Spinach & Zucchini Turkey Burgers

Adding veggies is (obviously) a great way to bulk up a meal. I eat a lot of veggies but I still like sneaking them in wherever I can for extra nutrition and lower calories per serving. Enter greens in a turkey burger.

Ingredients:

1 package lean ground turkey

1 medium zucchini, grated and excess liquid squeezed out

1/2 package frozen spinach, defrosted and excess liquid squeezed out

1/2 cup panko crumbs

2 TBSP garlic powder or 2 garlic cloves, minced

Cayenne, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste

Side note: I choose ground turkey because chicken is usually ground with the skin on.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well (the photo below is sans veggies and meat)

Form into patties and add to a hot pan.

After 30 seconds turn the heat down to medium-low and cook until the meat is cooked halfway up and then turn over and cook until done.

Donezo!

I enjoyed these for dinner in a lettuce wrap with a salad and garlic toast (toast with earth balance and garlic powder).

Nom nom nom.

They also make tasty leftovers for lunch today. It’s so nice to have something ready to go!

BTW that’s a tangelo in the background, it’s a cross between a tangerine and pomello and is much easier to peal than an orange. They’re in season right now and I highly recommend looking for them at the store.

Hope you’re all having a great day, the weekend is almost here! Holler!

Today’s WOD

Is it just me or does it seem like Crossfit has exploded in popularity the last few months and now everyone is talking or posting about their workouts of the day (WOD). I’m not jumping on the crossfit bandwagon but my favourite kind of workouts are similar – they work the whole body and are different each time, so I’ve started calling them WOD’s in my head.

Today’s bodyrock.tv WOD was particularly crossfit-esque, from the actual workout to motivation from Lisa-Marie’s ripped body.

I don’t have an equalizer or timer so I follow the modifications and use an online tabata timer. If you haven’t tried a workout like this it may seem easy but 50 seconds is a long time and the 10 seconds of rest passes in a blink. I’m a little sore from yesterday’s yogilates so I realllly felt the WOD and it hurts so good!

Of course, you can also create your own WODs by using the Tabata timer and selecting a few exercises like high knees, butt kicks, skaters, or bicep curls and squats etc.

Happy Sweating!

Shrimp Dumplings

One of the best things about dumplings is that the filling and flavour combinations are endless. You can’t go wrong with bok choy and turkey or tofu, especially with sweet and hot seasonings, but my the shrimp one are definitely my favourite.

If you’ve never made dumplings before give these a try, they’re pretty easy to make but taste like you spent hours in the kitchen.

To make the filling combine:

1 cup shrimp, chopped

1/3 cup ground meat or scallops (optional), I used lean turkey

1/2 cup prepared coleslaw mix (bagged, no dressing) or plain cabbage minced – use a food processor if you have one

1 teaspoon pepper

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon rice/rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Place 24 dumpling (or wonton) wrappers on a dry surface.

Spoon 1 teaspoon into the center of each wrapper.

Dip one finger into a glass of water and wet the edge of the wrapper then fold the edges together, making a half circle. Press and seal the edges together firmly.

Keep the outside of the dumplings as dry as possible or they will get sticky.

If you’re going to freeze any dumplings do it now, otherwise wait until you’ve pan fried them.

When you’ve used all the filling bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook the dumplings in small batches for 5 minutes. Don’t overcrowd the pot or they will stick together.

After 5 minutes remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon.

Place the cooked dumplings into a hot frying pan, sprayed with cooking spray or lightly oiled, and saute until crispy – about 2.5 minutes on each side.

Another way to serve dumpling is to boil them in broth with chopped green onions and serve as a soup.

Enjoy!

Delicious, delicious, delicious

I just got home from yogilates and feel like I just went for a massage, it’s delicious.

Todays class was slower paced but still a great core workout and an even better stretch. I need to work on the breathing sequence during savasana but I feel really relaxed even if I can’t exhale for 6 counts… at least I’m not (that) full of hot air?

Before class I fueled up with shrimp dumplings and sweet potato cauliflower mash.

I made the dumplings on Sunday night and they tasted even better today after the flavours had time to marinade. The dumplings are actually pretty simple to make, look out for the recipe tomorrow!

The sweet potato cauliflower mash is also simple and tastes so good you’d swear it was loaded with cream and butter.

I “cheated” and started with pre-chopped sweet potato.

The sweet potato cooked in the microwave while I steamed a head of cauliflower.

Puree the cooked cauliflower and sweet potato in a food processor.

 

Add 2 tablespoons of Almond milk, 2 teaspoons of earth balance (butter), 1/2 teaspoon each of cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder and dashes of pepper, ginger and salt and then process well.

 

This was ridiculously delicious, I could have eaten the entire container by itself as dinner.

I hope you’re all having an equally delicious night, I’ve got a date with my PVR and an episode of Hot in Cleveland – Betty White cracks me up! Night!

SnOwMG!

I had no idea it was going to snow today until I saw it coming down furiously. Quite the surprise after the 10*c/50*f weather we had Tuesday.

Toronto doesn’t typically get very cold or a lot of snow but it’s still awesome to be mid-way through January and just seeing snow for a second time!

As an added bonus, it never got really cold so the roads were great on the drive home!

Dinner was catered, courtesy of work. I had ham on molasses rye bread (cheese removed) that was really really good. Everything was so fresh and the chipotle hummus took it up a level.

Tonights snack is one of my favourite low-cal treats, popcorn kernels made in a paper bag.

It’s so simple, sprinkle kernels into a paper bag, fold the top closed and pop in the microwave for about 2 minutes and then top it with whatever you like. I like the classic tablespoon of melted earth balance (butter) but you could also do melted chocolate chips, nutritional yeast, paprika or salt & pepper, etc.

Today was a long one but Grey’s is on tonight, the popcorn is popped and I’m ready to put my feet up! Have a great night!

To eat out or dine in?

This afternoon I had a serious craving for Fresh (quinoa onion rings, black bean burrito on lettuce) or The Beet Café (Trout and roasted garlic & sweet potato purée). Guinness fish & chips and crab cakes at Fish Bar also sounded mouthwatering but dinner was in the fridge at home. #firstworldproblems

The entire drive home I waffled between wanting to go out and eating one of my favourite salads, that was marinating in the fridge. To be honest, I really really wanted to go out but picked the gym instead. Random, I know.

I did ladder sprints on the elliptical for 35 minutes (350ish calories).

To ease the boredom of working out on a machine I watched 2 episodes of Hot in Cleveland which is hilarious – I can’t wait for the new season to start.

I finished off my workout with 20 minutes of free weights with a stability ball. I love lifting!

Dinner was the salad I mentioned. The original recipe calls for couscous which I substituted for quinoa for more protein, less carbs. The rest of the ingredients are dates, fresh mint, green onion and cucumber.

The dressing is a combo of olive oil, white wine vinegar, chili powder, honey (agave) and salt and pepper.

Combined together the salad has a unique tangy taste that’s both decadent and light.

Vegan grilled cheese (daiya “cheese” and earth balance “butter”) and raw veggies rounded out dinner.

Shockingly I had banana-strawberry softserve for dessert.

I’m giving myself a goldstar for eating in tonight! I hope you had a happy hump day, the weekend is almost here!

Super Simple Supper

Picking up a latte this morning was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

It’s only my second one in 2012, not bad considering I “allow” myself one/week as a treat.

Having a salad in a bag in my fridge was another smart move that saved the $ and calories of eating out.

The Perfect Harvest kit was hanging out in my fridge.

Open bag. Dump into bowl. Add toppings.

Stick a fork in it. Eat.

I used 1/3 of the dressing and toppings on the whole bag of lettuce, it was pretty tasty. I’m giving myself a goldstar for skipping Lonestar and it’s delicious chips and salsa (sorry L, we’ll get it next week!).

Dessert was strawberry and banana soft-serve, made with Yonanas, and topped with chia seeds and a teaspoon of Biscoff spread. 

Jules gave me a jar of Biscoff for Christmas and it is sooo good, like gingerbread icing.

Of course Biscoff cookies always remind me of flying Delta to Miami.

Delta is known for having Biscoff cookies on their flights so I was hyping them to my friends before the trip (we don’t have them in Canada). Naturally that meant none of our flights had more than a handful of cookies until one of our return flights. After talking about these cookies for days I was so excited and asked for a package of cookies but ended up with a handful thrown at me. Seriously. At least we ended up with 5 packages to share!

Blue Monday

Today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year as calculated by a British Psychologist for an Ad campaign designed to sell sunny holidays. I don’t know if I ‘buy it’, pun intended, but today was crazy and a trip somewhere warm never sounded better.

As much as I’d love a vacation this is one of my busiest times of the year, so a holiday will have to wait. On the upside, after tons of meetings, lots of report writing, problem solving and after receiving 1000+ emails I finally escaped the office! So what if it’s dark out and I never got the latte I’ve been craving for the last 2 weeks, at least I had a good lunch!

Steamed veggies and quinoa, stir-fried with 1TBSP low sodium soy sauce.

+

Carrots, brown rice and lentils.

= fiber overload… and a filling lunch!

Knowing I had a long afternoon ahead of me I took a break to read while I ate and finally started The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain which has been sitting on my Kindle App for a couple of weeks.  The book starts off in the middle of a mysterious tragedy and hooks you (or at least me) right away. I’m looking forward to how the story unfolds!

I hope your Monday wasn’t too blue I’m watching Betty White’s 90th Birthday Special on NBC so mine just got a whole lot funnier! Cheers!

Relax, take it easy–weekends!

Downtime on weekends is the best! Time to workout in daylight, read a book, go to brunch, just a few of my favorite things to do when I get some downtime.

Making smoothies has also turned into a weekend luxury. I used to make them every morning before work but now I just mix up a shaker of Amazing Grass and almond milk and go on my way.

This weekend I treated myself to an epic fruit smoothie, strawberries, peaches, red grapes, pineapple, melon (all part of PC’s 5 fruit blend) and banana’s.

I blended about 1.5 cups of fruit with chia seeds, water, almond milk and the last of a massive Amazing Grass tub.

All done!

Mmm, so good!

I also had some time to try out my newest Essie colour It’s Genius.

I love it!

And now it’s time for brunch, I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Rubba dub dubby

Do you know what today is, other than Friday the 13th?

If you’re local you might guess snow day. That’s not it but we did have our first real snowfall of winter today!

It’s not actually my first snow, since it dumped on us when I was out of town on Christmas day, but at least I didn’t slide through any intersections today! Win!

Today is apparently rubber ducky day.

If you’re wondering what or why, I am too but  what the heck, you can’t have a rubber ducky day without sesame street! Sing it if you know it!

The yellow one above is ‘vintage’ at nearly 29 years old. I’m a nerd.

How cute are holiday ducks? See, serious nerd territory! And don’t worry, there’s no ducky shrine over here, only 2 allowed in the bathroom at a time… totally normal, LOL.

Today just proves there’s a day for almost everything, I’m still waiting for a win-the-lottery day, I think that would be my favorite!

What day would you want?