Catch Up

Hi friends!! It feels like a while, doesn’t it? Would you believe, that after 15 months of blogging near daily, I’ve never gone more than one day without updating? I usually have guest blogs or something. But this time I’ve gone a whole weekend!

It was nice to use what little downtime I had doing nothing. But that gets boring after a while, and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

First things first, this girl can do a good grilled cheese.

Wednesday night, Morgan and I had a conference call for No Limits Canada. Since I was without internet for what felt like a gajillion years, she invited me over for the Skype date!

She offered a choice of beer to start. I chose “Tuborg” because I could pronounce it in a funny Eastern European accent and the can claimed it was “pure gold.”

Not bad actually!

I was most excited however for her grilled cheese! Morgan and I sort of have an ongoing joke between our blogs about grilled cheese sandwiches. When discussing what to make for supper, it was the obvious choice.

Immediately impressed by her usage of the panini press.

Poor Morgan was worried about getting the right bread and cheese for me. She doesn’t know yet that I’m easily pleased and the sandwich was deeelicious!

Of course, what’s grilled cheese without soup?

 
An “everything but the sink” soup. Perfection! Thanks for the dinner Morgan! Bagels at my place next? ;)

 

I can’t remember what happened on Thursday. But I do know I was at work all waking hours and did a leg workout that made it hard to sit down all day Friday.

Friday though, I got off work a little early which meant I had time to make a hot dinner! Those are hard to come by these days. I’m a busy bee!

I started with this box of Eden Organic Kamut pasta. I assume ditalini refers to the little shape of the pasta.

I’m usually not a huge pasta fan because of the mushy texture, but I don’t mind these kinds made without white flour. The nutritional stats are a lot better too!

I only cooked half the tiny box…

…so I could plump the rest up with meat! 

 
A plain turkey sausage from my amazing local butcher. The sausages are HUGE. I threw it in a pan with some leeks, carrots, celery, spinach, tomato, onions and garlic.

Defrosted a serving of tomato sauce I made a while ago with watered down tomato paste and various spices.

The point of the meal was to eat something that would fill my belly up for the rest of the evening and that it did! Meat + pasta has a funny way of doing that ;) The pasta itself was pretty good, I really liked the shape and texture (remember, I don’t like regular pasta!). The sausage totally stole the show though.

Friday was also a special day in that it was National Fluffernutter Day (and my sister’s birthday – hi Sara!!)

Of course, this was a U.S. food holiday. Living in another nation, I thought it was okay I celebrate a day later on Saturday.

For those of you who don’t know, a fluffernutter is a sandwich spread with both peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.  It is a fabulous combo that seems to be mostly consumed by children. And, well, single 24-year-olds such as myself.

So why am I talking about fluffernutters and showing you waffles? Oh friends. You know me better than that.

This would be a fluffernutter wafflewich – french toasted. I mean, I had to celebrate in style, right?

I spread my PB + fluff between two defrosted freezer waffles (I like Nature’s Path Maple Cinnamon), then I dipped my wafflewich in egg whites and cooked in a pan.

Dipped in syrup of course! Look too decadent for you? The whole ridiculous wafflewhich with the sugar-free syrup is only 357 calories, 14g fat, 5g fibre, 40g carbs and 15g protein and 15g sugar.

I chased mine back with the usual coffee, in an unusual mug.

Bahahaha, thank you Janetha for seeing this elephant mug and thinking of me!!! The ridiculousness of it suits me perfectly. Also, elephants are my favourite animal :)

 

The rest of my weekend was spent working at the running store with a wonderful run in between. I ditched my usual waterfront trail for a busy city street and it was fun!! I used to hate running on populated roads when I first began running because I was embarrassed. But now I’ve got enough kilometres under my feet that I just don’t care. It was entertaining to whiz down the sidewalks of the city.

Of course, after working 17 hours on my feet in two days and running in between, my legs are pretty darn cranky with me. Namely, my IT band, which is a brand new pain for me. So the plan for this holiday Monday is to rest, relax and recharge. I haven’t had a day off in 21 days so I think I deserve to be lazy for a day ;)

 

A few extra things:

Congrats to my bloggie friend Brie who completed her first ever marathon yesterday in Chicago!! She had many bumps through her training program and I couldn’t be more proud that she finished it!

In case you haven’t noticed, I didn’t make it through to the next round of Project Food Blog. Thank you to everyone who took the time out of their days to vote for each of the challenges! It was really fun to participate in, but I’m happy I no longer have to stress about it.

I wrote not one but two guest posts last week! Head on over to Leah’s blog to read my thoughts on Pre and Post Workout Nutrition. Then stop by Morgan’s blog for my tips on Meeting People in a New City.

Finally, the most exciting thing: I’m going to the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival! That means in less than four weeks, I’ll be in San Francisco with hundreds of other food bloggers. Cause ya know, I’m the type of person who casually goes to California for the weekend (that’s a joke, I’m SO not!). But after some careful planning, shifting of funds, and wonderful bloggie friends, I’ve decided that I should just GO. I mean, you’re only young and reckless once ;)

 

And with that, me and my giant flannel pants are back to bed to watch movies for the rest of the day. Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! Eat some extra stuffing for me! Q&A’s will resume tomorrow, so you still have time to submit questions. See ya then!

No Limits

Hello friends! Hope everyone’s weeks are off to a good start! It’s a four-day week in most parts of Canada as Monday was a holiday. Got a text message from my mom saying she’s in Cap-Pele, New Brunswick eating seafood straight from the ocean. Not gonna lie, I got my first twinge of homesickness!!

If I’m going to be truthful with you guys, then I have another confession to make. I haven’t been meditating.

About six weeks ago, I made a commitment to meditate for 20 minutes a day. My goal was to calm down, find some peace, deal with my anxiety over my life changes, and hone in on my spirituality.

It lasted five days.

I am not going to try to justify my quitting, nor am I going to re-commit myself. You may remember that on the third day, I got very anxious during the meditation. My thoughts started to race, my breath quickened, my pulse became rapid. It was not at all the peaceful, calming experience I was expecting. On day four it got worse, and on day five I came out of the meditation early to keep from hyperventilating. Then I didn’t do it again.

I had high hopes of using meditation to get to the root of my diagnosed anxiety disorder, but instead it seemed to pull it out of me. Maybe I am suppressing it, but I can honestly tell you that I feel more in control of it now than I ever have. I’m a former agoraphobic who now packs on to a sardine can of a subway to work every day. That feels like more progress to me than forcing a panic attack on myself by sitting still and worrying about all the things in the world that need to be worried about.

So that’s where I’m at. Maybe some day I will try the meditation thing again. But at this stage in my life, it’s not for me.

Don’t be shy to share your thoughts on this!! Has anyone else ever had a similar experience??

Anyways, I do have a few food photos for you today. We’ll start with dessert, as it should be.

A Holly inspired protein cookie, or what we’ll call a chocolate marshmallow protein thumbprint cookie.

• 1 tbsp chocolate peanut butter
• 3 tbsp chocolate whey protein powder
• liiiitttle bit of water to make it crumbly

Form into three cookies, press your thumb in the centre, add a scoop of fluff, then let settle in the freezer for 15 minutes. This is a stellar dessert!!

Alright, now that dessert is taken care of, we can go into breakfast.

What? Were you expecting breakfast to be anything other than waffles?

My favourite waffle recipe as of late:

• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unflavoured soy protein powder
• 1 packet stevia
• several shakes cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1/2 cup almond milk (beware! this measurement may change if you use a different “milk” just pour it in until you get a good batter consistency)

Batter alone is 270 calories, 3g fat, 25g carbs, 4g fibre, 0g sugar, 37g protein. Bam.

Waffles however require toppings. This one here had fresh strawberries (a buck a pint in Chinatown!!) and a drizzle of sugar-free syrup whisked with chocolate peanut butter.

Remember that Mango Slaw I made over the weekend? Well it was a million times better after a day in the fridge. The flavours mingled and the dressing softened the mango and cabbage.

I added some cubed tofu that I pan-fried in Bragg’s soy sauce. This combo was SO good. So good that I had it yesterday, then again today, and now I’m mourning the last of the summery slaw.

Today’s breakfast contained more summery flavours.

A base of yogurt and protein powder, with fresh blueberries and blackberries.

Toppings included fresh mint (yum), raw oatmeal, cinnamon, flaked coconut, maple syrup, almond butter.

I never used to get how people could eat bowls of yogurt for breakfast and feel satisfied. I stand corrected. This bowl had around 400 calories with all the balanced macros. I got a good 4 hours out of it. Not to mention, t’was tasty ;)

 

In terms of fitness, I was all excited to start a bootcamp in the park today, but I read the location wrong :( Thursday, I will be bootcamped!!

 

Last, but most definitely not least, I have exciting news!!

Many of you who are into the whole healthy blogger scene know that there are a ton of conferences that happen every year on the subject. They are an amazing chance to get a group of like-minded people together to talk about the things they love, learn from each other, and of course have fun!

Unfortunately, so far most of these events have been held in the United States, and there seems to be a real need for something up north! Myself, Morgan, Karen, Scott, Jen and Nienke are happy to finally share:

No Limits Canada: Health, Wellness & Fitness Conference

 

That’s right!! A Canadian conference that anyone anywhere can come to! It will be held in Toronto in May 2011. So pleasepleaseplease mark your calendars! Details are still forthcoming, but I can tell you it is going to be a blast. We’re planning on fun, active sessions that will have you learning and keeping busy. Plus, I’m superduper excited to show everyone my fabulous new city ;)

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow here for updates as we have them for you. The website will be growing as we move forward, and I’ll of course let you know all the important stuff here on the blog! Get excited!! It’s happening!!