Gazpacho

Fall means harvest time and we were passed a ton of heirloom tomatoes from my Uncle. One giant yellow one was too old and ripe to eat by itself so I thought a gazpacho would be nice to cap off the last of the summer harvest. I looked up recipes for inspiration and then made my own. Sorry, the picture should really feature the gazpacho in the top right corner and not the rest. =) But what a colorful meal no?

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Purple Onion

Garlic

Balsamic Vinegar

Lemon Juice

Cayenne Pepper

Cumin

Tomato Juice

Olive Oil

Basil for garnish

Just puree everything raw, add S&P to taste and enjoy! 

Salmon was seared with rosemary, garlic, S&P. Salad is bagged kale salad mix from Costco. And basmati rice...leftover from Indian take out. 

Cumin wings on sweet potato spinach salad

 

I love chicken wings...and so I bought some. I was too lazy to mince garlic for some honey garlic wings (plus I can't really eat the honey right now) so I went with my next favorite flavor which is curry/cumin wings. There was a random sweet potato in my fridge so this got worked in as well.

Chicken Wings

Cumin

Soy sauce

Coconut sugar (or any sugar you want....I just used a slight pinch though normally I'd probably use a tbsp or two)

Salad:

Gouda cheese

Sweet potato - cubed and pan seared in butter

Spinach

Dressing:

Grainy mustard

Olive oil

Cider vinegar

a couple drops of Stevia (plant based, zero glycemic index, sweetener)

It was a nice hearty salad. The sweet potato was filling when paired with some meat. Yum.

Christmas Steak

And just like that, Christmas is upon us! This isn't Christmas dinner, but it's close.

Boneless rib steak:
Montreal Steak Spice
Chopped cilantro
Olive Oil

Mushrooms:
Garlic
Paprika
Cumin
S&P

Salad:
Baby Kale
Chick Peas
Pomegranate
Avocado

Dressing:
Tahini
Grainy Mustard
Maple Syrup
Lime juice

Everything was delicious. The steak was eaten with a wedge of lime for a nice citrus note. And, the vitamin C from the lime helps your body absorb the iron better from the red meat. Just FYI.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. 

The Love, Joy and Peace of Christ be upon your household. 

And may every good and perfect gift find its way to you in the New Year!

My Go-To Trout

Trout has become a bit of a regular in our kitchen. My husband tells me it's not "fishy" like salmon can be. It's also super easy to cook. I just wash, scale (because I like eating the skin) and then put these ingredients on top:

Garlic
Rosemary
S&p
Olive Oil

Pop in the oven for 17-20 min (until the meat can be sliced easily with a blunt object)...or pan fry until the same consistency is reached (that'll take less than 10 min). Serve with a squeeze of lemon...or not. Because it's not fishy. Enjoy!

Yam Latkes and Egg with Tomato Salad

Sorry the lighting wasn't very good on this one. I saw something about sweet potato latkes in a magazine somewhere so I thought I'd give it a try. SUPER DELICIOUS...especially with a fried egg on top and when the yolk oozes over the crispy yam latke!!

Latke:
Shredded yellow yam
Eggs
Flour
Cumin
Paprika
Curry powder

Tomato Salad:
Regular tomatoes on the vine
Some kind of darker heirloom tomatoes
Yellow bell pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Dried herbs
S&P to taste

Caprese Salad

I wasn't sure whether to post this since the idea is not original or inspired at all. ha ha. But here it is...one of the easiest and yummy salads to make.

Sliced tomatoes
Sliced fresh mozzarella
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Basil (fresh basil would've been WAY better)

Fennel Broccoli and Orange Salad

It's not quite Spring...but we wanted something fresh and summery to brighten all the gloominess of Winter. So...threw together a yummy salad to enjoy:

Fennel
Broccoli
Orange
Cilantro
Pine nuts

Dressing:
Olive Oil
Honey
Wine vinegar
Grainy mustard

Pot roast

I've never made pot roast....so thought I'd give it a try. Bought a sirloin tip roast, put a delicious smelling rub on it. Seared all sides (and set off the smoke detector multiple times). Then into the oven it went. The color looked perfect when it came out...nice range of medium to medium rare for the various preferences in my family. BUT, as a sirloin tip, there's very little marbling of fat in it, so you guessed it, the poor roast was SUPER chewy. Tasted great, but hard to chew. It was a fail.

My uncle suggested next time I bake it at 250F for six to eight hours. I could try that. Or I could just buy prime rib roast next time. Maybe sirloin tip roasts are meant for braising only....anyone know?? Ah well.

My tasty rub:
Chili flakes
Paprika
Cumin
Rosemary
Garlic
Lime juice
Olive Oil


Sorry about the picture....I loaded it vertical from my phone onto the blogpost app, but then it comes out like this when I use my desktop.

Rosemary Lime Squash Bake

This is one of those easy sides that I knew how to make growing up because I had gotten tired of eating mashed potatoes. I know...how can one get tired of mash potatoes? Well I did. (Though now because I eat it super infrequently, it's become a bit of a treat.)

Butternut squash
Rosemary
Lime juice
Olive Oil

Just salt and pepper to taste. But you don't need very much as the fragrance of rosemary and the little zing of lime makes the squash tasty enough. Enjoy!

Christmas Roasted Veggie Medley (fake)

Yes this is a "fake" roasted veggie medley because only one of the ingredients was actually roasted. I pan seared the brussel sprouts in my favorite way. Then I heated leftover roasted beets in a pot with some frozen corn niblets. Tossed everything together and voila! The perfect dish to bring to a Christmas potluck or for Christmas dinner. =)

Brussels Sprouts
Fish sauce
Olive Oil
Sugar

Roasted beets
Frozen corn

I accidently got some burn marks on the beets and corn in the unattended pot, but hey, now it looks convincingly roasted to match the brussel sprouts! It's the colours of Christmas, it's healthy...and delicious.

Roasted Red and Yellow Beets

Apologies...this went straight into the stomach before I remembered to take a photo.... =) I love eating beets....especially cold pickled beets in the summer. However it being cold enough as it is, I wanted to make hot beets. So roasting them made perfect sense.

Red and Yellow Beets (peeled and cubed)
Salt
Olive Oil
Black Pepper

Everything was tossed together in a roasting pan and then baked at 375 F, covered in foil for the first 45 min. I gave it a stir then baked it another 20 min without the foil. The result was a beautifully colored dish and the beets were so sweet!

Rosemary Lamb Chops

I love lamb....rack of lamp, lamb shank, lamb chops. This is a super simple marinade I used for a pack of chops we had:

Rosemary
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic
Caraway seeds
Olive Oil



Crowding seven chops onto a pan isn't the greatest idea. It traps moisture and kind of prevents the meat from searing very well to keep the juices in. I probably should've also used the cast iron pan instead...but was too lazy to have to also work with an oven mitt since the handle would get too hot on a gas range stove. But you can see a nice char on the chops. Yums!

Spaghetti Squash Side

Spaghetti squash was always something that intimidated me until I actually tried making it and found it to be super easy! Start by cutting it in half, baking it until you can easily push a fork through the skin, then when cool enough to handle, scrap out the stringy insides and then you can season however you like!

Spaghetti squash
Sauteed Swiss chard
Sauteed Onion
Sauteed Tomatoes
Olive Oil
S&P

Simple. Tasty. Healthy. Yum!

Brussels Sprouts

The number of times I've eaten Brussels sprouts in my entire life can be counted on one hand. Usually a bad stomach ache followed one of those unfortunate meals. Can't say I enjoyed it. So when I saw a recipe that called for the hearty sprouts with fish sauce (a seasoning I like), I thought maybe I could give it another chance.

Brussels sprouts
Olive Oil
Fish Sauce
Sugar

Key is to get a nice char on the cut side. And Omigoodness....it was so good! Definitely having this again. =)

Rosemary Pork Chops

Pork is hard to do well I find. I tend to dry it out and then have to deal with some really chewy meat after. One thing that helps is to not overcook it. Growing up, my immigrant parents/grandparents would be afraid of food poisoning so meats were always cooked to death. Can't blame them considering fridges were a bit of a luxury back then. But now, I try to cook pork "just" under well done and then let it continue to warm while resting is pretty decent. I'm tempted to try pork medium well...but just in case, I'm taking it to well done. For now.

Marinade:
Olive Oil
Soy Sauce
Dried Rosemary
Cumin
Sugar (Brown sugar is better but mine had solidified into a giant block...so white sugar substituted.)

I pan fried about four minutes on each side. And then served with a dallop of spicy mango chutney on top. It was really good! You can see sides of Tomato Zucchini casserole and some brown basmati rice mixed with red quinoa.

Salmon Onion Quiche & Spaghetti Squash Salad

Meatless Monday! Well, we do have salmon in it, but that still counts as vegetarian right? Kind of? I was trying to use up leftovers and quiches are great to put them in.

Quiche:
Salmon
Onion
Leftover yellow zucchini
Eggs
Almond Milk

Crust:
Flour
Water
Olive Oil

Salad:
Spaghetti Squash
Tomatoes
Leftover yellow zucchini
Basil
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Kale chicken

I remembered a dish I enjoyed years and years ago that was some kind of sauteed chicken on a bed of deep fried spinach leaves. The chicken was delicious but I didn't care too much for the spinach leaves. They were greasy. Here's my variation on baked kale chips....I love kale chips.

Chicken thigh meat
Garlic
Soy sauce (dark and light)
Sugar
Satay paste

Kale leaves (bite size)
Olive Oil
Salt

And I had some crushed cashews handy so that went on top as well. Pretty yums!
(Espcially kale chips...I could eat a bowl of it by myself.)

Pork Rib Stew & Braised Purple Cabbage

It's getting cold out...and as such, my mind is starting to think of hearty soups and stews. And cooked veggies. This recent experiment turned out decently though I think the pork rib stew flavors could be stronger.

Pork stew:
Pork riblets
Onion
Lime juice
Oregano
Sugar
Chili powder
Soy sauce
Ketchup

Braised Purple Cabbage:
Purple cabbage
Apple
Raisins
Honey
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste

And the cooked cabbage turned out pretty decently too. My husband had gotten tired of the slaw over the summer so to change the texture I tried this. The apples add a nice sweet/tartness to the mix.

All the above was served with brown basmati rice mixed with red quinoa.

Salmon & Swiss Chard Quiche

Yep...I was so hungry I dug into the dish before taking a photo of it. Pardon the gaping hole in the quiche! I bought some Swiss Chard in my goal to eat more cruciferous vegetables...which are full of super food qualities...but also inhibits thyroid function if large quantities are consummed. (Eat lots if you're hyperthyroid; eat lots of iodine-rich foods in addition to these healthy veggies if you're hypothyroid.)

While browsing for Swiss Chard cooking inspiration I came across this quiche recipe. I had some minor modifications....but it was delicious! I ate 1/3 of the quiche.

Salmon (canned)

Swiss Chard

Almond Milk

Onion

Egg

Marble Cheese (I would've wanted feta instead)

S&P

I also found this fantastic quiche crust recipe:

Flour

Salt

Water

Olive Oil

I didn't have a pie dish so I used a casserole dish...which took 20 minutes longer to bake because it was thicker. But the end result...surprisingly yummy. Quiche is also easier to make than I thought! I now have a new place for leftovers to go for a meal transformation.

Pineapple Salsa

There's a bit much going on in the photo...but this post is really about the pineapple salsa. There were a few pieces left over from the pineapple we cut up so I decided to use it as a salsa over pork chops. It's got a very summery, sweet and fresh taste...brings out the flavor of the pork really nicely.

Salsa:
Pineapple
Tomato
Cilantro
Shallot
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Honey



But why stop there...I had a bit of salsa left over so the next morning, it went over eggs on toast for breakfast. Yum!