Friday, April 8, 2016

Weekend Cooking

April 2016 - Toronto ON

I thought I would start recording our meals for a while.
We have also started having a smoothie a day as a meal replacement, usually breakfast. John has been using the Incredible Smoothies recipes.

We went to St. Lawrence Market to stock up. Once home, we wash and chop everything up and freeze them. This is what my kitchen counter looked like.




Here are a couple of recipes from this week. We've been adding ginger to ours.

This was a favourite.

Mango Lemon Smoothie 

1 cup (165 grams) mango, cubed
1 banana, peeled
1/4 lemon, peeled
2 cups (134 grams) kale, stems removed
8 ounces (236 mls) unsweetened almond milk

Calories: 258 | Protein: 5g | Carbs: 55g | Fiber: 7.1g | Calcium: 6% | Iron: 1.1mg | Vitamin A: 217% RDA | Vitamin C: 152% RDA


Pineapple Anti-inflammatory Smoothie

1 banana, peeled
1 cup (200 grams) pineapple, cubed
1/4 cup (15 grams) parsley (optional)*
1 stalk of celery
2 cups (134 grams) kale, stems removed
8 ounces (236 mls) unsweetened almond milk

Calories: 244 | Protein: 5g | Carbs: 52g | Fiber: 7g | Calcium: 8% | Iron: 2.2mg | Vitamin A: 198% RDA | Vitamin C: 197% RDA

*Parsley is optional, but it is a great source of iron so I encourage you to give it a try.

Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

1 banana, peeled 
1 kiwi fruit, ends removed
10 strawberries
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (alcohol-free)
2 cups baby bok choy leaves
8 ounces (236 mls) unsweetened almond milk





Sunday



Monday



We went to our favourite pizza place for lunch on Tuesday Olympic on Gloucester and it was great as always.




The weather on Tuesday, seriously???



Wednesday - I snapped this while wandering around downtown at Brookfield Place.



Thursday was the first time hosting the condo monthly coffee greet and meet. We had thirty people attend.


Friday - shopping and lunch with my BFF. It was a cold day but once we met we stayed underground for everything. It was a successful shopping day for me a couple of tops and two jackets, one blue and one orange.
We stopped at Noodles and Company for lunch which has a globally inspired menu that features 25 fresh, customizable noodle bowls made to order, as well as salads and soups. Guests can watch their food being prepared in the restaurant's open kitchen.
It was very good and we said we would come back again but earlier or later as we hit the noon lunch crowd.
I had the Thai curry soup - yellow coconut curry broth, spinach, napa and red cabbage, mushrooms, tomato, red onion, cilantro and rice noodles.
K had the penne rosa - spicy tomato cream sauce, penne pasta, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, wine and parmesan or feta.

Check out their menu I can see a few other things I would like to try.




DINNERS
April 1 - leftover turkey pot pie
April 2 - calves liver, sweet potato, turnip and carrot mash, sauteed kale with onions, garlic and sea asparagus

This is the sea asparagus, glad I tried it, but won't likely buy it again.




April 3 - roast lamb (terrible cut) rubbed with ginger, garlic and mint, roast potatoes, leftover mash, brussel sprouts with garlic, onions, walnuts and parmesan.  Served with homemade lamb gravy I had frozen.
April 4 - curry from the roast lamb, onions, green peppers, celery on rice with naan bread.



April 5 - leftover curry 
April 6 - steak with baked potato and kale salad. These were the steaks we bought from our old butcher on the Danforth and they were excellent.
Love the salad topping we bought at the market, various nuts and seeds, golden raisins and cranberries.



April 7 - haddock fish and chips with corn (for a change from all the green veg we have had this week.

April 8 - Spanish stewed chicken thighs a favourite of ours. I used hot Italian sausage because I had some. 

AND guess what there is a forecast of snow for Sunday.





Cath@Home

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Weekend Cooking hosted by www.BethFishReads.com



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22 comments:

  1. Someday I have to go into Brookfield Place!

    Spring's doing much the same here... misbehaving!

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    Replies
    1. Brookfield is always interesting. They often have art displays in the lobby.

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  2. Jackie, this what happens when you have April weather in January. You get January weather in April, it all evens out!

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  3. It's snowing here right now -- and accumulating! ARGH. Love all your meals. I used to make smoothies (we too use unsweetened almond milk) all the time but got out of the habit I like the idea of washing and chopping right away and then freezing. Makes things so much easier.

    A lamb curry sounds perfect for this spring that won't come.

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  4. Your photo of the iron roof is really exciting. I like interesting effects of light and shadow. Sounds as if you are eating well!

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  5. Oh what a fun post! We never really got winter in Carthage, Missouri, USA. It was such a disappointment. I truly wanted some snow days to be stuck at home with my slippers, a good book, homemade cocoa and chocolate chip cookies! I also wanted to make some snow ice cream. Maybe next year. I cannot remember a year without snow.

    Regarding your comment on my blog, the degree symbol always got me, too. I'm so glad I found the answer. Glad it can help you, too, since you write about food and cooking. ~smile~


    Thanks for "talking back" at Harvest Lane Cottage. Do you know that your comments come through to my email as a "no reply blogger"? If you'd like to get direct responses to your comments more often, you might like to know how to change that. I wrote about it in this blog post.

    http://harvestlanecottage.blogspot.com/2015/01/are-you-no-reply-blogger.html

    If you're like me, you don't have time to go back and check on other blogs to see if you've gotten a response to your comment. I sometimes can take time to track down commenters, but I'm usually short on time.

    ஐღLauraღஐ
    Harvest Lane Cottage
    ...doing what I can with what I've got where I am
    on a short shoestring budget!
    ~~~~~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that info about comments, I will definitely check your post out.

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  6. What a fun post! I enjoyed all the humor and the food made me hungry. The architecture photo you snapped at Brookfield Place is really cool. Thanks for linking on Amanda's Books and More! My weekend linky part: Make My Saturday Sweet and my Tuesday photo linky party: Picture Perfect Party Linky
    http://abooksandmore.blogspot.co.za/

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  7. Part of me might be glad that I can't remember the long winters when I lived in Toronto as a little girl. I've become quite accustomed to the Texas weather and I think my blood has thinned. LOL! Though your posts do make me want to visit--we were up there two years ago to visit family and I'd love to go up again (in the summer...when it's so lovely). ;)

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  8. I would like that strawberry kiwi smoothie, sounds refreshing. I can't believe you have snow!

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  9. Thanks for all the recipes! And yes, I heard that Toronto was back into deep winter last week and we're having early summer weather here in Calgary. Got up to 23C yesterday!

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  10. Now I am seriously hungry! LOL.

    I love the shot of the Olympic Pizza Cafe...it reminds me of one of our favorite places in Sacramento, CA.: Zelda's, which has been there for many years.

    Here's MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOT POST

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  11. Your photos are making me hungry! Thank you for including the smoothie recipes. I keep thinking I'll get into the smoothie habit -- so healthy -- but I'll need to buy a good blender first. Excuses, excuses. LOVE your picture of the Brookfield Place ceiling.
    Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate your comments.

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  12. Those smoothies all sound good, even though I'm not a smoothie person generally. We get a very mild winter here. It sometimes gets cold enough to actually wear a sweater :)

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  13. I always look forward to your posts because they're always so beautifully photographed and the food is so tempting! I'm curious about the sea asparagus though I have a feeling I'd be like you about them and be glad I tried them but don't need to repeat it. The smoothies all sound delicious. I used to make smoothies all the time but got kind of away from them. I need to try a few of the recipes you have especially the Mango Lemon and the Pineapple Anti-Inflammatory. I love pineapple and the parsley sounds like an interesting addition. Your weather makes me feel guilty for whining about our below 50 temperature today!

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  14. I'm going to bookmark this post in the hopes of making more smoothies as the weather warms up. I love the idea of smoothies as a meal replacement, but so far I have yet to take that first step.

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  15. I found smoothies a bit incompatible with my digestion unfortunately. I just saw have toast and coffee for brekkie. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  16. That sign is hilarious. My dad told me 4 inches of snow in Ottawa. What kind of April is that? Your soup looks good.

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  17. Great post! Smoothies are a staple breakfast of mine and I love pineapple and kale smoothies especially.

    Did you blanch the sea asparagus before putting it into your sauteed kale? I find it really helps cut the salt and improve the flavor. I also tend to prefer it blanched then patted dry and used in cold dishes rather than in hot dishes. Yotam Ottolenghi has a salad recipe with asparagus and sea asparagus in a garlic sesame oil dressing with tarragon that I adore and make all of the time.
    Aloha, Deb--Kahakai Kitchen.

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  18. oh my! I am all hungry now.....terrific foodie post! Sea asparagus....never heard of it before! thanks for sharing with Fun friday Favourites

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