Barbecue Season

Even though I'm rather committed to a winter sport I think that summer may be my favourite season.  We've had some nice summery weather lately (even though it's dark and there's rumblings of a thunder storm outside as I write this) and nice weather means we can break out the barbecue!  Barbecue is one of my favourite things because it's relatively fast and it also creates little to no dishes (washing dishes is the worst I hate dishes).

I wrapped some sweet potatoes and onions up in foil with some garlic, olive oil, cinnamon, oregano, and shredded coconut and put all that and some pork chops (because pork is cheap and I'm a poor student) on the grill.

I multitasked and iced my knee that was sore (just from training not an injury or anything) while I cooked dinner.  I was home alone so while I was waiting for dinner I got to enjoy a couple of our new patio chairs and my book in the sunshine.

Our patio is still a work in progress, we don't even have a table right now (we're working on that) but we got some nice chairs on sale at target and some little tea light holders so fingers crossed there's some nice enough weather this summer that we can spend a lot of it outside.

My finished dinner complete with some leftover chickpea salad that was just chickpeas, veggies, onions, cilantro, red pepper flakes, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Smoothie 101

I know, I know it's been a long time since my last post but in my defence it was exam season but as of yesterday exams are done and "Skates and Stuff" is back in full swing!

Smoothies are one of my favourite quick and easy snacks, you can take one on the run, replace a small meal with one, and they are often a go-to recovery drink for athletes since you can get a lot of benefits from just one cup.

The basics of any smoothie are frozen fruit (or fresh fruit and ice), yogurt, half a banana and some kind of liquid (milk, water, juice or a combination.  The amount of frozen fruit or ice depends on the consistency you want for example more frozen/less liquid will produce a thicker smoothie.  Any kind of yogurt will do but I prefer greek because it has more protein and less carbs and protein helps to keep you full and helps your muscles recover after a workout.

Here's where it can get fun.  You can basically add whatever you want to your smoothie to customize it to your needs.  If you're using the smoothie as a meal replacement some protein powder would be ideal so you don't get hungry again soon after.  If using protein powder I would suggest using juice as your liquid since protein powder often has a strong taste that can overpower some of the fruit.  Cinnamon can also be added for more flavour as it is better for you than adding more sugars.  I often also add ground flaxseed which is high in omega-3 and fibre and for more iron and vitamins I will sometimes add some greens like kale or spinach and when they're all blended up you don't even notice they're there.

The finished product, yum!

Healthy peanut butter chocolate bars

This post falls under the "and stuff" of Skates and Stuff.  I love baking and desserts but sometimes it can be hard to make some healthy-ish options.

I was sitting at home taking an extra afternoon off to recover while the rest of my group was training and was really in need of some comfort food.  I found this recipe online, experimented with it a little and was really happy with how it turned out.  So I'll tell ya what I did and leave the recipe at the bottom.

The original recipe called for half a cup of brown sugar but I only used a quarter cup and mixed it with 1 cup of peanut butter, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and then on a whim I decided to add half a banana.  The banana was a little hard to mix in but I figured that no one would really complain if they got a chunk of banana in their bar.

This smelled so good I could have stopped there and just licked the bowl

Next up was one cup of flour (whole wheat because that's how stupidly healthy I am), a cup of oats, a teaspoon of baking soda, and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt (I don't know if it makes any difference at all but I use sea salt).

It was all a little crumbly until I added the milk.  I used half a cup of chocolate almond milk instead of regular milk (and that also accounted for some of the sugar I left out).  I put in half a cup of chocolate chips but you could also put in raisins or nuts or whatever else. 

Yum

I pressed it all in a greased pan and put it in the oven for about 17 minutes. 

The finished product was almost suprising to me since I had never experimented on a recipe that much.  The bars are kind of somewhere between a banana bread and an oatmeal cookie, they're soft in the middle which probably comes from the banana.

They're a little bit healthier but still good.  I ate three that first day.

Recipe:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter (all natural)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 banana 

1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)

1 cup oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup milk (I used chocolate almond milk)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix brown sugar, peanut butter and vanilla 

Add the banana 

Mix in flour, oats, salt and baking soda. Slowly add milk and then chocolate chips (may need to use your hands to mix it all together)

Press into a greased baking pan and bake for 17-20 minutes, or until the bars start to brown around the edges