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.