And It Shall Be Forever Known....

...as the Burger Long-Weekend.

This past weekend was Victoria Day long weekend, which I actually had it off from work! Last year I had to work the long weekend so I missed out on all of the festivities that Victoria has to offer our lovely city on the holiday weekend. But then again, last year I pretty much didn't have any friends to enjoy them with, so no big loss there.

Jaime was away for work for a few days so Saturday I had an empty house. I got up early to do a workout because I had plans for the day, so I wanted to get in a quick P90X workout before the start to the day. About 5 minutes into it I heard the garage door open and was like, "What? It's 7:00am! How is Jaime home already?" But it was actually the lady who watches Tank when Jaime is away. She was dropping him off about 9 hours earlier than I was expecting, which kind of threw a wrench in my plans for the day. The plan was to drive downtown to meet up with a friend, hit up a morning farmer's market, buy some delicious food and head to the beach for the day. Now I had to add a high-maintenance and highly demanding dog to the mix. Alright. No worries.

So I packed up Tank and headed to town. Dogs aren't allowed in the interior area of the market so I ended up just perusing the perimeter of the fence and looking at the stalls that lined the outside of the market while my friend went in to buy some delicious food for the picnic. I learned how much I LOVE the Fairfield area of Victoria because the houses are mostly all restored Historian houses and the area has a very "Nelson" feel to it. I was instantly smitten. We headed to the beach (I can't remember the name!) which was an awesome area to bring dogs to. We spent a couple hours there and at no point was not someone walking and/or playing with their dog along the shore. Tank always had someone to play with (aka, someone to bother) which was good for us because we didn't have to entertain him the entire time. Unfortunately what this meant was when we wanted to just lay in the sun and do nothing for longer than 2 minutes, Tank wouldn't allow it. He needed to see and sniff everything and I soon got a bit annoyed. He was physically tired from playing so much but couldn't relax because there was so much going on around us. I couldn't tie him up because he can slip out of his harness (damn Bulldogs not having necks makes things difficult) so after some time, I decided it would be best to drive him home since Jaime would have been home soon anyway.

So I drove him all the way back to the West Shore then headed all the way back to town.

I need to find a place to live downtown.

When I got back to town, we headed to the Inner Harbour to go meet up with some friends at the free concert that was happening down by the water. It was an online RSVP event, which works OK in theory but as soon as we arrived we learned that things didn't work out as expected. They way overbooked the concert so by the time we arrived there, the line-up was a good hour long wait. Luckily it was an outside concert and the weather was awesome, so we just found a grassy knoll nearby and enjoyed the music while sitting in the sunshine. No line-ups, elbow-to-elbow crowds, shouting at your friends or the pressures of feeling the need to cheer and clap after each song. We grabbed a beer at an outside patio pub, which was about 20 feet from the concert, and also enjoyed the show there. Good times!

After the show we headed to another pub to have some late-night dinner with a group of friends, which is where the Burger Long-Weekend all started. Every night last weekend I had a burger for dinner. Each one of them very different than the next, but all were very enjoyable.

Burger #1 - consumed at The Beagle Pub - The Bison Burger. Topped with goat cheese and a whiskey bourbon glaze...yes please! It was a lot tastier than I would have expected and I ate every last crumb of that thing. The actual patty was nothing all that special but the sauces and spreads made it scrumptious.

The next day I volunteered to help my friend Chris paint his new condo. He's been a bit of a stressball about getting all of the renovations done in time for his move-in date (which is today) so I was more than happy to help him out. Plus I truly enjoy painting. I find it very cleansing - like a fresh snowfall that covers up all of the ugly snow buried beneath it. About half way through the work day we had to go to Home Depot to pick up some more paint and painter's tape, so we decided to also take a late lunch break afterwards.

Burger #2 - consumed at the Shine Cafe - The Berkeley Veggie Burger. I heard great stuff about this place and I was not disappointed at all with my choice. The homemade patty was topped with mushrooms, cheddar, onions, pesto mayo and all the trimmings. It was falling apart all over the place and my face and plate was an absolute mess. But honestly, it was the second best veggie burger I have had on this island and dare I say the second best veggie burger I've ever had?? Yup...definitely a possibility. It was pure awesome.

After 12 hours of painting, we called it a night and I went home and crashed in bed. Two busy days in a row, plus one more before the weekend was done.

The final day of the long weekend again started in the early morning. I was feeling guilty about my shitty eating habits the past 2 days so I headed to the gym to get in a quick cardio workout. After a quick shower and change of clothes, my friend Alice and I decided to take advantage of the continuous nice weather and went for a hike up Mt. Finlayson. I've only ever done this hike once before when my parents were in town, and this time I knew what to expect. It's a crazy steep hike with some dodgy areas to get through, but the view from the top is quite lovely. While I enjoy this hike, it's really not my ideal trail because you have to concentrate so hard on where you step or else you'll plummet to your death, so you can't really enjoy the view around you until you reach the top. But it was still a fantastic way to spend some time with Alice and enjoy the early afternoon.

After another shower and another change of clothes, I headed back downtown for a few hours to hang out with friends before the weekend came to an end.

Again, I really need to find a place to live downtown.

Burger #3 - consumed at Bin 4 - The Ginger Soy Tofu Burger. My all-time favourite place to eat in the city. It never lets me down. Considering it was already around 7:30pm and I had to get up at 4am for work the next morning, I didn't want to eat a heavy burger, so I went for this one with the butter lettuce instead of a bun. As much as I absolutely LOVE the buns they have there, I figured eliminating the bun would be easier on the old GI tract since I knew I had to go to bed fairly soon. And as always, even though there was no bun for my burger, I was not let down at all by the flavours and textures of my meal. Such a fantastic place to eat.

PS. Bin 4 has my all-time favourite veggie burger - The Mr. Bean. I dream of this thing.

Honestly though, I was looking forward to getting back to work so that I could actually stop and sit down for longer than 5 minutes! It was definitely a great weekend though. Also I think that Burger Long-Weekend might need to be a new personal tradition for me. Can a person ever get sick of delicious burgers??

The Nazi Officer's Wife

Now that I have some down time from school work, I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately. It seems like I'm going through books faster than fresh green grass goes through a Canadian Goose.

Speaking of which, there were 2 Canadian Geese on the front lawn today. Very bizarre.

The 2 main reasons that I am reading like a fiend right now are,
1) I have a Kindle app on my tablet
2) I have an Amazon account

While having these e-readers is a convenient way to own books, since they are light-weight, easy to pack around and you don't need to be in a well-lit place to read them, the major drawback is that they make it way too easy to purchase books! As soon as you finish a book, hell you don't even need to be done it, Amazon will send you these little notes saying "If you liked "insert the name of the book you are currently reading" then we recommend books A, B, C and D!" So then curiosity takes over and you begin clicking on these recommended books and instantly become interested in them. From there it's just one teeny tiny step to purchase the book by clicking "Buy This Book" and WHAM! You bought it.

Too easy.

But now I'm even more addicted because they keep recommending really good books!

After watching the Academy Awards (the first time I watched it in about 15 years) I became interested in the movie "12 Years a Slave". I heard that it was a book before it was made into a movie so I decided to look into purchasing the book before seeing the movie (because the books are obviously always better than the movie).

Except for The Notebook. AWFUL book. Fantastic movie.

So I found 12 Years a Slave for a glorious $1.99 for purchase through Amazon. But I'm not gonna lie. It really wasn't that great of a book. While I enjoyed learning about the history and getting further reinforcement that white men were pure evil and committed horrible acts via slavery and stealing free men and turning them into slaves, the book was really no scream in hell. However, good 'ol Amazon was there to back me up with recommendations for more books which I might like.

The first book they recommended in the list was "The Nazi Officer's Wife" by Edith Hahn Beer. After reading the description, I thought that it looked really interesting, and for only 99 cents, how can I turn down such a deal?? And I am so glad I did make the purchase because it was a fantastic book! The Nazi Officer's Wife is a true story about an extremely brave Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust by pretending to be a loyal Aryan and married a Nazi Officer to further the façade. She was a very intelligent and well-educated woman who got stripped of everything for the simple reason of being Jewish. She was taken from Austria and forced into labour camps to work in horrendous conditions for several years.

When she was finally able to go home, the life she grew up in was shattered by war and hatred, so she went underground, fled to Germany and managed to gain a new identity through the help of a couple kind-hearted Aryans who explained what to do and how to do it without being caught. The story goes on to explain her daily life and the immense fear that she lived in every single minute of every single day. She meets a Nazi party member who is a good man and he falls madly in love with her (the "her" she is pretending to be) so she agrees to marry him to further her safety in the world that is crumbling from the Second World War.

Without giving too much away, I just wanted to say that it is a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to read well written books. The detail she puts into the story and the bravery she faced to survive such a devastating time in history, I found myself cheering her on with every triumph she faced and mourning for the loss that she went through to avoid becoming one of the millions of people who were murdered for merely being alive. The book has so much history and facts, plus she told the story in a way that took me back to that time, like I was seeing it though her detailed eyes. She didn't write that book to be famous or to be announced a hero or anything of the sort. She wrote that book because her daughter asked her to because she felt that the story was too important to not be shared with the world. I finished that book with misty eyes. Sounds silly, but it's true.

But now Amazon has recommended more books to me and alas, I pressed that damned "Buy This Book" button. The extra problem is that these historical books are so bloody cheap! 99 cents? Yes please! Yesterday I bought "The Bloodletter's Daughter"  which is a story based out of Prague in 1606. I'll let you know if it's as good as my previous purchase.

I also have 4 other books to read at the moment....like I said. It's just too easy to buy these stupid things.

Pure and Simple Love.

The horror which has been my life as a student has finally ended (for a little while anyway) so I am now ready to re-join the rest of civilization. I am able to stretch my legs, back away from the textbooks and take a deep breath. I have decided to not share what has happened in my life the past while since I last wrote because frankly, there is too much to explain so I will just start with a clean slate and try to forget the amount of stress I have been put through since I last wrote a post on here.

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So how do you know you’re in love?

Butterflies in the stomach? Heart palpitations? Simultaneous shit-eating grins and sweaty palms?

For me, it was the first bite.

Let’s go back to the beginning. A couple weeks ago I was perusing the aisles at Costco (alright, I was scoping out the tasting booths and stumbled into the packaged meat and cheese area of the store while getting some samples of aged cheddar cheese). That was when I noticed the monster sized tubs of kimchi sitting on the shelf. When did Costco start selling kimchi?? How had I never seen it before? These details really didn’t matter because frankly, I was just stoked at the idea of buying one of these monstrous tubs of fermented vegetables.

In case you are not aware of what kimchi is, it is a fermented Korean side dish made with various vegetables, such as cabbage, radish and scallion, plus other ingredients like fish sauce, garlic, hot pepper powder, shrimp and salts. Many years ago when I lived in Nelson and worked as a baker, one of my bosses was a mad lover of kimchi and he taught me all about it. It’s super pungent and spicy but there’s something about it that I enjoy very much. Normally I absolutely hate anything with shrimp in it, but this is the one exception to my shrimp distaste. 

So back to my massive tub of kimchi which has been sitting in my fridge for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been slowly munching away on it but decided that I needed to make something with it. Enough was enough. School was over and it was time to do something delicious. I Googled recipes for what people can do with kimchi (apart from the obvious) and the one that caught my attention was a Kimchi and Avocado Quesadilla. I switched it up a little bit and I really wanted to take some pictures to show you that I actually made it and am not just sitting on the couch with a fork and a tub of kimchi…but it was so delicious that I scarfed it down before I could go and get my camera.

It was love. Simple and pure love, wrapped in a crisp tortilla with gooey gouda cheese and a whole lot of yum.

Kimchi & Chicken Avocado Quesadilla

½ cup Kimchi, chopped

½ cup cooked chicken, chopped (a mil bean would be equally delicious)

½ cup mild Gouda cheese (or Havarti would be nice too)

½ of an avocado, sliced

A good tablespoon of chopped cilantro

1 tortilla

Plain Greek yogurt

1) Over medium heat, cook the chicken and kimchi in a small pan for about 5 minutes, until heated through and some of the liquid cooks off.

2) Heat a large skillet over low heat and place the tortilla in the pan. Sprinkle the cheese over the entire tortilla. Spread the kimchi & chicken, sliced avocado and cilantro over half of the tortilla. The cheese should be melted at this point. Fold the tortilla in half, remove from the pan and place on a cutting board. Cut into 4 slices and eat with the Greek yogurt. YUM!!!

Men in the News

I'm being overloaded with school work these days, but I needed to stop for a few minutes (you should see my bedroom right now - looks like a 360 degree paper bomb went off around me) to talk about 2 stories that I saw on the news today. It seems the only time that I ever get to watch TV is when I am at the gym, but these stories were interesting enough for me to take the time to discuss them.

So the first one is about beard transplants. Yup. Beard Transplants.

Now I LOVE a good beard. I think my love of beards stems back to the time I lived in Nelson and living in a hippie town full of bearded men just kind of really grew on me. There's something manly about a good beard that I find highly enjoyable. Perhaps it's the fact that women can't grow them so they're kind of a defining masculine feature that make's the male species undeniably unique. Either way, beards are hot.

So now it's cool and trendy to have a beard and unfortunately there are men who wish to ride the hipster bandwagon but cannot sprout a full beard. An unfinished patchy face just isn't going to cut it these days. Luckily for these men, the ones who just happen to have several thousand dollars hanging around, they can have Facial Hair Transplants! Lucky them!

Really?  C'mon guys. Do you really need to move hair from other areas of your body and put it on your face just so that you can look extra cool in your plaid button up shirt and toque? As much as I love a beard, I feel that you just let your natural growth remain where it wants to be and let the real men rock the beards.

Did I just say that out loud? I'm kidding! There are an endless number of super sexy clean shaven men out there who are the definition of manly. If everyone had beards then they wouldn't be special, so I say, keep what you got where you got it.

The second story was about how they are beginning to believe that men also have a Biological Clock. It's not just for the ladies anymore. Women are always talking about their imminent ticking biological clock and their fear of drying up and become a barren wench. Now they are finding that men may also have a biological clock of their own in which the older the man is when he fathers a child, the higher chance that the child will have mental issues or learning disabilities.They also found that children were more likely to have challenges academically and be at a higher risk of developing substance abuse problems.

Crazy! We've been blaming the women for having old eggs all of this time.

The study stressed that not all children born from an older father will have some kind of developmental issue. They just found that the likelihood was shockingly higher (13x higher for ADHD and 25x higher for bipolar disease).

Very interesting stuff.

Coming Home

I doubt that there are very many people who can disagree with this post because I am doubting that there is anyone out there who has never been moved, either emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually, by music. Music always seems to find a way into our souls and touches a place that nothing else can reach. Music is beauty, creativity and an interesting extension of our personalities. It can take us back to a time, place, feeling or state of mind and make us relive great or unpleasant memories. For most people, there is a band, song or album that gives them a sense of inner peace or simply brings a huge smile to their face. There is a band or song that is always on the iPod, even if you go for months without listening to it, it will never be removed because someday you will need to listen to it.

For me, that band is Tool. Specifically, the Lateralus album.

As soon as I put on this album it is as though I am going home again. I will go for months without listening to this band, but then one day I will just have to hear them. Whether it be because I am having a bad day and I need to find my center again or because I need to belt out some lyrics and smile like a fool, Tool is the band that makes my soul smile.

How does one even begin to describe the feeling I get when The Grudge begins? It's like a tightening in my chest of emotion. Almost like pride? No...I don't know how to explain it. There is this joy that spreads through me and I instantly relax listening to MJK's beautiful voice. Everything that is happening around me does not matter because I have this album to bring me back to where I need to be.

I have listened to Lateralus (and ever other one of Tool's albums) dozens and dozens (and dozens) of times and every time that I put it on, it's like listening to it for the first time. I am always moved and greatly appreciative of the power it has over me and the way it makes me feel. Whatever your taste in music may be, I really hope that you have a band that makes you feel like Tool makes me feel. As soon as those first few notes come at you, every calming neurotransmitter in your brain kicks in and you become lost in the music. All of the stress and bullshit that your day threw at you gets removed from your thoughts and you are left with nothing but yourself and the song.

Can you tell I listened to Lateralus today?

"Over-thinking, over-analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind.
Feed my will to feel this moment, urging me to cross the line.
Reach out to embrace the random,
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come."

Finish Line?

So it's Saturday evening and I'm nearing the end of Day 12 of Sugar Deprivation. The memories of that difficult 6th day are fading in the distance and I had 5 days of mental strength with little trouble getting through without yearning for something coated in chocolate.  My co-worker shoved s homemade chocolate chip cookie in my face yesterday and insisted I try because of how delicious it was. I declined...less than politely...and accused her of being a self absorbed jerk for even asking me.

 
Luckily she knows me well enough to not take me seriously.

So now here I am, contemplating these last 12 days and beginning the close in on the finish line.

Or am I?

Like with any goal you set for yourself, once you see the finish line ahead in the distance, you begin to wonder how far you can actually drag the whole experience out for. Do I really need to get back into my life filled with sugar, wheat and dairy? Is it so strange to embrace these eating habits beyond the days I set out for myself? Should I not extend this eating altering journey for as long as I can so that I can lead a healthier, more nutritious lifestyle?

I'll admit that I am torn. I know that I could easily do this for at least another week. Possibly even two. No, definitely another two. The thing that is making me want to be done with it once the 2 weeks are done is that there is such a huge social aspect behind eating. I want to go out and have a beer with friends and not be the awkward one sitting there sipping water meanwhile eying down every pint of Pale Ale that crosses my line of vision. I really hate being one of those annoying people who has to mentally tear apart every item on a menu in search of something that works for me. I am the last person to come out to someone and say, "Oh no thanks. I'm on a cleanse." The word "cleanse" has some baggage and I really don't like to say that word unless I absolutely have to. People totally judge you when you bust out "cleanse" and I have found that there are so many other ways to not eat the foods you are avoiding rather than saying the evil "C" word in public.

Like a simple, "No thanks," when someone offers you something can really go a long way. Every so often that person will insist and tell you how amazing it is. Mentally you may be ringing their necks and wishing they'd take that delectable morsel away from your nose, but verbally just a friendly, "No honestly, I'm good," can make them back off.

There are lots of reasons that people cleanse. Weight loss is the major reason and we all know how much those celebrities like to announce to the public how amazing they feel when doing them. Yes they lost 20 pounds in 15 days, but c'mon, not a realistic way to lose unwanted poundage. Another reason people do cleanses is to actually cleanse, meaning to detoxify the body of all of the junk that we pump into it every day. There are tons of different kinds of cleanses, such a ones for the liver, kidneys, skin, GI tract, etc, and their goals is to clean you out and make you function better. They all have their differences but one overall similarity: Don't eat garbage food anymore!

What I enjoy about doing these cleanses is that they (at least for me), make me feel powerful because I am thinking through my decisions of what I am putting into my body. They also get me to make recipes that I may overlook normally. Also, when you're doing a cleanse, you never feel bloated and gross. Your body is working more efficiently and you can see it reflected in your skin and feel it within your body. Plus if you're lucky you'll shed a few pounds and squeeze into your skinny jeans a bit better.

I'm definitely not doing this for weight loss (I actually weighed myself at the gym today and am down a grand total of a pound and a half). If you saw how much I have been eating you would likely wonder how I have not gained weight. But that is the miracle of eating good food people! You can stuff yourself silly with vegetables, fruits, proteins and healthy fats, even the saturated kinds (I've been eating an avocado every day) and still come out losing weight.

So back to the main point of this impromptu rant. Do I stay on it or go back to my regular scheduled eating habits? I feel that after writing this post that I have talked myself into staying on this eating course for at least another week. Plus I am going to make some cleanse friendly Coconut Curry tomorrow so that will be a good motivation to stay on this track I have beaten out before me.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this long and drawn out conversation with myself :)

Spoke Too Soon

I am nearing the end of Day 6 of Everything Delicious Deprivation.

Notice the name change?

Today is the first time that I have been really craving something sweet and now that it is on my mind, I am finding it difficult to push it back into the rational part of my mind that knows that I cannot have it. Yesterday my co-workers gave me this big red tin-foiled chocolate star (I’m their “Super Star”) (their words, not mine), and I took it with absolutely zero temptation to break into the wrapper. Big chunk of chocolate sitting on my desk for a good 5 hours. Nothing.

Then today I saw a Quality Street wrapper in a garbage can and now all I can think is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!!

Writing this is not helping matters.

And I don’t even really like Quality Street!

As soon as I feel as though that my will-power super-hero powers have evolved into completion, BAM! Day 6 kicks me in the arse with a strong chocolate foot. I know that I will not give in and that I’ll make it through the day without indulging in my dark, rich, sweet, silky, decadent desires…mmmmm….but it wasn’t easy today. It probably also has a lot to do with being tired. Being tired and slightly lethargic makes me want to curl up with that comforting feeling that chocolate gives me.

On another note, I went out to dinner on Friday night to the new Indian restaurant in town called Turmeric and I am so lovin that place. No I could not eat all of the delectable dishes such as samosa, pakoras and naan bread (*insert drooling) but the menu had lots of options that included items which did not contain dairy or wheat and I was highly impressed with the variety that they offered. I had the Channa Masala which contained chickpeas and, oh man, it was so delicious. I also tried some of the Coconut Curry and the filling for the samosas (also wheat and dairy free) and they were also incredible.

This might be my new favourite place to eat at the moment. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who enjoys this kind of ethnic food. I had the medium heat which was a nice spicy for me. I could have bumped it up to hot since I love spicy foods, but it was my first time there so I felt that I needed to test the spicy waters before jumping in with both feet.

Turmeric. Go. Eat. Love