The Green Goddess

My Mum turned me onto making these green smoothies as a great way to get some extra veggies into your diet.  She was the one that coined the name "Green Goddess".  Yes, I was skeptical at first - just look at that colour! - but one taste had me hooked. These smoothies are sweet, refreshing, and oh-so-good-for-you.

Quinoa For Breakfast?

In the morning time is essential, and I don't always have ample time to make myself breakfast (much to my horror, breakfast is my favorite meal!).  These quinoa filled breakfast bowls pack a ton of protein into one easy to prepare serving and keep you full until lunch.  They are perfect for busy days you want to continue to eat healthfully in.  Keep reading to find out how to make them!

"A Love Story" Michael Bastian

What is there to love about this love story?

The Fashion.

The Food.

The Couple.

The Architecture.

The Music.

The list goes on!

Make sure to view in full screen for full effect:


GANT by Michael Bastian - A Love Story from NEWNEW by Fashion Tale on Vimeo.
GANT by Michael Bastian “A Love Story” Spring 2011. Produced by NEWNEW.
Director: Carl-Axel Wahlström
DOP: Niklas Johansson FSF

Join Me For Lunch: Black Bean Soup and Quinoa Tabbouleh

This week I made myself a smoky and spicy Black Bean Soup for lunch, with a side of a fresh, protein and calcium rich Quinoa Tabbouleh salad.  With a side of Corn Chips, this made a delicious and filling lunch!

Read the recipes after the jump!

Easy Chocolate Cake

This week, I needed a chocolate cake recipe that could be easily prepared with very little mess.  I found this recipe, and as always made some adjustments.  Although it is not a super rich chocolate cake, it is very moist, and works as a perfect base cake if you have other dessert items to add to it.
Bonus: It's vegan!

One Pan Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Sugar
• 1/2 cup Cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• 3/4 cup Canola oil
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cups Water, with 1 Tbsp Instant Coffee or Espresso added
• 1 cup Milk 
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. sift all of the dry ingredients in an ungreased 9" X13" pan
3. add all of the wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
4. Bake for 25 minutes, and let cool before serving.

Notes:

• You could use vegetable oil, or even sunflower oil for this cake.  Just make sure it is a neutral tasting oil. 
• If you don't have lemon juice on hand, white vinegar will do the trick for this cake
• In order for this cake to be vegan, just replace the milk with water.  I used milk because i found it gave the cake a slightly richer texture, but it will be just as tasty with only water.

The cake it THAT simple.  The best part is there are no dishes to clean up after making this cake other than measuring cups, baking utensils, and the pan you cooked it in.  I think that this cake is delicious with the addition of:

• Raspberries and vanilla or chocolate ice cream (or both?!)
• Carmel sauce
• Any fruit
• Chocolate buttercream frosting
• Whipped cream

Enjoy!

Homemade Mushroom Soup

For a special treat, I made my roommate and I some of this creamy mushroom soup.  It didn't last more than an hour because we gobbled up the entire batch!  The recipe for this soup is deceivingly simple, but we will never buy canned mushroom soup again after seeing how easy and delicious this soup is to make.

The recipe is originally from Season With Spice, but the recipe I list has some adjustments.

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Chopped Fresh Mushrooms*

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

6 Cloves of Garlic (go big or go home)

2 Tbsp of Butter

2 tsp dried thyme

2 Bay leaves

1 Cup Vegetable Stock

1 Tbsp of Flour dissolved in 1 Tbsp Water

Pinch of salt

1/2 Cup Half and Half cream

1/2 Cup 2% Milk

Dash of Nutmeg 

Pepper and fresh cilantro to garnish and to taste

*You can technically use any type of mushroom for this, although I recommend using at least two varieties in this soup.  It will give the mushroom flavour more dimension than if you had only used one.  You could combine a "smokier" mushroom, like a portobello, with a "brighter" one, such as a Button mushroom.  For my soup, I selected half Shiitake mushrooms, half Button mushrooms.  The Shiitake mushrooms gave an earthy, smoky flavour, while the Button mushrooms were soft and bright in contrast.  I prefer smoky, earthy flavours while my roommate prefers lighter ones, so this was the perfect balance for us.

Method:

1.  Heat your oil and melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan, and sautée the garlic on medium heat.

2.  Add in the chopped mushrooms and spices.  Cook until the moisture evaporates from the mushrooms, and the spices begin to toast and smell great (about 5 - 10 minutes, depending on how finely you chopped the mushrooms).

3.  Add in Vegetable Broth and stir until the mixture boils.  Immediately reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add in your diluted flour so the soup thickens, and has that creamy texture.

4.  Season with Nutmeg, Salt, and Pepper, and stir in the Cream and milk.  Once the soup reaches a simmer, take it off the heat and serve it garnished with Pepper and Cilantro.

This soup would be great served with pumpernickel bread, but we just served it with parmesan toasted onto rye bread, and that was delicious as well.

Please let me know if you try this soup! 

Brunch

My roommate and I very often host meals in our apartment.  Food is something we can enjoy and share with all of our friends, and gives us all a chance to talk and catch up with each other as we enjoy the food.  This past weekend we hosted a delicious brunch with six guests in attendance.  One of the challenges we encountered was how to get the eggs out all at the same time, and hot for everybody.  We came up with the solution of baking the eggs in a muffin tray in the oven, and it worked perfectly! We cracked eggs into a greased muffin tray and put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

We also made our brunch an optional pot-luck style.  Our guests contributed bagels, perogies, fruit, juices, and bacon in addition to our eggs, hash browns, apple crumble and tea.  Everybody was full and content by the end of the meal!

How do you share with your loved ones?

Blueberry French Toast

Wouldn't it be lovely to wake up in the morning and have some french toast with Blueberries and custard waiting for you? I think so.

Morning Glory Muffins

I made these vegan treats yesterday to have for breakfast and as snacks.  I can say that they are absolutely wonderful, and very healthy too!
Recipe from here.

Made about 10 regular sized muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp  Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 Whole Banana, mashed
• 1/3 Oil (I used sunflower, but any vegetable based oil will do)
• 1 Apple, cored and diced (I left the skins on mine)
• 1/2 Cup Rasins
• 3 Medium Carrots, grated
• 1/2 Cup Walnuts, chopped (I like mine chopped coarsely)

Method:

• Mix dry ingredients together.  Then mix in wet ingredients (in vegan baking, the fruits and vegetables count as wet ingredients).
• Put mixture into greased muffin cups
• Bake in a preheated oven at 350º F

Let me know if you decide to try these out, and if you do, how they worked out for you!

Honey Lavender Cupcakes

Okay, so I don't normally like cupcakes.  I generally think that they are too sweet even for a dessert.  However these Honey Lavender Cupcakes have me intrigued.  They seem to have just the right balance of sweetness and herbal flavour.  They seem like a nice thing to have with tea.

Check out the recipe here.

Let me know:  Do you like cupcakes?

Lotus Root Chips

I have never cooked with lotus root before, but it intrigues me.  I like the idea of making your own crisps at home, and these look particularly easy and tasty...  Not to mention pretty!

Find the recipe and how-to here.

If you try them, let me know how they work out for you!

Summer Porridge

It had never occurred to me that you could make oatmeal in the fridge.  These recipes look great, boasting six different types of porridge you can leave in the refrigerator overnight and pick up to eat in the morning.  The look especially tasty for breakfast or snacks in the summertime.

Find the six different recipes here.

Let me know If you have ever tried making oatmeal this way, and how it turned out for you!

Tea Bag Cookies

There aren't many things that I like more than tea, or cookies.  But these Tea Bag Cookies are just the sweetest.  I think if I were going to make them I'd use a regular sugar cookie recipe and skip out on the chocolate dipping.  Don't they look perfect for a tea party?
Idea from Le Pétrin.

Spiced Up G&T

With emerging warm weather it feels as though Spring has been completely bypassed and Summer is fast approaching.  It makes me think of one of my favourite Summertime drinks: The Gin and Tonic.
Next time it's hot out, I'll be heading out to the patio with one of these spiced G&T variations.
This one with Star Anise looks particularly appealing:

Simply add star anise to your standard G&T.

For other variations such as rosemary, cilantro, or cinnamon G&T's, check out this website.

Street Salad

I am a huge fan of Jamie Oliver.  His cooking style and recipes have a wonderful simplicity to them that makes them easy to replicate and delicious.  With spring on its way, I find myself craving foods that are bright in colour and very flavourful.  Jamie Oliver's Mexican Street Salad would definitely hit the spot.  Find the recipe on Oliver's website here.

Raw and Vegan?

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to visit a friend who so graciously let me use her kitchen.  We decided to try out this recipe to make raw, vegan brownies. We had never made anything raw before, so we were both a bit apprehensive, but were shocked at how easy and delicious they turned out!  Thanks to her my cooking (or not cooking?) fix has been  met.

The recipe for the brownies is:

• 1cup walnuts
• 1 cup dates 
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• a pinch of sea salt
• a handful of chopped chocolate pieces or chocolate chips.

1. Blend walnuts in a food processor until made into a flour-like consistency (about 20 seconds)
2. Add dates into the food processor with the walnuts, and blend until made into a paste. (another 20 seconds)
3. Add cacao powder and a handful of chocolate pieces and blend until conbined (about 10 seconds)
4. press the mixture firmly into an even layer in an 8X8 pan.
5. cut into squares and enjoy!

This recipe is great because there is very little sugar, it seriously cures a chocolate craving, and it only takes about 5 minutes to make! 

Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Pea, Mint, and Parmesan

I am going to have to start apologizing for all of the food related posts.  I simply can't get my mind off of all the delicious things I want to make once I have a kitchen.

Back at home, my family often serves bruschetta as a tapa or an appetizer.  I think that these pea, mint and parmesan crostini's would be a nice update.  They are also very pretty, and I think they would be great to serve at an outdoor party or BBQ.
You can find the recipe at this website.

Dessert Nachos

Because I do not currently have access to a kitchen, dessert making seems to be a distant dream reserved for the future; however these dessert nachos are possible even kitchenless!  You could make your own cinnamon sugar pita chips, melt dark chocolate, and add strawberries for a tasty tapa or dessert.
Find the recipe at ourbestbites.com.

Sandwich Art

The concept of Low Commitment Projects is pretty neat; executing projects that take very little time and effort and recording them.  It makes you want to start acting on more of your fleeting ideas. One of my favourite projects on the site is one that makes sandwiches with different artists as themes.

Rothko Sandwich

Mondrian Sandwich

Christo Sandwich

You Make it So Good

Please stay young. Please stay hungry.
ps. I still feel this way about meat loaf.


Eric & Magill "You Make It So Good" from Liam Mitchell on Vimeo.