Mason Jar Salad Roundup

I've joined the Mason Jar Salad revolution. They are a fantastic way to have lunch, as long as you keep them interesting (at least for me anyways). If you take 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon / evening, you have all of your lunches prepped and ready to go for the week. This is especially key in the summer I find, when we are grilling a lot and not necessarily making big batches of food that can be used for lunch leftovers.

Easy Weeknight Dinner - Pork Medallions with Mushroom Sauce

Life has started to get a little hairy. I have 4 months of my MBA left, work is getting nuts, and life in general just seems in chaos at times. So it's nice to find a recipe that is quick and easy to put together on a weeknight. I had asked Brent to pick up a pork tenderloin for dinner sometime this week, not really sure what I wanted to do with it. So tonight I took a quick look in a 'Make It Tonight' Canadian Living cookbook and found a recipe that I actually had all the other ingredients on hand for! Made a few slight modifications, reheated leftover mashed potatoes and threw some broccoli in the steamer. Voila! A lovely Monday night dinner. Great way to start the year off right!

Quick Weekday Lunch - Noodle Jars

So I was feeling pretty beat tonight - two accounting exams in one day, and just not in the mood for prepping lunches for tomorrow. However, I know once I'm at work I'll be wishing I had packed something. So I sent Brent off to the grocery store to grab a few things, and put together these really quick, great noodle jars. This is a recipe of Michael Smith's, from his new cookbook Family Meals. So far I've loved all the recipes from this book and would definitely recommend it. All you need to do is put these jars together, bring to work / school, and when it's time to eat, add 2 cups boiling water, screw the lids back on tightly and gently mix. Let stand for about 10 minutes for the flavours to really mix, and enjoy!

Make Ahead Meal - Cottage Pie

When I'm stressed and worrying about the work week ahead I will sometimes spend some extra time in the kitchen. Usually this involves prepping meals and veggies, but sometimes results in some extra baking for us to enjoy. Tonight I put on some Frank Sinatra, opened a bottle of red wine, and decided to make some Cottage Pie. Sometimes known as Shepherd's Pie, I use the name Cottage Pie because true Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb. While I probably could have used the time doing some prep work or drafting one of the four assignments due next week, at least we have some good meals in the freezer. I doubled the recipe so I have two Cottage Pie's ready to go.

Back To Work - Freezer Meals

I headed back to work this week after a blissful (and busy) year off on maternity leave. In anticipation, I spent some time filling the freezer with ready made meals. It was quite funny, because a year earlier I had been doing the same thing in preparation for baby's arrival. How quickly the time does pass!

Life is busy, and when things start spinning out of control, making healthy choices can seem difficult. For me, taking the time to eat well and try and get at least a bit of exercise every day is a great way to manage stress. With that in mind, we froze some mini lasagna's, pasta sauce, chicken burritos, perogies and I picked up a few containers of soup from The Soup Meister in the Lonsdale Quay. Even though I've only been back for 3 days and there's still one day of the week left, so far so good. I seem to have enough time to get home, pick up the little bean from daycare, play for a bit and get dinner ready so that we can all sit down and eat together. Brent had a great idea for us to set aside one night a week to make something for the freezer, so we can keep this up. We'll be starting that next week and I hope that this will help get us through the next couple of months of learning how to juggle work, school, baby and all the other parts of our life.

1 Grocery Bag 5 Lunches

This article in Canadian Living promised that you could 'shop only once for an entire week of easy and deliciously different lunches the whole family will love'. Here is a rundown of our experience.

Day 1 - Fresh Orange Chicken Salad

This was a pretty easy salad to put together. The croutons were a nice addition that I normally wouldn't have bothered with. The instruction about the orange was a little confusing, and I had part of the orange down the garburator before I should have. Luckily I had purchased a couple of extra oranges so had enough to make the dressing. Red onions are nice, but maybe not so much if you are at work.

Day 2 - Cold Chicken Noodle Salad

In order to only have to grill chicken once, I had the two chicken dishes in a row, so this was technically Day 3 in the article. This was a really nice salad, even though I used a green pepper instead of a red. I also used very thin vermicelli because I had it on hand, but I don't think it changed the dish much at all. The dressing was a little garlicky, I felt like I had to brush my teeth 3 times before going out that afternoon. Again, maybe not the best for work.

Day 3 - Tomato and Chickpea Salad

We make chickpea salad quite often in our house, but this one was nice, again a little garlicky. The tomatoes were a nice addition because I would not usually add them to my chickpea salad.

Day 4 - Quick Vegetable Curry

This was a really nice dish, I used hot curry powder and mixed the yogurt and diced cucumber with a little lemon juice. It was a very nice addition to the dish. After the first 3 days I decided to use half the garlic, and it worked well.

Day 5 - Perfect Tuna Salad Sandwiches

Tuna salad is not something I normally like to bring to work, but I was eating at home so didn't worry about it. I did like the idea of putting the toppings on the sandwich at work so that the bread doesn't get soggy. I never would have thought of adding black olives to tuna, and it was actually really nice.

Overall the recipes all worked out well. Although I'm at home, it was nice having lunch prepared in advance every day. That way when I had a few minutes it was easy to grab and eat. There were a couple of things that I did want to point out though:

• Grocery list should include at least 1 or 2 packs of gum, many of the dishes would not be great if you work with clients or have meetings.
• The hands-on and total time for preparation was completely undershot. We quickly realized that if you had all the ingredients prepped (ie. carrots chopped, tuna drained, bread cubed etc.) then perhaps the prep time was accurate.

We are pretty good at packing lunches as it is, but it was fun to explore some different lunch ideas. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who finds themselves eating out 2 or more days a week. It definitely kept us on track.

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

There's nothing like making a big batch of spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker. This recipe is lightened up with the use of ground turkey instead of ground beef, but feel free to substitute as you wish. One batch of this recipe makes enough for us to enjoy one night, and freeze two more portions. With this in the freezer all you need is some dry pasta and you have a quick weeknight dinner in the amount of time it takes to defrost the sauce and boil some water!

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
- 1 1/2 lb ground turkey
- 2 cans (28oz each) tomatoes
- 1 can (5 1/2 oz) tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 sweet red or yellow pepper, chopped
- 2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp each dried basil and oregano
- 1 tsp each dried thyme and salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 4 tsp balsamic vinegar

In large skillet saute turkey over medium-high heat, breaking up with fork until crumbly and cooked through, about 6-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, place tomatoes in slow cooker. mash with potato masher or fork until slightly chunky. Stir in tomato paste, mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion, red pepper, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Using slotted spoon, transfer turkey to slow cooker, mix well.

Cover and cook on low until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick, about 8 - 10 hours. Stir in vinegar.


Let cool for 30 minutes. Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

Chicken Fingers

These Chicken Fingers are great, and the best part is you can make them in advance and cook them from frozen. If you have these and some french fries on hand, you've got an easy, healthy, 'fast food' dinner. I also like having these in the freezer to use in wraps for lunches.

Chicken Fingers

- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Parmesan) cheese

- 1 cup panko or fresh bread crumbs

- 2 tsp dried oregano

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp each pepper and paprika

- 1/4 cup butter, melted.

Between sheets of waxed paper, pound chicken with meat pounder or rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick. Cut on diagonal into strips (you can also use this recipe to make popcorn chicken, by cutting into small bite sized pieces). In bowl, whisk eggs. In shallow bowl, combine cheese, bread crumbs and spices.

One at a time, dip chicken strips into eggs, letting any excess drip back into bowl. Coat generously with cheese mixture, pressing to adhere.

Store, layered between waxed paper, in airtight container and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Bake from frozen.

Arrange on greased baking sheets; drizzle with butter. Bake in 425F oven until golden, crispy and no longer pink inside, about 20 - 25 minutes.

If you'd like to cook them right away, decrease baking time by about 5 minutes.

Sweet Chili Chicken

This is a great recipe for a weeknight dinner. Instead of ordering take out, put some rice on when you get home, get prepping and you have a great Thai-style dinner ready in under 30 minutes. This recipe is courtesy of Canadian Living's October issue.

Sweet Chili Chicken

- 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut in bite-size pieces

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

- 1 onion, chopped

- 2 peppers (red, green, yellow or orange) cut in bite-size pieces

- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

- 1/2 cup Thai-style sweet chili sauce

- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

- 2 green onions, thinly sliced

Sprinkle chicken with salt. In large skillet, heat oil over high heat; stir-fry chicken until starting to brown and juices run clear when chicken is pierced, about 6 - 10 minutes.

Add garlic and ginger; stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add onion and peppers and stir-fry for 3 minutes, adding a few tablespoons of water to prevent sticking to pan if necessary.

Mix chili sauce with vinegar; add to pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until reduced and vegetables are tender-crisp. Sprinkle with onions and serve over rice.

Freezing Corn

It's that time of year when the weather starts to turn, and I start to think about all those months without fresh produce. It makes me a little sad,but then I remember that I can easily preserve the summer by freezing! I have frozen bags of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and rhubarb in the freezer. And recently I also decided to freeze me some corn.

Freezing corn is super easy, and it's always great to have on hand to add to stews, chili's, shepherd's pie and other wintery dinners.

Step 1 - Shuck and clean corn.

Step 2 - Place corn in a large pot of boiling water. Boil for a short time (1-2 minutes).

Step 3 - Transfer to ice water to cool and stop the cooking.

Step 4 - Remove niblets from cob.

Step 5 - Dry on paper towels.

Step 6 - Place in large freezer bags, and freeze.

It's a pretty easy process, and now you can enjoy your corn year round!

Frozen Food

So I admit, I love having frozen food on hand for days when you want something and you don't want to make a mess or do a lot of dishes. Now that being said, I also like making my own frozen food, and once you start, it's addictive. I was over at a friends place a few weeks ago, and went to put some ice cream in the freezer and noticed she had a ton of homemade frozen dinners. When she told me that she tries to make a big batch of something every weekend, it got me to thinking and remembering how awesome it is to have stuff on hand, especially if you're working late, or you've got to get to dodgeball or something. Tonight I was making meatloaf with mashed potatoes (recipe to come) and decided to make hamburgers and freeze them with some of the beef. Now I have a few more meals ready to go!

So, in the spirit of frozen food, I present one of my favourite frozen foods...french fries! I wish I had a picture of the finished product, but you always end up eating them and forgetting to take the picture!

Frozen French Fries
These can also be prepared and cooked immediately, although I find they bake better from frozen. Make sure to keep your eye on them as they bake!

~ potatoes of any kind, scrubbed
~ olive oil
~ salt

Slice the potatoes lengthwise, and then slice again, making matchsticks. In a pot of boiling water, immerse potatoes, stirring until tender but not cooked through, about 2-3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, take potatoes out and lay in single layer on paper towels, pat to dry. [At this point you can move to the cooking stage if you are not freezing the fries.]


Freeze fries in a single layer on parchment lined cookie sheets. Once frozen store in freezer bags, cook within a month.


To Cook
Toss fries with a couple of tablespoons of oil, and some salt. Place in single layer on baking sheets. Bake in 450 oven for 35-40 minutes, flipping half way through. Make sure to watch them!!!