Spring!!

We are unfortunately having to isolate cause of Covid 19, but doesn't mean I can't be outside. Took a short walk outside to get some fresh air

It's a cool but sunny day out today. I came back home after to warm up with finishing my workout. I wish I could have done my run outside, but it's to cold out still, my lungs won't appreciate it. I didn't want to spend a few hours coughing so I ran inside on my treadmill

I ran 3 km in a little over 24 minutes. I'm rusty so it wasn't about the time, it was just about enjoying the run. I didn't want to over do it either. Going to ease back into running again. With it being spring now, the weather will get warmer and I can run outside again. I can't wait!!

I also did a lower body workout as well to get my legs stronger. Now I can enjoy the rest of my day.

We have been working from home, and that does have it's perks, however it's sad that Covid 19 is causing so much death and people being sick. With doing what we can to stop the spread, hopefully this will come to an end soon. Stay safe!!

Endometriosis Awareness Month

Starting today and all month of March is endometriosis awareness month

I have talked about endo (endometriosis) a few times in my blog, and it is something I still suffer through. It's not as bad as it use to be, thanks to a hysterectomy, which I still don't regret that decision, but as they say there's no cure for endo. A doctor just has to leave a tiny spec, and that is enough for it to re-grow. In my case, my doctor decided to leave one of my ovaries. Leaving the one that wasn't as bad as the other, and he removed all he could but there was still some left behind. I was happy he left one of my ovaries in order to avoid having to figure out the right balance of hormones via pills. It took a few years for pain to come back but I know how to avoid pain, which I don't always, but I do my best.

Endo affects an estimated 176 million women worldwide, so it's important to raise awareness and I always make sure to donate money to the Endometriosis Association every year.

So how I don't always avoid pain, it's because I still eat meat. Endo is all inflammation, and meat and dairy have something in them that causes inflammation. I do better with avoiding dairy since my stomach ends up not feeling well either, but I do enjoy meat so I still have some from time to time. I also can't over do it with gluten so I try my best to be gluten free as much as possible.

So today I go busy in the kitchen again, and I tried a new recipe I saw recently on the Rachael Ray show. She had the kitchen Twins, which is someone else I follow on Facebook. They have some great recipes. The one they did on her show came at a good time cause I was thinking to do smoothie bowls for breakfast this week. You can find their recipe here.

They made a delicious looking parfait with this granola but I'll make my banana, spinach, almond milk with fermented vegan protein powder, flax seeds, and avocado smoothie and top it with the granola and enjoy it like I would eat yogurt. The only 2 things I changed in this recipe is I used coconut oil instead of canola oil cause it's way healthier. I also added 2 tbps of flax seeds for extra fiber. I tried a piece and it's really good! Also for the oats, I used a gluten free brand.

I also boiled 4 eggs for some protein for my lunch this week, and I also took out some vegetarian chili from my freezer. Something I haven't made in a while is kombucha. I still had my scoby, just staying dormant so decided to finally make a new batch

It's now in my cupboard staying nice and dark and will be left alone for a week or so, then I'll get it into bottles and on my counter for another 3 days, this allows it to fizz up a bit. I do have some ginger so I may add some for some flavor and it's a great anti-inflammatory which I could use.
In terms of exercise, I'm still working hard at doing more weights and keeping up with my cardio. Today I did an upper body and core workout.

I just want to finish this post by saying, that all women out there suffering with endometriosis, we are all warriors! We suffer through so much pain with endo, and it's important to support each other.

Please spread the word for Endometriosis Awareness Month!

Bento box lunches

I decided to get lunches packed up for the week so last night I soaked 1 cup of cashews in water so this morning I prepared this red pepper, tahini dressing/dip. In my blender, I added 1 red pepper,, my soaked cashews, 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp of tahini, 2 tsp of onion powder, a touch of salt (Himalayan), 1 clove of garlic and the juice of 1 lemon. I blended that up, and added water until I got the right consistency of a dip/dressing. For my lunch I grabbed a can of tuna in water, and mixed it with this dressing, and added a minced green onion and some cilantro. I added half to one bento box and the other half in another.

I will enjoy the tuna on some sourdough bread, which I think I'll lightly toast, and top it with some sauerkraut. I also have some Kimchi, and in one bento box I have a kale slaw with more of the dressing, and in the other bento I have a mix of carrots and cucumbers to dip in that dressing/dip I made. Very much looking forward to these lunches! I tried a little of my tuna and it's really good. It's a great way to avoid mayo and have more flavor.

For my hubby I decided to marinate some chicken thighs, I added them in a ziploc bag and added in some olive oil, chili powder, onion powder, a little cumin powder and a touch of cayenne for a little kick. For supper I'll cook up some of that chicken and pack it up for his lunch over some rice, and I can pack up some veggies with that dip for him as well. I also took out some root vegetable soup that I made a while back from Joyous Health's new cookbook, so I can enjoy that for lunch today and I should have enough to bring some for lunch on another day.

Thought I would also update you on the de-cluttering. I'm happy to say that it's all done!!

So we donated 6 large garbage bag of clothes, and 11 boxes of stuff. We dropped it off on Thursday since we were out and about for a few appointments, and on Friday I ended up finishing tackling the basement, so I have an additional 2 boxes for donation, which I can easily drop off before I get groceries done next week.

I feel so much lighter and better now that we have less clutter in here. I can't say I'm fully done though, I do have way to many magazines that I have gathered up over the years, but I have been going through them and only keeping recipes that I would like to try out and recycling the rest. I don't buy any more magazines so I can catch up on the pile I have, and I do also have to many books on my bookcase, so now that I have done all this work, I can take more time to relax and read and donate books that I don't plan on re-reading.

I'm glad I have also had time to do some spring cleaning. I know it's not spring yet but we are approaching it and I can't wait to have warmer weather! Well time for some lunch, and I'll wait 2 hours before I get my workout in. I'll be hopping on my treadmill for some fast walking, some incline, and some running.

De-cluttering, Cooking and Baking

The start of the year I still had quite a bit of vacation days left so I decided to take more time off work to get some de-cluttering done. I have come a long way, just 2 more areas to go through and I'm done! One area will take me quite some time, the basement. We don't have a finished basement so we have a lot down there. Including the things/clothes that I have decided to get rid of. This has been a project I have wanted to do for a while and I'm glad I was finally able to tackle it. I did some here and there but over the past weeks, I have tackled it one room at a time.

I must say, I feel so much lighter with less clutter around. I still have more to go, and there's a few more photos I want up on the wall as well. The way I have been tackling this, I will have it done in no time! It's a lot of work but it's worth it!

I had yesterday off, so I decided to do more of a spring cleaning since my in-laws are coming down for a visit. That to felt great to accomplish. They are staying with us for a few days, then I should have some time to tackle the last two areas I have. Including to drop off my things/clothes for donation so they are no longer in our basement.

I of course still take time to be in the kitchen. For snacks for the week I tried Joyous Health's dark chocolate superfood bars

I then added this to the freezer for a few hours, then took it out to cut it in bars and added them back to the freezer. This is very tasty!!

I also tried a recipe from the Pioneer Woman and you can get the recipe here.

Yes these do look a little more like pancakes instead of muffin tops lol However they were still very tasty! I'm pretty sure it's because I used frozen blueberries, the extra water flatten them more out. The only thing I changed was I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar, and I didn't have enough confectioner's sugar, so I added in some coconut flour and it turned out really great. I think next time I'll just use coconut flour, it's sweet tasting and healthier then confectioner's sugar.

And because we loved the sweet potato pad Thai, I had to make it again! I changed one ingredient though, I didn't put cauliflower in but I did add scallops for some protein, and it turned out really good!

This is my new absolute favorite meal! The dressing is so delicious!

We also had a craving for pizza, which I haven't made one in a while, but since I'm avoiding meat as much as possible, I decided to get whole wheat Naan bread to make individual pizzas

This one is mine and I added onion, mushrooms, red pepper, and the base is BBQ sauce, and topped with goat cheese and this feta mozzarella cheese I saw in store and wanted to give it a try. Hubby had the same except instead of shrimp he had shredded BBQ chicken. They turned out really good!
I had enough left overs to make another, but this time I had mine vegetarian. 


My in-laws left early this morning to try to make it in time to watch him play hockey. My dad will be joining us as well. Other then today, I'm not sure what else we will do while they are here, but I'm sure we will have fun. Looking forward to seeing them!

Sweet Potato Veggie Pad Thai

My last post I talked about the new Joyous Health cookbook that I got, well I made a lot of recipes from that book. My favorite one was the Sweet Potato Veggie pad Thai.

  

 Mine is on the right with lots of cilantro! Hubby hates cilantro so I put a bit of parley on his. You can find the recipe here. The recipe on the link calls for grapeseed oil but you can use olive oil, which is what I used, as per her recipe in the book. Either one is a great choice. I did not miss the pasta in this one, it as very tasty! My hubby is a meat eater, but he really enjoyed it as well. Lots of great flavors.

I tried a bunch more recipes from her book and they were all delicious!

The top one is the buckwheat chocolate chip banana bread. Unlike it's name, buckwheat is gluten free, which I love. With endometriosis, gluten is something that is good to avoid. The second photo is the minestrone soup, which made a big batch, but I'm ok with that. I froze 3 mason jars of the soup and it will be great to take out if I don't have much time, or craving some soup. The noodles are spelt, so not gluten free, but I have never tried that type of pasta so decided to follow the recipe. The only item missing in the soup is kale. The last photo is the one-pot paprika chicken. Those who know me, know that I'm not a fan of olives, but I'm trying to build a liking to them since they are healthy. I'm slowly getting there but in this recipe I didn't mind them at all. There wasn't a lot and with the other flavors it was really good.

The chicken I made on a Sunday, and then the Monday I went vegan to detox from diary and meat to avoid pain from endo. I did get some pain but doing better now.

First photo is baked salmon with a dill pesto, and the side is garlic green beans with tahini lemon sauce. Very tasty!! The pesto has capers as well and instead of the usual basil pesto, it's with dill and it's very good! The green beans were delicious as well. Not only do you top them with the sauce, but also some pomegranate seeds, chopped almonds and nutritional yeast. The last photo is veggie and shrimp green curry. This to was very good! We had some left overs for a few lunches.

This is over a span of 2 weeks, and it's been really great to try out new recipes. Tonight's supper will be fajitas! Mine will be shrimp and his will be chicken. I already have guacamole ready. I also took the time to prepare our lunch for tomorrow which will be a bento box. I will try to remember to take a photo of it and share it with you.

The weekend has been great. My goal for this year is to de-clutter, and so far it's going pretty good. I cleaned/de-cluttered our end tables and dressers in our room, I went through all the bathroom stuff and got rid of 2 very full grocery bags of things that expired or we weren't using. This past Friday I went through my clothes and I got rid of a large garbage bag full of things that don't fit or I don't wear. It's in my basement for now but I will donate it.

A friend of mine at work gave me 2 tickets to go to the Ottawa Home Show, so we went Friday late afternoon to check it out since we would like to reno our house. It was interesting but some are really after you to get your attention, like sharks, it's crazy! It was interesting, but the best part was getting to see Bryan Baeumler on stage

He was funny and provided a lot of great information and tips. He also talked about the Island he has, and I'm really looking forward to the second season which starts towards the end of February. Wish I could have met him in person to get a photo and autograph but it was cool to see him fairly close. Thanks to my friend I got to sit with her and her hubby in the 4th row. The rest of the weekend has been pretty good except for this wet heavy snow we have gotten. Thankfully we have a snowblower to help.

If you haven't had the chance or taken the time to try a new recipe, I recommend it! It's nice trying something new instead of always going for the same meals. I'm glad I decided to try all these recipes, especially that pad thai which is a must make again, and again!

There's a few more recipes in her book I want to try out, which I have plans to make one tomorrow. I'll be sure to take a picture and share it with you. Hope everyone else has had a good weekend!

The holidays and family

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. Can't believe that we are in 2020 already! 2019 flew by so fast!! My holidays were good except for one thing, my aunt passed away on December 22nd. She will be greatly missed!!

She is now with my mom, grandparents, and aunt. I love how close our family is, when my aunt went into the hospital, we all kept in contact through Facebook, and it was amazing to see all the messages. From making sure she was warm enough, to making sure the family knew what was going on, and who was going to visit her. I unfortunately did not get the chance to see her. With her feeling better the Saturday I thought I would have time to head down on Monday and go straight to the hospital to see her, but unfortunately on the Sunday she passed away. The family took it really hard, and she will be greatly missed. She was one amazing and caring aunt.

We spent a week in Sudbury, and it was nice spending that time with family. This past week we have been at home enjoying our second week of vacation. I had a few physio appointments, hubby had to go for allergy shots, we went to visit his mom, and I took some time to de-clutter, clean, tidy up,  spend a bit of time in the kitchen, and made sure to take time to rest up as well.

I have been going to physio because I thought I had tennis elbow. My left elbow hurts to bent and extend. I have been doing some stretches, wearing a band, and trying to rest it up as well and it wasn't getting any better so my doctor recommended I go to physio. She doesn't think it's tennis elbow, she believes the source starts at my neck, cause I'm really tense there, and I have more tense muscles down my arm to my elbow. She's working on massaging and doing acupuncture in those areas to help. During the week in Sudbury it actually did get better, but now it's about the same again. I think I need to work on spending less time on my tablet and phone. I think the looking down and holding them is what isn't helping. If I am on my tablet or phone I try to keep it eye level, and try to rest my tablet on something so I'm not holding it with my left arm since I need my right hand to click. Hopefully with more time and appointments, it will get better.

While I was in Sudbury, my cousin and I did our ritual, which is hit Chapters. We both love that place! We love books and it's my zen place. I saw the new Joyous Health cookbook was out so I had to get it!

I put it in my recipe book holder cause I tried the very fist recipe in her book, the Applesauce spice breakfast muffins, and they turned out amazing!

The recipe says it makes 6 muffins but as you can see I filled them quite a bit and I still had a lot more batter left, so I made 8 muffins. The second photo is them all baked. We took a bite of one to try it and it's delicious!! They will make a great breakfast/snack for the week. We are off tomorrow as well, but we have a few errands to run, and then Tuesday we are back to work, so these will be great.

I also made the jambalaya, which instead of a mix of meats, I only put spicy sausage. It's one of our favorites, and I also bought a whole chicken to cook in the oven. I added spices to the chicken, and we had a nice salad with it. With the bones, I made a broth the following day and used that broth to make soup. I added some of the left over chicken as well to the soup. It's not the healthiest soup but I love making it once a year. It reminds me of my mom, and it always turns out delicious. We have more left over food to enjoy this coming week, but then the following week, I want to do a Joyous Health diet. It's not a diet, but it is about eating healthy, and I need that right now. Every recipe I have tried, is so delicious! I just got her third cookbook, which the first two I was able to get her to sign them for me, so I hope to get this one autographed as well. So with 3 cookbooks, and all the recipes she has online on her blog, will allow us to eat healthy for a long time. I often make the same recipes, or same sort of meals/snacks, so with trying out more of her recipes it will allow us to eat healthy and try new meals and snacks instead of eating the same things all the time. I'm excited to get started!

Over the holidays, I have been eating a lot of meat, and dairy, so it's one thing I will avoid for a while. Joy has a variety of recipes, from vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free but also some with meat. For those I can either omit the meat to make it vegetarian, or I can add seafood or tempeh instead. I'm surprised I haven't really had any endometriosis pain with all the meat and dairy I have been eating, but I don't want to get to that point of getting pain so it will be good for me to avoid meats and dairy for a while. I will then add in some meat but not to much to avoid pain.

This week we will have the time to empty the fridge, and other snacks/food we have, it will give me time to pick out recipes and get my grocery list ready to go get what I need towards the end of the week to try out new recipes for the following week. I will try to document it as much as I can and share it with you.

                                          Happy New Year everyone!!

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!