A December Goal Check-In

Hello and happy Waffle Wednesday friends!

I have a non-protein version to share with you today. Whipping up waffle/pancake batters are easy peasy. All you need is a flour-like substance, baking powder to fluff it up, egg to hold it together and a liquid to get the right consistency!

A Whole-Wheat Waffle For One:

• 6 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 stevia packet (if you like it sweet)
• 3 tbsp egg whites (double the recipe and use a whole egg)
• 1/3 cup almond milk

One waffle is 255 calories, 2g fat, 42g carbs, 4g fibre and 13g protein. Not bad for a decadent breakfast, no?

I topped mine with smoked salmon cream cheese, scrambled eggs and a drizzle of maple syrup.

My first time buying the Philadelphia smoked salmon cream cheese flavour and I really like it! It’s a great way to add that smoky flavour to things. It was a fabulous pairing with the waffle, eggs and syrup. Definitely a winning combo :)

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We are now officially halfway through the month of December. That means it’s time to check in on that December goal I set two weeks ago:

So instead, I am entering the month of December with one important goal. One that will take a lot concentrated effort to accomplish. Something I will have to nag myself about several times daily, but also help me end the month feeling like I’ve done a lot to better myself.

For me, December will be all about ending fat talk.

Ha. I can’t believe I just quoted myself :P

I wasn’t joking when I said this was a very important goal to me. That’s why I wanted to dedicate a whole post to it as a reminder to stick to it!

One thing I forgot to mention in the original post is that I don’t participate in fat talk vocally. For me, it’s all about the inner dialogue that is always going on in my brain.

I’ve never been one of those girls who turns to people and complains about my chubby tummy or most recent face breakout. But I am one of those girls who will look in the mirror and think to myself “Susan, you look awful today.”

These thoughts are not okay. I can exercise and eat as well as I want, but internally berating myself like this is probably the least healthy thing I could do.

After setting this goal two weeks ago, I made a concerted effort to tell myself I looked good every time I looked in the mirror. It wasn’t easy. It often felt contrived. But at least I was doing it and that was progress.

Towards the end of Week 1 I lost it. I forgot to consistently make the effort and I found myself looking down at my body and critiquing it.

In Week 2 I managed to snap out of it. I recognized that it would take more than just saying good things to myself. I had to do things that made me feel better too.

1. Wearing flattering clothing. My work uniforms are not flattering at all. This is a big contributing factor to my always thinking I look like poo. But I’m working on it! Wearing nice shirts underneath or cute jackets. My legs are my best quality, so showing them off in leggings or shorts at the gym.

2. Dressing up when I’m not at work. This is probably the opposite situation from most people. But I purposely have to dress down for my jobs. I essentially live in yoga pants. Mega comfy, but leaves me feeling like a shlump a lot. I don’t care if I’m overdressed on my days off – I wear my nice jeans, nice tops, do my hair and make-up. It leaves me feeling like a million bucks.

3. Eating fruits and veggies. Even when I’m chowing down on the world’s best pancake, surrounding it with snacks filled with fresh produce leave me feeling better about my indulgences. When I put good things in my body, I subsequently feel, well, good about my body!

4. Being active and not working out. Wearing a pedometer woke me up to the fact that while I may spend an hour working out 5 days a week, I don’t move my body much outside of those allotted 60 minutes. In the past two weeks I’ve been thinking more in terms of “what did I do to move my body today?” Sometimes it’s a sweaty cardio sesh, other times it’s a heavy lifting workout. But most of the time it’s walking, light elliptical, yoga. I feel better about my body when I move it consistency over the course of the day, rather than just killing it in one small chunk of time.

So that is where I’m at! Still a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. Especially seeing as I’m going home TOMORROW and will be facing a whole new set of challenges. I can already say I feel way better about myself than I did two weeks ago. This December goal couldn’t have come at a better time for me :)

 

Question of the Day:

1) How are you doing on your December goals?
2) What sort of things do you like to do to feel good about yourself?

Frankly Eatery, Frankly Delicious

Happy Waffle Wednesday!

Did you know I’ve been celebrating Waffle Wednesday for almost a year and a half now? Traditions like this one are just too good to give up.

Today’s waffle isn’t your typical sweet and fruity one. These days, I wake up wanted savoury. Eggs. Cheese. Bacon.

• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unflavoured soy protein powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 stevia packet
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 slices bacon, chopped (I use chicken bacon because it’s cheaper, not necessarily because healthier)

Cook your bacon in a frying pan while whisking together the other ingredients. Add the cooked bacon bits to the batter and waffle away!

I topped mine with low-fat Philadelphia spinach cream cheese. Again, not because it’s necessarily “healthier.” It was on sale. I like it!

Forget cupcakes, this is one manly waffle ;)

While we’re on the the topic of brunch foods, I have something I need to say.

Listen, I know I am biased, but I truly believe I live in the best brunch neighbourhood in Toronto.

Those of you living outside the tee-dot may not understand what a bold statement this really is.

I live in a city obsessed with brunch. Every single restaurant touts a special brunch menu. Line-ups spill into the streets on weekends between 10 and 2. In Toronto, a restaurant is only has good as its brunch.

In Leslieville, my ‘hood, you can throw a rock in any direction and hit a place that specializes in this holy meal. And me? I am a girl on a mission to try brunch at every one of them.

Which brings us to Frankly Eatery. A newer addition to the Queen East line-up, offering brunch classics with an Indian twist. Brunch is so overdone around here, I love the idea of fusing the traditional dishes with some cultural spice!

My roommie and I popped over after a Pilates class. Our abs were in pain, but our bellies hungry.

Our Pilates instructor (hi Sandra!) recommended their rice bowls. Megan went for the one on special: chicken in a tomato coconut sauce over rice.

I had a bite and it was gooooood. The sauce rich thanks to the coconut, but still light because of the tomato. Only mildly spicy so the flavours still stood out.

I however had eggs on the mind so I went with the Egg Bhuri.

Spicy Indian style scramble with onions, peas and tomatoes served w/ green salad and sliced baguette.

They asked me if I wanted it mild, medium or hot. After going back and forth, I opted for the mild, and happy I did! It was still spicy but without making me break into a sweat. Loved the peas and the amount of eggs I got. The greens were nicely dressed and I piled everything on top of the baguette slices.

The best part though?

My roommate, who doesn’t blog, but still takes pictures of her food. Everyone’s a closet food blogger ;)

Another one to cross off the Toronto restaurant list! And unlike last time, this local spot gets two thumbs up. One thumb for the awesome food, a second thumb for our waiter, who was wearing a Vandelay Industries t-shirt ;)

 

Question of the Day: What’s your favourite brunch item? Mine is the “Peggy’s Poached” from Cora’s. One egg on toast with cottage cheese and a plethora of fresh fruit. Oh yes, and multiple coffee refills. 

Cookie Dough Ballin’

Happy Waffle Wednesday!!! Best day of the week. After Saturday. And Sunday. And Friday. Of course.

Whatever, sometimes all it takes is a decadent breakfast to get me over the mid-week hump with a smile on my face.

The usual whole wheat protein waffle recipe base made sweeter with the addition of dates!

• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unflavoured soy protein powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 stevia packet
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 5 small honey dates, chopped

Dipped in a mix of Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Butter + Sugar-Free Syrup. Chased down with a giant mug of coffee!

The decadence didn’t stop there though. At 9:30am, I got started on a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Remember this cookie from San Francisco?

That would one of Annie the Baker’s chocolate chip cookies. Anyone who was at the Tasting Pavillion at the Foodbuzz Festival raved about these cookies. They tasted just like little balls of raw cookie dough. But without the salmonella.

It’s no surprise that a mass of food bloggers left that event swearing to make their own versions. Since then, “dough balls” have been popping up all over the internets. Mama Pea created her own vegan version. While it took Diana seven batches for success.

I decided on trying out Diana’s recipe since I already had the ingredients on hand:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 stick butter, softened/room-temp
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg (or flaxseed-egg)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda.
3. In a medium bowl, mix sugars and butter till creamy. (I used a handheld mixer, but you could probably just use a whisk). Add egg and vanilla and mix till combined.
4. Mix wet into the dry. Note: it will appear there is not enough liquid for the amount of dry ingredients, but continue mixing. It will form into a dough, it will just be a firm dough. See tips above for combining. Careful to not overmix.
5. Gently fold chocolate chips into the dough, without overmixing.
6. Refrigerate dough for at least 20 minutes before using a small sorbet scoop to scoop out dough into small mounds. Roll each mound into a ball and spread evenly on a baking sheet, leaving roughly 2-3 inches between each ball.
7. Bake balls for 10-14 minutes, depending on how set you want your centers. If you use egg, and you’re paranoid like me, you can use a meat thermometer to ensure the centers of the balls are at least 160 degrees F, which many web sites say is the safe temp to eat eggs.
8. Let your dough balls rest on the baking sheet to cool at least 5-10 minutes.
9. Enjoy!

I messed up the recipe almost immediately by throwing in the brown sugar with the flour. This makes the sugar clump up. But I don’t see anything wrong with an extra sugary bite.

Then I half melted my butter in the microwave because it wasn’t at room temperature. I didn’t bother using an electric mixer and the butter was clumpy too. But who’s against an extra buttery bite?

The mix itself was very dry. A lot more dry then normal cookie batter. I assume this is so it will maintain that cute ball shape after baking.

Don’t forget the chocolate!! Key ingredient. Make sure it’s of good quality.

Then, let the batter chill in your Miley Cirus decorated fridge.

And make inappropriate phrases with your “Romance Novel” magnets.

I let the dough chill for about 2 hours. Then rolled them into tablespoon shaped balls.

This is my favourite photo. There’s a Murphy nose in there!

After 12 minutes in my 350F oven, I deemed them baked!

Usually, I gobble up a sample immediately out of the oven. But I wanted to see if the texture really turned out like cookie dough. So I waited impatiently while they cooled.

I let the Jack Russell terrier take me out for a run. I tweeted. I baked a casserole.

Finally, the cookies were cool enough. The moment of truth…

Ohbaby. That’s one fiiiiiine looking chocolate chip cookie dough ball! Annie needn’t worry, us food bloggers won’t put her out of business. We just need a way to get through until next year’s Foodbuzz Festival, when I’ll be the first in line at her cookie booth. Special thanks to Diana for coming up with something to hold me over until then :)

 

Question of the Day: Okay blog friends. Give me your favourite cookie recipe. Write it out, link it up, let’s start a cookie collection for the holidays! I’ll sum them all up in a future post – including my own favourite cookie recipe!