Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Continuing on with the theme of using stuff from my Food Co-op package (see Leek and Potato Soup or Eggplant Rollatini), I'm going to use the Butternut Squash. Now, the only things that really come to mind when I think about Butternut Squash is roasted Butternut Squash with veggies or soup. I decided to combined both of those ideas to make a Roasted Butternut Squash Soup!

Ingredients:

1 - Large Butternut Squash (about 2 lbs.) but in half

1 - Medium to Large Onion

3 - Cloves Garlic

1 - Tsp Cliantro

1/2 - Tsp Salt

3 - Cups Chicken or Vegetable broth

Preparation:

Cut the Butternut Squash in half and scoop out the seeds

Put halved and seeded squash cut-side-down in a large pan.

Put 1 clove of garlic under each squash half and cover with chopped onion (you only need to rough chop it as it will all be blended up later)

Pour in 1 cup broth and roast in a 375°F oven until very tender, about 45 minutes.

Let cool slightly

Scoop out the squash flesh from the peel and pour in the rest of the broth

Sprinkle salt and cilantro over top

 Pour into a blender (two batches for me) and blend

Put it into a bowl and you are ready to serve!

In the picture below you will see that I garnished it with chopped walnuts. My thought behind this was the Butternut squash is a little nutty and walnuts are nutty. I tired some walnuts and then some soup and I thought they tasted pretty good so I put the walnuts in and took this picture. But then I had the soup and walnuts together.... unfortunately the bitterness of the walnuts came out and it wreaked it. I ended up taking out the walnut and eating it with some fresh bread and butter which was much more enjoyable! I didn't get a picture of that because I'm still an amateur at this whole food picture taking thing :p

I would suggest topping it with a old cheddar cheese or sour cream (neither of which I had at the time of making)

(And yes, I know the bowl's suck... I'll get new ones soon...)

Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Creamy Coleslaw

I love making this dish because it’s so quick and easy to do. It’s also a nice change from the plain old (but amazingly tasting) BBQ chicken breasts that I seem to default to.

Ingredients:

1 – Cup (250 ml) coarsely grated carrot

¾ - Cup (175 ml) thinly sliced Savoy Cabbage

¼ - Cup (60 ml) thinly sliced red onion

3 - Tbsp (45 ml) Three Cheese Ranch Dressing

3 – Tbsp (45 ml) final chopped flat-leaf parsley (I used the dry stuff this time)

½ - Lemon, juiced or 1 ½ Tbsp Lemon juice

¼ - Salt and Pepper

4 – Thin Buns

4 – Boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half length wise

¾ - Cup (60 ml) Diana’s smoky BBQ Sauce (Blue Label)

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the carrot, cabbage, onion, ranch dressing, parsley, lemon juice and salt/pepper

Place Chicken on the BBQ and brush on Diana’s Sauce, Flip over after a couple minutes and brush sauce on the other side. Grill chicken until cooked through

Separate bun halves, put on Chicken breast, then top with coleslaw and Serve with a Pickle :)

  

Eggplant Rollatini

Continuing on with using items from my Food Co-op package (see "Leek and Potato Soup" post), I decided to use the Eggplants today. This is a recipe for Eggplant Rollatini and it's originally from the kraftcanada site.

Just to recap, here is a photo of the Food Co-op package:

Okay, now we are going to make the Eggplant Rollatini!

Ingredients:
2 - Large Eggplants
1/2 - Container (250 ml) of 1% Cottage Cheese
2 - Cups Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded
1/2 - Cup Parmesan Grated Cheese
1/3 - Cup Bread Crumbs
2 - Tbsp Basil
1 3/4 - Cup Pasta Sauce

Directions:

Cut both ends off the Eggplants and cut them into thin slices

Microwave the slices on High for 5 or 6 minutes until they are soft

Place on a clean towel and top with a second towel

Press gently to remove excess moisture from the Eggplant slices

Mix together Cottage Cheese, Mozzarella (1.5 Cups), Parmesan (1/4 Cup) and Bread Crumbs

Spoon mixture onto each Eggplant slice

Roll it up

Place Rolled up pieces into a 13 x 9 greased pan

Cover with Pasta Sauce, the remaining Mozzarella, Parmesan and Basil

Bake for 30 minutes at 350F and then let stand for 5 minutes before serving

Plate and Serve!

I've never really had Eggplant before, at least not that I can remember, but I was pleasantly surprised with this dish. It tasted just like a Lasagna and the combination of cheeses was really good. The kids even ate some!

Leek and Potato Soup

For dinner tonight I had planned to make a regular ham, with roasted potatoes and veggies dinner but that all changed when a good find of mine, who I work with, was unable to pick up her Food Co-op package for the week and she told me that I could have it :)

This is a shot of all the items that were included in this weeks delivery

Items:
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Blue Passion Potatoes (never tried these before)
2 - Egg Plants
1 - Butternut Squash
1 - Buttercup Squash
1 - Sweet Potato Squash
6 - Beets
4 - Parsnip
4 - Cloves Garlic (I love Canadian Garlic)
2 - Yellow Cooking Onion
2 - Other Onion (no sure what these are yet)
2 - Leeks
1 - Green pepper
and a bunch of other little peppers that may or may not be spicy

With all this goodness I needed to decide on something for dinner and right away I thought of Leek and Potato Soup! Here is my Leek and Potato soup recipe; It's kind of simple but it tastes really good and if you aren't an onion fan don't worry, you taste way more potato than you do onion.

Ingredients:
2 - Leeks, Chopped
2 - Yellow Onions, Chopped
2 - tbs Butter
2 - tbs Flour
4 - Cups of Chicken Broth
3 - Medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, Peeled and Chopped
1 - Cup milk
4 - Oz Shredded Cheddar Cheese
(1/2 - Package Bacon)

Directions:

Rough chop the Leeks, Onion and then throw them into a large pot with the butter on medium heat and saute until soft

Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes (I have no idea why it's 2 minutes and not 1 or 5... but 2 minutes seems to do the trick)

Pour in Chick Broth, add the Potatoes and bring to a boil

Once boiling turn the temperature down to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes to develop the flavors and soften the Potatoes

Puree the soup in a blender

Because of the amount of soup, I had to do it in two batches, using another larger container to hold the first blended batch

Once both batches were blended I poured them both back into the original (rinsed out) Pot

To make it Velvety smooth you can pour it all through a strainer you are pouring it into back into the Pot but I skipped that step this time

Top with Shredded Cheddar cheese and optionally BACON!!! This dish is amazing with some cooked and chopped Bacon on top but I totally forgot about it until I was taking this picture and then I didn't want to wait for the bacon to cook (Me = Impatient and Lazy)

As another option you can serve it with a fresh load of bread and butter

Feel free to add salt and pepper as needed

(Serves 6)

Doughnut Bats

It’s that time again, no not Halloween but the time for the IT Department Bake Sale! This year I decided to make something a little different. Now, the Bake Sale isn’t until Friday but I had test these out beforehand. The final bats I make for Friday will have chocolate Timbits for the body and that is what I wanted to get for my trial but the Tim Horton’s I went to didn’t have any left! (it was only 6pm at night, how could they be sold out of them already?)

Ingredients:

Chocolate Timbits

Oreo's

Mini Marshmallows (cut in half)

Almond Slivers

Black Decorating Gel

Directions:

Start off with the Oreo's, twist them in half and then cut them into half

Push the halves into each side of the Timbit

Put a dab of the decorating gel on the back of a mini marshmallow and then stick it on to the Timbit

Put another little dab decorating gel on the marshmallow to make an eye ball

Stick two almond slivers into the front of the Timbit to make the fangs and you are all done!

Update: I ended up picking up those Chocolate Timbits and here is what the final product looks like!

(My Army of Minions)

(Zombie Head and Doughnut Bat)

(Zombie Heads in a bowl)

Creamy Balsamic Penne

Tonight for dinner I made “Creamy Balsamic Penne”. I can’t remember where I picked up this recipe from but I really like it because it looks like a fancy restaurant pasta but it’s really easy to make.

Ingredients (for 2 + a lunch portion):

2.5 cups  - uncooked penne

3 tbsp - butter

1/4 - red onion, chopped

4 - mushrooms, sliced

1/2 - Orange pepper, sliced

1/2 - head of garlic, minced (yes, a half a head, 3 or 4 large cloves)

2 cups - baby spinach

1.5 cups - whipping cream (you can substitute with butter if needed)

1/2 tbsp - basil

2 tbsp - balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp - chili pepper flakes

1/2 cup - crumbled feta

1/2 cup - pecans

Directions: 

In a large pot, boil water for the penne

In a large skillet melt butter over medium heat

Add the onion, mushroom and peppers and cook until soft

Add garlic and sauté for a minute more

Add spinach, whipping cream, basil, balsamic, and chili pepper flakes.  Cook until it bubbles and thickens slightly (I honestly found that it never really thickened until I turned the heat off and let it sit for 5 minutes or so). 

Add cooked pasta and mix well
Plate mixture and top with pecans and feta

Camera

In an effort to start taking better pictures for my blog, I purchased my first DSLR camera. Its a Canon Rebel T3. Yes, I know it’s only a 12 MP camera and my old point and shoot Sony Cybershoot was a 14.1 MP (I was forever taking blurry photos because it was so small and light) but I wanted to ability to do more, take faster photos, have more options and I thought, get more lighting with a better flash. The biggest benefit with Canon Rebel T3 was the cost. $429 at Henry’s, $399 at BestBuy, $379 at 2001 Audio/Video and $328 at Walmart. I bought it at Walmart last night. The only reason that I can think of for the big price drops is that it’s probably going to be replaced by a newly model very shortly but oh well, I need to start somewhere and $328 is a much better starting price than $500 – 700.

One of the biggest things I noticed right away, that I liked, was the speed at which it takes pictures. It is so much faster and I'm hopefully that will lead to more impromptu photos and less missed opportunities. The biggest drawback I've see is that the standard lens isn’t wide angle… photo’s just look funny to me when they aren’t wide angle. I’ve been shooting everything wide angle for the last 2 or 3 years on that Sony. I'm starting to look for an inexpensive wide angle lens but they are all pretty much above the $200 mark and I really only want to pay like $50 - 80. Then after that, I’m pretty sure that I will want a macro lens so I can take closer / better food photos. sigh…