Monday, January 26, 2009

Hold the Butter

To Sean's immense happiness, we've rung in 2009 by bringing back the carbs. Last year, we dabbled in the 'low-carb' lifestyle with some success, but Sean loves his bread and pasta, so we're trying a different way of eating healthy.

We're watching portion sizes, eating more fruits & veggies, whole grains, leaner meats and healthier oils. Sean's happy, and I'm adjusting.

I thought I'd found a really good cookbook to try called 'The Food You Crave'. I brought it home, and have tried a few recipes, but they haven't turned out as promised. Obviously, you really can taste the missing butter & cream! With a few tweaks though, I think we could have some fun with it. 

Here's what we're trying:

Turkey Pot Pies with leeks, green beans & peas in a thin crispy phyllo dough. (I put some asparagus in mine, yum!) The 'pastry' was really nice, but the inside was a little underseasoned. Okay, I can sub 1% milk for cream, but for the love of god, don't make me go low sodium!

Portabello Mushroom Lasagna Roll-ups, with whole wheat noodles, mushrooms, spinach (I used kale), ricotta (I used 1% cottage cheese), & homemade tomato sauce. What a disaster! The taste was ok, but I'd never stand the 'tubes' up vertically again. What a pain in the ass. Lots of hidden veggies in this one though, mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

In other unrelated news, the Patullo bridge is back in business after having caught fire last week. What a week! Took 2-3 times as long to get to work in the morning (and Sean & I both have a 45min-1hr commute). Very hellish, but I managed not to kill anyone by employing audiobooks & strong, overpriced coffee. Mmmm...

In even more unrelated news, we've started to watch a really weird new show called 'Pushing Daisies'. Well, technically it isn't a new show, it's an older one we've downloaded, but it is quite weird. Basically, it's about a guy who can bring the dead back to life with his magic touch. Trick is, if it stays re-animated for longer than 60 seconds, something or someone else has to die in it's place. Kinda quirky, with crazy over-the-top characters and intensely colourful sets & costumes. It's almost like watching a fairy tale... of the grimm variety. 


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Breaking the Ice

Here I am, checking in for the first time in months. I don't have any good excuses, life has been more or less normal.

The holidays came and went, spent mostly at home, heavily infused with hockey & BBC television. We spent much of Christmas day at my parents' home and had a nice visit and too much food. The usual Christmas stuff, though we all felt the absence of our family cat Moocher, who died earlier last year.

For much of December and the beginning of January we got a taste of life as shut-ins. It snowed here in BC (and everywhere else in the country), which utterly terrified and confused us west-coasters. Winter is supposed to = RAIN. Not snow. Certainly not LOTS of snow. But that's what we got, and as we're just not really equiped to deal with it, most people stayed home from work/school/play while it lasted.

We still have snow at the sides of the roads and on the grass, but fortunately the roads are clear. I am so very glad I had the experience of driving in winter conditions in NB last winter. It helped me stay calm(ish) on the roads.

Speaking of snow and roads and all those wonderful things, I think these challenges bring out the essence of who a person is. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, most people are jerks and/or butt-heads. On the other hand, there seem to be just enough people out there who are essentially good (or that were brainwashed by Brownie Leaders to do a good turn) that the world kept on moving along with our snow-bound tires.

Not much of a post, I know, but I'll try post more regularly.