"Shanghai" Fried Noodles

When I'm at work, and I don't have a lunch or supper.. it's actually a disappointment that I have to eat at a restaurant.. The choices are horrible and there's not much variety. On one of those dreaded days where I had no supper, I ventured off in hopes of finding something reasonably healthy and not too pricey. After about 15 minutes of walking back and forth between counters, I finally stopped at what I think is Chinese, or Japanese... but let's just say Asian because I can't be sure. I ordered some Shanghai noodles and although it's really not that healthy, I was impressed to say the least. I'm not one for stir fry's or soy sauce but this really was good( just like everything that's not good for us!). I was determined to find a recipe so I can make it at home. To my dismay, Pinterest had nothing when I typed in Shanghai noodles, but googling gave me a base line of what I needed and so from there, I created my own recipe! I'm pretty proud because even the kids gobbeled it up and that makes me a happy mum!
Unfortunately, I don't have a photo but I found this that looks similar to it. The next time I make some, I'll take a picture of it and post it :)

 "Shanghai" Fried Noodles

Chow mein noodles, boiled til tender but still a bit hard. DO NOT over boil!
1 T hoisin sauce
1 T soy sauce
1 T peanut or avocado oil
1 T sesame oil
1/2 t fresh garlic, minced
1/2 t fresh ginger, minced
1 t green onions, finely chopped
Bunch of kale or spinach, finely chopped
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
Bunch of bean sprouts
Optional: mushrooms, broccoli, chicken, egg, carrots, cabbage. (Go wild!!)

In a large skillet on med-low, heat peanut/avocado oil then add garlic, ginger, green onion, onions, bean sprouts and kale. Cook until tender and kale is slightly wilted.
Turn up heat to med-high and add cooked noodles, soy sauce, hoisin sauce and sesame oil to skillet. Using a pair of tongs, mix together while coating everything with the sauce. Cook until noodles are browned and slightly crispy. Toss occasionally (using the tongs) to brown evenly and watch so it doesn't burn.

Serve and enjoy.

Strawberry Avocado Salad

This is probably by far one of my favorite salad recipes. If you'd have asked me a couple years ago to eat a salad with fruit in it, I probably would have looked at you in disgust haha. It took me awhile to open up to fruity salads and am I happy I did!
I altered the recipe a bit from the original because I'm not a fan of blue cheese. I use a bit of feta instead, sometimes not even at all. It's good with or without. I never really bothered with the almonds either. This site is a bit different than the original one I had found this past summer, but I'm honestly too lazy to try and find it on Pinterest :p

Strawberry Avocado Salad with Poppyseed vinigrette

• 6 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1 avocado, diced (or you can double this to 2 avocados!)
• 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• half a small red onion, finely chopped
• poppyseed dressing (recipe below)

POPPYSEED DRESSING INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup olive oil (or any oil, such as avocado oil)
• 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• salt and pepper

- Mix dressing ingredients together in a bowl and add to individual portions. 

Enjoy!!

Sweet and Amazing

My butt workout hasn't been going as good as I'd have hoped but I'm not giving up! I'll get to it... Eventually! Just like all the other mum's in the world, it's been busy, hence the lack of posting and supper making! But I have had the opportunity to drink David's Tea (YUMMMMM!!) and watch Big Hero 6. At first, I thought, "bleh... another super hero movie" which it is a little bit, but it's not solely concentrated on that concept. It has a nice story line, has some sad parts, but that big white puffy robot is funny and adorable! 

I don't know about you, but I'm always having troubles finding side dishes to go with the main course. Never have a clue, aside from steamed cauliflower and rice, which can get a little boring.

I've made sweet potato fries twice... the first time I burnt them, so that's self explanatory and the second time, well I had to work at supper time, so I didn't get the chance to eat them warm. Tonight, I did! : ) I definitely suggest them. With it, I also made baked turnip and rice of course, but I add chopped kale in my rice. I had a turnip lying around in my fridge that was getting soft so I figured why not use it before I lose it ;)

I'll attach both links to the recipes! Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

I strongly suggest you try the new Cherry Blossom tea at Davids Tea! It's fruity and floral! Truly sweet and amazing! 

 

Sweet potato fries

Baked Turnip 

Everything Coconut

I absolutely LOOVEE coconut. No words can truly express that. I find myself surrounded by things coconut today, strangely enough!
Last night I was lying in my bed pinning and googling until the wee hours of the morning a reasonable hour and I stumbled upon natural remedies for cavity prevention or pain relief due to cavities. It definitely made me curious! It's called oil pulling. Basically you take 2 teaspoons of coconut oil in your mouth and swoosh it around your teeth. This site here explains more in detail how and why it works and how to do it, but I'll also add in a quick pic from the site below.
I also suggest reading a little bit about Phytic Acid here, this also has an impact on our teeth and we consume it probably everyday if you're eating grains!

It's said to do this every morning for 15-20 minutes... well that's not gonna happen, for me at least and I'm sure most people wouldn't do it for that long either so apparently 3-5 minutes is ok. I still find that long but as they say (I always find myself asking who they are!) you can swish and swoosh while you're getting ready and doing your morning routine. I honestly tried it this morning but I also knew it was going to drip out and leak on my shirt. Soooo.... I put on my sons bib! hahaha my daughter looked at me as if I had 3 eyes, but it kept my shirt stain free!
After I oil pulled, and brushed my teeth, I applied my EOS coconut lip balm. Mmmmmm.

I'm addicted to lip balm, I can't stay away from it and I've got a billion of them lying around. Half of which I'm not even sure where they've gone to.

( Picked up some more shredded coconut to make some more energy bites! ... why do I get so excited over coconut!? )

I stopped at the pharmacy on my way home and as I walked to the cash I noticed a Lindt bag which stood out like a sore thumb because it's my favourite blue!
Lo and behold, COCONUT CHOCOLATE.. So much for my oil pull!

Here's a recipe for a Chocolate Coconut Cake I got from this site. 

Chocolate Cake:

• 1½ cups almond flour
• ½ cup raw cacao powder
• ½ cup raw coconut palm sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• ⅓ cup coconut milk, full fat
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Coconut Layer:

• 1½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 tablespoon raw honey
• ⅓ cup almond flour
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• ¼ cup coconut milk, full fat

Chocolate Glaze: (I ended up omitting this part as I found it made it too sweet) 

• ½ cup 70% dark chocolate
• ½ cup coconut milk, full fat

Directions:

Chocolate Cake:

-prepare your pan by lightly greasing the bottom and sides of an 8-inch removable bottom pan with coconut oil, then cut a piece of parchment paper and place it on the bottom of the pan
-mix together the almond flour, cacao powder, coconut palm sugar and salt
-in a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, coconut oil, coconut milk and vanilla extract
-using a rubber spatula, gently mix dry and wet ingredients together. Mix just until ingredients are combined, being careful not to over mix the batter
-spread batter evenly in the pan and bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, approximately 17 minutes
-set pan over a wire rack to allow cake to cool
Coconut Layer:
-mix all ingredients for the coconut layer together until everything is well combined
-spread the mixture over the top of the cooled cake in an even layer, then freeze for 10 minutes
Chocolate Glaze:
-slowly melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (double boiler)
once chocolate is melted, stir in the coconut milk and mix until the glaze is smooth and shiny
-pour glaze evenly over the top of the cake
-refrigerate for about 2 hours or until the glaze is set. 

No Bake Energy Bites

I stumbled upon this recipe on Pinterest and I honestly didn't expect these to be as good as they were. I've tried something similar to this once and well, it wasn't so impressive! But these, I mean they aren't to die for but when you have that urge for something sweet and chocolatey... this does the job!

I made them pretty fast and replaced a few ingredients so I'm almost certain they could probably be even better! This is going to be a quick post as I'm still hoping to have some movie time before I must allow my body to recharge for a short period of time.

No Bake Energy Bites

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes (I forgot to toast mine)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used the all natural kind)
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or cacao nibs (didn't even notice cacao nibs there! like I said, fast!)
• 1/3 cup honey or agave nectar (I prefer honey, agave nectar I find has a strange after taste)
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• - Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour ( I didn't put it mine the fridge, instead, make balls with damp hands).
• - Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1" in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week (mine only lasted 24 hours and I left them on the counter in a container). 

Today's Menu: Once Upon a Time & Pot au Feu Classique

My father's girlfriend recommended the show Once Upon A Time to me. Now at first I honestly wasn't interested because TV shows or TV in general have never really been my thing. I have Netflix but even then I never really watched the TV shows on it.. except for Lost and Lie to me... the 2 exceptions at that time. Then Once Upon A Time came to Netflix.

Now I do like the show a lot but I have to admit that sometimes the acting is a little cheesy as well as the special effects. I can only imagine myself in their place pretending to do some kind of magical enchantment with hand gestures and know I would feel incredibly silly! :p
If you haven't seen the show, well it's basically about all your fairytale characters like Belle, Snow White, The Evil Queen, Peter Pan etc... It's a cute show none the less.

Changing subjects now!

I've tried making a blog a couple times but never really managed to keep to it so this time I'm really going to try, just like this challenge I found on Pinterest which I will share with you.
Now I know I'm underweight and don't have any to lose as people will always tell me but after having 2 kids and being a person who really enjoys to do nothing  productively do things while sitting, I still would like to get those flabbier parts toned! : ) So I found what is called the 14 DAY BUBBLE BUTT CHALLENGE which you can find by clicking here! But if you don't feel like opening a new page and getting into all the details, here's the gist of it!

 I have to admit, today is day 1 and I looked at that and thought "pffft! 20 squats! thats nothing! 5 lunges... I'll do 5 per leg and burpees?! I don't know what that is but I'll youtube it.. I'm sure it's easy peasy *watches youtube video* 10 of those? what a joke!"
So I did my squats, all 20! not so bad, felt that burning in my thighs.. did my lunges, 5 per leg as I said but I also managed to slip and slide all over my floor with my big wooly socks. Then I got to the burpees. All I can say is that I'm freakishly out of shape! Jumping and squatting and push ups! I can make it down an inch if im lucky and then up I go! haha. All in due time of course!

Now after that INTENSE mild work out, here's to a good filling meal a good friend of mine was so generous to share with me. We love it because it's not hard to put together ( if you dont mind a little chopping and peeling ), and it's got all your meat and veg in one. It also gets the kids eating new and different veggies without them really knowing like parsnips and turnips, I just tell them they're potatoes. What kid doesn't like the potatoes?! The only change I make is instead of putting in 1 can of whole tomatoes, I put in 1 can of diced tomatoes. I find the whole tomatoes don't break up very well and make for a  random strange mushy red blob that neither kid will eat so they all end up in my hubby's dish and then I'm not sure what to do with them!
So I hope you enjoy! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

* My next post will be about a healthy no bake dessert I found on Pinterest that the hubby and I just adore!

Pot au Feu Classique

2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

2 turnips, peeled and quartered or cut into chunks

2 T flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1 beef blade roast

2 T oil, either olive or vegetable (any high heat oil)

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 c beef broth

1 can whole or diced tomatoes

1/2 t marjoram or thyme

2 bay leaves

- Peel and cut carrots, parsnips, turnip and set aside.

-In a large bowl, mix flour, salt and pepper. Coat beef. 

-In a large dutchoven or oven safe pot heat 1/2 oil at med heat. Add beef and brown then reserve to plate. 

-Add rest of oil to pot and cook onion and garlic until tender, stirring occasionally. Add broth and tomatoes while scraping bottom of pot. Add veggies, spices and beef roast. Bring to boil and transfer to oven at 300 degrees F for 2 1/2 hours checking the meat every 30 minutes ensuring its always covered with the juice (I usually have the lid on during this time).

-Cook another 30 minutes until beef is very tender (with lid off). 

-Discard bay leaves. Serve. 

Legend: (just in case!)

T - Tablespoon

t - teaspoon

c - cup