Dempster's Thin Bagels

A few weeks back I received some fun mail that included 3 varieties of Dempster's Thin Bagels for us to try...

We love when Dempster's products show up at our house!  The fam has been eating Dempster's whole grain bread exclusively for some time now so we're familiar with the company and their amazing products.  You can also check out my review for the Oven Ready Baguettes here.  It's not too clear in the picture, but I was sent the White with Whole Grains:

Multi Grain 100% Whole Grains:

And the favourite among my boys; cinnamon raisin!

Seeing as I no longer eat gluten, Jason and the kids jotted down their thoughts for me to share with you:

-really good snack, great taste but on the small side

-delicious toasted with cream cheese

-tough to toast because they’re thin

-raisins ones are very good plain…don’t need any topping

Further to that, these bagels have less than half the calories of regular bagels and can be found in the bakery aisle a major grocery stores across Canada.  They typically sell for $3.59-$3.99.

Here are a few recipe ideas that would be well suited to these little guys...

Berry & Greek Yougurt This Bagel

-1 Dempster's Cinnamon Raisin Thin Bagel

-1 Tbsp Greek style plain yogurt

-2 Tbsp of mixed fresh berries

-2 tsp honey

-pinch of cinnamon

OR you could try Thin Bagel & Lox:

OR Thin Breakfast Club Sandwich:

At only 100 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fibre and 3 grams of protein, these bagel thins make for a fabulous snack of base for your favourite sandwich!  Have you tried Dempster's Thin Bagels?  

Bye for now!!

The Works

This past Saturday we went out to dinner (and a movie) to celebrate Jason's birthday.  A new burger joint called The Works, which originated in Ottawa, just opened up in our area and we'd heard rave reviews so decided to try it out.

What a GREAT place!  The service was top notch, the decor funky, the atmosphere laid back and the food spectacular!  Check out the neat salt & pepper shakers:

No sooner did we get the menu's that the kids zoomed in on milk shakes.  I was leery on letting them get one because I didn't want the bellies too full, but the waiter convinced me that the small ones were not too big.  And wouldn't you know that they came out in Pyrex measuring cups?!  Noah went with Oreo (even though you could create you own combo!):

Sarah was a tad more adventurous and ordered chocolate, chocolate chip blackberry:

Even my water came in a 2 cup measuring cup!

Now, I had heard that the menu options were quite extensive; 60 choices to be exact, so we all took a peek at the menu online earlier in the day.  Here's what they have to say about their patties:

And the protein options to choose from:

Armed with our decisions, we order right away since the place was filling up and we needed to out of there in time to make it to our show.  Noah ordered the "Mac & Cheese" which we all assumed was just that.  Oh no!  What came out was a burger TOPPED with mac & cheese and cheddar:

After giving it a really strange look he shrugged his shoulders, grabbed the ketchup and proceeded to polish it off.  He didn't make it through the fries, though!  Sarah, who unlike me loves meat, ordered the "Richie's Butt Burger" which was topped with grilled Canadian back bacon and cheddar cheese:

She made short work of that!  I just can't figure out where she puts it all!  Jason went with the "Sorento Sunset" which had fresh avocado slices and Monterey Jack cheese on it:

I chose the "Johnny Be Goat" with no bun.  Thankfully, there burgers are gluten free!  Mine was topped with roasted red peppers, spinach and goat cheese:

As delicious as it was, I'm just not a huge fan of meat so I made it through most of the burger and ALL the toppings.  Jason had no problem finishing of my patty.  ;)  We all had sweet potato fires except for Noah who had regular ones.  And now for some goofy family pictures!

The movie we went to see was "We Bought a Zoo" with Matt Damon.  what an amazing movie!  Have you seen it yet?  When we got home there was just enough time for Noah to get a quick snuggle from Pepper:

Have you tried a new to you restaurant lately?

Bye for now!!

T'is The Season....

.....to be BUSY!!  Hi folks!  How is everyone doing?  Are you all caught up in the craziness that is December just like me?  Between work, Christmas shopping, hockey, dance and the end of Sarah's volleyball season I've barely had time time sit at the computer, which I am sure is the case in general.  Instead of posting here I decided to use that time to continue reading all your blogs.  I haven't been commenting as much, but I have been keeping myself up to date with you guys!

On Sunday Noah's hockey team had a game in a border city.  Whenever we play there I plan a quick trip across the border for a little shopping.  This time we only hit Target because it had been raining pretty heavily all day and we were afraid it would freeze before long.  Getting stuck in the States wouldn't be such a bad thing; just extra money for us that could be used in other areas right now.  :)  We actually went to Panera first because, as is the case more often than not lately, Noah was starving.  That kid eats more than me these days and is still only weighs 59lbs at almost 10yrs old!  LOL  Because I'm pretty much gluten free, sandwiches were out for me.  I went with the Chopped Chicken BBQ Salad with a side of potato chips:

This was delicious!  I already used some of the ingredients in this as an idea for dinner.  More on that to follow...I pretty much found everything at Target that I wanted to.  I can't post everything, though, because some of the items are gifts!  Here are the edible goodies I bought:

Anyone know how to rotate photos in blogger?  I don't have WLW at work and can't figure out how to do it!  DOH!!  If you can help leave me a comment, please & thank you!  Jason LOVES the Archer Farms corn & black bean salsa!  I've had to hide those Mounds bars and Fage yogurts from my son...AKA...bottomless pit!

I also managed to stick to my meal plan last week.  Monday was pizza night.  While the fam had some oven ready pizza, I made a pizza for me using Udi's GF pizza crust.  I've never tried it before and really enjoyed it!  My toppings included a (leftover) GF hotdog, spinach and cheddar cheese.  I used salsa as my sauce:

Next time I will cut back on the baking time.  The crust got a little too crisp for me, but that was my fault, not the product. (*note: I bought these Udi's pizza crusts on my own).  Here's a picture I took of the leftovers that I enjoyed for lunch the next day:

Tuesday we had a FREE night!  I took the opportunity to roast a chicken with onions and garlic for dinner.  I also made steamed broccoli & quinoa to go along with it.

That's mango chutney on my plate beside the chicken.  ;)  On Wednesday we were out of town until 7pm.  Knowing this would be the case I made and baked off meatballs Tuesday for subs.  All I had to do when we got home was heat them with tomato sauce, toast the buns and melt the cheese.  The fam had sub buns while I ate mine on a GF burger bun:

Thursday was quick and simple; turkey sausage, brown rice & peas;

The plan was to have chicken stir fry on Friday, but we ended up at Boston Pizza after a bit of Christmas shopping.  I went with a personal Szechuan on GF crust.

I took one bite of this and realized that instead of the Szechuan sauce that's suppose to come with this pizza, it was plain old tomato.  Instead of sending it back and waiting for another pizza, I just had the server bring me a ramekin of the sauce and I put it on myself.  :/  Seeing as I already had the chicken out of the freezer, we enjoyed our stir fry Saturday night!

As you can see, there is some rice spiral pasta on the side there.  I also made sure I got more veg than chicken.  I'll leave the fam to the meat!  LOL  And that's that for my "meals of the week"!  I gotta admit, I can't wait to get some natural light again at dinner time!  All my pictures look so blah.  :(

I don't really have a set plan for this week.  From Sunday to Saturday Noah is on the ice every night but Thursday, so I'm kinda winging it.  I have a loose idea of what I'll be making each day, but don't want to commit to it.  I'll leave you all with a photo of the kids school pics!

Man, they are growing so FAST!!  One last little thing!  I tried to post this yesterday, but Blogger was behaving badly!!

Bye for now!!

Back in Action...

Oh my goodness friends, it's been a while!  When I posted last Noah was home sick with the flu.  That stuck with the poor kid for 2 days.  Then Sarah got it, then I got it.  UGH.....fun times were NOT had!  We all seem to be back on track now, though.  Needless to say, my meal plan pretty much went out the window last week. So did hockey games, dance class and Zumba.  Eeek!  Looking through the photos on my camera I seem to have some from last week and all from the week before so this will be a bit of a hodge podge post.  So 2 weeks past the plan looked like this:

Turkey sausage, sautéed red peppers, green beans and millet.....

Roasted turkey breast, peas, polenta ans some smoky peach chipotle dipping sauce......

Lasagna, for the fam.  I had eggs on toast with mortadella.....

Thursday was pork chops, corn and basmati rice.....

And Friday was baked salmon fillets with broccoli and quinoa...

Pretty good week!  I've got to admit, I don't eat pork chops much and Thursday's dinner reminded me why.  I just don't like them!!  Guess I thought I'd give them another shot, but I won't be eating them again any time soon.

I don't even remember what last week was suppose to look like!  Here's what I got pictures of:

Noah had an out of town hockey game on Tuesday and I always try to get some sort of pasta into him before a game.  This is brown rice pasta which is always what I prepare for myself.

Whoa....dark photo!  This was Wednesday's dinner, which we ate late.  Well, 7pm is late for us!  We were out for this again...

 ....but over my lunch hour I put chicken thighs, sliced mushrooms, 2 chopped red bell peppers and a can of tomato sauce in the crock pot on low.  When we got back the kids ate theirs over leftover pasta while Jason and I had ours over quinoa.  It tasted SO much better than it looks!  I'm certain we had turkey sausage again on Thursday, but there doesn't seem to be any photo evidence!  Friday we decided to go out to dinner, but my camera was sitting pretty on the dining room table.  DOH!

I got some cool mail last week, too!  First up we have some Method dish and hand soap:

I haven't tried either yet, but I can't wait to get them started.  Method is one of my favourite brands of hand soap and I'm eager to try the dish soap.  These have seasonal scents, too!  Frosted Fir and Candy Cane!   Thank You, Method!!!  I also received my FREE Gevalia coffee for our Tassimo.

Somehow I managed to get to their Facebook Page before supplies were out! Too bad I'm blogging from Blogger right now and can't figure out how to rotate this picture!!!  Anyhow, this coffee is STRONG, but good.  I'll definitely buy more when I run out.

So, I think that's all I've got for now.  As always, you can check my meal plan out on my Facebook Page.....What's your favourite meal been this past month?  Or is it something that you will be eating over Thanksgiving?

Bye for now!!

Kitchen Aid Food Processor Winner

Hi!  Just popping in to announce the winner of the Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor.  The lucky number is 25!

Marianne (frenchfriestoflaxseeds) said...

Just posted a link on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/frenchfriestoflaxseeds

November 10, 2011 2:52 PM 

CONGRATULATIONS, Marianne!   Please email me you addy and phone # and we can get the wheels rolling on your new food processor!!!!

Bye for now!

Polenta Fries

Happy Friday!  I'm home from work this morning with a sick boy so I thought I'd post a recipe for polenta fries that I've been meaning to do for a good month!  Polenta was a staple in my parents diet's growing up and my  Mom continued the trend with us.  When my Dad was a kid back in Italy polenta was often served at the breakfast table as well as at dinner.  My Nonna would make a big batch and spread it out on a baking sheet.  Once it was set she cut it into strips and grilled it until crisp.  The next morning she would cut it up and serve it with warm milk.  A typical meal for lean times.  Although we never ate it for breakfast, we did eat lots of it! Mom served it mostly as a base for stews and cacciatore's.  Every now and again she would grill the leftovers on the BBQ which was my favourite way to eat it.

Before I get started on my "story" here's how to make a basic batch:

• 1 cup of liquid (I usually use 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk)
• 1/4 cup dry polenta
• 1 tbsp of butter
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Bring liquid and butter to a gentle boil
2. Turn down heat and slowly whisk polenta in
3. Stir, stir, stir until thick, about 5ish-mins (this is important or it will get lumpy on you)
4. Stir in cheese until melted

At this point it is ready to serve as a side.  If you're making a batch for fries pour contents onto a greased baking sheet and refrigerate over night or until set.

Not so long ago I found myself with a good portion of leftover polenta.  I decided to chill it in the fridge overnight in a square-ish container that I lightly misted with EVOO.

When it came time for dinner the next day I popped it out of the container on to a cutting board:

I cut it into strips (this is VERY easy to do when the polenta is cold):

While I was doing this I had a pan heating on the stove with approx 3 tbsp of EVOO.  Once that was good and hot a gently set the fries in the pan:

Sorry for the icky picture, but it gets the message across!  :)  I let each side get a crispy layer before turning them over.  This doesn't take very long at all.   I should mention that you don't have to use EVOO.  Whatever oil you have on hand would work perfectly as well as melted butter, coconut oil, coconut butter.  Basically, whatever floats your boat!  :)  Once crispy all over I place the fires on a paper towel covered plate and lighted dust with salt:

DELICIOUS!!!  The kids put these back like it's their job!  Actually, now that I'm looking at these pictures I feel inspired to make more this weekend!  Have you ever had polenta fries??


Enjoy your weekend!  But beofre you do, if you live in Canada PLEASE check out the awesome giveaway that I'm hosting.  **hint hint**  It's for a FREE Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor!!!!

Bye for now!