Tag Archive | Easy

Cranberry Kale Salad

Jun29

Was watching the news one night, and they had a segment, about how to get children to eat more greens. The lady they were talking to, said she makes a simple kale salad, with lemon and parmesan cheese…and gets the kids to make it. I’ve bought a few kale salads from various places, and thought I’d finally make it myself, since it would be way cheaper and looked easy enough. So in my version I used olive oil, red wine vinegar, grated parmesan and dried cranberries. Thought it turned out pretty good, and will definitely make it again. What varieties of kale salads have you made? Would love to hear about them!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Crock Pot Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Jun25

Saw this recipe, after getting my weekly email from Food.com. It was about Crock Pot recipes, one could make, during the hot months of summer. After perusing the list, this one caught my eye, because a) I was looking for a new chicken recipe to try out b) was made in the Crock Pot…win!! and c) had very few ingredients I already had on hand. I was able to put it all together and into the Crock Pot within 5mins…was loving it already!! I chose to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, since that’s what I had in the freezer. I did defrost them a bit, for almost a day in the fridge first, but you could definitely cook it from frozen. Being that there wasn’t any bone, I cut the cooking time to 4hrs on Low, which was perfect. For our personal tastes I used 1/2 cup of sugar, a 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup of Sprite Zero, 4tbsp of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. At first I thought, the vinegar was REALLY strong, after mixing it all together. But after cooking, it mellowed out enough, for us to enjoy it. The chicken was moist, flavourful and reminded my hubby and I of sesame chicken…minus the sesames LOL I served it over rice, so it could soak up the sauce. I know, from the photo, it doesn’t *look* very appetizing…but we very much enjoyed it. If you’re looking for a new chicken recipe, that doesn’t require much work, then I’d definitely suggest you give this one a try!!

Crock Pot Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Crockpot Chicken With Black Beans in Cream Sauce

Jun23

Remember, how in my last dinner post, I told you we had bought mutant chicken breasts from T&T? Well, I took the last 2 pieces we had, and made this recipe. At first, I wasn’t sure about making it, as it’s pretty high in sodium, but I went for it anyway. When I read that I would need ‘Neufchatel cheese’, I was like what IS that?! But, I quickly found out it’s very similar to cream cheese. Otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered making this recipe, if I had to go out of my way to find this cheese LOL I personally have never seen this cheese, in the grocery stores I shop at, but I wasn’t looking for it either? The added cream cheese (which looking back now I should’ve only added 3/4 of the brick), makes it turn the not so pretty colour above, but don’t let that fool you. Next time I’ll add more colourful veggies, to bump up the pretty factor 🙂

So, after making it on Friday, we finally had it tonight over some basmati rice. First off, I tasted it while it was cold, and it tasted like chicken salad with a kick. I could definitely eat this cold!! But, tonight we did heat it up, and it was NUMMY. Now the salsa makes it slightly (in our taste) spicy, so if you’re sensitive to it, just use a mild or green salsa instead. If you’re in the mood for a quick to prepare crockpot meal, I’d definitely say to give this one a try!!

Crockpot Chicken With Black Beans in Cream Sauce

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Baking Season is Here…Hooray!!

Dec10

As Christmas creeps every closer, my baking bug kicks into over drive, and my mind races trying to figure out what to make this year. I came across a Fudge Crinkle cookie recipe, and knew I had to give it a try. Now, being the naive baker that I apparently am, I had NO idea that you could use cake mix to make cookies. I…KNOW…I was like ‘whaaaa?’ too!! You definitely can, and the cookies that come out of it, are super nummy!! They’re soft and not hard or crispy (unless you overbake)…BONUS 😀 The photo above is from the first batch I made, for my hubby to take to work, as gifts for his bosses and friends. They came out good, but the second batch I made for Christmas baking gifts for family, looked MUCH prettier with the use of ganulated sugar. I TOTALLY recommend rolling them in granulated sugar – hands down. I also added 1/2 a cup, of peanut butter chips, to bump up the numminess factor 😀 They’re also REALLY quick and easy (only 4 ingredients) to make too, so once you’re used to making them, you’ll be munching on them within 15-20mins…omnomnom.

4-Ingredient Fudge Crinkle Cookies

Bon Appetit, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!! 🙂

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!! 🙂

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 🙂