Just in time for a little Thanks-Giving indulgence. I don’t know about you, but Thanks-Giving to me doesn’t seem the same without some delicious pumpkin pie. Now this delicious traditional pie has a little twist to it making it a guilt free adventure for everyone to enjoy. This recipe was a sure winner in my house and I am hoping it will be a winner in your house too. 

Sometimes I think I have this need to spice things up and change the same old into something different, sometimes it flops, I’ll be honest, but sometimes its worth the risk and it turns out wonderfully. I truly think this one turned out wonderfully, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Sending all my good warm wishes for everyone over this thankful holiday and hope everyone has a wonderful long week-end ahead of them spending it with special family and friends.

I can feel that its starting to cool down in my neck of the woods, Summer is soon coming to an end, and fall is slowly making its way in the cycle of seasons. Its kind of sad situation since I love soaking up the heat from the Summer sunshine, as well as adore watching all my flowers blooming, and the little animals running around, but Autumn is another all time favourite season of mine. I love the crisp air, the colourful leaves falling from the trees, watching the animals run around, working ever so hard to get prepared for winter, and ultimately I love the fact that I can turn my oven on, and not get heat stroke. Autumn is the time of year I think I do most of my fun baking, besides in December for the holidays, oh and I almost forgot about Thanks Giving, I love pumpkin pie……. now I’m slightly day dreaming about a spicy pumpkin pie with a scoop of creamy ice cream, alright I think I have gotten side tracked long enough, Summer isn’t over yet, but with the cooler weather today, I felt like having some cozy comfort food, and what better comfort food then a Corn Bread Sloppy Joe combination. The two ultimate comfort foods mixed together is a sure winner to excite any dinner crowd. 

This dinner is quick and easy to make with just a few simple ingredients, that I imagine most of you carry regularly in your pantry, and if you don’t no worries, just be sure to put the ingredients needed for this recipe on your grocery list so you can be sure to make it next week. The part I love about this recipe is the fact that its different from a traditional sloppy joe recipe since I switched up the ordinary bun for some fresh homemade cornbread, if you thought you kids love regular sloppy joe’s, wait till they try this one with corn bread, they will be asking for more. My son loves corn bread, if he could eat just that when I make it, I’m sure he would, but who wouldn’t corn bread is awesome in my books. 

Lets get started on getting this great dinner to your table, and I hope to hear your comments about what you think and if you enjoyed it. As always thank you for stopping by and I’ll talk to you all soon, Ciao for now!

Can you imagine someone making you breakfast and placing what looks, tastes and feels like a cookie in front of you for breakfast? I would be like is this for real?, but holding on tightly to my plate so no one would take it away from me. This is not a dream, it is a breakfast cookie indeed, it has healthy ingredients in it, it’s so simple, and quick to make, your kids are going to love it, and you’re gonna be so glad you found this recipe.

You can mix up the flavour combinations in this recipe to keep it interesting such as adding peanut butter, or switching out the banana for applesauce, options are abundant.

I hope that all of you give this recipe a try, and discover the beauty, and bliss in having a cookie for breakfast with guilt nowhere to be found. This recipe was adapted from Dinner, Dishes, and Desserts. Have a great morning Ciao for now.

After yesterdays herb & garlic pan seared haddock, I’m still on a kick for some more sea food, why not right, it tastes great, it makes me feel like I’m eating out, and who can complain when you get served a pasta seafood dish. You should see the size of these scallops, they are tender, juicy full of great smell and large, wow they are big. With scallops this size you got to be prepared to cook with a very watchful eye to make sure you don’t over cook, but defiantly not to under cook it either.

If your anything like me the first couple of times I ventured down the road of cooking sea food it made me nervous I had eaten sea food a time when the end result was me suffering from food poising, and even though it wasn’t me that cooked it the experience was scaring to say the least. I find myself having a fear of eating seafood even though I absolutely love it. The only way I see that will help me conquer this fear is to just do it, and grow some confidence that its going to be ok. Today I think I did just that with this lovely flavourful lite Alfredo linguine & scallop dinner. The scallops turned out perfect juicy on the inside with a lovely sear on the outside, and the Alfredo sauce is reduced in calories, but not in flavour, which made this dish more then enjoyable for me.

Today I’m in the mood for some fish, its light, fulfilling, delicious, healthy, and its full of brain power nutrients. I think I’m in the need for some extra fish this week because I seem to be having forgetfulness types of episodes almost every day, some fish is in order to get my brain to wake up a little.

It’s more than likely caused by the fact that I really don’t feel like thinking much right now, cause my little baby goes to school for the first time in a couple of weeks, and I’m just simply heart-broken over it, but the time has come for me to loosen my arms and let him start to experience the world away from mama. This has to truly be harder on me then it is on my little man!!! The house is going to be so quite, I am sure for the first little while I will constantly be watching the clock to see if its time to go pick him up again. As for now we have a little more time for some extra fun, and you can’t have fun without the proper energy, and straight forward thinking which brings me back to the recipe of the day, Herb & Garlic Pan Seared Haddock.

This fish dish is so quick and easy to make, you’ll have plenty of time to go out for some evening fun after dinner, and its defiantly light enough where it won’t make you feel the kind of full that makes you tired, and lacking energy. Many different types of fish are filled with energy boosting nutrients, and vitamins that provide your body and brain with many great benefits. Haddock is a great fish choice especially for anyone who is not a real big fish lover, and doesn’t overly enjoy that fishy taste. Its subtle in flavour which makes it also an excellent choice of fish to introduce to the kids. The freshness of the summer time herbs and garlic, along with the sultry sear achieved by drizzling the fish in a good quality olive oil is a great combination of flavours that don’t leave the fish being completely over powered. Serve this dish with a lovely tossed salad or tomato salad to complete the fresh Summer goodness. This is a healthy dinner you will feel good about eating and serving.

O.k. folks this tossed grilled chicken & parmesan pasta skillet dinner is a quick and easy dinner to whip up using the left over BBQ chicken that you cooked extra of on purpose the night before, so dinner the next night would be a breeze. I do this kind of cooking all the time, its my natural self, planning meals ahead of time to make my life a little easier, why not right!

In my opinion left over dinners can usually be disappointing, but I think that only holds true if you serve the exact same dish two nights in a row, who wants that unless dinner the night before was cheese cake and strawberries then I think I could find a way to enjoy that a few times in a row. Who are we kidding that’s not going to happen, but we can still make dinner time quick and easy by enjoying fresh nutritious left over food, because it’s all together a different dish the second time around.

You can make this dinner from start to finish with all fresh and no left overs, but this dish is quicker when some of the main ingredients are left over goodies from the night before. If you cook this dish without using leftovers add-on a least an extra 15-20 minutes to cook the chicken.

This tomato and crusty bread salad not only boasts with great flavour, but it screams out easy, and the best satisfying meal to be eating in the middle of Summer when the freshest tomatoes are ready for the picking right out of the garden. Even if you didn’t grow your own fresh tomatoes don’t worry, just hustle down to the nearest farmers market or a fresh filled grocery store, and pick a basket of the best tomatoes you can find.

A lot of the time in the Summer especially I really rather eat simple meals that take little time to make, and that are light with very little to no meat at all. This salad  has to be one of my favourite meals to eat all Summer long, it defiantly makes the all time favourite list for me, for sure, and the fact that the ingredients list is so little almost makes me wonder if this is even considered a recipe, but if its food combined with certain ingredients I guess it makes it a recipe no matter how simple and easy it is.

I also have another very similar recipe called Balsamic Breaded Tomato Salad, but it has a few extra ingredients that this one doesn’t, as well as the flavours are slightly different. I hope you toss this quick and easy tomato & crusty bread salad up for dinner, either as a side dish or a meatless main dinner, which I personally enjoy very much. Talk to you soon, till next time Ciao for now.

I’m starting the week off with a recipe that is quick and easy to make, but boasts with plenty of flavour and deliciousness everyone is going to think you spent a good portion of your evening whipping up this perfect dinner when in fact you had time to clean up the entire kitchen and rest your feet waiting for dinner time to finally be here.

This butternut squash soup pasta & cheese bake is yummy enough for the entire family, and if you have picky little eaters that don’t like anything listed in the vegetable category, really just don’t tell them, they will never know, and I bet they will enjoy eating this dinner just as much as everyone else at the table.

This recipe came into my life since I love the taste and creaminess of my Ricotta Butternut Squash Penne Bake, but I just don’t always have the luxury of time on my side, to roast the squash, bring everything to the right temperature, and bake everything in the oven together again, so I created something that is just as tasty, but far less time-consuming, making it a perfect selection for a delicious dinner any day of the week, when every extra minute is worth everything.

I hope this Butternut Squash Soup Pasta & Cheese Bake, make it to your table tonight or even tomorrow night, when ever it does I hope you enjoy it, and that it brings some kind of simplicity to what could, would and may have been a time flying by kind of day. Till next time enjoy and talk to you soon, Ciao for now!

I basically have breakfast on the menu a lot these days. Todays menu item is comforting Zucchini Potato Hash Brown breakfast. It has a great crispy crunch texture along with a savoury flavour that will have you looking back in the pan to see if you remembered to make some extra.

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal and I think right now its my meal of choice to be cooking because first thing in the morning is the only time of the day thats kinda cool out, and I don’t mind turning on the stove or oven, plus I’m hungry so I make breakfast naturally. The rest of the day I have literally been avoiding the kitchen like the plauge, and not to mention I think I am going through a cooking drought.

This cooking drought feeling is a first for me. I just can’t seem to come up with anything creative, and I find myself not wanting to be the one who comes up with what to cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and really I can’t manage to cook the some old thing for dinner not even one more time, I may scream if I have too.

At first I felt a sense of fear thinking that I lost my passion and mojo, and I thought great now what I am going to do? Now I realize that all of us aspiring cooks and food lovers need new resources, and a chance of revisiting what we have already done to get some of that much needed inspiration back. This morning I came across one of the blogs I get RSS feed from, and this blogger was experiencing the same feelings I am. I instantly felt relieved because it made me realize that I wasn’t loosing anything, I just needed to explore some new things and places that would give me my inspiration for the love of food and cooking back. This week on my grocery shopping day I am heading straight for the book store, and scanning the cookbook isle to see what new inspiration may jump out at me and say, “take me home, you need me.” I think it will be exactly what I need to get those creative juices flowing back.

Stay tuned for the newly inspired, revamped me, hopefully Enjoy your breakfast, fill up on energy and good feelings and be inspired with what ever your passions are, Ciao for now, I’ll be back soon!!

I love a good healthy, and easy to make soup, especially when your in the need for some comfort food. The warmth from the hot broth brings me comfort, and gives me a sense of ease and relaxation after a long day or when I’m not feeling all the great.

For the last couple of days I have been craving an Italian wedding bell type of soup, but I came up with this slightly heartier soup dish instead. Its a soup made with a chicken stock base, a few basic soup veggies, a healthy white meat turkey meatball, and whole wheat farfalle pasta to give the soup plenty of hearty fill, sprinkle a dash or two of your favourite fresh parmesan cheese, and this soup could be your next favourite go to soup for the fall.

My husband and son loved the turkey meatball farfalle soup, I think the hubby had 3 bowls of it all in one sitting, so that gives it an A plus all on its own, cause my hubby is not a soup eating kind of guy, but the small turkey meatballs reeled him in all the way. Meatballs are usually always a winner for kids so there wasn’t even one funny look or little unpleasant comment there either. In fact my son was quick to tell me that I make the best food ever. That to me coming from a 4 year old was the best complement I’ve ever gotten, talk about feeling good and proud.

I hope you find yourself in your kitchen today or even tomorrow making this delicious filling soup, and that you love it as much as we do, thanks for stopping by and I’ll chat with you all soon, Ciao for now!