Some Tofu please

Something I have never attempted before, but this recipe sounded good.

Here is the miso mixture:

The trick with tofu is to drain it. If it's not drained well, it will not be as crisp. I ended up pan frying it longer than the recipe said. I just wanted to make sure it browned well on both sides.

I was suprised by how well it tasted. The texture was something to get used to, but otherwise it was really good. The sauce was especially good.

Fontina and Mascarpone Baked Pasta

This is another great recipe I found here at Cooking Light.

Here are the ingredients:

The sauce is done and the pasta is in the baking dish:

Sauteeing the garlic for the breadcrumb topping:

Don't forget the bread:

And here it is. This is a nice substitute for mac and cheese on the side but also as a dish by itself.

Happy Thanksgiving

I didnt' have much time to take pictures of all of the dishes, so this one is short.

This is the turkey before. It's pretty simple. We follow the cooking instructions on the box of the oven bag. Rub the tukey with butter, taht is mixed with poultry seasoning and we put a stick of butter in it.

And after all that cooking this is what we got:

The green beans were very good and fun to make. For the potatoes, I usually bake two baking and one sweet potato and mash them up with some butter and cream. We put them in a baking dish and in the oven to keep them warm. The stuffing is store bought. We sautee onions and celerey and melt butter and add all that, plus some warmed up vegetable broth and chopped crasins and bake it all.

And then we eat leftovers for the next month:)

Harvest Pie

This is a very good recipe I found here.

The beginning of something beautiful:

First time I ever cooked anything with butternut squash, so my husband helped clean it up. Cut it open and spoon out the seeds.

Bake the halfs, cut side down on greased cookie sheet:

The filling in the pie crust:

Second time in the oven with the pecan topping and the crust covered:

And there you have it. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was delicious. The only thing I would do different next time is to make my own crust because you can taste the difference. I was just lazy this time.

Tuscan Chickpea Soup

You can find the recipe here:


Sautee the onions and garlic:

Add the water, rosemarry, salt, black pepper, chickpeas and the tomatoes:

And let it simmer for 20 minutes on low heat:

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture until I was almost finished:) Too good.

Orzo and Mushrooms

You can really add any vegetable or cooked meat you want to this. You can also vary the liquid. I use a mix of water, wine and broth or whatever I have handy. Basically you mix the orzo and liquid 1:2, like you would rice. I used 1 cup orzo and 1/2 cup white wine, 1/2 cup broth and 1 cup water. The amount of vegies is to your liking.

I sautee some onions and garlic first and then I add the sliced mushrooms:

The I add the orzo, stirr it some and then I add the liquid:

Bring it to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed and that's it.

The Best Meat Loaf EVER

That is according to my husband:)
You can find the recipe here.


Put the meat loaf in the loaf pan and make sure to set it on a baking sheet or something while it's in the oven because it will leak.

Et voila!

Flank Steak

There's not much to it really. When I buy the flank steak, I marinate in a freezer back with 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1 cup water. I usually double- bag it. Then, I freeze it and thaw when needed. Then it's grilled and there you have it:

It tastes good with anything, from rice and vegies, to mashed potatoes or just on a salad.

Chili Night

It's cold, it's College Football Saturday, which means it's time to have some chili! We use the "Texas Chain Gang Chili" recipe. I believe its' from this book, but since I found it online I'm not sure, so here are the ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil; 2 yellow onions; 8 cloves garlic; 4 jalapenos; 1.5 lbs ground beef; 1.5 lbs beef chuck, cubed; 2 tsp salt; 5 Tbsp chili powder (or fresh/dried ancho chili pods); 2 Tbsp cumin; 2 Tbsp oregano; 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes; 3 cups beef stock; 2 16oz cans dark red kidney beans.

Chop and sautee the onions and garlic first:

Meanwhile chop up the jalapenos. We remove the seeds. Oh and by "we" I mean my husband:)

Sautee it all some more and move it to the slow cooker:

In the same pot brown the meat:

And add the spices:

We decided to let it simmer for an additional 30 minutes because the chuck was kind of tough and this really helped.

Add the broth and tomatoes (not the beans):

Then we transferred it to the slow cooker:

About 5 minutes before we were ready to eat we added the kidney beans:

Serve it with some corn muffins:

And top it with some sour cream, cheese and spring onions:

Served over rice....Yum!

Easy Fish

I'm afraid to cook fish....real fish. So I usually go with the frozen variety. This is one of my easy, cheating kind of meals, so no real ingredients are needed.

I put some butter and lemon juice on top of the still frozen Talapia Roulades:

One of my favorite forzen vegies are the Organic Mixed Vegetables from Costco. They taste good and because it's from Costco I get a bigger bag that lasts longer.

And this is the finished product.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Rainy and cold days just call for soup and chicken noodle soup is just the best and easiet to do. Usually I have leftover chicken or even turkey (soon I will have tons of that). This time I didn't so I baked some chicken breasts real quick. I had four, spiced them up with some poultry seasining and baked them at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or so.

The rest of the ingredients are easy. Some olive oil, carrots, an onion and some celery for vegies. I forgot to add the peas I had in the freezer. Then we need some noodles. I had a leftover half a pack of egg noodles, so I used them. For the liquid I used both, chicken broth and vegetable broth because that's what the pantry had to offer:) I never measure the amount of vegies, but just cut it up until it seems enough. As for the broth I don't measure that either. This time I used about one and half can of chicken broth and one bigger container of vegetable broth.

There are the vegies:

I sauteed them first in olive oil until they're tender, but still crunchy if that makes sense.

Then I add the broth and the seasoning, about a Tbsp of oultry seasoning and I should've only used about a Tsp. of celery salt. It turned out too bitter.

I let that simmer for a while:

Then I added the chicken, cut up of course:

Meanwhile I made my new favorite easy Pillsbury French bread:

I let the whole thing simmer for almost three hours. About ten minutes out I added the noodles:

And this is what we all got to enjoy: