The idea of revisiting a couple of my older recipes had crossed my mind once or twice over the last year. When I started in 2011, the only camera I owned was my point and shoot (aka Mr. P&S). Mr. P&S was very reliable as a travel camera that could be tossed in my purse, but that’s about where his usefulness ended. I upgraded to a DSLR camera in February 2012 (no nickname, too excited), but that means there were (are) a lot of recipes from that first year of blogging with grainy photos. Many of the shots were taken pretty close to the food too, because for some reason I thought it would, I don’t know, hide the fact that I used to bake and take all my photos in the evening right before I went to bed (hint: it didn’t).

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Ever since I purchased my new, fancy-pants 11-cup Cuisinart food processor, I’ve been on a chopping, slicing and pureeing crazy spree. In the last two weeks, I’ve made falafels, granola (3 batches), homemade veggie burgers and chopped a variety of vegetables for homemade soup. To say that this upgrade was a well-needed purchase is an understatement and I’m thrilled now to be able to make things that my previous 3-cup little baby processor couldn’t handle. A few of the items on my to-make list include hummus, homemade peanut butter for Trevor and another batch of these quinoa brownies.

Some of you may remember last summer when I made my chocolate espresso quinoa cake and if you compare the ingredients list from that cake to these brownies, they don’t appear to be that different from each other. Where I think these brownies really shine is the crazy addictive chocolate date icing. Rather than using powdered sugar, I used medjool dates, which are naturally sweet and full of potassium and fiber. Ever since I had my first medjool date, I’ve had to keep a package hidden somewhere in my fridge for when I’m craving something sweet.

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Trevor and I had a mild panic attack over the weekend when we logged into our WeddingWire account and the countdown kindly reminded us that it was 20 days until our wedding.

Ummmmm, say what? Seriously where did all this time go? Did we not just celebrate the 4-month before wedding date yesterday? (Not really, but you get the picture).

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I really need to start eating better.

Case in point, we have not only surpassed the 100 day mark, I’m pretty sure we’ve recently passed 90 days until the wedding. This past long weekend, we also managed to eat through an entire Japanese cheesecake. (Both events were not related).

I say “we” but you all know better. Trevor had a slice, maybe two. I couldn’t help it though. I discovered a fantastic new bakery on Spadina Avenue, (near China Town) and the cheesecakes were on sale for $3.50. Having paid double this price the last time I had Japanese cheesecake, I couldn’t pass it up. This was Friday and the cheesecake was non-existent by Sunday night.

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January is the month that I always find that I eat the healthiest. I stock up on portable fresh fruit and vegetables to take to work and I avoid junk food like the plague. I feel really good for about three-ish weeks and then as February starts to inch closer, I slowly fall off the wagon.

But like every year that I can remember doing this, I am thinking not this year. This year is a big wedding year, and with being a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s wedding in July and our wedding in August, I figure that this alone is enough motivation to keep on eating better.

This is one of the challenges I’ve faced since starting a food blog – trying to eat healthier. Since I bake something new at least once a week, its almost a guarantee that there will always be baked goods in our kitchen. That’s not a lot of willpower for someone who wants to keep fitting into both a bridesmaid dress and her wedding dress in less than 8 months.

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Quinoa is one of those strange food names I’ve never been able to pronounce properly. Off of the odd chance that I magically get it right, my brain never decides to remember it and then I always go back to mispronouncing it again. The bad part is that Trevor has decided that we’re at the point of our relationship where he knows what I’m talking about and doesn’t bother correcting me, even when I use the wrong words or say something wrong all together.

Trevor: What’s for supper?

Me: Oh, we’re having….uh, quinn-noh-ah.

Trevor: (pause) Great, sounds delicious!

This does wonders for my social development outside of the apartment. “Yes, Mr Waiter, I would like my side dish to be some of that delicious looking……quinn-noh-ahh….yes, I said quinn-noh-ahh. In my spare time? I like to bake and post my creations on the internet.”

One of our typical quinoa suppers, with roasted carrots, sweet potato and zucchini

For future reference, according to Google, quinoa is pronounced keen-wah. Yeah, I don’t get it either, I must have completely zoned out during that significant part of grade 2 when this kind of alphabetical pronunciation was taught to us. Grade 2 wasn’t a complete blur though, I can tell you about the time that my best friend at the time pushed me as I dangled on the highest monkey bar as though it were a swing (we thought we were so clever) and thanks to the force of that push, I flew off backwards and landed flat on my face in the playground sand. That was the year I rocked a wicked scar on my lip and a new-found knowledge of momentum.

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