Chickpeas, Honey and Lime

Not sure if they make better ingredients than things like chickpeas, local honey, fresh limes, ripe tomatoes and garlic - I can't imagine they do.

I made this recipe with a mix of a bunch of salads I had seen online, and this is definitely a winner. Make it your own and enjoy! Mix up the ratios to make it look as delicious as you want. Here is what I put in mine

Salad:
2 cups chickpeas (or 1 can)
2 cups black beans (or 1 can)
1 cucumber, diced however you like (I cut circles then quarter them)
2-3 tomatoes, into medium sized chunks
1 carrot, peeled and cut the same as you do with the cucumbers
1 1/2 cup corn kernels (or 1 can)
1/2 bunch cilantro, diced

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (the juice of about 2 medium limes)
1.5 tbsp of honey
1 clove of garlic, diced

Mix and enjoy! Makes a great contribution to a potluck, or a great school lunch. Even a small serving is filling but not heavy, and it tastes so fresh!

Al & K's Cilantro Coconut Curry

L to R: Kathleen, Tom, Greg, Allison

Allison and Kathleen are a couple of the lovely new friends I have made here  - who also appreciates how much fun cooking together is!

Kathleen and I bake bread and cakes a lot, and Al and I decided to make a big group dinner last week. They live with 3 guys as well, all volunteers with Jesuit Volunteers International, so they take turns making dinner for everyone, it was really fun to take part! Who doesn't love eating with a table full of friends?

 Here is the delicious curry recipe we created, after abandoning all the recipes we had been reading.

Al & K's Cilantro Coconut Curry

Ingredients:
Cilantro Mix:
Approx 11/2 cups coconut milk
1 small bunch of cilantro (if you also happen to be in PG: $1 worth)
Juice of one lime
1 clove of garlic
1" chopped fresh ginger root

Main Dish:
Olive oil to saute
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot
3 medium tomatos
2 diced bell peppers (we used green)
1 can chickpeas
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
salt to taste
1 cup coconut ilk

Brown or white rice (1/2 cup dry per person)


How to do it:
Chop and add all "Cilantro Mix" ingredients to a blender and blend until it smells like heaven. (Leave out the cilantro if you are Alix or Jessica ;) Set aside.

Over medium heat, sauté minced garlic 30 seconds, and add diced onion. Sauté until translucent. Add carrot, tomatoes and peppers (and any other veggies you want - we considered beans, potato or peas) and let cook a while until carrots are soft. Add chickpeas (and/or chicken, tofu) and let warm/brown 3-5 minutes. Add the curry powder, turmeric and salt, let it toast for about a minute.

Add 1 cup of coconut milk and stir to mix the colour and awesome flavours. Bring to a boil for about 2 minutes. Start by adding half of the blended mix, taste and more if desired. Let the flavours mix until it gets even more delicious.

Serve over brown or white rice. It was great with the brown rice, but an alternative is to make jasmine, basmati or plain white rice and mix it with the rest of the cilantro mix to make coconut rice, also yummy!

Last step: Enjoy with friends.

A Thanksgiving Blessing

A prayer/blessing/wish for you and your kitchens on this weekend of food, family and friends:

May this kitchen be so filled with peace
That all who eat food prepared here receive peace
May this kitchen be so filled with happiness
That all who eat food prepared here receive happiness
May this kitchen be so filled with good will
That working here is a joy
Bless this kitchen
Bless all work work here
Bless the food that is prepared here
May this kitchen and the work done here be a blessing to all who live.

From May All Be Fed by John Robbins

Happy Thanksgiving everyone - remember to carry this feeling of gratitude for your friends, family, health and food with you throughout the year. We are blessed to have delicious, healthy food to nourish us and to share with people we love and who love us. Enjoy it today, and enjoy it every day <3 

Hummus Melts

Mm mm hummus. And spinach. And cheese. Ok, everything about this recipe is awesome.

Hummus Melts

I found this recipe on one of my favourite food blogs (neverhome)maker.com. You can find their original post here.

Time: 20 mins, tops?

Ingredients:
Splash of olive oil to saute
As many cloves of garlic as you like
A couple handfuls of fresh spinach per side of English muffin
1 full English muffin per person
Approx 1.5 tbsp hummus (plain or garlic) per side of  English muffin
Handful of shredded cheese to top each side of English muffin (mozzarella really is best, like their blog says)

How-to:
1. Toast the muffin(or muffins, believe me, you won't want to share) and heat oil on medium in pan.
2. Saute garlic and spinach in pan until it smells amazing and remember to leave the heat pretty low because burnt garlic smells the opposite of amazing.
3. Spread hummus on toasted English muffin
4. Turn on broiler
5. Top hummus with sauted spinach and shredded cheese.
6. Broil until cheese is browned on top.
Let it cool and enjoy! Usually I'm bad for letting things cool because I really want to eat them but this one is really hot with the cheese and the spinach. Much more enjoyable if you have patience!

Snack size! 

SNACK IDEA: My mom and I love these, and we came up with some fun ways to serve these for parties or as appys.

A) follow steps 1-4 then cut the English muffins into strips before topping with spinach and cheese. Voila! Hummus melt fingers!

B) Haven't tried this yet but you could make fingers with panini bread cut into sticks too, to make them more evenly shaped.

C) My friend Sam told me she ran out of hummus and made it with a salsa we made over the weekend for tacos, sounds like an awesome alternative!

D) As part of my birthday morning breakfast (although these can be for any time of the day!) we made these on slider buns, those mini hamburger buns. Perfect individual size and easy to eat with your hands! Definitely a winner.


I'm sure these would be even better with homemade hummus, an adventure I will tackle another day.
Happy eating!

Pita Chips & Blogging!

So I have recently become addicted to scouring the internet for food blogs and of course that means I'm also cooking a lot! So between great recipes from food blogs and the great cookbooks people help me find - I have so seriously delicious food to share with you all! I also have lots of other things to share as well, things that colour my world. Things like great books and interesting and enlightening videos! Most recently, I've started gardening for the first time ever, other than a sad little flower garden my friend I planted in the shade next to my playhouse when we were little. Hopefully my thumb has gotten a little greener since then! All these things add colour my days, so I decided to start blogging to share them with my friends and family, I hope you enjoy!! 

So to start off this blog of things that colour my world, here's one of my favourite snacks, and it's super easy! 

Pita Chips

All the ingredients you need

• Bag of pita chips I usually use one of the giant bags, so I can make a lot! This bag can be fresh or even older pitas that you want to use up before they go bad! They taste great no matter what. 
• Olive Oil 
• Parmesan Cheese Now, fresh cheese is best for almost all recipes but not this one. Get the dried pre-shredded stuff.
• Garlic Salt
• Oregano
• Cookie Sheets Preferably with parchment paper!
• Scissors Remember to clean them before you use them on food! 

Step Two

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees, and get cookie sheets out and put parchment paper on if you have it. 

2. Open pitas or cut the edges off. Fresh pitas are easily pulled apart without ripping them, but older ones can be cut. Using scissors cut around the edge so that the pita can be pulled apart to get two round pieces. 

3. Brush or spray the inside-side of the pita with olive oil.

4. Cut the pitas into chip size pieces (I usually cut it in half, to make a semi circle. Then cut that in half, and into triangles, some of which need to be cut in half again because they're too big.)

5. Spread out evenly on the cookies sheets, with the inside, olive oil side up. 

6. Sprinkle with garlic salt, and then Parmesan and oregano. All to your own taste! 

7. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes at 400 F. Really watch your chips, they can burn really fast. You want them to be brown and crunchy and chip-y. Cooked too little and they'll still be chewy, cooked too much and they'll be burnt. 

8. Remove and let cool for a couple minutes, before you serve with salsa, hummus or your favourite dips! I usually store them in the plastic bag the pitas came in to help them stay fresh. 

Enjoy this delicious and easy snack (that's definitely healthier than regular chips, and equally as delicious!) 

Yum Yum!