Spring Equinox Salad with Roasted Beets, Goat Cheese, and Pecans

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Here's a little salad that's perfect for late winter / early spring, and / or for when you have only four days left before you (well, me actually) have to squeeze into a bikini.

I mentioned in my last post that Hubs and I had just been in New Orleans for 10 days, and now we are off to Mazatlan on Friday.  We are officially on a salad-only dinner regime until we leave. New Orleans is one of our favourite cities in the whole world, but low-cal it is not...from all of the deep fried food to the massive portions to the sweet alcoholic drinks, it's hard to come back without a few extra pounds to call your own.

For instance here's The Hubby looking unimpressed by the size of his dinner order, 'Catfish Dinner with a side of fries and onion rings.'

Weeknight No-Brainer BBQ Chicken Salad

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The Hubby and I were recently in New Orleans for ten days for a combination of work and pleasure, and so it's pretty much been deep-fried catfish, and deep-fried shrimp po'boys, and deep-fried french fries and deep-fried chicken, and deep-fried crawfish, and deep-fried bacon (didn't even know this was a thing!), and deep fried chicken wings, and deep fried boudin, and deep-friend beignets, and even deep-fried pickles, jalapeños, and mushrooms.

One time I tried to be healthy and ordered a salad, and the only vegetable on my plate was 11 sprigs of arugula topped with fried green tomatoes, huge croutons, bacon, and a creamy dressing.  Another time The Hubby ordered a 1/2 sandwich, and what arrived was the biggest sandwich I've ever seen in my life.  I told the waitress that there was an error because we only ordered the half-size, to which she laughed and told me that was the half-size.  Makes sense, since it was the size of a small baby.  We were doomed a delicious, delicious fate.  Which leaves my waist-line in a bit of a predicament because The Hubby and I are off to our friend April's wedding at an all-inclusive in Mazatlan in just a little over a week, and I'm pretty sure that appropriate sun-bathing attire isn't my most comfortable pair of extra-large pyjamas.

Butternut Squash, Italian Sausage, and Spinach Pasta

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Secret:  The butternut squash is the sauce.  No, like it actually is the sauce.  Like, there's no tomato sauce, and instead it's butternut squash.  Does that mean it's healthier?  I have no clue.  But tasty?  Oh my gourd, yes!

But, first things first (and I know I'm a little late)...WAY TO GO TEAM CANADA!

This is what Canadians live for!

We had 26 people crammed into our tiny living room to watch Canada win gold over Sweden in Men's Hockey in the Sochi Olympics.  And with a 4am game start time, why wake up early when you can stay up partying all night long?  We didn't crawl into bed until close to 8am, but it was worth it.  Well, except for The Hubby who was sawing logs by the end of the second period after doing a well-executed 'classic slip-out*' exit from the party.  He was discovered minutes later, in our bed, with drool already on the pillow...it was too late to drag him back to the party.

*During a classic slip-out, you must tell no one that you are leaving, and 'slip out' of the room without saying goodbye, for fear of being told by anyone in the room that you are actually, in fact, not allowed to leave because leaving would be super lame.

So, Pinterest is awesome and something I could become easily obsessed with.  Just kidding, I already am obsessed with it.  You can follow me here if you like.  Actually, I have pinned something like 1500+ recipes (with probably a lot of duplicates, because with 1500 recipes who could remember which ones you've laid eyes on before), and have only made a few things.  A couple of weeks ago I challenged myself to make something, anything, from one of my Pinterest boards, and that's when I stumbled upon the Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage, and Baby Spinach from the Skinny Taste website.  It looked like exactly what I was going to need in my life that night, so I went to my favourite store (COSTCO!!), and picked up some butternut squash, 18 other things that I didn't plan on buying (48 granola bars!  16 cans of soup!  6 boxes of crackers!), and Italian sausage.  I changed up the recipe a little bit, with one of the main differences being that I roasted the squash instead of boiling it in water, which I felt would help to retain more flavour.

Roasted Bell Pepper & Roasted Garlic Soup

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This is going to make your house smell sooooooo gooooood.  I'm jealous of you.

This is the type of soup to make when you buy a big bag of bell peppers from the produce store because you thought you were out, and your husband also buys a big bag of bell peppers the same day because he thought you were out, and then you both get home and you already had a bag of bell peppers in your fridge.  This is a true story of my mom and dad and the dilemma of what to do with too many bell peppers.  Cue a delicious tasting soup that requires eight of these beautiful bells, and a mother/daughter team ready for the challenge while gearing up for a diet (my mom and I made this soup while we were making our diet Detox Water the other day).

Slow Cooker Beef Chili Rice Bowl

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The Hubby put a new cookbook into my Christmas stocking this year - the 'Best of Bridge' Slow Cooker Cookbook. Although this recipe is not from that book, him buying it for me reminded me that a) I have a slow cooker, and b) slow cooking is awesome.

What I don't like is when you have to do a lot of pre-cooking before the slow cooking starts, which just makes me feel like there's no point in finishing things up in the slow cooker in the first place.  What I do like is when you can just throw everything into the slow cooker and press Start.  "Set it and forget it!!" I think people say.  Or maybe that's referring to something else like alarm clocks or my recordings of Real Housewives on the PVR, or each and every single one of my New Years resolutions.  Who knows, but in any event, slow cooking is super easy when all that you have to do is dump stuff into the thing and turn it on.

Detox Water

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Booze free January continues full throttle.  But really, who needs wine and beer when you can have...Detox Water!

Or whatever.

On Sunday I was over at my parents' house and my mom was making this Detox Water, so I joined in on the fun.  It's really simple...you slice up a bunch of fruit and cucumber, throw in some mint, and top it up with water.  The water is meant to aid in digestion, cut fat, help in the absorption of nutrients, suppress appetite (naturally and healthily!), and alkalize the body.   Sounds good to me!  I've been drinking it in the morning before work for a refreshing start to the day.  This is a great way to get 3 of your 8 required glasses of water per day out of the way.  

The other bonus is that I found another use for my mason jars following my disastrous attempt at making pickled beans!  Things happen for a reason?

Kendra's Pickled Asparagus, Prosciutto, and Cream Cheese Appetizer

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What could be easier, but look so gourmet?

 

You may have thought that with her Italian Sausage Jalapeno Poppers she was a one-trick pony, but this is another great appetizer from my friend Kendra.

The recipe is simple too, with just three ingredients and no chopping, mixing, heating, baking, or cooking, making it the perfect last minute appetizer when you need to throw together something in a hurry.  Or, even when you have time to fuss, because basically for me, anything with cheese in it is always good.  I've used the Sunshine Farms brand of store-bought pickled asparagus for this recipe, which can be found near the pickles and olives in your supermarket.  I can't wait to try making this appy again once I have canned some homemade pickled asparagus this spring, hopefully without risk of botulism this time.  

Turkey Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

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Happy new year everyone!  Also happy November and December, seeing as it's been awhile since my last post.  The reason for that...well, I'm going to blame our Netflix subscription.  I've become super well acquainted with Emily and Daniel from Revenge, Jess and Nick from New Girl, Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project, and seriously, why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Grey's Anatomy is like ten years ago?  I'm now hopelessly addicted to it, and have a long haul of ten 27-episode seasons (quick math: 10 x 27 = 270 episodes) to catch up on, and apparently I've given myself a deadline of about four weeks to do this at the rate I have been going at.  No one tell me, but are McDreamy and Meredith going to stay together forever?  Because I seriously can't handle it if they don't.  And no one tell me, but what's going to happen with Addison and McSteamy, and with Izzie and Alex?  They can't get back together, can they?  So many questions, so little time for anything but getting all of the answers!

So, things that have happened in the real world for me in the past few months, at least food wise...

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cheesecake

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Good news - The Hubby bought me a camera for Christmas, so hopefully you've seen the last of dark, blurry photos like this one.  Hopefully...but I wouldn't hold my breath.

As I mentioned in my last post, for Christmas dinner this year on my family's side my contribution was dessert, and I made two different desserts.  I was only going to make one, this White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake, but then my mom reminded me that my brother doesn't really like cheesecake ever since that 'bad cheesecake that he tried when he was a kid.'  I already had my heart set on the cheesecake, so instead of changing course I decided to add a second dessert, my mom's Mocha Chocolate Roll.  Because why not - two desserts are better than one dessert anyway.  

Chocolate Mocha Roll

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Chocolate Mocha Roll

Christmas holidays!  In my family this is synonymous with food and booze.  It's January 3 and I now weigh the most I ever have in my entire life, which is not awesome because my clothes are way tighter than desired.  How does this always happen?!  Argh - why do I love food so much?!  I need a quick fix, which is why I am kickstarting my weight loss regime with a January of no alcohol.  Can this be done?  Not sure...it's never been attempted by me before, but we are two days in and so far so good.

But for some context on how I got to this state - for Christmas dinner this year on my family's side, my contribution was dessert.  I made two different desserts.  I was only going to make one, a White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake, but then my mom reminded me that my brother doesn't really like cheesecake ever since that 'bad cheesecake that he tried when he was a kid.'  I already had my heart set on the cheesecake, so instead of changing course I decided to add a second dessert, my mom's Mocha Chocolate Roll.  Because why not - two desserts are better than one dessert anyway.

Healthy Southwest Chicken and Rice Bake

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What's in your freezer?

 

So, it's just The Hubby and me in our house, but in looking at our freezer you would think differently.  Here is what I saw when I reluctantly did a freezer clean recently:

• 8 chicken breasts, 1 beef tenderloin log, 1 whole chicken, 2 packs bacon, 2 steaks, 2 bags prawns, 6 salmon fillets
• 7 or more partially used bags of peas or corn or pea/corn combo
• 3 tubs partially-consumed vanilla ice cream with an inch of icy freezer crust on top
• 8 bags of sliced bread with only two pieces of crust remaining per bag (never to be eaten)
• 1,000,000 black bananas
• other, other, other x 100

My inventory of our pantry yielded similar (non-frozen) results.  8 cans of black beans, 7 boxes of pasta, 2,000,000 granola bars, too much uneaten food.  So I threw out the old ice cream, downsized my banana collection, and told The Hubby that we had to try to go a month without buying any new food except dairy products and fresh fruit and vegetables.  We're on about Day 14 now, our freezer is halfway emptied, and our pantry is slowly depleting in stock.  It takes a bit of planning and creativity, and so far almost every meal has included frozen peas or canned black beans, but it's been kind of a fun challenge at the same time.  For instance, I came home from work last night and The Hubby had prepared a chicken, pea, and pasta casserole...and after a long day at work it was exactly what I wanted to eat for dinner, and all that I could think was that I had married some kind of Top Chef or something. That is, until we flicked to Top Chef on tv while we ate dinner!

Amy's Lentil Soup Copycat Recipe

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Lentil Soup.  It's not not ugly...

But guys, remember Beauty and the Beast?  Looks aren't everything!!!  Behind that plain-looking mask is all of this deliciousness...

Side Note:  The Hubby refers to an Onion, Celery, and Carrot mixture as 'The Trifecta,' which stems from confusion over the cooking term, 'The Holy Trinity,' (which is Onion, Celery, and Bell Pepper), and this makes me laugh every single time.  Because he says it every single time.  It's funny.    

This soup is one of my new favourites, and here is why...

I'm so predictable with my lunches at work.  Four days out of five I will bring soup, whether it's homemade or out of a can.  It's so predictable and so boring, but it works for me.  My co-worker / friend Tyler says "Classic Megan" every single day when he sees me and my soup.  And if I'm eating a canned soup, nine times out of ten it will be Amy's Organic Lentil Soup.  The problem here is that Amy's Soups are expensive when you purchase them one by one, usually about $4 per can.  Now friends, at Costco you can get an 8-pack for about $12.25, which reduces it to about $1.50 each.  And what's even better is that one time (my other co-worker / friend Ashley will totally be rolling her eyes at this story because she's heard it about five times), I even picked up the 8-pack on sale for $8 (quick math = $1 per can!).  Ever since then I have been chasing the dragon, but the deal has never reappeared.  

Traditional Italian Sausage Lasagna

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While I'm on the Italian Sausage bandwagon...

This blog's tagline is The Kitchen Confessional of Megan McLeod...well, here's one for you.  All of the mozzarella cheese that went into this lasagna fell off the counter and onto the floor before I assembled the lasagna.  All of this precariously placed cheese, onto the non-swept floor...

Five second rule!

...and then into a lasagna.  Don't tell The Hubby!!

Second kitchen confessional is that I wear these onion goggles every single time that I cut onions.  They totally prevent my eyes from stinging and crying.  Plus they are obviously super stylish!

Hi 

So, our garage was broken into a couple of weeks ago.

Kendra's Italian Sausage and Cheese Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

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It's amazing how many times you can forget not to touch your eyes after handling jalapeños.  For me, like 12 times probably.

 

Which is enough to make me wonder for a moment whether I have short term memory loss or whether maybe I am just a really slow learner.  Kendra's public service announcement is that you may want to use disposable gloves for this recipe (especially if you wear contact lenses) to protect your eyes and skin from the spicy jalapeños.  Or like me, you can just...not...

Who is Kendra, creator of Jalapeno Poppers, you ask?  Well, Kendra and I have been friends for ten years now, she was one of my bridesmaids, and she's one of my besties.

Kenji and me.

We met while working together at Milestone's Restaurant back in the early 2000's, most likely while commiserating over waiting for 'campers' (restaurant guests who linger even after the restaurant is closed, for no apparent reason, and don't take a hint to leave even after the ugly lights have come on and two waitresses are staring them down awkwardly from the other side of the restaurant) to finally go home so that we could do the same (or - let's be honest since we were 20 years old and worked in a restaurant - go to the bar).

Healthy 'Everything' Cookies

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Coconut, seeds, fruit, nuts, dark chocolate, the works!

I'm back, and baking again.  I know!  I know!

Last year, as part of a Christmas gift from my cousin Samantha, she gave me a mason jar filled with all of the dry ingredients for these cookies, as well as the recipe to make them.

Beautiful!

I am always amazed by how good at beautiful, creative, crafty things some people can be.  And this person in particular is actually a member of my family!  The creative gene must have skipped me, along with the thick hair and blue eyes genes.  Sigh.

My cousin Samantha (left), my brother Braeden (top middle), me (right), and my cousin Darryl (bottom middle).
Clearly I am not in on the joke.  I hope it's not about my pyjamas.