Quick and Easy Lemon Lentil Soup

After a crazaaaaazy September, Makoto and I are happy to be spending most of our time in Toronto this month. We realized how much we love our house and we missed seeing our wonderful neighbors. We are dedicating our weekends to “winterizing” our house, cleaning up the garden and hosting a few dinner parties.

When things get busy, and especially when we’re travelling, we eat out 3 meals a day. So it’s time to get back on track and we decided to do so by making some easy to digest, high in protein soups.

I made this quick and easy Lemon Lentil Soup and it provided several hearty lunches…especially when had with toasted organic Dimpflmeier Sunflower bread (drizzled in kalamata olive oil with a dash of cracked black pepper). YUM.

Lemon Lentil Soup
(Adapted from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook)
2 onions
5 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
2 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
8 cups vegetable stock or water
5 cups of baby spinach, chopped
1 small handful fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sea Salt to taste

1.  Chop onions and gralic and saute in coconut oil until soft (5-7min).
2.  Add the red lentils and vegetable broth/water.  Cover pot and simmer for 30min (or until lentils are cooked through).
3.  When lentils are cooked, add chopped spinach and parsley along with the lemon juice and sea salt.  Simmer on low for another 5 minutes.
4.  Cool soup and purree if you'd like but it tastes just as yummy as is :)

Thanksgiving Apple Pie Smoothie

Tested out a great tasting smoothie after my Thanksgiving workout today.

And in the spirit of the holidays: thanks to our gym for being open on a holiday, and thanks to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Carol for giving me a huge bag of apples from their organic orchard after an amazing Thanksgiving feast last night, and thank you to the powers above for keeping Aileen and I, our friends and families, in good health and spirits.

Thanksgiving Apple Pie Smoothie

Two fresh apples (peeled, with guts removed)
A healthy dash of cinnamon and/or nutmeg
Thumb-sized piece of ginger

Frozen banana
Maple Syrup, to desired sweetness
Your choice of healthy protein powder (mine is brown rice protein)
1.5 cups Filtered water

1. Blend and enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What type of Protein Powder should you supplement with?

One of Aileen's GTLs (or habitual necessities) is ensuring adequate protein in your diet. I agree that this is critical to function properly as muscle tissues, enzymes, antibodies and countless cellular components are all comprised of amino acids, which are derived from dietary protein.

Unfortunately, it can be easy for some people to get carried away, thanks to all these "high-protein, zero carb" diets (eg. Atkins), which are actually misleading and inaccurate. Our body absolutely needs carbs to survive, but it's a matter of choosing the right types of carbs in the right quantities (ie. complex carbs = whole grains, fruit/veg, legumes).

What's Your GTL?

I don't watch MTV's Jersey Shore (ok....I've watched the first episode) but I am familiar with their famous saying "GTL" which stands for "Gym, Tan and Laundry."  The personalities on Jersey Shore insist that they must accomplish these three tasks everyday in "order to meet your maximum potential".  Hilarious.

I asked Makoto what his GTL is and without blinking, he replied "Sh*t, Shower and Shave".  So simple and so honest....I envy his uncomplicated thought pattern.

This lead me to think of what my own "GTL" is........and this is what I came up with...SPP.