Quinoa burgers

Tomorrow we are having friends over for a BBQ and I asked Mark to pick up some veggie burgers.  Guess what the 3rd ingredient is???  Wheat gluten!  Go figure.  So I decided to give quinoa burgers a try. I made quinoa the other day and had some left over. I should or could have looked up a recipe, but you know me... They never completely suit my needs so better to just improvise with what I had on hand (or in the garden, as it may be).

  So I contemplated what I would need to make the quinoa "stick together"... like an egg in some hamburgers, but since I'm nearly vegan I thought I would try something else.  I added ground flax seeds instead, as a binder.  Then I added a bit of extra water so the flax could actually bind and create a jelly (not like I could see this happening) But I figure I'll just go through my thought process.  So base done; now to add flavour, I grated up some red onion (from garden), zucchini(from garden) and sweet potato(I've been told we can't grow these... too bad).   Added some seasonings  (I used garlic powder and oregano), they smelled amazing at this point.  But something was missing, I still didn't think these would actually hold so I added about 2 tbsp of coconut flour.

 Now for these I fried the bottom in coconut oil in my cast iron pan, then transferred them into 400F oven for 25minutes.  I ate 2 tonight, couldn't help myself... They are crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. 

The brown top is from the coconut oil in the cast iron!  (ok so slightly labour intensive but sooo yummy!)

They stick!!!!! (together I mean... not to the pan or baking sheet)

Ready to toss on the grill to re-heat tomorrow! 

The food I ate today!

The food I eat in a day... are you curious?  I hope I can remember everything I ate actually.  Today was a long day. 


Breakfast:
1/2 GF Oats
1tbs raw almond butter
small peach (cut into chuncks)
a dash of cinnamon for flavour
2 tsp chia seeds

coffee
water

and because I wasn't satisfied with this I made some turkey sausages on the bbq, and made a salad. 

Snack1 - salad
1.5 turkey sausages
a handful of cherry tomatoes (my cute daughter picked them for me)
cucumber cubed
herbs from the garden (basil/parsley/oregano)
flax seed oil
apple cider vinegar

water
coffee with almond milk and ice

Lunch- stir fry
tempeh
green beans
broccoli
spinach
onions
a splash of curry sauce (no salt added)

Snack
vega chocolate smoothy in unsweetened almond milk
water with electrolyte pack (I'm using Nuun right now, mostly just because I have them)

I did a 90minute hot yoga at this point so I had another nuun water

Post workout snack (not healthy but I felt like I earned a treat)
Bumblebee bar
apple

Diner
sliced browned tempeh (with a tiny bit of coconut oil in my cast iron pan)
giant spinach salad
onions
cucumbers
1/4 apple sliced in it
a handful of GF Food Should Taste Good Chips (the multi-grain ones)
2 tbsp hemp hearts
dressing: 1/2 pack of vega tropical smoothy mixed with apple cider vinegar, flax seed oil and water
a handful of grapes for desert

water
1 can of Growers dry apple cider

snack-
1/3 cup popcorn (made a-la brown paper bag method)
1tbsp melted coconut cream (it is less refined than the oil and has a stronger coconut/sweet taste)
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp of chili powder 
a pinch of salt (some good stuff because I rarely use it) = mix the oils, chili powder and salt together first then drizzle over popcorn -then mix it up to coat

more water

ps. every time I write water I am consuming about 700ml of water (it's the 20oz (venti) starbucks water bottle)

All in all not a bad day for eating clean, I did watch Forks Over Knives today and am wondering if I'm getting bloated because of the meat I'm eating.  Otherwise I feel amazing! I basically eat like this most days, I'm getting most of my protein from vegetable sources (either tempeh/vegetarian protein powder/vega -One or smoothy/lentils/legumes).  But I do still have poultry in my diet and fish.  I've cut out completely gluten (that's been a while) eggs, red meats and dairy.  Interesting to note, my mom has an egg intolerance. ???  And now I have discovered that my son breaks out into a rash when he has dairy.  We had him off for a while and the rash cleared up but this week he stole some ice cream out of the freezer when we weren't looking and hoovered a ton of it and Voila rash on his face is back!  Well we have since found the freezer key and looked the freezer.  Casein...  I must really do some more research on this protein! 

Scattered Thoughts...

I am overwhelmed by the thoughts floating around my head these days. They are all bound and wound up together so I'm just going to put them on here and hopefully clear up some space! Sheesh. 

Here are the random words floating around my head...

transitions....50 shades of hotness...cooler 1... argh... kids who don't fall asleep...tea...(oops, very strong tea now... it's been steeping for 10mins)...running shoes...GF beer (New Grist)...missing popcorn...cravings...shoes on or off...running in the rain...laundry (wet)...peaches...weight gain...

Here is the stream of thoughs... in real time!

I can't beleive so many women are reading the 50 Shades trilogy, is it every hot and totally educational.  I mean I've read erotica but this is like hello Twilight meets Clan of the Cave Bear (by Jean Auel) with a spinkle of Anne Rice (her Sleeping Beauty trilogy).  By the way when you read on an ebook, teehee no one knows what you are reading :)   And insert baby crying again....  ohhh god who just made the 3 year old wake up crying.... who also doesn't want to sleep!  Arrggg ever!  It's like he has ants in his pants... He is twitchy at bedtime???  I mean I swear the other two kids didn't give us that hard of a time falling asleep. And yes we are doing everything to help.  His room is like a cavern of darkness, no toys in the room, no tv before bed, he's been playing and running lots during the day.  O... that wasn't bad they are now quiet.  But in the brief silence I'm reminded of my trip this morning to Exhibition place in Toronto to watch the Toronto Triathlon.  While I was waiting for the train, I could hear the birds chirping.... the birds!  That is silence my friends!  No screaming excited children, by the way I am actually looking forward to the end of summer vacation (3 weeks home with the 4 kids is long enough for me... I'm just saying)... Ah right back to the silence, I beleive I texted Mark something like "basking in the sweet silence".

So now onto the triathlon, before today I was really nervous.  In all honesty I have never even watched a triathlon on tv.  All I knew is that it involves 3 events with 2 transitions between each of these.  But now I feel pretty confident.  My first triathlon is Aug 12, something like 3 weeks away!  I'm ready for it!  Mostly because I've decided to do the shorter distance.  Then the next one is Sept 2nd and it will be the sprint distance, which is 1/2 the Olympic distance.  I was paying close attention to how the swimmers "look" in the water, are they kicking each other in the face, where would be the best place to position myself (either I swim fast and make it up front) or go on the outside of the group (that way I can pass as I want).  Anyway then I watched them as they got out of the water (no one fell over!) I've gotten dizzy when I get out the pool too fast and start to run.  They know where their bikes are, obviously they paid attention to the row and such when they were setting up.  There were something like 1200 participant so that many bikes in the transition area... Could be confusing.  Anyhow, I did observe many different methods of transitioning.  Some people didn't have to do much, they were swimming in their tri-suits (no wetsuits) so they just took off their cap, while running to their bikes.  Put on their helmets (some put on socks), and off they were.  Some of these super fast athletes already had their shoes clipped into the peddles, other people ran in their bike shoes, some people ran barefoot up to the start.  I think I'll run in my shoes.  Even though it sucks to do that, better than falling on my butt trying to put my feet into my bike shoes as I'm peddling! Ok so that's transition #1, the  second transition is from bike to run.  Again I watched many different dismounts, shoes, no shoes...etc... I think if I will have enough time I will try to take the straps off my shoes while I'm biking (I've tried with success), peddle with my feet on top of the still clipped in bike shoes, then just jump off my bike before the LINE.  This is a penalty line, at this triathlon if you missed the line you had to sit out for a 2 minute penalty.  I thought that was funny!  But anyway.  Get to the bike rack to rack up my bike, take off my helmet and put on my running shoes.  Which by the way I still don't have yet!  I need shoes!  So many options to choose from. 

Next stream... food... drinks... ahhh beer. You know since going gluten free I haven't been able to drink beer.  I've been drinking apple cider.  Which is delicious with ice on a hot day.  But that is the problem, I'm usually so good about keeping my diet really clean. But now I've been drinking a few "cold beverages" every couple of days.  And when I do that I then get the munchies for my favorite -junk food- popcorn (smart food)... stupid name, it is not smart... it is absolutely terrible for me. Mostly because I always have like 5 cups at a time.  Something like 900 mg sodium and 25g of fat.   As I re-read this paragraph I realized I know why I'm drinking so much more, I'm spending all day with my kids and when I'm not with them I'm training (or doing yoga).  I'm so wound up tight that the booze helps me chill out and enjoy the season.  And then I found New Grist, a GF beer that is made with rice and sorghum (i think a grain?), it is sooo good!  But again, not for me.  I've consciously tried to tighten the belt with processed foods (or anything with refined grains in general).  ps. I just checked wiki and sorghum is used for sugar.  Ahhhh sugar!  Evil sugar... It lurks everywhere!    So here's the thing I can live without almost no refined sugar, very little salt (mind you I do have electrolyte drinks) but cooler 1 is so strict when it comes to fruit.  And tis the season of the most amazing fruit/berries.  Strawberries/blueberries/raspberries and peaches!  ohhh the peaches are amazing right now!  Our house is on our 3rd basket of peaches this week!  I know fruit has tons of sugar, granted with a lower glycemic index than refined sugar.  But how to say no to seasonal fruit???   Well I wonder if part of my weight problem, not that it's a really big problem, but the scale is very slowly climbing up.  I'm up 4 lbs in 2 months.  Is it the different training, the massive water retention because it's hot (my clothes generally feel the same), my friends have said I'm looking beefier??  (I know that's weird even for me to write it), or lets be brutally honest... Booze + smart food = weight gain??  

Is this post too long? Ya I think so too!  I should post more often!  I'll get on that. 

Cheers

ps. space significantly cleaned up!

Tri-training Update!

I realize it's been a while since updating everyone on my triathlon training.  Today is a good day to update you since I did the equivalent of a sprint tri this morning.  It was great!  Ohhhh and I'm not sure if I told you either but I got a new bike (well used) but still nearly new.  It still had the stickers on it.   I got it for 880$ (which is a shit load of money, I know!) But since I'm going back to work in September I used that leverage to get a real road bike.  I love it!  It's a 2008 Trek Pilot 2.1... which basically means it's about 15lbs lighter than my old road bike!  I've learned so much since starting this venture, words like carbon forks and seat stays.   Which my new bike has.  The bike weights 18lbs...  hee hee! So awesome... anyway I digress...

Today I started off suiting up in my new tri-suit. (pretty much the cheapest one I could find) 90$. From Foot Tools   They did a great job, I only had 120$ left after my bike purchase and they did what they could for me!  I got a discount because I am part of the Mommy's in Motion group! So suit and a pack of socks (you know fancy shmancy running/biking socks) not cotton!

 Sports bra (that is not cotton)...  I wasn't paying much attention to the seminar on sports bars but I did remember the comment don't run in anything cotton!  Those are my bike shoes which I got for stupid cheat at least, 1$ at the Mountain Coop Bikefest earlier this year, the clips were on another pair of shoes that I bought for 5$. Normally these things are about 75$+15$.  Are you keeping track...  I did not exactly pick the cheapest sport to get into.  Anyway,  got on my bike...

 Packed my camel bag (a water bag to put my few things in and lots of water). It was hot today around 37C so I had about 2L of water on me.  I rode to the outdoor pool and brought my bike right on deck (they were nice about that, because I didn't want to bring a bike lock).

 I swam 800m pretty fast (well fast for me) in about 13mins, then got out, ripped off my cap and goggles, stuffed them in my pack, put on my shoes and helmet and off I went.  It was actually the first time I swam in the tri suit, it wasn't that bad actually!  It's a nice snug fit so nothing was dragging.  Good investment for now, I do not plan on wearing a wet suit, so I should save some time on my transitions, going from lake to bike with only this suit on!

My swimming pass (for lap swimming) at all Burlington pools was 70$ for the summer months.

On my bike I did a nice loop around Burlington doing around 28km, I added a nuun (electrolyte supplement) to my water bottle on my bike so that helped. I ended up at my house, scarfed a larabar, put on my running shoes, drank more water and went out for a 5K run.  To be honest this was the leg that I was dreading, the bike was awesome, the water on my skin kept me cool at first, (I didn't dry off, no room for a towel) then the nice wind kept me going.  The scenery changing was wonderful, biking on Lakeshore for about 8km then going up North and doing the same on quiet roads with rolling hills.

 The run, is tough. There is a reason why we do brick workouts in training.  It is because you are doing these perfect circles with your legs on your bike for a long ride and then suddenly you are off and stumbling into a running gait.  Not so easy. (You feel like you are running with bricks in your shoes) At least I didn't fall!  I've realized the key is to take a few really short steps until you feel like you can actually run! Anyway...  I did it!  Swim/Bike/Run