May 24, 2010

Soggy, Sunny, Windy -- Holiday Survival
Well this was supposed to be the hottest May long weekend in Canadian history -- but we had some pretty changeable weather and although the temps were pretty pleasant, it did not reach the high 20's Celsius that was predicted. It was definitely one of those weekends where you had to be prepared for just about anything, in terms of dressing for the weather! My "girls' camping weekend" was fun, nonetheless, but we had to keep improvising our plans and acting on the fly :) Good thing I am a bit of a daredevil...

Yes, I Might be Losing It...
Tonight I am waiting for the rain to let up a bit so I can get out for a short walk. I am feeling a bit cooped up after a 3+ hour ride home from our campsite today. We did stop for coffee/water/snacks and a stretch, but it still was a bit less active than my typical day. I have been using the Lose It app on my iPhone and finding it is a great way to keep my honesty alive in the ongoing quest to balance work, children, nutrition and activity. If you are unfamiliar with Lose It and have similar goals to mine, you may find this app to be a great help.

Lose It is free (yay!) and allows great personalization/flexibility. It is easy to set up and use the tool to monitor your weight loss goals and to balance food intake with activity. Another great feature is that is doesn't only track calories, it tracks nutritional balance also: fats, protein, carbohydrates, sodium, fibre etc. You set your course and enter your daily food and exercise while ensuring you do it in a healthy way -- it's that simple. You can also set up Lose It to prompt you at specific times of the day; for example I have a personal default set to msg me if I don't enter my food by 8 p.m. each day.

Similar to Weight Watchers, I am enjoying the flexibility of eating from a wide variety of food groups as long as I manage my portion size and/or "earn" additional food intake daily with activity, but no lost time sitting thru meetings or embarrassing public weigh-ins!

Beeting Boredom
Let's be honest -- I love food: preparing food, trying new things and keeping my meals balanced and healthy. Food and dining are an art in my view, and are a daily priority. Lately, I have been looking for ways to include one of my favourite root vegetables: beets.

I have enjoyed crab cakes in a local restaurant chain that come served on a luscious burgundy bed of thinly grated spirals of raw beets. I am not sure how they make this "beet spaghetti", but one of my girlfriends has told me they must use a Madeleine-style grater. Once I get the scoop, I will share...

Until this fairly recent discovery of raw shredded beets, I have always eaten beets in cooked form -- in borscht, in my root vegetable bake, in pickled form or as whole steamed baby beets (including the tender stem and tops/greens).

Last week while reading an issue of Blush in the doctor's office, I found a great cupcake recipe that contains -- you guessed it -- beet puree! The thought was, similar to carrot cake, you can tip the scale toward health by incorporating some hidden veg in a chocolate cupcake. Here is the recipe -- hope you will try and let me know what you think. xo

Beet These Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 ounces - 60 g dark chocolate
1/2 cup - 125 mL unsalted butter
1 cup - 250 mL unbleached, all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. - 4 mL baking soda
1/4 tsp. - 1 mL each of baking powder and sea salt
3/4 cup - 180 mL lightly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. - 2 mL vanilla extract
1 cup beet puree

Yield: 12 cupcakes

To make the beet puree, boil or roast unpeeled beets until tender. Peel the beets after cooking -- cooking with the skin keeps the beets from bleeding out all of the lovely purple colour. Buzz in a blender or food processor until finely chopped. A slightly chunky texture is preferred for this recipe over baby-food-smooth!

Line muffin tins with paper cups and preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/190 Celcius. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave, stirring in 2 Tbsp of the butter as the chocolate begins to soften. Set aside to cool slightly.

Combine flour with soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream the remaining butter with sugar, egg and vanilla. Add beet puree and then the cooled chocolate. Gradually add in the flour mix.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for about 30 minutes -- a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin will come out clean. Cool in tin for five minutes, then turn out to cool completely. Ice with your favourite cream cheese or chocolate frosting or try the Tangy Icing recipe, below.

Tangy Icing Recipe:

Beat 4 ounces spreadable cream cheese with 1 Tbsp. of softened butter and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup of sifted icing sugar, stirring until smooth and creamy. Spread evenly over cooled cupcakes.

Note: 278 calories per cupcake, 2g protein, 14 g fat (0g saturated fat), 26g carbohydrate, 1g fibre and 171g sodium -- data for you Lose It App :)

May 15, 2010

Purposeful Living
Do you ever get so caught up in "doing" that you forget what you're doing it for? The last couple of months have been a total blur for me. Somewhere in that blur, there were birthdays, meetings, workout days, kid's events etc. -- some dry stuff and some really wonderful stuff, but looking back I am wondering if I was chewing without tasting!

Does Bionic Woman feel more deeply?
Better, stronger, faster - we continue to push and push and push. I can be a real workhorse - competitive, strong of mind and body and with exacting quality standards. But this applies more to my working life - do I approach my personal goals with the same drive and passion? Like so many women, I think it sneaks up on us and our dearest needs, hopes and desires slowly slip away from us like a receding tide. Chewing without tasting, looking versus seeing; "being there" versus true connection with others and with environments. If I am so omnipotent, why don't I feel wonder and joy at the same epic scale???

One thousand needles!
Sometimes it takes a physical twinge (or two, or three!) to jolt the mind and body back to attention and attentiveness. There can be a robotic separation of self when when we get caught up in "doing" rather than truly living and experiencing; using all of our senses. My mini-awakening came yesterday when I went for treatment of leg veins. A medical procedure to kill off varicose veins with a painful series of injections. The physician was experienced and quick with a needle, but the process was much more extensive than I imagined it would be. Like an explosion of glass embedding my tender skin, when we had reached the half-way point, I thought "What on earth have I got myself into?" I likely had fifty or so injections, but it felt like a thousand, a million - my nerve endings on fire with pain.

Nourishment
So, they wrapped me up -- I am bandaged from ankle to groin on both legs and my best friend was waiting for me in the waiting room. You have to walk, albeit gently for about 30-45 minutes after this treatment; so we went to a city park. The May air was moist and fragrant; the sun, benevolent and restorative. I was already willing my body to heal, to feel the promise through the pain. My little wake up call came in all of those rapid-fire injections -- I am so fortunate, I am in possession of these amazing gifts and abilities; I am willing myself to soar and I am committed to my self-care above all things.

When we are fully engaged in our self-care we reap the benefits many times over and the quality of our experience can then over-spill to all others we touch -- AND we truly are able to touch others, because we are really connecting; not just buzzing by.

May 10, 2010

Ginger Ale Pancakes xo xo xo!!!

Mother's Day has always been a stressful day for me. I guess mostly because I have been conditioned that the day was not for me -- I thought, and still think, more of my own Mother: Marvelous Mother Martha, or MMM as we lovingly and gratefully call her in my clan :)

But I am a Mom -- I have three great kids (who are my life and breath) and I am thankful for their presence in my life every day and every hour that I live.

Why this sense of unease? Why do I feel unworthy; like I am never "enough", never worth praising or celebrating? In the past couple of years I have been trying to shake that negativity, and inside I do realize that "yes", it's okay to feel proud of my kids and that doesn't make me arrogant, and it's okay to want to celebrate my own motherhood -- and THAT doesn't make me selfish. It's okay to want to pursue the activities that bring me joy like my art, photography, time with gal pals and time outdoors.

A couple of years ago it just dawned on me that I had never really been celebrated as a Mother. The focus in my home has typically been, not even on my own Mother, but on my Mom-in-law -- who is a great gal, but she has raised her kids and has four children to honour her motherhood. Why do my kids have her as the focus of their Mother's Day? Am I wrong to want that day for myself as Mother with my children?

I don't think the whole "Mother's Day hijack" is a purposeful thing -- I think some parents just don' t want to face that the birdies have to leave the nest; nor do they even recognize that the birds have left! I think they are afraid of their own mortality.

Amateur psychoanalysis aside, I am taking back my Motherhood, piece by piece and learning that it's okay to celebrate that role and be comfortable with praise that I receive both as a Mother and more generally as a woman.

My highlight this year was my nine-year-old son's invention of Ginger Ale Pancakes -- it was his suggestion to alter the ingredients for our family recipe (from my junior high school home economics recipe book). Recipe follows, hope you will try and enjoy and that you will have the courage to celebrate your unique place in this world, whether as a Mom, daughter, Father, friend - whatever! You are important and only you can fill your shoes. Have a wonderful week xo!

K-Man's Ginger Ale Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup ginger ale
(My son wanted to substitute the milk for ginger ale, so we did it!)
1 egg
2 Tbsp. canola oil, plus 2 tsp. for frying
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. granulated white sugar

Preheat your griddle to medium-low heat, and drizzle/spread the 2 tsp. canola oil across the griddle. In a 4-cup bowl, beat the egg with 2 Tbsp. oil and stir in the ginger ale. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar and gradually stir into the wet mixture to form a smooth batter.

Drop by ladlefuls onto the preheated griddle. When bubbles begin to form on the surface of each pancake, flip over. The pancake will "sigh" -- that is rise slightly then fall slightly -- when done on the second side.

These pancakes are 50% airier than our regular recipe -- great with cinnamon and maple syrup or with butter and fruit syrup, such as raspberry.

Enjoy! Our next pancake experiment will be with cream soda to make pink, cotton-candy sweet treats xo!