PC Blue Menu: PC Thins Multigrain Bagels and Whole Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix

The timing for President's Choice to send me one of their care packages could not have been timed more perfectly. We have not been feeling well here and Saturday night I resorted to making protein shakes for dinner and popcorn for dessert. Thankfully for breakfast we had more "real" food to eat because of President's Choice.



Throughout the week I have been trying out PC Blue Menu Thins Multigrain Bagels for breakfast.



When it comes to living up to advertising, these "bagels" really are thin. I mean, REALLY thin.



So thin that when I put them in my toaster on the bagel setting they absolutely refused to toast.



It ended up being quite anemic and not crunchy at all. The idea behind them being so thin (other than to cut down on carbs) is, "they'll bring out the flavour of your favourite toppings." As much as I love my wild blueberry freezer jam, I missed the doughy texture of bagels.

On Saturday I put them in the toaster on the bagel setting on high twice to finally get some colour on them. Slathered with peanut butter, my husband's favourite, we were still meh about them. Now they were the texture of crackers, so crunchy that again, they no way resembled a bagel at all. More like burnt toast.

Nutritionally speaking, I compared them to my favourite bagels and was shocked to see that they had the exact same fat content. Two grams and yet this bagel was half the size! My regular bagels were 220 calories and these were 160, so that is a decrease. There was also a difference was in the carb count, from 43 grams to 29 and when it comes to fibre, up from two grams to four.

Would I recommend this product? If you are on a low carb diet and need to boost whole grains then yes, probably. You can pretend that this is really a bagel but seriously, it isn't. Being originally from Montreal and growing up in a neighbourhood in Toronto where bagels were an actual food group, I can not pretend that this is a bagel in any way. It is a great idea for a fakeout but for me, for my special weekend brunches, I will indulge in the real deal.

For those on special diets I give this product three out of five wooden spoons. Personally, I can only give them two.



On Sundays I love making pancakes. Not being able to afford mixes after I moved out all those years ago, pancakes were one of the first things I learned how to make from scratch. The idea of whole grain pancakes was intriguing but after the bagel thins... I will admit to being wary of making PC Blue Menu Whole Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix. My husband has gotten used to my pancakes and really hates it when I change anything. I did warn him in advance though!



In order for these pancakes to be able to compete with mine, I had to add some cinnamon and vanilla to the batter. You still have to add your own milk, eggs and oil so really what you are purchasing is the grain, flour, wheat bran, sugar, salt, leavener....



I also added PC Organics Canadian Wild Blueberries on top of the pancakes as they cooked. I have been using these blueberries for years in my pancakes and my baking, they rock!

These pancakes seemed to take a long time to cook and did not get very large bubbles on the top so it was hard to tell when they were ready to flip.



As a result they ended up a little darker than I usually like my pancakes. These were pretty good but you could tell they were healthy and made with whole grain. It was evident in the texture and the flavour but it was not super strong.

If you are on a restricted diet and want to eat pancakes on a regular basis, this is a good choice for you. You get about 2 grams of fibre in each pancake and less than a gram of fat. The carb count is around 10 grams per pancake and the list of ingredients looks pretty basic, not a ton of filler.  I love that there there are no saturated fats at all, something most mixes have a lot of.

For the health conscious, I give this product four out of five wooden spoons but I probably will not make them again. On the weekend I allow myself to indulge when it comes to brunch. For me, these are just too darn healthy for a Sunday treat.

My Mom's Bitchin' Kitchen Turkey Noodle Soup

I don't know about you but I have been feeling terrible lately. March is turning out to be one of the coldest months of the year and my fibromyalgia is at its worst. On top of that, I have be fending off the flu that my hubby brought home from work by making my super immunity soup. When that ran out and I could feel illness approaching me for a body slam once again I turned to the big guns: turkey soup.

I mentioned in my interview and article in the Jackson Sun that my mom rarely baked but you should know that my mom most definitely cooked for us when we were growing up. She is not one for sweets so she put her passion into cooking. It was quite amazing to see what she could create on a budget. One of the best time periods of my childhood is when she was part of a gourmet cooking club, permanently solidifying our mutual love of Bernaise sauce. She would rarely make the same thing twice (a trait I inherited) and always cooked with lots of love. When we weren't feeling well she would make a big batch of her turkey noodle soup and it truly was a healing elixir we looked forward to with every cold.

It has been a while since I made soup and I needed some inspiration so I turned to Nadia G's Bitchin' Kitchen Cookbook. Her Anxiety-Stricken Chicken Soup video is one of my favourites (so funny, the woman is a genius) so I looked up her recipe for "Mom's Chicken Soup" and got cooking.



In a stockpot you want to saute six crushed de-germed garlic cloves in olive oil for two minutes until golden. "De-germed" means that you remove the woody stock in the middle of the garlic clove that is sometimes green. Then add two chopped onions and saute for eight minutes until the onions become translucent.



At this point you are supposed to add a whole gutted chicken and a pound of chicken bones but that was not in my budget (whole chickens are $12-15 right now) so I picked up a large $5 turkey breast instead. I know most kids grew up on chicken soup as a cure for a cold but for us, it was turkey.



Add 3 quartered carrots, 3 quartered celery ribs and cover with water. I had some asparagus ends in my freezer so I threw them in too.



Top with 1/2 cup chopped celery leaves and half a cup fresh parsley, chopped. I added a bay leaf and some peppercorns too. Simmer, covered for three hours. Don't forget to skim the foam off the top as it cooks.



I could not believe it. I had run out of cheesecloth! I had to get creative so I used some coffee filters I had on hand to strain the soup into another pot.



I do not know what happened! This was all the broth I had left! I guess I cooked it too hard or something but wow, not a lot of broth. Yes, I could have added water to stretch it out but I wanted all that healing energy and power right away but I had to wait! Nadia G. says to wait overnight for the fat to solidify so that is what I did.



Thankfully there was not a heck of a lot of fat! It was all around the edges of the pot so I used a very fine mesh strainer to catch some of the globules on the top leaving most of the fat behind.



I heated the broth and added half the turkey. I broke up some spaghettini and brought the soup to a simmer.



After a few minutes I added... frozen peas. Now my mom will not be happy about this. I used to avoid canned peas like the plague when I was growing up and she would add a whole can of them to her big batch of soup, brine and all. I did not have any canned peas so yes, I added frozen peas instead. (Insert face-palm.)

Now is the time to season your soup. It may taste like nothing at first but keep adding salt and suddenly, the flavours will burst forward. Wonderful!!!



So close!!! Thanks to my mom and Nadia G., this soup did make me feel infinitely better. So tasty, healthy, fabulous... as Nadia G. says, this truly is liquid gold. But Mom is right, you need to use canned peas if you want it to taste just like hers. What a wonderful excuse to have to try and make it again.

Turkey soup has such a distinct flavour and really makes me feel like a kid again, not to mentioned loved. Which is good because I may have successfully fought off the flu but my fibro is killing me. So this foodie is signing off for the weekend and resting in the fetal position until everything stops screaming. Great time for me to do all that product testing because I have a feeling my time spent in the kitchen is coming to a halt for a while.

Happy weekend everyone!

My piragi article was published!

Jackson Sun also recently printed my article about my relationship with bread growing up and the joy of my mom making Latvian piragi/bacon buns. I also discuss why I love food blogging so much and the magic of bread-making.

There is nothing more delicious than eating homemade baked treats that do not come from a bag. They come from your hands, your heart and your hearth. Bread is a beautiful thing.

The Bread Bible's Rosemary Raisin Bread

This is so nice! I wrote Beth and told her about this post and she wrote back, "You are a great baker!!!!! I love the commentary...yes, it is an unusual bread. Keep on bakin'" Just had to share. 

When I won $500 worth of cookbooks from Raincoast Books and saw The Bread Bible by Beth Hensberger published by Chronicle Books on the list... I just had to have it! I want to learn everything about bread and this book has over 300 recipes. This choice was a no-brainer.

This is the first recipe from the book that I put through my test kitchen. When I saw that it had recipes for bread dough made in a food processor, I just had to try it. What a cool and helpful idea, right? So many people do not have mixers or breadmakers but there is a good chance you might have a food processor ready to make bread in your kitchen.



In 1/2 cup of lukewarm water (105-115F) add 2 1/2 tsp of yeast and a pinch of sugar. Let sit for ten minutes. I used bread machine yeast and see how it got all nice and frothy?! That is what you want.



The bowl of the food processor fitted with a metal blade combine 1/3 cup milk powder (I used skim), 2 3/4 cup bread flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp of chopped fresh rosemary because I had some, if you only have dried add 1 tsp instead. Pulse.



Pour in the yeast mixture with the motor running.



Add 2 large eggs and 1/4 cup olive oil through the feeding tube of the processor. Process 10 seconds to blend. In a steady stream drizzle in 2 to 4 tbsp of cool water.



You are supposed to process to knead the dough until it forms a soft, elastic ball and "clears the sides of the bowl." Well my dough was way too wet! I added more and more flour until it looked like this. I decided, it would have to do. Let dough rest five minutes. You were supposed to turn on the processor and add more water to the dough but seriously? It was way too wet. I refused.

"Using a plastic dough scraper, turn the dough out onto a clean work surface." Um... how do I get it off the blade without hurting myself??? I guess it if ends up a nice little ball you do not have to worry about that but...



I carefully removed the dough, brought it together with my hands on a floured surface to even out the consistency. I patted the dough into an oval and sprinkled it with raisins. I kneaded the dough but apparently not enough to distribute the raisins evenly.



They all ended up along the edge of the dough but I was done! I shaped the dough into a kind of circular shape and placed it on a baking sheet. I brushed the surface with olive oil, covered with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.



My dough did not double in size but did get a little bigger. I brushed the top with olive oil again and cut an X on the top, perhaps a little too deeply but no worries. I baked the bread in a 350F preheated oven for 30 minutes and cooled on a cooling rack.



In the beginning I wanted to omit the raisins from the recipe. I thought the combination with the rosemary was just too weird but curiosity got the best of me. I am glad it did. This was a beautiful and yet odd bread. The combination works but just barely. Bread purists probably will not like it but if you are searching for an egg bread with unusual flavours, this will definitely be the bread for you. It made the most lovely grilled cheese sandwich but sadly, it was doughy in the middle. I did not despair! I sliced the center pieces into cubes and turned them into the most beautiful croutons which went great with my Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and on my Warm Spinach Salad. They added a "je ne said quoi" factor that I loved and nothing was wasted.

BUT!!!! I hated using the food processor to make this bread. I think the machine did too because it started to smell like it was overheating and sounded very unhappy. I give the author kudos for thinking out of the box and if you are desperate to make bread and this is the only tool at your disposal, fine. To be honest, I would make this all with my hands next time if I had to. As well, the writing of the recipe was unclear. I could not tell if I was supposed to add the oil and eggs to the yeast mixture before adding it to the food processor and seriously, my dough is never too wet in the winter. Something felt a little off.

Still, I loved this unusual bread. As a result, I give this recipe four out of five wooden spoons. 

Interview with Ellen Kimbro published in the Jackson Sun Newspaper

Anna's Artisan Bread and Michael Smith's No-Knead Country Bread

My interview with Ellen Kimbro about my obsession with breadmaking was just published in the newspaper Jackson Sun and can be found on their web site jacksonsun.com! I give lots of advice on how to bake your own bread and share more about me and my foodie background. I hope you enjoy it!

Special thanks goes out to Ellen who made the interview so much fun to do and was so suppotive.

Please! Don't forget to vote for my next product review with CSN Stores! What a busy and exciting day it has been already. Time to rest before I collapse.

Please Vote!

Hey Foodies! I could use your help in deciding what to review next for CSN Stores. I have a poll going on the right hand side of my blog for you to vote. Here are the items:




Analon Carving Set: I am always looking for good knives, especially ones that are a bit easier to keep sharp than my Henckel



Cucinapro Pasta Machine: After taking a class on homemade pasta I swore I would never make it again but now I am reconsidering that decision...



Frieling French Press: My French press is so old that I need a new coffee maker and I really do not like paper filters so this fancy coffee maker looks great!

So far on Facebook people seem to want a coffee maker review and on Twitter people are mentioning the pasta maker. Let your voice be heard! Vote for my next product review and any feedback would be great.

OK, my back is just killing today so I gotta sign off but please vote and help me out if you can. Thanks everyone!

Rose Reisman's Bok Choy with Mushrooms Recipe and Cookbook Review

This healthy and tasty lunch comes from Rose Reisman's Family Favorites: Healthy Meals for Those Who Matter Most published by Whitecap Books. It is so easy and flavour-friendly!



Combine 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce with 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 1/2 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp finely chopped garlic, 1 tsp finely chopped ginger and 1 tsp hot chilli sauce.



Saute 8 oz of mushrooms over medium-high heat in some hot oil. I only had a few shiitakes but made up for it by serving the sauce over rice noodles. Rose recommends using oyster mushrooms but they are never available at my store which is a bummer! But if you can get them, go for it. Saute for 5 minutes and then add sauce. Cook for two minutes until thickened.



I screwed up here. Apparently you are supposed to boil the baby bok choy in another saucepan for two minutes and then drain. It was not clear to me so I just added the six baby bok choy right to the pan with the sauce and it worked great!



Super tasty! Very easy and fast. My one complaint? A little too sweet for me. I did add the chilli sauce but it did not seem to have enough heat to offset the sweetness so next time I will add some sriracha. This lunch came together very quickly with good flavours. I give the recipe four out of five wooden spoons.



For the last two months I have put Rose's recipes through my test kitchen. I made her roasted baby potatoes, mini mud pies, hoisin chicken with mushrooms and red bell pepper and, finally, her beef and barley chilli. All of which had lots of flavour with minimal health risks.

Considering my husband hates hoisin and still loved her hoisin chicken, I am grateful. I find chicken boring and now there is a chicken recipe we both like. And even better, Rose has loads of chicken recipes I can not wait to explore! I also have to say that adding barley to a chilli was such a clever way to sneak in fibre without compromising flavour. 



Rose Reisman has her own unique way of making food that I have always found intriguing. I remember seeing her make a version of apple pie with phyllo on CityLine years ago, thinking she was a genius! She used to do book signings at a book store I worked at when I lived in Toronto but I was always at university when she came by, so close and yet so far.

I appreciate Rose's approach to focus on the foods that you can eat and her ability to boost flavour at the same time. Her food is not anemic. There is always lots of flavour. This is also not one of those "healthy" cookbooks that has regular recipes that just swap out high fat ingredients for low fat and says it is good for you. These recipes truly reflect Rose's out-of-the-box creative thinking and healthful problem solving. Her ideas appear to be endless, considering this is her 18th cookbook!

I also wanted to mention that many family cookbooks are alienating for me. They are so "Mom" focused and forget you can have a family without kids. Rose's book does not focus on the "mommy factor" but is passionate about taking care of your loved ones with good food. That warms my heart. Also, a large portion of the first part of the book is dedicated on educating the reader about food, the importance of eating together and planning ahead... You are getting much more than recipes with this book.

Overall, if you want easy and healthy recipes that may not be gourmet but very flavourful, this is a great cookbook! Every recipe may not have a photo but there are some beautiful food photos in the book. It is rare that I find a cookbook that I feel confident will come up with dinner ideas both me and my husband will like that do not require a ton of work or unusual ingredients. Rose Reisman's Family Favorites Cookbook gives me fast and easy dinner ideas on those nights I am just too tired to think. Thanks Rose!

I give this cookbook four and a half out of five wooden spoons. 

Surprise treats from President's Choice turn my frown upside down

Yesterday we were told that another big storm was on the way (thanks to our personal weather storm alert named Kelly) and man, was I not happy. It was the last day of February and spring seemed a million years away. Just as I was sighing about the crappy dangerous Nova Scotia weather all over again, our doorbell rang. Huh... There was my frozen UPS guy with a box of treats for me from President's Choice! It appears that they have launched all sorts of new products via their Blue Menu for their Live Life Well campaign. What a great idea!

In the package I found their Whole Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix, PC Organics Quinoa, Omega-3 Almond Vanilla Granola, Baking Mix for Whole Grain Banana Bread...



... box of 100% Sparkling Peach Mango Juice, Low Sodium Ketchup, PC Thins Multigrain Bagels, Spaghetti in Turkey Meat Sauce and Reusable Produce Bags.

So many cool things to try! I am often wary of healthy store-bought foods, preferring to make food myself, so it is going to be fascinating to see how these stack up in our household! I had already picked up their healthier goat cheese (which was fabulous in our favourite salad) as well as their new Greek Yogurt which I can not wait to put through my test kitchen!

I love doing product reviews and these treasures truly brightened up my dark stormy day.

My Favourite Grilled Cheese Sandwich

It may seem redundant to do a post on grilled cheese sandwiches. What is more pedestrian in the world of food?

But it isn't true! There is an art to making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. How do I know this? Back in my pre-foodie days I used to make the worst one in the world! Processed cheese on old store-bought whole wheat bread. There is not enough ketchup in the world... No thanks!

Then, I came up with this version and even my husband (who used to be wary of my grilled cheese) loves them. This is the only kind either of us will now eat!



First, begin with homemade bread if you can. I thinly sliced two pieces of my French bâtard bread. On one piece I spread a generous helping of Philadelphia Low Fat Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese on one side and low fat Havarti (my favourite melting cheese) on the other. I "glue" the cream cheese side on top of the Havarti and saute in some butter over medium to medium-high heat.



Because I thinly sliced the bread, over time the cheese did melt. In the case of thickly sliced bread...



I finish it off in the oven at around 300F until the cheese oozes out!



A beautiful bowl of homemade tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich from heaven... Now lunch is complete! Havarti does not have a lot of flavour but it melts so perfectly which is complimented by the strong flavours of the cream cheese. Together they balance each other and the wonderful buttery crunch of the homemade bread takes this dish over the top!

I would love to hear your grilled cheese tips, ideas and stories! Feel free to share.