President's Choice Quinoa

I'm starting to think I should be a spoke's person for PC products from superstore; I use them all of the time and I love telling people about them. My newest find is the roasted garlic and herb quinoa. I use this in my famous quinoa salad; I get a lot of requests for this salad. My nephews baby dedication is tomorrow and because of illness in our household we are unable to go but I was still requested to send my quinoa salad. Of course! Little do they realize that this salad is so easy.

I cook the quinoa as per the instructions on the box and by the time the quinoa is cooked I have assembled the rest of the salad.

The quinoa takes 15 minutes.

I choose a huge bowl and shred peeled carrots into it; gotta love my 45 cup Tupperware bowl with a lid(thanks Steph!).

I add in mint and parsley that I washed and chopped up.

Next I finely chop up thoroughly washed celery and add that in.

Next I get out all of my dressing ingredients:

Orange(zest and juice), lemon honey, soya sauce, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, sea salt, cracked black pepper and powdered ginger.

I add all of these ingredients right into my bowl of garnish. I do this all by taste but I use the idea of 2/3 acid to 1/3 oil.

Craisins

I mix this up and you want this to be over seasoned since you're adding in a whole bunch of quinoa.

I fluff the quinoa with a fork and then mix in the warm quinoa into the garnish.

This can be served right away as a warm quinoa salad or this will stay good in the fridge for up to a week. I love this served warm with a nice piece of grilled salmon.

So there you have it. I made the salad and had my kitchen cleaned up within 20 minutes; now that's an easy recipe!

Speaking of superstore; when we saw this sign last week Aubrey asked if she could take Chef Lynn cookies.

This was posted on Chef Lynn's Instagram; this was so fun for Aubrey. What a special memory; and again we love superstore!

6 week bran muffin mix

I have made a couple of batches of bran muffin mix to keep in the fridge and the recipe that worked the best was the following:

After re-reading the recipe right now I realize I used all-bran cereal not natural wheat bran but they were the best bran muffin I've ever made. I also used oil instead of butter since that's what I had on hand but I would of preferred to use butter.

This recipe fills a 4 litre icecream pail. This is the perfect container to keep the batter sealed in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

Another key about this recipe is the baking time and temperatures. Bake at 425F for 5 minutes and then 20-22 minutes on 375F and then leave the muffins in the tin for 10 minutes to cool. This makes great muffin tops; which is my favourite part!

This batter is so great to have on hand and be able to whip up fresh muffins every couple of days. The kids love it for  breakfast or a quick snack!

I had to share the excitement from our shopping trip today. Chef Lynn is coming to our superstore this week! Aubrey wants to bake her cookies and see if we win or get chopped. I'll let you know how it goes!

Taco soup for the week

Just one of those weeks where it seemed like a bit more work to choose to be positive but we made it! A few dental visits, work schedules, a teething one year and we chose our way through a week full of sunshine. Thanking God for friends to walk with, eat with and awesome time to reflect on being thankful.

How privledged we are to have healthcare in this beautiful country. A little much needed perspective can change the mood of a situation; that's for sure!

So now to the food; I made a big pot of taco soup and ate it all week topped with my favourite garnishes. Fast and easy! 

I pulled out all of the vegetables I had in my fridge; some things needed to be used and this was the perfect vehicle.

I diced up two onions, a few ribs of celery, two peeled carrots and sautéed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, a ton of cumin and chili powder. I then added in three links of Italian sausage that I removed from their casings. Once the sausage was almost all cooked and had some colour on it I deglazed the Dutch oven with a half a bottle of left over red wine and simmered this for about ten minutes. I added in one can of whole tomatoes that I had blitzed smooth and 1 litre of chicken stock. This filled my large Dutch oven pot.

I brought  this up to a simmer for about 30 minutes and then added in two chopped bell peppers, and a rinsed can of Romano beans.

Lastly I added some frozen corn and chopped cilantro with the stem.

I basically brought this up to temperature and then it was ready to serve.

I love a bowl of this topped with sourcream, shredded cheese, taco chips and a few dashes of chipotle Tabasco!

The soup gets better and better everytime I have a bowl; even the kids are loving it.

Now with my pot almost empty I'm dreaming up what to fill it with next?!

With all the nice weather we've been having it was great to be outside and less time in the kitchen.

Happy Friday!

Last minute coconut green curry soup

What a lovely day we've had; we were at home as a family and had no plans. We woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground and stayed in our pjs until noon, baked cookies and made plans for the afternoon. 

We ended up going to our favourite burger place and enjoyed the decadence!

After lunch we visited with some friends and made our way home around 6pm. For those of you that know me this is very late! We eat around 5 usually; at the latest!

I was craving spicy coconut curry soup and couldn't think about eating out twice in one day so I thought of how quickly I could whip it up.

I heated up the Dutch oven with a generous amount of olive oil. I then sautéed 2 thinly sliced onions and 4 sliced ribs of celery with powdered ginger and a heaping tablespoon of green curry paste. I let this sautée for about 15 minutes and then I added in 2 thinly sliced green peppers. 

I added in a can of coconut milk and a box of stock.

I added in chunks of sautéed chicken, frozen corn and a handful of cilantro.

After I tasted it I felt it was a little bitter from the green pepper so I added in a few teaspoons of lemon infused honey. That was just what it needed especially since I was wishing I had a lime for some acid.

And voila; all done!

This was the perect ending to a terrific day; I'm so thankful!

Morning glory

Aubrey was looking for something fun to do and I was wanting to have a snack on hand for hungry Liam; baking muffins it is!

2 cups AP flour

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

quarter teaspoon salt 

2 cups shredded carrots 

A half a cup raisins 

A half a cup walnuts 

A half a cup unsweetened coconut

One apple peeled cored and shredded three eggs 

1 cup of oil 

2 teaspoons of vanilla

One of the most comforting

Muffin recipes I have is the morning glory muffin. This recipe is my go to!

You mix all of the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Separatly we combined the shredded carrots and apples then added in the toasted coconut, sultana raisins and walnuts.

Aubrey didn't want to waste the carrot ends so she helped us out!

There's a quick snapshot of Liam; he's on the move!

In the mixer we whipped the sugar, eggs, vanilla and oil together.

Then we added in the carrot mixture and beat that with the paddle attachment.

Then we added in the dry ingredients just until combined.

Once Aubrey gave the thumbs up; we were ready to portion the batter into our parchment lined muffin tins. These are my new favourite muffin liners; they don't stick which allows you to enjoy the entire muffin!

At 3/4 's full these baked for 22 minutes at 350F.

They rose perfectly!

All portioned up; a dozen to keep and two dozen to give away! 

The best reaction I got was; I hate raisins but these were great; my thoughts exactly!

Aubrey loved taking them to the neighbours; she loves feeling apart of the giving experience!

Liam approved as well!