I’ve just returned from the VIP opening of the first Costco Business Centre  in Canada.

This is what you need to know:

1. Any Costco member can walk in to the Costco Business Centre. (insert applause)
2. There’s more business products. Especially if you own a restaurant/catering company/cooking school etc.
   

For example you aren’t going to see a hot dog stand for sale at a regular Costco.

3. They offer Business -friendly hours

4. Not to mention they deliver!!

I loved walking thru the warehouse and seeing massive quantities of EVERYTHING at super cheap prices. For example a 3.78 L jar of hot pepper rings for $6.89!!

It was also very cool to see the fabulous cheddar cheese I sell (St. -Albert Cheese Co-op)  in the Cheese/Meat Cooler.   So if you need a brick of cheddar at great prices – you now know where to go!!

Can’t wait to see what the industry thinks of this concept!

ps. you can shop online too.

For more information:

Website: www.costcobusinesscentre.ca

Address: 50 Thermos Rd, Toronto, ON M1L

Phone: +1 866-455-1846

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Fact: This is the first year I have ever bought winter tires. (insert: applause)

It felt like the right thing to do seeing as I spend quite a bit of time on the roads as a sales rep. Plus I understand that I can save money on my insurance if I have winter tires. (note to self: call my insurance provider tomorrow).

I explored getting my winter tires from Costco or getting my tires from Canadian Tire.

Here’s what happened at Costco:

-I approached the friendly clerk who told me that I had to go online and book an appointment or come back at 6:30 am.

Here’s what happened at my local Canadian Tire (Lawrence and the Allen).

-I approached the friendly clerk who told me he could change my tires on the spot.

Guess who got my business? I left Canadian Tire in less than an hour with 4 new winter tires on my car.

YAY!!

Seeing as I’m writing about Canadian Tire, I want to mention that I’ve had several great experiences buying merchandise at this store. For example: During the summer, I bought camping equipment and a few things I needed from their kitchen department as well.

Thanks Canadian Tire for providing such great service. I’m seriously loving my new winter tires.

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I was tired of my standard salmon recipes, so I did some research on the internet and found a new recipe that appealed to me. I love how easy it is to find a new recipe these days. Long gone are the days where I use to sit at the kitchen table sifting thru 6 cookbooks. (or more)

The recipe only included a few ingredients and sure enough..I had most of them in my fridge and pantry.

Here’s the official recipe for Garlic Panko Salmon (from www.primaverakitchen.com. I used half of the recipe (errr..the ingredients) and then used my own method. Keep reading!!

3. In my Cuisinart Food Processor – I whizzed up the parsley, lemon, garlic and panko bread crumbs.

4. Spread this mixture over the salmon

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes (depending on the size of your salmon)

6. Serve Warm!

Happy Cooking.

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I’m not quite sure what took me so long to get introduced to Chia Seeds. I mean, it has 14 grams of FIBRE for each 1/4 cup serving. In other words – 56% of your Daily Value. That’s insane!! Chia seeds are also a good source of Omega 3 Poly-Unsaturates and a good source of protein!!

So this is what I’ve been doing (at night) for the last week.

It’s soooo easy – I feel bad to even call this a recipe!!

Here’s what you need:

forgot the vanilla extract!

Here’s the official recipe: (which I learned in a Vegan cooking class from Love Thy Carrot)

• 1/3 cup of Chia seeds. (I purchased mine at Costco)
• 1 1/2 cups Silk Almond Milk (but you could use any type of milk)
• A touch of vanilla extract

*you could also add a touch of sweetener (honey, agave, etc)

1. Add all ingredients into a mason jar.

2. SHAKE. SHAKE. SHAKE.

3. Put it int the fridge. Then about 30 minutes later – SHAKE. SHAKE. SHAKE. Return the jar back to the refrigerator.

Voila – breakfast will look like this in the morning. Alternatively, you can make it during the day and just let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

I’ve been chugging it back – before my work out and even after my workout. Sometimes, I take the whole mason jar with me in the car and sip it in between errands.

But if you want to get fancy – you could actually put it in a bowl and top it with fresh fruit or dried fruit (like the dried mango from Natural Sins)

I really (really) hope you get a chance to check out this superfood!!

P.S. Huge thanks to Voula Halliday who encouraged me to share this recipe! Oh how I love my facebook/twitter friends.

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I did it. I purchased a Blentec and I totally blame Costco for this. I kept passing that demo lady and just couldn’t resist.

My life for the last 3 days hasn’t been the same. I’m too excited for words that I’m now a proud owner of a Blendtec. I’m enjoying a lot of smoothies at the moment but my intention is to be making soups with it.

Blueberry Smoothie

Kale/Spinach/Avocado Smoothie

Things I’m loving about the Blendtec:

-I love the timer feature as I no longer  need to guess what 90 seconds is.

-I love the easy to clean wide pitcher

-I love that it pulverizes everything

Things I’m not enjoying:

-it sounds like a 747 airplane

-I still have to cook my soup. I thought I cook just add raw vegetables and some stock and make a quick soup – WRONG. You really need to brown the onions.

-my freezer has no space as I bought these huge bags of frozen fruit from Costco.

It was an investment to purchase this Blendtec but I think it was a wise one.

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My good friend served a salad over the Jewish New Year that was so tasty that I asked her about it.

She told me that it was from Costco. I was SHOCKED. I then asked her “where can I find it?”. She told me to head to the cold produce area. I asked her to bring out the bag so that I could recognize it and she did!!  Here’s the bag you should be looking for.

This bag contains 7 Superfoods: Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts,chicory, kale, roasted pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries. A lemon poppyseed dressing is even included.

How much is this tasty salad? Here’s the answer. I’m floored at how inexpensive this salad is. I mean seriously.

I’m off to Costco this week to buy a few bags!! Something tells me this is going to become a weekly staple in my fridge.

Thanks Costco for continuing to have amazing products at amazing prices.

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Usually I buy frozen salmon filets at Costco, but last week I bought a beautiful fresh salmon filet with the intention of making Salmon Primavera. For some reason, I’ve only used this recipe on fresh salmon but now that I’m thinking of it, you could probably make with the frozen salmon pieces as well.  This recipe will certainly “wow” your family or dinner guests!!  It’s so pretty and so moist. Promise.

RECIPE: SALMON PRIMAVERA (taken from Kosher by Design: Entertains by Susie Fishbein)

2 1/2 – 3 pounds WIld Pacific or Sockey Salmon Filet

Salt

Pepper

Dijon mustard or thick honey mustard (I’ve only used this recipe with thick honey mustard like Honeycup Mustard or Woebers Honey Mustard)

1 small zucchini, with skin, thinly sliced

1 small yellow squash, with skin, thinly sliced – (use either yellow zucchini if you can find it it OR butternut squash slices but please pre-cook the slices)

1 Roma or plum tomato, thinly sliced

1/4 cup unflavored breadcrumbs or Panko (I use Panko)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Put the salmon on a parchment lined baking sheet and season the salmon fillet with salt and pepper. Brush an even thick coat of the (honey) mustard all over the salmon.

3. Place a layer of zucchini slices on the salmon. Then place a layer of the yellow zucchini or PRE COOKED butternut squash slices. Then place a player of thinly sliced tomatoes

Pretty Easy Stuff.

4. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, panko or breadcrumbs (I use Panko) and the fresh dill.

I doubled or tripled this step as I had a pretty big piece of salmon

5. Spread this mixture onto the entire salmon.

Be generous. I use the method called “pat pat pat” to make sure the panko adheres to the salmon.

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Don’t be afraid to poke thru the fish to ensure that’s its all cooked!!

7. Serve hot or room temperature.

FINAL PRODUCT:

Ta Da!!

I served this with a strawberry spinach salad, roasted garlic from Stone Soup Farms, tomato basil tarts and roasted tri color carrots with fresh tarragon leaves.

The meal was a hit!!

Happy Cooking.

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• Tilapia filets
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of beer (I used Molson 67, of course)
• Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

step 1

• In another bowl blend the egg and beer together

step 2

then quickly stir into the flour mixture.

• Don’t worry if the batter is a little lumpy (seriously…it’s lumpy)

Lumpy Batter (but it’s all good)

• Heat oil (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in a skillet) in a frying pan until extremely hot
• Now lightly dust your tilapia filets and dunk into your beer batter mix
• Fry until golden and crisp, then drain on paper towels

The fish was moist moist moist and no one had any fish left on their plates after the meal. Definitely a good sign!!

FINAL PRODUCT:

PS. Costco had haddock on sale this week. Anyone have a good recipe to share?

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I will admit it, I own too many kitchen appliances. I need another one like another navel. BUT…the bright colors WERE CALLING MY NAME (Cuisinart knows how to get my attention) and I just had to have one when I saw this Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker at Costco for $49.99.

Purple or Green!!

I was reading so many tweets last year from @kalofagas last summer about his ice cream making adventures that I’m almost ready to blame him!!  But I won’t. He truly inspired me and as a result I’m now making FRESH ICE CREAM.  A huge thank you to to @kalofagas for his inspirational tweets.

Here’s how easy it is:

RECIPE FOR FRESH STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM (taken from the manual)

2 cups fresh strawberries, stemmed and sliced

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup sugar, divided

1 cup whole milk – well chilled

2 cups heavy cream – well chilled

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

STEP ONE:

Combine the strawberies, with 1/2 cup of sugar and the lemon juice. Let sit for about two hours. Strain the berries, reserving the juices. Mash or pureee the strawberries (I used a blender for this step).

STEP TWO:

Use a mixer and on low speed, combine the milk and the remaining sugar until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 -2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream, reserved juice, mashed strawberries and vanilla.

Pretty Easy...

STEP THREE:

Pour the mixture into the freezer bowl of  the Cuisinart – and press a button.

Twenty five minutes later…. I have unbelievable creamy fresh strawberry ice cream.

Not bad eh?

Hope you visit your local Costco soon – so you too can buy a Cuisinart Classic Frozen Yogurt – Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker.

I can’t wait to experiment with flavors: Coffee, Ginger, Rhubarb, Lemon, Watermelon,….It’s going to be a delicious summer!

PS Can someone now inspire me to use the Cuisinart Yogurt Machine that has been sitting in my basement (in a box) for the last year?

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I'm smiling now but I wasnt smiling in July 2010

I had been running without a watch for 5 years. All that changed last summer, when I found out that the Garmin Forerunner 405 was at Costco.

So I bought it. I though it was about time (no pun intended) that I owned a watch.

I was SO excited!! Finally I could track my distance on my rides AND on my runs, my heart rate and all sorts of fun data.

WRONG.

I could not figure out how to use it. Period. I sat with the manual..with the watch…with YouTube videos and had NO LUCK.

My ironman buddy tried to teach me. NOPE…could not get the hang out of it. I was kinda of pissed, as this watch was not cheap.

Finally last week, while attending a social media party called #whatthehashtag, I met @RobTyrie and I noticed he was wearing the

watch that I had not been able to use since JULY 2010. I told him about my fustration. Rob mentioned that it took him HOURS to figure out the manual.

(I believe him. I really do.) Standing beside Rob was was @aprildunford

who said that it was THE WORST MANUAL EVER and they fired the whole time who wrote the manual.. I asked Rob if he could teach both of us how to use it. He gladly accepted the challenge.

We met on Sunday at The Mad Bean for a coffee and I showed up with the manuals and the watch. Sadly April couldnt join us. He patiently taught me how to use it and it took hours!! (I’m not joking).

I wrote notes…the whole nine yards.

Has anyone else had this type of experience with a product? Does anyone else own a Garmin?

Do rant. I just did and it feels great. LOL

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