Day 15.....

There will be no photo nor self-appreciation for baking today...this week is full of visiting with a friend or 2, going out to dinner and getting together with my sisters...as well as working of course. So while I had initially envisioned something just a bit like "Julie and Julia" for this blog, I also promised myself that this is all about fun, hence nothing new to report. This week has been spent making something quite edible out of eggs, cheese, vegetables and the second loaf of bread that I made 2 weeks ago, as well as thawing and sharing the rest of the banana bread. As I live alone, even though I bring a lot of the baking to work, I do not want to fill my freezer nor waste anything. So for me, in addition to the social commitments, this week has been all about re-using/re-eating/re-heating...

...stay tuned maybe Sunday or early next week, for at least a post and maybe even something new. I did get a recipe for another pizza with corn meal in the crust and a topping with olives, artichokes etc....sounds like something to make when company is coming! That and a nice bottle of wine would be lovely.

Day 14....

I made the buckwheat blueberry muffins which turned out to be quite flavourful and they looked nice too. Next time I will make them with paper liners as recommended as they did stick to the pans, even though they are non-stick. These muffins couldn't be much healthier with only 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tbsp oil as well as cooked squash.

The wheat berry salad is also very healthy and delicious. The ingredients in the salad and dressing include apples, dried apricots and cinnamon, so it is a combination of vegetables and sweetness. Different and lovely. I wouldn't change a thing in this recipe but will find another one with wheat berries that does not have the sweet component.

Day 13...

After gathering a few extra ingredients, I am ready to make both the muffins and wheat berry salad later or tomorrow.

This morning I experimented with making some whole wheat cracker 'bowls' for the delicious but somewhat difficult to transport and sticky to eat trail mix....now as a trail mix, who cares if it's messy and really you just pop some in a bag and off you go. But if I am going to sell it in the Pantry it should be presented nicely as well as taste good and be healthy, right? So this was a good first attempt. I rolled the dough in sesame seeds which are a nice touch. Next time I'll add a bit of honey and increase the liquid so that I can roll them a bit thinner...but they do taste good, as far as a home-made cracker goes....:)

Day 12....

I have been eating the pizza all week and will take the second loaf of banana bread to work tomorrow to share with my colleagues. If I don't do this I will most definitely eat far too much of my own baking. One of my beliefs is 'everything in moderation' which extends to the amount of food I eat, regardless if it is 150 times healthier than fast food LOL. So I haven't made anything new yet this week, but am planning on making some buckwheat blueberry muffins on the weekend as well as a wheat berry salad that looks delicious. I just ate a yummy bowl of plain yogurt, sweetened with a small amount of stevia (a natural herb sweetener that you can buy at the bulk store) and some blueberries and granola on top. I have to confess that the granola is the store bought variety with a high percentage of saturated fat...but it tastes so good....I will experiment soon with some homemade recipes. I generally eat steel cut oatmeal in the morning, which is very healthy and really good.

I have a story about experimenting with baking in an effort to use up some 'left-over' porridge. First of all you have to know a couple of things about me- one is that I am very frugal (but not cheap) and two (which may or may not be related to the first) is that I do not like to throw away food. Friends were visiting from out of town and I decided that I would make some oatmeal muffins with the leftover porridge...after all why wouldn't it work? Well it didn't. They were a soggy mess and the whole batch ended up in the compost...at least I was feeding the earth.

Day 11....

The pizza dough, with a combination of spelt, whole wheat and all-purpose flour turned out lovely. I did leave it wrapped in the fridge overnight and do not recommend this, as the dough rose for a second time, some of it escaping from the plastic wrap and bag...I guess that the answer to making the dough ahead of time is keeping it in the freezer if left for more than an hour or so. I made 2 pizzas with very different ingredients. One had a tomato sauce on the bottom and vegetables, including asparagus and portobello mushrooms, goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes on top....the tomato sauce was much too acidic and strong and overpowered the rest of the flavours. So, after the first piece, I scraped off most of the sauce and put the toppings back on with a tapinade as the base and this was very tasty. The other pizza was my idea of a breakfast pizza, with an eggs benedict type of base sauce, a mixture of scrambled eggs and cooked bacon as well as some bruschetta tomato sauce under the eggs. This was then topped with some grated cheddar cheese...I would 'play' with the base sauce a bit, but overall this pizza was delicious.

Day 10....

Interesting how 2 or 3 days can easily go by and yet my 'days' of writing here seem to stand still :) ....I have just tried adding a photo to this blog, copied the pic of the scones, but it looks like a bunch of letters and numbers to me LOL...we'll see what happens when I hit the publish button. YES! when I saved a looked at the blog, there they are!

I made the 'healthy' banana loaves yesterday. They turned out looking beautiful and tasting pretty good too. I will add this photo later. They are nice and moist, and since I used whole grain flour mostly and reduced the sugar to half of the recipe they are definitely healthier. Next time I will figure out how to use less butter, and also intend to add chocolate chips to some of the batter, for those folks who want a bit of decadence with their morning nutrition. I am having a friend over today and will get her feedback on the flavour. I also made the dough for the pizzas and will be experimenting with her on this one too :)....I wonder where the little symbols are on this program, as I'd like to put in happy faces periodically. Perhaps it is just as well that I don't find them.



Well now, I was able to figure out how to both add the photos as well as move them around in the blog...the photo here at the end is of course the banana bread. I have packaged up 3 other pieces to take to my dance class today to share, get feedback and ensure that I do not eat all of my 'goodness' myself!

Day 9.......

Hello fellow foodies...well the scones were well received by all. However I found that they were SO much better when they were warm from the oven than cold the next day.....so I intend to make them with honey for the sweetener next time (to increase the sweetness and keep them on the healthy side) and will definitely offer them warm as an option :)....my next project will be a healthy banana bread and also something that I am going to call breakfast pizza....so stay tuned

I am finding that I am having fun experimenting in the kitchen and writing about it with this venue. I am less energized at this point to write about past experiences with food that I have had with my children. However there are many stories to tell, including something called 'dippy eggs' as well as 'bread and jam' recipes and of course the home-made baby food.....and a few years later my experience of feeding a family of four on a small sailboat for more than 2 years when we were crossing the Pacific Ocean. The Importance of Food is central to life on a boat, especially when you are in the middle of an ocean, out of site of land or stores for more than 3 weeks!