Creamy Yogurt Balsamic Vinaigrette

Happy Monday friends!

I hope you are all doing marvelous today! My day has been lovely. Dan was home all morning and he made a delicious seafood chowder. I'm a little spoiled.
On top of that the weather is mild and I only worked 4 hours. No complaints here.

Also my lunch was delicious. Let me show you how to make this yummy vinaigrette.

All you need to do is mix up the following ingredients and pour it on your salad. Simple.

• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2-3 tsp sugar ( or honey)
• salt and pepper to taste

Have a great evening!

xo

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing {addiction}

This recipe is supa simple today!
Honey mustard dressing. Sweet & perfect.
Here was my salad for dindins the other night. Leftover chicken thighs, 1/2 and orange, cheese, red onion, avocado, cucumber & baby spinach. The best thing on the salad was for sure the dressing.

Easy-peasy.

You put equal parts of yellow mustard & honey. (Depending on how much you need) You add a little bit of olive oil ( But you can easy omit that) & I add a little bit of garlic powder to it. Add the garlic as you please. Also fresh garlic pieces are delicious in it as well.

Try it on your next salad. It's so easy to make!

xo

Greek Salad

Hello, GOOD DAY!
For my birthday my best friend Chantelle sent me Jamie Oliver's Food Escapes cookbook. She is the best & she obviously knows me well :) This cookbook has sent me on a mission to create new & exciting dishes everyday! This week Dan & I had bok choy soup, cat fish curry & we made chicken pita's with avocado dip. Also as you can see above we had a great Greek salad the other night for dinner.
I went though Jamie Oliver's cookbook & I needed to use google to find out what the heck some of the ingredients were.
I love that. I love making something that is new & is a challenge for me. For example, two weeks ago I planned a surprise baby shower for a friend of mine & I was in charge of making all of the food. I also made the cake. I wanted to make something cute, so I knew fondant icing was the way to go.. but I had never made it before. When I was at the grocery store buying the ingredients I was thinking to myself  "oh maybe I can start making cakes on the side..start my own little business! How much fun would that be!" So I decided to make a "practice cake" before I did the actual shower cake & it was an utter disaster! I had icing sugar everywhere, the dough kept sticking to the counter & it ripped when I was finally about to put it on the cake! My thoughts quickly changed from starting my own cake business to "I NEVER WANT TO MAKE A CAKE AGAIN". haha

So I was nervous for round two of fondant making, but it turned out pretty good! I used a simpler recipe and
I am very happy with the end result.

*Don't mind the icing sugar all over my stove. haha*

Also here is the Greek Salad recipe:

Serves 4 side dish portions.

• 1 ripe tomato, sliced
• handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 medium red onion, sliced
• 1/2 cucumber, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• handful of fresh dill
• handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
• handful of black olives
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• feta cheese chopped (I didn't measure, so use as much of as little as you'd like)
• 1 tsp dried oregano

Enjoy!

Tomorrow I am starting my new job volunteering at my local food bank! I am excited to get out, meet some new people & work on my French some more! Wish me luck!

Have a great day friends!

xo

{YUMMY} Classic Potato Salad

Hello, hello, hello! It has been awhile my friends! It has been several weeks since I've posted...but no worries I have good reasons for the little break & lots of great recipes to make up for it! I hope you all have had a great few weeks! I know I sure have! I spent last week in Ontario visiting both my family & Dan's family! Dan was also in a his close friend's wedding. I love weddings! It is hard to believe that our wedding was almost a year ago! It's crazy how time flies. I am so excited for our anniversary..Dan has something special up his sleeve, but he's keeping it a surprise!! :) Anywho, I will do another post showing you guys the pictures of our time in Ontario!
What was I talking about?.....oh right.. potato salad! Well, I want you all to know that you should never buy potato salad at the grocery store, it doesn't even come close to being as good as the home made stuff. For all my friends out there who don't like to cook, trust me this is super easy. Let's get started!
 You will need each of these things per person that you are serving. So if you are serving 4 people multiply all of the ingredients by 4:

• 1 boiled & chopped potato(for each person)
• 1/4 red onion chopped into very small pieces
• 1/4 of a green pepper chopped 
• 1/4 of a red pepper chopped
• 1/2 a celery stalk, chopped
• 2 tbsps light mayo
• 1/2 a hard boiled egg

If you make the recipe for 4 people hard boil 2 eggs. Once the water starts to boil, let them boil for about 5 minutes until they are done. 

You will also need

• salt & pepper to taste
• fresh chopped parsley to make it look pretty :)

Step one:

Put all of the chopped veggies, and chopped boiled potato into a medium-large bowl. 

Step two:
Mix in the mayo, chopped up boiled eggs, salt & pepper, and fresh parsley.

Enjoy! We ate this with some yummy hamburgers. Nice summer meal...I just want the summer to start already!
xo

Pear, feta & spinach salad with honey mustard dressing {for two}

I can guarantee that you will enjoy every bite of this salad. A bed of spinach, with the sweetness of a pear and the richness of feta cheese, you will make it again and again! This is my own recipe. Look at me, I'm starting to make my own recipes! Yay! Here is what you will need to make this for two :)

-2 cups of baby spinach
-1/4 of a cucumber, chopped into small bite size pieces
-1 pear sliced
-2 hearty slices of feta cheese, chopped into bite size pieces

Now use your creativity and put together a beautiful salad for two using the above ingredients!

Honey mustard dressing:
This dressing makes the salad so good.
Mix together:

• 1 tbsp mustard
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 -2 tbsp honey (It helps if you warm it up. It mixes and pours easier)
• 1 garlic clove minced

Enjoy ;)

xo

Asparagus, pine nut and tomato salad

Here is the salad of the week! Like I said before, I am trying out new salads! This one was a good side dish.
Here's what you need:

• a big bowl full of mixed salad greens, enough to serve 4
• 2 tomatoes, cut into nice slices
• 2 tbsps of roasted pine nuts
• a package of asparagus
• salt and pepper

Step one:
Fill up your serving bowl with your lettuce.

Step two:
Cut your asparagus into bite size pieces. Put them into a frying pan and cover with water. Boil them. Once they are done, remove the water and spray the pan with oil. Add a little bit of salt and pepper and fry them up nicely.

Step three:

Place your pine nuts in a small frying pan and toast them a little bit. You can the pine nuts in the picture above. Pine nuts are expensive...so enjoy them. haha

Step four: Dressing

Mix together 1 tsp on lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp of whole grain mustard, 2 tbsps balsamic vinegar with some salt and pepper. Voila.

Step five:

Add the pine nuts, asparagus and tomatoes to your mixed greens. Pour your dressing over top and you have yourself a salad!

xoxo -Britt

Mexican chili beef salad

Like I said last week, be expecting to see a lot more salads on here! This is kind of a salad, more of a stir fry though. I ate mine over a bed of lettuce, and Dan ate his with rice. Whatever it is, it was really good. OH heck yes it was. Here is what you need to make this for yourself, right now:
-1 lb lean sirloin or top round steak
-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
-1 1/2 tsps chili powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp ground coriander
-1 ripe avocado, peeled and chopped into chunks
-2 tbsps olive oil
-one can of red kidney beans, drained
-a container of cherry tomatoes, halved
-handful fresh cilantro, chopped

Step one:
-Slice your steak into strips.
-Place the garlic, salt, chili powder, and ground coriander in a bowl. Mix it up well and then add your steak. Make sure they are all coated nicely. :)

Step two:
-Heat the oil in a large pan and add the beef. Fry it up for about 5 minutes.

Step three:
-Add the kidney beans, tomatoes and avocado. Cook until they are all heated through.

Add in the fresh cilantro and it's all done. SO goooooooooood. I don't lie.

So before I am done blogging for the week I wanted to share about our home! As most of my friends and family know Dan and I live on a military base in Quebec. We have done our best to make the house homey..but it is just still so military looking. Basically everything is white. The walls, the light fixtures, the entire bathroom and kitchen are all WHITE! We know that we will be moving in a little over a year so we kept saying nah we won't paint. In a military house you have to paint everything back to white when you move. Well...I gave in and we decided to paint yesterday! Dan and I had so much fun painting together. It's so crazy...painting our first home together. We ordered pizza, laughed alot and made a great day of it. We painted until 10 last night! So here are a few pics of us painting.

 I hope everyone had a good day back to work today! I'm back to work at the end of the week and french school will start soon too. Back to reality :)
Happy Monday.
Xo

Warm mushroom, spinach & pancetta salad

I love salad. I normally eat a salad everyday for lunch. At Christmas my momma bought me a salad recipe book, and I have been excited to start trying new recipes! This one is very yummy and I recommend trying it! Expect to see many more salad recipes to come :)

You will need:
-6 generous cups of baby spinach
-1 tbsp of virgin olive oil
-150g pancetta
-2 cups of mushrooms, chopped into large chunks

In a fry pan heat up the oil and add the pancetta. Cook on medium high for 3 minutes. Add the chopped mushrooms.

Cook until tender.

Dressing.
In a small bowl whisk together:
-5 tbsps of olive oil
-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-1 tsp dijon mustard
-pinch of sugar
-salt and pepper

Take a bowl full of baby spinach and add the pancetta & spinach. Pour the dressing over the salad and enjoy!

xo

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Quinoa

I have fallen in love with Quinoa!Although I struggle every time I say the word because I doubt I am saying it right. haha. It has been a great addition to alot of our summer meals! For those of you who have never made this grain, here is why you should! It contains essential amino acids and good quantities of calcium, iron and phosphorus. You cook quinoa the same way that you cook rice!
What I did to make this yummy side dish was I roasted garlic and tomatoes in the oven. I normally roast them at 400F and add olive oil, salt and pepper. I normally roast them for 40 minutes.

I love roasted garlic and tomato! mmm
After i took the garlic and tomato out of the oven i emptied them into a bowl! The tomatoes were still juicy but they have a wonderful flavour! I added 1 tsp of balsamic vinager and I mashed them altogether to make a sauce or dressing.

During this time I added the cooked quinoa to the bowl. I cooked 1 cup of it because we didn't need too much of it for dinner!
Also I added cut up grapes and cucumber to the bowl. Next I added sunflower seeds and dried cranberries to the salad. I mixed it all up and set it in the fride until dinner! Get creative and make it yourself! It is good for you and a nice addition to any meal!! Get cookin and enjoy!

xo