Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I always wanted to roast some peppers and peel the skin off. Had seen it done way too many times on TV that I had to try it. It was surprisingly easy. And delicious!

Curry Acorn Squash and Apple Soup

Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Asparagus

Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Asparagus

Meat Loaf has got to be one of the great comfort foods. It's also a great way to feed a big family, and on a budget. You don't have to spend a ton of money to make a great meal! Plus, it's great as leftovers. Eat it as is, or consider putting it in a sandwich? Mmm meat loaf sandwich.

ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 cup bread crumbs

1 egg
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1 onions
2-3 cloves garlic
worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup milk

salt
pepper

ketchup

brown sugar
white wine vinegar

acorn squash
potatoes
milk
salt
pepper
asparagus

directions:

1. In a frying pan, sautee chopped onion, sliced carrot, and sliced celery so that they are slightly cooked. Soak breadcrumbs in milk to ensure your meat loaf will be moist.

2. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, crushed garlic, a splash of worcestershire sauce, a squirt of ketchup, and the veggies from a pan. Mix with a fork or your hands and form into a big ball.

3. Put the big ball of meat into a casserole dish and form it into a loaf.

4. Mix ketchup, brown sugar, and white wine vinegar into a bowl to make a sauce for the top of the meat loaf. Brush or pour on top of the meat loaf.

5. Put the meat loaf in the oven at 400 F degrees for about 1 hour, or 1 hour and 15 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and your favourite vegetable.

Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

If I told you this roll contained two lobsters and it was huge and I ate all of it... Would you think less of me? I sure hope not. I also made my own mayonnaise on this one!

ingredients:

buttery bun
lobster tail and claw
mayo
celery
lettuce
sweet potatoes
oil
salt
pepper

Lemony Garlicy Hummus

Lemony Garlicy Hummus

I used to make hummus all the time years ago. And it appears my culinary skills have vastly improved as this was the most tasty hummus I have ever made.

ingredients:

1 can chickpeas
1 tbsp tahini
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon (juice and zest)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

directions:

1. In a blender or food processor, combine 1 can of cooked chickpeas, tahini pasta, crushed garlic cloves, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, and salt and pepper.

2. Blend until smooth. Add extra water if needed.

3. Serve with baguette or pita or chips. Sprinkle with some chopped parsley if you want to make it look fancy.

Eggplant Parm Sandwich with Greek Style Potatoes

Lemony potato goodness.

Herbed Dumpling and Chickpea Soup

"Those are some big balls!" The dumplings have herbs, and parmesan cheese inside. They were fun to make. :)

Cranberry, Walnut, Green Bean Quinoa Salad, With Veggie Burger

Cranberry, Walnut, Green Bean Quinoa Salad

This is a great quinoa salad to eat as a side, or bring to a pot luck. (as long as there are no nut allergies that is...). It is packed full of flavour and is also really healthy for you. I saw something like this first made at the Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto, but it had oranges and it didn't have this dressing.

ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
dried cranberries
chopped walnuts
fresh green beans
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

pepper
salt
garlic powder

directions:

1. Cook quinoa in slightly salted water in a pot. 1 part quinoa, 2 parts water. Bring to a boil, and let it simmer until quinoa absorbs all of the water.

2. Set the cooked quinoa aside, and let it cool a bit. After it has cooled, fluff it with a fork.

3. Slice fresh green beans into more bite sized pieces, and steam them so they are cooked through. Blanch them in ice water immediately after to stop the cooking process. This will keep them crisp, and not soggy for your salad, as well as bright green.

4. Mix your dried cranberries, cooled green beans, and chopped walnuts into the quinoa.

5. To make the dressing for the salad, combine balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder into a vinaigrette. The ratio of oil to vinegar should be 3 to 1. 3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar. Mix through, then pour on salad and mix til it is fully coated.

Homemade Easy Mac N Cheese

Homemade Easy Mac N Cheese

Mac N Cheese is a crowd-pleaser for the young and the old. Or at least I know I love it. It's one of those comfort foods that is easy to feed to an entire family, and is also great as leftovers. The other great thing about mac n cheese, is that really any and all cheeses work. As long as one of them is good at melting. So here is how I made mine.

ingredients:

1/2 bag of macaroni
2 cups cheddar cheese (or a huge pile)
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
4 tbsp flour

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup butter

directions:

1. Boil macaroni in a pot with salted water. And shred a big pile of cheddar cheese.

2. Put some butter in a large pan and melt it down. Slowly add flour bit by bit and mix it in to make a rue. Then add in your milk to the pan and mix with the flour. Once this mixture has mixed together and seems like a sauce, you can start to add your cheese into it to give it more flavour and body.

3. Pour macaronies into a casserole dish, and cover pasta with the cheese sauce.

4. Toast some bread crumbs in a pan in some butter. Make sure all the bread crumbs are soaked with the butter so that they won't burn. Put this crumble on top of the mac n cheese.

5. Cook mac n cheese in the oven for 45 minutes at 400 F. Cover for first half if you are afraid it will burn.

Honey Garlic Tofu with Quinoa Pilaf

Honey Garlic Tofu with Quinoa Pilaf

One of the fastest and easiest ways I found to cook tofu was to fry it, and sauce it. This honey garlic tofu was a play off of those sesame chicken dishes I used to eat a lot in university.

ingredients:

1 block firm tofu
2 tbsp corn starch
pinch of salt
pinch of ground pepper
oil

1/4 cup soy sauce
2-4 tbsp honey
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp ginger
sesame seeds

directions:

1. Cut firm tofu in half, or use the whole block, depending how many people you are feeding. Cut into small cubes, about 2 centermetres each. Dredge the tofu cubes in a mixture of corn starch, salt and pepper. The corn starch coating will help create a crust on the tofu, and help the sauce adhere to it.

2. Pour a little oil into a frying pan or wok, and toss in the tofu. Mix and flip the tofu around to make sure all sides get cooked. You don't want uncooked corn starch.

3. In a small pot, combine soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger, and boil. Then simmer and reduce it down into more of a sauce if needed. If you want, you could add corn starch to thicken it up. If you are really pressed for time, or don't feel like making sauce, just use store bought. You can use honey garlic sauce, or even BBQ sauce.

4. Toss fried tofu cubes with sauce and make sure everything is evenly coated. Drizzle with sesame seeds for a little crunch, and to make it more presentable.

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Making fresh rolls, instead of spring rolls or egg rolls is incredibly easy as the rice paper cooks so quickly. The only hard part is wrapping them. But honestly, it is A LOT easier than making sushi or something like that. So it is worth a try making theses at home.

ingredients:

rice paper
shrimp
cucumber
carrot
vermicelli noodles
garlic

rice noodles
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp white wine vinegar, or rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
bean sprouts
onions

directions:

Fresh Rolls:

1. Slice cucumber and carrot into thin strips. Slightly sautee shrimps with garlic in butter in a frying pan until they are cooked through. Keep shrimps whole, or consider slicing them in half for your rolls.

2. Spread out your fillings in bowls to get ready to prepare the rolls. Make sure you have a flat surface like a large plate or cutting board that you can put your rice paper out on.

3. In some boiling water, submerge each rice paper one by one. Will only take 1 minute to cook. After the rice paper is cooked and malleable. Put it on a flat surface and spoon in some of the carrots, cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and shrimp. Fold sides and bottom in, and roll up.

4. Take rolls and dip them in your favourite plum sauce, or sweet chili sauce.

Curried Noodles:

1. Bowl some rice noodles in a pot until they are cooked through.

2. Mix curry powder, white wine vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar into a bowl or measuring cup and set aside.

3. Cut onion into small slices, and start frying them in a pan. While the onion is cooking, chop bean sprouts in about half or smaller pieces. When translucent, add in your noodles and bean sprouts. As they are cooking pour in your mixture of curry powder, vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix around until the noodles are all coated. Remove once the bean sprouts are cooked through.

Vegetarian Christmas Dinner, Miso Gravy, Homemade Cranberry Orange Sauce

Vegetarian Christmas Dinner

When I was vegetarian, one of the things I missed the most was gravy. When I discovered miso gravy was a thing, I decided I must figure out how to make it. So it was close to christmas time, so I made this faux chicken and miso gravy feast. The stuffing is veggie as well. Actually, it all is veg!

ingredients:

faux chicken
zucchini
potatoes
milk
butter
salt
pepper

stuffing:

bread
egg
apple
onion
celery
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder

directons: Toast the bread and cut it into cubes. Beat eggs and mix with bread so it's coated. Fry chopped onions and celery in a pan. And add those with the apple to the bread mixture. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Put in a casserole dish and cook in an oven at 400. Maybe 20-30 minutes.

cranberry sauce:

1 bag of fresh cranberries
1/4 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup sugar

directions: Put cranberries, orange juice (and zest if you have it), and sugar into a small pot at medium heat. Cook for 10-15 minutes. The cranberries will burst on their own and the pectin in the cranberries will turn it into a sauce on its own.

miso gravy:

1 and 1/2 cups veggie stock (or water with veggie bouillon cube)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp miso paste
corn starch or flour

directions: Add your veggie stock into a sauce pan, mix in your miso paste, add your oil (for fat), dijon mustard (for tang), and some garlic powder. Mix with a whisk. Thicken with a corn starch mixture, or flour, until it is a gravy consistency.

Pancakes with Fruit and Raspberry Drizzle

One time when I was little I ate so many pancakes I threw up. I couldn't eat them for years.

Paneer Pasanda

I ate this at my friend's wedding a couple years ago and after wards I needed to figure out how to make it! I LOVE paneer!

Carrot Cake

An all time favourite! My siblings and I always requested this on our birthdays.

Butternut Squash Soup

With a broccoli tree growing up the middle...

Lentil Goulash

I put the goo in the goulash...

Jambalaya with Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jambalaya with Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

This entire meal was gluten-free which I made with my friend Courtney. The sausage was gluten-free which we bought from the Healthy Butcher, and the chocolate chip cookes had quinoa flour in it. It showed that yes, it is possibly to eat delicious gluten-free food.

ingredients:

shrimp
sausage
can of diced tomatoes
onions
celery
bell pepper
rice
paprika
cumin
cayenne
ground pepper
salt
chicken or veggie stock

Ground Beef And Rice Stuffed Peppers - Gluten-Free!

Ground Beef And Rice Stuffed Peppers - Gluten-Free!

"I'll stuff your pepper!" -me

ingredients:

1-1.5 pound ground beef
1 can kidney beans
1 onion
2-4 green pepper (or any colour you want)
1/2-1 cup rice
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp cayenne
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
handful  of shredded cheese (mozzarella)

directions:

1. In a small pot, could 1/2-1 cup of rice, and set aside. I find it's easier to cook the rice ahead of time, instead of trusting that it will cook and soak up enough liquid inside the pepper.

2. Cut some large green peppers open from the top, and de-seed. And then dice up some onions into small pieces, and crush some garlic. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, mix your ground beef, rice, canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt and pepper, cayenne together. Fill each green pepper up with this mixture. And top with shredded cheese.

4. Put in the oven at 400 F, for at least 30 minutes. Until the cheese because golden brown, and the ground beef is cooked. Broil for a few minutes if cheese doesn't look golden enough. When the green peppers change to a more desaturated yellow from the green. That is when you know they are ready, or almost ready.

Potato and Mushroom Strudel

With sour cream icing!!! Got to represent my Austrian/German roots!

Salmon Pie with Grilled Fennel

Salmon Pie with Grilled Fennel

My mom made this for me when I was at home recently, and I decided to make it myself.

ingredients:

canned salmon
eggs
green onion
salt
pepper
cream
pie crust

Spicy Schezwan Tofu - The Ultimate Stir-fry

Spicy Schezwan Tofu - The Ultimate Stir-fry

Have you ever wanted to make a giant stir-fry? Here's how!

ingredients:

1 pack firm tofu
handful of bok choy
red pepper
snow peas
onions
garlic
soy sauce
honey
rice wine vinegar

bean sprouts
celery
carrots
onions

rice
soy sauce

directions:

1. Cut firm tofu into bit sized cubes. Maybe 1/2 an inch, by 1/2 an inch. Marinate tofu in soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey and garlic over night if possible.

2. Cut bok choy into 1 inch chunks, and red pepper and snow peas into similar sized pieces.

3. In a large frying pan or wok, add in a little bit of oil. Then toss in your tofu. Add in some chopped garlic as well. Cook tofu until it starts to for a bit of a brown crust on the outside. Then toss in your vegetables. And toss the mixture until the vegetables are cooked through.

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

This soup is most definitely vegetarian and vegan.

ingredients:

2 carrots
2 onions
4 celery stalks
1/2 head broccoli
handful of frozen corn
1 potato
veggie stock of veggie bouillon cube
4 tbsp flour
butter
salt
pepper

Veggie Quesadilla

Mmmm

Veggie Lasagna

Recipe:

Ask me?