Tomato, Walnut and Basil Sauce on Raw Zucchini Pasta

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.

Apple Cinnamon Rice Pudding

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.

Banana Walnut Oatmeal

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.

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

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.

Walnut Lentil Burger

Last weekend Jenna and I decided to make dinner together. and to make something new. Trying out a new veggie burger is always fun so that is what we did. This time it was Lentil Walnut Burgers by Angela from Oh She Glows.

Yet another successful veggie burger. Because of the walnuts, it is very moist and has a great texture. Crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. We made smaller, "slider" sized burgers to have on small pieces of ciabatta bread. A great choice of bread I must say.

This gave us the opportunity to experiment with different toppings.

left: tomato and guac*; right: tomato and pickled banana peppers

* Worst guacamole ever. The last two avocados I have bought have been watery and not oily. MAJORLY lacking in the avocado flavour/texture I love so much. This made the guacamole oh so disappointing. I imagine that real guac would have tasted fantastic on the lentil burger.

I loved having the sliders but next time I would make large full size burgers I think.

Again, I did not change this recipe at all so I wont repeat it here. You can find the full recipe here. I used a real egg not a flax egg (for a vegan option).

With not living at home anymore I can't just walk outside onto the porch and into the garden to get fresh veggies. However, I have been lucky to receive some deliveries. Just yesterday, I got a ton of pears, tomatoes and figs from my Nonna and Tatone's garden. Looks like I will be making some more tomato sauce!

I am beginning to grow quite fond of figs. I never used to like them but this year I have found them quite delicious. I am lucky to have access to such fresh figs that aren't imported from California. I have been eating them raw but have also enjoyed them on bread with cheese as well as in yogurt. Here is a snapshot of my use for figs.

sliced ciabatta bread with asiago cheese and balsamic vinegar*

If I had the time I would have made a balsamic reduction. I will be making some to have with my current batch of figs that is for sure.

Carrot Cake Disagreement

A while back I made a carrot cake for dessert from 101cookbooks.com (Big surprise. At one point, every meal I ate came from that site, I just love it!). It was hearty, dense, not too sweet, and was fairly healthy. I had it with a light maple cream cheese icing (included in the recipe) and it was delicious! With this success I forwarded the recipe link to my good friend Jenna who also loves a healthy baked good recipe. She tried it out with her Mother one day and thought it was awful! The only way she could eat it was with the icing!!

This surprised me beyond belief. We don't need our muffins very sweet and usually like the same foods. It takes a lot for us to call a baked good awful! I had to find out once and for all whether we did something different, or whether we really do disagree on the deliciousness of this health cake.

I thought today would be a perfect time to rebake the cake. I am leaving for Alberta tonight (with Jenna) and it would make a good snack as well as a quick breakfast tomorrow for my friends and I. I followed the recipe as it is on 101cookbooks but left out the dates. The first time I made it I also left out the dates. I also use regular yogurt instead of Greek yogurt.

The finished product:

I didn't make the icing this time becuase I didn't think it would travel well with icing, haha.

Then I had a piece....

So it wasn't as delicious as I remember, and I could have definitely used some cream cheese icing, but it wasn't awful! I think next time I will include the dates becuase they would definitely sweeten it up. I will still take this cake on my trip with me and will do it's job of providing a hearty and healthy snack.

Now to round out the experiment Jenna just needs to try a piece. We will share a piece on the flight tonight and I will know once and for all if our taste buds are not quite as similar as I thought, or whether Jenna's baking skills are not as fine tuned as mine (joking of course - Jenna is much more careful than I - haha).

I'm off to get ready for my trip to Alberta. I hope to have some great food stories to share from out west while I fuel up for days of hiking!

Yogurt Bowls

Now some people would call these parfaits, but I like to call it a yogurt bowl. Whenever I am kinda hungry mid morning or mid afternoon I often have a yogurt concoction with plain yogurt, fruit, nuts, granola or whatever I've got. Yesterday I had such an early breakfast by 11 it was time for a yogurt bowl.

I thought I would share this one because I think it looked so pretty!

This one is Astro all natural 0% plain yogurt, a tiny nectarine chopped, half a banana chopped, chopped walnuts, sliced almonds, and goji berries (the newest "superfood"). You could also sprinkle some flax seed on top.

This kind of snack will keep you satisfied for at least a few hours. I bought some blueberries yesterday, and I can't wait to use those in a yogurt bowl for my break at work!