Surviving Social

Choosing a 30 day timeframe in which to tackle the Whole30 program proved to be difficult.  At every turn I found something on my calendar that put a wee hitch in how I was going to pull this off.  Being on a strict diet can really mess with social time!  I promptly decided there’s never a ‘good’ time to do these things and opted to just deal with the situations as they came.

Within the first week of my Whole30 I attended a volunteer event with my coworkers.  For the most part it was no big deal… I brought my own coffee with coconut milk, passed on the free cookies, and made sure I ate a good breakfast before I went.

The trouble came when the gang invited me to join them for lunch afterwards.  I initially said no thanks but to be honest, I really wanted to go!  This was my first event with these girls and part of the fun of these things is the social aspect.  So I changed my mind and tagged along to the local burger bistro and hoped for the best.

I found that I could order a plain burger on a bed of lettuce, asked them to cook mine in a dry pan because they used canola oil (which is not W30 compliant) and ordered a side salad with lemon wedges.  Sure, it was about the most boring meal on the planet, but I was there for company and it was really fun.  I’m glad I went and proud of myself for sticking to the W30 rules!

That same weekend Michael decided he’d like to host an impromptu family BBQ.  Not wanting to rain on the parade (like the weather did on our day!) I put on my thinking cap and came up with options that I could eat that everyone else would enjoy.

Believe it or not, Costco came through for me!  I found some really great frozen burgers with no crazy additives, chicken breasts, Wholly Guacamole, and a huge shrimp tray.  I bought a fruit platter and a carton of strawberries, which I turned into a huge fruit salad and picked up the ingredients to make a really fun bigass salad.

{Mixed leafy greens, sliced Gala apple, red onion, fresh basil, roasted beets and carrots, tossed with just olive oil, lemon juice and salt & pepper.  I also crisped up some whole pecans in some coconut oil to throw on at the end.}

There was homemade potato salad and other yummy BBQ favourites on the buffet but I was totally happy with my W30 meal.  Filling and delish!

The following weekend I hosted Girl’s Night at my place.  Oh sure!  A hostess who tells you she can’t eat the usual bags of licorice, brie and baguette, or share in the bottles of wine.  Good times, eh?

Well, my girls were super supportive and rallied with no problems at all.  We feasted on homemade guacamole, devilled eggs with homemade olive oil mayo, cold shrimp, apple chips, fresh veggies and a creamy cashew dip I put together.  While they all sipped on wine, I killed a bottle of Perrier.  :)

The very next day the sun was shining so Michael hosted another family BBQ.  Thankfully there were still the compliant burgers and grilled chicken, and this time I loaded up on more salad, grilled zucchini and sliced avocado.  Second time around was easy!

Not to say that I didn’t really want to partake in the other things, because sometimes I really did wish I could have a glass of wine or an ice cold beer… but I knew it was just 30 days and I really only wanted these things because I couldn’t have them.  Well, screw you cravings.  I know what you’re all about!  You can’t beat me! 

Even my Mama got sucked into my Whole30 since it overlapped Mother’s Day.  I always head to my hometown to spend Mother’s Day with her, and we have a tradition of going out for a steak and seafood dinner.  This year she agreed to postpone and instead I cooked us a lovely dinner at home.  Chicken, baked yams and asparagus.

The next morning I wanted to make sure she still got a tasty brunch, so I tried my hand at the Salmon Cakes from It Starts with Food (yummy!), topped with over easy eggs, and served with wilted spinach and sliced avocado.  Mom was happy, so I was happy!

So, the point is, it can be done.  Just like the rest of this diet lifestyle, it requires a lot more thought and preparation that most of us are used to…but it comes together and everything works out just fine. 

In the end, these social situations are really about the people and not the food anyway, right?!  A good lesson for all of us.

Weekend fun with boats, borders, and Trader Joe’s!

On Saturday morning I was on a boat.  A BC Ferry to Vancouver to be specific.

Then I was with Catriona and Sarah as we waited over an hour to cross the border into the US of A.

Where we immediately bee-lined for outlet stores and grocery mecca.  Hello Bellingham Trader Joe’s.  Nice to meet you!

Yep, I go out of my way to cross a border just to return with two new bras and two heaping bags of non-essential groceries.

As sustenance we required deliciously squishy beefy burgers and soda from a magic techie fountain.

And then we waited over 90 minutes to make our way back into Canada.  I’m not a fan of border patrol’s organization.  Nope.

But the copious amounts of red wine and girl talk took my mind off things (later that evening, not at the border!).

Sunday morning obviously required brunch.  As seen on TV brunch of course.  Nothing like a trek through East Vancouver to track down yummy bacon and eggs.

I highly recommend a vanilla milkshake alongside your scrambled eggs and coffee. 

And then I was back on a boat! 

And a city bus.  With two heaping bags of groceries.  Win!

Creamy Caramelized Onion Dip

This past weekend Michael was planning on heading out of town to visit family so I decided it would be the perfect time to hang out with some of my girlfriends.  It’s a rare event that any more than one or two of us have a free Friday evening so I was particularly impressed that four of us managed to make plans!

Perfect excuse to add to my Twilight Blu-Ray collection and break in my new-to-me 40 inch TV (thanks to my Mama!).

Movie Night!

I emailed the girls asking everyone to bring their favourite movie watching snacks and asked that if they planned on bringing anything unhealthy not to leave me with leftovers!  As always, the snacks did not disappoint!

• Junior Mints
• Twizzlers
• Chocolate Fudge Popcorn
• General Tao Chicken Potato Chips
• Mini Eggs
• Sour Patch Bunnies
• Homemade Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
• Amy’s Organic Pizza (which we never got to)
• Red Pepper Dip with Tortilla Chips
• Chocolate Caramel Cups

Yowza!  Everything in moderation, right?

Of course, I couldn’t possibly host the girls at my place without putting together a homemade snack of my own.  I immediately went to Pinterest for inspiration and decided to make my own version of this Spinach and Caramelized Onion Dip.  Seemed like the perfect combination of creamy, healthy and delicious!

As always I had to take things into my own hands and only used her recipe as a guideline.  As it turns out I think maybe the original poster messed up her recipe quantities anyway because my ratio of onions, etc to yogurt was pretty much perfect and had I gone with the original recipe she called for far less yogurt to veggies.  Anywho, no matter!  Here’s what I came up with…

Creamy Caramelized Onion and Roasted Garlic Yogurt Dip

inspired by Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen

yields approximately 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 container fresh baby spinach (142 grams)
• 1 1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp Epicure 3 Onion Dip Mix (or a combination of onion powder, chives, and onion flakes)
• 4 cloves roasted garlic (prepared in advance), chopped
• 1 large onion, quartered and sliced very thinly
• 1 tbsp olive or canola oil
• 1 tsp butter
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Steam the fresh spinach until wilted.  Run under cold water to halt cooking process then drain and squeeze by hand.  Press between a couple of paper towels to remove excess moisture.  Chop and set aside.
2. In a large bowl mix together yogurt, mayonnaise, seasoning (including a pinch of salt and pepper), roasted garlic, and chopped spinach.  Use a fork to ensure spinach and garlic are not clumped.  Place mixture in fridge.
3. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add onions and stir to coat.  Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until soft, translucent and starting to brown and caramelize.  If pan becomes too dry use a little water to loosen things up.  When onions are golden brown and soft remove pan from heat and stir in pat of butter.  Let stand a few minutes to cool.
4. Stir onions into creamy mixture.  Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.  Let stand at least 15 minutes or keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

MyFitnessPal tells me this dip is about 110 calories per 1/3 cup serving.  Awesome!  The only big variable would probably be the yogurt you use.  I used 3% so it wouldn’t be too thin (non-fat) or too thick (Greek).

We served our dish with fresh veggies and Nut Thins crackers, but the best bite of the night was when we got creative and used the Chicken Chips for scooping.  Um, holy deeelish. 

After making up a second batch for lunch taking photos I now have dreams of slathering this onto turkey burgers or grilled chicken breasts or even into a toasty garlic buttered bun with sliced beef.  Oh hell yes, I think I know what we’re making for Sunday dinner.  :)

It was the perfect healthy dish to eat up before settling in for Breaking Dawn and a dish or five of sugary treats.  Now if only this Twilight instalment hadn’t been quite so gross, and those friends of mine hadn’t left the leftover candy on my kitchen table.  Evil, pure evil.

{Edited: Just a note that this is definitely an “eat now” dish.  The texture and taste changed as leftovers so I suggest eating it up as soon as you’ve made it.}

Boys and Girls

Yesterday we did things a little differently around here.  I shared my home-office workspace (ie: dining room) with Michael.  He was looking for a quiet place minus distractions to work on a project and believe it or not I can be quiet when someone really needs it.  :)

It is rare I get to serve him his morning coffee or pour him a bowl of cereal.  You may have noticed he regularly provides me with sustenance.  My turn!

Funny thing is…I am so hyper-focused on shopping for only myself during the week I actually thought I might have trouble building a lunch for two!  But I lucked out with exactly four pieces of bread and enough deli ham to make two sammiches.  Phew.

Sadly the lettuce I bought on Monday was all yucky in the middle so we had to settle for carrots sticks as our lunch time veggie.

After both of us got through a productive work day, he headed off to take care of his own errands and rescue Burl from doggie-abandonment (his folks looked after the big lug overnight) and I got cleaned up to meet Charmaine for buck-a-shuck.

Champagne cocktails were on special so we sipped on French 75s and ordered up 8 Fanny Bay oysters on the half shell each.  Nom.

We considered those to be our appetizer then decided we wanted something a little more filling so made our way across the street to Milestones for another bevvie and an artichoke dip to share.

We had a lovely visit and a good girl-talk catch up.  Don’t worry boys…we only spend like half of our time talking about you.  ;)

Amazingness All Around

Proof that our blogging community is totally awesome?

YES.  The Great Fundraising Act blew the roof off of the blog auction world this week when hundreds of people banded together and raised a whopping $26,000 for Balance Susan.  Insane and amazing.  I only wish I’d had the money in my bank account to bid on the year’s supply of Chobani!

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Three guesses what I had for breakfast yesterday.  Hint: I could totally recycle the photo all week.  :)  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

In order to keep the leftover Greek Pasta Salad pictures more interesting I used a different bowl and added red leaf lettuce to the mix.

Biggest item on today’s to-do list?  Buy more grapefruity Perrier.  Stat.

Afternoon snackeroo was to be an apple with cheese, but upon biting into said apple I actually spit it out.  It was THAT awful.  Cucumber instead.

Week’s ago Ingmarie suggested a few of us gals get together for a picnic dinner.  That’s the ticket to the group of us finding coordinating time to hang out…planning ahead!  So last night Ing, Tiffaney and I made our way over to Tia’s (Rose we missed you!!) for some girl talk and delicious, healthy eats.

Just enough sun and residual heat from the day made us able to actually eat outside.  Nothing like a little girlie patio action.

Dinner consisted of all light, lovely, vegetarian fare!  Ingmarie brought a creamy avocado dip topped with roasted baby tomatoes.  Tiffaney made a gianormous leafy green salad with arugula, bocconcini and homemade balsamic dressing for drizzling.  And Tia contributed her amazing quinoa salad chock full of crunchy veggies, almonds, and dried cranberries!  On the side we had fresh bread, crackers and Boursin.

My offering for the night was dessert!  Tiffaney demanded requested I make the same awesome Creamy Citrus Tart I took to the shrimp boil a few months ago as she has been drooling about it ever since.  :)  I was more than happy to oblige.

(This recipe can be a weeee bit pricey because of the condensed milk and cream cheese so I portioned it out for us gals and saved some leftovers for Michael and his fam…and you know, maybe a teensy extra piece pour moi.)

We sat and chatted about this, that and everything (Greeeeece!) for a few hours before calling it a night.

Before hopping into bed I pulled out his handy-dandy USB to AC converter that came with my Kindle (thanks for the tip Ali!) and sure enough it works for plugging my iTouch into the wall.

So curious to see what Sleep Cycle has to say about my sleep habits and patterns.  Of course, last night’s might be a bit skewed because I set it to run before deciding I just HAD to watch Sunday’s Big Brother before going to sleep.  Nerd alert!

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After posting my meal plan/calorie count for Monday a few of you expressed concern that I starved myself.  Let me reassure you that no one was truly starving over here!  I just gave myself one day of strict planning to help jumpstart me into less snacking and mindful choices.  Those calories counts were totally guesstimates and in no way did I under eat. 

And if you are still worried then just look at Tuesday’s numbers!  I stopped counting at 880ish calories and still had that glorious dinner and dessert which I didn’t count because it would just be too hard to figure it all out.  I don’t feel I over or under ate at all…I was just very mindful of everything I put in my body…which is really all I’m after at this point.

Cheers! :)

Getting Greek

Yesterday I didn’t even bother attempting coffee.  I reeeeeeally wanted it but I just knew that I’d be wasting a pot like I did on Monday.  Stupid tummy.  Toast with PB and banana seemed more the way to go.

At lunch time Michael popped by so I made us tea.  My body didn’t reject it…yay!  After he left I whipped a bowl of leftovers.  Turkey veggie spaghettini to which I added fresh spinach and basil.  Yum.

Mid afternoon snackeroo…I was finally able to bust into this bad boy.

And since I knew dinner would be somewhat late I whipped up a bowl of yogurt, blueberries, granola and almonds.

Tiffaney and I booked last night for a Greece planning session.  Now that we have plane tickets it’s high time we figure out what we’re going to do when we get there!!!  She offered to make a main dish so I brought along a salad (of course!).

In the big silver bowl:  red leaf lettuce, carrots, baby cukes, tomatoes, green onions (all local!), herby goat cheese, and homemade vinaigrette.

Our main course was the Mexican Lasagna (made vegetarian) from the Crazy Plates cookbook.  Totally yummy.

Especially with all that sour cream and fun toppings on it! :)

After dinner and catching up on our lives (we barely see each other these days!!) we got our our travel books and the laptop and got to work.  Things are coming together!!

Not long until I will be posting more specific details about where we are going.  Weeeeeeeeeeee!!