Researching my past

I did alright yesterday with the food and I did my walking even with a migraine that stock on me and is still there a little today.

This morning i took the time to weight myself before eating or drinking and I was at 74 kl/162.8 pounds instead of 74.7 / 164.3 pounds yesterday afternoon. It gives me a little smile even if I know that it was only normal fluctuations.

So I re-start at 74 kl/162.8 pounds which is way better anyway

I didn’t do as much steps as the days before but I was in the 9000’s.

Yesterday I was wondering how I used to do it with the food but then I logged into myfitnesspal that I was using everyday before I got my Fitbit and did a little research on myself.  I used to eat meat and vegetables at lunch and dinner and kept the carbs for the morning and evening. I used to eat oatmeal , sugar snap peas, spinach etc.

So today I ate plain turkey breast meat with carrots for lunch and I was full even if I didn’t eat potatoes. I will try to include more meals like this one from now on.

Vegetarian Chili

The other day I have watched one of my favourite cooking show. Ricardo was making a vegetarian chili. Because I have never made chilli and that it had beans in it which I like, it appealed to me right away. I already had a huge sweet potato here so I was half way there loll. Because being myself is not always easy I though I knew what else I needed to buy to make the recipe(you know from memory) so I bought a can of black beans and 2 peppers.

When I finally read the recipe online I was missing frozen corn and 1 can of beans so I put more peppers and an apple for the sweetness. For once I wanted to really follow a recipe but it might an impossible thing to do for me loll

The recipe is from Ricardo cuisine but from the French side of the website only. I didn’t find it in English. Ricardo had a cooking show for many years in Québec(Canada) in French but he is now on the food channel with a show in English.

Anyway made the recipe which was easy, healthy and yummy! I love vegetarian stuff with beans in it. At the end of the recipe there was a link saying your can serve with corn bread so I also made his corn bread recipe and the 2 things together was so delicious. I can see myself going ice fishing next Sunday and having a bowl of chilli to warm things up!

Here is the recipe translated if you would like to try.

Black bean vegetarian chili

• 2 onions, chopped
• 30 ml (2 tbsp.) olive oil
• 1 red pepper diced
• 3 garlic cloves chopped
• 1 t jalapeño , seedless, chopped
• 45 ml (3 c. tbsp. chili) powder
• 15 ml (1 tbsp.))  paprika
• 1 can of 796 ml (28 oz.) diced tomato
• 2 cans  540 ml (19 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 500 ml (2 cups) sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 125 ml (½cup) vegetable stock
• 375 ml (1 ½ cup) frozen corn
• 125 ml (½ cup) peanuts, grilled and chopped
• 125 ml (½ cup) fresh cilantro roughly chopped

Preparation

1. In a pot cook the onions in olive oil until golden. Add the peppers, garlic,spices and jalapeno. Cook for 2 minutes
2. Add tomato, beans, sweet potato, the stock and bring to boil. let simmer with no lid until the sweet potato is done, about 30 minutes Add corn and peanuts and cook some more. Add cilantro at the end and serve with corn bread.

For my version of the recipe

I only had 1 can of beans, 2 peppers, green Tabasco instead of jalapeno(cannot handle heat), left the peanut whole and used crushed coriander(cilantro) seeds instead of the fresh stuff. I also added 1 tsp. of cumin and chicken stock instead of veggie stock. I guess it is what cooking is all about…using what you have and being creative within boundaries. Now that I have written it I can making it again if I want. It’s not usually the case loll Now I still want to try the real recipe(as if) and I don’t know what it would taste like but my version was great!

Halloween party

I spent the weekend food shopping, relaxing and cheating. Ok. What exactly is my kind of cheating? Total junk food on Friday lunch, Eating stir-fry on sticky rice, cupcake (had 21/2 through the weekend), eating crumbed fish fingers that me and daughter made and baked in the oven, having some m&m’s and chocolate chips. I had heaps of fruit and vegetables. Apart from Friday there was no fast food or fatty food so it isn’t too bad, the real cheating was me not logging anything that I ate.

School visit

For the first part of the day I did alright with my food choices but the second part not so good.

Fresh strawberry pie

Daughter wanted a strawberry pie today and it’s Canada day tomorrow so I though it would make a perfect “red” treat. So we went to the grocery store and bought strawberries and other things. Is there anyone who is able to walk out of a store with only the thing that was on the list? Not me apparently because my kart was half full.

Aroma souvenir

When I was in my 20’s and fat was not the enemy I used to grow purple basil and dry it on the branches. When it was dry I would take leaf by leaf and put it all in a glass bottle without breaking them until I couldn’t fit anymore in the bottle. I would then take a good olive oil and fill the same bottle with it. I would wrap it in foil to prevent the light from spoiling it and store it for 3-4 months in a cool place…

Hands in dirt

This morning I did some cleaning, packed a few boxes and started to make lunch. I had this pork tenderloin de-frosting so I decided to marinate to make kebabs. I mixed coconut, rice vinegar, mirin, oil, garlic, cardamom, coriander, orange zest. Basically everything I could think of and puréed it with the bar mix. I put it on the kebabs with pieces of pineapple(note to myself: use fresh instead of tin pineapple next time). It didn’t hold very well on the kebab but the meat was delicious. I made a basmati rice with the juice of the pineapple and some orange zest mixed in when it was cooked. I also made zucchini and mushroom kebabs for the veggies. A nice family meal and a big mess.

Sweet tooth

Today my sweet tooth started to bother me maybe because I had a sweet breakfast. I made French toast with banana slices and oranges on the side. I only had about 1 tbsp. of maple syrup tough.

More coffee?

Today I got up very tired, had breakfast with a coffee and another coffee. Then it woke me up and I started cleaning, bathrooms, kitchen and almost vacuum loll. I then realised that it was going to be lunch time soon so I started to make some bread for hamburger buns, then mix the meat with some seasoning and cut up some veggies for siding. 

Experimental yogurt… Again?!?

Yep it’s the third post about home-made yogurt in 4 days. What is going on here? Well like I said in my last post the yogurt that we make doesn’t normally last very long but we now have a record of 12 hours. Since I want to do another test I hid the last jar behind the pickles and the strawberry jam. I guess my yogurt maker does only 7 jars so it goes faster than a 12 pack from the grocery store.