Another afternoon snack for the kids - APPLE SAUCE

Tis the season for .... Apple Sauce!!

Recently, my son went on a school trip to an apple farm here in Toronto.  As you can imagine, he came home with tons of apples and left me thinking 'what am I going to do with all of these apples'? So I decided to make apple sauce and thought it would make a great after school snack.  Boy was I right!!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 Apples - peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 - Water
1/2 - teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup white sugar

Directions:

Combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon in a small sauce pan. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool, then mash potato masher.

 

Caldo Verde/Kale Soup

After a long pause due to unforeseeable reasons, I'm glad to be back and posting!  To kick off the fall season of recipes, I'm sharing with you my favorite soup recipe, caldo verde aka kale soup.  Surprisingly, my mother introduced me to this soup.  We were at a wedding and this soup was on the menu, its remained a fave of mine since then.  I always had the privilege of being able to enjoy the soup when I went to weddings or visited friends but I never learned how to make it until I married my husband and his mother taught me.  So here is the recipe.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I do.

Ingredients

4-6 Potatoes -  quartered
2 quarts water
1 chorizo sausage - thinly sliced
1 bunch of kale-washed thick stems removed and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions

In a soup pot, add the potatoes and water. Cover and boil gently over medium heat for 20 mins.

In a skillet, cook sausage (approx 2 mins on each side) drain and reserve.

When the potatoes are fork tender, mash them using a potato masher right in the pot.  Add t he sausage and kale to the soup.  Simmer for 5 mins and season with salt and pepper.

Pasta with tuna alla puttanesca

Ingredients

250g pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil

Two cans tuna packed in olive oil

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons capers

1/2 cup of kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

One can diced Italian tomatoes

Preparation

 In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the tuna, flaking it with a wooden spoon.  Add the garlic and pepper flakes cook for 4 minutes.  Add the capers and olives cook for about 1 minute.  Add diced tomatoes lower heat to a medium low and cook for 5-10 minutes. Season lightly with salt.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water, add the pasta and cook until al dente.

Can you freeze that?

When my family and I moved into our home about 2 years ago, we bought a brand new upright freezer thinking we would have so much to freeze.  Truth be  told, it's been practically empty until I've researched things I can freeze that make it easy  to unfreeze and cook up a meal.  Here is a mini list I've made up of food items that I believe freeze and unfreeze well:

Diced Vegetables:  

Just wash, dry, dice and quickly bag them up.  Flatten the freezer bags to make space in your freezer.  When you flatten the freezer bags it makes it easier for foods  to unfreeze.

Soups and Broth:  

Cool leftover soup completely and transfer to freezer friendly food containers OR mason jars.  When your freezing liquids like broth, be sure to leave room for expansion (about 1 cup should do).  The night before you are ready to eat soup, you can thaw the soup or broth in the fridge, reheat and serve.

Pesto:  

Make or buy pesto sauce.  Put the sauce into freezer friendly containers or mason jars and directly into the freezer. Now you can have pesto whenever the mood strikes!!

Homemade or Store Bought Pizza Dough:  

You can freeze pizza dough as it is, so stock up when they are on sale!!

Marinated Meat:   

Place meat in a freezer bag pour in the marinade and freeze.

Homemade Lasagna:  

when you are preparing lasagna, be sure to prepare more than one lasagna tray.  You can freeze lasagna in the dish it is in.  Bake directly from frozen.  **I don't cook then freeze my lasagna, I prepare and freeze uncooked**

Herbs:  

You can easily freeze just about any herb.  Many freeze herbs using ice cube trays and water (I don't).  I wash, let dry chop and freeze in freezer bags.

What do you freeze?

Bacon Wrapped Green Beans

Very easy side dish to prepare.  You can prep the green bean bundles ahead of time and roast them later just before serving.

Ingredients:

737g green beans, ends trimmed
4 slices of bacon - cut in half
pinch of salt
olive oil spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line and spray a baking sheet with olive oil.

Blanch the green beans for 3 minutes then strain and let them cool.

Once cooled, make 8 even bundles and wrap in one half slice of bacon.

Place the bundles seam side down on baking sheet, spray olive oil over the tops of the bundles and season with salt.  Bake for 14-16 minutes.

Mozzarella in Carrozza

Mozzarella in Carrozza refers to the classic grilled cheese, Italian style. 

Here is my version

Ingredients:

8 slices toast bread, crusts removed
1 mozzarella di buffalo
2-3 tbsp canola oil
3 large eggs
1 cup milk

Directions:

Combine the eggs and milk, whisk together.  In a medium sized frying pan add the 2-3 table spoons of canola oil.  While the oil is heating, place the mozzarella between the bread. Dip the sandwich into the egg and milk mixture make sure both sides of the bread are coated.  Place in frying pan and fry until bread is golden brown.

Tortellini and Spinach Soup

    

    Chicken broth is a common ingredient in many meals.  If you don't have homemade chicken broth you can substitute with chicken bouillon.

     Chicken bouillon has a long shelf life therefore its easy to keep on hand.  Generally, each bouillon cube, added to one cup of water makes one cup of broth depending on your taste preference. 

     Its been cold here in Vaughan Ontario so this weekend I made my family tortellini and spinach soup.  To speed the process, I used frozen tortellini and bouillon cubes.  The tortellini are a heavy pasta so the soup was a meal in itself, I just added a garden salad and dinner was done.

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen tortellini (cheese)
2 cups baby spinach leaves
4 cups chicken broth
3 bouillon cubes (chicken flavor)

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan bring water to a boil and add bouillon cubes to boiling water, reduce heat to medium.

Add spinach and tortellini to broth simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve and add grated cheese if desired.

Enjoy!!