Pinterest Challenge Day 6 - Double Feature!

Helllooooo!

How was everyone's Halloween?  Ours was busy!  We got close to 500 trick or treaters!  Insane!  In any case, on to the food! I didn't get any good pictures of these recipes because the lighting in our house sucks.  You'll have to use your imagination!  Let's start with the chicken:

This recipe is pinned here.  Here are our substitutions/changes:
1) We used chicken thighs instead of breasts
2) We added about 1 tsp of dijon mustard to the topping mix.
3)We used Hellmen's  half the fat olive oil mayo

Taste: B.  Dawson liked this one more than I did.  He devoured his.  I just thought it was "ok".  I'd eat it again, but it wasn't my favourite.
Cost: A-.  Not expensive fora main dish at all. Most of this stuff you probably have in your kitchen already. 
Nutrition: B.  Not bad. Not great, but not bad either. The mayo is calorie-dense but heart healthy and the chicken has good lean protein.    
Simplicity:  A+. Super easy!  No complaints here.
Overall: B.

Now for the cauliflower! This one is pinned here and is coincidentally from the same blog as the risotto I made earlier this week. So far the author is 2 for 2, because this was actually even more awesome than the risotto! Wee!

No subs or additions made to this one.

Taste: A+.  If there was anything above A+, I'd give this recipe that! We loved it!  This one is definitely going to find itself in heavy rotation at our house!
Cost: A. This one is cheapy cheapy. 
Nutrition: A. This is a super tasty way to get your veggies in! We liked this so much we ate an entire head of cauliflower between the two of us.  I generally don't even like cauliflower!    
Simplicity:  A+.  Doesn't get much easier than this, internet!
Overall: A+

Only one more day left in the challenge! Exciting! 

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Pinterest Challenge Day 4 - Mushroom Risotto

Hello Internet!

Tonight we made mushroom risotto, which I have pinned here.  Of everything we've made so far, this was by far my favourite! It was rich, creamy and tasty! Mmmm, risotto...  I believe this kind of thing is really supposed to be eaten as a side dish or appetizer, but we made this as our main dish because I love risotto that much and I was in the mood for some good comfort food after yesterday's fiery inferno.  I doubled the recipe and was shocked at how much food it made - we both have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Here's how it turned out:

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Substitutions/Omissions:
1) We used low sodium chicken broth in place of regular
2) We omitted the butter at the end, it didn't really need it.
3) We cut the cheese down by ~25%, again, it didn't really need that much











Here's how we rank this one:
Taste: A.  I love risotto and this one was really tasty! I just finished eating and I'm already looking forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow!
Cost: A-.  This is relatively inexpensive, other than the cheese.  
Nutrition: B-.  As a side dish, this is actually not too bad - there are some good veggies in there, but as a main dish this isn't really balanced. When I make this next time I think I will substitute some olive oil for the butter just to decrease the saturated fat a little. 
Simplicity:  B-. Realistically, this is a risotto and risotto is labour intensive.  All that stirring takes time, but it's oh, so worth it.  My only other complaint is the way the ingredients list was written.  I was confused by the ingredients that were listed twice.  I think they should have been listed once but marked "divided" instead. 
Overall: A-.

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Episode 99 - Samba Time

Ok internet, I need to tell you about our weekend getaway because:
It.  Was.  Awesome.
First of all, we checked into what was quite possibly the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in.  I'm pretty sure the square-footage rivaled the first floor of our house!  There was a sitting room with double french doors leading to the bedroom with a huge king-sized bed with a leather headboard!  The bathroom had a stone accent wall and a huge tub and there was a Keurig coffee machine!  It was amazing.  Really, props to you Chateau Cartier - that hotel room rocked! After marveling at the incredible room for about an hour we set out for dinner.

Is this not insane?!

I wanted to steal the headboard for home...

We took advantage of a really awesome Groupon to a restaurant called "Ekko de Brasil", which included dinner, 2 Brazilian caipirinha cocktails, a bottle of wine and 2 Brazilian coffees all for the ridiculous price of $80!  That deal would be awesome at any ol' restaurant but let me tell you, this isn't just any ol' restaurant!  There are live samba dancers, music, a huge salad/side dish bar and gauchos serving you all-you-can-eat meat off of swords.  Swords! We had steak, bacon wrapped-chicken, beer-basted chicken legs, Parmesan pork, and the most ridiculously awesome leg of lamb ever!  Honestly, it was to die for! We made a very firm decision to go back with friends and family at the first available opportunity!  If you're ever in the Ottawa-Gatineau region you should definitely check it out!

Switching gears a little, I also want to tell you about the bacon roll-ups I made for the annual Canada Day BBQ we went to.  This recipe is not my own creation, but is awesome and you should definitely make it.  Comments from our friends about these little gems included:

"These are the best food I have ever eaten"

and

"Ever since I ate those bacon things, all I can think about is those bacon things"

...so you know they're kinda good!

Bacon Roll-Ups 

2 lbs bacon

1 loaf brown bread

1 can sweetened condensed milk

¼ cup prepared mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 cups Colby or medium cheese

     Preheat the oven to 375 F. Start the prep work by cutting the crust off bread and then rolling each slice flat with a rolling pin.  Next, cut your packages of bacon in half.  Mix the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside - don't be freaked out by the randomness of these ingredients, they will taste awesome together, I promise.  

    To assemble the rolls, lay three pieces of the halved bacon on the counter overlapping slightly.  Top this with one slice of the flattened bread and about a tbsp of the crazy mixture spread evenly over the top.  Grab the edge of the bacon and roll the whole thing into a log.  Secure the log with 3 evenly spaced toothpicks and then slice into 3 pieces.  Repeat with more bacon bread and crazy mix until all your ingredients are used up.  Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes then switch on the broiler and broil for 5 minutes or until the bacon gets nice and crispy.  Stick 'em on a platter, serve them to your friends and prepare yourself to receive at least one marriage proposal.  Seriously - people like these that much. 

   Overall, I'd say it was a pretty spectacular long weekend!  How did you spend your holiday this year?

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Episode 37 - Cajun Sweet Potato "Fries"

I love sweet potatoes.  Like...really really love them.  If I didn't know that eating them every single day would turn me a not so flattering shade of orange, I would probably do just that.  They are just so far superior to boring old regular potatoes and BONUS - always way better for you!  Sweet!  How often does that happen?

1 large sweet potato cut into fry sized strips
2 tbsp canola oil
1 pinch of each salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin and cayenne powder

Preheat your oven to 425 F.  Place your french fry style potato strips on a baking sheet, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle on the seasonings then give the fries a good massage to evenly spread everything around.  Pop 'em in the oven 15-20 minutes (depending on how thickly you sliced your potato) and presto - delicious!

You can also do these with other seasoning combinations... I just like this one the best :)  Mmm spicy!

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