Sunday, July 27, 2014

Easy Peasy Lettuce Wraps

Lettuce Wraps - a quick, easy, and delicious dinner option.



Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef (can substitute other meat or tofu, if preferred)
1/4 cup zucchini
1/4 cup onion
1/4 cup mushrooms
1/4 cup orange peppers
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp Chinese 5-spice powder (**see excerpt below):
to taste: chili powder, salt, and pepper
1 head lettuce (the crisper, the better!)

**Used extensively in Chinese cooking, this pungent mixture of five ground spices usually consists of equal parts of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns. Prepackaged five-spice powder is available in Asian markets and most supermarkets.

Read more at: 
http://www.foodterms.com/encyclopedia/chinese-five-spice-powder/index.html

How to cook:
1. Dice all vegetables into small pieces.
2. Take your raw meat or tofu and vegetables in a bowl, add water, soy sauce, brown sugar, and spices. Marinate for twenty minutes in the fridge.
3. Cook mixture on the stove until meat is cooked and any excess sauce has cooked off.
4. While the mixture is cooking, take the head of lettuce and rip off the pieces as carefully as possible, in order to make little lettuce boats to fill with yummy meat mixture.
5. Once the mixture is cooked, serve with lettuce and side (e.g. rice, quinoa, couscous, etc).




I made quinoa, rather than rice, as a side dish. To be honest, however, my quinoa failed rather spectacularly. It was a soggy disaster. If you have ever experienced a similar issue, there are some handy tips to be found here:

The wraps were delicious, and the meat mixture was even better the next day.
Because you cook the meat after marinating, however, it might be a good idea to use extra lean ground beef for this recipe. I did find the mixture I made was a little greasy (not that it tasted bad, mind you!).

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Death By Chocolate

Another dessert post! It's not all we have been cooking around here, but life has been busy so most of our meals have been pretty quick'n'dirty, not exactly blog-worthy.
However, recently my husband got another year older and I made him my famous lasagna and his favourite indulgent dessert - "Death By Chocolate". It seemed like a good opportunity to get back on the ol' blog bandwagon.
Recipe:
1 chocolate cake from mix 
(although you could probably substitute a homemade one, if you want to do the extra work! I didn't)

1 cup Kahlua 
(and a small snifter for sampling!)

1 lg container Cool Whip OR 2 cups whipped cream

4 boxes Dr. Oetker Chocolate Mousse 
(again, you probably could substitute for homemade, but I just used the delicious easy-make variety, and it works great!)

6 Skor Bars
 (no substitutions here!)





Bake the cake the day before you wish to serve the dessert.
While the cake is still warm, poke holes in it (see above) and drench in Kahlua. Feel free to sample from snifter as you do this.

The next day, you are going to create a layer dish in a large bowl (a punch bowl works well, although as you can tell from the pictures I didn't have anything that fancy at the time I made this).

Crumble the cake. Break Skor bars into small pieces and crumble into whipped topping. Layer in bowl as follows:
Cake---Mousse---Whipped Topping
Repeat until all ingredients are used up, ending with the Whipped Topping layer. 
If you managed not to eat them all, you can crumble any extra Skor bar bits onto the top for a little extra sweet fanciness. Chill, then serve to the delight of all who are there to enjoy it.


This recipe was included in a book of family recipes given to me by my mother-in-law. I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing other dishes from her collection in future blog posts.




Monday, June 16, 2014

Kid Friendly Munchies

As parents in today's hectic world, I think we all struggle to find healthy, easy snacks that our children will actually eat.

Lately I have found myself guilty of feeding my son goldfish crackers and fruit cups more than I care to admit. I am making it a goal to find some better things to feed my son when he needs a quick pick me up.


Below are some quick and easy suggestions for kid-friendly snacks, found on that always fun and often frustrating site, Pinterest:

Zucchini chips (trying these tonight!)

Whole Fruit Popsicles (if you click on the link on the Pin, you will find a great blog entry with lots of yummy ideas for snacks)

Banana Roll-Ups (a non-processed food that kids will like as much as the store-bought fruit roll ups!)

Homemade Gummy Fruit Snacks (for those parents feeling a bit more adventurous!)

Apple Oatmeal Muffins (a little more traditional, but always a fav)

For the more creative parents:

A Very Hungry Caterpillar

Cute Little Penguins


If you want to see the entire board, or follow me on Pinterest, the link is here:
http://www.pinterest.com/vallyncia/kid-friendly-munchies/

Monday, February 24, 2014

Peanut Butter Cups of Awesome

In my house we celebrate Valentine's Day with homemade chocolates, and these Peanut Butter Cups are always requested.
I found the recipe years ago on Craftster (original post here) and it was an instant favourite with my husband.
Below is my mini-tutorial on making them.
Enjoy!

In a large mixing bowl combine 
1 cup peanut butter (I like smooth)
6 tablespoons butter (softened)
2 cups icing sugar
Using a dough cutter cut the ingredients together til crumbly


Then I squish them into little pucks (see picture below)




 Then I take good quality milk chocolate (I like Berard Callebaut), chop it up, and then melt it using the double-boiler method. You use chocolate chips or melting pucks if you prefer, but I find using the chopped bricks taste better.


 Melt the chocolate, then pour it into prepared cupcake wrappers. I put a little in the bottom, put the peanut butter puck in, then top with more chocolate.
 Once they are done, put them in the fridge to set. I find they taste best, though if served at room temperature.
My husband's Valentine's gift. <3

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Bacon and Onion Pan Fried Squash

We had a dinner party the other day and I wanted to try something new for a veggie dish. I had bought a couple of squash to serve but, as we were serving a turkey, the oven was busy so roasting was not an option. I had to find something else to do, so I Googled "sauteeing". A recipe for squash fried with bacon came up and PRESTO! We had a winner.

The inspiring recipe is here: Butternut Squash Saute (Betty Crocker), but as you can see, I made a few changes:

Ingredients:

2 medium squash, peeled and cut into cubes (I used butternut and acorn)
1/2 pack bacon
1/2 large red onion, chopped
Thyme
Salt & Pepper


To prep the squash, put it in the microwave for about five minutes to cut and peel more easily.
Cube into 1/2 inch pieces and set aside.
Chop bacon into small pieces and fry until it starts to crisp. 
Add chopped onion. 
Fry for a couple minutes, then add squash, thyme, salt, and pepper. 
Fry until squash is fully cooked. You will know that it is ready when you can easily slice through it with a spatula.
Serve! It's delicious and super easy. 
And some pictures of our entire turkey dinner (MMMMM!). I made the yummy Quinoa salad mentioned in another blog post and even my husband liked it (he's generally hesitant about "weird grains").