A Few Pics

It is too hot to post (again) at the moment so I shall pop up some pics to show what I have been up to then hunker under the air con with some sewing.

Last years Christmas project to complete so I can start this years

Green Superfoods PoG

Dehydrator produce - Zucchini chips seasoned with lemon and dill

The whizz-bang blender arrived at last

Chewy Banana and Goji Protein Balls compliments of blender. Recipe from karenluvslife 

Raw Fig Cheesecake 

First Green Smoothie (yummo)

And that is all for now folks.
Time to finish my Christmas Tree cross stitch so I can begin this years presents for everyone.

Food For Thought

Of late I have been reading up on 'Raw Food' and am quite liking the idea. I don't think I could go completely raw but it would be good to mix up the diet and also include a few more vegetarian meals. One of the things I have been reading about is 'activating nuts'. This is a process of soaking and then slow drying (at a low temp, 46C) most of your nuts and seeds.

Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds in the dehydrator

Why activate my nuts?
Nuts contain enzyme inhibitors, these act by binding to enzymes and decrease and/or block their actions. The enzyme inhibitors are beneficial to nuts, as they prevent the nuts from prematurely sprouting. However, they also act on our digestive enzymes, preventing their proper digestion and absorption.

Nuts and seed also contain small amounts of phytic acid, which our digestive system is also unable to break down. Eating large amounts of raw nuts could then lead to symptoms such as feeling 'heavy', feelings of uncomfortable fullness, even nausea. Not only this, but it puts a massive strain on our digestive system, compromising already fragile digestive tracts.

Activated nuts and seeds stored in the fridge

During all my reading/googling I came across a few people on Facebook and Instagram, namely #RawKarma and #theHealthGuruGirl. Their posts have inspired me to try making raw cakes and develop my breakfast creations which #theHealthGuruGirl aptly names POGs (Pots of Goodness)

POG - topped with fresh strawbs and activated almonds

Also in my food travels I have found Karen Kitto from karenluvslife whose blog I am now following. She has been a total  gem and already answered several emails I have sent. Hopefully I won't wear out her helpfulness. Her blog has many recipes I cant wait to try out the first being her 'Chewy Banana and Goji Protein Balls'. Hopefully my new blender will turn up soon.

Yep, went on a bit of a spending spree as you do when you get excited by new things. First purchase was the dehydrator which is certainly getting a workout. I am currently trialing kale chips. Second purchase was a 'Bio Chef' blender, the specs are almost the same as a Vitamix but at a third of the price. Unfortunately the 'Spirooli' is not currently in stock so my intentions of making vegetable pasta will have to wait for a while.

First baby zucchini

First (very tiny) baby lebanese cucumber

A couple of pics from my garden and as you can see there is finally movement. Perhaps by the time they are fully grown the Spirooli will be back in stock and i can have zucchini pasta.

It's a . . . . .

I took the shade cloth off the garden this morning as the temp is only supposed to get to 33 degrees today and i deemed it a good opportunity to take a look at my worm farm.  WooHoo, I have the first official sighting of a little baby worm. Unfortunately it turned out to be very camera shy and I was unable to snap its mugshot in time. Hopefully there are many other little worm babies hiding out there as well.

While unable to get any little worm photos I did collect a few pics of the garden, along with my first zucchini flower. It is turning out to be a day of firsts.

A lovely morning surprise

A rapidly sprouting lemon

Zucchinis and cucumbers going wild

Once the garden was thoroughly photographed I hopped into my little Getz and drove off to the gym. Workouts are slowly getting easier and next week I shall look at increasing my weights. Hopefully I won't regret it. After sweating my little heart out, not to mention all the rest of me I sat down to eat my Proats, a great protein kick after a hard weights session.

Sams Proats
200ml unsweetened Almond milk
2 TBsp Chia seeds ( I use white)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
20g rolled oats
80g of frozen raspberries.
I mix the protein powder into the almond milk, stir in chia seeds and rolled oats. Seal with a liquid tight lid, shake and op in the fridge overnight. I tend to shake/stir the mix a couple of times during the evening and then top with the berries that have been defrosting before heading to bed.
Proats has 397 calories, 33g carbs, 15g fat, 35g protein and 18g fiber

I also needed to make up another batch of Oaty Protein Slice as hubby takes it to work also. this is a quick easy slice that is low in fat but full of fiber and protein.
Oaty Protein Slice
2 ripe bananas ( about 250g)
2 TBsp Chia seeds
2 scoops protein powder
1 cup rolled oats
Mash bananas til runny, stir in protein powder, chia seeds and rolled oats. Mixture should be gluggy not runny. Scrape into a tin lined with baking paper ( mine is 17x21cm ) and smooth out evenly. Place into a preheated oven at 180C for approx 15-18 mins. Let cool on a wire tray and slice into eight. I store mine in an airtight container in the fridge.
Each slice is 125 calories, 17g carbs, 3g fat, 9g protein and 4g fiber

Just out of the oven and ready to cool down

Fab with some macro PB on top for some yummo healthy fats

And the Heat Continues

Another week of temps over 35 degrees have set in and once again I am sitting in the air con looking at my poor vege garden wilting in the heat. I am beginning to wonder if my little worm eggs will even manage to hatch or if I shall to wait for the cooler weather and place another worm bomb. Time will tell.

The weekend just gone was Australia Day weekend and hubby, son and I took the new camper trailer to Aldinga beach for a few days to give it a good work out before heading further afield. I do have to admit that I was extremely grumpy and in no way a happy camper by the time we finally got the blasted thing up. This camper was not built for people who are vertically challenged.

After taking longer than it will in future (fingers crossed as first time putting it up and all) we finally sat down and cracked open a well deserved bottle of bubbly. Then it was time to start making up a list of things to tweak or purchase, such as a small step ladder, lol.

    A couple of shots inside the annexe. Forgot to take inside ones.

    We all had a great weekend and I even got the boys to do the dishes several times.

Procrastination

They say willpower is like a muscle, 'The more you use it, the stronger it will get'.

Obviously I need to start flexing my muscles a bit more often. I guess you could say I fell off the dieting wagon with a thump. I think I will just try and do the best I can for now and start the new me when Connor goes back to school and I can settle into more of a routine. Another week to enjoy myself, lol.
I have been back to the gym though and the third day pain has now diminished.

I decided that rather than my usual New Years resolution of losing weight, getting fitter yadda yadda I would try and cook a new dish each week. I am very much guilty of knowing what day it is by the meal I have cooked. Monday - burrito night etc. I suppose years of the kids going 'ooh yuck' meant I just stuck with the tried and true. Now that they are older (and hardly ever home) I thought it was time to spread the culinary wings.





Last night I found a recipe on http://www.skinnytaste.com/ for Crock Pot Balsamic Roast. It sounded pretty easy and what's not to love about balsamic. I popped all the ingredients into the slow cooker and set it to slow. I forgot to take a pic of the finished product but it looked pretty much like her version (only not as big).

Gary and I had ours with salad and couscous while i kept the boy happy putting his in a tortilla with grated carrot and cheese. Still not completely adventurous for him but at least he ate it all up.

Must try this with some other cuts of meat as it is great when the weather is really hot and I don't have to put the oven on.



Tonight's dinner was an adventure into a low fat Frittata using the leftover pork and what ever veges were hiding in the fridge.

Finished product looks good and hopefully tastes as good as it looks. Nice macros too

Calories - 390
Carbs    - 18g
Fat        - 19g
Protein  - 42g

Hot Stuff

Whew! It is 45 degrees today and we are on the 4th day of our heat wave with a couple more days to go. Sitting inside, indulging in the air conditioning so I decided it was time to start my blog.

Halfway through January and what have I done so far?

Today was my second day back at the gym after merrily eating my way through the month of December. I think I hit the wall at the end of November last year and just couldn't be bothered watching my eating or exercising. Thank goodness New Year is always a good time to restart those good intentions.

While indulging in Christmas cake and copious amounts of wine I managed to put on FOUR kilos and the poor old body is now currently lugging around 66kg. So, time to do something about it :D

I restarted a new account on My Fitness Pal logging all my food and exercise starting this Monday gone. I don't mind logging my food as I really does encourage me to eat healthier and meet my macro goals. These I have set at 40% carbs, 30% protein and fats. The walking has continued but I had let my weight training lapse for quite some time.

Monday saw me return to the gym having decided that I would drop all my weights back to the starting weight of my most recent routine. Thank goodness I did. My walking fitness may not have suffered too much but I wouldn't say I strode out of the gym at the end of my session. More like wobbled on jelly legs, hoping they would get me to the car.

Tuesday saw a bad case of DOMs and I walked my 12km round West Lakes while Eilish rowed. After dropping her off and picking up Connor for his training session I decided that I would skip the extra walk and just die in the cool. Today was second day of weights. While it hurt it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Hopefully Friday will be better and I will be back into the swing of things.

Earlier in the month I cleaned up the back garden and prepared the vege bed for planting. The weather is still too hot to plant much but popped in some tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini to see how they would go

    Vege bed all ready to go

    Planted up and noting seedlings in my log book

    Quirky tin carrot I found to pop in the vege bed

Shall wait to see how they fare during this heat and then plant more as it begins to cool down.

I have been reading up on worm farms lately and wondered if they will be suitable for my vege area. Further reading showed they they would probably be too large for the small area I have. However I did find one product called 'The little Rotter' which was a lot smaller and you place directly into the garden. Sounds like the go.

I ordered one off the wonderful internet and it was posted out to me free of charge (gotta love free postage). It is basically a large black container with a flip top lid and holes drilled in the bottom. It came with a worm bomb of 1000 worm eggs which you place in the bottom of the container along with a small amount of food and wait for the little suckers to hatch. Time to wait and hope that I can keep them cool enough through the heat.

    Everything, including the worm farm hiding out under the shade