I dream in soup...

My coworker's fiance is a stay-at-home kinda guy.

He cooks, he cleans, he does the grocery shopping and he does the laundry too.

His degree is in Astro-Physics (yikes!) but he's currently in between jobs and now and then does freelance work in landscaping, etc. but they're essentially living off her salary with the occasional kick-in from him.

His freedom allows him to use his creative juices to the max @ home and boy does he ever. The dinners that he makes that she tells us about the next day at work and the lunches that she brings in to showcase his skills are certainly out of this world (pun intended!)

Whenever we have potlucks at work (which is all the time), she relays him the theme  (last one was tex-mex) and he goes out to buy all the items, preps her dish and she brings it in for our eager mouths to devour (it was the best chili ever! )

He's had his chicken phase(roasted, grilled, broiled and experimenting with multiple seasonings), his Indian phase (curries galore!), his Japanese vegetable phase (I never knew daikon could be so good!)  and now we enter the soup phase. His most recent creation - roasted yam, carrot, ginger and orange soup.

mmmmmmm

She served it to us hot and fresh and it was delicious. Not too sweet and the orange finish gave it a fresh taste. Wow.

This is definitely a reason to find a man! Or at least to hire a live in chef. :)

Now I'm obsessed with soups and not the kind you buy in a can but the good kind. Delicious homemade ones filled with that ingredient that you can never get in a can - love. Awwwwwwww . But without the sodium if I can help it. I know I can easily make soups, I just need to make time to put together a great soup/stew and maybe I'll even, gasp, stay home one night this weekend.....maybe. Things always seem to come up with me. Especially when I advertise to the masses( via facebook status updates and numerous texts) that I'm bored on a Saturday night and need something to do. ;)

So the search begins! I will happily take suggestions and recipes from the masses. No watery or cream based soups for me though. I love thick hearty soups and stews and if they're healthy/good for me then all the better.

The search is on!

ROLL CALL

Breakfast (9:30am):

The ol' breakfast smoothie is back again baby!
- 1 and 1/2 cup  - sliced strawberries, bananas & blueberries
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 /2 scoop of that crappy protein I need to replace
- 1 long squirt of Hershey's chocolate syrup (tee hee)

Mid morning snack (11:45am):

- 1 bag (shared with coworkers) Smart pop microwave popcorn (stole it from the roomie, hee hee hee)

- Seasoned with sour cream and onion seasonings

Lunch (1:45pm):

Smoked maple turkey sandwich

- 2 oz smoked maple turkey
- 1/4 cup avocado
- Sliced tomatoes
- Sliced cucumber
- Lettuce
- 1 oz havarti
- Horseradish mustard
- 2 slices squirrely no flour, sprouted grain bread


Dinner (7pm):

My mom is in town for 2 days so we went to her favourite Thai restaurant where we indulged in:
- Fish cakes
- Rice noodles with beef
- Spicy mixed seafood
- Spinach jasmine rice
























Low fat this is not. Delicious? Yes it is!

Drinks:
- 10 glasses of water
- 4 cups of green tea
- 8oz of hot chocolate
- 1 iced tea

Exercise:
30 minutes on treadmill which is not enough. Tomorrow I need to spend at least 70 minutes at the gym. I owe myself that!


Wish me luck!

A technical error in my favour - when scales break down

One of the only good things to come out of my 2+ year relationship with my ex is a recipe for leftovers that he called 'Breakfast Hash'

The ingredients were simple - eggs, cheese, leftover steak & vegetables from the overpriced dinner we had the night before. I happily (read: bitterly) share the detailed recipe with you all below...

Recipe: Leftover Scramble (formerly titled - 'One of the few things he could get right')

Step 1: Chop everything up and add it to the fry pan. In my dish: onions, turnips, beets, garlic, shitake mushrooms (all that I could find in the fridge), and asparagus

Step 2: add your steak right before the eggs and grated cheese. In this case I had half a prime rid steak from a family dinner the night before.

Step 3: And finally add the egg, grate some cheese on top and scramble to taste.

Sometimes it doesn't look too pretty (It was a 2pm breakfast and I was too hungry to garnish it up) but man is it delicious. As for healthy- that really depends on your mood and how much cheese you need to use in order to get over last night's hangover. ;)

 Also, I'm in a great mood cuz I just weighed myself on my little bro's VERY inaccurate scale and it said I weighed only 172! woo! 10lbs less than when I first flew out to Toronto 5 days ago. I know it's wrong but magically my pants and clothes are looser thanks to this magical (and VERY inaccurate) scale. But I don't care - skinny me, woo!

I plan to pack it and take it home with me. I will let my friends pay me if they want to step on it themselves.

Instant mood booster for only $5 a pop. I will also happily ship this magical scale across continents if its services are needed elsewhere. Wanna lose 10lbs in 10 days?? Fiddle with your scale! After all, weight loss is mostly mental anyway, right?? I believe I've lost 10bs therefore I AM 10lbs lighter. ;)

EXERCISE: 1.5 hours at the local gym

45 minutes - cardio (sprints on treadmill, stepper)

45 minutes - weight training (triceps, biceps, back, chest and shoulders)

Drinks

WATER: 10 glasses

ALCOHOL: 2 glasses: 1 pina colada and 1 seagrams sea breeze cooler

Happy eating!

Switch it up! When the same old meals each day starts getting you down

SLIMMING TIP: Switch it up. I have been eating salads for the past few months and although I do love them, I am finally sick of the ones that I have been having every week. I came to the point where if I see another salad, I will have to strangle it. Definitely time to switch it up so today's plan is to look up new salad recipes or vegetable side dishes.
I'm gonna search the archives of fellow bloggists  like http://tjstestkitchen.blogspot.com/ cuz that shrimp taco looks really good.  I can just substitue the shrimp with black beans and maybe boil up some quinoa to give it more girth . Hmmmm. Also, over at http://girlstuckinarut.blogspot.com/ she has an apsaragus and mushroom penne that looks good. I'd just make my own light cream sauce (I'll post the recipe soon), exchange the asparagus for tons of broccoli and ensure it's a whole wheat pasta and I'll be set.  Mmmmmm. I'm looking forward to this task for sure!

 

Unfortunately I was a little derailed by the following website - http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/  and now I am on a quest to either find the upside down macaroni and cheese pizza or to make the oreo cookie cake.

Although I am severely grossed out by the thought of making and/or eating either of them.....sort of. Please don't judge me!

ROLL CALL:


Breakfast (9:15am)
1/2 cup full fat yogurt
1/4 cup granola
1/4 cup bluberries
1/2 cup sliced strawberries


Mid morning snack (11:30am):
1 free range organic egg, boiled

Lunch (1:15pm):
Salmon Pita
3oz salmon with mayo, worchestir, onions, hot sauce, basil leaves, pepper, 2 olives and horseradish mustard
1/4 cup cucumber
1/4 cup tomato
Lettuce
1 whole wheat pita
1 oz havarti cheese

Afternoon snack (2:45pm):
 2 oreo cookies (inspired by large oreo cookie cake above. I firgured this was a better alternative)


Dinner (7pm)
Vegetable stir fry - brocolli, peppers, garlic, ginger, cabbage, zucchini, carrots and cauliflower
udon noodles
teriyaki sauce


DRINKS:
10 glasses of water
2 mugs of green tea
1 cup of coffee (needed an extra pick me up today)

EXERCISE:
Still feeling the burn from yesterday's 200+ squats (150 air squats, 50 regular squats) so as walking is somewhat awkward today, I will let myself rest.
Plus, as it is Remembrance Day/Veterans day, all the community centre gyms and many private gyms have closed by 5pm . I too will honour the fallen (God bless them all)  but I wish I could also run on the treadmill for a bit.


Happy Eating!

Photo credit: Oreo cake