Spring cleaning

It's that time of year again, and our house for sure needs some spring cleaning and not just grabbing a cloth and washing cupboards, cleaning inside the stove and fridge, but also going through all the things we have. I don't have a very big kitchen, and I'm starting to run out of room, so I have started to go through my cupboards to get ride of things I no longer use or need.

I've only gone through 4 cupboards so far, but when I have a bit of time I will go through more here and there until it's all done. A good friend of mine posted about organizing her cookbooks/meal planning, which you can see her post on her blog at Eating real, being real. Which I also plan to do that with all my cookbooks, because it sure will make things easier to find recipes and like her, I often see recipes and want to try them, but once I put the cookbook away I forget about it. This way it will be easy to find and plan. It will take time and work, but in the end it will be worth it.

Another way that I'm spring cleaning is taking out things I have in my freezer. Spring is here and soon summer, which means going to farms and farmers markets to get fresh local vegetables and fruits. I want to have room in my freezer to restock on fresh vegetables and fruits. I will make big batches of different things so we have meals handy when I don't have time to cook. I also love getting fresh berries and fruit and freezing them to add to my smoothies. I took out two things today from my freezer, the first is stew, which will be great for lunch during the week, and the other is a chicken pot pie, which I'll put into the oven tomorrow for supper. Another thing I prepared is my own mix of spices. One of my cookbooks has an amazing spicy rice recipe, and usually I just throw a bit of all the spices listed, but today I decided to make the full spice recipe so I can easily grab a tablespoon to add to my brown rice.

This past week I only got to bike to work once since it was cold and rainy, so I hope this week we have nice weather so I can bike, and I also want to get out there for a run. Which I did a bit of shopping Friday night and went to the running room with a friend and picked up new running shoes. They didn't have the color I wanted, so they ordered it, and I should get it in about a week. I'm pretty excited to break in my new shoes. I will still keep my old running shoes but not for running since they have been through a half marathon in the rain. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Birthday weekend

I'll first start off by saying I did try the Shrimp and Egg Fried rice with green garlic. Although I didn't have any green garlic, so just used regular garlic, and I also added onions and carrots to this dish. It was very good and would make this again.

So today is my birthday, and had quite the birthday celebration over the weekend. Friday night the Senators were playing, so my hubby got a steak on the BBQ, and yes just one because it was a really big piece which was plenty for both of us to share. We also got some potatoes and onions on the BBQ, and I prepared a garden salad. We had this with red wine, and at about 7:00 pm our friend came over to watch the hockey game with us and she brought over some homemade spanakopita, it's Greek, it has spinach and feta wrapped in phyllo dough. So very good!

Yesterday I got busy in the kitchen with preparing two lasagna for supper today. Today is my birthday after all so wanted to make it a more relaxing day for me, so I prepared ahead of time. I made one with spinach and cream cheese and cottage cheese, and the other just a traditional lasagna. Got the house all cleaned up and had time to relax before heading out for supper. At first we wanted to go to El Cumino because I ended up recording You got to eat here on the Food channel because my aunt and uncle were on the show, so I wanted to check it out. The first place they showed is El Cumino here in downtown Ottawa, and the food looked so good! So we thought since we were meeting friends downtown to go out dancing, he wanted to take me out for supper before. Unfortunately we didn't go because the wait was to long and we were both hungry, it was about 6:30 when we got downtown. So we went across the street to St. Louis bar and grill. I got the pulled pork taco with sweet potato fries. Sorry but I forgot to take a picture of it. Wish I would have it was absolutely delicious!  We then met up with about 20 friends. We didn't know them all, but it was a good night. We started the evening with some drinks and talking, then went upstairs to do some dancing. Had a lot of fun! A huge thank you to my good friend Nic for planning the evening.

Today has been a relaxing day for me. Catching up on some of my shows on TV, which my cat cuddled on me, and I did prepare BLT's for our lunch, and working on a bit of laundry, but other then that, it's been a nice relaxing day. I am very much looking forward to having my family over for supper, which they should be getting here in an hour or so. My dad is coming here with an ice cream cake from dairy queen, and my brother, sister in law, nieces and nephews are also coming over.

Here's the recipe for our lasagna supper. It's so very easy to make and so much better to make your own then buying it. This recipe is to make 2 lasagna, so you can cut it in half or just make two and freeze one for another time  =)

2 pounds of ground beef
2 peppers (I used a yellow and a red pepper), chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
6-8 mushrooms sliced - can use any kind you want
3 jars of tomato sauce

Brown up the ground beef in a large pot, add in your vegetables and saute until it's nice and soft. Add in your your jars of tomato sauce, stir and turn off the heat.  Now have everything around you to assemble, your lasagna noodles (I grabbed some oven ready noodles), your two pans, and your cheese.

For the spinach, cream cheese, and cottage cheese (or you can just use Ricotta cheese, that's what I wanted to do but I was surprised to see that they didn't have any at all). I bought a bag of frozen blanched spinach, I mixed it in with the cream cheese and cottage cheese in a large bowl. You will want to leave your cream cheese out of the fridge for a while so it's easier to mix.

Now you just assemble your lasagna. Put just a bit of sauce at the bottom to help the noodles get soft and to not stick at the bottom, then add a layer of noodles, more sauce, then a layer of grated cheese, unless your doing your spinach/cheese put that there, then another layer of noodles, sauce then grated cheese on top. You can also sprinkle some Parmesan cheese as well. For baking, add your pan covered with foil in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes.

Really can't wait to have some! I'll be putting it in the oven in about an hour. This is my absolute favorite meal, and it's always my first pick for a birthday supper. We will be 10 people which is why I made two, and if we don't eat it all, I'm good with left overs. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

In the Kitchen again

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. We went to Sudbury to visit our family, and I also got to see a good friend of mine, which we met for breakfast and then went to Chapters. She recommended a cookbook that she already got, it's called Brown Eggs and Jam Jars by Aimée Wimbush-Bourque.

I of course bought it, and the book is organized by seasons, so I went to spring and picked 2 recipes to try out.  The one I made today, I'll be sharing that recipe (see below), and the other that I'll make this week is the Shrimp and Egg Fried rice with green garlic.

This weekend has been pretty busy for me, I met my dad, brother, sister in law and nieces and nephews for breakfast yesterday, then my niece hopped in with me and we went to do some shopping. Her birthday was at the end of March, and she wanted to pick out what she wanted, so we had a lot of fun shopping! Today I got busy in the kitchen. I made the banana, apple and nut cookies, if you want the recipe you can go here. I made a few changes this time around, I didn't put chocolate chips so I added a bit of maple syrup, and instead of pecans, I put walnuts, and instead of peanut butter, I used almond butter.

They turned out really good! I prepared a dip and cut up some vegetables for a snack during the week. I also made a Quinoa and beetroot salad from my Food Matters calendar.
           
What was awesome of having to cut up all these vegetables is I did that with my new knife. I got an early birthday present, a friend of mine came by this past Thursday to give me my gift. It was a gift from her and my hubby.

 A Rachael Ray knife set, and muffin pan! I have been wanting these knives for like 10 years, but they don't sell much of her kitchen stuff here in Canada, and most places don't ship to Canada, but she managed to get it through amazon, and I'm so excited and happy to have them.

The last thing I prepared today is the Cabbage, Carrot and Cashew slaw with maple soy vinaigrette from the new cookbook I bought.  Here's the recipe:

Dressing:
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
2 tsp tamari soy sauce (I used a wheat free kind)
2 tsp of lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

Salad:
8 large asparagus spears
3 large carrots, peeled
6 spring radishes
6 cups chopped napa cabbage (about 1 small head)
1 cup unsalted toasted cashews, coarsely chopped
Pinch of fine sea salt

Make the dressing: In a small jar, combine all ingredients except for the oil. Shake well. Add olive oil and sesame oil. Cover and shake again until creamy. (Dressing may be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before using.

Make the Salad: Rinse asparagus and pat dry. Snap off and discard the woody bottoms, then peel asparagus. Using a vegetable peeler, shave asparagus and carrots into ribbons. Thinly slice radishes.

In a large bowl, combine the salad and the dressing. Toss well to coat salad. Sprinkle with chopped cashews and finish the salad with a pinch of sea salt. Serve at once.

I sliced up my asparagus since they weren't very thick to shave with the vegetable peeler. The salad is so colorful and delicious! For our breakfast today, my hubby really wanted some french toast. I use 2 eggs, a good splash of almond milk, a bit of grated nutmeg and about a teaspoon of cinnamon. Lunch was a BLT, and for supper I'll be making a rice pasta, with a vodka sauce and some ground sausages and lots of vegetables. I'll try not to forget to take a picture of the Shrimp and Egg Fried rice with green garlic, and let you know how it was. I did look at all the recipes in this cookbook and there's a lot of good recipes I can't wait to try out.

What was also great about today, is while I was in the kitchen, I had windows open and it was so nice and sunny. Weather has been so cold and got more snow and rain, so today was a very welcomed change! It was nice getting fresh air going through the house, and my hubby also took down my bike. I'm hoping for more nice weather to start biking to work this week. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!