Tag Archives: bbq

Canada Day!

2 Jul

Ok so depending on your time zone I am a day or longer late with this, oops! I’d apologize, which would be oh so Canadian of me 😉 but the reason I didn’t write anything on Canada Day was because I was busy celebrating Canada Day and if I hadn’t done something to celebrate Canada Day than I wouldn’t have anything to write about now, would I? That’s right, that is my logic and I’m sticking to it! teehee

logic

July 1st is Canada Day, in case you didn’t realize that from the above paragraph lol It is a day filled with hanging with friends and/or family, food, some form of alcohol, proudly displaying a flag or maple leaf or at least wearing red & white, and fireworks. Whether those fireworks are the official display put on by your city or some cheap ass stupid ones your neighbour’s kids set off in the park down the road well, whose to make that distinction?

Canada Day is the one day of the year we are unapologetically Canadian. We don’t refrain from wearing something with a maple leaf on it while in our own country because it is tacky, we don’t shy away from sharing videos on YouTube that say how great we are (though most of those videos say how polite we are lol), we jokingly embrace the stereotypes that are out there and eat something maple flavoured, or order the poutine, or wrap bacon around something and claim it is a legit meal. Our large cities have family friendly activities that include our military showing us simulators that they use for training, you can sit in a tank, or wear one of the backpacks the soldiers wear to see juuuuust how heavy it is (which fyi, I tried, they are ridiculously heavy!). It is the one day of the year we allow our Canadian pride to show…although we are still fairly understated about it, shrug, but ya know, that is just our way…sorry! 😉 lol

This year I went to a friend’s place for a bbq and just general hanging out. It was a fairly chilled event which was nice because it was a roasting hot day and none of us felt like doing anything super active.

There was video game playing, on an old system, so really it was retro video game playing lol We were playing on an N64 and I can’t remember the games names, they were games I had never played before and oh wow did I suck lol Luckily I was with nice people who didn’t make toooooo much fun of me 😛

After game playing there was the food! 🙂

For dinner we bbq’d kabobs…

Dinner!

Dinner!

We actually had a lot of kabobs, I just forgot to take a picture until they were almost all eaten, oops! They had chicken or pork, corn, red and green peppers, zucchini, red onion, pineapple and baby potatoes on them. Three of us made a little assembly line to put them all together, my section had the stabbing of the zucchini, peppers and corn which you’d think would be ok except I stabbed myself in the palm of my hand when putting the skewer through one of the corn pieces, sigh. It is a very me thing to do lol 😛

Then there was dessert! I brought it, thought I’d try a new recipe. My only goal was to have the finished product look somehow patriotic, so I wanted there to be red and white incorporated in to the dessert. Sounds stupid I know but meh, I was baking it so I get to pick things like that.

I made a brownie and strawberry trifle…

Chocolate Brownie and Strawberry Trifle

Chocolate Brownie and Strawberry Trifle

I’ll do a separate post with the recipe for the trifle, in case any of you are interested in giving it a try. 🙂

Because this is my Canada Day post will I put a video about Canada, and of course, being a Canadian pride video it is made by a beer company *rolls eyes* 😛 I like the video though, it shows how we are a multi-cultural country and how if we all work together good things happen, least that is my interpretation of it. 🙂

Aaaaaand here is another video about Canada, just because…it is a song instead of a commercial if that makes it anymore enticing for you…oh and there is an astronaut in it! Who doesn’t like astronauts! 😉

I know July 1st was yesterday, and a lot of my readers aren’t from Canada, but regardless, I hope you all had an awesome Canada Day (even if it was just a normal Wednesday for you lol)! 😀

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Pineapple Upside Down Cake

4 Jun

A friend from my Dragon Boat Team got a job offer in Switzerland and since she’s no dummy she said yes. This past Sunday there was a going away bbq being held in her honour and lucky for me it started mid afternoon and didn’t end until well after I was done at work so I got to go. Yay!

The invite said everyone was to bring whatever they wanted to grill and drink, a variety of salads would be provided. Well, I didn’t know what to grill, I haven’t ever grilled so while I know I could take some chicken or a burger patty or a hot dog with me to pop over the fire I would have probably made it inedible while trying to cook it. Also, who carries around just one burger patty or one hot dog? That’s just awkward lol

Instead I took a Pineapple Upside Down cake and hoped that would be an awesome enough contribution that I could eat enough salad for it to be a meal. See how my sneakiness works? lol 😉

Well, the cake turned out to be a hit! Thank goodness!

I forgot to take a picture of it when at home so the best I have is this one, not great but at least you can see what it looked like…

2015-05-31 18.38.47

The pineapple slices weren’t placed very well, my bad, sigh. And in the above picture the end of the cake closest to the camera looks darker but it wasn’t burned, honest! It just looks like that in the picture, shrug.

People really liked it, or they were lying about liking it lol but I’m gonna lean towards being optimistic and say I think they were being honest and liked it. 🙂

It is a really basic recipe, there are some super complicated, have a billion steps versions online but that’s crazy, who has time for that? *rolls eyes*

So here is what I did…

Make a basic white cake.

Melt 1/4 Cup of butter in the baking pan by putting it in the oven while it is pre-heating to 350F.

Once the butter is melted take the pan out and spread the melted butter around, I used a silicone brush to not only spread the butter around the bottom of the pan but also up the sides.

Spread 1 Cup of brown sugar on the bottom of the pan, the butter will melt the sugar in to a dark gooey yummy mess.

Spread pineapple circles in the bottom of the pan, I bought the smallest can of pineapple circles so I had 8 slices, if you wanted more you could always buy a larger can, cut some of the slices in half and fit in more, up to you!

Put a maraschino cherry inside each pineapple circle as well as between them, try not to nibble too many of them because whoa! so addictive lol.

Pour the white cake batter on top of the whole shebang.

Pop in to the oven for 42-48 minutes.

Once the cake is done immediately run a knife around the edges, you’ll notice the cake comes away from the side super easily.

Place a heatproof serving plate upside down on to the pan and flip the plate and pan over together. Try to center it when you do that because the cake doesn’t like to be moved which is why mine is nowhere near centered on my cake platter, oops!

Leave the pan over the cake for 5 minutes or so, allowing the brown sugar topping to drizzle on to the cake, Mmm!

Remove the pan, scrape any drizzle that didn’t drip on to the cake and put it on the cake, or eat it, whichever you prefer.;)

Quick Tip!

When making the white cake use the pineapple juice from the can, however much liquid your white cake recipe calls for, measure out the pineapple juice first then top it up with water, or milk or oil or whatever your recipe uses. You’ll infuse the cake with pineapple flavour, making the whole thing just that much better.

Baking info:

If you are using a glass pan heat oven to 350F and bake for 42-48 minutes. If you are using a dark or nonstick pan heat oven to 325F and bake for 44-53 minutes.

The cake serves 12, if you cut it to serve 12, I’m certainly not going to judge if you choose to cut it in to larger pieces lol 😉

Having said that, if you are following Weight Watchers Points Plus and cut the cake in to 12 pieces each piece will be 11 points. So yeah, not a healthy cake lol but sure is tasty! (fyi, that is the points for my version of the cake, depending on your white cake recipe the points might be different, shrug)

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My Foodie Weekend

16 Jun

Mmm! Such amazing food at work this weekend. Made it hard to follow the new rules I was attempting to implement to fix the damage I learned about from my weigh-in on Friday but I don’t think I did too badly…course I could be deluding myself! Who knows? lol

Friday and Saturday were normal, I took food Saturday so that day was healthy, I forgot my food on the Friday so I ate at work but I was careful. Dinner was a fish dish with veggies and potatoes. I had about 3 bites of the fish (I didn’t really like it), I did however eat all the veggies (I love veggies, Mmm!) and I ignored the potatoes (unnecessary carbs). Oh and for dessert I had an apple instead of a cookie, I was kinda proud of that swap out, I love those cookies, swapping out for an apple was harsh lol 😛

Sunday, oh Sunday! It was Father’s Day so we had a bbq at work for lunch. We had to move everything indoors due to rain, lame! And one of the poor cooks got drenched cause he was the one who had to brave the elements to dash to the bbq, cook the steak, then dash back in to the building, all while keeping the steaks dry cause obviously the food is more important than a mere person 😉

one just makes the chef stay outside while everyone else is inside

one just makes the chef stay outside while everyone else is inside

Lunch was steak, prime rib if I remember correctly, corn on the cob and baked potatoes that were double baked with cheese an stuff on top. That would be the second time I have had steak and I’m still not sure what I think about it. Because I am staff and not a resident I didn’t get a prime piece of steak I got a less than prime piece I guess you could say, shrug. It was kind of fatty and I didn’t like that. The last steak I had wasn’t like that so I’m not sure which way is normal, the fat or the not fat…anybody? It was red inside when I cut in to it, I checked with one of the other staff to make sure that was ok, I’m used to chicken where that would be all kinds of bad, she said it was all good and for her would be perfect so I decided to ignore the red colour of the meat and give it a go. It was tender, tasty, there was a green drizzled sauce on top, not drenching it or anything, it was artistically placed on top and that was where the flavour seemed to be coming from. Otherwise all it would have tasted like was meat and what’s with that? That’s not good, ugh. See? This is why I never order steak (that and the cost lol), I prefer to not have meat be the overwhelming flavour, shrug. I don’t remember what dessert was but that is because I skipped it, I figured I’d just eaten steak, and half a baked potato and corn on the cob, that should be enough to keep the tummy happy for a while lol

Today (Monday) was our company’s two year anniversary so we celebrated! 🙂 There was a fancy lunch and oh man, waaaay better than the steak lunch! There was a butternut squash soup, easily one of my favourite kinds of soup, cedar wood planked salmon and cheesecake with a raspberry sauce. The fish, oh the fish! My taste buds were so happy! I’ve never had salmon cooked like that, who knew that putting salmon on to a piece of wood and cooking it that way would make it so much better? The flavour had a depth to it that I had never experienced and will miss the next time I eat salmon. The sides were halved baby tomatoes and spinach cooked in a pan with some sort of sauce drizzled in there…they really like to artistically drizzle sauce at my work lol and some baby potatoes, also halved, cooked in some way I have no knowledge of and seasoned with, um, something? lol There were herbs of some sort on the potatoes but I am not sure what they were. Since I never plan on attempting to recreate the dish I didn’t feel the need to find out what they did with the potatoes, shrug. As for the cheesecake, it has been a ridiculously long time since I have had cheesecake and as I savoured every bite I was reminded of the knowledge that a person could definitely survive on cheesecake exclusively and be super happy about it. Yum! Yum! Yummmm!

cheesecake!cheesecake!cheesecake!

cheesecake!cheesecake!cheesecake!

So there we have it, my foodie weekend. 🙂 I wish I’d taken pictures of the various dishes so I could show you but I didn’t, I know I know, I suck 😛 Next time, promise! 🙂

Oh! I forgot the champagne! We had champagne today and hey, you can never go wrong with being allowed to drink alcohol while at work -especially when it’s the big boss who hands you a glass of it lol

champagne-toast

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Epic Fail? Maybe not quite yet…

22 Aug

Yesterday was weigh in day and yet I didn’t post, oops! I did weigh in though, sigh. I didn’t lose weight…I didn’t gain mind you but I didn’t lose either. double sigh. I stayed the exact same…what’s with that? I guess it’s good that I didn’t gain, ok, I don’t guess that, I know that but I wanted to lose darn it! (picture an overweight red head stamping her foot, lol)

When something doesn’t go the way I want it to I like to figure out why, I have come up with two reasons. The first is that I had too many days last week where I underate my points – Weight Watchers is clear that if you don’t eat enough points (aka food) per day your body will hold on to it’s fat and refuse to let you lose it, mean! lol. The second reason is that the two days prior to last weeks weigh in and the day of the weigh in I was sickly, I hadn’t eaten or drank nearly as much as I should have been ingesting so when I weighed in I was dehydrated and had almost no food in my system – that will definitly affect your weight. So my conclusion for this week? It’s sucky that I didn’t lose weight this week but good that I maintained instead of gained – next weigh in day should have better results (as long as I don’t get sick this week, or eat over/under my points to an extreme). I will go back to the basics, making my lunch the night before, focusing on eating my exact number of points, having a healthy nutrient rich diet and trying to make the best choices I can for what I eat. 🙂

Having said all that I didn’t eat such a varied healthy diet today, lol, today was a peanut butter and chocolate kind of day. I had a headache from the moment I woke up and didn’t really want to eat much of anything, shrug, I of course did eventually eat and have eaten almost all my points for the day so that’s good. 🙂

I have a rule, if I can’t calculate the points for the food I don’t eat it. It’s a pretty basic rule but it really helps me not eat things that are bad for me. When food or treats are brought in to work it’s easier to say no when I rely on that rule but yesterday I had to break that rule – and boy did it get broken!

There was a work function, a bbq, and I had almost no control over the food. We were each given an option of steak or chicken so I chose chicken. Before the entree there were raw veggies with dip and a 7 Layer Dip (which is my absolute favourite!!), um, I think there was somthing else, oh! the tortilla chips to dip in the 7 layer dip. I knew I’d end up eating things bad for me and that I’d end up cheating with something so I was almost ok with not being able to calculate the points. lol. I really wanted that 7 layer dip – you don’t understand how much of a personal favourite that dip is! I used to buy a small size of it at the grocery store and some crackers or bread to dip in it and eat the entire container as a meal, Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!

Needless to say I was highly tempted by that dip, lol, I decided to wait and see what other foods were going to be offered before touching the dip since I didn’t want to eat some of it and then really want dessert and not be allowed to have it, I wasn’t gonna cheat on everything! Which meant I had to make choices…what did I feel was worth the points?

Dinner was the chicken (an entire chicken breast, ugh, too much at once! I should have just eaten half), some salad (a very small amount because it was already coated in some kind of dressing), a couscous/grain/lentil dish (I think it was healthy but I am not certain of  everything that was in it) and a very very small spoonful of store made potato salad. A chicken breast cooked without skin and bone (as this one was) is 3 points so that is ok but I have no idea how to calculate the points for the rest, shrug. I am working on being ok with the not knowing.

There was dessert too, a homemade vegan ice cream cake. Vegan? So not me! The frosting was from a can or something, shrug, but the rest was home made, the ice cream middle was soy ice cream – I didn’t know there was such a thing. lol. It was ok, the cake part was like heaven cause it’s been so long since I had cake. I think I made a mistake eating any cause all day today I have been craving cake or cake like items cause I had a taste of it yesterday. I spent all that time weaning myself off bad stuff and didn’t think about how having a small bite would make me crave that stuff all over again. Eesh, talk about not thinking my actions through! Anyways, back to the cake, SB and I split a half slice and didn’t even manage to finish that so I didn’t eat too much of it, I think 4 or 5 bites at most. That can’t be too bad, right? There was also some fruit so I had some pineapple and some grapes, not even a serving, heck, not even half a serving.

All in all I don’t think I did too badly with the food at the bbq yesterday. It could have been a lot worse! I had only eaten 7 points worth of food before the bbq so I had lots of points left to use at the bbq – I am not sure if I used them, went over or was under but I did the best I could. For today I am 1.5 points under and I have nothing to eat to bring me to my points. I am contemplating some fruit or something, at least use 1 point so I am only 0.5 under but I am full and really don’t want anything. I can’t bring myself to follow the Weight Watchers rules blindly, they say eat all your points no matter what, and I am sure they have a reason that is valid but I am full, it is 10:30pm and if I eat anything it will make me feel over full and sickly. I don’t think anyone should eat if they are already full and it is late at night – do you?

I totally forgot to say why I don’t think the weigh in was an epic fail! Oy, I’m losing it! lol. I needed something to wear to the bbq so I dug out some jeans I haven’t been able to wear in years, I thought I could at least give them a try. Well, yah! Happy Dance! They fit! Awesome! And not only did they fit they started sliding down throughout the day, sweeeeeeeeeeeet! 😀 😀 😀 Sure it’s just a simple pair of jeans but I am stoked that they fit! That is why the day, heck the week, was not an epic fail, cause even though all I did was manage to maintain my weight I have managed to get myself in to a pair of jeans that I haven’t been able to wear since well, a loooong time ago. teehee. 😀

So for today I ate:

1 Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich

    – 2 pcs bread = 2 points

    – 1 tbls light peanut butter = 2 points

    – 1 banana = 2 points

    – touch of cinnamon = 0 points

9 Maltesers = 2 points

1 cup cherries = 1 point

42 grams whole wheat pasta = 2.5 points

1/8 cup Alfredo Sun Dried Tomato Sauce = 1 point

1 wrap = 2 points

1 tbsp nutella = 2 points

1 tbsp light peanut butter = 2 points

1 skinny cow ice cream sandwich = 2 points

So that is 20.5 points for the day. The alfredo sauce gave me some trouble, 1/4 cup is 2 points so that is how much I had measured out for my pasta but when the pasta was cooked, drained and on the plate I realized I had way too much sauce for that amount of pasta. So I used about half of the sauce and that was plenty for the pasta. I had already measured out 4 servings of the sauce to use throughout the week and put the rest of the jar in the freezer  so I will have to use a full serving of pasta for each serving of sauce…more points then I would like for one meal but do-able…I think! 😛 The sauce is really good though and totally worth the points; I will just have to try to find whole wheat pasta that is lower in points once the pasta I have now runs out. Shouldn’t be too hard…I don’t think…

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