Oats just “weren’t my style”  yesterday – instead I went the “build your own” way!

Bagel thin + sun-dried tomatoes + jalapeno

+ Laughing Cow + egg whites

= Happiness

I know Bagel Thins are a little bit gimmick-y, and definitely more expensive than a regular loaf of bread – but I’m also sort of in love!

Lunch – Indian Style Tofu & Cauliflower leftovers with a sad lookin’ salad!

Randomness:

We decided to clean out the fridge at work – and look what I found!

My jelly, half frozen!  Doesn’t it just look weird?! Don’t worry – I threw it away!

After a long and draining day – I came home to Mike, 2 excited pups, and to make it even more perfect – A PACKAGE!

The lovely, sweet, and ALWAYS thoughtful Brandi wanted to help me with my ketchup situation, and offered to send me favorite brand! 

And of course, she is so sweet that she didn’t just send me ketchup, but she sent me a whole package!  I’m telling you – people don’t come any nicer than Ms. BranAppetit.   Thanks Brandi!

Dinner needed to be quick & easy – so I turned my beloved TJ’s whole wheat dough – in to this!

Girls…

…beat boys. 

I love making homemade pizza, it’s quick, cheap, and everyone gets it made EXACTLY the way they want it!

What is a fad/gimmick product marketing that you’ve totally fallen for?

I like to think advertisers have a hard time “tricking” me into buying the latest trend – but judging from the first 3 pictures – who knows!  One thing I do no – I NEVER got behind the 100 calorie snack pack trend.  I think it’s SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY!  Buy the big bag, and portion it out yourself!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter for a chance to win tickets to the Silver Spoon Awards!

While I did eat some fantastic seaweed salad & sushi last night…

…there’s kind of a lot going on right now, so no regular post today.

Instead – HOW ABOUT A GIVEAWAY?!

This one is for Clevelanders only (or I guess – anyone willing to travel to Cleveland on Thursday, May 13th!) – sorry my out-of-town bloggy friends!

Thanks to the Foodbuzz Foodie Correspondent Program, I have the opportunity to attend…

The 16th Annual Cleveland Magazine Silver Spoon Awards Party, to benefit the Arthritis Foundation, is a strolling food and wine tasting event and one of Cleveland’s finest social and culinary evenings. Guests will sample delicious signature dishes from more than 20 of Northeast Ohio’s best restaurants and seven international wineries.

All participating restaurants are 2010 Cleveland Magazine Silver Spoon Award Winners. Check out the impressive list here!

The event also includes an exclusive VIP Lounge (with Cory Barrett, Zack Bruell and Jonathon Sawyer!  GAHHH! ) and fabulous live and silent auctions. This year’s event is presented by the Cleveland Clinic Orthopaedic and Rheumatologic Institute.

For more information and to purchase tickets for this fabulous event, go here!

But it gets even better!  The wonderful people at the Arthritis Foundation offered me an EXTRA TWO TICKETS to give away on the blog!

To win:

1. Leave a comment telling me your FAVORITE Cleveland restaurant – and your favorite menu item that you order when you go there!
2. Extra entry for anyone who tweets or posts on Facebook – just make sure you @greendogwine me, so I don’t miss it!

I’ll use Random Integer Generator to pick the winner Saturday morning!  GOOD LUCK!

Check this out!

Doesn’t that look amazing?! I feel all accomplished and what not, because I branched out to try a new recipe, I didn’t screw it up while cooking it, AND it tasted amazing!

WOO-HOO!  Go me!

The recipe – Indian-Style Tofu and Cauliflower with Chutney from the April edition of Cooking Light!

Ingredients: (detailed list HERE)

Since I do think it may actually KILL me to follow a recipe EXACTLY I did make a few tweaks to the recipe!

Tweak #1: I used these spices because…

1. I could not find “Brown Mustard Seeds” anywhere in my store.  Substitution?  Ground Mustard.

2. I could not find “Cumin SEEDS” anywhere in my store. Substitution – Cumin.

3. My store was out of fresh ginger and I omitted the cilantro because they were out of that as well!

Tweak #2: I did not feel like getting out my food processor for the onions.  So instead of an onion paste – I had an onion pile!

Tweak #3: The recipe said you could just throw the “raw” tofu in the pot in step 3. I didn’t like that idea so I baked it for 20  minutes first!

Tweak #4: I wasn’t cooking rice from scratch.

Okay, all “tweaks” are done!  From there – I followed the recipe exactly!

Ta-DA!

Looks a little nekkid though – huh?!

The perfect topping for a spicy dish:

AHHHHH – there were go!

Start to finish I’d say the whole meal took me about 45 minutes, which I don’t think is bad at all!  It was really straight forward, easy to understand, and DELICIOUS to eat!   Not to mention – I probably ate 2 full servings, and still had enough for 3 containers of leftovers! 

OH YEAH!  AND!!!!  I had a TON of cauliflower left over, so I decided to really quickly whip up this recipe of Roni’s that I’d been dying to try for years now.  Seriously – years. I just never buy cauliflower!

So I figured it would be “good” – but HOLY COW THIS WAS AMAZING!  Who knew balsamic cauliflower would taste so amazing?!?!?!?!  Seriously – this was so easy and it ROCKED!  I will be buying cauliflower a lot more often now!

2 successful recipes in one night?  WOOT WOOT!