Camping in Killbear

A couple of weekends ago we packed up the kids and headed north to Killbear Provincial Park.  We have camped a lot over the years, but have never been to Killbear, opting for Killarney instead.  This year, however, I am determined to see new things while travelling.  So all new camping locations of us this year!

Now back to Killbear - this park is huge and very popular.  Killbear is located on Georgian Bay, and is about 45 minutes outside of Parry Sound.  While not quite as rugged as Killarney, it has several beautiful sand beaches and at least two great hiking trails - that I can speak for.  

We booked a site that backed onto the beach.  It was a rock beach, but kept the girls occupied for hours.

We took in a beautiful sunset....

So aside from hiking, exploring and swimming while camping the next big thing to consider is FOOD.  I think its the fresh air combined with extra effort to do simple things - like getting water or trips to the bathroom that make everyone much more hungry than normal.

One of the meals we have on almost every camping trip is what we refer to as 'The Campfire Meal'.  This involves cooking our entire meal in the coals of our camp fire. (I know many people who camp cook all of their meals over the campfire, but we typically use a camp stove or mini bar-b-que.)

This meal was invented during a trip to Killarney when we were camping during a very bug infested summer... I don't know how it happened but we experienced - mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies in AUGUST!!!  As an effort to ward off the bugs, my husband built a campfire very early in the afternoon.  Not wanted to see the massive coal bed go to waste, I decided to cook our dinner in the coals - resulting in one of the best dinners ever!

We always cook potatoes for this meal.  I chop the potatoes into cubes, add onions and whatever other vegetables I have on hand,  season with salt and pepper, toss in oil.  Double wrap in tin foil and place in coals.  I flip and rotate the package frequently to ensure even cooking.

For vegetables - my daughter picked corn for this meal.  I coated each cob in butter, sprinkled with a bit of salt and again double wrapped with tin foil.  The corn was added to the coals and flipped and rotated as well. 

For the 'meat' - I had the girls help me roast pre-cooked sausage over the fire and I had a veggie sausage.

I've cooked all kinds of vegetables this way - carrots, zucchini, mushrooms - you name it. The best vegetable I cooked was during  an autumn camping trip where I roasted a turban squash - amazing.

We're planning a larger car camping trip later this summer.  I'll post more action shots of the process then.  I'm also planning an interior camping trip at the end of the month and still debating about taking the girls or not.  Either way I'll post about the trip and itinerary and food!

 

Canada Day in Elora

Canada Day or as some people in this village refer to it - Dominion Day was filled with tons of activities.  Our day began by getting decked out in festive gear....

Then we headed downtown to the town hall for pancakes.  Every year the fire department gets up very early - pre 5am to begin getting ready to flip pancakes.

Here's an action shot...

Posed shot....

And the results of their efforts. 

All procedes go to Muscular Dystrophy and these guys give up a lot of their long weekend to put on this event.. so thank you Elora Fire Department!

We also had some excitement at the pancake breakfast... one of the firefighters proposed to his girlfriend! I'll be posting the video soon!

In addition to the breakfast, there is also a race....

 There is a 5k and 10k race as well as kids races.  I volunteered at the water station for the 5k and 10k race.  This was so much easier than racing : )  Because of the heat - we ran out of cups and then water.  But all of the racers were super appreciative!

Then my little racer ran!

In addition to the pancake breakfast and race there is also a soap box derby, parade and duck race every year making for a fun filled day.

After my family participated in the morning and early afternoon events, we headed home for a bit of a break from the sun.  I love this glorious hot sunny weather, but rest and hydration are also important.  We headed out later in the afternoon for a barbeque at with the running group (sorry no photos) : (

After a jam packed day, we decided to head home early and not stay out for fireworks.  The girls and I did drift off to sleep listening to the cracks and pops. The perfect way to end a perfect day.

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

6025136

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.

Powered by Recipage

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

6023499

 
  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.

Powered by Recipage