Summer Salads
August 26, 2009
Here are three delicious salads/veggie dishes that we enjoyed this past week at the cottage. The Panzanella Salad can be whipped up in 20 minutes – it is delicious. We made the Kale and Cabbage salad twice for 2 different parties and it was a hit each time, left-overs are the perfect post-workout fuel when stuffed in a whole grain pita. Don’t be intimidated by the Beet Ravioli, it’s pretty easy to make, you do need a mandoline to get the slices nice and thin, we enjoyed these on the dock with friends! Happy Eating!
Beet Ravioli with Pine Nut Ricotta
From the Balanced Plate by Renee Loux.
3 large or 6-8 small beets, peeled and sliced thinly on a mandoline
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp soy sauce
sea salt
Ricotta Filling
2 cups pine nuts
1-2 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp coconut butter
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups basil chiffonade
Steam the sliced beets for 3-5 minutes, marinate in remaining ingredients for 15 min to 1 hour or in fridge for up to two days.
Combine remaining ingredients except the basil in a food processor and blend till very smooth. Fold the basil into the pine nut ricotta.
Place single slices of marinated beets on a serving platter. Place 2 tsp or so of ricotta on each beet slice, top with another slice and gently press. Serve a room temperature.
Summer Panzanella Salad
This recipe is from Moosewood Simple Suppers Cookbook, we added organic sprouts and had a feast for three people. This would be a perfect, simple, post-workout meal. YUM!
1/2 loaf of crusty Italian or French bread (whole grain if possible)
4 tomatoes
5 oz fresh mozzarella (we used L’Ancetre)
1/2 red onion
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup pitted olives
I tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
Cut bread into 1/2 inch thick slices, grill on BBQ till lightly toasted. Cut bread into cubes.
Meanwhile, prepare the following ingredients and place them in a serving bowl. Cut tomatoes and mozzarella into 1/2 inch cubes. Peel and thinly slice red onion. Cut basil leaves into thin strips and cut olives. Add the vinegar and oil to the bowl and toss well. Add the bread cubes to the bowl toss and let sit for 10 minutes.
Kale & Red Cabbage Salad with Cumin Vinaigrette
Adapted from ‘Dinner at Jen’s’, O-Magazine September 2009.
Salad
I can black beans drained and rinsed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper
kernels cut from three ears of corn
2 bunches of Kale, washed, dried, middle stem torn out, shredded
1/2 small head red cabbage, shredded
5 plum tomatoes seeded and diced
2 avocados peeled and diced
1 bunch cilantro coarsley chopped
1/2 cup goat cheese feta crumbled
Vinaigrette
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 medium shallot chopped
1/4 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin
3/4 cup canola or olive oil
To make salad, put black beans in a large bowl, mix in cumin and chili powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add remaining salad ingredients.
Make vinaigrette buy combining all ingredients, add to salad. Toss lightly to combine, let sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the kale to soften. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Enjoy!
Yoga for Runners too – day 5
August 14, 2009
Well we made it, we are done and we had a great time.
A big thank you to Mike our technical director and Dave our Producer and Task-Master, these two Rogers TV professionals brought it all together. The whole crew was amazing and most of the gang volunteer (because Dave is so amazing); Connie our floor manager and photographer was outstanding, she has an beautiful website, she is one talanted woman, check it out connieporteous.com. Graham runs the Jib camera professionally and he is truly an artist, Brian and all the camera crew creative as usual with those camera shots, thanks to everyone for making our job so easy. Of course another big hug and kiss to Melody the make-up queen, we are really going to miss our girly time in the morning – she made us feel like princesses 
And a huge heart-felt thank you to Ali and Jeanette who took time our of their very busy schedules to tape the show. You are both beautiful women and so much fun, I really am sad to have it end. A big hello to Lindsay who was on the show with us last year, she is expecting her third child in about one month and Lindsay is as gorgeous as ever!
I will post a few more of the beautiful photos Connie took when we get them all downloaded, and we will keep you posted on when the show will air
Thanks to Gavin for asking us to do another season and making sure we had the best and the brightest to work with! It made the long hot days all worth it!
Off to the cottage to put my yoga toes up and relax- yahoo
Yoga for Runners too – day 4
August 13, 2009
We have been blessed with sunny weather all week, the lighting is beautiful on the set and it really feels like summer. Today because of the hot summer sun we had to stop taping when the it hit the stage; the consensus was, dehydration and heat stroke would not be a good thing! Good call all around. We made it home by 4pm today which was a real treat – considering Jeanette, Ali and I were all all up late doing ‘work-work’ last night. Ali is one talented artist with a studio in Westboro – Ali Cat Art, check out her website, AliCatArt.com , and Jeanette had to check in with her team at work, she is our uber intelligent, beautiful yogini, managing all things math and economics, wow!
Again all the crew and the amazing yoga goddesses were bang on! The day rolled right along, and the episodes today focused on hips and core, wow I have never done so many plank poses in my life! A big thanks to Sherry and Tonja for coaching our half-marathon class tonight, don’t think Jeanette and I could have run the 19km; but on that note Ali headed off to play Ultimate tonight, she is hard-core
At the end of the shoot today the Lock-Master asked if we would like to open the locks, and never ones to back down from a new experience, Ali and Jeanette were right in there, I supervised, someone had to. Check out the great photo by Connie Porteous - maybe a new line of work ladies.
Also below is a recipe for an amazing salad I made tonight. Jeanette and I popped over to say ‘good luck to the half marathon class and remind them to hydrate and refuel after their run’ and then we sat on my deck and had Curried Quinoa Salad with Mangos for dinner – Yum. It is fast to make and loaded with nutrients and protien (quinoa has all the essential amino acids in it) and the veggies were are full of anti-oxidants to rebuild our muscles and keep us going tomorrow, and it has kept me going tonight!
Curried Quinoa Salad with Mango
makes 2 – 4 servings
1 cup quinoa – rinsed well in a strainer
1/4 cup organic olive or sunflower oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp mango chutney
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 large mango, peeled and diced, pit removed
1 English cucumber diced
1 yellow pepper diced
about 12 cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
2 cups baby spinach
In a medium pot bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add quinoa, reduce to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and let cool.
Make Dressing; whisk together oil and next 4 ingredients and blend well, season with salt and pepper to taste.
in a large bowl combine quinoa, veggies and dressing, toss well. Pile spinach into your salad bowl and top with the quinoa salad
Enjoy!
Yoga for Runners too – day 3
August 12, 2009
Photo by Connie Porteous
We really rocked today! Ali, Jeanette and all the crew were amazing, and yes it was smoking hot out!
I think we all drank about 4 litres of water and tons of fruit. One problem – no veggies today. Green leafy veggies give you tons of energy without the sugar rush – so tomorrow a big salad and a green smoothie is in order!
Melody worked her magic – our makeup held throughout the heat -did I mention it was really hot? Here are a few pics from the day. Yes the posts are getting shorter – I’m getting tired
Yoga for Runners too- day 2
August 11, 2009
Wow did we motor today! We got 3 shows taped and if not for a huge downpour around 3:45pm or so, we could have done one more. All the butterfly’s are out of our system and the shows went extremely well.
We did some pretty challenging episodes – lots of plank and side plank, balance poses including Warrior 3 a couple of times and lots and lots of Chair pose!!!
The crew was amazing and Dave our producer kept us all moving along really quickly. So much so that the three of us didn’t get much time to eat; note to self – Tim Horton’s coffee on a half-empty stomach was great for energy but I was a bit ’spacey’ by the end of the day. None the less the caffeine hit the spot just when we needed it! Thanks Mike
A big shout out to Melody again- the make up was beautiful, check out her post today to see us just before we left for the set Melody &Jezabel
Brian took lots of photos today – we’ll get some up on tomorrow’s post
Off to get my beauty sleep:)
Yoga for Runners too – day 1
August 10, 2009
Today was hot, h-o-t, hot!!!
The shooting day started with the three of us (myself, Ali Fowler and Jeanette Steffler) in the beautiful air conditioned home of our talented make-up artist, Melody (check out her great blog). For about 2 hours we were air-brushed and primped and beautified, it was fun.
Then off to the set, the sun had shifted so the black stage was right in the sun, and actually too hot to even stand on; we tried a 4 minute segment and no-go, our feet were burning. So the gang had to move the stage – hard work, and the three of us went back to Melody’s place to bask in in AC and touch up our make-up, we were melting! Back to the set and we did get one show completed, lots of sweat and bottles of water and patting our faces gently so we didn’t ruin the paint job. Not sure if we can use the tape from the work we did today, we had some ‘technical difficulties’ with the microphones, but it was good practice and I got the first day jitters out of the way.
Back tomorrow – ready to go! Now off to make my smoothie for the morning, pack my lunch and give my face wash # 3, perhaps some cucumber slices on the eyes
