Well, now that I have finished scraping scrambled egg and mushed fruit off of my windows, bookcase and husband's blackberry (darling if you're reading this, just kidding), and have stopped taking a cocktail of drugs that Lindsay Lohan would envy, I have time to update all of you wonderful peeps on what has been happening around here.
First off, there is no real update on project downsize ass thanks to my back injury, but thankfully it is mending and I should be able to get back to the gym and running this week, although sadly not enough to burn five family size cadbury's dairy milks, so I shall have to cut back or risk further back damage. Will let you know which one I choose.
The Little Princess has started sleeping through the night (FINALLY) after three not too painful nights of sleep training. Good thing this worked as our plan B was too call her grandpa (an anesthetist) and see if he could slip anything into her mashed banana (before she smears it through her hair and up her nose) that would give us 12 hours of blessed peace and silence.
Right, must go watch the freakshow that is the X Factor and make notes for my audition next year. Since my other half has flatly refused to duet "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with me while wearing matching his and hers outfits, I'm open to suggestions....
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Today's healthy recipe - hawaiian pizza
Today's healthy recipe is hawaiin pizza. Easiest recipe ever....
Sit on your ass on comfiest sofa (or chair) possible with remote control in one hand, phone in the other. Call Domino's, which of course you have on speed dial, while saying prayers of gratitude for Two for One Tuesdays. Use hubby's AMEX card, seeing as your cards were all stolen the previous day by a bunch of punk ass ASBO wannabe's. Do not get on the scales. Do not count calories. Do not go upstairs to look at your ass in the full length mirror. Do not bother to order diet coke instead of regular to save a few calories and do not (gasp) attempt to go the gym after said pizza. Trust me. Wayyyyyy too painful. Promise yourself that tomorrow you will embark on Beyonce's liquid honey and cayenne pepper diet for at least two days whilst already imagining how you will fall off THAT wagon by consuming way too many chocolate hobnobs with your sugar filled tea at morning playgroup.
Sit on your ass on comfiest sofa (or chair) possible with remote control in one hand, phone in the other. Call Domino's, which of course you have on speed dial, while saying prayers of gratitude for Two for One Tuesdays. Use hubby's AMEX card, seeing as your cards were all stolen the previous day by a bunch of punk ass ASBO wannabe's. Do not get on the scales. Do not count calories. Do not go upstairs to look at your ass in the full length mirror. Do not bother to order diet coke instead of regular to save a few calories and do not (gasp) attempt to go the gym after said pizza. Trust me. Wayyyyyy too painful. Promise yourself that tomorrow you will embark on Beyonce's liquid honey and cayenne pepper diet for at least two days whilst already imagining how you will fall off THAT wagon by consuming way too many chocolate hobnobs with your sugar filled tea at morning playgroup.
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Today's healthy recipe - salmon and green bean stirfry
This is a great recipe that I got from Sainsbury's Feed your family for a fiver collection... very quick and easy!
265g salmon fillet (2 fillets)
300g pack dwarf beans (translation: green beans)
1 large courgette (translation: zucchini)
400g can of cherry tomatoes
plain flour for dusting
150ml vegetable stock (made with 1 cube)
250g of rice, whichever kind you like, prepared however you like it (the recipe uses easy cook rice, we just boil plain white rice for this recipe. My hubby thinks you could also serve it with noodles instead, but I'm not so sure and I'm right a lot more often than he is)
Prepare your rice, and meanwhile, cut salmon fillets into small chunks and toss in 1 tbsp of flour and season with pepper. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan, add the salmon and cook until browned, then set aside. Add the beans, chopped courgette and tin of cherry tomatoes. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 8 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Return the salmon to the pan and heat through. Serve with the rice on the side. And follow up with some kind of rich, chocolatey, calorie laden dessert to make up for such a healthy main course. Eat after your ten month old goes to bed to avoid yet further food mashed into your nice hardwood floors and carpeting.
265g salmon fillet (2 fillets)
300g pack dwarf beans (translation: green beans)
1 large courgette (translation: zucchini)
400g can of cherry tomatoes
plain flour for dusting
150ml vegetable stock (made with 1 cube)
250g of rice, whichever kind you like, prepared however you like it (the recipe uses easy cook rice, we just boil plain white rice for this recipe. My hubby thinks you could also serve it with noodles instead, but I'm not so sure and I'm right a lot more often than he is)
Prepare your rice, and meanwhile, cut salmon fillets into small chunks and toss in 1 tbsp of flour and season with pepper. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan, add the salmon and cook until browned, then set aside. Add the beans, chopped courgette and tin of cherry tomatoes. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 8 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Return the salmon to the pan and heat through. Serve with the rice on the side. And follow up with some kind of rich, chocolatey, calorie laden dessert to make up for such a healthy main course. Eat after your ten month old goes to bed to avoid yet further food mashed into your nice hardwood floors and carpeting.
Saturday, 14 August 2010
today's healthy recipe - eggplant pizzas
Ah I know all of you who read my last post are breathing a sigh of relief at today's healthy recipe. Phew, it's not moonshine with a side of heroin, so the little Princess MUST have slept. Well she didn't, but I avoided the temptation of brewing my own 40% alcohol in the backyard overnight and we started sleep training last night...more to follow on that in the coming days.
Now, I don't have a formal recipe for this as it's my own invention but they're wonderful and versatile as you can change the toppings to suit your own tastes. For two adults we use two eggplants (uhm aubergines...) you can use as few or as many as you like depending on how many you're feeding, but these don't keep brilliantly as leftovers, I must say.
2 eggplants, cut lengthways in slices approx 1/2 inch thick
pizza sauce of your choice
grated mozzarella cheese
assorted chopped veggies such as red and green pepper, mushrooms, green or black olives, sweetcorn (that's right Canadians, I said UGH in disgust as well, but Brits put canned corn on their pizzas...or mixed with tuna in their sandwiches...it's actually quite nice, I have to say!)
Brush both sides of eggplant slices with a bit of olive oil and bake approx 20-25 min (around 180-200C) until they soften up a bit. Remove and top with pizza sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings and return to oven for approx another 25 minutes until toppings are a bit bubbly and look like melted pizza toppings usually do. Serve with salad and wine and yummmmmmm! One delicious, vegetarian, low carb dinner!
Now, I don't have a formal recipe for this as it's my own invention but they're wonderful and versatile as you can change the toppings to suit your own tastes. For two adults we use two eggplants (uhm aubergines...) you can use as few or as many as you like depending on how many you're feeding, but these don't keep brilliantly as leftovers, I must say.
2 eggplants, cut lengthways in slices approx 1/2 inch thick
pizza sauce of your choice
grated mozzarella cheese
assorted chopped veggies such as red and green pepper, mushrooms, green or black olives, sweetcorn (that's right Canadians, I said UGH in disgust as well, but Brits put canned corn on their pizzas...or mixed with tuna in their sandwiches...it's actually quite nice, I have to say!)
Brush both sides of eggplant slices with a bit of olive oil and bake approx 20-25 min (around 180-200C) until they soften up a bit. Remove and top with pizza sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings and return to oven for approx another 25 minutes until toppings are a bit bubbly and look like melted pizza toppings usually do. Serve with salad and wine and yummmmmmm! One delicious, vegetarian, low carb dinner!
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Today's healthy recipe - veggie quiche cups
These are FAB! Easy, quick, high protein, delish and freezable, so you can make a whole batch at once. Great for breakfast or snack on the go!
3 large eggs or 3/4 cup egg whites
1 package (10oz) frozen spinach
3/4 cup shredded reduced fat cheese such as mozzarella or cheddar
1/4 cup diced red or green pepper or mix of both
1/4 cup diced onion
Thaw spinach, mix ingredients and pour into greased/sprayed muffin baking tray (no little muffin papers necessary) and preheat oven to 350F/180C and bake approx 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean)
Think I'm going to make some later today and see if the Little Princess likes them. Does anyone from N. America remember those old television commercials from the late 70s/early 80s with the breakfast cereal and Mikey and the line "he likes it! he likes it!" Well, it's a bit like that feeding the Little Princess...if it passes her clamped shut mouth and turned away head, it must be yummy!
3 large eggs or 3/4 cup egg whites
1 package (10oz) frozen spinach
3/4 cup shredded reduced fat cheese such as mozzarella or cheddar
1/4 cup diced red or green pepper or mix of both
1/4 cup diced onion
Thaw spinach, mix ingredients and pour into greased/sprayed muffin baking tray (no little muffin papers necessary) and preheat oven to 350F/180C and bake approx 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean)
Think I'm going to make some later today and see if the Little Princess likes them. Does anyone from N. America remember those old television commercials from the late 70s/early 80s with the breakfast cereal and Mikey and the line "he likes it! he likes it!" Well, it's a bit like that feeding the Little Princess...if it passes her clamped shut mouth and turned away head, it must be yummy!
Sunday, 8 August 2010
chickpeas, chickpeas and more chickpeas....
I was recently given a load of food by an expat friend and fellow vegetarian who was leaving the grey shores of Blighty for somewhere where there was a big yellow thing in the sky (lucky girl!) This load of food included a bag of chickpeas which weighs about 473lbs and has left me with the quandry of what on earth to do with so many chickpeas?! Chickpeas a l'orange? Chickpea trifle? Chick-offee pie? Chickpea lasagne? Hummous is the obvious answer, but apart from the fact that I'd have enough hummous to feed the entire Middle East for three generations, my hummous sucks. Badly.
So....here you go folks! A recipe for yummy chickpea burgers which I can't take credit for as I got it from the site treehugger.com. Will post my recipe for chickpea trifle another day.
2tsp veg oil
3 chopped green onions, including the tops
2 cloves of minced garlic
1tsp each dried oregano and chilli powder
1 cup diced red pepper and/or 1/2 cup chopped pickled hot peppers
1/2 chopped tomato
1 can (19oz) chickpeas dried and rinsed
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
2tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro
Heat oil over medium head and cook onions, garlic, oregano and chilli powder and stir for about 2 min. Add red pepper and tomato and cook approx 3 minutes until pepper is tender and liquid evaporated.
In a food processor, mix the above with chickpeas then transfer to a bowl and stir in breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper to taste until well combined. Press and shape into 4 burgers, cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes each side.
Note: After they're made into patties but before cooking, they can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 1 month. Good news for me, I can make about 1,000 burgers and freeze them.
So....here you go folks! A recipe for yummy chickpea burgers which I can't take credit for as I got it from the site treehugger.com. Will post my recipe for chickpea trifle another day.
2tsp veg oil
3 chopped green onions, including the tops
2 cloves of minced garlic
1tsp each dried oregano and chilli powder
1 cup diced red pepper and/or 1/2 cup chopped pickled hot peppers
1/2 chopped tomato
1 can (19oz) chickpeas dried and rinsed
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
2tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro
Heat oil over medium head and cook onions, garlic, oregano and chilli powder and stir for about 2 min. Add red pepper and tomato and cook approx 3 minutes until pepper is tender and liquid evaporated.
In a food processor, mix the above with chickpeas then transfer to a bowl and stir in breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper to taste until well combined. Press and shape into 4 burgers, cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes each side.
Note: After they're made into patties but before cooking, they can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 1 month. Good news for me, I can make about 1,000 burgers and freeze them.
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Big Steps for Small Steps
Just a quick update on my last post. I've just heard back from Small Steps, and it looks like I will be able to run for them, so my running campaign will soon be renamed Big Steps for Small Steps :-) You can check them out at http://amyhanson.co.uk
Happy running!
Happy running!
How much do we do to help other people?
It's easy to get caught up in our daily lives and trying to get things crossed off of our never ending, ever expanding to-do lists (or our honey-do lists, the lists we give our husbands to do...which reminds me, I have about 5 things to add to my honey-do list...). I've been inspired by my cousin's 15 year old son, who is busy trying to raise $2000 and shave his lovely long red curls off for the breast cancer campaign "shave to save", breast cancer being a cause close to his own heart. I thought teenagers were supposed to be the best example of selfish, disinterested in society behaviour, so this strikes me as a fantastic thing to do and has left me with the question, "What can I do for an organization other than Myself, Inc?" Being a tired, overwhelmed new mom is a great excuse for not doing much for the greater good, but in the end it's not really a great excuse is it?
So I'm busy trying to come up with a plan. As I'm currently already training for both a 5k here in England, and next summer's midnattsloppet 10k midnight run in Stockholm, I believe I'm going to do them for a charity other than Improve the Size of my Own Ass (which is a good cause in itself, believe me).
I'm waiting to hear back from a charity I would really like to run for, called Small Steps, which buys shoes for children who work on dumps around the world as their feet are especially exposed to harmful toxins and chemicals. I'm also debating organizing a group of local moms together to run a 5k for a childhood obesity charity as I thought that would be a great example for our own kids, and hopefully others.
Would love to hear what you all are doing for the greater good of the world... or if you would like to make a donation to Tim's Shave to Save efforts, drop me a line or it's on facebook at the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?cropsuccess&id=731800343#!/group.php?gid=113705828679407&v=info
So I'm busy trying to come up with a plan. As I'm currently already training for both a 5k here in England, and next summer's midnattsloppet 10k midnight run in Stockholm, I believe I'm going to do them for a charity other than Improve the Size of my Own Ass (which is a good cause in itself, believe me).
I'm waiting to hear back from a charity I would really like to run for, called Small Steps, which buys shoes for children who work on dumps around the world as their feet are especially exposed to harmful toxins and chemicals. I'm also debating organizing a group of local moms together to run a 5k for a childhood obesity charity as I thought that would be a great example for our own kids, and hopefully others.
Would love to hear what you all are doing for the greater good of the world... or if you would like to make a donation to Tim's Shave to Save efforts, drop me a line or it's on facebook at the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?cropsuccess&id=731800343#!/group.php?gid=113705828679407&v=info
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
What the hell happened?
The first of hopefully many blogs! I say hopefully as I am a serial "starter" and serial "non finisher" (or commitment phobe as I like to call it). I am great at trying new things and coming up with sometimes crazy plans, but not the best at seeing them through to completion.
Life has done a complete 360 in the past year when I became mom to my fabulous, fun, beautiful and unfortunately virtually sleepless daughter, The Little Princess. Fitness and healthy eating somehow went out the window as large meals, sugary cups of tea and not-the-healthy-kind granola bars saw me through sleepless nights, feedings, the days where the crying and fussing seemed never ending, and the days when the baby cried too. My long ago adopted and much loved vegetarianism disappeared out the window along with any hope of wearing a bikini as I just grabbed whatever was quick, easy, and sadly, calorific.
As my fellow new moms gasped in surprise as they were fitting into their pre pregnancy size 10 skinny jeans within hours, days, or weeks after giving birth to enormous 11lb babies, I was gasping in surprise as my weight went up and my maternity clothes gave way to new clothes in a size much larger than I would have liked. Oh how I longed to visit said skinny friends with boxes of krispy kreme donuts and secretly pinch their sleeping-through-the-night-already little cherubs.
I had plenty of excuses at the ready..."they have their families nearby, mine is thousands of miles away so I get no break"..."I'll start exercising when she sleeps through the night and I'm not so exhausted" (um...I will likely be arthritic and collecting a pension when that happens)..."I'm breastfeeding, the weight should just drop off." (who knew that a newborn doesn't consume more calories than are in an entire pack of chocolate digestives?!) The simple truth is that there is no good excuse for not eating healthily and exercising moderately.
Fast forward ten months and my plan is simple. No quick, overnight fixes. No fad diets of eating only cayenne pepper on Wednesdays during a full moon. No surgery, botox, or cheek implants made from the semen of rare red squirrels (or whatever the current fad is).
1. Healthy, non packaged as much as possible food, in moderate portion sizes
2. Exercise and work towards my goal of completing a 10k race within a year
3. Return to vegetarianism and my love of vegetarian cooking
4. Scales are evil - the fit of my clothes will tell me just fine how I'm doing
5. Share my journey
Happy reading, and I would love your thoughts, feedback, experiences, criticisms....
Life has done a complete 360 in the past year when I became mom to my fabulous, fun, beautiful and unfortunately virtually sleepless daughter, The Little Princess. Fitness and healthy eating somehow went out the window as large meals, sugary cups of tea and not-the-healthy-kind granola bars saw me through sleepless nights, feedings, the days where the crying and fussing seemed never ending, and the days when the baby cried too. My long ago adopted and much loved vegetarianism disappeared out the window along with any hope of wearing a bikini as I just grabbed whatever was quick, easy, and sadly, calorific.
As my fellow new moms gasped in surprise as they were fitting into their pre pregnancy size 10 skinny jeans within hours, days, or weeks after giving birth to enormous 11lb babies, I was gasping in surprise as my weight went up and my maternity clothes gave way to new clothes in a size much larger than I would have liked. Oh how I longed to visit said skinny friends with boxes of krispy kreme donuts and secretly pinch their sleeping-through-the-night-already little cherubs.
I had plenty of excuses at the ready..."they have their families nearby, mine is thousands of miles away so I get no break"..."I'll start exercising when she sleeps through the night and I'm not so exhausted" (um...I will likely be arthritic and collecting a pension when that happens)..."I'm breastfeeding, the weight should just drop off." (who knew that a newborn doesn't consume more calories than are in an entire pack of chocolate digestives?!) The simple truth is that there is no good excuse for not eating healthily and exercising moderately.
Fast forward ten months and my plan is simple. No quick, overnight fixes. No fad diets of eating only cayenne pepper on Wednesdays during a full moon. No surgery, botox, or cheek implants made from the semen of rare red squirrels (or whatever the current fad is).
1. Healthy, non packaged as much as possible food, in moderate portion sizes
2. Exercise and work towards my goal of completing a 10k race within a year
3. Return to vegetarianism and my love of vegetarian cooking
4. Scales are evil - the fit of my clothes will tell me just fine how I'm doing
5. Share my journey
Happy reading, and I would love your thoughts, feedback, experiences, criticisms....
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