Month: April 2019

A Quick and Tasty Meatless Monday Idea with Uncomplicated Ingredients

Posted in Meatless Meals, PastaLeave a comment

I love meat, chicken, fish, and seafood! As a result, most of the meals I make has one of those elements in it!  Like many other people these days, I am aware of the value of adding meatless meals to my diet so I’m trying a few new things every now and then.  I came up with this idea this week based on ingredients I already had on hand.  I am a great believer in making meals with what you have in the house already rather than running to the grocery store daily.  If you plan your pantry and fresh ingredients with a variety of food you enjoy, having a peek inside will provide you with lots of options for quick and tasty meals.  (As you might know, “justlookinthefridge” is one of the hashtags I frequently use on Instagram).

This penne with chickpeas, tomato sauce, and grilled zucchini came together in no time and was very satisfying.  It’s also a very economical dish to make.  It’s a vegetarian dish and can also be gluten-free if you use gluten-free pasta.  If you don’t like tomato sauce or don’t have any on hand, you can dress the pasta with extra virgin olive oil, a bit of lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh herbs and a bit of the pasta water.  Using the salty, starchy pasta water adds flavour and helps the sauce stick to the pasta.  Also, don’t forget to serve your pasta dishes in heated bowls or plates.  This helps the food stay warm longer and avoids adding condensation to the dish when hot meets cold.  I usually warm my plates in the oven at about 200 degrees F. for about 10 minutes.

I used grilled zucchini for this dish because the green colour of the skin adds visual interest to the dish.  Remember, we eat with our eyes too!  (Also, that’s what I had in the fridge!).  Grilling the zucchini adds extra flavour.  If you don’t have zucchini any other green vegetable would work too.

If you have leftovers, put them in an oven safe dish, top with parmesan and mozzarella and bake in oven until cheese melts for a cheesy casserole version for another night.

If you are unsure if Meatless Monday is for you, give this a try because it’s budget-friendly and won’t take a lot of time.  Let me know how it goes – and please share any favourite meatless meal ideas that work for you.

Go to the recipes tab for a clean printable version of the recipe including the notes.

Happy Cooking friends!

Chickpea Tomato Penne

  • Servings: 4 to 6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • ⅓ cup chopped onion (I use Vidalia or sweet onion.  Green onions would work too)
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried
  • 1 grilled zucchini (chopped) – you can also use uncooked zucchini
  • About 450 grams cooked penne
  • About ⅓ cup pasta water
  • About 1 litre of tomato sauce
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Saute onion and garlic in hot olive oil until soft and fragrant (about 2 to 3 minutes)
  2. Add chickpeas to the pan and cook to combine flavours about 3 minutes.  If using uncooked zucchini, add it to the pan and cook for another minute or two.  (Grilled zucchini can be added at the end). Add a little salt and pepper
  3. Reduce heat to low and cover
  4. Add penne to large pot of boiling salted water and cook until ‘al dente’ (about 10 minutes)
  5. While pasta is cooking, heat tomato sauce in another pot
  6. Drain cooked pasta, reserving about ⅓ cup pasta water
  7. Return pasta to the large pot.  Add chickpea mixture, pasta water, grilled zucchini and tomato sauce.  Toss to combine. Serve in heated bowls with grated parmesan and fresh herbs

Variations:  

  • Instead of adding tomato sauce in step 7, add extra virgin olive oil, a bit of lemon juice, lemon zest and fresh herbs
  • Add whole baby spinach leaves at the end to either version
  • If you’ve got leftovers, put them in an oven safe dish, top with parmesan and mozzarella and bake in oven until cheese melts for a cheesy casserole version

recipe by: everydayhomegourmet.blog/  

Company’s Coming! 10 No-Bake Dessert Ideas for Busy Home Cooks

Posted in Desserts, Easy Entertaining, No bake dessertsLeave a comment

When I first started having dinner parties for friends as a young adult, I really wanted everything to be homemade.  After all, that’s what my Mom always did, so why wouldn’t I do that too?  I always made a plan for the dinner ahead of time, writing down what I was going to make and always starting the prep with dishes that took the longest to make.  That was usually the dessert.  So, I would take a few hours early in the morning or the night before the dinner to make one of Mom’s famous desserts or to make a new recipe I found.  Once the dessert was done, I’d start on the rest of the meal prep.  It was many hours of cooking and preparing and it was always well received, so I enjoyed doing it.

As years went on and life got more complicated, there was a need to make some changes.  I still wanted to be a great host and offer my guests an excellent meal, but I needed to streamline things to make it sustainable.  All these years and hundreds of dinners later, I have developed systems that are different from those early years, and certainly just as good!  (It helps that my husband is an eager and capable sous chef!) . I should mention that I’d rather eat savory food than sweets, but I know that most people like to end the meal with something sweet, so I am happy to provide that!

I know that there are many wonderful store-bought cakes and desserts available for us these days and I do use those occasionally and try to add my own spin when serving them.  As a diner myself, I get a bit overwhelmed when I’m served a giant piece of cake on a plate.  I much prefer smaller bites of things to choose from, which makes me think that there are probably other people who feel this way too.  So here are a few suggestions I have for no-bake desserts that can satisfy the sweet tooth and avoid overwhelming the meal.

  1. Always have some gourmet chocolates on hand (preferably individually wrapped so you can put them in a lovely bowl on the table)
  2. Have some small, gourmet cookies on hand.  Served on a plate beside the bowl of chocolates, they can be a satisfying, last minute dessert when people pop inIMG-1951
  3. Keep some frozen mini eclairs or cream puffs on hand.  Serve them on a plate with berries and drizzle them with caramel or chocolate sauce for a visually pleasing and satisfyingly sweet end to the meal
  4. Hollow the core out of apples (one per person).  Fill and drizzle them with a mixture of raisins, nuts, brown sugar, and melted butter.  (Add a little rum, if you like!)  Bake for about an hour and serve warm, with or without whipped cream on the side.  (Yes, I realize I said this post was “no bake” – however, I consider this no-bake because there is no measuring of ingredients and cleaning of extra bowls – just throw it in the oven).
  5. Remember, yogurt and berries can be a dessert.  I put this one together on a day when we were in a vacation rental and had limited availability of ingredients and kitchenware.   So, I used what was on hand… non-fat Greek yogurt, honey, cinnamon, and berries.  I used the nicest glasses that were in the kitchen and used them to serve individual portions.  As a bonus, this is also a gluten-free dessert! Next time, I would add a fancy cookie to this (gluten-free if needed!)
  6. If you have a favourite cake recipe, bake it in a small loaf pan baking tin and then you can ice and freeze the individual loaves to slice later.  Serve the slices on a beautiful platter and have guests help themselves to as much or as little as they like.  I did this with my Mom’s carrot cake recipe and it was a big hit.  You can also serve a fruit and nut platter with this.  In these times, so many people are trying to eat healthier and limit sugar, so giving them an option to have just a few bites of something sweet can satisfy the craving and be very much appreciated.
  7. Sliced bananas with brown sugar and orange liqueur sauce on pound cake.  Make the sauce ahead by melting butter and brown sugar, then add a few slices of your favourite liqueur.  Set aside to heat up just before serving.  Add sliced bananas and serve on a slice of pound cake or scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt. (Gluten free without the cake)
  8. Canned (or fresh) peach halves, served with yogurt flavoured with honey and cinnamon, nuts and caramel drizzle in the space where the pit would be.  (I got this idea from The Canadian Living Rush Hour Cookbook many years ago).  It’s a light and fresh tasting sweet treat – also gluten-free
  9. No Bake Ice Cream Cake is a summer favourite in my house.  Only 3 ingredients and it looks so fancy.  You can make it ahead – big or small – and keep it in the freezer for whenever you need it.  Go to recipes and scroll down to get the instructions
  10. Grilled peaches served with frozen yogurt are great in the summer.  You can grill the peaches before the guests arrive and set aside for later.  Serve at room temperature or heat them in the oven for a few minutes.  Add some frozen vanilla yogurt, and a few mint leaves and you have a sweet, fancy plate that didn’t require hours of baking and clean up.  If you’ve got some chocolate or caramel sauce, give it a little drizzle.  This is another gluten-free treat.

I hope these ideas help you create a delicious treat at the end of your meal with little fuss and preparation.  As always, drop me a note to let me know how you like these ideas and please share any that you have that work for you.

Happy cooking, friends!

As Promised…Mom’s Pea Soup Recipe

Posted in Soup2 Comments

If you’ve read the last post, I promised to share my Mom’s recipe for pea soup.  It takes a little time, but is well worth the effort!  Here it is:

Pea Soup

  • Servings: 8 to 10
  • Difficulty: easy
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Don’t be put off by the cooking time…this is passive cooking time so you won’t be working the whole time, just monitoring the pot!  You can make the ham broth one day and finish the soup the next day if time is an issue. This soup is a delicious way to make use of your leftover ham and get all the goodness and nutrients out of that ham bone from your baked ham family dinner.

Ingredients

  • 450 to 600 grams of whole yellow peas or split yellow peas
  • Ham bone
  • Diced ham (pulled from the bone of your baked ham)
  • 6 to 8 litres cold water
  • 1 cooking onion (optional)
  • 2 large carrots (optional)
  • 1 large celery stalk with leaves (optional)
  • 1 bay leaf (optional)
  • 10 whole peppercorns (optional)

Directions

  1. Soak peas overnight in cold water
  2. Place ham bone in a large stock pot and fill with cold water (about 6 to 8 litres)
  3. Optional:  add cooking onion, one carrot, celery stalk, bay leaf, peppercorns to pot
  4. Simmer 1 ½ to 2 hours
  5. Remove ham bone (and all items from step 3, if using).  Let broth cool and place in fridge overnight
  6. Remove broth from fridge and skim off and discard any fat that has formed on the top
  7. Heat broth.  Drain peas and add to the hot broth.  Cook for about 1 hour or until peas have softened and broken down slightly
  8. Dice one large carrot in small pieces and add to soup in the last 15 minutes of cooking, along with diced ham

 

Tips:  This should be a fairly thick soup, (like a potage) but if you find the soup is too thick for your liking, add a little water or broth to reach your desired consistency

 

recipe by: everydayhomegourmet.blog/  

Baked Ham – A Low-Fuss Dinner Roast That Gives Busy Home Cooks Delicious Leftovers Throughout The Week!

Posted in Holiday Meals, Roast, Side dishesLeave a comment

Baked Ham was a meal we frequently had on Sundays at my Irish grandparents’ house.  It was always delicious and served with Nanny’s tasty creamy coleslaw. (Although I typically prefer coleslaw with oil and vinegar, my Nanny’s creamy coleslaw was a delicious treat!)  My Mom also made baked ham for us from time to time and she baked it with a mustard / brown sugar glaze and pineapple slices attached. As kids, we all sure loved those pineapple slices!!

For me, (and probably for lots of people), food definitely generates memories, feelings and notions of family history.  As I wrote in a previous post, when I started to do my own cooking, I concentrated on making dishes that my mother and grandmothers did not make.  So baked ham was not something I made. However, as my grandmothers left this world and I later moved hours away from the family, I was not close enough to benefit from Mom’s home cooking on a regular basis, so I’d try a few of Mom’s classics.  Cooking them for only two people was not always satisfying, so I left the baked ham out for many years – and it was certainly not a dish that was ‘en vogue’ for young home cooks at the time.

This past New Year’s Day, I was looking for a less fussy option for an intimate family dinner that would be hearty, comforting and would not keep me tied to the kitchen.  So, I decided to resurrect the baked ham idea. Friends had talked about spiral ham for years. I had never done one, so I thought it was a good time to try it. The spiral ham made me fall in love with baked ham all over again!  I did the ham with Mom’s signature pineapple slices and served it with parboiled potatoes that I finished up by roasting in the oven, along with sauteed Brussels sprouts and carrots. It was a big hit and we had tons of leftovers, which made it an economical meal.  And, it was certainly a time saver because it gave us other dinners through the week, and was added to breakfasts and also generated a delicious pea soup! Baked ham is a low-fuss dinner to make because it’s already cooked and just needs to be reheated – no need for a meat thermometer and no concerns about cooking it to the correct doneness!

You can cook and prepare the Brussels Sprouts ahead of time and simply reheat them a few minutes before dinner is served.  Prepare the potatoes and ham following the instructions below and place both dishes in the oven about 45 minutes before you plan to serve dinner.

Here’s what I did to create this delicious and low-fuss dinner:

 

 

 

Potatoes:

 

  1. Peel potatoes and parboil them for about 10 minutes until slightly fork tender.  You can leave the skin on if you prefer
  2. Drain and place them in a baking dish.  Coat with ⅛ to ¼ cup pineapple juice, a splash of olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper
  3. Place in oven with the ham for 30 to 40 minutes.  (I like doing this to crisp up the outside of the potatoes, as opposed to simply boiled potatoes)

 

fullsizeoutput_4b5Ham:

  1. Make a paste of Dijon mustard and brown sugar and coat the top and sides of the ham with it
  2. Attach canned pineapple slices all over the ham with toothpicks
  3. Pour the pineapple juice from the can into the bottom of the roasting pan
  4. Place the ham on a rack in the roaster and heat at 325 degrees until hot (likely 30 to 45 minutes depending on size) 
  5. Reserve the sauce at the bottom of the roaster and serve in a gravy boat

 

Sauteed Brussel Sprouts and Carrots

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  1. Wash Brussels sprouts and remove ends with a knife.  Slice Brussels sprouts lengthwise. Wash and scrub large carrots and slice into 1-inch pieces.
  2. Heat about 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan.  Toss in Brussels sprouts and carrots and stir to coat
  3. Add a little salt and pepper
  4. Cook on medium heat until Brussels sprouts are bright green and fork tender (usually not more than 8 minutes).  If the pan is drying up, add a splash of water rather than olive oil to continue cooking. You can also cover with a lid in the last few minutes to speed up cooking time.  **Suggestion: If you are not eating them right away, undercook them slightly and they will finish cooking as you reheat them.
  5. Reheat when ready to serve

 

Ideas for Leftover Ham

You can always have the same meal again in a few nights, but here are a few other things you can do with the ham:

  • Sandwiches for lunch (of course!) – the spiral ham is already nicely sliced so just bag up those slices and freeze in individual portions for easy sandwiches throughout the week
  • Chop the ham and any leftover potatoes, Brussels sprouts and carrots.  Create a frittata by adding 6 eggs, scrambled to the chopped ham and cook in a medium heat pan on both sides.  You may also transfer to the oven to evenly cook the middle. Serve with a salad for a quick and delicious weeknight meal
  • Add the chopped ham to your scrambled eggs for what is known in our family as a “ham quickie”….a blast from our past!
  • Add the chopped ham to your weekend omelette
  • Make a ham, onion and vegetable quiche.  (Asparagus would be a great addition at this time of year!).  Maybe try a cauliflower crust to make it gluten-free.  Serve with a salad and enjoy it for lunch or dinner
  • Save the hambone and make delicious pea soup.  Look for that recipe in an upcoming blog!

So, if you want a homey dinner without a big fuss, give this all a try and you may fall in love again with baked ham as I have recently!

Enjoy, and feel free to drop me a note to share your tips or let me know how you liked mine!

Happy Cooking friends, and Happy Easter!