Archive for the ‘Seed to Supper’ Category

Last week, I asked our Canadian Living staffers what they do when they have limited a) time, b) ingredients and 3) motivation to cook.

Well, last night, it was yours truly who was in that very situation! I was starving and knew I only had about T-minus 15 minutes before I started getting, as a friend of mine calls it, hangry.*

Here's what I whipped together in under 15 minutes (and no one got hurt!):

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad With Salmon

1. Cook 1 pkg (375 g) whole wheat penne according to package directions; drain and rinse under cold water until completely cooled.

2. Meanwhile, open and drain 2 cans (170 g each) salmon.

3. Flake salmon and mix with:

• about 1/2 cup of light mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup each finely chopped green onions and celery
• a finely chopped baby dill pickle
• the juice of a small-ish lemon
• a hefty sprinkling each of paprika (sweet, hot or smoked), dried dillweed (fresh dill is even better) and freshly ground pepper
• a pinch of salt

4. Mix the salmon mixture with the pasta and serve with a little something green on top, if you have it. I nearly always have some sort of fresh herb on hand, even if it's just parsley or a little bit of extra green onion.

Easy pasta and salmon salad, straight from the pantry

I've always adored tuna or salmon pasta salads. My Mum and I would go to the local sandwich shop all the time when I was little and they always had one just like this on the menu.

Variations and tips:

• Instead of dill and chopped pickles, you could add a spoonful of pesto and a few sliced olives, capers or chopped roasted red peppers.
• Use whatever short chubby pasta shape you have on hand. Whole wheat, spelt, kamut, or even white pasta are all ideal candidates.
• Don't have salmon? Use tuna or 2/3 cup of shredded cooked chicken. Even little salad shrimp will work.
• Want to add in some leftover vegetables? Try grated carrot, finely chopped cucumber or diced red pepper.
• Taking it for lunch the next day? You may want to make a little extra dressing. The pasta absorbs the dressing and the flavours can become a bit dilute after sitting in the fridge.

Do you get hangry, too, or is it just me?

*Hangry: (adjective) A portmanteau mixing the words "hungry" and "angry".

Example: "I was so hangry by the time Larry got home, I ended up making him eat dinner in the garage."

I love sweet potatoes. But really, I've never been drawn to them at dinnertime. I'm one of those annoying people who is fussy about mixing my sweets and savouries. Not always...  and I am starting to get over it as I get older. There was once a time, however, when you couldn't pay me to mix meat and fruit together, for example.

But at breakfast time, a nice healthy, vitamin-rich, fibre-filled sweet potato, baked and topped with a sprinkling of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey? Oh yes.

All the flavour of sweet potato pie -- at breakfast.

The thing I like best about it is that you can make them the night before. I love instant breakfasts that don't take any thought. I'm not a morning person, so anything I can do in a zombie-fied state is a bonus.

Just prick some sweet potatoes a few times with a fork and bake in a 425°F oven for about an hour, or until tender. Let cool and stick in the fridge for future breakfasts. Reheat or enjoy cold.

Do you only eat traditional breakfast foods in the morning? Or are you just as happy to eat leftover stir-fry or spaghetti, like me?

This September in Canadian Living, we visit Saskatchewan in our Cross Canada Cooks series. Here is a glimpse of the good eats I enjoyed in Saskatchewan that you didn't get to see in the pages of our magazine.

My visit to a John and Shirley Bennett's farm gave me a memorable and mouth watering taste of Prairie food and pulses galore. I visited them as a part of a fact finding trip of the provinces top crops - pulses. I learned about pulses, but more than that, I learned about good old warm and genuine Western hospitality.

As an added bonus John took me on my first tractor ride!  After the tour, lunch was served to a hungry and happy group of journalists.

A first hand look at the fields from John Bennett's tractor

Breadsticks and Chickpea Dip

Carving the roast beef for lunch

My wholesome farm lunch

And lunch is never complete without dessert,

Saskatoon Berry Cobbler with Ice Cream

You can find the recipe for this cobbler, homemade mustard and a delicious chickpea dip, supplied by chef Moe Matthieu in September 2011 Canadian Living.

Check out our Saskatchewan harvest menu online at Canadian Living.com.

To continue your Saskatchewan tour visit our slideshow Canada Is Full of Beans online.

After all those good eats, I enjoyed one of my most memorable runs along the South Saskatchewan river.

What was your most memorable farm meal?

Cheers!

Adell

My friend Doug O'Neill just gave me the sweetest gift ever from his tour of rural Ontario: liquid gold from Sandy Flat Sugar Bush in Warkworth, Ontario. Owners George and Alice Potter have won the award for world's best maple syrup four times.

Sandy Flat Sugar Bush award-winning maple syrup

This week's food news offered a few maple-icious stories:

Maple syrup is not only delicious, it's full of antioxidants. [cbc.news]

Field Trip: A Visit to the Sugar Bush includes some great photos of the process of turning maple sap to liquid gold, and turned me on to the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association site, full of maple resources, recipes and festival directories. [National Post]

Nanaimo's Morden Maples is experimenting with a maple sugar cotton candy you'll be able to taste at the Wild Foods Festival in Nanaimo, B.C. on April 16. [canada.com]

If you can't make it out to a sugar bush this year, MapleSyrup.tv lets you follow the whole process live from inside a sugar house via four cameras.

Throw your own maple syrup festival at home:

• It's maple syrup season! Fresh maple facts, syrup buying tips and new recipes
• Maple Pudding Chômeur This wickedly sweet cake-pudding combo is a French Canadian favourite.
• Maple Apple Tarte Tatin A Canadian version of the classic French upside-down apple pie.
• How to make maple syrup taffy pops - a fun sweet treat for grown-ups and kids to make together.
• Maple sugar shack party for a crowd - back from the maple sugar shack, warm up with our Maple Leaf Sour and canapés of chicken wings, smoked salmon and prosciutto shrimp that showcase fresh maple syrup from the forest.

I discovered a Facebook page called "Just Say NO to Fake Maple Syrup" that claims "Fake maple syrup is made from high fructose CORN (i.e., not maple) syrup and preservatives. Exceedingly sticky. The leading cause of cancer and divorce." Do you buy the fake stuff or spring for the real thing?

Burlington-based brewery Better Bitters just released a gluten-free beer brewed from sorghum syrup and pear juice in December. [Toronto Star]

If pears are so great why don't we eat more of them? Is it because we're impatient cooks? Mary-Liz Shaw of the Calgary Herald has a theory, and shares a Caramel and Poached Pear Semolina Cake. [Calgary Herald]

This amusing and useful set of tips to use up the aging condiments in your fridge includes a Parsnip and Pear Soup recipe which, strangely, has no condiments in its ingredients list. [Insidehalton.com]

A specialist ice cream parlour plans to serve up breast milk ice cream and says people should think of it as an organic, free-range treat. "Baby Gaga" will be sold at the Icecreamists restaurant in London's Covent Garden. The story includes an interesting chat with one of the milk suppliers. [Vancouver Sun]

At the Canadian Culinary Championships last weekend, the chef competitors in the Black Box competition found golden and red beets, whole Dungeness crabs, smoked wild boar hock, Asian pears and a fresh licorice root. Find out what they created. [Vancouver Sun]

Do you prefer apples or pears as a snack?

Image by http://www.scottliddell.net via Morguefile.com

I've been trying and loving a bunch of quinoa recipes from the best-selling Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood ever since my nutrition/diet coach, Justine Keyserlingk, suggested that I get more of my protein from sources other than my fave - chicken.

Our sister site, Homemakers.com, explains in Healthy Quinoa Salad Recipes and Mains that "Quinoa is an ancient seed that masquerades as a grain and it has made a huge comeback. Not only is it gluten-free, it's also low in sodium and high in protein, calcium and iron. One serving of quinoa provides you with a healthy dose of vitamin E as well as B vitamins. You can use quinoa in place of other grains such as rice or oats, but there's nothing like a healthy quinoa salad to complete any meal."

Justine gave me a delicious quinoa salad recipe she adapted from Savvy Vegetarian that I brought to lots of holiday potlucks. All my friends demanded the recipe, so I asked Justine if I could share it with you:

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1- 1/2 cups cold water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 - 2 small carrots, peeled and sliced thin
• 1/2 green or red pepper, sliced thin
• 1 medium ripe tomato, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber or zucchini, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, cilantro, or basil
• 1/2 cup chickpeas, or black beans
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2-3 chopped scallions
• 1/4 cup dried unsweetened cranberries, raisins or apricots,
• Greek olives (optional)
• fresh mint (optional)

Dressing:

• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Combine quinoa and water and bring to a boil.
2. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low, letting the quinoa cook for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed
3. Fluff the quinoa with a fork and let it sit to cool.
4. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl or jar.
5. Combine the dressing, quinoa and the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl
6. Cover and chill.
7. Serve and enjoy.

Related articles

• Mary Ann Esposito: Keen on Quinoa (huffingtonpost.com)
• Quinoa (Wikipedia)
• Food trends for 2011: Quinoa, goat and ling cod take the lead (Vancouver Sun)
• Go Go Quinoa recipes
• Quinoa: versatile superfood (canada.com)

Do you have a favourite quinoa recipe to share?

Missing: rainbows and singing cherubs

DECEMBER 24 UPDATE: Congrats to Gina, winner of the Road to Perdition Newman's Own prize!

Everybody has a closet food addiction. I know you're thinking of yours right now. I bet the image is clear as day in your mind. Maybe it's also resting on a floating cloud, surrounded by rainbows. Maybe cherubs are flying around the wonderful food, playing gentle harps and singing softly in their special angel language that you deserve this food today.

But deep inside, we know better. Just one bite of that special food is all it takes before the devil beast within is unleashed, hand-to-mouth action takes on lightning speed, and thousands of calories are inhaled before you can possibly stop yourself.

That's right. Just one bite is your ROAD TO PERDITION.

Reveal your foodie ROAD TO PERDITION in the comments below, for a chance to WIN!
I have a great Newman's Own® salad & salsa prize pack PLUS a DVD of The Road to Perdition - starring Tom Hanks and the late Paul Newman - for the person with the funniest story of their closet snack addiction and foodie road to perdition. Prize value: $170!

Start date: November 23
End date: December 22, 11:59pm
Winner chosen & contacted via email: December 23
What to do: Write your funny story of your closet snack addiction and foodie road to perdition below in our Comments field.

Need some salvation with your snack food? Newman's Own® dontates all proceeds of sale to charities worldwide. To date, they've donated more than $300 million to charities in Canada and around the world!

Tell us your foodie road to perdition and you could win this prize pack, worth $170!

My husband loves to grow garlic. Lots of it. 500 every year.

He harvests wheelbarrows full of  garlic...

The garlic love-in begins

...and when he peels off the dry outer skin of each one, he briefly strokes the smooth white flesh underneath. For the three days it takes him to peel and hang it to dry, I complain that the garlic is his mistress. But I love her, too.

Our favourite garlic dish?

Finely chop 8 cloves of garlic and sautée in 1 tbsp of olive oil plus 1 tbsp of butter until just brown. Remove from pan and sautée veggies, any veggies, in the same pan. Return garlic to pan, toss together and serve. That's it. So delicious.

Garlic fights cancer

The health benefits of garlic aren't just folklore -- they're backed up by science, as well.  Early studies suggest garlic's allyl sulfur compounds may help rid your body of cancer-causing chemicals and encourage cancer cells to die naturally. A recent pilot study out of Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Columbus, showed that garlic consumption could interfere with the processes in the body that convert nitrogen-containing compounds in foods, such as processed meats or those prepared at high temperatures, into carcinogens. Just a single clove of garlic a day can do the trick, say researchers. (From Canadian Living's October 2010 article, "How to fight cancer in your kitchen.")

Garlic resources:

• Find out all about buying, storing and cooking with garlic.
• Nutritious and delicious, garlic delivers -- find out how.
• History, nutrients and how to prepare and cook garlic
• How to grow garlic
• Video: Learn to peel and mince garlic quickly and easily.

Garlic recipes:

• Pickled garlic
• Lemon-garlic green beans
• Bread and garlic pasta
• Rustic spinach and garlic bruschetta

Do you  love garlic?

Step 1: Get inspired by vegetarians and vegans.

I adore rotisserie chicken skin, chicken salad, chicken surprise, chicken any which way. It’s my default protein. And I don't like tofu. But the good folks at the 26th Annual Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto convinced me that it might be easier than I thought to get enough non-meat protein that's tasty, while enjoying the fruits of my garden more often.  So I set myself a goal of cooking a plant-based main dish twice a week. Inspiring indeed.

The highlight of the fair for me (aside from buying cooking gear like a nut bag, and a sprouter gadget that did not work well) was the cooking demo by Toronto nutritionist Meghan Telpner, a dynamo in the kitchen and an inspiring health speaker. She made me want to be a vegan (for a few minutes).

Making Love In The Kitchen with Meghan: Doing It Veggie Style

Everyone in the audience received tiny tastes of the treats she made, and they were all scrumptious.

Meghan is also a humourous and inspiring writer who will be sharing veggie-friendly Thanksgiving tips on how, with the right side dishes, vegan and meat-eating guests can dine together without everyone needing special meals. She'll be posting recipes for Whole Grain and Pumpkin Seed Unstuffed Stuffing (a stuffing that doesn't actually get cooked in a bird), Cranberry/Honey Sauce, Roasted Fall Vegetables and Pumpkin Soup. Check back here for her guest post in early October.

Step 2: Try cooking some veggie main dishes. I'll be sharing the best recipes I discover on my journey. Hope you'll share yours with me!

Do you have to please both veggie and non-veggie eaters in your family?