It’s been quite some time since my last post. I’ve been a little busy working on a new blog. Well, it’s only half new. It’s still Two Steps One Step but a slightly different Two Steps One Step. Ok, I know that doesn’t really make sense so you’ll just have to check it out for yourself: Two Steps One Step.
It still needs some work but it’ll get there soon enough.
Socca veggie sandwhich with basil pesto spread
I recently stumbled onto Pure2Raw where they have an entire page dedicated to socca. Until seeing socca on their website, I had never heard of the stuff. If you’re also not familiar with socca, it’s basically a flat bread made from garbanzo bean flour. Pure2Raw lists quite a few different socca recipes from carrot cake socca to sprouted lentil socca. You can find the list of socca recipes here. My favorite is their skillet socca. I did do a couple things differently though: instead of 2 tbsp coconut oil I only used 1/2 tbsp and instead adding a bit of rosemary I adding a bit of chia seeds, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, and pepper.
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 cup water
pinch or two of sea salt
2 tbsp oil (I used coconut oil but you can also use olive oil)
a bit of chia seeds, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, & pepper. (I didn’t measure any of these, I just sprinkled it all in)
Preheat a lightly oiled skillet or frying pan over low medium heat. While your pan heats up, mix all the above ingredients in a bowl. Pour batter into heated pan and cook until the edges are crispy and the top seems dry. Socca is quite moist so it’s difficult to dry out by over cooking it. When ready, carefully flip the socca bread and cook until both sides are looking toasted.
When my socca was done I made a veggie sandwich using basil pesto for the spread, tomatoes, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, and cucumber. Since I don’t normally eat bread, I never get to have sandwiches so this a very nice treat for me. I find socca very filling plus it contains a bit of protein which is also nice. I hope you guys like it as much as Sean and I liked it.
It took some time but I finally found some running shoes that work well for me.
First let me start by saying I love the color of these shoes, which is what first attracted me to them. I was hoping the bright colors would make me run faster, but… they don’t. I’m still just as slow as I’ve always been. They cost more then what I’m used to spending on shoes but it was well worth it. They’re light weight and flexible with just the right amount of cushioning. The store I bought them at didn’t have my size so I had to buy half a size bigger then what I would normally wear but even being a bit big they still feel great when I run. Although I don’t have a lot of experience running or shopping for running shoes, I would still highly recommend these shoes to anyone.
Since I’m trying to eat more raw food and cut out processed food, which includes my morning almond milk, I’ve started eating grated apple in the morning. I’ll usually top it with berries, either strawberries or blueberries, chia seeds, millet, hemp seeds, and cinnamon. This morning I didn’t have any berries so I thought I would try something a little different: a carrot! It might sound like a funny combination but the carrot had just enough sweetness to go along with the apple.
When most people think of chia seeds the usually think of the “cha-cha-cha-chia” commercials on tv but not everyone thinks of them as a superfood. Here’s why they’re thought of as a super-food:
After discovering these things I thought I would I try making chia seed pudding. The first bowl I made turned out terrible. I couldn’t understand why so many people liked it but thought there had to be a reason so I decided to give it one more try. I actually gave it a few more tries, testing out different recipes I found on-line. Most of the recipes I tried made a firm pudding, a slimy,almost solid pudding, which I thought was rather nasty. I finally came up with my own recipe for chia seed pudding. It has a smoother consistency, more like real pudding, but so much healthier. I think you’ll all like it.
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 1/2 tbsp canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 cup almond milk (or other milk)
1-2 tsp agave or maple syrup
a pinch of all-spice (about 1/8 tsp)
a pinch of ground cloves (about 1/8 tsp)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of salt
Mix together the pumpkin, milk, syrup, salt and spices. Next add chia seeds to the liquid mixture and whisk. Let sit for at least 30 minutes before eating. Serve cold. Makes one serving.
I started my first healthy challenge on May 12 which was to cut out peanut butter or dried fruit from my diet. Since I’m doing well with my first challenge I think it’s time to add in a second one. For my second healthy challenge I’m going to focus on diet and exercise.
One of my bad habits that I’ve tried to quite for years is eating just before bed. I’ve heard some people say that eating before bed can contribute to weight gain and I’ve heard others say that it won’t make a difference as long as you’re still within your calorie allowance. I’ve also heard that eating right before bed can make it difficult to sleep. I’ve never had a problem sleeping, regardless of how much I ate before going to bed and I’ve never found enough info to back up either weight gain arguments. What finally made sense to me was when I read that it it’s good to stop eating about three hours before bed so that your body can focus on repairing itself rather then digesting food. This made perfect sense to me so I decided it was time to stop snacking after dinner and start eating dinner earlier.
So the first half of my second challenge will be to have my last meal before 7:30pm and no snacks or dessert afterwards.
The second half of my challenge will be to increase my workouts. I’m just not exercising enough to reach my goals. From now on I have to exercise five days a week and at each workout I have to burn a minimum of 300 calories while doing cardio and include weight lifting afterwards.
Nothing to eat after 7:30 pm and exercise five days a week, burning a minimum of 300cal with cardio and adding in weighlifting after after my cardio sessions.
Last week I noticed a little hummingbird buzzing around one of my flowers on our patio. It’s still quite cold up in Whistler and still a bit early to be planting flowers. I’m not a very patient person when it comes to gardening so I couldn’t wait until it warmed. So far I’m the only one in the neighborhood that has flowers on their patio so it’s obvious why the hummingbird was attracted to my patio. Now I only have one plant that is blooming and I wanted to make sure the little guy kept coming back so I went out and bought a hummingbird feeder. I found a beautiful glass feeder at our local hardware store and I decided to make my own nectar to save a little money.
Here’s the recipe I used…
1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup water
Bring water to a boil then add the sugar and remove from heat. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let cool before filling your feeder.
If you want to attract hummingbirds to you garden there are a few things you can do as a feeder isn’t always enough to attract them and keep them coming back. When looking for flowers for your garden check the plant information tags to see if they’ll attract hummingbirds. Also plant both perennials and annuals. A couple annuals I noticed that attract hummingbirds but don’t always mention it on the tags are petunias and snapdragons; both very easy to grow. Having small trees nearby or something for them to perch on to rest and preen themselves will also help. One more thing you can do is include some type of moving water source to your garden such as a sprinkler, mister, fountain, waterfall, or dripper.
Since we’ve hung the feeder we’ve had two little humming birds buzzing around our patio everyday. Now I just need my flowers to grow.
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