WHEN I LIKE YOU...(PART TWO)

Once the George Foreman grill was found, the rest of the dinner was pretty easy to put together, although the addition of iTunes, WiiFit and Gmail, slowed everything down.

Here's the rest of the photos from the dinner. (There were actually a bunch more but Blogger made me whittle it down to five.)

This is my plate of food--yummy!
This is the potatoes with artichoke dip. That's literally what it is...nothing else. I just bought a container of spinach dip and them boiled some small red potatoes, cut them up and bam! There's your potatoes and spinach dip. Tasty! Dip courtesy of President's Choice.
Here's the main attraction of the night (and what caused my oven to almost blow up!): President's Choice rosemary and garlic rack of lamb
While scanning the aisles at the not-so-local grocery store, Sean and I were lamenting the fact that this box of lamb was a) frozen (we were picking it up hours before dinner was supposed to be ready) and b) that the box of eight chops was $15 (plus tax). Ouch! But!! It turns out that the $15 price tag was so worth it. Not only was the rack absolutely delicious, two of them, along with the rest of the food, was actually really filling! We were so stuffed at the end of the dinner.

I'm skipping another shot of the asparagus and melon salad because I figured one was enough. Below is the dessert we had, which wasn't good AT.ALL. I won't even post where the recipe came from because the website owner is REALLY into this dessert. Oh well. Before Sean and I dug in, we decided to have a little fun with our food. This is mine...And this is Sean's...

And that was Sean's special dinner. End.

WHEN I LIKE YOU...(PART ONE)

I make you dinner. And that "you" would be Sean. Last Friday night we (sort of) had my house to ourselves so I told him I would make him dinner before we headed out to watch Drag Me To Hell, which was scary enough to make me scream but not scary enough to give me nightmares.

The dinner's menu was this:
Starter - asparagus and melon salad (courtesy of Giada DeLaurentis)
Main - President's Choice rosemary and garlic lamb chops
Side - red potatoes with artichoke dip
Dessert - coeur a la creme (courtesy of this site)

Unfortunately everything took longer than I had anticipated because a) the hot spot in the element of our oven almost started a fire, b) I had a hard time finding the George Foreman grill thereafter, c) I took a few "breaks" to dance around and entertain Sean and d) there was a WiiFit moment or two involved.

Here's a few photos I took of the asparagus and melon salad coming together...
Proscuitto after 10 minutes in the oven:
Asparagus ready for the grill:
Whisking the dressing together:
The final product:Again, this photo should not be vertical but it is. Oh well. C'est la vie. So the salad is basically grilled asparagus with chunks of canteloupe and fresh mozzarella tossed in the dressing (which is a very basic olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper) and then topped with the crispy proscuitto broken into pieces. It is the best savoury-sweet creation next to bacon and maple syrup.

Onto part two...

BENTO RECAP!

Yikes, why haven't I been posting on a more regular basis? Well, I could tell you why but it's kind of boring. Actually, no wait, I'll tell you. It's because of this:I've been busy going to the zoo and petting sharks and stingrays! I've gone twice in one week now. Once with Sean for a free members-only preview night and once again with Sean and my friend, Jessie, and her boyfriend, Adam. Good times were had by all four of us the second time around. I was even smart and wore my hiking shoes, just in case we decided to make the big trek to the Canadian Domain (but we did not). Sean and I have yearly memberships to the zoo so we like to go whenever we can. Damn the red panda for not being around though. We think he's on the lam because Sean and I are convinced we saw him chillin' in the giraffe habitat.

Ah wells, back to food blogging.

Here's lunch from the past little while:
This is Catelli Smart rotini with some of my dad's leftover beef and tomato sauce with some blanched asparagus thrown in.

Next up we've got the last of the hummus alongside some cucumber sticks and mini carrots and some romaine for a salad. That's a bit of a sad-looking lunch right there.

Lastly I've got more Catelli Smart rotini with the usual beef and asparagus. This time it's alonside some fresh beet salad (my dad makes the best beet salad), the absolute last of the hummus (I swear!), cucumber sticks and mini carrots. This lunch looks better but is missing the fruit action.

WOE IS ME

Whoa, it's been a while since a post. Sorry about that. Life has been hectic. My workload has practically quadrupled and I'm still not getting any more resources to work with.

This is how I spent this past weekend was I wasn't working or stressed out about work:
More kasha "cereal!" I use the term "cereal" very loosely because I used much more almond butter in this recipe than the last batch of kasha I made that it actually bunches up in clumps. No matter...it's still crunchy and I like my crunchy foodstuffs.

Et voila! C'est le homemade granola! (Yay for university French classes!) The granola contains oats, millet, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, agave nectar, crunchy almond butter and I think that's it. Oh wait, there might be some water in there too. Sorry for the craptacular photo as well. I don't know why I didn't try taking another shot with le granola.

So after having made both of those, I decided to try them out for breakfast the next day and came up with this:I call it the accidentally-vertical-but-incredibly-delicious breakfast. The bowl contains mainly lactose-free yogurt, a little bit of Liberte Mediterranee plain yogurt, strawberries, kasha cereal as well as the granola. I thoroughly enjoyed every spoonful. I even liked the millet! I initially was a bit apprehensive because I'm not a fan of quinoa because of the texture but the crunch from the millet was excellent. Best breakfast!!

BENTO RECAP

Last week Blogger decided that it wouldn't let me add any photos and as a result, I haven't posted until now. I mean, it's frustrating trying to upload the same five photos three times. I'm determined but not that determined!

Anyhoo, here's the long-awaited bento recap--although it isn't particularly interesting because for four out of my five work days, I was pretty much eating the same thing with various sides. Here's a recap anyway.

Why my photos are continually vertical instead of horizontal, I don't know. The following is cucumber mint soup along with cucumber dill hummus and mini carrots. I also had a can of sardines along with it, obviously not pictured.
The next day was a second round of cucumber mint soup, cucumber dill hummus, mini carrots, grapes and one of the best strawberries ever! Pictured below is actually half of the strawberry; the other half I cut up and used in my breakfast that morning.

Pictured below is more cucumber mint soup, trifecta of fruit (grapes, pineapples, strawberries), cucumber dill hummus but this time with cucumber slices and mini carrots.
The last lunch of the week had no cucumber mint soup because I ran out but did have cucumber dill hummus with cucumber slices and mini carrots. Along with that I had a watermelon salad (pictured at top) with basil and crumbled feta. This was made the night before and did NOT hold up well until lunchtime the next morning. This is definitely a "make and eat immediately" type of thing. Pictured at the top was the main part of lunch: roasted brussel sprouts and an omelette with pancetta, buttom mushrooms and asparagus.
And this was my dee-licious dinner the other night. What are you to do with rye bread, brie and proscuitto? Make a sandwich, of course! Along with that I've got leftovers from lunch.

WHOLE GRAINS FOR EVERYONE

Three posts in one day and already like 5 posts this month and we're only on May 3? It's like a world record, for my blog anyway.

It's 4pm, I'm hungry and soup is not ready. I don't feel like snacking on anything except for maybe some buckwheat cereal but I thought about it for a second and I'm really just thirsty. I've decided to make due with some water until the soup is ready.

This afternoon I made a quick trip to the bulk store to pick up some grains. Here's my haul...

Steel cut oats:

Kasha (roasted buckwheat):
Millet:
Sunflower seeds (roasted, unsalted):
The last two ingredients were to be used in a millet oat granola recipe I found online, but the bulk store was out of rolled oats. How weird is that?! They were on sale though...at 13 cents per 100g so I guess that must be some kind of awesome deal. The store won't be restocked until Tuesday but I'm going in and stocking up on oats.

The kasha I bought is a lot darker than the buckwheat groats I toasted last night. These ones are a lot nuttier in flavour though I haven't had a chance to taste them beyond a tablespoonful in my mouth, plain. Earlier this evening I made another batch of roasted buckwheat with the remaining buckwheat I had. I roasted it for 40 minutes so it had more of a brown colour than the first batch and then added the store-purchased kasha to a mix of almond butter and agave and honey. I like the taste that the honey gives the kasha. Now I have a 2-cup container of cold buckwheat cereal to eat whenever I feel like it. And I still have more premade kasha to use.

BUCKWHEAT GROATS + DOM = NEW BFFS

This was this morning's breakfast:It's a bowl of lactose-free plain yogurt, the buckwheat cereal, a banana and a drizzle of agave nectar. Mega bowl of delicious! I have my container of roasted buckwheat in the mini fridge in my bedroom and honestly, I keep looking at the fridge because I want more. Don't get me wrong, that bowl of goodness made me full, but I'm the type of person who just wants more of a good thing. I'm a major glutton that way. I'm trying to keep that part of me in check, which is how I've managed to keep the container of roasted buckwheat still in the fridge.

Here are some close-ups of the buckwheat groats because when I first stepped into Whole Foods looking for them, I had no clue what I was looking for.
And, contrary to popular belief, or if you're wondering WTF buckwheat groats are, they're actually a fruit, closely related to the rhubarb plant and not a grain at all. They're great for those who are wheat and gluten intolerant too. And if you're obsessed with crunchy-textured foodstuffs like me, you'll love them!

BENTO RECAP, PART 2

This past week's bentos:

More barley bean soup with a Caesar salad, mini carrots, red pepper strips and cucumber slices. Pretty boring, oh well. Lunch can't be super exciting every day.I think this lunch makes up for the previous lunch. I baked half a fillet of salmon, roasted some brussel sprouts and also includes some Eden Organic baked beans. The baked beans were kind of a big shock because I'm used to the Heinz variety with uber amounts of salt and sugar. I was really tempted to add more salt to the Eden Organic's variety but managed to stop myself.I have no reason for why the following photo is vertical instead of horizontal. I find that when I upload my photos, Blogger randomly decides to post one the wrong way. Oh well. It'll have to do. The following bento includes dad's lentil soup (I prefer yellow lentils), lettuce for a Caesar salad (sadly this is the same lettuce from the first photo, which obviously never got eaten) and a container of Kraft mac 'n chees with Catelli Smart macaroni instead. I should know by now but I seem to never learn my lesson that Kraft mac 'n chees just isn't the same the next day. Unless it's homemade and loaded with tons of cheese, which my IBS-stomach cannot handle, it's just not that great. It was okay. It's really just the pasta I had a craving for.

BENTO RECAP, PART 1

I'm a little behind on bento recapping so this will be part one.

This was my reward for completing the CN Tower Climb, lunch at Prague with Sean. We were lucky enough to score the last smoked pork hock and so Sean and I split that along with a serving of roast pork. We both have servings of bread dumplings and braised cabbage. Just looking at this photo is making me hungry. Along with the leftovers is a mix of greens and some strawberries.Next up is a bento lacking in the green, blue and purple department. I've got Kraft mac 'n cheese but I subbed the pasta for Catelli Smart macaroni. I've also got some mini frozen samosas that I baked in the toaster oven in just 10 minutes. The samosas are low in fat and calories and surprisingly, no MSG! In the container to the right I've got mini carrots, red pepper strips, strawberries and honey clementine segments. Very yummy bento.
This bento features my first attempt at stir-frying rice noodles. Funny how I never thought to include it in a bento. I've got some beef and broccoli along with the rice noodles and to the right is my barley and bean soup. Now onto next part...

FOOD BABY ON THE WAY!

It's not as far along due as say, a trip to the Mandarin Buffet, but for the amount of food I've eaten today, it certainly seems like I should be giving birth. Today's food baby would be comprised of a Starbucks Oat Fudge Bar (oops!). an Iced Caramel Macchiato, some mac 'n cheese (using Catelli Smart macaroni), Caesar salad, lentil soup, pho (with rare beef), an egg tart and more. Oi. Just typing all that out makes me a little pukey; how could I have eaten so much food today?! The above-mentioned foods don't even include this evening's dinner.

I just finished making some Crunchy Buckwheat Cereal from this recipe here. And as much as I hate burning my tongue, I can't seem to help myself from tasting things when they're right out of the oven. Dare I say, buckwheat is my new favourite "cereal." I used agave nectar for the sweetener and crunchy almond butter and damn, it's dee-licious! I wonder if it tastes even more awesome-r with milk and fresh fruit on top. I even ate it right from the spoon I used to mix it with! Good thing I'm the only one eating it. Heck, it's so good at satisfying my crunchy-texture obsession that I probably wouldn't share it anyway. Plus, I only had enough buckwheat groats to cut the recipe in half. The photos below show the buckwheat in the toaster oven and the second is in the bowl with the almond butter and agave nectar.
Other than the above, not a lot of interesting cooking has been going on. I did make a super delicious dinner last night but I'll save that photo for the bento recap. I have the day off tomorrow so I'm hoping to get a lot food made for the week including cucumber dill hummus and other things involving Sean's food processor that he so kindly lent me.