Tag Archives: recipe

Over the course of my new working stint so far (which I have still neglected to talk about – sorry about that. One of these days…soon…I hope… However, refer to #1), I have realized a few things:

1. I suck at blogging – Yeah really.
“Oh yeah, I’ll be back to regular blogging soon!”
“Oh yeah, I’ll write this, that, and the other thing about my new work scenario.”
Oh yeah… didn’t happen. I also apparently make false promises. MY BAD.

2. I suck at taking pictures of my food. – Yup, I essentially quit doing it. Once upon a time it was a fun hobby. And then everyone and their mother got a food blog, and a fancy schmancy camera with 10 different lenses, and fancy schmancy light box setups for optimal food photo lighting, and customized layouts to make their blogs sparkle and shine…etc etc etc.

And I did none of that. Hello simplicity. Hello tumbling downward into food blog oblivion. Hello not being excitable enough about the whole trend to do much else about it.

(Not knocking all of the stellar fancy schmancy food blogs out there. It’s pure admiration only, dears. I just don’t quite care enough to go that far myself… at least not right now!)

3. I CAN, in fact, become an early morning exercise superstar. – Before, I never quite understood how people could drag their buns out of bed and find the energy enough to get a workout in before the sun rose. But it’s all mental, people. Mental and restful. Get a good night’s sleep (aka reduce your bedtime by an hour or two) and convince yourself that you want to work out in the morning (it’s ridiculously nice to have the workout DONE and the evenings completely FREE) and you’ll get the hang of it in no time. Early morning pre-workout coffee helps too.

(A beach to run on would also be nice)

4. How to make the easiest, fastest poached egg EVER. – I don’t remember where I learned the technique (I’ve read at least 12 internet tutorials for poached eggs over the last year) but here it is:

Take a small ramekin or glass bowl. Fill it halfway with water and add a splash of vinegar. Crack an egg in it and poke the yolk with a fork. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Put in the microwave for 45 seconds. Check it, then put it in for another 10-15 seconds. (If I put it in for a minute straight it gets too hard.). Remove from the water with a spoon. Break that egg seal and let the yolky goodness run free.

Voila Breakfast!

A good, ol’ flash in the pan runny egg does the trick too.

5. No amount of green smoothies or citrus fruits can cure my invincible cold. – I’m probably the most hated person at work. I’ve had an undying cough for over two weeks now. I don’t think that’s normal. If I laugh… it immediately turns into a coughing fit. Running… I stop every two minutes to clear out my lungs.

Why so many false promises, green drink of not-so-glory?

Why are you not working your magic, Mr. Orange?! Such a jip. Vitamin C my tushy.

I’m going to try to squeeze myself into the doctor’s tomorrow… by this point I think meds are my only option.

6. Baking is one of my favourite pastimes. – Okay fine, so I had this realization a long time ago. But it has only been solidified by the fact that now, even though my free time has been reduced, a good chunk of it still goes towards whipping up some of the many (many) recipes bookmarked on my computer.

Muffins!

Chocococonut Style

Guess who got my brother to eat BEANS in his dessert…and LIKE it…Katie did! With her Deep-Dish Cookie Pie – a MUST make (I halved it and used a normal cake pan and it turned out perfectly…and was gone in a day).

Well folks, the fact that I actually updated this thing is PROGRESS. And in my opinion, any progress is a good thing. So here’s to progress… and hopes upon hopes for more even better progress to come.
(I do miss this but I also hate my suffering-from-senioritis laptop that I still have yet to upgrade. Goal for the next week or so – Buy a MAC!).

Oh oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(source)

Waste Not

June 17, 2011

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I don’t know about you, but I can’t waste food.

(weheartit)

So when I have a third of a huge bag of wilted spinach sitting in the back of the fridge, I don’t chuck it right into the compost bin like a sane person might do. Instead, with wrinkled nose, I grab chunks of the soggy green mess with my bare hands and shove them fistful after fistful into the Bullet until they’re pulverised into one giant bowl of drinkable delight.

The bag of spinach left a green juice puddle on the counter, that’s how greatly rotting it was.

Not so edible but certainly drinkable as a Dark Chocolate Greens Glugger when combined as the following:

3+ cups wilted spinach, 1/2 cup chilled coffee, 1/2 cup almond milk, splash of orange juice, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 2 heaping spoonfuls cocoa powder, packet of stevia, pinch of xanthan and guar gum, lots of ice.

Now that’s a “Soup”

Waste Not your wilted spinach!

As I said, I can’t waste food.

So there was no way I was wasting my curry “chicken” by not eating it fast enough.

Hence eating it virtually every day this week for lunch.

Lucky for me I found a great new salad dressing to make the faux chicken consumption process all that much more interesting.

Welcome to my fridge, Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Dressing.

My friend’s and I had an entire conversation about the greatness of the President’s Choice brand the other night. If you have the pleasure of buying PC foods at your local grocer (Holla Canadians!), I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Waste Not your fake chicken (That probably isn’t actually fake. I swear that stuff has to be real!)

I didn’t need to worry about any of this Couscous Chickpea Salad going to waste after experimenting in the kitchen the other day. My family had it eaten up in no time. Though it would be pretty hard to mess up a bean and grain salad.

1 cup cooked couscous
1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 large cucumber, chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
1/4 cup edamame, shelled
3 Tbsp Kraft Sundried Tomato and Oregano Salad Dressing (or whatever vinaigrette style dressing you have on hand and want to use up)
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Cook the grain, add the beans and veg.
Mix the dressing and vinegar and pour over the rest.
Chill and eat.

This was also an attempt to use up the bottle of dressing. It’s taking up precious fridge space for a while now since I don’t love it on salads. Another perfect way to Waste Not!

Waste Not your least favourite dressing!

Often when I cook up spaghetti squash I have a problem finishing up the leftover strings. I’ll admit, I don’t think spaghetti squash is quite the bomb that some people seem to. I certainly doesn’t replace pasta.

But if what you’re really looking for is simply an adequate vehicle for your bowl of sauce and cheese, it does the trick quite well.

After trying out Janetha’s Faux Lasagna, I knew I’d have no trouble finishing up this batch of remainders.

Spaghetti squash + cottage cheese + bottled pasta sauce all topped with mozzarella = darn good bowl of food.

Leftovers sans cottage cheese but with mucho mozzarella (and a sprig of parsley for aesthetic pleasure)

Waste Not your spaghetti squash!

Are you a food waster or a creative reworker? Be honest! No judgements here. Do you throw out that less-than-fresh produce or those boring leftovers, or do you find a way to rework them and eat them up in new ways?

I love getting creative with whatever happens to be hanging around in the fridge. It makes for some…interesting meals here and there. I usually draw the line at mould and funky smells…but I keep pretty close tabs on what’s going on with the food supply so usually I can eat it up before it reaches that point! No shame.

Busting out the Bike

May 25, 2011

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You know that Groupon thing? My mom’s friend bought one good for a one-month membership at a small women’s gym just down the road. Then she decided she wouldn’t use it.

So as of bright and early this morning, I officially became a one-month gym member (thanks Katherine).

After drowning my banana boat breakfast in the deep murky depths of my stomach of course. (Priorities People! Banana + peanut butter + Greek yogurt. The first half I inhaled plain while prepping the second. I was hungry and it takes time to spread PB and spoon out yogurt)

The gym is tiny and was pretty empty when I went in but they have quite a few classes, including spin (which I’ve only tried a handful of times before but I’ve loved) so I’ll be hitting up some of those within the next month. The Groupon membership also includes 5 FREE Smoothies. Um… you bet I’ll be taking advantage of those.

After activating the membership I moved right on to getting my sweat on…just not at the gym. Yep, I joined the gym only to turn around and walk right out, heading straight home instead to go on my first BIKE ride of the year!

(source)

And a superb bike ride it was. One solid hour of chilly winds, slightly overcast skies, nearly empty streets and blasting tunes in my ears. I always seem to forget just how satisfying biking is until I get out there again.

You know your day is exciting when a bike ride is the highlight.

Well that and “Cookie Dough” aka Blondie Batter Dip aka why ever bother baking anything when the dough just tastes so. darn. good?

I made the regular (PB-loaded) and the light (applesauce) version. Both good in their own right but the peanut butter is the clear winner. Because since when is anything not better with peanut butter?

I also whipped up a chocolate version with a bit of leftover batter dip blended with cocoa powder.

Yesterday was a little more thrilling as I Budda Boom Budda Binged with Mario at the dinner table. Ever been to East Side Mario’s? They have unlimited soup or salad and WARM garlic loaf. Um yes please! My friend Christy (my partial name twin…except for the fact that we spell our names completely differently – C and y vs my K and ie. They sound the same though which is all that matters) is always thinking and always suggests going with the unlimited refills. I’m down! And their garden salad is awesome. As is their bread. I could eat just those two as a meal and be completely content. But because I’m not sure if that’s an option…I figured I might as well throw in a small cheese pizza too.

My dinner photography courtesy of Google:

Thanks for the meal, Mario!

We also met up with a group of friends for beers and Taco Tuesday ($2 tacos!) but I had neither since I just downed a whole pizza and I was the DD. Responsibly Ricky over here. Instead I sipped on water. Man I’m lame.

I also finished the very last cupcake remaining from the long weekend celebrations yesterday. Okay, 2/3 of a cupcake. I ate the other 1/3 before breakfast.

THIS is only exciting enough to get airtime because a – it’s a cupcake and b – the only other food evidence I have from the past two days is yet another green smoothie and yet another salad with tuna.

Cold, quick and easy foods are the name of the game for summer, what can I say?

Do you find yourself gravitating towards easier (aka no cook) foods now that the early summertime has basically started? I can’t even think about cooking food 90% of the time right now. Fresh veg, fruit and liquids is where it’s at. Anything else makes me sweat just thinking about it. And it’s not even that hot out yet!

Ramble bamble.

The conclusions of this post:

Eat at East Side Mario’s – even if just for the unlimited warm bread
Bike – just do it. Though if you rarely (or never) bike, don’t choose a day that’s too hot or windy. You will regret it.
Don’t try to be nice and save the last cupcake for the rest of your family. For some reason they will ignore it and you will stare at it every time you open the fridge until you bite the bullet and inhale it, pretending nothing ever happened.
See The Hangover Part II – because I’m going to see it right now. I have high hopes!

Scooter Girl

May 11, 2011

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Can someone build a gasless car and deliver it to me by the end of the week? Otherwise I’m never leaving the house again. That or I’m going to invest in one of those motorized bicycles. Or maybe a really sweet scooter. Considering I work at a motorcycle shop (Didn’t know that? Now you do :)), this idea just might be plausible. Thoughts?

I think I could rock a scooter (please excuse the hairy legs…and arms).

Seriously though, gas prices make me want to cry… along with the rest of the population since that’s all the news and anyone who drives seems to talk about lately. I just heard the prices are supposed to skyrocket even more? And I’m down to a quarter tank…sob.

While a scooter might not be on the agenda for this week at least, green smoothies have been. Smoothie weather has arrived!

For Breakfast…

…AND lunch.

Yes, those are three entirely different smoothies. How exciting am I, they all look the exact same and I can’t even be bothered to switch it out of a Bullet cup. That’s just another dish to wash though and the Bullet cup fits oh so nicely into the hand.

The contents of the three above smoothies vary slightly but include:
Chilled green tea, unsweetened almond milk, ice, large handful spinach, ~1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder, frozen strawberries, cinnamon, barley grass powder, xanthan gum (and maybe some guar), a bit of sweetener if needed.

Aside from smoothie binges, last night I chomped on a veggie burger on a slice of rye with dijon mustard, Laughing Cow cheese, sundried tomatoes and spinach.

Can we just focus on the faux grill lines for a second? Are they supposed to give some sense of real burger authenticity? It kind of makes me laugh…but I totally felt like I was eating a big juicy burger hot off the grill…or not quite.

It was even better that the real thing. Thumbs UP to veggie burgers.

DOUBLE thumbs up to Pita Pit. I hadn’t had a Pita Pit pita in ages but I finally had one again the other day. Isn’t it beautiful?

A babaganoush and vegetable-loaded bundle of joy: baba, romaine, red onions, pickles, hot peppers, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, honey mustard.

Last night I was also in a baking mood so I baked granola!
Making granola is a little more like concocting than baking but it satisfied the urge and mom’s request for granola. Two birds, one stone.

I based mine off of this recipe, making a much smaller batch with the ingredients I had on hand.

My batch included:

Dry: 50 g rolled oats, 50 g quick oats, 10 g puffed rice cereal, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp sea salt
Wet: 1/4 cup applesauce , 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp packed brown sugar, 1/2 tbsp safflower oil, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Add-ins:1/4 cup chopped almonds and cashews, 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots, cranberries and raisins

Baked at 300 for 20 minutes without the fruit and nuts.
Then stirred and baked for another 30 minutes with the fruit and nuts.

This granola came out beautifully. Lightly sweetened, super crunchy, with some of those oh-so-coveted granola clumps in the mix.

Be sure to check out the original recipe, which breaks down all of the steps to a perfect batch of granola.

Still on the topic of baking, I was recently sent a bag of Emerald Forest Xyla brand Xylitol, an all-natural sugarless sweetener extracted from natural fibrous sources such as birch trees. It has the same sweetness as sugar with 40% less calories and 75% less carbs.

Considering it can be swapped 1 to 1 with sugar, I decided to try it out on a miniature batch of flourless peanut butter cookies: 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup Xyla, 1/4 egg (this was a little tricky).

Though they’re no substitute for the real thing, the Xylitol puts an interesting flavour spin on the cookie and they’re plenty sweet. I think I’d cut down on the Xylitol a bit when using it again as a swap for sugar in baking.

That being said, I finished off the last cookie last night atop a bed of plain yogurt, banana and peanut butter. Mmm. I’ll have to see what other good uses I can come up with for the Xyla. Ever used it? Any suggestions?

Wow, where did the morning go? I think it’s about time I get a move on…preferably not via driving, though I now also have a nice big chip in the windshield after a rock came shooting at me off the highway the other day. Swell. So I need to go get that repaired stat.

Do you drive? Are you crying right now because of it? Are these rising gas prices making you change or consider changing your driving habits?

I sure am less motivated to want to go out anywhere. And I’m definitely trying to figure out how I can use bicycle transportation more often. Sadly I live in the burbs so everyone and everything is a bit of a hike out of the way. Otherwise I’d be doing a lot more walking to where I need to go! Motorized shoes perhaps?

*Don’t forget to enter my Tuesday Tea Giveaway!

—Lighter Portions

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