Raspberry Almond Muffins

I am in a phase where I am trying to find new muffin recipes. This one is modified out of the “Food to Live By” recipe book. My husband loved the hint of orange that is added, and the little bit of sugar sprinkled on the top added a sweet crunch. Frozen raspberries could also be used, I had fresh on hand, so just used those. I made these because we are going away for a few days, and thought these would make a great snack for us to have with us. But, I have a feeling that not many are going to make it with us, they may be eaten before we even leave…

1 ½ cups spelt flour
½ cup organic sugar cane, plus one tbsp for topping (you can add more if you like a sweeter muffin)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup egg whites, or one whole egg
1 cup skim milk
¼ cup butter
Zest of one medium orange
¼ cup sliced almonds
¼ cup cococut
¾ cup raspberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, mix together egg, milk and butter. Add zest.
Mix the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Once fully combined, fold in almonds, coconut and raspberries.

Pour evenly into a 12 cup muffin tin that has been greased or lined with paper cups. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar (divided onto the 12 muffins, not 1 tbsp on each muffin). Bake for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before eating.

Slowcooker Spanish Rice

Thought I would try something new, and this caught my eye. It is a great side dish, or can even be a small meal on its own.

1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup green lentils
1/2 cup red lentils
3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup assorted, finely diced vegetables (I had some left over vegetables that needed to be used, so I used celery, carrots, onion and bell peppers)
1 24oz can diced tomatoes, including liquid
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
Salt to taste

Put all ingredients in a slow cooker for 5 hours on low.

No-bake (and chewy) Granola Bars

Granola Bars are one of my favourite snack foods. They are great to have on the go or just as a snack pre or post workout. However, the growing list of ingredients that I find on store bought granola bars scares me. Can someone out there tell me exactly what sodium hexametaphosphate is? Or, I recently read on a box “BHT (a preservative)”. What does that mean??? Not to mention that many of them are laden with transfats…

So, in my never ending quest to eat healthy and natural foods, I made my own granola bars. These ones call for prezels, and I try to use the organic ones because they tend to only use all-natural ingredients. Any ingredients can also be subbed out if you don’t like something in them. For any nut allergies out there, take out the almonds, and add raisins or dried cranberries. Be adventurous! As long as your proportions of dry ingredients to wet ingredients stays the same, they will still turn out.

I love the salty and sweet combination of these bars.


2 ½ tbsp butter
¾ cup agave syrup (you can use honey as an alternative, although these will be much sweeter with honey)
¾ cup multigrain prezels, broken into small pieces
½ cup sliced almonds
½ cup dark chocolate chips
2 cups oats
1 cup brown rice cereal (like Nature’s Path). These actually also come in other grains (like kamut) which I might try next time.


In a medium pot, melt butter, and add agave syrup. Remove from heat once the butter is melted. Add all other ingredients and stir until all ingredients are coated with the syrup and butter evenly.
Press into a greased 9 x 13 pan, and let cool in the fridge for a few hours. Cut into snack size pieces.

Spicy Popcorn

We love popcorn in our house. So I decided to try out something different than the regular butter and salt that we always have. In the past, I have added a teaspoon of sugar cane on top of the butter and salt that we always have, but this time I wanted to try something with a little more spice.

8 cups popped popcorn
1 ½ tbsp butter
1 tsp chili powder
¼ tsp each salt, cumin, garlic powder and paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Combine chilli powder, salt, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne powder and paprika in a small bowl. Melt butter in microwave. Pour butter onto popcorn, and toss well. Add spices, and toss again until popcorn is evenly coated.

Orange Pineapple Muffins

Muffins are my go-to snack. I always have them on hand, and am always trying to find new recipes. Mid-morning, I often have one to tide me over until lunch, although more often than not, my daugher ends up eating most of it, and I get the left-over crumbs...

I came across these ones on a website by The Joy of Cooking, but I changed them so that they are healthier. My husband and I enjoyed them this morning, with a cup of coffee – is there really anything better? It was the perfect start to our day.

Makes about 16 muffins

2 cups spelt flour
¼ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
2/3 cup organic sugar cane
½ cup butter, softened
2 egg whites
¾ cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1 14oz can crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda.

In a large bowl, mix together sugar cane and butter. Add egg whites, and continue to mix. Add yogurt, juice orange zest and pineapple.

Add flour mixture to wet ingredients.

Evenly distribute muffins into muffin cups – makes about 15 in total. Cook for 20 minutes.

For some of the muffins, I added sliced almonds on top before baking them in the oven. I really liked them with the almonds, but they can easily be left off.

Southwestern Salad

One question that constantly plagues my husband and I is “what do you want for dinner?” This is one of my most hated questions, especially when we can’t seem to come up with a good answer, and even after suggesting all recipes that I have in my repertoire, we still can’t come up with something that we really want to eat. If I were to leave it up to my husband, he would make his flank steak and potatoes with broccoli. Not really my type of meal.
So, with the weather getting nice, and summer just around the corner (although looking outside, it looks like it is about to rain), I felt like a salad would make a good dinner. But, I didn’t want just your standard lettuce, tomato and cucumber type salad. Can you say b-o-r-i-n-g?? I started searching for different salads on the internet, and combined a few that I saw into this salad.
You know that feeling that you get after eating your traditional salad? The one that makes your feel not even close to being full, and leaves you thinking about walking to the fridge to see what else you can eat? This salad doesn’t do this. You actually feel satisfied after this salad because of the protein in the black beans. Next time, I might even add black eyed peas as well…

Makes enough for 4 people

Salad
3 cups romaine lettuce, finely chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, finely diced
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
3 green onions, chopped
¼ cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated
½ green pepper, finely chopped
1 19oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

Dressing
¾ cup salsa
¾ cup sour cream

In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together salsa and sour cream to make the dressing. Pour dressing on top of salad.

I served it with corn muffins. Actually, I crumbled the corn muffins into the salad sort of like croutons. I usually make things from scratch, however, today I was lazy, so I used an organic corn muffin mix. If you are doing this, try to stick to an organic brand. Some of the traditional brands have too many ingredients in them that I can’t pronounce, therefore I don’t buy them.

You could make this without the corn muffins, but I found that it gave the salad a sort of sweetness that seemed to complete the salad. I know it sounds strange to crumble them into the salad, but try it, you may like it.

Potato Salad

For years my husband has been asking me to make potato salad. I don’t love potatoes, but decided that I would try to make it anyways. I wasn’t sure how the recipe would turn out, but for someone who doesn’t like potatoes a whole lot, I actually really liked this recipe! It is a little different from your traditional recipe (with the addition of white beans), but still has some of the traditional ingredients that you would normally find in potato salad (like hard boiled eggs). If you are looking for a healthier twist to the generally high fat potato salad that you are used to, try it out – you may be pleasantly surprised.

Salad
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped*
1.5 lb bag of new potatoes (I prefer to used new potatoes, but any potato will actually do)
3 stalks celery, diced
¼ cup red onion, diced
1 19oz can white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Dressing
½ cup plain yogurt
3 tbsp light mayonnaise
1 tbsp dijon mustard
¼ cup fresh dill, finely chopped
½ tsp salt

Wash and scrub potatoes thoroughly. Boil in water until fork tender.

While potatoes are cooking, chop celery, onion and rinse beans. Add to a large bowl. Add chopped hard boiled eggs.

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for dressing.

Once potatoes are cooked, drain and let them cool. Once cooled, add to celery, onion, beans and eggs. Add dressing and mix until it is evenly coated. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.


*fill a pot with COLD water. Add eggs to cold water, and turn on stove to medium high. Once the water begins to boil, set a timer for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 minutes, strain water, and place eggs in cold water. Once they are cooled, dice up the eggs.

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Eggplant Lasagne

What is one of the major rules of cooking? Don't cook a new recipe when you are having guests over because you never know how it will turn out. This weekend, I reluctantly broke that rule.

I had my mother-in-law and her husband in town, and planned to make ricotta and spinach stuffed eggplant cannelloni. They are just like regular cannelloni, but instead of using noodles, it would be thinly sliced, roasted eggplant (great for any low-carb eaters). I bought eggplant this week, and all the ingredients, and was ready to go. Right before starting to get dinner ready, I realized that the eggplant that I bought were too small to act as noodles. Panicking, I decided to make it into a sort of lasagne instead. The verdict? Well, there were no leftovers, and everyone had seconds, so I would say it turned out really well. Here is the recipe;

1 500g container ricotta
1 cup 1% cottage cheese
1 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed
2 medium eggplants, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste
2 cups Marinara Sauce
1 ½ cups havarti cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Thinly slice both eggplants so that the pieces are about ¼ of an inch thick. Place in a single layer on a greased cooking sheet. Drizzle 2 tbsp olive oil and about ¼ tsp salt on top so both sides of eggplant are evenly coated. Roast for 15 minutes.

While eggplant is cooking, prepare the filling. Squeeze excess water from thawed spinach. To do this, overlap about 3 paper towels on top of one another. Place spinach in the middle, and wrap paper towel around spinach. Squeeze water into sink.

In a large bowl, combine ricotta, drained spinach, cottage cheese and ¼ tsp salt.

In a large rectangular Pyrex dish, layer the lasagne; marinara sauce, eggplant, ricotta mixture, and finally Havarti. You should have enough mixture to do 2-3 layers. Make sure you finished the layers with Havarti on top.

Cook for 45 minutes in 400 degree oven, or until cheese is golden. Let stand for a few minutes before cutting.

Chickpea and Sweet Potato curry

I am constantly being reminded that there is only a short time left on my maternity leave. Although I am excited to go back to teaching, I am nervous about how I am going to have enough time to prepare meals, while trying to squeeze in every spare second that I can with my daughter. My solution? I have gotten a new slow cooker (with a timer!) and have dedicated myself to finding some recipes that I can easily put together in the morning before I head to work.

It was a cold/windy/snowy day today, and what’s better on a day like that? For us, a warm curry hits the spot. I just threw a bunch of ingredients in the cooker, and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I even gave this to my 9.5 month old daughter for dinner.

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 19oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 onion, diced
1 cup cauliflower, chopped
2 ½ cups vegetable stock
1 ½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen green beans
Salt to taste
Freshly chopped cilantro for topping

Throw all ingredients but peas and green beans in the slow cooker. Cook for 6 hours on low. Add peas and green beans, cook for another half an hour. Top with cilantro when serving.

I made toasted pitas to go with this. Cut the pita in triangles, drizzle with olive oil and salt, and broil for a few minutes until golden brown.

I also made a salad to go with this. Totally hit the spot with the crazy weather we have been having lately.

Stir-Fry Sauces

My husband LOVES stir-fry’s, and inevitably when I ask him what he wants for dinner, he always says stir-fry’s. To me, they are good, but I can’t eat them as much as he wants to. So, to compromise, I decided to try out some new sauces so that I didn’t get bored of eating them all the time, and my husband still gets to enjoy them regularly. Any vegetables work with these sauces, but my favourites are; sugar snap peas, bell peppers (all colours), broccoli, carrots, red onion and celery.

For the sauces, I try to use all organic ingredients for these sauces because even your basic ketchup has some “iffy” ingredients in it. My rule of thumb is, if I can’t pronounce the ingredient, I don’t buy it. You’d be surprised at what is hiding in your basic ingredients.

Here are three sauces that I have tried recently, all of which have been a hit.


Teriyaki Sauce

3 tbsp organic sugar cane
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp minced ginger
3/4 cup organic ketchup
¼ cup light soy sauce
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients in a container. Refrigerate for about an hour before using.


Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon organic ketchup
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 4 teaspoons water

Combine vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup and soy sauce in a pot. Bring to a boil. Add cornstarch mixed with water. Continue to cook for a couple of more minutes. Use immediately.



Basic Sauce

I don’t really know what to call this sauce, it is really just an all-purpose sauce that is quick and easy, and tastes great with any vegetables.

1/4 cup light soy sauce
4 tbsp. Hoisin sauce
2/3 cup vegetable stock
1 ½ tbsp. corn starch

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and stir until the corn starch has dissolved. Add to vegetables as they are cooking in the wok. This sauce must be added to heat, otherwise it won’t thicken.