Meatloaf - I Would Do Anything For...

...Love Meatloaf.

That's right, I made meatloaf.

But not just any meatloaf.

In my spare time, which I seem to be having a lot of lately (where are you, sub calls?), I have developed a habit of reading other people's food blogs. As a fellow food lover, I really enjoy reading other people's cooking experiences (and experiments), and reading reviews of restaurants and the type of food people enjoy. So in my blog reading, I stumbled across a recipe for a Chicken Spinach Meatloaf that comes from the Weight Watchers 'Take 5' cookbook (which is apparently five ingredients or less in all recipes). Seemed fairly simple and I had everything on hand already, so on Monday I decided to make this. All it consists of is:

1 lb ground chicken
About 1 and 1/4 cup of chopped spinach (I used fresh instead of frozen and just chopped it in small pieces)
1 egg
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs ( I added more because it was too wet)
1 packet onion soup mix
a bit of salt and pepper for flavouring

Smoosh it all together and press into a greased (I used nonstick cooking spray) loaf pan, shaping into a loaf. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Delicious! I don't have the calorie or fat information for this recipe because the blogger I got it from (Food Snob) didn't have it listed. Anyway, I paired this with some homemade dollar fries and some StoveTop chicken stuffing. Oh, and a glass of ice water with lemon.

Spinach Meatloaf with Dollar Fries and Stovetop stuffing

Once you get past the fact that the meatloaf sort of looks like veiny cat food, you can actually start to appreciate it and enjoy the taste. Randy and I both really enjoyed this meal - it's especially good with ketchup but I'm biased because I like all meatloaf (and many meat items in general) smothered in ketchup,

Tuesday, Randy was feeling better so he decided to take me out for supper to make up for our missed Friday Don Cherry's meal. I wanted to go somewhere I hadn't yet blogged about (not that there are too many decent restaurant choices in the metropolis that is Grand Falls) so I suggested we go to the Peyton Steakhouse Corral restaurant in the Mount Peyton hotel. If you remember from my earlier postings, this is one of the three restaurants in the hotel I mentioned and this is the one where I had the crusty over-cooked (to the point of it being inedible) chicken breast. Why, you may ask, would I go back to a restaurant that made the turkey from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation look succulent in comparison? Well, because I believe in second chances.

The first time I went to 48 High (Grand Falls' only high-class restaurant), I had a really crappy 30 dollar hazelnut crusted halibut and was completely turned off. It's not that the taste was so awful - just that I felt it was nothing spectacular for the price tag and while I enjoy a decent restaurant atmosphere, I'm paying for the food, not just the ambience.

But on Valentine's Day, we gave 48 High another try, and I had an amazing Scallop and Bacon Carbonara so I decided this place wasn't a write-off after all.

So I went into the Peyton steakhouse with the same attitude in mind - I mean, everyone deserves a second chance, don't they?

Well, not the Peyton steakhouse. You fail.

First of all, we were the only people there (bonus) but our waitress was a rude, rude lady (bonus removed). She seemed pissed off more than anything that she actually had to do her job (as when she was done serving us, she returned to her spot with another server at a table and proceeded to pick up where they had left off gossiping). She barely spoke a word to us, and when she did, it was quiet/under her breath and she looked annoyed that we were even there. I am HUGE on service. Crappy service, no tip. Simple as that.

I decided to get over her nastiness (but make a mental note for later) and awaited the bread. I will say this - the Peyton steakhouse has darn good bread. They send over this little mini loaf that you cut yourself, as you see Randy doing here:

It cuts about 4 pieces, is nice and warm, and seasoned with I don't know what, but it's delicious. I never understand the butter that accompanies it though. I mean, I love butter...but 9 little packages? That's like 3 packets of butter per slice. Holy arteries.
We nursed a beer (Randy) and a glass of white wine (me) while we perused the menu. I decided on the Maple Walnut pork tenderloin and Randy (who still wasn't feeling 100%) went for a bowl of soup and a caesar salad. Yes, call us lame that we did not order steak at a steakhouse but like I said before, I really only like steak that someone makes for me at home. Not a big restaurant steak person...too much meat!

When Patsy Pleasant, otherwise known as our waitress returned, I placed my Maple Walnut Pork Tenderloin order, only to hear:

``Now we don`t have the maple walnut stuff. It`s just a demi-glaze.``

Then why is it listed on your menu? Gah.

"That's fine," I said, a little disheartened. Not quite sure what a demi-glaze was either, but I was hungry and in no mood to have to look through the menu a second time.

While we waited for our meals "You sexy baby, you drive me crazy" (or whatever the name of that song is) came on. Really? Here we were in a nice restaurant with cloth tablecloths and dim lighting and of all the songs, they decided to put that one on? Between the mean waitress, non-existant menu item, and poor music choice, I had given this place three strikes.

Until they brought out my meal and I realized a place can actually get four strikes.

The "demi-glaze" was another word for barbecue sauce and vinegar poured over a (dry) sliced pork tenderloin. I also ordered a garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette (nothing special) and it came with bagged and thawed carrots and green beans. Bleh.

Pork Tenderloin

The pork tenderloin was dryer than dry, and if I can order a meal at a restaurant and realize that I could make it better myself at home, I am generally not a fan.

Randy, on the other hand enjoyed his soup (turkey vegetable):

and his salad as well:

He always seems to have a better experience at this restaurant than me. I gave this place two rotten tomatoes out of three and opted to leave shortly after eating (didn't even drink all my wine). Well wouldn't you know it, but as soon as we go up to pay, our waitress becomes Little Miss Chuckles and Conversation. How convenient. We gave her a half-ass tip (enough to prove that we are tippers, but she didn't deserve a good one) and we left.

I was hurting for a McDonald's vanilla soft serve so we swung through the drive-through on the way home and I satisfied my sweet tooth:

See? Why spend $19.99 on a crappy Grand Falls Restaurant meal when you can pay 2 bucks and get a McDonald's soft serve. So boss.

Today I made a recipe called 'Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce' that was in my 'How to Cook' cookbook that Mom gave me when I was fifteen.

Here's the ingredients:

1 lb rump or fillet steak (I don't think it matters...I just got marinating steak)
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons teriyaki marinade
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons sherry (look online for substitutes if you don't have it...vinegar, water, and sugar works well)
3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
3-4 gloves garlic, crushed

Peanut Sauce:
1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/4 cup crunch peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut milk
a little lemon or lime juice

This is supposed to serve 4-6, but that's bull. There was only enough for the two of us and we had to have a side as well.

First, trim any fat and sinew from the meat. Cut the meat into 2 cm cubes.

Combine the soy sauce, teriyaki marinade, honey, sherry, and half of the ginger and garlic in a large bowl:

Voila! Marinade. Add the meat cubes and toss to combine. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours:

In the meantime, soak wooden skewers in cold water for at least one hour to help prevent them from burning.

To make the peanut sauce: heat the oil in a medium pan. Add the onion and cook over medium heat 2-3 minutes or until soft:

Me, hard at work

Add the remaining ginger, garlic and ground spices and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the soy sauce, peanut butter and coconut milk. Stir over low heat until smooth:

Add a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice. Reheat gently when needed.

Thread the meat cubes onto skewers. Cook under a preheated grill for 4-5 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

Serve with the warm peanut sauce. I drizzled the peanut sauce over my skewers while Randy had his on the side and dipped the skewers in it. I served it with a spinach salad topped with tomato, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette:

It was delicious! Filling, tangy,tasty, yum yum. This dish will be a repeat offender on my menu planning for sure. Speaking of menu planning, this meal finished up my menu planning from the most recent load of groceries. What this means is I will have to get experimental with our remininag groceries (or turn to old staples) until it's time to trek out for a big grocery haul once again. Tomorrow I am trying out a chicken ranch pizza with homemade whole wheat dough.

Here's Sebastian helping me plan meals / doing his homework:

Shoutouts from the past few days go to : McDonald's soft serve, homemade peanut butter balls, partridgeberries, and the free sample of Fibre Plus cereal I got in the mail today:

Bacon and Baking

Sunday evening and it's time for a re-cap of my weekend meals. Randy ended up coming down with a pretty nasty cold so we had to put our Friday Don Cherry's meal plan on hold. I was in the mood for some nachos or something like that, so Randy fried up some lean ground beef with some Frank's Red Hot Sauce (Xtra hot) and I threw together some nachos with onion and cheddar cheese:

As you can tell from the pic, the cheese wasn't completely melted so it probably should have stayed in the oven longer. But by this time, we were both pretty hungry and didn't really care. These nachos definitely had some kick to them with the addition of the hot sauce and totally hit the spot for a Friday night. We had them with salsa and of course, our good friend:

On Saturday I was looking to do something with the leftover ground beef from the nachos. I really hate wasting food and I had almost half a pound of ground beef left over in the fridge. Since I didn't have much on hand to use it with, I decided to get a little experimental. I boiled some whole-wheat macaroni and fried up the ground beef. I then tossed the two together along with a couple cups of shredded cheddar cheese, some garlic powder, and a diced tomato. I also had some cream left over from the Quiche Lorraine I made a few posts ago so I poured that over the concoction once I had it in a casserole dish. I topped it with bread crumbs and baked in the oven at 350 for half an hour. This was the end result:

Kind of like a homemade (tastier and much less salty) version of Hamburger Helper. We paired it with...take a guess...a homemade roll!

Kathryn's Burger Macaroni Concoction

Randy really enjoyed this meal (as did I). Nothing beats being experimental in the kitchen with whatever you have on hand and actually succeeding with it. We even had enough left over to have for lunch today and in my opinion, it was even better the second day.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love bacon. If bacon were good for you, I have no doubt that I would eat it for every single meal. Plain bacon, bacon sandwiches, bacon and eggs, you name it. There are very few salty foods I embrace wholeheartedly but bacon is the supreme one. In fact, my sister gave me this shirt a couple years ago and I wear it with pride:

Me showing my support for bacon

So with my love for bacon in mind, I set out to make a Bacon Cheddar Dip to have with some chips on Friday and Saturday night. I combined 1 cup of cheddar cheese, 2 tablespoons of chopped onion, 1 cup of mayonnaise, and 1 and a half cups of cold milk (whisked to make it thicker). Then I fried up five or six pieces of bacon, crumbled them and threw them in the dip, then stirred it all together and put in the fridge for an hour. Holy smokes. Bacony Goodness.

Bacon Cheddar Dip

This dip was amazing. I also added about a tablespoon of sour cream just to thicken it up a bit. Saturday night Randy and I hunkered down to watch The Green Hornet (pretty decent movie, I'm starting to develop quite a liking for superhero movies) and I devoured the better part of this dip with some rippled plain chips and beer. Om nom nom.

Tonight I went with a recipe from Rocco Dispirito. He used to have a reality show about the opening of his new restaurant a few years back (do you remember this, Pamela? I think we used to watch it). Anyway, I picked up a cookbook from him over Christmas entitled "Now Eat This!". It's a really neat cookbook with easy to find ingredients that takes a lot of America's comfort foods and makes them over to be lower calorie and lower in fat. The recipe I went with is called "Salmon with a Mustard Crust and Sauteed Spinach".

This is what the salmon looked like before I popped it under the broiler:

The orange stuff you see on top of the salmon is actually orange slices. Orange slices mixed with some dijon mustard and chopped red onion. Initially, I was pretty apprehensive about putting orange slices on salmon - to me, it just seemed like really conflicting flavours. But I really like the recipes I have made out of this cookbook so far so I figured I would give it a go. The spinach was sauteed with a few bacon bits (bacon...mmm....) and some garlic and I laid the salmon on top and paired it with a simple baked potato.

Salmon with Mustard Crust and Sauteed Spinach

Although it's difficult to tell from the picture, this was one of the nicest presentations of meals I've ever made. And as for my apprehension about orange slices? Completely unfounded. The orange was the perfect complement to the salmon. Sounds almost redundant, but I sometimes find salmon too...fishy. The citrusy orange taste was just enough to keep the taste of the salmon but overwhelm any extra fishiness that would be there were it not for the orange. Delicious! The original calorie and fat counts from this meal (before Rocco's makeover) were 467 calories and 21.8 grams of fat. This version comes in at 242 calories and 8.3 grams of fat (mostly omega 3 fatty acids). Thank you, Rocco!

Today I was jonesin' to have a dessert with my supper and I realized that it has been an incredibly long time since I made a cake. Despite my disappointment with the parfait I made last, I once again went to my Jello/Baker's Chocolate baking tin and pulled out a recipe for a coconut cake. After a few little mishaps (which include a chunk being left in the cake pan and coconut EVERYWHERE), I succeeded in making this delicious treat:

Coconut Cake

My icing job is a little sub-par as I don't actually own a spatula but this turned out to taste really great. My only qualm is that I may have left the cake in the oven a little too long as it was a little crusty on the outsides but wasn't dry on the inside so it wasn't a total bust. The icing is just Cool Whip and Jello Vanilla Pudding and Pie mix which I really enjoyed because it made the cake light tasting and not ridiculously sweet like some cake icing can be. So to cap off our tasty and low-fat salmon, we threw in a slice of cake and a glass of milk:

We also sent about half the cake upstairs to our landlords to keep me from eating it all repay them for the spaghetti they had given us earlier in the week.

I have started reading another food blog and saw a recipe for a ground chicken meatloaf that I am thinking of making for supper tomorrow. It calls for a nice bit of spinach and I have quite a lot leftover.

I should mention that this week's poll is now closed and 50% of voters chose Havarti as their favorite cheese. There was also one vote each for Gouda, Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Other (which I know was Pamela, as she expressed her anger at me for not including Blue Cheese). This week's poll is devoted to food shows. I've been a fan of Man V. Food on OLN for a little while now but I've also recently been getting into watching The Food Network quite a bit. So this week, vote on which food show you like to watch the best.

Shoutouts from the past few days go to: Plain Tostitos, Jolly Ranchers, and random bites of cheese while grating it.

This is Sebastian in his "I'm not lazy, I'm comfortable" typical pose:

Rocco Dispirito Salmon with Mustard Crust and Sauteed Spinach

Serves 4

Nonstick cooking spray

1 small red onion, sliced very thin

1/3 cup Dijon mustard

1 orange, peeled and segmented

salt and pepper

4 salmon fillets

2 garlic cloves, sliced very thin

2 tablespoons real bacon bits

12 ounces baby spinach

1. Preheat the broiler on low. Line a baking sheet with foil - spray it with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix the mustard with the onion. Add the orange segments and toss to combine thoroughly. Season the mixture generously with salt and pepper.

3. Lay the salmon on the prepared baking sheet - season it with salt and pepper. Divide the onion mixture amongst the 4 fillets, covering the surface of the fish completely.

4. Broil the salmon until the onion mixture is almost charred and the salmon is just cooked through, about 8 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, spray it with cooking spray. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until it is fragrantand just beginning to brown, about 1 minute. Then add the bacon bits and spinach and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach wilts, about 3 minutes.

6. When the spinach is cooked, remove it from the pan, blotting with a paper towel to soak up moisture. Arrange on a plate and place the salmon on top and serve.

Parfait? Parflop.

Again, it's been a few days since I last posted so I have lots of yummy eats (and a disappointment or two) to report. I mentioned in my last post that our landlords had brought us down some spaghetti. We really are lucky to have such decent landlords - every now and then they will cook something and bring us down the leftovers and usually if I do some baking, we will bring them some of the extra. So we were grateful to have supper prepared for us on Tuesday (which also meant very few dishes, yay!). I didn't have any garlic bread on hand, so I buttered a couple pieces of toast, threw some bacon bits and garlic powder on them, and covered them in swiss cheese, tossing them in the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt:

Spaghetti and Garlic Toast

The spaghetti was really tasty - they had used a combination of ground beef and bacon. The only way I would have changed it would have been to add some onions or green pepper because there weren't any vegetables in the sauce. But still, it was pretty darn great. I usually dislike spaghetti when I make it. For some reason, I only really enjoy it when someone else has made it.

Tuesday night I made a Chicken and Rice Soup recipe from my 'Emeril: 20-40-60' cookbook. It's a cookbook I picked up in Ottawa last summer by Emeril Lagasse (I think he has/had a cooking show on The Food Network). His meals (at least the ones I have made so far) tend to have some Cajun type flavours and are really, really delicious. Anyway, I made the soup Tuesday night to give it time to sit and let the ingredients soak up the flavour. Here's what it looked like cooking:

The chicken was seasoned with Emeril's Creole Seasoning - a mixture of different dried herbs and spices that really gives the soup its flavour (see below for the recipe). I loved loved LOVED this soup. We ate it for supper yesterday and also had some for lunch today. The longer it stayed in the fridge, the better it seemed to taste. I don't have the caloric or fat information for this recipe but I can't imagine it is bad for you at all. There is not much added salt and the rest of the ingredients are just vegetables and spices. I'm not even really much of a soup person but I will definitely make this again. Super hearty and filling, and it was a great choice for my first try at making homemade soup:

Emeril Chicken and Rice Soup

Today I tried my hand at a Weight Watchers Recipe: Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce. We forgot about Pancake Day and I had wanted to try this recipe previously so I figured I would give it a go today. This was also a huge hit. The pancakes were so light and fluffy and the raspberry sauce was not too sweet. Randy and I both really enjoyed this recipe. We halved it (as it is supposed to serve 4 and create 12 pancakes) and at 334 calories per 3 pancakes plus 3 tablespoons of sauce, you really can't go wrong. Some Weight Watchers recipes I've made have been completely devoid of flavour but that is certainly not true of this one. It even tells you to measure the pancake mix into 1/4 cupfuls before you put it in the frying pan to ensure you don't make your pancakes too big. Yum!

Weight Watchers Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

 I had wanted to make a dessert to go with this meal as I hadn't made any in a long time. I chose a recipe from a Jello/Baker's Chocolate recipe tin I bought at Costco a few years ago. It was supposed to be a Chocolate Mint Parfait using Jello Chocolate pudding and pie filling mix, cool whip (with green food coloring) and mint extract. This was a huge fail. I followed the recipe exactly but no dice. The cool whip and pudding were supposed to be layered in the glasses but instead just all ran into one. Also, the pudding never even set so it ended up just being an ugly, runny mess. We had a couple mouthfuls each and then dumped it. Monstrous failure.

Parfait of Gross

Maybe I will try another dessert this weekend but for obvious reasons, I won't be posting the recipe for this one. Tomorrow Randy is taking me to Don Cherry's for some beer and bar food. Hooray for Friday! I'm also planning on making an appetizer of some sort this weekend...more word on that later.

Shout-outs from the past few days go to: Reese's Pieces, Vanilla Ice Cream with Cool Whip on top, and Source Dessert Selections yogurts.

Here's Sebastian from a couple days ago, chasing the sunshine wherever it went:

Weight Watchers Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Serves 4

1 cup raspberries

1/4 cup sugar plus 2 tbsps sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain fat-free yogurt

1/2 cup skim milk

1 large egg

1 tablespoon canola oil

1) To make the raspberry sauce, combine the raspberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and the lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until a chunk sauce forms (about 6 mins). Set aside.

2) To make the pancakes, combine the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the yogurt, milk, egg, and oil in a small bowl. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until just combined.

3) Spray a nonstick griddle or skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of the batter onto the griddle. Cook, flipping occasionally, until done. Serve with the sauce.

Per serving (3 pancakes, 3 tbsps sauce): 334 calories, 5 grams fat, 6 Weight watchers points.

Chicken and Rice Soup

2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut up

1 tablespoon Emeril's Creole Seasoning (see below)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups diced onions (small dice)

1 1/2 cups diced carrots (small dice)

1 1/2 cups diced celery (small dice)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

7.5 cups chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice ( I used a cup of brown rice instead)

1 5 ounce bag spinach

1. Place the chicken in a medium bowl, season with the Creole Seasoning, and set aside.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are transluscent, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the garlic, basil, salt, and crushed red pepper and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the broth and the rice, cover the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove the cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the rice is just tender, about 12 minutes.

4. Stir in the spinach and serve.

Creole Seasoning (for Chicken and Rice Soup)

** it says to use only a tablespoon but I used the whole thing. Depends on how much flavour you want to come from the spices.

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper ( I used chili seasoning instead)

1 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon thyme

And the Recipe Experimentation Continues!

The fridge and pantry are stocked and so the recipe experimentation continues! Yesterday I tried out a recipe from my 'Weight Watchers in 20 minutes' cookbook. The recipe was called 'Pork Chops with Scallion-Lemon Relish'. It was incredibly simple (as you would assume a 20 minute recipe would be) and turned out to be pretty tasty. I paired it with some simple brown rice and more of those homemade rolls I had made a little while back. This is what it looked like:

Weight Watchers Pork Chops with Scallion-Lemon Relish

Randy especially really enjoyed this recipe - I liked it but wasn't as into it as he was. We also have a super sensitive smoke detector in our apartment which, under normal circumstances, is probably a pretty good thing. However, when I'm cooking and need to use the broiler component on the oven, for some reason it always sets off the smoke detector. So that was annoying. But other than that, this was a nice quick, tasty, healthy (if you don't count the roll and butter) meal.

Today I wasn't working so I spent the day making a 'Quiche Lorraine' recipe from a cookbook called 'How to Cook' that my mom gave me when I was 15.  This is another slightly time consuming recipe as you have to make the crust, fry and crumble bacon, whisk the sauce together, etc etc. I chose to make this earlier because I've made it in the past and I find it tastes better once it's been refridgerated for a little while and the flavours have had time to really come together. That and I like having few dishes to do following supper so I was doing the dishes as I went along. It came out of the oven looking like this:

Quiche Lorraine

I paired it with a simple spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette as I find it pretty filling.

Quiche Lorraine with Spinach Salad

Looks sort of similar to the Spaghetti Pie I made in my first blog entry but it has none of the same ingredients (except for maybe eggs). The downside to this cookbook is that all the measurements are American so I had to go online to convert them to metric units, but a small price to pay for a decent meal.

Just a reminder to vote on this week's poll question. Speaking of cheese, I had marble on my sandwich for lunch and used swiss cheese in the quiche. I've also got a block of cheddar and a block of pecorino-romano in my fridge. I've even got a container of ricotta cheese in there as well....no wonder Randy's cheese consumption has gone up!

Our landlords (who happen to live above us) gave us some Spaghetti that they made today but we had already eaten our quiche. I'm planning on having it tomorrow for supper with some homemade garlic fingers.

Shoutouts from the past two days go to: Chocolate coconut Timbits and Sprite Zero.

Before I get to the recipes, check out Sebastian having one of his regular stressful weekdays:

The Hard Life of a Cat




Weight Watchers Pork Chops with Lemon-Scallion Relish

Serves 4

8 scallions (finely chopped)
2 tbsps reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 pork chops
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1) Spray the rack of a broiler pan with nonstick spray and preheat the broiler.

2) To make the relish, combine the scallions, soy sauce, lemon zest and juice in a small bowl. Set aside.

3) Sprinkle the pork chops with the salt and pepper. Place on the broiler rack and broil 4 inches from the heat, about 6 minutes on each side. Serve with the relish

Per serving (1 pork chops and 2 tablespoons relish): 212 calories, 9 grams fat.



Quiche Lorraine

1 1/2 cups flour, sifted

100 grams cold butter, chopped

2-3 tablespoons cold water

3 slices bacon, finely sliced

60 grams Swiss cheese, grated

3 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

a pinch of nutmeg

chopped chives

** I also added crushed red pepper flakes for a bit of spice

Combine the flour and butter in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in enough water to combine. Turn the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and press together until smooth.

Roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of baking paper large enough to fit into a greased, 9 inch tin ( I used a cake pan).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Ease the pastry into the tin and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Lay a sheet of baking paper over the pastry base. Fill with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans or rice. Cook the base for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Cook the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat until crisp. Add the rice back to the pastry base. Sprinkle the bacon over the rice and scatter the grated cheese over the top.

Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg, and some pepper in a bowl. Pour over the bacon and cheese. Sprinkle with chives. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

The 'Now I Have Groceries' Post

Well, I am back after three days of no posts and am happy to report that I have now gotten groceries so the poor man beige meals are in the past, for now at least. The results of the poll are in and it seems many of you share my affinity for chips - 66% of voters chose chips as their go-to junk food, with 'Other' and 'Sweets' both at 16% of the vote. I had heard that there were some issues with my polls before, mainly with the fact that two people could not vote separately from the same computer. I've fixed that setting in my blog to allow for multiple votes so hopefully that issue is now remedied. This week's poll is dedicated to my dear friend cheese. Randy has commented that since dating me, his cheese consumption has gone up. What can I say - I love cheese. So this week, I implore you to choose your favorite type of cheese. I included as many kinds as I could think of on the spot and also included 'Other' again as I know there are definitely cheeses I did not mention. See, all this talk of cheese is making me want cheese now. If only it were are healthy as broccoli.

Thursday (grocery day), I didn't bother to pick up fast food as I knew we would probably be getting a decent load of groceries (side note: why are groceries so damned expensive?) so I figured I would once again scrape together whatever I could from what was left in the house. The result was two whole wheat sub rolls halved with mayonnaise, chicken fingers and tomatoes inside and some oven fries. I don't have a picture of this because there was some sort of glitch in the camera that deleted it but it's really nothing to see anyway. Just a rush meal using leftover back of the fridge/freezer foods we had.

Yesterday I made a Jillian Michaels recipe from her 'Master Your Metabolism' recipe. It was one of the vegetarian recipes for Black Bean Chili. This is what it looked like:

Jillian Michaels' Black Bean Chili

I was really pleased with this recipe considering it is so healthy. I just have a few comments about it. I really wish that I had read the entire recipe once over before deciding to make it.The total cooking time is almost three hours and since I didn't realize this and didn't start making it until 4:30, it was a bit of a late supper for us by the time it was finished. Also, it called for 1/2 cup bulgur. When I read that, all I thought was , "Wow, that's a disgusting sounding name", and had no idea what it actually was. So, of course, I googled it and found out it is a type of whole wheat. Luckily, I was able to find it at the Scoop and Save which is a specialty spice/grain store here in Grand Falls (very similar to Nan's Pantry in Gander) so I am sure it is not hard to find if you look for it. I also halved the recipe because it said it serves 8 (although Randy and I had two servings each because one serving is less than 300 calories). All in all, it was pretty tasty albeit time consuming. I also added quite a bit of hot sauce for flavor once it was finished cooking. So if you have the time and patience, it is well worth it to make this recipe - the bulgur make the chilli very filling and you don't really miss the meat that would normally be in a recipe like this. See the bottom if you are interested in the recipe (I have been told that's what is missing from my blog, and I agree, so I'll now try and include recipes whenever I can).

Today Randy took me out for supper and we decided to go to Clem's again (the nice restaurant in the Hotel Mount Peyton that we went to in a previous post of mine). Randy again ordered the T-bone steak and I ordered a Hot Turkey Sandwich with all white meat and mashed potatoes. I also had a glass of white wine while Randy had a beer again. This is what my meal looked like:

Clem's Hot Turkey Sandwich

This time we were not lucky enough to have the restaurant to ourselves - there were about three or four other couples there. We didn't get a roll after we ordered and at first we just assumed that they were out of rolls. However, three other couples sat down after us and all of them got a roll before their meal came. Seems like something ridiculous to get upset over, but we were looking forward to the roll! And it doesn't make any sense that we were the only couple at the restaurant not to get one. Randy commented to the waitress that she forgot it and she offered to give us one, but at that point, our meals were already there so there was no point in getting it.

The lack of roll combined with Randy's sub-par steak made our experience at the restaurant not as enjoyable as last time. We were also served a side of carrot and green beans with our meal that was doused in rosemary. Normally, I like rosemary but in small amounts. These veggies were dumped with it so it was overpowering. I tried to scrape off as much as I could but it definitely still lingered. My hot turkey sandwich and mashed potatoes were delicious but the steak not bein juicy, the roll not being there, and the veggies being rosemary death, made for a less than thrilling visit. We will definitely go back as it is a favorite restaurant of ours and we normally enjoy it but hopefully it will be better next time. This is what Randy's steak looked like:

Clem's T-Bone Steak

Tomorrow I am planning on making a Chicken and Rice Soup recipe that I have in one of my cookbooks. Shout-outs from the past three days go to: Watermelon Jolly Ranchers, Peanut butter and banana toast, and Epicure Onion Dip.

And now for the Sebastian picture of the day: This is Sebastian chilling out on his new cat tower. He's too fat to actually fit inside so he sleeps on top of it:

Jillian Michaels Black Bean Chili

Serves 8

2 cups black beans

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 green peppers, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp oregano

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes with their juice

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 cup orange juice

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup bulgur

1/2 teaspoon salt

Place the beans in a colander, rinse and drain. Place them in a Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot and add water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, about 1 hour. Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in the same large pot over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onions and green peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until just starting to brown, 8-10 mins. Stir in the garlic until fragrant (about 30 secs). Stir in the chili powder, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, and black pepper (take off the burner to stir these in). Put back on the burner and stir in the tomatoes, orange zest and juice, honey, and 3 cups of water. Add the reserved beans. Return to a simmer and cook, partially covered, checking occasionally and adding more water as needed, until the beans are tender (about 1 and a half hours). Stir in the bulgur 15 mins before removing the chili from the heat. Taste and add up to 1/2 teaspoon salt for flavour.

Calories per serving:  297

Fat: 4.7 grams

Protein: 14.6 grams

Health benefits: Anti-cancer, heart healthy, boosts immunity, boosts metabolism, improves digestion

The 'Now I Really Need Groceries' Post

I've been a little sporadic with my posts as of late, mainly because of the fact that this is grocery week. Ah, grocery week. The food equivalent of laundry week. The time when you scrape the bottom of the barrel to throw together food that, if you actually had groceries, you probably wouldn't eat. So bear with the boringness of this entry. I'm getting groceries tomorrow so I should actually have something decent to post next time.

Monday I rummaged through the cupboards and fridge to throw together a half sensible supper. I had some shell pasta left over from when I made a Rachael Ray Tuna Casserole recipe (sounds disgusting but was actually probably the best recipe from her I've made so far) and some cheese so I made some macaroni and cheese (with garlic powder, milk, marble cheese and breadcrumbs). I also had some leftover broccoli from the Sausage, Penne, and Broccoli dish I made a little while back as well as leftover homemade rolls from a previous post (leftover...leftover...leftover..are you sensing a theme here?) resulting in a concoction that looked like this:

Tuesday was even more of a challenge as I was running on fewer groceries again. I'd call Monday's meal a poor man's beige meal as it was comprised of all foods beige and cheap. I replaced the mac 'n' cheese with Shake and Bake chicken, the broccoli with Compliments carbonara pasta, and retained the homemade roll. Randy commented on how salty the Shake and Bake was, and he was right. I don't usually make much Shake and Bake (I really only keep it on hand for times like this when I am running low on groceries) so I'd forgotten how salty it can be. That combined with the salt from the prepackaged Sobeys brand Sidekicks and I guess you could refine the name to 'salty poor man's beige meal':

Salty Poor Man's Beige Meal

Today I had planned once again to improvise with whatever groceries we had left. We had some turkey sausage rounds that we picked up from M&M meats around Christmas time left in the freezer so I had planned to turn these into turkey burgers and use the sweet potato left in the fridge to make sweet potato fries. But lo and behold, when I hauled it out to start chopping it up, it had gone bad (again, it's a good thing I am getting groceries tomorrow). I was relieved and annoyed at the same time - relieved because sweet potatoes are insanely hard and frustrating to chop because they are so dense but annoyed because I had really been looking forward to having those fries. I went ahead and made the turkey burgers but threw some oven fries on as well:

I'm really looking forward to getting back to some recipe experimentation very soon. Tomorrow is grocery day so I am undecided as to whether I will forage in the apartment for more food or just say screw it and pick up take-out before we go to the grocery store. Speaking of grocery stores, Randy and I have boycotted Dominion (essentially). Here in Grand Falls, there are really only two places to get groceries: Sobeys or the much larger Dominion. Everytime I go to Dominion, I'm annoyed by its large, impersonal nature and I always feel the need to get in and out as fast as possible (which annoys me because I actually enjoy grocery shopping). In addition to that, it's usually more costly, the baskets are massive and cumbersome, and President's Choice pales in comparison to Our Compliments.

That's it for now - try not to abandon readership on the basis of this dull food post.

One more thing, I have decided to add a new feature to my posts. The 'Sebastian Picture of the Day'. Simple because he always bums around the kitchen while I am cooking (hoping of course for some meat to hit the floor) and curls up on my lap as I write my posts. This is Sebastian hanging out in his newspaper tent I made him:

Shoutouts from the past three days go to : strawberries with cool whip, chocolate macaroons, honeydew melon, and orange juice with lots of pulp.

The 'I Need Groceries' Post

I'm back after a few days without posts and I don't have too much to report. The weekend was filled with mostly picking at foods - I'm getting groceries this week so I don't have a big variety of foods on end and truthfully, I was too lazy to cook this weekend.

Thursday, as I mentioned in my last post, Randy took me out to Clem's (one of the dining rooms in the Mount Peyton hotel). We started off the evening with a warm dinner roll and a glass of wine (for me) and pint of beer (for Randy):

I ordered the Wrap of the Day (which was a chicken wrap) and a side garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Randy ordered a T-bone steak done medium well with mashed potatoes and carrots. My wrap was actually kind of disappointing - I've had wraps here before (mostly the chicken caesar) which have been quite tasty. But this one was just hastily made - a couple chunks of cut up chicken with tomato and cheese in a flour tortilla. The salad was also pretty thrown together, not horrible but definitely not what I would expect from a nice restaurant like this one. This is me  fake smilling at my wrap:

Randy's steak, on the other hand, was really delicious. I tried a bite of it and it was really nice and moist. Sizeable too, I don't think he got through all of the sides. Here's Randy enjoying his meal:

Even though my meal was a disappointment, we did receive pretty decent service and the entire time we were there, we were the only people in the restaurant. Even the servers were in the kitchen when they weren't helping us, so it was kind of like our own private restaurant.

Friday, I went to Gander to meet up with a friend who was coming out for a visit. I was starving by the time I got there so I picked at a few things - some chocolate, Babybel cheeses, and crackers, to name a few. I don't have a picture from Friday as a) I didn't have a real meal and b) what I did eat wasn't really worth photographing. After I snacked for awhile, I cooked a Sunrise burger (which I'm fairly certain is death in a box but delicious nevertheless) and some Indian hors d'oeuvres that were left over from Christmas.

Saturday morning, myself and two of my friends went to The Goose (Irving restaurant) on the highway before I headed back to Grand Falls. I had the best breakfast there I've had in a long time: Two poached eggs (medium-soft) with hash browns, bologna, and homemade white toast. I also had two or three cups of coffee and a glass of grapefruit juice. I forgot how delicious (and affordable) The Goose's breakfast is: $6.79 for something that filled me up for nearly the whole day. The only downside was getting in my car and driving an hour back home when really all I wanted to do is take a big dirty nap.

When I got back to Grand Falls, Randy wanted to go to Jungle Jim's for lunch. I wasn't hungry in the slightest so I tagged along and ordered an Ooey Gooey Brownie Sundae (I really hate ordering things with stupid names so this was a big feat). I only ate about half before I went into sugar/sweetness overload and had to throw in the towel.

Supper on Saturday was a plate of french fries (hey, I did say I was too lazy to cook all weekend) and some chips since I was on such a healthy eating roll that day.

Today I decided to actually make something that still required minimal effort (and minimal groceries) but actually involved a little preparation. I made chicken fajitas with red pepper, onion, cheese, salsa, and sour cream:

I apologize that I don't have too many exciting recipes to show, but am planning on trying quite a few new ones later this week when I actually stock up on food.

Shout-outs from the past few days go to: Quality Street chocolates, Gouda Babybel's, Diet Pepsi, and shortbread cookies.

Ode to Brown Foods

This blog is dedicated to the two supper meals I had today and yesterday - sure, brown foods may not be the most aesthetically pleasing (see the pictures I took) but despite their less than photogenic appearance, they were actually quite good. Yesterday I went with a Pad Thai recipe my sister introduced to me when I was visiting her this past summer. Still haven't made a decent trip to the grocery store and I happened to have a few packs of rice noodles on hand (Grand Falls hardly ever keeps them stocked regularly, so when Sobeys gets them in, I usually stockpile) so I made this tasty recipe. I enjoyed it before I developed an affinity for hot sauce but now that I am able to enjoy spicy foods (and subsequently douse my Pad Thai in hot sauce), I enjoy this recipe even more. It turned out like this:

Pad Thai

The brown (apparent) homogeneity of the recipe is actually pretty deceiving because there's actually quite a few ingredients in it: brown sugar, soy sauce, eggs, carrots, tomato, onion, garlic...to name a few. But of course, smothering the end result in soya sauce makes it come across as looking pretty bland. Far from it. I covered the top in green onion and plain peanuts and took the above picture before I drowned it in hot sauce.

Today I took a day off from cooking and let Randy take the reins. A little while back, a student of his gave him some canned moose so he decided to make something with that. Canned and/or bottled moose is pretty much the only way I like moose. I'm not a fan of moose steaks or roasts because I find they taste too gamey. But Randy fried up this bottled moose with some onion and it was pretty great. He also made mashed potatoes (a mixture of yellow and sweet potatoes) and served the moose on top of that. He finished it off by adding some bread and butter and mixed vegetables:

Canned Moose

The poll of the week is now closed and it seems some of you share the same love of all things meats that I have. Meat-Lover's pizza came out on top with 50% of the vote, Vegetarian got 33%, and there was one vote for Hawaiian pizza (which I'm willing to bet was you, Mom). This week's poll is devoted to junk food - what do you turn to when you're craving something unhealthy? For me, it's usually chips. I could easily consume a big bag of chips if I wanted to (and have before). Although that being said, I also have a huge sweet tooth.

I'm looking forward to (at some point) moving into a house with a decent size kitchen and lots of cooking and storage space. I'm really wanting to own a food processor right now, but I'm holding off because I honestly don't know where I would put it. I also need to buy a new mixer as I broke Randy's the last time I made a cheesecake (which sucked because I was right in the middle of beating the cream cheese and had to continue doing it with a spoon).

Tomorrow Randy is taking me out for supper so we're thinking about going to Clem's, one of the three food spots in the Mount Peyton Hotel.

Shout-outs from the past two days go to: Crystal Light lemonade, marshmallow wraps, and cheddar cheese.

The Carb Queen

I mentioned in a previous post that I fear I'm becoming addicted to Party Mix. But the more I think about it, it's also that I just really, really enjoy carbohydrates. All the best foods seem to be carbs - chips, pasta, bread. I usually try to vary my diet as much as possible but man, do I love carbs.

My food choices from the past two days clearly reflect my carb addiction as I went with a Rachael Ray pasta recipe yesterday and today cooked a Spicy Balsamic chicken strifry atop a bed of brown rice. Yesterday I tried out 'Sausage, Penne and Broccoli with a Ricotta Surprise', a recipe from the Rachael Ray cookbook my brother gave me for Christmas. As with all other Rachael Ray recipes I've tried, there was quite a bit of preparation involved. I used a Kielbasa sausage (the recipe called for Italian sweet sausage but I could not find it anywhere) and didn't have any penne pasta on hand, so I used rigatoni instead. This is how it turned out:

Sausage, Penne, and Broccoli with a Ricotta Surprise

You can't see the 'Ricotta Surprise' from this picture but in the bottom of the bowl was a mixture of ricotta cheese, lemon zest, and pepper which I mixed throughout the pasta when it was finished. The stuff on the top is pecorino-romano cheese. Not one of the best Rachael Ray recipes I've tried but it was fairly tasty and made enough for Randy and I to take to work for lunch today.

Today I went with something quick (but healthy) from my Strifry cookbook: Spicy Balsamic Chicken. Pretty simple - red pepper, red onion, chicken, a few herbs and spices, and chili sauce. I also added hot sauce myself because I was afraid it wouldn't be spicy enough. It turned out like this:

Spicy Balsamic Chicken

This recipe also had the added feature of calorie and fat grams. For one serving (serves 2), there is 247 calories and 8.9 grams of fat. That's not counting the calories I added to the recipe with the brown rice. I liked this recipe a lot - the only downside I find to strifry is that I don't find it nearly filling enough. It tastes great but later on, I always find myself pretty hungry. Maybe it's because my portions are too big with other meals or maybe it's because I've been working out quite a bit lately and need more calories. I don't know. But luckily, I always have a bowl of cookies on my kitchen table.

Shout-outs from the past couple days go to: lemon squares, chocolate chip oatmeal muffins, and starburst candy.