Category Archives: Recipes
Vegan chili
I am on a journey to transition at my own pace, to a mostly plant-based diet and chili is a favourite at our house so I began experimenting to create a version that we would love as much as the original one. I think I am pretty close!!
Cancer-fighting: This combination of white kidney beans that rich in antioxidants, fibers and B9 (or folic acid) with known cancer fighting ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms (high in vitamin D) and the lycopene released from cooking tomatoes make this dish a powerful cancer-fighting comfort food in addition to the benefits of black beans which are known to support heart health!
Enjoy!
1st batch of ingredients
- 1/2 large Spanish onions diced
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 12 large cremini mushroom sliced
- 9 mixed sizes shiitake mushrooms chopped
- 3 celery stalks diced.
- 1 each red and green bell peppers diced
- 1 large jalapeño peppers diced (optional, according to the level of heat you are looking for)
- 2 large carrots diced
2nd batch of ingredients
- 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp of Chili powder
- 2 tbsp of garlic powder/salt
- 1 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tbsp of black pepper
- 1 tsp of cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
3rd batch of ingredients
- 1 – 19 oz can of black bean
- 1 – 19 oz can of red kidney beans
- 1 – 19 oz can of white kidney beans
- 2 – 28 oz can of diced San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 cup of vegetable broth (I rinse the tomato cans to get all the good stuff and throw it in the pot so I simply add concentrated bouillon after)
- I can of pitted black olives
- 2 tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro
In a large pot, place 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil and heat at medium heat. Add the onions and caramelize (until golden brown). Add the rest of the 1st batch of ingredients one by one, stirring to coat and to sautée all the vegetables.
Add the 2nd batch of ingredients and mix well to coat all vegetables, cook for 30 seconds.
Add the 3rd batch of ingredients, mix well, cover and let simmer for about an hour at very low heat.
Help for Mathew’s Fundraising
To my friends and families.
I post today to ask for your help. I know this is a long post but I hope you will indulge me 🙂
Since our son Mathew was very young, he has tried to describe to us the images and the stories that were forming in his head. We all remember his “directing” debut telling us to fall down and act dead on film when he was in elementary school. Not surprisingly, film has become the canvas he chose to share his stories with the world.
Mathew wrote, directed and produced 2 seasons of his multi-award winning web series teenagers. During the last 3 years, Chuck and I have supported and help fund his efforts, helping to make this story come to life. We have reached out to our incredibly supportive neighbours and friends to “use” their house, for their help and much more. His 2 amazing and supportive brothers have shared their space, opened their rooms, lending their clothes and whatever was asked to allow him to film at our house. I am incredibly grateful to all for these acts of kindness.
The grant and funding process with all levels of government has been incredibly frustrating as he moves past the student projects life. To continue his dream, he is now launching a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo and reaching out to friends, families and anyone else who would like to support a young filmmaker trying to bring his stories to life. The campaign is to help fund season 3 as well as his first feature film dealing with the incredibly powerful and negative impact of Fentanyl, once again exposing real life tragedy and drama, experienced by various tranche of our society. You can expect it to be edgy, multicultural and real.
I know the end product will be wonderful because Mathew is a great storyteller of course, but also because in all his projects, he partners with his close friend and incredibly talented DOP Dmitry and best friend Sara.
If teenagers is new to you, you will watch this web series and find some moments difficult….but it has struck a chord with thousands of fan because it represents the real life struggle of some of our teens out there today. The show portrays LGBT teenagers trying to navigate through high school, the impact and use of drugs in our schools and the multicultural reality of our country. He includes characters of Native, South Asian, African and Caucasian descent all struggling through their teenage years together. This upcoming season, he will introduce a French Canadian character, a nod to his heritage, but also to our country’s bilingual reality. This is a painting of our society that needs to be told and we are so very proud of him.
And so I reach out to you again, friends and families, far and near, and ask that you consider helping and sharing this campaign with your friends and families and anyone you think may be able to help. It is really important for the success of a campaign to become “in demand” on Indiegogo which means that they will promote the campaign on their site. The level of donations in the first few days impacts directly that status.
À mes amies et à la parenté québécoise, un petit mot en français pour vous remercier de considérer d’aider Mathew dans sa campagne de financement. Je vous envoies un bise électronique 🙂
To donate, visit: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/teenagers-season-3-and-more-lgbt-drama#/
Banana Bread with Nutella
In celebration of Nutella day, I added a twist to my favorite Banana Bread recipe. Of course you can skip the Nutella and bake it as is for a less sugary version.
Be sure to have a slice before the kids get a taste. It will disappear!
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 3)
- 1/3 cup of buttermilk or add 1 tsp of vinegar to 2% milk and let stand for 5 minutes
- 3tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 0 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Nutella
Steps to Make the recipe
In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, bananas, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Beat well with a whisk until well blended. 
In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda and salt.
Add to the banana mixture and stir just until combined.
Pour half the mixture into very lightly oiled 8 X 5 (1.5L) non stick loaf pan.
Spread a good layer of Nutella.
Spread the remaining banana mixture.
Bake at 350F oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Spread the top with a layer of Nutella. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to plate to cool completely.
Cinnamon-Roll Bread with a twist
My teenage son rarely has much time for breakfast and always looks for something fast to eat like a smoothie or a muffin. I prepared a cinnamon-roll bread that was a big hit so here is the recipe. This is an easy no-yeast recipe which is hard to mess-up and the streusel-like topping filling makes it yummy!
Ingredients
- 1 cup each of whole-wheat and all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce (in lieu of sugar)
- 3/4 cup of 1% milk
- 2 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1/3 cup of sour cream (or greek yogurt)
For the swirl
- 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon of water
For the glaze
- 1/3 cup of powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoon of milk
Steps to make the recipe
Pre-heat you oven to 350F and spray a bread pan with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix the first 3 dry ingredients and all the other ones in a smaller bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the large bowl and mix with a fork.
Transfer the mixture to the bread pan.
In the small bowl, now mix the swirl ingredients. Use a spoon to drop the mixture on the the top of the bread mixture.
Now take a fork or a knife and make swirl design to incorporate the swirl into the bread.
Base for 50 minutes or until you insert a cake pick or a toothpick that comes out dry.
Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and wait 15 minutes.
Mix the glaze ingredients and spread the glaze on the bread.
Now get yourself a coffee or a glass of milk and enjoy!!
Veggie-Egg Stack Sunday brunch
Before leaving for our long snowshoeing hike in our beautiful wood at our cottage, we need some fuel.
Today I improvised a new egg stack without any bread. Yummy and no carbs!!
Ingredients for 2 servings
- 2-3 eggs depending if someone wants 2 eggs (my husband)
- 2 leaves of romaine lettuce
- 2 thick slices of tomatoes
- 6 slices of cucumber
- 1/3 cup of shredded old cheddar
- Half a small onion diced
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- Salt and pepper
Steps to make the recipe
Sauté the onion and the garlic in a bit of butter until softened.
Meanwhile, lay out the lettuce and top with tomatoe and cucumber. Add salt and pepper.
Spread the onions on the stack and use the same pan to fry the eggs over-easy (you could also poach the eggs if you prefer ) .
Spread the eggs on the stack and add salt and pepper to taste.
In the same pan, toss the shredded cheese and melt for a minute.
Top your stack with the cheese et Voilà!
Chick-Pea and Spinach Soup
My son is eating less and less meat but not thinking about replacing it with protein from other sources. I thought about trying a chick pea soup as that legume is full of protein, vitamins and minerals too and he loves soups as much as me!!
Ingredients:
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 onions chopped
- 1 potato peeled and cut in chunks
- 4 cups of vegetable soup
- 2 tbsp each mined fresh parsley and coriander
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- 1 can of chick -peas, drained and rinsed
- half a package of fresh spinach washed and chopped
Steps to make the recipe
In large heavy saucepan (I used my creuset), heat oil and cook garlic and onions for 5 minutes or until soft.
Add the potato, cook for another minute.
Add stock and herbs and cover and simmer for 15 minutes. I regularly make my own stock with bones, broccoli or asparagus stems extra…that I freeze until I am ready to make the stock. When stock is ready I freeze in 4cups portions.
Stir in chick-peas.
In a blender or with your hand blender, purée the mixture and return to pan.
Add spinach and simmer for 5 minutes.
You may need to add water if it is too thick.
Add salt and pepper to taste
This makes a very complete meal and my son gives it the thumbs up!!
Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Bacon
I have started using cauliflower more and more in my recipes. It is a great source of vitamin C, combined with manganese which makes it a good antioxidant. It also contains a good amount of Fibre as well as several other vitamins. I am discovering that it is very versatile and am finding new ways to use, such as in my brunch recipe where it is used as the anchor for a healthy stack to replace bread. Since I love making and eating soup, this was perfect for me.
During one of my cleaning of my recipe folders, I came across this clipping from several years ago. I decided to try it and adapt it to suit our taste.
This is a great meal for lunch!
Ingredients
- 1 medium size cauliflower cut into florets
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 3 slices of bacon, cut into pieces
- 1 tbsp of butter
- 1 onion
- 1 potato, peeled and diced
- 1 bay leaf, 1tsp of dried thyme
- 5 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup of evaporated skim milk
Toss the cauliflower florets with oil as well as salt and pepper to taste and spread on a cookie sheet to roast in the oven at 425F for 10-15 minutes.
Cook the bacon in a large saucepan until browned and then remove them and discard all the fat except for about 1tbsp.
Add the butter and then toss in the onion, the potato, the herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Sauté over medium heat for a few minutes.
Add the cauliflower and the stock (I used my homemade stock from the freezer which I freeze in bags of 4 cups). Bring to boil and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Discard the bay leave, add half the bacon and purée the soup in your blender.
Return to saucepan and add the milk (you can substitute with half and half cream for a richer soup), gently re-heating. Adjust seasoning to taste.
Decorate with the reserved bacon, some fresh parsley or croutons as you wish.
Canada Day Buttermilk Fried Chicken
This 2015 Canada Day we decided to prepare some buttermilk fried chicken with our good friends Heidi and Henri. I got some back legs with bone-in and skin-on and some chicken breasts with bone-in but skinless. I am told by Heidi and Chuck that if you are going to fry chicken, why worry about a bit of skin 🙂
I cut the back legs in 2 to separate the legs from the drumsticks with a kitchen shear (must-have in my kitchen).
I prepared a mixture to coat the chicken.
Since we do not have buttermilk on hand, I poured about half an inch of vinegar in a 2-cups measuring cup. I then filled it to the 2 cup line and let it sit.
In a large bowl, I whipped 2 eggs and added 1 tbsp paprika, some salt, 1tbsp celery salt, 1 tbsp of chilli powder and 1 tsp of Tabasco sauce. You can season it to your taste.
Then I mixed 2 tsp of baking powder and 1 1/2 of baking powder and added to the egg mixture. Then I poured in the buttermilk and mixed everything together.
Then I poured about 1 1/2 cup of flour in a separate dish wide enough to roll the chicken in.
Now roll one piece of chicken in the flour and then submerge it in the buttermilk mixture then back in the flour. Make sure it is covered in flour and set aside in a platter.
Repeat the process for each pieces. Once the are all covered, you are ready to fry.
While I was preparing the chicken mixture, Chuck was warming up about 1 inch of oil in a cast iron pan on the side burner of the BBQ.
Gotta use the BBQ on Canada Day at the cottage in Muskoka!
Once the oil is hot, put 3 pieces at a time making sure they do not touch so they cook thoroughly.
Leave the meat side down in the oil for a good 8-10 minutes. Then flip them and finish cooking for about 7 minutes. Lay them on paper towel to soak off the excess oil.
Chuck cooked some baked potatoes and green beans in foil while the chicken was frying so the whole meal was done on the BBQ with very little dishes to wash for Heidi!
We served on fancy paper plates for even less work and enjoyed our evening by the lake.
Hope you enjoy it too!!
Baked cod with lemon and capers
This is an easy and light dinner, my husband I shared for dinner at the cottage tonight. Potatoes and cod are cooked together and we simply add some tomatoes and cucumbers with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to complete the meal.
Ingredients
- I used 5 Yukon gold mini potatoes cut in half but you can use larger ones and cut them into wedges.
- 2 tbsp of fresh parsley from our herb pot outside 🙂
- 1-2 tbsp of capers (i love those so I add more)
- Some olive oil (about 2 tbsp)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 large filet of cod skinless (or buy it in pieces)
Preheat the oven at 425F. Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray.
Cut potatoes in half and place them in a saucepan with 2 inches of water. Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and put them back in the saucepan to coat them (my husband appreciate it when I re-use, less dishes :).
Add 1 tbsp of chopped parsley, the capers, 1-2 tsp oil, paprika and half the salt. Toss gently to coat them.
Meanwhile, mix the lemon zest, garlic, 1tbsp parsley, 1 tsp oil, remaining salt and mix together. My good friend Iona gave me this awesome zester! It is a must, love it.
Rub the cod with the mixture and place in the baking dish with the potatoes around it. Sprinkle cod and potatoes with the lemon juice.
Bake until the fish is opaque in the centre and flakes well. This should take about 15-18 minutes depending on your oven.
Serve and enjoy with a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio as we did 🙂
Variation: I sometimes sprinkle the fish with lemon and roll in Panko mixed with Parmesan cheese. It is a great variation!
Home made spaghetti sauce
Spaghetti sauce is one of the first thing my mom taught us how to make when I was a teenager. I have added some must-have ingredients to her recipe, mainly from cooking with friend’s over the years, but the base is still the same.
From time to time, when my boys were younger, I have added ingredients such as grated carrots and zucchini to “hide”more vegetables in the mix, but now I just dice them up and add them in plain sight 🙂
Ingredients
I make my own tomato sauce from Italian tomatoes that i buy at the farmer market every fall. I can it in 1l mason jar but you can substitute with store bought. Just check how much salt has been added!
- 2l tomato sauce
- 2 cans of tomato paste (5.5ml)
- 1 can of diced tomato or 3 large tomatoes peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 bottle of chili sauce
- 2 pounds of ground beef
- 1 large sweet Vidalia onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 large green pepper chopped
- 3 celery branches chopped
- 1 zucchini chopped
- dozen mushrooms quartered
- Half a bag of spinach chopped
- 2 cups of sliced mushrooms
- 2 tsp each garlic salt, celery salt, onion powder
- 1tbsp each of fresh basil, oregano, parsley and thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
- 1 tsp of crushed chili pepper or to taste
- half a jar of green or black olive cut in half (optional)
- 1 tbsp of crushed chili pepper (optional)
The first step is to decide whether you will make meatballs or not. I usually take half the meat and form it into meatballs that I bake in a cookie sheet at 375C for about 15minutes. I drain the fat from it before adding them to the sauce. The other option is to brown them in the pot before cooking anything else but this requires more supervision 🙂
Sprinkle about a 2 tsp olive oil in a thick Dutch oven (I use my large Creuset pot for this recipe). Caramelize the onion a few minutes or until golden. Add the garlic and all the other vegetables. Sautéed until soft and remove from the pot.
Add the ground meat (not the meatballs) to the pot and cook until browned. Return the vegetables and add the tomato sauce, the paste, the chili sauce and the tomatoes. Stir until well mixed. Add the spices and bring to boil. Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes. Add the meatballs, the herbs and the optional ingredients if using and cook for another 20 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste and voila!!! This recipe will make a large batch, enough for several family supper or a couple of meals and some sauce to make a lasagna 🙂 Serve with spaghettini noodles. parmesan and crusty bread…..yummy!!!
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