Broccoli = best food ever; Day 10 of Writing 101

You know the most important thing to do if you want to be a writer? Practice. And yet, you get home from a long day at work and you know the last thing you want to do is sit down and write. Me too. Until I signed up for Writing 101 – WordPress will sent a prompt every weekday for the month of April.

Day 10: “Tell us something about your favorite childhood meal — the one that was always a treat, that meant “celebration,” or that comforted you and has deep roots in your memory.”

I know many think I was probably the weirdest kid ever, likely because my favourite celebration meal contains a lot of broccoli.

I’m sure my mom was all, “Yes! Parenting win. I ask my kid, ‘what do you want for your birthday dinner?’ and she says curry chicken bake.”

Sure it has a lot of broccoli, but the secret that most kids completely miss is broccoli is only a delivery vehicle. I mean think about all the deliciousness that goes with broccoli: butter, cheese sauce, ranch dressing, the yummy sauce that comes with beef and broccoli, and miracle whip. No I’m not crazy; there is more than one amazing recipe for broccoli salad that has miracle whip.

So my celebration dinner, this Curry-chicken noodle bake simply uses broccoli to deliver curry mixed with mushroom soup, noodles and cheese. To be honest it remains one of my favourite meals today – even the smell of it coming out of the oven takes me home.

And close second is homemade lasagna, but isn’t that everyone’s favourite food?

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Poached: The best way to eat an egg

Poached eggs are the way to go, protein, no additional fat in the cooking process and they go on everything from salad to toast (if you are looking for comfort food).

When you get it just right, nothing can be better. I usually poach in a silicone pod, but today I wanted to branch out and knock something else off my 101 in 1001 list.

So I started reading website and I consulted my mom and I had it nearly figured out save the indecision about to use vinegar or not to use vinegar. Mom doesn’t like the smell, but websites recommend it for first timers like me.

Then, in the far recesses of the internet, the suggestion to use seasoned rice vinegar, so I did.

And my first poaching experience was a raging success (as you can kind of tell by the blurry cell phone photo – yes, I do not have an iPhone). You can’t taste the rice vinegar, so it’s just a whole lot of salt-and-peppery, eggy goodness.

Seriously, if I can do it, so can you!

Now to deal with the dishes, somehow I ended up with a pot, a chopstick, a silicon spatula, a plate, and a small dish all dirty. So maybe poached is not the most effective method of cooking and egg, but one worthy of a feeling of accomplishment.

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Good things – Oct. 2013

Great books that I’ve read lately:
First they killed my father
In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts
In the Kingdom of Men

I had some TV time, which is weird because I don’t have a TV, but through the awesome local library I was able to borrow the first season of Dark Angel. Why Dark Angel? Because I have a thing for Agent DiNozzo from NCIS and that was the first (admitted less kick-ass) role I knew him in.

Good Food:
Stir fry with shrimp
Pumpkin hot cocoa
Peanut butter Brownies (raw food, no flour, eggs or sugar)
Chicken Curry

Running in the fall:I love this time of year to run, it’s so beautiful, birds are flying south and there is so much to see as the leaves turn bright colours and fall from the trees. However, it is starting to get cold – need to know what to wear? Check this out.

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Fall Foods: Squash

Last night I wanted to keep with the fall theme.

I love acorn squash, but instead of the standby with butter and brown sugar, I wanted to try something different.

I wanted to stuff is with something.

I found a recipe that suggested using macaroni and cheese.

The macaroni and cheese was good, homemade and some of the best I’d ever created, BUT stuffing it into half of an acorn squash for baking didn’t do anything for it … or the squash.

Fall food fail.

Better luck next time.

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Fall Favourites: PUMPKIN!

It was a long day at work and I feel like I spent a lot of time working with little results.

So when I got home, I tackled the kitchen – three of my favourite cookbooks open, Yummly running in the background, and a can of pumpkin.

Three hours later…

Pumpkin spice cookies

Pumpkin raising muffins

Pumpkin pecan and date muffins

Pumpkin custard, (it’s amazing!!)

And Chai Orange muffins

So delicious!! If it wasn’t so dark I’d take some photos, but it’s late and my feet hurt – SO maybe tomorrow morning (after a delicious breakfast with pumpkin cocoa and a muffin).

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Grilled mushrooms

Grilled mushrooms.

How have I not known about the high level of awesome of these?

Since I was given a George Foreman Grill (which is the most amazing appliance) I’ve been trying out all sorts of vegetables on it – peppers, zucchini … and today I threw on a couple of mushrooms just to try.

It’s a really easy recipe: clean mushrooms, cut of stems, place on grill, wait five minutes.

So flipping delicious. I thought I got and did enough for two meals, right, it was one snack. The best part, they are super filling.

That’s all I have to say for now. Work is crazy. I’m exhausted, but aiming to get up for a bosu class tomorrow.

Trust me on the grilled mushrooms.

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Nutella Banana Bread

Oh sweet goodness, YES!

Hodgepodge Pilot's Wife

Nutella. I love the stuff. Smeared on a bagel, a piece of toast or even a scrumptious slice of banana bread. Whatever you put it on, it’s good. No, it’s great. This hazelnut spread adds instant deliciousness to just about anything, especially banana bread…

Ironically, this realization hit me like a big double decker bus in the middle of my workout (go figure): if I bake Nutella into my homemade banana bread, there’s no need to smear it on! Pure genius, I know.

This recipe originally comes from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook. I added the three heaping teaspoons tablespoons of Nutella. Trust me, it completely revolutionizes this classic.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (roughly 5 medium)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup…

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Tips to avoid the tequila hangover

This is very much what my Saturday night looked like.

It started so innocently with half a bottle of wine and after a few other drinks I heard myself saying, “I have an idea, let’s do tequila shooters.”

It’s funny how tequila always seems like a good idea at the time, yet as my friend always says, “no one EVER wakes up the next morning and says, ‘you know what was a great idea? The tequila shooters.’”

Although, considering my lack of ability to walk and make coherent sentences, I managed to escape what could have been a terrible hangover.

My “recipe” for hangover avoidance success? Sugar and salt in water (or tea) with an Advil as you collapse into bed. Don’t have sugar? Use honey, maple syrup, those little runners jelly beans, just something with some kind of real sugar.

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Who puts peas in a smoothie?

Today I had a new smoothie.

It’s a variation of the Blueberry Sunrise Smoothie recipe by never homemaker – there are days I would be at a total nutritional loss without that blog!

It has (rough amounts):

½ cup frozen blueberries

½ cup frozen peas

¾ cup unsweetened almond milk

½ a frozen banana

And a few shakes of cinnamon.

I was skeptical, but it’s pretty good. A health green smoothie that turns out to be a pretty purple colour!

Also, back in the pool, massage and music lessons today – feeling better.

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Of Smoothies and sick jokes: an unlikely pairing

When I was a kid there was a joke that I really loved.

What’s green and red and goes a hundred miles an hour?

A: A frog in a blender. (Don’t judge, I was a science geek that enjoyed grossing people out).

The joke continued … what’s green, red and brown, and goes 100 miles an hour?

A: The same frog, a week later.

I haven’t thought of that in years – but it came to mind while making my smoothie this morning. No, not because I decided to throw a frog in, but the smoothie turned out to be the colour I always imagined when telling the second part of the joke.

The smoothie was actually made of frozen banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder, milk and spinach and tasted delicious. I highly recommend it, but maybe don’t think of frogs in a blender.

Tomorrow’s smoothie will be strawberry banana – or at least something different than swamp water brown.

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