It Could Have Been Fast Food, But It Was Better...

We Budzaks love to go out to eat.  No really, I know that you know that we like to cook, but really it's that we like to eat... and if we can help it, not do any dishes.  Thus the eating out thing.  Even more so, Sunday after church is a great time to go out with friends.  We've even had specific Sunday lunch friends over the years. (You know who you are!)  Many times that is the highlight of our week.  And if we don't have anyone to go out with, we'll feel ripped off and we will often go alone just to ease our pain.
But not this Sunday.  This Sunday we decided, very responsibly, to make lunch at home.  And, as you know, most of the time, making the decision of what to eat is the hardest part, if you haven't planned it out previously. To make a boring story short - the kid wanted McD's buffalo chicken wraps and Ken wanted soup.  I wasn't in the mood for canned soup but was perfectly willing to indulge in the homemade variety.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

You'll need:

• Tortillas, preferably wholegrain
• Chicken breast(s) or tenders
• Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• Head lettuce, shredded or leaves
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Tomato, diced

Pretty simple really - pan fry or bake the chicken with a bit of seasoning salt and pepper.  Let the chicken rest for a few minutes, then slice.  Grab a tortilla, lay some lettuce on it, sprinkle a bit of cheddar and tomato, a few pieces of the sliced chicken and douse with as much Frank's as you please.  Wrap it up and you've got you're own healthier version of a McD's snack wrap.

K & C's Mushroom Soup

You'll need:

• Butter & Olive oil combo
• Cremini mushrooms, a small package, sliced
• 1/2 Onion, diced
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
• 1 Cup of Stock, chicken, beef or veg
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• A Couple Sprigs of Thyme
• A Bay leaf or two
• 1 Cup of Light cream
• 2 Cups of Milk
• Nutmeg, just a dash 
• Celery salt, a mere pittance - you could probably add celery at the beginning, but I hadn't thought of it

  When we made this, we just wanted enough for a couple of bowls of soup and no leftovers (apartment sized fridge!!), so I suggest you multiply the ingredient list to suit your family's needs.

Mushroom soup begs for Premium Plus crackers.

Fry the mushrooms and onion in the butter and olive oil, salt and pepper in a medium soup pot.  After a few minutes add the garlic.  Continue cooking until the mushroom are soften and cooked through.  If you don't have an immersion blender, remove the mushroom mixture and dice or wazz-up in your blender with a bit of stock.

Heat your milk and cream (in the microwave - if you use), throw in the bay leaf and thyme and have this ready for the next step.

Meanwhile, make a small amount of roux in your soup pot, adding more butter if needed and an equal part flour.  Cook for a few minutes, or until flour is cooked.  Using the rest of your stock and the warm milk/cream, whisk into roux.  (Less roux + more liquid = thinner soup, while more roux + less liquid= thicker soup.)  Return mushrooms to the pot.  Season with salt, pepper, celery salt and nutmeg.

Simmer for a few minutes, but do not boil. Garnish with parsley (as shown) or green onion.

My Favourite Smoothie

Not much of a post, but knowing that I haven't posted in a week is making me want to cheat :p

My Current Favourite Smoothie is:

1. One frozen banana (keep chunks in a container in my freezer)
2. A handful of frozen blueberries
3. A handful of frozen raspberries
4. A couple of TBSP of plain yogurt
5. Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk (I would by plain but my daughter loves this and I have an apartment sized fridge!)
6.  A TBSP of almond butter (Currently using and loving this brand. Apparently, I am not the only one!!)

I add all of these ingredients into my Magic Bullet and pulse until ice cream-like consistency and taste.  How bad can this really be? (Sorry, no picture as I have devoured it already.)

Time May Change Me

The time change caught me completely off guard yesterday.  It's surprising how much we judge the time of day by the light, the angle of the sun.  As some of you may have seen my status of Facebook yesterday, I realized that (suddenly!) it was five minutes to six and I hadn't even thought about dinner yet.

Granted my day went south from about 2 o'clock on, when I decided to head home instead of the gym, because I didn't have enough time to fit in my workout before my 3:10 dental appointment.  As I was driving home, I heard a weird noise coming from my front tire. So I pulled into the Husky station to check it out.  Nothing.  Okay, so I continued home, still hearing the strange noise.  When I got out of my car, I thought that I'd best check again.  Oh yeah, there was definitely something amiss. I could hear the air leaking out of my front tire this time.  Sure enough, there was a large screw stuck into it.

I jumped back into the car, phoning Ken, trying to think of the closest shop that could fix my problem.  Canadian Tire - not my preferred vendor, but close enough to drive there before all of my air was gone.  Yes, it was visibly leaking.  Got to Canadian Tire and they told me it would be an hour and a half.  At least my dental appointment was with in walking distance.  I left my car with them and walked.  Boy, was it chilly yesterday afternoon, especially since I wasn't dressed for the out-of-doors.

I survived.  Finished my dental appointment and walked back for my car, settled the bill and was on my way home and onto Facebookland.  Unfortunately, I hadn't even considered what to make for dinner.  Silly mistake.  I usually start thinking about it around breakfast time. :)

Sear your pork first, then finish in the oven.

I knew that I had pork tenderloin in my refrigerator, because I had picked it up the day before.  However, I had not planned on what to do with it or any sides and now it was dinnertime.  My first thought was wraps, as I saw some tortillas on the kitchen counter.  Okay, pork and "what?" inside wraps.  Rice? I prefer brown, but that's going to take way too long.  I looked in my pantry.  Quinoa. (Pronounced, "keen-wah") It's healthy and quick. It only takes 20 mins to cook.  "Okay, so pork and quinoa in tortillas," I say out loud to my daughter, "and what else?" She says that she thinks that would be weird in a wrap, so I nix the tortilla.

I check the vegetable crisper.  I've got bell peppers, some green beans that should have been used last week - tossed those, carrots, green onion, cucumber and a bit of parsley.  Asian flavours... this is going to work!  I diced yellow and red peppers, cucumber, green onion, garlic, ginger and shred the carrots.  Made a dressing from soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, plum sauce (I'm out of sweet chili sauce still and this is leftover from Christmas I think - can't be that good for you then, hey?) sesame seeds, lime juice, a couple of drops of fish sauce, oyster sauce, a dollop of almond butter and bit of olive oil.  Wallah! Asian Quinoa Salad with Seared Pork Tenderloin.

Seared Pork Tenderloin and Asian Quinoa Salad.

Ken and I quite enjoyed it - the kid, not so much. Though she ate it without complaint and only let me know, when pressed, that she thought it tasted weird.  ha ha

Moral of this story?  Pork tenderloin and quinoa are both quick and easy when you are in a hurry for dinner and haven't thought it out ahead of time.  And... always keep a few good vegetable (peppers, carrots, celery, onions, etc) on hand, because they are very flexible and can be pitched into almost any recipe to make a healthy dinner.

Day One

Really, today was the worst day to start a blog about food.  I have absolutely no desire to cook.  Inspiration is not just low today; I do believe that it is dead. (I wanted to write "ded" D.E.D - dead. That's what I would say aloud.)

So what does a body do on a day like today with dinner hanging like an albatross around the neck?  We must cook for our loved ones.  We must.  We most certainly must.  McDonald's is not an option...again - oops! Did I say that out loud?

So I wander T&T like a ghost.  Haunting the frozen dumpling section to see if my ded inspiration for dinner lies there.  It doesn't.  I checked the pre-made sushi section - not there either... seriously, if I'm going to pay that much for sushi, I will have it served to me on a platter, made fresh.  But I digress.

So off to Safeway, to look in their frozen food isle.  Shall it be lasagna?  No, that will take too long.
But I must, must feed my family.  And I want it quick and I don't want to cook or chop or peel or expend any effort at all... though our dinner should be something relatively healthy. Okay, so I'm not sure that this constitutes as entirely healthy, but it's not a cheeseburger.

Strawberry & Spinach Salad with Feta and Slivered Almonds

So here's what I came up with for tonight's quick, super easy and relatively healthy dinner: Safeway's Tuscan Tomato & Basil Bisque, herb focaccia to dip in balsamic vinegar, and a spinach/strawberry salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.   I'm adding a can of white kidney beans for protein and spinach for vegetable matter.

So the bisque is gently heating on the stove, the bread is warming in the oven and I didn't have to expend an ounce of energy that I just didn't have today.  'Cause sometimes, I just don't want to cook!