Valentine’s Day is supposed to be all about sharing the love, whether with your partner, spouse, besties, or your family. Singles typically loathe the glorified holiday since it is essentially designed to guilt-trip you into pondering why you are alone, and technically so do many couples since it has been socially twisted and marketed to get those in relationships to drop a ton of cash or be accused of not loving the other enough.
When I first started keto and they told me I couldn’t have fruit or pasta, knowing that I could still have my beloved alfredo and hollandaise sauce got me through the shock. I adapted the standard recipe to be even more keto, and it is devine!
On the keto diet, smoothies are few and between the rate at which I used to enjoy them, so I’ve been getting creative and coming up with a few low carb smoothies for me to indulge in. The goal was to keep them above 80% fat, and below 10g of carbs. This keto-friendly low carb Matcha raspberry smoothie does not disappoint! It’s the perfectly drinkable consistency too!
I’m not the biggest fan of chicken, especially the breast part because it seems to be dry and bland. I take it back. Every single word! The minute this meal touched my lips, I was in heaven! The swooning noises coming from my boyfriend across the table confirmed that he agreed. Inspired by the lovely Jo Cooks, this keto-friendly stuffed chicken breast is worth the extra fuss it takes to prepare, twice over! Not kidding: Must. Make. Now!
Following the ketogenic lifestyle really involves some serious willpower to stay away from sugar, and the easiest way to do that is to steer clear of the concept of dessert. As you become fat adapted, it is completely acceptable to treat yourself to a dessert every once in a while on special occasions, as long as it doesn’t have any processed sugar and the least natural sugars possible. By the time you are fat adapted, your sweet tooth is gone anyway so you enjoy it that much more without sugar. I put together a keto-friendly chocolate mug cake, and it was delicious!
If you haven’t already heard about my special project for this year, you’re missing out! Every day, for the entire year, no matter what, I will write about something that makes me happy: 365 DAYS OF HAPPY. I invite you to join me in creating the happiest year for yourself! It is never too late to start 🙂 #sdemontigny365daysofhappy2017
It was an absolute pleasure to participate in the Rising Tide Society styled bridal photoshoot with two other photographers who are stunning inside and out, and two fabulous hair & makeup artists from the Ottawa area. It was a very unconventional shoot considering we were all wearing bridal gowns from, even while we were photographing the rest of the group. Definitely a once in a lifetime thing! The wedding dresses were stunning, as expected from THB, and I felt like a million bucks!
These delicious oven dried tomatoes were made to be added into our cream cheese & prosciutto stuffed chicken breasts, but could absolutely be used as a salad topper or as a side dish. Not all of them made it to the recipe they were intended to since we ate a bunch as they were so tasty, but I suppose that is a great sign!
Winter means cold, and cold weather means soup season! Some people think it’s weird, but I could eat soup every day. Of course it would have to be a different flavour each time, and varying textures, but I would love it! I used to love cream of mushroom soup as a kid, but can’t eat the canned version nowadays. This vegetarian keto-friendly mushroom soup was inspired by the recipe published by “All Day I Dream About Food” a few years ago. It is absolutely delicious, and is sure to be thoroughly enjoyed throughout the frigid Canadian winters!
Tomorrow marks the 2 week mark since we’ve all started our New Years Resolutions. Have you stuck with it? Are you struggling to keep up? Or are you killing it like a boss? Either way, there is nothing wrong with getting back on your feet if you’ve fallen off track. Here are a few tips on how to make it happen all the way to next year and beyond!
Cream of Broccoli Soup has been a staple in my childhood home for as long as I can remember. It started out as puréed “green soup” so my little brother would eat it and eventually developed into broccoli cheese soup once he decided that broccoli was a yummy, but my mother still puréed it so that we wouldn’t know there were onions (shh!). To this day living on my own, I still purée my cream of broccoli soup. It is delicious!
Since switching my lifestyle to following the ketogenic diet, I had had to give up pasta, but I’ve absolutely been craving fettuccine alfredo for weeks! Shout out to my parents for the spiralizer for Christmas, so I can now make something that tames the pasta cravings. Keto-friendly zoodles alfredo really hits the spot!
Date-night with the fiancé quickly went from movie-night to urge to cook a delicious ratatouille! I mean, who doesn’t love a great Disney movie with good company and good food. We gathered up the supplies, made a few tweaks to make sure it was a keto-friendly ratatouille, and the magic we cooked up is magnificent! The version from the movie with the pretty little slices of vegetables is technically called Confit Byaldi, and it really gives the dish some class and a little fun. Not the best at slicing or want to get this dish made quickly? Cube the veggies and cook in the casserole in a stew form rather than slicing. It might not be as pretty but it tastes just as good!
It is easy to get caught up in your life and in the negativity around you, and to forget how great you’ve got it. Even though sometimes it may not seem like it, there is still at least one great thing in your life that makes you happy. It can be as simple as the pretty latte art you were given at the cafe, or as meaningful as a surprise visit from your mom, or as seemingly-random as the comfort of your favourite leggings. Whatever it is, if it makes you happy, you need to remind yourself of it. That is my 365 project for 2017. Every day, for the entire year, no matter what, I will write about something that makes me happy: 365 DAYS OF HAPPY. I invite you to join me in creating the happiest year for yourself! #sdemontigny365daysofhappy2017
THIS POST IS UPDATED MONTHLY
This gluten-free Vanilla Almond Mousse is a great keto-friendly dessert or breakfast filled with good fiber, a large amount a healthy fats for such a small serving, and it fills you right up! Go ahead and enjoy it for breakfast too. Goes great with pumpkin seeds as garnish for added fatty & fibrous protein and some crunch to the smooth mousse. For an evening treat, I top it off with a few raspberries. Did I mention it took me under 10 minutes to make it!? And it only took that long because I stopped to take pictures!
Every family has traditions, whether they be holiday related or not. One of the most interesting things in a new relationship is finding a way to combine those traditions together, and create new ones of your own. Since our families live so far apart, we find ourselves hopping back and forth between them, leaving very little time for ourselves and to come up with elaborate new traditions. We started small, and for our first Christmas together, we decided that instead of spending a ton of money on potentially useless expensive gifts for each other, that we would put the money towards saving up for a down payment on our future home, and buy each other an ornament for our Christmas tree instead. Christmas 2016 was no different!
I went out for lunch for my networking group recently to the Green Papaya Thai Restaurant, and while the buffet was a hard-no for me because of the abundance of peanut sauce (anaphalactic allergy), rice and potatoes, I found myself in heaven eating their Tom Kha soup. It was delicious! I know there was more sugar in it than I’d like to admit, so I can’t go back for more, and decided to try to make it at home. My very own keto-friendly version of the hot & sour Thai tom kha mushroom coconut soup. It is a little different, but equally delectable! I made it for my family for our Christmas lunch and it was a hit!
Learning how to run a business is no easy task. Figuring out how to price for profit is a challenge in itself. The first step is realizing that profit is not a dirty word. Every business, small shops, corporations, and even not-for-profit companies need to do the exact same calculations to know what it costs them to run their company, and find that magic number where the surplus becomes profit. Profit simply means that all your expenses have been paid, your employees’ salaries have been covered (including yourself!), and you have a surplus which is typically reinvested into the business. For example, if your daily-use business equipment has a 5 year suggested lifetime, you need to account for the purchase of new equipment in 5 years into your profit margin (technically accounted for as an annual expense, but requires an up-front purchase so you need to have the funds set aside–more on this later). And we all know there are surprises in business, good and bad, so we need to be prepared. Let’s learn how to price for profit!
During a well earned vacation I was able to complete a DIY project that has been on my to-do list for quite a while. I’ve got a few of these in the studio already, and plan to make some more for props and for myself (who doesn’t love a big warm comfy vintage blanket!).
Those of you who know me personally are likely aware of my struggles for the last few years with fluctuating weight. Going from starvingly sick student, to depressingly-eating-everything-fat, and going from one to the other without much of a transition. But hey, “that’s how it is through university”, “that’s normal”, they said. No. It is not. Bouncing back and forth from plus-size to skin&bones is NOT healthy. It’s time it stops.
