Recipe 35- Steakhouse Salad with BBQ Blue Cheese Dressing

Recipe 35- Steakhouse Salad with BBQ Blue Cheese Dressing 

Good Morning everyone! 

I hope that your day is started off well. I finally got some time to sit down and finish off my blog posting from last week. I had a very busy weekend in the BIG city of Toronto.

I hadn't announced the exciting news through any social media, but this past weekend I auditioned for MASTERCHEF CANADA! 

As many of you heard earlier this year I also auditioned for "Come Dine with Me Canada" I had an on camera audition done here in my home. Unfortunately the network cancelled the show a few weeks later! 

The producer that came to my house was just an awesome person and we really hit it off. About a month ago his name popped up in my email inbox. He was inviting me to audition for MasterChef Canada as he was a producer of the show. I sent in my written application and within a couple days I got a phone call from the producer and did the over the phone interview. 

Another week or so passed and in my inbox came an official VIP guest invite! 

This past Sunday was the audition day for me. I was required to bring one dish along with me to be tasted and judged. YIKES

I chose my all time favourite peanut butter cheesecake. This time instead of store bough Peanut Butter cups, I made my own along with homemade hot fudge. It turned out excellent and did quite well at the audition. 

My test kitchen in full swing. Masterchef Canada crew member Dean couldn't help but sneak a bite.. and then spread the word. Can you tell how much the crew enjoyed it?

The day was a very early one, 4 AM to be exact. I got up and ready and we left our house at 5AM. I had no idea what to think, I had never imagined myself auditioning for a competitive cooking show. I figured since I was invited, I would take whatever comes and just live the experience. 

Upon arrival, we encountered some nasty rainy weather. We lined up and waited for Masterchef crew to come out and give instructions. The line behind me got longer and longer. I could not believe the amount of people that showed up, coolers and bags in hand ready for the day. 

At 7am we received coloured wrist bands and told we would be heading into the building soon. 

My nerves kicked in for the first time. 

My husband came along, but upon entry to the building we were told we had to go it alone. 

NO SUPPORT person allowed. 

If things couldn't get more stressful, I received my "gold card" and I was LITERALLY the first audition of the day... of 400+people! 

The morning was truly amazing, the crew and other participants all were great fun. It was nice to see the efforts of everyone that came out. 

In the end, I did not move through to the second stage of the audition, but it was still fun! 

I never would of pictured myself in 100 years ever being in Toronto doing this, but it was something I will never forget! I snapped a few pics along the way to share with everyone! 

Who knows... maybe next year I will try out again.. what the heck ;) 

The BIG day! Wonderful people I met and I hope to see some of them on Season 2 of MasterChef Canada! Good luck to all of you! 

Anyways... back to the recipe. I actually made this recipe last week, but was busy in my kitchen working on the cheesecake and didn't have time to sit and blog this dish. 

I was very excited to try another salad from the book. I can't tell you how many times I have re made the salads that I have blogged. My new all time fav is the " Green Apple Salad" 

This salad sounded very unique and I was excited for something new! 

I gathered my ingredients, which most of which I had on hand. Something new in this recipe was a head of "Radicchio"

I started off by pre heating my BBQ. 

After it was nice and hot, on went the steak. Cooked to a medium rare, it was left to rest while I prepped the rest of the salad. And if I do say so myself, this was one the best steaks I have ever cooked! It feels awesome when you start noticing that you are really learning throughout the process. The recipes may not be complicated, but Chef Michael gives some excellent tips and really gets your brain working! 

Then we started on the salad dressing.

This time my kitchen had a guest, my dear husband observed as I concocted this dressing.

I am not going to lie, as I put these ingredients into the blender... My face was kind of confused looking. One thing I have learned though, Michael Smith knows his stuff! Never question the recipe! 

Into my blender went Red wine vinegar, BBQ sauce, Buttermilk, Honey, Blue Cheese and some Salt and pepper.

OK..... Lets blend! 

I ended up with a nice creamy dressing that actually tasted amazing! I kind of felt like a chemist throwing in all these obscure ingredients together, but it turned out great! 

DONT DOUBT THE CHEF! 

Next I chopped up some lettuce, the Radicchio, onion and cherry tomatoes.

Now here comes the "good, the bad, and the ugly" When I started this blog I wanted to share my TRUE experiences along the way. 

Let me say this... I HATE RADICCHIO! 

While slicing this up, I had a nibble and OH MY, wow that was gross! 

I tried another piece and yup... DONT like that! 

My husband had a good giggle as I repeatedly ate a piece and made that scrunched up gross face.

Its a very bitter and unique vegetable let me tell you that.

I mentioned it to my Chef friend Craig and he said its really not great to eat alone, it needs the rest of the salad and dressing to make it palatable! Well..... It never made it to the salad, so when I make this again..It will go in and I will give it a second chance. 

One other tidbit of fun with this recipe, You will notice that my onion is not red. The recipe called for a red onion and I had picked one up, but it was not to be found in my fridge. I looked EVERYWHERE! 

So I decided since I couldn't find the darn onion, I would use a white one. 

( a few days later I found it in the door of my fridge... my husband had put it there by accident) 

Now I really think the colours of the red onion and the Radicchio would of made for a beautiful salad, but it turned out great regardless. Good tasting food doesn't always have to be pretty, right? :) 

I sliced up my well rested steak and tossed my salad with the dressing. 

Let me tell you, this salad is like a meal! So quick and filling, I just loved it and so did my family.

This is a perfect summer salad, the grilled steak and the freshness of the salad go perfect together.

And did I mention that Chef Michael sure knows his dressing. This dressing was the perfect companion to the this salad, creamy and packed with flavour! 

As always my compliments to the Chef and cheer to you my friends! 

Recipe 34- Backyard Burgers With The Works

Recipe 34- Backyard Burgers With The Works 

Hello Everyone! 

I hope everyone is having an excellent and fun filled summer. My family has been very busy since the beginning of June. My husband and I made a weekend trip up to Timmins Ontario, where I got to hand deliver the Michael Smith Cookbook to my blog follower and blog contest winner, Lucie! 

We had an excellent visit filled with yummy food, drinks and a special delivery from Lucie, CUPCAKES! 

Seems we had something in common, our love of food and making beautiful cakes. 

We stayed the weekend with our long time friends, Emilie and Doug and they showed us around Timmins. My mom being a huge Shania Twain fan, we made a roadside stop to snap a picture! 

We had an excellent fun filled weekend, and it was great to meet Lucie.

The kids wrapped up school and I have been trying to make their summer memorable by planning fun filled days and weekends. Hence the radio silence on the blog, I haven't had a ton of time to sit and blog with peace and quiet. 

Today is a very rainy and stormy day here, so the kids are busy building tents in the basement and our little Emilie is happily napping. 

One small outing we made this past weekend was to St. Jacobs Ont. 

When I was young, I spent many, many happy days in St.Jacobs with my Grandma Rose. When I was flipping through the Michael Smith book and picking my recipes, I knew I wanted to incorporate 2 of my favourite childhood shops into the recipes. 

When I was young, my grandma would send me up town to the bakery and the meat shop.

The bakery was always for a $2.00 pie shell & top, and then of course a special treat.  

My sister Amanda and I always went for the "long john" donut. 

The next stop was usually the "Meat& Cheese". Here my grandma would send a hand written letter of what she needed, but never any money. They meat shop had "the book" where local residents would have a tab for their purchases. I actually asked about "the book" this past weekend, hoping for a picture for my own sake, but that was a no go... it no longer exists. 

Anyways, I picked up some fresh Kaiser rolls, as specified in the recipe. I also picked up some fresh ground beef and some cheese. The "Colby" cheese was always on grandmas list and I haven't had it many years. It was exactly the way I remembered it :) 

So to start off with this recipe, I honestly had to read it over about 4 times, it seemed WAY too simple for burgers. In the past I have made homemade burgers many times, I usually incorporate different seasonings, onions and herbs into the meat. This recipes calls for.... JUST THE BEEF! 

Literally, just the beef and some salt and pepper. 

Yes, its a simple recipes.. but I learned some really cool things making this one.

First I sliced my lettuce, red onion, tomato and cheese. 

Then I brought out the beef, sectioned it into 4 equal pieces, shaped my patties and sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper. 

One key tip for this recipe, that will FOREVER be with me... (Thank you Chef Michael)

is to indent your patties. This will help the burger shrink evenly. 

THIS TOTALLY WORKS. 

I can't tell you how many times my homemade burgers come out like wonky looking hockey pucks! 

Next, I headed out to my BBQ with a drink in hand and ready to grill. 

I also brought along my sliced and buttered kaiser rolls & cheese slices. The rolls will be toasted just before the burgers are done cooking. I made sure to use my favourite butter, "Cows Creamery" oh my, that stuff is just the BEST! 

After a few minutes on the grill, they were ready to flip. My husband was looking on as I bbq'd and said " wow those have hardly shrunk at all" Guess he noticed the "wonky hockey puck burgers" before too LOL 

After the 'flip' I gave them another few minutes of cooking and they draped them with some cheese. At this point on went the buttered kaiser rolls. Watch yourself if your doing this, the butter does drip a little and can cause a flame on the grill. No one likes burnt buns ;) 

I pulled the buns off when they had a nice golden brown and were a little crispy. 

At this point the burgers were nicely cooked and ready to be served. 

We served up the burgers just as Chef Michael suggested, lettuce, onion, tomato, dill pickle slices ketchup and mustard. He also said "relish" but I had none on hand. 

IS this not a beautiful burger!? 

I have to say hand down this is the BEST burger I have EVER eaten. EVER.

It was the perfect amount of juiciness, tender, tons of flavour and NO greasiness. 

PERFECTION! 

The taste of the beef along with the other toppings is what a burger should be about, and the addition of the buttered kaiser rolls... heaven! 

We enjoyed these all so much that we are planning them as another meal this week. 

You will not be disappointed with this simple, but delicious recipe. 

I have decided to never buy another store frozen burger patty. For the price of a pound and a half of ground beef, you can have the most delicious burger of all time. 

P.S my husband suggested Bacon as an added topping, I don't think you could go wrong with that either! 

Thank you once again for your continuing support of the blog, keep your eyes peeled for the Recipe 35- Steakhouse Salad with BBQ Blue Cheese Dressing! 

As always, my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you my friends! 

Recipe 33- Slow Poached Shrimp Cocktail

Recipe 33- Slow Poached Shrimp Cocktail 

I quite enjoyed whipping up these poached shrimp. It really is a nice take on the typical cold rubbery shrimp rings you can buy at the store. This recipe gives the shrimp so much FLAVOUR an making your own cocktail sauce will make you feel like a 'top notch' chef. 

I started by bringing my frozen uncooked shrimp from the freezer. I let it thaw but kept the shrimp chilly in the fridge until it came time to poach. 

The sauce was pretty simple to throw together. I had everything on hand except the Horseradish. 

I am glad that I now have some in the kitchen, I forgot how tasty it was. 

Into a mixing bowl I added some ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce ( you think its hard to say ?, try typing it haha) and the zest and juice of a lemon. 

Now we can all have a little laugh to ourselves on my account. I have always purchased store style seafood sauce when I have a shrimp ring. I seriously thought the white flecks in the sauce was actual seafood.... Guess I was wrong haha! 

I just had to add that, because I am hoping I am not the only one out there that thought that :) 

Next I moved over to my stove to start working on the shrimp. 

Into the pot went some water, sliced onions and garlic and a few bay leaves. 

My friend Craig that went to Chef School used the fancy name they use for this concoction: 

"Court- Bouillon"

You can use it to when you make this recipe, it will really impress friends when you serve it! 

Everything is brought to a simmer on med-high heat, the flavours really come together and they smell fantastic. 

Now it was time for the shrimp. They literally get tossed into the pot, given a quick stir and the lid is placed on top. The heat gets turned off and the shrimp are left to poach for 10 mins. 

In the picture below, the second the shrimp hit that hot liquid they already start to turn that lovely shade of pink

10 minutes later, I plucked my shrimp from the broth and let them cool before peeling.

Now I got fancy just like Chef Michael has in the book. I found a nice cocktail glass and dressed it up pretty for my regular monday night group of friends. 

I have to say, this is one of the fanciest treats we have had on a monday night 'friend' gathering.

The shrimp was perfectly cooked and I just loved the flavour from the poaching process.

And the cocktail sauce was beyond excellent. 

This sauce recipe made an entire mason jar full and this will be stored in my fridge for many more repeats on this recipe. 

This would be a great way to "wow" your guests at your next party or get together. 

Chef Michael also gives a few variations in the recipe, not only for the poaching liquid, but also for the cocktail sauce. It really opens the door to many new flavours you could bring to this recipe! 

As always my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Recipe 32- Hot And Sour Broth with Asian Noodles

Recipe 32- Hot And Sour Broth with Asian Noodles 

If you need a quick and easy throw together meal, then this is it!  

I was shocked when I looked at my clock after cooking and realized it only took maybe 20 mins to get this restaurant quality soup to the table. 

This is what I have been loving about cooking with Chef Michaels book. 

These recipes are not only delicious and healthy, but there are a ton that take minimal time. 

I am a busy mom of 3 little ones and when dinner time hits, its a mad dash to get everyone fed in a timely fashion. 

Now this recipe took some planning. My kitchen has become well equipped with ingredients since the beginning of January this year. But I did not have a lot of these ingredients on hand. 

To start off, I chopped some Shiitake mushrooms and grated one carrot. 

My mom was visiting that day, and was watching me prepare. She said " what is thattttt!?" when she saw the mushrooms. They are a little weird looking and this was the first time I had cooked with them. 

Into a large saucepan I tossed in the mushrooms, carrot, frozen edamame some chicken broth, soy sauce and sambal. 

As you can see in the pic above, I bought the biggest jar of sambal known to man, because that was all that was available. I need to find more recipes for this ingredient, its a spicy chilli paste. I wasn't sure what it would be like, so I did a taste test and wow... yep its hot!  The one teaspoon required gives this soup the perfect "heat" 

While the soup in simmering, I worked on the thickening agent part of the soup. 

I measured out some rice wine vinegar and then some cornstarch. Both are whisked together and then added to the soup. 

I added the cornstarch mixture to the soup and let it simmer a few minutes longer.

This nicely thickens the soup. 

Next in went the Udon noodles. These were completely new to me. I opened the package and gave it a smell. They don't smell weird but they did look like worms haha! 

My oldest daughter pointed that out as they went into the pot. 

To finish off the soup, I added in some sliced green onions and some sesame oil. 

Sesame oil was also new to me and wow, is this stuff ever potent. I tried a little on my finger before pouring it in, and the flavour lingers for a long time. Chef Michael says to freeze a piece of ginger prior to making this recipe. It makes for easier grating. I added some grated ginger and gave it all a stir. 

So as the soup was cooking, I took in all the smells and tasted it a few times. I am going to be honest, I was unsure my kids were going to like this one. It defiantly had a unique taste and I was unsure if it would be something I would even enjoy. While this was cooking I whipped up some pasta and sauce just incase. 

Well to my surprise, when it was all said and done and served up we were ALL pleasantly surprised.

I am not a huge fan of asian style cooking, and really haven't had a ton of dishes. 

My whole family was in love with the flavour of this soup.

Its a perfect balance and the noodles are delicious. They were one of my favourites in this dish. 

My mom said " yes, I could eat a lot of this and make is again at home"

Needless to say, all those extra ingredients will be coming in handy in the future, we will be making this many more times. You can't go wrong with this one, fast and super tasty! 

I really like being pushed to try new things and I love that my kids are getting the opportunity at a young age to branch out and try new things as well.

If this doesn't tell you how good it was, I am not sure what will! 

As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Recipe 31- Cottage Blog- Tomato Basil Quinoa Salad

Recipe 31- Cottage Blog- Tomato Basil Quinoa Salad

Here we are with Part 2 of "the cottage" blog! 

I served Recipe 30- Brazilian Grilled Steak with Salsa Criolla with this deliciously fresh salad.

I have to say that cooking up in the cottage was a great challenge and I can't wait to choose my next recipe to take up to Tobermory in the next few weeks. 

Like I had said in my last "Cottage Blog", the kitchen is very minimal when it comes to gadgets and even standard cooking supplies. I thought I had thought of EVERYTHING I could possibly need, until I read back over the recipe. 

The beginning of this recipe calls to well wash and drain your quinoa before boiling. 

At home this would be a simple feat... A mesh strainer does the trick! 

Guess what we didn't have at the cottage? 

A mesh strainer.

This is when I turned in Macgyver! 

So I had pre measured the quinoa and stored it in a mason jar for the travel to the cottage.

This came in very useful. I added some bottled water to the mason jar... Did I mention we didn't have running water either? I gave the jar a shake and this is when it got interesting. 

I took a coffee filter, put it into a drinking glass and poured my quinoa in and let it drain.

TADAAA! well washed and drained quinoa. Worked great, just took a little extra time. 

My next step with the quinoa was to give it a nice toasting before cooking.

A little oil went into the pot and then I let it toast for a few minutes. I have cooked quinoa before and never used this step, but thanks to Chef Michael, I learn something new every time I cook. 

Water is then added, some salt and pepper and the Quinoa is left to cook for about 15 minutes or until tender. I quite enjoy the nutty smell quinoa gives off while it cooks away. 

After 15 minutes or so the water has completely been absorbed and you are left with light and fluffy quinoa. Its left to cool down to room temp. This is when I started into the chopping and preparing of the rest of the salad. 

But not before I had a few spoonfuls of the cooked quinoa, its hard to resist. 

I chopped up ANOTHER 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, and thinly sliced some red onions. I also lightly chopped the basil leaves.

One thing I will be bringing for the next "cottage blog" will be some knives from home. 

Using a bread knife and a small paring knife that was dull, made cooking a whole lot more interesting :) 

Next I started working on the dressing. Into the mason jar went balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and dijon mustard. Let me just say, these ingredients all together make one DELICIOUS dressing that could be used on ANY salad. 

At this point, the dressing is added to the chopped tomatoes,onions and basil and given a good stir. 

I then added my cooled quinoa and gave it another good stir.

Now this salad was served with the Brazillan grilled steak with salsa criolla.
It was a delicious pair together, however the ingredients are somewhat similar, so it may be better to pair with another dish. Either way this salad was a huge HIT!
It was fresh and delicious, perfect ending to a hot day at the cottage.
 I think this is a great recipe to try out quinoa if you have never had it before.
The quinoa in this salad made it very unique and very healthy.
This recipe makes a very large amount, but it is great for leftovers the next day!

I hope you all have enjoyed this addition to the blog postings. I anticipate a few more "Cottage blogs" over the summer. I love being able to share the recipes, but also my experiences along the way no matter what the circumstances... even under equipped kitchens ;) 

As always, my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Recipe 30- Cottage Blog- Brazillian Grilled Steak with Salsa Criolla

Recipe 30- Cottage Blog- Brazilian Grilled Steak with Salsa Criolla 

Welcome to Recipe 30 and my first "cottage" blog.

Whats a cottage blog you ask?

Well I have selected a few recipes from the book that I will be making up at our family cottage in Tobermory, Ontario. 

This cottage is small and not meant for cooking elaborate recipes. There is very minimal kitchen supplies and gadgets and I wanted to test myself and see if I could pull off these recipes without the comforts of my well stocked kitchen at home. 

It was such a nice getaway for me and the family after being so ill. Fresh air and the outdoors are the best medicine. We drove to the cottage on Friday and it takes approx.3 hours from our home. We went into town and had dinner that night at the "Crows Nest Pub" 

If you ever have a chance to visit Tobermory, this is the place to eat. They have excellent food and you can't visit Tobermory without having the local Whitefish Dinner.

The following day, we headed back into town for some needed ingredients. Now I had planned ahead and packed pretty much everything I needed, but somehow misread my recipe.

 It called for "Red Wine Vinegar" and I brought " Rice Wine Vinegar" Luckily the ONLY grocery store in town that has just the basics, had some. I also needed parsley. 

Guess what?.... none to be found!! 

On our drive back to the cottage there was a road side sign that said 

" Hay, Rhubarb and Parsley" 

HA! Awesome! 

After a long windy dirt road and pulling up to a small shack, there was a man that had a very large well tended garden. He let me snip some fresh parsley and charged me $1.00

I have to say, this parsley was better then what I have seen in store. 

Saturday afternoon after I had collected my last 2 needed ingredients I got to work on the Salsa.

Chef Michael suggests that you make this ahead, even days before use, but you can make it fresh as well and use it the same day. I figured a few hours before dinner time would give it some time for all the flavours to come together. 

So to start, you add garlic, jalapeño pepper, red wine vinegar and some olive oil, salt and Oregano into a food processor.                            Now like I said before, we have minimal kitchen tools at the cottage, that includes a food processor.       My mom sells Tupperware they have a GENIUS food chopper that works like a dream! She brought this up for me to use.                                           I am telling you, skip buying a bulky food processor and get one of these. It works so well, that I may have to buy one myself.                               Its called a Quick Chef Pro System.   Next I gave this chopper a couple of quick spins until the mixture is smooth. The blades in the food processor are so sharp it takes minimal effort.    

Next I added in my chopped green bell pepper and gave everything a couple more spins.                               When you open the lid you are left with PERFECT consistently salsa.
Now as you can see, there is some liquid around the salsa, this is why you want to make it a little ahead of time. This liquid will absorb into your other ingredients and perfectly marinate them.

Next I chopped my cherry tomatoes, this recipe calls for 2 pints.. this is a lot of slicing! Each one gets halved. I also thinly sliced some red onion. This whole chopping part was quite a task, I had one flimsy paring knife and a serrated bread knife available in the kitchen. I am lucky I have all my fingers. :) 

Everything is put into a large bowl and your blended salsa mixture is added. 

I then chopped my fresh parsley and gave everything a good stir. 

Before this was tightly wrapped with plastic wrap and left to marinate in the fridge, it took and outdoor tour of the cottage to give everyone a good sniff of this concoction! 

Needless to say, no one could wait for dinner.

A few hours later, I brought out the steak and let it come to room temp. This does wonders for cooking a juicy steak, give it a try. 

I made the spice rub for the steaks. This included some cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard and ground oregano. Once again I did not have ground Oregano and could not find it, so I used the leaf version, it worked just fine. 

The recipe then calls to add everything to a spice jar and give the steaks a sprinkle of the seasoning and massage it into the meat. I used about a tsp worth of seasoning per side.

Next I headed outdoors and fired up the mini BBQ. 

Once it was hot the steaks went on and were cooked about 5min per side and were done perfectly. 

I let them sit for about 5 or so minutes before topping with the salsa. 

These steaks once assembled are a thing of beauty! 

The colours and flavours are so vibrant and fresh. This is a perfect way to dress up those summertime BBQ steaks.

Upon first bite, I was in utter shock. Between the salsa and the seasoning on each steak it was just truly amazing. I could not believe I pulled this all off in one tiny cottage kitchen with minimal tools.

This recipe is steak house quality hands down. If you are having a summer dinner party and thinking about steak, wow your guests or family with THIS recipe! 

This recipe also makes a ton of salsa! You could easily add another 3 or more steaks and have more then enough salsa for each. Or you could use the leftovers for some killer nachos! 

Get out there this summer and fire up those grills, this is defiantly NOT a recipe to pass up! 

As always my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Keep and eye out for Recipe 31 which is also a Cottage Blog.

Tomato & Basil Quinoa Salad

This was served along side the steaks. 

Recipe 29- Lentil Tacos

Recipe 29- Lentil Tacos 

I have been eyeing this recipe in the book for quite sometime. If your family is anything like mine, then you probably make tacos at least once a month. My kids have been huge lovers of taco night and really look forward to it. I thought this recipe would be an interesting take on the traditional ground beef style taco. I was also wondering how it would go over with my kids. 

This recipe is also a fairly easy one, it just takes a little thinking ahead. Lentils take some time to cook and become tender. In this case it took about 35-40 mins. But don't be discouraged by time with this one. I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the lentils are when dressed up with the taco seasonings. 

I sliced up some onions and garlic, shed plenty of tears in the process. My husband said " are you about to burst out crying?" ... Well yes, yes I am... stupid onions! :) 

Everything went into my large skillet and were left to soften. I then added in my seasoning. 

Now in the picture below is my spice drawer. I built this myself a few months ago when my spice collection was rapidly growing making all of these recipes. 

I dug into the drawer and pulled out the chilli pepper and cumin. Now the recipe called for ground cumin and all I had was cumin seeds. 

HOW DO I NOT HAVE GROUND CUMIN IN ALL OF THESE OPTIONS!? 

Stupid me decided to be crafty and try and smash the seeds with my marble rolling pin and a baggie filled with seeds. This DOES NOT WORK. 

I gave up and tossed the seeds in and hoped for the best. PS, they worked out just fine! 

After the spices have had a few minutes to warm up in the pan, next came the lentils. I measured out my lentils and water and in they went. They are left to cook in the pan with a tight fitting lid until they are soft and tender.

While the lentils were cooking away, I started to prepare my toppings for he tacos. 

Now the assembly of these tacos is quite genius in my opinion. 

First you lay down a soft tortilla, then add a leaf of lettuce. A hard shelled taco is added next. 

This method hold those inevitably broken hard taco shells together while you dig in, but it also adds the the greatest texture of soft and crunchy in one bite! To be honest, from here on out, this is how tacos will be made in our house. 

Our selection of toppings were some tex mex cheese, corn & bean salsa and some cilantro. 

About 40 minutes later, my lentils were done cooking and the lovely aroma of the spices were hovering in my kitchen. I also had many tiny visitors coming to check in on the progress of the beloved tacos. 

The kids were ready to eat! 

I spooned in the lentil filling and then topped it off with cheese, salsa and cilantro. I could not wait to dig in and compare how this held up to our monthly taco night.

I was shocked! 

These were DELICIOUS!

I can't tell you how many times I said "wow" as I ate these, it was a lot! 

The kids also really enjoyed these tacos and even my apprehensive husband agreed that they were great. He wasn't too sure about the lentils, but I think this changed his mind. 

The tacos were gobbled down in no time and we had plenty of leftovers for the next day.

I will quote myself here " If I closed my eyes and bit into this taco, I would not know it wasn't meat" 

The spice seasoning in these is so well done, that it would be very hard to tell between meat and lentils.

The lentils had a mild flavouring and when its amongst all the other flavours, its just as good or even better then the meat option. 

These are a MUST try! I think this would be a great way to introduce lentils into your cooking, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how great they are, and hey maybe you can convert your family or kids as well. :) 

I can't wait to make these again! 

As always my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Also if you are interested in lentils and some great recipes, Check out Chef Michael Smith and his journey as the "lentil hunter". He has recently released a web series about his travels and cooking with lentils. He also has some great recipes available as well. 

His videos are just jaw dropping, and gave me a huge urge to travel! 

Check them out! 

 http://www.lentils.ca/lentilhunter/