In the Quest for Easily-Baked Goods

Today is not a very nice day. It is dark, dreary, windy, rainy, and cold (well, colder than I'd like it to be). As if nature hadn't ruined this day enough, it decided to start throwing a temper tantrum at about 3am that was so loud it shook the house and woke me up with some seriously spooky sounds.

And so as a result of all this craziness I decided to do one thing I know that almost always makes me feel better: bake something. It has been far too long. Since I was feeling extra tired I knew it would have to be a recipe requiring minimal effort on my part. I found the perfect one thanks to my Twitter friend Russel van Kraayenberg (@rvank) of the wonderful dessert blog Chasing Delicious.

The Classics: Chocolate Chip Cookies | Chasing Delicious

I followed that recipe to a T and the result was some cookies that were pretty delicious, but not perfect, on account of a few mistakes I made:

- I used a coarser grain of salt, which means that the salty taste of the batter is pretty obvious and overpowering and lingers in your mouth after swallowing the yummy cookie you just ate. Not good. Next time in a recipe like this I'll use my salt grinder as it puts out some pretty powdery salt. Not sure what I was thinking there. Was probably not thinking.

- I preheated my oven as I was starting the recipe, when I should have done it closer to the end. My butter was too hard and so I wanted to get some heat into the ceramic mixing bowl I was using to help facilitate the softening and mixing or the butter and sugar. Result: oven was closer to 425C than 375C and the edges of my cookies were already a really dark brown 3 minutes into the baking time. Woops. They ended up only staying in there about 7 minutes for the first batch, 9 minutes for the second after letting the oven cool off a bit. Both batches were pretty dark, but thankfully not burnt.

- Not enough chocolate. I only had about 1/8 cup of chocolate chips, and about 2.5 squares of dark chocolate left over from one of those large thin slabs of 70% cocoa bars. Luckily this was a pretty small batch of cookies, so every cookie has at least a few chunks of chocolate, but... still not enough for my liking. But hey, that's impromptu baking for you.

And so a last-minute baking adventure was pretty much a success. These cookies should last me a little while... like until tomorrow. Happy baking!

Easy, yummy Tomato Sauce with Beef.

I was struggling to come up with a title for this recipe, and so I ask for your forgiveness. It's quite... un-inspired. But really, what else can I say about this dish? There are tomatoes. There is some beef. And some other spices. And voila! A beefy, tomato-y sauce. It's adapted from this recipe from Real Simple. I leave out the fresh mozzarella because I found it didn't really need it, and I don't always have it around. Also it doesn't really add any flavour. Parmesan is much more flavourful and not so bad with the sodium if you don't dump it on. Just use a little. Like, less than a tablespoon's worth. There's enough flavour here already that you don't really need any at all. But you can add some if you really feel it's necessary. You won't die without it, I promise.

I also add some canned/jarred pasta sauce to this recipe, because otherwise it isn't really saucy enough for me. And so, this recipe is a wonderful mix of home-made and pre-made. I hate to take things out of cans or jars, heat them up, and just eat them as is. This might be because we didn't really do this at my house growing up. I was fortunate enough to have a mom that valued eating fresh food, and so hardly anything came out of a can--even our holiday cranberry sauce was made on the stove, a simple mixture of sugar, water and fresh cranberries boiled down into a mush. This is probably why I prefer to add things to pre-made sauces and make it my own. Or you could see it as using these convenience items as helpful aides in the kitchen, since I don't have time to be simmering a pot of home-made sauce for hours. ANYWAYS.

I really love this recipe. I've been meaning to write a post about it for quite some time. I've made it at least four times in this past month alone, and every time, I think "Crap! Should've taken a picture for the blog," including this time. Apologies for that, too.

It's really quite simple to put together. The ingredients are staple items which you would usually have lying around, looking uninteresting and lonely in their natural state. However. Don't be fooled by all this normalcy. Because inside each of these ordinary, boring ingredients is the potential for something delicious. Beef. Onions. Garlic. Tomatoes. You can make these ingredients sing. They'll mingle and make love in a hot pan, and conceive delicious flavours for you to enjoy.

Alright, enough of that business. Let's get down to it.


Ingredients
olive oil
1/2 of a white onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 large beefsteak tomato
1/2 a can of plain pasta sauce 
3 basil leaves
A pinch of Italian Seasoning (I only cheat a TINY bit here because I don't have any other nice fresh herbs and spices. This does the trick.)
Salt and pepper


Method
Do my fancy water-boiling trick (which isn't really all that fancy. It's more time-saving than fancy) and put some pasta on the boil. Since this sauce is quite chunky, I like to use pasta that is in shapes instead of long strings. Shapes like rotini or penne are great for holding lots of thick, chunky sauce. I've preferred using whole-wheat pasta lately since it's extra filling (and you won't be eating a whole bowl of simple carbohydrates, which basically turn into sugar in your digestive system), BUT HEY. It's your thing. Do what you wanna do.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil over medium-ish heat in a large skillet. Turn it down if you need to. I always do, since my garlic tends to burn in a matter of minutes on medium. I go for medium-low. Chop some garlic and throw it in. Let it simmer while you chop your onions. Throw them in the pan too. Add some salt and pepper and let the onions simmer for a few minutes until they get soft. Add the ground beef and brown. Drain any extra fat in the pan. Add the tomato paste and stir it around so it gets on most of the beef. The pan might seem a little dry right now, but that's alright.

Let it all simmer while you chop your tomato, then throw it in and mix everything up. Your tomato should add enough liquid that all these ingredients can mingle sufficiently. If it doesn't, add a little water to the pan. But not too much. Add your basil and/or Italian spice mix. Stir occasionally. Let it simmer for a few minutes, until the tomatoes look soft, and then add the pasta sauce. Turn the heat right down at this point, almost to the lowest setting. You want the sauce to heat up and obtain the flavour you just coaxed out of all the lovely ingredients in the pan. You don't want the sauce to boil and bubble and leave streaks of sauce on your walls that you'll still be finding weeks later. Heat slowly. Let it simmer for at least five minutes. My pasta had to sit in the pot all drained and dry, waiting to get sauced. It's worth it if you have the time. If you don't, it isn't the end of the world.

Taste the sauce. If you like the way it tastes, throw in the pasta and mix it around and call it a day. If it's not done yet, let it be, or adjust your seasonings if you like. This recipe makes enough sauce for approximately 2-1/2 cups of prepared pasta, which will feed two people twice. Or four people, once. It makes a bunch, how about that. Bonus of cooking in large amounts: it's even better the next day.

Note: Feel free to experiment with the amount of tomatoes you add, and even the type. Last time I did this recipe I used some grape tomatoes I had in the fridge that weren't getting eaten and were about to go soft.

And there you have it. An easy yet delicious and filling meal that comes together in under 20 minutes.

Hooray for minimal effort in the kitchen!

Cheese Ravioli with Spinach and Tomato

In search of an easy pasta dish with which I could make use of the remaining pile of baby spinach in my fridge, I found this recipe over at Real Simple. Its minimal ingredients and fresh approach won me over, as did the frozen bag of ravioli I picked up last week as a just-in-case-I-had-no-energy meal. Since I had already consumed three pieces of bacon with my breakfast this morning, I decided I could do without the bacon and keep this a veggie meal.

This recipe was thrown together and finished in about 15 minutes, making it great for someone without much time. It was full of flavour and just as satisfying as one of those frozen skillet meals you can get in a bag, but this version is obviously better in every way: it's cheaper, healthier, tastier. The only part I cheated at was the ravioli, and frankly, I trust Ontario Ravioli Ltd to deliver a well-made product. I know where it comes from.

Please excuse the picture quality. There was still a bunch of steam in the way.

Ravioli with Spinach and Tomato (makes 2 servings, measurements are approximate)
1 cup fresh or frozen ravioli
1-1/2 cups baby spinach leaves, stems removed
2 medium-sized tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
3 basil leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a large pot of salted water to boil (boil the water in a kettle first if you're really strapped for time). Boil the ravioli, stirring occasionally, following package directions for timing.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Finely chop the garlic (or mince it, or bash it with your knife) and toss it into the heated oil. Stir and let it cook for a few minutes. Dice the tomatoes roughly, and add them to the pan. Add salt, pepper and basil leaves and cook for about five minutes, until the tomatoes are soft. Finally, add the spinach leaves and stir frequently for two minutes or until the leaves are wilted.

Drain the ravioli well and add it to the skillet. Toss it all together and adjust your seasonings if necessary. Dump it all into a bowl and top with Parmesan cheese if desired (I found it unnecessary); stuff into face.

Sometimes, it's okay to cheat.

Like when you've been battling a viral infection for a week, and you have little to no energy. Making meals for myself has been a real challenge. Besides being exhausted all the time, I hardly have any appetite, which doesn't really help me in the motivation department. The only thing that keeps me shoving food into my face is the knowledge that my body needs fuel in order to help itself get better and fight these monsters inside of me.

For tonight's dinner, I knew I needed to bring out the big guns: garlic and onions. These things are heavy hitters in the Foods That Heal bracket, and I happened to have a bit of a jar of alfredo sauce in the fridge. Pre-made sauce equals less prep time for me, and that's a huge plus in my current state. And so a simple meal idea was born: garlicky shrimp and broccoli alfredo.

All measurements are approximate. This recipe made enough for two large servings. I hope you like it as much as I did. Feel free to adjust the levels of garlic to your liking.

Ingredients

Some large, flat noodles (either fettucini or linguine will work)

4 cloves garlic

1/2 of a medium Vidalia onion

1/2 of a head of broccoli

3/4 cup shrimp, thawed

1/3 of a jar of Classico Roasted Garlic Alfredo sauce

Salt and Pepper

Method

Start some water boiling for your pasta. If you're short on time, a trick I like to use is to fill up my electric kettle with hot water from the tap and set it to boil. Once it's popped, pour the whole thing into a pot you have ready on the stove. Turn the dial to high, and blammo--you will have a pot of boiling water in less than half the time it would have taken if you just poured a bunch of lukewarm water into a pot and waited for it to boil the traditional way. ANYWAYS.

In a large frying pan, heat some oil or butter over medium-low heat until hot. Cut up some garlic and onions and toss them in the pan. Cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Rinse your shrimp, blot them with some paper towels, and toss them into the pan as well (you don't want too much liquid in the pan or the shrimp get all rubbery). Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 4 minutes, turning often. Dump the contents of your jar of sauce into the pan and let it simmer, stir often. Feel free to adjust the amount of sauce depending on the amount of pasta you're cooking. Heat everything all together over low heat for a few minutes, or until your pasta is done.

Meanwhile, your pasta should be nearing completion. During the last few minutes of cooking, dump your broccoli pieces into the boiling water right along with the pasta. The time the broccoli takes to cook depends on the size of the pieces you cut and how tender you like your broccoli bits to be. Adjust cooking times accordingly.

Drain your pasta and broccoli thoroughly, then dump it into the frying pan with the sauce. Toss everything all together; stuff into face. Remember that cheating is a perfectly normal and acceptable thing... sometimes.

Peach & Berry Crisp

Last week, in my excitement at finding an obscene amount of peaches at a very reasonable price, I bought far too many peaches than I could ever hope to possibly eat. I had been slowly chipping away at the pile, eating a raw peach every day as a snack, when the rest of said pile started to get a little too soft. And so I was like, Egads! All this cheap fruit! I cannot let it go to waste! Whatever shall I doooo!? (previous scene possibly exaggerated).

So, with all these peaches on the verge of being far too ripe, I decided to make sure they would not go to waste, and that I would make something delicious in the process. And so, I came back to an article I had found last week over at Real Simple containing numerous creative ways to use up the bounty of lovely peaches available at this time of year.

This kind of peach. Perverts.

I went through all of them, multiple times, before I found one that seemed just the right amounts of easy, delicious, and requiring ingredients that I had in the house: Peach Crisp. Though it called for more peaches than I had, I was able to supplement the amount of fruit with some berries I had in the fridge. I was hoping for a tart yet sweet late-summer-fruit feel, and my instincts were spot-on. These fruits came together in a wonderful medley of flavours that let me pretend, if only for a few brief moments, that summer was going to stick around for a while. Summer-lovers, this one's for you.

Ingredients

Filling:

6 peaches, sliced

1-1/2 cups fresh blackberries

1-1/2 cups frozen strawberries

1/3 cup white granulated sugar

1 tbsp white all-purpose flour

Topping:

3/4 cup flour

1-1/4 cups light brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut up into little pieces

2 cups rolled oats

Method

Mix the fruit together in a large bowl with the granulated sugar and 1 tbsp of flour. Dump it all into a large, shallow baking dish and set it aside. (I forgot to add the flour here, so I mixed it in the baking dish like a fool. Also, my dish was pretty deep. It still turned out fine.)

In another bowl, mix together the brown sugar, salt, flour and butter with your fingers, pinching the mixture as you go along. After a few minutes it should resemble coarse crumbs. Add the rolled oats and mix roughly. Sprinkle this mixture on top of your fruit, squeezing it as you go, making large coarse clumps. It should look uneven and messy and glorious.

Bake in a 350-degree F oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.

Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream for extra delicious.

And there it is: the best way to make the most of summer's delicious bounty! Remind yourself as you eat it that you are eating fruit. And fruit is good for you. That technically classifies this as health food. You're welcome.

Blueberry Muffins

I love me some muffins.

They are probably the best vehicle for ingesting any type of fruit along with (the essential diet staple) sugar. Unlike the various types of loaves (banana, zucchini, pumpkin, etc) there are no extra steps required for their enjoyment. Nothing is standing in the way of pure loveliness except a flimsy wrapper that can easily get torn off. In most cases you could probably just bite right through it, eat the entire thing whole, and get a bit of extra fiber in the process. Mine, however, are that type of food-safe silicone that enhances your baked goods, and not your breasts. And they are heart-shaped. They are the clear favourites out of my vast array of kitchen utensils (but don't tell that to the spatula or she'll flip).

Easy Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Cat Can Cook)

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup of vegetable oil (can be substituted with applesauce, but I used oil this time)

3/4 cup of milk (though I needed to add more due to the wheat germ)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Mix together dry ingredients. Break up the egg and whisk lightly in a separate bowl. Add the oil, milk, vanilla extract and mix well. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture all at once, and mix until it's JUST combined. (You don't want to over-mix your muffin batter or else they'll have a horrible non-muffiny texture. Like if gruel were solidified.) I added the wheat germ for some extra fibre/nutrition value, but it meant I had to add a teensy bit more milk to the batter so that it was the right consistency. It should be not too runny, but not too thick. You shouldn't be able to pour it like pancake batter. And lumps are fine. Leave them in there.

Add the blueberries to the batter and carefully fold them in. Scoop into muffin tins, either greased or lined with paper, or silicone baking cups dusted with flour. Mine are kind of large so I scooped the batter with my 1/4 cup measuring device.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Mine took about 22 minutes to get lightly browned. Let them cool for a minute or two and then either remove your cups from the cookie sheet and place them on a cooling rack, or overturn your muffin tin so they all topple out and put them somewhere to cool down. This way they won't continue to cook on a hot pan and you won't end up with burnt bottoms. This happened to me more than a few times. Embarrassing.

Enjoy your muffins as an awesome breakfast paired with a glass of milk (either the dairy, soy, or almond variety--whichever you prefer) or as a healthy snack. Well, healthier than most of the fruit-filled snack things you would get at a grocery store. And cheaper too! Now your tummy AND your wallet are happy.

Best things ever.

Are these things.

Zucchini Fritters from Anja's Food 4 Thought, a sweet blog documenting one woman's quest for wellness through healthier eating. If you're ever feeling like you need to go on a health food kick, this is definitely a blog you should look through. The recipes are all so unique and utilize whole grains, fresh in-season fruits & veggies and are frequently gluten-free and all that business. I'm not really there just yet; regular flour doesn't seem to bother me and I'm just getting started with my adventures in food. But the recipes look awesome nonetheless. Take these zucchini fritters for example.

They are lovely little things. The insides almost remind me of the texture of quiche, with the outsides cooked to a lovely brown crispness (thanks to the wonders of bacon grease... have I also mentioned I'm not a vegetarian?). I would highly reccommend trying this recipe if you're looking for something different. Or if your mom has a zucchini plant in her garden that's producing much more than expected.

Anyway. Here's my modified version of Anja's Zucchini Chickpea Fritters:

1 cup zucchini, coarsley grated
1 egg
1/3 large white onion, diced very finely
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1/4 cup feta cheese (crumbled finely)
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

bacon grease (or some other such oil that you wish to use to lubricate the pan)

Whisk egg, then stir in flour, onion, feta cheese, salt and pepper. Add zucchini and fold everything together. Your batter might seem a little thick at this point but don't worry, the moisture from the zucchini will loosen it up a bit (or it may have been some other magic process through the ingredients, who knows). Here's how mine looked after it was all mixed up.

Scoop the batter into a pre-warmed pan by heaping teaspoonfulls. This made mine a little smaller than I expected, but I was cool with it. You'll want to flatten them a bit so the insides cook evenly throughout. Cook for about 4 minutes on one side, then flip and cook until they're done enough for you. Mine ranged from pale and barely holding together in the first batch, to perfectly browned and firm throughout in the second. It's all a matter of preference really.

The second batch looked a lot better but they didn't last long enough for me to get a picture.

Serve immediately, and bask in the deliciousness of what you just created. There is no need for sauce like ketchup or mayo. Be amazed that things like onion, zucchini and feta cheese could taste so damn good.

And there you have it! A delicious way to eat more fresh, in-season vegetables.

Home-Made Granola (Note to self: buy some bowls)

I got a wicked urge to make granola today. I knew it would be hot outside today, so turning on the oven was like a deathwish. Fuck it, I thought. I want some damn granola. The ingredients have been sitting in my pantry for weeks. It's now or never.
So I looked up the recipe I used from Cat Can Cook back in March and started over. Except this time I was confused about where to put the brown sugar. The instructions say "put all liquid ingredients into a saucepan." From my own knowledge of baking, brown sugar is usually included in "wet" ingredients in a recipe, along with eggs and oil and what-have-you. So in this case, I thought, I should probably put it in the pot with the oil and the honey so it all warms nicely together.
I was wrong. This was a bad idea. When I poured this liquid honey-sugar mixture over my rolled oats and raisins, what I got was not enough liquid to go around. The sugar just clumped up and the honey seemingly disappeared. My granola was almost completely dry, and no amount of forceful mixing would fix it.
So I had to devise a plan. This plan involved sprinkling some extra brown sugar over the granola once it was in the pan, and then drizzling some extra honey all over it. It seems to be working, since I can't smell anything burning and I don't see any flames shooting out of the oven when I open it.
Here's my modified version of this recipe.
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar (add to dry ingredients, like you're supposed to)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I didn't have any so I left it out)
1 cup to 1-1/2 cups of various nuts of your choosing (I picked peanuts this time)
1 cup raisins or other various dried fruits of your choosing (I did 1/2 cup of raisins and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, just to be WILD)
1/4 cup oil (I just used regular vegetable oil)
1/4 cup liquid honey
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Put all your liquids into a small pot and heat over medium-low, stirring occasionally until combined.
Meanwhile, mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
(This was a lot more difficult than it should have been for me, seeing as I have no large bowls. The closest thing I have to a large bowl is a medium-sized pot, so I divided the dry ingredients into two separate different-sized bowls and a pot. Clever, right? Not really. It was hard to know how much liquid to use for each one. I eyeballed it and then ended up mixing together the contents of the two bowls in an attempt to get the consistency right.)
Cover two baking sheets with wax paper. Bake in a 325F oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. Stir the mixture every 10-15 minutes. The mixture will get crispy as it cools. Keep in an airtight container to seal in the goodness.
Note: if you're using chocolate chips in your granola, you will probably want to add them to the mix after it has cooled. Mine have pretty much disappeared while in the oven. Guess I'll just have to add more later.
Note 2: I devised a brilliant plan to make this last longer: mix it with Cheerios, or some other generic cereal of your choice. Someone donated two big bags of Cheerios to our pantry a while back and nobody's touched it. So into the mix it goes.
So there it is, a cheap and easy way to make an awesome and relatively healthy snack at home. Store-bought granola can be pretty pricey and not the best for you, so try making it yourself! All these ingredients cost me about $20, but most of the main ingredients (rolled oats, raisins, nuts) come in huge bulk-sized bags, so they will definitely allow you to make this recipe a few times.
And to anyone who says baking is difficult, or they "just can't do it": look how much I messed up in the kitchen today. Even if you can (or can't) follow basic instructions, something like this will probably come out juuuust fine.

Parmesan Pasta

Easiest dinner you could ever make. This was the remnants of what was left over in the pot, so it was a bit oilier and cheesier than the rest of it (please disregard the chipped bowl. Me? Clumsy? Never).

Add just enough oil that everything is slightly lubricated. You don't want it dripping. About 2tbsps should be enough. Method:

1. Cook pasta.
2. Meanwhile, slice up some garlic and onions. Put them in a pan with some hot olive oil and sautee until translucent.
3. Cut up some chicken and throw it in the pan. Add some salt and pepper. Cook until chicken is white on one side, about 3 minutes, then flip over. Add S&P again.
4. While you're waiting for your chicken to cook, slice up some vegetables. Tonight I used broccoli, green peppers and zucchini. If you're using the same vegetables, put the broccoli in first since it takes a bit longer to cook (medium-low so it doesn't burn). Add the peppers a few minutes later, and add the zucchini last. Cook for a few minutes or until desired done-ness.
5. Drain your pasta. Toss with some olive oil and a bunch of parmesan cheese. Add more salt or pepper to taste.
6. Stuff into face. Marvel at how easy cooking can be.