Canned Black Bean Replacement

A while back I decided to try to make foods that I normally eat and improve on them. Black beans were the first thing I tried and the difference is amazing. I cook with black beans a lot so I used to just cook them in water and freeze the rest but the flavour on this is much better. You can either make enough for a meal or make large batch and freeze the rest.

Spicy Mexican Minestrone Stew

This dish was created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “Italian”. Since I cook Italian food all of the time, I decided to  change things up and try kind of a Mexican-Italian fusion meal. Well, it turned out really good and there are only a few things that I would change.

Chicken Enchilada Quinoa

This dish was created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “tex-mex”. Well I was trying to do something that I have not made before and I really like quinoa. While this is definitely not an enchilada but more of a quinoa casserole, I still really liked it so I do not care.

Manhattan Clam Chowder

This dish was created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “chowder”. The first thing I thought of was clam chowder because I love it but then I realised that I have never even eaten Manhattan Clam Chowder. After looking online, I found that most people either love or hate it and there was very little in between. I decided to give it a shot since looking at the ingredients, it seemed like it would taste really good.

Vegetarian Curry Shepherd’s Pie

This dish was created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “Made Healthy.” I have always loved Shepherd’s Pie because it is an amazing comfort food but like most comfort foods, not the healthiest. In order to make this healthy, I decided to go with a vegetarian option and not use butter in the my mashed potatoes (the recipe says butter because I plan to make this again). I am really glad that I decided to go with a lot of spices in this because mashed potatoes without butter did not taste quite right. Other than that, this was absolutely delicious and I have been eating it all week.

Asian Marinated Steak Fajitas

This dish was prepared for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “rice”. Obviously, you can see no rice in the faijitas but I will probably make another post for those. I have made fajitas in the passed but never asian marinated and I can honestly say that this will be my new go to whenever I want to make Fajitas. The difference in flavour is not huge but it is very subtle and very welcomed without too overbearing. I think next time, I might add a different spice or sauce to go with it. Also, I would go with fresh ginger next time for more ginger flavour.

Chicken Tikka Masala Ravioli

This dish was created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “screw ups”. Well I still do not own a pasta maker or ravioli stamp so I attempted to make it using just a rolling pin. I think I finally got it! The trick is to make sure you cover everything in your house in flour! That being said, these were absolutely delicious. I would make these any day and honestly, were not too hard. Plus, I made enough to freeze that I do not have to make it that often.

Next time, I definitely will make it a bit more spicy though. I ended up running out of Flour so I substituted whole wheat flour and it turned out fine. Also, you can make the Chicken Tikka, Paneer, Cilantro Mint Chutney, Ginger Garlic Paste, and Curry Powder before time.

Choco-BBQ Chili

This dish was the completed part of a dish created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “Bottled Sauces from Scratch” and my second theme was “Comfort Food”. While the homemade BBQ sauce satisfied the first theme, this completed dish definitely was comfort food. There are not many foods that I consider more comfort food as Chili especially on a cool night.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

This dish was created for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “Cajun” and my second theme was “turn something boring into something great”. Mixing these two themes was fairly easy. I took a normal chicken pasta and let the chicken marinate for a short time in some cajun spice and the result was a mildly hot, easy, pasta dish that I would definitely make again. I think next time I might use a bit less noodles and break them up to make it easy to get all of the veggies, chicken, and pasta into one bite. Also, I would reserve some of the starchy water to help break apart the noodles.

Green Chicken Masala

This dish was prepared for the subreddit, /r/52weeksofcooking, where the theme was “fat” and my second theme was “inspired by a colour”. Obviously the colour I chose was green. I have made masala before but never green masala so I was very intrigued. This came out really well and made my entire place smell really good. If you want a hotter or milder dish, you can adjust the amount of peppers to see fit. The way this recipe was written, comes out fairly hot but I some times like my meals to fight back some times.