Decadent, delicious low-fat frozen chocolate yogourt

I think the title pretty much says it all. I'd been looking for a yummy chocolate treat that wasn't too rich but still tasted good. Something that warranted the word "treat". And I found it here. Unfortunately the recipe calls for low-fat evaporated milk and I couldn't find a can that wasn't processed (mmm... dipotassium phosphate). But one of the comments had alternate instructions and they were even yummier than the original.

Home-made frozen chocolate yogourt

1 can low-fat sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup dark chocolate (either chips or a broken chocolate bar)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fat free plain Greek yogourt

Stir chocolate chips and condensed milk in a sauce pan over medium heat until chips are melted and blended in with the milk. Remove from heat and add cocoa and vanilla. Stir until blended then mix in yogourt. Cool.

At this point I spoon it into my ice cream machine (it's very thick) and let it mix for about an hour before putting it in the freezer. If you don't have an ice cream machine, just put it in the freezer immediately and remove to stir about every 10 to 15 minutes for the first hour. I find it needs to freeze for about 24 hours before it's thick enough so make it a day in advance.

If you're making this for a family, you might want to double it as it only makes about two or three bowls. I make this and plain vanilla ice cream so the kids have some choice with their treat (I will post that recipe tomorrow). Enjoy!

Exercise and all that good stuff

A few years ago, when I weighed 212lbs, I fluffed off mobility issues as "middle age". Rolling over in bed was a struggle. I couldn't do it in my sleep, in fact I had to haul myself over using my headboard. But, well, I was almost 40 years old. I couldn't expect to stay young forever. I woke up every morning with an aching back (which thankfully faded away by breakfast). I chalked that up to an old mattress. Forty(ish) pounds later I know I was deluding myself. Rolling over is easy again and my back never hurts even though I have the same old mattress. These days I revel in how well my body moves.

I got off work early today and suggested a walk to my son. He promptly asked if we could ride our bikes instead. The busses in our area all have bike racks so I agreed. We took the bikes downtown and headed onto the trail. Of course, since he rides his bike regularly and I've only been riding since the beginning of the month, I almost never saw him. He'd wait for me by a bridge or bench then, within seconds, he'd be down the trail again while I peddled along by myself.

The trail, as you can see in the picture to the left, is quite lovely. It wends its way from the downtown core to the lakeside, alongside a creek. There are no interruptions, no roads to cross. It goes under bridges (alongside the creek) along the whole route. I love walking this trail and it's just as nice to ride. I know we're in the middle of the city but I love biking along listening to the birds and the leaves rustling.

When we got to the lake I immediately discovered a swing set off in the corner of the park, facing the lake. I promptly asked my son if he wanted to swing and he did. The swings were quite high off the ground and I had to pull myself up by the chains to get to the seat. There I sat, legs dangling and toes unable to reach the ground, until I asked my son for a push. I also asked him to take a photo. He took six, this was my favourite.

We went home shortly after this photo was taken, which turned out to be a good thing as thunderstorms started rolling in about an hour after we got home. It was clear skies and sunshine for our whole bike ride.

I went for a swim with my son last night and think I'll head downstairs with him soon for another swim. Just because it feels good to get my body moving.

Recipes

I've had a few people ask me for recipes in the past week and decided to share some here. The hard part is I don't always use a recipe. I smell spices to see which ones would work the best in a recipe and just chuck in a pinch or two. I'll add a slosh of cooking wine and a handful or two of veggies. This makes it hard to write a recipe down. But I'll try my best.

The first one is easiest as it's my Mom's banana bread recipe, just slightly modified to make banana muffins. These are yummy and make a great breakfast or snack.

Banana-Pecan Muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I use PC Organic)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter (or low fat Greek yogourt)
1 egg (or equivalent amount of egg whites)
2 or 3 mashed bananas
1 lemon (grated peel and juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1) Preheat oven to 350F and grease 12 cup muffin tin.

2) Grate lemon and squeeze juice into a small bowl then mash banana with juice and peel. Add vanilla and set aside.

3) Blend flour, ground flax, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

4) Cream sugar, butter, and egg well.

5) Add dry ingredients alternately to creamed mixture with mashed bananas. Blend well after each addition. Stir in pecans.

6) Scoop a quarter cup of batter into each muffin tin. Bake about 22 minutes and cool on rack.

Simple White Sauce

2 tbsps whole wheat flour
2 tbsps butter
1 cup milk

Melt butter in a pot and add flour. Stir until combined then pour in one cup of milk. Stir continuously until mixture thickens and begins to boil. Remove from heat.

The nice thing about the white sauce recipe is it's very versatile.  Grate some cheese into it and mix with noodles and you have macaroni and cheese. Today I used it as a base for vegetable gravy.

Roasted Garlic

1 bulb garlic
oil to drizzle

Preheat oven to 400F. Rub some of the paper off a bulb of garlic then slice the top off, just deep enough that all the cloves have the tip cut off. Drizzle the bulb with oil and wrap in foil. Place on a pan or cooking sheet (unless you want oil dripping on your oven floor) and bake for a half hour. Remove (carefully) from foil and cool.

I made poutine for dinner tonight. I used the white sauce as a gravy then mashed a bulb of roasted garlic with some cooking wine and added that to the white sauce with some snips of fresh dill and some freshly ground black pepper. Homemade fries are dead easy. Just chop potatoes into whatever size fries you want, keeping in mind the thicker they are the longer it'll take to cook them, and rinse them in cold water. Pat dry with a towel and drizzle with oil. Then cook at 400F for 40 minutes (for medium cut fries), turning once at the halfway mark. I used white cheese curds as they didn't have any colour added. They turned out really yummy and the sauce would have been just as good as a topping for rice. Or even with some freshly shaved Parmesan over fettuccine noodles.

Bonne appetit!

The yummiest diet ever

I've been on an "eating from scratch using minimally processed foods with no additives or preservatives" diet for just over a week now. I have no real idea how the diet's going since there hasn't been enough time to judge. I've lost a pound but a single pound is easily lost and gained. However, this is the yummiest diet I've ever been on. I baked banana nut muffins this evening. Organic whole wheat flour, butter, organic bananas, grated and squeezed lemon, real vanilla, and pecans. I ate one a few minutes ago and it nearly melted in my mouth.

Cooking from scratch has been interesting. I have spent most of my adult life cooking meals and come from a family which cooks. So I was surprised to realize how much we do use prepared foods. From bouillon cubes to prepared salad dressing to family dishes that use powdered mixes or canned cream soups for bases... switching to this diet has meant overhauling my kitchen (made easier by letting my kitchen go almost bare for the move) and rethinking a lot of recipes and supplies.

There have been some mistakes. I baked muffins last week and substituted natural peanut butter for the butter, thinking peanut butter banana muffins would be yummy. The peanut butter was too thick and I ended up with peanut butter banana bricks. Then there was the vegetarian gravy recipe I made for poutine, with 2 tbsps of cornstarch. It was more like a savoury vegetarian jell-o. But the successes have majorly outnumbered the mistakes.

My son was so worried when I told him about this new diet. What was he going to eat? No more ice cream from the store? No more pizza pockets? No buying a couple of boxes of Kraft dinner? Those fears dissipated with the first batch of homemade ice cream and totally evaporated with the homemade macaroni and cheese. He just came over here now after squeezing his own apple juice with a garlic press. It was a tad lumpy but he was thrilled with it. "Look Mom, I made apple juice from scratch and it tastes really good!"

On top of the healthy eating, we have so many more options here, exercise wise. I've discovered a trail that starts a block from my home and runs right downtown, as well as a nearby conservation area. This evening I went downstairs to the gym and used the elliptical for a half hour then swam laps for 20 minutes. Tomorrow I think I'll try out the treadmill.

As for now, I think I'll go clean the garlic press.

We're here!!!

The move was hellish, which I think pretty much describes all moves. Our truck came an hour and a half late, or just in time considering the people moving out ahead of us were also an hour and a half late, and they sent the wrong sized truck and had to make two trips. Our last box came inside just before midnight and I woke early the next morning to boxes everywhere. Mazes of boxes and three confused cats wandering around crying. I also woke in a panic because we left both our bikes back at the old apartment. Luckily we hadn't turned in our keys yet (funnily enough management wasn't around at that time of night to accept them) so we grabbed the bikes on our way to drop off the keys.

Now the boxes are almost empty, all that's left is putting up the decorations and taking 200 photos to share with friends and family. Then I can finally relax and enjoy the last couple of days of my vacation before heading back to work.

When I was a child I loved vacations where we stayed in a hotel with a pool. To me it seemed unspeakably fancy to be able to just leave your room and go downstairs to swim. That's how I felt on Friday when we went downstairs to use the pool for the first time. It was miserable outside; cold, rainy and windy. But there we were, towels and bathing suits slung over our arms as we headed to the pool. It was wonderful splashing around, knowing our home was just an elevator away. This was when my son piped up and said "Mom, this feels so fancy" and I realized he knew just how I felt. The gym is right beside the pool and I noticed there's an elliptical and an exercise bike as well as a treadmill. I can go downstairs to work out then cool off in the pool.

Yesterday we went out grocery shopping for the first time since deciding to eat all natural foods. It was interesting. I couldn't get over how many additives there are in everything. Even things like flour, whipping cream, and cream cheese. But we managed to find everything we needed and lug it all home. Today I'm making soup stock, bread, and ice cream.

And now I'm using the Wii My Fitness Coach for the first time in a month!

What am I eating?

Last week I bought myself a frozen raspberry lemonade. It tasted good; a sweet, lemony slushie. But as I sipped it, I wondered what on earth I was drinking. The raspberry flavour was completely artificial while the lemon had "lemon flavouring" (along with other unspecified natural flavours and a host of other ingredients). The slushie mixture was made of water and a sugar syrup with even more ingredients. I thought how much better that lemonade would have been with real raspberries, lemon juice, a bit of sugar, and ice.

A few days later I got my daughter a can of iced tea. The front of the can bragged about how it's made from "the best stuff on earth" with real tea and natural flavours. As we were walking along, she turned the can around and started reading the ingredients.

"Sodium hexametaphosphate?" she read with some confusion. "I know sodium is salt but what is hexametaphosphate?"

I had to admit I had no idea. Google has subsequently informed me it's used primarily in laboratories, detergents, paints, and photography applications to keep particles from clumping or settling. Why is it in her tea? Is it that hard to shake the can before drinking?

A hundred years ago, if someone had a glass of iced tea, they had tea, cold water, and sugar with maybe some mint or lemon thrown in for flavour. My daughter's can had 11 ingredients (including water) and six of them were not identifiable as food (mmm... calcium disodium edta anyone?). Even though it was lemon iced tea, there was no mention of lemon in the ingredient list.

The following day I was on a forum where someone asked for healthy meal ideas. One person offered a dessert suggestion that consisted of a ready made pie crust, filled with instant pudding and topped with artificial whipped topping. That was when it hit me. We can go all day, eating food, and manage to eat nothing that isn't crammed full of additives and modified ingredients. And many people do. Why does a package of muffins contain xanthan gum and monoglycerides? Why is the milk in my cream cheese modified? How is it modified?


We move in just under a week. Right now our cupboards are almost empty and most of my cooking supplies have been packed. When I restock our fridge and cupboards in our new home, I am restocking with real foods. If I don't recognize an ingredient, that food is not coming into our house. If the ingredients are modified, same thing.

Right now, what I've been doing is finding recipes for the basic ingredients I usually buy ready made. Things like gravy mix and soup stock. I've also been reading ingredient lists at the grocery store. Next Friday I'll be picking up a paper wrapped package of cream cheese, for example, instead of a tub.

This is how I explained our upcoming diet change to my son. "Remember the time I was tired and didn't feel like chopping the potatoes for poutine and we just went out and bought a package of frozen fries? It was a bit quicker but it didn't taste as good as when we usually make it. Now, instead of using powdered gravy mix, I'm going to make my own and it'll taste even better."

I'm wracking my brains for a conclusion but am too tired. I got kept up last night by a bunch of kids skateboarding under my bedroom window. Then, when I tried to take a small nap this afternoon, people outside my building started operating a power washer, a jack hammer, and some piece of heavy machinery that alternated between ramming into something metal and backing up while beeping. Oh, and someone's car horn got stuck and was constantly honking. ALL AT ONCE! That nap didn't happen. My son's due home in 10 minutes. It's totally quiet now. So, in conclusion, here's a gratuitous shot of the teeny bit of the solar eclipse I saw this weekend (taken from a friend's van window)...

The difference determination can make

Watch this video - just make sure you've got some Kleenex beside you. This is for anyone who ever thought they weren't strong enough or just wouldn't be able to succeed. You never know until you've tried... and tried... then tried again.