CARAMELIZED ONION CREAM SAUCE PASTA

This is an unhealthy but delicious treat I’ll just get out of the way by sharing this. I mean it’s not that unhealthy because we’re using cream, and cream does have calcium…. Yea and also fat, but we won’t be using that much. And plus there are plenty of vegetables in here ;)

This would make about 1-2 servings depending on how much you eat and you can always make more sauce by adding more cream.

There are two simple parts to this (caramelized onions and cream sauce), kind of. Just follow along and it will be a breeze! 

1. First, cut all your vegetables and set them aside for later use.

2. Put a pot of water on the stove and wait for it to boil

3. Oil your pan with olive oil, and when it heats up add your onions sauté them with a bit of salt and vinegar until caramelized.  (When done, set them aside in a small bowl.)

4. At this point, your water should be boiling, so add in your pasta and stir it occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the bottom (cook for 7-8 minutes or until desired taste)

5. In the same saucepan, oil your pan and add in the rest of your vegetables (peppers mushrooms and spinach) and sauté with a bit of salt and pepper.

6. Next, when your vegetables look wilted, and softened, add in the cream and butter and let it reduce about 1/3. Add more cream if needed.

7. Lastly, add in your onions to the cream mixture and turn off the heat and the sauce portion should be done.

8. And at this point, your pasta should be done as well, so drain the pasta and set it on a plate and pour the sauce over it and voila!

Note*: If you have left over sauce, save that in a small bowl and for next time’s use. Just cook some pasta, and then heat the sauce on the saucepan for a bit, if it gets dry, add in some water or cream, and pour over pasta.  

This sounds complicated, but once you’ve get the hang of the steps, it should be fairly easy.  You can also definitely add in some herbs in your cream sauce for extra taste!

GRILLED CHEESE OMELET

Yes another breakfast! It's just so amazing, and I'm trying to encourage everybody to eat breakfast, because its good for you! 

I would like to think I invented this but I'm not too sure. It's basically like grilled cheese but instead of bread, its with eggs and cheese (sorry if you're not a cheese fan). 

1. Beat your eggs, add a little bit of milk (1-2 tablespoons), a pinch of baking soda (to make it puffier), and a bit of salt and pepper for seasoning. And then add in some chopped mushrooms.

2. Prep your cheese if you need to. Like cutting your cheese up into piece, or grating your cheese. 

3. Next, oil your pan and let it heat up and then add your egg mixture. Let it sit until the top starts to get solid and then flip the whole thing over. If you can't, cut the egg omelette in half, and flip it one half  at a time.

4. Next, cut your omelette into 4 quarters and layer it in this order. Egg, cheese, Egg, cheese (etc) you can totally add any type of cheese you like (asiago would be great with this) 

and there you have it! You can eat this plain, or with some ketchup to add some sweet and sour balance. 

BLUEBERRY SHAKE

Sometimes I don't like putting proportions or ingredients amount in my recipes especially for simple ones because I believe that sometimes it's all up to the person who makes it to decide how much of a certain ingredient they want to add to match their own taste. I think you guys will be able to handle this one without the proportions! 

Mix the frozen berries, some fresh if you'd like, but I used all frozen, greek yogurt, almond milk, honey and walnuts and blend it all together until smooth. 

If you like your shake to be thicker, add more yogurt, if you want it more liquid-y, add in more almond milk! Top it off with a bit more walnuts and fresh blueberries and voila! 

You can drink it with breakfast, or even add some protein powder and drink it FOR breakfast if you're on the go. But I definitely recommend adding some protein powder if you're going to drink it for breakfast to keep you full for longer! 

This is super easy, and extremely healthy and of course, delicious.  

NOT YOUR AVERAGE TOAST, TOAST

This is my go-to breakfast.  When I’m too lazy to make anything, this is what I would make. I started making this in first year of university when they’d serve us very unhealthy breakfasts and I wanted to control what I ate so I made my own toast. Back then it was only with peanut butter and it was just as good until I discovered almond butter.

The combination of banana and peanut butter is already good as it is, but with almond butter, it’s even better. Also, with all of this on your extremely healthy toast, you won’t be able to taste the “healthiness” of your bread.

So for substitution, you can use peanut butter, or if you’re allergic, you can definitely try sesame butter, but almond butter is the way to go.

This is pretty much self explanatory since it’s so easy, but I’ll give the steps to how I made this. 

1. Toast your bread to your liking.

2. While its toasting, cut up your banana into thin slices

3. Next, when your toast it done, let it cool for about a minute or so, so your almond butter doesn’t’ get too runny on your toast. And when it’s cooled down a bit, spread the almond butter and add the slices of banana on top!

Also, you can eat this with some fruit such as blueberries, and glass of almond milk to complete your meal. And voila!  A healthy and delicious breakfast filled with tons of protein to start your day off right. 

SIMPLE WILD RICE VEGGIES AND EGG

So yes, the title is not the most creative title, but this meal is simple and delicious.  It’s also artistically appealing in my opinion because of all the colours coming together. Of course there may have been some integral filters on it but it’s not far off from the actual thing. This is another meal that is pretty healthy in my onion especially the wild rice filled with complex carbs.

For rice, I bought a whole bag of mixed rice and quinoa from Costco but you can definitely use wild rice, and or brown rice, and quinoa or a mix of the healthy rice together (just not white rice).

I made the rice with a rice cooker, but if you don’t have one, just rinse 1 cup of rice and add 3-4 cups of water and let it cook covered for about 40-45 minutes. After it’s done cooking and there’s extra water left over, you should drain it and voila.

1. Fill a medium pot with enough water to boil your egg and put your egg in the pot and turn the heat on high for about 7-9 minutes until your egg is fully cooked. You can turn off your stove earlier if you would like your egg less cooked.

2. Set your cooked rice aside and keep it covered and warm. Now chop up your vegetables into small chunks. And oil your pan and turn your heat on high.

3. When your pan is hot, pour your vegetables in and add seasoning. Not too much because you’re going to add soy sauce which will be salty. For seasoning, I used a bit of Montreal steak seasoning (it’s not steak but the seasoning is still good) but you can just season with salt and pepper.

4. Once you've add the seasoning, add in your soy sauce a little at a time and make sure to taste it so it doesn’t get too salty. If it does, just add in some water.

5. Turn off your heat once your vegetables are soft and ready to eat. Now cut your avocado and you’re ready to serve.

*This is how I served it, I scooped some rice, placed my vegetables on one side, and cut my egg horizontally into flat pieces and set it on top of everything and add the pieces of avocado beside the egg and there you have it. A pretty appetizing looking meal that tastes good at the same time!

YOLK BREAKFAST WRAP

Breakfast is actually my favourite meal of the day. It’s just so satisfying to finally eat something after a long sleep and you wake up hungry. Fun fact: I learned from somewhere that breakfast is called breakfast because “Break Fast”. It’s essentially breaking a fast because you haven’t eaten for 6-8 hours (lets hope) due to sleeping.

But anyway, this is a delicious breakfast wrap I learned from my friend Monika who loves food as much as I do and always inspires me with different recipes.  

1. First, cut up your vegetables (only peppers, mushrooms, onions) into small pieces

2. Grease your pan and let it heat up and once it is, add your peppers, mushrooms and onions and cook until onions are transparent and then add in the spinach. Once you add the spinach, slightly mix it with other vegetables (don’t over stir)

3. Right after you put in your spinach, make a hole in the centre of your vegetables and drop your egg in and cover your pan with a lid. (This will cook the top of your egg more).

4. While the egg is getting cooked, prep your tortilla (toast it if you’d like) and cut up your cheese (I used marble but you can use any cheese you prefer) and lay it on your tortilla.

5. Once your egg is cooked to your liking (I like mine runny, so sunnyside up/ overeasy style without flipping it)

6. Lastly, place all the ingredients in your pan onto your tortilla. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and drizzle some ranch sauce on top and fold it into a wrap and enjoy!