A bit o' this and a bit o' that

So, this week I was kinda busy with stuff both at work, and at home. I am so excited about my friend's wedding (in SCOTLAND!) this May and was booking flights and accommodation. I was a little worried about staying away from home because what the heck am I going to eat? It would have to be a week of making some "good or better" choices and I would have to settle for that (with no "best" options) BUT - I had a brilliant idea and rented a flat (with a kitchen) for the week instead of a hotel! It turned out to be cheaper too! AMAZING! I'm really happy about that! Now I can grab some groceries and I don't have to fret over where and what I am going to eat...which also means that I am going to save even MORE money by not having to eat out for every meal! :)

Now, because I was busy, I didn't always have time to cook (and wasn't extremely inspired) this week. I made spaghetti with a primavera sauce...that was so easy, so I wish I liked spaghetti more :(

I got a jar (glass jar!) of Amy's low sodium organic marinara sauce - I usually make this sauce staring with canned tomato, but no more cans for me! I chopped up some organic green onions, and the rest of the organic button mushrooms and put them in a saucepan with water to cook...then dumped about half the jar of the sauce. Then I added some chopped up organic grape tomatoes, and ripped up organic spinach (usually I use fresh Basil leaves, but a) I already had spinach and b) the jarred stuff already had tons of flavor) and simmered for a bit! When it was almost done, I added some fresh parsley...mmmmm



If I was making this sauce with the canned tomatoes (you can get stewed tomatoes in a jar, that's the BEST option...even better if they're organic!)I would have also added GARLIC and tons of chunky cut Spanish onions (the stuff I used already had onions and garlic).

Then I put it on some organic whole wheat linguine noodles (not a spaghetti fan at all) and splashed some parmesan on top! On the side I put some of the naked spinach leaves, splashed some balsamic vinegar on them and threw a couple of little tomatoes on my plate for good measure...I ate about half of that :) hahahaha! and saved the rest for lunch!


I also made a pepper steak stir-fry...I love stir-frys because you can put whatever the heck you want in them and they're VERY hard to screw up! I think the stir-fry is our generation's answer to the casserole!

So, I drizzled about 1 TBS of sesame oil in the bottom of a pan and heated it up a bit, then I took that Niman steak I bought the other day and threw some pepper on it (I used a blend called "Montreal Steak Spice") then seared it in the oil (it was a very thin cut steak, so searing literally took 30 seconds on each side and it came out medium rare)...when that was done, I put some water in the skillet to 'deglaze' it an added onion and broccoli (cook that for a minute until that broccoli becomes a rich green colour) then I plopped the steak back in, and added shredded organic cabbage (bet you were waiting for me to use that puppy eh? I used about half that small head) tossed it around, then added in sliced zucchini (or courgette for you Brits and almost Brits). When it was done, it looked way to "green" so, to accentuate the pepper flavour in the stir-fry I used that purple stuff that I always want to call radicchio, but I think it's something else, and arranged that to line the plate (in place of rice or noodles) and plopped the stir-fry on that. MMMMMMM GOOD! And enough for a dinner AND a lunch. Excellent!



Today is Sunday and I always treat myself to a fantastic breakfast on Sundays! Today was a beautiful sweet-treat of french toast (made with that home-made bread from 2 weeks ago (defrosted from the freezer!) and sliced really thick and 1 organic free range local egg from Wadsons (eek I have great news!) whisked with milk)...cooked that in BUTTER and topped it with sliced local bananas and organic strawberries. I wish I could tell you that I also put organic maple syrup on top, but, all I had was that fake table syrup crap (first ingredient: high fructose corn syrup!!!!) so I used that and promised myself to replace that when it's done with the better (and super stupid expensive here) maple syrup.



My happy story for today actually happened yesterday! The weather here was SO BAD that I couldn't get to the Farmer's Market to get my eggs! I was also going to trek out to Devonshire Lindos to get some more veg and fruit... Well, the weather never let up and I value my life (high winds that are strong enough to knock branches off of trees + my little wee scooter = DISASTER) so, I resigned to going to the Warwick Lindos across the street and get the non-food stuff I needed, and see what kinds of eggs they have there...WELL...they had a little surprise for me when I got there! I don't know if Lindos people are reading my blog, but my wish came true! The store across the street from my house now had that Organic milk! It also has (ooooo soooooo excited!) WADSON'S FARMS EGGS! Yipppppeee! And they also had the roaster chicken for Wadsons! I was so excited! :) THANK YOU WARWICK LINDOS! Now if I just need to run out quick for milk or eggs (or chicken?!), I can just go across the street and not halfway across the island! :)

Today I am making more bread, chicken soup, pumpkin spice cake, and I really want to play with the Quinoa and lentils today! I also bought cornmeal (which I have NEVER bought before) and might try my hand at making fresh baked Foccacia (oooh I just made myself drool!)