Easy Burrito/Fajitas!

Are you guys excited about the game today? 

I have NEVER EVER been a hockey fan, or an Olympics fan (*gasp) but I am SO excited about the game!!  

I know Canada will kick butt (sorry to all my US readers!)… 

Ok! Super easy dinner to make – We couldn’t decide between burritos or fajitas – so we decided to mix them together… 

We could call them Farritos? Burjitas?  haha.. never mind….

Cook your ground meat of choice (I choose ground turkey)

Add a package of Fajita mix – this is my new favorite (it’s cheaper than the one filled with crappy chemicals)

Follow the directions on the back – usually add some water into the mix and then add the peppers!

While it’s cooking, take your fav tortillas or make your own with this great recipe!


These are our favorite,  most tortillas have milk products in them, these one’s don’t!! YAY  Plus they are sprouted, so they are that much better for you!


Take out all the tortillas (this recipe makes 8 big burritos) and lay them on the counter.

Then take some re-fried beans (or squish up a can of beans)

Don’t buy this one – it’s full of salt and other stuff… it tasted ok, but I prefer the just beans ones!

Cover a side of the tortillas with beans

Then cover with the turkey/peppers mixture

Dave likes his with salsa on the inside, I like to dip mine!

 

Roll and bake in a 350 degree oven until tortilla gets crispy!

I like mine with some homemade…

A delicious avocado mashed with green onions, ground coriander, lime juice (and should have been cilantro, but mine was done)!

This meal is fabulous, quick and makes tons of leftovers – 4 meals for me and 2 for Dave!  They freeze fabulously as well!

Lots of great variations too – black beans instead of refried – zucchini + onions in with the mix.

Give them a try and let me know what you think!!
 
Also on the plate this weekend, I was SUPER inspired by Jesse at Vegan Minded… she was whipping up some grilled banana and peanut butter sandwiches!  YUM!

I mashed 1/2 a banana on bread with chocolate dreams peanut butter!  Spread both sides with Earth Balance and VOLIA… comfort food!

We also cooked up some potatoes, more roasted broccoli and some yummy local lamb!

I love lamb… but lamb does not love me…
We are officially not friends… I had 2 of the above pieces and had a sick stomach for 2 days… no more lamb for this girly!  Or red meat for that matter… I just can’t “stomach” it!!

Also lots and lots of juice!
This one was my zing my face off juice – WAY to much ginger… but I was a trouper and drank it down anyways… Bye bye cold that is trying to kick my butt!

Zing my face off juice – 1/2 grapefruit, WAY to much ginger, 2 large kale leaves, 1 orange, 1 carrot and an apple!

Anywhoo… I am off to go make some juice for the hockey game… and see if I can find Dave’s EH! Lululemon shirt to be a trouper today… hope you don’t mind honey!!

GO CANADA GO!!!!!!!!!

Things this Dairy Free girl can’t live without!

Morning!
I hope you all had fun with the 6 lies and a truth – your answers cracked me up!! 
 
#1 was the truth – I was born with RED hair!! Which quickly turned into my white blonde hair!!! :
)
Some of you were close though, I wore BRIGHT YELLOW uniforms at my Christian school!!  Grey and banana yellow! BELCH!  I’ll see if I can find some pictures for you guys!

I thought I would do a quick post on "Things I Can’t live Without”

#1 – Earth Balance Butter – this stuff tastes just like butter, I use it in everything anyone would normally use “butter” for – even baking and popcorn!   It’s 100% Vegan too…

#2  - Go Good Ice Cream – SO YUMMY!  As I said before this stuff is heaven sent (and only Canadian from what I hear!)  It is an amazing ice cream substitute – I would probably still eat it even if I magically could eat dairy again – because it’s so tasty! 

#3 – Coconut milk – not this one specifically, but when I’m in the mood for something creamy this does the trick!  I love my rice cooked in coconut milk with a wee bit of sugar!!


#4 – Nut butters!   I know they aren’t a dairy substitute, but whenever I miss thick creamy things, peanut/almond butter come in handy!


#5 – The Decadent “dairy free” Chocolate chips!  These are amazingly rich and delicious! I get them at Superstore/Loblaws and they are $5 for this huge bag!!  Life saver!!!


#6-Unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla – I know the bloggy world has already found this gem!  I prefer it over soy milk.  It is a fantastic milk substitute, think and creamy!!! 


#7 and  #8  Mayonnaise (not this one specifically) and Avocado! Again creamy substitutes!!  Add 1/3 avocado to a smoothie and you have a rich creamy “milk shake”.  Mayonnaise of course is great for making homemade salad dressings!!

Well there you have it!  My “must have’s for living a dairy free lifestyle!!

BEFORE I FORGET the lovely people from PEELED Snacks emailed me and wanted to let you know that they are giving away free samples of their products at Starbucks!!! 
I know I still haven’t done my review yet (oops) but these are soft, sweet and amazing! 

Apricot was my favourite, so give it a try today!!

PS.  YAY it’s Friday – you deserve a coffee and some  yummy dried fruit!  That being said, what is your typical Starbucks order??

Mine – decaf, soy, 1/2 sweet peppermint latte – yes I am a high maintenance orderer!  
I would love to find a new drink though, this is getting BORING!! 

xo Jess

6 Lies and a Truth?

Hey guys!!  Happy Thursday!! It’s almost the weekend… Wiiiiiiii

Jolene @ Everyday Foodie – passed this blog award onto me, it’s super cute and fun!!

To accept this award I have to come up with 6 outrageous LIES about myself, and 1 TRUTH, and you need to guess what the truth is.  - awwwwwwh this is so hard!
Here goes:
1) I was born with bright red hair
2) I can touch my tongue to my nose
3) I went to a private school and our uniforms were bright green.
4) I have been to Disneyland 2 times
5) I was a wrestler in middle school
6) I love cooked carrots
7) I was born in Alberta

ONLY one is true. Which is it?

I would like to pass this award on to: ALL OF YOU!!  I think this is really fun and everyone should get a chance to do it!!


Last night’s dinner was SO good!

I have been seeing tons of roasted broccoli around blog land lately, and now I know why!  It’s sooo good! 

I roasted it in the oven at 350 for about 20 mins, with the asparagus.   I sprinkled it with olive oil and fresh garlic…  it turned out amazing!

I also marinated the pork in fresh juice (orange/grapefruit), soya sauce, hosin sauce and garlic- then D BBQed it!!

Rice was boring – Brown basmati… steamed! 

Lunch yesterday was also a huge hit!  I was super hungry after my 2.5km small hilly run – YAY!!! Getting back to it.  And I did about 25 mins of Arms and this fun Zumba video

I now understand why the world is so obsessed with Zumba, it’s so fun!! I got some of the DVD’s and did about 45 mins today, I felt silly doing it, but had lots of fun!


Oh right, we were talking about lunch – talk about sidetracked!

a nice big salad with kale!  I’ve never put kale in a salad but it’s really fabulous!  I can’t wait to grow it in my garden this year!

and I had some leftovers – we went for Thai food the other night, but I got the regular old same thing, so figured you didn’t want to see pictures!

And some 3 Korn Bread – if you haven’t tried this stuff, it’s awesome – super jam packed full of grains and seeds – we just get it in the bakery isle, it’s usually fresh!

Don’t forget to vote for what you think is my truth from above!

Must run – I am reading a really interesting chapter in my Psychology book about eating disorders and motivation!  I have exam #2 next Thursday, and have lots of reading left!!
xo Jess

Another “pulp” recipe!

First off…
I take what I sad back about EA Sports Active being awesome! haha..  We have a major love/hate relationship.   I think it would be good for someone who has never ever exercised, because the band that they give you sucks!  So I’ve been using free weights with it – enter HATE relationship with this!   Because the weights are so bulky, it’s hard to hold both the remote and the weight at the same time.  And the game keeps telling me I am doing things wrong and stops on me (for 1-2 mins)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG  So frustrating.    Sorry, had to vent – I was all geared up to do their “HARD” arms workout but half way through I was ready to throw my weight at the screen….   End of rant – thank you for listening!

Glad you guys enjoyed the Juicer Pulp Muffin recipe – please let me know if you try something fun with it??

Today I made a Juicer Pulp/Apple Crisp!!! sorry for the blurry picture, I had to use my old camera- the big boy needed recharging!

Pre-heat oven to 350

Put layer of juicer pulp on bottom of greased pan

Pretty colors!

Sauté up some apples with cinnamon

Add a wee bit of sweetener for fun!  I used about 2 tsp of Agave

Note to self… must do Xagave review ASAP!
 
While this is cooking take bowl into pantry and fill full of goodies

Now I know NONE of you will let me get away with that… so I added about 2 cups oats, 1/3 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, 1/3 coconut flour, a wack of chia seeds,  some oil…. mix together until crumby looking (I also added some of the syrup that the apples made)

Put the apples on top of the juicer pulp like so…

Then layer on the oatmeal mixture!

pop in the oven until golden brown…  (about 30 mins)

I’m not gonna lie… it was pretty dry… So I added some almond butter to the top of it and it was pretty good. 
Crazy mix of flavors – not sure I’d use pulp from grapefruit juice again though!
Give it a shot… let me know what you try!! :)

PS.  If you look WAY at the top of my blog I had added some headers! (YAY!!)  more coming on that soon!!

Have a great Wednesday – I’m trying to talk myself into a run out in our cold blustery weather!!  (Since my EA Sports Active workout sucked a$$)

Talk to you guys soon and keep the comments coming, I love them!!!
Jessica

Juicer Pulp muffins!

I felt bad about all the leftovers my juice was making and needed something to use it all up!  

Enter juice pulp muffins!   I tweeted to all my twitter friends that I was on the hunt for a recipe and Kristen from Kristen’s kitchen sent me this one for Carrot Spice Muffins!!

I followed the recipe mostly

• 2 cups four – used whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon -used about 1 tsp
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger - used extra
• 1/4 tsp allspice – didn’t have omitted
• 1/8 tsp ground clove -nope
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg -none
• 1/3 cup cane sugar – used regular sugar
• 1 cup oat milk – 1 cup* unsweetened soy milk
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil – grapeseed oil.
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 4 carrots- peeled and  grated –use all juice pulp instead from about 3 juices.
• Topped with Chia seeds – my addition!!

*I actually ended up using about 2 cups of soy milk.

Preheat oven to 375 , grease up a muffin pan (pam)

In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients.

In a small bowl mix together wet ingredients.

Pour wet into dry, and stir to combine, fold in carrots,

Spoon into muffin tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes (mine took about 30 mins each), or until a knife comes out clean!

My little pink muffins – full of beets, carrots, oranges, apples, strawberries, celery, ginger and a few other yummy ingredients!

They turned out super moist and really yummy!  One bite you can taste orange, then orange!!  I highly recommend giving them a try!!

Do you have any ideas for ways to use up juicer pulp?  I’ve heard a few people say they are testing out pulp crackers!!?!?

Anywhoo… I haven’t been feeling so hot the last few days, so I’m trying to beat it out of me with juice!!  Glorious juice!

This orange one is my cold but kicker ( I just decided) it has orange, grapefruit, ginger, strawberry and carrot and is oh so yummy! 

I few of you mentioned that I have inspired you to dust off your juicers!!  YAY!!!   What recipes have you been using?

I’m looking for one that is a little less fruit and a bit more veggies!

-Skip past this part if you have no interest in the wedding!

- haha

I haven’t spoken about the "wedding” lately much – and I know some of you are wanting details!!! 

I think we decided on the RIU Emerald Bay in Mazatlan – it’s a little bit higher than we were hoping (for the week), but they have an amazing wedding package, and it’s a beautiful hotel. 

We are going with the attitude that as long as Dave and I are there, everyone else is icing on the cake!!

Most people we have asked have said they have paid between $1600-2000 to go to a destination wedding… Our price is in there somewhere.  There were some things that were non negotiable for both us and my parents, so once you set those restrictions – it gets pricey I guess? 

We understand it won’t make everyone happy… but let’s be honest, if you have ever planned a wedding, you all know that it’s impossible to make EVERYONE happy right?!

Has anyone been to this resort??!

~End of wedding talk~

Tell me something exciting today?  What’s going on exciting in your life?!?!

xo Jess

More questions answered…

Well hello!!

I don’t have any exciting food posts for today, as I have been still eating the leftovers from the Japanese Party the other night!   It’s been sushi, sushi and more sushi!

Then I was super tired and not feeling so hot last night, so I curled up in bed and watched movies all night!

This gives me a chance to answer the last of my “Ask me anything” questions!

Do you like cats?

Yes! I had a roommate once that had about 4… I was a chat disliker until I moved in there – but they were so sweet and I feel in love.  Not sure if I will ever have one again, but who knows!

What's your middle name?

Cori -    Dave always bugs me about my “80’s” middle name but I love it!

Do you have a favourite recipe?

Wow… tough question.  I have so many.   My go to recipe when I want something yummy is definitely my Red Thai Curry.  I love most food though it does change daily!

 

You're throwing a blogger party. Who do you invite? Why?

Oh… fun question!  I would invite all my blogger friends, funny thing is, I haven’t met a blogger that I don’t like!   A few have different views on things than myself, but honestly the world doesn’t turn without different/differing views on things!  So why not just have a HUGE party with everyone!  (can you imagine all the cameras that would be there!! haha)

Thanks for all the questions!  It was fun!

You might notice that I have changed my comment page up a little… I was getting a few really annoying anonymous comments.  

A bunch about how I could make my writing more interesting, and how “they” can’t believe I have readers since I am so boring and ugly!   Thank you, thank you very much!!  If you want to post a comment like that, show your name!!

For anyone that doesn’t have a blog, that wants to comment – you can just click  OPEN ID – and type in your name!! 

Any big plans for this week??

xo Jess

I scream, you scream we all scream for…

JUICE?

I have a new edition to the family!

I was trying to reason with myself that I can’t afford both a Vitamix AND a juicer – so I saved the $400 and got this Power Juicer on sale at Canadian Tire (Thanks Ali!)

And then it began!

plus

equals…

Had to recycle my Starbucks cup!!  I didn’t realize how little juice that much fruit/veggies made, so I only got a bit of juice for my first one…

It was so tasty!!!  And it just gives you such a boost of energy.  I made this about 6 seconds after I got home!!

This morning I decided to make some more!!!

Same recipe except I added some celery this am

so pretty!  I like my juice ice cold

I wanted to get creative with the pulp, so I added it to my sushi!

it made some very pretty sushi

I’ve been eating left over sushi for every meal! haha I also forgot to show you this from our sushi party!  I’ve been snacking on the left overs the last two days too!

Sprouts with medium tofu, toasted sesame seeds, onions, sesame oil and soya sauce!

Very tasty!

So far my Sunday has been awesome. I got up and had the above juice – and then Dave and I ventured off on a run/walk.  I felt pretty good today, my running is coming back very slowly!

Then I went over to my mom and dad’s – Dad took Lance for a walk and Mom and I went to the market (for juicing deals of course)  I got a HUGE bag (20+) apples for $3.99! SCORE

I came home and made my 2nd juice of the day (that’s it for today I promise)

Two small apples, spinach, 2 strawberries!! Along with one of my mom’s delicious muffins

PS. thank you for all the compliments on my nails!!  They are super easy to do!! (Maybe I’ll show you how!)

I might go try the P90x videos – I’m pretty sure they are going to kill me, but I need some torture right now!

Any good juice recipes for me?!!?

Ciao for now,

Jess

Japanese Night!

As I was saying yesterday, it was a BEAUTIFUL day here. 

I was busy getting ready for the part until out of the corner of my I noticed Lance outside loving the sunshine!

I played puppy paparazzi and took snook some shots of him, loving life!

He was so happy outside, soaking up the sunshine, I knew it was my turn, so I strapped on the running shoes went for a good run and then played with Lance out in the sunshine!

Dave came home early with a delicious surprise for me!

JUICE!!  It was soo amazingly good – apple, orange, beet, carrot and ginger!

and more treats – a stuffed avocado over sprouts!

I want this recipe.  I actually pouted when it was gone!  

He also brought me some kelp noodles with pesto!

I can’t say I was a huge fan of this salad, but I was so happy with my yummy lunch it didn’t even matter!!   This place will be my haven once I go to school (it’s in a different town)!!

Then we started prepping for our Japanese Potluck we were hosting!  So many good eats!

First  off I (almost) followed this recipe – it got rave reviews.

Edamame Hummus

  

I served it with mary’s gone crackers and rice crackers!

Then the other yummy food started showing up!

Daikon radish salad – soooo yummy!

Sunomono Salad – this is one thing I have attempted many times, and can never get it right…  This stuff was amazing!

Then there was this… oh my…  not going to lie, this was one of the tastiest things I’ve eaten!  May not be pretty but WOW!

Okonomiyaki

It’s basically pancake with shrimp, cabbage and onions – covered in an HP type sauce, mayonnaise, nori crumbles and fish flakes!  - Real healthy huh?

Edamame made an appearance too!

 

Sake of course!  Ick- can’t say I am a fan!! 

But the bottle is pretty!

Then the sushi making began!

John wanted to let us know we were doing a good job!

I had to snap a picture of my super cute hubby to be… and his cheesy picture smile!

And the rest of our guests!

(notice the sox monkey swinging on the light!!)

or the back of their heads!

It was a pretty fantastic evening.  Hosting theme dinner potlucks are so much fun!! Especially when your group of friends are good cooks!!

Well this post is getting pretty long, so I guess I’ll finish off here!  I hope you guys are drooling!!!

xoxoxoxo Have an awesome Saturday!

Jess