Saturday, August 16, 2008

Slowly I Turn...

That old Vaudeville line always reminds me of my Dad, though it's in I Love Lucy and a Three Stooges skit too. All the authors / relayers of that line have one thing in common though - a reference to Niagara Falls. As you (should) know from reading my previous posts, Andrew and I took a few days earlier this week and drove to the gorgeous, romantic region for a break away from family and work. Sorry guys, we love ya, but we needed it! It was a rest we thoroughly enjoyed, with the exception of some poorly labeled streets in New York (where we went originally to procure some groceries - supposedly at Wegmans, but because of the bad directions we wound up at Tops instead). I'll have to go back over the border again soon, though, since I didn't buy nearly as much as I wanted to! We also stopped in at Target, just because we could. Andrew (who had never travelled into the US before, or even to Niagara Falls) was in awe at the selection of beer available at the grocery store - not something you find here in Ontario! He also loved the discovery of pretzel Goldfish crackers, so I'm going to be attempting a recreation of those soon.

Touristy-wise, we did almost everything: Ripley's and Guinness museums on Clifton Hill, the Maid of the Mist (that's us in our cheesy - but free - blue ponchos), the Hershey's store (where I learned just how much of a sucker Andrew is for chocolate-covered pretzels), stops at almost all the tacky tourist gift shops, and on our way home we even took a side trip to the Butterfly Conservatory and Niagara Botanical Gardens, where I got to explore the veggie gardens of the students at Niagara College, marvel at the things I never knew would grow in Ontario (kohlrabi, plantains and pak choy!) and try to figure out what some of the plants actually were!

As a side note from there, if anyone can help me out figuring out what this plant is to the left, I'd appreciate it! All I know is that it looks like a totally black pepper plant, with black and dark red small round fruits. It was in the veggie gardens, and I'm figuring a pepper of some kind, but I'm at a loss as to what kind.

Foodie-wise, our (purchased) lunches were pretty standard. Because I can't have a lot of traditional restaurant fare without crazy alterations to the menu or calling ahead to special-order, we stuck to Subway. Mind you, I'm a Subway fan - I am totally content with a Veggie Delite, no cheese, double toasted, soaked with mustard and loaded with pretty much every veggie offering they have (including hot peppers, but no olives... ewwww olives). Both our dinners were sushi from a place near our (dive of a) hotel that you would have walked right past if you weren't looking for it - not really being in a great-looking neighbourhood, and it's outer shell looked like an abandoned warehouse. Inside, though, was gorgeous, and styled in a very traditional Japanese decor. Suisha Gardens (suisha coming from Japanese for waterwheel, apparently) did not disappoint when it came to freshness, politeness or speed, and since it is a teppanyaki grill as well we got to watch a performance that was being put on for another group. I would definitely go back there if I'm in the area again, especially since the fish quality and prices were both awesome.

We did eat breakfast in our hotel room to save some cash, though, and the very first day we packed this fritatta that I made for lunch once we got into the city. It was okay in taste - Andrew liked it more than I did - but I think I was jaded since I got to taste it hot right out of the oven. To me, cold egginess is, well, not too yummy. It's saving grace is that when it's nice and hot, this tasted like Egg Foo Young, which I totally gorged on back in the day! Next time I'll ditch the peppers though, and swap in some cherry tomatoes or maybe caramelized onions. Peppers are better friends with Andrew than I. As far as being nutritionally sound goes, though, you can't beat a slice of this with a hunk of crusty bread. Yummmm!

Italian Flag Frittata
Serves 4
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, chopped
1/3 cup roasted red peppers, diced
12 oz silken lite tofu, pureed
4 egg whites, beaten slightly
1/3 cup fat-free, unsweetened soy milk
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F, and grease a 9" springform pan with PAM, lining the bottom with parchment paper.
  2. Scatter chopped spinach and peppers into the bottom of the pan.
  3. Beat tofu, egg whites, soy milk, herbs, garlic and onion powders, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.
  4. Pour over vegetables, smoothing down with a spatula.
  5. Bake for 50 minutes.
  6. Cool 10 minutes before turning out and serving.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 90.1
Total Fat: 1.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 382.3 mg
Total Carbs: 7.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.7 g
Protein: 14.0 g
WW Points: 1.5

3 comments :

  1. thats my falls picture lol and those are the peppers sary or a hybrid form i should show you the ones i am growing you would understand lol i love the frittata so yummy

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  2. I think that your pepper is a Black Pearl, but it's hard to tell, given that there's no idea of how big they actually are. Any more hints?

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  3. We would like to feature this recipe on our blog. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

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