taco rice bowl {in the kitchen}

On the way home from work the other day, I was trying to conjure up a new dinner dish using ground beef. Spaghetti and chili were getting a bit old and besides, Oakley doesn't like tomato sauce {seriously. What kid doesn't like spaghetti?!}. I really liked the idea of tacos but we didn't have any tortillas or shells so I started thinking about putting it over rice. I love rice bowls and I love tacos. A good combination, I'd say!

Here's what I did:

Ingredients - 

2 lb ground beef

1/2 onion

1/2 red pepper

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1/2 cubed avocado

1 cup diced cucumber

taco seasoning

1 cup cooked rice

ranch dressing 

salsa

Brown beef with onion and pepper. Season to taste with taco seasoning.

Meanwhile, start cooking rice. {Invest in a rice cooker if you haven't already ... it's my favourite kitchen appliance!}

While things are browning and cooking, chop spinach, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber. 

Put rice in bowl, spoon beef mixture over rice & top with veggies and desired sauce {if any}.

It was a healthy, filling supper that really turned out well! 

freezer cooking with Sharmane {in someone else's kitchen}

I've been pinning ideas for a while now for this whole freezer crock-pot cooking craze and really wanting to try it. I only have the freezer on top of our fridge for space, so I knew I couldn't go crazy (like this lady) but I wanted to have a few meals on hand for those days when I just can't my creative juices flowing to come up with supper. I meal-plan but sometimes, when that runs out and I'm left with random things in my pantry and fridge ... supper comes up short. So these are my "back-pocket" meals, if you will.

{Side note: isn't it weird that I can start out by talking about "pinning" things and you all know what I'm talking about? If this were two years ago, everyone would imagine me using a cork board and actual push pins. It's just strange how things evolve.}

Karlie had posted that she had done a big freezer meal cooking day and both Sharmane and I commented on her picture that we wanted to do that! DESTINY. We decided to get together this week and just do a big day of prep to have freezer meals on hand. We only did seven recipes but it took all afternoon on Friday.

Here's what we made:

If you look closely, you'll see our grocery bill was only $111.90. We already had some of the meat on-hand.
Sharmane provided chicken, prawns & turkey sausage and I supplied the beef. Well. J's family farm provided it.
So, that cut down our costs A LOT.

All our recipes were from either Six Sisters Stuff or Loving My Nest.

I went grocery shopping the night before and we used Sharmane's kitchen to work in. We decided to tackle it recipe-by-recipe in terms of what we were chopping and prepping. Some recipes require meat to be cooked before hand and others allow you to put it in the bags raw. It worked well for us to do it this way, but we only doubled our recipes. If you were tripling or anything crazy like that, you may want to do all your chopping & cooking first, then start bagging things. But - I think it's totally a personal preference thing.

Turns out that even with only seven meals, my fridge and freezer are full so I will be making most of the recipes this week, intermingled with my meal plan that I made up before deciding to do this. Two weeks of meals and only one day of prep for half of them! YES.

We decided that we will definitely do this again, although I will have to plan better for freezer space. I actually want to freeze them so I can use them in a pinch!

Have you done freezer crock-pot cooking at all? Tips? Tricks? I'd love to hear!

panko chicken fingers {in the kitchen}

These last few weeks have felt like a bit of a gong show in our house. There have been a few issues that have sort of overtaken our lives and many other things fell by the wayside. Grocery shopping was one of these things. I was literally entering random ingredients into Google to try and come up with a recipe that I could make from my very limited stock. {Note to self: ALWAYS have tomato sauce, beans, cheese & milk on hand!} I had a bit of meat frozen and a depleted pantry to scour and planning supper quickly became my least favourite part of the day. I was so excited when Liz told me she made chicken fingers with panko bread crumbs and coconut oil and - as luck would have it - I had all the ingredients! {I know, panko bread crumbs and not tomato sauce? Really?} So I jumped on Pinterest and found this recipe from Cooking Light for Parmesan Panko Chicken Fingers. {I substituted the canola oil for coconut oil} I paired it with tri-colour baby potato wedges {"recipe" below} and veggies & dip. I think I should have coated the chicken with a little more panko to get more of a crunch ... they were a bit soft, which worked out with feeding chunks to our 10 month old but it may not appeal to all ages. The taste was a bit bland, but I think that could have been helped with just a little extra seasoning before coating the chicken. Otherwise, they turned out well and were an easy dinner in a snap!

Tri-colour Baby Potato Wedges

1 small bag tri-colour baby potatoes (mine were from Superstore)

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp cajon seasoning

Cut potatoes into small wedges, place in bowl. Pour oil and seasonings overtop. Toss to combine. Spread on baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. 

I do this with regular potatoes as well instead of store-bought fries. Just a bit of a healthier option and you can change up seasonings, oils, etc every time for some variety!