Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Betty Crocker Big Red Cookbook Giveaway!


Do you like cookbooks? Personally I LOVE them. Yeah it's nice to find recipes online super-fast, but you can't beat sitting down with a cookbook and leafing through the pages marking off which recipes you want to try and drooling at all the pictures. Betty Crocker has revamped and reprinted it's "Big Red Cookbook" (it’s chock-a-block full of 1500 recipes for the way we cook today) and I'm giving away 1 copy to one of my lucky readers! The Betty Crocker Cookbook is valued at approximately $35.99 and will be available through Amazon, Indigo and Chapters, BettyCrocker.com and Wiley Publishing.
How can I win this awesome cookbook you ask? Here's how:
Mandatory Entry:

Follow this link (https://lifemadedelicious.ca/bccookbook) to view a sneak peek of the book along with 400 new recipes! Share your favourite new recipe from Life Made Delicious and Betty Crocker in the comments.

Additional entry, for those who’d like one:

Tweet the following, then come leave a comment linking to your tweet:
Enter to win a copy of Betty Crocker’s Big Red Cookbook here! http://tinyurl.com/4357hmd #BettyCrocker2011

Rules:

1. Contests ends October 27th 2011.
2. Open to Canadian residents only
3. Readers can enter across multiple blogs but only win once.
4. A winner will be drawn randomly using random.org
5. Please leave some way for me to contact you in case you win, email address, blog address, twitter name, etc... 

Once I've selected a winner the cookbook will be shipped in 4-6 weeks.

Please visit my disclosure page to read about my special relationship with General Mills/lifemadedelicious.ca

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Beer and Bacon Jam

Beer. Bacon. Jam. I know what you're thinking, but this is a family site and I can't repeat it. Don't let the name throw you, jam is a loose description of this amazing bacon "spread". I first heard of it while watching FoodNetwork's show Eat St. A food truck's most popular burger had bacon jam on it. My ears perked up and I hit Google.

I found some recipes and picked the one from Not Quite Nigella's site (LOVE that blog name) to work from. I was going to make her recipe as is, but I was lacking some ingredients and it was pouring out... and I was in my sweats...  and didn't feel like going to the store. Wow, I'm just full of all kinds of excuses. Anyways, some simple substitutions (like beer!) from my pantry and fridge later and I had an amazing tangy, slightly spicy and totally delicious bacon and beer purée.



We tried it on sliders and it was soooo good. I can't wait to try it on a toasted bagel with a fried egg, or on crostini with goat cheese and arugula.


Beer and Bacon Jam

500g (1 pkg) smoked bacon
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp fancy molasses
1 chili in adobo sauce, diced
1 tbsp adobo sauce
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 cup brewed coffee
1 bottle of beer
1/4 cup maple syrup
Black pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Cut the bacon into 1" pieces and fry over medium heat in a dutch oven or deep pot until browned but not crisp.
2. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain all but 1 tbsp of the bacon grease.
3. Fry the onion and garlic in the bacon fat until soft.
4. Add the chili, adobo sauce, cooked bacon, paprika and molasses and stir.
5. Add the coffee, 1 cup of the beer, maple syrup and freshly ground black pepper.
6. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 2 hours. As the liquid boils away add more beer a bit at a time to keep the mixture from drying out.
7. Allow the mixture to cool a bit and then purée until smooth with a bit of texture.

Print this recipe   




Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Vegetarian Lasagna with Goat Cheese and Roasted Vegetables

We are a meat-eating family, and proud of it! But ever since my husband was diagnosed with high cholesterol (high is a very generous term, I believe his doctor actually said "WTF do you eat???" when he saw hubs's number) I've been trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my repertoire.

A friend on the twitter @TNy_Photography asked me the other day if I had a vegetarian lasgana recipe, and as luck would have it, rolling around in my head I did! when I had heard that my cholesterol pill-popping husband had 4 gigantic hot dogs for lunch at work the other day I knew it was a good time to serve him some veggies and make this lasgana.

You can make this lasagna the traditional way by just alternating layers of noodles and cheese and veggies, but I think the rolls look pretty and are better for portion control as you can see exactly what you're getting. They also don't take that much more time to make than the layering method and they hold together very well.

Start out by laying out your cooked to slightly under al denté noodles.
Sorry about the picture, the lighting over my island is okay for cooking, not so much for picture taking.


Blend the goat cheese and ricotta together and spread out over the noodles
stopping short 2" from one end.


Purée 1/2 your roasted veggies and add to the jarred marinara. Spoon about 2 tbsp of the sauce over the cheese and then top with roasted veggies.



Stand back and admire how amazing this looks, Seriously. I'm dying here.



Roll up the noodles towards the end you left the gap.



Place the seam side down and voilà! A lasagna roll!



Spread a bit of the sauce over the bottom of a dish and arrange the rolls seam side down in the pan.



Top with some more sauce and the shredded mozzarella, and bake at 350˚F for 30 minutes.

Print this recipe

 Vegetarian Lasagna with Goat Cheese and Roasted Vegetables

1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow zucchini (summer squash), diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 c mushrooms, diced
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper
12 lasgana noodles
1 jar of your favourite marinara (or your own homemade)
4 oz herbed goat cheese (plain goat cheese works too)
1 c ricotta cheese
2 c mozzarella, shredded

Instructions:

1. Toss your diced onions, peppers, zucchinis, and mushrooms with the olive oil, oregano and a bit of salt and pepper and spread out onto a cookie sheet. Roast at 450˚F for about 15-20 minutes or until nice and soft.
2. In the meantime, boil your lasagna noodles in salted water until just slightly under done from al denté (they will continue to cook in the oven). Drain and rinse and allow to cool slightly.
3. Bring your goat cheese and ricotta to room temperature and blend together with a spatula or hand mixer.
4. Remove your veggies from the oven and purée half of them until almost smooth. Add the puréed mixture to the jarred marinara and mix well to combine.
5. Lay out your cooked noodles and spread about 2 tbsp of the goat cheese/ricotta mixture over top leaving about 2" uncovered at one end.
6. Spoon about 2 tbsp pf the purée/marinara mixture over the cheese and top with some of the roasted veggies.
7. Roll the noodled up towards the end with the gap.
8. Spread some of the sauce over the bottom of a casserole or lasagna dish and arrange the lasagna rolls seam side down in the dish.
9. Top with the remaining sauce and the mozzarella cheese.
10. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350˚F for 20 minutes. Remove the tinfoil and bake an additional 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve!

Print this recipe

Friday, July 29, 2011

Summer Meal Plan

Head on over to amotherworld.com for an easy 2 week meal {dinner} plan that you can print off and follow. Meals range from burgers to pastas to fancy grilled tenderloins, all of them easy and quick!

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins

I crave chocolate chip muffins almost daily. I can't go to Tim Horton's without getting one. They're so good. Soft and fluffy with just the right amount of chocolate chips. I have been searching for a good chocolate chip muffin recipe for years. They usually end up being too heavy, dry, oily, sweet or tasteless. Then along came Pinterest (which really should be renamed TimeSuckage.com) and my search was over.

The picture drew me in, and the recipe just seemed to make sense, so I gave them a try. These muffins are light and fluffy, buttery and not too sweet. In a word, perfect. I've already made them twice this week (they go fast!) and I'm sure they'll be a regular in our school morning breakfast routine.

Print this recipe

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins from Taste of Home

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, ombine the egg, sour cream, butter and vanilla.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.
6. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 1 dozen.

Print this recipe

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

BlogHer'11!

The wonderful people over at Mom Central Canada are sending me to BlogHer'11 in San Diego next week. For those of you who are wondering what BlogHer is, it's a conference for bloggers (mainly for women but a few men attend too). There are sessions on writing, photography, how to use various social media platforms, etc... and at night, a whole lot of networking and socializing. Okay, I can't lie, there's a whole lot of partying too!

Personally, I'm really looking forward to attending some of the writing sessions and learning how to use some of the social media and statistics platforms (I can't read my Google Analytics!). I'm also looking forward to meeting some of the people I talk to every day, and have become friends with on Twitter and Facebook.

I hope to come back armed with tons of new knowledge and use it to make TBMOTB even better! In the meantime I'm trying to figure out what to pack (gotta look purdy) and make some easy meals for the husband to pull out of the freezer and make for him and the kids.

When you travel, how do you prepare for your spouse/significant other/babysitter to make things easier for them?

Friday, July 15, 2011

Chex Mex Munch

Celiac disease, which is an intolerance to Gluten, affects more than 330,000 Canadians. More than 73,000 of those that suffer are children. While I'm very fortunate that no one in my house struggles with this, I have friends that do. From talking to them I understand how frustrating it has been in the past to find gluten-free foods that taste great, are easily attainable to the general public, and don't cost a small fortune.

When I learned that General Mills Canada (GMC) was going to start offering Gluten Free Rice Chex and Gluten Free Honey Nut Chex I was so excited! You can get them in any grocery store (I live in the middle of nowhere and our little grocery store has them!) and they cost the same as any other cereal. GMC sent me a box to try and I have to say, they taste exactly like regular Chex. For families that have to deal with the daily reality of cutting out gluten (it's in everything! I can't even imagine how vigilant a parent has to be) having a product like Gluten Free Chex that they don't have to worry about, and that kids love to eat, must be such a relief.

I'm the only real "bowl of cereal" eater at my house so I wanted to try using my GF Chex in a recipe or two so my family would try them. First I made Muddy Buddies, GF Chex mixed with chocolate, peanut butter, butter and icing sugar... hello! They were so good they disappeared before I could take pictures! But my husband is more of a savoury than sweet guy so I knew I'd have to come up with something for him. I took GF Rice Chex, butter, Old El Paso Taco seasoning, seasoned salt and mixed nuts and baked them until everything was toasty. What a yummy muchy snack! And on a hot, sunny patio, nothing goes better with a Corona.

Check out lifemadedelicious.ca for more great Gluten Free recipes using Gluten Free Chex!

Chex Mex Munch

4 c Gluten Free Rice Chex
1/4 c butter or margarine, melted
3 tbsp Old el Paso Taco Seasoning
2 tsp seasoned salt
1 c mixed nuts (I used a premium blend that had cashews, Brazil nuts, pecans, hazelnuts and almonds)

Instructions:

1. Mix the cereal and nuts together in a bowl.
2. Pour the melted butter over top and mix to coat.
3. Sprinkle on the taco seasoning and salt and mix again until evenly coated.
4. Spread out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350˚F for 15 minutes until toasted.
5. Allow to cool and serve.

please see my disclosure page for information on my Life Made Delicious Partnership.

Monday, July 11, 2011

And the winner of the Summer Prize Pack is...


Comment #8


Congratulations Laurie! You win the Summer Prize Pack featuring products from General Mills!

Summer Prize Pack includes:

Barbecue Utensil Set
Paper Plates
Colourful Napkins
General Mills goodies from:
    Old El Paso
    Cheerios (including NEW Chocolate Cheerios!)
    Fibre 1
    Betty Crocker
    Nature Valley

Your prize pack is on it's way!

Amanda

please see my disclosure page for information on my Life Made Delicious Partnership.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Life Made Delicious Posts ~ A Recap

Hello loyal blog readers! I've been blogging over at lifemadedelicious.ca for a month now and I thought I'd recap what's been going on over there in you missed it and wanted to check it out :)

First up, homemade Pain au Chocolat using Pillsbury Cresent rolls and whatever filling your little heart desires! If your dad/husband has a sweet tooth this would be a great addition to your Father's Day brunch table.

Next up: clever treats for Family Movie Night! These are cute little Betty Crocker cupcakes with marshmallows to look like mini popcorn buckets! Are you dying from the cuteness? They're very easy, don't be intimidated. I even include a free PDF file of the wrappers you can download and printout to impress your kids!

My newest post is an ode to my love of summer and a creative barbeque recipe idea... it doesn't always have to be about burgers and hot dogs...


To find out what this is, check out my lifemadedelicious.ca blog!

enjoy,
Amanda

please see my disclosure page for information on my Life Made Delicious Partnership.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

BLT Pasta Salad and a Giveaway!


Our barbequing has been kicked into overdrive the past two weeks. Temperatures are soaring and no way am I standing in a hot kitchen over a boiling pot of anything! I do not enjoy sweating. Thank the good people at Napoleon that our grill has a side burner, it allows me to make this amazing pasta salad outside and not turn my kitchen into a sauna.

I can't wait to take this salad to a picnic or barbeque at someone else's house, I mean, who doesn't love bacon? It'll be the most popular salad on the buffet table! This salad is also great for quick lunches and if you add some grilled chicken  you've got an easy, and totally yummy dinner salad.


I don't recommend adding the lettuce until you're ready to eat as it'll get soggy and you lose the great crunch factor of a nice head of iceburg lettuce.

 
BLT Pasta Salad adapted from Betty Crocker's "it's Summer" 2010

8 strips bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
4 c cooked rotini
1 1/2 c grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 head iceburg lettuce, thinly sliced
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 c ranch dressing
fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
chives

Instructions:

1. Cook your pasta to al denté in salted water and rinse lightly.
2. Cook your bacon until crispy and chop into 1/2" pieces.
3. Mix the mayonnaise, ranch dressing, salt and pepper together.
4. Combine the pasta, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and dressing in a large bowl mixing to coat the salad evenly.
5. Garnish with chopped chives and keep chilled until ready to serve.

Print this recipe 

And now for a fantastic Summer Giveaway from my good friends at General Mills Canada!

Planning on hosting a Barbeque or picnic this summer? Or do you just like to grill for your family? Either way you're gonna love this Summer Prize Pack from General Mills!

Prize Pack Contains:
Barbecue Utensil Set
Paper Plates
Colourful Napkins
General Mills goodies from:
    Old El Paso
    Cheerios (including NEW Chocolate Cheerios!)
    Fibre 1
    Betty Crocker
    Nature Valley

Here are the rules:

All you have to do is head over to http://www.lifemadedelicious.ca/ and then come back here and tell me what your favourite LMD summer recipe is!

Contest is open to Canadian Residents only (We have a crazy postal strike and food items can't be shipped internationally).

Please include a way to reach you if you win (link to blog or website, email address, etc...).

A winner will be picked on July 7th. Good luck and happy Barbequing!

enjoy,
Amanda

please see my disclosure page for information on my Life Made Delicious Partnership.