Happy Tuesday! I am having a much busier week than expected :( I didn't want to leave you guys without anything today so I wanted to pass along this amazingly interesting video I found from Dr. Weil.
I hope you guys are all having an amazing day. I woke up this morning and got my workout in!! yahhhh. Tomorrow's post will be much better I promise! Below is a very interesting video article on Dr. Weil speaking on How to Eat: The Anti‐Inflammatory Diet. A Must Watch!
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My weekend was great. Friday night, Sean and I had an amazing date night and went out to Opera Bistro. Sean had never been there before so we thought we would give it a try. Little did we know, it was going to be one of the best meals we ever had! Seriously amazing food and all of her produce is local and the meats are all grass fed. So it made us feel that much better knowing we were eating quality. Saturday morning I woke up early but it was still nice to sleep in a bit. Sean had a few errands to run so I figured a new recipe was in order! I had some pumpkin leftover that I wanted to use it up... a Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf was the result. I found a recipe from Carrots N Cake that I modified quite a bit and it turned out... well see for yourself! There is very little left because we all loved it so much! [Chocolate] Pumpkin Loaf - 1/2 cup Whole Wheat flour (I used Speerville) - 3/4 cup unbleached All Purpose flour (I used Speerville) - 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Fair trade - organic aisle) - 3/4 cup Sucanat (an organic brown sugar) - 2 free range eggs - 1 tsp baking powder - 1/2 tsp baking soda - 1/4 tsp sea salt - 2 tsp cinnamon - 1/2 tsp nutmeg - 2 tbsp ground flax - 1 tsp organic vanilla extract - 1/2 can (7.5 ounces) pumpkin (make sure it is just pure pumpkin and not "pie filling") - 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips 1) Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease your loaf pan. 2) Combine all your ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend well. 3) Once mixed, pour batter into loaf pan. 4) Bake for 45-60 minutes, until top is firm and a toothpick comes out clean. Mine took the 60 mins.. all depends on your oven. 5) All for the loaf to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into it. This is the perfect example of a nice healthy homemade treat that is good to snack on in moderation. You would think you are eating something bad, but all of the ingredients are healthy and great quality. Sunday I had my mom over and we spent the day cooking. We cooked a whole chicken (I will post all about this, it was a local free range chicken) and she colored my hair for me. Another interesting adventure because I tried out a new product... I usually get my hair done at a salon but i dont LOVE highlights... and I used to use a box dye but it was killing my hair and drying it out. So, I tried a new product I found in the organic aisle at the Superstore and it is an all natural herbal hair color. It contains aloe vera and echinacea and wow, it turned out very well!!!! I loved it and i think it put moisture into my hair instead of drying it out. :) And the color was perfect! When we were out shopping before going back to my house.. I picked up some tulips :) They just made me happy and they are so beautiful. Gata love fresh flowers. I have an amazing week ahead of new recipes!! I can't wait to share them with you.
Have a great day!! Lots of love Tonight will be a quick post.. it has been a busy night but I wanted to share with you a new recipe I tried this evening. Kale Chips! I have been hearing more and more about them these days and have been wanting to try them, so I figure what better time than a quiet Thursday night :) They were a lot easier to prepare than I thought. Quick and easy and a healthy snack for any time of the day. Kale Chips 1) Preheat your oven to 350. 2) Take the desired amount of kale leaves and rip the greens off the stem into bite size pieces. 3) Then put all of your greens into a bowl with cold water and use your hand to wash them. (yes, that is a band aid on my finger) 4) Drain the water out of the bowl and either use a salad spinner or paper towel to dry the greens VERY well! Make sure they are dry or else you will end up steaming them instead of crisping them. 5) Once the kale is dry, place it onto a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper (or sprayed), 6) Drizzle with 2tsp of extra virgin olive oil and then sprinkle with sea salt and parmesan. OR whatever seasoning of your choice. 7) Bake for 15 minutes until edges are brown and kale is crispy. Enjoy! These were good but not my favorite. I might not have seasoned them as much as I should have since I skimped on some of the salt. But overall def something i will try again. Let me know what you guys think!
It's been a busy week and I am glad tomorrow is Friday. Sean and I have planned a date night tomorrow night... just a quiet dinner out to spend some quality time together and reflect on the week. This week my goal has been to really focus on my posture. Back straight and Core tight! Very important when working at a desk job all day long! The night before we spent some time organizing our kitchen and pantry. Our space is pretty limited so we have to make the most of it. I even found some great stainless steal containers for all my little ingredients I use daily. Take a look! OH and our baby girl helped too! She supervised ;) Have a great weekend. Be active and stay healthy! Lot of love Metaxia I LOVE oatmeal. I used to have it every morning for breakfast before I started with my new yogurt dish just recently. When I say oatmeal, I don't mean the little flavored oatmeal packets filled with refined sugars you buy at the grocery store. I am talking about the old fashion oats (I use Speerville Organic oats) that you cook the old fashion way. They are plain, yes.. but it gives you so much room to flavor them naturally and top off with beautifully colored fresh fruit! Are you as excited as I am?! lol Most of the time I stick to my regular recipe for oatmeal (which I will post soon), but I came across a bit of a different oatmeal recipe latley that I tried and WOW!! (Thanks Amanda for the suggestion) It is simple but oh. so. good. It kinda speaks for itself so let me just go ahead and show you the recipe and my method. This recipe came from Kath Eats. Whipped Banana Oatmeal [yes! whipped] - 1/3 cup organic old fashion oats - 1/3 cup water - 1/3 cup almond milk (or skim milk) - 1/2 banana sliced up (or a full one if it is small) - 1 tbsp chia seeds - pinch of sea salt - 1/2 tsp pure vanilla 1) Start off by putting the milk, water and oats into a small sauce pan on medium. Also, cut the banana up into small slices and add to the pan as well. 2) Let that heat for about 3 minutes or so until you start to see it bubble a little bit. This is your cue!! Take your spatula or wooden spoon and start to really stir! Almost whip it so the bananas start to turn to mush and become a fluffy consistency. 3) After you have whipped the banana/oatmeal you will notice there will only be a few chunks of banana left, which is fine. Add the 1 tbsp of chia seeds and pinch of sea salt and stir. (Usually I would add ground flax and hemp hearts to my oatmeal but I stuck to the recipe on this one) Then at the very end at the splash of vanilla and stir one last time. The vanilla adds an amazing aroma. Yum! At this point you can transfer the oatmeal into your bowl. As you can see below, it looks a bit different than most oatmeals but that is what makes it such a unique dish. Here comes the fun part! 4) Just have fun with the toppings. I added some goodies.. strawberry slices, fresh granola, dark choc chips, and a drizzle of my homemade almond butter! Doesn't it look beautiful :) I didn't even want to eat it because it looked so pretty. I used my cute square dish with my little baby spoon and savored every bite. Enjoy! As you can see I enjoyed every. last. bite. Oatmeal is a wonderful breakfast that is very wholesome and filling (especially with the chia seeds). This recipe is quite over the top but usually just having oatmeal alone isn't enough. It is important to add your protein with maybe some free range scrambled egg whites on the side.
Have a great day guys! Lots of love Metaxia Time: 2.5 Years ago Location: Shoppers Drug Mart East side SJ Picture it. It was a random Sunday afternoon and I was out and about just doing some afternoon shopping. I had two books in my hand near the magazine racks. One was the Clean Eating Magazine and the other was "The Eat Clean Diet" book written by Tosca Reno. I kept going back and forth and then realized that for only a couple dollars more I could get a whole "book" rather than just a magazine. So.. I bought it. I didn't know what to expect but it just felt right. Now.. you have to realize I am not a reader. I find it very boring and I usually dont find many (if any) books that keep my attention. WELL, I went home that day, and truth be told, I couldn't put this book down (cliché I know, but it's true!). It was everything I felt I knew but couldn't understand up until that point. Tosca explains everything in such amazing everyday terms and really maps out how and what you should be eating. "Every diet does that though" is what you are probably thinking. But the difference is that she actually explain WHY you should be eating a clean diet and not just telling you to do it. She explains what processed foods are actually doing to your body and it was an amazingly huge wake up call for me.
I believe in fate. I think everything happens for a reason and happens when it should. So.. I think I found this book at the perfect time for when I was going to be able to embrace it for what it truly was. Years before that, my mom had jumped on the "organic band wagon" and I remember thinking she was crazy LOL in the nicest way possible. I didnt "understand" what organic was and why she was making those choices. So, it just had to be the right time for me to be able to read this book and understand it for what it was and how I could incorporate it into my real everyday life. I am blessed to have a boyfriend who supports this change I have made in "our" lifestyle. Because that is exactly what it is.. A Lifestyle. It isn't a diet. It isn't something you should do during a fad diet or until you loose weight, it is a Lifestyle! Losing a few pounds is just a bonus to this amazing feeling you experience on the inside.. and it can't help but shine through to your outer appearance. I can't say enough about my experience with clean eating. And believe me.. I used to think eating healthy was cooking a "healthy" boxed meal or eating those "100 calorie cookies". The biggest thing I learnt, is how those kind of things just isn't real food. I don't even mind having a treat like a pizza or whatever floats your boat, but I make it at home from scratch. I use all of the best quality ingredients I can find and I know exactly what is in my food. That way, you don't put any of those hidden chemicals or preservatives into your body by mistake. Well that is it for today. I completely recommend this book if you are just starting out. The first one in the series of Tosca's books is the best.. it really started from "the beginning". I dont make any commission off this LOL I just wanted to pass along my find that really changed my way of thinking... :) Have a great day and be careful out in that storm... if it does show up. ;) Lots of love! I have had my eye on this recipe for a while now. My own homemade almond butter. Now, you might be thinking two things... 1) What is almond butter, or 2) Wow, sounds complicated! Almond butter is very similar to peanut butter but made of almonds (obviously). One of the first changes you should make when starting a clean eating lifestyle is getting rid of all of the hydrogenated oils (Trans Fats) in your diet. Trans fats are man made and completely unnatural to the body. However, they are found in many foods, since trans fats increase the shelf life of processed foods. (Source: The Eat Clean Diet, Tosca Reno). Ok, so my point about that whole spiel is that peanut butter is a tricky one. Everyone goes on and on about how great peanut butter is and how high it is in protein. SO.. people tend to gravitate towards it thinking they are being healthy. BUT! in the everyday peanut butter brand, it is high in hydrogenated oils which sort of makes it a non food. For the past few years, I have been fortunate enough to know this and ONLY buy the "All Natural Peanut butter (organic) and Almond butter". This makes a world of difference. This product is literally just peanuts and almonds. My first visit into Whole Foods, i was amazed at the fact that they had a system set up so when you pull the lever, you literally watch the whole natural peanuts/almonds get grounded and squeezed out the other end into your container within minutes. Just like an ice cream machine. It just goes to show how "natural" the process should be. So! If I can say anything today that makes a difference - READ YOUR LABELS! If something has a ton of ingredients that you can't even pronounce, put it down. (especially if you see the word hydrogenated or trans) In the long run, that just means bad news for your health. Soooooo even though I have been buying the all natural almond butter, I have always been fascinated with someday wanting to try making it myself. I always had this idea in my head, that it was going to be so difficult, but this weekend I proved myself wrong. The original recipe came from The Edible Perspective. I even went all out and tried a bit of a flavored almond butter. And wow!!!!! How delicious! [Roasted Maple Cinnamon] Almond Butter - 1 cup All natural almonds - 1.5 Tbsp pure Maple syrup - 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup (separate) - 1/4 tsp sea salt - 1/2 tsp cinnamon - 1/2 Tbsp oil (any light oil such as grapeseed oil, rice bran oil, extra virgin olive oil, etc - Remember - healthy fats are good!) Preheat your oven to 325. Line your pan with parchment paper, put the almonds in the pan and pour the 1.5 Tbsp of maple syrup on top of the almonds. Roast the almonds for 15 minutes - stirring 2 or 3 times so they don't burn. Let cool for 10 minutes. Then put the roasted almonds in the food processor. Just let them go until they get smooth and creamy. About 15 minutes. This is where I panicked a bit. I kept thinking they would never get to the "almond butter" consistency but if you just stay patient and let them go, it will happen! Promise :) Near the end, add the salt, cinnamon and 1 Tbsp maple syrup to the mix and continue to process for a bit longer. Then you can also stream in the oil near the very end. BE PATIENT! This recipe is totally worth the noise of the processor for 15 minutes and you can enjoy this on multi grain toast the next morning or your favorite oatmeal. Best part about it all is how cute it looks in the little jar I bought from the Dollarama. It fit perfectly! Enjoy! *TIP OF THE DAY ~ If you buy the jars of all natural peanut/almond butter, you will notice a tiny layer of oil that settles on the top. The best way to incorporated that into the rest of the jar, is storing it upside down!! Crazy I know but it totally works and gives it an even nicer creamy consistency. Just make sure you have the lid on nice and tight! lol *ACTIVITY ~ I woke up early this morning and did some skipping and sumo squats. It was the perfect morning workout and I even got some ab work done before I started to realize how sore I was from the run the day before. ;) Just think! Monday is over now and the weekend is one step closer! Lots of love |