3 large ruby red grapefruits
3 cups water
4 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Set a large pot of water to boil.

Cut off the peel of the grapefruits, working to get good thick slices, but leaving the inner white pith closest to the fruit still attached to the fruit. Cut the peels into strips.

Blanch peels by submersing them in boiling water for about three minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under running water. Bring a fresh pot of water to a boil and repeat the blanching process again. Drain and rinse again. [Blanching removes bitterness]. Place the peels in a large pot.

Remove the remaining white pith from the peeled grapefruit. Working over the pot, cut between the grapefruit membranes so that the fruit sections fall into the pot. Squeeze juice from the membranes and discard them. Repeat with remaining grapefruit.

Add water and sugar to the pot and bring to a boil, stirring to combine. Lower the heat to a very low simmer. Simmer until the marmalade is thick and translucent, about one hour.

Add vanilla bean seeds and simmer another five minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in lemon juice. Ladle into prepared jars and process as usual.

This recipe comes from a wonderful food blog, Desert Candy.

Thanksgiving is slowly becoming one of my favorite holidays…next to Christmas and Easter (can’t beat fresh Easter candy!)

Over the years it has become a holiday where adventure, experimentation, and tradition comes together into one very large, over zealous meal.  My family doesn’t serve your average green bean casserole, stove top stuffing, or cranberry jelly out of a can…we make chipotle apple soup, oyster stuffing, grapefruit-mint vinaigrette on a spinach salad…sometimes we’ll even have themes, like last year we had a plethora of apples and mint in the garden, so we created a menu to compliment those flavors (ie, chipotle apple soup and grapefruit-mint vinaigrette).

One recipe that I found last year that I absolutely fell in love with was a Cranberry, Sour Cherry, and Grapefruit chutney from MarthaStewart.com.

I’ve never been a fan of cranberry sauce (too much sugar maybe?) – but make a chutney with cranberries and citrus, and I will swoon for days…or in this case, years.  Make that citrus, grapefruit, and I’ll be your friend for life.  J’aime le pamplemousse!

Being in Paris this year, I didn’t need to make much, in fact, I didn’t have to make anything.  But I couldn’t ignore the Thanksgiving buzz in the air, and I had to have this cranberry chutney, turkey or no turkey.

There is something about cranberries that makes me feel very ‘girly’ – they glitter like little jewels – makes my heart flutter!

And it’s so satisfying to stir them in a warming pot – that hallow sound that they make when they clink together, it’s like mixing a bowl full of gum balls.

Now, I’m not sure if cranberries are a common thing to find in Paris, my guess is that they are not.  It was something that I pondered while I was putting my grocery list together, and thought it best to google before I left and became frustrated when I couldn’t find the main ingredient in my one simple craving.  And in my search, I found this store, Thanksgiving.  Well that’s fitting…

It’s an English grocery store, that carries all of those undeniable cravings from back home that you just can’t find in your everyday French market.  Cream cheese, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Black beans, Tortillas, Chipotle/Jalapeno, American Oreos, Popcorn, and yes, Cranberries (whole, canned, or jellied).

Homesick no more…for just 3,50 euro, you too can feel the comforting pleasure of Kraft powered cheese…or a bowl of black beans.  An absurd price to pay in the states, but in France, priceless.

Back to the cranberry goodness…

You can’t beat fresh, whole, cranberries.

Vertical growing walls are nourishing a city or refugee camp near you…

These vertical hydroponic gardens could really sweeten your harvest and second as an amazing, in or outdoor, art piece!

I read a friend of mine’s post of Facebook the other day about her au pair quitting. It was a bad time for her not to have help and she was a little down. She went so far as to say “why me”? I felt bad for her but it was a little hard to delve too deep into sympathy. And I realized that it must be that way for many of you when I tell my tales of staff woes.

Always, I try to be clear that I am thankful for the help I have and I appreciate the work they do. Most of the time, I do not complain. Really. No, really, I don’t. Even what I am about to share with you is not a complaint – it is just an example of why it is hard to add extra people to your day.

We have a new cook. He is married and he and his wife have worked together for a long time. We only needed a cook. But….. now we have a cook and his wife. They have two adult sons. We have fairly decent quarters. I am not letting two adult men live behind my house. So, we also pay them extra for housing. So, now it is costing us a wee bit more than it should. However, they are a lovely couple and I am very happy to have them here. I do believe you get what you pay for.

They are also kind and easy to be around. The other day, Francis comes up to me with a large green piece of fruit.

Francis: Do you like these ma’am?
Me: Uh, what is it?
Francis: It is a grapefruit, they were selling them at our church, we got you one.
Me: Wow, thank you. That was really sweet.
Rani (Francis’ wife): I will peel it for you so you can have it for breakfast. It is better to eat it on an empty stomach.

Okay, yes – awwwwwwwwwwww – that was really, really thoughtful. However, I am not a big fan of grapefruit. Yes, I really, I should just be grateful. However, I am really not a big fan of grapefruit. I am also not a big fan of breakfast or of things that are best eaten on an “empty stomach”. Maybe it’s me – but telling me that is not exactly enticing!

Anyway, Rani stands over the sink for about one hour and peels the grapefruit. Why does it take an hour, you ask? Because in India, peeling grapefruit does not simply mean removing the peel – it also means removing each piece of pulp and separating it from the membrane. No, I am not kidding. Yes, I walked into the kitchen at least five times and told Rani she really did not need to do that and I marveled at how much work it was. I did not add that it was all unnecessary because it was highly unlikely that I was going to actually eat a grapefruit. But you can be sure I thought it.

Jewish mothers have nothing on Indian staff when it comes to making you feel guilty. They don’t even mean to make you feel guilty. But how can you watch someone painstakingly peel the pulp of a grapefruit from its membrane and not at least try it. Dang it.

True to my normal forgetful self, the next morning, I totally forgot about the grapefruit. When Rani came in, she asked me if I liked it. She had already moved past me and was closer to the fridge than I was – so I had to be honest and say I didn’t feel great that morning. I was simply saving it for tomorrow morning.

Morning number two. I remember to pull out the grapefruit. My teeth are sensitive so I don’t like cold fruit. And I do not like grapefruit. Did I mention that yet? So, I let it sit for a little bit to warm up – I felt like I was five and my mother was about to spoon feed me cough medicine. Then I remembered that my dad puts sugar on his grapefruit. Hurray. That is what I could do. So I pull out the sugar container and dump 3 big spoonfuls of “sugar” on my grapefruit. Only, I have a cook, so I am not in the kitchen that much and apparently – when you haven’t been around it that much – salt looks just like sugar. Dagger.

So, in reality I dumped 3 very large spoonfuls of salt right onto my grapefruit. Did you know that I have Meniere’s and that I have to really, really watch my salt intake or I get nauseous and very dizzy – like can’t walk straight dizzy. Yes, brilliant.

Did you also know that Indian houses don’t have garbage disposals and that the toilets don’t generally flush everything down? Did you also know that in India, people are very resourceful and will go through the trash because there isn’t too much that cannot be reused. So, I could not dump the pulp down the garbage disposal (don’t have one), I could not flush it down the toilet (would not have all gone down and Rani cleans the toilets), and I could not throw it in the trash (because sometimes they sort through my trash). Because, even if you are rooting through MY garbage, I think it would be rude to throw away a gift from you.

Yes, I did try to rinse it off and then add the real sugar. Yes, I really did. No, it didn’t work so well.

My good intentions were making me crazy and I decided that I had to throw away the grapefruit. There was just no way I could risk taking in all that salt. And, besides – have I told you – I. do. not. happen. to. like. grape.fruit.

So, I wrapped it in a paper towel. But it seeped through the paper towel. So, I put it in a plastic bag and tied it in a knot. But I just knew it would be discovered. So, I went to the cat litter and cleaned out a little bit and put that in the bag and tied two more knots in it.

It sounds crazy – and it probably was – but, now, I couldn’t eat it – and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.

Do you see how complicated it becomes and that is just the grapefruit!

Ever had one of those weekends? Everything went wrong. It was supposed to be a romantic weekend away at an air conditioned cabin by a waterfall. Pay attention to the air conditioned part, and the promise of a waterfall. We had both been working hard, so we deserved a little treat. Action-man hadn’t been west before, so we decided to take to the open road and hit the country towns. 4 hours later we realised that “the west” was in the midst of a heat wave, but the promise of our little air-conditioned cabin beside a cooling, refreshing waterfall drew us onwards. The air-con was broken, the waterfall had dried up, and there was an extreme bushfire warning so the air was full of acrid smoke. *sigh*. After a minor melt down, we got a hold of ourselves (and a glass of wine), and decided to stick it out. Stink-dog perfected the “dying swan” by dramatically flopping on his side and panting whenever we looked at him. The romance was killed by me growling “don’t touch me, it’s too hot”, and the ideas of a dirty weekend disappeared along with the last cold glass of wine. This recipe honoured the trout that should have been in the waterfall stream, and the salad is cooling and refreshing, cleansing your pallet of the bushfire smoke . Great for quick summer dinners, when it is too hot to move.

Crispy skinned trout with Pink Grapefruit salad

Budget: $25

Type: Quick summer seafood

Mood: too hot to move

Partner: Yum!

Dog rating: OMG! Save some skin for me!!

Difficulty: Easy

Tip: Use the BBQ to cook the fish so the house doesn’t heat up

Recipe:

2 fresh Australian ocean trout fillets, skin on

Lemon

1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

1 teaspoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 handfuls sugar snap peas

100 grams roasted, unsalted cashews

1 pink grapefruit, segmented, pith removed

1 avocado, sliced

Red wine vinegar

½ Red onion, finely sliced

Heat the BBQ up to a high heat.

Pat dry the fish, and brush with olive oil.

Rub with salt, pepper, fennel and leave for 10 minutes

Peel the grapefruit, segment and remove all the pith

Add grapefruit, avocado, cashews, red onion and sugar snap peas in a salad bowl. Dress with red wine vinegar and olive oil

Squeeze the juice of a lemon on the trout, then place skin side down on the BBQ on high heat for approx 3 minutes, or until skin is crispy. Turn, and cook for further 2 to 6 minutes, depending on thickness. It should look slightly raw in the centre, as it will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove to plate.

Remove the skin from the trout with a sharp knife as soon as possible to stop the skin going soggy. Place trout on plate with skin on top, and serve the dressed salad on the side.

Hi Friends,

Two days left of work.  I have no desire to go in, especially after being sick last week.  My mantra for the day is “Two days.  I can do this!”

The  morning bowl includes: 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, vanilla, ground flax, and 1/2 scoop protein powder.  Topped everything with a blob of AB, pomegranate seeds, and unsweetened coconut.  My grapefruit is really good today.  Yay!

We have a party sub coming in at work today so I packed a veggie filled salad to accompany it for lunch today.  The yog mix today is plain Stonyfield, 1/2 a chopped apple, pom seeds, and pumpkin seeds.

Happy Monday to you all!  Two more days

Kate

My mother-in-law (nicknamed Mama K by her sons) made a delicious and very healthy side salad for a home cooked birthday dinner for my husband. It was the perfect cool antidote to some delicious, spicy roasted chiles stuffed with chicken, cheese and corn. Normally I’m not that into raspberry vinaigrette dressing – I especially hate the ones out of a jar, too sweet! – but this one was really really good. This salad would also be great with grilled chicken and pine nuts on top, for  a little protein boost.

A little Googling reveals the photocopied recipe comes from The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison. Greens is a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco that I’ve always meant to try, but have never gotten around to. Obviously that needs to change!  For now, I’ve ordered the book from Amazon. (The photo below is courtesy of Brian Murphy, who as it turns out really likes taking the pictures for this blog. Call him the Ansel Adams of the salad world

Mama K's delicious creation

Butter Lettuce and Spinach with Citrus and Avocado

Serves: 4-6 side salads

Meaty Monitor: Low. Originating from a vegetarian cookbook, its a fresh palate cleanser. Went well with the mexican-inspired main dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 head butter, limestone or bibb lettuce
• 1 small bunch young spinach leaves
• 2 ruby grapefruit
• 2 avocados
• 4 teaspoons sherry vinegar
• 2 teaspoons raspberry or other fruit vinegar
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (original recipe calls for 6-7 tablespoons, but we found it was better with less)
• 1 teaspoon mint, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons chives, finely sliced
• Black pepper

Directions:

Wash the greens and pat/spin dry. If the greens are large, give them a light chop until they’re bite sized. Using a sharp knife, slice off the top and bottom of the grapefruit, then work down the sides, removing the white pith and the peel (its okay if you take a little bit of fruit with the peel.) Hold the grapefuit over a bowl to catch the juice, cut each grapefruit section loose from its membrane. The final product is grapefruit segments with the white parts removed. (Hint: Costco sells large jars of peeled, de-pithed grapefruit segments.) Cut the avocado all the way around the pit, lengthwise, twist to open, remove the pits and cut into long slices while still in the peel. Using a large spoon, scoop out the avocado slices and pour the grapefruit juice over them to keep them from turning brown.

In a bowl combine the vinegars, shallot and salt. Slowly add in the oil, whisking to incorporate. Taste the dressing and add in more vinegar if needed. Stir in the mint and chives.

Toss the cleaned green in the vinaigrette and place them on serving plates, reserving 1 tablespoon of the dressing to coat the avocado slices. Arrange avocado and grapefruit segments on top of greens, crack a little black pepper over the top and serve. Enjoy!

- Hill

2 large grapefruits
brown sugar

Cut the grapefruits in eighths (pointy triangles). Arrange 1/2 of the grapefruit in a broiler-safe pan with points sticking up. Sprinkle copiously with brown sugar. Broil 3 min, until bubbly. Arrange on a serving platter with the raw grapefruits.

It had been two years since I’d had my first baby.  I begin to resent my wasteline.  Wearing a size 16 was not the business.  I had a thought.  Why not try pink grapefruit?  So, for about one month I ate pink grapefruit with sugar sprinkled on top for breakfast only.  I went from a size 16 to a 14.  Now, I’m trying to figure out how to get down to a size 10.

Try it!

Cut Pink Grapefruit in half

Sprinkle sugar lightly on top (if you choose)

Eat with a spoon.  It’s a fun breakfast.

I dyed four skeins of yarn yesterday!  One of them is grapefruit-colored, because I was inspired be learning that pamplemousse means grapefruit in French.  Isn’t that a cool word?  The other three skeins are just whatever colors I felt like dropping into the crockpot at the time, which is my usual dye process.  I think they all turned out lovely!  I’ll have to wait and see when they’re dry whether I want to keep them, gift them, or sell them.  Also, S gets dibs on any that inspire her.

Hey hey-yo! How are you? How was your Wednesday? I can’t believe that one week from tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  I usually try to wake up early enough to catch some of the parade, then my mom and I make our famous sticky buns.  Do you have traditions you keep up every year?

I seem to have unleashed the oatmeal beast within me yesterday, because that was just what I wanted this morning.

In the bowl:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• frozen berries
• frozen pineapple
• flaxy peanut butter
• cinnamon
• agave

The rest of the morning was spent preparing for an interview.  I went into the city an hour and a half early so, subway problems or not, there’d be no chance of being late.  I had so much spare time that I went into a deli to go over my notes and read some Canadian snail mail.  To secure a seat, I bought some fruit salad.

The interview went well, I think; I was given an assignment to complete for Friday, so I went straight home to get started.  I needed some brain fuel, so I made a quick salad:

Our house guest came into the kitchen while I was assembling it, took one look at the bowl, and said, “Are you really going to eat all of that salad?! You must have a really fast metabolism!”  It was a salad of great girth, I’ll give him that. But of course I ate every scrap

In the mix:

• spinach
• grape tomatoes
• 1 grapefruit
• 1/2 avocado
• leftover salmon
• dressing made with rice vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds & chili flakes

The Lindt store on 5th  was handing out holiday truffles on the street today, so I snatched one up and had it for dessert.

My body must have needed sleep because I nodded right off after lunch! Today is the fourth consecutive day I’ve gotten up significantly earlier than I’m used to, and the rest of the week will be no different.  Hopefully in the next few weeks there will be more early mornings and regular hours, if you catch my drift! When I woke up, I made some coffee and snacked on these Jalepeño Honey Mustard Pretzel Sticks from Kay’s Naturals.

These are my favorite of the Kay’s products I’ve tried; they’re satisfying, and didn’t leave me with horrible garlic breath the way the protein chips did.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent working.  When it was getting close to dinner time, I simmered and marinated some tempeh using the recipe for Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh from Veganomicon.

After about an hour, I plopped the tempeh onto the George Foreman, the apartment-dweller’s best friend.  Aren’t grill marks satisfying?

I proceded to make one of the best sandwiches on earth: The LVP Reuben.

A reuben sandwich is traditionally made with corned beef, Swiss cheese, saurkraut, and creamy salad dressing.  I don’t remember eating one even when I did eat meat, but my version is much more appealing to me.  It’s based on one of my all-time favorite sandwiches: grilled cheddar with Granny Smith apple slices on Peppridge Farm Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread.  Tonight, I went a step further…

Grilled cheddar with Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh, Gala apple slices and baby spinach on Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread.  My tum is grumbling at the memory.  I also had a bowl of Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Leek Soup, garnished with cinnamon, nutmeg, shredded coconut and parsley.

Dinner for 1, at home, does not have to be boring.

Luckily I had the foresight to plan my dessert early in the day; I had two bananas sitting in the freezer and  waiting  to be processed into Chocolate Banana Soft Serve.  Three words: Move over, Stögo! I topped mine with roasted almonds and walnuts.

It was rich, creamy, and far better than anything packaged I’ve bought recently.  You better believe I licked up every last trace of “batter.”

I can’t wait to play around with this! There are so many options based on what’s in the pantry alone.

After dinner I finished my reading, and just as I was about to e-mail my notes to myself (I type everything out on my Blackberry… it’s an odd habit), the memo deleted itself.  I searched IT message boards, asked people I knew with Blackberries if there was any way to retrieve data that wasn’t backed up on a computer… nothing.  Seven hours of work has been LOST.   So… tomorrow will be another early morning.  It’s not the end of the world.

Bonne nuit

Candy from a baby.

Brown rice

Turkey

Dinner with college friends

Calamari

Licht forcing shrimp on me so he can be in the blog

The boys

Kenny, Joe, lamb shank

Steve and port

Kenny with beer

I just finished this Jimi Hendrix cake. I adapted the grapefruit cake recipe from an old school L.A. restaurant called the Brown Derby, and used Callebaut chocolate for the Jimi piece.

Not a morning person? Feeling fatigued? There  is quite a few of us out there.

Grapefruit is an invigorating oil. It has a beautiful fresh, subtle aroma.

Morning shower. Place a few drops of grapefruit essential oil onto a face cloth, hop into the shower and drop the face cloth onto the shower floor and stomp on it! The warm water helps to release the aromatic molecules which are absorbed through the under side of your feet and also carried up via the steam which we breath in.

Using grapefruit essential oil this way is an easy and effective method to give us a little boost to help get our day moving along.

Grapefruit is an energising oil, it uplifts the emotions, gives courage and boldness and puts a happy face on!

Think of the sun and how we react on a warm sunny day, we SMILE and that’s what Grapefruit is all about!

It’s the return of the corn! I didn’t think it would happen so late in the season, but I’m not complaining.

This week from Greenling, we’re getting corn from Home Sweet Farm, tangerines from Orange Blossom Farms, acorn squash from Massey Farm, gala apples from Top of Texas, red new potatoes from Naegelin, watermelon radishes from Ringer Farm, bok choy from Acadian Family Farm, grapefruit from G&S Groves, scallions from Lundgren Farm, yellow beans from Animal Farm, cilantro from My Father’s Farm, and (perhaps) mustard greens.

So I’m making:

Side Dishes:

• Radish salad with cilantro
• Bok choy slaw with Gala apples
• Jalapeno corn bread (since I still have a ton of serranos left from last week!)
• Garlicky yellow beans with scallions
• Balsamic-glazed chick peas with mustard greens

Dinners:

• Roasted acorn squash hollowed out and served with sesame chicken tenders in the middle
• Southwest corn and potato soup (which would also use the leftover serranos)

I’ll eat the tangerines and grapefruit as they are throughout the week for breakfast and snacks.

Citrus oils e.g. bergamot, lime & mandarin  are uplifting to the emotions, energetically they promote happiness & confidence. They are often used for depression & anxiety.

Using oils through inhalations, is a very safe method of application.

Most citrus essential oils are considered to be photo-toxic, meaning they react to heat and or sunlight/ultra violet light, when topically applied.

Keep out of sunlight if you have topically applied a citrus oil blend to your skin, for at least 12 hours. The reacton that occurs is chloasma    ( discolouration of the skin) which can last for several months. Severe damage to the skin can be caused, with harsher & longer lasting effects.

When choosing to use Aromatherapy and essential oils, always research their properties, and especially their contra- indications.

Essential Oils are safe to use, when used correctly, and with Respect.

If in doubt seek a proffessional & qualified Aromatherapist for more information.

Currently I’m supposed to be on a “weight loss” mission.  Anyway tonight I finally decided to bite the bullet so to speak and actually stick to my decision and get healthy!

Now it’s not that I don’t enjoy healthy food, I absolutely love it!  However, and this is where it gets tricky, I have a sweet tooth second to none!  So in light of this, I’m going to take every ounce of willpower that I have and stick to this!

I was going through healthy drinks recipe’s when I came across some really useful information and thought I might share my new found knowledge.  Now most of us are aware that grapefruit is great if you are on diet, but did you ever wonder why?  Well here it is:

Grapefruit has a compound called naringenin that studies have shown can make our insulin more effective.  I have also come across a recipe by Martha Stewart which I decided to try, and found absolutely refreshing!

This is how its done:

2x Cups ruby grapefruit juice (squeezed from grapefruit)

2 to 4 tbl spoons honey (personal pref)

1/2 tsp whole allspice berries

Then in a medium pot, combine all the ingredients above and half a cup of water.  Bring to the boil.  Then strain all the solids out of the liquid and serve!

Enjoy!!

The Grapefruit has a spectacularly complex personality.  It is unapologetic in its imperfect, enigmatic state of flavor.  It is simultaneously sweet, sour and bitter – yet its taste remains disarmingly balanced and curiously pleasant.  It is neither small nor big, its skin neither thick nor thin, smooth nor bumpy.  Underneath its sunset-gradient peel of pinks, oranges, and yellows is a punchy, vibrant, uniform hue of ruby-pink.  It is even consumed in a uniquely ritualistic fashion, both functionally and aesthetically – sliced along its equator, glittering triangles exposed, dislodged and consumed – one small wedge after another, before the pink walls are scraped down and the flimsy shell is pressed together to release the last remaining stream of tart juice onto the serrated spoon (which was, of course, created expressly for said occasion).   Somewhere in the history of evolution, the Grapefruit emerged as a fine, respectable, sophisticated member of the citrus family, and is surely the envy of many a one-note fruit.

Photo: ehow.com

Orange peel skin?

Forget it with our Anti-Cellulite Remedy Cream

Firms and moisturises your skin

(it even helps to improve your circulation!)

How does it work? Well, its packed with cellulite busting essential oils of rosemary, lemon, grapefruit, fennel and lavender, which get to work de-lodging fat cells created by a build up of toxins. Because it improves your circulation, it eliminates water and toxic waste

Use it daily to help firm and tone skin while reducing the appearance of cellulite.

After just one week women reported sleeker, slimmer thighs

Creativity is awesome. I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be such a thing as a foodie if people didn’t get creative with cooking.

But…sometimes creativity gets taken too far, and you end up with fish on a cookie*.

See, I ordered a container of red miso from Asian Food Grocer (love them, by the way!) , but I didn’t have any plans for it. I just wanted to try miso, and wasn’t exactly sure what to do when a giant tub of it arrived at my house.

So I started brainstorming. Miso soup? Too boring. Miso glazed meat? Maybe. Hmm, miso and ginger are friends…what about miso and gingerbread? Yes! That’s it! Scallops marinated in miso, pan-seared (um, we’ll use that term loosely, since you can see in the photo that they’re a little less than seared) and served on savory gingerbread, with….well, why not grapefruit? Yeah! That’ll be awesome.

It wasn’t. But oh, I had hopes for it.

On the plus side: I really enjoy the savory gingerbread I made. I used blackstrap molasses and quite a bit less sugar than I put in my cookie gingerbread, and it worked out deliciously well. Just, uh, not with scallops on top.

And I want to make something tasty with miso, still. Suggestions are absolutely appreciated…even creative ones.

* Yep. That would be the actual description given by my taste-testers. Fish on a cookie.

Hey there! How was your Tuesday? Mine began in a hurry and ended with ice cream, and now I’m in bed watching Michael Clayton.   Ari’s leaving tomorrow to go Vigilante and we’ve all got things to do, so this is going to be a quickie!

Yesterday started off on a good note with a generous portion of Oats In A Jar.

In the mix:

• PB jar w/ about 1 T PB
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 dried apricots
• 1 dried fig
• dried cherries

Mighty fine, I tell ya.  I should finish jars of nut butter every day!

After breakfast, I hustled over to Starbucsk to get some work done.  I sipped on a Grande Skim Misto with a shot of espresso for a few hours…

… and spaced my lunch out over about four hours to maximize my efficiency.  Every 100 pages, for example, I could eat another part of my meal.  It’s a pretty good trick! I had honeydew…

… samples of marble cake and hazelnut-espresso truffle drink (too sweet for me)…

…mixed greens with fake chicken nuggets…

TJ’s plain nonfat Greek yogurt with YouBars‘ Chocolate Peanut trail mix…

… rebel carrots…

… and a grapefruit.   When I was really young I used to snack throughout the day rather than have square meals, and there’s something to be said for this! It works nicely when I’m trying to be productive, but I think I prefer eating three times a day, plus snacks.  Do you eat three meals or snack throughout the day?

Dinner was a really, really big salad.  I love these! I eat almost an entire head of romaine or bag of spinach at a time.

In the mix:

• 1 handful spinach
• 4 romaine leaves
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 Gala apple
• 1 TJ’s frozen salmon patty
• dulse flakes
• cilantro-chili vinaigrette

I overdid it on dessert a little bit… I just kept going back for more Edgies!  My tum was a little unhappy with me when I went to bed, but I’m pretty sure the brownies were worth it

I thought I was going to wait until tomorrow to share this with you, but today my physical therapist gave me the okay to run.  With the exception of the two minutes I ran on the treadmill during my first therapy session, I haven’t really run since I hurt my knee during my 10K race.  My therapist only let me run for 15 minutes, but it felt great! I didn’t feel any pain in my knee, and felt proud that I had followed the doctor’s and therapist’s orders to stay off my legs until the time was right.  But baby, I’m back!

What made you proud today?