Easter Highlights

Hola bloggies!

Like most Canadians, I returned to work today after a four day weekend. It was glorious to have so many days off but boy was it hard to get back into the roll of things! I felt kind of slow and sluggish. Plus it seems someone neglected to tell all my files to take a vacation too. No worries though - this is a short week! :o) Then I have just one more week of regular work before I'm off to Whistler and Vancouver Island for over a week! Yaaayyy!!!

Anywho - I do believe I owe your an Easter weekend recap. A couple of times I made loads of something and ate it more than once. So as to avoid boring you I think I'll hit up some of my highlights!


I obviously indulged in several Green Monsters this weekend. Here I am on Saturday morning indulging in my favourite green friend while checking out the comments on my giveaway post!

PS: You have until 12noon EST tomorrow to enter my giveaway! I promise to announce the winner tomorrow night!


This Easter Monday also saw the return of my breakfast cookies. I haven't eaten these in a while and I didn't realize how much I missed them. They're basically what I used to eat in my oatmeal but baked up. Really low in sugar but totally portable. That's why I love them - I just grab them and go!


As a special treat I cooked up the last of the lovely plantains my mom sent to me in my Easter package. With this last batch I boiled them up in a little bit of water with a cinnamon stick. As a result of being boiled (until very soft) they got all puffy. They were quite good but I think I prefer them being lightly pan fried.

These plantains will be sorely missed but good news (!), I just discovered that one of my local groceries store just started selling them. So I never have to be plantain-less again! :o)

Easter weekend turned out to be a weekend full of new discoveries for me - like this beauty pictured above - tempeh!! Never in a million years did I think I would be the kind of girl to enjoy tempeh. A soy based product packed full of grains? Eaten instead of meat in a stir fry? lol The me of a couple of years ago would have thought that very suggestion crazy! Boy am I glad I'm open minded because it was delicious. In fact I was sorry when it was all gone. So sorry I bought two more packages during my weekly grocery haul! :o)


At one point this weekend, the fiance got stuck at work for a really long time. As in he didn't come home in well over 24 hours! :o( The fiance's job is such that when emergencies come up he really can't leave. He also works in the middle of nowhere so if he doesn't pack something to eat he really has no access to food.

Needless to say he hadn't anticipated such a long work day. So I had to wake up early on Easter Sunday morning, cook up a bunch of food (some of it pictured above), and drive more than 2 hours round trip to feed the fiance. He was thrilled to see me and I felt so bad for him that I didn't mind the drive.

I don't know what he thinks but I say I should win fiancee of the week! :oP


Don't worry though bloggies - I still found time to sneak in a few Easter chocolates here and there! On the whole, however, my Easter was pretty low key. The fiance and I don't have any relatives or friends in this city so our Easter celebrations were snuck in here and there when we were together. But we did manage to squeeze in the important stuff, mainly some quality church time and a lovely Easter meal:


The star of the show was a roasted leg of lamb. This particular leg came already butterflied and pre-seasoned with rosemary. I made sure to add some things to up the yummy factor! :o) For starters I studded the lamb with slivers garlic. I then rubbed the entire lamb with good quality dijon mustard. To that I added a good rub of salt and a solid coating of coarsely ground black pepper. I then seared my lamb to seal in the flavours and create a crust. To finish the lamb off I put it in the oven at a very high heat until the desired doneness. When it was done I pulled it out and allowed it to rest (so the juices would settle back into the meat). While the lamb was resting I de-glazed the pan using red wine. To that I added some mushrooms and seasoning to taste.

Voila! My lovely Easter lamb dinner! :o)

There you have it bloggies - the highlights of my weekend. That's it for tonight bloggies but don't forget to enter my giveaway! I've been thrilled by how many entries I have gotten and I can't wait to announce the winner!

Hasta pronto amigos y amigas!