Special Salmon Steak

Gary and I went to do the grocery last Thursday and decided that since the sun has started to shine, it would be a good chance for us to buy some salmon steaks to make on the BBQ. So we bought some fresh salmon and got right to checking for new recipes. Unfortunately, when today came along, we realized we didn't have the time to marinate the salmon steaks so we made a last minute recipe change and so today we will be preparing Special Salmon Steaks!

Gary started prepping the ingredients on the counter. We needed the fish, some melted butter (although we used margarine), lemon juice (which we thankfully bought more of since we recently noticed our bottle was expired!), green onions, fresh minced parsley, garlic salt, and a mix of our own choice of spices, as opposed to those recommended in the original recipe. Gary is especially excited to cook all sorts of new recipes this week since we now have a parsley plant in our sunroom! Let's just hope Gary doesn't eat most of it before we get to making all our meals!

First things first, we mixed up those ingredients (minus the fish, of course) and sprinkled them on the fish, which we had placed in a baking pan. Voilà:

Wow, that both looks and smells so good right now! Time to pop these guys into the oven for a quick baking session. In the meantime, Gary suggested we have baked sweet potatoes on the side, and I immediately agreed.

When everything was ready, the house was smelling divine! Now it's time to serve it up and see how it all tastes...

Special Salmon Steak

Prep time: 5 minutes / Cook time: 20 minutes

Makes: 2 servings, 1 portion each

Ingredients: 

• 2 salmon steaks
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp salad herb blend* (or more, if desired)
• Pepper, to taste

Directions: 

1. Place salmon in lightly greased 8 inch square baking dish. Top with butter and lemon juice.
2. Combine onion, parsley, salt and herb blend; sprinkle over salmon. 
3. Bake, uncovered for 15-20 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with fork. 

Original recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/special-salmon-steaks

Rating: 10/10! 

Wowza! This tasted incredible! We cannot wait to make this again, hopefully this time with boneless salmon - it was a little harder to eat given that it was fresh unboned salmon this time. But even that could not tarnish how amazing we found this meal. Definitely in our top 5 recipes as a pescetarian meal! 

Pasta Primavera with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Gary got the chance to go on an adventure not too long ago by accompanying me on a trip to Halifax to visit my momma bear. While there, we decided it would be a good opportunity to try out a new recipe, given that a new house means new ingredients. And who doesn't love coming home to a home cooked meal at the end of the day?

It was a bit hard to find a vegetarian recipe with the ingredients that we had, mostly because they were quite different than the ones we keep on hand at home. But we stumbled upon this recipe for Pasta Primavera with Cream Cauliflower Sauce and actually had all the ingredients! That is, except fresh basil leaves, which we never have on hand at home either. Anyway, let's see how this goes...

We started by cutting up all our veggies and took our grand ole time. We put all the veggies in a large skillet and starting warming that up, and in the meantime, we started boiling our cauliflower in a large pot.

Mmm, smells delicious! 

 Did I mention my mom's pots and pans are actually quite nice compared to ours? We have definitely got to start buying grown-up things now that we're living in the adult world!

Gary thinks it's weird that these trees are white. Are they winter trees?

After the cauliflower was completely cooked, we smooshed it with the help of my mother's blender (that one though, did not work as well as our own blender, although our was a hand-me-down from the step-sister). We had to add quite a bit of water to help get the right sauce texture, and even at that, we were a bit disappointed with the results.

But we added the sauce to the veggies, regardless. And here's how it all turned out:

As you can see, it's pretty thick, not quite as saucy as it seems in the originally recipe. And I wouldn't go as far as to describe it by using the word "creamy." But it smelled quite good, so we surprise momma bear when she got home and served it up for the whole family. 

Pasta Primavera with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Prep time: 10-15 minutes / Cook time: 20 minutes

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients: 

• 1 box of long noodle pasta (we chose spaghetti)
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2-4 cups various vegetables (we went with carrots, mushrooms, snow peas, and brocoli)
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• Pepper, to taste
• Parmesan cheese, for topping

Directions: 

For the sauce

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, chop the cauliflower into quarters. Chop off the florets and cut the stems into approximately 1" pieces so that the cauliflower cooks uniformly.

Place chopped cauliflower into boiling water for 3-6 minutes, until the stems can be easily poked through with a fork.

Remove cauliflower from pot, and place in a blender or food processor. Puree the cauliflower until it is smooth, adding water only if necessary.

For the veggies

1. Fill a large pot with water; bring to a boil. Cook noodles al dente according to the directions on the package.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet. Add chopped garlic and onion and cook on low until garlic is light brown and onions are slightly translucent.
3. Add vegetables including broccoli stems (if using), except florets, and cook until just barely tender.
4. Add creamy cauliflower sauce, shredded cheese and stir until cheese melts. Add water from the noodles, ¼ cup at a time, as needed to thin the sauce. Keep sauce on low until the noodles are done.
5. When the noodles are done, combine them with the sauce along with florets in the skillet. Toss to coat the pasta well. Season with pepper, serve hot with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese.

Original recipe: http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2014/01/recipe-pasta-primavera-creamy-cauliflower-sauce/

So just now, as I was writing up the blog spot, I noticed that the directions said to add water from the noodles to thin the sauce as needed. That probably would have helped get better results. Oops.

Rating: 7.5/10 

It tasted quite bland, and the sauce was much too thick. However, I wouldn't go as far as to say it would not be worth trying, especially given the fact that I missed the tip about how to thin out the sauce if it wasn't the correct consistency. I would definitely add some spices though, because it doesn't taste like much other than the veggies themselves and a bit of cheese. 

Pineapple Tofu Stir Fry

Gary and I are not the biggest fans of citrus foods but seeing as the man of the house loves it and also loves stir fry, we thought we would give it a try. We present to you: Pineapple Tofu Stir Fry.

We started off as we always do, by cutting up all our ingredients. Holy pineapple Batman!

Note to self: A full pineapple is way too much for this recipe. 

Just so you are all aware, the original recipe calls for a can of pineapple chunks, but we prefer fresh fruits so we went out a bought a whole pineapple for this recipe - and as snacks for many days to come. 

Oh, and we also decided we would just go ahead and not make the recommended sauce for the recipe. That may actually have impacted the final results in a large way, but I guess we'll have to cook it again at a later date to find out about that. 

After having prepared everything else for the recipe, we got right down to the cooking.

Tip: Remember to prepare the tofu in advance. Ours was not crispy enough in the end because I didn't start frying it before the rest of the meal.

Pineapple Tofu Stir Fry

Prep time: 10 minutes / Cook time: 35 minutes 

Makes 2-3 servings

Ingredients: 

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 package extra-firm tofu, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 of a fresh pineapple, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 large bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Sweet Red Chili Thai Sauce

Directions: 

1. In a large skillet, fry up the tofu in olive oil. Let cook for 10-20 minutes, flipping every so often, until golden brown.
2. Transfer tofu to bowl. In same pan, add olive oil if needed and start cooking garlic and ginger, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds. Add bell pepper and cook until just tender, 2-3 minutes.  
3. Transfer tofu from bowl to pan, and add tofu chunks. Pour sauce over all the ingredients and cook until pineapple is heated through, 2-3 minutes. 

Original recipe: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/pineapple_tofu_stir_fry.html

Rating: Richard - 9/10    Carmen - 7/10

Richard really liked this recipe and found the taste to be well balanced between sweet and savoury. As for myself, I am not a big fan of tangy flavours in general and found that it was not a good ingredients to be found in stir fries or curries. It reminds me a lot of a Mango Curry recipe, which I was not very fond of as well, for the same reason. I did love the switch of sauce though - can't get enough of our new purchase, a sweet red chili Thai sauce. 

Lo Mein

Today, Gary and I decided it was time to try out a Lo Mein recipe, but with our own twist. We had already tried out this recipe back in January and found it quite good, but it seemed to be missing a bit of something so we made these changes and hope they'll turn out well! 

I think one of the things I like most about Lo Mein is that most recipes don't call for onions. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like onions, but it makes for a nice change not having that taste in every single recipe. 

So since there aren't any onions, we started warming our garlic and added all the veggies to the pan right away. In the picture below, you'll see our choices of veggies, as well as the tofu that we added after cooking it in a frying pan for 15-20 minutes. 

You've got your zucchini, your carrots (fave!), your red peppers, your mushrooms and your tofu!

After cooking it all up, we decided not to make the sauce from the original recipe, which we did like though, and went with a thai sauce that was SO delicious. Basically, we were lazy and didn't want to prepare a sauce from scratch, ok? Don't judge us. 

So here's the final product laid out in one of our plates. Looks and smells so good!

Lo Mein

Prep time: 10 mins / Cook time: 35 mins

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients: 

• 3-4 rounds of Asian Noodles
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced (approximately)
• 1 red bell pepper, julienned
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1 zucchini, julienned
• 1/2 package of tofu, diced
• Sweet Red Chili Thai Sauce

Description: 

1. In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add tofu cubes, making sure they do not overlap each other. Let cook for 20 minutes on each side, flipping every so often. Transfer cooked tofu to a bowl. 
2. In the same skillet or wok, heat remaining olive oil. Add garlic, mushrooms, bell pepper, carrot, and zucchini. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in tofu.
3. Meanwhile, cook Asian noodles in medium saucepan, according to package instruction.
4. Stir Asian Noodles into vegetable mixture. Add thai sauce. Serve immediately. 

Rating: 9/10

We really love this recipe, be it with the pre-made sweet red chili sauce or with the homemade sauce from the original recipe. Feel free to try it out if you like a good quick & easy thai meal! 

Original sauce:

2 tbsp tamari, or soya sauce

2 tsp sugar (or less)

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp Sriracha, or more, to taste

• 
  

Easy Burrito Bowls

So one day, as Gary and I were sifting through some new recipes online, we thought to ourselves, "Burritos are amazing, why not try a little variety and make some burrito bowls?" And here is where it brought us. We found what looked like a great burrito bowl recipe, put it on the menu, and got straight to work.

The great thing about a recipe like this is that it's a quick fix meal. We had prepared the rice the previous day to save some time, and also because we thought cold fried rice would be better suited for burrito bowls than fresh warm rice.

Mmm, look at all those delicious veggies! 

Easy Burrito Bowls

Makes 6 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes / Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 cup salsa
• 3 cups chopped romain lettuce
• 1 15-ounce can kernel corn, drained
• 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced

Directions: 

1. In a large saucepan of 1 1 /2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; let cool and stir in salsa; set aside. (For us, this was done the previous day - chilled in the fridge overnight).
2. To assemble the bowls, divide rice mixture into serving bowls; top with lettuce, corn, black beans, tomatoes, and avocado. 
3. Serve immediately, drizzled with sauce of choice.*

*Original recipe calls for homemade chipotle sauce. We didn't have all the ingredients so we skipped out for this time. 

Rating: 7/10

I think that the lack of sauce probably diminished the rating of this recipe. Although I do love all the individual ingredients called for in the recipe, it didn't make my tastebuds jump from joy. It was fine and I enjoyed the meal as it was, but there is certainly room for improvement. 

Original recipe found at: http://damndelicious.net/2014/09/10/easy-burrito-bowls/

Vegan Cream of Brocoli Soup

One recipe Gary and I have always wanted to try is Cream of Brocoli Soup. I tried it once a few years back and it was not fantastic, so I made sure that the recipe didn't contain the same ingredients so as not to repeat in scenario. Also a bonus, this recipe is vegan-friendly! 

We got right down to it. We chopped up the veggies and got them cooking. 

Boiling the veggies in the pot - smells good already!

After it was all done cooking, it was time to start blending. Side note: this recipe makes a decent amount of soup, as you can see in the photo below, so maybe think about putting half at a time in the blender.

We served it up in some bowls and we're so excited to see how it tastes!

Gary thinks it looks like pureed trees. Yum!

Vegan Cream of Brocoli Soup

Makes 6 servings

Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped 
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 medium yellow potato, peeled and diced
• 4 cups water
• 4 cups brocoli florets
• 1/2 cup almond milk (or soy milk)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Freshly ground black pepper

Description:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until light brown, about 5 minutes.
2. Add celery, garlic, and freshly ground black pepper; cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add potatoes and water, and raise to high heat until it comes to a boil. Return heat to medium and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. 
4. Add brocoli, cover and let simmer for 5 minutes, or until brocoli is bright green. 
5. Transfer the soup into a blender (half at a time, depending on the size of blender). Add almond milk and puree until smooth. 
6. Return the soup to the saucepan and bring to a simmer; stir in nutritional yeast and nutmeg. Add water, if needed, to adjust consistency. 

Rating: 8.5/10! 

This meal turned out really great. We all loved the consistency of it, without having to add water or anything, and the taste was just right. Definitely worth trying if you're a fan of some good ol' cream of brocoli soup. :) 

Shakshuka

While travelling, we tried a new middle eastern dish called Shakshuka, and I was a big fan. So Gary and I decided we should give it a try after I stumbled upon a recipe while browsing through Pinterest. Let's see how it all works out...

First, you have to start cooking all the veggies, and then add the tomatoes before finally cracking the eggs on top of the whole thing. I don't know if the original recipe calls for too many tomatoes, or if you were supposed to drain the can before slapping it on the stove, but generally, I found that there was too much liquid in the pan once all the ingredients had been mixed in. Here's a quick shot of what the meal started to look like after we cooked the veggies and added the eggs:

As you can see, the pan seems a bit too full, so Gary suggests to try using less tomatoes and/or omitting their juices when cooking this meal up.

We made sure to keep an eye on things as it continued to cook, but noticed that the eggs seemed to be taking a lot longer to cook that indicated in the original recipe. This may be due to the fact that there were too many veggies, thus making it more difficult for the eggs on top to obtain the heat needed to cook all the way through. But after an extra 10-15 minutes on the stove, things started to take shape and it was looking pretty good! 

Gary removed the pan from the stove and started making portions for everyone to eat. He made sure to top it all off with feta cheese and some green onions. 

Yum! Looks so good!

Unfortunately, the feta cheese may or may not have been passed date, so a certain someone said he couldn't stomach to finish eating it. I, on the other hand, thought it was absolutely delicious! We also had a guest over who said he had enjoyed the meal, although he may have just been trying to be polite. Oh well, maybe we'll get a chance to try this recipe again and change a few things to get a better result. You know, and check all the expiration dates before adding all the ingredients. 

In any case, we hope you can enjoy making this easy healthy vegetarian meal if it so does please you! 

Shakshuka

Makes 4-6 servings*

Cook time: 20-40 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 yellow pepper, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can chickpeas (or beans of your choice)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes and their juices
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 4 eggs*
• 2 tbsp feta cheese
• 2 tbsp green onions

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large wok or pan, and add onion, pepper, and garlic; cook for 5 minutes, until softened. 
2. Add tomatoes, chickpeas (or beans of choice), cumin and paprika; cook for 5 minutes. 
3. Crack the eggs on top of the tomato mixture and cook until the whites of the eggs have set, around 10 minutes. [Side note: it took much longer for our eggs to set so make sure they are well cooked before serving!]
4. Scatter green onions and feta cheese on top of the eggs and tomatoes; serve with pita breads to dip, if desired.  

*Note: With the amount of tomato mixture, I feel like it should make 6 servings, so I reheated part of the mixture on the stove and cook 2 more eggs over it. 

Carmen's rating: 7/10 - Our tomato mixture compared to the one we found in the online recipe was very watery. I would have preferred a thick sauce to go with the eggs. 

Richard's rating: 5/10 - I think the feta cheese might have been out of date; something tasty really nasty.