Perogies

I forgot about these for a long time. I rediscovered them this morning. These ones are potato and bacon (there's no actual bacon inside though, just the flavour). And sour cream. And fresh dill. In retrospect, I should have cut up some actual bacon and sprinkled it on top.

Sandwich

Amazing sandwich at work. Tuna fish and awesomely cut cucumber. I have no idea what made it so good, but it was delicious.

Lazy dinner

So I was exhausted today after a seriously long day at work. I was so tired, I stopped being hungry. I was thinking of having some cereal with chocolate almond milk (which actually is too thick and too sweet, so it's not as good as it sounds).

But then I thought, if I am to keep my sanity, and I guess health, I should probably eat something more reasonable than cereal.

So I drove my zombified butt to the nearest grocery store and bought pork and vegs. And made this. With Guinness BBQ sauce on the pork. Because BBQ sauce. And those annoying Brussel sprouts, whose name I still probably can't spell, but that taste delicious overcooked and sprinkled with salty Parmesan. The beans are for morale boost.

Mushroom burger

This is a twist on an old theme: portobello (or is it portabella?) mushroom instead of a bun plus a hamburger. In this case, a tenderized beef cutlet (it was cheaper than veal). Soft cheese on top (all I had was some weird soft cheese with cranberries and pepper - it worked surprisingly well) and some spices. High protein, high satisfaction, no labour except taking the meat out of its container and putting it on the pan. Then flipping it when it's halfway done. Then, when fully done, putting it on top of the mushroom, putting that back on the pan, and covering for a few minutes.
Tastes very meaty and mushroomy.

I put sliced sweet peppers between the mushroom and the meat, for some crunch. Tomatoes will work too. And lettuce. And basically anything that goes in the burger, except for the bun.

Oh yeah and salad. Coleslaw in this case. With raspberry vinaigrette (which I do NOT recommend for coleslaw in the future, unless you have cranberries, and I was fresh out).

Chili dog

Whoever came up with the idea of adding chili to hot dogs is a genius.

Wedding meal

I loved this meal. It was both delicious and healthy. Tons of vegs, salad and yummy meat.

Intermission

This is it for my backlog.

Next week: meals from restaurants (also a backlog).

Ribs

I had this craving for ribs, and then found a beautiful rack at Save-on-Foods (in case you were wondering what I meant by Saveon).

In order to counteract the un-healthiness of the ribs, I added my usual veggies (I'm not very creative). Left it on the stove for a few hours, probably 3.

My rib craving was satisfied!

Stew

Pre-cut pieces of beef and veggies. Slow cooked over 4 hours. Spices.

The only effort was cutting the vegs. And ripping apart the cauliflower.

A spherical meal...

For some reason, I thought it would be a neat idea to have a meal made entirely of spherical equal sized items.

It wasn't particularly delicious, but looked cute. Especially with grape tomatoes of the same size.

Lazy meal

I mixed quinoa, steel cut oats and couscous; instead of water, I used chicken broth (low salt). I added some canned chicken breast from Costco (with the juice). It tasted really good.

Filling dinner

I don't eat enough brussel sprouts. Probably all of us don't eat enough brussel sprouts. I don't even know how to spell the name properly. They taste bitter.

I found that if you cook them to the point where they are super soft and almost falling apart, they actually taste very nice, and not bitter at all.

This meal was quite elaborate (for me).

I mixed ground beef with ground pork, added some garlic and spices and salt, added a couple eggs, and milk-soaked bread, and mixed it all together. It doesn't take long, it's just messy.

Then fried balls of the above on a pan with some oil, and put the fried result in a pot. Added the vegs, medium heat, and ignored for an hour. I figured by the time the meat cooked, the brussel sprouts would be cooked too (I was right).

It was really good.

Omelette

Same as before. Eggs, milk, sausage, vegs, cheese.

The "other" chicken parts

I won't post the ingredients of this. They're not for the faint of heart (ha ha get it get it?).

Anyway.

I found that the smoked bean salad from Safeway compliments this nicely. Served on a bed of a mix of quinoa, steel cut oats, and couscous.

Tortellini

Absolute cheater food.
Tortellini, mushrooms, diced tomatoes. One from a package, the other from a can.
My rescue when I'm too lazy to go shopping. I add frozen veggies into the pot while I'm cooking the tortellini for at least some semblance of a healthy meal.

The king of the fish pies

Credit: my mom made this and this was her idea. It's a brilliant idea. I loved it. Then I tried to do it myself and failed miserably at it, but it's still a brilliant idea.

Mix fish filet with mashed potatoes (from a box), add cut up onions and some spice. Mix in a blender or food processor. Pour the thick mixture into a Teflon lined oven pan and put in oven. That's pretty much it.

The key is how watery to make the mashed potatoes, so that they're a bit more wet than normal, but not so fluidy that the pie falls apart the moment it's out.

Other than that, it's pretty simple....
Put some random vegs in another pan in the oven at the same time. Both should be ready at the same time.

The other dish on the table is salted salmon, raw. You buy raw salmon, put salt on it, and leave in the fridge for a couple days. The result is fish that melts in your mouth.

And rye bread.

It was probably the most delicious dinner I ate in my entire life. Or at the very least, my top five.

Variant

Here's a variant of previously posted: mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus, and some sort of cutlet (maybe veal, possibly pork, maybe even turkey). Teflon pan, seasoning on the cooked side, covered by some cheese. So good.

A drink!

We had this after a Vertigo Theatre performance. In the play, they kept drinking a certain alcoholic drink that was popular at the time. The bar next door offered it as one of their choices. Unfortunately, I remember neither the name of the play, nor the name of the drink. But it was good. Also, behold my artistic skills of photographing via the iPhone!
(ALL photos here, in fact, have been taken with the (older) iPhone, hence the graininess)

Winter cheat

Mashed potatoes from a box. I can't be bothered to make them from scratch, it takes sooo long. Although when I do actually do that, they're certainly a lot better...
Frozen veggies.
There's some pork in there somewhere that was fried on a pan, and when it was done, I threw in the vegs. Probably with BBQ sauce, since it goes well with the pork (at least I think so).
Cheat because, really, the only "cooked" thing there is the meat.
It takes ten minutes.

Delicious dinner

So here we have chicken. Any chicken. Whole chicken, chicken breast, store bought or home made. Ripped into pieces.

A variant on my veg theme: sweet potatoes (I usually can't be bothered with them, they're so hard to cut). Some other vegs, sprinkle olive oil on top, add some spices like Italian Seasoning, and put in the oven. It's ready when the yams are soft.

This time, it's a sweet pepper salad, cut into circles, with a touch of olive oil and fresh dill.

This was SOO good. The chicken is dry, and the vegs and the salad give it a nice counterbalance of moisture. The wine obviously helps as well (some kind of "house" white).

Sunday breakfast omelette

So I've a thing against milk and eggs. I don't like either (I can handle milk in cereal). But there is something about them together that is just perfect.

I love making omelette. Usually on weekends, though if I planned ahead a little bit, I could easily do this on a weekday.

I take eggs, usually 4 for 2 people, 6 for 4 people. Beat those, then add milk. Throw in some spice.

Then on a Teflon pan, I fry some sausage / leftover chicken breast / leftover steak. Then add my favourite vegs and possibly mushrooms, and pour the egg milk mix on top. Then I cut up small pieces of cheese and sprinkle throughout the omelette (I really like jalapeño - flavored soft cheeses for this). I leave it for a while on low to medium heat (any higher, and it will burn). I personally also like adding tomato slices on top to steam while the rest is cooking. You know it's ready when the cheese on top is melted.

I then stir the whole thing (with a Teflon safe utensil), make sure it's cooked throughout, and serve. With some smoked paprika on top. It has minimal taste, but smells delicious and looks great.

Veal dinner

I don't know what inspired this. I was walking down the meat isle at Saveon and noticed this delicious tenderized ground veal staring at me. It's about a centimeter thick, maybe less, so I figured - dinner in 5 minutes, literally.

Anyway, half an hour later, the veal and I reconvened over my Teflon frying pan in my rental apartment kitchen. No oil. That's the whole point of Teflon. But sometimes I forget that.

ANYWAY.

I put the veal on the pan and focused on the veggies for two minutes. Then turned the veal over and - get this, stroke of genius here (or possibly just a stroke) - put some spices on and covered the veal with some cheese (any cheese worked - it was jalapeño Monterey jack that time, I think). Then sprinkled the smoked paprika and rosemary spice on top.

I tried this same thing with all the other ground meat patties from Saveon, and it's awesome every time.

And, of course, in a separate pan (or same one, while the veal is hanging out on a plate on a warmer), my favourite vegs and mushrooms. They need a touch of olive oil though, mainly for flavour.

Voilà!

Still another cheater meal

Let's finish off the Safeway theme here.
I think this is lamb, with some sort of grassy leaf in between, and some sort of cheese.
Anyway, that's delicious stuff. Whatever it is.
Mashed potatoes (real made or from a box) and steamed asparagus.

Another cheater meal

We're still at Safeway here. They have Italian sausage filled portobello mushrooms. They are delicious, but can be ridiculously salty.
A little salad on the side and voila.
The next post has the explanation of the other meat stuff on the plate.

Cheater meal

Safeway carries these crab-filled salmon fillets occasionally. They are delicious. They were on sale and I bought two.... Then forgot them for a while in the freezer and they dried out. But I wasn't going to waste $20, so I rubbed some mayo on them and stuck them in the oven, on foil and covered by foil, and left them on medium heat for a while. The mayo and the foil gave some nice moisture.

I also had an open bag of shrimp that was planning on dying in the freezer of freezer burn, and some zucchinis about to kick the bucket in the fridge. I just put the two together into a pan with a touch of olive oil. Again, as with all seafood, as soon as the shrimp are hot inside, they're done, else they get chewy. And zucchinis are awesome in any stage of cooking, from raw to pulverized (I struggled with a root canal for a while...)

I usually throw some random spices in there, all of which come from the store in jars. Like "Parmesan and Herbs" or "Smoked paprika and rosemary" or "Italian" or "Roasted Red Peppers" - these are my favourites.

Anyway. That was it. Some Belgian beer and grapes. And smoked cheese. The Cat ate some of my cheese because she's spoiled like that. And I figured I needed more protein, because, for some reason, I felt that fish, crab and shrimp weren't enough.

It was really good.

Cheater food because it's not made from scratch. The salmon was pre-made (but still raw).

Delicious healthy seafood

So you can probably tell that I'm just using up my backlog of photos. Since losing the program and my photos within, I've just been taking photos of the food and leaving them on my phone.

Here's my most favourite meal ever, except for maybe every other dinner I make that takes some actual effort (ie Lipton soup doesn't count).

You take frozen seafood (whatever you like. I found that Asian markets carry the best and cheapest selection). "Seafood medley". Some medleys contain tentacled creatures, so if you don't like them, pay attention. Usually it's shrimp, mussels, clams, squid, cuttlefish. The mixes are cheaper.

Then, if in the middle of Canadian winter, you buy frozen vegs. If not, fresh vegs. And those green beans whose name I can never remember. Zucchinis and peppers work (you may have noticed a trend in my vegs here).

You put it all in a pan on medium heat (the frozen stuff will melt and give you lots of water, so I don't use oil). Cover and ignore.

Then add either tomato sauce of your liking, or hoisin/soy sauce, or teriyaki sauce, or any other sauce you want.

Done.

If you need more carbs, make some spaghetti or rice. Seafood cooks extremely fast (basically, the moment the centre is hot, it's done) and then gets chewy, so you gotta be vigilant.

That massive wok-pan was two large bags of medley, one large bag of beans, and 2 large zucchinis. It took about half an hour on medium heat.

Chicken and salad

Alright. This ain't pretty, but it's good and healthy, and super easy (well, obviously).

Chicken thighs + foil + oven + potatoes + some seasoning; ignore for half an hour (covered with foil); then throw in some vegs like cauliflower, zucchini, sweet peppers, eggplant, mushrooms. Ignore for another half hour (covered); done. Sprinkle some seasoning before ignoring.

Or, while ignoring the chicken thighs and the oven on high, throw the vegs in a pan with some olive oil, sprinkle a seasoning (I like "Italian" or "roasted peppers"). By the time the vegs are done, the thighs will be done. Vegs are easy - if you like them crispy, you only cook them until they're hot. If you like them soft and root-canal-pain compatible, you keep simmering them until they get to this point.

Oh yeah and the cabbage salad. You buy the coleslaw prepackaged at your food store of choice, squeeze a lemon (or lemon juice) into it, and a hint of salt. Mix. Done. Or MY favourite: add cranberries to the coleslaw and add a raspberry vinaigrette (also found in any grocery store).

All in all, 30 mins, and that's if you're slow. The salad takes 60 seconds.

Cat salad

This is my cat in a salad bowl.

Obviously, I no longer own a salad bowl. The cat owns my salad bowl now.

Pork and Vegs

I should prephase this by saying that I have no dietary restrictions.
I used to dislike certain items, like mushrooms, but I've found ways to make them incredibly delicious, and will undoubtedly share my experience here.
But retournons à nos moutons, or, more specifically, pork.

This is a pork steak, prepared on a bed of, and covered by, slices of onions on either a pan or in an oven. As usual (for me), very few spices, probably "steak seasoning" or "roasted red pepper"(I don't use much salt except for what comes with the spice).

Separately, a bunch of sautéed veggies - eggplant, zucchini, sweet peppers, maybe celery, cauliflower, broccoli; can even add potatoes; and can also add mushrooms.

It doesn't look so good, but it's delicious. Actually, looking at it, I may have cheated and thrown on some smoky BBQ sauce as well.

Pork can be replaced with a heavy dry fish like salmon. By the way, different types of salmon taste different. I believe steelhead is the oiliest (of the ones we can get here), and sockeye is the driest. I would therefore use the sockeye with the vegs because they provide a lot of water.

Super easy Sunday dinner

Superstore purchased beef patties (can be replaced with any other meat or veg-patty), roasted potatoes with fresh dill, and garden salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. A touch of "roasted pepper" seasoning.

Welcome!

I've been taking photographs of food I make and food I find interesting for years, and the program I stored it to crashed and lost all my data. It was a sad day, and now I have to start over again.

This time, however, I'm using blogger, storing my photographs online, and sharing my (obviously) brilliant ideas with the world.

You're welcome.

PS These are not really recipes; rather, just food photographs and their ingredients. They're so simple to make, they don't need detailed recipes anyway. They are meant as dinner ideas when you can't decide what to make. If you're like me, you read a recipe, buy half the ingredients, replace the other half, and cook something completely different anyway using whatever spices you have in your cupboard. Here are ideas to do just that.