Weekend Things Part 2

We loved our breakfast parfaits on Friday so much, so on Saturday morning we threw together some that are even more fun!

 

 

We started with a layer of homemade granola, which we had made the day before.  We then did a layer of plain yogurt mixed with chia seeds.  Next was banana and pomegranate arils, followed by quinoa (which was cooked in coconut milk/water the day before, with a 1/4 tsp salt), then more yogurt, more granola, more fruit, and a garnish of cacao nibs, bee pollen, and toasted coconut.

These were seriously aaaa-mazing!  We were just winging it, and they ended up having a perfect texture and incredible flavour combination.  I think we're going to be hooked on breakfast parfaits for a while.

Our lunch wasn't as healthy.  We made five-cheese, two-mushroom grilled cheese sandwiches.  We used sourdough bread, mushrooms fried with herbs, and a mixture of old cheddar, Emmental Swiss, grana padano, montery jack, and havarti cheeses.

Ooooooh yeah!  Fried mushrooms are so good on grilled cheese.

Dinner on Saturday was the easiest thing ever.  You just throw a few raw things into a slow cooker, and in no time you have honey-mustard chicken to serve over rice.  This was even better the next day.  You can find the recipe here.

When is the last time you had a grilled cheese?  Have you ever put mushrooms or other veggies on your grilled cheese?

A Weekend of Southern Comfort Food

We spent the entire weekend at home, and ate nothing but Southern comfort food.  When we were planning our weekend menu, our wheels would not stop turning.  We ended up making a bunch of delicious dishes we'd never made before, and a some old standbys.  We got started on Friday evening after hitting the grocery store.

First up was chicken-fried steak, with mashed potatoes and red-eye gravy.  We had roasted okra on the side.

This was our first time cooking both chicken-fried steak and okra, and both turned out really well.  Okra is delicious!

On Saturday morning we were up bright and early.  We made buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast.

Our friends Jessie and Chris gave us a bunch of tomatoes recently, and we used some of the green ones to make an afternoon snack of fried green tomatoes.

They were tasty dipped in the Cajun sauce that Christopher threw together.

Dinner on Saturday evening was chili with toppings, and some cornbread that we had made earlier in the day.

We froze the leftover chili and half of the cornbread to have for our lunches later this week.

This morning's breakfast was shrimp with cheesy grits.

That hearty breakfast kept us full for the whole day.  This evening we made big dinner so we'd have a meal for tonight and lunches for Monday/ Tuesday.  We had fried chicken, mac and cheese, baked beans, bacon-bourbon coleslaw, and cornbread.

#mealprepsunday Hahaha!

And if that wasn't enough food and cooking for one weekend, we also made bananas foster for dessert.

Believe it or not, we didn't just get fat cook and eat all weekend.  We also managed to sneak in three or four movies, hours of reading, and a whole lot of relaxing. 

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  

Did you have any comfort food this weekend?

Weekend Things

On Saturday morning we had veggie-loaded omelets, bacon and kale/banana smoothies before heading to the farmers' market downtown.

In the afternoon Christopher whipped up some more of his amazing ghost pepper cilantro sauce, and a big batch of homemade salsa.  We're now officially hooked on both.

The rest of the day was spent watching movies, playing Scrabble, hanging out, and snacking:

We BBQd chicken for supper and made tacos, with salad on the side.

Sunday's breakfast included buttermilk pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs.

We tested out the homemade salsa with nachos for lunch.

They were topped with green and black olives (I think nachos are best with both types, and when they are strategically placed so that each chip has a few), red onion, and two types of cheese.  We sprinkled cilantro over them when they came out of the oven.

Dinner was just leftovers and snacky stuff, but we did throw together a batch of pork noodles for our lunches to start the work-week out right.

How was your weekend?  What did you do? 

Have you ever made salsa?

What's Up Wednesday

1)  Early Sunday morning before we started prepping for our Italian dinner, Christopher made breakfast - one of our most favourite parts of weekends at home.

2)  We had a lot of leftovers after dinner on Sunday, so we sent Christopher's parents home with some, and started our week off with some as well.  On Monday morning I had cauliflower soup for breakfast:

3)  Lunch was chili with some garlic bread re-heated in the oven.

4)  Monday's dinner was leftover stuffed pasta shells:

The last of the bread too ...

5)  I picked up some of these kombucha drinks at Costco, and absolutely loooooove them!  The ingredient list is great, and they have a nice fizz from the active cultures.

These will be a regular purchase around here.  The health benefits of kombucha are incredible (not to mention the health benefits of lemon and ginger).

6)  Yesterday I made an omelet for breakfast.  I filled it with olive tapenade, tomato, red onion, feta cheese and a bunch of cilantro.

 

7)  The omelet kept me fueled when I went for a really long walk with my friend Alissa and her little one, Vienna.  We walked for a couple hours and visited; it was so nice.  I'll miss this when I go back to work. 

8)  This morning I woke up to a cold, rainy, windy day - perfect for oatmeal.  Despite the bad weather, I hit the farmers' market after breakfast.  I grabbed a bunch of onions and garlic.

9)  I made pizza for lunch today (onion, yellow pepper, green olives, arugula, salami, three cheeses).

10)  It's been a perfect afternoon to make beef stock for tonight's homemade soup.  If you're using bones that haven't been cooked at all before, the trick to perfect broth is to boil them for about 10 minutes to release all the gunk that will float to the top. 

Photo taken pre-gunk, because the gunk is gross.

Skim it off, and then dump everything over a strainer in the sink and wash the bones.  This step will help give you a cleaner, lighter stock, which is perfect for the dish I'm making tonight.

Then, roast the bones at 425 F until they are well browned (I must have roasted them about 30 minutes - I didn't really keep track):

Once they are browned well, put them into a large stock pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil.

Throw onion and garlic into the oven and roast that for a while too:

Keep an eye on them, and take 'em out when they look all roasty and delicious, and that garlic is ready to burst.  Toss them into the pot and boil the bones, onions and garlic for a long time, covered.  I like to boil everything for at least eight hours or so.

Later I'll strain this into another pot, season it, and make soup - more on that in the next post.

11)  Today was also a good day to make coffee cake. 

Between the beef stock and this coffee cake, it's safe to say the house smells amazing.

How's your week going so far?  Do you ever make beef stock?

Do you like coffee cake?  Is it feeling like fall where you are?