Food for Fuel

Lentils, Lentils, and more Lentils: Enjedra

2012-02-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

I love lentils, and cannot seem to get enough of them these days. I have been making a lot of this Butternut Squash and Lentil Curry Stew, which I have posted about before. I am surprised I have not made Palak Daal, my all time favourite lentil dish. The spinach filled lentil dish that made me fall in love with 101 Cookbooks. I hate to admit it, but as of late, there has been some competition for my favourite lentil dish. I spotted this recipe quite a while ago and it kind of got lost in the shuffle. I came across it again a couple weeks ago and could not wait to make it. It is so simple and easy, yet so impressive. I was impressed anyway.

Enjedra slightly adapted from Pride and Vegudice
Serves 6-8

4 medium-large sweet onions
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoons salt
2 cup green lentils
3 cups water (add more as needed)
brown rice to serve with

1. Cook desired amount of rice from package instructions. I used long grain brown but I imagine basmati would also work well.
2. Chop onions as desired. I cut the onions into rounds and then into 4-6 pieces from there. If you prefer them fully chopped, that would work to.
3. Heat olive oil on medium heat in a saucepan. Add onions and spices and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until they are fully softened and beginning to caramelize.
4. Add lentils to the pan and stir to coat evenly.
5. Add water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer while stirring occasionally. More water may have to be added as the lentils absorb the water and some evaporates off. Add 1/2 cup at a time as needed. Cook until lentils are soft and beginning to fall apart.
6. Serve over rice or with steamed greens.

If you make one recipe and one recipe only in 2012, let it be this one. I actually cannot wait to make it again. It is so comforting with the softness of the lentils and the warming seasonings. It would freeze well, making it an even more economical meal.

Remember when I said I was brainstorming a variation of the Vegan Shepard's Pie (as well as a new name)? Well, I brought my ideas to life but it was not a huge success. I basically changed up the seasonings of the bottom veggie layer, and used mashed sweet potatoes on the top. While the flavour was good, the sweet potatoes were too runny for their use in such a dish. I will most likely try again but not right away. I am not incredibly inspired at the moment to try again. Vegan Shepard's Pie it remains.

Gluten Free Crackers and Vegan Shepard's Pie

2012-01-25T21:22:00.000-05:00

I am on a Oh She Glows kick lately, in attempt to knock off some of those 800 recipes. It started off with making her Vegan and Gluten Free Crackers, and I just couldn't get enough. I had been wanting to make crackers for a while and finally got around to making them. I have made them four times now, making it a weekly tradition.

The recipe is a great base for making crackers, allowing your imagination to run wild when it comes to seasoning. The original recipe calls for garlic powder, rosemary and thyme, which is a winning combination. I have also left out the seasonings to get a taste for what the basic cracker recipe is like. It is rather plain, and definitely needs some hummus or peanut butter to make up for the lack of seasoning. That is actually a good thing though because I now know how versatile this recipe could become. I can imagine making them cinnamon spiced, curry flavoured, or on the Italian side with basil and oregano.

There is another area where your creativity can come through. The shape of the crackers is totally up to you! I initially followed the recipe by cutting the rolled out dough with a pizza cutter. I found that I wasted a lot of cracker on the ends though since I wasn't rolling the dough perfectly. Now, I use small cookie cutters, which worked much better than I thought it would.

Simply roll the dough out thin onto a counter lined with waxed or parchment paper. Press the cookie cutter down onto the dough firmly. Lift up (with the dough in the cutter) and place the shape on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. For very small cutters, the cooking time should be reduced by 3-5 minutes. I have been experimenting with some seasoning combinations and hopefully will be able to share my favourite with you soon. I got close tonight, but so far the original recipe has been taking the cake.

Another Oh She Glows recipe I have tried lately is the Vegan Shepard's Pie. The only thing I didn't love about this recipe was the name. The dish itself is fantastic. It is a great Sunday type of meal since it requires a little more time than a week night probably provides, and is a perfect comfort food for the winter months. Filled with root vegetables, I cannot think of something more appropriate of this time of year.

You may also notice there is no 'fake meat' in this pie to it vegan. Which is why I don't like the name. It deserves a name of its own. I have made this twice now (without the 'gravy') and I am cooking up a unique variation in my head. Hopefully I have a chance to put my ideas into action soon, as well as provide a name for this deserving dish.

Corn, Edamame, and Avocado Salad

2012-01-11T21:49:00.000-05:00

How is everyone's new year's resolutions going? I was never really a new year's resolution type of person but this year I did make a few. I won't share them all with you today but I can tell you that it does involve kicking the sugar addiction I built up over the Holidays. Piece of cake.... (irony?)

Over the Christmas break I did a lot of 'spring cleaning' and organizing, which included my recipes. I finally think I have found a good system to organize recipes that I want to make in the future, or that I have made in the past. I mostly use evernote for this, and then excel for recipes that I find in magazines. By the way, if you are not using evernote, you are doing yourself a big disservice. It is one of the greatest apps ever created. Bold statement. Anyway, when I entered the 800th recipe into evernote I realized I had a bit of a problem, and was biting off more than I could chew, or collecting more recipes that I could possibly make in the near future. So, I decided to make a bunch of new recipes in the new year and start knocking some off the list.

I don't usually follow recipes to the tee all that much, more so use them for inspiration. I have been lacking in inspiration of my own and I think trying some new recipes would be the perfect medicine. One of the first that I made was from a summer issue of Inspired, a magazine created by Sobeys. It was for an avocado and corn salad. The ingredients aren't exactly in season, but was a refreshing change for this time of year. I made a few changes from the original recipe which suited my taste. Here is what resulted:

Corn, Edamame, and Avocado Salad adapted from Inspired
Serves 6-8

4.5 cups frozen corn
2 cups edamame beans
1 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup salsa verde
4 limes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1.5 avocado, diced

1. Toss corn, beans, avocado and onion.
2. Whisk together salsa verde, juice of the limes, salt, and red pepper flakes.
3. Pour over corn mixture and toss to coat.

I have been making this salad for the past couple weeks for lunches. Since I don't want the avocado to brown over the 3 days the salad is in the fridge, I add in the diced avocado in the morning when making my lunch. This salad has quite a bite to it and the aroma is sure to wake you up with all that citrus. A great way to start the new year off right...and keeping it that way.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

2012-01-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

Before I get into my favourite chili recipe at the moment, I have to post a link to the recipe for the gingerbread pumpkin cake with caramel sauce from Canadian Living that I made for Christmas. You will thank me if you get around to making it. Or Canadian Living...but you will thank someone

Now, onto the healthy food. I have made this chill recipe a few times now and I really enjoy it. It has quite a bit of heat but that is easily controlled by not adding as much chipotle pepper.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili adapted from Cheese and Chocolate
Serves 8

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion
6 garlic cloves
3 tbsp chili powder
3 tsp coriander
2 cans crushed or diced tomatoes
2 cans black beans
3 chipotle pepers in adobo sauce, chopped finely
3 cups water
2 tsp oregano
2 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add garlic and heat for 2 minutes. Add chill powder and coriander and heat for 1 minute.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for about 1 hour, or until sweet potato is cooked well and the consistency of the sauce is as desired. Water can be added if the sauce becomes too thick.

I recently served the chill with a mexican green rice which turned out very well. It also goes well with goat cheese, or a nice piece of crusty bread. Enjoy!

Happy New Year and Gingerbread Biscotti

2012-01-03T23:10:00.000-05:00

Happy new year everyone! I cannot believe the Holidays are over! I will be sad to see the Christmas decorations come down, but I am ready to get back into the normal swing of things. I took my last day of Christmas Holidays (Jan 2nd) to relax, do some cooking, and get organized to start the year off right.

I made some nutrient rich vegetable broth with a bunch of veggie scraps I had in the freezer. It never ceases to amaze me how scraps that were headed for the compost can end up creating something so great!

All I did was fill the biggest pot I have, half way with veggie scraps and then add 3 garlic cloves, 2 bay leafs, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp rosemary, 2 tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper. Then I fill it almost to the top with cold water, bring to a boil, and then simmer uncovered for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until the broth has good colour. This batch yielded about 18-20 cups of broth which will mostly be frozen to be later used in soups and stews.

I also made some crackers, which is something I have wanted to do for a while. They turned out rather nice considering I had low expectations.

Now I know it is the new year now and the sweets are being left behind while we all make new years resolutions to eat better, but I have to share some of the Holiday recipes that I last posted about. Save the recipe for next Christmas, you will thank me for it. I will be sharing the recipe for gingerbread biscotti today as I know there are many people who would like their hands on the recipe.

Gingerbread Biscotti slightly adapted from Annie's Eats

Makes 2 dozen

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cup loosely packed dark brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 bag white chocolate chips

1/4 cup molasses

2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix dry ingredients together, including the chocolate chips. I used a stand mixer on low.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and molasses together. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients while stirring. Mix until just combined.

4. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, form two logs which have a few inches between them so they do not expand into each other. Bake for 30 to 32 minutes.

5. Allow logs to cool for 10 minutes before slicing diagonally with a serrated knife. Cut pieces about 1.5 inches wide. Be careful at this step as the logs crumble relatively easily.

6. Arrange the biscotti on their sides on the baking sheet (another baking sheet will most likely be needed) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the side of the biscotti on the pan has browned a bit. Flip and bake for another 5 minutes. The biscotti will continue to harden so do not over cook. If they are too hard, simply dip into coffee or tea before eating :)

After baking the logs

After the third bake

These biscotti are seriously addictive and it is hard to resist popping all the crumbly bits in your mouth as you slice the log. The white chocolate chips give a nice touch, which was not in the original recipe. The original recipe calls for cinnamon chips which I have not been able to find. I am glad the white chocolate chips came to save the day.

Good luck with all your new years resolutions! I will try not to tempt you for much longer with Holiday sweets.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2011-12-27T14:54:00.000-05:00

It has been quite a while since my last post. The weeks leading to Christmas I wasn't doing a whole lot of cooking and didn't feel inspired by very many recipes. However, as Christmas drew closer things became quite hectic and while I was cooking/baking up a storm I did not have the time to write this post. It has been in my head for at least 4 days. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I have a ton of Holiday pictures to share. There will not be a recipe today but hope to share lots of the recipes in the upcoming weeks that I made over the Holidays.

The Holiday season was kicked off by a cookie swap with the gals at school. It was quite successful and I came away with lots of delicious goodies.

For the cookie swap I made gingerbread biscotti. They were a big hit with my family, so I made extra to have around the house. After a family Christmas party, they were all gone! I made another batch to take to my boyfriends house, and for my Mom to give to her friends. I think I made about 8 dozen in total in the lat month. I have a feeling these will be made next year as well.

Every Christmas my close friends from high school get together for Christmas dinner. This was the 5th year in a row we have had this event. A while ago I saw a pin on pinterest for 'lumps of coal'. I immediately knew I wanted to make this for my friends at the dinner. They weren't the tastiest rice crispy squares I have ever had but they were a cute idea.

This year we decided to make sushi together! Everyone but myself had made sushi before so I was the newbie for once. It was absolutely amazing and was also a lot of fun. I enjoyed making sushi so much that I also made it with my family on my birthday 3 days later. Every year there is at least one person not able to make the dinner because they are off on another part of the world. This year Dani was in New Zealand and not able to come home for Christmas. She was there in spirit!

Christmas Eve in my family is a low key affair which usually includes dinner at home, church, and watching a classic Christmas movie. This year I wanted to have a part in preparing dinner. Alongside my Dad's scallops and calamari, I made three veggie dishes so I had a nice variety. They all turned out fantastic.

Balsamic Glaxes Butternut Squash

Spaghetti Squash and Peas with Parmesan

Caramelized Brussel Sprouts

Roasted Potatoes with dill

And of coarse there was dessert. I made pumpkin gingerbread cake with caramel sauce. It was absolutely delicious. I hope to share all the recipes soon.

On Christmas Eve I also baked a loaf of bread, so needless to say I was busy. But with some Christmas music on I was loving it. I baked bread because I was making baked pumpkin overnight french toast. This was my first time making baked french toast and was fantastic. Perfect for Christmas morning.

Last but not least I wanted to share some books a received as gifts. Miraculously, I managed to not make any purchases at Chapters like last year. I am really looking forward to reading Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, as I have been making the same bread recipe for a year now and am looking for some diversity. Plate to Pixel is a food photography book I have heard great things about. Hopefully the information will translate into better photography on the blog, because I definitely have a lot of room to improve. And then there is Plenty. This book is all vegetarian recipes, and they look AMAZING. I flipped through the book already and cannot wait to try out a lot of the recipes. Many of them look just delicious and rich and flavourful. I feel like this book will be used a lot next Christmas.

I hope everyone had a great Holiday, I know I did. Stay tuned for some of the recipes that I mentioned in todays post!

Enchilada Lasagna

2011-12-01T18:32:00.000-05:00

I am really excited to be sharing this recipe with you today. I have seen the idea of an enchilada lasagna around for a while, and after making some homemade tortillas, I thought, why not try it out! The tortillas that I made were not the roundest and most even looking tortillas so I thought they would fare well in this recipe.

Tortillas are actually really easy to make and taste infinitely better than most of the grocery store varieties. Not to mention the short ingredient list. Flour. Oil. Milk. Baking Powder. Salt. That's it. No glycerides, no fumaric acid or a number of other presumably preservatives. I used this recipe from the Homesick Texan. I used half whole wheat flour and they seemed to turn out well. When you make these, don't forget to have one when it is still warm and fresh. You will not regret it.

This recipe from Perry's Plate was the inspiration for using the tortillas for an enchilada lasagna, instead of making just plain old enchiladas. The recipe is totally adaptable to your taste and preferences, but this is how I did it:

Enchilada Lasagna adapted from Perry's Plate and Simply Recipes
serves 4-6

Sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1 cup of salsa
1 can of crushed tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2-1 cup of water

Tortillas (I suggest you make these; I doubled the recipe)

1 tbsp olive oil
mushrooms
red peppers
corn
black beans
spinach
shredded cheddar cheese

1. Heat olive oil on medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until cooked. Add salsa, tomatoes, tomato paste and water. Add water to make the sauce according to your desired consistency. You don't want it too thick because it will thicken up even more in the oven, but too thin will result in soggy tortillas.
2. Reduce heat to low and keep warm while preparing the lasagna.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
4. I decided to do sautéed vegetables. In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add all vegetables except for the spinach and beans. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the black beans and stir to combine.
5. In a large greased baking dish, add a little bit of the sauce to the bottom and spread around. Place a layer of tortilla. Add 1/2 of vegetables, top with sauce and spinach. Place a layer of tortilla, add the rest of the vegetables, add sauce and spinach. Place the final layer of tortilla, add a little bit of sauce, and sprinkle some shredded cheddar on top.
6. Bake at 450 degrees F covered with foil for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

This is an amazing dish. It makes great leftovers, and is very easy to assemble. I cannot wait to make it again!

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread Pt 2

2011-11-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

Last May, I made my first yeast bread without the use of a bread machine. I semi-followed a recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. I made a flour substitution and I don't think I used the right molasses. It tasted delicious, but would not slice we'll. It was great for snacking and making french toast, but was not good for sandwiches. Last weekend I made the bread again for the first time in a while, following the recipe to the tee. It was oatmeal sandwich bread, and it was delicious. It cut fairly well, made good sandwiches, made good toast, and made good french toast.

With that success, I decided to get back on the wagon of baking all of my bread products again (at least for now). It may be time consuming, but it is always worth it. The weekend is the prime time to do this type of work. With rising and resting times it can seem like it will take forever, but it is a great activity for a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning. While my Sunday today wasn't that lazy, I still baked a loaf of bread. I found I went through the last loaf a little too quickly, so I decided to make the loaf smaller and make some other items with the dough. So, after the first rise I split the dough in half, baking the first half as a loaf, and the other half into 8 cute little buns.

After slicing the bread, I pop it in the freezer and it stays fresh for the week. I hope I can keep up this weekend 'ritual'. I would love to share the recipe for this bread, but there are a couple things holding me back. 1. I feel bad posting a recipe I have not altered one bit, which is found in print only, and 2. The written directions are far too long to type. One part moral, one part lazy.

Bread wasn't the only 'bread product' I made today. I'll give you a hint, it normally has a really long ingredient list, I have been wanting to make them forever, and I have even tried a chickpea flour variety. If you guessed wheat tortillas, you are right! They were amazing so stay tuned for the recipe!

Dutch Pancakes

2011-11-01T21:48:00.001-04:00

Breakfast is my favourite meal, yet I tend not to include too many breakfast recipes around here. It is most likely because unless it is the weekend, I don't have time to try a new recipe or take pictures of the finished product. Last weekend I managed to make something new. When I say something new, I mean that I had never made these before, but I have eaten them once, quite a while ago.

Last year we had an exchange student spend 8 months at our school. His name was Bas, and he was dutch. He always talked of these dutch pancakes. Finally he got the recipe from his family back home, and made them for my roommates one evening. It is a very basic pancake recipe which can be adorned with all type of toppings or fillings. I chose peanut butter of course.

They were dense and thinner than regular pancakes and I really enjoyed them. I asked for the recipe, and received this email from the Bas man:

Dutch Pancakes

--email quote begins--

- 500 gram (2,5 cups) of flour

- 750 ml Milk

- 4 eggs

- spoon of corn oil

Mix this together till the batter is smooth, and fry the pancakes in a frying pan with a little piece of butter (or you can use that stupid oil-spray if you like). Wait till the batter is allmost dried up, and than flip the pancake. Let the other side fry a little while and then the pancake is ready, keep it warm.

Pancake options:

- plain (serve syrup en powder sugar)

- apple (put slices of apple in the batter when it's wet)

- bacon ( cook slices of bacon and put them in the batter when it's wet)

- cheese (put them on 1 side of the pancake when the batter is almost dried up, then flip the other half over the cheese half)

- raisins/blueberries/other stuff like that

- spinach (only eaten by veggie-freaks. Highly unrecommended by Old Dutch Pancake Guru's, since it severely damages the taste of the pancake)

--email quote ends--

I know, the picture does nothing for those pancakes, but I hate leaving out a visual.

The last pancake option listed in the recipe was definitely a jab at my roommate Jenna's "veggie freakiness" where she added spinach to the cakes. Don't worry Bas, I would never add spinach to these.

However, I did add syrup on one, and peanut butter and banana on another. I think I would also try goat cheese next time.

While I have not posted much in the last month, I have actually come across some great recipes. I have been fairly busy, but I am hoping to be able to share them with you soon.

Is it too soon for me to say: 2 months until Christmas!

Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Stew

2011-10-18T22:21:00.000-04:00

How is everyone enjoying the fall weather? It has been a tad rainy, but I like the cool winds. It make me really want to be a home body. Last Friday after school and a trip to Costco with my Mom, I changed into some pyjamas, opened up my laptop, put on some jazz music, and just cooked. I was in no rush and I thoroughly enjoyed the time in the kitchen

That evening I cooked two dishes from Oh She Glows. The first, I won't even mention because it was so horrendous. I am sorry OSG but I have actually found a recipe of yours that I didn't love. I will never mention it again from here on out. The second recipe was a major winner, and thank goodness because I needed something to eat for dinner. I have actually followed this recipe twice tweaking it a bit the second time. It was not quite as good. I will share the recipe for how I would make it the next time, with some notes on possible modifications.

Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Stew from Oh She Glows

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp curry powder
1L vegetable broth (It is important to use good quality broth - I use Imagine organic or homemade)
1 cup red lentils (you can use green lentils but they need more time and more liquid to cook - do not get as mushy)
3 cups cooked butternut squash* (I also tried with acorn, which wasn't as silky and sweet as the butternut)
1 cup finely chopped kale (1/2 cup frozen spinach also does the trick)

1. Add olive oil to pan and put onto medium heat. Add onion and garlic.
2. Sautee for 3-5 minutes until fragrant. Add curry powder, cooking until onions are soft.
3. Add broth and (rinsed) lentils. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat to a simmer.
4. After simmering for 10 minutes, add butternut squash and kale. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes to desired consistency.
5. Serve in a large bowl with some good crusty bread.

Note: I tried adding the ginger, which was in the original recipe, in the second batch and I much preferred the stew without it. But your taste might be different.

*To cook butternut squash, place on pan face down and roast at 425 degrees F for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of your squash. Scoop out the insides to use for the recipe.

This was such a great meal for a cold and rainy Friday evening. I love when I can find that 'comfort food' feel in something that is this healthy. This recipe will definitely be made over and over again this season as it is really quick if you have some butternut squash pre-cooked. It is also a good reason to stock the freezer with some cooked squash.

This weekend I also took advantage of a dry (but very windy) morning, to cut some herbs from the garden to dry. I picked oregano, rosemary, and lemon balm (as seen in picture). There wasn't much oregano since the lemon balm kind of took over, but there was lots of rosemary (my favourite). I will hang these to dry so that I can have garden herbs throughout the winter!

Has anyone else come across a great healthy comfort food recipe lately?

Pumpkin Muffins

2011-10-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a really busy thanksgiving weekend, but it was great! I really geared up for Thanksgiving this year. I was very much in the mood for it and was loving the cooler weather. Although it wasn't a nice cool fall weekend, it was still beautiful. I managed to spend some time outside and catch the changing colours of all the greenery in Hamilton.

Last weekend (before thanksgiving) I purchased a can of pumpkin puree. Pumpkin puree comes in an unneccessarily large can. I have to make diligent plans as to what I am going to make with it once the can is open. Last week I made pumpkin muffins, pumpkin granola, pumpkin oats, and more pumpkin muffins. All with one can of pumpkin. By far, the pumpkin muffins were the best of the three, and were quite the hit at my family's thanksgiving dinner (especially with my Mom).

Pumpkin Muffins very slightly adapted from Ellie Krieger on the Food Network

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oat flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup of *not packed* brown sugar
3 tbsp unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, molasses, oil, and 1 egg until combined.
4. Whisk in the 2nd egg.
5. Whisk in pumpkin and vanilla.
6. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 2 batches, alternating with the milk. (order of addition: dry, milk, dry milk)
7. Spoon into the muffin pan. Bake for 20-23 minutes.

These muffins are devine. They have the right amount of spice, softness, and sweetness. I think next time I could even cut down the sugar to 1/2 cup. I wanted to make a note about the flour, since I deviated from the original recipe. I used oat flour instead of whole-grain pastry flour, simply because that is all I had on hand. These leads me to believe you could get away with a few different flour combinations, maybe substituting all the all purpose for whole wheat, pairing with some oat flour. I will definitely be experimenting in the future.

Now, I am not the biggest pumpkin fan in the world, but these were my favourite use for pumpkin so far this season. I am sure I will go through another can or two before the season is over, and hopefully I find another winner like this one.

Chili Cornbread Casserole

2011-10-06T21:42:00.000-04:00

It is that time of year. The temperature is dropping, the leaves are turning, and I start listening to music I deem appropriate for fall. I also get kinda giddy sometimes and enjoy doing work on the couch rather than at my desk. Fall has arrived officially in my mind. A slow wonderful process to winter! This new season also makes me want to make classic comfort food. I want root vegetables, hearty greens, dense breads, all of which are consumed warm.

I also want one pot dishes. One of my favourites is chili. My Mom decided to make chili on Sunday so I immediately knew how I wanted to modify it. Just before she added the ground beef. I scooped up some chili to make this Cheddar Chili Cornbread Pasta Bake from How Sweet It Is. It first caught my eye on edible perspective and I knew I would make it one day. That day was Sunday. It is a really simple recipe that was perfect for my first comfort food dish of the season.

1. Grease a casserole dish.
2. Add pasta.
3. Add chili.
4. Add cheddar.
5. Top with corn bread batter.
6. Bake according to cornbread directions. Some time will have to be added to the baking time.

I would definitely make this dish again. But next time I would make some changes.

1. Less pasta, a lot less pasta. I found after baking it was too pasta heavy when really I wanted more chili.
2. More chili, with more liquid. Adding to the note above, more liquid in the chili would have made a more saucy consistency.
3. Add only 1/2 of corn bread batter. I added a bit more and it was just too much.
4. Add less jalapeno to the cornbread, if at all. I found that it was just too spicy, and was too much with the spice I added to the chili. I only added 2 jalapenos even though it called for 3!

Other than those changes, it was a great dish which is perfect for this time of year. You can expect more recipes of this type in the coming weeks.

To all you Ontarians out there, I hope you voted today!

Collard Green Chips

2011-09-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be honest, this post barely contains a recipe. But, it does contain an idea. An idea that you should embrace, attempt, and then explore.

If anyone has trouble getting enough leafy greens in a day, this idea is for you.

If anyone has kids that wont touch a vegetable, this idea is for you.

If anyone gets a hankerin' for salty chips on a weekly basis, this idea is for you.

Embrace...

This idea is not new. In fact, a whole year ago I posted about it. It wasn't new then either. The idea is baking hardy leafy greens in the oven until you get chips. This time the star of the show was some collard greens. I have to admit that I had never purchased this leafy green before. However, when I saw the large bunch at the store, I knew what I wanted it for.

Attempt...

Collard Green Chips

1 large bunch of collard greens

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp chili powder

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

2. Remove tough inner stem of the leaves.

3. Break leaves up into smaller pieces.

4. Toss leaves in olive oil, until evenly coated, 'rubbing' the oil into the leaves.

5. Add garlic powder and chili powder and mix until evenly coated.

6. Place leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet. (note: do not layer the leaves or they will not cook consistently)

7. Baked in 425 degree F oven for ~10 minutes, turning halfway through, until crispy.

I apologize for the iPhone quality picture, but I was too busy eating a whole bunch of collard greens to get my actual camera out. That is right, I ate a whole bunch of collard greens. I wasn't kidding when i said this is a great way to get your leafy greens in.

Explore...

The best part is that you can season these however you like. I can imagine using a splash of balsamic, dill, cumin, curry powder (not all together of course), or whatever your heart desires! There is a lot of room for experimenting here. Just be sure to lay off the salt (I usually don't add any). The dehydrated greens actually taste a bit salty naturally!

Not only can you experiment with different seasonings, but you can also experiment with different greens, or other vegetables for that matter! I have only attempted kale and collard, but swiss chard, beets, sweet potatoes, carrots or turnip would also work (adjust oven temps and times accordingly). Fall is the perfect time to experiment because the hearty greens and root vegetables are definitely in season.

I would love to hear about any vegetable/seasoning combinations that turn out to be winners!

Homemade Beet Pasta with Zucchini and Goat Cheese

2011-09-19T22:30:00.000-04:00

I finally did it! I finally made homemade pasta! This has been something I have wanted to do for over a year, and finally I made an attempt at it! Now, it might seem like all I do now is eat and make Italian food since I got back from Italy. I swear, that is not the case. I still have been making overnight oats, lentil stews, and salads galore. However, as I was looking at some of my evernote recipes, I came across this beet pasta by bell' alimento. Bell' alimento is filled with Italian recipes, so I suggest you take a look around the site. Anyway, this caught my attention because not only was the pasta beautiful, but we had some beets from the garden that were ready to be pulled. Perfect timing.

Homemade pasta is incredibly simple to make, especially when you have a kitchen aid mixer. I am lucky enough to have access to one right now so making the dough was a breeze. I followed the recipe from bell' alimento almost exactly, so you can reference from there. However, I did substitute some kamut flour (1 cup) for some of the all purpose. I also had to add some more water, which may be due to the flour substitution. It also might be because my beet puree was not as fine as it should have been. I recommend you really pulverize those beets.

Addition of the Beet Puree

Mixing in the Beet Puree

While i did have a kitchen aid to make the dough, I do not have any utilities to actually make the pasta itself. This means that I was working hard rolling out the dough as thin as I could, and then using a pizza cutter to make my pasta. Let's just say it was rustic.

Wearing a pane (bread) apron my Nonna brought my Mom from Italy

Since I was making this for dinner and it was already 6:30 when I started, I made the pasta in batches. The first batch was for dinner that night. It was a little thick.

The First Batch Drying

This made it difficult to cook and the pasta was very large. It really didn't matter though. Because it was homemade it didn't feel too chewy, and was still delicious. It was a little disappointing though when the vibrant red colour turned pale pink upon boiling, and the water took up most of the colour. It still look pretty against that green zucchini and the goat cheese. It was such a beautiful dinner.

Homemade Beet Pasta with Zucchini and Goat Cheese

1 serving of homemade beet pasta
1/2 medium zucchini, sliced thinly and in half
2 garlic cloves finely minced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 serving of goat cheese

1. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil on medium heat until pan is hot.
2. Add garlic and sautee for a few minutes until fragrant.
3. Add zucchini and heat until cooked through.
4. Drain pasta and add to the pan, tossing to combine.
5. Add goat cheese in crumbled and toss to combine.

How pretty is it! It isn't only pretty but it tasted good too. Such a good dinner that was worth the effort! Next time it won't be so effort filled though. After dinner I took the rest of the dough out of the fridge and rolled it out, thinner than I had before. I also cut this one into lots of different shapes. This was really one big experiment.

I made some lasagna noodles, linguini, and farfalle. I allowed them to dry overnight between two tea towels. the lasagna noodles needed some extra time, but in the morning I bagged up the pasta in ziploc bags and stuck them in the freezer. We will see how the recipe handles it.

I am really excited to try out some more pasta recipes since it isn't all that hard. I think I might put a pasta roller/maker on my Christmas list though.

Trofie con le Acciughe

2011-09-11T22:39:00.000-04:00

This post is coming later than I would have liked but it has been a busy week. I think I am FINALLY settled back in, living with my parents. Shortly after my return from Italy I really wanted to recreate a pasta dish I had in Venice, at a restaurant called Osteria alla Botte. It was linguinie with anchovies, and was amazing. The sauce was very "harsh" just like the waiter said, but I loved it. Most people may not share this love, but I love anchovies. I enjoyed every bite of that dinner. I knew during my trip I would come across dishes I would want to recreate. This was a perfect contender. It was amazing, but simple. I was fairly certain the sauce contained olive oil, onions, and anchovies. That is it. I will never know if I am correct or not. After attempting to recreate this dish, I wouldn't be surprised if I was right. I added a little healthy flare to the dish but it was still delicious. Not quite as rich as the Venician variety but I was okay with that. The recipe is very vague as it was over a week ago and I didn't really measure anything when I was cooking. But, I did use these two items in the dish, both brought back from Cinque Terre.

Trofie con le Acciughe
serves 3

~3 tbsp olive oil (be generous)
1/3 cup onion chopped into ~2 cm pieces
anchovies (according to your taste, I added maybe 1/4 of the jar)
2 cups finely chopped Kale
spinach trofie pasta

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions. I used a bag of dried pasta I purchased in Cinque Terre. Any type of pasta would work here. I think linguini or rotini would be nice.
2. Head olive oil on medium and then add onions. Saute until about half cooked.
3. Add anchovies and stir while sauteing for ~5 minutes. Once the anchovies have disolved into the sauce that is forming, add the kale. Stir until kale is cooked and wilted.
4. Turn heat to low and add the pasta. Add enough so you reach the ratio of pasta to sauce you like.
5. Serve hot.

I absolutely loved this pasta dish, probably the best I have ever made. You definitely need to be generous with the oil, as I attempted making this sauce again with less, and it just wasn't as good. The oil helps the anchovies dissolve into the sauce and give it a nice even consistency (note that you can't see any anchovies in the picture). The sauce was also a little less 'anchovie-y' than the version I had in Italy. I could have gone for some more. My Dad said it was really good, and said to me afterwards, "I knew there was a reason we let you live here." Even my Mom who doesn't really care for anchovies liked it! There is a misconception that anchovies taste very fishy, but that is only if you pop a whole fillet in your mouth. When part of a dish such as this one, they really just add some salt and a unique flavour. You can add 1 or 10, and you will get more or less of that flavour. I encourage all of you anchovy haters out there who have never tried anchovies to give this recipe a shot, starting out with just one fillet. I have a feeling you will be adding more of them in no time. And if you are like me and love anchovies, you MUST try this recipe adding as many fillets as your heart desires.

Arrivederci Italia

2011-09-01T16:16:00.000-04:00

Did you miss me? I have definitely missed writing the blog. I haven't cooked in 3 weeks and I am excited to get back in the kitchen. I have been home for a few days now and am pretty much unpacked from the move back into my parent's house. I think by next week you can expect a new recipe or two.

To tide you over until then, I thought I would show you a few highlights from the trip. They are in no particular order. Blogger photo uploader drives me crazy.

This was my favourite photo from Venice. I really liked this area of Venice (Dorsoduro) as it was quiet and more quaint. There are also better restaurants outside of San Marco.

The three nights in Venice resulted in 1 really bad expensive dinner, 1 good dinner, and 1 dinner that was phenomenal and worth mentioning. It was at this very small restaurant near the rialto bridge. It was fairly hard to find but well worth it. It is also important to make a reservation or you will not get a table. At this restaurant I had linguini with anchovies and it was the most memorable restaurant meal for me in Italy. Expect a recipe soon, if I succeed at recreating it that is..

In case you were thinking it, yes I ate meat and seafood in Italy. My desire to sample authentic food trumped by desire to eliminate my meat consumption. I am very glad I did as I did not have to turn down food made for me by my family, and I was able to try some really delicious food. The vegetarian options on menus are few and far between. I am also glad I decided to eat seafood because in Cinque Terre, I had the best seafood I had ever had. Our first night there we went to Ciak. We were very hungry from travelling from Venice and this was the first place we saw. It looked busy and the food looked delicious. We ordered a seafood risotto. It came in this big ceramic pot which is cooked from a flame from below. It was absolutely amazing, and comes in a close 2nd for my favourite restaurant meal during the trip. The chef can be seen every day hanging out outside the restaurant, and preparing food for the evenings dinner. A window from the street looks directly into the kitchen and dining room, which draws many curious people to stop and take a look. This restaurant is a bit pricey but is worth it at least once if you are spending time in Monterosso Cinque Terre. They also do not carry any house wine and the bottles are expensive. Skip the wine and save room for the sea food. Check out their website for information and their history.

I would like to point out that the seafood risotto and the pasta with anchovies were my favourite restaurant meals in Italy. I say this because for the first 4 days I was staying with my Grandfather's sister and her husband in Pescara, and she made us many fantastic home made meals. Upon our arrival she has fresh homemade pasta made with eggs from these chickens you see here. It was amazing pasta with such fresh homemade sauce. We also were able to sample the freshness of the eggs by simply having fried eggs one night for dinner. This may sound crazy to some, but they were the best eggs I have ever had. I had never had a fresher egg. The yolk was so much creamier and delicious. It might be due to their rather unconventional diet (keep reading). We got to visit the chickens one day in the small town where my Grandfather was born. The house is now under the care of my Great Aunt and Uncle. They have fixed up the house and they maintain a large garden and chicken coop. The chickens get fed whatever food is laying around. While we were there, they feasted on some pasta with tomato sauce, and the watermelon (pictured below). After deciding the watermelon was not fit for human consumption, it was subsequently dropped off the kitchen balcony into the chicken coop (one story below) by my Aunt, resulting in a splatter of watermelon, happy chickens, and a quiet laugh from my Aunt. I will miss my Zia Cesira until my next trip to Italy.

Also during our visit to the house, I walked around the garden with my Nonna and Aunt picking any ripe vegetables and admiring what was to come. I had my camera with me and my Nonna made me take a picture of these tomatoes. I am glad she did.

This is my Zio Nunzio taking care of the garden. He takes a 45 minute drive every day to care for the garden and the house. His hard work sure pays off!

Now this isn't food related but it was my favourite sight in Rome. I didn't manage to get a good picture of the Trevi Fountain, but the sight blew me away. I guess I didn't realize the size the fountain would be. When the slender street leading to the fountain opened up into the Piazza, I was surprised. The fountain was large, dynamic, and vibrant and I knew immediately that I loved it. It was very busy so it was hard to soak it in, but I could have sat by the the fountain for hours.

Oh the gelato. I had gelato almost every day in Italy. It is almost neccessary. It makes a perfect afternoon snack to tide you over until dinner which is always late, and cools you off from the afternoon heat. I usually got a 'piccoli' size cup and sometimes in a cone, but this particular day where this photo was from I was feeling a bit more adventurous. It was actually my favourite gelato of the trip. The flavour you see is stracciatella which is just a milk gelato with chocolate pieces. It was my go-to flavour. What you don't see is a venetian cream stracciatella below the regular straciatella. This flavour was to die for. Most likely due to added cream or vanilla. It was more rich than the other flavours I had tried and was a welcomed change. In case you are wondering, yes, I am currently in gelato withdrawal.

In both Rome and Venice, we tried to visit a market to get some fresh fruit to have for snacks. This photo is from the Rialto market in Venice. It was a Sunday so there wasn't too much at the market but I thought these peperoncinni were beautiful. We went home with nectarines, bananas, plums, figs, zucchini and tomatoes. Since Venice was rather expensive to eat out in comparison to Rome, we decided to make our own lunches as well as breakfasts during our stay (we stayed in an apartment with a kitchen). After purchasing some fresh buns, mozzarella, and prosciutto we had all we needed.

This is a photo of a portion of the Pons Aemilius bridge over the Tiber river which flows through Rome. It is right alongside a much newer bridge, Ponte Palatino. This bridge portion is now called Ponte Rotto and is the oldest bridge in Rome. It was build in the second century BC. It is amazing that even this portion has withstood the last 2000+ years.

In Rome we stayed right in Campo dei Fiori. It was a great location to stay as it is central to most attractions in Rome. Here we are enjoying a cafe latte at one of the restaurants overlooking the market at work. My Nonna lived in Campo dei Fiori in her teenage years and it was great to hear about her memories of this market. The market has shifted over the last 50 years. It used to be a spot for fresh fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, eggs etc. Now it is mostly fruit/veggies and some specialty foods mostly geared to tourists. Regardless, it still has some charm. There is also a great deli along the border of the market where we used to get sandwiches for breakfast.

Well, I hope you enjoyed those few photos and a small sample of my experience during my trip. Like I said, I hope to share a recipe soon. I purchased some food items in Cinque Terre and I hope to use them to recreate some of the dishes I had in Italy.

Cinnamon Spiked Chickpea Flour Breakfast Bars

2011-08-11T07:19:00.001-04:00

This recipe is the result of a friend looking out for me. My Housemate and good friend Jenna, knew I was on the hunt for a delicious use for my chickpea flour. While I have had one success, it has been mostly failures. On Sunday, she sent me a link to a recipe on the Edible Perspective. It was for a gluten-free "bread." I knew immediately I wanted to make it and made it later on that day.

I made minor tweaks mostly due to what I had on hand. The original recipe was gluten-free, but with my wheat bran addition these are no longer gluten-free. The texture resonated with me as more of a "bar" so that is what I am calling it.

Cinnamon Spiked Chickpea Flour Breakfast Bars slightly adapted from the Edible Perspective

3/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp olive oil
1/6 cup chopped dates
1/6 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup wheat bran
1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine all ingredients in order and stir to combine.
3. Pour into a well greased 9x9 pan
4. Bake for 35-45 minutes until crackers and browned on the edges.

These seemed a bit more crumbly than those from the Edible Perspective, but I'm sure it has to do with the bran addition, or the olive oil substitution for coconut oil. I have to get my hands on some of that stuff.

I was a bit hesitant to replace the buckwheat flour (which I didn't have) with more chickpea flour as I thought I would find the chickpea flavour overbearing. I also wanted to make sure it was sweet enough for me based on my past experiences with chickpea flour. That is why I made sure to replace the dried fruit I didn't have with some chocolate chips. On my first bite I wasn't too sure but it really grew on me. It is great with peanut butter on top, and made a great quick breakfast for this busy week. Also, do not be shy with the cinnamon! I am happy to report, that with this recipe, I polished off 2 mason jars of pantry items! Again, it felt like checking off items on a to do list.

This will be my last post before I head off to Italy. I will not be blogging during my trip. Upon my return I will be finishing my move back into my parent's house, but hopefully I will be able to bring you a new post with a new recipe shortly after my return. While I won't be blogging, I will be tweeting, so you can follow me @foodforfuel to keep up to date!

See you in September! (wow, already?!?)

Steel Cut Oats with Dates

2011-08-08T21:16:00.000-04:00

Those of you who follow me on twitter, or who follow me in real life, a.k.a. real-life friends/family, know this is a big week! I am working on my research study for my thesis (will be half done data collection after this week), am moving home for a year (I haven't lived at home for more than a few months in 6 years), and am heading to Italy on Friday (I have never been across the ocean). I have been preparing for a while. Slowly moving some things home, packing here and there, planning for the trip, etc. etc. I have also been trying to reduce some of my pantry and freezer stocks. This has caused me to be a bit more creative as well as reduce my grocery lists. I have also had some help from my parent's garden for supplying me with fresh veggies.

While this week is all about quick breakfasts since I need to be at school by 6 am most days, I had some leisurely mornings last week. This allowed me to cook up the rest of the steel cut oats I had laying around. I also managed to use up a few dates in the process.

Steel Cut Oats with Dates

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup steel cut oats
4 small dates, chopped

1. Bring water to a boil. Add oats and stir.
2. Bring back to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
3. When the oats are 1/2 done (5-8 min) add the dates and stir in.
4. Continue to simmer until desired consistency is reached.

These oats were the perfect sweetness for me. I rarely sweeten my hot oats, and usually just top it with a dollop of peanut butter, so this was a treat! It was the perfect amount of sweetness as it was subtle and throughout the oats, due to cooking the oats with the dates. Even with the dates, I still topped it with some peanut butter. It's my favourite.

I made this a couple times and in this picture I used steel cut with some rolled oats since I didn't have enough of each. I finished off two canisters on this breakfast. To me, emptying canisters feels like checking off an item on a to do list. Call me crazy!

I will have at least one more recipe before the end of the week. Todays post is about leisurely breakfasts, but the next one will be a breakfast recipe for those rushed mornings. Stay tuned!

Tomato, Walnut and Basil Sauce on Raw Zucchini Pasta

2011-08-01T21:44:00.001-04:00

The garden is booming! My parent's garden that is. My little planters on my patio have yielded 0 fruit, and it will stay that way unfortunately. There was a lonely little pepper growing a few days ago, but it looks like the neighbourhood animals beat me to it. Oh well, it was worth a try. At least I have access to my parent's and grandparent's garden this time of year. Every weekend I have been coming home with lettuce, kale, swiss chard, and radishes. Yesterday, I came home with the first of the tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, green pepper and chili pepper.

I wanted to make a dish that was light, raw, and would really highlight the freshness of the veggies. I have made raw zucchini pasta in the past, but wasn't a huge fan. Since I don't have a mandoline, the zucchini was irregular shaped and not as thin as it should have been. I also didn't have the right kind of sauce for it. With the though of gazpacho in mind I remembered this recipe, which is where I originally saw 'raw pasta'. I made a few changes and it turned out wonderful. Extremely flavourful and perfect for these hot summer days we have been having.

Tomato, Walnut and Basil Sauce on Raw Zucchini Pasta adapted from Mis Pensamientos

1/2 cup walnuts
1 handful of basil
1/2 tsp parsley
1/4 large onion
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 zucchini

1. Add walnuts to food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
2. Add basil, parsley, onion, lemon, olive oil and garlic. Process until a pesto forms, scraping down the sides as neccesary.
3. Add tomatoes and pulse until combined (I only pulsed 3 times). Drain any excess liquid.
4. Use a mandoline to thinly peel the zucchini, or use a peeler to make the 'zucchini pasta'. Top with the pesto sauce.

After taking a look at this photo I realized the sauce doesn't look too appetizing, but I can assure you it tastes wonderful. I almost added some chili peppers but I am glad I didn't because it already has quite the bite from the basil and garlic. I also would have topped this with some goat cheese if I had some on hand. that bowl is 1 small zucchini and about 1/3 of the sauce. I think the leftover sauce would be wonderful in a cold pasta or quinoa salad.

**Update: Zucchini pasta is not for everyone. I really don't find raw zucchini all that appetizing, I much prefer it cooked. Maybe I would like it better if I had a spiralizer? As I was eating this for lunch I really wished I had real pasta, or cooked zucchini at least. Maybe some cheese would have made it better. Anyway, definitely give zucchini pasta a try at least once, but if it isn't your thing, I don't blame you, but don't forget about the tomato, walnut and basil sauce...it goes nicely with lots of other things.

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. Mine was low key and fairly relaxing. I spent some time with my family and made more preparations for moving into my parent's house, and for my trip to Italy. It is becoming more of a reality that I will be moving out of my current house and leaving my awesome housemates :(

I will leave you with a picture I took today of Tew's Falls in Hamilton.

Kale and Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

2011-07-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

How is everyone handling the heat? I am handling it okay, but only because of the decision to finally turn the air conditioner on in our house. I am unsure if it has turned off since the heat wave began. That should be fun when the bill comes around! With all the heat, it is hard to get motivated to cook. Yesterday I made the mistake of making tea (to ultimately chill it), kale chips, and veggie burgers. The kitchen was a HOT MESS! Literally though, I spilt tea everywhere at one point. Luckily, I had an amazing lunch which was nice and cold. A kale and pasta salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

The salad came together rather quietly. It was the result of a series of fortunate events.

1. First it was just a container of leftover pasta. Maybe I will eat it with some pesto? Maybe I will just eat it cold straight from the fridge if I get THAT hungry?

2. But, when I was making a salad for dinner Wednesday night I saw the kale I had from my parent's garden. "Let's just throw that in there!" I said. So I did.

3. As I was chopping up some cucumber (from my Grandfather's garden) for the dinner salad, I had some extra. "Let's just toss that in the leftover pasta container too."

4. Kale is best raw when it has been in some dressing at least a few hours. Well, I was already dressing a salad, "why don't I just pour some of it on the pasta too?"

5. In the morning, I threw in some orange tomatoes, some goat cheese, and called it a day. A great day that is...because of this salad of course.

Kale and Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

farfelle pasta, cooked (penne, Conchiglie or rotini would also work well)
kale
tomato
cucumber
zesty balsamic vinaigrette
crumbled coat cheese

1. Toss together (everything except goat cheese and tomato), the night before. Refrigerate overnight.
2. Add tomato, goat cheese, and serve.

When I opened up the container for lunch I was so excited, and also very hungry. It looked so beautiful and vibrant that I had to take the 10 second to take a picture with my phone. I think it captures the colour rather well! The salad was really good and very filling. Be sure to use whole wheat pasta to get the same effect ; )

By the way, you should really check out this link. Deciding what pastas would work well led me to that wikipedia page. So many pasta types! I think I better brush up on my Italian pasta vocabulary!

Overnight Oats with Cottage Cheese

2011-07-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

I have been back on an overnight oats kick lately. I hadn't had them in a while until a couple weeks ago. I rekindled my love for them inspired by this recipe by the Healthy Foodie. I made some changes, but it got me hooked again. I have also seen some recipes for overnight oats out there using cottage cheese. Before I left for the weekend I wanted to use up the last bit of cottage cheese I had in the fridge, so I thought, what better time to give it a try. I love cottage cheese but only recently (last few months) have enjoyed it in a sweet state. I used to only enjoy it on pasta, or salads, on its own, or maybe with some nuts. But now, I like it with sliced strawberries or nectarines. Yum.

I started out with my usual standard overnight oats recipe, and substituted 1/2 cup of the soy milk for almost 1/2 cup of 2% cottage cheese. I absolutely loved the modification. I was quite full so I think next time I would scale it down, but it sure did pack a protein punch, 27 grams to be exact. Woah.

Overnight Oats with Cottage Cheese

1/2 cup oats
1 tbsp ground flax (or chia seeds)
1 small banana, chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese

1. Chop banana into bottom of bowl.
2. Add oats and flax on top of banana.
3. Add soy milk and cottage cheese.
4. Mix, trying to keep the banana on the bottom (prevents browning).
5. Chill overnight (or for a few hours).

It was just the right about of cheesiness. It was a bit thick in the morning so I added a dash of milk until it was the consistency I like. I also added a little bit of almond butter (peanut butter would be good too). Like I said, I would probably scale it down to 1/3 cup oats next time because I was too full after eating it all.

Overnight oats are a great breakfast for the summer because they are quick, cold, and require no cooking. There is so much potential for this kind of breakfast. Let your imagination run wild!

....And then come back here and let me know what you come up with!

Chickpea and Kale Multigrain Pizza

2011-07-14T22:11:00.001-04:00

I have shared before how making pizza on the BBQ is awesome. It gets the crust nice and crusty, which sometimes doesn't happen in the oven. Plus, it is the summer and I'd rather cook outside on the BBQ than assist in making this house of mine any hotter. I have been wanting to make my own pizza dough for a while now, so I finally did. I made a batch of this recipe by Eat, Live, Run. The only change I made to Jenna's recipe was substituting a 12 grain flour instead of the whole wheat. This substitution made the dough a little more tough and it didn't rise quite as much, but it was still delicious.

I divided the dough after rising into 4 balls and put them in the freezer. Each one makes a small pizza which serves two. With the doughs I have made 3 different kinds of pizza. I brought along some dough to the cottage and made classic veggie pizzas with tomato sauce, cheese, peppers, and mushrooms. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

The next was a veggie heavy pizza. I topped it with some mozzarella, cooked spinach (previously frozen in nuggets), and tomato slices. It was actually REALLY good. I have never put spinach on my own pizza before, but I loved the mozzarella and spinach combination.

The next pizza I made without having quite as many ingredients on hand. I had some leftover sauce still, but that was about the only "normal" pizza topping I used. After the sauce I plopped on some cottage cheese, chickpeas, dukkah, and kale. I could have gone without the dukkah truthfully, but chickpeas and dukkah go hand in hand.

The first time I had kale on pizza was at Earth to Table Bread Bar on Locke St. in Hamilton. The pizza also had olives on it and it was a winning combination. The kale got really crispy, which was welcomed, but was lacking some moisture. I think the oven method would have gotten the desired effect in this case. Either way, still a good pizza, and definitely not ordinary.

The fact that I have no more dough left makes me sad. I will probably make some more soon because it makes for a pretty quick dinner. Even with nothing else on hand, simply olive oil and spices is really all it takes to make a good pizza. I wonder how it will compare to the pizza in Italy? Probably won't come close but I can't wait to find out!

Banana Chocolate Chip Chickpea Flour Pancakes

2011-07-08T17:41:00.000-04:00

In about 5 weeks, I will have completed part of my research study for my Master's thesis, move out of my current house and into my parent's house, and depart for Italy for a 2 week trip with my Nonna and cousin. I am really excited for it all to happen, but I feel like a lot needs to happen in the next 5 weeks. One thing that needs to happen is that I need to use up a lot of my pantry and freezer items. This will not only make my move easier, but I will reduce the risk of wasting food and I will save some money. I am going to start making the conscious effort to use up what I have and attempt to make-due rather than taking those oh so tempting grocery trips.

What have I done in the past few days to accomplish this:

1. I made some granola. I made a version similar to the crunchy quinoa granola, but I added some oats and different nuts.
I have lots of yogurt in the fridge that needs to get eaten in the next week or two. Normally I add some fruit and I am good to go. However, I want to save some of those frozen berries for in the future when I may not have any fresh fruit available to me. Plain yogurt is a bit boring on it's own however so I made this high protein and fairly low sugar granola. It also used up lots of nuts that I had as well as some dried cranberries which I will not eat on their own.

2. Used up that big bag of frozen vegetable scraps.
For the past few months, I had been keeping some veggie scraps in a ziploc bag in the freezer. It had a little bit of everything. I kept aspargus ends, parsnip tops, carrot peelings, bruised zucchini, mushroom stems, and wilted celery. I had been doing this since I wrote t his post on wasting less food, but I have not kept everything. I figured it was about time to make the vegetable stock I was keeping these veggies for. Soup is literally the last thing I would want to be making this time of year, but it had to be done. I will write about making vegetable stock in the near future, and what I end up using it for.

3. Developed a yummy pancake recipe using chickpea flour.
Once my oats run out, pancakes are the next order of business for breakfast, which will also help with using up some flour. However, I'd like to save my wheat flour for baking bread, and I have a lot of chickpea flour to play with. I wanted to figure out a good recipe that is quick and also delicious. After first trying chickpea pancakes with blueberries, I knew I needed to up the sweet factor if I was going to enjoy them for breakfast. My first try was a great success and after one more tweak I have settled on the following recipe.

Banana Chocolate Chip Chickpea Flour Pancakes
serves 1

1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (I think the sweetened soy milk might be neccessary)
1 banana, chopped
1 tbsp dark chocolate chips - an extra tbsp doesn't hurt ;)

1. Whisk together the first three ingredients.
2. Slowly add the soy milk, whisking in to remove any clumps.
3. Stir in the banana and chocolate chips.
4. Heat a greased pan on medium heat, and add 1/4 of the batter to the pan (I like to cover the pan). Once the bubbles no longer close up, it is time to flip the pancake. After 2 minutes or so the pancake should be about done.
5. I eat them plain or with a bit of almond butter on top.

These pancakes are really good, especially the bites which have lots of banana and chocolate. I have a feeling the use of the chickpea flour is an acquired taste, and definitely needs to be sweetened to be used as a pancake flour. I have been having these for breakfast for the past few days and have really been enjoying them. It is a great way to use up my chickpea flour as well as some frozen bananas kicking around. If you don't like banana, adding a tbsp or two of coconut is also good.

Peanut Butter Banana Protein Smoothie

2011-07-05T21:18:00.001-04:00

Now does it feel like summer or what? I had another fantastic cottage weekend (2 in a row) this past long weekend. It is so nice to be by the water with friends, relaxing by the water, boating, canoeing, making s'mores, drinking some beer, and getting mosquito bites. Well, maybe the last part isn't so nice, but it comes along with all the pleasures of a cottaging weekend.

Cooking kind of takes a back burner in the summer I think, as making a fresh salad and not turning on the oven sounds like a better idea. The recipe I am going to share with you today is just what the summer calls for. It does not require cooking, could replace a hot breakfast, is cold, and tastes like a delicious milkshake. I have been delaying sharing this recipe because I don't have a picture of it, but a request for a smoothie came along and did not want to delay in sharing this amazing recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Protein Smoothie

1 cup soy milk
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1/2 medium banana
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp peanut butter

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.

This smoothie is actually amazing. It tastes so rich and the peanut flavour really comes through. I have yet to take a picture of this beauty, but it is a beige thick liquid with specks of flax throughout if not having a picture is throwing you off ;). A picture adds nothing to the story here.

In lieu of a picture of this plain looking smoothie, I am going to show you a picture ~~I took~~ of my meal two weekends ago when we went out for dinner in the Muskokas. ~~It is just an iPhone pic, but it will have to do. A friend of mine has a fantastic picture, but he is being a bit slow in sending it to me~~ ~~*hint hint*~~~~. This post just could not wait. I am sure I will update the post with the much better picture, that my talented friend Derek took~~ ~~(me sucking up a bit)~~~~, soon enough.~~ Updated picture from my friend Derek!

This was a beet risotto from the restaurant we went to somewhere in Muskoka. It was amazing. It was one of the few vegetarian dishes on the menu (unless they used chicken broth, but I don't think they did) and I ordered it out of curiosity. The risotto was creamy, sweet and had a touch of lemon, potentially just from the lemon zest. In the middle of the bowl was a thick slice of baked brie cheese, and pistachio pieces were sprinkles on top. The flavour combination was unreal. I hope to one day recreate this dish but I have a feeling it wont happen until the fall, as I could not bring myself to stand over a pot for an hour and a half in this heat. Instead, I think I will make a peanut butter banana smoothie.

Here are some other pictures of where I have been hanging out on the weekends:

Lake Joseph

Maple Lake

12 Grain English Muffins

2011-06-28T15:06:00.000-04:00

Today is exactly one year since I made my blog not by invitation only and opened it up to the world, beyond just my close family and friends. It was the greatest decision I ever made to just dive into the blog, really not having any idea where it would take me. This will be my 84th post since first begining on June 1st 2010. I honestly can't say whether I thought I would still be blogging about my food 'experiments' a year later, but I can tell you there is no end in sight. This blog affords me the opportunity to share my experiences in the kitchen (and sometimes in the garden). I hardly get in culinary ruts because I am constantly looking for something new to do in the kitchen and then share it with all of you. Thank you everyone for reading and thank you to all those who inspire me every day!

As I have shared before, I have been baking my own bread. It has been probably a month since I have purchased a pre-sliced bagged loaf of bread. While baking bread is slightly time and labour intensive, it is definitely worth it. While I have yet to bake a perfectly sliceable loaf, I have not given up. In the meantime, I wanted to try baking other bread products that I love. Up there on the list are english muffins. I had saved a few recipes that I had found online and finally had some time to make them today. They have a lot of rising time involved but are fairly easy to make.

I followed this recipe on A Full M easure of Happiness. I made a couple changes: I made regular sized muffins (it made 15 muffins), used 12 grain flour instead of whole wheat flour, used sucanat instead of sugar, used half the salt, and soy milk instead of cows milk. These modifications seemed to work okay.. The general procedure for making english muffins is to make the dough, let it rise, roll in out, shape some muffins, let it rise and then bake. I have also seen some recipes for doing them in the pan, but I think I will stick to the oven.

They turned out wonderful! They didn't have as many holes in them as the store bought ones, but they have a much better flavour.

I was surprised with how many muffins the recipe made and will be freezing most of them. I bet if I did a cost analysis on this they would be more inexpensive than the store bought variety. I will definitely be playing around with this recipe in the future, for cinnamon raisin, blueberry, and even cheese english muffins. I'd also like to try and get them a bit more fluffy, maybe with rolling them out thinner and letting them rise more. I tend to be a little impatient, especially when the dough becomes deliciously fragrant.

Garden Updates

2011-06-23T19:32:00.001-04:00

On Father's Day I went home and spent some time with my parents. About once a week I get to check out the garden and how it is doing, but this is the first time I had my camera with me so I took some pictures. With all the rain, most of the plants are growing like crazy! There have been a few flops, but also some pleasant surprises with some plants that didn't look like they were going to make it.

I think the rhubarb got a little damaged in one of the thunder/hail storms that we have had since planting. Hopefully it will regain it's strength and we will get some decent stalks come Fall.

Here is the basil, which has flourished quite a bit, and some newly planted rosemary. The first plant died from who knows what. I think you can actually see it's skeleton in the bottom left of the pot there.

Here is the bay leaf tree provided from my Nonna. I have never used fresh bay leaf before, but I have a feeling it is best used dried. We will probably dry the leaves at the end of the summer.

The kale is actually doing quite well. At first it looked like it was getting nibbled by some kind of bug and looked like we wouldn't get much of a leaf. It is looking better though and I look forward to some nice full kale bunches this summer!

This is some baby swiss chard coming up from some seeds we planted. Another newbie for me, so hopefully it turns out.

Here are some leeks planted by seed. Last year, our leeks (we planted seedlings) did not grow very much. It may have been their location near a cedar tree, but either way, we were not planning on planting them this year. However, we got a free pack of seeds in one of the other packages we bought. So, here they are. The fact that they have sprouted is promising to me. I guess even if the leeks don't get that big it is still okay and we will still enjoy them.

These are beets planted from seeds. It looks like someone has been nibbling on the greens. I hope they survive those cunning little rabbits.

The lettuce on the left was grown from seedlings and the other lettuce that is sprouting is from seed. A lot of lettuce has been lost to bunnies. I hope they leave some for the rest of us. The lettuce that was planted between the tomato plants has been untouched and is ready to be harvested. Maybe that is a good strategy to prevent rabbits from eating it?

The outside plants are cabbage plants which seem to be doing well. No sign of the cabbage yet, but soon it will emerge, and I will wonder how on earth I will be able to deal with so much cabbage. In the middle are some radishes. I was astonished with how well they have done (from seed!). Last year our radishes were a huge flop. So it was a pleasant surprise to see some nice big radishes under all those greens.

I picked a few of the bigger ones to add to our salad at dinner. They were so fresh and soft. It was nice to enjoy the first produce from our garden on Father's day. That along with some of my Grandfather's leaf lettuce.

These are all the pepper plants with some cherry tomatoes at the back. In this photo you can see the little irrigation system my Dad put in. All he has to do is plug in the hose, turn it on, and all the plants get some watering right on the soil, where it is needed. I like to think this saves some water.

Here is the pepper plants that I planted in a pot to bring to my own house and grow on my patio. It seems like one of the plants is not very happy. I think they are just planted to close together. Originally there was a third plant but one of the neighbourhood critters took it. I probably should have redistributed the plants, and I guess I still probably could.

These are the tomato plants. They are doing quite well and have been tied a couple times already.

It is hard to see the comparison in these pictures, but the plant in the pot on my patio is not quite as big. It may be as tall but the stalk is not as big, and there are not as many "branches." Normally we have to be concerned with removing the "suckers" (as my Dad calls them) from the branches to make sure that less energy is put into growing the plant, and more is put into growing the fruit. I have not had any suckers yet (the vegetable bed plants have), and I am not sure if that is predictive of anything or not. This plant will definitely not get as big as the others but I am sure I will get a few good tomatoes out of it. It will definitely be worth it. That is, unless some city dwelling animal steals them from me. Anyone have any tips on how to keep the animals away? I have considered wrapping the pot in chicken wire, a few feet high. A bit much for one tomato plant?

Lastly, here are the squashes, melons, zucchini, and in the back are the beans. The initial honeydew and watermelon did not survive, so some butternut squash and cantaloupe have been planted as a replacement. So far so good!

Last week my parent's went to my Nonna and Tatone's (Grandmother and Grandfather) house and the topic of this blog came up. My Aunt mentioned that I have been posting about the garden, and he suggested I put up some pictures of his garden! I have only been sent one picture from my Mom but here it is:

This is inside the greenhouse beside my Tatone's garden. It is heated throughout the winter with a wood stove and inside he grows seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, marigolds and other plants from seed, to get a head start on the growing season. The real reason for the greenhouse is this fig tree. When my Tatone emigrated from Italy, the one thing he missed the most was fresh figs. Importing of figs became more common shortly after his arrival to Canada, but the high price made it an occasional treat. So, he took matters into his own hands and built this greenhouse. When the weather is warm in the summer, the sides of the greenhouse is removed and exposed to the Niagara summer climate. In the winter, the house is closed back up and kept warm enough to survive through the winter. I have been spoiled to have access to such fresh figs and didn't really appreciate it until recently. I only started liking figs in the last couple years and now I can't get enough!

I look forward to when I own my own house and not only can grow my own garden, but also build my own greenhouse. I only hope that my future gardening ventures are half as successful as my Nonna's and Tatone's have been.

Zesty Balsamic Vinaigrette

2011-06-21T19:25:00.000-04:00

I think it is safe to say that summer is here. Not only is it the first day of summer but it is also the longest day of the year. The local produce is really starting to appear and cravings for raw or grilled veggies have come full force. I have probably mentioned this before but I have never been a store-bought salad dressing kind of girl. I grew up with oil and vinegar dressing on my salad, made directly into the salad bowl. I continued this trend for the last 5 years since I first lived on my own. That trend has come to an end however. No, I am not buying salad dressing now (although I do have an emergency bottle in the refrigerator), but I am making it ahead of time in my magic bullet, for use during the week.

My first attempt at this was a while back with a Basil Vinaigrette, and I was definitely won over. Since fresh vegetables have become more prominent, I have been tweaking a basic balsamic vinaigrette to get it just how I like it. I think I have finished the tweaking and am ready to share the recipe with you. This amount gets me through 4ish individual salads, as a little goes a long way. It is zesty, creamy, and perfect with cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, avocado and more.

Zesty Balsamic Vinaigrette

3 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1.5 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano

1. Combine ingredients into magic bullet or blender and pulse for about 20-30 seconds. Some intense whisking may also work if you don't have a magic bullet or something similar. I find the bullet works very well at emulsifying the ingredients.
2. Top your favourite veggie combination!

I have made countless salads with this dressing but this one pictured is leaf lettuce, roasted asparagus, roasted mushrooms, avocado and parmesan cheese. All pictures that I took of this salad had the Pabst Blue Ribbon in sight and it was therefore unavoidable to admit that I like that beer. I guess I need to work on my food staging.

Asparagus and Mushroom Quesadillas

2011-06-17T22:08:00.002-04:00

For the past while I have been baking my own bread. I have yet to perfect it however, and have not been able to slice any of my homemade bread into slices good enough for a sandwich, for example. The bread I have been baking is an oatmeal molasses bread from Good to the Grain. The bread is delicious, and I am perfectly fine eating a jagged chunk of bread (with peanut butter of course) until I perfect the kneading, rolling, rising, and folding process to make a perfect loaf of bread. This has inspired me to try and bake my own bread from now on though. I want to try making all of my favourite baked goods like bagels, english muffins, and tortillas. Since my last stint with making chickpea tortillas did not go so well, I was discouraged and purchased some tortillas at the market on the weekend. Tortillas are notorious for having the longest ingredient list of all, but these ones were the lesser of many evils.

I had many options for ways to use these tortillas. I opted to not go for my usual tortilla/pb/banana sandwich, which is my favourite combination ever, and made quesadillas. Believe it or not, I had never made this really easy meal before. I actually really like quesadillas, so I have no idea why I had not attempted this in the past. This isn't your typical quesadilla as I used ingredients I had on hand, but it was a winning combination.

Asparagus and Mushroom Quesadillas
Serves 2 (meal), or 4 (with a side)

8 white mushrooms, chopped finely
asparagus, chopped to 1-2 cm in length, enough that is about equal to that of the mushrooms in volume
1/2 cup pinto beans
2 green onion
4 tortillas
2/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 tsp hot sauce
salsa and sour cream to serve with

1. Sautee the mushrooms on a dry pan over medium heat.
2. Once they begin to soften, add the asparagus, and sauté until cooked. Remove from heat.
3. In the same pan, place tortilla on pan, add half of asparagus mushroom mixture, half the green onions, 1/4 cup pinto beans, half the hot sauce, and half the cheese.
4. Place second tortilla on top and press down to anneal the quesadilla. Heat until cheese is melting, and bottom tortilla is crispy. About 3-6 minutes.
5. Flip and cook for another few minutes until tortilla is crispy and all cheese is melted.
6. Repeat with the other half of the ingredients.

These were really good, especially with some good salsa and sour cream. I will definitely have to make quesadillas more often. I think I might wait until I land on a successful tortilla recipe. In the meantime, I am still plugging away in the kitchen finding a perfect recipe to use chickpea flour for. I almost found it yesterday. Let's hope it isn't too long before I can share something with you.

Sweet Potato Enchilada Grain-Free Pizza

2011-06-13T14:38:00.000-04:00

A while ago I made these enchiladas from Oh She Glows (without the cilantro avocado sauce). I brought them along to a Cinco de Mayo party, and then made them again a week later, substituting refried beans for the black beans, and adding some corn. It is a really fantastic recipe that I recommend you try. The second time I made them, I also attempted to make my own chickpea tortillas to use for the enchiladas. This turned out to be more of a chickpea crepe which I filled with the enchilada filling. Not quite an enchilada but still tasted good, in a different way.

I bought a huge bag of chickpea flour that was on sale after making the tortillas, as I saw a lot of potential in this high protein, gluten-free flour. My second venture with the chickpea flour was blueberry pancakes (omitting the sugar), which I was not a fan of. I think I will be sticking to the savoury flavours for chickpea flour. Next, I purposefully made chickpea crepes, which were delicious with avocado and scrambled eggs.

In order to escape the pancake/crepe rut I seemed to be in, I conducted a google search and found a recipe for Socca, similar to a pizza crust. Since I had enchilada filling in the freezer, I figured this would be a perfect topping for chickpea flour crust pizza. I followed the recipe on Food and Wine since it was more tailored to what I wanted to do.

It did not turn out so great. The first slice was kind of good, but after that, it was all downhill. I think the problem was that I didn't get it crispy enough. The middle was too mushy and had a bad texture. I think a good idea would be to actually make a crispy chickpea tortilla (like a flat hardshell taco shell) and then add the toppings and a quick broil. I think I also need to learn how to season the batter a bit better. All I have been doing is adding some cumin. I wonder if adding rosemary, pepper, basil and oregano would be a good bet? Of course, topping it with tomatoes, cheese, garlic, etc would work better instead of enchilada filling with that herb combination.

All I know is that I am not ready to give up on chickpea flour. I am discouraged, but I will not let that huge bag of flour go to waste. Anyone know of any good uses for chickpea flour? Anyone have any ideas? I almost refuse to believe that I have a distaste for chickpea flour, and must find a way that I will enjoy using it.

Before I close off this post I would like to draw your attention to the new look of the blog! If you are viewing this through email or a reader, I suggest you check out the site's new look. A friend of mine designed a logo for me and I think it looks great! It goes nice with the blog theme, and I think the sun is an excellent symbol for Food for Fuel. The sun is ultimately the energy source for the food that we eat, and since I feature mostly vegetarian recipes, these foods are as close as we can get to that source of energy. Kind of lovely when you think about it.

Denver, CO Trip

2011-06-07T21:39:00.001-04:00

Last week, I went to Denver, CO for a conference for school. After a week of not really cooking, I am very much looking forward to getting back into the kitchen, so you can bet that some real recipes will be posted soon.

My trip to Denver was great. The conference was an awesome experience, and in the evenings I had a lot of fun. I didn't get to do touristy things with the limited amount of time, except for maybe shopping on 16th street mall. Going into this trip, I really wanted to minimize spending on food, as it can get quite expensive to eat out at every meal. I prepared well, bringing cereal, protein powder, and healthy banana cranberry oat bars, to cover breakfast and snacks.

Without doing any previous research on good restaurants in the city, we did pretty well at finding good food, with only urbanspoon by our side. Here is a summary of some of the places I experienced:

1. Chipotle Mexican Grill
This was very close to our hotel, and on the night I arrived it was very convenient and fast. I hadn't eaten in 7+ hours (not my style) so I was in no mood for waiting long for food. I got a vegetarian burrito which was amazing! Maybe my fondness for this burrito was masked by starvation mode, but I'd say it was on the higher end of the burrito scale. My only complaint was that it wasn't grilled or heated once assembled, but I am sure I could have asked for that. Another problem, which didn't bother me, again because of my extreme hunger, was the presence of cilantro (my least favourite herb) in both the guacamole and the salsa. It wasn't as strong as it could have been so it didn't bother me too much. Turns out, this is a huge chain and there is one in Toronto, so I am sure I will visit Chipotle again.

3. Jason's Deli

The first lunch in Denver we were kind of bombarded with options. There was this madgreens place, voted best healthy lunch, numerous delis, tons of pizzarias, and a wide variety of cafes. We took a look inside Jason's Deli, which seemed busy, as a sandwich sounded like a good option. Jenna (who was with me on all these dining experiences) spotted a salad bar in the distance. Upon further investigation, we learned it was about 8 bucks for an all-you-can eat salad bar lunch. This salad bar had everything! It had all the vegetables you would expect, organic spring mix, cottage cheese, feta cheese, artichokes, eggs, a variety of nuts, croutons, and crackers. In addition, dessert was included, with chocolate mouse, yogurt and fruit, brownies and granola. It was a match made in heaven for us, which was a heavy dose of veggies with a lot of good protein options. We liked this place so much we went the second day, after informing numerous people of this incredible find.

My round 1 of 2 plate.

2. Tamayo
The second night there was an event being hosted courtesy of PINES (professionals in nutrition of exercise and sport). There was some free food, and drinks for sale. It was an authentic style kind of upper scale Mexican restaurant, which I would love to try again. For the event there were finger-food type items, so I would love to actually order an entree there. I honestly couldn't tell you what I had to eat, but it was really good. They also had in house made tortilla chips with fresh salsa and guacamole.

4. Mici
This place was found by searching for a pizza place close to the conference center. They had a great lunch special, which I think was 8 dollars, for a salad and a piece of gourmet pizza. This wasn't your average pizza joint. I ordered the Giardino slice which had sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, garlic, roasted red pepper, spinach, artichoke hearts, and zucchini on it. For the salad I chose the Insalata della Cassa which was mixed greens, grapes, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and balsamic dressing. It was a really good last meal in Denver, and I am glad we chose this place out of the seemingly 50+ other pizza joints in the area.

Since this was the American College of Sport Medicine annual meeting, the exhibit consisted of some nutritional supplement companies, like solae, EAS, powerbar, gatorade etc. This lead me to collect a fair amount of protein/energy bars, protein shakes, and even a protein pudding (what is next?!). While this did help a lot in keeping me content between meals and during my long connecting flights, I am a little sick of protein products. They have lost all of the excitement in trying a new product.

Now that I am back in my kitchen I am excited to try out some new ideas I have, and recipes I have come across. I just have to get by the barrier of turning on the oven with the arrival of the summer heat. I hope to share some new recipes soon.

By the way, my tomato plants were being taken care of by my housemate Megan, and as a result have grown a crazy amount! I swear, I turn away for a minute and they grow another centimetre. I am glad they are doing well after a little bit of a rough start (being dug up by an unknown animal).

Vegetable Garden Update

2011-05-27T09:07:00.000-04:00

I meant to post this a few days ago, but, life gets busy, you know? Eight o'clock comes around and the stack of library books on my desk screams, "hurry up and read me!" My crazed book requesting at the library got out of hand and I have bitten off more than I can chew. Along with my current minesweeper kick, life has been busy.

In all seriousness the evenings have been busy this week with various errands, and even some softball. I have a very busy weekend coming up, which once is over, I will be heading to Denver, CO for the week. So, without giving any more excuse, here is a recap of planting the vegetable garden on the Holiday Monday:

With all the rain that we had the previous week, the ground wasn't looking too hot for planting. The garden bed is raised, which is what really saved it. A sunny day on Sunday was enough to dry the bed up just enough to allow us to plant on Monday. There was some drizzle on Monday but for the most part, it was a beautiful day for some gardening. My Dad picked me up at 9:30 am and we headed to Canadian Tire and Sharples to pick up seeds and plants, of course after a Tim Hortons run. We were able to get almost all the plants we wanted. Unfortunately eggplant and rosemary could not be found.

This is what the garden looked like already:

Herb Garden (L to R: chives, lemon balm, oregano, sorrel)

Vegetable Bed

All the plants we have to plant:

The box on the left is what my grandfather gave us from his greenhouse (Marigolds and Romaine Lettuce).

L to R: Marigolds, Romaine Lettuce, Petunias(?)

The box on the right are the tomatoes and peppers my grandfather grew in his greenhouse from seed:

Basil, Red Pepper, Cabbage, Kale, Melon, Zucchini, Cluster Grape Tomato, Tomatoes, Peppers, Hot Peppers, Rhubarb.

When you plant lettuce from seed, you usually plant a lot of seeds, and then thin it out once it grows. We had romaine lettuce seedlings, so I separated each sprout and planted them separately (as you can see by my feet). I also planted beside the romaine, red leaf lettuce and spinach seeds. Often we forget to thin the seedlings out and never really get heads of lettuce or large spinach bunches. This year it is my goal not to slack off on thinning out the greens.

Although I am not a fan, my Mom loves rhubard. She loves it so much, she may even venture into the garden, bugs and all, to harvest it when the time comes. So, we decided to plant this rhubarb for her. The plant will exist for years to come and will be harvested twice a year. She is excited about it!

The vegetable garden had no more rooms for rent so these kale seedlings got shafted to the herb garden. As far back as I can remember we have never grown kale. It is my favourite green so I am really excited!

The herb garden. A new addition is the basil plant. We plant basil every year but it doesn't last through the winter. Normally we plant the herbs in pots in the ground because they tend to spread like wildfire. This year, I thought it would be nice to plant the basil in a pot that can be taken indoors. It fits nicely in an indoor pot holder that we have. We also plan on planting rosemary in it so that throughout the winter we have fresh basil and rosemary, two of my favourite herbs! Another addition to the herb garden will be a bay leaf tree that my grandmother will be bringing us.

Another herb garden veggie is swiss chard which was planted from seed. Some leek seeds were planted somewhere in the herb garden too but I cannot remember where. We will soon find out!

After all the plants/seeds were planted I took a picture of each bed as some nice before pictures.

L to R: Romaine Lettuce, Red Lead Lettuce, Spinach, Parsnips, Beets.

Garlic planted last fall, Marigolds line the entire garden.

From Front to Back: Green and Red Cabbage, Hot Pepper, Cluster Grape Tomatoes

Various Green, Red, and Hot Peppers

Tomatoes!

..and more tomatoes! With cucumbers in the back. Romaine lettuce planted in between the rows for now, which will be harvested once before removing.

Honeydew, Watermelon, Zucchini (yellow and green), and Cucumber (along the back so it can climb the fence).

There is another row which I didn't take a picture of. It is all just beans planted from seed so not too exciting to see. We planted more this year than usual so I am looking forward to drying some of them to have some dried beans for the winter.

Not living at home this Summer is going to make it more difficult to help out with garden maintenance and harvesting. Since I don't live far away (20-30 min bike), I will be able to make it home at least once a week, so I will get to see the progression of the garden still. Often times we have more produce than we can handle, and I hope to make sure none of it goes to waste. Also in the spirit of not wasting, we had some extra plants which I decided to plant in pots and take home. I now have two pots with two tomato plants and three pepper plants on my porch. So far, 2/3 nights, my pepper plants have been dug up by some pesky animal, probably the neighbourhood cats. Unfortunately, to my dismay, I report the loss of a hot pepper plant. Poor thing. No capsaicin to defend itself against animals yet.

Anyway, this post seems long enough, I hope I didn't bore you. I hope to share more updates throughout the summer, and some recipes with the resulting vegetables. Have a great day!

* I would like to note this is the second time writing this post, as the first one didn't save and an error occurred (ugh..). At this point, zero editing has occurred, and you can blame errors on my lack of patience, not on my lack of spelling/grammar ability.

Iced Ginger Tea with Lemon

2011-05-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

While May has been quite a rainy unspring-like month, we have had a few really warm days that tell us Summer is on it's way. In the summer I often turn to refreshing drinks during the day time, as a way to spice up that usual cold glass of water. I usually go on 'streaks', where I drink a particular concoction every day for a few weeks. Last summer it was lemon water. Every morning, and sometimes in the afternoon, I'd have a large glass of water with half a lemon squeezed into it, with lots of ice. Very refreshing and a good dose of vitamin C. Last summer I also experimented with Iced Green Tea. I loved having a pitcher of it in the fridge, as you cannot really make iced tea on demand. I'm not big into sweet beverages so adding just a bit of frozen fruit does the trick.

A few weeks ago I made some ginger tea as a way to use up some ginger I had laying around. I loosely followed this recipe. I didn't like it so much warm, but after chilling it in the fridge and adding some lemon I loved it! The lemon neutralizes a bit of the spice of the ginger and makes quite a refreshing beverage.

The easiest way to make this is to:

1. Slice the ginger, add some cold water, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat and then let sit on the stove until it is warm to touch.

2. Transfer to a pitcher (removing ginger pieces) and put in the fridge.

3. Once chilled, add the juice of 1 lemon (for about 4 servings).

The more ginger you add, or the longer you let the water simmer, the stronger the ginger flavour will be.

Again, I don't sweeten this usually but a few frozen raspberries add some natural sweetness.

I am looking forward to experimenting with some more iced tea combinations as the summer approaches.

I also would like to share that I baked my first yeast bread last week without the use of a bread machine. I made the Oatmeal Sandwich Bread from Good to the Grain. I had to make a substitution so the bread was a bit crumbly but the flavour was still amazing! It was great on its own with some jam or peanut butter. I saved a butt end of the loaf to make a stuffed french toast similar to this. The long weekend is a great time to experiment with new breakfast recipes and I am totally taking advantage. I have recently played around with chickpea flour and I have an idea for a pancake recipe which I am hoping turns out so I can share it with you all.

Hopefully everyone is having a great long weekend and have managed to get into the outdoors a bit. Here is a shot I took on Saturday from Princess Point in Hamilton.

Not the nicest scenery but it was nice to be outside. On Mother's Day weekend I got a nicer shot from the Bayfront on the other side of the bridge.

One thing is for sure, the rain is sure making the grass green.

BBQ Baked Beans

2011-05-17T18:53:00.001-04:00

In the last 5 or so years that I have been a bean eater, I have never once eaten a can of 'baked beans.' Unless those beans served at a rib fest pulled pork stand were indeed from a can. But I doubt it. Either way, I have only had baked beans once, and the sauce was reminiscent of BBQ sauce. To me, baked beans should taste smokey, as if they had been meat in a previous life which had been charred on the grill slathered with sweet smokey goodness.

On that carnivorous note, I have recently decided to eliminate meat from my diet for the time being. Now, if you follow the blog, you could probably tell that I don't eat meat often anyway. However, usually once a week, I have dinner with my parents which normally involves meat. So this Sunday I wanted to have a protein item that could be easily incorporated into my family's dinner without too much trouble. Ribs were on the menu, along with baked potatoes and lots of veggies. Beans came to my mind right away. I would have them in some kind of sauce, over a baked potato, topped with guacamole. mmmm... But it wasn't until my dad coated the ribs in BBQ sauce, when the recipe for these baked beans really came together. One or two tablespoons is all it took for that smokey flavour to come though.

BBQ Baked Beans

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 can black beans, rinsed well
1 cup water
1/2 small can tomato paste
1-2 tbsp smokey BBQ sauce
1/4 tsp lemon zest

1. Heat olive oil in saucepan on medium heat. Add onions and sauté until soft. Add garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
2. Add beans, water, tomato paste, and BBQ sauce. Stir and bring to a simmer.
3. Add lemon zest and stir in. Simmer until desired consistency is reached (0.5 to 1 hour). Once desired thickness is reached, cover and keep on low heat until ready to serve (up to an hour).
4. Serve over baked potato or with good crusty bread.

From my experience, these beans are good over regular and sweet potato. I also imagine it would be good served on their own with some good crusty bread. It has been a while since I have come up with an original recipe in which I would not really change anything next time around, so you should definitely try these. I also see this turning into a great lentil sloppy joe recipe.

Did I mention these kind of taste like summer? While the weather is telling us otherwise, this is definitely a recipe to get you in the mood for summer.

Crunchy Quinoa Granola

2011-05-15T21:54:00.000-04:00

No this is not a picture of bird seed. It is actually human food: granola made with quinoa! I was looking for something to have in the morning that wasn't oatmeal and was higher in protein. I began to search my evernote database for breakfast recipes. I came across this toasted quinoa recipe I had saved from Healthy Tipping Point. I thought I would give it a try. I made a few changes but the same concept was the same: a granola made with quinoa.

I was a bit skeptical since I had never eaten quinoa that wasn't cooked through boiling, and was weary as to how the texture would be. Turns out, toasted quinoa is actually not like eating pebbles as I thought it would.

Crunchy Quinoa Granola adapted from Healthy Tipping Point

makes 4-5 servings

1 cup quinoa

~ 1/4 cup of nuts (I used what I had on hand...sunflower and pumpkin)

3 tbsp dried cranberries

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl until cinnamon evenly coats everything.

2. Add olive oil and maple syrup and mix well.

3. Toast at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

4. Allow to cool and then store in an air-tight container.

As I was making this I really thought I had added WAY to much cinnamon. I thought for sure I had just wasted a whole cup of quinoa because it was going to be too strong and spicy. Too much cinnamon can taste medicinal. Turns out, the baking mellowed out the cinnamon and it had great flavour. I am really happy I added the cranberries because they were a wonderful addition, especially when I eat this with my plain unsweetened yogurt.

I'd say this recipe is very "granola." Someone used this word the other day to describe my act of making homemade tomato sauce (if I remember correctly). I liked the word and what I thought it represented, so I vowed to begin to use it more often. After looking up the urban dictionary definition, I'd say this recipe is fairly good representation of "granola," except I can't promise my ingredients were fair trade. In fact, I could probably bet that they weren't, unfortunately.

Mother's Day Cheese Party with Baked Brie

2011-05-08T00:34:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there! We all have a Mom in our life, whether biological, or another woman we look up to. My relationship with my Mom has strengthen over the last couple years, as I have gotten older, and I look forward to spending time with her on the weekends (and I am not just saying that because she reads my blog). This Mother's day instead of buying her something she really didn't need, I thought I would spend money on something we could do together.

Last weekend I was walking down Locke St. in Hamilton when I passed the Cheese Shoppe on Locke. I had been in a few times and it is a wonderful store. It has a great atmosphere, and fantastic products. These include cheese (obvi), jams, marinades, spices, vinegars, oils, pasta, pies, lots of locally produced as well as imported goods. My Mom has not been in the store before but I knew she would love it, since she loves cheese just as much as I do, so I picked up a gift certificate.

Today we took a trip to the store together and Mom picked out 3 different cheeses and a jam. To go along with the cheeses we picked up spelt flatbread crackers and a multi-seed sourdough baguette from local De La Terre bakery. The bread from De La Terre bakery tastes amazing, not to mention it is local and organic. (can be found at Goodness Me as well as the Hamilton Farmer's Market).

Our platter of goodies:

Starting from the left we have the sliced sourdough baguette. Going clockwise, the first cheese is Asiago. It was very mild, especially compared to what I am used to. The Zerto Asiago is from Wisconsin and is aged for 6 months naturally. This short aging time makes it more soft and mild. I enjoyed it but it wasn't the star of the plate.

Beside the Asiago we had some spelt flatbread (was excellent with the baked brie). Now here was the show stopper. 9 years old raw milk cheddar from Ontario. Never have I had raw milk cheese, nevermind cheddar aged 9 years. I think the most I've had is 5 years. It was strong, but delicious. I loved this cheese on the sourdough bread and found that while the cheese was very strong and overcame the flavour of the bread, the aftertaste of the cheese was generally pleasant and not too overbearing.

Beside the cheddar was some Que Pasa chips (coloured with beet juice!) which was enjoyed with Summer Fresh spicy chili pepper topped hummus. While all this was being assembled, the Brie cheese was baking in the oven.

To prepare the baked Brie the rind was removed from one side of the wheel. Then an Apricot and Jalapeno jelly was spread on top.

This was then baked in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes.

We chose this jelly after trying a strawberry and jalapeno jelly at Whole Foods which was sooo good! Should have bought it when we had the chance! This one was delicious as well though. I love the sweet and spicy combination.

We also had my Mom's favourite Sangria and a green salad.

It was nice to have some time just my Mom and I at home, and sample some new cheeses. I think she enjoyed her "cheese tasting" Mother's Day gift...Mother's Day success!

3 Layer Bean Dip

2011-05-04T19:39:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know what day tomorrow is? May 5th! Cinco de Mayo! Basically, a perfect excuse to eat Mexican food, which I love. This recipe comes at a perfect time then. I made this dip about a week ago to have with the chips I bought at Whole Foods. It is comprised of "refried" beans, guacamole, and salsa. This dip can easily be prepared with pre-made versions of the three layers, but can also be made from scratch fairly quickly. I opted for a store bought salsa however.

3 Layer Bean Dip

for the "refried" beans
1 can black beans
~2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped

for the guacamole
1 avocado, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 jalapeno minced after seed removal

salsa

1. Combine ingredients for bean layer in food processor and process until smooth.
2. Combine ingredients for avocado in food processor and pulse until combined with some chunks still present.
3. Layer into a dish. Top with salsa.

It is really that simple. My dip was a bit bean heavy (as you can see in the picture) so I would probably layer less next time. This is my favourite guacamole recipe and the salsa I used was very flavourful and tasted fresh. Because of this, I was forgiving of the fairly bland bean layer, since the guacamole and salsa made up for it. This was my first time using black beans to make a dip, and next time I think I would kick it up a notch with some garlic or seasonings. The beans had a great texture though.

This dip went will with chips (obvi), carrots, and even spread on some toast. It is incredibly versatile and would make a great addition to any Cinco de Mayo spread. Along with some lime margaritas of course.

Almond Butter Parsnip Fries

2011-05-01T21:35:00.000-04:00

Finding another way to use almond butter (or any other nut butter) is the last thing I need, but I had been wanting to try this recipe for a while. It is from Oh She Glows, where Angela claims that these fries will change your life. I was a bit sceptical since parsnips are not my favourite vegetable, but I'll try anything coated in almond butter. You can find the recipe for these here.

The coating on these fries is absolutely delicious. It is a great combination of sweet and salty, which works wonderfully with the roasted parsnip. The only a problem I had is with cutting similarly sized fries to prevent over cooking some and under cooking others. But that could be easily solved. I have made these a few times since, as this is a great option for spicing up boring winter root vegetables.

Green in the Kitchen Tip #1 (yes this may turn into a series..)

I have mentioned before how I have been trying to be less wasteful in the kitchen. This also helps to save some money. One aspect of cooking which tends to be wasteful (vitamin waste anyway) is cooking water. I usually don't think twice about dumping water that I cooked pasta or vegetables in, but a couple weeks ago I was steaming some artichokes, and I added a garlic clove and bay leaf in the water that was boiling. When I took the artichokes out I noticed how green the water was, and fairly flavourful too (yes I tasted it). It was basically garlic and artichoke infused water. Instead of pouring this down the sink I kept it in the fridge until a day later when I made some rice. I used this flavourful (and probably vitamin enriched) rice to cook the rice instead of water. Perfectly good use for my extensive mason jar collection.

Looks yummy, right?

Saving cooking water to use later for cooking pasta, rice, or other grains hardly saves you a penny, but it does add a little something to the dish, saves a little bit of water, and adds some vitamins that would otherwise be lost. I noticed on Easter that this is a practice my Nonna uses. She cooked the pasta in a green tinged pot of water which I am assuming was from the beans or rapini she prepared earlier. Why throw away perfectly good water?

To my fellow Canadians, tomorrow is May 2nd, election day! Don't forget to VOTE!

My First Whole Foods Trip and Stir Fried Rice

2011-04-23T20:13:00.002-04:00

What a lovely day it has been today. It reached about 17 degrees C, but with the sun felt much warmer. I wore capris, and sandals, and was very warm wearing shorts and a T shirt on my run. Not only was the weather nice but I went to Whole Foods in Oakville for the first time. I have heard all about it through reading lots of American blogs and just couldn't wait to go myself. I figured today would be a perfect day! (disregarding the volume of shoppers out on this Holiday weekend Saturday)

The produce section was smaller than I expected but the rest of the store sure made up for it. The meat/seafood section was VERY impressive. There was lots of organic and "properly raised" meat, along with a big selection of grass fed beef, which is where my Dad picked it up for my 23rd Birthday dinner. The seafood is all labeled with where it is from and they had a lot of sustainably wild caught and properly farmed fish. There was also an impressive amount of prepared foods. I was very glad I ate lunch before I went because I would not have been able to resist the salad and hot food bar.

Any lingering hunger I had was supressed by the samples throughout the store. I tried a strawberry jalapeno jam on brie cheese. It was amazing and definitely worth the 8 dollars a jar for a special occasion. There was a ton of in-house made foods. Fresh pasta, sauces, salads, soups, sandwiches, pizza, meats, anything you could ever want! Was it pricey? Yes. But you know what, if I could afford it, didn't have the time to prepare something, and wanted to ensure I was eating something made from real food with natural ingredients, I would definitely head to Whole Foods (if there was one in my city, anyway).

Although I took the trip mostly just to take a look, see what all the hype was about, and check out some prices of some of my favourite products, I knew I would buy myself something. First I picked up some Green Mountain Gringo Hot Salsa which was on sale for $2, regular $6! To go along with that I chose one of my favourite brands of tortilla chips Guiltless Gourmet. I chose the spinach artichoke parmesan flavour. This brand is awesome because the seasonings are made with natural ingredients, a rare find in "healthy" chips. Finally, I picked up a berry scone. As soon as I saw it I knew that is what I wanted to have for breakfast on Easter Sunday when Lent is finally over. The cherry on top of the whole trip was that at the checkout, I got the chips for free because they didn't scan, and got 10 cents off for bringing my own bag, all while we listened to the live Jazz band playing by the checkouts.

I could get used to that place.

I'll send you off with a recipe I put together one night when I got home late and was starving. It was quick, easy, and very filling.

Stir-Fried Rice

1/2 tbsp olive oil
dried chili pepper (whatever you can handle)
~2 cups of frozen veggies (I used a blend of broccoli, pepper, carrot, beans, and water chestnuts)
1 garlic clove
1 tsp minced ginger
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 egg
1 egg white
dash of milk
soy sauce to taste

1. Heat oil with chili pepper on medium heat.
2. Add half defrosted veggies and garlic, and saute until no longer frozen.
3. Add ginger and rice and stir to combine. Heat for 3 minutes or so.
4. Meanwhile, beat egg, egg white and milk together. In a pan on medium-low heat, cook egg until about 1/2 done. Add to rice mixture and stir to combine, stirring until egg is cooked and veggies/rice are hot.
5. Serve topped with a bit of soy sauce.

This was my first time making a fried rice with egg and it turned out pretty good. I have made this twice since, and will probably make it many more times.

Have a fantastic Easter weekend!

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve

2011-04-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

I have talked about banana soft serve before, more than once, quite a while ago. It is quite ingenious as a method to make a vegan "ice cream" treat. Not only is it dairy-free, but it has no added sugar. It is just fruit, with a hint of vanilla. Lent is almost over, but this is a dessert I will gladly enjoy anytime of the year, even with no dietary restrictions.

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve

1 frozen peeled banana
handful of frozen strawberries
splash of soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Add banana and strawberries to food processor and pulse for a few minutes, scraping down the sides when necessary.
2. Add vanilla and a bit of soy milk. The soy milk helps to smooth out the consistency when using frozen fruit other than bananas. Add as much as is neccessary. Process for 3 or so minutes until smooth and "creamy."

This treat is so good on its own, but is awesome on top of pancakes or cold overnight oats. You can always make just plain banana soft serve, and omit the soy milk. Banana's really might be my favourite fruit. Not only are they delicious, very good for you, and peanut butters perfect partner, but they are practically magic for being able to turn into soft serve like this.

I have so many recipes and food adventures to post about, as I have not been able to blog the past week and a bit. I was really busy with some course work. Now I am finished and officially done required courses for my degree! I didn't think this would be such a big deal for until the day actually come. I think the fact that it ended on a Thursday before a long weekend, Easter long weekend, where the anticipation for summer has begun . Oh, and I can eat cookies in a couple days. That may also have something to do with it.

Have a great good Friday. OH and Happy Earth Day! Get yourself a free Starbucks coffee by taking in a reusable mug to use!

Sweet Potato and Carrot "Risotto"

2011-04-13T19:27:00.000-04:00

As I have mentioned before, I have numerous mason jars in my cupboard filled different kinds of rice (along with other grains). One of them is a sunset blend from the bulk barn. It contains: parboiled medium rice, lemon garlic orzo pasta, sweet potato orzo pasta, Himilayan red rice, and brown mustard seed. I purchased it last summer when I went to the bulk barn for almonds and 30 dollars later came out with a bag full of goodies. When I saw this recipe on Framed Cooks, a fantastic blog that I frequent, I knew how I would use the rest of the senset blend. I wanted to use up a sweet potato, so I substituted some of the carrot, which I loved. This rice/pasta mixture doesn't provide the same risotto texture as arborio or other white rice, but it still worked nicely.

Sweet Potato and Carrot Risotto adapted from Framed Cooks

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and shredded
3 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
1 1/4 cup rice (I used sunset blend)
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup grated picorino cheese, plus some for topping

1. In a saucepan, mix the broth and water and heat. Keep at a low temperature, without simmering.
2. In a large pan over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add onion and saute for a few minutes until soft. Add shredded sweet potato and carrot. Cook for about 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add rice and stir to coat well. Add white wine and continue to stir until absorbed.
4. Add broth mixture 1 cup at a time, stirring continuously until absorbed before adding the next batch.
5. Once all liquid has been absorbed, add the cheese and stir until melted. Serve topped with some more grated cheese.

While all the stirring and attentiveness seems a little labour intensive, this was actually not that bad compared to risotto with arborio I have made in the past. While this could be done with any rice, the lemon orzo pasta in the sunset blend was wonderful with the sweet potato and white wine. Next time I make this I think I would use all sweet potato, becuase I am not the biggest carrot fan. While a warm dish with root vegetables, this dish has spring written on it for me, if only due to the vibrant colour and lemony hues.

It is daylight while I am writing, which is a nice change. Not only is this due to a non-late night post, but also becuase the days are getting longer. This makes me very happy. Before you know it, it will be Easter! Until then, I am still finding ways to satisfy my sweet tooth. Soon I will be sharing a more successful attempt at a non-sugar and butter laden dessert (unlike the rice "pudding").

Wild Rice and Tofu Salad with Sesame Dressing

2011-04-10T21:33:00.000-04:00

I LOVE the bulk barn. Really, I will take any opportunity to browse the bulk barn, even when I don't need anything. I also buy things I don't really need. A while ago I bought some wild rice even though I had mason jars of 4 different kinds of rice already in my cupboard. When I saw this recipe on the New York Times I knew that was going to be my use for the wild rice. Plus, I got to use my magic bullet to make another dressing. I made a couple modifications based on what I had on hand, but the gist of the recipe is the same.

Wild Rice and Tofu Salad with Sesame Dressing from the New York Times, Recipes for Health

1/2 lb firm tofu
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 cup uncooked black rice
1 cup frozen edamame, defrosted

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, finely minced
3 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
5 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds*

1. Cook rice according to package directions. Yields about 3 cups of cooked rice.
2. Meanwhile, cube the tofu and pat dry with paper towel. Toss in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp soy sauce. Bake in 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes or until bottom side browned. Flip and bake for another 10-20 minutes, until browned.
3. Combine cooked black rice, tofu and edamame in a large bowl. Allow to come to room temperature.
4. For the dressing, combine all ingredients in a food processor or magic bullet. Blend until most of the sesame seeds are no longer whole. Pour most (80%) of the dressing over the rice mixture. Toss and serve room temperature or cold.

*Toast sesame seeds on a pan over medium heat. Be careful not to burn.

This salad was incredibly filling and tasted great as leftovers cold the next day. I really liked the dressing, but I think it would have been better with rice vinegar as the original recipe called for. The original recipe also called for raw tofu. While I am a tofu fan, I don't go so far as to eat it raw. The basic baked tofu used in this recipe would be great for any stir fry using tofu. This salad lacked veggies for sure which is really just the result of it being put together on a Friday, a day short of the usual grocery day. Bell pepper, cucumber, celery, onion, and mushrooms would all have been lovely in this salad.

I don't know if it is the sudden arrival of spring weather here in Ontario, but this salad makes me feel like summer is on it's way. I am pretty sure it is the weather but just in case it is the salad, you should make it too so you can feel like summer is coming, it is a great feeling ;)

Asparagus Soup with Poached Egg

2011-04-07T21:31:00.000-04:00

During the winter months I tend to buy the same kind fresh of vegetables: beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and the occasional green or celery stalk. This week I changed it up a bit and bought asparagus, eggplant and parsnip. I had an idea on what to do with the parsnip and eggplant but I had no idea what I was going to do with the asparagus. I love asparagus blanched with a bit of ground pepper, but I thought I should try something new. With a bit of a search I came across this recipe on TasteFood. I loved how it was simple and had few ingredients as I didn't have much else to work with. I also learned a few months back that asparagus and eggs are a winning combination, so I added a poached egg.

Asparagus Soup with Poached Egg adapted from TasteFood
serves 3-4

1 tbsp olive oil
5 green onions (white/light green parts only)
1 L good low sodium vegetable broth
1 bunch asparagus (1.5-2 lb), tough ends removed, and chopped into 1-2 inch pieces
1/2 cup milk
black pepper
goat cheese
poached egg

1. Heat olive oil on medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft.
2. Add asparagus and cook until colour brightens.
3. Add broth and simmer for 10 minutes until asparagus is soft.
4. Use a hand blender and puree the asparagus to your taste. (Note: If you want a good blended soup, use a blender as a hand blender does not do the full job. Allow soup to cool down and blend in batches. Return to pot and return to simmer).
5. Add milk and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, poach your egg. I used a microwavable poaching dish.
7. Serve soup with poached egg (with a semi-soft yolk) and crumbled goat cheese on top.

pictured without goat cheese

This soup was great. Especially considering the soup contains about 4 ingredients. The fried egg over asparagus I tried a while back was nothing compared to this poached egg immersed in asparagus. I also had some toast on the side which I dipped into the soup, making sure to scoop up some goat cheese and egg. This is something I will definitely make again, turning a simple bunch of asparagus into a memorable meal.

Apple Cinnamon Rice Pudding

2011-04-03T21:30:00.000-04:00

After almost 4 weeks with no treats, I have been in need for something sweet. This is a perfect time for me to experiment with modifying some traditional desserts to contain no added sugar (or very little) and I have yet to do this. Until today! Rice pudding is something I have not really had before. I have definitely tried a spoonful or something, but never really eaten a serving myself. That being said, I am no rice pudding expert. I imagine that it is usually quite sweet and creamy, after taking a look at some traditional recipes out there. This recipe contains no butter, no dairy, and no added sugar, and while it uses white Arborio rice and not brown rice, I'd say it is a fairly healthy alternative to the traditional.

Apple Cinnamon Rice Pudding

2 cups water
1 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
3 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
3 tbsp chopped walnuts

1. Bring water to a boil, and add arborio rice. Once a simmer is reached, add applesauce. Reduce to low-medium heat and continue to stir.
2. In a separate pan, warm soy milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
3. As the rice mixture thickens, add the milk mixture 1/3 cup at a time. After each addition, continue to stir until no longer liquidy, then add the next milk portion. Continue until all the milk mixture has been added and the rice is thick and soft. Stir in walnuts.
4. Remove from stovetop, allow to cool (will thicken more), and refrigerate.

I am going to be straight with you, this isn't the sweetest dessert out there. If it wasn't for Lent, you bet I'd be drizzling it with a bit of maple syrup, or adding a couple tsp of brown sugar to the milk mixture. Even using some sweetened vanilla soy milk would have made it a little better. Come to think of it, in it's current state, this recipe would make a pretty good breakfast on a weekend. Next time I would also add more of the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger; dare I say double it.

I am not sure if this satisfied my craving for something sweet but I have a few other tricks up my sleeve.

Cheese Tortellini Frittata

2011-04-01T19:29:00.000-04:00

I have found another way to use some of the Basil Vinaigrette that I had made for the Wheatberry Salad. Wanting to use some cheese tortellini I had in the fridge, but also wanting to have eggs for dinner lead me to Google search pasta and egg dishes. Beyond carbonara, I really didn't know what ideas would be out there. I started to come across a lot of casserole or frittata type ideas. A frittata with cheese tortellini felt like the perfect idea. Adding some Basil Vinaigrette to the mix didn't seem like a bad idea either.

Cheese Tortellini Frittata
Serves 2

1 cup cheese tortellini
2 eggs
2 egg whites
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup chopped spinach
2 tbsp Basil Vinaigrette
crumbled feta cheese

1. Cook tortellini according to package directions. Do not overcook.
2. Beat together eggs, egg whites, milk, chopped spinach, and basil vinaigrette.
3. Mix egg mixture with tortellini and pour into a greased oven-safe shallow dish (the thinner the frittata the easier it is to cook). Sprinkle with crumbed feta cheese.
4. Bake covered with foil at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and allow the top to set (another 10 minutes or so).

For anyone who doubts tortellini with eggs, I recommend you make this because it will settle all your doubts. So easy to make, and would make a great addition to any breakfast/brunch or even dinner menu.

Earlier in the week there was a bake sale at a charity hockey game through school. My housemates and I each baked a lot of goodies, which resulted in a near 3 foot stack of cookie filled containers. I gave up sweets for Lent, so baking 4 batches of cookies last Sunday was no easy task. It took me about 5.5 hours in total, and using my Mom's kitchen (bigger than my own), kitchen aid mixer (much faster than my own hands), and cookie sheets (more numerous and much more clean than mine) helped tremendously.

Here are some pictures of the fruits of my labour:

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Corn Flake Clusters

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cranberry Peanut White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I also made lemon icebox cookies but I forgot to take a picture of them. They were ugly anyway.

All the recipes are from Cookie Jar Classics by Company's Coming.

There was an overload of baked goods for sale made by many of the Grad students. Everyone made such delicious looking treats!

There were a lot of leftovers and a few are kicking around the house here. I have a container of cookies in the freezer waiting for me when Lent is over.

Wheatberry Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

2011-03-28T18:06:00.000-04:00

I hate to post another salad recipe with it still being in the negatives outside and it not feeling like spring or summer at all, but I am really excited to share this one. It is the dressing which is the exciting part, really. I went to a Birthday party on the weekend and was bringing along a side dish. I decided to make a wheatberry salad and wanted to have a dressing that resembled pesto, or had a lot of basil in it. After a failed attempt of making my own pesto based dressing, I found a recipe on Farm Fresh Living, a website I hadn't come across until recently. With the success of this salad dressing recipe, I may just have to try out more of their recipes.

Wheatberry Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
serves 8-10 as a side

4 cups cooked wheatberries
1 cup thawed edamame
1 can no salt added corn
2 cups fresh chopped spinach
feta cheese, crumbled (I used about half of purchased container - use as much or as little as you'd like)

Dressing (makes double what you need): slightly adapted from Farm Fresh Living
1/2 large shallot finely chopped
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
juice from 1 fresh lemon
1/2 large tomato, diced
6 tsp dried basil
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Combine all the salad ingredients into a large bowl.
2. Combine all dressing ingredients except olive oil into a food processor (or magic bullet like I did) and blend.
3. Add olive oil as a stream while processing (or add in 2 batches in the magic bullet).
4. Mix half of the dressing just before serving, add crumbled feta, and mix in.

I loved the salad and I THINK it may have won over even the toughest critics at the party. The guests at the party ranged from 'foodie' to 'open-minded' to 'an animal must die at every meal' to 'what is a vegetable?'. So while it was pretty brave for me bringing a wheatberry salad to this party, I am glad I did.

I REALLY liked this dressing. I sort of doubled the recipe that I had found, so I had a lot of extra dressing in the end. I am sure glad I did though because I used it in an amazing salad that I made for lunch today. The salad was spinach based, with some toppings: 1/2 cup wheatberries, 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, 1 green onion chopped, crumbled feta. The dressing was wonderful on this salad. I am usually a 'make a bit of dressing as you need it directly onto the salad' kinda girl, but this recipe has converted me. I can now see myself making up some of this dressing to use throughout the week in the near future.

Roasted Garlic and Greenhouse Vegetables

2011-03-22T21:16:00.000-04:00

Tonight I roasted some garlic in preparation for my dinner tomorrow night. My housemate roasted garlic a few weeks ago and I tried a clove. It is delicious. If you have never done this or heard of doing this before, check out this video by Dani Spies, where she originally got the idea. One tip I was given was not to eat the whole garlic bulb in one sitting, as you will emanate garlic from places you didn't know garlic could emanate from.

On that note, I added a couple cloves to my salad for dinner this evening. Note: 2 only. Now, I normally veer from salad in the winter months (or when it is spring and snow is still in the forecast) becuase A) I am not in the mood for it, and B) most of my favourite salad ingredients are not as fresh and for the most part, not grown close to home. However, today while at the farmer's market, I found some Ontario greenhouse cucumber, tomato and bell pepper. I think I am a fan of this method of growing food. While very energy intensive, I like to think that it is better for the environment than importing these foods from the USA, Mexico, or Chile. Check out this link for more information on how the produce is grown.

With these vegetables in hand I had a fresh salad in mind. To add some protein I decided to throw in some lentils, and I would have added goat's milk cheese too if my last little bit hadn't gone bad :(

Greenhouse Vegetable Salad

1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup cooked lentils

Dressing:
2 roasted garlic cloves, mashed
1/2 tbsp olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

For this salad I encountered a couple problems with putting it all together.
1) I had larger chunks of veggies and I think chopping them finer would have been easier to eat with the lentils.
2) I usually make salad dressing myself, directly into the salad, mostly eyeballing it. However, I think I would have gotten the most out of the garlic had I shaken it up with the dressing outside of the salad, being sure to break up the garlic, and then dress the salad.
So keep these points in mind if you decide to make yourself this salad.

All-in-all it was a refreshing change from my recent hot meals. The tomatoes, bell pepper and cucumber, tasted no different than what you find at your grocery store currently (read: tasted okay). I got a bit of a taste for summer, and I cannot wait to get my hands on some backyard tomatoes.

Clam and Pesto Spaghetti with Peas and Shallots

2011-03-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

Spring is finally starting to arrive! In my mind it is anyway. There is no snow in the 7 day forecast, and the highs are all above 5 degrees. This makes me very happy. Regardless of the weather, I can feel the winter gloominess lifting, and that is all that matters really.

I have mentioned before how much I love clam pasta. It is so simple when you use canned baby clams and is a great source of protein. I wanted to use up some leftover pesto from when I made this, and thought that pesto + pasta + clams would be a great combination. I added some peas to get in some vegetables. The resulting sauce, or shall I say green mush, turned out better than expected considering the appearance. I have been thinking about this recipe for well over a week so I was very excited to finally put it all together.

Clam and Pesto Spaghetti with Peas and Shallots

Serves 3

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large shallot
2 cloves of garlic
sprinkle of red chili flakes (whatever you can handle)
3/4 can peas (if you have fresh or frozen...use them instead)
1 can baby clams, drained
~1/4 cup pesto (depends on your taste really...)
spaghetti, cooked

1. Heat olive oil in pan on medium-high heat.
2. Saute shallot for 1 minute and add garlic. Heat until fragrant. Add chili flakes.
3. Reduce heat to medium and add peas and clams. Once warm, add pesto and stir to combine.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Top spaghetti with pesto and clam mixture.

This meal was really quick to put together. If I were to do it again (and I probably will), I wouldn't use spaghetti. I would use rotini or farfalle (bowtie) or even cheese tortellini. The chunky "sauce" does not really mix well with the long noodles and I ended up cutting up my spaghetti like a 6 year old. I would also top it with some fresh Parmesan cheese if I had it. Finally, as noted in the ingredient list, I would use fresh or frozen peas over canned peas if I had them (canned peas up the mushy factor). Now, if clams or canned seafood are not your thing, then by all means substitute chicken, small cubes of tofu, or even lentils. However, it won't make the dish look any better I suspect. While tasty, this might not be a meal you serve your friends unless you show a track record of good cooking and they trust that you are not trying to serve them baby food.

Mushroom, Tomato, and Chickpea Barley Risotto

2011-03-09T21:49:00.003-05:00

Some food for thought: The USA wastes 40% of all food produced in a year. I am guessing the picture isn't much better in Canada. About half of this can be attributed to household waste. In today's world we have an obesity epidemic and massive food waste on one side of the planet and an undernourished population with food scarcity on the other side. Although reducing our food waste won't immediately solve the world's food problems, it will at least save us some money.

Being the food safety freak that I am, I no doubt waste a lot of food. I won't leave leftovers in the fridge for more than a few days and if I forget to freeze it, there it goes into the green bin. I like to be on the safe side. This goes for produce as well. Sometimes I don't use up all the fresh vegetables I have bought before they wilt away. In the spirit of Lent and self-improvement I think I will try and consciously waste less food. This recipe is an example of an attempt to waste-not. I had celery from last week that was wilted, not fit for direct consumption, but would work beautifully cooked up. The mushrooms were getting to the end of their life-time as well. So instead of making the clam pasta that I have been dying to make all week, I made this barley "risotto" inspired by an Oh She Glows recipe, and my withering vegetables.

Mushroom, Tomato, and Chickpea Barley Risotto

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small stalk of celery, chopped finely
13 white mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregnao
1 cup pot barley
2 3/4 cup tomato soup (I used Imagine's Creamy Garden Tomato Soup)
3/4 cup water*
1 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add celery an saute for 3 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms, basil and oregano and cook until mushrooms begin to soften (about 3-5 min).
3. Add barley and stir for 3 minutes until hot.
4. Add soup, water and chickpeas and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Allow to simmer for about 30-40 minutes, until barley is cooked.

* Depending on the thickness of the soup you use, you may need to add more water.

This is such a quick way to get a "risotto" type dish. It was very flavourful due to the fantastic soup that I used. If your soup or broth is less flavourful, pump up the seasoning. Cumin or tumeric would would wonderfully instead of basil and oregano. This was a great dish to have for dinner with the current weather: cold and rainy. I look forward to coming home to these leftovers tomorrow. I'll be sure to freeze or eat any leftovers before they get a little sketchy...

Anyone have any good tips to avoid food waste?

Shrove/Fat/Pancake Tuesday

2011-03-08T19:39:00.002-05:00

Shrove Tuesday, also known as fat Tuesday or pancake Tuesday has came out of nowhere for me ever since I went off to school and no longer live at home. Every year my Dad usually made us pancakes for breakfast, always to my Mom's dismay as that was her (now ruined) idea for dinner. Traditionally this day exists to have one more glutonous day, using up fat, dairy and sugar before Lent begins, where one is not supposed to receive pleasure from food. As a kid and teenager I always gave up chocolate and chips (my two vices) for lent. I have not given up anything for Lent in a while but as spring (and summer) nears I tend to try and eat a bit better anyway. I will still be celebrating pancake Tuesday, but thanks to this recipe, not fat Tuesday.

This pancake recipe is adapted from my go to recipe for Healthy Spelt Pancakes for One from Oh She Glows, and is not an overly sweet or rich pancake. The recipe is so simple, versatile, and nutritious. I also happened upon an article from the Globe and Mail that was rather timely. It suggested to whip egg whites to achieve fluffiness instead of using baking soda. I usually add an egg to the OSG recipe so I thought I would try this egg whipping idea a try.

Raspberry Spelt Pancakes adapted from Oh She Glows

1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk (any milk really)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup frozen raspberries, defrosted
1 egg

1. Wisk together spelt flour, cinnamon, and baking powder.
2. Beat egg with electric mixer until foamy (~ 1 min).
3. Mix together milk and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add raspberries and mix in.
4. Fold in egg until combined.***
5. Ladle onto hot greased pan. Flip once bubbles no longer close when popped.

Makes: 4-5 pancakes.

*** Ok, so here is the deal. The whipped egg ended up thinning out the batter tremendously, which means I had to add some more flour (~1/8 to 1/4 cup) at this point. I do not recommend whipping the egg for this recipe, and just mixing it in with the wet ingredients.

The pancakes were very thin and did not have much fluff. Maybe the tip on Globe and Mail only works with your standard pancake recipe. This is not your standard pancake. I think I will stick to my usual method. Since these are not overly rich, I suggest you be creative with the toppings.

Topping Ideas:
1 small banana, sliced
1 frozen banana, processed into banana soft serve
maple syrup
peanut butter
nuts

I topped mine with banana soft serve and peanut butter.

Since they were so thin I bet this would make a great crepe batter recipe. I have never looked into how crepe batter is made so this is really just a guess.

While I didn't celebrate fat Tuesday with this recipe, the gigantic cinnamon buns that my professor brought to class today surely made it a traditional fat Tuesday. On that note, you may not see any cookies, cakes or treats on the blog for the next..oh...40 days. You will see a new pasta recipe coming up in the next couple days though.

I hope everyone enjoyed some pancakes today!

Banana Walnut Oatmeal

2011-03-06T21:51:00.003-05:00

I start five out of seven days of the week (on average) with a bowl of Vegan Overnight Oats, which I initially discovered on Oh She Glows. As much as I love this breakfast, I like to change it up sometimes too, particularly on the weekend. I came across this Banana Pecan Oatmeal Brulee recipe on Pinch my Salt a couple days ago, and thought it would be the perfect recipe to try this weekend. I made some slight changes to the recipe based on what I had on hand.

Banana Walnut Oatmeal adapted from Pinch my Salt

1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal
2 cups water
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 banana
Sucanat or brown sugar
walnut pieces

1. Put quick oats, hot cereal and water in a microwave/oven safe dish and heat on high for 3-4 minutes*, until desired consistency is reached.
2. Mix in ground flax seed and soy milk.
3. Slice banana and place on top of oatmeal. Sprinkle with sucanat or brown sugar.
4. Place under preheated broiler for 5ish minutes to melt sugar.
5. Sprinkle with walnuts.

* Alternatively you can make an equivalent quantity of any kind of oats/hot cereal on the stove stop, such as steel cut or scottish oats.

This was a nice treat yesterday morning, being so rainy outside. I liked the combination of the oats with the 7 grain cereal, something I have not done before. Even the leftovers were good this morning, when instead of rain, I awoke to snow... Not really jelling with my spring fever.

I came across an interesting article the other day as well, so I would like to share it with you.

It may be scary for some who have been told their whole lives that "fat is bad!", but it is becoming increasingly evident that saturated fat is not the problem with our diets. I was first introduced to the saturated fat myth by Michael Pollan when I read his book In Defense of Food. This article was brought to my attention on twitter and I think it is a good read, especially if this is news to you:

http://civileats.com/2011/03/04/a-big-fat-debate/

This doesn't mean go out and start deep frying all your foods. What it means is that be weary of 'low fat' convenience foods. What is taking the place of the fat? Most likely sugar, which we are now learning is our immortal enemy. I think the worst culprit I have seen for this type of advertising is any Special K product. While the fat debate will mostly go on far past our lifetime, there is one thing we can be sure of: there is no debate on trans fat, it is most definitely very bad for us.

Heather's Quinoa and Wheatberries

2011-03-03T17:53:00.002-05:00

I have a bit of spring fever. Yes, I know, I know, it's only March 3nd, and it's below zero. Regardless, I am itching for spring, and Heather's Quinoa by Heidi Swanson has contributed a bit to my spring like temperament. It all started last year in April when was on a 101cookbooks.com kick. I made Heidi's recipes all the time. It was exam time, I had just cleaned the entire house, it was a beautiful day, and I picked up some fresh pesto from a natural food store in uptown Waterloo, a store that I dearly miss. I bought the pesto to specifically use in this recipe. It was my first experience with fresh pesto, and boy was it memorable. I thought I didn't like pesto; turns out I was wrong.

To this day the thought of this dish, and particularly the combination of corn and basil brings me to that pleasant spring day when I was very, very happy in that simple moment. I had made some modifications to the recipe a year ago, and I have done it again today. The reason this time being that I have been dying to try wheatberries. I had purchased them over the Holidays and have been waiting for the perfect recipe to use them in. So in this case, instead of 3 cups of Quinoa, I used 1 cup cooked wheatberries, and 1.5 cups cooked quinoa.

You can find the recipe here and I highly recommend that you make this recipe soon. It is easy to make, quick, full of flavour and is easily modified. One note I do have however is that the quality of pesto makes all the difference. Last year, I used a fresh vegan pesto that was purchased in the refrigerated section and was in a container, not a jar (therefore not heated). I couldn't find fresh pesto at my local grocery store, and since it is the winter I do not have an excess of fresh basil to make it myself. I was not overly impressed with the jar I ended up buying. It looked good on the label (fresh basil was 1st ingredient, and didn't have anything I would not have added myself) but it just didn't suit my tastes. This pesto had Parmesan cheese in it and maybe that is what made the difference. Morale of the story: make your own fresh pesto or use a brand that you love the flavour of becuase it will make all the difference. And if you can avoid jarred pesto, then avoid it.

In other news, I have joined the twitter world. You can follow me at @ddidonat

Anyone else suffering from or experiencing premature spring fever?

Spiced Veggies and Chickpeas

2011-02-24T22:37:00.003-05:00

I made this dish last week when all I wanted was to consume a large amount of vegetables that were packed with flavour. I added the chickpeas to add some protein to make it a little more hearty. I wish I could say I remember exactly how much of everything I added but I can't. All I know is that I knew from the get go that a basic pan would not hold all my veggies, and that a saucepan would have to be used. Turns out this was an excellent idea, as the vegetables got very soft and almost stew like, without the sauce. In this recipe I got to use a spice combination I picked up at the One of a Kind Craft Show in Toronto in December. It is called dukkah. It is great on toasted naan or pita, but also makes a nice topping to dishes such as this. By the way, I cannot wait for the next show to treat myself to another new spice/condiment. The products that you can find there are fantastic. Oh...and did I mention there are free samples...EVERYWHERE?!?

Spiced Vegetables with Chickpeas

I appologize for how rough this recipe is, but it must be flexible since I winged it and it turned out great. It is also all about your taste and how much spice you can handle. Don't like ginger? Use less or leave it out. Love garlic? Start mincing those cloves! I also kept the size of the chopped veggies fairly large which is also a matter of taste.

1.5 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1.5 tsp cumin
red onion, chopped
cremini mushrooms, sliced
carrots, chopped
celery, chopped
brussel sprouts (cut into halves/quarters)
1 can of water chestnuts
1 small cauliflower head, chopped
1 brocolli crown, chopped
3/4 tsp tumeric
4 coves garlic, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 can chickpeas
black pepper
1-2 tbsp sesame oil

1. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat with chili flakes and cumin. Once fragrant, add the onions and saute for a couple minutes.
2. Add the rest of the vegetables. Stir well for 5-10 minutes until vegetables begin to cook.
3. Add tumeric and stir well to combine.
4. Add chickpeas, garlic, ginger, and black pepper. Stir and continue to heat on medium until vegetables are soft.
5. Drizzle with some sesame oil, mix in well and remove from heat.
6. Serve with dukkah sprinkled on top.

This is a good intermediate dish between wanting the fresh salads riddled with vegetables of the summer, but still craving the warm comfort food of winter.

Brie Macaroni and Cheese

2011-02-11T07:40:00.001-05:00

I was not a huge fan of macaroni and cheese while growing up. My brother loved it, so I ate it when it was made for me, but I would never ask for it. Of course, this was Kraft cheddar mac 'n cheese. This convenience food is often a staple for University students. Incredibly cheap, quick, and easy. For me however, I can distinctly remember the three times I ate mac 'n cheese during my undergrad. The first was in first year. I lived in a dorm-style residence with no kitchen amenities beyond a microwave and refrigerator. We managed to make Kraft dinner in a plastic container of some sorts, and it was only palatable doused in ketchup. The second two times came out of no where (about a year apart) where I had an intense craving for President's Choice white cheddar macaroni and cheese. I have not had it since, but the craving has creeped up again.

I have been wanting to make my own from scratch for quite a while, becuase I know with some real cheese it could be quite a treat. A couple weeks ago Just Flourishing mentioned brie mac 'n cheese. I knew this is how I wanted to make my first homemade macaroni and cheese. With brie! When I saw brie cheese at No Frills for a reasonable price, I picked some up and knew that it would be used to make my first ever homemade macaroni and cheese.

This recipe is really my own but I took ideas from a number of recipes. I accepted that it wouldn't be heathy, but I put some "healthier" twists on it anyway. I like the idea of adding a vegetable which came from the Kitchn. I also liked the idea of using cottage cheese to amp up the creaminess from Smitten Kitchen. In this recipe the cottage cheese was blended to blend the "curds" which tend not to melt when heated. This added some cheesyness and protein without the fat of traditional cheddar or the brie which I used. Oh, and I didn't use macaroni.

Shells with Brie Cheese and Mushroom Sauce
Serves 2-3

1 tsp butter
3 large cremini mushrooms
1 cup milk (I used skim)
1 tbsp flour (use all purpose - whole wheat results in brown specs in the sauce - see picture)
1/2 cup cottage cheese, blended smooth (I used 2%)
1/2 small wheel of brie cheese (100 g, rind removed)
2.5 cup dry vegetable shell pasta

1. Heat butter on medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute until soft. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
2. Turn heat to medium-low and add 1/2 cup milk and stir continuously while simmering.
3. Add 1/2 tbsp flour (sprinkle it), and continue to stir until sauce thickens.
4. Add blended cottage cheese and the rest of the milk. Stir until a simmer is reached.
5. Sprinkle the rest of the flour and continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Add brie cheese, cut into chunks. Simmer and stir until desired thickness.
6. Add sauce to cooked pasta.

For making the sauce on the fly, it didn't turn out too bad! It was a little thick so I think I would add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk next time. The problem with homemade cheese sauces is they tend not to do very well as leftovers. This is all to do with texture as they become clumpy rather than saucy. The taste does not change though so all is not lost.

I recommend you make this recipe if you are looking for a protein packed (15 g per 1/2 cup) slightly healthier 'real' mac 'n cheese, and love brie. But really, you can substitute any cheese you want for the brie to suit your taste. Making sauces can be fun as long as there is no pressure for them to turn out perfectly, so experiment! It might not look very pretty, but it will always taste good...it is cheese after all!

Rosemary Focaccia, Spinach Salad, and Ice Cream Sandwiches...Oh My!

2011-02-03T21:36:00.008-05:00

I am sad to follow the roasted lamb recipe with my whole wheat focaccia failure. Well, it wasn't a total failure, but it needed some improvement. There is a reason I own a cookbook dedicated to whole grain baking. It is because it is just not as simple as substituting whole wheat flour in for all purpose flour. I followed a recipe from 330 Vegetarian Recipes for Health, but substituted the all purpose flour directly with whole wheat. The dough just did not rise sufficiently. It was a dense focaccia, let me tell you. Flavourful, but dense.

In Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce, there is a recipe for focaccia bread which uses spelt flour. I would have loved to make this variation but I just didn't have time for the extended rising times required. Maybe that is all my dough needed was more time to rise. The focaccia had great flavour as it was speckled with dried rosemary, minced garlic, and large rocks of sea salt.

The disappointment of the focaccia was definitely made up for by the salad that accompanied the meal. A very simple salad with fresh baby spinach, goat cheese, and walnuts, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I don't often add nuts to salad but I loved the walnut and goat cheese combination.

Now a dinner like this must finish off with desert. I don't make actual desert very often. Usually just for birthday dinners or a special occasion. But it was Friday, and I roasted a lamb so it was kind of a special occasion. I love ice cream, but there was no way I was making my own. That would be too many cooking "firsts" for one day. So I purchased some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Something in this desert had to be made by myself though so I thought ice cream sandwiches would be appropriate. I wanted it to be an absolutely delicious cookie so I headed over to Annie's Eats, as she has plenty of recipes to choose from. I made Annie's Giant Double Chocolate Cookies, but smaller, for appropriately sized ice cream sandwiches.

These sandwiches were quite tasty. I think next time I would make the cookies thinner since once frozen they were pretty rock hard and difficult to bite into. Regardless, you can't really mess up cookie + ice cream. Especially chocolate cookie + mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Special Lamb Roast Dinner

2011-01-30T20:03:00.006-05:00

On Friday night I made quite the dinner. I began the process at around 2:00 pm. Dinner was served around 7:00 pm. It wasn't extremely labour intensive, but a lot of waiting and planning with regards to oven time. Here is what was on the menu:

Rosemary and Garlic Focaccia
Roasted Lamb in a bed of Vegetables
Spinach and Goat Cheese Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Asparagus
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

Today I will talk about the highlight of the show, if you would call a meal a show. That would be the roasted lamb in a bed of vegetables. Upon acquiring the leg of lamb from Fortinos (1.3 kg of leg) I browsed the internet for cooking times/cooking methods. After looking at a dozen sites I settled on a protocols. It turned out really well, besides being a bit underdone for my taste.

Roasted Leg of Lamb in a Bed of Vegetables

2-3 lb leg of lamb, bone-in
1.5 lb fingerling potatoes, cut into halves or quarters
2 large shallots or small onions, cut into wedges
~20 small white mushrooms
1 can whole tomatoes, drained (liquid reserved)
~1/2 cup red wine
olive oil
rosemary
black pepper
7 garlic cloves

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place potatoes, onions, mushrooms and drained tomatoes in a large roasting pan.
3. Drizzle some olive oil, add rosemary, ground black pepper and toss to coat, breaking up whole tomatoes.
4. Place lamb on top of vegetables with the fat side up. With a sharp knife make cuts in the meat faced up. Pour the juice from the can of tomatoes on top, followed by the red wine. Sprinkle with black pepper and rosemary. Place 3 garlic cloves on top of lamb and 4 in the vegetables.

5. Heat lamb in oven for 30 minutes. Remove garlic cloves on top of lamb and stir vegetables.
6. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and roast until internal temperature is 170 degrees F (well done, about 35 minutes per pound). Stir vegetables every 30 minutes.
7. When internal temperature of 170 degrees F is reached, remove from oven and place lamb on a cutting board. Allow to rest for 20 minutes and cover veggies with foil to keep warm.

Although the thermometer read 170 degrees F, the lamb was more medium then well-done. I am unsure if the thermometer was a bit off or I didn't place it deep enough. It was cooked better at the top then at the bottom. This problem would have been solved with a wire rack over the veggies so heat could circulate the bottom, and then juices would still have dripped from the lamb into the veggies. Some basting would be required however.

The lamb was delicious even with its slight under cooked state, for my tastes. I hate (or love...not sure) to say it but the vegetables were really the star. They were so flavourful with the tomato, wine and lamb working really well together. This meal was rather pricey but definitely worth it. Can't say I will repeat this recipe any time soon for that reason but I would definitely try out the roasted vegetables sans lamb (or maybe with some less-expensive stewing lamb).

I hope to post the rest of the recipes by the end of the week, or maybe even tomorrow if we are granted with a snow day. There is a blizzard coming in Ontario. The members of this household plan to occupy our snow day (because it is happening) with snow angels, baking, movies, and tobogganing. Yes, we are 8 years old. Enjoy the snow!

Baked Eggs with Artichokes

2011-01-24T22:24:00.005-05:00

Eggs are a huge staple of mine. I eat an egg almost every day along with some egg whites. Usually scrambled, sometimes sandwiched within an English muffin with some goat cheese. That is probably my favourite. However, last week I found another fantastic way to eat my eggs and a hefty dose of protein. It all started when I was trying to find a way to use a can of artichoke hearts that were on sale (and therefore purchased by myself...obviously). I saw a few recipes out there for baked artichokes in eggs. I definitely could not pass up another way to use eggs.

Baked Eggs with Artichokes adapted from Epicurious
serves 1 or 2

2 artichoke hearts, cut into thirds (or you could use artichoke quarters)
1 egg
1/2 cup egg white
1/2 cup cottage cheese
black pepper to taste
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Lay artichokes in a greased small baking dish. Sprinkle with some black pepper

3. In a bowl beat the eggs, egg whites, and cottage cheese. Pour over the artichokes and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the eggs are set and no longer liquidy.

I loved the flavour combination of the artichokes with the eggs. I will definitely be making this one again. It would make a wonderful brunch item, especially if it was made in individual portions (in a muffin tray for example).

I have some other exciting food news (for me anyway). I tried a new kind of meat this weekend! I think this is exciting because how often do you try a new kind of meat? I haven't tried a new kind of meat in like 15-20 years. I have had all the "most common" meats out there. Chicken, turkey, beef (even grass-fed), tripe, pork, lamb and rabbit. Thanks to my housemates wonderful family I can add venison to the list! Now coming from someone who does not eat meat very often you would think this would not excited me very much but it is actually the opposite! I would consider myself a foodie. I like to try new foods, new restaurants, new recipes, new insert food related item here. So I was very excited to try venison. Especially when that meat was wild and acquired by my housemates Father. I am a big fan of tradition, especially when it comes to food, and you don't get much more traditional than hunting for your own meals.

The way the venison was prepared was phenomenal, and I plan to use a similar method on Friday to prepare a lamb roast for a special dinner. The meal is planned all the way down to dessert (so you know I mean business). I have never made a roast before. Lets hope for the best!

Mushroom and Bean Bolognese

2011-01-18T20:23:00.005-05:00

I realized this weekend after my weekly grocery store trip that I need to start to use up my pantry items. I really should take a picture to show you how full my cupboard is. The problem is, I head to the grocery store every week to get the essentials: milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, apples, bananas (locally grown exception). I then end up buying other things I don't need right now (but will need one day) that are on sale because I cannot pass up a sale. Over the Holidays I also took a trip to Goodness Me to use a gift card my wonderful Grandmother got me for my Birthday. This resulted in stocking up my pantry even more with some foods I have been wanting to try for a while (wheat berries, sucanat) and other items that are a bit too expensive to buy on a regular basis. Now I have a pantry crisis that I must begin to deal with. OH and how could I forget my freezer. I have numerous portions of cabbage rolls, soups, veggies, ripe bananas, meat, you name it, that needs to also be dealt with.

The need to use up my pantry items as well as some mushrooms (which I don't like to keep for very long after purchasing) lead to making this mushroom and bean bolognese adapted from 330 Vegetarian Recipes for Health.

Mushroom and Bean Bolognese adapted from 330 Vegetarian Recipes for Health

1 tbsp
1/2 large red onion, chopped
18 white mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
~ 1/3 cup chopped roasted red peppers (from my freezer)
1.5 tbsp tomato paste
3 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups dry vegetable shell pasta
Parmesan cheese for serving

1. Heat olive oil in large pot on medium heat. Add onions and saute for 3-5 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms and garlic and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.
3. Add diced tomatoes, kidney beans, roasted red peppers, tomato paste and oregano.
4. Bring to a simmer then reduce to low, allowing to simmer for 15-20 minutes while you cook the pasta.
5. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Top pasta with sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

A bolognese sauce is traditionally meat heavy and has very little tomato sauce too it, often just with chunks of tomatoes. Therefore, draining the diced tomatoes would give a more authentic vegetarian bolognese, but I wanted something a little more saucy. This sauce was very thick and almost stew like. I could definitely eat it on its own.

Oh, and I know in my last post I said I would talk about a soup in my next post, but that soup was abysmal. After forcing myself to eat it two days in a row for lunch I decided that no one should make that soup for themselves; unless of course you like flavourless, watery, cruciferous soup. If you do, give me a shout, I have a recipe for you ;).

That's all for now! I should tend to the beets roasting in my oven before I forget about them.

Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

2011-01-10T08:34:00.007-05:00

My visit to the farmer's market last weekend didn't turn up too much of a bounty for a couple reasons. A) it was the first day back after the Holidays and B) the market was closing in less than a week for two weeks to move to the new location. I managed to get a few items though and as I was roaming around I tried to think of something I could make that would incorporate cabbage (which there was plenty of) and wasn't a soup (becuase that is all I feel like I have been making lately). So naturally I went with cabbage rolls! Now since I don't have much of an appetite for ground meats these are a vegetarian variety. I have only make cabbage rolls once before and they weren't anything to write about. I actually quite liked these ones and would only make one minor change in the future, which I will mention after the recipe

Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot chopped finely
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
~15 white mushrooms
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup cooked lentils
1.5 cups sauce or seasoned stewed tomatoes
1 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp driedoregano
1 tsp dried basil

1 medium cabbage
tomato sauce or seasoned stewed tomatoes

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onion and saute for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add carrots and saute another 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic and sautee until mushrooms are cooked. Remove from pan into a large bowl.

2. Add rice, lentils, sauce, cheese and spices to mushroom mixture and stir well to combine.

3. To cook and separate the cabbage leaves I find the following method the best: Take a knife and cut the stump off as much as you can without sacrificing too much leaf. Then take a knife and further cut around the stump so a leaf would free itself if it wasn't so rigidly bound around the cabbage. Boil a pot of water, reduce to a simmer, and immerse the cabbage. As the outer leaves turn a brighter green and soft, they will fall off with ease. Remove the loosened leaf from the water once cooked well and allow to cool. Note: The cabbage will be very hot so handle with care. I tend to stick a fork in the stem for easier handling.

4. Take the cooked cabbage leaf and put the filling in the stem end.

5. Wrap up and place in a deep baking dish

6. Cover with a generous amount of sauce and bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes.

I loved these. Took some time with cooking the rice and the lentils but so worth it. The Parmesan cheese really makes it so I suggest not leaving it out (but it could definitely be substituted). For a vegan option you could use bread crumbs or soft tofu I suspect. The one thing I would change are the carrots. Next time I would probably shred them as the chunks kind of ruined the soft inside of the filling.

I don't want to spoil any surprises but my next recipe will be a soup. It is very different from what I usually make and has an interesting story behind it. Lets just say it was in the making for almost 3 hours. I will also leave you with a picture of the most complex cake I have ever made. My housemate Jenna and I made the Reese's Cup Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake from Annie's Eats for our good friend Dani's going away party. It was quite the treat!

I am off to continue reading Eat, Pray, Love (I have jumped on the bandwagon a little late).

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T20:59:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year! As my gift to you I have a protein packed warm soup based off of a recipe on www.101cookbooks.com, New Year Noodle Soup. Before I get into the delicious details, I'd just like to say I had a fantastic new years eve weekend, and I hope you did too. I am not big into celebrating new years, but I am big into having some good fun at a cottage for a weekend. The weather was not on our side but that didn't stop us. While we didn't get to snowboard or toboggan, we did have a snowball fight. You can't complain about a good snowball fight.

I am also not much of a new years resolution type. I often make resolutions as the year goes on at random times based on how I am feeling. However, this year I have made a few.

1. Kick my sugar dependency that was achieved over the Holidays.
Too many squares, cookies, chocolate, cocktails, you name it.

2. Eat more local food.
Last term I was so busy with school I didn't get to visit the farmer's market as often as I would have liked. I will be heading there tomorrow before it closes for a week and a half (the Hamilton farmer's market is moving to its long awaited new location!). I hope to buy most of my produce that is grown locally, or at least in Ontario (I cannot give up bananas and citrus fruits though). We will see what goods I come home with tomorrow.

3. Train for and complete a sprint triathlon...pending getting my hands on a road bike.
In 2009 I did a tri-a-tri and had such a great time. My swim needs some work in order to complete a sprint triathlon and I definitely cannot get away with using my mountain bike in the increased distance.

4. Read more books.
The picture of my newly acquired stack speaks for itself.

5. Appreciate every day.
Not every day is the greatest day of your life, but without an appreciation for every day you live, good or bad, it is a day wasted. I don't want to waste a day.

6. Travel somewhere beautiful.
Hopefully I find the funds and the time to get away for a week or at least a long weekend. I want to visit a mountain or a coast. Something in North America would suffice.

I hope to achieve most of these and I think it is pretty reasonable. On kicking my sugar habit and starting to eat a little more normal I made a soup. I moved back to my own house today and had an empty refrigerator and a full pantry. Therefore this soup contains no fresh ingredients. But I wouldn't let that put you off, it is extremely nutritious.

Protein Packed Egg Noodle Soup adapted from 101cookbooks.com

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 L vegetable stock
1 cup lentils
1 can chickpeas
1 3/4 cup edamame
1/3 package frozen chopped spinach
4 cups whole-wheat egg noodles

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chili flakes and heat for 1 minute.

new measuring spoons and cutting board :)

2. Add cumin, tumeric and pepper and heat until fragrant. Add vegetable stock and bring to a boil.

3. Add lentils and cook for 20 minutes. Add chickpeas, edamame, and spinach. Simmer until lentils are soft.
4. Add egg noodles and simmer until cooked.

This soup was thick and delicious. Did I use chopsticks? No, but I wanted to have as many newly acquired kitchen stuff in my pictures in this post. While I haven't actually calculated the nutritional information, I imagine there is more than enough protein in this soup. I know it has kept me full for about 4 hours already, and that says something.

Grass Fed Beef

2010-12-26T11:38:00.007-05:00

Happy Birthday to me!! That is what I have been telling myself anyway, when I buy myself something while Christmas shopping for my family and friends. It provides a great excuse actually. I love Christmas shopping, but often I am in dire need of stuff for myself around this time. Then my Birthday comes around and there are sales everywhere! In the past couple days I have bought myself a dress, a purse, a couple books, makeup, a shirt, etc. Like I said, Happy Birthday to me; that little saying justifies the spending if you ask me.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know I did. I had a wonderful time with my family on Christmas day. So much food. Our fridge is busting. For my birthday (Boxing day), instead of having turkey leftovers, we had a steak dinner. My usual Birthday dinner is salmon but this year I threw out the idea of grass fed beef. I wasn't sure whether this would actually happen since it is sometimes hard to find and expensive, but my Dad took it upon himself to visit Whole Foods. Then, he got Whole Foods syndrome and purchased a few grass fed steaks. Whole Foods syndrome is where you spend too much money on organic/specialty food due to the excitement of being in Whole Foods.

Now I am no expert on beef, but I do know (or think I know) that grass fed beef tends to dry out faster. After telling my dad this he decided to make a marinade using papaya juice. Something to note about my Dad is that he gets really into things sometimes. One of these things would be steak marinades. He once had a steak that had papaya juice in the marinade and loved it. He has now been waiting for the day where he could do the same. And yesterday was that day. Here is a make-shift recipe of the marinade my Dad used:

Marinated Grass Fed Beef

steaks

marinade:
bbq sauce or store-bought marinade
papya juice
red wine
Worcestershire sauce
lemon juice

The steaks were marinaded for about 6 hours and the BBQd. They turned out wonderful! The grass fed beef was very moist even when cooked to my liking (well done). Besides being more tender, I found it difficult to discern any real differences in the grass fed beef.

All I can say is that it was delicious, and probably had a better nutritional profile. Grass fed beef tends to have less total fat, cholesterol, saturated fat, and more omega-3s than typical grain-fed beef. Bonus! [Source]

Has anyone seen the video on youtube, where the kid gets books for Christmas? It was kind of a running joke the past couple days, as with Christmas and my Birthday I was given 5 books and bought myself 2! I love each and every one of them. Most are cook books or food related, and one is a Women's Health workout encyclopedia (encycloPAYdia for all you HIMYM fans).

This means that I will have lots of cooking and baking (and reading) to do in the new year! I cannot wait! I hope to do lots of experimenting in the kitchen. Using new spices, grains, vegetables etc! I have started reading Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson and am already inspired to follow some of the recipes.

Keep on enjoying the Holiday season!!

Salad Rice Paper Rolls

2010-12-23T17:12:00.004-05:00

I am home for the Holidays! I have had a crazy few weeks with school. Turns out I did have to wait until the end of term to write another post. Which works out well actually, the Holidays bring lots of food which means lots of preparing/cooking which give me a lot to write about. Just this past weekend my good friends and I had our 4th annual Christmas potluck party. This year the mom's came along and we each made something to bring along. Normally we have WAY too much food but this time it was the perfect amount with a bit of leftovers.

I decided to make rice paper salad rolls. I decided this after flipping through a book my Grandmother gave me for Christmas, called 'The Complete Illustrated Book of Herbs' by Reader's Digest. There was a recipe for the classic salad roll with cilantro and mint. Looked wonderful! One problem though. I cannot stand cilantro. So something different had to be done. The result was these Goat Cheese Salad Rice Paper Rolls:

Goat Cheese Salad Rice Paper Rolls:

rice paper (small size)
goat cheese
cucumber, sliced julienne
carrots, matchstick cut
muschrooms, chopped finely
alfalfa sprouts
sweet chili sauce, for dipping

1. Dip rice paper in warm water until soft to roll. Shake to remove excess water.
2. Put goat cheese in a row on the middle of one side of paper.
3. Top with veggies. I used cucumber, carrot, mushrooms and alfalfa sprouts.

4. Wrap it up. Fold up the one side, then the bottom, and then follow with the other side. Rice paper is actually really easy to work with and after a couple you get the hang of it. It sticks together so they hold fairly well.
5. Serve chilled with sweet chili dipping sauce.

These make for a great appetizer at any holiday party. My Mom requested I make these on Christmas eve! I imagine making many different varieties of them in the future. Since the package seemed to come with a thousand pieces of rice paper, this is definitely going to happen.

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve! I hope everyone has a wonderful evening with family, friends, and fantastic food and drink!

Cheers!

Lentil and Black Bean Vegetable Soup

2010-11-29T21:26:00.007-05:00

As promised here is soup #2 of the winter season. I made it quite a while ago now (nov 19) and as usual I didn't write down what I put in it! So let's see how my memory will serve me today. Usually when it comes to soup I go light on the seasonings and stick to the basil, bay leaf, rosemary variety. That's just how I like it. This time however I went for the cumin, garlic, coriander, chili flavours. While still mild in flavour it was just different enough to make this soup a little bit more exciting.

What also made this soup exciting was that I literally emptied my crisper and made a dent on my pantry while making it. I was just grabbing veggies, cans, and jars left right and center. To my pleasant surprise it turned out rather delicious and not so surprisingly, very hearty.

Lentil and Black Bean Vegetable Soup

1 carton vegetable broth
1 can of stewed tomatoes
water (about a tomato can full)
1 can black beans
red lentils (1/2 cup?)
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 crown broccoli, chopped
1 can sliced mushrooms
1 can corn
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 bunch of kale, chopped
cumin
garlic powder
coriander
dried chili pepper
cayenne pepper

1. Heat broth, stewed tomatoes, and broth on medium-high until a simmer is reached.
2. Add all veggies (except for kale), black beans and lentils.
3. Once a simmer is reached, reduce heat to medium-low and add spices. I don't remember the measurements but it was about 2:2:1 for cumin to garlic powder to coriander. I just sprinkled them on there. Then the chili pepper and cayenne pepper is to your own taste. Depends on how hot you like it!
4. Simmer for 30 minutes or so until the lentils and squash are soft.
5. Add the kale and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

This soup is very thick and hearty. Almost like a chili. I added some black pepper and crumbled goat cheese on top. I suspect cheddar would be fantastic as well.

Yup, that is me eating in front of my computer. Not as much of a regular affair as it used to be (a positive thing I think).

I have quite the lineup of food photos for you. I don't think this one post a week deal is nearly enough to handle them. Hopefully I will be able to post some more as the term comes to an end and the Holidays begin!

Weekend Breakfast

2010-11-21T19:14:00.004-05:00

I Love Breakfast. It is my favourite meal of the day. During the week my breakfast doesn't vary too much but on the weekend I like to switch it up a bit. With usually no time limits I am able to make pancakes or french toast or something more elaborate like that. On Saturday morning I laid in bed with my laptop watching tv (a very relaxing feeling by the way) thinking about what to make for breakfast. I knew I wanted something different to start my day.

I headed over to Oh She Glows because I am always envious of her breakfasts. I saw her recipe for a Grilled Cashew Butter and Blueberry Sandwich. Now, here is the problem. I took a week off from peanut butter. Hard to believe but I went 4 days without it! (ok so I failed at making it a whole week..but baby steps!). This was only accomplished because I didn't actually have any in the house (the only way this could be accomplished). I liked the grilled sandwich idea but I wanted to throw some eggs into the mix, and had to make a substitution for the peanut butter. This resulted in a Goat Cheese and Jam French Toast Sandwich.

Goat Cheese and Jam French Toast Sandwich

2 slices of bread
soft unripened goat cheese
jam (I used pomegranate berry)
1 egg
splash of milk

Spread the goat cheese on one slice and the jam on the other. Put the slices together like a sandwich (these are very complex directions, so pay attention ;). Beat the egg with some milk in a bowl. Dip each side of the sandwich in the egg mixture and place on a medium-heat pan. After a few minutes (peak to see when it is nice and browned), flip the sandwich (being careful that the two sides down separate) and cook the other side.

This sandwich was soft and sweet and wonderful. I felt like I was eating dessert for breakfast. I think I would prefer the edges more toasty next time so maybe baking it would be better?...hmmm. Has anyone ever had baked french toast? Is it crispier?

Looking at the weather for the week it is going to be rainy, then cold, then possibly snow for the first time this season here in southern Ontario :). I guess this means I should share another soup recipe soon!

Vegetable and Chickpea Soup

2010-11-14T22:12:00.006-05:00

Better late than never is what I say. Actually, that saying is totally not me as I don't like to be late for anything. But in this case, posting this recipe later than I anticipated is much better than never posting it at all. This was my first soup of the fall/winter season and it was quite a success. I still have some in the freezer which will be much needed in the month to come I am sure.

It all starts with a pot.

I love this pot. Not only because it was a fantastic deal at the time but it was the first pot/pan I ever bought for myself. It consistently provides me with fantastic soups, stews and sauces. Obviously due to the pot itself.

Then you need some ingredients. This is what I used (I ended up not using the stewed tomatoes and also added kale and spinach).

You have to use your muscles a bit and chop until you cannot chop anymore. I hate chopping carrots SO much. I especially hate chopping baby carrots, but I needed to use them up.

Let the soup making begin!

Vegetable and Chickpea Soup:

1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 onion, chopped
carrots, chopped
2 small zucchini, chopped
2 cartons of vegetable broth
1 can of chickpeas
potatoes, cut up into bite sized pieces
1 stalk of kale, chopped
chopped spinach (I used frozen nuggets - about 8-10)
3 bay leaves
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
pepper to taste

1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute for a few minutes.
2. Add the carrots and zucchini and saute until soft. The zucchini could also be added later so they maintain some structure but I like it when they are mushy in the soup.
3. Add vegetable broth and chickpeas. Once the broth begins to boil reduce to medium-low so the soup is simmering and add the potatoes and the spices. Cover.
4. Simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes and then add the kale and spinach. Cover.
5. Simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

This soup made some delicious lunches all week!

It was especially good with some aged white cheddar on top. It was great to kick off soup-season with a win and I look forward to some more successful creations.

I'm Back!

2010-11-08T21:13:00.006-05:00

A week since my last post, I made my way home from Montreal, only to travel to Toronto just a few days later for 4 days. Finally I am home and back to normalcy.

Montreal was fantastic! We had some interesting living arrangements but had a great time at the course. I love the city and want to visit again in the winter becuase I think old Montreal would be beautiful covered in snow. To save some money we took a trip to the grocery store upon arrival. I sustained most days off of hard boiled eggs, bread, cottage cheese, peanut butter, apples, bananas, and oatmeal (how exciting, haha). Can't say I came up with any novel recipes with that grocery list.

We did manage to have a few nights out for dinner. The highlight of our dining experiences was Gorgio's in Old Montreal.

Not only was the restaurant in a dungeon with an interesting history, but it was BYOW with no corking fee, and had a menu consisting of $10 pizza and pasta. I had pizza with pesto, provalone cheese, peppers, onions and sausage. The crust was thinner than I prefer but was delicious none-the-less.

The building was an old schoolhouse and then was used to store the firs for the Hudson's Bay Company. Pretty cool I'd say!

The wrestling that was on TV ruined the atmosphere a little bit

Down the street from our hostel was a restaurant O.NOIR which I have heard about but never seen. No one was daring enough to go with me but I DEFINITELY want to go to Toronto location sometime in the future. There was also a frozen yogurt shop down the street called Yeh! It was a great concept! They had tons of flavours to choose from and it was self serve. You could mix whatever flavours you wanted and then you paid by the weight. They had every topping you could ever want including fresh fruit! It was a nice change from our usual TCBY fare.

Clearly I didn't go for the fresh fruit

After a very long trip back from Montreal I had a few days to recover from the severe lack of sleep that resulted from staying up until 3 am and waking up at 7 am the last few days in Montreal. Then it was time to head to Toronto to attend a conference. Across the street from the conference there was a gourmet burrito place that we tried for lunch one day. It was called Z-Teca.

Now as you probably know, I LOVE burritos. This place had a really neat concept and tasted very fresh and somewhat healthier than your usual burrito. I had a vegetarian burrito with roasted tomatillo & jalapeno salsa which was delicious.

This photo is a little unappetizing. Burritos just don't photograph well (that's my excuse anyway)

There was something missing however and it is hard to put my finger on it. It probably was a combination of using regular black beans instead of refried beans and the slight under-grilling. I would have liked it to be a bit crisper. While not better than Burrito Boyz, still better than any burrito I have made (see rice paper burrito fail).

On our last night in Toronto we walked along Harbord St. in attempts to find some good pizza. We found it at a place called Pizza Gigi. Great price and fantastic pizza! We ordered a whole pizza but the pre-made slices looked to-die-for. I see this place being a great late-night stop after a night out. The man that made ALL the pizza's (we witnessed TONS of phone orders while waiting for our pizza; a very popular delivery place I suspect) was grumpy and Italian, which is probably how it should be.

With all the eating out the last couple weeks I was looking forward to cooking. I made a nice big pot of soup today which will last me all week I am sure. Keep an eye out for the recipe!

Montreal Bound

2010-10-24T11:09:00.002-04:00

What a week! I hate to say it, but that artichoke is still in the crisper of my refrigerator. It will stay there for another week, most likely going bad, because I am en route to Montreal! :)

I did learn how to use the artichoke. I had plans all week to saute it in some butter and garlic. It would have been delicious I am sure. Not only did I not get to use my artichoke this week but most of my meals consisted of grilled sandwiches and kale chips. I am glad my super busy week is over and I can resume to cooking up some new recipes, when I return from Montreal of course.

I will hopefully have some excellent food experiences in Montreal that I will share upon my return, or maybe even mid trip.

I've been busy but not too busy to cook!

2010-10-18T20:13:00.006-04:00

Looking at my photo albums in iPhoto today made me realize how much I have cooked lately. I have been pretty busy with school and when I come home I am usually starving. Anything that slows down the time it takes for me to eat (aka. taking pictures/writing down quantities) has been cut from the routine. This week is equally busy so I will make this post relatively quick. Showing some pictures of my latest creations and either a link to a recipe, or a quick recap of what I did.

A while back my Nonna made me a pasta dish with no sauce, and was dressed with some olive oil and canned clams. I LOVED it! I made it once after that and then totally forgot about the potential of canned clams. They went on sale at the grocery store a couple weeks back and I remembered how much I loved them. I sauted up some garlic, chili pepper, onions, mushrooms, and broccoli, and then added the drained canned clams. Once all the veggies were tender and the calms were hot, I added some cooked rice noodles and tossed until mixed well. Any noodle would work well here but I liked the tenderness of the rice noodle.

One night a couple weeks ago I knew I wanted to use up some lentils so I did the usual search on Google Reader. I came across this recipe for a Vegetable Pie With Cornbread Topping from Seasonal Ontario Foods blog. I made some substitutions with vegetables I had on hand and I was a little disappointed. I definitely didn't like the pepper and I could have done without the eggplant (my substitution for zucchini). I liked the combination of the cornbread with the lentils (mostly because I LOVE) however and see a lot of potential in this one! I think next time I would use my personal favourite cornbread recipe.

I have been big into making baked fries lately. I make them about once a week, with sweet potato or regular potatoes. I love changing up the flavours using different spices to toss the taters in olive oil with, but one of my favourites is this flavour combination by Dani Spies, Spiced Sweet Potato Wedges With a Garlic Yogurt Dip.

On the weekend of Thanksgiving I found stewing lamb at the grocery store. Now I love lamb! It is by far my favourite meat. The best peice of lamb that every graced my lips came straight from a pot of sauce my Tatone was making. So I knew for sure I was cooking this lamb in some tomato sauce. I cut off as much of the lamb from the bone as I could. I then browned the lamb, as well as the bones with meat still on it, in a sauce pan, and then added onion and chopped portabello mushrooms. Once the veggies were cooked I poured on the strained tomatoes, added some basil, oregano, garlic powder, and 2 bay leaves. I let this simmer for about 45 minutes covered, and then allowed to reduce for another 15-20 minutes. I served it over cooked spaghetti squash, a great alternative to spaghetti! The sauce was delicious becuase you could taste the flavour of the lamb in each bite.

I am off to Montreal next week :) but I will be sure to write a real post before then. I bought myself an artichoke on the weekend and I am going to find out how to use it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!...and Pumpkin Spiced Cookies

2010-10-10T22:36:00.010-04:00

Today is officially Thanksgiving so Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had our family dinner on Sunday and it was delicious! I am actually writing some of this post ahead of time so I am still nursing quite the food baby. I know for some people Thanksgiving is all about the turkey. Not so much for me. I am all about the sides. Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, peas and mushrooms....drool. I look forward to these classics every year.

Thanksgiving dinner this year was at my Aunt's house in Waterloo. They live in a beautiful neighbourhood with lots of very large old trees. This makes for beautiful scenery for a Thanksgiving feast. It was so warm out so we got to sit outside. The sun was shining and there were barely clouds in the sky! Here are some pictures from our day of thanks...

I am thankful for figs.

I am thankful for those who can carve a turkey

I am thankful for my aunt and cousin for cooking all the delicious food!

I am thankful for roasted red peppers from my Tatone's garden.

I am thankful for calorie induced comas (not really actually).

I am thankful the live music at every family gathering.

I am also thankful for cookies!

We had vegan chocolate raspberry (by cousin Diana)

Oatmeal, biscotti, pizzelli (by Nonna), and pumpkin spice cookies (by me). The pumpkin spice cookies was a hybrid of two recipes. The cookie was very soft and almost muffin like. I would love to play around with the recipe some more to make a crispier cookie which I much prefer. Here is the recipe as it stands so far.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies adapted from the Voracious Vegan and Vegan by Valerie

¾ cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

½ cup wheat bran

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/4 cup butter
¼ cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar

granulated sugar for coating cookie

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 cookie sheets.

2. Mix dry ingredients.

3. Mix wet ingredients. It is difficult to mix the butter well into the wet ingredients.

4. Mix wet ingredients into the flour mixture in two portions. Mix well until fully blended. The batter is pretty sticky and wet (kind of like cake batter). It also tastes delicious by the way.

5. Roll into 1 inch diameter balls and roll lightly in sugar. Place on cookie sheet and flatten with a fork in a crisscross pattern.

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from the pan.

These cookies are chewy and soft, if you are into that sort of thing. Next time I am going to cut back on the oil and butter and see where that takes me. I will let you know how it turns out. Since I have so much leftover pumpkin puree I may just make another batch this week ;)

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Pizza on the BBQ

2010-10-09T18:50:00.007-04:00

For the past few days I have had a craving for pizza. Finally tonight, that craving was satisfied. I made a last minute decision to go home earlier than I had planned to spend more time with my family. When my Dad asked what I wanted to have for dinner, obviously I could not have said pizza fast enough. On the BBQ? Of course! It was such a beautiful day today which was perfect. While driving home up the escarpment in Hamilton this morning it sunk in that autumn was here, which even with a cool wind makes me feel warm inside. I have a soft spot for leaf senescence.

Now onto the pizza. I have yet to tackle making my own pizza dough. One day I will attempt it but for today Fortinos fresh whole-wheat pizza dough did the trick. Store bought pizza sauce would do as well.

1. Fire up the BBQ and let it get really hot!

2. Roll out the dough into preferred thickness and size.

3. Place onto hot grill.

Once the bottom is cooked, the outer edges are almost cooked and the middle is still soft, remove the crust from the grill, uncooked side down (rotate halfway through cooking time).

4. Place your toppings onto the grilled side. We added sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, veggies (green pepper, onion, mushrooms, hot peppers), then Romano cheese.

5. Put pizzas back on the grill and close the lid to allow the cheese melt while the bottom is cooking.

Once the cheese is melted and the bottom has the desired colour, it is done!

While the sauce was a little bland, the pizza was delicious and satisfied my desire for some cheesy pizza.

Since it is Thanksgiving weekend there is a whole lot of food fun going on. Tomorrow I am heading to my Aunts for Thanksgiving dinner and will definitely be a meal to write about. I am baking a special treat which I will be able to share with you as well (through pictures and words only unfortunately).

Eggplant Parmesan

2010-09-30T19:58:00.006-04:00

Get ready for lots of pictures. As I loaded up my pictures to iPhoto I realized how much has happened in the last week. This happens to me every week when I go to write a new post so I shouldn't seem so surprised every time. The main recipe for this post was inspired by 99 cent eggplant at the Hamilton Farmer's Market and a bunch of tomatoes courtesy of my Tatone :D
You will also notice the lack of measurements. This is due to the fact that I was hungry and impatient, what else is new.

Eggplant Parmesan

1 very large ripe eggplant
salt
oil
breadcrumbs
quick rolled oats
basil
oregano
parsley
garlic powder
salt
pepper
1-2 eggs

Slice the eggplant into thick pieces (3/4 inch?). Layer slices in a colander sprinkling with salt in between layers. Place a heavy item on top and allow to sit for 30 to 60 minutes to draw out any excess water. Wipe slices dry with paper towel. Lightly grease a baking sheet with oil and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together about 1:1 of breadcrumbs to oats. (I only added oats becuase I ran out of bread crumbs but it turned out quite nice). Sprinkle basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

You can hardly see the spices in the mix there and I would probably add more next time. I would say 2 tsp each (basil, oregano, parsley) if you use 1/2 breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup oats. Whisk the egg until mixed. Dip each side of eggplant in the egg and dredge through the breadcrumb mixture to coat well. I didn't bother dipping the sides of the slices (I was trying to conserve breading mixture). Place on the greased baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 7-10 minutes on eat side. Watching carefully that they don't burn.

While this was all happening I was also making some sauce. Very similar to the recipe I posted a while back (found here). With these soft delicious eggplant slices you could layer with some sauce and parmesan and bake some more, OR you could make a sandwich.

The sandwich consisted of whole-wheat toast, eggplant slices, fresh tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese. Adding the cheese to the hot eggplant and sauce allows it to melt without toasting the sandwich further (another time saver). I loved this sandwich and loved how the eggplant turned out. The leftover eggplant was good on its own with some sauce and cheese. If you are wondering, on the side there I had some chicken and roasted red peppers cooked in red wine and balsamic vinegar, probably one of my favourite food combinations.

Now as promised, here is a series of pictures from the past week.

Jenna's Birthday celebration

Carrot Spice Birthday Cake (made by me..isn't it pretty?! haha)

Sweet Potato Quesadilla's from the Bean Bar

BFT....Bacon Fig and Tomato Sandwich