Gingerbread Biscotti

Christmas spirit is in the streets so it is only necessary that the smell of gingerbread be in my house :)

Dry:

2 1/4 quinoa flour
1 1/4 whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 tsp ginger
3 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp chia seeds

Wet:

3 eggs beaten
1/3 cup coconut oil melted
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup white sugar

Add ins:

1/3 cup Crystallized ginger chopped (I didn't have any left for this batch)
Almonds 3/4 cup

Icing:

1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper
3 tsp almond milk (added one at a time)

Directions: 

1. Mix all dry ingredients together in large bowl. Add in options now. (I ground my own quinoa flour)

2. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Beat eggs first then add molasses, sugar and melted coconut oil.

Note: Yes coconut oil is a solid at room temperature and is high in saturated fat but no this is not bad. While it is true that coconut oil contains 90%  saturated fat, 45% of that fat is lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid that converts in your body to monolaurin. Coconut oil is more easily digested than other fats and is used by your body differently than other fats. Most fats are stored in your body's cells, but the fat in coconut oil goes directly to your liver where it is converted into energy. Further with its high smoking point, it won't turn into a trans fat when you are cooking/baking with it. Read more on the benefits here! Plus it tastes delicious!!!

3) Add Wet to Dry. Cut mixture in half to make two loaves. Your mixture will be sticky when you try and handle it. This is normal. I never said this was clean baking... :)

4) Slightly oil pan. Plop, yes plop, half of mixture on one side of pan and shape into retangle. 1 inch thick, 4-5 inches wide, 7-8 inches long. Repeat. Sprinkle loaves with touch of cinnamon. Put in 325 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes. Until loaf centres are solid to the touch. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees.

5) Cut loaf horizontally into thin slices with serrated knife and place back on baking pan. Put in 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until crisp. Turn once during.

6) Cool. Mix icing. Add 1 tsp of almond milk at a time.

My pretty piping bag! Cut off small bit of one corner.

7. Top with pretty designs using icing!

Enjoy with tea or coffee or as an after dinner treat! Yumm!

Creamy Tuna Casserole (without the cream!)

This casserole is delicious, healthy (many hidden veggies), and does not taste like fish. For all you tuna haters out there I DARE YOU, yes I said it,  to try this recipe as it has a very subtle tuna flavour with all the lean mean protein packed benefits of tuna. 

First: Pasta

1 1/2 cups dry wholewheat pasta

3 cups water

1) Cook pasta al dente or even less. You will be cooking more in oven. 2) Drain pasta and set aside.

Second: The "Cream" aka pureed white pinto beans & chickpeas.

1 can pinto beans

1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans

4 cloves garlic 

2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

1) Add all ingredients into the food processor and process until it resembles a creamy hummus like texture. 2) Set aside. (You can use two cans of any type of white beans)

Third: Veggies

1 tsp olive oil
1 cup chopped cabbage
6-7 sliced mushrooms
3 carrots diced
1 medium onion diced
1 clove garlic

1) Heat pan and add oil. 2) Add veggies and saute till onions are translucent. Make sure the veggies are 3/4 cooked. You don't want to fully cook them as they will be going into the oven with the rest of the mixture to cook some more. 3. Set aside :)

Fourth: Sauce

1 package knorr onion soup mix

3 cups Warm/Hot Water

1 package frozen spinach

1) Mix onion soup mix, water and frozen spinach together in a bowl. May have to heat soup mix/water in microwave to defrost frozen spinach.

Fifth: TUNA!

2 cans of tuna

Now grab a large bowl and I mean LARGE and a spoon. Mix Pasta, Cream, Veggies, Sauce & Tuna in your large bowl. This may prove difficult at times and you may or may not have a messy counter. Mine was spotless when I was done :)  yeahh right....

Oil baking dishes with olive oil and divide your mixture between your dishes. 

Sprinkle with Kraft tex mex cheese or regular cheese.

Top with lids. (look at that mess...) I never said I was a clean cook. lol Bake in 350 F oven for 30 minutes

For the next 10 minutes take lids off 

Serve and Mange. My fav part

This dish makes plenty and is easy to stick straight in the freezer after cooking. Thus, when Wednesday or Thursday night rolls around and you don't feel like cooking you have a yummy & healthy dinner. Quick!

Note: I love garlic, thus all the cloves but if this is too much for you, you can cut down. However, garlic is an anti-inflammatory so very good for you. Especially during cold season. 

Also, if you want the casserole even creamier. I would add in 1/2 can of mushroom soup. It is something I will have to play with when I make it next.

Zucchini Lasagna

I don't know about you but I love to make one big dish so that I don't have to cook for a couple of days. With the house to myself I made Zucchini lasagna and ate it four nights in a row. Yes it is that good! This is definitely my FAVOURITE way to eat lasagna! No pasta :)

Ingredients: 

3-4 zucchini sliced lengthwise

1/2 lb lean ground beef

1 small onion

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 dried thyme

1/4 cup water

1/8 tsp pepper

1 egg

3/4 cup low fat cottage cheese

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Use a 9x13. I used a 9x9 to make it this time but usually use the 9x13. Stick with that. The ratio of meat to zucchini in the 9x9 was to high for my liking :) 

Directions: 

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Slice Zucchini lengthwise, coat with olive oil and lay on pan to pop into oven. Cook in oven approximately 25 minutes. Flipping the zucchini if needed.

2) Meanwhile, fry up beef, garlic and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; Drain fat. 

3) Reduce heat. Add tomato paste, spices and water. Simmer 

4) In a separate container combine cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese and egg.

Then layer! I love layered things for some reason.. odd I know.

5) 1st layer - half of meat mixture

    2nd layer - half of the zucchini

    

   

3rd layer - all the cottage cheese

 4th layer - remaining meat mixture

5th layer - remaining zucchini (no pic, sorry)

Top with mozzarella cheese!

And Enjoy!

Apple Pie Crumble Fail, Apple Betty Success!

So it is apple season and the apples on my dad's orchard trees are ripe for the picking. (He has to get to them before the birds do :) ) Anyways with of bunch of extra apples lying around and a leftover pie shell from Thanksgiving I decided to make Apple Pie Crumble! I don't know about anybody else but apples and cinnamon o-my. I am in dessert heaven.

Ingredients: 

Filling:

Apples ( ~ 8? enough to fill a pie shell anyway)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp real maple syrup 

Crumble: 

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp flax seeds

1/4 cup slivered almonds

Pie Crust: (this recipe makes 2 crusts)

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cold shortening

1 tsp salt

6-8 tsp ice cold water (very important that its cold)

Directions:

1) Chop apples into small cubes. Note how small our homegrown apples are compared to the store bought Granny Smith apple... I was not about to peel those tiny little things and plus the skin has many nutrients in it so I left the skin on. You really couldn't tell in the finished product :)

2) Make sure you toss the lemon juice on apples as soon as you start chopping. This is to prevent them from oxidization (turning brown).

On a side note this oxidization happens in our bodies every time we breathe. Eeek!! Antioxidants (i.e. lemon juice) prevent this oxidization from happening. This is why we are encouraged to eat our fruits, and vegetables, especially ones high in antioxidants such as blueberries, and take vitamins to prevent oxidization within our bodies and cell apoptosis.  Sorry science/health nerd kicking in lol

When all the apples are chopped, add 2 tbsp real maple sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon or to taste. This doesn't sound like much sweetness but I do find that when apples are cooked they are much sweeter plus who wants all that extra sugar.

This was my leftover piecrust from Thanksgiving. It was leftover because I decided to make a new one instead of use this cracked one for the pumpkin pie. Making the crusts took me almost 2 hours. It was an epic fail at making crusts that day. I was covered in flour by the end of it and not a very happy camper. My mom has a picture to prove.... This said, the piecrust recipe does work. I tried adjusting it because of the humidity here when I really should have just left it as is. Lesson learned. Don't mess with your grandma's recipe. EVER...

3) Cut shortening into flour & salt. When crumbly add ice cold water. Mix together with fork till a ball forms. Take ball out of bowl and place on floured surface. Cut in half (2 crusts remember) and roll out a circular shape (mine always end up square lol) Leave enough for 1 cm to hang over pie dish. Use rolling pin to transfer dough to pie plate and pinch sides with fingers to form a pretty crust. Mine did not end up pretty...

4) Cut butter into oats, whole wheat flour, cinnamon and sugar. When crumbly add chia seeds, flax seeds and slivered almonds.

5) Dish cut up apples into dishes accordingly. The small one did not have a crust. and top with crumble.

6) Bake for 35-40 minutes. Until apples have softened and Voila!!

Yummmmmmm!!!  

The apple pie crumble was a fail because the crust absorbed a lot of the liquid from the apples so they didn't get too mushy. They cooked but were not near as yummy as the apple betty. To remedy this I poured some almond milk on my apple pie crumble. This was sooooo much better than putting ice cream on it. 

Tacos Tacos Tacos (chick pea tacos)

So these are some long lost posts where I took photos but never uploaded them. I figured I would put them up because looking back, they were delicious! and you just may love them like I do.

So sometimes, make that a lot of the time, I like a good taco. How can you resist the deliciousness of salsa, cheese and cilantro. Yum Yum!  On occasion though I don't really feel like cooking or buying meat so one night when I was craving tacos without meat I decided to make Chickpea Tacos! To be honest I didn't miss the ground beef at all. They were so yummy without and I think my digestive system was happy with me for making them with chick peas.

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas
1/2 red pepper
1 large carrot
1 package taco mix
1/3 cup water
wholewheat tortilla
1 tbsp 0% fat greek yoghurt
shredded cheese
salsa
chopped letuce
chopped cilantro


Directions:

1) Dice up red pepper and carrot into small pieces and saute in pan with some olive oil until half cooked. 2) Drain the can of chickpeas and rinse. 3) Add chickpeas to pan. 4) Add taco mix and water to pan and stir until water has evaporated (I told you it was easy....)

5) Now the fun part. Assemble! I used greek yoghurt instead of sour cream as that was all I had but I really do think its a good option. WAY less fat and WAY more protein. Plus all I really want is that creamy taste which you definitely get from the yoghurt. Top with cheese.

6) Now chickpeas, lettuce and cilantro.

7) Thats a wrap! (Pun intended)

Breakfast a-la Dad

So in my household breakfast is my dad's meal. He is the king of an amazing (and healthy) breakfast. This usually involves broccoli and cheese omelets packed with red and yellow peppers, onions, homegrown swiss chard and whatever other veggie he can find. Delicous but I digress. 

Every Christmas morning we have Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict. This was not an attempt to re-create but more or less satisfy a delicious craving.

Ingredients: 

Black Strap Mollasses Rye Bread (from a local bakery)

1 tbsp cream cheese

2 eggs

Dads homemade smoked salmon (from fish he actually caught)

Two eggs

1 tsp Vinegar

Directions:

1) Heat a pan of water. Add Vinegar (this helps the eggs keep their shape). Wait untill starting to bubble slightly. 2) Add eggs and turn down heat to a simmer 3) Put bread in toaster 4) Watch eggs and spoon water over top of eggs. 5) Wait till egg whites are hard but yokes are still slightly runny :) 6) Take toast, spread cream cheese, break smoke salmon into small pieces and lay on top of cream cheese. 7) Spoon your eggs out (make sure no water is left in spoon when lifting them out) and lay on top of pre-assemble toast. 8) Sprinkle with pepper

This was absolutely amazing. Actually I am still eating and savouring it! 

Chocolate Lovers Powerhouse Pancakes

These protein pancakes are a powerhouse of nutrients and deliciousness! Wow! I whipped these up one morning when I had a hankering for some healthy chocolatey goodness.

1/2 banana
1/4 cup egg whites
1 tbsp flax seed
1 tsp vanilla
1 scoop chocolate whey nutrimeal (protein powder with fiber and complex carbs included)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
small handfull 70% cocoa bits chopped up
1 handful of blueberries
(I add half a scoop of fibergy powder for some extra fiber but if you don't have any, not necessary perhaps add some wheat bran)

Directions: 1) Mash Bananas 2) Add egg white and whip until doubles in size and nice and foamy. 3) Add rest of dry ingredients and mix 4) Mix in blueberries and chocolate. 5) Scoop batter into a non-stick pan (perhaps sprayed with a small amount of pam or olive oil) and spread out with spatula (should be quite thick). 6) Cook until the top looks like it is congealing and then flip!

Acorn Squash, Yam, and Apple Soup

This soup calls for Fall. Although it was sunny today and I was wearing shorts I couldn't help try out this new recipe that has been modified from ohsheglows.com. The nutmeg goes well with the squash and highlights the sweetness of the fruits and veggies used and the cayenne, wow! gives you that kick in the back of your throat that goes OMG that was delicious I can not stop eating this.

• 1 Acorn Squash cut in half and seeds removed
• 1 Yam
• 1 Medium onion, chopped
• 1 Apple (Gala)
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 clove Garlic
• 4 cups Vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (add more if you would like to taste)

1) Chop squash in half and remove seeds. Place on baking sheet and brush with a touch of olive oil. 2) Chop yam into thirds, brush ends with olive oil and place on same baking sheet. 3) Bake both yam and squash until fork goes in easily at 350 - 400 degrees F. Approximately 30 minutes. 4) Heat pot to medium heat. Add olive oil, onions, garlic and apples. Saute. 5) Add Vegetable broth and bring to a boil, then simmer. 6) When yams and squash are cooked, let cool 5 minutes and then peel of skin. 7) Throw 3/4 of the yams and squash into the simmering pot along with cayenne and nutmeg. 8) Cook for approximately 6 minutes. 9) Using an immersion blender or plain old blender, blend the contents from the pot. 10) After blending, toss in the rest (1/4) of the yams and squash that have now been chopped up. This is so that the soup is smooth yet still has a couple chunky pieces in it. 

And serve....   Yummy!!!

I had a delicious piece of blackstrap mollasses rye bread from a local farm bakery with some peanut butter on the side.

As you can see I couldn't resist sneaking a couple bites before the picture was taken.

Slow Mornings = Yummy Breakfast

So this morning prior to writing the last post I went for a 30 min power walk (in the rain!). Usually when I am home mom comes with me and we motivate eachother but with her broken foot. My motivation for the walk had to rely solely on myself. blech rain. But I did it and yes it was great!

Afterwards made an amazingly yummy breakfast for mom and I called Protein Pancakes. This recipe is from the Tone It Up Girls  and it is wow. Way better than pancakes made with flour and sugar! So much more flavour and the healthy factor gives me a little smile :)

Protein Pancakes

• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (Soyamax)
• 1/2 banana (mashed) ( I usually use a whole small one)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp flaxseed
• handful of frozen or fresh blueberries
• handful of wheat bran 

1) Mash bananas untill smooth. 2) Add egg whites into banana and whip quickly with a fork or a whisk. 3) Add cinnamon, flaxseed, protein powder and blueberries. Mix until batter texture. Not too much though. 4) Add wheat bran if necessary. When it rains here it becomes very humid so the batter was too liquidy. When it doesn't rain I don't usually need the wheat bran but really it is a very good source of fibre so just use your discretion. 5) Pour into pan that has been sprayed with olive oil cooking spray (medium heat). 6) Cook on one side until little bubbles form (like any normal pancake) and then flip. 

Easy Peasy!!  

I usually top with yoghurt and some trail mix or even I pour a tbsp of mollasses on my plate and dip the pancake into the mollasses. I think mollasses is better than syrup!! Love that caramelly burnt yumminess.

Without toppings and without wheatbran this is a single serving recipe of 2 pancakes which come out to be ~250 calories. Can't live with out pancakes... try these and you won't have to :)

I LOVE Vacation... aka being graduated and not returning to 8:30 classes this morning

So today was the first day in 18 years that I have not returned back to school. It is a very weird feeling. I almost feel as if something is missing. It's definitely a shock to the system when you are so entranced in the cycle of school, summer holiday (work), school, summer holiday... and now it is _________________ . Yes time to fill in the blank. But with what?

This past week has been a week of mental pruning for me. I am trying to sort out what I really want out of life. Some may say this is selfish, but hey I am selfish. This is the time for me to be selfish. I know where I want to be in 5 years. Just how I am going to get there is the _______________. People say that it is the journey that means the most. Not where you were at the start or where you are now but how you got there. Well people, welcome to my journey :)

 Through this week and through an amazing opportunity I have been introduced to I am noticing my thought process change from "graduate, get a job that pays $30, 000 a year answering phones because I will work my way up to the top" to "No, I am worth more and have way more to offer than answering a stupid phone. No, I don't want to work for you and work from 9-5 when I could get the same amount of work done from 9-1. Yes, I do want to work on my time and use my efficiency to my advantage"

The problem with working for somebody else is they decide what you are worth. They limit your pay grade, they tell you what jobs you can and can not do. Say you have a GREAT idea that you think is fabulous, they have the power to vito it and say NO because I am the boss and I have more experience and earn more than you. Even though they may not see the bigger picture like you.

In Robert Kiyosaki's book "Retire Young, Retire Rich" he talks about the power of leverage. Leveraging your own mind to understanding that what you dream and what you believe in... is in actual fact attainable. The people who don't think they will be able to afford a nice car, a nice house and expensive wine won't be able to because they are limiting themselves by their own beliefs. Some may call me a dreamer but really without dreams and aspirations what do we have? A job that gets us through the month, with us living pay-cheque to pay-cheque depriving ourselves of what we really deserve in life. SORRY but I know what I want and I am going to get it.

High Protein Chocolate Carob Pumpkin Pudding

This recipe was again adapted from ohsheglows.com. I love her her recipes and use of pumpkin in so many things. I can feel fall coming on....

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup  Chocolate Whey Nutrimeal (Protein Powder) 
• 2-3 tbsp cocoa powder, to taste
• 3/4 cup Almond Milk (I used soy because that is all I had)
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• Drizzle of maple syrup, to garnish
• Unsweetened coconut, to garnish

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and woila. High protein chocolate pudding that will NOT leave you with a sugar high. mmmmmm pumpkin....

Feel free to throw some flax seeds on to garnish or even cranberries as well. I love extra little crunchy bits in the things I eat. I had this for dessert last night after a lovely salmon dinner that my parents made (I'm visiting). It was basically the 100 mile diet except for the peas (we ran out of veggies). Dad caught the sockeye off of Sooke (19 of them!!), picked the potatoes from our garden and picked up corn from a local farm about 15 km down the road. Yummmy!

Adapted from OhSheGlows "Savoury Pumpkin Scones in a Pumpkin Spiced Glaze"

Unfortunately I lack a lot of vegan ingredients in my kitchen and spelt flour. Therefore I used a regular egg, real butter whole wheat flour and wheat bran. Will make the veganized version at a latter date.

Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients:

Dry

• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup whole grain spelt flour

• ( I used 1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour & 1/3 cup wheat bran to equal the 2 cups dry)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup of  earth balance butter (vegan butter.  I used real butter)

• 1/4 cup raisins 
• 1 tablespoon of flax seeds

Wet

• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons almond milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 chia/flax egg (1 tbsp ground chia/flax + 4 tbsp water) (I used 1 real egg from our chickens at home)

• Turbinado sugar, to garnish (or regular sugar)

Vegan Egg Wash:

• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 water

 

 Spiced Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1.5-2 tablespoons almond milk
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of ginger and nutmeg)

 Directions: 1) Preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking sheet with parchment of a non-stick mat. 2) In a small bowl mix the chia/flax egg. Set aside. (If you use a real egg, minus this step and just stir the egg in with the pumpkin mixture. Step 5. 3) In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, flax seed). 4) Take the cold butter and cut into dry ingredients until crumbly. 5) In a medium sized bowl, mix the pumpkin, chia/flax egg, vanilla, maple syrup and almond milk. 6) Add raisins to dry and then wet to dry and mix until a ball forms. Mix with your hands :) 7) On a flour surface place the ball of dough and kneed a few times with your hands. 8.) Shape the dough into a circle and then cut into 8 triangles. 9) Now mix your vegan egg wash by mixing cornstarch and water and heating in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well. 10) With a pastry brush, brush on the glaze onto each scone. 11) Sprinkle with sugar generously and bake for 14 minutes. 12) Cool for 10-15 minutes. 16) While cooling, make your spiced glaze by beating 1 cup powdered sugar with milk and spice until smooth. 17) When scones are cool ice the scones and serve with a cup of tea or coffee!

These are delicious! Lots of vitamin A in the pumpkin, lots of fibre from the flour and bran, some good omega-3 fatty acids from the flax = my body and mind satisfied. I think I ate 3 of these yesterday. One for each meal!! They come out at approximately 230 calories per scone (depending on how much icing you put on). Much better than calorie overload from one starbucks  pumpkin scone where there scones come in at 480 cals each!

Back to Basics

Hello all,

My name is Lauren and I am creating this blog to reflect my passions in life: nutrition, fitness, baking and retiring early :) I have had a strong interest in nutrition since I was 16 and was playing competitive basketball in highschool. This transferred into university when the infamous "freshman fifteen" somehow magically packed on to my lovely hips. Since then it has been a learning process of how to balance the finer things of life (chocolate, cookies and wine) with feeding my body properly and not depriving my mind or body of optimal health.

As you get to know me you will find that I am a strong advocate of exercise classes as I love getting my butt kicked, waking up the next morning, waddling over to the washroom and grimacing because of how many squats we did the day before. For some reason this makes me feel good. Yes weird. I know.

I also LOVE to bake. BUT I love to bake healthy! I am constantly looking up new recipes, following other health blogs or changing recipes to make them suit my needs. This said I still do bake "properly" at certain times. AKA Christmas. You can not make shortbread or my favourite chocolate-chip-thin-crisp cookies without real butter, white flour and yes sugar. mmmmmmmmmm. But the rest of the year I stick to whole wheat flour and trying to bake with as many veggies or fruits as possible and minimize the amount of sugar put in. Yummmy!!

Speaking of which today I just made some AMAZING pumpkin scones like the starbucks pumpkin scones but "healthified". The recipe was taken from www.ohsheglows.com (Thanks Angela, love your blog). With the left over pumpkin I also made chocolate pudding. Also from www.ohsheglows.com. recipes to follow.

With regards to retiring early... this is my goal. Yes I am fresh out of university (BSc. Combined Major Biology & Psychology, Honours with Distinction) but no I do not want to kill myself working 10 hour days at a job I may only kind of like and where I may get "let-go". With the economy how it is and the job world changing, I am looking to put my mark on life with a different approach that will leave my happier and with more time for my family, getting my butt kicked and baking!

Recently there was an article in the Times Colonist titled "Young Canadians Downsizing" and it discussed how the job world was changing. When my parents and my friends parents were our age (1970's) they found a job out of university with a company and have most likely stayed with that company for 30+ years and will retire with a nice pension that will keep them secure for the rest of their lives. Well I am sorry to inform new graduates that this is unfortunately not how it is going to work for our generation. It is now "more difficult to attain the same standard of living - complete with stable job, nice house, and reliable pension that our parents enjoyed." This article compares a 27 year old International Affairs Masters student who had a wealth of international experience but still had a tough time finding a job to her father who was able to find the "stable, work for 30+ years for one company" job fresh out of university. The article mentions that even when she did find work, it was contract work. Not a stable job with a nice pension at the end like her father. The article states that many new graduates are having to downgrade their expectations.

Unfortunately, I like my expectations and I don't want to downgrade. I believe that my generation is going to have to rework our concept of true stability, true wealth and true freedom. So in sum, I am going to have to figure out another alternative and that is just what my plan is :)

Join me on my journey as I chronicle my thoughts, recipes and passions for life!