January 11, 2015 - Yam and chickpea patties - great for meatless monday

I have to admit I didn't get a single workout in this week and although I have been eating slightly better this week than the past month there is major room for improvement but let me tackle one thing at a time. My commitment for this month is to get one blog post out a week that means I need to make something at least once a week I am still as busy as before so al the recipes will be fast and things i want to eat. My hope is to start cooking more to save both on budget and calories. Today I went grocery shopping and found a lot of things that I wanted were not available I think this is what happens when you go shopping on a sunday evening but this is the only time I had. I didn't end up with the ingredients i wanted so this is a what I can get recipe. I saw some organic yams (or sweet potato) they are really the same thing aren't they? I think these are yams and some really fresh organic cilantro and cilantro and chickpeas go well together. I knew I wanted to make something that would motivate me to eat my lunch tomorrow instead of eating out. I couldn't find tortillas I usually make wraps for lunch however I got some really good sourdough bread. So I decided to make a yam and chickpea patty that could go in the sandwich. I peeled and boiled the yams first. Then I just wanted to throw everything together in the magic bullet but I figured it was too small so did the yams first. Then the chickpea, spice and cilantro. I forgot the onion and I was thinking about adding some chickpea flour but didn't I knew I would be putting it in a sandwich so I didn't need a binder but if I was more likely to eat it as a patty then I would have added a binder maybe some chickpea flour or an egg. Here's the result and recipe

This makes 4 patties
Peel and Boil 2 small yams let cool
cut into pieces

Mash my preferred method is the magic bullet
Empty magic bullet into container
Add half a can of chickpeas, a handful of fresh cilantro and spices (I used bollywood spice, salt, and pepper) and olive oil (this can be omitted) to magic bullet
Empty on top of yams

At this point I was thinking of just baking this off and calling it vegan shepards pie but maybe next time
Mix ingredients together
Wet hands and shape into patties with hands its easy just roll into a ball shape and flatten

I wasn't worried about the size but for those that do you can place the right amount into a mug then flatten with the bottom of the mug that's too much work for me.
These will be pan fried place some oil in the pan and when the oil is hot
put the patties on the pan I find the flat pans work the best with patties it gets the heat to them quicker

I love how the yams caramelize wish I didn't forget the onions they

caramelize too flip after a few minutes when the first side is browned
This recipe if using preboiled yams takes about 10 minutes to make
And for a bonus I really want to make homous but I don't like using non heated canned chickpeas
so I roasted the chickpeas they make a good snack too
dry washed chickpeas place on baking sheet add spices to taste and some olive oil
bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes until crisp. I didn't bake mine all the way as I will be making roasted chickpea humous tomorrow maybe only 20 minutes this is before they go in the oven.

Humous recipe will come. 

Its 2015! January 4 to be exact the week of chickpea flour recipes

I have missed you guys. Here's what happened my dad was diagnosed with a critical illness in mid November within a week of diagnoses he was in the hospital and stayed there for 3 weeks with the swings being completely up and down. I cancelled the vacation that I was preparing to get fat on  but coming back to work it off. With all the running around, the stress, the emotions, never being home as most of my time outside of work was spent helping my mom I managed to stop working out and cooking. I put on around 15+ pounds in the one month. I actually did not eat that poorly well okay there was a lot of sugar in my diet I didn't exercise except walking because I can't go without doing that and the main thing was I didn't get enough sleep my job this year prepared me to function with little sleep but its very harsh on the body . Things are still pretty much the same my stomach was really hurting except that things haven't been swinging as much with my dad and I did get a two days of relaxation in during the holidays. My hope is that instead of not sleeping I will be able to bring myself back into a T25 routine for now that is too much for me and all I can bring myself to do is 10 minute abs from rockin' body I love Shaun T (have you seen the cover of men's health this month?). I know if I can just get into putting the dvd's in I will be able to do them the problem is you have to be home with energy this has been a problem.  I am starting to eat healthier and hopefully I will work myself up to being able to do those workouts again. I really think 2015 is going to be a better year. My spending has been a bit high lately and I want to reduce the amount of eating out. So here is my lunch for tomorrow. I will be putting this in a whole wheat tortilla and adding some salad. I am now finding that the salads that are in the deli at the grocery stores are the best ones for me as they already have the vegetables cut up so my veggies don't go bad. The one I currently have has lettuce, cucumber, grape tomato, and red and yellow peppers.
A big bag of chickpea flour was on sale for $3.99 so a lot of my recipes now will include it i find its so easy to use.

Yesterday I spent the day at my parents house and for dinner just wanted to eat something with my tea. Pakoras and chai is one of my favorite snacks at restaurants but I don't deep fry so pan fried fritters it is. Europe's best frozen spinach was on sale. I took two cubes out of the bag and put them in a bowl in the microwave for 1 and half minutes to defrost while I diced half an onion. It went in the spinach bowl with a cup of chickpea flour, a tablespoon of greek yogurt, a little bit of a red pepper pasta sauce (the jar is open and needs to be used up), added some water and mixed it up.
I put some olive oil probably 3 tablespoons in a pan and spooned out the mixture made about 5 fritters. I totally forgot the spices but it tasted really good without. I was very happy with the finished product I could only eat 3 of them but had two today and was still really good.

And for Tomorrow's lunch really the same idea but more of a chickpea flour omelette

Recipe

Put two cubes of frozen spinach in a bowl and microwave to defrost

Add half a chopped onion, a quarter diced bell pepper, and 1 TBSP plain greek yogurt

Add 3/4 cup chickpea flour

Add seasonings - I used bollywood spice, salt, pepper, and a few cilantro leaves

Mix the ingredients in the bowl while adding water until you get a consistency that is the consitancy of brownie batter

Spread batter on pan that is hot and well oiled

You can cook this like a pancake or an omellette

Either go around the edges and move all the liquid to the center or just let the batter cook and flip once there are airbublles forming. It does not take long to cook a few minutes on each side

Mine has been folded in half just like an omelette (looks like one doesn't it)

I can't wait until lunch tomorrow. 

Vegans: replace the yogurt with a tbsp of lemon juice and you will have a really awesome vegan lunch

October 13, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving. I know I have a lot of catching up to do and there are many soup recipes that needst o be shared with you but since its Thanksgiving today I attempted to make a thanksgiving soup. It looks good but the taste not so good I am going to try adding some cream to it later and see what kind of difference that makes. Otherwise sometimes experiments don't work but in the spirit of sharing here is the recipe. I actually think it might be the stock that I don't like the taste off mixing with the cranberries. I would try this again using orange juice instead of stock. Update was very good with some whipped cream added to it.

Thanksgiving vegan soup.

1 onion roughly chopped
1 apple roughly chopped
1 cup cranberries
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup water
1 bag of butternut squash
spices of your choice I used curry powder, and herbs.

put everything in the soup maker and wait 26 minutes and you end up with.

Now for a recipe that isn't all that healthy but will give you an idea of a good portion size if you decide to take a day off and treat yourself like I do.
Breakfast Pizza

half a mini pizza crust
olive oil
1 egg
1 tsp cream cheese
1/2 avocado
1 ounce cheese in this case I used Daiya jack

Please pizza crust in oven until warmed. Place olive oil in pan and fry /scramble egg add turn of heat and add cheese mix until melted. Spread cream cheese over the pizza crust. Top with egg mixture. Slice avocado and fan over egg. Enjoy
Happy Thanksgiving I am grateful for my readers. 

September 5, 2014 vegetable soup recipe

Lets start with how bad i have been I just can't seem to get out of vacation mode eating. We started a weightloss challenge in my office there just happened to be a scale hanging out. I have 30 days to win  $100 I am heavier than everyone else and I put on vacation weight so I should have the best chance of winning you would think that would motivate me but I am still succumbing to the cravings. Dinner has been good that soup lasted me until yesterday and it was nice to know dinner was just waiting for me when I came home. I did start doing T25 workouts this week again and since i am running a challenge group that really should motivate me my big belly hanging out should motivate me too. In the end I have lots of things to motivate me but I still struggle. So the next soup is cooking right now I forgot to add any fat to it the last one was a little bland I added more spices this time as I didn't have any stock. If it turns out its going to be one very healthy soup.

Vegetable soup maker soup
1/2 red onion chopped
1 apple roughly chopped
2 carrots roughly chopped
1 sweet potato roughly chopped
I didnt' have any ginger but i had some left over gingerale a quarter cup I added that
add spices (I added dried herbs, salt, pepper, and chili flakes) use whatever you want.
add to soup maker and press smooth button.

Have to wait another 16 minutes to see the final product its starting to smell really good in here.

Ready

okay not bad still a little bland and needs some more flavour. Lets see what adding some fat and not so healthy ingredients will do.

 I added about half this container of cream

and some cheese a piece half the size of what is showing in the picture
and now

So delicious if your vegan its still a prett good soup without the cheese and cream but its delicious with it. So satisfying. 

September 1, 2014 Soup Maker

I went on vacation and totally ruined my progress pigged out and my gut is now hanging out of my pants. So tomorrow T25 will start again my challenge group for 21 day fix eating and T25 workouts starts on friday. If you are doing either program you can join my group contact me at beachbodycoach.com/isha21 and 21 day fix is on sale for the month, prices are now in Canadian dollars for Canadians.
I bought this soup/smoothie/juice maker I found that its much too large a smoothie I put a banana and chocolate shakeology and water in there this morning and had 4 cups to drink.

Juice might be okay but soup was the main purpose fresh soup in 30 minutes was thinking I just come home from work do T25 and I will have soup ready when its over. Since one batch is pretty big I think I have enough soup for a few days its a nice gadget.

My mom gave me some bbq veg

My dad gave me so veg from his garden (kale, basil, tomato)

It all went in the soup maker except a tomato, one tomato chopped went in and so did some spice

Close the lid and choose mode I chose smooth, the blender part at the end is a bit loud.

26 minutes later the loud alarm goes off 
and yummy , healthy, delicious soup ready for the week

August 16 Beachbody Challenge Tour

Today was the even with Autumn Calabrese I am even more in love with beachbody now. I pushed myself to go and do the workout in front of her while all my other friends were saying I am not going to go and workout I am really glad I did. The event started out with being able to take pictures iwth beachbody ceo Carl Daikelor and those who know what beachbody is will know he's a bit of a celebrity within the home fitness industry being the creator of shakeology. He was really sweet and no line when I went to get my picture with him. Then Carl talked a lot but it was very interesting with shakeology ingredients coming from local farmers around the world and the reason they can't say its organic because they are sourcing ingredients from home farms. I felt really proud to be associated with a company that not only transforms the lives of people in the western world by helping them get healthy they are also helping people in other parts of the world through their business. You could feel the positive energy in the room as everyone has their own individual story of how beachbody has changed their lives. Then they had a couple of people from victoria talk about their experiences with beachbody one had lost 175 pounds doing slim in 6 (a beachbody program) showed her pants and talked about how people didn't recognize her after awhile. Then another one talked about the ability to buy a plane ticket to go see her sick parents thanks to coaching this is really network marketing and they did talk about the business model but not losing sight of the goal isn't to make money its to help people improve their health. That was the next person Jeff Hill who talked about the business sales side. Then Autum Calabrese was introduced and I loved that she showed up on stage with a starbucks in her hand that's what I love about beachbody trainors they are all real people. She talked about how 21 day fix was created she had a client who she was making workout really hard for an hour a day and she wasn't losing weight and talking to her diet was fine so didn't make sense that she wasn't losing weight. Then they went to eat lunch at a fairly healthy place they both ate salads her client ate the whole one she ate a third they then looked at the calories the salad was huge 1700 calories with no dressing that's when she realized it was the portions that were wrong then her friend gave the program to beachbody and then it has become the most successful launch they have had to date. Then she took questions people asked if she had done a beachbody program prior to being a trainor she said she had bought p90x from an informercial. Then they made us leave the room for 7 minutes while they set it up for the workout. The workout was very similar to the 21 day fix workouts but felt more intense to me maybe having a trainor there to push you is the difference but I got through it and the music was loud. It wasn't as bad as I thought like a class at the gym although I attempted to do push ups which I still can't do she did walk around but didn't correct me the first one minute plank I couldn't stay up the whole time the second one I pushed and did it felt so proud that was because she was like I'll make everyone start over if anyone stops i don't push myself that hard at home.  Then the first 100 people that bought tickets had "won" a picture with Autumn I was one of them so then it was time to line up for a pic dripping with sweat but I wanted that pic. I met a lot of great people and felt very motivated after to work on both my health and fitness and my business/personal development. The only thing I didn't like was they were supposed to give out 3 day refresh and shakeology samples that didn't happen they had mentioned something about how they would be there so I think the shipment got lost or something. Other than that it was a really great event. If anyone is interested in learning more about the beachbody products you can to beachbodycoach.com/isha21 I will also be starting a 21 day fix eating plan with T25 workouts support challenge group in september if anyone is interested contact me.  

August 4, 2014

Just a quick update. I have been continuing with the 21 day eating plan somewhat without even realizing it drinking shakeology is a daily thing now and I find I just eat less overall. I feel like I have been eating a little extra junk food while its been hot but I am still losing weight so something is going right. I have been trying to do 21 day fix workouts as on saturday Autumn Calabrese will be in Vancouver and I will be going to the seminar which includes a workout. I thought I would be more motivated to work out than I have been. I have only been doing them 3 times a week. All my friends said are you kidding I am not coming to do a workout in public my coach says I will meet braver people. I used to be one of those people that would never go to a public workout or had ever done a burpee in my life. T25 was really the program that changed my life and taught be how to do burpees and planks and its finally on sale www.beachbodycoach.com/isha21. Beachbody will launch in Canada on August 28 and from this date this sale will no longer be available to Canadians so if you are interested get it now. See my previous posts about the program. I just wanted to do a post before I take a picture with Autumn Calabrese I am so excited about this but I am also extremely nervous about having to workout with her watching. The eating plan has enabled me to lose almost 10 pounds in the last 5 months with me cheating and not feeling like I was doing much work so that's amazing.