Chili in a Bread Bowl

Yow know what’s ridiculous? Chili in a bread bowl. You know what’s even more ridiculous? Homemade chili in a bread bowl. For real.

First we made awesome chili. Do you have a favourite chili recipe? We throw multiple varieties of beans into a pot with ground beef or turkey, onion, mushrooms, pasta sauce, and spices. It is a definite hit at our house.

Next we made a bread bowl. We used a loaf from our bread machine, cut it in half lengthwise, and hollowed it out in the shape of a bowl. I think it is over the top and awesome that we did this, but please know this was John’s idea. My brain wouldn’t come up with something this awesome/ridiculous, as I usually think foolish things like: “I can’t eat half a loaf of bread.” I sometimes underestimate myself!

We toasted the bead bowl in the oven (after basting it in a garlic powder/olive oil mixture) and then we put chili in the bread bowl!

We had a crazy fun dinner and laughed at how silly we are sometimes.

My Adorable Small Town...

There are many pluses to being in the country. Easy access to nature, ample space, many beautiful places to walk, bike, and take photos. Another plus (for me) is the lack of conveniences; if I want a Tim Hortons it is at least a 12 minute drive, a 90 minute bike ride, or a 2.5 hour walk. And don’t forget it’s the same time/distance back.

Well this is no more. A Country Style doughnut shop opened a 5 minute drive away. This means I am 5 minutes away from doughnuts AT. ALL. TIMES (within store hours). Plus, that five minute drive is a bike ride I’ve done loads of times. It takes maybe half an hour. HALF. HOUR. FROM. DOUGHNUTS.

So, my new life goal: bike to doughnuts. They’ll be carried in my backpack for the ride home, so maybe I’ll avoid ones with drippy icing. And because I’ll have rode my bike there and back, I get to eat all of them! YAY!

This is the doughnut I ate doing research for this blog. You're welcome!

We Love Leftovers

Leftovers are my favourite. They are great for a quick lunch or a just-reheat-it-and-it's-ready dinner. You might even find us eating them for lunch and dinner (Pesto Pasta is a good one for that). And why not? The flavours of some foods can intensify overnight, and with the simple effort of making one dinner, you get two. Or three. Or more. Love it! And if we know we can't use them within a few days, we pop them in the freezer to feed our future selves (future us loves presents from the past).

This week we were able to use our awesome taco leftovers in two different ways. Leftovers have to work in this house!

Taco salad looking pretty for the blog.

Taco leftovers made an appearance in my all time favourite leftover lunch: taco salad. I'm sure this salad has more taco shells, meat, and cheese than, say, a garden salad would, but that is why it is so awesome. It is in my top three salads for sure. This is also a great way to use up those two extra taco shells that we normally find stale a few weeks from now.

All mixed up and ready to eat!

This magic salad has green leaf lettuce, green olives, broken taco shells, taco meat, shredded cheese, and salsa for dressing. Always love adding chunks of avocado when I have them too. I love love love this salad.

We also turned the taco leftovers into a pizza topping. It was as tasty as it sounds. We often make over the top pizza, but this one was crazy delicious. And leftover bonus: I had leftover pizza for lunch the next day. LEFTOVER WIN!

Piles of toppings, starring taco meat.

Oh what the hell, let's add more cheese!

Finished pizza had all the win.

Taco Tray

While out shopping one evening we noticed something called a Taco Serving Tray. They were being sold for $10 and we seriously considered buying one. Our taco nights involve many toppings and we marveled at how convenient it would be to have them all on one tray. We didn't end up buying one, but when I got home I looked around to see if we had something that would do the same thing. Turns out we did!

A regular party tray works just perfectly. There is room for all the taco fixings and now we only have one topping dish at clean up. And dressing your taco is as easy as saying: "can you pass me the tray?"

Easily Filled Tacos

Lemon on Lemon

I recently purchased some lemon extract for fudge I'm making later this summer. I have a 100ml bottle (about 7 tbs), which doesn't sound like a lot, but the fudge recipe only needs 1 tsp (about 5ml). I had been wondering what to do with the other 95ml, and while grocery shopping last week I bought some ingredients so I could make lemon poppy seed cupcakes. I didn't have a recipe, but I figured I could throw one together with the lemon extract, a white cake mix, and some poppy seeds. Without a recipe though, I didn't know how many poppy seeds I'd need, so I bought two bags. Turns out you only need 2 tbs to make lemon poppy seed cupcakes, so I guess I have a lifetime supply.

I really want to make the most of this lemon extract, so I decided to top the cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. Lemon on lemon. We love lemon in this house, so the more the merrier.

In recent weeks I have set myself a rule that I'm only allowed to make treats when going to an event. The rule results in two awesome things: first, I get to share yummy baked goods with people I love. Second, I don't just eat 24 cupcakes all by myself. It's a good rule, but I have to say I broke it this week so I could try these cupcakes. Lemon sounds like a health food, so these cupcakes must be super healthy. I mean, it's not chocolate right??  Perhaps eating four of these in a row is actually good for me. Let's go with that... (please don't correct me if I'm wrong).

Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

• 1 box white cake mix (+ 3 eggs, 2tbs veg oil, 1 1/3 cup water)
• 1 tbs lemon extract
• 2 1/2 tbs poppy seeds
• Yellow gel food colouring

Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, water, lemon extract, and poppy seeds with electric mixer until blended (30 seconds). Add yellow food colouring. Mix at high speed for 2 minutes. Pour into paper lined muffin tins and bake at 350°F for 22 minutes.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• Yellow gel food colouring

Cream butter with electric mixer. Add icing sugar in 1/2 cup intervals, mixing well after each addition. Add lemon extract and food colouring and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Add additional lemon extract to taste (John suggests I add 2 tsp next time and I agree. We like lemon!)