Quick and Easy Falafels with Tzatziki

 

Quick and Easy Falafels

It's  already March. Yeah! It means we’re sneaking up on spring. It’s time to freshen up our cooking routines and slip into easy meals, with fresh soon-to-be-found local spring foods.

So, lets revitalize our recipe selections and talk cookbooks!  

Do you buy or collect cookbooks? How many do you own? When you buy a new one, do you actually try the recipes? If not, why? 

To me, accumulating cookbooks is like buying kitchen gadgets that you rarely use: eventually you re-discover them in your kitchen drawer (or on your cookbook shelf) and wonder why you bought them in the first place.

New cookbooks mean new recipes, and that means changing things up. It isn’t easy. I love the idea of cooking new foods but putting it into action takes effort. 

I think you’ll agree it’s easy-peasy to cook the same old recipes over and over again. It’s like driving home from work: it’s uncomplicated to drive the same route every day. Why muddle things up by taking a longer, more scenic route, just for sake of change? 

But this is exactly the point of trying new recipes - to shake things up and escape the doldrums of cooking every day and add a dash of excitement to the monotonous chore of home cooking. Or at least that’s what I tell myself whenever I happen to wander into a bookstore considering a new cookbook. 

My newest purchase is from Donna Hay called, “The Fast Five, Shortcuts to Deliciousness.” She’s an Australian food stylist and cookbook author whose mouthwatering photos will motivate anyone to cook.

As the name states, the recipes are fast and delicious - my type of cooking. I chose to make her falafel recipe. Falafels are typically fried, but hers are baked.

They were a nice surprise! I served them on pita bread with tzatziki sauce, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado. The recipe called for sumac on top, which I found at a Persian grocery store…but it’s optional. 

Beef Tacos with Paprika – Inspired by a Community Kitchen

Easy Beef Tacos

While I wait for spring to arrive, I’ve been busy in my community. And this week, I want to share a beef taco recipe I was reminded of while volunteering at the community lunch program. 

Usually, when I arrive for my shifts in the school gym, I feel like I’ve been dropped into the middle of an action movie and have to quickly figure out the plot and the characters to catch up with the audience. 

Every day is different. New recipes and new volunteers, which include parents, students, and community neighbours. The rotating scenario creates overall mayhem. Typical of any elementary school program that is student-run, and feeds lunch to 200 kids twice a week.

When I arrived last Thursday, the kitchen was eerily calm and organized, and all the dishes were done. The meal was cooked and ready to go.

Chef Maria stood smiling in the middle of it with her black hair pulled off her round face, smiling broadly beneath her gold-rimmed glasses. A white apron pulled tight across her full frame.

Maria has a playful, warm personality and she cooks with a sanguine confidence. “What are you cooking today, Maria?” I asked. She beamed back the answer, “chicken, with my new favourite spice, paprika.”

Paprika, a spice I rarely use. When she mentioned it I was reminded of a simple beef taco recipe I occasionally cooked for my family.

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins with Raisins

Tasty Spiced pumpkin muffins 

Here’s a simple pumpkin muffin recipe with raisins and walnuts, spiced with cinnamon, ground ginger and molasses. These pumpkin muffins are both healthy and tasty and make a great snack on the go. 

Spicy Pumpkin Muffins with Raisins

Easy Pecan Granola with a Hint of Orange

Easy Pecan Granola with Sunflower Seeds, Pecans, Coconut and Orange

How has your New Year been going so far? Have you started doing anything new in your food and cooking routine? Perhaps you’re eating healthier? Cooking more meals at home? Trying new recipes?  It’s always fun to attempt something new…right?

My husband and I tried a new breakfast spot this month. It’s a restaurant in our neighbourhood that’s always busy. I often walk past and see hungry folks of all ages lined up outside waiting for a breakfast table. 

To be honest, it’s always baffled me why anyone would wait in a line just to eat breakfast. Many times, the queue is snaked around the block! So, in honour of trying something NEW, we decided to check it out. 

Once we were inside, it was obvious what all the fuss was about. The breakfast dishes being served out were a whole day’s worth of food: eggs piled high, topped with anything you can imagine: from deep-fried chicken to maple bourbon BBQ glazed short ribs. 

There were numerous variations of eggs Benedict and an equal number of pancake and waffle configurations. The plates of food coming out of the kitchen were piled so high, the meals looked like Jenga towers ready to collapse. 

I ordered the strawberry cheesecake pancakes and the meal was tasty. The service was quick, pleasant and efficient, and it was a fun way to start the day.

It inspired me to create new breakfast recipes such as this new granola recipe with a hint of orange which is easy, fast and full of yum!

Breakfast Egg and Spinach Wrap

Breakfast Egg and Spinach Wrap

This is a fun way to change up your same old scrambled egg and toast breakfast. The eggs are cooked like a flat pancake in a skillet and served in a flour tortilla with avocado, fresh spinach and a few dashes of hot sauce.

Breakfast Egg Wrap 

Ricotta Pancakes with Banana Caramel Topping

Ricotta Pancakes with Banana Caramel Topping

Here’s a pancake recipe that’s slightly different. It does require a few extra dishes but it’s worth the mess. The fun part of this ricotta pancake recipe is the banana caramel topping. But if you don’t like bananas, then simply serve them with maple syrup. 

Ricotta Pancakes

Italian Soup with Italian Sausage, Green Lentils and Spinach

Italian Soup with Sausage, Lentil & Spinach

Eating soup and nibbling sweets are a perfect way to endure the hectic,cold days of December…right?

To me, soup season means accepting that winter is firmly in place, and it’s time to settle in and wait it out. Slurping soup when it’s cold, snowy, or rainy is comforting and helps endure the unavoidable short days and long, dark nights.

Soup warms our souls, and keeps us hydrated and healthy. Many soups are filled with veggies, and often made with beans or meat, making them hearty enough to serve as one-pot meals.

What will your go-to soup be this winter? 

If you need a new idea, then try this Italian Soup with Italian Sausage, Green Lentils and Spinach, delicious served with homemade cheese biscuits.

Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Cheese Biscuits

These are easy to make, freeze well and are perfect to serve with soup on a cold, snowy or rainy day. I suggest using aged cheddar cheese for more flavour.

Crescent Shaped Nut Sugar Cookies

Crescent Shaped Nut Sugar Cookies

These little cookies are full of flavour ! With few ingredients, they truly are easy to make. I suggest making them small, because they are rich. I used walnuts, but pecans, hazelnuts or almonds would do as well.  

Nanaimo Bars

Nanaimo Bars

Three Layers of yumm!

If you are from British Columbia then you will be familiar with Nanaimo Bars, a three-layer sweet treat named after a town on Vancouver Island. 

We always ate Nanaimo bars when I was a kid. They have a crust of graham cracker and chocolate, followed by a layer of buttery icing sugar with vanilla pudding, and finally, a thin layer of chocolate on top. I hadn’t had a Nanaimo bar in decades and was excited to make them after I found an old recipe in one of my mother’s recipe books. They tasted exactly as I remembered!