Chickpea and Quinoa Tabbouleh

This salad is fresh, light and healthy with a tangy lemon garlic dressing infusing chickpeas, quinoa and a host of vegetables. Homegrown lemon balm adds interest to the standard parsley as well!

 

I know, I know... it's the second week of November - what right do I have posting a lovely salad like this? Well, I have succeeded this year in maintaining a tiny kitchen herb garden (for how long, I don't know) and with the unseasonably warm weather in the later half of our growing season we still have plenty of just-picked tomatoes on the counter! I wanted to use up as much as I could with my older Home Ec class, and when I came across a partial bag of quinoa in the freezer I was inspired to make a version of one of my favourite salads from college: tabbouleh. 

Normally, you'll find a rather bare-bones ingredient list in tabbouleh - parsley, mint, bulgur and maybe some lemon and olive oil. This recipe takes the idea and runs with it, swapping in the nutrient dense (and gluten free) quinoa for the bulgur and adding in extra veggies - including deliciously nutty chickpeas and home grown lemon balm. A few twists on the traditional dressing pop up the flavour even more! While this was made and enjoyed the same day by my students and colleagues, the leftovers were even better - my mom began raiding the leftovers in the fridge as a snack and said the mixture just kept getting better with time. 

Of course, if quinoa isn't your thing, the standard bulgur is still perfectly fine here. You can also use couscous, amaranth, millet, rice or farro for different flavours and textures - just make sure they're all cooked before adding them! The possibilities are endless, but if you don't have lemon balm I do suggest adding some lemon zest to the mix for that bright citrus flavour. You wont regret it!

Mediterranean Salad for One

Dinner tonight is this incredible Mediterranean Salad for one, packed with all the garden's produce (including dried oregano from last year, Egyptian onions and garlic scapes from N) and dressed simply with Alaea salt, black pepper and fresh lemon juice. Light yet filling for those Summer nights!

As much as I love living in Canada, one of the things I don't love is that our growing season starts late and ends early. Summer break being what it is (July / August), we don't really see much of the garden bringing forth their glory until at least halfway through, if not later. That said, late is better than never, and since the cukes and tomatoes arrived at the same time this year I figured what better way to enjoy them than in a simple, chunky salad?

I love Mediterranean flavours, and this salad is not lacking in them! In addition to the garden cucumbers and tomatoes, I tossed in dried oregano and dill (from last year), Egyptian onion bulbs (from the Sputnik-like plant out back) and garlic scapes from my fiance's garden that I roasted using this recipe (cutting the time to 15 minutes). For protein, I tossed in a handful of chickpeas (my favourite bean) and sprinkled on lemon juice, coarse pepper and a Hawaiian Alaea salt. If you had told me 15 years ago that I would be eating salads for dinner (and enjoying them!) I'd have called you crazy. But now, I don't want summer to ever end!

Garden Pasta Salad

A Garden Pasta Salad is a great way to get veggies and legumes into your diet, and even kids will gobble it up thanks to a lemon and Parmesan vinaigrette! Tasted and tested by my Grades 1-3 and 7-8 Home Economics classes - definitely kid approved!

While the rain is certainly not boding well for my tomatoes and hot peppers this year, I'm certainly not wanting for a lot of other things in my garden! The zucchini, cucumbers, carrots and beets are particularly happy in the veggie garden, and the herbs, by and large, are taking off as well. Since we're deeply mired in the glory of Summer (well, mostly... it was below 20C this morning!) hot meals at noon are not always appreciated. Salads, though, tend not to be overly filling, and sandwiches can be kinda... beige.

That's why I love this pasta salad - packed with fibre and protein from the veggies and chickpeas, hearty with gluten free noodles and full of flavour thanks to a zingy vinaigrette, it was a breeze to whip up a batch first thing in the morning (or last thing at night), then cover and refrigerate it for up to a week, taking servings as needed. The vegetables and chickpeas become marinated by the dressing, eventually exuding their own delicious flavour as well, so every bite is satisfying to the stomach and the palate.

As someone who grew up hating pasta salad as a rule, I have to say this one changed my mind. While kids love it (I tested this out on my Grades 1-8 classes), it's definitely got enough of a "grown up" flair that any potluck or backyard party - including baby and wedding showers - would have a place for this on their table.

Chicken and Avocado Pasta Salad with @litehousefoods & @barillaus

A flavour packed (and one pot!) chicken pasta salad made with Litehouse Avocado Dip and Barilla Gluten Free elbow pasta. Amazingly delicious - you'd never know it was gluten free!  

With the Summer coming around - finally - we're slowly starting to transition away from the heavier, heartier mid-day meals and into lighter fare. While we are nowhere near harvesting our own tomatoes, peppers and zucchini from the backyard plots yet (my plants are still inside, albeit very happy), we're clamoring for the fresh flavours after a long winter and cold, rainy spring.

Victoria Day is coming up this weekend, and many of us are going to various BBQs, patio parties or simple al fresco meals where a "potluck" is taking place. Speaking from experience, potlucks are great in theory, and in practice if you have no food restrictions, but for those with allergies or celiac the buffet table can prove problematic. When Barilla sent me a few boxes of their Gluten Free Pasta
at the same time as a shipment of delicious dips from Litehouse Foods (which are almost exclusively gluten free as well) came to my door, I immediately wondered how I could combine the two into one spectacular take-along dish. I had a wealth of choices for both pasta and dips - all the basic noodle shapes (spaghetti, elbows, rotini, penne and fettuccine) are part of the Barilla line, and are free of not only gluten, but animal products, nuts, peanuts, soy and GMOs. The dips were a mixture of classics (like Caesar and Ranch) and unique (dill and avocado). All of them (and their descriptions) are below:

This thick and creamy dip is the perfect blend of real avocado, sour cream, lime juice, spices and a little kick from chopped jalapenos. It is a great dip for chips, and a natural complement for Mexican food, or to spread on a BLT instead of mayonnaise.

One of our most popular flavors, this creamy dip is a blend of sour cream, real dill and spices. Excellent as a veggie or chip dip, it is also a great addition to grilled salmon!

Just the right mix of sour cream, buttermilk, garlic and onion.  Add a savory kick to your chips and veggies!

Our famous Homestyle Ranch is a delicious combination of fresh herb and vegetable flavors.  This traditional favorite is sure to please your family!  Treat your family by serving Litehouse Homestyle Ranch with dinner tonight!

A robust Caesar with lots of garlic, Parmesan and just the right touch of anchovy. Our quality ingredients and taste make this dressing the perfect complement to your Caesar salad. 

Since Mom loves all things avocado, and those fruits are getting mighty pricey at the supermarket, I decided to make a somewhat Tex-Mex take on a classic pasta salad. The avocado dip contains egg yolks, just like traditional mayonnaise, but also sour cream which lightens up the flavour considerably and definitely classifies it as a "Summer" treat - I can see it paired with black beans and cheese in tacos or drizzled over grilled fish too.

In the interest of quick cooking and minimal clean up, I decided to give this pasta salad a "one pot" approach. Everything from cooking the chicken to cooking the pasta was done in a large pot and added successively to a mixing bowl before being topped with the dip and tossed. This also ensured that dressing met ingredients while they were still warm and receptive to flavours - a key to any good pasta salad! Being fairly experienced with gluten free pasta, I made sure to taste the pasta as it cooked, ready to pull it before the 7 minutes the macaroni box stated it took to become al dente - and to my taste, 6 minutes was perfect (my sister likes softer pasta and preferred 7). Either way, heavily salting the water like you would "normal" pasta truly elevates the flavours, adding an almost "buttery" note hinted at by the corn in the noodle dough.

The real punch of flavour and colour in this salad comes from the medley of vegetables, which are infinitely variable as you have available. I chose a fairly standard "Tex-Mex" mix of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, green onions and olives, which brought sweet, salty, tangy and spicy elements and even brighter colours. These vegetables also keep relatively well in the fridge as a salad, which allows you to make a big batch in advance and go at it over the week.

A plethora of veggies for a chicken pasta salad - made with @litehousefoods avocado dip and @barillaus gluten free elbow pasta

Crab Caesar Salad #SundaySupper for Two

Salad is something that I eat a lot of daily. Not only is it refreshing and (when done right) filling enough to satisfy without weighing you down, it's so variable and easy to make that some weeknights it is dinner for one, poassibly with some toasted pita on the side. My "rabbit habit" is somewhat legendary at work, as not only do I eat the same thing every day, I'm one of the few people who willingly eat that quantity of vegetables, in their raw state, as their work-sustaining midday meal.

Regardless of the eye-rolls and jokes, I love the refreshing crunch of my salads, and like my five year old self, Caesar style is always a hit. Often I will make a double batch of dressing and keep it in the fridge so that I can whip up a dinner like this on a whim. The full recipe for this tangy, lightly dressed salad is the perfect meal for two this #SundaySupper, and by opting for a dairy- and mayo-free dressing it keeps things even lighter. I chose to combine iceberg and romaine lettuce for both crunch and classic flavour, and since I can't tolerate more than a little bit of "real" crab I mixed in some surimi for extra body and protein. Since I don't do bacon (and love spicy things), for the "smoky" element of the dressing I used a combination of smoked paprika and chipotle chili flakes (if you don't want the heat use smoked sweet paprika and plain black pepper to taste).

Whether or not you have someone to share this #SundaySupper with, you can be sure that a bowl of this salad won't be relegated to "side dish" status!

Chicken Recipes

• Chicken and Cheese Quesadillas by Pies and Plots
• Chicken Marsala by A Mind “Full” Mom
• Classic Coq Au Vin for Two by The Crumby Cupcake
• Creamy Parmesan Skillet Eggs by The Texan New Yorker
• Date Night Chicken Teriyaki Stir-Fry by Gourmet Every Day
• Orange Chicken by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Salsa Chicken by Simple and Savory

 

Pasta Recipes

• Chicken and Spinach Pasta with Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce by Pook’s Pantry
• One Pan Shrimp and Asparagus Linguini by Jersey Girl Cooks
• Scallop Pasta with Garlic and White Wine by Caroline’s Cooking
• Skillet Rigatoni alla Vodka for Two by Eat, Drink and be Tracy

 

Pork Recipes

• Porchetta by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Roast Pork Loin with Plum Sauce by Sew You Think You Can Cook

 

Red Meat Recipes

• Filet Mignon with Shiitake Mushrooms by Cooking Chat
• French Onion Filet Mignon by The Chef Next Door
• Honey Lime Steak Kebabs by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Mini Mushroom Meatloaf by Cricket’s Confections
• Mushroom Topped Pepper Steak for Two by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Pan Seared Sirloin Steak Dinner for Two by Life Tastes Good
• Pan-Seared Nutella Skirt Steak by Brunch-n-Bites
• Petit Filet with Red Wine Pan Sauce & Garlic Mash by Authentically Candace
• Rack of Lamb with Strawberry Mint Glaze by Sunday Supper Movement
• Steak Au Poivre by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures

 

Seafood Recipes

• Baked Salmon with Ginger Marinade by Feeding Big
• Crab Caesar Salad by What Smells So Good?
• Crab Imperial by Monica’s Table
• Creamy Shrimp & Sausage Skillet by Crazed Mom
• Grilled Swordfish with Husk Cherry Salsa by From the Bookshelf
• Peppadew Trout en Croûte by Food Lust People Love
• Shrimp and Grits with Andouille Cream Sauce by Soulfully Made
• Surf and Turf for Two by The Freshman Cook

 

Veggie Recipes

• Colorful Matchstick Salad with Mint Vinaigrette by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Curried Split Peas by Wholistic Woman
• Edamame Waldorf Salad by Ninja Baker
• Saffron and Leek Risotto – Served 2 Ways by Sprinkles and Sprouts

 
Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board. Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Spiralized Sunomono

It's been a while since I broke out my Spiralizer - during the colder months, the lack of economical, "spiralize-able" veggies drops significantly, leaving not much around but carrots, potatoes and beets. I'm not sure if it's my model or not (I do have a fairly high-end one, though not the top of the tier) but the harder roots basically "shred" more than "twirl" in the machine, and make cleaning it a royal pain. Therefore, once the cucumber, zucchini and even apples fade away from their place as "peak" produce, so does the machine.

However, at this moment, we have lots of Summer squash options coming in from the garden. Not only do we have our usual crops of zucchini, but there's some yellow squash and my long-awaited cucumbers as well. While I originally put in the cucumbers for pickling, the latest burst of rain and hot, humid weather acted like a natural steroid for my plants. By the time I got back out into the (somewhat dried-off) garden, I found two baby cucumbers that had been decimated by the storm and a single, rather large specimen that would not be fitting into any pickle jar soon! Luckily, I had a different use for it in mind - one of my favourite Japanese salads, called sunomono, is essentially a sweet-sour-salty pickled cucumber salad topped with sesame seeds. A breeze to whip up with the Spiralizer, it was also beautiful done that way, and if you let the cucumber "drain" a little on tea towels before assembling it holds quite well. In fact, drained enough, it gets better as it sits - just add the seed garnish at the last minute and you have a light and refreshing, vegan cucumber salad perfect for Summer get togethers (or solitary noshing)!

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays 

Mix & Match @SanJTamari Sauces for an Asian Twist This Grilling Season

Recipes are all courtesy of San J. For more information on San-J products and to find great gluten-free recipe ideas, please visit their website or Facebook page!

The bright sunny days and ever-warmer evenings mean one thing: grilling season has arrived! San-J is inviting everyone to fire up their gas, charcoal or even electric grills and get ready to create endlessly innovative recipes with their whole line of premium, gluten-free Asian cooking sauces. Dishes will get an instant kick of flavour from the sweet, tangy and slightly spicy Asian BBQ, Mongolian and Orange cooking sauces, livening up your family barbecues or dinners-for-two on the patio in a wink.

Orange Chipotle Grilled Chicken with Citrus Salsa

San-J definitely has your summer recipe needs covered too - with brand new ideas for main meals and side dishes created by Chef Carol Kicinski. Try the fresh and fruity Orange Chipotle Grilled Chicken with Citrus Salsa (hint: this also works with tofu!), an Asian Pasta Salad with sweet Mongolian Sauce and a burst of Sriracha heat or a Fire Roasted Grilled Vegetable Salad packed with the best of Summer's produce and tossed with a lemon and Asian BBQ Sauce dressing.

Don't feel like grilling (or the sky rained on your parade?) stay tuned this week for a vegetarian, gluten free recipe of mine using San-J's Orange and Teriyaki cooking sauces!

Summer Salad Recipes with #Marzetti Simply Dressed

May was National Salad Month. I missed the boat on that one, but that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying my favourite meal regularly! I love how versatile salads can be, easily composed from anything - from the (not so) plain-jane greens to the spectrum of proteins, a rainbow of fruit and vegetables, and/or a field of grains. Unlike my mom and I (the veggie-holics in the family), many Canadians don’t eat enough vegetables. That's a shame, since with July nearing with it's bounty of fresh, local produce there's no better time to be chowing down on it!

The problem with most salads is the dressing. Most commercially prepared dressings are packed with fillers, additives and preservatives, which makes it difficult for the ever-growing number of Canadian label-readers to ensure that the products they buy are wholesome and simple. Bridging the dietary need for more vegetables with the desire for simplicity are new Simply Dressed® salad dressings from Marzetti®™.

Simply Dressed® refrigerated salad dressings are made with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, canola oil and other fresh, bright ingredients. They have many gluten free options too What they don't have are preservatives, trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, MSG or artificial flavours. In Canada, we can find 354 ml bottles in six flavours in our stores: Balsamic, Ranch, Ceasar, Blue Cheese, Pomegranate and Greek Feta. All of them cost around $3.99, and are found in the produce section of the grocery store with the refrigerated salad dressings. Hungry Canadians can find the full variety at Loblaws, Superstore, Zehrs, Valumart, Your Independent Grocer, Coppa’s Fresh Market, Concord Foods and FreshCo.

The Marzetti®™ team sent me a delicious assortment of salad recipes to share, so take a look below - you're bound to find something to make you love your veggies!

Cauliflower and Tomato Salad @HuntsChef #GuestPost

I'd like to introduce Julie, today's guest blogger. Julie is a Midwestern gal from Chicago, IL who writes on behalf of Hunt’s. Like most of us, she is a lover of warm weather and outdoor Summer grilling. When not grilling, her favorite meals are homemade meatloaf and anything with a blue cheese topping! Please check out the Hunt’s website for great tomato recipes perfect for meals with family and friends.

Super Simple Vegan Taco Salad

With the warmer months approaching (soon... maybe. Please??) my thoughts are already on the garden. I just finished sorting out my "direct sow" seeds (this year it's Lutz beets, strawberry spinach and a rainbow carrot mix), and my heirloom tomato seeds are well on their way. This year's crop, if Mother Nature is kind, will feature tiny Red Currants, rich purple Gypsies and the lovably hideous Riesetomates, possibly with another group of Indigo Roses if I can find space (and the store that sells the seedlings)!

Of course, at the moment we're still relying on supermarket produce, which tries to emulate their fresh-from-the-garden counterparts but often comes up short. Lettuce priced at $2.47 a head is crenated and half-slimy, tomatoes are overpriced tennis balls and spongy zucchini is the size of a finger. But still, the call of the sun and the slowly increasing temperatures is a strong one, and I can't help but crave more fresh veggies and cool, crisp salads.

To compensate for the lack of our market's quality (and the still-brisk evenings), I turned to the cook's friend - heat. Just like roasting under-ripe or out-of-season tomatoes concentrates and enhances their flavour, adding a warm, hearty, spicy topping (in my case, a taco filling) to cold veggies, followed by cool, refreshing yoghurt and lime creates a whole new flavour and texture sensation that is so much more than the sum of it's parts.

I know most taco salads have a tortilla shell (or at least chips), and you can certainly add those, or cooked brown rice, to beef up the bowl a bit more. I opted to have a small bowl of garlicky millet on the side, since for some reason grains on cold greens weirds me out. Plus, I never really liked hard tacos anyway, and the soft ones turn to mush too fast! Either way, this salad is a light yet hearty addition to the Mexican (or Tex-Mex) table, and is a nice way to herald Cinco de Mayo with the rest of the Holiday Food Blog Parties group! Take a look at the delectable treats on display:

1. Alfajores from Roxana's Home Baking
2. Spicy Fish Tacos with Avocado Yogurt Sauce from Crumb Blog
3. Classic Flan from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
4. Dulce de Leche Milkshake with Coconut Milk Whipped Cream from Chocolate Moosey
5. Lime Margarita Bars from Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
6. Shrimp and Avocado Ceviche from Magnolia Days
7. Tropical Fiesta Cocktail from Hungry Couple NYC
8. Paletas - Mexican Popsicles from Pineapple and Coconut
9. Bizcochitos Cookies from Jen's Favorite Cookies
10. Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes from Gotta Get Baked
11. Super Simple Vegan Taco Salad from What Smells So Good?
12. Gluten Free Tres Leches Cake from Kelly Bakes
13. Queso Blanco from The Messy Baker
14. Gorditas with Picadillo from Juanita's Cocina
15. Strawberry Margerita Slurpee from Chocolate Chocolate and More

Italian Salami Pasta Salad with Lemon Parmesan Vinaigrette

It's a Civic Holiday here in most of Canada, which essentially means an excuse to give us all a long weekend in August because hey - we don't have a real holiday to give us the day off! We're spending our "extra day" finally finishing up the menial chores in the garden, basement, garage and kitchen, but I know a good amount of my fellow Canadians that are still living it up at the cottage, boat or at family gatherings and picnics. 

Yesterday, I shared one of the goodies we brought to my stepbrother's recent engagement party - Julia Child's Oeufs à la Diable. Since my mom is fairly well known in our family as being a wonderful cook (I know, I lucked out with a foodie for a mom), she was also asked to bring a pasta or potato salad to round out the already gratuitous spread - which included the aforementioned eggs, veal scaloppine, chicken in some sort of gooey cream sauce, bread, coleslaw, garden salad, antipasti, cocktail shrimp, steamed vegetables with olive oil and herbs, corn on the cob and a full dessert table featuring (amongst other things) gelato, cannoli and a three tiered cake. Plus a very well stocked bar (we're talking 2 cases of wine and 6 of beer in addition to the hard stuff). You'd think that they were serving a hundred (or two) people - in reality, only 75 were invited, and out of those a grand total of 41 came. Needless to say, we are now the grand recipients of a lot of leftovers! 

Thankfully, while the chicken and veal are a bit on the "rich and gloopy" side for everyday dinners (though my stepbrother took them for lunches all last week), we also got a full tray of veggies that my mom's been using for dinner and that I pureed into a soup for her lunches, as well as the leftovers of this pasta salad. I'm kind of proud of this one - its full of sauteed veggies, with relatively little pasta, and a touch of flavour packed black pepper hard salami that I had done a product demo for a few months back. It's also not a creamy salad - around here we're not huge fans of the mayo in general, so I whipped up a bright, lemony Parmesan vinaigrette that I adapted from Mountain Mama Cooks for the mixture instead. Not having any eggs, it was safe to keep out on the buffet with the rest of the bread and green salads, and it also lasts longer in the fridge as leftovers! With the meat, pasta and veggies, it's also a light meal in itself which is nice in the throes of Summer when you really want something cool for lunch.

While I never told my mom that the recipe wasn't from a cookbook but that I had written it (she has a "thing" about trusting my food around other people 0_o), she never asked - she just assumed one of the books I had for review was the source. Granted, mom has been incredibly generous with her palate, opinion, pantry and occasionally waistline when it comes to appeasing my foodie tendencies... but you'd think she'd be trusting my own recipes by now!

It's been a looooong time since I last participated in Ruth's blog event Presto Pasta Nights, but this salad was just so summery that I had to share. Be sure to check out her blog (she's host this week) on Friday for all the other noodley nosh!

Maple - Dijon Salmon Salad - #RecipeRedux

In the northern hemisphere, at least, there has been no denying that the past month or so has definitely fulfilled the requirements of being Summer. We've had a fair run of 30-degree-plus days around here, which while thoroughly enjoyed by people like me (who pretty much freeze year round) can be a bit oppressive when they're on the more muggy side of things. Some days even the thought of eating is too much, let alone firing up the stove, oven or grill to cook something. Smoothies, ice cream and freezies cool you off for a little while, but don't really give you sustenance to keep enjoying the weather. Sometimes, you need a no-cook meal.

This month for Recipe Redux, we're beating that heat with “no cook meals” with all the fresh goodness of in-season herbs and vegetables. Without cooking them, their pure characteristics shine through and their flavours are bright and strong! I chose to toss together a simple, crisp salad full of sweet and spicy elements and topped with one of my family's favourite fish - salmon.

I used a pouched variety of wild pink salmon so I didn't have to fire up the grill, although ideally a freshly cooked fillet would have graced the plate. While the texture changes with pre-packaged fish (some would say suffers), it still has the goodness of the fresh fish it's made from, and its hard to argue with convenience. Canned salmon's a great option too, especially sockeye with the bones for extra calcium! If you're worried about the mercury in canned fish, tests by the FDA tests found the mercury content in albacore (tuna) to be 35x greater than canned salmon's!

What is the Recipe ReDux?

A Salad for All Seasons

One of the things I struggle with the most in the Fall and Winter months is the dearth of lush, vibrant and (above all) flavourful produce. True, these days it's possible to buy bright red tomatoes in February, strawberries in December and apples in any month with a vowel, but unless you're a globetrotter and happen to be in the correct hemisphere at the time, out-of-season fruit and veggies are just... bleh. While you can partially escape the lack of flavour with judicious use of frozen goods, the fact remains that you need to then cook them to maintain any sort of passable texture - and (excepting peas and corn which never seem to "die") that's a crapshoot at best.

It was a craving for something fresh, flavourful and not out of the frozen food or canned good section that led to the creation of one of the most vibrant and rich dishes I've made to date. Having seen the description of a vegetable salad on a chi-chi restaurant menu a week or so ago, I made up my mind that I could take the same concept - a lettuce-less, all-veggie bowl of goodness - and tweak it not only to add a medley of texture and flavour, but also to make it a viable option year-round. What I wound up with was a veritable artist's palette of colours layered not only with an eye towards artistry but with attention to the details of balancing raw versus cooked elements, mouthfeels of shredded, chopped and sliced vegetables and maintaining the well-rounded body of a dish containing sweet, sour, salty and bitter flavours.

While this salad is simple enough for lunch when paired with a piece of grilled chicken, salmon or even simply a hunk of crusty whole-grain bread and cheese, it is also gourmet enough to readily serve as a plated appetizer at a dinner party (especially when garnished with toasted walnuts, as I did here). The nice thing about the ingredients usd in this particular bowl is that regardless of whether you make it for Christmas Eve, Easter, a July picnic or Thanksgiving, at least one of the ingredients will be at the peak of freshness - and if you're blessed enough to have a garden as diverse as ours, you can grow almost everything in your own yard!



Inspiration + Impulse = A Totally Different Dinner

Wow! Another dinner post! I guess you can’t fault day trips out of your borough for a lack of inspiration. I actually went down to Kensington a few weeks back with a mission to buy one of the ingredients that came into play with this spicy seafood meal of mine, but believe it or not I came home with it (after searching a few stores) but without a clue why I chose to buy it in the first place! Thankfully, achiote is a fairly common ingredient in the foodie universe, especially with the Mexican and South American crowd, so although I bought the annatto seeds ground to a powder and not make into a paste, a few quick searches and some stitching together of recipes gave me a viable substitute that was perfect for a whole different meal.

I can’t believe how well the spicy paste mixture meshed with the sweet shrimp in this cobbled-together crapshoot of an idea. In all honesty, it would be a killer use for grilled steak, mixed into burgers, stirred into veggies and rice or smeared onto BBQ’d jumbo prawns (mmm, shrimp on the barbie!). I can’t wait to try it out with tofu, too – I’m betting that with a good, couple-days soak in the mixture it would convert any meat freak! The sweet and sour slaw was a refreshing, crunchy and cooling accompaniment, balancing out the entire meal. In short, it was nothing less than a perfect Summer supper.

Now if I could only figure out what I bought the achiote for in the first place!

Achiote Shrimp Slaw
Serves 1

Sweet and Sour Slaw
9 oz bag coleslaw mix
5 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp mustard seed
¼ tsp celery seed

Marinated Shrimp
1 tbsp achiote powder
½ tsp cumin powder
¾ tsp black pepper
pinch chipotle pepper
pinch allspice
pinch oregano
pinch cinnamon
½ tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 clove garlic, pressed
½ tbsp grated orange zest
1 can (106g) small salad shrimp, drained well, OR 3.5 oz cooked small shrimp

Slaw

1. Mix rice vinegar, sugar, salt and mustard seed in a small cup.
2. Pour over the slaw mixture and toss well. Let sit 1 hour.

Shrimp and Assembly

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together achiote powder, cumin, pepper, chipotle, allspice, oregano, cinnamon, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, white vinegar, water, fresh garlic and orange zest.
2. Add shrimp and stir to coat thoroughly.
3. Taste and adjust seasoning, then top slaw mix and serve.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 253.1
Total Fat: 0.0 g
Cholesterol: 70.0 mg
Sodium: 492.8 mg
Total Carbs: 43.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g
Protein: 20.7 g

Something Smells Fishy...

Whenever my family would go out to eat when I was a kid, instead of asking for garlic bread or mozzarella sticks for an appetizer I would invariably order a Caesar salad with lots of fresh cracked pepper on top. While it was certainly not the healthiest option out there, it was still a salad... so my parents were more than happy to let me have at it - and I would clean the bowl, with the exception of the ever-present croutons. I still cannot understand the appeal of adding cubes of stale, tooth-shattering bread soaked in oil to a perfectly decent bed of greens, but mind you I also abhor adding fruit, nuts or seeds to my salads too. I'll chalk it up to a texture thing.

But anyways, with all my Caesar ordering, I shuddered at the thought of allowing anything like anchovies onto my dinner plate. I had never tasted them, but from what my mom told me about them I really did not want to know for myself. So I would badmouth the tiny, salty sea creatures and express a kind of disgusted awe at the fact that my grandfather loved them on his pizza and would order them if given the chance. Little did I know that I had been eating the dang things for years, simply mashed up and blended into a creamy dressing or sauteed with onions and garlic before melting into the marinara sauce on my seafood fettuccine!

Well, once I found out, I wasn't really about to give up eating Caesars - I mean, I'd been loving the taste for that long, and it wasn't like the taste had changed at all! But I had never made my own creamy Caesar from scratch before. At home, Caesars were made from a head of romaine and a bottle of dressing - it seemed too much of a fuss to make the vinaigrette from scratch, what with all the egg yolk business! Then I stumbled across Lydia's (from The Perfect Pantry) recipe for "Caesar Salad with Shrimp", which in addition to utilizing the anchovy in paste form (yay, no mashing!) also used either prepared mayonnaise or Miracle Whip - one of my vices that I get a craving for every so often. So I bought the tube of fish paste, the jar of Whip and a carton of baby romaine lettuce, thawed out some "salad shrimp" I had in my freezer and gave it a whirl. Holy cow was it good! It's become a no-cook Summer supper staple for me, especially these days with the insane temperatures! This is also my submission to Marye's Real Food... Real Quick event and Meals on Mondays this week.

Creamy Garlic Shrimp Caesar

Serves 2

1/4 cup Miracle Whip

2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

2 tsp anchovy paste

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Worcestershire

12 oz baby romaine lettuce

7 oz cooked salad shrimp

1. In a small dish combine Miracle Whip, 1 tbsp Parmesan, anchovy paste, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic powder and Worcestershire. Chill 1 hour.
2. In a serving bowl, toss lettuce with the chilled dressing until well coated.
3. Divide between two bowls and top each with an equal portion of salad shrimp.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 235.6
Total Fat: 9.6 g
Cholesterol: 212.3 mg
Sodium: 912.9 mg
Total Carbs: 8.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
Protein: 28.3 g

Shopping Trips

If you belong to the world of [slight] obsession that is food - and let's face it, if you're reading any blog like this one you do - you undoubtedly understand the special allure that shopping for anything culinary-related has. It can be quite the addiction, and if you pardon the expression, the time suck, albeit a rather enjoyable one! For instance, my family knows that if they need something from the grocery store within the time span of say, an hour or so, they don't send me by myself! I will make special trips to out-of-the-way shops of all kinds for no reason: from trawling tiny fruit sellers downtown after an acupuncture appointment, to popping into the three health food stores in town that all know be on sight, to gabbing on and on with the poor souls working at the two Bulk Barns nearby that I pretty much live in (I should even consider changing my address!), I live for anything and everything in the world of food.

I know I'm not the only one out there, either. I'm slowly converting some followers to the "foodie" mentality - including my techno-phobic mom (who still barely checks her e-mail address, let alone ever reading this blog!). I've mentioned it before (probably more than once, but it's worth repeating!) but my Mom was my first cooking teacher and is still the "queen of the Christmas shortbreads", the Challah and Brioche guru and posessor of the most perfect apple square and fresh Spy Pie technique out there. While I don't think I can ever hope to clone those talents for myself (I am coming close, but not being able to taste the end product makes perfection hard!), I've started to turn mom onto the joys of thinking about what food can mean besides just something on the table three times a day, and that making something different and "outside the box" doesn't have to be saved for Christmas! Now, we hit the grocery store every week and (even though it's a Big Bad Box kind of store) we make it almost a kind of adventure - I'll spew off all kinds of random trivia about the vegetables and new "international fare" on the shelves. The two of us are essentially herbivores too, a habit that always involves buying so much produce every week that our cart is full before we get to anything not a plant! See those photos? Yeah - those were our last two shopping trips... the bottom of the two is the result of two - yes two - grocery carts' worth of food (including 7 heads of lettuce - of which there are 4 remaining after only 3 days!). I've even convinced her to trust my judgement when it comes to trying out new, untested recipe ideas that I've passed along, either from my own imagination or from the amazing bevy of blogs I pore over.

Unfortunately, even though she's on her way to becoming a bona fide foodie, Mom just can't "get into" the mentality surrounding cooking and eating that lead me to begin writing this blog. While cooking a meal every day is treated more or less as a simple expectation on her time and energy, for me it's nothing short of therapy. Even days where I'm gone before the sun is up and don't get in the door until easily 7:30 at night, being able to crank up the stove and give myself a filling and "full" meal sends me back from the brink of burnout enough that I can focus on finishing at least a couple more tasks on my to do list before lights out. Needless to say, the majority of my "non standard" food shopping is done alone - and though I'm not in love with that reality, I was even less fond of forcing others into outings like those more than I already do.

But, here's where the awesome network of bloggers and other food-minded people out there (and especially on Twitter!) come in. This summer I was lucky enough to catch up with a couple people who I'm now grateful to call my friends - including Joel from Foodie411 - for a morning at one of the Toronto markets, and most recently the two of us along with Bon of Bon Eats scoured the St. Lawrence Market for most of a day, catching up and gleaning inspiration from pretty much everything we saw there. When we went for lunch, we all managed to come down with a serious squid craving - odd, I know, but what can I say?? We live this type of stuff! In fact, my yen for some Japanese-inspired calamari and rich mushrooms was so great that I went back to the market that day and picked up four fresh, beautiful squid along with a big handful of shiitakes that quickly became dinner!

Teriyaki Mushroom - Stuffed Squid On A Bed Of Baby Spinach

Serves 1

1 1/2 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce, divided

2 tsp brown sugar, divided

1/2 tsp rice vinegar, divided
2 tbsp water, divided
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
pinch each wasabi powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes
170g shiitake or cremini mushrooms, chopped
140g squid bodies (about 2), cleaned
3 cups baby spinach

1. Preheat the broiler on HI, lightly mist a baking sheet with non-stick spray.
2. In a small dish combine 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp vinegar, 1 tbsp water, 1/4 tsp ginger and seasonings to taste. Set aside.
3. In another dish combine the remaining soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, water, ginger and seasonings.In a non-stick pan over medium heat, saute the mushrooms in a small amount of water or cooking spray until brown.
4. Stir in the larger volume of soy sauce mixture and cook 30 seconds longer. Remove to a bowl.
5. Using a small spoon, fill the squid bodies with mushroom mixture. Reserve any remaining mixture for salad.
6. Move the stuffed squid onto the sheet, drizzle with remaining soy sauce mixture and place under the broiler.
7. Cook 3 minutes each side.
8. Remove to a cutting board and slice with a sharp knife.
9. Serve on top a bed of baby spinach along with any remaining mushroom mixture.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 216.9
Total Fat: 2.9 g
Cholesterol: 326.2 mg
Sodium: 1,494.2 mg
Total Carbs: 19.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.2 g
Protein: 31.2 g

Detox Time

Now that we're almost a week into the Thanksgiving aftermath up here in Canada, I'm sure pretty much everyone is sick of leftover turkey, chicken, ham, Tofurkey, whatever! It's time for me to chill out and detox a little before Winter settles in for it's way too long stay! My Psych prof (yeah, I talk about him a lot, he's awesome!) mentioned he was doing one soon, and though I'm not in it to lose any weight these are just "feel healthy" foods that have the added bonus of being TASTY - and seasonal! Oh, and they use carrots... yup, another throwback recipe from when I had the glut of them!

Anyway, this salad is crunchy, sweet and tangy, and just a little on the spicy side: you can use less curry powder though if you really need to! Personally, I love those spices - they're great for stimulating your metabolism and lever detoxification! It really perks you up in the middle of the day when you need a boost. I love picking out the raisins after the salad's sat for a little while, too, because they soak up all the yummy dressing and get soft and chewy! I can't wait to try this with a spicy mango chutney instead of the yogurt too, it would be a nice twist.

If you're searching high and low for celeriac and can't find it, it's also known as celery root (and it looks like that ugly knobbly thing you see on the left!). If it's still nowhere to be found, try grated turnips or parsnips instead, or for a different flavour altogether, how about raw beets? They're equally yummy!

Double - C Salad

Serves 4
2 tablespoons Thompson raisins
1 lb celery root (celeriac), peeled and coarsely grated
3 large carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
3 tablespoons fat free plain yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch cumin powder
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place raisins in a small dish, cover with boiling water and steep 20 minutes. Drain, reserving 2 tbsp liquid.
2. Combine raisins, celery root and carrots in a large bowl.
3. Mix reserved raisin liquid, yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, curry and mustard. Drizzle over vegetables.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately or chill.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 93.1

Total Fat: 0.6 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 168.1 mg

Total Carbs: 20.8 g

Dietary Fiber: 3.8 g

Protein: 3.2 g

For dessert, who can say no to a yummy glass of apple pie? I still have Andrew's mom's juicer at my place, and I made up a glass of this while putting together the cakes last weekend. Delicious, spicy and goes down nice and smooth! It's good for eye, skin and hair health, treating ulcers and preventing colds and flu, so drink up me hearties! (No, that's not a cue to add rum, though I suppose you could...).

Apple Pie in a Glass

Serves 2 generously
2 gala apples, peels on, chopped
2 granny smith apples, peels on, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled
1/2" fresh peeled ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. Run apples, carrot and ginger through juicer.
2. Stir extracted pulp into the juice, then add cinnamon and nutmeg, stirring well.
3. Serve immediately over ice.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 178.4
Total Fat: 1.1 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 25.0 mg

Total Carbs: 45.7 g

Dietary Fiber: 8.5 g

Protein: 0.9 g

Giving Thanks

Wow, that's got to be probably the least original title for a Thanksgiving post ever. Whatever... it's too late tonight to worry about that now! I took some time today to ponder what it is I'm thankful for right now, and the list is so long! Apart from the usual (but important) family, friends, health and assorted similar items, I guess I'd have to say I'm thankful for the chance to go back to college this fall, thankful for the confidence I had to make new friends and stay in touch (as much as I could) with the old, and thankful for the strength and stamina to keep up with my schoolwork, this blog and life in general!

I'm also grateful for the teachers I've had this year, both school and socially related, in person and online. Without them I'd never have been able to move forward and "grow up"!

This (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend is being split a couple different ways, unlike last year when I only had my dad's shindig to go to (seeing as the other half of my gene pool was off in Italy). I'm taking tomorrow morning and jetting to my hometown to bring my best friend from highschool her birthday gift and say "hi" before she disappears back to school, and hopefully I'll be able to hit the local flea market with Andrew too (if I can get my ankle to hold up... it's not being too happy with me these days). Then I'm coming home and making myself a take-along meal for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday which will be spent at my grandparents' place, since I can't eat the usual fare. I've also got a couple cakes to frost and store for the family dinners, and of course you'll get the recipes (actually, one of them is posted here already)! Sunday and Monday are basically eat-talk-sleep days - tell me a Thanksgiving weekend that isn't? Holidays are meant for that purpose!

I don't get out of schoolwork completely though - an oh-so-wonderful couple of assignments are keeping me busy these days (hence the lack of daily posting... I try!). Between writing out HACCP recipe charts, biographical interview reports and training sheets for deep-fryers, the last thing I want to do is think logically!! Yes, I am a whiner. Hear me roar.

For everyone out there celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, and everyone else out there too, I hope it's a good one! If you'd like to join in my low-fat veggie celebration meal, try this recipe on for size... you may never think of a holiday meal the same way.

Tangy Red Grain Salad
Serves 1 as a lunch entree
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup dry bulgur
100g raw beets, coarsely grated (peeled if necessary)
1 tbsp dried cranberries
1 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp vegetable broth
Black pepper to taste

1. Combine water and salt in a small pot, bring to a boil.
2. Add bulgur and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 15 minutes.
3. Stir in beets, cranberries, vinegar, broth and pepper.
4. Serve immediately or chill.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 207.2
Total Fat: 0.7 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 383.4 mg
Total Carbs: 47.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 9.6 g
Protein: 5.9 g

Photo from Archana's blog

Lunch Time

This is probably one of the ugliest meals I've ever made, but undoubtedly it's also one of the tastiest. I take it with me to school most weekdays, just because it's a basic and flavourful way to get some high-quality protein into my daily food intake. Essentially, I make a sweet, spicy and ever so slighty tangy mixture with some dehydrated TVP granules, spices and BBQ sauce, then I stick it in a tupperware container on an ice pack. Another container carries an embarrassingly large amount of leafy greens (either lettuce or baby spinach) that I crack some garlic pepper all over before sealing it up. At school, I dump the TVP onto the lettuce and eat away - boom: insta-meal! I've given this recipe out to a few people along the way, and heard good things, so I figured it was blog-worthy, even though it's not the belle of the ball in the looks category.

Sloppy Joe Salad

Serves 1
1/3 cup TVP granules
pinch salt
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 tsp hickory-flavoured liquid smoke
black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp low-sugar BBQ sauce
2 tbsp low-sugar ketchup
1 tbsp water
pinch ground ginger
pinch cayenne pepper
Lettuce, for serving

1. In a small bowl, combine TVP and salt.
2. Stir in boiling water, liquid smoke, pepper and garlic powder, let sit 10 minutes.
3. Combine BBQ sauce, ketchup, remaining tbsp water, ginger and cayenne powder, stirring smooth.
4. Add to rehydrated TVP and allow to sit 15 minutes.
5. Refrigerate until needed, or serve immediately.
6. Serve chilled or room temperature over a bed of lettuce.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 121.0

Total Fat: 0.0 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 477.4 mg

Total Carbs: 13.4 g

Dietary Fiber: 4.8 g

Protein: 15.1 g

On a slightly prettier note, check out Andrew's lunch today: grilled cheese a la carrots (with purple carrots, too!!). I wonder if it tasted as good as it looked?? More carroty goodness tomorrow though, as I begin to massacre the haul!

School Food

Well, I'm finally back into the swing of things with school (I think... sorry for the lag time!). Apart from a few God-awfully long days, and the rather hard plastic chairs, I'm really having a blast! My professors for Psychology and my Kitchen lab class in particular are great: absolutely hilarious and entertaining while still being able to teach me something! I've even made some friends who are as passionate about food and (healthy) cooking as me, and I've swapped some recipes with them. In particular one of my friends (Johanna) shares my love of eggplant, and when I found this recipe in my mom's black box I knew I had to share it with her, and everyone else out there who loves veggies as much as me! (Psst - I bought a can of green jackfruit on a whim at the Asian grocer yesterday, so I can try out this yummy looking recipe! Stay tuned!).

I had to change a couple things in this recipe out of necessity for me, but if you can tolerate the oils in your diet feel free to swap in half the vegetable broth for a good-quality walnut oil (or extra-virgin olive if you have no walnut oil on hand). It's a strongly-flvoured salad, pretty pungent from the raw garlic and onion, so really letting the veggies marinate (add some cubed up tofu too for yummy protein "sponges"!) as long as possible is key to avoiding a mouthful of fire! I am wondering what this would be like re-warmed, though - I'm looking for good warm lunch ideas for the winter!!

Macedonian Summer Salad
Serves 4 generously
---Marinade---
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp red wine
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning

---Salad---
1 eggplant, peeled and chopped
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 English cucumber, halved and sliced
2 red peppers, chopped
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
2 tbsp fresh basil

1. Prepare marinade and set aside.
2. Place eggplant and chopped tomatoes in a baking dish.
3. Broil 4 inches from heat for 8 minutes, flipping eggplant chunks after 4 minutes.
4. Pour broiled vegetables and any juices immediately into a bowl, pour marinade overtop.
5. Chill 2 hours.
6. Toss remaining ingredients with the basil and marinated vegetables and serve.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 83.3
Total Fat: 0.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 70.4 mg
Total Carbs: 18.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.4 g
Protein: 2.9 g

As if there was any doubt as to my psychology prof's sense of humour, check out this video that he showed our class last lecture. I call it "Two Brains", and it's definitely for anyone who loves (or just lives with) someone of the opposite sex!