Sticky sesame chicken

Yesterday's tea was the best we cooked in a while. It was easy to make, healthy, but still absolutely delicious. I found the recipe in a recent purchase in TK Maxx. As always I modified the portions and that, but here we go. :) 

Ingredients

500g chicken or turkey breasts

3 tablespoons of sesame seeds

2 pita breads

Marinade:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of mustard

the juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons of clear honey

1 clove of garlic 

salt and pepper to taste

Salad:

fresh salad

2 carrots

half a cucumber

Sauce:

200g hummus

3 tablespoons of yogurt

Method

Mix 1 tablespoon of the oil, the honey, the mustard, the juice of the lemon and the crushed garlic together. Add salt and pepper, then put the diced chicken breast it. Cover it with cling film, then set it aside for 10 minutes. 

Peel the carrots then cut them into a shape you like. Cut the cucumber into dices, then mix them in with the salad. Mix the yogurt into the hummus, add salt and pepper to taste. 

Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan, then add the chicken. Reserve the marinade, as you are going to need it later. Once the chicken is getting brown, add the sesame seeds, then stir fry for an other 3-4 minutes, until the seeds are turning brown. Now pour the marinade into the pan, and cook until it becomes sticky (an other 4-5 minutes). 

Toast your pita breads, then stuff everything in your face. :D This amount will satisfy 2 very hungry, or 3 moderately hungry humanoids. 

Healthy banana pancakes

Every time people ask me about my diet, their main question is: what about my snacks? To be honest, I was never really a big fan of crisps, so I don't miss having my hands in a bag 24/7. I do like my sweet treats and cakes tho, so that was the main thing for me, to focus on food that I can still fit in my diet, but will satisfy my cravings for something sweet. This is an other great recipe, originally you only needed 2 ingredients, but I pimped in up a bit.

Ingredients

1 ripe banana

2 eggs

1 tablespoon of oats

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

a pinch of baking powder

desiccated coconut

a drop of maple syrup

Method

I didn't bother mashing the banana with a fork and then beating the eggs in, I just popped every ingredient (except the coconut and the maple syrup) in a smoothie blender, then that was it. Frying these pancakes is a bit tricky, as they tend to break and bend, but on a lightly oiled pan you will manage. And even if it breaks it will still be tasty. 

From this amount you can stuff yourself totally full, so it is more like for 2 to be honest. Without the syrup you can tell they are not real pancakes but fake banana ones (which I didn't mind at all), but a little bit of maple syrup did wonders, no one will ever tell the difference. Brilliant for breakfast, lunch, whatever. :)

Lemony date energy balls

A couple of weeks ago I came across this post, and decided to recreate the recipe. Now I am not a big health guru (yet, haha), so I didn't have chia seeds at home, and decided not to bother for the first time, so I just went with the plain ingredients.

Ingredients

15 dates

1 lemon (zest + juice)

2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut

1/3 cup (50 g) almonds 

Method

Get rid of the stones of the dates, then put them in a food processor, along with the zest of the lemon, the almonds, and the coconut. I don't have a processor yet, so I used a hand blender, but it was a proper nightmare, so I am definitely going to but a cheap food processor. It took forever to blend everything, especially that the dates become very sticky. I used up all of the juice of the lemon, it gave the mash a better consistency. When everything is blended, form little balls with wet hands, then store them in an airtight container. They will last for a week in the fridge, but trust me, they won't. You will eat them before they would have the chance to go off. 

They are basically home made naked bars, just juicier, better, and cheaper. Brilliant snack. 

Update with a photo III + news

New year, same me, because I am fabulous. :D Jokes aside, I decided, that this year I am going to spend more time on writing my blog. So here is the first post of 2016, yay! Let's start with an other photo. 

19th of January on the right :)

This January I joined the under 90 club, and just signed up for my first running race ever, and went for 10k! :) 

Since we have one new year's resolution with the Mr, which is to cook more, I decided to share a couple of recipes. We were stuck on the same 10ish for a long time, which became boring of course, so we started ordering and eating out a lot, which is obviously not too great for our accounts, so this is this year's resolution, cook more, spend less. Also we recently discovered, that the Mr is lactose intolerant, so it is more of a challenge to cook than it was before, but we are great, and going to make it work. 

Also I am lazy, so even though we have a pretty good camera, I am still going to use instagram pictures for the food posts, as I am not too great with composing food photography, and most of the time they look gross on a proper picture, even when they are not. 

I promise there is going to be an other post soon, take care! :)

Update with a photo II.

It has almost been 2 months, since I last posted a picture about my progress. Funny enough, my weight hasn't changed much since then ( I lost 18.4 kg since I started, it is only like 3 kilos since the last picture), but now you can really see, how muscles weigh more than fat, because the pictures speak for themselves. 

23rd of July on the right

30th of September

13th of November 

I wear size 16 jeans now, the jumper I am wearing on the last photo is a size Medium from H&M, and I just bought a dress, which was a size 12. This one surprised me, as I am pretty sure it is not sized properly, but now I can shop anywhere I want, as everyone has size 16. :)) 

I still have a long road to go, but I am halfway down, which makes me really happy and proud. Also yoga makes me happy and confident, so please everyone try it out, it is brilliant, really!

Namaste

As I mentioned in a previous post, I started practicing yoga. I always wanted to try it, and there is a really promising studio on our street, which eventually I am going to try out, I just wanted to make sure at home, that I like it, I enjoy it, and I can benefit from it. I know it sounds silly, because literally millions of people practice yoga and they swear by it, but that doesn't necessary mean, that it is for me. Anyway, I was on a hunt for a good yoga youtuber. I tried out quite a few, but I always had the same problem with them. Way too fast for me, difficult poses, weird explanations. I wanted something understandable, I wanted someone who can explain stuff easily, but they don't take themselves too seriously. I never take myself seriously, and I like quirky people. 

I am happy to say, that I found the perfect yoga youtuber. :) Some of you, who are into yoga might already know her, because she is quite popular, I think. Let me introduce you to Adriene. 

The first practice I did with her was her 20 minutes beginners yoga. and I actually enjoyed it so much, that I was very sad, that it ended. I felt great, she explained everything just the way I needed it. And I love her way of thinking about yoga, she keeps emphasizing, that yoga is different for everyone, and just because her, or someone you saw practicing yoga before looks like this or that during a pose, it doesn't necessary mean, that you have to look the exact same. Our bodies are different, some of us have long legs, some have short arms, we won't look the same doing a similar pose. Do what feels nice, while trying to do it the way it should be. If it makes sense. I love this, and this is what I do during my practice. I started noticing a difference now, in my balance, and I am a wee bit more flexible. 

I find yoga a very good counter workout for running. Running is still a kind of meditation for me, as I run alone and I just completely focus on myself, but practicing yoga is a different kind of awareness. I like how I connect with the ground, how I literally feel my organs starting to work and do what they should do. I did a couple of her videos already, and I am going to keep exploring her channel, because I enjoy all of her videos so much. Now that the weather is getting more and more rainy, I am glad that I still can do something with my body, when the conditions are not good for running. I don't mind the cold or the wind on a run, but when it is pouring down, I just can't go out for a run. But then I am happy, because there is still yoga to do!

I actually enjoy it so much, that even tho today was a lovely day, and I went for an hour long run, I still did one of her practices later in the evening, just because I wanted to do yoga as well. I love it, that she makes me want to come back and practice some more and more. This is how I imagine a great trainer. Go, check her out! She is amazing.

Update with a photo :)

It has been 2 months since I last posted a comparing picture about my progress, so I decided to update you guys on this. If you follow me on instagram you might have seen it already, but anyway. :) I don't have a picture from the day I started changing my diet, so I am using a selfie from last year, which was taken literally a year ago yesterday. 

This is the picture from the 23rd of July

And this is yesterday, 30th of September

-15.1 kg so far. I would like to lose 25 more, at least. So I am almost halfway through, which feels kinda nice. :) The past couple of weeks I started doing 2 runs a week (almost 8 kilometers each time!), and 1 yoga. At home just now, just started to get the hang of it. I will tell you guys later who I found on youtube who is finally not expecting a full beginner to do the craziest shit on the first try. :D The weather treats me, I can still run outside, and don't even need to have warm gear on, but I am going to need to look into more warmer running clothes for the winter, so if you have any recommendations where to look for them, I would be more than happy.

My diet is still the same, lots of fruits and veggies, trying to eat the whole wheat version of everything, and no sugar. I have the occasional wee cake or a slice of pizza, but everyone needs to treat themselves every once in a while, right? I still write in my food journal daily, so I can check what my body likes or dislikes, how my weight reacts to the food I ate the previous day. It is almost full now, so there is an other reason to go to Paperchase again, yay!

I will try to post more I promise, I just lost the inspiration to write, but that didn't mean I stopped doing what I started, as you see it in the pictures. :)