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Beer, Bread, Burgers, Ohmy.
Aahhh… you know what is even worse than a Sunday evening? The Monday after a long weekend. Three days is enough to completely check out of real life. Having to face it again on a Monday night is always a rude awakening!
Another bummer is the fact that I am out of Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Butter. Sound the alarms. This is an emergency situation.
I stuffed the near-empty jar with cottage cheese, peaches, raisins, cinnamon, coconut flakes, raw oats and sugar-free syrup. I ended up putting my finger in there to ensure no seed butter remained. Then shed a single tear *sniff* Trader Joe’s needs to come to Canada.
I ended up spending aaallll morning in bed watching MTV shows on my computer and catching up on a few blogs. It was grand. Even though it’s a holiday, my gym is still open and I had a client who wanted to work out this afternoon. Not quite a holiday for me! Lunch before work:
Pan-fried ham slices with swiss cheese, sautéed red pepper, spinach, on an english muffin. Then squashed and melted in the hot pan. Not pictured is the plethora of baby carrots and salsa that accompanied this. Yum.
Thank goodness I had that client today though because it got me to the gym! I was definitely bit by the lazy bug today, but I still managed to squeeze out a decent back/biceps workout. I am really enjoying my new lifting split! I feel like my workouts are a lot more efficient. It’s easier to wrap things up in an hour when I only have two muscle groups to focus on.
Even though I am officially on a Buffalo detox, my day did involve a little more Blue Moon beer. (brought back across the border)
But not straight up. I had some flour and sugar with it.
Not separately, ohno.
Mixed all up in my roommate’s Kitchenaid mixer.
And placed into a bread pan.
You know where this is going ;)
3 cups of self-rising flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 can or bottle of beer
mix ingredients and put in loaf pan
melt 1/2 stick of butter and pour over top
bake at 375 for 45 minutes!!
I used 1 cup all-purpose flour and 2 cups whole wheat, then mixed in 3 tsp baking powder and 1 1/2 tsp salt because I didn’t have self-rising flour. Also, I definitely did not use that much butter – maybe like 2 tbsp ;)
It rose!
Avec du beurre…
It turned out very dense and sweet.
I of course tried a piece right away with a little smear of Lori’s pear cranberry jam.
Good!! And SO easy!! Baking with yeast admittedly scares me, so the idea of pouring beer in sounded a lot more appealing. You really can’t pick up that much of a beer taste because of the sugar. Next time I want to try Guinness for the beer and molasses for the sweetener. So many possible combos!
I wasn’t just baking beer bread for the hell of it though. Something this good needs to be shared!
BBQ. Labour Day style.
This is not my backyard. My backyard is a parking lot. And there is a definite lack of bbq back there.
What is happening in these photos? I do believe it is a foot high five.
That girl on the left was in Schindler’s List. True story!
Seeing as I’m on a Buffalo detox, I made a point of keeping my bbq grub somewhat healthy.
Earlier in the day I threw together a pound of ground chicken with some chopped red pepper, spinach, a couple scoops of salsa and a few shakes of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. I formed the mix into patties and brought one of them to the bbq with me.
Spicy spinach chicken burger? Yesplease!! And yes, that is my second english muffin of the day. It made for a killer bun.
For veggies I put a chopped sweet potato on the ‘cue but I couldn’t finish it all. My chicken burger was too huge!
But there’s always room for dessert ;)
My roommie Megan brought chocolate crinkle cookies that her mom always makes. They were deeeelicious. Kinda like a cross between a cookie and fudge. Rolled in icing sugar. The perfect little chocolate treat.
And for those of you fretting over the start of your work week or school year, don’t worry…
As seen outside an Indian restaurant on Queen West in Toronto ;)
As Madeline would say – make it a good one!!
Question of the Day: What is your favourite thing to grill? Mine is bread!! We used to go to this restaurant when I was a kid where you could pick flavoured butters, different kinds of bread, then grill it yourself. Amazing.
The Job Collector
Please, do not adjust your monitors.
Yes, I know it is Thursday and not Waffle Wednesday. But some weeks, one day of celebration is just not enough.
Same protein waffle recipe as yesterday. But today topped with Lori’s buckwheat honey marshmallow fluff and almond butter mixed with syrup.
So much decadence for 9 in the morning. I almost couldn’t handle it. But then I got a grip on myself and gobbled it all up :)
Other wonderful eats from the day included a homemade shrimp burger. I remember seeing shrimp burgers on the menu of a burger place in Calgary. I desperately wanted to try it, but knew that when in Calgary, you eat the beef. Needless to say, the idea of a shrimp patty has been teasing my taste buds ever since.
Started with a dozen large raw shrimp (bought frozen then defrosted). Cut up small then mixed in:
- 1 tbsp bread crumbs (I used a smashed up rye cracker)
- 1 tbsp egg whites
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise (Yes a whole tablespoon. Do it.)
- Pinch dried garlic
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- Pinch black pepper
It’s not a sticky mixture like beef or turkey burgers. Very wet and sloppy because shrimp is so, well, wet. I plopped it on my George Foreman grill, but you could also put it in a frying pan or the oven. Just make sure it’s at a low temp and as time to cook on one side so it doesn’t crumble when you try to flip it over.
Makes one large patty. Eaten on an english muffin with spinach, red onion, ketchup and mustard.
Ohmy. It was goooood. The mayo in the mix is what really made it tasty. I have a feeling my taste buds will be wanting this more often!
On the side I had some of my microwave sweet potato chips. All you do is slice up a sweet tater real thin, spread it out on a plate, season, and nuke for a ludicrous amount of time. For these, I microwaved them for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through. Once cooled, they get crunchy like a chip!
While not eating today, I was also exercising. Almost done the first week of my new lifting split and I really like it! My body was completely hammered after a week off exercise. Major DOMS after my first couple days. Even from just doing sprints on the elliptical! Anyways, if you’re curious, here is what my Shoulder/Abs workout looked like today:
Warm-up: 5 minutes walking on the treadmill + 1 mile run
Straight sets:
Arnold press @ 10 lbs x 15
15 lbs x 10
20 lbs x 5
10 lbs x 10
Alternating sets (x3):
Cable lateral raise @ 2.5 lbs x 12
Cable horizontal woodchop @ 12.5 lbs x 12
Superset (x3):
Mountain climber x 60 sec
Plank ups x 10
Superset (x3):
Russian twist on bosu 6lbs x 30
Plank on bosu x 60 sec
Superset (x3):
Squat with front raise x 20 (holding swiss ball)
Prone jackknife x15
Cool-down: 1 mile run + 5 minutes walking
That opening press set killed my shoulders. It was all downhill from there ;) And in case you can’t tell, I hate doing crunches. Give me a plank any day!
Kind of ironic that I just started myself on a weight lifting focused workout routine, as I suspect I may now be doing a lot more running!
You see, I got a part-time job! At a running store!!
Even though I am a full-time personal trainer, I still don’t work the usual 8 hours a day. My client base is still increasing, but I am finding myself with a lot of down time. Especially on weekends. So I’ll be selling running shoes, clothing, gadgets and apparel to Toronto runners in my spare time. The extra money will be great and I’m really looking forward to meeting some more fitness-minded folk! They also do a run club and running clinics that I’ll probably start participating in as well. I’m pretty stoked about the employee discount. I’m desperate for a new pair of running shoes!
I’d just like to say, as for my full-time job of training, I am loving it. I’m to the point now where I’m starting to see results with my clients (one guy has already dropped 8% body fat with me!) and it is so rewarding. Not to mention, I’ve already had a few clients renew training packages with me, so it’s nice to know they like and respect me enough to want to keep working with me!
Now I am off to pack! I’m heading to Buffalo, NY for weekend with some friends. A special edition Fitness Friday post will be going up, but it will have to last you until I’m back on Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone! xo





