Month: October 2012

Chickpea Hummus

Chickpea Hummus

Chickpea hummus is great on sandwiches instead of mayo or you can use it as a dip for veggies, tortilla chips or with pita bread. You will need: 2, 19 oz (540 mL) cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed well (allow to drain again before 

Blindfolded Oven Fries

Blindfolded Oven Fries

I say blindfolded because these are so easy you can almost make them with your eyes closed – I take no responsibility for missing digits if you try it though. Frozen fries are full of crap (read the bag sometime, it’s horrifying what they can 

Emma’s Spinach (with 1000 Lemons for Jordan) Soup

Emma’s Spinach (with 1000 Lemons for Jordan) Soup

The wonderful Emma Mileva is the wife of my colleague (the also wonderful) Jordan Milev, Creative Director at Skunkworks Creative Group Inc.  Not only is Emma in the middle of finishing her Ph.D in Linguistics at SFU, she is constantly sending Jordan to work with delicious and incredibly healthy homemade lunches – we are all jealous.  Jordan is generally pretty good about sharing with the noted exception of this spinach soup he sometimes brings. In that case, picture head down, elbows up with no room for extraneous spoons. There was nothing for it but to ask Emma for the recipe so the rest of us could try it.  Here it is.

You will need:
500 g spinach (washed and spun)
1 big yellow onion
1 c. white rice (arborio or sushi rice) – both are gluten free
2-3 Tpsps olive oil
yogurt
fresh lemon juice
salt and black pepper

Cooking instructions…from Emma with ad libs from me:

  1. With lots of tears Emma peels the onion, puts it in a chopper and then sautes the onion puree in a pan with olive oil for about 5 minutes on a medium heat.
  2. Add the rice plus 3 cups of  boiling water. (Emma boils the water in a kettle to save time – me too!).
  3. Add salt and pepper.
  4. When the rice is almost done (takes about 15-20 minutes in a covered pot) add the chopped spinach. You may wish to add more water. I added 6 more cups of boiling water because I over measured the rice – never underestimate the swell factor! Leave it for 5 more minutes on a low heat. Emma does not leave it for a longer time because she likes the spinach to look fresh dark green and not to be overdone.
  5. Marni’s Variation: As usual I started cooking before I checked the fridge for ingredients. I knew I had a bag of spinach but it was only a 170g bag (arg). However, I also had  bunch of kale so I used that (washed with centre stalk removed and chopped – some people leave the centre stalk but I find it a bit tough so I took it out)

Voila!  Serve it with lemon juice and/or yogurt and season with salt and pepper to your taste. I used half a lemon and a dollop of greek yogurt. The taste is light and reminiscent of Greek Avgolemono soup but without the egg so the Vegan crowd can still chow down.

Emma saysJordan specifically eats it with 1000s of lemons and 1000 kg of yogurt (I can vouche for the lemons…I have never seen Jordan eat anything that did not involve at least 1 lemon!).

Thank you Emma and thanks Jordan for teaching me how to say “We don’t allow dummies here” in Bulgarian.

Asparagus Salad: We are Fond-a No Lettuce in Our Salads (Thank you)

Asparagus Salad: We are Fond-a No Lettuce in Our Salads (Thank you)

Fonda Bloy is an amazing dance instructor and choreographer. She is also the mom of Oliver, who at the time I first posted this recipe, was a very energetic 3-year old who is big on snap peas…red peppers…not so much. This is Fonda’s favorite salad 

Thanksgiving Meatloaf or “We don’t need no stinkin’ turkey.”

Thanksgiving Meatloaf or “We don’t need no stinkin’ turkey.”

This year my kids went off to their Auntie and Uncle’s for a big Thanksgiving feast so I was off the hook for cooking a turkey (insert cartwheel here). However, for Thanksgiving Monday they requested…meatloaf. My daughter “the mostly vegetarian” will eat very few meat 

Tracie’s Bollywood Style Cauliflower with a Gangnam Style Soundtrack

Tracie’s Bollywood Style Cauliflower with a Gangnam Style Soundtrack

I met Tracie Willis at my first “Mom and Tots” group. She had twin boys. After that I stopped whining (well maybe not totally). Tracie lived about 8 blocks from my house and was the one person I could count on to be up at 6 a.m. with the coffee on (this last bit being crucial to my survival). We spent a lot of mornings together and I can honestly say she saved my sanity on more than one occasion with her sense of humour and positive attitude. What can I tell you, every new mom needs at least one friend like that. Thank you Tracie…you know you rock. While this is an Indian inspired recipe…I can visualize Tracie cooking it Gangnam Style ’cause that’s just how she rolls.

You will need:

One head of cauliflower washed and chopped into bite sized pieces.
1 c. sour cream (low fat or otherwise)
2-3 Tbsps mild curry pastes (Tracie likes Patak’s … me too!)

  1. Steam the cauliflower until knife tender (don’t over cook it unless you want to make cauliflower dip…hmmm…that might not be bad actually).
  2. Drain cauliflower and gently toss with sour cream.
  3. Take a couple tablespoons of the warmed sour cream and mix it together with the curry paste.
  4. Gently toss this back in with the cauliflower and serve

Yield: 4 side servings.

Tomato sauce plain and simple

Tomato sauce plain and simple

Yesterday I decided to try out Katie Bishop’s “The best and easiest tomato pasta sauce,” from her excellent cookbook Slow Cooking. Easy Slow Cooker Recipes. I bought the book for the Vietnamese Pho Broth recipe (which is exceptional by the way) but today was not 

Zucchini Hummus (yes you read right…Zucchini)

Zucchini Hummus (yes you read right…Zucchini)

When I was about 7 we moved from the city to the country and like every good back-to-the-land hippie family my parents and their friends planted gardens. In our garden my parents planted 6 hills of zucchini (just in case the first 5 didn’t take). 

Breakfast fuel. Cookies anyone, anyone, Bueller?

Breakfast fuel. Cookies anyone, anyone, Bueller?

Breakfast cookies…sounds like a bad idea right? Not so in this case. Just as every day should start out with a good breakfast I thought I’d start this blog with a breakfast fuel recipe. Sadly, I have never been a big breakfast eater (aside from coffee which I am told does not count). I’m also pressed for time in the mornings and have kids who wait until the last possible moment to roll out the door (sound familiar?). For active kids this is obviously a problem, not just for physical performance but also for school. Getting my kids to eat breakfast before school was not working so well and store bought granola bars and the usual stuff you find in the breakfast isle is so loaded with sugar it’s crazy.  As luck would have it, my job brought me into contact with the good folks at Hapifood Group Inc. the makers of…wait for it…Holy CrapTM and Skinny BTM. Their site had a recipe for Holy Crap Breakfast Cookies by chef Julie Van Rosendaal  (check out her blog at Dinner with Julie it’s a Canadian food blog winner!). The cookies caught my attention because they looked healthy (not to mention allowing me to make use of the banana graveyard in my freezer). The best part, my kids love them (dancer and soccer player both).

Julie has very kindly given her permission to reproduce her recipe here (with a few minor modifications).

You will need:

Dry ingredients

1 c. oats (large flake)
1 c. all purpose flour (I suppose you could use ground almonds)
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c.  Holy CrapTM or ground flax seed
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. each dried fruit and nuts (I used cranberries because my kids hate raisins and sunflower seeds and…chocolate chips)

Wet ingredients

2 very ripe bananas (if you have a banana graveyard in your freezer use these)
1/4 c. yogurt
1/4 c. peanut butter (or Wow Butter which is made from toasted sesame seeds if you don’t want peanuts)
1/4 c. canola oil (I used vegetable oil and they came out just fine)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Stir dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
  3. Mash bananas well and whisk in the remaining wet ingredients.
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir well.  Let the batter stand for 20 minutes.
  5. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  6. Spoon batter in large spoonfuls (think 2 Tbsps each). You don’t need to space them too much as they don’t spread a lot.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden and springy to touch (I found 15 minutes was about perfect).
  8. Let cool completely, bag and freeze (they freeze really well).

 

 

My Kingdom for a Mangosteen

My Kingdom for a Mangosteen

Not only are they bruise proof they are really cool looking. A big thank you to my friends Doris Chin and Wilson Young for bringing some of these funky little fruits to the office for us to try. The interior is kind of like a