More healthy cooking

The healthier eating was going well, but with Thanksgiving I got off track. I have been eating more meat, thanks to the turkey I cooked, and then made some soup, with the homemade broth I did. Also had a good turkey sandwich and we also did turkey nachos. I need to get back on track, so I can avoid pain. The weekend before I made more healthy things in the kitchen though

I decided to try the Joyous Health, apple pear ginger crisp. I did use oats instead of the quinoa flakes. It's really good, and it's healthy enough to eat for breakfast, but can make a nice dessert as well.

I also made more pickled carrots, but they went to my mother in law and she gave us the cucumbers she pickled. To the right I also made a tahini dressing that my brother mentioned when we were video chatting, so my sister in law sent me the recipe. It is a very good dressing.

I then made another one of Joyous Health's recipes, her gluten-free peach and wild blueberry cake, however I didn't add peaches, I kept it all blueberry. We really love this cake, it's very yummy!

I've also prepared myself a few tuna wraps, cause my hubby isn't big on wraps, so decided to make myself some. I bought the wraps, but I had an idea of making my own, so it's gluten-free and healthier. I found a recipe online which uses brown rice flour, but I haven't tried it out yet.Trying to use the wraps I bought first. We also enjoyed some shrimp tacos, using again store bought wraps, but made my own coleslaw and the guacamole using the Epicure spice, and they were delicious! I didn't have time to make my own wraps for that, so I went store bought again.

I did enjoy more meat yesterday, I made a tomato sauce with ground beef that slowly cooked all day. Turned out really good, but it does have a good kick to it, but still yummy. I froze a lot of the sauce, but kept a bit, to enjoy at some point this week. Still have a lot of soup as well, so yes I'll be having more meat for a while, but will work on getting back on track soon.

I did enjoy some breaded tofu that I put in my air fryer on Friday night, and they turned out really good, and crispy. I have leftovers, so I can enjoy more of it, another time. Tonight though I will make a tuna casserole, I found a recipe that is dairy free and healthy, so will give it a try.

Hope everyone had a wondering Thanksgiving, and hope your enjoying this weekend as well.

Healthy journey

Over the summer, we were quite busy, and enjoyed cooking or having meals especially from the BBQ, but that meant I was consuming quite a bit of meats. I have had quite a bit of cheeses as well and other unhealthy foods. My health has been going downwards, I have started to get endo pain here and there, thanks to the meats and cheeses I have been eating, but also I am more prone to getting ovarian cysts, thanks to endometriosis, and when I get pain from that, it's not fun. My stomach bloats, and the entire stomach cramps up and hurts so much! Usually brings me to tears, and although my doctor got me to try a new progesterone pill, it hasn't been helping fully yet.

I'm not a big fan of taking medication, I rather try to treat things more naturally. Medication always comes with side effects which isn't good. There's a few more health issues that I'm struggling with, and I got to a point where I'm fed up, and I need to do something about it. I reached out to a naturopath. In talking to my friend, she said my old naturopath is still there in Orleans but only works part time. Considering it's far for me to get there, I rather find someone closer, which I did. Only minutes away, however our first appointment was virtual, and I was ok with that. She's very nice, and I learnt a few things, and she had good points, and a few days later, she sent me a plan for me to start with and see how I do with it. I bought the vitamins and supplements she recommended and it seems to be helping me quite a bit so far, and I'm only 6 days in. Last weekend I went to buy what she recommended, and on Monday I got started on this healthier plan. My work week was full of delicious and filling foods. Breakfast on Monday was my "pancake" made with 1 egg and half a banana, and Tuesday to Thursday was smoothies with a banana, frozen strawberries and some spinach. I added the psyllium husk, some flax seeds and a vegan protein powder with soy milk (normally I use almond milk but she recommended soy as it has more protein). Friday I had a gluten free bread with natural peanut butter, some coconut yogurt so I can mix in the psyllium husk with a touch of maple syrup, and a green tea. Yesterday I had 2 scrambled eggs with a gluten free bread, toasted, and topped with mashed avocado and sprinkled on some everything bagel seasoning on it. This morning I had my "pancake" again, but this time half a banana with 2 eggs for more protein, and added in my psyllium husk. I made a London fog from Joyous Health, recipe right here.

I also added on my "pancake" this morning a chia jam that I made yesterday. I bought fresh raspberries, and it didn't quite make the 2 cups I needed so I added frozen blueberries, and used the chia jam from Epicure. All I had to do was add the berries and chia mix to a pot and let it heat up, and mash up the raspberries and then once all well combined and warm, I added it to a mason jar and once it wasn't so hot, about 20 minutes later, I put it in the fridge

It's very good! I will be enjoying this more this week, I plan to do a breakfast Sunday. So I'll grab half a banana and cut it length wise, and grab my coconut yogurt and mix in my psyllium husk, protein powder and a touch of maple syrup, and put a good dollop of that on the banana, and then add a tablespoon of the jam, and sprinkle with sliced almonds and some ground flax seed. Hoping it turns out as good as that sounds. If the protein powder and psyllium husk make the yogurt way to thick, I'll add some soy milk to thin it out more.

The weekend before I also made some Banana caramel sticky buns, I have made these before and they are so yummy! This weekend I decided on the Chocolate chip cake from Joyous Health, you will find the recipe listed 2 posts ago. It tastes like a chocolate chip cookie and it's so good!

On that same post, I also posted about these chickpea burgers, also from Joyous Health, and I needed more so I made more yesterday.

I love these, and it's nice to have them in my freezer, they are easy to take out when I need a vegetarian protein option.

A few weeks ago I pickled my own carrots

This was very simple to make. I warmed up equal parts of apple cider vinegar with water, added a teaspoon of salt and once warm I turned off the heat. I added sliced carrots, 2 cloves of garlic and some fresh dill to a mason jar, and added my warm liquid over it. Put the top on and after a few minutes the cap sealed and left it there for about an hour, then put it in the fridge. We tried some about a week or so ago, and I really like them, they are very tasty!

Also this past week, I have made bowls for my lunches, with a bit of brown rice, chickpea patty, lots of greens/veggies, and a healthy dressing. Which is why I had to make more patties. For suppers, we had a shrimp stir fry, salmon with garlic mashed potatoes, and a salad. Cubed up tofu mixed with corn starch, Jamaican jerk rub, pan fried to crisp them up, chicken for him, and I don't remember what else we had with that. Had some shrimp with aioli, roasted asparagus and mushroom brown rice with some soy sauce and sesame oil. Last night I cooked up some roasted potatoes and onions on the BBQ, cooked up some chicken skewers for him, and for me it was salmon cooked on a wood slab, with this really good salad and it was a delicious supper! The salad was mixed greens, cucumber, red onions, chopped up roasted maple almonds and some sliced strawberries. The dressing was red wine vinegar, maple syrup, extra virgin Olive oil, some Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and a bit of the Oh Canada seasoning from Epicure. Tonight I'm making this coconut milk (solid part of a can only) with tomato sauce, and lots of veggies, fresh basil, and some brown rice pasta. For him, he wants something meaty, so I have a sauce already in my freezer that needs to be eaten, so took that out, and it will make it easy for me to warm that up for him.

So you can probably get an idea on what I can, and can't have, but I am meat free, but I can have seafood and eggs. Another option in protein, other then the chickpea patties, is tofu. I can have tempeh but I'm not a huge fan of it. I should try it again to be sure. I have a few recipes on Pinterest that add a lot of good flavor so at some point I'll try it again. No dairy for me either, not even goat cheese or anything. The only "cheese" I am having is cashew cheese. No sugar, only natural sugars from fruit, honey and maple syrup. I can also have stevia, but I have never done anything with that so would have to look for a recipe or how much to add to try it out. I'm keeping gluten to a minimum, and no alcohol as well. I want to last as long as I can, to give my body a break from those inflammatory foods/drinks. I plan to stick mostly to this way of eating, so I can feel healthier, and have less pain, or better yet no more pain. Every issue I have has to do with a body that's too inflamed, so this will help me a lot! I will have the occasional treat, and when I start not feeling well again, or get pain, I know I need to take a break again from any inflammatory foods for a few weeks again. 

So far, this plan has made me feel less tired and more energetic, the psyllium husk really helps me feel fuller longer and I don't have cravings for things I can't have. We have chocolate in our house that I can't eat right now and even chai latte (lots of sugar) and wine but I'm ok with not having any. I can have dark chocolate which is what I added to the chocolate chip cake that I made yesterday.

This week I have tuna steaks, more tofu, that I'll cook up in some way, not sure how yet. We have some haddock and more salmon and shrimp as well, but not sure exactly what I'll come up with. I do have chicken for him that I'll cook up at some point for a supper or two. We of course have lots of veggies, potatoes and sweet potatoes, quinoa and of course brown rice. See how the week goes, and what I'm in the mood to make. I am looking forward to some pasta tonight though. Normally I have a glass of wine with pasta, but I won't tonight, and that's ok, cause my body needs a break from it right now.

Today is going to be a more relaxing day for me. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Hiking, delicious food and relaxation!

Last weekend was so much fun, and relaxing! My cousin came down for a visit, so I took the Friday off. We went on this really great hike that we have done before, but her daughter wanted to go so we went again, it's called Ruines Carbide Willson in Chelsea, QC

That night we watched a movie and relaxed. Over the long weekend, we did do some shopping and of course went to Chapters. Then the Saturday it was all about the relaxation! We went to Le Nordik in Chelsea, just her and I, for massages, enjoying the warm pools, and even getting a bit of time to sit and read since we didn't have our massage at the same time

The book in the above picture I finished it yesterday morning, very good series so far, I haven't started the third book yet but excited to get into it. We had some lunch as well, and it's expensive, but very delicious. We shared an alcoholic drink, a platter, and we each got a dessert

We went home for supper, and that night we played some cards/games and had some junk food. The weekend went by so fast! Now that I have to do hybrid at work, when I am in the office, to get some exercise and step away from my desk, I go for a walk outside when I can. If it's not so great outside then I walk around in the building

Thursday's I always get groceries after work, and I always come home with take out. We always switch things up, and a new favorite place of mine, Edo Japan

I got the shrimp and tofu with rice and veggies, and I was able to pick two for my bento box and I went with spring rolls and California rolls. Hubby had the same thing but instead of shrimp and tofu, his was beef and chicken. It was so good! It's for sure going to be a place we will go to from time to time.

I also finally tried one of the spices from Epicure to make my own Poke bowl, and we really loved this as well, and it was easy to put together

I cooked some brown rice, and added this sauce to it, it's most of the Epicure spice, mayo, soy sauce, sesame oil and I think that was it, just mixed in with the rice and cook it as usual. My veggies were a bit different then what the recipe on the package called for, but I did add the cucumbers and mango, but instead of just cabbage, I used a kale/cabbage slaw mix, and added in some green onions. You also cook up some shrimp, and with the remaining spice, you mix in some soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and I think that was it, I made it a while back so I can't quite remember but it's on the package lol. You add a little of the sauce to the shrimp, and then divide the rest between for bowls. So we enjoyed a serving for supper, and had a lunch the next day. It has some kick to it, but we really enjoyed it. Someone from work shared a can salmon poke bowl recipe with me, which I will try at some point cause it sounds very good.

This weekend I did make a macaroni salad, and a banana bread. Tonight's supper I'll make fresh salmon patties and have burgers for supper. We went to visit my mother in law yesterday to celebrate her birthday. We didn't get a chance to celebrate any birthdays yet so we celebrated all our birthdays together

The cake was so good! She made a stew which was also delicious!

I've also been struggling with some pain from an ovarian cyst, and I'm also getting some endo pain, so I am for sure cutting back on dairy and meat for a while. I do need to find a better balance and not have so much to keep pain away. I do have to go in the office tomorrow so I plan to put together a bento box lunch for myself today so I can just grab it tomorrow before I head out. Not quite sure what will go in it, but for sure some of my macaroni salad. I'll see what else we have on hand, but I know there's options. Hope everyone had a wonderful Canada Day!

New delicious recipes!

My garden is really growing, my radishes seem ready, I can use some of my lettuce, but it's not too big quite yet, I think my shallots might be ready as well. it's exciting to see them growing. We didn't have plans for this weekend so I decided to get into the kitchen yesterday. I tried this new recipe from Joyous Health, cause she said it tastes like chocolate chip cookies, but it's a cake, and has healthy ingredients, so I had to try it!

It was very easy to mix it all together and this is the result:

We tried a slice after supper yesterday, and OMG it's so good! You can find the recipe here on the Joyous Health blog.

My other plan for the the kitchen was making veggie/chickpea patties, as well as some salmon patties. The veggie/chickpea patty is also from Joyous Health. As for the salmon burgers, I used the spice from Epicure, but didn't quite follow the recipe on the bottle. It called for a small mashed potato and 1 egg, so I did 2 eggs and didn't bother with the potato. I also added some green onions to mine and instead of just mustard, I used the dill mustard I got from Sunset Gourmet, and I even added a little dry dill to bump up that dill flavor since it goes so well with salmon.

The top photo is the chickpea patties, which I ended up with 9 of them. I used an ice scream scoop but it was heaping to make a patty and it worked out well. The salmon burgers, they did also call for just can salmon, but I used fresh salmon, I just cooked them up in a pan, while they cooled I made the chickpea patties. The salmon ones only made 4 of them, but they are easy and quick to make, especially if you end up using canned salmon, but it will be good to have these on hand in my freezer. Hubby really wants a salmon burger, so I think for next grocery shopping trip, I'll get buns and we will have one each, and then can also make him some beef burgers and mine can be the chickpea one. What's nice about these is I don't have to just use them up as a burger, I can had it as my main protein on a plate, or I can break it up and throw it in a salad. Since I try not to eat too much meat, this is a quick and easy option for me.

I also chatted with my brother yesterday morning and gave me the idea to try pickling since it really is simple. Why I have never tried it before, I don't know, but it really is simple and so yummy! So I went with picking some red onions. Just pouring half white vinegar and the other half water, with 1 tsp of salt, and I had to use two onions, cause the ones I have are smaller, so turned out well to have a jar on hand to throw into salads, bowls, sandwiches or whatever.

So you just have to thinly slice an onion, I cut it in half first, then thinly slice, and then the liquid/salt you just heat up until you start seeing bubbles forming and then once all in the mason jar, just close the lid and let it sit on your counter for a while, about 45 minutes in, my lid sealed, and then a little over an hour later, it wasn't so hot so I got it in my fridge. Oh I also added a bit of pepper to mine. I finally tried it not long ago, in my salad bowl I made for lunch and they are yummy! The bowl I made was with the remaining chickpea balls I made, so the same recipe above, I just formed balls instead of patties, and added in some quinoa, a cabbage slaw mix, some kimchi, a few sliced cucumbers, and then these pickled onions. I picked a balsamic dressing and it was delicious!

It was a lot of fun being in the kitchen yesterday, I was quite tired at the end of the day, especially since I made quite the supper as well. I decided to make a fried rice, since it's been a while, and I wanted to try making my own General Tso's Chicken, one of my hubby's favs, and we had a few small veggie spring rolls from M&M in our freezer that I just threw into the oven. Supper turned out so good! My fried rice, I always wing it, I wanted to do brown rice, but realized we are almost out of it, only had 1/4 cup left, so decided to use it up, and then did 3/4 cup of white rice. So let the brown rice cook a while first before adding in the white rice and more water to have it all cooked up. For the veggies, I did white onion, carrots, mushrooms, green onions, bean sprouts and peas. Just added in 2 eggs to get that scrambled in there, and some soy sauce and mixed it all together once the rice was cooked, and veggies sauteed. For the General's tso's chicken, I found a recipe off Pinterest and turned out to be a good recipe. It was hoisin, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and it called for red chilly flakes but I threw in a lot of sriracha instead. There was also some cornstarch to help it thicken. And I used chicken thighs, just cut into smaller pieces, coated in cornstarch and pan fried them, then added the sauce, which included water as well, until it was thick, then added the chicken back in to warm it through and get it coated in the sauce. It was very tasty, and we have some leftovers to enjoy another time.

Tonight's supper will be pasta, with some ground bison that we got a little while back, so need to use that up from our freezer. Which is why I kept lunch and breakfast vegetarian, cause I try not to eat too much meat since I end up with some endo pain when I overdo it.

So far today, I have been doing a few things around the house, and also doing some relaxing. Hubby has next week off, and I took most of next week off. I only took Monday, Thursday and Friday off., but I'm so very happy to not have to work tomorrow, which will probably be me doing a few more things around the house and relaxing. Hubby's birthday is coming up very soon, so will have to see what he's wanting as his birthday supper and dessert.

Garden

Finally that time of year to get my garden set up outside. I am having to keep the cover to my veg pod on cause it's still cool at night, but the herbs made it outside as well and my thyme and mint isn't looking great but it's not in horrible condition so hoping it does better as the weather warms up more. This is what I did last weekend

So at the very back is my carrots, then coming towards the front, it's my green onions, radishes, and to the left in the front is mixed lettuces and to the right is my spinach.

At the very back starting on the left is my parsley and then it's my mint. At the bottom is thyme and rosemary. I gave some mint and thyme to a friend by potting some in cups cause I had a lot of it.

At the top is my jalapeno tree from last year, I brought it in the house over the winter, and it wasn't looking good, it was dying out on me, but now that it's warmer and more sun, it's thankfully coming back to life. At the bottom is two pear trees, my hubby took seeds from a pear, sprouted them and then planted them and they weren't doing well for a while but they seem to be doing better now which is great.

And this is my raspberry plants that I got last year. They stayed outside all winter and happy to see they are coming back to life. They are a little more green now as this was a picture I took last week. I'm glad this is coming back cause I do love raspberries!

Went to a friend's place a few weeks ago and enjoyed this delicious drink she made, it was very yummy! We enjoyed a delicious supper of beer can chicken, potatoes and salad. Dessert was also really good, sponge cake with whip cream a fruit coulis and some fresh fruit. 

Last weekend I made a macaroni salad with veggies, chopped up pickles and this dill dry mix from Sunset Gourmet, it's my new favorite macaroni salad! This morning I made some guacamole, we plan to have nachos for supper tonight, and if there's guacamole left, we will add some to paninis that we can enjoy for lunches. I also made a veggie dip yesterday, and chopped up a bunch of veggies since it's been a while that we have had some.

Glad it's a long weekend, cause 2 day weekends are enough time off, so this will be nice to enjoy 3 days off. Tomorrow we are invited to my dad's girlfriend's for supper, and I hope to be able to shop for some basil and chive plants, I won't put them with my other herbs yet cause they don't do well in cold weather, so I'll wait till the night's are warmer before putting them out there. So in the meantime they will stay in the house where there's a good amount of sun. I would like to get a few flowers as well. Last weekend I also cleaned up my front flower bed, I still need to get my statues out there, but figure I will do that when I go to plant flowers out there.

I also had my cousin that come for a visit, like 3 weeks ago, and we spent some time shopping, which we of course went to Chapters and got some books, and there was some good deals so got some clothes as well, including a new spring jacket. I also showed her this chocolate store near here. I only went in once with my hubby, but I have been wanting to go again and since we were doing a girls night I figured I would bring her there to have chocolate to enjoy while we watch movies

We enjoyed this, and believe it or not, they are a small! It was so good! We got a lot of chocolate, which my hubby and I just ate the last of it last night. It was a good weekend.

I have had a bit of time in my hammock to read which has been so nice! Not as much as I would like but weather will get warmer so I'll get more opportunity. Today is a rainy gloomy day so going to just do a few things around the house and also relax and watch some TV I think.

Hope everyone is having an amazing weekend!

Garden

Last post I shared how I am starting from seed this year for my garden, it's turning out pretty good, check out the progress

It's pretty exciting to see how well they are growing. I can't put them outside yet, even though it's so nice outside this past week, but from past experience, we end up with cold or even snow this month, so I always tend to wait until May long weekend to get my garden outside. 

I am very much enjoying the weather this weekend, it's been so nice out!

I finally got to enjoy my hammock, for the first time this year, and have enjoyed every minute of it! I went out yesterday for a while, to take a break between doing some spring cleaning in my kitchen, to then making a very delicious apple pie! When I last got together with my friend and we had a cooking day, we had made pie dough, which is a new recipe that played on Zoe Bakes, on the magnolia channel, which she found the recipe on pinterest, so I'm glad we made that recipe cause it really is easy to handle, and the crust is so delicious!

The pie plate is an amazing birthday gift she got for me, it's from the Pioneer Woman line. It's so pretty, and love how deep it is. My birthday is this coming Wednesday, so it was a nice early birthday present. The other gift she got me is a utensil holder, so in doing my kitchen clean up, I also made room for that, and added large spoons, spatulas and stuff in it. I also got another early gift, from another friend of mine, who I don't see as often as I would like, but thanks to us being in Sudbury at the same time the weekend before for Easter, she gave me

She got me the mug with lid, which helps keep my drink warmer for longer, and the pink drink in the cup is also what she got me, it's from Blume, and it's the beetroot latte, which is very delicious! I tried as is, so a splash of hot water to dilute the powder, with warm almond milk using my frother, it was good but the package does say you can add a splash of maple syrup, so I did that, and it was even better. The toast I have there is a sourdough bread topped with peanut butter and a blueberry jam.

About a week ago or so, I tried a new recipe, that I found on pinterest, and it's pork tenderloin, sliced up, in this mushroom gravy. We both loved it!

We put it on top of mashed potatoes, and a side of roasted carrots. This is a recipe I would for sure make again. Lately I'm more into the vegetarian and seafood meals, so Friday we had skewers, since it was so nice outside, it was the perfect day to have a BBQ. I roasted potatoes in foil on the BBQ, and potatoes I added sliced onions, some of the 3 onion spice from Epicure, some salt and pepper and some butter. Then I cooked up some chicken on a skewer for him, and I had salmon and we both had some shrimp with the aioli dip, with a small salad. It was really good! I didn't take a photo of this meal though. Yesterday we had burgers, which mine was the beyond meat patty. I want to make my own soon though, so it's a healthier vegetarian patty. I made it last year, it's a recipe from Joyous Health and it's really good. Yesterday I also made a soup, which we enjoyed again today for lunch.

This week I'm excited, I only work tomorrow and Tuesday, then I took the rest of the week off to enjoy my birthday. The day of my birthday, Wednesday, my dad and his girlfriend will be coming here for supper, which I plan to make my favorite meal, lasagna. I'll get the tomato sauce cooking first thing in the morning and then in the afternoon I'll build the lasagna. My dad will be bringing cake, and we will celebrate his birthday as well, his is in a week. During my 5 day weekend, I plan to do more spring cleaning/de cluttering/organizing, and hoping for more nice weather so I can get outside on my hammock and read some more. The book I am reading, is the first book of a 5 book series. A friend lent it to me, along with the second book, and loving it so far.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Amazing food

The past two weeks, has been all about amazing foods! The weekend before I went to a friend's place and we had our cooking day. We tried her new pasta maker, and made rigatoni, which turned out delicious. The first batch of dough was too sticky so had to make a dryer one, and it turned out great

I really want to get this pasta maker, which attaches to a Kitchenaid mixer. It makes different small pastas

We split this in half, so we each had some to have at home, and we had to have bread with it, so we tried this braided bread recipe, which turned out really great, and the bread is so good!

We also shared half of this bread so we can enjoy. We also made dough, she wanted to show me this recipe that turns out amazing and I haven't used up my dough yet, but I will, cause I want to make an apple pie. With Easter coming, I want to make the pie to enjoy for dessert when we have family over.

She gave me my birthday present early, which is a large Utensil holder, to hold whisks, and large spoons. I am not using it yet, but I have to do a bit of re-organizing to get that set up, which I plan to do sometime this coming week. She also got me this beautiful pie plate from the Pioneer Woman, which I will bake my apple pie in there, it's deep so I'm excited to use it. she also got me measuring spoons which have more sized, which I love.

The day before our cooking day, I did make this pasta salad, which uses a spice blend and a dill mustard I got from Sunset Gourmet. It's similar to Epicure, which is dry spices, and mixes, etc.. but they have a different variety, so I wanted to try a few. The recipe was very basic, pasta, cubed cheddar cheese, dill pickles, the dry spice blend, but I elevated this recipe, cause I love veggies

That box has 2 packets of the dry mix, so I only needed one, and I added in red onion, green onions, celery, and a cauliflower and cabbage slaw mix, and I also added in a tablespoon of the dill mustard. Oh and a small clove of garlic minced. Of course along with the dill pickle, and cheddar cheese. This was delicious! Best pasta salad I have every made. I also tried another new recipe, which I also got from Sunset Gourmet, which used this tomato/bacon seasoning.

So cooked up some spaghetti noodles, there's a bit of bacon, shrimp, the seasoning pack, some cream, and parm cheese. This was delicious as well! Not something we can have often cause of all that dairy. That Sunday I also made a new batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, and got those frozen in the freezer so when we want a bit of dessert, I can easily take the amount of cookies we want, bake it and we can enjoy it fresh out of the oven.

Another amazing recipe we got to have this past Friday for supper

Coconut Shrimp Salad, thanks to the Pioneer Woman. I was watching her show, and when I saw this recipe I really wanted to try it, so I looked it up online and saved it. I have been eating too much meat lately so this was a nice option for me to avoid endo pain, and hubby loves seafood as well and loved this salad also. I made some changes, I just put romaine, some of the cauliflower/cabbage slaw, some cucumbers, green onions, and instead of the ranch dressing, I did a garlic aioli dressing instead. We love aioli with our shrimp so figured why not, since he doesn't like ranch dressing, and it turned out delicious! So the dressing is about 2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice, some mayo, the garlic aioli dry mix (I get mine from Epicure) and then added in some olive oil until desired consistency. I followed her recipe for the shrimp batter, and instead of frying in vegetable oil, I used some coconut oil in my cast iron pan. 

Yesterday I spent most of the day with a friend of mine and we did some shopping around and then went to our favorite restaurant downtown called Mamma Grazzie's, and we had our usual, which is so delicious every time!

It's called Pomodoro, it's a sauce with lots of little bits of garlic, and the pasta is homemade. Normally it's on the green side, so a spinach pasta, but this time it was more white, and we had a little spinach in the sauce, but not much. Still absolutely delicious and something I'll always get when I go. I love that it's vegetarian, and the flavors are amazing! Their bread that they give us at the start is also very yummy! It's got this salty, rosemary flavor, and it has a bit of oil, it's amazing bread! For dessert, we walked over to Oh so Good, which isn't far away, and we enjoyed their delicious chai tea latte, with a slice of cake, they have a nice variety. Last night we went for this Oreo cookie type cake and it was really good!

Today I kept myself a bit busy

Normally I go out and buy already grown veggies and herbs, but this year I thought lets try seeds, it's less expensive and I as my hubby mentioned to me, I can grow in the house, to give them time to start sprouting, and then when it's warm enough outside, I can transplant them to my veg pod so they can keep growing nice and big. I hope these turn out, since this is the first for me. I have two of each, so I have carrots, radishes, green onions, a mix of green lettuces, and spinach. I still have seeds left, I am starting with this since that's all the pots/cups I have right now. See how those do and hopefully it turns out. I guess if they don't. I can try again, or just buy already grown and attempt another time to start from seed. Some take about a month, some 2 months to start sprouting out.

Tonight I'm trying another new recipe I found on Pinterest, and it's a mashed potato with a mushroom gravy, we are having it with a pork tenderloin, and I'm thinking roasted carrots.

We got some rain yesterday, but then the sun came out and it was warm, I was good with just a sweater on, no coat needed. Later at night though it got cool so the coat came on, but we are getting nicer weather here and there, and it's a nice change. Love seeing the sun more as well, and the longer days. Now that I have the seeds done, it's getting me excited to have my garden again, and once I can actually eat what I grow, is always so amazing! I seem to always switch things up each year, and I'm excited to have carrots and radishes this year. The others I had the last few years as well and they get used a lot so it's a must have in my garden, I love salads year round, but mostly in the summer. I'm considering to grow garlic again, you just take a clove of garlic and have the pointy end pointing up, and just under a bit of dirt and it sprouts up, it turns into what looks almost like a green onion, it's milder garlicky flavor and it's really good. So if I have room I'll do that again this year. My thought is when these are sprouting, I will hopefully be able to get them outside, and then I can sprout more indoors and then when I have used up what I have outside, I can swap and transplant the ones inside to outside so I get more veggies. I'll try to remember to take pictures and show you guys the progress as this goes.

I do still have my grow lights for some herbs in my basement which are still doing great, so I have thyme, rosemary, mint and parsley. The mint has gone crazy! It's like a weed and going everywhere, so I have to take some time to got something to block the mint from going everywhere and keep it more contained. Once I can get my herbs outside, I want to add in some basil and chives.