July's Crazy Ingredient Challenge

July's Crazy Ingredient Challenge is a little less crazy than most months, it's combining cranberries and shallots! But while I think that's the perfect combination for Thanksgiving, but it's a little more challenging for the summer.

I came up with a shallot and dried cranberry compote butter that would amazing when tossed with veggies, but I felt like making something a little different for this challenge. So I took a look in my fridge and found a head of cauliflower. Then I looked in my garden and saw that my basil was bright and beautiful. I knew I would make a gorgeous summer soup out of the cauliflower and top it with tart little dried cranberries and bright basil.

This soup was one of my best so thanks to Dawn from Spatulas on Parade for, what turned out to be, a perfect summer combo!

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!

The Spice is Right

I love eating Indian food, but I seem to shy away from making it often because the flavours are so big and I just don't give my dishes as much punch as the restaurants do. Today, all that changes. Today, I vow to add "the punch".

To me "the punch" is spice. I don't mean hot peppers and that mouth burning feeling. I mean cumin, turmeric, and coriander. Indian food just isn't complete with enough spicy flavour to knock your socks off and today's dish has that spicy flavour. I adapted a great recipe from Vegan Richa and pumped up the flavours a bit to get exactly what I was looking for.

I think the spice is right in these Aloo Gobi Wraps, do you?

BC Salmon Rocks

When I think of the best food from British Columbia, I think of big bright pink wild salmon. It's not that I don't love all salmon, it's just that salmon caught off the coast of BC or Alaska is quite frankly the best. 

So when Valerie from A Canadian Foodie challenged everyone who volunteered in The Canadian Food Experience Project to write about a Canadian regional food this month, I had no other choice than to choose salmon. I decided to pair my salmon with a fun cauliflower cous cous recipe because while cauliflower is sold and eaten year round, it's best in the winter. 

So if you have a food processor and are eager to pulse a head of cauliflower into couscous, read on for my easy recipe - inspired by cold Canadian winter dreams of heading to Morocco. 

Sweet and Salty Pasta Heaven

The last day of the Olympics is here! I almost can't believe Canada made it to the gold medal game in men's hockey and I can't wait to check the score to see who won.

Today's post is a recipe inspired by the Olympics. I could say that it's a mostly white dinner with bits of green poking through, just like Russia's grass poking through the snow - but I won't. Instead I'll say that the oven roasted cauliflower in my pasta is meant to resemble the Olympic torch. If you prefer the grass analogy, that's ok with me too!

Read in for the recipe. It's a perfect mix of sweet roasted cauliflower and salty Parmesan cheese, so I know you'll love it.

Spicy Chocolate Dusted Cauliflower

                                  

Do you remember the scene in the 2003 Christmas movie "Elf" where Will Ferrell's character, Buddy the Elf, is eating spaghetti? He's covering his spaghetti with maple syrup, pop tarts, M&Ms, chocolate syrup, and mini marshmallows? When I first saw that scene I thought about the gross sugar overload, but then I wondered if it might actually be yummy. 

Today's post is similar in theory to my Buddy the Elf challenge (a challenge I have yet to take), but not quite the same because I don't think cauliflower is one of an elf's main food groups. Today's post is based on a challenge I received to pair chocolate and cauliflower in one delicious dish. It was hard to come up with something, but I think I ended the challenge as a winner! 

We really enjoyed the end result of Hungry Little Girl's Crazy Ingredient Challenge and I hope you do too. Read on for my Spicy Chocolate Dusted Cauliflower recipe!  

Who Needs Meat?

I feel so good after eating a delicious vegetarian meal, but I haven't found a wide range of dishes that are truly satisfying. Until now. 

This is one of those dishes that you can enjoy completely and after eating it there will be no thoughts of how nice it was to have eaten a vegetarian meal. Those thoughts won't exist because you won't even know that you didn't eat meat. 

I think it's because there are so many flavours happening in one yummy dish that I don't miss the meat, but I'll let you decide yourself after eating it. Read on for the recipe. 

Lattice All Eat Leftovers!

I truly believe that some of my best dinners are made from leftovers, particularly turkey leftovers. And tonight's dinner is no exception. In fact, it may be one of my best leftover dinners ever!

Today's recipe is my new version of a turkey pot pie, but the presentation is a little fancier with a lattice braided puff pastry topper. All you need to do is throw together leftover bites of turkey, leftover veggies, leftover gravy, and heat it before topping your meal with a piece of pastry. Yum!

Read on to find out my recipe. 

The Big Cheese

Before a few days ago, I hadn't eaten a cheesy cauliflower dish in such a long time. It had been so long that I thought I wouldn't even like it. I thought that cheesy cauliflower was a way to get kids to eat their veggies and adults would always prefer steamed or an Oven Roasted Turmeric Cauliflower instead.

I was wrong. And I don't know why I am surprised, I love cheese. 

Today's recipe is not a pour-microwaved-cheese-whiz-on-it kind of recipe, it does take a little more work, but the taste is leaps and bounds better than it's red necked cousin. Read on if you like what you see below.

Eat the Crust First

Do you remember Pizza Hut's cheese filled crust? Like many other people, I used to eat the crust first and be overwhelmed with cheese before I had even taken a bite of the cheese and veggie topped delight. 

This is a pizza that's going around the Internet right now. The crust is made from cauliflower and cheese and then most people top it with more cheese. 

I love cheese, but I don't think I could handle the cheese overload I used to love as a kid. So, my version has the cheese in the crust, but then I just topped it with tomato sauce and roasted veggies. Delicious!

Just read the recipe through before you start cooking your cauliflower. I misunderstood the recipe I originally tried and thought my cauliflower was supposed to be cooked before I started and that it didn't matter how I cooked it. 

It mattered. And boiling it made my cauliflower too wet. The crust still worked, but it took three times as long to cook!

The Indian Saffron

I promised you last week that I would bring you a recipe that features turmeric because it's so healthy and I have delivered. 

I know you're going to love this easy and nutritious recipe, and not only because so tasty and healthy. I know you're going to love this recipe because it's got such beautiful colour!

Turmeric has always been known for it's beauty. In the Middle Ages turmeric became known as the Indian saffron, a much cheaper alternate to the real thing to use in foods and as a fabric dye. Today, it's still used for both and more. 

In India, turmeric is used in special celebratory occasions, like weddings. In fact, no Hindu celebration is complete without it. Newborn babies are rubbed golden for good luck, women grind turmeric to rub on bride's skin to make her glow, and of course it's used in cooking to achieve the beautiful, bright colour. 

Ready for my easy recipe? Keep reading... 

New Sides Can Make An Old Meal Feel New Again

My boyfriend mentioned to me at dinner the other night that he thought I was making such diverse and yummy meals lately. 

I'm not sure if he put two and two together to notice that all these new additions to my standard meals included cream cheese, but they do. And obviously the reason for that is that I want to stay competitive and hopefully get invited to compete in the finals of the Real Women of Philadelphia! 

I agree with him though. My meals have been much more original and innovative than usual. But it definitely involves some extra imagination and time. 

With these three side dish recipes, hopefully I can save you a little time so that you can please your friends and families and offer new additions to your tables.