Tag: compact

Eat with your eyes, not really, but in theory

I was reading a post on Humanthology by Ashley McCormack about eating with your eyes.  When talking to her father about why he spent so much time making the food look nice on the plate, he replied, “Because first, you taste with your eyes.”

I’m not sure about you, but I’ve heard this before and it so true.  Just last week, I made a Fish Pie and while it tasted great, it didn’t look very good.  My family only ate about half.  But wait, that’s not all the story.  So, I may get the plating of the food nailed down, but what about that next step?  Taking the food photo.  For the most part I’ve focused on the actual dishes, but lately I’ve wanted to just be able to take a better picture.  Then it happened. I got advice that I actually took.  Thanks to my friend Angie (one of my ESO guild-mates, who lives in NC) who recommended that I purchase a photo box.

Polaroid Photo Studio
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“I could make this” … famous words

I’m sure that I’m not the only one that says this.  Let me set the scene, you’re out at a restaurant, eating a great meal and you say to (yourself) or the people that you’re with “I could make this”.  My kids are so used to me saying this that they now offer up the suggestion.  Often starting a conversation with ” hey mom, you could make this into a salad jar right?”  Well, challenge accepted. I SUPER love East Side Mario’s (ESM) Garden Salad.  We don’t have an ESM near us (but hey, we have four, count’em – Mary Browns, Swiss Chalet, KFC and Popeye’s, chicken restaurants in town).  Here is a picture of my most favourite restaurant salad.

East Side Mario’s Garden Salad

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My scale and I have called a truce

There are so many studies, websites, books and probably Twitter posts about not weighing yourself everyday.  But do I listen?  Nope.  So each morning I would wake up and weigh myself.  Some mornings I would be thrilled, others I would feel defeated, either way it would set the tone for the entire day.  So I have called a truce with my scale and I feel liberated.

Truce

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Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic – Retake

A couple of weeks ago I made the Grilled Veggie with Balsamic and I had some suggestions (to myself) that I thought would make this a better salad.  Well, I did it.  I took my own advice and I re-made the salad.  I re-made it so much, that I had to re-name it!  So please join me in welcoming my new salad:

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Balsamic
Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic

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Experimenting with flavour

I’m back!  Well, I wasn’t really gone, but I haven’t been “here”.  I’ve been busy making salads, trying out new things and generally enjoying the summer.  I made an entirely new salad yesterday and it was pretty good (see my suggestions to improve).  I tried it with my family last night at dinner (without meat) and I’ve got it in my lunch for today.  Do you like grilled vegetables?  I do and I figured I could turn that love into a salad and here’s how:

Grilled Veggie
Grilled Veggie with Balsamic

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What do you do without a good camera on your phone?

I’ve told most people this story, but perhaps not everyone.  As I mentioned last week, I was in Punta Cana (see my resort review here) and while on an excursion, my phone (Samsung S6 Edge) sustained water damage.  I had forgotten it was tucked in my life vest and I jumped into the ocean to snorkel.  It did turn on after being bagged in rice and soaked in Isorpopyl alcohol.  But the battery started to expand.  I’m currently waiting on a battery replacement, so fingers crossed.

Hand Drawn Salad
Hand Drawn Salad

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Week 8 Mason Jar Salads

Repost: February 29, 2016

Week 8 started off kilter.  Normally I reserve Sundays for meal prep and while I knew in advance that most of my day was going to be spent at a Women’s Rock Your Biz function, I was stumped come prep time.  Luckily I had gone to the big box store on Saturday, so that left just a quick “outside” aisle shopping trip to the local grocery store.  I say “outside”, because every time I can do the outside aisle of the grocery store, I do an a little inner fist pump.

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Week 7 Mason Jar Salads

Repost: February 22, 2016

Week 7 is here and I can hardly believe it.  While my oldest son and I made the salads, I mentioned that this is the 7th week of mason jar salads we’ve created.  He was just as surprise as I was.  Time has really flown by.  I can honestly say that I have never, in my entire life eaten as much salad (vegetables) as I have during this part of my plan.  *patting myself on the back*

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After a long weekend

Repost: February 19, 2016

I admit,  I was a bit worried when I got on the scale at tonight’s meeting.   I mean, it was a long weekend, we traveled, ate out and visited family (6 hrs away).  But at each lunch I would bring out a mason jar salad and at dinner … well, I  would give it a really good effort.   But come on, I discovered a new wine to add to my “big girl wine list”.  It’s called Moscato (thanks Lina).  Mmm.   And the chips and dip while we played cards every night.  *sigh*  I love chips.   Back to my weigh in, so here I was at WW, standing on the scale and I … lost.   1.5 lb.  Woot! Continue reading “After a long weekend” →

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Week 6 Mason Jar Salads

Repost: February 16, 2016

Week 6 is here and this week I let my boys each choose a favourite salad, with some slight modifications. This is an odd week, as you can see I’m posting this on Monday and not Sunday.  Not because I forgot to post, but because we just got home from being away for the long weekend (Family Day).  So, no shopping trip to Costco, but I did manage with the local grocery stores, which were open until 6pm today.  I feel really good about today! Continue reading “Week 6 Mason Jar Salads” →

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Week 5 Mason Jar Salads

Repost: February 8, 2016

Week 5 is here and so are two new salads (we kept the Asian one with a bit of a twist). My family is looking forward to the Chicken Caesar with Kale.  I’m up late today because it seems that my “plan” needs some tweaking.  For the last month, I wake up Sunday morning, play Xbox (Elder Scrolls Online, ESO) with my husband and together we prepare lunch.  At about 2ish, I start thinking of food preparation.  This includes meal planning (dinners, breakfasts-on-the-go, mason jar salads and more), shopping (several stores) and finally, actual food preparation. Continue reading “Week 5 Mason Jar Salads” →

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