Incoming... Food Dump!

=> Since midterms are "done" for a while and we're still trying to procrastinate studying, zee wonderful and long hiatus is OVA!!

=> Except all details have now been forgotten and well as the title implies, a food dump. Ready? Set? GO!!

9/27/11 - Quickie: Chicken fingers with a mayo mustard sauce and a healthy side of broccoli.

9/30/11 - Potluck Prep: Spiced Trail Mix Cake and Cranberry Biscuits all set and ready.

10/2/11 - Pasta Casserole with tomatoes, ricotta, cheddar, and fresh herbs. We had sooooo much that it lasted probably around 3 or 4 days of breakfast lunch dinner.

10/5/11 - Stale Bread: Toss it with some EVOO and a whole lotta dried herbs + chicken + leafy greens = Salad a la Not Quite Fusion! The pizza's just a Ristorante Pollo pizza but it looked so good (and tasted quite good too) that a picture just had to be taken.

10/13/11 - Lazy Day In: We called it in a lazy day, had asparagus that had to be eaten, have a bunch of Mac and Cheese... ended up creating a house favourite. No big. =)

10/15/11 - One of many Apple Pies that this house has eaten our way through...

10/16/11 - Crock Pot Ribs: After high anticipation (mainly on E's part), Ribs were actually falling off the bone (this picture took a number of tries attempting to pick one up without destroying it).
Of course, with all that meat we've got to have some veggies! Pretty sure that was a Cauliflower Pasta Bake with Ricotta Cheddar Cheese Sauce.
Mmmmm... S'mores... $2 S'mores Kit. Be jealous.

10/17/11 - Chocolate Chocolate Upcakes: Shhh... Little known secret is that the Cream Cheese Icing failed. They still turned out though; instead the originally planned layered upcakes, we injected them instead and topped them with a eetle swirl.

10/24/11 - Taca...whaa...?: Hailing from Old El Paso's Taco Lasagna Kit it's the Tacasagna!!

=> Last but not least, today's feast!! (Oh hey! That rhymed!)

Manicotti-esque Stuffed Chicken; stuffed with spinach, carrots, celery, mozzarella (it was supposed to be mozzarella & ricotta... but our ricotta started molding), basil, marjoram, pasta sauce. Covered in another tablespoon of sauce each, baked at 350 for 45 minutes and topped with Parmesan. Liquid from the sauce & veggies from the chicken was then mixed into the pasta to give it some added uumph. Made nine of these so it should last us a few days again just like the huge pasta casserole from earlier last month.

H bought back some apple pie (yes, more apple pie <3 ) the other night so we whip up some whipped cream. Lo and behold, we would whip too much. So what do we do? Make a French Vanilla Cake topped with Milk and Dark Chocolate Shavings of course!

=> Wow what a long post... let's call it a night. =)

As always,
You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Some Time Sooner Or Later.

=> Bonjour mon cheres!
Yes, yes we know we've been MIA for quite some time (not that a certain somebody hasn't been constantly bugging us about it *hemhem*yesyouknowi'mtalkingaboutyou*hemhem*). Pictures have been all taken as we do our day to day-ness but just haven't had the time / energy to post them unfortunately. Having said that, some time in the near future (cross fingers) there will be a mass post like last time... or something of the sort.

Until then,
You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Pancakes Served With Cocolate Chips.

=> Just a quick and simple post before we call it a day. Yes, I'm fully aware that chocolate is spelled wrong. It's just how I like spelling it sometimes =)
After dinner tonight H did some further cooking, mainly so that we can get rid of the sour milk (which was also used in the muffins earlier).

We had all the ingredients in the recipe at home so it was good to go. The only new ingredient to this blog would probably only be the chocolate chips which came from E.

You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

A Bit Of Each Day.

=> Why hello there! It's been a while hasn't it? Did y'all miss the delicious food? Well we havn't, we've just been keeping it a secret from y'all :p
Well now its back to business then...

=> The post that was meant to be for September 20th would have been titled "Salmon, Broccoli And Cheese, With Mac And Cheese And A Side Of Biscuit."
Oh my what a super long title...

As always, we eat what we have so the only thing that's new to this blog is probably just the strawberry rhubarb jam for the biscuits and the mac and cheese. The jam's from H and the mac and cheese was Sidekicks. *drools thinking of the jam...*

Salmon was cooked as per the last salmon post.
Broccoli was blanched then covered with a bit of cheese.

=> September 22nd's post would have gone something like this "Japanese Stirfry"
So we're discussing what to have for dinner via text with me thinking that E was home, so I was all "yea sure rice with stirfry sounds good." E wasn't at home... so we made educated guesses as to working the rice cooker and the rice to water levels. Good news is, the stirfry turned out yummy; bad news is that E missed out on a GREAT dinner conversation about cadavers. (heehee)

Japanese sushi rice courtesy of E
Veggies and chicken from our fridge (see past posts for pricing if need be)
Stirfry sauce was made by combining soy sauce, Kraft's mandarin orange salad dressing, and hoisin sauce

Chicken gets cooked first then add the veggies and sauce, cover and simmer until tender. Cover cooked rice with stirfry. Can't get simpler than that =)

=> Tonight's dinner holds German roots with a take from spaghetti. This posted as itself would have been titled "Spaetzle Bolognese With A Muffin Ending."

$2 dozen eggs (or something around that maybe, we've bought too many eggs to keep track)
Bolognese was heated up from our spaghetti bolognese day
Spaetzle was made fresh by combining eggs and flour

Our batch was made from 6 eggs; add flour until a pudding-like consistency. Place into a spaetzle press and press over a pot of boiling water. Just like all other fresh pasta, gotta remember that it doesn't take long to cook.

Dessert tonight was Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins taken from a recipe called Make-It-Mine Muffins (aka outlined items that you could place into the batter and you mix and match as you wish).

Not sure if you can tell but the muffins were topped with a crumble top... just with white sugar instead of brown since we didn't have any. Yes, as E also pointed out they're made with REAL fruit!! Not like a certain beloved franchise that we Canadians are obsessed with...

$1.97 strawberries
All other ingredients we had in our stash

Now that we're all caught up,
Remember! You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake! Arrivederci,
- EHM-XLS

Spaghetti Bolognese.

=> I know, I'm horrible at blogging and you'll probably hate me even more after this post since it's super late and I'm super tired and don't plan on making this post long.
September 19th, 2011, le diner etait du spaghetti bolognese!! (Now pardon my lack of French skills and say it with an Italiano accent heehee)

Spaghetti courtesy of our stash of pastas in the cabinet.
Pasta sauce again another courtesy, this time to the stash of pasta sauces in the cabinet.
$0.99 (yeah, we buy that sh*t on sale!!!) carrots
Meat and cheese were also added (details in previous posts)
Herbs (bay leaves, and it's Italian, so it's gotta have basil, and a couple truckloads of oregano) courtesy of our stash of spices in the spice rack (and backyard)

C'etait delicieux!! Donc, vous ne devez pas etre Marie Antoinette pour manger du gateau! (At least SOMEONE in this house (sort of) speaks French!)
- EHM-XLS

Les Biscuits, Grilled Cheeses, and Cucumber Salad.

=> Holy mackerels it's been one frantic weekend. TGIM, never thought I'd ever say that. As you may have noticed we have hardly been cooking properly the last few days (*hemhem*T*hemhem*) and between biomech, lab papers, canoeing, head colds, and a potluck, it would be a repeat for tonight's dinner.
Well at least tonight's was prepared with fresh foods. Earlier in the day though H made some delicious biscuits; why throw out sour milk when you can turn it into food?!

(H, can you link the recipe here?)
pssh! no way! ancient secret family recipe!
nahh.. jokes, pretty sure it came out of a magazine from like the '80s...

·         2 cups all purpose flour

·         4 teaspoons baking powder

·         ¼ teaspoon baking soda

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         1/3 cup shortening (I used butter)

·         ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk or sour milk

Preheat oven to 450ºF.  In a mixing bowl, blend flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Cut shortening into dry ingredients until mixture has the consistency of fine crumbs.  Add the buttermilk and stir to make a soft dough.  Turn dough onto a lightly-floured surface and knead gently 8-10 times.  Pat to desired thickness.  Cut out with round 1 ¾” wide cutter.  Place on ungreased baking sheets close together for soft biscuits, about 1” apart for crusty biscuits.  Bake 12-15 minutes.

Placed in a pie dish, ceran wrapped, good to go for breakfast or afternoon tea for the next few days.

$1.50 whole wheat bread
$0.50 ham (3 packages for $1.50)
$1 something OJ
$0.75 cucumber (2 for $1.50)

Grilled cheese with ham, quite self explanatory.
As with the OJ.
The cucumber salad has thinly sliced cucumbers and tomatoes and the dressing was sour cream, dill dressing, salt and pepper, and a splash of vinegar. Put everything into tupperware, shake and it's good to go.

=> We had Chapman's Nanaimo Frozen Yogurt as dessert, I don't remember how much it was at the moment but I do know that it was on sale. It's actually quite yum and does well as a substitute for an actual Nanaimo bar.

As always, you don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Meat Stroganoff & Sweet Potato Fries.

=> Ah yes, there eventually comes the time where we simply don't want to make a big fuss about cooking. Yes, this shall again be one of those times. Hence, Hamburger Helper to the rescue! Yes, and again because a) it's Hamburger Helper and b) you've already seen our potato fries and hence I've called on my friend Google... and flickr.

Pasta courtesy of H
Meat, see Taco Thursday
Sweet potato fries, see... well pretty much any post from this past week (as with the sauce)

As always, you don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Wontons And Noodles.

=> Today was quite the day, busy busy afternoon and evening. So much so that pictures of dinner wasn't taken! (oh mon dieu!!)  Something quick and simple we figured just throw some wontons into a bowl of noodles and add chicken broth. We forgot that water takes quite some time to boil and that wontons take longer than they seem =s Anywho, Google being my best friend shared this picture with me which looks kinda similar to ours... kinda? More than not?

$3 noodles (tub full of portioned "packages", probably like 20 or so)
$1.50 broth (1L I think)
$5 for 10 (maybe... when they're on sale they probably would be this price if I remember correctly)

You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Tasty Taco Thursday.

=> Well actually no, there's no such thing as Taco Thursdays but we DID have tacos tonight.
Simple, easy, quick, BEEF.

Prices for everything we had tonight have already previously been posted, cause just like any other normal human beings we eat what's already in our fridge. The only thing that hasn't been previously posted is the taco kit courtesy of H =D

You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

p.s. I'm craving desserts... just saying *hinthint*

Take Out / Eat Out Wednesdays.

=> Wednesday, we don't do dishes. Wednesdays, we do take out / eat out =D
This week called for www.pizzapizza.ca

$20 pineapple ham pizza (after tax, delivery, tips)
Didn't take a picture... because it was, well delivery LOL

As always, You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake! (but you probably do need at least SOME money)
- EHM-XLS

p.s. no, the delivery guy was not hot, it was some old guy =s

Veggies, Salsa Chicken, Scarborough Fair Sweet Potato Fries.

=> Tonight's dinner was....
but as you can probably tell from the title of this post, veggies, salsa chicken, and sweet potato fries.

Yes, that's our third placemat with Winnie the Pooh. =D

$3 box of baby romaine from Costco
$3 tomatoes (6 or 7 decent sized)
$20 boneless chicken thighs (package of 25)
leftover potatoes from yesterday

Zucchini was pan seared with butter, salt, and pepper for taste.
Salad was a simply from the box topped with tomatoes and cheese (we don't have a grater yet so we just used the peeler to get a sliver of cheese).
Sweet potato fries have been dubbed the name of Scarborough Fair Sweet Potato Fries because of its spices; parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme... and salt, pepper, paprika, and EVOO. Baked at 425F for 20 minutes on each side for a total of 40 minutes.
Sauce for the fries is garlic aioli, made with mayo, garlic mustard, paprika and chili powder.
Chicken was covered with salsa and topped with cheese and baked at 325F for 1 hour.

=> Dessert, as we don't like to waste food, was as "predicted". Featuring... the Swiss Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake!

You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Asparagus, Sweet Potato Fries, Salmon.

=> Dinner this evening involved some "getting rid of food before they go bad", namely the asparagus that was bought a week ago. It worked out great since it became the veggie portion of our dinner as we're trying our best to eat healthy (I mean, 2/3 of us ARE in kin).

Yes, it's a Disney Princesses and Toy Story placemat. We also have a Winnie the Pooh one that I didn't take a picture of. Oh wells, tomorrow?

$30 salmon (divided into 9 portions, 6 of which are in the freezer and 3 for tonight's dinner)
$2 .75ish asparagus
$5 sweet potatoes

Salmon was kept moist by drizzling it with soy sauce, seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika. Set at 425F for 20 minutes.
Asparagus was pan seared with butter, salt, pepper and just a hint of EVOO. Toss until tender.
Sweet potato fries was seasoned with (***need to be edited by H***) and baked with the salmon. We discovered that they did need to be baked for probably quite a bit longer... but hey that's how you learn right? It was still yummy though so whatevs!

=> Dinner was followed by Swiss Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake (see previous post) since we made it late last night... but I have a feeling we'll be having this cake as dessert tomorrow too since it's quite big (that's what she said).

As always, enjoy and remember...

You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS

Swiss Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake.

=> This ain't going to be some fancy schmancy blog, with fancy schmancy pictures of fancy schmancy food. This is simply going to be a blog about the day to day ness of (insert address here). More pointedly, about the food that we've been able to whip up (and not die from eating... yet).

=> Item number one: Swiss Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

$1 Swiss chocolate cake mix
$2.5 package of strawberries
$1-2 carton of whipping cream

Super moist, super yummy! Yes, that's a mint chocolate candle burning in the background from Bath & Body.
Make sure the has fully cooled before cutting in half for layers and adding the cream.
The strawberries, we julienned them but you can honestly do whatever and it'll still taste the same.
In terms of the whipping cream, yes you can just whip the cream and use it; however since this cake was actually leftovers from chocolate strawberry cupcakes brought to a potluck, the "icing" has a few added ingredients. If I recall, the recipe called for 1 cup whipping cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon gelatin, and 1 tablespoon sugar. The only thing to note is that you should sprinkle the gelatin to prevent it from chunking.
We layered our cake as cake, cream, strawberries, cake, cream, strawberries (as decorations on top).

Enjoy and remember...

You don't need to be Marie Antoinette to eat cake!
- EHM-XLS