Chocolaty Bird Nest Treats

With a lot of hard work at the gym, following healthy eating goals 98% of the time, comes a time for a special little Easter treat, so here's something for that 2% special occasion-  dark and chocolaty, crunchy, sweet and salty... a little bit of every taste sensation fulfilled!

Chocolaty Bird Nest Treats

Ingredients:

2 cups dark chocolate chips (or semi sweet, butterscotch or peanut butter chips)
3 cups crunchy chow mein noodles
30-50 small egg-shaped candies

Directions:

Melt your chocolate in a microwave, 1 minute at a time and stir until all is melted.  Add your crunchy chow mein noodles to the bowl and stir to combine. Drop teaspoon full on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and place a small dent in the middle of the treat.
Fill with whatever egg-shaped candies you like- I used almond M&M's- but Cadbury mini eggs would be great, as would jelly beans.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Best served cold.

Healthy lifestyle update - in 'Egg'cellent condition

Oh, pardon the funny pun, but seeing as how we just celebrated Easter... I just had to!

I wanted to share with you some more exciting updates on my Healthy Lifestyle progress.

This picture really explains it all. Since my last visit, I have lost an additional 6.2 lbs, but the best news is that I have also lost 6 1/2 inches in total across my neck, chest, waist and hips! Hip, Hip Hooray!

With my healthy eating, and 4 days-a-week gym habit- 2 of those being 'muscle building' days, my body is shrinking faster than the 'scale' is admitting to. As I have explained before, I am building muscle and loosing fat at the same time- so my great piece of advice for you is don't be angry like the green egg- be happy and confident in the knowledge that there are different ways to measure your success. If you do muscle building workouts, eat well-balanced meals and take your measurements once a month you will see how awesome the difference will be every time.  The blue egg knows!

Success comes in many forms my friends- loose pants and tops, needing to wear that belt one notch tighter... just look in the mirror and be proud of your effort. When you work hard, the rewards come showering down from a variety of ways!

Delicious and Healthy Party Food

I am about to blast you with some delicious recipes for some nutritious and heart-healthy party food ideas. We recently celebrated my husband's birthday, and with our focus on eating and living well, I wanted to create options that were fresh, healthy and colourful- so we came up with a Mexican themed menu.

I prepared some shredded Mexican chicken breast, some taco seasoned lean ground beef, some Mexican beans and had hard tacos, soft tortilla shells and loads of veggies and 'fixins' for everyone to build their own Mexican Masterpiece.

No Mexican fiesta would be complete without some salsa and guacamole. With parents, and children joining us for the party, I didn't want to make anything too spicy, so here is my homemade version of these 2 'spiced down' favourites.

Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 fresh pineapple cut into tidbits
• 1 plum tomato diced
• 1/3 green pepper diced
• 1/3 red pepper diced
• 2 green onions diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp sea salt

Directions

Chop all ingredients and mix in bowl. Juice lime over salsa and add salt. Stir and taste for seasoning. To add a bit of spice you can add some fresh chopped jalapeno. Place in fridge for flavours to marinate. Serve cold with some tortilla chips.  This would also be delicious served over a grilled chicken breast or fish.

Guacamole

Ingredients

• 4 avocados
• 1/2 red pepper diced
• 1/3 cup cilantro finely chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Directions

Scoop flesh out of avocados, mash them to desired 'chunkiness' consistency. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate. Serve with your Mexican favourites!

We love the Organic Neal Brothers Blue Tortilla chips. It's also delicious on your Mexican tacos, tortillas, nachos, quesadillas or even on your burgers!

BIRTHDAY TREAT TIME!!!!

Ok, ok, so I kept a little treat for the end. It was, after all, my husbands birthday party and when I asked him what special desert I could make for him he said 'trifle'. Different, right?  So I thought of a way to add a bit of 'nutrition' into this and decided to make a Banana Trifle.

Here's the recipe I loosely followed to make his creamy, dreamy whipped banana pudding trifle dreams come true!

Birthday Banana Trifle

Ingredients

• 3 bananas, diced
• 2 packages of banana instant pudding
• 4 cups 1% milk
• 1 container of light cool whip
• 1 Pound cake, diced
• 1/2 pack of Nilla wafers

Directions

Make the banana pudding according to package directions. Cool in refrigerator until ready to assemble. In your trifle bowl, layer half of the ingredients at a time. Start with the pound cake, banana pudding, bananas, crumbled Nilla wafers, place some around the perimeter of the bowl to create a nice pattern, then the cool whip. Repeat step with remaining half and reserve some chunks of cake, cookies or bananas.

Brent loved his Birthday Banana Trifle! It looked so beautiful and was a little different than the usual cake. It's OK to have a little treat on your birthday... especially when you go to the gym the next morning and work it off!

Thanks to all our family who came to celebrate and to my beautiful daughter for hosting some great party games!

Amazing Adventure- Rattlesnake Point and Soupy Sunday Finish

Today I want to share how awesome my Sunday was. It was actually much more than our hiking adventure and delicious soup. It started with a great power workout in the morning, followed by a delicious brunch with my parents. Love them so!  Then the 'serious' stuff started.

Before my daughter and I left for our hike, I put all the ingredients for this incredibly delicious Stuffed Pepper soup in my crockpot and ran to the hills. (recipe at bottom).

My daughter wanted to go for a hike to a place she'd never been...in the snow... in winter, Sigh!

So I say, 'anything to support my daughter's healthy living efforts', and we headed off to Milton to Rattlesnake Point. I remember this place way back in high school when my friend Janice and I would hike through the hills with our headbands, lip smackers and leg warmers... this time though, my daughter and I had the right equipment and spirit.



See, there was lots of snow, but it was patted down and fairly easy to hike on.

Look below this incredible selfie (LOL), we are up high on the mountain (ok, escarpment).

We read that this park was established in 1964 and the proof is carved into the rock.

Look at the gorgeous Melanie just looking out over the escarpment. The sun was amazing with just a little wind blowing. I captured the essence of her joy and excitement at trying something new and exploring the world around her. I LOVE this picture!

Interesting wooden tee pees.

Looking over the escarpment...

... and looking up at the cliffs, we saw some people climbing with their mountain climbing gear- just like my brother used to do.  I am so grateful for my beautiful daughter. I would not have gone out again after a big, sweaty gym workout in the morning, but she pushed me to try something new and it was amazing!

And now the Soupy Sunday part of this post.

Crockpot cooking is the best! After our hike, we came home and our dinner was ready!

I love sharing my Soupy Sunday recipes with you - especially when it's so effortless and really delicious. 

Here's the recipe.

Stuffed Pepper Soup (adapted from www.recipesthatcrock.com/slow-cooker-stuffed-pepper-soup/)

INGREDIENTS

1lb lean ground beef

1 diced onion

1 diced clove garlic

28 oz can diced tomatoes with juice  

2 chopped green peppers

1 chopped red pepper

4 cups low-sodium beef broth

½ T dried basil

½ T dried oregano

½ t paprika

½ t dried chili flakes

Salt and Pepper

2 cups cooked rice

INSTRUCTIONS

Brown beef with onion and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Drain fat from beef and place in crockpot. Add all the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Meanwhile cook some rice. When ready to serve, put some cooked rice at the bottom of the bowl and spoon soup over.

Love and Hearts revisited

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, but I wanted to share with you our Halliday Valentine's Day Love and Hearts Brunch and Dinner Extravaganza. While it's a few weeks late, I think you will still find the dishes inspiring, easy to make and healthy (ok maybe not the last one).

One of the best parts of this Valentine's Day Sunday was that all of us went to our respective gyms and worked out hard for a 1 hour class of sweating, cardio and heart-healthy strength and muscle building- what better love to give your real heart than the gift of exercise. I am so proud of my family- my husband recently joining a gym for the first time in his life and my teenage daughter for getting up at 7:30am on a Sunday morning to go to the gym and workout with me- this is truly the best love and hearts gift ever!

Here's the LOVE

.

Here's the HEARTS

For Valentine's Day Brunch I decided to make these delightful little heart-shaped French toast

All I did was use my heart-shaped cookie cutter on some Wonder White bread with Fibre and cut out the love shapes!  You ask, 'Chantal, what did you do with those crusts though, isn't that a waste?' Well, of course I wouldn't be so wasteful, I cut them up, seasoned them with spices and a bit of olive oil, baked them and made croutons with them!!!

Next, I thawed some frozen berries- those juicy and anti-oxidant filled plump jewels...

And then plated the heart-shaped French toast with some of those luscious berries on top. Gorgeous visually and good for you too!

So you might wonder what a woman who is on a healthy living journey might want for Valentine's day?  The finest of course-- Purdys!

As a commitment to my healthy living focus, I suggested to my dear husband that all I wanted was one piece of the best chocolate I have ever tasted. That is the Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel that you see here. It was beautiful, dark, rich, chewy, sweet and salty and worth all of it's 53 calories (which by the way I already 'burned' of at the gym that morning)!

Now for our dinner I wanted to make one of my daughter's favourites - Thai Cold Rolls. A time consuming, but totally healthy and nutritious appetizer. (recipe posted before)

And for my husband, I decided to make one of his favourite- SHRIMP!

But this time, I tried a spicy Asian twist. This was my take on a spicy coconut shrimp curry.

I served it over rice and a side of bok choi. 

It was very flavourful and not too rich.... that would be saved for the 'over the top' decadent desert served later.

Coconut Curry Shrimp (adapted from jocooks.com)

INGREDIENTS

For Shrimp Marinade

• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/7 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 lb extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined

For the sauce

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (5.5 oz) unsweetened coconut milk
• fresh cilantro or parsley for garnish
• cooked rice for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a small bowl toss the shrimp with the marinade ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
2. While the shrimp is marinating, heat the oil in a medium size pot. To it add the onion, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the ginger, garlic, pepper, salt, coriander, turmeric and curry powder.
3. Continue to cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent, another 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with juices and all, stir well and cook for about a minute after which add the coconut milk, stir and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes. Add shrimp with the accumulated juices from the marinade and cook for another 5 minutes or until the shrimp is pink and cooked through.
4. Serve over hot rice and garnish with cilantro or parsley.

Ok, so here it is....

This is what I prepared as our 'over the top' Valentine's Dinner treat.  Individual Peanut Butter Molten Dark Chocolate cakes.  My husband's favourite is peanut butter, mine is dark chocolate- marriage made in heaven right?

Well, I can't even tell you how rich this was. Although it was a small ramekin portion, I couldn't finish it all because it was so rich (a testament to my healthy eating transformation). It was a treat, it was incredibly decadent, it was great fun to make... but that's all folks. No sharing recipes of this little piece of heaven (but if you really want to see it, check out my Pinterest board).

After all this sharing, cooking, baking, working out, I want you to remember one thing: Focus on health, have the occasional treat and 'Keep Calm and Hug On'.