Better With Sprinkles

The Colourful Side to Healthy Living.


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Just Baking in the Slow Cooker.

Hello friends!

I hope your weekend was lovely. And if you have today off, I hope it’s enjoyable as well!

I’m on my reading week, so I actually have the entire week off from classes – but I will be working, I can guarantee that. Woot grad school!

So let’s talk about my weekend, shall we?

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen my excitement over what I discovered on my way home:

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The variety store that is half a block away from my house sells these. Why am I discovering this after I’ve lived here for 6 months?! I had a vanilla coke obsession as a kid, so the fact that these still exist make me so, so happy. I try not to overdo it on pop, buuuut…considering that I walk past said variety store 2-4 times a day, this will be happening once in a while.

For dinner, I made up the lobster tails I had originally planned for Valentine’s Day (the picture of which got eaten by the camera). I made them the same way I did on New Years, and served them with quinoa and green beans. Delicious.

Eric and I had decided that we were going to exchange gifts on Saturday, but he sprung mine on me Friday night.

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so…do you think I like chocolate much? I’ve got two Aeros, two Caramilks (all in large size), two packs of Reese’s, a Mr. Big, gummy bears, and Werther’s Chewy Caramels. I think the chocolate stash is pretty set for a while. Smile with tongue out

And here’s what I got him:

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Chocolate and alcohol. We’re all about the vices on Valentine’s Day, apparently. Smile with tongue out

I’m not a huge whiskey fan, but this stuff is pretty delicious. I might make him share a little!

Sushi Date

My handsome date and I went for all-you-can-eat at Sushi Eight, our favourite sushi place in town (it also helped that we got a buy one get one free coupon in the mail earlier in the week).

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(hello, bright lighting directly above my head and staticky hair. Winter, please go away)

Any sushi experience should start with seaweed salad, in my opinion.

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And sashimi should go in there too.

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We also split an order of veggie tempura to start.

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Before dinner, I decided that I was going to order us rolls that we had never tried before. We tend to gravitate towards the same things…so, that wasn’t allowed this time. I picked all new ones for us, including some of the more creative offerings on the menu.

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First up was a Shrimp Crab roll: shrimp tempura, crab meat, eel sauce. I had actually ordered this as a hand roll, but I didn’t care enough to correct them.

Next up:

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  • Toronto roll (on the left): cream cheese, surf clam, eel, avocado, crab meat.
  • Special Sushi 8 roll (middle): shrimp tempura, eel, crab meat, avocado, tobiko.
  • Eel special roll (right): spicy crab roll topped with eel, avocado, tobiko and eel sauce.

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Brantford roll: deep fried roll with red snapper, crab meat, cucumber, tobiko, eel sauce, spicy sauce.

We both agreed that the special eel roll was our favourite – but, I always gravitate towards eel (notice how it appeared in 3/5 rolls). I’m pretty sure that has become my favourite item when I go out for sushi – salmon would be my second choice. The Toronto roll was pretty fabulous too, I loved the cream cheese addition.

Neither of us were big on the Brantford roll – there was just too much going on there! The deep fried aspect didn’t really do much for me; it just felt unnecessary.

We both definitely had to be rolled (HA!) out of there when we were finished. So full, so delicious.

Sunday

Sunday, typical Sunday. I went to the gym, did some reading, did some cleaning. Annnd…I baked. Sundays just feel like baking days, don’t they?

But I wanted to try something different. I got a Crockpot cookbook for Christmas, and the last few recipes are all things I never would have thought to make in a crockpot: desserts (pudding cake and cobblers) and drinks (lattes, mulled teas). The very last one was for a banana walnut bread, so I decided to test it out.

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I made a few alterations to the recipe – I subbed out two tablespoons of butter for applesauce (because I ran out of butter), used 3/4 whole wheat pastry flour, reduced the sugar a bit, and subbed the walnuts for chocolate chips – because banana bread just needs to have chocolate chips, in my humble opinion.

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It turned out pretty good! The one side turned out a bit crispy, but the flavour is definitely there. I don’t know if I would make banana bread this way all the time (because when I want banana bread, waiting 40 minutes to an hour in a regular oven in long enough. 3 hours is a tad painful) but it was fun to try.

Dinner was quick and easy:

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Oktoberfest turkey sausage with ketchup, honey mustard and banana peppers on a toasted whole wheat bun and a side salad that I topped with balsamic and olive oil (seriously, I love those oils and vinegars as salad toppers). Yum.

Even though it’s my week off, I’m not planning on going home at all – but, my parents are going to come down to visit and treat us for dinner. I’m always excited when they make the trip! I’m also planning to hit up a new-to-me gym this morning. The gym I attend at the university is closed for the holiday; but I was told yesterday that the Y a few blocks from me allows students to have 2 trial passes. I’ve never been inside, but it looks nice and I’ve heard good things. I’m excited to check it out.

Have a great day!

<— What did you get up to this weekend?

<— Have you ever made anything unconventional in a slow cooker?