Curried Millet with Greens

Happy first day of summer!  I don’t know where you guys all live, but here – the weather is sub par to normal “Summer” weather!   I had a few hours off yesterday and was feeling cold to the bone – I wanted something creamy, filling, thick and with a spicy kick!

Drool….

Curried Millet w/Greens

1 tsp. oil

1 onion diced

1 clove garlic minced ( more if you love garlic flavour)

3 TBSP curry (I used mild spiced curry)

1 cup millet

1 red pepper sliced into short strips

2 cups chopped cauliflower

2 cups chicken broth

1 can rinsed and drained chickpeas

1 can full fat coconut milk

3 TBSP  (or to taste) fish sauce (sub 1.5 tsp. soy sauce for vegan)

1 TBSP sugar (or to taste)

5 cups packed greens!

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DIRECTIONS

• Sauté onion & garlic in oil
• Add in curry powder and millet (I find toasting the curry powder and millet adds to the flavour).
• Add in the rest of the ingredients (except greens)
• 
• Simmer on medium low for 30 – 40 mins or until millet has softened
• Taste – you may need to add in more fish sauce and or sugar – depending on your taste buds
• Final step – add in greens just before serving!

 

NOTES

• You may need to add extra water/broth  - depending on how thick you would like it.  It thickened up overnight!  
• I say add fish sauce and sugar to taste because everyone likes their flavours different – I am a huge fan of the salty – so it may be too salty for other’s taste buds!!
• All curries taste different and have different spice levels – so be sure to do lots of taste testing!

 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe!  I know I’m looking forward to the left overs!

Vegan Moroccan Stew

Another recipe from my Our Big Earth days!!  This one is AWESOME!!

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When it comes to fall cooking, I think pumpkin, butternut squash, warm apple pie and steaming sweet potatoes. Smells like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, curry, chilli powder, cumin and ginger fill the air. Just thinking about these ingredients makes me feel warmer and wanting to curl up with a good book and a comfy blanket!

This cozy dinner recipe!  Just like a good book, this is a meal to warm up with.

Moroccan Stew

Serves 4 very hungry people or 6 not so hungry!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 – 2 green peppers – seeded and chopped into 1” chunks
• 3 cups sweet potato – peel left on
• 1 cup onion – chopped
• 1 cup grated carrot*
• 1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans – drained and rinsed
• 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic – minced
• 2 tsp. grated ginger*
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. chilli powder
• 3 tsp. peanut butter (optional)
• Raisins (I usually leave this out and serve in a dish, as many people dislike raisins)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Chopped cilantro for garnish. Or if you are a cilantro fan like we are, feel free to add a whole bunch of cilantro, reserving some for a topping.

Directions:

1. Toast spices at the bottom of your soup pot in a little bit of oil, stirring often to prevent burning. This step will add a richer element to the stew. *Optional, if you are making a quick dinner.

2. Add in garlic, green peppers, ginger and onion. Stir to coat with spices. Sauté for 2 minutes.

3. Up next, add your 3 cups vegetable broth, sweet potato, carrots, tomatoes (including juice) and chickpeas.

4. Cook until sweet potato becomes very soft (about 20 minutes)

5. Just before serving add in peanut butter and raisins, mix until it gets creamy!

6. Top with fresh, chopped cilantro.

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Recipe alternatives:

• Could be served over rice, couscous, quinoa or just eaten alone
  
• Can use pita, poppadum's or roti for dipping
  
• To make it more “picky eater friendly”, you could make up the stew, excluding chickpeas (I have to do this at my house), peanut butter, raisins, cilantro. Serve these ingredients in small bowls on the side, so each person can customize their own meal.
  
• For the non-spice lovers – exclude chilli powder and be sure your curry powder is of the mild variety.
  
• Great recipe for freezing

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*I am lazy with the carrots, and I just pop them into the food processor, and it’s done in about 30 seconds, with no grated fingers anywhere!
*Tip regarding ginger. Buy a large knob of ginger, wash thoroughly and toss in freezer. This makes it much easier to grate, and you will always have ginger on hand. No need to peel, especially if it’s organic, the skin has extra nutrients.

Hope you enjoyed!! I like this with a little extra PB and raisins! Must make again soon!

Super Easy Tabbouleh

So, a little back story – when I was a nanny in Calgary – I cooked A LOT – and it was so much fun!  I went through recipes, wrote a shopping list and then the food magically appeared over night while I was sleeping or I was given a HUGE delicious food budget to feed everyone!

I cooked a lot for the family.  Lambs, roasts, pasta etc.  It was an amazing experience for me, especially since they enjoyed eating healthy, as did I.

I remember one morning when I showed up, the mom mentioned that she wanted tabbouleh for dinner.  I had NO idea what it was. I found a recipe in a cookbook and it became a dish I made regularly!  I’ve always played around with it a bit for different flavours.  Last night I created a super easy – user friendly tabbouleh recipe! 

Quick and Easy Tabbouleh

1 cup bulgur (I only use Bob’s Red Mills)

Boil about 1.5 cups of hot water and pour over bulgur – let it sit until liquid is absorbed.

1 bunch of parsley

2x tomatoes (or 1.5 cup cherry tomatoes)

2 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar (traditional is using lemon juice)

1 TBSP Oil

Salt and Pepper

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After liquid in the bulgur is absorbed, add in parsley, tomatoes, ACV, oil and salt and pepper..

Stir and let sit!!  Best if you let it sit for a bit to absorb the flavours.

Great add in’s:

Feta (for the non dairy free crew)

Balsamic Vinegar

Fresh mint

Lemon juice

Cucumber

There ya have it folks – super easy and super healthy tabbouleh – remember if you are gluten free you can always sub in a different grain for the bulgur – think Quinoa!

This is so easy, and can be done in under 20 minutes if needed!  Also is AWESOME the next day.

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I served it over salad, with some Goddess Dressing Drizzled over!!

With grilled corn and trout!

Have you tried tabbouleh before?  Thoughts?

PS. Tomorrow is grad day, so I’m not sure if I’ll post or not, but we’ll see!!

Another Super Easy and Quick Curry!

As you know, I LOVE curry!

I have previously shared recipes for my favourite Red Thai Curry

And for another easy Chicken Curry

This is a super easy one, with pretty healthy ingredients. 

We were both starving one night, and instead of going our for dinner we decided to pick up some goodies!

The curry was basically tomatoes and spices.  It said to only add it to chicken, but how boring is that?

We loaded it full of veggies and chicken

Poured the sauce over, and added about 1/4 cup of coconut milk – to make it a wee bit creamy!!

I am LOVING peas in my curry lately.  It adds sweetness without adding a fruit (like pineapple or mango).

Cook it all up until veggies are to desired crunchiness…

While it’s cooking, pop a pappadam into the microwave for 30 seconds! (we had 2 each).

If you are a microwave disliker – you can also pan fry them!!

I served this over a wee bit of brown rice…

I LOVED the pappadums – they were crunchy and salty!  I took some curry the next day to work sans rice and just ate it with pappadums!

The curry is even better the next day!!

Making curry from scratch is ideal of course, but these sauces make it so easy for a quick week night meal!

Are you a curry fan? 

It’s a (Mediterranean) Wrap

Well here I am once again with a great dinner/lunch.  Super easy and full of flavour!

Med Wrap!

My favourite Middle Eastern place makes the BEST fresh flatbread.   They are SO tasty, and the charge $1 each.  Dave brought me one home last week and I was craving something wrappy and Greek flavoured.

I marinated my tofu in lemon juice, zaatar spice, oil, salt and pepper.

Then I grilled mushrooms, peppers, onions and the tofu on the bbq. 

Sliced it all up, tossed it with some balsamic vinegar.

Then I added everything into the wrap with some hummus and cucumbers

Wrapped it up and chowed down!!  It was SO good!!

For school the next day, I chopped up all the veggies and mixed all the veggies (including cucumber) and tofu with hummus and put it in a container and brought the wrap separately.  To eat it, I just used small pieces of the wrap to scoop up the mixture!

Great lunch, super quick, as you could BBQ everything and keep it stored in the fridge, add the hummus just before serving!

YUM!!

Do you like BBQed veggies?   My favourite are onions and green peppers!

Chicken Curry

Wow.

It’s Friday and I have posted for 5 whole days!!  I guess it’s good to get organized on Sunday!!  I hope you guys have been enjoying these meal ideas?  Let me know what you think?

My next one is a curry.  I don’t have many good pictures, because I was too hungry to wait for the steam to disappear hehe

This one was super easy.

Pour this

with some water over chicken. 

Let it cook until the chicken is almost cooked then add some veggies (mine was cauliflower, broccoli, peas and zucchini).

Serve over basmati rice!

Told ya it was easy!!

Again great for lunches!!

This curry has a really strong spice flavour, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you enjoy spicy (not hot spicy, spice spicy! haha).  We weren’t sure we were fans of this particular sauce.

Also, if you like your curry creamy, add some coconut milk to this – we wished we would have, it would have made it better!!

 

Do you have a favourite curry sauce?

I chose this one because the ingredients are simple (and I like simple)– Onion, sunflower oil, spices, garlic, tomatoes paste, fresh ginger,salt, water and lime juice!

Stir-fry with Veggie Noodles

So life is whizzing past at the speed of lightening!

I am LOVING my practicum, but I’ll be honest, all I’m doing is working, cooking and sleeping!!  But the Eats have been tasty!! (and great for lunch the next day!)

Here is an awesome dish that I had last week!!

Delish stir-fry with spiralized daikon radish and zucchini, stir fry noodles, veggies, tofu and cilantro.

It was so great and I LOVED the veggie noodles in it, it lightening up the dish, and filled me full of veggies!

and it was quite pretty too!!

I cooked the veggie noodles a tiny bit, at the end of cooking the rest of the stir fry, so they were still crispy!

As for sauce – I used some sesame oil, soy sauce, Chinese 5 spice, garlic, dried ginger and a bit of stir-fry sauce.

Awesome for lunches too!   I got lots of drools in the lunch room!! hehe

Do you have a spiralizer?

I promise they are worth the $, I love mine!!

Lunch Ideas!

Hey guys, I am on the look out for lunch ideas!

I’m going to be working in a nut free, kiwi free school, and not sure if I have access to a microwave., and I need some lunch ideas!!  

I know you are all smart cookies, so I look forward to seeing your answers!

So far what I’ve thought of is…

Sushi salad

Mexican food – with chips for dipping!

Bi Bim Bap

Salad of course

Pasta – although not this one, as it has almonds!  Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta

or the Mediterranean Pasta

Salad wraps – minus the peanut sauce (maybe sweet Thai sauce?)

Lettuce Wraps

Pizzas – both pita pizza and regular.

Grainy salads (I could sub sesame seeds for walnuts)  Qunioa, Kale Risotto

Hummus with pitas!!

That’s what I have so far, but I still need more ideas – as some of these take awhile to prep…

Anything you can come up with, will be super helpful!! Free free to link to your blog!

 

Dinner Party Wars

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 and a match.

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!!