Archive | November 2012

Skinny Ms. Slow Cooker Cream of Chicken and Rice Soup

Nov29

I decided to try out this Skinny Ms. recipe for Cream of Chicken Soup, since it’s a healthier version of the original.  Being that you throw everything into the slow cooker and forget about it, is a MAJOR plus, since I’m always on the look out for new slow cooker recipes!! Now, as you can see above, it’s a pretty dark soup, and that’s because of the black glutenous rice that’s used in the recipe (I may try a white glutenous rice, next time, to see the difference). Now, don’t let the colour put you off. It’s filling, tastes good and hits that comfort food craving spot, with that magical combination of chicken, carrots, potato, celery, onion, rice and ‘cream’ 🙂 The glutenous rice and potato do most of the work to make the soup ‘creamy’ and then the milk and cornstarch solution finishes it off. Yes, it’s for the blander palettes out there, but by adding some Frank’s hot sauce, before serving – kicks it up a notch. As you know my hubby and I are all about the Frank’s, and like the hilarious old lady in the commercial says, ‘I put that !@#$ on everything.’ 😉

Skinny Ms. Slow Cooker Cream of Chicken and Rice Soup

Bon Appetit Everyone!! 🙂

‘Tis the Season for Roasted Almonds!!

Nov23

I started roasting almonds at home, for the holidays last year, after I saw a recipe in my Holiday Edition of Chatelaine magazine. Today, I roasted my 4 cups of almonds with 1tbsp olive oil, almost a tsp of sea salt, 1tsp cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper and cinnamon…omnomnom!! Of course, you can get creative and try out any combination of spices to your liking. I have yet to try a sweet version, which I may attempt the next time I roast some more.

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

KD Anyone?! Why Yes – Thank You!!

Nov20

My hubby was working from home today, and it was lunch time, so I went into the kitchen to stare at my pantry. And, even though I JUST made a pasta bake last night, my eyes came across a box of KD Smart Vegetable we had bought a while ago. I also had a can of tuna, so I added some veggies, bold and spicy mustard and voila…tuna KD was born!! Now, I usually make mac’n’cheese from scratch, but today I just wanted something super quick to feed the both of us LOL

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

What’s for Dinner Tonight!!

Nov20

Made a super simple Pasta Bake tonight. Started off by sauteeing 2 onions, minced garlic, 2 zucchinis, mushrooms (1 package), roasted red peppers (1 small jar – about 4 peppers), dried red pepper flakes and ground black pepper. At this point I added one of our favourite jars of pasta sauce. During this time, I had the spiral pasta boiling. Once cooked, I mixed the sauce and pasta together. Then I placed half the mixture in a 9×13 dish, and sprinkled 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese, before putting the rest of the mixture on top and sprinkling another cup of cheese. Once that’s done, you stick it into a 375 degree oven for 20-25mins or until heated through.

Bon Appetit Everyone!! 🙂

Warm Chickpea and Grain Mustard Salad

Nov16

Mmm…my hubby made this earlier this week for us. We first saw and ate this at the 2011 Toronto Buskerfest, at the Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard stand. Now their mustard is super tasty, but a bit on the pricey side for us. If you have the money to spend though, I’d definitely recommend you give them a try 🙂

We basically looked at the dish, as we ate it, and figured out that it was just chickpeas, diced onions, diced green peppers, garlic and grain mustard sauteed in a pan. Begin with sauteeing the onion, garlic and green peppers until they’ve softened a bit. Then add the chickpeas and grain mustard and let them heat through. It’s really THAT simple!! And this dish has been a part of our recipe rotation ever since 🙂

Anton Kozliks Canadian Mustard

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂