feast your eyes on this

LENTIL SUMMER MIXER

Add your choice of above ingredients and substitute for what you like best or have on hand. Your favourite bean or couscous will work best just make sure they are cooked.


I chose to make a light dressing to accompany this particular salad with a mixture of fresh lemon juice, Savory, Dill, Parsley and fresh pepper and some of the left over juice from the feta container for its natural saltiness.

In the past I have made a dressing with a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar a dash of sugar, dill and oregano. Follow your desires when it comes to dressing and use your favourite things.

toss together

ENJOY this super healthy salad.

Hummus in the Park

I love making homemade hummus, it taste great, super healthy, simple and impressive
What you need:

2 tbsp Tahini paste (sesame seed puree) must have

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 can chickpea reserve a small amount of liquid and drain the rest

2 garlic cloves dice fine and cook in olive oil for a couple minutes on low heat

1 tsp olive oil

I like to add some ground red pepper for heat and parsley flakes, some like to add paprika etc.
Mix all ingredients together using a blender, food processor, emulsion blender etc. add more oil or reserved chickpea juice to make as smooth or chunky as you desire. Serve with fresh cut veggies, pitas, and crackers whatever you prefer. Hummus is an excellent summer picnic item.

Cocoa Fudge

1/3 cup soy milk

3 tbls of butter

2.5 cups powdered sugar

6 tbls powdered cocoa

pinch of salt

and 1 tsp of vanilla

Step 1: Mix all the ingredients in a saucpan except the vanilla stirring constantly until it comes to a boil

Step 2: Turn down heat slightly while maintaining a simmer for 8-10 minutes or firm ball when droppe dinto water, stir occasionaly to make sure ingredients don't burn

Step 3: Turn off heat, Add in vanilla and give a quick stir

Step 4: Pour into lightly buttered baking dish and refrigerate to let set 45 mins to 1 hour atleast, cut into squares when firm enough

ENJOY!

vegan spaghetti (Zooghetti)

Zuchini spaghetti

This is a simple meal that is totally healthy with no butter, flour, preservatives and even salt if you choose to omit it. I used zichini for the pasta replacement and choose to use chickpeas instead of meat as they were the beans I had on hand. Use your favourite fresh vegtables you have on hand, I used vidallia onion, garlic, red/green peppers, red pepper flakes for spice and added some edamme and plum tomatoes with juice for the sauce. Saute the onions and garlic with olive oil if you desire, then add other vagtables of your choice and canned or fresh tomatoes. Right before you are going to serve add your zuchini pasta to heat it up along with sauce. Do not over cook as you are simulating al dente pasta.

For the chickepea meatballs: Drain chickpeas from can or cook dried beans. Boil the chickpeas, no salt for a couple minutes to make sure they are soft enough to mush with a fork. Drain and transfer to a bowl where you will mash them, leave a few rough chunks for texture. Dice a small handfull of onions add to mixture add favourite Italian seasongs and red pepper flakes, pepper etc. mix around and form small meatball size balls. Cook in oven at 375 degrees and turn every five minutes to crisp outside. do not cook longer than 12-15 minutes as you don't want them to dry out.

Add chickpea meatballs to tossed pasta and serve. super healthy super good!

Chickpea meatballs

Zuchini pasta and sauce

Wholesome dinner

adult twist on a childish favourite

In the spirit of all things garden. I decided to make a chocolate dirt pie just like my mother did for me when I was a kid. The secret is making your own homemade graham cracker crust which couldn't be easier! All you need to do is heat your oven to 350 degrees, crush about 8 full size crackers add to a medium sized bowl, add 1/4 cup of white sugar and about a 1/3 melted butter. Simply mix these three things together well and press into a pie tray. Add to preheated oven and bake for about 8 minutes. Feel free to use less sugar or omit and add a couple tablespoons of honey for it's natural sweetness and decrease to 1/4 of butter, just needs enough to coat all pieces.

crush em' real good

make sure to press against the sides of the pie dish

step 2: make chocolate instant pudding mix according to package directions, allow 10 minutes to set in fridge, it will thicken. Give it a quick stir and add to cooled pie crust

step 3: add a layer of fresh berries, choose your favourite or whats on sale... like  I did

huge strawberries, or just tiny hands

cover with a layer of cookie crumbs. I suggest Oreo

the ol' familiar worms on the dirt pie

My boyfriend recently baught me a cake carring case, he knows me too well. Perfect since we are going to a dinner party at a freinds and bringing dessert. How clever.

This is a very easy almost no bake recipe that is perfect for those who want to make something fun, tasty and not too challenging. Hopefully you will all make this kid classic.

Recipe: for Success, not disaster

HERB & CARMALIZED ONION BUN IN THE OVEN

Not the best photo, but if you ask those who tasted it it was mighty good
This will be a future recipe I will use with my own homegrown herbs onc ethey are matured

Recipe as follows, feel free to be free with it and alter recipe to your liking.
I believe that the joy of being a chef is making every recipe origanal and custome for you and those who you cook for, if you can be free in the kitchen, your food will taste much better as a little bit of your creativety and soul will be in every bite.

Easy Cheesy loaf of Bread:

1 tbsp lemon, fresh of juice
1 cup milk
2 1/4 cup All purpose flour (feel free to use whole wheat, I substituted the 1/4 with flax seeds)
1 small onion diced (vidallia or just regualr cooking onions if you wish)
1 cup of whatever kind of shredded cheese you wnat (old cheddar with some parmisian, I recomend)
1/4 cup of your favourite mixed herbs (I used, oregano, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, chives, black pepper, [dried or fresh])
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cold and finely chopped butter

Steps to Success:
Step 1. preheat oven to 375 F, in a small bowl strir in lemon juice with milk in order to sour the milk for atleast five minutes. In sperate larger bowl, mix together flour, shedded cheese, herbs, baking powder/soda, salt until well combined

Step 2. cut in butter until crumbly use two knifes. Add your carmalized onions. Add milk and stir until dough comes together. You can either kneed the dough on a lightly floured surface or just in the bowl (less mess), until it all comes together, kneed about ten times.

Step 3. place dough on parchment paper lined baking tray and pat it down until its 1 inch thick all around like a disk. Dust the top of the loaf with flour. Score the dough into an X to be fancy smancy. Bake for around 30- 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack once done and let cool before you dig in.

Hope you try this easy recipe. It's very quick, healthy if you use wholewheat flour, requires no eggs, little butter, and no yeats so no wait. perfect for a beginner bread maker.

Excellent for an easter brunch, sure to impress anyone, serve with cheese slices, or butter or whatever you want.

I found this recipe in a Sobeys magazine from LCBO. I changed the recipe a bit to suite my own liking and hopefully yours as well