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Favourite Food Standbys

Okay, it’s time for me to fess up. You know how I always post photos of the delicious food I make, and make it seem like it’s no big thang.

In fact, it is kinda a big thang, and I can assure you that I do not make elaborate food every night of the week. I’m lucky enough to have great friends and a few great (and relatively cheap) restaurants near where I live, so I’ve found I only end up cooking about three nights of the week, and eat leftovers most of the other nights. I love love LOVE leftovers! I love big one-pot meals that last me countless lunches and dinners to come!

Today I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite go-to meals for whenever I don’t really feel like cooking for a couple days.

One Pot Meals

Since I’m a vegetarian, these are my standbys. Simple and nutritious, tons of protein, comforting and delicious. Perfect!

My Mum’s Vegetarian Chili


Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew: adapted from here. I make it without the green beans (only because I never have any!), and top with some goat’s cheese – YUM!

Hot and Sour Soup. I use a recipe similar to this one, but without the water chestnuts or bamboo shoots. It’s so wonderful for when you have a cold, or just the winter blues.

Pad Thai. It’s so full of yummy goodness: tofu, egg, peanuts, lime, cilantro…yummerdoodle! I find it easier to use a package or jarred sauce than to wrestle with tamarind. It’s not as authentic, and it has a bit more sodium, but it’s worth the convenience, I think! Just cook the tofu and egg and set to the side; then stirfry together boiled rice noodles and green onions, add some sauce, add tofu and egg, add cilantro and bean sprouts and more sauce. Serve with lime wedges and peanuts! Delicioso.

Quinoa salad. Quinoa is so amazing for you (read why here), and so easy to make. I like to add chopped carrots, green onions, nuts (walnuts or cashews), dried apricots, and beets and cauliflower if I have them around. I usually eat mine with some balsamic vinegar, and it’s so delicious! You can add any veggies you want to it, and it always tastes lovely.

Dishes I Pretend Are Dinner

Warning! I am not advocating these foods as necessarily good, vegetarian healthy options. These are just the dishes I tend to throw together when I’m too tired to cook anything!

Sweet potato fry poutine. Make a mushroom gravy, cook some sweet potato fry wedges tossed in olive oil, salt & pepper and a dash of cinnamon in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes, top with cheese curds and gravy, and stuff your face.

Bruschetta. I couldn’t care less that it’s winter, this dish will never be out of season to me. I chop some tomatoes, sweet onion and yellow pepper and marinate them in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt & pepper. Then slice some baguette, top with the mixture, add some goat’s cheese and drizzle with some more balsamic vinegar. Then stick it under the broiler for a couple minutes until the bread starts to toast and the cheese starts to sizzle. Eat.

My favourite spinach salad. Spinach, sauteed red onions and mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, green onions, goat’s cheese and raspberry vinaigrette (not pictured, because I’m a silly goose).

Zucchini fritters. Oh man, this is my newest addiction. These things are delicious! And so easy. I roughly use this recipe, but mostly I just shred a zucchini, add an egg and enough flour to make it stick together, sprinkle the mixture with salt and pepper. Then form it into patties with your hands and fry like a pancake in some oil. Top with some sour cream!

Other Things I Tend to Eat

  • Various types of grilled cheese sandwiches: mozzarella and apricot jam, old cheddar and caramelized onions and mushrooms…etc, etc!
  • Perogies served with caramelized onions and sour cream
  • Tostadas with refried beans, sour cream, salsa, guacamole and shredded cheddar
  • Lasagna with zucchini and mushrooms
  • Stir fries with red cabbage, snow peas, tofu, and bean sprouts
  • Frozen pizza, my favourite is this one from President’s Choice – go Blue Menu! :)

I’d Love To Know..

What sorts of things do you eat for dinners? Are you a vegetarian or a meat-eater? What are your favourite go-to meals?  Let me know and give me some inspiration!! I always love to hear from you.

xoxo,

Super Bowl Salsa!

Okay, no. It’s really not like I celebrate The Super Bowl (it is a holiday, right?), but I will admit to having a soft spot in my heart for Super Bowl food. All the greasy, cheesy goodness, all the beer, all the good grub. Yum. I won’t be watching this year, but in honour of the SB, I whipped up a surprisingly easy and delicious salsa a la Pioneer Woman.

Salsa can be mucho expensivo, especially if you’re like me and prefer Garden Fresh (which costs a fortune but is the tastiest thing on the planet). A simple alternative is to make it yourself! I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy and quick this was to make.

The recipe I tweaked is here, but I fear I probably did a disservice to the great PW by neglecting the jalapenos. My excuse? It’s freezing outside here, I didn’t want to go to the store!!! (weak). Anyways, feel free to follow her recipe more carefully, but my version turned out very tasty nonetheless.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 lime
  • 1/4 of a red onion, diced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • Big handful cilantro

I basically eyeballed this recipe, since I didn’t have PW’s suggestion of Rotel Tomatoes & Green Chiles either, and I only have a very small food processor. But it still turned out really nicely! Just taste after adding some of the onion & garlic, and season to your liking.

The recipe is incredibly simple. Just chop up what needs to be chopped…

…throw it into a food processor & pulse a few times…

…and serve in a pretty dish! Voila!

The consistency was wonderful: smooth and uniform. Just the way I like it.

Oh wait! Don’t forget the chips, or you’ll be sorry.

Yum yum yum.

Here’s to celebrating the Super Bowl the only way I know how! Not with sports knowledge, or cheers, or being a football fan. But with food. Wonderful, amazing food.

xoxo,

Frozen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

It’s been a while since I made this absolutely delectable treat (before Christmas!), but I loved it so much that I needed to share it with you.  Although I just finished reading Kris Carr’s absolutely outstanding and inspiring lifestyle book, Crazy Sexy Diet (read it read it read it!) which eschews sugar, dairy and processed foods, I’m having a hard time kicking my long-time habits. Until I get my hands on my boyfriend’s juicer and a basket full of greenery, I’m going to try to my best to use up the bad things in my pantry and fridge. So maybe that yogurt could be put to good use in this dessert? I’ll be posting about Crazy Sexy Diet (and my Kindle!) just as soon as I catch up on some readings..school’s been taking a backseat lately.

But in the meantime, I give you Joy the Baker‘s frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls. Not only are they the tastiest cookie dough I’ve ever consumed, they’re also safe (no salmonella!) and take about 10 minutes to prepare.

Either click the link above for the recipe (I didn’t change much) or see below for more!

Baking up a storm!!

Ingredients:

  • 1 stick unsalted butter (that’s 1/2 a cup, and FYI I used salted butter..oops!)
  • 1 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup Greek yogurt/applesauce (I used Balkan-style yogurt, which was delicious)
  • 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, melted for dipping

Cream butter and sugars together.  Beat in yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda; add the mixture to the creamed butter/sugar. Once combined, mix in the chocolate chips.

Scoop out little balls onto a baking sheet, put in the freezer for a few hours. I found that the balls never really froze through, just got nice and cold, so I don’t think it matters exactly how long you put them in for. Then you can melt some chocolate chips, dunk the dough balls and put them back in the freezer for a little while. I was too busy eating them to take a picture of that step!

Oh my gosh, I may just have to run into my kitchen imminently and whip these up again!!

Or, alternatively, you could make me some and I could eat them?

Bon appetit!!

xoxo,

Break The Rules

Photo thanks to fulbert05

..Banish the guilt. Boot the hesitations out the window. Crack open the windows of your soul and let in the fresh air. Don’t doubt.

If you’re my age, you’re handling a tricky time. Famous psycholgist Erik Erikson (great name, huh?) proposed that humans of ages 12-18 are struggling with their identity versus role confusion. During this stage, we try to determine who we are apart from our families and what we want in our lives. If we’re unsuccessful, we experience confusion and conflict. Sounds like heavy stuff, but I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.

Everyone experiences the same struggle to figure out “who they are”: ie. their values, opinions, likes & dislikes, preferences, attitudes, standards. Along the way, as we try to find strength in our newly shapen identity, we stick (stubbornly) to our guns about our self-imposed opinions & tastes. At times, I’ve been known to insist I hate something that I haven’t tried, since I’ve already decided it doesn’t jibe with who I’ve decided to be. I’m sure you’ve all experienced that as well, either with yourself, or with friends and family.

The point is: it’s understandable, this stubbornness. No one can fault you for trying, in this crazy world, to figure out who you are and, once you’ve got it, stick to it with every ounce of your being. It makes sense!

But never be afraid to break the rules.

Never be afraid to smash down the restrictions you’ve set for yourself, when you said “oh, no, I’m not that kind of person” or “I can’t stand zucchini” or “I never stay up past midnight” or “I only like clothes in shades of black, white or grey”. Challenge yourself. Step up to the plate and break all your own rules. Your identity is important, but nobody else cares too much about whether or not it’s consistent. Try on different hats! Experience new things! See for yourself. Never get so boxed into your identity that you don’t try things you think seem fun or interesting.

If you want to, then..

…try the wackiest fruit in the grocery store, even though it’s “too exotic for you”

…start a blog, even though you have “nothing important to say”

…read the news, even though you “don’t really care about politics”

…read the tabloids, even though “they’re much too fluffy for your taste”

…take a nap mid-day, even though that’s “highly unproductive”

…try a recipe you think looks delicious, even though “it’s much too complicated for you”

…buy a vibrator, even though “you’re not that kind of girl”

…go out to a speech instead of a club, even though “that’s totally lame & nerdy”

…cry, even though “real men don’t do that”

…sleep around (safely, of course), even though “real ladies would never”

…use the five-second rule, even though “that’s disgusting!”

…eat nothing but junk food all day, even though “you don’t even like food like that”

…go figure skating, skiing, dancing, karaokeing, surfing, biking, running, even if “you’re not very good”

…do whatever you want.*

.

To a lot of you, this advice may seem totally intuitive. If it does, I applaud you. You’ve managed to keep yourself from being tied to a rigid identity. But I suspect that many of us are guilty of falling victim to this technique of saying: “that’s just not me”, and limiting ourselves from new experiences. Or, if we free ourselves from our restrictions, we feel an automatic sense of guilt about doing something outside the norm. We feel we’ve failed, somehow. I urge you (and myself) to escape this guilt. Say bye-bye!

If you feel like doing something, do it. Don’t question whether or not it’s right for you (it is, by the very nature of you wanting to do it), don’t worry that it contradicts “who you are”, don’t feel guilty about having done something you’ve previously deemed “uncool”, “unproductive” or “not like you”. Live your life first, and your identity will come later.

Happy adventuring, loves!

xoxo,

*Edit: It’s been pointed out to me that maybe some of these statements would imply going against your personal values/morals. That was not my intention! I’m not implying that you should push yourself to do anything that doesn’t jibe with your core standards. My only goal with this article was to serve as a reminder that our self-imposed ‘rules’ do not need to be so rigid. By all means, if something really isn’t you, at your very core, then don’t do it! Sorry for any misunderstanding. :) xo

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