A little heat to kick this cold

I woke up this morning after a very restless night’s sleep.  I had a hard time falling asleep and woke up what seemed like every few hours unable to breathe through my nose.  I also had a couple of furry friends join me in bed last night.  Misty was curled up against my chest, furiously kneading me and Buster was curled up behind my legs.  I felt like the icing in between an Oreo cookie.  Pretty cozy though .

Trevor left me with a lovely Valentine’s Day gift.

 

Valentine’s Day was pretty exciting for the kids at school.  Many brought Valentines to exchange, but I told them they had to wait until after lunch as I didn’t want to have to deal with sugar highs all day long.  I also gave them their treat after they showed me that they wrote their homework in their agendas.  They were pretty stoked for these goodies I made on the weekend.  All got eaten up too   Always a good sign, right?

Today’s weather was a whole other story.  It poured all day and the rain was coming down sideways.  Unfortunately we had to have an indoor day for both recesses this afternoon, which didn’t help with the Vday excitement at school. 

I did manage to stop along the highway on the way home and snap a few shots of the crashing waves.  I do love watching the waves crash in, minus the rain. 

It was very chilly out…glad to get home shortly thereafter.  The cold and wind did clear up my sinuses for a little bit, so that was good, but when I got home I made myself a tall hot mug of Vanilla Rooibos Tea… my favourite.

As for my yummy food creation tonight, I thought a little bit of spice may help kick this head cold out of me…so let me introduce you to…..

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Spicy Beef and Noodle Soup

I haven’t made Thai food in a little while and had some leftover Beef Tenderloin from last night’s Bacon Wrapped Fillet Mignon.  My recipe calls for Beef Fillet, so what a perfect time to make this soup. 

  Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 4 oz Beef Tenderloin, sliced thinly
• 1 medium onion, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
• 4 Tbsp crushed ginger
• 3 Tbsp  Green Curry Paste (or less if you can’t handle too much spice)
• 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Bragg Soy Sauce
• 4 oz Flat Rice noodles
• 4 cups low-sodium Beef Broth
• some cilantro for garnish

Here is my spread of ingredients used

How to make this goodness

You will need a large pot and a wok.  Prepare the broth first by heating to a simmer in the large pot.  Once the broth comes to a boil, add the rice noodles and reduce heat to a simmer and prepare the rest of the ingredients.

In the wok heat oil over medium to high heat and add the sliced onions, garlic and crushed ginger.  Sauté for a few minutes until onions are translucent in color. 

Add the beef and green curry paste and stir-fry for another couple of minutes.

Add the fish sauce and soy sauce and add entire mixture to the noodles and beef broth.  

Cook for another few minutes and serve in a bowl.  Garnish with some fresh chopped cilantro. 

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After dinner settled, my friend Vicki and I had some of this….

Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream goodness with fresh strawberries and Maple Balsamic Reduction. 

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That’s it for me tonight… going to head to bed to try and catch up on missed sleep from yesterday.  Hopefully I’ll be able to breathe somewhat.

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day.  Remember….it’s not about how much you or your sweetie did or did not spend today or this weekend… everyday should be like Valentine’s Day.

I think that Valentine’s is definitely a money maker for the stores and companies out there. It’s just another reason for people to go out and buy things to please someone. My opinion is that you shouldn’t have to go out and buy material things to show how much you care about that special someone in your life.  It’s the everyday actions that you do and show towards your significant other that speak louder than words. 

But if you got some chocolates or a card or some flowers today… enjoy them.  I did I will admit that I did enjoy getting chocolates, flowers and a card from my sweetie.

Have a great night

Bea

xoxo

Valentine’s Weekend

How was everyone’s weekend? Do anything fun and interesting?  Anybody celebrate Valentine’s Day early?  Since Trevor leaves for work early Monday mornings, I won’t get to see him tomorrow.  So we spent Sunday evening together.  More about that later.  First…a weekend recap.

Trevor brought Bubba home from work this weekend.  Bubba is the farm dog…he was attacked by a cougar ( based on his battle wounds) and so he had to take a visit to the vet.  Before you begin to panick, Bubba is perfectly fine.  He actually fended off a bear a few years back… so we call him Bubba Beardog.  Maybe he should now be called Bubba Cougardog.  He’s one tough dog for sure.  Such a loveable and friendly dog.

I mentioned on Friday that I was going to be making treats for my class Saturday.  Kendra and her friend helped me make 20 S’more pops.  I wanted to make them look like Erin’s Heart Shaped S’more Pops from In Between Laundry. 

Unfortunately my heart-shaped cookie cutter was too big for the graham crackers and so I had to improvise.  Therefore my S’more pops turned into these Diamond S’more Pops.

We made 20 for the class and a few extras for us to munch on.  Yummy in our tummies.

I also played hockey again Saturday night.  It was an early game and so Trevor and all 3 kids came to cheer us on.  Brenda and Ashlee also came out to watch my game.  I played a hard game… normally I play wing, but last night I was asked to play Center.  If you’ve never played or don’t really follow hockey, playing center is hard work…A LOT of skating compared to playing Wing because you have to chase the puck all over the ice and support both your wing and defensive players.  And since there were only 2 of us playing center, it sure was a physical game. I think I may have lost a lung out there..lol. But I had a ton of fun..no goals last night. It’s not about winning or loosing, it’s about going out and having fun.

Here I am before the game.. sorry, no after picture…too sweaty ..hehe

Sunday night was my regular routine…shopping for the week and tidying up the house.  Unfortunately I was also nursing some major menstrual cramps.  I don’t usually suffer from cramps, but today was particularly bad.  I was curled up on the couch for a couple of hours with a hot water bottle on my tummy, but the stabbing in my lower abdomen was no fun.  After finally giving in to taking a couple of Advil, the pain has left, at least for a few hours.  Lets hope I’m cramp-free in the AM.

Once my cramps went away, I planned out my meals for the week and cooked up a scrumptious meal for myself and a friend.  Trevor came over after dinner with a yummy treat.

Sunday nights dinner was this…..

Bacon Wrapped Fillet Mignon with Balsamic Onions and Cocoa Roasted Butternut Squash Fries.

I will try to post the recipes for tomorrow… the fries were experimental, but oh so tasty… next time I think I’ll go a little easier on the cocoa though. 

For dessert Trevor brought over some Cappuccino Cheesecake.

More yummy in my tummy. 

We curled up on the couch together and watched a CTV Special on the 1 year anniversary of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.  It was awesome to relive some of the greatest Canadian moments.  Even though I did not get a chance to visit Vancouver during the Olympics (6 hour drive and school conflicts), I watched as much as I could on TV and celebrated the Olympics at school with my class. 

Did you have a favourite moment of the games?

That’s all for the night…going to make my lunch and get ready for bed.  Hope everyone had a great weekend and a great start to the week tomorrow. 

With love,

Bea

xoxo