Friend, food and futon

Okay, I have some catching up to you. Rather than do a post for each day I will summarise and just highlight the interesting things. Well, the things I *think* are interesting to my readers, whoever you are...this post is for you C-A.

on Friday last week, I had the pleasure of hosting my dear friend, K-Dub, for the evening. We have not seen each other in a while and had a lot of catching up to do. We met at my place at 5pm and headed out for a walk up Mosquito Creek and then headed over to Kokoro sushi on Lonsdale....a place K-Dub and I always go to together and that K-Dub went to frequently when she lived in North Van. I did not branch out from my usual order of miso, avocado roll, salmon and tuna sashimi (I declined the spicy red sauce as they wanted to charge me a dollar for it and it's pretty spicy so I only use literally a 1/4 teaspoon worth) and Gom-ae (steamed spinach with sesame sauce).
K-dub split the avocado roll with me and also ordered yam roll, edamame which we also split although I'm pretty sure I ate way more than half..oops, and vegetable gyoza.
We ate well and caught up on the past few months.
On the way home, I wanted to go to London Drugs to see if they had anything on sale. And by anything, I mean FOOD. K-Dub and I perused the aisles slowly...you have to do this or you may miss a great deal or a very interesting food. We spent more time in some sections over others, namely chocolate, tea, cereal and crackers. I ended up purchasing a new cereal that K-Dub pointed out called Crunchy Maple Sunrise. It was on sale and it sounded like it would be mightily yummy whether eaten as directed for breakfast or as a snack at any time of day. It contained a variety of grains, although no wheat, and of particular importance was the inclusion of quinoa as this is a grain that is very high in protein. Also the maple was key. Mmmmm maple.
I also bought a big tub of almonds as they were on sale for $10 for a kg and I was planning to make Tamari almonds under K-Dubs direction later that night. Tamari is a sort of soy sauce made without wheat. I prefer it to soy sauce but it generally costs more although you don't use a lot at a time as it's so salty. Here is K-dub's recipe:


Tamari Almonds
1-2 cups raw almonds
2-3 tbsp tamari sauce

spread the almonds in a large flatbased frying pan on a low-med heat. Toast lightly for 15-20 mins until roasted. They will turn a little darker. Turn them over halfway through cooking.
while the pan is still hot, turn off the heat and add the tamari sauce. It will sizzle and get sticky so quickly stir the nuts until coated fully then leave to cool.

So simple and delicious. There is one problem though. Once you start you can stop.

Once they were made, we chatted some more and set up the futon. Just before I went to bed I prepared some overnight oatmeal for us. K-Dub had not had this before and agreed to try it. We ate it on waking and even though she's not keen on dates, she ate it and gave it the thumbs up before setting out on her 12 hour car journey home.

Apologies for Absence

I have posts ready to go...I just need to get them on the blog...I WILL update soon!

Spicy Shrimp Sizzle

Breakfast
Banana with almond butter

Snack
Cadbury's 100 calorie Dairy Milk Thin in Dark Sensation flavour
(these were on sale at Safeway for 69c each)

Lunch
Leftover Surprise
I had nothing exciting in the fridge so delved in to the freezer in the hopes of finding something exciting for lunch. I had a few tupperware containers in there containing...something I made...at some point in the past few weeks...who knows what.
I grabbed one of the frozen containers and hoped for the best. It turned out to be leftover spicy chorizo pasta from last week....good choice! Perfect comfort food for the continuing crappy weather that returned after the one nice sunny day.

Snack
Purdy's Fruit Jellies
These were not mine but were being passed around at the staff meeting at precisely the dangerous time of the day that makes any sugar based food, especially one that is free, irrestible to myself and, it appears, anyone else that is human. These jellies fit that description and as expected, hit the spot perfectly.

Dinner
Shrimp Salsa Sizzle
I had a run on the treadmill after work with Ms MJ and we did some intervals and got our calorie burn ON! A quick stretch and foam roll on the tight leg muscles and then home for a quick meal before heading out to kickboxing. I whipped up a one pot random mix of shrimp, chopped peppers, zucchini and salsa. I had half a tub of fresh salsa that needed using up today so this was perfect. I like to keep shrimp in the freezer as they keep well and cook so quickly if short on time. Safeway often has shrimp on sale for half price or buy one get one free so I stock up from time to time. Safeway is my least favourite supermarket as they are more expensive than the others and their range of foods is usually poor. However, when stuff is on sale there, it's usually a really good price so as long as you stick to the sale items only, you can make some big savings. Salsa makes a great improv sauce for lots of dishes. You can add chicken or pork as well as shrimp, or even just veggies. My favourite fresh salsa is from Real Canadian Superstore. It's not too watery or acidic.
I served the Shrimp dish over rice with some sliced avocado on the side and ate in early enough that I would be able to comfortably kickbox later on.

Guac Attack

On Sunday I had a few friends over for a little housewarming since I have been in my place for 2 months so some nibbles were in order. Ms MJ came over early to assist me in the preparations. The nibbles list was this:
chips and salsa
homemade guacamole
brie cheese with crackers
Sundried tomato and paprika flavoured popcorn (from Real Canadian Superstore)
Homemade Brownies (see 24-7foodie.blogspot.com/2010/05/cooking-confessional.html for recipe)
Chopped pineapple and watermelon

Ms MJ got to work on the guacamole while I did something else, I can't remember what but it was definitely important. I picked up the recipe while in Mexico a few years ago. The resort had a cooking demo and showed us the secret to the perfect guacamole...which I will now reveal:

Ingredients
3-4 very ripe avocados, pitted and scooped out
1 med onion, chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
juice of 2 limes
juice of another 1-2 limes
handful of chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

So the secret is this....put the juice of the 2 limes over the chopped onion and let it sit for 15 mins while you do the rest of the prep. After 15 mins, drain off the lime juice and discard. Apparently it takes out the bitterness from the onions and that subtle step makes all the difference! Do not re-use that lime juice though or else you defeat the object.
mix all the rest of the ingredients together and Voila! you can choose how chunky you want your onions, tomato and avocado pieces and the degree to which you mash your avocado.

Once the guac was done and in the fridge, we got to work on the brownies, using the correct oil this time. They turned out perfect and went over very well with the guests.

The popcorn I purchase was an impulse buy in the grocery store. It was a new product and came already popped and flavoured. It turned out to be extremely delicious and moreish. I recommend it but it comes in a huge bag so buy it to share with the family or be prepared to run for 5 hours afterwards to burn it all off.

Soup and Samples

Again I have been rather slack on updating the blog due to general "busy-ness". Here is Saturday's post.

I was on a fitness course all day so left my house at 7am and got home at 8pm. I had planned my day well though and was well prepared with my food so I ate clean and for energy (half the day was exercise based)...as well as taste too!
Breakfast
overnight oatmeal with dates

Snack
I made my own simple trail mix of walnuts, roasted salted almonds and dried cranberries.
This was a good mix, made with leftover cranberries from a previous recipe. Usually they are expensive so once these are used up, I'll switch to raisins in the mix.


Lunch
Homemade leek and potato soup
small can of lemon pepper tuna
various free samples from store

I got this soup recipe from my mum and it's really simple but very tasty and filling:
4 large trimmed leeks, chopped and rinsed
1 med onion, chopped
2 med potatoes, chopped
50 g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 pints veg stock
275ml/10 fl oz milk or milk substitute
salt and pepper.

Preparation
1)ensure the leeks are rinsed well and any sand is removed
2)melt butter in dutch oven or large pan and add olive oil (the butter has a low smoking point so adding the oil stops it burning)
3)add onion, leeks and potato to pan and cover and sweat over med/low heat for 15 mins
4) add milk and hot stock and boil for 20 minutes
5) season and blend to desired consistency. If you wish you can remove some of the potato pieces prior to blending and then add them back in at the end.

I made a batch and planned to take some in my thermos so it would be hot for lunch.

It turned out to be a really warm day ( a nice change from the relentless rain of the past 2 weeks) so soup wasn't exactly the best choice but still I ate it and also a mini can of tuna for a protein boost. Prior to eating the soup, my colleagues and I were in a grocery/health store as some people in the group were buying lunch. It was heaven, there were free samples everywhere and they were delish! There were samples of breads and hummus and deli meats. We all tucked in and mmmm'd a lot over the tasty treats. Then the deli staff came out with a big tray of samples of their homemade shepherds pie!! Needless to say, I wasn't starving when it came to eat my soup so I only had half. I was also happy to find they stocked Cocoa Mole flavoured larabars too. You can buy Larabars www.larabar.com in most places now. There are many, many flavors but most stores only stock about half of the choices. The Cocoa Mole one contains cocoa ('nuff said),dates, almonds, walnuts, cinammon and chili. It has the perfect balance of sweetness and spicy kick! So far I had only found this variety in the US so I picked up a couple to take home. As I checked out the larabar website before posting the link, I saw they now have a chocolate mint version...I HAVE to track one of these down. If you have seen one, please tell me where!!!

I also snacked on some fruit during the day and some strawberry licorice that I shared with my co-workers. You just can't go wrong with strawberry licorice. And guess what? There is no dairy or eggs in it so it's on my list of cleared foods. Yay!

Didn't get home 'til 8pm and can't remember what I ate, probably just snacked on stuff. I didn't cook, I know that much.

Mexican Munchies

so I missed a few days of posting....oops. I didn't have time but really there was not much to write as I didn't cook much, due to being so busy!

I did make one of my favourite easy dishes that I want to report on. The recipe is for Black Bean and Goat Cheese Quesadillas ( from Cooking Light Magazine) although I just made the filling and served that with rice but the quesadillas are excellent. Here is the recipe:

1 tsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup salsa
1/2-2 tsp cumin depending on your taste
1 can black beans, undrained
1 4 oz pack goat cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup minced cilantro
8 flour tortillas
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
1/2 cup salsa for serving

Heat olive oil in skillet and add onion and garlic. Saute 3 mins. Stir in salsa, cumin and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 mins or until thick. Remove from heat. Mash the bean mixture slightly and stir in goat cheese and cilantro. Spread bean mixture evenly over 1/2 of each tortilla and fold over. place on baking sheet and broil for a couple of minutes per side until browned and crisped.
Cut into thirds or quarters and served with salsa and sour cream.


I made a couple of modifications on the recipe and made the bean mixture but added chopped bell peppers for extra vegetables. I didn't mash the mixture but served it over rice. It's also good in tacos or over tortilla chips, nacho style. Very simple recipe with big taste. Everyone I make it for loves it :-)

I have a hectic weekend coming up so may not post for a couple more days. Have no idea if anyone is reading this but if you are, I appreciate your patience! Oh one more thing...I'm trying not to eat chocolate for a week. So far I have managed one day, sort of. I did eat 1 chocolate chip and then stopped myself so that doesn't count, does it?

Livin' life

Just a quick note to say that I am still here and the absence of posts does not mean I haven't eaten for a few days! Been busy living my life, will post soon. You didn't miss much foodwise, I can tell you that haha!
Check back soon.....I will return...