Cookin’ Up

I marked on my calendar that saturday I would make a meal plan. Now, it would have been ideal, perhaps, to then head out to the grocery store, and get it all in the house and ready for the week to begin. But I didn’t have time for that, as the weather was exceptionally nice, and I simply just had to go for a walk. Once the sun set, around five o’clock, there was Battlestar Gallactica to see.

Sunday was also out of the question to spend grocery shopping. Not enough time after the prolonged relaxation of the Sabbath.

But Monday, with print-outs of recipes from the meal plan in hand, with high-lighted ingredients I needed to purchase, I headed out to the local (closest, not cheapest) grocery store.  I had plans to cook three meals that night – the first one we’d have for dinner, then the other two would be freezer meals.

2 hick-ups.

1) Corn tortillas don’t seem to exist in Canada.

2) Making enchiladas takes a lot longer than I anticipated. I blame the frozen spinach which NEVER thaws.

I didn’t get to the third recipe I had planned in part because recipe number two took so long, and in part because recipe 1 took so long (30 minute gumbo is A LIE). But I also decided to hang out with a friend at around 9:30 – it was good to catch up at the local Tim Horton’s.

All in all, it was a rather successful night. In the future, if I hadn’t done so much walking over the weekend, I’d probably feel up to going a littler further and hitting up the cheaper grocery store about 15 minutes further down the road.

For three meals, which will serve somewhere between 6 and 8 each, I spent around 70 dollars. So that’s somewhere around $3-$4 a meal. And they’re all Martha Stewart recipes, so you know they’ll be good ;)

At least an hour, chicken gumbo.
Veggie Enchiladas. Black beans and corn and spinach and cheeeese. *excited* Main spice: Cumin.
Tuna casserole with artichoke hearts <3 and red pepper

p.s. I’m a good three days behind on my nanowrimo. Too busy.

Peanut butter cupcakes

You’ve had peanut butter cookies. You’ve had cupcakes. But have you ever had…PEANUT BUTTER CUPCAKES?!

Why didn’t anyone think of these things sooner? They’re so good!

I didn’t have cream cheese to make the icing. So I added butter to nutella and whipped it.

Click the image to see it large and read the recipe.

Baked oatmeal

it’s a new day

and it started with Baked Oatmeal.

Made up the night before (I’ll post the recipe later).

But basically, it was like oatmeal cake. For breakfast.

With delicious cinnamon.

Put it in a baking tin, and refrigerate overnight. Cook in the morning at 350 for 40 minutes.

40 minutes!!!

Which meant I got up at 6. I hopped up, turned on the oven, and exactly ten minutes later, when it beeped to alert me of it’s readiness, I hopped back out of bed (where I had returned for a precious ten more minutes of sleep) and put it in. 40 minutes later, it was delicious! It really made the morning special. That, and lounging around in bed until it was ready. Made for a much better start to the day.

blow-your-mind smoothies

Yea. Get ready.

1. Choco-Berrie Deelite

• 3 or 4 Frozen strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon of Nutella
• 1/4 cup of milk
• Blend.

There you are. Mind. Blown.

Now to do it again.

2. Apple-Cinnamon Pie Deelite

• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut up into pieces
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup of crushed ice
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 optional squirt of honey (optional = you be the judge of how tart your apples are and how sweet/old your banana is)
• Blend.

Chyea. I know. Right? I know.

Your mind is blown right now. I can feel it.

Yea.

Butternut Squash Risotto

I’ve never made nor eaten (as far as I know) risotto. My only understanding of risotto is that it can get too mushy, according to Chef Ramsey.

So last night I tried this recipe:

Click image to go to recipe.

And I must say, it turned out quite good if I do say so myself!

I have no idea how to peel butternut squash without cooking it first so that added time, and standing over the stove for 15 minutes stirring this thing got a bit tiring, so I probably won’t make it again. But I have some tastey vegetably rice leftovers! yum!

Check out www.simplyrecipes.com for more vundabar stuff.

***

On a similar note:

How to “peel” a butternut squash

View the squash on it’s side, with the stem/top pointing to the right. Use a very sharp butcher knife and cut the squash vertically into 1 inch thick slices (round discs). For the end with the seeds (which should be on your left), cut it horizontally, scoop out the seeds then cut it in vertical slices (they will be c-shaped). Then place each disc flat on the cutting board and slice off the rind with the same butcher knife, around the edges until it is peeled. You don’t want to hold the slices while you cut. The rind is quite hard. (adapted from the comments on the recipe)

This is better than my “cook it in the microwave for three minutes and then burn your fingers off trying to cut it once it’s soft enough to peel” method.

Yes Please

Click the picture to get the macaron recipe.

I wanna try these…

Guys

Tonight I had teppanyaki.

Which is when the CHEF is at a hot metal stove-top surface COOKING INCHES AWAY FROM YOUR FACE and lighting OIL ON FIRE.

And creating ONION VOLCANOES!

Don’t you love the look of fear in the little girl? Yea…it’s pretty much amazing.

Thanks to Charlene, who made it possible.

To make an onion volcanoe:

thickly slice onion

stack onion circle parts into cone

fill with oil

LIGHT ON FIRE!!!

French Toast with Egg Nog

Made it for breakfast.

GOOD IDEA!

(use Egg Nog instead of milk)

Tuna Delight…

Tonight I made the Tuna Casserole from Simply Recipes.

But with EDITS!!!

I didn’t have any canned mushroom soup, so I made my own “white sauce” from my More-With-Less cookbook

This recipe (above) called for broccoli, I had planned on making one that called for peas, and so I put in both!

Other than the cheese (cheddar and parmesan) there wasn’t a lot of flavour, since my white sauce was pretty white…so if I were to do it again, I might add new and exciting cheeses, and maybe some spices to the white sauce. I considered adding curry powder, but I worried that wouldn’t go over well with the tuna and peas, so I skipped it.

And for the record, it really was quite delicious. I blame egg noodles. They taste fun!

Oh, and then we had pie. Mm. Pie. Made with granny smith apples, and assembled by volunteers (mostly youth, and myself), on Saturday at the church. It cost $15. It was worth it…mostly because it was a fund raiser. But also because it was delicious.

Oh, and then I learned about cameras. :D

It was a good night. :)