Bad bad day

Today was a very bad day for my stomach, and my butt, and my arms, and my legs.

But I have my whole life to make up for it right? Right.

A day of cooking

Today was a very busy cooking day with my mother. I did level 2 of 30 day shred, and then decided to nix the exercise for today and focus on cooking! So exciting to have my mom next to me helping! We made white bean and walnut bruschetta, Angelas Strawberry Tarts, lemon poppy seed cookies, and my favourite cashew basil pesto that you've seen on the website previously! Yes, we made ALL of that! The kitchen wasn't as much of a mess as it should have been because as one of us was cooking, the other was cleaning! Great system! Too bad Ryan wasn't around more so that we could instate this system! :)

White Bean and Walnut Bruschetta: 
Recipe taken from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, with some changes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked white kidney beans
• 2 teaspoons balsamic (recipe called for red wine vinegar, but I liked balsamic better)
• 1 cup tomatoes, minced
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 large garlic cloves, depends on level of garlic you want
• 1.5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/8 cup fresh basil, minced

Directions:
Mash up half of the beans with the balsamic. Then add the remaining ingredients. Mix well! Add to baked bread, or even to non-baked bread (still just as delicious)!!!

The mix

My mom with the mix! Cookin' up a storm!

The Strawberry Tart Recipe was very lengthy! I followed it exactly from Angela's website, so I will link it here. My crust turned out nothing like hers, it was dry and flaky, but it still tasted delicious. My custard also didn't turn out as thick or yellow. I still pretty much drank it out of the bowl!

Fruit soaking in agave

Our tart shells fresh out of the oven!

Yum!

Totally delish!

Next up! Lemon poppy seed cookies, and because I was still hungry --> lemon poppy seed cookie ice-cream sandwiches!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies:
Recipe adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan

Ingredients:

• 1 + 1/8 cup spelt flour
• 1.5 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1/3 cup cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest (zest before you squeeze) --> made this mistake too many times
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 cup agave
• 1.5 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3.5 tablespoons rice bran oil
•  1 tablespoon cane sugar for sprinkling on top!   

 Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine flour, poppy seeds, sugar, lemon zest, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In another bowl combine the other ingredients and stir until well mixed. Now combine the wet and dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Put onto baking sheet or silicone baking sheet. Do not flatten, these cookies will spread. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 11 minutes! Remove from oven and let it cool on sheet for  1 minute then place on cooling rack! Enjoy!

 Feel free to put some Coconut Bliss ice cream in between for a double whammy of greatness!

  

I am so tired from all this cooking. So I wish you all a good night! Tomorrow I'm preparing myself for an exercise butt kicking! Yes!!

Apple Pie Granola

My legs are sooo sore today. I woke up in the middle of the night and I felt like my knees were going to break. Waking up in the morning was no better. I did a power vinyasa yoga class today and it loosened me up a bit, but not back to where I was pre-race; that might take a few days.

I didn't feel like cooking, so I rode over to Whole Foods and got some of their hot/cold bar options.

Most of the good stuff was hidden, but there was curried chickpeas, different rice and grain dishes, a "detox" broccoli with kelp flakes, and much much more! Very delicious! Also, very expensive.

I found a website link at Whole Foods for the varying nutrient densities of foods and I came home and took a peek.

Source:  eatrightamerica.com

I find this chart very interesting. I never thought that whole wheat bread was that low in nutrient density. The website explains that if you ate only all very nutrient dense foods you wouldn't get much fat or protein, so you would be too thin and in ill health. They recommend eating these nutrient dense foods as well as other foods, to get a good balance. Too bad I hate kale.

I made some great "Apple Pie Granola" in my boredom today.

I've eaten two bowls of it already, it's delish

Little Health Monster Apple Pie Granola:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of organic oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 cup chopped granny smith apple
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup no-sugar-added apple sauce
• 1/4 cup agave
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or agave)
• 1/8 cup coconut oil
• 1 tablespoons each of flax and chia seed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together (except the flax and chia seeds) and mix well. Pour onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, or a silicone sheet. Spread out evenly. Bake for 30-50 minutes, making sure to shake the granola so both sides cook. When it's nice and golden take out of the oven and sprinkle with flax and chia seeds. Let it cool completely before putting it in a container, or you will have soft granola when you wake up. The reason for not adding the flax and chia seeds until after is because the high heat kills the great nutrients locked up in these seeds.

Enjoy with some almond milk!!

1/2 Marathon!

PRE-RACE:

I am feeling pretty nervous. But the nerves I feel now for these sorts of things is nothing compared to what I used to feel for swim meets. I wouldn't be able to sleep and I would keep replaying my victory over and over (positive imagery), even though it never happened. I'm not much of a fast athlete, just a long-endurance-type athlete. This doesn't really come in handy during races, but nonetheless, I enter races. I know tomorrow morning, when I wake up at 4:30, i'll be saying to myself "why did you sign up for this?", I do every time.

I've made sure to add new songs to my I-Pod, and washed all the clothes that i'm going to wear tomorrow, but I still have a few things to do. I've had a couple of friends ask me what my meals will be the day before the run, and I told them that I'm just going to eat what I crave and not change anything with my diet, or ill end up feeling sick the next day. Unfortunately, what I was craving was cookies. I am THE cookie monster. I had 6 cookies and then was too full to eat anything healthy, so I shoved some broccoli and spinach in my mouth just to make myself feel better. I tried going to bed early (9:30), but I didn't fall sleep until 2, which sucked for someone who had to wake up at 4:30.

Same recipe as the macadamia nut cookies, just with 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder added

RACE DAY:

I woke up instantly awake and refreshed, even with no sleep.

I'm a very peppy morning person

I got all of my stuff ready and then ate some overnight oats! I figured I would eat the same breakfast I eat all the time so that nothing new upsets my stomach.

Oats with peaches, sunflower seed butter, pumpkin seeds, almond milk,  and maple syrup.

I was supposed to meet my friend Katie at College and University for 6 am, so I hurried over there on my bike. IT WAS SOOO COLD! I had gloves, two coats, pants, and an extra sweater. I coulnd't imagine having to take my pants off and run in shorts. Since we were so cold and we were SUPER early, we went into Starbucks to get a hot drink and warm up. I had a few sips of their orange blossom green tea, I really only bought it as a hand warmer, and we waited around until it was closer to the time to head out.

The lovely Katie!

This was when I was doubting why I signed up for this

We headed over to the green corral area, which was for those wanting to do it in 2 hours. I spotted my 2 hour continuous pacer and tried to get closer to him! Everyone had the same idea, so we were all crowding around him. Who knew that he'd have to hold the pacer sign up the whole darn race! That's some crazy shoulder workout.

Green balloons for the green corral!

I was getting really nervous by this point, everyone was stretching and looking super cool in their running outfits. Im not much of a warming up or stretch-before-a-workout-person, so I just stood there shivering. Hehehe.

Finally, after the anthems of Canada and Greece, we were off!! It took about 5 minutes to get to the start line, so I guess that counted as my warmup, and then the pace quickly picked up. I thought that for sure I wouldn't be able to hold this pace, especially with all the weaving through people that you had to do to stick with the pacer. Eventually I just gave up on the pacer and found a girl that looked like she could run the same pace as me (just a guess) and stuck with her. But I had to weave in and out to stay with her too! I just gave up and ran my own way. I ended up picking up some speed. The first 10 km went by sooo fast! I think it was all the comraderie and cute outfits to look at that kept my mind off the fact that I was running. When the 10km mark hit me, I realized that my feet were hurting and that I had developed horrible blisters on the bottom of the arches of my feet. But I kept running. Also at this point, my inner things started chaffing (darn shorts) and I kept looking down thinking I was going to see blood. I knew that if I stopped running for even a second that I wouldn't be able to start back up, so I just kept going, no water break, nothing. The kilometers kept going by, and the crowd had so much energy that it really kept me going. I wasn't paying much attention to my music either. I felt like I was on a training run, I didn't feel too much pressure, other than to finish. I saw a great poster that said "You're feet are hurting a lot because you're kicking so much ass". It was a very nice experience. 15 km hit and I started to get tired, I knew that I only had a bit more and I told myself that I would keep this slower pace until I reached 19 or 20 km, then I would pick it up. But no one told me that the 19th KM was the LONGEST KM EVER!!!! There was an uphill and I swear it was longer. My feet were aching, my posture was slacking, and I was starting to get really tired out, and for some reason my playlist was on really sappy songs that did nothing to motivate me. I saw the 20 km mark and then picked it up a bit. But thinking that this km would be as long as the last one, I didn't start sprinting until the 500 m mark. I really booked it, it was a slight elevation, so my legs felt like bricks. Everyone was cheering and I finally made it in 1:56:51. My goal was to do it in 2 hours so I beat my goal!!!

I'm in the pink sweater and black shorts!

I was so relieved to be done, I still can't believe that I did it. Chaffed thighs and blistered feet are nothing compared to the way I feel! I am so proud of myself for doing this. Katie asked me if I will try a marathon next, but I'm not too sure about it, it just seems so long. When we were at 18 km, the marathoner's veered right while we went left and I felt sooo bad for them. I know that if I was in the marathon group I would have been longing to go with my group. I will stick with 1/2 marathons for a little while longer and then maybe attempt a full marathon when I'm ready to tackle that sort of distance.

I had to change out of my sweaty wet clothes and then Katie and I were off to Fressen for brunch. Since it wasn't open yet, we stopped at David's Tea and I had a delicious toasted walnut green tea (sounds disgusting but it was sooooo amazing).

Then we were at Fressen. I started with an apple, ginger, and lemon juice that was beyond great. It was the best tasting fresh juice i've ever had, Katie tried it and said she thought it was great too. We had the spicy lentil balls with fresh bread, and then I had the tofu scramble, while Katie had the omelette. All in all, a very satisfying meal.

Greatest juice in the world

Lentil balls

Katie's meal

My meal, of course it came with an indigestible kale salad, yuk!

Today was such a great day! And it's only 1 in the afternoon! And it gets even better when I remembered that my mom is visiting tomorrow!!


I just want to say a special thank-you to Katie! I would not have been able to do this race without you. Thank-you so so so so much, I owe you big time. You're the best.

Vegan Macadamia White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I hate it when things don't go according to my daily plans! I rode to the Direct Energy Center today to pick up my race kit and found out the most disturbing news--> The race is on Sunday (like most races), and not on Saturday like I thought it was. I thought it was weird that the race was on Saturday, and I also thought it was weird that the road closures were for Sunday; no idea why it took me so long to clue in. Thankfully someone mentioned something or I would have showed up for 6 am tomorrow and been extremely confused. Not only does this throw me off completely with my rest-run-day schedule, but now Ryan can't come, and I will have no one cheering for me, or anyone to hold my keys or sweater. :(

I really don't know how I got the dates wrong, I'm going with their website being misleading. So after this upset my daily balance of things, I felt like my whole day was ruined. I am a very plan-oriented kind of person, and after having my plans upset, I just sat around the house in a daze, like something really terrible had happened. I finally snapped out of it when the dogs were whining to go outside. I took them outside, felt the fresh air and then was  75% back to my normal self! I figured this was nothing that some good ol' fashion baking, and cleaning couldn't fix. I cleaned all the floors, went through crap loads of bills and papers ( Ryan is a hoarder, i'm scared he's going to turn out like those creepy people in the show "Hoarders", he keeps absolutely everything. But he's also very, very un-observant, so once in a while I throw out everything, and he doesn't even notice. SCORE!). That's probably the only upside of being un-observant. Anyhow, getting the house cleaned up, and filled with the fresh smell of baking cookies made me feel loads better! Now I just have to get in some yoga, and a 30 day shred and i'll be 100%.

Vegan Macadamia White Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Adapted from "Eat, Drink, Be Vegan"


My mom loooooves the white chocolate macadamia cookies from Subway, and I think these could easily be mistaken for them. I will give her a blind tasting when she visits.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons spelt flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (I didn't have this, so I added 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons succanat
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/3 cup macadamia butter (I used sunflower seed butter)
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons agave
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons rice bran oil
• 1/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts
• 4 tablespoons white chocolate chips (I looked everywhere for these and only came upon them at the Veg fair, so if you don't have them, dark chocolate chips will work just as well!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or with silicone sheet thing. In one bowl mix the flour, powder, soda, sugar, and salt. In another bowl mix the nut butter, maple syrup, agave, oil, and vanilla. Add the wet to dry and then add in the nuts and chocolate chips. Stir just until its combined, you don't want to overdo it. Make into cookie shapes on sheet and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and put onto cooling rack!
Enjoy! But don't eat the whole recipe like I did before and then get sick!!! I promise not to be gluttonous today!

Note: Since white chocolate chips are just sugar, I wouldn't add the agave. They turned out very very sweet. And I like sweets, so if I say they're too sweet--> then they're too sweet.

Fresh out of the oven!

So soft and squishy in the middle,  with a nice crunchy outer layer!

Delicata squash salad!

Oh boy was level 3 of the the 30 Day Shred hard as ever! I had to stop and take a break more than once!

I decided to use the delicata squash that I got from Front Door Organics! I gutted the seeds out of it, added some salt, pepper, and olive oil, and then baked it at 350 for 50 minutes!

I scooped out some of the squash and put it on top of some romaine, red onion, orange bell pepper, pine nuts, and maple balsamic!

I have to head off to work really fast! Sorry about the short post! But you should try baking some squash! It's sweet and hearty!

A healthy take on taco dip!

The pictures didn't turn out so great but this tasted fabulous!

I decided to change the typical sour-cream-cheddar-cheese-overload that makes up a taco dip. I started with a hummus and nutrtional yeast bottom layer. Next, I added some organic corn salsa, then some black beans! On top of the beans I added some tempeh that I sauted with taco seasoning and water. Finally, I added some shredded lettuce, green bell pepper, and tomatoes! Voila! Instant healthy taco dip!!

I spent all of my day today waiting for Front Door Organics! They said they would come between 12 and 10 pm! Seriously! I had to wait until 6 pm.

Lots of great organic, local produce! I can't wait to use it all!

Last night I ended up making it for a run. I didn't feel like going, so I took two pieces of paper and wrote "Run" and "Don't Run" on them. I crumpled them up, tossed them in a hat, and chose one! (I actually use this as my go-to method for making tough decisions (I read once, "Don't waste your time on jealousy, sometimes you're ahead and sometimes you're behind, you're choices are half chance, and so are everybody elses", so I always leave it to chance!) I chose "Run", so I suited up and went for it. I haven't run a 5 k in under 27 minutes in a while and I did it in 25! I really felt like I was pushing myself and i'm glad that I did. Hopefully it makes this race on Saturday a bit easier. Well, i'm off to bed! I have a big day at the gym tomorrow and then work in the afternoon!


I almost forgot! I had a comment from a reader saying they were very dissatisfied with the stuffed pizza mushroom recipe, and I am very sorry that it didn't work out! That recipe won first place on the Portabello Playoffs, it was Angela Liddon's recipe, and I thought it turned out marvelously! I really wish it would have worked out for you!

Love,
Mare! :)