My Staple Salad

The weather is getting warmer and I'm more and more aware of how much tighter my clothes are fitting after this long cold winter.  The more the sun shines the more I want to get outside running and then lying in the sun whenever possible.  It is officially time to smarten up on the food front and get in shape for summer.  I always end up getting itchy feet this time of year and launch into full fitness and health awareness so you can expect more of that to come.  Also, here are some pictures from my adventures yesterday.

This was taken outside of the Square One shopping center.  Cool right?  I navigate around town by the location of those towers, I swear I can't be the only one.

Then this happened, can you see the geese stopping traffic on the crosswalk? #CanadaProblems

Gather everything that is going into your salad.  This pretty much includes everything in my fridge except mushrooms.  I don't like mushrooms in my salad.  Yuk.

I keep a tub like this in my fridge with "open" veggies.  I try to use them daily so they spend only about 12-24 hours in the fridge like this between supper and lunch.

I'm also an avid fan of the trash bowl in my cooking area.  This one was a camping cooking pot and has a lid so I can just pop the lid on when I'm not using it.  We recycle and compost in our house so I do have to be careful to keep my recyclables to the side to pick them out before they hit the compost bin.

So to get started, I chopped up some lettuce, whatever I have.  I have used mixed baby greens, spinach, or as in here romaine.  I tend to have iceburg a lot but that does get boring after awhile.

Now chop up your toppings.

Toss them in on top of the lettuce.  Now some people will start tossing at this point, not me.  It goes to the table like that.  You know where the lettuce is, you can dig to it, you can see the toppings and pick according to your tastes.  I like choice.

Get your dressing.  I have often had just balsamic vinegar and olive oil but I'm sick of it and Catalina is my favourite.

I never put the cheese into the bowl with the main salad.  There is always the chance that we will have leftovers and I'm the one who will end up eating them.  I often do this with the tomato too.  Soggy cheese and water logged salad? ... No thanks.  Then I just drizzle lightly with dressing and you're are one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.  I have also added boiled eggs and/or pickled chilis to this salad other times but I skipped that today.

As I was putting this together today I remembered I have Craisins in the cupboard.  It makes me sad that I forgot to add them in here but they would be wonderful.  I have also completely adopted Greek salads and lettuce-less salads.  You don't have to have lettuce, it's Ok to skip that part.  I do feel like I get overwhelmed by some of the more inventive salads out there sometimes and just want to get back to basics, that is this salad completely.  Enjoy!

Mocha at Home ~ Move Over Big Buck Coffee Shops

Coffee is a guilty pleasure of mine.  Chris is forever telling me I drink too much, I say I don't drink enough.  I'm one of those people who cannot drink coffee after a certain time or I will be awake most of the night regretting my coffee habit.  However, I can never say no to a nice mocha.  In a fancy coffee shop (you know the ones) it will cost over $5 for a medium mocha.  Plus, it is about a million calories give or take a few.  Even Timmy's charges over $3!  That is crazy and I cringe every time I pay but I LOVE them so much.  So when I need that hit of sugar and caffeine I try to indulge at home.  I'm lucky enough to have an automatic espresso machine at home.  This is part of what makes this drink really special but you can use regular fresh coffee (or instant) instead.  I actually think it is mostly the frothy milk that kicks it over into the divine territory.  It is killer in a regular hot chocolate and I highly recommend it.

Get yourself some really great hot chocolate.  You can also use equal parts cocoa powder and sugar for a more pure version.  Dump that into a nice cozy mug.

Get your espresso machine going.  This is pretty much my favourite machine in the kitchen, I'm going to be sad when it dies.

Look how cute they are together.  Like best friends.

There is my mug, ready and waiting.  C'mon coffee maker... let's get this show on the road!

Finally, the coffee maker was ready.  Get a double shot of espresso.

And dump that right in on the hot chocolate.

Froth the milk.  This machine does it in that little black thinger there.  It happens by magic and you can't tell me any different.

Oh isn't that lovely?  This is what we do for our coffees every morn, heavenly!

Now dump that in on the espresso and hot chocolate mix.  Mix it up!  If you find this too sweet you can add hot water on top but this was just perfect.  It depends on the hot chocolate mix that you use.  The coffee shops will tempt you with whipped cream but as you can see this drink provides it's own bubbly topping with no extra calories.

This is a bit of a set up since the machine run on 220V but we use 110V here in Canada.  That black box is the power transformer that we have to use just to make coffee. We are that committed to our coffee folks.  My kiwi has completely ruined me for drinking regular coffee any more. Cappuccinos all the way for me!

This drink is like a hug in a cup.  For a special treat, serve this with a peppermint candy cane and you have a peppermint mocha.  Very festive and so easy!

Banana Bread oh Yus!

It seems that I always have bananas on the verge of going off.  They look like the ones you will see below.  I like to do the healthy thing and keep a lot of fruit in the house and I even try to eat most of it.  Bananas are one thing that I can see from a distance that I just won't like it any more.  I don't like to eat them once they are too ripe but I'm not ready to commit to making something with them just yet.  Who knows? Maybe tomorrow I'll be dying for a super ripe banana... not likely.  So I wait until they are really truly beyond tempting for me and I make banana bread.  Or pancakes.  But usually banana bread.  I discovered a really great recipe that I rely on 100% now for banana bread.  It never fails, it makes exactly what I expect.  Sweet and moist inside, slight crust outside, dark colour, firm texture, just perfect.  We eat it warm, with margarine, cold, with margarine, nuked with butter, see the trend here?  We like it anyway but mostly with margarine or butter on it.  The original recipe calls for one cup of sugar which is WAY more than you need.  I have made this with as little as 1/2 cup of sugar, I have used sweetener instead (not recommended) but I usually use 3/4 cup.  You can find the recipe here.

Get those ugly bananas that no one wants to eat. I use 3-4 bananas usually and it makes one perfect loaf.

Gather your ingredients and get the stand mixer ready.  Note my iPad, I use it for 99% of my recipes.  I can access my family website from it and anything else I might need to look up along the way.  This recipe calls for melted butter, which is the best, but I almost always use olive oil.

Toss in those bananas, oil, and the egg, and get it going.

This is what you'll get.  If you have a stand mixer you don't even have to mush up those bananas first.  Add in your vanilla now.

Add in the sugar, salt, and baking soda.

Mix it up just a bit then add the flour.  It will be a thick batter type deal.

Grease your bread pan to get it ready for all that banana heaven.

Pour it all in and smooth out the top some.  It will end up peaking up in the middle, that is fine.  This bakes for a whole hour.  Time for a coffee or to plan supper or whatever.

Oh my, look at that!  I let it cook in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out to finish cooling.  Unless I'm impatient.  Then I turn it out and hack a big hot slab off and eat it while it's burning me.  Which ever works for you, I won't judge.

This bread freezes really well, goes into lunches like a dream, and never lasts long!

Apple Crisp

My family loves fruit crisp.  It is easy to see why.  Cut up some fruit, throw together a topping and you have a satisfying crumbly fruity goodness that is perfect with ice cream.

Peel some apples.  These ones were starting to get spots so it was a perfect excuse to make Crisp.

Time to get my slicer out.  I love this thing.  It was the first time using it for apples.  I use the square cutting blades all the time to make fries in my Actifry.

Butter your baking pan.

Look at how great that turns out!

Now get some brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of brown sugar over your cut apples, 2 tbsp flour to soak up all the juices, and 2-3 tbsp of cinnamon.  Go nuts, it's yummy.  Mix it up a bit right there in the pan.

Now for the topping.  Rolled oats, more brown sugar and flour, and butter.

Mix equal part sugar and oatmeal together.  Toss in a couple more tablespoons of flour and mix.

It should look something like this.

Sprinkle that all over the apples.

Dot the top with butter.

Bake for 25 minutes. These apples were really juicy so the flour made a nice sauce with the juices that came out.  The butter melts on top and makes a nice chewy crisp crunch.

This is a highly enjoyed dessert in my house.  I have made this with various berries, different types of apples, but strawberries and rhubarb are my favourite.  Adjust the sugar you add to the fruit to suit your taste and the sweetness of the fruit you use.

Red Velvet Pancakes

Phoenix's birthday party was this past weekend and he wanted a red velvet cake.  This was probably due to the fact that I have been looking through my cookbooks.  I have an everything red velvet cook book that he was very interested in.  

While looking up the recipe for his birthday cake I came across this recipe for pancakes and of course, we had to try it.  It is a bit more work than your regular pancakes but it is worth it!

You know the drill, get your stuff together.

Break out the stand mixer for this.  And get all your dry ingredients together.

Mix them up a bit.

Mix together the butter, milk, and egg yolks.  Save the egg whites.

Whip up those egg whites until you get stiff peaks.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of your mixer bowl so nothing gets missed.  I did not have any red food colouring at this point so I omitted it.

Fold in the egg whites gently.  You want to retain all those lovely bubbles you whipped in.

I used two methods to portion out the batter to cook. I started with my good old ice cream scoop.

Oooh, look at those bubbles.

Very nice!!

I love my electric grill.  I leave a lot of room between these to allow for awkward flipping drills.

If you have one of these awesome things go ahead and fill it up.  This is an actually batter squeeze bottle for pancakes.  I have used other quirt bottles for this which is great when cooking with kids.  They get to get creative and it doesn't destroy your kitchen at the same time.

I used it to make smaller, cuter pancakes.

Perfect!

A nice mound of breakfast delight.

This recipe makes a lot.  We didn't come anywhere near eating all these.  I lined a baking sheet with plastic wrap and laid these out on it to freeze.  I know from experience that pancakes freeze and reheat really well.  I have used a toaster, oven, and even just the microwave.  They reheat very quickly and are just as good.  I also had a recipe for a cream cheese glaze for these which I didn't make.  We ate them with regular pancake syrup and it was tasty!  Serve with fruit and you have a great breakfast any day of the week.