My Gym Buddy Returns!

Yes, my boyfriend is back, I gave him a big a surprise by turning up at the airport (I’d convinced him that I couldn’t make it…) and we spent a lovely w/e together just relaxing and catching up 🙂 I missed him so much!! 12 days away is 12 days too many!

 

My latest body motivation/girl crush – Jenna Renee! I want my body to look like hers!

After a w/e of treating myself (my boyfriend and I indulged in a few blocks of chocolate… naughty, but oh so delicious!) I’m ready for a week of eating clean and looking after myself.

 

Plan for this week:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

Pancakes 🙂 I found some sugar-free maple syrup, which tastes AMAZING so I let myself drizzle a bit on my pancakes sometimes. It’s not perfect because it contains sucralose (although any trials on the negative side effects of sucralose have only been done in ridiculously excessive amounts, so I figure a little bit here and there won’t do me too much damage!).

 

Meal 2:

Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Muffins

I’ve posted this recipe before, and I cannot emphasize enough how delicious these little baked delights are! In order to prevent myself from eating them all straight away I make sure to freeze them and defrost them one at a time 😛

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

Jamie Eason’s Meatloaf Muffins

In one of my very first posts I put up the recipe for these, and I think they’re so yummy! They’re also really convenient to grab on the go to munch on like an apple, or I like to chop up and mix with salsa/put in a psyllium crepe (recipe posted previously)/throw in a salad!

This time I altered them slightly by subbing in kangaroo mince (I’m determined to try it in everything now!) and, although they smell a bit different, I’m sure they’ll taste just as good! These are yummy but I think I prefer the turkey in this recipe… I might try a different meatball recipe with the kangaroo because I think it required different spices.

 

Meal 4:

Leftovers! Yay I love it when I find that I have enough leftovers to last me another week! This week I have plenty of Peanut Butter Layered Coconut and Vanilla Whey Protein Cakes and Chocolate and Coconut Protein Bars, so I can relax a bit :).

Also, just thought I’d chuck a photo in of my Vitamin-Rich Post-Workout Shake before it gets all blended up – you’ll see that I use Optimum Nutrition 100% Gold Standard Whey Protein and I love it! My boyfriend and I did a heap of hunting around to find the best and so far this is it! I love vanilla icecream flavour, and also have the double chocolate, but the Dymatize flavour beats that in regards to flavour!

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

Low Carb Chicken Parmigiana

I love a good chicken parmigiana and found this awesome recipe at http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/27204/30+minute+chicken+parmigiana+bake. I altered it slightly to suit me a bit better, and this is what I came up with:

Serves 4

2 chicken breasts – halved (to make thinner)

1 medium brown onion – diced

2 tsp crushed garlic

340g jar fire-roasted pepper strips – drained

450g jar lite chicken parmigiana sauce

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

Eggplant, diced

Italian herbs

Salt and pepper

Lite pizza cheese

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees

2. Spray frying pan lightly with oil and cook chicken breasts until browned and cooked through, then remove from pan and sit aside

3. In the same pan, cook onion, garlic, and egg plant until onion is cooked, then add jar of peppers. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add parmigiana sauce and herbs, bring to the boil, and season with salt and pepper.

4. Lay the chicken breasts out on an ovenproof dish and pour the sauce mixture on top. Sprinkle with cheese (not too much!)

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until top is golden. YUM!! The addition of the fire-roasted peppers is awesome! I also would have added a few olives if I’d had any on hand.

I have been searching for this lite pizza cheese EVERYWHERE after finding it randomly a few months ago… and found it again! Just in woolworths, but for some reason it tends to come and go…

 

Meal 6:

Either my Chocolate Protein Mousse or Cottage Cheese Mixture (in the photo above I mixed cottage cheese+dark unsweetened cocoa+stevia+almond milk+unsweetened desiccated coconut), whichever I can be bothered making!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before but I live in a communal building, with a bunch of other medical students, and so I have to share a communal kitchen. Cooking all this food at once tends to make such a mess and takes so much time but I like to do it all at once to get it out of the way, and I always choose times when the kitchen is as empty as possible. Here’s a photo of the workplace….

On the plus side, when it’s empty it means I can use ALL the ovens at once, if I need different temperatures, and I can borrow some people’s pots and pans (although I ALWAYS clean them and put them away after use, because I hate when people leave mine dirty!).

I absolutely love bulk cooking at the start of the week, it gives me so much more time when I’m busy during the week and it really eases some of the stress off my mind. I’m trying to get my boyfriend to start bulk cooking because he hates having to spend so much time cooking and washing dishes every night, so this w/e I’m compiling a bunch of easy freezable recipes for him and we’re going tupperware shopping 🙂

Hope everyone has a great week – if anyone has any questions about calorie/macro content of any of my recipes, or would like any advice about eating clean etc, feel free to comment on my wall or email me – blhat1@student.monash.edu 🙂

Train mean eat clean 🙂 xx

Missing Ash

I’ve gone a WHOLE week without my boyfriend 😦 he’s still over in Thailand, having an absolute blast, but I miss him terribly! Thank goodness we have facebook and Tango/Skype; our brief moments of communication are keeping me sane 🙂

I have noticed though that it’s a lot easier to get things organised and done when my w/es aren’t devoted to spending time with my boyfriend – I feel on top of all my work and I got so much extra stuff done today!! I got all my groceries done and all my food was cooked by 3pm (not bad considering I went to gym + ran a bunch of errands including vacuuming and dusting beforehand). BAM, out of that kitchen!! I love getting all my cooking out of the way at the start of the week, I hate busy/cluttered/messy kitchens and, unfortunately, sharing a communal kitchen makes that very difficult to avoid. So I like to spend as little time in there as possible, and at times of the day when hardly anybody else is in there 🙂 I’m not antisocial, I just want to get the job done ASAP!

Here’s my quote for this week:

I really lack confidence when it comes to my medical degree (amongst other things) and when I’m in the hospital I really need to push myself to speak up, ask questions, and not be afraid of making a fool of myself. I was proud of myself last week because for the first time ever I went up to a consultant after a lecture and asked him some questions (in fact, the lecture was on chronic renal failure and one of the questions I asked him was whether protein can increase the risk of kidney damage, and he said no – YAY!) and it wasn’t as scary as I had thought it would be! So I need to try to apply that mindset to everything I do, and as soon as I overcome my fear and step outside of my comfort zone – and survive – I can instantly feel my self esteem and self confidence go up a notch :).

 

Food for this week:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

My pancakes 🙂 I bought some lemons this week so I’m going to put a little squeeze of juice on top before I eat them – delicious!!

 

Meal 2/4:

Ok so these are called Peanut Butter Layered Coconut and Vanilla Whey Protein Cakes, from the amazing site http://www.proteinpow.com/. As you can see I didn’t layer them or add peanut butter (I find it impossible to keep peanut butter nearby, I eat it way too quickly…) but they were so yummy and soft just by themselves!

3/4 cup egg whites

1/4 cup whey

2 tbsp coconut flour (can sub with ground almonds + oat flour)

4 tbsp coconut flour (can sub with oat flour, which is what I did)

3/4 cup quark (or cottage cheese, which is what I used)

1/8 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup coconut milk – I used almond milk instead and it still tastes delicious!

1/4 cup oats

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1. Blend all ingredients

2. Bake in the oven at 160 degrees for about 30-35 minutes – this was if they’r mini-cake size. I cooked mine as muffins (12) and they only took about 15-20 minutes! Just keep an eye on them and take them out when the knife comes out clean

3. On the website, Anna cuts the mini-cakes up and puts peanut butter in the cakes, just to make them a little more special 🙂

 

I also cooked my Chocolate and Coconut Protein Bars (see earlier post) – I can’t get enough of these! So soft and delicious… I highly recommend them!

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

Yummmm this is such an amazing lasagne!! I just used the recipe posted earlier (zucchini lasagne) but instead of turkey, I used…. KANGAROO!!!! Yum yum yum, so delicious and so healthy, I’m looking forward to lunch tomorrow 😀 (PS it tastes a lot better than it looks hah)

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

Chicken Taco

I have posted this recipe before as well but I’m going to retype it:

Serves 4

500g chicken breast/ground chicken

1/2 medium onion – chopped

1/2 capsicum – sliced

1 Tbsp chilli powder

1 tsp garlic powder (or minced garlic)

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1/2 cup water

Iceberg lettuce

1 tomato – chopped

8 Tbsp salsa

1. Brown chicken over medium heat

2. Add onion and capsicum and cook until soft

3. Add spices, and water

4. Serve with lettuce, tomato & salsa

This recipe differs the tinsiest bit from the other version because this time I’m skipping the tortillas and instead I’m going to wrap the tacos in iceberg lettuce leaves 🙂 I love doing this because it makes it taste extra fresh and yummy, as well as being lower in carbs! Good for a meal later in the day.

 

Meal 6/Dessert:

Chocolate Protein Mousse!! Super dooper easy – I just bought chocolate mousse sachets (the Weight Watchers brand) and added a scoop of chocolate protein powder! It takes longer than an hour to set, but it is sooo delicious and feels really naughty 🙂 I added some almonds as well, just because I like the added crunch.

 

Also, I have been looking for this everywhere and finally found it – liquid egg whites!! And not the frozen kind!! I was very excited because I actually didn’t have any egg whites that were already defrosted so it meant I didn’t have to wait before starting to bake!! I also found this sugar free mocha (using Natvia!) which will be perfect for cravings in the coming Winter (there was also hot chocolate, both are delicious!).

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and steps outside of their comfort zone!! It may mean trying a strange food (like spaghetti squash, I’m DYING to try it, but I can’t find it anywhere!), adding an extra couple of kilos to the leg press, or even talking to that guy that you’ve had a crush on – DO IT and you’ll feel so much better about yourself 🙂

Meanwhile I’m hanging out for this Thursday, when my boyfriend gets back to Oz and I’m going to surprise him at the airport 😀 YAY!!! This week is going to be a good one, I can feel it!

Post-Easter Detox

I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel disgusting, bloated and lethargic after that easter break – I had a whole week off and went up to Sydney with my boyfriend to celebrate our one year anniversary. It was an amazing few days, full of expensive restaurants, luxurious foods, and delicious wines (as well as a trip to Taronga zoo and a close almost-encounter with One Direction) but in a way I’m glad to be back to get into routine and feel good about myself!

Uni starts back tomorrow, and its back in the hospital at 8am! I’m an early bird so I don’t mind the 8am start, however my gym doesn’t open until 6am, making it extremely difficult for me to squeeze in my hour and a half workout in the mornings 😦 I need an Anytime Fitness gym! I’m going to have to go after class, which will be around 6:30pm, which I do not like at all, but unfortunately it’s unavoidable. Any gym is better than no gym!

Just had a big cooking sesh in the communal kitchen here and this is my eating plan for the week:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

You guessed it – blueberry pancakes 🙂

 

Meal 2/4:

Healthy Chocolate Fudge Protein Brownies (see earlier post) – these brownies look a bit different than my last batch although I’m not sure why! They taste just as delicious, and this time I put almonds in them instead of walnuts, just because that’s what I had on hand.

I also baked Chocolate and Coconut Protein Bars (see earlier post).

Cooking snacks in bar form is a lot easier for me to carry around in my pocket in the hospital, so I think I’m going to cook more of these from now on (muffins etc for special occasions/weekends).

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

When I headed to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping this morning, there was no turkey mince on the shelves. So I’ve mustered up the courage to try kangaroo mince! My only experience with eating kangaroo was an unpleasant one (overcooked roo steak – yuck) but this is going to be really nice!! Kangaroo is a really good meat to have – it’s super lean, high in protein, and is a great source of dietary iron. I might have to try subbing in kangaroo meat more often 🙂

Kangaroo Chili

I just cooked the Turkey Chili recipe that I posted in one of my earliest entries but replaced the turkey mince with kangaroo! I also added some zucchini, green capsicum and mushroom.

 

Post-Workout:

I always used to just have protein powder with water, but I’ve recently tried mixing together a few things just to increase the vitamins etc, as well as taste! Here’s a protein shake that I love –

Vitamin-Rich Protein Shake

45mL almond milk

20g spinach (sounds strange, but you can’t taste spinach at all! A great way to easily add vitamins from green leafies into your diet)

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

2g chia seeds (these are the latest superfood craze and I add these to everything! They’re tasteless but are high in omega-3 as well as iron and other essential vitamins and minerals. I love to add them to baked good especially)

5g psyllium husks (really in high in dietary fibre)

1/2 banana (sugar helps the body to break down and absorb protein faster post-workout)

200mL cold water

1. Blend and enjoy! Yum 🙂

 

Meal 5:

Baked Basil Chicken

Serves 4

4 chicken breasts

1/3 cup Greek yoghurt

1/4 cup fresh basil – chopped

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I subbed in oat flour)

1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a baking dish

3. Combine yoghurt, basil and cornstarch and mix well. Spread over chicken

4. Mix breadcrumbs (/oat flour) and parmesan cheese and sprinkle over chicken

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle

 

Meal 6:

Cottage cheese + cinnamon + Stevia + almonds

My boyfriend is spending the next 12 days over in Thailand with his family, the lucky thing, but it’s going to be interesting to see how I cope without being able to talk to him whenever I need to. Our skype sessions every night tend to get me through the day, so I think I’m going to struggle without those :S My boyfriend almost didn’t go on the trip because he was worried about leaving me on my own, but I didn’t want to hold him back from having an awesome experience with his family overseas – he deserves a bit of a break!

So hopefully this week goes smoothly, with limited lows, and I’m able to get through til the weekend, when I can at least visit my family. I think I’m going to pass a lot of time in the gym to get my mind off missing my boy 😛

 

Motivation for the week: Andreia Brazier