Monday Musings and Giveaway Results

I have a lot I want to share with you over the next week or two, including reviews of Barre class and Hydro Ryder.  Stay tuned for those!

In other news, I wanted to announce the two winners of the Bimuno IBAID giveaways. Congratulations to Susan and Ross - please email me to claim your prize!  

As for this week's musings.  Well, where to begin?  On Saturday I "celebrated" my 29th birthday with one year experience.  I can't say I was overly pleased about this milestone, but I managed to make it through the day without breaking into tears.  Success! The worst moment was using the elliptical a day or two before my birthday and putting age 29 in there for the last time.  The second worst moment was when my husband and I were looking into symphony tickets and we found out that he could claim a discount for under 30, but I could not.  

On a more positive note I enjoyed pedicures with some of my lady friends, two lovely dinners, a play and a brunch.  I also received a new DSLR camera.  More on that below.  And without further ado, my links!  

Digital Photography School - The Ultimate Guide to Learning how to use your First DSLR

So first of all, wow excited and wow overwhelmed.  I was successful in opening the box and charging the battery.  I even attached the strap to the camera.  After that, I was lost, to say the least.  It has been a long time since I felt so ill-equipped to do something or to learn something new.  I followed the instructions for putting on the lens - 15 minutes later I was successful.  Then I tried to remove the lens.  That was a complete and utter mystery to me.  So much so that I had to turn to YouTube to find out how to remove it (it was so easy!).  I also turned to YouTube to learn how to use the monitor instead of the viewfinder.  Don't even get me started on all of those settings.  As a result, I sought out some beginner articles on using a DSLR and came across this one.  I can't wait to sit down and try some of this out.  I did snap a few pictures, with my model Hugo, of course!  

Eating Birdfood - 10 Healthy Smoothie Recipes

We are big smoothie lovers in this house and have one pretty much every day.  Recently we have been adding frozen kale and we have found out we prefer it over spinach in our smoothies!  But, every once in awhile it is nice to mix it up, so I was happy when I came across this post.  I am dreaming about the chocolate-covered strawberry and peanut butter and jelly smoothies - delish!

And Then We Saved - 26 Ways to Kickstart Your Inner Cheapskate

We are trying to kick our savings into high gear for a few home projects we would like to take on and are working on de-cluttering our lives.  De-cluttering is one of the goals I have set out for myself this year.  The first of these projects is to organize our utility room, which is currently in very dismal shape.  This particular post falls in-line with these goals.  

We have been working on a few of their suggestions already - for example, eat everything in the pantry. We haven't necessarily eaten everything in there, but we have really been working to clear out produce as much as possible instead of allowing it to land in the green bin. The go free suggestion seems a little daunting, but I had one major success this past week through GetGifted.  I claimed a gift for Foreign Affair in Halifax and discovered that my gift was a $50 gift card.  I was certainly excited about this, but was skeptical about whether or not I would find anything for $50.  Well, serendipity shone on me that day - I scored a pair of cobalt blue 7 For All Mankind skinny jeans (regularly priced at $295) from the "now or never" rack, marked down to $50 on a tax-free day.  I walked out of there without spending a cent and on a shopping high like no other!  

Spoon fork glow?!

I have never done any sort of recipe feature on the blog, but I have found two recipes that I adore so much I feel compelled to share.  Before I dive into them I would like to make a few things clear.  

1. I am not a great cook.
2. I am beyond a picky eater.
3. My husband refers to my kitchen stints as "tornadoes" - leaving a destructive path in my wake.
4. I am not good at meals - I am an appetizer, side dish, snack or dessert gal.  
5. I am not a true recipe follower - I invent, I cook/bake on a whim resulting in many, many substitutions. This can be problematic if the result is good, as I have a hard time recalling what it was that I added (case in point - Peanut Butter & Honey Chocolate Chip Cookie incident of 2009). 

Now that we have these important details out of the way, let's get started.  Recipe #1 comes from Angela of Oh She Glows and Green Monster Smoothie fame.  She is a vegan blogger who shares her moments of culinary brilliance with the online world.  I am in no way a vegan, but I can appreciate her healthy approach to eating and have turned to her for healthy snack ideas.  I have been known to make a Green Monster myself on occasion!  My current fave of hers are her No Bake Peppermint Patty Bars.  True to form, each time I make these I never have the exact ingredients on-hand, so I have been improvising.  The latest adaptation to this recipe is listed below, I will not go into detailed instructions as Angela does a fabulous job of outlining it for you:

Base

• 2 cups rolled oats, put through the food processor until it becomes a flour
• 1 cup mixed nuts (no oil, no salt)
• 5 tbsp cocoa 
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar (this is lower on the glycemic index, however, I recommend pulsing it through a coffee grinder so it blends better)
• 2 tbsp any milk you have on-hand
• 5 tbsp pure maple syrup
• Dump in some dark chocolate chips, however many you feel is appropriate

Chocolate Topping

• 2 Lindt Dark chocolate bars (I use 70%)
• 1 hunk of coconut oil
• 1-2 top-fulls of pure almond extract
• Dollop of cashew or peanut butter
• Flaked, unsweetened coconut

For Recipe #2 we will turn to the duo at spoon fork bacon. This blog features luscious recipes and beautiful photography.  Many of their recipes are an indulgence, for example, today's Chocolate Chip Bacon & Orange Kissed Pancakes - what is not to love about this combination?!  I have, however, convinced myself that their Cheesy Quinoa Cakes are a healthy choice - if you forget about the oil. 

 And, of course, given my statement above, I made some slight adjustments to these babies.  See below for the details and check out their website for the instructions.  

• 2 cups cooked quinoa 
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour (sometimes 4 depending on how much quinoa I have)
• A bunch of parsley, chopped finely
• 2 chopped green onions
• ½ celery stalk, chopped finely
• A large amount of garlic (I use a large soup-spoon from our weekly jar of food processor garlic)
• 1 egg
• Sprinkle of sea salt

I hope you enjoy!  I would love to hear about your favourite food bloggers and the recipes.  Feel free to share in the comments section below.  

Green Monster Madness

This week I began my first foray into uncharted territory – green smoothies.  Angela, of the blog  Oh She Glows, first started the “green monster movement” and it has caught on so much that she had to create a separate site to keep up with readers’ recipe submissions.  What is a green smoothie?  It is a smoothie that has something green in it, most often spinach or kale.   Why go green?  It is a fabulous way to add extra fruits and veggies into your day. 

I am a fruit lover.  I am not a vegetable hater, but I naturally reach for fruit before the veggies.  I am not what you would call adventurous in the food department; between the IBS, GERD and my natural inclination to be extremely picky and overly imaginative often prevent me from eating certain things or from trying new ones.  For example, I can often be heard saying things like I don’t eat bananas because they make my ears itch, or, you may find me in the produce aisle listening to an apple to determine if it is worthy.  I am not a fan of public kitchens, most especially microwaves, or potlucks.  That communal stuff really freaks me out.  I am a huge believer in food segregation, in other words, no food group shall touch another food group while on my plate.  What is my point?  The idea of putting something green in my smoothie really throws me for a loop and feels inherently wrong. 

I have no idea what pushed me over the edge, but I am currently spiralling down into the world of green monsters.  My green of choice was spinach.  Not fresh spinach, and as far as I can tell non-organic spinach.  Most people would buy fresh spinach, not yours truly; I have a current fixation with spinach.  I like things to be perfectly ripe; otherwise, if I find a flaw, I will have to abstain for months until the infraction is forgotten.  The way around this is frozen spinach.  I bought a block of chopped, frozen spinach for $1.79.  I thawed it out and put that puppy in the food processor, and then portioned it out into three containers for future use.   

The verdict?  Not too bad!  I could not taste the spinach (I think it was about 1/3 to 1/2 cup puréed).  My one warning – carry a compact and floss around when you drink this.  It should not be your beverage of choice for a perfectly white smile. 

What about the IBS spin on this one?  It has made me into a raging hot air balloon and has made me frequent the restroom – frequent being the key word here.  In the past, my nutritionist and I have not agreed on smoothies.  She recommended that I drink a smoothie measuring one cup or smaller, and she also recommended that I consume my smoothie later in the day.  My flare-up time always lasts until about 13h00, so, if I consume it in the afternoon I will be less likely to go to the loo.  Given my fear of using public kitchen facilities, I like to drink my smoothie in the morning so it is still somewhat cold when I drink it.  Will I continue on with the green monster movement?  I will definitely continue to play with the smoothie recipes and will try it for at least the next few weeks.  I would like to give my body time to acclimatize to the smoothies.  It is a large intake of fibre all at once for someone who suffers from IBS-D, however, if I can trick my body into cooperating it will be worthwhile.  

Please share your green monster recipes/experiences.  I would love to know how others are approaching this! 

Tuesday’s Recipe

• Fresh strawberries
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Yogurt
• Teaspoon of honey
• Container of spinach
• Splash of apple juice

Wednesday’s Recipe

• Fresh strawberries
• Container of spinach
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen cherries
• Yogurt
• 1.5 teaspoons of chia