May 22, 2012

Kale Lentil Soup

I made this delicious soup last night for quick meals for the busy week ahead.  It is absolutely delicious.


Kale Lentil Soup

6 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 cup lentils
1 cup chopped onion
4 carrots
4 cups of kale
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp poultry seasoning
salt and pepper

Cook the lentils, and onions in the broth for about 20 minutes.  Add the carrots and chopped up kale and sprinkle about 1 tsp of thyme and poultry seasoning.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

On a side note...there is an awesome giveaway from Love Grown Foods going on on http://eat-spin-run-repeat.com.  It is possible for us Canadians to win 1 large bag of delicious granola and 5 mini bags!!! How awesome is that?  Fingers crossed!

Goodnight!
Amy


May 21, 2012

Happy Victoria Day

Happy Victoria Day to all my fellow Canadians!

I know it has been a long time since my last post.  Been a busy busy bee.  I have been on my practicum at an Elementary School and any of your teachers/student teachers out there...you can relate to the early mornings, late nights of planning and prepping for the next day.  I am NOT complaining what-so-ever though because I am absolutely in love with it.  I never want to leave the class I am in right now I just love them all so much.  It is going to be an extremely emotional goodbye...which I don't want to think/talk about right now :)

Onto what this blog is really about...FOOD!

There have been a few changes in my diet lately...one being that I've started to incorporate chicken into my diet.  That being said, it is local and organic and hopefully had a very happy life.  My body just felt like it needed meat about 2 months ago so I decided to buy chicken.  It was extremely weird eating meat again but I think my body needed it because it was very happy.  I have never been a lover of potatoes or rice or anything that carby so becoming a vegetarian was a little bit tricky.  It wasn't difficult...I didn't really miss the meat...I just didn't know how to cook many vegetarian dishes.  I had to be very creative in the kitchen, which was a lot of fun.  I learned so much and I will continue to experiment with different vegetarian dishes, however, I will be also be making meals that include chicken.  I'm not saying that I will be eating meat a lot or for the rest of my life but this it what I am happy doing right now.  I don't think we should deny our bodies what we feel they need so I am not going to do that.  I am also not going to give myself a label as a vegetarian or vegan because I feel like that is very restrictive.  I will eat what I what and feel I need whether that is vegetarian, vegan or if it includes meat.

Another reason I wanted to start eating chicken again was because I was not feeling satisfied by any of the vegetarian meals that I was eating and eating so many beans and legumes were causing me to have severe bloating and it was really uncomfortable.  I think that may have been that I was also eating too much of these things to try to satisfy my hunger or desire for something else, which never really seemed to work.  Luckily meat is extremely satisfying so I have really been enjoying that part.  After dinner I am not thinking about what to have for dessert or wanting a bowl of cereal. Tea seems to work just fine...most of the time :)  I was definitely consuming some unnecessary calories trying to satisfy something but it didn't really work.  Sometimes it did, but most of the time it didn't.

Today I decided to have a serving (1/3 cup) of scottish oats.  I realized that my portion size for oats was completely wrong.  I was never measuring but I think I was using around 1 cup, which is sooo much.  Now I am sticking to what an actual portion is and having a side of fruit.

I had a beautiful honeydew melon on the side.  1 serving of chocolate PB2 on top.  I decided not to post the picture I took because it was really really terrible.  I'll show you the one from lunch instead!


Amy's California Veggie burger, green peppers, carrots, and 1/4 of an avocado. Mmm...so so yummy!

Tonight I made a lentil soup, but I forgot to take a picture.  I'll try to remember to tomorrow.

Before I go I want to show you something I am so excited about/proud of!


I am working on a Science unit in my grade 3 class on plants.  These are the beans we planted 2 weeks ago from seed.  I was nervous they wouldn't grow very quickly but I was seriously wrong.  They sprouted up so quickly!! The kids are so interested and excited by them, which is awesome! 

Anyways, hope you all have a great Victoria Day evening!

Amy







May 06, 2012

Market Sunday


This morning, Francis and I got up nice and early to start our day.  We ate a quick breakfast and headed downtown to grab a coffee and walk around the inner harbour (touristy, I know, but we haven't done it in such a long time that we figured it would be really nice, especially it being such a beautiful day).


I had a bowl of banana oats, topped with some PB 2.  Francis had eggs and toast. 

Downtown, we checked out the Sunday Market in Bastian Square and wow, was I impressed.  It has definitely expanded since the last time I was there.  A lot more fresh, local produce, which I was so excited about.  I think I might have even done a little hop out of happiness!  I could have taken one of everything home but because a lot of it is pricey, I had to be selective.


We picked up some pesto...


 Dried Apple Snaps, which aren't chewy like dried apples, they are crunchy like chips.  Ingredients: Okanagan Apples. Perfect! Francis and I are going to savour these because they were extremely pricey. Definitely worth it though.  We also bought an organic cucumber, organic apples and raw, creamed honey (that one was for Francis).


On the way home we stopped at Fairway to grab a couple other things to put together lunch.  We had tacos! Mexican veggie ground round, black beans, lettuce, grape tomatoes, red onion, avocado, cilantro and salsa topped on corn tortillas made in the Comox Valley.  They were delicious.

Now I'm off to do some more planning for the week of teaching ahead.  I'm teaching a grade 3 class and loving it but man is there a lot of prep.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday,

Amy