WIAW #16: What I Ate on NYE.

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday!

I’ve literally been doing nothing all week (well, nothing strenuous or time consuming, anyways) and it’s halfway through the week. Why is it that vacation always goes by so quickly?

But, it’s time for the weekly party that is WIAW.

Thanks to Jenn for doing such a lovely job with her hosting duties, as usual!

As I’ve said before, New Years Eve was definitely a low-key one around here. But, I look for any excuse for a special meal, so I made sure to put together a fun dinner for the boy and I. The rest of the day:

Old picture, but the same thing. Oats topped with no-sugar-added strawberry jam, nut butter and 1 egg + about 1/4 cup egg whites. Delicious every time.

Lunch was leftovers of Tina’s tortellini soup that I made for dinner Sunday night. I’m usually not a huge leftover fan, but I make an exception for soup, chili or lasagna. It always tastes better after a night in the fridge.

A clementine for dessert. Still working away at the 5 lb box I bought a few weeks ago.

Random handfuls of baby carrots munched on throughout the day. There is nothing better than carrots when I feel like crunching.

NYE Lobster Dinner

When I was at the grocery store over the weekend, I noticed they were having a massive sale on small, 2-3 ounce lobster tails. I love lobster, but I’ve never even attempted to prepare it – no time like the present, right?

I know people complain about the texture and appearance of raw meat, but really – raw seafood is worse. So gross looking!

Better!

To prepare the lobster, I pulled out the bottom shell (unpleasant task) and brushed them with a marinade of melted butter, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I cooked them at 425 for about 15 minutes – next time, I would reduce it to about 12 minutes, they came out a tad overcooked. Nonetheless, they were delicious and a fun last meal of 2012!

For the rice, I cooked up brown rice with salt, saffron and a touch of butter. Steamed broccoli on the side.

M & Ms for dessert – this handful x 4…or 5. Yea, I like M&Ms.

For the majority of the night, we cuddled on the couch and watched TV shows and movies. Over the holiday, we had been watching the first season of American Horror Story.

(source)

This show was seriously intense. I think I preferred the beginning of the season to the end (I thought the general wrap-up of the series was a tad weak) but overall, it was a good show. I’m definitely thinking that I’m going to have to catch up on season 2 when I get a chance!

Before we got to midnight, Eric and I broke out one of his Christmas presents:

Shots and Ladders! I’m sure you can figure out the premise – when you down the snake, you take a shot. It took us a surprisingly long time to get through our second game – I’d love to get more people together to play. And yes, Black Cherry Zevia as my chaser – I was drinking this, so the flavour combo worked oddly well.

The Countdown

Around 11:30, we walked downtown to watch the countdown. Brantford had a little party/concert going on in Harmony Square.

They have this rink open all winter – it kind of makes me wish I could ice skate to some degree. Fun fact about me: I did figure skating when I was about 5-6 years old. I did not hold on to those skills whatsoever. You cannot get me in ice skates nowadays; I would give it approximately 30 seconds before I was on my ass.

Brantford town crier to do the official countdown; I had no idea Brantford had a town crier. He actually looks a lot like the one from London: is it a requirement that all town criers are old guys with a beard?

Of course, what’s a NYE countdown without fireworks?

Beautiful.

We walked home quickly after that – I realized that the band they had playing was a Tragically Hip cover band. I don’t care if it’s unpatriotic of me, I absolutely cannot stand The Tragically Hip.

I had an unpictured snack when I got home – crackers and cream cheese. My secret for avoiding any sort of hangover or sick feelings after drinking: chug water and eat something carb-y before bed. Foolproof.

I was in bed around 1:30 pm – surprisingly early, because last year I’m pretty sure I was crawling into bed around 4:00 am. But that’s a quiet night for yea! I don’t really have anything big planned today, just thinking that I’m going to head out for a walk and go to the bookstore to buy my books for next semester. I might pull out the yoga or a workout video today too. Should be a nice day – I hope you have one too!

<— Can you ice-skate?

<— What’s a band that you absolutely cannot stand? I’m not a big fan of U2, either…sorry Bono, you do nothing for me.

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Meal of my Childhood.

Happy Monday! It is actually a pretty happy Monday for me, it’s my last class of the year! I’ve also managed to get 2/4 final papers finished. One more week to do a research paper and a take-home exam and I am done for three weeks! Cannot.Wait.

Lunch

When I first started buying tofu as a cheap protein source, I could not make it in a way that tasted good to me. It didn’t matter what flavour or seasonings I used, the texture was always too weird.

Then I learned that you’re supposed to PRESS tofu – well, that was a silly mistake. Needless to say, I’ve gotten a lot better at making it now.

Pressed, marinated in a steak marinade, and cooked on the stovetop until crispy on both sides. Yup, works much, much better than the bland, watery stuff I used to make. Salad with romaine, baby carrots, bell pepper, cheddar and Italian dressing on the side.

Popcorn is one of those things that I love, but don’t buy too often. I love these individual bags – it makes for a fun whole-grain meal/snack option! I added a little bit of butter and it was fabulous.

(although, I really, really wish I had some M&M’s. The best friend introduced me to this – go to the movies, buy popcorn and a bag of M&M’s, dump candy into the popcorn. It’s ridiculous how delicious it is).

But…one night I’m going to have to drizzle some chocolate on it…and maybe throw in some crushed up peppermints? (I have that ice cream on the brain, apparently). Yea, going to have to do that sometime.

Dinner

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I was seriously the pickiest eater ever when I was a kid…right up until high school. Hell, probably right up until university. I went through a loooong phase (8-13, approximately) when I would order chicken fingers and fries in about 90% of the restaurants I went to (once in a while, I’d get a chicken club sandwich and fries. Or, if we were out for breakfast, I’d order pancakes).

So, whenever I see chicken fingers and fries, I think of my childhood, I decided to recreate that meal for dinner last night, just in a slightly more health-conscious way.

yup..child-like tastebuds right there.

There is a massive box of corn flakes in the pantry that I have not touched in about a month (because corn flakes as regular cereal is way too boring for my tastebuds. Give me Mini Wheats or Panda Puffs any day!). But, it does make for a great breading tool – it adds tons of crispiness and crunch to baked foods. Hello, healthified childhood.

Honey Mustard Baked Chicken Fingers

Ingredients

• 4 small-medium sized chicken breasts
• 3 cups cornflakes
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin (seasonings are all approximates, I don’t actually measure anything. Adjust to taste!)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk (I used 1% cows, but really any almond/skim/soy/whatever else would work)
• 2 tablespoons honey mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray. Crush cornflakes in a bowl. Add seasonings and stir to combine.

2. Combine eggs, honey mustard and milk in separate bowl, Beat eggs until incorporated. Chop chicken breasts into strips (For small-ish chicken breasts, I made 3 strips from each breast.

3. One by one, dip chicken in the egg mixture, making sure to coat entire surface. Then dip into cornflake mixture, again ensuring that you coat each side. Place each strip on the baking tray.

4. Cook for 8-12 minutes, or until cooked through.

Yea, definitely fabulous. Tender and crispy, without the super greasiness you get with traditional deep fried chicken fingers.

Of course, I made sweet potatoes fries to complete the meal.

Each with their respective dipping pile: ketchup for the fries, plum sauce for the chicken fingers. Because chicken fingers are not complete with plum sauce. (and fries are not complete without ketchup!)

Definitely a fantastic dinner.

 

Jenny’s Christmas Challenge, day 10!

So, my favourite Christmas scent is no longer available. I have no words for how depressing this is.

Seriously, best Christmas scent ever! I will never understand why it’s no longer in production (anyone have one stashed away somewhere?).

 

Slim and Sculpt

Yesterday I finished week 11 of my program with Carrie of This Fit Chick. 11 weeks down, only 1 to go! Still loving this program! I was doing jumping lunges as part of the workout yesterday and it made me realize how much stronger I’ve gotten – they were so much easier than I remember them being a few months ago. Love seeing progress!

Have a good Monday loves! ❤

<— What’s your favourite Christmas candle? I need suggestions for a new favourite!

<— What was your childhood meal?

WIAW #13–The Week of Holiday Meals.

So, this is a good week for me, food wise.

I had a class lunch on Monday, I have another one today, and a Christmas party on Friday night, Clearly, I am eating well this week.

So this makes for an awesome WIAW!

Thanks for hosting Jenn! Believe me, there’s going to be a lot of fabulous eats going on this week.

So today’s WIAW is from Monday – my class is small (only six people) so one of my prof’s treated us to an Indian food buffet. I’m a huge Indian food fan, but I hadn’t it in about…5-6 months maybe? So I was excited that this was the plan.

Breakfast

Recycled picture because I forgot to take one in my sleep-induced haze, but you get the idea! Oats with 1 egg + splash of egg whites and peanut butter. I’m starting to love the peanut butter and egg combination…it sounds so weird in my head but tastes so good.

Yup – I’m still going with the ACV cocktail daily! It does seem to make a bit of a difference with my stomach (and it certainly doesn’t hurt) so I’m going to stick with it for now. I’ve gotten used to it enough that now it just tastes like I’m drinking watered-down apple juice with breakfast. Considering that I used to drink apple juice every morning as a kid, I’m not complaining!

And of course, nothing but love for my Advent Calendar.

Lunch

In the morning I had my final TA class of the semester. Minus a bit more marking to do, I’m done! I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it (Brescia (where I did my undergrad) is a small school, so I didn’t have a lot of experience with TAs. The ones I had at main campus, I never really made use of) but I enjoyed it a lot! I’m looking forward to start back up with a new group of students next semester.

Then it was off to Taal Fine Indian for lunch! I hadn’t been here before, but I had heard good things about it. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in – it’s very much of an “off the beaten path” sort of location. But, the food left me pleasantly surprised!

Round one: A popadom, Mattar Pancer (peas and homemade cheese in a tomato and onion gravy), Chicken Vandaloo, Goat Curry, and Chili Chicken.

I’ve never tried goat before, and while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t something I’d really go out of my way to eat again. Kinda tough/stringy. The chili chicken was fabulous though! It was more sweet than spicy…kinda like a Thai sweet chili sauce.

When the naan came out, I of course had to grab a piece. Naan is amazing!

Round 2:

Round 2: salad (hey, I got veggies in there somewhere), more chili chicken, and an onion bhaji. Seriously, I could have eaten that chili chicken all day.

I can’t go for a buffet and not have dessert:

The fruit is pretty self explanatory (I didn’t end up eating it, it was pretty flavourless) but I had absolutely no idea what the other things were. Fortunately because of Mr. Google, I think I’ve figured it out.

The one of the left: Gajar Ka Halwa – grated carrot, milk and water cooked with sugar, usually topped with almonds and pistachio. This was interesting – flavourwise, it reminded me of carrot cake. Not my favourite, but not bad.

The balls on the right: Gulab Jamun – a dough made from milk and flour, deep fried at a low temperature and put in a cardamom and rose water flavoured sugar syrup. Some versions use honey instead – I think this version did. Either way, thoroughly enjoyed.

It was a great lunch, and incredibly nice of my professor to treat us. I’ve already told Eric that we will definitely be going back to check out the dinner buffet one night!

I headed home to plug away at a paper for a couple hours before heading over to the gym. A handful of carrots for something to crunch on before I left:

Lesson that I learned Monday: if you’re going to eat Indian food for lunch, you should probably go to the gym beforehand. You know how if you eat garlic or something you can smell it in your sweat?

Same deal with curry. Sorry, fellow gym goers.

Snack

Lunch held me over pretty well, but I wanted something small to get me through the next 2 hours or so until dinner.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted hummus or cream cheese on my rice cake, so I just split it. Best of both.

And cheesestring. Love!

I made friends with my foam roller and How I Met Your Mother – I’ve had the last couple episodes stored up for a while, and I’m slowly catching up.

So excited to see Joe Manganiello on this episode! I have a minor obsession with the guy.

Really, can you blame me?

Dinner

After eating a buffet lunch, I went with a simple dinner.

Chicken breast, baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon, and green beans. Simply delicious.

With a Zevia on the side:

I went to Goodness Me! (the health food store in Brantford) last weekend and picked up a few things for me:

They had a sale on Zevia: 6 for $4.49. Expensive little things, but they’re so good! This was my first time trying the Black Cherry, and it definitely got my approval. I also grabbed two new Christmas-themed Stash teas – MerryMint and Christmas Eve. I’ve tried them both and they’re both tasty! The Christmas Eve has a sort of orange-y flavour to it…it’s interesting!

I’ve noticed flavoured Stevia extracts popping up everywhere, so I picked up a few of those as well – French Vanilla and Dark Chocolate. The french vanilla with either of the above two teas makes for an awesome combo.

Snack

The before bed snack:

Whipped cottage cheese and chocolate casein with a few drops of dark chocolate stevia, with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter (I’m desperately trying to conserve it but I’m definitely getting low!) and Panda Puffs.  Makes me happy!

And to wrap up this post:

Jenny’s Blogger Christmas Challenge, Day 5.

Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this all day and I can’t come out with anything. My family has always taken more of a “lots of small gift” approaches when it comes to Christmas. It always meant that we woke up with loads of Christmas presents under the tree! There’s a few nice gifts that stand out to me, but I can’t pick the absolute best. I love and appreciate them all! (Am I dancing around this question? Absolutely).

Happy Wednesday!

<— Do you like Indian food? Have you ever tried making it? I can buy a jar of sauce, but I’ve never tried making it from scratch. I should try it sometime!

<— Minor celebrity obsessions? Norman Reedus is up there too (Walking Dead fan!)