Mexican night

Unfortunately for me, Meaghan is on a Mexican adventure whilst I am here in the cold...working away...Trying to make myself feel better I though why not whip up some Guacamole...it is easy and quick and Delicious!

The first thing you need to make sure you have a ripe avocado. You want the outside to be black and you want them to be soft. If they are green on the outside STAY AWAY. They will be hard and make lumpy guacamole.

I usually use the rule, one avocado for every 2 people. This recipe is easily doubled and tripled.


1 ripe avocado
1 lime
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of cilantro (fresh, dry will not work)
Optional
1 chili pepper diced up for those who like it hot!!!

Now for the fun part...

Scoop out the avocado with a metal spoon into a medium bowl. They have special avocado cutters which makes things easy, but a spoon works great! Take a potato masher and mash up all the avocado so it is nice and smooth, it is ok if it is a bit lumpy, it just depends what kind of texture you are craving. Squeeze the juice from the lime into the bowl, add the salt and cilantro. If you are using chili this is also the time to add it. Mix it up with a fork, you can also use this opportunity to get our any lumps if you are craving a silky smooth guacamole.

Sure with corn chips, I prefer the blue kind (adds great colour). Try not to get the kinds that have too much salt it takes away from the yummy guacamole. I like to serve this along side some sour cream, I think it really compliments it, but it is delish by itself too!

Enjoy!

Friday Night Dinner Rush

Friday nights can be so hard because you are tired after a long week at work. The last thing you want to do is get home at 6 and start making a fancy meal. Our advice....keep it simple and make it fun. Get a nice bottle of wine or drink and choice and cook with your honey making simple yummy finger foods to have a date night and satisfying that craving for something different and fun on a Friday night.

One of the best easy couple things to make on Friday nights is Pizza.

Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cups flour
Pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Stir together the flour, salt and yeast. Add the water and olive oil and stir until it resembles somewhat of a ball. Dump it out on a floured surface and kneed into a ball. It should only take a few minutes and don't be afraid to add flour as needed, but add it in small quantities so you do not end up with dried out dough.

Oil a bowl (some people like to use a spray or butter but oil is best for this) turn the dough in the oil to coat it and let stand covered in plastic wrap for an hour and a half.

Turn the dough out onto flour board and punch the air out of it in the centre of the ball. Shape the dough into a round disk and let stand under plastic wrap for 15 - 20 minutes.

Roll the dough out thin to cover your pan or pizza stone, you should flour or put cornmeal down before you put the dough on the pan or stone.

The toppings a really up to you. My favorite is the best can of diced tomatoes you can find (I use these instead of a pizza sauce, just spoon them out of the can), fresh basil, spicy pepperoni and fresh mozzarella cheese . Don't put too many toppings or sauce on the Pizza, it will just make the crust gooey.


Bake the pizza at 475 for about 10 minutes.


Tip: put any meat you like on top of the cheese instead of under it, the meat takes longer to cook then the cheese and this will allow the meat to cook more thoroughly.

Football Sunday Buffalo Wing's Heathly Style

So everyone loves Football Sunday and everyone loves wing's when they watch the big game. But not everyone loves the Calories. So here is a healthier alternative... with still the great taste just a pinch less fat.

First you will need a pound or 2 of skinless boneless chicken breast, cut this into thin strips roughly the length of a french fries and 1/2 and inch thick. put 1/2 cup of cooking oil in a skillet and turn on a medium heat. dip the chicken in milk first and then 2 cups of flour and a pinch of salt and pepper. Make sure they are nice and coated. Then in a separate bowl at 1/2 cup of your fav hot sauce franks is a great choice, and 2 Tablespoons of honey and 3Tablespoons of melted butter, whisk that around.

add the chicken to the oil and cook on each side for 3 minutes. dip the immediately into the hot sauce and give it a good stir.

I love to serve these with a nice blue cheese sauce or ranch dressing. yummmm

Rotten Ronnie's Succulent Baby Back Ribs

There is nothing better than some nice juicy ribs and a beer on a hot summer afternoon.

My lovely father in law is the creator of these beauties and I have added a finishing touch.

So you want to start our with 1 or 2 racks of ribs, first you need to remove the film from the back of the ribs this should be easy to remove with a small paring knife. Removing this allows for all of the juices to distribute evenly while the meat is cooking and makes for some fall off the bones delicious ribs.

You then want to cut the ribs into pieces so that there is about 4 or 5 ribs still stuck together. Put them in a lasagne dish and cover with 2 part olive oil and 1 part apple cider vinegar. You should also add 2 cloves of garlic salt and pepper and if you want some steak spice to give it some more flavor, cover and let sit for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.

Once they have sat and marinated for the night drain the liquid and cook covered at 250-300 for 2-3 hours. Preheat your BBQ to a medium heat. Cover the ribs in your favorite BBQ sauce homemade or store bought are both fine, and put the ribs on the BBQ for 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy

Trust me you will be forever known as the master of the grill. These babies are amazing!!!

Delish Sweet Potato Casserole

Nothing Says Thanksgiving like Sweet potato casserole especially one that the whole family will enjoy.

Now I love sweet potatoes they are full of nutrients and are so sweet your kids will love them.
So you want to start out with
4 large sweet potatoes
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup chopped pecans
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup chopped pecans


Preheat oven to 375 . Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place sweet potatoes onto the prepared baking sheet, and bake in preheated oven until soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before peeling and placing into a large bowl. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 2 quart casserole dish. Mash the warm potatoes along with butter, cream, vanilla extract, brown sugar, salt, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1 cup chopped pecans, and eggs. Spread mashed sweet potato into the prepared baking dish, and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, and 1/4 cup of pecans. I added more maple syrup to cover most of the top of the casserole and 2 tbsp wasn't enough.Bake sweet potatoes in preheated oven until thoroughly hot, 30 to 35 minutes.


Now some may find this a bit too sweet as sweet potatoes are so sweet to start with so you may want to add less Maple Syrup.

This makes quite a bit but believe me they will not last long!!! Enjoy! and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Eggplant Lasagne

This recipe can be alternated to have any type of filling in the lasagne, so feel free to experiment.

Now I know a lot of people that do not like eggplant and the biggest problem is most people just aren't sure how to cook it before preparing it. The big secret is to first slice the eggplant into 1/2 inch pieces and put them in a strainer and then sprinkle course sea salt over them for at least 1 hour before cooking them. You can then rinse them off and pat them dry. This helps get out all the acidity from the eggplant and will take away the not nice after taste that can come from that.

Now you will want to make a basic marinara sauce. for this you will need 3 cloves of garlic, a bunch of fresh basil ( dried is fine to but only a tsp if using dried) and a can of died tomatoes, a bottle of strained tomatoes (tomato puree) and a TBSP of tomato paste. and salt and pepper for taste.

So first you put a good glug of olive oil in a pan and let it heat then add your chopped garlic and your chopped basil (add dried basil after you put in the tomatoes) let cook for 2-3 minutes add all the tomatoes and let simmer, add a salt and pepper to taste and let simmer on low on your stove.

For pasta I find your best bet is the fresh pasta you can get, it is relatively inexpensive and you can get it at any Italian grocery store or even at the local supermarket. It is the quickest and easiest way to do it because you can just pop the whole thing in the oven and you don't need to pre cook the noodles!

Now for the eggplant... how I like to do it is add some olive oil maybe 1/4 cup and then fry the eggplant until its is brown on both sides, you will know when to flip when the olive oil has seeped through to the other side of the eggplant.

For cheese you will need 1 cup ricotta, 1 egg, and 1/2 cup parm, mix together

So add some sauce to the bottom of your lasagne pan, then add first layer of pasta, (depending how big your pan is will depend on how much pasta you need) then add more sauce and another layer of pasta, then add cheese mix and then another layer of pasta, you then add thin layer of sauce and you eggplant and then another layer of pasta. you can add lots of sauce to the top and top it all off with some fresh mozza grated or sliced and put on top. Baked at 350 for 35 minutes let sit for 3 minutes before serving!

Great with the Caesar salad!!!

You can also make ahead of time and freeze for an impromptu guest.

Chicken Chow Mein Night!

There is nothing I love more then a healthy and easy meal that is quick.

So Chicken chow mein is the right choice for me!

SOOO quick and easy.

You will need oyster sauce, hoisin Sauce, Soy sauce (low sodium), sesame seed oil, olive oil, sugar, cornstarch, chicken, chow mein noodles, and either frozen zen garden veggies (pre-cut and have the best veggies in them) or a selections of veggies, snow peas, water chestnut, baby corns, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomato, bean sprouts, green onion, and anything else that you should desire, just make sure they are sliced very thin.

(Also for the vegetarians out there, skip the oyster sauce and use Tofu instead of chicken still great!!)

First add 2 TBSP of Olive oil and 1tsp of sesame seed oil to pan. Slice your chicken in strips and fry until no longer pink, remove from pan and add one more glug of olive oil and a sprinkle of sesame seed oil. Add your green onion and all the veggies (frozen or other wise) cook for about 7-10 minutes or until they have reduced slightly.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce, now this is more of a judgement on how much sauce you would like. you may want to double the batch.

So add 1/4C soy sauce, 2 TBSP oyster sauce, 2TBSP hoisin sauce and a dash of cornstarch and sugar. whisk this all together and set aside.

Put a pot on to boil to cook the noodles, or you can leave them crispy and add to your pan after. However I prefer mine to be cooked. So once water is boiling cook noodles for about 2-3 minutes. Drain and add directly to the veggies.

Add the chicken to the veggies as well and then add the amount of sauce you like, give it a good stir, let it sit for about 2 minutes and serve.

This is great if you are having company!! Serves 4-5 people

Enjoy!