Archive | Home Life RSS feed for this section

Yesterday

2 Apr

I didn’t write this yesterday because I figured people might think I made it up, April Fools ya know?

I had a perfectly lovely day yesterday, it started with an audition on Granville Island, getting locked in a store and left there for over a half an hour, grabbing a quick bite to eat, running some errands, heating my back, going out for a quick dinner and then to a movie with a friend. See? Lovely day! 🙂

What’s that? Oh, you caught that quick mention about being locked in a store? Yeeeeah, so, that happened. *rolls eyes*

Only to me lol

I was early for my audition and luckily for me someone else was late so they took me in 20 minutes early, I did my thaaaang and thought I’d wander Granville for a bit, hit up the market to buy some fresh produce, maybe poke my nose in to the fun shops. It was a beautiful spring day, sunny and warm with only a bit of wind, I had lots of time left on the parking meter, the day practically begged for a relaxed walk among the shops and who am I to deny that? 😉

Well, on my way to the produce market I popped in to a shop called Eklectic Finds (yes, they spelled it like that lol), it features items for your home and garden and since I’m in the process of trying to make my place a little nicer I figured why not check it out?

Store front...

Store front…

So, I walk in there, start looking at items on the shelves, its one of those places that is very small and the shelves are packed so you have to squeeze to get through to the more interesting stuff. Well, I discovered a fatal flaw with that design cause I went in and started looking around and all of a sudden I hear the door close and the sound of a lock being turned,…umm…what the hell? I poke my head around the end of the aisle just in time to see the shop lady turning away and leaving me locked inside the shop. Huh. I started moving around a lot, seeing if I’d set off an alarm even though I didn’t hear her set one but nope, no alarm went off.

I found myself in a bit of a dilemma, I could leave but that would mean the shop door would be unlocked and who knows who might walk in and steal stuff, or I could stay, use the time to finish looking around the store and leave when the shop lady got back. Seemed like an easy choice lol Except the lady took for freakin ever to return! I did what anybody in that situation would do, I posted about it on facebook lol then texted a couple of friends. Just as I was thinking “screw this I’m outta here” and figuring I’d leave a note on the counter she returned and I scared the crap out of her when she walked in and I popped out from the back of the store lol. 😛

After that I didn’t have nearly as much time left on my parking meter so I grabbed a quick bite to eat, it was a toasted bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers (I don’t know why I like capers so much, they are weird looking, but alas, I do!) then booked it to my suv, oh I maaaaay have also bought one of the most amazing looking brownies ever! Mmm! It was like a super moist cake with frosting, omg yum. And no, I didn’t take pics cause both the bagel and the brownie were put in to to-go containers and didn’t look all that impressive once I got around to opening the containers. The sun kinda melted the cream cheese and the frosting, oops!

After being super classy and eating in my car I scooted off to do errands before meeting up with my friend later on.

All in all, an entertaining day. 🙂

Where I wanted to go...

Where I wanted to go…

why do I think pictures of produce are so pretty? weird...

why do I think pictures of produce are so pretty? weird…

This was the market I wanted to hit up, these are just a couple pictures of it, imagine produce like that, but on a far grander scale, the market is huge, and filled with such yummy fruit, veg, seafood, meat, basically everything lol Ah well, another time!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

D…D…D…Dentist!

25 Mar

I am not a huge fan of going to the dentist, is anybody? Having someone poke around in my mouth with sharp metal instruments is not my idea of a fun filled afternoon buuuuuuut eventually you’ve gotta go, right? Right…sad sigh…

dentist

I haven’t been to the dentist since 2008-ish and when I did go it was for a regular check-up and cleaning, no biggy. But since then I haven’t had dental coverage and wasn’t interested in paying out of pocket to have a sadist cause me pain and discomfort lol The job I currently have has excellent benefits though, that kicked in at the three month mark, since I’ve been with the company 2 years (oh dear god, has it really been two years?? *shock*) I figured I might as well take advantage of having such good benefits and ya know, use em. Since I have no idea how to pick a good dentist I asked a friend of mine who has kids, which means she must have a dentist lol, and I was right, she does have a dentist and she recommended them cause she doesn’t mind sharing. Turns out her dentist isn’t one specific dentist but a large dental office, it is like nothing I have ever seen. It’s massive, and has an unknown number of dentists, and dental assistants and hygienists. I’m used to going to a small dental office where the staff has a low turn over and they remember you from the previous years visit and ask how classes are going, or the job, or how the bf is, or did I go on that trip I was planning last time I was there…really personalized. But that is not this place, though the people were very friendly so that’s nice. 🙂

I went last week for what I thought would be a simple appointment, a regular check-up and cleaning, oh and that gross fluoride stuff, ugh. This super friendly hygienist started using those super pointy metal tools of torture to do her thing but she went slow so she didn’t actually finish before my appointment was up, weird huh? The dentist came in (fyi, very yummy, I momentarily lost the ability to get words forming in my brain and am fairly certain I came across as an idiot, sigh) he did his thing and informed me that a filling I have had since the dawn of time has a crack and needs to be taken out and replaced and that I had a small cavity forming on a different tooth that should be taken care of now before it gets bigger.

Just. Great.

This means that my one visit expanded to 4. Four!! I feel like I should just move in there lol I was there yesterday and the dentist took care of the small cavity that just started forming. I thought they’d do everything at once but he says he likes to take things slow, not have the person in the chair for any longer than an hour so they don’t get stressed. I told him to do as much as he can in one visit, I can take it, he wasn’t convinced and the appointments have stayed spread out. I have another tomorrow, that’s the regular cleaning, and then one next week for the removal of the cracked filling and the replacement.

It was funny yesterday, they used so much numbing stuff that from just under my eye to my jaw was frozen, including my nose! I kept poking at the right side of my face cause it simultaneously felt like it was huge and felt like nothing at all. I had to eat before the numbing had worn off because I had to go to dragon boat practice, let’s just say I am oh so very glad nobody was watching me eat! lol I had to put teeny tiny amounts of food in my mouth, keep it in the left side, tilt my head back, chew and swallow. The tilting of the head was very important in this process because I was unable to keep food or liquid in my mouth if my head wasn’t tilted back. Oh, and when I went to the washroom there was food on my lip that I wasn’t aware of cause ya know, the lip was numb. Oh! And you should have seen me trying to drink water when on the boat during practice, at one point I dribbled water down my chin cause I just couldn’t keep it in my mouth, well, on the right side anyways lol Thank goodness the left side of my mouth wasn’t frozen!

So all in all the dentist visit is turning out to be an ongoing saga that I’m not enjoying all that much, except for the cute dentist that is! 😉

Oh, and quick tip, don’t get told you need to have fillings then go home and YouTube videos about how they are done, it just amps up your anxiety level before your own appointment. Oh, and don’t watch videos titled “6 Things You Didn’t Know About Dentists” before your visit either cause that won’t make you feel aaaaaany better. Did you know that one of those drill head thingys came loose and got lodged in someones lungs one time? Yeah…these are the things I was learning before my cavity filling visit…not wise!

Tags: , , , ,

Should You Exercise When Sick?

9 Mar

My work is swarming with germs lately…by lately I mean the past two weeks. There is some nasty bug that is making the rounds and whoever catches it basically is doomed. It’s nothing horrible like the noro-virus, it’s just a nasty cold. Whenever a resident is sick we request they call the front desk and have their meals delivered so as to not spread their illness to everybody else. It doesn’t seem that unreasonable of a request in my opinion but you’d be surprised at how many people come down, sneeze and cough their way through their meals, through the various fitness classes, through the movies, through all the different social activities we have going on and then are surprised to find a couple days later we have a huge increase in the number of sick people. sigh.

I stupidly thought I wouldn’t catch it because hey, I’m not a senior, my immune system is strong. Ha-bloody-ha! I got sneezed on, as in, directly sneezed on last Sunday and woke up this past Tuesday incredibly sick. This bug just flattens you. With how poorly I was feeling, and how hard it was for me to do anything, I can only imagine how much harder it is for the residents who get it.

I was so sick I missed both my dragon boat practices this past week, which sucks! 😦 …and is a true indication of just how sick I was/am.

When you’re sick, do you wonder how much, if any exercise you should be doing? I always do. I always think I should be pushing through, forcing myself to exercise, to go to my practices, to go for a hike, because exercise is good for you, right? But sometimes you are just sooooo sick that it feels like exercise just getting your butt up off the chair to get a glass of water.

So I went searching and I found this handy dandy visual aid to help me figure out if I should be exercising when sick, and if so, what types of exercises I should be doing. And of course I am sharing the visual aid with all of you because I am friendly like that. lol 🙂

page one jpg

page two jpg

page three jpg

page four jpg

page five jpg

In case the words are too small to read just click here and it should open a new tab with all five pages in a larger size. *crosses fingers the link works* lol

Hopefully you all stay healthy and don’t need to know this for a while! 🙂

Tags: , , , ,

Hot Cross Buns From Cobs

8 Mar

I have been trying to publish a different post but due to technical difficulties it just isn’t happenin, and hasn’t been happenin for a couple days now so let’s change topics shall we?

I don’t go to Cobs. Not that I have anything against the company it’s just, all they sell is bread, and why would I go to a store that only sells one thing when I can buy that item, along with all my other groceries in one store, like Safeway? I like to manage my time and in doing so I choose not to go to a whole bunch of little specialty shops. Also, those little shops tend to be pricier so hey, one more reason to avoid them right? Right!

Well, I got a coupon from Facebook saying if I bought a six pack of hot cross buns I would get a free loaf of bread at Cobs. For some reason this appealed to me, even though I wouldn’t normally be buying hot cross buns lol Before work today I popped in to Cobs and holy hannah, Cobs is soooooo much more than just bread. It’s like bread heaven. Mmm!

I stuck to my plan and bought the six pack of hot cross buns and received my free loaf of bread but lemme tell ya, there were many a tempting item in there. When I got to work I was informed I should have caved and bought a cinnamon bun because they are the best ever so I may go back one day when I want a treat since cinnamon buns are one of my favourite things. 😀

How are cinnamon buns not one of Maria’s favourite things?

Back to Cobs! lol

Did you know there are different types of hot cross buns? I didn’t know this. I had only ever seen the one kind, the semi-ok-not-my-fave-thing-trying-to-teach-myself-to-like-kind. You know what I’m talking about, dried fruit inside and the line of frosting on top in the shape of a plus-sign?

But the lady at Cobs asked me what kind I wanted and my hot cross bun world expanded, just like that, boom!

They have: chocolate chip, cranberry & orange and traditional…there might be more, those are the ones I remember. To be honest, my brain kinda stopped reading the different types once I saw chocolate chip lol 😛

I could mix and match so I got 4 chocolate chip and 2 cranberry & orange. The plan is to wrap them individually and freeze them so I can bring them out randomly for treats but of course I ate one this evening, it’s practically an obligation to eat one the same day as purchase for quality control. 😉 teehee

Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun

Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun

It doesn’t look much like a hot cross bun, there is no frosting of any type on top – they probably figured the chocolate made it sweet enough…and it wasn’t as soft as I am accustomed to. Maybe all this time I had been eating sub-standard versions and they are not normally so soft? I dunno. shrug. I popped it in the microwave for 15 seconds and Mmm! Tasteeeeee! 🙂

I would say if you like chocolate, aren’t married to the idea of what a hot cross bun has to be like and enjoy bread type foods you’ll probably like this little creation by Cobs, and hey, if you get a coupon from Facebook you can even get a free loaf of bread when you buy a 6-pack of them!

Tags: , , , , ,

40 Bags in 40 Days

27 Feb

Have you heard of “40 Bags in 40 Days”? My mom told me about it, there are a couple facebook pages dedicated to it and I’m sure if I bothered to google it I would find plenty on it. Rather than google I am going on what my mom told me, she’s better than google. 🙂

40 bags

Basically, the goal is to remove 40 bags of stuff from your house in 40 days. It ties in with Lent which is where the 40 days comes from, in case you were wondering. Now, within these 40 bags you are not including your normal garbage and recycling, and it is not necessarily 40 bags of extra garbage. The bags can be filled with items you are selling at a garage sale, or donating somewhere, or…um…that’s all I can think of right now lol As long as the items are leaving your place and not coming back, it counts. And no, I don’t mean leave your house and live in your shed or garage or rental property or whatever, it must be gone.

I like the idea, it can really help with decluttering your space and providing you with that extra little bit of motivation to sort your spare closet or organize your drawers or wherever it is you store your extra stuff. The only thing I have an issue with is the number, 40 bags, that’s a lot!

I live in a super small apartment. Yes I have more stuff than I need, mostly books lol, but 40 bags worth of stuff? I don’t think so!

However, I’m sure I could find a combination of bags and projects that I’ve been putting off that equal 40, or maybe 30…for sure 20! 😛

So I decided that since I like the idea I am going to tweak it to fit in to my world. 🙂

For starters, I am taking away the 40 bags in 40 days thing, I think I’ll turn it in to 30 projects and or bags in 40 days. Why am I giving myself 10 extra days? Simple, some of my projects will take more than one day, like my photo album project, that sucker will take who knows how many days. Also, some of my projects will require money and I’ll want to spread those out amongst multiple paycheques.

Then of course is the addition of projects, not limiting myself to only removing bags of stuff from my place.

I’m not coinciding my trying this idea out with Lent, I’m just doing it when I feel ready to start. Hopefully I’ll start it March 1st, it all relies on my getting my list of projects figured out in time lol

Those are all the tweaks I can think of right now, as I compile my list of projects I may come up with more tweaks, we shall see! One thing that I’m certain will change is the number, the number of projects and because they are connected the amount of days to finish. I look around my place and see a lot of random projects I keep meaning to do but never get around to but as I mentally tally them I’m thinking I’m far away from 40, or even 30, it is hard to tell though…

I’m looking forward to this, mostly because these random projects that I keep putting off have been annoying me lately but even with that added level of annoyance I still haven’t gotten around to doing any of them. Why? I don’t know. Also, some of them will require some creative thinking, and I like projects like that, they get your brain working not just analytically but creatively, the end result can sometimes be a surprise, hopefully a happy one! lol

Don’t suppose anyone wants to join me in this little organizing project? Challenges like this are always more fun to do with a friend! 🙂

Tags: , , , ,

A Healthy Muffin

26 Feb

Someone I know from work is following Weight Watchers and she was telling me about a muffin recipe she has, from Weight Watchers, that tastes good, is only two points per muffin, and the best part is the muffins are a decent size so you don’t feel like you’re wasting those two points.

She sent me the recipe and I gave it a whirl, it is dead easy! I’ll make a page for it under the recipe tab up top for easy reference but I’ll write it out here also so you don’t have to go searching for it today…

Chocolate Raspberry Weight Watchers Muffin

Prep Time 10 minutes, Cook Time 22 minutes, Serves 12, Weight Watchers Points per muffin is 2

Ingredients:

1 Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil’s Food Cake Mix

1 Cup Raspberries

8 oz Unsweetened Applesauce

2 Small Zucchinis

5 tbsp Water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin, or use two 6 cup muffin tins. Place dry cake mix in medium bowl. Grate 2 small zucchinis and squeeze out moisture. Add 1 Cup of raspberries and the grated zucchini to the dry cake mix. Mix thoroughly. Add 8 oz of unsweetened apple sauce and 5 tbsp of water. Mix well.

Use a 1/3 Cup measure to measure batter in to muffin tray.

Bake for 22 minutes. Let muffins rest 5 minutes then take them out of the muffin tin and cool on rack completely.

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Voila!

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins you don’t have to feel guilty about! 😛

Pretty decent size, don't ya think?

Pretty decent size, don’t ya think?

So ok, they aren’t the prettiest things but meh, it all looks the same in the stomach lol They are an extremely moist muffin, as in super moist, I’m thinking because of the zucchini. Even though I pressed the grated zucchini to within an inch of its life and took out a lot of it’s moisture I think I could have taken out more. I was worried about taking out too much, I have learned that is not a valid concern lol You don’t taste the zucchini or the applesauce, which was a pleasant surprise.

I made some slight alterations, well, just one come to think of it. I didn’t use the Betty Crocker brand of cake mix, and can I say, buying a boxed cake mix felt like cheating! I never bake using a box, I always bake from scratch, so that part didn’t sit right with me but the first time I use a recipe I try to follow it to the letter and I guess they were going for the easiest possible baking experience, instead of you know, actually baking…I tend to think of using a boxed cake mix as more science experiment than baking but ok, I’ll stop my little rant about that now lol

Anyways! I bought a different brand, called Compliments! The exclamation point is part of the brand name, not because I’m so excited about it lol It is the “healthier version” provided by Safeway. You can find Compliments! foods all throughout the store, burger patties (which I have and omg they are sooooo delish!), I’ve seen it as cookies, um, crackers and I’m sure many more things. I checked the nutritional information and it was slightly more healthy than the Betty Crocker version so I opted for that, figured any little way to make it an even healthier recipe has to be a good change, right? Oh, and it was cheaper lol

I took the majority of the muffins to work and the reactions from people were positive, everyone was really impressed with how moist the muffins are considering they are a “healthy” muffin. I’m going to make a second batch, use up the rest of the applesauce cause no way I’m going to eat that as is, ugh, and freeze them. That way I’ll have an easy to grab food item stored in the freezer when I’m in a rush. 🙂 I was originally thinking I’d use them as I was dashing out of the house in the morning if I needed a quick breakfast but they are a tad rich for a first thing in the morning food, in my opinion, so I’ll probably end up eating them as an afternoon snack or dessert which is not a bad thing at all. 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Haydn, Bartok and Beethoven

19 Feb

Monday is my Friday, weird right? Well that’s what happens when you work weekends. I work Fridays through Mondays and generally by Monday evening I am stupid tired. I usually don’t do anything more active than going home, making something to eat, watching tv and zoning out until bedtime on Mondays but every now and then my social life intervenes with my laziness and I end up out there in the world, being social.

This past Monday I met up with a friend for dinner and an outing to the Orpheum Theatre to enjoy the musical talents of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Fyi, they are awesome! 🙂

My friend KL had a gift card for The Keg so that’s where we went for dinner. I had a first experience on Monday, I ordered a steak for dinner and omg why have I not been eating steak all this time? Oh so good!

I know nothing about steak so the poor waiter had to educate me on what exactly I was choosing, lucky for me he was patient. 🙂 Basically all I took away from it was that a sirloin is full of flavour but not as tender and a fillet will have less flavour but be more tender. I wanted tender more than I wanted flavour so I ordered a Manhattan cut New York steak with shrimp, scallops, asparagus and Bearnaise sauce. Technically I combined two different steaks. The Manhattan cut New York usually comes with caramelized mushrooms, onions and peppers and is served with a demi-glace but I liked the sound of the toppings that came with the Sirloin Oscar so I swapped out the toppings that I was supposed to get with yummier sounding ones. Gotta love tailoring your meal to what you prefer! 😀

Manhattan cut New York with shrimp, scallops, asparagus and bearnaise sauce

Manhattan cut New York with shrimp, scallops, asparagus and bearnaise sauce

As you can see I chose the baked potato as my side and the restaurant automatically puts the sauce on the side, which I appreciate. It may not be proper etiquette to dip food but I’d rather dip the cut pieces of steak in to the sauce than pour the sauce on to my dinner. My friend poured the sauce she got with her dinner and used the whole thing, by dipping I used about half of what I was served and while it may be ridiculous to be trying to save some calories when eating a meal like this it’s habit by now to dip rather than pour, shrug.

I was impressed by how many shrimp and scallops were on the plate, I envisioned getting fewer and feeling slightly ripped off lol

I asked for help from the waiter with deciding how the meat should be cooked, I knew I didn’t want lots of blood, ick, but I wanted it to be tender, definitely not chewy! The waiter suggested the steak be cooked to medium, he thought medium rare might be a little too red for me and well done would be too chewy. So medium it was!

what the inside of a medium steak looks like

what the inside of a medium steak looks like

Because we were splurging we split an appetizer and a dessert, so much food! Mmm!

The appetizer was Baked Brie with basil pesto and red pepper jelly, served with crostini. That dish alone is worth going to The Keg, so so so yummy!

baked brie with basil pesto and red pepper jelly, served with crostini

baked brie with basil pesto and red pepper jelly, served with crostini

The above picture isn’t mine, I forgot to take a picture when the appetizer came and once we started eating it no way was I going to pause so I could photograph it lol

Then dessert, my favourite food group! I left it up to KL to choose what to order, we were torn between the cheesecake and the fudge brownie. She chose the cheesecake which made me a happy camper because that was what I wanted lol It was a generous size, extremely creamy and thankfully not overwhelmed in sauce, they let the flavour of the cheesecake stand out, Mmm!

cheesecake, super delish cheesecake

cheesecake, super delish cheesecake

I got more than my fair share of the cheesecake because KL wasn’t feeling very well and she only wanted a couple of bites. I felt badly about eating more than my half but no way could I stand leaving any on the plate. I know it makes me a glutton but it was so good, to leave any of it uneaten would have been a crime against taste buds everywhere!

After the most scrumptious meal we walked to the Orpheum Theatre, a beautiful place. I only got a couple of pictures from inside when waiting for the show to start, and they aren’t great pictures…

2015-02-16 19.58.10

2015-02-16 19.58.34

The performance consisted of:

Haydn Symphony No. 99 in E-flat Major

I. Adagio – Vivace assai

II. Adagio

III. Menuetto e Trio: Allegretto

IV: Finale: Vivace

Bartok Violin Concerto No. 1

I. Andante sostenuto

II. Allegro giocoso

Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36

I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio

II. Larghetto

III. Scherzo: Allegro

IV. Allegro molto

Now Beethoven I am familiar with, I listen to his work often but I was unfamiliar with Haydn and Bartok. There was a violin piece by Bartok that has quickly become a favourite piece, it is beautiful. The emotion felt when listening to the music, the story the notes tell, I don’t have the words to properly describe it, I only know it resonates within me, which I feel is what music is meant to do.

Here is the Andante sostenuto…

I could listen to violin music all day, if ever there was an instrument I wish I could play it is the violin, sadly, I have no musical ability, so instead I just listen and appreciate the talent others have. 🙂

All in all, an awesome Monday evening. I wish KL had been feeling better, she enjoyed the music but got sicker as the night continued and by the end felt horrible. Hopefully we can go again and she’ll be better able to enjoy the experience.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Teeny Tiny Fire

14 Feb

Bright ‘n early this morning I was on the water enjoying my dragon boat practice. It was cold, but I loved it, weird I know lol 😛

Then, I came home and proceeded to get ready for work. Part of my getting ready process was making lunch – to eat before going to work, not to take with me.

I wanted something substantial, and well really, I wanted something with eggs lol but I’d had two hard boiled eggs prior to practice and that is one egg more than my daily egg allowance sooooooo no egg dishes for moi. Instead I popped a Ricotta and Spinach stuffed chicken breast from M&M Meat Shops in to the oven and boiled some whole wheat pasta. I don’t know why I made pasta as the side dish instead of veggies, shrug, I just seemed to want pasta. Probably cause I had bought a jar of alfredo & garlic sauce and really wanted to try it lol.

Anyways! It was time to drain the pasta so I did what I’ve done countless times, I took a towel wrapped it around one side of the pot and used it to protect my hands from the handles since they had gotten hot. I have used a towel every time I’ve needed to pick up a pot with hot handles for years and never had a problem. Well, this time I had a minor incident…

See, the towel slipped and touched the burner, big deal right? Wrong! The towel touched the burner and all of a sudden…fire! Actual fire! Not just singed, there were flames, flames! So there I am, holding a towel around a pot full of cooked pasta and the towel is on fire, not exactly a situation I expected to be in lol I didn’t want to lose the cooked pasta so I ever so gently put the pot down (on a different burner) then put the on fire towel in to the sink and soaked it with water. Yay for water solving the problem of my towel being on fire! Boo for ruining my towel.

I’m kinda bummed, I really like that towel, it is part of a set that my sister bought me two Christmases ago. Now it looks like this…

My scorched towel.

My scorched towel.

You’d think the damage would look worse considering there were flames involved. Even though the damage doesn’t look that bad the towel is ruined, sigh. Is it weird I am more upset about the towel being ruined than causing a fire in my kitchen? I think this just proves my point that some people aren’t meant to be in the kitchen and I obviously should be wealthy so I can have a cook, it’d be safer for everybody! 😉

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Some Recipes To Try

14 Feb

I was reading a food article the other day and found three recipes I want to try, I probably never will lol I have an unfortunate habit of collecting recipes and never using them, but in case any of you also like to collect recipes, or actually ya know, try out recipes, I thought I’d share them. 🙂

They all require a slow cooker, consider yourself warned! lol

 

(1) Eggs In Purgatory

Eggs-in-purgatory

Serves 6

1 tbsp olive oil 
1 large onion, diced (about 2 cups)
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
796-ml can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
6 eggs
2 tbsp chopped parsley
6 thick slices bread, toasted (optional)
Instructions:
  •  Heat a medium frying pan over medium. Add oil, then onion. Cook until onion starts to soften, about 3 min. Stir in jalapeno, garlic, paprika, cumin and salt. Cook 1 more min. Transfer to slow cooker insert along with tomatoes and tomato paste. Cover and cook for 8 hours on low.
  • Make 6 wells in tomato mixture with the back of a spoon. Crack 1 egg into each well. Cover and increase heat to high. Continue cooking until eggs are done as you like, 15 to 25 more min. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve over toasted bread.
Nutritional Information:
Calories 145
Protein 8 g
Carbohydrates 12 g
Fat 8 g
Fibre 3 g
Sodium 432 mg
Excellent source of Vitamin B12
(2) Cheese and Mushroom Strata
Cheese-and-mushroom-strata
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
227-g pkg sliced cremini mushrooms
5 thick slices day-old Italian or sandwich bread, cut into 1-in. pieces (about 5 cups)
2 cups grated gruyere or Jarlsberg cheese
8 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp finely chopped thyme
1 tbsp Dijon
1/4 tsp salt
Instructions:
  • Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium- high. Add oil, then mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms are soft and liquid has evaporated, 5 to 6 min.
  • Line bottom and sides of slow cooker insert with 1 large piece of foil. Lightly spray with oil. Cover bottom of insert with one third of bread. Evenly scatter half of mushrooms over bread. Sprinkle with one third of cheese. Repeat with half of remaining bread, remaining mushrooms and half of remaining cheese. Top with remaining bread.
  • Beat eggs with milk, thyme, Dijon and salt in a large bowl. Pour over bread. Season with fresh pepper. Gently press down bread to soak up more egg mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and cook 8 hours on low.
  • Open lid and let stand for 15 min. Use oven mitts to lift the foil holding strata out of the slow cooker. Transfer to a serving dish. Serve with Simple Salad.

Nutritional Information:

Calories 191
Protein 14 g
Carbohydrates 20 g
Fat 5 g
Fibre 1 g
Sodium 638 mg
Good source of Zinc
(3) Gingery Chicken Congee
Gingery-chicken-congee
Serves 6
Ingredients:
4 cups water
900-ml container chicken broth
3/4 cup jasmine rice, rinsed
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 1-in. pieces
2 tbsp minced ginger, plus more for garnish
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
tamari or soy sauce, optional
crispy shallots, optional
Instructions:
  • Combine water with broth, rice, chicken and ginger in slow cooker insert. Cover and cook 8 hours on low.
  • Scoop out and discard any brown foam around edges of congee, then stir in sesame oil and green onions. Season with fresh pepper. Garnish with additional minced ginger, tamari and crispy shallots.

Nutritional Information:

Calories 191
Protein 14 g
Carbohydrates 20 g
Fat 5 g
Fibre 1 g
Sodium 638 mg
Good source of Zinc
All of these recipes are from www.chatelaine.com under the Recipe Tab, they are all considered breakfast recipes but I don’t see why you couldn’t eat them as any other meal, food is interchangeable right? 😉

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Campbell’s Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup

13 Feb

Don’t do it, just don’t. Avoid the soup, save your tastebuds! lol

I bought one of those meant-to-take-to-work-packaged Campbell’s soups that you can pop in to the microwave for a quick and healthy meal. I bought it because (1) it was on sale, (2) I like soup and (3) I’m lazy and will try anything that means I don’t have to cook. 😛

This evening at work I was supposed to get dinner from the kitchen but my lovely salmon dinner sat out for a couple hours, not heated, while I was busy working and thanks to that FoodSafe course I had to take I now know just what might be growing in the salmon when it is left on the counter…I couldn’t bring myself to eat it. I’m sure I would have been fine but nope, couldn’t do it. I hate I have this knowledge in my head now lol

My unwillingness to eat the salmon and risk food poisoning meant I was super hungry by the time I got home, which sucked because the majority of the food I have in my kitchen requires at least 40 minutes cooking time, well, the protein type foods anyways. Then I saw the soup on the shelf and yay, problem solved! I love soup, this only requires 1 minute 45 seconds to heat in the microwave, can’t get better than that!

campbells thai chicken soup

In theory my plan for having the soup for dinner was great, in reality my taste buds may never forgive me. Ugh.

The herbs, despite the soup being heated, were hard, it felt like I had small sticks in my mouth. The only time I should be pulling food out of my mouth while eating is if I am ridding my mouth of cherry pits/seeds or if I am eating fish and a teeny tiny bone was missed. In a chicken and veggie soup I should not be having this problem…

Then there was the taste. I don’t even have the right words to properly describe the disturbing flavour that is this soup. There were some bites that had almost no flavour, sad. Other bites had a bit of a BBQ flavour, which I thought was odd but since I love BBQ I was kind of ok with that. Then there was the third flavour, the one I tasted most often, the one I don’t have words for…it was, well, not pleasant. Seriously, I don’t have a descriptive enough vocabulary for that flavour lol And before you say I didn’t stir the soup well enough, I did, trust me on this. 🙂

The soup wasn’t all bad though, the pieces of veggies were nice and large, and there was quite a lot in that container. I poured it in to a bowl and it filled my bowl so you’re definitely not getting jipped portion wise. But really, if the best you can say about a soup is the portion is large and so are the veggie chunks well, that’s not saying much.

Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →