frozen meals (yes even those Lean Meals), as they are usually packed with salt, artificial flavours, colours and sugars. 

Start small. Just because you decide today that you want to be fit doesn't mean you will be able to run a marathon tomorrow. Start with running around the block once, and tomorrow try twice. Rome wasn't built in a day, so don't expect yourself to be. Set tangible goals and make sure you reach them!

P.S. One thing I wish I had done was take a proper "before" picture of myself. I never did because I didn't like how my body looked, but I sincerely wish I had something tangible to compare to now.

-J

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I realize that it has been almost 2 months since my last post! Being busy sort of creeps up on you when you get back to school full time and work on the weekends. I can't believe that its almost Christmas holidays! I will try very hard to get a few more recipes up over the next couple of weeks (which will probably happen more and more as exams draw near, as one of my favourite study avoidance techniques is procrastibaking!).

For today I offer my healthy version of Chocolate zucchini muffins. I usually get one or two HUMONGOUS zucchinis from my mother-in-laws garden, that are perfect for baking with, but not so appetizing to eat. So this year I got my husband to grate the entire zucchini (we got about 6 or 7 cups worth of grated zucchini!) and I decided to make muffins, and I made TONS of them. We gave lots away, and I froze a bunch as well, which means that I have healthy & delicious treats to go whenever I want! Yum!


Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

1 c white flour
1 1/2 c multigrain or whole wheat flour
1/2 c dark cacao powder
 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 c brown sugar or honey (or stevia)
3 eggs (or you can use 5 egg whites)
1 c unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 c skim milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c shredded zucchini
3/4 c chocolate chips - optional (I usually use dark mint chocolate chips in mine)



1) Preheat oven to 350F
2) Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.
3) Add sugar or honey, eggs, apple sauce, milk & vanilla into well. Mix well.
4) Using your hands, gently fold in the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips until well mixed. Don't overdo the mixing here, the idea isn't to pulverize the zucchini, just get it nice and mixed in. The batter should be fairly  wet, so if it is too dry add in a bit more apple sauce.
5) Scoop into muffin tins with liners (they stick horribly if you don't use liners, so plan on using a lot of grease and flouring the pan if you don't use liners) until the cups are 3/4 full.
6) Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of a muffin.
7) You can also make this as a cake or a loaf, in which case, grease & flour the pan, and cook for 45-50 minutes.

This recipe should make about 24 cupcakes. You'll notice that there is absolutely no butter in this recipe, and a very minimal amount of any type of sugar. I sometimes make it without sugar altogether, but that is a much more bitter muffin. The apple sauce in the recipe substitutes itself very nicely as both a natural sweetener and moistener, meaning that it replaces both butter and sugar in the recipe! The apple sauce has a fairly mild flavour and hides very well in most recipes. You can substitute it basically at a 1:1 ratio for butter, although I usually add a bit more, just to help keep things moist.

Enjoy!

Smoothies

I've had a lots of chatter and comments about smoothies as of late. They seem to be back in style these days, so I thought I would make a post about what I do for smoothies. Having never been much of a breakfast person, the smoothie to me is an ideal alternative. I don't have to actually eat anything, its easy, healthy and absolutely delicious. It's like a wonderful treat, but for some reason its okay to have for breakfast!

I know a lot of diets out there right now want to limit fruit intake (they are high in sugar, but in all fairness this is the best kind of sugar!), so I have a few variations that have veggies in them, as well as some ways to limit fruit as necessary. Personally I think that fruit is a great breakfast, and with a bit of yogourt or cottage cheese, some fiber and juice (100% juice no sugar added of course!) this is a great breakfast for anyone!

The blender; an integral part of the smoothie making process. There are tons out there, but don't think for one second that you need to go out and buy the TurboSmoothie Max 5000, for the most part any blender will do. Wide bottomed ones are the best, because it makes it easier for the ice to get crushed, but beyond that, they pretty much all do the same thing. I recently got a new blender (to replace my 10 year-old narrow bottomed, $25 one, which by the way worked just fine for me for the last 10 years; just to prove my point). My old blender completed wore out, and it was time for a new one. This one has a wider bottom, and I find it's ice crushing ability to be wonderful!

Now onto the delicious part!

I like my smoothies thick, so I use a lot of frozen fruit. If you're lazy (or if like me, you live in a place where a lot of fruit is often out of season) you can easily buy frozen fruit. You can also use canned fruit (and freeze it in advance) however if you do, make sure you buy canned fruit in juice, not in syrup, as the in syrup has added sugar. Just take a look at the label and get the sugar free kind. If fresh fruits are in season, I like to cut them up and freeze them in ziploc bags, that way I can have freshly frozen fruit for the whole winter (anyone want to buy me a deep freeze?).

As far as what fruits to put in a smoothie, pretty much anything goes.

• Some are a little less desirable, like citrus fruits (oranges, grapefruits etc); the casings on them sometimes adds a weird texture, so you can either juice them first and put the juice in, or deal with the weird straw-clogging texture. 
• Apples and pears are good, and you don't even have to worry too much about the cores. I take the seeds out, but usually leave a bit more core than I would if I was eating them by themselves (the cores are full of natural pectins, which other than helping to make jams solid help our fingernails and hair grow strong!).
• Peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines and any fruit like them are wonderful! They are sweet, filling and the peel is so thin it doesn't need to be taken off first (don't worry about the tiny tiny hairs, they are pulverized and you won't even notice. I usually cut these into quarters before putting in the blender. 
• Mangoes & pineapple are amazing. Exotic & delicious, although a tad time consuming since they need to be peeled and chopped up first.
• Berries; one of the most amazing things in smoothies! Firstly, most berries are loaded with antioxidants, helping to clear free-radicals (cancer causing agents) from our bodies, and they are excellent general detoxifiers. Be warned that blackberries' and raspberries'seeds will still be there, but they do add great taste! Cranberries are great too if you like a tart smoothie! 
• Banana is great for keeping you full and helping to balance out your body's systems! Bananas are a bit starchy, so they help to keep you full, and are packed full of potassium, which helps regulate everything from brain growth to heart function. Yum!
• I'm not a fan of melons, so I never use them, however I have heard from melon lovers that they are quite delicious, although they do tend to overpower most other flavours.

The "others" in the smoothie

• I normally add yogurt and or cottage cheese to my smoothies, it helps to get your calcium intake for the day, as well as add a bit of protein. I normally use plain, sugar-free yogurt, just to keep it natural. 
• You have to add some kind of liquid, otherwise the blender gets a bit overwhelmed. I usually add some soy milk, or some juice. I like to use passion fruit juice, since passion fruit is very hard to find, but its so delicious. Any liquid will do though, coconut milk is also a favourite, although it is very high in fat (but the good kind of fat!), so just add a little bit! Coconuts also have a great detoxifying effect, so they add that element too! 
• Ice, unless you want a runny smoothie, ice is a must! I usually add about 4-5 cubes (these should be the first thing you put in the blender so they chop up better!) for a single serving.
• Some "roughage". I like my smoothies to be textured, so I often add a couple of tablespoons of oats, or wheat germ, wheat bran or flax seeds. Adding a bit of these helps to keep you full longer, and also helps to keep you GI tract in healthy working order. 
• I've recently started adding vegetable to my smoothies, for some extra nutrients
• Avocado, is amazing in smoothies! I love to mix it with mango the most. It reminds me of drinks we bought from street vendors while we were travelling in Ethiopia and Kenya. Avocado is also a great way to get some super healthy fats into your diet, and they are the kind that actually help to lower your cholesterol and regulate your blood sugar levels. Avocado is also super great for your eye sight, and being high in fibre actually help you to feel full longer! 
• Pumpkin, squash and sweet potato are easy. Just make sure they are cooked and peeled first! They are naturally sweet, so they complement fruit very easily.
• Beets (cooked first) are also a great addition. They do make the smoothie taste a bit beety, but I like the earthiness it adds to smoothies, and tastes great mixed with berries. Beets are a super healthy food, as their pigment helps to prevent cancer, and they are full of iron and folic acid (which is super essential for mommies-to-be). 
• Spinach, doesn't really change the flavour too much, but does alter the colour. Spinach is super high in iron so is great to add to a smoothie post workout! 
• Zucchini also doesn't change the flavour very much (if at all) but certainly does have some great health benefits! Its high in antioxidants, full of natural fiber and has been known to help lower cholesterol. I like to steam mine (or microwave for a minute or two) before adding it to a smoothie, I find it blends better if its par-cooked. 
• Carrots are a great way to spruce up a smoothie. They can go in raw (I would recommend grating them first) or cooked (last nights dinner leftovers perhaps) and are a great and natural way to help both your eyes and skin to be strong and healthy! 

Pretty much anything can go into a smoothie, just try experimenting and see what you like! When I was growing up we had smoothies all the time for breakfast, and I remember loving them. In the summer my mom also used to freeze them into popsicles for us, which is also a great alternative treat for young and old alike! 

How I Lost It & Got It Back (Fitness that is) Part 1: The Food

I've had a lot of questions (and praise from my amazing followers!) lately about how I lost weight and learned to be healthy. The first thing I have to say about this is; Thank You! Thanks to all of the people that I love dearly (mainly my husband) that put up with my cooking trials, with cutting out all the "bad things" from our cupboards, and mostly for him loving me everyday regardless of how I have ever felt about my own self image.

I've never been what I would consider big, but I have had some periods where I knew that I was bigger than I was comfortable with. I grew up being super athletic, we hiked every weekend, I played about 10 different sports before and after school, and was involved in several high caliber sports teams throughout my teen years. When I moved away to go to university I played rugby, and was still fairly active, but I also had a fairly sedentary part time job, and couldn't always afford the healthy, and wonderful foods I had grown up with. As many 19-year-olds might do when forced to live alone, cook their own meals, while taking 5 classes, many with labs, working 20 hours a week and trying to keep up a social life and still get passing grades, I found the most amazing thing: The Frozen Pizza. It took virtually no effort, no time, and I still got full every day. I found may days to consist of:

Breakfast: 2-3 cups of STRONG black coffee, usually chugged lukewarm, sometimes followed by two spoonfuls of last nights dinner and a sip of juice.
Lunch: nothing, or whatever was in my bag, but most likely FREE cookies/muffins/donuts I found on campus
Dinner: something quick, such as pizza, KD, grilled cheese, frozen chicken & frozen veggies (with salsa & melted cheese) along with a slew of other not so healthy items.

I was still working out a whole bunch thanks to my rugby team, but wasn't eating the way I had always eaten, and it was certainly starting to take a toll on my body. I found myself buying things I had never before had in my life, poptarts, fruitloops (it may have fruit in the name, but they are certainly anything but fruit!), microwaveable lunches... It took a couple years of this food abuse before my body finally said "Enough!", but by that point it was too late. I had started working more and running less, gained 25lbs, I couldn't run 10km anymore, and none of my pants fit. It was a typical "Freshmen 15", that happened to occur in my third to fifth years of university,and was a wee bit more than 15 pounds. My first reaction was to just be bummed about the whole thing, and buy new pants. Which is exactly what I did. I rationalized, that well, I wasn't that big, and I really was busy, and that this is just one of those things that happens with age. In this time I also broke my leg twice and managed to tear a couple of ligaments in my ankle, so I felt that running wasn't something that I could do anymore. That thought made me sad, since running used to be my first love, and the thing that could take away any bad day. It wasn't until I extrapolated how much I would weigh at 30 and 40 (based on how much I had gained per year since I was 18) that it really hit home, that I couldn't keep going how I was going. So I saw a surgeon about getting my torn ligaments fixed, and vowed that I would never be as unhealthy as I currently was again.

For me the biggest part about getting healthy was to set a goal to get healthy, and not worry so much about the pounds. I see so many women focused solely on losing weight; to the point that they forget about getting healthy and do nothing more than limit their fat and calories. I know a few girls who have successfully "gotten healthy" by chain smoking, drinking coffee and eating french fries. Unfortunately, just because you can fit into size 2 plants does not make you the model of health and fitness. The time I decided to get back on the fitness wagon somewhat coincided with buying a wedding dress. This was mostly a bad thing, because initially I spent more time fixating on waist size rather than health. I was determined to fit into the dress, and for a few months struggled to just be healthy, and fixated on the scale. It wasn't until after the wedding, when there was less pressure to fit into the dress that I really worked on being healthy. For me this meant several things; diet, exercise and mental well being. When it comes to health our minds can be a powerful weapon, or our own worst enemy.

The first thing I started doing was tracking what I was putting into my body. There was several reasons for this:

1) To find out what I really was eating
2) To find out when I was eating what I was eating
3) To start working on how to count calories and change my diet

Firstly, I was surprised how often I was idly eating. A few crackers when I walked by the kitchen on my way to take something out of the freezer for dinner, some candied nuts from the dish in our living room. A handful of chocolate chips while thinking about homework and so on. Although I was mostly eating good, healthy well balanced meals, it was the not so good stuffing my mouth without thinking about it that wasn't helping.

Number 2 on this list was very important. I found that throughout the day I was pretty reasonable with eating. I've never been a breakfast person, and as such I usually just have some fruit, a smoothie, homemade granola or something small. I usually snacked a little between breakfast and lunch, ate a very reasonably portioned lunch and we often cooked normally portioned healthy dinner. However, I discovered that I spent a lot more time snacking after supper than I had though. And it wasn't always healthy snacks. We have always been snack before bed people, and although sometimes it would be healthy cereal with skim milk, it could just as easily be crackers and cheese, or some nacho chips and salsa, or leftover dessert that was in the fridge.

Knowing exactly what I was eating was integral to figuring out how to change was I was eating for the better. The first thing I did was meal plan. Sometimes when you get really hungry its easier to just snack on something easy while you think about what to eat. Whereas when I planned meals it certainly made it a bit easier to eat right most of the time. This mostly included packing my lunch the night before (so I wouldn't need to be tempted to buy something on the way out the door) and making sure there was lots of fresh fruits and veggies for smoothies. Our home wasn't full of unhealthy foods like chips and pop, but there were still some areas that needed improvement.

For all you beginners to dieting, don't think of getting healthy as a diet. A diet is simply what you eat, not starving yourself or only eating lettuce. Think of this change as a lifestyle improvement, one step towards a healthy new you! The trick is to eat REAL food. The less packaging the better. A good rule of thumb, if you can't pronounce all of the ingredients (or don't know what they are) put it back. The less processed a food is, the better it is for you (yes this includes zero calorie sweeteners, they are really no good for you). Another important message isn't to skip fat, just make sure you're eating healthy ones. Healthy fats are the ones that we find in vegetables (think avocado, olive oils) and lean meats, like fish. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having some fat in your diet (in fact its a very good thing when it comes to digestion and sugar storage), just make sure its the right kind. Avoid trans-fats (those are the bad fats) which we find in hamburger meat, as well as hydrogenated oils (like many margarines). They really are just canola oil, which is not meant to be solid at room temperature, so a chemical process known as hydrolysis is done. This basically adds more hydrogen (hence hydrogenated) to keep an oil solid at room temp.

When thinking about foods, keep it real, your plate should be at least HALF vegetables at supper time, and at least half of every other meal should be fruits or veggies. Other than that, lean proteins, healthy grains and some dairy (or substitute) to help keep your bones strong! 

Ground "Porkey" with Blackbean Ginger Sauce (on Lemon-Vegetable Quinoa)

Firstly, "porkey" is half pork and half turkey. I sometimes like to mix my meats in order to get a variety of tastes. We also often mix meats when we make burgers and spaghetti sauce, so we can still get some of the beef taste, but add some healthier fats and add some different proteins in.

For this recipe I used half lean ground pork and half lean ground turkey. I also have to say that my measurements may be off...I sort of invented this recipe based on me being hungry, and things I found in my fridge. I've tried my best to remember exactly what I put in (because it was ABSOLUTELY delicious!), but some of the ingredients might need a bit of tweaking depending on personal preferences. This recipe would also work really well with any meat, this just happened to be what we had available when I needed dinner!

"Porkey" Mix
1/3 onion (any colour),  diced
1/2  red or yellow pepper, diced
2 - 3 mushrooms, diced
1 - 2 stalks celery, diced
1 large carrot diced
1/2 c green beans (if fresh steam them first, if frozen just add at directed time)
2/3 c broccoli, diced
1 c extra lean ground pork
1 c extra lean ground turkey
Stock (I used chicken, but any flavour will do, make sure its low sodium)

2-3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 - 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
4 tbsp black bean sauce
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp red chili flakes (less if you don't like spice)
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cinnamon


In a large skillet add onion, celery, carrot, pepper and 2 tbsp fat free chicken stock. Cook on medium until the onion is soft and translucent.

In a cup or bowl mix together honey, black bean sauce, garlic, ginger & spices.

Once onions are translucent, add in mushrooms and meat.  Add spices & sauce mix, cook until meat is done.

When meat is done cooking, add in green beans and broccoli. Cover for 2-5 minutes until broccoli is soft.

You can add more stock as required to help make the sauce thinner if it thickens too much while cooking.

Top with crushed peanuts or cashews if desired. I also like to add green cabbage on top for a nice crunch.

Quinoa
1 - 2  tbsp lemon juice
1/3 c green peas, steamed
1/3 c fresh spinach, chopped fine
1 tsp dried basil
3 - 5 tbsp white wine

Cook quinoa according to directions on package, but add the wine on top of the normal required liquid amount.

Once the quinoa is cooked, add in  lemon juice, steamed green peas and spinach. Cover and let sit for 3-5 minutes until spinach is soft.

Serve porkey mixture on top of quinoa. I also served it with cottage cheese for an added blast of protein and to help counter the spice of the meat mixture.

Apple Crisp with a Twist

Apple crisp has always been one of my favourite desserts. Maybe it was because my mom considered it a healthy enough dessert to let us eat it for breakfast the next day, or maybe it was because it was my mom's go to dessert for having company over. I remember the exact smell that used to waft through the house as it baked in the oven, and then the torture of politely waiting for dinner to be done (and with company it was always longer!) so that I could dig into the delicious fruity goodness!

After getting my mom's recipe a few years ago, I have done some switching here and there, adding some different fruits depending on the season, and trying to strip away as much of the refined sugar as possible. Because it is a fruit based dessert, it really doesn't need much sugar since its pretty sweet already. I've stripped away as much of the "bad stuff" as I can from this recipe, although there were a few things that needed to stay. The first is the butter in the topping. Its only 1/4 c for the WHOLE crumble, and it really is necessary. I've tried subbing it for fruit purees, avocado and yogurt, but they mostly just burnt or made the topping soggy. So they butter stays. The other is a bit of sugar in the topping. I use about 1-2 tbsp of brown sugar depending on how sweet I want things. I found that by adding the vanilla I could cut the sugar almost in half without noticing a taste difference. If you use lots of sweet summer fruits (like peaches, pears and sweet apples) you can easily get away with minimal sugar, however some of the fall fruits (Granny Smith apples, cranberries and pumpkin) really do need a hint of sugar in the topping to make the flavours perfect. You'll also notice and odd ingredient for dessert on my ingredient list; cayenne pepper. I like a little bit of a kick in some desserts, and this crisp is no exception. If you like spice and are up for a bit of an adventure, add a dash or two of cayenne into the spice mix! I find that it complements the sweetness of the pumpkin so well.

My favourite apples to use are Granny Smith. They seem to hold up best for baking (the don't disintegrate and get soggy very easily), and add a nice tartness to the dish. I also love the tartness that cranberries add, so I usually put those in as well. Blueberries and raspberries are also excellent, but strawberries seem to get too soggy for me. A great fall combo is apple, rhubarb & pumpkin, with a few cranberries thrown in for colour! Below is the recipe I used tonight, but don't be afraid to mix and match! If you use pairs, the cooking time might be a bit reduced and I would also suggest upping the ginger, lowering the cinnamon and adding some clove!


Apple Crisp with a Twist

Fruit Mix
4 apples
1/2 c cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 c blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 - 3/4 c pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)


1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Wash, core & cut the apples into bite-sized pieces. I usually cut each apple into 12 slices, and cut those into smaller chunks.
3. In a large baking dish, mix the apples, cranberries & blueberries around.
4. Add pumpkin puree by the spoonful and mix around the fruit with your hands. You can add as much or as little as you want, depending on your tastes. I recommend at least a half a cut or so, enough to coat the fruit lightly.


Crumble Topping
1 c steel cut oats
1/3 c oat bran
1/3 c multigrain or whole wheat flour
1/4 c butter/margarine/coconut oil (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1-2 tsbp brown sugar

1. In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cayenne & sugar. Mix well (especially if you are using cayenne).
2. In a large bowl mix the butter, oats, oat bran, flour & vanilla thoroughly. The best way to do this is with your hands. Once mixed, add the spice mixture & mix again.
3. Spread the mixture evenly over the fruit mixture in the baking pan.
4. Bake at 375 for 50-60 mins, until the crust has browned and the fruit is starting to bubble.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Fall drink season at Starbucks is one of the most amazing things that happens each September (other than my birthday of course). However, after checking out the Starbucks Nutritional Information page, I learned that if I actually had as many Starbucks drinks as I wanted, I'd need to run about 50 miles a day to keep my calorie count under control!

I however came upon and modified a recipe online which is healthy & delicious! This recipe uses actual pumpkin puree (you can buy it in a can, or roast your own) as opposed to a high sugar pumpkin flavoured syrup, fresh ginger, and skim milk or plain soy milk. Its absolutely delicious and you don't even miss the sugary syrup. Actually my one beef about so many Starbucks drinks is that they are too sweet. I wish I could get more flavour and a little less sweetness.

My recipe isn't perfect measures, since I use a giant mug at home, and didn't really measure much...but here is a pretty good estimate of what I made!


Pumpkin Spice Latte
1/2 to 3/4 cup very strong coffee
1/2 cup steamed skim milk (I have a fabulous steamer by Bodum that I use in the microwave as a cheat). If you can't steam the milk, just microwave (for about a minute) or cook it in a pot until it is almost boiling. You can use any milk you want really, I also use vanilla or plain soy milk and its delicious!!
2 tbsp pumpkin puree (if you buy it in a can, make sure its just pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix, as that is flavoured and sugared and likely won't taste quite as nice). If you want to make your own puree, bake the pumpkin in the oven and puree in a food processor until it is smooth (both are equally delicious, and I have substituted some squashes before as well).
1/2 tsp cinnamon + some to sprinkle on top
1/4 tsp ginger (you can use fresh or powdered)
1/8 to 1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp clove (or slightly less)
1 tsp honey/agave nectar (or stevia) you can use more or less to your liking, I usually use less

1) Mix the spices, honey & pumpkin together in the bottom of a mug (I use a fork)
2) Add coffee (make sure it is really hot) and stir with a fork until the pumpkin mixture is dissolved.
3) Add milk (except for foam) and stir just enough to mix.
4) Spoon milk foam on top & sprinkle with cinnamon.

Fad Diets & the Illusion of Health

While searching the internet today for some healthy cookie recipes I inadvertently came across a blog about a guy on a weight loss journey using something called the "Cookie Diet". Now, this sounds like a perfect plan for anyone struggling to lose weight right? Eat cookies, get thin; how perfect. The more I read about this diet, the more I was intrigued about other fad diets that exist in the world, and how on earth people choose to follow them. I understand that compared to the average person I have a fairly rich background in terms of nutrition and health education, but I would assume that it would just seems counter intuitive (to anyone?? everyone??) that eating only cookies (and a vitamin supplement) could ever be a good idea. The basic principle behind this diet is to limit calories. That however is the biggest problem, it is a diet. Being healthy is not about dieting per day, but about inciting a lifestyle change.

Everyone knows how the internet goes, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know you are drawn into reading about several different "success stories" about various fad diets. I even found a blog a guy is writing about his Cereal Diet (basically all he eats is cereal, a multivitamin & some whey protein powder). He figures that this is the easiest way to calculate calories, and the "Natural Source Multivitamin" should give him all the nutrients his body needs to survive. So far he has lost 5 pounds, and says he feels great (however he has only been on this diet for a week or so, so we will see how things go I suppose). Several people commented on his diet, asking him why he was doing it, offering advice on how to eat better and still lose weight, and his replies were all about simplicity and how since he lost weight he he must know what he was doing. Eating cereal is just easier (to calculate calories, to keep track of, to stick to this diet etc). I guess this diet is not unlike many of the Slim Fast and shake meal replacement diets that were hot in the later 90's, so maybe this guy really isn't that crazy...

I spent some time talking to my physiotherapist this week about health in our society in general. As I heal from surgery I highly value her opinion, and we began talking about how everyone is an expert on their own health. I'd like to extrapolate this into the realm of food. The first part of this, is that everyone believes they are an expert when it comes to their own health. We have specialists that we bring our cars, computers, clothes, pets etc to when they need to be repaired or fixed, and yet people seem to think that they know best when it comes to their own health. People ignore their doctor's advice, and would rather follow the advice that is given to them on an internet message board (since its often what they want to hear). I'm not saying that the internet isn't a valuable research tool, but that people must do just that; research. Whether its about surgery, pregnancy, weight loss or general health, there are a million resources available, but the important part is to look into multiple angles, and not believe only what you want to see (imagine being able to just eat cookies ALL day! What a great diet right?)/

Now here comes MY advice, some of which comes from formal education, and most of which comes from a less formal, but in depth understanding of food and the human body.

1) In terms of health, your diet should be varied and "balanced" to use the old term from food pyramids. Balanced sadly doesn't mean a cheese burger in each hand, but foods from all of the food groups, and the fresher the better.

2) My mother in law's latest mantra comes from Michael Pollan's book "Omnivore's Dilemma" which is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants"; although she has been saying some version of this from her own experience for year. I completely agree. Often the problem with people's diets isn't that its all bad or unhealthy food, but that we simply eat too much.

3) Watch what you eat, but don't be obsessive. Obsessing can make you more stressed, and actually make it harder to lose weight or be healthy. Be aware of what you eat, especially if you're trying to lose weight, but don't beat yourself up if you occasionally slip up.

4) Eat natural as much as possible. The fresher the food, the better it is! Think about every step of processing as removing nutrients and health value. The more natural the food, the easier it will also be on your wallet! Next time you go to the store, look at the price of fresh corn (as natural as it can get) vs frozen corn (mild processing, but no additives) vs canned corn (moderately processed, with additives like salt and preserving agents). You can even take it a step further and look at bagged pop corn (yet another step in processing, and additives).

5) Cook at home. This way you can control exactly what goes into your food. You can save a lot of added fat by cooking with leaner meats, and by adding lots of spices, you don't have to use as much oil to get delicious taste!

6) Practice portion control. Put your salad or veggies on your plate first. This prevents you from loading up on the less healthy parts of some meals (pretty hard to put 4 slices of pizza on a plate if there is salad there first!)

7) Watch the condiments. Think you're being healthy by having that salad for lunch instead of a burger? Did you get extra cheese, Cesar dressing...croutons? Turns out in terms of fat and calories, you may have been better off with the burger. A healthy baked potato can quickly turn into a not so healthy vessel to hold sour cream, bacon bits, cheese & extra butter. Pay attention not only to the food on your plate, but the dressings that you add to your food! 

Baja Shrimp Tacos

We've had a bit of a heat wave this week (and our non-air conditioned apartment hasn't been colder than 30 degree all week) and the last thing I wanted to do was come home and spend a long time in our ultra-hot kitchen cooking. I did however want to eat delicious food, because that always makes me happy. We decided for tonight on shrimp tacos, since we had black beans left over from a meal a few days ago, and shrimp was on sale, so I may have bought more than our small freezer could fit. We also had a lot of fresh veggies in the fridge, and a cooler meal was definitely right up our alley. We'd made fish tacos before, so I google chipotle sauces, and then made a healthier version of what I found. I also couldn't find ancho chilis at my grocery store, so I used roasted red peppers and banana peppers (since that is what we had)

Here is what we came up with

Shrimp:

6-8 shrimp per person, shelled and deveined (we cooked 24 or so and this is the amount of spices we used, so adjust accordingly)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp chipotle chili powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Put shrimp in a large bowl and sprinkle with spices. Mix and let the spices incorporate for 15-20 minutes.

In a frying pan, heat 1 tsp olive oil on med-high. Once oil is hot, add in shrimp and quick fry for 3-5 minutes, just until the shrimp are pink. Turn heat up to max and fry for 1 more minute to crisp the outside.

Chipotle Sauce:

1/4 c fat free yogourt

1/4 c light mayo

1- 2 tsp chipotle chili powder

1 tsp chili powder

Juice from 1/2 a lime

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1-2 large pieces of roasted red pepper 

pickled banana peppers or jalapenos

In an immersion blender add all ingredients and mix until smooth. 

The Tacos:

Avocado

Tomato

Lettuce or spinach

Red or green cabbage

Red or green onions

Cheese

Whole Wheat Eating Right tortilla wraps

Put whatever you want in the tortilla, add chipotle sauce, wrap, enjoy! (Here is a great video about how to wrap your tortilla, just skip ahead to 2:00 and watch and learn!)

Green Thai Shrimp Curry

We have made this recipe with shrimp, scallops, sole & chicken (cut into bite sized pieces). We have also made it vegetarian, although my husband dislikes tofu, so I never get to put its deliciousness into food. I'm sure it would taste good with pork as well, although I think it might be a bit too sweet for beef. It is one of our favourite foods, and again it can have lots of spice, which suits my palate just fine!

Ingredients
3 stalks celery, diced
1 small-medium onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 c corn
6-8 mushrooms, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 tsp green curry paste (its spicy so add more if you like heat)
juice from 1 lime + zest from 1/2 lime.
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 c stock (fish, chicken, clam juice whatever you have is fine)
1/2 c sweet white wine (or whatever white you have around)
1 can light coconut milk
20-ish shrimp peeled & deveined (or 2 chicken breasts, or scallops or fish, or a combo of them, all are delicious!!)
1-2 tsp fresh grated ginger (I put my ginger in the freezer, and then grate it with a fine grater from frozen, peel & all. Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law for this amazing tip!)
10 leaves Thai Basil (or 5 leaves basil & 5 leaves mint - Thai basil is hard to find around here!)
2 tbsp honey


Garnish
1/3 c cashews, chopped & toasted: I chop them first and then put in the oven. Watch them closely because they burn really quickly (3-5 mins @ 350)
1/4 c toasted coconut (also burns very quickly, you can mix the coconut & the cashews & toast together)
2 stalks green onion, diced

Directions:
1) In a large skillet or frying pan, add about 2 tbsp of the stock and warm.
2) Add in the onion & celery and cook until they are starting to soften, when they start to soften dd carrots & pepper, when they start to soften, add the mushrooms.
3) Add in remaining stock and coconut milk and bring to a low boil. (if using chicken add in now)

4) Add in garlic, curry paste, lime juice, lime zest, fish sauce, honey & ginger. Cook at low boil for 3 minutes.
5) Add in shrimp, scallops or fish and cook for 2-5 minutes until almost done.
6) Add in basil and stir. Remove from heat. 
7) Put in bowls (we often serve it over Coconut Rice) and garnish with cashews, coconut flakes and green onion. If you like it spicy, also garnish with chili flakes. 

Healthy Banana Bread

Banana bread had always been one of my favourite snacks. My mom used to bake it all the time when we were growing up, and it was always a big hit with my friends. I've been stockpiling overripe bananas in my freezer for a while now, and today we did a freezer clean-out and my husband commented, that I always say I will bake banana bread, but that I never actually do, so there seems to always be an abundance of overripe frozen bananas in our house. So I pulled a bunch of frozen bananas out of the freezer and decided today was the day. We're having a BBQ with friends on Sunday anyways, so I figure this is a perfect thing to bring and share!

So as I let the bananas thaw, I decided to look up the "healthy" recipe my mom used to make. I realized why it was SO delicious, a CUP of butter, a CUP of brown sugar (and a half cup of white sugar), and for treats she put milk chocolate in it. Now if you look at this, you might ask, what on earth makes this healthy? Its made with whole wheat flour and also has bran in it...well I suppose those are healthy ingredients, but my knowledge now tells me that no amount of bran will outweigh that much butter and sugar. So I decided to invent my own much healthier version of my mom's delicious banana bread. Here is what I came up with!

Ingredients
2 cups mashed banana (usually about 4-5 medium to large bananas - the riper the better!)
4 eggs
1/3 c butter milk (or buttermilk substitute - see below)
1/3 c butter or oil (I like sunflower oil)
1/2 c apple sauce
1/4 honey/agave nectar
1/2 c dark chocolate chips (optional)
1/3 c diced walnuts (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c bran
1/2 c oats
1/2 c multigrain bread flour
1 c white bread flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder

Directions:
1) In large bowl mix together all wet ingredients.
2) Sprinkle baking powder and baking soda over wet mixture evenly. Mix in.
3) Add remaining dry ingredients (except chocolate) and whisk rapidly to make sure everything is incorporated.
4) Set oven to 350F.
5) If you're using a baking pan, (bread pan, bundt pan etc) make sure you grease the pan, if you're making muffins, use cupcake liners (or grease the muffin tins). I use a basting brush and a little bit of olive or sunflower oil. Sprinkle top with chocolate chips.
6) Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins (pans) or 20-22 mins (muffins) or until the tops start turning golden brown.



Buttermilk Substitute:
1/2c skim milk
2 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar

Add juice/vinegar to milk.
Two Options
1) Microwave for 40 seconds. It will curdle and look awful, but the whole point is to make the milk thick and acidic
2) Let the milk sit for 1-2 hours until it starts to curdle and becomes room temperate.

Turkey-Pork Sausage

Who doesn't enjoy a good sausage with breakfast, mixed into an omelette perhaps? On a pizza? Or how about in a delicious Lasagna? The problem with most commercial bought sausage is that they are very very fatty. Think about the last time you cooked sausages in a pan, how much fat was there left in the bottom? Yuck. This recipe uses lean ground turkey and extra lean ground pork, and yields very little fat at all (turkey is a meat that is naturally high in protein and low in fat). I bought my meat from our local store, however you could grind your own meat or substitute other types of meat if you are interested. If you do use ground beef, make sure that you get extra lean. Ground beef is one of the leading "contributors" of saturated fats (those are the so called bad fats) in North American diets, because it tends to have a very high level of saturated fats when compared to other meats.  If you have the means, you could put this sausage into casings, I however do not, so we just use it crumbled. You can also easily shape it into little breakfast patties, or use it as a meatball recipe (for these two however you will need to add a few extra ingredients).

Lean Sausage Recipe


1lb extra lean ground pork
1lb lean ground turkey
1/2 c onions diced very fine
3-4 cloves minced garlic (or less if you're not a garlic fiend)
2 tsp onion powder
1-2 tsp red chili flakes (more if you like it spicy)
1 tsp dill (dried or fresh)
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1-2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp cardamom
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
sriracha to taste (again only add this if you like it spicy).

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a bowl. If you are planning on putting the sausage into casings, go right ahead. I have no experience in this area, so I would suggest following the instructions in the manual. If you want to make this into ground sausage (great for pizza, pasta sauces, lasagna, omelettes etc) just put whatever you need into a skillet and cook on medium on the stove top. I don't bother adding any oil, because the meat does have some fat in it which will prevent it from sticking. If you feel you must, a little bit of EVOO, sunflower or avocado oil is best. This meat mixture can also be frozen raw and used at a later point (as long as it was fresh meat to begin with) or cooked and then frozen for later use (2lbs of meat is a LOT to use at once).

If you want to make meatballs or sausage patties, add 1 egg per 1/2-3/4 lb of meat you are using. This just helps them stick together a bit better.  For the patties, once formed, cook in a skillet on medium about 5 mins each side (just make sure the middle is cooked through). For meatballs, you can add mushrooms or green onions for an extra flavour kick. I bake mine in the oven on a wire rack (with a tinfoiled cookie sheet underneath to catch the drippings). at 350 for about 45 mins (depends on the size of your meatball).

A fun breakfast idea: form your sausage patty into a  10-12 cm diameter & 2-3 cm thick (4-5" diameter & 1/2" thick) round. Using a cookie cutter or a cup (5 cm or 2") cut the middle out. Put the "donut" meat patty into a skillet. Cook for 3-4 mins on one side. Flip the patty over, and break an egg into the middle of the patty. Cook until the egg is your desire consistency (flip the patty back over for a few mins if you don't like a runny yoke). This fits perfectly into a bagel, or is delicious on its own!

Comfort Food - Lasagna

Lasagna is one of my favourite foods. Pasta, ooey-gooey melted cheese, tomatoes, fresh herbs all packed together! Yum! However, it would certainly not make it onto any list of "healthy" foods; UNTIL now. Here is my pseudo-healthy version of lasagna. Its still not as healthy as say a salad, but there is no reason you can't enjoy some comfort food once in a while. This recipe contains lower fat cheeses, and organic healthy meat, along with lots of vegetables.

I also have to give credit where credit is due. This recipe is an adaptation from dear family friends D&H. Thanks for the lasagna love!

Tomato Sauce Ingredients:
• One onion, chopped fine
• 2-3 cloves of garlic minced (or more if you are a garlic lover like me!)
• 5-6 large mushrooms chopped fine
• A large bell pepper (red and/or green) chopped fine
• Tomatoes (you can use a couple of cans of tomatoes chopped up, but I like fresh garden tomatoes when possible, with the skins removed, probably about a dozen large tomatoes).
• 1 tin tomato paste
• ½ - ¾ lb lean ground pork
• ½ - ¾ lb extra lean ground beef
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried basil (or 3-4 fresh leaves minced)
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ salt
• ½ nutmeg
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1-2 tsp chili flakes
• 2 tsp chili powder

Tomato Sauce Directions

Saute onion, garlic, mushrooms and peppers in olive oil 4-5 minutes or until onions are soft
• Add meat and stir in and cook until browned
• Add the diced/crushed tomatoes, and spices,…simmer on low for 30 - 40 mins, in covered pan.

Cheese Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 container of low fat ricotta cheese (you can also use low fat cottage cheese, but be sure to drain it through a cheese cloth first)
• 10 oz- 3/4 lb or so of skim Mozzarella grated
• 4-5 oz  other low fat cheese (I did provolone & sharp cheddar this time)
• Couple of tablespoons of fresh basil finely chopped.
• 1 cup of skim milk

Cheese Sauce Directions:

In a saucepan, heat the milk on low heat, careful not to scald it
• When milk is hot, add the cheese, slowly folding it in and stirring
• Allow to cook (not boil!) until all the cheese is melted and you have a more or less smooth looking sauce
• Stir in the chopped basil

Other Ingredients:
• Spinach
• Lasagna noodles - you are best off to use the "precooked" noodles (otherwise it ends up too runny because of the cheese sauce). These are the kind that require no pre-cooking. I usually use the whole wheat kind.

Grand Assembly

• Put in a thin layer of the meat/tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the pan
• On top of this put a layer of the noodles
• Add another layer of the meat sauce; then a layer of the cheese sauce, followed by a layer of the spinach
• Add another layer of noodles, and repeat meat sauce, cheese, spinach
• The final layer on top should be some of the meat sauce so that the noodles are covered
• Cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil and bake at about 325 degrees for about an hour.
• Remove tinfoil and sprinkle on top grated parmesan, provolone, mozzarella or asiago cheese (or, really any kind of cheese) and cook at 325 until the top starts to brown and bubble.

Above all, layer your lasagna with amore and imagination!

"Paleo" Pad Thai

There has been a lot of talk about the Paleo diet recently, and like I have said before, I'm not for or against it, but I believe that moderation is one of the biggest key to healthy eating. Along with moderation, eating natural and "clean" is also important. What clean means (for all you new foodies) is less refined and more natural. For example refined and bleached starches (such as white pastas, white breads) are highly processes, ergo they are less clean. This recipe is a healthier modification of a recipe that I have been making for years. My old roommates used to LOVE this recipe, although years ago it was way higher in fat, higher in sugar, made with packaged Udon/Shanghai noodles and served with bottled teriyaki sauce over white rice. One time we even made it with frozen breaded chicken nuggets (I believe they were shaped like dinosaurs) because that was all the meat we had!! I guess at the very least I realize (especially with this favourite recipe) that I have learned a whole lot about food and health since I was 18 and first living on my own.

Although I call this Paleo Pad Thai, it does break a few of the true Paleo rules (for example I use peanut butter, but this could be easily substituted with another nut butter, and I also usually put a bit of soy sauce in, but have omitted this several times and just added a little bit of kosher salt instead)

This recipe is for 2 people, but can easily be doubled or halved, although I don't know why you would want to half it. It tastes just as good (if not better) reheated. And as with most of my recipes, a lot of the measurements are guesstimates. I was reading an article in the newspaper today about cooking, and there was a Top-10 Rookie-Chef mistakes list. Pretty high up on the list was not tasting your food as you go. This is something I strongly believe in. I usually go by taste and smell, and even when following a recipe I usually deviate from the words on the pages. I do this partly so I can put my own spin (and omit things my husband doesn't like), partly because by this point in time I am pretty good at cooking and can easily make changes without changing the integrity of the recipe, and lastly because I am impatient and don't always read recipes to the end (this ironically enough was #2 on the rookie chef mistakes list, but I don't think this applies to me, because I rarely get to the end of a recipe and realize that although company is over I actually have to cook the turkey for 6-8 hours, I mostly have those details worked out beforehand). Anyways, on to the recipe.

Paleo Pad Thai


200g ground turkey
1/2 onion diced
2-3 zucchinis made into "noodles" (directions below)
1/2 c red pepper diced
4 mushrooms diced
1 c broccoli  in small pieces
1 carrot grated
1/2 c snow peas
1c bean sprouts
1-2 stalks green onions
1/4 c unsalted, chopped & toasted cashews (I toast in the oven @350 for about 5-7 mins. They burn fast so keep a very close eye on them)

chicken stock (instead of oil)
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp paprika

2-3 tbsp natural peanut butter
1-2 tbsp honey


1-2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
2 (or more) cloves garlic minced
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
siracha to taste (if you like spice)


1. Chop all vegetables, the size and shape really doesn't matter (with the exception of the zucchini), I like things that are bite sized.
2. To make the zucchini noodles (or zoodles as I call them) you have a few options. Keep the peel on, it adds to the flavour and texture. If you have a mandolin, go ahead and use this to make the zucchini into thin slices, then cut the slices into strips. If you don't have a mandolin, you have two options. Either spend a LONG time cutting the zucchini. First, cut the zucchini in half, then cut each half into thin slices. From there cut each slice into spaghetti sized strips. The other option is to use a vegetable peeler. I like this method the best. Again cut the zucchini in half and then use the peeler as you would on a potato.
3. Heat a large wok or frying pan on medium. Add a few tbsp of chicken stock to the hot pan. Add in the onions and ground turkey. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce & Worcestershire sauce, stir well.
4. Once the onions are starting to become translucent and the meat is getting cooked add in the peppers, mushrooms and carrots. Add the chili flakes & powder, cardamom, coriander & paprika Cook until the peppers start to soften. If you are using siracha, this is the time to add it. I usually omit it since I'm the only one that likes spicy food in my house, and put it on my bowl individually.
5. Add the peanut butter (you can use more or less depending on your liking), honey, ginger, garlic, zoodles, snow peas & broccoli. Cook until these vegetables are tender. If you find your sauce is too thick add a bit more chicken stock, if its too runny add a few sprinkles of flour or corn starch to thicken.
6. Once vegetables reach desired consistency, remove from heat.
7. Place in bowls and garnish with bean sprouts, green onions and toasted cashews.

Enjoy!

Summery Drinks - Fraps, Iced Teas, & Lemonade made better.

Summer is just around the corner, and it seems we always want to look our best in the summer (probably because we aren't huddled under layer up layer to keep warm in the chilly Canadian winter), and here is my latest venture. Summer is also one of my favourite times to sit out on the patio and enjoy an ice cold beverage and savour the sunshine (while wearing oodles of sunscreen of course!). So many delicious summery drinks are LOADED with sugar and calories though, which bodes less than well for that bikini bod you are trying to achieve.

Here are my takes on a few summery classics!

Chocolate Chip Frappucino

1/2 c skim milk

8-10 ice cubes

1-2 tsp cocoa powder

1-2 tbsp ground decaf coffee beans (I find it best to grind your own, otherwise the taste is a bit off. I grind mine coarse so I get some crunchy texture)

1.5 tsp honey or equivalent of Stevia - check the packaging, so many different Stevia packs have different measurements. (or you can use sugar if you must) 

2-3 tbsp dark chocolate chips, chunks etc

Put it all in a blender and mix until slushy. 

Iced Teas

Iced Teas are normally made with black tea, lemon and a whole lot of sugar. My take on them is to mix it up with the type of tea used, avoid the sugar and add twice as much citrus! Another thing I do is to steep the tea longer than required, this way when you add ice cubes to it, it doesn't seem so watered down. 

I've taken a liking to black teas with flavours (black tea and blackberry, or cherry) and the natural flavours make them less bitter, so I often find that little sugar, if at all is necessary. Squeeze some lemon in to help cut the bitter and you have an amazing iced tea! I also have fallen back in love with rooibos (Red Bush in Afrikaans) teas. They are so flavourful, and are so delicious cold with a hint of vanilla. Throw a few raspberries and ice cubes in and its a delightful summery drink!

If you find that you do need to sweeten your teas, try more natural sweeteners like honey, Stevia or at the very least raw sugars. 

Lemonade

This is one of my favourite summertime drinks. Store bought lemonades are usually packed with sugar, and even those made from concentrate are usually pretty sugary. I am someone who really appreciates the tangy tartness of lemons, so you may need to add a bit more sweetener than I do! 

Makes ~ 1 litre

1c crushed ice (I just put cubes in my blender and mix. It doesn't have to be super fine

3.5 c cold water (or cold soda water if you want it bubbly)

Juice 5-6 lemons (should be about 1 c) - you can use store bought "ReaLemon" if you are lazy, but it really doesn't taste as good.

2 tbsp equivalent of Stevia, or 2 Tbsp honey (you can add more if you like it sweet)

Juice the lemons and mix with the Stevia or honey. Mix all ingredients together in a large pitcher. Serve over ice. 

The other variation on this is that you can put all the ingredients in the blender and mix, this usually results in very fine is. To make into a lemonade slushy, add only 1c water, and use 3c crushed ice. 

Its All About the Lifestyle

The biggest misconceptions I hear from people wanting to eat healthy are people simply trying to eliminate calories from their diets. Sure drinking diet pop may help you lose a bit of weight, but its not really the calories that are the problem, its the fact that you drink 4 cans of pop a day! Diet or not, its still not healthy. The other option is people who severely limit their calories, but what they do eat is garbage. Health isn't about losing weight (although this is often a byproduct) it is about learning to eat foods that are good for your body, and incorporating activity into your lifestyle. I recently read a really great book called "The Cure for Everything" by Timothy Caulfield. For me it was a lot of common sense, and things I already knew, but it changed my perspective on how the average person thinks about food. One take away I got from this book was about weight loss & dieting. His message was that being healthy is a lifestyle choice, not a diet. Anyone can lose weight short term by limiting caloric intake, however maintaining a weight is a completely different story. This is where lifestyle choices come in. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about healthy lifestyles. And at the risk of my mother-in-law being disappointed, I urge you to check it out from a library rather than buy it.

The first step is activity. A great YouTube video 23 and 1/2 Hours: What is the Single Best Thing we can do for our Health is a good place to start. If you haven't seen it, I'd say this video is worth the 9 minutes. It talks about just moving. Taking the stairs, walking to work, mowing the lawn. Healthy lifestyles are all about the numbers. In our fast-paced lives, we often get in our car in our garage, drive to a parkade, take an elevator up, sit at a desk all day, and do the same thing in reverse at the end of the day. Many of us spend our whole days not moving, and its super unhealthy. (I can attest to this, I've spent the last 4 weeks sitting on my couch recovering from surgery, and I feel unhealthy). Although not all of us have time to fit in an hour long workout every day, how about taking the stairs to the 5th floor two or three times a day? Or walking 20 minutes to school or work?

The second step is paying attention to what you eat. I mean really paying attention. I thought I was a relatively healthy eater, and once I started paying attention, I realized how much idle snacking I really did. A handful of candied nuts from someone desks, three candies while waiting in line at the bank, a cupcake from a fundraiser, some free samples of cookies at the grocery store, and the list goes on. Just because we don't really bring junk food into our home doesn't mean we aren't exposed to it. When I started tracking my food diligently, I was amazed at how often little things snuck into my diet (and by diet I just mean everything I eat, not some fancy pants no carb only berries thing).  I started using a free online webtool (with a handy iPhone app...no they don't pay me to say these things, I only wish). I found this to be a great way to think about what I was eating. For me it was as much about tracking calories as it was about becoming more cognizant about what I was eating. When you are tracking your food, you start to think about whether you really need to eat those little food spoilers that you find everywhere. 

Here are a few tips that I have come up with to add into your life to help create a healthy lifestyle:

• Take the stairs. I know it may sound cliche, but I never take the elevator unless I am going up more than 6 floors. This is just my rule of thumb. I've (non-scientifically) tested this, and up to about 6 floors, it takes about the same time whether you walk or ride. 
• Start tracking what you eat. Whether you use the webtool I recommended, or just write it down in a book, tracking what you eat allows you to be more aware of what you putting into your body. Write down everything including water intake, juice, samples etc.
• Put the fruits/veggies on your plate first. This way there is less room for grains, meats and fats. 
• Only have one plate. Unless you are STARVING (aka you just ran a marathon) most people don't need more than one plateful of food in a single sitting.
• Snack! This may sound counter-intuitive, but a million studies have shown that people who eat small portions often are in better shape than people who gorge three times a day. With snacking though, be conscious of what you are eating. 

Microwave Mug Cake

As I've said before, I have an undeniable sweet tooth. Recently, I've been trying to curb those cravings, but also letting myself splurge a little bit. I've come up with the PERFECT solution. Firstly, I find that if I bake something, I eat all of it, because I don't want to waste anything. And baking also takes time, so it doesn't really help if I'm craving something sweet right now. This perfect solution is the microwave mug cake!

The idea first came to me from Pinterest, and ever since I have been scheming to make the perfect mug cake, with a combination of both deliciousness and healthy content.

The first cake I tried was a chocolate cake. I found that it was a bit dry, and lacked the richness that I associated with a good chocolate cake. I of course was substituting butter with apple sauce, but I found that as with all foods cooked in the microwave, they got dried out rather quickly. I didn't want to start adding in lots of fats (oils and butters) to keep the cake from being dry, nor did I want to put all of the sugar back in that I had so diligently taken out. My solution was to use either flavored and sweetened (with sucralose) yogourt (I found vanilla to be best, although I think cherry might mix well with the chocolate too) or apple sauce and fruit juice, as these contain natural sweeteners. The other part was to add a bit more liquid than I thought necessary.


Carrot Mug Cake

In a large mug combine and mix:

6 tbsp whole wheat bread flour
1 tbsp brown sugar, stevia or honey
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

To the dry mixture add:

3 tbsp apple juice (or pineapple juice)
3 tbsp grated carrot
2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix thoroughly and microwave for about 1.5 mins. I usually do it in 45 second intervals to make sure it doesn't get too dried out. Once the top is no longer gooey its ready to eat!

Super Healthy Butter Chicken

In 2008 I went to India for 3 weeks for my brother and sister in law's wedding. Prior to this trip I had little exposure to ethnic foods (I grew up in a small town and the diversity in foods consisted of about 5 pizza places and a Chinese restaurant). I was intrigued and delighted by the spices and herbs that were used to cook Indian food. I loved how each dish had a distinct smell and they were all good. Indian cuisine and I got along very well since I am a huge fan of spicy food (which is the exact opposite of how my father-in-law felt). Honestly; I put hot sauce or siracha on pretty much everything except cereal. At our favourite local hangout restaurant my favourite server has a box of hot sauces that she brings out the second I arrive in anticipation that I will request more spice on whatever I order. But I digress. What I'm getting at is that I fell in love with the curries and dips and varieties of rice that India had to offer. Once home we tried our best to replicate some of the amazing recipes we encountered. the first one was a simple rice dish with a hint of coconut and saffron. My favourite dish though had to be butter chicken. Now as the name implies, butter was a very common ingredient in many of the recipes I found. Most butter chicken recipes started with a base of 1/2 cup of butter and 1 cup of cream. As deliciously rich as that sounds, it wasn't something that I was interesting in putting in my body. I love butter chicken, but not enough to eat 1500 calories as my dinner! After much searching, and some substitutions I have come up with the perfect butter chicken recipe. This one is creamy and delicious, but lacks cream and most of the butter (although I have found that a little bit really is necessary). In the end this one is pretty healthy and will continue to find its way onto our dinner table!

Part of the problem with me starting a food blog is the fact that I don't really follow any recipes. Ever. The first time I make a dish I always try to follow a recipe, but I usually get bored and end up improvising very early on. The second piece is that I often try to "healthify" recipes on the fly; substituting butter with yogourt or sour cream, using vegetable stock in lieu of oil and whatever else I can do to reduce fat and calories from the delicious meals that we make. The problem with this really comes into play when I start trying to share the recipes I use with friends and family, since I don't really use a recipe. The last part is that I am crazy with spices. I often add things randomly and just test it to see if it tastes good. If not, I add something else to counter.

Below I have my best guess of my butter chicken recipe. Its healthy, high in protein and absolutely delicious!
We usually serve this over Coconut Rice and add vegetables such as steamed peas, corn, spinach, asparagus, green & wax beans on top.




Butter Chicken



Sauce
1/2 medium onion - diced fine
1/2 a container of fat free plain yogourt
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp honey
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cardamom
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/4 tsp cayenne (or more if you like it spicy)
1/2 tsp cumin
1-2 tbsp ground ginger (put it in the freezer, and then grate away with a fine grater)


In a medium saucepan melt the butter on medium. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add lemon juice, honey and tomato paste; mix thoroughly. Add in yogourt and bring to a low boil. Add all spices and reduce heat to med-low. Cover and let simmer until chicken is done.





Chicken
5-6 chicken thighs or 3 chicken breasts (de-boned and without skin)
        - you could also use tofu to make this vegetarian, or a white fish would be tasty too!
1/3 red pepper - finely chopped
4 mushrooms - finely chopped
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp cumin
1/3 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp flour or corn starch.

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.In a bowl combine flour/corn starch with all spices. Mix thoroughly. Add chicken to spice mixture and coat evenly.

 In a large skillet or deep frying pan (the sauce will be added to the chicken later, so it should be a big pan) add the oil and heat on med-high. Once the pan is hot, add the peppers and mushrooms. Once the peppers start to soften, add the chicken and all of the spice mixture and saute until fully cooked. Turn heat down to medium. Once fully cooked add the sauce to the chicken pan. Mix thoroughly and let simmer.

Enjoy!