hot for food

Now that summer has hit, I am less hungry! I know, me, not hungry?! Worst thing ever. So my blogging / cooking has been less frequent and perhaps not as inventive. I want it easy and light. But I’ve got into the habit of making the same things over again… already! I need some more inspiration. Anyone?!

Anyway, this is what’s been cooking in my kitchen over the last week or so. Perfect summer recipes to make for yourself or take to the next summer BBQ/party.

A new take on couscous. Similar to the Orange Scented Couscous of the past but with a few new and different tastes. This Orange-Infused Couscous Salad has been modified from the  Early Summer Ed. of LCBO’s Food & Drink mag. It called for chicken, but of course I did it without. It’s a nice, refreshing summery salad that results in left overs!

Ingredients:
1 cup OJ
1/2 cup veggie stock
1 shallot chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
3-4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 1/4 cup couscous
1 red and orange pepper sliced
2 green onions sliced
1/4 cup fresh mint chopped
1/4 cup dried apricots
1 tbsp OJ
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
6 cups baby arugula
salt & pepper

Saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes (or until fragrant) in the same pot you will want to boil and cook your couscous. Add OJ, stock, and fresh thyme (removed from stem) to the onions and garlic and bring to a boil. Add couscous and remove from heat, cover and set aside for liquid to absorb. This could be made ahead of time and you could complete the rest of the recipe right before serving. Add in peppers, apricots, mint, and green onions. Whisk together a dressing of OJ, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour half over couscous and toss until combined. Reserve remaining dressing to lightly toss the arugula leave in. Arrange arugula on plate first and serve warm couscous on top.

Hot, steamy, cheesy spinach and artichoke dip used to be one of my fave things. Now that I have eliminated cheese, and better yet, don’t even want to eat it, I made a yummy warm butter bean and artichoke dip with home made pita chips instead. It’s sort of like a hummus, but richer in flavor. I think heating it thoroughly in the oven helped with that. I kind of made this up on the spot so the recipe may not be exact. Tasting it as you go is the best way to make it – so it tastes the way you want!

Ingredients:
1 can butter beans (lima beans)
1 can artichoke hearts, drained
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp paprika
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp white miso paste
4 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

In a food processor combine all ingredients and process. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mix at the end. Baking it at 350 F for approx. 15-20 minutes or until heated through is optional. I also topped it with some homemade vegan parmesan before baking.

I have never used dates in any recipe ever before. I’ve never eaten dates either, except for this one time when I sampled a date almond roll at the grocery store. And I thought… I could make these, why would I buy these expensive things?  It literally was just pureed dates rolled in ground almonds. Well this incident stuck with me. I’ve also been reading a lot of recipes containing dates since they seem to be quite a nutritious staple to raw and vegan treats. Typically I just see recipes calling for Medjool dates. But I found some honey dates and figured they would work the same. I wanted to make something sweet but healthier and more granola bar-like than my Chocolate Salty Balls. Well these balls are amazing too!

Choconut Date Balls

1 1/2 cup pitted honey dates
2 cup raw whole almonds
2 tbsp tahini
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup granola (optional)

I ran dates with tahini and cacao in the food processor than emptied it into a mixing bowl. I ground the almonds in the food processor by themselves until they were a fine crumble. Then I used my hands to mix the almonds with the date puree and added in the coconut and granola. The granola adds a nice crunch. And I had some vegan friendly pumpkin hemp seed granola lying around so I decided to use it up. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and refrigerate. Makes 30 balls.

They make a great snack, breakfast accompaniment, or pre-workout nosh. And I’m going to need to make more, fast, because they’re disappearing!

I love phyllo dough. Everyone gripes about what a pain it is to handle, but the beauty of it is it doesn’t have to be perfect and no one can see your mistakes anyway! I still had about half the package left from making my cheezy spinach pies so I decided to concoct a phyllo pocket stuffed with mushroom, kale, and roasted red pepper.

I’ve never really dealt with kale before or eaten it much unless it was at a restaurant. But I found it already nicely chopped in the frozen section! And just so you know, there’s nothing wrong with frozen veggies. So long as there’s nothing else frozen with them… cheese sauce etc.

This was pretty easy. I roasted the red pepper, peeled, and chopped it up. Sauteed white mushrooms with onion and olive oil until all the liquid was gone. Tossed in the frozen kale at the last minute. Once it was removed from the heat I mixed everything together with some fresh parsley, salt and pepper, and added in some leftover alfredo sauce from my first mac and cheeze attempt. I think it’s a good creamy, cheezy sauce to have on hand! For the phyllo I just used 2 full sheets layered with olive oil and used  half of one whole sheet to make one pocket. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until crispy and slightly  brown on the edges. And that is much hotter pocket then those frozen things you buy in a box!

Granola bars are one of my favorite things to eat. But back in the day, I was deluded into thinking that a granola bar was a healthier snack option than something like a chocolate bar. It can be, but if you’re buying packaged granola bars … STOP! It’s a processed food, there’s so many other additives in them (just read the ingredients), usually an outrageous amount of salt & sugar, and even the ones that look healthy on the box or make claims that they are “natural”, are not! There was even a time where I would eat a Clif bar or Luna bar, but those even have a long strange list of ingredients and they kind of taste metallicky, no?!

But I recently discovered the Mbar (vegan bar) by Goddess Gourmet – a Toronto based company. They’re good, and really all natural, organic, vegan, and raw. There’s a variety of flavors and only 8 or so ingredients, and I know what they all are! However, if you were buying these all the time it would get rather expensive. So what you should be doing is making your own bars. I’ve been making my own for a while now and it’s been the best thing ever, plus it’s so much cheaper! These ones here have the addition of molasses and fresh ginger, since being inspired by the ingredients in my Mbar! But I think my bars are much better then Mbar… sorry Gourmet Goddess!

There’s no baking involved – so easy! All of the ingredients listed below are interchangeable. Really, just use whatever you like / want. I also don’t measure anything because you can tell by looking at the mixture that it’s done and if it has the right amount of ingredients that you’ll like.

Ingredients:
rolled oats
roughly chopped nuts & seeds (walnuts, almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds etc.)
dried fruit (cranberries, apricots, raisins, currents etc.)
flaked sweetened coconut
vegan chocolate / dark chocolate chips/chunks, or carob chips
peanut butter
honey and/or unsulphured molasses
freshly grated ginger

Nuts and seeds taste better slightly toasted in the oven first, which is what I do. But that’s only suitable if you don’t care about these remaining raw, of course. Mix together everything in a bowl until it sticks together well. Press mixture into a lightly oiled baking pan or dish and refrigerate. I usually cut them up after they are refrigerated over night and wrap them individually. Typically I make these the fastest way possible by just leaving most of the ingredients whole or roughly chopped. But today I processed the oats and nuts in a food processor into a bit of a finer mixture. This way I use less and get more. I also melted my vegan chocolate over a double boiler, stirred in some dried ginger and cinnamon and spread it over the top of the granola bars after I pressed the mixture into the dish. This way they looked just like the Mbar! These can be stored in the fridge or freezer probably for an eternity… but I bet you’ll eat them all up pretty quickly.

Ok, I can get used to this vegan thing now that I’ve made and devoured a couple of delicious staples in life. Made into vegan friendly versions in the hot for food kitchen were chocolate ice cream and macaroni & cheese. Yes, you heard me right!

I can safely say I’ll never eat real ice cream again now that I’ve tasted this creation by SweetOnVeg. Jennifer, you are a genius! Go check out her recipe after you feast your eyes on my photo (although her photo is way prettier).

It’s ridiculously easy to make this, and it’s even perfect for people who eat raw. I saw this recipe a while ago, but it took me a while to figure out what I needed to buy… RAW CACAO powder. As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s not the same as COCOA powder. I found Navitas Naturals at Whole Foods, so it’s definitely around and abundant – now that we all know what a superfood REAL, RAW chocolate is.

Next up, Mac & Cheese. I was never a fan of Kraft Dinner. Unless, of course I was drunk… come on, we all do it! But I love CHEESE, and I can say with 100% satisfaction this recipe is killer. Proof… my boyfriend, who would live on KD if he could, said it was so delicious and will definitely eat it again… and again, and again. So HA!

It’s from VeganYumYum, another new fave blog that I recently mentioned. It’s in Lauren’s new cookbook (that I also mentioned), but she was kind enough to post it online, for all to make! It’s amazing. She calls it alfredo, but after looking up a number of vegan mac & cheeze recipes, this seems pretty close. I used macaroni noodles so in my books, it’s mac & cheeze. Check out the recipe here. Again, the hot for food photo is not as pretty, or should I say “hot”, as the original.

I did it! I made a spanikopita that was just as tasty and “cheezy” as the original and it was completely vegan. I’m quite proud of myself. The more I can do this the easier this vegan transition will be. So here’s the recipe with some credit going to The PPK for the tofu ricotta recipe! Note: the measurements are estimates as I rarely measure stuff any more (sorry) and can be adjusted to your liking, based on how much you want to make.

Ingredients:
1 block extra firm tofu
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
fresh chopped basil
S &P
9 sheets vegan phyllo dough
2 cups fresh or frozen spinach
2 chopped green onions
1/2 cup Non-Dairy Cream Cheese
1/2 cup melted Earth Balance

In a bowl, mash up and crumble the tofu with your hands. Add lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, basil and S&P and combine until it resembles ricotta/feta (seen here).

Sautee spinach with green onion until wilted. You might need to drain out excess water if you were using frozen spinach. Combine well with the tofu ricotta and the cream cheese. You can prepare this in advance and leave in the fridge.

The phyllo dough package will explain how to handle the dough if you’re unfamiliar. You’re going to lay out a sheet of dough and brush with a light coat of melted butter, and do this until you have 3 sheets layered on top of one another. Finish the top layer with a brush of butter. Cut the full sheet into quarters. Dollop about 1/4 cup of the spinach mixture into the top left corner of one of the quarters and fold in opposite directions, forming an enclosed triangle phyllo package. You’re going to make enough until your mixture is gone or you have what you need. Place slightly apart on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 350 F.

I hate when people call a SANDwich a SAMwich… or worse SAMMICH! It’s like saying LIbary. And yes, I have heard people say this for real. Anyway this is my current food fixation. Nothing special, just an open-faced sandwich, but it’s so tasty. Here’s how to make this Sammich Snack.

Assemble the following in order, on top of 1 slice of Dimpflmeier Spelt & Wild Rice bread

2 tbsp Spicy Hummus
Cucumber Slices
Baby Spinach Leaves
Gala Apple Slices
Cracked Pepper

Those are some Veggie Chips on the side, but I don’t eat those all the time!

Yam or Sweet Potato Fries are nothing new. But as long as you’re not cooking for a Foodie or fellow Food Blogger, you can apparently impress your guests with this simple appie!

Mine were impressed that I made my own and didn’t go buy the bag of frozen McCain’s sweet potato fries! Ewww.

On my path to try and become vegan I made a tasty garlic mayo dipping sauce with Vegenaise. An amazing creation. But don’t eat it plain…it mos def needs to be spiced up, but the consistency and purpose is the same as mayo (which I find rather disgusting knowing its eggs and oil). I just added minced garlic, lemon juice, coriander, and S&P. Toss your cut sweet potato fries in canola oil, cumin, paprika, S&P and bake at 425 F until crisp and golden.

I am in search of the best AUTHENTIC Mexican in Toronto. So the other night was my birthday dinner with two close friends and I wanted real Mexican cuisine. I didn’t know of any places and asked a couple of other friends. Funny enough they too are in search of the best Mexican in Toronto. I ended up googling “best authentic mexican toronto” and Dos Amigos was one of the first results.

It’s a quaint little family run restaurant at 1201 Bathurst Street, between Dupont and Davenport. What I didn’t know is that Bathurst Street is completely f’ed North of Bloor so it’s not exactly the best place to go unless you’re in the that area and not sure how long the road work will last. Anyway that doesn’t matter. Dos Amigos had a thorough menu of highly authentic dishes. Except I decided to eat vegetarian that night and I was disappointed with my Enchilada’s. Not the restaurants fault, but I feel like if you’re going to eat Mexican it needs to be shredded pork tacos, or chicken enchiladas or something. MEAT! I’ll give into temptation next time. But I am obsessed with guacamole and that was a delicious starter. My friends’ meals contained shredded chicken and were reportedly incredible, and for dessert we had Churros with chocolate sauce. Those were to die for!

I would go there again, because its certainly better fair and a better atmosphere then popular, trashy spots like Sneaky Dee’s and Tortilla Flats (Unfortunately the only sit down restaurants I’ve been to in the city that serve Mexican, if you can even call it that. TexMex maybe?) but I feel like there’s better authentic Mexican out there somewhere in Toronto.  If you’ve found it, PLEASE let me know.

Here’s the review from blogto that convinced me to try Dos Amigos AND these people were smart and took photos before devouring their food… I forgot amongst all my girlfriend chat!

And here’s what’s in my Fave Guacamole recipe that I probably eat at least 3 times a week:

Avocado, frozen corn, diced red pepper, green onion, chopped cilantro, fresh lime juice, salt & pepper

Those are the base ingredients and it’s tasty just like that. But if I am making it for a group, I season it even more with  the following:

1 TSP cumin, 1 TSP chili powder, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 TBSP tabasco sauce, 3 TBSP olive oil, and 2 TBSP red wine vinegar.

I usually eyeball my measurements of the spices because I have made it so many times. Add more or less depending on how much guacamole you are making. Just taste test until you’ve reached your fav combo! Personally I think you can make better guacamole yourself then you can pay for in any restaurant.