Homemade Tomato Soup ~ Jamie Oliver Recipe

Recently, I had a great experience with home made croutons and canned tomato soup. I figured that home made soup would have to be better than the canned version which is loaded with salt, sugar, and whatever else they put in that stuff. So, off to my cookbooks I went and this is what I found. I was surprised to see it called for a lot of veggies. This could only be delicious.

Peel one medium carrot, finely chop two stalks of celery, several garlic cloves, and one onion. Start softening them together with some oil in a nice large pot. Avoid adding salt at this point. Add lots of pepper if that is your thing.

I used my mini food processor for this.

The recipe called for two cups of chicken stock. I used these packets plus two cups of water.

Once your veggies are soft and flavourful, start adding in the liquids. One can of tomato sauce. Organic because why not.

One can of whole tomatoes and juice.

Several ripe tomatoes, quartered. 

It looks like a chunky soup right now. Let is cook the tomatoes and heat everything through.Test for seasoning at this point. Canned tomatoes, tomato sauces and the chicken stock will all have salt. Be sure not to add salt until after these are all added. Plus, I like croutons and cheese on my soup which also add salt so go easy.

Using a blender or a hand blender, completely blend the soup until it is creamy and smooth.

Top with garlic croutons and shredded Parmesan cheese.

This soup is much healthier for you than the canned version. You can completely control the salt, fat, and spices to suit you. Also, you can feed a crowd with this recipe. Don't be scared to make soup from scratch, it is totally worth it!

My Favourite Salad

About five years ago I went on a weight loss journey. A major weight loss journey. 80 lbs later here I am a fitter, lighter, happier version of my former self. I blame good foods and no self control for all the extra weight I was carrying. The thing was, most of the foods I was eating regularly didn't even taste good to me any more.  They were satisfying my fat and salt cravings and they were really easy to make.

This salad became part of my weight loss repertoire. I made and ate this salad for days on end and never tired of it. It's salty, it has healthy fat, it's crunchy, and most importantly it's tasty! With very little prep you can have a weeks worth of lunches and sides for supper in your fridge. It takes the pain out of deciding what to eat for healthy eating.

One of the key components to this salad is the dressing. You can find the recipe here. This recipe makes a lot of dressing. Make it in a jar and keep it in the fridge. I use this dressing on everything, it's that good.

Healthy olive oil makes this recipe good for you and satisfying.

Shake it up and keep it in the fridge. Shake it gently or the oil will solidify. If that happens to you just be sure to take your dressing out 10 minutes ahead of serving to let the oil warm up to room temperature again.

This salad is usually made with cabbage but I'm using romaine this time.

Now the veggies. Use whatever you have. I like to make this to the recipe but the dressing is really what makes this. The salad is just there because drinking salad dressing is gross. Haha. One thing to be sure to get is the bean sprouts and red onions. The rest is very flexible. If you are making this salad for the week keep back the watery veggies like the bean sprouts and tomatoes. Add them just before you eat to keep your other veggies from getting soggy.

This salad is tasty, beautiful, and HEALTHY. It is surprising how good it is for you.

I would normally eat this salad as a meal or with lean protein. I served it along side Sarah's Slow Cooker Pork for a fresh hit of clean flavours. The salad dressing is even good on the rice. Seriously, you will find so many places to use the salad dressing, it really is the star of this salad.

Veggie Pancakes?

When I was staying with John and Chrystal last year, John's mom came to visit. She cooked some really great food. This dish was my attempt to recreate one of her dishes. I didn't even come close but this still tasted pretty good. I will get the real recipe and try again some day but these satisfied my itch for them for now. 

Scrumptious. Salty, savoury, soft and chewy, crispy, and fresh. This dish is a sensory overload.

When this dish was made for me it was done with shrimp.  It was so good but alas, no shrimp in my house at the moment so I went straight up vegetarian.  I'm sure you could put anything in these and they would be tasty but I wanted to keep it kind of simple.  I only used mushrooms, green onions, zucchini and bean sprouts.

Now, this is where I went awry. I could not remember what was in the batter except cornstarch so I basically altered my crepe recipe. One egg, milk, and flour.  I wanted a really loose batter so it would be thin and cook quickly.

Cornstarch gives a really good crisp crunch in batters so it was the star here. I ended up using about two Tbsp because that is what pouffed out of the container and into my bowl. It worked for me.

If I remember correctly these were served with fish sauce and soya sauce. I like heat so I set out chili flakes so I would remember to add them. The fish sauce portion of this dish might have been mixed with something else. I am really not sure. My memory is my weakness.

To test my batter I fried a bit in some hot oil. It was sure crispy. I thought it would do.

Time to get cracking. Add oil to your very hot wok, throw in your veggies. Cook stirring constantly until they start to soften.

Pour your batter right on top. Shake and tilt the wok so all the 'raw' batter from the middle goes to the edges to be cooked. It will form a big crepe looking pancake thing. Very technical.

Now the hard part, flip that whole thing before it burns without it falling apart. Cook the other side for a minute or so, checking often to be sure the bottom is not burning. Partially remove from the heat if your pancake is cooking too quickly.

Turn it out onto a plate and eat immediately. This was really fun to cook because I stopped to eat every one while it was hot. While it is still hot, splash soya sauce, fish sauce, and chilis on top then eat and enjoy. Add more sauce as required.

Because I was eating every pancake as I was cooking it, I experimented a bit to see if I could improve my technique. I tried batter in first and batter on top. Batter on top was definitely best. Plus, the veggies developed more flavour getting to cook a bit on their own first.

John's mom also made this really wicked curry soup and I still need to get the recipe. I love trying new foods, especially when they are this yummy!

My First Stirfry in a Wok, YIKES!

I have had a wok for years and I have never used it.  I have this idea that only certain things should be cooked in a wok.  Things that I don't usually make.  When I do make things like stirfry I end up just grabbing my biggest frying pan and doing it like I usually do.  This time I was determined to use my wok.  I had a bunch of veggies in the fridge that needed using so it was full steam ahead.

I actually did some research online on the best ways to use a wok and get some recipe ideas.  I learned that you should add oil a bit at a time as you add items to the wok and highest heat is best.  So off I went with this knowledge to conquer my wok.

To start: get everything you are going to be using right at hand.  Cooking on high heat means you have zero time to cut anything or mix anything or look for ANYTHING.  Also, have oil on hand as you will be adding a bit every time you add something new to the wok.  I used canola oil because it has a higher smoking point than olive oil.

I chopped up my veggies into thin, bite-sized pieces and had them separated and ready to go.

I beat two eggs in a bowl.

I wanted a sauce but didn't have any ready made sauces so I looked up a recipe here.  I reduced the recipe to make just enough for this meal instead of extra for the fridge like the recipe makes.  The floaty bits are powdered chicken stock.  I don't buy liquid stock usually.

Time to start frying!  Start by heat up the wok on screaming high heat.

Add in some oil, wait until it smokes (which should happen really quickly if your wok is hot enough) then start to add in your veggies.  Longest cooking veggies should go in first.  You cannot do anything else once you start cooking or it will burn so you need to be here stirring it constantly.  I have to say, it is very satisfying to listen to the sizzle as you move it around.

Add in carrots next.  I tried to get these to be thin so I wouldn't end up with crunchy carrots.

Next goes in the broccoli and cauliflower.  As you add each veggie, push everything away from the center, add oil, add veggie.  Turn the cooked ones over the 'new' ones and start stirring.  This prevents the hot ones from burning by cooling them with the 'new' addition and gets them straight into the hottest part.

Last I added in the peppers because they cook really quickly and get soggy fast, no thanks.  After only a few minutes I added in the sauce.

The sauce will start out looking cloudy but will begin to thicken right away.  It will turn glossy and transparent as the cornstarch gets warm.

Once the veggies were getting close to done I moved them all back to my prep bowl and quickly wiped out the wok to get the eggs going.  Add a bit of oil and pour the eggs in.  I used chop sticks to stir them around so they were more like ribbons than clumps.

Add the veggies back in once the eggs are about half setting up.  I wanted the eggs to be soft and silky and to not over cook or have a chance of burning.  Burned eggs will ruin everything.

Last, I added in some rice I had cooking and finished it all off together.  I love having the rice through the sauce.  If that isn't your thing or you want a more traditional presentation serve the rice on the side.  This would also have been excellent with noodles too.

Time to dish up and dive in.  It was so good!

I have to say I really loved the experience of cooking in a wok.  It was fast, easy, and FUN.  When I staying with Chrystal and John, John's mom visited and made these awesome savory pancakes for us with shrimp and bean sprouts.  I really want to try making them and I will be using my wok.  Stay tuned!

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!