Superfresh Chickpea Confetti Salad and Epic blogging fail

First of all - the epic fail. It's been a month without blogging anything. That being said I was gone for 3 out of the 4 weekends in April. Still no excuse. Hope this makes up for it!

Superfresh Chickpea Confetti Salad

Ingredients

·         1 can of chickpeas

·         ½ a red onion

·         3-4 spring onions

·         1 sweet pepper of your preferred colour

·         ½ carton of cherry tomatoes

·         1 cup mini carrots

·         1 block light feta cheese

·         Handful of Italian parsley

·         2 limes, zest and juice

·         Splash of pesto oil*

* I love Classico pesto but I hate all the oil in it so I drain off as much of the oil as I can into a jar and repurpose it in vinaigrettes and for whatever else I need flavoured oil.

Directions

1. Drain and rinse one can of chickpeas, add to bowl;
2. Dice red onion, peppers and carrots, add to bowl;
3. Slice green onions thinly on diagonal, add to bowl;
4. Halve cherry tomatoes; add to bowl (there is a pattern here, no?);
5. finely chop a handful of Italian parsley, add to bowl;
6. Cube up feta, add to the bowl
7. Zest 2 limes into bowl, add their juice (I’m a sucker for citrus so I always keep a bottle of RealLime and RealLemon in the fridge and add a bit more for extra zippyness!)
8. Add a splash of pesto oil to bowl (see * above);
9. Salt and pepper to taste;
10. Mix well and…

Eat!

Enjoy!!

Busy bakesale baker bee!

Well I taste tested these muffins last week at work with a few co-workers (the glutinous variety) so I've decided to make them for a bake sale at work tomorrow, this time gluten free. I'm about to start experimenting with different berries, next batch will be Cranberry lemon ricotta for my breakfasts for the week :)

Blueberry* Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Yield: Makes 15 muffins
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour – if gluten free at 1 ¾ cups of El Peto all-purpose gluten free flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup fruit sugar or sugar substitute
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup butter substitute like I can’t believe it’s not butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup ricotta cheese (whole or low-fat is fine)
• 1 cup soy or other non-dairy milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 pint fresh blueberries*

Topping ingredients:

• 1/3 cup of fruit sugar or sugar substitute
• Zest of 1 lemon


*You can use another type of ‘berry’ fruit as well – blackberries, cranberries, strawberries, raspberries etc. just add approximately 1 cup of berries (more if you like a fruity muffin, less if you prefer a hint of berry with lots of muffin)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.

In a medium bowl (I use a 4 cup measuring cup, makes pouring easier), whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest. Mix together well with a fork.

Using an electric or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar and lemon zest mixture together until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add the ricotta cheese and vanilla and beat until smooth. Beat in the, soy or other dairy milk alternative, egg, and lemon juice.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended and gently fold in blueberries. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill each muffin cup with batter.

Zest remaining lemon into a bowl with 1/3 cup of sugar, mix until evenly distributed (it will have the texture of wet sand). Generously sprinkle the lemon sugar topping over each muffin top.

Bake muffins for about 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown. Let muffins cool for five minutes in the pan and then remove to finish cooling on a wire rack

Eat!

Enjoy!!

FRICKLES (aka Deep Fried Pickles)

Okay it’s a threefer this weekend!

I had a sudden craving for Frickles, something I discovered in Cincinnati with my bff @hguthridge. It's definitely a Southern thang' y'all!

For those who love dill pickles, there is nothing like a deep fried pickle, hot out of the deep fryer, with buttermilk ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing. This is my version of it.

Ingredients

• Sliced dill pickle chips
• 1 egg
• 1 cup Flour
• 3-4 dashes of smoky paprika
• 3-4 dashes of cayenne pepper
• A pinch of black pepper
• Vegetable oil - enough to fill 1/4 of a medium pot

Directions

1.  
2. Heat vegetable oil on stove
3. Mix flour, paprika, and cayenne in bowl
4. Mix egg and milk in separate bowl
5. Drain pickles, dry.
6. Dunk pickles in egg mixture
7. Dredge egg covered pickles in flour mixture
8. Deep fry in hot oil until they float to surface.
9. Drain on paper towel
10. Use blue cheese/buttermilk ranch for dipping sauce.
11. Eat!
12. Enjoy!!

DANDANMIAN (or my take on Dan Dan Noodles)

I’m a huge FoodNetwork junkie and I make no bones about it. It’s my background noise most nights, my culinary educator and the source of inspiration for many of my own recipes. (Kind of like this one!) So when Gordon Ramsay came up with his Gordon’s Ultimate Cookery show and promised to teach you how to cook without any of the hard graft (I love that line J) I was glued.

I have to confess something – I couldn’t stand Gordon Ramsay until this show. He struck me as a big, bullying prick. I get he was supposed to be mean, it made for good TV, but as someone who has struggled with low self-esteem for most of her life, watching this man - who was supposed to be a role model - scream derogatory insults at people who were trying their hardest just struck a negative chord with me. His new Ultimate shows have shown him as a real person, at home in his own kitchen, with family and friends  without any of the ‘reality tv’ feel and I thought _finally_ here’s the real guy, the one I actually like. And then he turned out to have such a similar culinary taste to mine I went ‘wow, how did I not know this?

This recipe is the perfect example of that – I ADORE Asian cuisine – any Asian cuisine. This particular one is a Chinese street food that is not only spicy and delicious but actually so much more healthy than North American street food. I _want_ this in Toronto. Seriously! Give me a Dandan truck and I’ll be a happy girl. I sat glued to the episode that this was from and had to try it right away. And of course trying it meant I had to play, experiment and adapt to my own tastes. This is what I’ve come up with.

There are asterisks in this recipe – the cooking notes are at the bottom of the recipe J I’ve also included a link to Gordon’s recipe at the bottom.

 

Ingredients 

• 1lb ground pork (or other ground meat *)
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger root, peeled and minced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, ribboned
• 3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, or tamari if you’re gluten free
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns **
• 3-4 thai bird chilis (adjust to your heat level)
• 2 tbsp sambal olek
• Rice vinegar, to taste
• Cooking spray with a few drops of sesame oil for frypan
• Chinese duck egg noodles or rice noodles if you’re going gluten free

To garnish before serving:

• Fresh coriander (cilantro) chopped
• 3-scallions, thin sliced on diagonal
• 1tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• Fresh limes cut into wedges 

Directions

1. Put your ground meat into a bowl and add the cooking wine, soy sauce/tamari and sesame oil. Stir lightly to coat and set aside to marinate for at least 10 minutes or in fridge to marinate for a few hours.
2. Take meat out of fridge before you start preparing the other ingredients to come up to room temp.
3. Prepare the garlic and ginger. Peel you carrot and use the peeler to shave off long ribbons of carrot, give it a rough chop to make bite sized.
4. Saute in fry pan with cooking spray and sesame oil for 1 minute. Add in thai bird chilis and cook for another 30 seconds.***
5. Add in marinated meat and brown.
6. Add your Sichuan peppercorns, carrot ribbons and sambal olek, and a few splashes of rice wine vinegar; cook for a few more minutes.
7. Taste and add more soy/tamari and rice wine vinegar if needed.
8. Prepare your egg noodles/rice vermicelli according to their directions.
9. Top noodles with some of the meat mixture and garnish with some fresh chopped coriander, scallions, and sesame seeds and squirt the lime wedge on top.
10. Eat!
11. Enjoy!!

Cooking Notes

 *I’ve tried this recipe with ground chicken too. Personally I don’t think chicken holds up under the intense flavours of this dish but if you aren’t a pork person you might try ground turkey instead – it’s a much heartier and robust meat to chicken.

** If you’re like me, you habitually forget to put Sichuan peppercorns on your shopping list so here’s an easy cheat. Crush your regular black peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, grate in the zest of one lemon, mix together and you have faux Sichuan peppercorns!

***The chilis give off very pungent fumes as the oil releases that can cause much choking and coughing – I speak from experience on this! So make sure your kitchen is well ventilated and don’t cook longer than 30 seconds to a minute just to get the oils flowing before adding in your ground meat.

Sichuan Pork Noodles a la Gordon Ramsay

Banana Date Muffins and playing with your food

There is something incredibly visceral about pitting your own dates.

My fingers press and separate the jammy, sticky flesh to pluck out the seeds and it hearkens me back to my childhood making mud pies and playing in the wet sand, the way it clung and squished.

But, unlike my childhood, when I’m done I can lick my fingers and taste the sweetness of the Middle Eastern sun baked into the dates. Yumm!

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of whole oats
• ¼ cup fruit sugar
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 3 tbsp flax seeds
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• ½ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1 cup soy milk
• ¼ cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 cup pitted, chopped dates

Streusel topping

• ½ cup plus 3 tbsp ap flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar or brown sugar substitute
• ¼ cup butter or butter substitute
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp cardamom

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients and whisk together.
2. In a smaller bowl combine all wet ingredients, including mashed banana.
3. In a third bowl combine all ingredients for streusel topping – use fingers or cut with pastry cutter until it resembles coarse sand/ small pebbles and set aside
4. Gradually add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined.
5. Add in chopped dates
6. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop batter into muffin cups (it will be a wet batter)
7. Top with streusel.
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top and a toothpick comes clean.
9. Cool
10. Eat
11. Enjoy!

The perfect comfort food

Cheesy Shepherd’s Pie

  

Ingredients

• 2lbs of potatoes, scrubbed and cubed – I buy Yukon gold and leave the skin on for added nutrients
• ¼ cup of milk
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into chunks, less 1 tbsp for the gravy
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• A splash of olive oil
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 cup, frozen peas and carrots
• 1 tray sliced cremini mushrooms
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 pint beef stock (salt free)
• 2 tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour or gluten free flour
• 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

Directions

1. First start by making the mashed potatoes
2. Boil until soft and place in colander. In the pot heat milk and butter less the 1 tablespoon reserved. Once melted add the potatoes back in and mash, adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cover and set aside.
4. Add oil to frying pan and add onion. Saute them for 5 minutes and add garlic. Saute for another few minutes
5. Add the ground lamb and beef as well as 1/3 of the beef stock. Stirring constantly until the meat is all browned.
6. Add remaining stock, parsley, mushrooms and frozen peas and carrots. Season to taste
7. Cover and cook for 15 minutes
8. Add the flour to the reserved butter and mash into a paste. Add to meat mixture in small chunks to thicken the sauce, takes about 5 minutes.
9. Pour into oven proof dish and top with the mashed potatoes.
10. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

 You can now refrigerate once the pie has cooled slightly or you can bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes then serve.

Eat! Enjoy!!

It's been a while hasn't it... but here's a new recipe!

Confetti Citrus Quinoa Salad

INGREDIENTS 

·  2 lemons, zest and juice

·  2 lime, zest and juice

·  ½ cup of real lime juice (if not citrusy enough for you.)

·  1 block of light feta cheese, diced

·  2 cucumbers, seeds removed and diced

·  3 green onions, sliced

·  ½ bag of baby carrots, chopped

· 1 pepper, diced

·  ½ cup of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley chopped

·  1 cup white quinoa

·  1 cup red quinoa

·  4 cups water or no sodium vegetable or chicken stock or a combination of

·  Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1.      Bring 4 cups of stock to boil. Add quinoa, bring back to boil, reduce heat to medium and cover, simmering for 18-20 minutes until water is absorbed.

2.      When liquid is absorbed, remove from heat, fluff with fork, cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

3.      While quinoa is cooling chop up vegetables.

4.      Zest citrus directly into cooling quinoa and add juice of lemons and lime + extra lime juice so it’s absorbed into the quinoa while cooling

5.      Add vegetables, parsley, salt, pepper and diced feta once cool.

This makes about 8 cups of salad - which is my lunches for a week :-)

To make this a lunch portion, add ½ a diced avocado and ½ a can of water packed chunk light tuna just before serving.

Eat. Enjoy!