Almond Butter Parsnip Fries

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! 

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

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.