Two GREAT Recipes

I wanted to put up a quick post to tell you about 2 kick ass recipes I’ve made in the past couple of days.  The first is one of Erica’s muffin recipes called Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins. Just check that baby out!  I followed the recipe pretty much word for word but added about a 1/4 cup of cinnamon chips and 3/4 cup of dark chocolate chips.  
I also found that I needed an extra 1/4 cup of water to thin the batter out a bit.   These chocolaty delights are absolutely scrumptious!  I groaned in pleasure after each mouthful.  Try these.  NOW!!   This is the cocoa powder that I used:  
I found it the last time I went to Winner’s.  Yum, yum!
The second recipe I made was for dinner tonight and it was Clean Eating magazine’s Butternut Squash Lasagna.  This is what the photo in the magazine looked like: And here’s mine!  
Who cares that it’s not as pretty when it tastes SO damn good???  Again, I followed the recipe pretty close except that I didn’t have time to make my own marinara sauce so I used a bottled tomato basil sauce.  The dish was rather labour intensive….or had the potential to be, but I pre made some of the elements throughout the week in anticipation of making it tonight.  First, I roasted the b-nut squash Monday night.  Second, I sautéed the onions on Tuesday night.   Really all that was left for tonight was mixing the filling and assembly.
DS was on the ice for hockey practice until 6:10 which gave me time to get home from work, put it together and cook it for the hour and a bit.  I also had a dense piece of fresh whole grain bread from the bakery with hummus on the side.  
I am SO satisfied right now!!!
I have eaten some other goodies the past few days! We’ll be out of town for hockey tomorrow night and I’ve got a busy weekend so I’ll see you back here Sunday where I’ll reveal item #2 for the Thanks & Giving food drive!  YAY!!!
Bye for now!!

Two Days of Goodies

Hello, hello! Well, I took a food blogging break yesterday to post a Green Pan product review so we have some eats to catch up on today. Ready, set….GO!!

I had brunch plans with the girl’s yesterday morning but knew my belly would never make it until 11am without something in it so I whipped up a strawberry kefir smoothie:
In this gem we have 1 cup thawed strawberries, 1 tsp of honey and 1 cup kefir. This was the perfect choice in that it kept the hunger at bay but didn’t fill me up so much that I didn’t enjoy my eats.

I love meeting with my girls! The 4 of us used to work together but have since all gone our separate ways. We try to get together for some type of meal every few months. One Chiquita now lives in MI so weekends are obviously best for her. We met at a popular breakfast joint known for its good food and I was not disappointed in the least with my meal. I started out a bit luxurious with a chai tea latte:
OMG is all I have to say about how good this was. Then I went a bit “healthier” with 2 poached eggs, rye toast and a fruit cup.
Good food + good company = a great Sunday morning!

I had about an hour to myself before the fam came home from the farm and my brother came over with my niece and nephew. It was so good to see the kids again…it’s been FAR too long. The kids *just* traded Christmas presents! Granted, they live 2hrs away so such is life sometimes. Better late than never, right? It was warm enough on my deck yesterday (it’s protected from the wind and was 15*C!!) that the kids pulled out the patio cushions and hung out.
LOL! It was wonderful for them to get some fresh air instead of being cooped up inside.

My babes requested pasta for dinner once our company was gone and I had no issues with making such an easy meal seeing as I had a container of sauce in the freezer ready to go! I plated myself 1 cup of high fibre pasta (10g!!!!) and a half cup of marinara. A little freshly grated parm was the finishing touch!
While the pasta was cooking a small piece of pizza from Saturday mysteriously ended up in my hand!
Love cold pizza!

Aside from a few random pieces of chocolate and 2 cookies at my parents place, that’s all she wrote for food on Sunday! I watched The Amazing Race and Criminal Minds while my hubby watched the hockey game. In light of the outcome, I’m glad I skipped it. Meh.

The kids were off school today for a PD day so the usual morning routine was a bit more relaxed. DS spent the day at hockey camp (surprise, surprise) and DD went to the sitter for the morning and then spent the afternoon with my Mom. Lucky bums!

Not only was my breakfast scrumptious today, but it stayed with me forever! I wasn’t even really hungry by 12:30pm! Here’s the deets:
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-craisins
-warmed up strawberries
Oh lala! And I may not have been very hungry, but there’s always room for chocolate, right? ;)

There was a yoga class in the gym today and I’m late lunch (12:30) so I couldn’t make it in. I went home instead and did a load of laundry. Fun times. The weather today is as crappy as yesterday was nice! Check out my windshield when I got into the Jeep to go home:
Humpf!

Once the laundry was doing its thing I re heated Saturday’s homemade pizza and showed it who was boss:
I picked the bacon off and fed it to my oldest cat who deemed me his BFF….until there was no more bacon, that is! But shhh….my hubby doesn’t like when I feed the cats “people” food! LOL!

Later on in the day I munched my way through a bowl of mixed fruit:

The boys were at hockey from 4:30 until 6 so after I came home from getting DD at my parents place I made a very quick, simple dinner. There was some leftover potatoes, onions and pan juice from Thursday’s pork tenderloin so I popped that into a pan with a bit of water and set a few haddock fillets in to poach. Edamame added colour to the plate.

Here’s dessert!

Can you believe I’m still eating this???? Thank God it’s almost gone! I just got back from picking DD up from dance class. The roads are pretty slick so I’m happy to be off them. I just made a coconut chai tea latte to sip while relaxing on the couch. I used 1 cup of USVAB, 1/2 a cup water and this tea:

Love. Anyways, I’m gonna sign off for now. Hope you all had a fantastic Monday!!

Bye for now!

Menu Planning with a Twist-Week 5

This morning was a pretty laid back one. Before getting my breakfast together I baked up another batch of Vegan Energy Bars;

The first batch was done with a 1/4 cup chocolate chips and a 1/4 cup of cinnamon chips because DD dislikes raisins. I shared this batch with Manon and her family so I followed the recipe and used the raisins this time. I enjoy both versions!

I bought a big bag of bananas that were reduced for quick sale yesterday so I mushed one up into my oats today;

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon
• PB2
• banana
• carob & walnuts

We had to be on the road for DS’s game by noon so I took a few minutes after breakfast to get some lunches prepared for the drive. I made myself a simple tuna sandwich. The tuna was mixed with some dill pickle, mayo and Dijon. That got put onto a bun with a LC cheese wedge and lettuce;

I also packed a raw cinnamon flaxseed “bagel” courtesy of Manon;

I’m starting to think that she should start her own raw food blog! Everything recipe that she’s made (or that I’ve tried, I should say) has been nothing short of spectacular. I believe the only ingredients that went into these was flax, cinnamon, raisins and agave. Simple, yet SO tasty!

AND…I made myself a pumpkin spice latte for the road that included 1 cup USVAB, I cup of water and a Tim Horton's pumpkin spice tea bag. I brought it all to a boil, then let it steep for 5 mins.

The boys lost their game 4-3, but played very well. They sure gave the other team a run for their money!!! :D We arrived home with just enough time for me to change into my comfy clothes and relax for a 1/2 hour before getting on to dinner.

And din-din was easy peasy tonight! I baked some fresh haddock and served it with steamed veg and mac & cheese (for the fam)

I kept my plate light as I wasn’t too hungry. But I did find room for some dessert! And it was another winner from Manon!! Raw carrot cake;

I think that this is my favourite of all the goodies I’ve tried so far. I like texture in my food and this had loads of it. Crunch from almonds, slightly crisp from the carrots and smooth for the “cream cheese” which I believe was made with cashews.

Now on to week 5 of my meal planning! I mentioned that this week would have a twist and that it does. First off, it will only include Tuesday-Thursday because Monday I’ll be having our department Christmas dinner at my supervisors house and DS is in a hockey tournament all day Friday and I’m not sure what time we’ll be home at so I left it open. And for the fun part….I’ll be cooking the 3 meals using recipes from Rachael Ray’s new cookbook, Book of 10!!!

I’m pretty excited about the 3 recipes I chose! They’re simple, quick to prepare and use ingredients that I pretty much already had on hand.

Week 5

Monday - Dinner at D’s & Dance (6-6:45)
-Family free night

Tuesday - Pilate’s (6:15-7:15)
-Sweet & Spicy Pineapple Pork (pg 60)

Wednesday - Hockey (4:30-5:20) & Swimming (7-8)
-Taco Stoup (pg 251

Thursday - Skating (5:30-6:20)
-Indian Summer Turkey Chilli (pg 45)

Friday - Out of town hockey
-open

What do you think????

I’m finally tucked in with a hot mug of tea to watch the Amazing Race!

I’m really digging this coconut rum tea. I just add a small squirt of agave to make it perfect. What is your favourite tea and what do you add (or maybe it’s nothing at all) to make it perfect?

Bye for now!!

Horsing Around

We enjoyed another beautiful sunny day. I can practically feel the sunshine working the blues out of my system! Seeing as I was feeling so summery, I decided to go with strawberries &bananas in my oats today;

• 1/3 cup water & USAB
• 1/3 cup PC 5 grain oats
• banana
• cinnamon
• strawberry banana jam
• fresh strawberries and a dried banana as toppings

Just beautiful in the sun! Not to mention that it tasted great!

We made our way out to the farm after breakfast and I could hardly wait to see Lacey! We missed going out last week so I was eager to see how much she’s grown. Just to recap a wee bit…when she was born her Mom abandoned her so my in laws have been bottle feeding her. Because of this she is much more social than the other babies. Just look at how precious she is!

She’s so easy to tease, too. She was a bit grumpy today because she was tired and she was putting her ears right back against her head like a dog or cat would do when annoyed. This just made it all the more fun to play with her! :) She nipped my MIL and gave me a little warning kick. KIDS!

Just look at the defiance oozing out of her pores! :) Here are shots of the final 2 babies of the season. Both were born last week. My in laws can finally breathe a bit!!

DD also took a great shot of 2 of the older babies grooming each other;

God, I just love any kind of baby!

Lunch was enjoyed out on the deck. I made a wrap with the leftover grilled veggies from last night and some pepper Jack cheese. This got toasted up in a dry frying pan. I also added the last bit of raw carrot and zucchini that didn’t make it on the grill last night, some strawberries and a nectarine.

I ended up leaving some of the berries. My eyes were bigger than my belly! I pretty much didn’t leave the deck all afternoon. It was glorious to just sit out there with my book and laptop! I even had myself a little siesta! I finally dragged my butt out the door at 4 to get something fresh for dinner. While at the store I found this BBQ sauce that I’ve seen on Ruth’s blog (she’s got some great stuff going on over there at Plentiful Plants!!!) called Ted Readers Peach & Bourbon sauce & marinade…

This sauce is sweet and tangy with a touch of heat at the end. Love it! Anyways, back to what I got for dinner! I wanted something fast, easy and nutritious so ended up walking out with 2 fresh haddock fillets. I cut each in half and spread some of the BBQ on my piece (the fam had salmon spice on theirs), then baked it in the oven for 10 minutes. I also bought a big chef’s salad that was $3 off because I was too lazy to chop the veggies myself! Finally, I sliced the last yellow zucchini and popped it in the oven with the fish. Voila!

I also picked up 2 more Cravings cheesecakes. At $1.89 each I can’t afford more than that! I dug into the macaroon one for dessert;

We went over to my parents after dinner and my childhood friend stopped by for a visit! Our parents still live across the street from each other, but she moved about a half hour away. Her kids are each a year younger than mine and get along great when they’re together. It was awesome to catch up with her. Our kids all start Italian school tomorrow (this is the 3rd year they’ve done it) so we’ll see a bit more of each other in the next few weeks.

Finally home, I still have my lunch and snacks to prepare for work tomorrow so I must end this post here. I will be putting up a special post early tomorrow afternoon so be on the look out for that! Enjoy what’s left of the evening!!

Bye for now!!