Om Nom Noms

Sassy Potato Corn Chowder

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:05 -0500

I didn’t come up with this title, I promise. You can thank Kraft for that.

Ingredients:

2 slices of bacon, or 3/4 of a bag of Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits
1 can of sodium reduced chicken broth
3 baking potatoes, peeled & cubed
2 cups frozen corn
2 stalks of celery
1/2 cup of onions, chopped
1/3 cup Miracle Whip
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups of milk

Bring vegetable broth and veggies to a boil in a large saucepan then simmer for about 20 minutes. I waited until the potatoes were pretty tender.

Mix the Miracle Whip & flour in a bowl. Slowly mix in milk. Add that, plus the bacon into the chowder and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

This was honestly SO good. I’ve made chowder before and I found it too thin, this was a perfect thickness. I thought the Miracle Whip was weird but I think that’s what makes it so good!

Maple Pecan Salmon

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:05 -0500

Salmon is an acquired taste for me. I never liked it growing up, although to be truthful I don’t know if I ever really tried it until university. I made it a lot last summer because it’s SO delicious on the BBQ, and I’ve even converted my man friend over to my fishy ways. A co-worker told me a really good way to cook it is with maple syrup and pecans, so I googled a quick and easy recipe and was pleasantly surprised! So so so good!

I got Jay Linz to stop at the grocery store the day before to pick up some salmon. Thinking he was being helpful, he bought nice fresh salmon. Which, upon removing from the package, looked like THIS:

W. T. F.

I’m not a vegetarian but son I do NOT like to think about my food swimming or running or jumping or playing before I prepare to eat it. Skin on a fish, or rather SCALES on a fish, is the gross-out equivalent to a head on a chicken for me. GAG.

So like a girly girl, I waited for Jay to come home to remove the nastiness before I continued. (The next day I was informed that if you cook the salmon with the scales on it comes right off after you cooked it and holds it together well- good to know, still gross).

You need:

Pecans (1/2 cup, crushed)
Panko bread crumbs (1/2 cup)
Olive Oil (1 Tbsp)
Maple Syrup (1/4 cup)

Sear your salmon in a frying pan after heating the olive oil. (About 2 min each side)

Place on a pan lined with parchment paper. Brush salmon with syrup (I like using the legit stuff, local if you can get it) and then top with pecans and bread crumbs. Cook at 375degrees until the fish flakes.

Sante Fe Chicken (For Momma)

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:19:26 -0500

This is a super healthy recipe I found on- you guessed it- PINTEREST!

It’s so so easy and perfect for a weeknight. We used nachos but you could definitely serve it with rice or bread or on it’s on (I can’t have a meal without some sort of carb so those all sound wonderful). Apparently it’s a WW recipe so if you’re into that you’ll be happy (I think) to know it’s 4 points on the new system.

What you need:

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast (I used 2, adjust depending on how many you’re feeding/how much you want left over)
large can of diced tomatoes
large can of black beans (I didn’t rinse them)
8 oz frozen corn
Can of sodium reduced chicken broth
Green onions, chopped (about 3)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Cook on low for up to 10 hours or high six hours. After ten hours shred your chicken with a fork. Voila!

Pinned from www.skinnytaste.com

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:06 -0500

This recipe is one of my absolute favorites. I’m not sure where I got it from since it’s written into my recipe book in pen but my money is either on the Inspired magazines from Sobeys or Kraft. Sweet potatoes are SO good for you and this is a delicious (and reasonably healthy) way to cook them.

Depending on how many people you’re cooking for, adjust the recipe accordingly. I can easily eat two of these by myself.

2 large sweet potatoes
1/4 cup cream cheese
2 Tbsp skim milk
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans

The hardest part is halving the sweet potatoes. They’re super thick and almost like carrots in that when you attempt to cut them they can splinter. I took a bread knife (the long skinny ones with the serrated edges) and very slowly and carefully sawed back and forth to cut it in half. Think stabbing the potato and then bringing the knife down so it’s parallel to the cutting board.

Place the sweet potatoes with the cut sides down on parchment paper or tinfoil. Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes until the sweet potatoes are cooked. For smaller potatoes, adjust your cooking time.

Remove your taters from the oven and let cool for a minute or two. I popped on an oven mitt to protect my precious hands and used a spoon to scoop out the cooked potato. Just be careful that you don’t tear the potato skins.

In a bowl, mash the potatoes with everything but the pecans. Place back into the skins, top with pecans and bake 8 minutes or until it’s warmed through.

These are honestly like dessert, I can’t brag about them enough.

Coconut Coated Chicken Fingers

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:05 -0500

I’m not sure what it is with Pinterest recipes and frying but here’s another. I can’t say I was a huge fan of this one but I would be willing to try it again if it was baked in the oven.

Chicken
2 large eggs
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup flour
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup sweet chili sauce

Cut your chicken into thin strips.

Set up three “stations”. In one bowl combine your flour and salt, in another eggs and coconut milk, and the third bread crumbs and coconut.

Place 1/4 cup of oil in a large skillet. Heat it so that it bubbles when you put a pinch of flour in it.
Go from bowl 1 to 3 with your chicken, making sure they’re coated evenly. Place about 6 strips in the skillet at once. We put them in as we breaded them with the first round and about half of them burnt, so wait until you have all of them ready.

Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side.

Again I wasn’t crazy about this but I think they would be delicious just baked in the oven. They would still cook up much like regular chicken fingers, obviously just not as crispy.

Recipe from: http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com

Coconut Shrimp Wontons

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:05 -0500

As I said in my last post, won tons come in packs of 5 million. So after searching Pinterest in hopes of finding yet another won ton recipe that was not soup, I stumbled upon this delicious and amazing recipe. Drool.

What you need:

Wontons
Shrimpies (I like them cooked already)
4 Tbsp Shredded coconut
3-4 Tbsp Panko bread crumbs
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 Tbsp Butter
Parsley

Heat your oven to 365. Why 365 I don’t know. Seems an odd temperature.

If your shrimp are raw, adjust your cooking time. If they’re pre-cooked then you’re basically just heating them up in the pan. Chuck your butter and garlic powder in a pan and once it’s heated add your shrimp. Add in your panko bread crumbs and coconut. Once your shrimpies are heated through you’re going to spoon the mixture into your wontons (which are sprayed and in your muffin tin). Spritz the top of your concoction and pop them in the oven for 8-10 minutes. We served these with some Basmati rice but you could definitely do them solo as an appetizer. We also used a Lime Chili sauce from the Charlottetown Farmers Market which was unreal but you could use any sweet chili sauce and it would be delicious!

Thanks to www.peasandcrayons.com for the recipe!

BBQ Chicken Won Tons

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0500

I was making an appetizer for a NYE gathering and of course forgot my list at home when I went to the grocery store. Instead of getting Phyllo pastry, I got won ton wrappers since in my head that’s what they looked like in the recipe photo. Won tons come in backs of 5 million so naturally I would mistakenly buy them and then have to find recipes to use them up. The first one we tried I kind of made up (I say kind of because I’m sure there are tons of recipes for something similar out there). It was super simple and took no time at all.

What you need:

Won ton wrappers
Chicken
BBQ sauce (I used Bullseye Chipotle)
Green/Red peppers - diced very small
Marble cheese - grated
Cooking Spray or a spray bottle with olive oil
Muffin tin

You can see from the list of ingredients that you could easily substitute things in and out of this recipe if you wanted - tomatoes, green onion, salsa, mozza, Tex mex, etc.

Dice your chicken into small bite size pieces (you can always cut it up smaller with the spatula while you’re cooking it). Once it’s almost cooked through add your BBQ sauce…I just eyeballed it.

Separate your won tons and place them in the muffin tins (which you have already sprayed with your oil). Fill with chicken, peppers and top with shredded cheese. You really don’t have to put much filling in them, if you over fill them they’re harder to eat anyway.

Cook @ 400 degrees until the edges of the won tons are golden and the cheese is melted. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Dragonfruit

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:33:45 -0500

I was astonished to see this strange looking fruit at our ghetto Save Easy the other day. I’d never tried Dragon Fruit but had seen it on occasion at different grocery stores and thought I would like to try it, even though I was more than a little bit afraid of it. It was also on sale from $6 down to $3.50 so I figured now was a good time as any to check it out.

So having no idea what it was going to look like, or taste like, I hesitantly cut into it…..

and was pretty surprised to find it white! Very pretty contrast if I do say so myself :)

I cubed it and brought it in my lunch to snack on. I found the texture very similar to kiwi, which is awesome because I’m 90% sure I’m allergic to kiwi (one too many itchy throat/tongue experiences to test my theory any further). It didn’t have an overpowering or super distinct taste which I found kind of strange. One of my students said after trying it “It’s gross, it taste like nothing”. I’m not quite sure how something can be gross if it tastes like “nothing” but that’s beside the point.

Fun Dragon Fruit facts:

It’s also known as Pitaya.
They are native to Central America & South America, but are found all over Asia, Australia and the Middle East. So basically everywhere.
Low calorie count
High vitamin C content
ANTIOXIDANTS! YAY!

So eat one. Now.

You Need To Try This- Cranberry Cinnamon Goat Cheese

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:05 -0500

A co-worker introduced me to this delicious product. You can find it in the cheese section of the grocery store. Cranberry Cinnamon Goat Cheese. It’s delicious on its own, or I especially like it in a spinach salad with almonds and berries. YUM.

Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:23:00 -0500

This is not healthy recipe, but it is delicious. I found this recipe for Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken when I was wasting time on Pinterest last week. If I were to make it again (which I probably would because it was delicious) I would bake it in the oven instead of frying it. I think it would still crisp up nicely and wouldn’t have all that yucky oil on it. While browsing recipes on Pinterest I see a lot of frying taking place- it seems that Americans love frying their food…go figure. Anyways if you like jalapeno poppers that restaurants sometimes have on their menus, you will love this meal! We just cooked up some potatoes (in the bacon grease, GASP) with onions and butter and then a pre-made Sante Fe salad so we could feel better about ourselves.

You can find the recipe here:

http://cassiecraves.blogspot.com/2009/05/jalapeno-popper-stuffed-chicken.html

Red Velvet...you trickster!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:49:00 -0500

Before I begin, I’ve decided to once again try and make a concsious effort to update this on the regular since I’ve been cooking up a storm lately and have lots of yummy recipes to share with the 6 people who read this blog.

I never really heard of red velvet until all of a sudden a couple years ago it seemed to be everywhere. I didn’t really understand the concept…what did it taste like? Wasn’t it just food coloring? I lay awake at night wondering. Ha. Not really.

In November, one of my lovely Grade 11 students brought me a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing to school. It. Was. Glorious. It was bright red, which seemed strange but she said it came from a red velvet cupcake mix so for me to shut my mouth (really, if you knew her, she said that). So when I had to make cupcakes for staff birthdays I decided to do red velvet. I bought two cake mixes from Save Easy (it was like I could see the future) and went home to start my project. Apparently I was half asleep and instead of putting 3/4 of a cup of water in the mix, I put 3 1/4 cups. SO that one went in the garbage.

After some cursing and stomping around, I started with cake mix #2. Much better.

This time, I looked more carefully at the instructions, and happened to glance at the ingredients. I did a double take. Cocoa? COCOA!?!? IS RED VELVET CHOCOLATE THAT’S DYED RED?!?! I don’t like chocolate. This is a problem. But I had liked the cupcake my student gave to me? I got Jason to test the batter. While I will, on occasion, eat chocolate, Jay Linz will spit it out- and that he did. Devastation. However, even when I tried the batter, I still couldn’t really taste the chocolate.

Since they were for school, I wasn’t concerned so I proceeded to make some delicious cream cheese icing:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

I topped them with green sprinkles and put into cute little holiday wrappers (I told you I was behind), they were snatched up very quickly!

Pizza is my favorite! I love thin crust, pesto and goat cheese...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:45:43 -0500

Pizza is my favorite! I love thin crust, pesto and goat cheese so thought I would throw it together to see what happened… Delish! Thin crust with pesto, chicken, onion and cranberry cinnamon goat cheese. I know, the cran/cin combo is weird with pesto but it actually wasn’t bad! I think next time I would use just regular goat cheese… The cranberry cinnamon was unreal so I’d like to try it with another base. Nom!

My super quick and easy weeknight supper: Salad: about 2 cups...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:51:45 -0400

My super quick and easy weeknight supper:

Salad: about 2 cups of spinach, handful of strawberries sliced thinly, crumbled feta, slivered almonds and raspberry vinaigrette

Wraps: tortilla (I used spinach flavored), 1/4 block of plain light cream cheese, one tablespoon of salsa and half a jalapeño finely diced.

Mix in a large bowl (with a mixer is easiest but if the cream cheese is soft you can use a spoon) then spread onto tortillas. Roll up tightly and cut into slices. Bake at 375 for about ten minutes until tortilla is slightly browned.

Thanks to my lovely sister for the “antojito” recipe… So delicious!

Imitation Crab Salad I was in Sobey’s on the mainland a...

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:47:07 -0400

Imitation Crab Salad

I was in Sobey’s on the mainland a couple weeks ago and saw a stand offering samples of something that looked delicious. I was correct, it WAS delicious. The lovely worker handed me the recipe which is so simple I needed to share it.

One package of Compliments imitation crab (it’s actually Pollock) in flake form. It’s only $2.99… So cheap!
1/4 cup of mayo (I used Hellman’s because it’s delicious)
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
Dill (fresh or the Litehouse dehydrated dill in a bottle, still tastes and smells amazing)

Crackers - I used Compliments sodium reduced Stone Ground Wheat Crackers.

It takes two minutes to prepare, just mix your mayo and lemon juice in a bowl, add your meat (coarsely chopped) and then your dill!
If you’re making it for a party the recipe recommends you put the bowl over another bowl with ice.. You could use a dip chiller too! Nom.

Basil, for whatever reason, is a pain in the ass to find...

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:20:31 -0400

Basil, for whatever reason, is a pain in the ass to find anywhere in Charlottetown. Every time I go to the grocery store, the little row that SHOULD contain basil in a tube, or fresh basil is empty. So this weekend, I decided to pick up a basil plant so that I can always have fresh basil whenever I want it! Yay :)

Bruschetta

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:18:29 -0400

Ever since I was little, I’ve hated tomatoes. I would eat salsa, but never the tomatoes. I would eat spaghetti sauce and chili, but either pick out the chunks or request a tomato free version. I eat tomato soup. I eat ketchup. It wasn’t the flavor of tomatoes that I disliked, but the texture. The seeds. The pulp. It really just grosses me out. I would order a chicken burger from Wendy’s, and if they accidently put a tomato on my burger I would return it for a fresh one instead of just picking it off like a mature adult.

Over the years, my phobia of tomatoes has faded slightly. One night, while out for apps with some friends, bruschetta was suddenly on the table. The girls all knew my feelings towards tomatoes, but encouraged me to “just try one”. So I did. It was dark, I’d had a few martinis, and I pretended it was watermelon. Verdict? I loved it. It was delicious! However, I still wasn’t ready to go on a tomato adventure on my own. Until recently, when Jay Linz requested I make some bruschetta with the leftover baguette we had. So I texted my old roommate who used to dummy a bruschetta recipe and requested the ingredients. It’s such a simple recipe, and as she said “very Italian”.

Tomatoes (obviously). I picked up locally grown PEI tomatoes, because the fresher the better!
Fresh basil
minced Garlic (I just did one clove)
Feta Cheese (I bought the block in brine and chopped it into cubes)
Olive oil
Fresh Parmesean

When cutting up the tomatoes I cut out the pulpy portion of it as well as the seeds. I then cut the tomatoes into small cubes (I used two for this recipe) Add about a tbsp of olive oil, the garlic, as much feta as you want and about a tbsp of basil. Put it in a bowl and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour to let everything marinate.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tinfoil. Place a small amount of the bruschetta mixture (or a lot depending on the size of your baguette) and sprinkle with shredded parm. Cook until the bread has crisped and the cheese is melted. NOM.

Iced Coffee! Thanks to Jenna for posting a photo on Twitter and...

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:50:44 -0400

Iced Coffee!
Thanks to Jenna for posting a photo on Twitter and to Em for giving me the instructions!

Brew your coffee (I used my Tassimo but for larger portions you could use a full pot) and add however much sugar you want. I used two t-discs so I added two spoonfuls of sugar. Give it a good stir then put it in the fridge to chill. I put mine in for about two hours but you could do longer. Once it’s cold, pour over ice and add milk/cream. I used the International Delight fat free French Vanilla. It’s better than Timmy Ho’s and way less calories!

Potato Fish Chowder

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:34:38 -0400

Chowder is definitely a Maritime staple, especially in the summer when seafood is in season. It’s something I’ve acquired a taste for over the years, and now I can’t get enough: seafood chowder, potato bacon chowder, fish chowder, corn chowder, etc. I think it’s the creamy goodness of the soup. It makes you feel warm and cozy in the winter, and lets you taste all the delicious fresh seafood PEI and Atlantic Canada has to offer in the summer.

Since I spend most of my days chillin with my dog lately, watching an embarrassing amount of daytime television, I’ve stumbled upon some great new recipes. I tend to watch Steven and Chris in the afternoons, which is followed by Best Recipes Ever. My two guilty pleasures. I get a lot of recipes from Kary Osmond, and as cheesy as she is the girl knows her stuff. If you tune out how much she says “incorporate”, how often she says the ingredients are “friends” and how she basically wears the exact same 3/4 length shirt in different colors every day you can really pick up some good “tested til perfect tips”. So here’s the recipe:

2 Tbsp Butter (needs to be REAL butter, duh)
1 sm leek- diced (white and light green part only)
1 onion - diced
1 celery stalk - diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 sweet red pepper - diced
1 glove of garlic - minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
3 Tbsp flour
2 bottles of clam juice - 240 ml (ew)
1 Yukon Gold potato - peeled and quartered, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 1/2 c milk
12 oz cod or halibut - chunked
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
3 strips of BACON

So this grocery list is slightly intimidating for those who don’t normally attempt to make things from scratch. I made the mistake of sending Jason into Sobeys to look for things like a bay leaf, a leek, parsley, etc. After multiple text messages out to me in the truck: “There’s no halibut or cod, I’m getting you haddock” and “WTF is a bay leaf” and “You’re getting Superior Gold potatoes” I told him to get what he could, I would come back for the rest the following day.

So back I went the following afternoon (only this time to Superstore) to look for my herbs, fish and veggies. After frantically standing behind a woman who began to put ALL of the leeks in the store into her cart (I reached in front of her and snatched mine), deciding on cod fillets and finding my clam juice in a hidden away aisle I had everything I needed to create my masterpiece.

I was nervous. The ingredients weren’t cheap, and I didn’t want to make a mess of the chowder and A) be out the money B) waste food which Jay Linz HATES C) have no supper. I set Rosie to work on a raw hide and began chopping and prepping. The great thing about this recipe is that it all takes place in ONE POT. Amazing. So here are your steps:

In a large saucepan, heat your butter over a medium-high heat. I put my onions in first since I find they take a little longer to soften. Add your leek, celery, bay leaf, garlic, red pepper and salt. Cook those delicious veggies for about five minutes or until your onion and leek are soft and look like THIS

Stir in your paprika. Add your flour and cook for about 2 minutes, making sure to stir continuously. Add your clam juice. Try to ignore the smell. I gradually added it in with a whisk, because that’s what Kary told me to do. Bring that to a boil then add your taters. Cover and simmer over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes until your potatoes are soft.

This is the part I was terrified about. Adding the milk. I was so scared it was going to curdle I almost had a panic attack. Clearly I was overreacting, as everything was fine! So whisk in that milk and then add your fish. Simmer for about 5 minutes until your fish flakes. Discard your bay leaf, then sprinkle with parsley and bacon.

The verdict:

I loved it, although I would have liked it to be a little bit thicker. (That’s what she said?) It was still delicious and I will definitely make it again! Enjoy :)

My Famous (Sort of) Tato Salad

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:58:49 -0400

Some of my favorite things about summer: sitting on the deck with a good book, sand squishing between my toes, spending time with the famjam & friends, the smell of the beach when you take your first step over the dunes, sangria (recipes to come later) as well as other delicious cold and fruity drinks, watermelon, BBQ, ice cream and other delicious summer treats. Potato salad is one of my favorite summer dishes, and when I stumbled upon this recipe, I knew I had to try it because it had pickles in it. PICKLES. I’ve made it for countless potlucks, BBQ’s and family gatherings, and have been consistently asked for the recipe. So finally, here it is!

3/4 cup Miracle Whip
1 tsp yellow mustard
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
4 cups chopped potatoes (boiled)
3 hard boiled eggs
1 onion
2 celery stalks
1/2 cup of sweet pickles

First mix the first five ingredients in a bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients!

I often double the recipe as I need to feed a gaggle of boys or I want to make extra to have at home if I’m bringing it out somewhere. Chill in the fridge for about an hour serve. :)

Greek Pita Tostada

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:05:09 -0400

Recipe:

1 lb lean ground chicken
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
4 whole wheat fat Greek pitas
4 cups chopped lettuce
1 cup chopper English cucumbers
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 cup Kraft Feta with Oregano, Sun dried tomatoes and cracked peppercorns
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup Kraft refrigerated Greek Feta dressing

I had a hard time finding “lean ground chicken” at the grocery store..perhaps it’s in the deli? I used a Rotisserie chicken instead, with the skin peeled off. I skipped the tomatoes because I don’t like them, and just used oregano spice from the spice rack.

Cook the chicken in a non-stick skillet about 15 minutes, add garlic and oregano during the last ten minutes. Bake the pitas at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. Serve pitas topped with chicken and remaining ingredients.

Review: I found them very difficult to eat, I think I would have put the lettuce on the bottom and then stack everything on top of that. You almost have to eat it on a fork or knife. You would probably even do this in a wrap and it would be really good. Enjoy :)