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.