rumtumtigger

Sorry I ‘ve been a bit scarce, I have been blogging over here http://rumtumtiggs.wordpress.com/ recently due to the issues I’ve been having with spam on this blog.

I started preparing for bootcamp the minute I signed up about a month ago by trying to pay more attention to my food choices and trying to break my addiction to chocolate. The reason I started that far back is because I know that habits do not get broken overnight and I really wanted to hit the ground running when I started with bootcamp on the 28th of May.

So last night I finally got to start bootcamp and since it was my first experience, I was a little anxious. I already new that I was terribly unfit and I was worried that I would not make it through. To add to this anxiety, I returned home from a business trip in the Drakensburg with a boil on the underside of my breast (probably due to sleep deprivation and my immune system taking a knock) and as it was getting progressively worse and spreading the rest of the breast, I camped outside the doctors offices on Monday morning to have it lanced. So, at 8am yesterday morning, I was lying in the doctors office with local anesthetic being injected into my boob and having this toxic thing drained. I was put onto some hectic antibiotics (2 huge pills twice a day) and some painkillers (which would make me drowzy). This is how I started my first experience at bootcamp. Not the best idea in the world but anyway…

Bootcamp was great. Tiring, but great. I barely kept up but hey, someone has to be the slowest in class right? The 2nd picture in this post is the view from the training area in Big Bay. Definately the prettiest bootcamp venue in the Cape. The first week we apparently have it “easy”. Only 20 reps of everything…but of course, since you repeat the routine a number of times, you end up with more like 60-80 crunchies, push ups, dips and leg lifts. My whole body was shaking by the end of it and I don’t know how much of that was due to the drugs.

As I mentioned, part of my prep was to start making healthy food choices in the run up to bootcamp so on Sunday, my daughter and I made some crunchies to pack in for school lunchbox treats for the week. Yes, I hear you say, but crunchies are not that healthy with that 250g of melted butter, syrup and sugar but I say, everything is relative. If you compare it to all butter shortbread, it’s looking pretty healthy right now. Besides, my family doesn’t need to lose weight, I do and it’s up to me to treat the crunchies as an occasional treat.

I found the recipe on the Spatula website who recently asked their staff members to submit some heirloom recipes. Everything from Halva Cake to Crunchies where lovingly shared and this is where I got this great recipe from (http://www.spatula.co.za/heirloom-recipes-louises-crunchies/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Hot+Products+Heirlooms&utm_content=Hot+Products+Heirlooms+CID_a19be0420b3cee51f7b060f68219eedd&utm_source=EmailMarketingSoftware&utm_term=Heirloom+Recipe+Louises+perfect+crunchies)

Crunchies

Ingredients
250g margarine
2 Tbsp syrup
1 cup flour
1 cup coconut
2 cups oats
A generous pinch of salt
1 tsp bicarb
1 cup sugar

Method

1. Melt the syrup and margarine together in the microwave for four minutes.
2. Mix your dry ingredients together.
3. Add the syrup mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Press into a well greased baking tray.
5. Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes until golden brown.
6. Cut while warm and soft and after a few minutes remove from the pan.
7. Cool on newspaper to remove excess oil and leave to harden.

A really interesting thing about this recipe is how you are told to allow the cruchies to cool on newspaper to remove the excess oil. Fortunately, I had recently bought a ream of A2 newsprint from a printing house for the kids to draw on and I used this to cool the crunchies on, putting it on both the bottom and top of the crunchies. It is scary how much oil gets removed this way and I would like to think it makes things a little healthier.

I am now on the hunt for healthy recipes and substitutions I can use in baking to make treats a bit healthier (like replacing the oil component of the recipe with applesauce) and if you have any tips, I hope you will let me know.