Quinoa Pudding

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #quinoa

This morning I had some coconut milk and quinoa on hand that needed to be used.

I decided to try making Asian inspired quinoa pudding. In the past I made it with glutinous rice but quinoa works really well too.

Ingredients:

1c quinoa

0.5c coconut milk 

1c water

0.5t Cinnamon

0.25t Cardamom, ground

2T honey 

1. Cook quinoa in coconut milk and water for about 15 min. Stir occasionally. 

2. Add all remaining ingredients, mix well.

3. Enjoy!

Happy Fathers Day Cheesecake: Cheesecake Heaven

Today finally I got to do the recipe for a cheesecake that I created in my head a few weeks ago. I am very pleased that it worked out so well and the consistency and sweetness was just right. It is my Happy Fathers Day Cheesecake, enjoy!

It is a raw inspired cake, hence so flour, no eggs, no sugar...and also no baking!

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Soaking time: 30 minutes
Freezer time: 30 minutes
Cooking/baking time: 0 minutes

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #nosugar #glutenfree

Ingredients:
Crust
1c walnuts, soaked for about 30 minutes
0.5c almonds, soaked overnight
12 dates (I soaked mine as they were a little hard), you can use rasins, prunes, or figs instead
1t lemon juice
0.5t vanilla powder
1t cinnamon
0.5t nutmeg

Cheesecake
500g pressed cottage cheese or quark
0.25-0.5c macadania nuts
2 bananas

Topping
1c raspberries
4 dates

1. Prepare crust by processing all crust ingredients together until they blend well together. The consistency should be very dense and sticky.
Press them with your hands to the tart pan (I use tart pan with removable bottom).
2. Blend all cheesecake ingredients together until very smooth. The consistency should be fairly dense.
Spoon the cheesecake to the tart pan and arrange it nicely.
3. Place the cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
4. Prepare the topping by blending raspberries (reserving some whole ones for decoration) with dates. Blend it to the desired consistency.
5. Put the topping on the cake once it is removed from the freezer or you can top each portion as they are being cut out. The cake needs to be kept in the fridge.
6. Enjoy!

Cabbage Mishmash (Bigos)

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #leftoversstation

This is another recipe for leftovers - today we are using leftovers meats, in my case Italian sausage, mushrooms and sauerkraut. This recipe  draws from my Polish roots where cabbage is frequently consumed.

Ingredients:
1.5c Fresh cabbage, grated
1.5c Sauerkraut
1t caraway seeds (you can use powder if you prefer)
2 Portobello mushrooms, chopped
leftover sausage, and any other meats, chopped
3T butter


1. Add a little bit of butter and cook caraway seeds until they start popping, do not let them burn. If you are using powder caraway add it in step 2.
2. Add cabbage, sauerkraut, and butter and cook on a medium low heat for about 15-20 minutes.
3. Add meats and mushrooms and cook for another 20 minutes.
4. Enjoy!

The best part is that you cannot overcook it, the longer you cook it the better it is. It tastes great the following day after being reheated. There is no need to add any other spices as your meats will already have some.

Nutritious Broccoli: Broccoli Tart

Here is another recipe I created with my broccoli supply obtained at $1 this week.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #broccoli

Tart:
1c unbleached white flour
0.5t salt
25g butter, softened
0.25c cold water

1. Mix all the ingredients and work them with you hand until smooth. It will take about 15 minutes.
2. Roll the dough with a rolling pin until fairly thin. If you worked the dough really well you will not need to add extra, else you may need to add some to help you roll.
3. Put the dough on the tart pan, press it to the bottom and then roll it will the rolling pin so any access dough cuts off.
4. Mark it with the fork, and place in the freezer for 10-20 min.

Tart toppings:
1c broccoli
1c of other veggies I used leftovers from making pizza - yellow pepper, spinach leaves, tomatoes. Also I had a little bit of tomato sauce left so I used it.
0.5 medium onion, chopped
1 egg
3/4c milk
1T cheese, grated

5. Preheat the oven to 177c.
6. Cook tomato sauce with onion for about 5 minutes.
7. Place cooled tart crust in the oven for 7 minutes.
8. Spread the tomato sauce, then add mixed remaining toppings other than milk and egg.
9. Beat an egg with milk until fluffy. Pour over the toppings. Sprinkle with cheese.
10. Bake for 40-50 minutes.
11. Enjoy!

Simply the best: Pizza with broccoli

This week I found broccoli at a very special price of $1, which is about 1/3 of its usual price. I could not stop myself from buying a whole week supply.
As a result this week I was serving variety of broccoli dishes besides using them as a side dish.

Today I am going to share with you my not so secret pizza recipe that is super easy to make. Another benefit is that and you end up with 6 pizza dough supplies, which for  us is approximately two months worth of supplies of quick and delicious dinners. When I tried to make this dough for the first time, about a year ago, I was amazed how good it was. In opinion of several people who tried it, it is of a top pizza restaurant quality. Every time I make it I am never disappointed with the results, it is consistently good and is definitely the best pizza dough I ever found, and I tried quite a few over the years.

The pizza dough recipe comes from the book "The Bread Maker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. Overall it is a great book that explain principles of break making. You can find the book on Amazon; it is well worth having it in your cookbook collection.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #pizza

Pizza dough (makes 6 pizzas):
4.5 c unbleached white flour (I used 2c white floor and 2.5c whole wheat and it worked well too)
1.75t salt
1t instant yeast
0.25c olive oil
1.75c water

1. Work the dough for about 15 minutes until it is very smooth.
2. Divide the dough into 6 even pieces, roll them into balls and put them into plastic bags coated with olive oil. You can freeze them for future use.
3. If you saved one portion put it in the fridge for a few hours. If you are using frozen one, defrost it in the fridge for 2 days before use.
4. Preheat oven to the maximum temperature.
5. Sprinkle some cornmeal or semolina on the pan or mat you are going to bake you pizza and roll your pizza with your hands until flat.

Tomato sauce
1c fresh tomatoes chopped (I often use 1 small can of  tomato paste, or canned tomatoes)
0.5 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crashed and chopped
1 T oregano
0.5t basil
some butter for frying onion and garlic

1. Saute onion and garlic with some butter, for a few minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Cook for about 15-20 minutes at a medium low heat (gas mark 2.8-3), stirring occasionally.

Usually I set the oven to preheat to the maximum temperature and in a meantime prepare the sauce and chop all the vegetables I am using on my pizza.
Right before the oven reaches the desired temperature I take my pizza dough from the fridge and shape it into pizza pie with my hands. Then spread generous portion of the tomato sauce, and put toppings on top. For toppings this time I used: spinach leaves, tomatoes, yellow pepper, broccoli, and cheese.

1. Put assembled pizza in the oven for 15 minutes and immediately lower the heat to 177c.
I bake my pizza on the non stick mat that I place on the pizza stone (the mat works really well as it is easy to transfer pizza to a pizza plate after baking since it cools off really fast).
2. Enjoy!

Leftover chilli with a face lift

We had chilli for a couple of days, I don't think we would be able to handle another day of the same ... Too booting for us! Today we only had some left, which was not enough to feed even one of us. Usually that would most likely end up in the bin as it was not enough for anyone to bother with reheating it (we don't have a microwave) and no one wanting to eat chilli once again.

Since I starting paying more attention to what we throw away I noticed that number one reason is leftovers in smaller quantities. Since we cook on daily basis we do not tend to throw away as much in unused spoiled produce - we do inventory eve two days what has to be used within next 4 days - it seems to be working well.

I am going to share how the boring chilli received a facelift. For this recipe you can use any other one-pot dish that you are left with.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #leftoversstation

Preparation: 5 minutes

Baking: 25 min

Serves 3

Ingredients:

6 slices of bread, for this recipe white bread works best as it has higher gluten content and will hold together better. I used Ezekiel and it was quite challenging to work with. 

Leftovers chilli or any other one-pot dish

2T cheese, grated

Some water

1. Preheat your oven to 177c. In a meantime prepare you muffin form by spreading a little bit of butter.

2. Cut out bread crust from your bread slices. Roll bread slices flat with a rolling pin. If you bread is not very fresh or if it not a white bread you will need to use some water.

3. Put rolled bread in the muffin forms. Make sure you don't have any major holes. Sprinkle a little bit of cheese if you have any holes. Place in the oven for 5-7 minutes.

4. Take muffin form out of the oven. Fill forms out with your leftovers and sprinkle some cheese on top. Put in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.

5. In a meantime prepare veggies to go with the dish. I prepared blanched green beans and some chopped tomatos with whole olives.

6. Enjoy!

Anniversary Celebrations: Prune Stuffed Pork and Fennel Chutney

For this year's anniversary dinner I decided to use organic pork tenderloin that I got at a great price of $3.15. I also had some beets and fennel bulb that needed to be used.

The dish is inspired by my mom's pork recipe with my fennel chutney invention from a couple of years ago. Since both use prunes I thought it will be a perfect dinner.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #fennelchutney

Preparation time: 10 min
Cooking and baking time: 1 hour
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
8-10 prunes for the stuffing
salt and pepper

Fennel Chutney
1 fennel bulb, chopped to small pieces
6 prunes, chopped into small pieces
0.5-1T brown sugar
2T fruity vinegar (usually I use fig infused vinegar but I also used apple cider vinegar in this recipe in the past)
40g butter
0.5c red wine (optional)



1. Place chopped fennel with butter on a medium heat (gas mark 3-3.5) for about 15 minutes.
2. Add sugar and vinegar to the chutney and lower the heat (gas mark 2.8). Cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add prunes and lower the heat to gas mark 1.8. Cook for about 30 minutes before adding wine.
4. Cut the tenderloin horizontally making a pocket. Stuff it with prunes and then tie it with a thread so prunes do not fall out during cooking.
5. Season the meat right before searing it. Sear the meat briefly on each side on a very hot pan, then transfer to a baking dish. Place in the preheated oven (preheat to the max) and lower the temperature to 177c. Baking time is between 40 min to 1 hour depending on the size of the tenderloin.
6. Take the meat out of the oven and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Cut rested meat into slices removing thread before serving.
7. I served it with sweet potatoes rosted with dried thyme, and blanched beet roots.
8. Enjoy!

Anniversary Celebration: Healthy Chocolate Pudding

Today's is our 15th wedding anniversary so I decided to whip up a dessert as part of the celebration  - Happy Anniversary to Us!

Usually we do not eat desserts as we favour savoury food over sweet. However, some 4 years ago I was inspired by raw food and experimented quite a lot with raw food techniques. Today I still use many of those ideas and techniques in my cooking, especially in desserts.

Healthy Chocolate Pudding was created from ingredients I had on hand today and key ingredients combination that I know work well (banana and avocado - one of my favourite smoothies). It came out really tasty so I decided to share it.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #rawdesserts
Preparation time 5 minutes
Fridge time: 30 min to 1 hour
Serves 3

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
5 -7 dates (depending how ripe is your banana)
1.5 T lemon juice
0.5c of water or any kind of milk you like
0.5c whipping cream (optional)
1T lucuma powder (optional, it give more caramel taste)
1.5T carob powder (I used raw)
1.5T cocoa powder (I used raw)
0.5t vanilla powder (I used raw)

1. Put all ingredients except whipping cream in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add whipping cream and blend for another 30 seconds.
3. Put in the serving cups and place in the fringe for 30 minutes.
4. Enjoy!

Veggies time: Baked daikon

One of our grocery cost cutting strategies involves hunting for deals, which I am going to call "Food Deal of the Week" category.
During our last shopping we found daikon at a super low price. One smaller size daikon cost us $0.86, which is about 1/3 of the regular price. We also found leeks to be at 1/3 of their regular price, which is a great news however, we only managed to get one last bunch which won't be enough for experiments as we use a lot of leeks in soups.

I decided to try something new with daikon. Typically I would grate it or slice it and eat it raw in salads or on its own.

#easyfoodcreations #fooddealoftheweek #healthyeating

Preparation: 2 min
Cooking and baking: 25 min
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 small dikon, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces
2-3T soy sauce
1T sesame oil
1t green curry paste
1T grated cheese

1. Cook daikon for about 5 minutes in boiling water or broth.
2. Dry daikon, coat it in the mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, and curry paste. Heat the pan with some oil and fry on a high heat for about 2 minutes on each side, until lightly brown.
3. Transfer daikon to the baking pan, top it with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven to 177c for 15-20 minutes, until cheese gets slightly brown.
4. Serve on a bed of spinach leaves.
5. Enjoy!