Spicy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sour Cream Sauce

Well my sister and I made Spicy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sour Cream Sauce  (what a mouthful!) tonight instead of going to the gym. Whoops. Do I regret it? Not one bit. These were heavenly. I'm not sure how my dad did it, but he had 2 and a 1/2 helpings. He just liked it that much. I on the other hand was full after my one. That could have been due to eating the filling while making it...

Pumpkin in chicken enchiladas? But that's madness! Nope. Pure genius. It gave it that je ne said quoi.

The pumpkin sour cream sauce ingredients were followed. We just mixed them in a bowl instead of a good processor.

Instead of using a rotisserie chicken, we baked some chicken breasts and then shredded them with forks. Chicken was seasoned with some random delicious seasoning I can't remember right now.

We didn't spray the pan. Just put some of the pumpkin sauce on the bottom. We put the chicken into the black bean-onion mixture, as well as a big dollop of the pumpkin sauce, a handful or two of shredded cheese and some chopped cilantro. We thought this was a better way to get a mixture of everything in each bite instead of putting them in separately. After we put the enchiladas into the pan, we covered with the remaining pumpkin sauce and sprinkled with cheese.

We collectively decided this will be something we will be making again and again in our house!

Summer Risotto

Well this was pretty similar to the primavera pasta I made with my sister a ways back, but in risotto form!

We were going to bbq the vegetables and then we found out there was no propane, so we fried them and made risotto to change it up.

Vegetables used: zucchini  yellow pepper, red pepper, onion, corn.

Goat's cheese for some extra creaminess. May have been a splash of lemon to brighten it up.

A nice 'summer' risotto with all the vegetables in it.

This is a boring post but has been sitting in my draft box and just wanted to publish it.

Rosemary Pasta with Chicken

I made this with my brother the night of the big storm a week or two ago. He made the rosemary chicken - marinated in olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon - grilled on the stove top in our grill pan.
I made the pasta - after the chicken was done, I added butter to the pan and tossed in some chopped onion and garlic. Once the onions were soft, I added some white wine to deglaze the pan. Then I added some chicken stock, cream, more rosemary, thyme, hot pepper flakes and kale. You've got to be patient and let the sauce thicken, or you can toss in some cornstarch if you're lazy (take some sauce from the pan and mix the cornstarch in - then add to the pan).
It was a last minute easy throw together pasta dish that was quite tasty. The rosemary gave it a different flavour than my usual pasta!

Pork Schnitzel Sandwich

This is from last week, but I forgot to post it! I was still healing from my wisdom teeth but challenged myself to eat it. The sandwich was huge and I had to cut it as well as smoosh it down, but mmm it was so good. My dad made the actually schnitzle while I made the sauce.

For the pork: pound out boneless pork chops so they are very thin. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and oregano on it. Dip in flour. Dip in egg. Dip in breadcrumbs. Heat canola over medium heat. When hot, add in pounded out pork. Cook for a few minutes on each side. You want a nice golden brown outside.

You can put any marinara sauce on top. For ours, I simply chopped up the onions, mushrooms and garlic and fried them in some butter and olive oil until soft. Then I added a splash of red wine and some tomato passata (crushed tomatoes). I spiced it was salt, pepper, thyme and oregano.

On top of a nice fresh toasted kaiser bun, I put the pork schnitzel, monterey jack cheese (or whatever cheese), a spoon full of sauce and sprinkle some extra oregano and fresh parmesan.

Sausage and Broccoli Bake

I got my wisdom teeth out recently. It sucked. It's been a week now and I'm still a little swollen and I'm very bruised. The worst part about it all was my inability to eat solid food for a few days. After becoming sick of yogurt, mushed bananas, meal replacement drinks and apple sauce, I tried blending some food. To be honest it wasn't that bad at the time (mashed potato, sausage and broccoli.. hmm I seem to have a theme here), but the next day the thought of it made me sick. I was dying for some real food so on my 4th day of recovery my dad made spaghetti and I cut it into teeny tiny bites and managed to eat a normal sized bowl in about an hour. I tackled some scrambled eggs the next morning and a stir-fry that night. Again in teeny tiny pieces. By saturday I had a little more jaw movement and I could eat... sort of.  Tonight I said screw it, I'm going to make a yummy dinner and I'm going to force it in my mouth. So I did. Mmmm.

Ingredients: hot italian sausage, onion, garlic, thyme, white wine, butter, flour, cheese (whatever you have - cheddar, parmesan, monterey jack) , broccoli, penne, bread crumbs.

Directions: 
1. Fry up some hot italian sausage. When cooked, remove from pan and put aside. Also put a pot of water on to boil -- when it boils at whatever stage, add pasta and cook till just about done. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Dice up 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Toss in pan that the sausage was cooked in. Let the onions get a nice brown caramely color. Toss in some fresh chopped thyme.
3. Deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine. This already creates a slight sauce (with the wine, grease from the sausage and onions all mixing together). Toss in some butter and whisk in some flour slowly(we're making a roux - think mac'n'cheese). This roux is different than normal because the onions are there... It's hard to explain. It kind of just sticks to the onions. If you add too much flour, just toss in more butter. You want a smooth consistency  Once you think there is enough flour/butter, pour in some milk and whisk. A thick sauce should start to form. I added about 1 cup of milk to 1 tbs of flour and a dollop of butter. To make more 'sauce' I tossed in about 1/2 cup of chicken stock as well.
4. Add cheese to sauce - I used a combo of cheddar, monetary jack and parmesan. I added about 3/4 cup of cheese, if not more. 
5.   Quickly steam some broccoli in the microwave or on the stove to al dente. Add the bite size pieces to the sauce.
6. When the pasta is cooked, return to pot. Add sausage and the sauce with the broccoli. Mix together and put into a lightly greased pyrex or casserole dish. Top with more cheese and bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes and then a quick broil (no more than 2 minutes) to crisp up the bread crumbs.

This is in no way healthy, but what else is new with me. It's friggen delicious. Enjoy!

Chicken Primavera Pasta

My 100th blog post! Woooo! Last night I was feeling so fickle about what I wanted for dinner. All I knew was I wanted veggies. Lots of veggies. Grilled veggies. My sister and I headed to the grocery store and wandered around the vegetable section picking out a few things and discussing our dinner options. We decided we'd make our own version of Chicken Primavera Pasta, but with grilled veggies.

Now you can put any vegetables you'd like in a primavera pasta, but here is what we decided on: red peppers, yellow peppers, orange peppers, zucchini, purple cauliflower, corn, onions, spinach, kale and garlic. It was pretty veggie-tastic.

First we cut the vegetables into grill-able pieces and then we coated them in some olive oil and salt/pepper. Grilled them until they were ready, but with a slight crunch still remaining. We marinated chicken in olive oil, thyme, salt/pepper and garlic. Grilled that after the veggies were done. The chicken and peppers were cut into long strips, the zucchini into half moons, the cauliflower into bite size pieces and the corn shaved off. The vegetables were put into a bowl and tossed with some garlic.

We cooked spaghetti and before draining reserved 1/2 cup of pasta water. We drizzled a little lemon infused olive oil on the pasta, a big splash of white wine, the pasta water and chicken stock. Added the grilled vegetables, then the fresh spinach and kale, the chicken strips and mixed it around. Then we added some goat's cheese and mixed that in allowing it to melt and coat the pasta along with the liquid in the pot.

Lightly coated and packed full of yummy grilled vegetables and chicken, this was delicious. And a good change from our pastas full of heavy cream! The purple cauliflower and the corn were my favourite additions to this!

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

My friend Zsófi found this recipe and asked if we could cook together. Good find because it was very yummy!

It wasn't as "broth-y" as expected (from the picture on the original blog), but I think that was better. It was more of a pasta sauce consistency. We even added some extra chicken broth when we added the noodles because we couldn't get them all underneath the liquid. I added some extra thai curry paste because I like the curry flavour. Make sure you buy red thai curry paste (which can be found in a different section than the Indian curry paste). The soup is rather lime-y, but in a good way!

We didn't use lime leaves because we couldn't find them. I'm not really sure if they would have changed the flavour at all, but the soup was excellent without it. I omitted the "cilantro roots" because we didn't buy them and also they're only in the list, not in the actual directions. We found lemon grass stocks, to my surprise, at Metro in the vegetable section.

We didn't add any salt or soya sauce at the end because we didn't think it needed it. The soup is very mild, so if you want it hot i'd suggest tossing in some hot pepper flakes for an added kick, but again the soup is good without it!

This is my second attempt at Thai food. The first time I made Thai chicken wraps. Both Thai dishes are very good and I recommend both! They were both relatively easy.