Brock Picken

Here’s a tasty, quick and easy meal to make. It’s packed with nutrients, fibre, and protein.

Start with the amaranth seeds:
Bring a pot of water (3 cups) to a boil. Add 1 cup of amaranth seeds, 1 tsp of sea salt, and 1 tsp of coconut oil. This takes approximately 20 minutes for the amaranth to fully cook.

Stir Fry:
In a large sauce pan, melt 1 tsp of coconut oil, and when the pan is really hot, add the following ingredients:

- 1 handful of chopped Shitake Mushrooms (stems removed)
- 1 can of rinsed chic peas (great source of protein, fibre, magnesium, and B vitamins)
- 2 large leaves of chard, chopped into small pieces
- 3 garlic scapes, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 4 green onions, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- ½ a chopped green onion

Cover and cook on med-high heat until the chard shrivels (similar to spinach). Drain the excess water from the amaranth and combine in the sauce pan, allowing the flavours to “marrige” for a few minutes before serving.

Notes:
Based on the flavour profile of this particular meal, grilled chicken or turkey would be a nice option for a non-vegetarian meal.
A sauvignon blanc or even sake would be a nice alcoholic beverage to pair with this meal (for an abundance of information about Sake, check out: http://bit.ly/Z7Nyn )
Chard (more commonly referred to as Swiss Chard) is actually in the same species as the Beet family. Chard loses its bitterness when cooked, but can be eaten raw.
Amaranth seeds are about the same size as poppy seeds, and are technically not a true grain. This versatile seed can be cooked as a cereal, ground into flour, or even toasted. It has been grown and harvested for thousands of years by the Mayan and Incan civilizations (reference: Bulk Barn).
All vegetables this growing season came from Everdale Farm in Hillsburgh, Ontario, where everything is organically grown (more to come on this topic later).

Happy Eating Everybody!

Posted by Brock at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Brock’s Coconut Turkey Burgers

In a large mixing bowl, mash the following ingredients with your hands:

- 1 package of ground turkey
- smoky sea salt
- black pepper
- ½ a large chopped Spanish onion
- 1 ½ cups whole oat flakes
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tsp coconut oil

Once everything is mixed, make patties to your desired size (we made 4 decent sized burgers with this mixture).

On the BBQ, these burgers took roughly 15-20 minutes on medium heat (every bbq varies). Be careful when you flip the burgers initially, as they may fall apart.

Note: Coconut oil is awesome for cooking, but is also very potent flavour-wise. A little goes a long way!

Use the following as a perfect compliment for a burger topper:

Marta’s Garlic Scape Pesto

8-10 garlic scapes – more if you’re looking for an extra kick
¾ cup – 1 cup of light parmesan or mozzarella cheese – grated or sliced
3 Tbsp of freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
½ cup of almond oil – use the oil of your preference, such as olive oil
Pinch of Organic Sea Salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
5 fresh basil leaves

Chop finely or puree scapes and olive oil in a food processor. Add cheese, basil, and lime or lemon juice and season to taste. Serve on whole grain bread, crackers, or use as a topper on any of your favourite dishes – for example omelettes, burgers, or pasta.

Note: You can use garlic scapes in any dish that you’d use garlic!

Posted by Brock at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lunging 1 Km in the middle of a hilly 5 Km run

It was on our previous routine 5 Km run that I noticed the kilometer markers on the Cataract-Elora trailway, and came up with the crazy idea of doing an entire kilometer of walking lunges in the middle of our next run. Marta agreed to it, probably knowing that I would make her do it anyway.

Roughly one week later, we set off on that familiar road, jogging at a slightly slower pace that usual, probably in anticipation of a major challenge that was new to both of us. It would have been a challenging run regardless, since it was sunny, mid-afternoon, and sweltering hot. We completed the “reverse murderhorn” (a hill that winds past the Caledon Ski Club at a modest 10% grade) and chugged up the hill completing the first mini challenge. I noticed tightness in my hamstrings, left ankle, and right knee. Past injuries from long ago occasionally remind me that I am not invincible. I make a mental note, and we push on. My heart rate at this point has been maintaining above 180 bpm, so Marta and I slow our pace down just a bit.

At minute 23, we hit our Kilometre marker on the trail way and begin lunging. Around 10 minutes into our lunges, we made the mistake of looking back (don’t ever look back!) and saw how close our marker still was. As mentally defeating as this was, we pushed on. I guess for myself personally, I felt the need to set a goal and then conquer that goal. The feeling of gratitude, accomplishment, pride, and yes, even euphoria are all feelings that on their own are motivational. If a goal is easy, then what is really the point? To work towards something truly challenging, or even something seemingly impossible and then achieve that goal is something so rewarding that words can’t do it justice.

We lunged on. I reminded myself continually that I had cycled through the Rocky Mountains, so a flat trail way was not going to defeat me. The sun was directly overhead, and sweat poured down my face, into my eyes. Marta’s sunscreen ran into her eyes.

At around the 30-minute mark we lunged into a shaded area and began to get attacked by horse flies, black flies, and mosquitoes. The salt in my sweat was hard not to notice, and I’m sure it was attracting the pests. Occasionally older couples biked past us, curiously inquiring about our odd training method. Someone thought we were training for rock climbing. Someone else inquired about an Ironman. With my heart rate maintaining 190 bpm, I could only mutter one-word answers. We lunged on.

Finally the kilometer marker came into sight. During last stretch, Marta became dizzy and thought she might pass out. My legs had long since stopped burning and had almost started buzzing. They had gone beyond numb. For the last 5 lunges Marta and I held hands and dragged eachother across the Kilometre marker. 43 minutes of lunges and one hour and six minutes into our workout we were 3 km into our 5 Km adventure.

Running was now more like a lumbering waddle. My legs felt like tree trunks. We both had to occasionally stop each other due to a stitch (stomach cramps). Oddly enough, as we pushed on and turned into our driveway at the end of our 5 kilometres, I looked at my watch and noticed that we had done our last two kilometers over two minutes faster than we had done our first two kilometers. We either ran faster than we thought at the end, or had really dragged butt at the start. Either way we had pushed ourselves to the limit and had accomplished what we set out to do.

Here are the final numbers from our “run/lunge”:

Total Time: 1:27:27
Calories Burned: 1598
Max Heart Rate: 193 bpm
Avg. Heart Rate: 171 bpm

*Based on an average lunge length of approximately one metre, we did roughly 1000 lunges each!

Question: What’s your next challenge?

Posted by Brock at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Try this delicious treat on the bbq! We had a great lunch on the porch today.

Venison is a very lean meat. These sausages still had a bit of fat to be drained, but were far leaner than any other sausage I’ve grilled before. The sausages need longer to cook, so get them on the grill first.

Careful not to overcook them, as you’ll quickly end up with venison chew sticks.

Brush washed asparagus with the oil of your choice (we used almond oil, it’s a bit sweet). Sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper, and minced garlic.

Take a large eggplant and slice lengthwise in half. Slice each half lengthwise into ¼ inch thick strips. Repeat the same process with the oil and spices (I find cumin to be a great match with eggplant). Remember, eggplant acts like a sponge so try to let the strips soak in your oil-spice mixture for a few minutes before they go on the grill.

From there it’s pretty straight-forward. Poke small holes in either end of the sausages to allow the fat to drain during cooking (careful, that sucker can spray pretty far when it gets really hot). The veggies will cook up rather quickly, so it’s up to you how long you want to leave them on for (blackened asparagus anyone?)

Make sure to wash this meal down with a nice cool frothy beverage ☺ Come on, it’s summer after all (even if it feels like fall outside!)

Posted by Brock at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)