day 26: cinnamon buns and solid food

Sunday means brunch at my in-laws. Brunch means solid food.  I was very excited to have brunch today: an english muffin with pb, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, and couple of home-fries.  Mmmmm.

I also brought my homemade cinnamon buns to share with the in-laws at brunch today. I got this recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice baking book as I’m trying to bake my way through the whole book for the BBA Challenge put on my Pinch My Salt‘s blog. I didn’t frost them because I forgot to buy powdered sugar, but Matt’s mom prefers them un-frosted anyway.

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On to the green smoothies:

Breakfast Smoothie:

• 4 c. red swiss chard
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 cucumber
• 3 Medjool dates
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1/2 tbsp greens powder
• 2 c. water

Verdict: The dates add a great sweetness to this smoothie. The cucumber gives a cool, refreshing taste but it’s a bit overpowering. I think I would use less cucumber and maybe add more chard or a more neutral tasting green vegetable, like celery.

Dinner Smoothie:

• 4 c. spinach
• 1 carrot
• 1 banana
• 1 handful cilantro
• 1 clementine, juiced
• 1″ piece of fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 tbsp cacao nibs
• 1 tsp psyllium hulls
• 1 tsp greens powder
• 2 c. water

Verdict: Too watery. I always add 2 cups of water but for some reason this “smoothie” was more like a juice. The taste was predominantly ginger and cilantro, so if you don’t like cilantro (which, apparently, many people don’t) then you might want to substitute something else. A few sprigs of mint, perhaps?

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Lent weekend 1: complete. I think I did really well with my green smoothie drinking this weekend. I didn’t ever feel full but I never felt like I was starving either. I definitely had cravings, though. I hated how the liquid meals affected my bladder that I was almost wishing for a catheter. Honestly, I’m holding it right now, just so I can finish writing this blog post!

I’m already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow morning! Eggs, or oatmeal? I can’t quite decide. That’s okay, I have all night to dream about it! (Yes, I do dream about food, as a matter of fact.)

That’s enough blogging for tonight. Back to the hockey game. Come On, Canada!

day 25: it’s easy drinking green

On a Saturday morning the only thing that really gets me out of bed is breakfast. I’ll lie in bed thinking about what I’m going to eat and my excitement is what gets me up just a little earlier. This morning I was thinking “mmmmm…. oameal” until I remembered that I can only have green smoothies on the weekends for lent. I fell back asleep for another half hour. I didn’t feel too bad about it though because I was very productive today: I cleaned, I baked cinnamon rolls(!) for my family of course, I grocery shopped, I bathed Bagigis. All in all it was a Great Day!

I started the day with the juice of a quarter of a lemon mixed with half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and water to flush the liver and boost metabolism.

Breakfast Smoothie:

• 5 cups spinach
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 tbsp goji berries
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp greens powder
• 1/2″ piece of ginger
• 2 c. cold water

Verdict: The banana wasn’t as ripe as I would have liked so there wasn’t a whole lot of sweetness to this smoothie. I think next time I’ll add more ginger to give it more flavour.

If you’re wondering about my kick-ass blender, it’s an Osterizer I stole from the back of the pantry at my dad’s house. Judging by it’s mustard yellow colour I would date it circa 1976. I’ll have to check with my dad on that one. In any case it still works awesome. They just don’t make appliances like they used to.

Lunch Smoothie:

• 4 c. red swiss chard
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 6 mint leaves
• 1/2 c. frozen blueberries
• 1 pear
• 2 tbsp dried coconut
• 2 c. water

Verdict: Good. I love the mint in here– very refreshing. I thought the avocado would help it to be creamier but it was not as smooth as my breakfast smoothie, probably because there was no banana. Also, for some reason, this smoothie wasn’t as filling as breakfast.

Dinner Smoothie:

• 4 c. spinach
• 1 banana
• 1 Medjool date
• 1 apple
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp raw cacao
• 2 c. water

Verdict: Super sweet! Maybe I put a bit too much fruit in this one, but it was much sweeter than I expected. …or maybe my taste buds have already adapted to the not-so-sweet smoothies. In any case this is more of a tasty sweet snack than a dinner.

day 22: ash wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. That means Lent has started. For all you non-Christians, Lent is a forty day period of repentance and self-denial leading up to Easter. Now, I’m not very religious, but growing up in a Catholic family I have always practiced some form of food-oriented self-denial throughout Lent. Last year I was vegan, the year before that I gave up peanut butter and raisins, the year before that I gave up sweets and junk food, etc… For me, it’s more of a reminder to be grateful that I am lucky enough to not only have food to sustain me, but also food that I don’t even need for nourishment: food that is pure indulgence.

For Lent this year I decided not to eat any sweets. But for 40 days where there is no celebration of any kind this shouldn’t be too difficult. So I’m upping the ante. For the 6 weekends from now until Easter I am going to be drinking green smoothies as my meals. (My one exception being Sunday brunch at my in-laws. This would NOT fly with my mother-in-law.) The thing I love about green smoothies is I can get all of my required calories and even more vegetables that I normally eat in about 1L of smoothie. I can load it with superfoods like kale, goji berries, and cacao nibs. AND it’s all raw and all delicious (okay, mostly delicious… the taste can take some getting used to since I don’t add any sweeteners)

Feel free to join me by incorporating some green smoothies into your diet for the next 6 weeks too. I’ll be posting my smoothie recipes and my reviews on how they taste. I’d love for you to comment with some of your own smoothie recipes too. Cheers!

day 21 pt 2: the pancakes

I wasn’t really in the mood to search for a cool pancake recipe after coming home from the gym tonight. I was hungry! I ended up going to the trusty BHG Cookbook for a pancake recipe that I completely spun on its head. My timing on the frying is a bit off (lets just say I charred one pancake) but I’m not a seasoned “flapjacker” so I wasn’t expecting perfection. The taste was pretty good though, although next time I won’t use chickpea flour because I didn’t like the bean-y taste. Without further adieu, here’s the recipe as I prepared them:

Spiced Apple Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. spelt flour
• 1/2 c. chickpea flour (I would recommend using another 1/2 c. spelt instead)
• 2 Tbsp. wheat bran
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1 apple sliced thinly
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until just combined (don’t overstir).
Heat a non-stick skillet to medium heat and rub an oiled papertowel on the skillet.
Add some batter to the pan and fry until the surface begins to bubble. Flip and cook about a minute more on the other side. Remove from the pan and repeat with the rest of the batter. (I was able to get 5 giant pancakes out of this batter)

Serving suggestion:

Top with pure maple syrup and a tablespoon of plain yoghurt. On Fat Tuesday, pair the pancakes with breakfast sausage. Mmmmmm.

day 21: paczki day

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Paczki Day. It’s a big day today. BIG. FAT. DAY.

I didn’t actually buy paczkis this year so I won’t be having any tonight, but Matt and I are going to be making pancakes and sausage with maple syrup. … so excited for dinner tonight! :d
I’m planning on making pancakes from scratch (normally I use Aunt Jemima — not gonna lie). Does anyone have any good pancake recipes they care to share? I’ll pick one and post pictures of it later today.

Yesterday was Family Day so besides pumping some iron so I spent most of the day doing nothing around the house. It was a perfect day for bread baking! I made Anadama Bread from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice book. I’ve never heard of it before, let alone tasted it. Apparently it’s a traditional New England bread. It’s a sandwich bread that’s enriched with cornmeal, molasses, and a bit of butter and it is sooo good! I was really happy with how this turned out. I’ll have to file the recipe under A for “Awesome”.

Lunch today is two slices of this baby with avocado slices and some tuna mixed with salsa. Yum Yum!

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