cookbooks

Recently, I have been on the hunt for cookbooks. I want to grow my current non existent collection. I love looking through the photos of delicious food and reading the stories that go along with the recopies. There are so many cookbooks out there that I feel overwhelmed at which ones to get. I mean there are cookbooks that focus completely on one ingredient, others just on cupcakes, some on health and others on regions. How am I supposed to choose? My local Indigo has shelves upon shelves of cookbooks but I can never decide on which ones I want to take home. Do I go for the celebrity chef, the trusted food blogger or someone completely unknown? Decisions. Decisions. I recently got a Winner's gift card for Christmas so I decided to use part of it to towards my cookbook collection and purchased this book yesterday on a whim:

The beautiful cake on the front and the scalloped pages drew me in. I spent all of last night reading the stories behind the different recipes and deciding on which I want to attempt first and what fun new equipment I want to buy.

Any cookbooks you can suggest? I want a broad collection of different foods and flavours. I think these 3 are next on my list: 

Stuffed Zucchini

I have a love of Zucchini. It is probably one of my favourite vegetables. Which is saying A LOT since I hate most veggies. I think I am one of the only people I know who HATES raw carrots. I am also not a huge fan of lettuce. So for me to willing make a dish that stars a vegetable is saying a lot. These stuffed Zucchini are filled with italian sausage, red peppers and lots and lots of cheese. They were seriously amazing!  

You will need: 

3 medium zucchinis 

3 italian sausages or ground beef

1 red pepper 

1 onion 

a few table spoons of olive oil

a clove of garlic 

a small jar of tomato sauce

shredded mozzarella cheese 

  

Step 1: Heat up a large skillet with a few table spoons of olive oil on medium heat. Once oil is hot add your ground beef or sausages (out of the case).  Brown meat and set aside. 

Step 2: Dice onion, red pepper and garlic. Fry onion and garlic in a table spoon of olive oil on medium heat until onions are translucent. Then add in red pepper. 

Step 3: Boil a large pot of water. Once boiling add zucchini's whole. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Then remove. 

Step 4: Cut zucchini's in half length wise. Use a sharp spoon to hollow out zucchini. (pictured below)

Step 5: Add zucchini flesh to onion and red pepper mixture. Add half of  tomato sauce and bring to a boil. 

Step 6: Add browned meat to sauce mixture. 

Step 7: Add a thin layer of sauce to bottom of oven safe pan. Add zucchini shells onto. 

Fill shells with sausage, onion and red pepper mixture. Top with remaining sauce and cover with shredded cheese.

Step 8: Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and zucchini is cooked through.  

Slightly Adapted from Skinny Taste

Enjoy!
Jaclyn

Veggie and Goat Cheese Pizza

The other night I was deciding what to make for dinner. I wanted something quick and easy and that I could have leftovers for lunch the next day.  I had a red pepper, red onion and a zucchini in my fridge, so I decided to go with a veggie pizza.  It was fast and simple and as an added bonus: I had plenty of left over veggies and sauce to make pasta with the next day! 

Ingredients: 

1 red pepper

1/2 a red onion 

1 zucchini 

2 cloves of garlic 

tomato sauce 

olive oil 

spices

goats cheese

pita bread

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut up the veggies and garlic, toss in olive oil and spices.  Roast veggies and garlic for about 25-30 mins. 

 While veggies are roasting spread a thin layer of sauce on pita. Once veggies are roasted remove from oven, top pita with veggies and crumble goats cheese on top.  Place in oven until goats cheese has softened (another 3-5mins).  Enjoy!

What is your favourite quick dinner recipe?
Jaclyn

Turkey Apple Brie Sandwich

 The best part about Thanksgiving (after spending time with family and eating yourself into a food coma) are the leftovers. I pretty much had enough food to last me the week, which is awesome! So what did I do with all my left over turkey? Make a Turkey Apple Brie sandwich of course.

 

This sandwich has everything I love in it. It has the perfect amount of crunch from the apples, sweetness from honey and creamy-ness from the cheese. It is probably up there in my top three favourite sandwiches. 

Ingredients: 

Turkey breast

Honey 

Spinach 

Apple, thinly sliced 

brie cheese, sliced 

2 slices of bread

Spread layer of honey onto one piece of bread. Add single layer of apple slices. Pile turkey onto apples (I like to grill my turkey for a couple minutes until it is heated through first).  Add a handful of spinach and finish with a layer of brie cheese.  Place sandwich on panini grill until cheese is melted about 5 mins or so. 

What is your favourite left over turkey recipe?
Jaclyn

Fried Rice

I saw this Edamame Fried Rice recipe on pintrest. I knew I had to try it. I used the recipe more as a guide and made a HUGE batch of this stuff. Let me tell you it was worth it. Being in university I often don't have a ton of time to prep dishes and love having easy left overs for lunch. This won in both categories.  

I didn't have a wok, so I just used a frying pan. I used red onions rather than scallions and used a mixed bag of frozen peas and carrots. 

This is one of those recipes that was easy to customize. It would be fairly easy to add or subtract a certain vegetable. 

This dish is great on its own, but it would also make a great size dish or it would be an easy thing to add some chicken to. 

What are you having for dinner tonight? 

Jaclyn

Taco Baked Potatoes

I love Tacos.  But I never finish all my delicious taco meat. So I have had to come up with some creative ways to use it all up (you can only have nachos so many times). One of those ways that is probably my favourite is Stuffed Baked Potatoes. Seriously, I have now taken to making taco meat just to make these delicious things. They are easy and simple to make.

All you need is: 

- left over taco meat (or taco meat made according to your favourite taco seasoning package) 

- potatoes 

-butter 

-milk 

-cheese 

- taco fillings (optional): sour cream, tomatoes, salsa etc 

Start by baking your baked potatoes as normal. Once they are fully cooked, slice in half and carefully remove the middle of the potatoes. 

Mash potatoes as usual. I like to add milk and butter to mine. Then add your taco meat (if you are using left over meat I suggest preheating it first). 

Re-stuff potatoes. Do not be afraid to over stuff them. 

Place cheese on top of potatoes and place back in the over until cheese is just melted. 

Remove from oven and serve with taco toppings. I usually also eat these with a side salad. 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe.  If you have any questions feel free to ask, 

Jaclyn