Natural products

Yesterday I met a friend of mine at Ikea. I love that store, they have great ideas and a lot of great furniture. Saw many kitchens that would be so great to have. Got to try out many chairs and couches as well. After we walked over to Terra 20, which is just a few stores next to Ikea. It's a lot bigger then I thought it was going to be, and it's a pretty amazing store. I didn't have much more time on my hands so it was a quick run through the store but managed to buy a few things I needed

The Green Beaver shampoo and conditioner, I found out from Joyous health, it's what she uses for her hair, and also switches it up and uses Hugo Naturals. I looked to see if they have it, but they didn't. They did have the body soap so I'm hoping the next time I go to that store they have it on hand to try it out. I have already bought the Green Beaver from another natural store, and I really like it! Then I saw they had the body lotion as well, and we were able to try it out, and the cranberry one smelled so good! The coconut one as well but since it's smells like the shampoo and conditioner I have, I thought I'll get something different in smell.

Another new favorite of mine is Schmidt's. They first had a store open in the Rideau Mall last year, and when I was there, my friend and I checked it out, and when we read the ingredients, and saw it was completely natural, and the lady working there said it's a favorite of many people, and that it actually works really well, so thought, why not try it. It really does work really well!! Works just like a non natural deodorant but this one is chemical free, and completely natural. I ran out so I wanted to buy more. I really like the bergamot lime, really like the smell of it, which isn't as strong smelling as the others, but they were out, so I decided to get the fragrance free to see how I like that one. They did have the bergamot lime in the small container, so I still grabbed it, but that one I will need to use my hands to apply it, which isn't as great, but I am on their contact list so they can let me know when they get more of the stick in store so I can get some. So in the mean time I have the two, which I'm thinking once I get the large deodorant stick, I can use these for traveling or to bring to work in my gym bag.

My friend bought the Green beaver toothpaste and she said it's not so great, plus it has whitening, which we both aren't a fan of. I don't need my teeth to be bright white. I find that whitening stuff just isn't healthy for our teeth. No idea why they have to add that to so many toothpaste but I try to avoid it. You do have be careful what you buy, even though your in a natural store, some products do have unhealthy things in them so it's important to read the label. For toothpaste, I will stick to the one Joyous Health sells, I bought it a while ago and I really love it! I also love her body butter, which I use for my face and at times for my body to help moisturize.

I'll for sure be going to Terra 20 again and again, it's a great store and I can't wait to have a better look at what they sell. They even have clothes, food, and a bunch more products, including makeup. Our skin really does absorb what you put on it, so it's also important to use natural products. I'm pretty sure I talked about the soap I now use, which is from Purple urchin, a company here in Ottawa that makes their own soap and so many other natural products. I really love their bar of soap which I always make sure to have a bit of a stock of.

For those in Ottawa, you really should go check out Terra 20, right next to the Ikea, but they are also available online so you can order things. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Spring

It's starting to feel more like spring is finally here. We did get a bit of snow on Friday, but thankfully not as much as they were calling. We do still have some snow on the ground but so far it's 5 and the sun is shining brightly. Therefore I decided to enjoy the sunshine and went outside for a run. I did 6 km and took me about 46 minutes, which is slow compared to what I use to do, but considering I haven't been running much lately, I did pretty good.

I have been exercising, but just mixing things up. Where I work, they do have a gym in the basement of the building, which is very helpful. They offer classes, and I joined yoga which is a great way to increase my flexibility and do something more relaxing for exercise. I tend to do that once a week, and then I recently tried out spinning class and I really do enjoy it. A few girls that I work with get together to also go for a walk during lunch break, and when it's nice we go outside, otherwise we walk the halls in the basement. Sometimes I go to the gym to do weights, biking, or on the treadmill. I think it's important to mix things up when it comes to exercising.

This summer, my hubby and I hope to be able to play baseball again, and I'm thinking to try out soccer as well. There's a bunch of people that get together during lunch hour 3 times a week to play, just for fun, so I think I'll give that a try this year.

I do of course still spend time in the kitchen, and I'm working on making lighter foods now that it's getting warmer. Today I plan to make a potato salad, and will be making pasta for supper. I prepared a few salads for my lunch this week, and we have some cookies to snack on.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Joyous Health

I know I haven't been doing as much writing, but will try to change that. I have been meaning to post this one for a while. Quite a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to meet Joy McCarthy again for the second time. The first time I went with a friend, and got the chance to talk to Joy, take a picture with her and get her to sign her first book. This time around I went on my own, but I again got to talk to her, and even her husband a little, took another picture with her, and got her to sign her second book.

You can actually see her husband in the background through the mirror. She brought some of her tea, so I bought some to try it out, so I had to give the money to her husband. The tea is really good! Another thing I take part of is her weekly live videos through facebook, she provides a lot of great information, answers questions, and it's great to see their family. She either provides information about products, health, and even cooks recipes. I have tried many of her recipes and they are all great and so good!

I do still get in the kitchen, we had friends over a few weeks ago, and I made some fajitas

I wanted to provide a range of things, so people can put what they like, so I had chicken, veggies, lettuce, homemade salsa, store bought salsa, homemade guacamole, some sour cream, and also had chips out. It was a delicious supper. My friend brought dessert, which was a lemon cake and it was good!

I haven't been doing quite as much cooking cause that weekend, after they left and not long after falling asleep, I woke up feeling sick and it ended up being a horrible flu. Took me out pretty much all week, so I didn't cook much at all. Last weekend I was still so exhausted, so I again didn't get much done. This weekend I managed to get some things done. I baked some cookies, which I tried my brown rice cookies I made a while back with maple syrup that didn't turn out well, so I made them again but this time with honey, how I have always made them, and they turned out great. I also made some chocolate chip cookies, and right now I have my slow cooker going with chicken thighs, and I added chicken stock, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sriracha, chinese 5 spice, and a touch of salt and some pepper. It smells so good in here!  Now I have to head down there to add in a slury (arrowroot with stock) to help thicken it (you can also use cornstarch), and also add some vegetables, I'm thinking broccoli and a red pepper, then let it cook another half hour, then it will be served over brown rice.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, especially a friend of mine, Anne, it's her birthday today

Cooking and baking with a friend

My friend and I made plans to get together this past Saturday. Since she has moved into her house I have been really wanting to cook in her kitchen. Her kitchen is big with a huge island! Yes I'm jealous!  So I planned out a few things I wanted to make, and she did the same and here's what we ended up with

 

These two pasta dishes turned out great! The one on the left is baked ziti, a recipe I got from the Pioneer Woman, although instead of beef I added more ground sausage. The other is a spinach and ricotta stuffed shells, my friend made it all, so I'm unsure of the recipe, but it was delicious! It was perfect timing also that it was lunch time when they were ready, so we got to try both and relax a bit. Then we got started on dessert, we made brownie cookies.

Also a recipe from the Pioneer Woman, you can find it here. This time though I added chocolate chips because I have made these before and they were good but they were missing that gooeyness to them and with the chocolate chips, they were delicious!!  Then we made one of our favourites, baked lemon donuts from the Chocolate Covered Katie cookbook that I have.



Our first batch didn't quite turn out so good, I was getting pretty tired and I missed a part of the recipe which was let the liquids sit together for 5 minutes before adding in the dry, so we threw those out and started again and they turned out good. Last year we went to the States for a girls weekend and did some shopping and she bought this cake mix from Krispy Kreams, and we were both very interested in trying it out, cause if you haven't had a chance to try their donuts, they are very good!

It turned out really good, but of course not like the donuts, but still delicious. Then to finish out the day, we prepared a pizza dough.

As you can see, there was no issue with it rising. It turned out great, and I made a pizza on Sunday for supper. I forgot to take a picture of it, but the crust was so good! I added shredded BBQ chicken, some onions and mushrooms, tomato sauce, and then added goat cheese. It was delicious!!

We were really tired by the end of the day, but we had so much fun! We both love cooking and baking and doing that with a friend makes it more fun. We got to chat, and even took a bit of time to relax in between, and being in her kitchen, we weren't in each others way, and we had plenty of counter space to work. We did make a mess, but we cleaned up as we went. A few dishes went into the dishwasher but we washed quite a few things by hand. We want to do this again, but we are thinking start with a base, meaning cook up a chicken or turkey, then create a stock, and then from there make different things, like soup, enchiladas, and a bunch of other things. It makes things simple and easy for the week when you batch cook in a day. Can't wait till we get together again!

Health

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I got some time to relax, went to see hubby play hockey and we spent a bit of time with friends after, and I was in the kitchen again.


Starting today I am on the 10 day Joyous Detox. I got her new book just after Christmas and got into it right away to be able to read through it all and check out the recipes

The recipes look so delicious, and it's not a detox where your having nothing but liquids or cutting out a crazy amount of food. This detox is all about eating whole foods, like today for example, I had coconut yogurt with an apple jam, gluten free granola that I made over the weekend, and for snacks I have chickpeas and vegetables with hummus, and my lunch is a salad with a creamy dressing, which what makes it creamy is cashews, and supper is a quinoa salmon cake with a salad. So I'm eating plenty of food but it's all healthy. Here's what I prepared over the weekend:

So starting on the left, I made the breakfast cookies, which I get to have I think it's tomorrow, then I have my cut up vegetables all ready to grab and go, at the back the bottle is my creamy dressing, then it's my salad, just missing the quinoa in there, then it's the apple jam, which all it is, is apples, chia seeds and a bit of maple syrup and some cinnamon, and then the granola I made which is nuts and some dry fruits, no grains/oats to keep it gluten free, and it's really good. I also cooked up some quinoa for my salad, so left overs are in the fridge for another use. I only prepared for the first 5 days, so then during these 5 days I'll start planning the next 5 days after that and prep over the weekend.


Breakfast was very delicious, and filling. I'm going to make sure to drink plenty of water as well and keep exercising. I did exercise over the weekend, Saturday I did a mix of cardio and weights with a tone it up workout video, and then yesterday I did a 20 min yoga video, again with tone it up, plus I was on my feet most of the day in the kitchen and doing a few things around the house. Today I'll be going for a walk at lunch and after work I'll have about an hour at the gym, which I'll do a combo of cardio and weights. Pretty excited about this detox, so many new recipes to try out and they all look and sound so good!

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas, and happy new year! We had a wonderful holiday, we spent some time in Sudbury to visit family, and also at home and got to spend more time with family. Last week we went to Upper Canada Village, I have never been there before, but it was a perfect night to go. It wasn't to cold, which was good since we walked for quite a while admiring all the beautiful lights.

I of course got busy in the kitchen as well. We had some turkey, so I got the opportunity to make a nice broth. I also made a recipe I haven't done in a long time, and I have missed it, they are very good cookies, and healthy to. Here's the recipe:


Almond Rice Cookies


6 tbsp. of almond butter
6 tbsp. honey or maple syrup
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds or pecans
1 cup crispy brown rice cereal


Place them in the oven at 350 F for 8-10 minutes

So as you can see from the picture my cookies didn't turn out so good, but half of them I fixed, I let them cool a bit and then just reformed the cookies. I always used honey for this recipe but thought I would try maple syrup and I guess it's more liquid so it didn't turn out as good. They are still tasty but I find they aren't quite as crispy, so when I make these again, I'll use honey so they turn out better.










I also roasted a spaghetti squash to add to a salad I wanted to put together for my lunches. Something I never thought of doing is roasting the seeds, they do look just like pumpkin seeds, so I roasted those up using coconut oil and a bit of salt.

Something I haven't used in a long time is my spiralizer, so decided to dust it off and use it for some carrots, to again add it to my salad, and I also used some in a stir fry. I also cooked up some quinoa and lentils, and added some broccoli and green onions. I had that for lunch this week and it was really good.

Over the holidays I was able to buy Joy's new book: Joyous Detox, and have already read through it, and she has some really great recipes in there. I decided to try the Cinnamon chickpeas, all I had to do was cook my chickpeas by boiling them, then add coconut oil, some coconut sugar, cinnamon, toss those then roast them in the oven for about a half hour, and they turned out really good! I put them into two containers to have some at home, and some at work to snack on when I'm hungry.

For the new year, I want to get back into trying out new recipes. I kind of fell into a rut with the same type of meals, but I'm going to start trying out new recipes again. For Christmas, my good friend sent me Michael Smith's new cookbook, and lucky her, she even got to meet him so she had him sign my book as well, which is so awesome! So for supper this past Wednesday I tried out one of his recipes, it's a stir fry and it was delicious! It's with soba noodles, I bought them with buckwheat so they are gluten free.

I also saw another recipe from Joyous Health online that I wanted to try, so I made that yesterday for supper, it's orange chicken with black rice, and it was so good!

I also hope to have more time to post more often this year. I did groceries yesterday and will be in the kitchen again this weekend to prepare for the week ahead. I'm trying out Joy's 10 day detox, which isn't your starvation sort of detox, I'll still be eating food, but really healthy food which will be a good start to the new year. The recipes look delicious!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Beautiful Weather

We have been very lucky lately with weather. We did get one day of a light snow fall, but didn't last long and it melted away in no time.

It's a little to cold for my liking to bike in the morning, so my hubby has been dropping me off at work, then since it's still so beautiful outside, I walk home from work. It's a great time to get some sunshine from being indoors all day, unless I step out for a walk during my lunch break. It takes me about 30 minutes to walk home, and it's great to get some fresh air, exercise, some nice Vitamin D from the sun, and also think of things.

With weather being so nice, they are announcing 15 today, so it's really hard to get into the Christmas spirit. I am very happy that weather is this warm out though, and hope it keeps being this nice. I have started a Christmas list, but still need more gift ideas. We've been very busy with all sorts of plans, and will keep being busy for a while, but should be able to head out shopping with my dad in about 2 and a half weeks. My dad and I have started a bit of a new ritual of going Christmas shopping together, and it does make it more fun to go shopping.

I am still getting into the kitchen, I have made a large pot of chilli, a big batch of spaghetti sauce, some soup which all have batches in the freezer, including some homemade stock. I have made some caramel sticky buns, and cookies. I would like to start baking up some holiday treats, but I think I'll wait till the start of December.





 I know I haven't been posting many recipes but I'll do my best to post some soon.