My long-awaited dream of having a RECIPE INDEX is now here!!!!!

My wonderful husband helped me figure it out, and I spent a couple of painstaking hours putting it together.  But now you can easily find all my recipes conveniently in one spot!

Some of the recipes date way back to the beginning of my blog and I still use them frequently.  Others I don’t use as much anymore because of the way we’ve changed out eating habits, but they still might appeal to you!

So click on “RECIPE INDEX” over on the left ( <– ), under my photo, and you’ll be directed to the full listing.

Happy Cooking!

This past week I made spaetzle for my German dish of the week!  Basically it’s a noodle dough that you use.  It seems to me that you can eat spaetzle as either a sweet noodle or a savoury noodle.  Some people suggested topping them with some butter and cinnamon, and others suggested butter and salt.  Nevertheless, I went with the savoury version and cooked it up with asparagus and sausage!  We coated ours in butter and garlic salt – and it was yummy!

If you want to learn more about the history of spaetzle, etc. check out this link! 

Here is the original recipe, which I followed.  I don’t have a spaetzle maker, so my husband and I used our fingers and and rolled them into "noodles".   

Overall we really enjoyed them, and they were super filling.  If you could roll them thinner, or roll them into tiny balls, that would be helpful.  Generally this dough makes a generic pasta dough, so if you wanted to use a pasta press to make your own pasta, this would be a good recipe! 

This past week both felt long and extremely fast!  Weird how that is sometimes, eh?  On the weekend we were SO blessed to marry friends of ours (You can see a picture here, and find out more about their shower gift here!).  The weather was absolutely INCREDIBLE.  Everything about the day was wonderful and we’re just so happy for them!  Here’s a picture of us at the reception:

I’m also really excited this week because we found a new produce store where they sell only produce and it’s got a TON of local stuff!  So we made a point to only purchase local fruits and veggies and it’s fantastic!  We’ll be enjoying red peppers, yellow peppers, orange peppers, red onions, asparagus, spinach, mushrooms and bok choy! 

Now on to the menu!

Monday: Sausage, Asparagus and Spatzle (I’ll give a review of the spatzle on Friday as a part of Taste the World!)

Tuesday: Rice noodle stir-fry with beef and assorted veggies (bok choy, mushrooms, peppers, onion, etc.) mix with soy sauce and various spices (anyone have a good soy sauce based sauce recipe?!).

Wednesday: Falafels with plain yogurt on the side, Spinach salad, and Couscous.

Thursday: Curried Coconut Chicken (loosely based on this recipe), Rice and Veggies.

Friday: Out for dinner but I need to provide the dinner.  I’ll be making the Mexican beans/beef which is option #2 out of my suggestions for meals to feed herbivores and carnivores!  Oh yah, and these awesome cookies!!

Saturday: We have friends from out of town visiting for a week!  YAY!  We haven’t seen them in a year.  We’ll be doing homemade pizzas that night.  One vegetarian with cheese and various delicious local veggies, and the other with sausage and veggies!  Spinach salad on the side and homemade dressing!

Sunday: Potluck @ Church – not sure what to bring.  Suggestions?!

I really enjoy desserts, but it’s SO much easier to serve when you don’t have to cut it up and serve it out and create all kinds of mess when guests are over!  So I took this streusel recipe, adapted the ingredients to our tastes and instead of making a sheet cake, I made it in a muffin tin!  If you’d rather make it in the cake form just pour it into a shallow cake sheet and follow the same instructions.  

German Streusel Muffins

Muffin Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Just less than 1/4 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Oil/butter for greasing

1 cup canned or fresh fruit (i.e. berries, apples, etc.)

Mix flour, baking powder and sea salt together in a bowl and set aside.  In another bowl mix together the maple syrup, butter and eggs.  Add in the milk and vanilla.  Mix until well blended.  Add in the flour mixture to the wet mixture.  Mix until smooth.  Grease muffin tins and pour in the batter.  Top with a tablespoon of fruit in each muffin cup.  Make the streusel topping:

Streusel Ingredients:

1/4 cup of butter, in small chunks

1/2 cup of shredded coconut

1/2 tbsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup flour

Mix together with a fork until you have a soft yet cakey streusel topping.  If the mixture seems to wet, add more flour.  If it seems too dry, add more butter.  Work this until you have the mixture you desire.  Sprinkle it on top of the muffins.

Bake in the oven at 350F for 30 mins. or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.   

Monday: Masoor Daal, Couscous, Naan Bread, Curried Lamb Chops (some alterations, so I’ll post this again with my revisions), Carrots

Tuesday: Simple Fish cooked with lemon/lime juice and dill served over Quinoa with Veggies on the side

Wednesday: Homemade Meatballs served over rice with steamed broccoli.

Thursday: Quebecois Chicken served over pasta, Veggies  

Friday: At a wedding rehearsal (we’re the officiants!)!

Saturday: At a wedding!

Sunday: Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Focaccia Buns, Veggies and homemade ketchup on the side!

For Taste the World this week I’ll be attempting to make German Streusel Cake to serve to various guests we’re having over for meetings, cell group, etc.! 

See what others are eating! 

Since we’re still focusing on German cuisine, this week for Taste the World I made German Meatloaf!  I took the original recipe and tweaked it slightly so that the portion was correct for us, and altered a few of the ingredients.  Here is what it looked like:

Here is the German Meatloaf Recipe a la Alison:

Ingredients:

1 cup of bread crumbs

2 cups of sauerkraut, rinsed and drained

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup coconut milk (any milk will do)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. black pepper

2 lbs. ground beef

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.  Pour the mixture into an ungreased loaf pan and spread evenly.  Bake at 350F for 60 minutes or until cooked in the centre.  Remove from the oven and and let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

The review: It was a nice change to the regular meatloaf that we enjoy.  Ironically I didn’t really taste the sauerkraut!  There wasn’t really one flavour that stood out more than another.  It wouldn’t call it bland, but I wouldn’t call it super flavourful either.  The original recipe called for 2 tbsp. of ketchup or chili sauce, neither of which I had on hand, so perhaps that might have helped it, but I’m not sure it wouldn’t done a whole lot.  And of course, I skipped the caraway seed which would definitely have given it that German feel.  I think since I don’t keep the caraway seed in my home usually the cumin was a good substitute (or so I’ve been told), but I’d up it to 1 tbsp. maybe.  All in all a lovely dinner though!  My husband ate seconds, and that’s usually a good sign…     

This post is linked to: Finer Things, Food on Fridays and Frugal Friday.

We’re still working through some leftovers as well as the remainder of our freezer order (we order our meat in bulk!), and so we’re in the process of using up what we have.  With that in mind, here is our menu for this week:

Monday: Homemade Pizza with tomato sauce, ground beef, green peppers and cheese

Tuesday: German Meatloaf, Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes (Review and pic of the meatloaf on Friday as a part of Taste the World!)

Wednesday: Crunchy Japanese Fish with Vegetable and Noodle Toss (Rachael Ray’s recipe – see below!)

Thursday: Homemade Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Roasted Squash

Friday: Salmon Fritters, Veggies, Couscous

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Roast, Yorkshires, Veggies  

Crunchy Japanese Fish with Vegetable and Noodle Toss:

Japanese Fish: 1/2 lb. thin spaghetti, coarse salt, 2 lbs. haddock fillets, 1 pinches of cayenne pepper, zest and juice of 1 lemon, 3 cups of bread crumbs, 3 tbsp. parsley, 3 tbsp. chives, 1/2 cup butter melted.

Lo Mein: 3 tbsp. oil, 3 garlic cloves chopped, 2 inch piece of fresh ginger minced, 1 cup shredded carrots, 2 cups bean sprouts, 1 8 oz. can of water chestnuts drained and chopped, 1 red bell pepper thinly sliced, 6 green onions thinly sliced, 1/3 cup tamari sauce.

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the pasta and salt the water.  Cook the pasta until slightly undercooked.  Drain.  While the pasta works, prepare the fish.  Season the fish with salt, cayenne pepper, lemon zest, and the juice of 1/2 lemon.  Cut the remaining 1/2 lemon into wedges and reserve.  Combine the bread crumbs, parsley and chives.  Dip the fish in the melted butter, then coat evenly in the crumbs and place on a non-stick cookie sheet.  Bake for 17-18 mins. until evenly golden and crisp.  After the fish goes in the oven, heat a large non-stick skillet over high heat.  Add the oil, garlic, ginger, and carrots.  Cook for 1 minute, stir-frying the mixture, then add the bean sprouts, water chestnuts, red bell peppers, and green onions.  Stir-fry for another 2 minutes and add the drained, hot pasta.  Add the tamari and remove from the heat.  Toss for a minute for the pasta to absorb the tamari and vegetable juices, and divide the No-Pain Lo Mein among 4 plates.  Serve with the crispy oven-fried fish.  Pass the lemon wedges at the table.

What are you cooking for dinner?