Surprisingly Easy Sponge Toffee Recipe–Dairy Free

One day my husband suggested we try to make sponge toffee (think the inside of a crunchie bar. Neither of us had much experience making candy and we expected the process to be difficult.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s easy and quick to make and dairy free to boot. It’s also a pretty impressive looking science experiment to do with the kids. The candy is too hot for little kids to help with during the reaction, but older kids will love helping and younger kids will still be impressed.

Sponge Toffee Recipe

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Grease and line a metal cake pan we used wax paper, but greased parchment paper is often recommended. (Do not be tempted to use a glass pan, you want something that has some bend to it).
2. Get your baking soda and vanilla ready.
3. Stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a 12 cup pot over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
4. Put in a candy thermometer. Do not stir while you wait for it to come to a boil.
5. When the temperature reaches 300F (hard crack stage) remove it from heat.
6. Quickly whisk in the baking soda. This will cause the mixture to bubble up (you’ll want your kids who are not actively helping to stay back – it’s hot!)
7. Whisk in the vanilla.
8. Immediately pour into the prepared pan. Let it cool in the pan for about 2 hours. The mixture may be kind of uneven on top but resist the urge to smooth it out, that will pop the air bubbles.
9. Break it into pieces and enjoy!

Dead Simple Suppers: Indian Spiced Beans and Spinach

I love the combination of beans and tomatoes. I especially love recipes like this one, where I can have all the ingredients I need just waiting in the cupboard (and freezer) for a day when I’ve forgotten to plan dinner. You can use this as the main dish by adding a bun or some rice to the side – it would also be nice on top of some pasta or couscous. Or you can make it a nutritious side dish instead and serve it with sausage or chicken.

Indian Spiced Beans and Spinach

(adapted from Rachel Ray Magazine)

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 large can of diced tomatoes (28 oz)
• 3 tsp ground coriander
• 1.5 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1 can of beans rinsed and drained (the original recipe called for chickpeas, I used navy beans)
• salt
• 1 package of chopped frozen spinach

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add chopped onion and cook for a few until slightly browned on the edges.
3. Add the spices, and tomatoes and frozen spinach. Cook until spinach is almost completely thawed. (If using chickpeas you can add them now too as they are more robust than navy beans).
4. Add beans and cook until heated through.

Dead Simple Supper: Salsa Pasta Salad

Now that I have two kids, I’m finding it even more difficult to get a healthy dinner on the table. When I’m sleep deprived, I lack both imagination and enthusiasm in the kitchen. On top of this both my kids are having problems with milk and many of my go to easy meals rely on cheese.To assist me in avoiding takeout and providing my family with nutritious meals without a lot of effort, I’ve decided to blog about some dead simple suppers to help give me inspiration while meal planning or (more likely) while trying to figure out what on earth we’re going to have for supper tonight.

Salsa Pasta Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 package of macaroni or other whole wheat noodles
• 1/4 of a small precooked ham cubed
• 2 bell peppers (any color) chopped
• 1 cucumber chopped
• handful of frozen peas
• Salsa

“Directions”

1. Cook pasta until al dente and cool under cold water.
2. Put in a large bowl along with vegetables and ham (the peas can go in frozen).
3. Add salsa just to coat and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve cold or room temperature.

If you're feeling more ambitious, try this pasta salad recipe from my friend Heather's blog. It's perfect for the summer when you're looking for something light that doesn't require a lot of cooking.

Construction Site Birthday Cake

 

My little boy is now three. Where did the time go? I wanted to make him a special cake, but I have no real cake decorating ability (or any patience to try acquire it). I a cake similar to this one in a picture on pinterest but unfortunately the photo didn’t link anywhere :( Gordie told me that the best part of his birthday was the machines from the cake. It was definitely a hit!

I used a basic butter cream icing with peanut butter but any kind would do. I put it on the cake before it had finished cooling so that’s why it’s a little bit melty.

I found the machines at Walmart, they’re Matchbox brand and were only a little over a dollar each.

I used skor bits, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.For the piles of dirt and rocks. I was thinking some kind of crushed up cookies or oreo crumbs would be great too.

Peanut Butter Banana Yogurt Pancakes

Our pancake kick continued, but the blueberries we used in our previous recipe didn’t last. So I thought I’d try a new modification. I love peanut butter and these pancakes are fantastic. A little skiff of peanut butter on top while they are still warm makes them even better. They’d also make an awesome peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Blueberry Banana Yogurt Pancake Recipe

(Adapted from Bed & Breakfast Inns Online)
1 Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Plain Yogurt (Balkan is nice)
1 Ripe Banana Mashed
2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
2. Add the peanut butter to the dry ingredients and mix well. It’ll have a crumbly texture when it’s done, but it will totally work.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs, add yogurt, melted butter and mash in the banana. You can do this by breaking it into pieces and then mashing it up with the whisk or you can mash them first. They need to be small but do not need to be completely mashed. If you hate mashing you could even just slice them thinly.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet (half the time I do this backwards, but this way you don’t have flour mixture stuck to the bottom). Mix just enough so that you no longer see any dry flour.
5. Cook the pancakes on a medium-high heat for about 2 minutes per side. If you haven’t cooked them before try doing a test pancake before making a whole bunch.

Blueberry Banana Yogurt Pancakes

I almost never make pancakes. I made some off hand comment that used the word pancakes (what on earth could that be? I cannot for the life of me figure out how you use the word pancakes without saying something like “let’s have pancakes”). Regardless, Gordie thought this was the best idea he had ever heard. I managed to get out of making pancakes for lunch but promised he could have them for dinner.

I put this together so I could feel like even though we were having pancakes for dinner, we were getting some decent nutrition too. Whole wheat pancakes always seem to be lacking something so I decided to add things to the pancakes instead. Plain yogurt, a banana and blueberries make these a lot more nutrient dense than your average pancake as well as sweet and moist.

Blueberry Banana Yogurt Pancake Recipe

(Adapted from Bed & Breakfast Inns Online)
1 Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Plain Yogurt (Balkan is nice)
1 Ripe Banana Mashed
2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
2 Handfuls of Blueberries

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, add yogurt, melted butter and mash in the banana. You can do this by breaking it into pieces and then mashing it up with the whisk or you can mash them first. They need to be small but do not need to be completely mashed. If you hate mashing you could even just slice them thinly.
3.Add the dry ingredients to the wet (half the time I do this backwards, but this way you don’t have flour mixture stuck to the bottom). Mix just enough so that you no longer see any dry flour.
4. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in.
5. Cook the pancakes on a medium-high heat for about 2 minutes per side. If you haven’t cooked them before try doing a test pancake before making a whole bunch.

Easy Roasted Beets

I starting making these when we had a community garden plot. I had planted things like beets and turnips that I read grown well in Siberia. I figured it they grew well there, I  shouldn’t have a problem. And it totally worked, they were awesome. This year, I tried a square foot garden and had no luck whatsoever with my beets or turnips. I’m not entirely sure why, but if you had more luck than I did, this recipe is great.

Simple Roasted Beets Recipe
Beets trimmed and washed
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground pepper
Aluminum foil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Line a baking tray and wrap each beet with aluminum foil.
3. Roast beets for approximately 40 minutes. Longer if you have big beets, less if you have small beets.
4. When the beets are cooked through, take them out of the oven. I recommend covering your hands when you work with the beets, gloves are good, but I hate now they make my hands smell so I usually just use two sandwich sized ziplock bags.
5. Peel the beets. If the beets have been cooked long enough, the skin should slide right off with your fingers.
6. Cut each beet in half and then slice into half moons. It looks pretty to have full circles but the beets can be pretty slippery. Halving them first can really save your fingers.
7. Put the beets into a bowl and toss with the olive oil, vinegar and pepper. If you think they need a bit more flavor, add more vinegar. You only need enough olive oil to coat and the pepper can get to be too much pretty quickly.

Note: Beets contain quite a lot of natural dye. When you eat them this goes through your body with predictable purple/red results. This is perfectly harmless but can look a little alarming if you are not prepared. :)

Chocolate Quinoa Cake: The Cake I Couldn’t Kill Even Though I Tried

I didn’t set out to try and kill this cake. I decided to make it for my birthday. People made fun of my when I made grilled angel food cake with balsamic vinegar, fresh pepper and cut up strawberry topping for Gordie’s first birthday cake  (he just ate the topping)  but I figured I’d get a free pass to try something different on my birthday. Which actually I did.
Somehow though even though I can usually follow a recipe, I managed to:

1. not let the Quinoa cool before I tried to put it in the food processor with the wet ingredients.
   
2. not let the Quinoa/wet ingredient mixture cool before i mixed it with the dry ingredients (even though I had noticed that I should have let it cool already)
   
3. Put the cake in the oven and then remember that I had read the word butter, but had not in fact touched any butter.
   
4. Took the two cake pans out of the oven (after only 4 or 5 minutes) and poured in  75% canola 25% melted butter into the two pans and stirred it around a little bit.

I had also managed to mess up my icing by putting in the food processor instead of using my hand mixer and then adding way to much milk. This predictably made it a lot soupier than I had intended. I have no idea what possessed me. But let’s face it, it’s basically sugar and butter, it still tasted good.

The cake was more of a surprise. Although a chunk of it did break off when I took it out of the pan and tried to peel the parchment paper off, it was delicious. I almost gave up on it after I made so many mistakes, but clearly this is a robust recipe which can take a bit of abuse. It’s definitely a dense cake rather than fluffy, but it is moist and no one could guess it was Quinoa if they didn’t already know. And it is super chocolaty tasting.
I would definitely make it again and honestly, wouldn’t even bother with the icing.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake Recipe

(adapted from Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood)

• 2/3 cup quinoa (I didn’t rinse mine but they recommend it)
  
• 1 1/3 cup water
  
• 1/3 cup milk
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 3/4 cup butter melted and cooled (oh, oops again)
  
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
  
• 1 cup cocoa powder
  
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Bring Quinoa and water to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan. Cover, reduce temperature to low and cook for 10 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it sit for another 10 minutes with the lid on. (I don’t find a difference between leaving it on the burner with the heat off and just taking it off the heat). Or you can just cook the Quinoa according to the package instructions.
   
2. Next, take the lid off and fluff with a fork. Let the Quinoa cool. And by that I mean actually get to room temperature instead of leaving it for 30 seconds and moving on to the next step like I did.
   
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two 8 inch square or round cake pans with parchment paper. (I ended up using 8x8 square pan and a large loaf pan, so you can probably use what you like just make sure you do a good toothpick test).
   
4. Combine the milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor. Add the butter and two cups of cooked Quinoa (I definitely did not measure this, I just used what all of what was cooked, it should be right anyway) and blend until smooth. (you could still see a lot of the individual quinoa when I stopped blending, but it wasn’t getting any smoother and was at least consistent in texture).
   
5. Mix the dry ingredients (sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add the wet ingredient/Quinoa mixture and mix well.
   
6. Divide into your two pans and bake on the centre rack of your oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
   
7. Let the cake cool completely before serving.
   
8. Store amazingly well in a sealed container in the fridge. Honestly the leftovers were just about as good as fresh. You can also freeze it but I haven’t tried that myself.

BBQ Chicken Enchiladas

I decided to try out this Enchilada recipe from Feels Like Home for my brother’s birthday dinner. I’m pretty sure the best time to try out a new recipe is at a special occasion for a bunch of people right? Normally we would get take out, but we still haven’t found a chinese food place we like in our neighbourhood and half the family finds Indian too spicy. At the last minute I decided I’d just make these Enchiladas.  Ill-advised or not, it was awesome.

I dialled back the spices from the original recipe to accommodate our family heat wimps. They found it to be spicy but at a level they (and Gordie) could easily handle. If you are looking for something spicy, you’ll want to amp up the spices, but it’s nice and flavorful (if not hot) as written below).

I made my own Enchilada sauce which allows me to control the level of spice and fat but you could easily use the bottled stuff instead.

Enchilada Sauce Recipe
(adapted from Feels Like Home)

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1.5 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 16-oz can tomato sauce
• chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• salt

1. Add the oil to a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, stir in the flour and chili powder. Use a whisk (this will help prevent lumps in your sauce) to stir constantly under it starts to brown (a minute or two)
2. Continue to stir as you add the remaining ingredients. Cook until sauce begins to thicken – about 10 minutes. If you are wanting to speed things up you can bring the sauce to a boil for a minute or two and the sauce will thicken a bit quicker.

BBQ Enchilada Recipe
(adapted from Feels Like Home)

• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce (plus 2 tbsp) (I used Kraft original)
• meat from 1 roasted chicken or 1.5 pounds of boneless chicken, cooked and shredded
• 1 medium  onion, chopped
• 2 cup of shredded cheese 
• 8 whole wheat tortillas (I have also managed 10, but 8 is more reasonable)

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Add the BBQ sauce to the enchilada sauce and stir.
3. Add a little oil to a second pan and saute the chopped onion until it softens. Add the chicken, and a couple tablespoons of the BBQ sauce. Cook for a couple more minutes and then add 1/2 a cup of the enchilada sauce and 1 cup of the shredded cheese. Mix well and cook until the cheese is melted.
4. Add a layer of the enchilada sauce to a 9x13 baking dish.
5. Add a big scoop of the chicken mixture to a tortilla, and roll it. Place it in the baking dish seam side down. Continue until all your tortillas have been filled. If you are running out of space it is totally okay to squish your tortillas together so you can fit more in.
6. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas and top with the last cup of cheese.  
7. Bake for about 25 minutes. The cheese and sauce should be hot and bubbly.

So, Did They Eat It?

This was a huge hit. I served this with a fried rice and a black bean salad to 11 people. I cut each of the enchiladas in half so it was easier for people to take just how much they wanted. Everyone from my toddler to my grandparents and my spice sensitive inlaws  enjoyed it. The BBQ sauce really helps give it some extra flavor without the extra heat. I will be making this again for sure, although I may add some extra chili powder if it’s just for us.

Broccoli and Cheese Pizza

I found the inspiration for this recipe on Healthy Happy Life a vegan food blog. I seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time on vegan food blogs for someone is not even remotely vegan in my eating habits.

Gordie has been a little suspicious of green food lately (except edamame which he loves), so he was not particularly impressed by this choice. But I think it might lure in some reluctant broccoli eaters.

Broccoli and Cheese Pizza Recipe

• broccoli
• shredded cheese
• cream cheese (regular or any kind of savoury flavoring)
• olive oil
• garlic
• whole wheat pitas

I used whole wheat pitas for the ‘dough’ and that worked well, but I think I would probably blanch the broccoli quickly in the microwave if I was doing it again just so they were cooked a little bit extra. This wouldn’t be a problem if you were using base that wasn’t quite so thin.

Directions
1. Spread a thin layer of olive oil on the pita. Add thin slices of garlic. I used about a clove per pita.
2. Add thin slices of broccoli. For mine I used the whole ‘tree’ but for Gordie’s I used little bits of the florets (pictured on the right).
3. Add little splotches of cream cheese (about 1 tbsp total) around the pita.
4. Top with shredded cheese.
5. Bake for about 5 minutes. I used the toaster oven so I did 3 minutes on bake and 2 on broil. Basically your goal is to melt the cheese without burning the pita too much.

I used sundried tomato cream cheese which was nice, but I really think any would be fine.

I really enjoyed these and will definitely make them again. I wouldn’t skip the cream cheese though. I tried one without it and it just needed a little something extra.

Sometimes Food Tastes Like Love: Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Pitas

You may have noticed that I don’t make a lot of desserts. I actually didn’t make this one either. I was having a nap after putting Gordie to bed and when I woke up my husband had made this for us and even took pictures so I could blog about it. And if that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Pita Recipe

• 2 whole wheat pitas
• 1 handful of mini marshmellows
• 1 small handful of chocolate chips
• 2 (ish) tbsp of peanut butter
  

Directions

1. Spread peanut butter down the centre of the pitas. Top with marshmallows and chocolate chips.
2. Fold the pitas over and grill for about 5 minutes in your indoor grill. Alternatively you could bake them in the oven or cook them in a non-stick frying pan. The insides should be melty and squishy when ready.

 

 

These were really sweet and really messy. A nice quick treat that would be great to make with the kids too.

Chocolate Hazelnut Hummus

Hazelnut butter is the only nut butter that I’ve tried that might give peanut butter a run for it’s money. It’s just so good. So it was almost inevitable that my hummus experimentation would end with Nutella inspired hazelnut hummus. It was way better than the peanut butter hummus. I ended up leaving it a little chunkier than I usually do with hummus which gave it a really nutty feel. I ate the whole batch with apples for dipping (over a few days of course!) And I didn’t even share. Yes, it is that good.

Hazelnut butter is not as easy to find as peanut butter or even almond butter. In the superstore by my house you can find it in the aisle with the organic food, soy, and gluten free products. Not in the peanut butter and jam aisle.

Chocolate Hazelnut Hummus Recipe
1 can (16 oz) Chickpeas ; rinsed and drained
4 Tbsp Hazelnut butter or 2 TBSP hazelnut butter and 2 Tbsp peanut butter (I just used a big spoon – more if desired)
1/2 teaspoon Sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 Tbsp maple syrup (you can adjust this to taste (2-8 Tbsp)
1/2- 3/4 cup Water (depending on the texture desired)

Cooking with the Kids
The kids can:

• Measure and pour the ingredients
• Rinse the chickpeas and put them in the food processor
• Run the food processor (with supervision)

Directions 1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. 2. Add all the ingredients to the food processor (you can use a blender, but it’s not really  not as effective. I have tried and don’t recommend it. I ended up buying a food processor so I could make hummus). 3. Run the food processor until the hummus starts to appear to bounce up and down (this won’t take a really long time) . Alternatively just check it every 10 seconds or so. You’ll want to scrape off the sides of the food processor because I find some chickpeas tend to stick to the sides and then give it another quick blend. If you are finding it’s not as well mixed or creamy as you would like just add another 1/4 cup of water.

Serving Ideas With apple slices, as a sandwich spread, sauce on a dessert pizza, on crackers, with pita

Cinnamon Raisin No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

Ever since I  first posted about No-Knead Bread I’ve been thinking about what kinds of variations I could try. Cinnamon raisin was first on my list. I love raisin bread, but I hate that you can just about never get it on whole wheat bread. So I gave it a go and it is awesome. Seriously I just want to eat this all day. Gordie loves all the bread I’ve made so more. He asks for Mommy’s bread all the time.

This recipe and directions are almost identical to my Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread Recipe. There is the obvious additions of raisins and cinnamon, a slight increase in the amount of yeast because cinnamon inhibits yeast production and a little extra water.

Note: you will need an oven proof dish with a heavy lid to make this -  Dutch ovens are perfect for this but other oven proof dishes like casserole dishes can work too.

Cinnamon Raisin Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
(Adapted from Calgarian Julie Van Rosendaal’s take on Jim Lahey’s no knead bread method on babble.com)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup raisins

1/2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups water (this is more than the standard recipe because whole wheat flour is thirstier than refined flour and it’s even more than my regular whole wheat flour recipe because the raisins soak up some of the water)

wheat bran, cornmeal or additional flour for dusting (wheat bran worked really well)

(I use Robin Hood – Best for Bread Flour which works well as it is high in protein as most Canadian flours are which is necessary for making good bread)

Directions

This looks like a lot of steps but is really very little work and not very hard. Check out this youtube video where Jim Lahey demonstrates the process.

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl stir the flour, yeast, salt and cinnamon together with your hands. Then add the raisins.
2. Add 2 cups of the water. Mix the dough and water together with your hands until you can no longer see dry flour. You can run your hands under the tap to wet them if you are worried about the dough sticking to them, but it’s not really necessary.
3. Check your dough, it should look wet but the flour should absorb all the water. You couldn’t knead this dough if you wanted too. If your dough still looks dry add a little at a time and mix until it looks wet. I found 2 1/2 cups of water to be perfect.  Don’t stress out too much about it though, I’ve made it both too dry and too wet and the bread still turned out fine. It was just a little dense when it was too dry and it was harder to move when it was too wet.
4. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave it on the counter for 12-24 hours. Whenever it is convenient for you. The dough should have risen noticeably and you’ll probably see some little bubbles at the top.
5. When you are ready sprinkle wheat bran, flour or corn meal on the top of the dough as well as on a large tea towel.
6. Use a spatula to loosen the dough from the bowl and drop it onto one side of the tea towel. Fold the dough over on itself a few times and then sprinkle the flour (or whatever) on the top.
7. Roll the dough onto the other side of the tea towel and coat the other side with flour (or whatever) again. Fold the tea towel over the top of the dough ball and leave it out for 1-2 hours. (Don’t leave it on the stove it will get all sticky and attach itself to the tea towel when you are preheating the stove – trust me).
8. In the last half hour preheat the stove to 450F with your oven safe heavy lidded pot inside to make sure it’s nice and hot.
9. Take the pot out of the oven and dust the inside with flour, this will help keep the raisins from sticking and burning to the bottom (or whatever). Roll the dough into the hot pot, place the lid on and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes. Then, take the lid off and bake for 15 more minutes.
10. For best results, let the loaf cool before eating, but if you really want warm bread, you can cut it right away and it’s still really good.

I’m sure this would be lovely with some butter or cinnamon cream cheese,  but I eat it straight up.

Chicken and Banana Fried Rice Recipe.

I’m finding myself attracted to recipes that seem like they just shouldn’t work. (From trusted sources) so when I read about this meal in Every Day With Rachel Ray Magazine I just had to try it. I’ve never thought about adding bananas to a savoury dish before and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. It actually turned out really well.

Although it is not the most photogenic dish because everything is a little beige and I ran out of green onions because the original recipe called for 3/4 of a cup of whites AND 3/4 of a cup of greens so I didn’t have any left to sprinkle on top, it was good.

I’m going to add it to my recipe box as I’ll definitely make it again. The bananas were still fairly firm and added a bit of sweetness. The overall taste was a bit onion-y but in a pleasant way and the peanuts added a perfect amount of crunch. I think this would be a great dish to try out with kids who are reluctant to try new things. None of the ingredients are too weird but the combination is very unusual.

Note: You need to use rice that has been cooked and cooled so keep that in mind when you are making your plans.

Banana and Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
(adapted from Every Day With Rachel Ray Magazine)

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 bananas
• 3/4 lb cooked chicken breast (cubed or thinly sliced)
• Salt and pepper
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced shallot
• 2 finely chopped serrano chiles (or a squirt of Sriracha) 
• 3 cups cooked and cooled brown basmati rice
• 1 bunch thinly sliced scallion greens
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• Chopped salted peanuts

Directions
1. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium-high heat.
2.  Cut the bananas in half lengthwise and lay them cut side on in the hot pan. Cook until golden 2-3 minutes. Remove them from the pan and cut them into bite sized pieces.
3. Wipe of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan. Add the shallot and cook for a few minutes until softened and slightly golden. Add the serrano chilies and cook for another minute.
4. Add the rice and chicken and bring the heat back up to high. Cook for about 3 minutes to toast the rice and heat the chicken. Stir occasionally.
5. Remove from heat and add the bananas and soy sauce to the pan. Stir gently. Top with the scallion greens and peanuts.

So, did they eat it?

This ended up being a hit with everyone at our house. It’s really pretty similar to typical fried rice, so if you like that, you’d probably like this too.

Cranberry Turkey Burgers

One of the problems with turkey burgers is that they can just be so dry and tasteless. These burgers compensate with the addition of spices, dried cranberries, parsley and green onions. My husband’s uncle served cranberry turkey burgers one year after Christmas. We liked them so much we tried to replicate them at home and this is what we came up with. Since then it’s become a family favorite and we’ve made it again and again.

Cranberry Turkey Burger Recipe

1 pound Ground turkey
1/4 cup Dried cranberries chopped
1 green onion (scallion) chopped, finely
1 TBSP chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1/4 teaspoon Ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon Basil dried
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions

You can cook these like any other burger but it’s generally recommended that they are cooked at a slightly lower heat for a longer time to ensure that they inside reaches the correct temperature.

Topping Ideas

Mayo, mango chutney, cranberry sauce, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, avocado. (but not all at once!)

Almond Zucchini Sauté–Tired Mom Side Dish

I often seem to either make either a good side dish or a good meal but not both when I’m making supper. So I’m always on the lookout for quick, easy and healthy side dishes that I can manage to make in addition to whatever else I’m making for supper. When I saw this zucchini dish at Smitten Kitchen I knew I’d found a winner.

Almond Zucchini Sauté Recipe

• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1 small handful of sliced almonds
• 1 normal sized zucchini (cut into sticks, you can cut them smaller than I’ve done above, I just don’t have the machinery or the patience)

optional: salt, pepper, parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the almonds and sauté for a couple minutes until they are browned.
2. Add the zucchini and cook for about a minute just until the zucchini is heated.
3. Add a little salt and pepper and parmesan if you want. It’s really good with them, but I often forget and it’s still good.

Per 1/2 of the almond and zucchini sauté: Calories – 131, Carbs – 6g, Fat – 12g, Protein 5, Fibre – 3.

No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

I’ve started baking my own bread. I made my first loaf on March 25. It’s now 11 days later and I have made 6 loaves of bread so far. I feel like some kind of supermom. But it’s so quick, easy and flexible that no superpowers are actually necessary. Seriously, I am at best an amateur cook, I rarely bake and never anything with dough - if I can make this, so can you. The only catch is you need a oven proof dish with a heavy lid. Dutch ovens are perfect for this. I managed to get one at Costco this fall for only $50 so that’s what I’ve been using but there are other things that can work like casserole dishes if you want to give it a try.

I’ve also made a number of mistakes that I’ve learned from that I’ll share as well. Amazingly despite the mistakes every loaf I’ve made has still turned out. This recipe is really resilient.

Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread Recipe
(Adapted from Calgarian Julie Van Rosendaal’s take on Jim Lahey’s no knead bread method on babble.com)

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 cups water (this is more than the standard recipe because whole wheat flour is thirstier than refined flour)

(I use Robin Hood – Best for Bread Flour which works well as it is high in protein as most Canadian flours are which is necessary for making good bread)

This looks like a lot of steps but is really very little work and not very hard. Check out this youtube video where Jim Lahey demonstrates the process.

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl stir the flour, yeast and salt together with your hands.
2. Add 2 cups of the water. Mix the dough and water together with your hands until you can no longer see dry flour. You can run your hands under the tap to wet them if you are worried about the dough sticking to them, but it’s not really necessary.
3. Check your dough, it should look wet but the flour should absorb all the water.You couldn’t knead this dough if you wanted too. If your dough still looks dry add a little at a time and mix until it looks wet. I found 2 1/4 cups of water to be perfect.  Don’t stress out too much about it though, I’ve made it both too dry and too wet and the bread still turned out fine. It was just a little dense when it was too dry and it was harder to move when it was too wet.
4. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave it on the counter for 12-24 hours. Whenever it is convenient for you. The dough should have risen noticeably and you’ll probably see some little bubbles at the top.
5. When you are ready sprinkle wheat bran, flour or corn meal on the top of the dough as well as on a large tea towel.
6. Use a spatula to loosen the dough from the bowl and drop it onto one side of the tea towel. Fold the dough over on itself a few times and then sprinkle the flour (or whatever) on the top.
7. Roll the dough onto the other side of the tea towel and coat the other side with flour (or whatever) again. Fold the tea towel over the top of the dough ball and leave it out for 1-2 hours. (Don’t leave it on the stove it will get all sticky and attach itself to the tea towel when you are preheating the stove – trust me).
8. In the last half hour preheat the stove to 450F with your oven safe pot inside to make sure it’s nice and hot.
9. Take the pot out of the oven and dust the inside with flour (or whatever). Roll the dough into the hot pot, place the lid on and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes. Then, take the lid off and bake for 15 more minutes.
10. For best results, let the loaf cool before eating, but if you really want warm bread, you can cut it right away and it’s still really good.

Making Muffins– Whole Wheat Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins

I don’t bake very often. I like baking. In fact it used to be one of my favorite things to do when I was stressed. But I found that stress eating and stress baking were going hand in hand. So I decided that perhaps I should try different ways to manage my stress and bake a little less. It didn’t hurt that around the same time the oven at our rental unit was broken (I could use the stove and broil things, but not bake) so I couldn’t bake even if I wanted to.

Baking can be so great to do with kids though. You don’t tend to need much in the way of sharp implements and the heat is all at the end. I love ginger and I had some left over canned pumpkin from the holidays so when I found this recipe from the food blog Simply Recipes, I was sure I had found a winner.

Gordie loved them! I made them into mini-muffins because they are easier for little hands to hold.  The pumpkin provides some good nutrients, but I wanted to see if they’d still be good if I used whole wheat flour. They weren’t quite as light as the white flour ones (or as pretty) but they were good and Gordie loved them just as much.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Ginger Nut Mini-muffin Recipe

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin pure
1/3 cup melted butter
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger (I like them roughly chopped but most kids will probably like them better if they’re pretty finely chopped).

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, spices) in a large bowl.
3. Beat eggs in a bowl and then add the wet ingredients (pumpkin, melted butter, water).
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a fork. (I love how recipes say “do not over-mix” without over explaining what that means. I try to stop right after there isn’t any visible dry flour).
5. Spoon into the mini-muffin cups (using my non-stick muffin tray I find it’s actually better not to grease the pan) and bake for 17-22 minutes. Test a muffin with a toothpick. If it does not come out clean, bake for a couple more minutes and retest.
6. Makes about 24 mini-muffins.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hummus

After making peanut butter hummus I started to wonder if you could make a sweet hummus dish instead of the traditional savory hummus. A peek around the internet proved that this was indeed possible so I decided to give it a try. Now some of the sites I visited suggested that this could be an actual dessert. I’m still not sold on that. What I made would not really be good as an ice cream topping for instance, and if I were to add enough sugar and fat to make it that way, I’d rather just go for broke and use caramel sauce.

Instead I would suggest using it as a Nutella alternative. Or as a way to try to get your kids to try beans. Sort of a gate way food for beans.  Overall, it wasn’t bad, people who tried it generally liked it, but I don’t think I’m going to have to make a new batch every week.

I’ve give a wide range for the maple syrup because it’s so easy to adjust to taste as you can just add more in and pulse the food processor for a few more seconds. We found that the cocoa came out more with less maple syrup, but it is definitely sweeter with more.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hummus Recipe
1 can (16 oz) Chickpeas ; rinsed and drained
4 Tbsp Peanut Butter (I just used a big spoon – more if desired)
1/2 teaspoon Sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2-8 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup Water (more if needed)


Cooking with the Kids
The kids can:

• Measure and pour the ingredients
• Rinse the chickpeas and put them in the food processor
• Run the food processor (with supervision)
  

Directions 1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. 2. Add all the ingredients to the food processor (you can use a blender, but it’s not really  not as effective. I have tried and don’t recommend it. I ended up buying a food processor so I could make hummus). 3. Run the food processor until the hummus starts to appear to bounce up and down (this won’t take a really long time) . Alternatively just check it every 10 seconds or so. You’ll want to scrape off the sides of the food processor because I find some chickpeas tend to stick to the sides and then give it another quick blend. If you are finding it’s not as well mixed or creamy as you would like just add another 1/4 cup of water.

Serving Ideas With apple slices, as a sandwich spread, sauce on a dessert pizza, on crackers, with pita

Lentils and Ground Beef–Tired Mom Meal

Today I had a truly terrible sleep. My special needs brother had insomnia in addition to being agitated and anxious. This is not a winning combination. He tossed and turned and complained all night waking me up along with him.

Despite this bad start I was still going to go ahead with my plans to make cranberry turkey burgers. All I’d have to do was a little chopping and I was basically good to go. But the turkey was still really frozen. I seriously considered getting my husband bring home take out. I was just done.

Then I remembered Lentils and Ground Beef. My mother-in-law made it for my husband while he was growing up, but I had never had it before he introduced me to it. Now I make it fairly frequently. If you have cooked ground beef in the freezer, it couldn’t be easier. It’s not the most attractive dish, but it’s simple, quick and high in fibre, protein and iron.

Lentils and Ground Beef Recipe
1 can lentils
.5-1 lb of cooked ground beef. (really any amount is fine)

Directions
1. Defrost the ground beef in the freezer (or cook and drain it in a pan).
2. Add the can of lentils with the liquid and the defrosted ground beef to a pan.
3. Cook on a low heat until there is no longer liquid in the bottom of the pan. If you need it quicker you can use a higher heat, but you’ll need to watch it and stir it more often.
4. When it’s done, put the heat down to the lowest setting and it will be ready when you are.

Serve it with a salad, in a wrap, with a side of bread or some onion rings. I usually just eat it out of a bowl by itself.

Per 1/4 of the lentils and ground beef (1 lb 80% lean ground beef): Calories – 368, Carbs – 29g, Fat – 14g, Protein 31, Fibre – 7.