This and that

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Herb Garden

Do you grow your own herbs or buy them?

Last year I decided to grow my own and see what happens. My plan was to hopefully grow them all year round but by the end of September they were starting to die. I am not sure if it was because I had too small of pots or because I kept forgetting to water them. My husband said that it was because of the latter. He probably is right, but I won't tell him that.

I do plan to plant more this year. I might even branch out to a few different types. We will see what happens. I really should get doing them. I do have the pots ready.

I took small clay pots and spray painted them a blue and green colour as that is the colours of my kitchen and pantry. I had some scrapbooking letters that I used to label the pots, so that I would know what was growing and not mix them up.

As you see I planted Anise, Oregano, Parsley, Basil and Thyme. These are the spices that I use a lot of. This year I am not sure about the Anise as I didn't know when I should be harvesting them and I waited to long..

I had to replant the Thyme as it didn't grow..

I loved having fresh herbs to use in my baking and cooking and can't wait have them again. This year I am going to try and dry them and crush them. Hopefully that will work.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: 4 You With Love

Friday, April 26, 2013

Rosemary and Thyme Lime Chicken

As you know I have been trying very hard to stay on the Whole 30 Program. I wrote how things were going on this program over at the Daily Dish Magazine, so I won't go through that again. But I did want to share the chicken recipe with all of you. I found this recipe over at Mom's Recipe Collection .
Mom's Recipe Collection is a facebook group and was started by Susan Harder. It is a group of bloggers and home cooks from every walk of life and experience. There are many recipes posted, along with tips and techniques. It is a great place to ask questions if you have them as you get responses quickly. You do have to ask to join the group and has over 7,000 members and growing every day. If you want to join, head over to Mom's Recipe Collection and ask to join.

Rosemary and Thyme Lime Chicken

2-3 chicken breasts

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tbsp lime peel

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp pepper

1 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tbsp thyme

Salsa either homemade or store bought - approximately 1 tbsp per breast - I used Salsa Me Krazy medium

In mixing bowl, add lime juice, lime peel, balsamic vinegar, pepper, rosemary and thyme. Place chicken in ziplock bag and pour mixture over them. Place them in the fridge to marinate for approximately 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place either aluminum foil or parchment paper in baking dish, place chicken in baking dish and pour marinate over each piece of chicken. Bake for 30 -40 minutes until chicken is completely cooked. Serve with Salsa.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: Sweet and Savory Sunday, Swap N Share, Party Thyme, Everyday entrees around $5.00 , Food Holiday Link Party

Thursday, April 25, 2013

#FoodieFriendsFriday and A Crock-Pot Party.

I love my crock pot...

It is easy to use, all I do is throw my ingredients in, put on the lid and forget.

What better way to make a meal.

Do you use your crock pot? I hope you do and you have a recipe or two or three

that you want to link up to our

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party ~ It's a Crock-Pot Party

We also have a fun Pin It to Win It over at the Daily Dish Magazine.

You could win

The new Crock Pot Slow Cooker with Smart Timer Technology! (value $129).

Welcome to Foodie Friends Friday!

Please take a moment to read through the rules before getting started, Thank You!

*By linking up you agree that you read these rules and all photos/recipes are original and belong to you. You agree to allow Foodie Friends Friday and any of it's affiliated websites or publications (Social Girls Media, LLC) to use photos, links, and recipes for reprint and/or republishing and distribution without monetary compensation to you. If photos & recipes are used, proper link backs to you will be included.

Adding Links back to Foodie Friends Friday and our Button is our only form of advertising to bring in more people to see YOUR recipes.

Please remember to do this. It benefits you! To thank you, we will continue to feature those with links throughout the year on various outlets.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/" title="Foodie Friends Friday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj628/busyvegetarianmom/FFFDDButtonNEW150Darker_zpse238f637.jpg" alt="Foodie Friends Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet our Co-Hosts at Foodie Friends Friday:

Last Week's Winners

All Host Favorites.

Each Week, each host picks their favorite recipe. These recipes then will be featured over at the Daily Dish Magazine on the Monday after the party. To have your recipe picked as a host favorite you must have a link back to Foodie Friends Friday and/or the host blog that you link up with.

Sponsor Giveaway

Top 3 Voted

White Bean Roasted Garlic Hummus ~ The Big Giant Food Basket
Vindaloo Prawn Curry ~ Amelia's Dessert
Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing ~ Young Adventures Kitchen

Most Clicks

Garlic Parmesan Knots ~ The Cookin' Chicks
White Bean and Garlic Dip ~ Yesterfood
Garlic Chicken Pizza ~ The Cookin' Chicks

Host Favorite

This week my host favorite recipe is Sole with Caramelized Garlic by Cooking with Curls. When I saw this recipe linked up last week it really intrigued me. We eat a lot of fish and also a lot of garlic. I not sure I have ever thought of putting the two together but it was delicious. I used White Fish instead of Sole and cooked my fish slightly different and I also put in some onion when I caramelized the onions. I love this recipe and it will definitely be part of our menu again. Thanks Lisa for linking up this recipe.

My picture of this wonderful fish

Saturday, April 20, 2013

April #SurpriseRecipeSwap - Seared Lemon Pepper Salmon

Looking outside and seeing all the snow and the blizzard that we are having, I can't believe that April is here and just about over. With that it is time for our Surprise Recipe Swap. This is my second month doing this and it is so much fun. Surprise Recipe Swap was started by Jutta from Hungry Little Girl. At the beginning of the month we are give a blog to go and research and find a recipe that we would like to make. Then on the 20th we reveal the recipe.
This month the blog that I received was Jessica's over at Simple, Clean and Homemade. I was familiar with her blog as she has linked up some of her recipes to our Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party. After reading her blog I found out that we started blogging around the same time. She has so many wonderful recipes that I want to try. One in particular is her Spice Lamb Flatbread and I would have used this one in the Recipe Swap but right now I am off eating grains and the flatbread is party of the recipe that I don't want to change. So I have filed that away for another time.
The recipe that I did pick was her Seared Lemon Pepper Salmon. I picked this one as we eat a lot of fish and also salmon, although the salmon that we eat is usually smoked. I have tried to bake and bbq salmon but it always seems to come out dry. This recipe looked so good and I have to tell you it was.

Seared Lemon Pepper Salmon

slightly adapted from Simple Clean and Homemade

1 lb salmon, cut into four pieces

lemon pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

3 cloves of garlic minced

2 tbsp fresh thyme

juice of one lemon

Liberally add lemon pepper to the top of each salmon piece. Heat your skillet on a medium-high heat. Drizzle a small amount of oil on the pan. Place the salmon flesh down onto the skillet and cook without moving for a few minutes until a crust forms. Flip and add remaining ingredients. I mixed the oil, butter, garlic, thyme and lemon and poured over salmon. Turn heat down and cook until you reach desired temperature. Spoon sauce over salmon while cooking.

We ate ours with roasted vegetables and grilled pineapple wedges. This salmon was the best salmon I have ever tasted. It was moist and the flavour was wonderful... buttery and lemon. I used thyme instead of cilantro as I am not a very big cilantro fan and also because I had some fresh thyme that needed to be used up.

I did make a pound of salmon so that we would have some left overs but it was so good that every little morsel was gone when we left the dinner table. We had this for our Anniversary Dinner and it was lip smacking good.

Thanks Jessica ~ Simple, Clean and Homemade for a wonderful recipe.

I am no longer nervous to make salmon anymore.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: 4 You with Love, Blogger Showcase April 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

#FoodieFriendsFriday and a Garlic Party!

I use garlic in just about everything I make...

Well, not everything I don't use it when I making sweets,

But I think I put it into everything savory that I make.

So a garlic party is perfect for me...

Bring all your garlic dishes and have fun at our

Foodie Friends Friday Garlic Party

We also have a great giveaway from Beth of Honey Locust Hill, one of our FFF hosts.

But first let's see who's recipes were Host Favorite.

Each week, each host will pick their favorite recipe that is their favorite from the recipe that are linked up. These recipes are then featured in the Foodie Friends Friday Daily Dish Magazine on the Monday following the party. I also my feature my host favorite on the next week's party and I like to try to make the recipe if I have time. To be featured you must have a link back to either Foodie Friends Friday or the host blog that you link up with. This link can either be on the recipe or be on a separate page. Next week your recipe might be here.

Welcome to Foodie Friends Friday!

Please take a moment to read through the rules before getting started, Thank You!

Adding Links back to Foodie Friends Friday and our Button is our only form of advertising to bring in more people to see YOUR recipes.

Please remember to do this. It benefits you! To thank you, we will continue to feature those with links throughout the year on various outlets.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/" title="Foodie Friends Friday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj628/busyvegetarianmom/FFFDDButtonNEW150Darker_zpse238f637.jpg" alt="Foodie Friends Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet our Co-Hosts at Foodie Friends Friday:

Now Let's meet our sponsor this week!

*Giveaway Disclaimer: Facebook is in no way associated with this website or giveaway and holds no liability for this giveaway. "Liking" facebook pages is optional, not mandatory for entry. Sponsors will be responsible for shipping- if there is a delay or problem with prize, you must

Great prizes from Honey Locust Hills
Etsy shop

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last Week's Winners

Thank you for all that picked my recipes and also clicked to check them out.

I appreciate the support.

Most Voted

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies ~ This and That
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Young Adventures Kitchen
Peanut Butter Cookies ~ This and That

Most Clicks

Peanut Butter Cookies, Triple chocolate Biscoff Cookies, Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies ~ This and That

Host Favorite

This week I picked Salted Sugar Cookies from Mature Spring Chick. I love trying different flavours in the my sugar cookies and never would have in a million years thought of salt. But I am sure they will taste marvelous and she has decorated them so nicely and they look so springy... That makes them even so much better. If you haven't been over to Mature Spring Chicks blog, now is a great time. She has a wonderful blog and wonderful exciting recipes.

photo 0fd6d22a-b4e6-46a9-8a76-0189fee2a3ec_zpse7fb6138.jpg

Photo Credit : Mature Spring Chick

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A Birthday and Origami Owl

It was my sister-in-law's 50th birthday last weekend and before the event I was thinking of what I could send her that would be unique. I had decided that it would probably be jewelry as that is fairly cheap to mail. I emailed my sisters to see if we should all go together and buy her something. They had thought this was a good idea. I had already seen the Origami Owl Jewelry and that is what I thought I would get. It is unique and very personal.

Origami Owl ~ A living locket

The hardest part of the whole process was figuring out what to put in the locket. There were so many things to pick from..Which locket? What plate do I use? What charms would like nice? But this process was made so much easier for me by Stacy Davis who is an Origami Owl Independent Designer. I had emailed her with some of the items that I thought I would like and she emailed me back pictures of them put together. These pictures had the locket I wanted with different colour of face plates ~ Silver, Gold and Rose plated and a couple of different charms arrangements. So much easier this way then if I just ordered them and not knowing what they looked like together.

I had found Stacy through her facebook page and she had sponsored one of Foodie Friends Friday giveaways and I also had won a couple of charms through her page. So I knew what this company was about.

So you may ask what is Origami Owl? It is jewelry that you are able to customize yourself. They are called living lockets as they tell a story about the person that is wearing it. As this was for my sister-in-law, we decided that we would go with the family plate, the letters 5-0, her initial R, birthstone and the flower. The flower was because in Finland where she is from and lives, flowers are used with most celebrations , so it seemed perfect. I hope that she likes it as she hasn't received it yet. I loved it and think this is a perfect gift for anyone and for any occasion.

If you want more information about this jewelry, check out Stacy's Facebook and Website. She is most willing to help you with anything you need.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Whole 30 ~ Second Week

Whole 30 Program ~ Second Week

Tomorrow I will have done two weeks of the Whole 30 program. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I didn't slip, because I did. But I didn't fall face first into a plate of doughnuts. So for that I am proud. The first couple of days for me were the hardest... Everything that I craved were on the no-no list and that list is large or at least it seemed to me. So what have I ate? Lots of fruits and vegetables and nuts.. Nuts are my life-saver.

During the day when I am at work, I don't have as much cravings. I pack my food, usually something with meat for lunch and then an egg to eat as snack and fruit and vegetables to eat when I feeling a little hungry and I always have some nuts. Nuts are easy to carry around and eat.

EGGS... I should let my husband become a chicken farmer as I eat eggs every day now. AND I don't even like eggs. I have eaten poached eggs between avocado halves, pretending that I have a sandwich. Eggs with sauteed vegetables, eggs with salsa... EGGS, EGGS, EGGs. I am even eating them boiled.

Poached egg and salmon in an avocado "bun"

So, the big question is do I feel better? I do think I have lost some weight.. but this program says not to step on the scale during the 30 days. My jeans are fitting better and I think my face has thinned down a bit. So that is good... But do I have more energy? I don't think so. This I am wondering if it could be because I am working days instead of nights. My routine isn't the same. I am also working more hours then normal too, but I SHOULD NOT BE THIS TIRED. Have my aches and pains decreases or are they completely gone? NO, NO, NO. Even as I type this my hands are so sore that it is painful to type. I think my pain is worse now then when I started this program.

The million dollar question is... Am I going to stay on this. Yes, I will give it a full 30 days. Although there are a few things that I won't give up like french vanilla creamer in my chai. At home I do use coconut milk and sugar free french vanilla syrup but at work I still use the creamer. I am sure that if a true "whole 30" person reads this they will tell me that I am not feeling better because of the few thing I slip up on. I ate 1 cookie in 2 weeks... I think I am doing good, before it would be a half a dozen per day.

I do still crave bread and pizza and cheese and I am not sure that I will ever give those things up. The only grain I have eaten in 2 weeks is 1 cookie and I have had no cheese.. I lived on cheese before. But I think I am eating healthier and that is the only thing I wanted to do with this program... And oh yeah! Lose WEIGHT.