31. Cook healthy dinners everyday

My first week of healthy dinners have been really tasty! No kitchen disasters, just lovely, healthy, homecooked-with-love dinners. Because I'm worth it! Just because I'm cooking for one through the week, doesn't mean I shouldn't look after myself! I know the veg is a little repetitive, but I really needed to go grocery shopping, and had to make do with what I had on hand!!
This week's highlights have included:
1. East Asian Pork Strips, noodles and veg (Red pepper, sweetcorn and edememe.)

This was totally yummy, 7.2 grams of fat per serving, (but I had more than one serving!!) Chopped onion, rye whiskey, pepper, pork loin, vinegar, soy, sugar, lots of fresh grated ginger, cornstarch, honey. Mmmmm!
Next time I'd change the cellophane noodles for more substantial noodles. (These noodles should stick to being in soup or spring rolls!!)

2. Favourite Omlette

2/3 cup frozen hash browns, 1 egg, 2 egg whites, GENEROUS handful of sweetcorn, GENEROUS handful of edememe, finished off under the grill with a sprinkling of grated cheese.
What can I say, my new fave veg combination is sweetcorn and edememe!

3. Quinoa scramble

Thanks for the recipe, NotExactlyBento.com! Made with the ingredients I had on hand:
1 cup mini-chopped Trinity Veg (onion, carrots, celery,), generous handful sweetcorn, generous handful edememe, chopped garlic, 1 egg, 2 egg whites, 1 cup quinoa. (Because I didn't have any stock on hand, I gave the quinoa flavour with a sauce made from sake, soy, ginger, brown sugar.)
So, very, good!

4. Roast Pork with Curried Mango Sauce and Potato and Carrot Mash

This was a big cheat of a meal - I used a bottled sauce!
Roasted a centre cut pork loin roast in the oven with salt, pepper and a spritz of Light Olive Oil.
Meanwhile, boiled equal parts potatoes and carrots. Mashed them together with a little skim milk and a Laughing Cow Light cheese triangle.
Meanwhile, warm up Memories of Bengal Curried Mango Sauce, spoon over slices of pork.
Drool, drool!

Also eaten this week:
Mother In Law's Turkey Noodle Soup
Coconut chicken curry with rice made from Spicy Sweet Potato Soup / Curry Sauce
Steak-for-the-first-time-in-months and green beans

Try again with Yoga 30 day challenge

Hmmmmmm. Yoga 30 day challenge turned into yoga 4 day challenge.
I had an unscheduled mini food poisoning with a not-quite-cooked-enough chicken....
Then I had (sorry if TMI) the period from hell, stuck on the sofa with hot water bottles.....

Oh excuses, excuses. I know......
Will try again at a later date when I'm feeling a little more motivated.....

New Routines

So, I'm attempting to to incorporate healthy habits in to my daily routine. It looks like I'm trying to fit in a lot of different things at the same time, but really, each new habit is something that I already do, sometimes, but want to do more of.

So today I've started four new habits. In three weeks, they should stick and become second nature:

26. Dog walk every day for a month

I used to do this twice a day, morning and evening. Then it became once a day, morning. Then it became "Let the dog entertain herself now we have a back yard." I'm going to bump it back up to a good amount of exercise every morning.
We walk to the park, play fetch, walk home again.

31. Cook healthy dinners everyday.

I used to cook healthy dinners practically everyday. But then when the bf got transferred to a different city through the week and I started cooking only for myself, I stopped the menu planning, the grocery list making, and stopped cooking.
Now I've included "menu planning" on my weekly schedule, and have gone through my recipe books and magazines and made a list of healthy, low fat (less than 15g fat per serving) recipes to choose from.
I'll keep you updated with the recipes I make.

32. Drink 2 glasses of water a day

I know that you're supposed to drink 8 cups a day, or something like that, but I don't drink a single glass of water, ever, because I don't really like water. (Think morning sickness, with nothing in your stomach except a glass of water, sloshing around, making noises, and making you feel even more sick...) I survived for years on coffee and beer being the only 2 beverages that I drank. I never drink water. So two glasses is a good way to start.
I've scheduled one glass when I wake up in the morning, and one glass with my evening meal. I feel I have to schedule, or I'll be downing water just before going to bed, and then getting up through the night needing to pee...

33. Drink green tea every day for a month.

Another way to get me to drink more. Also, green tea has lots of antioxidants and other goodies. My quest for daily green tea has come a long way already. I used to drink it pretty often when I lived in Taiwan (usually iced). When I moved to Canada, I found it wasn't the same as green tea in Taiwan.
Then I smelled Jasmine green tea in a tea shop, and realised that that was what I'd been drinking in Taiwan.
Then I had to get used to drinking it hot, because it's too much hassle to have a pitcher of iced tea on hand.
Then I had to get used to drinking it without sugar, for the sake of my teeth, because it was standard in Taiwan to serve it pre-sweetened.
Now I plan on drinking a mug of this everyday with my lunch.

See you next week to let you know how it's going!

29. yoga 30 day challenge,

The 30 day yoga challenge is where I will do a complete yoga class / DVD everyday for 30 days
* to kick start my yoga and fitness,
* see show me good it makes me feel,
* and make it a habit so I continue to do yoga regularly again.

The yoga DVD I'm doing is one I've had kicking around since I first moved to Canada in 2005. Despite its title, it's one of my favourites, especially when I'm getting back into yoga after some time away.



The instructor is very thorough in her explanation of the postures the first time around - correct alignment, energy direction, correcting common mistakes - holding each posture for a number of breaths. After this first round, the sequence is repeated several times, one breath in each pose.

A kind feature of this DVD is that each pose is shown in the beginner's version. The details are given in the beginners version. This makes it clear what I'm doing NOW, and also where I'm going. Often DVDs cater to the intermediate poses, with a side note to "rest in downward dog if it's too much". Not very useful!
Harder versions are also shown, from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced.
There is also a detailed breakdown of the poses at the end of the DVD.


Day 1 was great.
Day 2 I ached so much I put off doing it again until the evening. My hamstrings felt a little looser, my arms/chest a little more tired!
Day 3 I ache even more, but will be doing it again tonight.

45. knit a gift,

I knit Doug a pair of fingerless mitts to wear under his big winter gloves. That way when he takes his big gloves off to fiddle with his equipment in the field, his hands won't completely freeze instantly.
We'll see if he ever uses them.....



(Modelled by me...)

11. banoffee pie (Thanksgiving),

This year, thanksgiving was sent at the cottage. Me, Doug, Doug's mum, Auntie Marie and Uncle Dave, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kevin. We had visits from Cousin Terry and John, but they didn't stay for dinner.

There was A LOT of food, and one of the deserts was Banoffee Pie, made by me!! I used a store bought pie case, I didn't make my own!! Cathy gave me a few pointers for next year. Warm the dulche de leche up to make it easier to pour, and make nutty fudge out of the leftovers!

This is the second time I've made this kind of English desert for Thanksgiving - a new Family Tradition is Born!!

8. call dad once a month for a year, (1/12)

I called my dad last week, but he wasn't in. This is pretty usual - it's hard to get in touch with my dad most times. I call and he's sleeping, or working, or on holiday, or about to go out... Whenever I call I ask When is the best time of day to call you? and get the sweet, but not so useful answer of "Whenever you call, it's a good time!"

Anyways, this time he was on holiday. He called when he got back and got my message. It was so early when he called that it was still dark out!! I guess he got his own back and called me when I was sleeping, instead of the other way around. It was a quickie 30 min conversation, bacause he was on his way out. October call is done!!