Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Garlic

Ripe, colorful, sweet cherry tomatoes. Fresh, strong, pungent garlic. One of the things I miss about living in Victoria is the massive rosemary bush in my garden. That thing had a mind of its own and would mutate every time it rained. I would regularly cut it, post an ad on Craigslist and give bags of it away. Fresh rosemary all year round … I miss that and I’m looking forward to the day I can have an out of control rosemary bush again. Among other things! I love this recipe because it uses all fresh ingredients but it’s also so versatile. It can be used in pretty much anything. I often use it in casseroles, like a spaghetti squash casserole. It’s great as a simple addition to pasta or you can puree the tomatoes and garlic together and add them to a basic marinara. There is a face-punch of flavor, no matter how you use it. But fair warning: your house will smell irresistible!

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Citrus Coffee Marinated Chicken

I wasn’t looking for a new chicken recipe yesterday. I had every intention of making my original Roasted Chicken recipe but when I started prepping everything, it turned into something totally different. I made something up, it sounded weird with a side of ‘could be good?’. I had a huge almost 7 pound chicken that was about to get freezer burn. I had some left over coffee from that morning’s fix. And I also had oranges. So I whipped up this little ditty with the hopes that it didn’t taste as weird as it sounded. Well, it smelled incredible. That’s a good sign right? My oven has some sort of weird magic it does where it cooks a 7 pound chicken in just under an hour. So, please keep that in mind if you use this on a whole chicken – your oven probably isn’t magic. This marinade would be just as great as a marinade for chicken pieces or maybe even pork chops! By the way … it was yummy. Super tender, not too citrusy, couldn’t pick out the coffee specifically. Delicious.

Pork Tenderloin Paprikash

It’s absolutely no secret that I love pork tenderloin. The texture and flavor of it couldn’t be more perfect. It’s so tender, it cooks so quickly and it’s really not finnicky. You could easily use chicken breast or chicken thighs to make this if pork isn’t your thing. Actually, chicken is traditional but I had pork tenderloin I needed to use. So paprikash is a traditional Hungarian stew made using a paprika roux base. Don’t think stew stew though, this recipe does not take long to make at all – less than 30 minutes in total, and its ingredients are really quite simple. I prefer my paprikash chunky, I like the texture, some prefer to puree the sauce before adding the meat component, so I’ll let you decide which direction you want to take it. Either way you go – it’s a meal that I’m confident you’ll consistently go to during the week, the kids will love it. I want to know what you think of this one!

Crockpot Curried Beef

Fall is coming. It has been such a hot, dry summer in Vancouver – a rarity to be sure! Basically overnight the temperature went from a range of 20-27 degrees celcius straight down to 9 degrees. Bring on the cool nights and solid sleep! I wake up so much more rested in the fall when the temperatures start to dip. When it comes to food though, I immediately start wanting hearty, bold and full dishes. Something simple but with serious flavor. I threw some stewing beef in the crockpot this morning with some from-scratch curry and as I left for work, asked Mike to give it a couple stirs throughout the day. I got a text around noon that said “what is in the crockpot because it smells f**k’n amazing!” I was excited to come home to a complete dinner but when I walked through the door a “woah” escaped my lips and I hoped the whole neighborhood could smell this. It smells crazy good and I couldn’t wait for the rice to be done. Heaven folks, pure curried heaven.

Coconut Curry Squash

Ahhh curry. Love of my life. Long lost friend. I feel like curry and I have a lot of making up to do. I grew up in a small town with one restaurant that was only open on and off, depending on current ownership. The closest city was an hour away and even then it didn’t distinguish itself as a happenin’ place in the culinary world. It’s a city very committed to its chain restaurants and independents never seemed to last long. That being said, there wasn’t a lot of ethnic food either. Not that any of that matters because my mother doesn’t like spicy food and my parents’ palate for foreign food never extended beyond the buffet line at the westernized Chinese food place. Naturally I grew up thinking I didn’t like so many things that now, I can’t live without. Sushi, pho, real Chinese and curries to name a couple. Imagine my delight when I discovered the deep complex flavors of my first good curry. It was so involved that I can actually remember exactly where I was! I like this recipe because it only has a few easy ingredients. It cooks up quickly and has enough spice to clear your sinuses (use less if that’s what you prefer) but it’s also super healthy and while I suggest serving it over rice for a complete meal, I really prefer just eating it as is.

Thai Coconut Lentils

I love hearty, flavorful dishes. You could give me mud in a bowl if it filled me up and tasted awesome. I also love savory foods, even desserts. So, while I was ‘working’ today, I stumbled over this recipe and thought to myself; “Hmm I can stop and get some cabbage, this should be easy. I like easy” So after work I grabbed a small cabbage and came home. There’s a few steps to this but none of them are complicated and it doesn’t take that long to cook. Dinner in (almost) no time! I’ll make this again, no doubt about it. I’ll probably tweak it a bit every time I make it – maybe add some green curry next time. And if I can find the ingredient required in the original recipe (Tom Kha) then I’ll try it like that! I like that about a recipe.

Caulfredo Pasta

Who isn’t a fan of alfredo sauce? I mean honestly. Creamy, garlicky, saucy. I think the only ones of us who ‘hate’ alfredo sauce are those of us who are mindful of our weight and caloric intake and have to gently ‘remind’ ourselves that we hate alfredo sauce and thus we can overcome our lack of will power. While this sauce isn’t a perfect alfredo, it’s certainly yummy and I will happily allow it to fill my true alfredo void. Especially if it means that a delicious meal of pasta is less than 200 calories! I don’t think you can fault me for wanting this in my life. When I described this dinner to someone they dubbed it Caulfredo sauce so thus its name. General concensus of feedback on this pasta is that it’s a bit bland on its own. I definitely recommend adding some sauteed veggies or meat. The image below is orange and red bell pepper, onion and italian sausage. So.Damn.Good.

Spinach and Millet Timbale

Until this afternoon I didn’t know what a Timbale was and I’m willing to bet that a significant number of people haven’t heard of it either. To be honest, I’m not sure I even know now. But, it’s good to know (assume) that I’m not alone. It’s basically a quiche without a crust. It’s similar to a gratin but it is made in a hot water bath to prevent the sides from browning and it comes out of the pan easier. I was looking around for a new recipe for this week and came across this on Pinterest. Seemed easy enough, had all the ingredients, we’re good to go. There’s two ways to make this, I’ve only tried one. If you don’t have ramekins, make it in a large pan, it will take longer for the eggs to set but the results will be the same. You could also make it with quinoa!

**Quick Update – While this dish was great for dinner, it was fantastic as a leftover for breakfast. Warmed up in the microwave, a dash of ketchup and it was delicious. The texture held, the shape held and it didn’t become rubbery or slimy like some quiches do. Next time I’ll do spinach and bacon. Mmmm bacon. (Ended up doing broccoli flowers and roasted turkey and it was better than the original!)

Potato Leek Soup

I don’t think I’ve actually ever had potato leek soup before. Parsnip Leek soup yes, and it was amazing, but not potato. I don’t what the hell I’ve been thinking all this time! It’s incredibly delicious. I never thought that 2 main ingredients that are kind of bland on their own, could pack such a heart-warming and soul-soothing punch. I’m all over this. It’s the perfect season for this soup too. Creamy, thick, hot and super filling. Maybe because I couldn’t stop at only one bowl! For some reason I was always under the impression that potato leek soup wasn’t an ‘easy’ soup. I don’t know where I got that notion but I was WAY off. I threw this in the crock pot, walked away and came back to magic. Make it with some Baking Powder Biscuits to round out the perfect winter meal!

Turkey Breast Roast with Creamy Sage Mushroom Sauce

This recipe is DIVINE. Luxurious mushroom sauce doesn’t get any easier than this! We had a late Thanksgiving Dinner (I just finished cleaning) Had the boyfriend’s Dad over for some eats and they were both spoiled rotten with food. (Not rotten food … ) This recipe was outright stolen from the Thrifty’s flyer. (Our local grocery chain) Every week they send out 4 new recipes and this is the first I’ve actually been interested in making. Let me tell you, EASY. It takes zero effort to make this and that was a beautiful thing when trying to compile an entire huge meal. Turkey Breast Roasts are also really fast to cook. Takes about an hour and a half total. Mushroom sauce takes 10 minutes. This sauce can be used outside of the recipe and put on pretty much anything you want!