Sunday Night Dinner - Chicken, Mushroom and Artichoke Heart Pasta

Brent came home from a grocery run with a large jar of marinated artichoke hearts, and I really only needed a small jar for appies I'm prepping for our annual Christmas party. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with the extras, and then realized I had chicken and mushrooms in the fridge. Thrown together with a hard, yet creamy, cheese a friend had brought over last weekend - I really wish I remembered what it was called - and a box of pasta, and we had a fantastic Sunday night dinner.

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!

Braised Short Rib Macaroni and Cheese

I've said it before and I'll say it again - mac and cheese is by far one of my all time favourite meals. It's easy to throw together, and you can make so many different variations. I was feeling pretty exhausted tonight and almost just made a box of KD for dinner. However, I am also in supreme procrastination mode, so decided to whip up a new variation. I have to say I think this might be the best macaroni and cheese I have ever made! I think it was the combination of the different cheeses and the braised short ribs. You can really use whatever cheese you want, you just need about 2 3/4 cups of it. Whatever it was - loved it!

Sunday Night Dinner - Three Bean and Beef Chili

Chili is such a versatile dish. After making it a few times you can start to play with what you include. It's also a great dish to make using what's left in the fridge from the week. Tonight after a very long day working on an accounting assignment I was really tempted to forego making dinner and order a pizza, but decided to throw together a quick chili. Very glad I did because now we also have lunch for tomorrow!

After Halloween Cookies

It's no secret to my friends and family that I have absolutely no willpower when it comes to sweets and treats. If it's around, I will eat it, and will continue past the point of feeling ill. This year pre-Halloween Brent had to hide the candy twice, and then he gave up and left it out. I'm pretty sure I downed half of it before Halloween. Then, we only got 1 trick or treater. That's right, a single trick or treater, for whom we had purchased a 144 pack of mini chocolate bars. So of course I continued to eat them, and continued until I just couldn't stand it. So I made cookies. I figure it's a bit better than just right out eating the candy, plus I'll bring some to my study group tomorrow night - if I don't eat them all before then. I ended up using about a cup of Smarties (cause really, who eats the Smarties?), and a cup of chopped mini Aero bars.

Sunday Night Dinner - Creamy Vegetable Curry

I recently purchased the Oh She Glows cookbook on a recommendation of a friend. It's a vegan cookbook, and I've tried a few recipes and so far they have all been great. I'll admit I'm a little intimidated by some of the recipes, especially with any new ingredients or elements I haven't done before. One of the things many recipes call for is this 'cashew cream', and I finally decided to try it out. When using raw cashews in this way, you need to make sure to soak them overnight or at least 3-4 hours, so you do have to plan ahead a little. This recipe also had quite a bit of chopping so it was a great Sunday night meal. I used hot curry powder, but mild would work if you didn't want it as hot. I will definitely make this again.

Greek Quinoa Salad

This is another recipe from the new Michael Smith cookbook I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I originally made it to go with a roast chicken, but it was robust enough that you could have it on it's own for lunch or a light dinner. It was also super easy to put together, which is always a bonus in my eyes. If you wanted to make this vegan, just omit the feta cheese and replace the honey in the dressing with brown rice syrup or maple syrup. I made a few minor modifications based on my preferences as well.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Growing up every once in awhile my dad would try and serve us brussels sprouts. You can't blame him for trying, he very well may have liked them but to young kids they were terrible. I mean, who wants to eat something that kind of looks like a green brain? Fast forward to University, and I had a boyfriend who tried serving them to me, again, they just seemed terrible, like boiled cabbage or something. Fast forward a few more years and my sister in law roasted them for me. It was like a light went off - this is what all the fuss is about! They were roasted with sea salt, olive oil and garlic, and she served them to me and two of my sisters (fellow brussels sprout haters) and we all loved them. So my eyes were opened and I was willing to put them into my grocery cart, much to Brent's pleasure as he'd been pushing them on me for years. Can you imagine his surprise when he brought some home to cook for dinner and I asked if I could cook them for him? This recipe is so simple and so tasty. Seriously, it's got bacon, how could it not be good?

Turkey Dinner Leftovers - Soup

Turkey soup is fantastic, and is really a must-do after Thanksgiving, in order to get the most out of the turkey you cooked. Making the stock is easy, and should be done the next day. Because it does take a bit of time (between simmering the stock for hours and then letting it rest in the fridge for several more hours) - I recommend making the soup a couple of days after Thanksgiving. Remember to hide a couple of cups of cooked turkey in the fridge somewhere or it will end up being eaten before you have time to make the soup!

There are so many variations to turkey soup. I love it with rice or barley, but decided to do an old-fashioned turkey noodle soup this time. I'd say it was a hit, and there was even enough to freeze a couple of portions.

Ready for tomorrow's lunch!

Turkey Dinner Leftovers - Pot Pies

One of the best things about cooking up a big turkey dinner is the leftovers. While I love turkey sandwiches, I also love all the other things you can do once you've cooked a big bird. First off, don't waste that carcass! Refrigerate it the night of, and then in the morning you can start an easy stock in the slow-cooker. You could do this overnight if you wanted as well. The one I did this year can be found here . It makes a huge difference when you make your turkey soup in a couple of days. So on that note, cut up about 2 cups of leftover turkey meat and put aside for the soup. You might need to even label this so no one eats it before you get to make your soup. In the meantime, while the stock is cooking and resting, you can make some great little pot pies. This is the first year we actually had mashed potatoes left over, probably because there was only 4 of us, as opposed to the years we've cooked for 12 - 25. These little pot pies were so quick to make, and are now in our freezer waiting for us when life inevitably gets busy!

Thanksgiving Make-ahead - Cheesy Carrot Casserole

I have no idea where this recipe originally comes from, but it's another staple at Cavanagh turkey dinners. Every year around Thanksgiving or Christmas my sister's and I inevitably end up texting each other (and our mom) looking for the recipe. Now it will live on this blog so we can all enjoy it!

I'll admit I've had some challenges with this recipe at times, but it could be because the version I copied down from my mom doesn't have many instructions. When you make a recipe so many times you often forget about the steps you just seem to take naturally. I've done my best to write it out, and apologize in advance if I've missed something.

One thing to note - sometimes I blanche the carrots, sometimes I don't. This year I decided not to, and I'm curious as to how it will turn out. Either way you're talking carrots covered with cheese and a creamy beschemal-type sauce. Delish!

Cheesy Carrot Casserole on the right.

Thanksgiving Make-ahead - Elsie's Potatoes

The big work with a 'food' holiday like Thanksgiving or Easter isn't the main menu item (turkey, ham) - it's really in the sides. If you can prepare a few of them in advance you will make your life that much easier. This mashed potato recipe can be made ahead and frozen - you just want to make sure to thaw overnight and bring to room temperature before baking. These potatoes are so simple, yet so good. They are a staple at any Cavanagh holiday dinner that involves a turkey. One thing to note, this recipe calls for all sorts of low-fat cream cheese and fat-free sour cream. That's not how I roll, so I use the regular versions of everything. Feel free to lighten it up if you want though.

Elsie's Potatoes (from Best of Bridge)
- 5 lbs potatoes
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp onion salt (I often leave this out because it's just not something I have around)
- salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp butter

Cook and mash potatoes. Stir in all remaining ingredients except for butter. Spoon into large casserole dish. Dot with butter. Bake covered at 350F for 30 minutes.

It's perfect to put these in the oven when the turkey comes out to rest.

Elsie's Potatoes at Christmas 2013

Sunday Night Dinner - Baked Chicken Legs

Earlier this summer we purchased a freezer pack of meat from Two Rivers Specialty Meats in North Vancouver. It was part of a fundraiser in support of Potluck Cafe Society, a Social Enterprise whose mission is to 'transform lives by creating jobs and providing healthy food for people living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside'. It's a great organization and we were happy to support it, and even happier when we started using all of the great local meat we had purchased. Among the sausage, pork chops, bacon and ground beef there were chicken legs. I had never really cooked chicken legs and the first time we decided to just throw them on the BBQ. It would be an understatement to say that neither of us were too happy with them, and I thought, well, what am I going to do with the remaining 2 packs?

Luckily for us, I recently purchased Michael Smith's Family Meals cookbook. I kept thinking, maybe I'll put this on my Christmas wish list, but I just couldn't resist when it was 50% online, so I snapped it up. When it arrived I knew it was a good purchase. The book is full of tips for making cooking and eating more of a family affair, as well as great hints on quick snacks and meals for the whole family. I decided that in order to ensure this was indeed a good purchase, I would try and cook a new item each week from the book. This week I chose the 'Slow-Baked Chicken Legs with Barbecue Flavours'. Wow, it was such an easy dish, and I think we will definitely be making it again. This is a weekend dish, as it does take 3 hours to slow-bake, but it was so worth it. Plus it gave me a new appreciation for chicken legs.

Easy Weeknight Dinners - 30-Minute Turkey Chili

Growing up chili was a staple in our house, and when I think back I feel like it was often a Monday night meal. It's easy to make, and reheats really well. This meant that between all the music lessons, dance classes and theatre rehearsals, we could all grab a bowl of a good healthy meal. This recipe calls for ground turkey, but I'm sure chicken or beef would work just as well.  A note about tomato paste - see if you can find the tube, it is way easier to store especially when only using a tbsp here and there. I've tried freezing the leftovers from the small cans in ice cube trays and it never seems to work.

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.

Easy Weeknight Dinners - Macaroni and Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

I love macaroni and cheese, and will often whip up a batch on a whim. However, I'm sure it's not the healthiest thing to keep at the top of my roster of quick meals. I was really excited to see this version using cauliflower instead of cheese. There is still a bit of cheese, a tiny amount of cream, and the winner for all recipes - bacon! I used a new bacon I'd never tried from Two Rivers Meats that was part of a freezer pack I'd purchased for a fundraiser this summer. I've got to say, I might have found a new favourite bacon. One note for this recipe, the instructions say to use a blender, which I did. I think you could just as easily use a food processor to make the sauce, whatever you prefer.

Easy Weeknight Dinners - Chicken Curry in a Hurry

I never really ate curry until I moved away to University. It may have been growing up in a very Italian Northern Ontario city. We didn't really have a lot of diversity when it came to restaurants growing up, except for Chinese buffets which were pretty North American I'm sure. It's great to go back to my hometown now and see so many different restaurants, and even 2 sushi restaurants! That being said, I do love a good curry, and this dish has a lot of the flavours I enjoy. I used a red curry paste but I'm sure any one would work great. The next time I make it I would chop all of the veggies in advance, as that part did take a bit of time.  Overall though it was a pretty quick meal to prepare.

Easy Weeknight Dinners - Sauteed Mushroom Linguine

Sometimes I can be the last to admit how hard it is to juggle everything. Work, school, and a toddler make it difficult to keep up with the regular stuff like laundry and cleaning. Thankfully I have a great husband who pretty much takes care of the household stuff when I'm swamped with assignments and readings. However since I'm the one who gets off work first I take care of getting the little one's dinner. By the time we're done playing and Brent's home for bath and bed, it's hard to make a good healthy meal and easy to order take out or just make a sandwich. So I'm always on the lookout for easy weeknight dinners. The September Issue of Canadian Living contains 20 meals that they claim 'will be on the table in just 15 minutes, including prep time!'. One thing I will say is that I have found with Canadian Living recipes, they don't include the time it takes to get the ingredients to the state they list. For example, if a recipe includes 2 cups mushrooms, thinly sliced - the time on the recipe does not include slicing mushrooms. All that being said, this recipe was still pretty quick to get on the table. I modified using a few substitutes and it still worked out great.

Mediterranean Pasta for a Hot Summer Night

We are in the middle of a pretty intense heat wave in Vancouver right now. Normally in this type of weather I won't cook, and will choose to eat salads and sandwiches for a week if need be. However, I had all the fixings for a great pasta dish so decided to brave the heat and turn on the stove. I'm glad I did - this dish was quick and easy to put together.

Mediterranean Pasta Toss
- 1 package dried pasta
- 1 scallion, chopped
- 12 asparagus spears, cut in 1-2 inch pieces
- 6-8 small/medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
- 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- juice of half a lemon

In pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile in large saucepan heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Sautée onion for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add asparagus and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add artichoke hearts and heat through.

Drain pasta and toss with tomato asparagus mixture. Mix in feta cheese and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Campfire Cones

One of my sister's texted the rest of us a photo and instructions for a new treat to try out this summer at camp. I, however, could not wait until I'm at Basswood at the end of August and decided to try this out myself. You can make this over a bonfire, or like we did on a BBQ. What a great little treat. I was fully expecting a 'Pinterest fail' situation, but they went over really well. So well that since I posted a photo on Instagram and Facebook I've had several people asking me for the instructions. So, here you go!

Campfire Cones
- waffle or sugar cones
- peanut butter
- chocolate chips
- mini marshmallows
- bananas, chopped

Spread the inside of the cones with peanut butter. Fill with chocolate chips, marshmallows and banana pieces. I made sure to try and mix all the ingredients evenly. Wrap the entire thing in tinfoil. Place on hot coals or medium BBQ grill for 5-10 mins, turning occasionally.

Unwrap and enjoy! They were fantastic, and while the bottoms got a little burnt, I will definitely be making these again.

Easter Leftovers Day 3 - Quiche!

I love a good quiche, it makes a nice lunch or dinner, and is even great for breakfast. However, other than the mini quiches I make for my Christmas Cocktail party (recipe here) I don't often cook quiche at home. But, there are only so many things I know to do with leftover ham, and after cooking a 17 lb ham for 6 adults on Saturday, and giving lots away, I needed to do something! The pea soup was great, and enough for me to freeze for a few more meals. I did the same with the quiche, doubled the recipe and made two - one for tonight and one to freeze and reheat later. I used Tenderflake's Deep Dish Pie Crusts, and for the cheese I just grated what I had in the fridge - a little Fontina, some old cheddar, and a bit of mozzarella. The recipe below is for a single quiche, but is easily doubled and modified.

Post Easter Split Pea Soup

One of the things I miss about living at my parents house is soup after holiday dinners. At Christmas I'm usually home long enough to get in on the turkey soup, however I haven't had my mom's split pea soup in years. This year I decided to try and make my own. As I sometimes do I looked through a few different cookbooks and online recipes and came away with the basic idea, and went from there. The key for me was having saved the bone from the ham I roasted for Easter dinner, and using that to make the stock.

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.

Quick Coffee Cake

When I was younger I was always confused about coffee cake, thinking it was coffee flavoured, when in fact it's really just cake that goes really well with coffee. I had a group meeting for school Sunday morning, and decided since we were all having to get up early and meet, we should at least enjoy a little treat to kick off the day. I had never made this recipe, and it is pretty simple, and calls for ingredients most people have on hand. As a bonus, it is quick enough to make spur of the moment if you ever have last minute coffee or tea guests.

Sunday Night Dinner - Quick Sausage Cacciatore

Another weekend of classes, and so I put Brent in charge of Sunday night dinner. After deciding to go for drinks after a long day of Financial Reporting I got home just in time to put the little one to bed, and Brent had prepped everything for dinner. Unfortunately I forgot I was sending him out to pick up a baby backpack carrier I'd purchased from a swap site, so I ended up finishing up the dinner myself. The recipe said it was a '20-minute' dish, but that must have been a typo, since the instructions clearly make it take at least 30 minutes. Easy enough to put together, and made enough for dinner tonight with leftovers for lunch tomorrow, which is great for the start to a very busy week!

Mushroom Beef Bundles

For those of you in Ontario, I do hope that you try and pick up the LCBO Food & Drink magazine when it comes out. When I first moved to BC I missed it dearly, until my mom got me a subscription. I had no idea, but at the time, if you lived outside of Ontario, you could get the Food & Drink delivered to your door! And what a fantastic magazine - great articles, fantastic recipes, and lots of entertaining tips and ideas. I just checked, and now they have opened up the subscriptions to anyone in Canada or even Internationally - click here for more info. They also have a lot of their recipes available online at http://www.lcbo.com/fooddrink/.

A few years ago Brent made a recipe from the Autumn 2009 edition, and it turned out great. So when we were having some friends over for a simple Saturday night dinner and games night, I decided to try my hand at the recipe. They were fantastic and this is a recipe you could really play around with. Next time I might do a chicken pot pie variation.

Sunday Night Dinner - Mini Meatloaves

I've made mini meatloaves before, and in the past I've cooked them in muffin tins with mashed potatoes on top. This recipe I tried is from the March issue of Canadian Living, and unfortunately the timing was really off. The recipe also includes herbed potatoes as a side, and I had everything timed out perfectly so that the meatloaves, potatoes and the pea's I was making would all be ready at the same time. However, the meatloaves took twice as long to cook. I think I will do this recipe again, but will follow the modifications I made below. The original recipe called for 8 mini loaves, I would divide them into 12, and each serving would then have 3. Same amount, but I think they would cook much quicker. Overall still a pretty quick recipe to put together from beginning to end, as long as you prep everything before turning on the stove or oven!

Quinoa and Veggie Toss

I adapted this from a recipe for a 'Superfood Platter'. I'm not a huge fan of the whole 'superfood' movement. I think if you can figure out a way to eat a variety of different foods that you like, and keep an open mind to try new things, you'll end up eating some 'superfoods' along the way.

This dish would be great stuffed in a pepper or portobello mushroom, and next time I think I would definitely sprinkle with some feta cheese. Without the cheese it is vegan, if that floats your boat.

Sunday Night Dinner - Quick Pasta Sauce

Life has been pretty busy for us, and for the past couple of weeks I've lacked in the wanting to cook department. Luckily we had quite a few items in the freezer (chili, stew, perogies) so we were still able to eat alright, in between the take out Indian and Greek and Thai. Today I'd had enough, so planned meals for the week and then realized I forgot about tonight's dinner. I took a quick inventory, and while we had a frozen bag of tortellini, I wasn't sure what to do about a sauce. I modified one I've been making for a few years with what I had on hand, and the results were quite lovely.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Coconut Crisp Bars

Two things happened this week that lined up well. One, a friend posted a recipe to what looked to be awesome no bake peanut butter chocolate bars, that happened to be vegan. Two, we were headed over to a friends place for dinner, and I never like showing up empty handed, plus she is vegan. So lo and behold I had an immediate excuse to try out this new recipe. Now I was a little distracted while prepping these. I had measured out all my ingredients before hand (first time making a new recipe didn't want to miss the timing for adding ingredients). As I was stirring the peanut butter, brown rice syrup, and then adding the cocoa I was really confused as to why it was so thick. But it was the first time making this so I kept going. Adding the crisp cereal and I could barely stir everything. I kept thinking, this needs more liquid, which is when I noticed the pre-measured almond milk sitting on the counter. So I quickly added it and kept stirring, and they still turned out. Imagine how much better they would be if I had done everything properly! These aren't too sweet, which is sometimes a nice thing.

Black Bean Chili with Avocado Salsa

This chili turned out really great, and the avocado salsa added a lot of nice flavours. It would also probably be great served over rice. I will be keeping this one in the roster for when I'm back at work, as it could also easily be prepared in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

I have a feeling the slow cooker is going to become my best friend when I go back to work in a couple of months. That and freezer meals will hopefully help get me through the first couple of months of juggling work, school and a baby. This recipe will definitely come in handy, especially because you don't have to sear the meat or anything before throwing everything in the slow cooker. And apparently it freezes well, let's hope so because I froze the leftovers for another meal sometime.

Meatball Lettuce Cups

I still remember the first time I ordered lettuce wraps, not fully knowing what they were. I was really confused when my delivery order came and it included half a head of iceberg lettuce. Years later, and I still love ordering lettuce cups or wraps at restaurants, a great way to enjoy a lighter option. I had never attempted to make my own until tonight, and these were a definite hit. While it seems to be a lot of steps, it was actually pretty quick to make. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to use fresh ginger in this recipe, it really does make a difference!

Vegetable Beef Noodle Soup

I love making a menu plan for the upcoming week, and find that the pros definitely outweigh the cons with this task. I make a grocery list and know each day what needs to be prepped, as well as being confident that I usually have everything I need for the recipe. The main con is not knowing in advance what you might feel like on a specific night, or whether your dish is going to match other circumstances. In particular, it was a beautiful sunny day today, not necessarily a day I would be looking at having a hot bowl of hearty soup. But still, the soup was fantastic, and regardless of the weather outside was thoroughly enjoyed. Because this soup has noodles, if you are going to reheat it you may need to add some more water. Also, I found after the soup had simmered for 2 hours it had lost quite a bit of liquid. I ended up adding 2 cups of water at the end, and it really didn't lose any of the flavour. 

Vegetable Beef Noodle Soup

- 450 g stewing beef cubes

- 1/2 tsp pepper

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 3 carrots, chopped

- 2 ribs celery, chopped

- 1 onion, chopped

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 pkg (1 L) low-sodium or homemade beef broth

- 2 tbsp tomato paste

- 1 tsp herbes de Provence

- 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

- 1 cup large curly egg noodles

- 1/2 cup frozen peas

- 3 cups baby spinach

Sprinkle beef with pepper and salt. In Dutch oven heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook beef, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 6 minutes. Add carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, another 6 minutes. 

Stir in broth, 3 cups of water, tomato paste, herbes de Provence and vinegar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, partially cover and simmer until beef is tender, about 2 hours. Stir maybe every 20-30 minutes. 

Stir in noodles and peas; cook over medium heat until noodles are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach. 

Sunday Night Dinner - Mushroom and Feta Fusilli

I had class all weekend so Brent was in charge of dinner. Saturday night we ordered in, and tonight he put together a pasta dish I had suggested. It was simple but nice, and I didn't have to cook or clean anything up! We used almond milk so it had a bit of a nuttier flavour.

Sausage, Potato and Swiss Chard Soup

This soup was super quick to make, which was a good thing because I lost track of time and before I knew it, it was almost dinner time. From start to finish, including all chopping, took about 30 minutes. I was a little hesitant while I was cooking it, not sure how it was going to work out. It came together really nicely, and I will make it again sometime. You could use other kinds of sausage, I opted for hot Italian, and it was pretty spicy.

Chicken with Prosciutto

When I was home for the holidays I noticed my parents had a lovely selection of homemade meats from their Italian friends. The Soo (my hometown) is well known for it's Italian food, and my folks get together with friends every year and make sausage, and one of their friends makes a bunch dried sausage, salami's and prosciutto. Before I left my dad told me to grab what I wanted, as they would be getting together again soon. So I grabbed some of each, and decided to use the prosciutto for dinner tonight. The prosciutto was so tasty, I had to stop myself from eating too much of it while cooking. This recipe is super simple. I've done a similar dish with salmon, but I think I prefer the chicken. To go along with this I just sauteed some red onion, garlic, cauliflower, asparagus and spinach together.

Sunday Night Dinner - Asparagus Ricotta Frittata

To continue on the new recipe trend, here is one from - surprise, surprise - Canadian Living. This recipe is from the Make It Tonight book - full of lots of great recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. The frittata is very flavourful, and with a simple spinach salad makes a great dinner. The only issue I had is that my pan was too large, so the frittata was a little thin. However, it still tasted great, we just had to have seconds! Next time I will probably just add some more eggs and ricotta, and perhaps a little more asparagus to fit in my cast-iron pan.

New Year - New Recipes

It's January 1st, which means it's that time of year that people make New Year's Resolutions, and oftentimes they are similar - eat better, be more active, spend more time with family etc. etc. All of these are great resolutions, but in fact should be something we strive for every day, not just around the New Year. I do have a few friends who make some great resolutions. One year a couple of friends resolved to see more live music, and boy did they do a good job with that one. I have another friend who just recently finished his 2013 resolution of reading 26 non-fiction books (one every 2 weeks). So this year, I am going to join the bandwagon, and my New Year's Resolution is to cook new recipes. I'm not going to be specific and make a goal of one every week, or even every month. However, I am going to strive to cook new recipes as often as possible, whether from trusted sources, or making up new recipes myself.

To start off the year I picked up the January issue of Canadian Living and decided to try out their Ricotta Gnocchi. Brent and I made a similar version at a cooking class years ago, and I honestly don't know why I never revisited it. This recipe is a little simpler, because you don't need to drain the ricotta for 30 minutes. I couldn't find golden beets, so used regular ones, and thus the entire dish was a little pink, however it tasted fabulous! Brent said it was one of my top 10 recipes, which is great considering how easy it was to prepare.