Mom's Yoghurt Pudding (#RecipeRedux)

One of my mom's favourite treats these days is yoghurt. Amusingly, she admitted to me recently that she only ate the flavoured varieties while we were growing up to set a "good example", but like my grandfather the plain tubs never crossed her palate and even sweetened and fruit laced it wasn't something she'd go out of her way to eat. When I stopped eating yoghurt (my sister never touched it in the first place) after discovering my dairy issues, she did too - for years.

How times have changed! Remarriage and family blending took away from the gym time mom was used to, and coupled with heavier, "Italian family dinners" and a lengthy commute, the dreaded post-wedding weight creep made it's appearance. By the time I was in nutrition school she was a willing guinea pig case study for my menu planning course, which introduced her to a lot of recipes in my cookbooks that she loved, as well as a new snack option to address her magnesium deficiency and chocolate-tooth. While I got a few eye-rolls at the beginning, her desire to become healthier (she was maybe 15 pounds more than her "goal" weight, so I refused to drop her crazily low calorically) over-ran her leeriness of yoghurt. Wouldn't you know - what started as her one "sweet treat" on a diet turned into an obsession, and whenever I share it with someone else they fall in love with it too! I even have it on good authority that it's delicious with vegan plain yoghurts too :-). And really, with the combination of Greek yoghurt, unsweetened cocoa, vanilla stevia and a few spoonfuls of jam, it has to taste just as good as it is for your body! 

This month's #RecipeRedux is packed with No-Cook Desserts, and this is just decadent enough to fit the bill!

Strawberry-Kiwi Cocktail Jam: Toast Topper #31

There are few combinations of fruit I like as much as strawberry and kiwi. It's not hard to see the appeal - strawberries (in their peak season) are candy-sweet and enhanced by any sort of tang, which the slightly acidic kiwi provides. However, kiwi is not inherently sour either, like lime and lemon can be, so it is equally flavourful and balancing.

In highschool (my "smoothie" days), I'd regularly blitz up frozen strawberries, fresh kiwi, vanilla or strawberry yoghurt, half a banana and a handful of ice cubes for an afternoon snack - probably the healthiest thing I'd eat the whole day if Mom was running late at work and only had energy to shove pasta and chicken nuggets (or the admittedly delicious takeout pizza) onto our plates. As I got older and was subjected to the sometimes questionable fruit tables in our university cafeteria, it was a rare occasion that I saw either of those fruits - until I came home for breaks! In fact, the predominant "fruit" I witnessed in my post-secondary years was in the form of liquored concoctions. Not being able to drink legally for most of my first year of university, then discovering my alcohol allergy soon after, meant I never got a taste of the tooty-frooty cocktails lining the bar menu: screwdrivers, AppleJacks and Banana Popsicles had literal meanings for me. Don't get me wrong - I wasn't naïve. I was usually able to get virgin versions of my friends' drinks that packed a decent enough flavour on their own, and as a bonus I could remember the drink the next morning!

One of the drinks that was on every pub night menu during frosh week was the Strawberry Daiquiri. Whether it was made with fresh berries or (more likely) frozen ones, it was creamy, smooth and not too sweet... the perfect cap-off for a day of whatever the seniors wanted us to do that day (even without the rum!). What was awesome about the barista on shift most of those evenings was that she was always up for an experiment if a customer asked for a modification, provided she had the ingredients. When I found out she had kiwi on hand for a special tropical blender, I asked her to spare one for my frosty strawberry mocktail. When I got the glass, I wondered if I had made a mistake - it was an interesting khaki shade that almost mocked me to try it. But once I did, I was hooked. Strawberry-kiwi was once again on my radar, and it's still one of my favourite combinations.

This summer I found myself with a glut of perfect, sweet strawberries after overbuying at two farmer's markets. As much as I love them, I can't eat three pounds at once - and the freezer became my hoarding ground. Problem was, I'd forget I'd frozen some, and because the berries were always on sale I'd buy them every week and keep stashing them! Then, a few weeks ago (right before my mom and stepdad left on vacation) I found my rather embarrassing treasure trove and knew it was time to get down to business. Jam would be made, and since I was still on a strawberry-kiwi jag I knew just the fruit to mix in.

After a brief Internet browse, I came across a recipe from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving: Over 300 Recipes to Use Year-Round that looked perfect to build on. Essentially, the mixture was a kiwi daiquiri in spreadable form, and while the original added dried cranberries I simply eliminated those and swapped half the kiwi mixture for strawberries. A touch of sugar sweetened the pot and Pomona's pectin helped everything stay together. The hardest part was waiting for my little tester jar (sans rum) to cool down before tasting it... but it was so worth it! I even saved a few jars for my jam loving friends this Christmas... if I can stay away from it, that is :-).

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays

Grown - Up Crispy Treats

I had part of a giant bag of brown rice crisp cereal sitting in my pantry after finally getting tired of eating it for breakfast (anyone else go on food jags like that?) and while light, they take up a lot of prime real estate. Not really having the heart to toss the bag before everything went stale, and with tiny jars of both Exotic Apple-Pear Butter and Zapple Butter hanging out in the fridge (the bits that wouldn't fit into the canning jars) I wanted to see what I could do. In one of my online wanderings, I found this recipe on Food52 and was intrigued - would a fruit spread actually work in a marshmallow-less cereal bar, without taking the "crisp" away?

I made some changes to keep the bars vegan, nut free and gluten free - obviously the brown rice cereal and fruit butter went in (I picked the Exotic Apple-Pear Butter this time), but I swapped in flavourful coconut oil for the (equally flavourful) butter, used agave nectar for the corn syrup and using toasted sunflower seeds instead of the walnuts. My home-dried apples added some extra interest and texture, and the whole mix was allergen-free enough to serve at one of my doctor's offices (where it disappeared in a flash!).

Shared with Waste Not Want Not Wednesday.

Citrus and Herb Roast Chicken

Almost every meat eater I know has a soft spot for roasted chicken. Years ago, when I was in that camp, I hankered for the only versions I knew the taste of - from restaurants and the supermarket deli. At home, we never got roasted whole birds (or bone in pieces for that matter) unless it was the Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey, and (as I'm sure happens in every family with whining kids and a gazillion side dishes to think of) they were always a strange combination of greasy skin and dry meat. Interestingly, it was only after I stopped eating chicken (or any meat) that I started cooking it beyond a broiled skinless, boneless breast, and with cacciatore, coq au vin and a full-out roast under my belt, I'm edging closer to the domestic prowess my mom and grandma had before us meddling, hungry kids got in the way.  

Actually, it was due to a request from my mom and stepbrother (who normally loathes chicken) that I fired up the oven for this latest bird. I basically used the same process as my Double - Lemon Roast Chicken, but this year we weren't growing lemon balm. Instead, I used the lime basil and lemon thyme in the garden along with lots of fresh lemon zest and juice for the same zippy flavour, brought in locally raised, organic meat and took into account a year's worth of learning from cookbooks, TV shows and blogs to refine the roasting process a little (and try to improve the final result). I was nervous as my mom cut into the roasted, rested birds and took a taste - until she beamed and declared it delicious. My stepbrother, stepdad and grandma agreed: if it was even possible, the meat was more tender, the skin more crisp and the flavour more imbued than the original! 

Apple Pie Granola

So now with all that luscious, sweet and spicy Zapple Butter on my hands and apple season fast approaching (the farmer's market was loaded with bushels last week!), I couldn't wait to try out one of the recipes I had pinned eons ago from My Whole Food Life: Apple Cinnamon Granola. I had noted on my pin to use apple butter for more flavour, and since I also had some home-dried apples from last year's picking spree I decided to toss them in at the end for a bit of texture. I didn't add any nuts, fat or refined sugar to this either, which is easy to do if you're making granola at home but almost unheard of in the store-bought varieties! 

What I love about making granola at home is that I can make it über chunky - I hate buying granola where you open the bag and just find glorified toasted oats with sugar and raisins. Granola needs chunks, people! It's also a great way to play with the whole grains in the kitchen. You're not limited to oats for granola - I've used spelt flakes, brown crisp rice cereal, even cooked buckwheat, black rice and millet to make batches. I kept to mostly oats this time, but I tossed in a whack of wheat germ for flavour and a boost of nutrition (B vitamins, potassium, iron and magnesium to name a few!). To sweeten, I broke out my favourite Grade B maple syrup for a rich Fall flavour. It really did taste like apple pie, or at least apple squares - I couldn't wait for it to cool so I could dig right in!