Exercise and More Blueberries

Hello, all! Hope it's as beautiful a day where you are as it is here! Gorgeous!

Last nights dinner was pretty darn tasty! My MIL made a roasted chicken and baked sweet potatoes, and Ben sauteed up some tiny green beans. I put some peanut sauce on my chicken, it was such a comforting meal on a rainy evening.

We watched 3 movies last night, none of which were that spectacular. Operation End Game was a funny-ish actiony movie, but utterly forgettable. Literally. I just had to ask Ben what movie we watched! Second was The Cove, an informative movie about the sickening slaughter of dolphins in Japan. Not a pretty sight. Very disturbing. But very accessible to the public, fact based, and well made. We had t take a break after that one! Finally, we watched Young Sherlock Holmes, which was a pretty funny one, but plenty entertaining in a goofy kinda way.

Dessert accompanied the movies. We had fresh blueberries with a light sprinkling of sugar, and waaay too much heavy cream. This was originally supposed to be served on top of the tapioca pudding Ben's mom made, but we had too many blueberries in our bowls, so the pudding was a side dish. Wow, dessert with a side dish. Could be a hint that there was too much there...naw, just kidding!

Yeah, I ate all of that! Nom nom nom! We pretended to work some of it off by taking a movie break and strolling through the mist, but come on, we would have had to run 10 miles to work off that much cream!

This mornings breakfast centered around blueberries again (what a surprise). I had hemp seed and flax oatmeal with chia seeds and cocoa nibs, blueberries and a big dollop of Nutella. This was SO filling, and beyond delicious! Breakfast is turning into my favorite meal of the day, besides dessert that is.

Once I was able to move after eating all that goodness I decided to go on a short bike ride to the ocean, as the morning was just beautiful.

I rode out to Peter Cove, then around to Starvation Bay. The tide was pretty far out, and the water was looking a bit scummy. Not the best smell, either. But, in general, it was an enjoyable little jaunt on the beach.

The way there is all downhill, so of course the way home is tons of work. We live on top of a hill, so it's always uphill to home, no matter where you're coming from. I do think I'm getting a little better with the bike riding. I made it up all the hills without gasping for breath too much. Not bad!

When I got home my dog Izzie let me know how mean it was of me to go for a ride without her, so I decided to take her on a walk to see if there was anything good at any of the produce stands on our road.

We stopped for a photo shoot of Izzie, because she's SO cute! No other reason needed.

I rest my case!

None of the stands had anything, but we admired the pretty garden.

It was warmer than I thought it'd be, so by the time we got home I was sticky, and Izzie was panting. I made a smoothie to cool me down. It had plain yogurt, almond milk, frozen blueberries and raspberries,and a packet of omega oils.

All was going fine, until I took the lid off the blender just that little bit too soon. Um, yeah. The smoothie attacked me, and won. Not a pretty sight.

After cleaning up the projectile smoothie I poured two large glasses of berry goodness and plopped in my new stainless steal straws! I've been dying to try them! They work so well, and I like the way they feel. Plus, I can just stick them in the dishwasher! Score!

Izzie hung out with me while I made messes in the kitchen. I think she was pretty worn out!

I took the smoothies out to Ben where he was working in the yard. We sat around sipping for a while, then I helped him do some digging for our pond. That made me hungry, of course, so back to the kitchen I went. I mashed a whole avocado, then put about 1/2 cup of my roasted red pepper hummus in and mushed it all together. I have to say, this made a pretty satisfying snack schmeared all over some cracker! Too bad Ben raided my plate, getting away with 2 of my crackers!

At this point in the day we're thinking of dinner ideas. Maybe some big salads with leftover chicken, and some corn on the cob. Yup, sounds like a plan!

Have a good evening, everyone!

Ben's Nawesome Sloppy Veggie Melt

That's right! I have officially been given permission to use my husbands real name! I felt like such a nerd calling him "B" that I begged...and it worked!

What, you want to see a picture? Well, lets not get greedy. One step at a time! Oh, and I do realize that my post title says "nawesome". This is the new phrase that Ben has coined. Today we were talking, and he started to say "nice", but finished with saying "awesome". And there we have it, the new catch phrase that will be sweeping the blogosphere!

To celebrate the release of the name BEN, I am featuring the recipe he made up for our dinner last night! It was sooo good! We are totally having this, often! We really needed to use up small bits of veggies in the fridge, so it's kind of a clean-out recipe. You can use whatever veggies you have laying around. This particular mix was very flavorful.

He started out by sauteing some onions until they started to carmelize. While they were in the pan he chopped away, getting all of the other veggies ready. He used frozen corn, sliced mushrooms, chopped onion, canned black beans, grated zucchini, and chopped sun dried tomatoes.

As each veggie took different amounts of cooking time, he did them all individually, sauteing then removing from the pan. Once everything was done he tossed it all back in the pan together, added s&p, and a dash of cumin. He stirred until all was hot and well seasoned.

Meanwhile, he split 2 whole wheat hamburger buns in half, and spread each half with my roasted red pepper hummus. A big scoop of the sauteed veggies went on next, followed by a couple slices of cheese (we used extra old for the great flavor). All four of these open faced mounds of deliciousness were put onto a baking sheet, and stuck under the broiler until the cheese was melty and just browning, about 2 minutes.

I made a fruit salad ( I know, I should be sick of them by now, but they're just so GOOD!) and, and put it in bowls for everyone. All dished up it was a good lookin' meal!

We decided that it's kind of like sloppy joes, hence the name "sloppy veggie melt". This could be different each time you make it, varying veggie types and seasonings. It was surprisingly filling too! I just love it when an experiment turns into a family favorite! Nawesome!

Panna Cotta Fail, Mango Lassies Forever!

Yesterday B's parents informed us that they were going to have company today. They had invited over some friends from the coastguard aux. I volunteered to make a dessert.

I bought Chef Michael Smith's cookbook a while back, and it has this great lower fat panna cotta recipe. I have made it before, and it turns out great!

Well, it usually turns out great, I should say.

I followed the recipe, and started the milk heating. We had a bunch of strawberries that really needed to be used up, so I thought I'd add them in, pureed, to make it a strawberry dessert. This, perhaps, was not my best idea ever.

It looked ok, but I used my immersion blender to puree the berries, and it made it all foamy. That wasn't right, but not a big deal.

I added the gelatin, and while scraping out the bowl to get the last of it I neglected to turn off the burner, or stir the concoction. OOPS! I think I may have curdled the milk. FIRED!

I poured it into the greased and waiting ramekins, and stuck them into the fridge to set.

I took them out today, and was not exactly pleased. The curdled milk solids and the strawberry fragments had all settled on the bottom, which became the top once they were turned out. The texture was terrible. The rest of the liquid was like sweet bizarrely colored jello. Pretty gross. It reminded me of congealed fat. It was so bad that we threw it all away, and I was in such a hurry to flush it that I didn't take any pictures. You're not missing much.

So, to redeem myself (and still provide a refreshing lunch dessert) I decided to try out mango lassies. I looked up a recipe online, here it is. This recipe should be gilded in gold!

BEST. DRINK. EVER!

You can make all manner of Lassies, as shown on the above link. A friend told me he had one made with rose water, and so I looked specifically for that ingredient. SO glad I did! The Cardamom was a great addition too.

I whipped them up while the company was just arriving, poured them into individual glasses, garnished them, and put them in the fridge to chill.

The texture was so thick and creamy-silky. The mango flavor came through fresh and sweet, with the rose water a flowery background taste brought out by the earthy cardamom. They were a huge hit with everyone! I want to make every possible variety of this! And it's so healthy! You don't even have to add the sugar, or you could sub in some honey. I am beyond excited about lassies!!!

As a finishing touch to the party, just to prove to myself I was still capable of making edible kitchen fare, I tossed together a batch of my roasted red pepper hummus. It turned out great, and was well-liked. Phew!

Not quite sure what's in store for dinner tonight. Then, it'll be off to work for me and B!

Southwestern Food Frenzy!

Wow, am I allowed two posts in one day?! He he. I just made some good looking stuff, and wanted to share!

I was feeling sort of snacky, and was looking around for something healthy-ish, but nothing was jumping out at me. What's filling and healthy, that's made with ingredients all ready in my cupboards? Hummus! I pulled out everything i needed and got out the trusty old Cuisinart.

Late last year B and I roasted a bunch of bell peppers, peeled them, sliced them, and packaged them in ziploc bags for freezing. This was such a great thing to do, we've been using them ever since!

Because I knew we had these roasted peppers i decided to make it a roasted red pepper hummus. It is not a very strict recipe, it's more of a guieline (like the pirate's code!), really it's just putting everything in, blending, and adding until it's the consistency you prefer.

I used:

1 can chick peas, tahini (only about 1Tbsp as it's strong), lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, cumin, and roasted red peppers (these can be purchased at you grocery store if you don't want to make your own).

Toss the chick peas, garlic, red peppers, about 1tsp cumin, and 2Tbsp lemon juice into your Cuisinart and blend. As it's spinning slowly add your olive oil until it doesn't look so dry and chunky. Stop and taste it, adding more lemon juice, cumin or olive oil as you see fit.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Use it on crackers or bread, as a spread for wraps and sandwiches, as a dip for veggies, or in whatever way your taste buds tell you to! You can make a plain version by omitting the roasted red peppers. Make up your own flavor combos for never ending hummus possibilities!

Dinner for tonight is not going to be what we thought, those elusive crabs avoided our trap, so it's chicken for us! B is BBQing some drumsticks, so i had to come up with something to go with it.

Keeping in mind the BBQ theme i decided on a black bean and corn quinoa salad, as inspired by a fellow blogger's recipe for black bean and corn salsa.

I used:

1 can black beans, about 1 cup frozen corn, 1 diced tomato, cilantro, green onions, cumin, olive oil, lime juice, cooked quinoa, and some more or our roasted red peppers.

I started out by cooking the quinoa (2 cups boiling water, add 1 cup quinoa, simmer until liquid is gone.). While it was cooking i got the rest of the ingredients together. In a large bowl i put the beans, corn, tomato, cilantro, green onion, cumin, lime juice, and peppers.

When the quinoa was done cooking I added that, tasted and re-seasoned it, then added s&p and a little olive oil and tried it again. Keep tasting and seasoning as needed. Stir well, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

I wanted to grill some asparagus to go with all this, but when i pulled it out of the fridge it was a little slimy, with lots of woody-ness at the ends. By the time i had it all cleaned up there wasn't much left of the asparagus. So i went diving in the veg drawer again and came up with some zucchini. I chopped up both and tossed them with olive oil, s&p, garlic powder, and some lemon pepper. They will go into the grill basket, and hopefully they'll be good!

All this dinner discussion has my tummy grumbling! Time to eat!