Sausage Meat Enchiladas

I've been buying Sausage meat for use in spaghetti sauces but one day I bought sausage meat when there was already a bunch in the freezer so I decided to make something new. This was an on the fly recipe that I just happened to take photos for as I was making it. At first I thought it would be a little dry, because I only topped it with tomatoes instead of salsas, but with the use of the tomatoes it turned out great! The saltiness of the feta and the spices in the Sausage meat meant that I didn't need to add any additional spices.

Ingredients:
6 - Tortilla Shells
1/2 - lb Sausage Meat
1/2 - White Onion
1/2 - Yellow (or Orange) Pepper
4 - Mushrooms
2 - Vine Tomatoes
1/4 - Cup Chickpeas
1/4 - Cup Corn
1/4 - Cup Black Beans
1/4 - Cup Feta crumbled
1/2 - Cup Old Cheddar Cheese
Olive oil

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop up the white onion.

Chop up the mushrooms.

Chop up yellow pepper.

Fry the onion, mushroom and pepper over medium-low heat until the onions are translucent.

In a separate frying pan, fry the sausage meat over medium heat.

 Chop up the tomatoes and set aside.

Open the cans of Chickpeas, Corn and Black Beans. Rise under water and combined.

Add the Chickpea, Corn and Black Bean mixture to the onions. Reduce heat to low and mix everything together.

At this point the Sausage meat should be done. Turn off the heat.

Shred up the cheddar cheese.

Oil a baking dish.

Place the tortilla shells flat on a cutting board.

Add Sausage meat.

Add veggie mixture.

Crumb on some feta cheese.

Top with Tomatoes.

Roll and place fold side down in baking dish.

Repeat.

Top with remaining chopped tomato.

And Cheese.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes covered (My dish had a glass lid). After the 15 minutes has completed, take off the lid and increase the temperature to Broil for 5 more minutes until the cheese crisps up.

Plate and Serve!

Turmeric Slow Cooker Chicken

A big staple at my house is BBQ Chicken. The only downside with it is that the sauce is high in sugar. This recipe uses a bunch of other spices, the slow cooker and makes for a flavor-fully tender chicken! The picture shows it on top of Brown Basmati rice but I ended up adding mixing in Sour Cream and Peas to almost a Casserole type dish!




Ingredients:
1 - Tbsp Ground Turmeric
1 - Tbsp Ground Cumin
1 - Tbsp Ground Paprika
1 1/2 - Tsp Chile powder
1/2 Tsp Pepper
1/2 Tsp Sale
3 - Cloves Garlic
6 - Tbsp of Lemon Juice
2 - Large Chicken Breasts
1 - Cup of Water

(Note: Garam Masala isn't used in this recipe)

Directions:
Add all the spices to a mixing bowl.

Mix together.

Add in the Lemon juice and mix again.

Put the chicken in the bowl making sure to complete coat. At this point you can cover and put it in the fridge for an hour or overnight to let the flavors absorb into the Chicken.

Lightly oil the slow cooker, add the Chicken and then pour in the remaining sauce. Cook on low for 5 - 6 hours. I often do these things on low because I prepare them in the morning and have them cook all day for dinner that night.

Since I was home all day I checked on it a couple times and I ended up adding about 1/4 cup of water every hour (to about a full cup) or so as I felt like it was getting a little dry in there. After about 5 hours in the slow cooker it will look something like this.

(Bad lighting but it smelt really good)

Scoop over top of rice and serve or as I mentioned above, add sour cream and peas to make that Casserole type dish!

Creamy Broccoli Dal

I've been on this Lentil kick for the last little while and yes, I'm still on it. Michelle sent me a link to "The Running Lentil" girl's site and after searching through it, there wasn't a lot of recipes but I managed to find this "Creamy Broccoli Dal (Red Lentil Soup)" recipe. As always, I made some substitutions from the original recipe to line up with what I had in the fridge. Oh the original recipe says it's Vegan so awesome if you were looking for a Vegan dish :)

Ingredients:
2 - Tbsp Vegetable / Olive Oil
1 - Tsp Cumin seeds (I used Ground Cumin)
1 - Tsp Black mustard seeds (I used regular mustard seeds)
1/2 - Onion, chopped
1/2 - Cup Ref lentils
2 - Cups Broccoli (chopped into bite size pieces)
2 - Water
1/2 - Tsp Salt
1 - Cup unsweetened soy mil (I used Almond milk, not quite the same thing, but it worked)
1 - Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 - Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 - Tsp Turmeric
1/2 - Tsp Garam Masala
1/2 - Tsp Red Pepper flakes

Directions:
Rinse lentils.

Heat oil on medium heat in large pan. Add cumin and mustard seeds.

(All the spices in a dish. This looked good for the photo but was a bad idea because I needed the cumin and mustard seed first, then the other stuff at the end)

The mustard seeds will start popping like crazy, it's kind of neat. Add in the Onion and Lentils. Saute until the onion starts to get a translucent.

Here you can see the onions are little more translucent and the lentils have some browning to them.

Add in the Broccoli.

Add in the water. Bring to a boil, cover and then simmer for 20 - 25 minutes stirring occasionally until the broccoli is tender and most of the water has been absorbed by the lentils.

It should look something like this.

Add the Soy (Almond) milk, soy sauce, lemon juice and the remainder of the spices.

Mix together and turn down even lower so it doesn't bubble or boil. Let it cook for a few minutes so that the flavors can combined.

Serve in a bright fancy bowl :)

I tried adding crumbled bacon on top but it really didn't add to it like I had hoped it would. This dish is best kept as a Vegan dish.

Beet Tartare

It's time again for another fabulous LCBO Magazine recipe! This one "Beet Tartare" comes from the Holiday 2015 magazine. I was a little hesitant to make it because the cream/sauce on top calls for fresh horseradish and pretty much anything spicy makes me sweat like crazy. I decided give it a shot with the thought that if it was too spicy then I wouldn't put it on the portion that I was going to eat. It turns out that because of the low amount that is used (or possibly the lower quality of the grocery store horseradish) I could taste the horseradish flavor but none of the spiciness. I actually thought more of the mustard seed taste came through then the horseradish. It looks like a lot of ingredients but this one is really simple to make. I didn't have the whipping cream (it was on my grocery list but I failed to buy it...) so I tried to use milk thicken with cornstarch but it didn't really work. Oh and I just realized that I think I forgot to add the Greek yogurt into the cream; That would probably be another reason when my Horseradish Cream was more of a Horseradish sauce :p

Ingredients (Tartare):
6 - Medium Beets
1/4 - Onion, finely chopped
2 - Tbsp Green Onion, chopped
1/2 - Tsp Sesame seeds
1/2 - Tsp Mustard seeds

Ingredients (Vinagrette):
1 - Tbsp Sherry Vinegar
1 - Tsp Dijon Mustard
2 - Tbsp Olive Oil
2 - Tsp Dill, chopped
Salt and Pepper

Ingredients (Horseradish Cream):
2 - Tbsp Whipping Cream
2 - Tbsp Greek Yogurt, plain
1 - Tsp Lemon juice
2 - Tsp Dill, chopped
1/2 - Tsp Dijon Mustard
1 - Tsp Horseradish, grated

Directions:
Place Beets in a large pot of water and cook for 35 - 40 minutes. Drain the Beets and rinse with cold water.

Peel the Beets and dice them into 1/4 inch pieces.

Put Green Onion, Mustard Seeds and Sesame Seeds into a large bowl.

Add Onion, Beets and mix together.

In another bowl, whisk together the vinegar with Dijon, olive oil and dill. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over top of the Beet mixture and stir together.

In a third bowl whisk the cream until slight thickened. Whisk in the yogurt, lemon juice, dill, mustard and horseradish. Season with salt and pepper.

(I used Milk instead of Cream and I forgot the yogurt #fail so it looks more like a sauce then a cream)

Scoop the Beet mixture into small serving plates and then top with the Horseradish Cream (or sauce). Garnish with a sprig of Dill.

Beet Hummus

I've incorporated Beets and Lentils into a Hummus before but after seeing my friend Jess's Beet Hummus on Instagram, I was inspired to make it like she did. When I asked Jess how she made it, her instructions were "Roast some beets, then throw them into a blender with chickpeas, garlic, cumin and tahini". Pretty straight forward I thought. Jess's recipe is located here and if you check it out you will see that there is a little bit more too it then just that but it is a really easy recipe. Me being the adventurous type, I just decided to go with her vague instructions and improvise. I got my picture to look pretty close to her's so I think I did a good Job :)

Ingredients:
1 - Cup Chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
4 - Small Beets
2 - Tbsp Dill
1 - Tsp Cumin
1 - Large Clove of Ontario Garlic (or 3 small Chinese garlic's)
6 - Tbsp Plain Greek Yogurt
Zest of one Lemon

Directions:
Preheat your Oven to 400.
Cut up beets in 1/8 pieces, put them into a bowl with a some olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir around until the beets are coated.

Dump the beets on to a baking sheet and put it into the oven for 40 minutes, flipping half way through.

Once they are done, they will look something like this.

Put everything, except the lemon zest, into the blender and blend until smooth. I started with everything except the Greek Yogurt and added it 1 Tbsp at a time until I got the consistency that I wanted.

Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the lemon zest. We enjoyed this with an assortment of Crackers :)