Is it Friday yet? I cannot wait for this weekend. You know why? It's a long weekend here in Canada, it's Victoria Day. I have lots of things planned, so now I just have to get through another couple days of work. I can do it. I think I'm handling my challenge this month pretty well. If you don't know, I am challenging myself to only cook vegetarian dishes this month. I have to admit it is not as easy as coo ...

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers. The weather has been incredible here in Calgary. We've had a beautiful and warm day for Mother's day. On such gorgeous day I don't always feel like cooking, so most of the times I turn to sandwiches. Here's a sandwich recipe, if you want to call it that, that is super healthy. It's full of flavor and it looks great too. It's like a salad on a sandwich. :) Literally! I made ...

I've often talked about how much I love cooking with mushrooms and how much I adore stuffed mushrooms. This is my 2nd stuffed mushrooms recipe this week, and the 4th on the blog. So obviously I love them. :) And I like a variety. I mean imagination is our only obstacle. So far all the stuffed mushroom recipes here on jocooks are vegetarian. One of these days I'll try stuffing them with some meat. But not th ...

May is Vegetarian and Seafood Month at JoCooks. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am doing this to prove to myself that you can cook a variety of dishes with no meat. Today's recipe is one that I am a big fan of. I love mushrooms, and I love stuffed mushrooms. Portobello mushrooms are great for stuffing because they are so big and you can really stuff them with anything. These mushrooms were so deliciou ...

I remember I used to hate spinach as a child. I used to hate lots of vegetables as a child but especially spinach. But at some point I grew to really like my mom's creamed spinach, probably after I watched Popeye. :) I'm not sure creamed spinach is a traditional Romanian dish, but I know my mom has made it ever since I can remember. We used to eat it with a scrambled egg, and I think that was my favorite th ...

So it's almost the middle of April and while other places are enjoying wonderful warm spring weather, we are going through a snow storm. That's Calgary for you, yesterday was warm, beautiful and sunny and today it looks like Christmas outside. If you don't believe me, check out the picture I just took outside. I struggled a bit with taking the picture because I wanted to capture the large snowflakes. They a ...

Since I was a little girl, this version of roasted potatoes with garlic sauce has been my favorite and it was such a popular side dish, I think we had these potatoes every Sunday for dinner. Pair this with a roasted chicken and you've got an awesome dinner. Just the thought of these potatoes and this delicious garlic sauce makes my mouth water. Whenever people ask me about traditional Romanian cuisine, this ...

Well, considering how bad I've been with my last dessert, Sex in a Pan, I thought I'd give you guys a healthy recipe. I was very naughty with the last dessert. But now you will thank me, for sharing something healthy with you. :) I don't know if you've ever had Greek Yogurt, but I am in love with it. It is so thick, and so full of flavor, it almost tastes like sour cream, that's how thick it is. I just love ...

This is a super easy recipe for a classic Margherita Pizza. My husband is a huge Pizza fan and as I've said before we make Pizza almost every weekend  at home. However, we wanted to try something that's a little bit healthier and this Margherita Pizza is just that. We've never had Margherita Pizza before but we're always on the lookout for new Pizza recipes. While we were on wikipedia researching the histor ...

Whenever you're in the mood to eat some cheesy pasta, this recipe of cheese and spinach stuffed shells is perfect. There are 4 types of cheeses in this dish, making it scrumptious and super delicious. I chose to mix some cottage and ricotta cheese for the stuffing, therefore making this dish healthier. I topped the shells with mozzarella cheese and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and it turned out so go ...

Contrary to popular belief, potatoes are not bad for you, potatoes have many health benefits. They may have a bad rap but it belongs to how you prepare potatoes, or what toppings you fill them with. The potato itself is good for you, fairly low in calories, and for those calories you get a lot of nutrients. Potatoes are full of vitamin C, high in potassium, they are a great source of iron and copper and a p ...

My husband loves cranberries and he's been asking me for weeks to make him something with cranberries. So here's a squash recipe you might not see often, but it's really great. It's also very healthy for you, squash, cranberries and a pecan crumble. It really is a great appetizer or snack. Personally I love squash, and unfortunately I don't cook enough with it. For this roasted squash with cranberry and pec ...

New Year's Resolutions! Well I don't normally have one, used to have them when I was younger, but I never really stuck to them. I am thinking of having one this year though, and that is to drink less pop. This one is going to be hard for me. I love coke zero. But I have to drink more water. So there, my resolution for this year is to drink less pop and drink more water. Notice I did not say drink no pop, ju ...

I've had this cauliflower in the fridge for a week now, not knowing what to do with it. I like cauliflower a lot and I've recently made a great recipe with cauliflower, my cauliflower poppers which turned out great. However, I wanted something different this time so I decided to make this recipe I once saw on TV, cauliflower au gratin with bechamel sauce. Gratin is a French word, and it is a culinary techni ...

It's a crazy week this week. I'm conducting training this week, something which I don't normally enjoy, being the introvert that I am, however I have to say this week I am enjoying it a bit. Something different than my normal day to day work activities. The part that I'm enjoying is chatting with people all day long, versus being in my office all day long programming. The part I don't enjoy so much is that ...