A Green Treat (Avocado Fries)

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned my love of the idea of avocado fries (have you seen them all over Pinterest?) to J or not, but either way, he found the recipe on his own and decided to surprise me with a Saturday treat. A lovely, lovely treat.

With inspiration from here, he went to work.

What To Do

- We used four avocados, but two would suffice for two people. Cut them lengthwise and carefully remove the pit and the avocado from its skin without disrupting it too much. This means you need avocados that are just hard enough to stay intact, but soft enough to scoop out easily!

- Preheat oven to 350

- We didn't have any panko in the house, so we used a mortar and pestle to crush up soda crackers with a ton of spices. Mix in whatever you want and have fun with it! We used: himalayan sea salt, chili powder, onion salt, garlic powder, celery seed, freshly cracked black pepper, Italian blend.

- Slice your avocados to resemble fries or wedges.

- Dip each piece in egg and coat in the cracker/spice mixture.

- Place tinfoil on a baking pan and a baking rack on top of that (to make it easier to turn the soft avocados over without breaking them).

- Place the fries on the rack and bake for 20 minutes, turning them over at the halfway point.

That's it! Dip it in homemade curried mayo or agave sweetened ketchup and call it a day!

Boy am I thankful for avocados....but who isn't, really.

Fall Harvest Soup

This picture was posted alongside our lasagna roll-ups awhile back. I'm posting the recipe as I made it, although I would make some changes to this the next time around.

The good things about this soup:
1. Other than the chopping, it's a fairly hands-off meal.
2. This is a great way to use up some of your fall vegetables and fruit, without having to use all of anything - it just requires a few of each thing.
3. This is a big match, giving you a healthy dose of fruit and veg for a week.

The not-fave things about this soup:
1. The apples I chose were a bit too sweet, making this soup better as a side or a small lunch. The sweeter the apple, the sweeter the soup (although maybe that's what you dig?)
2. This had a tangy-sweet combo that was delicious for the first five bites but was a bit too much once bite six came along. I'd take it easy on the combination of balsamic vinegar, white wine and apples. A simple change in wine and apples would even make a difference.

All in all, I'd hands down make this again. I'd just experiment a little bit with the ingredients. For example: if you like yams more than parsnips, make more of one and less of the other! I personally like more of a spice taste so I'd go with more masala and less acidic things the next time around.

Enjoy! Now that I've ventured (timidly) into the world of soups, I highly recommend having fun with it. It's extremely easy to do when using the crockpot.

Fall Harvest Soup
A la Allie's Kitchen

Note: these are approximations. I had fun throwing things in the pot this time around.
4 tsp of olive oil
1 large sweet potato, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 small parsnips, diced
2 apples, diced
1 1/2 cups of leeks, diced
1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsp of masala
3 tbsp of white wine
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
4 cups of broth (I used vegetable bouillon and water)


In a pan, heat oil and add sweet potato, carrot, leek and apple. Heat for 5 minutes then dump in the slow cooker. Stir in ginger, masala, wine and vinegar. Add broth. Cook for 5 - 6 hours on low.

Use an immersion blender (thanks to Gram for this gift!) or a regular blender in batches, if need be. Blend away. Top with croutons and tortillas if you have any and serve.

Grammie's Homemade Baked Beans

I've been in love with my grammie's baked beans for as long as I remember. I would eat them (and score leftovers) at any chance I get.  Since having to cut out cane sugar from my diet, I've struggled with having to let this "ultimate family favorite" go.

A couple of weekends ago, my gram (I can't believe how nice this was for her to do) decided to break down the recipe in attempt to build a new, Allie-friendly, family baked bean recipe.  With trepidation, she built it, made it, and has all try it.  Let me tell you: It was marvelous.  A miracle!


We are now able to carry-on (so long as I successfully do this myself) two family recipes!  I'm so excited to try it on my own, although I still think it will be better when Gram bakes them herself. :)

Grammie's Maple Baked Beans

Ingredients:
2 - 540 ml cans of navy beans (drained and rinsed)
 3/4 cup of maple syrup
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ketchup (small bit of sugar, unless you purchase the sugar-free ketchup)
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp salt
pepper
1/2 onion

What to do:
1.  Add the beans to a casserole dish.
2. Mix all other ingredients, except the onion, with 2 cups of warm water. Pour the mixture over the beans.  Add more water if necessary to cover beans.
3.  Add the onion on top.
4. Cover and bake for 2 hours at 325F (or longer).  Add a little more water if too much boils away.

Options: Add 1 tsp of dry mustard, tumeric, or paprika

Print This Recipe


Thanks, Gram!

A Mom Pass Along Recipe: A Must Try...

...over and over again.

I have one word for this: Y-U-M.  Another recipe passed along to me from the Mom-sy.  This was the ultimate perfect weeknight meal.  It literally gets thrown and left all in one pan (non-stick skillet pan with a lid works best) and I am currently eating the leftovers for my lunch right now, and plan to do the same tomorrow.  This works well as a meal on its own or as a side dish, as we used it last night.  If used as a side, there is no need to go all fancy with your "main" as this is full of flavor on its own.

I've had a friendly request or two from my non-meat-eating friends to show some more meatless dishes, so here's another good one! Mom also suggested putting this in a thick pita which would work perfectly.  Enjoy it - as I know you will.

Indian Rice and Lentils: What To Do

Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan and add:

¼ cup diced onion.  

When soft, add the following: 

3 cups vegetable broth - I used "safe" soy-free veg. bouillon cubes in 3 cups of water

1 cup basmati (or whole grain rice) - I used basmati...

2 cups chopped or sliced mushrooms - I sliced them up!

½ cup green lentils

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp curry powder

¼ tsp cinnamon

Print this recipe

As you can see, I served ours with a pan fried sliced pork chop (1 chop shared between the both of us), cooked with just oil, salt, pepper, and a wee bit of fish sauce.

Please let me know if you try it! Also, please share recipes, thoughts, products, etc with me! I welcome comments and emails, and guest blogs - if you wish! (And let me know if you have difficulty leaving a comment, like I have heard...)

Weekend Wonder No. 1

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend - one that felt like spring was actually on it's way!  Well, it's another Monday - and a cold one at that - a Monday after a time change... I don't think I realize how much I depend (although often complain) about my morning routines:  Be woken up by cat before the alarm goes off, snuggle, sleep, alarm, snooze - repeat.  With the time change, I didn't even see the cat in the morning!  Nothing's worse than when you see it's 7am and you had woken up happily because you had originally thought it was only 5:30am....Le Giant Sigh.

My weekend was GRAND and full of: skype conversations with the soon-to-be-in-laws, movies and lounging with the fiance, cooking and dining, catching up with a few close friends, gift registry shopping, and being immersed in my current reading of The Bishop's Man.  I was actually tempted not to visit the blog today to update on weekend food-adventures as I thought I should spend my hour break being lost in that book world, but alas, I'm here:  I'm here to get lost in this world of revisiting - what I felt to be - our gourmet dinner weekend.

Chicken Piccata
Another recipe found on Everday Paleo: Recipes for Life.

J's reaction: "I'd pay to have this at a restaurant - and would be impressed with the results even then!"

With a whole lot of help from J with the butterfly-ing of the chicken and the chopping of the shallots and garlic, here is what we used and did:

1 large boneless chicken breast (butterflied)
2 tbsp of vegan butter
1 large shallot, diced small (or 2 green onions, which I didn't have)
3 garlic cloves, diced/minced
1 1/2 tbsp of capers
Half of a 1/4 cup of white wine (can you tell I cut the recipe in half for our use?!)
1/4 cup of vegetable broth
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil
salt and pepper

1.  After flattening the chicken, season both sides with salt and pepper and cook in a hot pan with the butter.  Cook both sides for 3 - 5minutes, until it's done (I'm always paranoid about this one, so if you're like me - ask anyone that's around a million times if it's done:) )
2.  After the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and cook the shallot and garlic with the oil for a couple of minutes.
3.  Add in capers, lemon juice, wine and broth.  Cook until all flavors come together: approximately 3 - 5 minutes.
4.  Pour over the chicken and be impressed!

For a side: I threw some angel hair pasta into a pot and tossed it with shredded rice cheese and a spice blend J picked up for me at the grocery store (it's a blend of Italian greens, comes in a jar to be kept in the fridge)

Indonesian Fried Rice

J and I officially booked our honeymoon!!!  (well...the plane tickets anyway)

Our plan is to fly to Singapore and enjoy some time between here and Bali.  Singapore is new to both of us and Bali (at least the specific island we'll be visiting) is familar to us both.  Tonight's supper was to bring back that feeling of eating Balinese food - or more precisely - eating rice at any time of day!  Tonight's supper was some lightly pan-fried fish with a side of fried rice.

Not that we really had to "get" ourselves excited for the trip, and general months ahead, but a little bit of food definitely can add to the excitement of it all!

Indonesian Fried Rice

One pot or rice cooker:  Cook 1 cup of rice (or even better: use leftover rice).

In a pan:
- Fry 2 eggs (scramble/fry).  Move to the side.

In that same pan:
- Add oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/4 of an onion chopped.  Cook for 2 min.
- Add either a couple pieces of bacon or a slice of ham (chopped into small pieces), 1 tsp of crushed chillis (or fresh red chilli if you have it).  Cook for a few minutes.

Together:
Add your rice, cooked eggs, a diced scallion, a splash of fish sauce (in lieu of sweet soy sauce), and about a 1/2 tsp of bouillon powder of some kind (I used chicken).  Cook until everything is mixed in well together.

That's it!  This dish would often have another fried egg served on top of it, sliced tomatoes, or sometimes cucumbers.  As you can see, I opted for cucumbers.

Tomorrow night:  Singapore Noodles!

Brussel Sprouts are good....

...for the heart?  For the soul?

 No recipe needed...just sharing a simple home cooked meal of sorts.   Boiled brussel sprouts (not for long!) with a bit of lemon and salt to eat.

Potatoes with curry...again...our favorite and since realizing how quickly they can be microwaved than quickly/lightly fried with olive oil, it's so much more practical to have potatoes as a possibility during the week!

Chicken...season with quite a bit salt, pepper and paprika... bake for 40 minutes at 400 F.  Half way through, I even brushed some Louisana Hot Sauce over them...yummmm...As you can see, my kitty was just a beggin' for it.

Grown-Up Chicken Fingers & Fries

There's nothing I crave more than a good potato-in fry or hash brown form - and some chicken - in finger form - for dipping!  Grown-up, healthy meals can involve these things, too.

(more of my "own" creations..)
Chicken Fingers
2 boneless chicken breasts, sliced (big enough for dipping!)
1/4 of a lemon
pepper, pepper, pepper!
garlic
vegetable broth




1.  Cook chicken in garlic and olive oil.  Sprinkle a lot of pepper on both sides of the chicken.
2.  Once the chicken has started to cook, add juice from lemon (1/4 of a lemon if it's a big one!) and enough vegetable broth to have the chicken simmering it it.
3.  Once done, eat alone or dip in something like Thai Chili Sauce

Curried Potato - Fries/Hash browns
1 big potato, cut into very, very small pieces
curry powder
olive oil

In my  mind, potatoes always take so long to cook after a long day at work.  Since we (J) diced them really small, we were able to microwave them for about 6 minutes or so - maybe more - until we could smell them. We coated them in curry powder before microwaving so the curry could start to cook right into the potatoes.  Once done - enough - I threw them in the hot frying pan with a bit of olive oil and harden them up, and we had our adult fries!

Broccoli
Let's face it - we still need a bit of veg.  Once the chicken was cooked, but still simmering, I threw some broccoli in the pan to simmer in the same pot.  Delish.