Tomato Soup

I had a setback this weekend in regards to my "down sizing". I had a bunch of friends in town, and we went out to a couple restaurants over the weekend. Although last night I did summon enough willpower to do a pilates workout at home, and I did drink more water than I usually do on weekends.

Edmonton has been sort of grey and dreary lately. Yesterday after everyone had left, I felt like making something along the lines of comfort food. My mom used to make tomato soup with pasta when I was younger. She used a can of condensed tomato soup, added a can of milk instead of the water the instructions called for, and at the end added cooked elbow macaroni.

Yesterday, using an Everyday Food recipe, I made my own version of tomato soup with pasta. The Classic Tomato Soup, is almost as easy to make as a canned soup. It requires chopping up an onion, and opening a can of tomato pasta, and a can of tomatoes. I used an immersion blender to puree the whole amount of soup (I do not like chunks of tomatoes), and I added some cooked, whole wheat rotini when the soup was finished. The next time I make it I will use a smaller pasta like elbow macaroni, or small shells.

Overall I like the taste of the soup. I feel better eating a soup that the ingredients are butter, olive oil, onion, tomato paste, tomatoes, and thyme, rather than one that says condensed on the can. (Although I still sometimes make that as well)

Chicken Chili

Since I have decided to lose a size I have managed to work out once. Not at the gym, I worked out to Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I like working out at home for a few reasons. The first one is no one else is there to hear me breathing like an asthmatic in a hookah lounge. The second is I don't have to drive anywhere, so working out takes up less of my time. And the third is I can shout obscenities at the trainer, which would be frowned upon at the gym.

The DVD is great, I hurt so much the next day which is how I judge how effective a workout is. I was going to plow through the pain and work out again, but I went to C's house for dinner and when I got home I wanted to make my lunch for the next day.

Chicken Chili (my recipe)

1) Brown up a package of ground chicken in a large pot or pan

2) add a chopped onion, and heat until onion is soft, about 2 min

3) add some paprika, a little less than a Tbsp

4) add some chili powder (however much you like, I used a little over a Tbsp)

5) add a can of black beans, kidney beans, and brown beans. Rinse the beans first though.

6) add a 14 oz can of tomatoes with chili seasoning, and a 28 oz can of plum tomatoes. Use a spoon to break up the plum tomatoes

7) If you would like, add some hot sauce as well.

This recipe is reasonably healthy, and incredibly easy. I really like the use of ground chicken in chili, it's lighter than beef and it also absorbs the flavor of the chili. You could use any kind of beans, I like black for the color, and kidney because they are my favorite. I was going to throw in some frozen corn as well, but I forgot about it when I was making it (unusual I know). Considering the amount of chili powder and hot sauce I threw in, it wasn't actually all that spicy.

I had planned on working out after making the chili, but I went to bed instead as it was pretty late. Yesterday I was going to do pilates in an effort to stretch out my aching muscles, but due to some crippling cramps I spent the evening on the couch with a heating pad trying to calm down my ovaries.

While I have been failing at exercising, I have been doing great on water intake. I hate drinking water, but knowing that it's great for me I have been making a real effort to drink a lot more of it. Even though my start off is slow, I am still feeling positive.

Little Bow Ties

My New Year's resolution to go to the gym more has been haunting me. I have yet to go to a gym this year. I didn't even realize my gym had apparently been bought out by another company. I go through a cycle that starts with me feeling a bit unhappy with myself, so I work out and eat better, then I look better, so then I start cheating just a little. Then I cheat a lot. Then I become completely self-indulgent until I get to a point that putting jeans on in the morning is like trying to stuff sausage casings.

I am not trying to say that being skinnier is better, or sexier. I believe in something called "happy weight". Happy weight refers to whatever size or weight you feel your best at. It can be any size. Currently I am larger than my happy weight and my goal is to get back down to it. The reason why I am talking about it on my blog is to be held accountable. I don't want to get to a month from now, and not be able to say I am closer to my goal.

What I am trying to accomplish overall is being able to love myself a bit more. A blog that I read quite often is Gala Darling, and she is declaring February as the month for radical self love. This may sound hokey to some of you, but personally I think it's a great idea. So many times we fall into a trap of impressing other people, when really we need to learn to truly love ourselves.

Her blog said that if you were going to follow her radical self love, to post one of her images on your blog. Throughout the next month you may see me referencing her "Radical Self Love" articles, but I will not forget about my main topic, food.

I'll start off with the salad I made yesterday, as an appetizer of course. I took mixed salad greens and topped them with chopped carrot, celery, green onion, cucumber and red bell pepper (capsicum). The point is to load the salad with as much vegetables as possible. I topped it with a shallot vinaigrette, from Everyday Food.

The ingredients of the dressing are minced shallots, olive oil, Dijon mustard, honey and red wine vinegar. They balance each other perfectly, the dressing is light, refreshing and full of flavor.

I made a chicken recipe from Rachael Ray. It's supposed to be Chicken with Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce. My finished product wasn't a sauce, but it was delicious nonetheless.

You start off by chopping up a ton of mushrooms (different varieties).

I meant a ton.

The mushrooms are cooked down in butter, then shallots, garlic and thyme are added. Followed with some flour, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and cream. (There are only 3 tbsp of cream in the sauce, which isn't much at all)

The recipe calls for the cooked chicken breast to be placed on a bed of orzo and topped with the sauce. I had bought a bag of mini bow ties a while ago, so I used those in place of the orzo. (Orzo is a small pasta in the shape of large rice).

Rachael's recipe called for eyeballing a tbsp of balsamic vinegar, and I eyeballed two of them. When it comes to balsamic I always use a little bit more since I love it. I also eyeballed the chicken stock, and I must not have added nearly enough. If you make this, and you use the full amount of stock, you will end up with a beautiful sauce rather than the thick topping I had.

While not a sauce, the result was very good. Had anyone been watching me eat dinner, I think I would have scared them with the amount of voracity I showed while wolfing this down.

The "not sauce" sauce.

Look at how cute those bow ties are!

Chicken "salad"

I have a sister who is four years younger than me, but personality wise she is about ten to fifteen years older. Sometimes I feel that she would have been better suited as my older sister, rather than my younger. For instance, my idea of budgeting is taking my pay cheque for the week, making sure I cover the bills for that week, and spending the rest. My sister actually plans out the months ahead, what she will take in, and what she has to put out, and then what goes into savings. She has offered to make a budget for me, but I think we both know how it would end.

I mentioned to her yesterday about how I couldn't decide what to make for dinner. She had just read yesterday's blog entry, and was apparently deeply concerned about my arteries and she said "Maybe you should make something for your heart, like a chicken salad"

My very mature response was "Bleh"

Salad is an appetizer in my books. No one will ever be able to convince me that a plate made up mostly of lettuce is a main course. (And yes I know that salad isn't necessarily made with lettuce). I don't care how much meat is in the salad, it is still an appetizer.

Knowing she had a point about my heart, I knew I should make something loaded with vegetables. I also bought a case of beautiful chicken breasts last week so I figured she also had a point regarding the use of chicken.

Everyday Food has a recipe for Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad. I'm not really sure how this dish is labelled a salad, other than it has a lot of raw veggies in it.

The following is what I did different from the recipe:

1) I added a red bell pepper, cut into thin strips. (I have also been calling bell peppers capsicums lately. Capsicum is their real name, and it is annoying someone I work with when I call them that, so naturally I do it more)

2) I used 2 chicken breasts cut up into chunks instead of the amount they called for

3) Instead of chopped peanuts, I added toasted cashews

4) I didn't cut the cucumber into half moons, I peeled it, and then used the vegetable peeler to cut long thin strips of cucumber

5) The garnishes I used were green onions and cashews. I meant to use bean sprouts, and I even bought them, but as I write this I remembered I left the bean sprouts in their package in my crisper.

6) For the dressing I didn't have the anchovy that was optional, but I put in a few dashes of fish sauce since fish sauce's main ingredient is anchovy.

7) I used egg noodles instead of Chinese rice noodles. I have used Chinese rice noodles before, and I prefer them, but the grocery store was out yesterday

I have made this recipe countless times before, and each time I really love it. The chicken and noodles are hot, and since the veggies are raw they are crisp and taste really good. If you are making some to eat for dinner and then take some for lunch the next day, you will want to package the chicken and noodles separately from the veggies. When I make this I take a bowl and mix in what I am eating for supper, but I do not mix all of it together so the veggies (mainly the cucumber) get soggy and gross.

Delicious!

Surf n Turf

When I first moved to Edmonton I was living in a townhouse that had ample storage place. The kitchen had enough cupboards that I could place all my kitchen stuff in them, and I still had empty cabinets to spare. I had a huge pantry with lots of shelving as well. After a couple years in that condo, I made the move into an apartment. While there is so much about my apartment that I like better than my condo, I really lost out on a lot of storage areas.

This has made things trying at times, but in the most recent weeks I was so frustrated with this that I felt like throwing out all of my belongings. Instead of throwing everything out, I got rid of a lot of things that I had been holding onto for no reason. I knew that to create more storage space I needed to buy a couple bookcases, so on Saturday I went to IKEA.

I invited C to tag along. One, because she loves IKEA, two, because she has an SUV, and three, because I just plain love her company! Since C was so generous with helping me transport my purchases, and helping me carry them into my apartment, as well as helping me put them together, I made her dinner.

A while ago my doctor told me that I have high cholesterol, and I needed to change my diet. He told me to eat lots of almonds, fish, fruit and vegetables. He warned me against red meat and butter. The meal I made for C would make my doctor cry. I almost cried too, it was so good. I will warn you, this meal is not for anyone who is watching their waistline, or is concerned about their arteries.

I'll start with my least favorite from the menu. The roasted cauliflower. I have had no previous experience with roasting cauliflower. To be honest, I wanted to boil it but the rest of the dishes were using up my burners. I poured some oil on the cauliflower and season it with salt and pepper. I placed it in the oven at 350 F. About 15 minutes into it I noticed that the cauliflower was still raw hard. So I poured some water into the dish so it would steam at the same time. This didn't work. So we had cauliflower that was still sort of hard, and not at all fork tender. Though really, once you see the rest of the meal you will see why we didn't care too much about the cauliflower.

I still think it looked pretty. I will get to the sauce on top of the cauliflower momentarily. Right now, I want to talk about the potatoes. I made the potatoes using a recipe from Nigella Lawson's How To Eat. You boil new potatoes until they are fork tender. (I used red potatoes for color, and to make them pretty I peeled a strip off the potato around the middle). Once tender, you drain the potatoes and toss with a bit of butter until the potatoes are glossy. Then you pour a bit of truffle oil on the potatoes, being careful not to use too much or your potatoes will smell like a barnyard. Nigella's words, not mine.

Truffles are an extremely decadent and expensive ingredient. I know I couldn't afford to every use them, and a lot of recipes use truffle oil to bring a bit of the decadence to the dish without having to actually use the truffles. When my friend D came to visit me she brought me a present, and when I opened it to find truffle oil I was ecstatic.

I loved the bottle so much I have to show a picture of it, as well as a picture of the potatoes.

The truffle oil adds a certain taste that I can't identify. It's very earthy, but something about it reminds me of something I had once. A very nostalgic and comforting ingredient.

The sauce on top of the cauliflower is a Bearnaise sauce. It also came from Nigella's How to Eat. You can find the recipe here. This links to a recipe for steak with the Bearnaise sauce, but we only used the recipe for the sauce.

The Bearnaise sauce's main ingredient is butter. And it is delicious on steak. To make my steaks I took two new york strips, rubbed them with oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed on my hot grill pan for about five minutes on each side. I was careful not to move them once placed in the pan, and I let them rest under foil for five minutes after they came off the pan.

Since this meal wasn't already completely indulgent, I made scallops as well. To make the scallops I heated a bit of oil and butter in a pan, and when it was hot I placed the scallops in to sear. To sear the scallops the oil and butter must be hot, and once placed in the pan they cannot be moved. When meat of any kind (including shellfish) is placed in a hot pan the meat sticks to the pan. If it's moved right away it will tear. You have to wait until the meat naturally lets go of the pan so it can be moved. The scallops take roughly one minute on each side to cook. They are finished when both sides are brown and the middle is opaque. DO NOT OVERCOOK THE SCALLOPS.

To serve, I place the steaks on a plate, poured the Bearnaise on top, and then placed the scallops on top of the saucy steak. Then I took the pictures, and drowned the scallops in more sauce after that.

I was eating the steak and scallops separately until C told me if you take a bit of steak with a bite of the scallop it tastes really really good. So I took her advice, and she wasn't lying. When the two are put together something very magical happens. I'm not joking. Please try it.

Healthy take on meat sauce

Mondays are my least favorite day. After getting used to sleeping in, and spending forever in bed before finally dragging myself out to search for coffee, I wake up to an alarm at the crack of dawn and have to get out to go to work. This morning I woke up and the cracks in the blinds were playing tricks on me, making me believe it was lighter out than it usually is when I wake up. I jumped up, and looked at my clock to see how late I was for work, and it was still forty minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Try going back to sleep after jolting awake, it's not easy.
I also like to sleep with my window open a crack. I can't fall asleep at night if my room is stuffy or stale. Which means on a Monday morning (or any day, really) when I already am struggling to do the last thing I want to do, it's that much harder because I have to brace myself to leave a warm, cozy retreat, and walk to the bathroom in sub zero temperature.
After I fully wake up, I realize when my alarm goes off I should shut the window, and turn on the space heater, but this stroke of brilliance doesn't occur to me until it's too late. Every morning.
One thing that I was excited about today though, is that I have new food to post about!

On Friday I sat with my cookbooks trying to figure out what I wanted to make for my first dinner after my power returned. It came down to a chicken or pasta dish. I had chosen the chicken dish, and even wrote up the grocery list, but I had this nagging feeling in my stomach that I really wanted to have pasta.
Over the course of last week I found this recipe for Sweet Basil Pork Ragu. What really caught my eye on this was the use of balsamic vinegar in the sauce. If you have read this blog before you know I love balsamic vinegar. A lot. Sometimes I buy bread for the sole purpose of eating it dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar as an after work snack.
If you didn't click on the recipe I will give you a rundown of the ingredients in the next blurb here.
I really liked this recipe, it tasted great, but the real plus is that it was also a bit healthier than my standard meat sauce. My standard meat sauce consists of ground beef, a carrot, half an onion, maybe a celery stick, a large can of tomato sauce (original, so I can add my own spices) and a mix of dried herbs and spices. The dried herbs and spices are usually basil, oregano, garlic salt, red chili flakes, cayenne pepper, and a bay leaf.
This recipe was made with ground pork. While pork doesn't have as much taste as ground beef, it does sop up all the flavors of the sauce. And it's better for you than beef, health wise and pocket wise because ground pork is cheaper.
I used a full onion, one stalk of celery, a cup of mushrooms, and I also added a chopped carrot to the recipe. When I added the vegetables into the meat, there was an equal ratio of vegetables to meat. I am fairly picky when it comes to jarred sauces with vegetables, I will avoid the veggies at all costs. However when I am the one who picks out the vegetables and chops them myself, I will eat them. Back to my point, I liked that the veggies and meat portions were equal. It made me feel better about eating pasta, and also that I haven't had much in the form of fruits and veggies lately.
I also strayed a little and bought a red wine and herb jarred sauce, instead of my usually can of tomato sauce. It was Friday night and I was feeling indulgent. I also used dried basil. Or oregano. I can't tell since they look so similar and I keep them in unmarked jars that are identical. Genius, I know.


I topped mine with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper. Delicious.

I also had the genius idea of making focaccia bread from scratch to go with it. I recommend not making fresh focaccia for dinner, when you start making it at 7 pm. At least with my recipe. It called for rising for an hour, followed with another rising for twenty minutes, followed by a final rising for thirty minutes, before being put in the oven for thirty minutes. This did mean I was eating dinner at 10 pm on Friday.
The recipe called for 3 cups of flour, plus an extra 1/4 cup. I used the 3 cups and noticed as I was kneading (rather, my stand mixer was kneading) that the dough wasn't smooth and elastic. Or at least, what I assumed smooth and elastic should be. I assumed the dough was too dry, but my experience with bread making is slim to none, so what the heck would I know?
By the time the dough had been kneaded, risen, kneaded, risen, poked, risen and baked I knew something was really wrong. The dough didn't roll out right, and the focaccia resembled a lady bug. I did try it, and it tasted alright (especially with some balsamic vinegar), but it wasn't worth the effort.
I complained about this bread the next day to C, who bakes bread, and she mentioned that in Edmonton the weather in the winter is extremely dry and most recipes aren't written with that in consideration, so in the winter sometimes you have to use less flour than what the recipe calls for.
Sigh. This is not improving my opinion of baking in any way.
I will be attempting the bread again, and I will post pictures and the recipe when that time comes.

Back in Action

I am thrilled beyond measure to announce that my kitchen is back to functional. As of this afternoon power has returned to my entire apartment. I know from the way I have been complaining about this you would think I would be cooking tonight and posting up some food immediately.

Unfortunately once I realized my power would be down for at least a week, I begged everyone I knew to take pity on me and feed me home cooked meals. So tonight I am still going to a friend's for dinner, but as of tomorrow night I plan to be back in the kitchen.

I can only take so much take out. Throughout the week I have a certain system. One night a week I go to my sister's for dinner, and on Fridays I usually pick something up, and the rest of the week I make dinner. Fridays I am usually tired from the work week and want to do nothing except eat food prepared by someone else and watch a movie. I do like to go out for dinner too, but I couldn't eat restaurant or take out food a lot because I do love home cooked meals.

I am different on vacation though. When I went to Hawaii I loved going out to eat, mainly so I could have really fresh seafood. Last year I also spent some time in the Caribbean on a cruise. The best thing about a cruise is that there is food available all the time, usually in a buffet. My favorite thing about the food, aside from how good it tasted, was that it was all inclusive. One dinner I even ordered escargots, because I wanted to try them and figured the best time to do it was when they were free, so I wouldn't feel bad about wasting money if I didn't like them.

When our ship stopped in Mexico, we ate lunch at a Mexican cantina. I didn't realize this, but the sign for pesos on the menu was the same as the sign for an American or Canadian dollar. So when I was looking at the margarita list I was shocked to see a margarita for $120. (I also questioned how much tequila would have to be in said drink to make it cost that much) Thankfully our waiter explained the price was in pesos. Ahh tourists.

This is me, enjoying the fajitas that didn't cost $150. What you can't see is that right beside me was the ocean. It was very beautiful!