Avocado BLT

This is a recipe by Roger Mooking. I've been watching a lot of his show Everyday Exotic, and this just sounded too delicious not to try.

Ingredients:

Herb Oil

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp thyme

1 clove garlic, chopped

salt and papper

Avocado BLT

12 slices bacon

8 slices bread

2 avocados, sliced into wedges

2 tomatoes

1 red leaf lettuce

salt and pepper

Directions:

Herb Oil

1. Place herbs, 2 tbsp of oil, and garlic into a mortar and pestle. Grind until it forms a paste. (You can use a small food processor as well).
2. Place in a bowl and add remaining oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper and stir.

Avocado BLT

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking tray with tin foil and place a cooling rack on top.
2. Place bacon on cooling rack and cook in over until crisp, approximately 20 minutes, remove and set aside to cool.
3. Place bread slices on a baking tray and brush with herb oil. Place in oven until slightly toasted.
4. To assemble, place avocado slices on bread and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Place 3 slices of tomato over the avocado. Season with salt and pepper and place 4 slices of bacon on top.
6. Add lettuce and top piece of bread and cut in half.

I made these sandwiches for me and my roomies one night, and they were delicious!! I didn't salt and pepper as much as the recipe called for, and I think that could've improved the sandwich. The herb spread was DELICIOUS.

Slow Cooker Ribs

It's been a while since I've written a blog. Life as a grad student gets a little busy! I haven't stopped trying out new recipes (though I will admit I don't get to do it as often as I'd like!). So, here's the first out of three recipes I've tried recently.

I borrowed this recipe from a number of different internet blogs, so I can't refer you to the original source! But here's the way I made these delicious, tender ribs.

Ingredients:

2 lbs pork spareribs

1 cup ketchup

1 tbsp Worcesterchire sauce

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

A dash or two of hot sauce

1 tbsp of whole grain mustard

*Optional: 1 tsp cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water*

Directions:

1. Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the ribs.
2. Boil for 15 minutes (this boils some of the fat off the meat).
3. In another boil, mix all of the ingredients (except for the optional ingredients).
4. Take the ribs out of the boiling water and drip dry.
5. Place the ribs in a slow cooker and douse with the ketchup mixture.
6. Cook on low for 6-8 hours until the ribs are tender (From my experience, 6 hours is enough).
7. If the sauce is too thin, mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cold water and stir into sauce until its thick enough.

Peanut Butter Cups

In August for my roomie's birthday, I made her homemade peanut butter cups. It's taken me this long to post the recipe, and I have no good excuse for a near two-month delay. So without further ado... Peanut Butter Cups.

The recipe itself comes from this blog. I made a few changes to the recipe (for convenience's sake, mostly!)

Ingredients

For the shells:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

2 tbsp natural smooth peanut butter

Pinch of salt

For the peanut butter filling:

3/4 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Line a muffin tin with paper liners (12)
2. In a double boiler, combine chocolate, 2 tbsp of peanut butter and a pinch of salt. Stir together until melted.
3. Spoon a teaspoon or so of chocolate into each muffin liner. Shake the tin to even out the chocolate.
4. Let set.
5. In the meantime, stir the peanut butter, with the 1/3 cup of brown sugar and some salt together.
6. Once the first layer is set, spoon 1 tbsp of peanut butter mixture into the muffin liners.
7. Put in freezer until peanut butter is hardened.
8. Spoon 1 tsbp of chocolate mixture on top. Shake the tin side-to-side to even out the layer of chocolate.
9. Let set... and enjoy!!

Long time no cook!

Hello to my small collection of followers,

It's been a while since I've written a post... My sincerest apologies. The summer became very busy and quickly came and went, and now here I am starting a new school year. I haven't stopped cooking - in fact I've been perfecting a few of the recipes I've already posted.

Currently, I'm on the hunt for some new recipes and hope to be blogging again soon. In the mean time, if you have any cool recipes I should try - please share!

Pizza Napolitana!

I'm currently re-reading 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a true narrative about a woman who leaves her life behind and spends a year travelling - 4 months in Italy (where she learns to eat) 4 months in India (where she learns to pray), and 4 months in Indonesia (where she learns to love).

In her writings about Italy, the author goes into extensive detail on the delicious-ness of authentic pizza from Naples - aka pizza napolitana! Naturally, I started craving it. So, here I go! An attempt to make real, authentic, pizza napolitana!

I googled and found a number of recipes, which I combined to make my own (based on what ingredients and kitchen tools I had access to!).

The Crust

Ingredients

• 1/2 packet of instant yeast (about 1 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

Directions

1. In a metal bowl, combine yeast and water. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add salt and stir.
3. Add olive oil and flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough is rolled into a ball.
4. Knead dough on a lightly floured wooden surface for about 8 minutes. (One recipe didn't call for kneading, another called for 12 minutes of it... So I compromised!)
5. Once dough is smooth, place in a lightly oiled metal bowl and cover with a clean dish cloth. Let sit for 2 hours in a warm spot, until doubled in size.
6. Roll dough into a thin crust. You can use your hands or a rolling pin.
7. Place on a pizza pan or stone. I don't have either, so I flipped a cookie tray upside-down (to get a flat surface with no lips or sides) and covered it with tin foil.

Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 can of San Marzano tomatoes (Yes, that's it!)

Directions

1. Hand mash the tomatoes. (That's all there is to it!)

Toppings

Ingredients

• 5-10 fresh basil leaves. You can leave them whole or julienne them.
• a few tbsp olive oil
• fresh mozzarella, sliced into disks

Directions for putting it all together!

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Make indentations over the centre portions of the crust, leaving a border around the outside. The border should be a bit higher than the rest of the pizza.
3. Pour some olive oil onto the crust and spread evenly, avoiding the border.
4. Even distribute the crushed tomatoes across the crust.
5. Lay the disks of mozzarella evenly across the pizza.
6. Lay the basil leaves over the top, and sprinkle with olive oil.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Bake until the crust is slightly charred and the cheese is dappled brown.
9. Let cool slightly, cut, and serve!

Notes

Delicious and simple. Nothing else to say! :)

Artichokes and Dip

This recipe was taken from a Facebook page I belong to called 'What's Cooking'. I saw it and thought, why not? I've never cooked fresh artichokes before - in fact, I've only ever tasted canned artichokes!

It was an interesting experience... At first I wasn't really sure how to eat them, but I'd seen people on TV do it so I just went with that. To eat an artichoke leaf, you don't actually put the whole leaf in your mouth. You just kind of scrape the leave along your teeth to get the "meat" off, and then discard the leaf. It makes for a need finger food!

Anyway... The recipe!

Ingredients

4 fresh artichokes

1 lemon

2-3 tsp garlic powder.

Directions

1. Wash the artichokes thoroughly before use. Snap off the stems and the leaves closest to the stem. Then, using scissors, snip off the spiky bits at the top of each leaf.
2. Rub each artichoke with lemon juice and sprinkle with pepper and garlic powder.
3. In a sauce pan, put about 2-3 inches of water in the bottom and set the artichokes in.
4. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 40-50 minutes. They're ready when you can pull a leaf off without issue.
5. Drain artichokes and cool. Then, lightly separate inner leaves and scoop out "the choke". (Sidenote: I have no idea what this is. I guess I need to brush up on my artichoke anatomy. I left the "chokes" in. )
6. Serve with garlic dip (recipe to follow!).

Garlic Dip

This recipe was paired with the artichoke recipe and makes a yummy semi-homemade dip.

Ingredients

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp of onion, minced

1 cup Ranch dressing

Directions

1. In a small sauce pan, add vinegar, water, sugar, garlic and onions and stir well.
2. Simmer for 6 minutes and pour into a bowl.
3. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes to cool.
4. Stir in ranch dressing.

This was a very simple recipe for a yummy dip! It keeps in the fridge for about a week.

Notes

Well... Not much to say here. My first artichoke experience was pretty interesting... I still have to figure out what the "choke" is, but whatever... Everything else tasted good!

Spicy Thai Chicken Wings

For a BBQ my friends hosted last week, I decided to bring chicken wings... But I didn't want to bring the classic BBQ flavoured wings, so I set out on a Google mission to find some interesting twists on the classic.

I came across this one from This Food, That Wine. It's a recipe for some Spicy Thai wings that included (mostly) things that I had around the house, so I didn't have to go out to buy anything.

Ingredients

20 fresh chicken wings

1 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp ginger, freshly grated (tip: keep your ginger root in the freezer! It keeps well and makes it so easy to grate!)

1 tbsp garlic, freshly minced (about 2 cloves)

1 tbsp palm sugar (I didn't have this, so I used brown sugar instead)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp veggie oil

2 tbsp lime juice

1-2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (to taste!)

Directions

1. Rinse chicken wings well and pat dry. Put in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl or measuring cup, mix the rest of the ingredients until well-combined.
3. Pour over wings and toss to coat.
4. Cover bowl and put in the fridge to marinate for at least two hours.
5. Spread chicken wings on a baking sheet lined with tin foil (for easy clean-up).
6. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning once.

Notes

• These wings don't turn out to be very saucy. I know I said I wanted to get away from the classic wing recipes... but I was talking about in flavour! I love saucy chicken wings! So I think next time I might add some ketchup to the mix and see what that does for the sauciness factor.
• After the wings had cooked for 20 min, I found that they weren't crispy enough so I broiled them for a few minutes on each side.
• The taste was pretty good... Not sure what I would change about it next time, but I think I would still play around with the flavours.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

This recipe is also courtesy of Elijah (Thanks, buddy!). It's from dairygoodness.ca and is pretty darn delicious!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tbsp pure maple syrup or packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups shredded apple (about 2 large apples)

2 tbsp butter (for cooking)

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (exluding the apples and the 2 tbsp of butter).
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
4. Add apples and stir until combined.
5. Heat a nonstick skillet and cover pan with a thin layer of butter.
6. Scoop approximately 1/3 cup of batter per pancake.
7. Cook for 2 min, or until bubbles break on the surface and do not fill in.
8. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so.
9. Serve with maple syrup or whipped cream... or both!

Notes

I have a few notes about this recipe.

• First of all - it makes a lot of pancakes! This batch made about 12 or 14 pancakes with a 15cm diameter. You can freeze them though, so leftovers aren't a bad thing!
• I think the recipe could use more cinnamon. I grated an entire 3 inch stick of cinnamon and still felt they could have been spicier.
• Also, I didn't have pure maple syrup or brown sugar, so I used Aunt Jemima maple syrup. The pancakes still tasted great, but I bet the real stuff would've been even better!

Pesto Orzo

It's been a while since my last post... I haven't stopped cooking - I just didn't have any free time to blog about it! Now that my last paper has been handed in, I'll have plenty more time to post!

When I was in Italy last summer I ate a lot (and I mean, a lot!) of pesto, and I've been searching for a good recipe ever since. I tried one that I found via Google, and it just wasn't authentic enough. After complaining to my fellow food/linguistics nerd, Elijah, he sent me this one, from the show The Main with host chef Anthony Sedlak. It was perfect!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of orzo pasta

3 large garlic cloves

3 cups of loosely packed fresh basil leaves (You cannot make pesto with dried basil.)

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup of Parmigiana-Reggiano, grated

2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook the orzo in a salted boiling water, according to the package directions. Rinse and drain.
2. Blend the garlic in a food processor until finely diced.
3. Add the basil, pine nuts, cheese, salt and pepper, and blend until finely chopped.
4. Add the olive oil bit by bit, blending until incorporated.
5. Toss with pasta and serve.

Like I said, this recipe was perfect and as delicious as "the real stuff" I ate in Italy last summer. I did have to make a few alterations to the recipe though:

• I couldn't find pine nuts anywhere! So I used walnuts and it tasted just as delicious.
• I used Grana Padrano cheese. It has the same taste as parm, but is a little cheaper.
• I also couldn't find orzo, so I used gemelli instead. Same diff!

Even with all those changes, it was still delicious! I will definitely be making this again!

Cabbage Roll Casserole (Cabbage rolls for the lazy)

I've mentioned a few times that my family is of Ukrainian heritage and that I do enjoy many delicious Ukrainian dishes, courtesy of my Great-Grandma Stella! Pierogies, borscht, cabbage rolls, sautéed sauerkraut... Delicious.

All of these are my favourites, but cabbage rolls are always a special treat because they are tedious to make! Making cabbage rolls involves many steps - blanching individual cabbage leaves without tearing them, making the ground beef and rice filling, filling the cabbage leaves with the filling and rolling them up securely without ripping the leaves, and baking it off in a bath of tomato sauce... A lot of steps.

So, as a kid, my mom used to make a cabbage role casserole that still involved all the delicious ingredients, but was made more like a lasagna with layers of the beef/rice filling alternating with cabbage and tomato sauce. I couldn't get my hands on my mom's recipe, so I googled and this recipe came up, so I gave it a shot.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs ground beef (I used extra lean)

2 medium onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 14oz can of plain tomato sauce

1 14oz can of water (used the tomato sauce one once you've emptied it into your pot!)

1/2 cup uncooked rice (NOT INSTANT!)

4 cups of cabbage, chopped or shredded

Sour cream (it's not Ukrainian if it doesn't have sour cream... lol)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Brown ground beef with onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add tomato sauce and water.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Add rice and stir.
6. Reduce to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes.
7. Grease a baking dish (I used a 9 x 9 casserole dish, but you could use a 9 x 13)
8. Put 1/2 of the chopped cabbage in a layer on the bottom of dish.
9. On top, layer on 1/2 of the beef/rice mixture.
10. Add another layer using the remaining cabbage.
11. Finish with the rest of the beef/rice mixture.
12. Cover and bake for 1 hour.
13. Serve with a dollop or two of sour cream.

Notes:

I had a few things I didn't like about this recipe... First of all, I was expecting it to taste like Grandma Stella's cabbage rolls and it didn't! Also, I would have reserved some tomato sauce to put on top. I like my cabbage rolls saucy!

Next time, I might even try not adding the tomato sauce to the beef/rice mixture, and adding it in as its own layer in the casserole... So it would be a layer of cabbage, rice/beef, tomato sauce, cabbage, rice/beef, tomato sauce. I just really didn't like having the tomato sauce mixed in with the rice.

So all in all, not a bad meal... But it still doesn't compare to the real thing!

Hot and Sour Soup!

I had a craving for some Asian-inspired cuisine and came across this recipe on cooks.com. Admittedly, I didn't have a lot of the ingredients on hand (for example, garlic chili sauce or sesame oil), which is sort of a downfall to this recipe. On the other hand, I do like to try my hand at Asian cooking every now and then, so I will end up using the sesame oil eventually.

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth (or veggie!)

1/4 cup cooked, shredded chicken or pork

3 tbsp soy sauce (I use reduced-sodium)

1/2 cup mushroms, diced

1/2 tbsp garlic chili sauce

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/4 white vinegar

1/3 cup canned bamboo shoots, julienned

1/2 cup cubed tofu

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten

2 green onions, diced

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Bring broth to a simmer.
2. Add soy sauce, shredded meat, mushrooms, and garlic chili paste.
3. Simmer for 5 minutes
4. Add white pepper, white vinegar, bamboo shoots, and tofu.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes
6. While it's simmering, combine corn starch and cold water in a measuring cup. Mix until smooth.
7. Add cornstarch mixture to soup and stir well.
8. Simmer for 5 minutes until soup has thickened.
9. In a fine stream, slowly pour beaten egg into soup.
10. Stir several times.
11. Wait about 30 seconds (for egg to cook).
12. Add sesame oil and green onions. Stir.
13. Remove from heat and serve!

A few notes about this recipe:

• I didn't have any shredded meat, so I cooked up some ground turkey and used that instead. It tastes alright but I will probably leave it out next time.
• I also didn't have white pepper, so I used black. Same diff.
• I'm not sure I added the egg in properly. I was stirring as I was pouring the egg in, and I ended up with little flakes of egg everywhere. I think you're supposed to pour the egg in and then stir, so that the egg goes into little ribbons. Oh well. It still tastes alright!
• You could leave out the tofu if you preferred. I found it didn't really add anything extra, other than it kept with the Asian theme.
• The spice level was perfect for me, but you can adjust how much chili sauce you use depending on what you like.

All in all, this was a very yummy dish! It was very easy and quick, but it does require you to be in the kitchen the whole time (as opposed to other soups where you can just let them simmer away!). I will definitely make this again!

Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas, and Mushrooms

My good friend, Scubes (aka Helen), came to visit yesterday and brought a favourite recipe with her! It's by Giada DiLaurentiis (Everday Italian, Giada at Home) and is a sauceless pasta made with turkey sausage, cremini mushrooms, frozen peas, and parmigian cheese.

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1lb ground turkey sausage, removed from casing

salt and pepper

10 oz cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped

10 oz frozen peas, defrosted slightly

1 lb farfalle pasta (big bowties)

1/2 freshly grated parmigian

Directions

1. Put a pot of water onto boil.
2. While the water comes to a boil, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan.
3. Season turkey meat with salt and pepper and add to pan.
4. Cook until brown, breaking up and large chunks with a wooden spoon.
5. Remove meat from pan and set aside.
6. Add 2 more tbsp olive oil into the pan and heat.
7. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
8. Saute util all the mushroom liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
9. Add the peas and saute for a few more minutes.
10. Add the meat back to the pan and heat for 3 minutes.
11. While all this is happening, keep your eye on the pot of water. When it comes to a boil, add the pasta and cook al dente.
12. When pasta is ready, add to the pan with the meat and veggies and stir to combine.
13. Drizzle with remaining olive oil.
14. Turn off heat and add the cheese.
15. Stir well and serve!

A few notes....

I think we added too many peas! Also, we chopped some red bell pepper and added that into the mix, sauteing it while we cooked the mushrooms. Scubes also seasoned the turkey with some dried spices - thyme, sage, and chili flakes... just to add some more flavour!

Other than that, we didn't change the recipe much! It was delicious and made plenty... in fact, we ate this morning for lunch after spin class!

Also - wondering why we used sausages and then took them out of the casings anyway? Why wouldn't we just use ground turkey? Answer: Store bought sausages are already seasoned, whereas if you used ground turkey, you would have to season it yourself. The sausages are a nice little shortcut!

Cucumber Mustard Salad

I've recently been tuning into CBC's cooking show Best Recipes Ever. The host prepares a different meal each episode, following certain themes such as 'Best Meat-and-Potato Dinner' or 'Double-Duty Appetizers'. In a recent episode titled 'Lighten Up! Dinner', the host made a salad of cucumbers and onions, with a Dijon vinaigrette dressing.

Ingredients

2 English cucumbers

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

4 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

pinch each of sugar and black pepper

Directions

1. Cut cucumbers in half, lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds.
2. Thinly slice cucumber so that you have a bunch of little c-shaped slices.
3. Put cucumber in a bowl and salt. Let stand for 20 minutes or so.
4. Toss in onion, vinegar, mustard, sugar, and pepper.
5. Stir well.

This salad was really refreshing and simple. It's light and summery. I would change a few things, though. First of all, the Dijon mustard was a bit strong. I might try using regular yellow mustard, or a mix of both. Also, let the salad marinate a bit before you eat it. The sugar needs time to dissolve and neutralize the vinegar a bit. Also, refrigerate before serving. Cucumber just tastes so crisp when it's chilled!

I really like this recipe and have made it a few times since I first tried it. It makes a great, low-calorie, snack.

Honey Ginger Cookies

I found this recipe on epicurious.com. I'm not much of a baker, but I have been craving something sweet for nearly a week and needed something to cure it!!

Ingredients

1 & 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup light honey

1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, ginger, and salt) together in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl until smooth and fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg and honey until smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir well.
6. Spoon batter in heaping tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. These cookies spread quite a bit.
7. Bake for about 12 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool.

Notes

1. These cookies tasted really delicious, but the text was more cake-like than cookie-like. I would probably serve them with some whipped cream or icing. Or maybe as ice cream sandwiches!
2. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of minced candied ginger, but I didn't have that so I substituted. Next time I might try it with the candied ginger.
3. Otherwise, these cookies were very light. The bottom and edges became a little crunchy (but not burnt) which was a nice contrast against the fluffy center.

Zucchetti

Here's a neat twist on pasta that raw foodists can enjoy too!! A friend of mine passed the idea onto me, but the sauce recipes are my own.

First of all - what is zucchetti? It's not as complicated as it sounds. It's a zucchini, shredded into long, thing, spaghetti-like strips. This is done using a little machine called a spiralizer.

So you put the zucchini onto the spiralizer, turn the crank, and voila! Zucchetti!

Now comes the fun part - picking the sauce. Rob and I have tried a few different recipes, some of them keeping with the raw food theme and some of them not. Here are a few that we've tried:

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 can of diced tomatoes, drained

1 clove of garlic, finely diced

6-10 grape tomatoes, halved

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together, adjusting amounts to taste.

2. Pour over zucchetti and toss until everything is coated.

Roasted Garlic Sauce

Ingredients

1 bulb of garlic

4 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, finely diced

pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop top of garlic bulb off and peel it down, leaving just enough skin to hold the cloves together.
3. Coat garlic in 1/2 tbsp of olive oil.
4. Wrap garlic in tin foil and roast in oven for about 45 minutes, or until garlic is soft.
5. Let cool.
6. Squish roasted garlic into a small dish, being sure not to let the garlic skin fall into the bowl.
7. Add olive oil, pepper, and shallots and mash well. (You may have to adjust the amount of olive oil or even add some balsamic vinegar... play around with it until it tastes good)
8. Toss with zucchetti and other diced vegetables.

Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients

1/4 cup of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 garlic clove, finely diced

3-4 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp of vinegar (your preference)

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper

Directions

1. Put beans into a small bowl and mash until smooth.
2. Stir in olive oil, garlic, vinegar, and sugar.
3. Season to taste.
4. Toss with zucchetti and other vegetables.

IMPORTANT!

There are a few general notes to take into consideration when making zucchetti.

1. Make your sauce first. The last thing you should make is the zucchetti itself. Zucchini gives off a lot of water, and if you shred it too early, it will give off water and make your sauce runny.
2. Do not over-salt! Salt causes vegetables to lose their water, and, as mentioned above, zucchini already gives off a lot of water. Salt will just add to this problem and make your zucchetti even more watery.
3. When making the sauces, be creative! Season everything to your taste. Throw extra ingredients in.
4. You can also put other vegetables through a spiralizer. If you get a good spiralizer, you can get it to shred at different thickness. If you use the wide blade to "spiralize" a potato, you get the perfect curly fry! If you use a slicing blade, it can slice vegetables and fruits super-thin. Slice some apples and bake at a low temperature in the oven to make delicious apple chips!

Anyway, I am certainly getting good use out of my spiralizer. It's a great investment, and it can make some pretty fancy and healthy dishes!

Veggie Broth

My Grandma Stella recently gave me a slow cooker, and I've been dying to use it. So when my mom mentioned that she had made her own veggie broth, I knew I had found a way to use my newly acquired appliance!

Over the past few weeks, I have been saving scraps of veggies - the end of a head of lettuce, the stumps of carrots and onions, pieces of sweet potato, and so on - and keeping them in the freezer. Finally I had enough to make broth.

I simply put all of the veggies into my slow cooker, covered them with water, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried thyme. I also added a crushed garlic clove.

I set the dial to high and checked it periodically. It's been three hours and it's still going. I've been adjusting the seasoning as necessary.

I can't really give you an appropriate cooking time... It depends on how many veggies you have and what kind... But just keep an eye on it and keep tasting - you'll know when it's right!!

Alternately, if you don't have a slow cooker, you can do it in a pot on the stove. It will cook faster that way. Bring it to a boil and reduce to a simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Once it's done, you can freeze it into an ice cube tray or measure it into 1 or 2 cup portions and freeze it in a plastic container.

Chickpea Potato Curry

Rob is away and has the car, and I've been really busy, so I haven't been able to go grocery shopping. So this afternoon I had to look at what I had in the fridge and cupboards and think about what I could make with it. I googled what I had an voila! This recipe came up.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups veggie broth

2 cans of chickpeas

1 can of tomatoes with chilis

6 baby Yukon potatoes, chopped into cubes

1 medium onion, diced

1 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Add ingredients to pot and stir well.
2. Simmer on medium heat for 35-40 minutes

Notes

Well, there were a few things I had to change.

1. I only had one can of chickpeas, so instead of a 2nd can, I used a cup of frozen peas.

2. I didn't have any potatoes, only a sweet potato. So I used that instead.

3. I didn't have canned tomatoes with chilis, just a can of diced tomatoes. So I used that and added a few dashes of hot sauce.

4. I didn't have ground coriander.

Aside from not having exactly the same ingredients as the recipe called for, this turned out great. I made some rice to go along with it and really enjoyed it! Admittedly, I might have made it a bit too spicy for my tastes, but it was still delicious!

Baked Panzerottis

This recipe is from the Food Network show Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry. The idea of the show is that they take unhealthy foods and make them healthy. Rob and I both often have pizza cravings, and I was hoping this recipe would satisfy those cravings and save us some money!

Ingredients

Dough:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp of ground flaxseed (I used whole flaxseed)

1 envelope of quick-rise yeast

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 warm water

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp honey

1 egg, lightly beaten (to coat the dough before baking)

Sauce:

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup minced onion

2 tsp minced garlic

2 cups plain, low-sodium tomato sauce

1 small can of tomato paste

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp honey

salt and pepper to taste

**You could just buy a jar of pizza sauce instead of making your own if you'd like. I won't judge.**

Filling:

The recipe uses ground turkey and turkey sausage. We wanted to make our panzerotti vegetarian, so we use the following:

1 can of diced pineapple, drained and squeezed (too much pineapple juice will make a soggy panzerotti)

1/2 green pepper, shopped

5-6 white button mushrooms, sliced

1 cup of shredded cheese (we bought a pre-shredded Italian blend)

Directions

Dough:

1. Mix dry ingredients well in a large mixing bowl.
2. In measuring cup, mix water, honey, and olive oil.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon.
4. Tip onto a flour surface and knead for 2 minutes.
5. Lightly grease a bowl with olive oil. Place dough in bowl and cover. Let rise for 15-20 minutes, until double in size.

Sauce:

1. Saute onions and garlic in a pot with olive oil until onions are soft.
2. Add in remaining ingredients and stir well.
3. Let simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes.

Okay, so now for the assembly!

1. On a piece of parchment paper or a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a large rectangle, about the size of the cookie sheet that you will bake the panzerotti on.
2. Transfer dough to a floured cookie sheet.
3. Spread 1/3 of the sauce down the centre portion of the dough, leaving 3 to 4 inches on each side.
4. Spread some cheese on the sauced area.
5. Spread fillings and top with remaining cheese.
6. Down each side of the dough, cut 8 strips that you can "braid" over the sauce and fillings.
7. Take a strip from one side and fold it over the fillings. Repeat on the other side. Alternate sides until you've braided the dough. It should look like a giant strudel.
8. Be sure to seal the ends of the panzerotti so the sauce doesn't leak out.
9. Brush the dough with the lightly beaten egg.
10. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
11. Serve with remaining tomato sauce for dipping.

This was a great recipe... a little time consuming, but still delicious. Next time I would buy sauce instead of making my own, in order to cut down on the prep.

Mushroom Pot Pies

One of Rob's favourite meals (pre-vegetarianism) was pot pies. However, since he's turned vegetarian he hasn't been able to eat them, since most contain meat. So I decided to make some veggie-friendly pot pies!

I cheated a bit on the crusts and bought Pilsbury's pre-made pie crusts. They come in little packages containing two flat circles of pie dough, so I bought two packages of pie crusts.

I bought a package of 6" tin pie plates from the baking aisle of our local grocery store and greased them lightly. Then I unrolled the pie crusts and cut them into circles to fit into the pie plates. I was able to cut out 14 circles from the two packages of dough that I bought. I lined 7 pie plates with the dough, and reserved the remaining 7 circles for the top crusts of the pie. We'll get back to those later. Now for the filling!

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp margarine
• 10-12 white mushrooms, sliced
• 10-12 cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 5 portabella mushroom caps, sliced
• 4 potatoes, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 2 shallots, diced
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups of veggie broth
• 1 cup frozen peas
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large saucepan on medium heat.
2. Add mushrooms and stir until juices are released.
3. Add potatoes, reduce heat, and cover until potatoes are softened.
4. Pour mushroom/potato mixture into a bowl and set aside.
5. Increase heat to medium and add remaining butter to pot.
6. Add celery, onion, shallots, and thyme, cooking until the onions are soft.
7. Add in flour and stir constantly until blended, about 2-3 minutes.
8. Slowly add broth, whisking consistently as you pour so that you make a nice thick gravy. **The mixture should be thicker than soup so that it doesn't leak out of the pie shells, but still with some fluidity to it (Not so thick that it will taste pasty in your mouth). Add more flour or broth as needed to get the desired consistency, whisking as you do so.
9. Add in potato/mushroom mixture and peas.
10. Season with salt and pepper.

Now for the assembly!!

1. Ladle mushroom stew into tart shells - just enough to fill (but not overfill) the pies.
2. Top each pie with remaining dough circles, pinching around the edges. to seal the pie shut.
3. Cut 2 or 3 slits in the top of the pie, to let steam out while baking.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

If you want to freeze your extra pies, set the completed pies on a baking tray and put in the freezer. Once they're frozen, wrap in plastic wrap and stack in the freezer. To cook from frozen, preheat oven to 350-375 degrees and bake for 1 hour or until crust is golden brown.

You can also add whatever other veggies you'd like to the pie - carrots, corn... whatever! You could also try a different mixture of spices - maybe add some crushed rosemary or sage... or both!!

These pies are really rich and hearty and incredibly delicious! A nice substitute for meat pies!