My first attempt at Granola

I've always heard it was super easy to make granola so I finally took the plunge.  As my coating I used coconut oil (melted) and agave. What ever you decide to coat in the liquid is completely up to you, I just used what I had available in my pantry. I just added dry ingredients till the liquid didn't seem to be able to coat the mixture.

Ingredients (aprox measurements**as usual!!  I am terrible at paying attention when I'm baking)

- 2 tbsp coconut oil melted
- 2-3 tbsp agave (or maple syrup if you prefer)
- 2 cups rice puffs (GF)
- 1 cup of GF oats
- 1 cup of mixed seeds and nuts (some dried currents and raisins too)
 - 1/2 cup chia seeds

Bake at 400F for about 10min or until edges begin to turn brown.
(note... it will not be crunchy or solid until after it cools off, so don't panic (like I did... thinking I made a dud batch... it turned out.. )

Was so delicious.  I also put it on my oatmeal the next day!

Banana and PB warrior smoothy

Amazing anytime snack! I've discovered this new raw vegan protein powder.  It doesn't have all the added bonuses of Vega one, but it is an amazing alternative to the crappy vegetarian stuff I've been using.  Plus it tastes just fine with almond milk (or coconut milk) and ice!

Smoothy - can eat it with a spoon its so thick! 

- 1.5 frozen banana
- 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
- scoop of warrior blend (vanilla) 
- handfull of ice 
- cover with coconut/almond milk 
- I needed to add a bit of water because it was too thick for my ninja

Day 10- Reinventing Shepard's pie

 

So this was my version of tonight's diner!  Vegan, clean, veggiful and colourful!

As you can see my hungry family chowing down on "regular Shepard's" pie, or as it's known in our house as paté chinois. This is how I made my vegan clean friendly version.

 

 

This is lentils, garlic, onions and tempeh mixed with some chili seasoning (I know it's weird, but it's what our family is used too, because I refuse to allow Mark to use the packages for Shepard's pie or even use gravy since it has too much salt) mixed with the water from the boiled sweet potatoes.

 

 

 

Mashed sweet potatoes with just some of the water and some onions.

 

 

Athletes (Cooking Greens) mixed with a bit of frozen corn.

 

 

Assemble and bake at 375F for 30mins (or so).

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Today's eats:

 

Breakfast (same as yesterday)

 

snack

1.5 cups of tomato tempeh soup

water

decaf tea with unsweetened almond milk

 

Lunch

can of low sodium tuna

a head of romaine lettuce

1/4 cup salsa sauce

1/4 cucumber

2 tbsp olive oil

water

 

snack

 

a large handful of veggie chips (the ones from bulk barn with probably too much oil)

water

about 3 sun dried tomatoes in olive oil (while I was making my diner)

 

Diner





a serving of my version of Shepard's pie

water

 

After diner snack...

 

a pot of herbal tea  (Caramel Almond Amaretti) and some vanilla almond milk (yes I know the sweetened kind... ) But this is desert!!!

 

 

 









Day 9- The best part of cooler 1 in the fall is the SOUP!!!

Well I am happy to report that apparently ranting to the universe pays off because this morning when I got on my scale FINALLY I lost some weight! Thus began a great day :)  Well pretty much nothing can tarnish Wednesdays in my view since I only teach 2 periods in the morning (yes I am only 68%) so that means I do have time off school.  Today after school I rushed to the yoga studio and did a hot class, then browsed the Chapters looking for some cute Halloween books for my kids, then it was back home for some lunch. After a very late lunch I got to go on a fantastic bike ride because the weather was absolutely perfect for it!  I rode up North of my place and the fall leaves are just stunning, yes the route north is uphill, but damn if it isn't worth the ride to see the sights. Plus what goes up must come down, my ride back home was easy-peasy.  Did I mention the temp was in the 20's!!!! So yes today was awesome!  So anyway here are my eats...

Breakfast
1/2 cup GF oats
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1tbps almond butter
1 tbsp ground flax
4 strawberries
unsweetened almond milk
water
decaf coffee with soy milk (because that's what they have at Strabucks- I know I'm working towards quitting)

Snack
3/4 of an orange pepper
2 cups of carrot ginger chick pea soup
water

Lunch: (this was slightly warmed up)
can of tuna (low sodium)
1/2 cup of salsa
1 large tomato diced
water
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

snack (before bike ride)
brown rice cake (lundenburg)
water

Diner:
tomato tempeh soup drizzled with olive oil
green juice (collards, zucchini, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 apple, 2 carrots, 3 green tomatoes and mint)
water
tea with almond milk

Ok so yes tomato soup with tempeh is strange... but it worked because it's all blended up together!  And come on who doesn't like, tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil???? 

I sort of just threw a bunch of tomatoes from our garden about 7 or 8 in a pot
with a jar of Mark's tomato's sauce
lots of garlic
1 onion
1 carrot
some broccoli stems
about 2/3 of a pack of tempeh (plain, no salt, no flavour)
some dried basil and parsley
a dash of cinnamon
water

Sweet day 5!

Today I overslept and woke up to a panicked house getting ready for swimming lessons.  So all I had time to do was make a smoothy for my breakfast.  Then the rest of the day I just felt kind of off. I missed my oatmeal, I was starving by 10, and had my leftover curried apple stir fry, but then I felt so tired!!!  so I had a nap, then back up to bring Annaliese to her gymnastics.  I ate a bag of sweet potato chips, 1 once, ha ha... I had to laugh at that!  But they said they were kettle cooked.  What does that mean? I'll have to look it up later. Anyway, decaf coffee in hand I enjoyed my time "watching" ie. reading most of the hour and half.  Then back home to chaos and cleaning!  Thus is my Saturday.. fun stuff isn't it! But you'll notice the theme of today's food was "sweet" because I just felt so much better after having a bit of "allowable" sugar.

Breakfast:
- 1/2cup frozen strawberries
- scoop veg. protein powder
- acidopholus/bifidus powder
- wheat grass powder
-ice
- tbsp raw almond butter
-unsweetened almond milk

Snack:
leftover apple curry (that had tempeh and athletes mix, tomatoes and onion)
water
decaf coffee with some soy
(a bit later- my sweet potato chips)

Lunch:
1/2 cucumber
can of tuna with olive oil
veggie chips
water

Diner:
a nice big serving of sweet potato curry humus
7 or 8 celery stalks
1/3 cucumber
1/4 of a sweet potato made into chips
1/2 a giant apple
2 big mugs of decaf rooibos tea with unsweetened almond milk

Pics!

This sweet potato  humus is amazing!  The secret is to warm up the chick peas before adding them to the food processor. 
- 1 can of washed and drained (no salt added) chick peas
- a smallish or medium sized sweet potato (cooked and soft)
- 2 tbsp tahini
- curry powder to taste (add as little or much as you would like)
- a sprinkle of garlic powder (probably not necessary, but I like it to offset the lack of salt)
- add the water leftover from heating(boiling) your sweet potato

sweet potato chips used to scoop up the dip!

After all that humus I only had room for 1/2 this apple. 

My kids absolutely love this humus!  I was hoping for some leftovers for tomorrow... no such luck!

Day 4... the day I cheated.. or treated myself...

Friday are never easy when you are on a strict diet plan.  I figured if I could just make it till night time and then I would reward myself with a small treat.  I wasn't sure what I was planning yet but I did manage well all day! 

Breakfast
1/2 cup GF oats
1/3 cup strawberries
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp raw almond butter
unsweetened almond milk
water
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

snack
leftover homemade hummus
orange pepper
cucumbers
sundried tomatoes in olive oil
water
decaf tea with unsweetened almond milk

lunch
2 cup spinach leaves
can of tuna
1 tbsp olive oil
1tsp apple cider vinegar
garden tomato
raw zucchini
water
decaf tea with unsweetened almond milk

snack:
couple handfuls of dried peas
a small handful of dried veggies
protein shake:unsweetened almond milk, handful of strawberries, veg.protein powder, wheat grass powder, 1000mg vitamin C, probiotics (acidopholous) and ice

diner (apple curry stir fry)
athletes mix (about 1 cup)
serving of tempeh (is about 18g of protein)
curry sauce
an onion
a garden tomato (fist size)
an apple diced (actually made this really savory)
water
decaf pumpkin spice tea with almond milk

My reward for making it till today! 
 a grande decaf soy misto with a pump of pumpkin spice!  (Mark bought it for me as a "romantic gesture") I couldn't possibly tell him to bring me home a bunch of asparagus. 

So I'm not really expecting much from the scale tomorrow.  I was happy with what I did read today, so yes partially I'm doing this to lose the last couple of lbs, but I am doing this because I just needed to force a REBOOT!  You know, I was feeling sick and frumpy!  I'm already feeling much better. Headaches are gone, I'm not feeling nearly as sick as I was and no dizzyness or shaky feeling today! However that could be because I added strawberries this morning (extra sugar) and clearly ate more!

Second day of cooler1- a la GF sort of vegan style

Day 2 of post thanksgiving detox.  No dizziness, at least, but a faint annoying headache all day.  I managed to get more protein in today. Tomorrow I still need more.  I had a funny teaching day, it is Wednesday but I had my Monday schedule so I didn't start teaching until 1:55 in the afternoon.  So I had a lovely morning.  I had my breakfast, then went to the gym for a 30min CXworks class (I didn't think I would be ready for a double just yet).  I surprised myself because I wasn't as out of shape as I thought I was.  Anyway after that I stopped at the grocery store to pick up my coffee and some produce to get me through the day. Then I met with Mark at one of the early years centres to play with kid #3 and kid #4 (aka, Patrick and Ellie-Lynne).  Then home, lunch, cooking food and off to work!  Here are my eats.

Breakfast:
1/2 GF oats
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp raw almond butter
1 tbps chia seeds
2 tbps apple sauce
1 tsp cinnamon
unsweetened almond milk poured over
water

snack:
field cucumber
decaf americano with a bit of soy milk(I'm trying to cut it out, I only had about an inch today)

Lunch:
zucchini noodles(most of a small zucchini)  - see pic bellow
a cup of homemade pasta sauce
tempeh (about the size of a deck of cards)
water

snack:
1.5 cups of homemade roasted red pepper (rrp) soup - see pic bellow
3 tbps hemp hearts
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

Diner:
a can of tuna with olive oil drizzled over it
a mug of rrp soup
water

rooibos tea with unsweetened almond milk

Sliced zucchini so it has the look of pasta! I kept it raw.

Tempeh cooked in the pasta sauce Mark made for me last month!


Soup:
3 red peppers roasted on BBQ - skin peeled off (or most of it)
1 onion
1 celery stalk
1 carrot
1 small sweet potato
1 tetra pack of no salt added veg broth
a bit of chili pepper to flavour



After attacking it with my hand blender!

 

Post Thanksgiving DETOX!!! Ouch...

Oy!!!!  So game on.  I had my fun, ate my gluten free diner rolls, had perhaps too much apple cider (the alcoholic kind) and red wine.  I indulged in sweet salad dressings, had syrup added to my decaf americano's,  and overall let my "white poison" philosophy slide a bit!  Ok well alot... I haven't actually gained any weight (well nothing significant) about a pound or two. But I feel terrible!!!  I've been sick for a week and a bit now, I haven't workout nearly enough and I feel frumpy! And so let the cleansing begin. 

Day 1:   headaches, shaking, foggy mind, I just felt crappy all day but... I did a 90 minute deep flow hot yoga class and then felt much better!

Breakfast:
1/2 cup GF oats
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp raw almond butter
1/4 cup strawberries (I know not really cooler 1)
with unsweetened almond milk poured over
water

Lunch:
can of tuna with olive oil
a tomato from my garden
1 cup of athletes mix with some tomato/onion curry sauce - see picture below(athletes mix has mostly greens, a bit of red pepper and a bit of white beans) - see picture below
water

Snack:
pear

Diner: (this was eaten in 2 phases - part at 4:30 and the rest at 6:00)
a can of salmon with flax seed oil
2 cups of athlete mix
a giant tomato diced
1/4 cup of the tomato/onion curry sauce
1 cup of mixed string beans 
(the above 4 ingredients were heated with extra water and were like a soup)
water

rooibos tea with unsweetened almond milk

No I don't use it on chicken, but I'm sure it would be good! I buy it at Longo's it's about 5$ for the jar.  But  check out these ingredients and nutrition label.

Pina Colada... vega good!

Vega style!

About 1/4 pineapple, 1/2 can coconut milk, vega smoothy pack, and ice.  Blend!

Serve and Enjoy!!!

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! 

Veggie Pulp Crackers

So again I was juicing today, basically to empty out the fridge of the veggies that were starting to go bad.  It was either juice or make soup.  And usually I just compost the pulp but today I was feeling the need to experiment.  Of course I didn't record my ingredient amouts... intuitive baking has it's drawbacks, but I can tell you how I created mine.  And know that anything goes here. Crackers are crunchy so you don't want to add egg, you will need oil to help bind everything and of course some type of flour, or you will pretty much end up with veggie leather! 

Here is the juice that I made: I used a cucumber, celery, spinach, apple, lemon, carrot, zucchini and a bit of ginger.

Ingredients: (again you have to be able to play around here)

• veggie and fruit pulp left over from juicing 
• half an avocado (because I figured the dough needed some healthy fats)
• flax seeds (every good cracker has them right?)
• coconut oil (melted, about 2tbsp)
• a splash of agave
• italian herbs
• arrowroot flour (or any other type you want) I was going for GF
• a tiny bit of baking soda

 Directions:

So basically I mashed the avocado into the pulp, added the flax seeds, oil and agave.  I mixed all the wet ingredients first.  Then combined the dry ones separately and then added them to the mixture. It's important to tell you here that I have no idea how much flour I actually added. I was adding it mostly till I got a dough consistency.  Which means I did have to add a bit after I had pre-mixed the original dry ingredients.  Next I flattened out the mixture on the parchment lined baking sheets. I tried to make it as thin as possible, but even so, some places were thicker than others, to deal with this, I basically cut the thin pieces out of the pan and put the thick ones back in for longer cooking time.  I had the oven at 350F and initially put them in for about 15 minutes.  This wasn't nearly long enough, so I basically stood around the oven, cutting out the crispy pieces and putting the rest back in the oven until the whole lot was nice and crunchy.  I had two cookie sheets full.

At first I tried to press the batter onto the cookie sheet with my hand but soon realized I needed to find a much better way to flatten this out.  So I added a sheet of parchment paper on top and pressed it in this way. 

Pressed and rolled with a cup (sure a rolling pin would work too)

Very flat and very thin. And Green!!!!

They baked.  And the parchment just peels right off!  easy peasy!

Cooling off on rack before putting them away. 

Pretty thin :)

Crackers topped with plain greek fat free yogourt, cucs and cherry tomato.

Crackers topped with almond butter and sliced strawberry.  Yum!

Healthy Easter Baskets (filled with fruit snack and organic dark chocolate)

Ok well these don't look like much but alot of love went into them!  I looked up some healthy Easter treats and a recipe for these baskets came up but they used loads of brown sugar and butter (blah, hardly healthy) so I thought I would try to clean them up a bit and with some success I managed a basket that only uses dates to sweeten it and coconut oil to keep it together.  It's really cool actually, I was convinced when I started these I was wasting my time, how could they stick together without sugar... Ha ha, but the oven worked it's magic and voila they held! So there are quite a few steps to these so I'll walk you through them via pictures.

These are not GF so I couldn't taste them but I trusted the ingredients and had some faith.  I used 2 cups of shredded wheat (no sugar which I like).  I crushed these in the zip lock bag.

About 1/2 cup coconut oil.

Which needs to be melted, I did this on a small pot of boiling water.

Next I boiled some water, made tea and soaked 7 or 8 dates.

While the dates were soaking I added 1/4 cup of shredded coconut to my smashed shredded wheat.

I was also making chocolate at this time so these soaked about 20 minutes.

I added the dates and the melted coconut oil to my food processor.

Processed it until all visible chunks were mixed in.

Here I just mixed the dry with the wet ingredients.  (all 4 of them) and I knew it was ready to start to mold when I grabbed some and it stuck together enough to form a ball.

Formed in greased muffin tin. bake at 350 F for 11 minutes (or 10 - just until the edges are starting to turn light brown).  Let them cool in the muffin tin, then carefully remove!  These can be filled with anything.  But I wanted chocolate so here is the process I used to make chocolate shapes.

I used the same bowl that I melted the coconut butter in (why make more dishes)!

I could only find these silly molds, they worked well, I chilled them in the freezer and they popped right out!

I added some fruit snack also!

This is what I made my kids for Easter morning!  I