Carrot Muffins

Great for breakfast or a snack. To be honest, I haven't tried these yet because I'm really full from my dinner still... but they smell pretty good. I will update in the morning after I've had one for breakfast. I was a little scared when making them because the muffin dough is so much thicker then cake batter, but they seem to have turned out alright!

• All-purpose flour, 1 cup
• whole-wheat flour, 2/3 cup
• baking soda, 1/2 tsp
• baking powder, 1/2 tsp
• salt, 1/4 tsp
• cinnamon, 1/2 tsp
• large eggs, 2 
• vegetable oil, 1/2 cup
• brown sugar, 1/2 cup firmly packed
• carrots, 2-3 peeled and grated (1 an 1/2 cups)
• milk, 1/2 cup
• optional: walnuts 1/4 cup
• optional: raisins, 1/4 cup

Makes 10-12 muffins. 

Preheat the oven to 325. Line 10-12 cups of a standard muffin tin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, stir together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil and brown sugar. Stir in carrots. Add flour mixture and milk. Stir until dry ingredients are evenly moistened. If using walnuts and raisins, add now. Spoon batter into prepared cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake until tops of muffins are set and spring back when lightly pressed, around 20-25 minutes. 

These store up to 2 days at room temperature in an air tight container or in zippered freezer bags and freeze up to 1 month. 

FUN FACT: carrots deep yellow-orange pigment is linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. They are an excellent source of vitamin A. Whole-wheat flour is rich in insoluble fiber linked to improved digestive health. It provides antioxidants that enhance heart health. It is a source of complex carbs, which help regulate blood sugar. 

Sausage and Lentil Soup

Sausage and Lentil Soup

This recipe was inspired from the vegetable and lentil soup found in one of my new cook books. We decided adding sausage would make it delicious. It was very filling and very delicious! Wonderful for a cold day.

• brown lentils, 2 cups
• olive oil
• 4 sausages
• 1 yellow onion, chipped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 1 piece of celery, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• chicken broth, 4 cups
• whole or diced can of tomato
• smoked paprika, 1 tsp
• ground cumin, 1 tsp
• thyme, 1 tsp
• salt, 1/2 tsp
• ground pepper, 1/4 tsp
• baby spinach or kale (or both!), a large handful
• red wine, 1/3 cup

Rinse lentils under cold running water and drain thoroughly. Put aside. Heat olive oil in a large pot. Remove sausage from its casing and add sausage to the pot. Break it up into bite sized pieces. Cook on medium heat. Once the sausage begins to brown, add onions, carrot and celery. Allow it to cook until softened, approximately 5-8 minutes. Add garlic, paprika, cumin and thyme. Cook for another 1-2 minutes. Poor in wine to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Add in can of tomatoes and its juices. If using a can of whole tomatoes, break them down with the spoon into bite sized chunks. Add lentils and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently until lentils are tender. Approximately 20 minutes. Chop up kale or spinach (or both) and stir into soup. Cook for another minute. 

Garnished with parsley and fresh parmesan. Served with baguette (broiled with a drizzle of olive oil on top and then rubbed with garlic). 

FUN FACT: lentils are an excellent source of fiber, which helps regulate blood sugar. Extremely rich in heart-healthy nutrients like folate and potassium. Kale is a source of antioxidant known to prevent cancer and promote eye health and detoxification. It is an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K. Contains nutrients to help build strong bones. 

Thai Chicken Wraps

 Dinner for two! My housemate Lindsey is a 'wrap' girl. When I think of a wrap, I think of her. That may be weird, but it's true. When I was on pioneer women yesterday finding my dinner, I also stumbled upon this recipe for thai chicken wraps.

I thought it looked pretty good and so did she, so we made it for dinner tonight. It exceeded all my expectations. I thought it'd be good... but it was phenomenal. I will definitely be making it again. The sauce was delicious, and then the fresh vegetable crunch and peanut crunch just added something so good.

Her post for this gets a little confusing, so I'm just going to write it out here (with my adjustments).

In a bowl, mix together the 1 tbs rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp sriracha, juice of 2 limes, 1 tbs ginger (fresh or powder - whichever you have), 1 clove of crushed garlic . Whisk it together, then pour off half the liquid into a separate bowl.

For the peanut sauce: To make the peanut sauce, combine all the 1/2 cup of peanut butter, 3 tbs soy sauce, 3 tablespoons honey, 1 tsp (or more) sriracha, juice of 1 lime and then add water until it gets to a nice drizzle-able consistency. Taste and add more of what it needs: spice, sweetness, etc. Set aside.

Dice the 2 chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and put them into the bowl you used to make the marinade. Throw in the squeezed lime halves and set this aside to marinate for a bit.

Into the small bowl with the other half of the marinade, whisk in the 1 tsp cornstarch and 3 tbs honey.

In a heavy skillet over high heat, pour in a small amount of oil. When it's hot, add the chicken pieces in a single layer. Let it sit on one side, undisturbed, for about a minute, then stir the chicken around and cook it until it's totally done, about 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, then pour in the sauce that you mixed in a separate bowl. Stir it around; the sauce will immediately start to thicken. Cook over low heat for 1 minute, then remove from heat and allow to cool.

Cut up your carrots into thin strips. For the cucumber, scoop out the inside that is more soft, and then cut into thin strips. 

Assembly: lay a whole wheat tortilla on a cutting board. Add lettuce, chicken pieces, carrot and cucumber strips. Drizzle on peanut sauce and some extra peanuts. Roll the tortilla up tightly and enjoy! I cut mine in half so it was easier to eat. 

Guinness Beef Stew

I got together with my friend Nate to cook dinner the other night. He suggested something 'wintery' due to the cold weather and stew popped in my head. My dad makes a very good stew which I'd made before but I wanted to make something different. My housemate, Heather, told me about a stew her family makes that used Guinness, so I asked her for the recipe. It had very few ingredients and was very easy to make.

Below is the recipe and directions with my input.

Ingredients: 
1 kg rump steak (I just used normal stewing beef)
2 tablespoons drippings (I used some bacon fat that I had lying around)
2 large brown onions (I just noticed the recipe calls for two, I only used one!)
2 cloves of garlic (I through in a little extra, because why not?)
1/4 plain flour
1 cup beef stock (definitely did not seem like enough liquid, I ended up using 2 cups)
1 cup Guinness (I used a whole 'tall can')
2 large carrots, sliced
2 bay leaves,
1 sprig fresh thyme (I through in a couple)
ground pepper

Additions this time:
Salt
Potatoes

Additions next time:
Green beans

Directions: 
1. If not already, cut beef into 1 inch cubes or bite size pieces. Set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of drippings in a pot (which you will use to cook your stew in) and cook onions until pale golden. Add garlic. Cook for another minute. Remove from pan, set aside.
2. In the same pan, heat the remaining drippings and add meat. Cook quickly until the meat is brown on all sides. Reduce the heat and stir in the flour until the meat is coated.
3. Pour in beef stock and stir - should turn into a thick smooth sauce. Add the Guinness and stir. Let the mixture simmer and then add in the onions, carrots and herbs (I also add some bite sized potato pieces at this point).
4. Simmer gently for 1 and 1/2 hours uncovered, stirring occasionally. Sauce will reduce and thicken.

The stew was good, but I think it was missing a green vegetable. Hence my suggestion for green beans! I'm also really glad I added the potatoes. The meat was perfectly tender and the vegetables were cooked at an hour and we were bored of waiting so we ate it!

Great mix up from traditional stew. The Guinness provides an interesting taste!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I'm sick and I don't like it. I brought up some turkey stock from thanksgiving so I could make myself some soup, but I forgot left over turkey so I made a chicken noodle soup in turkey broth. Absolutely delicious and just what the doctor ordered!

I started by baking a chicken breast at 425 for 25 minutes. I topped the chicken breast with some dry thyme, dry parsley and salt and pepper.

Chopped up carrots, mushrooms, onions, broccoli and some garlic. One by one I added them into a sauce pan with some butter and a little oil. Started with the carrots, as they take longest to cook, then the broccoli, mushroom and onions and finally the garlic. After those were cooked I removed them from the pot and put them aside. I didn't cook them too too much because I wanted them to have a little crunch while they were still in the soup. I added the stock to the pot to warm up. In the mean time, I boiled some water and cooked some noodles. I used rigatoni, which as my sister and I had discussed might be a little excessive due to their size, but still delicious none the less. Any time of pasta noodle would have worked! When I made a different version of this the other night at home, we used orzo. When the chicken was done I used two forks to 'shred' the chicken so it would be in bite size 'messy' pieces.

When the pasta was done I added it to the pot of stock, then the chicken, followed by the vegetables. I let all the flavours mix, as well as added some more thyme, salt and pepper. After it is warmed up enough, voila! Soup! I topped the soup with a little bit of shaved parmesan. Yum!

Curry

When growing up I never ate curry because my parents would always make it SO spicy. When I was about probably 15 or so I was at my friends cottage and someone made curry that wasn't unbearably spicy and I LOVED it. Ever since then when my dad would make curry I'd make him tone down the spiciness so I could eat it. I e-mailed my dad asking for his recipe and what I got back was "My curry is rather slap dash - no recipe". He gave me the ingredients he used and some "general" instructions on how to make it and left me with closing words of "Whatever you notice is missing in terms of steps or ingredients, feel free to add and improvise". Basically what you do: marinate chicken in Curry Paste (Patak's brand - I used mild heat), garlic and a little oil. Let sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes. Fry up chicken in a wok. Since the paste is dark, I had a hard time figuring out if the chicken was cooked so just cut up the bigger pieces to check. Remove the chicken and set a side. In the same wok, toss in onions and begin to soften. Add bell peppers (or hot peppers if you like the spice). I used green and red bell peppers. Then add in other vegetables of your choice (I used cauliflower, broccoli and carrots). Remove all the vegetables and set aside. In the wok add enough chicken stock to cover the ingredients you'll be putting back in (I used about two cups - maybe two and a half cups).  Bring it to a boil and let it reduce a bit. Once reduced enough add in the chicken and the vegetable mixture. Let this cook for another 10 minutes. At this point I also added cut up potatoes (which I had nuked in the microwave a bit before so they were partially cooked). To finish it off add your desired amount of coconut milk to your preferred taste. If the curry isn't thick enough (which mine was not at this point), add in some cornstarch-water mixture. I served it with some basmati rice for me and my housemate. It was tasty!