Shrimp, Artichoke & New Potato Stew for Two

Shrimp, 'Artichoke' & New Potato Stew for Two - July 21st, 2012

I was a little hesitant to make a stew in the summer time, especially when it's been so incredibly humid the past few weeks. Thankfully, as the write-up says, this one cooks quickly so I didn't have to have the stove on for hours.

I did have to eliminate the Artichoke element from the recipe though. I still hadn't found frozen artichoke hearts, and only had a can of the stuff which I refuse to use again. I didn't want to repeat a sodium overload repeat like as in the Sauteed Halibut dish. Thankfully then it didn't affect the meal, it was just one of those 'don't eat the artichoke pieces' kind of thing.

Shrimp, Artichoke & New Potato Stew for Two - page 172

"Stew doesn't have to simmer for hours. This one cooks up in a jiffy, thanks to quick-cooking ingredients like shrimp and small potato wedges."

I was a big fan of how easy this recipe was. The thing that took the longest was just waiting for the potatoes to cook all the way through. It's one of those one-pot meals. I used a bit more of the ingredients than called for so there were leftovers for Niall to take to work for lunch.

This was a really fresh tasting stew. It was actually almost too light to be called a stew. Kind of reminded me of a chowder, but a tomato-based-broth type of chowder. Whatever you want to call it, it was really good! The flavours all came together perfectly. I would eat this again and again.

As a little cheat to this really healthy meal, I baked some garlic cheese loaf for on the side. Just half of one of those Dempsters Frozen Garlic Bread Loaves that I sprinkled a little bit of cheese on. Just a couple pieces eat. Dipped in the broth, they were really good.

This also gave me the opportunity to use these bowls. They are supposed to be for French Onion Soup, and while I have been meaning to make such soup for years now, it still hasn't happened. We got the bowls as a gift a while ago, but they've just been up in the cupboard waiting for me to make French Onion Soup. Well, screw that. These are perfect ANY SOUP bowls. Looks nicer than just using my everyday cereal bowls.

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Sauteed Halibut with Artichoke Hearts, Cherry Tomatoes & Cannellini Beans

Sauteed Halibut - July 18th, 2012

I really wish Halibut was less expensive. I will now be on the look out for when it goes on sale. Usually Haddock is my white fish of choice, but oh my....this was sooo good!

Sauteed Halibut with Artichoke Hearts, Cherry Tomatoes, & Cannellini Beans - page 57

"Halibut and tomatoes are a match made in heaven. This summery recipe tastes light and refreshing, but the halibut and hearty beans pack an extra punch of protein."

When I went grocery shopping, I could have sworn that the recipe called for Halibut Steaks, so that is what I got (in the end, I'm glad I did), but infact, I only needed fillets. I just increased the cooking time by a few minutes.

I have been looking for a bag of frozen artichoke hearts at every grocery store (well, just Sobeys & Superstores) but have not been able to find any. All I could find was canned. I didn't even think about them being packed in salt. But oh, one bite and you were instantly reminded. I even rinsed them before adding to the skillet. Maybe it helped a little...? They were salty, which was really disappointing because I was so excited to be making a dish with artichokes in it. I think I will check Pete's Frootique next. I ate maybe two artichoke pieces, but left the rest on the plate (mind you, aside from the steak bone, they were the ONLY things left on the plate when I was finished).

Everything else in the dish was fantastic. I loved the combination of cherry tomatoes with the beans, garlic, capers, and basil. This was very filling and I required nothing else to eat for the rest of the night. I guess it worked out well that I didn't like the salty artichokes because I wouldn't have had room for them anyways.

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Apple Grilled Cheese with Grainy Mustard

Apple Grilled Cheese with Grainy Mustard - July 18th, 2012

My favourite soup & sandwich combo will always be a Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Tomato Soup. That is comfort food to me. While there wasn't soup on the menu that day, I relished making a this new take on a grilled cheese sandwich.

Apple Grilled Cheese with Grainy Mustard - page 177

"The "white-bread-and-butter fried cheese sandwich" of years past is transformed with spelt bread, low-fat cheddar cheese, whole-grain mustard and thinly sliced tart apples. And, while we may have updated this classic sandwich for modern and health-conscious tastes, we didn't dare tamper with its trademark simple assembly or minimal ingredients. Five ingredients and 10 minutes is all you'll need to get our grilled cheese on the table!"

I love that by using apples in this sandwich I am able to use my panini grill. I once tried to use it for making your old-school regular bread & Kraft cheese slices type of Grilled cheese but that went horribly awry. The pressure from the grill flattened the bread beyond and all the cheese squeezed out and pooled around what was once a sandwich. The apples give the bread some stability and it grilled quite beautifully.

A few slight changes due to ingredients on hand. We didn't have grainy mustard, but already had several bottles of other varieties so I didn't want to buy another one. I used regular Dijon. I also didn't buy a loaf of spelt bread, but used Sobey's Ancient 12 Grain.

I am now officially IN LOVE with Granny Smith apples in my grilled cheese now. When I made these I sliced &divided one apple between the two (with a few pieces going to the dogs), but next time, going to really layer the apple slices. The apples soften up in the panini press from the heat as they bake. So delicious.  Also, I may not be able to return to using the processed cheese slices ever again. This was so so so much better. Grating real cheese into the sandwich changes everything.

Another healthy update for this grilled cheese was the exclusion of butter/margarine. Prior to this recipe, margarine was a staple to making a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Well, I am about to blow your minds... Olive oil. You need only a light brushing of oil on the outside pieces of bread and it will grill-up so crispy and golden brown.

We enjoyed this one so much that Niall made it again for our lunches the following day.

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Country-Fried Steak with Mushroom Gravy

Country-Fried Steak with Mushroom Gravy - July 17th, 2012

Okay....I have some explaining to do. Where have I been?? Migraines have been yet again causing more issues so unfortunately there was a string of days that I wasn't up for blogging. I managed to get a few of the recipes made, but they've been backlogging until now for me to write them up.

Country-Fried Steak with Mushroom Gravy - page 50

"You'll love our healthy take on this Southern classic!"

This recipe had me at the mere mention of 'mushrooms'...especially in a gravy. It's a well known thing that bacon makes everything better, and to me, so do mushrooms. I am particularly fond of wild mushrooms like Shiitake and Porcini.

The recipe called for dried wild mushrooms, but I much prefer fresh. I went with fresh shiitake.

I may have gone a little wrong on the coating for the steak but it was with the best of intentions. I didn't realize it when I was doing up my grocery list, but it calls for 'dried minced onion', only 'onion' registered when I read it. I had fresh onions on hand, thought I was covered. Since I was going to use fresh onions, I decided to also use fresh oregano (Thanks once again Craig!) and fresh thyme. What I didn't take into consideration was the moisture from said ingredients would cause my recently toasted bread cubes to re-hydrate when put through (my new absolutely fabulous) food processor. It was 'crumby' but moist. Live and learn...

Coating the steaks obviously would have been much, much easier with a crumb mixture that was completely dry, but I managed out ok in the end. Not perfect, but it's the taste that matters. With the state of my head and lack of a meat mallet I passed on pounding the steaks down to a thinner thickness. It took a little longer to sear the meat to medium-rare but I got it.

Oh, now on to the mushroom gravy. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So very easy too. Sauteed the shiitake & button mushrooms, and added beef broth. After that a milk & flour mixture to thicken things up. A little seasoning....and you have yourself a perfect tasting mushroom gravy. If I make this again (which I'm almost certain I will), I will add a little bit of red wine into the gravy with the broth. Yes...I can almost taste it now.

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Week Six

Glad I added a couple extra weeks to my time limit. Lost some prime cooking time last week to a stupid migraine and lately the heat has been so bad I don't know if I would have been willing to use my oven anyways.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to make the Halibut meal last week. I didn't press it since the Superstore didn't have any when we went grocery shopping. Will definitely be seeking some out this week though. Also, that poor Sweet Potato spread keeps getting pulled from one week to the next. I'll hold it over again and hopefully the heat won't be so unbearable this week.

I just picked the next group of recipes out of the bag. These ones sound mighty tasty:

• Shrimp, Artichoke & New Potato Stew for Two - page 172
• Country-Fried Steak with Mushroom Gravy - page 50
• Champagne Chicken, Artichoke & Mushroom Salad - page 178
• Apple Grilled Cheese with Grainy Mustard - page 177
• Tropical Vanilla Fruit Salad - page 246

Plus the two from before:

• Sauteed Halibut with Artichoke Hearts, Cherry Tomatoes & Cannellini Beans - page 57
• Sweet Potato Spread - page 154

Time to do up my grocery list for the week and head out.


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Chicken, Spinach & Ricotta Quesadillas

Chicken, Spinach & Ricotta Quesadillas - July 11th, 2012

On Wednesday night I thought my head was beginning to clear so I braved another recipe. This one had a few more components to it, but who doesn't love a Quesadilla?!?

Chicken, Spinach & Ricotta Quesadillas - page 23

"The zip in these hearty whole-grain quesadillas will fill you with health and goodness, while the protein and fiber content with satisfy and keep you hunger-pang free for hours. Now that's a meal."

This was definitely a different type of Quesadilla than you will find at any restaurant. It doesn't ooze with cheese, contains more than three ingredients, and you actually feel full afterwards. With everything going on with-in that tortilla, I didn't even miss all the cheese as it was still fulfilling with the amount of Ricotta and Shredded Mozzarella in the mixture.

Never would have thought of adding the Navy Beans. When mixed in with the cheese mixture you almost forget they are in there, and yet you still get all the benefits from them. I had to use frozen spinach, but that seems to have worked out just fine.  Would have been easier with fresh as there were more steps to thawing out the frozen chunks and removing all the water before adding it to everything.

The recipe says it makes enough for 8, but using a one-third cup for the filling I made 4 that night with enough left over for 2 more on Thursday. Possibly could have made a seventh as the two on Thursday were more stuffed than the earlier.

The tortillas crisped up in the oven and gave a nice crunch with each bite. Dolloped some Salsa over top and these were delicious. Niall opted for some sour cream to have with his as well.

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Simple Yet Elegant Sole & Asparagus

Simple Yet Elegant 'Sole' & Asparagus - July 10th, 2012

My apologies for so late in posting. I was hit with a never ending migraine this past week which took abit of drive away.

On Tuesday night was a slightly functional, and as this recipe seemed easy enough I went for it. Thankfully it proved to be as easy as anticipated. I did have to change it up  a little though. As the title suggests, this recipe was meant for Sole. Well, I went with Haddock as it was on sale, and my thinking is you can never go wrong with fresh Haddock.

Simple Yet Elegant Sole & Asparagus Baked in Parchment - page 179

"Ideal for a date night - you can prepare this recipe entirely in advance, then simply pop it into the oven about 15 minutes before you're ready to serve."

Prep time was extremely quick. Really only had to slice the shallots (would have had to chop the Tarragon, but I wasn't able to find fresh, so used dried instead), and blanched the Asparagus.

Question for you: If you read "4 thin asparagus spears, trimmed and halved lengthwise", what would you have done? From the photo above, you can see what direction I went in, is that not correct? Now I'm doubting myself as when I looked at the photo in the book, they are cut in half mid-stem. What would be the term? Silly, but I'm curious now.

Putting this all together was beyond simple. Place fish on parchment, top with shallots & herbs, drizzle with oil & vinegars, top with asparagus & lemon. Fold parchment to form packet, bake. Done.

The haddock came out nice and flaky. None of flavours overwhelmed each other. Everything was nice and subtle but noticeable. Yet another light and delicious meal.

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