Juice Cleanse

For a while now, hubby and I have tossed around the idea of doing a cleanse.  We looked into The Master Cleanse, after hearing about a friend’s experience, but since it required serious commitment and a very strict diet, we thought we’d ease ourselves into the cleansing world with a 3-day juice cleanse from Pressed Juicery, a cold-pressed juicer in Los Angeles. We also decided not to do the cleanse at the same time in the event an adverse reaction occurred- if we were both down, who would take care of Amina?

We decided that I would do the cleanse first, so two weeks ago, I took the online quiz to determine which cleanse was best suited for my current lifestyle. It turned out to be cleanse 1.  I placed my order for the 3-day cleanse, plus the aloe vera water and chlorophyll water, and patiently waited for my order to arrive the following week. (Note: If you sign up for The Chalkboard Magazine on the Pressed Juicery website, you get 10% off your first juice order). In the mean time, I read up on the how to’s of cleansing Pressed Juicery had on their website. You can read all about it here.  I started my cleanse last Thursday and finished on Saturday night.

Pressed Juicery juices

Day 1:

Peppermint tea

The juices get shipped overnight, so Thursday morning, I had to wait until 10 am to get started. My stomach was growling, so I decided to have some peppermint tea and anapple to keep me going.

The juices were shipped with ice packs, so they were still cold when I received them. After loading my fridge up with my juices, I started off with bottle 1.  All of the juice bottles are labeled so it was pretty easy to tell in what order to drink the juices. By the time I was on #4, the sugar, salt and carb cravings started kicking in.  I had to force myself to drink the other 2 juices and finish my waters.  By 7pm, I was tired and wanted to crawl into bed, but Amina was still awake and wanted to play.  

Day 2:

The mood swings reared their ugly head. I was very cranky, impatient and frustrated all the time. Thankfully, hubby was home to help take care of Amina. I was able to rest and have some “Me” time.

Day 3:

The headache from Day 2 continued into Day 3 and the day after the cleanse finished.  To be honest, I really had to push myself to finish the cleanse and not cheat by eating something after I drank my last juice bottle.  Thankfully, the end was in sight, because I was really missed using my teeth to chew my food!

Some thoughts on the cleanse:

-It was harder than I thought.  You don’t realize how dependant your body is on sugar, salt, fat, and carbs until you remove them from your diet.

-At the end of each day, I felt “lighter.” There was no heaviness in the belly and even though I was tired and cranky, I felt refreshed- if that makes sense.

-Would I try it again? Yes, but not for a while.

-The post-cleanse introduction to food is helping me stay away from refined sugars and refined carbs.  I’ve been eating raw fruits and veggies and some protein (quinoa) and my body is liking this new way of eating.

NOTE: PLEASE CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE DOING A JUICE CLEANSE.

Fruit Salad Switch-Up

Ramadan Reminder: try to give a little charity every day this month.

I looked at the calendar today and was surprised, no shocked to see that it’s already August 2nd!!  How can this be? I could have sworn that summer just started and Ramadan was right around the corner!  Now, we’re into the last few weeks of summer vacation and it’s almost the middle of Ramadan.  Darn, time is flying by!  Got to make most of the time left!!

Okay, back to the Ramadan post.  Fruit salad/chaat is synonymous with the South Asian iftar table.  It shows up in a variety of ways- with masala (which I personally don’t like very much), without masala (love!), with tropical fruit, without tropical fruit, with bananas, without bananas…the possibilities are endless!
I decided to shake up the typical iftar fruit bowl and make fruit skewers with fresh Ontario strawberries, sweet pineapple chunks and mouth-watering cantaloupe. The skewers allows the fruit to shine in all of their healthy goodness and brightens up the iftar table.  You can serve the skewers with honey flavoured greek yogurt or eat them as is.  

The single skewer of baby strawberries is for my  4 year old niece :o)

Greek Yogurt Parfait

After a hard work out, I’m usually tired and hungry. If I’m being good that day, I’ll grab some fruit, but sometimes I stray and have something that’s a little sweet and not so healthy.

This morning I decided to opt for something healthy and came up with a Vanilla Greek Yogurt parfait with granola, organic blueberries and fresh mango. YUM!

Greek Yogurt Parfait

1 small container (single serving) low fat Vanilla Greek Yogurt

2 tbsp granola

20 organic blueberries, washed

1/2 Alphonso mango, peeled and diced

In a glass, fill the bottom with half of the yogurt. Put half of the blueberries and mango pieces on top of the yogurt. Do another layer of yogurt, berries and mango and end with the granola.

Pear and Ginger Smoothie

We’re almost into February and there’s hardly any snow on the ground! What is wrong with this picture?  Where are the scarves, mitts, shovels, heaps of snow, slush and salt machines?  One of the benefits, (I thought), of being in TO in the winter while hubby is travelling on business would be that I get to have my snow fix.  But it seems like God has other plans!  The weather is completely wonky- freezing one day with wind chills in the double digits, the next day it’s a balmy 5 degrees Celsius.  No wonder people are getting sick!

To help me get through this very weird patch of winter weather we’re experiencing, I decided to make a pear and ginger smoothie, courtesy of Guilty Kitchen.  I tweaked the recipe just a tad to suit my needs.

Pear and Ginger Smoothie

1 Bosc pear, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
juice of 1/4 a lime
a tiny nob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated (you know those tiny nobs that grow off the body of ginger? well that’s what I used)
2 tbsp honey flavoured 0% Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup 2% milk

Put all ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth. 

Apple Pie Pockets

YOU Can’t Reach For Anything NEW If YOUR Hands Are Still Full of Yesterday’s JUNK. ~ Louise Smith

If you’re just tuning into my blog, or are getting to know me personally, there is one thing you should know about me. I am an obsessive quote collector.  I always travel with some paper and a pen just in case I come across a quote that I want to add to my collection.  I pin quotes on my Pinterest board, clip them from magazines, calendars, books, and newspapers, tag and share them on Facebook, and write them down in my very own quote book.  I started that quote book after my father passed away in December 2009 after discovering quote clippings in his wallet.

Quotes, whether they be one sentence or an entire paragraph, speak volumes and have the power to shift your mood. Sometimes those words running across the page give you advice that no friend or parent could give. They shed light on difficult situations, help you gain perspective, and analyse things from a different point of view. Simply put, I love quotes. And the fact that my father collected quotes too makes me feel connected to him even more.

~*~*~*~

Growing up, my mom and I would go grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. As soon as the store would open, we would get what we needed and be home before the weekend shopping rush would start.   Sometimes, my dad would come along, or would get some things from the store the night before.  And almost always he would buy danishes, donuts or apple pie for us to enjoy. Now whenever I see danishes, apple pie, or coconut covered donuts, I remember him.  

In October, Loblaws was selling PC’s apple-shaped pocket pie maker, and because apple pie is near and dear to me, I picked one up and all the ingredients listed on the box to make these cuties.

Apple Pie Pockets

3 Gala Apples, cored, peeled and chopped into chunks (The original recipe called for Granny Smith, but I don’t like Granny Smith so I used Gala instead)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 package of butter puff pastry sheets, thawed but cold
1 egg, beaten

In a pot, stir together apples, sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon.  Let the mixture stand for 10-15 minutes or until some juice has been released.  Bring to a simmer over low-medium heat and cook for 10 minutes or until apples are tender and juices are thickened.  Chill for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Unroll one sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Using the apple pocket pie maker, cut four apple shapes using one side of the pie maker. Repeat with other side of closed apple pocket maker and additional sheet of pastry.  There will be 8 pieces- 4 bottoms and 4 tops with the vent.

Open apple pocket pie maker and dust slightly with flour. Gently press in one of the dough cut outs. Fill centre with 1/4 cup of cooled filling. Brush edges of dough lightly with beaten egg. Lay vented dough cut out over top, lining up edges; press mold shut to seal edges.  Lay finished pocket onto prepared baking sheet, vented side up.  Repeat for each pocket.  Brush tops of pockets lightly with beaten egg.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pocket is evenly golden and crisp.

**Some notes:

If you don’t have the pocket maker, you can create free-form shapes with puff pastry and stuff it with the apple filling.
If you don’t want to make all of the pie pockets, DO NOT brush the tops of the pies with the egg. Instead, layer the pies between waxed paper, put them in freezer bags and stick them into the freezer for a later date.  I wouldn’t keep them in the freezer for more than one month.

Low Fat Mini Pumpkin Muffins with Pepitas

Recently, I had another “first-time” food experience. This time it was with pumpkin.  Back in the day, and I’m talking way back in elementary school…grade 5 to be precise, was the last time I had had any experience with pumpkins.  It was in Mr. McFarlene’s class and we were carving pumpkins for Halloween.  Now, we didn’t really celebrate Halloween, but because this was a class activity, my parents let me drag a pumpkin to school and carve it with my classmates. I remember sticking my hand inside my pumpkin and feeling all of the gushy, thready goo, and giggling/cringing as I scooped out the seeds and flesh until the insides were smooth.  I was no artist, so I drew out a very simple Jack O’ Lantern design- a face with a very toothy grin.  After school, I dragged the pumpkin back home and planted it on the front porch. When my dad came home that night, we lit a candle and put it inside the pumpkin and had that stupid grin shine up on the wall.  Ahh…life was so simple back then……

Flash forward a “few” years (ahem..) and pumpkin has re-entered my life yet again. This time in the form of a can.  I thought I would have to cut, clean out, and cook a pumpkin to make this, but luckily this recipe from Gina’s Skinny Recipes called for good ol’ canned pumpkin puree. The first time I tried this recipe, I followed it to a T.  Unfortunately, I found the taste to be very OVERWHELMING because of the amount of pumpkin pie spice used. The second time I made them, I cut the pumpkin pie spice in half and found the flavour to be much more appetizing.  If you like your pumpkin baked goods to be very spicy, go right ahead and use the original measurements. But if you want a more delicate taste, use the measurements from below.

Low Fat Mini Pumpkin Muffins with Pepitas

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups Nutri-Blend flour (same as white whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 large egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp pepitas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray mini muffin tins with some oil.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, pumpkin spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.  Set aside.
In a large bowl beat together egg whites, pumpkin puree and vanilla at medium speed until thick.
Add flour mixture and mix at low speed until wet and dry ingredients are just combined.
Scoop out batter into mini muffin tins using an ice cream scoop.  Sprinkle pepitas on tops of muffins and bake on the centre rack for 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Remove muffins and place on cooking rack.

A breakfast time saver!

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding that I don’t have enough hours in the day to get things done. It seems like I blink my eyes and three hours have gone by!  There is so much to get done: I have a stack of books to get through, some unit plan designing to complete, prayers to read, and online classes to attend. Not to mention the daily household chores that must get done after work and daily trips to the gym.

 I know if I manage my time a bit better ( I blame it on no longer having a steady work routine!!), I would be able to complete many of these tasks.  From the minute that I wake up to the time I go to bed, I have to make sure I am not wasting any time.  I’m hoping to start off with a simple breakfast routine on days that I know I will be extremely busy.  I whipped up a really simple breakfast parfait this morning to kick start my day.  Since there is a lot of protein in the Greek yogurt, I felt full and satisfied. If you think this isn’t enough for you eat a boiled egg on the side.

Breakfast Parfait

2 scoops PC 0% Honey Greek Yogurt
1 large stem of Seedless Organic Coronation Grapes
3 tbsp PC Blue Menu Raisin & Almond Granola

Place a scoop of yogurt in the bottom of a wide-rimmed glass.  Layer on some grapes and 1 tbsp of granola. Create a second layer of yogurt, grapes and granola.

Ramadan # 7 Lemony Fruit Salad Ice Pops

Today marks the last Friday and the 27th night of Ramadan. I feel like I’m about to say good by to a close friend who is leaving in a few days time and will not return for another year. And who knows what will happen in a year’s time…who will be here and who will have departed. :o(  Let’s all try to make the best of the time we have left with this blessed month.

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The summer is winding down and school will be beginning (or has already started in some places) very shortly. It would be around this time that I, along with my teacher friends, would be opening up boxes and setting up our classrooms for another school year. This would also be the time for last minute weekend getaways, parties, trips to the CNE and of course eating lots of ice cream and popsicles!

I have been noticing that some food trends from the 80s and 90s are making a come back, one of them being making homemade popsicles with plastic molds.  I remember when we were selling my parents’ home, my mom and I had come across some plastic popsicle molds in one of the boxes and we decided to donate them- now I wish I had kept them because it would have saved me from spending $15 bucks on new molds. Oh well….

This recipe (from the Everyday Food Special Issue) I’m going to share with you is full of sweet and delicious seasonal fruit and tangy lemonade. I cut the recipe in half from 8 popsicles to 4.

Lemony Fruit Salad Ice Pops

1 ripe peach, washed and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 golden kiwi, washed, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1/4 cup of blueberries, washed
1 frozen lemonade concentrate (the recipe used apple juice)

Follow the instructions on the frozen lemonade concentrate to make lemonade.  Arrange some fruit into 4 3-ounce ice-pop molds, making sure that the pieces fit snugly.  Pour enough lemonade into the molds to just cover the fruit.  Insert the ice-pop sticks and freeze for at least 6 hours.  To release the pops, run hot water over the frozen molds until it releases.

Ramadan # 4 Green and Gold Kiwifruit Salsa

O Allah, I seek your forgiveness for every sin that my soul made seem to me trivial and small, and continued to make seem insignificant, until it finally entangled me in it.

While entering the grocery store last week, I came across a stand displaying gold kiwifruit.  What attracted me to the stand wasn’t the actual fruit, but the freebies sticking out of a pocket below! Inside the pocket were these plastic wrapped green spoons/knives with the words “Cut and scoop” on them.  After closer examination, I discovered that the green spoons/knives were for the kiwifruit. Normally I use a regular knife to peel my kiwifruit and eat it. But this spoon/knife was taking me in another direction.  The knife side is used to cut the kiwifruit in half and the spoon side is used to spoon out the kiwifruit so that you are left with a kiwi skin cup. Pretty neat eh?

Anyhow, I stuck a couple of those spoon-knife packets into my purse and continued to explore the stand.  I pulled off a recipe card (from Zespri Kiwifruit) for green and gold kiwifruit salsa. I was hesitant in trying the recipe out because I had never before tried gold kiwifruit. After a few minutes of deliberation, I decided to go ahead and try it out.  I picked up all of the necessary ingredients, did the rest of my shopping and came home.  

I didn’t make the salsa right away because the kiwis weren’t that ripe. It actually worked out for me because I had to make an unexpected trip back home, so the kiwis had a few days to ripen on my kitchen counter.  

Some info on kiwifruit (came off the back of the recipe card): –

-Kiwifruit are ripe when they give in to slight pressure.
-Gold kiwifruit will last 3-7 days at room temperature and 12-14 days in the fridge.
-Green kiwifruit will last 3-7 days at room temperature and 24-28 days in the fridge.
-2 kiwifruit have less than 100 calories, more than 230% of your daily Vitamin C and 16% of your daily fiber.
-Kiwifruit also have calcium, iron, Vitamin E, zinc, folate, antioxidants, magnesium, and potassium.

Yesterday afternoon I made the salsa (with some minor alterations to the original recipe) and after R and I broke our fasts, we tried it with corn chips and I have to tell you it ROCKS!!!! Slightly sweet yet tart and oh so yummy!  

Some notes:  I used the spoon and knife utensil to create kiwi cups and it isn’t as easy as it looks.  After I made a few cups, I went back to using my knife. I think I would only use the spoon and knife utensil if I wanted to serve the salsa in the cups.

Green and Gold Kiwifruit Salsa

3 Gold kiwifruit (Original recipe said 4)

3 Green kiwifruit (Original recipe said 4)

1/2 large red onion, peeled and finely diced (Original recipe said 1 cup of diced red onion. I cut up the halves and put them into a food processor to save myself time and tears)

2 tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander, washed and chopped

1 tbsp fresh mint, washed and julienned

juice of 3 small key limes (Original recipe said 1 tbsp fresh lime juice)

1 tbsp ground cumin

Slice kiwifruit into halves and peel or spoon out the fruit onto a cutting board. Dice kiwifruit into small cubes.

Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix gently. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving so the flavours can blend together.  Serve with chips or as a side to chicken or fish (or in fish tacos!).

Blueberry Explosion Muffins

I have come to the conclusion, and have had it verified by several people, that teachers are pack rats.  We find things that could spark interest in the classroom and have the potential to help us create exciting and invigorating lessons. So what do we do with them? We keep them, tuck them away into a bin or box and have them collect dust until that eventful day, which sometimes never arrives.  And if by chance we open that box and find those precious things so many months (or years) later we don’t have it in us to toss them into the garbage because we end up suffering a “What if I need it later..” moment. This leads us to dusting the items off and making a mental note of their presence, closing up the bin and then repeating the cycle again and again and again. 

Well I’ve decided to take the plunge! I have slowly, but steadily been looking at my teaching resources and purging myself (and my apartment) of outdated and no longer “cool and interesting” stuff. At the same time, I have been transferring paper copies of units and resources that are worthwhile to keep to digital copies. I am literally spending hours at my desk going through the painful transfer process.  I am only scanning about 10% of my resources because I want to be able to manipulate documents at a later date.  I am HOPING that by the end of it, I will have 2-3 jump drives with CD backups of my documents and just a few bins of books. 

To help me keep my energies up, I decided to bake some mouth watering blueberry muffins.  I LOVE how these turned out. The  blueberries stain your fingertips as you unwrap the muffin and then burst in your mouth to release their sweet and tart juices.

The original recipe on Gina’s Skinny Recipes calls for the use of whole wheat pastry flour, but also gives you the options of using a blend of whole wheat flour and white flour.  I just used Robin Hood’s Nutri-Blend flour, unsifted. In the US, the Nutri-Blend equivalent would be white whole wheat flour.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of blueberries. Now this works fine in regular muffin tins, but I would cut it down to 1 1/4 cups if I was making these in mini muffin tins.

Blueberry Explosion Muffins

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce

2 cups of Robin Hood’s Nutri-Blend flour

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  The original recipe calls for 325 degrees, but over the years I have found that my oven works best at 350 degrees. 

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the beaten egg, melted butter, vanilla, and applesauce.  Add to the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is just blended. Gently fold in the blueberries with the spoon.

Using two spoons, divide the batter in paper-lined muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out crumb-free.  Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and allow the muffins to cool for at least 10 minutes.