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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Healthy Southwest Chicken and Rice Bake

What's in your freezer?



Pinit 

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!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Amy's Lentil Soup Copycat Recipe

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.