Melanie Hunter

Add this recipe, the Mediterranean tomato and bean salad, to your list of simple, impressive, protein-filled, vegan-friendly salads that will wow your guests. And, as a bonus, you can even make it ahead and refrigerate it for up to three days. Mind you, our leftovers won’t last for three days. Perhaps if you triple the recipe?

This dish is part of the Valentine’s Day-worthy menu suggestion at the back of the cookbook. I was excited to see that I didn’t have to fire up the barbeque and that it incorporated a variety of tasty mushrooms. I picked up some shiitake and oyster mushrooms and set out to make our pre-Valentine’s Day dinner a week or two early, since we will likely never celebrate a romantic dinner on Feb. 14th again—it’s our son’s birthday the same day—I thought that we may as well enjoy this meal with some friends.

This is my new favourite soup. And, no, it's not because it takes less than 15 minutes to make from start to finish. Although, I must admit, I find short prep times in a recipe very appealing on a busy weeknight. A bag of frozen shrimp (uncooked and peeled) is my new 'must-have' freezer item.

The Cheater coq au vin recipe caught my eye as a great dish to prepare for Mother’s Day. The picture looked lovely and any recipe with a French name has to be good. Think about it, you know I’m right. Plus, the word ‘Cheater’ in the title meant two things to me: 1) that there was something about the original non-cheater recipe that increased its level of preparation difficulty and that 2) this level of difficulty had been removed in the ‘cheater’ version and, likely, the consumer of the dish would be none the wiser.

Craving something warm with plenty of greens? Looking for a salad that's hearty and perfect as a light meal? Want something that's easy to make, spectacular to eat, and will wow your dinner guests? Then the Wilted spinach salad with chipotle pork is just what you need.