Noodle Carnaval

This recipe was thought up by a former roommate. We used to invite a bunch of the young adults from church over for lunch on Sundays and this was a good go-to meal. It’s cheap, easy and feeds a ton of people.

In a large pan, cook 1/2kg of ground beef.

Season with:

1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp chili powder

Mix in

1 large can of diced tomatoes, mostly drained
3 cups frozen corn
2 packages of Mr. Noodles, crushed (type doesn’t matter since you won’t be using the flavour packets)

Cook on medium heat, covered, stirring occassionally, until noodles are tender (about 7-8 minutes).

For less picky kids you can add chopped onion, chopped garlic, peppers, and anything else you can think of! This is just a base recipe. Do with it what you will.

French Toast – Easter Style

I was planning on making this for Good Friday, but we ended up having company over tonight so I made it for them instead. This recipe fed 3 adults and 3 young kids, so it can be cut down for a smaller family, or keep it the same if you’ve got older kids. Leftovers are always good too 🙂

Ingredients:

6 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
10 slices French Bread
1-2 tbsp butter or margarine

Food colouring for a special treat. I used neon green, pink and blue for these.

Directions:

In a shallow bowl beat together first 4 ingredients. If adding colours, separate the mixture into equal parts and add a few drops of dye now. Dip bread into the mixture, coating both sides (about 20-30 seconds per side for french bread)

In a skillet or griddle cook bread in melted butter over medium heat for 2-3 minutes each side, or until brown and slightly crispy. Add more butter when needed.

The colours will go all the way through the middle making a great display for kids. Swirl the batters on one piece to make it extra fun 🙂

Strata

This was a recipe featured on the back of Stovetop Stuffing boxes for a while. It’s been in our rotation ever since. It’s very versatile and covers all the basic food groups.

Ingredients:

1 Box Stovetop Stuffing
1 cup veggies
1 can of tuna, ham, turkey, or chicken (or use diced up leftovers) (optional. Leave out for vegetarian meal)
2 cups cheese
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

In an 9″ square casserole dish combine stuffing, veggies and meat. Spread cheese on top.
In a small bowl, beat together eggs and milk. Pour overtop of the cheese.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

“I Don’t Like Red Sauce” Spaghetti

Wow. Nothing says “I’m in a food rut” than writing a blog about what food you cook. At least it’s a delicious rut!

This is a recipe I created a while ago and almost forgot about. One of my biggest food dislikes is red sauce… especially when it’s all you can taste in the food. Sure, it has its place (like in the Lasagna Cupcakes) but I’d rather not have it take center stage.

I also had a son allergic to eggs, so Alfredo sauce wasn’t a good alternative unless I wanted to cook a separate meal for him (which would defeat the title of my blog so obviously that’s not an option)

Enter the “I Don’t Like Red Sauce” solution.

It’s so easy I won’t bother with a step by step recipe. You should know how to cook spaghetti. If you don’t, that’s what Google’s for. If you don’t know how much to cook, put your thumb and first finger together (OK) and fill the space with dry spaghetti. That’ll feed 3-4 people.

Next… drown in Kraft Greek Feta & Oregano salad dressing

Really, any oil based salad dressing would be good. This one’s my favorite though.

So, mix that all in there. Serve and top with parmesan cheese… because I love cheese. Simple!

You’re welcome.

Fun with colours

I recently came across a booked called OMG Pancakes. This guy takes pancake batter and turns it into art. I thought I’d try expanding on the pancake letters using some of this guy’s ideas and doing some of my own. I showed the book to my 3 year old and asked him what kind of pancakes he wanted. Of course he said “Astro Boy pancakes” which isn’t in the book. Since we only have 2 squeeze bottles I couldn’t go all out but I did do the red boots and face (which he was thrilled with).

I made more for him after he wolfed down his Astro Boy.

My 19 month old enjoyed eating his special pancakes too.

My husband was surprised when I made a special plate for him too. He thought special pancakes were only for kids!

Then I thought it would make a really creative proposal, so I did that too. LOL

Colourful pancakes can be such a wonderful way to play with your food and will brighten even the dullest winter day. You don’t even need to make shapes, just let your creativity flow!

Tip: These work better with the Cottage Cheese Pancakes than regular pancake batter, simply because of the need of the squeeze bottles. But, you can cut the opening of the squeeze bottles a little larger and it would probably come out fine.

Mango Salsa and Grilled Pork

The Mango Salsa is another recipe from my Mother-in-law. The kids love it (especially the chips) and it’s a huge hit at parties.
The pork recipe is super easy to do and they taste great together.

MANGO SALSA

Ingredients:

2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
2 green onions, finely sliced
1Tbsp Serrano pepper, seeded and finely diced (Optional if you can’t find it or are wimpy about spice)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Salt & Pepper

Combine all ingredients in bowl and season with salt and pepper. Let sit for 30 minutes before serving. I like to serve it with bite size whole wheat chips, but blue chips add a nice colour contrast for presentation.

GRILLED PORK

Instructions:

Generously sprinkle pork loins with Mrs Dash’s Salt Free Table Blend Seasoning, both sides.
Grill on BBQ or in a frying pan with some olive oil, on medium heat, 5-6 minutes each side or until done.
For a nice presentation, cut on the diagnal before serving.

Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

I’ve only made this once but I’ll definitely be making it again. It was super fast and easy and super SUPER delicious. (From Good Housekeeping Vegetarian Meals)

Prep time: 35 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
coarsely ground black pepper
2 cups milk
1 can vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups water
1 large bunch broccoli, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces (including stems)
1 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a 4 quart saucepan, heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook, stirring occassionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, thyme, nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp of pepper; cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes. (This is where I had some problems. Cooking all that powder with nothing but cooked onions to moisten it was pretty hard. I ended up just moving on to the next step instead of waiting the 2 minutes)
Gradually, stir in milk, broth, and water. Add broccoli and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until broccoli is tender, about 10 minutes.
Spoon 1/3 of the soup into a blender; cover with the center part of the cover removed to let the steam escape. Puree until very smooth. Pour into a large bowl and repeat with remaining soup (1/3 at a time).
Return the soup to the saucepan; heat to boiling over high heat, stirring occassionally. (I didn’t find that step necessary. The soup was still quite hot) Remove saucepan from heat; stir in cheese until melted and smooth. Sprinkle each serving with ground black pepper.

Nordic Potato Soup

This soup is pretty versatile. The meat can be exchanged with anything, or left out for a vegetarian option. Other veggies can be added (corn’s a good one) for more nutrition or variety. Delicious cold too!

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 6 hours

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes, chopped (Note: I never peel potatoes. It takes too long and takes away nutrients.)
1 large onion, diced
1 smoked ham hock (or other meat. To be honest, I don’t even know what a ham hock is. I’ve used a regular ham chunk before, but it’s hard to fit in a smaller crock pot. I usually use mild italian sausage.)
1 tbsp dry dill weed
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp grated lemon peel (I skip this one as I rarely have lemons in my house. Soup still tastes great)
2 1/2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you’re doing the vegetarian option)

1 tbsp corn starch
1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions:

In a slow cooker, combine potatoes, onion, meat, dill weed, lemon peel, white pepper and broth. (Place the meat on top so later steps are easier). Cook on low setting until meat is cooked and potatoes are very tender (about 6 hours).

Take out the meat (aren’t you glad you had it on top?), cut into bite size pieces and set aside. Take about 1 cup of the remaining potatoes and onions with a little broth. Place in a blender and puree for 30 seconds. Pour it back into the soup. Put the meat back into the soup.

In a small bowl, mix the corn starch and whipping cream together until smooth. Pour into the soup and mix everything together very well.
Increase the temperature to high and let cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

This is a recipe from my mother-in-law. It’s super high in protein and makes really thin pancakes (perfect for stacking). I double the recipe for our family because we love them so much. If you had a side with it you could probably get away with just the single recipe though (Single recipe shown).

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes (or more if you’re doubling the recipe, or cooking them one at a time, but that would be silly.)

Ingredients:

1 cup cottage cheese
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil (can substitute apple sauce)
1/2 cup milk
1/2  tsp vanilla

Directions:

Combine ingredients in order in a blender. Mix at high speed for 1 minute (scraping the sides after 20 seconds). Cook on a lightly greased griddle or waffle iron.

Note: My mother-in-law introduced me to writing names with pancakes. You can make letters instead of shapes. It’s great for kids who are just learning to read. My 3 year old loves eating his T. Make sure the letters are thick enough that they won’t break when you flip them.

Using a candy making bottle (found anywhere you can get baking supplies) makes it super easy to make letters or other shapes. Making teddy bears this way works great too.

Squeeze out a small circle (this will be the nose). When the nose is cooked, squeeze a bigger circle on top for the head, and 2 circles on top for the ears. After you flip it to cook the other side, place 2 chocolate chips above the nose for the eyes. They’ll soften from the heat.

Cupcake Lasagna

More lasagna than cupcake. I know, I was disappointed too.

These little lasagnas are the perfect serving size. I did not create this, I only modified it. The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

1/2-3/4lb ground beef
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
feta or ricotta cheese, crumbled
Pilsbury Grands Crescent Roll dough
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Brown ground beef. Stir in sauce.
Rip up the crescent roll dough into approximate circles/squares so it will fit into the tray compartments. The nice thing about the dough is that you can take the triangular corners and mash them together to make a square.
Place one piece of dough in each section of a silicon muffin tray (can use a metal one if you spray it with cooking spray first).
Spoon some of the ground beef/sauce on top.
Sprinkle some crumbled feta/ricotta cheese on top.
Repeat until you’re out of space in the tray or out of ingredients.
I like to end with the dough because I love the taste of it and want my yummy goodness surrounded by more yummy goodness.
Top with the shredded cheddar.
Bake at 375F for 18 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes.
Pop out of the tray and serve!
Bask in the compliments as everyone tells you what an amazing cook you are.
Because of their size, they’re great to serve at dinner parties. They also microwave really well (2 minutes for each) and I’ve heard they freeze well, but our leftovers never last long enough to try that out. They’re also very soft so easy for little children to eat.