Get Fit with Fitbit!

In 2014, I've made a very conscious effort to get fit; once the snow melted, I got back into the running regime I started in the summer of 2013, I tracked my food in the Fitbit App and finally learned just how many calories I was consuming and I met an amazing workout buddy who pushes me to work harder, run longer and provides just the right amount of healthy competition.

But what really helped me get started and stay on track was wearing a Fitbit Activity Monitor.

I bought the Fitbit Force for the hubs last Christmas, but he was skeptical and wanted me to return it. Being the fabulous wife that I am, I kept it for myself instead and refused to feel guilty about it.

This simple bracelet can tell me how many steps I've taken, how many calories I've burned (including natural burn by age, weight and  gender as well as those burned by activity), how many flights of stairs I've climbed, how many active minutes I've had in the day and it can wake me up with gentle vibrations, instead of loud noises that wake the rest of the household.

I love that the screen on my Fitbit Force not only tells the time, it displays real time stats and syncs with my phone and laptop wireless. Technology these days truly is amazing.

Unfortunately, there was a voluntary recall on the Fitbit Force last year due to the fact that some people were having skin irritation from the charging terminal on the underside of the monitor. I have extremely sensitive skin, but I never had any problems with skin irritation; regardless, after months of debating, I sent my Fitbit Force back for a refund under the recall last month. A timely decision as Fitbit has now released its predecessor in time for Christmas!

The brand new Fitbit Charge has all the features of the Fitbit Force PLUS phone notifications; how cool is that?

And in early 2015, they will be releasing two more models, one with a built in heart rate monitor and one with the heart rate monitor and a GPS. I've been looking at GPS watches and noticed none of them do the daily activity monitoring as well as GPS tracking, so I may have end up holding out just a little bit longer.


But if you or one of your loved ones is looking to make a lifestyle change in 2015, a Fitbit Activity Monitor may be just the thing. I bought one for each of my parents last mothers and fathers day and to say they have some healthy competition over their step goals is definitley not an exageration. In fact at least two of their friends now have Fitbit Activity Monitors and are in on the action.

Fitbit.com offers Free Shipping (and its fast, I ordered my parents' online) and returns on Christmas Gifts until January 31st, all without having to wait in line at the mall. The new Fitbit Charge retails for $129.99, which I personally feel is money well spent.

FYI, I just ordered a Fitbit Charge for a Christmas Gift
and they are on Pre-order in Canada.
They are expected to ship in 1-2 weeks. - 23 Nov 2014

Links in this post are Affiliate Links and I will recieve a small commission should you choose to purchase a Fitbit Activity Monitor using the links; the opinions expressed in my purely my own.

DIY Easy Gluten-Free Flour Mix

When it comes to gluten-free baking, having a quality all-purpose flour mix in your back pocket is an essential, especially if you're a busy Mom. Before I  had kids, I used to consider the properties of each flour and blend my flours to suit the needs of the recipe; it was messy and time consuming, albeit delicious.

After kids it became clear that if I wanted to continue to bake, I needed to streamline my flour mixing in a big way and I found myself trying out various flour mixes both store bought and home made. 

In case you're wondering, NOT blending gluten-free flours is a recipe for disaster, without the stretchy . gluten molecules its important to mix your starches and flours in order to achieve baked goods that are soft and fluffy rather than dense and crumbly. Trust me on this, do not waste your expensive gluten-free flours, ALWAYS blend your flours.

You can feel free to use this mix as the basis for your own flour mix and experiment with it to meet your tastes and the needs of your family, this mix has evolved with use to become my perfect go-to recipe. This gluten-free flour mix is soy-free, corn-free and nut-free with the exception of coconut flour, which I find gives gluten-free baked goods a denseness and springiness that is difficult to achieve.

This gluten-free flour mix works great as a 1:1 substitution for all-purpose flour in most recipes; I generally recommend adding an extra egg (or a couple tablespoons of applesauce) to gluten-free baking where you have a pourable batter, such as muffins or cakes.

Easy Gluten-Free Flour Mix

Ingredients:

• 2 cups brown rice flour
• 2 cups white rice flour
• 1-1/3 cups potato starch
• 1 cup sorghum flour
• 2/3 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup coconut flour

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients and mix well.
2. Store in a sealed container or mix right into a large Ziploc bag and use as needed for gluten-free baking.

yield: 7 cups

Indian For Everyone

Indian for Everyone is a perfect blend of authenticity, simplicity and comfort. Anupy Singla's personal anecdotes and descriptions welcome the reader into both her kitchen and her life and with all the gorgeous photographs, I found myself diving headfirst into my pantry to take stock of my spices.

I needed to eat some Indian.

Literally two hours after picking up Indian for Everyone from my mailbox, I was blending onion, ginger and garlic in my food processor, simmering lentils and sauteing cumin and mustard seeds to releasing their distinct fragrance and flavour.

And in almost no time at all, I was eating what I assume was a fairly authentic bowl of Parippu; my version didn't include any fresh or dried chili's (I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to heat, plus I didn't have any) and I added a bunch of spinach. I loved every bite.

Start to finish, it took me about half an hour to create this filling bowl of vegan Indian deliciousness.

It made me crave more.

This week, I tried the Masala Egg Scramble for breakfast. A quick saute of the right spices (thanks to Anupy Singla's guidance) and our everyday eggs suddenly became special. I eat eggs nearly every day and finding a new recipe for the repetoire is exciting to say the least.

Indian for Everyone is a perfect compliment to Anupy Singla's other two books The Indian Slow Cooker and Vegan Indian Cooking; it doesn't cater to a niche market but instead showcases the breadth of options available to the home cook that's ready to learn to cook Indian.

This hardcover book is beautiful to look at, personal to read and yields results that are delicious, I definitely recommend you check it out, if you enjoy the flavours of Indian Cuisine. And if you're looking for the perfect holiday gift for the foodie in your life, you can stop right here!

Do you cook Indian food at home?

Disclaimer: I recieved a copy of Indian for Everyone in exchange for this review; all opinions are my own.

Re-Purpose your Train Table into a Craft Table

According to our backyard weather station, and the flurries in the sky, the temperature dropped to -2°C yesterday and last night, it was -12°C. Given our locale, snow on Halloween is practically a given, so at this point its safe to assume that snow could arrive and stick around at any given moment.

As much fun as snow can be, when the temperatures start to really drop, even the hardiest of kids (which my kids are not) can only tolerate playing outside for short periods of time and if we as parents want to avoid the trap of constant digital stimulation, we need to plan ahead.

For us, the first step was to take our basement that resembled a toy dumping ground and create a place that fostered play and imagination. It's definitely a work in progress, but I have been incredibly inspired by Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors by Rachelle Doorley, which introduces the idea of creative invitations, how to create your Tinkerlab, supplies worth having on hand and breaks up activities into four broad categories: Design, Build, Concoct and Discover.

With Tinkerlab in hand, I was finally ready to create a crafting area in our home, but the first thing I needed was a table. I started by scouring the internet for table ideas and our local Facebook Bidding Site looking for something that could suit our needs for cheap, but eventually a critical look at our space made me realize we already HAD the perfect table.

Rather than looking for something new, I decided to re-purpose our train table that currently seemed to illicit more fights and frustration than joy as of late. I started by taking all things train and putting them in a bin with the hope that one day the boys would enjoy them again.

I then flipped over the two boards that make up the 'table' so that accidental spills will (hopefully) not affect the images on the train table. I carefully taped a thick, flock backed tablecloth onto the boards, taking the time to carefully fold the corners and tape them onto the bottom side. Because there are two boards, it takes some effort to get the tablecloth tight and the table flat, this is easier done without the help of children if at all possible.

In less than an hour, and for the cost of a tablecloth, our barely used train table become a craft table (or craft centre as my kindergartner calls it), that my boys came to love in a matter of days.

Organizing our crafty goodies into small containers, cups and drawers and deciding what the boys could have free access to, took significantly more time and is a post for another day.

How are you preparing for the cold weather?
How do you encourage art, creativity and free play?