Leftovers don’t have to be bland

I hope everyone had a good Wednesday! Usually I write up my blog posts in the morning and push them live right after. But this week seems to be really busy. With all of the giveaways happening, and the biggest day of the year at work (yesterday) it’s just madness! In a good way. I don’t set up things in advance, but I really should’ve done so this week.

I just got home from picking up a few groceries and decided to skip CrossFit tonight since I’m starving and just have zero time. Thankfully I had my meal plan stuck to the fridge so I know what’s cookin’ this week. I don’t always follow through with what I had planned. In fact, tonight’s dinner is going to be left overs. Groan.

I actually really hate having left overs and don’t mind cooking each night. But since I knew today was going to be extra busy I thought ahead of time last night, and made extra chicken for us. Ahh, smart thinkin’ hey?

Tonight I’m having a good ol’ fashion sandwich made with Dempsters bread.

Shown in the photo above:

  • Dempsters Whole Wheat bread
  • Fresh cooked Chicken breasts (from those individual Maple Leaf “Portions”)
  • Chef Robert’s Roasted Red Pepper Aoili that I picked up from a gourmet health food store
  • Mozza + Provolone cheese
  • Tomatoes
  • Maple Leaf bacon
  • Spinach

Everything was cut up the night before since I knew I would be short of time. Then it was time to take the photos for the blog!

Isn’t this picture hilarious? It’s like the sandwich is doomed. Why is the background so dark? I know we have brown kitchen walls and all, but still.

Photos had to happen quickly, because we were both starving. I know the crumbs kind of take away from the photos, but that’s all you can do when your tummy is growlin’ to feed it.

Looks good hey? It was gone in 1.3 minutes flat. Just so you guys don’t feel left out, I’m going to include you in a sweet giveaway thanks to Maple Leaf Canada.

I have 10 free Canadian Bread product coupons for two lucky Canadians to win (five “free product” coupons per person). Be sure to use the coupons up quick as they expire on December 31, 2012.

Use the rafflecopter form below to enter! Contest is open to CANADIANS ONLY.

You can find Dempsters on Twitter, and Facebook too.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am a member of the MLF Connects program. As part of my participation in this program I have received compensation, however all opinions in place and ideas on this blog are my own.

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Honey mustard chicken ‘n beer

 

Today? I’m going to show you guys how to make this scrumptious meal!

Was anyone else adding an extra hour onto your work/school day? Due to the time–change I kept thinking to myself when it was 1:00 but really, it’s 2pm and all day I was like that! Especially yesterday since we didn’t set the clocks back yet. It made the day seem extra long which is so wonderful being that it was Sunday.

We had a pretty low key day yesterday, because on Saturday we drove to Toronto to check out the Dinosaur exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum.

I also stopped by one of my favorite stores. You’ll have to wait and see what’s inside this pink bag!

It was like my childhood dream came true. I loved the exhibit and I loved imagining the dinosaurs coming to life and stomping on my head, or scooping me up like King Kong. I’m so excited to share the photos with my nephews, they’re at the perfect age right now and know much more dinosaur names than I do, so it’s pretty impressive.

We decided to get out of the house for a bit and stock up on some sale items at Sobeys.

Cereal sale! Time to get an abundance of it.

Don’t be fooled by those 3 boxes. We picked up I think 11 in total. Hey, a deals a deal. Gotta stock up when you can grab them for a great price, right?

Cheese was on for $4.99 — cheapest we’ve seen the bricks in a while.

Since I had all the time in the world to cook a meal that evening I’ve decided to whip up some random concoction and pray that it tastes good. Plus, doesn’t hurt to surprise those tastebuds once in a while.

I’ve been on the hunt for new recipes to make in the kitchen, and it couldn’t have come at a better time when I was chosen to be one of the bloggers to shop at The Beer Store and cook up something with beer, and share it with you all. Perfect opportunity to change things up in the otherwise typical meal.

Dang straight I’m including beer in my recipe with you guys today. Let’s get crack-a-lackin’.

First up, I have to be honest. It’s been more than a few years since I’ve stepped inside a beer store. I do have to say I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t ID-ed. Guess I’m past the age of looking 25 of younger. Shame.

When I walked into the store I got in the wrong line up immediately. This one above was for returns to get cash back from your bottles/cans. Ha, oops!

Standing alongside of the beer returns aisle, you could get closer to see the selection of beer choices to buy. Whether it be in cans, bottles, or tall boys.

I didn’t know you could buy just one beer, singly. The middle photo posted above had a cooler full of them. Kinda neat, especially if you’re a lightweight or just don’t drink all that often and want just one or two.

Here I am waiting for “The Beer Man” (heh heh) to bring us out the beer we ordered and paid for. The boyfriend was with me, so he ended up choosing Rickard’s White tall boys.

Cooking with beer? So easy. If you have a recipe that calls for water, and want to add a bit more flavour — substitute it with beer!

I think this would be a great recipe to bring to a holiday party. Just the fun-factor of calling it Honey Mustard Chicken ‘n Beer is enough to make me giddy. I’m sure a lot of the guys would love it too.

That’s all you need!

I honestly would’ve never thought this would’ve tasted as good as it did. I lunged into the Boyfriend arms as soon as he came home from work, telling him that it was RESTAURANT QUALITY. I don’t know how to describe the taste other than semi-sweet, and one of the better meals I’ve made.

Honey Mustard Chicken ‘n Beer:

  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp garlic
  • ¼ tsp ginger
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 ½ tsp soy sauce
  • 2 cooked chicken breasts

You’ll notice there’s two kinds of mustard in the mix. I found dijon mustard in the fridge, as I was putting away the yellow mustard, so I added it in!

Directions:

  • Cook chicken (I used a grill) and set aside but keep warm.
  • Heat up your oil, garlic and ginger
  • Add in honey, mustard, and dijon mustard and whisk it together in your pan.
  • Add the soy sauce then beer
  • Cook it all together until it starts to bubble

  • Add in your cooked, sliced chicken breasts, keep the heat on medium-medium high and flip your chicken when you feel like it (after 5 minutes or so)
  • Make sure your sauce has coated the chicken and serve!

The sauce was very runny so if you want to add thickness to it add 1tsp of corn starch with a drop of water to a glue-like consistency, and then add it to your sauce mixture. This will shine up the sauce, if you were having guests over and wanted your presentation to be pretty ;)

It was so easy! I served the chicken with some quinoa and a spinach salad.

Whaddya say, folks? Dig in.

I added a few more pieces of chicken to our plates after I snapped some shots of my wonderful creation. Ahh… the perfect way to end the weekend, am I right?

(Baked Garlic Beer Fries from Life & Kitchen)

If you’re feeling beerave (ha, see what I did there?) you could also make these Baked Garlic Beer Fries I found online too. Since I didn’t want too much beer flavours happening in my mouth, I decided to stick to just the Honey Mustard Chicken ‘n Beer concoction and add a bit of quinoa and spinach salad to the mix.

Super easy, super flavourful and quick prep & cook time!

Have you ever cooked with beer?

What is your favourite type of beer?

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.

 

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Hello Saturday, I love you!

Well! I’m in a peppy kind of mood this morning. I think it helped going to bed at midnight and waking up half past ten! ha ha!! I leaped out of bed. I hate getting up that late I only like to sleep in until close to ten ;)  on the weekends. Otherwise I feel like the day is half gone.

I woke up like a starved gull and headed straight for the kitchen to make some scrambled eggs, toast and tea. We buy our eggs in an 18-pack, they don’t last long. We had 3 left in the 18-pack and a full carton left in the fridge. I don’t know why I decided that it made sense to make all 3 remaining eggs for myself. It was definitely a sport to get them all down. Maybe I added too much milk to my mixture. What does milk do, anyway for eggs? Taste good, that’s all I know.

P.S. — I use this Roasted Red Pepper Aioli stuff on everything. Salads, Paninis, Eggs, you name it, it’s on there. Apparently it’s a local guy who makes this stuff. Chef Robert Private Stock. I went without these delicious bottles for the WHOLE summer since David’s Gourmet was out of stock. Shame on them for not feeding my addiction. They’re pricey, at nearly $7 a bottle, but I should seriously consider contacting the guy who makes it and buy it in bulk of 12 or something. The stuff doesn’t last long in our kitchen because I use an abundance of it, on everything. I was only there a few weeks ago, bought 3 bottles of it and only 1.5 bottles is left. It’s all in my BELLY. I’ve gotten co-workers hooked on it, and even sent some down to my Mom in Newfoundland, during the winter last year. Though, I haven’t heard if she liked it or not. Mom, do you?

Sorry about the useless ingredient list. I swear it’s in English. My triathelete of a boyfriend has no issue with the ingredients and doesn’t see any harm in me downing a bottle of it in a week, so it mustn’t have anything too bad in it for me. ;)

Later on this afternoon I think I’m going to head out to Sport Chek and get my new Zoot’s exchanged for another size. I was disappointed to see that their sizing isn’t as accurate as I had hoped. I thought I had tried on Zoot’s in the past while the boyfriend was adding to his triathlon-shoe collection.

In fact! People always ask me how I online shop all the time. I say that I’m a true 8.5 in my shoe, and all shoes fit the same. Except these silly Zoot’s. It’s no biggie. There’s plenty of store locations around me, so exchanging them won’t be an issue.

I can’t believe how chatty I am today. Usually I take a break from blogging on the weekends but clearly not today.

After I ate my breakfast, the Boyfriend requested I make him one too — I had planned on making him a “big breakfast” (usually consists of hash browns, sausages, and eggs) once he got back from his bike ride. But he’s a bit delayed this morning so I made one after I had mine.

Yum.

Alright. Maybe I’ll go make myself useful now and run around and do some errands. I was thinking of doing a “Day In The Life” blog post, taking photos of everything I do in the run of a day (idea taken from my friend Leanne). I’m just not feeling it today. But would you guys be interested in that?

I have a daily blog, as you guys know (duh). But I find it extremely difficult to blog what happened the same day, or blog each meal/snack and post it online. It’s a lot of photo editing, and writing! Kudos to those who do it. Especially Julie from Peanut Butter Fingers, and Courtney from Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. There ya go. Check out some new blog reads for yourself. I’m sure you’ve heard of them already, but they’re two of my favorite go-to blogs for a daily-in-the-life type of ordeal.

Wow. Long post. Later gaters. But before I go, is anyone interested in vehicle wraps virginia? They’re basically car wraps that you see on race cars. I doubt anyone who reads my blog, races cars. But you never know!

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