The creaminess of Macaroni and Cheese without the added fat

You never know where you will find your next inspiration for dinner, it can come from reading a blog, a magazine article or maybe even just a recommendation from a friend.  Keeping your mind open to new ideas can help keep your meal times interesting so that your family looks forward to a night in rather then spending money on an expensive night out.  For this recipe I found inspiration in my mother-in-law's Weightwatchers cook book, Fabulous & Filling.  So not only was this a delicious meal but I knew that it was a slightly better for your option that I could feel good about.

You don't throw away your leftover change so why do away with your leftover food

For me there is nothing worse then good food going to waste. Imagine how you would feel if you had holes in your pockets so that when ever you got change from a purchase it fell out onto the floor.  That is pretty much what is happening when leftovers or even fresh food goes to waste.  So for me it is so important to learn to get creative with the ingredients that you have on hand, especially when it comes to leftovers.  Even a good meal sometimes makes dull leftovers and it is often more tempting to have a fresh menu the next day rather then just heating up old leftovers.  So finding a creative way to make the leftovers into a fresh dish is a must.  It can often be a challenge but thanks to the internet it doesn't have to be impossible.  If you have a particular ingredient that you have no idea what to do with do my favorite thing and Google it, 'what to do with leftover blank'.  I guarantee you that there has been someone else who has already confronted and conquered the challenge. 

For this particular dish I was left with a large quantity of mashed potatoes and boiled cabbage after a wonderful roast meal with all of the family over the weekend.  I do love boiled cabbage but something about reheated boiled cabbage just doesn't get my taste buds excited.  So before they went bad I challenged myself to come up with a tasty solution.  Here in the UK a traditional use of roast meal leftovers is a dish called Bubble and Squeak, being a new resident of this country I challenged myself to create my own version of this dish.  

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

In honor of my first week in the UK I felt that it was appropriate to blog about a very English dish.  When I got married it was a fun challenge to begin to learn a whole new style of cooking.  Up until then my dishes had been heavily influenced by Asian cuisine.  But wanting to impress me English husband I found I wanted to try my hand at adding more English dishes to my repertoire. So there was lots of roasting of vegetables and of course pie making.  Now generally if you say to an American that you are going to be having pie they would think that you are referring to a sweet pie.  But to a Brit pie can mean so much more.  As I am just a beginner I have relied heavily on my meat pie recipes from other sources, for this particular one I used About.com.

Creamy Pasta with Leeks, Lemon and Peas

I absolutely love cream sauces, but the heaviness in the dish means it doesn't show up too often in my house.  But after thumbing through a magazine I got inspired to try something different with a cream sauce and the result was a creamy yet light dinner that would be perfect even on a hot day.