Fall Faves

Hi There!

A few weekends ago it was Canadian Thanksgiving. Since I am friends with a bunch of other Canadians in New York City, we had a dinner party. I assure you, it was so classy and very refined. The evening may or may not have ended with me in a food coma on the floor. Oopsies.

My contributions were pumpkin pie & butternut squash risotto. 

Recipes:

- Butternut Squash Risotto: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-risotto-2/

- Pumpkin Pie - http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/easy-pumpkin-pie/5793eb83-dca1-45e0-96e1-7f73af9e282f

The risotto took quite a while to prepare but ended up being okay. It was a little bland. Next time, I'll use more garlic & veggie broth.

  

 

 I had never made pumpkin pie before and was totally surprised how easy it was. I'll definitely do this again at Christmas!

Yesterday BF and I walked around central park for the day. I was so shocked that the leaves still hadn't changed color. What the heck, right? 

Whats your favorite fall dish? Are the leaves pretty colors where you live? 

Pineapple Fried Rice

Happy Monday!

This weekend flew by! On Friday night I just stayed in with BF and we ate leftover Mediterranean food while watching  Workaholics (great show, check it out if you like ridiculous humor!). 

On Saturday, I went out to Hotel Chantelle for a friend's birthday. This place is great - it has a gorgeous rooftop (where we ate dinner), a bumpin ground floor with loud music and a loud, grimey basement perfect for dancing and sweating profusely - all tied together with a cool crowd. Overall, an awesome place :)

Tonight I decided to use up some of the random food I had at my apartment and make pineapple fried rice! it turned out really well and I made enough for lunches the rest of the week! Score!

I used: 

• long grain brown rice
• 3 brown eggs
• vegetable broth to cook the rice in
• trader joes teriyaki baked tofu
• trader joes soyaki sauce (the best!)
• frozen mixed peppers
• frozen green beans broken into little pieces
• chopped walnuts
• red chili flakes
• garlic salt
• 1 can of pineapple chunks in 100% juice
• the juice from the pineapple
• white onion
• 2 pieces of fresh garlic
• garlic olive oil

this stuff takes FOREVERRRR to cook but has a great texture

Tofu chopped into cubes, diced onion, chopped walnuts and of course, garlic!

After prepping the above, I did the following:

1. Before cooking other ingredients, I started the brown rice in a pot with vegetable broth. I really like this brand but it takes almost an hour to cook. So annoying but worth it.
2. Once the rice was almost finished I started by browning the onion & garlic in the garlic olive oil.
3. Added my frozen vegetables until they were a little burnt. 
4. Added the 3 eggs and let them cook. 
5. Add chopped walnuts & tofu until browned. Sprinkle with garlic salt and set aside
6. Opened the can of pineapple chunks (hate that word) and poured the juice into a glass. Drank half :)
7. Poured a bit of soyaki sauce and pineapple juice both into the rice and into the egg & veggie mixture.
8. Browned the pineapple
9. Add it all together and top with chili flakes & garlic salt et voila!

Dinner for 1 plz :)

This was really, really good. 

 Since this is packed with protein and good for you grains, it makes a balanced meal. I was full after eating about a cup of this creation! Obviously if you're going to do something similar, you can sub tofu for something else and eliminate nuts / garlic if needed. I rarely follow recipes so I'm not sure what amounts of each ingredient I actually used and will likely never be able to replicate it haha.

What are some of your go-to meals when you're trying to clear your fridge? Do you follow recipes? I have a couple cans of beets if anyone has suggestions :)

Easy Veggie-ful Lasagna

Lasagna is one of those once in a while comfort foods that can warm up even the coldest NYC belly. 

Unfortunately, its one of those things that I usually feel pretty guilty about eating. All of that cheesy, carby goodness can take back a week's worth of workouts in one plate. Luckily, it doesn't always have to be unhealthy and is worth the effort (and calories). 

My version is relatively easy, cheap and pretty fun to make - and its really, really good.

What you'll need: 

• lasagna noodles
• Parmesan cheese
• pre-shredded cheese 
• 2 jars of pasta sauce 
• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 zucchini
• 1 tub of fat free ricotta
• a handful of mushrooms
• funion
• frozen peppers
• frozen spinach
• garlic salt, chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper
• about an hour or two of your time

thanks Whole Foods!

Thaw the frozen spinach in a strainer, pat dry with paper town and stir into the ricotta cheese.

Chop and saute the other veggies in a bit of olive oil with the spices that you like.

mmmmmm

Starting with a layer of pasta sauce, layer veggies with a bit of cheese, seasoning, top with boiled + drained pasta. Add a layer of ricotta + spinach. Repeat until the dish is full.

Top with more cheese, sliced roma tomatoes and  more seasoning.

oooh layers

Bake at 400 until the top is crispy.

o baby

goes well with Red and Sriracha

My version has nothing on my mom's lasagna, but it is a pretty close second.

For a lighter take, check out my eggplant / zucchini parm bake here - Eggplant + Zucchini Asiago Bake

What's your go to comfort food? How was your weekend???

Recipe: Trader Joes frozen langostinos tails

I have been looking at Trader Joes frozen langostinos tails for quite a while. Never hearing of them before, I did a little research before deciding to buy them (they’re $9.99 for a little bag, a high ticket item at Trader Joes!), and the word langostino apparently means “prawn” according to a buddy from work. I’m glad I finally decided to get them!

I love lobster and I love shrimp – these little guys tasted like a marriage of the 2.

What you need:

½ a bag of Trader Joes frozen Langostinos

½ a tbsp of butter

A handful of fresh parsley

¼ cup of low sodium vegetable broth

1 piece of garlic, chopped

Mixed greens

  Steps!

1)      Heat up your broth & butter on the stove, add garlic. Cook it until your apartment smells like it would scare away vampires.

2)      Throw in half your parsley.

3)      Add the langostinos to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes.

4)      Taste one. Do you like the texture? If not, cook them a bit longer.

5)      Add to a plate of mixed greens, using the leftover liquid as dressing. Top with remaining parsley.

6)      Enjoy!

This morning I tried out my new juicer!! I used spinach, parsley, a green apple, cucumber and drank it on ice. It was crazy refreshing and I can’t wait to make more. 2 complaints about juicing:

Why do you only get a little bit of juice for a whole lot of produce?

I feel like I’m wasting the pulp!! Are there any uses for this?

Have a good night everyone! I have a work party tonight, so tomorrow might be rough – thank god I have a juicer now!

My 1st American Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and that you had a few days off to relax with loved ones!

This past Thursday, I gathered at BF’s house with 11 other Canadians to celebrate Thanksgiving.

mmm jello shots, sriacha & hummus - class for days :)

Each of us made something different & we had TONS of food! I made a blueberry pie and baked maple sweet potatoes with butternut squash. Everything was super yummy! Here are some pics to give you an idea of what we were working with.

my plate - stuffing, sweet potatoes & mashed potatoes.

one of the boys' plates

BF's masterpiece - I didn't have any , but the others enjoyed!

my 2nd pie ever - blueberry

Recipes -

Sweet potatoes: I used a package of precut fresh sweet potatoes from Trader Joes &  added a package of fresh chopped butternut squash too. I added a lot of brown sugar and axed the coconut and pecans. This was even better on the 2^nd day.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/maple-glazed-sweet-potatoes/

Blueberry pie:  I ended up using a few too many blueberries & it didn’t really hold together under the crust. It tasted pretty great on top of some ice cream though!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/blueberry-pie/detail.aspx

all done! sweet potatoes in the background!

 On Wednesday night, I went to Beauty & Essex for a girlfriend’s birthday. They had delicious food, a beautiful space and incredible cocktails (which were also incredibly strong teehee). This place was a little pricey, but it turned out to be a perfect girls night out spot. In the ladies room, there is a bar where they give you free champagne. Not much else better than that!

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/beauty-essex/

How was your Thanksgiving? 

I’m off to clean my apartment as I have some guests coming into town! This will count as my workout (haha).

See, I really did make a pie! (+give away)

See my last post for the recipe!! Yay pie!

My 1st Giveaway!!
 As part of the Foodbuzz tastemakers program with Duncan Hines, I received a bunch of coupons for a free product up to $3.99 in value. I have given a few to friends already (and will be using some to review these products!) Want one? Tell me who you like to bake for & why in the comments. I'll pick the winners next week.

night!

I made a pie.

I did.
Me.
I still can’t believe it.

It was for an office potluck and surprisingly, it turned out really pretty. My coworkers accused me of buying it and pretending to make it.

Lame, right?

I was so impressed with myself that I took a bazillion pictures to show off my domestic-ness. Unfortunately, I uploaded them incorrectly and only 1 showed up in my Picassa web album. Darn it! For now, here is a picture of the final result. I will share more soon!

 Ingredients

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie – I used a premade one by Pillsbury

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions

   1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

   2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

   3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/apple-pie-by-grandma-ople/detail.aspx

If you’re new to pies, like I am, I highly recommend Pillsbury’s pie crusts. Very easy to use & yummy. I learned how to do the lattice crust from watching this Youtube video.

 

 I certainly didn’t use a ruler & struggled to do this on my tiny excuse for a countertop. Here is the video I used to teach myself. Skip to 1:48.

Tomorrow, pie attempt part #2 for our Canadians in New York Thanksgiving celebration. This time blueberry. Wish me luck!!

I would like to wish each and every reader a very happy Thanksgiving.  I promise to post my pie pics soon.

Carnival Squash!

Have you ever heard of a carnival squash? I hadn't.

 When I saw it at Whole Foods, I thought, “OOH! How pretty. Gotta buy this!” BF was excited to try something new too! 

We took that festive little guy home, removed the seeds and got to work.

 Strained, mixed the seeds with some oil & spices. Tossed them on a cookie sheet & baked for about 20 minutes / until crispy.

mmmm crunchy

 For the squash, I set the oven @ 400 or so. On one half we spread some of BF’s mom’s lovely homemade pesto (fresh basil, olive oil, garlic & pine nuts). On the other half, just some plain old butter.

 Mmmmm pesto-tastic!

homemade pesto = amazing!

We baked them for about 40 minutes or until they're soft / mash-able.

 

We sliced these up into wedges and ate them with our hands. So yummy. I loved the salty, garlicky pesto mixed with the sweet squash. It tasted similar to the acorn variety, but it has a much nicer outfit.  

I hope you’re having a nice week. Tomorrow is Friday. Woohoo!