I talk about food, you read it.
Sauce
Low Cal Alfredo Recipe
0For the most people life is great. We wake up in the morning, go about our business and often take things for granted. It’s not until something unfortunate happens that we then remember how fragile life really is or how much the people in our lives really mean to us. This could be something big or small but it usually seems like when it rains it pours. The other day was possibly one of those rainy days for J and me but mostly for J. I won’t go into detail but when life gives you lemons apparently you’re supposed to make lemonade. I did have a half a lemon in the fridge so needless to say it wasn’t enough to make a refreshing glass of lemonade. Instead I decided to make J’s favourite, tortellini with Alfred sauce which is perfect because comfort food is the best remedy when life gives you a bruise.
I have never made Alfred sauce before and since J and I are trying to eat a little healthier I decided to make this recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I used juice from half a lemon, not zest)
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup low-fat (2%) milk
- Small pinch of nutmeg
- salt
- 2 tablespoons Neufchatel or low-fat cream cheese
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 12 ounces fresh fettuccine
- Freshly ground pepper
Directions
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and lemon zest and cook until the garlic is slightly soft, about 1 minute. Add in the flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, salt, nutmeg and cook, whisking constantly, until just thickened, about 3 minutes. Add the Neufchatel and parmesan cheese; whisk until melted, about 1 minute. Stir in the chopped parsley.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta as per package directions for al dente.
Add the sauce to the pasta and gently toss to combine. Top with parmesan, parsley and pepper.
This was surprising easy and while it’s not necessarily a traditional Alfredo sauce, it’s pretty darn close. I also don’t feel like I should anticipate irregular heart palpitations from so much cream. I will definitely be making this again for sure!
Cranberry Sauce
0This year it was suggested that J and I should host Thanksgiving this year. We have a new home, we recently got married and now have a little puppy so why not share our accomplishments with our family by feeding them a rather large turkey with all the fixings’.
There is a lot to live up to when it comes to big family dinners. I also didn’t know if I should stick to tradition, try something new, or make it potluck style. Since I was slightly overwhelmed I did ask our guests to bring stuff but my sister in law really saved me by coming early, helping out, and also bringing loads of food. The one item I knew would be easy and fun was the cranberry sauce. I bought a pound of fresh cranberries from The Cranberry Festival in Fort Langley and it turned out great!
Ingredients
- pound of fresh cranberries
- 1/2 to 1 cup sugar (depending how tart or sweet you like your sauce)
- 1 cup orange juice
- Salt
Put cranberries, ½ cup sugar and orange juice into a pot and heat to medium until sauce starts to simmer and berries pop. You will need to simmer for about 20 min and then mash everything up to your desired consistency.
Taste and adjust. My berries were really tart so I ended up adding at least ½ cup more sugar. If you add more sugar then simmer longer so it cooks out. You don’t want sugar graduals in the sauce.
The orange juice is so subtle in the sauce. It’s nice to have a bit of refreshing citrus with a berry so tart. The sauce also thickened perfectly as well. I was really impressed with how easy this was.
Avocado Tzatziki and Citrus Pork Skewers
0I don’t know about you but I love dips. I love dipping bread, food, veggies, and meats in all sorts of dips. A couple of my favourites are Guacamole and Tzatziki so I was extremely excited to find that Cat Cora mixed these two together and made an avocado Tzatziki. Even better, she paired it with pork skewers and pork was what I had taken out of the freezer for dinner. I did some slight changes but in the end the combination was beautiful.
Avocado Tzatziki
Ingredients
- 1/2cup extra virgin Olive Oil (I used only 1 tbsp)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (one large clove)
- 1/2lemon juiced
- 2 cups plain yogurt (I used Greek)
- 1 cup peeled, seeded, grated cucumber ( I used probably 2/3 cup)
- 1 whole avocado
- Salt and pepper to taste
Add lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper to yogurt. Add grated cucumber, diced avocado (or squeezed out of the peel) and mix well. Chill at least one hour for flavours to meld.
This ends up being much lighter and a little less creamy/heavy then guacamole but much less tangy then a regular tzatziki. The cucumber is really refreshing and the avocado adds some good depth. I really liked this combination and it’s a nice change from regular tzatziki.
For the pork skewers I would think that a lot of marinades would work. A chilli lime, a Greek style, honey garlic, but I stuck to Cat’s recipe and made a citrus style marinade.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4cup fresh lemon
- 1/4 cup lime (she used orange juice, I didn’t have any)
- 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- Salt and pepper
Add all ingredients together and whisk. Put cubed pork and let marinade in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.
Cat Cora showed her skewers having pieces of citrus fruits along with the pork to give it extra zest but I didn’t do that. I like to fill mine as full as I possibly can with meat. I you could eat this in a pita with lettuce and the avocado tzatziki. We had ours with Spanish style rice and dipped out pork right into the sauce.
Potstickers
0The night I had my girl friends over to help me do my wedding favours I also wanted to give them some food to eat. I needed to keep their energy up and also show them how much I love them by filling their tummies.
I was browsing around Wolfgang Pucks website and saw potstickers which instantly made me drool. I then began to google more recipes and I entered into dangerous territory since I don’t have much experience in Chinese food at all. This was going to put me in the kitchen tediously filling little dumplings and potentially coming out with a disastrous and odd look appy. I went ahead and adapted a variety of recipes and prayed that they would be delicious.
Ingredients
Filling
- 35 to 40 small won ton wrappers (preferable round)
- ½ pound ground pork
- 2 tbsp finely chopped red pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 inch of ginger grated or minced
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- Salt and pepper
Dipping Sauce
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tsp sriracha sauce
Combine all filling ingredients together (except for wrappers) in a large bowl by hand. Set Aside
Remove one won ton wrapper from the package, covering the remaining with a damp cloth. Brush the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place a rounded teaspoon sized ball of pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over edges and squeeze together. Shape as desired. Set on sheet pan and continue until finished.
To cook the potstickers, fill a large pot with water and boil. In small batches cook potstickers in boiling water for about 8 minutes. Drain. Heat a non-stick skillet with oil and sear potstickers until golden brown. Remove and serve with dipping sauce.
To make sauce, combine all ingredients together and whisk until incorporated.
I thought these tasted pretty good for my first try! I ended up buying square wrappers and they sort of looked like tortellini so I used a cookie cutter to make them round. I think all the girls really liked them too, as they were the first things to go at the table. I will definitely be making these again and experiment with different filling ingredients. The sauce was wonderful!
Tomatillo Salsa
0I got the best text message from J today. He said that he had a tomatillo plant for me! Call me naive but I didn’t really think that tomatillos could be grown in BC. Since they’re known for being used in Mexican cuisine I assumed that need extreme heat to grow well. Apparently I am wrong. They require the same conditions as regular tomatoes. Since its still Junuary and rainy I am a little worried but they will definitely be fun to grow.
Coincidentally I had purchased some tomatillos on the weekend. I made a light roasted salsa to top grilled steak. It was fabulous and just thinking about it is making me very excited to get this new plant into the ground! This Salsa would be great on any kinds of meat as its light in flavour, slightly sweet, and has a bit of kick. I also put some on my eggs the next morning. YUM
Ingredients
- 5 tomatillos, husked
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- ½ small red onion
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 -2 tsp chipotle sauce or 1 tsp powder.
- 2 tsp honey
- Salt and pepper
Pre-heat oven to 350. Rub tomatillos with olive oil, place on baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 20 min, or until soft. Place all ingredients into the blender and puree until smooth. You can also use a food processor once the tomatillos have cooled. Taste and adjust.
If you want this even spicier, then chop up a jalapeno, de-seed and add that to the blender as well. I ended up adding a bit more Smokey green hot sauce I bought in Mexico. I found that I really liked the Smokey flavour against the sweet flavours in the sauce.
I bought my chipotle sauce in Mexico as well, but you can purchase cans of chipotles at the grocery store. I buy them and freeze them individually so I always have some on hand.
Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
0You probably can’t tell by my blog posts but I have actually been trying to eat healthy lately. If you know me or work with me you’ll know that I LOVE to snack. This means that sometimes eating healthy gets really hard when you’re munching on food all day long. My mom likes to call it grazing, as if I am some sort of animal that just walks around eating for a living. After a week of changing my snacking routine to almonds and veggies I have finally cracked. I needed something that was going to be unhealthy in a bad way! I sent J a message to grab some beer and grocery list so I could make Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.I originally thought this would be great while the Canucks game was on but unfortunately the game was dreadful.
I don’t think I have ever made these at home for J before and I am pretty surprised with myself since I love spicy food and these are crazy easy to make. I don’t make the hot sauce, only the blue cheese dressing but if you want to give a hot sauce recipe a try email me and tell me how it goes! I’ll just stick to smothering my chicken with Franks original sauce for now.
The blue cheese dressing was super easy! Mine was a little chunky, and more of a spread but there is lots of variations so just play with the ingredients until you’ve got your own consistency.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ oz crumbled blue cheese (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
- 3 Tsp sour cream
- 2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
As you can see in the photo I may have gone a little overboard with my blue cheese sauce but it was so yummy, I couldn’t help myself. As for the chicken, I made chicken strips from scratch but feel free to use what you want. I found the easiest way to coat them with hot sauce is to just throw the chicken in a bag and shake the sauce to cover. I topped my sandwiches with lettuce and tomato!
Trader Joe’s Organic Vodka Sauce
010 months ago
Don’t you just love it when you get home from work and all you have to do is put your slippers on because dinner is ready? This doesn’t happen very often so when it does I can’t take it for granted. Last night J made dinner but it was probably because his friend B was over and they had to eat before hockey. Regardless, it was still great and the best part was the sauce J heated up, Trader Joes Vodka Sauce. I was very excited to give this a try. Usually I just throw together a quick homemade tomato sauce since it’s so super easy but it’s always nice to have a backup for occasions like this and there aren’t very many canned or jarred sauces out there that I enjoy.
I should have taken the photo when the sauce was still in the jar, or when it was actually on the pasta, but I forgot. The ingredients are all organic and unlike Canadian organic foods it’s inexpensive. It could be considered a creamy tomato sauce since there is cream and cheese in it but I didn’t feel like it tasted heavy or thick. It was actually on the sweet side which I wasn’t expecting. I couldn’t detect the vodka per say but I am sure it added some tang to the sauce. I added fresh ground pepper, but it definitely doesn’t need any salt. It’s not overly salty but the seasoning is pretty well balanced. We had it served over whole wheat spaghetti but I heard it’s amazing over gnocchi as well. I probably would buy this again for those nights when laziness or time crunches kick in. I think it would also be great kicked up with some peppers!
Tomatillo Guacamole
1I don’t know if you remember but last time I went to Trader Joes I bought some tomatillo guacamole and instantly fell in love. I have been determined to re-create this dip/sauce for some time and also wanted to cook with tomatillos. Luckily Price Mart sells these little treasures so last night I made some guac of my own.
When selecting tomatillos make sure they’re a nice green color, not too soft, husk is easily removed and they’re small, no bigger than a golf ball. They do grow larger but become slightly more bitter. The small ones have sweet lemony flavour and are oh so good.
Ingredients
- 4-5 small fresh tomatillos, husked
- 1 jalapeño or 2 to 3 Serrano chillies, seeded if desired and roughly chopped
- 10 cilantro sprigs, plus additional leaves for garnish
- Salt to taste
- 2 small or 1 1/2 large ripe avocados
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
Preheat the broiler. Cover a baking sheet with foil and place the tomatillos on top, stem side down. Place under the broiler at the highest rack setting and broil two to five minutes, until charred on one side. Turn over and broil on the other side for two to five minutes, until charred on the other side. Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender, tipping in any juice that has accumulated on the baking sheet. Add the chillies, cilantro sprigs and salt to the blender and blend to a coarse purée.
Cut the avocados in half and twist the two halves apart. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl or the bowl of a mortar and pestle. Mash with a fork or pestle. Do not use a food processor or a blender, as you want to retain some texture. Stir in the lime juice, the tomatillo mixture and salt to taste and combine well. Serve
I found this recipe online, but it originally came from NY times. I did add one clove of minced garlic and also about a tsp of cumin. This was really delicious and went great with my chicken enchiladas.
Sweet Balsamic Reduction
3I found this recipe online, I can’t remember where though. I love making this and serving it over tomato, chicken or over salad. Its so yummy.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup or more of Balsamic vinegar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- ½ tsp honey or white sugar
Put your vinegar in a saucepan and cook on med-high for about 5-10 minutes or until reduced by half. Take off stove and cool slightly, add vanilla and honey or sugar.
I actually decided to add about 1/4 cup of red wine to the vinegar and reduced both at the same time. It made the reduction sweet without having to add anything else to it. I am not sure if it will sweeten with all types of wine so you may want to add some sugar.
You may not need the honey or sugar if your red wine is sweet. You don’t even need to add the red wine either; I just did because I was drinking it. I didn’t end up adding much to mine because I really liked the way it turned out.
Marinara Sauce
0This sauce is so simple and also so worth the extra 20 minutes to make. I personally think making homemade sauce from scratch really makes any meal that much better! You can also freeze marinara sauce which is great because some recipes make a lot.
This particular recipe really doesn’t take long at all and is pretty good.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2-1/3 medium onion, chopped
- 1 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves
- 2-3 sprigs of fresh oregano
- 2-3 springs of fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes and hand-crushed, 2 cans if you want more sauce
- Pinch sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Coat a saute pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hazy, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add rough chopped basil, oregano and thyme. Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes), add dried oregano and basil. Cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm. If the canned tomatoes you bought have a mild tomatoes flavour and you want it a bit richer then add a tablespoon of tomato paste. This will also thicken your sauce as well. If your sauce is too thick then add a few tablespoons of chicken or veggie stock.
This is the sauce in action. Its still pretty chunky at this point but the flavour was already perfect. I mashed it all more to make smoother, but if you like chunky sauce leave it like this. You will love it!
Any type of tomato will be fine, so use what you like best. Home canned tomatoes are also amazing made into sauce. I ended up buying a can of fire roasted tomatoes and they made this recipe so good. I will more than likely try this again. If you’re using fresh tomatoes you can oven roast them yourself as well for extra flavour.
Take about 4-5 tomatoes or more if you want a lot of sauce. Quarter and core. Place in a large, 14-inch, oven proof frying pan with ¼ cup olive oil. Stir to blend then transfer to a 400 degree oven and cook until the tomatoes begin to caramelize, about 30 minutes. Remove the skillet from the oven and stir well. Return to the oven and continue to cook until further caramelized and much of the liquid has evaporated, about 30 minutes longer. Remove from the oven, cool slightly, and transfer to a blender, in batches if necessary, and process sauce until coarsely pureed.