Swedish Pancakes with Rhubarb Compote

What a perfect morning to kick-off to the long weekend. I kind of forgot how much I love rhubarb. Tangy and sweet, rhubarb might actually be one of my favorite fruits. Or is it a vegetable because it doesn't have seeds on the inside? Just a sec, let me consult Google...

{cue elevator music}

It's a vegetable. Unless you live in the United States... apparently the US courts can mess with science and declare it a fruit. Don't even get me started on that.

Parker and I ate some (ok, a lot) of the compote out of the bowl with a spoon while I finished cooking the crepes. I worked two pans today! I seriously feel like I can take on anything now that I have mastered the two-pan crepe technique. Bring it on.

I found breakfast to be particularily photogenic this morning. Or maybe it was the idyllic morning that translated to the photos- the three of us at the breakfast table on a long weekend, a second cup of coffee, the sun peeking through the clouds. Either way, I'm very pleased with life at the moment.

PS There was also barbequed bacon. Oh yes.

SWEDISH PANCAKES WITH RHUBARB COMPOTE

Serves 4

An Amy Original

Rhubarb compote can be spread on toast, stirred into yogurt, spooned onto pork chops... you'll find lots of uses and excuses to make it, trust me.

• 1 recipe Swedish Pancakes
• 1 1/2 cups sliced rhubarb, fresh or frozen (don't even bother thawing if using frozen)
• scant 1/4 cup sugar
• splash vanilla extract

While cooking the crepes add all other ingredients to a small pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and lower heat to a simmer until rhubarb is soft, stirring occasionally. Mash to desired consistency. Continue to simmer until thickened.

A Gluten and Dairy Free Week for Food Lovers

I've mentioned before that I love spending Saturday mornings with a coffee doing my menu planning. You know what I enjoy on Friday nights? Writing with wine. So here we go.

I'm going to share with y'all what I've been eating this week since going cold turkey on dairy and gluten for now. I hope that this will be helpful to any other food lovers who eat this way, whether by choice or necessity. I will not share the minutiae of what I put in my belly every week, I swear! This first week I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't cry myself to sleep for want of bread. Perhaps because I ate enough bread dipped in gravy (omg that is the best right?!?) to last me for months during Sunday dinner at my parents this past week. Anyway. Moving on.

Monday was not completely gluten-free. I was still on the fence about eliminating gluten but I felt super guilty eating toast and crackers knowing I was advised not to. 

Not included below is my morning coffee with almond milk and sugar. This is a given and a must every day. Yes, the almond milk tastes a bit different, but I still love my coffee. I also drink at least 2 cups of green tea a day at work.

Monday
Breakfast: Whole grain toast with avocado.
Snack: Smoothie with mixed berries, banana, baby spinach, cold green tea
Lunch: Carrots and red peppers with hummus, Triscut crackers, a hard-boiled egg topped with a little Miracle Whip and chopped spicy picked green beans.
Snack: Green tea. Apples with Sun Butter.
Dinner: Roast chicken with weeknight risotto (recipe below)

Tuesday
Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal with almond milk, flax, mixed berries. (Oats are kind of debated whether or not they acceptable on a gluten-free diet. I'm allowing it. I'm the boss of me.)
Snack:  Smoothie with mixed berries, banana, baby spinach, cold green tea
Lunch: Leftover chicken and risotto
Snack: Apples with Sun Butter
Dinner: Quiche made with a shredded-potato crust with sausage, tomato, onion, basil. Water instead of dairy used in the egg mixture.
Snack (after boot camp): Smoothie with coconut water, ground chia seeds, cocoa powder, almond butter

Wednesday
Breakfast: "Breakfast salad". I was out of oats and decided I wasn't going to eat bread, so I wandered around my kitchen peeking in the fridge and cupboards until I had 5 minutes left to wolf down some food. I mixed up a chopped hard-boiled egg and avocado with kale and mixed in some balsamic dressing. This was not my best work.
Snack: Smoothie with mixed berries, banana, baby spinach, water
Lunch: Quinoa salad made with sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, red peppers, cucumber, chicken, balsamic dressing
Snack: Apples with Sun Butter
Dinner: Stir-fry with tofu and brown rice
Snack: Flourless Nut Butter Cookie with almond milk

Thursday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs topped with chopped tomato and avocado. I didn't love this. The hot egg + cold avocado and tomato wasn't my favorite. Better than the "breakfast salad" though.
Snack:  Smoothie with mixed berries, banana, baby spinach, water
Lunch: Quinoa salad same as yesterday
Snack: Salt and Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas. Dark Chocolate.
Dinner: Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes (recipe below)
Snack (after training run at the track):  Smoothie with coconut water, ground chia seeds, cocoa powder, Sun Butter. Nut butter cookie.

Friday
Breakfast: The tomato-avocado scramble improves a notch. Notably better mixing the tomato and avocado in the pan with the eggs while cooking. My next experiment will be making a salsa from the tomato and avocado and putting this on the eggs. Stay tuned.
Snack: same smoothie as every other day. And green tea. Of course.
Lunch: Salad with chicken, canellini beans, carrots, red pepper, Asian Sesame dressing
Snack: Apples with Sun Butter. Roasted chickpeas. Dark chocolate. A couple Starburst candies (it's Friday, ok!?!)
Dinner: ActiFry chicken wings with sweet-chili sauce, baked potato wedges, raw veggies (carrots, cucumber, snap peas). Have we talked about the T-Fal ActiFry before? I don't think so. Fantastic appliance. Read up on it. Then get one. For example, I cooked a pound of wings in it tonight, they crisped up beautifully, and I poured off almost a quarter cup of fat (potatoes cooked in schmaltz anyone?). Talk amongst yourselves.
Snack: Is red wine considered a snack? And a cookie.

WEEKNIGHT RISOTTO

Serves 4

An Amy Original 

Traditional risotto involves a lot of standing by the stove and stirring. This quick and easy version is a good alternative when you don't have the time or patience for babysitting food. Or perhaps you are actually physically babysitting a child (aka parenting). Measurements are approximate. Tweak as needed. If you are not avoiding dairy, mix in an knob of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese at the end if so inclined.

• olive oil  
• 1 small onion, chopped finely
• 1/2 of a 750g bag Arborio rice
• small handful sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 3 cups good chicken stock
• salt and pepper
• 1 small to medium zucchini, chopped small
• fresh basil, julienned

Heat a glug of olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add onion, saute, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add rice, stir for 2 minutes. Add stock and sun-dried tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to keep at a simmer until rice is cooked through with just a bite at the center (like al dente pasta). If the pot is dry before the rice is cooked add some more stock or water. If your rice is super watery with only 5-10 minutes left of cooking, remove the lid and increase the heat a bit.

Meanwhile, heat another glug of oil in a small pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, saute until golden-brown on all sides, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Mix most of zucchini (plus butter and Parm, if using) into risotto once rice is cooked. Serve with a garnish of the remaining zucchini and the fresh basil.

TWICE BAKED SWEET POTATOES
Serves 3
An Amy Original
It's easiest to cook the potatoes and garlic the night before and refrigerate until ready to use.

• 1 head garlic
• olive oil
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 1/2 of a 540mL can of chickpeas, rinsed
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 slices bacon, sliced into lardons
• fresh basil, julienned

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut top of garlic off to expose the cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil. Place on a baking sheet. Prick sweet potatoes with a fork. Place alongside garlic on baking sheet. Bake 45 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft all the way though when tested with a sharp knife and garlic cloves are soft and caramelized. Cool to the touch.

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. Carefully peel off skin, taking care to keep in one piece. If it doesn't peel off easily, scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Place skins on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place flesh in a food processor with a glug of olive oil, chickpeas, water, salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze half of the garlic cloves out of their skins and add to sweet potato mixture. Puree until smooth. Scoop onto potato skins. Bake 20-30 minutes or until heated through.

Meanwhile, cook bacon in a pan, transferring to paper towel lined plate once crisp. Serve sweet potatoes with bacon and basil sprinkled on top.

Bookmarked and a "Recipe"

Jokes on me. It was 2 years ago that Tyler went on a wheat and dairy elimination diet. I complained. Quite a bit. Well, now it's my turn. To clear up my winter eczema, among a couple other more serious concerns I don't care share here, I saw our Naturopath on Friday who suggested I limit dairy and wheat consumption. Yay. Ironic that in my last post I professed my love of bread. I am going to take baby steps here. Dairy first, then maybe wheat (I am trying to limit it though). I feel dairy is more of a problem, but that may just be my subconscious convincing me of that as it is easier for me to forgo dairy. I think. We'll see. I found Spaghetti and Meatballs last night to be only slightly lacking without Parmesan cheese.

Funnily enough, I borrowed a Paleo cookbook from a woman at work earlier this week. I finished leafing through it as I was cooking dinner on Wednesday. And then I went and made a cheese quesedilla. Haha. Now that I am limiting dairy and wheat though, this book/blog will be a good resource for the next while. The recipes on Nom Nom Paleo look fantastic, actually. She uses a lot of bacon. Now that is a concept I can get behind.

I think for the next while though, I will be thinking of life Pre-Cheese and Bread Goodness and Post-Cheese and Bread Goodness. Bookmarks are divided up as such below.

The "recipe". Can a smushed avocado on toast be called a recipe? Not really, hence the quotation marks. More like a delicious suggestion. Inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's avocado on toast from It's All Good (OMG I just realized I already own a dairy- and gluten-free cookbook!), I've added some tomatoes to make this a lunch. I don't know why I feel this is more lunchy. For breakfast I do the same without tomatoes.

SMUSHED AVOCADO ON TOAST

Serves 1

• 1/3 avocado, peeled
• red pepper flakes
• 1/2 a tomato, chopped
• basil, chopped
• mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip in my case, I don't like real mayo)
• toast
• salt and pepper

Smush up avocado with red pepper flakes in a bowl. Stir in tomato and basil. Spread toast with a thin schmear of mayo. Top with avocado mixture and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. A fried egg on top wouldn't go amiss if you are really hungry. Oo and some bacon.

Pre-Cheese and Bread Goodness
Paprika and Cheese Crackers via Serious Eats
Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin via Food52 This I can still eat. Yay!
Squash Brownies with Chocolate Swirl Topping via Foodland Ontario
Spinach Brownies via Blender Babes Parker told me this week that he doesn't like spinach in smoothies, only in brownies. Random... Ok kid. Have at 'er.

Post-Cheese and Bread Goodness
Fig Watermelon Salad with Honey-Vanilla Cashews via Nom Nom Paleo. Oh my this looks beautiful and delicious. I can't wait to eat this during the summer.
Caramelized Pear Oven Pancake via Williams Sonoma I made this recipe this morning using almond milk in place of milk. And apples instead of pears since that's what I had. Fantastic! Yes, butter contains some dairy, but let's not go crazy here. I'm allowing it.
Maple Quinoa Granola via Food 52 I think the quinoa will add extra yummy crunch. However, I'll have to find a new way to eat granola- usually I have it on yogurt.

Roasted Parsnip and Butternut Squash Soup

Guys. I did it again. Remember how I got lost running around frazzled getting ready for my birthday party? It happened again last week. This is getting slightly ridiculous. Only this time I wasn't so frazzled. Oy vey. Tyler finds it amusing and slightly annoying how bad I am at directions. He thinks I'm just absent-minded. I like to think it's due to all the other genius going on in my head.

Onto the food. I know. Another post about soup. Trust me, I'd rather be eating a nice fresh salad right now. But lettuce from Mexico? No Thanks. So soup it is. Plus, this is just too good not to share.

I had some parsnips languishing in the fridge along with half a squash. I'm sure I'd had a plan for those parsnips when I bought them a couple of weeks ago, but whatever that plan was, it never happened. What to do with them? My go-to is always to roast vegetables. My Roasted Cauliflower Soup worked so well that I thought I'd try that with the roasted squash and parsnips. Success! Some Parmesan cheese finishes it off nicely. As well as a slice of freshly baked bread warm from the oven... with a schmear of butter... mmmm...

I've been making bread every week. This past week was Almost No-Knead Bread from America's Test Kitchen. It's fantastic. One tip though- it's a super easy recipe but it does need an overnight rise. Plan accordingly.

I'm all about the no-knead bread lately. I think I made Food52's recipe for No-Knead Sandwich Bread six weeks in a row. Yeah. We like bread in this house. Is there a Bread-aholics Anonymous? I may join. Oops... I just ruined the anonymous part, didn't I?

ROASTED PARSNIP AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

Serves 4

An Amy Original

• 1 lb parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into chunks
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 onion, sliced
• 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss parsnips and squash with a drizzle of oil, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet. Roast on middle rack of oven 10 minutes. Stir, ensuring browned sides are flipped, and return pan to oven for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil and onions. Cook until just starting to brown. Add stock and roasted vegetables. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Turn off heat and cool slightly.

Transfer everything to blender with Parmesan and blend until smooth, adding some water if soup is too thick. Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving.

Roasted Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Soup with Parmesan Crisps

Pretty much the only thing I like about the weather getting colder is that means it's soup time! Well, ok I also enjoy cozy sweaters, tea, and boots (sexy boots, not mukluks). I think I've mentioned before that Tyler doesn't like soup. Fortunately, I now have a soup ally. Parker asked to have this soup instead of macaroni and cheese last week. Score one for the good guys.

The first time I made this soup I loosely followed a recipe from Closet Cooking. I meant to follow it exactly, but I kept getting distracted. Among other mistakes I made, I forgot to add milk to the soup and thinned it out with water instead. It wasn't until we had finished dinner that I realized I had forgotten a pretty major ingredient. As it turns out, the cauliflower is creamy enough without having to add dairy. I have posted a cauliflower soup previously, but this one is better, if I do say so myself.

I put this soup on double duty the second time I made it. To half of the soup I added some goat cheese and shredded cheddar cheese after blending it and used that as a healthy base for macaroni and cheese. I know. I am a frickin' genius.

One Year Ago: Nada

Two Years Ago: Fried Udon Noodles 

 Thanksgiving Menu 

 Cheater Turducken 

 Lentils with Chorizo, Brussels Sprouts, Balsamic Vinegar 

 Apple Cheddar Soup

Three Years Ago: Fresh Pea Pesto Pasta (ie Labour Pasta)

 Squash, Roasted Garlic, Canellini Bean Spread 

Breaded Shrimp 

 Kale Chips 

 Death Boats to Hades aka Jalapeno Poppers

Four Years Ago (yes! My blog-iversary passed on Oct 17. Four years!): Caldo Verde Soup 

 Deep Dish Pizza

  Amazing Granola 

 Chaussons Aux Pommes

Flu-Be-Gone Soup

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER AND CARAMELIZED ONION SOUP WITH PARMESAN CRISPS

Serves 4-6

I always try to have some homemade chicken stock in the freezer, especially during soup season. If you don't have homemade, I have found Campbell's Stock First is a good store-bought alternative.

• 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into small pieces
• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt and pepper
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss cauliflower with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet along with garlic (no need to peel it). Roast on middle rack of oven until browned on one side, 10-15 minutes. Stir cauliflower to put browned side up and return pan to oven for another 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven but keep oven on. Peel garlic.

Meanwhile, heat a large pot over medium high heat. Add butter and onions, season with salt and pepper. Cook onions, stirring often, and adding a splash of water when onions start to get too brown to deglaze the pan and stop them from burning (this is a quick caramelizing method. You can use a slow method of your choice if you'd like. I'm just not that patient). Once onions are very soft and deeply browned, add stock, thyme, and roasted cauliflower. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes, until cauliflower is very tender.

Carefully ladle half of the pot into a blender and blend until smooth, adding water to thin to desired consistency. Repeat with other half of cauliflower mixture. Alternatively use an immersion blender to blend right in the pot. Return soup to pot and add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, stirring until melted (if your soup isn't piping hot reheat before adding the cheese).

For cheese crisps, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Make small piles of Parmesan cheese and pat down flat. Bake until melted and golden brown. Watch closely- they will burn quickly. Remove pan from oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Potato Latkes with Homemade Applesauce

Who says it has to be Hanukkah to make latkes? Ok, maybe Jewish people do... but I say make them any time. Because they are delicious. And easy. And fulfill my craving for "bad" food today but aren't the worst thing I could put in my body so I figure it's okay.

A soon as fall weather hits I feel the urge to hibernate. This manifests itself in no motivation to work out. I usually go for a run a few times a week in the evening after Parker goes to bed. But now that it's getting cold and dark in the evenings all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch all TV. I thought I'd trick my body today and got up early to work out. The result was a craving for chips and McDonald's all day. So, sure, these latkes are pan-fried in oil but they are infinitely better than scarfing a Big Mac. And I can can still face myself in the morning.

I've made latkes once before years ago. I think the recipe was from Food That Really Schmeks. They were not nearly as good as these. These latkes hold together easily, cook quickly, and get perfectly browned and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. To be honest, I've never had potato latkes aside from the two times I've made them, but I feel these are the ideal and all future latkes will be compared to this recipe.

 HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE

This is a bit of a joke of a recipe. Chop some apples into large chunks and throw into a pot- you can forgo peeling them- cook with a splash of water and a sprinkle of sugar until soft. Puree using an immersion blender, food processor, or regular blender.

If not serving with latkes you can throw a cinnamon stick in while the apples are cooking. Or just sprinkle on some cinnamon after. This stuff is way better than the jarred applesauce at the grocery store- it's a staple in my house during cold weather.

ADAM AND MAXINE FAMOUS LATKES via Bon Appetit

I modified the recipe slightly. Of course. I didn't peel the potatoes. Part laziness, and partly from a health standpoint- the skin has all the fiber. Didn't seem to affect the recipe at all. I used the potatoes I had- just regular white potatoes rather than Russets. And next time I would use less salt. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt. I used 2 tsp and found them a bit too salty. A food processor with a grater attachment makes quick work of grating the potato and onion. The onion will still make you cry though.

Grilled Chicken and Bulgar Salad with Goat Cheese

Bulgar is officially my new favorite thing. I mentioned in the last meal planning post that I was going to make this salad with bulgar instead of farro. Well. That was a genius move if I say so myself.

First of all, bulgar is easier to find- I bought it at my small town grocery store- and probably cheaper too. It is nutty, toothsome (I love that word), and maybe the best part.... wait for it... you don't have to cook it. It's parboiled- which it what makes it bulgar not cracked wheat- so it just has to re-hydrate. Just mix a 2:1 ratio of water to bulgar and let it rest for an hour. I did mine a couple of days ago in a Tupperware container stuck it in the fridge so it was ready to go in advance.

As I've said before, I have a hard time following a recipe exactly. Or at all, as it turns out in this case. The recipe from Bon Appetit was more of an inspiration in this case. 

Also, I managed to barbecue without setting anything on fire tonight. Yay me.

I'll admit, this salad looks all weird and healthy when it's all mixed up (rather than layered nicely in the photo above). My brother came over for a swim tonight after we'd had dinner and was all, "What's that?"
Me: "Bulgar"
Him: "Vulgar? Yeah it looks vulgar" 
I made him taste some and he asked if he could take home the leftovers. Ha, take that.

One Year Ago: Creamy Chicken Salad Sandwiches + Pastel Vanilla Cupcakes with  Chocolate Butterflies

Two Years Ago: Panini Bar +Summer Party Menu with Flank Steak Tacos

Three Years Ago: Slow Cooker Brisket + My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe + Greek Shrimp and Tomatoes with Crostini

 

GRILLED CHICKEN AND BULGAR SALAD WITH GOAT CHEESE

Serves 4

Keep in mind the bulgar needs to an hour to start, so plan accordingly.

• 1 cup bulgar
• 2 cups water
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper
• large handful asparagus, tough ends removed
• large handful green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tomato
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled

Dressing:

• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• large handful fresh herbs, chopped- I used basil, parsley, oregano as this what's in my garden
• salt and pepper

Combine bulgar and water in a bowl and let stand for 1 hour. Alternatively, make bulgar a couple of days in advance and keep refrigerated.

Boil a pot of water. Add a good pinch of salt and the green beans. Cook 4 minutes or until just tender. Remove green beans to an ice water bath to cool them quickly. Drain, dry, and set aside.

Heat grill to high. Season chicken with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Grill until cooked through. While chicken is cooking, carefully place asparagus spears on the grill so that they don't fall through the grates. Grill asapargus about 5 minutes or until slightly charred. Remove and let cool slightly before chopping into 1/2-inch pieces.

 Whisk together dressing ingredients in bottom of serving bowl. Add bulgar, chicken, vegetables, and goat cheese. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

30th Birthday Barbecue

I've been 30 for five days now. I survived! I did so by drinking heavily (just kidding... kind of). But seriously, we had a great pool party and barbecue on Saturday. It was the perfect day. Friends, old and new, and family came, kiddos swam like fishes in the pool and Parker got to show off all his toys and play with some new friends. It was a great day, the weather co-operated, and we had great food to boot.

If you are thinking of hosting a party for 20 to 30 people, here's the game plan I followed:

1. Go out for dinner on the night of your birthday and eat a bunch of tacos and have a couple of drinks. Go grocery shopping at a store that you've never been to where you can't find anything and spend too much money cause you've had a couple of drinks. Get home and make some raspberry ice cream for the party two days from now.

2.  The next day go to your parents place for dinner after work and accidentally drink a bottle of wine. Get home at 11:30pm, rub your meat (the pork shoulder people, the pork shoulder) and make bbq sauce. Decide you're not tired yet and start on cupcakes. Go to bed close to 2am once three batches of cupcakes are finally baked.

3. Get up the day of the party, pop some Tylenol, and start on salads and appetizers. Which you will making for the next 6 hours. Realize a close to the party start time that you haven't showered, gotten ice, that you forgot to get about five things from the grocery store, and haven't been to the LCBO to get your beverage of choice for the party.

4. Panic. Drive faster than you should. Somehow get lost in a small town with basically two main streets. Swear. Miraculously get home within an hour, finish cooking by the time guests arrive, and proceed have a great time since you did everything ahead of time. Yay you!

On second thought, don't follow that schedule. You may want to plan things better. But ever'ting work out in the end mon. No worries.

Tyler made pulled pork. We are still working on the perfect barbecued pulled pork but it wasn't the perfect pulled pork. It was very good, but it didn't pull easily. I've only gotten pork to shred really easily cooked in the slow cooker, but that kind of negates the purpose of having a barbecue, right?

I made two salads to go with the pork sandwiches. They were my favorite part of the whole meal. I was going to make wild rice salad but I couldn't get wild rice at store I was at. They had about twelve other rices I'd never made before, but of course not the rice I needed. I improvised and made an orzo pasta salad instead that turned out so great. I could eat, and have been eating, it as a meal. Along with the other salad, a beautiful grilled corn coleslaw, these were the perfect sides for a summer barbecue.

What about the cake, you say? I had big plans for my 30th birthday cake. I had visions of layer cakes decorated beautifully that everyone would swoon over. Then a week before the big day I came to my senses and remembered that a) I suck at decorating cakes. b) last time I made a layer cake was for Tyler's 30th and I had a cake induced melt down that resulted in a 30th birthday marital spat. c) I'm just not that kind of girl. I'd rather have a rustic rhubarb crumble pie (I seriously considered this as my birthday dessert actually). So I met myself half way. The cupcakes I made turned out beautifully but were not too fussy. And there's cream cheese icing involved. Sold.

Here's the full menu:

*Fruit with Orange Creamsicle Dip
*Caprese Skewers (boccocini cheese, a small basil leaf, half a grape tomato on a toothpick. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar)

*Pulled Pork
*Greek Orzo Salad (recipe below)
*Grilled Corn Slaw (recipe below)

*Hummingbird Cupcakes
*Raspberry Ice Cream

GREEK ORZO SALAD

 Serves 10 as a side dish

I was trying to get everything done and not thinking about blogging the recipe, so I wasn't diligent in measuring, so measurements here are approximate. This is a simple recipe anyway- taste it, if it needs more of something just stir it in. It will work out. 

• 450g orzo pasta
• 1 English cucumber, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

Vinaigrette:

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• zest and juice of two lemons
• two garlic cloves, very finely chopped, or grated on a Microplane
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried dill

Cook orzo in salted water according to package directions- do not over cook- cook to al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Whisk ingredients for vinaigrette in the bottom of your serving bowl. Add drained pasta and remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

GRILLED CORN SLAW

Adapted from My Invisible Crown

Serves 10 as a side dish

• 5 ears corn, shucked and cleaned of silks
• 1 small red cabbage, shredded - a food processor makes quick work of this
• 2 red peppers, thinly sliced
• 340g bag carrot slaw (like this one from PC brand)
• 1/2 cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley

Dressing:

• zest and juice of 3 limes
• 1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp honey
• salt and pepper

Grill corn on high direct heat, turning often, until charred- about 12 minutes total. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, cut kernels off cobs and add to a large bowl. Add remaining salad ingredients except sunflower seeds. Mix salad dressing ingredients in a blender or with an immersion blender. Toss salad with seeds and dressing just before serving.

Strawberries with Lemon Sugar

This may be the one of the easiest and best desserts you will ever make.

I know, that is a lofty claim. I pulled this together in about 3 minutes, and it took about the same time for it to disappear. I'd say that backs it up, no?

I finished work Saturday and hit the grocery store, thinking that I'd get home, get the groceries put away, and head over to Tyler's cousin's place for a BBQ. It tuns out the party had been moved to our place. Okay... Now what?

Luckily the boys had dinner already planned out and ready to go so I didn't have to do any cooking. Cleaning up was another story, but that's what happens when there is a ratio of 2 women to 6 men I suppose, despite this being 2013 and not 1952.

The last thing I wanted to do was come home and make a dessert (especially since it was a toss up between popping a drink or jumping in the pool for the first thing I wanted to do). So I zested a couple of lemons, added some sugar, washed the berries and headed out to the pool. With a drink.

One Year Ago: Battenburg Cake

Two Years Ago: DIY Tex-Mex Shredded Cheese

Three Years Ago: Bran Flax Muffins

STRAWBERRIES WITH LEMON SUGAR

• 2 pounds strawberries
• 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

Wash and dry strawberries. Zest lemons into a bowl using a Microplane* or other fine zester. Add sugar, rub sugar and zest together to with your fingertips to combine. To serve, dip strawberries in sour cream (or yogurt) and then in lemon sugar.

*If you don't have a Microplane, use the side of a cheese grater with the small holes and then pulse the zest together with the sugar in a food processor.

And this week in food...

Ok guys, week two of sharing my meal plan. Somehow a couple of meals got shifted to this week from last week. What did we eat in place of those two meals? One night we went to a barbqeue at my father-in-law's, the other...? I honestly couldn't tell you. How is it even possible that I don't remember making a random meal after work?

• Chicken Stew with Sweet Potato Biscuits from last week

• Pork Roast with Braised Green Onions and Couscous also from last week

• Souvlaki with Greek Orzo Pasta Salad I'll post the pasta salad recipe later in the week

• Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

• something vegetarian with chickpeas maybe. We've been eating a lot of meat lately which is kind of weird for us.

• Chicken Korma

So, the burgers. I was going to make these burgers from Skinny Taste but they took another direction. They turned out to be about half meat and half veg since I kept just finding stuff in my fridge and chucking it in the bowl. Left over chopped up peppers? In they go. There was some cucumber in with the peppers, so that got mixed in. I have a giant tub of baby spinach and since it's usually up to just me to eat about a kilo of spinach since nobody else will touch it, I thought I'd sneak some of that in too. A hunk of feta cheese was found lurking in the fridge too. Ok... I have a theme now... Greek Turkey Burgers! Genius. Some dill, parsley, and garlic powder rounds these bad boys out.

Tyler barbequed the burgers since I am banned from the barbeque. This is a recent development that occurred when I set a spatchcocked chicken on fire. And I wasn't paying attention so it probably burned for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Whoops. But you know what? I may be on to something here. That chicken cooked through in 15 minutes and was wonderfully juicy and smoky. Once you dig through the char of course.

Where there are burgers, there are baked sweet potato wedges. In my house anyway. I've told you how I make sweet potato fries before, right? Hmmm... a search of Four Seasons Kitchens says no. "Recipe" below as well.

GREEK TURKEY BURGERS

Serves 4

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 sweet pepper, finely chopped (roasted red peppers would be good too- use a couple whole ones)
• big handful baby spinach, chopped
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• small handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• salt and pepper (go easy on the salt since you've got feta in there, big up on the pepper)
• buns, tomatoes, condiments (including Sriracha- turkey burgers always need Sriracha!) to serve

Preheat grill to high heat- 500 degrees F. Place turkey and remaining ingredients through to salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix to combine (your hands are the best tool here). Divide mixture and shape into 4 patties. Grill over direct heat for 6 to 7 minutes per side or until cooked through.

BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into wedges. Pile on baking sheet lined with foil, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss to coat potatoes. Spread potatoes into one layer. Bake 10-15 minutes on middle rack. Flip wedges, bake another 8-10 minutes until potatoes are tender.

Greek Potato Salad

Wow it's been a while since I have posted anything. I know, not at peep from me lately. In the 3+ years I've been writing this blog I think this is longest I've gone between posts, and that includes when I was pregnant and food turned my stomach. What gives?

I don't know, really. I've been back to work full time a year now and I think the daily grind of pumping out quick meals when I get home from work has sapped my creativity. I also find I'm eating more for health than pure enjoyment lately. 'Cause let's be honest, avocado chocolate pudding is good, but it's no butter-laden chocolate chip cookie people.

I think that's enough excuses now, non? Let's get to the food.

I have made this potato salad twice in the last few weeks. It is a nice fresh twist on the regular old potluck potato salad (or the one in the plastic container from the grocery store Tyler likes... UGH). My Greek Potato Salad is loaded with more veg that you will usually find in potato salad, plus lemon zest makes everything better. Make this for your next BBQ and you'll be asked for the recipe, guaranteed. I should have prettied it up for the photo with some chopped parsley sprinkled on top or something, but whatever. Trust me, it is delish.

Oh, I just thought of one more excuse... I'm turning 30 in three weeks and I'm kinda FREAKING OUT. I used to think my Grannie was ridiculous saying she was 29 for twenty years straight, but now I get it. I may pull a Grannie. 29 forevah bitches (sorry for the swear Dad... it just fits).

One Year Ago: Let's just do this- here are the April 2012 and May 2012 archives

Two Years Ago: Super Quick Chicken Dish + Mushroom, Caramelized Onion, and Goat Cheese Quiche + Dog Cookies

Three Years Ago: Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta + Stuffed Shells + Casual Entertaining Menu + Heavenly Cheesecake

GREEK POTATO SALAD

Serves 4

This is one of those recipes I am so fond of that isn't really a recipe. Why measure a specific amount of cucumber- who cares how much goes in exactly? Just go with it. The potatoes are tossed with the dressing while still hot so that they absorb the dressing and become more delicious.

• 4 small to medium yellow fleshed potatoes
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 a cucumber, roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup low fat mayo
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• splash red wine or white wine vinegar
• splash olive oil
• dash garlic powder
• bigger dash dried oregano
• handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• small handful fresh dill, chopped (or use dried dill to taste)
• salt and pepper (I like it with lots of pepper)

Cook the potatoes in the microwave or in a pot of water until just cooked through. Let cool a few minutes. While potatoes are cooling whisk together dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Using a sharp knife in order to keep the skin in tact, chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces and place in bowl with dressing. Mix gently (a spatula works well here) to coat potatoes. Refrigerate until cooled.

When cooled gently mix in remaining salad ingredients. Refrigerate until serving. Leftovers will keep a day, but after that things get fairly soggy.

My Grandma's Pancakes

Swedish pancakes, crepes, Grandpa's pancakes. It doesn't matter what you call them so long as you call them breakfast sometime very soon. It's a long weekend coming up. Perfect for spending a little extra time making something special for breakfast.

As kids we would go up to my Grandparents house on the lake almost every weekend. Us kids- my brother, cousins, and I- would get up early on Saturday and go with Grandpa on his morning walk to the "treat store" (when the grand kids weren't there I'm pretty sure he just called it the store where he got the newspaper). If you weren't up by the time Grandpa left for his walk you were left behind. We would get home and have some "crepes" that Grandma had started making at the butt-crack of dawn in order to feed the hordes.

I use quotations on "crepes" because these are not your dainty French crepes that are not to brown when cooking. These are big, spotty Swedish pancakes. Only Grandma is Estonian. They're not pancakes- those are fluffy and you put maple syrup on them- so we just called them crepes. We would get home from the treat store with our candy that we were not to eat until after breakfast and sit down to stuff our faces with crepes.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why we had to wait to eat our candy. Now that I think about it, the crepes probably weren't much better on the healthy scale. We always ate them with strawberries and whipped cream or applesauce with cinnamon sugar. When I was a bit older I also started to eat them with lemon juice (from a bottle but now I'm a snob and use fresh) and sugar. The crunch of the sugar with the tartness of the lemon is my favourite. Jam is good too. Or you could eat them like Grandma- standing at the counter after everyone had finished eating, holding a crepe smeared with lingonberry jam in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

I wish I could say that this is Grandma's recipe, but she doesn't have a recipe. She's been making crepes so long that she just mixes stuff together, tastes the result, and tweaks it if needed. Perhaps one day I'll get there, but even recipes I know off by heart I still look up just to be sure. So I cobbled together a recipe from a bunch of different recipes for Swedish pancakes online. These are very close to Grandma's. If you're really good you can work two pans at once in order to crank them out faster like Grandma used to.

PS I wish I had taken made the crepe in the lead photo look nicer, like the one below. Or used a smaller plate at least. But I am digging the breakfast table setting so I went with that one. I guess I don't do my best food styling at 7:30 am. My apologies. 

One Year Ago: Mystery Box Dinner and The Reveal

Two Years Ago: Bulgar Salad + Three Corn Cornbread

Three Years Ago: n/a

GRANDMA'S CREPES

Serves 8 (2 crepes per person, although members of my family have been known to eat 5 in one sitting)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, divided (to grease the pan)

Toppings:

• Applesauce and cinnamon
• Jam
• Berries- thawed from frozen are good, then you get some nice berry juice
• Lemon and sugar

Heat an 8 to 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Whisk together milk and eggs in a large bowl. Add flour, sugar, salt and whisk until mostly smooth.

Once pan is heated add a small pat of butter and spread around the pan to coat. Add a soup ladle of batter while turning pan so that batter coats it evenly. You'll get a feel for how much batter to add for the next one on this first crepe- you don't want your crepe too thin or too thick. Even if they're not perfect, they'll be rolled up so don't sweat it. Flip once the crepe is golden on the bottom, about 45 seconds to a minute. Cook until browned on second side.

Transfer to a plate, stacking subsequent crepes on top. If crepes cool before eaten, warm one at a time (i.e. the one you're about to eat) in the microwave for 15 seconds. Spread desired filling all over the crepe or just down the middle- everyone has their preference- and roll up.

Breakfast Smoothie

I forget which movie it is from, but there is a dialogue in said movie where the dad says to his daughter, "What are you drinking?"
"A smoothie," she replies.
"What's a smoothie, like a milk shake?"
"I guess so, only smoother," his daughter says.

Smoother, indeed. Smoothie is a strange word, isn't it? Think about it. Smoooooooth-ie. Anyway, I have one almost every morning. I pack as much good stuff as I can into my smoothies to set me up for the day. If lunch ends up being a pemeal bacon sandwich from the cafeteria downstairs (read: no vegetable to be found), oh well, I had my nutrition-packed smoothie for breakfast.

I don't have a recipe for my smoothies, but I do have a basic formula. A least one fruit, something green, something high in fiber, some protein, and some dairy. Sometimes on ingredient fills a couple quotas: black beans provide protein and fiber. Or berries give fiber and fruit.

Here is a list of stuff I've used for each category of my formula. Items with a * are the ones that usually make the morning cut, if you're interested.

Fruit and Veg:

• Apple (skin on, cut into chunks)*
• Banana*
• Mixed frozen berries*
• Pumpkin puree*
• Carrots
• Nectarine
• Fresh or canned peaches
• Fresh, frozen, or canned pineapple
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Cranberries

Protein:

• Protein powder (duh)
• Tofu
• Beans or other legumes- kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils
• Nut butter
• Nuts
• Chia seeds
• Egg (I've never actually thrown in a raw egg, but I've thought about it. My Grannie used to make us "egg nog" with milk, raw egg, and vanilla for breakfast all the time before school and we were fine. But definitely follow guidelines for consuming raw eggs)
• Cooked quinoa*
• Whey leftover from making ricotta cheese (yep, I'm that "thrifty")

Fiber:

• Oats* (throw in raw, or cook in the microwave with some water for a smoother smoothie)
• Ground flax*
• Chia seeds
• Cooked quinoa
• Beans or other legumes- kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils

Dairy or Dairy Alternative:

• Yogurt* - plain, vanilla, Greek, etc. Whatever was on sale that week, basically
• Milk
• Rice milk
• Almond milk

Something Green:

• Spinach*- fresh baby spinach or thawed frozen spinach
• Kale
• Arugula (in a pinch, but it's a very strong flavour)

Other Miscellaneous Add-Ins:

• Turmeric (doesn't really add any flavour but it's a super food that is good for inflammation among other things)
• Honey or maple syrup when using plain yogurt to sweeten it up a bit
• Fresh ginger
• Cinnamon*
• Pumpkin pie spice

There you go. Mix and match to a healthy breakfast and a hall pass to eat a greasy lunch. Also really good for tricking your kids and/or husband into eating spinach.

One Year Ago: Overnight Oatmeal,

Two Years Ago: Cranberry Coffee Cake

Three Years Ago: n/a

Recipes of Four Seasons Kitchen Past

When I posted the Thai Feast post, I figured it was pretty lengthy already so I decided I would do a separate post for my usual "One Year Ago", "Two Years Ago" section.

Then I forgot to do that.

So here you go, Four Seasons Kitchens recipes you might have missed from November and December 2009, 2010, 2011 (I've been blogging over 3 years!!!! WHAT).

November 2009:
Hawaii (no recipes, nice photos though)
Bruschetta and Fresh Pea Spread
Pulled Pork Pizza inspired by Hawaii
Roasted Vegetables with Lemon Ailoi
Best Drop Biscuits
Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

December 2009:
Two Recipes in One: Spicy Cheese Dip and Antijitos
Spanakopita
Spaghetti with Spaghetti Squash
Tex-Mex Lasagna (ignore terrible photo)
Egg Nog Panna Cotta

November 2010:
Korean-Style Grilled Pork
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Chorizo Cheddar Squash Leek Bread Pudding
Potato Camembert Prosciutto Pizza and Farfalle with Tomato Mushroom Sauce 

December 2010:
Chicken Pot Pie with Super Flaky Crust
Crusty Crown Loaf
Sunday Lasagna

November 2011:
Cooking with Chinese 5-Spice
Homemade Chicken Stock
French Chocolate Cake
Roasted Flour Shortbread

December 2011:
Leek, Chicken and Feta Stuffed Pitas
Roasted Root Vegetable Puree
Slow Cooker Pulled Beef

Healthy Lunch: Quinoa Salad

Everybody gets on the healthy bandwagon in January, don't they? I am no exception. For two weeks in December I have this mentality that I have to eat every unhealthy thing in sight. I'm looking at you, bake sale at work. I spent $15 in one day on baked goods. And ate them all. Yikes. It also didn't help that it was cold enough that I didn't want to run outside (I draw the line below minus 5 Celsius) so therefore I gave up on fitness for the last couple weeks of December as well. Holy Hell, did I feel gross come January 1 (and not just because of the NYE champagne).

Usually I don't want salads in the winter. This salad however, with it's lack of lettuce, hits the mark. Plus, I don't have to get up from my desk to go upstairs to the lunch room to warm it up. Which I realize is counter-healthy resolution month but I'm just being honest here.

QUINOA SALAD

An Amy Original

Serves 1

• 1/3 cup quinoa
• chopped vegetables- I've done cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli or shredded carrot, tomatoes, roasted peppers, etc. Use what you have.
• 2 tbsp reduced fat Feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• balsamic vinaigrette, store-bought or recipe below

Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the quinoa and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender- 10-15 minutes. You can tell it's cooked by looking at it- the grains will expand and be opaque throughout. Drain and rinse under cold water if making salad right away.

Toss all ingredients together, adding as much balsamic dressing as desired. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

Makes multiple servings. 

This is one of my sorta-recipes. A guideline if you will. I like more vinegar than oil in my dressings, but you can easily change it to suit your tastes.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• a squeeze of honey
• a dollop of Dijon mustard 
• 1/2 clover garlic, grated on a Microplane or chopped very finely
• salt and pepper

Add all ingredients to a mason jar or other container with a lid. Shake well. Store any unused portion in the fridge.

Thai Feast

Last year for Christmas I gave my parents a meal cooked by a personal chef. The chef being... me! It turns out that I get the procrastination trait from my dad. I cooked this dinner last weekend. Yes. December 1st.

I told them to pick a menu or theme. They chose Thai. Not 10 days before that I had announced that I was never again making Pad Thai as it never turns out right. So I had a little panic attack and then got to work on figuring out what I was going to make that wasn't Pad Thai.

It turned out amazing (if I do say so myself)! I will make these recipes again and again. They are fairly easy and all gluten free, as it so happens. I spent an enjoyable hour in the Asian supermarket up the street from my office looking perusing the strange (to me) and wonderful foods. I found all of the authentic ingredients I needed, despite asking for help and the clerk not understanding a word I said. A lot of them were frozen, so I have lots of left over ingredients to use up. Excellent.

Here is the menu. I followed the recipe for all the dishes except the mango salad as I was pretty confident about that dish having eaten it lots of time before. The other recipes, not much. I've never eaten those dishes and didn't have time to do a test run so I went by the (Mac)book. 

Green Papaya and Mango Salad adapted from Canadian Living
I wanted to do just green papaya, and I even found a green papaya at the Asian market. But when chopped it up, I found that it was totally bland. Maybe it needed to ripen, but I thought the point was that it is green? So I used some papaya and some mango. It turned out perfectly. I could go for some right now, actually.

Red Curry Shrimp from Food and Wine
Totally easy and yummy. I didn't make the tartar sauce in the linked recipe- I just did the shrimp. Next time I'd like to find a recipe for homemade red curry paste. As I found out with the next dish, the jarred stuff vs. your own curry paste is like night and day.

Green Curry Chicken from Real Thai Recipes
This was unreal. So delicious. I forgot to take photos of the whole meal the night of, so I made this again on Sunday. The first time I pounded the ingredients for the curry paste in a pestle and mortar, the second time I did it in the food processor. Use a pestle and mortar if you have one. I wouldn't have believed it, but you can taste the difference. It's almost as if the flavors are coaxed (or threatened within an inch of their life) by being pounded and ground by hand. Be careful when adding the coconut milk at the end of the recipe- I added the whole cup the recipe calls for at once and the sauce ended up too thin- add a bit at a time. Also, be careful not to take a huge whiff of the shrimp paste. Gag city. Think fish sauce times five. Oh, and one more thing. I don't usually love eggplant but it really soaks up all the flavours in the sauce. The second time around I used red pepper and carrots as that's all I had and that was ok too though.

Spicy Glass Noodles with Crispy Pork from The Kitchn
This was the sleeper hit of the night. The recipe is easy and sounds unassuming, but the result is fantastic. I like that it is to be served cold or at room temp. That's part of the reason I chose this recipe, actually. I figured I'd make it and let it sit while the green curry finished cooking. It all went according to plan. I wouldn't recommend serving this hot, in fact, as the noodles need some time to absorb the sauce. I poured in all the sauce the recipe called for and it looked soupy and I was really disappointed, but by the time it was served it was perfect.  

Sticky Rice with Sweet and Spicy Dipping Sauce from i eat food
I have made sticky rice many, many times. Tyler's cousin used to work at a Thai restaurant and gave me a steamer contraption for making steamed sticky rice as I love it every time he makes it. It pretty much looks like the one in the link, but bigger because it's the Vietnamese version or something. Same idea though. I cook mine differently than she does. I just dump the soaked rice in the basket and stick a sauce pot lid on top to cover it. It doesn't seem to take as long to cook this way. You do, however, have to pick dried bits of rice of the bamboo after though. You've been warned.

Coconut and Lime Creme Brulee (recipe below)
This is my own recipe. I adapted a no-bake pumpkin creme brulee recipe that I made the other week. This was originally going to be a tropical fruit creme brulee- mango, banana, lime- but that one didn't set and it tasted more like banana pudding. That went down the drain (told you it didn't set). The second version came out much better. Use a kitchen torch or a blow torch (seriously- careful!) to brulee though. I stuck them under the broiler to save some time and the custard got heated through and wasn't as nice. Lesson learned: always go with the blow torch option. Always.

THAI GREEN PAPAYA AND MANGO SALAD
Adapted from Canadian Living

Serves 4

If you can't find green papaya, use some slightly under ripe mango. I used my handy OXO julienne peeler for the papaya and carrot which makes it really easy.

Salad:

• 1/2 small green papaya, julienned
• 1 ripe mango, sliced into thin strips
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 1 small carrot, julienned
• 1/4 cup shredded red cabbage
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced into rounds
• 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp julienned mint leaves
• 1/2 cup salted roasted cashews, finely chopped

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• zest of 1 lime (use a Microplane or small grater)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1-2 finely chopped thai chilis, depending on how hot you want it

Mix the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add the salad ingredients except 1 tbsp mint and the cashews and toss to combine. Let rest 15 to 20 minutes. Serve topped with reserved mint and cashews.

COCONUT AND LIME CREME BRULEE

Serves 4

• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• zest of 1 lime, zested on Microplane or small grater
• 1 1/2 cups lite coconut milk
• 2 sprigs mint leaves
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 8 tsp fine sugar, for bruleeing

Heat coconut milk in a saucepan over medium heat with mint leaves (don't bother stripping from stem- just throw the whole thing in) until bubbles form around the outside and milk is steaming.

Meanwhile, mix cornstarch, sugar, salt, egg yolks, lime zest in a medium bowl. Slowly add heated coconut milk while whisking yolk mixture. Add mixture back to pot. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick. Pour into four ramekins, cover with plastic wrap directly on surface of custard, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

To serve, sprinkle each custard with 1 tsp sugar. Brulee with a kitchen torch or bring out the big guns and (carefully!) use a full on blow torch. Sprinkle with another tsp of sugar and brulee again. Serve with 5 minutes so that the sugar topping doesn't soften.

Meatball Stuffed Peppers

Life as gotten busy lately. I went back to work full time in June, but apparently I was living in some kind of fantasy land over the summer where life is rainbows and lollipops. Four Seasons Kitchen is now feeling the effects of my working full time plus being a mother and a wife.

The other thing that has affected the blogging frequency here is my husband is on a naturopath-perscribed food trial. No gluten and no dairy for a month. I have not been very enthused about dinner the last couple of weeks. I have found it pretty difficult to find recipes that contain no dairy or gluten. Most recipes are either/or. I looked at vegan recipes, but then you get crazy substitutes for eggs and such. Le sigh.

A friend at work lent me a gluten-free cookbook, Deliciously G-Free by Elizabeth Hasselback, which has helped with some dinner ideas. We think Tyler's problem is probably gluten, rather than dairy, so if that is the case I can make a lot more recipes from this book. Almost everything looks delicious, but there are a lot of recipes with dairy. Baking anything sweet from the book is pretty much out as all the recipes contain butter or other dairy. I think the poor guy has lost almost 10 pounds over the last few weeks.

This recipe for Meatball Stuffed Peppers is adapted from the book. It was great and I will make it again, whether we have to continue with gluten-free or not. I did, however, find the meat in the pepper a bit tough. Treating it more like a meatball by adding bread crumbs soaked in milk (or rice milk) next time will help. I am including that modification in the recipe below.

So, what the hell have we been eating for the last couple of weeks on this elimination diet? Here it is. Hopefully anybody else starting on a gluten free or dairy free diet (or the hell of both) will find this helpful! Let me know in the comments if you have any other delicious meal ideas please! I almost threw my computer across the room yesterday trying to come up with dinners for the upcoming week. I have problems with patience. Tyler calls it short aggression... ok moving on to the menus....

Week 1

White Bean Chicken Chili  
I never ended up making this, we ended up getting a roast chicken, wedges, and bean salad from the grocery store that night instead. The bean salad had barley in it though. Oops.

Spanish Rice Bake with Chorizo added to the recipe

Pasta Carbonnara with Broccoli  
We used rice pasta. I have since discovered that corn pasta is better. Not as mushy

Frittatta with Sausage, Roasted Red Peppers, and Kale  
This was a winner. Delicious.

Shepard's Pie  
Make your Shepards Pie (Cottage Pie if you're not Canadian) with cornstarch instead of flour for the gravy, and I made smashed potatoes to go on top instead of mashed potatoes which you really need dairy for.

Week 2

Asian Slow Cooker Pork, Rice, Stir-Fried Broccoli

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi with Pasta  
I added some roasted vegetable tomato sauce as well

Quinoa and Kale Pilaf with Fried Egg  
This was a fail. Apparently I am the only one in the house who likes quinoa

Corn Griddle Cakes with Sausage and Maple Syrup  
OMG these are so good. I used a gluten-free baking flour I found at the grocery store and subbed rice milk for the buttermilk.

Burgers on Gluten Free Buns with Sweet Potato Fries

Week 3

Meatball Stuffed Peppers (recipe below)

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with Saurkraut

Pasta with Meatballs and Roasted Vegetable Sauce

Pad Thai from Deliciously G-Free.
It wasn't great. The sauce was too thin. I found a recipe in Clean Eating magazine that looks better. I'll report back after I make that one.

Steak with Roasted Potatoes and Root Vegetables



I realize there are only 5 meals per week listed above. We did eat, of course, on the other 2 days of the week. I just don't remember what we ate.

MEATBALL STUFFED PEPPERS WITH POLENTA
Adapted from Deliciously G-Free

Serves 4

Note: If you eat dairy, some goat cheese stirred into the polenta when it's finished cooking is out of this world.

• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1/4 lb lean ground pork
• 1/4 lb lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup gluten free breadcrumbs (pulse a slice of gluten free bread in a food processor to make bread crumbs)
• 1/4 cup milk or plain dairy substitute (rice milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc)
• 1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped (the Slap Chop works great for this)
• 2 tsp each salt and pepper, divided
• 2 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes (I used a can of diced tomatoes originally and I found them too chunky)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• fresh parsley or basil, chopped to garnish

Polenta:

• 1/2 cup coarse cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt and pepper

Heat a large skillet over med-high heat. Add spinach and 1 tbsp water. Cook until wilted, 30 seconds to a minute. Remove from skillet and set aside until cool enough to chop. Keep heat on skillet.

Add olive oil and garlic to skillet. Cook 30 seconds or less- don't let garlic brown. Add tomato paste, cook 30 seconds. Add tomatoes reduce heat to medium to medium low- you just want the tomato sauce to simmer, not boil.

Place bread crumbs in a smalll bowl. Add milk and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes.

Cut peppers in half lengthwise (stem to bottom). Remove stem, seeds, and any white membrane from each half. Season the inside of each with salt and pepper.

Chop spinach and add to a large bowl. To spinach, add pork, beef, mushrooms, bread crumb mixture, and 1 tsp each salt and pepper. Squish and mix with your hands until well combined.  Divide mixture equally between pepper halves.

Add peppers to skillet, cut side up, nestling them into the sauce. Cook, partially covered and keeping at a simmer, 40-50 minutes ensuring meat is cooked through.

10 minutes before peppers are done, bring water for polenta to a boil in a sauce pot. Very slowly pour in polenta, stirring with a whisk the whole time to avoid lumps. Add salt and pepper. Cover and turn heat down to low. Cook, whisking occasionally, until polenta is cooked (taste it- it shouldn't be hard or gritty) and water is all absorbed. If water is absorbed and polenta is too stiff before it's cooked add a little more water and whisk gently. Polenta should be thick but pourable.

To serve put some polenta in the middle of a plate or shallow pasta bowl and top with 1 half pepper per person with some sauce and fresh parsley or basil sprinkled over top.