What a B _ _ C H!

Beach. I obviously meant beach. Hehehe.

Today was a kinda crazy day for me! I was running all over the city for meetings, and tried to sneak in some Christmas shopping.

So when I finally realized it was time to go home, I was frazzled! My receptionist even commented on my stressed state. Realizing once I was on the bus that I had unzipped my dress to midback to let a breeze in... Probably prompted her comments.

I got home and put my workout clothes on, jumped in the car and headed to Scarborough beach about 15 minutes away. I only had 30 minutes before Pilates, so I did 25 minutes of intervals on the sand. My bootay was burning!

I captured a few gorgeous views of the beach. Don't you want to go to Pilates and see that? I know your jealous! (ooo Kristel! Guess what song came on at Pilates!! At the copa the copa cabana!! I totes thought of you)

So for dinner tonight I had watermelon and chocolate covered goji berries. I know it's not much, but I am stuffed from lunch. I had a Vietnamese bun salad. HEAVEN. Seriously delish. It's a giant bowl of vermicelli noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, chicken, onions, mint, lettuce, cucumbers, and peanuts. So good. Then because I'm addicted to spicy things I load it up with fresh chili and siracha sauce! I would have taken a picture, but it was over a lunch meeting... My clients would look at me strange.

So this giant salad is why I only wanted watermelon and goji... Oh and maybe a bit of guilt because I found reeses! Oh yes. I have a supplier now. Bad for my health, good for my soul. Luckily, I have to walk 25 minutes round trip to get one.

Tomorrow I shall tell you about my 25 days of Christmas present for my boyfraaaannd!

Love y'all!

Tori

PS it looks like I posted 3 posts at one. I didn't! If anyone is a blog genius and wants to offer lessons. I'm a great student!!

Overcoming a Black Thumb

I'm not a gardener. I have never claimed to be one. I actually gave up on my gardening ambitions after killing one too many plants during my childhood.

Until one day I decided I was going to make over our backyard at the farm. I have a before picture, but I am saving it until the after is perfect! So far it is looking really good, and nothing has died.

As Jono was helping me plant stuff, I commented he knew a lot about gardening. He looked at me a little dumbstruck, "you do realize I garden for a living." Oh yeah... Farmer... Oops.

Anyhow, most things I planted were under his tutelage. I went a bit rogue because I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted some spaghetti squash. I got online and ordered the seeds, you can't just buy spaghetti squash here. I would say a majority of people have never heard of it.

So we do have an actually vegetable garden that is not part of the backyard. However, it is still covered with winter veggies, mostly spinach and leeks. So I couldn't plant my spaghetti squash seeds there.

I knew if I asked Jonathon to water my seeds while I was in the city they could be overlooked. Solution: buy seedlings. So I bought tomatoes, jalepenos, strawberries, zucchinis, and chilies! I planted them secretly in the cover of darkness. Not really. But still I was covert, and then right by the jalepenos I planted my spaghetti squash seeds. See how I did that? I knew they'd get water!!

He did say it didn't make sense to have these veggies in our backyard, but agreed to water them. (This is becoming a really long post about something relatively pointless... Sorry!) So after a few weeks my little baby spaghetti squash plants have become to come up! My jalepenos ACTUALLY have lil baby peppers on them! (Sidenote- the jalepenos are turning black, like they have a sunburn, can I still eat them?) I have a strawberry! One that is actually red, the rest are ripening. The zucchini looks like it might be shooting, and finally the tomatoes are blossoming!

I never knew I could be so excited about growing my own fruit. Now just cross all of your fingers and toes that my spaghetti squash produces!

Love y'all!

Tori

PS Gardening tips are appreciated!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Yesterday reached over 100F and I was dying. Just so stinking hot. The air conditioning in the front half of the house (living, kitchen, dining) decided to break. Awesome. So I spent a lot of the day in the bedroom, reading and yoga-ing.

This brings me to my next point. It's too hot to pretend Christmas is a winter wonderland. I didn't want to do a traditional tree. So I did burlap and sunflowers!

As you can see it turned into more than just sunflowers and I really went with yellow flowers. I love love love it.

How cute is the wrapping? I know. Presh. And yes I've done most of the Christmas shopping already, and wrapped them. I get serious anxiety shopping in Australia, I have a completely irrational fear that I may not be able to find what I want or it may exist but I don't know what store to go to. So I just got it all done early all at once. Not to worry I'm working on my phobia with lots of shopping!

Funny story about why my tree isn't all pretty and lit up. I bought lights, about 100 feet of them, which is wayyyyyy too many for my small 3.5 foot Christmas tree. I didn't realize that at the time. Ooops. Guess I'll hang them outside!

Not to worry just because I decorated for Christmas, I'm not ignoring my favorite holiday of all! Thanksgiving!! I'll write a post later this week about my menu and party!

Love y'all!

Tori

Flies and Tuna

I managed to snap a picture of the flies sitting on my arm after my run. There aren't as many for the first 15 minutes, but once I start sweating (lovely) they swarm! They go for moisture- eyes, nose, mouth are favorites. Luckily my sunglasses cover half my face! It's a real challenge to not inhale any.

This was my first run in hotter weather. We are just getting into summer and temperatures are rising. 26C is only 80F but the sun was blazing hot overhead!

I like to post my heart rate monitor, because it is pretty much the most amazing and motivating electronic thing ever!! It beeps if I go too slow or fast, so I can stay in the fat burning zone. Plus, looking at a calorie burn of 411 after only 35 minutes is awesome and accurate. Love it. My only regret is I didn't get one sooner, and that I haven't utilized all of the features on it. Still you should get one!

I included my post run snack. Seaweed rice crackers and tuna with American mustard (yes I have to specify). Any other ideas for post work out snack?

I did have a teensy bit of knee pain during the first 10 minutes. So now I shall go foam roll, and cry and rejoice at the same time. It's a twisted system.

Until next time!
Xxx

Where do you run?

Im currently completing couch to 5k. I'm almost done with week 4! It is an 8 week program that gets you running 5km or 30 minutes straight. It is an app on iphone and what I love about it is the audio cues over your playlist that tell you when to walk and run! I included a picture of one of my training days to give you an idea of the program.

When I am in the city I usually go to Pilates, train with my pt at a nearby lake, and do beach walks. I have a really tight IT band and find road running tough on my knee. So my farm days are my running days.

If you look closely in one of the pictures you can see kangaroos! I run on a track right next to a dry creek and a wheat field. Parts of the track are loose sand, parts are mud, parts are covered with weeds, but I love it!

There are a few thousand acres on the home farm, and it is about 3.5kms from the house to the southern boundary. It's a nice change of pace to go through such scenic country. The only thing you can't see in the pictures are the flies!! Arrrrgghhh! Those damn things swarm at you. One run last summer I swallowed 4, ew! I try to make my runs later in the day to avoid the heat and the flies. Maybe today I'll try to take a picture of them all sitting on my arms and back, yuck.

So what do your runs look like? Any perils like fly swallowing?

Xx
Tori

Pumpkin Spinach Lasagna. Yum face.

So I have been losing weight since January this year (2012). It's been difficult, mostly in the food department. I am now nearly 40 pounds down (yay!) and counting.

The hardest thing about eating healthy is making man friendly food. Things hardworking men would want to eat after 15 hours harvesting crops or driving tractors or maintaining said tractor.

I have built up a store of secretly healthy food to feed them. Shhh don't tell! This is a constantly requested favorite!

Ingredients:
2 cups of pumpkin (butternut squash is ok) diced
2 onions diced
1/2 kilo or 1 lb lean beef
1 can tomato purée
1 can whole tomatoes
Mixed herbs- thyme, rosemary, basil(I used mostly fresh, some dried sprinkled on top)
Minced garlic
1 bag of spinach or bunch of silverbeet (frozen spinach is fine, just squeeze the water!)
1 1/2 cups shredded light cheese
Light ricotta cheese
Whole wheat instant lasagna sheets

Directions:
Combine beef, onions, pumpkin in pan and cook until onions are translucent, beef is cooked through, and pumpkin is getting soft. Add tomatoes, herbs, garlic, stir through. Add 1/2 spinach and allow to reduce into sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Assembly time! Start with 1/2 pumpkin and meat sauce layer. Top with pasta. Spread ricotta across pasta. Sprinkle ricotta with salt and pepper. Now pile on the last half of the spinach. Put the final pasta layer on top. Top with remaining 1/2 of pumpkin and meat sauce. Sprinkle with cheese and dried herbs.

Cook at 175 C for one hour.

It serves 8. The first time I made this recipe I calculated the calories to be around 350 per serve. I've changed and substituted things so that is a VERY rough guess.

I know pumpkin sounds weird, but the boys can't get enough! I'll have my one proper serve and then they will devour the rest between 2 or 3!

Would love your feedback. And any man friendly but secretly diet friendly recipes!!

My Life

Hi Y'all!

Last time I posted was well over a year ago... A lot has changed. I am now working and balancing my corporate life with my farm life. This blog is about to change directions big time to focus on me my life, my fitness, my cooking, really just about me. Since I actually live in Australia, and don't have any awesome travel adventures, you are just going to have to deal. I will talk about the trials and tribulations of living without velveeta cheese and reeses.

Miss you all and love you lots! (If anyone actually still reads this)

xxx
Tori