Creamy Beef Goulash

Today, it is FREEZING. It feels like -23. So cold. So to warm up with something yummy and can be packed with healthy veggies I am making a creamy beef goulash. This is great if you have some left overs you need to use up.

Ingredients

1lbs extra lean ground beef

1 can diced tomatoes

2/3c milk

1 tbsp butter

4 tbsp flour

seasonings (Epicure's 3 onion, Epicure's Cheese, Chive and Bacon, Epicure's Garlic)

Sea salt from Epicure (if you like to add salt)

2 cups pasta

3/4 c peas

3/4 c corn

1/2 cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Brown your meat with the seasonings added in. I always add to taste. Some like more then others. While the meat is browning cook your pasta. Cook until it is almost done but not quite. Make a roux with your butter and flour, slowly adding milk. Once it thickens up, add your tomatoes, meat, and veggies. Stir together. Put in a oven save casserole dish, sprinkle cheese on top. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes. 

Don't be afraid to add different veggies, or mushrooms. Spinach is a great thing to add as well.
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As always, Happy Eating!

The Weather Outside is Frightful, But The Soup is SO Delightful!

Spinach, Chicken and Gnocchi Soup!
I love making soup on cold days, rainy days, winter days, just about any day.
Today, we got our first snow fall in Fredericton, so I got out my soup pot and away I went.This soup is similar to the Chicken and Gnocchi Soup from Olive Garden if you've ever had it.

Ingredients!
2 celery stalks chopped
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 onion minced
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbls of olive oil
2 chicken breast cooked and cubed (you can use roast chicken if you'd like)
1 package of gnocchi
1 cup chicken broth
1 litre half and half
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped spinach
2-4 tbls flour.

In your pot, cook celery, onion, carrots and garlic in the oil until the onions are translucent. Add in the flour to make your roux. Let the roux cook for a minute before adding in the cream and gnocchi. Cook until it starts to thicken. Add in chicken and broth. You may need to add more broth depending on how thick you want your soup. Add spinach, I add a little more than a cup because I love spinach. Add seasonings. As always, I play with the seasoning amount to taste.
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As always, Happy Eating!

Not your Mama's Meatloaf!

I'm a fan of meatloaf, its easy, you can hide so much in it and no one knows. Tonight we are having meatloaf. Cauliflower can be added to just about anything without changing the flavour. Its a great way to hide some extra good nutrients without the family knowing.

Ingredients

1 cup cooked cauliflower pureed
1-2 lbs of extra lean ground beef
3 leeks chopped
1 egg
4 tbls ketchup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper (I used the grinders from Epicure as seen in other posts)

Sauce
4 tbls apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2-3 tbls brown sugar

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine, meat, cauliflower, leeks, egg, ketchup, milk and bread crumbs. Mix with hands until mixed well. Add salt and pepper.
Form in to a loaf and place in a roasting pan. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine the apple cider vinegar, ketchup and brown sugar. Mix well. Pour over the meat loaf, making sure to cover as much of the loaf as possible.
Place in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done.

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As always, Happy Eating!

Ratatouille - simple and tastey!

I started making ratatouille this summer. For some reason I always thought this dish was going to be incredibly difficult so I avoided it. But then I found a simple recipe and it has become a staple in this house. The great thing is you can change up the veggies at any time. Knowing that my girls tend to like the zucchini I often do 3/4 of a section for just zucchini as you can see from the photo.

2 medium zucchini

2 medium onions

3 tomatoes

2 medium potatoes

2 tbls melted butter

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

seasoning

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Slice up all your veggies into thin pieces. Alternate vegetables to create colourful rows in a baking pan. I use small rectangular glass baking pan. Pour the melted butter over the veggies as evenly as you can. Top with parmesan cheese and seasonings. I use Epicure's chicken bouillon and garlic aioli. Cover with tin foil. Bake for about 30 min or until the vegetables are cooked. 

For a more colourful ratatouille use yellow, red and orange peppers along with yellow and green zucchini. 

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As always, happy eating!

Tourtiere - A Canadian Dish

This is a two part recipe. First, the pastry, then the filling!

This pastry is so easy to make and its super yummy.

5 Cups of Flour
1/2lbs lard
2 tsp salt. (this is the only time I add salt as directed. Normally I leave salt out of my dishes)

1 egg
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Fill to 1 cup with warm water

In your mixer, measure the flour, lard and salt. Mix until just crumbly, be careful not to over mix.
Beat your egg, with the vinegar in a one cup measuring cup, then fill with water. Warm water makes your pastry a little easier to work with especially if your lard was hard. Stir in to flour until dough pulls away from the side.
Roll out your pastry into the bottoms of your pie trays. I like my pastry thin, however to each their own.

Filling
2lbs ground beef
3 potatoes cubed and cooked
any vegetables you prefer (I used carrots, leek, celery, corn and peas)
gravy
seasonings (garlic, onion seasoning, pepper)

Cook your potatoes and set aside. In a pot, cook your other vegetables until just softened, then add your ground beef and seasonings. Cook until brown. Add your gravy and potatoes. 
Fill your pie trays. 
Baked at 350 for roughly 30 minutes or until your pastry is cooked. I used individual pie pans. For a larger pan it make take longer. 
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As always, happy eating!

Easy Kale Chips - The Healthy Alternative!

Thanks to the lovely Genna, my daughter Emerald has been talking about kale chips since the spring! I found some nice kale at the market today for a good price. So I picked some up and promised to make kale chips for my kids. A healthy alternative to potato chips.

Ingredients
1 bunch of kale
1 tbsp (or a little more) olive oil
pinch of salt
pinch of Epicure's Cheese, Chive and Bacon dip seasoning

Preheat oven at 320. Wash the kale and rip into smaller pieces. Toss with oil and seasonings. Spread out on a baking sheet. Bake for 40 min or until crispy.

You can use just about any seasoning. Epicure's nacho, BLT, or 3 onion would all be very yummy!

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Happy Eating

Seafood Pasta

For the pasta part, use whichever pasta is your favourite. I typically prefer an angel hair pasta.

Here we go!

1/2 cup white wine
1lbs of shrimp (I used 1/3 shrimp, 1/3 lobster, 1/3 scallops)
3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp seafood (or veg) bouillion
2 cups broccoli florets
spices to taste (little salt, pepper (both epicure), red garlic sansel (epicure), 3 onion dip (epicure)).

1 cup skim evaporated milk
2 tbsp. cornstarch (or flour)

Heat wine in large skillet.
Add seafood and garlic, saute until seafood is cooked (dont overcook). Remove seafood from skillet and set aside.
Add mushrooms to wine and saute for about 3 minutes. Add hot water and bouillion. Bring to a boil, then add the broccoli and seasonings. Cover and cook until broccoli is done.
Stir evaporated milk and cornstarch together in a small bowl. Add to liquid. Cook until thickened. Add seafood. At this point I also added some spinach for extra goodness.
Serve with your favourite pasta!
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Home Grown Goodness!

Tonight my goal for dinner was to have as much home grown foods as possible. The only part of our dinner that wasn't local was the rice.
Fried Root Veggies, Sausage and Rice!

Veggies
2 tbls Olive Oil (I like the light)
1 turnip
1 sweet potato
1 zucchini (I know its not a root veg but I love it!

Seasoning:
Epicures Herbed Garlic Seasalt and 4 Pepper.










In a large sauce pan heat the olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper. Add the veggies and cook on medium until soft. Start with the sweet potato and turnip once they are about soft add the zucchini as it does not at near as long.
I bought our sausages from a local farmer at the Boyce Market. They are unbelievable. I have to add a bit of water to the pan because there is no grease that comes out of them.

If you choose, adding a little teriyaki sauce to top off the flavours.
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As always, Happy Eating!

Tonight's Dinner: Chicken Cacciatore!!!

Here is an easy meal that is filling, full of good healthy veggies and super tastey!

3 chicken breasts, thawed and cubed
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 zucchini (optional), sliced
sliced mushrooms (as many as you'd like
1 onion sliced
garlic to taste
oregano, pepper, basil all to taste
2 cups of homemade pasta sauce (I will post the recipe for this very soon)
Parmesan to taste

Preheat the oven at 350. Put all the cut up meat and veggies into a roasting pan with the sauce. I prefer to cube my chicken because I have young children, plus it cooks faster. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and veggies are soft.
Meanwhile, make some rice or pasta (your personal choice). I prefer rice for this dish. I love basmati or jasmin rice. Any kind of sticky rice really. Otherwise brown and wild rice is great healthy option.
As always, happy eating!
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About Ginger Snaps

I tend to do a lot of baking and cooking. I'm always asked for recipes. So here it is. I've started this blog to share my recipes, baking/cooking experiments and even some failures. I often take recipes and play around with them to try new things, create something new or simply to change the taste. I try to use wholesome foods. However when baking I do use sugar. I'll  do my best to offer alternatives.

I'll offer tips as well. Hope everyone enjoys.
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Happy Eating

Ginger Snap!