Help me raise money for charity and win!

Help me raise money for my Yogathon 2010 by donating (as little or as much as you can!) and/ OR posting this on your blog!! 

All those who donate/spread the word will be entered in a Healthy Canadian-product giveaway after my Yogathon on March 6, 2010! 

More info on the giveaway this post: Scroll down for Canadian giveaway!

Thank you for all your help!!

xo

K

What I’ve been nibbling…

Busy, busy week! 

Not much time for blogging over here- Monday & Tuesday in class were Nutrition, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday Safety and Sanitation, then onto Stocks and Soups. Lots of interesting, and important stuff- and lots of WORK! 

I managed to munch on some good stuff throughout the week-

Chicken picatta with baked sweet potato and snow peas (Nick’s favorite veg!) 

Breakfast cookie with multigrain oats, goji berries, mashed banana, almond milk, cinnamon and peanut butter. As the Fitnessista cookie-inventor Gina would say, Foodgasms all around =D

RAW vegan lunch: home made guacamole in romaine boats, carrots galore. 

Snacktime hummus & sandwich thin, I ate lots of these! Loving the roasted garlic hummus I bought last week. 

Noodles a la Nick- noodles with beef stock, egg, chives and pickled ginger. Mmm comfort food. 

Toasted andwich thin with peanut butter, maca and cinnamon.  Maca has such an interesting taste! I can’t say I love it when I eat a whole bunch of it myself, but it has an awesome taste with PB or AB! 

Not-so-raw lunch: egg wrap with spinach, goat cheese and organic ketchup. I love me some eggs. 

PINK JUICE! Beet, apple, romaine, lime. Phytochemical powerhouse, and delicious to boot!

My first raw vegan dessert! Averie’s AMAZING Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. Oh me oh my. These were SO. FREAKING. GOOD. 

Lots of ball snacking going on! (TWSS? bahahaha)

Jenna’s Chunky Lentil Stew with whole wheat roll 

Overnight oats with multigrain oats, banana, almond milk, goji berries, all natural peanut butter. A note about this: I felt TERRIBLE after eating this. With no other  (Cow) dairy all week, my body rejected this fully. I think I am on the road to a mostly cow-dairy-free life. 

Friday night dinner: Asian fusion. Stir fried bok choy, pepper and shrimp with soy sesame sauce, couscous for the “fusion” aspect This one was great! Nick and I both liked it. 

So that is what I have been up to, food-wise!

In other news, exercise-wise I have been spending my days in the yoga studio and doing at-home full body routines with my kick-ass trainer (aka my boyfriend). I am sore almost every day now! Yessss!  

Speaking of yoga, some of you might have seen my new Yogathon 2010 tab. 

On March 6, 2010 I will be participating in a charity yogathon in Toronto for the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario. I thought it sounded like a fun event for a great cause, and I would appreicate anything you could donate. All you have to do is click here to donate: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2451973

$2, $5, $10, anything y0u can do would be greatly appreciated! It is tax deductible, and on top of it all… 

I am doing a CANADIAN HEALTHY PRODUCT GIVEAWAY for everyone who donates to the Yogathon =D 

So if you chose to donate, any amount at all, after you donate leave a comment either on this post or the yogathon page by March 6, 2010 and I will pick a winner on March 7, 2010. This is open to US and Canadian Residents only.  I will send you a goodie bag full of my favourite healthy Canadian goodies just for helping out charity! 

For an extra TWO entries, post about this post/my yogathon on your blog! And comment below. 

AND if you are in the GTA and want to join me in the yogathon, email me! kristinrugg@gmail.com 
Thanks so much!
I’m off to enjoy my Saturday free day, hope you all have a good weekend!

xo

K

Tapeworms and Tofu: Life lately

Afternoon bloggies!

So I know I have been MIA on the food front these last couple of days; I have been one BUSY girl! 

School is four hours per day, so I basically wake up, shower, make breakfast and take the 25-minute trek down to 8th and Lakeshore where Liaison is. Each day is pretty much the same; go through the homework from the night before, learn some stuff, laugh a lot- I have the funniest class ever. Today we had something of a 15-minute conversation on WORMS in the body. Ew. Amusing, nonetheless. We just finished the nutrition chapter, which was easy for me (I wonder why, ha), It was pretty funny how many questions were directed to me before Chef Shawn,  I was happy to answer them, though and aside from a short argument on water (I lost this time!) he didn’t mind me chiming in. 

So class ends at 1, and it is basically a race with my stomach to get home  and make lunch before I am so hungry I’m ready to gnaw off my arm (my stomach usually wins this battle). Then it’s usually more homework, maybe some housework, blog reading, yoga or training with the boyf, dinner, TV/time with the boy and bed. Not much time for blogging in there! 

I have managed to whip up some tasty meals over the last few days, here’s a snippet of what I’ve been eating:

Shrimp Scampi with sauteed tomatoes over whole wheat pasta

My own vegetarian Creamy potato soup 

Mango lassi for two 

LOTS of bananas with organic peanut butter

Falafel pita! My love, from my love who went to get it for me on Saturday, and I ate it while studying, best study food ever!

Pad Kee Mao noodles from Green Mango on Saturday night. With a glass on Ontario Vidal, it was a great night out with the boyf! I LOVE thai food =D 

Lots of bowls of overnight oats. 

Pot pie and caesar salad with home made whole wheat croutons (the ONLY good kind!)

Fitnessista breakfast cookies!

RAW guac and romaine wrap lunch. Recipe to come!

I chopped a whole pineapple and managed to eat half of it myself in one sitting!

My favourite tofu recipe: Caramelized tofu from 101 cookbooks, with brown rice underneath and brocc substituted for brussels (Nick despises brussels, but ate the tofu like a trooper!) 

Lunch today: I had planned on an egg scramble, but Nick ate ALL the eggs so I was “stuck” with a salad beast (Romaine, cherry tomatoes, brocc, EVOO, s&p, lemon) and sandwich thin with garlic hummus. 

Off to do some reading for school and devour the rest of the pineapple!

Have a great day everyone!

And a big shoutout to any of my classmates who happen to stop by my blog today after getting the URL =D

Trainer Nick says- Circuit Training 101

For a long time if you’re trying to drop some pounds the mantra has been aerobic activity.  You know running, biking, swimming.  While all these activities are good and do burn lots of calories, one thing they don’t often do is build muscle.  Often when we lose a lot of weight, we end up looking saggy.  To counter this muscle tone needs to be maintained.  So how do we get all the calorie burning aerobic activity in, and do weight lifting in order to sustain muscle, while not working out for hours on end?  There is an answer, circuit training.  Circuit training is essentially a group of exercises done back to back to back alternating muscle groups with little rest time.  What this does is keeps you working hard, with an elevated heart rate, for an extended period of time, burning calories and building muscle. 

So how do we do it?  First we need to pick the equipment that we are going to use.  The easiest way to do this is using either universal cable machines, or dumbbells.  Cable machines allow you to change the weight and exercise very quickly and easily.  Ever seen the bowflex commercials?  They work on the same principle, changing exercises quickly, combining your rest time with exercising a different muscle group.   

Now that we have the equipment chosen we need to choose our exercises.  Look to alternate major muscle groups.  For instance do lower body squats followed by shoulder presses, to allow your legs to rest while working your arms.  A simple quick circuit that I set out for Kris the other day looked like this.

1. Lunges, do forward lungs to each legs, then side lung to either side, then back lung both legs, this is 1 rep, start over with forward lungs
2. T-push ups, make sure your body is tight the whole time
3. Dumbell squats
4. Shoulder press
5. Dumbell crunches
6. Standing (bent over) rows

Do each exercise for one minute continuously.  Break for 15 seconds between each exercise, then for one minute at the end of each set.  Do 3 sets.  (6*3)+(5*.25*3)+3=24.75 min to complete this workout, with all beak time included.  Combine this with a warm up and 20 min of high intensity cardio, and you’re looking at a very complete fat burning workout, burning anywhere between 400, and 600 cal.  Not too bad at all.  And remember to stretch when you’re done.

My ideal diet

My ideal diet 

 

 

Image source: thedailygreen.com

 

I’ve been thinking a lot, over the last couple of weeks, what my “ideal diet” would be. Not diet as in weight loss program, but “diet” defined as

Diet
n.

1. The usual food and drink of a person or animal.

I have made many changes to my daily “diet” in the past years, from my stint as a vegetarian/vegan, to fad weight-loss diets such as Special K, South Beach and Slim Fast, to more reasonable, health conscious approaches such as Body for Life and Ayurveda. 

Many of these changes were purely for cosmetic reasons; I wanted to be skinny, or skinnier. I wanted to lose weight. I lost the weight, lost too much weight, and gained much of it back. At this point, as I have mentioned countless times before, I am striving for a balance. 

But a balance of what? 

Good foods and bad foods. But what ARE “good foods” and “bad foods”, and what kind of balance needs to come of them? 

The questions above are not the easiest ones to answer. 

Currently, this quote, from one of my favourite authors, Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma) has struck a chord with me: 

“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” 

In my day to day life (busy student), as well as my future career (chef), it is HARD to maintain a balanced diet. Stress, lack of time to prepare, lack of ENERGY to prepare healthful foods, and somewhat lack of motivation all stand in the way of my “ideal diet”. 

But this quote, six words, simple and clear, sum it up beautifully. 

“Good Foods” are foods that are nourishing. Nutrient dense, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, lower fat sources of protein such as lean meats (chicken, turkey, pork), fish (bonus omega 3’s!), beans and tofu, low fat dairy and dairy substitutes, healthy fats such as nuts, unsaturated oils (olive, canola), coconut, whole grains. Foods that are enjoyable, but also healthful. 

“Bad foods” are foods to be eaten in moderation. Butter, fatty foods- including higher fat meats (beef, lamb, duck), potato chips and other snacks, fried foods. Sweets such as candy, cake, ice cream and cookies. 

But really, there are no bad foods. Everything in moderation is key. 

A balance of “good foods” and “bad foods” is eating foods, that, most of the time, make you feel good, are healthful and beneficial to your body (including superfoods, that are SUPER good for your body), in quantities that are reasonable- so that you are full and nourished, but not overstuffed or uncomfortable. Once in a while, it is okay to indulge. Sometimes we eat a little too much, and that is okay- as long as it isn’t to the point of bingeing. Sometimes we go a day, or two or three, without eating a single whole grain, or a piece of fruit. This is ok, because if, in the long run, you choose more whole grains than not, more fruits and vegetables than sweets and empty calorie foods, more unsaturated fats than saturated, more plant foods than animal foods, your body will balance itself out. 

The human body is a beautiful thing. It has the ability to adapt, and is BUILT to balance itself out, if you give it the right tools to do it. 

So what is an “ideal diet”? 

An ideal diet is one that combines all of the things mentioned above; balance of “good” and “bad” foods, foods that provide nourishment and those that are only for pleasure; in short whatever works for YOU. 

Some may chose vegetarianism, veganism or raw foods as their ideal diet. Others chose to live off of the SAD (Standard American Diet; not my suggestion). Some people chose to go to extremes, such as frutitarians and macrobiotics. It is possible to live healthfully on any of these diets (with the exception of SAD), as long as one is well informed. 

Personally, my ideal diet is somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed my time as a vegetarian, and my short stint as a vegan. However, when it comes to pleasure, as well as my future career as a chef, I love food, all kinds of food too much to label myself as such. I would prefer to eat a healthful diet, by “Eating food, not too much, mostly plants,” and avoid stereotypes and labels. 

However, I feel the best when I eat a high raw, vegan diet. Why? Well, it is simple- my body rejects foods it can not process easily. I have many sensitivities, including dairy, artificial sweeteners and high-gluten foods (although I am not fully intolerant). 

When my diet is high in fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans and lower in meat, fish, dairy, eggs and grains I feel better overall. I have more energy, my skin glows, and my stomach problems vanish. 

But this kind of diet, 100% of the time, is impossible for me. I not only feed myself, but I also feed my meat-loving boyfriend, who is, slowly, becoming more accepting of some of the “weird” foods I eat, and he is at least willing to try to eat healthier with me. Still, I would never deprive him of his favorite foods (meat, cheese, bread… standard “guy stuff”). I am trying to come to a happy medium in which I can eat the way I want to eat, not spend too much extra money, and don’t make him feel deprived. 

I love the idea of raw foods. And eventually, maybe one day, I will be mostly raw. However, getting to that point is going to be a journey for me, and a long one at that. At this point, getting to my ideal diet is focusing on: 

-increasing my intake of fruits and vegetables 
-increasing my intake of raw foods; trying for at least 1 raw meal per day
-reducing the amount of cow’s dairy I consume (no more milk or cheese, unless it is goat; exceptions for now being yogurt and froyo)
- reducing the amount of artificial sweeteners I consume (soda, sparkling water, gum; exception is Stevia because it is all natural)
-reducing the amount of grains I eat overall, and when I do, making them whole grains (I already do this frequently) 
-greatly reducing the amount of meat I eat over all; especially red meat (lean meats 2-3 times per week, total)
-increasing the amount of superfoods I eat- the healthier, the better! 
 -trying to encourage Nick to eat more of my healthy foods, but not forcing him; and coming to a happy medium
-being more creative with my eats!!

And overall: Getting back to my healthy, feel good diet- and weight. 

Ideally, with time, I will:

- eliminate all artificial sweeteners from my diet (including diet soda and gum- I am an addict!)
- eat mostly raw/vegan (raw until dinner, for the most part)
- eliminate all refined grains from my diet, and grains no more than 1x/day except on special occasions
- eliminate cow’s dairy  (eating only small amounts of goat dairy)
- reducing, or even eliminating all red meat from my diet 
-find and maintain my “happy weight”  without effort for years to come 

As you can see, these are high-reaching goals, and I know it will take me a long time, months and even years, to get to the point I want to be at. At some point, I may feel as though what I am doing is enough. When I am back at my healthy weight, my skin is clear again, I sleep better and my stomach problems are reduced significantly,  I will probably feel that is a good place to stay. For now, it is all about getting to that point. 

Now for all of you out there, What is your “ideal diet”, and have you gotten there yet?? If you are there, how long did it take you to get there? I’d love to hear your responses!

xo

K

Random Note: Nick suggested the “condiment diet”, in which one eats nothing but ketchup, mustard, relish and mayo for an entire day. We discovered it would take 400 tablespoons of mustard, or 80 tablespoons of ketchup, per day, to consume 2,000 calories. Ew, Nick. 

Busy girl roasts a chicken

Happy Humpday everyone!

I am officially halfway through my first day of culinary school, and I have just three words to say about it: I love it. Although it is a lot of work (and we haven’t even gotten into the kitchen yet!!) my class is absolutely hilarious, as is my chef, and I am truly learning something new everyday. I practically skip home to do my homework after class! 

Cooking at home, however, has seemed like a bit of a chore because of all the time I am spending stuyding. Blogging is also something that has to take the back burner to my studies; it looks like I will only be able to blog a few times a week at this point. Hopefully as time goes on I will be able to get back to my three-meals-per-day, once-a-day posting, but for now I will give you recaps and hilights! 

Yesterday, in between studying and yoga, I made a roast chicken (chickens were on sale for 2/$10.00 this week! Crazy!) for Nick and I to have for dinner and lunches during the week. This guy was around 2.14 kilos, which is around 4.7 pounds. 

To roast Chester the Chicken (yes, I name my birds, this one was Nick’s choice), I preheated the oven to 375 degrees F.  I took the entrails out from the inside of the bird, and covered the bird inside and out with salt and pepper, and rubbed it with 1 tablespoon of soft butter.  I stuffed half a lemon and two crushed cloves of garlic inside the cavity, along with a large sprig of rosemary. 

Alongside the chicken I placed another couple of springs of rosemary and garlic cloves in the roasting pan, and set it in the oven for 1 hour, 30 minutes. 

Ta daaaa!

After it was finished, I let it sit for a few and then carved! 

Succulent, juicy and flavorful- my kind of chicken! And only one tablespoon of butter in over 4 pounds of meat!! 

Some other delicious stuff I have been feasting on… 

Chia-Cinnamon oats in a jar

Glo bars! 

Angela, This new Adore bar is your best one yet, hands down. 

I LOVED this bar. Chewy, slightly sticky, with a distinctive graham-and-marshmallow flavour that is only associated with S’mores. Loved it!! 

Homemade guac (recipe soon!) and brown rice chips

My favourite yogurt- Muesli style! Only 220 kcals, 6 g of fat and 10g of protein that filled me 2.5 hours!! 

Chili cheese fries, a la Nick. Thanks, hun!

That’s all for now, guys! Time for some beauty study sleep! 

xo

K

First day of school

**Having picture issues- need to free up some space!! So for now, its all just talk**

I swear, this morning when I woke up, my mix of excitement and nervousness rivaled nothing less than my first day of high school, or maybe even my first day of kindergarten! 

It was raining, so my amazing- let me repeat, amazing boyfriend, who quite likes to sleep in… drove me the 2km down the street to my first day of culinary school so I wouldn’t have to walk. You guys understand why I moved countries for this boy now?? =D 

So I had some breakfast before I left… or tried to, at least. Now I have been making oats for years and somehow today, on my first day of CULINARY SCHOOL, I mess it up. Irony, no? 

They were good, but either I put too much water in or not enough oats… because I cooked them on 100% power for 5 whole minutes… and they were STILL watery! I mixed them with 1 tb of chia seeds, 1 tb of almond butter, a half a banana and ate them up- I just wanted to be full!! 

Class was great! There are mostly girls in the class, which was a surprise!! Chef Shawn basically just went over the rules, attire, how the class was going to go, etc. I have five weeks of in-classroom book focused work in basic theory, then 10 weeks in the kitchen, and then all over again for advanced. I am so excited! I had 2 hours of book/workbook homework today and I have never had so much fun doing homework!! 

We got out super early, so I grabbed a grapefruit and got started on my studying as soon as I got home. 

About halfway through, I was hungry- so I poached  myself two perfect eggies on a whole wheat english muffin with s&p and some baby carrots on the side. 

After finishing my work and hanging around the apartment for a while, I snacked on some organic vanilla nonfat yogurt and dried mango pieces, and set out to do a hardcore 35-minute circuit workout. I was all sweaty  and it was glorious. 

By the time I was finished, Nick came home for a walk and dinnertime rolled around, Nick gave me a break and took over taco making for our meal. We had another ridiculous candle light dinner- this time with mexican food. We had seasoned lean beef with onions, refried beans, lettuce, salsa and cheese. I had three tacos and an extra pile of beans with lettuce and salsa. Perfection. 

Nick wanted to do yoga, so I happily set out to do my second workout of the day and did a nice Hatha Flow with him for about 40 minutes. Then, after showering I settled for one of the last pieces of birthday cheesecake (can’t get enough!) while Nick watched Top Gear, and I typed this up.

I need to get to bed now, school again tomorrow! I hope I have more fun to report soon!!

xo

Kris

Just the hilights.

Bonjour mes amies! 

I have had a fabulous weekend, busy yes, but productive and relaxing at the same time- a great way to end my last couple of days before I start school tomorrow! I am excited, but nervous at the same time- I can’t wait to tell you all about it!! 

I didn’t take pictures of everything I ate this weekend, most of it was fairly standard… tonight unfortunately was the best meal I had all weekend and I didn’t have my camera!! But I hope you forgive me, because with culinary school right around the corner I will have a LOT to talk about/show you soon!!

Friday. 

Nick went home for the night, so I took dinner in my own hands.

I made a home made “vodka sauce for one” using 1/2 c basil pasta sauce, a splash of 1% milk, a splash of good quality vodka and a pinch of  crushed red pepper. Over whole wheat pasta with green beans on the side, it was a great meal!

Of course I had leftover cheesecake as well!  

I also tried my first community Kundalini class at my new studio, Bliss. I loved it! My instructor was amazing and she totally relaxed me from crown to toes. =D

 Saturday. 

I woke up, ate an orange and jumped right into a full body workout from the amazing Zuzana at Bodyrock.tv. 

Then, after showering I made my way to Birds and Beans cafe, where I ate breakfast and spent some time reading and writing for a couple hours.

Introducting the Birds and Beans “breakfast cookie”. Oats, sunflower seeds, nuts, cranberries, foodgasms. All organic, all delicious. I can’t wait to come back for another one! And a skim latte, of course.

Lunch- FALAFEL! I love falafel. Love, love, love it. Maybe it has something to do with my syrian heritage… but honestly this is the 3rd falafel place I’ve tried on my street and this one was the best, hands down.

And baklava, because what is a free day without honey, pistachio and phyllo goodness?

Saturday night consisted of me and nick, pizza, wings, garlic bread and movies. It was indulgent, but nice and great to have my boy back after not seeing him for a day or so.

Sunday. 

Cereal breakfast, and then I headed to an Ashtanga yoga class which stretched me and challenged my muscles in an amazing way this morning. The perfect way to start my week!

Lunch was leftover pizza. Not the coolest, I know but it was convenient and I was starving!

Afternoon treat-

Raw Lemon Coconut macaroons from Live. All I can say is “Mmmmmmmm….”

Snack #2 was cottage cheese with chives and carrots.

Dinner, dinner was something to write home about. We met up with Nick’s grandma and his uncle and they took us out to dinner at a great japanese restaurant. We had salad and miso soup to start, followed by our meals. I chose the Chyo-Chin Bento Box which was assorted sashimi, fried chicken with a spicy sauce (read: japanese chicken nuggets) and eel over rice. The sashimi was amazingly fresh and flavorful. The nuggets were ok, I loved the sauce but I’m not too big on the fried stuff, but the eel… oh, the eel. Literally melt-in-your-mouth, and the rice underneath wasn’t half bad either, with egg, seaweed and scallions. I love sushi rice =)

And for dessert, I had a slice of chocolate mousse SAKE CAKE. Yes, you read that right- japanese sake cake. It was essentially mousse cake spiked with sake. Even more foodgasms, really, really good.

Well that was my weekend, in a nutshell! The boyf and I are going to finish watching Inglorious Basterds and then we are off to bed- it is a big day for me tomorrow! =D

xo
K

Beer & Birthdays

Afternoon kids!

Yesterday was a crazy day- it was Nick’s birthday, so I spent my day running errands and hanging out with him. We didn’t get home until late, and thus dinner/dessert wasn’t until late… then of course Grey’s was on… no time for blogging! lol 

So from the morning, Breakfast fuel: 

Whole wheat english muffin, toasted with banana and almond butter

Snacktime: Vitamin C. 

Lunch wrap- turkey, roast beef, LCW, mustard, greens, and carrots with hummus. 

Chocolate craving!

Smarties- so much better than m+ms. This is a tiny 1/2 c ramekin, ~1/4 c full. 

Snacktime #2-

Raw goodness, eaten on the subway and shared with Nick. He liked it!

Then we began our  downtown adventure! 

First stop-  Steamwhistle Brewery

Birthday boy! 

We got a great tour, with lots of awesome info about the local beer. They have a whole list of green initiatives- such as four all-natural ingredients, NO preservatives, reusable bottles without paper labels, eco-friendly powered brewery, transportation and waste removal. 

We got a free sample of the pilsner (in the lager family) and liked it so much we grabbed a bottle and relaxed before we grabbed the train home. 

Back at the apartment, I prepped Nick’s special birthday dinner and dessert. 

On the menu? 

Pan-seared pork with southern style white gray (from Cooking Light), creamy garlic chive mashed potatoes (my own) and steamed broccoli. 

And dessert… 

Cheesecake! 
Which started like this…  

And ended like this, with home made raspberry topping. 

I hope you had a great birthday, Nick! <3 

 

Back later with today’s adventures!

Raw and delicious

Happy Hump day! 

Only five more days before school, I finally set up my phone yesterday and today I spent the day downtown with Nick, having a delicious raw lunch and enjoying one of my last days off before I start culinary school! 

Last night I was enthralled in The Biggest Loser so much after I watched I PASSED OUT without blogging! I was tired! Then I was gone all day today, but here is a recap from the last two days. 

Tuesday.

Breakfast. 

Snackie 1. 

Lunch. 

Snackie 2. 

Dinner- Nick’s fave. Garlic Parm chicken, roasted rosemary potatoes and steamed green beans. Mmm… 

Dessert, froyo of course. 

Wednesday. 

Breakfast. Cereal- Kashi Go Lean with goji, banana and almond milk. 

Quick snack before we headed out on the bus- Grapefruit!

The bus/subway line into downtown was not painful at all! I feel like I am getting a hang of Toronto’s public transport quite well, actually. 

For lunch, Nick agreed to “let me” take him out for lunch at Live, Toronto’s organic raw food bar. I was SO stoked he agreed to have a VEGAN lunch without being tricked into it!! LOL 

I love the motto- “Happy Inside, Happy Outside” =)

Directly across the street from the Dupont Subway station, Live is super easy to get to. The vibe inside is relaxed and colorful- bright green walls and orange tables decorated with little cutouts of sprouts, and veggies models and local art dot the walls. 

I eased Nick into trying raw foods by going with something I knew he would like- Nachos!

We ordered the “ 

I was grinning from ear to ear as we devoured this- and Nick liked it a lot! We ate most of it before saving the rest for later. The guac was fresh and delicious, the “corn chips” incredibly flavorful, and the cashew sour cream tasted amazingly accurate to the real thing! 

Nick ordered the (cooked) Black Bean Burrito for lunch. 

He liked it! He wasn’t too sure about the brown rice tortilla, but he said his favorite thing was it “tasted like a burrito”, which I guess is a good thing!! (I think he expected it to taste like hairy armpits… but alas, it did not )

I, on the other hand opted for a full raw lunch, try The Za raw pizza, which the website describes as “A personal buckwheat veggie pizza crust topped with a macadamia ‘mozarella cheese’, red pepper marinara, kalamata olives and marinated baby greens”

First exclamation after I bit into it? “I am having foodgasms over here,” which Nick laughed at but it was SOOO true. Oh wow was it delicious. The cheese was very “cheesy” and the red pepper marinara had a nice sweet taste that paired well with the cheese and salty kalamata olives, and the greens were SO flavorful! 

I picked up some raw cookies to try later, so I will review them soon!

After another trip on the Subway, Nick headed to a job interview (our reason for our trip downtown) and I headed to Second Cup where I had a nonfat chai latte and enjoyed my book for a while.  

Back home a couple  hours later I snacked on the rest of the nachos before I prepped dinner. 

Dinner was a classic comfort favorite for Nick and I- turkey chili!

As they are often, my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I left a few bites of this. It was good though! 

Ok, time to crash- tomorrow is Nick’s birthday and we are going on a brewery tour and I am cooking him a big dinner and baking him a cake! Better get some rest! 

xo

K