Peanut Butter Protein Balls

So I've been meaning to make this post for some time now, but of course I get sidetracked! I got this recipe from the dude and I was slightly unsure oh how this recipe would turn out when I first received the recipe.

 Firstly, I had no idea what the heck this PB2 is.  It is actually powdered penut butter and it tastes like the peanut butter in Reese Cups (deeelish).  I haven't seen PB2 in Canada, but I'm sure the Bulk Barn or a store similar to the Bulk Barn will sell powdered peanut butter.  If not, I'm sure a health foods store will!  Instead of regular oats I used steel cut oats, Jillian Michaels (LOVE HER) is a big advocate of steel-cut oats so I figured I would use them instead!! Steel-cut oats are more nutty tasting than regular oats and look kind of crushed peanuts! 

Once I rolled and squished the mixture into balls, I put it in the freezer and were ready to eat in approximately an hour.  I must say I was skeptical of this recipe, but it is actually delicious!  They kind of remind me of my mum's peanut butter balls (which she hasn't made in FOREVER, by the way!), but are much healthier!

Stuffed Tomatoes

Its Monday again, which means it is Meatless Monday!  For Meatless Monday I did stuffed tomatoes and I quite fancied them! Again, thanks Miss Stewart!

First I scooped out the insides of four fair-sized hot house tomatoes.  Shopping for tomatoes at the grocery store makes me miss when my parents used to grow their own tomatoes.  Their tomatoes were sooo juicy and tasty!

In a hot skillet I put green onions and corn....how corny! (I know, that was a terrible joke!)

Wash and drained black beans and added mozzarella cheese to the beans. 

Added some chilly peppers to the corn and green onions (THANKS DENISE :) )

The tomatoes all ready to be stuffed!

Added the corn to the beans and added some salt and pepper with bread crumbs. 

Stuffed the crapped out of the tomatoes!

With the leftover tomato insides, I put it on thick cut bread and then added some salt and pepper to it.  I put it in the oven with the tomatoes as they were cooking. 

Et voila! I think I overstuffed them just a bit, but they tasted absolutely fantastic! 

How the bread looked when it came out of the oven!! Sooo tasty! 

That's Meatless Monday for this week! Next blog post will be about these protein balls I made on the weekend!!

Rice and Bean Burritos

Hello hello, I know I have been lacking severely in the area of blog posts lately!  On a side note, apparently America's Most Wanted is still on T.V.  I know, I was super surprised too when I discovered that tonight!  

Last week I decided to make another Martha creation, rice and bean burritos!!

How cool are these clouds? Photo taken by yours truly...me!

So to start I chopped a white onion and put it in a hot skillet that had a bit of safflower oil.  I have noticed that safflower oil does not have a strong flavour to it, so I'm starting to use it a lot more in my cooking.

 I boiled about a cup of vegetable broth, took it off the heat and then added about a cup of rice to the boiled broth.  I didn't have any rice but instant or else I would have used brown rice.  I really didn't feel like going to the store - was definitely having a sweat pants and baggy hoodie kind of day.

I coarsely chopped a jalapeño pepper (thanks Denise!!!).  Since I'm not a big fan of spicy, I removed the ribs and seeds of the pepper.  

Of course there has to be garlic! So I chopped up two cloves of garlic. 

I added the pepper and garlic to the onions in the skillet. 

Two tablespoons of tomato paste was added to the onion, pepper and garlic mixture. 

I added about a third of a cup of water, a can of baby corn and a can of black beans (I rinsed them first before I added the beans to the mixture). 

After the rice was fully cooked, it joined in on the party too! 

I put a bit of cheese on a tortilla shell and then added the rice/bean mixture.

I somehow thought it would be a great idea to put the burritos under the broiler to crisp them up a bit.  Yep, they got crispy thats for sure!  I got side tracked by some ridiculous reality show and they ended up looking like Snooki after she goes tanning.  Regardless of the char on the burritos, they actually tasted really good!  I froze the leftovers (the recipe made 6 large burritos) and I bring them for my lunch. 

Poor Little Blog

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog lately!  I made some stuffed tomatoes last week which I have been meaning to post about, but alas I keep getting sidetracked...I know, excuses excuses!  This past weekend I had salmon for the first time in a while and it tasted absolutely delicious.  I was pretty impressed.  It was seared in a pan and served over some vegetable rice.  Soo tasty!  I am not a fish person in the least so I was pretty surprised when I actually liked it!!  I totally forgot to take pictures and afterwards I even commented "darn, I should have taken pictures because that was delicious!" Anyways,  later this week I will post about the stuffed tomatoes!

Mill Street Brew Pub

Tonight I went out for dinner with some colleagues from work to the Mill Street Brew Pub.  It was utterly delicious!  I had heard great things from different people that Mill Street was delicious and my goodness were they ever right!  The Pub is located in an old mill, which has stone walls and has an enormous amount of charm.  There are patios on the right and left sides of the restaurant, which would have been stellar had it not been rain.  Ah well, c'est la vie!  The waitress, Christine I believe her name was, was an absolute delight and handled my questioning of the menu flawlessly!

Not only did the restaurant have an awesome vibe, but Mill Street Brew Pub also has a wicked spread of food!  I ordered the chicken club sandwich, which had chicken, tomatoes, bacon and some sort of aioli on it.  The sandwich came on multigrain bread.  Quite tasty!  The sandwich comes with fries, but I'm not big on fries so I decided on the spinach strawberry goat cheese salad instead.  The salad also had red onions and a vinaigrette which complemented the salad perfectly.  I'm not sure which I liked better, the salad or the sandwich!  Both were near perfection.  The meal came with a pickle and some coleslaw.  The coleslaw was nothing special, but then again I'm not a huge coleslaw fan.  It was an excellent meal and I am very happy that I went on this outing with my colleagues. 

Popcorn Topper

So Martha to the rescue again!  I found this popcorn topper recipe in the September issue of Everyday Food for 'cheesy garlic' popcorn.  I made it last night and it was absolutely delicious!

Recipe is as follows:

1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Drizzle some form of vegetable oil over the popcorn.  I used safflower oil because I heard it has some health benefits and is rumoured to 'melt' belly fat, so hey why not???

Then, toss the popcorn with the popcorn topper mix.

The only thing I would do differently for next time is that I would double the recipe so that there would be more of a pronounced flavour.  Very delicious though!

Thanks Ms. Stewart!