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

Kasha..what’s that?

How was everyone’s Monday?  Ours was sunny, but a bit chilly.  The day went by smoothly, the kids were awesome at school today and we got lots accomplished.  We even had a drama workshop for the school today and my class loved it.  It was really neat to see some of them come out of their shells.  After work I went for a run with another teacher.  It was pretty chilly, but a clear blue sky with the sun shining definitely made up for that. 

After work it was time to prepare dinner.  On tonight’s menu:

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KASHA with roasted Butternut Squash

This was an experimental meal.  I’ve never made Kasha before but I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s another great Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free meal.  So what is Kasha?  It’s roasted Buckwheat.  First off, it’s not wheat.  Actually it’s not even a distant relative of wheat.  Did you know that it’s a seed from the rhubarb family.  I did some research on the health benefits of buckwheat and this is what I came up with:

• high in protein
• good source of fibre, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and copper
• 1 cup of cooked groats (Kasha) has 4.5 g of fibre, 5.6 g of protein, 1.3mg of iron, 1mg of zinc and more. 
• It’s low in fat and has no cholesterol

So here is what I did:

Turn oven to 400F.  Slice a butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds and place on baking sheet.  Roast in oven until skin can be peeled off, about 40 minutes or so.

Now you’ll need to roast your buckwheat groats to make the Kasha.  Take a pan and turn heat of medium.  Keep an eye on the groats so they don’t burn.  You’ll want to stir constantly.

 

 

 

 

 

Before                                                                     After

Then I boiled 2 cups of Chicken broth.  When the broth began to boil, add a pinch of salt and one Tbsp of oil.  Add your Kasha, cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.  It should look like this when ready.  Set aside and cover until ready to serve.

While your buckwheat is cooking in water, prepare the chickpeas.  I like to peel mine because it just tastes a lot better.  And you’ll be done peeling them by the time the buckwheat is cooked.

Now make your vegetable mixture.  Chop up 1 onion, 3 garlic, 450g mushrooms and one red pepper. 

Heat olive oil in a large pot.  Add the onions, garlic, pepper and mushrooms.  Cook until translucent, about 10 minutes.

Add 1 tsp Thai Red curry paste, 3 splashes of Worcestershire Sauce, 1 Tbsp bouillon and 1/2 cup of water. 

You can also chop up some fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme and cilantro.  Add this to the mixture. 

Add cut up roasted squash and your prepared chickpeas to the pot.

Mix well and allow to simmer for another 5 minutes or so. 

To serve, serve vegetable mixture over a bed of the Kasha.  Top with a sprinkle of shredded cheese.  (or leave off the cheese of course if you want it to be dairy-free). 

 Have you ever made Kasha? How do you prepare it? Did you like it?

 

And thanks again to everyone for following my stories and foodie blogs…it really does put a smile on my face when I read all your lovely comments.  I love creating good eats. 

 

Night all

Bea

xoxo