Welcome!

Do your body a big favor and throw away all those heavily processed food products from your cupboards! Welcome to my healthy-eating blog, full of tips on how to make smart nutritional choices, indulge in some delicious recipes, and feel better about the choices you make! This is not a “diet” in the starve-yourself sense. You eat when you’re hungry and you eat enough to fuel your body for its daily needs with nutritious wholesome foods. Healthy eating doesn’t need to be boring and bland; There are so many possibilities out there! Take it from me, someone who used to be a super picky eater and ate nothing but junkfood.

After opening my eyes to the way I was feeding myself and the things that are being sold as food these days, it shocked me that I’d never even gave it a thought before. After changing my eating habits, not only did I lose a bunch of weight, but my migraines disappeared, I barely got any cravings (after getting over the “hill”), I felt physically and mentally great, and I discovered a great love for cooking. Health is so important yet it’s barely paid attention to. My goal here is to help anyone who wants to change, but not just their diet; This is a lifestyle change. The recipes on this blog are all vegetarian, all whole-grain/flour, mostly vegan, some gluten-free and some raw. Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated to keep this blog growing and going!

Cooking at Mom`s and socializing at Potlucks

I went to my mom`s this past weekend to do some cooking. To no surprise, we spent our afternoon strolling through grocery stores and decided to make a recipe of Ricardo`s - A really popular cook who`s face is all over TV and magazines in Quebec but of which I only first heard about this winter. I watched one of his episodes and really enjoyed it. After strolling through his website and coming across inspiring recipes and interesting tips, I`m sure I`ll be keeping an eye on him and his creations. For supper, we also made some springrolls with peanut butter sauce, and a Greek salad with balsamic dressing. A delicious supper finished off with apple crisp.

I stayed up really late watching a long movie but got up to make my Banana Oat Crepes for breakfast (I look so tired!). My mom seemed facsinated with the lovely texture of the crepes which were made entirely of quick oats, and I was fascinated by how well they came out myself! Thanks to her quality stove (the type with no spiral heaters as you can see in the picture) and her quality crepe pan and spatula, my oat crepes turned out beautifully. Now I`m really curious to know how my Wholesome Buckwheat Crepes would turn out there!

We filled our crepes with thawed out mixed berries and ate a side of Spinach Omelette which my mom made. I used to hate bell peppers but now I enjoy them all – Except the green ones. I still really dislike those, but I couldn`t taste them in the potato bell pepper omelette, it was great.

I`d been planning on going to a vegan potluck when I got back to Montreal but I still didn`t know what I should make to bring along. We had a bunch of extra ingredients from the springrolls we had made the other night so I decided to make those and tweak the pb sauce to go along with it. Then my mom had an excellent idea – What if I used the berry juice from the thawed mixed berries to dye my rice papers?

What an awesome idea! The berry juice mixed in the warm water turned my rice paper into a bright pink color, giving it a very Asian feel. I was low on peppermint leaves but layed them out in my rolls, along with the rice vermicelli, spaghetti squash, carrots, zucchini and mango. I found the pb sauce needed much mroe pb to deserve its name so I added three more big spoonfulls. I rubbed and drizzled water all over them in the container to make sure they would stay fresh on the way to the potluck and to lessen the chance of breaking them due to dry stickiness.

The potluck was a blast. I was the first to arrive and helped out with grinding sea salt and making spanakopitas – Something I`d never made before and had only tasted once before. It was so much fun! It came to me naturally and I was able to make lovely little triangles filled with delicious tofu-cheese spinach filling. There was a total of 7 of us and I was glad to see that only one dish had wheat/gluten in it – the spanakopitas, but I had to try some. It was a supper filled with protein – Most people brought bean dishes, but my favorite was a creamy tofu dish one of the guy`s made. Unfortunately for me and another guy who wanted the recipe, he didn`t have anything written down; He just made it on the spot. We spent the night chatting about various interesting topics, drinking delicious tea and eating to our heart`s content.

Everyone was really nice and entertaining. I felt really comfortable in the gang and pleased that I could feel so at ease. The potluck happens about every three weeks but I wish it was every week! I will definitely be going regularly. And next time I will bring a dessert, as there were no desserts this time!

Cookie Cutters, Icing Tips and Silicone Mold Gifts!

A couple of weeks ago I got the unfortunate news that one of my ex`s comitted suicide… (I will write a post dedicated to him on my travel blog eventually). I really wanted to go to his funeral but it was out of my way. My mom gladly suggested she`d drive me to the funeral and that we could spend some time together shopping, eating out and working on my resume (because I really need a Real job after all of these years!) and we hadn`t seen much of each other since these past few years.

She brought me to an amazing kitchen store called Ares which was loaded with expensive fancy kitchen equipment. There were SO many things that I wish I could have, and I actually got to bring a couple things back with me as gifts! A fun set of cookie cutters, a beautiful silicone tray for making chocolates (there was also the most adorable kitty chocolate silicone mold that I`ve wanted for a long time but I decided to go with this more traditional one) and a set of decorating tips and bags for icing – I was so excited to try them all out!

I love using avocados for my raw puddings and soft icecreams and figured the avocado pudding would be an excellent tester for my icing tips. The end result was beautiful – It brought my Cool Citrus Mint Pudding recipe to a whole new visual level. The recipe is still in the works but I plan to perfect it and add it to my list of goodies; It`s a two-layer green pudding – The bottom layer is lemon flavored and the top is perppermint flavored with peppermint extract and lots of peppermint leaves. The top layer was a bit darker than the bottom one so I swirled it ontop the other in a wine glass and topped it with some fresh peppermint leaves to serve – Simply beautiful!

Next up was using mashed potatoes, and this was a harder experiment. I guess I could have added more liquid to the potatoes to make it easier to come out, but it was my first time doing this so I wasn`t too sure on how soft the mixture should be.

I had a challenge – To make a type of “Coquille St. Jaques“ with vegetables instead of seafood, to top it with mashed potatoes, and without the use of a lovely shell to bake in. I`ve never even had Coquille St. Jaques before haha but it sounded fun. I used vegetables I thought might make a good seafood substitute – tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and onion. I grilled the eggplant and zucchini for better flavor and texture. The overall mixture could have been amazing, and it was good, but it lacked a good spice flavoring and I`m not very good at that. I added a bit of shredded cheese on top and tried out my biggest icing tip.

It was tricky. My biggest issue was having the rosettes let go of the icing tip when I was done with them, but I eventually figured out that pushing them down helped a lot, if that makes any sense… I ended up making two. It would have been so much easier and prettier if I had baking shells! Here`s the firts and less-nice one that I made, with the whole top covered. The other one had big beautiful mashed potato rosettes just on the edges but it didn`t make it to camera. The end result was a tasty dish, and even better the next day! I look forward to perfecting mashed potato icing as I know all kinds of beautiful designs can be made with them and icing tips.

Onto the cookie cutters! I can`t remember the last time that I used some. I decided to make some vegan gluten-free cookies sweetened solely with fruits and they turned out fabulous! My Naturally Sweet Oat Cookies were very sweet and a hit. They were very healthy except for the bit of margarine in them which I think is what made them extra special. Next time I`ll try with applesauce and a bit of added salt instead. Look forward to this recipe being posted soon!

I`m still so excited about my new kitchen tools! It brings the presentation of my food to a whole new level and I can`t wait to experiment more with them in the future.

Granola Cereal

I am so proud of myself – 3 blind experiments into something I`m unfamiliar with, and the results were all great! I`d been meaning to create some granola cereals for quite some time now (I call them granola cereals because they`re like granola that can be eaten as is but are more meant as cereal). I made a banana walnut one, an apple crisp one, and a cranberry orange buckwheat one. They all contain oats and two of them are gluten free – The apple crisp one has wheat germ in it. I wanted to create granola cereals with common ingredients that others could make relatively easy. The only thing I`m concerned about is my small dried banana chips and small chunks of dried apple – Something I dehydrated myself with my food dehydrator, with a result that`s probably very different flavor and texture wise from store-bought ones. Well, this is a start, and a good start I find.

~Banana Walnut Granola Cereal~  Serves 3, Makes 2 1/2 cups  (vegan, gluten-free)

Dry Ingredients: 1/2 cup quick oats, 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup dried banana chips (small pieces), 2 tbsp minced walnuts, 1 1/2 tbsp ground flax seeds, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp salt. Wet Ingredients:  2 tbsp honey or agave nectar, 2 tbsp mashed banana, 2 tbsp water, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.

Directions: In one bowl, stir dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients together, then add them to the dry mixture until well combined. Lay out on dehydrator sheet (use your hands to squish some mixture together to create bigger chunks for variety of size) and dehydrate them at 110F until dry and crisp, about 9 hours (After about 5 hours, stir around the granola). If you don`t have a food dehydrator, lay out the pieces on a baking sheet and bake them at about 250F until dry and crisp, stirring the mixture every once in a while and keeping a close eye on them.

I still want to tweak this recipe a bit more to make it better. I will post the updates when I do so.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~Apple Crisp Granola Cereal~  Makes 2 3/4 cups  (vegan)

These really smell and taste like apple crisp!

Dry Ingredients: 1/2 cup quick oats, 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup wheat germ, 1/2 cup dried apple (small chunks that aren`t super crispy), 2 tbsp ground flax seeds, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp salt. Wet Ingredients: 2 tbsp maple syrup, 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp melted margarine.

Directions: In one bowl, stir dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients together, then add them to the dry mixture until well combined. Lay out on dehydrator sheet (use your hands to squish some mixture together to create bigger chunks for variety of size) and dehydrate them at 110F until dry and crisp, about 8 hours (After about 4hours, stir around the granola). If you don`t have a food dehydrator, lay out the pieces on a baking sheet and bake them at about 250F until dry and crisp, stirring the mixture every once in a while and keeping a close eye on them.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~Cranberry Orange Granola Cereal~  (vegan, gluten-free)

I`ve only made these once so far but they were a hit with my partner and I. Very orangey in flavor, with the coconut giving it an extra little subtle kick of flavor and texture, and the cranberries adding a wonderful sweet flavor to the mix. They are not crispy and take longer to dry than the other two granola cereals but they stick well together. Generally speaking, this is a very unusual granola cereal, but it`s very flavorful and a fun change from the usual!

Dry Ingredients: 2/3 cup soaked and dehydrated buckwheat groats, 1/2 cup oat flour, 1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries, 2 1/2 tbsp minced almonds, 2 tbsp rolled oats, 2 tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut, 1 tbsp ground flax seeds, 1/8 tsp salt. Wet Ingredients: 1/4 cup orange juice, 3 tbsp white sugar, 2 tbsp honey or agave nectar, 1/2 tsp packed orange zest.

Directions: Stir dry ingredients together and, in another bowl, mix wet ingredients together. Mix both together and lay the mixture out on dehydrator sheet (use your hands to squish some mixture together to create bigger chunks for size variety) and dehydrate at 110F until dry and crisp, about 12 hours (After about 7 hours, stir around the mixture). If you don`t have an oven, lay out the pieces on a lightly-greased baking sheet and bake at about 250F until dry and crisp, stirring them every once in a while and keeping a close eye on them.

This granola cereal is high in calories, which is a good thing if you`re looking for something quick and loaded to eat before running out the door. I`d like to eliminate the white sugar and use less oat flour and maybe less orange juize or zest in the next batch and see what that gives me, because I can`t help tweaking recipes all the time!

I`d like to make some 100% raw granola cereal in the future – That means eliminating my beloved oats. But buckwheat groats make an excellent substitute! I also see great potential in making crispy granola bars with these – Something that`s known to be difficult to make. I`m hopeful!

Gluten-Free Experiments

While having Xavier try to go gluten-free wasn`t the most pleasant challenge out there, it gave me the idea to try out something completely different from the norm – To make corn bread with Cooked Rice! See, I was looking around the net for ideas on how to make gluten-free cornbread, but all the recipes used uncommon ingredients or used stuff like rice flour. I didn`t have any rice flour… But I sure had a lot of rice! What an exciting experiment this was going to be; To create a cornbread recipe based on cooked rice. And the result was fabulous! I had to make and tweak the recipe 3-4 times before I had it where I wanted it. I ended up with a Very flavorful cornbread.

~Riceful Cornbread~  Makes 2 mini loaves  (vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free)

Wet Ingredients: 3/4 cup cooked brown or white rice (about 1/3 cup uncooked), 3/4 cup rice milk, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 egg. Dry Ingredients: 1/2 cup fine cornmeal, 1 tbsp white sugar or evaporated cane sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda. 1 tbsp vegetable oil for greasing mini loaf pans.

Directions: Pour 1/2 tsbp vegetable oil in each mini loaf pan and place them in the oven – Turn the oven on to 400F. Blend the cooked rice with the rice milk and apple cider vinegar until smooth, then add the egg and blend just to combine it. In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients, then pour wet ingredients in and mix until combined. Pour the mixture into the heated mini loaf pans (Make sure they`re hot and be careful not to burn yourself. By pouring the mixture in the pan you will see the oil sizzle around it, which will create a nice crispy crust!) and place them in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then take them out of the oven and let cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

My partner Xavier couldn`t wait to eat his loaf once it was out of the oven so he took a fork to it and tried to make his way through without burning himself, not that it`s difficult to slice with a knife or anything. I have to admit, it was hard for me to wait as well! Although it`s generally low in fat, it`s quite greasy because the grease is all on the exterior, which is what makes the wonderful crispy crust. Each loaf comes out to about 375 calories. It can be made with both plain brown rice or plain white rice. You can probably do without the sugar but it adds a nice touch. Maybe next time I`ll try to cook it in a square pan and see how that turns out. I`d like to see if I can make this vegan too without too much compromise, and eventually I`m sure I`ll try an all-cornmeal cornbread.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love sweets and baked goods but I gotta say, I`m just not familiar with making cookies. I used to make flourless pb cookies when I was young and LOVED those. I tried making healthy wholewheat vegan molasses cookies a few times over the past couple of years with varying results from okay to horrible…. I did make those Amazing Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, but that`s pretty much it. I`m more of a muffin girl =3. Maybe one reason I haven`t really tackled them is I find the challenge too big, considering my vegan/wholesome/sometimes gluten-free ways… But it was time I made something. I decided to make some vegan gluten-free oat cookies solely sweetened with fruits. These are definitely healthy cookies but they turned out very good!

Naturally Sweet Oat Cookies  Makes 18 cookies  (vegan, gluten-free)

A simple chewy cookie sweetened solely by wholesome fruits.

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups blended bananas (about 4 medium), 1/4 cup applesauce, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 cups quick oats, 1/4 cup chopped dates, 1/4 cup raisins (soak them for 2 minutes).

Directions: Blend bananas in a food processor until smooth. Add and blend applesauce, vanilla and cinnamon. Add quick oats and dates and raisins and process until desired consistency. Pour 2 tbsp-batches of batter into cookie molds on a greased cookie sheet and flatten. Bake at 350F for 6 minutes, then flip cookies and flatten, and bake another 6-10 minutes.

You can omit the applesauce and salt and use 1/4 cup margarine instead. You can use all dates instead of half and half with raisins – I prefer all dates. They seem to freeze well and come out at about 100 calories per cookie.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Oatmeal Muffins are definitely on my to-do list. It`s been a while that I`ve wanted to make some 100% oat muffins, and I will post the recipe Here and on my muffins and oats pages once it is done!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I actually dumpstered some mozarella. What better way to use it than for a pizza? Xavier had been talking about pizza for a while, so this was the time to do so. Ugh, but yeah, I had to make a gluten-free crust with common ingredients. I tried out an Oatmeal Crust recipe I found by Health Nut 101 on Food.com but it didn`t really work out. I saw no need for the yeast but I followed the recipe pretty close. The crusts` consistency while preparing was very unpromising. The crust ended up very chewy and too bland oatmealy in taste, even after I added some dried herbs to it. Still, it wasn`t that bad and the bare crust end that I added sesame seeds on to flavor crisped up nicely.

The mozarella melted and browned beautifully. To the tomato sauce I added herbs, sauteed onions and pressed garlic. I would have LOVED to have added olives but I haven`t had any olives in a couple of months now, how sad.

Look how beautiful it is! I have some very silly pictures of us eating our deliciously-simple pizza but I`ve decided not to post them up… Maybe one day =P.

I don`t know if I can make a tasty gluten-free crust with common ingredients. We`ll have to see, but for now this challenge is going on the shelf… I have so many other ideas on mind!

Dehydration!

I`ve gotten some pretty awesome stuff on Freecycle but nothing was able to top my recent find of Two food dehydrators! I`ve been wanting one of these for years and I finally have 2!  A great thank you to the two women who passed on their little treasures to me for a bigger, newer model or simply a different diet path!

They are an older system – The big one has a temperature gauge but the small one doesn`t. They came with two sheets and one fine mesh. I prefer the rectangular food dehydrators for making crackers and whatnot but how can I complain!? I am Super happy and have been having fun dehydrating all kinds of things, like banana chips.

I used to freeze 1/2 – 3/4 of the bananas I`d dumpster, but now I like to dehydrate some for making granola cereal. I cut my slices into quarters – It makes cutting and laying them out a bit more complicated and a bit more time consuming than normal banana chips but it`s been worth it for me. I guess I could just smash normal-sized banana chips into pieces, but knowing my luck I`d end up with injured fingers and banana chips all over the kitchen floor…

I am Soooo excited! There`s so many things I want to create and so many old recipes I want to get back to! Expect some dehydrated recipes in the future! But, I have a question I`d like to ask my readers: Do you own a dehydrator or not?

Yet Again with the Sweets…

It`s about time that I tried to create a quick crunchy snack! Yes these are chocolatey (big surprise) but you can use butterscotch chips if you really want to avoid the chocolate. I love them because they`re SO quick to make!

~Chocolatey Crunchies~  Makes 12 snack bites  (vegan, potentially gluten-free)

Ingredients: 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter (not salted), 1 cup cereal (flakes, popped rice, etc)

Directions: Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or on the stovetop on low heat, then stir in the peanut butter. Take the pot off the heat and stir in cereal until well coated. If your cereal is on the plain side, add a drizzle of maple syrup to flavor it up. Drop by big spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and let chill in the fridge for at Least 15 minutes – Try to be patient! The longer you wait, the harder and crunchier your snacks will get.

The peanut butter flavor in these snacks is very subtle.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I was sad to have lost my CocoBana Muffins recipe that I had created a couple of years ago so I finally tried to recreate them. I made two batches and, while they were not bad, both failed.

The first batch I made here had chocolate chips and maybe a bit of sugar in them. The flavor was pretty good but the texture was not what I wanted at all, and this recipe differed too much from the original that was only sweetened with very ripe bananas. The second batch was very similar to my original recipe, but the quantities were messed up – argh! It wasn`t quite sweet and chocolatey enough, and the texture wasn`t as “soft“ as the originals. I`m kinda tired of this recipe that`s out of reach so it`ll be a while before I try again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We had some berry yogurt and a little bit of cream cheese that had to be used up pronto but, after all that frozen yogurt I made, I didn`t know what else I could make with it. Then Xavier shot me an awesome idea – Yogurt Cheesecake.

I found a yogurt recipe by Oikos but made a few changes, using the regular berry yogurt I had instead of plain or vanilla Greek yogurt, added the bit of cream cheese, added some flour to accomodate the extra liquid from the yogurt, added lemon juice and a little bit of sweet pomegranate sauce to my crust, as well as a bit of it swirled into my filling. I would have considered adding a topping but I had Nothing to use. While the texture was obviously a little different, the turnout was surprisingly delicious and I got excited – A new way to make cheesecake! Why had I never heard of this before?

I decided to make a second one, experimenting more away from the original recipe but keeping in mind the basic ingredients of a cheesecake, but the quantities were off. It didn`t help that the plain yogurt I was using was very sour. Still, the orange zest I added to my crust was a fantastic idea and accentuated with the lemon juice in the filling. Since I was making a yogurt cheesecake I though – Why not use yogurt as the binding ingredient in the crust as well? Pretty good idea, but I`ve yet to have a solid cheesecake crust recipe that`s healthy. I`m slowly working on that.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After making Linda McCartney`s Baked Rice Pudding earlier this month I was excited to make another rice pudding, but this time on the stovetop. It had to be quick and easy to make, vegan and void of white sugar so I decided to use rice milk and maple syrup. The rice milk was very old so I think that`s what gave the tiny strange aftertaste, but it was a really nice, creamy rice pudding. I added raisins but those were old too, and besides, I prefer my rice puddings plain (but with cinnamon of course!) so I decided to go without the second time. I finally came up with a recipe I`m happy with, so here it is! Let me know what you think.

~Maple Rice Pudding~  Serves 2-3  (vegan, gluten-free)

An easy-to-make thick `n` creamy rice pudding with a Canadian twist.

Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups water, 1/2 cup medium grain white rice, 1 1/4 cups plain rice milk, 3 tbsp maple syrup (add an extra tbsp if you want it sweeter but I like it the way it is), 1/4 tsp salt,  1/8 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 cup raisins (optional).

Directions: Boil the water. Once boiling, add the rice and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Add the rice milk, maple syrup, salt and cinnamon and simmer uncovered (cover it until it starts to almost boil again, then take cover off) until thick and creamy, about 15-20 minutes, stirring once in a while. Remove from heat and add the vanilla and raisins. Stir and pour into serving dishes. Sprinkle with cinnamon to garnish, let cool down 5 minutes and serve. If you plan on serving it later on you may want to add a bit more rice milk as you reheat it as it will thicken with time.

Happy Valentine`s Day!

Rawk `N` Heels at BelArome

My good friend Purna recently launched her business Rawk `N` Heels as a raw vegan coach for those in Montreal who are interested in changing and bettering their diets to their specific needs. She`s also working on an e-book dedicated to raw vegan desserts – I can`t wait to check it out when it comes out!

It`s kind of funny how I`m the one who got Purna into raw foods and whatnot but now I`m the one slacking behind and needing her to inspire me back into my old habits – And inspire me she did! During January and February she held 4 2-hour courses on desserts, smoothies and staying raw and warm during the winter months. Purna`s wonderfully motivating personality and her delicious meals and teas really inspired me to be serious about getting back to my old eating habits – and pursue my foodie dream.

It was a blast watching her teach me and the rest of the audience about raw foodism. What really brought it to a whole new level was her determination to include the audience in her meal preparations and conversations. Here she made some delicious breakfast with soaked buckwheat groats and orange juice.

Towering over some Rawk `N` Heels cards is a Smooth, Silky and Sexy Chocolate Pudding topped with hemp seeds and a slice or orange.

On top of spending some fun evenings at a raw vegan course, I got to meet the owner of BelArome – The little boutique that the courses took place in. Sheryl is a wonderful woman who makes delightful organic teas and lotions. Her boutique is filled with affordable, natural A-mazing teas (such as orange chocolate, ice wine, rooibos chai and almond fruit), lotions and aromatherapy products, various locally-made things such as soap and plates, and lately… Jewelry! My jewelry to be exact! I now have about 70 items for sale at her boutique, which can be found in NDG (6100 Monkland). I already know what`s going to happen – Whatever money I make from selling my jewelry will go into buying soaps and teas from there!

Back to Purna`s courses: Best of all was her Triple Love Threat: An amazing three-layer cold dessert made with walnuts, cocoa powder, strawberries and mint. I swear I think about it every day since the course she introduced that recipe to me. I HAD to make my own! Unfortunately I only had frozen raspberries which didn`t have the same wonderful effect, but it was still delicious! The mint leaves is what really makes it special though – I tend to add a small mint leaf to each bite for extra flavor and benefits =).

I`m really glad to see how she found a way to get rid of many of her health issues by eating a raw vegan diet and I`m glad she`s pursueing her dream. She`s the sweetest gal in the world so take the time to check out her new website and say hi!

From Frittata to Soup

Frittata! Frittata! I used to absolutely hate these things when I was a kid but now I love them! I love using mushrooms, potatoes and spinach in them, and croutons add a wonderful texture to them too. Here`s a new oven-baked frittata recipe I`m working on. It`s not finished – I find there`s a bit too much potato (or maybe it`s just grated too big so I notice the pieces too much) and I might want a bit more spinach in there but it`s really delish, quite pretty, and I got two thumbs up for it. Here ya go!:

~Potato Spianch Frittata~  Serves 2  (vegetarian, gluten-free)

Ingredients: 1/3 cup grated potato (peel optional), 1/2 cup lightly packed torn spinach, 2 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp minced mushrooms, 2 tbsp milk of choice, 2 tbsp freshly-grated parmesan (optional), 1/2 tsp packed pressed garlic, salt, pepper and dried herbs to taste. Other options: some diced tomato and fresh herbs.

Directions: Season grated potato with salt and whatever you`d like and saute it in a drizzle of oil on medium heat until it starts to brown. Transfer the potatoes to a small greased baking dish. Steam the spinach or cook it on the stove top and take them out once they start to wilt. Mix the spinach and other ingredients together and pour the mixture onto the potatoes. Bake at 300F(?) until done (sorry, I`ll have to figure out temp and time next time). Let cool a couple of minutes before cutting and serving.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I`ve made this recipe only twice and for someone else but apparently it`s absolutely amazing. The key to its success is cooking it on low heat over an extended period of time.

~Simple Cheese Omelette~  Serves 1  (vegetarian)

Ingredients: 3 beaten eggs, 3 tbsp milk or cream, grated cheese, ground black pepper and salt to taste, dried oregano and dried red pepper flakes (optional).

Directions: Grease a skillet and set on LOW heat (about 2 out of 9). Beat together the ingredients (minus the cheese) and pour into the heated pan. After a few minutes, sprinkle the grated cheese on one half of the omelette. When the omelette starts to take shape and starts to become flippable, fold in half, cook for another minute and serve.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Xavier had dumpstered some amazing whole wheat Italian-spiced pitas the other week so I thought this would be a great time to make my vegan chili again. There`s something realy special about a shared serve-yourself type supper where you can choose from a variety of ingredients to add to your dish =).

On the table I had the Italian pitas, the hot vegan chili, red bell peppers, freshly-grated parmesan cheese, lettuce, and some amazing tzatziki sauce, with celery and tomato juice. The tzatziki sauce is what made the pitas whole – It was an amazingly satisfying feast! I swear, I still drool thinking about it…

The tzatziki sauce is all thanks to Xavier (the chef at work =P – And yes, we have our washer and dryer in the kitchen which serves us as necessary counter space), who mixed plain yogurt with grated cucumber, Tuscan salt and pressed garlic. It takes just a couple of minutes to make.

Ingredients: Plain yogurt (Greek yogurt is preferable but not necessary), shredded cucumber (peeled is up to you), freshly pressed garlic and ground Tuscan salt (a mix of dried herbs and little cubes of sea salt).

Directions: Quantities are to your taste, but use about a 2inch length piece of a regular-sized cucumber for 2/3 cup yogurt, and make sure to squeeze excess juice out of the cucumber before adding it to the yogurt. Use about 1 big clove of pressed garlic and Tuscan salt to your taste. Mix and serve with veggies or spread into your pitas.

Lemon juice and dill are other ingredients you can add to your tzatziki sauce. You can also add a bit of fresh sliced garlic scape.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I`ve never been a soup person. It`s not that I don`t like soups. I just don`t really know how to make them! I figured it was about time I make one – Something really simple but tasty, filling and, during these cold months, really warming. I like to make variations of this soup every time and freeze small batches of them for when I need something warm and filling quickly.

~Thick Lentil Vegetable Soup~  Serves 2 (vegan, gluten-free)

It`s a pretty thick soup which is what I was going for, but you can add more water to thin it down to yoru taste.

Ingredients: 1 3/4 – 2 cups water, 1/4 cup dried green lentils, 1/2 cup sliced baby carrots, 1/4 cup sliced celery, 1/4 cup sliced onion, 1/8 cup (2 tbsp) rice/small pasta/soup noodles of choice, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 vegetable bouillon cube.

Directions: Boil the water. Sautee vegetables in a drizzle of oil on medium heat for about 5 minutes, to the point when they start browning. When the water starts boiling add all the ingredients to the pot, cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

I find orzo works great in this recipe, but whole grain spaghetti broken into small pieces works too. A nice variation to this is using 1 medium/big chopped tomato (including peel, juice & seeds) instead of the carrots (I had ran out…). This soup freezes alright.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Long ago I had made something I called “Cheesy Garlic Loaves“ – They were delicious vegetarian gluten-free mini loaves that I`d slice and serve with soup. A couple of years later I decided to give it a try again but with whole wheat flour and a few changes added to the mix, to make the recipe shorter and with more common ingredients. While the texture was wonderful and that of bread, the flavor was really lacking and barely tasted of cheese – I needed more cheese and the dried minced onion and dried parsley I had ommitted (dried parsley that smells good is rare!). It also only made 2 mini loaves instead of 3 – big difference. I think that the flavor of the whole wheat flour took over which is something I was afraid of so this is kind of a failure considering what I was trying to accomplish, but again, it made a lovely subtley-flavored mini bread. I guess I`ll post the recipe for those interested:

~Not-Really-But-Kinda Cheesy Garlic Mini Loaves~  Makes 2 mini loaves  (vegetarian)

Dry Ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/3 tsp dried herbs, 1/4 tsp salt. Wet Ingredients: 3/4 cup freshly-grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup milk of choice (I used plain rice milk), 1 beaten egg, 1 tbsp packed freshly pressed garlic.

Directions: Sift dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients together. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into 2 well-greased mini loaf pans and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan a couple of minutes before taking out and let cool on a cooling rack.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another kind-of failure was my newest vegan, gluten-free oats `n` lentil loaves. I took pointers on the old hemp one I had made which was delicious but just wouldn`t cook through – One of the two main problems I have with making lentil loaves. But damn, I just keep rushing into lentil loaf recipes without really thinking things through so of course the end result will be less than spectacular. Still… Isn`t it pretty!?

People always make their lentil loafs in big pans but I love making them with mini loaf pans because they make beautiful 1-person servings as a whole! Yeah I know, I can`t even make them cook through even when I use mini loaf pans… Maybe one day I`ll figure it out! That and whole-wheat, egg-free molasses cookies…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At least this turned out amazing! Xavier had got me some wonderful buckwheat soba noodles and my neighbor gave me a chunk of tofu she was going to lose so I made a delicious tofu `n` noodle celery dish.

I marinated the tofu in a soy sauce, garlic, onion, ginger marinade for a few hours and used the leftover sauce to flavor my buckwheat noodles. Besides the sauteed onions and garlic, the celery added a wonderul bite to this. I`ve never been a huge fan of celery in meals (especially celery salt!) but I`m finding ways to work with it!

Evil Wheat Crops!

I`d been eating quite a lot of wheat and dairy this winter, considering the things I was dumpstering and my financial status, but I wasn`t feeling that well. I developed an almost-constant stomache ache that would start and be strongest the moment I woke up. I couldn`t pinpoint the issue but decided to go gluten-free and dairy-free for a while. Three days in and I started eating a little bit of dairy here and there but I haven`t touched wheat in 1 1/2 weeks now and the stomache pains went away pretty much instantly. Crazy, isn`t it? I feel so much better. I`ve been eating a lot of oats, rice and buckwheat and coming up with all kinds of awesome recipes (granola/cereal, cookies and an amazing rice cornbread recipe to come soon!). Next up is Quinoa as I have lots of it but haven`t really experimented with it much.

As for Xavier, he often complains about his super bloated stomach. Considering his diet mostly consists of wheat (primarily pasta and bread, and primarily refined) and considering he used to drink a lot of alcohol, I suggested he take a break from wheat for a bit to see if that was the issue. Boy was that Not a fun experiment. Xavier couldn`t handle the transition and wasn`t inspired to do research and experiment with new recipes in the kitchen so he got grumpy. He gave up a couple of days later but there were results: He told me that his bloating had gone down after he went gluten-free and that it had come back after he started eating lots of wheat again. Well atleast we now know one of the issues.

Figuring out the reasons for bloated stomaches and ill health is major detective work – So many things are relevant; It`s not often just one thing in one`s life that causes distress – Food, stress levels, environment and pollution, genetics… When it comes to food, you`re either stuck with a food allergy/intolerance by no choice or you Develop it over time by eating the same highly refined, poor quality ingredient over and over every day in every meal. These are some of the ingredients that people are often allergic or intolerant to: wheat, peanuts, soy, dairy.

Entirely cutting out certain suspicious food from your diet for a week or so may help you better pinpoint some aches and bloating issues, and I find it`s a wonderful challenge that makes you come up with or find all kinds of wonderful new recipes! I will continue with my oat, rice, buckwheat and quinoa experiments on my path to mastering the simple gluten-free cooking way! And I will enjoy a happy stomach =)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I recently stumbled upon Alea`s gluten-free blog My Real Food Life and it`s simply amazing. She has a wonderful list on understanding gluten-free flours. All of her recipes are egg, dairy, corn, soy, garlic, peanut and shellfish free. Take a look for inspiring recipes and some useful gluten-free flour information!

1 Crepe for You, 2 Crepes for Me!

I know I`ve already posted the recipe for Whole Wheat Crepes but I thought I`d put it with the rest of my crepe recipes in this post devoted to them.

~Whole Wheat Crepes~  -  Makes 8-10 crepes, Serves 4

These are awesome thin, crispy crepes that have never failed me. I found the recipe in a lovely little book on crepes which I believe is called Crepes: Sweet & Savory Recipes for the Home Cook by Lou Seibert Pappas.

Ingredients: 1 cup milk of choice, 1/3 cup water, 2 large eggs, 2 tbsp butter or margarine of choice, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 2 tbsp dry sugar of choice, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, a pinch of salt, plus more butter or margarine for coating the pan between crepes.

Directions: Blend all ingredients in a blender until well combined (don`t over blend), then let rest in fridge for at least 1 hour. Grease and heat a pan on medium heat. Now the tricky part – Lift the pan from the heat while you pour your batter in (about 1/4 cup per crepe), and QUICKLY pour the batter in and QUICKLY swivel your pan in a circular motion to cover the whole surface. Let it cook for about a minute, then turn it and let it cook for about 15 seconds or so.

PS. Put liquid in the blender first, not the flour, or else you risk the chance of leaving clumps of unmixed flour in your batter…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As much as I love my whole wheat crepes, I wanted to have a healthier, gluten-free variety so I made some with buckwheat and some with oats. The buckwheat crepes turned out surprisingly great and, while not vegan like my old buckwheat crepe recipe, it`s much better than the original. The oat crepes turned out okay and a little sketchy.

~Wholesome Buckwheat Crepes~  Serves 2,  Makes 5-6 crepes  (gluten-free, dairy-free)

These fat-free, “milk“-free crepes are not only made 100% with buckwheat, but they use wholesome raw buckwheat groats instead of buckwheat flour, which often has a very strong flavor when not fresh. Soaking the groats before using them develops a lovely texture and a delicious, soft nutty taste. After blending you end up with a smooth batter. These crepes do not crisp up or become golden but they are very pliable.

Ingredients: 2/3 cup buckwheat groats (whole, raw, not toasted/kasha), 1/2 cup water (plus more if necessary), 1 egg, 2 tbsp maple syrup or brown sugar, 1 tsp ground flax seeds, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt.

Directions: Soak buckwheat groats in double the amount of water for 4 hours or overnight (you can get away with soaking them for at least 2 hours but they`re better after 4 hours of soaking). Rinse them once or twice during soaking if possible. When it comes time to using them, drain and rinse the buckwheat groats very well. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Preheat a greased skillet on medium heat or almost medium heat. Pour about 1/3 cup batches of crepe mixture in your skillet (do so with the skillet off the heat and swirl mixture around quickly to distribute, then stick it back on the hot stove). Cook for about 2 minutes then flip and cook other side until cooked. Flip a last time for a dozen seconds and serve hot.

You can make these vegan with ground flax seeds but the taste, texture and look will obviously all be compromised; It`s still not too bad though. Instead of the egg I use 2 tbsp ground flax seeds and 1 cup of water, and let the flax seeds soak for half an hour before using the mixture – I`m putting this experiment out there for those who are really in a bind. You can use this as inspiration to do your own experimentations, so let me know if you come up with a tasty, good-looking gluten-free crepe recipe not loaded with uncommon, expensive ingredients!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~Banana Oat Crepes~  Serves 2-3,  Makes 6-8 crepes  (gluten-free, dairy-free)

The banana is definitely what makes these crepes special. Making 100% oat crepes is very tricky and I`m still new at it – This recipe isn`t perfected yet but it`s still pretty good for what it is so here it is:

Ingredients: 1 cup oat flour (make your own with a blender using almost 1 1/3 cups quick oats), 1 cup milk of choice or water (I usually use rice milk), 1/2 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt.

Directions: Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and let stand for 15 minutes covered in the fridge. Heat a greased skillet on medium heat and pour 1/3 cup batches on the skillet, swirling the pan very quickly to distribute the batter. Cook until the bottom starts to turn golden and is easily flippable, about 3 minutes, then flip and cook other side until done to your preference. Garnish with maple syrup, berries, jam or mashed bananas as filling.

P.S. 1 cup of oat flour is made from about 1 1/2 cups quick oats. If you blend the batter and cook it right away without letting it stand for 15 minutes you will end up with very airey crepes, filled with bubbles, like the first Banana Oat Crepe pictured. I once tried letting it stand a whole hour but I found that they were very difficult to cook for some unknown reason. 15 minutes seems like a great middle and really isn`t that long to wait.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fill your crepes with whatever comes to mind. Jam, berries, mashed banana, melted chocolate and maple syrup make excellent fillings and toppings. As for a savory crepe, shredded cheese and steamed spinach is a classic.

For Xavier who loves margarine on his toast, brown sugar in his crepes and cinnamon in generally everything, I made a super easy spread for him – margarine with brown sugar and ground cinnamon. It was a hit.

Keep in mind, you don`t have to fill your crepes and top them with all kinds of things to enjoy them! Simply cooking them until they`re extra crispy and eating them as a crispy treat is fun, and lighter. You can even *gasp* make them into icecrem cones by cooking them on lower heat and, once well-enough cooked, rolling them into a cone and cooking them on even lower heat until crisp, but this takes practice and it would probably only work with the Whole Wheat Crepe recipe.

Frozen Yogurt Galore

As you all know I ended up with more yogurt than I knew what to do with, until I had the brilliant idea of making frozen yogurt and sherberts with them! This was going to be fun… and tasty.

Besides the banana avocado things I like to whip up, I`d never actually made frozen yogurt before so I did a bit of research. Thanks to that research I came across David Lebovitz – A cook of a man with wonderful recipes and a wonderful way of writing. He has several books published and I would love to get my hands on them – I really love his ideas (and pictures), but his personal text between his recipes are wonderful to read too – You should check it out for yourself.

Armed with a bit of information, I decided to jumble various recipe ideas up and start experimenting! I don`t have an icecream machine (and know that many of you don`t either) so I used a small food processor to get a smooth consistency. Using Greek yogurt was the way to go, but once I ran out of that I started using regular yogurt of all kinds. I tried various combinations of ingredients, usually heating frozen berries with sugar and coconut oil until melted, processing the liquid in the food processor, then adding the yogurt to the mix. I stuck it in the freezer and food processed it whenever it started getting harder and harder, until I thought it was good and done. I food processed them maybe 2-4 times depending on how it and I felt. I dedicated two whole and a half days to making frozen yogurt – Some of my experiments didn`t make the mark, but others were an explosive success.

And here is the winner: Tropical Frozen Yogurt. It is DIVINE and LOADED with flavor, and pretty simple to make. Everyone I`ve let taste my newest little teasure says it`s amazing. I hope you like coconut!

Ingredients: 2 cups thick coconut yogurt (I used Liberte`s Meditteranean coconut yogurt, which is similar to Greek yogurt), 1/2 cup mashed banana, 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 tbsp coconut oil.

Directions: In a small pot on low heat, mix mashed banana with sugar and coconut oil and heat just until dissolved – Do not boil. Let cool down for a couple of minutes. Transfer sweet liquid to a food processor and blend for a few seconds. Add coconut yogurt and blend until well combined, then transfer to a large-bottomed plastic container and let chill in the freezer. Once the mixture starts to get hard on the edges, maybe after 30 minutes (depending on your freezer), transfer back to the food processor and blend for a few seconds, then transfer back to the container and to the freezer. Repeat this a couple more times as the mixture becomes harder and harder, about 3-4 times in total. Once you process it for the last time, transfer it to a freezer container you would like to store it in, covered, and keep frozen. Let the mixture become hard again before serving (which will be 2-3 hours after you`ve started making it, but this really depends on your freezer), but keep in mind that it`s best eaten the next day as it`s had the time to really settle. Enjoy!

I wanted a pretty strawberry frozen yogurt so I used some strawberry Greek yogurt with frozen strawberries that I heated with sugar and processed together. I know coconut oil`s special characteristics and knew it would make fantastic frozen treats, but in this particular recipe I forgot to put it in with the sugar and decided to try blending it in my food processor in my cold, inprocess frozen yogurt, which was Not a good idea. All I ended up with was tiny little white balls spread throughout my frozen yogurt that were almost hard to the touch – or chew. Otherwise it was a very tasty treat. (Sorry for the bad photo)

One step up, I decided to make raspberry sherbert (but it still contained a little bit of greek yogurt) and a raspberry frozen yogurt. I mixed my recipes up so I won`t put up the recipe now until I figure out which one was best. But it was definitely flavorful, and a beautiful dark color to boot! It ended up softer than my tropical frozen yogurt though… and those damn seeds! Ugh! I hate having to deal with raspberry seeds…

And yet another raspberry experiment. While the flavor was pretty good, it was a little too sweet for me and it stayed soft in the freezer, not what I wanted. It`s not that the texture was bad, it`s just that I wanted icecream texture!

P.S. It was with this recipe, one of my last attempts, that I found out that Xavier had an icecream scoop hidden in the kitchen. I would have so loved to scoop my tropical frozen yogurt and dark raspberry sherbert with it! Alas, it will have to wait for the next time I make those again.

I was excited to experiment with my Meditterranean moka yogurt, especially by adding chocolate chunks to it but, while the texture was fabulous, the end result was too sour and not sweet enough.

I tried a second batch using vanilla yogurt and instant coffee granules, but I used too much coffee which gave a very strong (almost salty) flavor to the frozen yogurt. My fellow coffee-drinking friends seemed to realyl enjoy it but I was disappointed. It was a nice milk coffee color but it didn`t set at all – It also stayed soft even in the freezer, but this was like a non-thick smoothie. Oh well, at least I got to enjoy adding my chocolate!

Thanks to David I learned how to add chocolate chunks to my frozen yogurt: After processing it for the last time and letting it rest in the freezer for a bit, I melted some dark chocolate/chips and drizzled it on my frozen yogurt like so (try to avoid making big blobs) and set it back in the freezer. After a while, oh I dunno, about a dozen minutes, I took a spatula of some sorts and broke the chocolate swirls to pieces, mixed my frozen yogurt for a last time, and poured it into my storing conatiner. Now you too know how to add little chocolate chunks to your icecream!

Being a chocoholic, I couldn`t pass on trying to make chocolate frozen yogurt. Alas, the texture was incredibly smooth (unlike icecream but sooooo smooth) but the flavor was not – Chocolate and plain yogurt is very difficult to mix into a tasty treat. My end result was just too sour. Maybe one day when I can get my hands on some good quality cream, I`ll make some real chocolate icecream just so I can say I made my own chocolate icecream… Well, also so I can eat and enjoy it too of course.

I decided to make yogurt-less sherberts while I was at it. I made a raspberry sherbert with frozen raspberries, white sugar, coconut oil and a little bit of orange juice (I think?) and the end result was pretty good. The texture wasn`t quite where I wanted it to be and the flavor, while intense in raspberry flavor and color, wasn`t perfect either, but a nice recipe anyway. The next time I`ll make slight ingredient quantity changes and if the results improve, I`ll post the recipe.

After that I decided to make a tropical sherbert of orange and pineapple, using orange juice, frozen pineapple chunks, white sugar and coconut oil. The flavor at first was exotic and very strong (in a good way) but dwindled by the next day, when it turned into a powdery icy slush – A Very unpleasant feeling on the tongue. Oh well.

So yes, these use white sugar, but they`re a lot healthier than many icecream brands out there, and you can flavor them the way you want once you get the hang of it. When I can afford maple syrup more easily, I`ll use that instead of white sugar to give a rich-flavored frozen yogurt.

Xavier decided to join in on the fun and made a mango sherbert with his very, very, very ripe mango. Too ripe for my taste. He made it with white sugar and lime juice but, as you can see, it ended up with lots of ice crystals. Xavier then decided to back off and let me take over the sherbert and frozen yogurt making. But then… I ran out of yogurt! I guess I`ll have to wait for now and make something else in the meantime.

Save Your Potatoes! It`s Time for Gnocchi

I had never tasted gnocchi in my life before last month. Ever. What a discovery! Xavier introduced me to some commercially-bought potato gnocchi by sauteeing them on the stovetop – with no oil – and dressing them with tomato sauce and they were amazing. I eventually found out that his method is uncommon but definitely the only way I like to eat my gnocchi, after noticing what the texture is like otherwise. I hear people often have difficulty making good gnocchi because they often turn out rubbery, but sauteeing them transforms the texture to something scrumptious!

I decided to do some research on these little dumplings. Gnocchi is indeed something many people are scared of making, but it didn`t deter me. I found out that gnocchi are actually not only the little oval, indented, potato-induced pasta that I had tried – gnocchi comes in all forms (usually very simple and often unappealing looking) and are not always made with potatoes – I definitely wanted potatoes in mine.

Many recipes online suggested using 1 cup of mashed potato, 1 cup of flour and 1 egg, but other information that seemed to come from more experienced or traditional sources suggested using less flour. Many used eggs and said that while eggless is possible, it`s definitely more difficult to make.

I decided to go with 1 cup mashed potato, 2/3 cup flour, 2 tbsp whole wheat flour and 1 egg, plus more flour for dusting. (*I couldn`t find recipes for whole wheat gnocchi at first so I made them mostly with white flour, I just had to try!*). I first boiled the potatoes until soft, then peeled and mashed them and got the amonut I needed. Then I mixed them with the flour and eggs. I found the dough bland so I added 1/8 tsp of salt. With each handful of dough I dusted them and rolled them into thin long logs of about 1 cm thickness and sliced them into about 1 1/2 cm long pieces. (*Dust them whenever you need to, just try to use as little flour as possible, just enough so they`re not too sticky*). Then I took a fork and, with each gnocchi balancing on my finger, I made indents with the tongs, letting my finger make an indent on the other side, which I would then fold a bit more – Both sides would now be easily able to grab onto sauce.

Boiling them was fun, and quick! I simply boiled some salted water and dropped the gnocchi in (enough so they could all fit in one layer side by side with a bit of space between) and waited about 1 minute for them to surface. Once surfaced, I fished them out with a slotted spoon after about 15 seconds and placed them on a plate.

Once the dumplings were all boiled, it was time to sautee them! I simply placed the gnocchi on an ungreased frying pan and cooked them on medium heat until they started to get golden on both sides. The fork indentations leave nice little grill marks on them.

Okay I know it looks unappetizing but it`s AMAZING! I sauteed Lots of minced garlic and stuck it in my alfredo sauce which has a lot of freshly-grated parmesan cheese in it and doused my gnocchi in them. These gnocchi are good with tomato sauce but I find they`re superior with garlic-induced alfredo sauce. I love this recipe – It`s delicious to eat And fun to make, so I plan to make it regularly, but next time I`ll use only whole wheat flour as it`s extremely rare that I use white refined flour. It`d be interesting to see if I could make these with rice flour or something too!

So yeah, you don`t need to sautee your gnocchi if the texture is great after boiling. If not… You know what to do.