Bad blogger protein pancake

I’ve been a bad blogger of late.

I’ve also been failing miserably at healthy living.

I’ve been eating poorly, and I’d like to blame in on the fact that my kitchen has looked like this for about 3 weeks. More on that later.  

At the risk of sounding incredibly dramatic, I was just in a terrible downward spiral. One bad meal turned into an afternoon treat, which turned into dessert… etc etc etc. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had: poutine, hamburgers, chips, Dairy Queen, drumsticks, fries.

Not something I’m proud of.

I was trying to convince myself that I didn’t care anymore, that there is more to life than depriving myself. The reality is, I do care. Very much.

Here’s the thing. There’s a huge different between deprivation and healthy eating. I don’t HAVE to have ice cream. I don’t HAVE to have poutine. By not eating these things, I’m certainly not depriving myself – I’m just being healthy.

I tend to live by the “rule” that I eat healthy/clean’ish food during the week, and allow myself some treats on the weekend. It works for me. I’ve been doing this healthy living shit for quite a while now, I know my body – and I friggin’ well know that I can’t eat shit for 2 weeks and feel good.

Happy Amy = healthy’ish food + exercise. It’s as simple as that. No matter how delicious that poutine tastes, it’s never worth it. I know better.

Ok, lecture-to-self is over. Moving forward.

Today I made a pretty great breakfast..

A protein pancake. I’ve seen a couple different versions out there on the internet, I’m not sure whose I copied here’s what I ended up using:

- 1 mashed banana
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp flax seeds
- splash of vanilla extract

I topped it with some strawberries and a little dallop of cool whip. Delicious. Hopefully it keeps me full for a while.

You might be asking “Why Amy, it appears you have counters in that picture?”

The answer is yes. Those are my new granite counters. It hasn’t been smooth sailing in the slightest. I’ll spare you the drama, but I’m happy they’re finally in and installed to my (perfectionist) eye. There’s still some more work to be done (plumbing-backsplash-painting) so I’m not going to post pictures yet. This is the renovation that just won’t quit. This kitchen will never be the kitchen of my dreams, but we decided to work with what was there as opposed to gutting a new’ish (house was built in 2008) kitchen just to make fancy-pants me happy. Bit by bit, we’re getting there!

Happy Monday.

funk

I’m in a funk.

Rather than write a novel about it, I’m going to choose to ignore it and write about things that make me happy instead.

#1) Baseball starts SOON. Can we discuss how ridiculous this helmet makes me look? Ah well. It gives me piece of mind knowing that I won’t have to put my luscious locks into a communal helmet.

2) The Bluesfest line-up this year. City and Colour is coming. Yay!

Check this song out. Love it.

3) Jersey’s new Lambchops on ‘roids. That dog makes my heart hurt she is so friggin’ cute. She loves the ‘roid version just as much as her little one(s) which are mostly now carcasses. Maybe I’ll write a post one day on her obsession with all things Lambchops. It’s really quite the production.

4) Spinning. It makes me happy. So I should go there now and stop stewing in fury. TTFN.

The evolution of my tattoo

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my new tattoo.

 I can't lie, I smile every time I glance down at my wrist.

It's actually kind of funny how it all went down.

Naturally I was a little concerned about getting a tattoo - especially on mywrist. I work in a professional environment, and I don't exactly fit the mold of one who gets tattooed. I

I sent my friend Reg an email one day that simply said "Tattoos - yay or nay?" to which he replied "Funny, I went to the tattoo place near my house the other day to enquire about getting one". Reg is a little bit, ummm, sarcastic and I honestly thought he was mocking me. He tends do that. Kind of a lot. But much to my surprise, he wasn't, and he was planning on getting a tattoo himself. After a few more emails and texts, next thing I knew, the appointment was booked. Score!

Our tattoo artist Paul greeted us with a smile and got to work on the stencil for my tattoo. The time in between the time it took him (about 25 mins) and the time he actually tattooed felt like an eternity. I tend to get myself a little worked up about things - Googling "Wrist tattoo pain" and reading words like blood, oozing, and infection right before getting it wasn't exactly my best move. I was expecting death and I was so nervous I thought I was going to vomit.

Luckily Reg is very good at managing this, and distracted me with pleasant thoughts - like having a life size portrait of Derek Jeter's face tattooed on my back. It's all kind of a blur now. What I did confirm though, and this likely isn't a shock to most, I talk A LOT when I'm nervous.

Thanks for putting up with my shit, Reg! :)

The tattoo itself only took maybe 5-7 minutes. It wasn't painful, but it defintiely wasn't sunshine and roses either. I found that it hurt less when I didn't look at it, so I chose to look away for the most part. The "Y" part felt a little bit like torture Jack Bauer style though. Before I knew it, it was over and bandaged up. Easy peesey!

I was able to remove the bandage about 4 hours later, and I was so so so very happy with the end result.

What has shocked me the most about this? How friggin' emotional I was the next day.

I took a picture of it, and posted it Facebook. The amazing reactions from family and friends made me smile, and then cry - happy tears of course.

My favorite one came from my grade one teacher: (I know it sounds weird to have your grade one teacher on Facebook, but in this case it's not - just trust me)

What a great tattoo. Whenever I think of your mom, I remember her laughter and the time that she read what you wrote on our class Mother's Day chart. Everyone contributed a sentence about what their mother liked to do (e.g. make me cookies, read me stories....) Your contribution - My mother likes to pick fleas off the cat! :)

 It made me laugh... and then cry... and then laugh some more.

 I've wanted to get a tattoo for a long time, but could never pin-point exactly what I wanted. I knew I wanted something to remember my Mom but could never make a decision. I often suffer from buyers remorse after I've made a big purchase, but I don't have a single regret in this case.

It's perfect.

About that permanent change...

As years go by, I have gradually started to forget all the horrible details of May 21, 1992. Almost 20 years later I will never forget that it was by far, the worst day of my life.

That day was the day my Mom died.

I remember walking into my Aunt’s house, and seeing my Dad and his siblings sitting around the table. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. but I remember wanting to go home.

When we arrived home, I remember my Dad sitting my brother and I down on the couch and saying the words that no one ever wants to hear, let alone an 11 year old child: “Mommy died”.

The moments that follow that day have become somewhat forgotten, and what pains me the most, the fond memories that preceded that day have also started to fade.

And I hate that. I hate forgetting.

As you know, my Nanny died recently. Even though my hometown is only an hour away from Ottawa, I don’t visit nearly enough. A lot of my Dad’s friends haven’t seen me in years. More than once, people would arrive and without introduction they’d identify me as Amy, merely due to the fact I look like my Mom. I overheard several people whispering “Wow, dosn’t she look like Mary?” and one man (I’m still not certain who he even is) walked up to me and said “You’re just like Mary”. Easily the highlight of an otherwise very difficult day.

My Aunt found this card recently… a little hard to read, but it’s a card from my Mom & Dad thanking my Aunt and family for the gift they gave me after I was born.

Can I just say that I think it’s kind of adorable that my Mom wrote a portion of it from me as an infant? Totally something I think I would do.

Which is the perfect segue to the “permanent change” portion of this post.

I got a tattoo.

I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo with my Mom’s initials for years, but finding this card changed everything.

I had her name, in her handwriting, tattooed on my right wrist.

I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

My right hand is my working hand, I love that I will be reminded each time I look down that she’s with me each and every day.

I don’t want to forget anymore.

She’s been gone for almost 20 years, but she will never ever be forgotten.

Making a permanent change

Today I am making a permanent change.

I can't tell you about it just yet.

It's something I've wanted to do for a long time.

It's also something I haven't had the courage to do until now.

I'm really excited about it and can't wait to see the end result.

Stay tuned! :)

Rutabaga vs Turnip

Google images tells me this is a turnip.
Google images tells me this is a rutabaga.

I always suspected the were the same thing, but apparently they are not.

However what most people call a rutabaga, I call a turnip. Wikipedia tells me that the name turnip is also used in parts of Northern and Midland England, Ontario and Atlantic Canada

so that makes me feel a little bit better and for the purposes of this post, I'm going to keep calling a rutabaga a turnip... cause that's the way I roll.

To be honest, I had never tried turnip before this last Easter dinner. It's ALWAYS served at holiday dinners, but the smell always turned me off.

This year, for whatever reason, I decided to try my Uncle Arnie's turnip.

It was friggin' delicious. I suspect it was the plethora of butter and brown sugar that made me love it, but still, it was great.

In an effort to minimize the kazillion butter/brown sugar calories, I decided to try roasting it. I bought some pre-cut turnip and butternut squash, lightly tossed it in EVOO, S&P and roasted it for about 40 mins at 425. I'm happy to report, I still enjoyed it without all the added fat and sugar.

I'm happy to add this veggie to my roster.

My question: Am I the only one who was confused about the rutabaga vs turnip debate?

I don't think I've actually had a "real" turnip - just the Ontario version of a turnip!

2 for 2!

If you've been reading my little blog for a while, you know that I had a pretty serious bike accident last summer. As a result of said accident, I missed pretty much the entire baseball season and I think I rode my bike maybe another 2-3 times afterwards.

Good news!

This weekend I rode my bike AND played a little baseball and my shoulder felt grrrrrrrreat.

And so did my re-laced glove.

This glove could possibly be older than I am. I got it as a hand me down from my cousin when I was in grade 5. Last summer, I ended up leaving it at the diamond after a game. I thought for sure someone would see it, and think "This thing is a piece of shit, it must be garbage". The baseball gods must have heard my pleas, so they intervened and a good soul found it and returned it. It was about 3 weeks before I heard anything, so I had actually went out an bought a new glove. That new glove will never be able to replace my little gem. It sits in the back of my car as a back-up.

I had my old baby relaced and oiled (not sure about this, it came back darker) and it's good as new again. Here's hoping I'll get another 25 years out of it.

All that to say, I'm pumped it's baseball season again. I'm playing it 2 different leagues this summer and I couldn't be happier about that.

Love me some baseball.

BBQ and Bananas

Thursday's always throw me off my game a little. I get up and go to spin at 6:00am, and then work 9-5, rather than 7-3.

I always feel kind of like sloth when I arrive home and don't have to hit the gym. It's a very strange thing. But the nice part is, it allows me some free time in the evening.

I arrived home with a mission: BBQ and Bananas.
BBQ = success. Chicken breast, zuchinni boats, and sweet potatoes. YUM!

Using up some of these cheapy bananas was a success too - in the form of Banana Coconut Loaf.

Pre-bake:

Post-bake:

Pre-consumption:

Happy Friday!

Walking vs Running

On Easter Monday, I hit the trails for a looooooong walk with my BFF.

….my furry BFF that is. How cute are those little feet of hers?

We walked a steady (with a kajillion stops with the dog) 8k in 1:22 mins. Mr. Garmin told me that I burned 465 calories during my walk.

I arrived home last night, and decided that I would run the exact same route to determine the difference in calorie burn between walking and running.

I ran the 8k in just under 60 mins (again – stops for you know who – she likes to fake pee a lot when she dosn’t want to run anymore) and I only burned 586 calories.

465 calories burned WALKING 8k.

586 sweaty disgusting calories burned RUNNING 8k (10:1 intervals mostly, with a couple extra walking breaks to conquer a couple HUGE hills)

Mr. Garmin also gives me the following stats:

Walking average heart rate = 122 bpm
Walking maximum heart rate = 150 bpm

Running average heart rate = 152 bpm
Running maximum heart rate = 171 bpm

I fully admit to not being a heart rate connaisseur, but according to my minimal knowledge these numbers are within my desired target during exercise.

I think I might have actually found walking that route harder than running it, and I have the shin splints 2 days later to prove it. I love/hate to run. I really do. But maybe walking really isn’t that bad after all? The numbers prove that, and you can’t deny there is much less impact on your little joints.

Moral of the story: Walking burns some serious calories and it saves you from getting sweaty and gross. Do it.

“Pie Off” Results

Well, it turns out cousin Debi and I are both pretty awesome at baking pies.

She made a lemon meringue,

AND a butterscotch. Cheater.

I made another one of the Martha Stewart spiced apple pies, that I tested out the other day. This time, if I may toot my own horn, I NAILED it. The pastry was perfect and I tented it with foil to prevent the crust from getting too brown.

 

On to the taste test.

Cousin Darcy gave the butterscotch two thumbs up.   

Cousin Meredith had a bite of apple,

and rubbed her tummy with delight.

Cousin Jannah had to have a moment after tasting the apple pie.

Uncle Arnie also loved the pie, and had a little friend that was watching him the whole time. That’s Andrew in the background eating a piece of lemon, and apparently enjoying it tremendously. Where’s the loyalty? :)

Ellie was looking on with her best “I’m starving” face, but dogs don’t like pie.

 

Jersey would have loved her mama’s apple pie, but her mama was too paranoid that Jersey was going to scratch Debi’s new dark hardwood floors so she hung out outside.

There was no real winner in the “pie off'” but we had a lot of fun trash talking and eating the pie. All for the love of family.

Now, here’s my question to all you pie bakers.

Does your pastry have lard or butter? Mine (well, Martha’s) had butter and Debi’s recipe (from the Tenderflake box) had lard. Both tasted awesome. What’s the difference?

It was a long 40 days

Happy Easter Friends!

While I’ve loosened the majority of my “Catholic reins” I still enjoy participating in Lent. Man, it seems all I write about lately is about being competitive – cause lets face it, Lent is a huge challenge!

This year, I chose to give up chocolate again.

To be honest, the first few days were pretty hellacious, but I once I survived detox I was ok. It’s not that I live on chocolate, it just happens to be in a lot of the stuff I enjoy.

It was certainly a lot easier once I got all the good out of site.

Out of site = hidden in the freezer.

I actually started to laugh when I was making room for my freezer meals, and started to find all the chocolate I had banished.

Coconut M&M’s and Reese’s from my last road trip to the US.

A Treatzza Pizza from Dairy Queen we bought on sale around the time my Nanny died.

 

A batch of Oh She Glows Chocolate Cherry Walnut Truffles I made around Valentines Day.

 

Larabars that contain cocoa.

Lindor truffles from the US road trip.

And my beloved fro-yo.

That is a lot of chocolate.

It just might have to stay in the freezer for a little while longer.

…but in the meantime, I’ve got a Laura Secord Cream Egg calling my name.

Enjoy your holiday. :)

A glimpse into parenthood

We’re right in the middle of kitchen renos.

The addition of new cabinets, has lead to the procurement of a slab of granite with will be installed at the end of this week. YAY!

This means that the old counter and back splash had to come down.

This also means we had to enlist the help of my cousin Scott. He’s got the tools. And skills.

This also meant that Auntie got to watch this little guy whilst the boys worked.

I’ll never pass on an opportunity to hang out with him, and I think I might have been the first time we got to hang out just Auntie and Connor.

No big deal right?

Our evening started out with a walk to the park. I thought I’d bring Jersey and kill 2 birds with one stone.

Upon our arrival, Connor’s little eyes lit up when he saw the play ground. He was thrilled. I decided to tie Jersey to a bench, so I could play with Connor on the jungle gym and push him on the swings.

Well, we lasted about 10 mins before Jersey started having a meltdown. She was NOT impressed that she was tied up. She was causing a bit of scene, so I decided we’d go play in the soccer field with Jersey in tow.

Have you ever tried to get a 2 year old off a play ground? Yah.. it’s not easy. I had to trick him and pretend it was a race. One point Auntie.

Connor is a pretty easy going kid and just loves to be outside. We rolled down hills, we had races, and then he’d just run around. Fun was had by all.

When it came time to leave, he was not impressed. Whining ensued. I solved the problem by telling him Jersey had to go home to bed. Much to my surprise, it worked. Yessssss!

We arrived home to a messy, dusty house. It was supper time. The kitchen was in chaos. Making something wasn’t an option.

Where did we go?

The McNugget in his hand should be an indication.

I think I surprised everyone, including myself, when I offered to take him there.

Kids love McNuggets, right?

I couldn’t find a booster seat, so he kinda ate wherever he wanted.

He ended up spilling his chocolate milk, and Super Auntie forgot to get napkins. I kinda panicked a little, because I didn’t want to leave him alone and he was a little teary because I think he was embarrassed he spilled his milk. So again, I pulled out the “Let’s run really fast and get some napkins” and that seemed to work.

All in all, it was pretty fantastic evening. But I gotta say, it was a real eye opener. Hats off to all you parents. I was spent after just a couple of hours.

Big hats off to Scott and April for being such fantastic parents to this little guy. He’s surrounded by people who love him all the time, and as a result, he’s a fantastic little guy who makes my grinch-like heart swell with love.

Preliminary “Pie Off” Results

This weekend is not only Easter weekend, but it’s also marks the first ever Amy vs Debi Pie Off.

There won’t be any more lovey-dovey cousin pictures after this. It’s ON.

I’m not even sure how it came up, or why I challenged her to a pie-off. I’ve never even made a pie in my entire life. It likely has something to do with me feeling the need to win at absolutely everything I do.

Day #2 of consisted of me spending some time in the test kitchen, preparing both mentally and physically for this challenge.

My rules for the pie off are simple: Everything from scratch.

Martha Stewart is good at everything she does, so I figured I’d try out her recipe for Spiced Apple Pie with Fluted Round Cutouts. I interviewed many skilled pie makers, who suggested I start with something simple like lemon. Pffft. Go big or go home.

Martha’s pie looked like this:

Source

This is what mine looked like before going into the oven. 

And this is what it looked like after. It got a little too brown, but hey, that’s why you practice!

Had to taste test it of course:

And the verdict is: I’m pretty good at making pie. Who knew?

I plan to make this pie again for Sunday dinner and dominate this competition.

Now, the problem is: What to do with all this pie? I can’t eat it without feeling guilty… there’s about 3490 lbs of butter in the crust alone!

Amy-Time

Day #1 of Staycation consisted of: waiting around all day for the granite guy, an impromptu visit from my Dad, spin class, enchiladas and watching “We Bought a Zoo”. Not too shabby.

Day #2 has been pretty good thus far.

Body Pump + CX Worx, iced coffee,

and oatmeal.

Afternoon plans: Walk with the dog, appointment to get fitted for orthotics, and maybe hit up spin class for a double dose of exercise.

Confession: I’m finding it very difficult to be away from the office. I live and breathe my career, so being away is causing me a little bit of anguish. That being said, the whole point of taking this week off was to get away. I need unwind. I need to let go. I can do this.

Freezer Meals

I stumbled upon the caption “10 Freezer Meals in One Day” via Pinterest one day.

Seemed easy enough. I enlisted the assistance of my two cousin-in-laws and away we went.

Jersey was happy to go visit her cousins!

First we hit up the grocery store. I was expecting a huge bill, but split 3 ways it was only about $110 each. Not too bad at all!

I think it was about 1:00pm by the time we started cooking.

 

I’m related to a bunch of perverts. They found it particularly interesting watching me remove the sausages from their casings. Excuse my skid-like appearance. Sundays = no makeup day. 

It didn’t take long for the kitchen to become a state of chaos.

There was stuff everywhere.  

But I gotta say, we handled it like pros.

By the end of the day we had: Taco soup, Chicken and Rice Soup, Sausage and Tortellini Soup, Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole, Lasagna, Fettuccine Pie, Stroganoff Meatballs, and Tater Tot Casserole.

The website also called for a Hawaiian Pork Recipe, but April already had a roast in her slow cooker.      

We had everything bagged by about 5:30 or 6:00pm I’d say. Not bad really.

All the meals aren’t exactly “Amy friendly” but it’s about moderation right?

I’m just happy I don’t have to cook for a while. We tried the Sausage and Cheese Tortellini soup last night and it was delicious! Leftovers for lunch today. Score!

My current problem? Not enough freezer space. The unfinished part of my basement doesn't have outlets for some reason, so I can’t plug my deep freezer in. We’re having an electrician come in to run under cabinet lights on my new cabinets (post coming on the kitchen reno soon!) so I’ll ask him to add some outlets then.

Have a great day!