May the Fourth be with you...

Happy Friday everyone! This has been yet another busy week, swamped with work, family stuff and just the "little things" like errands and chores. It's unbelievable how much time doing dishes, laundry and just general cleaning actually takes! Among the haste, Hubs always manages to make food that looks like it belongs in a food magazine. I'll talk between the pictures ;)

Lamb in a red wine reduction sauce

Roasted garlic and herb potatoes

Sauteed vegetables on the side

Over here in my part of the world, the weather has increasingly become warmer and nothing gets me more excited than summer. Why? Because that means it's camping season! Hubs and I loooove going camping and barbecuing when it's warm. We find excitement in preparing all the food and bringing our trust portable grill out with our daughter to enjoy the weather. I predict this summer will be no different!!

I think it's amazing that Hubs has the skills to make food of such variety, both in textures and tastes. I'm totally opposite when it comes to cooking since I feel like such a novice in the kitchen/cooking department. BAKING HOWEVER... That's more my neck of the woods. We sure can make a great feast pairing our cooking and baking skills together :)

Chicken Hash Open Face Sandwich

This open face sandwich is something I totally love for brunch (and of course Hubs knows that hehee). It's sauteed chicken, potato, onion and carrot dredged in this delicious mushroom gravy over a crispy piece of toast. Doesn't that sound delicious? Well, it tastes better than it looks!

If you would like recipes for any of these, please feel free to email me at belleplusmel@gmail.com. I tend not to write out the recipes as often anymore on the blog post because it comes out very long. If you have questions about substituting any ingredients, feel free to ask as well! I often find that when you're recipe researching, you are almost always guaranteed to be missing one or two ingredients... At least I do. I like to look for recipes based on what I've already bought on my weekly grocery trip so I do end up substituting ingredients in most recipes.

Anyway, I hope within your busy schedules, you're able to find some time to cook yourself a good and hearty meal at least once a week (or have someone do it!).

 

♥B

Food!!

Hubs had an extra day off this week so he decided to spoil me with a nice dinner. I only take credit for slicing the potatoes though. He literally made everything else. So what was for dinner, you ask? Here it comes... *drum rolls*

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken with Scalloped Potatoes!  

The Preparation

diced veggies, scalloped potatoes, stuffing, and bacon wrapping

The Finished Product

And of course, a peek inside :)

 

♥B

Spring-ing

Wow it's been a while since we both updated! As you can imagine, we're busy enjoying the spring weather outdoors. I went out with the family today and it seriously felt like summer already. Anyway, Saturdays mean prepping food for the week - things like baking, or pre-cooking and freezing food. Today it means CHICKEN STOCK/BROTH! If I'm lazy, I tend to resort to chicken cubes which are in fact high in sodium and probably a bunch of other things that aren't necessary to one's body. Instead, I make my own! It's a nutritious alternative to store-bought stock or broth because you control what goes into the stock.

Ingredients: fresh parsley, celery, carrots, onion, tomato, garlic and raw (bone-in) chicken

That's all. You literally put all that in one pot and cover it with cold water. Let it boil and simmer for at least 4 hours so that all the ingredients can really flavour the water.

No, seriously... Just throw it all in one pot. It's so easy you could probably do this blindfolded.

So hopefully, it'll inspire you guys to make your own chicken stock as it really is healthier. If you're a vegetarian, you can just omit the chicken and you get vegetable stock!

* * *

What else to do while you wait for chicken stock to boil for a few hours?

Finger paint!

 Essie - Chinchilly (3 coats)

Happy Saturday everyone!

♥B

Happy St. Patty's!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! A great excuse to get trashed for most people, but since hubs is working and we've got no one to watch the little ones, it's a stay-at-home day for me. I'm sure most people did their nails green so I jumped on the bandwagon.

Nails: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Green with Envy

I hate how hard it is to capture the real colour of nails in photographs. From the left, I shot that at night. Second picture from the left, that was during the daytime. Both look like two completely different shades. But the best way to describe the true colour of this would be "celery". Yup, I was chopping celery earlier today and realized that it was an identical match. This was about 3 coats with top and base coat.

As for dinner...

Chinese Ginger Beef on Rice

Hope everyone's getting completely wasted tonight!

♥B

On the Grind

Today was an extremely hectic day at work. I couldn't wait to get home, play with my daughter, and get some grub in my tub. Mel's meals are making me ridiculously hungry all the time so I decided to treat myself to some comfort food since I've been relatively light on my meals lately.

Entree Pan Fried Meatloaf in Bell Peppers (adapted from Sunny Anderson's recipe)

1 bell pepper (any colour), sliced in 1-inch rings

Stick these in the oven at 350F for about 15 minutes while you prepare your meatloaf.

1 lb ground beef

1/2 onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 egg

2 slices of bread, torn into little pieces

Herb du Provence, salt and pepper to your taste

In a mixing bowl, put all the ingredients together and mix well. Take out the bell peppers from the oven and heat up a pan with a nub of butter or oil. Simply stuff the meatloaf into the bell peppers and saute them for about 5-7 minutes on each side until done. Garnish with parsley!

On the side Onion Potato Gratin

4 potatoes, thinly sliced

1 onion, sliced in rings

2 garlic cloves

2 cups cheese (preferably gruyere or parmagiano reggiano)

1-2 cups milk

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp thyme

1 bay leaf

Preheat your oven to 350F and prepare your baking pan by rubbing butter on it to prevent sticking. Thinly slice your potatoes - I used a mandoline. Meanwhile, saute your onions and garlic in 1 tbsp of butter until they have softened. In a separate pot, melt 1 tbsp of butter and add your milk, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf. Let that boil for about 5 minutes. Now layer the potatoes, onions and 2/3 of the cheese. This is what I did:

One layer potatoes... add a bit of salt and pepper

One layer onions

One layer potatoes... add a bit of salt and pepper

One layer cheese

And I kept doing that until I finished using the potatoes. Pour the boiling milk mixture into the potatoes and top off with remaining butter. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Then pull it out, and put the remainder of the cheese and finish in the oven for 15 minutes.

Ta-da! Okay, this does take a bit of work, but boy was it well worth the wait and effort.

Just like Mel, I completely demolished it. Teee heee. Now excuse me while I delve into a new episode of Criminal Minds and unwind :)

♥B

5 Ingredient Fix

This is a simple recipe that may be familiar to some as a common chinese breakfast food. It mainly consists of macaroni, spam (pork) and a little bit of mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots) swimming in a tasteful chicken broth. It's so basic and great for using up leftovers around the kitchen within a matter of minutes! Here is my take below on this recipe:

What you'll need..
Macaroni
Spam
Assorted Vegetables
Egg
Chicken Broth (this may be substituted with beef broth)

With few ingredients there are also few steps that can be done quick and efficiently by following these directions.

1. Boil a desired serving of macaroni while prepping the spam by cutting into slices. Determining the right portion of pasta without a proper instrument gets a bit tricky but 2 big handful + a half usually works out to a perfect serving for myself.
2. Pan fry without oil as the spam releases a lot of it's natural fats and oils until crisp. *For a healthy alternative, spam tastes just as good boiled in the broth itself.
3. Once the macaroni is done, strain and set aside. Using the same pot, to save yourself some dishes to wash, boil chicken broth/stock with assorted vegetables.
4. Once the spam is done, set aside on paper towel to soak the excess oil. Using the same pan, fry a sunny side egg.
5. Assemble your dish by placing macaroni, spam, and egg in a bowl. Pour over the hot broth!

For those who know me, they'll know that I can NOT have a meal without my hot sauce. Today I'm using one of my favourite chili oils that is extremely spicy just the way I love it. I'd recommend this any day as it does have the kick that (based on my experience) a lot of other chili oils lack!

Bon Appetit!
♥M