In the Kitchen: Yes, you can make your own salad dressing!

There was a point in my life that I decided I was going to go 100% real food. I had dreams about grinding my own grain, baking everything from scratch and never having a box of kraft dinner in my house again (how sad!). 

Then I realized that if I wanted to do that, it would be a full-time job. And I already had a job I liked and it actually paid in real Canadian tender. Which was a big deal in my book. So I never got to go fully real food, and a few years away from those dreams I am still totally happy with my decision. 

During that time I made some real strides to eliminate questionable food (as in foods with ingredients only my chemist husband can understand) from our diet. But it had to be easy. Things that would be way too time-consuming to make from scratch just won't work in our lifestyle. 

One of the foods that I have been able to make completely from scratch for a while now is salad dressing. Making my own salad dressing helps me control what type of oil is used, as well as how much sodium and other non-pronouncables are put into them. And darn is homemade salad dressing ever tasty. Oh yeah and easy! I just throw all the ingredients in a jar and shake them. Here are my favourite vinaigrettes:

For Really Fast Days
- drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil over salad greens. Toss. 
Could not get easier!     

All-purpose Italian Dressing (lasts several weeks on the counter)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1 1/4 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. dijon-style mustard

Poppyseed Dressing (great on spinach salad)
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp. salt
1-2 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. poppy seeds

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette (great on grilled chicken salad)
2 tbsp. honey mustard
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
(if you don't have honey mustard use 1/2 tbsp. each of honey & mustard)

Next week I will share my favourite creamy dressings. I hope this will inspire some of you to try your own salad dressings! 

Do you make your own favourite dressing? Share below in the comments!

Meal Planning: Make your friends do some of the work...

Sometimes the sheer monotony of 3 meals a day, every single day, gets the better of me. I have often moaned, "Why do you have to eat again?! Can't we just eat once a week and be done?!" And of course, we have to eat in dishes and use cutlery, or at least drink out of glasses.

Yeah, that's right. I love to cook, I love to meal plan, but sometimes I just don't wanna!

So if this is you, and you want to avoid pizza or the drive-thru why not try this brilliant idea, that I totally did not come up with...

A freezer meal exchange. 

My friend recently organized a freezer meal exchange on Facebook by simply asking us each to make 6 dishes (as in the same dish) and then bring them to her house in disposable dishes (yay! less dishes!). Switch around and you go home with 5 new meals and the one you made as well. Oh, and the kids got a play date, and you got to have coffee together. Super win.

I think the best part of this idea is that you don't have to make 6 different dishes in one marathon session  yourself. You only have to make one, just make a lot, which is actually easier than making several dishes. I rolled 120 meatballs in about 2 hours. And I was able to save money by buying 5 lbs. of lean ground beef on sale. I actually made all the meals for about 30 dollars. And since I made 6 meals for 4 people each... I am serving 24 people. Wow. (Now i feel bad about my usual food budget for a party.....)

If you want to host something like this, Facebook makes it easy. Simply message a bunch of friends and ask who would be interested, then you can make it an Event. We found it was easier to do it a few weeks after we first talked about it, since then people could clear our their freezers and look for sales and such. You want a good group of people but not too many. I would say 4-6 would be fun. If you want more than that, maybe try having each person make only 5 dishes and then each person gets to choose just 5 out of a larger mix. It is also nice to clarify if you are doing full meals (are sides and vegetables expected?) or not.

It is important to talk about allergies, but if your friends all have long lists of intolerances, intense dislikes and allergies, then maybe this isn't the route for you.

You're gonna have to go in expecting a bit of an adventure. You might find your favourite dish ever, something might not be so great. It is food... you didn't make it... you get to eat it.... be happy!

So far we have had only one of our dishes and it was really good. And I still have 5 more to try. Yippee!

Does your freezer help you get dinner on your table? Do you friends help stock your freezer? How?

Meal Planning: Great finds from Pinterest March'13

Each month I plan my menu, and choose a lot of new recipes. I really like trying new things, new foods, and new ways of preparing things. Sometimes I find duds, but quite a few are pretty good. So here are my top 5 new recipes for this month.

1. Crepes & Berries from Little Yellow Barn - At the beginning of the month I needed to use up some whipped cream. And then I realized I had never made crepes before. Weird! So I made some, using this recipe. And even though I totally ignored the "refrigerate for 1 hour"part, it still worked out. 
2. Potato Corn Chowder wi. Kale & Bacon from Good Life Eats - Maybe you've heard of kale and all its health benefits. But maybe you've also discovered that kale chips just taste like burnt lettuce and that a kale smoothie is like shoving grass in a good smoothie. Or maybe I just haven't figured out how to do these things well. Well, this soup, ends the problem with kale. It is absolutely delicious, rich and creamy and the kale actually gives really good texture. Again, because I cannot make a recipe correctly, I changed it to just roasting frozen corn kernels (@ 400ºF) drizzled with olive oil and salt & pepper, instead of ears of corn, and I had to leave out the "corn broth". I just added 2 cups of chicken broth. I am excited for summer corn, and trying out "corn broth" though.
3. Spicy Shrimp Nachos from Midwest Living - Nachos? Mango Salsa? Jerk Shrimp? Sold. Every part of this recipe is pure gold. I even repeated the salsa again without the shrimp for small group at our house. Just so darn good. Try it. Healthy nachos you and your husband will like. 
4. Lemon Tea Cookies from My Madison Bistro - March is lemon month. But somehow I managed to pick some very disappointing lemon treats, except this one! Dainty flavoured icebox cookie, they still really good even thought I didn't make the frosting. These will certainly be made again. 
5. Chinese Cabbage Salad from Jamie Cooks it up! - Next time you are going to a potluck and are again forced to make a salad, please make this! It has a great mix of flavours, without being too strong, and since it is mostly cabbage and ramen, it makes a ton without breaking the bank. If you want to make it and eat it over a few days, store the dressing separately and mix as needed. It is a great accompaniment to your own homemade asian food, and can be a nice change from stir-fry. 

Have you discovered any great new recipes this month?

Meal Planning: A salad bar for guests

My mom and sister have been staying at my house all week, while we have done some legwork for her wedding. We have had busy days, lots of driving and lots of talking. Oh, and lots of money (at least in talking) is being thrown about. Weddings are big money spenders, if you let them.

So in the interest of keeping to a budget in real life we have tried to not eat at restaurants for 3 meals a day. Because that would be too much! Plus its really hard to find good vegetables at a restaurant. We have had a mix of fast-food, pizza delivery, restaurants and home cooking. 

So what meals can you serve at home, when you have just gotten home, are ravenous and want something healthy. Oh, and everyone has different food dislikes and dietary plans.

Enter the salad bar. No cooking, very little prep. lots of veggies, and everyone can choose what they want. Perfect. 

Want some ideas for what to put in your salad bar? Here's what we had:

• Greens - romaine lettuce
• Proteins - diced grilled chicken, crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, goat cheese
• Veggies - tomato, cucumber, radishs, green & orange peppers, broccoli, shredded carrots
• Mix-ins - sunflower seeds, sliced almonds

For the dressing we had this honey mustard vinaigrette and ranch dressing. This ranch dressing recipe comes from the blog Confessions of a Food Bride, but for some reason I can no longer get this website to load, so I am reprinting it for you here.

Ranch Dressing

• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise (not miracle whip)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/4-1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1-2 tbsp. chives, snipped (I use freeze-dried)
• 1/2 tbsp. dried parsley flakes
• 1 clove garlic (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Measure all the ingredients into a blender and process to mix thoroughly. Add more buttermilk until you reach a desired consistency. Store the dressing in the fridge, as it chills it will thicken into a dip. I have never seen it go bad because we always finish it within a few days! 

What meals do you like for serving guests?

Spice up your meal plan: Barbecue Chicken Pizza

It is no secret that I kind of love meal planning. I love selecting new recipes to try, searching for the perfect version of classics like shepherd's pie and lasagna, and celebrating special events with food.

I also have a crazy schedule and a husband who doesn't cook. And a generous but non-negotiable food budget. I will have to write about my food budget at some point, but that is not for now.

I have a pretty interesting meal plan, and we rarely eat the same meal twice. As in twice ever. I have the opposite problem that some people do, where my meal plan is TOO varied, instead of too boring.

So here is a recipe that can easily be added to any meal plan, doesn't break the bank, doesn't take a gourmet chef, but might be a completely different flavour than you usually have on your meal plans.

When making this you can either follow the links for making homemade, or use store-bought ingredients. The choice is yours based on budget, time and desire. For the record, when I made this, I used store-bought dough and homemade sauce.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza with Pineapple and Cilantro 

• 1 ball pizza dough  (this dough can be made in advance and frozen. Thaw to use!)
• 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup barbecue sauce 
• 1-2 chicken breasts, cooked & finely diced
• 4 sliced bacon, cooked & crumbled
• pizza vegetables - peppers, onion, garlic, mushrooms, spinach
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded 
• 1/4 cup pineapple tidbits, drained
• few sprigs cilantro, minced

Roll out your dough onto a baking pan. I generally find that rolling mine into a rectangle is easier, and fits my narrow pans better. If you have a pizza stone or pan use that! Follow the instructions for using your pizza stone.

Cover the dough with barbecue sauce, leaving a ridge bare as the "crust". Sprinkle on chicken and bacon. Add your favourite pizza vegetables.

Cover the whole works with a generous amount of cheese. Sprinkle pineapple on top. If your husband doesn't like pineapple (or any other topping), then leave it off his half. Sprinkle cilantro over top of this.

Bake in 400ºF oven for 25-30 minutes. It is done when the edges of the crust are dark brown and the cheese is all melted. Let it sit on the counter for 2-4 minutes, then cut it into pieces.

Try serving with cut vegetables and homemade ranch dip. Enjoy!

What are your favourite "different" meals?

Goal 34. Make a high efficiency, bright kitchen

Ok I'm back this week and ready to show you my kitchen!

Since I love cooking and kitchens and general kitchen-y "stuff" my kitchen is a constant work in progress. But one of the things that that is absolutely required is that it works much harder than me, and is relatively easy to clean up once I have finished destroying it with my latest culinary adventure. I cook like a tornado, and generally cook multiple things at one time. I also cook a lot. So here are my top 5 favourite things about my current kitchen.

1. DISHWASHER! - Absolutely no joke, I think this thing saved our marriage. And because its portable it has lived with us in several dingy apartments, allowing us to pay less on rent. Now Prince Charming doesn't spend 2-3 hours every night doing dishes, and can focus on more important things like hanging out with me, or you know, his homework. I actually also think it saved his academic career. And I love that our dish-drainer can be folded up and tucked away, to give me even more counter space when needed!

2. Act like a TV chef - have you ever really looked at a TV chef's kitchen? I guarantee you will see that they have a large (generally wooden) cutting board, and a selection of oil, salt and pepper, right in front of them, in the center of the set. Some have a ton of other stuff too. But they always have these basics. So I just stole this idea and made my own little chef station. Makes dinner prep go a lot faster and makes me look legit. Since my "set" hits a wall instead of a camera I took advantage of that space too and hung up my knives and my most used spices so that they're ready for action too.

3. Today's special - I love this little menu board I made for Prince Charming so he knows what he is supposed to be eating for breakfast and lunch. It's just a piece of scrapbook paper hung in a cheap frame, that I write one with a Dry-erase pen. We have weird schedules that often don't work well together, so he is on his own in the morning, and this lets him know what I have planned for him to put in his lunch and have for breakfast. Now he doesn't worry about accidentally eating something I was saving for a certain recipe, and I know that we have all the food he needs for lunch. These just get updated weekly and we eat the same thing for these meals each day.

4. Labels and bins - Ok, maybe I am slow but for a long time I didn't really embrace using smaller bins in the kitchen to corral little things. I mean yeah, I had a cutlery rack, but that was about it. Well once I got my first bin, I was absolutely sold. I use these bins all over the place, even in the fridge. And then I started to use mason jars as dry storage and quickly realized that lots of white powders look the same. So I just added a label using a sharpie on a bit of paper, which I cut down to size and tape on with scotch tape. Looks good enough to me, and really doesn't fall off.

5. Organized sink - This under the sink organizer might be the entire reason I love pinterest. For years I hated having a bunch of scubbing pads, dish brush and various cleaning utensils sitting in the bottom of the sink, but I couldn't think of a solution. I tried some organizers from discount stores, but they generally didn't fit well or didn't hold the things well, so eventually got tossed. But this idea is super genius. It is actually a piece of a shoe organizer that I just cut off and then hung on the door with command hooks (love these!). I cut a little "button-hole" in the top, and if you are fancy you could probably use your sewing machine to make it super strong, but for me I haven't had any issues yet. Currently I am using a vinegar & oil set from Ikea to store my hand soap and dishwashing soap, so I don't have ugly bottles everywhere. I am still working on a better solution for this, so if you have any good ideas send them my way!

What is your favourite thing about your kitchen?

Goal 79. Eat vegetarian for one week

Last week the challenge was to go 100% percent vegetarian for a whole week. No meat at all for 7 days!

Source.

And we did it. Well, except for a few slip-ups. One was realizing that we still had tons of leftover sandwich meat and the other was a piece of ham on an eggs benedict. The whole point of this challenge was to be more aware of and careful with what we eat, so I wasn't about to throw these things out, and I had pretty much forgotten that ham came on an eggs benedict until I had eaten half of it. Haha!

There was one night where I really, really didn't want to have salad for dinner. But since my husband had prepped everything we had it anyways..... And I was wrong. It was good, and equally as filling and satisfying as meat. In fact, it was probably more satisfying because I didn't feel like I had eaten a brick afterwards. Other than that one night we didn't have any problems missing meat. And since we were relying on more veggies we actually were getting our fair share! Normally we lack a little on eating our veggies, so this was a good change.

If you're wondering what we did eat, here's a quick break-down:

Hard-boiled eggs and pumpkin muffins for each breakfast
Black bean quesadillas and sour cream
Megadarra with Naan bread and tzatsiki
Vegetarian Chef's Salad (it had chickpeas!)
Marinara Spaghetti & Caesar Salad
and a Layered Greek Dip (for dinner!)

We obviously weren't starving. And as a final nod to vegetables we topped the week off with a delicious carrot cake!

Have you ever tried a week without something you normally include in your diet?

{Thriving this Winter} Day 23: Warm

When it is so warm out and the sun is still shining at 5:15 am, it just doesn't feel like morning to me! But when the morning is dark and crisp and the shower feels so wonderful, and you have to hop and move quickly into your days clothes, well that is morning. And a warm breakfast just makes the time so much more delicious.

For a few years I have made it my personal mission not to serve boxed cereal for breakfast. The reason for this is two-fold. First of all, boxed cereal is actually one of the most expensive foods to serve, especially when you think about its relative nutrition. It is also, generally, pretty low in protein, to the point where if I eat boxed cereal before going to work I might as well not have eaten anything because I will get ridiculously starving way before break time.

So today I want to share with you 3 make-ahead breakfast recipes and 2 ideas, so that you can enjoy a hot breakfast.

The first thing to talk about is the components of your breakfast. For breakfast I always like to include some form of protein (which is 99% hard-boiled eggs for us), fruit (generally a banana) and milk. Then for sustenance I include a grain product. For our hectic days this will be simply toast with peanut butter & jam. Bonus points if the bread is homemade. Ours usually isn't. I have a kitchen gadget called a "Boily" (that's it in the picture), but sometimes if I want to make more than one at a time I use the stove-top method. Much less effort than any other kind of egg or breakfast meat. By having a general plan of all the components of breakfast it is much easier to plan, and once you start incorporating protein into breakfast you will wonder why you ever did without. It makes that much of a difference.

The other idea is to make ahead muffins or other baked goods batter (but try to make healthy ones!) and freeze them in sandwich bags. This way you don't have to eat stale muffins, and you can just make a new batch every few days, or a couple times through the month. Freezing the batter in a ziploc just lets you snip off the corner and squeeze your muffins into your pan. No mess. Pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes and you have fresh muffins. Easy enough to do in the morning.

I love oatmeal on a cold morning, but my husband doesn't like it without some flavouring. Since the boxes of instant oatmeal always have flavours we don't like there are alway some stragglers, plus they are also kind of expensive (yeah, its basically all about the money for me). So instead I will make up big batches of this oatmeal and store it in a big tupperware container. Add my oatmeal and water to the bowl and into the microwave it goes. You can adjust the flavourings and sweetness to taste and the batch will last us at least a month.

We both love McDonald's breakfasts, and get them as a treat when we play music on Sunday morning. My husband's favourite is the 2 breakfast burrito meal. So when I found this recipe for freezer breakfast burritos, I knew he would love them. They are such a hit! I like to make 1 or 2 batches at a time (1-2 dozen eggs) and roll them while I watch a favourite TV show. It takes me about 1 hour in an afternoon and then will last me about a month, especially if I also have the oatmeal. They are so tasty, and awesome to take to work for a coffee break.

And since you now know about our love for McDonald's breakfast maybe you will get excited about freezer egg mcmuffins. For this one you have to buy (or you could make!) english muffins, so they are a little more expensive than the last 2 option, so we don't make them as much. Also if you are going to cook your eggs in the muffin tin make sure you really really greased the muffin cups. This helps get the eggs out and prevents them leaving behind bits that are virtually impossible to get rid of. Instead of the oven method in the post, I like to wrap these muffins in wax paper or parchment paper, which I leave them in when reheating, so that the cheese stays on the bun for the most part and the muffin gets a good texture.

I love using my freezer to make those chilly mornings seem just a bit warmer, and keep my tummy going, even when I am tired from an early morning.

What do you like to have for breakfast?

{Thriving this Winter} Day 16: Batch

Just joining in? Read the whole series {here}. 

Ok, so last week was a bit crazy with 5 days of work, which included a weekend. And I never get ANYTHING done on working weekends, so I am a little impressed that I actually got a post up each day. Even though they were a little late. And now! We are over the hump! It is day 16!

Are you feeling ready for winter? I am slowly getting there, and one of the things that really reduces my stress and worry is.... freezer cooking. 

Freezer cooking is something I have played around with for a long time, and I finally feel like last month I did something that made sense and wasn't such an ordeal that it wrecked up the whole rest of my week. 

Here are my commandments of freezer cooking: 

1) Thou shalt not make any new recipes. 
2) Thou shalt not make any more than 5 recipes, but everything must be at least tripled. 
3) Thou shalt do it thyself at one's own house, at one's own pace. 

Seriously. I have tried the day-long freezer cooking at someone else's house, or even at my own house. I have made upwards of 15 different recipes. I have made many new recipes that simply didn't work or taste right. None of these things are helpful in my life. 

{Thriving in Winter} Day 2: Curl (Recipe: Chai & Pumpkin Tea Flavouring Syrup)

Is there anything better than a hot drink? They makes the morning chill go away, make a warm winter evening seem special and make an evening curled up with a book or watching TV seem like an "event". Hot drinks are to winter as cocktail are to summer. It might seem like pumpkin spiced hot drinks are for fall, but that is just what Starbucks wants you to think. You can enjoy great drinks all winter (and even start in the fall if you want, I know I did tonight!), especially if you get yourself set up now.

Summer Meal Planning (Recipe: Megadarra)

Hey Guys! Here is a peak into my summer meal plan on Google Docs. Please check out my spring meal plan here.

I was so excited when I created this meal plan. There is just something about the summer that makes me think about grilling, seafood, and lots of juicy crisp fruit 'n' veg. It's like my body wants to go on a diet! And then from a fantastic set of events Prince Charming has volunteered to take over the cooking for at least June. So now I am even more excited about this menu. I used the same method as outlined in my last menu planning post, but I did change up a few of the categories, to better reflect the season and my food goals. I am still working on making quite a bit of my bread from scratch, which is going pretty well. But we are certainly not becoming independent of the bakery, as I am still learning some recipes. Please check out Mennonite Girls Can Cook for some fantastic bread recipes.

Here is a fantastic recipe for Megadarra, which has been in both my Spring and Summer Recipes. It is really, really good, vegetarian, and super duper cheap! It is also tasty both hot and cold, so it makes really great leftovers.

Menu Plan Monday: Quick & Easy Edition

Source.

This week I will be doing evening shifts and having house guests, so my menu has to be something that can prepared early in the day and very easy to prepare. Here is what I have come up with:

Sunday: Turkey Salad (from last week, we didn't get around to it)
Monday: Fish Tacos
Tuesday: Chopped Salad
Wednesday: Thai Curry Chicken on Quinoa wi. Side Salad (from the freezer)
Thursday: Two Bean Chili

I only planned this far as I also bought some treats for Adam to make.... Kraft Dinner! And I figure by then I will be exhausted, so it will be leftovers, random fend nights and eating out. Some weeks are like that, so I think its better not to buy too much food and let it go to waste, but to accept the reality of the situation.

Source. 

I really loved this recipe for Turkey Salad which I adapted from Canadian Living: Make Ahead Meals. It's a light recipe to use up that turkey and a great change from heavy holiday meals.

Turkey and Mixed Greens wi. Honey Vinaigrette ~ Serves 2
Salad: 
4 cups mixed baby greens
1 cup cooked turkey, cubed or shredded
1 pear, diced
1/8 cup dried cranberries
1/8 cup pecan halves
pinch each salt & paper

Dressing:
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
sprinkle each salt & pepper

In medium bowl, combine salad ingredients; set aside. In small bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients. Use as dressing to taste.

Menu Plan Monday: Turkey Time Edition

I am lost without a menu plan. I am even more lost without a grocery list. I'm not even one of those people who write the list and then never look back at it, I have to look at every item on the list and even then usually have to go back to get at least one thing.

But luckily I very much enjoy the solution to this problem..... meal planning!