What looks like a hot mess but tastes delicious?

Im challenging myself (as Executive Chef of the Graham Household) to use up the contents of our deep freezer and pantry. There is some weird bits and bobs in there. Among them, 50000 tortilla wraps, about 9oz of frozen black beans and a jar of mole sauce bought in Mexico about 3 years ago. A dear friend fed us this amazing budget bytes recipe when we were over for dinner in the summer. We loved it.

The corn tortillas did not thaw nicely, being rather freezer burnt, so they will get used for another round of green enchiladas. Fortunately I had over purchased wraps at Superstore last week  (it was the same price for 2 as for 1), so I used those instead. The mole sauce was a bit of a mess, I kept having to add a ton of water to it as I was making it up because it was too thick. So I didn't use it all... Plus it's too spicy for my delicate white girl taste buds, so I ended up scraping it all off the top before I ate it, leaving just enough kick and mole flavour to keep it from being completely bland.

Modifications:

-added 3 shredded carrots

-1 whole diced pepper (orange if you care)

-1 cup old cheddar (shoulda added more!!)

Wish I had added lime juice to the veggie mix, except that our citrus juicer thing went missing last summer and I only just replaced it yesterday.

I'm eating them on day 5, the avocados are starting to be a bit sad but everything else is doing nicely.

These are a good lunch option as they are nicely contained and can be picked up (unless your sauce is runny) or cut up with a knife and fork.

One pot pasta

A little while ago, the one pot "wonderpot" pasta recipe was being repinned, modified and shared like crazy. I fully admit we got on the bandwagon. The first time we made it we were camping in Tofino. In Fogust. In the epic pouring rain and cold. This is an AMAZING camping recipe. It's one pot, quick, and almost impossible to screw up. It has the potential to be modified by any ingredient. It seems hardly possible that this would work, yet it does, and it's delicious!! The quantities will easily feed more than 4 adults (We each had a portion, and then I filled my two giant Pyrex bowls, which are . There is potential for all the ingredients to be dry, and then used as a backpacking food.

Tonight I made a variation of our camp "wonderpot". I actually paid attention when I was adding ingredients and remember the recipe!!

Monday night wonderpot, adapted from this delicious wonderpot

1 bag of GF Tinkyada pasta (I have not tried with other brands!)

1 28oz can diced tomatoes

1L chicken stock (preferably not "low sodium", or you'll have to add a little bit of salt)

1 large onion, julienned

One head of garlic, crushed (this made it really nice and garlicky)

500g of mild Italian sausage meat (we can buy it un-cased from our butcher downstairs, if not just use regular sausage).

3 small bok choy, chopped

1 bunch of basil, chopped

Parmesan cheese

Add everything except the bok choy and basil into a stock pot. Simmer until most of the liquid is gone (10-15 mins), then add the bok choy. Once liquid is all absorbed, add the basil and stir. Add parmesan once pasta is served.

Seriously, that's it. There is more liquid in my version thanks to my GF pasta. I love this dish!! Next time I'm going to try lentils and see what happens.

Farro Risotto

I had heard of a grain called Farro (also called emmer), I believe it's an ancient grain, but had never eaten it until we were in Seattle a month ago and I had delicious farro risotto.

I am hooked.

I finally picked some up at the local Planet Organic. I soaked it overnight in water with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (breaks down the phytic acid, which blocks mineral absorption and protects the seed from predators). Yesterday I made a new batch of chicken stock. I got smart this time and stored it in 1L, 250mL and 125mL jars instead of the nearly-two-litre buckets I have. Much more usable for the freezer!!

Anyways, faro is lovely. It is not gluten free, but like spelt it is much lower in gluten content than regular wheat. It has quite a dense texture, very nutty. The other benefit of soaking it, is that it makes the grains really soft after you cook them. 

It's small, like rice (farro on the left, brown jasmine rice on the right). But tastes almost sweet and quite nutty.

I used a standard risotto recipe (1 cup of rice, 1 litre of stock, 1 onion, salt and thyme). I added mushrooms, because I love the creamy mushroom taste. I also added bok-choi from the farmers market.

I used full grown bok choi, next time I'll use baby bok choi, since it's a more neutral flavour. But super tasty!

Fish Tacos!

For dinner last night, J requested fish tacos. Since we visit Mexico (specifically Puerto Vallarta, since J's dad lives there half the year) every year, we are taco junkies. When we're in Mexico, we are purists, but at home its a mish-mash of whatever we think is good on that particular day.

Last night, they were exceptional.

The fish we used is rough-eye, which I then covered in a paste made of mexican chilli powder, garlic powder, salt and olive oil, and baked at 350 until it was cooked.  The marinade is optional, you could just cover it with salt, pepper and a little bit of oil.

Rough-eye is a white fleshed fish, we were trying it out because of the price point (it's cheap!), but you could use any fish at all (however, I'm not a fan of salmon tacos).  The marinade will go on any white fish.  Try to buy local and by people whose livelihoods you are actively supporting, farmer's markets are *GREAT* for this (which is where our fish almost exclusively comes from!).

The rest of the ingredients are as follows:
-Sauerkraut (either homemade or store bought, the stuff we used comes from the farmer's market, since the stuff on the counter is not ready yet.  I should mention this is REAL fermented sauerkraut, not the fast version where you cover cabbage in vinegar!)
-"guacamole", but it's not really (just avocado, lime juice, salt, and garlic and cumin powders)
-diced bell pepper
-carrot sticks (soaked in apple cider vinegar and water, with a few onion pieces).
-fresh cilantro

So delicious.  The corn tortillas come from the 7 Seas trading co on Granville Island (right across from the Granville Island Tea company).  It's also an insanely quick meal, since you can pre-marinate your fish and the carrot sicks, so all you have to do for dinner is heat the tortillas (wrapping a clean dishtowel in a steamer is my preferred way, and I have tried them *all*) and make the guac, which takes about 2 minutes.  The fish cooked *really* fast.

We also split a Delicata squash, which I sprinkled on some sea salt and tossed it in the oven with the fish, took about 20 minutes to cook since it's such a thin skinned squash.  But YUM, it's a tasty tasty squash.  Sadly I forgot to take it's picture.

This meal will not travel well (unless you're happy to put in the work of heating your tortillas and assembling all your ingredients).  It also tends to be messy.  I shy away from messy foods at work because I eat on my lap and tend to get food all over me.  

Busy-ness

Life has been insane! Too busy to blog (never mind that the blogger app doesn't let me do a couple of key things, which prevents me from posting more often). So, in the name of posting pictures, here we go!

Over the Remembrance Day long weekend, J and I took a short trip to Seattle, to hang out together and do a little bit of shopping. I sadly didn't take enough pictures, since we were too busy enjoying each other's company to document the occasion. Since I'm building up to my raw food cleanse, I tried to have a solid balance of whole foods vs foods I knew would make my tummy hurt. We had a juice each on Sunday morning from Whole Foods (conveniently located a block from our hotel). This meant that we went to Le Panier in Pike Place Market and stuffed ourselves with all manner of flakey, buttery, perfect pastry. We had an almond croissant, and then 3 pastries whose names I have forgotten, but one was a dauphinois, a broccoli and cheese, and a sundries tomato (which tasted more like pizza sauce). She also bought a vanilla slice (aka a Napoleon) for later. Absolutely delish. 

 

We had a late lunch back at Whole Foods courtesy of their salad bar. For dinner, we found a local-food-serving-local-sustainable-farming-supporting restaurant called Local 360. Yum!!! 

A lovely charceuterie and cheese plate for an appy, and then this amazing faro squash mushroom dish, which we added extra mushrooms and some brussel sprouts. Absolutely excellent!! 

For dessert we had these deep friend, tasty apple fritters with house made ice cream. 

Sadly I didn't think to take pictures before we devoured it.

We got home after 45 minutes in the border line up on Monday evening, starving and kinda broke. J wanted quinoa broccoli cheese casserole. So I obliged.

Um, hello yum!! I usually make my cream soup from scratch, since most canned stuff is a chemical shit storm. And I can't really eat it anyways. We ate this for lunches all week, since it makes such a huge portion.

On that Wednesday, I made black bean brownies for my knit night on the Friday. They are SO good and SO easy!! They also last forever. Plus kids would never know they are actually made with black beans instead of flour. Has. Really fudgy texture. Yum!!

 

Both recipes came off Pinterest, so if you follow me there you can find them easily. 

Other things I made this week off Pinterest, the Chana Masala chickpea curry and an amazing carrot curry coconut soup. Absolutely perfect for the weather we've had (cold, rainy, blustery). I'll post pictures of that in my next post!

Dinner, things you learn at farmers markets, and special friends

Last night we were privy to our amazing wedding-photographer-turned-friend joining us for dinner. She was in Vancouver shooting a wedding the day before, so came for dinner before heading back home.

(Picture from our wedding!!)  If you are looking for an amazing, intelligent, hard working, talented and artistic photographer (for anything, she climbs mountains for fun), we highly recommend Melissa Welsh Photography.  Each picture turned out perfectly and we were so impressed by the high quality and professionalism!  Also, she was so much fun to work with!!

We were much too busy having fun to take pictures, so instead you get leftover shots (guess what I'm having for dinner tomorrow!!).

Winter chanterelle risotto. Winter chanterelles are slightly different than regular chanterelles, smaller, more mushroomy taste, but just as buttery and delicious.

Kale and brussel sprout salad. Delish. Recipe below.

I also made chicken and roasted a kabocha squash. Yum!! 

Sour cherry pie from Her majesty's pie company, purchase at the farmers market! Aaaaaamazing! We served it with vanilla ice cream from Rocky Point Ice Cream company.

So delish.  

Lentils

I love lentils. I really do. I made my favourite dish last night for dinner (and this leftovers for my dinner at work today): baked lentils with cheese. Except I swapped out the cheese for yam tonight. Yuuuuummmmm.

This is a really great recipe that's quick to put together and you can toss it in the oven and mostly forget about it for awhile. The original recipe comes out if the More with Less cookbook, put out by the Mennonite church (association?). While I am not a Mennonite, the philosophy of this book hits the nail on the head. Mostly. But if you google it, you'll find the following recipe!

1 3/4 cup green lentils, rinsed and picked over

2 large onions (and they do mean Large)

2 cloves of garlic (yah right, try at least 7)

2 cups diced tomatoes***

2 cups water***

Salt (salt until it tastes salty, tomatoes take quite a bit of salt)

Pepper

2-3 sprigs of thyme

2-4 sage leaves

Bay leaf

(Original recipe suggests marjoram and rosemary, but I hate the latter and we never have any in our house).

Preheat oven to 375. Find a large baking dish (9x13 or larger). Mix all the above in a bowl, pour into the dish. Cover with a lid or tinfoil, bake for 30 mins.

Then add:

2 large carrots, sliced into 1/8" pieces

2 stalks of celery, diced.

Bake for another 40 mins.

Check for doneness, then top with grated cheese (2-3 cups) and broil until melted.

OR

Peel and chop 3-4 medium sized yams and steam them until they're cooked. Mash them with some butter and salt, spread on the finished lentils and toss em back in the oven for a few more minutes to dry out a bit on the top.

The secret to this dish is the insane amount of onion. No kidding. I made it once with less onion and it wasn't as exciting.

This also freezes well.

I would've taken more pictures, but alas I was too busy eating. ;)

Catching up

Shift work and general business makes your brain squishy.

Here's what I've been up to in the past few days (have finished a day and a night, have 1 more night tonight).

J wanted egg muffin things with bacon around the outside for breakfast one day, so I happily obliged since the last 2 pieces of bacon needed to get used up. These are a brilliant breakfast! I put very finely diced potatoes and peppers in the bottom, and then poured about an egg per muffin tin. I meant to add spinach but forgot. Topped with a little bit of goat cheese, and then into the oven for you!! These are a perfect breakfast to-go, since they can be frozen! I won't post a recipe since there are a million in Pinterest.

We made chicken salad rolls for dinner. Lots of veg, homemade peanut sauce and some baked chicken. J told me what she put in her sauce but I can't remember. These wrappers are square, they're also a good brand!! We've become partial to the square ones.

These take a fair amount of prep, but it's not totally obnoxious. Plus, people can customize their own rolls so there is less whining. We use mung-bean noodles. 

Any my awesome salad for my day shift! I had an overwhelming urge to consume sprouts, so I added those. Lettuce, pepper, cucumber, carrot, kohlrabi, sprouts, avocado, sunflower seeds, almonds, chickpeas and dried cranberries. With our homemade dressing. I made 4 of these, since yesterday we had a daytime event and needed a lunch. I added the rest of dinner's chicken to J's salads. 

I usually post my entire lineup of multiple-day lunches, but instead I thought I would just post one day. Left to right, top to bottom, B = breakfast and so on:

Granola (B), diced pear (B), apple-pumpkin crisp (D), squash chickpea curry with quinoa (D), salad (L), almond milk (B), apple, chocolate zucchini muffin, water bottle. 

Now that I've posted a whole week, including all my prep, I can see how much work I put into my meals, all the different elements that I made separately that come together. It does require forethought and planning, but it's not terrible.

Anyways, that's all I have to say for today. Dragging myself out of bed to get ready for night shift #2 tonight, which of course I woke up at 1430 and haven't fallen back asleep!

Loading up

Last week was international curry week, and I missed it! Alas, there is a lot of curry being eaten in this house.

I made a squash chickpea curry for dinner with quinoa. I made it this afternoon and then J was late coming home from school. By the time I actually got to eat it, I was so excited I forgot to take pictures. *sigh*

So you get leftover pictures instead.

But this squash, it is amazing. Red Kuri. I'm pretty sure this is the one Shannon gave me out of her CSA, as she had no plans for such a splendid gourd (my gain!). Looks like this:

(This is not my picture)

It smells amazing. It also completely disintegrates so you're left with this sweet, creamy taste. So good.

Red Kuri pumpkin curry with Chickpeas

1 very large onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 red Kuri pumpkin 

1 can coconut milk

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or if you make them from dried, just keep tossing them in until the quantity is sufficient)

Curry powder

Spinach

Salt

Heat a large pot or pan on low-medium heat. When its at temperature, add your oil (I use coconut oil), then add your onions. Throw down some salt. Stir them and leave them alone.

Peel, remove seeds and chop the squash into cubes. Crush your garlic. When the onions are translucent, add the squash and garlic. I covered it with a lid to keep the moisture in.

Add curry powder. No, I don't know how much, eye ball it. Tsbp?

Once things are starting to disintegrate, add the coconut milk. Stir everything and taste/adjust seasoning as necessary. Add the chickpeas. Cover and check on it/stir as needed until the squash is cooked. Before serving, throw in some spinach leaves until they wilt. Serve over rice, quinoa or noodles.

I didn't find that the squash mushed down all the way while cooking, but once I had containered it, it continued disintegrating into this gooey delicious mess. Yum. It's really not pretty, but so good. And easy. Also made enough for lunches for the next few days (and really, surviving shift work is ALL about the leftovers).

And then I got cocky and made dessert, which involved making something up. Pumpkin apple crisp. Here's a picture to make you drool. I have no idea what I used, and I sort of used 3 seperate recipes to make this, as I lack the gene which allows one to follow a recipe unaltered.

 

Recipe (as best I can remember)

4 large apples (peeled, cored and cubed)

2tbsp honey (use sugar if you don't want to use honey)

Cinnamon. Lots.

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup milk (almond for me)

1 egg

Pumpkin pie spices (cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon).

Dash of molasses

2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups Flour (GF flour here)

1/2 cup brown sugar

Cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix everything except the apples together in a bowl. Dump in the apples. Pour it into a large baking dish (I believe mine is 9x13).

Mix all the topping ingredients together. Pour overtop of the apple mixture. Pop into oven. Go crazy while you wait for it to cook.

I think mine took close to an hour.

So delish, and now I have a giant pan of this stuff for work/school! Yay!!

Easy dinner

So I made this *fabulous* item off the Budget Bytes website (love love love her food, it's *so* good, and I can so easily sub in different things).

YUM YUM YUM YUM

Salsa chicken casserole.  Seriously, I was eating this at 10pm with a spoon.  Dangerous stuff.  Except I made it without chicken.  And now I'm defrosting chicken to add in because my wife wants chicken in it.  *sigh*  I even added extra beans (she likes teasing me about my undying love of rice and beans).

I used brown rice, added an extra 1/2 cup of water, didn't add the chicken, had a small accident with the chili powder (so it's got way more kick than I intended).  I also forgot to add cheese.  But OH LORDY is it good!!!  Definitely a good freezer meal choice.  My wife refuses to allow me to own a slow-cooker (she says that after 6 hours there's zero nutritional value left in the food), so I have to settle for slow-cooker modified dishes. I will probably buy one eventually to spite her (who else can one spite except their spouse??)

In the meantime, here's a picture of the finished product.  I plan to send this to school with J in the AM for lunch, along with some chicken (currently in the oven) and some plain yogurt (we lack sour cream in this house).  I think it will be quite delicious!