30/90

I love exercising.  People may not believe that to be true given that I probably weigh twenty pounds more than I should (I also really love eating good food, hence this blog!).  But, I really do love to exercise.  I do best when I'm following a program or working towards a goal.  I've successfully trained for three half-marathons, various 5 and 10km races, and numerous sprint triathlons.  But, truth be told, I can be a bit lazy and easily fall out of the exercise habit.  I know that I don't make enough time to allow exercise to be a priority in my life - an issue that predates motherhood.

To that end, I've decided to dedicate time to myself. Time to exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.  Time to realize that my health and wellbeing is just as important as anyone else's.  Time to be alone with my thoughts.  I've made it a goal to do this for every day for three months.  I'm about three weeks in so far and have yet to miss a day.  Some days I go to spin class, some days I swim, and some days I go to a cardio class at the gym. Most days, I just walk for thirty minutes.   Regardless, I'm getting out for thirty minutes of activity each day and I feel great!

I made a similar goal last winter and was successful at completing my 30/30 challenge.  But for some reason, I still didn't intergrate exercise in my life. What I've since come to learn is that I don't need big training goals and I don't need to try to be an Olympic athlete.  I just need to be me and that me is a healthy woman who dedicates 30 minutes a day to herself!

What healthy habits are you working towards?

My shopping paradox

As you can probably tell from my first few posts on this blog, I'm a bit of a contradiction when it comes to my shopping habits.  I aim to eat within the 100 mile diet as often as possible but I clearly promote shopping at big box stores that are more than 100km away from my home.  While I certainly support the idea of shopping locally, the reality is that I don't consider the Canmore Safeway to be much of a 'local' store.  It's a national grocery chain that charges some of the highest prices for groceries in our area (including the Bow Valley and Calgary).

Buying groceries is our second highest monthly expense after our mortgage payment and I will do whatever it takes to shave as much money off that bill as I can.  To that end, I travel to Calgary every 4-6 weeks to shop at Costco and Superstore.  I try to tack those trips onto other errands that can only be done in the city and I buy in bulk so as to not go to Calgary too often.  I drive a fairly small car so a trip to/from Calgary costs me about $18 in gas.  I ensure that I am saving enough money on my groceries to also pay for the cost of the trip into the city.  I primarily buy staple goods in the city - ones that will do well in my pantry for many weeks.  I watch for sales at my local grocery store and buy as many of the loss leaders as I can.  I realize that this shopping style isn't for everyone but it works for me and allows me to save up to 30% on my grocery bill each month.

Paleo breakfast smoothie

Our Whole30 eating plan requires that, amongst other things, you eat no wheat and no dairy.  This works ok for my lunches and dinners but I've started to get sick of eating only eggs for breakfast.  A quick trip around the internet got me thinking about breakfast smoothies.  I've made smoothies in the past and while I enjoy them, I found that they didn't keep me full for very long.  Enter the paleo smoothie!  It's full of flavour and best of all, it keeps my belly full.  There are multiple variations on this smoothie but here's what I'm currently enjoying:

1 banana (can be a frozen one from your stash of super ripe bananas in the freezer)
1 tbsp almond butter
2 tbsp coconut cream (coconut milk that has been kept in the fridge and is now solid)
Sprinkle of cinnamon (1/8 tsp?)
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1 shot espresso (optional).

Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth.  Keeps well in a travel mug while you drive to work. If you were eating dairy, I'm sure that you could easily substitute a few tablespoons of plain or vanilla yogurt for the coconut cream.   If you don't add the espresso, you will need to add a bit of water to thin it out.

Note - I have experimented with adding fresh spinach to this smoothie.  It was surprisingly good and the spinach was barely noticeable.

Shopping tip - Almond butter is cheapest (by far) at Costco.  I believe that a large jar of it costs $8.99.  Small jars  (half the size) at other stores cost about $6-8/jar.

Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins

• I've had my first recipe request (how exciting!)  An anonymous poster requested some quinoa recipes.  I only started using quinoa in the last six months and I love it!  It's super easy to cook with and it's supposed to be amazingly good for you.  I will soon post some recipes for the various salads that I've made using quinoa but here's a great recipe for Quinoa Pumpkin muffins that my mom first made when she was out visiting us last fall.  It's been adapted from the Savy Mom website.  
• 
  
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white (or just use two eggs)
• ¼ cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¾ cup pumpkin purée
• ½ cup cooked quinoa
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Prep and Cook

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• In a bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon using a whisk. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl combine the brown sugar, honey, egg, egg white, yogurt, oil and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the pumpkin, add the dry ingredients and the quinoa; mix until just combined.
• Drop batter into a lined muffin tin filling the cups ⅔ full, and bake for 18 minutes. Check for doneness at 13 minutes.  Muffins will be done when they smell ready and when you can stick a knife in the middle and it comes out clean.  
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
• Serve with butter.

Shopping tip - The cheapest place to buy quinoa is at Costco.  I don't have the price comparison numbers in front of me right now but I know that it's at least 50-75% cheaper at Costco than anywhere else.

Shopping tip #2 - The cheapest place to buy paper muffin cups is at Ikea.  Who would have thunk?!

Cheater beef curry

Learning to write up recipes is a bit of a new thing for me.  I spend alot of time reading various food blogs and usually cook dinner based on a few different posts that I've read.  I often make things up as I go along and I rarely measure.  Hopefully I'll quickly learn to take good mental notes while I'm cooking!

This recipe idea came from my friend Kate's mom.  We had a curry at Kate's place a few years ago and it was fabulous.  Kate's mom couldn't really remember what she had put in her curry but she gave me enough info to work off of.  I won't claim that this is close to any type of authentic Indian food but it's easy to make and tastes amazing!

1 lb stew meat
1 large jar Patak's cooking sauce*
Curry powder to taste
2 tbsp oil, divided
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 can coconut milk

Brown your stew meat with the 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan set over medium heat.  Turn meat often to ensure even browning.  Sprinkle meat with curry powder (probably 2 tbsp of curry powder but use more if you like your curry spicy).  Add browned meat to crock pot and saute onions/garlic in same frying pan along with 1 tbsp oil.  Saute for about 5 minutes and add to crock pot.  Pour a jar of Patak's cooking sauce and 1/2 can of stewed tomatoes (or whatever kind you have on hand) into the crock pot.  Stir gently and cover with the lid.  Cook on low for 8 hrs.  Add coconut milk in last 30 minutes of cooking.  Serve with rice and steamed cauliflower.  Yum!


Note - I  buy the Patak's sauces in a 3-pack at Costco.  I think the flavours are Butter Chicken, Korma, and Tikki Masala.  I don't really notice the difference in flavour so I use them inter-changably in this recipe.  And FYI, buying those 3-packs at Costco is a great deal!  I think that they only cost about $7 for the whole 3-pack whereas a normal (small) jar costs about $5/each.

Note two - if you have a large crock pot, you can add the full cans of tomatoes and coconut milk.  You will just end up with more sauce.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as the sauce is great on cauliflower and peas (or sopped up in Naan bread!).  If you have a smaller crockpot like I do, both canned tomatoes and coconut milk do well in the freezer.

So simple, so good!

I love cooking but I especially like making things that are simple and delicious.  I recently came across a recipe for an easy side salad - one that fits our current Whole30 eating plan.

Simple tomato and avocado salad

1 tomato, diced
1 avocado, diced
2 tsp good olive oil
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Put diced tomato and avocado in a small bowl.  Season with salt and pepper. Add olive oil and vinegar.  Toss to coat.  Let sit for 10 mins to let flavours develop. I can only imagine how yummy this salad will be in the summer when we have our fresh CSA tomatoes!

Note - I recently bought the '3 leaf' President's Choice balsamic vinegar from Superstore.  I think that it was $5.99/bottle.  I found it to be pretty tasty for such a reasonably priced balsamic vinegar.

Note two - I always have two different types of olive oil on hand.  I buy one big cheap bottle from Costco and one smaller, more expensive bottle from where ever I can find a good deal.  I use the more expensive one in salad dressings and to pour over food when I want to enhance the flavour.  I use the other olive oil for general cooking and sauteing.  No point in wasting good olive oil to fry food!

Coconut milk

Because of the silly little food plan that we are currently following (which I will post the details of soon), I have been going through coconut milk like it's going out of style. From coconut milk in my morning coffee (not all that good) to coconut milk on my baked apples (fabulous!) to everything in between, I've been using a few cans a week.  In Banff and Canmore, coconut milk costs about $3/can.  At Superstore in Calgary, coconut milk costs between $1.25/can and $2/can.  There is a weird ingredient that I've never heard of in the $1.25/can so I've been sticking to the Aroy brand of coconut milk which costs $1.57/can.  After trying four different types of coconut milk in the past week, this one is my fav!  It's a great item to add to your grocery list for your next trip to Superstore.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

I first learned of Community Supported Agriculture a few years ago.  It's all the rage in the foodie world and is a frequent topic of conversation on many of the food blogs that I follow.  CSA has been described as "linking consumers with a local grower.  It is not a home delivery service. CSAs spread the risks inherent to any farming enterprise over a larger group of supportive people.  Rather than a difficult year being potentially disastrous to the business, Sharers help make small-scale, local farming a sustainable option.  We do not guarantee amounts of produce for each week.  We are professional market gardeners and have been doing so for many years.  You are going to get a wide variety of tasty, fresh, certified organic produce.  Anticipating variety and change in each week’s harvest is the key to enjoying your Share: we recommend you do not expect a certain amount of produce.  You will have to supplement your weekly Share with produce we don’t have available that week, particularly in June and early July: this is, after all, Alberta, and it takes at least eight weeks for the garden to really take off." Graham Sparrow, Sparrow's Nest Organics


I was quite keen on the idea of supporting local farms to continue to stay in business and I try  to follow the tenants of the 100 mile diet  as much as possible.  I began to research CSA options for the Bow Valley and found that there were no farms delivering to our area.  I later learned that there was a business who picked up fruits and vegetables from farms in BC and Alberta to sell locally but I was interested in developing a more direct relationship with a farm.  After contacting numerous CSA farms in Southern Alberta, Noble Gardens Farm responded to my request to establish CSA delivery in Canmore.  They held a community information session last spring and were able to sign up enough participants to make CSA delivery a reality in Canmore!  We received vegetables (and some fruit) weekly from the beginning of July to almost the end of October.  All in all, I was pleased with my CSA baskets.  Last year was a difficult growing season so we did not receive as much produce as we had hoped but that's what it means to belong to a CSA.  I loved chatting with the farmer about the produce that I was picking up and I was happy to know that I was supporting farming in Alberta.  I have decided to sign up for another CSA basket this year and am sharing the information about Noble Gardens in case others are interested in signing up as well.  They deliver CSA shares to both Calgary and Canmore.   Info from their most recent email is below:


Hello everyone,
We hope you have all had a wonderful start to the new year.  We are gearing up for summer already and wanted to touch base with our members once again.  Today we put the plastic on the new greenhouse ( it is about 3 times larger than what we worked out of last year!).  It was a good feeling to get it up without the wind blowing it away on us.  Seeding time is just around the corner and we are trying to get a feel of how much we will need to plant.  As such we would like to ask you to register now if you have not already done so.  Hoping you will join us again for another season of fresh, delicious veggies.  A big thanks to those who have already gotten their registrations in! ( If your deposit has been payed, the remainder of your payment is due by March 15)

Registrations can be placed on our updated website 

Tim and Brenda

Noble Gardens

***Again, I get no financial benefit from referring people to Noble Gardens.  I'm just sharing this information for your consideration.***

All about kale

There's a great video going around the inter-web about the benefits that healthy eating had on the MS symptoms of a physician in America. The video is quite long but absolutely worth watching!

A few of my girlfriends were wondering how to cook kale so that they could start to feed it to their families. Here are a few of my favorite kale recipes:

Baked Kale chips (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1 bunch kale

1 tablespoon olive oil

Sea salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 300°F. Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs. Rip into large pieces, toss with olive oil in a bowl then sprinkle lightly with salt. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Use two baking sheets if necessary. Bake for 15 minutes, or until crisp.check frequently to make sure they don't burn. Let cool on baking sheet.

Kale and Pancetta Frittata (a B3 original)

A frittata is an egg-based dish that is similar to an omelette or a quiche. We were first introduced to them when we travelled in Spain and loved the Spanish tortillas that were served everywhere. You can change up the ingredients as you wish but here is a basic outline.

200 grams pancetta (cheapest at Railway Deli in Canmore - even more so on 20% discount day!)

3-4 eggs, whisked together in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste

1/2 bunch kale, washed and pieces removed from the tough inner rib

1/2 cup crumbled feta

1 1/2 cups frozen hashbrowns (optional)

1 tbsp oil

1/2 onion, diced

Chop pancetta into small pieces.  Saute at medium heat in a cast iron frying pan until crispy.  Set aside to cool.  Add hashbrowns to the pan and cook for approximately 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add diced onion and cook for approximately 4 more minutes.  Add kale pieces and saute until wilted.  Add cooked pancetta back into the pan and pour whisked eggs over the mixture.  Cover with lid and reduce heat slightly (medium low).  Cook until most of the eggs are firm.  Remove from heat.  Add crumbled feta and turn on broiler.  Place pan under broiler until cheese is lightly browned and eggs are cooked.  Enjoy with chopped tomatoes and avocado on top!

If you are avoiding cheese or potatoes, these ingredients are totally optional.  Add as many veggies as you'd like at the kale stage.  Asparagus is especially fabulous in this dish.  

Kale, Sausage, and Chickpea Soup (adapted from Chatelaine)

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 to 4 Spolumbo's Italian sausages 

900-mL carton chicken or vegetable broth or 4 cups (1 L) chicken broth

28- oz (796- mL) can plum tomatoes

19- oz (540- mL) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
4 cups chopped kale 

1 tbsp (15 mL) each dried thyme and oregano leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive or coconut oil

1. Prepare onion and garlic. Slice sausages into bite-size pieces and remove from their casing. Coat a large, wide saucepan with oil and set over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and sausages. Stir often until sausages start to lose their pink colour, 5 min.
2. Add broth and tomatoes including juices. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, using a fork, break up tomatoes. Rinse and drain chickpeas, then stir in along with kale and seasonings. When it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender, about 10 min. If soup is thicker than you like, stir in more water or chicken broth. 

Paleo-inspired Baba ghanoush

Scott and I have been following the Whole30 clean eating plan for the past few days. I'm not sure that I'll make it for a whole thirty days of healthy eating but I'm trying! To that end, I've been trying a bunch of new recipes over the past few days. Here's one of the successes:

Baba-Ghanoush (adapted from Paleo Diet Lifestyle)

Ingredients:

2 eggplants

2 minced cloves of garlic

Juice of one lemon

2 tbsp tahini

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Wash and prick the skin of the eggplant. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 35-45 minutes, turning occasionally.

2. Put the roasted eggplant in a bowl of cold water. After waiting a few minutes, peel off the skin.

3. Place the eggplant, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil and seasonings in the blender. Blend until smooth. Add more olive oil if necessary and season to taste.

4. Cool in the fridge for 60 mins. Serve with veggies for a fabulous (and healthy!) veggie and dip snack.

Grass-fed Beef

I've ordered grass-feed beef and pasture pork for the past two years. I've been very pleased with the price and the quality of the meat. When you order beef and pork in bulk, the price is very good and you will save ALOT of money compared to purchasing beef in the grocery store. Iain Aitken at Medicine River Luings delivers to Canmore and Calgary. He is starting to take orders now for fall 2012. See below for more info:

Hello,

In planning for our 2012 meat retailing business we find ourselves in a very different position from recent years. After several years of depressed prices in commodity beef production, leading to a national herd reduction, the pendulum has swung the other way. A shortage of cattle has now forced market prices to their highest level in a decade, with the potential to go even higher. While this is a welcome relief to us it also presents some challenges regarding how we price our grass-fed beef. I could sell my cattle now into the commodity system and make the same net return as putting in all the work and effort of fattening, processing and delivering the beef in the fall. However, I appreciate that our customers have helped us through the lean years by buying direct and we intend to stand by them as we enter a new era that will likely see the price of beef in the store rise substantially.

We sold a whole beef last fall to Andrew Stevens “the East Coast chef” who is the executive chef at the Vintage Chophouse and Tavern and Rush Restaurant in Calgary. We were delighted to get grass-fed beef on the menu at such prestigious eateries and honored when Andrew said we had the best grass-fed beef that he had tasted in Alberta. I don’t know about it being the best but we hope you continue to enjoy our product and find it good value for money. I compared grass-fed beef prices offered by our Alberta competitors advertising on the EatWild website and our prices on average will be 10% lower on quarters and 15% lower on halves/wholes.

Unfortunately we will not be able to increase our beef supply this year as we had a pneumonia outbreak among the young cattle in December and lost a few animals as well as treating several more with antibiotics. The ones that were treated have been removed from the herd and sold at auction so we are only left with the same number of cattle to fatten as last year. I expect we will sell out earlier this year as we have had several new customers approach us already because their previous supplier has stopped selling direct and gone back to selling into the commodity system.

Grass-Fed Beef

We need to increase the price on our beef quarters to $3.25 per lb* (hanging weight) as we pay an additional $100 an animal for getting them processed into quarters and with the price structure we used in the past we were only recovering $30 per animal of that from the customer. This price increase of 10c/lb equates to around $15 per quarter.

The price on halves or whole beefs will remain at $3.10 per lb* (hanging weight).

Clear plastic vacuum wrapping is again available as an option at an additional cost of 5 cents/lb hanging weight.

*Note: Prices will be confirmed in July when order forms are sent out due to the possibility of the processor raising his fees.

Pasture Pork

We plan to raise some more hogs ourselves this year in addition to the ones reared for us by a friend in the area as we find the demand is always growing. The pork price for 2012 will be $2.80/lb for half or whole hogs. Clear plastic vacuum wrapping is now available as an option for pork too at an additional cost of 5 cents/lb hanging weight. The pork will hopefully again be ready in September/October so that we can deliver it along with some of our beef orders.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you are considering buying beef or pork from us in 2012 and an indication of quantity. There is no binding commitment to purchase on your part until you send back a completed order form/cutting instruction sheet by the end of July deadline. Letting us know your requirements now however guarantees you supply and allows us to manage our inventory so that we know when to stop accepting new orders.

As always if you have any queries about this information or comments about anything you purchased from us last year please let me know.

Thanks,

Iain

***Please note that I receive no benefit for posting about Iain's farm. I received his contact info via a friend and now I'm just passing along the same info.***

First post

Approximately 3 1/2 years ago, I started blog to document my first pregnancy and subsequent journey into motherhood. I very much enjoyed the experience of writing about pregnancy and parenting a newborn but for various reasons, I've put little effort into that blog as of late. However, I've come to realize that I miss writing and thought that I might try again. As a social worker, I love connecting clients to resources and local services. In my personal life, I also love sharing information with friends and family about things that I think might be of interest to them (even if they don't always agree!) This blog will cover a mishmash of topics including how to save money at the grocery store, where to buy local meats and produce, and ideas on cooking easy but yummy recipes. Topics may change as my interests change - just like life, this blog will be ever-evolving. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Cheers!

Rebecca