Meatless Monday - Falafel disaster......

This is our first Meatless Monday. Why are we doing it? Well 3 reasons really...

1.) To be healthier
2.) To reduce our carbon foot print
3.) To expand our horizons!


I first read about this organization in this months Macleans... Funnily enough it coincided with a lunch at Island Chill and new vegetarian eatery in Gore Bay. Now I don't consider myself narrow minded by any means... I have traveled all over the world and LOVE food, so I will try anything! (unless super spicy) I was amazed though when I went to Island Chill that I had no idea what to order on the menu... I had no idea what Tofu tastes like, or a hemp burger? I mean if I am in a restaurant and I have a choice between a hemp burger or an 8 oz steak.. I pick the steak! I felt really silly... I ended up having a Panini filled with home made roasted red pepper hummus, red onions, olives and feta and a bowl of the most amazing veggie barley soup. All tasted amazing, full of flavour and of course fresh yummy veggies! AND HOME MADE!! Doesn't get any better than that!

I decided for my first Meatless Monday to make Falafels. Should be easy right? Grind up the chick peas, fry them stick in pita bread with salad... tadaaaa!!! Not so much. So this is what I ended up with... sludge in the bottom of a pan filled with oil. I tried breading them because I thought maybe they were too wet and needed something to dry them out... (those are the ones with the more golden brown coating - still sludge in the middle) No luck. My cooking skills do not extend to bread or falafels. Luckily however I live across the street from the grocery store and I was determined not to give up on my first Meatless Monday!!!!

Blue Menu Veggie Lasagna it was!!! So I invite you to follow me on Mondays.. I am going to do a 'meatless' post and discover vegetarian cooking! I'll post my triumphs and disasters and I am determined to stick to it!! Even if it means more Blue Menu!!! I am also open to any great vegetarian recipes you may know of that I can give a whirl!

Lights out???

I was going to blog yesterday about Earth Hour 2010 and remind everyone to turn out their lights.... Last year I also posted pictures of houses in darkness. I wasn't feeling too great, my head was pounding and I basically spent all day on the couch... BUT I did turn out my lights for Earth Hour.... Did you??

Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life! Make a donation!

My work colleague Nancy is doing the 'Relay For Life' in June in memory of her mother, Marina Sloss that passed away just before Christmas. The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is an overnight non-competitive relay that celebrates cancer survivors and pays tribute to loved ones. It's a night of fun, friendship and fundraising to beat cancer.

You can click on this link to make a donation by Visa, MasterCard or American Express. It's easy to donate online (it took me two minutes) and you get a tax receipt emailed to you. Nancy and her team members of sisters and family members have a goal of $1200.00 to reach so lets help them achieve it!

http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFL_ON_even_?px=3417421&pg=personal&fr_id=5440

Green velvety heaven???

With St Patty's day being tomorrow I thought I would make something green! I am not really into (green) beer and green wine somehow doesn't seem really appealing... we have company coming and I am making Irish Stew so green cake it is for desert! Caleb decided today that he wanted to stay at the baby sitters, now that he is in school I guess he is not getting enough Jeanie time! With Caleb gone for supper it is the perfect time for me to do something fun with Mason just the two of us! A little while back I made a shamrock cake for someone's birthday so I had the cake pan already. Perfect!! A few posts back I made red velvet cupcakes and they were amazing ( so when I was blog surfing the other day I noticed Bakerella had made green velvet cakes substituting the red food colouring for green. Look familiar??

So I decided to make a green cake for supper and a batch of cupcakes for the kids at Jeanie's tomorrow topped with cream cheese icing and of course (the best part if you are a kid) green sprinkles!Get ready to drool Nat!!........

One last post before bed...

I have to share something else yummy with you!! I just baked a warm gooey apple pie.... It's not for me though, a birthday treat for someone else! I never even liked apple pie before I met the Laing family at Cidermill Farms. They make the best pie ever and I am always trying to create it just the way they make it! It is piled high with apples and topped with a brown sugary crumble. I worked for the Laings on their farm, they are now my closest friends, family and I miss them like crazy. Whenever I visit I always say... 'I only came for the pie'. I stuff my face with it when I am there and make sure I bring some home too! (and I wonder why I am so fat!) I have two huge apple trees in my yard so I tried to pick, peel and cut as many apples as I could (before I got bored) to freeze so that I could make some pies. I always do this very ambitiously picking crates of apples which I then end up giving away as after peeling 2 Ziploc bags full I am kinda over it.

Apple pie the way I make it is really easy... I think the worst thing about making pie is fiddling with pastry. So buy the crust.. just get a frozen tenderflake at the grocery store. Next I pile in the apples with sugar, cinamon, fresh lemon juice and little flour and at this point I either freeze it or load it into the pie shell.

Crumble topping - super easy..... 3/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup flour & 1/3 cup butter. Pile on top! No fiddly pastry on top... see? super easy!!! and super yummy!!!


Bake and that's it! It's not quite a Laing pie... But it's as close as I am going to get until my next visit!!Ok now I am going to bed!! Goodnight!

Dinner with NO KIDS!!!

I love my boys dearly... let me just say that but do you know how great it is to get some 'grown up' time?? We went to Todd & Perry's for dinner on Saturday night.. just the two of us!!! Walkin' down the street, holding' hands... and not screaming "don't touch that" "come back here" "do I need to count to three??"... it goes on and on you know the drill right? 3 hours of dinner, wine, buzz quiz and more wine in peace :) And... Perry made my fav.!!! Chinese food!!


Check out the funky 'beginner' chop sticks!

And... I am sure he knows by the amount of photos I took that I am going to blog about it! LOL Have you see the latest Food and Drink magazine?? It's got to be the best ever... It's got some yummy cupcake & desert recipes made with Baileys, different liquors... I spent hours drooling over it with my coffee on Saturday morning thinking up events and dinner parties that I can make all these yummy deserts for.... my sister would be in cupcake heaven!


The one recipe that stuck out in my head was a drink with ice cream, Tequila Rose, vodka and blended with ice.... Soon as Todd and Perry happened to have all those ingredients I promptly went about making it....
Hmmm I have a whole new love for Tequila Rose... See even my hubby traded his manly beer for a girly drink!!


Getting back to the night with no kids, we are very blessed to have two wonderful friends and even when we don't realize it, they know that we need some time away to kick it & relax with the 'grown ups'! Thanks guys :)