Main Dishes

Pasta meals, like this Tortellini with Sausage meal, probably shouldn’t be made too often with the high carbohydrate and sodium amounts, but life is short and moderation is everything. I love the process of cooking: the planning and preparation, on through to cooking and sitting down to eat. Some days, I enjoy complicated or time consuming steps, and other times,…

I’ve been using this recipe to make chicken strips and nuggets for….. ah, well, a long time anyway. It has never let me down and consistently makes a lot of full and happy bellies with everyone I’ve ever made it for. It was one of just five foods my pickiest of picky kids would eat when very little, and my…

Every cook should have a lasagna recipe ready for whenever the mood or need strikes. It actually took me many years to put together one that wasn’t complicated AND that the kids loved. There are some odd flavours added to some lasagna recipes, like nutmeg and fennel seeds. No. Just no. I’ve made them. None of us liked them. Even…

I’ve loved Fish Tacos since sometime in the early 2000s (in Oregon), when I discovered the Taco Del Mar Fish Taco. One bite and I was addicted. Tangy, spicy, all the textures, just fantastic! However, since 2011 I’ve been living in rural Alberta, which offers limited options for a good Fish Taco. Taco Time, a 90 minute drive away, sometimes…

The older my kids get, the more some recipes show that they really stand the test of time. It’s been over a decade since I started making this recipe, which was originally posted in July 2009, but we never get tired of it. Pork shoulder roasts (also known as pork butt – I know, weird) make this an economical dish…

The grocery store had chicken hindquarters on sale recently for $1 each, so we stocked up on several packages just for this recipe, which I realized had never made it to the website! It took several meals to get somewhat decent photos (I won’t quit my day job to become a professional food photographer, that’s for sure), but I got…

Shepherd’s Pie, or Cottage Pie, is a humble casserole dating back to Europe in the 1700s. Traditionally, lamb is used to make shepherd’s pie, while other red meats make a cottage pie. North Americans usually call this mashed-potato-topped, meat-and-vegetable-dish, a shepherd’s pie, including us. This is the recipe we’ve been using for about a decade, and it took a lot…

We’ve been using this recipe for 15+ years but I had it saved in my physical binder from very early on and it never made it to digital until now! Jambalaya is a rice dish which originated in the 1700s with a mash up of cuisines, ingredients, and flavours from Spanish, French, German, and African descent slaves (1, 2). There…

If you’ve spend any time on this site, you might have noticed we love Mexican and Texmex meals! This Beef Tamale Casserole, sometimes called Tamale Pie, is an easy to prepare meal with a delicious filling and cheesy cornbread topping. I try to make my life easier on days that I work my day job, by making quicker meals, or…

If you were to google “chicken pot pie” (which is likely just what you did to find this page), you’ll find a lot of recipes that are all similar in taste, texture, and for some unholy reason, all have peas. I don’t mean to vilify peas, but out of all the possible foods evolution gave us, peas are possibly the…

I think for every established cook, there’s a “perfect” spaghetti sauce recipe… there’s just so many online! This is a somewhat classic recipe, with some modernization (like the hot sauce), and my family’s preferred tomato based pasta sauce. A variation is used for my super easy and low cost lasagna as well. Start your sauce early, at least an hour…

We’ve eaten other’s methods of roasting turkey over the years, and none of them have ever topped the turkey you get from this recipe. The flavour and moisture levels are just out of this world! This is one of the first recipes I made when Alton Brown was teaching me to cook and it sold me on making the effort…