Frittatas are the Italian version of an omelette, and my idea of an omelette- not that I really eat them- is to put all sorts of things inside them. I had a number of egg whites left over from making tart doughs earlier on in the week and decided to pour them all together in this comprehensive frittata. It’s rich and chock-full of good things, but on the lighter side due to it being mostly egg whites- lower in cholesterol and fat! It’s very, very simple, despite having tons of ingredients… so try it! :)

Low-Fat Egg-White Frittata

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites (large, cage-free, brown, organic eggs)
• 3 whole eggs
• 2/3 cup organic skim milk
• 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp salt & pepper
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup fresh sweet yellow corn, organic
• 1/4 cup fresh green peas, organic
• 2 tablespoons freshly-grated Reggianito cheese
• 3/4 cup chopped peppered deli turkey
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach, organic
• 1/4 cup finely chopped baby carrots, organic

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place all frittata ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together briefly until just combined. For a firmer consistency, add a tablespoon or two of organic AP flour.
3. Butter a large, shallow tart dish fairly generously and pour in batter.
4. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes or until top is golden brown and mixture is set in well; wiggles when shaken lightly.
5. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes; then slice with a smooth knife and eat warm.

I told you it was simple! It’s very quick, very very very simple- did I mention how simple this is?- and hearty. You can make it as a weeklong leftover dish, or comfortably feed it to 5-6 people. Long live Italian practicality.

I have a confession to make: I have a thing for chicken curry (so long as it’s mild enough for me to eat it). There’s something delicious and delectable about curry that’s really quite irresistable. My mother knows this, and so, for my birthday (back in May), she gifted me with a wonderful book (Curry Cuisine, containing curry recipes from over the world) and several large bags of spices from Indonesia. Fantastic!

A lovely friend of the boyfriend’s neighbors (say that three times fast) came over for a dinner date recently and, being more of an expert in Indian cuisine than I, I much appreciated the help! A.M. (my guest) and I made the most delicious curry that has thus far been made in this apartment: murgh makhani. It was SO good- honestly- so delicious!! I’m already pining to make it again.

One note: the chili powder… ohmygoodness. This had A.M. and I in coughing and sneezing fits. We used a Balinese chili powder my mother gave me, and it looked deceptively kind… but this stuff was STRONG. We were sneezing like mad, several minutes after having been away from it. Beware of your chili powders, that’s all I’m saying.

Murgh Makhani (Old Delhi-style Chicken Curry)

Adapted from Mugh Makhani in Curry Cuisine

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 2 large chicken breasts, cleaned, skinned, de-boned, cut into large cubes
• 3/4 cup low-fat vanilla european-style yogurt (O Organics!)
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp each of salt and pepper
• 1 tsp Balinese chili powder (aaaah)

Sauce:

• 1 can 12 oz Italian-style diced tomatoes in tomato juice
• 1/2 cup water, room-temperature
• 1.5 tsp powdered ginger
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp cloves (powdered)
• 1 tsp Saigon cinnamon
• 1/2 stick soy butter, softened
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp granulated sugar

Process:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl, add the chicken, coat thoroughly on all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 25-30 minutes.
2. Preheat a cast-iron grill pan over medium-to-low heat.
3. We at first put the chicken on skewers to grill, but found that because of the angle, the chicken wasn’t cooking properly, and decided to take the chicken off the skewers and cook as cubes. Take your pick! If you use wooden skewers, be sure to keep the skewers in a shallow dish filled with awter for 5-10 minutes prior to grilling so that they will not burn. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the chicken has a coloured crust on all sides.
4. To prepare the sauce, place the tomatoes and juice in a saucier pan (make sure it’s deep enough) with the water, ginger, carlic, cloves, and cinnamon. Cook until the tomatoes become very soft and shredded. Once the sauce is thickening, take the half stick of butter and melt it into the sauce, mixing in thoroughly.
5. Take the cooked chicken cubes and add to the sauce, and continue to simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add the salt and sugar, and serve the curry with rice or naan (see naanscuits recipe for ideas).

It’s hot, it’s just just just the right degree of spice, and all of that can most certainly be attributed to my fortune in having had A.M. join me for a cooking date. She knows the spices inside and out and truly understands the relationship between their flavours. Thanks for a delicious and wonderful date, A.M., and I hope your travels in India right now are going safely and wonderfully! :)

I realize that may be a bit pompous to say, but honestly, this is a rather foolproof delicious pesto. I’ve been rather fed up with the pestos I’ve found as of late. They’re all ‘too’ something: too oil; too yellow; too spiced; too bland; too thin; and so on. Finding a pesto that’s got the proper taste, consistency, and colour is rather difficult, and I’m hard-pressed to find that combination. Sauces and Love has a wonderful pesto but unfortunately it’s quite pricey for a small quantity.

I recently purchased an adorable basil plant- local and organic- at the grocery store for $3 and was very excited about the prospect of my indoor fresh herbs… but the lack of direct sunlight meant this was an unsuccessful attempt. Oh, no! Dying basil plant! Clearly there was only one thing I could do: emergency pesto. Luckily, it turned out completely and utterly delicious. I know this is a recipe I’ll be following again- and soon- because that first batch is almost gone already :). It’s terrific with some plain fresh capellini and a light drizzle of olive oil. Perfecto!

The Perfect Pesto

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup chopped basil (coarse)
• 1/4 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 cup grated fresh Reggianito cheese
• 1 heaping tablespoon fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 1 tsp sea salt, sprinkling of pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup salted cashews, coarsely chopped

Process:

• Place all ingredients in food processor
• Process on low until all elements are combined and a thick paste-like consistency is formed; do not overprocess to where all the cheese and nut bits are gone- keep a bit of coarseness!
• Spread onto some freshly toasted ciabatta or mix into hot pasta with a bit of extra olive oil for a yummy, delicious time

So simple! So good! So sure to be making this one again soon! Actually, I’m tempted to get a ton of basil, some cute jars, and jar some of this as christmas or holiday gifts… nice packaging will make this have the perfect touch. Seriously, make some. It’s so much cheaper than buying t at the store, and likely to be more delicious, as well! Pine nuts are the traditional nut for pesto, but I almost like it better this way :).

I proved quite fully with this dish that my sister and I sadly realllly can’t handle the slightest bit of spice. We had this conversation at dinner while eating this:

Sister: (fanning self slightly)

Boyfriend: (nomnomnomnom)

Me: Boyfriend, is this not spicy to you?

Boyfriend: Ahm… no? Should it be?

Sister: To me, on a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 7. Hot hot hot hot!

Boyfriend: To me this is… mmh.. maybe a .7, on that same scale.

So as you can see, to the average person (or perhaps to the usual spicily-tolerant Asian boy), this is not that spicy- in which case the title is inaccurate- but as it was spicy to me, I’m keeping the name. So stricken. :) It’s certainly a tasty dish, and quite healthy, at that.

Spicy Tomato & Cheese Whole Grain Penne Bake

Ingredients:

• 5 tiny sweet white onions
• 4 fresh cherry tomatoes
• 3/4 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tblspn soy butter
• 1/2 box whole grain penne
• 3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/8 tsp each of cayenne pepper, paprika, coriander, cumin, garlic powder
• 1 28-oz can of organic diced tomatoes in juice
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup shredded mozarella
• 2 chicken breasts, cleaned
• 1/3 cup dry cream sherry
• 1 tsp each of dried oregano, basil
• 1/2 cup grated Reggianito (Argentine Parmesan)
• sea salt & freshly-cracked black pepper

Process:

1. Dice onion fairly finely and place in sautee pan with 1 tblspn soy butter, garlic, and sprinkling of salt and pepper
2. Once it begins to bubble and brown, add in the spices (red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, paprika, coriander, cumin, garlic powder) and continue mixing until red/golden in colour
3. Add in the entire can of diced tomatoes and their juice, and the lemon juice and put on medium low heat; stir occasionaly, allow to bubble and thicken
4. Heat water to boil and cook penne according to your preference or box instructions (I like it a bit al dente, with salt and olive oil to prevent sticking). Rinse lightly, then pour into a greased deep baking dish.
5. Place the cherry tomato slices over the pasta (see picture) along with half of the cheese, and drizzle lightly with olive oil (optional)
6. Pour thickened tomato sauce over the tomato slices and pasta, and smooth out to where it’s evenly laid. Sprinkle on a bit more cheese.
7. Preheat oven to 355 degrees F.
8. Sautee 1 more tblspn of soy butter with a spinkle of salt and pepper until bubbling; then add in the chicken breasts. Sear on both sides until no more ‘pink flesh’ is visible- then add in the sherry and reduce to a caramel-y sauce. Glaze the chicken with this and remove onto a cutting board.
9. Cut the chicken into large cubes, then put back into the sautee pan (hope you didn’t clean it, you want that fond de sauce in there!) and continue to sautee for 2-3 minutes until browned on all sides.
10. Sprinkle the herbs onto the top of the tomato sauce mixture, evenly spread about the dish.
11. Remove the chicken from pan and place evenly on top of tomato sauce/herbs/cheese.
12. Grate the Reggianito on top, sprinkle with a bit more salt and pepper, and place in oven for 20 minutes approximately, until the cheese is melted and golden.
13. Allow to cool slightly, then serve warm (may fall apart- be wary and be ready to catch falling pieces)

If you can handle spice, then up the spiciness by adding more cayenne and red pepper flakes. But if you’re a spice wimp, like me, then you needn’t add more, this is already plenty :).

Something that’s crunchy and golden on top but gooey, warm, and creamy on the bottom sounds rather Heavenly to me. And this dish is just that! It’s like a musical piece: it begins softly with this “ahhh” of crunchiness on the top, as you begin munching on the cheese… then you begin to taste the potato and the crunchiness gives way to an irresistable softness… and then the bottom, with the rich creaminess of the cream and you know it’s going to be a winner.

Yes, I know, it’s oft seen as a Southern classic and therefore, why would I make this, I who shiver in fright at the idea of Southern foods? But you know what, this looks like a gratin, and gratin looks safe (and French) and thus I thought, all right, this is do-able :). I was tempted to re-name this Thin Potato Gratin to make myself feel better (and I gave my father a piece and he called it a very good gratin, so clearly if a true Frenchman says so, it must be the case) but as Elise’s fantastic recipe is named ‘scalloped’, I opted for that… with a deep breath!

Crunchy & Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

Adapted from / variant of Elise @ Simply Recipe’s Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 very large baking potato, sliced into 1/8-inch thick slices
• 3 medium/small Yukon gold potatoes, sliced into 1/8-inch thick slices
• 1 tbsp soy butter
• 5 cloves of herb-roasted garlic, peeled, whole
• 1 tsp each of nutmeg and coriander
• 1/8 tsp cardamom
• 1 cup grated San Pietro cheese (very similar to Parmesan)
• 2/3 cup italian fancy cheese blend (mix of 5 cheeses – to be found at your local grocery store)
• 2 1/2 cups of half-and-half
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Butter (with soy butter) a large, fairly shallow dish (could be round or square)
3. Place half of the potato slices (I kept the skin on- after rinsing thoroughly- but you can peel if you so desire!) over the bottom of the dish, trying to have as little overlap as possible
4. Place the garlic cloves directly onto the slices, evenly dispersed. Sprinkle with the spices, and half the cheese.
5. Layer the other half of the potato slices in the same fashion as the first layer, and sprinkle on half of the remaining cheese, as well as the salt and pepper.
6. Pour the half-and-half and milk evenly over the dish, dot slightly with very small pieces of soy butter and cover with a large piece of aluminum foil.
7. Place in the oven for approximately an hour. Then remove from the oven, take off the foil, sprinkle on the remaining cheese, and bake for an additional 30ish minutes, until the potatoes are golden browned on the top.
8. Let cool a bit, then serve warm…. yum.

It’s seriously delicious, and if it has the French stamp of approval, clearly that means you shouldn’t waste time- go get some for yourself and see if you agree! You could change the recipe- I edited Elise’s a bit as I am horrorstruck by bacon (just ask the boyfriend), and I had been on a chives kick the week before, so I wanted to stay away from them. Plus, it’s a proven fact that cream + nutmeg = meant to be. Think of this marriage of flavours as your favourite destined couple. Just trust me on this one :).

So on my week of breading (yes, this post is late) the boyfriend had friends over for boardgaming and I thus decided on yet another loaf to entertain with. For this one I wanted to try a honey wheat bread, but added in a small army of herbs to add a robust flavour. And, ah, they certainly did! This bread was incredibly moist, and so good warm out of the oven. I liked it a bit less once cooled down, but the crust in particular was fantastic. Definitely a winner to make again, and very simple, as yet again it’s a beer bread! The use of a Blue Moon beer in making this gave it a very light citrus taste that came out only on the very tip of your tongue, before being wrapped in rosemary and honey. Try this mouthwatering bread out and you’ll see everyone in the house/apartment flock to the wafting deliciousness out of the oven.

Honey Wheat Herb Beer Bread

Adapted from / variant of Farmgirl Fare’s Beyond-Easy Beer Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 12-oz bottle Blue Moon beer
• 1/3 cup clover (or your preference) honey
• 1 tablespoon each of dried rosemary, mexican oregano
• 1 teaspoon each of dried thyme, basil
• 1 clove garlic, minced and smashed
• 1/4 cup grated San Pietro cheese
• 1 cup organic all-purpose flour
• 2 cups organic whole wheat flour
• 1 tblspn granulated sugar, baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp large rock sea salt for garnish
• 1 egg  + sprinkle of san pietro for garnish

Process:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix together all ingredients other than the beer and honey- San Pietro, herbs, garlic, flours, sugar, salt, and baking powder, in a large mixing bowl. Make sure that these are evenly distributed- once the beer is in, you don’t want to overmix, so it’s essential to make sure that things are as uniform- or not- as you’d like at this point.
3. Then add the honey in and mix slowly, being sure not to mix too much!
4. Add the beer a bit at a time in a steady stream, mixing as little as possible. There may be a few small clumps of flour that remain unmixed- despite the strong urge to mix them in thoroughly, don’t- just know that the baking process will fix it for you :)
5. Grease a bread pan with soy butter and pour in the dough. Crack the egg into a small mixing bowl and beat thoroughly. Take a pastry or basting brush and brush on the egg , then sprinkle on large sea salt and extra cheese if you’d like acrispier crust (if not, leave out the extra cheese).
6. Place the bread in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 50 min – 1 hour, until the middle is cooked through (use a toothpick) and the top has a rich golden hue. Cool on a wire cooling rack once cool enough to handle quickly, and then transfer to a cutting board and slice it up!

Seriously. Try it. Count to 5, see how long it takes for people to come knocking and ask if you can cut them a slice. Makes for a perfect gift,t oo, just wrap it in some parchment paper and add a ribbon or some twine!

H and I had made beer bread together several months ago and those warm, happy memories had stayed with me. When a dinner guest came bearing two boxes of beer to drink between himself and the boyfriend, I found myself anxiously wondering what to do with the rest of it. I don’t drink beer; I’m not accustomed to having it around the apartment; and thus its lack of a specific spot in the kitchen had me looking for quick ways to use it. I opted to try Farmgirl Fare’s beer bread recipe again, trying a very different variant. It came out delicious- warm, crusty, but moist on the inside… incredibly fragrant and with a very nice texture.

Onion, Garlic, and Chives San Pietro Beer Bread

Adapted from / variant of Farmgirl Fare’s Beyond-Easy Beer Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 12-oz bottle Fat Tire beer
• 1/3 cup chopped chives
• 4 cloves garlic, minced and smashed
• 4 small white chive onions, diced
• 3/4 cup grated San Pietro cheese
• 3 cups organic all-purpose flour
• 1 tblspn granulated sugar, baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp large rock sea salt for garnish
• 1 egg for garnish

Process:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix together all ingredients other than the beer- San Pietro, chives, onion, garlic, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder, in a large mixing bowl. Make sure that these are evenly distributed- once the beer is in, you don’t want to overmix, so it’s essential to make sure that things are as uniform- or not- as you’d like at this point.
3. Add the beer a bit at a time in a steady stream, mixing as little as possible. There may be a few small clumps of flour that remain unmixed- despite the strong urge to mix them in thoroughly, don’t- just know that the baking process will fix it for you :)
4. Grease a bread pan with soy butter and pour in the dough. Crack the egg into a small mixing bowl and beat thoroughly. Take a pastry or basting brush and brush on the egg , then sprinkle on large sea salt and extra cheese if you’d like acrispier crust (if not, leave out the extra cheese).
5. Place the bread in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 50 min – 1 hour, until the middle is cooked through (use a toothpick) and the top has a rich golden hue. Cool on a wire cooling rack once cool enough to handle quickly, and then transfer to a cutting board and slice it up!

It’s delicious warm, seriously. Eat it warm. Mmmh. The smell of fresh bread baking in the oven is rather hard to beat, and this one is salty, rich, and tasty! FF’s recipe is so incredibly simple, and doesn’t require any kneading. No need to knead! No worrying about activating yeast- it’s already bubbling in the beer! What more can you ask for in a quick, painless bread recipe?

Ah, this one definitely is to be filed in the ‘accident’ category. H and I were set to make to panini, and the second was to be an Italian one, featuring pesto… and rather than use the perfectly fine store-bought one in the fridge, I just had to go off and try making my own. With no direction, no recipe, no studying, just randomly throwing things into the blender and hoping for the best. The saddest part is that it probably would have worked, too, if it weren’t for that meddling shallot! I had picked up some very pretty looking shallots at the store earlier that day and thought it a brilliant idea to chop one up and put the whole thing right on into the pesto. Raw. Clearly I sometimes just am not thinking things through :) That said, in case any of you are mad enough to want to try it, herein lies the recipe to my failure:

House-Made Shallot Pesto

Ingredients (makes about 6 oz):

• 1/4 cup organic canola oil
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• the juice of 1 lemon
• 1/16 tsp lemon xest (just grate it for 5 seconds or so)
• 1/4 cup whole sunflower seeds
• heaping 1/4 cup almost-burnt toasted walnuts
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cups chopped parsley (curly-leaf)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, paprika, coriander, cumin, sea salt, black pepper
• …1 medium shallot, minced (DON’T DO IT!)

Process:

1. Place all liquid ingredients (canola oil, olive oil) in bottom of blender or food processor
2. Then place parmesan and nuts
3. Then add in all other ingredients
4. Omit the shallot, it’s not worth your crying over
5. Blend/process on medium setting until the pesto becomes rather thick (though not quite tapenade-thickness)

Et voila, you’re done! When shallot-less, I bet this would have been a rather tasty pesto, although I would suggest upping the parlsey to perhaps 3 cups and adding some more sunflower seeds, they give a really nice texture. That said, the mere thought of this- honestly- makes me cry as my eyes were watering for a good hour after chopping that silly shallot, so do your eyes a favour and omit it so that you can have a happy pesto!

EDIT: After having used this pesto for a few weeks for a varity of panini, I have to say I’ve really come to like it. The sunflower seeds have absorbed most of the oil, so it has more of a tapenade consistency, but the shallot taste is by no means overpowering and adds a very nice flavour to the sandwiches. It’s also ideal as a panino-bread coating because it will seep through just enough to create nice grill marks but won’t splatter about.

If you’re looking for a powerhouse of health and flavour, this is it: pounds upon pounds of vegetables, rich aromatics, spices from far away and tantalizing textures. This dish is perfect for vegetarians and vegans looking for a hearty main course; for anyone looking to have something quick and on-the-go that is delicious either cold as a salad or warm- by itself, or as a complement to a meat.

The boyfriend had a potluck to attend and make something for, so naturally he asked if I could help. :) I looked at the menu of what others were planning to bring and saw starch and meat and a serious lack of vegetarian entrees (ironically, as it turned out, there was virtually no meat and much less starch than planned) and thus opted to search for what I could make that would be heavily vegetabled. A discussion with a coworker led me towards use of couscous or ourzo and thus I happened upon this seven-vegetable couscous recipe from Food Network. It seemed perfect, and thus I printed it, went searching for ingredients- this was to be my first time using turnips and yellow squash- and began the process!

The mechanics of the dish are by no means complicated- the reason it took me an incredible amount of time was that a) I opted to triple the recipe, b) I’m slow at cutting, and c) my casserole pan was by no means large enough. I ended up cooking the vegetables in two batches and then making the cous once the veggies were all done. However, this worked out for the best- as the veggie water wasn’t thickening properly into a sauce I made the first batch, drained it, reused the water for the second batch, drained it, and re-re-used the water for cooking the cous, resulting in some highly flavourful starchiness.

As I made copious changes to the recipe, here’s my version of this Moroccan dinner:

Spiced Vegetable Moroccan Cous Cous

Ingredients- makes 7 lbs vegetables:

• 2 – 3 cups of water (depending on how much you’re able to drain and re-use)
• 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and diced finely
• 5 medium-sized turnips, peeled and cut into inch-sized cubes
• 1 large yellow sweet onion, cut into inch-long thick strips
• 6 very large carrots, peeled and cut into 1.5-inch cubes
• 2.5 cups jumbo sweet black raisins
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch strips
• 2 large yellow squashes, peeled, cut into 1.5-inch cubes
• 3 large zucchini squashes, rinsed vigorously- not peeled- and cut into 1.5-inch cubes
• 1 large can chickpeans, drained, rinsed thoroughly
• 6 large roma tomatoes, cut into large chunks
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes in their juices
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon each of freshly-cracked black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
• 2 teaspoons each of sugar, ground turmeric
• 3 teaspoons each of ground cumin and spanish paprika

Ingredients- makes 3 lbs couscous:

• 4.5 cups room-temperature water – amount of remaining vegetable water (aka take all the water you’ve drained from the vegetables and add as much water as necessary to make the total amount of water 4.5 cups)
• 3 cups whole wheat cous cous
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup smashed hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup smashed cashews, salted
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

As that differed quite a bit from the original recipe, I thought it useful to write it all out there again. Mind you this makes for an incredibly large quantity, so feel free to use their original proportions for a more normal size! The process I followed was rather similar to the one listed, with a few minor changes.

Process:

• As the bell pepper is the longest ingredient to soften, I boiled these separately in a small pot with lid for 5 minutes before adding them to the veggie mixture at the same time as the carrots
• Due to my pot being too small, I ended up adding 3/4 of the zucchini and yellow squash, half the roma tomatoes, half the canned tomatoes + 1/3 of the raisins as a second batch using the drained water from the first batch
• When cooking the couscous, I put in the drained water from the vegetables and added as much extra water as needed (a half cup, in my case), and put it to boiling. Once the water was at a boil, I reduced the heat to low, put in the couscous, mixed the smashed nuts into it, and closed the lid with it sitting on low heat for 6 minutes. I then removed it from the heat, let it sit- still lid on- for another 5 minutes, then served.

The rest of the process I followed more or less as directed on the recipe. It’s one that’s open to much interpretation and very forgiving on timing- when making a stew of vegetables, cooking times are inexact! I felt very much like a Medieval lady out in the woods, with one of those gigantic stew cauldrons that you haphazardly throw all manner of vegetables into. It was great :)

It’s a simple recipe, but time consuming if you’re slow like me, so put aside a bit of time and then enjoy the fruits of your labour! Just one word of caution: if you go heavy on the turmeric, make sure you soak your dishes thoroughly when cleaning, and be careful not to spill any onto you. Turmeric is rather difficult to wash out, so be forewarned!

You can substitute almost any vegetables in here, the only trick is figuring out at what point to add them to the stew based on how long they’ll require to soften through to the middle. That said, it’s simple, it’s delicious, and it’s so nutritious that just a bit will have you feeling like you’ve done a good deed for your health :).

The last time I had been making chicken tikka masala, a magical thing happened: prior to adding the chicken to the tikka sauce, my sister announced that she enjoyed the chicken- spices, yogurt, and all. This was, naturally, a rare and exciting phenomenon, and so when we had company over recently, I sought to recreate the magic from that former recipe attempt.

I used the same recipe for chicken tikka as a base- but, naturally, made changes. For the  spice rub on the chicken, I used the following:

• heaping tsp salt
• heapting tsp pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground corriander
• heaping tsp nutmeg
• 1/3 tsp cinnamon
• large pinch of garam masala

I cleaned, rinsed, dried the chicken, then rubbed it thoroughly on both sides with the spice mix and refrigerated it for about 30 minutes.

While it was refrigerating, I prepared the sauce, which consisted of:

• 1.5 cups low-fat european-style vanilla yogurt
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• dash of turmeric

I mixed the sauce together in a pyrex, then also refrigerated (again, this is mostly following the recipe linked above, thus far only minor changes).

I then dunked the chicken thoroughly in the yogurt mixture on both sides and placed on the aluminum-covered-baking-sheet-with-rack, and added some extra yogurt sauce to the top of the chicken pieces. I then broiled it at 525 degrees for 14 minutes, removed the chicken from the oven, flipped it, spooned on another layer of yogurt sauce, and broiled for another 12 minutes.

Once out of the oven, I suggest a) cleaning your rack immediately so it won’t be a miserable event doing so later, and b) serving with some cool vanilla or plain yogurt on the side, I think it would have been a terrific addition.

I opted to make this iteration with something not remotely Indian: broiled parmesan broccoli. To do this:

• Cut crowns of broccoli into small chunks and haphazardly arrange in small baking pyrex
• Drizzle heavily with olive oil, salt, pepper, and grated parmesan
• Broil (in bottom-most rack of oven) in pyrex at 525 for approximately 10 minutes
• Sprinkle on a tiny bit more parm after removing from the oven to add some final nuttiness
• Serve warm! :)

This dinner was incredibly flavourful (the spices were perhaps a tad bit too strong, but the health benefits are worth it) yet nicely healthy (the yogurt is low-fat, the chicken well-cleaned… the oil’s the worst of it, really) and really yummy. It’s quite simple, I’m just slow and indecisive, but try it out!

The coming of spring means the coming of spring salads… and this one is a healthy yet delicious way to enjoy the flowers and sunshine! I needn’t tell you of spinach’s amazing health benefits- you can speak with Popeye regarding that one- but it’s a terrific base/starter for salads. A few additions make this bright and yummy:

• fresh (not cooked) spinach leaves
• sultanas (golden raisins)
• quartered cherry tomatoes
• garlic-ceasar fat-free salad dressing
• sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese
• salt & pepper

A little flavour can go a long way, and garlic-caesar dressing is a great way to add a big punch of flavour without the fat. Though caesar dressing is usually quite fatty, this garlic one (eating right brand, from Randall’s/Safeway/TomThumb) is punchy, to say the least. And garlic is also terrifically good for you, so what’s not to like? (unless you’re pale and sparkly) Add in sultanas for sweetness and tomatoes for some moisture and you’re set, my friend. Perfect springy lunch!