Over the past couple of weeks I've tried some new recipes - most of them were successful, but there was one that not even I liked! I've made Korean Beef Bulgogi which was delicious! I ripped the recipe out of a magazine and I can't for the life of me find it now to credit which one. Guess I'll have to improvise next time!
Over March Break, Jake had a friend sleep over and I tried a new recipe for breakfast. This is another wheat free recipe I found on Pinterest for Biggest Loser Oatmeal Pancakes! These were very tasty and you wouldn't know that there is cottage cheese in them! I always hated cottage cheese before, but it works well in these pancakes for some added protein.
La Feile Padraig Shona! Happy St. Patrick's Day! St. Patrick's Day is the biggest event in my house and as I love all things Irish I tend to go a little over the top! I spent all day Saturday and Sunday preparing the food for our feast of 16 people. I made Irish Soda bread, Shepherd's Pie, Leek & Potato Soup, Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, Leprechaun Punch (for the kids) and some Shamrock Crackers which I served with Irish cheeses! And of course we had Guinness and Harp at the ready, along with some non-Irish wine!
A couple of days after that, Carla, Amanda and I were going to see the movie Side Effects. My daughter Kristen was busy performing her Irish dancing that week and I was trying to sort her out before we left. Carla was hoping to go out for dinner but I had made a Fruity Chicken Stir-Fry from the Dash Diet and she was happy to stay and have some of that. It was pretty good too! The combination of apricot with the pine nuts, apple and chicken was so yummy!
Last weekend, I insisted on a Family Movie Night! Can you guess the movie of choice? Why yes, it was none other than "St. Trinians 2 & the Legend of Fritton's Gold"! I was anxiously anticipating the arrival of Colin on the screen only to be disappointed with his ragged appearance. Although he, "May be a drunk, and I may be a sot, and I may be a pickled horse.." in his first scene, rest assured, Colin most certainly does clean up well! In this sequel the girls of St. Trinian's are trying to find a second ring to match one they found that will help them discover the location of treasure hidden by Fritton's pirate ancestor. Geoffrey (Colin) is enlisted to help them in their quest. Fritton's adversary, Piers Pomfrey and his cronies break into St. Trinian's to steal the ring, but the girls are ready for them! Camilla says, "My friends call me Millie. What should I call you? An ambulance perhaps?"! In the end the girls discover that "The bard is a bird" - the Bard being Shakespeare!
This week I made Roasted Cauliflower & Pancetta Parpadelle along with some baby spinach drizzled with some of my homemade maple peach dressing! I had no idea what pancetta was or parpadelle before. Furthermore, John normally can't stand eating cauliflower and grimaces every time I make it and even he liked this version!!! (Normally I would just steam them and make a cheese sauce to go over mine). I tore this recipe from Wish magazine, probably a couple of years ago, but did so with the intention of one day making the Shortcut Turkey Puff Pies on the other side. Who would have thought that after starting this journey I would be more intrigued by the cauliflower recipe? Even better, there was lots left over to have for lunches!!!
This brings me to yet another failed recipe attempt. It was Better "Fried" Fish taken from the April 2012 issue of Chatelaine, the fish being Perch. Wednesdays are typically a fish night at our house, and this week I thought I'd mix it up a bit and try a new fish, much like I did when I tried making scallops for the first time a few weeks back! Well, in all fairness it wasn't a complete failure - I didn't mind this one, but everyone else voiced their negative opinions rather loudly - especially the grown man who is supposed to be encouraging the kids to eat! In the end, I relented and agreed not to make this dish again, not so much because of the taste, but rather it was a pain in the ass to make and left a hardened mess in the pan!
Yesterday was Good Friday, and after a hectic week consisting of two nearly all-nighters working on cake orders, I was beat! But that didn't put a damper on my favourite Easter tradition we started last year! We went to Bronte Park for the National Service Dogs annual Easter Egg Hunt for Dogs! It's so much fun and for a good cause! And Rocket came home with quite the loot in prizes! After lunch we went to my mom's for Easter dinner, and the kids, along with their cousins went to the park to fly their new kites from Grandma! It was a beautiful day! We came home and went across the street to play some Five Crowns with Carla & Steve ( I won!!) and this is where I must commend Carla again. That girl can whip up the most delicious snacks out of thin air! She brought out some Gruyere cheese, raw roasted almonds, fig butter, crackers and apple slices. I would just like to say I have rebounded from my doomed love affair with avocado with that of fig butter, which happened to coalesce rather nicely with the bottle of Finca Nueva Rioja!
And for tonight's dinner, I tried Bruschetta Chicken for the first time. One Saturday when I was at Curves, the person working that day warmed up something in the microwave for her lunch and it smelled so good!! So she printed off the recipe for me from www.kraftrecipes.com! John came home from picking up some wine and was raving at the get go about how good it smelled! Then more so as he ate it! Moral of the recipe saga is , you win some, you lose some - you aren't going to like every thing, but it sure is fun trying things out!!
So, after that lengthy rendition of what I've been eating since my last entry, perhaps you'll forgive me for tipping a little backwards on the scales??? Amanda came with me to Curves on Monday to try it out and I weighed myself at 142 lbs. Yikes!! Today I have to confess I was up to 142.5 lbs again. Not to worry though, I am going to be proactive and set things on the right track once more. After Easter dinner tomorrow I am going to do another wheat-free stint. I think the combination of the late late nights and added stress I've been under the past week contributed to the increase. On a more positive note, John bought me some new runners, and due to the batting of my eyelashes, a new running top to match - so tomorrow, as the weather is getting nicer, we are planning to resume our running of laps at the track that we began in October. John is trying to decide whether or not to try running a half marathon - me, I'll be happy if I can work myself up to 5K!
Before I sign off, remember that vitamin experiment I tried after reading about it in the Looneyspoons Cookbook? Well, the sour gummy vitamins we were giving the kids before didn't pass the test, so I bought a new brand and tried the experiment with it this afternoon. The results were much better!
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter holiday with your family and friends! I hope the Easter Bunny is good to you! Good night, and Colin, "Love ya Babe!"
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