Bahhumbug... okay maybe that's not the greatest way to start a blog post, but yesterday I started it with happy Monday, and it certainly was not a happy one for me... let's just say, the day started, well, the day before... as I didn't sleep an ounce of sleep. Then when I was finally getting ready for the day I had this idea to make this "crazy delicious smoothie", it was awful, just awful. I am not one for throwing out food and that was just putrid I had too, the smell, the texture, the taste... that was one insomniac idea that went wrong, way, way wrong.
That morning, I had to drive myself to work, as the other accountant (Jenna's mom) had errands to do and was coming later in the day. Okay not a problem, thankfully I was able to borrow my friends gps, and I got there fine. The office was a little eery seeing as I was the only person in it, but it was okay. Ten o'clock or so rolled around and I started planning in my head things that I would need to do before I leave for British Columbia/Montreal... one thing was my license. I got my license in February of this year, and... well, it's supposed to expire in September of this year. At this point, I will be just leaving Montreal and going to Korea (yessss, I'm going to Korea to see Jordan! I physically got my ticket in hand yesterday, I am incredibly, incredibly excited)... but I wouldn't be able to get my license in Montreal since it's a different province. Well, here is where my trouble's began. They told me I was going to have to now get my G in order to not lose my license... but I just got my G2... apparently regardless of how long you've had your G1 (me it was five years... horrible I know) you still have to wait one year before getting your full license... well it was impossible for me, since I literally just got it. Needless to say I was getting very stressed out. This was not sitting well with me, I already stress out easily as is, then you tell me I'm going to basically lose my license... well, I found the closest drive test centre and left work to deal with that... turns out my case was a "special scenario" I ended up having to simply pay a fee to renew my license, and it was all good.
Drove back, got lost. Then it started to down pour so people stopped on the highway, oh why oh why does this happen? I finally got back to the office. Got there, did some more work, then after a while got ready to leave. Well, my friends gps was telling me low battery, so I was really nervous. I got Jenna's mom to write out the directions... (we shall get back to that). I'm all ready to leave, I turn the car starter on, I hear no beeping... so I just figure the key is dead. Go outside, unlock the door, the door is locked. Do it again, same thing. I manually unlock the door, well now that was a scene and a half seeing as it really just didn't want to unlock. I get in the car, put the keys in, car is dead. Seriously of all days, and to top it all off my cell phone is dead. Well this isn't good, I've only driven home once. I find some guy that has booster cables, and I wait for a good ten minutes just to be sure, and thankfully the car worked.
Well, the gps on it's last limbs, decides to point me to the wrong highway. Instead of taking the Express route I took the long, drawn route that I've never, ever seen before. It took me a good two hours to get home, on top of that, there was plenty of rain. I finally got home, went and got a prescription filled, picked up my plane ticket to Korea, did an exchange then went to go watch my dad play squash. The evening ended okay, but honestly, the horrible series of events that led me to there... just not fun, but I guess if it doesn't rain it pours right?...
Hopefully today runs a little more smoothly though... oh actually! One good thing about yesterday, I found that the place where my mom and I are staying in Montreal, within 900m from our place there is a boxing gym! So, I will be looking into that, because for quite some time now I have been interested in trying boxing so I am looking quite forward to that.
Today I kept my meals pretty simple.
Cranberry Blueberry Bulgur Pilaf
For breakfast, because I am simply in love with bulgur, I decided I would make a breakfast bulgur. I seriously... much prefer bulgur over oatmeal, it's texture, the crunch, the flavour it's just perfect. I love it. What I did was simply cook 1/3 cup bulgur (the same way as here). Once it was cooked I added it to the food processor, along with 1 tsp vanilla extract, 3/4 cup frozen cranberries and gave it a whirl. I didn't want it to be like porridge, I still wanted it to have a sort of rolled-oat feel to it. Once it was done I topped it with blueberry and then grape jam. It was terribly delicious! I love just how filling bulgur really is, and just how simple it is, even without using the rice cooker, double win!
Cinnamon Spice Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad
See link
Over the weekend I had made this insanely delicious Cinnamon Spice Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad. Honestly, I fell in-love with this. My one friend thought it was too dry, I thought it was perfect. I didn't add any sauce I just ate it as is and it was perfect. I added quite a bit more cinnamon then suggested because I am as we all know a huge cinnamon lover. The combination of sweet potato and chickpeas was just perfect. First off, this meal was so savoury and was certainly filling, oh goodness it was, but it was the filling where you feel good and not bloated like when you go to all-you-can-eat sushi lunches, oi... This is something that kept for quite a few days in the fridge (I made a hefty batch) and even after a couple days it was still perfect. Served hot was good as well as served cold it was just as good. This is something, come Montreal I will be making a lot of this summer. It takes barely any time to make as you are simply throwing everything into the oven and just tossing it every ten minutes so it doesn't burn. I am looking very forward to having this once I come back from British Columbia, yum!
... this is probably one of the easiest main dishes I've ever made on this blog, wow.
Ingredients:
- 1 large sweet potato chopped into cubes
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 small sweet onion chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon (I used even more, probably more like 1 tablespoon)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp canola oil
Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes (turning/stirring every 10 minutes).
Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes (turning/stirring every 10 minutes).
Baked Lemon Tofu Double Citrus Salad
Recipe taken from here
The other day I was reading a blog post about how this woman's children eat healthy food, and how parent's ask her how she does it. Her response was that her and her husband never introduced bad food into their children's diet. I know when I have children this is what I will be doing as well, it is just so important. At the end of her post she challenged the readers to find and try a new fruit or vegetable.
To be honest, I didn't really know if I would find one. Well, to be even more honest, I wasn't really planning on trying it since I'm not all that picky and know that over the course of the summer I'm sure I'll be try a number of new fruits and/or vegetables. However, a few days after reading her post I was planning my menu for next week, on that menu was this recipe. I had never even heard of watercress before so I was intending on switching it with rapini or kale. However, as I was perusing my local grocery store my eyes quickly narrowed down on a sign saying watercress. From process of elimination I was able to figure out which bunch of greens it was, and wow, what an aesthetically beautiful leafy green it was. I was so excited and even more it was on sale!... not even that it was expensive but still. I got a little bit giddy since I knew that this recipe was going to come together well!
I really did like this salad, there were a couple bunches that I should of probably trimmed down a little more, but since I'd never had watercress before I didn't know what to trim and what to keep. I liked it nonetheless, harder chew and all. I thought this was a very nice dinner and is definitely something that would be delicious and a warm summer's afternoon. It's not heavy, however, since there is tofu added it still gives the salad a punch of satiety. I am glad I decided to try watercress, because as pretty as it is it also tastes' delicious too.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 1 x 400g block firm tofu
- Half a lemon
- 1 bag of watercress
- 1 blood orange
- 1 tangerine
- Black pepper
For the Citrus Paste
- Zest of one lemon
- Juice of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil or olive oil
- Small handful flat leaf parsley leaves
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- 1 shallot, peeled and quartered
Directions:
Unwrap the tofu from its packaging and wrap in paper kitchen towels or a clean cotton tea towel. Place the tofu on a plate and weigh down with a heavy object to drain as much of the liquid out as you can (I use a heavy, cast iron pan). Leave for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 C / 360 F.
Blend the citrus paste ingredients together into a rough paste using an electric blender or a pestle and mortar.
Discard the wet towels from the tofu. Slice through the tofu horizontally to give two flat pieces. Cut each of these into half and cut these pieces into small triangles. Place the tofu in a lightly oiled baking dish and coat each side with the citrus paste. Cut the remaining lemon half into thin half moon shapes. Top each tofu triangle with a slice of lemon (don't worry if you don't have enough for each tofu piece). Sprinkle liberally with freshly ground black pepper.
Bake the tofu in the oven for 25 minutes. While the tofu cooks, chop the pith and peel from each orange and cut into segments. Do this over a bowl to catch the juice. Divide the watercress and orange segments equally between two bowls. When the tofu is cooked and golden top remove from the oven and add to the salad bowls. Drizzle over the remaining juices from the orange and serve.
Nutella Almond Butter Crunchy Truffles
Recipe by me
And what did I have dessert? Well, honestly, I am HOOKED on the Crunchy Easter Peanut Butter Eggs I made last week. Unfortunately they didn't last long enough... I have a feeling that I will be seeing them very soon however, because I cannot stop thinking about these. Out of any dessert I've made on my blog... this is rated one of the highest, and it has chocolate, odd. I loved these though. I decided on the weekend to make another batch though... I decided to be lazy this time and simply shape them into balls. I didn't use soy butter or peanut butter this time. Instead I used the same recipe, and simply used 1 cup of Nutella + 1/2 cup of Cherry Amaretto Kissed Almond Butter these were good but not nearly as good as the ones with soy butter... hence I'm still thinking about those bad boys.
Recipe by me
What new fruits/vegetables have you tried/plan on trying this summer?
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