My favourite kitchen tools

I'm in the kitchen a lot so over the years I've come to love some kitchen tools more than others. In addition to my trusty cast iron pans and my food processor, here are the small kitchen tools I can't live without.

Ice cream scoops: I make a lot of burgers... not the beef kind, the bean kind! I discovered early on that a standard sized ice cream scoop makes the perfect burgers for us. The smaller scoop is great for cookies and 'meat' balls!

Tongs: Tongs are so versatile. I use them most to mix dressing into salads and then use them to serve the salad. A small pair of tongs is more practical than two salad spoons because you only need one hand!

Silicone Spatulas: I love my silicone spatulas and yes I use all three! I use the smaller one to scoop out the food processor, the medium one for mixing and the black one for everything including most things I sauté and fry. They're easy to clean and easy to store.

What are your go-to kitchen tools?

On the menu this week

Well it seems I'm sick as a dog with a cold of some sort. The kids and I have been relatively lucky with not getting sick this year. I remember getting sick like this before Christmas and that's about it really. I know lots of people who haven't been so lucky.

Anyway, I gathered up some strength to plan some meals this week. Last week was a bit of write-off because it was a short week from our trip to Florida.

Here's what I'm thinking for dinner this week:

Photo credits from top middle to bottom right: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

Monday
I wanted to make something green for St. Paddy's Day so I'll be Kale Pesto Pasta with Ricotta and Chili  from Heather Christo on Monday. I'm getting kale in my veggie box so I'm kind of hoping it comes early tomorrow!

Tuesday
20-Minute Chickpea Curry from Creme de la Crumb

Wednesday
Leek Fritters (and likely a salad of some sort) from A Thought For Food

Thursday 
Sweet Potato Enchiladas from Damn Delicious

Friday
Swiss Chard and Ricotta Pizza from Real Simple

Ok now I'm hungry. Mark's making burritos tonight and I'm starting to get my appetite back!

What are you cooking this week?

It's All Good

A while back I went to my friend Carol's for an afternoon/dinner play date with our kids and she made the yummiest meal: Mexican Tomato Rice with Go-To Black Beans and Mango + Avocado Salad with Balsamic-Lime Vinaigrette. 

And before you ask: yes this was for the kids too and yes they ate it (well Leo ate the avocado, but he's a special case...). The meal was so yummy that I made her lend me the book to take home to try some other recipes.

This one is a favourite:

Quinoa with sauteed kale & garlic topped with an olive oil fried egg. I have eaten this for breakfast a few times and it's so good. Savoury.

I also made the Veggie Dumplings which were fantastic. They were pretty easy to make from scratch but if you follow me on Instagram you'll know that my very first attempt didn't go so well:

I haven't gotten around to trying much else but here are a few that caught my eye for next time.

Spring Vegetable Soup, Two ways

Spanish Chopped Salad with Tuna + Piquillos with Spanish Salad Dressing

Sweet Potato + Five-Spice Muffins

Lentil Salad with Mustard + Tomatoes

She also has an awesome almond butter cooke recipe in here... um.

I should also note that she has a ton of meat recipes in here too - mainly lamb and chicken but this is not a vegetarian book for all you meat eaters!

Anyway, Gwenyth got a bit of a bad rap about this book which I'll never understand. The food is great, real, whole, fantastic and good for you. I think people have a really hard time with recipes and food that are in fact 'clean' and not full of crap that comes with eating processed foods.

Poor Gwenyth! Don't worry I'm a believer!

Believer or not the food is good. Check it out.

on the menu this week

It's a short week so less cooking (ya right...). I had a few veggies in the fridge I had to use up so here's what's on the menu this week.

Tuesday

Pasta with lentils and kale

I made this last time and it was just ok, but I have some kale to use up so I'll have to add more garlic and onions or something.

Wednesday

Baked Falafel

My friend C made this and she said it was really tasty so I'm looking forward to trying it this week.

Thursday

Tacos with spicy, smoky lentils

I'm very excited to try out some recipes from The Southern Vegetarian I received in the mail recently. It's a good way to kick up your veg dishes a notch. This week I'll try these tacos on Thursday.

... and the Roast beet salad w/sea salt granola with salmon on Friday

 What are you munching on this week?

pasketti

I made garlic scape pesto pasta with veggies tonight for dinner and I was hesitant about giving Leo the linguini because he's so picky (he eats most things we give him for dinner now, but it still takes some coaxing), but the second I put the bowl down he was shovelling it into his mouth. My jaw dropped to the floor. It was pretty hilarious.

We even got a little video of it...

What a kid...

one month

Holy crap! It has almost been a month since I've been on here. Man. I don't even have anything to show for it either. I've been hanging out and getting the new house put together and making meals from this calendar and trying to figure out my new gym schedule. But no sewing. None. People are waiting for things from me too. Gotta get on it and will. I think the reason I haven't been sewing is because I have carpet in my new sewing room. It's so weird to have carpet. I'm not a big fan at all and I'm thinking of just pulling up the stuff so I can see what's under it. Yes, you heard it right. I'm blaming the carpet for my sewing procrastination.