Chicken and Dumpling Soup

The other night I was craving some good old fashioned comfort food.  The air was cold, Christmas specials had started, and me and my family were hungry.  So what to make?  What my grandmother used to make of course!  My mom, for years, tried getting the recipe off my grandma before she passed away, but she never would give it up.  So, I have been scouring FoodGawker, looking for something like this for ages!  But, they all seemed really complicated, with lots of spices and things, but then I thought, Grandma's was never complicated.  It was plain and perfect.  And then I remembered my friend Cassie telling me she had just made this not to long ago!  So I asked her how she made it and this is her version of Chicken and Dumplings with a Lauren twist!

Ingredients:

~2 Cans cream of chicken soup

~2 Packages Chicken Bouillon

~1 Can Pillsbury Country Biscuits

~1 Package Chicken Fillets, cut into bite sized pieces

~Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Prepare the soups as directed on the cans, and add the packaged bouillon.  Bring to a rolling boil. Add the chicken and cook through.  When the chicken is cooked through, open the can of biscuits, separate, and cut into quarters, then add to the soup and cover.  (I, at this point, had no idea how to tell when the biscuits would be ready.  And mom kept telling me, "until the don't taste doughy!" But really what does that mean?  So I cooked the soup for about 15 minutes more and had my mom taste it.  She said they were done)
Add your salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Brownies!

Oh hey there.  It's been a while hasn't it?  Sorry about that!  I've been busy getting ready for Christmas and the winter season that is approaching.  Although with the weather today, you would never know it was December!  

Anyway, I've been scouring the FoodGawker website, looking at anything and everything!  I've really become interested in baking from scratch, as I watch a lot of The Food Network and want to be able to cook something delicious from scratch.  As I've mentioned before, I'm not a natural cook, and I'm really pushing myself to learn different recipes and try things that I normally wouldn't have even looked at before!  But the one I ended up trying, ended up settling my chocolate craving that I have been having!  Who needs a chocolate advent calender when you have homemade brownies?

Here they are all frosted and ready to eat!

Rich Chocolate Brownies (found on FoodGawker.com)

Brownie Ingredients:

~1 Cup Sugar

~2 Eggs

~1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

~1/2 Cup Butter, melted

~1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour

~1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder (I bought mine from my local bulk store- Bulk Barn)

~1/4 tsp Baking Powder

~1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  next, beat in the melted butter.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.  Mix well, and add gradually to the batter and once again, mix well.

2. Pour into a greased 8" X 8" square baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees, for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

Now for the best part!  The frosting!

Frosting Ingredients:

~3 tblsp Cocoa Powder

~3 tblsp Butter, melted

~2-3 tblsp Warm Water

~1 tsp Instant Coffee Granules

~1½ Cups Confectioners' Sugar (powdered sugar)

Directions: 

1. To start, combine the cocoa and melted butter.  In another separate bowl, combine the warm water with the coffee and dissolve the coffee, then add it to the cocoa mixture.  All that's left is to slowly stir in the powdered until is becomes a smooth, yummy looking frosting!  Frost your brownies and enjoy!

Pancakes!

On a cold day off like today, you're thinking, maybe I'll make something special for breakfast but what?  The wind outside looks treacherous and the clouds make black look bright!  On a day like today, there's only 1 go to recipe.  Good ol' pancakes!  Here's a simple and easy recipe using things that most families already have in their pantry!

Ingredients:
~1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
~3 1/2 tsp baking powder
~1 tsp salt
~1 tblsp white table sugar
~1 1/4 cup milk
~1 egg (I used large size)
~3 tblsp melted butter or margarine

Directions:
1) In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Make a well in the center and pour in milk, egg, and melted butter; mix until smooth

2) Heat a lightly oiled pan over medium-high heat.  Pour or scoop the batter on the griddle, using approx 1/4 cup for each pancake. Watch for bubbles to start to appear on the top side, that's how you know it's time to flip! Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Yuta, my fiancèe, is making fun of me for including a recipe with my pancake post stating that everyone knows what goes into a pancake!  But I didn't see him complaining when he scarfed down 3 of them! And I for one didn't have a clue as to what went into a pancake other than flour and eggs.......I'm not a natural cook like some lucky people are. So if you're like me, and have no idea the measurements, here they are.  Enjoy!

Ginza Sushi

Ginza Sushi & Asian Cuisine Review

Recently, Yuta and I went out for sushi.  Now, I have never really liked a lot of types of sushi, because I'm not one for most seafood, or the texture of raw fish, but I was craving me some sushi something fierce!  So while trying to figure out which restaurant to go to, my mother made a suggestion about Ginza Sushi & Asian Cuisine on Lauzon Rd (the old Murphy's pub).  She told us it was all we could eat, and that pretty much made our mind up for us!  We also searched the menu online so we knew what we were in for.

When we arrived, the place was DEAD.  There was only 1 other couple sitting in the restaurant.  It was also a Wednesday night, if that matters.  The dècor was nice and quite lounge-y feeling with dark greys and bright reds, contrasted with blue blue boat and orange abstract paintings on the wall.  We were greeted by a fairly shy Chinese waitress (I know because I heard the waitresses speaking to each other) and were put in a booth.  It was our first time there so she went over how the all you can eat works.  You get a piece of paper and a pencil, and then you just check off how many of each item you want, with the option of adding more later if you want!  So we checked off things like wonton soup (so good on a cold night!), bean curd sushi, teriyaki chicken sushi, a cucumber hand roll and some other things that we thought were definitely going to be enough for us to eat.  with each order they brought, they would check our sheet for more ordered items.  When we did order more food, I accidentally ordered Yuta a beef Udon instead of just a beef Don....Whoops, but he ate it anyway!  Most of our food came quickly and was pretty good, except for our forgotten yakitori.

We were putting on out coats, and I think they then realized that we had yet to receive our chicken skewers....so they threw them quickly on the grill and gave it to us before we left, cause DAMN that chicken was NASTY! It tasted raw and I had trouble eating the one piece off the skewer I took.

Overall, it was a good experience, with an average price point ($20/person plus drinks).  I would probably go again, but now I know NOT to order the yakitori!

Food For Thought

Stuck on what to make for dinner?  Need a unique idea to spice up your dinner plate?  How about trying a spicy Korean brisket soup to warm you up on those cold nights?  Or how about mini cherry heart shaped pies that are sure to be the hit of any dinner party!  If you're stuck on ideas, and want to browse around for inspiration, try my new favourite website called Food Gawker.

Food Gawker I found while using a website called stumbleupon.  Stumbleupon is a website where you give the website your interests and it searches the internet for you!  So I typed in cooking/food as one of my interests and Food Gawker has come up multiple times.  Food Gawker is one of the best share websites ever.  It is full of every sort of dish you can think of!  The website is clear, and easy to use, and it even has a search bar!  If you are looking for a certain type of dish, there is a convenient drop down bar, with different categories to search through.  If you see something that looks appetizing, you simply click on the photo, and it will open up the website where the recipe is posted in a new tab/window(so you don't lose your place on foodgawker.com!) and you can look at the page's blog post, pictures, and recipe!

I myself, haven't tried any of these delicious recipes yet, as I am broke, broke, broke, but I have book marked at least 30 of them to try TODAY!  So go ahead and be different!  Check it out!  I bet you won't be dissapointed!








<---Sesame Chicken!  Looks delicious!

Tomato Basil Chicken and Peppers

Try Something New!

So today, I decided to be adventurous and try something new, using guidelines rather a full recipe!  The result was this!  The taste was ok, but I think I shouldn't have used peppers.  Maybe you could try broccoli and/or mushrooms?  While peppers, normally delicious, just didn't seem to work here.  I also used whatever pasta I had which was macaroni.  The something new here was a fairly new on the market product called Philidelphia Cooking Cream in Tomato Basil.  Yum Yum!  

Ingredients:

~1 Chicken Breast, chopped and cooked

~A lot of macaroni, cooked....I didn't really measure it

~A bunch of bell peppers, sauteed

~1 Tub Philidelphia Cook Cream - Tomato Basil

~ Some Water (for desired consistency)

~Shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand should be ok!)

Directions:

Once the chicken, pasta, and peppers are cooked, add the tub of the Philidelphia cooking cream and some water to dilute it to a desired consistancy.  Then, add some shredded cheese, and ENJOY!

Cheesy Macaroni Bake

Simple, Yet Delicious!

Well, another busy night has come and gone and dinner was a conundrum!  What to make with such little time and with limited ingredients?  Here's a simple recipe I found online!  Most of this stuff, I think a lot of people would have in their cupboards already, seeing as winter is just around the corner!  It was warm, delicious, and perfect for that chilly night!

Ingredients:

~2 cups COOKED macaroni pasta

~1 can tomato soup

~250g (1/2lb~ish) diced ham (I used leftover from thanksgiving!)

~1 cup grated colby cheese (I'm sure you can substitute for whatever cheese you have on hand)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF) . Lightly grease a 5cm deep 28cmX19.5cm oven proof dish.

2) Place pasta, soup and ham in a large bowl.  Stir to combine.  Transfer mixture to prepared dish.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Let stand for 5 minutes and serve!

Yield: about 4 servings

Barbecue Chicken And Rice

A Meal of Convenience 

So if you are like me, you don't always have a lot of time on your hands to make all these big fancy meals.  But having a quick meal, doesn't mean you can skimp out on flavour or actually cooking it yourself!  It just means going simple!  You don't need things with 12 million ingredients to taste amazing, you just need to buy the right stuff.  Like this chicken.  It's Marc Angelo butterflied chicken breast sweet BBQ flavour!  I pan friend it on a non-stick pan, so no oil needed.  Yuta also decided to add some extra BBQ sauce for that extra kick!  

See that rice beside it?  Looks like that would cost a pretty penny right?  Wrong!  This rice actually cost me nothing.  That's right, free!  My mom delivers a weekly newspaper and I was lucky that she had this FULL SIZE sample of Uncle Ben's instant rice.  You know the one!  Where it comes in a bag and you cook it in the microwave!  Ready in under 2 minutes.  

Cost of ingredients: Probably less than $10 because I found this chicken in my freezer!

Total time: About 15 minutes for the chicken AND rice to cook!

Simple meals are the way to go on busy nights!  Good Luck!

Cheesy Beef Stroganoff

Cheesy Beef Stroganoff

Monday October 1st, 2012

Today, I decided to cook some dinner.  I know, "Lauren, cook?  Please tell me you had the fire department on speed dial!".  Well, oh sarcastic one, NO!  No fire department involved this time!

I found this recipe out of my 4 ingredient cookbook, and decided even I couldn't mess up that much!  It's a really simple recipe that is quick, and perfect for those nights on the go, and I know a lot of us have nights like that!

Ingredients:

~1 pound of ground beef

~2 cups of water

~3 cups medium egg noodles; uncooked

~3/4 pound Velveeta; cut up (I found it at Sobeys)

~1 can cream of mushroom soup

~1/4 teaspoon black pepper

I know it's over 4 ingredients. But it is still SO simple!

Directions:

Step 1: Brown meat in a large skillet; drain.

Step 2: Stir in water.  Bring to boil.  Stir in noodles. Reduce heat to medium-low;cover.  Simmer 8 minutes or until noodles are tender.

Step 3: Add Velveeta, soup, and pepper; stir until Velveeta is melted.

See? Simple!  I added a bit of extra Velveeta because I normally like really cheesy food, but the extra made it taste quite thick, so I recommend using the exact amount!