Back in Canada

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Happy ~~Friday~~ Thursday everyone (I’m a little turned around)! I am officially back from China

It was a pretty fantastic trip, though very, very busy. Every single day we left the hotel at about 8:30 am and wouldn’t get back till 8 or 9 at night.

I’m a little turned around with the time change, as China is 14 hours ahead of my time here in Edmonton, as well as I’m already back work. As such I’m feeling pretty tired- I feel like I’m in a bit of a fog. Because of this, I’m keeping this post very short and sweet- I wanted to let you all know that I’m back safe and sound, and I missed you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed the posts that went up when I was away.

I’ll be back with a full report on Monday morning.

Have a great weekend everyone Hope you’ve all had a great past week and a half.

Life being 5’11

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Hey guys,

I have mentioned before on my blog, but I am 5’11.

Hanging out in Laos

As the average North American woman is 5’7, I am quite a bit taller than most of my friends, as well as most people in general

As such, I though I’d let everyone know some of the PROS and CONS against being very, very tall.

First up, the CONS:

Everyone wants to talk about how tall you are. I’ve lost count of how many women have asked how tall I am. I often want to come back with a ridiculous answer (just answer, completely straight faced, “Oh- I’m 6’7″) but I’ve never actually tried to pull it off. But yes- this is not new information for me. I am tall, and I know.
Small spaces are the worst. You know how on my last post I commented about being on a plane for 13 hours? Yeah- with my long, long legs, it’s almost torture to try and fit myself into those spaces.
Very little fits as it should. Dresses are often too short through the body, and pants are almost always too small. When I’m shopping, I don’t even try on pants unless they have a 34″ inseam. Most stores have an inseam of 33″.
Teenage awkwardness. I grew really quickly- so by grade 8, I was 5’8. Most of the boys at that time didn’t even reach my shoulders. At dinner time, I would go to reach for my glass of milk, and knock it over. Every. Day. For months. I was like a puppy- I just didn’t know where my limbs were.
A lot of men are uncomfortable with how tall I am- especially if it means I am taller than them. Although, I also don’t like it because I wouldn’t date a man who was a lot shorter than I was.

Now, the PROS:

I can reach every cupboard in my kitchen. There’s never a need to grab a kitchen chair and stand on it- because I can reach the top cupboards. You know the alcohol cupboard on top of the fridge? Yeah- I can reach what’s in that.
My body requires a lot of fuel to keep all the length going. As such, I can eat A LOT. There’s also a lot of wiggle room for weight gain and weight loss. If I put on 10 pounds, it’s likely no one will even notice.
I can wear long dresses. A lot of my friends complain they can’t wear them because it just makes them look shorter. I have a few long dresses because I love them- and they draw attention to how tall I am.

I can always see over the crowd- so I can see what’s happening. It’s great when you’re standing in a line, trying to figure out why it isn’t moving.
Very long legs. When I wear shorts, I have miles of legs. It’s excessive. But kind of awesome.

I’m curious- how tall is everyone else? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being your height?

Things I’m doing in China

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Hey everyone,

How was the weekend for you? I’m still in China- though this is my last full day Tomorrow is a day spent flying from China to Canada, and then the next day I’m flying home to Alberta. Those 13 hour flights are killer on my legs!

I realized when prepping some posts, that I had never really revealed what I was doing and seeing in China. As such, here is a general description of some of the stuff I’ve been doing in China (all pictures are courtesy of google, as I’m writing this before I have any pictures of my own trip).

We’ll be checking out The Great Wall of China:

The Forbidden City:

Does anyone else think of “Mulan” with this picture?

The Summer Palace:

Taihu Lake:

There’s a bunch of other things as well- with a lot of shopping time (some of the shopping seems pretty extravagent- in a pearl factory, jade factory, silk shop, etc.).

I’m excited to see all the sights, as well as spend some time with my family!

Minus my grandparents and add in my stepmom (I couldn’t find any pictures of the four of us)

Has anyone else been to China? What did you like?

And for everyone- what’s your favourite place you’ve ever visited?

Hummus recipe

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone’s had a great week

I made homemade hummus about a month ago, and I’ve been wanting to share it with you guys ever since, but I kept on forgetting to sit down and write out the recipe. It was inspired through “Eat, Live and be Vegan” by Dreena Burton.

First up, I started with dried chickpeas. I have never used dried chickpeas before, as I typically just buy a can of chickpeas. I have to say- dried chickpeas is a giant pain in the ass! It’s not time consuming at all, but you need to start prepping them a full day before you want to use them. If you were expecting this, it might not be as bad but I thought the chickpeas just needed to be soaked for a few hours, and I was frustrated by the time I could actually make the recipe.

For dried chickpeas, you need to soak them for at least 12 hours. THEN, you should boil them for 90 minutes. Then, they are ready to be used. A big, pain the ass Step 1. I will just be buying canned chickpeas from now on.

Once that step was done however, it was pretty easy as everything just needed to be thrown in the food processor, and blended until smooth. I had to stop my food processor a couple of times, and scrap down the sides. Don’t let the ingredient list scare you- I had everything already in my kitchen and didn’t need to buy a single ingredient for this hummus, despite how long the list is.

Scoop the finished product into a bowl, add some crushed (or whole) peanuts, and sesame oil and enjoy.

Peanut Sesame Hummus

2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
3 tbsp natural peanut butter
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 medium clove garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp tamari
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 tbsp water

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor. Puree until smooth, gradually adding water as desired to thin the hummus. Serve in a bowl and top with peanuts, and a dash of toasted sesame oil.

Let me know what you guys think of it!

The party

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

The party itself was an absolute blast.

I was really impressed with everyone’s costumes!

I had told everyone to just do their best, as I know it’s a lot to ask people to find a costume when we’re all super busy. But everyone actually had put in great effort into their costumes. I would have been happy as long as people came and enjoyed themselves, so I was extra excited with everyone’s efforts. However, I do think Mark and I looked the best

Our characters were engaged, so I bought the most ridiculous ring I could find.

The game itself went fantastically. We started playing right away, and before you knew it, the murder happened.

Sadly, it was Mark’s character that ended up dying. After Mark died, he ended up becoming the investigator, so he was still able to play along with the festivities.

I won’t reveal who it was that was the killer (in case you want to throw your own murder mystery party) but I had so much fun. I was completely wrong on who was the killer, and actually ended up convincing a few people that a person who was innocent, was the guilty party!

We had prizes that we gave away at the end: one for who guessed the murderer, one who was the best dressed, and one who had the most money at the end of the game. We gave each winner a bottle of wine for participating.

It’s like the adult version of the goody bags children get at birthday parties.

All in all, it was a great way to celebrate my 27th birthday!

Everyone with their jazz hands- it is the 20′s afterall

How did everyone else celebrate their last birthday? Or, if your birthday’s coming up, how do you plan to celebrate your big day?

Planning a murder mystery party

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Happy Monday everyone,

As you all know, I am currently on a flight to Beijing China right now. However, as I had blogged about on Friday- I have a few pre-written posts that will be coming up while I am enjoying my vacation.

untitled Source

As I had my murder mystery party over the weekend, I thought I would break up the event into two separate posts. First up, what Mark and I did to host the party, and secondly, how it all turned out.

First up: Deciding which party to throw

I bought my party through the website Night of Mystery. I chose this website, rather than the many others that were available, because I had been to a murder mystery party before that had been from the same place and it had been great.

The website has a bunch of different parties- including a Hollywood theme murder (which is the one I had already done), a millionaire theme, tropical vacation, prom, and so many more. I decided on the 1920′s, as I thought it would be the most fun to dress up to.

Before a package can be bought, you need to know how many people are attending. The smallest package is a 5-10 people, and the largest is around 40 people. In the past, I’ve gone crazy with inviting everyone I’ve ever met to my birthday, but for this party, I only wanted to invite people that I knew would play along, as well as who would enjoy themselves (some people just aren’t the murder mystery type). As such I ended up with a list of 15 people.

Now I was able to buy the package:

The “package” is a PDF that’s about 90 pages long, and has all the information you’ll need for the party.

Next up, we had to “Cast” the characters and get the invites out with time for people to get their costumes together. Mark and I sat down with the list and tried to cast people for who we thought they would play well- but some of it had to be random. Some of the characteristics listed for the characters were pretty nasty descriptions- such as “Gold-digger, conceited, only concerned about themselves”. None of my friends are like that so it was hard to cast that character.

Once the characters were cast, and the invites out, it was time to get the costume together, decorate the house, and get the character envelopes ready.

It took 2-3 hours to get all the information ready, as I had to create 2 envelopes for each character, one to open when they arrived, and one to open after the murder. Plus cutting up the money, name tags- it was mindless work I did while watching tv.

Decorating the house was pretty easy- they have a ton of print outs included in the package which we just taped up. You could certainly go a lot more extreme than Mark and I did, but it came down to a matter of time.

Mark and I both went all out for our costumes. We found a party store that still had some costumes, and then supplemented with extras we either already had, or could buy at the mall.

Then, we were ready for the party! No pictures of us in our costume quite yet, as I like to build the anticipation!

Check back on Wednesday for details of how the party actually went.

Getting ready for China!

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Happy Friday everyone!

I am extra excited that it’s Friday, as my vacation time starts at the end of today’s workday. I have some drinks with friends tonight, as two of my friends quit and their last day is today, and then tomorrow is my birthday party- which I am finally ready for! On Sunday, I leave to Vancouver to visit my sister, and meet up with my dad and stepmom before heading to CHINA on Monday!

As I will be in China, and really want to enjoy the time with my family and see as much of the country as possible, blogging will not be as it normally is. I have pre-written posts to come up while I’m gone, which will be going up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks until I’m back. I may pop in quickly with a quick post of how it’s going if there’s time, but the schedule we’re on is pretty tight.

I’ve been taking some time during this week, to get stuff together for trip. Ever since backpacking through Southeast Asia, I am much better at not overpacking- once you carry your belongings on your back for 2 months, you learn how to pack efficiently.

I did make a couple of new purchases

Can you guys believe I didn’t even own runners before starting to prep for this trip? My exercise is almost always yoga or swimming, so I never need shoes. My last pair of runners were pretty done by the end of last summer, so I threw them away in the fall. I forgot I didn’t have any until earlier this week when I fixed that ASAP.

I’m also packing some clothing for warm weather as it’s nice and warm in China! It’s suppose to be an average of 25-30 degrees (Celsius) while we’re there. Considering it was snowing on April 30 here- I am VERY excited for some hot weather! Most of my shorts and tanks haven’t seen the sun since last summer, so it’s almost like I have a new wardrobe.

I did pack some clothing for colder weather as well, as we were warned it would get quite cold during the evenings.

I’m also packing a few extra sets of shoes, bathing suit, and a few other odds and ends. Most importantly, I am bringing my iPad, which I have stocked with movies and books to entertain me during the long plane rides ahead.

As well, as some money!

I feel so rich with all my hundreds, until I remember that each 100 bill is actually about $6.

Anything I should add that I’m missing?

Have a great couple of week’s guys! I’ll miss you <3

Three meals in one

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

Happy Thursday guys!

Anyone else feel like this week is moving super slow? I think that it might be because my Chinese VISA came into town and I realized that I’m leaving for China in 4 days!

Mark and I have been super busy this week trying to get everything ready for the party on Saturday (on a side note- we both bought our costumes earlier this week and I am VERY excited) as well as me trying to get ready for my trip, and as such we’ve been struggling with having any time for making dinner.

So we went with an easy way of making dinner: three meals in one. Mark cooked up some chicken on Monday night

We cut up some red and yellow peppers, and some cheese, and made quesadillas.

With the leftover chicken and black beans, I then made Mark and I nachos on Wednesday night

And with the last chicken leftovers, I put together a spinach salad with spinach (of course), yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, almonds, chicken, feta cheese and black beans

The dressing was made up of pomegranate balsamic vinegar, organic olive oil, honey, salt and pepper. So delicious Mark almost drank it straight.

It allowed us to eat at home throughout the week, but still get everything else done that we needed to.

Anyone else have ideas for re-crafting meals?

Banana peanut butter chocolate muffins

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

That is a mouthful of a muffin name- I know.

A couple of weeks ago, while Mark and I were still running around with our crazy schedules, I decided I would bake us morning muffins. I’ve been getting back into smoothies for breakfast in the morning, but they weren’t enough on their own. I thought that muffins would be great- as they’re quick to grab and take on the go.

My requirements when making them were that they had to be delicious (obviously), and had to be healthy. I didn’t want either Mark or I consuming a pound of sugar before 8 am. I looked through a muffin recipe book I received as a Christmas gift a few years ago

And I found a recipe for these banana, peanut butter and chocolate muffins. They were perfect! Bananas- good for you, Peanut butter- good for you, Chocolate- well, not good for you, but delicious! I made a few changes to the recipe, such as taking out most of the sugar, removing all of the oil and instead of using chocolate chips, I used up some Halloween chocolate bars that we still have sitting around the house

What I ended up with was a delicious muffin that allowed for a quick easy to grab breakfast. Be warned though- these muffins are quite dense, due to the peanut butter and banana, and lack of oil. I recommend microwaving them for 5-10 seconds before eating, and topping them with a smear of peanut butter.

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Muffins

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 2 small)
2/3 cup all natural peanut butter
2/3 cup vanilla (or plain) almond milk (or real milk)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or cut up chocolate bars)

Measure first 5 ingredients into a large bowl. Stir together. Add the next five ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Add chocolate chips and stir until just moistened.

Fill 12 greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake in 375 F oven for 18-20 minutes, until wooden pick insert in centre of muffin comes out clean. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before removing.

Enjoy guys! I hope you like them as much as Mark and I did.

Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Yogi Sarah

I’ve blogged before about how I get most of my produce through “Organic Box”, an organic, local if possible, delivery service.

Now, I know that eating organic can be pricey. So if you’re just starting out and only want to buy some items organic, then I recommend you check out the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean Fifteen” list. Haven’t heard of them before?

The dirty dozen are the twelve worst fruits and vegetables for the amount of pesticides that are on your produce. They are the worst offenders, and if you’re going to buy anything organic, it should be these items. They are:

Peaches
Apples
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Pears
Grapes (imported)
Spinach
Lettuce
Potatoes

The commonality of these is that they all have very thin skins, so they soak in the pesticides they’re being sprayed with.

The “Clean Fifteen” is conversly, the fifteen fruits and vegetables which are the least affected by pesticides. These are the ones that you don’t necessarily need to be buying organic. If you’re trying to save money, these are the first ones I would stop buying organic. The list is:

Onions
Sweet Corn
Pineapple
Avocado
Cabbage
Sweet peas
Mangoes
Mushrooms
Asparagus
Eggplant
Kiwi
Canteloupe
Sweet potatoes
Grapefruit
Watermelon

For a great printable reminder, I would check out this link. I refer to the list often, especially when trying to decide where I should save my pennies.

Also with saving pennies- I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on organic meat.

It really weirds me out with all the chemicals that are put into meat and the living conditions of many of the animals. However, organic meat is so overpriced! I went to go buy some organic chicken for Mark and I, and for 1 chicken breast it was $15! You can buy a couple pounds of non-organic chicken meat for that price. Now, I’m more than willing to pay more for organic meat, but I thought that this was a little hard to swallow. Especially since Mark is working a pretty physical job right now, and as such will easily eat 2 chicken breasts in one sitting. Suddenly it’s cheaper to eat out than make food at home!

We’re currently trying to find some local options which are cheaper. Anyone in Edmonton have any suggestions?

Does anyone else out there eat organic? What are your tricks and tips for making it more affordable?

Yogi in Action

Trying to live a healthy life while still having fun