Scallops!

I just had to share this recipe I found online and it was very delicious! You can find the recipe here.

So to the left is a risotto I made, which I just winged it. I had 3 slices of bacon that really needed to be cooked up so I cut those into small pieces and then got those in the pot to start cooking. I chopped up a small white onion, then added that to the pot, and then grabbed a big handful of kale and cut that up so it was small pieces. Once the onion and bacon were cooked up, I added basmati rice to toast that up a bit. Then added a big splash of red wine, and then let that cook down a bit. In a small pot I warmed up some vegetable broth, an entire carton, and slowly added some. I would put about a half a cup or so at a time, and once the liquid was mostly gone, I would add more till I had no more broth left. Making sure to stir everything well here and there, especially after I added more broth. When I put the remaining broth I also added in the kale and let that cook up a bit more. Then I added in some goat cheese and a bit of parm cheese. I covered it and turn the heat off and let that sit while the rest of supper was finishing cooking.

So I did get the risotto going first, and once I added the wine in the risotto, I grabbed carrots, peeled off that top layer, then added broth to the risotto, and then sliced up my carrots. I added some butter, maple syrup, and the Oh Canada spice from Epicure to my carrots and a little pepper. I put that in the oven, and then kept working on my risotto, and got going on the scallops. I grabbed a package of frozen scallops but I took it out the night before to let them unthaw. I prepared the top crumbly mixture, topped it, and I had to give the carrots more time in the oven. The carrots took about 40 minutes, so 20 minutes in, I added the scallops so they can start cooking. Everything came out amazing! It was a very good supper!

For those not wanting to use bacon in the risotto, you can just omit completely, and add in mushrooms or anything else you think would be good, but I'm sure just omitting the bacon would be just as good, I would for sure add a touch of salt, cause I didn't since the bacon is salty. 

I have been keeping things more basic this week, and same with this coming week. I am looking forward to tonight's supper though, I plan to make a stir fry. I will cook up some chicken for him in a separate pan, and for me, I'll make tofu. He may want to add tofu to his as well, since he does enjoy that too. I plan to cook my tofu in the oven, and I will do a quick marinade, with a little honey, some soy sauce or tamari, and I'm thinking some ground turmeric. I will whisk together, then cut my tofu into strips and then coat them in the sauce, and then add to a cookie sheet lined with parchment and cook those in the oven until golden brown. For my stir fry, I'll see if he wants noodles or rice, and then for the veggie part, I plan to add in some mushrooms, onions, bok choy and bean sprouts. I'll stir fry those up in a pan on the stove top on fairly high heat, and for the sauce, I think I'll use the satay seasoning from Epicure and add in some soy sauce and sesame oil. Going to keep it on the simple side I think. For his chicken I'll use the same sauce for the veggies. There should be some left over tofu, which I'm good with, cause I plan to make chicken another night for supper, maybe tomorrow, so I can cook that for him and I'll stick to tofu.

Valentine's day is coming up in a few days, so that night I'll make a fancier supper, I saw this cooking show, and she cooked up some pork chops with this maple, Dijon type glaze and it looked so good. Magnolia network doesn't have a website yet so I can't get the recipe online. I will make mashed potatoes with some gravy, and not sure about the veggies yet, either roasted carrots, salad or coleslaw I think. I guess it's nothing really fancy, but it does sound very delicious!

Pasta!!!

For those who know me, knows that I really love pasta! My fav is lasagna! There's not much I don't like really but pasta is my absolute fav! Last time I got together with my good friend, we made our own ravioli and it was so much fun. At Christmas my hubby got me the gadgets I need to make my own that attaches to my mixer. Having tried it at my friend's, I knew I wanted it as well. There's one that flattens the dough so I can make ravioli, one for spaghetti noodles, and the other for fettuccine. So I decided to make ravioli again and it turned out really great

So the dough recipe I went with is to make my own brown rice pasta. It was a little crumbly but not too bad, so managed to make 30 raviolis. I wanted to keep it vegetarian since I had pork chops the night before for supper. Here's what the filling looks like

So I used an entire package of spinach, and wilted it in a pan, and then I drained out as much as the water as I could and added some of that juice to my tomato sauce to keep that delicious nutrient that came out

I did get my sauce going first, I chopped up a red onion, a lot of mushrooms and 5 cloves of garlic and sauteed them a bit. Then I added a good splash of red wine, and let that reduce a bit, then added an entire jar of Passata, the juice of the spinach, some dry oregano, lots of black pepper, and let that simmer while I made the pasta.The stuffing for the ravioli was the spinach, which I chopped up a bit, then added 3 cloves of garlic, minced, some fresh basil, minced, some black pepper a little touch of salt then a block of goat cheese. My hubby did help me out, and worked out well. I boiled my ravioli first till it was floating then added it to the sauce to let them soak in the flavor of the sauce

I did add in a lot more fresh basil to the sauce, and we were finally ready to eat, which we had a slice of garlic bread with it. We both really enjoyed it! I would for sure make this again. We do have some leftovers to enjoy this week too.

On Saturday morning I did also make some blueberry muffins. I tried this recipe from Chocolate covered Katie. What I love about her recipes is she puts things like, flour of choice, sugar of choice and has comments when needed cause some things require more of something so it works. For this recipe I went with spelt flour, and used coconut sugar. Oh and instead of oil I went with the other option, mashed banana since I had a ripe banana. The spelt flour made the muffins on the dense side, but they are still good muffins. If I were to make this recipe again, I would try a different flour to see how they work out. 

My hubby and I shared one, not long after they came out of the oven, and he's not a big fan, so I may be on my own to eat these. I did enjoy one this morning with a chai tea latte, which was delicious. I know I'll have more this week for breakfast, probably with different herbal teas. I like to switch up my teas and I don't have a latte too often.

I do have a small kitchen so making the ravioli involved using my kitchen table to put my mixer on, to flatten the dough, I used my moveable island to make the dough, cause I had other things on my counter so it involved a few surfaces, but worked out well. I would like to try to make the spaghetti noodles next, but I think I'll try whole wheat flour cause not sure how well the brown rice dough would work with that, I have a feeling it wouldn't really stay well in long strands. Not sure when I will make that, we have quite a few plans coming up, so I'll see when I get the chance. The weather has been very cold this weekend so it's been nice being home and into the kitchen. Friday night I had made the pork chops using a can of mushroom soup for the flavor, I haven't made that in forever! It turned out good, we had rice and salad with that. Tonight's supper I am cooking up some chicken in this red wine type sauce, it's another new recipe I'm trying out from Clean eating magazine that I ripped out, and we will have sweet potato fries that I'll make myself, and thinking to make a coleslaw. Tomorrow I'm thinking to see if I can find a good recipe for scallops, I have some in my freezer, and we haven't had that in a while, and it's a good break for me from meat. So I think I'll look this afternoon for a recipe, if I don't have ingredients needed for it, I'll keep that recipe for next week and I'll take out some salmon instead.