I mentioned in my last post that I’m back at hot yoga. I’ve been at it for a month now, and I’m so happy I went back. Remember my mission to complete the Learn to Run 10k program? Well, I tried so hard to love running…I really did. There were only 3 runs a week, and I really enjoyed them. My body, however, did not. My right hip is already pretty bad, and running only made it worse. Not only that, my left side started to compensate, which screwed up my left knee. Half the time I was limping and sore. I went to the chiropractor often, and even started needing massages. Healthy exercise should not make one feel like this. I even started gaining weight because I was in too much pain to work out.

Fast forward to hot yoga, and it is actually healing my right hip. Because of this, there is also no pain in my left knee. My anxiety has improved a lot, and I sleep like a baby every night (I frequently tend to experience insomnia). When I get into the practice room, I feel at peace. I always go 20-30 minutes early so that I can just lay there and relax. When I’m there, my phone can’t ring, I can’t check my email, and the only thing that’s important is peace. While I do enjoy practicing at home, there is something to be said for going to class. This week’s focus for Grow Your Yoga is actually called ‘Be Peace,’ where the goal is to get in 10 minutes of meditation everyday. I’m so on it. (To learn more about this year’s Grow Your Yoga, you can read my last post.)

Bonus: I’ve maintained a weight loss of 8lbs in a month! They came off in only 12 days, and now the weight loss is slowing down a bit. But honestly, even if I didn’t lose any more weight, I know I’ve found the workout for me. I’m sticking with it.

Anyhoo, for those that are here for the recipe: I am still obsessed with my Vitamix. Like, can’t imagine how I lived without it for so long. You can make this recipe in another blender, but will likely have to make sure that you mince your ginger and garlic first, and then heat the sauce in a pan before pouring it over your stirfry. Either way, it’s so worth making! I’ve cooked this up a few times now, and both Dallas and I love it. It’s also great to use as a dipping sauce for rice paper rolls. Enjoy!

peace, love, food <3

Char, xo ]]> http://www.charskitchen.ca/2013/05/creamy-peanut-sauce.html/feed 4 http://www.charskitchen.ca/2013/05/grow-your-yoga-week-one-and-zucchini-sundried-tomato-quiche.html http://www.charskitchen.ca/2013/05/grow-your-yoga-week-one-and-zucchini-sundried-tomato-quiche.html#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 06:17:57 +0000 Char @www.charskitchen.ca http://www.charskitchen.ca/?p=5941 Hey hey foodies! I’ll catch you up on this in a later post, but I’ve quit running and gone back to hot yoga. It had been TWO YEARS since the last time I took a class. I’m now 3 weeks in to my membership and feeling like I’ve rekindled my passion for yoga all over again.

Have any of you heard of Grow Your Yoga? Set up by all 60 Moksha yoga studios, for the month of May the intent is to help us expand our practice off the mat by eating mindfully, spending time in meditation, avoiding gossip/spreading positivity, and reaching out to those in need. Each week of the month has its own focus. The first week has been about eating vegetarian, vegan, organic, and/or local.

I don’t have a hard time fitting in green smoothies, fruit, and lots of veggies, but I do have a hard time fitting in extra iron. And, as a recent blood test has shown, I’m quite low. So focusing on fresh ingredients including broccoli, zucchini, and free run local eggs, I made quiche!

Did you know that our bodies don’t absorb all of the iron we consume? And did you know that adding vitamin C to your diet helps boost iron absorption by about 30%? This is especially important to know for vegans and vegetarians: heme iron, found in meat, is very easy for the body to absorb. Non-heme iron, found in plant sources, is much harder for the body to absorb. Making sure to consume enough of it, and pairing it with vitamin C, will help you in making sure you’re getting all that you need. A vitamin supplement with added iron helps, too. In my smoothies, I make sure to add fruits that are high in vitamin C so as to better absorb the iron in my spinach or kale.

Two things that inhibit iron absorption are calcium and coffee. I quit drinking coffee about a month ago, and I really don’t miss it. I try to eat less calcium in meals where the intent is to absorb more iron, and then focus on calcium in other meals.

In my quiche, there is iron in the eggs and broccoli, and there is vitamin C in the yellow pepper. Fun fact: yellow and orange peppers are actually much higher in vitamin C than oranges! So make sure to add them into your dinner (pasta, wraps, stirfry, etc).

The quiche might seem like a lot of work, but I actually spent only about 15 minutes total in prep, including the dough. I was amazed at how quick it was to make, and will be making more in the future!

You know what else has iron in it? Black bean brownies! Yus. I cannot do healthy without dessert. This is Chocolate Covered Katie’s recipe. I followed it exactly, though I used coconut sugar instead of stevia. Amazing!

Back to the reaching out part of Grow Your Yoga: we are raising money for the Maasai Conservation Trust. The fundraiser is intended to help create incentive for the Maasai people to help grow their economy and protect their environment (including endangered species like lions, elephants, and giraffes). If we don’t do something, we could see the extinction of lions in our lifetime. To find out more about the cause, watch this video by Edward Norton:

Grow Your Yoga – Edward Norton speaks about the Maasai Conservation Trust

If you want to donate to the Maasai Conservation Trust, click here.

And if you want to make quiche, follow these instructions:

Yes, I’m back! I have more posts for you guys coming soon. I hope all is well, foodies. I’ve missed you!

peace, love, food, & yoga <3

Char, xo

As many of you know, I finally ordered a Vitamix and UPS delivered it early Thursday morning It was really exciting to be able to use it right away for breakfast. First, Dallas & I made this blueberry orange smoothie:

(Ingredients {for 1 serving}: 3/4 cup almond milk, 1 tsp vanilla, sprinkle cinnamon, 1 cup spinach, 1 banana, 1 orange, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries.)

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from the Vitamix for smoothies. Our blender (a Kitchenaid) did a pretty fine job up until now, but the Vitamix blew me away. I’ve never had a homemade smoothie taste so smooth! It was like drinking something from Orange Julius, only way healthier. I decided right away that this purchase was a good idea.

Next up: Orange juice. In an effort to reduce my coffee consumption, I decided I was going to start drinking real, fresh orange juice in the morning. This recipe was given to me by my friend, Alita.

(Ingredients: 1 cup water, 2 large oranges {or 3 medium}, 1 cup ice. optional: 1 carrot)

I looooove this drink! I tried it the first time with a carrot, and the last two days without. It’s great both ways. I’m amazed at how the whole fruits are in there, and yet there is no pulp! I brought some to class to drink instead of coffee, and it kept me awake just as effectively. The only difference? I didn’t feel dehydrated after, so no need to chug water.

Later, I had a crazy craving for mac & cheese. Would you believe you can make cheese sauce in the Vitamix? Yep! Put in the milk, flour, butter, and salt, and blend for 3-4 mins until it starts steaming. Add in your cubed cheese, which will melt & blend quite quickly. Pour over cooked macaroni noodles (and roasted broccoli!) and serve. OR cover with bread crumbs and bake, as I did! This meal was incredible.

Obviously I hadn’t already eaten enough, so I made some chocolate sorbet. It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped…apparently there’s definitely a method to making ice cream in the Vitamix, and my machine shut itself off while I was in the process (it has a heat sensor so that it can protect itself from overheating by shutting off). I didn’t follow a recipe, and I’ve decided that until I’m more comfortable with ice cream, I will only follow recipes. For this reason, I’m not sharing the chocolate sorbet recipe until I’ve got a good method down.

The next day, I had my girlfriend Alison over for lunch and we made tomato basil soup:

(Ingredients: 4 roma tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 bunch basil.)

We were excited to see the steam coming out and it was really neat to not have to heat the soup on the stove. Just pour into a bowl, season with salt & pepper, and eat! So good.

I went to my parents’ house in Victoria for the weekend (partly to celebrate my birthday early! yay), and we played quite a bit with the Vitamix, too. I got so caught up in everything that I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but here are some fun ones:

Orange Creamsicle!! Whaaat.

(Ingredients: 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt, 2 oranges, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup ice.)

This drink was so ridiculously good, it’s one of my favourites now. We all agreed that it was like drinking a milkshake, but without all of the sugar & cream. Great for a healthy dessert! This is one I will be making again a lot.

Strawberry Daquiri

(Ingredients: 4 oz rum, 2 oz Grand Marnier, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 3 tbsp powdered sugar, 1 cup ice.)

My brother had some rum and really wanted to make some cocktails, so I shared in the afternoon drinks with him. This was a fun one! It’s pretty cool that my Vitamix doubles as a bartender.

We also used the Vitamix to help chop veggies & garlic for dinner, we made a gluten-free cream of mushroom soup, and we made apple pie ice cream. By the end of the day, my parents were saying, “it’s so nice to eat food and feel good about it!” I agree.

Anybody else doing that 30-day green smoothie challenge? Today’s was a Strawberry Basil smoothie. Loooved this one! Though to be honest, there are a couple I’m not crazy about but I’m still trying all of them. I found that the less-than-desirable smoothies actually got way better when the Vitamix got here. What do you guys think of the smoothie challenge? Anyone still hanging in there?

Keep those recipe suggestions coming, foodies! I hope you all have a fabulous week

peace, love, food <3

Char, xo

I realize it’s been a long time, so this post is going to be about all kinds of random things. Let’s start with running:

I restarted the Learn to Run 10k program at the beginning of the semester with Dallas. Dallas made it to Week 8 with me, but has been swamped with school & work. I made it to Week 9 this time before I injured myself. Seriously, I’m good at that.

What happened, you ask? Well, a combination of terrible posture whilst studying (for real), and pushing myself too hard after seeing a woman run past me. Ever had that happen? I was feeling pretty proud of myself until this lady flew past me. It didn’t take long before she was completely gone from sight.

*Cue overwhelming feeling of insecurity* I had to run faster. At first I was all like, “yeah, I’m so fast! Feels like I’m flying!”

And then I felt a muscle pull in my left butt cheek. And then the muscle that goes from my right knee all the way up my inner thigh.

The walk back home sucked so bad that I called my chiropractor ON THE WAY HOME. I was still crippled for 4 days after that, until I finally went to see a masseuse. All better now.

But THEN, the day I got the massage, I was running super fast up a lecture hall on campus, saw a girl in my way & tried to Tomb Raider my way around her. Did NOT work, and I ended up smashing my knee into the edge of a desk. My whole knee cap is covered in a huge bruise with a big scrape across it. I have all the grace of a dancing water buffalo.

tl;dr I hurt myself running so I’m sticking to yoga while I heal.

But for those of you who want to feel comfortable running, I do have some awesome things to recommend. (WARNING: I love Arc’teryx A LOT so I may be biased. No, I am not affiliated with them, they just rock.) First, the base layer:

This thing wicks away all of my sweat, keeping my skin dry. It’s super comfortable and seriously one of my favourite purchases as I wear it all the time. I never feel like it’s sticking to me.

For winter running, I love my mid layer. This is the Arc’teryx Atom LT. Super light, comfortable, yet very warm. It keeps me warm without weighing me down, which is important when you’re running. (Note: They do have running jackets specifically for running, but this guy does the trick, especially in winter.)

On rainy days, I add my raincoat shell on top (yep, 3 layers total). This is the Arc’teryx Alpha LT. It’s 100% waterproof and it keeps me extra dry. I should mention that on really gross, rainy days out here on the wet coast, I put my hair under one or both hoods, walk to school after parking for maybe half an hour, get inside, and my hair looks freaking perfect. There is nothing I dislike about these jackets. Nothing.

(Don’t mind my hair in the photo. I don’t brush it before I go running, obvs.)

For those of you who are worried about the cost of Arc’teryx, take your time shopping. Scout around, decide what you like or need, and then watch for sales. I was able to get both my base layer and my raincoat for half price. Even if you pay full price, it’s so worth it. You’ll never need to buy another jacket.

I know most of you have seen my Motion Comfort headband, but for those of you who haven’t:

It keeps the wind out of my ears which is fantastic. I hate ear aches. That’s all I have to say about that.

Anybody else have trouble with shoulder cramps while running? Do this:

Pressing your thumb to your middle finger activates a pressure point, relieving the pressure in your shoulders. Also make sure to relax your shoulders and swing your arms more to gain momentum, taking the pressure off of your legs. Doing all of these things has made running so much easier for me. You shouldn’t be in pain while you exercise. (And if you are, do yoga.)

New topic! Dallas & I celebrated our two year anniversary this month. This man is the best thing to ever happen to me. And he’s pretty easy on the eyes!

I bought a new dress that I wore for the occasion (ever shopped on HauteLook? Sweet deals there!).

We went to a local restaurant, The Mahle House, for dinner. I’d show you pictures, but the lighting is terrible. About as good quality as the photo of Dallas. It’s decent for taking pictures of people, but definitely not food. Restaurant mood lighting is not camera friendly.

For Valentine’s Day, we stayed in and made a Margarita Pizza. EVERYTHING from scratch! Dallas made the sauce (roasted tomatoes, sauted onions, fresh herbs, the works), while I made the dough (and DAMN am I getting good at it!). When I rolled out the dough, Dallas spread the sauce over top, and we decorated it with fresh basil and balls of mozzarella. It was amazing!

We made some kickass roasted veggies to go on the side. Always need to get those greens in.

The next day, I made a quick lasagna with the leftover sauce & veggies. I just made layers with whole wheat noodles & a bit of cheddar. So good!

Om nom.

All said, it took us more than 4 hours, but I have to say it was the best Valentine’s Day ever.

In other random news:

My mom found a strawberry shaped like Hello Kitty in her garden.

I got glasses (well, technically I’ve had them since grade 3, I’m just not abusing my eyes with contact lenses anymore). I’m extra excited because I love how they look (first time ever) and they are Tiffany & Co! <3

This semester, I’ve spent a lot of time in my PJ’s snuggling my cats. I’m probably that crazy cat lady your parents warned you about.

I found a flower pot pen in the campus bookstore for $2.79. It made my whole day.

Dallas & I found a French café in downtown Victoria, B.C., and I finally got to try a macaron (chocolate cream cheese, I might add!). It was better than I imagined.

The highlight, though, was probably the yellow mug. I stifled an intense urge to pocket that baby.

I bought The Mat from Lululemon and I’m so happy with it. I love that it’s double-sided, and I can’t wait to test it out at hot yoga. So far, it’s been awesome for at-home yoga.

Bonus: it has a slightly weird smell, so my cats don’t go near it and shred it all up (like my last mat…rest in peace <3).

And I think that’s all! *phew* It’s been a busy semester, but I feel really happy & excited about it. I’ve made many new friends, I have great professors, I love the material, and I’m a very active member of the Psychology Club. Life may be crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What have you all been up to? I hope you’re enjoying your March into Spring!

peace, love, food <3

Char, xo

I cannot take credit for this recipe, as I used this one. Both Dallas & I are super happy with the results. These are bakery bagels for sure, not like store-bought. The original recipe suggests boiling them in a mixture of honey & water for a chewier texture. I used agave, which achieved the same result. I don’t recommend omitting the honey/agave. It makes all the difference!

On a side note, I had no idea that BOILING bagels was a thing. Apparently it’s a crucial step! And it was quite fun to do. If you have some spare time & want to try something new, make bagels. I really enjoyed the process.

Moving on, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to talk about my failed projects so that other bakers out there may learn from my mistakes. I have often struggled with getting my dough to rise, and I’ve learned it’s for a variety of reasons. Here are a few important things to remember:

1) Make sure the water that you dissolve your yeast in is WARM but not HOT. For awhile, I was boiling water in the kettle to use for baking. Bad, bad idea. Extremely hot water will kill your yeast, and water not warm enough won’t activate it. I recommend using the tap, turning it onto the hottest setting & waiting until it is hot to the touch. This method has been working well for me. Many websites will say that your water should be between 105-110 degrees, but for those of us too cheap to buy a thermometer, tap water will do. Let your yeast dissolve for about 10 mins in warm water. It should create a nice foam on top. (If it does not foam, your yeast is likely inactive. In this case, buy new yeast.)

2) Do not skip the sugar. Many times, people will cut out sugar in a recipe in an effort to save calories or eat more nutritiously. I can’t stress this enough, sugar FEEDS the yeast. While it’s easy to get away with it in cookie or brownie recipes, you need it for breads that need to rise (such as pizza dough, bagels, bread, etc.). I like to sprinkle the sugar into the yeast/warm water mixture to give it more opportunity to grow.

3) Mix the salt into the flour, NOT the yeast. I didn’t realize this until recently, but mixing salt into yeast will kill it. Instead, mix it well with your dry ingredients & slowly add your dry ingredients to the wet when ready.

4) When in doubt, avoid bread flour. Maybe it’s just me, but I have very little luck with bread flour. I find that anything I make with it turns into a solid rock, more like a weapon than an ingestible food. I typically use all-purpose white or whole wheat flour. Other times, my go-to’s are brown rice flour and/or oat flour, with additional xantham gum.

5) Knead the dough at least 10 minutes. In order to rise, your dough must be worked through very well. Typically 10 minutes by hand or 8 minutes by standmixer. If you’re dough is stretchy & pliable, it is ready to rise.

6) To retard the rising process, stick it in the fridge. You know when you get the urge to bake late at night & then realize, “actually, I want to go to bed.” If you’re wondering what to do with your dough, have no fear! If it is done rising, DO NOT PUNCH IT. Cover it with a damp, CLEAN kitchen towel & stick it in the fridge. This will stop the rising process & keep your dough fresh. When you are ready to finish your project the next day, punch it down & carry on.

And that’s all! Let me know if you guys have anymore questions about baking. Good luck in your kitchens!

peace, love, food <3

Char, xo

Having Gizmo home these past 6 months has been perfect. He & Mowzers are best friends now, even though there is an obvious pecking order that Mowzers loves to remind him of. (btw, Mowzers was in no mood to have her picture taken at that moment, as the scratches on Dallas’ arms can attest to. This is why she is not in our yearly Christmas picture). 

One thing that has become clear since Gizmo has been home is his love of yoga. Or at least, his love of ME doing yoga. He loves to sleep on our bed all day, but as soon as he hears the couch being pushed aside to make room for my yoga mat, he is right by my side. I get a lot of cuddles & kisses in every pose, whether I like it or not. (Kidding! I love being loved.)

As for cooking, I haven’t stopped playing in my kitchen, even though I’ve been lazy about the blog. We had Dallas’ parents & his youngest sister over for a Christmas dinner, where I served this meal from last Thanksgiving. I was super flattered when his mom asked him if I would cook, because she loves my cooking so much! I feel so grown up hosting holiday dinners.

I also baked up a bunch of Nana’s Shortbread Cookies to send out to family, & I’ve been cooking & baking up a storm using Isa Chandra’s ‘Vegan with a Vengeance‘ cookbook. I seriously, seriously urge you to buy it. My favourite recipes include everything I’ve made so far: Spicy Corn Chowder, Banana Split Pudding Brownies, Lemon Gem Cupcakes, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Maple Walnut Cookies, etc. GO BUY IT.

To help with my addictive baking habit, my wonderful man bought me a kitchen dream toy for Christmas…in YELLOW!:

For those of you who don’t know, yellow is the best colour ever. It’s a happy colour, & it’s my favourite colour. I can’t stop playing with my mixer, making everything from pizza, to English muffins, to Finnish Pulla Bread. I didn’t get a picture of the pizza, & the English muffins need some practice, but here is a picture of what’s left of our Finnish Pulla Bread (which is ridiculously delicious, btw):

I love how beautiful the braid makes it! Credit goes to the man of the house for the braiding. Who knew he was better at it than I am?

I used this recipe, & I’m very happy with the results. I cut the serving size from 36 to 12, making only 1 loaf instead of 3. I had trouble getting it to rise (which is more my fault than the recipe’s), but it’s a great bread nonetheless. Just not as light & fluffy as it should be. I was also out of cardamom but subbed cinnamon, since it’s a sweet bread anyway. I made it last night, & there is about 1/3 of the loaf left. So I guess that tells you how much we both like it

Dallas also gave me $200 to spend at Williams Sonoma for Christmas, so I carefully picked out a bunch of different kitchen toys that I knew I would get a lot of use out of.

The marble rolling pin is beautiful, handmade in Italy with untreated Carrara marble. It makes a world of difference in rolling out dough, as it is heavier & generally remains pretty cold. The dough doesn’t stick to it, either, like it does with my wooden rolling pin.

I love the salad dressing mixer, which has 4 different recipes on the side with fill-lines for each ingredient. I’m sure I will use this alot.

The 3-in-1 avocado slicer can slice open an avocado, remove the pit, & pull out beautiful slices of avocado.

The biscuit cutters are so that I can keep practicing those English muffins! I will get them right.

The pie shell cutters will be fun for decorating. I know they’re Christmas-y, but they were 90% off. I also don’t think anyone will complain about snowmen if I bake them a pie.

The lemon zester is so handy – it has a catch-case underneath for the lemon zest, which can be stood up to measure the amount. Will definitely be handier than zesting over a bowl, & then trying to scoop it all up into a measuring spoon.

Last but not least, we have a new addition to our Christmas decorations. Say hello to ‘Rudolph-I-ate-too-many-cookies-Reindeer’.

I have this weird obsession with chubby animals. I could NOT leave him on the shelf.

Other than sharing the holidays with most of our family & friends, Dallas & I have had some much needed R&R the past few days. I’ve been curled up with some books & research papers, while he plays video games. Today we actually had the motivation to clean out our cupboards, too.

See this? We thought the Lazy Susan was missing a shelf until about 3 weeks ago, when we discovered it was just stacked on top of the bottom shelf. Today, we pulled out all of the food, cleaned the shelves, & Dallas set up the second shelf. I’m amazed at how much more room it gave me for food stuffs. So dinner? Dinner was inspired by food I forgot we had that we figured we should eat. Why buy groceries when you have too many?

This salad was a quick throw together, that takes about 5 mins to prepare. The dressing comes from this recipe. I lovelovelove the Honey Mustard Dressing!

I also warmed up some whole wheat pita bread, sliced it, & served it with roasted red pepper hummus from Costco. Easy dinner, & so yummy!

Just for ease, I’ll re-post the recipe for the salad dressing (with new fix-ins) here.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday, foodies!! Have a safe & happy New Year!

peace, love, food <3

Char, xo

  ]]> http://www.charskitchen.ca/2012/12/holidays-kitchen-toys-plus-a-bean-corn-summer-salad.html/feed 4 http://www.charskitchen.ca/2012/11/spicy-peanut-stirfry.html http://www.charskitchen.ca/2012/11/spicy-peanut-stirfry.html#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:58:32 +0000 Char @www.charskitchen.ca http://www.charskitchen.ca/?p=5848 Sometimes I feel inspired to take an old recipe and make it even better. That’s what happened here.

Remember my Veggie Rice Paper Wraps with Peanut Sauce? This stirfry is based off of that peanut sauce recipe, though I added a few ingredients to kick it up a notch. The pictures really do not do it any justice- this stirfry is amaaaazing!!

If you’re wondering about Ginger Syrup, I got mine from Purdy’s Chocolates (in Canada). It’s really yummy! If you don’t have ginger syrup, just substitute maple syrup 1:1 and add 1/4 tsp of powdered ginger. I’ve made it both ways, and both have turned out well.

In other news, the semester is almost over!! I’m excited because even though it’s been my best semester in terms of learning and becoming more involved with the University, it has also been the most mentally challenging to get through. Ultimately, though, I know it’s shaping me into a better, more intelligent person.

Also, the longer I sit in Sociology class, the more I want to fix the whole world. It’s really interesting, and I’m feeling very passionate about the issues we discuss in class.

Anyhoo, I hope you’re all having a great semester! Good luck with exams to anyone else who’s in school! Who’s ready for Christmas? hehe.

Enjoy, foodies! From my kitchen to yours <3

peace, love, food <3

Char, xo ]]> http://www.charskitchen.ca/2012/11/spicy-peanut-stirfry.html/feed 2