Favourite Things: Reading

I just finished the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" series, and it was very well written and worth the 7 months it took me to finish the 3 books, I am a very slow reader! The series is set in Sweden, so at times it got a little confusing with the streets and towns and such, but the story was well written and well researched. I definitely recommend reading these books!

I just started reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett and it is un-put-downable, if that is even a word! The writer has captured the voices of the characters in such a believable tone I feel like I am right there living in the story! This book was a gift from my good friend Colleen and I have had it for quite a while now. I kept choosing different books to read, but over the Christmas holidays my sister-in-law Bre was reading it and she was telling me how amazing it was, I caught her sitting on the couch reading a couple times while everyone else was downstairs watching tv! Now I understand why!

I also just found out that this book  (along with the "Tattoo" series I mentioned above) are being made into Hollywood movies, so I am anxious to see those when they are released. Anxious because, as has been proven in the past, the movie is almost NEVER as good as the book, they cut stuff out, change the story line, or just plain don't do it justice. For example, "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult is one of my all time favourite books and I was so excited for the movie only to be sorely disappointed with how much they changed (not only in the ending, but also that they left out so much of the brother's story). On the other hand, another of my favourite books "Memoirs of a Geisha", was also made into a movie and it was phenomenal. It followed the book perfectly and it was how I imagined it when I was reading the book.

I suppose whether you love or hate a movie based on a book depends on if it is portrayed how you imagined it in your mind. I just think if you're going ot do something, do it well or don't do it at all!

Favourite Things: Breakfast

I am a big fan of breakfast, so much so I kind of take it personally when I hear a friend or family member say they don't particularly like the meal-time. Sure, I can understand maybe not liking eggs, or pancakes, but I just cannot comprehend dis-liking an entire category of meals. I think breakfast gets a bad wrap, I mean, you never hear people say "I hate dinner".
Oh, I literally salivate at the thought of waking up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and buttered toast, the sound of eggs crackling in the frying pan, and let's not forget bacon, ohhh the bacon (in this case, my husband is right, bacon does make everything better)! This is, in my opinion, a traditional perfect breakfast, maybe throw in some hashbrowns to complete the profile, but lately (and since on my 'non-diet diet') I have been feeling a little bored with the ol' stand-by, so I searched out a couple healthier recipes for my favourite meal-time.

Whole Grain French Toast with Cinnamon and Fruit
-1 slice whole grain bread
**(be sure to choose the whole grain bread over the multi grain bread, multi grain bread is deceptive, the grains are usually pulled apart and stripped of their nutritious qualities, much like in white bread)
-1 whole egg
-TBSP sliced almonds
-ground cinnamon

-fresh fruit (1 whole pear and 1 whole kiwi; or, 1/2 cup raspberries and 1/2 cup blackberries; or 1/2 cup strawberries and 1/2 cup blueberries ....... I have tried each of the 3 combinations and they are all delicious)

Do not pour syrup on this, just sprinkle cinnamon on each side of the bread as you're frying it then pour the fruit all over the french toast and finally sprinkle with almonds. You are in for a TREAT! (and it is filling enough you won't need to eat again until lunchtime!)

Eggs Florentine
-1 egg
-1/2 whole wheat english muffin
-6-8 fresh spinach leaves
-thick slice tomato
-TBSP fresh goat cheese
Spray a ramekin with cooking spray, crack the egg in the dish sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, layer the spinach, then the tomato, then the cheese. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, or until the egg is as done as you like it. toast the english muffin and place the egg on top. (In a hurry? Pop it in the microwave instead of the oven for max. 1 minute, but be sure to cover it because the egg tends to explode a little!)

Scrambled Omlette in a Whole Grain Wrap
-1 whole egg, 1-2 egg whites
-1 cup of fresh veggies (green onion, green or red pepper, mushroom, tomato, etc. Whatever veggies you have/like)
-1 TBSP Hot sauce
-1 slice lowfat Jarlsberg cheese
-1 tsp lowfat ranch dressing
-1 whole grain wrap
Beat eggs and egg white(s) with veggies and half the hot sauce, cut up cheese and beat in with eggs. Pour into a frying pan and scramble. in a seperate bowl, mix ranch and rest of hot sauce and spread on wrap. Once the eggs are done, pour into wrap, roll up and enjoy!

When I find more yummy recipes and try them out (and add/change things to make it my own) I will post them on here to share! Til then, don't dismiss this meal time based on the old boring stand-by's of pancakes and syrup and fried eggs on toast (as yummy as they are), try switching it up a little!

Salmon in Lemongrass broth

I am on here today to admit I fell off my 'non-diet diet' wagon last weekend.
I celebrated my birthday the only way I know how, a weekend full of red wine, tequila, and deep fried foods with great friends! Of course, I fit in a little exercise skiing for one of the days so I am going to try to convince myself it all evens out in the end!

Today I went grocery shopping and picked up all the fresh fruit and veggies required to get me back on the wagon, and already I feel better. I should maybe start by reminding myself not to feel too bad about celebrating over the last few days, because when I started this little journey I weighed 155 lbs. and this morning I am happy to say the scale stopped at 148 lbs. so, yay me!

Tonight I decided to have Salmon in Lemongrass broth (I would say the calorie count is around 300):
This recipe is for 2 servings....


Ingredients
• 2 oz. pad Thai or fettuccine noodles
• 2 T minced fresh gingerroot
• ½ stalk lemongrass,* outer leaves removed, core thinly sliced
• ¾ jalapeño peppers, stemmed and seeded
• 1 ½ T fish sauce* or low-sodium soy sauce
• 8 fresh mushrooms, stemmed, each cap quartered
• 2 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 1 large carrots, trimmed, peeled, and thinly sliced
• 2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, skinned
• ½ t canola oil
• ½ cup Cilantro leaves, for garnish

This soup is so delicious and FRESH, and it takes less than 30 minutes to make. Love it!

my world 30.1

I just celebrated my 31st birthday, so I suppose it is time ot update my blog title.
I'm just so clever! HA!

Keeping up ...

I am proud to say that - with the exception of Friday night and all day Saturday - I have been keeping up with my 'Cinch' eating plan! The meals are so filling and so tasty, I am not finding it difficult to follow through with this! I think the hardest part is the meal preparation, or rather, the hardest part is motivating myself to wash and cut up all the veggies, etc. I guess doing this has also made me realize that however much I love cooking, most weekdays I am just too lazy to bother; it is so easy to just thaw out some ground beef and boil up some pasta for spaghetti and meat sauce - one of my top 5 favourite things to eat - but, I am loving getting in all these fruits and veggies, it makes me feel good about myself!

So, as I said before, this is all with the excepetion of Friday night and all day Saturday. Alex was supposed to come into town this weekend and we had dinner plans with 2 of our good friends, Ingrid and Andy. Well, due to the enormous amount of snow we've gotten pounded with over the last few days, the highways were too bad for him to travel on, so it was just the 3 of us. The plan was for me to go to their house for a couple pre-drinks, and I must say I have never seen Winnipeg streets that icy before, it was scary driving out there! (Scary, mostly because I was driving Alex's baby, the Audi S4, you know how terriefied I am of getting into an accident in that car, even if it wasn't my fault I would feel so awful! But, the car handles like a dream, even on pure ice, it is such a pleasure to drive that car!) Anyways, so Ing and I polished off a bottle of red (Nugan, a blend I picked up at Costco, very nice wine) then Andy drove us to Bistro 725, by far one of Winnipeg's BEST restaurants. We had the most phenomenal meal. Started off with a couple Pomegranate Prosecco's (Prosecco is a dry Italian sparkling white wine), I'd never heard of it before, it was a new twist on one one of my old favourites -MIMOSA'S!! After 2 glasses each of those, we switched it up to a Ginger Apple martini, blah, we sent them back and ordered a bottle of Prosecco instead!
Then came the food.... we all shared a few 'small plates' and a cheese board. We ordered: the shrimp gnudi, duck confit (a recipe they've changed since the last time I was there, an OMG this was AMAZING, the duck was so tender and flavourful and the sauces - I think it was a wild cherry and cheese sauce - fit so well, I could've eaten 2 of them!), mushroom and blue cheese mussels, veal and foi gras sliders, and tenderloin of bison (I think it was bison?!). I swear the food gets better everytime I go there! After the delicious meal, we ran across the street to Luxalune, a pub I used to work at a few years ago. We just sat for a drink then came back to my house for a nightcap. All in all, a wonderful evening!
The Audi had a sleepover in the Demchenko-Bell's garage, and Andy was nice enough to come and get me Saturday to pick up the car. Saturday was, of course, a day of recuperation - damn you, Prosecco - and I ate nothing but junk food all day (and it was delicious!)

But now it is Sunday and I have a lot of catching up to do. Laundry, clean house, journaling for one class, photos and meausrements for another class, poster's for studio presentation, and I have a few phone calls to make. Guess I better get a move on!
till next time...

childish behaviour

When I was younger, in grade school, going through some bad times being bullied, etc. I remember thinking I can't wait until I grow up and become an adult because adults don't act childish.
HA! Talk about naive thinking!
Surely, I thought, by 3rd year University, gilrs, *ah'em, women, would not act like little children and stomp away in a huff only to return later, angry, and try to stir up trouble by lying or complaing to anyone who would listen. Clearly, I thought wrong!
There are some people in this world, I guess, who assume their ideas are the best, and won't consider or listen to any one else's thoughts or comments. And when they realize that a majority vote is in favour of someone else's superior idea, they leave... only to return a couple hours later crying that everyone else was ignoring them, and then getting angry because they were absent for the remainder of the decision making meeting and ended up with the "shit-job" that noone else wanted.
Well, honey, you snooze, you lose. "Grow up" is all I have to say to you. You are in 3rd year University, if you can't hack it and take criticism at this point in your life and academic career, well, then I suggest you crawl back under that rock where you have been living and leave the work to the responsible adults.

It's a "cinch"

Day 2 on my non-diet diet actually went very well!
I felt a bit hungry when I went to bed last night, so I downed a large glass of water and nibbled on a few carrots and sunflower seeds (my weakness!)
I was feeling great when I got up this morning, but I looked at my menu and saw what I was supposed to have for breakfast and thought, there is NO WAY I am going to make through my morning on that alone!

breakfast
I made the Berry Almond French Toast (approx. 200 cal)
- 1 slice whole grain bread
- 1 whole egg, 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
- 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 tbsp sliced almonds
- sprinkling on cinnamon
As I was making my meal, I thought, hmmm, I wonder if it would be ok if I snuck some syrup on here, this is probably going to be pretty bland... nope I was wrong again!
This breakfast was PHENOMENAL! And it kept me FULL until lunchtime (breakfast was at 9 a.m. lunch was at 1 p.m.)

lunch
I had leftover Turkey Mock Tacos for lunch (approx. 300 cal) and 1/2 cup of fresh gooseberries (approx. 35 cal).

I ate a snack bag of rice crackers when I got home around 3 pm to hold me over till dinner time (85 cal)

dinner
I made the recipe Chcken Pesto Pita (approx. 450 cal), I don't think I'll make this recipe again, or else I will omit the balsamic vinegar and replace it with lemon and white vinegar or something else I like better, it just had a bit of a funky taste!
- 1 regular sized or 2 mini whole grain pitas
- 1/4 cup cucumer
- 4 large romaine lettuce leaves
- tomato
- fresh garlic
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 3 oz chicken

If I get hungry later I plan on having either the Sonoma Snack again, or a mini bag of lowfat popcorn (approx 100 cal).

I love it when I prove myself wrong! I was so skeptical looking at these recipes and I always think I will never be able to follow through with my plans, but I am so far (ya, ya, I know it's only day 2!) BUT, I have tried to convince myself that it is only 1 month. 30 days. that is it, if I can stick to it for 1 month and lose 10 pounds, then I will stick with it for longer because I am seeing results!

Being accountable....

I am not one for dieting, never have been, but I am one for trying to live healthy and maintain a healthy weight.
I am lucky, I have 'thin-ness' in my genes, so all my life I have never had to worry about what, or how much, I eat... Until now!!
My brother always joked that once I moved away from home (in 1998), I would inevitably gain the 'freshman 20' but it never happened, and I worked in bars and pubs where deep-fried was not only a food group, it was a meal staple for me.
I'd have to say I looked and felt my best between ages 24-26, when I got engaged and married my wonderful husband. After the first year of marriage, things for me started going downhill. It isn't like I became complacent and didn't feel like I needed to "look good" anymore, I didn't get lazy, I maintained the exact same lifestyle I had for the past 8 years. In fact, my lifestyle probably improved because I stopped working in the restaurant industry and stopped eating fried foods every meal. ALSO, I quit smoking in July 2006. Until that point I was smoking half to a full pack a day.
The reason I am splaying this on my blog is because I think I should be accountable if I say I am going to change and live a healthier lifestyle. I think that if I say I am going to do something, then by writing it on here I need to be accountable to myself, not let myself down.
So, yesterday I bought myself a scale, a dreaded scale!! I stepped on it when I got home and am (sadly) reporting I am the heaviest I have EVER been in my entire life. 155 pounds.
Now, I am not one for new years resolutions so I am not saying that is what I am doing here, but I realized right before Christmas it was time to change some things in my life, time to turn the page and start a new chapter. I realized this when I had to go and buy new jeans because none of my pants fit me anymore. I realized this when I looked at recent pictures of myself and saw chubby cheeks, plumpy arms, and a flabby belly (especially when I compared it to my honeymoon picture 5 years ago!) I bought the January Shape issue and on the cover they say I can drop 10 pounds in 1 month, so I am going to accept that challenge!
In the magazine, they give recipes for 20 meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks) that I can mix and match daily. I read through each recipe and I have to say that they all look extremely tasty, no bland diet food here! My next thought was, ya, but I am going to STARVE because portions are usually tiny. Not true here either! So, I went through the recipes and made my grocery list.....

Day 1
breakfast
I made my own recipe of a scrambled egg omelet with veggies (approx. 300 calories)
- 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites
- few splashes of red hot sauce
- tomato, green onion, mushroom, red pepper
- jarlsberg cheese
- whole grain tortilla wrap
- 1 tbsp ranch + 1 tsp red hot sauce

lunch
I made a spinach salad with fruit (approx. 200 calories)
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 tbsp sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup fig-balsamic dressing (YUM!)
and I had a snack of honeyed popcorn (100 cal) and vanilla Activia Dessert yogurt (100 cal)

snack
the meal-plan says you should have a snack if you're getting hungry, so I made their  Sonoma Snack (approx. 175 cal)
- 10 black olives
- 1 cup red seedless grapes
- 1 serving of wheat thins (11 crackers)
- 4 cubes laughing cow spreadable cheese

dinner
I made the recipe Turkey Mock Tacos from the meal plan (approx. 300 calories)
- 3 oz extra lean ground turkey, 'fried' in water
- 1/4 cup salsa
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
-1/4 cup red pepper
- 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1/4 fresh avocado
- 1/4 cup corn
- 4 large romaine lettuce leaves

I was looking at this recipe thinking '3 oz. of turkey?! This will be like an appetizer! I couldn't have been more wrong! My plate was heaping when I made the 4 tacos with the romaine leaves and I was stuffed when I finished eating!

So that was day 1. Let's see if I can continue another day.....