This week I chose to take a simple breakfast sandwich that people commonly spend WAY to much money on and completely transform it!
The Starbucks Bacon and Gouda BREAKFAST SANDWICH, is a wonderfully tasty breakfast sandwich but DAMN are people really paying $7.00 for these. Monica happens to love these so in order to prove to her that they’re not worth their weight I bought her one to eat at work, and SURPRISE SURPRISE, if not eaten at the starbucks and heated at an external location, IT WAS BUTT.
MINE HOWEVER WAS ANYTHING BUT!
What you see before you is a parmesan, mozzarella, brioche, bacon breakfast sandwich with a side of honey garlic breakfast potatoes. FOR WAY LESS MONEY than a Starbucks sandwich, also cool fact I MADE 2 and reheated one in the air fryer 3 days later for Monica’s Breakfast and guess what, STILL DELICIOUS. No rocket science just a simple fact STARBUCKS IS STEALING YOUR MONEY, but yes I ate many of these as a kid.
Below is a recipe for a homemade bacon gouda breaky sando as well as the recipe for the honey garlic sauce I put on ALL the potatoes I cook, legit try it absolutely gasssss!
This week I helped the students at Parkland Secondary make Korean Corn dogs. At the school I have been observing the first block 1 culinary arts class every Wednesday of the semester. I decided to embark on a project to introduce a new food item to be featured on the rotating lunch menu. I noticed during the semester that a big portion of the students were not fully engaged and seemed to be pushing through the class in anticipation of the bell. I wanted to enhance the classroom enjoyment and participation by letting students decide what they would be making. I had students round down a voting list to four final options and then had an. anonymous vote for the final choice. The students decided on Korean corn dogs by a land slide and I was super excited to make them happen!
The recipe followed was simple as I wanted the corn dogs to be able to be made in an hour class block without a long process explanation, luckily when researching I found that Korean corn dogs are actually quite simple!
In the end the project was a massive success and the students all really enjoyed the opportunity to make something they for the most part have never tried and wanted to test out.
In total 23 corn dogs were made and all sold out even when sold for $4.50 a high price for high schoolers.
This week I decided to make a FUN meal idea… Korean Buldak Samyang Spicy Noodles 2x spice. These are Korean noodles that were introduced to me by my Korean exchange student Chan Hee Lee back in high school. They are a popular brand that has featured in many “Spice Challenges” and hilarious reactions to their overwhelming spice levels can be seen on youtube and many other media uploading services. I have an absurdly robust resistance to spice based pain in comparison to anyone, regardless of cultural background. Therefore when Monica was trying to trash talk I chose to prove to her that I am most definitely built different. I cooked one pack of the 2x spice noodles and split it for the 2 of us. In the end I ate 3/4 of the prepared noodles leaving her to have only 1/4 and the reaction she had was hilarious. I was in serious pain myself as the regular spice level is enough to drive 90% of Koreans to run for milk but I held off without water or milk even after eating the 2x packet. The same most definitely could not be said for Monica. She ended up needing a whole 1L jug of milk and standing in front of the sink for 20 minutes. Of course I thought this was funny as heck and stewed in my ego boosting comfort with the spice we were both experiencing. I was not surprised to see her in such discomfort and did feel slightly guilty… but couldn’t let her talk trash without at least trying to back up her words.
Apparently open source didn’t like the video file so all we get is the audio unfortunately.
This week I chose to feature the Knorr Sidekicks Fettuccine Alfredo I made for Monica because of it’s lack of labour and also ability to be enhanced. The packaged noodles are very easy to make and to be honest are unimaginative and boring when directions are followed perfectly. However they can be a great base to make something more exciting but still insanely simple. To enhance the basic packaged meal I added all milk and cream instead of using water and margarine. I also used real butter and added parmesan to make it even better. Monica wanted to keep hers very simple so I kept parsley and bacon out of the mix but to my plate I added both as a garnish to bring even more from the recipe. All in all the noodles are not bad when it comes to “just add water” recipes, I mean I’m sure everyone can agree that Annie’s mac and cheese CLAPS CHEEKS, but they do when done right. This kraft dinner level pasta can be taken into the big leagues with a few simple adjustments. I recommend anyone making them use milk, cream, butter, parsley and bacon in their ingredient list and trust me you will be pleasantly surprised. I will always back up false cheese flavour that you find in packaged foods such as these and I will always put kraft cheese slices as a #1 addition to any burger. Don’t eat like this 7 days a week but when in a pinch packaged foods can be a saviour!
ALSO SORRY NO PHOTO OF MY PLATE OR COOKING PROCESS I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICK AND ATE IT FIRST BUT HERES THE PACKAGE
As I’m currently attempting to diet I thought it would be cool to introduce my audience to my marvellous breakfast bowls. These are a very easy meal prep that I have been eating every morning for 5 years now and honestly have never lost a love for, if I am being completely honest I’ve probably missed eating these for breakfast only 50 of those 1500 days.
These bowls I love as they are absolutely delicious, very easy to make, cost effective, fast as heck to heat, and super nutritious. They are only 4 actual ingredients, 200grams egg whites, 15 grams oats, 80 grams 0% plain greek yogurt, 15 grams vanilla protein isolate, and finally the salt, cinnamon, and artificial sweetener of your choice and quantity (won’t count salt, cinnamon and artificial sweetener as ingredients as they are all non nutritive). I bake the egg whites and cook the oats separately then add the greek yogurt and protein powder to my oats and pour onto the egg whites. I prep 4 bowls at a time and leave in my fridge. The following mornings I can simply take the bowl from my fridge microwave for 4 minutes and tada! I have an easy, healthy breakfast that literally tastes like dessert. This is very diet friendly as it is literally under 300 calories and 45 grams of protein, there is zero fat in the recipe and 12 grams of carbohydrates. Therefore this will provide me with enough amino acids to prevent muscle loss while saving all my carbohydrates and fats for later in the day when I am hungrier and want more carbohydrate rich foods. After waking our glycogen stores are full from the dinner the night before therefore it is not essential to consume carbohydrates until depleted so I save my carbohydrates to be consumed after my workout. However protein cannot be stored in our bodies the same as fats or carbohydrates, therefore it is essential to evenly space your protein consumption to ensure muscle loss prevention, ESPECIALLY when on a hypo-caloric diet (fat loss environment in which calories are under maintenance levels).
This week Monica and I attended yet another friends-giving celebration as last weekend all my Okanagan friends had returned home to see their families therefore we had a large friend oriented get together to celebrate our connection once they had returned.
A decent array of food was indulged in and later on in the night we did performed the annual October tradition of carving pumpkins! The photo above is of mine, absolute mastery in my opinion.
To be honest there isn’t much to comment on as everyone brought a particular piece of our thanksgiving feast myself taking care of the cesar salad and carving two barbecue chickens purchased from the local grocery store. Still decided to share this as a post as it shows how food can bring us together and is something that is shared by us all, as we may not be food lovers but we will still need food to survive!
Thanks Giving happened last weekend and Monica and I joined a few of my colleagues for a pleasant friends giving. We obviously enjoyed all the thanksgiving staples such as stuffing, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and apple pie, but instead of using the regular old turkey as a protein source, I and Joe decided to switch up the tradition by making ribs and duck.
I was responsible for the ribs while Joe took the lead on the duck and both worked out very well. My approach for the ribs was to do a 24 hour marinade in teriyaki and roasted sesame oil with a light dusting of dry rub. After the flavours had the opportunity to develop I transferred the ribs to a metal foil which I baked at 250 degrees for 4 hours. The final product was properly cooked ribs that fell off the bone without restraint which we all had the opportunity to enjoy. Joe’s duck was also wonderful and he was left with a grand amount of left overs to enjoy over the following week.
The recipe I used was very easy to follow, however it is imperative to have proper preparation time as the most important part is to allow the meat enough time to absorb flavours and to cook throughly. For this recipe I give a 5/10 for difficulty simply as it is necessary to be conscious of your time management.
This week we decided on making a homemade pizza dough and dressing it to make homemade pizzas! I have a passion for bodybuilding and go through phases of bulking (small daily calorie surplus) and cutting (small daily calorie deficit) and on October first I would be starting an 8 week (2 month) cut until the arrival of December in which I’ll be eating without restraint (aggressively bulking) to enjoy all that delicious holiday cuisine. As an Italian my favourite food unsurprisingly, is pizza, therefore as a last meal before two months of very boring bland meals I wanted to make a pizza, and don’t worry we didn’t take photos but most definitely had ice cream after!
The process of a homemade dough is very simple all that is essential is getting the correct moisture content, as the only ingredients are water, salt, oil and flour. However it is very important you give the dough enough time to rise and for the gluten to form, I allowed a total of 4 days before we made the pizzas but 24 hrs can suffice for most recipes.
In the end we made two pizzas, I had made one classic pepperoni with mozzarella and parmesan, while Monica made a butter chicken pizza with mozzarella and spinach. Both were delicious but unfortunately since we had no proper pizza stone or oven both were slightly undercooked in the dough. The experience was very fun and easy and to be completely honest Monica’s butter chicken pizza won for taste quality. I give this recipe a 6/10 for difficulty and will mention that it can be completely transformed based on ingredient quality and oven power.
This week we made homemade pho, a traditional Vietnamese cuisine that is quite popular in our western world. Me and Monica decided to make pho as her background is Vietnamese and both of us love eating diverse foods, therefore with the access to her home kitchen and a plethora of Vietnamese foods and spices, it only made sense to take advantage of the situation.
Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup pronounced “fuh” it is created with broth, rice noodles, meat, and fresh garnishes. The traditional versions require much more effort and love and we were lucky to have Monica’s mom Rose put that love and effort in for us. Rose will often prepare pho for Monica’s family at home and had actually made a bone broth that we were able to use as a base for ours.
The broth is the most laborious part of the recipe and to be honest where the majority of the flavour will be developed, therefore as me and Monica had a 24 hour boiled broth to work from without having to do it ourselves we were truly cheating on making a homemade pho. Our approach having a pre-made broth is however how most cooks will have to approach pho. For the most part everyday people will not have time or access to boil pork or beef bones for over 24 hours, leaving a pre-made broth as a necessary substitute.
Our process in cooking was quite simple, all that was required was boiling rice noodles and pre cooked beef balls, both we had purchased from a grocery store. After that we added whatever garnishes we wanted which happened to be cilantro and red onions. The only other two additions were shaved beef tenderloin and tripe (stomach lining). These two final additions were cooked through by the addition of the hot broth to the bowl. Finally we both doused our soups in Siracha, her a bit to ambitiously as the end product was too spicy for her to finish.
With a pre made broth and store bought ingredients this recipe falls to a 4/10 and is very easy and fun to prepare. I highly encourage everyone to try it as a food to get over a runny nose, especially if adding a heavy amount of spicy, great way to cleanse the sinuses.
Above is a screen recorded video on an Iphone which shows how simple the process of finding an easy to follow pho recipe can be, in case wanting to recreate this at home!
For the first entry into the blog I wanted to touch on how easy homemade noodles for a pasta can be!
Following the process of the images I started with 4 ingredients all added to a kitchen-aid mixing bowl, these were flour salt water and olive oil. Starting on low I generated a ball of the combined ingredients and began to knead into a ball. Once kneaded properly and having achieved the correct level of moisture in my dough, I left the ball covered to rise for 15 minutes, this allowed the gluten to form giving a ball that would bounce back when poked.
Next I cut the large ball into 4 smaller balls dusted them in flour and began to roll my dough with a Lagostina pasta machine. Once achieving thin long sheets I put the sheets through the machine once again with the noodles cutting width representing a linguine.
Once cut I dusted the noodles in flour once again and dried them for an hour until slightly stiff. Once reaching the proper stiffness I made nests out of the noodles and left them in the fridge until we had decided to boil the noodles and cook a homemade pasta.
PHOTO CREDITS: ANDREW PARK, I TOOK THIS BEAUTIFUL PHOTO! on an Apple Iphone 13
The final product was a fettuccine alfredo with the addition of prawns, carrots and broccoli for Monica and a tomato sauce with beef for myself. Topped with parmesan and had a great meal. Total preparation time was around 1 hour of actual attention and lead to a great meal and delicious left overs.
I would give this pasta making recipe a 6/10 for difficulty and encourage all intermediate chefs to give it a try! the following link leads to a simple recipe to follow! https://www.loveandlemons.com/homemade-pasta-recipe/
