Moroccan Chicken with Apple Cranberry Couscous

Yesterday I just couldn't decide what to make for dinner. All of my go to dishes felt boring. I didn't want rice or pasta or potatoes...I wanted to try a new starch that I usually never eat, so I thought I'd give couscous a try. I've had it before but have never made it at home. It was so easy! I decided to look up the spices used in Moroccan food and try out my own rendition of Moroccan food at home. Here's what I came up with!

Ingredients

Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp ground corriander

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp honey

salt and pepper

Couscous

1 tsp butter

3 green onions sliced

1 macintosh apple diced

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp red onion diced

handful cranberries

2/3 cup couscous

1/3 cup boiling water

1/3 cup orange juice

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

salt & pepper

Directions

Combine cinnamon, cumin, corriander, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper in a bowl and coat chicken. Grill until cooked through (about 7-8 minutes per side)

Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan and sauté apples, green onions, cinnamon and curry powder until the spices are fragrant and apples have softened slightly.
Stir in red onion and cranberries and couscous.
Stir in orange juice and boiling water and cover pot for 5 minutes.

Once the couscous has absorbed the liquid, fluff it up with a fork and mix in olive oil, honey, salt and pepper.

Serve alongside grilled chicken and vegetable of choice.

Spicy Pasta and Bean Soup

This is one of my favourite soups. It's so flavourful and healthy. It's almost a cross between a soup and a stew since it's so hearty. I served this with olive bread.

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion diced
1 rib celery diced
1 carrot diced
4 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can white beans
2 cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock

1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp fennel seed
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

3/4 cup dried macaroni
Shredded mozzarella and Parmesan

Directions

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil on medium heat and sauté onion, garlic, carrot and celery until soft.
Add tomatoes, beans, broth, herbs and spices and simmer on low for 1/2 hour or longer.
Just before serving, add dried macaroni and cook for 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente.
Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Oat and Apple Crumble-Topped Muffins

I meet with all of the stay-at-home moms and dads on my street every Thursday morning and they always seem to serve muffins. I decided to bake some since I hosted our get together last Thursday. Since apples are in season (49 cents a pound at Loblaws!), I decided to try out this recipe from Canadian Living.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cups quick rolled oats

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 apples peeled and diced

Crumble Topping

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Topping:

In bowl, stir sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon; set aside.

In large bowl, whisk all-purpose and whole wheat flours, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

In separate bowl, whisk milk, oil, egg, sugar and vanilla; pour over dry ingredients. Sprinkle with apple; stir just to blend.
Fill paper-lined or greased muffin cups three-quarters full. Sprinkle with topping. Bake in centre of 375°F (190°C) oven for 25 minutes or until tops are firm to the touch. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Remove to rack to let cool completely. (Make-ahead: Store in airtight container for up to 2 days or wrap individually in plastic wrap and freeze in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)

Best Bolognese Rigatoni

When I was travelling in Barcelona, eating out at all the tapas bars and filling up on paella soon took its toll on me and I was craving some comfort food. We went to this restaurant where I ate the most delicious Bolognese sauce ever. I tried to duplicate the recipe at home from memory and it was pretty spot on. This is possibly the best Bolognese sauce I've ever had (even though it didn't photograph too nicely).

Ingredients

1 onion finely diced

1 carrot finely diced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 lb lean ground beef

4 slices bacon chopped

1 bay leaf

1 small can tomato paste (about 4-5 tbsp)

1 can condensed beef broth

Red wine (pour two glasses then use the rest for cooking - about 2 cups)

Cooked Rigatoni pasta

Directions

In a saucepan, brown the ground beef until very brown and dry. Then add beef broth and keep on a medium simmer.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Drain some fat off from the bacon and cook onions, carrot and garlic until soft.

Add red wine to skillet and allow liquid to reduce by half to concentrate the flavour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour contents of skillet into saucepan with ground beef and broth.

Add tomato paste and bay leaf and simmer on low for as long as you can wait. (I lasted 30 mins before getting really hungry)

Toss with rigatoni pasta and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

Oven fried chicken

Wow! This was one AWESOME oven "fried" chicken recipe and made fantastic leftovers.

This is Aida's recipe. You can get to the recipe by clicking on this post's title.

Prosciutto, Spinach & Artichoke Quiche

Quiche always reminds me of my Grandma. It was always the TOP dish I'd ask for when visiting her home in Montreal for the summer. She always made her quiche with ham, mushrooms and cheese, but I've since experimented with different ingredients.



Ingredients
9 inch pie shell (homemade or frozen)
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 small onion diced finely
2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach
4 large artichoke hearts chopped (canned in water)
3-4 slices prosciutto chopped
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
1. While pie shell is defrosting, beat 3 eggs with milk, dijon mustard cornstarch and cayenne pepper.
2. Layer onion, spinach, artichokes, prosciutto in pie shell and top with cheese.
3. Pour egg mixture slowly into the pie over filling ensuring that everything becomes moistened with the eggs.
4. Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes or until eggs are set and wait 5-10 minutes before slicing

Penaci (Indonesian Spicy Beef)

I LOVE Indonesian food, and of all types of food available in Toronto, I don't know of any Indonesian restaurants in the city. Luckily for me, my mom's family is from Indonesia and I watched my Oma cook some of her signature dishes. Over the weekend, my mom and I got together to cook some Indonesian food and we made pecel, soto ayam and my favourite...penaci. Penaci is a ridiculously hot beef dish, but it's so irresistibly good.
I toned down the spiciness from my Oma's recipe so that my husband could enjoy it too.

I served this with pecel (vegetable and peanut sauce dish) and rice.

Ingredients:
Roast of beef (about 3lbs or so)
1/2 red sweet pepper (optional...use sweet red pepper if you don't want this dish to be too spicy)
1 shallot
7 cloves garlic
1/4 onion
10 large chili peppers (I used 5 to tone down the spiciness, but use as many as you can tolerate)
4-5 kemiri (candle nuts) toasted in a dry skillet
1/2 lime
1/2 cup kecap manis (sweet thick soy sauce)

Directions
1. Place the roast of beef in a pot with water and boil until cooked.
2. In a food processor or blender, combine red pepper, shallot, garlic,onion, chilies, kemiri and lime juice and blend into a paste. Add a little water to loosen the paste if needed.
3. Heat up 1/4 cup oil in a wok or skillet and fry the paste until very fragrant.
4. Stir in kecap manis and continue to cook.
5. Cut beef into cubes and add to sauce. Cook until beef is tender.
Serve with rice.

Earthbox - Week nine

Be making Greek salads soon! (Tomato and pepper plant)

Cucumber plants - week nine

My little babies are growing up!!

Cucumber plant

My first year at gardening - week one

One train ride home, I was reading an article in Chicago magazine about a man who grows vegetables on his rooftop patio. Very inspired, we decided to take an attempt at gardening. The man used an Earthbox to grow the vegetables, which is a self- contained garden environment with a water reservoir so you don't over water. So, we bought a (below from lower left) cucumber, tomato, dill, basil, oregano and were given an Earthbox as a gift. In the Earthbox, we planted another tomato and pepper plant (on left).