Vegetable Pot Pie

This is hands-down, the favourite meal of all guests who sit at my table.  Best part?  It only takes about 45 minutes, max, to whip up from scratch - 10 minutes to assemble if you're using left-overs. 

You can add whichever vegetables you would like in the pie; the key to the deliciousness is the mashed-potato base which is infused by the mushroom soup gravy and vegetable juice as it bakes. I've made this with home-made alfredo sauce, but it's just as good, if not better with old-fashioned mushroom soup.  I've also played around with lentils, beans, chopped Yves Chick'n tenders, and tofu to add a bit of protein to the meal, but it tastes just as good without.

Ingredients:
Mashed Potato Base:
2-3  potatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Filling:
1 medium yam
1 parsnip
1-2 carrots
4 large mushrooms
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup cauliflower florets
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 small cans of condensed mushroom soup

Crust:
1 Frozen pie crust
Sprinkle of rosemary

Roughly chop up potatoes, yam, parsnip, mushrooms and carrots into 1 cm - 1 inch cubes.  Boil in salted water for about 10 minutes, until cooked right through.  These can all be boiled together in one pot. While these are boiling, steam the broccoli and cauliflower florets, and steam or saute the mushroom chunks.

Drain and separate most of the mashed potatoes.  Mash with sour cream, milk, garlic powder, salt and pepper until you have some lovely mashed potatoes.  Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with the mashed potatoes about 1 inch thick.

Spread a layer of mushroom soup over the potatoes.  Sprinkle the frozen peas on top of the soup.  Cover this with a layer of the cooked root vegetables and muhrooms.  Add more mushroom soup on top of these vegetables, then cover that with the cooked broccoli and cauliflower florets.  Add remaining mushroom soup on top of the broccoli and cauliflower, and top with frozen pie crust.  (You can, of course, throw together a quick home-made crust, but I usually just grab a pre-prepared crust from the freezer).  Sprinkle crust with a bit of rosemary - this makes all the difference.

Bake in oven at 350 for about 35 minutes, or until crust is golden.

Cauliflower Soup

My poor roommate had gum surgery last week, so all we've been eating is soup, scrambled eggs, polenta, mashed yams and smoothies. 

Here's a lovely, flexible fall soup that can be made from scratch and served in under an hour.

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
2 potatoes
1/2 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stick
2 cups water
21 tbsp soup stock
3 tbsp sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste.

Finely chop onion, cauliflower and celery, and saute in a large stock pot until soft and the onion is clear, about 5 minutes.  While this is cooking, roughly chop up cauliflower and potatoes into small pieces.  Add to vegetables in the pot and add water until cauliflower and potatoes are just covered. 

Bring to a boil and add soup stock.  Let simmer until everything has cooked until soft all the way through, about 20 minutes. Add to blender in three batches, and blend with one tablespoon of sourcream until "liquified".

** An alternative recipe includes adding a tablespoon or two of curry, and/or a can of cream-corn. Also, sometimes I leave some of the potatoes out of the blender and serve it as a chowder. **

I like to serve this with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and cracked black pepper.

This makes about 10 cups of soup, at about 100 calories per cup.

Peaches and Nutella

You know how sometimes you do something that makes you feel like a rock-star?  This recipe makes me feel like a rock-star.  Inspired by what I had in my fridge and some summertime magic, it does the impossible:  it makes fresh peaches taste even better.

Ingredients:2 fresh, gorgeous peaches, halved
1 tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp of vanilla
sprinkle of cinnamon
4 tbsp of Nutella
2 scoops of ice cream

Melt butter in frying pan, add vanilla and peaches, cut side down.  Fry at a medium-low heat until heated through, about four minutes.  Flip peach so that it is cut side up, sprinkle with cinnamon, and cook another few minutes until peach is soft all the way through.

Plate, and fill the centre with nutella, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4... lets be serious.  This serves 2.

Blueberry-Banana Smoothie

When I was little, my dad used to make milkshakes out of milk, ice cream, and canned Empress strawberry jam.  I loved spooning the jam into the blender, and the idea of HOME-MADE MILKSHAKES was just so extravagant!

Smoothies still give me that thrill - I love throwing a bunch of fruit into a blender and pouring out a thick delicious beverage. I still add a bit of ice-cream to mine, which may cross the line into milkshake territory, but I think it makes all the difference.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen blueberries
1 very ripe banana
1 cup orange juice
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
1 tsp vanilla

This makes 2 large cups (pictured above). 326 calories per serving.

Banana, Walnut, Chocolate-Chip Muffins

Im always looking for a way to use up the bananas in my freezer.  This recipe is based on a peanut-butter banana muffin recipe found in my go-to Canadian Living muffin book, and the end result received great feedback from my friends. 

In the spirit of the original recipe, I served the warm muffins with peanut-butter... brilliant!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 cups mashed bananas (about 6 frozen bananas)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Crumble Topping
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

in a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat egg, mix in vanilla, oil, yogurt and mashed bananas, in that order.  Pour over dry mixture and mix just until moistened (do not over-mix, or muffins will be rubbery).  Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips,  spoon into muffin tray.  top with crumble mix.

Bake in oven for about 25 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins at about 250 calories each

Curried Caulflower and Potatoes

I love Aloo Gobi, but I associate it with oily, salty take-out.  This is anything but. 

Incredibly simple to prepare, this flavourful side-dish dresses up even the most routine meal.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
1 white potato
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Roughly chop up cauliflower into 1 inch florets, and potato into slightly smaller cubes.

Toss everything together and bake in a 9×13 inch glass pan for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and crispy.

This serves about 6 one-cup servings at about 70 calories each.

Curried lentils

In our vegetarian household, we are always looking for tasty and healthy protein sources.  These lentils fit the bill, not only because they are yummy and inexpensive, but because they freeze (and thaw) well.  Just grab them out of the freezer on your way to work in the morning, and dinner will be ready when you get home.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried brown or green lentils, soaked over-night
1/2 onion, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, chopped
1/2 zucchini
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1.5 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp curry
1/2 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp salt
1 small can diced tomatoes
2 cups water

Saute onion, celery, carrots, pepper, zucchini, garlic and ginger in a little oil in the bottom of a 3qt sauce-pot until onion is soft and translucent, about 6 minutes.

Add 1/2 the water, tomato paste, and spices and mix thoroughly.

Add the lentils and diced tomatoes and stir once more.  The idea is for all of the flavours to be dissolved in the liquid like a stock so that the lentils soak them up while cooking.

Add the rest of the water - the lentils and vegetables should now be just covered by the liquid.

Let simmer for approximately 40 minutes until lentils are soft, and everything has formed into a stew-like consistency. Mash if you want a more uniform, daal-like dish. 

Serve on its own, or over basmati rice. 

This makes about 10 one cup servings of lentils at about 110 calories each.  as mentioned, these lentils freeze really well for later use.