happy meal

a blog about food and wellness

Toasted Hazelnut and Cranberry Quinoa

April 12, 2012 by Cait | 0 comments

My new favourite recipe, hands down! This fruity and nutty quinoa is quick and easy to prepare, contains plenty of vegetarian protein, and tastes delicious hot or cold. Last week, Nate and I paired the dish with some Paradise Valley pork chops and sautéed apples, sage and onions. And next time, I plan on switching things up a bit with toasted almonds and dried apricots… yummmmm.

Ingredients (this recipe makes about 4 servings):

  • 1/2 cup red quinoa (cooked)
  • 1/2 cup golden quinoa (cooked)
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup chopped roasted or raw hazelnuts (I cut my hazelnuts in half)
  • 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • a bit of kosher salt for light seasoning

First, cook your quinoa. Combine the red and golden quinoa in a medium-sized pot (make sure you have a lid for later), and add 2 cups of water (my rule of thumb is 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups of water). Bring the quinoa to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. After 20 minutes of steaming/simmering, remove the pot lid and fluff up the cooked quinoa with a spoon or fork.

Next, add the olive oil to a large frying pan set to medium heat. After a minute or so of heating the oil, toss in the sunflower seeds and chopped hazelnuts, and let the nuts lightly roast for 3-5 minutes. Toss in your cranberries, and then add the quinoa (if your quinoa starts to stick, turn down the heat and a little splash of olive oil to loosen things up). Finally, add the honey and a sprinkle of salt. Mix everything together, and then enjoy!

An Even BETTER Better Pizza Dough

April 9, 2012 by Cait | 0 comments

I’ve long been in search for an even better pizza dough recipe… and I think I finally found it, adapted from the blog The Cafe Sucre Farine’s “Best Ever – Pizza Dough” (you can’t go wrong with a title like that)!

The two things I love most about this dough are its coming togetherness (sometimes mixing the dry and wet ingredients together can be a nightmare, especially without a mixer), and its spreadability (sounds like a special jam – but no, this dough spreads from a ball into a beautiful pizza crust shape with just a little help from your hands and a rolling pin).

Also, I’ve learned that happy yeast means happy pizzas. In step one, if your yeast isn’t exploding with bubbly foaminess by the end of 10 minutes, something’s gone wrong (maybe your water isn’t the right temperature? maybe your yeast is dead?). With this recipe, the sugar and precisely calibrated water temperature, plus some happy packs of yeast from the grocery store, haven’t failed me yet. You’ll need:

  • 1 1/2 cups of water, between 105 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit
  • 1 little baggy of yeast (from those threesome sachets of yeast) or 2 1/4 teaspoons of bulk yeast
  • 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil (plus a little extra)
  • 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt
  • 4 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour (plus about 1/4 cup extra for the countertop)

First, make sure the water is the right temperature (I use our meat thermometer for this!) and then pour into a large mixing bowl with the yeast and brown sugar. Let this mixture sit for approximately 10 minutes – very quickly, you should see the surface of the surface of the water transform into a frothy mass as the yeast becomes active. Next, add the oil and salt. And finally, add those four cups of flour. Mix everything together using your hands – though the mixture may seem too floury at first, keep mixing and pretty soon everything will come together. Once combined, transfer the dough to a floured countertop and start kneading! I recommend kneading for about 10 minutes – it’s a pretty hefty workout.

When you’ve finished kneading, coat the interior of a large, clean bowl with a little bit of olive oil (to prevent the dough from sticking to the sides as it rises). Then place your dough in the oiled bowl, cover with some plastic wrap or a good cloth napkin, and let rise for approximately 1 hour. When the hour is up, punch your dough down (it will shrink in size when you do this, but that’s just fine) and split the ball into two even halves. If you only plan on making one pizza, place the other half in the refrigerator for dinner the next night (make sure it is tightly wrapped or else the dough will try to escape!) or in the freezer for dinner any other night (let the frozen dough thoroughly thaw in the fridge or on the counter before you use it though).

That’s it! Enjoy!

An Even Better Pizza Dough

December 31, 2011 by Cait | 1 Comment

Many months ago I wrote a post about pizza dough, and included my then go-to recipe from Jamie Oliver. Ever since, I’ve been experimenting with other recipes in the quest to perfect a pizza dough that is easily prepared, easily formed, and easily cooked in a conventional oven without a pizza stone. Finally, Nate and I stumbled on an even better pizza dough recipe that’s worthy of posting (adapted from the blog Kayotic Kitchen). The difference? Possibly the honey. The outcome? A thin but nice and bubbly crust – not too heavy, and not too light either.

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons of softened honey (microwave for a few seconds if your honey isn’t soft enough)
  • 2 1/4 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

This recipe makes 2 medium-size crusts, or 1 extra-large crust.

  1. In a large bowl, combine the yeast and warm water – let this mixture sit for 5 minutes… the surface should start to explode with little creamy clouds of activated yeast (if this doesn’t happen, you’ll need to get some new yeast)
  2. Add the salt, honey, and olive oil to the bowl of activated yeast – mix together
  3. Now add the flour one cup at a time, mixing all the flour in before you add another cup
  4. Transfer to a floured countertop and knead for 8 minutes – the dough should feel smooth and elastic
  5. Lightly coat the interior of a clean large bowl with olive oil, and place the dough inside, brushing the top of the dough with a little more olive oil
  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place in a warm spot… and then let the dough rise for 2 hours
  7. When the dough has risen, remove it from the bowl and punch out most of the air (as soon as you pick it up, you’ll feel the ball collapsing)
  8. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees
  9. On a floured countertop or using the force of gravity, shape your dough to fit your pan (we use a circular pizza pan with perforations, but a baking tray works too) – also, make sure your pan or tray is lightly oiled before putting the dough on it!
  10. Let the shaped dough sit on the pans for 5 minutes before adding your toppings
  11. Bake at 450 degrees until the top of your pizza and its crust are golden brown

December 30, 2011
by Cait
1 Comment

Oat Scones

A simple, filling breakfast treat, especially delicious served warm with some jam and tea or coffee.

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
  • 2 cups rolled oats (not quick oats!)
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar, plus a little extra for topping
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup milk, plus a little extra for brushing
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F
  2. Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt in a big bowl
  3. In another smaller bowl, beat the egg and then add the melted butter and milk
  4. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, being careful not to mix everything in too much
  5. Split the dough in half, and transfer the two parts to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
  6. Form the dough into two circles (the dough should be about 3/4-1 inch thick)
  7. With a knife, score the dough into either 4 or 6 pieces
  8. Lightly brush with milk, and then sprinkle with a bit of sugar
  9. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until golden brown
  10. Cool a bit and enjoy!

November 24, 2011
by Cait
0 comments

Cardamom-scented Coconut Cake

Last weekend, Nate and I cooked a vegan meal  for his parents, sister, and brother-in-law… and for dessert, I made a cardamom-scented coconut cake! I originally came across this recipe on the blog Love Food Eat. It looked promising and atypically vegan!

A few days before the big dinner, I gave the recipe a test run. The result was a beautiful looking cake with a slightly bitter taste. To solve the bitterness problem, I reduced the amount of baking soda in Love Food Eat’s  recipe, and added a bit of apple cider vinegar (baking soda needs an acid, like vinegar, to activate… this is a classic acid-base chemistry reaction). Love Food Eat’s recipe also called for one tablespoon of arrowroot powder but after searching around in countless grocery store baking aisles and scouring the Internet for an arrowroot substitute (most websites say that corn starch is the best replacement), I decided to go ahead and bake the cake without it. Thankfully, the lack of arrowroot didn’t seem noticeable since the recipe calls for nearly a cup of corn starch too.

The final product was a beautiful looking, delicious tasting cake, topped with whipped coconut cream! Best of all, this is a vegan cake that literally takes 5 minutes to whip together (and then 40 minutes to bake).

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/1 cup corn starch
  • 1 cup dried, shredded unsweetened (“desiccated”) coconut
  • 3/4 white sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp powdered cardamom spice
  • 1 1/2 cups regular (not light) coconut milk, room temperature (equivalent to almost a whole 400 mL can)
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil (you can find this at health food stores like Choices or Whole Foods)
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

November 15, 2011
by Cait
1 Comment

Spicy Italian Sausage Calzones with Spinach and Peas

Nate and I recently bought a whole bunch of Paul Newman’s tomato sauce from Costco (the Sockarooni is my favourite!), and since then I’ve been trying to come up with creative ways of putting the sauce to good use, beyond the typical tomato-sauce-and-pasta. We also stopped at Choices on our way home from errands last night and picked out our potted spruce Christmas tree. A little early, but the tree is bright and sparkly in our living room… and we have over a month to decorate in our spare time!

But back to what to do with all that tomato sauce. Growing up, I remember my mom making huge batches of calzones for dinners and lunches (and Nate remembers the same of his mom). They’re easily prepared, frozen and then reheated, and are a healthy, fresh spin on fast food classics like Pillsbury Pizza Pops or McCain Pizza Pockets. So while untangling our string of bright LED lights and wrapping them around our Christmas tree, I had some thin crust pizza dough rising on the counter for spicy Italian sausage calzones.

Ingredients for the dough:

  • 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup lukewarm warm water
  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
How to make the dough:
  1. In a small bowl, combine the warm water and yeast – let the yeast dissolve (the Kitchn blog makes a good observation: the mixture should look like thin miso soup)
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt
  3. Make a well in the flour and salt, and slowly add the yeast and water mixture
  4. Transfer the dough to your countertop, and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is moist and slightly tacky
  5. Transfer the dough to a large bowl coated with a bit of olive oil, and let rise for 45 minutes
  6. After the dough has risen, divide it into six equal parts; using a rolling pin on a dusted surface, roll each ball out into a 3 mm thick circle that is 12-13 cm in diameter

Ingredients for the calzone filling:

Get creative! Choose one type of meat (or tofu), one or two types of vegetables, one or two types of cheese, and a good jar of tomato sauce (or use leftover homemade sauce… even better). For my calzones, I used:

  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 6 medium-sized spicy Italian sausages, casings removed and broken into bite-size pieces
  • 1 cup of fresh baby spinach
  • 1/2 cup frozen sweet green peas
  • 1 1/2 cups of Sockarooni tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil, for brushing the top of the calzones 

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November 10, 2011
by Cait
2 Comments

Garlicky Cheddar Biscuits

Last night, I made another batch of tortellini soup (this time with baby spinach mixed in) and tried a new recipe for garlic cheddar biscuits that I found on the blog Sugared Whisk. Sugared Whisk’s recipe calls for a garlic butter topping that I omitted (but the biscuits were still delicious without it!). And best of all, unlike the majority of cheddar biscuit recipes out there (trust me, I searched… and searched), this recipe doesn’t call for Bisquick mix. Not that I have anything against Bisquick – I just prefer baking with the most basic, natural ingredients (and I didn’t have any Bisquick in the cupboard!).

The verdict: these garlicky cheddar biscuits were DELICIOUS! And so, so simple. I will definitely be baking some more again soon!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup for topping
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed/pressed
  • 1/2 cup of 10% fat cream

This recipe makes 5-6 biscuits.

  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F
  2. Mix together the flour, shredded cheese, sugar, baking powder, salt and garlic
  3. Add the cream, and stir until just combined (add a bit more cream if necessary to make all the flour stick)
  4. Scoop the dough in biscuit-size mounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle some extra cheddar cheese on top (the left side of the picture above shows the biscuits right before they’re popped into the oven)
  5. Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown

October 20, 2011
by Cait
0 comments

Easy Pumpkin Cookies

Growing up, my mom would make pumpkin cookies like these for my school snacks. They make a healthy and filling treat, and they’re just in time for Halloween! The batter stores well in the fridge if you want to clean up the mess before popping them in the oven, and the cookies freeze well too. This recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup softened butter or margarine
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups unbleached allpurpose
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 raisins

How to Bake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
  2. Beat together the pumpkin, butter/margarine, egg, and sugars in a large mixing bowl
  3. In another large mixing bowl, combine the spices, salt, baking soda and flour
  4. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture
  5. Mix in the oats, chocolate chips, and raisins
  6. Transfer the cookie dough in little mounds (approximately 2 tablespoons per cookie) to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper
  7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown
Enjoy!

October 9, 2011
by Cait
0 comments

Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins …with a bit of coffee…

To follow up on the vegan Thanksgiving we had at Main Street’s Whole Vegetarian restaurant last night, this morning I made some vegan chocolate chip banana muffins (…with a bit of coffee…).

Though I had hoped to make them ESPRESSO vegan chocolate chip banana muffins, I realized most recipes call for espresso or instant coffee powder. Lacking both, I settled with a sprinkling of extra finely ground coffee beans (leftovers from my coffee grinder), and 1/4 cup of french press brewed coffee in the place of 1/4 cup water. Not exactly the burst of espresso flavour I was aiming for, but delicious nonetheless.

I promise you’ll have a hard time guessing that these muffins aren’t animal product free! Moist, fluffy, and especially delicious when eaten warm, with a hot mug of tea or coffee.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup canola or grapeseed oil
  • 3 very ripe bananas, all mashed up
  • 1/4 cup water or brewed coffee
  • 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp ground chia seeds
  • 1/2 cup dairy-free Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to make:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  2. Lightly grease your muffin tin
  3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda
  4. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil
  5. Add the mashed bananas and chocolate chips to the wet ingredients… mix to combine
  6. Add the coffee, chia seeds, and vanilla extract to the wet ingredients… mix some more
  7. Slowly add the flour to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined
  8. Fill your muffin cups evenly, and then pop in the oven to bake for 30 minutes
  9. Let cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack
Enjoy!

October 1, 2011
by Cait
0 comments

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

The mother (or monster?) of all cookies! This recipe makes about 10-12 jumbo ones, or about 16-18 smaller ones.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter or margarine at room temperature
  • ½ cup crunchy natural peanut butter at room temperature
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup quick or rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips
Cookie Monster-ing:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
  2. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in one bowl, then set aside
  3. In another bowl, cream together the butter/margarine (I used vegan margarine this time), peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract using an electric mixer at medium speed
  4. After a minute or so, add the egg to the wet mixture and beat until combined
  5. Turning the electric mixer to low speed, gradually add the flour mixture
  6. Stir in the oats using a wooden spoon or spatula, and then add the chocolate chips
  7. Finally, drop about 2-3 tablespoons (depending on how large you want your cookies to be) of dough about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets – note: these cookies will collapse, so make sure your raw dough mounds are like spheres/not flat
  8. Bake for 14 minutes, or until lightly golden
  9. Once out of the oven, let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets… and then enjoy!