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• Preheat your oven to 350 F
• Spray a baking dish large enough to accommodate them with cooking spray. Get the bottoms of your slider buns into the dish and then nestle a meatball on each one. Top each one with a tbsp. of the shredded cheddar and put the tops on, gently smashing down the meatballs / cheese to keep them together. 
• Melt your butter in the microwave and brush the tops of each slider bun with the butter. Lay a slice of spicy jalapeno on top of each slider. Bake your sliders for 13 - 16 minutes until golden and fully cooked. Remove your dish and set it onto a wire cooling rack. Once your sliders are cool enough to handle safely, serve them up. Open the tops and give them each a squirt of the Baja sauce and a spoonful of the spicy green salsa. ENJOY!

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• ASSEMBLY - Add your romaine and red onions to a large mixing bowl. Dress with as much Ranch as you like, toss, and split between two dinner plates. Next, divide the spiced meat between both plates followed by the seasoned corn. Sprinkle the cheddar on both salads followed by a drizzle of the Chipotle Ranch / Mayo. Garnish with fresh cilantro, sliced jalapenos, and the green onions. Serve & ENJOY!

I swear, I've got to be the worst for buying groceries without ever looking at what I already have in the fridge / pantry. Am I alone here? I'll end up with 3 cans of the same beans, a new package of basil despite one or two of them in my fridge begging for mercy, and in this case, bell peppers when I already have them from my previous shop. If you're like me, sometimes you create a recipe around an emergency, or rather, necessity in order to prevent waste.

I had a couple giant red bell peppers that were begging to be used in my fridge. It also happened that I had a half package of plant-based meats and some open cheeses that needed to go. Stuffed peppers are one of my fave things to eat, and it also happens that they're easy to put together in order to use up some half used items or in danger items in the fridge. Here's my emergency pepper recipe which managed to prevent the waste f the peppers, half package of meatless meat, and some Monterey Jack I'd completely forgotten about.

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• Preheat your oven to 350 F
• Slice your peppers in half through the stems giving you two pepper bowls essentially. Scoop out the pith / seeds as best you can leaving you with an empty pepper bowl. Nestle the peppers in to a baking dish large enough to accommodate them. Divide the cheesy filling between the 4 peppers, pressing the filling down to ensure they're nice and filled. Top them with the remaining cheddar & the Monterey Jack and finish with a sprinkle of pepper flakes.
• Loosely cover the dish with tinfoil, making sure to tent the tinfoil to avoid the cheese sticking to it. Once covered, place in your preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove cover and continue for another 15 minutes until melty and slightly golden. Remove the dish and set it onto a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle the peppers with parsley and once they've cooled for 5 ish, serve them up and enjoy!

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• MEATBALLS - Preheat your oven to 400 F. Mix all of the ingredients for the meatball patties in a mixing bowl until combined. Separate in to four equal sized portions and form in to patties. Place the patties on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once the oven is ready, bake the patties for 10 minutes, flip, and continue for another 6 minutes. Remove the tray and set it on to wire cooling rack. Spoon some of the sauce on to each patty followed a piece of pizza mozz. Spoon more sauce on top and return the tray to the oven until melty.
• Heat a grill pan and brush your buns with EVOO. Grill the buns until golden and crisp. Brush the buns with the raw, gently smashed garlic after coming off the grill. Spoon some sauce on to the bottom of each bun and nestle your cheesy meatball burger on top. Generously garnish each burger and top bun with finely shredded grana padano. Close them up, serve, and ENJOY!
• Reserve remaining sauce in an airtight container. Fridge for 4 - 5 days, freeze for 2 ish months.

Unfortunately, by reducing the liquid in place of sauce, the orzo started sticking to the bottom of my skillet. I'd scrape it clean while it simmered away, sit down, and return a couple minutes later to a layer of scorched noods. I was beyond frustrated y'all because I should've known better and added additional liquid.

When the noods were cooked, I folded in heavy cream and a heap of grana padano. Flavour wise, this was a delicious dish, but the consistency was just off. It was too thick and porridge like, not what I had intended. So, while this was delicious in flavour, the texture really did not work for me, nor did the fact that I was repeatedly scraping it form the skillet. Back to the drawing board on this one!

Unfortunately, I decided to go with a brand of seasoned plant-based crumble that I just didn't enjoy lol. It was gritty and parts of it burnt which gave it a charcoaly vibe, not my fave. Upon assembling everything, I thought maybe the combination of all of the ingredients would come together, but I honestly tasted that crusty crumble with every bite. It was a huge let down, especially given how delicious the supreme poutine was that I was modeling this after. Needless to say, this recipe isn't one you guys will need in your life, trust me.

Flops are part of the creative process. While we might have a fabulous idea, sometimes the method lets us down, other times it's the cook or even the quality of the ingredients. As long as we can still eat the food, then it isn't a complete failure, but it's a lesson learned and an opportunity to try again and get things right. I wouldn't share a recipe with you guys unless I tested it and it came out flawlessly, so that's why it's important to understand why a recipe flops and I always like to share that with you guys.

I remember when I first started hearing about "inflation" , maybe last year perhaps, and I hadn't really seen any evidence of things being wildly expensive. That was until I blinked and suddenly Olive Oil was almost 20$, coffee had jumped from 11 to over 20$, and everything suddenly gave me sticker shock lol. Inflation hit hard you guys, but if there's one thing I can tell you that has remained a constant, it's pierogies.

Pierogies are still incredibly economical. I can usually get a box of 20 for less than 3 dollars which is a freaking steal anymore. Pierogies are a serious craving for me. Fluffy, potatoey goodness wrapped in dough that just gets so crispy and golden when fried the way I like. While I've written recipes for different flavour combinations, what I'm sharing with you now is the way I eat them on the regular. Lots of onions, garlic, butter, simple seasonings, melty cheese, and sour cream to finish. Let's dive in to my favourite way to nosh on pierogies.

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• Give them one more flip and let them go until they're nice and crisp / golden. Remove the skillet from the heat and top each pierogi with a little shredded Monterey Jack. Cover the skillet until melty.
• Serve the pierogies with a fat dollop of sour cream and a good sprinkling of green onions & chives. Enjoy my go-to pierogies anytime like I do. They're just so addictively good.

There you have it folks! I enjoy these pierogies at least once every two weeks, but even more often if the hankering hits. You just can't beat the combination of buttery onions, some of which have crisped up, golden pierogies with a little melty cheese, and creamy sour cream to finish. So freaking addictive.

While we're on the topic of inflation, just a reminder that Wayfair Canada is having their Epic Fall Sale! Plenty of things for every room in the house up to 70% off. Don't miss out! I linked a few non-stick cookware sets below that would be perfect for this recipe, and perfect for saving money!

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• With about 20 minutes remaining, let's make the filling. Begin heating the butter and pepper flakes in a 10" non-stick skillet set to about medium. Once heated, add the onion and a good pinch of both salt & pepper. Stir and let those onions cook a couple of minutes before stirring in the garlic. Continue to stir and cook another 4 ish minutes until the onions have softened a bit. Add the broccoli florets and another good pinch of salt & pepper.  Continue to cook, stirring as needed for another 4 minutes. 
• Push the veg to the outside of the skillet and drop in your Beyond Beef. Break the beef up in to small crumbles as it browns in the skillet for a few minutes and add the Garlic Plus seasoning. Stir everything together and continue to cook another few minutes until the broccoli has softened a bit. Pour in the cream and wait for it to to start bubbling nicely. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes. At this point, it should have reduced a bit and thickened up. Turn off the heat and fold in half of the shredded Monterey Jack until cheesy and combined. Taste your filling and adjust your salt / pepper if needed.​

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• Carefully remove your potatoes from the oven and set the tray on to a wire cooling rack. The taters are scorching hot, let them sit for 5 minutes before slicing them open lengthwise. Drop a tablespoon of butter in to each tater and work that in to the flesh with a fork. Divide the filling between both potatoes (Yes, they're going to be VERY full) and top them with the remaining cheese.
• Return to the oven for another 6 - 7 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and gorgeous. Switch the oven to BROIL HIGH and let them get some browning before removing them.
• Serve your taters with a dollop of sour cream, some pepper flakes & cracked pepper, and some sliced green onions. ENJOY!

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• Once your salad has set, we can set up our toasties. There's enough egg salad for 4 toasties, so you can either serve up 4 if needed, or serve however many and refrigerate the egg salad in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
• Start by toasting your sourdough until golden and crisp. Slather with unsalted butter and mash 1/2 an avocado / toast. Once mashed, season with salt, pepper, and pepper flakes. Spoon your egg salad on to your toasties next. Finish with a sprinkle of green onions, serve, and ENJOY!

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• Move the veg to the outer parts of the skillet. If you can peel off the sausage casings, do so. They can be annoying to take off and honestly, they disintegrate anyways lol. Crumble the sausages into the center of the skillet and let those brown up as you flip / stir for about 4 minutes. Stir everything back together now with a good pinch of salt & pepper and continue to cook another 2 minutes or so.
• Drop in the taters along with another pinch of salt & pepper. Stir and cover for a few minutes. Remove cover and pour in the wine. Let the wine simmer off for about 4 minutes, reducing it by about 2/3. Pour in the broth and wait for the soup to come to a boil. Once boiled, season with the Garlic Plus, a good hit of salt, and reduce to a simmer. Simmer 20 - 25 minutes until your taters are soft and soup has reduced nicely.​

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• Pour in the cream and wait for the soup to come back to a simmer. Turn off the heat and fold in the grana padano and fresh parsley. Pluck out the thyme sprigs, taste, and adjust your salt if needed / desired.
• Serve your bowls garnished with additional grana padano & parsley. I served mine up with some pretzel buns I had on hand, but any crusty bread will do. ENJOY!