Chobani Bookclub

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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A few weeks ago I got a Happy New Year email from Emily at Chobani.  She was wondering if I wanted to bring some yogurt for my friends at school to try.  I had to email her back and tell her that I had no friends at school.  No really it’s true, it’s a combination between my school and classes being too large, me being a mature student, and I haven’t met any other students in my major.  However I did think my book club friends would appreciate the snack.

I baked up some muffins with pomegranate yogurt.

The recipe is from the Chobani Kitchen site, I just baked the muffins for 19 minutes instead of the time for the bread.

Last night = more baking.

I made pancakes for dinner.

Gotta love pancakes for dinner!

In between flipping pancakes I made the most delicious zucchini muffins.

Zucchini Muffin Recipe

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 egg (or one flax egg)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 medium size zucchini (shredded)
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1/4 cup yogurt
  • 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Mix the dry ingredients and wet separately, then combine.  Bake at 350 for 17 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins.

Posted in Book Club, Healthy Eating | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Ravioli Held Hostage

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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Uh oh.  I’ve left my camera at Claire and Ronaldo’s house.  We were there for our annual Christmas dinner, which always takes place a few weeks after Christmas.  Ronaldo made some delicious ravioli but my photo is being held hostage at their house.

It was beet ravioli and looked something like this, only square.

(source)

Claire made rapini (which I don’t think I’ve ever had before) and orange and fennel salad.  I was so very full afterwards.  But there was still a teensy bit of room for cupcakes which I brought from the Cupcake Shoppe at Yonge and Eglinton.

Claire always thinks of the MOST thoughtful gifts for everyone.  Brad got a BB Gun to bring to the cottage.  I got a thingy to mount my iPhone on my bike so that I can track my time and mileage when I’m training for my Ride for Heart (in the spring, no outdoor biking now).

Speaking of training.  Yesterday I ventured over to the gym alone for my weekly training ride.  Poor Brad is still too sick, he had to have an hour nap before heading to our dinner last night.  I biked for 90 minutes and did a total of 29 km.  Surprisingly, it didn’t kill me.  Although I’m counting on my legs being sore tomorrow.  I always get sore two days after the gym, do you?

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Ginger Beer

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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Geez it’s been a jam packed week of a giveaway, a protest, and a book review.  Are you ready to get back to your regularly scheduled blogging?  (Read: do you want another oatmeal picture? Just kidding!)

First thing, let me announce my Make Death Wait giveaway winner:

Natalie from This / That by Nat

Yay!  Natalie email me your mailing address to morgan.shuker AT gmail.com

So what did I regularly schedule yesterday?  I started my morning with a workout.  Forgot my lock.  OY!!!!!  Does anyone else ever do that?  Remember a few weeks ago when I forgot my shoes?  Packing for the gym during the winter has proven to be tricky for me.

My workout was 20 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the rowing machine, and then weight training for my shoulders, arms and chest.

Someone in this house skipped his workout last night.  Surprising, because he almost never skips a workout (whereas I can be easily distracted).  Brad is soooooo sick.  The poor dude.  It seems to be just a cold, not a flu.  He’s a mess from the neck up.  I must have had women’s intuition yesterday because before I even knew he was sick I had made up a batch of lentil stew.  Okay, that’s not true it was just on the meal plan for yesterday. :P

Gosh I love lentil stew.  So easy to make.  So delicious.  So healthy!

When I got home last night I ran to the store to get him some ginger beer.  Actually neither of us has had ginger beer it’s just Schweppes ginger ale.  It sounds cool though when you say “ginger beer”.  We rarely drink pop but we love ginger ale, and it’s perfect for a scratchy throat.

Do you like ginger ale when you have a scratchy throat?  Or how about the flu?  Has anyone actually had ginger beer?

Posted in Fitness, Healthy Eating | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Book Review: The Underside Of Joy

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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Good morning friends!  It’s time for another Blogher Book Club Review.

“I laughed, I cried, it was better than cats”

Seriously though.  The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson was one of the best books I’ve read.  You know the –  you can’t put it down, stay up until 3am reading and your boyfriend / husband keeps rolling around in his sleep and squinting, trying to figure out why the hell the light is on kind of books.  Yes my friends THAT good.

photo from sereprincehalverson.com

It’s a story of loss, I’ll let you on to that.  I thought it was going to be incredibly depressing.  But the only thing it was, was real.  The events that happened (and those were depressing), the circumstances that Elle Beene (the main character) found herself in where not the main event.  The story existed on all the days in between those events.

The writing was absolutely spot on.  I felt all of the emotions that Ella was feeling.  Literally, I laughed and I cried.  Especially at the end, oh I cried at lot … yes it was 3am.  The story is written in first person.  It feels like Ella is your best friend and she’s pouring her heart out to you the entire book.  It’s a roller coaster ride.  It’s like you can’t decide whether to comfort her, give her advice, slap her silly, or something else entirely.  But you know one thing, you don’t want to be in her shoes.

Gosh I know I’m being so vague but that’s because I don’t want to give any of the story away.  I’m the kind of person that doesn’t even read the blurb on the inside cover because I don’t want any information.  I’ll leave you with a quote from the book:

“I had happened upon this town, a man, and his children, this house, these trees.  I’d stumbled upon someone’s lost treasure.  No, abandoned treasure, left behind.  I hadn’t stolen it, but I didn’t want to return it either.”

You can check out the Blogher forum for some great discussions about the book.  This weeks is: Are you prepared for a personal emergency?

*This is a paid review from Blogher, however all opinions are my own.

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Stop Censorship

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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Today I have decided to join the sites that are BLACKING OUT in protest of the current US bills that are passing through Congress.

I agree the internet has problems. I know it can be a kind of wild west. But this proposed censorship is not the answer.

See this video for more information

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Lazy Night Of Joy

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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Wait just a second missy (or mister).  Have you entered my:

Make Death Wait Giveaway

You get a pedometer AND nutrition counselling plus some other giveaways.  Go ahead and enter.  I’ll wait.

You’re back?  Great!

I wasn’t feeling so good yesterday (“girl” sickness) but alas Mr Leitch was waiting for me at the gym after work.  (Actually he was waiting for me at the post office because he had to mail a design entry and he forgot to bring his wallet to work.)  Even though I was feeling super crappy I got on the bike and pumped out 45 minutes on a higher resistance than normal.  That’s gotta count for something :)

Then on the way home from the gym I concocted a plan to lay on the couch all night.  It started with picking up a pizza on the way home.  Brad agreed (obviously – it’s PIZZA!)

The pizza is un-photographed because there was no time.  If anything gets in my way on the the journey to pizza I will just eat that as well, including Brad’s fingers if he tries to steal my slices.  The rest of the night was spent flicking between Alcatraz and The Bachelor.

But I did photograph ONE thing.  It’s oatmeal.  Yeah again.  I can’t stop, it’s SO COLD lately.  Except today.  It’s raining.  I’ll take the day off.

I ate it for lunch while working on my law homework.  (Totally channeling my inner Elle Woods ;) )

If you’re spending a lazy night on the couch what take-out dinner do you have?  Anyone watch Alcatraz or The Bachelor last night?  Thoughts?  Will you unsubscribe if I post another oatmeal photo?

Posted in Healthy Eating | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Make Death Wait

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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I’ve partnered with the Heart and Stroke Foundation this year by signing up for the Ride for Heart (and I still need lots of donations to hit my fundraising goal :) ).

Take a look at some of the statistics published on the Make Death Wait website:

Millions of Canadians are still at risk, and will be, for generations to come. More than 50,000 strokes, 70,000 heart attacks and up to 45,000 cardiac arrests occur every year

  • The incidence of stroke is expected to double in the next 10 years
  • Canadian children are the first generation poised for shorter lives than their parents
  • $20.9 billion is spent annually on heart disease and stroke

Their goal is to have Canadians pledge ONE  MILLION actions by the end of February (Heart month) to make death wait.  These can be actions to help you get moving, change your eating, whatever you can change or add to make your heart healthier.

Just training for this ride has already improved my health.  I’ve significantly increased my cardio workouts in the last month.  I’ve been on the stationary bike on Saturdays.  Yesterday I did my longest ride yet at 20km.  Plus I’ve pushed up my cardio on other workout days on the elliptical, the rowing machine, and more biking.

The key to my commitment over the last month has been having a partner.  Brad and I now coordinate our fitness schedule for the week.  We try to get to the gym together at least twice a week.  This makes me far more accountable if I know I’m meeting him to workout.

The team at the Heart and Stroke Foundation would like to invite you to make a change to help make death wait.  We’ve got a giveaway for you.

Prize pack includes:

Valued at over $150, the prize pack includes:

  • A live or virtual nutrition counseling session with a HSF registered dietitian,
  • heart-healthy cookbook,
  • pedometer,
  • measuring spoons,
  • water bottle, and
  • reusable HSF bag.

Contest open to Canadians.  How to enter:

  • leave a comment here telling me what healthy action you’re taking this year

Contest open until 11:59 pm EST January 17th.

Also (and not required) we would love you to head on over to the website and pledge your action as well!

What can you do to MAKE DEATH WAIT? (note: if you’re commenting and NOT entering the contest can you please note that, thank you!!!)

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Guess Who’s Back

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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Peanut butter cup oatmeal is back y’all.  When I made this for breakfast earlier this week Brad had felt especially jealous.  I promised I would make him some soon.  It’s so stinkin cold here lately that oatmeal and coffee was the only way to go this morning.

We watched the documentary Page One about the New York Times while we chowed down.  It was incredibly interesting.

And good news!  Yesterday we had our longest bike workout yet.  We did 20 km.  I know that’s still a far cry from 75km but we’re chipping away at our Ride for Heart training.

Today we’ve got to get ON our chores.  We were out of town last weekend and this entire week has created the messiest house on earth.

Posted in Fun Times, Healthy Eating | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Ford Focus Review

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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For a week my photos have been kept hostage by someone known as the Apple repair man.  But fear not, with my laptop back in my possession I can now present my Ford Focus Review.

Over the Christmas break when Brad and I had to visit FOUR families for Christmas, Ford Canada was kind enough to loan us the 2012 Focus SEL Hatchback for review.  And we put a lot of kilometres on this baby in the week we had it.  Plus we were lucky (if you can call it lucky) to be able to test it out in a bunch of different weather conditions.

Artsy blogger shot …

Here’s a pros and cons list:

Thumbs UP:

  • Colour.  Ohhhh nelly this was a shiny car.  It was a very unique red, almost a poppy red.  When we were driving we saw a blue one which was literally the best colour of blue we’ve ever seen on a car.

  • Smooth ride.  The smoothest, honestly.  I rented a tonne of cars over the summer due to travelling with my job and this takes the cake for a smooth ride.
  • SYNC.  The feature that hooks your cell phone up to the car.  It was easy to do and made our long drives to see family easier since we could call them in the car or catch up with friends while we were out of town.

  • Dual temperature control.  This is a little thing that was probably my favourite part of the car.  Brad is always too warm and I am always too cold so we were each able to adjust the heat to where we wanted.  Honestly this was a little feature that made our trips WAY more comfortable.
  • Handles well in poor weather.  I got to drive it in freezing rain and Brad got to drive it in what may have been the only snow fall so far this winter.  Thankfully it handled perfectly well in both conditions during city driving and highway driving.
  • Storage.  Now remember it was a hatchback so I can only compare the storage area to other hatchbacks, I mean it’s not a mini van.  But we did get quite a bit of stuff in there.  We had lots of gifts plus our luggage.  And when we got back into town we went on a major grocery shopping trip.  That’s $200 worth of groceries.

Thumbs DOWN:

  • The windshield wipers.  First of all if you get this car you’ll want to replace them right away, the factory wipers are just not up to snuff.  Second, the wipers have a rain-sensing technology that’s supposed to help control the speed of the wipers.  This was not working well for us.  The sensor just didn’t seem to be able to comprehend the snow.  It was more of a hindrance than a help which is not what you want while driving on the highway during a snow fall.
  • Volume control.  This is nit-picky to be honest, but everyone cares about the audio stuff right?  There are too few volumes and the difference between, for example, 5 on the dial and 6 on the dial is too big.  I will say though – the sound quality is great.

Thanks again Ford Canada!

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Six Kittens?

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Morgan @ Life After Bagels
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I had a super awesome workout yesterday.  I killed myself.  And then I went out to the streetcar stop and it had been in an accident so I had to walk 25 minutes home.  My legs were total jello when I got home.

I have to share my cardio with you yesterday.  This is for anyone who gets bored easily with cardio.

  • 10 minutes on the elliptical
  • 10 minutes on the treadmill
  • 10 minutes on the rowing machine

SWEATY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I went on to do my weights and some ab work.

Last night I made a new recipe from my Williams Sonoma Vegetarian recipe book.

Brad says I can go ahead and put this in my “top meals list”.  Ah yes because I have one.  He liked it, a lot.  I thought it was pretty good too.

Here’s the thing – the recipe says “serves 6″.

Here’s one quarter of the recipe.

I went back for another quarter.  Between the two of us we ate the whole thing.  Yes we had both had pretty hard workouts but “serves 6″ and “serves 2″ are very different.

Serves 6 what?  6 kittens?  6 inchworms?

OY!

I digress.

Here’s what was in the recipe:

  • brown rice
  • green onions
  • white mushrooms
  • carrot
  • zucchini
  • feta cheese
  • egg
  • toasted walnuts and pumpkin seeds (it called for pine nuts but I had the end of a bag each of walnuts and pumpkin seeds)

My mind is bubbling with other rice loaf ideas.

Do you find the serving suggestion in cook books is accurate?

Posted in Fitness, Healthy Eating | Tagged , , | 20 Comments