French toast and Risotto!!

Pretty sure I have mentioned before, but I'm a huge Food Network fan, well not so much the competition shows, the actual cooking shows I love to watch! There are two I record all the time, Girl meets farm and the Pioneer Woman, and I also love watching Giada once in a while and a few others here and there.

In watching the Pioneer Woman she made this breakfast dish that I had to try out cause it looked delicious! I made a healthier version of it though.

I forgot to take a photo before my hubby and I dug into it lol. This is a carrot cake French Toast. I bought a whole grain sourdough bread and cut up almost half the loaf into bite size bites. I buttered my pan, added the cubed bread, then sprinkled some grated carrots and chopped walnuts (she used pecans but I didn't have any so went with walnuts). Then in a bowl I added 5 eggs, about a cup of almond milk, about 1/3 cup of maple syrup, a sprinkle of coconut sugar, a dash of vanilla extract, about a tbsp of cinnamon and a little nutmeg, and mixed it all together. I then pored the egg mixture over the bread/carrots/walnuts. She had let it sit overnight but I prepared it in the morning so I let it sit about a half hour. I added a few dabs of butter on top and a slight sprinkle of salt then added it to the oven at 350 for 45 minutes. Added a piece each to a bowl and drizzled a bit of maple syrup over the top and it was really good!  For hers she did a crumble and icing on top but I found it was delicious without those. I'm sure the crumble and icing would be delicious too but I wanted to keep it on the healthy side and it was really good, and hubby enjoyed it as well.

Last night for supper was another great win for a dish I put together, and this recipe came from watching the Rachael Ray show. She made a risotto but tasted like French onion soup!

I will for sure make this again! We both loved it! So in a pan I sauteed 3 onions on lowish heat, a little lower then medium heat, to get them caramelize with some butter, olive oil, lots of pepper and some salt. In a small pot I heated some beef broth, and in a medium pot I melted some butter and added in some arborio rice to let that toast up a bit, then I added in some red wine, about a half a cup or so and let that absorb and then I would slowly add some of the beef broth stirring occasionally to help build the creaminess of the rice. In another small pot I added some dried mushrooms (shiitake) and a bit of water to coat the mushrooms and let that come to a boil and then turned off the heat. I removed the mushrooms and added some of that water to my risotto since it was mushroom infused. I don't add the very last bit of liquid cause the mushrooms have grit and that falls to the bottom. I added the mushrooms to the rice, I also added some fresh thyme. And of course some pepper a little bit of salt. Once the broth was all added into the rice and it was creamy and cooked, the caramelized onions were ready so I added it to the rice. I also grated some Gouda cheese and added some in, and kept some off to the side to add on top when we plated. I do have to say that thanks to my hubby, he helped a lot in putting this rice together, not to mention cutting the onions for me cause in getting them ready to chop my eyes were already tearing up, they were strong white onions. We do have left overs and I'm sure it will be just as delicious!

I also had a treat recently, I saw this at a grocery store

My hubby and I ate it all, and it was sooo good! It for sure was a delicious treat! Another great treat we are enjoying this week is carrot cake! I didn't take a photo of it, but it's delicious! Thanks to my good friend Anne, I tried the recipe she had for it, and it's the best carrot cake we have ever had!

Today is a beautiful day out, and I want to head outside soon and go for a nice walk to enjoy this beautiful weather, and enjoy the sunshine. For supper the plan is to use our BBQ for the first time this year and I can't wait! What's on the menu, some salmon, potatoes, and I'm thinking to add onion and mushrooms to the potatoes, and I have some asparagus to go along side it as well.

We have had this week off, and it went by way to fast! I did get some organizing done, and we got a really exciting delivery. I got new legs for my desk cause these new legs allow me to stand or sit while working. I had this when I went in to work, and since working from home, which has been a little over a year now, I was sitting all day long while working and really missed my stand/sit set up. As much as I don't feel like working tomorrow, I am excited to use my stand/sit. Gave me a good reason as well to go through my things that I had on my desk and have it better organized. Now my desk looks really nice, so much less clutter.