Update

Since the new year has started I am back into the gym and been slowly increasing my running. Although it's more of a walk/run, I'm still running and it feels amazing. I have however only been running on a treadmill and it's not as fun as running outside, but weather here has been pretty cold. Plus I don't want to re-injure my knee, and with ice/snow out there, I don't want to take chances, so I'm playing it safe. I started off with a 1 minute walk and a 30 second light jog, repeating for 10 minutes. I have increased my run to 45 seconds, then 1 minute, and this past Thursday, I was still doing 1 minute walk with 1 minute light jog but for 15 minutes. This coming week, I'll try running for 1 minute and a half and see how that goes. I'm also making sure to weight train, and most importantly stretch and use the foam roller to help loosen muscles.

I have yet to sign up for the Ottawa race way weekend, which is every year in May. They have 5 km, 10 km, half and full marathons. I kept debating if I should do it this year, knowing the best one for me right now is only the 5 km, but then my cousin suggested something better. There's the foam fest in July, which looks like so much fun! It's 5 km, with obstacles in between, and she's wanting to do this with me, so I agreed. This way it gives me a few more months to get into better shape and my cousin is currently pregnant, she's due in May, and if she said she will be ready by July for this, I know I can to. So she signed us up as a 2 women team and I'm really excited to do this with her. It will be a great motivator to keep going with exercise and slowly increasing my running. Therefore I'm thinking next year I'll do the Ottawa race.

Another added motivation today, I ended up watching the movie Soul Surfer a while ago. In case you haven't seen it, I won't give to much away, but it is based off a true story and it's about a girl that loves to surf and in a really horrible accident looses her arm and it becomes all about her journey in getting back up. I do love watching it from time to time to remind me that some do have it harder and if they can do it, so can I. I really do recommend watching this movie, it's amazing!

I am in the kitchen every day and I have had meat here and there, but there's been a lot of vegetarian meals. I have a few healthy snacks prepared for the week and lots of vegetables as well. This coming Wednesday, my hubby and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary! It really has gone by so fast! Our plan for the special day is to make our own steak oscar at home. It's a lot cheaper then going out, and it will be nice to have a quiet dinner at home. I'm sure we will have some red wine with our dinner, and with the steak oscar, we will also have potatoes and asparagus. I'm really looking forward to it.

January is quickly coming to an end already. Time seems to be going by faster as the years go.
I do hope everyone had a great weekend.

Cookies!

This weekend I have gone into the kitchen and had lots of fun. I created a lot of snacks and meals for the week. Saturday morning I made some double chocolate chip cookies, but instead of just using spelt, I used a mix of spelt flour and buckwheat flour to switch it up a bit, and they still turned out just as good. The sugar of choice is coconut sugar with some maple syrup, making them healthier cookies. Today I got really busy into the kitchen and started the morning with getting chili into the slow cooker.

From what you can see from the picture, I diced up some celery (4 stalks), onion, and a yellow pepper, and I also added 3 cloves of garlic (minced). Usually I put 1 lb of ground bison and 3 cans of beans, but my hubby wanted more meat and a little less bean so decided to give it a try, and it turned out really good. So I put in 2 lbs of ground bison, and put 2 cans of beans instead of 3. I also put in some diced tomatoes, tomato paste (about 3 tbsp) and some spices/herbs, including a touch of salt and lots of pepper. It was a really good supper.

I also prepared two salads for my lunch this week, and prepared a potato salad. I took a break for lunch and watched one of my shows which is Rachael Ray talk show and she had a lady on her show talking about how great quinoa is, and I do have to agree. It's a great source of protein and has a lot of great nutrients. For a snack she prepared cookies, and I made some minor changes to her recipe, but they turned out delicious! Here's the recipe:

Dry ingredients:
1 cup of quinoa flakes (she used flour and oats)
A big handful of unsweetened coconut
A big handful of almonds, and another of pecans (can use any nuts/seeds you want)
A big handful of chocolate chips (you can put in dried fruit instead if you want, or just omit)

Wet ingredients:
1 mashed up banana
Apple sauce (I didn't have any, so all I did was use a fine grater and grated a small apple over the bowl, that way you get the juices as well)
2-3 tbsp of peanut butter (I used all natural peanut butter, and you can even use other nut butters)
Vanilla extract (I used one vanilla bean)

Mix dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Once they are well combined, add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix. I didn't really measure, other then the quinoa flakes. If there's to much liquid, add more dry and vice versa, and surprisingly I didn't need other, it was the perfect consistency to form cookies.

Then line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and form cookies (about a heaping tbsp per cookie), and bake in the oven at 350 for about 8 minutes. I tried one and they are absolutely delicious!

It was fun being in the kitchen, and now we have healthy snacks and meals on hand. Yesterday we went to a friend's place for supper, and she got two new cookbooks for Christmas, from the Pioneer Women. I checked out the cookbooks and they are really nice! Lots of wonderful pictures and so colorful, and of course great recipes. From the cookbook, my friend made the ranch chicken (not ranch sauce, just what she called it), we had twice baked potatoes and some green beans. It was really good! For desert she made a trifle with chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, cream cheese layer, and whip cream topped with a strawberry sauce that she made. It was so good! She gave us some to bring home and we enjoyed it as our desert tonight.

Although I had chicken yesterday and some bison tonight, the rest of my week was meat free and I haven't experienced any endometriosis pain which is great! Tomorrow I am back to meat free for most of the week again. I did make a potato salad with some bacon, and I know I will want some. Why I put bacon, because it's my favorite potato salad recipe, and I couldn't resist. I am looking forward to another great week, with healthy snacks on hand, and to lots more vegetarian meals.

Another new year

In 2014 I did have some struggles, but also had some really great things throughout the year. For this new year, I again will be working on making more great recipes, getting back into running, and just being as healthy as I can, and of course to have some fun. As I've shared, I have had many losses in my life the past 3 years, and I am still grieving, but I know they would want me to be happy.

Something I have started to do is drinking 2 green smoothies most days. Weekends it doesn't always work out, but I have done well during the week. I have a green smoothie for breakfast, and another for my mid morning snack. I make two different batches so I have different flavors and nutrients in them. I put a mix of greens, like spinach, kale and collard greens, sometimes I add a carrot, cucumber and/or celery, and I add some sweetness with fruit, and usually have either half or a full banana in there. As for superfoods, I go with chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, spirulina powder, wheat grass, ginger, bee pollen, maca powder, goji berries and acai. To add liquid to help blend it all up, I use coconut water and sometimes almond milk. Again, I add a mix of these, not everything together. I always have more greens then fruit, and for the superfoods, I usually add 2-4 different things.

I'm trying to eat more salads, and since it's winter, I love making soup, and I'm trying to eat as vegetarian as I can, to not aggravate my endometriosis. I had injured my knee over the summer, so I've been struggling with running, but I went to physio and it helped a lot. She showed me stretches and using a foam roller to help loosen my leg muscles which has helped decrease my knee pain a lot! I will be slowly building up my running, and so far so good. Not sure what this year will bring, but I'm hoping for a great year. I'll of course be sharing with you guys some of the things I'll be up to this year.

I do still have access to the FMTV website, and I haven't watched any documentaries lately, but I will watch more, to help motivate me, and I'm sure I'll learn so much more.

If anyone would like to know more about something, please let me know.

One year already

Its been one year already since I started this blog. I started by introducing myself and went on in sharing information and recipes. A new year has already started and I'm hoping for a better year. The last 3 years have been very challenging and I went through way to many losses. I'm still grieving the loss of my mom, grandmother and aunt but I do know they would want me to be happy and to take good care of myself.

For this year on my blog I would like to continue sharing more information especially when it comes to endometriosis. My knee injury is getting better and I will start running again but will take it slow to not re-injure my knee.

 I have been in the kitchen the past few days and I have made some heathly cookies, and made a delicious soup.

My soup was something I put together, I chopped up a sweet potato, some cauliflower, a large carrot, a leek, 2 garlic cloves, pepper, lentils (a handful) and a bit of mung beans as well with some vegetable broth. I let it boil for about 10 minutes and then let it sit till it was cooler. I then put it in a blender until smooth. Turned out really good.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and Happy New Year! Stay tuned for more information and recipes.