Homemade Pad Thai- for the Queen's Birthday

First of all, for all my Canadian Fans- Happy Vicotria Day to all!

Melanie and I just love Pad Thai, Brent... not so much.... well, he doesn't know what he's missing. So on a night when he wasn't going to be home for dinner, Mella and I decided to try our own version. Well folks, let me tell you, it turned out GREAT!

It was so fresh and delicious. It's definitively for a night when you have lots of prep time available. But let me tell you... it's worth it.  This recipe comes from Eat, Shrink and be Merry. One of my favs!

Tongue Thai'd (adapted from the recipe book Eat, Shrink and be Merry)

Here's what you'll need:

Sauce:

2 tbsp each of freshly squeezed lime juice and Asian fish sauce

2 tbsp each of ketchup and brown sugar

2 tbsp each of fresh grated ginger and reduced-sodium soya sauce

2 tsp of toasted sesame oil

1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes or hot pepper sauce

Rest:

227g of rice stick noodles (about 1/8 inch wide)

small onion or a few shallots (omitted )

1 medium red bell pepper, seeded, diced or sliced (I added shredded carrots too)

1 lb chicken breast (the original asked for shrimp and tofu... no thank you)

2 cups fresh bean sprouts

2 chopped green onions

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

This is what you'll need to do:

Chop up all your ingredients because it comes together quite quickly.  Place all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Set aside.

Place rice noodles in a glass bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let stand for 7 minutes and then drain and set aside. 

While noodles are soaking, heat peanut oil in a large non-stick wok.

Add onions and garlic and red pepper (I added shredded carrots too), cook for about 2 minutes. Add chicken and cook for another 3-4 minutes until chicken is no longer pink inside.

Add reserve sauce, bean sprouts, noodles...

Toss and cook until mixture is hot, about 1 minute, add green onions, cilantro and peanuts and toss again.

Serve immediately.  ทานให้อร่อยนะ  - do you know what that is? That means bon appetit in Thai!

Nutritional information: (per serving/makes 6 servings)

308 calories, 7g fat, 15g protein, 47g carbs, 3g fibre



Did you see my haircut???

Thanks to my weekly visit to my sister. I found a nice little place to get an inexpensive hair cut and root touch up (yeah, so sorry to tell you, but the gray hairs want to take over my head- I am not ready for that let me tell you). It's called H & M Spa and Hair Salon. The whole thing was only $40 introductory price but ususally $50. So going back for a pedicure!

I blew this one up so you could see how well they they did. Not a sneaky gray hair in sight!

When you love yourself, you wanna take care of yourself. This healthy eating, healthy living, hair and makeup... it's all part of my transformation!

Tea for Five and Giggles

So check it out.... we were supposed to have a 'picnic' tea party, but since the weather did not cooperate, we had a Tea Party for Five indoors. As usual, a blast was had by all five of us with love and giggles abound!

Here's pretty jenny with the most beautiful smile!

And what about Georgia...loving her cracker- I love her smirk... but the best is Szos in the background with a pink unicorn attached to his hat- don't you think?

Here's my tea party buffet. Since we were supposed to have a picnic outdoors, I decided that we could instead have a picnic indoors with the best tablecloth, and fun plastic dishes ever.

Here's a closeup of my tray. Crackers (see below), organic extra old white cheddar (which-if you read this blog you know- was polished off by Mella and Jenny mostly), and those morning glory cookies I blogged about a few days ago.

Here's some delicious organic crackers I picked up at the Organic Garage.

And of course.... all the tea choices!

Close up of my berries!

Close up of my almonds.

Close up of my trail mix with banana chips.

Close up of my pistachios.

Close up of my dark chocolate covered blueberry and acai berries.

Here come the giggles now.... We took the kitchen party to the living room and we had some great bonding time with everyone...

But especially with Mella and Georgia.... oh the LOVE!

So relaxing and filled with moments of tea, love and unicorns.

Brent feeling the moment...

but here is my favourite closeup... Brent's is really feeling the moment of love!

Croque Monsieur- bien sur!

Try this Croque Monsieur recipe when you need to make a quick and kid friendly dinner.

This is one of our favourites for those busy nights when I have to rush home from work and make dinner and take Melanie to one of her night time activities.

This is what you'll need:

2 slices of healthy whole grain bread ( I use Stonemill Omega 3/Flax seed bread)

2 slices of light cheddar cheese

2 slices of thinly sliced deli ham

2 tsp of butter

Just make it as you would a grilled cheese sandwich, but add the ham in the middle. Serve it with a salad and you have made a dinner with all the food groups!

By the way, have you seen my lovely daughter lately, the day I made this dinner, she had to get all dressed up because she was having a tea party with the Queen at Girl Guides that night (well not the real Queen).

More adventures... this one, for my soul

Recently I discovered the power of The Secret. I had heard about this book, movie, but then when Szos told me I should watch it... My life changed. I discovered that The Secret was the law of attraction. You get what you give. Your thoughts become things. When you visualize success, love, abundance of all kind- it will come to you. I am not doing it justice - so please see this link for all the awesome details http://thesecret.tv/index.html .

Soon after I shared with my friend Lisa about this and asked her if she knew about 'The Secret' and if she could recommend other books- I was so thirsty for this kind of knowledge, it just resonated with me, well she did - she surprised me and sent me the most wonderful present in the mail. The sequel called the Power on a 5CD book set. Well let me tell you, it has opened up a brand new part of me I never knew existed. You see the Power is Love. When you give Love you get Love back, when you give anger, you get anger back. So logical and so true!!! Thanks Szos and Lisa.

So the second part of our Downtown Oakville Adventure was to give Love to all that Melanie and I want. I visualize a sexy size 10 body and I visualize buying clothes at all these great stores. So Rhonda Byrne says that you need to 'give love' to all the beautiful things you see that you want, when you see a girl who has a nice outfit, you give 'Love' to it- say Love to everything you see, don't be envious of others who may have those items or shop at those stores, give those stores love and love will come back to you.

So here is what I was giving love to- Lulu Lemon.

The coolest store downtown Oakville- Fuel. The clothes are so 'flowy' and bright and bold and full of patterns and style. Love it!

Oh, but this store, so Urban and so Montreal - that's where it's from. Casual, Yoga, Sport, Modern and they even have a Yoga Studio in the back of the store. I love this place and want to get one of everything they have.

Lole loves Spring, and so do I!

Lole inspired by well-being. What an awesome thing to be... that's my path!!!

In The Power, Rhonda Byrne talks about having a symbol that will remind you about love. Her's is shimmering light, her sister's is a rainbow. After thinking about it for awhile. I decided that mine would be a butterfly. I have always love drawing and painting them and the fact they start as a caterpillar and are reborn into a new beautiful life form... I feel like this is somewhat the journey that I am on. I made this decision driving home from work one day. As soon as I got home and parked in my driveway and opened my car door, 2 butterflies flew right in front of my face. I almost cried with love. So how appropriate is it that the emblem for Lole is butterflies. I love that she says there are no coincidences in life, only the law of attraction working for you.

Check out my pile of old, too big, too out of style clothes. One thing that Rhonda Byrne talks about is making room in your life for the things you want. Live as if.... Live as if you already have the things you are. One of the stories she shares is about a woman who wanted a husband, she was visualizing, but not 'feeling' it. She was parking in the middle of her double car garage, sleeping in the middle of her bed and all the closets were filled with her clothes. She had no room for a husband. She started to park on one side of the garage, sleeping on one side of the bed and made room in the closet for a new husbands clothes and she finally did find herself a wonderful husband.

So I already have a wonderful husband... but I need to make room for all the new clothes that I need to get now and in the future as I slim my way down to an awesome size 10. This is the beginning of my awesome journey....stay tuned, the love I am feeling in my life right now is only getting stronger and deeper and more authentic with each breath I take.

Amazing Springtime Adventure- Downtown Oakville

A few weeks ago we decided to take a walk in one of our most favourite places. Downtown Oakville. We had so much fun walking around and enjoying the gorgeous Springtime weather.

My favourite part of Spring has got to be the flowers- especially all the tulips. We saw so many beautiful flower designs. 

The colours were awesome and it was so great to see so many store fronts adorned with these colourful blooms.  

Of course, we had to go to our favourite cafe. The Green Bean. Last time I shared with you their great new design- the red and brown stripes. Well this time, I discovered they had new chairs.

Amazing colours and design, don't you think?

Had an awesome skinny latte with a funky design in it...kinda looks like a bird flying, don't you think? 

Oooh, so good!!!  

We stopped by our favourite bakery- Cobs Bread - we picked up some Whole Grain and Rye breads.

Have you seen my lug purse. It's my favourite purchase from last summer. I saw these featured on Oprah a few years ago and I got this great style that I can wear across my body. I had to get it in my favourite colour- Purple- and it's my purse when I go on power shopping/walking adventures because it's smaller and lighter and oh so cool. Check them out.  http://www.luglife.com/Brands/Lug



Thai Pizza with Fresh Cilantro

You know I LOVE Thai Food, well it's mainly because of the peanuts and fresh cilantro. I love, love, love cilantro. I have been told that you either love it or hate it? Well I am on the love team, we buy a fresh bunch every other week.  This was so good, because of this unexpected twist... I used a whole wheat Naan bread for the crust. This was another great recipe from Eat, Shrink and be Merry.

Thai Kwon Dough (adapted from Eat, Shrink and be Merry)



Ingredients:

Peanut Sauce:

1/4 cup light peanut butter

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp grated gingeroot

1 tsp each, honey, reduced salt soya sauce and red wine vinegar

pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup chopped cooked chicken breast

1 pre-package pizza crust- I used 2 Whole Wheat Naan breads

1 cup shredded light Monterey Jack cheese (I used light mozzerela)

1/3 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup each shredded carrots and chopped green onion

2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts

1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 425 F.

To make suace, comine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until bubbly, sitrring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Mix 1-2 tbsp of peanyt suace with chicken and set aside. To assemble pizza, spread remaining peanut sauce evenly over crust. Top with half the shredded cheese. Distribute chciken evenly over cheese. Top with bean sprouts, carrots, green onions and peanuts, in that order. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese over toppings.

Place pizza directly on middle oven reach and bake for 10-12 minutes, until cheese is completely melted and edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle the cilantro before serving (yumm!).

Cut each Naan into 4 so it makes 8 slices.

Nutritional information per slice:

220 calories, 9g fat, 13g protein, 22g carbs, 1g fibre

Best Blueberry Recipe so far- Make this for your Mother today- Baked French Toast

Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful Mother's of the World! This is such a delicious recipe, you should make it and share it with your mother. Just look at how healthy and shinny those baked blueberries look.

When I mean that this is a healthy alternative- I am making a comparison to the Paula Dean's Baked Praline French Toast recipe that I used to turn to for brunch- now I don't want all that butter, sugar and more sugar and cream. This recipe was going to be perfect for our upcoming healthy tea party/breakfast party. It contains whole wheat baguette, light milk, almonds and blueberries filled with antioxidants.

Blueberry Almond Baked French Toast

(adapted from http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=2710)

    1 whole-wheat baguette (about 18 inches long) - cut into 1-inch cubes

    12 large egg

     2 cups lowfat milk

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    1/3 cup pure maple syrup

    2 cups fresh blueberries

    1/3 cup sliced almonds

    2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar

Prepare a 9x13 baking pan by spraying the inside with cooking spray.

Place the bread in a single layer in the baking pan. It fits perfectly in the dish.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup. Pour this mixture over the bread in the pan. Scatter the blueberries evenly over the top and sprinkle with the almonds and brown sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (at least 4 hours).

When ready to prepare, bake for 40 to 50 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 degrees. 

Just soaking up the bread and milk goodness- the before baking photo.

Serves 8.

Nutritional Information:

314 calories ,39g carbs, 11g fat,  15g, protein, 3g fibre,  22g sugar



Scrapbooking night...going to the dogs

Scrapbooking night was at Nancy's and she was so proud to show off 2 things....

...her nice scrapbooking pages about horseback riding on her trip...

and her beautiful- freshly groomed with new bandannas- doggies- Floss and Licorice.

Look at how cute she is resting under the table.... but she wasn't that calm all the time, she came and rested her head on my leg to say 'hi, what are you working on?' a few times.

Nancy had a nice spread for us- healthy eating is what we do now! She had some delicious crackers- will show you below, old cheddar cheese, berries and a nice dark chocolate by Dove. I just love that she prepares a little healthy feast for us and not unhealthy stuff we used to all eat.

Look at my plate.... no, really, look at my plate... It has a fancy shoe on it. That's Fancy Nancy for you!

This was one of my new discoveries for the night. Kashi Pita Crisps in Zesty Salsa. Have I mentioned that I love Kashi products? Well, these did not disappoint! They are soooo good and crispy and zesty.

Good for you- Yup! 7 crackers have 80 calories, 2g of fibre and protein- what other cracker can say that? And because it's Kashi it's filled with 'seven whole grains'.

Here's another discovery. Twistos Asiago crackers. These were good too- tasted a little bit like a 'healthy cheeto'.

You get a lot of bang for your buck with these- 17 little crackers for 90 calories. But the ingredients aren't as 'wholesame' as the Kashi stuff.

Thanks Nancy for the wonderful evening, the new snack discoveries and for your 'letter stencils' that helped me create some pretty pages about Melanie's first scrapbooking party with mommy.