discombobulated

this week has been pretty helter skelter. the valentine's extravaganza has thrown my schedule totally off & i honestly can not even believe i'm heading back to the market tomorrow morning.

that being said, my baking is going phenomenally well today! oatmeal/cranberry/white chocolate cookies are done. all 5 flavours of cupcakes are done. brownies are done. passionfruit tarts are done. butter tarts are done. macaroons are done. cheesecakes are in the oven right now - gluten-free lemon/gingersnap/blueberry and mint/oreo. after this i just have to finish my dinner rolls, they're rising right now, and make frostings.

by the way, cupcake flavours are vanilla with strawberry, carrot with vanilla, red velvet with raspberry, banana chocolate chip with peanut butter, and chocolate with chocolate.

plus, it doesn't even look like a bomb went off in the kitchen, like it normally does at this time on a friday!

after all the baking, i still have to put the finishing touches on this week's salads. there's wild rice with roasted sweet potato, cranberries, red onion, candied walnuts & herbs; quinoa with shaved asparagus, artichokes, lemon & garlic; and, 4-bean with sprouted beans and lentils, fresh green beans, red bell pepper, dill & dijon.

there are two new main courses this week. the first is the return of beef bourguignon... i think it might be my new favourite thing to make (especially since my pearls are fixed & i can pretend i'm julia). it's just so rewarding when you follow all the steps and put it in the oven to braise, then 3 hours later, voila it's perfect!

for this batch i only made larges - $23

the second option is a vegetarian lasagna. i had been thinking of this concoction for quite some time but was a little apprehensive that the flavours might be a little too unconventional. but don't worry, i sat down and ate one & i really, really liked it! it's totally 'cheesetastic' with stringy mozzarella and creamy goat cheese, there's a leek & roasted garlic bechamel for the sauce and the veggies are roasted sweet potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes & kale.

i only made larges of these too - $20

these are both items that were on the valentine's day menu & i just made extras to be ready for this weekend. so about that whole valentine's thing... i survived... by the skin of my teeth... but i survived. if i do this again in the future, i now know that it takes about ten times longer than i think to package everything up & don't rely on technology... i almost threw my printer in the ocean! early next week i'll do a proper blog post about the whole shebang, i just needed a few days to recover from it first ;)

ps: i'm totally exaggerating, it wasn't that bad... i only had 1 meltdown...

here's a sneak peak of what it all looked like before heading out the door:

ok, back to the grind. see you over the weekend - i'll be there on sunday too this week.