Happy Easter (file under Grateful Appreciation)

First and foremost, Happy Easter everyone. I hope that it is a day filled with family, joy and of course the beautiful sun. Get out and play for a while.

Since going out with my brother a couple of weeks ago I have been without my Ipod. But this morning I took my roommates and let me tell you, the ride is much quicker when I have some go get’m music playing. I can hardly wait to have my Ipod back. Hopefully today.

It was relatively slow today at work so I took the opportunity to beef up prep for the next few days, make two different Health in a Glass and created two specials for tomorrow. The prep I took care of included par cooking linguini and penne. Cooking two different kinds of rice. Portioning off my capellini for today’s special. Veg for tomorrow’s pasta special. I also made sure we had three trays of muffins ready to go.

Today’s Health in a Glass were;

1) Banana, Pineapple, Strawberry Yoghurt, Blackberry and Orange Juice, Ice and two eggs.
2) Pineapple, Raspberry, Blueberry, Banana, plain yoghurt, ice and 650 mls of Orange Juice.

Both were absolutely delicious. Today I ended up making enough for about fifteen people. By the time I get to work my muscles have been working quite a bit and I have noticed that the smoothie really perks me up and is a great way to start a day.

Today I was so hungry that I ended up making myself a beautiful breakfast wrap. In a whole wheat tortilla I put lettuce, tomato, mayo. I then sautéed green pepper, red pepper, red onion, mushroom and spinach with a little garlic. I added a couple of over easy eggs, some bacon and Swiss cheese, wrapped it all up and then grilled it for a moment. It was a two hander for sure. I could barely hold the thing. But it was so delicious. I am still full and I ate it approximately 6 hours ago at the time of writing.

For tomorrows specials I created a Pizza Al Arrabiata with Andouille sausage, mushroom and green pepper. For the Al Arrabiata Sauce I first soaked the chili flake in water for about an hour. I took a large pot, put in olive oil and some crushed garlic. I then added some onion and sweated it down. Added some red wine to deglaze the pot. I then added grape and Roma tomatoes. I let that cook down for about ten or fifteen minutes and then added some parsley and basil. Took it off the heat and then blitzed it with an immersion blender.

The pasta is a Penne Primavera.

I would say I did about thirty or forty covers all day at work. Two of which were the Seafood Carbonara. Before it went out I asked the floor manager to do a quality check to let me know how the member enjoyed it. He came back a few moments later and said that they were thrilled and that it was absolutely delicious. I explained to him that I will be asking for quality checks everyday so that I can start to ascertain what the member likes and dislikes are.

I also prepared a fourteen ounce striploin today with a peppercorn jus served (in this case) with French fries and daily vegetables Usually I would do mash but they wanted fries. I also asked for a quality check on this item. The steak was to be cooked medium and for some reason I find this to be one of the harder temperatures to cook. About fifteen minutes later the server came back ad assured me that the member was happy as a clam.

Have I mentioned at all this week how much I love this job? How much I love waking up before the sun and serving people food that starts their day in a great and wholesome way? It is a pleasure and an honour.

So, I hope that you all have had as eventful and fabulous a day as I have. I hope it gets better. I am about to call the love of my life and send her some love on this Sunny Easter Sunday. Make sure you tell the people you love that you love them today.

Buddha once said; “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” Have you found your work yet?

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

Health in a Glass (file under Redux)

Imagine if you can for a moment walking into a fridge and being punched in the face by the sweetest, stickiest and most appetizing smell. Now, if you can, picture, mangoes, bananas, grapefruits, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, oranges and all manner of exotic fruit. What would you do with those things if you had them?

At Reservation, as many of you will recall, I started the daily treat of Health in a Glass right before service everyday. At The Club, it is not only a once a day ritual but, today for instance, one that was repeated, twice. And then before I left I had a fresh Mango smoothie. Health in a Glass is right.

According to Health Canada we should be eating between 5 and 10 servings of fruits or vegetables every day. I can assure you that for the past seven years but probably closer to ten I have come nowhere close.

As many of you know I am rail thin. I weigh 130 pounds soaking wet with all my clothes on. At 5’10 and that weight you can imagine that for whatever reason my metabolism is quite different than that of most people. I am in incredible health, I have low blood pressure (in a good way), low cholesterol and a fantastic body mass index. However, many people have said that I am too thin. Well, I made myself a promise when I started at the Club that I was going to do my best to eat a little better, live a little better and take care of my body a little better.

As such, it is my absolute pleasure to let you know that today I had approximately 15 servings of fruit and or vegetables. I can feel a difference. Yesterday I only had one Health in a Glass and it is weird because I can actually feel the result (metabolism of course) very, very rapidly.

In that vein I would like to give everyone a couple of my favourites Health in a Glass recipes;

The Pressure Refresher (serves 4)

2 Bananas
Quarter Pint of Raspberries
200 mls of Peach Yoghurt
350 mls of Orange Juice (preferably fresh)
Ice as desired

Put all ingredients into blender and mix. I call this the Pressure Refresher because almost immediately you can feel yourself relax and you get a HUGE jolt of energy.

Pineapple Express (serves 4)

Half a Pineapple (make sure to remove the core)
Quarter Pint of Raspberries
350 mls of Orange Juice
200 mls of Strawberry Yoghurt
Ice as desired

Same as above to make. And yes the name of this Health in a Glass will help if you have seen Pineapple Express and enjoyed some of its wares.

I am tweaking these recipes and have about twenty now that I use. However, because walking into the produce walk in at work is like dying and going to fresh fruit heaven I am sure I will have about fifty by the time September runs around.

I have lots in my life that makes me want to become even healthier. In the past I had thought that I could do what I want and never have to pay a price for it. (Thanks Doc) But now, as I get older I realize that I need to take care of my body and so do you.

Let me know what you think?

An old Spanish Proverb states; “A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM