Lobster Shorts cooking

Vegetarian Charcuterie – The Quick and Easy Romantic Meal

Valentine’s Day landed in the middle of the week this year and I wanted to celebrate the day with something special. My spouse and I have a long commute and special generally takes time we don’t have. How does one make a romantic dinner that’s fast? Charcuterie!

This spread was fast and delicious, it was also expensive. It did last several more days and we had lots of leftovers. At the time of this post, grapes have been incredible. Super juicy with a crunchy snap…. superb. This charcuterie board took about 15 minutes to make and it was so good. The cutting/serving board was a handmade wedding gift from a friend and I love how long it is. Perfect for the task at hand, but any cutting board will work. The fruits, veggies, and pickles were put on plates and mason jars so they wouldn’t stain the board.

For My Board:

Grapes both red and green
Baby Carrots
Cherry Tomatoes
Baby Dill Garlic Pickles
Artichoke Carbonara Dip (Purchased from Vincenzo’s)
Walnut Fig Dip (Purchased from Vincenzo’s)
Boursin Cheese Herb and Garlic Spread
Mimolette Jeune Cheese
Havarti Habanero Cheese
Foil Wrapped Cheese (I don’t remember the brand)
Rice Crackers (plain salted, one with sesame seeds)
Milk Chocolate Covered Almonds
Salted Almonds

I loved everything but the foil-wrapped cheese. I can’t remember the brand, but it tasted plasticy and we didn’t like it. It was fun to try though. This was the first time I had the walnut fig dip and it’s my new favourite. It was mildly sweet, creamy and went well with the rice crackers (I think every dip goes well with rice crackers as long as they are unflavored). It was so so good! It was also my first time having Mimolette Jeune cheese. Also a YUM! Every charcuterie board I will ever make will also have chocolate-covered almonds. They are always the first thing to go and my favourite are milk chocolate.

We had the board for dinner again the next day and still had lots of leftovers. The ingredients cost $85 Canadian. That is because everything was bought at a specialty store. I’m sure it would be easy to make a cheaper one. It was a hard week for Mr. Lobster Shorts and I wanted to treat him. He loved it. There was enough artichoke carbonara dip leftover to go on four burgers and in omlettes. We still have lots of the fig dip left (only because we ran out of crackers, otherwise it would have been long gone just like the chocolate almonds). The hard cheeses made it onto the burgers as well and also disappeared from midday nibbles and doggy cheese tax. I’m going to keep an eye out for the Mimolette cheese again. It was mild and creamy. Delightful. I’ll never get tired of charcuterie.

Lobster Shorts cooking

New Plants – Burger Salad – A Thrifted Shirt

It poured rain for most of the weekend and we spent a lot of time indoors. We went out for breakfast with friends and I wore the top I got from the thrift shop. It’s really cute and I like how it fits. I found a lot of wonderful things, I’ll post the video link below if you want to see what else I found

On the way home from breakfast, we stopped at Canadian Tire to get some things for around the house. I ended up in the plant department… of course.

The scrappy plant on the left was on clearance for $0.49. I have no idea what it is, but it looked sad and near death. I wanted to rescue it. The middle plant might be a fish bone cactus and the right I’m hoping is a goldfish plant. The two to the right were $4.99. The little pots were so tiny and would dry out too fast.

I didn’t have very many small pots, so my hoya on the right graduated to a bigger pot before it should have, but it will be happy in there. I don’t love the two pots on the left, they are nursery pots, but they’ll work for now. The mystery plant has been put in indirect sunlight, and the other three are in a sunny window.

My rock tumbler completed the second week of tumbling. The rocks are very smooth but still dull. They’re now halfway done.

The rocks are back in the tumbler with Step 3. Steps 1 and 2 were gritty, while Step 3 is more powdery. It’s back on the tumbler for another 7 days. It’s so fun to see how they change. Jay decided putting bolts in the rock tumbler isn’t a good idea. He felt the threads were getting too beat up in there, but it was fun to try.

I’m trying to eat healthier (although I ate a bagel while I wrote this) and instead of having a burger, I experimented with turning a burger into a salad. It was good! I will be skipping the bun in the future (maybe not weekends though). I used a Beyond Burger and pan-fried it and used the spatula to turn it into little pieces. For the salad dressing, I used two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, one tablespoon of avocado oil, around 1/2 tablespoon of Dijon, some salt and pepper, and half a shallot. In the salad I put in tomato, cheese, and romaine. I put a dollop of hummus on the top and a spattering of spicy mayo and had it with a scoop of potato salad. Jay loved it too. We did notice how sweet the potato salad was because of the really vinegary dressing. I didn’t even realize they would have put sugar in there. I loved the salad and will be making it again. It’s a super easy meal for commuting days – skipping the potato salad.

Lobster Shorts cooking, vegetarian

Commuting And Cooking Aint Easy

My spouse and I commute – a lot. Almost two hours a day. We’ve noticed a significant decline in our energy levels and health since we started 5 years ago. The main culprit – take out. We’re usually pretty hungry by the end of the day and often we cave in. We are commuting from a large city, so there are a lot of options. The majority of the takeout we get is from burger joints, pita places, and the odd burrito. The pita – not so bad, but no one is ordering salad at the burrito, or burger joint.

After getting home and walking the dogs it’s pretty late and we’re both hungry. We bought a box of granola bars. It’s helping us home without temptation. We need something easy, fast, and healthy. I found an old love that fits all these things. Spring rolls!

I love spring rolls! They are perfect and I found three packages of rice paper in my cupboard! They are so easy to make. First, I chop up 8 pieces of tofu (that usually takes half a thick block, or 2/3 of a thin block, of extra firm tofu). I don’t drain it. I probably should, but I’m not a chef and not that concerned about it. I dump them in a container and toss them with tamari (I don’t measure – sorry). I cut eight pieces for the two of us – four each. While that is marinating I cut up the rest of the ingredients.

I grate mushrooms (I ended up needing more), chop mango into long thin slices, and have a bunch of basil ready.

I soak the rice paper in hot water in a pie plate until it’s soft and pliable. I put some spinach down and two basil leaves, per roll.

Then I put in a bunch of grated mushrooms, a piece of tofu, and two slices of mango. The mango really makes it. I like the mango at the firm, but still easy-to-cut stage, for this recipe.

Roll it up tight (I still haven’t quite got this down)

and serve it with sweet chilli sauce. No particular brand, I generally like them all.

They are so good! I’m making them again tonight. Mr Lobster Shorts wasn’t fond of the basil, so I’ll leave it out of his from now on. From start to finish, it took 42 minutes to have them ready and served on the table. That’s really impressive to me. It’s not unusual for dinner to take me a couple hours. I think I can have these ready in 20 minutes after the refresher.

Another bonus of spring rolls, there weren’t too too many dishes. There were definitely some, but not heaping countertops full of them. I made myself a tea of fresh mint and let the last bit of the evening fade out.

Lobster Shorts cooking, Food, foraging, vegetarian

Foraging For Lilacs With Old Man Oats

Lilac flowers are abundant in my area. Last year I had my heart set on making lilac syrup and ice cream, but I missed my window (lilac season is over in the blink of an eye). If you don’t have lilacs in your area, just know, they smell incredible! The scent is strong, the flowers are pretty, and there is a ton of them nearby.

Now was my chance, prime lilac season! We decided to take Old Man Oats foraging and Oliver to the puppy park. As you can see from the above photo, Oaty is a lazy bear skin rug, but he loves his walks. He’s super calm and Oliver is still young and bouncy. We haven’t got him leashed trained enough to take him foraging, yet. Hence, Oaty went hunting for lilac flowers, and Oliver to the puppy park when we returned.

Here is the haul we came back with. We picked them from a few different trees to avoid over-picking. There were so many flowers, that it likely would have been fine, but I want to forage responsibly.

It took HOURS to pluck all the flowers off the stems (the stems are apparently bitter, or I wouldn’t have bothered).

The recipe I started with was for lilac syrup. First, you start heating sugar and water.

Add a ton of lilacs and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Then let it steep for 3-8 hours (I left it overnight).

The next recipe I made was ice cream (looks pretty eh?). The recipe I chose didn’t add the lilacs until the recipe had cooled. I didn’t want chunks of flowers in my ice cream so I dumped them in to flavour the ice cream this way (like lavender ice cream which I love!). The flowers did turn brown after being exposed to heat, so I see why the recipe creator didn’t add them at this step). I had lots of leftover flowers, so I threw the rest in the pot and let the mixture steep for a few hours.

I strained out the flowers and put the batter in the fridge to cool.

Because I made this into a double batch of ice cream the ice cream maker couldn’t handle it. It didn’t freeze at all. I threw the whole thing in the freezer overnight until it froze solid and then ran the ice cream maker again. Terrible idea. I ran it a really long time, but the texture stayed icy instead of creamy.

Here’s how the syrup turned out after being strained. It was more green than lilac. I was really hoping for a pretty pale purple colour.

All this hard work was for Epic Sunday Breakfast. Sunday breakfast is a big deal for us. You have to go the extra mile and it’s for all of us (pups included). I chose to make waffles with the lilac recipes and have mimosas too. I did not put the lilac syrup in the mimosas, but maybe I should have? Missed opportunity. How did I like the lilac recipes? Sadly, they were meh. Not awful, but not great. I wanted to love them. I didn’t. They were just okay. The lilac flavour didn’t come through very much, even though I added extra flowers and steeped longer than mentioned in the recipes. The ice cream was mostly my fault, I didn’t follow the recipe and I messed up processing it in the ice cream maker, but the lilac flavour wasn’t there. In the future lilacs will be a garnish only.

Oliver impatiently waiting for his waffle.

As for the pups, they didn’t get any of the lilac recipes because I have no idea if lilacs are toxic for dogs. They got waffles with blueberries and maple syrup.

Lobster Shorts cooking, dog adoption, dogs, Food, The Great Outdoors, vegetarian

Oliver’s First Birthday And The Weekend

This weekend we celebrated our puppy’s first birthday and the weather turned towards real Winter. It’s still technically Fall here, but November is usually when the real cold starts. It was -5 today, which is not bad, but it’s also windy, making it feel colder.

I had a cavity repaired on Saturday which brought us to the city, and we decided to go shopping for Winter coats. Sport Chek was having a huge sale and I got the coat I wanted for 40%-45% off! I was so happy and it is so warm. Mr Lobster Shorts found one too.

I was in the mood for warm and hearty when we arrived back home. I made soup from yellow lentils (moong dal), potatoes, cauliflower, vegetable soup cubes, potatoes, spinach, and a heaping scoop of curry powder. It was my intention to put a can of coconut milk in the soup, but it was fine without it. It was delicious. I turned off the lights, lit the candelabra, and loved how cozy it made the table. The bread was a multigrain loaf from the grocery store and it was delightful. It was a romantic, cozy ending to the day. We curled up on the couch together to watch a movie but were both falling asleep before it ended.

Sunday started with this super simple, delicious breakfast made with sweet potatoes, I got the recipe here. It was yummy and easy! We made one for the dogs too (minus the blueberries for Otis. He gets explosive diarrhea from blueberries. Although I’m pretty sure after all the sweet potatoes and cupcakes, we’re going to be waking up to something horrible tomorrow morning). Sunday is usually pancake day for the whole family and the dogs love it. They circle the table and kitchen like sharks until it’s their turn. They are not patient. Today we had something a little different. We all loved it, puppies too. Aren’t blueberries and sweet potatoes such a pretty mix of colour?

After breakfast, we took the dogs for a trek through the woods and tested out the new Winter coats. They did really well! We were both toasty warm. Otis still fit in last year’s boots thank goodness. For a street dog, he’s got sensitive little toes! Oliver doesn’t need them unless there is a lot of salt. The pups had fun in all the snow and didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all. I figured Otis would be okay, with his thick golden retriever fur, but Oliver is half-spaniel and his coat isn’t very thick. No coat, no shoes, no problem. He wasn’t cold at all.

Lunch was the leftovers from last night’s dinner (minus the candlelight). Isn’t soup always better the next day?

Oliver was wondering why we weren’t sharing lunch with him! He IS the birthday boy.

Doesn’t Otis look adorable in a birthday hat? This only lasted long enough to snap the photo, then he pawed it off his head.

Oliver was less chill about the hat. His expression here says it all. He took off running with the hat in his mouth after the photo. We had to chase him down before he ate it. Good times little buddy!

Birthday shenanigans ended with mini vanilla cupcakes (from the grocery store) and a new toy. Both dogs are currently having a late afternoon nap sleeping off their treats and morning walk. I’m sitting in a beam of sunlight enjoying a hot cup of tea, content.

Lobster Shorts cooking, vegetarian, weight loss

Shark Week Begins and Wednesday Week Two Of Calorie Counting

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professiona

Shark week started today. I mean it sort of started yesterday but wasn’t really fully committed yet. Today it came full steam ahead, but with only minor cramps. I’m pretty sure there are fewer cramps because of all the lattes I’ve been drinking lately. More calcium seems to make a big difference for me. This evening I had a delicious matcha latte sweetened with maple syrup while working on the 3000-piece puzzle. Still not done yet and I miss my table.

Today’s fine dining pleasures consisted of an English muffin with egg and avocado, black coffee, lots of tea and sparkling water, a can of chili, apple sauce, and a granola bar. I had a bit of time before I met up with Mr. Lobster Shorts so I headed to a local gourmet shop (Vincenzo’s) looking for rosewater and espresso beans. They grind their beans for you at the shop while you wait. I kept smelling the bag on the way home. I love the smell of coffee beans. I picked up the rosewater because I want to make some sort of floral cookie this weekend. I don’t even know if I’ll need that, but I probably will and if not, I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it.

I was feeling worn out from shark week and walking the dogs, so my spouse offered to make dinner. We both love gnocchi and he’s been super excited to try the gnocchi dinner from Hello Fresh. He followed my request and gave me a 75% smaller portion than his. The calories on the bag per serving were 690 calories. Since I didn’t make dinner and I forgot to ask him if the gnocchi was in a separate bag with a separate calorie count, this could in fact be way higher in calories than I think it is. I left the calorie count as a full serving to try and make up the calorie difference if there was one.

WednesdayCalories
english muffin140
egg78
avocado160
chili400
apple sauce45
granola bar150
apple sauce45
hello fresh gnocchi690
matcha latte205
orange juice50
total calories1963

Here is a chart with my calories for the day. Again it might be way higher. I wanted something comforting before bed and that’s when I had the matcha latte. I was also thirsty and had about 1/2 a cup of orange juice.

Lobster Shorts cooking, vegetarian, weight loss

Tuesday Week Two Calorie Counting

Today I had breakfast: an English muffin with egg, avocado, and black coffee. On the way to work, Mr. Lobster Shorts suggested lattes. I rarely say no to a latte, so we made a stop at the Snapping Turtle. Even though I had breakfast not that long ago I was starving on the commute, a little queasy even. I’ve no idea why. I ate not that long ago and was drinking my latte. I had some apple sauce and that did the trick and I was okay again until lunch. Lunch of course was a bowl of chili.

On the way home from work Mr. lobster Shorts and I stopped at Costco for a couple things. We got granola bars raspberries and some other essentials. Whenever we get any kind of berry at Costco, we bring them up front to snack on and we call them “road berries”. Does anybody else make up cute names for things? They were awesome and I ate a ton of them – about a cup. I also had one of the new granola bars, a strawberry yogurt one from Quaker. YUM!

Dinner was a bocconcini pizza on naan, from Hello Fresh. The calorie count for Hello Fresh was 690 calories, and I couldn’t finish the last two bites, I ate all the salad first. My spouse isn’t super into peppers, so I loaded all the pepper onto mine, put spinach on his instead, and gave him a bigger portion of cheese. As you can see they were very generous with the amount of cheese, this one being the one with less cheese. I love the texture of bocconcini cheese.

TuesdayCalories
english muffin140
egg78
avocado160
chili400
latte160
apple sauce90
granola bar150
Raspberries 1 cup65
Hello Fresh – Pizza690
banana105
total calories2038

Before bed I had a banana. I wasn’t even hungry and I knew I was already over my calorie count for the day. I’m not sure why I wanted it so much. I saw them on the counter, they looked really good and I hadn’t had one in a long time. I don’t know who else has banana loving puppies, but if you have a banana in this house you have to share it with the dogs. I think I had about half the banana and the dogs had the rest.

Lobster Shorts cooking, Food, weight loss

What I Ate Today Sunday And Week Results

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

I made berry crisp for breakfast this morning. I cut up rhubarb from the garden, and then strawberries and blueberries from the grocery store. I added a half tablespoon of sugar and cornstarch.

I topped it with oats, whole wheat flour, butter, brown sugar, and some salt. I didn’t add a lot of butter and it was still delicious. The calorie count for one was 520 calories. It was really nice with black coffee.

I snacked on cherries and a couple of chocolate crackers and had a salad with avocado for lunch. My spouse wanted to surprise me with dessert today.

He spent all day making me coconut cream pie (I had mentioned I had been craving it) and I had a really big piece.

Dinner was a portabello burger (the mushroom cap was the burger patty) from Hello Fresh with a side salad.

I overdid the calories again today.

SundayCalories
berry crisp520
coffee0
chococrackers x260
salad325
Cherries 2 cups154
coconut cream pie429
hello fresh burger
burger and sald620
coconut cream pie200
Calorie Totals2308

Sunday is supposed to be the only day I go over 1800 calories. I didn’t do very well this week. My average daily calorie intake was 2141 a day, but I was down a pound. Monday morning I was just a hair under 176lbs.

Lobster Shorts cooking, Food, The Great Outdoors, vegetarian, weight loss

Saturday – Calorie Overload And Fun At The Beach

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Saturday morning, my spouse and took the pups in for a weigh-in. The puppy is now 75lbs and his older brother, Otis is 82lbs. After five months, Otis is at a really good weight. He doesn’t need to gain anymore. Both the dogs are healthy and doing well.

As per usual, Saturday morning Jay and I went to The Stonetown Cafe for breakfast. Sometimes we bring the doggos, but the two of them can be a handful, so we went ourselves. I was a little hungover from Friday and had orange juice instead of coffee. I had an egg sandwich on a bagel with a slice of cheddar cheese. I really like their iced coffee in the summer, but I was too thirsty.

Jay and I headed to the beach at noon and I got the Harvest Sandwich at Tim Hortons for lunch. I seem to be having a lot of these lately. Jay wanted one too, but there was only one left. Being the sweetheart he is he let me have it and opted for something else. He’s such a gentleman.

We had a super fun day at the beach. The water was warm bath water. I loved it. I brought a little underwater metal detector that I found on Aliexpress with us. I didn’t have much hope for it, but it actually worked! It takes a 9-volt battery and it’s really small and discreet. I don’t know why, but I feel really silly using a metal detector around people. This thing definitely flew under the radar and guess what… It’s waterproof! We went snorkeling with it and I’m in love with this little thing. Jay even found something in the water!

Aaaand we found a dog shock collar. No, we will not be keeping it or using it. I wish we had found something a little less… shocking. The summer is just starting there will be a lot more fun beach days with this gadget. I’m so excited to use it again.

Jay made us dinner with Hello Fresh. It was absolutely delicious, but the calorie count was HUGE. The bag was 810 calories per serving, but the tortellini noodles were separate. The noodles were around 400 calories. Knowing the last time, they didn’t include the items separate from the bag into the meal calories, this meant this was massively high in calories. Even though I ate less than the serving size, I still had quite a lot of it. I adjusted the calories so they would more reflect what I ate. I also had popcorn and snacks this day, bringing my calorie count for the day to a whopping 2789 calories! YIKES.

SaturdayCalories
bagel250
egg78
slice of cheese113
orange juice111
Strawberries 318
latte160
harvest sandwich – Tims391
granula bar160
apple sauce45
tortelini pasta400
hello fresh pasta bag790
popcorn213
chococrackers x260
Total Calories2789
Lobster Shorts cooking, thrifting, vegetarian, weight loss

Pope Mugs, Dirty Matcha Lattes, and Why I Feel Scammed By Hello Fresh (but still love it)

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

I found something out today and I’m annoyed. Hello Fresh comes packaged individually for each dinner and sometimes extra food items that need to stay extra cold are left out to be in contact with the ice everything is shipped in. Each bag has the number of calories per serving on it and I thought that the calorie count included everything in the whole dinner. I started making the sesame salad recipe for that evening’s dinner, I looked at the calorie count and it said 240 calories… What? I knew the Beyond Meat patty that was included in the dinner would have had around that many calories by itself. There was no way. I looked at the calories on the Beyond Meat package and it was around 300 calories per patty. There were two patties! LIES! So what I think is happening, is that Hello Fresh is only listing the calories in the bag and anything extra you need to add has its own separate calories. I’m so annoyed. The calories should be listed as the whole dinner. I get why they wouldn’t add the oil you use from your own kitchen into it because you can use whatever oil you choose and they wouldn’t have access to that info… but when it’s an included ingredient and it’s part of the recipe!? – Add it to the calorie count! Grrr. That means my calorie counts are under for the last two days, I never added oil either. Now I know and can adjust for the future. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hello Fresh and will continue to buy it, but that’s annoying. Also, no wonder I didn’t find the last two days very difficult.

As for what I ate today and the calories (this time the count is more correct), it started out with my usual egg on an English muffin and black coffee. I ran out of avocado so I had the sandwich with cheese. Pretty good, but I do love my avocado and missed it. Lunch was chili in a can, the same kind I’ve been having repeatedly for lunch, Sprague brand from Costco and really good.

On the way home I stopped at a thrift store hoping to find a teapot. Mine was broken over the weekend. I loved it and I’m so hopeful I can find another one. This one was special because you could heat it with a tea candle and your pot of tea would stay hot for hours. I really loved it. I did not find a replacement teapot, but I did find clothing items and these pope mugs! I did not buy the pope mugs, sorry.

Dinner was sesame salad from Hello Fresh, it was really good and I’m pretty sure I’ve got the calories right now. There were almost enough calories left for a dirty matcha latte. I knew I’d go over a bit but I wanted one.

I make my dirty matcha latte with a shot of Tia Maria Matcha, a cup of whole milk, and a teaspoon of matcha. It was pretty good. I prefer the latte sweetened with maple syrup and not Tia Maria, but sometimes I want the naughty version. I’ll post my daily calorie count in the chart below. I couldn’t find the calorie count for Tia Maria Matcha, so I used the calories for Tequila Rose, I figured they would be similar.

ThursdayCalories
english muffin140
egg78
cheese113
coffee0
tea0
goldfish crackers under 2045
chili400
apple sauce x290
granola bar160
hello fresh kit240
beyond meat patty300
tia maria matcha69
whole milk160
matcha10
Total1805