Hi every­one,

I hope all of you are safe and sound indoors, watch­ing the snow fall. I unfor­tu­nately, wasn’t able to make my 9:30 spin class this morn­ing. The roads were ter­ri­ble and it would’ve taken me for­ever to get there so I made an exec­u­tive deci­sion to stay put. Not quite sure if any­one even showed up in this weather, but for any of you who did and are read­ing this, I’m sorry!

I’m going to enjoy a home work­out today which will con­sist of a vari­ety of squats, lunges, bicep and tri­cep work and some abs thrown in for good mea­sure. I’m also plan­ning on doing a work­out video today for you, so be sure to check back.

One of my friends recently requested a deli­cious healthy jam recipe using chia seeds, so I whipped up a small batch last night and would like to share it with all of you. My daugh­ter and I spread it on our favourite lo-​cal Korean-​style pops. They’re made with wheat instead of rice and are won­der­fully light and crispy. I buy them freshly made in-​store at Longo’s. Check them out; they’re great with humus too!

Strawberry-​Blueberry Chia Jam

Ingre­di­ents:

3 cups frozen fruit ( I used half straw­ber­ries, half blueberries)

2 Tbsp chia seeds

3 Tbsp water

¹⁄₄ tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp splenda (you can use ste­via, honey or agave, to taste)

In a medium saucepan, over low heat, com­bine berries, chia, water, cin­na­mon and splenda.

Sim­mer over low heat until mix­ture becomes thick and jam-​like. (about 10 min)

Remove from heat and let cool.

Korean-​Style Pops

Great nutri­tion­als too!

Hi again,

Hope you’re not let­ting these frigid tem­per­a­tures get in the way of your workouts…i.e. stay­ing indoors wrapped in a warm blan­ket vs. tredg­ing out in the cold to the gym.…Yesterday’s classes were pretty packed though, so I’m guess­ing you guys are all stick­ing to the plan and con­tin­u­ing to work hard! Besides, noth­ing gets the body tem­per­a­ture ris­ing faster than an awe­some spin class or a fast-​paced run!!

Hi guys,

Hope every­one had a great weekend!

After the usual Mon­day mad­ness (I love it, though!), I returned home feel­ing cold, tired and hun­gry. I quickly grabbed my soup pot, turned on the stove and warmed up some olive oil over low heat. A diced onion, a few gar­lic cloves and some grated fresh gin­ger fol­lowed. Soon a won­der­ful fra­grance began to per­me­ate through­out the kitchen. I pulled the cau­li­flower out from the fridge and a cou­ple of slightly bruised golden deli­cious apples, which I had been mean­ing to make into an apple­sauce over the week­end. Oh well. I diced the apples (no need to peel), sep­a­rated the cau­li­flower into flo­rets and threw it all into the pot with a table­spoon of my favourite Madras curry paste and a touch of cin­na­mon. I added about 6 cups chicken broth, turned the heat up to boil and as soon as it started to bub­ble, I turned the soup down to sim­mer and patiently waited.

After about an hour, the cau­li­flower and apples had bro­ken down to a lovely thick soup but there was still more to do…I threw in a big hand­ful of fresh chopped cilantro and about ¹⁄₂ tsp garam masala which imparts a won­der­ful aroma and mys­te­ri­ous flavour to the final cre­ation. I poured it into the blender, whizzed it up till it became as smooth as vel­vet and then grabbed my spoon for a taste. Sheer heaven! The apples, with their lovely sweet­ness bal­ances the sub­tle heat of the curry for an unfor­get­table taste sen­sa­tion. A per­fect rem­edy for a cold winter’s day. You have got to try this. Enjoy!

Hi there,

Crazy weather we’re hav­ing here today… A rainy Sun­day in Jan­u­ary with the tem­per­a­ture feel­ing more like April! Unfor­tu­nately, it’s not sup­posed to last and the cold weather is said to be on its way.

With that in mind, I decided to whip up a tasty soup while my hus­band camped out on the couch, glued to the TV and his beloved foot­ball games. I rum­maged for the big bag of red lentils and can of light coconut milk hid­den in the pantry, and imme­di­ately con­jured up a curry– inspired soup with a lovely silky tex­ture and just the per­fect amount of heat to warm your insides. This could pos­si­bly be my very favourite soup of all. Hope you enjoy it!

Happy week­end everyone!

What a gor­geous day here, in the big city! It actu­ally feels like Spring!

After a great ride and back work­out at the gym today, I came home feel­ing just a tad rav­en­ous. I mixed up my shake as quickly as pos­si­ble and then pro­ceeded to sur­vey the kitchen/​fridge/​freezer for a lit­tle inspi­ra­tion. Three very sad-​looking brown bananas called out to me and I imme­di­ately thought of whip­ping up some pan­cakes! But not the carb-​laden, I wanna go to sleep after­wards pan­cakes. No, no, no! These pancakes are light, fluffy and filled with energy-​producing ingre­di­ents that you can feel good about putting into your body.

I whipped the bat­ter up in a blender and within a few min­utes, I had a break­fast fit for a queen.

Give these a try; I know you’re gonna love them. (my hubby sure did!)