Change is good.

Hey everyone.  Hope you are having a marvelous end to your week.  A big change happed here on this blog today.  I have moved, so updates those links kids.  I am now at Beth, Effervescent.  So join me there for more healthy tips, recipes, green smoothies, and videos.

Kale and Collards Cheesey Eggbake

This was a hit with everyone in the family.  It is simple and easy to make for a brunch or if you have people staying with you. It also reheats well which makes it a good option for weekday meals or  when you do not have a lot of time to cook in the morning.  

There is not much to the recipe but it is so good and went into the recipe rotation right away.  You can vary the greens with what you have on hand and the same goes for the cheese.

Kale and Collards Cheesey Eggbake

12 eggs

1 cup gouda cheese, grated

5 oz. kale and collards

salt and pepper to taste

Butter a 13x9 baking pan and preheat oven to 375 F. Saute your greens until wilted. and spread them on the bottom of your pan.  Add grated cheese on top.  Put eggs in a bowl and whisk well.  Pour over cheese and greens.  Stir with a fork to mix greens, cheese, and egg together.  Pop into the oven and cook for 30 to 40 minutes and looks set.  Makes about 9 servings.

Favorite Sites of August 2013

Here are a few of the websites I have been grooving on for the past month or longer.  They tend to be staples in my internetting.  Have a look and enjoy.

1. First website is Stumptous.com.  I love Mistress Krista with her rants and no nonsense attitude towards women and weight training.  Stumptous is a site that has served me well over the years for training programs and advice.  If you haven’t checked out this site do it.

2. Another long time favorite is Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks.  She has a couple of cookbooks out now too.  Heidi’s focus is on whole foods and vegetarian cuisine.  It has my go to recipe for cooking quinoa on it.  She has beautiful soups that are on the to try list or already a fixture in the winter soup menus.  Heidi offers a wide variety of recipes.

3. Caroline Hirons over at Beauty Mouth has great skin care advice.  While she is not completely natural in her skin care (neither am I though) she is wonderful. Her cheat sheets for skin care are awesome.  I went through most of my life thinking my skin was just oily and crazy, turned out my skin was dehydrated.  She will tell you what is crap and what is not.

4. Pinterest, oh how I love you.  I’ve been hitting that site pretty hard in the last few weeks.  Food, nail polish, yoga poses, smoothie ideas, hair. Pinterest has it on there.  Much more fun than booking marking stuff and you get to ogle everyone else’s pins.  Oven fries are a staple in my life because of Pinterest.

5. Elsie's Yoga Kula, I love Elsie.  She is an Anusura instructor who does podcasts.  She is one of my favorites for yoga practice.  She offers beginners, intermediate and advanced yoga practices via free podcasts.  She has 99 podcasts at this point with something for every mood.

If you have any sites you love let me know.  I am always looking for new places to visit and stalk. 

Vlog: Ramblings about food, bread, and misconceptions

Morning Running Fail

This summer I decided I wanted to keep running, which means doing it in the morning.  I am not a morning person, never have been, and highly doubt I ever will be.  Mornings should be eased into with plenty of coffee, internetting, and social media.  There is no jumping out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed for me even with a full nights sleep.

This is what I keep repeating to myself as I stagger out the door.

So you may have guessed getting my butt out of bed and running first thing is a bit of a challenge for me. Morning running started out in a fasted state which ruined me for the rest of the day. It was bad.  I was cranky, tired, and awful for the rest of the day.  Now I am eating a granola bar before I head out which has helped with my moods.  I am no longer a crab for the rest of the day, still tired though.

When does all  that energy which is supposed to come from morning exercise kick in?  I sure do not have it.  I get up around the same time everyday so its not like I get up earlier to go running. Afternoon run or exercise I feel energetic afterwards, morning not so much.

As for consistency in the morning, so far that is not going to well either.  I boot the computer up and don’t do it or eat my granola bar, roll over and go back to sleep.  Afternoon or evening I am fine with. Afternoon seems to be my time for exercise in general. I am going to struggle through getting up and running two or three days a week as it is important to me and I keep hoping to find the awesome that turns a mourning run into a morning run. Yes, I have been referring to them as mourning runs. Is it autumn yet?

Blackberry and Lime Green Smoothie

Blackberry and lime are one of my favorite combinations.  I found some blackberries lurking the freezer and decided to use them up.  I used spinach but kale, chard etc. will work just fine.  Spinach is what I happen to have on hand at them moment.  This can run a tad tart so use a little honey if needed.  

Blackberry and Lime Green Smoothie

1 to 2 handfuls roughly 2 cups spinach fresh or frozen

2 cups blackberries fresh or frozen

2 cups almond milk

juice of 1/2 a lime

1 cup water if needed

1 to 2 tablespoons honey (optional)

Add almond milk, spinach, black berries, and lime juice and blitz for two minutes.  My spinach and blackberries were frozen it needed some extra liquid to blend properly.  If you find it is too tart add some honey.  This made about a quart of smoothie.

Chin Up Goal Update

In April I announced my goal to do a chin up.  I have yet to do one but I am working on it and am a quarter of the way there which means I have improved and that means I am stronger than I was which is very cool.  Sometimes I worked directly on this goal and others indirectly, either way it is always in the back of my mind when picking out exercise for New Rules of Lifting Supercharged (NROLS).

In August I decided to do NROLS two times a week and instead of a vanity or beachbody day I’d have chin up day. This workout is going to be repeated in variations over the next few months.  For this month one of my main considerations was time I did not want this session going over thirty minutes and it clocked in at twenty so I added in the Turkish get ups (TGU), just because I love them.

Here is what I am doing.  I am not a personal trainer just an enthusiast.

Bicep curls 1x15

Lat. pull down 1x15

Suspended row 1x15

Assisted chin up 1x as many as possible

Reverse Chin up 1x as many as possible

Chin up attempts 1x as many as possible

TGU 1x5 each side

I did this last Wednesday and liked how it flowed and felt about right for with weight choices.  I am hoping to be halfway there by the end of September. 

Managing Breakfast Tips

Do you eat breakfast?  I do. There were years and years where my breakfast consisted of a big glass of juice and coffee.  Breakfast can be one of the meals we have the least time to prepare and consume while getting ready for our day.  There is a lot that goes on in the morning.

One thing I learned about breakfast is to have several items at hand that are easy.  I started out with pre-packaged oatmeal but it is really hard to find one that is not super sweet or that does not include apple cinnamon which I am not a fan of.  The apple tastes fake and weird to me even with organic brands.  Smoothies never keep me full so I tend not to have those as a breakfast.

So how do you make breakfast fast and healthy?  Here are a few of my top tips.

1. Big batches of grain porridge: Irish (steel cut) oats, rolled oats, barley, quinoa, multi-grain hot cereals. I freeze them in bags, I like to put two cups in a bag that is two days of brekkie.

2. Yogurt, fruit, and granola.  Simple and easy just make sure your yogurt and granola are not sugar bombs. I like this granola paired with unsweetened yogurt.  You could also use nuts if you are off grains.

3. Egg bakes they reheat well. Kalyn's Kitchen has some great recipes for them.  I linked my favorite.

4. This is a more recent addition to my breakfast repertoire Chia seed pudding with fruit.  Make the night before to make it really easy.

5. Leftovers, soup, and other savoury foods.  Don’t limit yourself to what we think of as breakfast food.

Do you have other ways to make breakfast easy and fast?  Leave a comment if you do, I love new ideas!

A Brilliant Week Vlog

Sugar Bomb Yogurt

Roasted Tomatoes Recipe

Ready to get popped into the oven.

 This is an easy recipe which is mostly hands off and comes in so handy when you need tomatoes in the winter. Roasted tomatoes make a good pasta sauce, you can use them in soups, reheat and eat as a veg side, and whatever else you can think of.  

Nice and soft which means they are done.

They freeze wonderfully so making a big batch works well. You can use whatever tomatoes look the best just adjust cooking time for size and amount.  I like to use Roma tomatoes for this but this time I used a slicing tomato. I do not weigh out my tomatoes I just guess.

Ready for the freezer

Roasted Tomatoes

2 pounds or so of tomatoes, quartered if large.

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh or dried herbs such as thyme or rosemary.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Quarter large tomatoes, romas you can leave whole.  Toss with oil, salt, and pepper in a 13x9 pan. Put in oven and roast for 15 minutes.  Take out and stir tomatoes and roast for another 15 minutes. Check and see if they look soft.  If they look soft they are done, if still hard or firm looking roast for another 10 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on size and how many tomatoes are in your baking dish.

Freeze it! What to do with leftovers

My uncle and aunt were  in town this past week so we had more food on hand than we normally do and also had two dinner parties.  Needless to say there was a lot of cooking that went on for that.  My strategy is to have what I can done beforehand which makes life so much easier. But you can’t do all of it ahead of time.  And what do you do with all the extras that you end up with?

There is some of the new food stash.

They were here for about five days and in the end we ended up with way too many leftovers for the three of us to eat after the fact. Most of the leftovers were unavoidable, the normal pan size for us of lasagne or macaroni and cheese is not enough for five people.  For the dinner parties I would rather have too much than not enough, running out of food is a bummer, too much I can deal with that.  Some items such as the pork shoulder I made extra for sandwich meat that would be lunch the next day.  Cook once and eat twice, love it. We had leftover over fruit and cucumbers too that needed to be dealt with after they left.  The two casualties we had were the spring mix (almost didn’t buy it and didn’t use it) and the strawberries which we did use but not fast enough ( tossed about half of them).

So what did I freeze?

• Sliced peaches in 2 cup packets
• Mac-n-cheese in single serving lunch packets
• Chard risotto in 2 cup packets for risotto cakes
• 2 packets of rice, 1 basmati the other regular
• One roasted Hutterite chicken 4 packets 2 of breast meat and 2 dark
• Blackberries
• Polenta
• Cucumbers for smoothies
• 3 large packets of pork shoulder
• Pomegranate/cilantro sauce for pork
• Lasagne in single serving lunch packets
• Summer Meatballs for a dinner
• Two 2 cup packets of roasted tomatoes
• Chicken carcass for stock
• Cavapcici and ajvar  Ignore the picture with the recipe as that is not cavapcici.

We are stocked up for a while now and that feels very good. Plus I do not have food languishing in my fridge going bad and that makes me feel awesome.  What do you freeze?

Kundalini Yoga DVDs for Beginners

Mantra Girl Introduction to Kundalini Yoga and Chanting
Maya Fiennes De-stress and detox
Ravi Singh and Ana Brett Fat Free Yoga

Cilantro and Olive Chicken

Chicken, Tomatoes, Olives, and Cilantro is a quick and easy recipe to whip up. The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Fresh Food Fast.  This is also a recipe I tend to forget about, not sure why we really like it and it’s easy.  Dinner menus have been hard to come up with recently and the only thing on the menu that day was ‘chix’.  No recipe, no idea or even veg.  Just ‘chix’

Than a light bulb went off in my head and I remembered Cilantro-Olive chicken as I refer to it. I like to serve this with rice but potatoes or bread would work too.  We are out of onions so you will see it in the recipe but none in my picture.  Sometimes onion powder can save you and if you do not like cilantro, parsley will work.

1 tablespoon olive oil

4  boneless chicken breast or a packet of tenders

1 onion sliced thinly

1 pint cherry tomatoes or 14 oz. canned tomatoes

1/3 cup green olives

juice from half a lime

1/4 cup cilantro.

Brown chicken on both sides about 5 minutes each side.  Saute onions until soft. Add tomatoes and olives.  If using fresh tomatoes cook until softened and juices release.  If using canned let juices reduce a bit.  Add lime juice and cilantro cook a minute or two.

5 Tips for Beginner Weight Lifters

The first time I started lifting weights it was a mess.  I’d pick out something from a magazine and not get any results.  Some would say lift heavy, while others said not to.  I biceped curled my way into sore and tight shoulders from bad form and too heavy weights, because something a magazine told me.  I look back and think, no wonder I stopped lifting.

My weight plates, all 184 pounds of them.

The second time I started,it turned out much better and the results kept me going. Now the desire to be strong fuels my desire to keep lifting.

1. Find a program that focuses on compound movements. Examples are shoulder press, lunges, squats, push ups, notice the distinct lack of tricep kickbacks.

2. Form is important.  If you can’t lift it without good form you need to lift less weight.  For the reboot of lifting I started with weights that were not heavy.  It did two things for me, it let me work with good form and built my confidence.

3.  Do not be afraid to work with weights that challenge you. Ladies you will not get bulky. I am pretty sure your purse, toddler, grocery bag is heavier than five pounds.  Why not be able to lift those items with ease and grace?

4.  Find flat shoes or if possible lift barefoot.  Ditching my cross trainers when lifting was one of the best lifting decisions I have made. Many people like Chuck Taylors for lifting shoes or minimal shoes.

5. Seek guidance.  Whether you video yourself lifting and have others critique you or hire a trainer. Find folks to help you with form and questions.  JP Fitness forms is a great resource for this or Fitocracy.

Retrying Food Video

Tips for the Beginner Yogi

I love yoga.  When I started practicing yoga it was difficult to find books and videos.  One would head down to the local metaphysical bookstore because no one else had anything on yoga.  But I wanted to try yoga. So I tracked down a Sivananda Yoga book and eventually found the old Yoga Journal videos and bought all of them and they were expensive for a college student.  The University I went to had a class that I signed up for.  Susan Ann was my first yoga teacher, she glowed and was warm and welcoming.  She taught us a wide variety of styles so we could try them all.  She inspires me to this day.

Finishing up with a breathing meditation.

Getting started can often be the hardest part about adding in something to one’s life.  Here are some easy steps to get you started in your yoga practice.

1. Take classes and try a wide variety of styles and teachers. Let the teacher know you are new to yoga  and if you have any injuries.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

2. Not all of your yoga sessions need to be long or hard.  If you are tired, sore, or rundown relaxation yoga will do more for you than a tough session.  

3. Practice at home. A home yoga practice allows you to deepen your knowledge and lets you work at your own pace.

4. Forget the full expression of an asana.  It is about the journey, not the destination which you may never get to. Work where you are that day and that moment.

5.  Don’t be afraid of meditation and chanting, it is designed to make you the best you can be.  

Namaste and Sat nam.

Finding My Healthy Part 3: The Rules

After starting to get healthy here are a few of the food rules that I used at various times.  None of them worked out or were sustainable habits for me in the long run. My only real goal at this time was to be healthy and feel better about myself. Some of them still make me laugh and shake my head.  I’ll write more about what worked but for today, we will stick with the unworkable and here they are.....

Monster Chocolate Cake does not look or taste like fruit.

 1. Eating only one serving of something. 4 oz. of cooked pasta will not fill you up. Thank the gods I decided if I was still hungry in half an hour I could eat another serving of something.  Of course I ate every 30 minutes as I was never full.

2. The grilled cheese sandwich moratorium.

3. Fruit as dessert and we are not talking about pie, just fruit.  This one made me stabbity.

4. Clean eating.  I know this phrase is everywhere but it seems restrictive to me and demonizes food.  Is some form of junky chip good for me? No, it is not, but I refuse to put it the into a food caste system that lumps pork shoulder into the same caste due to fat content.  I know what a pork shoulder looks like originally, a pig and the other I am not so sure what it looked like in its pre-processed state. They should not be in the same caste. I no longer adhere to clean eating or call my food clean or unclean unless it involves dirt.

5. Trying to understand USDA guidelines and use the pyramid of food (I know they use a plate now.)  I am still not sure why milk gets its own category as I am not undernourished and I don’t drink it or eat three serving of dairy on a daily basis. Also why are veggies and fruit not emphasized as much as grains. My attempt to get healthy with than food pyramid failed miserably.

What have you tried that didn’t work for you?

Kitchen Tools

Here are a few things I use a lot in my kitchen.  I still can't believe I forgot to include my kitchen shears, which I use almost everyday. 

Cherry Yogurt Pops

I started making my own pops a few years ago.  It started with one set of molds and then a second set the next summer.  It is nice to know what is really in them.  You can control sugar amounts and what type of sugar is in them.  It is also a good way to use up fruit and yogurt that is starting to get old. Plus they taste so much better than what you buy at the store.

The base for this recipe comes from Fany Gerson’s Paletas which is a lovely little tome full of great recipes for ice pops, shaved ices, and agua frescas.  Nothing is more refreshing on a hot day than popsicle.  They are portable you can take them with you, which is one of the why I think kids love them.  

This is a basic recipe and you can use the fruit of your choice.  The recipe originally called for 2 cups blackberries but as I did not have any I used about a cup of cherries and that worked very well.  

Cherry Yogurt Pops

1 lemon

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups unsweetened greek yogurt

2 tablespoons honey

1 to 2 cups cherries, quartered or berries.

Rinse the lemon, then peel it. Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, make sure sugar has dissolved.  Add lemon peel and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Add honey stirring until dissolved and let cool to room temperature. Put yogurt in medium bowl and add syrup and stir.  Stir in quartered cherries and pour into pop molds and freeze overnight.

Tips for Beginner Runners

I started running in I want to say 2004?  I could be wrong as I am rubbish with dates and years. But I’ve been doing it for a while now and still enjoy it.  It gets me outside into the fresh air and encourages me to enjoy the beautiful place that I live in.  My first experience with running was Junior High gym class and it was not positive, in fact it sucked.  I hated it so much,  it came as a huge surprise when I found out I liked it.

My new trail runners, aren't they pretty.

Some of the things I did not realize when I started running and was not  in shape: are that running really is an advanced exercise, base training should be thought of in years not months or weeks, and how much I would like it. There are several things I recommend to beginning runners:

1. Go to your local running store and get evaluated by them for shoes. What works for me, your friend, or someone else might not work for you.  The right shoe will make a big difference.

2. Start with a beginner running program. The Couch to 5K plan is a great way to start running.  That is the plan I used when I started running. You want to ease into it your muscles, tendons,and ligaments need time to adjust.

3. Running is long term relationship, base building, speed work, lactate threshold are built up over years.  

4. Cotton is evil!  It holds moisture which means when it is hot you are a soggy chafing mess and in winter you are a hypothermic soggy mess. I got blisters until I bought running socks. Buy running clothes with wicking fabrics.

5. Have fun and enjoy yourself.  Stop and smell the roses or enjoy the view when running, not every run has to be an intense challenge.

Dandelion Smoothie

Dandelion leaves are a very healthful food most people don’t think about cultivating them in their garden, they think about eradicating them.  I started letting dandelions grow in my garden a few years ago and the have flourished.  I do pull off the flowers to keep the population down, but other than that I don’t have to do anything to them other than pick them.

The colour reminds me of the '70's.

Dandelion green will provide you with vitamin K, A, and C and provide a good dose of calcium and other nutrients.  Treat them like any other green for cooking: blanch and saute them, young leafs can be tossed in salads, or smoothies.  My garden provides me with plenty of dandelion greens and I know they have not been sprayed with pesticide, so keep that in mind when picking them.

Dandelion Smoothie

2 cups Dandelion greens

3 apricots, pitted and chopped

1 clementine, peeled

1 cup almond milk

1 - 2 tablespoons honey

Toss in your blender and blitz for two minutes.