Top 10 Recipes of 2011

Well, it's almost the end of another year and Food and Whine will be 2 years old. 2011 has been a good year for this little blog. I was selected as one of the top 100 food mom bloggers by babble.com. It was an honour to be recognized among so many very talented bloggers. We were given the opportunity to create a custom recipe for babble and participate in food blogger bites, where we shared cooking tips and recipes every month. I also became a contributor for Gojee. This is a great site for browsing recipes from a variety of food bloggers based on what ingredients you have on hand. I've found so many unqiue and creative recipes along with some incredible food blogs. Another great site this year has been pinterest.  Many of you have found your way to Food and Whine through this site, and I've discovered so many great blogs and recipes through it as well.
I'm looking forward to what 2012 has in store for this blog and for food blogging in general. Now I'd like to share with you the most popular posts from Food and Whine for this year. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

1. Baked Oatmeal

2. Really Good Mac and Cheese

3. Banana Nutella Pancakes

4. Oatmeal Smoothies

5. Chicken and Vegetable Penne

6. Chicken Mole

7. Chocolate Avocado Pudding

8. Sweet Potato and Coconut Quinoa Soup

9. Zucchini and Yam Fritters

10. Moroccan Chicken and Rice

Turkey Vegetable Soup

After indulging in far too many unhealthy treats during Christmas, I've been starting to crave wholesome and nutritious foods that have been sadly lacking in my diet lately. I happen to have a lot of leftover turkey in my fridge, as I'm sure many of you do, so this soup was a perfect way to use some of it up while satisfying my need for a healthy meal. This recipe is very similar to the soup from Whole Chicken in a Crockpot. By simmering the bones overnight in the slow cooker, you get a rich and nutrient-packed stock for your soup. If you don't have any turkey bones to do this or you just don't have the time, store-bought turkey or chicken stock is fine for this too. The whole family loved this soup, and suprisingly it was my usually picky Cole who seemed to enjoy it the most. He asked me if it was good for him and I told him it was, then he asked "so how come it tastes so good?" Apparently a meal can't be good for you and taste good, according to Cole's logic. This soup just blew his mind.

Turkey Stock
1 turkey carcass, meat and skin removed
1 onion, cut in half
1 tsp vinegar

Break up the turkey carcass as much as you can and place the pieces in a slow cooker with the onion.  Add enough water to cover the bones, then add vinegar and cook on low heat overnight.
In the morning, pour the contents of the slow cooker through a strainer to remove the bones and onion. Either use the stock right away for your soup or place it in airtight containers in the fridge or freezer to use later. The benefit of chilling the stock first is it allows you to scoop the fat easily off the top. Don't be alarmed if the stock congeals when chilled; this is caused by the natural gelatin from the bones and is a sign of a great stock.

Turkey Vegetable Soup
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 small head of broccoli, chopped
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tbsp fresh basil, diced
1/3 cup fresh parsley, diced
6 cups (approx) turkey stock
1/2 cup of your favourite pasta
1 cup (more or less) of cooked chopped turkey
salt and pepper, to taste


Heat oil on medium heat in a dutch oven or soup pot. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add broccoli, poultry seasoning, basil and parsley. Stir and cook for another minute. Pour in your turkey stock and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for about 10 minutes, until pasta is soft. Add turkey and reduce heat. Simmer covered for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

On a side note, I love this photo because you can see my cat in the spoon's reflection. He was hovering pretty close to the soup the whole time. He promptly jumped onto the table to try to lick our bowls after we were done. Naughty kitty!

Cherry Bread

I love a nice fruit bread during the holidays. It's a sweet bread made with candied cherries, citrus peel and sometimes currents or raisins. My favourite part is the cherries, and I had quite a bit of cherries left over from making Cherry Chocolate Kiss Cookies, so I left out the other stuff and just made cherry bread. I also added about a teaspoon of cinnamon into the sweet dough to give it more flavour. The bread smelled so good when I pulled it out of the oven that I couldn't wait for it to cool down before cutting into it (this is why the loaf looks a little ragged in the photo). There's nothing like hot bread fresh out of the oven, especially when it's sweet cherry bread. It's also great when toasted and smeared with butter. Sometimes I like to add a little honey or jam on it too for a treat. It freezes well too, so I froze one loaf for later and have been enjoying the other loaf pretty much entirely on my own because the rest of my family doesn't seem to share my affinity for bread and yeasty carbs in general. They're more interested in the Christmas cookies and chocolates. The good thing about this bread is that it's relatively low in fat and sugar (as long as you don't add a ton of butter and jam or honey), so it's not a bad choice as far as holiday treats go. 

  

Cherry Bread

Adapted from Canadian Living's Christmas Fruit Bread

Sweet yeast dough recipe

2/3 cup chopped candied cherries

Punch down the prepared dough and turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead cherries into the dough, adding more flour if dough becomes sticky. Divide into two equal portions, roll them into balls and cover with plastic wrap to rest for about 15 mintues.

Pat each ball into 11- x 8" rectangle. Starting at narrow end, roll up into cylinder; pinch along bottom to smooth and seal. Place seam side down in small greased loaf pans or on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 375°F and bake for 25 minutes or until loaves are golden and sound hollow when tapped. Let cool on racks before slicing.



Christmas Goodies Round-Up

It's Christmas time! My kids have been anxiously waiting for Christmas ever since Halloween ended. Needless to say it's been a long wait, but the day is drawing near. Since the holiday season is upon us, so I'd like to share some of the Christmas goodies we've been enjoying.

Banana Chocolate-Chip Biscotti
This was my first attempt at making biscotti...ever! It was fun to make and it's great to give as a gift because it keeps well. This recipe is also nut-free so that's good if you're looking for a gift for someone with a nut allergy. Tony and I have been enjoying it with coffee and Bailey's- yum! I couldn't really taste the bananas in it, but the chocolate chips were very tasty.

Peppermint Patties
These are my new favourites! I had a blast making them, and I couldn't believe how easy and fast they were to make. I love peppermint patties but never thought about making my own until I saw this recipe on Pinterest. I think these will become a Christmas tradition in our house. I'm contemplating making a second batch since we've almost gone through all of them already.

Christmas-Tree Fruit Platter
I made this for Bennett's preschool Christmas party and I'm making it again tomorrow for Cole's kindergarten party. It's a fun design for kids to enjoy and it's healthy because of the fruit. Ok, the cookies aren't healthy, but I needed something to hold the fruit in place so they wouldn't roll around. The cookies you see here are Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies and White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread.

And here are some holiday recipes I posted last year that you may enjoy:

Rolo Cookies
 

 

 
Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Meltaways
 

 


Spicy Cranberry Raisin Scones
 

 


Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough Truffles
 

 
Happy Holidays!

Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs

It's funny that out of the huge variety of meals that I've cooked, it's still good old spaghetti that the kids will most often request. It's a request that I'm more than happy to fulfill, since I'm a big lover of spaghetti myself. If we're in a rush, I just pour plain pasta sauce over the noodles, but if I have more time and I'm in a creative mood, I like to add things like vegetables and meat into the sauce. Meatballs are a fun option, especially when stuffed with cheese. I learned that if you freeze the cheese first, it prevents it from oozing and seeping out of the meatballs as they cook. I skipped this step to save time and as a result, they weren't as cheesy as I would have liked, so next time I won't be skipping that part. You can change the meat and cheese to suit your preference. For instance, ground turkey would be a nice leaner choice of meat, and mozzarella cheese instead of provolone would be great too. These meatballs freeze really well, so you can make them ahead of time and throw them in a freezer bag to be used whenever you make spaghetti and want meatballs in a hurry. The kids loved the cheese centres, and they didn't even notice that I had put grated vegetables in them. This recipe is a wonderful way to make a simple meal like spaghetti a little more special.

Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs
4 oz provolone cheese
500 g ground beef
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup finely shredded carrot or zucchini
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg

Cut cheese into 3/4" cubes (about 18 of them) and place in freezer for at least an hour. Preheat oven at 350F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Take cheese cubes out of the freezer. Scoop out a heaping tablespoon of the meat mixture and flatten it in the palm of your hand. Place one of the cheese cubes in the center, then gather the meat around it and form a ball. Place on baking sheet. Repeat until you've used up all the meat mixture. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until meat is no longer pink inside. Serve with pasta sauce and spaghetti.

Low Fat Multigrain Pancakes

Growing up, my favourite time of the week was Saturday morning. My brother and I would race to be the first one downstairs to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Soon the smell of pancakes would waft into the room, and we'd be racing once again to get to the table for breakfast where a plate of delicious homemade pancakes would be waiting for us. I've carried on the tradition of pancakes on Saturday mornings in my household, and my parents still make pancakes at their house on Saturdays too. This is a recipe that they often use. I like it because it has very little oil but they're still moist because of the applesauce, and they really stick with you all morning because of the grains. You can easily adjust them to your taste or what you have on hand. I sometimes use mashed banana in place of the applesauce. I also love to use real buttermilk to replace about half of the plain milk to make them really moist and delicious. Sometimes I like to put blueberries in them too. Give them a try and experiment with your own variations.

Low Fat Multigrain Pancakes

1/2 cup WW flour

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup oats

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp ground flax

1/2 tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

1/3 cup of applesauce

1 tbsp. oil

Combine flour, conrmeal, oats, sugar, flax, baking powder and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix remaining wet ingredients, then add to dry ingredients. Stir until combined. Pour onto a hot greased griddle and brown on both sides. Serve with syrup or blueberry sauce.