Skewers!

My friend Lisa recently made shrimp and pineapple skewers that looked so good, and I knew when I saw them that we'd love them!  She also mentioned how she was thinking of making a skewer meal each week; they are so easy, versatile, and delicious.  I jumped right on board with this idea, and started with those tasty looking shrimp and pineapple skewers.

They were dinner last night, along with leftover garlic bread, potatoes, a veggie mixture, and mushroom-halloumi skewers.  We made a bunch of food so we'd have leftovers for our lunches.

Grilled pineapple is excellent; if you haven't tried it, you must.

Tonight we made stout beef skewers with asparagus and kale salad. 

There are a few other skewer recipes bookmarked on our computer for upcoming meals.

Other recent eats have included salmon (a couple times):

With baked spaghetti squash, which I am officially hooked on.

And pork chops with an easy baked rice:

We usually make rice on the stove, but if we have oven space, we'll absolutely be making this recipe again!

Easy Baked Rice

1 can sliced mushrooms  (save liquid)
1 cup long grain white rice
1 pack onion soup mix
1 T canola or veg. oil
2 tsp soy sauce
water
 
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter a casserole dish (1.5 L sized).  Drain mushrooms and reserve liquid.  In buttered dish stir together mushrooms, rice, and onion soup mix.  In liquid measuring cup pour in mushroom liquid, oil, soy sauce, and add water until you have 2 1/2 cups of liquid total.  Pour over rice and gently stir.  Bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes.

Have you made any skewers recently?  

Do you make rice on the stove?  In the oven?  Microwave?

Plant-Based Meals

We've been eating a lot of plant-based meals lately.  One of the easiest ones, and a new favourite, is this satisfying meal of artichoke melts and tahini spinach.

Artichoke Melts

(Makes 4 bun-halves)

• 2 buns, sliced
• 1 can artichokes (14 oz/398 ml), drained
• 1-1.5 T mayo
• 1 T minced onion
• 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp smokey paprika
• 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne 
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• grated cheese to top them with (to taste)

Chop up the artichokes well (I like to chop them similar to flaked tuna).  Add the mayo, onion, and spices (or whatever you like really).  Top the four bun halves with the mixture, top with cheese, and broil on high 3-5 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.  Watch! 

Tahini Spinach

(Makes 2 portions)

• 1 T tahini
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 large pack of baby spinach (312 g/11 oz)
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Mix the tahini, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar in a small bowl. Put the spinach into a dry, large pot, and stir and let it wilt over medium heat.  It will give off its water.  Keep stirring for 1-3 minutes until all is wilted. Remove from heat and squeeze all liquid out of the spinach. (We use a clean silicon oven mitt to really give it a good squeeze.  You want all liquid drained off, so squeeze it well.) You can let it cool if you need to, then squeeeeeeeze.  Drizzle the drained spinach with sesame oil, and toss it with the tahini sauce. Serve warm or cold.

We have the tahini spinach as a side dish multiple times per week.

On the side with daal and rice:

With a baked potato and beans:

With kimchi potatoes and roasted broccoli:

Other plant-based meals we've been enjoying include tempeh stir fry:

Borscht perogies with saurkraut:

Vegan alfredo pasta:

Tofu and veggie, rice bowls with peanut sauce:

Bean and sweet potato burritos:

So many vegetarian dishes from Caraway:

Panang vegetable curry, with Thai sticky rice:

Falafel pitas with homemade super-green falafels, and alllllll the pickled turnips:

Sushi rolls on the day we were supposed to leave for Japan 😢:

Grilled veggies with halloumi cheese:

Nachos!

And burgers made with smoked portobellos instead of beef patties:

(Note the tahini spinach on the side again.  We're hooked.)

And we even had plant-based dessert recently - mango with sticky rice.

Have you had any good plant-based meals lately?

Do you try to incorporate plant-based meals into your diet?

Eating Outdoors

Many days this summer it rained hard for about 10-20 minutes, and then it went back to being beautiful out again.  We've been eating outside as much as we can, to take full advantage of the nice weather.

Recently we had Christopher's brother's family over for dinner.

Snacks first!

I prepped the meal during the day, and then Christopher did the grilling when our guests arrived.  We had Greek ribs, homemade bread, dill pickle pasta salad, bourbon bacon coleslaw, and baked beans.

Dessert was berries on a cloud:

It was wonderful to spend time with Mel, Steve, and our precious niece Charlotte.  She is the sweetest little girl, and she loved helping auntie and uncle.  She's excited to come back to our house soon to play the drums, while uncle plays guitar.  He can't wait to jam with her!  She's only four, but she's a natural on the drums.

Another day we had a really simple meal outside.  We hadn't got groceries yet for the week, so we were eating up random stuff from the fridge/freezer, and it ended up being delicious.

The bell pepper was stuffed with halloumi cheese, which was really good!  We had to dump some water from the pepper a couple times while grilling, as it accumulated in the bottom of the pepper, but other than that, it was great.  We'll make these again for sure.

I made my burger taste like a Whopper Junior.  I used to love Burger King when I was a teenager, but I got brutal food poisoning from there twice (the only two times I've ever had it), back-to-back, although years apart.  I will never eat there again, but this replication hit the spot (lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, pickles, white onion).

On the weekend we had breakfast outside, which was a lovely way to start the day.

On Sunday my aunt and uncle had all the family in town over for a BBQ.  My cousin Janine and her family were in from Toronto, so we got to visit with them, as well as cousins, and second cousins, and another aunt and uncle that we don't get to see too often.  The little kids all got to meet and play together, and us big kids got to catch up.  The rain held out for a while, but then we got a few raindrops, although no one minded.

The food was really good, and I think Christopher ate his weight in chicken:

And check out this dessert spread!

Wow!

I think everyone really enjoyed getting together with so many extended family members.  We used to all get together at Christmas when I was little, and those are some of my fondest memories.  There haven't been any family weddings in a while, and no major milestone birthdays (my great grandma's 100th birthday was a fabulous family occasion), so it was such a nice surprise when my auntie and uncle invited us over.

We stayed out past our bedtime, but it was worth it.

On Monday we ate dinner outside again.

Potatoes with sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, and chicken thighs with a Korean marinade that Christopher made:

We also made a kimchi coleslaw to round out this meal.

Last night we had plans to cook and eat outside, but it started pouring just as we were about to head out back.  We cooked inside instead, which wasn't ideal for the shrimp and pineapple skewers, but it still worked.

On the side we had mushrooms cooked with herbs, garlic, butter, and shallot, and an easy baked rice.  You can find the recipe for the skewers here, and the rice recipe here.

Tonight's dinner will be in the park, as we're heading out later to celebrate our nephew's second birthday.  Happy birthday Kingsley!  We love you so, so much 💜

How was your weekend?  How's your week going so far?  Have you been eating outside at all?  How often do you get together with extended family?

Dinner Guests: Tastes from Five Regions

Yesterday evening my sister Leah, and her sweetheart Riley came over for dinner.  We spent the day cleaning the house, setting the table, and getting dishes prepped.

We weren't sure what to make, and went back and forth with ideas before deciding on a menu, choosing some of our favourite dishes from different regions of the world.

The amuse bouche was Ukranian - a homemade perogy filled with potato, beet, dill and goat cheese.

That got the taste buds dancing!

Next we moved on to a Korean appetizer, seasoned rice pockets. 

We made the rice purple in colour by mixing black rice, and white sticky rice.  The rice is flavoured with a vinegary seasoning, and placed in yummy tofu pockets.

Next on the menu were Indian cilantro squares.  The smell of these frying up is amazing.

The next course was a coconut, red curry, Thai soup with shrimp.

We spaced each course out, and after soup, we moved into the basement to listen to a couple of vinyls.  Leah and Riley wanted to hear Christopher drum a bit, so he did a one minute drum solo, and then played a little jungle beat, while we had a very short dance party.

We moved upstairs for a Southern-U.S. inspired main course.

We had fried chicken:

Baked beans:

Mac and cheese, and coleslaw:

With buttermilk cornbread to round it all (or us) out:

Mmmmm, everything was a hit!

Once we stuffed our guests to the brim, we moved into the living room where the prospect of dessert was looming.

We waited about an hour before cutting into the desserts.

First up was a moist, gingerbread loaf/cake with spiced buttercream.

And then, there was also cherry-berries on a cloud.  It's a light, airy, pavlova-cheese-cakey piece of heaven.

Needless to say, it was a tasty evening. 

We're only satisfied when our dinner guests are in food-comas.   

We're cruel like that.

How was your weekend?  What did you get up to?