Easy Holiday Dinners

Christmas is still over a month away, but I am already that holiday rush. Every time I sit down I remember something I forgot to do and immediately have to get up again. So something had to give and that something was making busy dinners.

But giving up busy dinners doesn't mean that I'm eating fast food or frozen pizzas every night. I've just started cooking smarter. 

Instead of making a big dinner ever night, I might roast up a pan of squash on the weekend and turn that into easy dinners for the next week. Maybe a squash soup for Monday, a pan fried fish and squash salad for Tuesday, and some totally amazing Cheesy Roasted Squash and Mushroom Wraps for Wednesday.

I think I pumped you up for wraps, so that's what I'm sharing today. Read on for the recipe, perfect for the busy holiday season.

Beet-za Pizza!

Most people think of pizza being made from pizza dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. I agree, that's pizza. But I think that pizza is so much more than that too.

One of my favourite pizzas is my Butternut Squash and Arugula Pizza  and it doesn't have any tomato sauce on it at all. In fact it has maple syrup on it! One of my other favourite pizzas is my Provençal Pizza and it's covered in pears and lavendar! 

If you think either of those pizzas sound like something you might be interested in tasting, keep on reading because this pizza is incredibly yummy too. It's my version of a pizza created on the Roasted Root, but done in an even more beet-y way to incorporate the earthy flavour of beet greens. 

Beet Pesto

I love a good pesto on pasta, burgers, as a dip, or on veggies. I love it made from basil and pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, or really anything. I just love that it's a super flavourful and vibrant sauce.

Today's recipe takes vibrant to a new level. It's a sweet, rich, and über vibrant Beet Pesto and it's perfect for serving in place of any of your favourite pestos.

If this recipe reminds you of something else you've seen on my blog, it might be because it's really similar to my Alien Spaghetti I made for Halloween last year! But considering this recipe has cheese in it and is a little hardier, I like it even more!

Mexi-Style

I have been on a wrap kick for the last few weeks and really enjoying that kind of dinner. There aren't a lot of dishes, it's not messy, no cutlery is required, and it's not a lot of work.

I know if that's all I was looking for, I could just head to the nearest McDonalds. But I also like a few vitamins in my meals. And home-cooked wraps provide all the vitamins I could ever want. I'm making them, so I can put just about anything I'd like into them.

Today's recipe is more than just a wrap. It's a whole Mexican dinner stuffed into a wrap. And, if you're into wraps, it's great served as a casserole and just topped with avocados and cheese. I've happily eaten it that way more than once!

Big Appehtite

One of my hobbies is cooking up new recipes to enter in cooking contests and sometimes I win big. Recently I entered quite a few recipes into contests put on by Maple Leaf through Appehtite and I am excited to share that I won with one of my favourite quick and easy sandwich recipes.

I have shared my winning recipe before, but it's too yummy not to share again, especially when it just made me $1000 richer! Check out my recipe for my Italian Steak Sandwiches on my blog or on Appehtite.

And be sure to check out one of Appehtite's current contests for a chance to win $1000 yourself!

Ribbons of Happiness

My mom rarely let's me buy her anything, so when she let me buy her a spiralizer, I knew it must be something she really wanted. To me it just looked like another one use kitchen gadget, the kind that you keep in your cupboard to collect dust until you finally have that urge to pull it out and do that one thing it does.

I might sound a wee bit like an infomercial, but it does so much more than one thing. And it's so much fun to use too!

I have spiralizer so many fruits and veggies for salads, cooked my spiralized ribbons, and fried them too. I now love my spiralizer and use it often. So it's time for me to share another delicious recipe that can be made with a spiralizer or even just with a grater, a mandoline, or some crafty knife work. Your choice.

20 Minute Dinners

I am love with quesadillas. I love them done in a pan, on the BBQ, or in the oven. I love them filled with anything, but gooey cheese should always be involved. Basically I don't think anything is wrong with them.

But this recipe is one of the best. Smokey black beans mashed up with garlic powder and cumin. Lots of gooey cheese. Avocados smeared over everything. And they're quick to whip up. Perfect? I like to think so.

Fungi Nights

If I had to eat one thing every single night of the week, I don't even have to think about what I would choose. I know it would be pizza. Pizza can be done in a million ways and not one of them are bad. Plus, almost every single pizza I've ever eaten contains cheese in some form and if you know me, you know how much I love cheese!

Today's pizza is my version of a fungi pizza. It's not a first date pizza because of all the roasted garlic and blue cheese, but it's certainly the pizza I'd choose to make for a 10th date. It's a real winner.

Summertime Tabbouleh

I feel very comfortable cooking most cuisines but middle eastern food has never been one of my favourite foods to eat or cook. But when I first tasted a new version of tabbouleh, filled with fresh Canadian corn, I knew I would be revisiting middle eastern cuisine all summer long.

The tart lemon and sweet corn are a perfect match in this dish. And the roasted baby tomatoes and salty feta cheese don't hurt either. I like to eat a big bowl of this tabbouleh with nothing else, but I know it would be great served as a side dish with something grilled too.

The Grilled Pizza Caper #Herbamare

I love pizza, but there are a few things I am not sure should ever be eaten on one and fish (besides the weirdly popular anchovies) is one of them. All that changed when I tried a smoked salmon flatbread at a restaurant though; it was amazing and seemed so easy to recreate at home.

All I did was grill up some pizza dough, top it with some herby cream cheese, smoked salmon, dressed baby kale, and crispy capers. It might sound like a lot of steps, but trust me, they are all small steps. I know you'll love this recipe.

One of my best tips is to use Sodium Free Herbamare when dressing your baby kale. There is a ton of sodium in capers so I try to cut back on it in the other parts of this dish as best I can. And using Sodium Free Herbamare is an easy way to do that.

The Great Salad Caper

This month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge was an easy one for me to come up with something yummy to make. I heard the ingredients were capers and cantaloupe and for some reason I immediately thought of a watermelon and feta cheese salad. I knew I could do something similar with my fresh melon and salty capers and I also knew from eating watermelon and feta salad that my dish would be great.

So thanks to Dawn from Spatulas on Parade for helping me come up with a great new dish, my Cucumber and Cantaloupe Salad with Crispy Capers. I would never have thought of it without this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge. 

Winner Winner, Veggie Dinner

As everyone who knows me knows, I love to win. I don't think of myself as a sore loser, in fact, I have often apologized to others when I win and they lose. But I think we can all agree that winning is an amazing feeling.

This month I won Chatelaine's Cooking Club and finding out that I won made me very excited. It's not just the prize, although that is nice, it's more the happiness I felt when I realized that Chatelaine thought that my photo and cooking was the best.

For the contest, I made Chatelaine's Grilled Halloumi and Vegetable Salad, but of course I made a few tweaks to the recipe to make it my own. I love chickpeas straight up, but I thought the salad needed a little more crunch, so I crisped mine up in my oven with one of my favourite recipes - my Sweet and Smokey Crispy Chickpeas. I also wanted a little more freshness so I made some zucchini ribbons to add to it too.

Ready for my adapted recipe? Read on for it!

Baby Beluga

I tried caviar once, but it wasn't for me. The texture was too weird and each mouthful was too salty for me to enjoy it. I'm just not that fancy a girl.

But when I heard about beluga lentils, I knew I'd love them. I love everything about lentils and a special lentil with a name that attributed to caviar? I am completely on board with that. It took me awhile to find beluga lentils (I found them at Bulk Barn, which really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows me), and I discovered I do love them. 

So for May's new ingredient of the month, here's a new recipe starring beluga lentils - Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato and Beluga Lentil Salad. 

Say Cheese!

I love going to Farmer's Markets and seeing what amazing vegetables could be featured on my plate in the summer, but right now Farmer's Markets are filled with mostly cheese, eggs, preserves, and baked goods. While I am a little less excited about baked goods and preserves because I love to make my own, choosing a special piece of local artisan cheese is worth the trip to a Farmer's Market in a colder weather. 

This month's Canadian Food Experience Project challenge is to write about a Canadian farmer or producer and I can't think of any local producer better that Salt Spring Island Cheese Company. They make handmade goat and sheep's cheeses and each bite is worth every calorie. Their chèvre is particularly delicious, but I love putting out a cheese board filled with a few of their cheeses so I can sample a taste of everything.

I love to enjoy a bite of Salt Spring Island Cheese with nothing more than a cracker, but I think even just a few small pieces enhance a dish and makes it even more special. Why not try some with my Carrot Gnocchi recipe? It would make a great Easter treat this year!

Grilled Cheese Goodness

A good grilled cheese sandwich is crisp on the outside and gooey and melty on the inside. The bread and the cheese can be switched around, but never do I want to bite into a limp breaded sandwich filled with hard cheese.

But crisp bread and melted cheese is not where a good grilled sandwich ends. No, good grilled cheese sandwiches need more than that. They need something special added in them. Maybe it's spoonful of fig jam smeared into the bread before Brie is sandwiches in. Or maybe it's a little pesto or apple added for a burst of flavour. Whatever it is, just make sure you put enough in the sandwich so you can taste it.

I think the grilled cheese sandwich I'm sharing today is pretty spectacular. It's full of healthy spinach and tart little artichokes. And it's high time a spinach artichoke dip met a grilled cheese sandwich, don't you think?

Veggie Cannelloni

I am truly addicted to pasta and cheese. But sometimes I try to make my meals a little healthier than just pasta covered cheese because we all could use a little more veggie love in our lives. I've subbed out pasta for cauliflower and made a delicious new version of Cauliflower Mac and Cheese and I knew I could make a cannelloni just as tasty as the real thing without using pasta too. 

Here's my recipe for Eggplant Cannelloni. They're stuffed with ricotta, black beans, olives, and drenched in a tomato sauce. 

Luck of the Irish

It's March 16 today and I bet a few of you are planning on celebrating St. Patrick's Day today. I bet some of you are looking for green food to whip up, some of you are looking for an easy and yummy meal to soak up some of the Irish brews you'll be enjoying later, and maybe a few of you are looking for a recipe you can make for a date. Whatever the case, I think that today's dish will bring the luck of the Irish to you.

Today's dish is green, easy to make and filling, and fanciest enough looking to be perfect to make for someone special. It's only fancy looking though, so don't get worried. It's not really fancy...

Read on for my take on a Veggie and Shrimp Barley Risotto. It's inspired by one from Food Network Canada. 

Twice Baked Mexican Sweet Potatoes

Week nights and a sink of pots and pans don't mix at my house. I'd much rather make something quick, easy, and as sink free as possible. Today's post is one of my new ideas that combines these concepts to make a tasty and fun week night dinner. 

I love to eat these Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes on their own for dinner but you might want to serve them with a salad or a piece of chicken if you'd like something a little more hearty. But whatever you serve them with, just serve them. Your taste buds will thank you!

Not Just a Soup and a Sandwich

I bet you read the words "soup and sandwich" and wondered if this post would be worth reading. A soup and a sandwich is something you can get at a deli, or even some grocery stores, so why would you want to read a recipe for it?

Well, I am so glad you decided to keep reading because this is one of the easiest and tastiest soups I've ever made. And, just to make it a little more special, the sandwich I've paired it with is actually more of a crouton. It's a grilled cheese sandwich cut into tiny cubes that are floated on top of the soup. So, you see, I meant what I said when I told you that it wasn't just a soup and a sandwich; it's a little more special than that!

Read on for my recipe, inspired by a fennel soup recipe in Jamie Oliver's newest cookbook.

Sweet and Salty Pasta Heaven

The last day of the Olympics is here! I almost can't believe Canada made it to the gold medal game in men's hockey and I can't wait to check the score to see who won.

Today's post is a recipe inspired by the Olympics. I could say that it's a mostly white dinner with bits of green poking through, just like Russia's grass poking through the snow - but I won't. Instead I'll say that the oven roasted cauliflower in my pasta is meant to resemble the Olympic torch. If you prefer the grass analogy, that's ok with me too!

Read in for the recipe. It's a perfect mix of sweet roasted cauliflower and salty Parmesan cheese, so I know you'll love it.