Favourite Food Standbys

February 6, 2011
by Stephanie Pellett
4 min read
7 Comments

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,

A Pie That Tastes Like Autumn

October 2, 2010
by Stephanie Pellett
3 min read
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Since it’s midterm season, I tend to have long days and early nights with very little fun in between. Depressing, ain’t it?? Food, food blogs, cooking, eating: these have all been my moments of fun and delight in amongst the exhaustion. I love being able to surf the internet looking for delicious recipes and then replicating them as best as I can in my own kitchen. I’ve made so many delicious things lately! Chili, hot & sour soup, caramelized onion pizza, chocolate chip cookies, and more. But my favourite thing I’ve made lately? This pie.

Dubbed ‘Dad’s Perfect Sweet Potato Pie‘ by the oh-so-fabulous Joy the Baker, I can tell you right now that it is not a misnomer. It’s a foolproof recipe, and easily the simplest pie I’ve ever made.

Speaking of simple, did you know that you don’t have to roll out pie crust? Oh my gosh. This information was literally life changing. For a girl as obsessed with pie as I am, I could not be happier that the path to pie has gotten shorter and less complicated. I am eternally grateful!

And did I mention the best part? This pie tastes like autumn. Not a joke. It really does. You bite into it and immediately get transported back to your days of jumping in leaves and picking apples (even if you’re like me and those days happened last weekend). I made it for a lovely dinner I was having with my floor fellow from last year and two great friends. We all (myself included) adored it to bits. I have been hoarding the last slice in my fridge for days..muahahaha!

Alrightie. Now you can get the recipe from here, but I’m going to outline some of the steps with photos, for my own amusement. :)

Get your hands on 2 good sized sweet potatoes. This is a photo from after I boiled them and am about to peel away the skin and mash them all up into amazingness.

Note their beautiful texture and colour!

This is once most of the ingredients have been added: cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, evaporated milk. Please note also that I had to go back to the store to get evaporated milk since instead I bought condensed? What it wrong with me? Don’t yell and scream, I had just been walked home by a decently attractive member of the opposite sex. Maybe I was distracted. Maybe I had other things on my mind.. ;)

Om nom nom nom. Beautiful. When my friends came over on the way to dinner, I invited them all to try the filling. And they did. And it was delicious. Salmonella be damned!

I’ll let Joy take you through the wonders of this pie crust, but let me reiterate: it is so amazing. It is so simple. My life is so great.

Perfect. Puffy. Yummy.

Ay caramba!!

Do yourself a huge favour and make this pie. Then eat it. Lots of it. Three slices. I won’t judge you. No really. :)

YUM YUM YUM.

Have lovely weekends!

xoxo,


Veggie Pot Pie

September 26, 2010
by Stephanie Pellett
3 min read
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Is it chilly where you are?

It’s on and off around here, but sometimes I don’t notice because around midterm season (yes, for me mid-September is in fact midterm season, I have one on Tuesday..) I tend not to leave my house for hours at a time. Especially on the weekends. Instead, I spend my days indoors, in sweats and a ponytail, studying (to me, this means lecturing aloud while pacing my room and probably annoying my roommate to no end) and occasionally making (what I assume to be) weather-appropriate food.

So, last weekend, when I saw that the weather outside appeared to be frightful, I decided to make a scrumptious favourite in my house: chicken pot pie. Sans chicken.

Before you say it, don’t. This is just as scrumptious and amazing as any artery-clogging meat-filled extravaganza pie and I promise, you’ll love it. It has all the goodness of puff pastry, rich (but not fatty) ‘cream’ sauce and enough mushrooms and peas to make you sing with joy. And, on top of all that, it’s easy as pie. HA!

I used this recipe, but not really. As usual, I observed that recipe, then did it the way I wanted to. :) I’ll tell you what I did!

Vegan Veggie Pot Pie

Serves 6

  • 1 package of frozen puff pastry shells (Tenderflake makes them in a pack of 6)
  • 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 an onion, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • Handful of mushrooms, chopped
  • Approximately 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Soy milk (or regular, if you don’t need it to be vegan)
  • 4 cups vegetable broth (make from those cubes)
  • 1 cup frozen peas (approximately)
  1. Follow the directions on the pastry package to cook them (they should take about 20 minutes).
  2. Saute the onions, garlic, carrots and celery in some olive oil in a pot until they are tender crisp. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until all the veggies are done.
  3. Put the veggies into another bowl, but don’t get rid of the pot just yet! Whisk together the olive oil and flour until it is nice and thick. Add the salt/pepper to taste, then slowly add the veggie broth and soy milk. Whisk it all together, making sure that the floury mixture doesn’t stick to the sides of the pot.
  4. Add all the veggies back in, and put in the peas. Keep cooking the mixture until the peas are cooked through. Season to taste.
  5. Spoon the mixture into the shells and sprinkle with dried basil (to impress your guests!), and put the little hats on top. :)
  6. Dig in!! YUM. Soul food.

Delish! The only thing I would say is that our version ended up a tiny bit too floury for my liking, but it’s probably because I didn’t add quite the right amount of olive oil. Next time I’ll be sure to be more precise, but if you make this recipe let me know how it turns out for you!

xoxo,