Recipes

Summer is one of the best seasons. The weather is beautiful and there are plenty of great outdoor activities to enjoy. Staying cool can be challenging, especially when it comes to preparing and eating meals. Read on for some of my tips on staying cool while prepping and enjoying your summer meals.

I spend a lot of time talking about creating recipes here on Shelly’s Friday Favourites, but I’ve discovered recently that some of the most delicious things in life don’t have to involve cooking at all. In fact, they don’t have to involve eating either.

Families today are extremely busy. Both parents usually work, and then have to fit their kids’ many extracurricular activities, such as swimming, art, tennis, soccer, hockey, and playdates, into what’s left of the day. In this hectic environment, eating dinner as a family is enough of a challenge, let alone preparing the meal with your kids. But getting them involved in making their favourite dishes is worth the effort. This might be hard at first if your kids are doing homework (or just pretending they are), playing on their phones, or sitting in front of the TV. Convincing them that cooking is cool is a good first step. Once they start, they’ll love it, and the key is to make it fun.

Teaching your kids to cook at a young age has its perks, from getting their help in the kitchen for dinner duties to knowing they will be knowledgeable to eat smart as they get older. Furthermore, it’s a perfect opportunity to bond with your children and learn about their day. You never know, by the time they become teenagers, they could be preparing dinner every night before you even get home from work or while you chill out on the couch. A parent can only dream, right?

Until I tried cooking more than just rice in a rice cooker, I had no idea you could whip up so many different recipes in one. This week I decided to try three different dishes in a rice cooker, just to see how they’d turn out.

I’ll admit it: I’ve kind of scoffed at no-bake desserts in the past. It almost seems as though if you can’t put it in the oven, it’s not really dessert. But as I’ve discovered, some desserts don’t have to be labour intensive and time consuming to be really, really good. My kid’s all time favourite dessert actually takes less than 10 minutes to prepare, and I’d be proud to serve it to my foodie friends.  

It’s date night, and I want to stay in for a romantic evening. There are many things I can do to prepare and create an elegant nightlife vibe such as serving great tasting cocktails presented in stylish glassware. I’m a firm believer that drinks should be served in elegant glassware just to help set the mood right. With the right recipe and perfect presentation, I’ll be able to show off my ever-improving bartending skills, plus we will both have fun tasking some new delicious creations.

From my own experience, I can tell you that the best way to get creative with the BBQ is to use spice rubs. Spice rubs are made up of ground spices like salt, pepper, chilli pepper, and more. All you have to do is coat the meat you’re using, whether that’s beef, chicken, or ribs, with the rub and BBQ as you normally would. If done right, you’re in for a definite treat for dinner.

Summa summa summertime, it has finally arrived! This doesn’t apply to my West Coast friends, but in the East, it was a long, cold winter. The only cool thing I want to keep for the new season is a chilled, flavourful (and sometimes alcoholic) beverage, preferably sipped on a patio. Here are the drinks I’ll be serving this summer.

Odds are, you’ve heard of Nutella. It’s been part of some breakfast tables for years, and when I was as young as 8, I remember watching in awe as friends ate it on their toast. My mom would never let me eat Nutella for breakfast. She thought chocolate on toast was a bit much. But Nutella isn’t a ‘chocolate’ spread at all, although it really does taste like it. If you want to start experimenting with Nutella, here are a few recipes for you to try.