Simple Chicken Noodle Soup

It's that time of year when the weather starts cooling down, fans and air conditioners are being put away, and sweaters and blankets are being pulled out. Probably one of my favourite things about fall is the return to soups, stews, roasts and all the other warming meals. One of the easiest, and most helpful meals, at this time of year, Chicken Noodle Soup has the triple benefit of being super easy to make, really delicious, and a great way to make anyone feel better when the inevitable fall cold hits.

Adventures in Pickling

I've always been interested in trying my hand at pickling, however I also was always worried that it would be really difficult, and you can't really know if it worked for 6-8 weeks. It was one of those things I had kind of given up on trying, until my mom sent me a photo a last week of dill and bread and butter pickles her and my dad had done. And just like that, I decided to try my hand at it. Here are my lessons learned.

Coconut Lime Chicken

This easy grilled chicken is a great recipe for weekday meals. I had some leftover coconut milk beverage and didn't want to waste it before it went bad. This is not the same as canned coconut milk, and the result is a little lighter. You want to make sure to marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes, although longer is better. Keep in mind that the lime juice and coconut milk will cause what looks like a curdling effect, but it's okay, and still super tasty.

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.

Sunday Night Dinner - Lemon Rosemary Grilled Chicken

One of our neighbours has this incredible rosemary plant - it is almost a tree to be truthful. Gracious neighbour that they are, they have given us free reign to trim from it when we'd like. This comes in real handy when putting together any type of chicken dish.  Last Sunday I had a friend over, and wanted to prepare something that wouldn't take a lot of time, but had a lot of flavour. Grilling chicken can be tricky, because it is easy for it to dry out. This is why a good marinade is your best friend when it comes to grilling. For this recipe I cut the chicken into cutlet sized pieces, and pounded the thicker ones so it would cook more evenly.

Salmon Cakes with Dill Sauce

We made cedar plank salmon for the first time on the weekend. It was pretty easy to make, and the smoky flavour was light and not overpowering. However, I had purchased two fairly large salmon filets, and we both only ate half. Not wanting to waste it, I decided to try making salmon cakes for the first time. I've always been a fan of crab cakes, so I looked up a few recipes online and then just kind of made it up. You could also use a can of salmon if you don't have any leftover cooked salmon. They turned out really great, and I made a dill dipping sauce that complimented them very well. Next time I'll be sure to buy and cook too much salmon again!

Sunday Night Dinner - Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Strawberry Mango Salsa

We arrived back from a very relaxing week in Maui early this morning, after a red-eye flight. I'm not a huge fan of red-eye's, and this was the first one we took with a toddler. She did surprisingly well, but we all needed to go straight to bed when we got home. On days like this I usually opt for take-out or scarfing whatever is leftover from the box of mac and cheese I make for Molly. However, I was inspired today by a friend who is doing a 30 day challenge to eat clean. We were chatting about it earlier today and it made me think twice about my dinner. So instead I took a look at what I had picked up at the grocery store today, and decided to make a grilled pork tenderloin and put that together with a strawberry mango salsa. We had to buy mango's at the grocery store today because Molly fell in love with them in Maui. Now these ones definitely weren't as good as the ones in Hawaii, but paired with fresh local strawberries they really added a lot to our dinner.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin (all measurements approximate)
- 1 small pork tenderloin
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2-4 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard

Mix all ingredients together, minus the pork, in bowl. Add pork and turn to coat. Let marinade for 15-30 minutes. When it is time to grill, use the following 7-6-5 method (adjusted if the pork tenderloin is larger). Preheat grill on high. Add pork and close lid for 7 minutes. Open lid, turn pork and cook 6 minutes with lid open. Turn pork, turn off BBQ, close lid and leave for 5 minutes. No further tenting required. Serve with salsa, recipe below.

Strawberry Mango Salsa
- 1 ripe mango, diced
- 4-5 strawberries, diced
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp honey

Mix all ingredients and let sit for 10 - 20 minutes while pork is cooking.