EASY Cheese Tortellini Salad

Summer came around a little late this year, it rained all June! I seriously didn't put on a pair of shorts until last week. But with summer in full swing (I hate to be a whiner but could someone turn it down a couple degrees, haha) we're in Summer Food Mode!

To me summer always means BBQ and Salad. I love a fresh salad on a hot day, but for Lee a salad is just not enough to fill up. If I can get away with it I will try to dirty the least amount of dishes possible, so making one big salad for both of us would be ideal. I figured what's more filling then Cheese Tortellini?? and it's vegetarian so two birds, one stone (or one dish I should say . . . and no birds because it's vegetarian).
Here's my recipe for Cheese Tortellini Salad: Feel free to add or subtract what ever you want, this salad is great made with whatever is in your fridge or garden!

Salad:
1 Package Fresh Cheese Tortellini (we use Olivieri Tri Color Cheese Tortellini, but feel free to use your own fresh handmade tortellini if you are that talented. You'll need about 700gr). I like using Olivieri pasta, honestly I would prefer to make it homemade but making your own tortellini is a lot of work, and if you give Olivieri's ingredient list a look you'll see there are NO fake weird ingredients. I think they are a good alternative to homemade.
1 Head Broccoli 
1/4 Head Cauliflower
1 Red Bell Pepper (or yellow, or Orange)
1 Jar Artichoke Hearts (most of the time I don't have artichoke hearts in the pantry so we usually omit them)
5 or 6 Grape Tomatoes 
A small amount of red onion (make sure not to put too much in or the whole salad will taste like red onion)
3 or 4 Radishes sliced thin
If you like olives add some of those in, I think some cooked peas or fresh corn would be really good in there too.

Dressing: 
1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (we like our dressings really vinegar-y if you don't add more oil)
1/4 cup of Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup Sour Cream
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp Black pepper
1 tsp Dried Parsley (not totally necessary)
* Sometimes I use Fresh Lemon juice instead of Red Wine Vinegar and I add a couple of dashes of Worcestershire Sauce. Also keep in mind that it's no longer vegetarian if you add Worcestershire. 

Instructions: 
Boil up pasta according to package instructions, if you are making your own pasta boil according to your grandmother's instructions :). Once the pasta is cooked, strain and let cool.
Chop up all of your salad ingredients and put in to large bowl.
Add pasta when cool.
Make dressing in separate bowl, and pour over salad.
Add a big sprinkling of Parmesan cheese!

 I hope you'll try this super easy summer salad! It keeps really well in the fridge too!!!

Open Faced Tuna Melts

Personally I'm not a BIG Tuna fan, I'll eat tuna when we go for sushi, but when it comes out of a can . . . I'll usually pass.
That was until The Open Faced Tuna Melt of 2012!!

Here's how it went down, Lee loves Tuna sandwiches, so I made him one. We also had some provolone cheese in the fridge that needed using so I searched around trying to find a Tuna Melt recipe that matched our tastes. I couldn't find the perfect one so I took somethings from some recipes and other ingredients from other recipes and came up with, what can only be referred to as perfection.

 3 cans of Tuna packed in water
A 1/4 cup of mayo, Don't add more or your sandwich will go wet and soggy.
2 Tablespoons Capers
1/8 cup of very finely diced onion (red or yellow or scallions)
a squirt of fresh lemon juice (1 tbsp approx)
A big grind of pepper and a good sprinkle of salt.

1 Tomato
Some Yummy Bread (we used Dark Rye)
and provolone cheese

 We use dark rye bread because it's really dense bread so it can handle all the tuna on top of it. Also because it's so dense, you can slice it really thin.
Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a bowl. Apply onto bread in big Heaping Mounds! Top with sliced Tomatoes and Finish with Cheese.
Put your Oven on Broil, slide in your sandwich and WATCH IT. I mean watch it as closely as you would watch your toddler playing by a cliff edge! Because it will go from nothings happening to Oh "Bleep" I burnt it, in 2 seconds.

 Serve with a green salad on the side and you have Tuna Melt 2012!!!

Variations:
 1)Chopping up a dill pickle and adding it to the tuna mixture was also really good.
 2) 1/8 of a Teaspoon Dijon Mustard added to the tuna mixture was good.
 3) 1/4 diced olives to the tuna mix was a suggestion.
 4) For a crunchier sandwich 1/4 cup of finely diced celery, and a 1/4 cup finely diced red pepper.
 5) Instead of Provolone cheese, use Havarti, Swiss, or Cheddar Cheese.

Notes:
~ If you're not using a dense bread like rye, consider toasting it before you top it and broil it.
~Make sure you don't use too much mayo, it will definitely go wet and soggy.

Hope you like it as much as we do, but really, who doesn't like melted cheese??? 

1 Chicken = 1 Week of Lunches

Roasting Two chickens is just as easy as roasting One. So on Sunday Night why not throw two chickens in the oven . . . eat one for dinner and use the other one for 5+ days worth of lunches. Actually from Two Chickens I can squeeze out, Sunday Night dinner, A chicken pot pie on Monday and 5+ lunches for the week!
I would much rather roast an extra chicken then buy chicken from the deli counter at the grocery store, there's not extra preservatives and you know exactly how fresh it is!!! Plus it tastes WAY better!

Day 1:
Two Roasted Chicken Sandwiches with Pesto Mayo.
I was recently as a birthday party with sandwiches, each sandwich had a bit of Pesto Mayo on them. It was something I thought I wouldn't like . . . but they were delicious!  You can make your own pesto or you can use jarred pesto it's up to you!
We take 1 heaping Tablespoon of Pesto to every 1/2 cup of mayo (Add a little bit at a time because it can get overpowering fast!)
It takes 1 chicken breast, on crusty bread, topped with tomatoes, and garden greens.

Day 2:
Three Chicken Salad Sandwiches (5 if you use smaller Artisan Bread like we did).
You'll need about 1 cup of chopped chicken, 1 stalk of celery, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of mayo (depending how mayo-y you like your chicken salad, fresh cracked pepper and some coarse salt.

Day 3:
Field Greens Salad with 1 Chicken Breast sliced, Mandarin orange slices, red pepper and poppy seed dressing.

Day 4:
Greek Chicken Wraps (3 BIG ones). You'll need some Whole Wheat wraps, tzatziki, some white Chicken, field greens, feta cheese and *Greek Salad.
* Greek Salad Recipe
1 Red pepper (because I like red peppers more then green, 1/2 a cucumber, 1/2 a carton of cherry tomatoes, 1/4 of a red onion, a pinch of dried oregano, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar.

Day 5:
It's up to you, I say that because we had enough chicken leftover to make another Salad with chicken (I took field greens topped them with chicken, and leftover Greek salad, finished with Greek dressing!
We also had a little more pesto mayo and just enough chicken for 1 last sandwich!

I hope you can find this useful! All of the lunches were Delicious, Healthy and easy to make! Give'em a try, especially the pesto mayo!

How I Roast a Chicken: 
Take both chickens and rinse them off under cold water, dry well!
Chop two large onions, and slice 1 lemon, stuff the chopped onion and lemon slices up the chicken (the onion and lemon don't give a ton of flavor but they give a ton of moisture so that your chicken doesn't dry out!).
Cover the outside of the chicken, with a little butter, get it under the skin too!
A generous sprinkling of Salt and Pepper (be very generous)
If I have a little fresh rosemary around I'll chop that up and sprinkle that on too (I don't love dried rosemary on chicken).
Crank up the oven . . . 400 degrees or so. Cook for 10 minutes at 400, then turn the oven down to 350, and roast until the meat thermometer reads almost done, take out chickens, tent with tin foil and leave to cook the rest of the way through on the counter (chickens will keep cooking for a bit after they are taken out of the oven so take them out a little premature, or you'll have dry chicken! 15 minutes should do it). By cooking the chicken at 400 for 10 minutes you'll crisp up the skin and it will seal in all of the juices, making for a juicier chicken (have I mentioned I hate dry chicken??).
Cooking times are going to vary depending on what type of oven you have, ours is gas it takes about an hour and a half give or take! Your meat thermometer is your best friend when roasting a chicken!
And that's how I roast a chicken! No basting, and instead of trussing the chicken I just break off the wing tips that would otherwise burn! I hope that helps!!!

* If you're going to make a whole week of chicken lunches, you might want to consider freezing the roasted chicken you'll be using later in the week! Anything staying longer then 3 days in your fridge! 

White Bean Soup

This is one of our FAVORITE winter soups! White Bean soup with carrots, corn, celery and Bacon!

4 slices of bacon
2 14oz cans of White Kidney Beans
3 or 4 spring carrots
1 or 2 stalks of Celery
1 or 2 cloves of Garlic
1 Onion
1 Can of Corn
1 or 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
Small Pinch of Dried Thyme
1 Box (1 liter) Chicken Stock

Dice up bacon and fry large stock pot or dutch oven.
When the bacon is browned add the onions, celery and garlic . . . saute for 5 minutes.
Add Carrots and thyme to the pan and saute for another 2 minutes.

Add Beans, Corn, and chicken stock, whisk in Tomato Paste and salt and pepper to taste!
Cook on low for 45 minutes! 

It's truly delicious! and super easy to make!
I really hope you try this on the next rainy day!!!

Yam and Balsamic Salad

Happy Chinese New Year!!!! We are Exhausted from yesterday's festivities, 10 dishes in 4 hours!

In Chinese New Year tradition you feast on New Years Eve and go vegetarian on New Years Day, a small attempt to counteract all the heavy food from NYE.

So for Dinner tonight we are having Garden Salad, topped with Yams, and a balsamic dressing.
This is our GO TO quick weekday meal! I would eat it every night if I could, even Lee likes it!
I find that by adding the yams it fills you up, WAY more than a regular salad.

2 or 3 small yams (or One HUGE yam)
a drizzle of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Toss Diced yams with olive oil, salt and pepper, roast in a 400 degree oven for anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes depending on how large your dice is!

For the salad we add:
1 head Romaine Lettuce
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
1 Red Pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 a Cucumber
a couple radishes

Just your basic run of the mill garden salad.

Balsamic Dressing: (make lots!! You won't regret it)
3 parts olive oil to 1 part Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste!!

Pull your yams out of the oven and let cool slightly, meanwhile compile your salad. Top Salad with warm Yams, drizzle everything with your Balsamic Dressing!

It's seriously the BEST salad!!!

Potato and Leek Soup

This is our favorite soup recipe . . . it's Soup-er easy to make (Get it . . . soup-er).
I make this soup almost every week in the fall and winter . . . I've even made it for my in-laws and my MIL had seconds (that's very exciting around here!).

1 small yellow onion
1 large Leek or 2 small ones
1 box chicken stock or Vegetable stock (we use low sodium organic chicken stock from Trader Joe's)
1 small brown potato
1/8 tsp Dried Thyme
salt and pepper

Sooooo easy Sooooo good!

First dice the onion. Slice up the white part of the Leek and wash well.
Put a tbsp of oil in a pot and fry up the onions and Leeks, about 5 min. You just want them to get a bit of brown on them!
Add Thyme. Stir.
Add box of Stock.
Dice Potato. Add to pot.
Boil soup until potatoes are done . . . make sure they're really done!!!! This soup is ruined by under cooking the potatoes (I've done it, I know . . . p.s. Lee was really hungry that night and still ate it :)
Salt and Pepper to taste . . . I think it's best with a little extra salt (yes I know we used low sodium stock only to add extra salt . . . don't judge me ;)
Throw it all into a food processor and pulse until desired consistency!

Eat, Lick Pot Clean!!! DONE!

Meal Plan Monday: Lunch Special

On Mondays I usually elaborate on our Dinners but this week it's all about Lunch!
Lee's Lunch to be exact, me, I just eat what ever is in the cupboard or fridge (one of the luxuries of being a housewife) but for Lee his lunches are planned and packed!

Half of the time he has a microwave at work to re-heat his lunches, but when he's "on site" he has no available appliances, so a cold lunch is what on order.

My general take on Lunch is "Cook a lot for dinner, send leftovers to work with Lee" but that's not always possible, especially when there's no way to warm it up or when your husband is particularly hungry, eats all his dinner and essentially all his lunch too!
But thanks so the technological marvel known as Pinterest I've had A LOT more lunch inspiration.

• There's always the Sandwich Standby! But I like to make it a little "fancier" than a plain old ham sandwich with mayo (although that's pretty Yummy too). One of Lee's favorites is  SHRIMP and AVOCADO. It's super easy, I mash up an avocado in a bowl . . . add a little lemon juice so it doesn't brown, spread it on some whole wheat bread, top it with a layer of little shrimp and a handful of sprouts. Sounds fancy, super easy and if you can "catch" the shrimp on sale no more expensive than a deli meat sandwich! I LOVE these re-usable sandwich bags from WasteNotSaks.

• Lee loves salad for lunch, but only if you put some sort of protein in it. So a simple salad with hard boiled eggs or tuna or some shredded chicken, even a little chopped up smoked turkey from the deli counter.  Then I top it with THIS copy cat Olive Garden Italian Dressing recipe! If you're going to be taking salad to work for lunch it's a good investment to buy a salad container that keeps the dressing separate, ours has an ice pack to keep it all cool, here's the LINK.
• Whenever I cook chili, I always make a triple batch, it's no more work then making a single batch and because your buying ingredients in bulk it makes it even cheaper. I freeze it in Glass Tupperware Containers (glass is better then plastic when heating something up in the microwave). I pull one out of the freezer the night before and by the time Lee's ready to eat it, it's thawed and ready to go!
• Making any regular sandwich in a wrap is always a hit, try a tortilla wrapper with herb and garlic cream cheese, smoked turkey breast and some sliced cucumber!
• A market near us sells rotisserie chickens for $6 (free range but not organic) I buy a couple and make chicken pot pie out of one and chicken salad out of the other! That's two dinners and two lunches for around $15 (after we buy the other ingredients).
• Quiche is always a favorite of ours, easy to make and delicious . . . Lee's response to his work friends when they told him real men don't eat quiche was "Real Men eat Anything" haha LOVE IT! I take any basic Quiche Lorraine recipe and add my own touches, chopped mushrooms, bacon, a little ham.
• I saw these little guys on Pinterest and an DYING to make them. Pizza Muffins!

• This creamy chicken avocado salad was super yummy and Lee requested it again!

• During the fall and winter I'll make a double batch of soup and send Lee to work with a thermos full and some Cheddar Bay Biscuits, always a big hit with the boys at work!

• Lee just reminded me to include, Pizza Subs! A couple of submarine buns, some pepperoni from the deli counter, some mozzarella cheese, and a few tablespoonfuls of pizza sauce (canned).

So that's how lunch time works around here! I know it makes a huge difference in Lee's day when he has lunch ready for him, it also saves us a ton of money! But like everything it takes a little extra planning, but at the end of the day all I need is 5 minutes to pull it all together and pop it in the fridge!

*** We found our Winner from our UPrinting Giveaway, it's Lucky Number #27***

The WISE FAMILY won a poster print from Uprinting. There going to print a poster sized picture of their most recent trip to the beach with their little girl! Congrats!!!

Thank you to everyone who entered and THANK YOU to Uprinting.com for sponsoring

 our giveaway!

Meal Plan Monday: February

Every Sunday while making my plan I flip over to the weather channel and see what the weather is going to look like this week. I like to plan our meals around the weather, there's nothing worse then BBQing in the rain or sipping on hot soup during a heat wave, I thought this up one night while watching Lee BBQ in the snow.

So this week here in the Greater Vancouver Area (BC) we have SUN until Wednesday (although sun means no clouds and no clouds means COLD temps), cloudy on Thursday and possibly snowing on Friday.
So here's how our week looks:

MONDAY:
Lunch: Ham and Swiss sandwich, granola and yogurt.
Dinner: Ginger Lime Chicken with Rice and Bok Choy

TUES:
Lunch: Tuna Fish Sandwich
Dinner: Short ribs with Cabbage

WED:  Max has a vet appt today! He gets his teeth cleaned so he'll be sleepy from the anesthesia, a super simple dinner will be in the works for tonight.
Lunch: Leftover Short ribs and Cabbage
Pick up Roasted Chicken from the Italian Market on the way home from the Vet
Dinner: Roasted Chicken Paninis with Tomatos and Motzerella. Homemade Tomato Soup on the Side. I use this RECIPE.

THURS:
Lunch: Salad with Tuna and a Boiled Egg with homemade dressing
Dressing Recipe (if the Manor had a signature Dressing this would be it :)
2 cloves of garlic
a teaspoon or so Dijon Mustard
a couple squirts of Worcestershire Sauce
the juice of half a lemon
just under a 1/4 cup of red wine vinager
Wisk together,  then whisk in the olive oil, about a quarter cup.
Season with Salt and Pepper YUM!
Dinner: Chicken a la King  Using the Leftover Chicken  from Wed.


FRIDAY: (Possibly Snowing)
Lunch: Leftover Chicken a la King
Dinner: Roasted Corn and Red Pepper Chowder.

So there's how our First week in February looks!
I finally finished sewing the Library Curtains, I LOVE the way they turned out and I can't wait to share them with you tomorrow :)