Its getting spicy in the kitchen

Our first lasagna, it is INSANEly good, will share recipe soon, this was
in my old condo in Paris!

Guess what LRT readers?

Today I have a guest blogger in my kitchen!

Well technically its his kitchen

Even though i'm the one thats spends all my time slaving away in there

Providing nourishment and yummy vegan food

But i'm getting seriously off track

Todays Guest Blogger is BF!!!

Who i now realize you all know is Dave as it was all over my Aruba travel recap since that was previously only shared on FB and i am just too plain lazy to go back and replace all the Daves with BF

There it is, i usually just call him baby though but i won't cause your gag reflex to go into overload by referring to him as that here, i'll probably still just call him BF :o)

That was a ridiculously long way of me saying that BF was in charge of dinner tonight!

He is only ever in charge of one recipe, its the only one he claims he can cook...

If by cook you mean open a lot of cans and packages and throw it in one pot

But he is soooo damn proud of what that pot produces i can't help but praise him over and over

We won't mention the fact that i cook him all the other meals of all the other days


BF just wants to hear about how great his dinner is and doesn't the garlic add an extra kick


I love him though and his ONE meal so of course i mention the garlic AND the kick


I asked BF if he wanted to write anything to accompany the recipe 


His response was 


{in a very serious interested tone of course}


"Yeah, nope"


Before i get to BF's recipe and the fun photos i forced asked him to take along the way, here are some fun Donna & Dave pictures

Yeah so we enjoy jumping pictures - it started in St Maarten and now its tradition, you can't look bored, overheated or exhausted in a photo that requires you to propel your body upwards while holding hands with the one you love - each and every picture we have silly giddy smiles on our face, the kind of smiles that say we are happy to have each other and to be in this moment in this amazing place

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Spicy Turkey Chili 

Ingredients

Ground turkey

1 can of mixed beans

1 can of kidney beans

1 can of stewed tomatoes

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 package of organic chili seasoning (BF couldn't find the pack i bought so he subbed with fajita seasoning and chili powder, shockingly good!)

Dash of salsa

Garlic (you know, for kick)

1 jar of organic tomato sauce

Directions

1. Cook Ground turkey

2. Add all ingredients to large pot and heat till bubbly

3. I served ours with wholewheat english muffins smeared in garlic butter and havarti melted on top, yum yum yummmmmmmmmmmm

This is probably right about where i called him from work and asked if he was taking photos while he cooked
this photo just screams oh crap better start taking pictures of half cooked food

Close up of the beans, beans beans the magical fruit... well you know how it ends ;o)

BF thought it was necessary to share how messy my cupboards are and notice how the agave nectar is on the
bottom (and reachable) shelf and the nasty old maple syrup we don't use anymore is left never to be
touched again on the high shelf!

Empty ingredient packaging and ziploc box, not sure where he was going with this

Artsy shot of spoon, usually i put food on these pictures but BF does like to be unique

Told him to make his sexy chef face, this is what i got
LOVE this man!

Closeup of chili goodness

Ready for consumption, mmmmm

Thank you for cooking for me Dave, i really really appreciate it, even if i have to hear talk about how good it is for the next 3 days which is how long it will take us to eat all this chili!

Here is a quick peek of the new salad i'm in love with (Spinach with strawberries, clementines and goat cheese)! 

Just can't leave you with photos taken in bad lighting - BF refused to take food outside where i take my photos, lol! 

And i have to say BF loves photography as much as i do, and if i'm honest he is better then i am but he hasn't mastered food photography, he says he would rather just eat it!

According to the label, no artificial ingredients added, yay!!!

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Before i sign off i just want to say i totally have my happy pants on right now 

For future reference i've suddenly decided happy pants is my way of saying i'm having a great day!

Other then the whole part where i had to work 8 hours blah blah blahhhh

But on my lunch we made some final kitchen decisions and we came in under budget!!! Well under the budge the builder gave us with the extra $thousands$ we added on top but then i found out the pantry could have sliders for the shelves and we might have gone $135 over budget, teeheheheeeee

BF and i had a great time at the gym, i got all hot and sweaty and laughed my butt off with the girls at Physique 57 and he kicked some tush in squash

Then we went appliance shopping, looks like we might *fingers crossed oh please oh please* be getting a kitchenaid fridge and stove, eeeeeeeeeeee

Oh and you know, we have walls on our house now, thats right!  Pictures to come soon but just wanted to share!

Want to add a BIG thanks to Heather from Kiss My Broccoli for mentioning my blog yesterday and giving me more blog views in one hour then i usually get in one day!  Check out her blog, she has the same crazy sense of humour i do and thats always a good thing :o)

Plus i realize this was Thirsty Thursday! but in a moment of dire need, you could totally drink chili so i think we are cool xox

You gotta love em...

...seriously, you have too, luckily its not hard to love mine!

Love - is what i have for every single member of my and BFs family

Run - something i love doing with BF, furry baby & sister (even if all 3 of them can outrun me)

Travel - my love of traveling came from my parents who never let having two little girls stop them from discovering the world, they just took us with them

Happy FAMILY day!

Took 7 trys to get this shot!

Family day is a new(ish) holiday in Canada the government introduced to get elected encourage family togetherness - i'm not complaining i get to spend time with the fun group in the above photo - BF, Brother in Law, Sister, Mum, Dad - we are having lunch and letting the fur babies wear each other out, fun times!  Then hopefully we will get to see BFs family (my poor mum-in-law has to work)

My new family (syd was at home - she said camping was lame)

Then BF and i will probably come home, cuddle on the couch and count down the minutes till The Bachelor eerrmmm i mean, watch some kind of meaningful documentary, yeah thats what we will do, the documentary is about a lost man looking for love amongst a bevy of insane and insecure beauties, this documentary has tears, exotic locales and A LOT of roses ;o)

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Anyway, i'm sure you are all desperate to know what I had for breakfast today right?  Well get ready, its a doozy today - BF and i branched out of our Oatmeal happy place and tried Oat Bran for the first time!  I picked some Bob Mills OatBran up at Goodness Me, the heath food store in Hamilton where i love to wander around and buy new food to try - my visa does not like Goodness Me though, eating healthy can be pricey (if i'm honest is damn well expensive but its worth it!) my visa is regularly coached by BF to hide in my wallet especially when i'm within a 50 km radius of a lululemon - but i get travel points so i think spending $ gets me free travel so whats the problem?  Did i ever mention i'm a financial advisor with a shopping problem? Lol

I digress, back to the OatBran - Ever since I started reading food blogs its been all about the Oatmeal, BF and I eat it at least 4 times a week, Today I decided to branch out a little and embrace (literally i hugged the package) other forms of oats to fuel us for a day of doing not a whole lot - the best kind of day, right?


A little info about OatBran vs. Oatmeal from here then yet another breakfast recipe you MUST try (if just to shut me up, i'm pretty persistent about sharing my love for all things healthy)


Oat Bran Vs Oatmeal: Nutrition 

Although both oat bran and oatmeal bear semblance to one another in terms of their health benefits, oat bran is slightly superior than oatmeal nutritionally. It is higher in fiber, iron and protein content and also contains slightly more calorie and fat content. While the fiber in oat bran is double of that in oatmeal, the protein content is slightly less than double. Iron content is slightly more than double in oat bran. Thus, nutritionally speaking, oat bran is better than oatmeal. 

DONNA'S PUMPKIN PIE OATBRAN RECIPE

Ingredients

2/3 of a cup of OatBran

Sweetener (i used 1 pack of stevia)

1 cup of water

1 cup of almond milk (you can use regular milk or just another cup of water here)

2 tsp of chia seeds (optional)

1 Tbsp of ground flax (optional)

1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

1/8 cup of raisins

1 dollop of pureed pumpkin (yes i said dollop & make sure its plain pumpkin not pie filling)

Directions

1. Bring water and milk to boil over high heat

2. Add Oatbran and boil for 2 minutes

3. Reduce heat to low/medium and add in chia seeds, ground flax, pumpkin spice, raisins, and pumpkin

4. Warm for 1 minute and then put in cute new bowls you bought at Benix yesterday (visa told on me, that or i left the stickers on and these are old bowls babe didn't work)

5. Add Agave Nectar and a sprinkle of brown sugar (for BF, i don't think it needs sugar, i'm sweet enough, hardy har har)

6. Spend 5 minutes coaching the doodle to peepee so you can go back inside and enjoy your oatbran already

FINAL REVIEW


Fantastic, it was almost like eating dessert (reminded me a little of bread and butter pudding, a classic british dessert), We will definitely be eating more OatBran in the future, until then i have these pretty OatBran pictures to remind me of our first meeting (before i killed it with my mouth)

Enjoy your day friends xox

I smell pretty - A valentine day recap

Layer 1: dairy milk cream cheese frosting
Layer 2: straight melted dairy milk
Layer 3: hershey hug
i know i cross contaminated brands of
chocolate,
bf doesn't mind

I took the picture pre oven to show shape
formation, post oven it just looked kind
of oval shaped!

Still no Aruba blog and pics, i promise to get to them soon!
Yesterday consisted of Unpacking, laundry, grocery shoppping and making BF a valentines feast
First there was the heart shaped pizza, then the triple layer (count em, 3 layers!) rice krispie treats and then BF surprised me with perfume - our plan WAS to buy something together since we didn't have time to pick something up before our trip, so i was mucho surprised to receive a present, now when i get annoyed with BF i start telling him off and each time his response is "you smell pretty" to which i bat my eyelashes and say really? gosh i love this perfume honey and totally forget why i was annoyed, sneaky bugger!

Had to go back to work today (insert sad face here)
I'm planning to go till Friday as a vegan, i'll keep you updated!

I smell pretty, oh so pretty: name the movie!.... dirty dancing people, that was a hard one :o)