Gillian Young

I am proud to say that I finished my detox!

As I mentioned, this is normally when post-detox would begin, but as I started a week early I’m ready to dive head first into a glass of wine and an edible adventure in Paris.

I did a video after my first week and half way through, so I wanted to give a little summary for anyone following.

Overall I’m very happy I did it. My digestion has improved, my skin has cleared up, my body feels revitalized and I find myself craving more fruit and vegetables than I have in a long time.

I have to be honest and say that I did not follow the Fab Detox 100%. I believe in adapting things to your personal needs and requirements to make them work. For me it meant having an almond mylk latte one day (it was for an upcoming video you’ll be seeing), bringing the nuts back into my diet earlier (there are days of cutting out nuts, beans ect.), and having two smoothies and then a real meal on the day of the juice/smoothie cleanse.

I also got very sick this week which is one of the reasons I didn’t do a full day of liquids and why I brought nuts back in earlier. I could hardly bring myself out of bed and found myself really needing calorie dense foods.

While some people experience uncomfortable systems while detoxing, I think my sickness what due to a packed schedule, very little sleep, and putting my body into overdrive. I’ve always found it helps to slow down, sleep a lot, and take plenty of hot baths while on any detox, but I did pretty much the opposite.  If I were to do this detox again, I would add in some more of the supplements and attempt to rest more (not a strength of mine).

On the bright side, it’s Saturday, my relentless head cold has lifted, and I’m feeling pretty damn good. I even broke the spell last night with dinner at my favourite bistro, seared scallops, two glasses of wine and some chocolate for dessert.  You are supposed to slowly ease foods back in post-detox, but since I started early I’m easing in to my vacation!

In all honesty – the wine hit me hard the chocolate upset my stomach a little so I won’t be going too crazy over the next week.  Well, we’ll see about that.  Stay tuned for delicious eats from Paris!

Pros + Cons of my detox:

Pros:

• Improved skin and energy.
• Amazing digestion (‘nuff said).
• Encouraging friends to eat healthier by supplying plentiful salads and vegetables at get togethers.
• My love of vegetables has been re-ignited. You should see how happy I get eating a sweet potato.
• No bloat! After my initial experience of feeling very bloated on the detox from eating so much fibre, my body adjusted and I am now experience zero bloating as Meghan told me would happen.
• No hangovers.
• Temporarily getting rid of my morning mocha addiction.
• Realizing I still have a slight dairy intolerance.  My stomach did not enjoy the feeling post-chocolate last night after re-introducing it.

Cons:

• I live with a meat eater so we ended up eating a lot of separate meals. I always find it more pleasurable and economical to make meals we can share.
• I missed drinking wine with my meals.
• I ended up eating a lot of nuts and fats to fill my need for calorie dense food and found it difficult to balance my protein.  Next time I will eat more dark leafy greens and drink more smoothies.
• Socializing was a bit challenging – but I managed pretty well.
• I felt like a boring food blogger. I wasn’t trying new restaurants and didn’t go to the Niagara Ice Wine festival as planned.
• The cheese in my fridge is going to waste.

As you can see, I think the pros outweighed the cons on this one!  Thanks Meghan for leading such a great detox!

After years of having mysterious health problems – stomach pains, fatigue, deep lines under my eyes and insomnia, I began to experiment with every diet under the sun to find out what was wrong with me.

I cut out dairy for nearly two years, experimented with vegetarianism and veganism, and even the raw food diet.  I felt a little better eating all raw but it wasn’t realistic for me.  Woman cannot live on banana alone.

I tried pretty much everything except for cutting out gluten.  I resisted it for so long.  It seemed like the new diet trend and everyone was convinced they had an allergy to wheat all of a sudden.  But I was still sick.  A lot.

So I started cut back.  Then I’d test myself by eating a muffin and my stomach would immediately puff out like  I was smuggling a bowling ball and I was so tired I could fall asleep under my desk.  We went to Miami and I insisted on eating fried Calamari and was so sick afterwards I could hardly enjoy my crab (at Joe’s Stone Crab no less).

Since then I’ve cut gluten out my diet completely.  I’m careful in restaurants, a pickier grocery shopper, and I’m better educated about what once cause me to fear going out for dinner.  I now enjoy my meals and the comfortable full I feel afterwards.

Do I feel deprived?  No.  I can eat bacon, cheese, yogurt, beans, corn tortillas, butter, unctuous seafood and drink all of the wine my heart desires (it’s my head that suffers after that one).

I also find fun ways to replace foods I once enjoyed mowing down on.  Like cereal.  Cereal is a handy dandy thing to have in your cupboard and eat for any meal.  I’ve always loved the ones packed with fruit and nuts…and usually the long list of mystery ingredients that follow.

These days I take great pleasure in making my own granola with wheat-free oats and as of late, this little bowl of sunshine.  You don’t need to have a wheat allergy to eat this, just a love of fresh ingredients that will make your tummy thank you.

Morning glory bowl:

• banana, apple or pear
• dried fruits and/or berries (goji berries, dried cranberries, prunes)
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
• 2 tbsp dried coconut
• cinnamon
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/4 cup almond milk

• Fall Flavoured Granola
• Love Struck Granola
• Cacao Lovers Granola

Other Breakfast Options:

Banana Bread Muffins

Apple Pie Muffins

Apple Pumpkin Autumn Muffins

Baked Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Chevre

Pumpkin Protein Chia Puddings

Cookie Dough Quinoa Flakes

Breakfast Tortilla

Anyone else love Chow.com’s videos?  I’m a little obsessed with their “Perfect” series on how to make the perfect hamburger, chocolate chip cookies, tortilla…and martini.

I love a good martini.  A martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, often garnished with olives, while a cocktail is a mixed drink containing two or more ingredients, one of which is an alcoholic spirit.

While I love a good martini, I’m a cocktail lover at heart.  When we were asked to put together a sequence in journalism school, I made Cosmpolitans.  And drank them.  In the morning.

I already have my set on going to Harry’s Bar in Paris as soon as we arrive.  A solid, old fashioned bar, where men in old fashioned white lab coats make perfectly executed (strong) cocktails?  Yes please.  Did I mention that’s where the Bloody Mary was invented?

These days I prefer old fashioned cocktails over Cosmos and Appletinis (I’d rather taste alcohol than sugar, thank you very much), and these are two of my favourites:

My detox is still going strong.

Okay fine, I had an almond milk latte on the weekend.  It was put in front of me and I’m not to turn down something so beautiful.

Otherwise I’ve been very well behaved and creative in the kitchen to cure my wicked cravings.

I’ve been making these detox puddings a lot.  The recipe came to me while making a post workout snack one morning, and I thought “Hot damn, this tastes like a chocolate mousse or pudding!”

It was so good I ended up making them to bring along to a dinner party on Saturday night.  For the record, doing a dinner party on a detox seems like mission impossible, but if you have understanding friends and great vegetable side dishes you’ll survive.

And lucky for me, I have such good friends that they praise my detox chocolate pudding as much as my lemon tart.

• 2 scoops or vanilla or chocolate protein powder (I favour vanilla Sun Warrior or Vega Shake N Go in chocolate and sometimes combine the two)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 heaping tsp raw cacao
• 2 tsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• stevia to sweeten
• cacao nibs optional

Whisk together ingredients or blend in a food processor and allow to chill at least 20 minutes before serving.

I don’t like the idea of “secret recipes”.

Recipes are meant to be shared, enjoyed, passed on and made into traditions.  Especially this one.

I often find myself calling it “my recipe”, but the lemon tart recipe I make time and time again is really from David Lebovitz.

I have a kitchen scale I use specifically for this recipe.  And a tart pan that was given to me specifically for making it in.

David’s lemon tart is a recipe worth bookmarking.

I love lemons.  I love light desserts that are tart but sweet.  Desserts you can still enjoy on a full belly without feeling like you need to unbutton your pants after.

Desserts that are so good you often end up enjoying another serving for breakfast the next day.  This is one of those.

You can make one large tart and cut it into slices, or cook the dough for a little less time and make petit pots of lemon tarts.  I’d say it helps with portion control, but this a tart I’ve never felt guilty enjoying thirds of.

The curd is simple and traditional.  It’s made with a modest amount of butter, sugar, eggs, egg yolk, and of course lemon juice and lemon zest.

The crust is a French tart dough recipe that is somewhat life changing.  Throw a couple of ingredients into a bowl (butter, salt, sugar, water and vegetable oil), put it in the oven ,  removing it once it’s bubbling hot, mix in your flour et voila.

It’s shockingly easy, perfectly thin, light and buttery, and applicable to all of your favourite French tarts.

A piece of this tart can transport you to Paris in an instant, sitting with a beautiful tarte au citron at Cafe Flore.  Just make sure to make more than one, you’ll want to go back there soon.

Hey all, just wanted to update you on the Fab Detox which officially starts today! I’ve been caffeine and sugar free for almost two weeks, and today I enter the green forest of no meat and no dairy. Wish me luck!

The other night Marisa and I hit up Grindhouse Burger Bar with our dates.

I have been excited to try Grindhouse’s food for quite some time now.  I’ve admired their long list of burgers and lusted over their menu since I first came across it.

I know that they use high quality ingredients, that the food in the restaurant is free or refined sugars and preservatives and that the burger meat is ground on premise and is naturally raised, hormone antibiotic and GMO free.

Not only that but they offer gluten free buns as well as vegan and vegetarian options.  As someone who suffers from an uncomfortable gluten allergy, knowing I can go have a burger with a bun I can handle is a blessing.

Having eaten earlier, I kept it light on date night and tried out a full size of their house salad. This is no iceberg lettuce salad at Grindhouse.  My beautiful fresh Greens had radish, cherry tomato, goji berries, a goose berry and a beet gastrique dressing.  It was delicious and filling, other than being a little on the salty side.

Unfortunately, the theme of salt continued through the night.  Marisa ordered the Signature Beef Burger.  It was moist, nicely grilled, and oozing the way a good burger should.  Unfortunately, it was so salty that she had trouble enjoying it as much as she would have liked to.

Both of the guys ordered The Big Grind, made with their all beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese onion and pickle.  The menu states “…..mmm sounds familiar” and the guys were excited for a Big Mac showdown.  While the burgers were good and no one complained, they were also a little too far on the salty side.

I loved that the burgers came with house aioli and house ketchup.  The aioli was pretty good, but unfortunately the ketchup lacked acidity and was more on the side of a marinara.  It was probably ten times healthier than store bought ketchup, but it left everybody yearning for some Heinz.

On the side we ordered some fries, poutine and onion rings.  All were decent but a little bland and nothing to write home about.

I was hoping we would be more blown away by the food, but the burger battle continues.  I appreciate Grindhouse Burger Bar’s ideals and might be back for another showdown.

Grindhouse Burger Bar’s Battle Scar:

Food: Decent, a little too salty, but good quality ingredients.
Ambience: A little tightly squeezed in the booths, but comfortable and casual.
Price: Average.  Big salad for $9, burgers $7-$14.  Additional price for local and in house made toppings.

• Mug of unsweetened almond milk
• 1 heaping tsp of raw cacao
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• stevia to sweeten
• *cacao nibs optional

Heat almond milk.  Add all ingredients to blender.  Blend.  Enjoy.

I love tea.  When it comes to winter I shun cold beverages in favour of hot teas with a pool of milk and a big spoonful of honey.

This Saturday Marisa and I were roaming the streets on a sunny Toronto day when we came across Herbal Infusions Tea Co.

I’ve been wanting to try out their teas for some time now.  If you’re a Groupon follower, they often have deals onGroupon Now - where they initially got my attention.

Herbal Infusions Tea Co. is a Canadian-based supplier of gourmet teas.  They have over 100 varieties in store and you’re allowed to open up a big jar and inhale the aroma before buying.  I love this notion and it reminds me of the magical Kusmi tea stores in Paris.

The cute little shop is welcoming and Dan was a huge help when we walked in.  With his guidance we both settled on cacao matcha tea lattes with almond milk.

The fact that this place serves almond milk alone is a huge bonus to me. It’s my milk of choice when it comes to hot drinks and not available everywhere.

Our teas were earthy, warm and comforting to carry around on a cold winter day and I’ll be back soon!

You can check out their awesome blog here, and here’s a fun matcha latte art video Dan told us about:

If you want to stop buy for a hot treat they are located in the heart of the fashion district at 404 Adelaide Street West in Toronto (just west of Adelaide and Spadina).

• Monday – Friday: 10am – 7:30pm
• Saturday: 12pm – 5pm

Is anyone else out there a little bit depressed? I think I have a wee touch of the S.A.D. and I’m probably not alone.

We are in the dreaded depths of winter, struggling to hang on to our New Years resolutions, with nary a 3 day weekend in sight to look forward to. The rainy season. The snowy season. Sniffley noses and persistent coughs abound. It is cold outside and the days are filled with routine. *sigh*

Okay, pity party is over. It’s time to fortify with some veggie packed miso noodle soup and soldier on!

The sun will come out tomorrow, right?

Here are the basics you need to get this soup made: some miso paste, and udon noodles. I found both of these items at my local grocery store, but if you can’t find them at yours, try hitting up an Asian market, they are guaranteed to have both.

The udon noodles are essentially precooked, making this a quick and easy meal. I like the jumbo ones because they are extra big and slurpable, but feel free to choose your favorite. You just have to warm them up according to the package directions and throw them into the soup. If you can’t find thick and delicious udon noodles, maybe try some shirataki noodles. Whatever works. This is easy comforting healthy food, no stress.

Miso will be found in a refrigerated section of the store. That’s because it’s filled with live cultures that aid in digestion and taste delicious. — it’s got probiotic power! Miso is good stuff on many levels, I always keep a tub in my fridge because it is also good for making yummy salad dressing.

All of the fresh veggies in this soup make you feel like you are really doing your body a favor by downing a delicious bowl. I basically rounded up a little bit of all the veggies in my fridge and thew them in to the pot with some cubed tofu. Along with the probiotic broth and udon noodles, this is an excellent meal to warm a winter weary soul.

How do you fend off the winter blues?

You guys may not know that I am a major fan of crafting. When I’m not cooking food or working, I like to I knit, crochet, quilt, and make enormous messes with glitter and glue. It’s sorta my thing. Recently I have been thinking that it might be fun to bring a little bit more of my crafty self to this blog, so here is my first shot at that – a menu planning board!

One of the best ways to guarantee that you are eating Healthy Tasty and Cheap is to start with a weekly menu. This allows you to create a weekly shopping list that will ensure that you have all the supplies needed to make delicious nutritious meals. If I walk into a grocery store without a list I generally end up buying ingredients that look yummy but don’t make a whole meal, and then have to go back to the store for items I forgot.

After browsing lots of menu board ideas on Pinterest, I decided to create my own spin on this one.

Side note: is anyone else as addicted to pinterest as I am? If you are on there, follow me! We’ll pin it up together.

Here are some things that are awesome about this menu planning board:

• You create a deck of meal cards that gets rotated so you don’t end up eating the same thing each week. I keep unused cards in the “Fresh Ideas” pocket, when a recipe is used it goes in the “Oldies” pocket. When “Fresh Ideas” starts to run low, I shuffle all of the cards and start over.
• All of the ingredients go on the back of meal cards. Each week after planning the board I flip over all of the cards and make a shopping list.
• You and whoever you are cooking for can see at a glance exactly what you are having for dinner all week which cuts down on “What’s for dinner?” questions, and helps me prep ingredients for meals in advance.

I didn’t want to buy anything for this project so I gathered up a heap of supplies that I had on hand. These were the basics that I thought I would need, I ended up also using some additional materials that aren’t pictured like paint, pinking shears, and stamping supplies.

Supplies:

• Mini clothes pins (or regular big ones)
• Pom Pom fringe
• Spray adhesive
• Markers
• Blank 3×5″ index cards cut into 1×3″ inch strips
• An old check box or 2 crayon boxes
• A 12″ square piece of cardboard for backing ( 11×14″ if you use regular sized clothes pins)
• Pretty paper to cover your cardboard
• Acrylic paint that matches your paper & fringe
• A paint brush
• 5 inches of ribbon for hanging the board, or 4 magnets if you want to put the board on your fridge.
• Optional: Letter stamps and ink pad, pinking shears, Mod Podge, embellishments, glitter, etc.

First I sprayed my cardboard with spray adhesive, smoothed my pretty paper over the front & folded the edges over to the back. On the back I trimmed the edges and glued them down with mod podge.

I used some pretty and delicate handmade rice paper that I had in my stash. To make the paper more durable I painted on a coat of mat mod podge all over the front to seal it. You can skip the podge coat if you use a durable paper.

Next I cut down my old check box. I cut the top in half and then trimmed the halves so that they were each 1 inch deep.

Then I painted them black. If you don’t want to fuss with paint you can cover them in pretty paper. Easy.

After the mod podge on my board was dry I glue gunned my pom pom fringe around the edges of the back of the board. I used some recycled vintage fringe from my stash that was a little floppy, so after I was done edging I flipped the board over and secured each pom pom with a dab of hot glue.

Here we are fully edged. Isn’t pom pom fringe awesome?

Now it’s time to make your day of the week clothes pins. I got a little carried away here and hand stamped and glitter embossed each day onto some card stock. If you don’t have an arsenal of rubber stamping tools at your disposal you could easily hand write or print these on to card stock instead. Cut out your words and hot glue them to the clothes pins.

During this phase I also wrote “Fresh Ideas” and “Oldies” onto cardstock and hot glued them on to the front of my check box pieces.

When your check box thingies are dry, it’s time to hot glue everything to the front of your board. I didn’t measure anything here, I just layed it all out and eyeballed where everything should go. On the right I put the boxes; fresh ideas on top, oldies on the bottom. On the left I stuck meal card into each clothes pin, spaced them evenly and then glued them down.

My last step was to hot glue a little loop of ribbon on the back of the board for easy hanging. If you want to put this on your fridge, glue on magnets.

Building a deck of meal cards can be pretty fun. Start by writing down each of your family’s favorite dishes, one per card with the ingredients on the back. Then flip through your blog bookmarks and favorite cook books for additional ideas. I currently have about 30 cards and counting. Some of them include: Veggie Lasagna, Spicy Salad, Slowcooker Lentil Soup, Fried Rice, Italian Sausage & Kale Soup, and many others from this site. I’m also keeping some blank cards and a marker close to the board so that I can add good ideas as I come across them.

How do you keep your meals and shopping lists organized?

Do you want to see more crafty kitchen posts like this in the future?

Today, Healthy Tasty Cheap turns 1!

Gillian and I have been virtually clinking our champagne flutes filled with green juice in celebration, and wanted to take a moment to say how much we love you, our readers!

Thank you for stopping by this site, for cooking our recipes, commenting on posts, tweeting with us, and inspiring us to fill every day with frugal food that is as nutritious as it is delicious. We have learned so much in the past year and are excited to see what year #2 will bring. Mostly though, we are grateful for having found an awesome community of readers who are just as hungry as we are! Ya’ll are the best virtual buddies us Young ladies could ask for. ♥ ♥ ♥

Okay y’all, it’s fresh food month! But wait, it’s cold outside and you want something not only healthy, but also comforting and warm… collard greens to the rescue!

As a vegetarian I spent most of my life not eating Southern style collard greens. They looked tasty but always seemed to involve sneaky pork bits and meat juices. A few years ago I was at a the Grand Lake farmers market and happened to sample some food at a booth called Souley Vegan which sort of changed of my life. These people were rockin’ crispy tofu, black eyed peas, collard greens, fried okra, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and BBQ tofu, the likes of which I had never imagined. Suddenly, Southern food was something that I could eat too!

Knowing that I could not eat at the booth every time I craved some Southern style veggie goodness, I decided to learn how to make some of those dishes myself. Over the years I’ve developed pretty good recipes for vegan mac, corn bread, and BBQ tofu, but these collards are probably the thing that I make most often. That’s because they are 1) deliciously simple and 2) the healthiest item on the list. Give them a shot and welcome a little Southern hospitality to your dinner plate.

Oh and by the way, Souley Vegan ended up getting a permanent restaurant location in Oakland at Jack London Square. If you are a veggie in the neighborhood, it is a definitely worth a visit.

Anyone else feel like they just spent a month in a happy sugar coma?

Oh yes, from the wine, to the big feasts, to the sugar cookies and chocolates, Ayah and I truly enjoyed our Christmas holidays.

But now it’s January and we are in need of a fresh start. Literally. So we’re kicking it off on fresh food month where we can focus on upping our vegetable intake and rebooting our systems!

We are excited to share our journey and our recipes this January as we start 2012 with a big “cheers” to our health!

We’ll be making healthy salads and soups, casseroles and more. It’s still cold out here in Toronto so I am already getting busy with my slow cooker creating warm and comforting creations with a healthy twist.

Are you craving a fresh start as well? We’d love to hear from you and what you’re loving, as well as any requests!  As always, our goal at Healthy, Tasty, Cheap is creating healthy food that is delicious and fits your budget.

These days I’m finding a big organic delivery and healthy simple staples are helping us keep our budgets and healthy meals in line.

What are your goals this January? Any major health resolutions for 2012?

Happy 2012 everyone!

I hope that you all had an amazing December filled with holiday smiles and bits of sweet indulgence.

It was a busy month for us complete with a Healthy Tasty Cheap site redesign, Gillian’s launch of Battle of the Bites, and lots of travel, winter colds, and good times.

In case you missed any of decadent treats that we shared with you during December, here’s a recap.

Gillian and I introduced you to our super rad Grandma Zillah and some of her recipes

• Grandma’s Ginger Cookies
• Blueberry Coffee Cake

We explored the magic of hazelnuts and chocolate combined into baked goodness

• Nutella Madeleines
• Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Banana Bread

We got some fruit involved

• Rustic Apple Galette
• Banana Pancakes

Took time for naughty tasty treats featuring nice ingredients with Raw Vegan Truffles

We also made some straight up sugary delights

• Yueltide Rods
• Christmas Crack

and we dreamed of the many more treats to come with a Baking Bucket List.

We weren’t the only bloggers indulging our sweet tooth in December though, here is a little link love:

• Kristin from Cook, Bake, Nibble shared her delicious PB-Ginger Cookie recipe.
• Kris and Michelle at I Heart Wellness made these yummy looking Mint Chip Cookie Squares.
• We’re drooling over Angela from Oh She Glow’s Vegan Chocolate Macaroon Truffles.
• Averie at Love, Veggies and Yoga is always creating tempting treats. Her Pretzel Peanut Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles (!!!) are no exception.
• Tracy’s homemade Limoncello recipe over at Shutterbean has got us planning our next cocktail party.
• Joy’s bite sized baked brie pops look out of control yummy, and adorable because they are on sticks. Everything is better on a stick.
• Over on Food Coma, Emma’s Double Chocolate Muffins look like the best way to eat multiple servings of chocolate before breakfast.