Tag: Delicious

The Daily EO: March 12th, 2013

When was a kid Grandpa and Grandma would visit and always bring fruit from the Okanogan.  I’ve told you this before and I also told you of my love of Macintosh Apples.   I have always preferred Macs, Spartans and Granny Smiths above all others especially Delicious Apples.  I am not sure what it is about Delicious apples, but I don’t like the yellowish flesh, the mealy mouth feel, the thick skin and the flavour seems not appley to me.  So when ever I see those tell-tale bumps on the bottom of that dark red apple, I pick up a banana instead.

I do the grocery shopping in our home because I actually like grocery shopping.  Emile does most of the dinner cooking and I do lunches.   It seems to work well for us because Emile gets home earlier than me and the best grocery stores are out by my work.  When I make a grocery list – unless I need specifics – I usually write “fruit” and”Veggies”.  I am not sure why I am compelled to write that – because if I know I’ll remember what fruit to buy, why don’t I think I’ll remember to buy fruit?  Hmmm.  I’ve not thought of this before.   Well, reflection for another time.

Anyways, as you can well imagine when I buy apples, I buy my preferences.  Macs – if they aren’t end of season, Spartans if they look good or Granny Smiths (because they taste to darn good with sharp cheddar or peanut butter).  I eschew any apples with bumps on the bottom.  No thank you!  I assume if they have bumps on the bottom they are related to a Delicious and I can’t take that risk.    I’ve never considered apple selection implications on Emile until for some reason I went rogue in the apple aisle.  My normal selections weren’t looking that good, so I picked up some Gala, Pink Lady’s and Ambrosia apples for that week.   I figured Emile would have to make do with these until better stock was in place.  (incidentally, I threw them all into the same bag, cashiers hate me)

When it comes to the lunches I make, I really like feedback.  No, strike that, I really like appreciation.  And so Emile does his best to say “hey, liked my lunch today”.  He came home on rogue apple week and said “I really liked that apple you packed.  One of the best in a long while”.  Wha?!

March 12th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  “Bumpy” apples get added to the rotation – but just not Delicious, I am not sure if I could actually take paying money for them.  All this time, I have been thinking only of myself and protection from Delicious apples and Emile has been suffering.

 

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The Daily EO: April 18th, 2012

There are some nights when dinner is tremendously unsatisfying.  And there are those special nights that you create something that is so fantastic that you can barely believe that you are a Materials Manager and not a celebrated chef.

Last night was such a night.  I made pizza.  But not just any pizza.  This pizza started two nights ago when I was craving pesto.  But your average pesto has pine nuts, olive oil, and parmesan cheese, and that usually adds up to 250 calories for a 1/4 cup.  More than we could afford in Fit April.  Undaunted, I hit the internet for some ideas.  When I typed in “oil-free pesto” I got thousands of hits.  Weirdly, most of the top results were Vegan oil-free pesto.  I guess the vegans don’t want oil either.

Anyways, reading a whole bunch of recipes on-line I came up with the following mish-mash of them all (and a nod to Oh She Glows particularly) – absolutely delicious pesto:

1/2 avocado
3/4 cup of white kidney beans
1/2 cup of basil (the entire PC herb container)
1/2 cup cilantro
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (a weird vegan friendly item that I had left from Vegan January.  It adds a creamy cheesy taste with fewer calories and fat than cheese.)
2 tbsp lemon juice
20 g pine nuts (about 40)
6 walnut halves
and cilantro seasoning (a tube of cilantro paste with other seasonings that I had lying around – don’t know how much it added to it, but glad to be using it up).
salt and pepper, of course

Just throw everything in your food processor.  Done.  Serves about four.

The first night we had the pesto on Tofu Shirataki noodles and steamed broccoli coleslaw (all tossed together).  I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on mine, Emile went without.  It was delicious and the total dinner was 250 calories.

But now I had this 1/2 recipe of pesto in the fridge.  What could I do?  Well, I made pesto pizza.  I had some left over tofu which I marinated with balsamic glaze and dried oregano, 1 chicken breast cooked in a spicy tomato based sauce, red peppers, low-calorie pita bread cut in half (to make 2 rounds, not pockets), parmesan cheese, red onions, and of course, mushrooms and tomatoes for the boy.  Put them together, broil for 3 minutes and hello!  We ate it so fast that I couldn’t have taken a picture of it even if I had thought of it.  Two pizzas each and only about 350 calories total.  I am so good.  Want some now.  Sigh. . . no left overs.

Last time I bought mushrooms, it must have been from the oompa-loompas because they were gigantic.  In fact, for Emile’s two pizzas, he only used 1 mushroom.  That left just one mushroom which I threw into the fridge.   I was reviewing our calories intake for the day and noticed that with Emile’s low-calorie lunch and dinner coupled with his 5k run, he had not consumed enough calories for the day.  I told him he should eat something else.  He was annoyed by this.  Well, actually he was annoyed by this because I told him twice.. .  well. . . maybe three times.  He said he would get something to eat later.

Later that night, Emile pulled out that lonely mushroom, removed the stem, put probably .25 ounces of old cheddar cheese in it, turned on the broiler (apologized to me for wasting energy), and broiled his single – albeit large – stuffed mushroom.  Um, yeah, 28 calories wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, honey.

April 18th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  Making the pizza of my life.  Watching my husband’s single-mindedness focus on Fit April.