Some sleepy chili

I think the bowl is sleepy, probably from all of the holiday stress. I just can't wait until January 2nd, finally all of the Holidays will be over and there will be no more Christmas parties at work. Yai! I made a very tasty chili in my crock pot the other day.

Vegan Chili With A Kick:

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can whole tomatoes, toss the juice in and slice the tomatoes
• 1 large sweet potato, cubed
• 1 cup of sliced mushroom
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 2-3 cups veg stock
• 2 jalapenos, minced
• 1 large red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large vidalia onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp cayenne (I like it hot)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put all ingredients into crockpot and enjoy! I did it on high for 4 hours.

While my mom was up I made her some breakfast for her and I after my workout. She never, ever, eats breakfast, so I'm trying to get her into some healthy habits.

I cooked us some egg white scramble, 2 kiwis, cucumber slices and the most delicious Asian pear ever. She loved her breakfast, and I was full from it for a quite a while. And if I say something makes me full for a while, then it is definitely filling, because I eat about every 2 hours, and am always hungry.

Today at the gym I worked on my legs, calves and abs. I didn't do any cardio today because yesterday I did a 60 minute (10 km) treadmill run with some HIIT thrown in there. It felt great, but I'm pretty tired today. My leg workout went around a pyramid scheme today: 1 set of lighter weights at 15 reps, 1 set at heavier weights at 10 reps, 1 set at your heaviest weight for 6 reps, then the second one again, and then the first set of weights again but to failure.


Leg Workout:

• Plie squat ( 90 lbs (15) 120 lbs (10) 160 lbs (8) 120 lbs (10) 90 lbs (25))
• Hamstring curl NORMAL SET 70 lbs (12,12,12)
• Leg Press ( 90 lbs (15) 140 lbs (10) 190 lbs (8) 140 lbs (10) 90 lbs (30))
• Leg extension NORMAL SET 75 lbs (12,12,12)
• Barbell walking lunges (30 lbs (12) 40 lbs (10) 50 lbs (8) 40 lbs (10) 30 lbs (20)) each leg
• Cable hip extension NORMAL SET 15 lbs (12,12,15) each leg

It was a great workout and I'm feeling pretty sore already. I work at 5, so I might try to fit in some yoga before then so that I'm not dead to the world tomorrow. Today is my last double shift before the holidays. Can't wait to have some time off!

Lot's to do today so I'll talk later! Hope everyone has a great and safe Holiday!

Vegan toasted walnut cookies!

It's been a very busy few days. I've already had two Christmas's and it's not even Christmas yet! I'm trying not to let the typical holiday weight pack on me, so I've been keeping up with my workouts and clean eating. Though a little cheating is normal :)

I finally got an iPod! Score! I loaded it with some great music so I am super excited to run tomorrow. It's crazy how one new thing, or change can completely alter your perspective and motivation for excercise.

Anyways, here are the amazing cookies, they are adapted from ohsheglows.

Toasted Walnut Oatmeal Cookies:

Ingredients:

• 1 + 3/4 cup toasted walnuts
• 2 cups regular oats
• 3/4 cup spelt flour
• 1/2 cup sucanat
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup delicious honey
• 2 tbsp almond milk
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup raisins

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Toast walnuts but make sure to watch them so that they don't burn. Put cooled walnuts into a food processor and grind finely. Add in your dry ingredients ( 1 cup oats, spelt flour, baking soda, cinnamon, sucanat) to the food processor and process for 20 seconds. Now add all the wet ingredients ( coconut oil, maple syrup, honey, almond milk, and vanilla) to the food processor and process again. Remove ingredients from food processor and put into bowl. Add in 1 cup of oats and the raisins. Mix in well and then form into little balls on baking sheet, and flatten with fork. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 and let cool for at least 20 minutes on a cooling rack.

Pre-bake

So delicious and chewy.

 

 My mom is currently visiting, we've had a great visit so far, and we've also gone out for some raw food. She seemed really scared about trying it but she really enjoyed it (or so she said). We went to Rawlicious, an amazing restaurant in Yorkville, and split the nacho platter and buckwheat pizza. She had a cup of hot cocoa, I had a kale/spinach juice, and we shared the brownie. The brownie was unbelievably delicious, it was topped with a coconut butter/agave mixture. To die for.

I currently have some sweet potato chili cooking in the crock-pot (got the crock-pot for Christmas) and I hope it works out. It doesn't seem to be cooking and it's been 4 hours?

I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow and how my workout was.

Bye :)

Tempeh bacon sandwichio

I didn't really make much of this sandwich, but I did put it together. And it was greatness! Two slices of Ezekiel bread toasted with lots of hummus, spinach, sliced red bell pepper, and tempeh maple smoked bacon. I could have eaten ten of these sandwiches, but had to settle with just one. I will be making this again soon for sure.

I need to learn some veg chopping technique. My veggies always fall out.

I finally finished my Christmas shopping today. All I had left was Ryan and he was the hardest to shop for. Since I know that he doesn't read my blog I can tell you what I got him. I'm not sure you guys know, but he's a chef, so he's become head over heels in love with molecular gastronomy. Too bad you can't really get much of the stuff for it in Toronto. So I went with a book about the subject instead. Another "too bad". Too bad they're like 400 $ (no joke). I found one that was reasonably priced at 65$, and went with that one.  I have no idea why this cooking genre is soo expensive. The GAP was also having a 30% off everything (except jeans) sale, so I bought him 7 sweaters. He loves sweaters, so I figured I can't go wrong. I guess I lied about being finished with Christmas shopping, because I still want to get him something a little bit more thoughtful, not sure what though. I already got him Subway gift cards and those are probably a  negative 500 on the thoughtfulness scale. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

On the gym front, today I worked my legs and biceps. I've been having a lot of left shoulder pain, so I will have to be taking it easy with chest and shoulders the next few weeks.

Todays leg workout:

• Smith machine PLIE squat, 80 lbs (12,12,12) supersetted with 3 x 24 zig-zag hops
• Leg Press, 90lbs (12,12,12) supersetted with 15 squat jumps
• Barbell step ups, 40 lbs (24, 24,24) supersetted with one-legged squats (3 x 15 each leg) and power lunges (3x 20 each leg)
• Leg extension, 70 lbs (12,12,12) supersetted with tuck jumps (3 x 15)
• Leg curl, 60 lbs (12,15,15) supersetted with split jumps (3 x20)

I didn't do cardio today because of the cardio that was involved in todays workout. I usually don't do cardio on leg days.

Anyways, I have a lot of cleaning to do to prepare for family visits and still have cookies to bake with zero time left.

Gotta' love the holidays :)

Sproutastic poop

I came home from Christmas shopping to quite a surprise. There were two banana peels and a bag of expired sprouted buckwheat on the floor, and licked clean. I really hope the bears don't get sick; "Yes, doctor, the dogs ate a bag of sprouted buckwheat". How weird would that be? They seem to be okay so far, and Gigi has a stomach of steel. A good example is that today, while wrapping presents, every sticker that I peeled off presents, she ate :)

I actually took today as a rest day and it feels horrible. I know rest days are very necessary to muscle development and overall health, but it makes me feel soooooo unproductive and lazy.

Anyhow, I just ate a banana scramble with lots of honey in it. I ended up just eating honey out of the jar with my finger after, maybe I was Winnie the Pooh in another life.

Some before-work eats:

Raw Pad-Thai on zucchini noodles. SOOOO DELICIOUS!

 Right now I'm rockin' out to Yeah Yeah Yeah's Heads Will Roll and I'm feeling so overly ambitious that I just signed up for a FULL marathon next summer. Wooo! I hope the training goes as well for me next year as it did for last year. But training for a full is probably a lot different than training for a half. I will let you know how it goes :)

Well, I've got to get my clean on. There will be a lot of family visiting so it's best to start now, instead of waiting till' 2 oclock Sunday when family is expected at 3 (this is what usually happens).

Have a great day everyone! And let's hope the bears don't have sprouting poop when I come home from work.

Lots of snackage

One of todays snacks: blueberries, almonds, and store bought apple chips :)

My alarm went off this morning at 6 am, it was time to go to the gym. But in that split second I decided that today would be my rest day. I slept in until 9:30 and woke up feeling really weird. So I said, "screw the rest day", and I went to the gym anyways. I worked on my shoulders (plate raises with 25 lbs this time, woohoo), and did a one hour spin class. I used to do spin classes a few times a week, but haven't gone in months. It felt really great to go again and get pushed like that. I do my own spin classes once in a while but it's not the same. No matter how hard you try, you never push yourself as hard as when someone else is yelling at you.

Came home and had a smoothie and some scrambled eggs on hummus covered toast.

Going a little bit out of sequence, this morning for breakfast I made a banana scramble. I got the idea from The Edible Perspective.

Banana Scramble:

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe egg, mashed well
• 3 tbsp rolled oats
• 1 tbsp chia or flax powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp almond milk

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and form into a ball onto a heated frying pan. Cook until one side browns (2-3 minutes) then flip. Enjoy with some almond butter on top :)

This was really easy to make and really tasty. You don't need to add any sugar because the sugars from the banana add just the right amount of sweetness.

Lunch today was cracker type thing loaded with dill cashew cheese, red onion, orange pepper, and avocado. Mighty delicious.

Now I just have to plan dinner, get ready for work, take the bears out, do some yoga, and get rid of these cramps.

Bye :)

X-mas tree

My foot has gotten quite a bit better, good enough for me to run with a limp :). Running with a limp is better than not running at all right? And I'm talking about treadmill running, call me a pansy, but there is no way I'll be running outside again until it's in the 60's again, or if the gym blows up. Even if the latter were to happen, I might just consider a sedentary lifestyle :)

I've also discovered a great tasting new smoothie mixture. You mix your regular old Vega sport powder with a bit of the Vega chocolate smoothie powder, a bit of orange juice, lots of spinach, ice, and a banana. It's  like a chocolate creamsicle. The colour is a pretty good deterrent not to try it, so I decided not to post it.

I did 40 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill today, my chest and triceps. I think chest flyes are my favourite excercise, and bench dips for my triceps. All in all it was a good day at the gym. I remembered to eat after my run this time ;)


So, if you're wondering what the picture above is, it's what I was planning to make everyone for Christmas. Apple chips! But no way is that going to happen. It took me 7 hours to make 10 apple chips, and I'm pretty sure my oven use is going to make my hydro bill sky high. Maybe I'll just buy apple chips, wrap them up nicely and say I made them?

For anyone interested in making them. You slice them thinly, no need to core them, coat them in lemon or lime juice ( to prevent browning), sprinkle with cinnamon, and bake at 150 for 7 hours with the the oven propped open (or until they crinkle). Let them cool and harden over night before you eat them- if you can!

Now, for the Christmas tree. Like I said before, I think I bought a really crooked one, but Ryan won't actually say that to my face because he's trying to be nice. We had a really great time putting it up though, the dogs kept trying to steal the decorations, and Gigi kept drinking water from the base of the tree.

Ry-man and the tree.

Excuse the mess, but look how retarded the top of the tree looks!

And, in Christmas card fashion:

Merry Christmas from Marianne and Gigi!!

I am off to do some Christmas shopping.

Leg work

Today was legs, and boy are they sore right now. Not only are they muscle sore, but my right foot is in a lot of real pain. While doing single leg deadlifts, I dropped a 25 lb dumbbell on the top of my foot. Awesome :)

My leg workout today:

• Smith machine lunges, 70 lbs (12 each leg)x4
• Superset with split jumps, 20 x4
• Leg Press, 90 lbs (12)x4
• Superset with squat jumps 15x4
• Single leg deadlifts, 25 lbs (12 each leg)x4
• Superset with barbell step ups on high bench, 40 lbs (24)x4
• Machine leg curl, 55 lbs (12)x4
• Superset with balance ball leg curl (12)x4
• Machine leg extension, 70 lbs (10)x4
• Superset with tuck jumps, 12 x4

I was sweating quite a bit during this workout, but it felt great. I hurt my right foot halfway through and kept going. I probably shouldn't have because I may have just screwed myself now :(

Today is my works "customer appreciation day" where everyone gets free booze and food and our tips go to charity, so hopefully my foot will feel better. I already packed my snacks, just incase I am well enough to go :)

I packed some cucumber slices, organic blueberries, two clementines, delicious banana, and a Vega Vibrancy Bar.

Now I'm off to eat some of the peanuty stew from yesterday and some scrambled eggs. Weird mix, but it's what I'm craving.