Overnight Oats

In lieu of a Sunday Brunch post I am going to share with you one of my favorite breakfasts - overnight oats. Honestly, last week was a super busy but boring week. All I did was work, work, work. I did 3 evenings with 2 turnarounds (I worked 4-12 then on call from 12-8am then worked 8-4pm) so there was little time for anything else. We did go away again this weekend but it was pretty low key and I forgot to take any pictures so how boring would that be!

Recipes for overnight oats are everywhere these days. If you search on Pinterest you will literally get hundreds of ideas. I make them fairly often so I have figured out the base you need to get the perfect consistency and from there you basically just add whatever kind of flavors your into.

Overnight Oats Base:

1/3 - 1/2 cup quick oats (depending on how big of a breakfast you want)
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tbsp. chia seeds
1/2 - 1 tbsp. sweetener of choice (I use stevia)
1/2 - 3/4 cup milk of choice (dairy, coconut, almond, soy, etc)
*You can also add 1 scoop of protein powder if wanted.*
I promise you, this will give you the perfect consistency! It is tried, tested and true! Now is the fun part, adding in whatever you want. Here is my favorite mixture:

1 banana, sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp. walnuts
1 tbsp. dark chocolate chips
1 tbsp. peanut butter

Place all of this in a mason jar then shake to mix and store in the fridge overnight. The next morning you can either eat it cold or warm it up, whichever you prefer. I hope you enjoy this quick, easy and healthy breakfast recipe!

Sunday Brunch: August 21st, 2016

Hey there and welcome back for another Sunday Brunch (minus the brunch)! This has been a pretty busy week (end) so lets get right to it. Oh, but first, just a little heads up, this post is loaded with pictures, I just couldn't help myself!

Monday to Friday was your typical work week. I came down with a cold (ahem, thanks Scott :) on Tuesday and I am still stuck with it. I am definitely feeling better than I was but its turned into a bit of laryngitis now so that's just dandy! Wednesday after work, Scott and I went out for supper with our friends Stefan and Heather to celebrate Heathers birthday since we were not going to be around on the weekend for her party.

Friday after work Scott and Roscoe picked me up and we headed to Nova Scotia for my cousins wedding. As I have said before, I grew up in NS and my parents and all of my family live there as well, so that's where we were headed. We didn't arrive until late, around 10pm, as Scott didn't get off work until 5 and we had to make a few pit stops for Ros.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed out kayaking. Where I am from there are tons of great places to go exploring so we started out in the river in Harpellville and eventually made our way to the ocean! There was quite a group of us; my parents, brother, aunt, a couple of friends of the family and Scott and I, 8 in total. It was such a beautiful morning for it. We went up river first and into a couple of small brooks then turned around once the tide came in and headed down river to the ocean. This was my first time ever kayaking and I was nervous that I would tip it over but I actually did pretty good, I even managed to beat Scott and my brother, Colin, in a race (not really but it was close!). It was super calm on the river but when we got to the ocean the wind came up a bit. It wasn't bad but it was windy enough that we didn't venture out too far. While we were floating around in the mouth of the river we did see a lot of seals though. It was so cool! They were popping up all over the place and actually came pretty close to our kayaks. Scott had never seen a seal that close before so he was pretty excited.

Scott, exploring one of the little inlets

The crew

My brother - Colin

"The Shanty's"

Back on solid land

After a couple of hours of kayaking we headed back to where we had left the trucks. The wedding was at 3pm so we went back home to get ready. This was the first wedding of the season for Scott and I so it was fun to get all dressed up. The wedding was beautiful and the bride and groom looked amazing. It was such a fun night, dancing and spending time with family and old friends. It was a blast from the past for me as there were quite a few people there that I hadn't seen since high school graduation (and that wasn't yesterday!). My cousin, Cody and his new bride, Brittany, got married and had their reception in the same venue that Scott and I did so it brought back lots of memories from our wedding day too! We danced until they kicked us out, it was so much fun but I am feeling it today!

This morning, once we finally all got up and at em', Scott and I took Roscoe and my families dog, Baylee, to the beach to play. They had been stuck inside for most of the evening on Saturday so they had some energy to burn. It was so funny, Roscoe LOVES to swim but he didn't care too much for the big waves. He would run out until he met a wave breaking and then turn around and hightail it back!

The ocean is my happy place

He was only a little happy!

My two loves

Ros and Bay

It was such a great weekend but not long enough (they never are). I am already looking forward to coming back to NS next weekend with our friends Heather and Stefan and baby Avery for more fun and sun!

On another note, I wanted to mention that I decided I am going to start a "mini cut". This weekend kicked off wedding season for Scott and I so I know there will be lots of food and drinks in the near future. Before all this starts I want to get my diet back on track. I have been doing pretty good during the week but I am still not good enough. I don't plan on losing any significant amount of weight I just want to get feeling healthy again and I thought I would share the process on here to help keep me accountable. I will do a more detailed post on this on Thursday so stay tuned for that.

Have a great week!

Workout Wednesday

Lately, I have been addicted to a few different health and fitness blogs. They are mainly runners, but they touch on a variety of topics. Some of my favorite posts to read are about their training. Whether it be from one day or a weeks worth, I just like to see what others are doing to stay healthy and fit! Today I thought I would share a "Workout Wednesday" post. It's pretty self explanatory, it's the workout I did on Wednesday. I know I just posted something similar to this in last weeks Sunday Brunch but bear with me, I promise there will be a farm related post coming next week.

Yesterday, being Wednesday, I went to CrossFit. The group that I workout with always meet up Monday, Wednesday, Friday and occasionally Saturdays. I did a slightly altered workout than the rest of the group due to my hip injury but I made sure it was just as tough! Here is what was scheduled:

Strength - Bench 5x5 @ 90#
WOD: 3RFT
            15 Thrusters @ 65# (I did High hang powercleans + push press)
            50 Double unders

I started by warming up and doing some mobility work then moved on to strength. I am only doing bench right now because squatting and deadlifts are a no-go, they hurt too much. Todays programming had me doing 5 sets of 5 repetitions at 90 pounds. I came down with a cold a couple days ago and unfortunately I definitely felt it during my workout. My warmup sets, which I did a few reps at 45, 65 and 85 pounds, felt tough so I new it was going to be a struggle to get through all 5 sets of 5. I was right - it sucked. The first set felt terrible and it didn't get any better as the sets went on. I made sure to take lots of rest in between sets and still got a good pause at the bottom of each rep but it was hard. I am glad I struggled through it though and successfully completed all 5 sets because when I am healthy again, that weight will be so much easier!

The WOD was equally suck-tastic. It is amazing how after 3 years of CrossFit, I still always underestimate the workouts. We all looked at this workout and said "oh 3 rounds, easy!". Boy, were we wrong. It was a lung burner for sure and by the time I was finished my grip was toast. The weight was light but hanging onto the bar for that long was difficult. I finished in 8:03 (8 minutes 3 seconds) so it was longer than expected but I felt so much better after finishing. It helped clear my head for a little while and the post-workout euphoria always has me coming back for more!

Today I am still feeling crappy from being sick but I am also sore as hell. My shoulders, traps and back are wrecked! I had planned to do another lighter workout tonight, just an easy 3km run, but I think I am going to take a rest day and relax. I may take Roscoe for a walk and I have a lot of housework to do before we go away for the weekend, so a rest day is needed.

I hope you enjoyed this Workout Wednesday post. See you next time!

*This post was inspired by Wild Workout Wednesdays linkup by Jen at Pretty Little Grub, Nicole at Fitful Focus, Annmarie at The Fit Foodie Mama, and Michelle at Fruition Fitness.*

Sunday Brunch: August 14th, 2016

Is it Sunday already?! Where the heck did those seven days go? It's true what they say; the older you get, the faster time goes by. This week seems to have flown by, as most weeks do, and it's hard to believe that it's already the middle of August! This has been such a great summer but it's going by far to fast! There are only two more weekends of the summer left (I guess technically there are 5 because the first day of fall is September 22nd but I haven't been out of school that long so when August ends it feels like summer should too). Fortunately I have the next 2 weekends off and we have plans to spend both of them at my parents in Nova Scotia!

Anyway, back on track to this weeks Sunday Brunch! Todays brunch special is a refreshing smoothie bowl. I am trying to get back on track with my eating habits and since I am the only one in the house who likes treats, making something sweet would not be in my diets best interest (because I would eat it all myself). This smoothie is blueberry and strawberry with oats, chia seeds, almond milk, low calorie maple syrup and low fat vanilla coffee creamer (why not, right?). Not only does it look pretty but it's also berry delicious (pun intended)!

 

This was a pretty mundane week. I worked and Scott got sick with a stomach bug. He started feeling crappy at work on Monday and by that evening he was very sick. He stayed home sick Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (which is a testament to how sick he was - he never misses work) and finally was feeling better by Friday. He is still not feeling 100% but everyday is a little better. Seeing as we didn't do much of anything outside of working and watching a new series on Netflix in the evenings (Stranger Things - I highly recommend it), I thought I would do a recap of my workouts this week. It was actually a really good week for me, workout wise, as I got to the gym after work four of the five days. This is still less than normal for me but I'm getting back into the groove!

Monday: CrossFit

I am still not able to do all of the WOD's posted at the box due to my hip injury and today was one of those days. The posted WOD was:

3 RFT (rounds for time):
30 Wallballs
800m run

I am not supposed to squat or run up hills yet so this workout was a no-go. Instead I did a few accessory things as well as my bench program:

Bench 4x5 @ 85#
Goodmornings 3x15 @ 95#
Calf Raises 3x20 @ 95#
Situps (w/feet up on box) 2x20

Tuesday: Shoulders

Since I can't work my lower body I am going to try and build my upper body. I haven't done a real "bodybuilding" circuit in a couple of months so it felt good to really hit my shoulders. I was so sore the next morning, it was great!

Wednesday: Rest Day

This was not a planned rest day. I was supposed to go to CrossFit again but I forgot that I had a bridal shower right after work for one of my coworkers. It probably wasn't a bad thing though because I was still very sore after work.

Thursday: Back & Hamstrings

I know I just said I'm not supposed to be training lower body but my physiotherapist did say that movements that focused on my hamstrings and NOT causing any strain to my hip flexors would be fine. So I did it. I was very cautious and didn't use any/much weight and let me tell you, after a couple months of not specifically targeting those muscles I was sore the next day!

Friday: CrossFit

Bench 3x4 @ 90#
WOD: AMRAP 10 (as many reps as possible in 10 minutes)
8 Pullups
10 Pushups
12 Situps
Total = 6 rounds + 18 reps

Saturday: Rest Day

I slept in with the pooch and took it easy the rest of the day as I had to work at 4pm.

Sunday: Run

If the rain lets up I plan to go out for an easy 3km with Roscoe this evening!

All in all it was a pretty successful week at the gym. I'm hoping to keep it up into next week even though it looks like it is going to be pretty busy! See you next week!

What's Cookin' in My Kitchen: Brussel Sprout Saute

Call me weird but I love brussel sprouts. I never understand why people turn their nose up at the thought of brussel sprouts, but then I remember, it's probably because they haven't tried the recipe I am about to share with you.

Two years ago I did a month long Paleo challenge at my CrossFit box. We had a facebook group and on it people shared recipes that were conducive to the diet. I was a newbie to Paleo so I tried just about every recipe that was posted. I don't know if any of you have ever tried the Paleo diet but it is hard! In the Paleo diet you eat mostly fruits and vegetables, meat and fish as well as nuts and seeds. It's based on premise that you are eating only what would have been available during the "hunter/gatherer" era many, many years ago. So, no dairy, no grains, no processed food. Now do you see why I say it was hard? Of all the recipes that I tried, a few of them remain favorites of mine and I make them all the time. The one I am going to share today is brussel sprout sauté. I don't know where the original recipe came from, I just got it from a friend and I have adapted it a bit to fit my tastes. It's very simple but also very tasty!

Here is what you need:

- Brussel Sprouts (shocking, I know!)

- 1 medium sized onion - I used red onion

- 1 Apple - I usually use the Granny Smith variety but all I had was Golden Delicious so really any kind will do

- Optional: BACONNNNN - now I did not use bacon today because I am trying to watch what I eat but I highly recommend you add bacon the first time you try this recipe. It really does make it 10000 times better. I mean, it's good without the bacon, but come on, anytime bacon is added it automatically becomes better!

Start by dicing the onions (image above) and tossing them in a frying pan with your oil of choice - I used olive oil but if you have any bacon fat left from frying the bacon, use that!

Now, cut your brussel sprouts into halves or quarters, depending on the size you want. Throw them into the frying pan with the onions and season with salt and pepper. Cover and let fry over medium heat until the mixture is browned nicely.

Dice your apple into small pieces and once the brussel sprout-onion mixture is browned, add the apple to the pan.

Allow it to cook until apples begin to soften and are slightly browned. Be sure not to cook for too long as the apples will become mush, and therefore not so tasty! It should look something like this:

How good does that look?! I made this to take with me on my night shift and paired it with rice and turkey burgers! Mmm-mmm, so good! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

August Goals

Today I thought I would share with you a few of the goals I have set for myself for the month of August. I got this idea from a number of the blogs that I follow but Pretty Little Grub is the one I was most recently reading when I thought "hey, I should do this on my blog"! Here goes...

1. Get back into a gym routine:

It hurts me to admit, but I am out of my gym routine. There are a number of reasons why, the top reason being that I have been dealing with an injured hip for 8-10 weeks now. I have no idea how I actually hurt my hip. I'm thinking a combination of running and heavy squats mixed with tweaking it somehow. I can't remember a specific movement that caused me to go "ouch", I just woke up one morning feeling fine but when I went to the gym to squat, I couldn't. Like I'm talking I literally could not squat 95 pounds (which is nothing to me). I rested it for a couple of weeks, thinking it would go away, and when it didn't I tried to work through the pain (I know-STUPID). After a month of that I went to the doctor who sent me for physiotherapy. I only just got into physio 2 weeks ago and the physiotherapist thinks that my femoral head was impinging on my hip flexor which caused the injury. She told me to stop doing anything that causes my hip flexors to be engaged (which is practically every lower body movement) and to stop running on any incline. I was so discouraged that I couldn't do anything I like to do anymore - lower body stuff is my jam - that I took a whole week off! That is the longest I have gone without going to the gym in over 3 years! After a week I was ready to get back to it so my goal for this month is to get back into a regular routine, 4-5 days a week, and focus on upper body and running. This brings me to my next couple of goals...

2. Start a bench press program

While I was working through my hip injury rather than dealing with it, I started a powerlifting program. After only a few weeks I just could not squat or deadlift but I could bench. Bench has never been my favorite movement, in fact I hated it. But, because that was all I could really do I started to really enjoy it. At the end of my program, I tested my 1RM (maximum effort for 1 repition) and I hit 120 pounds! This was a 10 pound PR (personal best) and a huge confidence builder. I am so psyched to start my program over and see what I can do in the next 6 weeks. My goal is to hit 135 pounds before Christmas!

3. Start running again

I also want to start running again. My physiotherapist said only to run on the flat and to take it easy. I haven't really ran, except for sprints in my CrossFit workouts, since last fall. I am a warm weather runner (I will never be one of those people that runs in the cold) so by the time it was warm enough for me to start, I injured my hip shortly after. Running any distance caused my hip to pain so I stuck with short sprints. I want to slowly start adding running back into my routine. Roscoe and I went for a short, 2km run yesterday and it didn't seem to bother me too badly. My plan is to slowly increase the distance, 1km at a time, ensuring I am pain free. I don't have a specific distance I want to hit by the end of August, I just want to get back out there.

4. Be more consistent with my diet

This will probably be in every monthly goals list I ever make (if I continue to do them). I always have great intentions of eating really well, but then someone offers me pizza and I'm like "hell yes!". This summer I have been struggling with staying on track more than usual. It probably has something to do with being injured and not being able to do as much in the gym so I feel like "if I can't do my best at the gym, why bother worrying about what I eat". This is a terrible mentality and I am usually much better than this. I am all about indulging occasionally and having a good balance in your life but I am indulging way too often. I just want to tighten things up a bit and stop having cheat meals quite so often.

5. Spend more time with my horses

Oy! My poor horses have been so neglected this summer. Sure, I still see them everyday and give them scratches and all that but I haven't been so good at spending more than a few minutes at a time with them. Summers are extremely busy for me but that's not a good enough excuse. My goal for the month is to take them out and brush them at least twice per week.

6. Continue to enjoy the summer!

As busy as its been, its been an excellent summer. I feel as if Scott and I have got to do more than we usually do and are truly enjoying every moment of it. Even mowing the lawn isn't so bad because I get to be outside! The next couple of weekends are filled with concerts, weddings and a trip home with friends so this will probably be my easiest goal to keep!

7. Prepare for going back to school

Where has the summer gone?! As much as I have been enjoying it, it has flown by. Now I can't help but start thinking about returning to school in September. I am equal parts excited and nervous. I'm excited because it's something to look forward to and I love to learn. I'm nervous because I doubt my ability to think at a "Masters level". A masters program is a whole new ballgame for me and it's no joke. In order to give myself a little comfort, I want to be as prepared as I can be. My goal is to paint and organize the upstairs loft and make it into an office-type area for me. It shouldn't take much work, it's just a matter of finding the time and doing it.

So those are my goals for this month. Looking at them laid out like that, it seems like a lot! Check back next month to see how I do!

Farm Fresh

I've said it before but I'll say it again (and I'll probably say it 100 times more); I think my favorite part of summer is having so much farm fresh produce available. Honestly, there is no comparison between the taste of veggies fresh from the garden and those that are bought at the grocery store from somewhere far, far away. My garden is slowly starting to produce vegetables and I am so pumped! It sounds so lame but I get excited going out to my garden and picking our food for supper. If you read my post, What's Growing in My Garden, then you'll know that this is not my first time having a garden. So why am I so excited about it this year? I think it's because I am doing a REALLY good job with the garden this year. Not to toot my own horn but my garden rocks! It's not overly big so I have made sure that everything is weeded on a regular basis, I have fertilized and watered it and I've kept it free of pests. Now I am reaping the rewards! For the past few weeks I have been harvesting swiss chard but now my carrots, potatoes and beans are starting to come. Even my tomato plants are flowering so I should pretty soon have some of those as well. Remember my sad looking cucumber plants? Well they aren't so sad looking anymore - I might actually get something off them!


I was off on Monday but Scott was working so Roscoe and I took a drive out to the farm he works at. I love it there! Their main business is strawberries (they run a u-pick and sell to the local grocery stores) but they do so much more. They have a raspberry u-pick, greenhouse where they grow a crap-load of tomatoes and cucumbers. They grow rhubarb, squash, turnip, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, beans and peas. They have a large market at the end of their driveway where they sell all of their fresh produce (by the honor system I might add - it's not manned most of the time so they have a locked cash box that you leave your money in). They also have a large and very nice Saler beef herd (this is where we have bought most of our cattle), sheep, chickens and eggs. They sell fresh, "grass fed" beef and sheep but they have high quality show cattle as well so they do sell quite a bit of breeding stock. Every time I go there I am awed by the diversity of their business. This is exactly the type of business that Scott and I hope to evolve to, so to say that they inspire us is an understatement.


While I was there I helped Scott pick some tomatoes in the greenhouse and restock the market. It was fun! Although I know I only did about 1/100th of what Scott does in the run of a day so I know it must get tiring, I can definitely see why he likes it there so much. Before leaving, Brian (the owner) gave me some tomatoes and potatoes that were slightly blemished, but otherwise fine, that they couldn't sell in the market as a result. As I was leaving, I then stopped at their market and picked up a box of raspberries (which are SO much better than the ones I buy in the grocery store) and some cherry tomatoes.

Some of the goodies I got at Walkers and some from my own garden

When I got home I went out to my garden and picked some swiss chard and pulled a few carrots (they aren't quite ready yet so I only pulled enough that the others had lots of room left to grow). I figured I may as well make it a fully farm fresh supper. I had some ground beef out to make burgers for Scott (which we got from Brian and Linda aka Scotts work) and ground turkey for turkey burgers for me (unfortunately not farm fresh). After a weekend of eating out this meal was much needed and oh-so delicious. I also had such a sense of pride that I had grown some of the food we were eating. Call me weird but I just think it's cool!

I strongly urge you to eat fresh food when you can. Even better yet, have a small garden of your own. You don't need to live in the country or on a farm to do this, there are plenty of ways to make it work for your situation. However, if this just isn't for you, at least buy local foods. Not only will you be supporting local farmers and the economy in your own town but it's also so much better when it's fresh. Taste aside, chances are if a farmer is selling at a market or opens his farm up to people to come visit and buy right off the farm, he's doing things right. Not that all farms that don't do this are doing things incorrectly, but it shows that he takes pride in making sure his facilities are well kept and you can see how the animals are treated and crops are grown. I am not a supporter of the "organic" craze or the terms "grass fed", "steroid and hormone free" or "free range", but I am a HUGE believer in supporting your local farmers. There is something to be said for knowing exactly where your food is coming from. I hope this at least makes you think twice about buying carrots from China rather than at the famer's market down the street. Get out there and BUY LOCAL!