Baked Potato with Cheese & Scallions

Day 12

Potatoes and I have a special relationship. I love them. I love them in any form. I don't think I've ever have a potato I didn't like. I love them boiled, roasted, baked, fried, re-fried, deep-fried, scalloped, mashed, whipped, and whatever other thing you can do with them. So, when Laura says she's good with having mini pizzas and using up the rest of the English muffins, cheese, black olives, & mushrooms, I'm eyeing up the 15 lb bag of russets I bought the other night.

As I mentally review our inventory, I decide to bake one and toss come cheddar and green onions on it. We also still have sour cream left over from the Huevos, so it's sounding better by the minute.

Baked Potato with Cheese & Scallions

How to Bake a Potato

Baking a potato is about the easiest thing to do. Prep time is about 2 minutes, so it's the perfect meal or side when you have a thousand other things to do before supper.

Steps:

1. Wash potato.
2. Poke some holes in it with a fork or sharp knife.
3. Wrap potato in foil
4. Place potato in 450 degree oven.

I generally gauge the cooking time by the size of the potato, but generally between 60 - 80 minutes.

Hot baked potato

Load 'em Up

Baked potatoes are good with just butter, salt and pepper, but you can also load them up with whatever you want. Cheese and onion are both very good with them.

Potato toppings, green onions (scallions), cheddar and butter

I mashed it a bit and mixed in some butter and half the green onions, then salted and peppered it.

Buttered baked potato

Then I topped it with cheese and put it back in the oven for 5 or 10 minutes.

Hot, melty baked potato with cheese and scallions

Serve it Up

Transferred it to a plate and threw on more green onions and a dollop of sour cream.

Too much potato even for this girl

It was too much food to finish and I didn't eat the skin, even though I love it. But, I avoid it because potatoes are one of The Dirty Dozen -- the produce most contaminated with pesticides. You can read more about The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen on David Suzuki's page, if eating pesticides concerns you. Which it probably should...but then, everything seems to be concerning now. But that's a pile of discussions for another time. You should go bake a potato now. 

Reviews/Comments

Kidding me?? It's a potato. It gets a 10.

Make it Vegan

I'm sure there are ways. I'm not there yet...

Real Mini Pizzas

Day 11

Yes, the real ones. You know, on English muffins...no more of that tortilla crap.

Mini Pizza Again? WHYYYYY

Really, we don't usually eat pizza this often. But apparently the fake kind only served to leave Laura craving the real kind so Real Mini Pizzas it is.

Real Mini Pizzas

We did still have mozza and mushrooms, but needed more sauce and black olives to make the new ones. I got a different sauce - same brand, but different flavor: Sensations Roasted Portabello Mushroom. It was better.

Ingredients:

• English muffins
• pizza sauce
• mozzarella
• mushrooms
• red onions
• black olives

Clockwise: Compliments English muffins, Sensations pasta sauce, 

Compliments black olives, Cracker Barrel mozzarella, 

red onion, white mushrooms

Reviews/Comments

So yep, they were good. As mini pizzas go, I'd rate them a 7.5. I prefer more veggies than this. As meals go, I'll give it a 5. That could be because it's like the 4th pizza in a week. HAHA

Boston Pizza Veggie Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries

Day 11

First and foremost: I apologize but I am about to ramble. I can't even tell you how rambly I'm feeling.

Dog Fights & Hanger

Today, we got started off on the wrong foot; the dogs were kind of fighty before work and both spent the day in solitary confinement, to ensure their lives remained intact until we came home. After work, Laura had an appointment and I had errands to run, then we rushed home to work on getting the dogs back to a semblance of normalcy, which took nearly an hour. With some harmony restored, I had still more errands to run (today is also payday) so I knew that supper probably wasn't happening unless someone else cooked it, since a trip to the grocery store wouldn't be possible until at least 9:00. So, I finally got home with BP take-out - just to be able to eat before we died.

We were both hangry and feeling worn out.

The New BP Veggie Burger

BP is not one of our favorite restaurants, but it does have one of our favorite veggie burgers. Or, did. Apparently they no longer have the veggie burger on their menu, but instead you can order any of their burgers as a veggie option. For instance, "I'll have your Prime Rib Burger, but could you please substitute the prime rib burger for a veggie burger!" So, you would get a veggie burger topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles and a zesty sauce. The one I love is the Pepperoni & Bacon Pizzaburger. Which is half-pound prime rib beef burger wrapped in a pepperoni pizza, stuffed with bacon, pizza mozzarella and pizza sauce, topped with even more pepperoni and pizza mozzarella, then "baked to perfection" and garnished with lettuce, tomato and pickle. The veggie option of this one is like the Prime Rib Burger but without the red onion and zesty sauce. Same idea with the Double Bacon BBQ Burger, loaded with bacon and BBQ sauce, which translates to a veggie burger with BBQ sauce. For the low, low price of....$13.95!

Seriously?

No. That's how it was explained to us, but that's really only the gist of how it works. In reality, you just order a veggie burger and tell them what toppings you like and they figure out what to charge you from there, I guess. Unless...unless, you order "The Old Veggie Burger" which still works...for now. They still remember what goes on them, which was this fantastic combination:

• BBQ sauce
• roasted red pepper
• carmelized red onion
• lettuce
• tomato
• pickles
• feta
• roasted garlic mayo

Plus we order grilled mushrooms on it just to make it yummy. Their patty is phenomenal and the burger is big enough to split between the two of us and be stuffed. Plus we always order the sweet potato fries with that yummy sauce and tonight was no exception.

Here's the embarrassing part. I came home. We weakly and wordlessly divvied up the food. We sat down to eat. And with more than half of my half gone, I realized that I failed to take a picture of it! DOH! Sooo...better late than never is what I always say. My apologies about the presentation.

Half-eaten Boston Pizza veggie burger & four sweet potato fries

Review/Comments

From what I recall of the delirious haze of gobbling this down, it was fabulous as always. We both recommend this if your Boston Pizza still has them or remembers how to make them. BP is super accommodating, I find, so they will put whatever toppings you ask for on it.

Vegetarian Mini Pizzas

Day 10

Mini pizzas seemed like the fastest and easiest option tonight because we worked late, it's the day before payday and we had all that pizza stuff left:

• 1/2 bottle pasta sauce
• 3/4 block of mozzarella
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 8 or 9 black olives

Tortilla Pizza Crust

We also have all kinds of tortillas left over, so I thought we'd use those for the crust. Not the best, but not the worst. The worst being a crust of white Ben's bread or something equally awful.

For the most part they were okay, but tortillas make for soggy pizza crust, which is the opposite of what I was expecting. I don't know why, but I thought they were going to cook cracker-hard. Maybe a longer cooking time would have been the answer, who knows? These were in for about 20 minutes. I even tried them on the lowest rack but they didn't crisp up much. We'll go back to English muffins next time.

Toppings

I bought more mushrooms for these because we love them. So the toppings were:

• mushrooms
• yellow pepper
• red onion
• black pepper
• minced garlic
• crushed chili peppers

Mine also had tomato slices (not shown).

Reviews/Comments

Despite the limp crust, they were pretty good. Like, maybe a 6.5/10, as far as enjoyment goes. Laura gives it a 5 because for her, a pizza is all about the crust. She says it was the sauce that made the "crust" soggy. She's probably right.

Make it Vegan

Use a cheese substitute or opt for no cheese at all.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Day 9

Cream of Broccoli Soup? Yes, please! I am a lover of soup. Ok, a lover of almost all food, but I appreciate a nice bowl of soup with some form of yummy bread once or twice a month.

Cream of Broccoli Soup with rye bread

Broccoli Sale!

This soup was inspired by a sale at Atlantic SuperStore on broccoli for $0.99 per head. And by "head" I mean two stalks!

Broccoli at the grocery store

So, I just scored 4 stalks of fresh, green broccoli for 1.98. Healthy, fresh food is generally pricey, so when a great sale like this happens along, it's a no-brainer. Soup's on.

Recipe

And btw, this is my own recipe. Made it up as I went. I make soup enough that I'm totes qualified to do that. haha

Ingredients:
4 stalks of broccoli
4 leeks, chopped
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tbsp butter
1 900 ml box vegetable broth
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix:
1/2 cup coffee cream
1 cup water

Laura went out to the garden to pick the leeks and thyme by flashlight. I headed out to take some pics :)

Laura harvesting leeks by flashlight
aka Laura outside foraging for food lol

Leeks and thyme

What to Do

Wash and steam the broccoli. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large soup pot and toss in the leeks and thyme leaves. Simmer until leeks are soft. Sprinkle with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add steamed broccoli and vegetable broth. Remove from heat.

Simmering leeks, broccoli, etc

It will be steaming hot, despite adding the broth, so let it sit 10 minutes, then add it to the blender or food processor, in batches. Whiz it up until it's about as smooth as it's going to get. It will look like baby--um...food. Yeah, baby food.

Pureed broccoli/leeks in blender

Add it back to the soup pot and reheat until it barely starts to boil.

Creamy swirls in soup

Turn off heat (this is important) and slowly add the cream and water to the soup. Stir and taste for seasoning. Add more salt, pepper or nutmeg as desired. Altogether, this takes about 45 minutes to make.

Serve

We had ours with dark rye bread, which is so good with soup. My first idea was to have Laura mix up a batch of her yummy biscuits, and she agreed, saying she would make Cheddar Garlic Biscuits. But, then I remembered rye bread, which sounded easier and less messy so we went with that. This time.

Hearty, healthy broccoli soup with rye bread and cheese

Reviews/Comments

Laura loved it. I loved it. But, we're not hard to please. It really is very good though, like a 9/10. There is lots left, but we're not having it tomorrow. We're having something else. The soup would be a lunch option, though.

Make it Vegan

I know some of the milk substitutes would work in place of the cream. We had some almond milk on hand, but since there is an almond flavor to it, I wasn't sure it would work in the broccoli soup. I'm thinking some of the soy based creams would work. And the butter could have been substituted for non-dairy margarine or even water. It's just to cook the onions until clear.

Sushi: It's Not About Raw Fish

Day 8

So, tonight for supper we're having sushi. We do this sometimes, although it appears it may have been August since we've made it. And, by "we" I mean Laura. The rice is a little high maintenance, but Laura deals with all that. In fact, Laura deals with every part of the sushi-making. hahaha Which, I love.

The photo below is from the pics I took in July; pics of tonight's sushi are shown further below.

Laura's sushi (photo taken in July)

Brunch: Huevos Rancheros

But, before we get to the sushi, I wanted to share with you what we decided on for lunch! Of course, despite having 3 meals of burritos (Laura had them for lunch yesterday too), there were still some refried beans left, along with several tortillas. Waste not, want not, So, we decided to have one of our favorites, huevos rancheros. There are also 10 eggs in the fridge, since we're not eating them as often now (trying to eat fewer animal products), plus the bottled salsa I bought before I knew Laura wanted to make the salsa fresca for the burritos.

Back to the Sushi

Rice

Laura found a recipe for the perfect rice at Allrecipes. It requires washing, drying and cooking. You can't use just any old rice you have laying around in your pantry for sushi. You need short-grained rice because of its sticky texture. After it's cooked you stir in some rice vinegar, oil, salt and sugar.

Sushi rice

 Rice drying

Wraps

I like seaweed wraps (Nori), but Laura doesn't, so we found some rice wrappers for hers.

Rice wrappers and Nori wraps

Veggies

She made a simple vegetarian sushi tonight using only avocado and cucumbers for the vegetables. We have used lots of other stuff in the past, but even very simple sushi is very good. Laura uses a sushi mat to roll them up. They're served with wasabi and Kikkoman soya sauce. Gotta be Kikkoman.

 My plate

Laura's plate

Ask Laura

If you're looking for tips or have questions about how to make sushi, Laura is your girl. Shoot her a message on Facebook or post in the Comment section below.

Reviews/Comments

Sushi is another one of my favorite things to eat. Tonight, it didn't disappoint. Super good. Have a few left for lunch tomorrow, too, so yay!

More Burritos

Day 7

Yep, today was more burritos.

Benefit of Leftovers

I guess the fact of the matter is, we eat the same thing two days in a row fairly often. But, that's a good thing, I mean, it really saves a lot of time and effort on day 2, ensuring we're not slaving in the kitchen every single day. I think most people do that, right?

Tonight, I used the other package of tortillas, the smaller ones, and made 2 small burritos instead of the large one, but other than that, it was the exact same thing as last night.

Two burritos with salsa fresca

We don't have a microwave, so we reheated the beans and rice in a frying pan with some coconut oil and warmed the tortillas in a large non-stick frying pan.

Warming the tortillas

Salsa Fresca

One thing I will say about the salsa fresca is that it is even better on Day 2, after the flavours have had a chance to meld. Super yummy!

Reviews/Comments

Same as last night. Looked forward to it all day :)

Vegetarian Burritos

Day 6

Finally! Burrito night. I loooove burritos. Or, any Mexican food.

Vegetarian burritos

Beans & Rice

Last night we cooked about 4 or 5 cups of pinto beans. We fried them with onions and garlic tonight and added some green chilies. We also made about 3 cups of brown rice.

Beans, chilies, garlic and onions

Bean Mixture

• 4 or 5 Cups Pinto Beans
• Onions, minced
• Garlic, minced
• 2 Cans of Green Chilies
• 1.5 Cups Water or Vegetable Broth
• 1Tsp Salt

Rice

• 1.5 Cups Brown Rice
• 4 Cups Water or Vegetable Broth

Salsa Fresca

This is a nice fresh, raw salsa, usually made with lime to give it some kick. Probably pretty healthy.

Salsa Fresca

Laura made the salsa fresca using the following:

• 2 Tomatoes
• 4 Avocados
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 Lemon (we didn't have a lime on hand)
• Garlic
• Cumin
• Sea salt
• Pepper

I helped. I chopped a tomato.

Wrap it Up

Compliments and FlatOut tortilla wraps

1. Place a wrap on a plate.We used Original FlatOut flatbread. Great for wrapping because of its oblong shape. Get more stuff in there :)
2. Add a dollop of refried beans. Then another.
3. Add a dollop of rice.
4. Sprinkle a bit of shredded cheddar.
5. Wrap it.
6. Spoon some salsa fresca on top.
7. Chow down.

Voila! Burrito Extraordinaire

 Laura's burrito

My burrito

Reviews/Comments

Soooo good! As meals go, I give it a 10/10. 

Make it Vegan

Skip the cheddar! Everything else is plant based.

Avocado/Lime Appetizer & Leftover Pizza

Day 5

Hey, I only promised a vegetarian meal every night. Never promised something new every night. lol

So, yep, we made 2 pizzas last night, and naturally we had the second one tonight. Was just as fantastic as the first one despite being square. Here's a pic.

Square Vegetarian Pizza

But, in an effort to bring something new to the table tonight, I will also share what we enjoyed as an appetizer. And for dessert. ;)

Avocado & Lime on Triscuits

Now, before you judge, you'd have to give it a try. Laura and I eat this a lot for lunch, too, because it's super yummy and pretty sustaining.

Ingredients:

• Thin Crisp Triscuits - Original flavor
• 1 avocado
• 1 lime
• Pinch of salt

So, mash the avocado, squeeze the lime over it, stir it together and sprinkle with salt. Spread on Triscuits. Trust me on this one; it's surprisingly good. Or, ask Missy. She happened to be here during our appetizer course tonight. :) 

Avocado and lime with Triscuits

Sara Lee Coconut Cream Pie

What more can I say? Not the best, not the worst, definitely not the healthiest, but it did the trick. And there is 2/3 of a pie left. BUT. If Laura (when Laura) makes her homemade, from-scratch coconut cream pie, I will post lots of pics as well as her recipe. It beats Sara Lee's hands down.

Sara Lee Coconut Cream Pie

Reviews/Comments

Good eats. Day 2 of pizza gets a 7/10, the app gets an 8 and the pie gets a 4. Should I rate these every day??

Check in tomorrow night for burritos! Beans are already cooked.

Homemade Vegetable Pizza

Day 4

Some days you just crave pizza. Some hot, spicy, salty, melty pizza. We make pizza here about once every month or two in one form or another.

Crust

There are so many options for crust, from frozen ready-made to English muffins, pitas or even tortillas, or from Kraft Pizza Mix to homemade dough from scratch. Tonight we used a ready-made and already cooked packaged crust from Sobey's bakery - Sensations brand.

Sauce

I didn't plan it, but I also bought a Sensations sauce; Laura usually makes the sauce from the ground up, but on a work night, ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

Sensations Thin Pizza Crust and Sensations Four Cheese Sauce

Toppings

Toppings are something that Laura and I generally agree on. I say any and all vegetables are good candidates for a pizza. Laura skips a couple of them, so we always have our own half. :)

 Mushrooms, black olives, red onion, white onion, red pepper

 Parmesan and mozzarella

 Windowsill oregano

 The assembly line

The square one for tomorrow

Homemade vegetable pizza

We almost always put minced garlic on pizza, but we didn't happen to have any tonight and I didn't feel like going back to the store for it. But, for garlic lovers, garlic roasted on the top of your pizza is amazeballs.

Reviews/Comments

SoooOOOOooOOOoo yummy. There's another one in the oven for tomorrow. YAY! And, BTW these crusts are super good. Will definitely be using them again.

Make it Vegan

Just skip the cheese or go with a vegan substitute. Remember that some pasta sauces have cheese included.

Leftover Veggie Pot Pie

Day 3

What's better than leftovers? Well, lots of stuff. HAHAHA But, there is a bright side to having leftovers for supper: the prep work has been done and all that is left to do is to reheat. Since we don't own a microwave, the pie went back in the oven for 30 minutes with tinfoil covering. Came out much browner, a bit drier, but nice and hot, and still very good.

 Reheated veggie pot pie

With Lady Ashburnham pickles

Reviews/Comments

Not bad...not bad at all. Especially served with the pickles.Might even be better the 2nd time around. And we don't lose all the nutrients by using a microwave for reheating. Laura promises something new and tasty for tomorrow night though! Can't wait!

Make it Vegan

See Veggie Pot Pie blog from yesterday.

Veggie Pot Pie

Day 2

Today, it feels like we cheated, but we didn't. We just didn't do the work today.

Several weeks ago, when Laura harvested most of her root veggies, she made a bunch of veggie pot pies. We ate one and froze three. We had one of them for supper tonight...I love easy peasy, no mess suppers like that!

Frozen vegetable pot pie

Laura makes fantastic pie crust, but for these pies, she used the frozen ones that come in pairs because we had a lot of kitchen projects going on at once. They make pie making about as easy as it gets. The pies contain potatoes, carrots, onions, shallots and turnips from the garden, plus some sauteed white mushrooms. For the gravy/sauce she made a roux then added vegetable broth. The fresh sage, thyme and parsley add a lot of awesomeness too.

Veggie pot pie

Reviews/Comments

Another delicious feed, and Missy can vouch for it, as she was here the last time we had one. HAHAHA

Make it Vegan

If not for the butter in the roux, it would have been a vegan dish. Coconut oil would make a great substitute.

Roasted Potatoes, Carrots and Herbs with Beets (Vegan)

Day 1

First day of a blog I intend to keep for a full year.

So, tonight we shall have beets and carrots from the garden, since we have to get them out of there ASAP now. The idea was to cook the beets on the stove and roast the carrots with some potatoes and some of Laura's garden herbs. We used the last of our own potatoes at lunchtime so we borrowed these from a friend because the store was closed by the time we realized we were out. Thanks, Missy! haha 

Laura, washing the dirt off the beets

Parsley, rosemary, thyme and oregano

Potatoes, carrots and herbs drizzled with
olive oil before going into the oven

To roast the potatoes - or anything - I always add about 1/2 - 1 cup of water to the roast pan to prevent burning. I threw the carrots in first, then the potatoes, then tossed in some chopped onions, topped with the herbs and drizzled with olive oil. I seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper. Cooked at 450 for about 40 minutes. 

Roasted potatoes and carrots

Cooked beets

Roasted potatoes, carrots and herbs with beets

Reviews/Comments

Those potatoes were about the best I've ever had. Will definitely make them again. I ate too much and gave myself hiccups. Laura said everything was fantastic, too.

Btw, dessert was homemade granola bars. Well, that's what I had. Laura had tootsie rolls.