Hey guys,
So I made you a “Vlog” post today!! I have a cold so don’t mind my snuffly sounding voice!!
I rounded up a bunch of new to me treats that I LOVE, LIKE or am not a fan of!! Hope you enjoy the video!
Here is the link to the Navitas Naturals website too for more info on the yummy products!
Please let me know what products you are LOVING right now (dairy free of course!)
Well hello!
So glad you enjoyed the Salmon Chowder recipe. It turned out better than I expected and I really enjoyed the creaminess of it (I miss creamy being dairy free)!
Well as many of you know, it was Thanksgiving here awhile back – and I have yet to do a post about it!! I didn’t take tooo many pictures since I was busy cooking, but I thought I’d show you the ones that I did – (and attach some recipes!)
While cooking – I decided to play with my camera a bit, and thought these pears were a great subject!! I wish their was a better background – but this picture totally makes me say “awwwh”!
Anyways…
The table was set for 8 of us (and a sweet little baby girl)!!
Dinner was prepped as much as possible before.
I made homemade cranberry sauce.
Cranberry Sauce
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of water (or orange juice for more flavour)
1/2 cup sugar
cinnamon and orange zest to taste
Boil all ingredients for 1/2 hour or until desired consistency!! It will gel up more once cooled!
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Our friends were in charge of appies, bread, and dessert!
The appie was incredible!! Artichoke and Green Olive Dip! I wish I could have eaten more it was awesome, but I was too busy cooking!! It was gone FAST though!! 
Then there was the rest of the menu.
Turkey (of course)
2 types of bread pudding – cranberry spice and onion
Stuffing (may have been from a box? I haven’t ever tried to make it from scratch!)
Mashed Potatoes (I used chicken broth instead of milk!)
Sweet Potato Casserole.
I sort of used Angela’s recipe – but I tweaked it a bunch – it was fantastic!!
There were soda biscuits and fresh bread brought by friends too!
I also made a salad, roasted veggies and pan fried Brussels sprouts!
I’m sure I am missing something – but it was quite the feast!
For dessert (no picture 
It was a fantastic night with fantastic friends!
Thanksgiving is such a great time – it’s always fun to have a big group of people enjoying a big huge meal!!
Also as promised – I finally got some picture of the Northern Lights – they are very rare around here (I’d never seen them before)!! Thank you to Y. for these pics! We were at an end of summer beach fire and all of a sudden the sky lit up!
Beautiful hey? I’d never seen anything like it!!
Hope your day is going fantastic!!
More recipes coming from me next week!
PS. Dairy Free Caramel Apple Recipe? Yes please!
What’s shaken bacon?
I have a SMOKIN good recipe for you – and it’s easy and customizable. It came from a gouda (yes like the cheese) friend who brought kebabs to a beach fire the other night.
Kebabs + beach fire – beauty!
So I just loved this idea – and then we had to bring food to a birthday party the other night.. que kebabs (I like that word kebab!).
What oh what to marinate the kebabs in?
What is one of my very favourite flavours in the whole wide world?
CURRY of course! Red Thai curry to be exact!
Chop up which ever veggies you desire;
Ours included; mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions, zucchini, and fresh pineapple.
Throw into a bowl (or I mean place gently <veggies have feelings you know>)
Mix together in a bowl (two different options for marinade)
Orange Curry
1/4 cup orange juice
2 TBSP oil (I used grape seed)
2 TBSP red curry paste
OR
Coconut Curry
1/4 cup coconut milk
2 TBSP red curry paste
Dash or so of fish sauce !!
A pinch of sugar!
Pour over veggies and let sit for as long as possible! A couple of hours at very least!
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While marinating you need to soak your skewers so they don’t burn on the BBQ~
Up next it’s time to stack.
I have no rhyme or reason for how I do it, BUT i always start and end with a zucchini piece!
Keep going until everyone is full.
BUT I DOOOOO!!
Stack em and get ready to BBQ!
Grill on medium heat until the veggies get to desired level of readiness.
We like our to have char marks on them, and we judge when they are done by the caramelization of the onions!
These ones weren’t grilled enough! But we were SO hungry!
Awesome idea to bring to a potluck – and make sure you do the fresh pineapple it was amazing!!
You could also make some fruit ones to grill - think pineapple, peaches, nectarines – maybe even grapes?
I think these might be my favourite summer dinner meal so far!!
What’s your favourite go to summer meal?
PS. If you are wanting to the raw thing – just marinate these babies over night and the marinade should soften the veggies!
PSS… if you haven’t noticed – I’m in a a giddy/over tired mood haha.. hopefully I didn’t scare you away! This post was written WAY past my bedtime!
Wow… thank you for all the comments on yesterday’s post!! I love Tasha’s idea about the deep purple!! I will post a picture when I figure it all out!!
FYI – for those of you that liked the color it was Milk Pail by Martha Stewart!!
Onto FOOD!!
A few weeks ago I bought this stuff!!
I thought it would be great for lunches…
Super easy ingredients and pretty healthy too!!
I took it yesterday in my lunch and had it with some pita bread from the Farmer’s Market and some veggie soup!! and the verdict?
AMAZING!
It’s savoury and delish!! (and local YAY!) If you live on Vancouver Island, look for it, it was about $5.50 for this block and I ate about 1/4 of it for lunch today!! I found it in the deli section at Quality Foods!
I love finding new lunch worthy products!!
As for the veggie soup.
I served it over fresh spinach with dried chow mein noodles on top (for crunch)
“Everything but the Kitchen Sink” Soup!
1/2 green pepper
4 carrots
2 stalks celery
2 precooked potatoes
4 broccoli stalks
1/2 head cauliflower
1/2 onion
4 cloves garlic
Just enough water to cover everything!!
Boiled it together for a few minutes (to make everything a wee bit soft, but not too soft)
Then I blended it all together (in batches)
In the final batch I added 1/4 cup cashews (for creaminess)
To this I added for flavour
1 tsp lemon juice
1 TBSP miso
1 cube (no) chicken bullion
1 TBSP hot sauce
and a bunch of spices (I think I added curry)
S & P to taste!!
It was tasty, we had it for 2 dinners (with some bread) and then I had it for lunch with the pate and pita!
Really you can just have fun with it, and add whatever you like!
I LOVED the spinach in it too! That was my favourite addition!
Happy Wednesday to you!!!!!!!!
Do you have any fun plans for the long weekend? Do tell?
Hiya!!
So it’s been FOREVER since we did “dinner party wars” with our friends, but I figured it was fun and I should post about it!!
The deal was 3 couples, each hosting a dinner party. Points were set for theme, atmosphere (music, decorations) the food, and the hosting abilities!! It was SO fun!
The other 2 parties were a Mediterranean Crawl and Mardi Gras! I will blog about the Med Crawl, but the night of Mardi Gras, I wasn’t feeling well and forgot my camera (but it was AMAZING)
We were up first and we had a Mexican Fiesta!!
We set the menu…
Mexican Fiesta
Drinks Selection
Jamaica Juice ~ hibiscus flowers steeped with a twist of lime
Juicy Blended Strawberry Margaritas (tequila and triple sec per request)
Paloma ~ Sparkling Grapefruit juice with lime, salt and tequila OLE!
Mexian Beer ~ Sol or Pacifico with a twist of lime
Appetizers
Cooked Shrimp Ceviche with Mango served with Fiesta Corn Chips
Molletts ~ toasts adorned with re-fried beans, cheese and topped off with crispy bacon
Dinner
Fresh Homemade Corn Tortillas
Chicken with a Warm Tomato Sauce
Risotto Style Mexican Rice
Slowly Simmered Refried Beans
Coriander Spiced Cabbage, Pico de Gallo, Red Salsa, Green Salsa and Guacamole
Dessert
Cinnamon and Sugar Banana’s Flambéed with Rum served over coconut ice cream
Spiced Mexican Coffee
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We set the scene…
We bought the "table cloths” and turtles in Mexico when we were there for our wedding!
And I made the centre pieces! I wish I could find the link to the “how to” on these, it was SO easy and they are so pretty!
I didn’t get to snap too many photos of the food as we were SO busy getting it all together.
But these are what I got!
Coriander Spiced Cabbage – which was basically sliced green cabbage, grapeseed oil, ground coriander, lime juice and salt and pepper. Massage it all together and let it sit.
Fresh tomato salsa. It tasted much better than it looked!
Two more salsas!! We got the recipes from our Salsa and Salsa tour we did in Mexico (which I still need to do a post about!!) You can go here for the recipes!
Ok… you try to make refried beans look good!! 
Guacamole – simple – avocados, lime, cilantro, salt and pepper.
Palomas!!! If you have never tried these, you must. 2.5 cups sparkling grapefruit juice, 1 shot lime juice, 1 shot tequila and a pinch of salt! SO good!
Strawberry Margaritas!
Hot husband… oops not on the menu!
You can see the plates ready for the ceviche and then the mollets.
Of course there was more food, but I was too busy cooking and socializing to snap photos!
But then there was dessert, I almost set our house on fire, but it was SO worth it!
Cinnamon and Sugar Banana’s Flambéed with Rum served over coconut ice cream
1/2 banana per person sliced length wise.
1 tbsp butter (I used earth balance)
1 tbsp brown sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 shot glass rum
Melt butter in a heat proof pan (only melt butter in a space the size of your bananas – does that make sense?!) ha
Add in brown sugar and cinnamon – cook until it begins to bubble.
Add bananas into the sauce and let cook for about 50 seconds per side.
Once bananas are flipped – get the rum and match ready.
(I take NO responsibility for burned anything)
Pour the rum in the pan, light the match and toss her in (and duck)
Let the alcohol burn off
Transfer 1/2 banana onto each plate with some coconut ice cream and drizzle with the rum/butter sauce!
AMAZING!
Just for the record, I used Purely Decedent Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Ice Cream
(wow that’s a mouthful, but a tasty mouthful!!)
The good people at Turtle Mountain sent me coupons for their tasty treats and this has been one of my favorite things I’ve tried!
I highly recommend it for all your Dairy Free Folks out there!!
Hope you enjoyed!!
