This little pig...

Went to market! The Vancouver Farmers Market!

We've been going for a couple of years now. It's very small, but we like it that way. They have both local vendors, as well as vendors/farmers from the east side of the state. They have flowers, produce, arts, jewelry, bake goods, live music, etc...

We always get a bouquet for the apartment. They sell from $5 to $15. We usually go for mid-range bouquet (seven bucks).

From 2010-04-30

I got some fresh parsley for 50 cents. I used it to make some beef pho (Vietnamese rice noodle soup). It's usually made with cilantro, which I hate. I added leeks (from the market), fresh lime juice and jalepenos. It was delicious! Dan ate it and said, "I like leeks!" Mind you, he hates any form of onion. It was my first time using leeks. They really are mild.

From 2010-04-30

I am joyfully gluten free (most of the time joyful, all the time gluten free). Dan is joyfully gluten free (all the time joyful, most of the time gluten free). He does splurge on a few gluten items, including an organic cinnamon roll at the market... he says the ones I used to make taste better :0)

From 2010-04-30

We came home from the farmers market and cleaned of the deck. Some of our herbs weathered the winter including the pineapple mint, rosemary, sage, thyme, and spicy oregano.

From 2010-04-30

Happy Spring!

Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

I decided to venture into the gluten free cooking world today. After a month of gluten free, I missed some old favorites, namely, mozzarella cheese sticks. So I whipped up a batch today.

I cut some mozzarella into sticks. Then I used a gluten free flour mix to coat them. I dredged them in an egg and milk mixture and finished them off with gluten free breadcrumbs mixed with seasoning. Here they are before going into the freezer.

From 2010-03-15

I put them in the freezer for an hour to make sure the cheese wouldn't just ooze out of them when I fried them. I fried them on the stove in some canola oil. It only takes about 30 seconds per side (at about 350 degrees). Deep fried goodness...

From 2010-03-15

Crunchy yet gooey...

From 2010-03-15

The last picture is blurry because the steam from the mozzarella stick kept fogging up my camera lense. However, blurr aside, you can see the delicious, melty cheese. Yum.

Back on Program

Dan and I officially started weight watchers again today. Last time we were on program for a little over a month. I lost 6 pounds, was working out, and that's when I got pregnant (which ended with the miscarriage). Here's hoping the diet works again!

Dan is doing points, I'm doing simply filling. He has 34 points a day. We entered in all his food for today and he still has 6.5 points leftover to eat. What a rat!

Menu this week:

Sunday: Ham, Twice Baked Potatoes, Broccoli and Salad
Monday: Steak with Sauteed Onions, Mashed Cauliflower, Salad
Tuesday: Spice rubbed chicken, Green Beans, Brown Rice
Wednesday: BBQ Pork Chops, Pineapple, Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower, Salad
Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Burger (Dan), Sloppy Joe (Susan), Raw Vegetables, Apples
Friday: Will be traveling to the Harbor. Maybe Subway. Maybe we'll pack something.

Made up some black bean soup for my lunches. Dan is eating his roast beef on sandwich thins. Bonus of the week? Found out our sugerfree fudgesicles are 0 points! Yeah!!!

Reducing Food Waste

I've reading recently that the average household throws away between 13% and 33% of the food they buy. Dan and I are particularly aweful. Even though I plan menus for the week, we end up eating out, and therefore throwing away the food that we were supposed to eat that night.

We also spend a great amount of money eating out (not to mention on the food we are throwing away). I spent yesterday morning totalling up how much we spent eating out in the last year eating out. I am not brave enough to share the actual amount, however, if we didn't eat out last year we could have went on a cruise in the Bahamas...twice. If we didn't eat out, we could have had a down payment on a house. If we didn't eat out, we would probably each weigh about 13 pounds less!

This week I am making a bigger effort to use up leftovers and cook the food I buy. I bought considerely less at the store this week. I'm going to make dinners depending on the need to use up items, using the items that will go bad quickly first.

On a side note, after researching food waste today, I found many articles on how bad it is for the environment because it doesn't probably decompose in the landfill because of lack of oxygen. I always thought it did decompose easily because food is organic.

Pizza Night...Again

This time I made my crust from scratch. It was very easy. I used a recipe from www.recipepizza.com I used the thin crust recipe, but I added a little oil and an extra handful of flour to compensate. The pizza crust was VERY easy and quick. The main part had a good texture. Thin and crispy crust with a little bit of dough on top. The outer crust was bland and a little too crispy. Overall, I would make it again, but I'll continue to look for a better recipe. One thing I like is that it called for very few ingredients and in small amounts.

From Pizza night

It was a taco pizza because we had leftover taco toppings but no leftover tortillas. You can see from the picture above that a little lip of the pizza crust got messed up when I slid it into the oven. I used a hot pizza stone (500*) and used cornmeal on the bottom to make sure it slid off the baking sheet onto the stone.

From Pizza night

Now that is a perfect picture of a perfectly crisped crust if I do say so myself.

From Pizza night

I used some leftover pizza sauce with some salsa mixed in. I blended them together (Dan doesn't like chunks). I added a little mexican seasoning I have from world market and a few dashes of hot sauce. I topped it with leftover taco meat, tillamook cheddar, and some lettuce and spinach when it was out of the oven.

It would have been great with tomatoes and avocados, but alas, I was out of both. Leftovers should make quite a tasty breakfast.

Summer is still here

Summer is still here! The weather has been nice and I've been trying to enjoy. Dan and I are both trying to get in better shape, so went for a walk with a couple of wonderful co-workers on Friday. We plan to work out at school a couple of days a week.

We are also trying to eat healthier. We tried something new. Boca brand (vegetarian) breakfast sausage links. Pretty good. They were especially nice chopped up in our eggbeaters today (better that way, then just eating them by themselves).

Dan is getting home from work soon and I just got done making dinner. Weather was so nice that I decided to grill up some chicken. I marinated it with some of my fresh basil and spicy oregano (amongst other things like lime juice, oil, garlic...). To be honest, it needed a little more salt, but you can't tell that by the beautiful picture!

I hope you all are having a great continuation of your summer!

He likes it. He really likes it!

Dan has been very adventurous with foods lately. When I met him, he would basically eat only apples, chicken, and chocolate. The first things he added to his diet were vegetables: Asparagus, artichoke and zucchini (green vegetables only!).

Lately, he's been trying more fruit. He still doesn't like any berry except a strawberry ( :0( I love 99% of all fruits). But, this week, he found another fruit he likes. PLUMS!!! (but only if they are very ripe)

And please note that I LOVE my new camera. It take nice close up shots.