Sweet Potato Veggie Pad Thai

My last post I talked about the new Joyous Health cookbook that I got, well I made a lot of recipes from that book. My favorite one was the Sweet Potato Veggie pad Thai.

  

 Mine is on the right with lots of cilantro! Hubby hates cilantro so I put a bit of parley on his. You can find the recipe here. The recipe on the link calls for grapeseed oil but you can use olive oil, which is what I used, as per her recipe in the book. Either one is a great choice. I did not miss the pasta in this one, it as very tasty! My hubby is a meat eater, but he really enjoyed it as well. Lots of great flavors.

I tried a bunch more recipes from her book and they were all delicious!

The top one is the buckwheat chocolate chip banana bread. Unlike it's name, buckwheat is gluten free, which I love. With endometriosis, gluten is something that is good to avoid. The second photo is the minestrone soup, which made a big batch, but I'm ok with that. I froze 3 mason jars of the soup and it will be great to take out if I don't have much time, or craving some soup. The noodles are spelt, so not gluten free, but I have never tried that type of pasta so decided to follow the recipe. The only item missing in the soup is kale. The last photo is the one-pot paprika chicken. Those who know me, know that I'm not a fan of olives, but I'm trying to build a liking to them since they are healthy. I'm slowly getting there but in this recipe I didn't mind them at all. There wasn't a lot and with the other flavors it was really good.

The chicken I made on a Sunday, and then the Monday I went vegan to detox from diary and meat to avoid pain from endo. I did get some pain but doing better now.

First photo is baked salmon with a dill pesto, and the side is garlic green beans with tahini lemon sauce. Very tasty!! The pesto has capers as well and instead of the usual basil pesto, it's with dill and it's very good! The green beans were delicious as well. Not only do you top them with the sauce, but also some pomegranate seeds, chopped almonds and nutritional yeast. The last photo is veggie and shrimp green curry. This to was very good! We had some left overs for a few lunches.

This is over a span of 2 weeks, and it's been really great to try out new recipes. Tonight's supper will be fajitas! Mine will be shrimp and his will be chicken. I already have guacamole ready. I also took the time to prepare our lunch for tomorrow which will be a bento box. I will try to remember to take a photo of it and share it with you.

The weekend has been great. My goal for this year is to de-clutter, and so far it's going pretty good. I cleaned/de-cluttered our end tables and dressers in our room, I went through all the bathroom stuff and got rid of 2 very full grocery bags of things that expired or we weren't using. This past Friday I went through my clothes and I got rid of a large garbage bag full of things that don't fit or I don't wear. It's in my basement for now but I will donate it.

A friend of mine at work gave me 2 tickets to go to the Ottawa Home Show, so we went Friday late afternoon to check it out since we would like to reno our house. It was interesting but some are really after you to get your attention, like sharks, it's crazy! It was interesting, but the best part was getting to see Bryan Baeumler on stage

He was funny and provided a lot of great information and tips. He also talked about the Island he has, and I'm really looking forward to the second season which starts towards the end of February. Wish I could have met him in person to get a photo and autograph but it was cool to see him fairly close. Thanks to my friend I got to sit with her and her hubby in the 4th row. The rest of the weekend has been pretty good except for this wet heavy snow we have gotten. Thankfully we have a snowblower to help.

If you haven't had the chance or taken the time to try a new recipe, I recommend it! It's nice trying something new instead of always going for the same meals. I'm glad I decided to try all these recipes, especially that pad thai which is a must make again, and again!

There's a few more recipes in her book I want to try out, which I have plans to make one tomorrow. I'll be sure to take a picture and share it with you. Hope everyone else has had a good weekend!

The holidays and family

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. Can't believe that we are in 2020 already! 2019 flew by so fast!! My holidays were good except for one thing, my aunt passed away on December 22nd. She will be greatly missed!!

She is now with my mom, grandparents, and aunt. I love how close our family is, when my aunt went into the hospital, we all kept in contact through Facebook, and it was amazing to see all the messages. From making sure she was warm enough, to making sure the family knew what was going on, and who was going to visit her. I unfortunately did not get the chance to see her. With her feeling better the Saturday I thought I would have time to head down on Monday and go straight to the hospital to see her, but unfortunately on the Sunday she passed away. The family took it really hard, and she will be greatly missed. She was one amazing and caring aunt.

We spent a week in Sudbury, and it was nice spending that time with family. This past week we have been at home enjoying our second week of vacation. I had a few physio appointments, hubby had to go for allergy shots, we went to visit his mom, and I took some time to de-clutter, clean, tidy up,  spend a bit of time in the kitchen, and made sure to take time to rest up as well.

I have been going to physio because I thought I had tennis elbow. My left elbow hurts to bent and extend. I have been doing some stretches, wearing a band, and trying to rest it up as well and it wasn't getting any better so my doctor recommended I go to physio. She doesn't think it's tennis elbow, she believes the source starts at my neck, cause I'm really tense there, and I have more tense muscles down my arm to my elbow. She's working on massaging and doing acupuncture in those areas to help. During the week in Sudbury it actually did get better, but now it's about the same again. I think I need to work on spending less time on my tablet and phone. I think the looking down and holding them is what isn't helping. If I am on my tablet or phone I try to keep it eye level, and try to rest my tablet on something so I'm not holding it with my left arm since I need my right hand to click. Hopefully with more time and appointments, it will get better.

While I was in Sudbury, my cousin and I did our ritual, which is hit Chapters. We both love that place! We love books and it's my zen place. I saw the new Joyous Health cookbook was out so I had to get it!

I put it in my recipe book holder cause I tried the very fist recipe in her book, the Applesauce spice breakfast muffins, and they turned out amazing!

The recipe says it makes 6 muffins but as you can see I filled them quite a bit and I still had a lot more batter left, so I made 8 muffins. The second photo is them all baked. We took a bite of one to try it and it's delicious!! They will make a great breakfast/snack for the week. We are off tomorrow as well, but we have a few errands to run, and then Tuesday we are back to work, so these will be great.

I also made the jambalaya, which instead of a mix of meats, I only put spicy sausage. It's one of our favorites, and I also bought a whole chicken to cook in the oven. I added spices to the chicken, and we had a nice salad with it. With the bones, I made a broth the following day and used that broth to make soup. I added some of the left over chicken as well to the soup. It's not the healthiest soup but I love making it once a year. It reminds me of my mom, and it always turns out delicious. We have more left over food to enjoy this coming week, but then the following week, I want to do a Joyous Health diet. It's not a diet, but it is about eating healthy, and I need that right now. Every recipe I have tried, is so delicious! I just got her third cookbook, which the first two I was able to get her to sign them for me, so I hope to get this one autographed as well. So with 3 cookbooks, and all the recipes she has online on her blog, will allow us to eat healthy for a long time. I often make the same recipes, or same sort of meals/snacks, so with trying out more of her recipes it will allow us to eat healthy and try new meals and snacks instead of eating the same things all the time. I'm excited to get started!

Over the holidays, I have been eating a lot of meat, and dairy, so it's one thing I will avoid for a while. Joy has a variety of recipes, from vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free but also some with meat. For those I can either omit the meat to make it vegetarian, or I can add seafood or tempeh instead. I'm surprised I haven't really had any endometriosis pain with all the meat and dairy I have been eating, but I don't want to get to that point of getting pain so it will be good for me to avoid meats and dairy for a while. I will then add in some meat but not to much to avoid pain.

This week we will have the time to empty the fridge, and other snacks/food we have, it will give me time to pick out recipes and get my grocery list ready to go get what I need towards the end of the week to try out new recipes for the following week. I will try to document it as much as I can and share it with you.

                                          Happy New Year everyone!!