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The fall inspires me to cook warm and hearty and delicious meals!  I’m sure we all have our favourites.  I asked friends of mine to give me input on different types of recipes they’d like to see, and so in honour of them I’m going to share some of my favourite fall recipes in the categories they requested!

Vegetarian:

Mac ‘n’ Cheese - This recipe is one of my absolute favourites!  My friend Tammy passed it along and we really enjoy it.  Especially on a day like today where it’s rainy and chilly and you just feel like something comforting!  To make it more vegetarian you can substitute soy milk for regular milk like I do. 

Sloppy Lentils - If you enjoy sloppy joes, then you’ll enjoy this vegetarian substitute!  It’s so yummy and filling and it’s another delicious comfort food.

Salads:

Alsace Salad - This one is a childhood favourite of Peter’s.  It’s so tasty and the dressing is light and always a nice change!

Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Sliced Egg, Salt, Pepper, 1.5 tsp. Dijon Mustard, 2 tbsp. vinegar, 5 tbsp. oil.  Combine the first 4 ingredients in a large salad bowl.  Combine the rest of the ingredients in a sauce mixing container (we got ours at the dollar store!).  Just before serving, toss salad with dressing.

Couscous Salad - This one is a good one on it’s own or delicious partnered with some middle eastern foods for a heartier meal.  It’s creamy and light and has a great middle eastern flavour!

Soups:

Pumpkin Soup - I LOVE pumpkin soup!!!  It’s so perfect for the fall.  If you enjoy all things pumpkin then try this!  It’s a nice starter for a fall meal, or nice on its own with some homemade bread.

2 tbsp. butter

1 small onion, chopped fine

2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. salt

2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)

2 cups of cooked, mashed pumpkin (either fresh or from a can)

2 cups of milk

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. thyme

Melt butter in a large pot.  Add onion and saute until soft but not brown.  Blend in flour and salt.  Add broth, pumpkin, milk and spices.  Cook stirring constantly until slightly thickened. 

Peanut Soup - This African inspired favourite is delicious.  I first tried it in a local cafe, but have since loved it in our home.  Be sure to try this one if you love peanut butter like I do!

Slow cooker:

Chicken Pot Pie - Pot pies are delicious and this one is even easier to make as you just have to assemble it all in your slow cooker!  It makes your house smell great while it’s cooking!

3-4 cups mixed frozen vegetables uncooked

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 small onion, chopped

2 or 3 pieces of cooked chicken, cubed

1 box of stuffing

Mix vegetables, onion, soup and chicken pieces together.  Prepare stuffing and put on top of other ingredients.  This can be cooked in the slow cooker or backed at 350F until soup bubbles (approx. 30 mins.).

Quebecois Chicken - Anyone who has tried this has loved it.  It’s a favourite of my husband’s! 

If you have a fall favourite that fits into one of these categories, please leave a comment with a link or the recipe!

Better late than never!!!  I’m trying to get caught up on blogging since going to Hong Kong!  Here is my menu for this week:

Monday: Out for dinner

Tuesday: Sloppy Lentils

Wednesday: Shake ‘n’ Bake Chicken, Potatoes, Zucchini

Thursday: Creamy Carrot & Apple Soup, Bread

Friday: Saucey Meat, Rice

Creamy Carrot & Apple Soup:

4 carrots, coarsely chopped

1 large potatoe, peeled and cut into chunks

1 large apple, peeled and cut into chunks

5 cups chicken broth

1 tsp. applie pie spice (or a combo of nutmeg and cinnamon)

1/2 cup half and half (or 1/3 cup of plain yogurt and the rest with milk works for me)

salt and pepper to taste

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large pot.  Simmer for 20 minutes until vegetables are fork tender.  Blend in food processor or blender until smooth.  Return to pot.  Whisk in cream and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Once blended it could be put in the crock pot to simmer which brings out the flavours!  Add the cream in at the last minute if you do that.

Saucey Meat:

4 pieces of meat, cut into bite-sized pieces

1/4 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup italian salad dressing

1 red onion, chopped (or other vegetable)

1 tsp. italian seasoning

2 cups broccoli florets (or other vegetable)

1/4 cup shredded cheese

Take meat with 1 tbsp. oil and 1/4 cup chicken broth and cook meat in hot oil in large covered skillet on medium-high heat for 5 mins. on each side or until browned on both sides.  Stir in dressing and seasoning until well blended.  Bring just to boil.  Reduce heat to med-low; simmer 3 mins. or until meat is cooked through.  Add vegetables and cheese; mix well.  Cook 2-4 mins. or until vegetables are crisp-tender, stirring occasionlly.  Serve over a bed of rice.  Sprinkle with more cheese before serving.

What are you eating for dinner this week?  What food is tempting your tummy?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I haven’t been a very good blogger lately.  One of the reasons is that we don’t have the internet at home so I am left to my lunch break or odd moments at work to blog!  But an even more exciting reason is that I went to Hong Kong for vacation!  Check out my previous post for some pictures! 

As a part of that post I asked what you wanted to know about my traveling, and so I’ve broken it down into your questions, and added a few more tips!  If you want more tips, check out my previous post on traveling. 

How do I choose accommodations? This varies depending on where we’re going.  Peter and I like to take one "exotic" international trip each year if we’re able.  While we’re brainstorming this, we usually consider who we know in other countries (we have a lot of friends all over the world!), and then narrow it down to a general list of countries.  Once we’ve done that we debate on where we’d like to go based on cost (we price out the flights on websites), and then the topic of accommodations comes up!  Of course, if we go to somewhere that we know someone, it’s much cheaper.  This worked out when we were in Europe in 2002, 2005 and 2007.  In 2002 and 2007 we stayed with friends.  In 2005 we did half and half.  We stayed with people we "knew" (either directly or through others) in Belgium and Holland.  In the case of Hong Kong, we didn’t know anyone well enough to stay with them.  Because we were going with my parents, they have timeshares with Disney and so we were able to use their timeshare to stay at Disney’s resort, which meant that we didn’t have to pay for our accommodations! 

How do we plan our sightseeing? Once we know where we’re going we like to make a list of all the major sites.  We do this by googling the city and checking out some travel websites.  Wikitravel is useful in telling us what’s a good hilight.  Then we try to make a list of the important ones that we care about.  Sometimes I’ve even gone to bookstores and bought a book that tells me about the country or city and I use their day-by-day guide to recognize how long it will take to accomplish everything.  Libraries are awesome for this because you can sign out books for a lot longer and then you can just return it and you’re not bound to it if it’s no good!   

Biggest difference between North America and China? There is no cut and dry answer to this.  I was in Hong Kong, and it’s an amazing city.  In most senses it’s far more advanced, cultural and interesting than any of the major North American cities I’ve been to (and I’ve been to most!!!).  It was exceptionally clean, their transit system was amazing, and the people were friendly and helpful.  I liked how they infused their older culture with the modernity of everything.  I did see a difference though when I went to mainland China for a day.  It wasn’t as "polished" and things were still getting updated from when things changed a while back.  I think I may have experienced more culture shock had I been to a small place in mainland China, but for the mostpart there was zero culture shock.  We loved eating the local food, but there was tons and tons of other places to eat if that wasn’t your idea of fun! 

Here are some other helpful sites for planning your trip:

Trip Advisor

Lonely Planet

Frommers

Ryan Air - amazingly CHEAP airfare for flying between European countries.  We used them to fly from London to Marrakech, and London to Belfast, and Dublin to London.  Check out their policy on luggage!  It’s never been an issue for us, but it might be for you.  And also, you don’t get assigned seats.  You’re guaranteed one, but you have to line up and rush to get on the plane to get seats together if you care!

Trek Escapes - we used this travel agency to book a really great tour with Gecko Tours when we went to Morocco.  They were excellent, and we were very happy with their services. 

Any other questions??  If so, leave them in the comment section and I’d be glad to do another post to answer them!

Where are we going next?  Our sights are set on India…but no plans are made as of yet.  I’ll keep you posted!

It’s been far too long since I blogged.  To my fans (all 2 of you…), I apologize.  Life has gotten carried away, and within that I’ve been on vacation - to Hong Kong!  It was a fantastic trip, and in the next few weeks I plan to hilight some of the travel tips I have for this particular trip as well as some sightseeing information about Hong Kong itself.  Any questions in particular you want me to address from my travel experience? 

For now, here are a couple of pictures for you to enjoy:

Monday: Cantonese Chicken, Rice, Veggies

Tuesday: Masoor Daal, Naan bread, Veggies

Wednesday: meatless

Thursday: Steaks in my homemade marinade, Roasted potatoes, Veggies

Friday: Pasta, Veggies

Saturday: meatless

Sunday: Leftovers

As you enjoy this weekend, why not make yourself a little snack to enjoy?  Here is a simple method I follow:

Sweet Mix:

1 cup each (or more!) of cereal, nuts, raisins, craisins, popcorn…

Mix with 3 tbsp. of brown sugar, 1/2 cup melted butter (or coconut oil), and 1 tsp. of cinnamon.  Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.  Stir halfway.  At the end, throw in some chocolate chips to the mix.  If you add them earlier they melt!

Salty Mix:

1 cup each (or more!) of cereal, nuts, popcorn, crackers, tortilla chips…

Mix with 1/2 pkg. of onion soup mix and 1/2 cup of melted butter.  Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.  Stir halfway.