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

I'm back!

Well well, where to begin.

After being a barmaid in the wild west of Australia. I went home for a visit and stayed for two months... Returned to oz, became a barmaid again after a failed tour of the southwest with a couple of crazy Germans... Only to fall in love with an Aussie wheat farmer. Can you believe it? I can't. So now the fight to become a resident! Yipppee!

It's been a whirlwind. If you had told me a year ago I would be settling down on a wheat farm, I might have thrown a pie in your face. But it is true :) And I am incredibly happy in my love bubble... all that is missing is my dog. And a job, but that can wait. I have my entire life to work!

Soooo I have a lot of changes!

I have some dramatic changes that ya'll may not all know about.

About a month ago...I quit working as au pair... I was apparently a bad fit. SO. What do you do when you are unemployed and on the other side of the world? Call in all your friends and see what happens.

I was luckily on skype with Rachie face (love you) when all this went down. Quickly we called Guy (owe ya big time!) in New Zealand. Turned out I was able to stay with one of hisw friends daughters in Sydney. Nadine and Dan took me in, rearranged there whole house so that I could have the babies room, so wonderful of them. I owe them soooo much.

I stayed with them for about a week, and learned all sorts of things about Aussie sport and food and beer. We also shared some Dr. Pepper (yay!) and other American things, like country music!

Meanwhile, I was searching for a job on the internet. I was offered a number of positions as an au pair in a variety of different places, like Toowoomba, Tasmania, Perth, and who knows where else. I also applied to be a cook on a cattle station, and for some pub jobs.

There was this odd job that kept popping up and appeared to be a great opportunity... but it was in the middle of nowhere. Dampier, Western Australia to be exact. Nadine and I spent many hours on Google Maps walking around the streets of Dampier, and came to the conclusion that the town was pretty much squat. The job was as a barmaid. I have lots of drinking experience and limited barwork, but hey its not rocket science.

Every night I kept tossing around the idea of moving to this town, and finally I just accepted the job. It was for a minimum of 3 months, but the pub paid for my flight there, as well as, room and board and considerably high pay. They also like to higher backpackers, so I expected a hugely international scene.

Two things I was worried about. One. I needed a responsible service of alcohol license. Solved! 6 hours in a classroom and I was set. Two. There was absolutely no legit trace of this place on the internet, the whole thing could have been selling myself into human slavery. I called the US consulate to double check that it was an okay place to work, but really just ended up jumping in with both feet.

I eventually found myself at the airport with considerably less luggage. I was going from the winter of Sydney to a tropical climate (yay!). It was a great day when I arrived in Dampier, a coool 80-85F. Wonderful. The pub is less than 100m from the beach. Which I LOVE. I have so much to report on my new job and my new home.

Basically Google Dampier, its a mining town with all iron ore and salt deposits as export. Imagine west Texas... kind of. The gist is all fly in/fly out workers with some locals peppered in. Its a industrial town, but I like it.

The job. Its tough, but fun. Its a bit more than barwork... I do everything. Housekeep, Bartend, Waitress, Dishwash, Bus the tables. If it needs to be done in a pub/hotel I guarantee you the girls that work here do it.

The people. A good few of us are backpackers, Irish, American, and English are all we have. I am the only Texan! And boy they get a kick out of my accent (it's also great for tips... a smile and a how are ya'll doing? goes along way!) The staff is all girls too... kinda what I expected for a mining town.

That's all for now, It's bedtime ya'll!
I promis I won't be a stranger any longer... but know that I am having an absolute ball.