Who’s Got Today Off?

That would be me!  I took the day off so Hannah and I could have lunch and go thrift shopping today!  She only has to work in the morning, then we are headed here for lunch and then thrift shopping!  Can’t wait! 😀

I swear I took a picture of my breakfast yesterday, but it disappeared – but any faithful readers will be glad to know that I found the celery root I lost last week – I somehow thought it was a good idea to keep it in the shopping bag and hang it on the inside hook of my pantry – I really don’t know how my brain works sometimes!   Tony made me scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon bits (he makes the best eggs!) and I had 1/2 toasted bagel.

After an hour and a half of cleaning, I was hungry!  I had Hannah go on a Mr. Beefy run – she and I split a gyros and small fries:

I joined a bread baking group called HBin5 – which is Healthy Bread in Five – the cookbook by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.   I think they were making beet bread out of the book this week, but I wanted to start with the Master Dough.

Almost all the recipes called for vital wheat gluten – which after a couple stores I finally found – this bag is not cheap though – $9!  But I am hoping that most of the recipes only call for small amounts and a little will go a long way.

I got this bucket at a restaurant supply store – its perfect for storing this bread, which you can keep in the refrigerator up to two weeks!

I started this out in my mixer, but it soon became obvious that I was going to have to mix the dough by hand – I actually just wet my hand with water and incorporated all the flour.

it was too much for my mixer!

then it was ready to rise for two hours

after two hours it rose a lot!

At this point I heated my oven to 450 with my baking stone in the oven.  I used parchment paper to transfer to the stove.

I brushed with water and put black sesame seeds on top

after 20 minutes - done!

Hannah and I both loved it - Tony thought it had kind of a weird aftertaste

Hannah was going out with friends so I made her dinner a bit early – in fact Tony and I weren’t that hungry for our planned surf and turf so we’ll be having that tonight!  Hannah and I went to the library and I picked up this new cookbook:

When I got home I realized I had almost everything to make tofu egg rolls for Hannah – except I made some changes – I left out the mushrooms and subbed chicken breasts for the ground pork – but I had everything else! 😀

Chicken and Shrimp Egg Rolls by Biz

• 5 ounces firm tofu, pressed for 20 minutes
• 6 ounces cooked shrimp
• 6 ounces cooked chicken breast
• 3 ounces been sprouts
• 5 ounces chopped carrots
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts
• 1 tablespoon szechwan sauce
• 2 tablespoons sweet and sour sauce
• 12 egg roll wrappers

Heat a non-stick skillet and cook shrimp until pink.  Remove and add chicken and cook until its white.  Add shrimp back in, all the vegetables and tufu and sauces – cook for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat to cool slightly.

Have egg roll wrapper facing you like a diamond – put 2 ounces of mixture in each wrapper – with a mixture of 2 tablespoons flour to 1 tablespoon water – use the flour paste on all four sides – roll up and deep fry for 3 minutes at 375 degrees.

just cook the shrimp until its barely pink - it will cook again and you don't want rubbery shrimp

I love this stir fry sauce!

ready to roll!

I suppose at this point you could individually freeze them - I might do that with the remaining mixture

love the texture of these egg rolls - so crunchy!

I ate one with Hannah while she sipped on her traditional holiday drink.  Ever since Joe and Hannah were little we got them bottles of sparkling grape juice!

I didn’t get hungry until 10:00!  Tony made me a grilled cheese sandwich and that hit the spot – hey Marissa – he added Tabasco to the butter so it was a Tabasco grilled cheese – so good!!

So after another day of less than stellar eats, no surprise what my grade was for yesterday!

Goals for this week:

• exercise 45 minutes at least 5 days
• drink my water
• maybe eat less cheese 😦
• more fruits and veggies!

If you have today off, I hope its a good one!  😀  And thanks to Tastespotting and Foodgawker who both published my breakfast pizza yesterday – yippee! 😀

Oh, and today is the last day to enter my giveaway – winner will be announced tomorrow morning – good luck! 😀

ALMOST FORGOT!  It was one year ago today Hannah got her big surprise! I still tear up when I watch this video! 😀