OATMEAL STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

Since my last batch of muffins from The Single Dish were such a huge hit, I decided to make another batch of muffins appearing on her website. Her newest creation: oatmeal strawberry muffins. I had all the ingredients on hand to make these muffins and knowing that they contained ground flax seeds, oatmeal and whole wheat flour...well, gosh darn it, count me in!

You can check out The Single Dish for step-by-step instructions since I know you just came here to ogle my muffin photos anyway. She has really awesome step-by-step photos too. I love them because if you're not sure if something is supposed to look a certain way as you're making it, you can refer to her photos to see if you're doing it right.

I made a couple of substitutions while making the oatmeal strawberry muffins. First of all, I used all vegetable oil for the fats in this recipe instead of the 1 tablespoon of veg. oil and 2 tablespoons of melted butter. I did this simply because I didn't feel like melting butter. The other change I made was very minor but I used turbinado sugar for the sugar and cinnamon topping. It made for a crunchy topping as opposed to just using regular white sugar and cinnamon which I previously used for my strawberry cinnamon muffins.

Here are my dozen straight outta the oven:And here are some pics from the next morning when I was able to shoot with some natural light:My mom bought me a cake stand. I like it. I also like this off-kilter photo:And lastly, do you want one:
Based on my strawberry cinnamon muffins, I decided to bake these muffins using muffin liners coated with cooking spray. Doing so makes the muffins portable and the cooking spray aids in the removal of the liner. As for the taste, well they're healthy but you can't really tell. The oats give it a really nice texture and along with the ground flax seed, you end up satiated longer. I really like the addition of the fresh strawberries but wasn't really crazy about the texture once baked. I might try these with frozen strawberries next time around. I still like them though. I doubt there's going to be very many left in a couple days' time.

FRIDAY NIGHT ON THE TOWN!

Watermelon, ice cream, cupcake, beer, pizza and a tea latte.

That's all the food I consumed within a four-hour period, so it probably comes as no surprise that my stomach is no fan of me this morning. Add to that combination a Tylenol Extra Strength, because I had a mondo headache after work, and well, someone was a little "funny" after dinner last night.

I always forget that you cannot combine Tylenol with alcohol. The thing is that I rarely drink because a) I don't drink wine--ever and b) I'm picky about my beer. So the chances that you'll find me drinking are pretty slim-to-none but Sean and I found ourselves in a quaint part of town and when the restaurant we chose (based solely on their thin crust pizzas with awesome sounding toppings) had beer selections including those from Mill Street Brewery, I had to go for it! But alas, I'm hoping the two or three times I've accidentally mixed these two ingredients together does not lead to serious liver damage or failure.

Let's back up a bit though. Sean waited for me for 30 minutes while I had to work late and after that we headed back to my house so I could change. I grabbed some watermelon for me and my dad's beef curry with rice for Sean. I don't do curries in the wintertime with no air conditioning. It's just plain wrong. Yes, I'm VERY tempermental in the summertime, springtime, whatever.

After that we headed to the mall to find shorts that I actually fit me but stopped by Coldstone Creamery where I got the Banana Caramel Crunch and Sean got the Cookie Minster. We decided to get the "Like It" (small) size this time around but at only 50 cents less, I felt like it was kind of a rip off. We should have gotten the larger size but I know it would have been too much ice cream.

An hour later I came out of the mall with a top and three pairs of shorts. Go me! I was actually previously wearing shorts that were two sizes too big--oops! After that we headed to one part of town's Main St. and came across the Unionville Pizza Co. and it looked promising. Sean suggested we check out the menu but before we did, I couldn't take my eyes off the store front of the Old Firehall Confectionery. Against the dark sky, the old firehall was radiating with light and people buzzing in and out of the shop. I told Sean we had to check it out.

We stepped inside part of my dream-come-true. The shop has everything a die-hard sweet tooth could dream of: ice cream (from Kawartha Dairy), fudge, chocolate-covered anything (pretzels, strawberries, cookies), cakes, cookies, cupcakes and the most artistic and interesting truffles I've seen in-person (chocolate lavender anyone?). After a look around, Sean and I settled on a single cupcake: vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. What better way to test a shop's worthy-ness than to review the most basic of cupcakes. It's pretty much my MO for any cupcake shop I enter. At $2.89 plus tax for a small (and $3.99 for a large with ganache filling), these were the priciest cupcakes I've ever purchased. They weren't even advertised as all-natural (a la Dufflet) or the best I've ever seen. They were square however. Yep, that's right, square cupcakes and this is what they look like:

Excuse the shite photo. You'll notice the lack of photos from this post because I didn't have my camera with me (blogger nightmare) and the iPhone's abilities to take photos at night are horrid at best.

Our first bites were not pleasant ones. There was something a little bit "off" about the consistency of both the buttercream icing and the cupcake itself. I found the cake to taste artificial; like that of cake mix but as light and fluffy. Sean said it tasted artificial and mealy and he was right. It was definitely mealy. There was a really weird consistency to the cake. We then cleaned out our palettes with water (thanks to the refilled Evian bottle I carry with me everywhere) and tasted the icing and cake by themselves. The icing. Ugh. Where do I even begin. It was hot, almost melting and do I dare say that it tasted like nothing? It was just butter that was a few degrees past room temperature iced onto a cake. It had the slightest taste of vanilla but certainly not one that was pure. It was nice to eat a cupcake that wasn't too sweet but this icing could have used more powdered sugar. It was literally like eating a cake with piped butter and sprinkles on top. At $3 for one small square cupcake, this is definitely not a re-purchase.

After declaring that they may have stole the property for my cupcake shop, I still make better cupcakes and Sean agreed with me. We then headed back across the street for dinner and with hopes that it would turn out to be better than the cupcake. It turns out that the Unionville Pizza Company has been around for three years, though previously known as the Harvest Wine Bar. I remember Harvest Wine Bar. I remember never venturing inside for a very specific reason, though now that reason escapes me. Sean and I opted to sit inside (everyone else was out on the dimly lit patio) and I took a quick glance at the drink menu. My eyes opened wide when I saw Mill St. on tap and in bottles. Seriously, really? Organic beer offerings in a restaurant in my town!? Oh I was giddy with excitement. And not only Mill. St but another option too! I couldn't choose. Faced with so many beer offerings, I asked Sean about the difference between pilsners and ales and whatnot and finally settled on a Nickel Brook cream ale. It's brewed in Burlington (not too far from here) and entirely organic, even carbonated naturally. I was super amped to try Mill St. for the first "real" time (I had previously only had a sip but this completely organic beer got to me. Sean got a German beer that I can't remember the name of but I love it when Sean talks with a German accent so I made him say it three times. His beer was served with a lemon wedge and he was the beer winner of the night. I loved my beer (I finished it all and it's actually rare for me to finish a beer by myself--again, I'm picky) but Sean's was totally awesome. I have to find out what the name of it was from him.

Sean and I opted to split the roast duck pizza and it was great. Not as awesome as the anchovy pizza in New York City (that pizza was to-die-for) but this was good for my town. The dough was made from organic flour and thin as thin could be--just the way I like my crust! Our toppings include roast duck, tomato sauce, mushrooms, goat cheese and arugula piled on top. I thought that there was a little bit too much cheese but Sean didn't seem to mind ;)

Unfortunately the menu on the UPC's website isn't quite up-to-date (items have been updated, prices increased) but if you're in the area, it's definitely worth it to stop by for a meal. They also have some great appetizers including arancini, beet root carpaccio salad and corn chips with fresh guacamole. They also have some great burger options include a turkey, lamb, buffalo, veggie and kobe burger.

After dinner we decided to walk along Main St. and I grabbed a tall black tea latte from Starbucks. I was a little shocked when the barista told me the price: $3.57. Seriously? That's how much I've paid in the past for tea and hot milk with foam on top? I couldn't believe it. I had to borrow a dollar from Sean to pay for my latte. Suffice it to say, there will not be a lot of tea lattes in my future but oh, it was kind of worth it. That's probably the best tea latte I've had in a long time. Sometimes they don't put the sugar syrup (which is fine by me) or sometimes they put too much (blech!) but this one was perfect. Kudos to the barista who made that one. So eventually it got cold and I needed to use the washroom and when I came back from the washroom Sean mentioned that my eyes were red ("you look baked") and I couldn't stop laughing. But eventually I became really sleepy and could barely keep my eyes open so Sean suggested I go lie down in his car while he listened to Bowie. That's when the trouble started. I couldn't walk down the stairs properly and that's when Sean mentioned something and when it hit me, I had a Tylenol earlier (!!) and then I had alcohol. Oops! Anyway, lesson learned; it's never a good idea to mix medication with alcohol.

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Just to make sure that I was not being completely biased, I made my dad eat the cupcake as well and give me his thoughts on it. After his first taste (I wish I had videotaped it, he was tasting it like a person tasting wine), he asked if it contained cornmeal. See, my thoughts exactly...a mealy consistency. I asked him if it was stale or just plain bad and he said it was a combination of both; that it was just sugar with no flavour. After dad's taste-testing, this is what's left of the cupcake:

I'm now at a loss as to what to do with the cupcake. Do I toss it or do I finish it? I'd hate to toss any baked item but I also try to follow my diet of "if I'm not in love with the taste, I won't eat it." According to my rules, I should toss it but I also hate to waste food--though I'll happily throw out all kinds of pre-packaged and processed crap that I find in my house.

ODE TO EAU (WATER, THAT IS)

If you're like me, water is your liquid of choice 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time you're either drinking orange juice or Pepsi when the craving hits. But of course, just like everything else in your life, the same flavour can get a little boring and since water has no flavour, it can get very boring, very easily. If you're also tired of added lemon, lime and/or cucumber slices to your water, here's a fancy alternative that requires one real ingredient (mint) and just 90 seconds or less to "make."

"Fancy" Mint Ice Water
Ingredients:
- water
- ice
- mint leaves

Directions:

1. Get yourself the biggest mug or glass in the house.
   
2. Fill it with ice cubes. Seriously, fill it up.
   
3. Bruise four mint leaves. If you're fancy and you have chocolate mint that just happens to be growing in a small pot outside your front door, go ahead and use that. (I do have some chocolate mint growing in a small pot outside our house but I was lazy; the regular mint was in a mug of water right by the kitchen sink.)
4. Place bruised leaves in mug.
5. Fill mug with cold water.
6. Drink up!

That's it. You can also use other herbs such as lemon verbena, which I have also tried and that was also very nice and refreshing. Let me know if you come up with any other "fancy" water combos that you like.

FYI: my favourite water is actually Evian. I know, I know, many of you will scold me and scoff at me but that water really does taste different. I've tried quite a few different bottled waters in my day (Fuji, Life Brand, Aquafina, Dasani, Smartwater, Vitawater, etc) and Evian is still my bottled water of choice--when I used to drink bottled water. Now I realize the tap stuff is just as good but it's got to be ice cold.

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Do you miss my food recaps? Well my blog does, so let's have a quickie, shall we? Oh and apparently during my food poisoning, I also had a major brain fart and missed two consecutive days of recaps--oops!

19th...Wednesday
Who knows what the heck was for first breakfast because it a week ago and I can't remember that far back unless there's photographic evidence and apparently there wasn't. I'm guessing it was milk or a banana. Lunch was a little bit more exciting (thank goodness):Spring mix with two hard-boiled eggs, cucumber, mushrooms and kidney beans (below). I use the organic blueberry and St. John's Wort dressing that I keep in the work fridge but I realized that as much as I like mushrooms, I don't like them raw in salads. They taste too much like styrofoam. Snacks included two mini earl grey muffins, blackberries and strawberries:Those are seriously the best blackberries I've had all year. My dad bought four 1/2 pints and I easily finished two of them on my own. More snackage included Popchips in BBQ flavour. I really like Popchips but the flavour is so pronounced that I can't eat more than a handful. After that my point my tastebuds go into flavour overload and I have to set the bag aside--even with the smaller bags. Ah well.

Sean picked me up after work (it's kind of being a regular thing...Wednesday and Friday night "dates"). He had dinner for me waiting at his house--score!--but we made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some necessities (cat food, blue corn tortilla chips, etc). Dinner was roast duck (from the Asian store near my house, funny enough) and basmati rice. After that we watched The City and then The Aftershow and TMZ. Oh guilty pleasures!
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20th...Thursday
Same deal with breakfast...who the heck knows what I ate that far back. Oatmeal was definitely involved during second breakfast though. Lunch was a bunch of leftovers from my family's own dinner:
Stir-fried broccoli, basmati rice, some Chinese veg, baked salmon with lemon slices. Fruit included more yummy blackberries and strawberries. Dinner was a little on the light side since my stomach was on the fritz a little bit:
On the left we have blue corn tortilla chips and strawberries and on the right is black bean soup with basmati rice. I was supposed to make this sort of "salsa soup" with black beans, tomatoes and corn with tortilla chips crushed on top--obviously I changed my mind. My stomach makes me do all kinds of things. Or rather, my stomach makes me NOT want to do a lot of things.
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24th...Monday (Victoria Day)
Despite being home from work--it being a public holiday and all--and having all the time in the world to take photos of my food, for some reason I have no photos from the 24th. Either I was just being lazy or my camera decided to call it quits with me for the day. No matter though, because my iPhone came to the rescue when I needed it. Take that, Canon! The only thing worth mentioning on Monday was that Sean and I went to Cold Stone Creamery for the first time and we didn't even have to leave the province to do it!

Yep, that's right...CSC made its way to Canada--finally! But why it's attached to Tim Hortons, I'll never know. Actually I do know and you can too if you read this. So that article is a little bit old, almost a year old actually, but basically Tim Hortons and CSC were doing a co-branding test last summer in six locations across Canada. Obviously it was a big hit because there are numerous locations across Canada where you can now find Tim Hortons in conjunction with CSC. Kind of like Taco Bell and KFC.

Anyway, because I had been reading about CSC on various food blogs and because I had JUST read about them on Caitlin's blog, I knew I had to go. Sean agreed to pick me up after work and take a trip to check it out. Thank goodness they were open on a public holiday! After much indecisiveness, I chose the Strawberry Banana Rendezvous (sans white chocolate chips) and Sean got the Berry Berry Berry Good. Check it out:

All done:

Sort of. I couldn't finish the rest of my waffle bowl. Sean and I decided to roll with our usual MO (aka be totally gluttonous) and get the "Love It" (medium) size each. It was a big mistake; too much ice cream!!

Our experience at CSC was pretty entertaining though. The guy who helped us out was enthused about my enthusiasm and let us sample a couple different flavours. He even said that Sean looked like Dallas Green (which Sean kind of does) and even sang to Sean! Pretty hilarious and awesome customer service. I just hope they can keep the high energy up when it's hella busy.
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25th...Tuesday
Breakfast of champions...half a cup of almond milk and a raspberry cinnamon muffin:Lunch was courtesy of the hot food section of a neary Asian grocery store. Look at what $2.99 will buy you:RIce with BBQ duck and seasoned edamame. This was a LOT of food though. It was a little bit busy at work and I was famished when lunch rolled around. I maybe finished half the rice and 2/3 of the duck. I finished all of my edamame. I don't know how it was cooked but it was good--IBS be damned!

Other lunch foods included watermelon (I saved some for the car ride home):and strawberries (ditto for the car ride home):
Dinner was a requested fave from me: Steamed free-range chicken with green beans and basmati rice. I made sure to fill up on the greens and keep my protein and carbs in check. I go a little overboard with steamed chicken because we no longer have it as often as we used to. It was one of my favourite things...upside-down bowl, if you will, because I don't know how you spell the Mauritian-Creole version. The dish consisted of rice, steamed chicken, Chinese sausage and a pouring of "sauce" which was basically the juice from the steamed chicken mixed with soy sauce. Apparently there are some versions floating around the internet that suggest you serve your upside-down bowl with mushrooms and/or a fried egg. While I would normally jump at the chance to add mushrooms to something, there's something about the simplicity of my family's upside-down bowl that I love so dearly. I'll consult with my dad in the morning and see what he has to say.

A little while after dinner I was craving something sweet. I wanted something cold and I wanted it now so I decided to whip up some banana soft serve! I had four ripe bananas in the freezer just itching to be used. I put two into the small container of the Magic Bullet and with a little effort and some cacao nibs, I had dessert:
But I still wanted a little something extra, so I had a raspberry cinnamon muffin while I was at it:Then I decided to spread some banana soft serve on the remaining half:Best idea ever! Dessert craving, satisfied!
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26th...Wednesday
The insane heat has made me really grumpy and because I've been grumpy and cranky (because it's hot and because I haven't been sleeping well), I haven't been in the mood to cook either. Who the hell wants to turn on the stove or oven in 35C weather with NO air conditioning? Not me! As a result, the Magic Bullet has been getting a lot of use lately. I'm making up for lost time when I thought it was broken but it really wasn't. I think that's when it was telling me that I had overused it and it needed a break. It was wrong. Now I'm making up for all the time wasted.

Anyway, first breakfast was almond milk. Second breakfast, oatmeal. Lunch: olive hummus from 28 Cooks (recipe here) with carrot and cucumber sticks:
I'm proud of the fact that I actually cut my own carrot sticks and didn't resort to buying those baby carrots. We didn't have any in the house and it was 8 or 9pm and I'm certain my dad was not heading out to the store to get me baby carrots. These carrot sticks were actually really sweet and crunchy and just what I look for in carrots. Definitely worth the effort. And no chlorine!

So I ate that along with an Italian herb sandwich thin and my last slice of prosciutto (sad!):
and strawberries and peaches:Yum!

I'm currently feasting on this dinner:

Spring mix, watermelon, cucumber slices, crumbled feta, leftover strawberries and peaches with steak and stir-fried broccoli. Delish!

And afterwards I will be digging into this piece of Snickers-inspired chocolate cake:Chocolate cake, peanuts, caramel sauce, cookie crumbs. Normally I'm not a huge fan of this kind of sugar overload but it was a co-worker's birthday (the one who hooked me up with my current job) and I felt like celebrating too.

Okay well that's it. Plans for the evening include...nothing!

FIIIIIIIIIREWORKS!!

I'm like a moth to a flame when it comes to fireworks. Seriously. If you're one who believes that one method to deter zombies is to shoot off fireworks then call me a zombie! I've been hearing fireworks go off for over the past hour and every time they die down, I walk away. Then another set of fireworks goes off and there I go, running towards the window again.

Let's rewind to when the sun was still out...

Today's dinner was spring mix with strawberries and watermelon, dressed with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper:

Along with a plate of homemade fries:
My brother baked these at 450F for 30 minutes. Along with some organic ketchup, it was a great dinner for a super hot night.

Now back to the fireworks!!! Here's a few that I managed to take from the neighbours across the street:
My favourite one is the second from the top. It reminds me of a rose. Pretty! Okay it's now way past what should have been my bedtime but it's hot and I'm cranky so that's my excuse for staying up this late. Oh wait, it was the firework actually.

ILLEGALLY HOT

This is a kind of hot I am NOT down with. I don't care what anyone else in town thinks or says about me but I hate the heat. Ironically, with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. It was 28.5C earlier today but felt more like 32 or something like that with the humidity. Tomorrow is going to be 29C but feel like 35C with the humidity--not cool! It makes me angry. It makes my angry. I get heat rashes, my face gets red, my whole body feels like it's burning up, my head starts to hurt and I get grumpy. I get really, really, really grumpy.

I've spent much of the afternoon doing nothing but sitting infront of my laptop streaming past episodes of Top Chef Masters and sipping on water with lemon, lime and cucumber slices. I'm trying to move as little as possible. It doesn't help that my windows are curtain-less, a result of my parents getting our windows redone a few YEARS ago. Yep, you read that right...we had our windows redone years ago but I am still curtain-less.

I still managed to bake earlier this afternoon as I had planned but stuck to one recipe instead of two. Hey, you're lucky I baked at all, what with the oven having to be turned on and having to actually mix things in a bowl instead of using my trusted KitchenAid stand mixer. I followed The Single Dish's for Raspberry Cinnamon muffins but used all-purpose flour (we're out of whole wheat flour and today is a holiday so no non-Asian stores are open) and organic strawberry jam (because that's what I picked up from Walmart). So in essence I followed the original recipe that she followed from MyRecipes.com.

Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins
from MyRecipes.com via The Single Dish

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup vanilla fat-free yogurt (I used organic plain yogurt, although adding 1/4 tsp of vanilla would have been a good idea)
- 1/4 cup butter, melted (I melted my butter and let it cool a little bit)
- 3 tbsp 1% low-fat milk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten (I didn't beat my egg)
- Cooking spray (I have a can of Pam I have to use up otherwise I'm not a fan of cooking spray)
- 1/4 cup strawberry jam
- Muffin topping: mixture of 1 tbsp of sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Rough directions (aka "my directions, not from MyRecipes.com")

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Prepare muffin tins. You have two options (cue memories of Choose Your Own Adventure books): Option #1: spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Option #2: Line muffin tin with muffin liners and spray those with cooking spray. I just went ahead with Option #3 (fooled ya, didn't I?): spray 6 muffin tins with cooking spray and line the remaining 6 with muffin liners and spray those with cooking spray too. (I actually did this because I wanted to see which method I preferred better, plus I'm getting a little tired of all those used muffin liners. They're actually quite a waste of money.)
3. Mix first five ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt) together. I usually use a whisk but have been known to use a fork if the whisk is already dirty from other cooking/baking. It works just as well in my opinion.
4. Make a "well" in the center and add the next four ingredients (butter, milk, egg and yogurt). Fold wet and dry ingredients together with a spatula. Do NOT overmix!
5. Fill muffin tin (or muffin liners) halfway with batter. Divide the 1/4 cup of jam between the 12 muffin tins, placing a small spoonful in the center of the batter. I did this to keep things neat and tidy.
6. Sprinkle muffin topping evenly over each muffin and then bake for 15 minutes.

When your muffins are done and you've let them cooled--perhaps you've gone out for 90 minutes to get your nails done and pick up groceries at the Asian market (two of the only things you can do on a public holiday)--your muffins will look like this:
I dived into one as soon as I could and it was amazing. Considering it only contained 1/4 of butter, it tasted really rich but still light and airy. The strawberry jam center wasn't too overpowering either. I used organic strawberry jam with no additives so it wasn't as strong or sugary-sweet as one of those regular brands would have been but I liked it that way. Plus the slightly crunchy top from the sugar and cinnamon was a great addition. Sean loved it too. I told him about the organic jam situation but he said he liked it. He actually said it was one of his favourite things that I have baked. Yippee! To make the top even crunchier, next time I would use turbinado sugar with the cinnamon. Mmm...I can't wait until the next batch I make! Ooh and maybe using some wildberry jam instead...mmm.

Rewinding back the day a little bit...lunch consisted of fried vermicelli noodles with pork and some various veggies including green onions (or scallions, if you prefer) and that's pretty much all I can remember. Whoops. The old mind ain't what she used to be!

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Dinner last night was courtesy of my brother. We were the only two home since my parents and other bro were in Niagara overnight for a soccer tournament. Go Dad's team!

No photos of dinner but it was half a t-bone steak with french fries. Needless to say, with IBS, a swift trip to the bathroom ensued. Ugh. It probably wasn't the best of ideas considering my stomach's still on the mend from the funky chicken but lesson learned. No more beef. Sean came by to hang out and asked if it was worth it and normally my answer would have been an excited "yes!" but tonight, it was a sad "no."

This morning's breakfast was whole wheat flax seed banana pancakes. I know that sounds like a mouthful but the pancakes were actually made from a mix and dead easy. I love this mix. I was on the search for a whole wheat pancake mix for ages, without having to revert to Whole Foods. I finally found one at Longo's (yay, Longo's to the rescue) and love this mix because it contains ground flax seed. Here's a look at the package:
It was $3.99 for the whole thing and one prep's worth makes 10-12 four-inch pancakes. The best part is that you can keep them vegan by using non-dairy milk (almond works well) and omitting the egg. The mixture will thicken on its own due to the combination of ground flax and chosen liquid. I don't have any photos since the pancakes were actually for Sean. I'll take it that they were good though...how could they not be...pancakes with bananas? Who doesn't like those??

My breakfast, since my stomach was still a little bit queasy, was a bowl of egg thread soup with minimal asparagus and a small slice of some multigrain prebiotic bread:I have no idea what the deal is with this bread. I'll have to read the package a little bit more carefully next time. My dad is the one who picked it up at the grocery store and I'm glad he's into checking out the various healthier items on offer.

Lunch was a few hours later. I wanted something that tasty good but wouldn't take too long to cook. I had spent much of the morning reading up on recipes from The Single Dish when I stumbled upon her recipe for beef stroganoff. Her recipe can be found here. Instead of using sour cream (because I didn't have any), I used whipped cream and also subbed beef broth for organic chicken broth since I had a carton already open in the fridge. Here's my gigantic portion that I really should not have eaten all of but the mushrooms were impossible to resist:
I used waaaay more than the six mushrooms her recipe lists but I'm obsessed with mushrooms. I probably used at least double and I still thought it could have used more mushrooms.

3/5 of the family is still not back from Dad's soccer tournament (he's the coach) so I'm guessing that his team is headed for the final match. If his team had lost, they probably would have been home by now or at least will be home within 30 minutes. I'm bored out of my mind. I really want to bake muffins but we don't have any whole wheat flour (that I know of) and we don't have any blueberries or raspberry jam or sliced almonds (for three different recipes I've been eying all weekend).

Well I'm off...the toilet is a callin' but this time, the beef stroganoff was totally worth it--mostly due to the mushrooms so I'm going to have to find some kind of meat substitute next time. Perhaps pork. My stomach seems to deal with that one okay.

Toodles!

MAY 2-4

It's not quite here yet but Victoria Day is fast approaching. I'm currently slurping up some Egg Thread Soup with Asparagus but more on that later.

Last night's dinner was a leftover and an experiment. While making food suggestions to Sean over the phone, I decided to whip up my own batch of French toast but making them completely vegan. I had all the necessary ingredients including the key one, the flax egg--consisting of 1 Tbsp of ground flax + 2 Tbsp of water. I let the mixture sit for 5 minutes and got on with the rest of my ingredients.

French Toast Sticks
adapted from Can You Stay For Dinner?

- two slices of whole grain bread (we have some weird prebiotic brand in the pantry that I used)
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flax + 2 Tbsp water, let sit for 5 minutes)
- healthy dash of cinnamon
- roughly 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used a little more than 1/2 tsp. Who doesn't like vanilla?)
- Earth Balance to grease pan (I'm not supposed to consume soy but I wanted to keep these vegan)

Directions:

1. Slice bread into vertical stick-like pieces.
2. Mix last four ingredients together.
3. Heat up a pan and add Earth Balance.
4. Dip bread sticks into the wet mixture and then place onto pan. Cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes on each side. (Note: I get squiky about sogging "middles" so I like my French toast well done.)
5. Continue with remaining sticks.
6. Serve with maple syrup and fruit.

After all your hard work you can sit down to a pretty platter of vegan French toast sticks with pure organic maple syrup, pear and blackberries:
I enjoyed my French toast sticks with a side of leftover congee:
But after a couple of spoonfuls I realized it was missing something green and crispy. Kale chips to the rescue of course:So far this combo of congee and other "regular" foods is keeping my stomach in check. My stomach didn't get mad at me after this meal so I'd call it a winner!

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Today's eats started with lunch. I know, I know...not a good idea to skip breakfast but I woke up at 10:30 (have you ever noticed that you get the best sleep when you're sick?) and then did some cleaning in the kitchen and before I knew it, it was lunchtime! I wanted something quick, simple and refreshing and this is what I came up with:

A spring salad of spring mix, 1/8 watermelon, 2 strawberries, one slice of prosciutto and seared halloumi. I had a little bit leftover (what amounted to one slice about 1/2 cm thick) so I seared that in a pan until it was very brown--well, practically black. It ends up having the best "crisp" when you eat it; I think so anyway. I dressed everything with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and the juice of half a lemon. This salad was amazing! Definitely a winner. I'm just insanely sad that I don't have anymore halloumi left. This calls for a trip to Metro.

Along with the salad I had the other 1/8 of watermelon:
and called that a late lunch. Of course, knowing me, I got hungry again. This blog ain't called "I'm Hungry, Feed Me!" for nothing! After seeing the potato wedges on Heather's blog a couple of times now, I wanted some of my own but while talking to Sean on the phone, I absent-mindedly cut mine into cubes and accidentally poured in 1/3 of a jar of dried thyme. Along with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and pepper, this is what my potatoes looked like, served up with a side of kale chips:Three hours later, the stomach was calling once again and I quickly whipped up a batch of this Egg Thread Soup with Asparagus following this recipe from Fitness Magazine. My tiny pasta of choice was orzo (of course!) and I used 3 eggs instead of 4 because I only used about 7 cups of organic reduced-sodium chicken broth. A word to the wise, it's a good idea to add more water to the reduced-sodium chicken broth. I find it still, way too salty.

I'd say that my soup looks just like the one on Fitness Magazine's website except that I don't have as many asparagus tips--them being high in insoluble fibre and all.