You might not know this, but I have a dairy kitchen and haven’t prepared meat for over 20 years. This is one of the reasons why I post so many salad recipes!! I truly do love eating salads and when I have guests over that don’t eat dairy or wheat….then it’s a great opportunity for me to try out new recipes!!  The menu included: tuna burgers (see previous post), kale salad, napa cabbage salad with lemon pistachio vinaigrette, sesame tofu, and dessert. A perfect combo of protein and vegetables.

I have made napa cabbage salads before but  always with an asian vinaigrette. This recipe appealed to me as it WAS TOTALLY different. My only complaint was I had to shell the pistachios as I didn’t have time to find them unshelled. Not the end of the world.

When I was growing up, my mom made salmon burgers. But I’m not crazy about the smell of canned salmon so I started to make tuna burgers. They are easy to make, nutritious (I think) and freeze beautifully. Here’s the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

4 tins of tuna

4 eggs

2 cups of breadcrumbs (preferably real breadcrumbs. I always seem to have some in my freezer. I’m normal. I swear)

parsley

salt and pepper

a chunk of red onion

DIRECTIONS:

1. Take all the ingredients and whiz them up in a food processor.

2. Shape into patties

3. Drop into a frying pan with a bit of oil.

 

FINAL PRODUCT

I’m going to serve these yummy tuna burgers with an assortment of condiments: mango chutney, Maille mustard, jalepeno jelly, and more. I collect condiments. Did you know?

I will also be serving them along side some roasted organic veggies that were graciously delivered by Fresh City Farms. I was blown away with the flavor of these vegetables. What a difference it makes. Can’t wait to share these veggies with my guests:

Other items I will be serving include a kale salad with curry sesame seeds and a lemon pistachio napa cabbage salad. Promise to post those two recipes on Wednesday so make sure you come back to www.momwhoruns.com!!

Happy Cooking!!

For some reason I’ve never made a pavlova before.  But my friend assured me, that it’s super easy to make so I tried it. I searched online (for a change) to find a recipe  (thanks AllRecipes.com) and before you know it my Kitchen Aid was on full blast whipping up egg whites. What I didn’t know, is that it takes A LOT OF  TIME TO BAKE. This is not at all like making cookies!! However it’s worth it.

Here’s the recipe: (taken from AllRecipes.com)

In the past, I’ve made crisps, crumbles and cobblers. Now I can add  “BUCKLE” to that list as I just made my very first Huckleberry Buckle. That’s right,…I used the huckleberries that I picked up at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market.

After a lot of research on the internet, I selected a recipe from AllRecipes.com.

I am not going to tell you that this recipe was a winner, infact the final result was HORRIFIC.!! I  actually spit out the huckleberry and so did others. Trust me…I like almost everything. It’s hard for me to remember the last time I spit out food. But this FRUIT is not very likeable. It’s not sour, i’ts not sweet., it’s just FOUL. The buckle was a hit though. I would certainly use this recipe again but would use raspberries or blueberries instead.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups Hucklberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup of butter

3/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Place the huckleberries in a bowl and add the boiling water and sugar. (I then drained it after 10 minutes due to a readers comment on allrecipes).

Grab another bowl, and mix the flour, baking powder and salt.

Grab yet one more bowl and cream the butter and sugar.

Take the flour mixture and add it to the butter/sugar mixture. Then stir in the milk. The mixture will be thick and lumpy.

Spread the batter into a greased pan. (I used a pie plate) Pour the huckleberrie mixture ontop of the batter. Dot with remaining butter. (I dotted it with a bit of batter too for “visual appeal”)

Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. I read another comment that suggested to place a pan underneath your pie plate in the event that it bubbles over. Great advice. Oh how I love comments that are posted on the internet.

FINAL RESULT

PS I had another 2.5 cups of huckleberries left and I threw them out. Won’t be buying this fruit anytime in the near future but will certainly be baking another buckle again with another type of berry!! Stay tuned

I’ve made a ton of blueberry crisps, mixed fruit crumbles but have never made a peach cobbler before. So I decided to try a recipe and it was so good that I made it two times in one week. That’s how easy it was to make and that’s how delicious it was.

I don’t know about you but I kind of like recipes that don’t require any heavy duty equipment. This recipe is one of them. You just need a few bowls…one for the topping and one for the flour mixture. I didn’t even have buttermilk on hand but made my own and the recipe worked!! Yay for the internet.

Here’s a winning recipe from the Food Network.

Ingredients

 Filling:

• 4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds to remove the skins)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon flour

Cobbler

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar, for topping
• Whipped cream (which would have been nice but I didn’t have it…nor did I have ice cream which also would have been nice)

Directions

I made kale chips a few times last year but seeing as I’m on this no carb diet..I’ve kicked it up a notch and have been making Kale Chips on a regular basis. I will be honest with you…I MISS real potato chips and I miss my relationship with popcorn. However I know that eating Kale Chips is a much healthier option for me and my body is saying thank you in a different way!!

First step: Please go to a Farmers’ Market and buy your kale. Any Farmers’ Market will do. The stuff at the grocery store is OK but not nearly as beautiful as the kale you will see at a Farmers’ Market.

2. Step Two: Wash the Kale and dry it really really well. Seriously..this is important. PS I’m not good at this step and rushing thru it but I really shouldn’t it.

3. Step Three: Take scissors and clip the leaves from the stem. This was a brilliant tip I picked up somewhere and makes your life A LOT easier when making Kale Chips

4. Step Three: Lay the kale on a baking pan. Sprinkle with salt  and drizzle with olive oil. Someone on twitter (oops I forgot who this was) suggested I try sesame oil and tamari sauce. I did and I liked it but I think I prefer just the salt and the olive oil recipe

5. Step Four: Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8 minutes. Open the door and move the leaves around with a spatula. Close the door and continue to bake for another 3-5 minutes.

6. FINAL PRODUCT:

I’m already to watch the last few days of the Olympics..I’ve got my snacks and my low carb beer. What more could I ask for? LOL

 

I’m not in love with tofu but I know it’s a good source of protein for me. Plus I know that it will absorb any flavors I have hanging around my kitchen!! So I came up this recipe that I must say – is pretty good. Just for this occasion…I actually measured out the ingredients. You can thank me later.

This can be used as a side dish or as a main course with some rice. I even snack on it. It’s an unusual snack but don’t forget I’m on a carb free diet (still).

One more idea: you could add this sauce to a bowl of pasta. Last nite, I added it to these tofu noodles I have been buying. Needless to say – it’s a versatile sauce.

PEANUTTY  TOFU:

This is what you need:

Ingredients:

1/2 package of EXTRA FIRM tofu, cut up into small chunks

Sauce:

1 tablespoon grated garlic

1 tablespoon grated ginger (organic ..it makes a difference. Really)

1/4 cup natural peanut butter (again it makes a difference)

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon tamari sauce

1 tsp honey

2 tablespoons of water (or more..depends how thick you like your sauce)

salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD

1. Prepare the sauce by adding all the ingredients together in a small bowl – stir, stir, stir

2. Lightly sautee the ginger and the garlic in a frying pan

3. Add the chunks of tofu

4. Add the sauce – stir stir stir

FINAL RESULT:

Do you have a favorite tofu dish? Please don’t hesitate to share it with me!! (hint)

 

 

Blueberries were on sale (3 containers for $5) so I decided to test out three different blueberry muffin recipes.

One recipe has a crunchy topping on it, one recipe has freshly grated nutmeg and lemon zest in it, and one recipe is traditional. I think that all three recipes produced three tasty muffins and I would certainly make all three recipes again without hesitation. I don’t know about you but I l love anything with blueberries in it. Blueberry crisp is another one of my favorites. The blueberries turn all gooey when they are baking and make a lovely goo-ey filling.

I also wanted to share a little trick I learned when making muffins.  Try spraying the paper liners with Pam. You will notice that the liners peel off nicely from the muffins when you use Pam. Wish I knew where I learned this trick from but it’s a good one.

Recipe #1: To Die for Blueberry Muffins (taken from AllRecipes.com)

This is the recipe that has the crunchy topping on it.  Please pay attention to step #2. I almost goofed this part up.

FINAL RESULT

Recipe #2: Blueberry Muffins (taken from Canadian Living)

Super easy to make with super results.

Preparation

Recipe #3: Blueberry Muffins (taken from the Food Network)

I actually bought a fresh nutmeg for this recipe!!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar (white or light brown) plus more for sprinkling on top of the muffins (I didn’t sprinkle any on my muffins)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
• Freshly grated nutmeg…(ha..I did this step)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup whole milk (had skim milk in the fridge and the recipe still worked)
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

Directions

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to spend an incredible day with Farmers Feed Cities. We started off the tour with a visit to Quiet Acre Farms in Niagara on the Lake, where we had an up close and personal visit with their peach orchards.

But what caught my attention were these round zucchini at their roadside stall.

It was exactly the type of inspiration that I needed to get back me into the kitchen, seeing as I have done ZERO cooking for the last month. Have you noticed my blog posts (recently) have been about every topic except recipes? Well that has all changed. This trip really inspired me.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 round zucchini

1/2 a container grape tomatoes, cut in half

small chunk of feta cheese

8 black olives (I like Unico ripe oil cured…in a jar)

1/2 onion, chopped finely

1 garlic clove, minced finely

Italian seasoning

METHOD

1. Slice the top off the zucchini and scoop out the inside.

2. Fry the onions and garlic till aromatic . Then add the grape tomotoes, olives, italian seasoning till everything is kinda soft.

3. Stuff into the hollow space of the zucchini. Top with some crumbled feta. Bake on a baking sheet in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Voila…dinner.

Please note that I’m on a no carb diet, otherwise I probably would have added some bread crumbs to this recipe.

If you see these round zucchinis at a farmers market – please pick some up!! You won’t find these in a grocery store. I promise you. For more information about farmers markets, please click here.

Upcoming Blog Post: Canning Peaches!! Stay tuned.