Apostle's Fast

This year's Apostle's Fast has been pretty easy!  I feel like we've been eating too gourmet lately for fasting!  Here are some of my favorite menu items we've had lately:

On the Grill:

• Fish in Foil (with onions, carrots, olive oil, and spices)
• Trout
• Shrimp
• Maple Balsamic Glazed Carrots
• Portobello Mushroom Caps

Sorbet:

• Mango-Banana-Coconut
• Banana-Peach-Maple

 I found cans of maple syrup on sale for $1 each (regularly like $5.99)!  So I bought six cans and have been experimenting with cooking with maple syrup.  I made a marinate/salad dressing/glaze that has been great on a lot of things.  Lately, I've tried it on green salads, brown rice salad, grilled shrimp, and the grilled carrots.  Here is the recipe:

Maple Balsamic Dressing

4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
3 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste

I put all the ingredients in a jar and shake until they are mixed.  I don't usually measure, so these are my best guesses at the proportions.

Here is how I used the dressing to make the grilled carrots:

Maple Balsamic Glazed Carrots

Peel the carrots to clean them up.  Boil them for about 10 minutes to soften.  Preheat the grill.  Baste the carrots with Maple Balsamic dressing.  Put them on the grill and baste again when you turn them over.  After taking them off the grill baste again.  Yum, yum!!

I've also used maple syrup in both the sorbets I've made this lent.  It was nice since I didn't have to heat up the sugar in liquid to dissolve it, so I could mix all the ingredients in the blender and then put into the ice cream maker.

In other news, Liza is cutting her first top tooth!  She now has three on the bottom and the one little one on the top.  She had her 11 month birthday on Monday!  I'm not planning for a smallish party to celebrate one year!  We've been enjoying going to the park and taking long walks in the Greenbelt with Liza lately.  Andrey's parental leave will end and he goes back to work August 6th, so it will be back to the real world after that! 

Size 15 Wide Men's Shoes... not exactly her size :)

 Some photos from our walks in the Greenbelt: