Recent Eats

Every time we buy raspberries they seem to go bad somewhere between leaving the grocery store, and arriving at home with them.  We buy organic, which probably doesn't help, but since the skin is so soft and penetrable, we aren't keen on buying the ones that are conventionally grown.  Anyway, we got to enjoy some berries on Saturday morning before many went bad.

These bowls contained a bit of plain Greek yogurt, a touch of vanilla, homemade granola, cacao nibs, maple flakes, raspberries and blueberries.

Breakfast on Sunday was scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, and the last of the (good) berries.

Other eats from the weekend included a pizza on Friday night, with raw veggies and hummus on the side:

Curried cauliflower for lunch on Saturday (fried-rice style):

A seafood platter with spinach salad on Saturday evening:

And Mexican haystacks on Sunday evening:

Haystacks are so easy; you really should make them.  Cook rice according to instructions, and then top it with taco-spiced cooked, ground beef, shredded cheese, and any other toppings you like in tacos (pickled jalapenos, olives, cilantro, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, salsa, sour cream).  Crunch tortilla chips over the top and dig in!

Some other recent eats include a big tofu stir fry:

And breakfast for dinner:

Last night we had imitation-crab bee bim bop, and tonight a red veggie curry is on the menu.

What have you been cooking lately?  How was your weekend?  Do you have trouble with raspberries going bad quickly?  What food do you find goes bad before you get a chance to use it all up?

Muy Deliciosa!

This past weekend we made some of our favourite Mexican eats, which totally made us miss Mexico.  After whipping up a big batch of pico de gallo on Friday evening, we used it in fish tacos.

Simple, baked salt and pepper cod, pico de gallo, pickled jalapenos, and sour cream on corn tortillas:

The next morning Christopher used some of the pico to make my favourite omelette, which also includes cheese and bacon, with avocado and sour cream on top.  It is perfection.  He also made truffled breakast potatoes.

We lucked out when buying the avocados and picked up a couple that were perfectly ripe (that never happens).

On the weekend we also made chipotle chicken soup:

And pibil pork crepes with poblano pepper sauce:

We prepared a corn salad and some spiced rice to have with the crepes.

There was definitely some spice going on over the weekend, so we cooled off with a pink lemonade frozen cheesecake for dessert.

The week flew by, and just like that it's almost the weekend again!

What do you have planned for this coming weekend?  Do you like pico de gallo?  Do you like spicy food?  Have you cooked any Mexican dishes recently?

Ten on Tuesday

1)  One of my favourite things about a new year is getting a new calendar, and writing all the important dates into it.  Anyone else into this?

I am really loving our 2018 calendar, since celebrating every moment is kind of our thing.  We always use a paper calendar, and we both write in it regularly, keeping track of all appointments, meetings, events, and social engagements, as well as scheduling some do-nothing weekends.

2)  I took some cinnamon buns out of the freezer and have been enjoying those for breakfasts lately, with a smoothie on the side.  The smoothies always have coconut water, fruit, and a big handful of greens - gotta get the veggies in!

 

3)  We had veggies for dinner one evening last week:

And a bunch in dak galbi, which we had on Thursday:

4)  On Sunday evening Christopher's parents treated us to a pizza dinner at Canadian Brewhouse.  The pizzas there were fantastic!  We don't often go to sports bars, but we will be back for the pizzas for sure.

5)  Someone gave Christopher deer sausage recently, so we had that for supper one evening, and shared a calzone-sized perogy on the side.

6)  One of my Christmas gifts from my sister-in-law was a winter tea sampler from David's Tea.

We tried the banana nut bread tea on the weekend - yum!  I love nutty, chocolaty, coconut, or super earthy (think dirt) flavours of tea.

7)  Speaking of tea, I take two to work every day (usually mint, sometimes turmeric).

I also fill up that water bottle about four times throughout the day.

Not sure what it is about work, but I constantly need to be hydrating when I am there.  Seriously, it's constant.

8)  We found these carrot chips during our last trip to the grocery store:

They are gluten free, trans and saturated fat free, and have 6g of fibre in a serving.  I thought they were addictive, but Christopher thought they were a little bland.  They have some parsnip ones too, so we might try those next.

9)  After work today we were both super hungry, so we had a little snack, and snuggled up on the couch to visit and watch Jeopardy for a while.

10)  On Sunday I made oatmeal for breakfast. 

I used 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup of liquid (coffee and coconut water), and then a variety of toppings.  This made enough for a cozy little breakfast for two.

How was your weekend?  How is your week going so far?  

Have you ever tried any non-traditional chips?  

Do you use a calendar?  Paper or digital?

Grain Bowls

I was reading the January/February issue of Chatelaine on the flight home from Mexico, and saw the weekly meal plan featuring five days of grain bowls.  Last week we made all five of the bowls from the magazine.

First up was a turkey and farro burrito bowl:

This was the cover recipe, and we thought it was terrible.  Actually, we didn't use the egg on top, because when reading the list of ingredients and the recipe, it just didn't seem to fit at all.

We don't shy away from putting eggs on dishes where eggs wouldn't normally go, such as hamburgers, poutine, noodles, etc., but on top of a burrito bowl!?  It seemed bizarre.  The worst part about this bowl was the raw radish slices.  We are both big radish fans, but again, they did not belong in a burrito bowl, and the textures were all off in this dish.  The other thing that we found frustrating was that sour cream, although listed as optional in the recipe, was not listed at all in the shopping list provided.  We used the shopping list as it was intended - to shop from, and were disappointed when reading the recipe later on, as we had to go back to the store for sour cream (it's not optional in this house).

Next up was a Mediterranean quinoa bowl:

We thought this one was pretty good, but again were disappointed, as the hummus and/or tzatziki, which this time were not optional ingredients, were not listed in the shopping list.  Very frustrating.

The poke bowl was really good:

We thought that most of the ingredients fit in this dish, although we'd likely switch it up a bit if we made it again (maybe eliminate the carrot and cabbage, and add cucumber, sesame seeds and wasabi).

The fourth bowl was a falafel Buddha bowl:

The best part of this one was the roasted acorn squash; it was delicious!  The rest of the bowl was okay, but we thought that there should have been a lot more sauce.  We ended up making another batch of sauce, as there wasn't even enough for our two bowls, and the recipe was for four people!

The last bowl we made was a hoisin chicken rice bowl:

This was one of the best of the recipes we tried.  There was Mandarin orange in it, which paired really well with the chicken.

All of the recipes we tried were super easy, and took no more than 40 minutes to make, including both prep and cooking time.  It was convenient that there was a grocery list to follow, organized really well by produce, grains, etc., but it was disappointing that two of the ingredients were missed on the list.  I'd say overall the recipes were decent, but none of them were keepers.

Have you ever followed a weekly meal plan from a magazine, website, or book?  Are there any you follow regularly?