Food Time – A Many Mushroom Risotto

I don’t know if you knew this about me but I LOVE mushrooms. I think they are one of the greatest things out there, cooked, raw, mashed into a paste anyway you can think it up I want to eat them. So a couple of weeks ago during a meal prep day I decided to make some delicious Many Mushroom Risotto, and it was so tasty!   Just for the fun of it I made this one vegan and trust you don’t lose any of the delicious creaminess or flavour you would get had I used butter and cheese, plus it cuts the fat/calorie content so it ends up being a super healthy meal.

Enough talk, I am sure you are all salivating so here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Many Mushroom Risotto:

Serves 8-10 as a main meal

1.5 cups Arborio rice
2 tbsp oil (I used grape seed oil it’s better for frying)
4 cups Vegetable stock (I use homemade, but if you need to get store bough get organic)
1 small Yellow Onion, diced
3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
3 Leeks, white and light green parts chopped
1 Tbsp fresh Lemon Juice
4 sprigs of Thyme, finely chopped
1 Portobello Mushroom, diced
*4oz (250g) Cremini Mushrooms, diced
*4oz (250g) Oyster Mushrooms, diced
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Prepare all ingredients so that you can easily toss them in, a lot of stirring is involved and you don’t want to let your risotto burn because something wasn’t already chopped up.

2. Heat half the oil in a large skillet or stew pot.  Once oil heats up add in all of your mushrooms, cook them down until they are soft 5-7 minutes.  Once cooked remove and set aside.

3. Add other half of oil to pan and heat, once heated add in leeks, onions and garlic cook for 2-5 minutes until the onions become soft and translucent.

4. Add in arborio rice stir in dry rice for about a minute to coat with all the juices that are going on in the pan.  Add in 1 tbsp of lemon juice, stir until evaporated.

5. Add 1/2 cup of broth to the rice mixture and stir until completely absorbed, then add in another 1/2 cup of broth.  Continue this until all of the broth is gone, stirring constantly. This should take 20-25 minutes and is a great arm workout, for one arm at least.

6. Once all broth is added into the mixture add the cooked mushrooms, fresh thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until well combined and serve immediately.

*these sizes are just one prepackaged container of mushrooms, also if you want to add more go for it, it will be super delicious!

Let me know what you think of this recipe.   I hope to be back blogging on a regular basis shortly.  School is starting to calm down (not really but I keep telling myself this) and my work and life schedule is starting to actually find a nice balance.  I hope to bring you more updates, workouts, yoga routines and recipes soon.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Gingersneezes Turns 3

Turns out today is Gingersneezes Birthday!   She is turning 3 years old today, and although over the past 8ish months the site has gone a little dead I do still check in and am always sure to post on our Facebook Page, Twitter and the Instagram account. So if you are going through kitten withdrawals or missing delicious food posts or motivational quotes head on over to one of those three spaces to stay connected.

In the mean time have some fun traveling down memory lane with some delicious posts:

Salmon Risotto – an all time favorite of mine!
PB&J Cups – who could resist these tasty treats!

Pineapple Surprise – if juicing it is more your style try out this super tasty juice, it is great as a breakfast.

And after you have snacked on the above maybe testing out some good old workouts if you have yet to have the chance:

Try this killer ab workout to build strength to your core, or perhaps firming up your legs is more your style. If so try this awesome leg circuit out, it will have your legs feeling like jelly in no time.

 

Back Again – Recap

I have been dormant for a while and for that I apologize but I am back and trying to get back into the swing of blogging. The school year had been coming to a close which meant lots of reading and writing and studying. Now after a week of recovery and relaxation I am back to give you all a fun recap of the past little while.

Back in March I started school again, heading back with the goal of becoming a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, since finishing my university degree years ago, heading back to school has been an interesting experience. I forgot just how exhausting using your brain on a regular basis could be, the program I am enrolled in is also a one year intensive so it is exactly that, intense.  But enough about school. I don’t have to think about that for another 10 weeks or so.

What have I been up to.  Well quite honestly school has taken up about 80% of my time, but in the mist of all that craziness I have managed to complete the 101 day Digestive Detox I started in the spring and I just wrapped up a 30 day yoga challenge with my yoga studio, so I thought figure I would do a little recap, and then I am hoping to start bringing you delicious recipes and fun workouts again really soon.

So the 101 days of clean eating is over and thank goodness.  It was great to know that I was able to remain 100% committed for the majority of the experiment, however it is even more fantastic to know that it is over!  I have discovered that I have a pretty good 80/20 balance and I am keen on committing to that.  I found that the full on 100% clean eating, no drinking etc. was a little too extreme and made me dig my heels in at some points.  But it is always great to push your boundaries to get to places that make you feel a little uncomfortable.  Now it is over and I am back to a nice balanced diet of healthy, live, fresh foods with the occasional glass of wine while sitting on my patio.

The clean eating challenge wasn’t the only thing I was challenging myself with this spring, I also signed up for a 30 day detox yoga challenge.   Now this was an incredible experience.  After returning from my yoga teacher training in Costa Rica and enrolling in school I was finding it challenging to attend more than one or two yoga classes a week.  I realized that I wasn’t committing to myself, my personal development and my practice.   The 30 day challenge really helped me to refocus and to make my practice a priority.

Making my own yoga practice a priority allowed me to be more creative with the classes I was creating for others and helped me to find a little clarity in the midst of school, training, half marathon training, my part-time jobs, family and friends.   This challenge also provided me a way to start becoming a part of the yoga community.   The studio I frequent here in Ottawa has a great yoga community but I always felt like I was in a rush so I never took the time to say hello and speak with others.  This challenge showed me that I have the time to say hello and make new friends.  I strongly recommend if your local yoga studio does a challenge like this you make the commitment to yourself and try it out.

Now that all of the challenges are over I am settling back into my regular gym, running and yoga routine and enjoying the outdoors as much as possible.   I have also started teaching my first outdoor fitness class and it has to date been a complete blast!

All in all I am happy to say it is officially summer for me. I get some time to relax and rest before school starts up again in September, I get to do some yoga outside on Parliament hill and in my yoga studio and I have a half marathon to look forward to in August.  In the mean time I am going to be spending time catching up on my personal reading and spending time in the sun.

Happy Humpday everyone!

Question:  What types of recipes and workouts would you like to see in the future?

Food Friday – Freezer Meals

I have talked a load about meal prep in the past so I don’t want to get into that today. I do however want to give some food making time saving ideas.

Recently I have gone back to school and started teaching yoga, all while keeping my day job and yup meal prep can often feel like the last thing I want to do but I know in the long run it will save me some time. So after speaking with a good friend we settled on a great way to do meal prep and keep some variety in our lives.

Starting with just the two of us writing emails back and forth figuring out our guidelines we formed a little two person freezer meal group.

What’s a freezer meal group? It is a group where people with common interests in food get together and bulk make some meals for sharing. When we stared our group we agreed on a couple things:

1. We would make healthy clean meals
2. We would give the other members of the group the power to say no to certain ingredients or meals as a whole. For dietary restriction reasons and taste, no one wants to get stuck with something they can’t or won’t eat.
3. Portion would have to be enough for a meal and left overs for a second meal. We also got specific on the size of dish for casseroles and such, we picked something that would be easy to make and still provide enough food.
4. We would exchange food stuffs once a month.

Pretty simple right! It has also been fun to challenge myself to keep finding tasty healthy meals that will do well in the freezer and it has saved me am infinite amount of time.

Now this idea isn’t a new one and it isn’t something I came up with off the top of my head. I have seen multiple blog posts about it but to be honest it always looked like more trouble than it was worth. Perhaps it was because those groups always had a minimum of 4 people and they always seemed to cook together.

Either way we have found something that works for us and I am sure happy we did. On nights where I have my own gym session, am teaching a yoga class and still have to come home and study meals that can just be popped into the oven have saved my life. Also knowing that the meals are clean and healthy makes me feel even more excited about their convince.

Just another example about how clean eating doesn’t have to be hard and complicated.

Have you ever tried something like this? Would you be interested in hearing more about this or what types of meals we make? I would love to hear back from you.

Happy Friday!

Sugar Cravings are the Worst

Putting all things in perspective sugar cravings probably aren’t the “worst” but they can get pretty brutal at times. Between the headache that seems like it will never go away, the intense compulsion to eat any baked goods in your vicinity or the extreme irritability that comes with withdrawals it is hard to pick which is worse.

Now I am someone that generally eats fairly healthy. I always do my best to eat loads of fruit and vegetable, whole grains, complex carbohydrates,and lean proteins but that isn’t to say I don’t indulge every once in a while. Unfortunately, as I have stated in the past my last “indulgence” has lasted for months so as a special treat I am currently going through delayed sugar withdrawal.

I have done cleanses and clean eating challenges in the past and I would have to say with the exception of my first cleanse ever (10 years ago) this will be ranking as one of my worst sugar withdrawals of life.

I find myself sitting here picturing floating Easter chocolate, licorice and red velvet cake hoping that my berry smoothie with satisfy my need for sweets knowing it won’t because there is no refined sugar in it. I think the worst part of it (besides knowing this would happen when I was eating all the food mentioned above) is knowing that besides doing a handful of things (like putting cinnamon in everything) there isn’t much I can do but wait it out and just waiting is a terrible feeling. But alas I have done this to myself so no complaining.

Have you ever experience this from sugar, wheat or dairy (they are my big three)? Or any other food that you find yourself craving intensely after cutting it out or reducing it from your regular diet? Let me know I would love to hear it.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Weekend Round Up – more Birthdays

This weekend was my first weekend in the new studio for Rock n’ Roll yoga. It is funny how something as small as a change in venue can have your nerves firing off as though you are teaching your first class.

Nerves aside the class was great. The space at Studio X was amazing, bright, cozy and clean. All the wonderful students who came to the first class were impressed and pleased with the new digs, so before class even started we were all starting off on the right foot.

After class Saturday afternoon it was back home to get ready for the final stages of a friend’s birthday surprise. We had informed her that we would hang out but she had no idea we would be surprising her.

Her fiancé did an amazing job of being sneaky and getting her out of the house for an hour so we would have enough time to decorate and prepare a bunch of her favorite foods

When she came in she totally didn’t suspect a thing. But once she saw us she was completely surprised! After attempting to run away from the surprise it all sunk in and she was excited to be hanging out with a small group of friends while snacking on some of her favour it foods.After a great night Saturday I was up early Sunday morning to tidy up a little and then had a nice relaxing day filled with my right now fav TV show Burn Notice and lots of snuggling with my kittens.

Now it is Monday and my first day of school. I am definitely excited to start learning and relearning how to take notes and pay attention for more than an hour at a time.

I hope everyone had a happy Monday.

Food Friday – Fish Tacos

So earlier this week I posted a beautiful picture of some tacos.  After being asked several times for the recipe I decided to postpone what I had planned for this Friday’s food Friday and to share the fish taco recipe instead.

These tacos were a bit of an experiment and I was so excited with how they turned out.  They definitely have a little kick to them, so if you are heat sensitive you might want to reduce the chili powder in fish rub as there is a bit more chili powder in the taco sauce.

Serves 4 – serving size 2 tacos

6 small Tilapia fillets
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
Squirt of lime

1 cup low fat Greek yogurt
1-3 tsp chipotle chili powder (to taste)
2.5 tsp lime juice

2 cups shredded cabbage
4 diced scallions
1/2 cup shredded cucumber
1 diced orange or red pepper

8 soft taco shells

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a small bowl mix together cumin, chili powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Spray a cookie sheet with olive oil. Place filets on the cookie sheet and rum with spiced. Place in preheated ovens for 10-15minutes.
4. Chop, slice and grate veggies and get them ready for taco assembly.
5. In a small bowl mix together Greek yogurt, like fresh squeezed juice and chipotle pepper.
6. Prepare taco shells according to their directions. For fish tacos I prefer getting nice quality soft tacos so you can warm them up in a pan and get them a little crispy.
7. Stack all the delicious veggies, top with fish and Greek yogurt sauce and ENJOY!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe my husband and I definitely did.

Happy Friday Everyone!

 

Food Friday – Chocolate Edition

Now I am not a huge chocolate or sweets person, I generally go for food that is overly saturated in sodium, delicious salty food.  But I mean like everyone else every now and again I crave something sweet, something chocolaty, you know something that isn’t an apple.  When this type of craving hits me I try my best to satisfy my sweets craving in a healthy way.  No it doesn’t always happen but in my mind it is always worth the effort.

The other day I was thinking to myself how bored I am with my regular breakfast of oatmeal and a hard boiled egg.  Sure I could have defaulted to my breakfast smoothies, but people it is winter and it is freezing. I don’t always want to start my day off with a cold smoothie, so I got to thinking.  What could I make that would be warm or neutral temperature and potentially full of delicious protein.  I figured it had been a while since I had played around with my protein powders so I figured it was time to test out making another delicious protein type square, this time with chocolate as it’s focus.

So I set myself up in the kitchen and got to baking.  After two attempts (the first one was so dry) I came up with this delicious, sweet, healthy peanut butter protein brownie.   They would be great coupled with some fruit for breakfast, or as a grab and go snack for your day.

Peanut Butter Protein Brownies:

Prep: 10 minutes Cooking: 15-20 minutes  Total Time: 30 minutes

Nutritional Information (9 servings):Calories: 144.3   Total Fat: 3.1g  Total Carbohydrate: 13.8g Fiber: 1.3g Sugars: 4.5g Protein: 15.8g

1 cup Oat Flour
3 scoops Chocolate Protein Powder of your choice
1 cup Greek Yogurt
4 Egg Whites
2 Tbsp Organic Maple Syrup or Organic Honey
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix (flower and protein powder) set aside.

3. In a small bowl mix yogurt, egg whites, maple syrup and peanut butter until smooth. Once smooth transfer to larger bowl with dry ingredients and stir.  Stir until well blended, the consistency should be slightly runny, if it isn’t add a bit more greek yogurt or milk/ a dairy free alternative (although you shouldn’t have to do this).

4. Grease a small square pan no larger than 6×4.  Once greased take a bit of extra protein powder and coat the pan, this will help prevent the brownies from sticking.

5. Pour mixture into greased pan and place in preheated oven.  Should take between 15-20minutes to cook.  Do not over cook, the oat flour absorbs quite a bit of moisture and overcooking will leave the brownies dry.

6. Once done baking, use a spatula to separate the sides from the pan and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.   Once cool flip pan upside down to remove brownies, cut into equal portions, yields approximate 9 squares.

*please note that although these brownies are delicious they are slightly drier than your regular fudge brownie, and much like a fudge brownie should be consumed in moderation.

I hope you enjoy these “brownies” and I hope they bring a bit of variety to your snack and morning routines.

Eating for Warmth

I am a little opposite in that I find it easier to get myself to the gym in the winter than I do in the summer.  So normally winter time are my “shedding” months, instead of getting a little bit of winter weight to deal with in the spring I tend to eat a bit healthier and exercise a bit more frequently.

Just because I generally make healthier choices in the winter doesn’t mean I am not often taunted by delicious carb, dairy and fat filled foods that are sure to warm my belly. It can be tricky convincing your body to eat a salad when it is -30 Celsius outside, especially when your body it telling you to eat another 4 servings of that hash-brown casserole you love so much, mmmm comfort.  But I digress…with winter being a bit of a struggle for some of us I figured I would offer up some delicious and satisfying healthy winter alternatives to your favorite heavy winter meal.

1. Craving mashed potatoes slathered in gravy?  Try to switch it up by serving up some mashed cauliflower reducing your carb intake, or if that really won’t do try cooking your potatoes in sugar free, low sodium chicken or veggie broth.  Cooking the potatoes in the broth will up the flavor, it also helps you cut out all dairy because you can just use the same broth to help during the mashing process.

2. Wants some tasty fried or roasted potatoes?  Try to switch it out for roasted root veggies or sweet potatoes.  Yes, they are still starch based but root vegetables such as squashes, sweet potatoes, turnips, etc are higher in minerals and vitamins than potatoes. They also have a variety of delicious flavors, these flavors aren’t only just delicious they will help your brain realize you are eating, and are more likely to help you stop when you are full.

3. Want that warm belly feeling that only cream of chicken soup will bring?  Try and switch your soup for a broth based soup.  This small change can help cut out fat and calories from your diet where maybe you thought you were already.  Broth based soups, because they aren’t dairy based, are lighter, easier for your body to break down and generally lower in fat.  Also they are so easy to make from scratch, so try getting creative in the kitchen.

4. Looking for something with a kick?  Swap out your traditional beef, bacon and beer filled chili for something a bit healthier.  Instead of red meat test out a ground chicken or turkey recipe, trust me you won’t be able to tell a difference and your body will thank you for it.

5. Craving a salad but it’s just too cold outside? Try making up a salad with both hot and cold components.  Maybe toss in some roasted sweet potatoes and hot chicken or fish on a bed of spinach with a plethora of other vegetables. Or maybe go all hot a nice bowl of warm quinoa salad might satisfy your craving for something fresh and vegetable filled while keeping you nice and toasty.

6. Want a delicious winter latté from Starbucks? Swap your regular dairy filled coffee treat with a green tea.  If that isn’t enough of a caffeine jolt for you maybe try out an American with a dash of cinnamon, the caffeine will keep you going, and the cinnamon will help to balance your blood sugars and stave off those cravings for sweets.

Hope these tips help you stay on track with your goals, I know I sure needed the reminder after the holiday season.

What do you do to keep your winter meals fresh, healthy and delicious?

Weekend Round Up – Girls Weekend

This past weekend was a great one. After some crazy weeks and some even more crazy weeks to come it was nice to escape the city to hang out with one of my closest girlfriends Gail.

We both took our Fridays off from work in order to get a head start on our time together. Seeing how we live in different cities and an extra hour here or there are precious hang out minutes to us.

Friday started off with checking in early to our hotel, the glorious Delta Montreal, setting our stuff down and then heading out for our first round of shopping. After several hours of walking around, a Starbucks break  and more walking around, we headed back to the hotel to rest our feet and get ready for what was sure to be a delicious meal.

Friday evening we headed over to La Société a Bistro style restaurant with some super tasty dishes. We split a magnificent shrimp cocktail and then I had some delicious maple bourbon chicken with crispy potatoes and s super fresh salad for my main.   I skipped desert because I was stuffed but also because of my nut allergy, desert isn’t really something I can get as a rule when eating out.After supper we were initially going to hit up a comedy club but after a morning of traveling, an afternoon of shopping and walking around, we both just wanted to relax a little and catch up some more. So we headed back to the hotel room to chat and relax.

I was up bright and early Saturday morning, I seem to be missing the gene to sleep in.  I knew this would happen so I was sure to bring my gym clothing so I had something to do while Gail was sleeping until a reasonable hour.

After the half marathon I had taken some time off of rigorous exercise and had been sticking to yoga for the past week so it was definitely nice to get in some gym time.   Normally I don’t have very high hopes for hotel gyms because well they really don’t seem to be a priority in most hotels. However, this gym was fantastic!  I was surprised by the range of weights, machines, cardio equipment and the stretching area that was available, they even had a squash court and a pool!  Initially I had planned on doing a body weight circuit but when I was surprised by all of the equipment I couldn’t resist throwing in some weight training.

After a great workout I headed back upstairs in the hopes that my friend was starting to rise.  I then quickly ran over to Starbucks to grab us some tea and quick breakfasts before we got our day started.

Although we had spent much of our Friday shopping the sun was out Saturday and there were just so many excuses to hit the streets again to see if we could find anything we loved.   We wandered up and down St. Catherines popping in and out of stores and checking out what they had. Unlike Ottawa, Montreal has a Vans store so we were sure to check them out and get me a new pair of kicks.  With another day of shopping under our belts it was time to head back to the hotel to start getting ready for dinner.
Oh my gosh dinner!  Dinner was incredible, Gail picked a place called Pintxo which serves small Spanish style tapas.  Gail knows me pretty well and knows that I love tiny plates of things, because you get to taste more that way, and I am not a fan of sharing my food.

Dinner was amazing, the restaurant was extremely cautious and attentive to my nut allergy (which is always a plus), the waitress totally knew her stuff and recommended the tastiest glass of wine and every plate I was served was more delicious than the one before it.   The resturant had an option where you could get 4 small pintxo and a main or you could get the regular sided pintxo and however many you wanted of them (they recommend 4 to 5 to make a meal).   Everything looked so tasty so I went with 4 pintxo so I could taste a bit of everything.
The lighting wasn’t the greatest and I gave up on taking photos when my last dish was served (it was a goat cheese ravioli in a duck stew, can you say amazing!).  If any of you are ever in Montreal I strongly recommend finding this place and tasting it out, it was by far one of my favorite treat meals in the past 5 months. I was saddened when the plates stopped coming, but also happy because I was pretty stuffed.

Luckily Sunday both Gail and I had later travel plans which meant some more time to hang out and enjoy the city.  We both took our time getting moving and then headed out for a late breakfast at a nearby dinner.  Once it was time to head out we packed up and both headed to our respective modes of transport.

As awesome and fun as the weekend was I was excited to get back home to my husband and kittens and to do some Sunday afternoon lounging. The rest of my weekend was filled with movies, kitten cuddles and some relaxation in preparation for the coming week.

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a weekend as I did and you were all able to stay warm in this increasingly cold weather.

Happy Monday!