Tis the season

Yeah it’s two weeks till Christmas and if you are like me you will be making gifts for your family, friends and coworkers. I think I’ve put this up before but a redux at this time of year is a good thing. Just like rewatching a Christmas Carol is a tradition for me making peppermint bark is too.

All you need is two cups of white chocolate melting wafers and a box of dollar store candy canes, a bowl, a hammer and cookie sheet.

Take the white chocolate and set it to melt for two or three minutes in your microwave. As it is melting take the candy canes our of their wrappers, place them between two towels and hammer them into tiny pieces.

That was the fun part for sure. Once you finish the choc5should be all melted. Check by stirring it with a spatula. If it isnt quite then nuke again in ten second intervals till it’s done. Then tip in your crushed candy cane and mix well.

Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the mixture out into an even layer. Place it into your freezer for a half hour to form up, then break it into pieces and place in clean, recycled jars. Top with ribbons or bows and give out to your friends.

An interesting idea

My hubby is a big fan of the bag of frosted mini wheats. He eats them by the handful when snacking. Now the thing is at the bottom of the bag is usually a pile of little shredded bits that I am sure most just toss out. Well that felt really wasteful me so I tried something.

I took some boneless pork chops and put them one at a time in the bagcanx shook. Yup I used those yummy bits as a form of shake and bake. Then put the chops on a tin foil lined cookie sheet and baked them at 350 for 40 minutes.

And wow! The chops were moist and flavor filled. Great with whatever side dish you decide to make. Great flavor and using up leftover bits from cereal.

Recipe: simple roasted potatoes

Potatoes are a staple in my home. With a hubby who really prefers them I have to come up with new and different ways to serve them as my daughter and I are more into variety than my hubby. After a bit of web diving I found out that oven roasting potatoes doesn’t take long at all, so I did it and the dish became favorite. Even beating out my mashed potatoes.

Now this is really simple. You need the following:

Four or five medium potatoes, peeled if they are thick skinned

Salt

Pepper

Chives

Olive oil

Basically you cube up your potatoes. As most here lately have had thin skins I just cut them up, skin on. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil.

Now drizzle olive oil on the raw potatoes, season with salt and pepper then shake on dried dill refresh if you have it.

Slide I to a preheated oven, 350 for 40 minutes and then serve e with your protein and veggies of choice. Simple and easy.

How about Pollock?

Well in an atte6to eat healthier and also to find protein my mostly vegetarian daughter will eat we are doing more fish. She will eat tuna, Pollock and salmon so far. Which is a good thing. I’m hoping to try other fish soon, like trout. Anyone k ow of other fish sold as frozen, not fried/battered fillets? I’m hoping to get a number of recipes put together for when my now adult youngest moves out.

Now for the recipe that I put together last night. I enjoy using the frozen fillets because they only take about fifteen minutes to cook in the oven. What you need is the following:

Four to six frozen Pollock fillets

1/4 butter, melted

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1/4 tsp granulated garlic

Half lemon

1/4 c parmesan cheese

Basically lay your fillets out on a tinfoil lined cookie sheet, brush with the melted butter. Then season with salt, pepper and garlic. Sprinkle on the parmesan and bake in a 450 degree oven for fifteen minutes. Serve with rice and grilled veggies for a light and tasty dinner.

Now the pollock does shrink when baked so how many fillets you use depends on your family’s hunger of course.

Making eggnog

Now it is the season of good food and drink. After the year I’ve had I had to rethink recipes. I now must cut way back on fat due to my surgery.  Which we all know makes holiday recipes a bit different. Fat adds richness to the flavors of the season.

I have had to go to skim milk, which is definitely a different taste when making eggnog but I managed with some tweaks.

As any of my past readers know I love cinnamon, the spice of fall and winter. So adding an extra dash ong with more  vanilla did the trick. It wasn’t as thick but this simple recipe was indeed tasty.

You need the following. Just add them all in your blender and mix

2 eggs, beaten

3 Tbsp +Addition to taste

2 1/3 c skim milk

2 tsp vanilla

Dash nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

Blend then refrigerate till chilled and serve. Simple right?

Making Red Rose tea taste better

Anyone who pays attention knows I dont like bitter. The orange pekeo is the tea that seems way too popular here in Canada. All three of my hospital stays here they tried giving it to me when I told them I dont drink coffee. Well it is not a good drink for me. And from what I can tell a lot of others online.

Now I have seen various recipes to make it better but I have found a simple fix. By adding some vanilla and cinnamon and of course sugar, I ended you with a nice warming cup of tea. It really isn’t that hard

All you need to a tea pot, hot water and the following.

A tablespoon of vanilla

1/2 c sugar

Two tea bags

Teaspoon ground cinnamon

Now just put the tea, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar in the teapot then pour in the boiling water. Stir to blend the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and then let it steep for five minutes, then add a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk and enjoy. Of course you can tweak the amounts to your own tastes.

Quick recipe: Banana Dragonfruit smoothie

Dragon Fruit is an interestingly odd fruit. It looks funky, but tastes pretty good. My roommate picked up two because I liked how the blended drink I made tasted.

Now these smoothies are pretty simple. All you need is the following:

One half of a dragonfruit

One medium banana, frozen

a cup of milk

a teaspoon of sugar (or so)

Cut up the frozen banana into chunks, scoop out the half dragon fruit and add them both to a blender or magic bullet, add in the milk and sugar and blend till smooth.

Pour into a cup and enjoy. A healthy snack drink.

Making use of turkey

As you know Canada has Thanksgiving in October. So of course I had a ton of turkey to play with. As I am not a fan of the dark meat most days I didn’t eat the left over dark meat by itself. What I did do was use a ton of left overs, from left over turkey meat to left over spinach salad, oranges and even apples. The fun thing is you can toss a ton of things into a goulash and call it dinner. Left over veggies, meat, fruit and past can become something quite tasty and use up your leftovers nicely. Yeah I know most people today just toss that left over pasta or peas but in a world in crisis isn’t it better to use up what you have first?

What I did was take about two or three cups of shredded precooked dark turkey meat and put it in a large skillet with a thin coating of olive oil, sprinkled on some salt and pepper and let it heat up while I rummaged through the refrigerator.

then I tossed in what worked out to a cup of raw spinach, half a tomato, a quarter of a cucumber, a quarter of a bell pepper, half an apple and two cups of turkey stock. Now remember I made the stock by simply boiling the turkey carcass with spices. Always boil up your bones for broth. It is cheaper than buying the box or can at the store and much healthier because you are only salting to taste here.

I let it all simmer for a bit before adding in Worcestershire sauce and squeezing a orange slice into the mix. And then I tossed in three cups of left over noodles from previous dinner. Let it all simmer on low for fifteen minutes and well you have a tasty meal you can feed your meat eaters.

Yes I know a lot of you are thinking apple and orange? Yup. I have found when dealing with a salty dish adding in the bright pop of fruit sweet can cut the salt or bitter in a dish and make it very yummy.

Sweet potatoes

Thanksgiving in Canada was this Monday and this year I made some yummy sweet potatoes for my now vegetarian daughter. Of course after all the work to make it she decided she didn’t want to eat them. Downed all the potatoes, stuffing and green beans, so know complaint there of course.

Now the wonderful thing about sweet potatoes/yams is that you can make them into so many things. Over the years I have posted up both the recipe for sweet potato soup and sweet potato rolls. I haven’t made the soup yet this year and they were the one failure that seems to happen every big holiday meal.

Well this year I peeled, chopped, boiled and mashed that wonderfully useful root. Simple as hell recipe for a very tasty side dish is as follows:

One medium small sweet potato/yam, peeled, chopped and boiled, then mashed.

one large pinch (about a tablespoon or two) of brown sugar

one tablespoon butter.

mix it all together, then season to taste if you wish. A simple and easy side dish that you can make all year round to feed your family or yourself.And it is healthy.

Fried dough worked!

Yup I decided to test out the deep fryer with some yummy fried dough or donuts as we call them. Now my fried donuts don’t last long but I managed to get a few photos of them before they were scarfed up. The recipe can be found in this blog with a quick search. They are a very simple dough, rolled out and cut into fun shapes. You make sure to heat up your oil to a good 350 before dropping them in. Keep an eye on them as they do fried up quick. Generally only a couple of minutes to get a nice golden color, then you need to drain them before tossing them in cinnamon sugar or drizzling honey on them. Best eaten warm or within an hour or so.