Tag Archives: food

Rebellious Weekend

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I did something crazy out of the ordinary this weekend you guys … I moved my schedule around! Also, I took more than one picture! (I took three, which will all be posted here.) I know, I know, it was quite the crazy weekend.

When my sister called me Friday and suggested I do my long run Saturday morning instead of Sunday (she is training for the same half marathon on the same plan), I originally thought that wouldn’t be a possibility. But then I thought .. why not? Maybe I’ll rebel against the plan a little.

So I did my long run Saturday morning on my own because the group I usually run with sticks to Sundays. During those 18 kilometres I had lots of time to think about all sorts of things, and to zone out a little. It was great.

Afterwards I laid out my yoga mat and did a stretching video and foam rolling. I didn’t want to be sore because I was going to a wedding show that night with my mom and sister and I knew there’d be lots of standing.

IMG_7047I had a protein shake and a glass of Nuun. I’ve been struggling after some of my longs runs with feeling sick (and lethargic) so I’m trying to find the right combo to refuel with. I think most of it will just come with experience as I get stronger and used to running longer distances.

Part of it is also that I need to eat more after running. I absolutely hate eating afterwards – I just feel gross and I’m usually too lazy to feed myself. But on Saturday I forced down this entire plate of food. Carrot sticks, roasted brussels sprouts with greens and grilled cheese with tomato.

IMG_7050Then I drove to Fredericton to meet up with my mom and sister. My sister was just passing through on her way to another medical school rotation. She is almost done and will actually be moving in with us in March for a month for another placement.

We all have varying degrees of curly hair, as you can see.

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Trivia time! The blue and brown candle behind us was part of my sister’s centrepieces at her wedding five years ago.

I bought my outfit (the shirt and skirt) for 20 bucks at the grocery store at 7 a.m. that day. I didn’t even try it on beforehand. It worked out OK.

The wedding show was a lot of fun. I’m still not used to being called a bride, but I like it! I’m really trying to soak up all these fun things that you get to do when you’re engaged. I know I’ll miss it once the wedding is over.

Most of the vendors were fun to talk to, but I already have pretty much all of mine booked. I got some good advice on the guy’s clothing and it was great to be able to discuss things with both my mom and sister in person.

There is one thing that really intrigued me: videography. I realized I desperately want a videographer at our wedding – I just need to decide if I want to break the budget to get it.

Any advice from you married peeps?

24.5

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Today is my half birthday. Happy half birthday to me! The only reason I know this is because my uncle’s birthday is today. Happy birthday to my uncle!

Still, I decided to buy myself a cake to celebrate my half birthday. I was craving ice cream cake and today seemed like the perfect excuse to consume some.

Judge me if you will. My sister already did when I couldn’t take her call because I was buying said half-birthday cake.

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In six months I’ll be a quarter century old. I’m just going think about that for a minute.

….

Done.

And because I shared that photo of my fancy Dairy Queen cake, I may as well share with you some other photos of eats I’ve had lately. I’m also linking up with Jenn at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday. Head over to her blog to read more from people who think posting photos of your food is perfectly normal (like me).

IMG_7022Open-faced veggie burger with what I call “plastic” cheese. We bought it because we were craving old-school grilled cheeses one day and oh MAN is that stuff good. But very expensive. And bad for you.

The real star of the show was the crispy parmesan garlic endamame, which I recommend you make immediately.

IMG_7026A protein-y breakfast after a run – Greek yogurt, Vector cereal and berries. Scrambled egg with cracked pepper and tomatoes.

IMG_7028I realize this photo looks like a deranged apple, but it’s actually a stuffed pepper that I made in the Crock Pot. I originally started following a recipe but it turned into me throwing a bunch of leftover stuff from my cupboards and fridge into the stuffing. Refried beans, black beans, corn, brown rice, tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, spices, jalapeno and cheese. And probably more stuff that I forget now. Either way, these were awesome.

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An open-faced Eggplant Parmesan Hero. This was OK, a nice twist on a regular vegetarian sandwich. With roasted brussels sprouts on the side because they’re my fave.

Dan texted me today to say he had bought me some fresh “b-sprouts” at the market and I was like, THAT is why I’m marrying this man.

Guest Post: Dan’s (soon-to-be) Super Famous Chili!

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It’s a momentous day over here on A Fresh Start For Molly. I asked my fiancé to write a guest post about his chili and he actually agreed! I found it hilarious to read through because Dan is notorious for never sticking to a recipe. True to form, he mentions his modifications at the bottom of this post.

Dan is no stranger to eating vegetarian meals, so this is a veggie recipe, although at the end he mentions how to change it up for you carnivores.

I hope you will show some love to him in the comments. Let us know if you try it!

Hey everyone,

I’m doing a guest blog post! Isn’t that exciting? It’s taken me a while to end up here, but alas, I’m here. The reason for the entry is because of this:

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Ever since we bought the slow cooker, our lives have been changed. My work schedule allows for me to have a lot of time off during the week days. So, during the day I usually try to find new things to occupy my time. Lately it’s been by experimenting with the Crock-Pot.

Molly has always had an aversion to chili. She loves everything in it, but when it’s all combined into one messy mess, she tends to politely decline (Editor’s note: he gives me more credit than I deserve. I really hated chili and expressed my feelings quite dramatically). After some good ol’ fashioned research I found this recipe that was able to convert Molly to a chili fan!

Thanks to two peas and their pods for the recipe.

Vegetarian Quinoa Chili

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 (15 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2-3 tablespoons chili powder, depending on your taste (we used 3)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt and black pepper, to taste

Optional toppings: green onions, avocado slices, cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt, chips, crackers, etc.

Directions:

1. In a medium sauce pan, combine the quinoa and water. Cook over medium heat until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Set aside.

2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, jalapeño, carrot, celery, peppers, and zucchini. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

3. Add the black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Stir in the cooked quinoa. Season with chili powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Simmer chili on low for about 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Note-garnish the chili with green onions, avocado slices, cheese, sour cream/Greek yogurt, chips, crackers, if desired. This chili freezes well.

I made a few modifications (I always do).

Instead of making it on the stove top, I opted for the easier Crock-Pot. There was no sautéeing involved, just chop up the veggies and throw them in, that’s it. I put it on for approximately 8 hours, low setting. I would advise cooking the quinoa separately and adding it to the chili at the last 30 minutes of the cooking cycle.

However, I didn’t add the quinoa because I was called into work. So … this can also work as a quinoa-less chili.

And for all the meat eaters out there (myself included), keep the recipe the same, except just throw in some cooked hamburger in lieu of the quinoa.

We garnished with grated cheese and plain Greek yogurt.

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- Dan

I’m also linking up to What I Ate Wednesday on Peas and Crayons – because I ate this chili several times already this week!

A different type of Christmas

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Dec. 27 is the day my part of Canada starts to get back to normal after the holidays. The stores have opened back up for Boxing Day sales and some people are back to work. I worked right through the holidays, though, so I’m still feeling a little weird about this year’s holiday routine. As I get older, things change slightly every Christmas, but this year was definitely the most different.

I didn’t take any photos over Christmas, so you’ll just have to believe me!

Dan and I both work in industries that don’t shut down for the Christmas season, so we were thankful to be able to make it to my parents’ house on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, we opened presents – I got a lot of fun running-related items that I will share with you later – and had a big breakfast. That’s pretty much where the “normal” part of my Christmas ended.

After a tempo run (cruel and unusual punishment – but the first time I ever exercised on Christmas!) we packed everything up and headed back to work for the evening.

Since my mom was serving Christmas dinner after we left, I forgot to pack a supper to take with me to work. No drive-thrus were open on the drive to work. I thought I’d order something once I got there. This is when I discovered NO restaurants are open on Christmas – not even pizza or Chinese.

I was desperate, and I’m not proud of what I’m about to say, but … I ended up calling a hotel across the street from the office and asking to be put through to the kitchen. The chef was closing up shop in 10 minutes, but I convinced him to make me a vegetarian club – which wasn’t even on his menu. I swear, a sandwich has never tasted so good.

When I got home after work past midnight, Dan was at work until morning so I watched Jersey Shore and eventually fell asleep. So Christmas-y! Pretty much the same thing happened on Boxing Day night – although I did think to plug in the Christmas lights before I fell asleep. And I made a snack plate that looked like this:

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Stuffing, clementine, an Eaglebrand square, crackers and cheese. Late-night snack of lonely-on-Christmas champions.

When I was first scheduled to work over Christmas, I really didn’t mind. I was still going to get to see my family, which a lot of people don’t get to do, so I didn’t think it would be an issue at all. I ended up being more bummed than I thought I would be, especially because Dan was working nights and sleeping through the day.

My “Christmas” vacation officially starts tomorrow, and I couldn’t be more excited. I hope you all had a great time over the holidays, even if they were unconventional.

image at top via

Rest Day

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I’m starting the transition to a bit of a weird work schedule for the month of December, so I don’t go into work until later today. I thought I’d do a regular ol’ day-in-the-life type of post about our morning around here. My half-marathon training update will be up tomorrow.

Mondays are rest day for me and I absolutely revel in them. I get to sit around and do nothing in the morning before work, completely guilt-free. It’s freezing rain outside right now and if I had to run this morning I would have come back a block of ice, so I’m happy today said 0 km on my training plan.

I worked until past midnight last night so I slept until 10 this morning. When I woke up, I had a feeling there would be snow outside (Twitter spoiled it for me). I haven’t seen snow yet this year, so I was excited. Keep in mind that this will wear off in about 24 hours and I’ll go back to being my winter-hating self again.

I was right! There was snow.

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Which obviously called for some festive decorating. We decorated the apartment way back on Nov. 12, but decided we didn’t want a Christmas tree this year because it would take up too much room. Well, my sister offered us her artificial tree because she won’t be home to put it up, and after some deliberation, it ended up in the my trunk of my car this weekend.

It was time to decorate! (If you look closely you can see our Elf on the Shelf hiding out in the tree.)

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Daniel and I dressed in our finest lazy clothing (it is REST day, after all) and I wore my Christmas knee socks.

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This is our third Christmas living together but our first time having an artificial tree. It looks pretty good, and it was much easier to decorate. Dan still wrapped some of our old coloured tree lights around the record player table. He can get a little Christmas-happy sometimes.

IMG_6959And then I made lunch, and we actually sat down and ate at the table together, which never happens on a week day. I haven’t had a food photo on this blog in a long time, so here you go:

IMG_6964Udon noodles, edamame, egg and tofu (who says vegetarians don’t eat enough protein?). With basil and lime for garnishes. It was yummy.

Hope you’re having a great Monday, whether it’s a rest day or not.

WIAW: Taking Food To Work

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It’s been a long time since I participated in What I Ate Wednesday with Jenn at Peas and Crayons, but I think it’s time to jump back in again.

When I first started my new job a few weeks ago and found out I’d be working from noon to 8 p.m., I knew I wanted to try to preserve my regular eating schedule.

I messed my metabolism up a lot when I was a teenager by trying to starve myself in the hopes I could make myself look like Christina Aguilera in her “Come on Over” video (you know, before she looked like she does now). This usually only lasted for a few hours before I caved and ate a lot of crappy food because I was totally hungry. I did the same thing in university just because I was so busy during the day and was too lazy to cook well-rounded meals.

I’ve read that it is hard to fix your metabolism, so I was kind of resigned to the fact that mine might never get better. Thankfully, that hasn’t come true. By eating regular meals/snacks, drinking water and working out, my metabolism seems to be working great these days.

That’s why I wanted to stay on my regular eating schedule when I took this job – breakfast in the a.m., lunch at noon and supper at 5 p.m. with snacks in between. It means I have to pack both my lunch and supper for work. I’m used to packing my lunch and snacks but making two meals before leaving for work has been hard.

Enter the giant lunch bag I picked up at Winner’s recently:

It’s giant enough to hold enough food to please my giant appetite, and it’s cute to boot.

And here are a few meals from a day that I had my s**t together and packed all my food.

Breakfast before work: Weight Watchers bagel with cream cheese and grapes.

Lunch at work: Whole wheat tortilla with veggies and mustard, greek yogurt bowl with vanilla greek yogurt, granola and banana.

Supper at work: Whole wheat spaghetti with vegetarian bolognese sauce and extra veggies thrown in (zucchini and bell peppers).

I should have had a bit more protein, and my snacks aren’t pictured, but it was a pretty good day of Tupperware meals.

Here’s a list of 11 Easy Lunches that I recently pinned. I plan on making the vegetarian ones.

Do you have any favourite take-to-work meals that you’d like to share? I need some inspiration!

Some Thanksgiving Advice

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This weekend is Thanksgiving (also known as Canadian Thanksgiving, to you Americans). Daniel and I are heading our separate ways so we can spend it with both of our families.

I always think of Thanksgiving as a sort of “homecoming” weekend, so it’s fitting that I get to go back home, even if I’ve only been gone for one week.

Because I’m getting adjusted to a new work schedule and a new city that you apparently can’t go running alone in, I haven’t exercised since Sunday. I decided that I’d just keep an eye on what I was eating leading up to our Thanksgiving extravaganza.

That hasn’t really worked out – so I turned to the trusty Weight Watchers site for tips on how to survive Thanksgiving supper. I have them all pretty much memorized, but I like to browse around the site just to remind myself of my goals.

It also reminded me of this time last year, when I was only two months into my weight loss journey at Thanksgiving. I had lost about 20 pounds at that point.

At the time, I was pretty strict about what I was putting in my belly. Because we were heading to my in-laws who weren’t familiar with my food preferences, I pre-made a lot of food and brought it with me. As for the actual Thanksgiving dinner, I’m a vegetarian, so I passed on the turkey anyway. I think I had also been extra good that week and saved up a bunch of activity points, too.

This year things are different now that I’m maintaining my weight loss. I can afford to be a little less strict, but I’m still going to be aware of what I’m putting on my plate in conjunction with what else I’ve already consumed that day, and how much exercise I’ve managed to fit in. That’s how maintenance works for me – it’s mostly about mental planning.

If you’re worried about Thanksgiving supper, I’d recommend taking a look at the Weight Watchers site and searching “Thanksgiving.” Holidays can be extra tough when you’re trying to lose weight, not only because most traditions revolve around food, but also because your family and friends may not completely understand your goals.

My basic advice comes down to this:

1. Make a plan. Your plan may be to completely indulge for this one meal, or to skip dessert. Whatever you decide, as long as you have a plan, you don’t have to panic when you are faced with a giant pot of mashed potatoes beside a vat of gravy. Your decisions will have already been made for you.

2. Exercise. It’s a little late to tell you to make sure you get your workouts in leading up to Thanksgiving weekend, and I completely failed at this over the past few days anyway. But I do plan on getting a run in at home tomorrow morning. Even if the calories don’t balance out from just one run, you’ll feel better and be able to enjoy yourself. After dinner, take a walk with your family.

3. Stick with your regular meal schedule. When it comes to the grub, try not to go into the meal completely starving. Think about what you’ll eat for breakfast and lunch. And bulk up your plate with extra veggies – if there are any that have escaped the buttering or caramelizing process, that is. I’m getting hungry…

4. Trust yourself. If you are serious enough about your healthy lifestyle, one meal isn’t going to undo everything. It will, though, if you tend to make these excuses all the time. Monday Night Football or “National Chocolate Bar Day” may not be great reasons to indulge, but I think Thanksgiving is a perfect excuse to relax and celebrate good food with great family.

I have a full week of posts planned for next week, so I’ll see you on the other side! Happy Thanksgiving!

Burn Out.

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I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like to. I just don’t know what to say.

To be honest, the person on the other side of this blog is still having a hard time of it. I feel like the past few months of stressful changes are starting to really pile up and I’m not sure I can stay on top of it all anymore.

Whenever I write something like that, I feel guilty. I know a lot of people have been through worse things than me. I chastise myself for not being able to handle it with a sunny outlook on life. And then I just don’t bother blogging.

There are positives: I’ve managed to stay successful at weight maintenance, I’ve made great progress with my running, I’ve learned a lot about my relationship.

Yesterday, I made this for lunch:

Eggplant Marinara Flatbread. I feel there are few things in life greater than olive oil, bread and cheese, so obviously it was amazing.

And on Monday night, I wore pants while running for the first time in months, which made me more happy than it probably should have:

Tapering is done and now I’m officially in rest mode for a 10K race on Sunday. That I still haven’t registered for. Ugh.

So that’s a snippet of what’s been going on lately. Essentially, I don’t recommend moving twice in one month.

What’s up with you?

P.S. Colleen from The Lunchbox Diaries has a great post up about Self Care, click here to read it.

The Most Confusing Blog Post Ever.

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Things are weird lately, guys. I’m sorry I have to be so vague, but my usual routine got shaken up last week. Now, after a weekend of soul-searching, I’m really treating today as the first day of the rest of my life. Cheesy, but true.

I took approximately zero photos this weekend. If I could have photographed it, it would have been a lot of photos of cardboard boxes just waiting to be unpacked in our new place.

UPDATE: I just found this lone photo on my camera.

Here are a few more, less vague things are new with me. I’m keeping them all positive:

  • Today I bought a pair of jeans that are the same size I wore in my early high school years. When the sales associate said the brand ran a bit big, I had to restrain myself from putting my fingers in my ears and saying “la la la.” High school size for the win!
  • On Sunday, I ran 10 kilometres for the first time in my life. Daniel was sleeping off the night shift, so I thought I’d try to stay out of the house as long as possible. I also wanted something to be happy about for the rest of the day. I did Running Room’s 10 minutes running, one minute walking intervals and finished in 1:07. Happiness achieved. Also, soreness.
  • We have a spare bedroom in our new place so y’all are welcome to come visit. Even if I’ve never met you in real life before, just announce your blog name or Twitter handle and I’ll let you in. Like a secret, Internet-friends password.
  • I ate this for breakfast twice:

Vanilla greek yogurt, Nature’s Path peanut butter granola and a banana. Highly recommended.

And this concludes The Most Confusing Blog Post Ever.

Weekend Pasta Sauce

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After a week of not buying groceries so we’d have less food to move on Thursday, I was craving something fresh once the weekend rolled around. When I saw an easy Weight Watchers recipe pop up that involved local tomatoes, which are in season right now around these parts, I decided a simple pasta dish would be perfect.

I woke up Saturday morning and went for a run across the river, and on the way back I stopped at the market around the corner from my apartment to purchase some red and yellow cherry tomatoes. I came home dripping with sweat (it was hot this weekend) but was happy to have found these local beauties.

In between mountains of cardboard boxes, packing paper and tape, I pulled out a bowl and started roughly chopping up the tomatoes. Then I went to my windowsill basil plant that I bought last month as part of my Summer To-Do List, which has grown double its size since then, and plucked some leaves. I’ve saved so much on my basil addiction because of this plant, which I think cost about five dollars.

I added the rest of the ingredients into the bowl, and into the fridge it went to wait until supper.

Supper came earlier than usual though, because we were wiped from packing, and pasta was the perfect thing for our appetites.

I loved this recipe from Weight Watchers. The whole meal took me about 15 minutes to put together, and the tomatoes tasted insanely flavourful. In-season, local tomatoes are so much better than the balls of red water you get at the grocery store during the winter. I usually make a similar, cooked version of this sauce, but it was nice to have the option to do as little cooking as possible on a hot Saturday.

Pasta with No-Cook Tomato Sauce from Weight Watchers

Ingredients

2 pound(s) fresh cherry tomato(es), preferably a mixture of reds and yellows
1/4 cup(s) basil, packed leaves, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
12 oz uncooked whole-wheat spaghetti, cooked and drained according to package instructions

Instructions

  • Roughly chop the tomatoes; place in a large bowl. Stir in the basil, oil, vinegar, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Add the drained pasta and toss well. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.