Good morning friends!!

I hope your morning is going well so far. I’m just home from teaching my usual Wednesday morning spin class – but this wasn’t just any class. This was the first time I taught the new RPM release, #48, and it was a great class!! Definitely some great music on this one – I’m sure those who participated will be feeling a few muscles a little later today!

Yesterday was the 28th Try Something New Tuesday – that means 7 months!!! It really doesn’t seem that long ago that I started blogging but I guess the posts don’t lie! Here’s a recap of yesterday’s new things:

1. Recipe of the Week: Asian Salmon Slaw Salad.

This was one of those highly spontaneous, no-recipes-consulted-beforehand creations that was born in my kitchen this past weekend. It took me a while to like canned salmon – it was something about the little bones inside that I just couldn’t tolerate. Now I pick as many out as I can, then mash up the rest of the salmon so that the remaining bones aren’t noticeable. A little extra calcium doesn’t hurt, does it? The sesame flavour in this salad (from the sesame oil and seeds) is lovely – don’t substitute any other oils unless you’re desperate!

2. Sardines! This was certainly the most high-risk trial this week.

I grew up being of the mind that sardines were a disgusting, smelly fish, squashed into a can. My dad was the only person I knew who ate them, and I stayed far, far away.

Kath has a way of making sardines (as well as everything else she eats) look so tasty, and her posts and video gave me the courage to finally try them.

Alright sardines, let's do this.

Kath’s salad in the video above looked pretty good to me, so I made a variation which we’ll call Lemon-Dill Sardine Salad.

As usual when I try higher-risk new things, I had a backup lunch with me at work just in case the sardine salad turned into an epic fail. However, I am pleased to report that this was not the case!

The verdict? Not bad, not bad at all. In fact, I’ll be eating the second portion for lunch today! Even though my dad lives 16 hours away, I can just see that “I told you so” look on his face right now. Yes yes dad, you win this one. But you’ve still got it all wrong when it comes to pickled beets and sauerkraut – I will never like those.

3. Millet: Now, you may be wondering what that beige fluffiness is next to my sardine salad and baby spinach in the bowl above. This week, I tried another new grain. Millet is an African grain and looks similar to couscous in its raw and cooked forms. According to Dr Weil, “you can often substitute millet in recipes for buckwheat, rice or quinoa, and you may see it sold as couscous (although couscous usually is made from semolina, a wheat product).”

Millet is packed with goodies, including niacin, vitamin B6 and folic acid along with some calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Unlike couscous, it contains no gluten and has a similar protein content to wheat. I cooked mine just like rice, by letting 1/2 cup simmer in a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups of liquid. (The mix was about half water, half low-sodium vegetable broth). Like quinoa, it required about 25 minutes of cooking time and absorbed all of the liquid in the pot. After fluffing it a little with a fork, I mixed in a drizzle of olive oil, about 1 tbsp of dried parsley, and a big squirt of lemon juice. The cooked millet looked like this:

Although it looked very similar to couscous, the millet was slightly more chewy. It also seemed a little less-granular (for lack of a better adjective) in its cooked form. According to the Dr. Weil article in the link above, stirring more frequently creates more of a mashed potato-like texture which I might try next time – you know, just for fun.

4. Steaz Iced Teaz – the unsweetened lemon flavour.

This was one of my finds from Whole Foods during my last trip to Oakville. Steaz Iced Teaz are organic green teas originating from Sri Lanka. They contain no sugar and almost no calories – only 20 calories per can. They are also fair trade certified. The ingredients list is fairly simple:

“Filtered water, organic vegetable fibre (Jerusalem artichoke), organic lemon juice, natural flavours, organic green tea.”

Unfortunately I didn’t like this very much. I expected the taste to be a little stronger but it was fairly bland. However, like my La Croix review last Tuesday, this beverage doesn’t actually claim anywhere on the can to be intensely flavoured. I must confess, I’m not much of a green tea drinker to begin with. So I’m really sorry Steaz. It’s not you, really, it’s me. Your tea is one of those things that I wish I liked because of its health benefits, but I just don’t. I’d certainly give it another chance though – maybe I just need a different flavour.

5. Saucy Mama! In yesterday’s post I told you about the big box of goodies that I won in Jess’s giveaway. Last night I used one in my dinner.

As you can see, this is the Lime Chipotle marinade. Even though it’s not grilling season any more (except for my neighbour, who BBQs even when there’s 2 feet of snow on the ground), I was determined to have some southwestern-style shrimp.

First, the shrimpies sat in the marinade for about an hour with some cherry tomatos, bell peppers, and zucchini slices. Nothing else – the goal was to enjoy the Lime Chipotle flavours in all their glory.

Then, I loaded the shrimp and veggies on to skewers and fired up my grill – aka I plugged in the George Foreman.

A few minutes later I had this:

Can I just say that this is one of my favourite marinades yet? The spice factor is just right – not enough to blow your head off but it definitely packs a little heat! Normally I just make my own because bottled ones are usually far more expensive, but I’d purchase this one for sure. Now I’m super excited to try out my other Saucy Mama sauces!

Annnd that is all for this edition of Try Something New Tuesday! Today I want to know:

• Did you try anything new yesterday?
• Do you have any suggestions for next week?
• Are you a sardine fan? How do you like to eat them? Please don’t tell me whole… I’m loving them mashed but am not sure I could handle them in actual real-fish form with scales and everything.