The Spiralizer- You can't help achieving your healthy lifestyle goals when you have cool tools

It's been a while- you know- busy with work, school, kids, celebrating and living the healthy life!

June was filled with celebrations for birthdays, staff lunches, Father's days... you know, I counted 16 meals this month that were 'out of the norm' for me. I am very grateful for the love, the celebration and the social fun times this month brought. I reconnected with old friends and made healthy choices and 'celebratory choices'  living 'The Month of Celebration'. 

I visited the Wharton Clinic this past weekend and was pleased with my progress living my healthy lifestyle despite all my celebrations. I lost an additional 3.4 lbs and 2 inches. Yeah me!!! A total of 75lbs lost since the beginning of my journey, now that's a great milestone!

I credit the reason for my success being that I continued with my valiant effort at being a 'Workout Warrior' and making fresh food fun!  Check it out my new toy, the Spiralizer!

Thanks to my sister and her family for this wonderful new gift that I have wanted to try for months! I got a spiralizer and wanted to try and make fresh veggies fun for my family.

Check out my spiralized cucumbers! I got my daughter involved and she had so much fun...' I wanna do it, I wanna do it!" she yelled.

Here's what I made with those spiralized cucumbers:

Cucumber Cilantro Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers
• 1 red pepper
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 bunch cilantro

Dressing

• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
• S&P to taste

Prep all your veg, mix your dressing and assemble! You can add your favourite veg or fruits... both my daughter and I immediately mentioned that mango would be awesome in this salad.

So after a delicious meal, a night of aquafitness and pool dancing with my daughter, I showed up to the office before 7am the following day and totally owned the day, the short new hair, the hippie blouse and the honest truth about living life in a balanced and healthy way.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Dinner Party

Yes, it's new, it was invented on a whim by Roshni and I while meeting with Lorna at her store downtown Oakville one cold spring day... and it was awesome!

This amazing array of beautiful sisters. My sister Julie, Roshni's sister Deenah, Lorna and her 'stand in' sister Robin (one of my besties that she had met at a previous party). Julie, Lorna and Deenah were all friends and in the same grade in high school, while Roshni and I were the older sisters and friends in high school too. It was a wonderful blend of all kinds spirits, all kinds of world experiences with one thing in common... the need to be part of a place where we all belong, where all our experiences and adventures are validated and celebrated!

Thank you so much for Lorna (and Allan) for hosting our first, but certainly not our last, Sisterhood of the Traveling Dinner Party... who knows where our next rendez-vous will take us???

 Lorna, the wine and Roshni... a winning combination.

 New friendships formed over wine.... of course... and look at the helpful man in the background!

Sisters reunited!

 

Of course, you know that Thai food has to be part of a sisterhood party... It's the Universal language of love and sisterhood! Our favourite fresh rolls!

 Mango Salad

 

 Cashew Chicken

 

 ... and Pad Thai, of course!

New alliances were formed... the 'brown' team ... their hair colour! And Cooper, well he could go with any team.

... and the blond team... more rowdy as you can see by the bigger, goofier grins!

 

 Talking about getting rowdy, this little guy took it to another level, going all cute and shirtless!

Could it have been the wine? The strawberries? 

 ... or maybe this exotic torta???

 Lorna tool this out of her cupboard telling it us it was a 'sweet cracker'?

 ... then she found some crème fresh... and I sliced berries and made an amazing new discovery. So delicious...

Ya, check out Roshni, can't get enough of it! 
Oh my stars! It was a wonderful pleasure, the night ended too soon, it felt like we just started sharing.... so you know the next Sisterhood of the Traveling Dinner Party won't be too long.

Thanks to all the amazing women who took part and made this possible. You are truly shining stars!

 

Super Healthy and Super Fun Thai Fresh Rolls

This has got to be Melanie and I's favourite thing ever. Thai Fresh/Cold Rolls. So one rainy Saturday afternoon, we decided to make them at home ourselves.

So they turned out pretty good. Not restaurant good, but hey! They are delicious, nutritious, and soooo healthy, nothing fried or fast about this... they take a while to prepare, but it's worth it. Definitively a weekend adventure.

 This is what you'll need:
Rice paper, found in the Asian aisle of your local market.

Optional.... (well everything from her on out is optional as you can place whatever you like in them). I like the thin little vermicelli rice noodle. You will need to soften these up. So put them in a glass bowl and pour some boiling water over them and let them sit there until they become soft.

Now, here is my 'mise en place'- that's a French culinary term I'm throwing your way. It's real important here, you need to chop up and have all your ingredients ready to go. We like, some chopped cooked chicken, vermicelli rice noodles, chopped carrots (bought in a bag), cooked chopped egg, chopped cilantro (my absolute favourite herb in the world), thinly sliced cucumber and crispy bean sprouts. The crisp factor is important here, it's a nice contrast to the soft rice paper/noodles and eggs/chicken.

 Here's the fun part folks!!! The rice paper. It comes out of the package pretty rigid.

As demonstrated by my sous-chef Melanie, you need to soften up. Take a pie plate and add some luke warm water, place the rice paper in there until it's soft and pliable. About 1 minute. Our method was to place a sheet in the water as we started working on wrapping the next roll.

This is how we did it:
Place the wet rice paper, careful, it's sticky! Place the vermicelli about 1/4 of the way down the paper.

 Then pile on the rest of the ingredients. Roll up the rice paper over the ingredients and then fold the sides into themselves and roll all the way up.

 Et voila! Easy peasy!

 Here's Melanie (scary face and all), loving to get the fingers wet to start the process.

 Here's our little dipping sauce- this really kicks it up a notch! Delicious, sweet chili heat!

 Here's our attempt, a little misshapen and very different sizes, maybe not ready for the big time restaurant kitchens... but heck, they were delicious and so much fun to make with my little girl. Healthy, Happy and filled with cilantro! What more can anyone ask for?

Tangerine Dreams- trying to find healthy alternatives in the restaurant world

We recently celebrated my friend and colleagues birthday by visiting a local restaurant called Tangerine Asian Cuisine.



Nice close up, eh! Here's the link for more dets. http://www.tangerineasiancuisine.com/
There's the girls, birthday girl Nancy, there in green!

Nancy ordered the Pad Thai. Real good, portions are ginormous!!!!

Here's what I did... I really wanted the General Tso (you know fried crispy golden nuggets of chicken in a spicy tangy sauce)... but I know how big the portions are here and having a giant plate like that in front of me might be hard to resist. So instead, I opted for a dish that had lots of vegetables. Just look at my Chicken and vegetable dish. It was fantastic and sooooo huge that it doubled- as my lunch the following day. Love those big bold broccolis!

Here's another, green cury chicken, it was sooooooo  spicy and creamy (coconut milk), so I was glad to accept a bite from a friends dish.

Here's another plate of crispy fried chicken love... Spicy Manchurian Chicken. Again... had a little bite.

There you have it, a snipet into our Tangerine dream birthday lunch. It's great to go out and celebrate, it's great to order yourself the healthiest, greenest dish... and it's also great to have a little bite of your friend's dish to spice it up!

Thai and Toes

This little blog post is brought to you by a couple of lovely things that I love....

Party One- Thai Food... my sister and I were going on a 'girl date' and we had to hit our favourite Thai Food place in the world. Suko Thai- this is what we order all the time. Cold Rolls- fresh, veggies only with a tangy sweet/spicy dipping sauce. We order a Mango Salad, usually makes our nose run with the spiciness of it all.

... and of course, our favourite. Chicken Pad Thai with chopped peanuts and a squeeze of lime. So fresh, so hot, so delicious. Perfect amount of food before heading to see 'Rock of Ages' which was funny, cheesy and filled with Rock songs of the '80's... good memories for my sister and I.

But here is the phenomenal part.... Part Two- a picture of our painted toes. You are perhaps wondering what is so special about cute painted toes and cute sandals to match? Well, it's because this is the first time in over 10 years that I have been able to bend over and reach my toes! That's right folks I was able to do my own pedicure and even add pretty stars on! What a triumph! Losing over 65 pounds has it's advantages... Love it!

Homemade Pad Thai- for the Queen's Birthday

First of all, for all my Canadian Fans- Happy Vicotria Day to all!

Melanie and I just love Pad Thai, Brent... not so much.... well, he doesn't know what he's missing. So on a night when he wasn't going to be home for dinner, Mella and I decided to try our own version. Well folks, let me tell you, it turned out GREAT!

It was so fresh and delicious. It's definitively for a night when you have lots of prep time available. But let me tell you... it's worth it.  This recipe comes from Eat, Shrink and be Merry. One of my favs!

Tongue Thai'd (adapted from the recipe book Eat, Shrink and be Merry)

Here's what you'll need:

Sauce:

2 tbsp each of freshly squeezed lime juice and Asian fish sauce

2 tbsp each of ketchup and brown sugar

2 tbsp each of fresh grated ginger and reduced-sodium soya sauce

2 tsp of toasted sesame oil

1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes or hot pepper sauce

Rest:

227g of rice stick noodles (about 1/8 inch wide)

small onion or a few shallots (omitted )

1 medium red bell pepper, seeded, diced or sliced (I added shredded carrots too)

1 lb chicken breast (the original asked for shrimp and tofu... no thank you)

2 cups fresh bean sprouts

2 chopped green onions

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

This is what you'll need to do:

Chop up all your ingredients because it comes together quite quickly.  Place all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Set aside.

Place rice noodles in a glass bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let stand for 7 minutes and then drain and set aside. 

While noodles are soaking, heat peanut oil in a large non-stick wok.

Add onions and garlic and red pepper (I added shredded carrots too), cook for about 2 minutes. Add chicken and cook for another 3-4 minutes until chicken is no longer pink inside.

Add reserve sauce, bean sprouts, noodles...

Toss and cook until mixture is hot, about 1 minute, add green onions, cilantro and peanuts and toss again.

Serve immediately.  ทานให้อร่อยนะ  - do you know what that is? That means bon appetit in Thai!

Nutritional information: (per serving/makes 6 servings)

308 calories, 7g fat, 15g protein, 47g carbs, 3g fibre



Thai Pizza with Fresh Cilantro

You know I LOVE Thai Food, well it's mainly because of the peanuts and fresh cilantro. I love, love, love cilantro. I have been told that you either love it or hate it? Well I am on the love team, we buy a fresh bunch every other week.  This was so good, because of this unexpected twist... I used a whole wheat Naan bread for the crust. This was another great recipe from Eat, Shrink and be Merry.

Thai Kwon Dough (adapted from Eat, Shrink and be Merry)



Ingredients:

Peanut Sauce:

1/4 cup light peanut butter

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp grated gingeroot

1 tsp each, honey, reduced salt soya sauce and red wine vinegar

pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup chopped cooked chicken breast

1 pre-package pizza crust- I used 2 Whole Wheat Naan breads

1 cup shredded light Monterey Jack cheese (I used light mozzerela)

1/3 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup each shredded carrots and chopped green onion

2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts

1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 425 F.

To make suace, comine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until bubbly, sitrring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Mix 1-2 tbsp of peanyt suace with chicken and set aside. To assemble pizza, spread remaining peanut sauce evenly over crust. Top with half the shredded cheese. Distribute chciken evenly over cheese. Top with bean sprouts, carrots, green onions and peanuts, in that order. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese over toppings.

Place pizza directly on middle oven reach and bake for 10-12 minutes, until cheese is completely melted and edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle the cilantro before serving (yumm!).

Cut each Naan into 4 so it makes 8 slices.

Nutritional information per slice:

220 calories, 9g fat, 13g protein, 22g carbs, 1g fibre

Lunch Date- Lemon Leaf

My daughter and I enjoyed a nice lunch at a new place in Oakville called the Lemon Leaf.

It took over where our favourite Suko Thai was. It was still quite good. Try it out!

We shared some Cold Rolls with Chicken inside.

Some Chicken Pad Thai and a smile!

Mella Loves Pad Thai! Especially the Tofu in it. I know right?

So I give her all my Tofu, I just like the chicken!