If you love brownies, Oreos, and peanut butter, this is the dessert for you. I’m hosting Christmas dinner on Friday and I’ve been testing out appetizers and desserts all week to come up with the perfect menu so expect more updates soon!

I saw this idea a while ago on Instructables and made a mental note to try it. I don’t quite remember it, and seeing as I didn’t bother to go back and check it out, I’m not sure if it’s the same. Either way, this was delicious and it took all the strength I have to keep my significant other half from gobbling down the entire container. Sadly, I just remembered one of the guests  is allergic to peanut butter.

Meanwhile, let’s get on with the important things: you need to get your hands on your favorite brownie batter (whether it’s from a box or made from scratch), a box of Oreos, and a jar of peanut butter.

Line a muffin tin with muffin cups and drizzle the bottom with just enough batter to cover the bottom. Grab a cookie, put a thin layer of peanut butter (it’s very overpowering so you really don’t need much), and place in the cup making sure the bottom is evenly covered in the batter. Now scoop the brownie batter on top to cover the cookie.

If you don’t put batter under the cookie, it will not soften and will be a random hard bite in the middle of your brownie which is not as pleasant, this way, it all becomes one and allows it to compliment each other.

Enjoy!

I love me some Italian foods, there’s nothing like a comforting pasta dish. However, there’s nothing like the carbs that come with it too, so we generally stay away from anything pasta-related.

That said, I love me some pasta, so as a treat to my man and I, I made us my first lasagna ever. And you know what? It was great success! It was by FAR better than any purchased lasagna I’ve ever had whether it was in the frozen aisle, the hot-ready-2-go aisle, or even a restaurant (granted, I’ve never ordered lasagna in a fancy Italian place). And I’m more than positive the secret to its success was wine.

No, not just the glass that goes with dinner, but have the lasagna fully cook in red wine instead of water.

Meat: ground beef
Vegetable: caesar salad
Anything goes: well.. the lasagna pasta (100% whole wheat).

Start by frying up ground beef and diced onion in a skillet. Add your favorite seasonings (again, I used taco seasoning, and I mean A LOT A LOT of it). Once all is brown, add pasta sauce. I never use bought pasta sauce, but go figure I had a fair bit of it so in it goes! Add lots of garlic (fresh or powdered), and oregano. And let it simmer a bit.

Granted, this looked a lot more appetizing last night fresh out of the oven but I was too lazy to go across the room for my phone. So next-day-straight-out-of-the-fridge-left-over picture for you instead! Yay!!

While that’s cookin’, good lookin’, shred as much cheese as you’d like to use for your lasagna. I used majority of an IKEA shredder container (PRODUCT PLACEMENT!) and mix it up in a bowl with a large amount of grated Parmesan cheese. Add an egg or two, and traditionally you’re supposed to add cottage cheese or ricotta. I had neither, so I added a bit of sour cream to give it consistency. I also have a Basil plant in my kitchen so I shoved an enormous amount of cut-up leaves in as well but you can use parsley, dill, cilantro, mint, whatever you can get your hands on.

Grab a pan and spoon a layer of the beef mixture (making sure the sauce hasn’t evaporated but is also not watery, should be a good combination of consistency). Layer the lasagna shells, and layer half the cheese. Spoon the rest of the beef, more pasta, and the rest of the cheese. Grab a bottle of red wine and pour around the edges.I probably used 1/4-1/2 cup of wine, so you don’t want to drown it, but it needs moisture to cook the raw shells.

Cover in aluminum foil and bake in a 350 oven for 40 minutes. Take off the foil and bake for another 10 to let the top crisp. Let stand for another 10 minutes if you can keep yourself from salivating too much (good time to occupy yourself with making a caesar salad), and voila! Buon appetito!

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you the best dinner our 4 months old house has experienced in… 4 months.

Meat: Chicken breast
Veggie: Steamed broccoli
Anything Goes: spaghetti

First things first, this could be a fairly nutritious meal depending on some of your choices: A. what sort of spaghetti you use (go for whole wheat) and B. whether you make your own sauce or use the craptastic store-bought.. crap. Also, it may not be the quickest meal, but it is SO worth it, and if you make a few more breasts than you would eat in this time around, you have leftovers to tie you over at lunch for the next little while too!

Start off by grabbing a deep pan large enough to fry up diced onions, any tomatoes you have in the house (the softer and riper they are, the better), cubed peppers, and a fair amount of broth. Let it cook, evaporate a little (add a bit of broth at a time so you don’t pour too much and then have the whole sauce too runny, this is almost a chutney in the end, so it definitely shouldn’t be runny). Add any and all spices you like, and make sure to be SUPER generous, none of this “half a teaspoon” crap you see in many recipe books. I sploshed on a nice amount of dried oregano, roasted peppers, and taco seasoning to give it kick. Add mushrooms (they take the least amount of time, so it’s the last step for the sauce along with minced garlic (fresh or minced from a jar.. the jar one provides a better kick so if you have that, use it).

Prepare a baking dish laid out with chicken breasts, sprinkle a full layer of seasoned bread crumbs onto the chicken, spray with PAM on top, and spoon the sauce all over the chicken until you can’t even see the chicken. Add a nice layer of Parmesan cheese, and an even nicer layer of shredded cheese. Throw it in the oven on 400 for a good 30-40 minutes (juices should come out from both the chicken and the sauce cause the chicken to cook in it and therefore not go dry… perfecto!)

While that’s cooking, I was tempted to do a salad but decided the green on the plate would be steamed broccoli which ended up complimenting this in the utmost perfect way. So steam those up, once they’re ready, toss them in a bowl with salt and butter.

At the same time, boil your spaghetti. If you have “sauce” left over, feel free to use that on the spaghetti, otherwise make your favorite sauce (but actually, keep it simple so it doesn’t take away from the chicken sauce. I won’t say this often as I NEVER use pre-bought crap, but I heated it up and added some garlic and that’s all I did to modify it. Never happens, yet here you go. It was so simple, it was actually the perfect addition on the side).

And voila, sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of the pasta and pour yourself a nice glass of wine, and you have yourself a restaurant-worthy meal.

Admit it, we’re all suckers for a big slob of ketchup all over our shepherd’s pie; it’s essential the vehicle for this delicious syrup and copious amounts of unnecessary sugar. Well, no more! Here’s a shepherd’s pie that is so full of flavour, it seriously doesn’t need anything on it.

I also recently learned there are people who have never had shepherd’s pie before, so here is a simple recipe to get you started (to which I have no picture as I just gobbled up the leftovers, sorry).

I’d also like to make a point: I’ve made shepherd’s pie with ground turkey/chicken before…. and although edible… it’s just not the same. Please stick to ground beef for the full party of flavours in your mouth

Firstly, fry up diced onions, add beef, minced garlic and be extremely generous with seasonings. I suggest taco seasonings to give it a kick. When I say generous, I mean GENEROUS, otherwise it’s the shepherd’s pie that always gets lost amid the potato flavours which then calls for ketchup. Loads and loads.

Add a fair bit of canned tomatoes/juice to give it some tenderness and let the juice evaporate, a bit of Worcestershire sauce and spoon the beef into a baking dish.

Layer corn, chopped beans and peppers (or whatever frozen veggies you have), and spoon on mashed potatoes, sprinkle paprika, and a generous load of cheese all over the top.

Keeps real well, and you get tons of leftovers for the week Enjoy!

I like salmon. It’s good for you, and it’s a nice change from every day chicken or beef every once in a while. But despite the fact that I like it, I can never eat too much without feeling sick until I came across this: salmon glazed in maple syrup.

Super easy, dinner was on the table in less than 10 minutes and I ate an entire salmon fillet, no problem!

Meat: Salmon
Veggies: Salad
Anything goes: mashed potatoes

Ingredients: salmon fillets, soy sauce, maple syrup, brown sugar, mashed potatoes, salad of your choosing (balsamic dressing will go well with this though).

You can buy delicious salmon fillets frozen and they only require 2-3 minutes in a frying pan on each side. Mix about half and half of soy sauce and maple syrup, add a bit of brown sugar so the sauce will thicken, and that’s it. After you flip the salmon once, let it cook about a minute before you add the sauce so it doesn’t all just evaporate and go away. The more sauce the better.

Mashed potatoes are the best to serve with this as they don’t have much of their own flavour to take away from the maple syrup glaze (although, if you can, definitely add fresh mint, chives, or basil leaves) and will soak in the rest of the glaze that’s all over the plate. Otherwise, feel free to steam beans or cook up brown rice to go on the side. A quick simple salad, and your meal is all ready. Super easy, super delicious, and even the non-fish lovers will love it.

So I got made fun of that I’m getting super lazy with this blog (already! Called it!!) since the last post was French toast. Just as an FYI, it was more of an idea post since we all know how to make it but every weekend we sit there and try to figure out what the hell we want to eat. 

That said, I decided to go ahead and with the help of the boyfriend, we cooked up a storm in the kitchen.

This is another one of those clean-out-your-fridge meals (I have a lot of those).

Meat: Chicken
Veggies: Stuffed peppers and salad

Ingredients: chicken, rosemary, salt, red wine, garlic, maple syrup, whiskey, poultry seasoning, peppers, tomato paste, mushrooms, cheese, onions, bread crumbs, basil or mint leaves.

Peppers: Wash the peppers and empty them of seeds while still keeping the shape. This is where the cleaning out comes in handy: as long as you have the general idea (cheese and garlic) you can put anything you like. I blended together an enormous amount of cheddar cheese with garlic, onion, mushroom, tomato paste, and some sort of herbs (I can’t remember if I used basil or mint, or a combination of both), stuffed it into the peppers, topped it with bread crumbs and shoved it in the oven for a good 40 minutes.

With the peppers in the oven, get the chicken out and combine the following in a bowl (we had way too much chicken, so we did two batches for leftovers the next day). First batch: combine chicken with rosemary, salt, wine and garlic. Fry up some diced onions in a hot pan, and once golden brown, add the chicken. Takes about 10 minutes to cook up the whole thing. The aroma in the house will be fantastic, guaranteed! Second batch: combine chicken with whiskey and maple syrup and fry up in a pan for 10 min or bake for 30-40. Brush on maple syrup on the chicken a few times in the process to really get the flavour in.

And lastly, I had last few minutes until the peppers were ready to toss a salad together: lettuce, cucumbers, croutons and parmesan caesar oil-based dressing.