Food Before and After Photos

[ms.sss 15,588]

On Fridays, I usually do an inventory of the perishable stuff in the fridge/pantry and cook stuff up before they go bad (or throw stuff out if they have). There was tofu, green onions and a bag of defrosted frozen clams on the need-to-use-now-list.

So I give you: Agedashi Tofu, and Fried Clams w/ homemade cocktail sauce (who knew it was just ketchup and horseradish? not me.)

I had 2 pieces of the tofu, and 5 clams: 145 calories.

Edited March 19, 2021 by ms.sss

[ms.sss 15,588]

Snacktime!

25g of chicharron and some white vinegar, enjoyed outside on a lovely-ish afternoon (4ºC): 137 calories

[ms.sss 15,588]

Most times I think Mr. is not really listening to me as I prattle away about this or that, but sometimes he reminds me that he is. A week or so ago I mentioned in passing that I miss eating a good bowl of poke and wondered if cauliflower rice would make an acceptable substitute. And tonite he brings home poke bowl take out with cauliflower rice for me. Awwwww, he does listen! LOL.

It was/is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yum, despite the fact it doesn't LOOK picture-ready.

Shoyu salmon, spicy tuna, sweet shrimp & crab slaw over cauliflower rice, with shoyu sauce, yuzu mayo and what looks like every topping known to man (woman). It was unbelievably filling and I while it looks like I barely made I dent, I assure you I ate LOTS. My leftovers are in the fridge and I already declared HANDS OFF to all cuz I wanna eat more later.

BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed looking up all the components in MyFitnessPal to come up with a calorie count (don't judge me).

521 calories for the whole thing. I probably ate 20-25% of it so far.

Edited March 20, 2021 by ms.sss

[ms.sss 15,588]

Tonite's baked item: Chewy Italian Ameretti Cookies!

Ameretti Cookies are by far my FAVOURITE COOKIE OF ALL TIME, and i used to always make the 40 min drive to my fave Italian bakery to get them.

Tonite I made them myself for the first time, and they turned out pretty effing awesome *brushes imaginary dust of my shoulders*.

79 calories each. I ate a whole one.

Here is the recipe I used. If you like almonds, or marzipan, or cripsy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside cookies, try this out! I reduced the sugar to 1 cup total, added 1/8 tsp almond extract, and roasted some whole almonds of which I pushed one into each cookie as they were set out to cool. Sooooo easy to make and soooooo yum.

https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/chewy-amaretti-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-10875

[ms.sss 15,588]

On 3/18/2021 at 2:05 AM, Arabesque said:

Didn’t anyone make you rissoles when you lived in Australia? They are the best. Basically a meatball but in a rich brown gravy not a Tomato sauce. You just got to get those crunchy bits around the edges. Also great warmed & smushed on white bread with some of the gravy or a little BBQ Sauce drizzled on top. Like a mince roll. Please tell me you had one of those when you lived here.

No, no one made us any (nor did we have any at any of the gazillion restaurants we frequented). I see I totally missed out.

I asked Mr. if he remembered if he/we ever had any, and he doesn't think so either, at least not anything that was called a Rissole.

We got to reminiscing about all the different food-related stuffs that we scratched our heads upon hearing them uttered by the locals: Capsicum, Flat white, Rocket, Avo, Chook, Lolly, (and so many more I can't remember, LOL). It took us a while to use the food course term Entree correctly.

Not food related, but then there was the time the Kid came home from school in tears because her new friends told her to meet them at the "Oval", and she didn't know where that was. Its funny now, but poor thing was SOBBING, lol. And a Ute. Man, we were clueless in those early months.

Ah, good times, good times.

Edited March 20, 2021 by ms.sss

[BigSue 1,373]

Skinny chicken Divan (https://lillieeatsandtells.com/skinny-chicken-divan-cauliflower-cream-sauce/)

This is a great recipe for a nice "comfort food" casserole. It uses a cauliflower cream sauce that is surprisingly tasty, and now I want to experiment with using it in other recipes as a substitution for white sauce. I made a few minor changes to the recipe. I used a little more chicken and less broccoli (I just used a 12-ounce bag of fresh broccoli florets, which you can see was plenty). Instead of bread for the topping, I used chopped-up Pork rinds (which I always thought were unhealthy since they're fried, but it turns out they are surprisingly high in protein) and ranch seasoning.

I don't like to mess with recipes too much the first time I make them, but next time I make this, I think I will cook the chicken with some onions and garlic, and not shred it as finely (I was lazy and shredded it in my stand mixer). The broccoli is a bit overcooked for my taste because I decided to try cooking it in my Instant Pot, and even 1 minute with quick release turned out to be too long. I'm thinking it might not even need to be pre-cooked.

I forgot to take a picture of the full pan before I took out my serving...

My 4-ounce serving (the whole pan was 50 ounces, or 12.5 servings like this):

[CapK 80]

chicken Fajitas, sans wrap... Tasted amazing!!

[Jnfinney 526]

@ms.sss I see you are always baking some wonderful looking goodies. What do you do with everything you bake? I can't imagine you bake all this deliciousness and eat a good amount of it while also maintaining a healthy weight. I am asking because I also enjoy baking, but it is a bit counterintuitive when only 2 people (including myself) live in my house.

[ms.sss 15,588]

43 minutes ago, Jnfinney said:

@ms.sss I see you are always baking some wonderful looking goodies. What do you do with everything you bake? I can't imagine you bake all this deliciousness and eat a good amount of it while also maintaining a healthy weight. I am asking because I also enjoy baking, but it is a bit counterintuitive when only 2 people (including myself) live in my house.

I basically give about 90% of it away. The other 10% the fam eats (there are 3 of them + me)....I also sometimes eat some of it myself, though there are lots of times I don't even have any of what I make. I just find baking therapeutic!

2 or 3 times a week, I go out for my "dessert fairy" delivery runs and drop and dash goodies at friends' and families' doorsteps...gives me all the feels 😎.

Edited March 21, 2021 by ms.sss

[Jnfinney 526]

10 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

I basically give about 90% of it away. The other 10% the fam eats (there are 3 of them + me)....I also sometimes eat some of it myself, though there are lots of times I don't even have any of what I make. I just find baking therapeutic!

2 or 3 times a week, I go out for my "dessert fairy" delivery runs and drop and dash goodies at friends' and families' doorsteps...gives me all the feels 😎.

That's so great! Thank you for sharing.

[ms.sss 15,588]

Met up with BFF for a nice long hike this morning, and on the drive home, spotted a Popeye's, and thought, why the eff not. I'm in the mood for some fried chicken! (Especially since I am not a consistently good producer of fried chicken...YET).

Ate a thigh piece with some Frank's Red Hot Sauce and a coffee martini before hand (not shown): 421 calories for all of it. Ate/drank it all.

[ms.sss 15,588]

I don't normally buy flavoured yogurt...I prefer to get plain greek yogurt and just add my own fixins.

BUT...picked up this lemon flavoured one by request and OMG its delicious!

Gonna make a sweeping declaration here and state that this is the best store-bought pre-flavoured yogurt I have EVER had. Yummer.

189 calories for this cup with 10 almonds...ate it all

Edited March 22, 2021 by ms.sss

[catwoman7 11,212]

35 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

I don't normally buy flavoured yogurt...I prefer to get plain greek yogurt and just add my own fixins.

BUT...picked up this lemon flavoured one by request and OMG its delicious!

Gonna make a sweeping declaration here and state that this is the best store-bought pre-flavoured yogurt I have EVER had. Yummer.

189 calories for this cup with 10 almonds...ate it all

oh yea - Liberte yogurt is great. I think it has a fair amount of fat in it, which is probably why! So creamy - I love it - haven't had it in a long time, though...

[ms.sss 15,588]

21 minutes ago, catwoman7 said:

oh yea - Liberte yogurt is great. I think it has a fair amount of fat in it, which is probably why! So creamy - I love it - haven't had it in a long time, though...

Yep u r right...i looked it up and its almost double the milk fat than plan greek (9% vs 5%) and almost twice the calorie content as well! And to add insult to injury, it only has 5g Protein vs. Plain’s 15g.

But still unbelievably delicious 😋

[catwoman7 11,212]

4 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

Yep u r right...i looked it up and its almost double the milk fat than plan greek (9% vs 5%) and almost twice the calorie content as well! And to add insult to injury, it only has 5g Protein vs. Plain’s 15g.

But still unbelievably delicious 😋

yes - it IS unbelievably delicious! And I have no problem with occasional splurges!