More delicious food!

Since I had yesterday off, I took advantage of that time. I cleaned up the house, decorated for Christmas, and also made a banana bread with walnuts. It's been a little while since I made one and we both really love it! I also made guacamole, another favorite thing of ours to snack on.

Since it was black Friday as well I went to see if what I wanted was on sale, and unfortunately I was not successful in finding it on sale. I did find one a while back at a decent price and decided to go for it and bought it. As per the email I got, it's already shipped and should be delivered on Monday and I'm quite excited!

It's a medal hanger that goes on the wall. The top part is to put my bibs or photo's and then under that all my medals. I have them spread out on my bookcase and TV cabinet but it would be nice to display them well with this hanger. I did keep my bibs, not really sure why but glad I did cause I'll get to show them off as well.

Today I also got busy in the kitchen and I made these BBQ spiced nuts. The spices are from Epicure, they are new to the catalogue and there was 3 different kinds. I got one of each to try them out. Knowing my hubby would prefer the spiciness first, I decided to try them out. They turned out really good!

They will make a very good snack! To the right is some veggie muffin quiches. I sauteed some onion, mushrooms and spinach in a pan. I added some garlic, and for spices I added some smoked paprika, pizza seasoning from Epicure, turmeric and a tiny touch of salt and some pepper. I needed an egg white for the nuts so I put the egg yolk for the quiches. I added another 4 whole eggs, mixed in the cooled veggies and added two tbsp of nutritional yeast for more healthy goodness and it adds a cheesy flavor as well. I put them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. I haven't tried them yet but I'm sure they are delicious! They will be great for my lunch along with some vegetables and some banana bread as a dessert.

At the start of the week, our group at work went out for lunch at the Heart and Crown. They took off my favorite thing from their menu, the smoked salmon sandwich, so I had to find something else. When I saw the cod cakes I had to try them out, and glad I did cause it was delicious!!

So the two cod cakes were over some dill mashed potatoes, I had this sauce to go with the cakes which was very tasty, and some asparagus. It was a delicious lunch and glad it wasn't to much food.

Last weekend I made these

Carrot cake cookies from Joyous Health. I have made these before and they are so yummy! I don't add the raisins though cause hubby hates raisins, so I always add walnuts instead. These are nice and healthy, and so good! You can find the recipe here on her website. Hope you decide to try them cause they are very good!

Lentil Salad

I had a very busy weekend, but it was so much fun! I went with my dad and brother to Chatham to celebrate my aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary. It was a great turn out and wonderful to spend that time with family. I don't remember when was the last time we all got together and danced the night away, so it was a really great night! Since I have today off, I thought I would get a few things ready for the week and it started with a lentil salad.

In a pan I put 1 cup of lentils, and 1/4 cup of barley with 1.5 cups of vegetable broth and cooked it until tender. In a food processor I added half a red onion, 1 carrot, 1 clove of garlic and a bunch of cauliflower, I basically did a nice layer on top around the food processor.  I pulsed until it was small like rice and then I added it to the lentils/barley with a tsp of herb and garlic spice (Epicure). Once completely cooled I added a splash of basil olive oil (or put olive oil and fresh or dry basil), 2 splashes of apple cider vinegar, and 2 tbsp of honey mustard. I added a small dash of salt, some pepper and a half tsp of turmeric and mixed it all. I always eye ball, don't really measure, I taste and add more of whatever I feel is needed. I also took the time to put a bento box together for my lunch tomorrow

So I have my lentil salad, regular salad, a few slices of cucumber and some kimchi. I'm still trying to avoid meat as much as possible (except seafood) to avoid pain from endometriosis, and I'm also working on eating more vegetables since they are very healthy for us. This will be a delicious lunch and I can't wait to eat it!

Note that if you don't have Epicure spices, you can easily just add ground or minced garlic, some herbs of your choice, or omit it and just do a simple dressing that you really enjoy. 

I also did some baking today, and decided to have the Orange blueberry muffin tops from the Pioneer Woman. You can find the recipe here. I did make some minor changes to the recipe. I didn't have an orange to zest so I added some almond extract (about a tsp), and the only "milk" I have is almond milk so I used that instead of the buttermilk. Everything else was the same but instead of the juice of the orange, since I didn't have one, I added a bit of orange juice. They turned out great and will make a really great snack during the week. Her recipe says it makes 12 but I ended up with 18 of them. They are pretty big to so not sure why I had more but they are great and can't wait to eat them!

One thing I would like to do is try to come up with more interesting bento box lunches, keeping it healthy of course. I don't have to many ideas right now but I'm sure I will end up finding some.

Fall and soup

It's been a very long time since I have posted, so thought it was time I did. It's been quite busy with the mud girl run which I did with a bunch of ladies at work and my cousin. It was so much fun! I also prepared these two bento boxes at the end of August

I had made this lentil salad which was very tasty and up above is a chia pudding.

On a sad note, we had to put our kitty down about a week and a half ago (damn cancer!), and we still miss her so very much! She was an amazing cat! Tama was so friendly, cuddly and chatty

She will be greatly missed!!

Just after the long weekend (Thanksgiving), we headed up to Sudbury to spend some time with family/friends. The reason for the trip was to bury my mom's ashes. It's been over 6 years since she has passed away and I do still miss her very much! It was time though to have her buried in Sudbury so family and friends have a place to visit her as well. The service was really nice, and we all gathered for supper at our favorite spot in Hanmer. Then 4 cousins and I drove off to Sturgeon to do a haunted walk through a corn maze and haunted house. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of screaming, well most of us did lol   

It's been a busy weekend with working some extra time at work, spending some time with a friend to celebrate her birthday, and today been doing some house cleaning and of course spending time in the kitchen. Here's what I made:

It's a Carrot ginger soup that I made from Gwyneth's cookbook. I have had her cookbook for a while but decided to take it out again. Last weekend I tried her recipe of carbonara, and it was delicious! This soup was also amazing! We enjoyed it for lunch, and I have some left to bring for my lunch. It has a nice quick to it with the ginger and spices but nothing crazy. It has cumin, oregano and garam Marsala. This soup will be a must make again! There's more recipes in her book that I haven't tried yet but would like to at some point.

I also have stew cooking up in my cast iron pot. The house smells so good right now! I am still mostly following my endometriosis diet, but I am including meat here and there. I do love the taste of meat, so it's a once in a while treat to avoid pain. So far meat free today so the stew will be a great treat, and hubby can enjoy some left overs for his lunch.

I think I may be coming down with a head cold, I haven't been feeling that great all day, so the soup was great, and glad I have more to eat up. Hoping the ginger helps me feel better.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Desserts!!!

It's been a great long weekend for me. I had Friday off, so I got the chance to clean up the house and I even went shopping for a new computer chair and found one. Ours are falling apart so we needed new chairs. He will be buying his online. I got a chair similar to the one I have at work, it's mesh so it's nice and breathable. What made the weekend even better is a really good friend of mine from high school came to visit along with her daughter. It was a short visit but long enough for us to catch up.

I wish I would have taken a photo of our supper but I cooked an entire chicken on the bbq. The breast bone was removed so it was flat for it take less longer to cook. I also added potatoes on the bbq in foil packets with a bit of butter, onions and the 3 onion seasoning from Epicure. We had a delicious Greek salad with that. The chicken had Jamaican jerk spice on it. Dessert was Joyous Health's double chocolate muffins which you can find the recipe here. The only thing I didn't add was the cranberries, I added a bit more chocolate chips instead.

To help digest our supper we went for a nice hour and a half walk outside. Started off on the side streets, we hit a small trail along the way, and ended up close to where I work and then back down more side streets. It was such a beautiful evening! In the morning I made my mom's famous pancake recipe. It calls for apples but we often added blueberries instead and that's what we went with. I haven't made her recipe in a while and I have missed how good they taste! Not long after they had to leave, to visit another friend and then head home, so I took some time to do things around the house. I also made a potato salad. I cooked my potatoes in the oven with some bacon, I chopped up green onions, radishes and celery to also add in. I mixed it with some grainy dijon mustard, lots of mayo, some pepper, paprika and cumin.

Today I also got busy in the kitchen and been really wanting to share this book that I got for my birthday from my brother and sister in law. It's an amazing book!

So the nice cream I made was with 2 frozen bananas, 1/4 cup of peanut butter, I used all natural, and a tsp of vanilla extract and I added the suggestion as well which was 1 tbsp of dark chocolate chips. Add everything in a food processor and mix. I had to scrap and separate the mound a few times but then it became just like soft ice cream and it was delicious!! They have so many more great recipes in this book and it's a great way to have ice cream without the dairy, which hubby and I don't do so well with. This was a great little treat as an afternoon snack. That's the portion it made so I divided it in two.

I also found this recipe online, through facebook, and it's this flour-less peanut butter and chocolate chip mini muffin and you can find the recipe here. They turned out great

The recipe says it makes 17 mini muffins but I ended up with 22 of them. It was so simple to make and they are good! Took no time at all also.

Now I'm all set in snacks for the week cause we also have some banana bread. Supper tonight will be chicken with some of the potato salad that I made and will saute some veggies.

As always, the weekend goes by to fast. Another thing I did yesterday was do some weight exercises. Felt good to get back into it. I kept it light so I'm not to sore today and I am not which is nice. Now time for me to enjoy the ending the of the day before starting another work week. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Obsessed with lunch containers

I did some shopping over the weekend with some friends and we went into this organizing type store. They had all sorts of great things to help keep things more organized, and they had this sale on all sorts of lunch containers. Here's what I bought

The green ones is for salads, so the green part with the three dividers and then the small container in the middle can be frozen to help keep everything cold. So this is for salad. The picture they had was to put salad at the bottom (white container), some more vegetables in the dividers, but I'm thinking you can put nuts, fruit, whatever you want in those, and then your dressing in the white little container.

The blue one, you see white and blue, that's for your yogurt, but I'm thinking more chia pudding. It can be frozen as well to keep the container nice and cold, and the lighter blue in front you can add granola, nuts/seeds, fruit whatever you want to add. This way your granola stays nice and crunchy.

I'm quite excited to use these, just like I was excited when I got my bento boxes. It's a great way to pack up a lunch, and with the lunch bag I got for my birthday from my brother and sister in law, it will all help keep my lunch cold.

After shopping around, my friend and I went to this fancy restaurant near her place. It was really good. We shared the main cause it was to much food, well we got a side of potatoes so we both had a good amount of that, and the rest was divided

The ribs were amazing! They were just fall off the bone, and the veggies were roasted zucchini, pepper and beets. Yum!!  The potatoes were amazing! They had some bacon in there and cheese and double baked. There garlic bread that they also give everyone was absolutely delicious!! We decided to share this lemon, blueberry cheesecake and it was also delicious!!

On the left is roasted marshmallows. Yum!!! In the morning and part of the afternoon I had to do some overtime at work. The nice thing is that I won't feel so stressed on Monday cause it really helped me catch up. So the shopping with friends and delicious supper was a great way to end the day.

Friday night was great to. A friend came over and he and I cooked up a delicious supper. He brought over some really huge steaks, I wish I would have taken a picture of our supper but the marinade he prepared for them (olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper) was perfect! We let them rest in there a while and got baked potatoes ready and on the BBQ to start cooking. He took care of most of the food on the BBQ, and I prepared a side salad for us. Supper was amazing! Ate to much but it was so good!!

Today has been another busy day. Been working on some laundry, and I baked up a banana bread. I also started a new batch of kombucha. It's been a while since I have made some so it was time! I attempted to go through some of my mom's clothes as well, and I did decide what I want to keep and there's a few that don't fit me well but they ended up back were they were. I thought I could do this but it's really, really hard. I will keep trying to, so that I can offer the things I won't be keeping to family but for now I did enough for today. I do want to keep working on de-cluttering and organizing my things and I know I will get there.

Well it's soon time for supper, so I hope everyone is have a wonderful weekend!

Spartan!!

So I accomplished a Spartan race!!  Although not really a race, it took my friend and I, 4 hours and 44 seconds to accomplish it. Online they say 13 km but a few people with watches to track, said it was 14 km. Here's a few photos that I was able to get online cause there was no carrying anything on you with getting wet and dirty

So to the left I'm carrying a 30ish pound bag that I had to walk up and then down a hill. To the right, yup a bit of swimming. It wasn't to far but this is towards the end. And here is the start

Yes that hill you see off in the back, is what we had to climb, then we had to walk back down and repeat a few more times. We were not expecting to walk up and down such a steep hill, so my quads were so sore for a few days!!  Even my feet hurt cause it was just as hard going down cause it was so steep that you had to be careful. At one point we were walking through a trail which had a lot of rocks and tree roots so it was quite the bumpy hike in the woods, which also included a lot of hills. We had many walls to climb up and over and back down, we had to crawl under a barb wire, there were a few monkey bars type set up, and even walls that you have to walk along with either just upper body strength or on very little feet and hand grips. Also a few more heavy objects to carry, one was a container that was awkward to hold, and it was about 35 pounds, again up and down a hill, and the other was a 60 pound cement ball to walk across the grass, drop it, do 5 burpees, then lift it back up and walk it back. If you didn't do an obstacle or couldn't accomplish it you were doing 30 burpees. It was tough!!!  I am so proud of us for accomplishing it though!!!

The medal is amazing! It's heavy and it's got two parts to it. We also got a t-shirt at the end as well

Samantha is the only one that took a selfie of both of us at the start, which I'll have to ask her to send me a copy of that. I do also have some of her photos online since a few of them include both of us in it, but don't want to post those in case she doesn't want them posted on here.

It was a lot of fun, but also very tough! Happy to say that I did accomplish a spartan race! It's a very good challenge, a way to really push yourself, and an insane workout! Would I do another? I think I may but I will need to train harder next time because I was very sore for several days. I also did get a few bruises, and tiny scrapes, mostly on my knees from crawling, and I got a really big bruise under my right arm, and a smaller one under my left, my left elbow was also bruised up, and I have this really big bruise on the right side of my left knee, and another light one on my shin. No big injuries which is a good thing. I will keep working out, which I really do need to keep up with weight training to help me get stronger instead of only doing mostly cardio.

I haven't done to much cooking lately, just the usual, but I do want to try to make more new things, and I am also wanting to plan ahead for lunches, so it's easy for us to grab in the morning instead of spending time in the morning figure out our lunch. A while ago I did make a stir fry with chicken for 2 lunches. I had cooked some quinoa with lentils so I used that for the rice portion, and I cooked up the chicken and veggies in a pan in the oven, and did a teriyaki sauce with it. I do need to get more groceries cause we don't have a whole lot at home. For supper I plan to make pasta with ground turkey, tomato sauce and also add in some pesto for a nice basil flavor to the sauce. I don't even have much veggies right now so I'll add in some carrots, onions, and I think I'll do spinach since I don't have much else on hand.

We went out of town over the long weekend. Left Friday afternoon and came back late last night. Giving us some time today at home to get some things done before starting work again tomorrow.

Will try to post more recipes soon

Training and in the kitchen

Now that the half marathon has come and gone, now it's time to train for Spartan which is at the end of July. I'm varying my workouts more so I can handle different obstacles for the 13 km race with 25 obstacles in between. This week I started the Liift4 workout from beachbody. It's tough and exactly what I need. It has a mix of lifting weights, cardio and core exercises. The cardio part is a variety of things like running with your knees up, doing mountain climbers and a bunch more tough moves. I'm also going to add some running, spinning, and walking. I do play baseball as well so it's a pretty good mix of exercises.

Today I ran 3 km and then did the 4th workout of Liift4 for the week. It is 4 workouts each week for about 30-40 minutes. Today was legs and core, so I will feel that later!

Last weekend we went home to Sudbury to celebrate 3 birthdays. So when we showed up Friday around 3 pm, we hung out for a while and then went out to celebrate 2 birthdays since it was that night for both, and we went to Milestones. We shared their bruchetta

Yes there's one missing cause I grabbed one right away and then thought oh I should take a picture lol. It was delicious!! I had a chicken dish with mushrooms and a white sauce. It was really good! We got some dessert to.

The next day I got to do some shopping with the girls and we went to check out a yard sale downtown. They closed a street and there was a lot of people! We went to Chapters after for a while, went to lunch at Kelsey's and then I hung out with my cousin for a while and then went to the birthday party. It was a good turn out, and the cakes were delicious!

It was a great day! We had a BBQ, burgers, and hot dogs, with different salads, and there were games. The kids had a bouncy castle to play in, they set up a few games, and there was texas horseshoes, and some other game that I don't know what it's called.

Later at night we got a fire going, but there weren't many people left and we didn't stay to late. The mosquitoes were really bad!









On the way to Sudbury we also got to see this guy

The week was busy, and I went to the health food store the other day in hopes I can get more hazzlefluff from the veg fest, but unfortunately they didn't have any. I did find some delicious crackers to go with my vegan and dairy free dip, and also decided to buy some kimchi. If you don't know what that is, it's fermented vegetables, which tends to be with cabbage. Never tried it before until my brother pointed it out when we were together for lunch at sushi. It was spicy and different so took a bit of getting use to but I do like it. The one I bought is also spicy, but here's the bento box I put together for my delicious lunch on Friday

So top left is the crackers which you can see the bag there on the right. They are tasty and completely healthy! Next to the crackers is the dip, then some ham, and under some cucumbers and carrot, which the carrots I enjoyed with some of the dip as well, and then my kimchi. It was such a tasty lunch!

Yesterday was more of a relaxed day and now that my workout is done, I will get busy in the kitchen. I want to prepare a dip, chop up some veggies and cook up some fish to make more bento box lunches this week.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Half Marathon and Veg Fest

My half marathon went really well. We didn't hit our goal time which was under 2 hours and a half but we came close. Here I am at the start of the race

I finished in 2 hours, 36 minutes and 53 seconds. Samantha finished about a minute and a half faster then I did

Very proud of us! It was a beautiful day, and it was tough but we made it!

The medal is really nice! The center (Parliament) does spin. Happy that I have finally done the Ottawa Race! We went to an Italian restaurant after, close by and it was nice to sit and relax. My quads were sore for a few days, so I have been taking it easy this week.

Yesterday I did have a great time with 2 friends at the Veg Fest at the RA center. It wasn't huge but it was a good turn out. I got to try some really good vegan food! I of course bought a few things

The muffins I made today, they are the caramel sticky buns. I am pretty sure I shared the recipe a few posts ago, they are so good! It's with lots of eggs and some coconut flour, coconut oil and maple syrup. The topping has some cinnamon and walnuts. So to the right is Blue pomegranate kombucha and I also bought a beet lemonade one as well. I love the glass jars they came in. On the blue lid is a hazelnut chocolate mousse, to the left of that is a carrot caramel. I haven't tried the caramel yet but looking forward to it. I also fell in love with Le Grand, they make "yogurt", dips and pesto's that are so yummy! I think the yogurt was made with almond milk instead of cow milk. The dips, which I got two of the chive and onion is dairy free as well and so delicious! All natural and healthy ingredients. Apparently they sell them at Costco but not their yogurt yet. I may have to make more trips to Costco with my dad so I can get more cause it is really good! The pesto I got tastes just like eating fresh basil! It's so good!!!! The chimichury is also very tasty! I also bought a chocolate cupcake from another vendor there, which I also bought the caramel from and it was really good. I only had a bite of it, and hubby had the rest. I wanted to get him something from the event since he didn't come. It was a great girls day out though. We went to eat at Lonestar after, then walked around and shopped a bit. Got home in time for supper and relax. I also had the opportunity to donate for animal rescues. I am always happy to help animals.

It's been a nice weekend although today it's rainy and gloomy. I have been relaxing at home and giving me a chance to spend time in the kitchen. I boiled a few eggs as well, and I was going to make some homemade crackers but I noticed I have some healthy ones in my cupboard that are going to expire soon so I will eat those up first. After my race last weekend, my dad and I went by the market, I needed to buy some potatoes and my dad decided to buy some homemade bread. She offered him to buy a second one for only $2 so he did, and he gave me one. I did get the chance to eat some and it's really good bread! Thinking maybe to make an egg salad sandwich with the eggs I boiled and with the fresh bread as well. Will make a good lunch. I do plan on doing bento boxes with the dip and crackers, and of course I'll pack up a muffin and some vegetables. Looking forward to lunches this week. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

I have my herb garden back!

Today was my Friday off work, and so glad that it was! It was a great day! Hubby took it off as well so we got to sleep in a bit, had breakfast and relaxed and then I decided to tidy up a little and got ready and I headed downtown to meet up with a friend. It was lunch time so we walked over to Mad Radish. It's really healthy there and it's a nice little place. There's not a tone of tables but there's a few and we got lucky with the two remaining seats so we can eat. We got their already prepared salad, it's nice and small so we can then get their chicken shawarma pie which isn't to big either

The drink is a smoothie, mine was almond milk, banana, peanut butter and can't remember if there's anything else but it was really good! It was a good amount of food. She got the same as I did but she had the berry smoothie which she said was really good as well. The salad was with tofu, greens, chickpeas, and a vinaigrette.

We then walked over to the Shaw Center so I can get my race kit. I got a bag with my t-shirt, bib which has the chip attached to it and of course pins so I can pin it to my shirt. I also got a gift card to hello fresh. Since the bag went nicely behind my back and we were next to the canal, we went for a nice hour walk! It was a beautiful day out today! The walk was really great and then I got to pick up my herbs in the market. I also grabbed some carrots and radishes. I would have liked to get more but I already have enough veg in my fridge but next time I do want to buy a lot. I came home, had supper and then was busy putting my herb garden together

The top photo is my chives. In the background is my plant that smells like lemons, then the bottom photo I got basil, thyme, mint, rosemary, dill, parley and cilantro. They aren't to big right now but once they do start growing it's going to be amazing to have them on hand. Really excited and happy to have my herbs again, and I got a good deal, well I think anyway, I got 9 herbs for $20, and it's something that will last me until weather gets cold. My chives look big cause I got two of them. One didn't seem like enough.

Now that I have had a busy and wonderful day, it's time to relax! I do have my race Sunday so rest is important so I'm in top shape for the half marathon. Oh I also had another wonderful bento box lunch this week

So top left is green beans, carrots and cucumber, the last two cucumbers I cut didn't fit so I put them on top of my coleslaw, which is a kale, carrot and broccoli slaw, and the top right is shrimp that I had cooked on the BBQ and then under that, one of the balls I made from my last post and two raw balls. It was a very tasty lunch. It's a pretty simple bento box but was still really good.

My next post will be about my half marathon that I'm doing with a friend in 2 days. I really do hope we reach our goal time of under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Wish us luck and I'll tell you all about it soon!

No bake balls

I love it when I have a long weekend, I always get more done and also more time to relax before starting a new work week. Yesterday I watched a few cooking shows and it gave me an idea on something to make for a dessert/snack, and luckily I was off to do groceries so I can get what I need to make them. We went to a friend's place for supper yesterday as well and she bought me this for my birthday

I'm so excited to check it out. I only glanced at it really quickly but I saw a lot of delicious looking pictures. I will have a closer look and I do want to try some recipes. She is on the food network, and when I discovered her cooking show I fell in love with her show. She has some great ideas on twists for recipes and she makes some really amazing food!

It was a beautiful day yesterday so we sat outside to eat supper which was a delicious burger with all the fixings and a potato salad. For dessert she made an amazing key lime pie from scratch, courtesy of a recipe from Ricardo. It was so delicious!! I didn't think to take a picture of it, but I do want the recipe! She also had me try this drink she made, which was also very tasty! It was simple syrup, so 3/4 cup sugar with 3/4 cup water and then some lime juice and a lot of water, I think she said 10 cups of water. It wasn't sweet, it was just a nice refreshing drink, which I plan to make as well.

Today I did try my dessert/snack idea that I got from the pioneer woman but I made it healthier, so in this saucepan

I mixed up 1/2 cup each of coconut sugar, maple syrup and all natural peanut butter with a splash of vanilla extract and melted it all together, which didn't take long. I took it off the heat and in a bowl I mixed in some homemade granola that I made from a recipe I got from Ricardo and you can find the recipe here. Then added about 1/4 cup of hemp seeds, about a cup of the granola I made with a cup of nature's path brown rice crisp. I also added about 1/4 cup of dried cherries and half a small bag of dark chocolate chips 71%.

I rolled them into balls, and I put a layer of parchment so I can add more on top and put them in the fridge for about 2 hours so they can firm up. I tried one a little while ago and they are delicious! Maybe a bit to sweet for my liking, I think because the granola also has maple syrup, so I may try either cutting back on the maple syrup or try a different granola recipe or just mix in some nuts/seeds instead of granola. They are very good though! I did use natural peanut butter cause with the coconut sugar and maple syrup it was sweet enough. With natural peanut butter the only ingredient is roasted peanuts, instead of the one you find in store with added sugar.

I was tempted to make more caramel sticky buns but my fridge is on the full side and we do have quite a bit of no bake balls. Plus I did also make some guacamole that we can snack on with salsa and some chips.

So there's exactly 1 week left until my friend and I are running the half marathon. Part of me doesn't feel ready but I'm sure we will do great. I ran 10 km on Friday after work and I plan to run 5 km tomorrow and do some lunges and stuff for a great leg workout, including core exercises. Baseball season has arrived and I play Wednesday and Thursday so I'll get more running done there. Then it's all about allowing my legs to rest up Friday and Saturday so they aren't tired for race day. I get to pick up my race kit between Thursday and Saturday, which is exciting! I'll be sure to take some pictures and let you know how we do.

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!

Running and Endometriosis

This past weekend I wanted to get another long run in, but not quite to long, cause race day is in a little less then 2 weeks so I don't want to tire out my legs for race day

When I did an 18 km run with my friend that I'm doing the race with, we went down this path, and I wasn't sure how safe it would be to go down on my own but when we went I noticed houses and there were a few people going down this path and I even saw one girl on her own so thought I would go on my own and it was great! It leads to Merivale Road so I had to go down the side walk for a bit to reach 5 km and then I turned around. I went once around my street and then called it quits. I wanted to do 14 km but with playing baseball twice last week, and doing a 5 km run my legs were feeling tired so I stopped at 11 km. My time wasn't good at all but I got through the run and I'm proud of that.

This coming weekend I will only run 10 km so that my legs are in top shape for the following weekend. I'm suppose to play baseball tomorrow but with all this rain, not sure if they will cancel the game or not. I will be running 5 km tonight though. Next week I play Wednesday and Thursday for baseball so I'm thinking running 5 km on Monday, and then the two games of baseball and then rest up for race day on Sunday. It's coming quick and I'm excited but also nervous. I hope to get a good time in and hopefully not to sore at the end.

I mentioned a few posts ago that my endometriosis pain is back. Today I went to get an ultrasound done and saw my gynecologist. He said nothing serious going on in there in terms of the ultrasound which is a good thing and rather then going for surgery again, he's suggesting meds first to see if it helps. I have tried a few different things way back when and most of them didn't really help but apparently there's something new for the endo world to help with pain so he wants me to try it out. It's one pill a day to help with pain. It's called Visanne. I of course had to do some research to know more about this and here's what I found:

Visanne is used for the treatment of the painful symptoms of endometrial lesions (displaced tissue of the lining of the womb). Taking one Visanne tablet every day leads to the shrinking of the endometrial tissue and reduces associated complaints such as pelvic pain and painful monthly bleedings.

There's quite the list of side effects but from what I read there's not many people that get any side effects. The most common side effect in people that my doctor told me is spotting which is one thing I don't have to worry about. If you want to read about the side effects, you can check out this site.

I'll give it a try and I'm hoping it will help keep pain away and hopefully no side effects for me. I see my doctor again in a few months to see how things are going. I will be sure to keep you guys in the loop as well.

For the kitchen, I haven't done much this week. Just did another batch of kombucha and that's about it. This coming long weekend I'm thinking to get busy in the kitchen, just haven't decided what I'll make yet. For my birthday I did get a book on nice cream, but it hasn't been warm enough outside yet for me to crave some sort of ice cream. I hope it does get warmer soon so I can give it a try. I know I could still make some even though it's not warm out but not really hungry for any right now. I'll save it for when I really want some. I do have some frozen bananas in my freezer waiting. Hopefully I will have a delicious recipe to share on my next blog post.

One Part Plant

Last weekend my friend came over on the Sunday and we went for a nice long run outside, 18 km. It was a beautiful day, and we got to run along the trail close by. It wasn't quite long enough so we ran till we couldn't any longer and then turned around and ran back. It's such a beautiful trail with so many great trees around. We each had our music and we did really well. Once we were out of the trail we were still doing well so I took her to another one close by to finish our 18 km run. At about 12.5 km in, I needed a bit of a walking break. The tiredness was kicking in and it was nice to walk for a bit, but it was hard to start up again. We got to 14 km and then turned around to make our way back to my place. Both of us were really starting to feel it, just sore in the legs/feet and tired but we made the 18 km!

Come race day I'm sure we will do fine, yes tired and sore still at the end but we will have a lot of people around us to motivate us to keep going and I haven't had the feeling in a while but that feeling is amazing at the end on I have done it! I have never done the Ottawa Race weekend so I'm excited to be there. We stretched after our run and I made some really great tasting smoothies with lots of spinach, one banana, two scoops of Vega Vanilla protein powder, some cherries and almond milk. They turned out delicious and a great way to re-fuel after such a long run. Before she went home I sent her off with a few muffins that I made, they are vegan and really good!

A friend of mine from work shared this cookbook with me

She found out that I have endometriosis and ended up seeing this book and told me about it. I read about it and it caught my interest. Since my birthday was coming up and my dad asked me for gift ideas I made sure to include this book and he did buy it for me. I already read through it. She only does a shout out to endometriosis and explains her journey into one part plant. It's a good read and the recipes look amazing! When I saw the recipe for these vegan muffins I wanted to give them a try.

They turned out great! It's with chickpea and brown rice flour. They aren't a really sweet muffin but they are still tasty. The chickpea flour makes them a little more doughy but I really like them.

Above is also a picture of a potato salad that I made. I did shaved carrot, celery sliced, green onion, I roasted the potatoes in the oven and to cut back on the mayo I added in an avocado and put in some lime juice to help stop the avocado from browning. For spices I put in some dill, paprika and pepper and a touch of salt. It was really good!

Tuesday we had a date night, we ended up going to Kelsey's for supper and then went to the movies to see End Game. I was craving a burger and I could have gone veggie patty but I was really hungry for a beef patty

It was really good! He had the fish burger, which he did enjoy. That would have been another great option for me to help avoid endo pain but I just really wanted a true burger and I did enjoy every bite.

This weekend I've kept really busy. I had Friday off as my compress day off, so I cleaned up the house and went for a 10 km run. Last weekend was tough so I don't want to over do it in training so I only did 10 km. Yesterday I had borrowed my dad's carpet cleaner so I got that done with the help of my hubby to empty out the living room. I did a major clean up in there which it really needed it. I guess part of some spring cleaning. I also got busy in the kitchen and tried a recipe that a friend sent me, they are banana muffin cookies. I made them slightly different, I still stuck to the white flour but instead of white sugar I went for coconut sugar. They turned out great! I also made our favorite muffins, made with lots of eggs and some coconut flour. I have made them many times and will keep making them from time to time. Hubby requested it and since I had the ingredients, I made them. I had to wait for the carpet to dry so great opportunity to spend time in the kitchen.

As of tomorrow though, I want to be on an cleanse, my own version of a cleanse. I will keep things on the light side this week. Breakfast will be a smoothie with almond milk, lots of greens, some fruit, vegan protein powder and some chia seeds. Snack will be a drink that I'll put together with coconut water, lots of greens and a little fruit. Lunch will be salad with salmon or shrimp, and supper will be a miso soup with a lot of veggies. I haven't been eating as healthy and I feel like I could use a bit of a detox and then I'll get back to my endo diet. Doesn't mean I won't have a treat here and there but I do want to get back on track. As her book above states it's all about at least having one plant meal each day. Race day is coming, and we did sign up for Spartan and thinking to sign up for a full marathon to so I want to be nice and healthy which also means more energy and a lot less pain. Which my endo pain still comes up here and there but when I did cut back on meat and cheese my pain went away a lot, so before things get bad again it's time to cut back. I do try to stick to more gluten free as well.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, especially since it's beautiful out there! I went out this morning for a 5 km run and it was so great! I'm into a new book now, Let it go by Peter Walsh. It's all about de-cluttering and how to do that when there are items that are very emotional. A friend of mine told me about it and I do have a lot of my mom's things, along with a lot of my own stuff, therefore I thought I would read through it and see if it will help me.

Running in April

It's been a busy month of April. It's the time of year where there's a lot of birthday's and with Easter this weekend it's been busy. I did manage to run 18 km a few weeks ago, and here's the proof

I was so exhausted and sore, but it was a great accomplishment. It's been a while since I have ran that far. My hubby asked me if I could have ran 3 more km's to make it to my half, and my answer was no lol. I still need more time to get to that point, but I know when it comes to the day of the race, I will have a lot of adrenaline going cause I'll be surrounded by lots of runners and people cheering us along the way, including running next to a really good friend of mine. She is like 20 years younger then I am so I know she will have more energy then me, but it will be great to do this with her. We ran together last Thursday but we only did 10 km, which was enough for me since it wasn't a nice day out so we ran on the treadmill at the gym near by. It was way to hot in there so that made it more of a challenge.

I did take a few more photos of my outdoor run the week before, and I went to check out a trail, just went for a little part of it to check it out. The plan is for her and I to go running along there together for more training before race day

The top one is along Woodroffe and the bottom one is the trail by the horses. It really was a pretty good trail. Some wet spots but otherwise pretty nice. Hopefully next time we get together we will get to run along here. I have gone fairly far down this trail before with a good friend from out of town, but we were walking so we didn't go that far into the trail, but further then I have been. It's quite secluded so I don't feel to safe running along there by myself.

There was another time I had to run on my treadmill, just a 5 km run, and I got my kitty that came over to keep me company.

Don't mind the mess in the background, our workout area is in our unfinished basement. It's a good workout area though and it was nice that she came to sit close by and watch.

This long weekend was wonderful! Not only is it Easter, but it was also my birthday. I had Thursday off as well so I had the time to clean up the house and catch up on laundry, and do my long run, so that I can enjoy my long weekend. Friday for my birthday we went to see my mother in law. We had supper there, and played some cards. Saturday I had the family over for brunch. Food was delicious, everyone brought something, and there is a lot of left overs. It was nice to hang out and my oldest niece had a great idea to surprise her sister, so the three of us hung out downtown after everyone else left, and we went to do an escape room

We didn't have much time left on the clock but we did escape! We went out for supper after this at Montana's and here's my supper

It was delicious! I have been eating quite a bit of meat and cheese this long weekend and I will suffer for it, but it was so good! I love steak! We went to Chapters after that and then back to my place to watch a movie. They slept over and in the morning we had some blueberry pancakes and watched another movie.

My niece is headed off to NB, so it was nice doing another girls night before she leaves. She did also enjoy her surprise girls night.

Well time for me to get ready to go pick up my dad, and we are headed out to pick up my brother at work for our weekly lunch get together. It's been an amazing long weekend, and sad it's coming to an end. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Endometriosis and nutrition

It's been a busy two weeks which is why I haven't blogged in a while. My endometriosis pain  has been making an appearance more and more lately so I have decided it's time to get back on track with avoiding the foods that trigger more pain. Those foods are meat (chicken, turkey, pork, and beef), dairy and gluten. Last weekend I made a salad for my lunch. I found the recipe on Joyous Health

It's a roasted Cauliflower salad, but I added in some cooked lentils and quinoa to have protein in there. I did two 1/4 cup of lentils and 1/4 cup of quinoa cooked in water. The only other change I did was that I put some walnuts instead of Pecans. I thought I had some on hand but I didn't. This salad was very tasty!

For my breakfast I decided to try her coconut flour banana pancakes found here on her site. These were also delicious!

The texture is a bit grainy I think cause of the coconut flour, but they were still really good.

Since I have been training for my half marathon I also decided that I was way overdo for some new running shoes, which my hubby agreed to buy me as an early birthday gift. I bought these at the running room

For some reason I tend to reach for Nike when I buy runners, and these were very pretty as well. Unfortunately they didn't work out. Thankfully they offer to return the runners if they don't work, as long as I don't wear them outside, which I did not. I tried two 5k on the treadmill and my feet would cramp up cause it seemed like there was extra padding at the heel therefore my heel wouldn't fit snugly in there so my heel would lift up a bit while I ran causing cramping so I brought them back and tried a few of them and came out with these

These are Asics, and they provide a lot of support and they work well. I have tried a 5 km with them on my treadmill and no issues. I then ran 8 km on my treadmill then switched over to the old ones cause the new ones were causing blister type feeling cause I need to break them in a bit more before I do a longer run with them. Here's me at the end of the 15 km run I did last Friday

It was again tough cause it was on the treadmill but my hubby found a video online with a run through London, and then it would automatically start another run through a trail so worked out well. I also did 10's and 1's to help me get through the long run. For those non-runners, that means I ran for 10 minutes then walked for 1 minute the entire way. Towards the end I was having a bit more of a hard time but I accomplished my 15 km run. It took me 1 hour, 47 minutes and 23 seconds. Not my best time but I'm working on it. I still have about 2 months left to train.

I was also not so lucky this weekend, Saturday morning I was hit with very intense endometriosis pain. It started off minimal and it gradually got worse. I was in so much pain that it did bring tears to my eyes. I took out my trusty heating pad and it helped. After a few hours I was able to function again but my stomach was very weak and sensitive. Meaning I couldn't push hard on my stomach cause it hurt and I also had to be careful the way I moved. I haven't experienced this much pain in many years. About 11 years ago I got the major surgery, a hysterectomy, and it was the best decision ever cause I was covered in endometriosis. This helped take away all the pain for so long. My doctor made a good decision and left one of my ovaries in order to avoid me from having to take hormone pills which can be tricky to figure out the right dosage. He said since I'm young, he didn't want me to go through that, so he took away as much endo as he could for that ovary, but just living a tiny spec of endo causes it to keep growing and getting bigger. He said hopefully I'll be ok until I hit menopause but unfortunately pain is back. Still don't regret the decision and I am quite knowledgeable in endo so I'm sure I'll be ok.

So my goal is to stick to a meat free, gluten free and dairy free diet to help lessen the pain. There's something in these foods that cause inflammation, therefore making pain worse. I will be working on eating anti-inflammatory foods to help me, like ginger, turmeric, fish, and more. It means a healthy eating plan for me, which is a good thing. It will help me feel healthier and stronger. The huge amount of pain I got was different from before so I plan on seeing my gynecologist, to see if he knows what that was about, to avoid that from happening again. I'll be sure to mention the pain is back to see what he recommends. I know he said I could go for a laparoscopy surgery if needed, but not sure I want to do one yet. I want to try eating healthy to see how things work out. Maybe I can make it till I hit menopause so I don't have to do surgery again.

So I of course got into my kitchen again and prepared another healthy lunch. I got the idea from a friend at work.

I again cooked up some lentil, 1/4 cup, with 1/4 cup quinoa, but this time I also added 1/4 cup of barley. Barley does have gluten but I added some anti-inflammatory foods in the salad, hoping it won't effect me to much. When I did a cleanse and tested foods, I didn't react very much to gluten so I will have a bit from time to time. I cooked those in water and let it cool. I chopped up a fennel bulb, and used some of the green top of the fennel as well. It almost looks like dill. I then added an apple, and some Brussels sprouts. For my dressing I did about 2 tbps of apple cider vinegar, about 4 tbsp of olive oil, a bit of honey, some Dijon mustard (about a tbsp), I grated in some ginger, added a tsp of turmeric, a bit of salt and pepper and some dill. I tosses everything and tried a bit of it and it was delicious!

I also wanted to have a sweet treat and took out my Joyous Health Cookbook and tried her double chocolate gluten free cookies

It's with coconut flour and some cacao powder. All very healthy ingredients and they taste good. Hubby and I each tried one after our lunch and we both really liked it. It made 23 cookies, so we will have lots to snack on this week. I wanted to make another batch of the carrot cake cookies but I want to take some time to relax as well since my stomach isn't feeling that great. Still feeling weak from all that pain yesterday. While I was in the kitchen I was getting pain from time to time and not feeling great so I didn't want to over do it. I also took care of my new batch of kombucha. Time to take it easy and I can always try to make the other cookies another time. Soon time for supper, which I plan to cook up some shrimp.