Green Soupy Sunday Asparagus Soup- Masters Edition

A few weeks back we were invited to my parents home to watch the Masters- the big golf tournament where the winners take home a green jacket. So in honour of the colour green, I decided to try and make a green soup... here's my stab at Asparagus soup.

This was going to be a challenge because my husband doesn't like asparagus, but loves watching golf!

Here's where we begin...

Asparagus Potato Soup

(original url: http://api.allthecooks.com/asparagus-potato-soup.html)

Ingredients

1 pound - Asparagus; trimmed, -and cut into 1-in lengths

1 large - Baking potato; peeled and cut into 1/2-in cubes

1 medium - Yellow onion, peeled and cut into slim wedges

3 1/2 cup - Chicken broth

1/4 teaspoon - Ground mace

1/8 teaspoon - Ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon - Salt

1/4 teaspoon - Freshly ground pepper

6 tablespoon - Freshly grated Parmesan

Serves 6.

Directions

1 PLACE ALL THE INGREDIENTS except cheese in a large saucepan.

2 Bring the liquid to a simmer over moderate heat, then adjust the heat so that it bubbles gently.

3 Cover the pot and simmer the broth for 30 to 35 minutes, until the vegetables are very tender.

4 Cool the broth, still covered, for 20 minutes.

5 Puree the broth and the vegetables in batches, in a blender or in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade.

6 Return the puree to the saucepan, set it over moderate heat and bring the soup just to serving temperature.

7 Ladle the soup into heated bowls and top each portion with 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan cheese.

Et voila, the finished soup. It really was delicious... and Brent even liked it!

  

My mom made a 'green' ceasar salad.

... and served 'green' honeydew melon.

I had some leftover carrot cupcakes I brought over (they freeze quite well). I added some golf flags, sorry no green here though.

Here's the 'taped' Masters.... we had to pause for dinner of course.

Here's Brent enjoying the Masters with his green track pants.

... and here's the cutie who won the Masters- Australian Adam Scott, hey I wonder if my brother and his family know him (they live in Australia, that's what folks say about Canada!!!)

So Thankful - Dinner for my Parents

My parents are awesome! When Brent had to take a couple of months of work and get his foot put in cast and be 'immobile' as in... no walking, driving, working for over 2 months... my mom and dad really pitched in and helped us out. My dad drove Brent to the hospital every week and my mom helped us out with errands and shopping and generous gifts. High Five to my amazing parents, I love them so! So I wanted to show our appreciation by having a little dinner in their honour.

I bought this pretty card and wrote a thoughtful words and thanks and appreciation.

There they are! My parents are awesome, so much love to give!!!!

Make my dad's favourite.... spaghetti with a homemade sauce and ceasar salad and garlic bread ( all using healthier recipes of course).
Here's my new found spaghetti sauce recipe, it was delicious (Brent freaked out with love!)

 

Basic Spaghetti Sauce Freezer Cooking Recipe

Adapted -http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/spaghettisauce.html

1/2 lb bulk Italian sausage (mild or hot)- you could use turkey sausage

1/2 lb ground beef

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions

1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste

3 (28 ounce) cans Italian-style tomatoes or plain crushed tomatoes in puree

2 cups water

4 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)

4 bay leaves

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons dried basil

2 teaspoons dried oregano

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons salt

In pot, brown ground beef and sausage with onions until completely brown. Drain fat.

Add remaining ingredients, bringing to a boil. Reduce heat, loosely cover and simmer for two hours, making sure to stir occasionally.

Set a bright and colourful table!

Check it out... chunky and delicious and tonnes of leftovers!

My dad loves carrot cake, so I thought it would be a propos to make this tasty treat (recipe shared a few days ago) for healthy carrot cupcakes.

Spring Garden Cleanup

You wanna know something... if you get me and Melanie new pink gardening tools and gloves, we'll do just about anything for our garden!

You see, I am not one of those people who loves to garden, but I love order and flowers, so after the fall/winter/spring thaw, the garden was a big mess, partly because of the 50 lbs of pine cones that fell from the roof... don't ask.

So Melanie, dressed in her best pink outfit - not usual gardening gear, but I'll take all the help I can get - got down into the dirt and starting scooping, scrapping and shoveling this stuff.

Ya, see those pine cones ( the gutters were filled, in fact, the squirrels filled it so much that it collapsed last summer, and this is about half of what came out), lot's to clean up.

... and down here, well, it's the usual dead plants and decaying leaves.

Here's the most proud 'after' photo I have ever taken of my garden. Look, you can finally see the tulips coming up!

... and down here, you can see the ground, and more tulips and other brightly coloured green things ( I told you, I am not a gardener).

There's proud, or grumpy, or tired Melanie, pointing to the 6 bags of leaves and pine cones we scrapped up. That was a tiring 3 hours, and the back of my legs were sore for days... but it had to be done and besides, according to http://www.fatsecret.com/fitness/yard-work-%28gardening%29 , I burned over 914 calories... because, you know, I ain't no 160 lbs person.

It's time for a Healthy Lifestyle Update

Update time!!! Ok, so this time, it won't be a whopping huge weight loss number, lost only .5 lb of fat... but that's because I have gained muscle, that's right, according to my friend Janice (who took the pretty picture on the bottom), muscle weighs 3 times as much as fat. So far, I have lost 94.6 lbs of fat. That's pretty freakin' awesome. Check the 'during' and 'current' photo shots just to show off a little.

 

 During, having lost about 20 lbs   

 Now, having lost 94.6 lbs

So what amazes me is how awesome I feel now and how awesome I felt back then (December 2011), and how proud and excited I was to have embarked on this healthy living journey. It really is all about how you 'FEEL', I felt just as awesome as I feel looking at the picture of me now. But physically, my eyes can absolutely tell the difference, don't you agree! Sad to think that when I went for my Wharton Medical Clinic appointment I felt disappointed, deflated... really... that I had only lost  .5 lb. Well let me tell you, I decided to shake it off and decided to FEEL good by asking questions to my clinician about what I might do to make this process move along. Well she provided me with a wealth of information, that I will now share with you, so that I can get to my eventual goal of losing another 100lbs and I FEEL great about that challenge, because I have the drive, the energy and the passion to continue along my journey! Take that you half pound piece of .... fat. One of the big ones is to include more resistance training in my workouts to build more muscle.

Here's some helpful tips about weight loss plateaus provided to me by the Wharton Clinic taken from the advice of Dr. Natasha Turner, N.D.

• Mix up your workout. If you usually workout for 20 minutes, try 25-30 minutes and increase the intensity. Longer workouts are not always the answer, 150 minutes per week does seem to be the magic number that sparks weight loss.

• Try cardio first thing in the morning. Try doing 30 minutes of cardio on an empty stomach (no longer). This technique may make your body into kick-starting your metabolism.

• Pump some iron. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. Muscle mass determines the number of calories we burn daily while we rest. The more muscle we have, the more fat we can burn, even while resting.

• Make sure you are eating the right amounts at the right time. Don't skip meals, especially breakfast. Don't go too long without eating (Wharton clinic recommends eating every 2-3 hours). Eating the right foods frequently reassures your body that food is plentiful.

• Keep a food diary. ( I love using www.myfitnesspal.com, as you know)

• Drink lots of water. This is key! As fat cells begin to shrink, they release toxins that need to be removed from our system by our liver, kidneys and digestive tract. If we don't drink enough water to support these processes, the toxins may interact with our hormones and cause increased fat storage or inability to burn fat. Water can also make us feel full and regulate our appetite. We often think we are hungry but we may actually be thirsty. So this is what she recommends: (might not me the right formula for me though as I would have to drink 17 glasses)- multiply your body weight by 0.55, divide the result by 8 to determine the number of cups you need drink each day.

Ok, so I am going to start walking for 30 minutes in the morning on an empty stomach (4 days a week), double my water intake (well try!), and incorporate strength training by doing resistance bands 3 times a week. I will continue to do Zumba at least once a week and go for luxurious power walks on the weekend. Of course, continue to eat well and log my food on myfitnesspal.com. Sounds like an awesome plan, right! And who would have thought I would ever call power walks 'luxurious'?????

Carrot Cupcakes- a Healthier kinda cupcake

Recently, I needed to come up with a special desert that my Dad would enjoy. He loves carrot cake, so I thought I would find a healthy recipe for carrot cupcakes, something I LOVE TO BAKE!

 They turned out delicious and moist because of the yogurt and apple sauce and the pecan... that's my idea!

Light Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Light Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from : http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/light-carrot-cake-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting/?print=1&system=us&servings=12

Ingredients

    FOR THE CUPCAKES:

    ¾ cups Grated Carrots

    ½ cups Whole Wheat Flour

    ¾ cups All-purpose Flour

    ⅛ cups Dark Brown Sugar

    ⅔ cups Sugar (Or Substitute 1/2 Cup Sugar Substitute And 1/2 Cup Sugar For The 1 1/3 Cups Sugar)

    ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

    ½ teaspoons Baking Soda

    ⅛ teaspoons Ground Allspice

    ⅛ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg

    ⅛ teaspoons Cinnamon

    ¼ teaspoons Salt

    1-½  Eggs

    ½ cups Non-fat Plain Yogurt

    ⅛ cups Unsweetened Applesauce

    ⅛ cups Canola Oil

    FOR THE FROSTING:

    ¼ pounds 1/3 Of The Fat Cream Cheese, Softened

    1 tablespoon Butter, Room Temperature

    ¾ teaspoons Vanilla Extract

    Salt

    1 cup Confectioners Sugar (sifted)

Preparation Instructions

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place cupcake liners into two 12-count muffins tins.

2. Place grated carrots into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Put flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt into the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer. Pulse or mix for about for about 10 seconds. Add the flour mixture to the grated carrots and toss to coat.

4. Next add the eggs, yogurt and applesauce to the bowl of the food processor/stand mixer and pulse/beat until creamy. Add in the oil and mix until well-combined.

5. Pour the sugar mixture into the carrot mixture and stir until just moistened.

6. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Remove cupcakes from the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

For the frosting:

8. Using a stand mixer, beat cream cheese and butter together until blended. Add in the vanilla and salt and beat until smooth. Add in the confectioners’ sugar a 1/2 cup at a time and beat until smooth and creamy.

9. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before frosting the cooled cupcakes.

10. Store leftover cupcakes in refrigerator

Enjoy!

Nice Nails- Spring Polka Dots

Oooooooh, I love pastels! And this spring I decided to pastel it down on my nails.

 Found these lovely colours and dotted on some white polka dots.

 Aren't these cute???? Well, I just had to, right, 4 for $10 at Garage. Yes.... my daughter made me go into that store on the last trip to the mall and I saw these in a big jar, just like colourful candies... how a propos that they are called 'nail candy'. Love it!

Spring Love and Butterflies

Today I wanted to cheer you up, help you refocus and show you that things are looking up! The weather might be rainy and cold, but guess what... warmer weather is on its way and I just had to share this most inspiring photo with you.

This is one of my most prized possessions. My parents gave me this beautiful Britto tea pot as a 'trophy' for doing so well and being so dedicated to my new healthy lifestyle. Touched my heart beyond belief!
Well, it sits atop my Ikea kitchen credenza and a few mornings ago, the sunlight hit it just so and made it sparkle and shine and shimmer. It almost made the butterflies dance. There was warm love in the air. So thank you to my parents, to spring, to the sun, to colours, to butterflies and to Britto for making my heart sing!

Easter- Fun with Food

My mother made a beautiful Easter Dinner... I just had to share some of the Glamour shots with you!

Delicious Maple-Glazed Ham... so much porc love!

Scalloped Potatoes with bacon and cheese... quite decadent.

This is the best... an Easter Bunny-shaped bread.

Beautiful flower centerpiece.

OMG, the loveliest sorbets in natural fruit shells. What a cool desert!

Look at this Coconut shell with Coconut sorbet in it. My Dad could not believe it was a real coconut shell, my husband couldn't believe the lemon shell was real either, he took a bite from it... what is it with men and frozen fruit shells?

Check out the nutrition details... ok, the lemon shell is the least caloric choice... the coconut, not so much!

 

Look at the nice Easter Treats my sweet Mama gave me... an EOS lip balm, love those smooth eggs, those dark chocolate covered pretzels and the prettiest Easter card with the coolest Easter flower pots that look like swimming head caps from the 40's.

Finally, here's the nice little Easter Brunch dish I made for my own little family. The most delicious Baked Blueberry French Toast. I have posted about it before, so for the the recipe, click the link http://simmerandglimmer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/best-blueberry-recipe-so-far-make-this.html

Easter- The Fun with the Family

A little late... but I just want to share with you some Easter Fun we had with our family...  of course, as you will see, the star of this celebration was little Stephanie. It's just so amazing to see all that is so new to her!

My Mom loves to match her napkins with the season!

 

Hello gorgeous Easter Angel!

Okay, we are just goofy looking with our Easter animals, but Julie looks like an angel with the bright light behind her!

This is a series of action photos... looking into Stephanie's mind.... look at this cute bunny, what is she looking at?

Look it's a hopping baby chick...

... I think I will put it in my little basket...

...oops, it fell out of my basket...

... I think I will put it back in again...

...and then make sure it stays in...

...look Mommy, it's my Easter chick...

...cheese and Easter love!

...ok, now I need a break, time for milk while resting on my Daddy's legs...

... and guess who else joined us live via Skype from Sydney Australia... the Hebert's all smiles and whiskers! How cool is this??? And that Stephanie knows that this technology is just part of what happens these days. This is how we communicate... as for me... still thinking this kind of technology was only possible on Star Trek back in the day!