Recipes

Eggs are one of the most versatile ingredients in your kitchen. It lets you get food to your family in a hurry without sacrificing flavour. With carbonara, you harness the power of the egg yolk for a quick pasta fix. You can have this dish ready in the time it takes to boil water and cook pasta. The heat from the freshly cooked pasta will thicken the egg yolk in the sauce at the last moment. You'll be amazed at how something to simple and so speedy can be so tasty.

One of the best ways to fill Half Your Plate (and all of your soup bowl) is with a simple pureed soup. They’re a time-honoured and super-simple way to get a whole lot of vegetable flavour on the table in a hurry – maybe even hide vegetables from finicky eaters. This one was custom created by Honourable Jeff Leal with Chef Michael Smith’s coaching!

One of the best ways to fill Half Your Plate (and all of your soup bowl) is with a simple pureed soup. They’re a time-honoured and super-simple way to get a whole lot of vegetable flavour on the table in a hurry – maybe even hide vegetables from finicky eaters. This one was custom created by Honourable Yasir Naqvi’s with Chef Michael Smith’s coaching!

One of the best ways to fill Half Your Plate (and all of your soup bowl) is with a simple pureed soup. They’re a time-honoured and super-simple way to get a whole lot of vegetable flavour on the table in a hurry – maybe even hide vegetables from finicky eaters. This one was custom created by Honourable Dipika Damerla with Chef Michael Smith’s coaching!

One of the best ways to fill Half Your Plate (and all of your soup bowl) is with a simple pureed soup. They’re a time-honoured and super-simple way to get a whole lot of vegetable flavour on the table in a hurry – maybe even hide vegetables from finicky eaters. This one was custom created by MPP Andrea Horwath with Chef Michael Smith’s coaching!

Every kid deserves to grow up experiencing the sheer thrill, the absolute joy and delight of watching popcorn leaping out of the pot and into the air. Around here it's a regular spectacle, and you don't need microwave to put on this show. Popcorn is fun for the whole family, and if you want to really impress the kids, go for the caramel.

There are as many ways to roast a chicken as there are cooks. This basic method is my favourite. Roasting the chicken perched on top of a thick bed of vegetables not only helps you prepare an entire meal at once but also guarantees that not a drop of flavour is lost. You can also skip all the normal laborious of slicing by simply shredding the meat into the works and tossing together a pan stew of sorts!

Who said baking a homemade dessert has to be difficult? Not me. This dessert could not be simpler and is fully customizable. It has 2 basic parts - the apple filling and the oatmeal topping. Choose any type of apple (or a combination), your favourite fresh or frozen berry, and any of the baking spices. Ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, or simply cinnamon all work.

Sweet potatoes are undeniably healthy being packed full of micronutrients, betacarotene and fibre. They're guaranteed nutritional powerhouses, even when you make one of my favourite holiday treats from south of the border, covered with a thick layer of marshmallows. I'm convinced this classic was created by parents whose kids weren't the least bit interested in how healthy sweet potatoes are, until they showed up at the table covered in marshmallows.

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One of my all time favourite ways to enjoy ripe tomatoes is in a chilly bowl of puréed gazpacho soup. Normally raw ripe tomatoes are the base for the soup but since the local tomato season is so fleeting you can concentrate and brighten their flavours any time of the year by roasting them first!

Need a little mid-morning or mid-afternoon boost? Skip the candy aisle and instead stir whole-grain goodness into a batch of these super-simple, super-tasty granola bars. Artfully wrap and tie individual bars for some added flairand lovingly tuck a handwritten note inside.