Shawnigan Saturday

Within minutes of changing my Beerfest plans, I received a text from Michael asking if we now had time to spend the afternoon with some friends of his on Saturday.  I knew I changed those plans for a good reason!

Turns out those friends live in a lovely house right on Shawnigan Lake!  I can’t remember the last time I visited Shawnigan.  Years I know.  Odd, since it’s only about a 40 minute drive.

The weather was gorgeous so we spent the afternoon sitting on the dock, then riding around the lake in the speedboat.  Oh, the rough life it is. :)

Our friends wanted to take the little girl from next door for a tube for her birthday.  I’ve never been tubing (and I’m not about to start now) but watching her out there was soooo fun!  We dragged her all over the lake and she held on like a trooper.

When we finally pulled her in she wasn’t even out of breath, and barely even wet!

Next up:  Michael!  I have an excellent 6 minute video of dragging him all over the lake too!  I think maybe our driver was a little more, um, ‘aggressive’ with the driving on Michael’s turn. 

After we towed him back to the dock, it was time for dinner and drinks on the patio. 

After dinner we spent some more time chatting before hitting the dark back roads home.  A lovely little getaway.  Even if only a half hour from home!

Fun & Easy Grilled Pizza!

All Summer I have been telling Michael I wanted to try making grilled pizzas on his barbecue.  Each time I mentioned he gave me one of those ‘you want to do what?’ kind of looks.  Clearly he has no imagination. :)

We got off to a bit of a slow start on the grilling this year, but I have made an effort to come up with grill friendly meals at least once per weekend for the last few weeks and when I whipped up a batch of Pioneer Woman pizza dough for myself last week I knew that half of the recipe was destined to make a trip over to the man’s grill.

Two balls of dough = two pizzas.  His and hers to share!

I decided on one ‘normal’ pizza: tomato sauce, salami, sautéed mushrooms, garlic and onions, fresh oregano, mozzarella, parmesan and fresh tomatoes added on at the end.

And one ‘fancy’ pizza: brushed with olive oil, and topped with grilled peaches, prosciutto, herbed goat cheese, parmesan and fresh basil and a balsamic drizzle to finish. 

I took some tips from Janetha on how to actually cook these babies. 

- Get the BBQ up nice and hot…around 500 degrees.  Lay your dough right on the grill and cook until the top side starts to bubble.  Flip over, add your toppings to the already grilled side and continue cooking until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted.

My tips for you…

- Have all of your toppings totally ready to rock before you even think about putting your dough on the grill.  It takes mere minutes for that first side to cook and you'll have no time for dilly-dallying once you flip it.

(We pre-grilled and sliced our peaches, pre-sautéed the mushrooms and onions, had the grated cheese ready, and laid everything we needed out on a tray beside the barbecue.)

- Either turn the flame off, or remove your dough from the grill while you add your toppings.  Turn it back on when you are ready to finish cooking.  This gives you the chance to actually get your cheese melted before your crust gets too toasted.

I rolled the dough maybe a scant too thin, but my favourite kind of crust is thin crust so it worked out perfectly for me.  More like a crispy flatbread.  You could totally make a bigger ball of dough and roll it thicker for a nice, chewy, doughier crust though.  In fact, we discussed doing that next time.

What surprised me was how much fun we had doing these!  It took a bit of organization to get the ingredients prepared, but once the dough hit the grill we just worked together at a mad dash and had the final products banged out in no time.

So much faster than baking pizza in the oven, and so much more fun.  I’d be inclined to make pizza like this any time.  Even in the rainy days of Winter.

Peach & Tomato Salad

A couple of weekends ago I noticed a tweet from Gluten-Free Girl touting a fresh and delicious salad she was serving on her own dinner table.  The combination of ingredients sounded just strange enough to me to be tasty.  Tomatoes and peaches with watermelon vinaigrette.  Intriguing, no?

We did actually have watermelon in the fridge – it’s been the one thing Michael has picked up from the supermarket every week this Summer – but I decided to forgo the fruity vinaigrette just to try the peach/tomato combo on it’s own first.

Would you have thought these two fruits would go together?

Prior to this I wouldn’t have, but here I am blogging about it so you know I must think it’s worth sharing.  :)  As suspected the flavours mingled well together and since both are refreshing items on their own, I found them almost ‘extra’ refreshing together.  Especially with the addition of a quick lime and Dijon dressing and a handful of fresh basil.

Peach and Tomato Summer Salad

yields 4 side dish servings (or 2 hungry people servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 large fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
• 3 Roma tomatoes, sliced into thin wedges (any beautiful tomatoes will do!)
• big handful fresh basil, chopped
• juice and zest from half of 1 lime
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 4 tsp olive oil
• pinch of coarse salt

Directions:

1. Toss sliced tomatoes and peaches together in a large bowl.  Add 3/4 of the basil.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together lime juice, lime zest, vinegar, mustard, salt, and olive oil.  Drizzle over the fruit.  Toss lightly to coat.
3. Cover loosely and refrigerate until about 15 minutes before ready to serve.  Re-toss, then garnish with remaining basil.

This one may have to make another appearance on Labour Day weekend, before the delicious BC peaches all but disappear. 

What ingredients have to mixed together to create a delicious surprise?

Old-Fashioned Summer Fruit Crisp

After baking that ah-mazing Cherry Pie last weekend I was chomping at the bit to find something else from my Robin Hood Flour cook book to bake this week. 

My favourite way to decide what to make is to see what is local, lovely and in season in the produce section.  This week marked the arrival of BC peaches in stores around here so it was easy to choose a bag of those beauties to bring home. 

Not wanting to keep things too simple I also grabbed a huge container of fresh BC blueberries because I love combining peaches with berries.

Since our weather here this weekend was the hottest and most Summery of the year, we knew we’d grill out a meal or two so I opted for a dessert that would compliment our simple dinner.  Fruit Crisp!

It’s a bit of a contradiction to turn the hot oven on on the hottest days of the year, but somehow I have always associated a beautiful fresh fruit crisp with Summer eating.  Am I alone on this one?

Yet again, the Robin Hood people did not lead me astray.  Thanks to a perfect combination of oats, flour, brown sugar and butter it might be one of the best crisp toppings I’ve ever made.  The juicy fresh peaches didn’t hurt either.

Old Fashioned Peach-Blueberry Crisp

adapted from Robin Hood Flour Cook Book

yields 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced (including any juices)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, chilled
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray an 8” baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, lightly toss peaches, blueberries, lemon juice and sugar. 
3. In a separate bowl, stir together oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or two knives (or by hand) until mixture resembles coarse meal.
4. Arrange peach mixture in baking dish.  Sprinkle topping mixture evenly over fruit.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until fruit is tender and topping is golden.  Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

Depending on your actual fruit measurements, MyFitnessPal measures this in at around 200 calories per serving. Not too shabby!

As it turned out we ended up letting the finished crisp chill in the fridge overnight and ate it for breakfast instead of dessert.  It’s like a super fruity, beautiful baked oatmeal so we just replaced the usual ice cream topping with some lovely vanilla yogurt and it worked for me!

Use this Crisp Topping over any combination of your favourite Summer fruit.  I plan to put some more of our frozen cherries to use, and when apricots show their cute little faces in stores you can bet they’ll find themselves under a blanket of crispy oats. 

What other favourite Summer fruit combinations should we try?

T.G.I.Saturday.

Oh you guys.  It’s soooooo nice out here today.  Like so warm that I stepped out on the deck and started to sweat.  Amazing!

Of course for some reason I’ve spent my Saturday morning inside watching Olympics (Canada got a gold!), baking a batch of breakfast cookies, and sipping too much coffee. 

Right after this post I’m making myself useful outside by washing my car.  Michael is painting out on the deck yet again.  That project is never ending!

Friday…

1. Coffee with almond milk, and water of course.

2. Kashi Honey Almond Flax with almond milk, banana, and blueberries.

3. Pre-pitted cherries for office snack (and dark chocolate for after lunch).

4. Salad of the week. 

5. Pre-power walk carby goodness: sandwich thin with TJ’s almond butter.

6. Starbucks Tall Half-Sweet Green Tea Lemonade.

7. Protein shake.

8. Tide me over for late dinner: rice crackers and Laughing Cow.

9. Store-bought lasagna and steamed Brussels sprouts.

We spent our Friday evening chatting about our week and watching The Dark Knight (#2 don’tcha know) in preparation for finding time to hit up the final Batman movie this weekend.  Seems like some movie theatre air conditioning might be just the thing we crave!

Mango-Raspberry Salsa

Doesn’t a batch of Peach-Strawberry Salsa sound good?  I thought so too!  Until I wandered through the produce section and realized that a) the peaches were all hard and b) raspberries seem to have trumped strawberries for the current local fresh berry.

Well, I can adapt!  I grabbed a tray of raspberries and started looking for a match.

The plan was to make shrimp tacos so as long as the fruity combo worked for that I was open to change.  Since BC peaches and such haven’t hit the shelves yet I decided that I’d look abroad for a partner for my local raspberries.  I picked up one of the most perfect mangoes I’ve ever seen and thus the Mango-Raspberry Salsa was born.

Mango-Raspberry Salsa

yields approximately 4 servings (or 1 big snack)

Ingredients:

• 1 perfectly ripe mango, rind and pit removed, diced small (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries, cut in half
• 2 tbsp red onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• optional: use half cilantro and half fresh mint
• 1/4 small fresh jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• zest and juice of 1/2 of one lime
• pinch of coarse salt

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together and let stand at least 30 minutes before serving.  Refrigerate if longer than 30 minutes.
2. Serve on fish tacos, chicken salad, or with a dish of those yummy salty lime tortilla chips.  Yum.

At four servings MyFitnessPal brings this fruity deliciousness in at only 45 calories per serving.  So go ahead and eat the whole bowl. :)

On the first night I featured the salsa on three beautiful little white corn tortillas with a quick slaw, pan seared shrimp and feta cheese.  I cannot get enough shrimp tacos!

On day two the salsa made the perfect addition to a green salad topped with grilled chicken and avocado.  Fresh and summery!

I think I’m going on the hunt for another perfect mango today.  This post just made me hungry.

What I Ate Today

1. Water (x4 all day) and coffee with almond milk.

2. Overnight oats with strawberries.

3 & 4. Lunch in the park with my sweetie: bigass salad with greens, beets, carrots, radishes, red pepper, cherry tomatoes, feta, basil, oil and vinegar…hard boiled egg…rice crackers…sushi…and Summer roll.

5. Cherries and chocolate.

6. Iced coffee with almond milk.

7. Dinner sandwich: chicken, avocado, tomato, olive oil mayo, grainy Dijon.

8. Starbucks Iced Grande Half Sweet Passion Tea Lemonade.

9. Watermelon, sweet potato Wheat Thins, light Laughing Cow.

Hot dog!

What I Ate Today

1. Water (x5 today!) and coffee with almond milk.

2. Overnight Oats with plum.

3. Lunch Salad: romaine, spinach, red onion, radish, carrot and white beans in pesto.

4. Iced Coffee with almond milk.

5. Sea Salt Chocolate.

6. Rice chips and leftover plum.

7. Massaged kale salad topped with grilled honey-soy chicken breast.

8. Watermelon and mint.

9. Apple and sunflower butter.

Workout buddy!

What I Ate Today

1. Water & Coffee with 1% milk.

2. Overnight Oats with banana and blueberries.

3. Coconut Water.

4. Carrots & Hummus.

5. Homemade Chicken & White Bean Enchilada with salsa.

6. Rice chips.

7. Dinner Salad: romaine, spinach, radishes, beets, tomatoes, oil & vinegar, 2 x over easy eggs…with Squirrelly Bread toast & Light Laughing Cow Cheese.

8. 100 calorie Revello.

9. BC cherries!

Summertime!

Scenes from our Weekend

Friday: Impromptu belated anniversary dinner date night.  Live music.

Saturday:  Michael worked on his deck.  I walked dogs, picked flowers, and prepared Greek Pasta Salad.

And shopped for a flowy new top and found new sunglasses.

Celebrated our lovely friend Jessica’s birthday with deep fried turkey and Mars bars. 

Sunday:  Michael golfed.  I brunched.

And laid on the beach with my friend Charmaine.

Then we took the dogs to the park…where they found it too hot to walk themselves so M took them for a ‘drag’ through the grass.

Another harvest of romaine, red leaf and kale.

All finished up with a grilled burger topped with French brie.

How was your weekend?