4 day protein pancake streak

This is me making dinner. More on that after.

Back to pancakes. I think I'll be having these for the next few days. I'm so excited at dinner to go to bed so that breakfast can come sooner. I've been getting used to not-so-sweet pancakes, so I don't put anything on top of them, just blueberries. I'm sure you're sick of hearing about these pancakes, so I'll move on. But if you haven't made them yet, make them now :)

I found a recipe in Clean Eating magazine (my new fav) for curried chicken with green peas. The original recipe had 37 grams of carbs, and 32 grams of protein. Since their calculations included 1/2 cup of rice, I figured I could make this into a low carb, and more healthful meal by subbing in veggies for grains.

Update: I just checked, cutting out the 1/2 cup of rice takes out 23 grams of carbs from the recipe.

This recipe turned out super delicious. It was very spicy, had lots of flavour, and went perfectly with the vegetables.

Here is the recipe that I adapted from Clean Eating:

Curried chicken with vegetables:
Keep in mind this is more of a Thai curry, not Indian curry

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup minced scallions (or green onions for people like me who had no idea what these were)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed, and preferably organic, free-run
• 2 tbsp curry paste, I used red
• 1 cup veg broth or chicken broth, I used veg
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• S&P to taste
• 10 asparagus spears, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 red onion, chopped
• 2 cups broccoli, chopped

Directions:

Saute your vegetables, minus the peas, garlic, and scallions, in a pan with 1 tbsp oil. Add some salt and pepper. Salt and pepper your chicken cubes. In a separate pan, saute your scallions and garlic. After two minutes, add in your chicken and saute till' golden (about 5-7 minutes). Whisk together your curry paste and broth, and then add to your chicken mixture. Cook for 2 minutes, simmer, and then add your sauteed veggies from the other pan. Cook for a few more minutes, or until desired tenderness is reached. Salt and pepper everything and enjoy with a huge glass of water, you'll need it.

My back is aching typing this post, because I have posture like Quasi Modo. I have to lay down to straighten it out, I'll see you guys tomorrow after I stuff my face with protein pancakes.

Yep, that's me sitting at the computer.

Reverse grips

This morning I had protein pancakes again. I was so excited to get home from the gym to make them that I could have just eaten the batter. I decided to ride my bike to and from the gym instead of walk, and it saved me sooo much time. But trying to lock your bike up in a snow pile/drift, is a bit challenging, and frustrating. My parents would be embarrassed to hear the words that came out of my mouth. But to my defense, when you're covered up to your hips in snow, when there is no snow on the ground, except in the mound that you are in, then you have a right to curse.

I rewarded my hard work at the gym with a handful of raw mixed nuts, two spoonfuls of greek yogurt, and this beauty:

Spinach, rest of the bean salad with quinoa, and two hardboiled organic eggs. Delicious, and it's been keeping me full for hours, which is usually unheard of.

At the gym today, I did a reverse grip bench press, and I highly recommend you put it into your chest routine once in a while. It works a few different muscles, and it feels amazing. You have to use a slightly lighter weight to do this, and make sure to watch your form. I find that switching up your grip once in a while does wonders for shocking your muscles back into a growth phase. Or even do an alternating grip, so one reverse, and one regular. Just make sure to try it at a low weight first, to make sure you get the hang of it. No need to rip your arms off. Also in my workout today were some narrow grip bench presses (to work your tris), some weighted bench dips, smith upright row, shrugs, incline presses, shoulder presses, and some pulldowns. All in all a great workout. I topped it off with a 5 min spin warmup, and 15 minutes of tabata intervals (20 sec hard, 10 sec recovery, repeat). I was sweating major bullets.

Well, I have to start getting my stuff together for work and heat up some vegetables.

Hope everyone has a superb weekend :)

News

On March  26th, 2011 I will be a certified personal trainer! I am beyond excited. Here's to hoping that I didn't forget everything I learned in school, and that this course will pretty much just be a refresher.

Last night I told myself that I couldn't eat past 10 pm. I tend to nibble all night, so I think this is a good idea. Well right at 10:01 I couldn't stop dreaming about food, pancakes especially. So the second I woke up this morning I made some more protein pancakes. They were even MORE delicious this morning.

This time I put some blueberries in the batter, even though you can't see it.

For lunch I had some of the quinoa bean salad from a few days ago, on top of some spinach, with some goats feta crumbled on top. Glorious !

Now for the big news. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and throughout life, your morals, ethics and beliefs may change. And although I still feel strongly about animal rights issues, I have decided to start eating chicken. This is my own decision, and a decision that I feel good about. I know that my money being put towards free-run, antibiotic free, and humanely treated chickens does more for revolutionizing the chicken industry then abstaining from it completely. As much as it sucks to hear this, people will always eat chicken. So why not support those who raise them with care and compassion?



P.S. Chicken will not be a gateway drug for other animals. I know this 100%.


So here are some of the other things I've been eating over the past few days.

Some spectacular beets with green onions in a beet reduction. Yeah, that sounds like Ryans doing, not mine.

Spinach, shallot, and goat cheese stuffed organic chicken breast.

Goat feta, red pepper, and red onion stuffed organic chicken breast.

Chicken meatloaf, with oats instead of breadcrumbs. High protein and low carb. Yes!

This also had quite a bit of veggies stuffed in there. Made for a crumbly but more nutritious loaf.

Don't worry, this won't become an "Everything Chicken" blog. It will remain pretty close to what it was before. And I will try  harder to post my workouts on here. I'm currently following Muscle and Fitness Mags, Rock Hard Challenge.  It's pretty damn hard, but I'm loving the way it makes me feel. More on that later,  I have to get ready for work!

Bye! :)

Pre or post workout pancakes!

I found this recipe in Oxygen magazine and then switched it up a little bit. It turned out super delicious and was easy to digest before my workout!

Protein Pancakes:

This makes the perfect portion for one hungry and growing person (about 3 small pancakes). I can always eat an infinite amount of pancakes, but it made me full enough.


Ingredients:

•  2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup oats ( I used a mix of spelt flakes and steel cut oats)
• 1 tbsp ground flax or chia powder (I used sprouted)
• 1 scoop protein powder (I used peanut butter chocolate chip flavoured!)
• 1/3 cup low fat cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• Blueberries and 1 tsp agave for toppings!

Directions:

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until a smooth batter is formed. Heat a pan with or without oil, depending on your non-stick situation. Pour a third of the batter into pan. When it starts to bubble, gently flip and cook other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

DELICIOUS

Nutritional info:
Per serving (3 pancakes)

• Calories: 380
• Total fat: 6 g
• Saturated Fat: 0.5 g
• Carbohydrates: 35 g
• Dietary Fibre: 6 g
• Sugars: 4 g
• Protein: 42 g

Later tonight I will have some news for you guys!

"Ryan, hurry up! I want to get my ice cream on! "

I've been planning this ice cream cheat meal for weeks! And today was finally the day. We chose Marble Slab Creamery because it's closest, and it also proved to be super delicious.

Pictures don't do this justice. It was about the size of my head.

Their motto is "Find Happiness Within", and this ice cream did make me feel quite happy, but then it quickly progressed to sickness and wanting to throw up. I ate it way too fast and in much too large a quantity. I had their "big dipper" size, which is their biggest, I think 3 scoops. I got it with caramel sauce, chocolate chips, cookie dough pieces, butterfinger pieces, and skor pieces. It was delicious at first, and then became a chore to finish. I can't leave food uneaten, I have to finish it. Thankfully Ryan was there and talked me into throwing in the towel. The three scoops of "sweet cream" ice cream were in a huge white chocolate dipped waffle cone. I went all out. Go big or go home right? I don't think they intended for that motivational quote to be applied to ice cream, but it works.


Ryan and I have a great dinner planned, but I don't know if I'll even be hungry for the rest of the day.


See you guys later!