Lobster Shorts Food, Plants, vegetarian, weight loss

Sprouting Jars and Healthy Bowls

I retried my new sprouting lid and I love it! Alfalfa sprouts worked perfectly in there. The pictured jar is 1L and I used 1 tablespoon of alfalfa sprout seeds. I will only use 1/2 a tablespoon of seeds next, this made a lot. So far the jar has worked great, these seeds are around 5 days old (I can’t remember really). The seeds grow so fast! You can see the difference in size from morning to night. The seeds drained exactly how they were supposed to, they didn’t get gelatinous like the arugula seeds. So far the contents of the jar are fresh with no sign of rot. The arugula seeds sprouted on the paper towel degraded fast and quickly rotted. I had to toss most of the sprouts out. I won’t buy arugula seeds anymore because of that. I’m sure it was more to do with my sprouting methods, but it was a hassle and I like growing sprouts in the jar over the tray. Sprouts are so healthy and this jar makes it easy to have them on hand all the time. All I do is rinse and drain the jar twice a day. Another great kitchen gadget! Or would this be a house plant gadget? It checks both boxes.

I made a healthy dinner last night. On the bottom is a layer of steamed brown rice, then a layer of sprouts. I did the broccoli, , onion, mushrooms, and Gardein Beefless Tips in the air fryer. I flavoured it with a squeezed lemon, toasted sesame oil, and avocado oil. It was good, not delicious, just good. Like healthy food good. I made a lot so I am going to have the leftovers for dinner.

As per my usual, I had gained all the weight I had previously lost back, but this morning I was down three pounds. I’m 5’10 and now weighing 164lbs. It’s my goal to cross that barrier into the 150lbs range, in the past I gained the weight back before I could hit it. This time it’s going to happen for me. I did a 15 minute jog Monday night and hoping to do the same tonight, or hit the weights. I’ve been eating really healthy for the last two weeks (except Monday when I forgot my lunch and ended up having a snack bag of potato chips, and granola bites). Today I had the bean and feta Healthy Choice Power Bowl. I love them and eat them almost every lunch.

My spouse has been the one to motivate me to work out. If he says “Wanna work out with me?”, I go. It’s funny, but sometimes I just don’t think to go and do it. I expect that to change. Tonight, I’ll be the one to ask if he wants to work out with me.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, vegetarian, weight loss

Sunday Breakfast and Weekend Cards

This weekend’s big breakfast was scrambled eggs, papaya, and a croissant. I ditched the home fries. My spouse and I were at the dentist last weekend and they checked his blood pressure, it was high (and I had a cavity). It was not good news. We’re making changes. I’m cutting way back on sugar and he’s cutting down on salt. This past week we’ve been eating a lot healthier. Way more vegetables, whole grains, and less junk. My sweet tooth is still raging, so when I want chocolate, I have dark chocolate. If it’s over 70% I can have it in the home without obsessing about it all day.

I’ve also worked out a few times this week, and not just walking (although I did that too, a 9km-10km walk through the woods). I went for a jog and lifted some weights as well. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked out. I’m really proud of myself.

I made cards this weekend. You might notice I ended up gluing the happy paper upside down on the card above. OOPS! I messed up that one, but the dog is cute.

The butterfly is a 3D one, that is propped off the card, but presses down to fit in the envelope. I wasn’t sure about that one at first, but now I really like it. I made the left one with an embossing folder. It’s pretty. I will make that one in pink too, with black ink.

The left card in this one is a gift card holder. I really like the paper on that one. The top slides off and reveals the gift card. The second one is an easel style card. There were no instructions or score lines to help. I had to guess and I have no idea if I made it right. I like the card but it was a pain to put together. You can use the dies to make a house in the Winter, or a Halloween house too. I really like how they all turned out, not so much the upside down gumball machine, but the rest were great. I’ll post a link to a video of the supplies I used below.

Lobster Shorts Food, vegetarian, weight loss

Fake It Till You Make It And More Cart Smugness

This was the spoils of my grocery cart and I’m feeling proud of it (if that container of potato salad wasn’t in there, I’d be downright smug about it). I’m trying the “Fake it till you make it” approach to healthy habits. I’m pretending I’m a health nut, someone like Chris Traeger on Parks and Recreation (which I’m currently binging), so this came home with me. I bought more healthy Power Bowls for those times I don’t make lunch, and fruits and veggies.

I made a meal that I’m calling Weirdy Bowl. I cooked cauliflower, eggplants, kale, and mushrooms and them added them to tofu in a coconut milk broth that I seasoned with curry powder, garam masala, turmeric, and salt, and put it over steamed quinoa. I topped it with a dollop of hummus and potato salad (yes the potato salad is very weird, hence why I called it Weirdy Bowl). The hummus though… pretty good. I’m currently fermenting sauerkraut and growing sprouts, the potato salad will be replaced by these things in the future. It was easy to make and didn’t take too long. I’ll be making more things like this in the future. May my inner Chris Traeger cook all my future meals.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, decluttering, Food, weight loss

Breakfast, Cards, and Organization

This weekend the weather was beautiful. It’s finally starting to feel like Spring out there. The mornings were frigid and the afternoons were warm, which I hear is great maple syrup weather. For the big weekend breakfast I made scrambled eggs, with air fryer home fries, blueberries, and humming bird cake.

The humming bird cake came from Kitchen Smidgen and it was delicious. We’ve had it before, it’s one of the best things they make. Eggs and home fries are my favourite weekend splurge. I’ve been sticking with the weekday intermittent fasting. I’m still down three pounds, which is not bad since my birthday week benders of surprise dinners and a couple bags of chocolate eggs (that are gone now). I had gained back the weight and lost it again.

My bathroom drawer finally irked me into decluttering it.

It was a non-functional disaster. My bathroom drawers usually end up this way. Nothing organized, just dumped in a pile in the drawers. Before the pandemic, I was scouring the antique shops looking for decorative boxes or tins to tidy them up. I haven’t been back to one since the virus, I’m not sure they are even open. On Friday, I went on a 12km walk, during that walk I ended up at the MCC Thrift Shop in Kitchener.

This chocolate tin was there for $2.00 and ended up being $0.50 at the check out. It was perfect because the drawers aren’t very deep and this tin is thin. I put all my make up into it. It holds a lot

The drawer looks a million times better. It’s organized and functional.

I’m thrifting a couple things. A facial massager and a makeup bag. I’d like to refinish the bathroom vanity, it has a lot of superficial damage, but that’s a project for a different day.

I made some cards this weekend. I’ll post a video below of what I made and the products I used to make them.

Lobster Shorts Food, weight loss

Lunch Dilemmas and Sleepy Sundays

I’ve solved my lunch problems. I have a horrible habit of not pre-making a lunch, getting hungry, and then buying chips. I’m likely to continue with that pattern, so I bought some frozen dinners.

It turns out these bowls are really good AND healthy! Way better then most of the other frozen meals. Vegetarians usually end up with only the option of some crappy frozen pasta dish that leaves you starving a short time later.

These bowls actually have some sustenance to them and good ingredients. From now on I’ll take one of these with me for lunch. I really like them.

This weekend I went for a couple short walks and my spouse did all the cooking (and cleaning! I’m a lucky lady). Usually on Sundays I make us a large breakfast, but this time he made it. He made his usual egg and cheese sandwich (using the new cheese of the month!) and it was really good. He uses the Hamilton Beach egg sandwich maker and they are so great. It’s our favourite appliance and we got it from the classifieds. Score!

We went for a couple short walks, but most of the weekend I was sewing. I’m still working on the cloak and I have most of the outside put together, but now I’m second guessing whether I want to make the alternative version with the shoulder flaps. I’m sure I have enough fabric left to do it. I’m no longer in love with the fabric I bought. It sheds horribly and frays like crazy (even after washing the fabric), but I’m going to see it through. I’m hoping I can make a matching skirt with any leftover fabric. I may still fall in love with it.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food

A Sunday February Morning

I was down three pounds today, probably not after the breakfast I made this morning. We like to have big breakfasts on Sunday and this, or oatmeal is a common one for us. The home fries were done in the air fryer and the croissants were from the grocery store. I’ve never made croissants at home before. My original plan was to make wild sour dough bread, but my wild starter didn’t make it. The recipe I got it from said to use filtered water, but I used tap water (we have extremely hard water where I live) and it never got bubbly. I will try again with distilled water.

Daylight is lasting longer and I’m feeling it. The birds are chirpier, there is more sunshine, and I’m feeling happier. It’s still cold, but there’s something in the air. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but instead there was more sunshine yesterday, and although it’s cloudy today, it’s not raining. We’re going to go for a walk again today, not through the woods, but around the town.

I made cards this weekend.

I love the Autumn one, I made that with water colour paint, stamps, and water colour paper. The shark/whale is hilarious I want to use it often. I do like the peacock one, but it wasn’t quite right. I wish I had a flamingo stamp, or die to go with the palm frond embossing folder I used. My favourite card wasn’t pictured here, I sealed it in an envelope before I took a photo of it. If you want to see it, or what I used to make the cards and where to get the supplies for them, I’ll have it posted in the video below.

Lobster Shorts Food, weight loss

What’s Happening With OMAD

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Not a thing. I was doing one meal a day before the Christmas holidays, but things fell apart. I had a rough holiday (I had to put my dog down) and I ate my feelings. I gained back the seven pounds I had lost and I haven’t been attempting to eat healthy at all. After the holidays were over I didn’t restart OMAD. I was back to eating breakfast, but usually skipped lunch (mostly because I was too lazy to make anything) and then would eat dinner (and a lot of junk food. Cadbury Creme Egg season is here and that sweet sweet sugary goo egg is irresistible to me. It’s one of my favourite candies).

My spouse is back into intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) and as I like to sleep in for the mornings, that means I am too. I’ve been getting really hungry during the afternoons and have been getting chips for a snack. It’s not the healthiest of lunches. Lately, I am way too hungry to stick with OMAD. Switching to intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) and having lunch and dinner, seems like the right decision for me, right now.

I’m going to have to find the time to cook a healthy lunch, or I’m going to keep buying unhealthy snacks instead. I’m going to focus on eating healthier, unprocessed food. I get a lot of takeout, but there are still some fairly healthy options out there.

This was my dinner tonight. I love love love the Pita Pit Halloumi pita. I don’t feel guilty when I get this, It’s full of veggies. When I got home I split a Founder’s Tequila cocktail with my spouse. We went to the liquor store and I bought a bottle of Bailey’s Espresso (it’s a flavourgasm, my favourite). I’m probably going to have some tonight, it is almost guaranteed.

Lobster Shorts Food

OMAD, COVID Scares and Thanksgiving

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

I spent a lot of my Thanksgiving waiting for a COVID swab to come back (it was negative). I didn’t get the results until late Saturday, when it was already most of the way through the family dinner I was supposed to be at. My spouse and I didn’t know how long we were going to have to be stuck inside, so we ordered groceries delivered to our home, with contact free delivery.

We weren’t feeling the “cooking” vibe and got all convenience food.

I got vegetarian stuffed turkey to try.

My spouse ordered the boxed stuffing and potatoes and I made fun of him for it, but they were better than my “turkey” thing. The turkey part was okay, but the stuffing it was stuffed with, wasn’t very good. I wanted to like it, but I didn’t. I do love other products from this brand though.

So this was dinner. It wasn’t quite homemade, but I was with my love, and that made it wonderful.

I did make a pie. I used a store bought vegetarian pie crust (I don’t remember the brand) and got the filling recipe here. I didn’t have enough strawberries, so I just made up for it in apples. I wanted a crumble topping and got the recipe for that, here.

It turned out really good. It was the best part of the dinner, and I’m embarrassed to say, we ate the entire pie in under 24 hours!

OMAD did not happen while I was isolating at home. I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, and lots of snacks. I am much better when I’m not home. When I’m around the food, I seem to have trouble staying out of it.

Despite being a human vacuum for food these past few days, I only gained one pound for the weigh in. I was really surprised about that, I was expecting much more. I did do some hiking once my results came back. It must have helped a lot.

There was also Crispers and Drumstick caramel ice cream. No regrets!

Lobster Shorts weight loss

OMAD Week 5

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

It was a great week for me. I’m now down seven pounds in total and even crossed into the next 10lb section. I hadn’t lost any weight for the last two weeks, so I’m really happy about it. I ate OMAD (one meal a day) Monday to Friday, and then whatever I wanted on the weekend (I did use a little more restraint this weekend). That being said, I still ate pie, cookies, and went to Montana’s for dinner.

I’ve been loving Hello Fresh. The meals were SO good and also really healthy. Unfortunately, it’s just too expensive to continue on, but I’m going to try and keep in the spirit of it and eat less takeout and cook more at home. I do love the idea of someone choosing your meal (especially if it’s full of veggies and healthy) so I can try new things.

So far, I’m loving this way of eating. I still get hungry a lot during the day, but it passes. I haven’t had problems with dizziness in awhile. It’s something I think I will be able to stick with.

I saw a genius post on Facebook with someone using string to measure their waist one a month and comparing the string size. I’m going to do that. I wish I had done that from the start. Here’s to week six!

Lobster Shorts weight loss

OMAD One Month

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

The week had started out great, by Friday I was down a total of two pounds for the week and 7 pounds since I started, but I messed it all up over the weekend. Today I was up almost three pounds making my grand total of weight loss for the last two weeks at only around 1/2 a pound. I don’t to OMAD (one meal a day) over the weekends, only weekday, and then eat whatever I want on weekends. Clearly, I need to quit “whatever I want” on weekends, it’s wrecking any progress I make during the week.

It’s a new week and although I don’t plan on eating OMAD on weekends, I will be behaving a lot more than I have been.