Food to Daydream About

I was watching TV last night and I found myself thinking about food. Very yummy food. I was trying to decide if I was actually hungry, bored, or thirsty. It was 10 pm so I wasn't convinced I need to eat something just before bed. The final decision was when I thought of nachos and seriously considered making them. I knew I needed to get to bed before I had a tummy full of cheese and tortilla chips.

There was a moment last night when I realized I had everything you could want for nachos in my fridge. It was what really convinced me I need to get to bed before I ended up with a full tummy and regrets. It wasn't a very hard decision to make nachos for lunch today.

Obviously, you need some tortilla chips. If you shop at Costco you can get a life time supply.

Now I add some chopped onion. When I microwave this, the onion will soften and become milder just a bit but still have that nice flavour.

Now the cheese, add as much or as little as you like. I find I like just an even layer so that there is a bit of cheese on most chips and no pools of runny cheese.

Now to get creative. Add some heat, if it doesn't hurt it doesn't count... just kidding. But what are nachos without jalapenos?

If I was making these for someone else I would leave them whole so they could see them, for myself I wanted more pieces so I get a bit with most bites.

Toss those on and into the microwave for 30 seconds.

Chop up some fresh tomato and return to the microwave for another 30 seconds or until all the cheese is bubbly. I wanted the tomatoes to be warm but not cooked.

Serve with salsa and sour cream for dipping and you'll be in heaven!

We have been known to have this for supper. I would add ground beef seasoned with a taco spice packet. Green onions and olives are also delightful. Just think of your favourite restaurant nachos and go from there!

Stuffed Peppers and Homemade Burgers

It is definitely getting to be BBQ weather. Well it would be if we could stay above zero for long enough. I put together some burgers but couldn't be bothered to start up the BBQ so I grilled them inside on my breakky grill. It was great because I could get some char on the burgers but it was definitely missing the smokey element from the BBQ. To be honest, I didn't miss it this time.

On a more personal note, have you even done something that scared the hell out of you? You know that stressful feeling you get? You know that feeling when the situation is finally over and the stress is released? Yes? Well that is me today. Celebrate! I might even get my butt out the door tomorrow and run again. Well, at least if it isn't freezing I will.

I know that stuffed pepper recipes usually call for some ground meet but I knew I was going to make burgers so I went for a vegetarian stuffing and that means mushrooms!

I roughly chopped about a dozen medium sized mushrooms.

To make the peppers stand up, trim off a bit of the bottom, set aside. Lob the tops off the peppers and clean out the seeds and membranes. Finely, chop up the top and bottom bits with an onion. Sweat them down in a pan with some oil and season well with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook about 1/2 cup of rice with one cup of water.

I only wanted to make three peppers so I halved the recipe I was following. Don't worry if your peppers get some holes when you trim them up. Set the peppers into an oven safe dish that is just big enough for them. I used a bread pan.

Once the peppers and onions have softened, add the mushrooms.

Cook down until the moisture is cooked out of the mushrooms.

Once the rice is cooked, toss with the veggies.

Stuff the peppers. Cover and into the oven for 20 minutes at 375F.

Time to start the burgers. Toss one packet of onion soup mix into a big bowl.

Grab your ground beef and an egg.

I weigh and press my burgers to be sure they are all the same size and thickness. Normally, I would put these onto the BBQ but it was cold out and I wanted to use my breakfast grill. It was messy and smokey but the burgers turned out great. Not sure if I won or not. Haha 

To finish off the burgers I slathered some BBQ sauce on and added a couple slices of cheddar cheese. I covered the burgers to let the cheese melt. I served them on my homemade buns.  I put a few slices of cheese on the peppers and broiled them on high for a few minutes until the cheese was bubbly. Enjoy!

Homemade Corn Tortillas

Over the past few years I have seriously developed my love of Mexican food. This is a food I have always loved but never tried to make it at home aside from the boxed meals, you know the ones I mean. Chris got me started on making Mexican food from scratch. One important thing I have learned from making more authentic Mexican foods at home is that you can specialize them to your own tastes. Sure, this probably makes them less authentic but 100 times even more delicious. Of course, you might as well make your own tortillas too, why not? Everything is better homemade right?

You will need a special type of flour called Masa Harina. It is ground corn. More specifically it is a corn that has been soaked in lime, dried, then ground. You can find it in the ethnic section of your grocery store.

This dough is super simple, it is just water added to the Masa Harina until a dough forms. It will dry out easily so you need to keep the dough covered while you form your tortillas.

You will need to roll these out by hand unless you happen to have a tortilla press. Be sure to use plastic wrap to cover your press or you will have a mess. One piece each for the top and bottom.

Roll a bit of the dough into a ball and place it more toward the hinge instead of the center. You'll see how the press pushes the dough outward. If you put it right in the center it will smoosh off the end of the press and make a mess.

Now press and there you go, one flat disk of dough.

Now to cook. On pretty high heat, cook until browned slightly on both sides.

There is a nice little stack.

Now for the real reason I made tortillas, quesadillas. I used left over tangy slow cooker pork and cheese. Put that between two homemade tortillas and heat until the inside is hot and gooey.

Be sure to flip.

Top with salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Sour cream would be great as well. These are so tasty and really so easy.

My Staple Salad

The weather is getting warmer and I'm more and more aware of how much tighter my clothes are fitting after this long cold winter.  The more the sun shines the more I want to get outside running and then lying in the sun whenever possible.  It is officially time to smarten up on the food front and get in shape for summer.  I always end up getting itchy feet this time of year and launch into full fitness and health awareness so you can expect more of that to come.  Also, here are some pictures from my adventures yesterday.

This was taken outside of the Square One shopping center.  Cool right?  I navigate around town by the location of those towers, I swear I can't be the only one.

Then this happened, can you see the geese stopping traffic on the crosswalk? #CanadaProblems

Gather everything that is going into your salad.  This pretty much includes everything in my fridge except mushrooms.  I don't like mushrooms in my salad.  Yuk.

I keep a tub like this in my fridge with "open" veggies.  I try to use them daily so they spend only about 12-24 hours in the fridge like this between supper and lunch.

I'm also an avid fan of the trash bowl in my cooking area.  This one was a camping cooking pot and has a lid so I can just pop the lid on when I'm not using it.  We recycle and compost in our house so I do have to be careful to keep my recyclables to the side to pick them out before they hit the compost bin.

So to get started, I chopped up some lettuce, whatever I have.  I have used mixed baby greens, spinach, or as in here romaine.  I tend to have iceburg a lot but that does get boring after awhile.

Now chop up your toppings.

Toss them in on top of the lettuce.  Now some people will start tossing at this point, not me.  It goes to the table like that.  You know where the lettuce is, you can dig to it, you can see the toppings and pick according to your tastes.  I like choice.

Get your dressing.  I have often had just balsamic vinegar and olive oil but I'm sick of it and Catalina is my favourite.

I never put the cheese into the bowl with the main salad.  There is always the chance that we will have leftovers and I'm the one who will end up eating them.  I often do this with the tomato too.  Soggy cheese and water logged salad? ... No thanks.  Then I just drizzle lightly with dressing and you're are one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.  I have also added boiled eggs and/or pickled chilis to this salad other times but I skipped that today.

As I was putting this together today I remembered I have Craisins in the cupboard.  It makes me sad that I forgot to add them in here but they would be wonderful.  I have also completely adopted Greek salads and lettuce-less salads.  You don't have to have lettuce, it's Ok to skip that part.  I do feel like I get overwhelmed by some of the more inventive salads out there sometimes and just want to get back to basics, that is this salad completely.  Enjoy!