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.

March = Endometriosis and Colorectal cancer Awareness

 

March is Endometriosis and Colorectal cancer awareness month

Both of these are very important to me. I do have endometriosis, and my pain isn't as bad as it use to be, but I have to ensure that I don't eat to much meat, and dairy in order to avoid pain. Gluten effects me as well but not as much. Every year I give a donation to the Endometriosis Association. 

I should avoid meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork) and dairy completely, but I do enjoy meat and dairy so I try not to eat to much of them. In terms of dairy, I love my almond milk, but I do love cheese so it's hard to completely stay away.

I also donate each year to the Cancer Society, my mom passed away almost 8 years ago of Colorectal Cancer. I still miss her so very much! 

I heard on the radio that colorectal cancer is the 3rd leading cause of death in women and second for men. As for endometriosis, it's 1 in 10 women that suffer. 

It was hard to see my mom suffer with cancer, and there are so many different cancers out there, it's scary!

It's important to take care of ourselves, and support each other when needed. 💖

Fish/shrimp cakes

 I had a lot of fun in the kitchen yesterday. I had an idea to make my own fish cakes but mix it up with salmon and shrimp

So I started with salmon, and I cooked it skin side down since mine came with skin. I topped it with a Greek spice blend that I put together using a bunch of my dried herbs/spices. When I flipped the salmon, I removed the skin easily, and the broke up the salmon and cooked it a minute or two, then added it to a bowl, and added 2 cloves of garlic minced. In the same pan I added half an onion, chopped, and 4 cremini mushrooms, chopped. I then added in my shrimp. I let those saute for a few minutes. I didn't need to cook them fully, since they were going into the oven. I let everything cool for a bit in my bowl, while I took care of cooking up some chicken with the Greek spice blend I did. I cooked up chicken for my hubby and the fish/shrimp cakes are for me, although he may have some as well cause I got him to try it and he really liked it.

In my food processor, I added a handful of spinach, and a handful of kale and broke that up a bit, then added in my fish/shrimp/veggie mixture. I added more of the Greek seasoning mix, some pepper and a touch of salt, and added in 3 tbsp of flax seeds for some extra fiber, and 2 eggs. I also added the juice of one lemon, and 1/4 cup each of almond flour and brown rice flour to start, cause I wasn't sure how much I was going to need. I turned on the food processor to combine. It was still to wet, so I added another 1/4 cup each of the almond and brown rice flour, mixed it, making sure to scrape the sides, and at that point it was the consistency I was looking for.

You don't want it to runny, but not to dry either. I used the same 1/4 cup to measure out my batter and place it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I used a spatula and it worked well. You can do any shape you want but I decided on this. There's one that was a little smaller then the others, which is what I grabbed to try it out once it came out of the oven, which I cooked them at 400 for 10 minutes, I flipped them, and then cooked it another 10 minutes.

They turned out really great!! So delicious! I added some to my freezer to have some other time, and left a few out to have this week. These can easily be eaten as is, with maybe some aioli or some other dip that you want, and it can also be added to a wrap/sandwich or even to a salad.

The chicken I cooked up for my hubby, once cooled, I sliced it up thinly so he can enjoy them in a panini, wrap, sandwich, salad or just like that. It's a great way to prep for the week to make it easier to put lunch together or to make supper easier and faster to prepare.

I was also introduced to Mother Raw, by Joyous Health. I'm so glad she mentioned this site because their dressings are so good!! It's completely natural, and I love that it's dairy free, and organic.

This is what I ended up buying for my first online purchase. It was delivered very quickly, and they had ice packs and the box was well insulated to keep them cold as they are all natural, therefore it needs to stay cold. I tried the 3 dressings, and loved them all! I haven't tried the BBQ sauce, nor the French onion dip and queso but I can't wait to try them! They have more dressings, dips, etc... to try and I want to try them all! Funny thing is I went to the health food store when I was out to do groceries and I was looking in the fridge section cause I was also told about this cashew "cheese" that is really good so I wanted to try that as well. In looking I saw they had a few dressings from Mother Raw, as well as their other queso, so it's nice to know that I can get some there as well. They didn't have everything they have on their site, but it's good to know I can get a few things there as well. I did find the "cheese" but I haven't tried it yet.

This live lettuce is another thing I love to buy. It lasts longer and it's nice to have fresh lettuce on hand. I water it from time to time to keep it alive, if I don't eat it all right away.

Today is Valentine's Day, so hope everyone is enjoying their day. We aren't doing anything special, just spending the day together. I did get to video chat with my dad and brother as well today which was really nice to catch up.

21 days to Joyous Health part 2

Today is the last day for the 21 days to Joyous Health, it was really great! I did more cooking, tried new recipes, and of course worked out. She had some mindfulness to listen too, and I did listen to a few but not all. I would like to listen to them all before I lose them. It is the last day but she said we will have access to everything for the next 6 months. There's a few things I can save but not the mindfulness or the workouts. Here's a few things I got to cook/bake during the 21 days, and note that it's all her recipes.

This is my absolute favorite, well second to the sweet potato pad Thai, which we did make during the 21 days. For this recipe, I used my spiralizer to turn a zucchini into spaghetti noodles. I made a simple tomato sauce, so I used an organic, sugar free tomato sauce and added some mushrooms and onion, with some fresh basil. I added in my zucchini noodles into the sauce and let it cook for a few minutes to get everything nice and warm. I added the vegan Paleo meatballs I made during the first weekend before the 21 days started. It was so good!! I had some left over for another meal. I will for sure make this one again! I do still have "meatballs" in my freezer. Note that for my hubby I had a ground beef tomato sauce in my freezer that I made a little while back. I took it out, and used brown rice pasta for his supper, cause he does not like zucchini and wasn't interested in trying this.

This soup was also delicious! It's a vegetable quinoa soup. It has carrots, celery, onion, garlic, some cooked quinoa, a can of diced tomatoes, I used fire roasted diced tomatoes. I added some vegetable broth, and the spices are a little salt, some pepper, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and fresh herbs I added some parsley, oregano and rosemary. She also called for thyme but I didn't have any fresh, I guess I could have added dry, but I didn't bother, but I'm sure it would be just as good with. This recipe also called for zucchini but I omitted it, cause hubby doesn't like them. It also called for broccoli, and I was planning to add some in there, but it was pretty loaded so I ended up skipping the broccoli. We enjoyed this soup yesterday for lunch, and there's more left to have this week.

Above is a quinoa crust, and next to it, all the toppings on our pizza. You can find the recipe here on the Joyous health blog. I wasn't sure how well it would hold together, but it held together really well. You have to cook the crust first, then add toppings and add back to the oven to get everything warm. So the left half was hubby's side. I did BBQ sauce for the base of the sauce for the pizza, and added shredded BBQ chicken for his with sauteed onions, red pepper and mushrooms. My side just had the veg topped with the vegan Paleo meatballs, and added goat cheese on top of everything. It was so good! Wasn't sure how we were going to like the crust but we both really liked it. We had some left over which we enjoyed for two other lunches.

Here are a few breakfast items I had, the first being one banana mashed, then you add two eggs and mix together and put in a pan and cook it up like you would a pancake. I tend to make one large pancake and break it in half to help me flip it a little easier, but sometimes it ends up being in 3-4 pieces to get to flip it. In a sauce pan I added some fresh blueberries, some chia seeds and maple syrup and warmed it through and then topped my pancake. So yummy! The other is a loaded avo toast. I made another with a slice of tomato on the toast, but I had chunks of tomatoes left so I put it aside. So I toasted my sprouted bread, spread some avocado on it, like you would butter, then I added a touch of salt, some pepper, some garlic powder, hemp hearts, sesame seeds, and nutritional yeast, then added spinach and an egg on top. The recipe calls for sauteing your spinach a little with the garlic powder but the heat of the eggs wilts them down a little so I skipped it for this one and just sprinkled all the seasonings on the avocado and it was just as delicious.

 

This one on the right is a golden smoothie, with 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 1 banana (I did half a banana), 2-3 large medjool dates (pitted), 3 tbsp shelled hemp seeds, 1 tbsp coconut butter, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp ginger root, grated, 1/2 tsp ground turmeric, coconut milk until desired consistency, and you can add a scoop of protein powder which I did, mine is fermented, organic, and plant-based. This was really good!

This one is a super-food smoothie with pineapple, spinach, avocado, almond butter, chia or flax seeds, small apple, water or non-dairy milk until desired consistency and optional for a scoop of protein powder which I did. This too was really good!

This is Joyous Health's banana bread, that you can find on her blog here. It's so good! I skip the sliced banana on top and I added some dark chocolate chips but also some walnuts. So yummy, and a great snack/dessert to enjoy.

 

This is a chickpea pasta salad. So I bought chickpea pasta and cooked it up, and added some veggies, and the dressing is really good! I have corn on the side cause hubby doesn't like them so I only added some to mine. It was really good freshly made, and there was some left over so I put it in the fridge and it wasn't quite as good, it was drier, but still ok to eat up. I rather eat it fresh though.

Above is a budha bowl with some romaine, shredded cabbage, broccoli and carrot, some chunks of roasted beets, some cooked quinoa, I added sauerkraut and I think that's it. I don't quite remember, but it was delicious! There's another salad I made, which is really good, it has chunks of apples in it, some kale, I tend to do shredded cabbage and broccoli, some chunks of avocado, and for the dressing I put 3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, with 9 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp of Dijon mustard, 2 tbsp of maple syrup, 1-2 cloves of garlic, a little salt and some pepper and whisk it up. It's so good! So that dressing is enough for both of us for two big bowls of salad, usually chicken added to his, and shrimp or fish for me for our supper. 

The 21 days to Joyous Health also recommended to be outside more, at least a half hour each day. I didn't get outside as much as I should, cause it is winter and cold here, but one Saturday we had to go out to shovel and the snow was perfect to build a snowman, and he had the idea to build Olaf, and take photo's to send to our nieces and nephews, so that's what we did. He did most of the work but I did help, it was a lot of fun!

I think he turned out really awesome! He's still standing, but he has melted a little so now slanting a bit. The buttons, we used wine bottles so we took those out to prevent them from braking and hurting someone. His eyes fell down and branches, but the carrot is still there.You can't really see his legs anymore either cause we got more snow so he's a little more buried.

I did have a lot of great food during this 21 days, but this also reminded me how great it is to try new healthy recipes, and I'm trying to be more mindful when I eat, to avoid over eating. I've been doing pretty good with drinking quite a bit of water as well. My work hours have also changed a bit, now I work 8:30 to 4:30, so gives me a little more time in the morning to get a good workout in, get a healthy breakfast ready before I have to start work. During my lunch hour, I tend to squeeze in some house cleaning so that I don't have to worry about it during the weekend, and it's a good way to move around instead of just doing more sitting during lunch.

Tonight's supper I plan to cook up some shrimp, and we have some delicious aioli already made to go with the shrimp, and I'm thinking some healthy rice (either black or brown rice) to go with it, and some roasted asparagus. The asparagus, I tend to add some olive oil with balsamic vinegar and add some pepper and roast it in the oven. It's so good!  Well almost time for supper, so time to get things ready.

21 Days to Joyous Health

 I know I share quite a few recipes from Joyous Health, but it's because they really are great recipes, and I learn a lot from her, and I'm a big fan! I saw she posted about a 21 day to Joyous Health and decided to go for it. Since my mom passed away, I had gained a lot of weight and struggle to get back to being healthy. I do make a lot of healthy recipes here and there, but I also have a lot of unhealthy foods as well. I thought this would be a great way to help me get back to being healthier. On Friday she shared the meal plan for the 21 days, and she will also post some workouts, and mindfulness during the 21 days, and I'm pretty excited to get started tomorrow.

 To help make things easier during the week, I prepared quite a few things over the weekend. I first started with writing down the meal plan, which I adjusted a little. She gives us an omnivore meal plan and a vegan meal plan. I am fine to eat seafood and eggs, but meat doesn't agree with me because of my endometriosis, therefore one supper we will have, will include fish, and another eggs, the rest I'll be following the vegan meal plan, and for my hubby, I will include some chicken. Once I had everything figured out, I prepared my grocery list and went to do that yesterday morning. I then took some time to make a few things in the kitchen

The top one is the golden soup, but 2.0. I tried the original golden soup she has on her website and it was very good! I didn't compare the recipes but this one will be really tasty as well. The next photo, is seedy crackers and homemade hummus. The crackers fall apart easily, it's just a mix of different seeds and some water then baked, so I don't be able to dip them in the hummus, but I'll try to spread some hummus on them. Not sure how well that will work, but if not, I will just take a piece of cracker and with a spoon, just spoon in some hummus in my mouth lol. I will get to have these together for a lunch, and I think a supper as well this week, and I'm looking forward to having them!

Today I got busy in the kitchen again to make a few other things so I'm more prepared this week for some healthy eating.

The top photo is sweet potato biscuits. I made these before but with buckwheat flour and I realized I'm not a fan of buckwheat flour. It's got a strong flavor and I didn't enjoy them as much. So this time around I made them with spelt flour. These also have oat flour, and I also decided to make her vegan parm cheese to top them with and I tried a bit of it all and it's so good!! I still have a lot of vegan parm cheese left so I'll be able to enjoy some when I make the zucchini pasta with the above "meatballs", and I can add some to my salads as well. The meatballs are vegan paleo, and I tried it raw, and it was very good, and then tried it once baked and they are just as good. I really can't wait to have these this week as well.

I did keep some of the biscuits and "meatballs" in my fridge, but also got to freeze some as well for another time. I love batch cooking so when I have a busy week and/or weekend, or just too tired, I know I have healthy options in my freezer to take out. In case your wondering about the recipe's, you can find them on her blog. Some may not be there, cause it may only be part of the 21 day to Joyous Health, but I'm excited to get this week started and eating these delicious foods!

This past Thursday I also started a new job, it's acting for a year, but there's a chance to get permanent so will see how things work out. I am unable to do my compress work schedule unfortunately, and working later is best as a lot comes in, in the afternoon, so now I work 8:00 to 4:00. I am still getting up at the same time I use to, when I worked 7:00 to 4:00 (compress schedule) so that I can now take the time to do a workout first thing in the morning. I rather work earlier and finish earlier but I guess one bonus is it's really great working out first thing in the morning.

I'm hoping these 21 days will help me get back on track to being healthier. I do want to keep it going after the 21 days. I may have a treat here and there, but I want to eat as healthy as possible. I ate too much meat,  dairy and sweets over the holidays and I got a lot of endometriosis pain cause of the meat and dairy, so it's a great motivation to get back on track. I will still have meat here and there, but I really need to keep it to once in a while, so I can avoid pain and inflammation.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Pumpkin Chili!

Been meaning to write a post for a while but life got hectic! So here's a little of a catch up post. Been busy in the kitchen again, and we were craving some chili. I've cut back a lot on meat so he was ok with a vegetarian chili. I made this one before but it's been quite a while and I should make it more often, it's so good!

I got this recipe from my cookbook called Thug kitchen. I found the recipe online as well, and I absolutely love their cookbook, and their website is just like their book and I love it. Check out the recipe here.

I also saw a post on Facebook from Joyous Health about a London Fog latte and I had to try it, and glad I did, it was so good!

I did use my frother for the almond milk but I find when using almond milk it doesn't froth up very much but still turned out delicious! I had that with sprouted bread toasted with peanut butter and banana, it was one really yummy breakfast!

We also had a beautiful Saturday a few weeks ago so I went for a nice long walk and it was great! We have some snow now so trails would be wet so I'm glad I went when I did

 Last weekend, my friend and I decided to do some baking. We made biscuits and sugar cookies

The biscuits are two different recipes. The ones on the left turned out better. Not that the ones on the right are horrible, they just taste a little doughy.

For the sugar cookies, we are not experts in decorating them but they are delicious which is what counts! lol

 

This weekend is great so far. Last night, Friday, my dad and his girlfriend came over, and we did a little shopping in stores, of course wearing masks and being as careful as possible. My dad is almost done his Christmas shopping now. I only got a few gifts, so I finished my shopping a little in stores, just hit 2 stores quickly and the rest was online. So now just have to wait for a few deliveries, and wrap up gifts and I'm all set! I usually don't wait this long to shop but with Covid I wasn't sure how to go about things. I'm hoping I won't get gifts delivered late, but we will see.

So after our shopping yesterday, we came back here and I got supper ready, we had roasted chicken, which the chicken was spatchcock so it would cook faster, and I put the chicken and rib rub from Epicure with some white white at the bottom and it turned out delicious! We also had a garden salad, mashed potatoes and gravy. We played some cards after, so it was a great day. With more shopping today, and I did some laundry, now time to relax tonight, and glad we still have another day to the weekend.

My kitchen

In my last post, I mentioned about ordering a moveable island cause my kitchen is small therefore not a lot of counter space to work with. Here's what it looks like in my small kitchen

Yes I have a lot of stuff on my counter top as well, but I love to cook and bake, and I don't have a lot of cupboard space either.

 I have used the island a few times but yesterday was the first true cooking and baking day that I did. It was a lot of fun and it helped out so much to have more space to work with. So the first thing I got started on was chopping up some veggies to roasted them in the oven. I used an entire butternut squash and chopped it into chunks, and then a small yellow onion, 3 shallots, and 2 carrots chopped as well. I took an entire garlic and roasted that in foil in the oven as well. I added just a touch of salt and lots of pepper and olive oil and roasted them at 400 for a half hour. In a pot I added 1 cup of lentils with an entire carton of vegetable broth and once it was boiling I turned off the heat and let it cook completely. Some of my herbs are still surviving outside so I grabbed some rosemary and thyme and chopped that up finely. I added some grated nutmeg and put that aside. In my food processor I added the roasted veg with the lentils and broth in two batches to get that all pureed. You can do this in a blender as well, which would probably turn out more smooth, but I had my food processor out so why not. And then added my herbs and some pepper and warmed it all up along with another carton of vegetable broth. Here's how my butternut squash soup turned out

It turned out really good! We both enjoyed it for lunch, along with a sweet potato biscuit, which I found the recipe on Joyous Health, and you can get the recipe here

Mine turned out darker then hers cause I used buckwheat flour. These turned out really good as well. Buckwheat flour is quite strong in flavor so I would love to try these with spelt flour or whole wheat flour to see how they taste. All the herbs/spices in these are delicious! I used fresh rosemary for mine since I have lots in my herb garden.

I also wanted to make a healthy snack for us, and I saw another one of her post's a while back and I have been wanting to try it. So I made her chocolate chip banana bread. This also turned out really good!

I made the recipe exactly how she has it, however instead of just chocolate chips, I also added in some walnuts for a bit of crunch. I skipped the slices of banana on top and shredded coconut. I do love coconut but wasn't feeling like having any in this. I never thought either to put cinnamon in a banana bread but I like it. We both really enjoyed everything I made, and we of course have left overs for the week. I plan to freeze a jar of my soup to have at a later time, and I do still have some for this week as well.

I have been doing horribly in staying away from meat and dairy lately, and I have been getting some endometriosis pain, so I'm going meat and dairy free for a while so I can feel a lot better. I do fine with seafood so we have some salmon we will enjoy for supper tomorrow, and we have some shrimp in the freezer as well. Tonight's supper will be the sweet potato pad Thai, which I have already shared this recipe in a past post, you can view it here.

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Halloween