Blueberry French Toast

(I forgot to post this last night…so I'll do it now!)

For breakfast today, I made French toast, trying to get in the continental feeling.

I made the recipe to serve one, so it's nice and easy to make.

1 large egg

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Stevia (natural sugar alternative; equals about 8x sugar; two teaspoons worth)

pinch of salt

2-3 slices bread (slightly old is better)

butter/oil for frying pan

preserves (I used blueberry (yum), but anything else would work. I want to try with pumpkin!)

Beat first five ingredients in a shallow bowl until mixed fluidly. Soak bread in it, making sure to put both sides down into the mixture.

Heat butter in a frying pan/skillet, and slowly heat each side of the bread until it's golden-brown.

Transfer the toast to a plate, drizzle hot butter over it. Top with generous scoops of preserves.

First bite…mmmm!

Young Brocoli Ricotta Pasta

So for supper tonight, I made something new…and I'm going to skip straight to the recipe now!

(This is how I would prepare it if I were to do it again, but not exactly how I it today. I didn't have quite the ingredients for it.)

1 cup alfredo sauce
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
4 cloves garlic (or more…!!)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
4-5 young brocoli shoots, chopped
prepared pasta (with grooves or cups to hold the sauce)

Mix alfredo, ricotta, garlic and parmesan in frying pan, add brocoli. Heat on medium low, covered, for ten minutes or so, until it starts to bubble slightly. Mix, pour over pasta. Garnish with more parmesan and/or parsley.

This is nice, it's a bit sweet for me, but I really liked the texture of the brocoli—almost like asparagus, but crisper. I think it would work best with firm pasta, but I think every pasta is better al dente, so that doesn't mean much.

Here's the pasta, one-day old.
I forgot to take a picture from Friday night, so a re-heated Saturday is what you get! It was still good, though, and with everything mixed into one pot, heated quickly on the stove.

Let me know what you do with it, what are your variations?

Aloha

I'm so very tired tonight…my last night in Hawaii. What a trip! I've gotten lost in the US, I've been to so many touristy places (Byodo-In Temple, Iolani Palace, Polynesian Cultural Centre, Waikiki, Maui Divers Jewellery, Kualoa Ranch (twice!), Pele's Chair, Waimea Valley, and I'm sure there's more I can't remember).

I've done the luau, the hula show(s), the SUP, the surfing.
I've done beach, rock, walking through forest.
I've swam through currents, waves, ocean, river, waterfall, jacuzzi.
I've walked over roads, sand, grass, dirt, wood-chips, rocks.
I've been sunburned horridly, gotten better, worse again.
I've driven on country road, city road, freeway.
I've bought food, jewellery (custom!), hats.
I've been woken by rooster, rain, chirping, mother.

I've had an amazing time.

Pack, Tidy, Eat

Another day of now knowing what to write. Hmm. I'm finalizing my stuff for Hawaii, as I leave Wednesday night, but it's not real yet. I still have things to throw in my bag, and a carry-on to pack and load into the vehicle. Then I have to tidy this my room, where a friend of mine, who will play house-sitter, will be staying. Other than that…make the bed, tomorrow I'll sleep on the couch so the sheets are fresh for her (read: freezing with not-ever enough blankets).

Anything else? Oh, yeah, I tried a new sandwich today for lupper, it was soooo good! Soft  Laughing Cow  cheese, finely sliced English cucumbers, and Indian na'an bread. Yum! I saw a friend put it together at our mutual Zumba® training, and decided to try it, because I know I love all the ingredients. It was so good! I have enough to make it for the rest of the week that I;m in town, so I din;t have to eat the meat-lunches that work serves. (Ick.)

Pesto Parm Pasta

Oh, how I love alliteration! Pesto-Parm-Pasta. Mmmm, sound good simply saying it!

Another picture-less recipe, but it's what I've got. This is what my lunch is for the next few days—I bought five re-useable containers to use for lunches/ to-go suppers, so this is one of my first pre-made sets.

Spaghetti Bean-olegnes

Well, I promised this recipe…so here goes. It's approximate, like all mine really are, but this is my best guess as to what went in.
Sadly, no photos…all of this is either eaten by now, or congealing in a fridge, waiting for me to take it as a to-go meal. Yay, leftovers!

Postponed

I promised my cousin I'd post a recipe tonight…instead, I'm postponing it. It'll be up tomorrow!

Cent-est

So I realize this is my hundredth post…and I thought I ought to do something to celebrate it. So, today's post will be a recipe…and a contest. The SixAwesomeCanadians member who can come up with the best name for said recipe will get the power to have me write a post about whatever they choose.

Ready?

Here goes!

Tomato-Eggs

Look good? Wanna make some? Great! Grab some tomato sauce and eggs, plus a few add-ins, and let's get started!

Ramble

What to say today…different chest pains today, thought about re-starting my food tracking, had leftovers for lunch and super (yum). What else? Not much…I'm still incessantly tired, and I don't know how to make this go away. Fuuuuuudge monkeys!

'Nooch' Mac & Cheese

The friend that was supposed to come over today wasn't able to, so I shelved that recipe for another time…and came up with this!

For my first experiment with nutritional yeast (or 'nooch,' as I've read it called!), it's pretty good!

I cheated a bit this time, and added dairy cheese to it, but next time I think I'll try without, and go fully vegan that way. Recipe after the jump!

Mental Monster Mash: BRAIN FOOD!

Mmmmmmm!

So, I don't have classes today, and I decided I wanted to experiment with something new for lunch. I made a (large!) variation on Iowa Girl Eats' Green Monster recipe…and completely mixed it around. (I can't ever seem to actually follow a recipe!)

Before I show you what I made, a reminder that SOPA and PIPA are still a threat. If we want internet free speech, we need to stress to the US congress members how important this issue is. There's even some Republicans and Democrats agreeing on this, so you know it's big!

Google has a petition you can sign, and I was able to, even though I'm not in the US. It's worth a shot.

Sign It Here!

So, here's what I made today!

What A Rush!

This weekend has been both hectic and oddly relaxed. Actually, I suppose the hectic started Thursday—I found out I'm eligible for a French exchange this summer, and I desperately want to go. I'd be spending July with a family in France, then someone in that family, my exchange partner, would come back to Canada with me in August. Wow. 

It's fairly expensive, for eight weeks, but wouldn't it be worth it? It's about four thousand dollars, plus spending money…and I'd be taking a sever loss of pay. So really, the financial cost is huuuuuge. Almost, if not more, than next year's tuition.

Speaking of tuition…Friday, I got a letter from my second choice school, saying they've offered me early/conditional acceptance to the program! Then Saturday (…yesterday!) I checked online for my first choice's decision, to see if they'd started processing my application.

Guess what?

Early Acceptance, baby!

Oh sweet mother of toasters. This is fabulous! The only things missing in my application are A) my final transcripts, which will be sent in June; and B) an application/ approval for residence. (At this school, any first-year under twenty-one is required to live in res. Fine with me!)

So wait, what does this mean? It means next year, I don't have to go to my third-choice school and stay out here in Asscrack, Alberta. (My school is is Lower Back, Alberta—slightly less stinky!) And while this means I am unable to go to my true fist choice, U of Stirling, I'm okay with that. I doubt I'd be able to handle the distance right away, anyway. And the price…one hundred thousand for my Undergrad degree. I'll go there for a Master's in a few years.

Now that that's all out of the way…I've been baking! My pudding for Book Club went well, and the author we had visit wants to read my stuff for when she does her Writer in Residence in March. Very exciting. 

As for today, I'm in the middle of baking right now!

The recipe is taking a lot longer to cook than expected, but that's normal for this elevation. I'm making White Chocolate-Orange-Cranberry Blondies. 

YUM.

Well, I suppose I should head off, make sure these goodies are all right. I'm so excited to eat one!

What's your favourite winter baking? Can you make it yourself or does it come from another's kitchen?

H-2-Outstanding

So, everyone always says that the water here sucks—I an usually smile and nod along. After nearly six years, I don't notice it unless it gets really bad.

Then today, I forgot my water bottle—filled with Town water—at home, so my Zumba teacher let me use her spare.

Ohmigoodness.

What a difference! It was like…I dunno, bottled water? Maybe she uses bottled water, in the giant jugs, and transfers it into the reusable bottles, or maybe the water where she is is really that good. Whatever it is, I'm dreading making my bag up for tomorrow—the water will taste horrid in comparison!

What To Do?

So I know I was tired last night, and this morning proved it. How? I slept in an hour past my usual time to get up. It's now quarter to 0800h, and I'm lazing in my housecoat, playing with Reiki. He has discovered the feet, under blankets, are fun to pounce on. I have discovered his teeth can reach through some of my blankets. Ouch.

Now I waiting for the time to pass—it's too late to go to Curves, too early to go to school…. Feels weird. Maybe I'll actually make breakfast today—I haven't had that in a while. Poached eggs and toast sounds good…and I even think we have cheese in the house. Add some hummus, and it's a meal.

Of course I've made myself hungry writing that…so I think I'll do it. Breakfast, here I come!

Fine White Powder

No, not crack. Snow. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of it. No busses today, the whole district is like 'whaaa…?'

On the plus, I made grilled cheese a new way (for me) today and it turned out really well. And I put supper into the crockpot at 1000h, so it'll be nice and ready when I come home from work again in a few hours. (I worked 0730-0930, now I'll do 1530-1730.) Supper ready means I actually will eat it, because it contains neither meat, leftovers or soggy unknown ingredients. I made it 100% today. 

Soooo…I shall share with you the recipe! (Remember that this is all approximate amounts!)

Mahara's Tofu Mac-and-Cheese