Food Inc

What does a normal 23 year old do on Friday night??? Give your liver a workout?? Make irresponsible choices involving boys with accents?? Grab some brewskies with your pals??

I ask this because I am so not a normal 23 year old.

What did my Friday consist of???  Gym, then supper, then watching a food documentary, and then blogging about it. This is my life.

I (and Mike) watched a documentary on netflix called Food Inc. It has been on netflix for a while now and I was always tempted yet afraid to watch it.  Basically it is about the food industry in the states, and the unethical treatment of workers, animals, the environment, the market etc etc etc. The reason why I was interested in watching this is I have weird obsession with documentaries, and this one tugged my healthy lifestyle heartstrings. And here is the reasons why I was terrified to watch it.

First of all, I love the idea of organic, natural, local food. I love knowing where my food came from. However, this kind of whole eating isn't completely budget friendly. So I try to find a happy medium of eating local, buying in season stuff, and still saving money. I also read the labels, and most of my stuff does come from basic ingredients.

This documentary basically summed up my concerns of not eating ethically, which I totally knew it would do. And it made me sadface.

I have (had) a pretty sheltered view of what a farm was like. My uncle runs a beef farm, and near my home town is a pretty rural area. I have been to a dairy farm. In my mind, a farm is a place where cows get to have a good cow life and then they go to the big pasture in the sky...and then they end up on our plate. Or they have a good cow life, give us some milk, and stay happy.

Ok, maybe I wasn't quite that naive, but that is the farm that I envision. I don't envision mass farming, I don't envision ammonia and chicken going together. And all this makes me feel icky.

One thing I appreciated about the documentary was that it wasn't against meat. It showed a non factory farmer raising his chickens and then butchering them, it still made me uncomfortable, but it wasn't even close to as bad as seeing some of the meat processing plants. It also talked a lot about soy beans, where 90% of soy beans in the states have been genetically modified. I think people get "ethical eating" confused with being vegetarian, and it so isn't. It is just as hard to find non modified veggie products (especially soy) as it is to find non modified chicken.

That all being said, anyone who has any interest in this kind of thing should definitely watch the documentary, it was really good!

But it does mean that tomorrow, when I go to do my groceries at No Frills, I will be thinking a little bit more about what I put in my cart. And that is going to be hard. I already try to balance healthy products, money, and now ethical food comes in to play. Ugh.. why can't I just not care and eat kraft dinner and frozen burgers. Boo.

I may do a follow up post tomorrow about what I bought this week, and how much my budget was impacted. I'm not going to crazy, but just change a few things. I'll let you know!

Anyone else watch Food Inc, what are your thoughts?? Anyone else wish that healthy, ethical choices were cheaper???

A Smattering of Things-part 2

Whole bunch of random today:

Firstly, I am not in Morocco yet. My bags are still packed, in case I do have to go. Having a weeks worth of clothes packed away and still having lots of clean clothes all this week means I have too many clothes. I think it might be pre spring cleaning time for my closet! 

Secondly, I have decided that I am writing the Professional Engineering Ethics Exam this spring. The ethics exam is something all engineers in training must pass to be come a P. Eng. And you need to have 4 years experience. I figure get the test out of the way, and just wait until the time accumulates.  

That all being said the test is 2 days after my birthday. The joys of having a mid-april birthday is that it is always exam time. I have not had a proper birthday shindig in a while, so I have decided that next year, when Mike and I are both done exams, I am having a GIANT CELEBRATION. You are all invited. Mark your calenders. 

Thirdly, I listened to a CD yesterday. It felt very nostalgic to actually put in a CD into a player, and not just turn on grooveshark like I normally do. The CD was Feist, and she was awesome!

Fourthly, Mike arrived home last night to this:

I have no idea how he got in there, and he managed to get out too. Silly cat.

Fifthly, I just went to body flow, and it was a great class. I can't go to body flow at my normal Thursday time for the next two months because of my ethics exam prep class, but that means I get to bust out a month long pass I have for HOT YOGA!!! In other gym news my body pump instructor is like 8 months pregnant, so that class is going to change soon. Perhaps I will have to completely rearrange my gym schedule. 

Sixly..speaking of the gym, in the gym I go to for body flow, had a poster for Molson Sublime beer in the locker room and it said something like "Count calories, and reps" and then today it said "If you are sick of seeing this poster congrats for sticking to your resolutions". Well played Molson...and now I really want a Sublime beer..curse you advertising!!!

Seventhly..once you get past thirdly, the rest of the numbers seem weird.

TGIF tomorrow! 

Anyone else happy it is Thursday?? Anyone realize they have never "properly" celebrated a birthday with fancy drinks and all??? 

Going to the Gym instead of Going to Morocco

Sooooo....
I'm not in Morocco.

Work had a change of plans and now I'm not sure when I am going or if I am going at all...my bags are still packed just in case! Also, because I fit all of my stuff in a carry on sized suitcase, and I am afraid if I unpack it, it will never fit in again.

2 tiny bags, one weeks worth of business clothes, and 5 pairs of shoes...I win. 

So what did I do instead of fly around the world yesterday evening????? I went to Zumba. Good alternative. Zumba was a blasty blast and the instructor played 2 of my fav songs back to back. I then came home and watched some "Come Dine With me Canada" before heading to bed, and having weird dreams about going to Morocco. This evening I went to Body Pump right after work and now I am home watching some tv and catching up on reading some blogs.

On Sunday I made the cabbage rolls, in non-roll form (more like a lasagna). It shortened the very long process of making cabbage rolls because I didn't have to worry about perfectly boiling and peeling each leaf. And the best part was it was still delicious :). I made them planning that I would be away, and I am glad I got a chance to eat them!

So here I am cabbage roll casserole eaten, suitcases being unloved in the corner, thinking what else can I do that I wouldn't be doing in Morocco, and obviously blogging about my new years resolutions was the first thing on my mind.

So here is an update on the Fitness/diet goals!
January I tried the Paleo diet. For 1 solid week I followed the diet  solution program. From then on little cheats snuck back in. Some sugar here and there, some carbs here and there. Nothing major, and I consider a "cheat" on not a weekend being a piece of whole wheat toast...because I am crazy.  I am planning on trying this diet again, because the results I had were pretty awesome. And I definitely was not hungry on the diet, just eating copious amounts of veggies! And I am going to try really hard to keep work a No JUNK zone. I did slip on this about 2 weeks into January, and I want to go back to it. It was very empowering to turn down junk food I didn't want/need.

As for the gym/exercise, I have consistently gotten at least 3 hours of exercise a week, on average I got 4 hours a week. I have been way more consistent with the gym, and I am really enjoying it! Don't see that stopping soon!

And as for those 15 pounds..well if I keep doing as well as I did in January with the exercise and diet, I better lose that haha!

So if I ever get to go Morocco, I won't be sticking to any sort of diet or exercise plan, so for now I am trying to be as healthy as possible!!!

How are you doing on your New Years Goals? Anyone else have a suitcase packed with no travel  details?

Morocco on my Mind

Hey all!
Big HUGE EXCITING NEWS!

So back in the day I talked about my job. I don't really blog a lot about my job, mostly because I do like to maintain some privacy, but some times work mixes with real life, and I have to SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD.

So at work I am working on a project in Morocco, and I got a call on Friday from the Engineering Manager, asking me very casually if "Hey, would you like to go to Morocco on Monday" my response: "SERIOUSLY?" And then of course yes.

So long story short, either on Monday night or Tuesday I (with 2 other people from work) am heading to Morocco!!!

I will be spending most of my time in Casablanca in an office, doing engineering things, but maybe, Maybe, I will get to see some of the culture/city/market etc. It is going to be 18 degrees and sunny the whole week I am there, hopefully I will spend some time outside!

I am very excited, but because it happened so fast, I am totally not going to believe it until I am on the plane!

I spent last night researching Morocco, and learned some interesting things. Mostly that I need to dress very conservatively at all times because it is quite a conservatively muslim country. My young pale girlness draws enough attention in engineering in Canada, let alone in a foreign country! So today I went shopping for more pants (I normally wear a lot of skirts to work) and long sleeve blouses. I love spending money with a purpose!! And now I have a new work wardrobe! I also bought a whole bunch of travel stuff, I love miniature version of things!!

And in honour of my trip, tonight I made a Moroccan inspired meal from a recipe I found on Pinterest, best part was I was planning on making it anyway this week..oooo physic meal planning!

Introducing Moroccan Butternut Squash, Chickpea and Quinoa Tagine (recipe link on the noms page):

Adapted from Here

Since I don't believe in having the right ingredients on hand (apparently) I substituted the harissa for curry paste, and I didn't have tumeric, cilantro (I used dill instead). I added more chili powder since harissa is basically a really spicy curryesque paste. Oh and I didn't have raisins, preserved lemons or olives. After all those changes it was still DELICIOUS! I topped with steamed swiss chard and plain yogurt.

And I'm off to PACK MY BAGS :D!

Have a good week everyone!!!

Anyone else get a passport renewed just in time??? Anyone else have exciting news??

Beets and Borscht and Broth

Apperantly, I have a thing for Eastern European cooking this month, first with the cabbage rolls and now with a Borscht.

A Borscht is a stew/soup with beets and/or tomatoes as the primary ingredients (thanks Wikipedia!). I bought some beets last week and some leftover cabbage and with googling those key words I found the Borscht recipe from Canadian Living. (Note that I didn't use bones and chuck steak, I used a hunk of beef with the bone in, and it did the trick).

I have a little crush on beets...they are beetutiful (heehee). I mean just look at this wonderful color!

Notice my fingers...beets get everywhere. 

They have the most sugar of any vegetable, so they should be used sparingly, but they are still better than a chocolate bar! Reminder that they make awesome brownies!

So today I got the groceries for the week, came home and starting my afternoon in the kitchen. I was boiling the beef, and preparing the veggies, and I realized that since I was already cutting up stuff, might as well do some prep work for the week, and cut up EVERYTHING! And then when I was cutting up everything and making a bunch of scrapes I was like, I should make veggie broth. So an afternoon in the kitchen was how I spend my day!

This little colorful container was all the stuff for the borscht: potatoes, beets, carrots, onions and celery. So colorful!

Ignore the broccoli, it is a lurker and doesn't belong in the Borscht

Once the meet was done cooking, I added all of it to the broth, and waited patiently to add the cabbage, the diced tomatoes, and the garlic.

Meanwhile I chopped and washed all of this:

Beets, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Broccoli, Celery, and Carrots Oh MY!

And with all of the scraps (peelings, choppings, a few real pieces) I created a ridiculous amount of pink veggie broth. 

Have you ever seen pink veggie broth?? Me neither... apparently a tiny bit of beets can make anything PINK!!

PINK!

That was after one batch of scraps. I had 4 batches. That is a heck of a lot of broth. And what am I doing with all this broth?? Being clever!

Muffin Tins!!

I decided to freeze it in muffin tins (which is about 1/2 cup per tin) so I have single servings ready to go for whenever I need it. Problem though, I only have two tin pans, and I have about 10 liters of broth. So right now I have two bowls full of broth sitting in my fridge, and one just about frozen. It's hard making large batches of things with a condo sized fridge and freezer. Once one batch of tins is done I am going to put it into freezer bags, and freeze the next batch in the tins...long process for sure.

Best part was for 10L of broth it was basically FREE!!! I used scraps and water I would normally throw out! So if I do the math, organic, low sodium veggie broth is around 5 bucks (high guess) for a liter...meaning I saved $50! Crazy!!!! (Not that I normally buy the organic low sodium veggie broth so it is much better for my health than the no-name normal chicken broth)

And finally after all this chopping, and boiling, and freezing, and stiring, I had supper! 

Hiya Borscht

As colorful as it was it needed some more flavor, I would at least add 5 more cloves of garlic, but I also love garlic. If I was a good chef I would also add fresh dill and not dried stuff, but I am a cheap-o!

What a productive afternoon! Now I have EVERYTHING ready for the week! 

And as an added food bonus this week, I have a friend staying with us until Wednesday, and she is making us Chinese food in return for us giving her a place to stay! Fair trade for sure!!! 

Happy Sunday everyone! Mondays may suck, but at least going into them with all veggies chopped is a good thing!

Anyone had borscht before?? What is your favorite veggie and why??

Why I Hate Thinspiration

This blog post is a day late...and I'll splain why...here is what I started with last night:


In consciously living a healthyish life, I spend a lot of time researching new recipes, going to the gym, reading health and fitness articles and blogs, and trolling pinterest for new ideas. Pinterest/the internet is a great resource for good advice, ideas and inspiration for leading an active healthy life. It can also be a horrible place where "thinspiration"is an actual word. 

OMG I hate that word, Thinspiration. While I do appreciation a good play on words, I can’t get my head around this one. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind putting a picture of a bathing suit on your fridge to remind you what you are working for (it totally doesn’t work for me), or keeping a bad photo of yourself to remind you how far you have come, and to keep going…that is fine.

It just really bothers me when people use photoshopped models as thinspiration. Heck even non photoshopped models. It isn’t “inspiration” if it can never happen. This isn’t me saying “oh I will never look like that because I had a muffin yesterday” this is about me saying “I will never look like that because that isn’t how I am” And no hate on skinny girls, if you are naturally skinny, that is cool! I just don't like when people think they can turn into a really thin girl by working hard. 

Think about you and your group of girl friends, I am sure in that group of people there are tall girls, short girls, naturally thin girls, naturally curvy girls etc. It would be silly for me to think that “one day I will be a tall skinny girl” because that just isn’t going to happen. And it would be silly for a tall naturally skinny girl to think “one day if I try really hard I am going to have curves”.  It just is not going to happen.


I will be honest I have had "thinspiration".., Anna Paquin in this photo. I thought she looked skinny and healthy, and I said "wow I wish I looked like that" I think her photo is a little bit more realistic than some other thinspiration, however, I don't think I will ever be able to wear an itty bitty bathing suit top like that if you know what I mean. And me wanting to be just like her, is sadly unrealistic. 

This post wasn't going to be completely serious, it was going to be about how I don't like the word, and how I don't like the "aim for the thigh gap". It was going to more of a sarcastic look at unrealistic goals... Then I started some research, I wanted to use some pictures of unrealistic thinspiration (aka Victoria Secret models), and once I did some digging I discovered the truth in the word. 

Thinspiration (or thinspo) is a term that people with eating disorders use frequently. It is what makes little preteens and teens think that if they are not a victoria secret model, they shouldn't eat.

The more I read the more disgusted I got. 

Perhaps I live a sheltered life, perhaps I was lucky to be a preteen in the beginnings of the social media/social internet/blog world. I didn't ever google "ana4life" because I thought I was fat. I didn't discover that there is a whole community of bloggers, a sisterhood if you will, of people who support and encourage anorexia and bulimia. But what scared me last night, in my search of a slightly irritating word, I discovered all of that. And what really scares me is that little girls can find it that easily too.    

One of the first pictures I found on fun fluffy pinterest was a photo of a skinny girl with these words on it...
"You would give all this up for a bag of chips....you are pathetic"


Seriously. 


This disappeared today, so it may have been taken down, which is good. But it is a scary scary world out there. 

Then there is antithinspo. Some of this is healthy, and some of it is very very very morbidly obese people proclaiming that they are beautiful too.


Living a healthy life isn't about extremes. It isn't about thinspo or antithinspo.

It is about eating natural food. It is about following Canada's Food Guide.

It's about eating healthy lunches in the work week, and having waffles on the weekend. 

It is about reducing refined carbs, and eating rainbows (no not skittles). 

It's about a mixture of cardio and strength training, and trying new things.

It's about yoga and relaxation, sleeping well, and feeling energized. 

It's about fresh air, drinking water, and having fun!

It doesn't really have anything to do with how many bones are showing.
It might even involve a bag of chips now and then.


Who is with me in living a healthy life? Is anyone else happy they grew up slightly before internet took over!?

Karaoke to Skating and Everything In Between

Hi peeps,
I have had a crazy week this past week! If by crazy you think trying to finish a book for book club in time, then you are completely right! We read Half Blood Blues this month, and I procrastinated for a while, and managed to finish just in time for our Friday night meeting. And if by meeting you are thinking an evening of good book discussion, good food, drinks, and karaoke, well then you are right again!

I started off my weekend on Friday night by hitting up The Office Pub on John St. for above mentioned book club meeting. We had a good dinner, and then a few of us stayed and sang some Karaoke. It was a great crowd of karaoke people, no one was bad enough that it was unpleasant to listen to, and no one was amazing enough to be intimated to not sing.

More interestingly, this is one of the few nights I have actually gone out in Toronto since moving here. I know I have no life. I just haven't found my "scene" yet. I (and Mike) are not Dance Club people, and we don't necessarily go out just the two of us, so it was really fun to get out with a group of people, and actually go to a bar!

On Saturday I had a semi productive day that involved groceries, bulk barn, shoe shopping, and more importantly a girls night with Katie. The boys went out with friends and we were told it was "kind of a guys thing" so we did our own thing! We ordered pizza, drank some girly drinks, and watched some movies, and talked and talked and talked! Very fun!

Today I got up and dealt with the disaster that was my apartment, and watched Trueblood, and then made this deliciousness:

How granola

It is a super simple granola from All Recipes, basically here is what I did (full Recipe on the Noms page) Cooked the oatmeal with some olive oil in a big saucepan at medium heat, took it out, melted butter, brown sugar, honey, and maple sugar, added the oatmeal back in. After warming it up and mixing it all together, I removed it from the heat, added some coconut, cranberries, and mixed nuts. Oh my it is good! Now I have granola for a snack/breakfast/whatever.

We also went skating today (Sunday tradition) and it was a perfect winter day for skating, 3 weeks in a row we have been lucky with nice weather.

Mike made a nice bowl of lentil and bean soup with chili powder and we will now have leftovers forever!

With corn not tomatoes.

 And now I must run and go deal with the last bit of cleaning, the folding of the laundry:

Laundry

Can you find the Moseby in the photo? If you see him you get a prize!!!