Jun 30, 2011

Stewin’

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I typically only crave stew when it’s cold outside or I’m not feeling well. Neither of those things were true today but for some reason I wanted stew for dinner. Maybe I’ve been reading too much Game of Thrones – all that talk about never-ending winters and the bitter cold of The Wall had me fiendin’ for some nice winter comfort food, so I whipped out my mom’s recipe for home-made chicken stew:

Ingredients:
1 cup baby carrots 
1 leek
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp butter
1 egg
1/2 cup brown rice

Directions:
1. Chop up vegetables into small pieces and dice in a food processor.

2. Heat butter in a pot over low-medium heat. Add vegetables to pot.

3. Layer chicken on top. Season with salt and pepper. Cook about 10 minutes.

4. Add 2 cups chicken stock and 1 cup water to pot. Cover and cook for about an hour, turning chicken once or twice.

5. Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions.

5. Separate egg yolk from an egg. Mix a bit of broth with egg yolk and whisk into pot.

6. Separate into four bowls and serve with 1/4 of the rice.

Earlier in the day, I did my second boot camp workout this week. I can’t say I enjoy boot camp but I know it’s a great way to improve my fitness. I also know I’m lucky to belong to a gym that offers free boot camp workouts - usually, you have to pay extra to get your butt kicked that hard! Here’s what we did this week:

Combination 1 Time
Jump rope 30 seconds
Push ups 30 seconds
Side shuffles with jump squats 60 seconds
Lateral jumps 60 seconds
Squat jacks 60 seconds
Repeat  
Combination 2 Time
Jump rope 30 seconds
Push ups 30 seconds
Overhead tricep extension 60 seconds
Squat jumps on the bench with an overhead press 60 seconds
Tricep push ups 60 seconds
Repeat  
Combination 3 Time
Jump rope 30 seconds
Push ups 30 seconds
Side to side squat jumps off the bench 60 seconds
Plank walk with push up 60 seconds
Shuffle jacks 30 seconds
Squat jumps 30 seconds
Star jumps 30 seconds
Repeat  
Combination 4 Time
Side plank with twist 30 seconds each side
Superman 60 seconds

One more day til the long weekend! Woo hoo!

Filed Under: Recipes ·
Jun 28, 2011

Go with the Flow

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Good morning! I got my week off to a healthy start yesterday with a nice 7 km morning run. I had originally planned to do RPM but the weather was far too nice for an indoor workout. I had a very enjoyable run, but how could you not when it looks like this outside?

I got really into running last summer and this morning’s run reminded me why. I’m so lucky to have such a scenic running route near my house and will definitely be taking advantage of it more now that it’s warm outside.

Post-run, I had some yogurt and blueberries. For lunch, I threw together an omelette with 1 egg, 2 egg whites, 1 wedge of camembert cheese and a handful of diced mushrooms. My omelettes usually fall apart mid-flip, so I’m pretty proud of this one:

After lunch, I had my annual physical. I always feel like such a bore when I go to the doctor’s. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink very much, I exercise almost daily, get 7-8 hours of sleep every night, eat my vegetables… I almost want to make stuff up so my doctor has the opportunity to lecture me about something.

We also had a visit yesterday from my sister, who had just come back from her ultrasound and presented us with photographic evidence of her impending motherhood (not that we didn’t believe her or anything ;) ).

Does that look like a boy or a girl to you?

After dinner, I went with my sister to Body Flow. I’m going through a Body Flow phase these days. I was doing it once a week back in January and February but at some point got bored of it and stopped. Lately though, I’ve been craving it again and since it’s the only class my sister will go to in her present state, it’s a nice way for us to spend an evening together. It’s also very relaxing — I slept like a baby last night! Which is good because I have a looong and most likely stressful day of work ahead of me.

Filed Under: Running · Tagged:
Jun 27, 2011

Family BBQ – Guilt-Free Edition

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After two cloudy and depressing days, the sun finally came out on Sunday, just in time for a family BBQ at my sister’s house to celebrate her pregnancy.

When Italian families get together, there  is always lots of delicious food to be eaten, most of it not so healthy. You also get yelled at if you don’t eat everything in sight. Knowing this, I tried to make healthy decisions the rest of the weekend so I could indulge on Sunday guilt-free. That meant passing up Marble Slab on Saturday night and choosing relatively healthy options when dining out. I also got in a boot camp workout on Sunday morning to pre-emptively burn off some of those excess calories. It was totally worth it.

The feast began with some appetizers - bruschetta that my sister made and these deep-fried Italian rice and cheese balls that my mom’s aunt made from scratch:

Indescribably good. I wish I’d taken a picture of the inside but I was too focused on eating this bad boy to stop and take a picture.

As a first course, my sister made penne a la vodka using an adapted recipe from Rachel Ray. Everyone loved it and those old Italians are a tough crowd when it comes to judging pasta.


Next up — sausages and grilled vegetables, courtesy of the brother-in-law.

Finally, there was champagne and cake. My mom’s aunt brought a hazelnut cakelet from Dufflet, a gourmet dessert cafe in Toronto (I didn’t get any pics so I found these off the web):  

Yes, it really was as moist as it looks. No food airbrushing here!

I know I ate way too much for one meal but I’m okay with it. In fact, I’m happy I forgot all about calories and refined carbs and sugar for a few hours to just kick back and relax with loved ones.

Healthy living is great and all but it should never interfere with your ability to enjoy life. If you can’t celebrate a special event or good news with your friends or family without feeling guilty or anxious about eating too much, then you should probably take a step back and ask yourself if it’s really worth it. You can always balance out a day of unhealthy food choices with physical activity and future food choices, but you’ll never get to re-live those moments that you either missed out on or were too busy counting calories to really appreciate.

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