The Canadian Garden

When I heard that this month's Canadian Food Experience Project was to write about the Canadian garden, I looked outside in my own garden and saw wee little plants just starting to rear their heads. I don't have much of a garden to write about yet this year. And, since I don't have much of a green thumb, I'm not really able to coax much out of my garden on a good year.

So I decided to get a little cheeky and write about my version of a Canadian garden. My version is more about heading to my Farmer's Market, buying some lovely fresh veggies, and making a dip platter that makes you think you're heading into the garden.

Ready for a little fun? Read on for my Canadian Veggie Garden Dip recipe featuring fresh veggies on top of a hummus and olive tapenade dip.

Pie for Breakfast

I have to say that pie for breakfast is one of the best things in the world. And when it's not really pie, but a healthy yogurt and fruit parfait that makes you think you're eating pie, well that must be the very best thing in the world!

When I first saw Oh She Glows recipe for Sugar Free Apple Pie Chia Jam Breakfast Parfait I thought that it sounded good but a wee bit too healthy for me. I can handle vegan or sugar free, but I don't think I am interested in both.

So I just used that recipe for inspiration and made my own version. My version isn't vegan or sugar free, but it's still healthy - especially compared with the alternative of pie for breakfast!

The New Tuna Salad

To continue my week of celebrating chia seeds, I created a really quick and tasty salad featuring my new Chia Salad Dressing. I never used to get completely full after eating only a salad for dinner, but my previous thinking changed when I dove into this salad with a salad dressing full of chia seeds and a lovely piece of seared tuna. 

Check out my recipe for Seared Tuna Salad with Chia Dressing below!

Ch-Ch-Ch Chia!

I had more than one chia pet growing up and when I first heard that people were eating chia seeds, I just couldn't imagine why. Chia pets were a fun things to play with but I was always told to not play with my food, so I was going to think about eating chia seeds.

Now I wish I started eating chia sooner because I love the stuff. I love chia so much that I am dedicating this whole week on Delish in a Dish to chia seeds. I've got a few fun recipes planned, but today is all about my Chia Salad Dressing.

If my Chia Salad Dressing recipe is reminiscent of the popular creamy poppy seeds dressings, it's because that's where the idea for this recipe came from. I love poppy seed dressings but know that there are way more health benefits in chia seeds so I decided to swap the seeds and I loved the end product.

Ready for my recipe? Read on to make it yourself!

Vanilla and Butter

The words "vanilla" and "butter" are two of my favourite words of all time, especially when I know that I'm going to be eating them in the near future. It's interesting to me that neither of those two ingredients are tasty if served to you on a spoon on their own, but both taste like magic when put into a dessert.

Last weekend I was baking a pie for Easter dessert and realized, after I returned from the grocery store, that I didn't have enough shortening to make my pastry. I had always used all vegetable shortening in my pastry so was immediately disappointed that I'd have to go back to the store. Then I remembered that my mom uses part shortening and part butter in her pastry and her pies always taste much better than mine. I tried a new recipe of part shortening and part butter pastry, and I'll never be going back to my old ways. 

The pastry paired perfectly with Chatelaine's Vanilla Rhubarb Pie. I changed up the presentation and filling a little, but the basic idea is the same.

Puffed Quinoa and Goji Berries

Do you ever make NewYear's resolutions and wonder why you ever thought you could keep them going strong throughout the year? I think that around April every single year.

In January, I decided to try one new food per month for all of 2014. I'm still keeping my promise, in fact this month I actually tried two new foods, but it's much harder than I expected because there are only so many foods in the world to try!

In January I finally tried chia seeds and made a yummy chia seed pudding. In February I tried something I had never heard of, amaranth, and made a note worthy amaranth porridge with strawberries. And in March I tried raw cashews and made a truly delicious pasta dish with a vegan raw cashew sauce.

This month I was walking around the Bulk Barn, because that's where I've been finding all my new foods to try so far, and was worried that I might run before December. Then I decided to throw caution to the wind and made a yummy salad topper using two new foods for April. I realized that if I run out of new foods to try at the Bulk Barn, I can just head over to China Town or my Farmer's Market, it might get a little harder in December but if I keep trying I can fulfill this set of resolutions.

Read on for my recipe for Roasted Cauliflower and Sausage with Puffed Quinoa Salad Topper. It might sound a few bit familiar if you read a recipe I shared a few days ago for Puffed Quinoa and Peeps Tarts with Lemon Curd and that's because I used my Puffed Quinoa Salad Topper for the tarts! It turns out that a salad topper makes a pretty awesome tart!

Peep Show

This month Dawn from Spatulas on Parade challenged us to use Peeps and lemon to make something delicious in the Crazy Ingredient Challenge. I love lemon and use it in almost everything, but I had never even tried a Peep before this challenge.

Since I knew that Peeps were sugar dusted marshmallows, I knew I would be making a dessert. I couldn't even fathom the thought of trying to stuff those little guys into a dinner. And what do I think of when making a marshmallow dessert, rice crispie squares!

I decided to "fancy up" my idea a little and used puffed quinoa in place of rice crispies and I added a few additional treats in place of Easter sprinkles too. I think this recipe is worth keeping, crazy ingredients or not!