My life through the lens

What better way to update you all on the last 6 months than with a picture post. I figure it’s the best way as I know most of us do not have the time to read a million posts.  After all, pictures are worth a thousand words, right? (the pics are in no particular order)

We witnessed Mother Nature unleash her furry as she pounded the West Coast this winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powerful Hurricane Force winds – some homes had no power for 5 days and schools were closed for up to 3 days.  The worst storm that people can remember here in the last 30 years.

Baby pheasants hatched in my classroom this spring.

In October my family and I flew to Germany to celebrate my grandpa’s Centennial birthday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I made some time to play in the snow and even tried my hand at Cross Country Skiing this winter. 

 

      I competed in a couple of adventures races. And I just signed up for another

      one in August… anyone ever heard of the Warrior Dash?

 

I planted my first vegetable garden in 5 years

Spent my birthday weekend in a cabin waking up to this beautiful view and ending the evening with a lovely beachside bonfire, watching the cruise ships sail to Alaska.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relaxing in the sun

Kitchen renovations – new backsplash and pot rack  

I joined a new gym where this cool stuff happens… Suspended or Aerial Yoga. (pictures taken from Google)

And of course how could I not mention….. the newest member to my family….

Hedgie…..the African Pigmy Hedgehog.

Hope you are all enjoying the start of a new week.

Beaglebea

xoxo

Where in the world is Beaglebea?

 

Or rather…where the heck have I been?  I can’t believe the last time I posted on here was in November.  All I can say is that life got in the way and blogging was not on the top of my list. 

Having said that, I’m going to try it again.  To be honest, I kind of got a little discouraged with my blog because my traffic was down and I rarely got comments.  And for some strange reason, my meals have not at all been interesting.  I found it exciting to come home at the end of the day and see how many people stumbled across my blog and when there were comments, even better  

So I throw the question out to the blog world? 

Where do you want me to go with this blog?  What would you like to see more of? Less of?  How do I get more comments or traffic? 

My initial intention was two-fold:  to write this as a type of journal as a way to keep in touch with my out-of-town family and friends + to share with all of you my yummy kitchen creations with some gluten-free or wheat-free alternatives. 

And so I leave you with this as my post for the day.  Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

With love,

Bea

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I am a juicer pulp genius          

• 3 1/2 cups flour (I used 1/2 spelt and 1/2 whole wheat)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp  salt
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup sucanat
• 3/4 cup EVOO
• 4 large organic eggs
• 4 cup juicer pulp ( I used carrots, apple, spinach and celery)
• 1 cup 100% pumpkin puree
• 2 large handfuls of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

1. Preheat the oven at 350F. 
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, salt, baking soda and spices.
3. In a larger bowl, whist together the olive oil, sugar and maple syrup.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each time. 
4. Add the flour mixture and mix using a spatula until well combined.  Do not over mix. 
5. Add the juicer pulp, pumpkin puree and chocolate chips and fold until just incorporated. 

Grease the muffin tins and fill each about 3/4 full.  Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

The muffins are not light and fluffy.  They will be pretty dense, but oh so tasty.  Keep refrigerated in a sealed container.  Makes about 24 large muffins. 

I think I’m going to try these using applesauce at some point. 

Do you have any other favourite recipes using juicer pulp?

Beaglebea

xoxo

Juicing Heaven

Happy Sunday everyone.  Hope you remembered to turn back your clocks  by one hour.  I enjoyed sleeping in an extra hour. 

I’ve been meaning to write this post for so long…guess better late than never, right?  ( I actually wrote it last night..hehe)

One of my most vivid memories of my childhood was when my mom and grandma would make fresh carrot juice that I would drink like water.  There is something about the sweetness of carrot juice that makes it addicting.  Not to mention the healthy benefit of it:  rich in Vitamins A, K and C and an excellent source of beta-carotene.  On one of our camping trips through the USA, we picked up the Porsches of all juicers… the Norwalk!

I wanted to buy a juicer for so long for many reasons.  The main reason is to enjoy fresh healthy juice at home.  When you buy juice at the supermarket, it’s been pasteurized for obvious reasons.  However when you heat up the juice to kill any of the bad bacteria, you are also killing some of the nutrients and vitamins.   The Norwalk is the most amazing juicer out there.  First it grinds up your food, then you take the grinds, place them in a cloth bag and press the juice with a hydraulic press with about 1000lbs of pressure.  What does this mean?  Lets just say the carrot pulp was like cardboard, so dry the chickens wouldn’t even touch it. 

When I began researching juicers, I wanted to find one that gave me the most juice yield, with relatively dry juicer pulp, comparable to that of the Norwalk, but that didn’t come with the price tag of a Norwalk.  I also wanted one that would juice greens easily.  I was surprised to find so many different kinds of juicers on the market.  I learned they fall into 3 categories:  masticating, centrifugal and triturating (twin gears).  Oh boy!  What’s the difference? 

1.  Masticating = they work at slower speeds.  It basically chews the food you put threw them, so you get more fiber, vitamins and enzymes.  The most popular brand of this type is the Champion. 

2.  Centrifugal = these ones grind up the food, then the grinded produce gets pushed through a strainer as the basket spins at very high rpms.  Supposedly these types of juicers yield more volume of juice, but I doubt you get the same nutritional value from these juicers.  Most of the juicers sold in supermarkets are these types, such as the Jack Lalane juicer and the Breville juice fountain. 

3.  Triturating (twin gear) = these juicers turn at a slower rpm and have a two step process. First the machine crushes the produce, then the crushed bits get pressed to extract the juice.  This process gives you more fibre, enzymes, vitamins and trace minerals. These juicers also have magnetic and bio-ceramic technology that slows down the oxidation process, which is good if you want to make and store your juice. These juicers are excellent for juicing leafy greens, wheatgrass, sprouts, root vegetables like beets and carrots and most water dense (non-pulpy) fruits. Juicing time is longer with twin gear juicers due to the slower juicing process which gives you a higher quality juice.  Clean up is also a little more time consuming, but if it gives me better quality juice, I will take the time to clean it properly.

So which one did I go for?

I originally purchased the new Jay Kordich PowerGrind Pro. 

I read many good things about it, but I was somewhat sceptical as it’s very much like a centrifugal juicer.  However, the website claims that this juicer uses a revolutionary 2-step extraction process. It has a powerful low RPM motor, which allows for more nutrients and juice,  delicious pulp-free concentrated nutrition and greater value from your food dollar.  One reason I also purchased this one was because it is supposed to easily juice leafy green vegetables and Wheatgrass, in addition to being able to make almond milk.

When it arrived at my doorstep, I was so excited to begin juicing.  I was very happy with how quiet the machine was and how easy it was to put together.  It looked great on my counter top.  The juice yield was pretty good too and the clean up was a breeze.  However I was disappointed with how wet the carrot pulp was. I could still squeeze alot of juice out of the carrot pulp. After about a week, I returned it and started researching other juicers. After a few weeks of exploring the internet, I found one that is comparable to the Norwalk. 

Let me introduce you to my newest addition to the family…..

The Green star Elite 5000   

I Love Love Love this juicer.  It has a very good juice yield (comparable to the PowerGrind, if not more) and the carrot pulp comes much drier than in the PowerGrind.  I find that fruit pulp is usually wetter than the veggies.  Here are just a few of the other pros about this juice extractor: (information taken from http://www.harvestessentials.com/green-star-elite-gse-5000.html)

• low RPMs (110) – powerful but slow turning precision twin gears, so there is very little heat generated and this means it delays oxidation. 
• 3 step juicing due to the triple-stage twin gears
• crushing + mixing + squeezing.

• More than just a juicer
  Not only juicing, but also homogenizing fresh or frozen fruit (sorbets) is extremely simple with your Green Star Elite Juicer. Confectioneries with nuts and dried fruit are especially delicious
• More minerals in optimal bioavailability!
  Bio-magnets have been integrated into the Green Star Elite Juicer's twin gears to optimize the juice quality. They "pull" more minerals into the juice while increasing the minerals' bioavailability. This means that your body can more effectively absorb and utilise the dissolved minerals.

I now make juice twice a week regularly.  Since I’m making larger batches of juice each time, it takes me about 1.5 hours.  This includes cleaning and preparing the produce, juicing, and cleaning the machine.  And I am convinced that because I’m drinking fresh juice daily, I’ve managed to fend off all those nasty colds that others have dealt with already this year.

I cannot be happier with this juicer.  The carrot juice is so sweet and comes out in a bright deep orange color, apple juice is amazingly sweet and you should see the color of the spinach juice.  The gears just gobble up celeri sticks, but I do have to use a little more pressure when pushing carrots through the slot. 

My go-to combination of juice is carrots, apples, celeri and spinach.  Here is the batch I made the other day and it yielded just over 2L (8 3/4 cups = 5 mason jars)

• 5 lbs carrots
• 4 apples
• 2 lbs celeri
• 5 oz spinach

The question now is….what to do with all the juicer pulp?  My friend has chickens, so I’ve been giving her the pulp to feed her flock.  I’m hoping to have some muffins to show you soon as I’m going to try and use some of the pulp to make muffins.  Excited to share my results with you. 

Does anyone else use their juicer pulp?  What’s your favourite juice combination?

Beaglebea

xoxo

It’s been so long

Oh my!  It’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged.  Has life ever gotten away from you?  Mine did, which explains my hiatus from blog land.  And life doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.  Therefore my posts are going to be very sporadic from here on out.  I'd love to have time every day to blog something new, but it doesn’t look like that will be on my agenda any time soon. 

So what have I done in the last 2 months?  Here's a recap:

• Back to work.  I have a class of 28 grade 4’s this year.  I love my kids.  It’s a great group of kids, more girls than boys, but an active class.  I have a couple of challenging kids in the class too, but nothing that this teacher of 8 years can’t handle.  Lots of planning and marking has been happening this year.  Once again I’ve taken on the Salmon Hatching program.  We just went to our local hatchery to collect salmon eggs (coho), then we fertilized them and put them in our school’s aquarium.  They should be at the eyed age in about one month, and we should see alevins in about 2 months.  In the spring we will release them into one of our local streams. 

 

• I started my graduate studies program in Education.  This will take 2 years to complete.  I haven’t quite decided my concentration yet, but we have our first project to complete by December 2nd.  My cohort meets about once per month for a Friday evening and all day Saturday.  Friday’s are tough, especially after a long day of work, followed by a 1 1/2 hour drive to get to my class.  Luckily, I can stay with someone that lives close by, so I don’t have to drive home Friday night. 

 

• Juicing heaven!  I decided in August that I would finally buy myself a juicer.  Yes, I already have a Vitamix which I enjoy using often, but I still want to be able to make fresh vegetable and fruit juices that are full of nutrients and vitamins.  After doing a lot of research, I finally decided on the Jay Kordich Powergrind Pro Juicer.  The reviews were good and the price was desirable.  The pros?  It was an easy cleanup, the machine was quiet and the juice yield was pretty good.  As for the bad news?  I was disappointed with how wet the carrot pulp was.  I could still squeeze alot of juice out of the carrot pulp.  After about a week, I returned it and started researching other juicers.  I did find a very good one, but the price was twice as much.  I will post more about my juicing experiences later. 

 

• October 7th I left for Germany with my family for my grandfather’s 100th Birthday celebration.  It was a quick trip, as I returned on the 16th.  How amazing is it to be able to say that my grandfather is 100 years young?  It was awesome to be able to spend time with my family.  I realised I have a large one too.  There are 42 of us, including all of my aunts, uncles, 1st and 2nd cousins.  Wow!  The party was held at my cousin’s house and everyone was able to make it.  I believe it was the first time that everyone came together in the same room.  Memories were made to last a lifetime.  Then one week ago, I received the unfortunate news that my grandmother passed away.  I am so grateful that I was able to see her one last time before she passed.  I know she held on just long enough for the family reunion and celebration.  RIP Oma! 

Well, since being back from Germany, things picked up right where they were left off.  I’m back to working full time and really enjoying my class this year.  The craziness of Halloween is over (thank goodness).  I’m back to bootcamp as well and just made a fresh batch of juice today. 

As for coming up with fresh, new, healthy concoctions in the kitchen?  It hasn’t been happening much.  I’ve been eating lots of oatmeal, sandwiches and quick dinners like spaghetti, stir-fries and salads.  I’m hoping to have a new creation for you very soon.  Something yummy is baking in the oven as I write this and if it comes out tasty, I will share it with everyone. 

Back soon I hope.

Beaglebea.

xoxo

Endangered Species

All I’ve kept hearing about in blog land this summer is about this amazing chocolate.  I found out it can be purchased at Whole Foods.  Naturally, I was not going to pass up the opportunity to try chocolate.  And since I just spent the last couple of weeks in Vancouver…guess what?  There are 4 Whole Foods locations.  Guess who commuted about an hour each way (via bus and skytrain) from my parents place to hit up the Vancouver Whole Foods store ? I also picked up a few other things while I was there.  Here’s what I snagged up:

I haven’t tried them all yet, I mean I do have to ration them since I won’t be back to Vancouver before Christmas.  But I was highly curious and excited to try the one with the bat.  It’s 72% cocoa and contains cocoa nibs.  Oh my !

Intense Dark is right!  It was soooo soooo good.  I loved the crunch of the nibs, but I found that when I had a craving for some chocolate, all I needed was one or two squares and I was satisfied.  I didn’t take a picture, but my mom had prepared a bowl of fresh peaches (from their tree) and cantaloupe.  I ended up chopping up a couple squares and mixing it in a bowl with the diced peaches and cantaloupe.  I can’t even begin to explain the taste.  All I can say was that it was one of the best deserts I’ve had in a while.  And yet so simple and satisfying. I will let you know what I think of the others when I get a chance to bite into them. 

Did you know that bats don’t use their eyesight to see in the dark?  They use sonar waves to communicate and navigate.  Thank you Endangered Species for teaching me something new about bats   I love how the wrapper contains a variety of information regarding the Endangered species on the front of the bar.

I’d love to hear about your favourite type of chocolate.  Have you tried this brand?  Others?

Back soon !

Almost back to new :)

Wow!  The month of August has pretty much come to an end.  How can that be?  In my neck of the woods, we can’t even really call the last 2 months “summer” since the sun and heat made rare visits.  At least the last 2 weeks were pretty nice.  I spent the last couple of weeks in Vancouver visiting my parents.  The last time I blogged I gave you a post-surgery update.  You can read about it here if you missed it.  I had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon 2 weeks after the procedure and he cleared me to travel, so I packed the car, grabbed the dog and cat and drove south to spend time with family and friends before the end of summer. 

My first week in Vancouver was pretty low-key.  I still had no energy, was still on antibiotics and just started eating more variety again.  To this day (31 days post-op) my throat is still sensitive and sore and feels irritated.  It feels like I have a cold that I can’t clear.  The surgeon did tell me my throat will take about 6 months to heal fully.  Joy!  It hurts to yawn too, I guess because when I yawn, it stretches the skin in my throat.  Fortunately, I am on the mend and well on my way to a full recovery.  Yippee!

Week 2 in Vancouver was a little more active.  I spent time with some of my friends, we hit the Waterslides at Cultus Lake, picked blueberries in my parents backyard, went to the beach and I got on my mountain bike a few times.  I also did some shopping.  Unfortunately all fun must come to an end and I came home yesterday afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bootcamp Update

At the end of July (the day before surgery) I completed an 11 week “Get Sexy Challenge” that my bootcamp instructor hosted.  The results came in and I am so so happy with them.  I made “Top 10” best transformations, so I was pretty stoked.  I lost 12 pounds and you can definitely see a great change in my midsection, which is where I want to see results.  And on another note, I’ve lost another 6 pounds since then, so I am on a role.  I’ve received a ton of compliments during my visit in Vancouver. 

Here are some ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am going to continue working hard to tone up more and get stronger.  I can’t wait to see my results by Christmas time. 

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Stay tuned for a post about my “new addition to the family”.  And another great recipe coming up soon.  It feels so great to cook again . 

Ciao for now

Bea

xoxo

Surgery Update

So I went under the knife July 29th to have my tonsils and adenoids removed.  My surgeon did tell me to expect a 2 week recovery, but I didn’t really believe him.  I’m a healthy, active and fit young woman, I figured after a week I could slowly start getting back into my routines.  Boy oh boy, was I wrong.

Surgery was scheduled for 1:45pm, but I was the last one of the day and things were running behind, so they didn’t call me into the OR until after 3pm.  By that time, I was starving.  It didn’t help that the TV in the waiting room kept showing food commercials.  I ended up turning the TV off and playing on my iPad.  When I went into the OR, the anaesthesiologist had a hard time finding my veins to draw an IV since I was pretty dehydrated.  I guess not drinking anything all day will do that to  you.  The next thing I remember is breathing in some Oxygen and then it was lights out until I woke up in recovery.

I can’t begin to explain the pain I had in my throat.  I had a difficult time breathing because of all the swelling and pain in my throat.  The nurses gave me some more pain meds and some liquid codeine to help soothe my throat some more.  It helped but all I wanted to do was sleep.  A few hours later, I was being wheeled to a hospital room to prepare for my overnight stay.  There was another girl who also stayed overnight and we shared our room.  The rest of that night was a bit of a blur.  I got to go home the next morning.

Week 1 of my recovery was pretty painful.  I didn’t eat much, was jacked up on heavy painkillers and antibiotics and slept a lot.  My awesome friends checked up on me daily to let Buster out for his walks and to bring me soup and soft food that I could somewhat manage to get down. 

Week 2 was a bit of a different story.  Day 9 post-op I spiked a very high fever and had to go to Emergency.  I ended up with a bladder infection as well as a yeast infection.  Of course the docs give me more antibiotics. 

I am now Day 16 and finally eating some more solid foods.  I lost a bunch of weight, but I will put it back on I’m sure.  My throat still hurts a fair bit, especially when I yawn.  The worse feeling currently is the constant irritation as the scabs have formed and are starting to come loose, a great sing of healing.  All I can do is drink a lot of liquids and things will get better, day by day. 

I can’t wait to be able to exercise regularly, cook up a storm again and start blogging more often. 

Cheers for now,

Bea

xoxo