Peanut Butter Kissed French Onion Soup

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Today's been a pretty low key day. I slept in and had an A-MAZING breakfast of berry pancakes and bacon, gave the bf a haircut , did a tonne of laundry and went grocery shopping.

I also made these guys.

3/4 cup PC Organic Unbleached White Flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup ( Kauline , I got this from Erma ;) )

1/2 cup natural organic peanut butter

1 organic brown extra large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

hersheys Kisses ( Sidenote : but has anyone else noticed or tried the "new" hershey kisses? They are supposedly smoother and creamier and while they're fine and such I prefer the old ones that were rough and matte and just smelled awesome)

Combine sugar, maple syrup and peanut butter. Add egg and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients. Roll into balls and flatten with fork . Cook at 350 for 8 minutes. Remove from cookie tray immediatly and press an unwrapped hershey kiss into each cookie.

Hmm. What can I make with these ingredients?

FRENCH ONION SOUP!

I am not a fan personally. BUt I love making it. It's actually one of the first things I learned how to cook. Well, aside from crumpets or noodles.
In my grade ten food class, this was our groups project . My bf loves it so I make it often.


Since you've got your bread already,your cheese already shredded and your broth going . Slice some onions. I like to just chop off a hunk of an onion and then slice them in the longest thinnest way possible for that chunk.

Then with a hot pan with melted butter product of some sort, throw your onions in . Spice as you like.

In your cute but far too small onion soup bowl, put some cheese in the bottom , then bread, then distribute the onions.

Then take your broth that is simmering away and pour it over top. Don't fill to the top because it will bubble over like crazy.
Put in a 400 oven for 12 minutes. Serve with some crusty bread. Beware this is very very hot when it comes out and shouldn't be eaten for at least 20 minutes. You should also be sure to put this on a plate because you ll burn the hell out of your table if you don't :)

Hope your remaining weekend is awesome :)

-A

Vegan-ish Cookies and Sick Inspired Soup

Normally, Fridays are by far my favorite day of the week. It means a break. Relief! This particular Friday was particulary good because I had an exam and it meant the end of a subject at school.

I slept horribly Thursday night because the bf caught a cold and kept me up with his coughing and stuffiness.

When the alarm went off at 6:30 i slept straight through until 7:17 :O

My exam was at 8!

I ended up getting up , washing face and brushing teeth. Throwing my hair back into a very messy pony tail and and grabbing random clothing items while calling a cab , since I would miss my bus

I arrived at school ten minutes before 8 and they didnt start the exame until 8;10 . grr. I made it though.

THis kinda set the mood for the rest of the day though. By 10 i had written my exam and visited the grocery store for milk ( for tea for bf) , coffee ( sbux french ) and hot chocolate ( Tim Hortons) . By this time the sick bf had also started on his idea of an early weekend. Well, a sick one.

He had texted me that he was on his way home early because he just felt so crappy.

It started snowing while I waited for the bus to come home. I beat the bf home by a few minutes:) And after changing into some comfy clothes, I made us a couple of sandwiches. Unpictured because, well it's me.

His : toasted italian bread w/ mayo , sliced fresh cheddar and turkey

Mine : un-toasted italian bread w/ r.f mayo and turkey

Our afternoon/day/weekend.


Loooooooove leftover turkey on sandwiches. Thankfully there's probably enough left for a sandwich or two tomorrow.

Dinner ended up being a catered affair.

Well, an ordered affair.

The bf napped the afternoon away and by late evening felt well enough to order us some dinner from a nearby pizza place.

what he ordered:

a medium Canadian pizza

a medium double cheeese and bacon pizza

wings w/ sauce on the side

garlic bread w/ cheese

He also ordered creamy garlic dipping sauce. my fav! But they forget it even though we paid for it :/

While waiting for our food to be delivered I took a glance at my course outline aka work load for next week's course. This one is a one week course which usually means a lot of work since I have to read a whole text book and usually do assigments all while studying for an exam on the subject Friday.

But in this case, all of the marks are based on the exam , attendance and completeing the review questions for the chapters. I can do that! Much easier!

When the pizza arrived, I devoured 2 big slices of the bacon and double cheese. My pizza.

The cheese at this place is a-mazing. Fresh mozzeralla . None of this mozz blend , pizza blend nonsense.

I ended up getitng bored later on and wanted a peanut butter oatmeal kinda cookie. I googled around and meshed together an oatmeal recipe with a vegan one. I came up with this :

Accidental vegan-ish cookies

1 cup oats ( i used Bob's Organic Old Fashioned Rolled Oats)

1/2 cup flour ( i used PC organics white flour , allpurpose)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup ( i used some local stuff i got from a family member's sugar shack)

1/2 cup becel oil

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch of salt

Mix together becel , sugar , peanut butter.

Add vanilla and maple syrup

Combine flour , oats, salt and baking soda.

Slowly incorporate into becel mixture.

Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet or they will shatter into a million pieces. Transfer to plate and let sit for awhile. store in airtight container.

VERDICT:

They were delicious but defintely not the kind of cookie you can eat straight off the cookie sheet, warm or hot. They will crumble. They have to set for a bit I guess because of the ingredients used. I'd love to try a version with almond butter.

Saturday brought more couch sitting as the bf still wasnt feeling very well and it was frigid outside. We managed to go to the Bank before it closed in the am , the liquor store ( for provisions) , the drug store ( cold pills and diet coke) and the butcher and make it back home where we've been ever since ( its now sunday as i write this ) .

The bf's idea of provisions.


Saturday's eats were nothing to write home about either. I did drink an awful lot of diet coke and peppermint tea though .

Dinner was some scallopped potatoes made with golden fingerling potatoes, 8 year old cheddar , onions and real butter. Very yummy and very rich . Tonnes of leftovers too . I made the bf some tri tip steaks and I gorged myself on a leftover salad and some roasted chicken breast.

Sunday , this morning , brought coffee made by the bf while I slowly got out of bed.

Very slowly.

Now I'M sick. Ugh.

No cooking going on for today . Well , not really. I made an omlette w/ cheese for breakfast and had it wiht some coffee. A couple of hours later i made a blender concoction .

In the blender:
Orange Juice

mixed berries

frozen banana

I of course made way too much and after pouring two tall glasses for me and the bf, we were left with this :

I took a bag of frozen chicken soup out of the freezer earlier because I predicted I wouldn't be feeling any better or want to cook dinner. It sucks because I love cooking Sunday dinners, but whatever .

I defrosted the frozen soup in a pot and added:

4 cups of broth

1/2 an onion

2 ribs of celery

1 clove of garlic

fresh thyme

a chopped up chicken breast

Food becoming soup.

I'll probably cook some egg noodles too because the bf demands them :)

Here's to a low key -rest-of Sunday .

-A