Happy Wednesday!

How are you doing today? I hope the week is treating you well so far. Yesterday was a fab Try Something New Tuesday and I’m excited to tell you all about my new things. Here they are:

1. Recipe of the Week: Baked Salmon Fillets with Herb Caper Sauce.

You may remember my first caper trial on Try Something New Tuesday 19. I used it in a recipe for Sicilian Style Marlin which was good, minus the olives that I discovered were disgusting. (Sorry, I’m just not an olive kinda girl). The capers in it were ok too, but just not great. This recipe uses capers but in a pureed form. I found the original recipe on Delish.ca and figured the sauce would taste too much like yogurt without them. The sauce looked like this:

The salmon on its own was pretty much perfect, but the sauce made it even better. Definitely Recipe of the Week worthy!

2. A gourmet tomato medley from Sobeys.

Yes I know, everyone’s probably eaten a tomato. However, it seems that exotic produce is lacking in the grocery stores at this time of year so I figured these would be a good option. The package claim that this particular medley contains exotic flavoured tomatos from Holland, France and Italy. Overall, they score a 6/10 on the sugar sweetness scale.

I’ve never been one to snack on tomatos in their raw form – it’s some thing about their texture that I just don’t like. With this in mind, I threw a bunch of them into an egg white omelette with some diced mushrooms and kale…

…and some chipotle chili powder, parsley and black pepper…

….to produce this, a breakfast that experienced a little flippage trauma but on the whole tasted fantastic. Even though the tomatos didn’t taste very different raw and on their own, this omelette seemed different relative to my usuals – in a good way.

There were more of these tomatos in my dinner:

Above would be a dish I like to call “Tuna Mess” because that’s precisely what it is: a bunch of Brussels sprouts, diced butternut squash, red onion and zucchini with tuna, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and herbs. Oh, and the tomatos. Not very attractive looking, but oh so good.

3. Silver Hills Wheat-Free Chia Bread. I’ve talked about Silver Hills a lot in the past (like here and in my first giveaway here), but the company’s gluten-free bread is one I haven’t tried yet. It is made from ground chia seeds and is a good alternative if you have a gluten intolerance.

(Click for source)

Nutrition stats per slice and ingredients for the Canadian version:

Am I allergic to gluten? Nope, not that I know of anyway. Do I have a mild gluten intolerance? Not sure, but lately I’ve been eating fewer wheat products and have noticed that I feel a whole lot better afterward. For people that truly have Celiac disease, gluten damages the small intestine and prevents it from efficiently absorbing micro and macronutrients that the body needs (carbs, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals). I feel an entire post coming up about this topic soon so I won’t go on too much about it today. For now just know that I tried this bread to see if it would have the same effect that regular bread sometimes has been having me (which is an all-around mildly crappy feeling).

So just how exactly did I eat my wheat-free chia bread? In conjunction with my next new thing…

4. Smoked salmon. In the past I’ve stayed far far away from smoked salmon because of an experience I had with it when I lived in Bahrain. I was out for lunch with a friend and decided to order a sandwich, which came with “a choice of salmon, tuna, turkey, or chicken” in between the slices. As the naive 14 year old that I was, I figured salmon would be an excellent choice. Assuming I was going to get something resembling a baked salmon fillet on bread, I was very displeased when the waitress arrived with smoked salmon. I hadn’t even heard of it before, and couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to eat raw salmon. Having already decided in my head that I wouldn’t like it, I took one bite then sent it back. Yesterday smoked salmon got another chance. My logic was that with age and more experience with food in general, I might actually like it.

My smoked salmon and Silver Hills Chia Bread were assembled with a few other goodies at work as a sandwich. The bread slices (which should be kept in the freezer to maintain freshness) had defrosted perfectly by lunch time, and I spread a saucy mix of Greek yogurt, dried tarragon and dill, black pepper and lemon juice on one side. The other was lined with some romaine lettuce and cucumber slices.

Then came the sammy.

Plop. I know what you’re thinking. Something along the lines of “That’s a lot of salmon. Has she gone mad? Two salmon features in the same post? Can you say omega-3 overload?” To be honest, I was not looking forward to the trial until about 10 seconds after this photo…

…when I bit into it, and it was absolutely delicious. So delicious that I almost IM’d one of my co-workers to tell them how foodgasmic this sandwich was. Smoked salmon, you have redeemed yourself. Consider this a profession of my love for you.

Oh and the bread? Loved it. It was actually the first wheat-free bread I’ve ever tried, and I’d anticipated a dry loaf with a cardboardy taste. Totally not the case – this bread was fairly dense and almost sweet. As far as the post-consumption feelings of crappiness, there were none of those either (mind, I was pretty busy at work so I may not have noticed). Definitely a new favourite!

5. C.O. Bigelow Lemon & Pomegranate Lip Cream.

Remember how I told you in this post about how Kiehl’s #1 Vanilla lip balm is one of my favourites? Well, unfortunately the little tube I had is now empty and I suffer from ridiculously dry lips in the winter. (Not quite as bad as my Accutane days, but still pretty bad). According to the Bath & Body Works website, this product “is packed with antioxidant-rich pomegranate to defend lips against skin-damaging free radicals.” It is also…

• Made from a super-emollient formula packed with antioxidant-rich pomegranate
• Formulated to defend lips against skin-damaging free radicals
• 100% natural lemon and pomegranate flavor
• Developed by Bigelow Chemists
• Not tested on animals

Sounds pretty great right? It is indeed! It smells so good and lasts a long time too if you can avoid licking it off your lips. The tube has a slanted opening so you can put it on directly without getting your fingers all sticky, and it doesn’t make your lips all white – something I was worried about seeing as it claims to be a ‘lip cream‘. Loving this!!

That brings me to the end of Try Something New Tuesday 35, but this morning I want to know…

• Are there any foods that you hated as a child but love now? Sardines is definitely one I didn’t go near as a kid, but when I tried it several Tuesdays ago, I was pleasantly surprised!
• Do you have celiac disease or a less-extreme gluten intolerance? What are some of your favourite gluten-free products?

Have a great day!