Baked brie goodness

I love cheese with a blinding passion, any type of cheese and yes that includes BLUE! I always try to find a way to include a cheese dish as an appetizer and this baked brie dish has always been a winner. Even better is that it takes no time at all and you can get really creative with it. I apologize in advance for the terrible photos lately. I just Instagram everything; I EVEN HAD MY GOOD CAMERA WITH ME!

One day soon I will stop using my iPhone to take photos of everything

Ingredients:

• 1 wheel or wedge of brie
• honey
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• fresh cranberries
• apples
• bread or crackers of your choice

Preheat the oven to 375 F

Place all the ingredients in a dish, smother the brie in honey and pour honey all over the other fruit

Put it in the oven and bake for around 25 minutes (be sure to only take it out once you're ready to eat, or it will harden)

You can do a lot of different things with this dish. In the past I've crushed the garlic and rubbed it all over the brie before putting honey on it or made a more savory dish by using tomatoes and fresh thyme. As long as there's cheese involved, it's heaven in my books.

Shrimp, cilantro & black pearl medley

One of my favourite things in the world is going to Bulk Barn and filling up bags and bags of food and candy that I want to try. Recently, I've discovered that they have some pretty amazing selections of rice, including a black pearl medley which is a mix of whole grain brown rice, black barely, and Daikon radish seeds. Sounds healthy, right? I was starving one night after a Bulk Barn trip and decided to throw something together using whatever we had in the fridge. Shrimp, cilantro, rice and ginger. What could be better?

P.S: I wrote this post is especially for Caroline at And Stay Sweet - check out her blog, it's awesome!

Ingredients:

• shrimp (mine were raw)
• 1 small onion
• crushed garlic
• crushed ginger
• 2 tomatoes
• cilantro
• black pearl medley rice mix (or any kind of rice)
• sesame oil
• lemon
• salt & pepper

1. Prepare the vegetables: Crush 2 heads of garlic, some fresh ginger, dice up an onion, chop the cilantro, and dice the tomatoes (be sure to add the tomatoes in a small bowl on their own so you hold on to their juice!)
2. Wash the shrimp and let it marinate in the lemon, oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and soy sauce.
3. Cook the rice (if you're using the black pearl medley rice, be sure to follow the directions. I didn't and it took me so long. I also can't cook rice for the life of me soo...)
4. Splash some oil in a pan and sautée the onions, garlic, and ginger. Add salt and pepper.
5. Once the onions are slightly carmelized, add in the shrimp and cook until it's pink. 
6. Throw in the tomatoes and parsley. Turn down the heat and let it simmer so that the tomato turns into a sauce. I added a lot of ginger at this point to give it more flavor.
7. When the rice is done cooking, mix it with the shrimp and enjoy!

Let me know if you try out the recipe, I'd love to know how it turns out!

how instagram impacted lunch time & other ways I'm crazy

So it took me a year and a hiatus to finally learn the ~art of packing a lunch~ and I found it.

GET YOURSELF A BENTO BOX. (and instagram)

It changes everything, I swear.

All of a sudden my lunches went from Ziploc container chickpeas on top of yogurt on top of celery sticks on top of cheese, to this:

That's right, organized, healthy lunches that are perfectly instagrammable.

Lunch:

• Carrot sticks
• 2 dates
• Almonds & hazelnuts
• Goat cheese
• Salad: radish, cherry tomatoes, smoked salmon, and goat cheese on a bed of arugula

What did you have for lunch today?

Watch it! Counting cals and working out

For a couple of weeks, I've been completely uninspired food-wise. Big life changes can bring on really bad eating habits and the truth is, I was also massively cheating on Project Pack a Lunch. The reason? I recently got a new job right in the middle of Ottawa's Little Italy and there's a good reason for it being nicknamed Carb Alley. For the first two weeks I worked there, I was eating nothing but sandwiches, pastas, and desserts. Anyone ever heard of a magical place called Simply Biscotti?

I've cut down on the cheating, although I am in no way about to give up a monthly tiramisu or a lobster tail (think crispy phyllo filled with Bavarian cream). However, I have made a decision to start monitoring my daily intake (using MyFitnessPal - add me! username: mayashouc) and after 2 years of telling myself I would do it tomorrow, I've finally finally finally joined a gym.

They can get a little messy...

Realistically, I know absolutely nothing about working out or counting calories. I barely even know what to wear to the gym on a regular basis and no, I will not purchase Lulu anything (100$ for a pair of yoga pants? No thanks). Having a gym buddy has definitely made things a little easier, although she did influence me into a poutine the other night! It's really just been a work in progress. And hopefully I only need a few more yoga sessions before I can finally touch my toes.

So tell me, what do you do to stay fit? What's your gym workout? And most importantly, what in the world do you wear?

Ingredient obsession: Paprika and Chickpeas (Fish stir fry)

Every now and then, I go through ingredient obsessions where all my food starts to taste the same. For a while, I couldn't stop pouring soy sauce and ginger onto everything. Another phase was spinach, mushroom, and cream (still in love with it to be honest). Right now, I'm hooked on paprika and chick peas. Seriously, I've been using chick peas in everything lately, and paprika adds the perfect flavour to them. Salads, stir fries, I even made chick pea burgers the other day which I'll share in my next post. But most importantly, we can't forget that chick peas equal hummus!

Not only are chick peas cheap, they're incredibly filling and healthy. They're low in fat, sodium, and cholesterol and they're an excellent source of iron. This recipe combines cod fillet and veggies with my two new favorite ingredients, chick peas and paprika.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Servings: 5-6

Ingredients:

• 3 cod fillets
• 5 large mushrooms
• 1 small onion
• 1 small green pepper
• 1 small yellow pepper
• 1/2 cup chick peas
• Parsley (optional)
• Paprika
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste