Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Dinners is divided into interesting chapters, more than just appetizers, meats, and desserts, one of them being Family Tree Recipes. Jamie gives a basic parent recipe and then ideas for 5-10 different recipes the original could be used in. It's a wonderful concept and provides inspiration for your own spin offs and creations.

After eating this simple tomato sauce, I wanted to cook and consume every single one of the kin recipes. I still might. Scratch that. I WILL.

Recipe from Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners
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Serves 4


Olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano or chopped fresh basil stalks
1 whole red chili
28 oz can whole plum tomatoes (good-quality Italian ones are best)
Salt and pepper
1 tsp red wine vinegar

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add some olive oil and fry the garlic, oregano (or basil stalks) and whole red chili. Pierce the red chili first so it doesn't explode. It will give a subtle heat to the sauce. Saute just a minute or two until fragrant then add the canned tomatoes. Do not mash the tomatoes, as the seeds can be bitter and if you chop them up right away the sauce won't be as sweet as it should be. Lightly season with salt and pepper, turn the heat down to low and let simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the chili.

Break and mash the tomatoes up with a spoon, season the sauce more carefully with a bit more salt and pepper, and add a tiny swig of red wine vinegar just to give the sauce a little twang. It is now ready to serve with pasta, or stir in some additions to take this sauce forward:

• Spicy Arrabiatta - start the tomato sauce off by adding a few more whole fresh chili's. After the sauce has simmered for 15 to 20 minutes, remove the chili's, chop them up and add back as much as you need to give your arrabiatta the desired heat.
  

• Tomato Basil - a real crowd-pleaser can be made by taking the tomato sauce off the heat when it's ready and adding a big handful of torn fresh basil, a nice swig of balsamic vinegar, a good knob of butter and a handful of grated Parmesan. This is fantastic with pasta like rigatoni or tagliatelle, or with grilled meats and fish.

• Puttanesca - simmer the sauce gently with a handful of good pitted and squashed olives, a couple of anchovies and a handful of capers. You can take this in a different direction by flaking in a can of tuna when the sauce is ready.

• Tagliatelle, Spinach & Goat Cheese - Cook tagliatelle in a pot of salted boiling water while the sauce is simmering. Just before the pasta is ready, stir in a large handful of spinach into the tomato sauce. Drain the pasta saving a bit of the pasta water, and toss with olive oil and the reserved water, then pour your spinach and tomato sauce over top. Toss and top with grated Parmesan and crumbled goat cheese.

• Fish or Chicken, Olives and Basil - Pour your warmed tomato sauce into a small baking pan and put a couple of fish fillets on top. If you prefer to use chicken breasts, brown them first in a little oil before placing them on top. Sprinkle with some pitted olives, capers and basil leaves and top with a little torn mozzarella, and place in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes until the fish is cooked. If using chicken breasts they will need about 20 minutes.

• Sausages Baked in Tomato Sauce - Pour your warmed tomato sauce into a baking pan or oven proof dish. Take some nice sausages, toss them in a little olive oil, then place them on top of the sauce and cook at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the sausages are golden and crisp on top. Throw whole basil leaves on top to serve. The sausages will be nice and juicy on the bottom from the sauce and lovely and crisp on top. To turn it into a cassoulet, add a can of beans such as cannellini, flageolet, haricot or chickpeas and chunks of bacon before you bake.

Click here for printable version of Simple Tomato Sauce

Click here for printable version of Tomato Sauce Variations
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THE RESULTS?
This is the best tomato sauce ever. It is SO worth it to go out of your way and look for good quality Italian tomatoes for this recipe. I made the recipe once using the a regular can of tomatoes (not Italian), and the sauce just wasn't as sweet.

The first time I tried this sauce it was made by my friend Tara, who stirred in some chopped basil and cream to blush the sauce. She mixed it into some penne and I swooned and drooled and exclaimed it was the best pasta sauce I had ever eaten. That was over 2 years ago. I'm not sure why I waited so long to make this myself!

When I made this sauce myself, I turned it into the Tomato Basil variation where balsamic, Parmesan, butter and basil were stirred in and served it on tagliatelle. So wonderful. You can taste the difference the quality ingredients make. So sweet, rich and addicting.

I saved about a cup of the sauce and made Sausages Baked in Tomato Sauce the next night, using hot Italian sausages. The flavors and oils in the sausages cook down and release into the sauce making it completely irresistible. I served it with roasted potatoes the first night, and the sauce kind of acted as a fancy ketchup for dipping the potatoes and bites of sausage into. The next day for lunch I served the leftover sausages and sauce with the leftover tagliatelle. My husband told me I need to make him that pasta dish for the rest of his life.

I never want to make another tomato sauce again. I love Jamie's suggestions for what to do with the sauce and find myself drooling over ALL of them. This recipe is worth going out of your way to find the Italian tomatoes, making a huge batch and freezing it in baggies to try his variations or in your own concoctions. Try this!

A chicken with crispy, flavorful skin is my absolute favorite. I could never be one of those people who don't eat the skin to cut calories and fat. Just wouldn't happen. If it's crispy and seasoned well you better believe I'll be eating it. And possibly stealing some more when no one's looking.

This is my favorite way to roast a chicken. It's quick to prepare and produces a fabulous sort of Greek tasting chicken. I use whole chickens marked Fryer Chicken since that's what's available at my grocery store. A fryer chicken just means that it's a bit smaller, usually around 3 - 3.5 pounds. A Roasting Chicken would be around 5 pounds, and if you use one of those, just increase your cooking time.
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Serves 4-6


2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp lemon pepper

1 3-3.5 lb whole chicken
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the oregano, garlic powder, salt and lemon pepper.

Pat your chicken dry. Place in a roasting pan, oven-proof frying pan or cast-iron skillet. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and rub it all over the chicken. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the chicken. Place your chicken in the oven and roast for 1-1.5 hours until the juices run clear and an internal meat thermometer reaches 170 degrees inserted in the thickest part of the thigh. Remove from oven, cover with foil and let rest 10-15 minutes to let the juices redistribute.

Optionally: You can stuff a half a lemon and some sprigs of fresh oregano inside the chicken before you roast it.

Click here for printable version of Simple Lemon Oregano Roasted Chicken

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THE RESULTS?
It's just as easy to roast two chicken at a time to roast one. For the same effort you are left with a bunch of leftover shredded chicken that has a million uses. I had that logic the last time I made this roasted chicken, and decided to try this recipe on one chicken and Jamie Oliver's recipe on the other one. While we loved Jamie Oliver's recipe (especially the crispy bacon and those amazing potatoes) we liked this one even better. I have made this recipe at least a dozen times and I never tire of it. The crispy flavorful skin is lovely with the moist chicken. You would be surprised how well the lemon pepper penetrates and imposes a citrus flavor to the meat.

Oh and check out all those dark chicken drippings in the pan. By all means DO NOT THROW IT OUT. That is concentrated chicken flavor, fabulous added to the pot when you make your own chicken broth, or perfect when used in Tagliatelle with Chicken, Rosemary and Pine Nuts.

The thing I love about making my own burgers is adding spices and flavors, making the overall flavor profile more exciting than just a regular ol' burger. I really don't understand when people take a package of ground beef and without adding anything, shape them into burger patties. There is SO MUCH more flavor to be had in your burgers!

This Jamie Oliver recipe jumped off the page at me with the addition of cumin, coriander, mustard and Parmesan added into the mix. I love the subtle lemony notes of coriander and the smooth smokiness of cumin.

Another peeve in burger recipes is chopped raw onion; the burger never gets hot enough inside to soften or mute the onion flavor, so they stay as these jarring hits of raw onion with eat bite of the burger you take. If I do add onion to my burgers I like to grate it first to get the flavor and moisture, but without the chunks. I was intrigued when I saw that Jamie Oliver sautes the onions first to mellow the onions and add a bit of sweetness to the burger. I hadn't thought of that before!

And really in the end, what made me try this burger was the title "The Ultimate Burger". I HAD to see what an ultimate burger tasted like.


Recipe by Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners
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Makes 8 burgers


Burgers:
2 lbs lean ground beef
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Olive oil
A pinch of cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground cumin)
1 tbsp coriander seeds (or 2 tsp ground coriander)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/4-1/3 cup)
1 heaped tbsp English mustard (or whatever mustard you have)
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
8 burger buns

Chips:
4½ lbs large potatoes, skins left on, cut into chips ½ inch thick
Olive oil
1 whole bulb of garlic
Freshly ground black pepper
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
Zest of 1 lemon
3 tbsp sea salt

Place the ground beef in a large mixing bowl. In a big frying pan, slowly cook the onion in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes until softened but not colored. Add the onion to the meat - it will give sweetness to the burger. Using a pestle and mortar, bash up the cumin and coriander seeds with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper until fine and add to the meat (or if using ground spices, just add and skip the pestle and mortar). Then add the Parmesan, mustard, egg and half the breadcrumbs and mix well. If the mixture is too sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs.

Lay some wax paper on a tray or large plate and sprinkle over some of the remaining breadcrumbs. Shape the meat into 8 fat burgers and place these on top of the crumbs on the tray. Sprinkle more crumbs on top and press down gently. The burgers are better if they are chilled before cooking, so put them in the fridge for an hour or so.

Half an hour before you want to cook the burgers, put a large flat baking tray in the oven and turn the heat to 450°F. Parboil your chips (still with their skins on) for about 10 minutes in salted boiling water and drain in a colander. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, smash the garlic bulb up and chuck in the cloves, then add the chips. Toss in the oil and season with freshly ground black pepper. Transfer the contents of the pan to the preheated tray and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until crisp and golden. Now make your rosemary salt. Remove the leaves from the rosemary and put them in a pestle and mortar with the lemon zest and salt. Bash up to make a green paste, adding more salt if the mixture is too wet. Push this paste through a sieve, and keep to one side until you're ready to serve.

Take your burgers out of the fridge and fry them in a little oil or place on the grill on a medium to high heat for about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the burgers and how you like them, turning occasionally. Serve them on toasted burger buns, with tomato ketchup, and your fat chips sprinkled with the rosemary salt. Other great things to top your burger with are layers of sliced tomatoes, thinly sliced cheese, raw onion rings, lettuce, a grating of fresh horseradish - even a fried egg.

Click here for printable version of The Ultimate Burger and Chips

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THE RESULTS?
Firing up the barbecue for the first time this Spring, sitting outdoors enjoying the sunshine and eating these burger and fries I cannot tell you how completely blissful I was. While ketchup is not my condiment of choice when topping my own burger, I took Jamie's suggestion and topped these burgers with thin slices of cheddar that oozed and melted all over the patty, lettuce, ketchup and a bit of prepared horseradish and the combination was perfect. The burgers were moist and juicy and the spices and flavor additions to the meat were wonderful. I felt like I was sitting in a nice restaurant and eating a burger and fries I just paid $20 for.

Oh and those fries? Out of this world! I make homemade oven fries quite often, but I will never go back to my old method after trying these. Parboiling the thick cut fries first allows them to spend less time in the oven on a very high temperature, allowing the outsides to crisp up and the inside to stay soft and pillowy. Just like a deep-fried french fry but without the added fat. I swapped out the rosemary in the rosemary salt for parsley, because it's the herb I had in the fridge. Rosemary is a much stronger tasting herb, but I still LOVED the lemony-grassy salt atop the fries. The fragrance of it just explodes when it hits the hot fries. You can keep the extra salt in a container in the fridge and use it for many other dishes...I just made more fries later in the week :)

Both of these recipes were a 5/5 and deserving of the title "The Ultimate Burger and Chips".


This is also a very inexpensive meal to make. For more frugal meal ideas, check out $5 Dinner Challenge.

Click here to get a printable version of this week's meal plan and recipes

Spring has FINALLY sprung! We've been enjoying warm days and barbecues and playing in the backyard and that changes the food we crave. Instead of being stuck in soup mode to warm us up after all those spring snowfalls, it's quite possible I could get on a burger bandwagon and never get off :) I just want to try any and all kinds of burgers...lucky for you I have an amazing recipe for burgers to offer you this week.


Day 1: The Ultimate Burger and Chips
We fired up the barbecue for the first time this season to try this amazing Jamie Oliver recipe.


Day 2: Simple Lemon and Oregano Roasted Chicken with Hummus, Pita, and Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
A chicken with crispy flavorful skin is my absolute favorite. When you pair it up with garlicky hummus and a homemade lemon vinaigrette salad this is a winning combination. Eat the pita with the hummus as a dip or pile all the chicken, veggies and hummus inside and wrap up like a pita. Either way you'll love it.



Day 3: Tagliatelle with Chicken, Rosemary and Pine Nuts and Salad
This is a fabulous pasta dish to use up some of the chicken leftovers. The flavors are unexpected but so incredible. Save all the juices that are left in your roasting pan from the chicken to make the sauce.


Day 4: Italian Sausages baked in Homemade Tomato Sauce with Linguine and Roasted Broccoli
Another simple and lovely dish from Jamie Oliver.



Day 5: Authentic Mexican Tacos with Pico de Gallo and Guacamole
This is a great way to switch up regular ol' tacos. The flavors are very fresh, perfect for spring.



Happy meal planning this week!



For more great meal plans, check out my complete list of meal plans or the Menu Plan Monday links at Orgjunkie.

I am no baker. I have been cooking for years and consider myself to have become quite good because I have been so passionate, willing to learn and practice all the time. But baking? It's kind of a once-in-a-blue-moon sort of thing. Translation: I'm not that great at it yet. But it's become my goal to blossom into a great baker, so even though I normally skip right over the dessert portion of cookbooks, I made sure to bookmark this one from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Dinners. I wanted an impressive Mother's Day dessert to serve to my Mother-in-Law and this looked to fit the bill. I had made homemade dulce de leche in the past and my husband almost dropped dead from "mmmmmm-ing" and "aaaaaaaaaah-ing" so much. I was pretty sure there would be no complaints after dinner about this one.

Recipe from Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners
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Serves 6-8


Shortcrust Pastry:
1 vanilla bean (optional)
5 tbsp butter
1 cup icing sugar
small pinch of salt
2 scant cups of flour
zest of ½ a lemon
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp cold milk or water

Filling:
2 397g cans of condensed milk or 2 jars of Merchant Gourmet Dulce de Leche toffee
4 medium-sized cooking apples
2 heaped tbsp icing sugar


Put your unopened tins of condensed milk in a high-sided pan, covered with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer constantly for about 3 hours with a lid on top. It’s very important to remember to keep checking the pan, as you don’t want it to boil dry – otherwise the tins will explode. It will give you the most amazing toffee. Put the tins to one side and allow to cool.

First of all you need to make your pastry. Score down the length of the vanilla bean, if using, and remove the seeds by scraping a knife down the inside of each half (put the empty pod in a container of sugar and in 24 hours you will have your own vanilla sugar). Cream together the butter, icing sugar and salt and then rub in the flour, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and egg yolks – you can do all this by hand or in a food processor. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water. Pat and gently work the mixture together until you have a ball of dough, then flour it lightly and roll it into a large sausage shape – don’t work the pastry too much otherwise it will become too elastic and chewy, not flaky and short as you want it to be. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge to rest for at least an hour. Remove it from the fridge, slice it up and line an 11 inch tart mold with the slivers. Push them together, then tidy up the sides by trimming off any excess. Place the tart mold into the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the pastry case out of the freezer and bake blind in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Peel and quarter the apples and remove the cores, then slice finely and toss in the icing sugar. Remove the pastry base from the oven and smear the caramel from both tins of condensed milk over it. Place the apples on top and pour any remaining juices over. Cook at the bottom of the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, to give you a crispy base and bubbling toffee over the apples. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Beautiful!


Click here for printable version of Toffee Apple Tart

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THE RESULTS?
Uhhh....okay where to start. The overall flavor of this was quite good. My husband and Mother-in-Law both liked it. But as the baker of this beautiful looking tart I had some issues:

1. The directions are clear about what the mixture should look like right before adding the liquid (like course breadcrumbs), but once you add the water it becomes kind of vague. It was supposed to be a ball of dough, yet not overworked, but mine was still dry and crumbly. It didn't form a dough, so I added another tablespoon of water. Still didn't quite make a ball but if I pushed it together it kinda sorta made a pile so I rolled that up in the plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge, scared that if I kept going I would overwork it. A bit later it was still dry and crumbly so I added another tablespoon of water, reworked it and kinda sorta formed a sausage again. As a novice I needed more directions like, "depending on your climate you may need to add more liquid to get it to hold together" and/or "it should be the consistency of soft dough" or whatever it's supposed to be.

2. The homemade dulce de leche I had made before was simmered for 2 hours and had a wonderful creamy texture. This recipe had a simmering time of 3 hours and when I tried to get it out of the can it didn't pour out. It had stiffened up quite a bit and become more of a gelatinous mixture that came out in blobs with a spoon. Still tasted great, but I think I would have preferred the texture of it being a more creamy toffee.

3. I wasn't overly crazy about the texture of the apples. They weren't soft and juicy like an apple pie, but more chewy and dry. Maybe this is because of the apples being tossed with icing sugar instead of white or brown sugar. Jamie suggests in the book that you could use other fruit, so I might try this with bananas or peaches.

4. I was SO excited about the shortbread crust. I even used a real vanilla bean (for the first time) hoping it would blow my socks off. The finished product was good, and I liked the addition of lemon, but the texture was not crispy and flaky like I had hoped. I noticed when copying the recipe directions from Jamie Oliver's website that there is an extra step that isn't in the book. The website says to bake the crust for 15 minutes before adding the filling, whereas the book says to fill with filling as soon as you pull it from the freezer. I think the tart would have benefited greatly from that extra step so I made sure that it's in the recipe directions above.

5. Next time I wouldn't waste an expensive vanilla bean on the crust, I would instead use a good quality vanilla extract and add with my milk/water to make the dough come together.

All of my issues were minor things, but all combined the dessert fell just a little bit flat for me. I guess I psych myself up for greatness when a recipe has a lot of work, effort and time invested into it. Eaten as it was, it was good, and I wouldn't have refused a piece if someone else had served it to me. But because I knew the time and effort I had put into it I wanted my taste buds to be blown to smithereens. I think if I made it again with just a couple minor adjustments it could be fantastic.

Soups are my new fascination. Taking pittens and scraps of food and turning them into something warm and brothy makes my feel smart and resourceful not to mention it taps into my creativity in the kitchen. In the case of this roasted chicken, my goal was to use up every last scrap of edible remains. The last step in using up your roasted chicken is of course to boil it in a pot covered with water and possibly some root veggies and turn it into a broth....destined for whatever soup or stew combination you can think of.

I usually pull all the meat off the bones of my chicken the same night I roast it. I set all the meat aside in plastic containers (rationed out for all the different chicken dishes I want to use it in) and create the broth the same night. Since I had the day off when I roasted my chicken and I was working all day the next day, I made my broth as well as got a head start on the soup. You can do all the steps up until adding the noodles and spinach, remove from the heat, cool down and put it in the fridge right in the pot you cooked it in if you have the room. The next night all you have to do is pull it out, heat it back up on the stove, add the noodles and spinach and dinner is hot and on the table in 5 minutes. How's that for convenience food?


Recipe inspired by Dinner with Julie.
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Serves 4


1 leftover chicken carcass (optional)

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 celery stalk, diced
1-2 tsp mild curry paste
4 cups homemade chicken broth (or a box of store bought chicken or vegetable stock)
1 cup water
1 cup leftover chicken, shredded (leave out if making vegetarian)
Half 19oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed (add the whole can if vegetarian)
2 small bundles of thin Chinese noodles
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach
Salt

To make the chicken broth:
Using whatever leftover roasted chicken you have (this can even be one of those rotisserie ones you pick up at the deli), strip off any meat still left on the bones and set aside. Place the entire chicken carcass in a big pot and cover with cold water by at least 1 inch. Turn the heat up to high until it boils, then turn down to low and let simmer for 1-2 hours. This is all you need to do to get your own chicken broth, but you can add some extra's to give it more flavor. Roughly chop a carrot or two as well as some celery, quarter an onion, and toss it all in the pot as well. You can also add about 10 whole peppercorns if you have them. While it's simmering just skim off any foam or scum that rises to the top. When done simmering, strain out the bones and any veggies. Save 4 cups of broth to use in the soup, anything extra you can pour into clean yogurt containers and freeze.

To make the soup:
In a large pot over medium heat, add a bit of oil. Add your fresh ginger, garlic and celery and saute 3-4 minutes until the celery has softened a bit. Add the curry paste and fry for a minute. Pour in the chicken broth and water and stir to combine, then add the shredded chicken (if using) and chickpeas. Bring soup up to a boil then turn heat down and simmer 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt. Remember that your homemade broth has no salt added yet, whereas store bought will, so season adequately. Turn heat back up to med-high to get it to boil then add the thin Chinese egg noodles. Let cook about 3 minutes until the noodles are tender then remove pot from the heat. Stir in the spinach and serve.


Click here for printable version of Curried Chicken Noodle Soup with Spinach and Chickpeas

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THE RESULTS?
I hate chicken noodle soup. I avoid it at all costs. It's bland and boring and I could think of a million other things to do with my chicken rather than turn it into chicken noodle soup. But CURRIED chicken noodle soup? I'd lick my bowl clean and go back for fourth helpings. The flavors are exciting and unexpected for a soup of this genre and there will be many more pots of this soup made in this house. I loved the thin Chinese egg noodles in this, but you could substitute a thin spaghetti (spaghettini) or even a regular egg noodle. Do try the thin Chinese egg noodles if you can though; they can be found in the International food aisle in a bag. The noodles are rolled into handful sized nests and I used two of them in this dish. Lovely, lovely soup. I'm not sure I can wait for another roasted chicken to make it again though. I may just have to bust out a store bought container of chicken stock and a chicken breast poached in the liquid then shredded to get my fix.


For more inexpensive meal ideas check out the $5 Dinner Challenge.

My recent kitchen fetish has been to look at leftovers in my fridge in new ways and create entirely different dishes out of them. Usually this means that we have a new soup concoction to to slurp on, but this time I was in the mood for something light and fresh. It was a Sunday after church, we all got home hungry and needed something fast. Even though I've only had it once before, frittata has always screamed SUNDAY BRUNCH to me. The fact that it was a Sunday and it was sunny and beautiful outside, I was inspired to create this frittata using up those incredible lemony roasted potatoes (and any bacon crumbles I could find) along with some asparagus I happened to have in the fridge. To spruce up the flavor I used some leftover fresh rosemary used in the roasted chicken from the night before. Perfect for Sunday brunch, a light dinner, or even eaten cold the next morning for breakfast.

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Serves 4

1/2 lb asparagus (small handful), ends trimmed off and cut into 2 inch pieces)
1 cup leftover roasted potatoes, chopped (any roasted potatoes would work fine. Maybe even frozen hasbrowns?)
6 eggs
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
Salt & pepper
3/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

If you have an oven proof skillet use it, if not wrap some tinfoil around the handle of your skillet. I think non-stick works best.

Set your skillet over medium high heat with a drizzle of olive oil. Saute the asparagus for 3-4 minutes. Add your potatoes and any bacon crumbles leftover from your roasted chicken (obviously leave that out if serving a vegetarian). Saute another minute or two and smooth the veggies out into a single layer.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the fresh rosemary and season with salt and pepper (I love seasoning salt with eggs). Stir in the shredded cheese. Pour the beaten egg/cheese mixture over the vegetables in the pan, turn the heat down to medium low and let cook for another 5-8 minutes until the bottom of your frittata sets. Then place it in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until the top of the frittata is set and your eggs and cheese are golden.

Remove from oven, cut into wedges and serve.


Click here for printable version of Asparagus, Roasted Potato & Rosemary Frittata

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THE RESULTS?
We loved how this frittata turned out. My husband is an egg fiend and is always frying up eggs for the fam on the weekend. We both thought the frittata was a great alternative and is a smart and exciting way to serve eggs. The leftover potatoes tasted fabulous in this along with the asparagus.

I love meals that use very minimal effort. This was a minute or two of chopping and then hands off as it went in the oven. Incredibly easy. We ate this that Sunday, but I still had the other half of the asparagus bunch and a few more potatoes, so they became another frittata a few days later on a busy weeknight. Dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes with almost no energy put forth by myself.

I will definitely be thinking up new combination's to throw into a frittata.


For more frugal meal ideas, check out $5 Dinner Challenge

Recipe reposted from the archives with new photos and updated commentary. Original post: May 24, 2008

This recipe will be my first from a series of posts reviewing Jamie Oliver's cookbook Jamie's Dinners. I first made this chicken almost two years ago but then made it for the second time a couple weeks ago. The introduction to the recipe were my previous thoughts on the recipe, but I will update the "results" section with my current thoughts. Here's what I previously said:


I made this last night for company and I think it would be cruel not to post the recipe, since it is quite easily the most phenomenal roasted chicken and potatoes I have ever tasted. This is another recipe passed on to me by my culinary friend Tara. This recipe comes from the great Jamie Oliver. Tara has a small obsession with Jamie, owning every. single. one. of his cookbooks.

I'd have to say I have a small crush as well.

Recipe from Jamie Oliver
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Serves 4-6

3-4 lb chicken
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 lb potatoes, peeled
1 large, preferably unwaxed, lemon
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
A handful of fresh thyme
Olive oil
A handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
8 strips of bacon

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Cut the potatoes into golf-ball-sized pieces, put them into the water with the whole lemon and the garlic cloves, and cook for 12 minutes. Drain and allow to steam dry for 1 minute (this will give you crispier potatoes), then remove the lemon and garlic. Toss the potatoes into the roasting pan while still hot so their outsides get chuffed up and fluffy - this will make them lovely and crispy when they roast.

Take the chicken out of the fridge, pat it with kitchen paper and rub it all over with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. While the lemon is still hot, carefully stab it about 10 times. Push the garlic cloves, the whole lemon and the thyme into the cavity, then put the chicken into the roasting tray and cook in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes.

Take the roasting pan from the oven and remove the chicken to a plate. Some lovely fat should have cooked out of it into the roasting tray, so toss the potatoes into this with the rosemary leaves. Shake the tray around, then make a gap in the center of the potatoes and put the chicken back in.

If using the bacon, lay the rashers over the chicken breast and cook for a further 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are nice and golden. (You can tell the chicken is cooked when the thigh meat pulls easily away from the bone and the juices run clear.) Make sure you have a meat thermometer. It should read about 170 degrees.

Remove the bacon from the chicken and crumble it up over the potatoes. Then remove the lemon and garlic from inside the chicken, squeeze all the garlic flesh out of the skin, mush it up and smear it all over the chicken, discard the lemon and rosemary and carve the chicken at the table. Heaven!

Click here for printable version of Roasted Chicken & Potatoes with Rosemary and Lemon
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THE RESULTS?
I completely refrain from making new recipes I have never tried for company, in case of disaster. This particular night guests just kinda came by, so this is what they were served. Everyone including my guests raved!

The chicken comes out so moist and juicy and the potatoes have soaked up all these incredible flavors from the garlic, lemon, chicken, rosemary and bacon. They are heavenly.

Making this recipe again for the second time I have to still wholeheartedly agree with my previous comments. The lemony, garlic potatoes with the crumbles of crisp bacon are insane. The chicken is moist and juicy. This recipe would be great as a simple and rustic yet elegant dish for company.

I have been all kinds of inspired recently in my kitchen. About a month ago I made a trip to my Grandmother's Farm in the middle of the Saskatchewan prairies and marveled at her ability to bake bread, buns and biscuits without a recipe. Her "feel" for the dough was all she needed. I have never been much of a baker but can I say just how much I wanted to be a fantastic baker after seeing my Grandmother's expertise at work. (P.S. I have a incredible dessert recipe to share with you from my Grandma. Coming soon.)



I've also discovered two wonderful blogs in the last month: Dinner with Julie and Taste and Tell. Both very different in their premise, as one is a "cook whatever you have on hand as your creativity wills" and the other cooking and reviewing cookbooks. I have loved both of them for different reasons, and both have inspired me in different ways in the kitchen. I'll tell you more about Dinner with Julie another time, but this post has to do with Taste and Tell.

Deb's approach to cooking through her mountains of cookbooks has been to pick 4-5 recipes from a cookbook and cook from it all month long. She has been stretched out of her comfort zone and is also making use of her obsession for cookbooks. While I don't have a ton of cookbooks, I too am guilty of buying them or receiving them as gifts, perusing them and then tossing them on a shelf.

I would say one of the most challenging things about meal planning is choosing your recipes. What am I in the mood for? What do I have on hand? What's on sale this week? What can I make that isn't same old same old? My quest for new recipes usually comes from the internet and other food blogs. But there is always something that feels slightly off in making and then reposting another blogger's recipe on my own blog. Not that that isn't allowed, I just feel a bit weird about it sometimes.

Deb's idea of cooking your way through a cookbook and then posting a helpful review for others got me really excited. I want to do that. A whole new source of recipes. A whole new source of inspiration in the kitchen. A whole new motivation for posting on this here blog. I can't say for sure if I will have a new cookbook each month like Deb (I don't work well with deadlines), but I'm going to see what this morphs into.


The cookbook I chose to review first is by Jamie Oliver called Jamie's Dinners. My culinary friend Tara has been raving about this book for years and even went so far as to buy it for me for Christmas. I will admit that I read through it when she gave it to me, but then put it away with my other cookbooks and that's where it has stayed. I have already tried a couple recipes from the book that Tara has either made for me or recommended me to make, but it is still rather dusty. I wanted to really give this book a good go at it since Tara has never led me astray in the kitchen before. I anticipate the next few weeks in the kitchen to be delicious ones.

Have you cooked from this cookbook before? Any thoughts? Favorite recipes?

While I may have had an unplanned break from posting here, my meal planning and cooking was in full swing. I have been inspired in the last 3-4 months to become more spontaneous and creative in the kitchen using up whatever bits of things I have in my fridge or pantry. Over my Easter break my girls and I headed on a 12 hour trek across the prairies to visit my Grandparents farm. I loved my Grandma's skills at quickly coming up with menu's to feed all 10 of us, making sure that every last scrap in the fridge got eaten up.

My biggest issue with eating leftovers is that sometimes the flavor profile stays exactly the same. When I use up my last bits of food I make sure to completely change the flavors so it becomes an entirely new meal that everyone looks forward to. Not only is this a frugal way of eating but I feel like I'm getting in touch with my roots and doing a modern version of what my Grandmother does. I like that.


Day 1: Charbroiled Pork Vermicelli
I can't even order this in a restaurant anymore since I can do such a perfect recreation at home. I guess that means I get to try new things and find a new dish to recreate ;)


Day 2: Roasted Chicken and Potatoes with Rosemary & Lemon served with Broccoli
This is a fabulous roasted chicken from Jamie Oliver.



Day 3: Shredded Chicken Flautas with Salsa, Sour Cream & Guacamole served with Salad
You can use up most of the leftover shredded chicken to make these tasty Mexican packets. My husband and I love these things.


Day 4: Asparagus, Roasted Potato & Rosemary Frittata with Salad
Use any leftover lemon roasted potatoes from the Jamie Oliver recipe, saute some asparagus, add some eggs and cheese and have a completely quick and fabulous dinner another day.

Day 5: Curried Chicken Noodle Soup with Chickpeas & Spinach with Artisan Bread
Boil the leftover chicken carcass to create your own chicken broth, add any leftover bits of chicken, curry paste, a can of chick peas, noodles and spinach for ANOTHER quick, easy and delicious tasting meal. We love our soups served with some kind of carby morsel so a great bread picked up from the local bakery would work well here.


Day 6: Beef Stroganoff with Red Wine, Dijon & Dill served with Sauteed Asparagus (and a glass of red wine)
Any time I plan a meal that uses white or red wine in the dish, I like to serve it on a Friday or Saturday so my husband and I can have an at-home date night and polish off the rest of the bottle of wine.



For more great meal plans, check out my complete list of meal plans or the Menu Plan Monday links at Orgjunkie.

Do you have any traditions in your family? They are so important for building memories and bonds with your kids, but since both my kids are still 1 and 2 years old we don't really have many established yet. However, on a semi-regular basis we have a Friday Family Pizza & Movie night. We've discovered how much fun it is to let our 2 year old help place pepperoni circles onto a pizza crust, along with other veggies and her pudgy hands stealing handfuls of grated cheese. Her excitement over eating a pizza that she had a hand in making is so fun to watch.

This pizza came about because I had thawed a pound of ground beef all ready to make another meal which didn't happen. It was Friday Family Pizza & Movie night so I grabbed my pizza crust and ground beef and made a combination of kids two favorite meals: pizza and tacos. And then we watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It definitely pleased both the kids and adults in our family.

Recipe by Meal Planning 101
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Serves 4

1 lb lean ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp taco seasoning (homemade or store-bought)
Splash of water

Your favorite pizza crust
1 cup salsa
1 cup sour cream
Grated cheese (cheddar, mozza or Monteray Jack would all work fine)
1-2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 cup lettuce, finely shredded or 2 tbsp fresh basil, finely shredded

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a skillet over medium high heat, brown the beef with the onions and garlic. Add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, salsa spice, salt and pepper (or sub out all these spices for your favorite taco seasoning). Mix and cook for about 30 seconds then add a splash or two of water to let the spices create more of a sauce for the beef. Turn to low and let simmer a couple minutes until the water has evaporated and remove from heat.

Put your pizza crust on a baking sheet or pizza stone. Mix together the salsa and sour cream and spread about 1/3 - 1/2 cup over your pizza crust. Top with the taco seasoned beef and shredded cheese. I bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees and then broil for 1-3 minutes to get the cheese on top a nice golden brown. You should note that I use the par-baked shells from the bakery, so if you use fresh dough adjust your cooking time and temperature accordingly.

Give the pizza just a moment or two to cool ever so slightly and then top with diced tomatoes and lettuce. Serve with the rest of the salsa sour cream as a dipping sauce. Alternatively, you can skip the lettuce and top with finely shredded basil which is FAR tastier. Lettuce is more kid-friendly as well as most people have it in their fridges, but if you do have some fresh basil leaves I recommend trying that.

Click here for printable version of Mexican Pizza.
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THE RESULTS?
The flavor of this is pretty much self explanatory: Its pizza. And tacos. Meaning Awesome. When we subbed out the lettuce for the fresh basil it was unexpected and added a whole new layer of flavor that my husband and I loved. One of the only things that could make this pizza better is using a fresh, made from scratch pizza dough. But I have yet to discover one that I'm in love with. A friend recommended a recipe to me on Facebook but we haven't had a movie and pizza night in awhile so I haven't tried it yet. But I am open to suggestions! So tell me...

What's your favorite made from scratch pizza dough?

Meal Ideas:

• Mexican Pizza + Side Salad with Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing 

• Mexican Pizza + Raw Veggies with Chipotle Ranch Dressing to dip

Um, okay. So I totally didn't plan on taking a two month break from this here blog, but it happened. Somewhere between work, an Easter holiday trip to visit family and my youngest cutting some painful molars I didn't get a chance to post.

I give you my apologies for my absence and offer you up a recipe for my very favorite pasta salad. My husband and I used to frequent a very arsty, cool coffee shop in our downtown, with University student artwork plastered on the walls rotating every month, a micro roaster for their coffee beans displayed in beautiful glass medicine jars in the windows and fresh bread and goodies baked up every day. It didn't matter what sandwich I ordered for lunch I ALWAYS had to make sure that I got a side of their Creamy Dill Pasta Salad. I told the owner once that I loved the salad and was wondering the secret to her dressing recipe. She told me it took her years to get it just right and would never give up the recipe. Boo. So while I'm sure my dressing isn't exactly like hers, since she probably doesn't use a powdered package of dill dip mix, I think it's a great imitation and would eat this salad any night of the week. Perfect for upcoming summer BBQ's and picnics.
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Serves 4


3 cups tri-color (vegetable) rotini (or other short cut pasta like pennette rigate)
1 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 pkg dill dip mix
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup sliced mushrooms
Lemon, cut into wedges

Dill (dried or fresh), for garnish
Grated cheddar or parmesan, optional


In a large pot over high heat, cook the pasta in salted boiling water following the package directions. Drain them just shy of al dente (with a slight bit more bite to the pasta then you are used to.) The pasta will soften more when the dressing is added. Run the pasta under cold water until cool and drain.

In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, mayo and dill dip mix. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

In a large bowl, mix together drained, cooled pasta, carrot and mushrooms. Spoon half the dressing over, mix until combined and add more as needed. You may or may not use the whole batch depending on how saucy you like it. I tend to add more than I think it needs, just so it isn't dried out the next day since the pasta will keep absorbing the dressing as it sits.

Serve with a sprinkle of dill and more lemon wedges for squeezing over the top. You can also sprinkle the top with grated cheddar or parmesan cheese if you like.

Click here for printable version of Creamy Dill Pasta Salad.

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THE RESULTS?
Probably my favorite pasta salad of all time. But then again I am both a lemon and a dill lover. The freshness of the lemon juice is lovely and the dressing isn't too heavy with a ton of mayo. I like the more tangy flavor of the sour cream.

I like using the tri-color rotini because it makes for a prettier salad, but you could always use regular or even whole wheat to bump up the fiber and protein. I've even used the smaller version of penne called pennette and that worked wonderful as well.

I would eat this pasta salad alongside any burger or sandwich, but since this dish was created after The Penny Coffeehouse, we like to serve it with our version of their Curried Tuna Melts. You can easily make them too by adding curry powder, mayo, salt and pepper to a can of drained tuna, put it between two pieces of bread along with some nice cheddar, butter the outside and cook in a frying pan like you would a grilled cheese until the cheese is melted and the outside is golden. Fabulous combo.


I'm submitting this recipe to Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays.