hazelnut... it does a body good

A few years ago, I thought I might be lactose-intolerant. I haven't figured out if I really am or not, but I have never gone back to cow's milk. Instead I went to soy, then lately was on an almond kick, but a week ago, I found hazelnut!!! YUM! I highly recommend it. The best of the milk substitutes that I have tried.

The facts:

It's so good. It's thick and hazelnutty... delicious! Adds a ton of flavor to my morning cereal.

Speaking of cereal, I have overcome my laziness a few times this week and made oatmeal on the stove. I managed to cut out additional sugar between the hazelnut "milk" and the berries or peaches I add in.

Here it is with blackberries:

I ate out a lot this weekend, but I attempted to balance that out with a healthy soup on Saturday night. I steamed asparagus, then threw it in the blender with a tiny bit of light cream, some water, and a bit of chicken broth powder. And voila!

In other news, I tried to make a clementine cake this weekend... I had a bad feeling when the clementines were boiling for 2 hours (yes, 2 hours!!!). I didn't like the smell, but thought maybe it would still turn out okay. But then the recipe called for ground almonds, which I did not find, so I ground them myself in my new 3-cup food processor. Of course, they weren't fine enough, but again, I thought it might do. I should also mention that the recipe called for this batter being prepared in a food processor - well my new little 3-cup one wasn't going to cut it so I used the blender. Definitely not meant for that. But despite all of this, I persevered, ever optimistic! As you may have guessed by now, it didn't work out. The texture was off, the taste wasn't very good, and the middle seemed undercooked. I was so disheartened that I couldn't even take a picture. It went straight into the trash, not even completely cooled yet. I really rarely mess up cakes - strange that I have now had to throw 2 cakes out in less than one month. What was my last post? Oh yes, listen to your gut! Ha! Well now I have that reminder every time I walk into my house: the boiling clementine smell that I didn't like is lingering. Perhaps the other lesson here is, make sure you have the right ingredients and tools before you embark on a recipe journey.

But let's end on a high note. To make up for the clementine cake, I made quatre quarts (or pound cake, or literally four fourths). I figured that the chances were low that something would go wrong with such a classic. Did you know that there is a very easy way to make one? This is how it's done in France: weigh your eggs, however many you want to use. The guideline is 2 eggs for 4 people. Then, use the same weight in sugar, butter, and flour. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (or both extracts, as I did). I also threw in some quality French chocolate that I had finely chopped with my fantastic Wusthof knife. If you bake it as one cake, it will take about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I made cupcakes and they were in for about 25 minutes.

listen to your gut

That salmon that I've been thinking about since yesterday? Yeah, didn't turn out well.

I put a little bit of oil and lots of herbs on it and was kind of excited about eating it. I put it on the George Foreman grill and it must have cooked in a minute. I checked on it at 2.5 minutes and it was already overdone. What the heck!? I mean, I am all for a speedy dinner, but I was not prepared for this Mach speed. The spinach water was just getting to a boil! Had I listened to my gut when I first put it on the grill, I would have checked on it sooner and at least turned the grill off while the spinach cooked. Cold well-cooked salmon would have been better than overcooked dry but warm salmon. Oh well, lesson learned!

This did save me some Points though, because I could only eat half of my serving! Yeah for staying within my Points limit today! I will add some mayonnaise to the leftover salmon and make salmon salad. Could be gross, could be good. We'll find out.

When I think of it, I had a bunch of other fails today:

~ I tried to get my hair cut, but the place closes at 6 on Wednesdays,

~ I wanted to make clementine cake but had somehow missed the step that you have to simmer the clementines for 1-2 hours - not something I could start at 9 PM,

~ and a few other annoying things that happened today that are not worth mentioning.

But on the bright side, the blender is washed and ready to go. And, I have upgraded to a glass bowl - so grownup, right!? ;-)

breakfast... it's what's for dinner

The plan was to make salmon tonight, but once I looked up the WW PointsPlus value, I got discouraged. (And side note, also annoyed that wild-caught salmon costs way more points than farm-raised salmon. Guess which one I bought thinking I was making the healthier choice!) As I was closing the freezer door after putting a salmon filet to defrost in the refrigerator for tomorrow, my eyes fell on a completely unnecessary purchase I made on Sunday: waffles! YES! Breakfast for dinner! All of the sudden, it was exactly what I was craving. Who wants/needs fish when you can have waffles! Now, really!?!

I tried to add a bit of nutrition. On one I added peanut butter and jelly, for a bit of protein (and lots of sugar, yes). On the other I added some agave nectar and sliced bananas (not much nutrition on that one, but another fruit added to the day). Ah, who am I kidding!? It was just plain good without much nutritional value!

Today's fruit count:

clementines: 4

bananas: 2

peaches: 1/2

Today's vegetable count:

uhhh, 0

I'll work on that tomorrow. ;-) But for today, I must say that this breakfast-for-dinner has made my night!!

In other news, I bought a blender! AND dug up a smoothie recipe book that I had forgotten about! More on that in another post...

And one last thing... I bought disposable coffee cups for the next time it snows and nice plow man comes around!!

missing in action

Yes, I've been MIA. I was in Orlando last week and had absolutely no time to blog. However, I did have plenty of time to eat. One fine dining experience included eating Greek food at Cat Cora's restaurant, Kouzzina, and sitting near Morimoto.

The delicious dessert - warm molten chocolate cake with sweet cream - it was clearly quality chocolate: (A+ for presentation, too)

Others had the doughnuts, which I didn't try, but were supposedly delicious:

Fun open kitchen:

Just before I left and just after I came home, I also made myself some healthy and satisfying meals, see for yourself.

Chicken and spinach with strong Maille mustard:

Egg (+ paprika) with pearled couscous and broccoli:

I hope to be back with more regularity now. Just stay tuned to see if it happens!

PS: I'm on a quest for a new blender. Now that I don't have one, I see smoothie opportunities everywhere!!