A snowy Friday

I woke up this morning to a beautiful sight… a snowy winter wonderland.  I was very happy I didn’t have to drive anywhere today.  Mainly because people here do not know how to drive in the snow.  This fact was proven when I got rear ended in the fall while waiting to turn left into my driveway.  After all, they do say most accidents happen about 1 km from home.  Luckily the driver was not going fast and just scraped up my bumper. 

So for today, I thought I’d share some pics of our snowy winter wonderland.  A lot has already melted by now.. it got pretty slushy this afternoon once the sun came out.  I took Buster for a quick walk as he loves playing in the snow. 

A view from my deck… the ocean is beyond those tall trees

Buster sitting on his dog house.

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What are your weekend plans? 

I’m finally going to get to the wine store to bottle my wine.  It’s been sitting there for a while and haven't’ managed to get in there before this weekend.

What ever you do…enjoy it. 

Bea

xoxo

Baked Breakfast Cake and Mac and Cheese

So I stayed home today since I didn’t think the school would appreciate me coughing up my lungs and spreading more germs.  Which also meant I was able to sleep in today.  But Buster woke me up at 7am wanting to go outside, but then I went back to bed and was surprised to wake up at 11:30am.  Today was also the first day I could finally breathe out of my nose again. Yippee. 

When I got up this morning I wasn’t all that hungry like I normally am first thing.  I can never leave the house without eating breakfast.  I didn’t feel like my normal Green Monster or bowl of oatmeal, so I decided I wanted to make a breakfast cake.  It’s been a long time since I’ve made this.  I originally found a version of this recipe @ Oh She Glows. 

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BAKED APPLE BREAKFAST CAKE

This recipe makes enough for 3 breakfasts.  Since I obviously don’t have time in the morning during the week to make this breakfast, I’ll make it in the evening and keep in fridge for the next few days.  Feel free to play with the ingredients…there are so many possibilities.  I’ve even made it with pumpkin purée instead of yogurt. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup  hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
• 2 Tbsp  vanilla
• 1 Tbsp  maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp  cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp sprouted chia/flax seed
• 1 Tbsp  Navita’s Naturals Protein Twister Power
• 1 cup  Almond Milk… you could try this with coconut milk (hmm)
• 1 apple, unpeeled and cut into chunks
• 3 Tbsp Chocolate Chips
• some oats for garnish

HOW TO MAKE

First preheat your oven to 350F and grease 3 large ramekins. 

The rest is so simple …all you need to do is add all ingredients (excepts for the apple) into your Vitamix and blend until smooth.

2.  Pour the mixture into the ramekins.  Divide the apples and the chocolate chips equally between the 3 ramekins.  Top with some rolled oats.  Place on a cookie sheet and place in oven and bake for about 35 minutes.

You probably don’t want to dig into it right away after coming out of oven, unless you want to burn your taste buds.  So I let it sit for about 10 minutes before eating. I let the other 2 cool down and covered with saran wrap before placing in fridge.  All I have to do tomorrow morning is stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes and drizzle with some maple syrup. 

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MAC AND CHEESE

For dinner tonight I came up with my own version of Mac and Cheese.  I haven’t had a chance to make it to the grocery store this week to stock up my fridge, so I figured I might as well make an effort to eat what was in it before the food spoiled.  And so my creation tonight turned into this….

Here is how to make this

I chopped up 1/2 an onion, 1 jalapeño pepper and about 6 strips of bacon.  Not in pictures are 2 garlic cloves.  While preparing these ingredients, I also boiled a pot of water and then cooked 2 cups of Rice Pasta. 

Make sure you remove the seeds and wash your hands really well after chopping up the pepper.  And most importantly, DO NOT touch your eyes until after you’ve washed your hands.  (Even I have to learn the hard way sometimes – haha). 

  In another pot, heat about 1 Tbsp Olive oil and add the bacon.  Cook until browned, drain the bacon and set aside.  You’re going to add the bacon to the pasta later.

When the pasta is cooked, drain in a colander.  Wash the pot and return to stove.  Turn heat to medium and add 2 Tbsp Olive Oil.  Add the onions, garlic and jalapeño pepper.  Cook until onions are translucent.  Also add about 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables. 

Now return the cooked pasta and the bacon to the vegetable mixture. 

Add 1 cup grated cheese. 

I also added 1 cup of Almond Milk, 2 Tbsp of Chicken bouillon, salt and pepper to taste.

Make sure to mix everything together really well.  Cook for a couple of minutes so that your mac and cheese is nice and hot and enjoy the cheesy goodness. 

Actually, it wasn’t too cheesy, it was just perfect. 

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So there is my day for you.  It’s supposed to snow tonight.  We have a snowfall warning in effect (up to 10 cm).  Tomorrow is a professional development day for the staff at my school.  No kids to worry about infecting, just the teachers , but depending on my night, I may take one last day at home. I’ve got some yummy breakfast cake and some mac and cheese to look forward to tomorrow as well. 

Have a great night y’all. 

Bea

xoxo

It snowed slush today

So after a day of rest yesterday, I woke up this morning with some clearer sinuses.  Well..that’s what I thought anyway.  Once I got out of bed, the head clogged right back up…boo   And to boot, my voice was gone and I was still coughing.  But I knew that 5 teachers would be absent from work today for professional development and therefore many Teachers on Call (TTOC) would be very busy at our school.  Therefore I stuck it out and went to work.  And how was my day you ask? 

It involved a lot of this

And some of this

By the end of the day, I felt like this

So tomorrow will be another day at home.  Lucky for me I have something like 40 accumulated sick days, not that I plan on using them all up this year. 

Like I mentioned before, I hate being away from my class for any period of time, but I really don’t want to get any more kids sick.  It seems everyone is sick these days..and when one comes back after being away, another one gets sick…a vicious cycle that’s been going around the school…and now it finally caught up to me.  Go figure.  At least the stomach flu has stayed away from my house. 

And it snowed today for a bit…it was more like slush, but it got the kids pretty excited.  By the time I left work though, the roads were just really wet and the sun was making an appearance.

Hope everyone had a good hump day.  Anything new and exciting happen in your neck of the woods?

With love

Bea

xoxo

A Mellow Day

Hey all…

I’m afraid nothing interesting today.  I took a sick day today as I was still not able to get a good nights sleep, my head is still really congested and can’t breathe out of my nose and I’m sneezing like crazy.  So I spent the day on the couch, reading blogs and cuddling with Buster and Misty. 

For lunch I ate some leftovers from last night’s dinner, a couple of slices of the Cappuccino Cheesecake from Sunday, a glass of Carrot Juice, a cup of Green Tea and a couple of Advil Cold and Sinus to help relieve some congestion (and it didn’t really work either). 

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I sure hope this head cold goes away soon.  I’m going to recertifying for my lifeguarding at the end of the month and diving 3 m to retrieve a 20lb brick will just kill my sinuses if it doesn’t clear by then. 

I think this evening I’m going to work on my resume.  I desktop computer died on me a little while ago and lot all of my documents, including my resumes.  Luckily I have a hard copy in my filing cabinet.  And I’m going to be needing my resume in the next few weeks so that I can apply at my local pool for a part-time lifeguarding position.  Since I have the summers off from teaching, working at the pool will bring in a little bit of cash flow… and it’s something I really enjoyed doing a few years ago before I moved here. 

AND BEFORE I LEAVE YOU…. I WANT TO SEND A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO THE LOVELY JESSICA @ DAIRY FREE BETTY.

TODAY IS HER WEDDING DAY AND SHE AND HER NEW HUSBAND ARE SURELY BASKING IN THE MEXICAN SUNSHINE, HAVING THE TIMES OF THEIR LIVES.  I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE PICTURES.

ALL THE BEST TO YOU AND DAVE

Hope everyone had a great day.

Bea

xoxox

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

Balsamic Onions

I love things that are reduced with balsamic vinegar… sweet yet tangy.  That’s where I got my inspiration for these onions.  And I think these would also go really well on burgers. 

What you need and how to make:

• 2 onions – peeled and sliced
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp Sucanat Sugar
• 1/2 cup good quality Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 cup Maple Syrup
• 1/2 cup Red Wine
• 2 cups Beef Stock
• salt and pepper to taste
  

First prepare the onions.  When you’ve cut them all up, heat the olive oil in a large pot on high heat. 

Sauté onions until brown in color.  Then add the sugar and continue to cook for another few minutes. 

Pour in the vinegar and cook again for about 7 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by about 1/2.  Just make sure you don’t cook too long at this step as you wouldn’t want to turn the vinegar. 

Now if you are going to be making Bacon Wrapped Fillet Mignon like I did, set the onions aside and sear the beef in a hot cast iron skillet.  When done, you can deglaze the pan with the beef stock and red wine.  Add this liquid to the onions and also add the maple syrup and salt and pepper. 

Allow the liquid to reduce again by 1/2 by simmer on medium heat. 

If you are making these onions for another purpose, you can just add the wine, stock, maple syrup and salt and pepper to the onions and continue to simmer and reduce liquid by half. 

BONNE APPETIT

Cocoa Roasted Butternut Squash Fries

Recently I’ve been reading a lot about roasting squash with cocoa… so I thought why not take the classic Butternut Squash and turn it into fries….much like Yam fries….. and cocoa is perfect for tomorrow’s Special day. 

Ingredients

• 3 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and sliced into fries
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp  cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp Sucanat sugar
• 1/4 cup oil.

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425F.  Mix all of the dry ingredients into a bowl.  In the meantime, prepare the squash. 

Drizzle the fries with olive oil and toss in the cocoa mixture.  Place on a cookie sheet and roast in oven for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, turn the fries and place in oven for another 20 minutes. 

You can also place the fries on the cookie sheet, drizzle with oil and then sprinkle the cocoa mixture over fries, but I prefer tossing them and them placing them on the sheet.  They will get quite brown…be forewarned…they are not burned. 

I served mine with Balsamic Onions and Bacon wrapped Fillet Mignon.