I guess I better talk about what I ate at folk fest first!  When I walked in the gates, my favorite coffee shop Phil & Sebastian had a booth, so I had a small soy latte.  Snack!  Next I found the onigiri truck and got myself a yam & salmon onigiri.  Off to a good start! Of course we spent several hours in the beer tent area, so I admit I had a couple Big Rock Ciders.  which explains why I skipped my morning snack.    That’s not so bad right? I was doing good.  Then my husband showed up at the table with a burger and Ship & Anchor fries.  I ate some fries. When Beirut came on to play I headed to the main stage for the show and some dancing.  Probably not enough dancing for french fries but I figure if you count my biking to and from errands that day and biking to and from the folk fest…. well you know.  This eating healthy thing is hard if there is a party going on.

No matter!

I started my day with eggs and avocado.  Rather than plain old boring eggs, I fancied them up with egg whites.  I’ll give you the official French recipe which calls for cheese and cream.  Obviously I left those ingredients out today. Lunch is being prepared shortly.  Just some sardines (packed in water) with lemon and pepper and a salad. Dinner tonight, I don’t know, I checked yesterday and there are quite a few great gluten free healthy choices for me.  I’ll let you know that tomorrow.  As soon as I finish my work, I’m heading out on a run.  I’m planning a 10k today.

 

Egg soufflé recipe

Ingredients-

2 eggs, room temperature with whites and eggs separated

sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

1 Tbsp cream (unless you are avoiding cream like me)

1 Tbsp gruyere cheese grated (again, I skipped this, I know, it would taste way better!)

fresh ground black pepper to taste

butter for greasing ramekin

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400° F. Grease a ramekin with butter

2. Beat eggs whites until becoming stiff.  Add a bit of salt to taste. Continue beating until stiff peaks.

3. Spoon the beaten egg whites into ramekin. Make a little well in the center with the back of a soup spoon.  Carefully drop your yolks into the well. (Add your cream and cheese on top of the yolks). Season with a bit of black pepper. Carefully smooth the beaten eggs back over the hole. Bake for about 7 minutes.The whites should be nicely browned, your yolks and other ingredients will be soft and warm. (if you don’t like runny yolks, you won’t want this breakfast)

4. Serve with toast.  Unless you are me, and skipping bread for the week.

 

 

Todays activity- 10K run

 

 

 

0 comments

Started my day with buckwheat pancakes.  It’s what I wanted.  I tried making some vegan ones first from a recipe I found on The Healthy Chef. Fail!  I followed the recipe exactly.  They did not work.  So I added more and more almond milk.  End result- disgusting!  I washed up my pans and bowls and made my own no fail version.  As you can see I topped my pancakes off with healthy plain yogurt and raspberries.  So healthy.  Ok fine.  I admit it.  As soon as I turned off the camera I also doused the things in maple syrup.  Hey!  I’m Canadian.  We actually are not allowed to have pancakes without maple syrup.  For today I am saying maple syrup doesn’t count as sugar bad.  Just for today.

I’m about to hop on my bike for a 40k ride before finishing my work day.  I will just have a boiled egg and some carrot sticks after the ride.  Tonight, I’m off to the folk fest.  I’ll let you know tomorrow what trouble (or non trouble) I get in with my diet at the festival.  My intent is to treat myself to a delicious onigiri.

 

Breakfast- Buckwheat pancakes

snack- none

Lunch- carrot sticks, celery sticks, boiled egg

Dinner- to be determined.  probably Onigiri

 

Buckwheat pancake recipe-

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 egg, separated with whites beaten.

1 cup almond milk

2 Tbsp melted butter

handful of pumpkin seeds

 

Directions:

1. Preheat your griddle on medium heat.

2. Place all of your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine.

3. Stir together the egg yolk, butter and almond milk in another bowl.

4. Add your beaten egg whites to liquid and stir just a bit.

5. Pour liquid into dry ingredients (reserve a bit), and stir until combined. Add more liquid if needed.

6. Lightly oil your griddle and drop batter onto griddle in large spoonfuls. Press a few pumpkin seeds into each pancake. Turn when the undersides are nicely browned.

serve with low fat yogurt and fruit. and maple syrup.

 

Todays activity- 40K bike ride

 

0 comments

Oh I know you can’t get healthy in a week.  But honestly, I have had a few weeks of over indulging in treats and empty calories.  My favorite local gluten free bakery (Bigstar Bakery)  has seen me too often recently. They make the best brownies. Everyone who tries them can’t believe they are gluten free.  I suspect it’s the CREAM CHEESE they add.  I pretty sure it’s cream cheese.  What else, Oh how about too many restaurant meals at my fav places like Una, Cassis, and National. We all know that restaurant food tastes so good because of the copious amounts of butter and salt that they add. Then I had those rice crispie square cravings,  and chips and salsa cravings, and I started slathering (natural) peanut butter on everything, and finally too many peanut M&M’s on my weekend away.  I just need to lighten up and get back my equilibrium. So I am doing my own 1 week to healthy diet.

I intend to cut out gluten free breads and crackers for the week.  Most gluten free bread is no better than supermarket loaves for health reasons.  Cutting that out will give me more room for veggies, fruit and organic proteins. I have already preplanned my daily menus for the entire week.  This is very helpful if you want to stick to your plan. I also intend to go cheese free this week.  Cheese is a particular problem for me.  I like it.  And sometimes I go on a several week cheese binge.  I really can’t do that though.  I don’t want to bore you with the details but lets just say there is a direct correlation for me between dairy (cheese specifically) and my gallbladder. ouch!

My week will be a challenging one for a couple of reasons.  Midweek, I have invited my mom over to celebrate her birthday!  Luckily she happens to really like my cooking so that night I’m planning to make my pea soup, firecracker salmon (no stir fry)  and a nice big green salad.  I will buy her a cake! A normal wheat flour cake! That way I absolutely can’t have cake as I cannot tolerate any gluten whatsoever.  Hey, whatever works right!?

The next challenge comes Thursday/Friday evenings and Sunday.  I will be attending the Calgary Folk Festival those days.  Luckily for me, Calgary Folk fest has a very sophisticated food cart line up.  It’s not at all difficult to choose extremely healthy meals while attending.  I’m even planning a bit of a treat!  I sure hope the onigiri company will be there this year.  I just love that Japanese street food.

Lastly, on Saturday I am shooting a wedding in Canmore all day and into the night.  The challenge there will be to get the food I need at the time I need.  I plan to bring some healthy snacks with me, but I know that Communitea has amazing and health conscious choices for me as well.

 

Here is my day one menu and exercise plan.  I’m about to leave for the gym for a quick upper body weight room workout so I’ll just add that in.

 

Breakfast- Blueberry Smoothie

Snack- Banana

Lunch-  Wild pacific sockeye salmon tabouli

Snack- Organic gluten free turkey jerkey

Dinner- Perfect foil fish packets (done on barbecue)

And water.  Lot’s of water!

 

Blueberry Smoothie Recipe-

(2 cups) frozen blueberries (freeze your own!)
1 small red apple, chopped with the skin
200 g natural low fat yogurt with live cultures

(2/3 cup) water
1 teaspoon flaxseed (ground)

Directions- blend until smooth.

serves 1 (or 2 if you can’t finish like me)

 

Wild pacific sockeye salmon tabouli recipe-

1 tomato, chopped & a handful of cherry tomatoes washed and chopped
1 green onion finely sliced

I small salmon fillet, poached (use a high sided fry pan, add just enough water to cover your fillet, skin on, and heat at medium for about 3-4 minutes per side.)
1/2  cucumber, chopped
small handfull, chopped parsley
small handfull, chopped mint

juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

1. Use a fork to separate the nice flakes of salmon from the skin. discard skin.

2. Combine the lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil using a whisk. Salt and pepper to taste.

3. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, pour over dressing and stir again.

delicious!

 

Perfect fish foil packets recipe- (I’m using fresh halibut tonight)

You can find it on my blog here. The only difference is I am using oil instead of butter and I am using the barbecue tonight to cook it.  Too hot to cook indoors!

 

Todays activity-

30 km bike ride

weight room upper body workout

 

2 comments