Curried Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup

It was such a gloomy day today so I was craving a comforting, warm bowl of soup. I had some sweet potatoes and cauliflower that I needed to use so figured it was worth a shot to mix them together into a nice soup. The end result was so fantastically flavourful and such a hit with the little one and husband, so I will share with you this delightful, healthy recipe that I will definitely be making again and again in the future.

Ingredients
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 small chopped onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 398mL can chicken broth
2 cups water
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 cups cauliflower, chopped
Sour cream or plain yogurt to garnish
Chopped cilantro or parsley to garnish

Directions
Melt butter or margarine in large pot. Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper and saute until nicely browned.

Add curry, cumin, and cinnamon. Raise heat and add chicken broth and water and let it come to a boil. Lower heat and add sweet potatoes and cauliflower and simmer until tender, about 25-30 minutes. Using a hand blender, puree all ingredients until nice and smooth. 

Serve in a bowl with a dollop of sour cream (or yogurt) and chopped cilantro to garnish. 

Delicious! 

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Butter Tarts

The hubby needed a food to represent Canada for Multicultural week at work, so rather than him trying to take the easy (and disgusting) road of cooking up a few boxes of Kraft Dinner, I told him I would make Butter Tarts - a "highly regarded" and "quintessential" dessert in Canada. I have never made butter tarts before but figured they can't be all that difficult and with what they're made of, there was very low chance of them not tasting great. I came across this recipe (ironically American) on All Recipes and whipped up a couple dozen.

Recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com
Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter (softened)
2 cups raisins
2 tablespoons heavy cream or coffee cream
1 cup chopped walnuts
30 (2 inch) unbaked tart shells (I used 3 inch tart shells)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C).

2. Cream the butter, sugar and eggs well. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Pour batter into tart shells, no more than half full. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Watch carefully!!--they'll burn quickly. Filling will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or so. Liquid coffee creamer can be used for cream. Use any good pie pastry for shells. 

They taste absolutely amazing!!


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Cilantro Thai Chicken Balls

Let me start off by saying just how much I LOVE cilantro. I think it might be a bit ridiculous just how much I love it. My husband thinks I'm crazy how I'm constantly searching for recipes containing it and then tripling the amount of cilantro that the recipe asks for. I'm not sure if I could have married him if he didn't like it (he's not nearly as big a fan, but at least he doesn't hate it like many people do). Or maybe, just maybe, he actually really hates it but he's in too deep now and is just too scared to tell me the truth. Hmmm....

Anyway....I had some ground chicken defrosting for dinner tonight and had this recipe saved in my favourites on All Recipes. I had made my own slightly modified version of them a few months ago and they were so moist and tasted so amazing. And....they have a nice amount of cilantro in them, so obviously I knew what I would be making tonight with my ground chicken.

Cilantro Thai Chicken Balls

1lb extra lean ground chicken
1 egg
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
1 cup (or more) chopped cilantro
2 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Chop up cilantro and combine in bowl with above ingredients. Mix together until ingredients are evenly distributed. Roll into balls; I prefer bigger balls (yea, I said it), but you can make them smaller if you want to make them as appetizers with some sweet chili sauce for dipping.

Pour some bread crumbs into a bowl and roll the chicken balls in the bread crumbs to coat them.

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and place chicken balls in until just browned on the outside. Remove from skillet and place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until fully cooked.

Serve with some rice and a nice feta spinach salad to make for a lovely meal.

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Minnie and Mickey birthday fun!

I wanted to do something special for my little girl's 2nd birthday party, so I thought what better way than to make it Minnie (and Mickey) themed - her favorite two characters (although it is debatable that she might like Elmo a tad bit more).

There's nothing like planning a 2 year old's birthday party (and Pinterest) to get my creative juices flowing. I had so much fun with this party planning and am so happy with how everything turned out. Rachel had an amazing day spent with family and friends and seeing the joy on all the kid's faces made this party that much more special!

Here are a few pictures from her party

Minnie and Mickey Cupcakes

Love how this turned out!

Minnie and Mickey goody bags



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Marmalade Meatloaf

If you're looking for an extremely flavourful, incredibly moist meatloaf, look no further than here!!

I'm really not a huge fan of meatloaf because I always find it's very dry, so I usually avoid making it altogether. I had ground beef defrosting in the fridge one day many months ago and for some reason really wanted to make meatloaf. I looked up recipes online but they all looked the same and nothing stood out as being different. Then I remembered how once when I was a kid, my mom had made either meatballs or meatloaf and somebody had told her to put marmalade into it. I just love marmalade so I remember it tasting so great.

Of course, being a huge fan of marmalade, I always have some on hand in the fridge, so I figured I'd whip up my own recipe for marmalade meatloaf. I was really impressed with how flavourful it turned out and how incredibly moist it was. Both Rachel and my husband devoured it and kept wanting more, so I now make it at least once or twice a month in this house and the husband has even requested it a number of times (coming from a meatloaf hater, himself).

Ingredients:

- 1 lb lean ground beef (you can also use ground pork, ground chicken, or ground turkey for a healthier option)
- 1/2 pack french onion soup mix
- 1/2 cup marmalade (I like to use more (about 1 cup) because I looove the flavour)
- 1 egg
- 2-3 tbsp milk
- garlic powder
- salt and pepper
- few handfuls of breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- frozen peas (optional)

With your hands, mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Place in loaf pan and bake at 375 degrees for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until fully cooked through.

Enjoy!

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