Pizza Spirals

Growing up I was never a big pizza fan. I didn't mind pizza, but I wasn't the typical kid that would eat pizza all day long. Turns out I just don't like what I considering to be "typical Saskatchewan pizza". The popular pizza here seems to have a ton of meat, like inches, one slice of some unrecognizable vegetable, and a mountain of cheese. While I love the cheese, the grease from all the meat puts me off.

This pizza recipe as a couple ingredients you wouldn't normally associate with pizza, but I promise it's delicious. These tasty little spirals are perfect to keep in the freezer for last minute suppers, or to send/take for lunch. They would even make a great food to serve at a kids birthday party!

Pizza Spirals Makes approx. 40 rolls
2T olive oil
2 1/2 cups diced onion
4t minced garlic
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
2 loaves from bread dough
1 can tomato paste
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1t oregano
1t basil
1t salt

Sauté onions, garlic, carrots and zucchini in oil over medium high heat. Set aside to cool.
Roll pizza tough to a rectangle (or as best you can manage) that is about 1/4" thick. Spread a layer of tomato paste over the dough. Sprinkle on oregano, basil and salt. Add on an even layer of the choose vegetables and top with shredded mozzarella.

Using a pizza wheel, cut the rectangle into 1" wide strips. Roll the strips up to form a spiral. Lay the spirals on a parchment lied baking sheet and bake for 350 for 15-18 minutes.

To freeze: Bake as directed and allow to cool. Place in a freezer bag and freeze.
To serve: Thaw and reheat in the microwave.

Eggroll in a Bowl

This is one of my new favorite recipes! I recently came across a local farm to table Facebook group, that allows you to buy great food straight from the farmers who grow/raise it. The Wandering Market has tons of different products and bundle options. In the winter vegetable bundle I ordered I received the largest cabbage I have ever seen in my life. No joke, this thing was the size of Bianca. I ended up making 3 meals from it, and adding cabbage to anything and everything I could, and I still had over half of it left.

I've never really cooked with cabbage (other than cabbage rolls, and even then I just eat what my mom makes) and had no idea what to do with our new bundle of joy. Good ole Pinterest gave me the hook-up with tons of great ideas, but I couldn't get the idea of an eggroll out of my head.

Eggroll in a Bowl
1 lb (5 links) of sausage
4 cups coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrot also works great)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup soy
1/4 cup water
1t brown sugar
1t fresh ginger
sliced green onion for garnish

Remove sausage meat from the casing and brown it in a pan over medium-high heat. While the sausage is browning, combine garlic, soy, water, sugar and ginger in a bowl. Set aside. Once the sausage is cooked through, add the coleslaw to the pan and pour sauce over top. Cook until the cabbage is wilted but crunchy. Sprinkle green onions over top and serve.

I like to serve this with a grain of some sort just to make it a little more substantial. I really like faro because it's a bit of a drier grain and supposedly good for you, but rice would be just as tasty. We sometimes like to add a little hoisin sauce on top just to make it extra saucy.

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Let the pumpkin theme continue!! Since we are eating and drinking everything pumpkin this time of year, we might as well play with pumpkin too! A friend shared one of those Facebook video tutorials that had this recipe ( if you can call it that) on it and I knew I had to try it. It's super easy to make, extremely inexpensive, and who doesn't want it to be okay to play with pumpkin pie!

To make this delicious smelling dough, all you need is pumpkin puree, cornstarch and pumpkin spice! We mixed the cornstarch into the pumpkin puree 1/2 cup at a time until we reached the dough consistency we wanted. It ended up taking 6-7 cups, so I suggest doing it 1 cup at a time. Then we added in the pumpkin spice. To jazz it up a bit, I dug out some sugar leaves that I had in the sprinkle basket and tossed them in too. *TIP - because you need such a large amount of cornstarch I suggest buying it in bulk from a store like Bulk Barn.

Roman lost interest in mixing pretty quickly when I told him he had to mix gently and keep everything in the bowl, so he stuck to scooping and dumping. In hind sight, it probably would have been better to just let him mix however he wanted to. Bianca is currently in the "everything must go in my mouth!!!" stage, so she just watched us from the sidelines. As you can tell from the pictures, she was impressed with me....

Of course the first thing he did was run off to get his construction trucks so that he could "build a construction site". I always cringe when he puts cars with small pieces into dough like this because cleaning them can be a nightmare. Not this time though! I rinsed his tractor under warm water for a few seconds and voila! A squeaky clean tractor!

Roman had a blast playing with the dough! Once he had enough, I stuck it all into a freezer bag and popped it in the fridge. It's been about a week since we made it and the dough is still usable. When it's cold it is pretty crumbly but once you work with it and it warms up a bit, it's back to normal. I don't think I'll hang on to it much longer though because I don't want things to start growing. Oh, and those sugar leaves. Yeah, they basically dissolved. Not surprising since the dough is pretty wet and they are in fact made of sugar.

Have you made any scented dough for your kids to play with, or is there a scent you'd like to see me attempt? Comment below! I'd love to hear your ideas!

Harvest 2016

We finished our garden harvest a few weeks back, but things have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write up this post! It was another great growing season this year and we ended up with a good amount of produce. Sure there were a few bumps in the road, including Bronx eating Roman's prized broccoli plants, but overall it was a good season.

 

Once again the tomato plants when hog wild and grew to an enormous size is no time flat. One of the plants was literally the size of me. John tried desperately to keep it standing, but even 3 large stakes couldn't keep it standing. It eventually sprawled out in all directions and smothered the watermelon plants. Poor things didn't stand a chance. I used the tomatoes to make close to 32L of sauce before finally giving up on the 4th and 5th pickings, of which I didn't even take pictures of because I was so over them. I pawned some off on a few friends and the rest (which are still sitting in the garage waiting to completely ripen) will be donated the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank. If you ever have extra produce from your garden, don't throw it out!! Most food banks and even some shelters will accept garden produce donations!

 

John's jalapeno plants managed to produce a lot of peppers despite being partially covered by the mammoth tomato plant. SO many peppers in fact that John was able to make a good sized jar of pickled peppers. The brussel sprouts however didn't do much other than attract a swarm of cabbage butterflies. I had be warned about these nasty little bugs but I thought to myself "not in my garden". Boy, was I wrong. I sprayed the plants down to kill the worms, but by the time I realized there was a problem, there weren't enough leaves left to worry about applying powder to get rid of the butterflies. The sprouts themselves only got about as big as a loonie, despite me removing leavings to try to help them grow as Google suggested. I probably won't be planting them again. Too much effort for too little sprouts. Roman's replacement broccoli plants also aided in the takeover in the butterfly situation, but at least we got a bit of broccoli out of them.

The zucchini plant also wasn't a big producer. The plant itself was giant, and we did get a few zucchinis off of it, but then the zucchinis started rotting on the plant. Turns out the soil didn't have enough calcium in it. Google (again) suggested egg shells in the soil to increase the calcium but I think it was too little too late. I'll probably give these tasty morsels another go next year because I love having shredded zucchini on hand for baking.

I love cucumbers! This is a big statement because I always thought I hated cucumber. Turns out I'm just a cucumber snob and only like garden cucumbers. Considering the plants looked pretty sad, they produced a TON of cucumbers; big ones at that! Roman wasn't a fan of picking the cucumbers because they were covered in "pokies", but would happily carry them once we brushed them away.

Finally we get to the experimental potato patch. I for one was shocked! We ended up with what I thought was a huge amount of potatoes for an experimental plant. I'm guessing we have close to 10 pounds sitting in the basement right now, plus we ate some as new potatoes. Roman had a blast digging up potatoes. Well, more like watching me dig and then diving in the pulling the potatoes out like he had found buried treasure.

Now all that's left is to clear all the plants out and dig up all the weeds. There were so many mosquitos here this year that the garden didn't get much tending. I watered for the second level of the yard, and tried to physically enter the garden as little as possible. Even to pick the vegetables we did we had to suit up in pants and hoodies, hood up and tied as tight as possible around our faces, and doused in a thick layer of bug spray. It was not a pleasant occasion.

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Fall is the season of pumpkins! Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cookies; really I could go on forever. But all of delicious treats have on thing in common. Pumpkin, specifically pumpkin puree. Your first instinct is probably to pick up a can from the grocery store, but why not set your pumpkin masterpiece apart by using fresh pumpkin!

 Pumpkins are readily available right now and very inexpensive. I promise this isn't as scary or difficult as it might sound! You want to choose a pumpkin a smaller pumpkin as the larger jack-o-lantern pumpkins can be a little off in texture.

The first step, and the nastiest in my opinion, is to cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the guts. I tried to enlist Roman's help on this one but he wasn't having it. If you can't cut the pumpkin in half you can just chop it into a few pieces, it's all going to be blended anyway. Place your pumpkin pieces skin side down on a parchment lined baking sheet, and pop them into a 375° oven for 45 minutes.

Let the pumpkin cool slightly before cutting the flesh away from the skin. Or ignore this step and burn your hand like I did, it's really a matter of personal choice. I like to live on the wild side. Toss the pumpkin into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You may have to add a little water to get it to blend well. Of course Roman was more than happy to help with this part.

Now that you have your pumpkin puree you can do one of three things with it;1. Use it immediately, 2. Transfer the puree to a freezer bag and freeze it for later use, or 3. transfer it to an airtight container to use in the next few days. I decided to use some mason and jam jars to hold my puree until I can get around to making some muffins with it. I didn't have any lids kicking around so I used a layer of tin foil under the collar to seal it up.

See, that was pretty painless! Now you have some delicious, homemade puree to use in your Thanksgiving pies, tarts, cheesecakes, cupcakes, muffins, brownies, cookies.....Well, look at the time! Time for me to hit the kitchen and make some muffins!

How to can tomatoes without a canner

Tomato season is in full swing in our garden, and as per usual, I planted WAY too many tomato plants. Well, actually I only planted 6, but those six have each grown to the size of a shopping cart. No joke. Last year we planted all cherry tomatoes (by mistake) and when they started to ripen I just could keep up them to even get them into jars. It's a good thing I planted half the amount of plants I usually do because we have a ton of tomatoes. Just this morning Roman and I suited up and picked two gallons of tomatoes, to add to the one gallon I already have waiting for me in the garage, and the two jars I have already canned.

You can can (can can, can you do the can can?) any kind of tomatoes, but Roma tomatoes work really well because they are mainly flesh and less of the juicy/seedy stuff in the middle. I have been picking ours only they start to show a bit of orange and letting them ripen in the garage in a cardboard box. I find this helpful because I don't have to trudge into the mosquito infested garden to check the state of the tomatoes. I just catch a quick glace on the way out the door and then I don't have to worry about them rotting on the vine.

Since we use a lot of crushed tomatoes during the year, whether it be for pasta or tacos, I like to can our tomatoes this way. I made salsa a few years back and it was delicious if your family isn't into crushed tomatoes. Canners are super expensive and frankly the whole process seems scary to me since I know squat about canning. The first year we planted our garden my mom came out and showed me how to can tomatoes without one. This method is super easy, requires minimal equipment, and takes no time at all. Let's get started!

Prep the sealers
Choose the size of sealer that works best for you. I found these pretty green sealers at Superstore and they are big enough to hold enough sauce for the whole family for a meal. Fill your sink and a smaller bowl with hot water. Submerge the jars in the sink and the collar and lid in the smaller bowl. The hot water will sterilize the jars, and I'm sure there are other reasons you do this but this is what mom told me to do so that's what I do.

Chop up the tomatoes
This doesn't have to be a really precise chopping job. I cut my tomatoes into 6 pieces, but even quarters would be fine. Toss all of the tomatoes in a very large pot.

Cook the tomatoes
Bring the tomatoes in a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to break down and the excess moisture is cooked away. The time will vary depending on the kind of tomatoes you are using. Remove the pot from the heat.

Blend
They easiest way to do this is with a boat motor. Most people call it an immersion blender, but I like boat motor better. If you don't have a boat motor, or yours has sprouted legs and moved out like mine, a blender will work just find. Be extremely careful though because the tomatoes are very hot and if the lid isn't on tight enough it might blow up in your face. Once all the tomatoes are blended, pour them back into the pot and bring to a boil again. You want them piping hot when they go into the sealers.

Seal
I like to keep the pot on the stove on low just so the tomatoes don't lose their heat. Ladle the tomatoes into the jars until it reaches the bottom of the threads. If you have small mouthed jars, use a funnel to make the filling process easier. Once the jar is filled, wipe the rim (you don't want any sauce on it before you seal it), top with the lid and twist on the collar. You'll want to use a towel to hang onto the jar because it's going to be smokin' hot. I borrowed John to make sure the collar was on super tight.

Sit your jars aside and wait to hear the "pop" of the lid sealing. You may not hear it from all the jars but you can see if they are sealed by pressing on the centre on the lid. If it pops up and down it isn't sealed, if it doesn't move you're good to go!

Broccoli Tots

I think vegetables are the bane of every parent's existence, at least when it comes to feeding their kids.  Whether you have a picky eater or not, plane ole steamed or boiled veggies get old fast.  I'm always on the hunt for a veggie recipe that is tasty, easy, and if I can freeze it, even better!

I came across this recipe from Gimme Delicious (love the name!) on Pinterest.  Broccoli and cheese are obviously a classic pairing so I had a hunch it would be a winner, and boy was I right!  I love these for a quick and easy side or snack.  I've been known to have them as a meal dipped in a little tatziki or ranch while I bounce a fussy Bianca.  Delicious, healthy, and portable!

Broccoli Tots
2 cups broccoli
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup diced onion
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup Panko
1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs*
2T parsley
1t salt
1t pepper

*Don't have Italian breadcrumbs?  Just use Panko instead.  I've done it and they are just as delicious!

Blanch broccoli for 1 minute, then shock with cold water.  Set aside.
Chop broccoli finely and mix with egg, onion, cheese, Panko, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper.
Scoop mixture with an ice cream scoop and form into the shape of a tater tot.  Or if you're lazy like me, just leave them in the ball from the scoop.  Plus it's cleaner!
Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet at 400° for 18-24 minutes, turning hallway through.

To Freeze: Allow to cool completely.  Flash freeze on the baking sheet and transfer to a freezer bag once frozen.
To Serve: Reheat in the oven or in the microwave.

I knew this was going to be a winner when John was stealing tots while they were cooling on the stove.  Luckily Roman LOVES broccoli so it didn't take much convincing to get him to eat them.

Creamy Chicken Pockets

Everyone knows that food tastes better when it comes in pocket form; pizza pocket, pocket pies...or maybe that's just me... Roman loves chicken, broccoli and cheese, and I clearly have a thing for food in a pocket, so this recipe was sure to be a hit! I found the original recipe on Once A Month Meals, but changed it up just a bit.

These pockets have become a go to recipe in our house lately. Because the pockets only have to be reheated on serving day, it make them a great choice for busy nights when Bianca won't let me out of her sight for longer than two minutes, or the nights that I completely forget about supper. Ooops! They would also be great to take to work/school for lunch and could be eaten cold or warmed up in the microwave for a few minutes. And because it's in a pocket form you can just pick it up and eat it! See, I told you food in pocket form was amazing!

Creamy Chicken Pockets (Makes 8)
2 2/3 cup chicken breasts, cooked & shredded
1 cup finely chopped, cooked broccoli
2t minced garlic
1T butter, softened
4oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4t salt
2T milk
1/4t pepper
8oz crescent rolls* (1 pkg.)

Topping:
1T butter, melted
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

*These are the regular crescent rolls. You can use the Grands crescent rolls, you will just have 4 really large, meal sized rolls instead of 8. Obviously you will need to adjust the baking time accordingly.

In a bowl, mix together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add chicken, garlic and broccoli to cream cheese. Stir in salt pepper and milk, set aside.

Separate rolls into triangles, (*Tip - I like to flatten mine out and stretch them out a bit so I can pack more filling into them and they are easier to close) and place a good sized scoop of filling into the centre of each triangle. Fold the corners of the triangle into the centre to completely enclose the filling. Place the pockets on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 375° for 11-13 min.

To Freeze: Bake as directed and allow to cool completely. Wrap each pocket with plastic warp, place in a freezer bag and freeze.
To Serve: Defrost pockets and reheat in the oven or microwave.

The possibilities for fillings are endless! You could swap in any kind of vegetables with the chicken, or just skip the chicken and make a veggie and cheese pocket! I'd love to hear what you come up with!

Healthier Bangers & Mash

I love shopping my freezer when I'm out of ideas for supper.  Sometimes finding that perfect protein in the freezer is enough to inspire an entire meal, but it didn't quite happen that way this time.  I came across a package of mild Italian sausage in the freezer and immediately I thought I would make Toasted Pasta.  A great recipe for sure, but I felt like I needed to make something different, like I was getting into a bit of a food rut.  After standing at the counter glaring at the package of thawing sausage like it was it's fault that I was uninspired it hit me.  Bangers & Mash!

Now I've never had an authentic bangers & mash meal but I knew the basics so how hard could it be to recreate.  Well first off I never have potatoes in this house so that was the first stick in the mud.  Luckily I did have a head of cauliflower that I knew would make a great mashed potato substitute.  I still felt like I was missing something so I dove into the crisper in the fridge and this is what happened!

Healthier Bangers & Mash
1 pkg mild Italian sausage (5 links), split down the middle
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 cup diced onion
1 bunch swiss chard, washed & chopped
1 1/2 cups diced mushroom
2t minced garlic
salt & pepper
1T butter
2T parmesan cheese

Place split sausage links in a pan over medium-high heat and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through. Remove sausages from pan and set aside. Don't be concerned if the sausage burns a bit, those black bits will add flavor to the veggies! Add the onion to the pan and season with salt and pepper. The salt will draw out the moisture from the onion and help lift the sausage flavor from the pan. Sauté the onion for 1 minute then add in the swiss chard & mushrooms. Add garlic and sauté until the swiss chard has wilted.

Bring water to a boil in a large pot.  Add cauliflower and boil until tender.  Strain and return to pot.  Add butter and parmesan cheese.  Mash with a potato masher until it reaches a mashed potato like consistency.

Serve a scoop of cauliflower topped with a scoop of the swiss chard mixture and a sausage link.

I know the thought of substituting cauliflower for potatoes seems like you would be giving up a lot of satisfaction but I promise that it's much easier than you think. I've actually started to prefer cauliflower over potatoes, which I'm sure will shock my Mom because I LOVE potatoes. I feel so much better after eating the cauliflower because I don't feel stuffed and heavy.

Pumpkin Pie Baby/Toddler Food with the Infantino Squeeze Station

We are now fully immersed in fall which means pumpkin everything is popping up in the stores.  Coffee, tea, muffins, cookies, even pancake mix all seems to have pumpkin somehow added into them. I can't help but notice that one group of people is being horrible discriminated against and being left out of the pumpkin party.  Won't someone please think of the children!!  Specifically the babies and toddlers!!

Luckily I am on the case and have the little ones covered!  Not only did I come up with a healthy and delicious snack, but now even the littlest tikes can enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie!  I enlisted the help of my handsome little man and my handy Infantino Squeeze Station to make this delicious snack for Roman.  I'm pretty lucky that Roman loves all food and quite happily eats roasted pumpkin plain, but I think it would be wrong of me to deprive him of the warm and spicy flavors of pumpkin pie.  Or maybe I'm over thinking this...

Pumpkin Pie Baby Toddler Food
4 cups pumpkin puree
1/2t cinnamon
1/4t allspice
1/4t nutmeg
2T agave syrup

Preheat oven to 350°.  Cut pumpkin in half and scrape out the insides, the same way you would if you were carving a pumpkin.  Place the pumpkin halves, cut side up, on a cookie sheet and bake at 350° for 60 minutes or until tender.

Once the pumpkin is baked and slightly cooled, peel or cut the skin away from the flesh of the pumpkin.  Cut the pumpkin into manageable pieces and puree in a blender.  Add water as needed to get a smooth texture.  Transfer puree into a large mixture bowl and mix the remaining ingredients into the pumpkin until well distributed.  You may want to add more or less agave syrup to tailor the flavour to your little one.

Now for the fun part, making the pouches!  If you have a baby or toddler, you need one of these machines.  It would also make a great gift for someone who is expecting and planning on making their own baby food.  Unfortunately we can't buy these in stores in Canada, so I purchased mine from Amazon.com.  Even with the currency exchange and the shipping it was still a great deal.  This is how it works!

First you slide the pouches into the filling station and twist on the filling canisters.  Fill the canisters just shy of the top, or less if your little one doesn't eat this much.  Place the plunger on top and press the puree into the pouch.  Viola!  With the plunger still inside the canister, unscrew the canister from the pouch.  Slide the pouch off of the filling station and screw on the cap.  These pouches can be stored in the fridge or in the freezer.  I usually freeze mine since I make them in larger batches and just let them thaw in the fridge overnight or on the counter for a couple hours before I give them to Roman.  *TIP - to use the squeeze station your puree must be smooth.  Lumps will get caught in the bottom of the canister and it will make filling your pouches impossible.

Chicken Taco Salad

Way back in 8th grade, taco salad was one of the very first things I ever cooked.  Unless that is you count the after school snacks consisting of countless pots of KD and numerous grilled cheese sandwiches.  Taco salad is a quick and easy weeknight meal, but it can also be healthy!  Traditionally, as far as I know anyway, taco salad is served with beef and a dressing of some sort, but I like to make a few switches and skip the dressing.  I promise it will still be moist, flavorful, and you definitely won't miss the dressing!

Chicken Taco Salad
1lb ground chicken
1t garlic powder
1t onion powder
1t cumin
1t chili powder
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup salsa
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 head romaine lettuce, torn
1 1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Season ground chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, cumin and chili powder and then brown in a pan over medium high heat.  Add bell pepper, tomato and salsa and cook until warmed through, remove from heat.  In a large bowl mix together chicken, green onions, lettuce and tortilla chips.  Top with shredded cheese and serve.

I usually assemble my taco salads in individual portions.  This way the ingredients are evenly distributed and everyone gets some of everything.

I love this recipe because of it's simplicity and freshness and also because it's quick to make and good for you!  To save yourself even more time you could cook your chicken and freeze it.  Then all you have to do is reheat and dress your salad!

Homemade Salsa

This summer has been a bit of an odd ball.  We've had some really hot days and some pretty chilly ones.  All this fluctuation in temperature has caused our garden to produce tomatoes at a rate that we've been able to keep up with.  Meaning that we've been eating them as they ripen.  We managed to build up a bit of a stash of them this last few weeks so I knew I wanted to can some.  We don't have enough to make tomato sauce so I decided to make salsa!

My aunt Kathy made this salsa last year and it was so delicious that John and I gobbled down our jar in no time flat.  She was nice enough to share the recipe with me so I wanted to share it with you!  I love salsa with tortilla chips as a snack or used as a sauce in Taco Salad.  I love homemade salsa because I don't have to worry about the hidden salt or sugar, I know exactly what is in the jar.

Now that my mouth is watering, let's get to the recipe!

Salsa (Makes 5 - 500ml jars)
7 cups chopped tomatoes (about 6 pounds)
2 cups chopped onions
8 jalapeno peppers, chopped with seeds removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato paste (156ml)
3/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup (lightly packed) chopped parsley
1/2t cumin
1t sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and boil gently until the salsa reaches the desired consistency, about 30 minutes.

To prepare the jars for canning, submerge the jars, rings and lids in hot water.  Remove jars from water and allow to dry.  Fill jars with the hot salsa making sure to wipe away any salsa from the rim.  *TIP - sit the jars on a plate when your filling them, this way any drips will be caught and you only have to wash one plate!  Top with a lid and ring and tighten as much as possible.  Set the jars aside until the tops pop which means your delicious salsa is sealed!

I might be completely alone on this one but does anyone else get super excited when you hear the jars popping?  I really don't think there is a more satisfying sound when your canning food.  The satisfaction I get from that sound is unmeasurable.

Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Garden Tomatoes

I feel like I have been eating tomatoes non stop sine they started ripening in our garden.  Not that I'm complaining, but eating tomatoes plain, for weeks on end, gets old really fast.  I needed to come up with a way to reinvent these here tomatoes so I could enjoy these delicious little morsels without it feeling like a chore!

Everything is better with cheese, so I knew feta would be a sure bet.  But tomatoes with feta is hardly a meal, or a snack if you talk to either of the men in the this house.  (If you have ever seen Roman eat you'd consider him a man in this case too!).  So I decided to make a Pasta & Oil type dish with spaghetti squash, tomatoes, feta, and a few other ingredients.  It's super light, which is perfect for summer, and it can be thrown together in no time flat!  Plus I know John and Roman both love spaghetti squash, so I knew I'd have a winner when I was done.

Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Garden Tomatoes
2 spaghetti squash
1/2 a lemon, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups chopped tomato
3/4 cup crumbled feta (or more if you love cheese)
2 green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 400°.  Cut spaghetti squash in half length wise and remove the seeds and fleshy part in the middle; the same way you would clean a pumpkin before carving.  Lay the halves on a baking sheet cut side up.  Brush a small amount of olive oil onto the flesh of the squash.  Bake at 400° for 50-60 minutes until soft.

Using a fork, scrape out the inside of the squash.  Make sure to go with the grain of the squash (width wise) to make spaghetti like strands. Place the strands into a bowl.  Drizzle lemon juice and oil over the strands.  Add tomato, feta and green onions.  Toss until all ingredients are well mixed.

I love spaghetti squash because you get the illusion of eating pasta when you're actually eating noting but vegetables!  The first time I made it I was a little skeptical and was even more skeptical that John would like it.  That night we both ate an entire squash each.  Obviously this has become a no-brainer in our house.  They can sometimes be hard to find at the grocery store, especially in the summer, so try your local farmers market or even grow your own!

Grilled Vegetables

Nothing says summer like BBQ!  Now that the weather is warming up we have been grilling a lot more of our meals.  I love this for two reasons; 1. John does the grilling in our house so I actually get to catch a few minutes of the news and 2. It dirties a lot less dishes!  I don't want to negate one of the pluses by making a side dish in the house so I've been trying to make them on the BBQ as well.  Normally we just skip the pasta or rice when we BBQ so I only have to come up with a vegetable dish.  Who says you always have to have a grain with your meal?

This recipe is remarkably easy and can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge overnight.  This is super handy now that Roman is walking all over the place and getting into everything.  When he goes down for his nap I quickly assemble the ingredients and get them ready to cook.

Grilled Beets with Mushrooms and Onion (Serves 2)
4 beets, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
3 cups mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup coconut oil

Layer beets onto a sheet of tin foil.  Make sure the foil is long enough to fold over top of the beets to form a packet.  Top the beets with half of the butter and half of the coconut oil.  You could also add dill, salt, pepper, or any other spices to the beets at this point.  I personally like the natural flavor of the beets so I leave them plain.  Fold the tin foil over the beets and seal the edges.  *TIP - be sure to fold the edges of the tin foil up so that all the juices stay inside the packet.

For the second dish, layer the sliced mushrooms on top of the sliced onions in a tin pan.  You could also use the tin foil packet method for this. *TIP - for grilling vegetables I often reuse the tin pans that I had previously frozen meals in.  As long as there are no holes in them why not use them again!?  Top the mushrooms with the remaining butter and coconut oil.  Again you can add any spices you like at this point.  Cover the pan with tin foil.

Place both packets on the grill and cook for 20-25 minutes at 500°.  Obviously every grill is different, so you may want to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.  The vegetables become tender, beautifully caramelized (sometimes slightly charred but that's the best part!) and absolutely delicious!

I know what your thinking, why on earth did I put butter and coconut oil in the pouches?  The vegetables, especially the onions, soak up the most amazing coconut flavor which makes this feel even more like summer!

Lemony Garlic Shrimp with Vegetables

This post is going to look a little different than most of my recipe posts because I didn't start out with the intention of making it a blog post.  This recipe was just one of many I was making in my latest freezer cooking day.  The smell of this dish cooking had wafted into the living room where John was watching Roman and he immediately came running into the kitchen to taste it.  Even scalding hot, John was immediately in love!  As soon as I tasted it for myself I knew I had to share!

The originally recipe was posted on Renee's Kitchen Adventures.

Lemony Garlic Shrimp and Vegetables - Serves 8
4 bell peppers, diced
2 bunches asparagus, diced
2 lemons, zested
3/4t salt
3/4t pepper
5t minced garlic
1/2 cup onion, diced
6 cups shrimp cleaned & peeled (thawed if frozen)
3 cups chicken broth
6t cornstarch
2 lemons, juiced
3T butter
3T chopped parsley

Cook peppers, asparagus and lemon zest in cooking spray on medium heat until tender crisp.  Season with salt and pepper.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Spray pan again and cook garlic and onion for 1 minute.  Add shrimp and cook until they turn pink.  Whisk broth and cornstarch together until smooth and add to pan.  Cook stirring until the sauce thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, butter, vegetables and parsley.

To Freeze - allow it too cool and divide it into large bags.  Lay flat to freeze.
To Serve - Thaw and reheat in a pot on the stove.

We usually roast, boil or maybe even BBQ our asparagus.  Obviously I have been living under a rock because it never occurred to me to chop up asparagus and use it in a recipe like this!  The subtle crunch that they give to this recipes is absolutely perfect!  I will definitely be adding it to more recipes in the future!

Smart Mac & Cheese

Everyone loves macaroni and cheese, but we also all know that it probably isn't the best thing for us to eat.  Whether or not we listen to what we know is an entirely different question.  I've never had good luck with homemade cheese sauce.  It always ends up thick, goopy, and regardless of how much cheese I add, never cheesy enough.  So when I saw this recipe on an episode of The Social I knew I had to try it!  Not only did it look delicious, but it's also good for you!  Blasphemous!

I know what your thinking, it's probably going to taste unappetizing and be runny.  Your wrong!  This sauce is thick, creamy, cheesy and a glorious orange color!  John and I have fallen in love with this recipe, and I'm confident enough in this recipe that I even give it to Roman with little pastina!  Okay, enough with the chit chat, let's get to the recipe!

Smart Mac & Cheese
3 cups butternut squash, peeled & cubed (approx. 1 whole squash)
1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
1 1/2 cup 2% milk
4T cottage cheese
1t salt
1t pepper
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
4 cups macaroni

Combine squash, broth, milk, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 25 minutes or until squash is tender.

Add squash mixture to a blender and puree.  Return the puree to the pot.  *TIP - let the squash cool a bit before blending or it may explode out of the blender, not fun.  You can also use an immersion blender and blend it right in the pot you cooked it in.

Add the remaining ingredients, except pasta, to the sauce.  Heat the sauce on low heat until the cheese is melted.  If you want it extra cheesy you can add more cheese to the sauce.  In a separate pot, cook macaroni as directed on the package.  Serve the macaroni with a heaping scoop of cheese sauce.

Doesn't this picture make you drool!  I would choose this over boxed mac and cheese any day of the week!  I promise this will become a family favorite in no time!  I'm not going to lie and say that you can't taste the squash, you can.  However, the sweetness of the squash is a perfect compliment to the cheese and adds the creaminess that mac and cheese has to have to be fulfilling. 

Quite possibly the best part is that it freezes extremely well!  I usually use half of the sauce for our meal the day I make it and pour the rest into a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer.  When you want to use the frozen sauce, let it thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat it in a pot on the stove or in the microwave.

Basa with Fresh Salsa

Over the winter I got into a bit of a rut cooking beef since we have a 1/4 beef in the freezer.  With spring on it's way so I decided our taste buds, and our waist lines, could benefit from a switch up!  I usually have fish in the freezer so I decided to whip up this summer favorite!

 

Because this is a simple dish, the spice on the fish is super important.  You can really change up the taste of the dish just by switching up the spices.  Let your imagination run wild and play with your spice rack and you might be surprised at the combinations you can come up with. 

 

Basa with Fresh Salsa
4 basa fillets (you can use any type of white fish)
4t coconut oil
3T chili powder
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 lemon, juiced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2T parsley
salt and pepper

Lay fish on a baking sheet and smear 1t of coconut oil on each piece of fish.  Sprinkle chili powder over fish and bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.  I also love to cook this type of fish on the BBQ.  It gives the fish a subtle BBQ flavour that is absolutely delicious!  I use a tin tray (as pictured above) and set it right on the BBQ.  This keeps the fish from breaking apart and falling between the grates!

In a bowl toss together, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper.  Top the fish with the fresh salsa and serve.

This dish is fresh and simple and a great addition to your weekly meal plan!  Quinoa or couscous would be a great pairing for this meal.  I remembered that I was going to make a side just as John was walking in the door, so instead he just had a heaping portion of salsa!  Who says you have to have grains at every meal?

Pasta with Oil, Lemon and Fresh Tomato

This is a dish that frequently makes an appearance in our house.  Usually saved for the summer, we often break this recipe out when we have little to no groceries left in the fridge and we need to eat.  It's also a great recipe for the nights when John has a meeting after work and I would just rather not cook, but know I shouldn't eat half a box of cookies for supper (you know you've been there too!).

 

Normally this is a "dump it in until it tastes right" recipe, but for the sake of a recipe I've included measurements.

Pasta with Oil, Lemon and Fresh Tomato
1/2 box (225 grams) pasta
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup onion, chopped (optional)
parmesan cheese

Cook pasta as directed on the package.  *My pasta cooking tip* - Hold the pasta vertically with both hands, knuckles facing away from you. Rotate your hands in opposite directions so your knuckles are facing to either side. Set past into the water, release, and the pasta should fan out. This allows the pasta to cook at the same time as it slides into the pot.  Drain and return to the pot.

Add remaining ingredients (excluding cheese) to the pasta.  Toss to coat.

 

Top with parmesan before serving.

In the summer I love to add pea or broccoli shoots from the local farmers market to this dish.  I've even started to see these shoots in grocery stores.  I highly recommend trying them, they are absolutely delicious!  They add a pop of color and a fresh crunch to the pasta.  This is an easy, delicious, and relatively health supper. Especially if the alternative is a box of cookies.