a loaded baked sweet potato

While watching The Biggest Loser and eating a bowl of ice cream the other night, (because naturally that’s what one does when watching a TV show about losing weight) I was introduced to an amazing new dinner recipe: The loaded baked sweet potato.

Since Andrew was out of town last week on business (and he believes a meal isn’t a meal without meat) I thought I would give this veggie dish a try.

It’s not only extremely delicious and satisfying but it’s a much healthier option to the regular loaded baked potato with sour cream, bacon bits and cheese. Plus its easy to make! If I can do it, anyone can.

You’ll need:

- a sweet potato or two depending if you are cooking for more than one!

- plain Greek yogurt

- tsp olive oil

- red bell pepper

- white onion

- green onion/scallion

- black beans

-tsp chili powder

- pinch of cumin, salt, paprika

- salsa

The great thing about this recipe is you could add more veggies, or cheese and or spices depending on your preferences.

Step 1: Poke holes in your potato and heat potato in the microwave. Most microwaves have a baked potato button… press it!

Step 2: In a sauce pan heat the olive oil and add in the white onion and red pepper (might help to dice them first!) Once the onions start to caramelize add in the spices, black beans and green onions until well mixed and heated.

Step 3: Take potato out of the microwave and cut it so that the top is split–whether in half or you just cut out a hole– give yourself enough space to load up your potato!

Step 4: In a separate bowl, mix the greek yogurt with some chili powder.

Step 5: Load up time! This is how I did it: I first spread the salsa on the potato, followed by my sautéed veggies and then topped it off with greek yogurt on top.

And there you have it. A loaded baked sweet potato!

Interested in more healthy recipes like this? I often get inspired by my friends’ foodie blogs like: Gretchen at gsnackingcruz, Chloe at chloe’s countertop and Jacquilyn at jacquilyn in the kitchen.

On the subject of… negotiating

Our Sunday afternoons usually start like this: Andrew begins the negotiating process by offering to vacuum. When that doesn’t work, he offers to vacuum and clean the kitchen. Still doesn’t work. So he offers to vacuum, clean the kitchen and do the laundry… AND (begrudgingly) clean the bathroom. Finally I give in. Yes, I will do the grocery shopping alone today.

That’s how much Andrew hates going grocery shopping. But at least he doesn’t mind cooking…

It’s beef meatballs for dinner, honey

Andrew’s favorite meal is spaghetti. If he had his way, he would eat it every single night… and when he lived on his own, he did! We eat it about once a week in this household. But the other night I decided to take the regular menu item to the next level and added meatballs to the mix.

Andrew did not marry a domestic goddess. In fact I rarely cook, so you can imagine his surprise when he saw me in the kitchen cooking up a storm.

“Does it feel natural?” he asked, jokingly. “Don’t push it,” I replied.

Here’s the super easy recipe:

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg

2 Tbsp. water

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

1/4 onions

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup cilantro

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then combine all ingredients into a large bowl. Mush with your hands so it all sticks together. Next, roll your meatballs. Then bake for 30 minutes. You’re done! Just don’t forget to cook the pasta and create your sauce while the meatballs are baking.

And viola! There might be hope for my cooking skills yet…

Have you had the Green Eggs and Ham… at Jam?

I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I was sick with strep throat 2 weeks ago, and last week I feel like I was just playing catch up with work, play and life in general. But now I am back and feeling better than ever and can’t wait to share with you the newest breakfast place I discovered while Andrew and I were in Victoria on Vancouver Island earlier this month.

Without further ado, I give you Jam…

Pictured above: Jam’s famous Green Eggs and Ham

As I said, Andrew and I visited Victoria (our former hood) earlier this month over the Thanksgiving weekend before heading up Vancouver Island to the Comox Valley to spend the holiday with family.

It’s always great returning a place where you once lived, because there is comfort in finding things so familiar. Catching up with old friends like Sara and Emily (pictured left to right above) and walking the streets I know like the back of my hand is so relaxing. Andrew and I lived in Victoria for 6 years before moving to the big city and every time we return, we smile and wonder would it would be like to move back here one day.

Of course once you leave any place certain things do change… like the new breakfast place Jam that moved in as we moved out. Jam is in an up and coming part of downtown Victoria (at Herald St. and Government St.)and its quiet location off busy streets is serene. Plus as you can see, the interior design is playful and fun… lending itself to that rustic chic cafe look that is very much in line with the casual West Coast lifestyle.

As we looked at the menu, I resisted the urge to go with my usual Sunday brunch choice: an Eggs Benny, and instead decided to try the “Green Eggs & Ham.” And I was not dissapointed. My only regret is I couldn’t finish it, the serving was so huge! I wish you could take eggs in a doggy bag home without being judged by the waitress… but I didn’t take the risk.

This Sandwich, That Beer Throwdown at Portland Craft

My friend Kevin and author of the mouth watering blog: This Sandwich, That Beer hosted a This Sandwich, That Beer Throwdown at Portland Craft on Main Street this past Sunday in Vancouver. The event was a fundraiser (and a competition) for the Five Star Footy Club, an organization in Vancouver that gives kids the chance to play soccer.

Six local restaurants participated- Calabash Bistro, El Camino’s, Portland Craft, Street Meet, Woodland’s Smokehouse and Cartem’s Donuts- each supplying a sandwich that was paired with a beer on tap at Portland Craft.

After the votes were tallied, the ice cream donut sandwich (pictured above) by Cartem’s Donuts paired with the Deschutes Black Butte Porter took home the big prize! But if you ask me my favorite was the Calabash Bistro Jerk Duck Confit Sandwich paired with the Hopworks Rise Up Red Pale Ale.

But of course the best news was that over $1,000 was raised for the Five Star Footy Club.

Andrew and I had  a blast and enjoyed stuffing our faces with the local food and beer so much, that afterwards we went home and took a nap: the winning combination. Beers+sandwich+donut+nap+husband= best Sunday ever…

day 22: Sunday Brunch

Blouse: Jacob, Shorts: JCrew, Purse & Sunglasses & Shoes: ALDO

It’s our new goal to try and find all the great brunch places in Vancouver. So this weekend we started with brioche in Gastown. Unlike other brunch places in Vancouver on a Sunday there was no line to get a table. Which is good, considering the place is so small, I am not sure it could hold more than 15 people at a time!

The atmosphere was pleasant and quirky and quiet off a side street in Vancouver’s historic district. And the food portions were huge! Like 3 eggs instead of 2 in your standard brunch menu items. Definitely more bang for your buck!

The best tasting item: their bacon! It tastes like its been soaking in maple syrup or in honey…. it was delicious!

Biking was not in the cards: Our trip to Pender Island

Believe it or not, our first trip to a B&B on Pender Island for our friend’s wedding was meant to be a biking trip.

I would like to believe the bike behind me in the photo below is mine… but sadly… none of our bikes made it on this weekend getaway…

The planning went a little something like this: Andrew and I had the brilliant idea to bike onto the ferry (which we later found out were in fact two ferries) that would take us from Vancouver to Pender Island. You see biking made sense mostly because we missed the opportunity to reserve our car on the ferry (I blame Andrew, Andrew blames me)— but also because Pender Island is only about 4km wide, there are no major roads and there is only one taxi on the entire island. Biking is a popular way to get around the smaller Gulf Islands, like Pender, off the coast of Vancouver so we figures why not?

I pictured Andrew and I in our Subaru outback with a bike rack with two fancy bikes attached, kayaks strapped to the roof of the car and trail mix in the front seat ready for some snacking….

Well, there’s a couple of problems with that vision… one, we don’t own a Subaru, two, we don’t have a bike rack or kayaks, three, there was no trail mix on this trip and four…Andrew has a bike, and I do not.

Back to reality: Andrew had wanted an excuse to buy a new bike for quite some time, so we thought, hey, wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to buy a new bike? and then I could ride his old one.

So Andrew was all set to buy himself a bike a few days before the trip… he even had one picked out. But on Friday a co-worker told him he could get him a pretty great discount, only if he waited until next week to purchase it. The problem was, if Andrew still had his old bike, then we still needed a bike for me to ride on our Saturday morning ferry.

Andrew’s co-worker said, no problem. Your wife is shorter than you right? 

Let me pause right here… this is the part in the story where Andrew should have said no. As in, No, my wife isn’t that much shorter than me and NO she will not fit on that bike made for a 13 year old. 

Instead Andrew answered, sure (give or take 2 to 8 inches).

So Andrew brings home this borrowed bike in our car. As I said before, we have no bike rack so he had to take the front tire off  of the loaner bike just to fit it into the car. I probably should have taken the time to reassemble the bike when he got home and test it out before trusting my dear husband that it would be suitable for the vast kilometers we would bike over the weekend, but I didn’t (my mistake) and so we went to sleep ready to wake up at 6am to catch this very important ferry.

We woke up to downpour… the rain just wouldn’t quit, but we were still determined to bike. In the morning Andrew dissembled the front tire of his bike and squished it into our tiny Nissan Sentra and away we drove to the ferry terminal. We parked in the long-term lot and Andrew began to reassemble the bicycles.

Once he was done, I climbed onto my borrowed bike and realized all too quickly that my knees bent outward when I pedaled, my back was hunched in order for me to hold onto the handle bars and I had the most unimpressed look on my face (I am sure you can imagine)… oh ya… and it’s still raining.

I began to voice my doubts when Andrew reassured me in a timid voice, you don’t look… that…. bad… on the bike. Pouting I began to pedal away (huffing and puffing no doubt) towards the ferry’s ticketing kiosk, when I noticed Andrew wasn’t behind me. I circled back in the parking lot to find him walking his bike. When I asked what happened he said his bike chain broke off and he can’t fix it without tools…. which means he can’t bike onto the ferry. Andrew may have been cursing the world under his breath but all I could say was Hallelujah!

So back into the car the bikes went, after of course dissembling the front tires once again, squishing them back into the tiny backseat of our Nissan and leaving mud on our hands.

I guess the gods were on my side that day… And instead of a biking trip, you could say our weekend on Pender Island turned into a foodie adventure. With gourmet breakfast in the morning prepared by our lovely B&B hosts Maggie and Bill, aka Brown Sugar, at the Oceanside Inn…

…to the delicious local and organic cuisine at the Hope Bay Cafe. I would have never described Andrew or I as foodies but after this trip, I feel like we could become some!

Walking on to the ferry, made getting around Pender a little less than ideal but not impossible. Our hosts, Maggie and Bill graciously gave us quite a few rides in their car to different destinations and we walked every where else. Or if we were really desperate there were always car stops, the island’s only form of public transportation:

It was hard to be frustrated when the place was just so beautiful. Our B&B suite had it’s own private hot tub with tree fogs around it, there was a deer that sun bathed in the front lawn of the Inn and the fact that we were away from the hustle and bustle of the big city was really calming and romantic.

Bikes? What bikes? It was a great Canada Long Weekend on Pender Island!

Home-made Thai Chicken Pizza

This recipe features: 1) Tons of ingredients that you will never use again 2) the tastiest peanut sauce you will ever create and 3) the very good chance there will be no leftovers because it’s so yummy everyone will eat it up!

While attending high-school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (yup, Andrew and I met in high school in Malaysia of all places) we used to love going out to California Pizza Kitchen on our dates. Sad thing is, there are no California Pizza Kitchen franchises in Vancouver (maybe none in Canada?) so I set out to re-create one of the restaurant’s famous dishes: The Thai Chicken Pizza. The recipe isn’t hard, but I have to admit the prep time is a bit longer than the 15 minutes it suggests… You can find the recipe here. And not only was the pizza delicious, but it actually tasted just like it was from the restaurant! And for that, I have to thank Andrew.

It may come as so no surprise to most of you that Andrew does most of the cooking in our small family. So while I read the recipe online out loud, he did most of the chopping, cutting and sataying… but he still let me take the credit for the meal.

What a guy… I think I’ll keep him.

La Taqueria

I’ve been wanting to check out this new-ish Vancouver restaraunt, La Taqueria: Pinche Taco Shop, at the corner of Broadway and Cambie for awhile and Andrew and I finally got a chance to go yesterday after work. I do love tacos, but have to be honest it was the restaurant’s awesome colour combo and décor that lured me inside. Good news is the funky interior design is backed up by the great tasting food.

Here’s the deal: You order 4 mini tacos, and they can all be different… I am no expert on Mexican food, but these did not taste like Tex-Mex Taco Bell type tacos. These tasted authentic, and because of their small size and big taste I didn’t feel bloated and stuffed afterwards.

But there were so tiny, I could have eaten two more! Andrew probably could have eaten another four. We resisted. And sure enough we felt full 2o minutes later.

Final verdict: I would say the portion size is perfect for lunch and it’s not too badly priced either, but for dinner I think I am conditioned to expect a bigger meal. Also… I want the interior design of my apartment to look like this restaurant!

Night market

Over the weekend we went to one of the city’s newest Night Markets in Richmond, a suburb of the greater Vancouver area, with our friends Phil and Emily. The Night Market has great cheap food (mostly asian food– except for that nutella banana pizza I am eating in the photo above… I needed that after some bad tasting fish balls), lots of kitsch things to buy like hello kitty accessories and some pretty awful fake designer purses, and some entertainment.

The great thing about this new Night Market is it’s right on the Canada Line (or subway line for those not familiar with Vancouver’s public transit), which I read on twitter, makes it much easier to travel to. So just as we were about to leave the house Andrew and I were debating whether or not we should drive and park or take public transit. We had never been to this location before, so we weren’t sure what to expect but I was in favor of taking the Canada Line. Andrew argued that the car would be much more convenient. As we bickered back and forth minutes before leaving the house, I finally won the argument. We took the Canada Line, and good thing we did too… not only was the Night Market only 2 blocks away from the Bridgeport stop on the subway line, but the parking lot looked packed. As we were leaving the market the traffic exiting the lot was literally at a standstill.

We walked passed the disgruntled drivers and Andrew commented, I knew we should have taken public transit… Aren’t you glad I suggested that Ash? I rolled my eyes…  he smiled…what a cheeky man.