Long time no posts

I really fell off the blogging wagon for a while.  I have written tons of posts in my head while I'm out and about doing things, but none of them were ever written.  Finally today as I was running - on a run I forced myself to go on that I thought I should do the same thing with writing.

I have honestly really been busy - you know the expression 'Be careful what you wish for'... well it sort of happened.  I have been teaching - a lot.  During the month of May I taught 20 classes - I know I whined about it before.  And that intensity has kept up - which is wonderful!

But combine being a mom and the end of the school year with a full time job, teaching 5-6 hours per week and you end up with an absentee blogger..  Blogging isn't the only thing that is missing from my life.  I have also had to cut back on my running which I have really missed.

I have decided to take on a few new challenges

• I'm going to be teaching classes at my Yoga studio
• I've signed on 5 semi-private clients to teach 3 times a week for 6 weeks
• I've enrolled in a distance ed course to become a Certified Holistic Nutritionist
• I'm teaching a yogilates class at my work gym for the next 6 weeks and
• I'm teaching spin once a week thorough the summer

So the next 6 weeks are going to be busy for me... but its all a good kind of busy.  I'm really excited for all of these classes and experience.  Don't worry - there will be a fair share of fun mixed in with everything too!


So - I am going to do my very best to post on a regular basis.  There are so many wonderful things going on around here, great workouts, amazing pictures and of course delicious recipes that I really need to share.  Here are just a few things....

 Food and flowers... things don't get much better than this!

Peanut Butter Protein Bars

I'll quit whining about how busy I've been lately... and share with you one of my best recipes that I've come up with lately.  Like I mentioned a while ago - I was looking for something to give me a quick boost between work and teaching classes.  

Typically if I want a sugar boost before a tough workout that won't take a long time to digest, I'll have a couple of dates.  But I was looking for something just as fast, but with a bit more substance.  Here is the resulting recipe. I love these, but do not kid yourself, just because they are made of 'super foods', they are not low calorie.


 

Peanut Butter Protein Bars

by Denise Boyd Dunlop

Prep Time: 5 minutes + 30 minutes freezin

Keywords: dessert breakfast appetizer vegan

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Ingredients (12 bars)

• 1 cup of natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup vegan vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 cup cocao nibs
• 1/2 chia seeds
• 1/2 cup goji berries
• 1/2 cup flax seed

Instructions

Heat peanut butter and maple syrup in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in protein powder 1/4 cup at a time mixing evenly. Mixture will be quite thick. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Spread in an even layer on a parchment line 9x13in cake pan. Cut into squares. Freeze until bars are set. Separate into individual bars and store in freezer until ready to eat. Allow to thaw slightly before eating.

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Back after an unitended break

No - I didn't have a computer melt down... just an exceptionally busy month.  I knew before the month of May began that I would be busy... I just didn't think I would have to miss out on things I love. 

In the first three weeks of May in addition to my regular job which has felt really busy lately I also taught 14 classes, organized a running race, celebrated my daughter's birthday and completely reorganized my house. 

This is the long weekend so I decided to get away with the girls and hang out and have some fun!!!  We packed the kids up and went here....

We are staying at the Hampton which is an ok hotel, but we have a waterpark pass and spent the afternoon in the waterpark downtown.  The girls are exhausted... which is perfect for all of us to hopefully sleep in.  We'll hit it tomorrow before heading home.

Hopefully when I get back to my super clean house... I'll catch up on all my great posting ideas!

Tommy Europe Boot Camp in Toronto

Yesterday I headed into the city with Gina and Katherine to the Tommy Europe Boot Camp.  The boot camp was taking place at the Optimize Health Expo and the Toronto Marathon race kit pick up.  You'd think with all of that going on the expo would be really busy, but it wasn't.  This was really nice because we had time to stroll through and enjoy a lot of the booths.

I tried tons of free samples - tofu, energy bars, raw chocolate, coconut butter.  I have to say this was one of the best expos I've been to.

If you've ever watched the Slice network in Canada, you know who Tommy Europe is.  Tommy has two shows Bulging Brides and the Last Ten Pounds.  He whips women into shape with tough workouts, yelling at them in a mega phone.  The women usually swear at him and tell him they hate him.  But in the end after they've lost the weight they are all mushy gushy and love him.

Gina had been to one of Tommy's boot camps before and loved it, so she convinced Katherine and I to sign up for it.  We all started out in this rather smallish room for the number of people working out.  Tommy gave a little pep talk and lead us out to the public corridor - that was where we were working out.

At first I wasn't thrilled about working out in such a public place.  I know I'm a runner and usually run outside, but here people could stop and watch.  I couldn't run away.  It felt a little exhibitionist.  But Tommy and his crew had a way of pumping up everybody.  There was a DJ.  Tommy had his megaphone.  And once the workout began I really didn't care... I was way to busy sweating.

This was an awesome workout - not only was Tommy engaging and enthusiastic.  But he had eight other trainers working around the room correcting form, encouraging and demoing the exercises.  Tommy also hopped off the stage and worked with people one on one.

 I had such a great time with my girls and got a major sweat on.  I realized I'm a total push up wimp and am going to try to do push ups in more of my workouts.  But this boot camp was super fun - so much so that I bought the t-shirt!

We also got a ton of free energy bars and a magazine... I don`t know about you - but I love free stuff!

Dill Pickle Kale Chips

A few weeks ago on one of my W.I.A.W. posts I showed a picture of kale chips and promised to post the recipe soon.... well here it is.

A bit of history on this recipe or rather the necessity of it.  I've decided to 'share' some of the household responsibilities I used to do on a regular basis as I've been busy with my teaching lately and I'm finally understanding that my husband is perfectly capable of buying groceries... even with the kids in tow.  

So... when I asked him to pick up some kale it was 3 for $5... so he bought 3 bunches.  Never having cooked or used kale before I can understand if he thought it was like spinach.  But nonetheless... we had some kale on our hands!  I needed recipes and pronto!  My favourite aside from smoothies - kale chips! 

There are tons of recipes out there for kale chips.  I love kale chips and can eat a ton at one sitting.  My husband - does not like kale in chip form or otherwise.... except in a smoothie. But I thought... what if I recreate one of his favourite potato chip flavour... maybe...  bring on the dill pickle kale chips.  Did he like these?  Not as much as chips... but I think they are brilliant!





 

Dill Pickle Kale Chips

by Denise Boyd Dunlop

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10-15 minutes

Keywords: bake appetizer snack vegan

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  Ingredients (serves 6)

• 1 bunch kale
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon liquid from dill pickles
• 1 small dill pickle finely minced

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325. Cut tough stem from kale and chop into bite sized pieces. Wash kale in a salad spinner. Mix oil, pickle juice and minced pickle together. Toss with kale.

Spread kale evenly in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet, using two if necessary. Cook in oven stirring and turning every 5 minutes to ensure even cooking. The edges of the kale will be slightly browned when finished and the kale will be crunchy. Cooking time is between 10 to 15 minutes.

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Racing in NYC - Run for the Parks

Right now I'm settled into my comfy clothes, suitcases unpacked and clothes in the drier.  I'm home!  But this morning I was up bright and early ready to race...

If you've followed my blog you'll know that I have a habit of sometimes being late for races.  That happened today as well.  I wasn't alone though.  There were several people on the same train I was on this morning headed to the race.  We all tried our best to slip into our corrals. 

But this race was big - maybe not by New York standards - but by mine it was huge.  There were 5,000 people signed up for this race.  Here's a picture of the start. 

It took me 10 minutes to get to the start line. I knew going into this race that it was going to be busy, so I settled in and enjoyed the run.  I didn't try to set a p.b. I took some race shots.

The race never thinned out - here is a shot of the 3 mile marker. 

The finish line.

After the race, I was stopped by a woman who had ran Around the Bay this year.  She recognized my shirt and stopped to tell me how much she enjoyed the race.  She had friends from Guelph!  Let's hear it.... "Its a Small World After all".

Here is me by the Columbus Circle post race.

The race t-shirt.

This race was so much fun, I'm so glad I ran it.  I'm also happy that I ran in Central Park - it was beautiful and today was the perfect racing temperature. 

All in all this was the best birthday ever!  I couldn't have asked for a better weekend, in a better location or better weather. 

Saturday in New York

We decided to sleep in Saturday - something I feel like I haven't done in ages.  I woke up around 9 am - can you believe that - I'm in the city that never sleeps and I sleep in.  Oh well, I still managed to squeeze a ton of fun into a day.

We ended up hitting the subway by 10, grabbing coffee, apples and energy bars to tide us over until lunch.  We were heading to pick up my race kit for this race.  Dan found a 4 mile race in Central Park on Sunday so I signed up!  My dreams of Central Park were going to happen!

After I grabbed my kit, we cut through Central Park.  The day was absolutely gorgeous - with temperatures of 73.  We were thrilled because all week the forecast was predicting cool and heavy rain.  As you can see... didn't happen!

We had lunch at Jose's - I ordered a veggie burger and a salad.  It was pretty good, but I've had better veggie burgers.  The service was exceptional though - my water was constantly filled.

After lunch we headed to Loehmann's and Century 21 on the Lower West Side for a bit more shopping.  I grabbed a macchiato from Starbucks which was a perfect pick me up. 

After dropping our bags in the hotel, we headed back out and took the subway to Brooklyn and walked back on the promenade on the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was packed with people biking, walking and running but the view was amazing.

We had a quick change in the hotel room and headed out for dinner.  Saturday night's dinner was at Pure Food & Wine - New York's Number 2 rated vegan restaurant.  We ate on the Patio - it was beautiful!  We ordered the Chef's tasting menu.  This was five courses of food prepared at the chef's discretion.  It was the best way to experience the menu. 

It was too dark to get any really good photos, but I enjoyed almost everything.  We started with white asparagus in a cream sauce, both Dan and I enjoyed this.  The next course was salad. I had a salad with a pecan brittle and maple dressing which was fresh and delicious.  The next course was an asparagus soup, because it is raw it was served at a temperature colder than I am used to eating soup at.  I didn't like this as much.  This course was followed by a Philly roll - I was actually served cauliflower couscous, but Dan and I swapped.

I expected dessert after this, but we were served another entree.  I had a sunchoke timball which was also really good.  Dan had pear ravioli - which he enjoyed, but I was thankful I wasn't served.  Then came dessert - I had apple crisp with maple ice cream and Dan was served a strawberry tart with basil ice cream.  We swapped desserts halfway though - I loved the ice cream.

Although this sounds like a ton of food, the portions were perfect.  I was feeling pretty full - but not turkey dinner stuffed.  The food was also presented in a beautiful manner and the staff explained each course. This was a fantastic way to sample the menu. Dan did a lot of research to find vegan restaurants.  We ate at the number 1 rated vegan restaurant - Candle 79 and the number 2 vegan restaurant while we were here.  The food at Candle 79 was delicious as well, but the option to have the tasting menu and the atmosphere at Pure  made for a more enjoyable dining experience.

You would think that a day like that would be enough - but no - we're in NYC.  We had tickets to see Wayne Brady at the Gothem Comedy Club.  Dan and & I were seated with a bachelorette party - so it was a table full of fun!  The show was hilarious.  I've never been to a comedy club before but this was really funny.

After the show we called it in... but not before setting the alarm for 6:30.