Cinnamon Loaf

Okay, so to understand why I was so excited over this creation you need to understand how frustrating it is to be allergic to wheat and always have to settled for dense, heavy, wheat & gluten free alternatives.

Out of desperation I finally decided there had to be a better way to eat bread and other baked goodies. So after much research, today I made a special flour blend that you can subsitute for wheat flour cup for cup. The special blend consists of Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, Quinoa Flour and Xanthan Gum.



I decided to try a recipe from my childhood that always made me super happy when my mom would make it...cinnamon loaf. I've been told it's similar to banana bread, but since I've never had the latter I'll have to take it on faith.

The result was amazing...it tasted exactly as I remembered, light and fluffy and cinnamony. The only thing I've ever made so far (subsituting out the wheat flour with another) that tastes EXACTLY the same! So yummy I could almost weep with joy! I can hardly wait to try more recipes...

Frittata

So what better meal is there to make when you have tons of bit's and pieces of leftovers in your fridge? Why a frittata of course! This is my favourite thing to make when I'm pressed for time and ideas.


I added some left over rice, grape tomatos, proscuitto, mushrooms, green onions, bacon bits, slivered almonds, cheese and of course egg into a cast iron frying pan. I baked it on a low temperature for 45 minutes until the cheese turned golden brown.




The result! A tasty, somewhat unattractive dinner that my husband always gets excited over!

Peanut Butter Dog Cookies

The worst part of Winnipeg in January are the cold spells. This week has averaged temperatures in the -40 range making outdoor fun impossible...this means trying to find enough indoor projects to keep you busy.

Today I decided to make my puppy happy by making him some peanut butter cookies. It's not hard...You combine whole wheat flour, oats, molasses, peanut butter and baking powder and then roll it out. Cut it into squares...or any other shape you wish...I've used small cookie cutters before but i find the smaller the better!

Comfort Casserole

Winter in Winnipeg can be challenging at the best of time but this week has been harder than usual. Waking up to -45 with the windchill & a blizzard warning makes you just want to crawl back into bed and make the world go away.

What better way to survive the bitter cold than make the ultimate comfort food....comfort casserole. It's a basic casserole that I first made in junior high home ec. class...as a matter of fact it's the first dish I ever made.

It's so simple...seasoned ground beef, rice, a can of chicken gumbo soup, topped with crumbled taco chips (originally corn flakes...I find taco chips adds a more rounded flavour). A simple dish that will always make me smile...

Ceasar Salad & Lemon Pepper Baked Salmon

In keeping with the light feel of January (for me at this time of year all I crave is light and airy food that will take me to summerland!); we decided to go simple but yummy... a plain Caesar salad with real bacon bits n' pieces. The dressing alas was not made from scratch, but Paul Newman has become my new best friend!

I've been really trying to get into Salmon lately...it's tasty and good for you...and gives you another meat to work with! I've found that the Sobey's seafood counter does a decent job of carrying fresh seafood so that's where we found this tasty fella.

I marinated this piece in some white wine, soy sauce, and a wee bit of crushed garlic (mostly to try something different), then topped it with lemon pepper seasoning and fresh lemons and baked it for about 15 minutes.

Surprisingly the marinade did very little to add to the taste, so we had a lovely light lemony/peppery meal that we paired with steamed baby potatoes and asparagus.

For desert we had a frozen berry medley (as we'd run out of that yummy fresh fruit depicted in an earlier post), with yogurt in a small cup made out of white chocolate.

I found those little cups exploring the supermarket one day and stuck them in my freezer and completely forgot about them until I began scavenging my freezer this weekend. A simple tasty way to end the meal!!

Coconut green curry soup & Chicken avacado salad

The latest endeavour of mine was an old favourite of mine...coconut green curry soup with veggies and chicken. Usually instead of chicken I'll use shrimp and scallops, but the budget is in effect after the week of tasty delights we'd had so i had to use what was on hand.

I began with sauteing the chicken in some seasoning and little white wine, once finished i separated it into two parts as I would need this chicken for the main course as well.

After the chicken came the fun part for me. In a drizzle of EVOO i added onions, lemon grass garlic, turmeric, green curry paste and ginger and cooked them until they softened. The smell was fantastic!


Once the veggies were done I added water to create the base for my soup. Once that mixture boiled I added coconut milk and left it to simmer while i started sauteing the veggies for the soup. The veggies this time around were asparagus and string less snap peas. In the past I've used carrots as well, but this was a what's already on hand kinda night!

After straining the broth of its sauteed bits and pieces, and then adding the veggies and chicken the above is the final result. The key to success here for me is to make sure your veggies are still crispy...all in all a moderately spicy success!

Our main course was this chicken and avocado salad consisting of lettuce, grape tomato's, thinly sliced red onion, Madagascar peppercorn cheese, chicken, taco chips and avocado.

I found myself with and abundance of avocados after friends cancelled on us and i thought there's no way I could eat the planned amount of Guacamole all by myself...there must be a way to use these beauties and not have them spoil! Much to my happiness after a bit of Internet searching I found this recipe and it was a huge success!

The dressing was a creamy mixture of mayo, chili sauce and Tabasco sauce... sounded a bit questionable to me but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried it and i must say very tasty! All in all a wonderful light spicy meal!!

Proscuitto Wrapped Prawns & Pan Seared Chicken with Wild Rice

So we started off with these succulent prawns...I'd been craving shrimp since I had the misfortune at the wonderful wedding show this year to be one booth over from a catering company that was frying up samples of seasoned shrimp...all weekend long. A test to any food lover!
I wrapped these babies in prosciutto and baked them instead of BBQ-ing them as I have in the past. They turned out beautifully...crisp prosciutto on the outside, tender, juicy, garlicky, plump goodness on the inside. Yum.


The main course consisted of some pan seared chicken, a wild rice mixture, with some orange and yellow carrots, beans, and broccoli flowers. I pounded the chicken flat and then seared it with spices (oregano, cilantro, cracked pepper, white pepper, lemon pepper, garlic and a dash of salt) in a drizzle of EVOO.
Once seared I added the chicken to the oven to continue it's cooking, placing slices of Madagascar peppercorn cheese on top at the very end.
The result was well worth the experiment! The subtle flavours of the chicken continued to assault my taste buds with every bite. A lovely light meal!


After such a light and airy meal, what better to follow than fresh strawberries and raspberries?! Normally at this time of year the fruit in the grocery stores is scary at best but on my venture to Sobeys I found these amazing babies just asking me to buy them!
The taste was unbelievable, small bites of fresh juicy goodness that reminded me of the days of picking raspberries when I was little and eating them right off the bush. Some of the best raspberries I've had in a long time!

For Christmas I bought myself a cheap $30.00 espresso/cappuchino maker. We knew that you usually get what you pay for, but we didn't want to make a huge investment if we weren't going to use it regularly.

Well so far this thing is a dream and we have after dinner espresso almost every night. Tonight choice was a Vanilla Nut blend paired off with a chocolate macadamia nut biscotti (I admit to snagging a small bit of my hubbies biscotti...just a taste as my allergies won't permit).

A sensational end to a lovely meal.

Smores

Keeping with the feel of summer what better to follow than smores! Tasty, ooey, gooey goodness that I reserve for camping trips and camping trips alone. The very taste of them instantly takes me back to a time of simplistic fun.

These particular smores were created on our camping trip last summer that ended us in Jasper, Alberta. I found that because we were using the Hershey with Almond Chocolate bars it worked better to place the chocolate squares on the marshmellow while toasting. It allowed the chocolate to soften creating the perfect texture.

The final result in the glow of the fire. Yummy.

BBQ'd Pork Tenderloin with Steamed Veggies

There's something completely delicious about BBQ-ing in the dead of winter to make you feel that summers right around the corner!

My Bamboo steamer is my new favourite, allowing me to have those perfect slightly crisp veggies every time. I went through my crisper and found this medley of veggies and decided it would be perfect!

Adding sauteed mushrooms and grape tomatos seemed to be the finshing touch the dish was looking for!