Friday Funny (and a Not-So-Funny Request!)

So, tomorrow is the last Farmer's Market of the season. I am hoping to go and get a ton of squash and a few other things.

I want to do a little freezer meal planning so I can get away with no cooking for a while. I am therefore asking all of YOU for your favorite freezer meal recipes and/or tips.

I have been searching online and I've found a few recipes that look good but I'm interested to hear what are your tried-and-true recipes.

I am also looking for "quick" meal ideas as well. Since it is just me now ( :( ) I just don't feel up to cooking alot but being a foodie means I can't bring myself to eat crapola (aka processed food). I find myself just going without (thereby starving) than giving in to anything less than good, in my opinion.

So if you have any tried-and-true recipes to share, please provide the recipes or links to the recipes in the comments below. (I do not yet have a slow cooker, so for now, no slow cooker recipes, please. If and when I get one, I'll put in another request!)

Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with. Thanks in advance!

Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I just love this soup, especially right now with fresh Farmer's Market veggies.

This is a combination of two recipes which I tweaked to my own liking.

I usually don't measure, so you might have to play around with your measurements. The measurements below are just estimates since the size of the veggies vary based on what's available at the market each week.

**********

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

4 red peppers, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 can chicken broth

1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp sugar
salt & pepper (to taste)
dash hot sauce
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp flour

dollop sour cream
Parmesan cheese, shredded.


Place Peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic in roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Place in 450 oven for approximately 40-50 minutes until softened. Remove and cool.

Puree in food processor. Transfer to pot and add remaining ingredients except Parmesan Cheese and Sour Cream.

Heat through.

Serve with Parmesan cheese and sour Cream on top.

Enjoy!

Serves 3-4.

Menu Plan Monday - Attempting to Return & A Yummy Recipe

I don't actually have a menu set up yet. But I am attempting to return to Menu Plan Mondays, even if I just do this once a month or so, until I figure out my new normal.

If you are new here, the short story is that my husband passed away in November, and now I am learning to cook for one, which isn't as easy as it sounds. You can read the whole story HERE.

So, this particular post is to request my reader's help in meal ideas. I know that I can make alot of the same things I made before, just reduce the recipe, or freeze leftovers. However, sometimes I find it too much effort at this point in time, and the memories associated with the meals can be overwhelming sometimes.

That may sound silly to some of you, but my husband and I were very much homebodies and due to our opposite work schedules, our only real opportunity to spend time together was at meal times, so we often splurged on ingredients and spent extra effort to make nice meals, since it was our special time together.

No worries, I know you didn't come here to see a rambling post, so, I want to share with you a recipe I tried on Sunday for the very first time. It was so good!

Butternut Squash Soup

(click image to see recipe)

Next time I make it, I will puree the squash a little longer, for the soup was a bit grainy. However, the flavor was overwhelmingly good! I used thyme instead of marjoram. I've used that as a substitute before in other recipes.

Definitely a THUMBS UP from this kitchen!

EDIT: I just reheated the leftover butternut squash soup and OMG! It's even BETTER the second day!

To see other meal plans click the icon below:

So Yummy

If you should ever so happen to go to the Prairie Ink Restaurants located inside McNally Robinson's, I recommend you try their house salad, the Prairie Salad.

Over the weekend, while running errands, we stopped there for a bite to eat. I ordered the Prairie Salad and the Chicken Satay, which was equally as yummy. The salad is described in their menu as "a robust blend of field greens and leaf lettuce tossed with a citrus melon dressing. Topped with julienned carrots, cranberries, red onion rings, and sunflower seeds".

Friends, I tell you, this was one of the most delicious salads I've ever had! I may just have to go back and have some more!

I find myself craving salad alot during the summer when the vegetables are in their prime. I have been googling salad recipes. On allrecipes.com, I typed "salad" in their search box and they show the top 200 salad recipes, of which, I think 195 of them were potato salad. Who knew there was so many ways to make potato salad!

Have you got a yummy salad recipe to share? One of these days, I shall post a few of my favorites.

Cheesecake Pudding

My internet friend Jo and I were talking about a recipe for pudding cookies one day when she exclaimed that Cheesecake Pudding would make good cookies! I had to tell her to back up and repeat herself, did she say CHEESECAKE pudding?! I had never heard of such a thing. I looked around a few stores for this flavor, but none had it. By my guess, it doesn't exist in Canada yet. So, Jo was kind enough to mail me a box of Cheesecake Pudding!

I made it yesterday and it was quite good! I can't say it reminded me of cheesecake though, but perhaps nothing but actual cheesecake will taste like cheesecake. However, if this pudding ever comes to Canada, I'm sure I'll buy a box or two...

Thanks, Jo, for introducing me to Cheesecake pudding!

Thursday Thirteen - Recipes

13 recipes we've tried lately

1. Pudding Cookies

We made two batches, one with chocolate pudding and small in size, one with vanilla pudding & almond slices and larger in size. We liked the vanilla one better.

2. Spinach Salad with Apples and Mustard Vinaigrette

Neither of us are big raw spinach fans (we love it cooked) so we did not love this. However, we decided to try it with leafy lettuce the next time and we found we liked it better with the lettuce. We also used feta cheese instead of blue cheese.

3. Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

We enjoyed this and will make it again. A very unique flavor.

4. Maple Glaze Squash

Really enjoyed the flavor. However, next time we will cut it up into pieces after it's finished in the oven and finish it on the stove with the sauce so the flavor will cover more of the squash.

5. Beef Stew

Have been looking for a beef stew recipe from scratch, not those little packets of stew mix you buy at the store. We really enjoyed this and the butternut squash was a nice touch. We used potatoes instead of parsnips and no wine. Two cans of beef broth did the trick.

6. Salsa Chicken

Enjoyed it. Will try it again.

7. Zesty Coleslaw

Liked it. But still want to experiment with other coleslaw recipes before we commit to this one.

8. Almond Chicken Stirfry

Tasted too similar to another recipe that we have with exception of the pineapple juice.

9. Spaghetti Squash

We've made this a few times now, and it's so good!

10. Shrimp Scampi

Not my favorite shrimp recipe, but my husband loves it.

11. Hummus

Makes for a great snack or part of appetizer meal.

12. Creamy Spinach Pasta

One of our new favorites. We use creame cheese instead of blue cheese and we sprinkle it with feta too. Sometimes we add sun dried tomatoes as well. YUM.

13. Praline Sundae Topping

A yummy way to finish off a good meal!

Menu Plan Monday - January 19-25

(click above icon to see other MPM participants)

Saturday

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup (as featured on Scribbit: Motherhood in Alaska!)

* This was so good! We definitely plan to make it again! Thanks, Scribbit! *

Sunday

Beef Stew (as featured on Little Steps in Motherhood!)

* I've been looking for a good stew recipe that doesn't use the package stew mix, and this one fit the bill! It was so good! The only thing we did differently was adding a few mushrooms and celery and we substituted potatoes for the parsnips as well, and we omitted the red wine. Thanks, Little Mommy!*

Monday

Leftover stew

Tuesday

Orange Pork Chops & Orange Salad

Wednesday

Creamy Spinach Pasta (as featured here) or something else to use up the spinach

Thursday

Chicken Stirfry (not sure how I'll make it yet)

Friday

No clue as of yet!

This is just a test (but there's a recipe included!)

I'm just trying to see if I can figure out how to put links here without putting the full URL. I am guessing it's the same as linking a photo/banner.

A recipe I tried recently (it was good)

Edit: it worked! whoo-hoo! Now if only real life was as simple as that!