Hi there,

Hope you’re all try­ing to stay warm! Will win­ter ever go away?

For­tu­nately, I’m head­ing south again on Sun­day. Off to sunny Tuc­son, Ari­zona with my hubby, for a won­der­ful week of hik­ing, run­ning anf hope­fully, cycling. My hubby has been deal­ing with a vari­ety of pesky injuries this year, so I’m not sure we’ll be able to cycle the way we’re accus­tomed to. How­ever, we both love to hike out in the desert and I couldn’t find a bet­ter or more peace­ful spot on earth to enjoy a long run. If you’re into out­door sports, you must check out the city of Tuc­son. Every­one seems to be fit and active there; it’s a really cool city with a great vibe. I also love the amaz­ing Mex­i­can food, and after a day of work­ing out, I can indulge guilt-​free.

Last night, I made one of my family’s favourite meals, pulled chicken. My son and hubby enjoyed it heaped on top of a toasted cia­batta bun, while my daugh­ter ate it along­side some multi­grain corn thin crack­ers. I served mine over a yummy cau­li­flower mash and was it ever good!

Pulled Chicken

6 bone­less, skin­less chicken breasts

water, to cover

1 cup bbq sauce (I use a smoky vari­ety but choose your favourite)

4 gar­lic cloves, peeled and smashed

1 onion, sliced

¹⁄₂ cup apple cider vinegar

hot sauce, to taste

In a large pot, cover chicken with cold water; add remain­ing ingre­di­ents and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to sim­mer and cook until chicken is cooked through. (about 15 – 20 minutes)

Care­fully remove chicken and let cool. Pull chicken into strands using 2 forks.

Bring sauce back to boil and reduce liq­uid by about a half. (15 min­utes or so)

Mix 2 tbsp corn starch with about 4 tbsp cold water; add to sauce and stir until thick­ened and glossy.

Return chicken back to pot and reheat gently.

Enjoy!!

Hi there,

Hope your Sun­day is going well! What a beau­ti­ful day it is, here in T.O.

This morn­ing, I taught a smaller than usual spin class, due to the fact that most good Cana­dian folks were at home cheer­ing on the men’s hockey team. What a great way to end the olympics! I’ve really enjoyed watch­ing the cov­er­age of the games; I always find the olympics so inspir­ing. I think there are some really good lessons learned from the games — work hard towards your goals, per­se­vere when the going gets tough, focus on the present and rel­ish the moment, and of course, when it’s all said and done, hope­fully feel­ing like it’s all been worth it.

On another note, while I was in Florida, my cousin intro­duced me to these really good crackers/​cakes made out of non-​GMO, gluten-​free, organic corn. I really like them slathered with dijon mus­tard and topped with roast turkey, tomato and red onion. They’re only 70 calo­ries for 3 nice sized crack­ers so you can enjoy them guilt free. I like to stack them up and throw them into a ziploc for a yummy on-​the-​go meal. Try them with humus too.

I whipped up a batch of banana pecan muffins today, for my hubby. He likes to take one to work and enjoy it with a cup of cof­fee. They’re not low calo­rie but they’re not full of sugar or high in fat. I sub­sti­tuted the but­ter with home­made apple­sauce, used half white, half whole wheat flour and reduced the sugar to ¹⁄₂ cup. I pre­fer to use brown sugar but that’s up to you. I also added about a half cup of chopped pecans for a nice crunch. The recipe says it yields 12 small muffins but my hubby likes them big, so I only ended up with 5.

Here’s the link to the recipe…http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-muffins-ii/

Have a ter­rific Sunday!

Hi there,

Just thought I’d share a favourite fish recipe of mine which I enjoyed while watch­ing House of Cards last night. If you haven’t seen this show, I highly rec­om­mend it. Kevin Spacey is fantastic!

Any­ways, this recipe is from the famous restau­rant, Nobu. It’s so sim­ple, quick and oh so deli­cious! The recipe calls for black cod but I used salmon instead and it was equally scrump­tious. The only thing that I sug­gest is if you can, plan ahead and mar­i­nate the fish overnight. It really does make a dif­fer­ence. I served my salmon with roasted yuca and a kale salad.

Enjoy!

http://​www​.thek​itchn​.com/​r​e​c​i​p​e​-​n​o​b​u​-​m​i​s​o​-​m​a​r​i​n​a​t​e​d​-​b​l​a​c​k​-​c​o​d​-​1​1​7​2​3​8

This is mirin:

This is white miso. Do not sub­sti­tute with red!

And finally, this is sake.

Din­ner is served!

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend!

I spent some time in the kitchen, mak­ing two big pots of soup. I like to make two at a time so that I can freeze one and know that I have a big pot of yummy soup handy. I always have soup in my fridge because it is my go-​to food when I need some­thing to eat before din­ner. It’s low calo­rie, healthy and always delicious.

Hi there,

Over the week­end, I dab­bled in a lit­tle kitchen exper­i­men­ta­tion and although I can’t say they were all suc­cess­ful, I did walk away with a few recipes that I think you might enjoy. For those of you who are fol­low­ing a gluten-​free diet (I’m not, but rarely eat breads or pasta), you should def­i­nitely give it a try. It’s a savoury veg­etable pan­cake made with chick­pea flour that could be used as a wrap, “pita”, pizza crust, or just as a yummy snack. I bought my chick­pea flour at the Bulk Barn but I’m sure you can find it in any health food store or Indian spe­cialty market.

I enjoyed mine with a dol­lop of tzaziki but plain greek yogurt would be equally delicious.

Gluten-​Free Chick­pea Pancake

Ingredients:

3 cups of chick pea flour

2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 gar­lic cloves, minced

1 tbsp fresh gin­ger, grated

¹⁄₄ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 red pep­per, finely diced

dash of hot sauce (I used siracha).

salt and pepper

Veg­etable spray

In a medium skil­let over low heat, saute onion, gar­lic and gin­ger in olive oil, until soft­ened and fragrant.

Add red pep­per and cook for addi­tional 5 min­utes. Remove from heat, place in mix­ing bowl and add cilantro, hot sauce, salt and pep­per. Mix well and let cool (about 15 minutes).

Add chick­pea flour to onion mix­ture and stir to combine.

Slowly add some of the water, stir­ring in one direc­tion until the bat­ter becomes soft and smooth. You might not need all of the water.

Allow the mix­ture to sit for 30 min­utes at room temperature.

Warm a non-​stick fry­ing pan over medium heat, spray and add a ladle of bat­ter into cen­ter of pan, using the back of the ladle to spread bat­ter into a thin pancake.

Cook gen­tly until bub­bles begin to appear over sur­face or check to see if under­side is golden brown.

Flip and con­tinue cook­ing for another few minutes.

Serve hot on its own, as a wrap, pita, pizza crust or.…be creative!