Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Spelt Cookies

I'm trying to eat less white wheat flour and less refined sugar. But everyone needs a little treat now and then, so my challenge this week was to make a cookie that had neither.

Here's what I came up with...an almond, walnut, coconut, cinnamon, spelt flour and oatmeal cookie, sweetened with honey and maple syrup. No need to feel hard done by with these little numbers in the cookie jar...

I did a small batch because the more I bake the more I eat, but you could easily double the recipe for a more traditional sized batch.

Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Spelt Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

1/3 cup grapeseed oil

1/4 cup almond butter

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon* (read more below) or regular cinnamon
3/4 cup spelt flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl combine oil and almond butter until blended. Add honey, maple syrup, baking powder and baking soda. Beat with electric mixer until combined. Beat in egg, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat in the flour (keep mixer speed on low). Stir in oats, coconut and walnuts.

Drop by rounded teaspoon about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Makes about 16 delicious cookies.

Can someone please explain how cookies failed to make this list? C'mon!

* A bit about Ceylon cinnamon:

I recently learned that the cinnamon commonly sold in North American supermarkets is a variety known as Cassia cinnamon. It's dark reddish in colour and tastes like the cinnamon I've come to know. But there is another variety, native to Sri Lanka, the only place where cinnamon is a native plant, known as Ceylon cinnamon (sometimes called true cinnamon.) It is softer and lighter in colour, milder and sweeter, and tastes like a blend of cinnamon and cardamom. It's a bit more expensive and available at health and specialty stores.

A note about my new header:

It's a composite shot of some of my previous recipes, inspired by the creative stylings of ana at imadeitso.com. thanks for the idea, ana!

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad

An easy make-ahead salad. Great for lunches throughout the week. Toss in whatever veggies you have on hand, but be sure to roast them to bring out their sweetness. Use enough olive oil in the process and you won't need to add anything but a squeeze of lemon at the end.

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad

1 cup dried quinoa

1 medium sweet potato - peeled and cut into small cubes

1/2 red bell pepper - cut into strips

1/2 yellow bell pepper - cut into strips

25 asparagus spears - woody ends removed

1 zucchini - sliced into thin disks

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of 1/2 fresh lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, toss the vegetables in olive oil. Transfer to the baking sheet and roast until vegetables are cooked, but slightly crisp.

In a medium pot, bring 2 cups of water to boil with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add quinoa and reduce to a simmer. Cook with pot lid slightly ajar until fluffy and soft and the water is gone, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit with pot lid on for about 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.

Toss in the roasted vegetables. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy warm, cool to room temperature or chill and eat it tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

Variations: endless...



Simple Kale Salad

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by...I know it's been a while.

I've been thinking about ways to simplify my cooking while at the same time upping the nutrition of the food I eat. More salads seems like an obvious first place to start. Salads are a quick way to get more fruits and vegetables and preparation can be as easy as chopping and mixing.

This recipe isn't that far off a regular green salad, but I decided to try kale in place of lettuce. The avocado adds calories and creaminess and the raw kale is chewy and soft and really complex in flavour, making this salad substantial and satisfying.



Simple Kale Salad

1 head of organic red kale
1 avocado
1 tomato
1/2 english cucumber
1/3 cup olive oil
juice of one small lemon
sea salt and black pepper

Wash and chop the kale coarsely. Drizzle with lemon juice and set aside for 15 minutes (on the counter, not in the fridge). The acid from the lemon will soften the kale slightly. Chop the remaining vegetables and toss with the kale. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

The bright mosaic cutting board was purchased on a trip to the UK. Ain't she pretty?

Chicken Biryani

Last weekend, I got together with some friends for a cozy fall potluck. I decided about a week in advance that I wanted to make Chicken Biryani, because I have a slow cooker recipe for Vegetable Biryani and I thought it would be a quick and easy adaptation. Well, I did a bit of recipe reconnaissance online and discovered that a true Chicken Biryani is nothing if not time and labour intensive! And in the end, even a slow cooker version was going to take more time than I had, which was about 3 hours. (Nothing like leaving things until the last minute.)

So, I abandoned the slow cooker idea and decided to go with a modified oven and stovetop version. I went looking online for recipes, but they varied widely depending on region. I had no idea which one to use or whose version I would like. In the end, I decided to work from a recipe for Muglai Chicken Biryani from Northern India.

Surprise, surprise, I didn't follow the recipe as written, but mostly because it was poorly written and the directions didn't make sense.  In fact, I had to use some kitchen know-how to sort through it, but between it and a couple of secondary recipes, I did get a general idea of ingredients and approximate proportions. Because I was on a deadline, I admit, I took a few shortcuts. (e.g. The 3-4 hours of marinating became 45 minutes...and the 3-4 hours in the oven became 1 hour and a half...I used chopped garlic instead of garlic paste, etc...) Maybe not the most authentic Chicken Biryani (apologies to the purists...) but it was really tasty and didn't take all day.

Chicken Biryani "turbo version"
(Serves 6-8)
(Note: These are potluck proportions...I needed two casserole dishes for this amount.)

INGREDIENTS

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into small pieces) or boneless skinless thighs (I used both)
3 cups basmati rice
3 large onions - 1 thinly sliced, 2 chopped

a bunch of mint (chopped)  - about 1/2 cup
a bunch of coriander leaves (aka cilantro) (chopped) - about 1/2 cup
2 tsp. chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp. chopped garlic (about 6 cloves)

1/2 cups plain yogurt, diluted with 1/2 cup water

3 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground turmeric

1 tsp. ground cumin 

1 tbsp ground garam masala

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

10 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

2 bay leaves

1 small lemon
salt (to taste)

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil + 2 tablespoons of butter for cooking

for garnishing:

10 cashew nuts, chopped coarsely
20 golden raisins

PREPARATION

1. Place the 2 chopped onions, garlic, ginger, diluted yogurt, about 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, red pepper flakes, and 1 tsp. of salt in a bowl. Mix it together and add the chicken to marinate for about 3/4 of an hour in the refrigerator.

2. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan or cast iron skillet, take the remaining slices onion, and fry in oil and butter until crisp. (But heat gently, or butter will burn.) Set aside.

3. Fry cashews and raisins in the same oil, drain and set aside. Reserve the oil for cooking the chicken.

4. Wash and chop the mint and coriander leaves and set aside.

5. Rinse the rice several times in cold water, and drain. In a large pot, partially cook the rice (for about 5-7 minutes with an open pot) with bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom and a little squeeze of lemon juice. Don't cook the rice ahead of time, or it will get too cold too absorb the flavours of the chicken and spices. The ratio of rice to water should be 1:2, drain excess water if you find that its overcooking the rice. The grains of rice should still have a little bit of firmness on the outside, but be soft inside.

6. In the same oil in which you fried everything, add the whole cloves and fry them for 2 minutes. Add the marinated chicken and all of the marinade, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the center. If the mixture looks too runny, cook it until it reduces a bit.

ASSEMBLY

1. In a deep baking dish or casserole dish, layer the semi cooked rice, then add a layer of the chicken mix.

2.For the next layer sprinkle chopped mint, coriander, and fried onions.

3. Repeat step 1 and 2 again.

4. Add a final layer of rice and sprinkle with cashews and raisins. 

5. Cover with aluminum foil and keep it in a 300 degree oven for about an hour and a half....until rice is cooked through and fluffy.

6. Serve with Cucumber Mint Raita (recipe below) and Mango Chutney (store-bought)

Cucumber Mint Raita

To whatever amount of Greek yogurt you want, add chopped mint and grated cucumber (peeled and seeded) a few shakes of cumin and a pinch of salt. (Use Greek yogurt, or it will be too runny, because the cucumbers contain a lot of water...)

Sorry, no photo for this one...as I explained in a recent post, I broke my camera. But I trust your imagination to do my recipe justice...

Summer's End

Oh hello...are you still there?...thanks for hanging in there. I've been cooking up a storm in the past few weeks, but sadly I have had no pictures because I dropped and broke my camera at the end of the summer (taking pictures for the blog).

Luckily, I snapped some good ones of my little deck garden as it was just getting to harvest time, so I have some photographic proof that my efforts bore fruit.

The tomatoes were really lovely - all nearly perfect with such bright flavour.



And this all happened despite a little friend who tried, throughout the year, to stop me.

Yes, those are mini green peppers in there, too.

For some colour on the deck, I planted some dwarf phlox...they were so cheerful and they continue to bloom. 

Even now, as the days are getting shorter and the evenings crisp, I am still heading outside to grab some chives or parsley or basil. Tonight I noticed some new yellow flowers on the tomatoes. Hopefully the mild fall days will last. I feel sad thinking that some of them might not make it. Gardening...we had some good times this summer. See you next year!

Pictures or not, I'll be posting some recent recipes soon. And then when the camera is back in business...I'm planning a posting on my favorite kitchen items. I received a gift card to a large, luxurious kitchen store from a generous friend and I can't wait to get some new gadgets!

...Stay tuned.

Kiwi Strawberry Rocket Pops

Record breaking temperatures here this summer.
Drastic action needed.
Rocket pops to the rescue.

I bought the most adorable ice pop molds this year. They're in the shape of rocketships.

How could I resist? And making a delicious frozen treat takes only minutes of preparation.


Kiwi Strawberry Rocket Pops
Makes 6 - 50 ml ice pops

4 ripe kiwis
2 tablespoons of strawberry jam (homemade if you've got it...)
water

Scoop the kiwi flesh out of the skins and into a blender.

Add the strawberry jam. Blend, adding water until the mixture totals 300 ml.
Pour into ice pop molds and freeze until firm. Try to stay cool while you wait...

Blast off!

And when you're done, you get a nifty surprise visit from a space man :)

Kitchen improv:

To make your own rocket pops, throw together anything that tastes good and will freeze.

Here are a couple of other variations I've already made this year:

Café Latte Ice Pops
Dissolve instant coffee and sugar into milk.

Orange Yogurt Ice Pops
Blend together orange juice, yogurt, honey and vanilla.

Fizzy Grapefruit Ice Pops
Pour grapefruit flavoured carbonated sparkling water into molds.

Make up your own combo and let me know how it goes!

Garden Improv

I ventured into new territory this year, starting some of my garden from seed. I learned a lot and things seemed to be going well. But in the middle of July, in the heat of the summer, I was set to go away on holidays for more than a week. I watched the long term forecast for weeks in advance, worried that my little plants, left on their own, would shrivel in the hot sun and die of neglect. I hoped for a prediction of rain, but summer was in full force...7 days of sun and 30 degree temperatures were expected.

Our neighbours were away; family and friends lived too far away for me to reasonably ask someone to do daily watering duties. So, I started asking around and researching self-watering systems online. I didn't like any of them and didn't want to spend the money on something I could probably make myself. The Internet was full of good do-it-yourself ideas, but many involved initially planting in self-watering pots and I didn't have the time or resources to re-pot.

One family member had a good suggestion - to put trays of water under the plants, so they could draw the water up through the drainage holes in the pots. So, I bought some extra large aluminum roasting pans ($1.99 each at the dollar store) and tested this method one night. But the water only lasted a day in the heat.

My deck is very sunny and I think the reflection off the aluminum just made the water evaporate even faster. So, my next step was to shade the pans with some old rags, essentially creating a skirt around the pan from the edge of the plant pot. This would shade the water and the aluminum pan, hopefully stopping some of the evaporation.

It was a good start, but I knew it would only extend the water supply by maybe one day. Since tomatoes need daily watering I had to do more.

I had seen watering globes at the dollar store - but they were small and only held a few cups of water. They were also made of glass - possibly a bad idea on a windy and high outdoor deck. But, I wanted to do something using the same idea.  So, I purchased several 4 litre plastic jugs of spring water ($1.29 a bottle). I poked a hole in each lid using a small nail so that just a tiny drop of water could come out when the bottles were inverted. Then, I poked another tiny hole in the bottom of the jug to let air into the bottle. (I'm not sure if this step was necessary, but I imagined the bottle collapsing in on itself, eventually preventing the water from dripping out.) Then I screwed the upside-down bottles into the soil of the plant pots, until they stood up on their own.

Finally, I wanted to create a bit of shade for the plants, without blocking any rain that might come unexpectedly. The deck is small and the plants share the space with a bistro table and two chairs. I simply tied a plastic table cloth to the backs of each of the chairs and stretched it over the table creating a little banner of shade that sat beside the row of plants. If it rained, they'd still get wet, but for a couple of hours a day, when the sun was at the right angle, they'd be sheltered from the hot sun.

Then I crossed my fingers, told the plants to "hang in there" and left for 8 days.

**********

We came back from our lovely vacation late one evening. It didn't rain once in the time we were gone. We unpacked the car before I went out to check on the plants. I was relaxed and happy after my vacation and I didn't want to rush out to see them in case my experiment had failed.

I opened the door and peered around the corner to see a beautiful sight.

Not only were the bottles either empty or nearly empty, but the soil was moist and the plants had nearly doubled in size over the week.

(pictures were taken the next day, when it was light out and once I'd cleaned the deck up so I could move around)


The tomatoes had flowered....
 

 
More than 100 grape tomatoes are on the way....
 

 
The peppers are coming along...
 

 
The basil's booming...
 

 
The dill is divine...
 

 
The rosemary is still the underdog, but it's still hanging in there...
 

 
Stay tuned for some fresh tomato recipes...send me your favorites!