Orange Maple Pecan Granola

 

 

Now that Christmas is over, and time for the resolutions to kick in, I can say I’ve taken some important first steps.

Step 1. I have registered to run in the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in Washington D.C. this spring – so I am committed, people are counting on me, and so I’ve already started my training plan.

Step 2. I have joined Weight Watchers, because quite honestly, it’s the only program that has ever worked for me (they aren’t paying me to say that, wish they were, but they’re not)… so I’m hoping in combo with running, I’ll have success.  And if not.. I’m just gonna invest in some of those elasticized polyester pants and wait to become a grandmother… but it’s not a great option… so hoping not to have to resort to that on just yet.

I have found granola to be a real help for me when trying to stay on plan, because you can use just a few tablespoons in your yogurt, with a ton of fruit, to make a sweet and healthy dessert when something sweet is mandatory!!!

This a really delicious granola recipe I adapted from a Cooking Light recipe for Power Granola.  But I wanted to use up some of the bits and pieces of dry cereal hanging around my pantry.. so I incorporated Rice Krispies in this batch… I have also used Corn Flakes and Cheerios with great success… and cleared out the those last boxes of cereal! This recipe also uses only 2 tsps of oil – so it’s much lighter than alot of the granola recipes out there… and the orange, maple, pecan combo is of course, wonderful.  It’s delicious mixed with fruit and yogurt as a parfait, or even with milk for breakfast.

Here is a link to our weeknight meals for this week coming up, I have tried to reduce the amount of pasta, by replacing it with healthier options such as bulgur, quinoa and spaghetti squash – and amazingly, the kids really like all of it… and the more we eat it, the more they like it.

Have a great week – and take care.

Orange Maple Pecan Granola

In a large mixing bowl combine:

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups dry cereal
1/2 cup pecans
2 tsp cinnamon

In a small saucepan, add:

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar

Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add:

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Then pour liquid mixture over dry mixture, stir well and pour onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 300 for 30-45 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your granola.  Allow to cool and store  in air proof container.

Happy New Year

What could I possibly say to myself this New Year’s Eve, that I haven’t said before… what inspirational self-talk could be left to make sure this year is the year where all my fitness and health goals come true… I cringe a bit even having this cliche discussion with myself (and now you as well)… but it seems a bit of a necessary step.  So I’m going to change the approach a little this year…

First, my overall goal will be to run 3 races this year – not sure about the length of each race… I just want to have them as interim goals to work towards – because that provides me huge motivation to take care of myself and a big sense of accomplishment when they are done.  To support this main goal… I’m going to set up 12 connected goals, one for each month… so one by one… bit by bit… progress will be made.

So why any difference this year? I think this year will be different because I am finally admitting that I will always need to work on myself… I am not naturally skinny, athletic or able to pass up dessert easily.  I will always, always, need to work and work and work at this stuff – and I think acknowledging that will be a big part of not getting discouraged, jaded or bitter about New Year’s resolutions…. and really, who among us finds staying healthy easy…  I just don’t think it is easy to find the time to exercise, the time to shop and cook healthy food and take care of ourselves, when there is so much else that needs to be done… who finds that super easy?  It takes work.  Just that simple.  This is a lesson I think my kids need to learn early – it’s not easy, and as life changes, they need to change and adapt – but it all takes determination and effort.

But I am determined to be thankful for a fresh start this New Year, in this ongoing journey.

So here are the topics I’m going to explore in the first part of the year:

January – Learning and practising mindful eating

February – Developing a healthy addiction to fruits and vegetables

March – Incorporating more yoga, stretching and strength training into my life

April – Exploring foods as fuel for training

We’ll see how that goes, and take it from there…

Happy New Year everyone.

Christmas Food Survival

Apologies for my looooong absence… been a busy time of year – in part because my family decided to try and organize a gingerbread house fundraiser for our community – and it was the first time ever… so the result was wonderful and Christmasy… but alot of work and alot of lessons learned.  I think by next year we will have recouped our energy and will be ready to make it bigger and better.  So it’s been busy, busy, busy!!

So now I turn my attention to my favourite time of the year… Christmas… I love the anticipation, I love the decorating, I love the shopping, I love, love, love the baking – but every year, same old struggle… how to bake everything I want and not expand beyond belief….

And since this is my first Christmas with a blog… I decided to try to use it to my advantage… I don’t think I will try to lose any weight over Christmas… that’s just silly… but I would like to keep to my running schedule while also enjoying some of my very very favourite treats… so I’m mapping it out for myself.  I like a good plan. So I’ve figured out how to incorporate a calendar into my post – oh ya! small miracle!  I am going to post my baking and running plan – in an attempt to balance the two!!  I will continue to update this calendar as my plans evolve.  For now… it’s a start! I read an excellent article called ‘Run Less, Lose More Fat’ from Women’s Health Magazine that talks about my exact problem… so much running and so little weight loss!! Have a look – within it, is a really good idea for interval training which I have incorporated into schedule below.

My general approach is only indulge in just the very most worth it calories – and try to pass up the so so’s, while balancing with really healthy meals – and by giving myself permission to do that… hoping to minimize the damage while enjoying Christmas…. cause let’s face it… Christmas needs treats and turkey – in moderation of course!  I have some tried and true recipes from Cooking Light that are relatively healthy and I make every year – a dark old-fashioned fruitcake that is amazing, and I need always to have a bowl of the cranberry-orange trifle… yum yum… some gingerbread in some form (cookies, muffins, cupcakes, loaf)  is always important…  and of course steamed pudding (which is surprisingly low in fat) and we’ll see what else is worthy of a nibble.

Many blessings to you and your family this Christmas!

Running, Weight Loss and Weigh In

It’s been one week since I resolved, and publicly no less, that I was determined, and resigned, to the fact that running would not be my panacea for weight loss, or even maintenace… so using this blog as my forum to vent, and publicize my resolutions… I now need to report back on my progress.

First, let me fill you in a bit of what I did this past week to try and follow-up on my blabbering:

1. Tracking – It is well established in the diet/nutrition communities that tracking what we eat is very important when trying to lose weight.  It serves multiple purposes, it helps create an awareness of how much, how often and what time of day we eat, so we can uncover patterns that might be causing trouble.  It also helps us document gaps in our nutrition… not enough dairy, too much red meat, not enough chocolate (just kidding).

I have tried multiple ways of tracking my food over the many, many years of weight managment (or the lack thereof), ranging from the olden days of a notebook, to online programs as well as now, slick apps available for phones… and what I recommend is finding the easiest system for you… I’m currently experimenting with a couple of phone apps – because that is what works best for me,  and by ‘works best’, I mean that I remember to use it because it’s on my phone, and is usually with me, so I can enter food in there as I eat..

I’m trying the Livestrong My Plate Calorie tracker, Lose It! and Sparkpeople Diet and Food Tracker – it helps if they have a fairly decent database of foods and associated nutritional information – so much less frustrating that way.  Although, I have not worried overly much about the calories, fat, protein etc. associated with everything I eat, because who has time to ensure that is completely accurate… I have used it more as a tool to keep a running list of what and when I’ve eaten… and what I’ve discovered, is that it is incredible how quickly things add up… a bowl of cereal here, a cookie there… each not much on its own… but after a day of that – it adds up.  Kind of like my credit card… a bit here a bit there…. how did I spend that much!?!?!

I found a good article which reviews health and fitness apps, and gives you a good starting point – I will also report back on which app I settle on.

2. Baking – I did not indulge in any baking of yummy, buttery, sugary, sweet good things… but instead played around and enjoyed…

a) more of the quinoa cookies, which have enough protein and fibre to help fill me up.

b) I also played around with my homemade yogurt recipe, between Step 4 and the Final Step – I added in 2/3 cup of sugar and 2-2  1/2 TBSP orange extract, vanilla or lemon extract (or more if you desire), and then when the yogurt was done in the yogurt maker – you have Orange, Vanilla or Lemon yogurt… family loved this, and I did too, this felt like dessert with fruit or granola mixed in.

c) Baked apples… yummy, comforting, healthy and low calorie. They were good on my breakfast oatmeal – and half the kids enjoyed them in her lunches, really just glorified applesauce. The recipe follows at the end of the post.

d) A new recipe for Chocolate Ice Cream, which uses frozen bananas as the base… I was skeptical, but as the blogger reports, it is indeed a ‘game-changer’ – fantastic!!! Really – try it!!!

3. Prep: I also washed, slice and diced a variety of fruit and veggies, and put them in the fridge for both myself, and for the kids and their lunches… it’s a really important step for all of us, one that I try to incorporate into my weekly prep, because if it’s not ready, the laziness kicks in, and the ice cream seems infinitely easier… (mind you, there was no ice cream this week)! Just as an example… I also left a bowl of grapes out on the counter one afternoon, while I was getting dinner ready… and the kids hung out and ate grapes… having the good healthy food, out and ready to go was all they needed to encourage some fruit intake… clever huh??

4. Exercise – I ran 3 out of my 4 scheduled runs… and walked my dog a few times to fill in the gap days… so not to bad, considering how frustrated I was last week about the whole running thing.  I have decided to cut back my training runs to no more than 5-7 km over the winter, while I try and understand how to make my eating co-exist in peace with my running.  Running 25 or 30 kms a week makes a girl really hungry… so I’m going ease up a bit, and see if I can’t figure things out. I use RunMeter GPS to track my runs, it is a fabulous app that acts like a GPS watch, so you can monitor you distance, speed and time while recording your workouts – great stuff.

So that was my week, and happily the scale moved in the right direction… so heading into another week… Halloween looms ahead… Take care everyone.

Baked Apples with Raspberry Sauce

This makes a really comforting apple dish, that is nice and sweet without much added sugar… the best of apple pie!!  You could vary the jam and dried fruit to customize to your tastes!

8 medium apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup raspberry jam – I used PC Twice the Fruit Jam, only 25 calories per Tbsp
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup craisins ( I used raspberry flavoured)
1 tsp cinnamon

Peel, core and slice apples into a casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Mix the jam and water together until blended, and stir to coat the apples, then sprinkle craisins and cinnamon over top.  Bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes, stir and then remove lid for 10-15 minutes until soft.

Running & Losing Weight & Quinoa?

 

In an earlier post I mentioned my new found love/hate for running… in the past year I’ve gone from doing the odd aerobics class to running a 30km race, (Around the Bay), and two half marathons – not bad right? I have to say, I’m proud of myself because I would have never thought it possible, for a variety of reasons… and so to cross those finish lines was very satisfying.

However, as my first year as a ‘runner’ comes to a close, and I reflect (while standing on my scale) over my successes, I have to say I’m also disappointed, really disappointed.  Disappointed, because the steadfast committment to running 3 or 4 times a week, endless kilometres, and through a few pairs of shoes – has that gotten me a smaller, lighter and svelte runner’s body?? Umm, no, and in fact – I’ve gained weight.  Yup.  So, that pretty much sucks.  To be fair – I’m short and curvy at the best of times, so long and lean was not to be, no matter how many kms I logged… but weight gain?  UGH.

So – I  am gonna get serious… I know I’ve been loudly blogging about eating like my grandmother and blah blah blah… but I’m guessing my grandmother also had a wonderful metabolism, and perhaps didn’t use food to reward herself after an awesome run!

In the past year, my husband and I have also taken my kids along for the running adventures – and they’ve done three 5km races this year – and they are learning to love it as well… so together we are finding our running legs, and together we will learn to eat properly for this activity… but I’m the one who wants/needs to lose a bit of weight – so join me over the next 2 months, and we’ll see what we can do. I’m combing the web to try and find some advice and I’ll pass it along, with some challenges each week, which hopefully will help.

This Week’s Challenges:

1. Write it all down… all the experts say, logging your eating, as well as your exercise, keeps you accountable… and I know you can nibble your way through the day without really appreciating how much you’ve eaten…

2. No baking any decadant cakes, cookies or muffins for a while… just a short break… instead I’m going to work on making heartier fare… like these quinoa cookies – which were awesome power cookies, and everyone loved them, and no detected the quinoa, but the protein that the quinoa delivers really helps to fill you up!!!  I’m going to find other ways to sneak this awesome secret weapon into my baking.

3. Make sure there is lots of fruit (prepped and ready to go, I get lazy if I have to wash it), yogurt and granola ready to go – and no buying ice cream this week.

4. Log my 4 training runs.

5. I planned this week’s menu to be as healthy as I can without things getting silly!

Ok, let’s go.

Apple Bread with Lime Glaze

This weekend, I’m getting ready to run my 2nd half-marathon… which, for me, is a major, scarey event. For years I was a huge hater of running… I would mock all those who ran… I would claim that I couldn’t run… you know, my back, my knees… but just one year ago – I signed up to run for Team in Training – to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada – and now… I plod away… it isn’t pretty, but I do it… and dare I say it… I’m a runner?  I’ll revisit this question later… for now, I felt like treating myself given I have 21 kms to run this Sunday… and so…

I based this recipe on a Rhubarb-Buttermilk Tea Cake I found in my Chatelaine magazine… but since I have a HUGE bag of apples in my kitchen… it’s apple everything right now… and I really loved this cake – and it’s a little bit healthy.

Apple Bread with Lime Glaze

3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or you can sub in white flour instead)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups peeled and chopped apple
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Lime Glaze

1 cup icing sugar
4-5 tsp lime juice

Combine flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk egg, sugar, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture.  Add in chopped apples, and stir only until combined – do not over site! Pour into a loaf pan, with bottom coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes.

Once cool, make your glaze, and drizzle over loaf.

Cilantro Lime Chicken – So So Good

This recipe is such a nice change from your average chicken dinner – the flavours are interesting, and work so well together… I’ve adapted the recipe to make it faster for a week filled with hockey practice!!! But full credit needs to go the the Sugar Baby Boutique blog – I wish I could take credit for this incredible recipe… but would like to thank them for the original Cilantro Lime Chicken Bake.  So if you have all the ingredients on hand, this should come together very quickly for you. If you have the time to marinate your chicken, and take the extra steps in the original recipe – then try it out, I’m sure it would be even more delicious!

Cilantro Lime Chicken – Speedy Version

2 cups cooked rice

1 Tbsp instant chicken broth or bouillon cube (use in the cooked rice)

1 Tbsp lime juice (freshly squeezed or from a bottle)

2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped  (TIP: I used the ‘Melt in your mouth’ chicken from one of our weekly menus – cooked double and froze it)

1 jalapeño, chopped (this is optional, but a keep a jar  in the fridge, cause we love them!)

2 cups light sour cream (I used 1%)

2 cups shredded light Monterey or pepper jack cheese

1 cup mango salsa (make sure you include this, really good!)

2 cups chopped tomatoes

ranch buttermilk dressing (also make sure you have this as well!)

1. To make your cilantro rice mixture, first prepare your rice by cooking according to directions specific to type of rice you chose; plan on ending up with around 2 cups cooked rice.  Add in chicken broth along with the water to while cooking the rice for extra flavour.  When rice is done, remove from heat, and add in lime juice, sugar and cilantro.

2. Spread rice mixture into the bottom of a large casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray.

3. Evenly layer the cooked chicken and chopped jalapeño over the cilantro rice mixture, and you can add in more cilantro at this point if you wish!

4. Spread sour cream over top of chicken, then mango salsa and top with cheese.

5. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

6. Serve with chopped tomatoes and buttermilk dressing.

Nacho Cheese Soup (aka Butternut Squash Soup)

This recipe is slightly adapted from the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook.  The kids think it tastes like nacho cheese… so you don’t need to say otherwise until they try it, and I’m sure – love it!!! So not only is it delicious… but it’s easy to do in the slow cooker… win win.

Butternut Squash Soup

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

2 cups water

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp ground red pepper or red pepper flakes

2 extra-large vegetable bouillon cubes

1 package (8 oz) light cream cheese 

 

In a large skillet, melt butter and cook onion in butter, until softened.

Place cooked onion into slow cooker, along with remaining ingredients – EXCEPT cream cheese.

Cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours.

When cooking time complete – I use a hand mixer to purree soup right in the slow cooker.  Then add in the cream cheese, and use a wire whisk to stir into soup.  Cook on low heat for an additional 30 minutes, whisking again as necessary, for a nice smooth soup.

Kale Chips?? YES!!!!

I realized, after looking over my posts, and observing the number of cakes, cookies, muffins etc that I have made since I started this blog… that I was hardly pushing boundaries with my kids! Getting them to try my Oatmeal Cookies or Granola Bars was hardly difficult…  And in order to make sure I could justify the name of my blog (!!!) I thought I should try something new, and perhaps even a little edgy! Enter KALE CHIPS!

In the menu for this week, I had included a nice slow-cooker recipe for Sweet Potato Soup with Kale Chips from Better Homes and Gardens, and I originally was just going to make the soup, but given  my realization that the kids were getting a bit of a free ride so far in the experimentation department… I thought we should go for it… and I’m here to report that this recipe is:

1. SUPER easy

2. REALLY GOOD!

In fact, the kids both tried them, and said they were amazing… and I suggested they could have them as an appetizer as they waited for supper, and the actual response, simultaneously out of them was ‘Yaaay’.  Yup, no kidding.  They loved them.

Try ’em out. Enjoy!

Vanilla Vanilla Cake

Happy 12th Birthday to my son… and I suppose because of his new ‘maturity’, he requested a simple, but elegant, vanilla cake (I couldn’t even talk him into sprinkles!!!).  Gone are the days of the superhero or cartoon character cakes… my favourite being the Scooby Doo cake… sigh. This at least gives me the opportunity to experiment with flavours, as opposed to just  food colourings (anyone who’s ever made a Barney or Spiderman cake, knows what I mean).

 

 

 

 

I searched on Pinterest for ‘best vanilla cake’… and after checking them all out, I chose a recipe from Bakerella (thanks!!!) – for three reasons: the first being the claim that is was ‘the best’, and the second being the fact that it was based on a cake mix, and I was running out of time, and the third and silliest reason, was that it included some Sprite in it, and my son thought that sounded incredibly cool.

The cake was delicious – moist and substantial, with not hint of cake mix about it.  I didn’t make any changes to the Bakerella recipe for Simple Sprite Cake, except for one… and it wasn’t by choice… Funny story actually –  even though I make my menu, make my lists, do my shopping, and blah, blah, blah about it on this blog… I found myself half way through the cake recipe, without a box of instant vanilla pudding… time was of the essence… so once again, to Pinterest, where I had seen a recipe for ‘DIY Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix‘… and luckily, I had all the ingredients for that… so I quickly whipped up a batch of that, and substituted it into my recipe… I have yet to try the mix for the purpose  of actual pudding… but when I do, I’ll report back… I know it seemed to work very nicely for this cake though!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy.