Live on Rogers Daytime York Region!

Today was an exciting day! I had the pleasure of joining Jacqueline from Rogers Daytime York Region for a live segment about Sunday Soup Kitchen!  I thought I would be exceptionally nervous, but turns out I had no nerves at all!

Check out the links below :)  There are two five minute segments.

http://vimeopro.com/user16748619/personality-appearances/video/80293636

http://vimeopro.com/user16748619/personality-appearances/video/80294696

Sunday Soup Kitchen this weekend was all about preparing my meals that I was going to demonstrate live on air. The two dishes I chose were the balsamic chicken and vegetables in the slow cooker, and a red pepper, black beans, corn salad with a lime/cilantro vinaigrette.

Yesterday I prepared and made a batch of the balsamic chicken dish so that I would have a "finished product" to bring with me.

I spent most of the day prepping my dishes for the show, so there wasn't a lot of cooking going on around here.  Good thing, as my freezer has a lot of cooked meals in it that desperately need to get used!

I did make a chicken dish yesterday, that I have wanted to try for a while.  I've seen a recipe floating around that involved chicken, green beans and red potatoes.  I put my own spin on this so here it is:

Oven Baked Chicken, Green Beans and Red Baby Potatoes

3-4 bonesless, skinless chicken breasts
red mini potatoes quartered or halved
Green beans (about 2 cups)
Seasonings of your choice (I chose rosemary and basil)
2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
Fresh lemon juice

Lay your chicken down in the middle of an ungreased glass baking dish.  On one side lay the chopped baby potatoes, and on the opposite side the green beans.

Drizzle with olive oil and add the minced garlic on top of the chicken.

Season the entire dish with your choice in spices. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice over top of all of it.

Bake for 1 hour at 350 covered with foil.  Then take the foil off and bake for another 15 minutes.  SO SIMPLE!

Happy last week of November!

Sunday Soup Kitchen Partner's in Cooking!

So today was AMAZING and sooo much fun!  Cooking with a friend made it easier, different, and we ended up with TONS of food for our freezer!

In total we spent around $100 between the both of us and made all sorts of goodness for only $50 each!  I can't believe the amount of food I went home with :)

There are many important factors we had to keep in mind to make this go off without a hitch:

1.  Organization
2.  High quantity of food
3.  Grocery list completed in advance
4.  Groceries purchased in advance
5.  Recipes printed/on hand
6.  And for me - loading everything up in the car to bring to her house!

We each purchased our own groceries for two meals each that we were going to make, and double, and bringing enough stuff from our pantry for banana bread chocolate chip muffins, and I bought the fixins for a batch of pizza pinwheels for our kids.

When I showed up on her doorstep I had to take a picture of all that I came with because it was beyond ridiculous.  The hubby asked me where the heck I was going with all that stuff!  Used every single thing in my baskets/bags.  We had so much fun prepping, chatting and catching up, and cooking up a storm in what was only 4 hours in total!

So we made two slow cooker meals which we got prepped and in the crockpots right away as they both took 4 hours on high to make.  Perfect timing with everything else we were making while those meals were on the go.

I made a white bean chicken chili was was easy, and smells divine!  The only thing I did in advance prior to getting to her house, was dice the chicken in advance.  Side note:  I HATE touching raw chicken.  Biggest pet peeve ever!

http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/white-chicken-and-corn-chili.html

My friend made a delicious squash and chickpea curry that made a huge batch as well and tastes YUM!

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_and_easy/slow_cooker_squash_and_chickpea_curry.php

So while our meals were cooking in the crockpot we began our other recipes.

My friend made a ridiculously yummy stuffed meatloaf.  The recipe is from a cookbook which I forgot to take a picture of, but here is a recipe link that is similar to the one she made:

 http://www.food.com/recipe/mushroom-stuffed-meatloaf-59160

She used a combination of ground beef and ground chicken.  I can't wait to try it out this week!  We didn't cook it, just wrapped the meatloaf in tin foil to be cooked whenever we want to make it.  I have one in the freezer and one in my fridge :)

Next up I was working on a blackbean, corn, and red pepper salad with a lime/cilantro vinaigrette.  We each tried a bowl of the finished product - to die for!  I've placed my baggies of the salad in the freezer to use at a later date :)

http://www.onceuponachef.com/2010/08/black-bean-salad-with-corn-red-peppers-avocado-lime-cilantro-vinaigrette.html

After we finished up these recipes we made some of Miriam's Sunday Soup Kitchen staples:  Banana bread choco-chip muffins, and pizza pinwheels.  Her kiddies taste tested the finished product and they were a hit!  Into the freezer they all went!

We were so impressed with all the food we made, and we've made a pact to keep this up once a month, get together, cook, and share some laughs all while filling our freezer for our families.

This last pic made my day - the complete batch cooking!

And remember, it only cost us $50 each - AMAZING.

Happy cooking to all my peeps!