How many cubes of sugar do you eat a day?

Check out SugarStacks.com today, and see how many cubes worth of sugar are in your favourite foods. Or if sugar cubes just aren't interesting enough, take a look at their carrot stack comparisons too. See how many carrots you'd have to eat to equal that sugary snack you crave.

Thanks to my friend Cora for passing this one on.

A Post for Help

An important post today, one I hope that you will pass on and that someone will be able to help out with.

A friend of mine is a local wedding photographer, and is asking for Winnipeg’s help in tracking down some stolen wedding photos.

Last Friday while she was at work, her new home at Canterbury Park was broken into. All her equipment was stolen, including her Apple Powerbook laptop and Nikon Camera with a bunch of wedding photos she’d just taken. The only copies of those photos she had were stolen.

She’s now offering a $500 reward for the return of either the memory cards, laptop, or even just a disk of the photos, which were on the desktop in a folder called ‘Joanne and Rick’. A wedding’s photos just can’t be re-shot, and she’s trying to get the word out to as many people, as fast as possible.

The stolen items can be returned to any Winnipeg police station.

Great things: Couscous Salad and Pre-Measured Soup Broth

Never did I think I would get excited over soup broth. But there I was, a couple weeks ago, in Safeway.

Excited about soup broth in front of me. But this is why:

I'm not sure if it's a new product (it's not even on their website yet), but Knorr now offers chicken broth in three 1 cup (250 mL) containers. I've so far only seen them at Safeway, which means they're a bit pricier than buying from anywhere else, or in a larger package. But, if you're like me - you don't use very much chicken broth at a time, and that larger package often goes bad with it's short one week lifetime in the fridge.

Buying this was perfect for me, because I needed exactly one cup of broth to make this:

Summer Couscous Salad

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup couscous

1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed

3 small tomatoes, diced with watery centre removed

1 cucumber, peeled and diced

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 tsp garlic powder, or to taste

t tsp onion salt, or to taste

sea salt and coarse black pepper, to taste

In a medium-sized pot, bring chicken broth to a boil. Add couscous, remove pot from heat, and cover with a clean towel for five minutes. Fluff with a fork after five minutes and let cool.

While couscous is cooling, prepare the vegetables and chick peas, and place them in a large bowl. Fluff the couscous again, and place that in the bowl as well.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix. Taste, and add more of the seasonings if desired.

Refrigerate for at least half an hour before serving.

That's it! It's REALLY easy to make this salad, and we love it. It tastes super fresh and summery, and at the same time is very hearty and makes a great carb side dish to have with the rest of your meal.

Also for you vegans out there, this is a great recipe for you, too! Simply replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth.

Not being a vegan here, I served it up with an roasted pork tenderloin and grilled asparagus.

Hopefully you enjoy it as well :)

Lovey's BBQ

My boyfriend and I found out about Lovey's BBQ here in Winnipeg a few months ago. Slow cooked pulled pork, beef brisket, chicken and ribs. Homemade coleslaw, fries, baked beans, mac'n'cheese and all the fixins. We were instantaneously sold. Since then, have been back enough times to pretty much try everything on their menu.

The restaurant is fairly new, as far as we can understand. Although the owner is very familiar to the world of BBQ, having participated in many BBQ recipe competition in The States. Word of mouth is clearly making this place more and more of a destination by the day. When we first started going, we were able to walk in mid-evening for dinner and find a seat with no problem. The past few visits has found us getting there at the optimal time (somehow) to grab a table while others continue to pile in, and end up taking their orders to go. The overflow seating off to the side doesn't even seem to help much.

When you walk in to Lovey's - grab a seat (fast!). Then, take a look at the chalkboard menu on the wall to decide what you'd like. When the decision's done - and it won't be easy, you need to go up to the cash counter to place the order. There's no servers here, just the friendly staff walking around clearing the completely empty dishes off the table. Once the order is placed, there is a shelf set up on the side by the drink cooler where you can either grab a drink if you've bought one, or some water. All of the cutlery, condiments and wet-naps are also at the station as well.

While you're waiting, it definitely gives you a chance to soak in the southern-styled atmosphers of the place. Photos taken from barbeque restaurants all over, blues music playing in the background. It's homey, fun and really shows how much the owners love the barbeque food they sell. I can't remember my 'Blues Name' just now, but take a look at the ad holder on your table for the fun little game that will help you find yours, too.

When your name is called, your order is ready for you to go pick up at the counter next to where you ordered. The only part to this process we've found we don't like, is how congested it gets when the lineup to order gets really long. You have to really weasel your way through a bunch of hungry people. So watch out no one steals some of those yummy fries!

So, as far as the food goes:

The ribs are delicious. Fall of the bone soft and tender. Their homemade barbeque sauce the put on all the meat is tangy and flavourful.

Both the pulled pork and beef brisket sandwiches are fantastic, and served on one of the softest buns I've ever had. They both come with one choice of side dish, and are bit messy. My preference of the two is the beef brisket, as I found the sauce on the pork to drown out the pork taste a little too much. With the beef, there's only a little bit of sauce used, so you really get to taste the meat. At only $7.95 for this choice, it's really quite a great deal. I've never tried the chicken or farmer's sausage versions of the sandwiches, although from what I've heard, the chicken is the least popular of the four choices.

As far as the side dishes go, we've found those to be a little hit and miss. Their homemade baked beans are spicy, tangy and packed with flavour and various types of beans.

Their coleslaw is my favourite so far, I've picked it a few times now to accompany my sandwich, and it's just like my mom and baba make - creamy, tasty, and just the right amount of onions and seasonings.

The potato salad and mac'n'cheese have been the biggest let-downs so far. The potato salad had some under-cooked potato pieces in it, and really lacked flavour. The mac'n'cheese had an odd crumb on the top, that was just a little too crunchy for our tastes. It also didn't seem to have a sharp enough cheese used in it, which left it bland as well.

The fries are homemade as well, and they're good as well. Not crispy, a little soggy actually, but their still good, and of course go really well with any of the meal options.

Overall, we've been happily visiting Lovey's several times now in the past few months. Both my boyfriend and I have encouraged several of our friends to go, and have heard the satisfied comments from them as well.

If you haven't already, check out their website here!

Oven-baked omelet

I love breakfast. We all know, it's the most important meal of the day. Unfortunately for me (and my hungry morning tummy), when it comes to work days, I choose a little more sleep over breakfast. For a while there, found myself gravitating all too often to the Tim Horton's across the parking lot from where I work for a bagel with cream cheese instead of something more healthy and well-balanced.

Then, my mom shared a recipe with me for an oven-baked omelet. With a few tweaks of my own, I have fallen in love with this recipe. It is SO easy to make, and works out perfectly for the work week. I bake it in a 9x13 dish, and divide it into 6 to be sure it gets me through the work week. It's healthy, versatile, full of protein, good calories, vegetables and very low on carbohydrates. So, if you like, enjoy it with a piece of toast too.

Here's the recipe for what I have pictured here, but it's an omelet - so add or takeaway whatever ingredients you wish to make it your own delicious dish!

Oven-baked Omelet

3 large eggs, beaten

1 500 g carton Simply Egg Whites

1.5 cups milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

0.25 tsp onion salt

3 green onions, chopped

1 cup shredded light old cheddar cheese (I find old to be more flavourful, especially when using low fat cheese)

6 oz. fat-free ham, diced

1 can mushrooms, drained

half of a red pepper, diced

5 asparagus spears, cooked and chopped into 0.5" pieces

Pre-heat your oven to 350ºF.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk and seasonings. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Pour into a 9x13" baking dish. Bake uncovered for an hour or more, until omelet is set and the top is golden brown.

I cut this into 6 slices, and bring warm up a piece in the microwave each workday for breakfast. Each slice prepared with this recipe would be approximately 350 calories.

Barney Gargles, now what's that?

I've wanted to post something about Barney Gargles since the day I started this blog. "Barney's," as it's known to regulars and people in the area, is a humbly-sized restaurant in Selkirk. If you're driving in from Winnipeg down Main Street, you can't miss it. Or the line of people waiting to get in for a seat, any time of the year.

Thing is, I'm so biased. Not only have I grown up going to this restaurant, but it was also my first "grown up" job - I worked there as a server while in college. Being so familiar, and such a fan of their menu, there was no way I was going to be able to offer an accurate review.

So, I waited on it.

Then, last Friday, I got a panicked/upset call from my mother:

MOM: Amber - Marion Warhaft's review in the paper today is for Barneys!

AMBER: No way, that's cool! What'd she say?

MOM: It got four stars.

AMBER: Wow! That's pretty good - I'm surprised it didn't get more though. What didn't she like?

MOM: The carrots.

AMBER: Ah, yes - I agree.

MOM: Amber, do you realize what this means?

AMBER: ...

MOM: We're never going to get a seat in there AGAIN!!

(I think at this point I heard a small muffled sob)

Anyway, point is - Barney's has great food. Everything is homemade, from the fries to the chicken fingers and the amazing cheesecakes (which, in my opinion - biased as it is, are better than anything I've found in Winnipeg).

The two women who own it, Judy and Shirley, were my bosses, and two of of the hardest working women I've ever seen. They've owned that business for as long as I can remember. Quality, respect, cleanliness and customer service at all at the top of their list for things to achieve on a daily basis, which is no doubt why this restaurant continues to thrive despite major chain restaurant additions to the small city. As I started my own little cupcake adventure, it was the advice I'd gotten from those two women I thought about most, "Amber, no matter what we do, we're never going to sacrifice our Philly Cream cheese and real german chocolate - even if we have to charge $10 a slice for a piece of our cake." (To this day, pieces of cake are still only a little over $5 there, don't worry).

So now that I've gushed about this place a bit, and have Ms.Warhoft's review to back me up, so you know I'm not lying to you, you should go check Barney Gargles out! Like my mom said, there were line-ups before, so if you're going to make the trek, be sure to make a reservation first!

And save room for the skor cheesecake...it's my favourite :)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

Despite many comments as to my whereabouts, I am alive and well. I did fall, but I got up - I'm not stuck somewhere unable to move. But thank you for your concern!

Life has just been REALLY busy for this girl as of late, and when I do have an evening free, I just can't bring myself to spend it in front of a computer.

I have a TON of things to tell you though, believe you me. So I'll be back to writing very soon. Promise.

I hope all of you are having a great Easter weekend!