Are you a fan of pound cake? What about those little short cakes that grocery stores often market next to the strawberries? If you are you will love my lemon coconut loaf.

I created this recipe several months ago, when I was craving a plain lemon pound cake. I searched the internet, and couldn’t find any one recipe that I really liked for pound cake. Most recipes have way to much sugar in them.  I only had one option, and that was to create my own. I have made my lemon  coconut pound cake numerous times over the last several months, and it is always a HUGE hit. It’s melt in your mouth goodness. Eat it plain, warm out of the oven, or let it cool off and have it with strawberries whip cream, and vanilla frozen yogurt. Either way is a big win.

Here is the recipe.

Lemon Pound Cake
*makes one pound cake

½ cup salted butter softened
1 cup white sugar
4-5 tsp lemon juice
2 large eggs
1 ½ – 2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾-1 cup skim milk
A few shakes salt
¼ cup medium shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease loaf pan. In a large bowl add the: sugar, lemon juice, eggs, and softened butter (even slightly melted is okay). Beat with electric mixer. Add the flour, and baking powder. Mix with a spoon to combine. Add the coconut. Add the milk. Beat with the mixture until a smooth cake batter that is moderately thick forms (if it seems to thick add a bit more milk). Bake for 55 minutes in the preheated oven.

Enjoy J

Today I visited heaven.. Chocolate heaven.

I one of my favorite food blogs: Love and Olive Oil written by bloggers Lindsay and Taylor, recently posted a must try it now recipe. It was for Chocolate Strawberry Oasis Pie. Since I am a HUGE fan of  strawberries (as in I eat them pretty much every day from February till July), and a certified chocolate addict, I had to try this recipe.

I made it this afternoon, and OMG it’s beyond amazing! I really did take a trip to heaven and back with each bite. It’s a subtly sweet chocolate mousse with a irresistible Oreo cookie crust (I added that to the recipe instead of chocolate wafer cookies). The strawberries pair perfectly with this chocolate delight. The whiskey and spices give this dessert a to die for flavor.

Without further a due here is the recipe! Go try it now : )

Chocolate Strawberry Mouse Pie

(slightly adapted from Love and Olive Oil)
*makes one nine inch pie

For crust:

6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped finely
7 oz Oreo cookie crumbs
About 10-15 strawberries halved

For Filling:

2/3 cup white sugar
¼ cup corn starch
2 tbsp coco powder
¼ tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
3 large eggs
2 ½ cups whole milk
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 tbsp whiskey
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

To make the crust: Grease 9 inch pie plate. Place 1 oz chopped chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave (about 30-60 sec), stir until smooth. In a separate bowl melt the butter in the microwave. Combine with the melted chocolate and stir to combine. In a large bowl add the Oreo cookie crumbs, and the chocolate butter mixture. Stir to coat the cookie crumbs evenly. Press mixture into prepared pie plate. Place in freezer for (a min 40 minutes).

To make the filling: In a sauce pan whisk together the: sugar,  corn starch, coco powder, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.  Beat in the eggs. Gradually add the milk. Turn on the burner to medium heat and stir mixture until it thickens and boils for one minute. Remove from heat. Add the 4 oz of chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth. Add the Whiskey and vanilla extract. Stir until well combined.  Cool about 5 minutes.

Place strawberries in pie crust. Pour over pie filling. Freeze for a min 3 hours before serving. Garnish with whipping cream and strawberries if desired.

I recently visited one of my favorite food blogs Annie’s Eats, and discovered a awesome recipe for Rugelach, something I had never heard of before. Rugelach is a cream cheese pastry that is rolled up into a crescent shape, and is filled with jam (in this case raspberry jam) nuts, chocolate shavings and or raisins. The cream cheese dough is soft and tender, and the lemon zest gives it a light zing. The filling is the perfect combination of raspberry jam, almonds, and chocolate shavings or raisins (soaked before hand in rum) that create a symphony of flavors in your mouth with each bite. Either combination is equally yummy.

These delightful rolls are a new holiday tradition at our  house, and may even make some appearances outside of the festive season too.

For the recipe head over to Annie’s Eats.

The only things I changed when I made this dessert were: I brushed each roll with half and half cream instead of heavy cream, and I used 1 tsp of lemon zest in the dough (instead of ½ tsp). I also used half the amount of chocolate and made half of the dough/rolls with raisins (pre soaked in rum).

Thanks Annie for posting this wonderful recipe!

And here are some of the other trees.

First off “Hark the Bark” a dog themed tree. One of my favourites.

Another favorite “Diamond in the Ruff”. I just love dog and cat themed trees : ).

A very pretty tree that I like “Vintage Chic Boutique”.

More trees from the festival

I love Christmas and it’s always fun to into the spirit decorating at the Festival of trees. How do you get into the Christmas spirit?

This time I chose to do a chocolate themed tree. I called my tree “Cocoa Christmas”. It features many edible delectable chocolates. Yes it was hard for this chocoholic to hold back and not eat the decorations, but I did.

All of the trees are either auctioned off in a silent auction or given away in raffles (I won’t know which way my tree is given away until after the festival since I have had previous trees some raffled and others auctioned).

Here are some photos of my yummy tree. I’ll have some festival photos once I decorate my tree at the festival in a couple days.

]]> http://www.lisaopolis.com/coco-christmas/feed/ 0 http://www.lisaopolis.com/october-in-orlando/ http://www.lisaopolis.com/october-in-orlando/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:52:33 +0000 Lisa http://www.lisaopolis.com/?p=1315 Just over a week ago my boyfriend Tyler and I returned from a lovely vacation in Orlando Florida. This was the first time either of us had ever visited Florida. I am head over heals in love with the climate and weather in Orlando. I love the heat SOOOO much, and the humidity too. It was very humid there (much more so then our most humid days here in BC) but the humidity felt different. It didn’t feel like that sticky hotness we get here in BC. It was a really comfortable heat. The humidity was also my best friend. At home I suffer from allergy (mainly environmental) and sinus issues most of the time, and in Orlando it was as if all of my health issues related to that were completely gone.

The only thing that I didn’t care for in Orlando was the water (for drinking or even showering). That is one thing that makes living in BC much for desirable for me.

Our trip was my birthday gift to my boyfriend Tyler so I did all the planning and paid for a majority it too. Our flights to Orlando were lovely but when we got to our hotel things became much less lovely. I had booked The Ramada International Drive for our trip, but upon arriving there, I was very shocked when it didn’t come anywhere come to what the photos online looked like. I knew it wasn’t a resort, but it was a dump. In the morning I called Disney and they were able to get us a room at one of there moderately priced resorts within just a few hours of calling. We took a taxi there, and from then on out trip was just lovely.

We stayed at Disney’s Coronado Spring’s Resort. From the moment we arrived literally everything was magical. We had a lovely lake view room, but all of this resort was exceptionally beautiful. There were actually hardly any kids there which made it an very nice and peaceful place to stay. It does seem like this Disney resort might be more couple friendly then kid friendly.

Here are some photos of our resort.

view from our room balcony

a message in the clouds above our resort. Maybe a marriage proposal

These little lizards were everywhere!

We visited Disney World and Universal Studios while in Orlando, but could have spend even more time even at these attractions. Unfortunately Tyler and I both got sick with bad colds while on our trip so we didn’t do that much on the last few days, but that was okay with me, because being sick in such a beautiful and warm humid place is a pretty pleasant experience (compared with being at home anyways).

Here are some photos from Disney World and Universal Studios

Me with some monkeys in Disney's Animal Kingdom

Tyler with the Tree of Life in Disney's Animal Kingdom

Lego Dragon in Down town Disney

Tyler and I with the train to Hogwarts (from Harry Potter) at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure

Hogwarts (from Harry Potter)

I loved our trip and hope to go back to Orlando (and maybe the Florida Key’s) one day.
I love you Orlando

I have always been a huge fan of scones. Whether it’s for breakfast or a nice afternoon snack scones are perfect for both.

This morning I whipped up one of my favorite scone recipes for breakfast. The oatmeal, raisins, and yogurt make this recipe healthy enough for breakfast, and it’s low sugar content is an added bonus. Using a flavored no fat yogurt (I used strawberry) is key in making these scones very flavorful.

These scones are melt in your  mouth yummy. The texture is perhaps a little bit more moist then a typical tea scone, soft, and slightly fluffy.

Here is the recipe

Oat Scones with Raisins (Inspired by: High Flavor Low Fat Vegetarian Cooking)
(serves 4-5)

1 ½ cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup unsweetened shredded medium coconut
3 tsp  ground almonds
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp salted butter
1 serving container of no fat berry yogurt
2 large eggs
½ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl add the: oats, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda ground almonds, and coconut. Mix well. Add the raisins. Stir to coat. Cut in the butter. Add the yogurt, and eggs, and stir to form a soft dough. Knead the dough to form a ball. Place on a large cookie sheet. Flatten the ball to form a ½ – 1 inch thick scone. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven. Serve warm.

Back in 2000 at age 15 weight 125 lbs

For the last 3.5 years I have been trying to loose the 20 + lbs that I gained while in nursing school. While I did lose a little weight here and there over the past few years, I always gained it back, until this year. Since January I have lost 20 lbs and kept it off (for 6 + months). My current weight is 145 lbs (a much nicer number).

Summer 2008 a photo I cringe at. I'm somewhere between 160 and 165 lbs here (cringe)..

July 2011 at 145 lbs.

I didn’t plan on 2011 being my year to finally lose the weight that I have wanted to lose for years, but things just ended up happening that way. Early in the year I had some stress from my dog’s health issues and shortly after that month or so of stress, I went to work a night shift (working with 2 sick coworkers) and was sick myself before the 12 hour night was over. My illness lasted over a full month. Although I didn’t loose much weight being sick I did realize the importance of eating enough healthy food (I hadn’t been eating too much when I was stressed with my dogs health issues I ate roughly half of my usual portion sizes for a month). Being so sick for so long I was eating heaps of healthy food and no junk. I was doing everything possible to try to boost my immune system and get well. Eventually my healthy eating, rest and antibiotics kicked in and I finally got well (sometime mid March). From January to March I lost roughly 14-15 lbs.

Since I had lost a fair bit of weight I wanted to continue with the trend (in a more healthy way), so I continued with the no junk food diet, and eventually I lost 5 more lbs.

I should mention that I have a HUGE sweet tooth. I didn’t totally deprive myself of sweets to become healthy or lose weight, but I did instead replace my desserts (cookies, cakes, chocolates,  (which I use to eat almost every night after dinner), with fruits (berries peaches, watermelon) which satisfied my cravings for sweets and gave me more vitamins that boosted my immune system.

Even before I lost any weight in 2011 I had decided this year I wanted to start consistently exercising more ( I exercised  on and off before 2011 but not consistently). I had kept track of all my workouts in 2010 and from that information I decided that doing 8 workouts consistently (every month) should be something that I could do. So far this year I have maintained my 8 workout/month goal and even surpassed it a couple of months of this year. My workouts can consist of anything from walks, jogs, runs, conditioning (sit-ups, wall handstands, leg lifts, arm weight exercises, and various stretches).

I have learned a lot about weight loss and health from my weight loss this year. I have learned that portion size makes a HUGE difference in both maintaining weight and losing weight. However restricting portions too much can lead to a lowered immune system which is more susceptible to illness. Consistent amounts of exercise makes maintaining a healthy weight much easier (then inconsistent amounts). Eating little to no junk food (I have let myself eat a little bit more sweets such as chocolate in the last few weeks) and instead eating fruit strengthens the immune system greatly.

I’m hoping to lose another 5-10 lbs this year before Tyler and I go to Florida in October, because I’m sure that our trip will cause me to pack on a few more pounds. I’m very happy with my current weight though, and hopefully it will be my new forever weight (or several pounds lower).

What is your weight loss story?

This afternoon I decided I wanted to make some kind of new noodle dish. I thought an Asian style dish would be a nice change from our usual Italian pasta dishes. I found a recipe for Pad Thai that sounded simple to make and fairly quick, so I gave it a try. I made huge changes to it, since it really had hardly any vegetables in it, and I love vegetables.

The result was a super yummy Thai noodle dish! It was slightly spicy and very flavorful.

This was my first time cooking with rice vermicelli noodles, and I cooked them exactly according to the package instructions (place in boiling water, and remove the heat, let stand for 5 minutes, then rinse in cold water), but my noodles seemed fairly clumpy after. I used a fork to get them less clumpy, but I am still wondering if there is a trick to make the vermicelli noodles free of clumps. Any suggestions?

Here is one of my special ingredients: coconut vinegar!

Pad Thai Noodles
Adapted from allrecipes.com
*serves 4

8 oz rice vermicelli noodles
1 red bell pepper
½ small package lean ground turkey
½ lb precooked shrimp (peeled and shelled tails removed)
3 cloves garlic
3 green onion stalks
3 carrots
3 handfuls broccoli
2 stalks celery
½ vegetable bouillon cube  (dissolved in 1 cup boiling water)
½ cup organic ketchup
½ cup lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp coconut vinegar
Garlic powder
Ground black pepper
2 cups bean sprouts
Chopped peanuts to garnish

In a large frying pan brown the turkey. Meanwhile prepared all vegetables (dice and chop them). Add the green onions and garlic cloves to the browned turkey. Season with garlic powder, and ground black pepper. Add the precooked shrimp. Cook for a couple minutes. Add all the remaining vegetables (except the bean sprouts). Cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add the lime juice, ketchup, coconut vinegar, fish sauce, and dissolved bouillon cube  (in water). Stir to form a sauce. Sprinkle on more ground black pepper and garlic powder. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. In a large pot boil water. Once boiling at the vermicelli noodles. Remove from heat. Keep in the hot water for 5 minutes. Rinse well in cold water. With a fork separate the vermicelli noodles to get rid of any clumps. Now add the bean sprouts to the noodles (stir them in). Pour the sauce over the noodles and mix everything well. Serve hot!! ( I microwave mine again to make it steaming since the rinsing the noodles cools off the dish a bit too much I think). Garnish with peanuts.

]]> http://www.lisaopolis.com/my-first-pad-thai-dish/feed/ 0 http://www.lisaopolis.com/i%e2%80%99m-an-oatmeal-addict/ http://www.lisaopolis.com/i%e2%80%99m-an-oatmeal-addict/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:05:08 +0000 Lisa http://www.lisaopolis.com/?p=1176 Lately I just can’t seem to get eat enough oatmeal. I have been eating it every weekday for several weeks now. Sometimes I even contemplate having it twice a day. I don’t ever let myself though.  I love the texture, and taste of this yummy breakfast. Adding almonds to it gives it the perfect crunch.

The oatmeal I have gone gaga for is Western Family Organics Oatmeal, the maple and brown sugar variety. Each packet has 190 calories (which I increase dramatically with the almonds I eat it with).

This oatmeal is made with pretty pure ingredients which makes it a big winner in my eyes. This oatmeal contains (organic whole grain rolled oats, organic evaporated cane juice, natural flavor, sea salt, organic maple sugar, organic light brown sugar).

I have never been some one who is really big on eating organic, but I do try to eat foods with the purest ingredients possible. I don’t like eating foods that have ingredients listed that are difficult to pronounce. If I have to ask “what is that” for something listed in the ingredients the food looses much of whatever appeal it had.

What are your favorite varieties of oatmeal?