This post is part of my Freezer Food Exchange diary. Similar to a Christmas cookie exchange, a group of people all bring a set amount of food for each participant (a dozen cookies, two frozen 3-4 serving dinners, etc). In this case, everyone made two dinners worth of two dishes for each participant. There were six of us for November, 2013, so we all came home with 24 meals, two of twelve different dishes. Last night we had Mexican Haystacks from Once a Month Mom. They were quite tasty with a bit of salsa on top. Ryan and I agreed that we'd use a different meat next time. The ground turkey didn't add much to the dish. Pork would be much better. Otherwise, it was an easy dish to assemble from the freezer - prepare the rice, heat the meat, thaw the fruit, and serve. We would happily eat it again. The amount we received in the exchange was enough for the two of us for dinner and my lunch today. Gluten Free, Dairy Free Mexican Haystacks 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey 1 medium onion, diced 1 Tablespoon garlic powder 1/8 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 4 cups salsa 2 red bell peppers, chopped 2 cups avocados, chopped 2 cups mangoes, chopped 2 cups rice, cooked Brown ground turkey in a skillet and add diced onions, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Once turkey is browned and mixture is thoroughly combined, add salsa.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer.  Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.  Place approximately 1/4 cup of rice on plate, the top with turkey and salsa mixture.  Finally, top with fresh vegetable and fruit mixture as desired.   Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired. To Freeze: Let turkey mixture cool, then place in a freezer bag.  Combine pepper, avocados and mangoes in a freezer bag.  Remove as much air as possible from both bags, then label and seal.  Place rice in a freezer bag, seal & label or wait until serving day to prepare. To Serve: Thaw all bags.  Heat turkey mixture through and serve over cooked rice.  Then top with fresh vegetables and fruit mixture.  Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired. Serves 8

I participate in a bi-weekly cooking challenge on a forum I'm a member of. Every two weeks a participant nominates a recipe or blog for everyone else to cook from. This week's challenge was issued by me! Make a One Pot Wonder. Throw everything into the pot at once, and come back to it cooked. Maybe add some garnish at the end. I chose to make Thai Peanut Pasta. I'd previously made Tomato Basil Pasta, which turned out well, so I thought this one would hold some promise. Based on some feedback on the challenge, I knew it would be a bit runny and the noodles would over-cook before it boiled down, so I started by putting a Knorr condensed chicken stock with 3.5 cups of water on the stove while I got everything else ready. A semi-cheat that got my liquid hot before I added the pasta so it wouldn't get too mushy, and a reduction in the amount of liquid. I used hoisin sauce instead of tamarind paste because I had it in the fridge, and both soy sauce and fish sauce. I put in extra red pepper flakes (around a full teaspoon), skipped the green onions, but added snow peas (again, what was in the fridge). I used lime juice instead of fresh limes and no sprouts.Ryan and I both liked it, but agreed it needed some finessing for future attempts. 2 tablespoons plus a cup of peanuts was too peanutty for us, and I found the ginger a bit too prominent as well. Next time I'll cut those two back and add more cilantro at the end (I put in about 2/3 cup once chopped). We'll also use thai chilis instead of red pepper flakes. I may use sweet chili sauce instead of tamarind or hoisin, too. Another member subbed vinegar for it.For the first time I made the meal and still figuring out the recipe it took me just shy of 40 minutes from pulling up the recipe to putting food on the table, which I figure will go down to just over 20-25 with practice, so a pretty quick dinner.

I participate in a bi-weekly cooking challenge on a forum I'm a member of. Every two weeks a participant nominates a recipe or blog for everyone else to cook from. The challenge for October 25-November 7 was Sally's Baking Addiction. This one was a challenge for me, because I'm also preparing food for the November freezer food exchange, Halloween hit in the middle of the first week (which always seems to mean a crazy week), and I had a bunch of appointments during the second week. And, as baking general requires undivided attention lest you burn stuff, having a baby isn't exactly conducive to successful results. We had a big bag of apples left in the fridge from when I made mini apple pies for Thanksgiving and totally over-estimated how many apples I'd need, so I decided to give the Apple Chips a shot. They were super easy to make, especially with a mandolin in my cupboard. I don't have a silicon baking sheet, so I used parchment paper instead (despite there being comments saying not to). I tried two thicknesses - the 1/8" thick pieces turned out nice and fairly crispy (could have used another 15 minutes of baking I think). The thicker 3/16" ones were blah. I only made one small apple's worth on my 11x18" pan, which pretty much filled it. I'll make these again, but just sprinkle with cinnamon (no need for the sugar), and I'd do a second dusting after flipping. I'd also make sure to do at least two trays (if not four) at a time to make it feel worth it. One apple for two hours of baking (plus another for cooling) feels like too much (even if the actual work is minimal).

This post is part of my Freezer Food Exchange diary. Similar to a Christmas cookie exchange, a group of people all bring a set amount of food for each participant (a dozen cookies, two frozen 3-4 serving dinners, etc). In this case, everyone made two dinners worth of two dishes for each participant. There were five of us for October, 2013, so we all came home with 20 meals, two of ten different dishes.   We ate Thai Chicken Curry last night, using the recipe from Jodie Fitz's blog. Spicy! This dish came to our freezer with the warning that it was insanely hot. Ryan and I smiled at the warning - we like a challenge. It ended up being perfect for us. Just on the edge of too hot for me, and a nice, tasty heat for Ryan (I doubt I'll ever be able to handle as much heat as him). This was the first time we made this one. I heated it on the stove and looking at it in the pot it seemed to have a lot of "broth" and not much veggie, so I added about two cups of frozen peas. They were a nice addition and way to get a bit more green into our diet. Next time, I'll add some cilantro, and corn to the curry, and peanuts as a garnish. I'll also prepare the rice as coconut rice instead of plain white rice. Right now I don't think we'd repeat the dish (besides heat there wasn't quite enough flavour to it), but we'll see what the additions do for it next time.   Update: We ate the leftovers from the first go at this and added some cilantro and lime juice and it was just what it needed. Great recipe!   Thai Chicken Curry 2.5 lbs cooked chicken 2 cups fresh spinach 2 cups sweet garden peas, fresh or frozen 1 red bell pepper 1 - 14 oz light coconut milk 2 tbsp red curry paste (warning: this makes it HOT) 2 tbsp sweet onion, finely chopped 2 tsp curry powder 1 clove garlic 1/2 tsp salt Dice the cooked chicken into small pieces, this can be done in advance. Wash the red bell pepper, remove the seeds and dice it. Place the spinach in a mini chopper and chop finely. Stir the coconut milk, red curry paste, and curry powder together with the salt. Pour the coconut milk mixture into a large skillet along with the chicken, onions, peppers, peas, and spinach. Add the garlic using a garlic press. Cook all of the ingredients until the vegetables are soft and the meat has been warmed. Stir occasionally through the cooking process. Serve over rice.

This post is part of my Freezer Food Exchange diary. Similar to a Christmas cookie exchange, a group of people all bring a set amount of food for each participant (a dozen cookies, two frozen 3-4 serving dinners, etc). In this case, everyone made two dinners worth of two dishes for each participant. There were five of us for October, 2013, so we all came home with 20 meals, two of ten different dishes.   Some people are brilliant food bloggers. I am not. But I am going to attempt to start using this blog to track some of the recipes I try, because it's an easy place to look back on them. At the end of September I signed up for a freezer food exchange with some other local new mommies. It's sort of like a Christmas cookie exchange, but with dinner. Everyone made two dinners worth of two dishes for each participant. There were five of us, so we all came home with 20 meals, two of ten different dishes. Last night I pulled out the Crockpot Chicken Chili. It was quite tasty. If I make it (I can't say again, as this was someone else's dish), I'll add some mushrooms and my (not so) secret chili ingredient, pineapple. The portion we got was huge; in addition to enough leftovers for lunch today we are having more for dinner tonight. This time I decided to add a side of fresh, homemade cornbread. I had grabbed a cornbread recipe from Chatelaine's September 2013 issue and figured this would be a good time to try it. It turned out pretty tasty. My usual complaint about cornbread is it's too dry, but I used their "Switch it up" Tex-Mex variation, adding a half cup of salsa, which was just enough extra moisture. Because I'm currently dairy free, I used 1/4 cup melted vegan margarine and 1/4 vegetable oil in place of the butter, and low calorie almond milk in place of the milk (the low cal stuff has very little flavour). Next time I may let the batter rest for a bit before cooking. Otherwise, it was quite tasty. Crockpot Chicken Chili 2 large chicken breasts 1 can corn (or 1c frozen corn) 1 can diced tomatos 1 can tomato paste 1 can red kidney beans 1 can red kidney beans 1 can black beans chili powder to taste taco seasoning to taste 1 cup quinoa (optional - can also be added on reheat) Place all ingredients in crock pot with chicken on bottom. Cook 8-10 hr low or 4-6 hr high. 1/2 hr prior to eating remove chicken, shred and mix back in. For reheat can be reheated in microwave, on stove or in crockpot. Chicken already shredded. Cornbread 1 cup flour 1 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup sugar 1 tbsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly spray or brush an 8x8 pan with oil. Whisk flour with cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs with milk and butter in a medium bowl. Whisk into flour mixture. Scrape into prepared baking pan and smooth top. Bake in centre of oven until top is lightly golden and a cake tester inserted into centre of bread comes out clean, 25-30 min. Switch it up! Stir 1/2 cup medium or hot salsa into batter. Pour into baking pan. Bake in centre of 400F oven until top is lightly golden, about 40 min. Loosely tent foil over pan after 20 min to prevent over-browning. Notes: Our oven runs hot, so this only took about 30-35 minutes.

We hosted the family Thanksgiving dinner this year with my mom, Ryan's parents, my sister and her family. There were seven adults, two kids under 5, and two non-eating babies under six months. Like most of our big dinners, Ryan was the primary cook, but I played a surprisingly big role considering we also had our four month old to entertain! Here's our menu: Appetizers Chips and Epicure Guacamole Jellies, crackers, melted brie, and sausage; Served Chardonnay jelly and Hot Garlic Pepper jelly bought at the Butterdome Craft Sale. Soup French onion soup from How Sweet It Is. I had made a batch of this several months ago and froze some. Unfortunately, because I'm dairy free, I can't eat it, so we pawned it off on family. Note for next time: throw the kids' portions through the blender to hid the onions and call it 'cheese soup' or similar. Main course Turkey - "The best roast turkey" from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie Roasted potatoes, parsnips, and carrots from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Mashed yams - with cinamon and maple syrup Mashed potatoes - with olive oil, margarine and truffle oil (I'm currently dairy free so no butter or milk like we'd usually do) Gravy - part of "The best roast turkey" from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie Cranberry sauce from Gordon Ramsay's Family Fare Desert Mini apple pies adapted from Knit and Bake. I used tart shells from Costco and didn't bother with anything over top. Replaced the brown sugar with granulated because I ran out. Mini pumpkin pies adapted from Canadian Living. Again, I used tart shells from Costco. Also excluded the salt, and replaced some of the brown sugar with granulated because I ran out. Ice cream.   Overall, things worked out pretty well (cranky kids excluded). For next year things we'll change are: We'll go with two smaller turkeys instead of a 14lber so it will be easier to calculate the cooking time. This one went over by almost an hour! Ryan has suggested that he may follow the Christmas Dinner menu in Gordon Ramsey's Family Fare. I plan to make the desert the day before, so I'm not getting in Ryan's way during the cooking day. We'll have a toddler to wrangle, so that will be plenty of work on its own! I want to set up the dining room at least the day before next year. We should do the groceries at least two days in advance and put everything together by the dish it will be used in. Hopefully this will save us from a last minute run to the grocery store. On that note, we need to remember to check our tin foil stock before the big cook. It's used to tent so much we had just enough today. Finally, we need to remember to take photos next year. All that yummy food and not a single picture!  Things I really liked from this year: I got to use my grandmother's tablecloth. She gave it to me when she was out visiting a couple weeks ago and I'm thrilled I got the opportunity to use it already! I will use our china again, but I'd like to get a few more serving dishes in the set, so we don't have to use so many other random dishes. (Though I do love all my plain white serving dishes.) Having take-home containers for everyone to use worked out well. I should see if we can get a better price on them at Costco over the grocery stores. Or stock up on them from Dollarama. Getting to entertain our families in our house - and they suggested we do it again!