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

Lemon Garlic Chicken Bake

Howdy Friends!

How are you guys doing? I am doing mighty fine, thank you!
So...I kinda forgot that I am a food blogger. My bad.
No worries though, I have a recipe today!
We ate this for dinner last week (see I am always late on posting my recipes) & we really liked it. The nice combo of the lemon and garlic was super tasty. MMM.

Here is what you will need:

• a whole chicken, butchered. OR you can use 4 chicken breasts, or thighs. Pretty much use whatever chicken you want. ;)
• 4 potatoes, cut up into bite size pieces
• 2 onions, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic (I actually used 4 minced and I put a few extra cloves in whole. BECAUSE I LOVE GARLIC)
• 3 tbsps olive oil
• 5 tbsps lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• Assorted veggies. I used some green beans and carrots from a frozen bag. I recommend it.

STEP ONE:

Put the chicken, potatoes,onions and veggies into your baking dish.

Look at how cute this thing is! Dan got me this little owl for Christmas. 

OWL OBSESSED.

STEP TWO:

Mix the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and garlic powder together into a little bowl.

Now pour the mixture over the chicken and veggies.

STEP THREE:

Bake at 450F for 50 minutes. When that is done take the chicken out and bake the veggies and potatoes for another 10-15 minutes so they will be nice and soft! 

ENJOY!

Here are some pics of my life as of lately!
We had our youth group over for a fondue dinner & a games night 2 weeks ago! It was so much fun. These kids have a lot of energy ;)

My latest DIY project. Window mirror.

Today I had a lovely day with my friend Marylene. We ate chocolate, drank coffee (of course) and we did pedicures!

#bubbles

I am about to go to a job interview! So wish me luck (or blessings)!
XOXO
Have a great night friends!

-Britt

Lentil & Spicy Sausage Soup

Hello, Hello!

Here I am, with an ACTUAL recipe :) It warms my heart to finally be back in my own kitchen getting back to cooking the things I love. It warms my heart even more to be able to finally share recipes with you all again!
This soup was super YUM. Dan has the week off work so we have been in super-productive mode. We have been getting so much done around the house & this soup was so easy. It was nice not to cook for too long so I could get back to our projects!

OH MAN.. before I get started with the recipe I just want to take a second to say that my husband is AH-MAZING. I was having somewhat of a "down" day yesterday and he brightened my day with a present. He is so thoughtful. He bought me this beautiful pearl necklace while we were in Cali, but he has been waiting to give it to me! :) I am so blessed.

Food time!

Here is what you need to make this easy soup!

• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 spicy Italian sausages, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/4 cup orange lentils
• 1/4 cup green lentils
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 can of diced tomatoes (we used 1/2 a mason can of our homemade tomatoes)
• 2 cups of frozen veggies (the bad with the small pieces of carrots, peas, corn, and Lima beans)
• 2 tbsps taco seasoning
• 1 tbsps chicken stock

This recipe serves 4-6 servings. (4 Dan sized portions..6 "normal people" portions haha)

Step one:

In a large pot put your oil, onions and cut up sausage. Fry for a few minutes until your onions start to get clear.

Step two:

Add all of the other ingredients and bring to a boil. I kept my soup on 7/8 for the entire cooking time. So med/high. Cook for 30 minutes. Or until your lentils and sausage are totally cooked, which might take less time than 30 minutes.

&& ENJOY!

Have a wonderful Thursday friends!

xoxo

-Britt

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

Roasted Cauliflower & Sweet Potato

I love anything roasted. Every since my friend told me about roasting cauliflower, I have been in love.

Silly me, I forgot to take the after pictures. Here s the cauliflower & sweet potato before it's baked!
So what I did was I preheated the oven to 450F. I cut up the cauliflower, using the stem as well. I covered the cauli in olive oil( not too much), in fresh minced garlic, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper & freshly grated Parmesan. I placed them in a casserole dish, I find it bakes better in that than on a baking pan.
For the sweet potato I pealed one large potato & I sliced it into thin slices, as you can see. I then covered them in a little bit of olive oil, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper & dried rosemary. Also I forgot this time, but normally I like to put some parsley on them (fresh or dried).

I baked the two dishes for 30 minutes.
Ammmmazing.
I want some more right now!

This morning I volunteered at my local food bank. Twas a good morning. This afternoon was even better because I talked with my friend who lives in Florida on the phone. It for sure made my day. I wish I lived closer to the people I love!
What are you up to today?


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

Harvest {{Garden}}

Look at my little pumpkin! How cute is he? Yes, my pumpkin is male. :)
We have the cutest little pumpkin patch in our garden. We have about 7 little pumpkins. This was our second year having a garden, but the first year we didn't plant very much. It has been a fun learning process. With me gone for a month and a half to Toronto, Dan is definitely the one who took care of the garden. Although, I am the one who has been cooking non-stop with fresh veggies! Seeing as this is only my second garden, I am still in "awe" of how amazing our own fresh veggies are. There is just something more delicious about eating something that you grew yourself. So here is a little collection of pictures of our harvest!

See how cute they are? 

We had a LOT of beans and carrots. I didn't take many pictures of them, but here are a few pics of what's left of them!

This ziploc was full earlier this week! The ziploc was what was left of our harvest.

 Eatin loads of carrots that's for sure!

We even pickled some carrots!

 Last of our green onions...

Cooked up some little onions in garlic & red wine! YES PLEASE!

Here are some of our canned goods :)

Tomatoes.

Pickles! Made with some of our own garden cucks! We didn't have many big cucumbers, hopefully next year will be better!

Lastly, Parsley. We have been putting parsley in everything! I am trying to dry the parsley & I am wondering which way is best. I have about half of my parsley hanging & half drying in the oven on 200F. I will see how they turn out. What do you do to dry your parsley?

I just wanted to share all of the happiness of my garden with you!  
If you have a garden, what are the yummy things you grow?

ta ta for now.

xx

Grilled Veggie, Hummus & Chicken Panini {Made on the BBQ}

Good morning, GOOD MORNING! How are you all doing today?  I am going to be honest, I only woke up a half an hour ago, so I am doing really good! Last night Dan, our friend Christie & I went to see the avengers in 3D! So gooooood! It took a long time for the movie to come to our theatre in English! We actually only get 1 English movie a week & it is only 1 showing :( So sad.
Today is my day off work & it  is one of those days that I have a loooooong to do list. I don't seem to mind so much today because it is sunny outside & I am sure I will take a little break midday to layout & enjoy it! Also Dan had a surprise date day planned for us tomorrow, so it looks like we have an exciting weekend ahead of us! Oh yes, now to the point of this post, the food!
These paninis are fabulous let me tell you. It was the perfect meal for a hot summers night! My in laws made this when we went for a visit last summer & I have been dying to make them myself! So here we are. The perfect grilled panini.
You are going to need:

• 1 bread dough recipe. this will make about 16 paninis. feel free to cut the recipe in half.
• 3-4 grilled chicken breasts OR we used leftover chicken thighs from a few nights ago. You would even use the store bought whole chicken & break them into pieces. Anyhow, you just need some chicken :)
• grilled veggies of your choice! we used grilled zucchini, green & red peppers
• red onion, sliced
• lettuce of choice. we used spinach
• hummus of choice. we bought chipotle hummus. it gave it a really good spice!
• grated mozzarella cheese 

Whole wheat bread dough:

IN a large bowl pour 2 cups of lukewarm water

ADD:

• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 1 tablespoon of yeast
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon of Italian herbs

Gradually add 2 cups of whole wheat flour, then 3 1/2 cups of white flour. At first stir it with a fork, but once you can't do that any more, take the ball of dough and put it on a lightly floured surface. Kneed the dough down for about 8-10 minutes. Shape it into a ball, place it in a lightly greased bowl and roll the dough around so it gets covered in the oil. Let it sit for 30-45 minutes so it can rise.

Step one:

While your bread dough is rising prepare your chicken & grilled veggies. I brushed some olive oil & fresh garlic on my zucchini & I cooked the peppers on the stove top because I didn't want to risk losing them on the bbq! Also prepare your chicken however you would like & grate your cheese. 

Step two:

Once your bread dough has risen, pound it down & then break it into pieces. I recommend rolling it out to about the size of a medium dinner plate. We rolled out our dough into massive paninis & we only made 6 LARGE paninis. We ended up cutting them into "sandwich size" after the cooking was done. So please roll them out to be the size of a medium dinner plate. You also don't want it too thick because that it will make it harder to cook. Then oil them on both sides.

rollin..

Step three:

Make sure that both sides of your dough are greased then plop it onto the bbq! Only let it sit on the bbq for a few minutes each side. You don't want it to burn, but you want it to cook all the way through. Once cooked take it off the bbq.

**please remember that our paninis are extremely large. Basically they were the size of pizzas!**

Step four:

Now that it is off the bbq fill it will everything delicious! We bought chipotle hummus & it was amazing. Totally recommend it. Make sure you leave enough to fill all the paninis! Don't get to excited on the first one & overfill it ;)

Fold it over and grill it just for a minute or two to make the cheese all melty.

Lastly, enjoy every single bite! We will be enjoying these paninis today & probably tomorrow seeing as we have so many left! 

Sorry everyone that was a really long post! I just really wanted you guys to see the process step by step! 

I am off to go do my devos, and go for my workout!

What are your plans for the weekend? anything exciting?

xo