an adventure in hummus making

As I mentioned in my last post I decided to try to make my own hummus. This was partly due to the fact that it's insanely overpriced, and also because I'm trying to choose cleaner foods with less processing.

I decided to use dry chick peas rather than canned (again to decrease preservatives) so it was difficult to find an exact recipe. Most recipes called for one can of chickpeas, or a specific amount of ounces. And being Canadian I was like 'ounces?!? what!??' so I ended up looking at a bunch of recipes and just kind of winging it. Will it taste good, will it be bad... who knows!!

For my recipe I used dry chick peas, tahini, juice from a lemon, fresh garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil and water.

Nuts to You Nut Butter - made in Canada! cost, aprox $6.50 for  500g

I started by soaking 1 cup of dry chick peas over night. I then cooked the chick peas on the stove, by boiling  chick peas in water, then letting them simmer for an hour, then letting them cool. Some recipes said that by removing the skins of the chickpeas will lead to a smoother end product. I thought this would decrease the amount of fiber and who really wants to peel chick peas?!

I then used a magic bullet blender to mash the chick peas. I had originally thought I'd be able to mash them with a fork... definitely not. It would have been really difficult and would have taken forever. Most recipes call for a food processor but some type of blender would definitely work!

After this was definitely a bit of a guessing game. In the end I ended up adding approx 1 cup of water, 2 tbsp of cumin, 1/8-1/4 cup of olive oil, the juice from one lemon, three cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of salt. I ended up putting it back in the magic bullet with the liquids added in order to get it as smooth as possible.

It tastes great but... different. I am just so used to the taste of canned chick peas that even the plain, cooked chick peas tasted pretty different to me. I will definitely make it again... especially since I have an entire bag of chick peas left haha. AND 1 cup of dried peas made about 3 cups of hummus! WAY cheaper than the store made version.  So cheaper and healthy gets two thumbs up from me.

Have you ever tried to make anything from scratch that you usually purchase?

hello again!

I have not disappeared! I promise! I have still been here, thinking about updating. MEANING to update, but then it just didn't happen. Until now!

I have been maintaining my gym routine; however have become more relaxed than I have been in the past. I've been attending Zumba, Body Combat and Body Pump on a regular basis. AND I even went running this week... MIRACLE! It has been quite awhile. I was definitely sore the next day but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, which I was very thankful about. I went at the KC Irving Center in Bathurst, which I have posted about previously. And for extra motivation it was a gorgeous day here in Halifax. Hoping that this continues so I can start to feel comfortable running outside again.

I wanted to update all of you with some food I've been eating lately. I recently did some experimenting with a sweet potato burrito:

I boiled and mashed a large sweet potato, adding to it both cumin and cinnamon. I put it in a tortilla wrap, topped with black beans, salsa and spinach. And it was FANTASTIC!! It was super filling and delicious. You definitely need salsa with this wrap, as the beans and sweet potato can be a little dry together. Sassy salsa is a locally made salsa that I discovered at the local market, and I am in love. Going to pick up more this weekend. It has a spicy sweet flavor that it just perfect.


I will be updating more soon with more recipes, food I've been eating, and upcoming races! And stay tuned, I'm going to try to make my own hummus this weekend. Should be exciting!

fashion before function

Lately I've been thinking of updating some of my workout gear. Well, maybe adding to my ever growing collection. I love how some of the major exercise companies have started incorporating lots of patterns and bright colors into their workout gear. The only downside is that a lot of it is totally out of my post-graduating budget. $50 for a gym shirt?! Yeah right.

I have also wanted to incorporate some fashion (both gym related and every day) into my blog. So here it goes. My first fashion-gym fusion post!


This outfit would be great for hanging out then heading to the gym. OR wearing it to the gym then heading downtown (if you're one of those lucky people who hardly sweats).

Sources: tank, leggings, cardigan, sneakers

I love the pop of color in the sneakers. Would you wear it? Do you think about what you wear to exercise, or just put on an old t-shirt and shorts? Lemme know!

4 years and recovery

Yesterday was a great day. My boyfriend Jamie and I celebrated our four year anniversary! We are proud to say that we survived our long distance relationship and are very happy to be living together again!

The celebration was fairly low-key. He surprised me with a dozen roses and chocolates. It was warm out, so we did the 10 minute walk to Ace Burger. It was my first experience there and it was fantastic! They serve only local food.

I had the lamb burger on herb foccacia with goat cheese (top). Jamie had the deluxe burger with back bacon and cheese on a kaiser. On the side we both had seriously the best fries I have ever tasted. And of course they were loaded with salt! (the best). The restaurant was very quiet and laid back which I really appreciated. I'm not always in the mood for a loud, noisy place so a Tuesday night was the best time to visit.

After our fantastic meal we did a crossword together, cuddled and watched a movie and ate some chocolates. Definitely a fantastic way to celebrate our four years together.

Although the meal was amazing, I woke up today feeling a bit sluggish. So I thought I would document how I recovered after some overeating the night before. Now, don't get me wrong... I do NOT regret what I ate!!! Even writing this post is difficult because I want to re-eat that meal right now. That being said, I find overeating is a slippery slope. Once I begin to eat junk food, I tend to throw my week out the window and give in to all of my cravings.

So to counteract this trend, I started off my day by drinking lots of this:

Good ole H20 to try to negate the salt I had last night, and to keep me refreshed. For breakfast I ate oatmeal with a cut up apple on top and some peanut butter. Definitely my favorite breakfast of the moment.

For lunch I had tofu with veggies topped with Thai sweet chili sauce. Seriously the easiest meal ever:

In order to get my exercise in I went on a 10km run with my sister Nikki and brother in law Ray. It was tough. I haven't been running as much as I'd like and I definitely felt it today. It was wonderful to get outside though and spend time Nikki and Ray. I was cold the entire run! I thought I would maybe get away with not buying thermal running pants this winter but today changed my mind! Brrr!!

The upside was that I got to try out my new lulu lemon hat:

featuring post run sweat!

If you're interested in this hat you can find it here. I got this hat for Christmas and it's very soft and comfortable. However as you can see from the picture it doesn't cover my ears! So a little disappointed about that.

And finally for the end of my recovery day I had a delicious smoothie. I forgot to take a picture of it because I was hungry and it just looked so good! I used the same recipe as I did for this Breakfast Smoothie I posted awhile ago, so you can check out a picture on that post.

Overall I think it was a successful recovery to a Tuesday-night indulgence and I can continue my week on track!

gym time!

As I mentioned in my last post I signed up for the GoodLife gym. On Thursday and Friday it was difficult for me to find motivation. But thankfully the last few days I have found motivation with my sister, Nikki!

On Saturday we hit up the Women's only gym. It was quiet and perfect. Hardly anyone there which was surprising given the time of year but I guess not many people want to go to the gym Saturday afternoons!

I spent 20 minutes on the elliptical and then performed the following circuit:

I did each exercise for 30 seconds, took about a 1-2 minute break, and repeated for 3x total. I used a 20lb barbell for the squats and deadlifts, and 7.5lb dumbbells for the rest. I took it a little easy since I hadn't done any weights in about 3 weeks. It was unnecessary! I really should have worked harder (high weight, more time on each exercise) but as they say... shoulda coulda woulda. I finished my sets before Nikki was finished so I went on the treadmill for 10 minutes of running. And I have to say it was BRUTAL!! After running outside for the past 6 months I don't think I can go back to running on the treadmill. It was torture. I was literally watching the seconds go by. So boring!

Due to my displeasure of machine based cardio, Nikki and I hit up Zumba on Sunday and it was much more enjoyable! Zumba always brings a smile to my face and really lifts my spirits. The class we went to was really full, and I was happy to hear lots of WOOO's going on throughout the class.

Today we went to Body Pump. I had gone to this class when I was signed up at this gym prior to moving to Maine. I remember it being pretty intense and tonight was no different! There was a great energy in the class and I'm already feeling it a bit. I'm happy to get the initial class over with as I now have a better idea of what weights I can use for each exercise.  I'll definitely be going back.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be milder (as opposed to the -20C with the windchill today) so I'm hoping to get outside for a run. Well, as long as my muscles can handle it after tonight's workout! Please wish me luck in hopes that I never have to run on a treadmill ever again!!

happy new year!!

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season spent with family and friends. For New Years I went to a party at a friends place. It involved eating and dancing, which are two of my favorite things, so the night was definitely a success.

And today I signed up for the gym! It made me a little sad because every gym will now be compared to the UMaine Campus Recreation Center... and most gyms come up a little short. That being said, I have signed up at GoodLife Fitness for the year. There are a ton of these gyms in my area, which is great because I can usually find at least one fitness class occurring at a time that fits my (currently non-existent) schedule.  I'm happy that they offer Les Mills classes which include step, body pump, and something similar to kickboxing. The major flaw that I've noticed is that they don't offer a kettlebell class (well, they do, but you have to pay an extra $300 for 3 months... no thanks). I'll keep you updated on how I'm adjusting to the new gym.

With the new year comes the new years resolutions. I really haven't thought about it too much. Last year I believe mine was that I would continue to stay active throughout the year. I really think I achieved that goal. I'm wondering if I should set something more specific, or stay with something vague.

That being said, my sister Nikki wanted to set a specific goal for the month of January. I like the idea of something more short term, rather than thinking of the LOOONG year ahead. Her goal is to run 10km at least once a week and do these arm exercises 3x/week. My month long goal is to log my eating on loseit.com every day, run 10km at least once a week, and do the famous 8 minute ab video 3x a week.

What are your new years resolutions? Did you meet yours from last year?

holiday runs

So I went on a few runs while I was home over the holidays. It was wonderful to run with my family again, it's been awhile!

I did a 5km run at the KC Irving Centre in Bathurst. It's an indoor track that surrounds a hockey rink:

It's a great place to run. It cost $2 (or you can buy a pass), and since it's beside the rink it stays pretty cool around 14C. And if you're lucky there may be people playing hockey which provides some free entertainment! Another plus is that you go the opposite direction of the walkers, therefore you don't have to be continually passing people. I went to this track and had an awesome run! I ended up running 5km in about 29 minutes.

A few days later I went on an 8km run with my dad, sister Nikki and brother in law Ray. It was super warm out so we decided to run around town. We were faced with some melting snow which lead to some wet feet, but it was warm enough that we didn't mind. Afterwards we took some photos: