Carrot Fever

Now that it's almost (gulp) October, I am doing my best to eat up all the veggies left in my garden. This means that all carrots I pulled and am featuring in today's recipe are a little bit less than perfect looking.

But looks say nothing of their taste! They taste fantastic! For this recipe, I merged together two of my favourite things, gingery carrots and my old favourite sauce for chicken or turkey. Now I know this sauce goes perfectly well with carrots so I think I will try it with tofu next!

Thai One On

I never thought I'd be one of those girls that could order a salad for dinner and be satisfied. And, to be fair, normally I'm not satisfied. Normally I'm still hungry after eating just a salad.

But the salad I'm sharing today is different. It's full of Asian flavour, filling because of the peanuts, and incredibly healthy so you don't feel bad going back for seconds or even thirds.

Ok, so maybe I ate a lot of the salad and that's why I was full.... But I swear, it's a good one!

Summertime Tabbouleh

I feel very comfortable cooking most cuisines but middle eastern food has never been one of my favourite foods to eat or cook. But when I first tasted a new version of tabbouleh, filled with fresh Canadian corn, I knew I would be revisiting middle eastern cuisine all summer long.

The tart lemon and sweet corn are a perfect match in this dish. And the roasted baby tomatoes and salty feta cheese don't hurt either. I like to eat a big bowl of this tabbouleh with nothing else, but I know it would be great served as a side dish with something grilled too.

The Great Salad Caper

This month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge was an easy one for me to come up with something yummy to make. I heard the ingredients were capers and cantaloupe and for some reason I immediately thought of a watermelon and feta cheese salad. I knew I could do something similar with my fresh melon and salty capers and I also knew from eating watermelon and feta salad that my dish would be great.

So thanks to Dawn from Spatulas on Parade for helping me come up with a great new dish, my Cucumber and Cantaloupe Salad with Crispy Capers. I would never have thought of it without this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge. 

Grapefruit and Wasabi

I don't know about you, but when I think about wasabi I think solely about sushi and grapefruit never crosses my mind. So when I heard that Dawn from Spatulas on Parade decided on wasabi and grapefruit for May's Crazy Ingredient Challenge, I felt a wee bit unsure about what to make.

At first I thought about making a new kind of sushi that featured grapefruit, but couldn't come up with the right concept. Then I thought of trying to make a grapefruit dessert with a spicy wasabi glaze, but I got scared off that idea before I started experimenting.

Finally I decided on reinventing one of my favourite side dishes, Miso Garlic Asian Greens. I subbed in wasabi for the red pepper flakes, grapefruit juice for the water, and made a few other small changes to make it unique. And who would have guessed it, but I came up with a dish that features wasabi and grapefruit and still manages to taste great!

Twice Baked Mexican Sweet Potatoes

Week nights and a sink of pots and pans don't mix at my house. I'd much rather make something quick, easy, and as sink free as possible. Today's post is one of my new ideas that combines these concepts to make a tasty and fun week night dinner. 

I love to eat these Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes on their own for dinner but you might want to serve them with a salad or a piece of chicken if you'd like something a little more hearty. But whatever you serve them with, just serve them. Your taste buds will thank you!

Sesame Slaw

Did anyone else forget that there are only 28 days in February and it's March 1 today? I did and now I suddenly feel like I've lost a couple of days. I hate feeling rushed because it makes me make mistakes. When I'm rushing and cooking, I always seem to cut or almost cut myself. When I'm rushing at work, everything always seems to take longer because I need to do things twice. And when I'm rushing when I'm trying to get out the door, something will always be forgotten at home.

But there are a few rare occasions where something good has come from rushing. One of those occasions is preparing dinner. I now have a few quick and easy recipes that I almost always have all the ingredients for in my pantry, fridge, or freezer. One of those recipes is my Greek Chickpea Salad and another is the new slaw recipe that I'm going to share today.

I love to serve this Sesame Slaw with a simple piece of baked fish but it's also great with take out or frozen pizza or even a grilled cheese sandwich. It just makes food feel more like a meal.

What's Better than a Stuffin Muffin?

I know most of my posts this month have featured healthy recipes, but I still pine for hearty comfort food too. I love a good stick to your ribs, make you feel warm, or take you back to Mom's house kind of meal.

For me, that kind of meal almost always comes out of an oven. It almost always involves roasted veggies and hopefully some of kind of baked bread, bun, or bread pudding. Some of you might choose to serve a roast chicken with your meal and I think that today's recipe would go perfectly with one.

Today's recipe is a Stuffin. They are muffins made out of stuffing. I don't want to pretend that I made them up, I thought I might have but I looked up a stuffin on the Internet and found out that they sadly already existed, but the recipe I came up with is pretty darn delicious. They're quicker to make than a big casserole of dressing so they feel a little less thanksgiving and a little more weekend comfort food.

Read on for the recipe!

La Belle Patate

Does anyone out there make their own rolls for the holidays anymore? I used to think it was too much work, but then I discovered this incredible potato roll recipe that you make in a muffin tin.  It uses up leftover mashed potatoes and creates moist little rolls that are the perfect size for mopping up gravy or snacking on before dinner. 

I don't know about you, but I think making your own rolls and freezing them a few days before Christmas would be the perfect way to impress a mother in law at the big day's dinner. Plus, you can also half the recipe to get 12 rolls and a loaf of delicious raisin bread for breakfast. Who could say no to that now?

Mad About You

Today my sister is flying to Madagascar for three months. I am a little envious of her adventure, but happy for her too because I imagine that there might be some delicious Madagascar vanilla in my future. And all the thinking I've been doing about the possible Madagascar vanilla has me thinking beautiful floral thoughts and playing with beautiful floral flavours. 

Today's dish celebrates the floral flavours of Madagascar and also acts as a farewell note to Mary. It's features a really inventive polenta made from cornmeal, silky puréed sweet potatoes, and coconut milk. I can't take credit for the concept because I read about it in an old cookbook from my local library, but I can take credit for making the dish really yummy. 

Safe flight and have fun, Mary. See you at Christmas! 

Homemade Creamless Corn

I have been known to buy creamed corn from a can from time to time. I love the flavour of creamed corn, but I really hate looking at the gluggy goo slopping from the can. It's just not appetizing. 

So when I had an abundance of corn on the corn in my fridge, I thought of trying my hand at making a homemade creamed corn - hold the cream. I love cream, but I thought I could make a delicious creamed corn without the extra calories so I could still enjoy dessert! 

The dish I came up with was great! The only problem was that the pan was emptied too soon. But I can remedy that too; next time I'll just have to make a double recipe! 

Beet It, Stains

I love eating beets. They can be sweet, earthy, or pickled and they add a beautiful rich hue to my plates. But I don't love the stains they leave when one when accidentally falls off my fork, tumbles down my blouse, and lands on my pants. In fact, I hate beet stains.

But I've learned how best to go about beating beet stains, and before I share one of the best beet salad recipes I've ever had with you, I'm going to share a couple of tips about getting rid of beet stains.

I've tried two methods and they've both worked pretty well. The first method sounds a little crazy, but I use it if I'm out of my favourite stain remover. Just soak a piece of bread in cold water and use it to sponge away the beet stains, then wash the clothes as usual. My second method is to run the fabric under cold water right away, pretreat the stain with my favourite stain remover, and then wash as usual. I'm always interested in learning about new ways to get rid of stains, so if you have other tested ideas, I'd love to hear about them.

I'm going to post my tips about getting rid of beet stains on Resolve's new Resolve Tip Exchange website. It's a great new site to learn about getting rid of stains, all from readers like you and me!

One of the ways that Resolve is encouraging us to enter tips is by offering 12 weekly prizes of $250 and a grand prize of $5000! Each week we can submit a tip to earn a ballot in the draw for the prizes and that's sure got me thinking of tips I'd like to share!

So far I've sent in tips for removing butter and red wine from clothes, but you'll have to head over to Resolve Tip Exchange to find out those tips! For now, since you don't have to worry about permanently staining your clothes from beets, read on for an amazingly tasty Beet and Carrot Salad recipe!

Crazy Ingredient Challenge - Avocados and Caramel?

If I thought that last month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge of pairing cauliflower and chocolate was hard, this month's challenge of pairing avocados and caramel took it to another level. But I brought out my big guns too and I think that the dish I came up with was both delicious and featured avocados and caramel really well.

At first I wanted to make the infamous avocado chocolate pudding that I've seen all over the Internet and I thought I would drizzle a little homemade caramel sauce on top. But then I decided to really stretch myself and make a savoury dish that really let caramel shine. That how I came up with my Creamy Avocado Salad with Caramel Almonds.

Since I'm still thinking about the avocado chocolate pudding, I know it's something I'm going to make soon. So if anyone is wishing I made that instead, just wait because it might appear on Delish in a Dish soon! For now, read on for my yummy Creamy Avocado Salad with Caramel Almonds recipe. 

Not Such a Small Fry

Is there a person out there who does not love fries? I can't imagine there is anyone, but if there is a person out there that doesn't love fries - this post is for you. It's for you because it's going to convince you that you actually can love those crispy little treats.

The fries in this post aren't just any fries, they're healthy and still taste awesome! They're not deep fried, they're not not made of potatoes, and they have a little cheese in their breading. And like I said, they're awesome!

Curious yet? These fries are made out of squash and zucchini, breaded with a little Parmesan cheese, and baked! Read on for the recipe!

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!  

Martha Madness

Even in Martha's darkness days, I was a fan. I was never I fan of what she did to get into those darkest days, but I was always a fan of her cooking because Martha makes good, honest food. 

I love Martha's Meatless cookbook. I have flagged a ton of recipes to try and I know that even if you're not keen in eating meatless everyday, that you'd love a lot of her recipes in Meatless too. 

Today I am sharing my spin on Martha's Arugula, Potato, and Green Bean Salad with Creamy Walnut Dressing. I've substituted asparagus for Martha's green beans and changed her dressing a little too by adding a little curry to the party with my Curried Citrus Yogurt Sauce, but both options are as tasty as can be. :) 

Canadian Love

Every Canada Day I like to make a new Canada Day themed dish. Once day I'll get away from my thoughts of red and white food parties, but not this year. The dish I've sharing today is at least slightly more elegant than some I've created in past years, but it's still a red and white dish.

I ended up making a salad this year that could complement any grilled main, or could even be dinner on its own. It's made with beautiful roasted red beets, toasted white hazelnuts, orange segments for a burst of extra colour, tart fresh raspberries, maple syrup, and a little torn purple basil. I was going to add in some crumbled goat cheese for little extra white, but I stopped myself. I knew the salad didn't need cheese especially with the maple syrup, and I was only going to add it for the colour. That's a first step to no more colour themed dishes, right?

Sweet, Sour, and Summery

I bet when some of you looked at this picture of this salad you thought, oh great another simple salad and now she's adding radishes....

Well if you did think that I'm happy to you that you're half right, but you'll hopefully also be pleasantly surprised. This is another simple salad and I am adding radishes, but it's much more than that too. Today's salad is slightly deceptive, but in a good way. All the veggies, except for the lettuce, get marinated in a sweet and sour mixture that makes this salad special and bright. 

I think this salad will reign supreme at my house this summer with many different veggies taking the starring role. I hope you all love it too. 

Homemade Ranch Dressing

As a teenager, I used to babysit for a boy who loved ranch dressing on everything. He dipped anything and everything into it and I'm pretty sure he would have drank it if no one was watching. 

I'm not as big a fan as he was of ranch dressing, but I do love it. I just don't like the idea of pouring ready made dressing into my food. I'm convinced that the preservatives and sodium are just too high for me to enjoy it. 

Now I've discovered a recipe for ranch dressing that has no preservatives and tastes amazing. I've tested it on grilled wedges of iceberg lettuce (yes, you read that right!) and every single leaf of the lettuce was gobbled up. 

Asian Spaghetti

This dish may not actually be spaghetti, but it is one of the best spaghetti squash recipes I've ever eaten. It's got sweetness, tang, spice, and somehow even a rich comfort all mixed up together in one delicious bite. 

Good Asian food often achieves that strange mix of perfection and I think that might be why I love it so much. Italian food does beat Asian on the comfort, Indian food beats it on the spice, and desserts of any origin always beat it on the sweetness, but no where else are you ever going to find a combination of tastes that so perfectly combine all those taste bud sensations. 

Read on for an amazing spaghetti squash recipe with a taste so good it's going to make you reach for seconds and maybe even thirds!