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.