Barefoot Wine for a footnote night

Hi Friends! 

Just a quick update after a long, but fairly productive day! I got a decent amount of work done and am at the 2 week countdown before I hand my paper in... I can't wait! But I've got a lot to do. 

One thing to make the next two weeks go more smoothly- I bought some wine!

This one was a wine that Cathy taste tasted at last weeks Capital Ex. We both really liked it and the price was right at only $9 (yes, i seek out less expensive wines, though I don't think that means anything! judge me all you want but I don't have a job right now, haha.)

Barefood Moscato from California

And look at the back: Footnotes!

You know this wine was just asking to come home with me!

Now onto dinner tonight!

I kept it simple and hearty!

Grilled Farmers Market Potatoes, Carrots and Zucchini!!
Sprayed on olive oil, and then salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme.

Don't you just love it! I do!! 

I got a bbq chicken from the grocery store today. I knew I wouldn't have much time to make dinner tonight. The key with these is to take off the skin (since thats where all the calories and fat are!) and then add your own spices.

I had two glasses tonight, not going to lie.

Salad to finish!

I'm just going to finish up a few more pieces of work and then I am going to relax! Cathy and I are planning to use her new popcorn maker (that she got for her birthday over 3 weeks ago but has yet to use!! I've been waiting in anticipation!)

Night everyone!

Festival Weekend!

Hi Everyone! So the last few days here in Edmonton have been lots of fun! That is because the end of July/start of August is festival time! and great weather! I managed to hit up, in the course of 5 days, Capital Ex, Taste of Edmonton and Heritage Days. Sadly, I forgot my camera for Taste of Edmonton... but regardless I still have lots to say!

Taste of Edmonton: went there on Wednesday night. First, Ryan and I shared green onion cakes (every year they are part of the menu and part of MY menu. so good!) Then we shared pyrogies (given what you pay, I wasn't impressed with the amount. I'll stick to my church basement dinners thank you very much!) THen I had these stuffed mushrooms... by far my FAVORITE of the evening. They were from the Gas Pump (i think it might be a bar haha...) they were stuffed with three cheese. CHOMP! Ryan and I didn't share those, thank goodness!! Finally for dessert: Ryan and I shared a deep fried mars bar (it wasn't that good. I wouldn't get it again. I've had better deep fried mars bar experiences...) and then from the Creperie I had a Glace au Chocolat... it was yummy! Frozen deliciousness.

Angie, Cathy and I had 2 leftover tickets each, so we hit up Taste of Wine for Sangria. It was OK... it was bottle Sangria, which we all agreed was unacceptable. Where is the fruit??

All in all, it was a fun evening! 

Capital Ex: The plan- go see Metric rock out with my sister and my dear friend Jason. and we had free tickets to get into the EX. woo hoo!! The sky-- BLACK! It rained and rained and there was lots of lightening. However, that didn't stop us from getting MINI DONUTS and ALCOHOL! 

Here is Cathy drinking Yukon Espresso Beer- none of us really liked it. It tasted like beer and then had an aftertaste of coffee... not as appealing as you might think.

Here I am with the same espresso beer.

Jason and his friend. They also did not like the espresso beer, but are smiling nonetheless!

Note: These photos were taken before we spent a good 3 hours standing outside waiting for and listening to Metric perform! We were all decently exhausted by the end! 

Now onto HERITAGE DAYS! This is by far my favorite festival of the summer! I spent Sunday evening and a few hours on Monday there too!

Here is Cathy and I with a delicious treat: Frozen Banana Covered in Chocolate! 

I should say: there are tents representing different countries all over Hawrelak Park. Each country makes traditional food and you buy tickets and make your way around the world! It reminds Edmontonians of how multicultural their city is!  This treat was from the Peru tent. 

Here I am eating roasted corn from Peru. Not going to lie, it was covered in butter and salt. And it was great.

Here is Ryan with some of his food choices... I think these are from Slovakia but I might be wrong. One is some kind of traditional hot dog/sausage wrapped in some kind of flat bread. The other is some kind of chocolate puff.

Cathy, Ryan and I only really managed to spend about 1.5 hours there Sunday night before s storm blew in... lucky for me I got to go the next day with Benita! We like to go and buy inexpensive jewelery from the India tent every year! And then eat...

From Afghanistan: Beef and Vegetable Skewers. I wish this had had some kind of sauce or yogurt based dip to go with it. It was dry without something.

Benita eating CAMEL from Nepal. We both agreed that it was tough (which isn't really surprising.) It was still good, especially because of the sauce they put on it.

Benita and me drinking Jalaab, a traditional middle eastern drink, made of rose water, dates, almonds, all on ice. We both liked it and it was quite refreshing!

All in all I had a great time over the past few days! Now that I've eaten my way through Edmonton and the world, I should get back to work!

Black Beans and Chickpeas... Veggielicious dinners!

First things first... here are those veggie bean burgers I made the other day (recipe a few posts below). Honestly, this is the WAY to eat them: topped with goat cheese and avocado! soooo delicious and creamy.

Now onto MY latest creation: Chickpea Zucchini Garlic Pasta!

In a pan heat of olive oil and add 3 cloves of chopped up garlic. Cook for about 1 minute.
Add one can of chickpeas and 1 whole zucchini. Salt and Pepper (to taste.)

Cook up some pasta. Add a little bit (maybe half a cup?) of the pasta water to the chickpea sauce once the pasta is cooked.
And then you have this:

Top this with some Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

I was really impressed with how good this tasted! I will certainly add this to my usual dinners.

For one, you don't need to eat as much pasta, since the chickpeas and zucchini is so filling.

Secondly, what is cheaper than pasta, canned chickpeas and zucchini? I think the whole recipe cost like 5 dollars tops!

There you have it! Enjoy!

Finally, something worth updating about!! Veggie Burgers

Hi Friends,

So, I took a little hiatus from blogging. A few reasons: Up until mid-last week I was writing super lots for my thesis to get another section done. Then my wrist flared up with ultimate PAIN! anyway, didn't exactly inspire me to blog. Finally, I may have eaten a lot of cake... and more cake. I didn't really feel all that proud about it, so I just decided to hide. haha
But yesterday, I made something work blogging about!! woo hoo!!!My day of eating yesterday was exceptionally yummy....

For lunch I had a wonderful veggielicious salad with cheddar cheese and Food Should Taste Good Chips and Mango Salsa. 

I had a serious craving for cheddar cheese so I got a massive block of it at the grocery store. 

If you haven't had these chips before, you haven't lived. That is how good they are!

This salad is: Spinach, Cucumber, Grape Tomatoes, Orange Pepper, Red Cabbage, Avocado and Bolthouse Farms Tropical Mango Dressing. I love vegetables. I'm on a red cabbage kick (you'll see why in a moment)

Now for dinner....  Homemade Veggie Bean Burgers!!! Chomp!

I got this recipe from Cheap, Healthy, Good! The recipe is very easy and simple, mainly because the ingredients are so few. I looked at other recipes and they had so many ingredients and it made me feel overwhelmed. These, however, consist of beans, rice, oatmeal, onion, garlic and spices. BAM!

Here are two burgers cooking up! Took about 10 minutes to cook!

TADA!

Here is the bun that the burger would live on... but only for a moment!

I normally just get the typical whole wheat hamburger bun, but for 30 cents more, I got this fancy flax bun.

It was worth it....

Chomp chomp!

I put one burger on the bun, with ketchup and green relish.

The bunless burger has peanut butter on it. Cheap, Healthy, Good recommended it as a topping. Not much of a surprise coming from me, but it was FANTASTIC! I'm going to have that for lunch today!

I roasted up some red cabbage as well. I just spritz olive oil on it, and salt. I love the salt on it... i think the cabbage is just a way for me to get salt into my mouth... haha.

Issues with the recipe:

1) You require a food processor. I wasn't thinking. I have one. but it is LITTLE! When you have to process all the ingredients in one...this does not work with a tiny processor. That took some work on my part and more time than I anticipated.

2) It can get a little messy. That may be because of #1. haha

Recipe (copied from Cheap, Healthy, Good):

25 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 1/2 cups cooked beans)
25 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 1/2 cups cooked beans)
1 medium onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups cooked brown short grain rice
2 tbsp adobo spice mix (which is cumin, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, oregano, chili powder, garlic powder) or you can just add in a bunch of spices!
salt and pepper to taste

1) Cook short grain brown rice ahead of time. You’ll need 2 cooked cups.

2) Rinse beans and put into food processor. Add the quartered onion, garlic cloves, and oats. Pulse a few times to begin mixing. Then add the rice and spices.

3) Pulse until all the ingredients are combined but not pureed, scraping the sides of the food processor occasionally. Add a splash of water if necessary. The mixture should be moist but not wet (if that makes sense).

4) Let bean/grain mixture rest for about 15-20 minutes before forming into patties. Roll mixture into 2 1/2- to 3-oz balls (a little less than 1/4 cup) and flatten into 1/2-inch-thick patties.

5) Pan cook in a teeny bit of oil or cooking spray for 5–7 minutes on each side; or bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes. Either way, the outside gets a little crispy and the inside is nice and chewy, but not dry.

6) Serve with whole grain bread and your favorite condiments, like spicy mustard or peanut butter and American cheese. These burgs rock with sweet potato fries.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price per Serving
156 calories, 1g fat, 5g fiber, $0.43

CHOMP CHOMP CORA!!

Today Ryan and I went to Cora for breakfast. It was our second visit there and ridiculously filling us usual...

I got the waffle with custard and tons of fruit! it was great

Giant crepe= lots of leftovers 

(well there were leftovers but they got left in Ryan's car in 28C heat so its hard to say at this point...)

I got this last time and ate about 3/4 of it. HAHA

Clearly I've been doing lots of breakfast related things lately. Probably because it is my favorite meal and can easily be lunch or dinner too... 

Hope everyone had a great Thursday! 

I'll be posting that elk meat sauce soon, I promise!

A Random Selection...

Hello Friends! It's been a few days since my last update. Not because I didn't have anything worth posting about...
Saturday morning I went out to brunch with my sister, Cathy, and my wonderful friends Angela and Andrew. We decided to go to Blue Plate Diner, since Angie has been here since September and had still never been! (She is ridiculous. Lucky, I think she liked it.)
Cathy, Angie and I all had the same thing:
Pancakes with maple syrup, bacon and (poached) eggs. CHOMP! And of course, we all had never-ending cups of coffee.

Andrew opted for the Ranch Eggs. They looked so good! Next time I go thats what I'm getting! He really enjoyed them.
It has two eggs, potatoes, beans, ranch sauce with cheese and tortilla chips-- all baked up together... topped with guacamole and sour cream!!!
(Uh huh, I know!)

Anyways, I think brunch was a success on multiple levels!



Later on that day, my sister and my parents were still at work at moving in stuff. So I made them a snack...

I think this humus wins. Its Sabra Red Pepper Humus.  I really like the consistency and flavour. However, now that Cat and I have a mini food processor, I predict homemade humus in our future!!

This snack was a hit with the whole family. Especially the Happy Camel Pita's from the Farmer's Market.

And then there was dinner (from last night haha... yes time does FLY!!) 

Rice, rice, baby!!

Our Giant Wok/Pan thing... I'm in love with it. How did I ever cook without it?? It holds so much...

2 Chicken Breasts cooking in some EVOO with salt and pepper

All done!

How Leslie makes stir fry- frozen veggies, Worcestershire sauce, and some kind of teriyaki sauce. You can never go wrong...

Veggies- nom nom nom

All mixed together!

And now its time to eat!! 

YUM!!!

I'm currently making an elk meat paste sauce for dindin tonight, so expect a post about that later this evening...

Happy Wednesday everyone!

New Roomie= Yummy Food!

Happy Belated Canada Day Everyone !! :)
Yesterday my sister moved in and the day was spent cleaning and moving and cleaning and painting and moving and cleaning. 13 hours later we had a place we could call our home!

A very CLEAN KITCHEN!! 

We cleaned out all the cabinets, washed fixtures, dishes, walls and the floor. It is very satisfying to have a a newly cleaned kitchen and more importantly, its really organized!!

Here is our new table and chairs! 100% oak and we got it second hand for 100 bucks! 

Last night after an exhausted day, we all sat down to Funky Pickle Pizza and beer. It was DELICIOUS! I don't have pictures, sorry! haha

This morning I cooked oatmeal in my new/old pot. New as in new to me, but old because its my parents old pots and pans!

3/4 cup Almond milk boiling and add 1/4 cup Steel cut oats ,and 1 banana. Once cooked down add 1/2 cup cottage cheese, and some cinnamon. Almond butter for a topping! Chomp!

One of the many great things about living with my sister is that we have very similar eating habits and outlooks on food. This includes making a point of eating together, making delicious food and enjoying every bite! So tonight we did just that!

Here is a salad my sister made! Romaine, spinach, peppers, snap peas, tomatoes and cucumber!

Also, here is a picture of my salad spoons. I got them in Maui and they are great. They scoop a generous serving of salad every time!!

For our main course I decided that we should try Cheap, Healthy, Good Blog's Salsa Couscous Chicken or Moroccan Chicken. IT WAS SOOOOO YUMMY and the best part- RIDICULOUSLY EASY! Four thumbs way up from L and C!

Chicken and the yummy sauce!

Dinner set for two!

Here is the finished product! 

Served over brown rice!

Are you drooling yet? I wish this blog could let you smell how good this was!

Here is the recipe... I had a minor variation. I used chicken breast instead of thighs. Thanks again for Cheap, Healthy, Good Blog for giving us such good recipes!!

1 cup uncooked couscous or rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 5 or 6 ounces each)

1 cup bottled salsa, medium heat

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons raisins

1 tablespoon honey

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1) Cook the couscous or rice according to package directions. Set aside.

2) In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add almonds. Cook, stirring occasionally. Once browned, remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

3) To the same pan, add garlic. Cook 30 to 60 seconds, until fragrant. Add chicken. Cook about 5 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Meat should be slightly browned when finished.

4) While chicken is cooking, combine salsa, water, raisins, honey, cumin, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir.

5) Add salsa mixture to pan. Stir to combine. Cover and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it’s getting a little dry, add water as you go along. Chicken should be cooked through when finished. If not, give it another few minutes.

6) Serve chicken over rice/couscous. Top with sauce. Sprinkle with almonds.

Salad to finish! We got some new salad dressing today while grocery shopping! Bolthouse Yogurt Ranch Dressing- very ranchy and creamy! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!