Mexicali Soup!

Mike loves this Mexican-inspired soup. It's such a fast tasty soup and most of your ingredients come out of a can or a box! Also, you have tons of leftovers, so it's a two in one meal deal.

Enjoy

In a large soup pot:
1. Heat up oil on med-high heat.
2. Add 1/2 a fennel bulb, thinly sliced, 3 cloves of garlic, minced and 1 onion, sliced and 1 package of chorizo sausage chunks.
3. Add 1 tbsp dry basil, a pinch of rosemary, 1 tsp fennel seeds, salt and pepper.
4. Stir and soften! (about 15 minutes)
5. Add 1 large can of diced tomatoes
6. Add 1 box beef stock
7. Add 1 chopped red pepper
8. Bring to a simmer, then add some soup noodles (optional) and 1 can black beans and 1 can of corn niblets and some chopped fresh cilantro.
9. Allow all ingredients to get to know one another (maybe 10 minutes) and voila!
10. You can serve with some grated Spanish style cheese on top, like Manchego.


Moolicious!

Orange-Vanilla Pound Cake

This is such an easy entertaining loaf cake. Plus, you can use the same base to make it up so many ways....instead of orange, try chocolate chips, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, lemon, poppy, marble...etc. Also, all you need is a whisk and a spatula...No need to dirty up a hand mixer or any fancy cake-making equipment!

1. Prep loaf dish with parchment paper.
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Sift dry ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside.
4. Whisk wet ingredients together** Everything but the oil.
5. Add dry to wet, slowly whisking until all is mixed.
6. Gently fold in the vegetable oil.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes.


You'll need:
DRY:
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder

WET:
- 3 extra large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- zest of 2 oranges
- 1 tsp vanilla extract


FROSTING:
- mix together 1/2 cup softened cream cheese, 2 tbsp unsalted butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, zest of 1 orange, 1/2 cup icing sugar (give or take)- and ice your cake when it has fully cooled.


Moolicious!

Spinach 'n Seafood Lasagna

Yum Yum...I have a late night tomorrow, so I figured that this lasagna dish will be great for two days of dinners.

You'll need:

- About 12 med. sized shrimp

- About 12 small scallops

- 1 chopped chorizo sausage

- 2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce

- 1 tub of cottage cheese

- 1 bag of fresh spinach (washed, then cooked and chopped)

- 1 roasted red pepper

- 4 cups of cheese blend: parm, mozarella, provolone

- Fresh, no-bake lasagna noodles.

1. Fry chopped chorizo sausage until almost cooked, then add sauce to your pot.

2. Bring sauce to a simmer and toss in the seafood for 5 minutes, then set aside.

3. In a bowl, mix spinach, cottage cheese and the one chopped red pepper.

4. In a lasagna dish, layer up your ingredients in the order that you wish, until there's none left!

5. Bake at 375, for about 40 minutes.

Moolicious!!!

Sassy Sweet Potato Fries

Mike and I were calling each other "sweet" names yesterday, like sweet pig, sweet hen, sweet relish, etc. and then he called me a sweet potato...which he thought would be insulting, but it inspired me to make these fries for him!

1. I used 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into french fry-type lengths.
2. Pace fries in a bowl and drizzle with vegetable oil and coat well.
3. Add a sprinkling of each: salt and pepper, caraway seed, cumin, chili powder, dried parsley.
4. Place evenly on a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
5. Bake at 350 for about 25-35 minutes or until you try one and you say, "yup, they're ready!"
- Note: you can flip 'em around half way through
6. When done, grate fresh romano cheese on top!

*If you're having company, be fancy... take wax paper, make a cone and place the fries on display for your guests to nibble on!


Moolicious!

Dilled Cornbread

I sometimes crave cornbread, and since I'm making a roasted chicken tonight, I decided...why not?!
In a bowl, mix dry stuff:
- Mix 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsps baking powder

In another bowl mix wet stuff:
- 2 eggs
- 6 tbsps butter
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk


Blend the wet and dry mixtures and add about 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill.
Pour into a parchment paper-lined square baking dish.
Oven at 450 for 25 minutes.


Moolicious!~

Ukie Shepherds Pie

So, I bought a jar of Sauerkraut and everytime I use it, I need to put some sausages in there somewhere. So, I created a dish using a Ukrainian favorite.

In a large pot, on the stove, heat up olive oil and then add:
- 5-6 sausages, out of their casings and in pieces (similar to ground beef)- fry for 5-6 minutes
- Season with: salt, pepper, cayenne, dry basil, fennel seed
- Add half a jar of rinsed Sauerkraut and combine, fry for another 5 minutes
- Add 1 thinly sliced apple to the mix.
- Add 1 minced clove of garlic.
* Put this mix in a lasagna/casserole dish as the bottom layer

For the mashed potatoes:

- Simmer 5-6 peeled and diced potatoes in beef broth and a bay leaf for 25-20 minutes or until tender...then MASH 'EM and:
- Add a finely minced shallot
- Add about 1/2 cup fresh, chopped dill
- Add 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- Add milk (for creaminess)
* Put potatoes evenly over the first base
*Sprinkle with paprika, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a thin layer of Panko breadcrumbs...
* Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes and broil for the last two minutes until the topping gets golden!


Mooliciouski!

Race Day Recipes

GREAT JOB DEENA!
Here are a few more pre-run recipes :)
We did it!





CHIC PEA SALAD

In a bowl mix together:
- 1 medium sized diced tomato
- About 1 cup of feta, diced
- 1 can chic peas, rinsed, drained
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 minced shallot
- olive oil, salt, pepper
- zest and juice from one lemon.

EGG WHITE SAMMY

- Fried egg white, lean turkey, romaine, whole grain bread-toasted.







WHOLE WHEAT PASTA

- I mixed al dente whole wheat rigatoni with a plain tomato sauce and freshly grated romano cheese. Simple, hearty and energizing!






Moolicious!

Barley & Quinoa Energy Salad

So, Deena bo Beena and I have entered a run this weekend. For supper, I'll have some plain whole wheat pasta and an egg white sandwhich on hearty grained bread...I may throw in a can of chic peas somewhere too...So all week, I have been trying to eat well, (despite my gummi worm and chocolate cravings) to prepare my body for this run on Mount Royal. It should not be different from any other Saturday morning, but I want to feel light on my feet and as ready as can be. So, this "tabouleh" inspired mix will hopefully help!

It was quite tasty...

I combined the following:
- half of a diced red pepper
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- a sprinkling of cumin
- about 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- about 1 cup of diced zucchini and 1 clove of minced garlic fried for a couple minutes
- roughly 1/2 cup red quinoa and 1/2 barley, cooked and cooled.
- olive oil, salt and pepper for seasoning.

Moolicious!

Hen's Pot Pies

My nickname, "La Hen", inspired me to make individual chicken pot pies...my way :)
I made two small pies and they were gone by the end of our dinner.

- 2 small boneless chicken breasts
- 1 carrot, cubed
- 1 shallot, minced
- 3/4 cup of frozen peas, thawed.
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 heaping tbsp of cornstarch
- 1 tsp chicken soup powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- s and p
-Frozen pie dough...this was leftover from empanadas I had made a few weeks back. Any frozen pie dough will do.
- Egg wash


- Grease pot pie dishes or small to medium sized ramekins, set on a large baking tray and then set aside.

1. In a large pot drizzled with oil, add cubed chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes (med-high heat), while stirring.
2. Add shallot and carrot and cover with oil, cook for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add cornstarch and chicken powder, and let oil/grease absorb
4. Add white wine, allow to bubble
5. Then add milk and simmer until the liquid thickens (maybe 5 mins).
6. Prep pie dough by rolling it out roughly the size of your dishes.
7. Remove pot from stove and add thawed peas, mix well and pour mixture into greased dishes.
8. Don't put the dough just yet! Allow mix to cool, while you preheat the oven to 400.
9. Once the oven dings, brush dough with egg wash, place dough on top of pot pie mix and put in the oven!
10. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until dough is nice and golden brown.


Moolicious!

Jacob's Reesey Chocolate Brownies

So Jacob's over and he wants to bake something. This usually happens whenever he comes. Last time it was rainbow chocolate chip muffins. Lately he's been watching cooking shows and getting inspired, although he has to branch out from the usual smooshed banana-strawberry yogurt delight.
So we looked through the cupboards and found a few things for brownies...but I wanted something different, so we picked up some Reese's peanut butter chips. They were so decadent because we had added a can of sweetened condensed milk...let me tell you....

Over a double boiler melt:
- 1/2 cup Reese's chips, 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 tbsp of butter.

Wet ingredients:
- Whisk together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 egg and 1 small can of sweetened condensed milk.
-Now add melted mixture to the wet and combine.

Dry ingredients:
-Sift together 1 cup cake flour (all purpose is fine too), 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/4 baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda.
-Then add to both mixtures and combine well.
-Last but not least!!!!****: Add two large handfuls of Reese chips to the batter, mix and pour into square baking dish lined with parchment paper.
-Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350.


Moooooolicious!