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!

I have not abandoned The Little Health Monster

My camera has been broken and I have been eating horribly, so it's a good thing that I haven't posted any of it :)

But all is back to normal now! I started the morning off with a 6.25 km run in 32 minutes. It was super cold, and my lungs felt like they were being cut up by the wind. I now sound like an old lady when I talk.

Lunch was some lentil, quinoa, brown rice casserole that i've had on here previously.

Carrots, onions, red pepper, sweet potato and garlic!

Then I had to stop at Whole Foods to pick up some spelt phylo dough. Phylo is not something that I want to attempt myself, maybe some day, but not today. I plan on making a cashew cheese/ spinach phylo cup. Hopefully it turns out, i'm not going from a recipe this time (which usually means disaster). While I was there I picked up a vegan muffin, without all the icing it usually has. It wasn't overly sweet, but perfectly yummy.

It was my first time locking my bike up today since my last bike got stolen. I bought a heavy duty Kryptonite lock ( 135 $ ---> way too much for a lock, but apparently that's what they go for now), and I have to take my front tire off and attach it to the back tire, then pass the lock through the frame and both tires. I've seen the front tire being taken off thousands of times, but could I figure it out? Nope. I had to ask some passing cyclist, and thankfully they were nice enough to help me. The whole time at Whole Foods I was wondering if I would be able to put it back together. I managed to put it back together safely! My wheel didn't shoot off halfway home like I expected it to. :)  Hopefully I'll be able to take it off more easily next time.

Now I'm off to bring the puppers for a walk and then some yoga for runners. The phylo has to thaw for a few hours!

See you later, hopefully with a great recipe!

Raw, vegan, cashew pesto!

I used to make this mean roasted red pepper, walnut, basil pesto, but I can't find the recipe anywhere, nor can I remember it. So I found a recipe in "Eat, Drink, Be Vegan", and adapted it to my tastes!

Cashew Basil Pesto:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 2 cups chopped basil
• 1-2 garlic cloves (depends on taste, I used 1.5)
• 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (I used Himalayan) 
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

In a food processor, blend all ingredients! Add more liquid if you feel you need it. I served this on top of brown rice elbow noodles,with toasted pine nuts (they look burnt, but they were very good)!

This dish was very easy to make. The part that took the longest was boiling the noodles!

Onto the running front! I planned to do a 12 km run today. I started running and felt like I had all of this acidity bouncing around in my stomach (from the green juice today?) and said, "well, maybe I'll just do a fast 5k". So I picked up the pace, and then felt like I was actually going to throw up. I stopped for a second and then said, "i'll just slow it down a bit and do 10 k". After slowing it down my stomach started to feel a bit better. By the time I hit the 4 km mark, my stomach hurt three times more then it did initially, so I immediately turned around and somehow made it home. I don't remember much of the return half of the run, I just knew that I had to get home. I finished 8 km, and it was probably the worst run I've done yet. My shins didn't hurt very badly during the run, only a bit afterward. So I did a little ice-ice-baby. So my 12 km, to 5 km, to 10 km, to 8 km run didn't go as planned but I'm not going to let it bother me!

Time: 45:30
Distance: 8.01 km
Max HR: 165
Average HR: 156
Calories: 488

I took a few hours to rest up, ate a clementine, red pepper with hummus, and a piece of yesterdays cornbread. I got up and did day 7 of the 30 day shred on level 2. I thought it might get easier everyday I do it, but it really doesn't. I had to stop once or twice!  And because I was feeling a little bit too ambitious, I followed this up with Jillian Michaels Shred It With Weights (Kettle-bell). It was intense.

So now Im just going to bask in the fullness that the pesto gave me, do some dishes, then maybe make some spelt crackers.

:)

Fressen for brunch

Before I go into detail about my amazing brunch experience at Fressen, I thought i'd let you know that if I don't respond to a comment, it's not that I don't want to--> it's because blogspot doesn't have an option to respond to them. I am currently working on my own website, so this problem will get fixed shortly!

Now, onto Fressen. Their brunch menu was amazing, I was so excited! I wanted to try everything, from their corn fritters to their western omellete. But since I always go for sweet items on brunch menus's I did the spelt pancakes.

I started off with a green juice (kale, celery, ginger, apple, parsley), which was very tasty (didn't give me as much energy as yesterdays though).

Next up, I started with their mandarin and beet salad in balsamic. I didn't like this too much. But it did come with amazing fresh bread so I just did what I used to do when I was younger; shove the beets into the bread and swallow the bread! :)

For some reason, I always confuse beets with radishes. So wrong!

 

The pancakes were great! Beyond great! They were fluffy and creamy! I can never make my vegan pancakes taste like these. There was a sort of apple, cranberry compote on the bottom. So delicious.

I've been icing and stretching, so lets hope this run is a good one! See you later! Great recipes to come!

Complete rest day with a bit of cornbread!

For the whole year I haven't had a problem with my shins. I almost always get shin splints when I increase my mileage. But I didn't get them yet, because i've been doing a lot of cross training and strength work. But lo and behold, the week where I hardly run, I start to feel that little bit of pain in my lower shin. So, before it can get any worse, I've taken the whole day off! No 30 day shred, nothing. I'm hoping that this will help. Icing and stretching have pretty much been my best friends all day.

Here's to hoping that when September 25th rolls around, my shins won't hurt. I'll run on them anyways, but it would be nice to be pain free.

I finally bought a blender today. I brought it home, unwrapped it, and instantly made a smoothie. It was the most energizing smoothie I have ever had. I drank it, and then instantly felt like I had drunk 10 cups of coffee. I'm hoping to plan some sort of a smoothie party where I can blend tonnes of different smoothie concoctions!

Spinach, papaya chunks, ginger, lemon, parsley, avocado, almond milk

I've been extremely tired today so I didn't feel like cooking up a feast. I opted for an Ezekiel wrap with everything in the fridge on it, and some homemade cornbread.

Hummus, salsa, tomato, red onion, asparagus, red pepper, tomato, spinach, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, celery, cucumber, carrot.

The cornbread was very delicious and very easy to make!

Vegan Jalapeno Cornbread: 
This recipe was adapted from "Blue Ribbon Vegan Cornbread" 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons ground flax/chia powder
• 6 tablespoons of water
• 1/2 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup organic raw sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup rice bran oil

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and pre-heat oven to 425. Oil an 8 inch rectangular baking dish. Bring the water to a boil and add in the flax/chia powder. Bring to a simmer, and stir until it gets thick and gloopy (1.5 minutes). In a bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and sea salt. Add in the flax mixture, almond milk, jalapeno, and oil. Stir until smooth. Put into baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. Make sure to do the toothpick test! Feel free to add other things to the recipe, like whole kernels of corn, onion, bell peppers, etc!

Cool on rack for 20 minute and enjoy! (I love adding vegan butter or jam to it)

Wet + dry ingredients.

Delicious vegan cornbread fresh out of the oven!

Just watching some Top Chef right now and I think I'll do a bit more stretching. I'm definitely rearing to go tomorrow for a long and great run!

The vegan pizza story

Step 1: Crust

I took the easy way out and bought a spelt crust. I'm sure it is very easy to make your own spelt crust, and I will definitely try that next time.

Step 2: Add your sauce

I used Ryan's homemade tomato sauce from yesterday.

Step 3: Add your cashew cheese 

(recipe to follow)

Step 4: Add your veggies

I added sweet red pepper, asparagus, spinach, and red onion.

Step 5: Bake and Enjoy!

Baked at 350 for 15 minutes.

Cashew Cheese:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw cashews (soaked in water for at least 1 hour)
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon rice bran oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeeze lemon juice

Directions:

Put all ingredients into food processor and mix together! Scrape the sides occasionally. Enjoy! It won't be perfectly smooth, it should have some texture to it.

Homemade crackers! Veggie Burgers (again) and Nut Butter Parsnip Fries!

These crackers are soo tasty! They're made out of brown rice and quinoa. This recipe was adapted from www.ohsheglows.com. I made two flavours, honey-flax, and chipotle!

Here the 'batter' is flattened out and ready to be baked!

This is the chipotle flavour.

Brown Rice and Quinoa Crackers:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked brown rice
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 4 tablespoons ground flax and chia powder
• 2 tablespoons hemp seeds
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon tahini
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced chipotle in the sauce in comes in
• 1 tablespoon honey

Directions:
Cook rice and quinoa according to their directions (usually a 1:2 ratio of grain to water) and then cool. Puree in a food processor the rice, quinoa, ground flax and chia, water, salt and pepper, and tahini. Stir in the seeds and garlic (or flatten out on your baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle with seeds after--> this is what I did). For the honey flavor take the batter and stir in the honey. For the chipotle flavour stir in the chipotle. Flatten it onto your parchment paper with wet hands and slice into cracker shapes. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes or until crispy and golden (watch closely so that they don't burn). Cool for 20 minutes and then enjoy!

I enjoyed it with some homemade spicy hummus

Next up! Nut Butter Parsnip Fries! I found these very tasty, but I didn't cook them at the right temperature and for long enough.  But they were still great, and I will definitely make these again!

Peanut and Almond Butter Coated Parsnip Fries:

Ingredients:

• 5 parsnips peeled and cut into fry like shapes (it's a bit tricky with their un-fry-like shape)
• 1.5 tablespoons almond butter
• 1.5 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 (not 300, like I did) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl mix together the butters, olive oil, and salt. Mix in the fry shaped parsnips and coat everything well. Use your hands :) , its much easier. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes! Let them cool off a bit before eating and enjoy!!! :)

Served these amazing fries with the classic mixed bean spelt veggie burger!

I'm making brownies right now and they smell amazing! Serving it with peanut butter soft serve!!!!!