Day 39 - Crabby Time

Tonight I had planned to make Tartlets O'Hara - crab filled tarts as an appetizer - but I got home from work so late that I didn't feel like making anything else. Luckily, the rest of my meals today were healthy and balanced.

The tarts were a combination of canned crab meat, sauteed onions and mushrooms with shredded cheddar and parmesan with cream cheese. They were yummy and the filling was even better before it was cooked.

I'm not a big fish eater - so I am going to take it nice and slow while getting through the fish section of Eat Shrink and be Merry.

Day 38 Rainy Days and Mondays!

Today I made Feast From the East. It was so filling and really delicious. Again I substituted leeks for green onions. I also substituted lemon zest for orange zest. Next time I try this I will get all the right ingredients. The salad dressing was really tasty and the crunchy veggies were a nice combination with the cooked cold whole wheat spaghetti. It was topped with a sirloin steak - cut into thin slices. Mike didn't even try this one - it just looked to healthy for him.

Forgot to mention that yesterday while making my meal, it required just a tbs of orange juice concentrate and we are not going to drink a pitcher of OJ. Instead, I put the remainder into ice cube trays and froze for future recipes that call for just a bit.

Day 37 - Sunday Afternoon Football

For me, Sunday and football are just like peanut butter and jam. I actually love football as much as I do my Sundays! It seems that in the fall, I love to cook more and it feels like nesting - I just want to stay home and enjoy my home.

Mike was in the mood for burgers and I had already prepared my menus for the week and done all the grocery shopping. So we compromised. He made the gigantic burgers on the barbeque all wrapped in foil and I made a Chicken Coup Salad.

The salad contained chicken, apples, cranberries, chopped pecans, celery and green onions. Well I did improvise a bit since the green onions I forgot to pick up got replaced with thinly sliced leeks and the sour cream than I thought I was buying turned out to be ricotta cheese. I substituted sour cream for plain yogurt and it worked out fine.

The salad was a really big hit on the back porch with all the guys next door. I saved a bit so I could still take some to work for lunch. I loved this recipe as much as the football!

Day 36 - Ahh - Saturday!!

I love Saturday - not just because I can sleep in (not with a new puppy!) and I don't go to work - but the Farmers Market is every Saturday. Bad news is - just 2 more weeks of the farmers market here in Milton.

The produce is locally grown and I get so excited buying everything my week work of menus requires. By the time I leave - my arms are aching and I vow that next week I'll get one of those little pull bags on wheels.

All the fall veggies were perfect for a soup called Melancauli Baby - cauliflower, leeks, sweet potatoes, rice, broth and topped with swiss cheese. The spices were cumin and curry along with salt and pepper. My house smells amazing and the soup was spicy - but not in a bad way.

Perfect for a Saturday! Now off to Grape and Wine Festival in St. Catharines. Hope nobody pukes on my shoes! Every year thousands of people who don't normally drink wine, get together to celebrate the grape harvest and the result is usually a lot of ruined shoes and really happy people.

Day 35 Hawaiian Pizza

Is it just me - or is everyone rushing around all day and getting home to say what's for dinner? The plan for the week is really helping me with having the right ingredients in the fridge and the meal planned out. In my old ways, I got home - opened the fridge and said "what do I feel like today?". Ususally I snacked on something while I thought about it. Now I've got a plan and a recipe book to follow. Sometimes I am missing something - but its okay to improvise and still get good results.

Last night we had Hawaiian Pizza with Canadian bacon - or pemeal bacon and a bit of pineapple chunks. I loved it and Mike ate Delissio since he thinks pineapple is the worst fruit on the planet.

Another busy day today. I'm eating leftovers today - Hawaiian Pizza for lunch!

Day 34 - Still Crazy

Last night I was having my daughter Carolyn and her boyfriend over to meet the puppy. As it turned out - my meeting ran late in the day, got caught behind an accident (and no less than 6 tow trucks that responded), pulled in behind Carolyn and found a couple more unexpected guests on the back porch.

Plan B - instead of serving just the "Grill of My Dreams" - I also made some Sticky Chicken. Both were easy to do and luckily I had marinated the pork the night before. I made the pork with the grilled veggies on the side. Instead of slicing the pork and serving it on the spinach leaves with mango, I prepared a tossed salad and a tomato, red onion, cucumber and feta salad.

There was plenty to feed the boyfriend with a great appetite and the neighbours too! Everyone was raving about a great meal. I have to give all the kudos to Janet and Greta for making me look good!

Tonight I will get organized - famous last words!!

Day 26 - 33

Sooo sorry I let a whole week get away from me. I hope you didn't think I had given up on this project. I am still at it and still loving the recipes and I really should be shaking my head for trying to pack so much into one week!





I hate excuses - but - this was a week of a new job, new employees and a new puppy!!





This is the Golden Retriever puppy that I so desperately wanted and I still do. His name is Dallas and he is just 8 weeks old. All of my spare time - and some of my sleeping hours are spent keeping him out of trouble!





Besides all the changes - the biggest obstacle that I am now facing everyday is that there is a french fry truck in the parking lot where I work.

Fromage a Trosi is a vegetable lasagne with lots of cheese - feta, ricotta and mozerella. I loved this but I did a slight variation - I used eggplant instead of lasagne noodles. The slices were grilled lightly on the barbeque. This was a big hit and a way to use a lot of veggies from gracious neighbors!

Pizza for the Upper crust was just perfect for feeding puppy visitors! I can't get over how much I love fresh mozzerella.

On the same subject - I made Red, White and Yahoo - a chick pea, boccincini cheese, fresh tomatoes and red onion salad - oo la la!! I got a suggestion from someone that has been following the blog and I am so greatful for the suggestion. Another favourite even though I'm not a big fan of the chick peas. The different textures and flavours is amazing!

Lord of the Wings was also tasty - just enough zing for Mike to eat them. I still grabbed Franks Hot Sauce and gave them more spicy flavour for my liking. These were made with boneless chicken thighs, barbeque sauce, dijon, honey, lime juice etc. A much better verision of hot wings!

The Chokes on You was an artichoke dip made with kidney beans, swiss cheese, sour cream, mayo etc in a food processor and baked - then topped with crumpled bacon. I loved this and so did our company. This was not a fan favourite of Mike's.

The Grill of My Dreams was so delicious! It started with a marinade on a pork tenderloin and sat in the fridge overnight. The tenderloin was grilled while peppers and zucchini grilling. After resting the pork for 5 minutes, it was sliced with the veggies and added to a bowl with sliced mango and spinach leaves. The reserved marinade was added and wow - what a meal!!

Mr. Bean was so easy and so good too! It makes such a difference using freshly picked beans from the market. You can use frozen too - but I really like just snacking on these midday too!

Tomorrow we are having the girls over to meet the puppy!

Thanks for being so patient - waiting for me to get back to the blog