Hilary makes food

Cumin Chickpea Soup

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

Having been inspired in the past few weeks by my friend Gord and his undying love of chickpeas, I decided that it was finally time for me to cook my first chickpea-centred meal.  Not really knowing what I was going to make, I eagerly grabbed the biggest can of chickpeas I could find in the grocery store, and carried it home in my metallic purple backpack.  Returning home from a 10 hour workday (it is convocation week at school – exhausting), I wanted something soothing, warm and light, since I had just gobbled down a delicious Carleton cupcake.

Like everything else I make, I got this recipe from Canadian Living.  This one wasn’t in my cookbook, but rather on their website.  I love typing in keywords and searching for new, scrumptious recipes such as this.  I only used up half my can of chickpeas on this soup, which means I will be searching the web again soon for another chickpea recipe…

I ate this soup with a few slices of 12-grain/fennel bread from Grace in the Kitchen, the friendly neighbourhood kitchen store that I mentioned in an earlier post.  Although it was the perfect companion to my soup, there was a little too much fennel and not enough grain; I may stick with my boring white loaf from now on.  Add some fresh lemon slices, and this meal was complete!  My first very-nearly vegetarian meal.  Now to substitute chicken stock with vegetable stock – I’ll get there one day!

Probably making chocolate chip cookies tonight for the Friday treat.  Since it’s convocation, I have to feed three times as many people as usual!  Pressure’s on.

Santa Fe Beef Fajitas

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

I said I wasn’t going to make a nice dinner for the rest of the week, but I had all the ingredients for this recipe, so I couldn’t resist!  With my improving cooking skills, I have started to rely less and less on actual recipes, and more on my Julie/Julia cooking instinct!  That being said, I still got the basis for these fajitis from my Canadian Living cookbook (I would post the link, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere online, apologies!).  Anyways, all the veggies for these fajitas – red pepper, orange pepper, red onion and corn – fried up really nicely, and there turned out to be an outstanding 2:1 veggie to beef ratio.  Two months ago, a ratio like that would have been a miracle, but now its almost the norm!  PS: corn is the best thing ever in fajitas…

Since we have lunch provided every day at work this week, I won’t be able to bring leftovers in, which means tomorrow’s supper will be fajita night, take two.  There are worse things in life then a fun fajita fiesta (again with the alliterations…)

This is completely unrelated, but I just wanted to post a picture of my backpack, to show off its awesome toiletry-holding abilities.

Buenas noches amigos!

Sunday Night Dinner (Spanish Chicken with Peppers and Wildberry Crumble)

~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

I AM WATCHING A HARRY POTTER SPECIAL ON NBC AND LOVING LIFE.  Eleven-year-old Daniel Radcliffe is so cute!

</nerdy obsession> Now for the actual post…

Since I’ve been quite the shlump for the past 24 hours (I watched season six of Sex and the City in its entirety), I decided I should cook myself an actual meal.  While finding out about Carrie and her new, creepy Russian boyfriend Aleksandr, I flipped through my Canadian Living cookbook and found a recipe forSpanish Chicken with Peppers.  The recipe looked easy enough and gave me an excuse to go to one of my favourite stores,Grace in the Kitchen, located a short walk from my humble abode.  At the store, I bought the best bread ever, a simple white loaf to go with my meal (it has a more impressive name, I just forgot it…sorry!).  So the chicken turned out awesome, and I really liked that the sauce had ham in it – it added a nice unique contrast to the tomatoes and red peppers.

While I ate my scrumptious chicken, I had dessert cooking in the oven.  My Wildberry Crumble turned out amazingly, considering I had to create a single-serving recipe using approximate ingredient estimations.  Thank god for all the extra frozen berries we had in our freezer!  They were perfect for this after-supper treat.

I’m really busy this week, so I’m not sure how often I will be able to post on here.  By the end of the week, however, you can be sure that I will have gotten sick of soup noodles and will need a good meal…

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

I have been craving pasta salad for about two months now, so I finally decided to conquer my craving head on.  Since I couldn’t find a good, simple (because I’m too lazy to make anything complicated tonight) chicken caesar pasta salad recipe, I just made my own.  It’s basically just cooked bowtie and penne pasta, grilled chicken, zucchini and cherry tomaties, and lots of delicious parmesan cheese and caesar salad dressing.  My craving is officially satisfied.

Check back later tonight as I am probably going to be posting pictures of the baked good I am making for work tomorrow!  Since I liked today’s pictures so much, I am posting three, rather than my normal two.  Enjoy the bonus eye candy!

Salmon with a Lentil Pilaf

~ Hilary ~ 4 Comments

After an extensive lesson from my roommate Natalie on how to pronounce “pilaf,” this meal was officially complete.  Never having made this strange pilaf thing before, I knew this meal was going to be an interesting, new adventure.  First of all, the pilaf was made completely of vegetables, marking my official leap into the wonderful world of veggies.  Second, I almost cut my finger off when I got a little too enthusiastic chopping the celery.  Cooking with me is never boring, let me tell you!

The problem I have been facing lately is leftovers.  I have been making all this delicious food to blog about, but I always end up cooking way more than my little belly needs.  With such a dilemma, my normal pb&j sandwich lunches have been replaced by lasagna, lentil pilafs and enough homemade pizza to share with all my co-workers (true story).  Tomorrow there is a BBQ at work, but alas I must bring this leftover salmon.  I am guaranteed still buying a burger, make no mistake.

Since one of my co-workers Iffy (shout out!) requested that I start to post a link to the recipes I use, here it is – try it out!

Also, check out my friend Gord‘s fun new food blog, The Savoury Starving Student(he likes alliterations)!!