Believe it or not, this recipe does not contain quinoa!
I have been making waffles for years. Although they take a bit more time and prep than making pancakes, I can’t resist the crisp exterior and delicious, fluffy interior of a waffle. Since they take a bit more work to prepare, I find that we only make them a few times a year, but once I have my mind set on waffles, there is no stopping me!
I tried to come up with a snappy name for this post, but this salad has so many ingredients that it was difficult to decide which deserved to be front and centre. Since the dressing is made with peanut butter and ginger, these flavours are in every bite. And quinoa, well, I can’t hide the fact that we have been eating quite a bit of this grain, as you can see from previous posts.
Spring is in the air! Many parts of Canada are still buried under a lot of snow, but it is April and Easter is behind us, so I can’t help thinking of days spent outside and the deliciousness of BBQ’d burgers.
As you know, Jamie and I live in an apartment so we don’t have the luxury of firing up a BBQ whenever the mood strikes us, but that has never stopped us from using our indoor cast iron grill to cook up a burger or two. The only downside of this is the amount of smoke that is created by using the indoor grill.
This weekend I wanted to try a vegetarian burger, so see if we could get the same burger satisfaction using black beans and quinoa. My sister, Cherie, shared this recipe with me. She swears by it, so I thought that we could give it a try.
This is another recipe from Thug Kitchen. I told you I was intrigued by the recipes that I found in this cookbook. Now don’t just assume that the entire collection of recipes from Thug Kitchen only uses quinoa. I just happen to have a lot of quinoa in our pantry, so when I see a recipe that calls for it, I know that is one thing I don’t have to go to the grocery store for.
This is my variation on the recipe that my mom always made (and still makes today). There is nothing better on a cold winter’s day to have a piping hot bowl of chili. So, you may be asking, why are you sharing this recipe now, in April. Well, as you know, we live in Ottawa, and they are calling for snow this week, so I thought that sharing my recipe for chili made perfect sense! 🙂
This is likely my favourite recipe out of the New Dieters Cookbook. My sister was actually the first person who made it. I remember it was so good I asked for seconds (and likely thirds). Then the next time I was over for a visit, I asked her to make it again. Yep, it is that good!
This is the second recipe that I submitted to Turkey Farmers of Canada and Mushrooms Canada for their #GrillOn Summer promotion. You will remember that the first recipe I made for them was the Turkey Mushroom Sausage.
I knew that I wanted to make something stuffed for this promotion. I actually wanted to make a roulade, but that didn’t turn out too well. It tasted great, but it didn’t slice or photograph very well. I am not sure if my knife wasn’t sharp enough, but it ended up looking like a turkey mushroom casserole instead of a beautiful roulade 🙂
#GrillOn
Earlier this year I was approached by Turkey Farmers of Canada and Mushrooms Canada to create two grilling recipes to be published this summer in e-cookbooks available through Facebook. The recipes would be original and combine mushrooms and turkey. I was honoured! WOW, I never would have imagined that my small blog would have been recognized in a national capacity. Once I got over the initial shock, I started to doubt myself. Could I really create two original recipes using turkey and mushrooms? I don’t even have a BBQ! Would my creations measure up to what they are looking for? Because they were going to compensate me, I wanted to deliver a quality product, and I was worried that I would disappoint. But, Jamie told me to go for it! Jump in with both feet and accept the offer. So, I slept on it and decided to go for it 🙂
With spring finally here I want to dive into salads. There is something about the warm weather that makes us want to eat cold, crisp foods. Last year I used fennel for the first time in a fennel, apple and chicken salad. Fennel wasn’t the star of that salad; it was more of a complimentary character. So, since a year has passed, I figured it was time I gave fennel a staring role in one of our meals. Since I enjoyed the combination of fennel and apple so much before, I searched out a recipe with those two ingredients. Here is the result of that search.
Jamie and I actually went searching for fennel recipes at different times, but we both thought this one would be the perfect starting point. It is nice to think that we are in sync 🙂
This recipe is from the Epicurious site. I have used recipes from this site before. I still rave about how great the coconut cream pie turned out, and I found the recipe on Epicurious. Now that I have jumped into the world of the Smartphone, their app was one of the first that I downloaded.
This recipe appealed to me, because it is coleslaw. I am a huge fan of coleslaw. My favourite (and don’t judge me on this) is Dixie coleslaw. You know the one, it is fluorescent green and you can buy it by the gallon at the deli counter. I don’t know why, but there is something about that coleslaw that I find mildly addicting. Hmmm, I wonder if I can make that at home? I have never tried, but now I think I have found a summer project.
Another reason I wanted to make this was because it was a great excuse to bust out the mandoline that we received as a wedding gift. I haven’t used it as much as I thought I would, but with the ingredient list calling for thinly sliced fennel, celery and julienned apples, it was the perfect opportunity.
The difficult part about making this dish is the waiting. Oh, and making sure that all the thinly sliced ingredients make it into the bowl! 😉 Is there anything more appetizing that thinly sliced fruits and vegetables that provide a satisfactory crunch? If you can wait 24 hours, this coleslaw is the perfect marriage of summer flavours. Jamie and I served it with some homemade sausage patties and devilled eggs. A little taste of summer in the middle of spring. Awesome!
Do you have a favourite coleslaw recipe? Or a summer-time guilty pleasure that compares to my Dixie coleslaw addiction?
Adapted from:
Epicurious – Celery, Apple and Fennel Slaw
Ingredients:
Directions:
Salmon is one of those things that I really enjoy, but when we are in the grocery store I don’t find myself drawn to it. Sometimes I have to be reminded how much I like salmon. Well, coming across this recipe for Coconut Crusted Salmon was one of those reminders.
I was looking to plan a dinner party, but because Jamie and I are trying to stick (more or less) to our low carbohydrate lifestyle, I wanted to host dinner, but have it be low carb-ish. I have never tried to cook an entire meal like this for other people and I wasn’t quite sure what the reaction would be.
Ruby Reduction 