Hearty meals

Chicken Squash Curry

~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

Alright, I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been eating 100 per cent well lately.  It is absolutely crazy at school right now (I feel like all the other university students out there can feel my pain) and I just haven’t had time to take care of myself at all.  For example, this past Monday the only thing I ate was a bagel (sesame seed toasted with strawberry cream cheese, the only way to go), a piece of lemon poppy seed loaf from Starbucks, a Vitamin water and a piece of leftover brownie cake.  I managed to get in all four food groups, right?

WELL, by the time Tuesday rolled around, I was craving actual food.  I’m sorry that this is another post featuring squash as the main-ish ingredient but lets face it, I am one person, with one squash.  No matter how many times I feed my roommates (Ariel has been benefitting quite greatly from my cooking lately), it still takes me three times as long to finish one thing.  This being said, you can expect some sort of “stuffed squash” dish over the next few days, unless I follow Brittany’s suggestions and bake something.

Okay, so this Chicken Squash Curry was something I found when browsing the Canadian Living website the other day, in search of a way to use up my inhuman amount of squash.  Since this recipe also allowed me to use the mild Indian curry sauce that has been sitting in our fridge for months, I decided to go for it.  Mmmm, I forgot how good curry sauce smells when you cook it.  I was happy to smell like a little Indian food restaurant for the rest of the day.  To pay tribute to how crazy even this day was, my cooking was interrupted halfway through by a telephone interview I needed to perform for journalism.  Luckily for me, onion and green peppers don’t mind sitting in a pan half cooked…

Anyways, before you motor on over to your kitchen to cook this, I must add that I used (a) green peppers instead of chili green peppers and (b) didn’t add in as much cilantro because I think it is kind of yucky.  So be cautious.  Also, leftover curry makes some delicious rice wraps (especially when mixed with leftover couscous from the roommates).  Now that I have said that, go forth and eat.

Rosemary Garlic Steak with Potato, Carrots and Shredded Zucchini

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

The reason for making this dinner was pretty simple: I was craving steak SO badly, haven’t eaten potatoes in half a year and wanted to use up the rest of my farmer’s market carrots.  This meal took about twenty minutes to make, and allowed me to utilize our beautiful non-stick pan as a BBQ alternative.

I know this is a ridiculously short post, but I’m watching this show Hawaii Five-O with my roommate Amanda, and am too distracted by Daniel Dae Kim’s cheekbones to write anymore.  That’s right, Jin from LOST is in a new show.  It gets an A+ already.

Okay, one more Daniel Dae Kim girl crush moment.  Remember when he was in Seinfeld?  So precious!

PS: this dish was adapted from Canadian Living’s Grilled Rosemary Garlic Flank Steak recipe.

A Pre-Night Class Feast! (Maple-glazed pork chops and spinach pilaf)

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

This may have been the best meal I’ve ever eaten.  No joke, I was so happy with the way this entire thing turned out, that I came home from my night class and started to snack on the cold, refrigerated leftovers.  I have absolutely no shame.

My concerned parents have recently been questioning my protein intake, and I was interrogated by both my mom and dad a few days ago on the phone, about whether I was eating eggs, peanut butter, cheese, ANYTHING.  My answer: a hesitant “sort of.”  To convince my dearest parents that I was, in fact, not going to shrivel away from a protein deficiency, I decided to splurge on some meat.  Kind of craving pork chops, I bought a package of four from the grocery store, for about $8.  Eight dollars may not seem like much to the average spender, but considering I bought the cheap, almost expired $2 meat last year, this is a definite step up.

I also wanted to get rid of the extra spinach I had from my salad a few days ago, and was desperate to find a recipe that was not some sort of pasta dish.  I struck gold when I found this Spinach Pilaf recipe on the Canadian Living website.  Having never made a pilaf with rice before, I was kind of nervous as to how this one would turn out.  I halved the recipe (to make 2 servings) and the only alteration I had to make was to add an extra 1/4 cup of vegetable stock.  My roommates will vouch for me in saying it was delicious!!  Mmm, just typing this post I am tempted to sneak upstairs and grab a spoonful (I wrote this at night, at which time I had already brushed my teeth, major logistics fail).

For the pork I used CL’s Maple-Glazed Pork Chops recipe, since I needed a fast garnish so I wouldn’t be late for my night class.  Finally, I attempted to make some sort of vegetable packet with farmer’s market carrots and zucchini.  Due to poor planning and my impatience, the carrots were still a little crunchy, but the rest was amazing!

I definitely suggest the two recipes listed above for students!  Such an easy meal, yet super impressive once plated and served (yes, the “bed of spinach” is for decoration, don’t roll your eyes at me).

Swedish “Meatballs” with Egg Noodles

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

Lets just start off this post by saying that these “meatballs” became more of a Hungarian goulash (as my mom said).   No wonder Canadian Living didn’t accompany this recipe with a photo in their September issue…

So here’s the story: At around 6:30 p.m. on Monday evening, anyone who entered my household would have thought I had gone mad.  Leaning over a stove that I wasn’t used to, I rapidly watched my delicate, hand-shaped meatballs rapidly become an unsatisfying, greyish mush.  Sure they smelled delicious, but that didn’t stop me from storming around my kitchen, asking my mom why in the world she didn’t have a non-stick pan.  Oh kitchen ordeals.  As a disclaimer, this entire issue probably could have been avoided if I had put in the mere 1.5 eggs that I was supposed to.  Rather than dividing this slimy little egg membrane in order to one and a half times the recipe, I just plopped the whole thing in, deliriously mixing in a frenzy of inflated happiness.  Do not try this at home.

Although I am normally a strict believer that if something doesn’t look nice, then it won’t taste good, this goulash/meatballs/whatever you want to call it actually didn’t taste bad.  My brother went back for seconds (which may not be saying much, since he is a 16-year-old boy) and I got compliments once again from good ol’ ma and pa.

ALSO, this meal marks the first time I have EVER eaten mushrooms.  Go me!

ALSO2: I would like to throw an extra-special shout out to my mom, who had to deal firsthand with my psychotic meatball breakdown.

Dill Grilled Salmon and Mini Potato Zucchini Latkes

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

With the clock quickly ticking on my friend Gord’s blogger challenge, I knew that last night was as good a time as any to complete my task.  Just to remind you all, my challenge was to take one of Gord’s recipes and make it my own.  This being said, I decided to take his “Cheddar Zucchini Patties” post and ditch the cheese in favour of a hefty amount of grated potato and chopped dill.  I must admit, I can’t take total credit for this idea, and was inspired (as always) by the Canadian Living recipe for Mini Potato Zucchini Latkes.  I first saw this recipe in the mini cookbook that accompanied September’s issue of the magazine, which my mom very dearly supplied me with when she visited last week.  The only major alteration I made to the recipe was to add two tablespoons of finely chopped dill, to add some sort of consistent flavour to my meal.  These latkes turned out pretty well, however I think I definitely could have benefitted from cooking them a bit longer, as the insides still had a bit of a munchy consistency.  Overall, these latkes provided the perfect accompaniment to my salmon, completed a chellenge and were the best “dinner food that reminds me of a breakfast meal” that I’ve had in a while.

Alright, so the salmon!  Let me tell you, Canadian Living has countless recipes containing three ingredients: lemon, dill and fish.  It was quite the challenge to choose just one (I, of course, needed to use up the dill leftover from my potato and corn salad last week), but I eventually settled on the one called Dill Grilled Trout (yes, I realize I made salmon, but the recipe called for either!) This recipe saw the Glorious Return 2.0 of the beloved George Foreman grill, something which made me an extremely happy camper.

On an unrelated but otherwise interesting note: I have actually planned out my meals for the next week!  I’m not sure where this sudden urge for organization is coming from, but I’m excited!