Allie's Changing Kitchen

Another Vegan Butternut Squash Mac n' "Cheese"

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:43:00 +0000

Back in January, I raved about a new and quick mac n' "cheese". It was vegan, gluten-free, and basically pleasing to every possible diet except paleo (but - hey, make it with spaghetti squash in lieu of pasta and you're golden!). Before that, I raved about a different kind of mac n' "cheese" using roasted butternut squash.Whoever came up with this whole squash-sauce idea should be given an award.

Honestly.

For those of you who have to be - or choose to be - free of dairy, it is so welcome and thanked to have a creamy pasta replacement for that wonderful comfort food that is mac n' cheese.

For some reason, I have a tendency to want to try new recipes, rather than sticking to the sure-fire go-to's, so I tackled yet another approach to the squash mac n' cheese. Again, the nut-free (substituting almond with coconut milk), gluten-free, vegan, soy-free person can put their hands up in the air to say their praises to these recipe-creators. Amazing.

I will say - though - that my personal taste prefers more salty/tangy flavours, so if I had to create my perfect squash mac n' cheese, I'd likely combine the roasted squash and bread crumbs from the second recipe listed above, with the tahini/apple cider vinegar flavouring of the first mentioned recipe to get that tang.

The one great thing about this recipe, though, was how absolutely creamy the almond milk made this!

I got the recipe from Running with Tongs and copied it almost to a tee, with a few changes:

- Cook Brown rice fusilli

Blend together:
- 15 oz can of organic pureed butternut squash
- 2/3 cup of vegetable broth
- 1 cup of Silk Almond unsweetened milk
- 1 tbsp of curry powder
- 1/2 tsp of salt (I ended up adding lots more after this was done)
- 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp of olive oil

- Add sauce and handfuls of baby kale (I love that they sell this at the Super Store now!!) to the pasta.

If you're in a rush, throw it in the microwave and be done with it. I put mine in a casserole dish and topped it with nutritional yeast in lieu of panko and baked for about 15 minutes at 350 to let the flavours come together.

I topped mine with a TON of hot sauce and more salt. You might not need it, but I personally needed that little bit of bite!

The next time I do this, I'm totally taking what I liked from each of these recipes and making my own super-duper-uber-squash-mac-n-cheese. One of my favourite things about the first recipe and this one is the ability to use organic pureed canned squash, because really - - how often do you have enough time to roast a squash in the oven?

Enjoy!

Sunday Chilli (With a Bacon-y Secret Ingredient!)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:06:00 +0000

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I officially have a favorite chilli recipe - and I made it all on my own. This. Was. Amazing. A perfect Sunday meal.

As I'm sure is evident, I love making chilli. It's the absolute easiest way to cram a ton of healthy ingredients into one dish that will last the week - and hopefully taste good. It doesn't get much better than that. Yes, it's a little bit of work up front, but then no work throughout the week!

I typically use the slow cooker, but used my handy red Kitchenaid dutch oven this time around to cut down on time. With our love of the Smokey Bacon Chilli from a few months back (originating from PaleOMG), I took a few of my fave elements from that recipe and went to work on something of my own.

Sweet Potato and White Bean Chilli (with PORK!)
From Allie's Changing Kitchen

6 slices of bacon, diced (Maple Leaf, less sodium - sugar-free)
1 package of ground pork

1/2 large onion, diced
1 large sweet potato, diced
1 1/2 cups of kale, sliced small
1 1/2 cups of corn (frozen or canned, but I had canned)

1 cup of broth
1 can of Hunts Original Pasta Sauce
1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed
2 tsp oregano
1 tbsp of chili powder
2 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of garlic salt
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper

1. Fry the bacon. Set aside.
2. Cook the ground pork.
3. In a dutch oven or pot, cook the sweet potato and onion for about 7 minutes.
4. Add in all of the spices, the cooked pork, bacon, beans, broth and and tomato sauce. Turn heat down to simmer for an hour - at least.
5. About 15 minutes before you're ready to eat, throw in the kale and corn.

I think I've used diced tomatoes in every chilli I've ever made and have never used straight up tomato sauce. This - I believe - may be what made the difference. It was full of flavour. A hearty, warm dish for a Sunday evening. And with the secret, special ingredient of BACON, it's a two thumbs up from the hubs!

Because Everyone Craves Poutine Once in Awhile

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:30:00 +0000

You read correctly. I'm about to rock your world with a tasty poutine recipe that will satisfy the soy, dairy and gluten intolerant, the vegetarians, the vegans - and the people who simply get a little creeped out by turning a Chicken-embellished package of powder into a "rich" sauce.

Two years ago I would have said I had to give up poutine for good. Today, I thank my lucky stars that Halifax continues to become more awesome with their selection of "speciality" foods and that food bloggers continue to be creative, making it possible for me to welcome this salty delight into my life as frequently as I wish.

One disclaimer I'd have is: yes, this is a "healthier" version of a poutine, but you must accompany it with a salad, or a shot of V8 or grapes for dessert...something. It's clearly lacking in the nutrient department, but that's clearly not the point of a poutine, is it?

Vegan Homemade Poutine

Gravy

Taking this recipe here, I followed along and tried a few things until I got it just right. I basically followed it as is, but have written out my exact measurements and ingredients.

In a saucepan, combine:

1 1/2 cups of water
1 vegetable bouillon cubes (I'm now using GoBio - ingredients are way better than most)
1 tbsp of vegan margarine
1 heaping tbsp of nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp of onion powder
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
A few dashes of coconut aminos (this is the soy replacement I finally found at Planet Organic!! wheeeeee!)

Once the butter and bouillon have dissolved, slowly add in:

1/4 cup ...and a few sprinkles more... of brown rice flour (any will do if you're not gluten intolerant or celiac)

Whisk away while bringing to a boil. Reduce heat and you're done. How easy?

Poutine Assembly

We use the shoestring McCain's french fries - use whatever you'd like. Add on some Daiya Mozzarella (any Daiya would do, but I find the mozza to be the best for this and nachos). Top it (or soak it - whichever is your style) in gravy.

You have your masterpiece!

A Green Treat (Avocado Fries)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:26:00 +0000

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned my love of the idea of avocado fries (have you seen them all over Pinterest?) to J or not, but either way, he found the recipe on his own and decided to surprise me with a Saturday treat. A lovely, lovely treat.

With inspiration from here, he went to work.

What To Do

- We used four avocados, but two would suffice for two people. Cut them lengthwise and carefully remove the pit and the avocado from its skin without disrupting it too much. This means you need avocados that are just hard enough to stay intact, but soft enough to scoop out easily!

- Preheat oven to 350

- We didn't have any panko in the house, so we used a mortar and pestle to crush up soda crackers with a ton of spices. Mix in whatever you want and have fun with it! We used: himalayan sea salt, chili powder, onion salt, garlic powder, celery seed, freshly cracked black pepper, Italian blend.

- Slice your avocados to resemble fries or wedges.

- Dip each piece in egg and coat in the cracker/spice mixture.

- Place tinfoil on a baking pan and a baking rack on top of that (to make it easier to turn the soft avocados over without breaking them).

- Place the fries on the rack and bake for 20 minutes, turning them over at the halfway point.

That's it! Dip it in homemade curried mayo or agave sweetened ketchup and call it a day!

Boy am I thankful for avocados....but who isn't, really.

Peanut Sauce Rice Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:48:00 +0000

I posted this little gem in April 2011 with the title "It's so good, we made it twice!" We have a tendency to always try new recipes in our house and forget to venture back to our Go-to's.

In a state of "we didn't take anything out for dinner and I don't feel like slaving away in the kitchen today, whatever will we make?", I remembered this recipe. Part of the reason it came to mind is because I've been chatting with my friend Becca who has been sincerely missing her daily PB intake while she travels around Asia - which made ME think I needed to eat some PB!

Instead of simply linking out (although it's linked above), I thought I'd re-write the recipe out so it's at the top of things on here. I also changed a few things based on what I had in my kitchen. If you like peanut butter and you like Thai food, get on this!

How to make this recipe in the easiest way possible?

1. Cook your vermicelli rice noodles (the fat kind) - takes about 6 min in boiling water.

2. Meanwhile, chop up some broccoli, kale and shrimp (buy pre-cooked and you're gold!). Throw it all in a pan and saute! Throw shrimp in last if it's cooked.

3. While the above two things are cooking, throw the following ingredients in a little sauce pan on low - no need to cook it, but the temperature makes it easier to mix together:

- 1/3 cup of broth
- 1/3 cup of 100% PB
- 1 tbsp of minced ginger (you can buy it minced!)
- 1 tbsp of coconut oil
- 2 tsp of olive oil
- 1 tbsp of lime juice
- 1 tbsp of fish sauce (using soy would be fine, too)

4. Once everything is done, mix it all together in the pan and throw in lots of cilantro if you have any! You're done.

What we added to our dishes:
- More cilantro
- Ground peanuts
- More lime juice
- Sriricha

The reaction? Oh yeah - people would DEFINITELY spend $15 for this dish at any Thai restaurant in town.

A Quick Butternut Squash Mac n' "Cheese"

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:32:00 +0000

I found my love for Pinterest - once again - this week and had spent some evening ogling over fake cheese recipes. I, of course, got it in my head that I had to have mac n' cheese. Once you see two photos of it on Pinterest, it's really all you begin to see. Like how many variations can they really have on there?

Off to Planet Organic I went to get the lazy-girl's dairy/gluten/soy-free version of KD - aka "Mac n' Chreeze". To my dismay, the store no longer sells it, or any other dairy and soy free alternative. Lucky for me, I had vaguely remembered one of the recipes I saw this week and grabbed a small can of pureed butternut squash.

If you recall, I did the whole roasted squash + Daiya cheese thing before and loved it, but this time I needed a quick fix and wanted to try something new. (Note: If you have the time, I still highly recommend roasting the squash - nothing beats that warm taste).

Here's the cheese sauce recipe on Pure2Raw. Boy am I glad I found this one! I was only making a small serving, so I cut the recipe in half and made a few alterations for ease.

Here's what I did (it makes about 2 servings):

In a blender (used my bullet), add:
1/2 can (14oz) of pureed butternut squash
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
2 tbsp of tahini
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 dash of apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp of tumeric
1/4 tsp of salt

Plop however much you want on top of brown rice pasta and heat that puppy up!

Banana Bread Delight

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Made this little gem a few weeks ago. I still can't seem to bake completely "right". It's always a bit chewy in the middle - but this turned out tasty and great for me to take for breakfast (and because I was the only one eating it, I didn't need to worry about the "chewiness". :)

The recipe came from Go Dairy Free.

I used whole wheat flour, almond milk and walnuts. Otherwise, I followed her recipe exactly!

The Easiest Meal That Will Win You Brownie Points (Sausage Stuffed Spaghetti Squash)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:55:00 +0000

The idea of spaghetti squash didn't seem too inviting in my household. The idea of squash in general wasn't appealing to J two years ago and the thought of the intense process it would require to make squash (obviously not knowing) seemed daunting to me. We were determined, though. For the health benefits of squash, and the ridiculously cheap cost of it during the fall and winter months.

After cooking my first spaghetti squash last fall, we now have this fall-back, wow-worthy meal in our go-to-list. It's different every time we make it, which is what makes it so fantastic. If you have spaghetti squash in your house, you can create something amazing (I.e. people will say "ooo") - easily.

I promise.

Firstly, you have to decide how much time you have to work with. To get the "stuffed squash", I recommend using an oven. If you're in a rush, you can cook a spaghetti squash in the microwave but then you've got the extra work of digging out the squash once it's cooked.

Secondly, your options for the "stuff" are endless. I'll tell you what I did for this particular meal, but I did this only because I had it on hand. Enjoy!

Sausage Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
From Allie's Changing Kitchen

2 sausages (local, italian)
1 green pepper
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 can of diced tomatos
1 spaghetti squash
1 tbsp of a mix of Italian spices
Sauce: A splash or two or Fish Sauce and Frank's Red Hot
Optional: nutritional yeast or Daiya

Ready for this?

1. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Remove seeds. Place face-down on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes (depending on the size). You can tell when it's done if the outside is getting soft.
2. Start cooking your sausage and onion. Once they are almost cooked, add in all of your other ingredients and let simmer.
3. Take your squash out of the oven and flip the halves over.
4. Spoon your sausage and veg mixture into each half.
5. I topped both with nutritional yeast and placed it back in the oven for 5 minutes to heat it all together.

That's it. Now you can eat your squash and mixture with a fork - I promise it will work.
This is paleo, dairy-free, soy-free, sugar-free and gluten-free.

Alterations:
-We essentially do this with whatever we have in the fridge, and whatever we would put with regular pasta. Ground meat, no meat, sundried tomatos, mushrooms, marinara sauce, etc. The options are endless.
- It could easily be made vegan by simply omitting the meat and fish sauce and adding more veg. We've done it that way, as well

Fall Harvest Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:43:00 +0000

This picture was posted alongside our lasagna roll-ups awhile back. I'm posting the recipe as I made it, although I would make some changes to this the next time around.

The good things about this soup:
1. Other than the chopping, it's a fairly hands-off meal.
2. This is a great way to use up some of your fall vegetables and fruit, without having to use all of anything - it just requires a few of each thing.
3. This is a big match, giving you a healthy dose of fruit and veg for a week.

The not-fave things about this soup:
1. The apples I chose were a bit too sweet, making this soup better as a side or a small lunch. The sweeter the apple, the sweeter the soup (although maybe that's what you dig?)
2. This had a tangy-sweet combo that was delicious for the first five bites but was a bit too much once bite six came along. I'd take it easy on the combination of balsamic vinegar, white wine and apples. A simple change in wine and apples would even make a difference.

All in all, I'd hands down make this again. I'd just experiment a little bit with the ingredients. For example: if you like yams more than parsnips, make more of one and less of the other! I personally like more of a spice taste so I'd go with more masala and less acidic things the next time around.

Enjoy! Now that I've ventured (timidly) into the world of soups, I highly recommend having fun with it. It's extremely easy to do when using the crockpot.

Fall Harvest Soup
A la Allie's Kitchen

Note: these are approximations. I had fun throwing things in the pot this time around.
4 tsp of olive oil
1 large sweet potato, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 small parsnips, diced
2 apples, diced
1 1/2 cups of leeks, diced
1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsp of masala
3 tbsp of white wine
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
4 cups of broth (I used vegetable bouillon and water)

In a pan, heat oil and add sweet potato, carrot, leek and apple. Heat for 5 minutes then dump in the slow cooker. Stir in ginger, masala, wine and vinegar. Add broth. Cook for 5 - 6 hours on low.

Use an immersion blender (thanks to Gram for this gift!) or a regular blender in batches, if need be. Blend away. Top with croutons and tortillas if you have any and serve.

Step-by-Step: Swiss Chard + Pork Lasagna Roll-Ups (Even With "Ricotta")

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:59:00 +0000

I got this idea of this from my sister. Not really sure why I had never thought of it before.

This gets a separate blog post, as I thought it beneficial to show the process in photos. This did take some work to put together in stages (something I usually am too lazy to do), but it was completely worth it - especially when you end up with a 9 x 13 pan full of roll-ups for your week.

A few neat things came out of the creation of this recipe:

1. I no longer have to make lasagna in the old way. Roll-ups can be individually customized and are just so much more fun to plate.

2. I now have a go-to ricotta/cream cheese-ish replacement for future dishes (think consistency, not substitute for exact flavour).

3. I also have a good generic meat sauce as a go-to for any future pasta dish (or to plop on top of a sweet potato or nacho plate).

Although the roll-up idea came from my sister, the inspiration for this particular recipe came from the market. After spending only $20 at the market on the weekend, we ended up with a lot of leeks and swiss chard (among other things) without a real plan to use it. Add in some defrosted ground pork and some white lasagna noodles to be used up (I'll switch over to brown rice pasta for the next batch), we had ourselves a meal.

Ricotta ("Cheese") Filling

Adapted from GoDairy cookbook

1 cup of pumpkin seeds, soaked in an inch of water (it called for sunflower seeds, but I only had pumpkin seeds)

1/2 cup of water (extra from above)

1 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice

1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1 garlic clove

1/2 tsp of maple salt (use any!)

Place all in the magic bullet and blend until it's the consistency you want!

Swiss Chard and Pork Filling

From Allie's Kitchen

1 pkg of ground pork

1 big bunch of swiss chard, leaves removed from the stems (use lots as it wilts down!)

1 leek, chopped (white and green parts)

Italian spices, salt, pepper

2- 1/2 cups of tomato sauce (doesn't need to be exact, just buy a big can - I used plain)

Brown the ground pork. Add the leek, spices and 1 cup of your sauce. Cook for 2 minutes. Add in the swiss chard and the rest of your sauce, saving enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Let simmer on low.

Cook your noodles!

Bring Everything Together:

Pour the remaining tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan.

On waxed paper, lay out the lasagna noodles and top each one with ricotta filling then your sauce filling. Roll carefully and place each roll in the pan. Note: save some filling!

Once you have done this for everything, top with the remaning meat filling to ensure the noodles stay moist.

I topped my dish with Daiya Cheddar Cheese and Nutritional Yeast Flakes. You can top each individual piece with more of the ricotta filling upon serving if you have any left.

Bake covered at 375 for 20 minutes, then an additional 15 uncovered. Voila!

**Notes on Recommended Recipe Alterations:

- If you want to make this gluten-free, switch to the brown rice noodles

- If you want to make this to paleo, slice a zucchini in extremely thin pieces and use that instead of noodles for your wrap

- If you want to make this vegetarian or vegan, I recommend adding diced eggplant instead of pork

- Swiss chard can be replaced with spinach or kale and will be just as good

- Leeks can be replaced with shallots or regular onions

Enjoy! This one is a goodie....

Fall Has Arrived (+ Standby Slow Cooker Recipes)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:10:00 +0000

My Facebook status today was:

"Yesterday was the first day of fall. As sad as it is to see the summer go, we can look forward to big slow cooker meals on the cheap! I almost forgot how far you can go with just a few cheap ingredients placed in a one-dish fall meal in the crock pot. Yesterday: lentil chili. Today: mushroom risotto"

Many questions follow suit after any mention of a good slow cooker meal. We all know how a slow cooker meal can benefit our weekly routine. We all hope to create a slow cooker plan that we'll actually follow through on, but we rarely ever do. Well - at least I don't. My mom and I always seem to be sharing, saving or pinning crock pot blog and appetizing recipes, but we never seem to actually do anything with them. When I actually do take the little bit of time required to complete something in that little lovely appliance, I'm beyond excited about it and wonder why I don't do it every week.

I finally followed through this weekend. It was easy (as in: quick to throw together). It was cheap. It was appetizing. After a friend and reader requested some recipes, I thought I'd share it with you, along with a few other successes I've had.

Lentil Chili (Vegan-friendly)
Original Recipe from Chum Mom

J and I worked together on making this yesterday. It's one of those dishes where two people can be working on either side of the pot because you literally just need to throw everything in it - order does not matter. The purpose of this meal was to have healthy veggie-filled lunches for the week and we succeeded.

Only differences from the original? Kidney beans instead of chickpeas, no cilantro, mustard powder or cayenne (but did 1 tsp of chili powder and 1 tsp of paprika instead) and halved the entire recipe (we have a small slow cooker).

The costs associated with this chili are so minimal: 2 carrots (out of a big $2.99 bag), 2 celery stalks (again, out of a clump for $2.99), bouillon cubes, $1.29 can of diced tomatoes, $0.99 can of kidney beans, 1 cup (out of a 2 cup bag for $1.29) of dry red lentils. So cheap considering how far it will take us this week.

Smoky Bacon Chili (Paleo-friendly)

Original Recipe from PaleOMG.

PaleOMG is a blog full of great meat-filled, caveman-lover recipes. If you ever have to make a meal for non-vegetarians that may have dietary limitations, check this blog out - or any paleo blog, really. They're free of most common intolerances.

This chili is as opposite as you can get to the above recipe. Bean-free and meat-filled, this was still a major hit. I used pork instead of beef and only red peppers (not yellow and green). I added 2 drops of liquid smoke to regular diced tomatoes, instead of fire roasted. I also think I may have made half the recipe (we had this eons ago).

We served this over a 1/2 of a baked sweet potato each (we baked some ahead of time for the week as well!). This was mega J-approved.

Mushroom Risotto (potentially gluten-free and vegetarian-friendly)
Original Recipe from Allie's Changing Kitchen

I love risotto but never have the time or energy to stand by a stove to make it right, or to find an appropriate parmesan-free recipe. This turned out well, tasty, but I'd definitely play with some more spices and flavours the next time I try it.

Sautee: 1 cup of sliced mushrooms + 1/3 cup of chopped onions + 2 cloves of garlic

Add in: 1 cup of arborio rice + 1/4 cup of mushroom broth (made from mushroom bouillon, veg. would be fine, too). Saute until liquid is absorbed.

Add mixture to slow cooker, plus: 1 3/4 cup of broth (so 2 cups in total) + 1/4 of white wine + 1 tbsp of onion flakes + 1 tsp of paprika + salt + pepper.

Cook on high for 1 hour and 30 minutes (check, because I overcooked mine a little bit).

Once finished, mix in 1/4 cup of almond (or any) milk + 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast. Add more of any of the above flavourings if you want. I topped mine with homemade bacon bits but you could omit to keep it veg - friendly.

Need More Inspiration?
Here are a few other recipes from the past that have worked out well for us. My advice for those looking to get started with using slow cookers to ease the weeknight cooking pain? Stews and chilis. So many varieties. So hearty. Hard to mess up.

Panama Pork Stew
Chicken Curry Stew
Balsamic Chicken

Questions about any of the above recipes? Comment or bug me on Facebook or Twitter!

Good Products Make Life Easier

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:08:00 +0000

Hope you've had as many great meals with good people in awesome locations as I have this summer. <3

After chatting with a friend of mine last night about all of the progress it seems my local grocery store has made in offering products for dietary-restricted individuals, I got to thinking about how easy it is to eat without dairy, soy and sugar (among many other things!) now. Really. Major progress.

My friend doesn't have any of the restrictions that I do, but would rather purchase products that are naturally sweetened if the option is there - or made without the soy protein or whey preservatives - and why wouldn't she? Of course everyone should want to expand their list of go-to products to hopefully include new items that are without what you feel may be a potential problem area for you. If chocolate is your guilty pleasure (and why wouldn't it be?!) then maybe not having sugar added to your morning granola bar snack, your salad dressing and cereal may help you feel better about indulging in your sweet tooth in a more deliberate way.

I made a list and sent it off to my friend of my new absolute favorite products, so I thought I'd give them a share with you - Internet friends. These lists have made my life easier for so many reasons from: not having to spend hours at the grocery store reading labels to not having to make absolutely everything from scratch and - most of all - to not having to "cheat" in order to have ketchup with my fries or mayo on my sandwich. I can save a "cheat" here and there for something more deliberate - like a bowl of spicy ramen noodles or chige (my Korean guilty pleasures!).

Notes: I purchase these products based on their ingredient lists. These are not suggestions based on nutritional values. Each person will have their own separate goals regarding ingredients vs calories vs nutritional values. All of these are also not sweetened with aspartame. Get away from that where you can!

These products also lead me to one of the main reasons I just cannot indulge in the paleo diet at the moment - I finally found products that make life easier and I'm just not ready - or willing - to give that up at the moment. :)

Dairy, Soy and Sugar-free Goodness
If not listed, I bought them at the Super Store

Spectrum Canola Mayonnaise (burgundy label)
Barbara's cereal bars and fig newtons
Renee's Cucumber and Dill, 1/2 Caesar Dressing and Spring Herb Italian
Daiya Cheese - Pepperjack, Mozzarella, Cheddar
Taste of Nature Granola Bars: Green Apple Country and Quebec Cranberry Carnival (more flavours but these come in a box)
Amande Yogurt - all flavours but Plain and Vanilla (fave) come in big tubs for a better price
Zevia for a soda pop craving (no caffeine!) - Ginger Ale, Cola, Orange
Krisda for your 'fake' root beer craving
Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened Milk
Rice Dream Unsweetened Milk
Earth Balance Soy-free Margarine
Dorset Cereals - Simply Delicious Muesli
Fave breads: Mary's Bread Basket, LaHave and StoneHearth (fave being Mary's Bread Basket, many kinds, pre-sliced): Must read ingredients as their offerings change each week. Most have wheat, olive oil, honey and water - not much more.
Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Tortillas
Fancy Pokket Pita bread
Mott's new unsweetened veggie + fruit sauces. Great for on the go.
Sahara Sugar-Free Organic Ketchup - purchased at Planet Organic
Natur LeFruit Jam - apricot and blueberry
PC Organics Pasta Sauce - Tomato and Basil, Primavera (pricier but good in a pinch)
Frank's Red Hot Original and X-tra Spicy

Enjoy! I have many other staples now so I'm happy to answer questions or do a little research if you're looking for something specific. This list is simply products that we rely on - most of these are becoming preferred products for J, too!

An Assortment of Recipes + Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:51:00 +0000

Here are a few of the things that have gone in our bellies over the last two weeks...

Baked Salmon with Asparagus + Beets (with an adaptation of added procuitto)
This is the ultimate kind of throw together meal. I cheated and used canned beets (I confess and don't care!) so I threw all of this on two tinfoil packets and in the oven it went. A seemingly gourmet meal in minutes (well, it took longer than the recipe said, but basically..)

Weekend Breakfast
Breakfasts like this give you reason to get through your work week. I had some procuitto and asparagus leftover from the above recipe (it's all about no waste) so we cooked them up and plopped our egg on top. Delicious saltiness! It went perfectly with our perked coffee and tropical smoothie (fresh pineapple + banana + frozen mango + almond milk)

Egg Muffins
SO perfect for a work week for breakys and snacks. There are variations all over the place for this, but I used what I had in the fridge at the time: 9 eggs (for the above 12 muffins) + cut up red onions + spinach + tomatoes + salt and pepper + Italian spices. Grease your pan, pour them into the cups and put them in the oven for about 20 mins at 350. Breakfast for the week!

Pork chops, veggie salad and kimchi.
Not entirely paleo, but nothing overtly "do not eat" on the menu I don't think. The pork chop was bbq'd with a mix of spices (anything!) and some lemon + oil. The salad is a simple spinach salad mixed with a little bit of quinoa cooked in broth (little as in most veg, different from how I usually make it) mixed with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. J liked this more than the pork I think.

Bangers n' Mash
Okay - admittedly this photo is not exactly visually appealing and the idea of eating an entire head of cauliflower in one sitting (for two people) seems foreign, but we devoured this. Like: a head of cauliflower and four sausages and we devoured it in minutes. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to do with the cauliflower, so it took longer (and made a larger mess) than it probably should have but we were thoroughly impressed. J grew up on meat and potatoes and had an odd eye on me as I tackled this recipe. Luckily he trusts me enough to give it a go...;) A "will try again" (along with cauliflower rice!). (note: the bangers came from Sweet Williams at the market, yummers).

Shrimp Yellow Curry (on it's own)
I filled this dish with a can of coconut milk, + 2 - 3 tbsp of yellow curry + 1 tbsp of fish sauce + basil + lots of onions, broccoli, cooked shrimp and mushrooms. Top it off with almonds. Voila.

Thai Chicken Salad with Almond Dressing
Adaptations: almonds + almond butter in place of peanuts/butter + fish sauce in place of soy sauce +honey for the brown sugar + my salad ingredients: lettuce, spinach, carrots and cucumber
TWO thumbs up, for sure.

Who knew that dinners would be so good (and so fun) after removing all forms of white potatoes, rice, pasta and bread? We definitely did not. Eat your heart out (and feast) my gluten-free friends! I've been trying out a lot of the recipes I've been pinning under Paleo Possibilities and all are free of dairy, soy, gluten and sugar (among other things)....woot woot! Here's a little diagram of what eating paleo is all about. I'll share more resources in another post.

Enjoy :)

An Assortment of Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:03:00 +0000

Loving Life on the beach at J's Grandmother's Cottage, Prince Edward Island May 2012

I'll get right into it.

I have been on pinterest, Twitter and Facebook daily lately. I think the term "food blogger" has a whole new meaning now, doesn't it?. There are definite true food bloggers out there (I read their daily tales!) but I don't feel I'm one of those anymore. I'm enjoying the back and forth conversation and interaction I get from Twitter and Facebook and the constant creativity (and food porn) I get from Pinterest. With a full-time job, a new home and hubby, and a strong attempt of having both solid down and social time, I'll take what fits nicely in the pocket of my schedule right now!

Since the last time we "spoke", J and I have been continuing to eat in a whole new way! As I mentioned, my friend Katie has been doing the whole Cross Fit + Paleo challenges and has been loving it. J and I decided to embrace a wee bit of paleo into our lives temporarily to a) see what eating more meat would make me feel like b) create a mental shift when it comes to "meals always needing potatoes, rice or pasta" and c) see what small changes we might see in our energy and belly. Most people that follow the paleo way of eating will follow it 100% of the time. Then there are a whole group of people who follow it 80% of the time, allowing themselves 20% of "cheat food". J and I are neither at the moment, but almost.

My feeling is that if my main meals and daytime snacks (lunch and supper, sometimes breakfast) are basically paleo, that's pretty good for us. J has still been starting his day with cereal and milk. He's still drinking his milk. I'm eating Amande Yogurt, jarred mayo, caesar dressing and ketchup....and potato chips because - really - I've already given up so so many things (I say as I stomp my feet!:P). I'm perfectly content with keeping these few small items in my diet. They're all sugar, soy and dairy free and are made for me (which simply means I won't have to go bananas having to make absolutely every single thing from scratch!). I accept this as my area of guilty pleasure. :)

I'll go into the changes we're experiencing as we go through this further. I'll also provide some resources and some sample meal plans of what we have been doing - you know, as non-heavy-duty-paleo-followers. Whether you give it a name or not, it's ultimately just good food - plain and simple. Meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts. How can you go wrong? For now, I will say that the meals are surprisingly easy and fun to come up with. Meal planning and sticking to it is hard, but also fun to create. Grocery shopping is a lot more fun. Although I was hoping to spend less money, I feel we've wasted a lot less food in the last two weeks and have actually been eating more food, at a better quality, at no real cost difference.

There were a few days where I was sitting at work starving dreaming of pigging out on a bowl of pasta, but with a few frantic texts back and forth with Katie (and two guilty trips to Subway), I made homemade trail mix, packed more food and took some control of the situation. J is noticing a big difference in the way he's feeling, especially with the decline of those horrible afternoon crashes that we all hate, but have. My biggest change is in my belly and energy (of course). I think that different things will work for different people, but so far the lack of all these heavy items is definitely making a difference in the way I feel every evening (more to come on this). The biggest challenge I am now having with this is mentally accepting that I'm eating more meat. For me, it feels that more meat is treating me well but I have always secretly hoped I could give up meat someday for the love of animals. Ya know? Anyone ever experience that?

Friends are helping me understand and source out local farms so I can make better purchases when it comes to where our meat is coming from so that I can come to terms with all of this. I'm sure you'll hear about this intertwined in all my convos on here, Twitter and Facebook in the future.

Stay tuned..! Recipes and photos will be coming up in the next post...

(Oh - and if you comment on my blog, I'll be greatly appreciative but if you don't receive a reply from me it's because Google has stopped allowing me to comment on blogs - strange, right?)

A Stir Fry Without Rice or Noodles! (Cilantro Pork)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000

As you can see from the title, I threw together an extremely easy and tasty stir fry - minus the rice and noodles that we always use. I found this recipe on Paleo Diet Lifestyle , along with some other stir fry options. I have to create a bit of a mental shift to create meals like this. For so long, I have been taking one piece of pork and would divide that amongst the two of us for our dinner - and even sometimes for our lunches. With the pasta or rice, I could get away with doing that.

Now that I'm experimenting a little with our diets, I had to use both pieces of our pork and we didn't have leftovers. That being said: I felt fantastic. This meal felt good as I was eating it. I'm not sure if it is just that food tastes and feels better when you're creating that mental connection?

Moral of the story is this is a good mental shift (if I decide that eating lots of meat is the right direction for me to go in), but will require a shift also in how I also approach my grocery shopping. As much as I talk about - and try to do - meal plans, I usually don't (I confess!). In order to buy enough and to not waste, I'm really going to try it for the next week or two to see how it works. Life's a constant transition of some kind, isn't it? :)

This meal is perfect for those weeks when you buy cilantro for something else and don't want it to go bad on you (happens all the time for us). I will say that I was moving slowly when prepping - even though it's only essentially slicing a bunch of stuff - so it took a bit longer to make than it normally would or should. I do think this is a perfect weekday meal: barely any cooking time needed!

Make it: Delicioso!

Cilantro Pork Stir Fry
My changes to the recipe:

- 1 1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms (add to the pan about a minute after adding the peppers)
- 2 scrambled eggs (add at the end, right before throwing the cooked pork back into the pan. I pushed the veggies to the side, scrambled the eggs and then mixed it all together, re-adding the pork).

This is just a quick post as I know when I get back "on the grid" on Monday night, I'll be too tired to post and will only want to share photos of Prince Edward Island when I do feel like posting. We're off on our annual road trip...Lobster and mussels here we come!

Have a great weekend!

It Feels Like Balinese Nasi Campur (Buffalo Shrimp + Balsamic Cucumber Salad)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:12:00 +0000

Nasi Campur is a dish we ordered many times in Bali. Each time it would be different and each time J and I would discuss how we should start eating that way.

You wouldn't exactly know what you would get with each order, but you knew you would get to try a lot of different Balinese dishes in one sitting. The meal always seemed like you would have a piece of meat of some kind and a whole lot of sides - almost like families would make ten different dishes on Sundays and would pick away at each dish throughout the week, a little bit from each one - the opposite from what we typically do here in North America.

As I've mentioned, I'm trying to limit our intake of rice, potatoes, bread and pasta (says the girl who just caved and had a sub). Last night proved to be difficult. I made our shrimp. I made our salad.I just stared at the plate, upset about how bare it looked. I, then, added on the avocado+spinach+blueberry salad and then, again, felt it still looked bare and cooked up a few hard boiled eggs for us.

There you have it. Shrimp. Cucumber Salad. Spinach Salad. Egg. Success.

It filled us up and tasted delicious. Only problem is that we end up craving snacks two hours after eating, but that's not a bad thing if we stick to a celery and almond butter kind of snackk! As I just said above, I just caved with a sub. Shameful, yet laughable. Katie tells me I need to be incorporating more fats to keep the hunger away...so for the future, I'll have lots of almonds (or maybe I'll make a trail mix) at work and more avocado (heck yes). Going on four dinners without the typical "fillers" we usually have is still a positive in my books. What an interesting process... I can't imagine what those of you out there go through who kick this stuff cold turkey - It was hard enough when I made my changes, but I had a transition plan in place that took about 4 months. :)

Buffalo Shrimp
If you haven't stumbled over to The Foodie Physician, then you should. I follow her on Facebook and Pinterest as well. I had pinned this recipe awhile ago and finally got around to it.

I used about 24 large shrimp (not jumbo) and used coconut oil instead of butter. I also didn't grill the shrimp. I used cooked shrimp (tails on), tossed them with the lemon and s/p. I warmed them up in a pan and tossed them with the Frank's hot sauce (original - very important) and coconut oil. Would definitely be good marinated and grilled.

Cucumber Balsamic Salad
There's no need to change anything in this salad - I followed it ingredient by ingredient. Very easy and something a little different for the table. We often have cucumber slices drizzled with a bit of balsamic anyhow for our treats, so the flavor combination was right up our "alley".

Spinach Salad
I love the taste of avocado and blueberries so much that I just added those two things and drizzled the salad with a bit of lemon juice - no dressing.

That's it! Updates on progress, new ideas and changes will keep coming. It's our long weekend - and the best weekend of the year - this week so we'll be having a feast of surf n' turf and lots more "surf" on the side. Can't wait!

A First Paleo Attempt (Tilapia + Curried Portobello & Kale)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000

My good friend Katie has been rockin' the paleo diet for some time now so we've been talking about it a lot. I've mentioned this diet (read: lifestyle) in many other posts before as it's a really easy way for me to find recipes: no soy, dairy or sugar. I've even recommended the diet to friends and family who are experimenting with diet changes.

After all of that, I thought I'd try it for awhile.

I am not going to attempt a 100% paleo diet, or even an 80/20 for the time being. I will, however, attempt to incorporate more paleo-focused meals into my diet, if and when I can. My ultimate goal would be to try to do a 80/20 (or even 100%) change for a small period of time as a sort of "detox" to see whether this might be a route I'd be interested in pursuing on a longer term. My immediate goal is to a) start to have a bit more energy and to generally feel better/good all the time and b) kick my carb and grain addiction.

Anyone that reads this blog knows that I (we) love pasta. I could eat it everyday, twice a day. I don't ever really have a meal without adding rice, potatoes or pasta. Our plates have always felt like it's been missing something if it didn't have one of those. Again: I'm not looking to cut these items out, but I'm ready to make the mental shift into believing that a full plate of meat and veggies is enough to fill me up. Craving pasta all the time is not at all the best thing.

So we'll see how it goes. I thank Katie for telling me to try it out. I'm not going to go into it any more right now, as I'm still doing research and still in the midst of deciding how often I would like to - or need to - cook this way.

Luckily, I've got this pretty awesome hubby of mine that is uber supportive and got me to get right to it last night. He whipped up some tilapia for the two of us while I got to work on a hearty side dish.

Here's what we came up with. As I'm still doing the research, I think this is just about fully paleo-friendly. For any paleo people out there, please let me know if I missed something!

Coconut Flour Tilapia
from J's recipes
1. In a bowl, mix together 1 egg with a little bit of the following items:
- lemon juice
- tobasco (like a dash - probably considered processed, and therefore not paleo)
- basil
- thyme
- chilli powder

2. Dip each piece of fish (we had 2 fillets) in the egg mixture. Then, coat in coconut flour.
3. Pan fry (note: the coconut flour will turn black-ish, but it doesn't taste burnt).
4. Right before the fish is done, splash a wee bit of white wine in the pan.

Curried Portobello Mushrooms and Kale
I basically stuck to the recipe from Food Fitness Fresh Air, but made a few small changes. Here is what I did.

1 tbsp EVOO
1/2 of a large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
2 portobello mushrooms, cut in 1-inch slices
1 bunch of kale, stems removed and sliced

5 tbsp of diced tomatoes (juice and tomatoes)
2 1/2 tbsp of curry powder
1 tbsp of raw honey
2 tbsp of water

1. Mix the sauce together and let sit.
2. Cook EVOO, garlic and onions for about 2 minutes.
3. Add in portobello mushrooms and sauce mixture and cook until the onions and translucent.
4. Add kale and cook mix for about 6 more minutes.
Serve!

I'll call this meal as "paleo as it gets" in our house. Even if I've missed an ingredient or two, I filled up without rice, potatoes and pasta!

Garlic Shrimp in Tomato-y Coconut Milk

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:40:00 +0000

I forget if it was my mom or me who stumbled onto SkinnyTaste.com. Once we did, we got sucked into the vortex of delicious-looking recipe tunnel - I mean: recipe after recipe looks amazing. Gina's website is organized extremely well, so you can easily search for something in a jiffy on her blog.

Mom passed this find on to me a little while go and I finally had a chance to try it (it's been sitting patiently on my Food Bliss Pinterest Board). This was so unbelievably easy to throw together and made enough for both J and I to have leftovers for our lunches the next day. I made a pot of plain quinoa to serve under this which helped give us the full 4 servings.

Garlic Shrimp in Coconut Milk, Tomatoes and Cilantro.

Try it.

Creamy goodness.

We always have diced tomatoes (check the ingredients to make sure you're just getting tomatoes!) and coconut milk in our pantry so this will end up being an easy go-to. Just a note about the recipe: I used 1 tbsp of lime juice. I typically save my actual lemons and limes for baking, bbqing or for drinks. Whenever a recipe asks for 1/2 a lime or lemon, I always use the juice.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and hopefully cooked a good meal for your mom! I, unfortunately, will owe mine one. We had lots of family dinners (including a big turkey feast. yum) throughout the last week, as my uncle was home. There's nothing like family time and we had a whole lot of it last week - which meant a lot of people cooked for us, too (sweet diggity).

Mother's Day. I thought I'd take a moment to highlight how extremely awesome and supportive my mom is - and how I never go a day without being extremely grateful for our relationship. We've always been a bit of a duo - for better or for worse. Better, as in we're best friends. Worse, as in we're identical. Like mother, like daughter, right? Well, in our family, we're actually like grandmother, like mother, like daughter. ;) The three of us spent time together in Korea (both Gram and mom came ALL the way to Korea to visit me) and a week together in the Dominican Republic, not to mention the amount of other activities we do together. Throughout all of these food changes I've experienced (and am still experiencing), my mom has been so, so supportive. She cut out red meat with me over 3 1/2 years ago and has a million go-to recipes that are "Allie-friendly" and on hand now! There are literally a million things I could say about her and our relationship - but I'll just acknowledge our special bond and my appreciation for the life I've been able to live because of her.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mommys out there!

What else.
Spring has actually, FINALLY, hit Halifax.

We've been patient. We've enjoyed every "spring" day that has come, but it officially seems like it's here to stay now. We enjoyed local beers outside on Friday (we lasted "outside" for not long), we enjoyed a staycation kind of date day in our city on Saturday...from buying meat at the farmer's market to enjoying $1 espressos and $1 coffees to free live music on the waterfront and $5 pop-up burgers and fries from one of the tasty (higher priced for our typical budget) restaurants in town. 'Twas a super fun day to be in Halifax. Check out #OpenCity to see everything that happened around town. We had a busy day on Saturday so we, unfortunately, only got 1/2 a day of it. Would have loved to get out to check out Made With Local, a snack bar venture done by two amazing local ladies. Take a look at their Facebook page to see how they're keeping it local - right down to their packaging!

A reunion with Garrison Brewery Patio & Nut Brown Ale Samplers

That's my update! Fresh air + family tine + lots of catch up time with friends over brews + a date-day staycation = a successful (and busy) few days.

Stay tuned for an updated "Brands I Love" page and a few mini product reviews for my following most recent purchases from Planet Organic:

A Successful Stroll Through Planet Organic

What We've Been Eating

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:56:00 +0000

Well, hello there. It feels as though my cat poses for photos sometimes when I get my phone out just so she can end up on the internet - I'm sure of it. Since she's a spoiled little one, she gets her way: full front and center to make up for my complete lack of blogging!

As I haven't been taking the time to take a lot of photos or write out my own recipes, I thought I'd do a little summary of some of the things we've been eating, along with either a quick look at what we did or a link to where the original came from!

Pinterest has been absolutely amazing (and the devil at the same time) for me - and, as I'm sure, for every food intolerant or healthy eating/living person out there. It's a great source for similar minded people to post about good recipes. It helps you plan your weeks or helps you have a visually appealing database of recipe ideas to call on in the last minute. I find some days I'm even going into the search bar and typing in "peanut butter shrimp" in hopes I can pull something together with the ingredients at hand. I know I can still do this activity I so often do at the end of a grocery run, but it's just so much prettier on Pinterest...

Needless to say, it's been motivating me to get cooking and has given me some great new ideas. The key to proper pinning of recipes is to find your favorite bloggers and start following them...they'll have all the right food ideas and it will be less work on your end. :)

What's Been Going In Our Bellies

Spicy Lentils w/ Sweet Potato & Kale
Made this one tonight! I added in some more celery, and topped the dish with some hard boiled eggs to make sure it made us extra full. I also served it with some quinoa. In the end, we will have two suppers and two lunches out of this. Very delicious but very different from our "typical" kind of meal.

Lasagna Pasta
From Allie's Kitchen: With Daiya in the fridge, I was craving lasagna but didn't have the noodles. I cooked some ground pork along with chopped zucchini, kale, shallot, garlic and broccoli and added a full jar of pasta sauce (check the ingredients). At the same time, I cooked my penne. I, then, layered everything just like lasagna: meat/veg/sauce + cheese + pasta, and so on. I topped the pasta off with nutritional yeast. This went a long way for dinners and lunches..

Thai Marinaded Portobello Burgers
A random marinade mix by J: Green curry paste + water + cilantro (lots) + olive oil + lime juice + garlic + shallot + sriricha
We love love love portobello burgers! I've been craving them almost every day and keep getting J to try something new each time. I think I need him to write a marinade cookbook so we can get rich. :)

"Cream" of Mushroom Soup Chicken & Rice
From Allie's Kitchen: A can of coconut milk with two cups of sliced mushrooms and a whole lot of thyme! Cook the chicken first then add in the rest to let it simmer away. Add salt and pepper. DELISH!

Kale & Tahini Potato Salad
I halved this recipe. It wasn't salty enough for J so he added some hot sauce to it, but I absolutely love tahini - a hit in my books. :) (PS - A new-to-me bowl given to me by my Grammie.. was my Great Grandmother's!

Paleo Cowboy Breakfast Skillet
Found this gem (and I mean GEM, like double thumbs up from both J and I) from my bestie, Katie, on pinterest. She's been doing this kick-ass lifestyle of cross fit and paleo since January and has been completely inspiring! This is a recommend to the max. Sweet potato + chicken sausage + avocado for your breaky?

There you go - You should check a few of these out!

Take a look at some of my food boards:

Eat Your Veggies

Food Bliss

There's not much there compared to some, but they're goodies!

~Allie

I'm Jumping Back In + Breakfast Sausage Fritatta

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:40:00 +0000

Hello Blogger World and Blogger Friends (hopefully you're still around...are you?!).

I have done it again. I left my poor blog hanging update-less for over a month. It started out with a little neglect during an extremely busy two weeks of work for me and job change for J, leading into our week's R n' R vacation...it, then, lead to a very long hiatus that was spent as hubby and wife...and homeowners.

I know that sounds a bit silly, but blogging takes time. Not only do the recipes have to ever be planned and researched, they have to be actually cooked. If you're trying something new out, there is generally a bigger mess. To increase your readership, you need to be participating in Twitter conversations, chatting on Facebook and partaking in blogger events. And none of those things include actually writing the post and editing the photos for the post. It's a whole lot of fun, but it was taking up just a wee too much of my evenings for a little while there. So, there it is. Blogging is such an unbelievably fun hobby to have - but I'm a true believer that everyone should only be doing these "extras" in their lives so long as they still add to your happiness. The great thing about an "extra" or a "hobby" is that you can always take a break to see how you really feel about it and jump right back in! (Note: Have you read The Happiness Project?) So here I am, making my jump.

While I was gone, J and I have spent A LOT of time on our home. We're slowly settling in. Unpacking. Reorganizing. Redecorating. Thrifting (but mostly making use of everything we already own). I'm thinking of doing a blog post on some of our home projects (the easy non-tool kind). Would you be interested?

We also went here for a full week of reading and relaxing together - something we have never really done together as a couple.

We're always on the go...go go go! See as much as you can kind of thing. This trip, we took books (I read Hunger Games and Day After Night) and played a whole lot of crib with our feet firmly planted in the sand, brew in hand. There's nothing quite like a true vacation.

In a nutshell, you've missed:
- J has started a new (and amazing) job
- Our nephew turned 1
- We've had a few delicious Easter Dinners
- We've BBQ'd!!! (Spring is finally coming...)
- We saw the Hunger Games
- We've had house guests from PEI and our friends have moved home from Korea (for good, yippee!)
- We've watched some really good movies, and some really bad
- Game of Thrones, Mad Men and Community all came back on TV (pretty big deals in our world)

~~~~~~~
To get back into the groove of things, I'm posting a recipe from quite a few weeks ago: My VERY first fritatta - ever. So easy and so delicious - and helps for dinner AND breakfast!

Breakfast Sausage Fritatta
From Allie's Kitchen

1 clove of garlic, chopped
Onion (I used about 1/3 of a medium-sized onion)
1 cup of Kale, chopped (you can use spinach just as well)
1/2 pack of breakfast sausages, casing removed (you can also just chop in small pieces)
6 eggs
1/2 cup of rice milk (Rice Dream Original)
2 tbsp of flour

1. Sautee the sausage with the onion and garlic. Once sausage is just about cooked, add in the greens until properly wilted.
2. Meanwhile, mix the eggs, milk and flour in a bowl.
3. Once the sausage mixture is complete, add to bowl and stir. Pour into a greased pie plate.
4. Place in oven for 30 minutes on 350.

That's all! I served a piece of this for supper with a spinach, avocado and orange salad. For a dressing, I simply squeezed a bit of the orange + a wee bit of lemon juice over the mix. We used the rest of the fritatta for breakfasts all week (1/2 of our supper servings).

*Note: You can easily use oat flour and veggie sausages to make this vegetarian or gluten-free

I hope everyone is doing well. My last mini update is that I'm offiically a domain: www.alliechangingkitchen.com. Spread the word and feel free to email at my new blogger address: alliek@allieschangingkitchen.com! I've received a few private Facebook messages regarding how tough the transition is once you discover you have intolerances. I would love to hear from you, even if yours are different than mine. It is NOT an easy process to go through...

That's all she wrote!

Soca + White Bean Spread + Mushroom Walnut Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Warning: For some reason my photos are even more blurrier than usual!

It's March! I know everyone was excited about having a Leap Day yesterday, but I have to tell you that I am much more excited about today: March 1.

March makes me think of warmer weather (although, as we speak, I am waiting for our snow storm to begin..), I think about the first day of spring (yay!), our engagiversary 2 years ago (I know, I know...I'm married now but it's still special!) and I think about St. Patrick Day celebrations (i.e. sugar-free froot loops and beer. More on that later on in the month :P ). This month, I get to add even more excitement with our trip! It's March 1 today and we leave bright and early on March 7 for a full week of warm, warm weather and relaxation - just the two of us as hubby and wife. I cannot wait.

Happy times, indeed.

Speaking of happy times: FOOD. Now that's a happy topic. I cannot believe how I've become a person that is mapping out how dinner will be cooked as I'm eating my morning breakfast. I love it. I spot recipes and I dog ear them and wait patiently for a time that feels "right" to try it out. I'm such a different food person than I used to be...and I love it.

Well. I've been seeing soca recipes around on blogs and in magazines for some time and finally felt the time was right to try it out. This recipe came from the February 2011 Clean Eating Magazine. It's one of the easiest things I have ever made. The only reason I think I had been avoiding it is because it's pancake-ish and I just simply have a bad past with cooking pancakes. Anything batter-like, really, hates me - or they make me feel that way, any way.

As I said, this was so very easy and delicious. The only annoying part was that I had to let it "sit", although I don't know what would happen if I didn't? My friend Roshika said that this is often made in Indian cuisine with a ton of spices like cumin. For the purpose of this first recipe, I made it plain. I followed the recipe as is. For toppings, I followed the same recipe for a bean spread. I also had some leftover walnuts from a previous recipe sitting around and a lot of mushrooms that had to be used, so I made my own mushroom walnut pesto-type thing. We had smoked mackerel on the side so we can top each piece with whatever we wanted to. We love food options!

Soca (Chickpea Pancake)
Clean Eating Magazine, February 2011
*Note: this does not taste like chickpeas! Had I told J I was making a chickpea pancake, hell would have broken loose: P
1 cup of chickpea flour (besan flour)
1 1/2 cups of water
2 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 tsp of salt

1. Preheat oven to 425. In a bowl, slowly add the water to the flour. Mix until smooth. Let sit for an hour (I let sit for 45 minutes) - wondering what would happen if you didn't?

2. Heat a cast iron skillet on high with 2 tbsp of oil - or use any oven-safe round, flat skillet.

3. Right before you're ready to start cooking the pancake, pour the oil and salt into the batter.

4. Pour batter into hot skillet. Let cook for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute. Put in oven for 25 minutes.

5. Cut in triangles and eat alone or add things to the top! This would be good as a savoury dish or a sweet dish.

White Bean Spread
Clean Eating Magazine, February 2011

1 cup of white (kidney) beans, drained and washed
2 tbsp of basil
1 clove of garlic, minced (I cooked mine)
3 tbsp of water
1 tbsp of lemon juice (this was my addition)

In a food processor or blender (or Magic Bullet), pulse all ingredients together. You are done!

Mushroom Walnut Pesto
From Allie's Kitchen

1 1/2 cups of chopped mushrooms (I used a mix of portobello and button)
2/3 cup of chopped walnuts
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 of a red onion
3 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of white wine
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of olive oil
3 tbsp of cilantro

1. In a pan, cook onion, garlic and mushrooms with 1 tbsp of white wine and oil.
2. Meanwhile, pulse the water and walnuts into a paste.
3. The process gets a bit sticky after this, but essentially you want to mix your cooked goods (after letting them cool off a bit) with your walnuts. I added water, lemon juice, wine and oil in as needed so my measurements are a guestimate. The walnuts really dry everything out so it's important to keep adding a wee bit of moisture of some kind until everything is mixed to the consistency you would like.

This would be excellent on pasta, but a lot more liquid would need to be added. For our purpose, we were spooning a dollop out on each of our slices of soca so it worked out.

I took it on crackers with a bit of tuna for lunch the other day - very versatile!

Again: apologies for this low-quality photos....

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How's everyone feeling about March?? Exciting? Do anything special for Leap Day? :)

Love Love, Allie

It's Foodie PenPals Reveal Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:49:00 +0000

I've mentioned in a few different posts (and definitely on Twitter) that I was participating in Foodie PenPals, an amazing idea that my pal, Lindsay, came up with over at The Lean Green Bean. I had been watching everyone blog and tweet about their amazing January packages, so I was super duper excited when Lindsay decided to do a trial run within Canada! I think it was a success, so I recommend more people taking part - you don't even have to be a food blogger, just have to like food (pfft...). All of the details are written below...

I have to tell you that nothing is quite as exciting as getting non-bills in the mail. There is something truly special about receiving a personally-addressed package, card or envelope in the mail. I just received the most adorable owl Valentine's card from one of my best friend's the other day and I almost screamed (or maybe I actually did) with excitement - so, needless, to say that I did the same with the courier rang my door bell last week.

Lauren over at What Lauren Likes picked my name this time and I got Erin's over at Running Tall. (Erin's reveal will be up today, too!) Lauren's package was absolutely perfect. I was shocked by how much stuff she crammed in and that she even considered my intolerances. I haven't had a chance to try anything (well, I've been patiently holding off until today) but cannot wait!

The theme of Lauren's Foodie Package was....ready for it...it's so cute: Her Favorite Things! Cute, eh? Here's what I received, written out exactly how Lauren had it:
1. Kashi Go Lean Honey Almond Flax
2. 100% Brown Rice Pasta
3. (New) Larabar Flavour: Cappucino
4. TEA! There is a lot, for I love it (hope you will too!):)
5. Nu Naturals Pure White Stevia Extract (plus packages "to go" as well)
6. Savoury onion (dried) mix
7. Dark chocolate mint bar - so good!

And here is the adorable hand written note that came along with her fave things:

Here are a few snapshots of my truly, truly exciting things: new tea flavors, a Larabar flavor I have yet to see and Nu Stevia! Sorry for all of the poor-quality photos...

Again: So excited! If you're interested, you should totally get in touch with Lindsay. I will have to miss March as the month is a bit busy - have I told you we booked a last minute all-inclusive (read: drinks, books, cards and sun) trip to Dominican Republic? I will definitely be jumping back in in April. How could I not? I have a feeling Foodie Pen Pals will have a lot more participants from Canada by then..:)

Not only was this amazing because I got an awesome package in the mail, but I also got to "meet" both Lauren and Erin, fellow Canadian food bloggers. Each time I re-sign up for Foodie PenPals, I will send to a new person and receive from another, building my database of Canadian foodies. :)
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The Details:
- On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
- You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
- The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what's in the box, to a fun recipe...use your imagination!
- You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are.
- Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you're a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US and Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I'm going to keep two separate lists and match US w/US and Cnada w/Canada!

If you're interested in participating for March, please send an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
- Your full name
- Your email address
- Your blog name/address
- Your twitter handle (if applicable)
- WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT - this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!
You must submit your information by March 4th as pairings will be emailed on March 5th!
**PLEASE NOTE: if you send an email, you WILL GET A RESPONSE within 48 hours. If you don't, please re-send or contact Lindsay via Twitter (@LeanGrnBeanBlog). Last month we had a few emails get lost in spam so we're trying to avoid that!
~~~

One last thing: I chopped my hair off! It's kind of a weird photo taken after a good 6 hours at a bachelorette party, but you'll get the general idea. :)

Lots of Love! ~ Allie

Green With Envy (Guac + Collard Green Chips)

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:49:00 +0000

Happy Monday!

I always say that, but never actually feel it. It's pretty much the most dreary day of the week, isn't it? Monday evenings aren't too shabby, but Monday mornings and afternoons? Holy they suck! I guess Monday really had no chance, following a most awesome day like Sunday.

To start the week off, I wanted to share two treats that I threw together over the weekend. It was a very social weekend of dinner parties and bachelorettes (well, one of each but they both deserve to be pluralized) filled with lots and lots of girl time - and food. Those two things seem to go hand in hand in my world!

I think I've confessed my love for guacamole before - and avocados. You can do anything with an avocado and basically just as much with guacamole. I know we all talk about how versatile hummus can be (which I love), but deep down, I'll always be tied to my guacamole. This is a recipe for a very, very basic throw together guac but it's one of my faves. My friend, Lauren, told me to add orange to the next guac that I make but I completely forgot! Next time...

Basic Guacamole
From scratch: I am specifying this because if you are in a pinch, the easiest thing you can do is mix ready-made salsa with avocado and you're done. And you will be the popular one at the party.
1 avocado
1 small tomato, diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1 tsp of garlic salt
1 tbsp of lemon
paprika

Mix everything together and top with paprika. That's it! Double this if you can, I only had one avocado on hand at the time.

Print this recipe

Next in line for green goodness is collard chips. I've made kale chips and loved them, but bought collard greens at the grocery store the other day and thought I'd give it a try with that. I've been trying to buy a different 'green' at the grocery store each week - I.e. swiss chard, kale, collard, etc - and didn't really know where to begin with these giant leaves. Chip form was a wonderful, wonderful, surprising way to start.

Collard Green Chips
From Allie's Kitchen
Collard Greens (I used about 5 or 6 big leaves), leaves pulled off of the stems and ripped into pieces (chip-size)
Lemon juice
Olive oil
1 - 2 tsp of Garlic Salt
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Wash the greens and shake dry as much as possible. In a bowl, toss the leaves with olive oil and lemon juice (don't coat it, toss). Cover a baking pan with tin foil and lay the greens out in a single layer. Sprinkle with garlic salt, salt and pepper. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

These start to shrivel up pretty quickly so about half way through (10 minutes), I took them out and spread them out even more. If the leaves are on top of one another (which they will be at the start - that's okay), they won't get crispy. I just kept doing this until they were done. When a few were crispy, I removed them and spread the remaining ones out more.

Print this recipe

These were SO good! Recommend!

Enjoy the week! Tomorrow is the reveal post to show you what I got in my Foodie Pen Pal box!

PS - Did you see my new bowl? I'm so excited about it. My mom and I picked two of these up (She got her own) at Home Sense. They come with lids! Love, Love.

Check Me Out On Facebook.

Spinach {Pasta} Salad + {Slow Cooker} Chicken Wings

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:49:00 +0000

Happy end of the week!

I have a few good "pub" or "fast food" type meals to share with you - done the healthier + intolerance-free way. During the past week, we've had another really great pizza, some portobello mushroom burgers (which were so good, I basically went back to the store the next day to get more mushrooms...) and the above chicken wings and spinach salad.

It feels like I'm a bit of a kid all over again. Like I was just treated to a week of "junk" food (which as a kid, pizza, chicken nugget or western sandwich nights were clearly your favorite). It's an awesome feeling to know that we can have those same pleasures whenever we want - and without the expense, both literally and physically.
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I input a little break here because this is the point where my blog decided not to save my previous writing. I have just spent the last hour - yes, hour - sitting here and writing an extremely long blog post. I thought it was pretty good. Unfortunately, my wireless and blog decided to both not cooperate at the same time and now I've lost it all. After a week of having no time to blog, I could just cry but ALAS I won't. I've got a wonderful hubby who just cheered me up with a berry/cantaloupe/vanilla rice milk smoothie so I will move on. :)

I had written a long post about my relationship with chicken wings (admittedly, 2 paragraphs might have been too much anyway), and how my feelings on them have ebbed and flowed over the years. I wrote about my issue of eating meat off of the bone. And how we used to consume many a chicken wing on a Wednesday or Thursday evening in university without thinking twice. Even last year, I was still convincing myself that I enjoyed eating a basket of wings at a noisy bar ~ I guess we all change, right? I've come to learn that I can still embrace chicken wings, just in the comfort of my own home and if J either bakes, bbqs or slow cooks them....
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Instead of heading out for 25 cent wings this weekend, cook at home, be healthier and save the money (because with wings, comes draught beer) - or even better: let the slow cooker do the work for you! (and hey: drink better beer with them at home, too!)

Beer + BBQ Slow Cooker Wings
From Allie's Kitchen (by J)

1/2 of a bottle of Organicville's BBQ Sauce

1/3 can of beer (the cheap stuff!)

A few pinches of your favorite hot sauce (Frank's obviously!)

Plop those chicken wings in your slow cooker and cook for 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low. That's it. Literally: that's all you have to do,

Notes:

- Although the BBQ sauce is sweetened with Agave Nectar instead of sugra, I just realized it's also sweetened with molasses...sigh! Just use a 1/2 bottle of any sugar, soy, dairy free BBQ sauce. I'll update the product page soon.

- J came home for lunch and put the wings on high for 3 hours. The 6 hour time is just a guestimate for low.
- The BBQ sauce is Gluten-free

Print this recipe.

The one thing I do remember noting in my other really good post was that wing nights were filled with just that: wings. You'd rarely have a vegetable to go along with it (maybe a slice of carrot or celery?). I can't believe that used to be fun!

Tonight, we were craving a spinach salad...so I tried to switch things up a bit by playing around with the dressing and adding pasta! LOVE. So easy, too.

Spinach {Pasta} Salad or "There's Pasta In My Spinach Salad!"

From Allie's Kitchen

Cook your pasta.

Dressing:
In a small bowl, mix together:
- 1/4 cup of Renee's 1/2 Caesar
- 1/4 cup of Helman's Mayo
- 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

Salad Ingredients:
In a large bowl, mix together:
- 2 cups of spinach, cut/ripped
- 1 cup of tomato, diced
- 1 cup of cucumber, cut small
- 1 cup of Fresh Gourmet Organic Seasoned Croutons, crushed

Once pasta is cooked, drain and let cool. Mix together with dressing then add in salad ingredients. Mix well and serve!

Print this recipe

Aren't these much better options for a Fast Food Friday night? I think so! I've been cooking with a few different product names as of late and need to update the "Brands I Love" page. I haven't really done that since I "cut out" sugar. I also would like to further explain the way I handle sugar. For example, Hellman's Mayo has sugar listed as the 6th ingredient, so I want to make sure to tell you that on the other page. I'll let you know when I make those updates. I'm also going to remove brands that simply "work" with my diet, and only include truly brands that I love.

Have you liked the new Allie's Changing Kitchen Facebook page yet? It's very new, so bare with me! Go on over to visit. Happy Friday! :)

Veggie Goodness Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Allie K) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:31:00 +0000

This post was originally going to be a Meatless Mondays post. I made this on Monday for that very purpose. It's now much later into the week so we'll call it - A Very Notable Vegetarian Option For Any Day Of The Week.

Okay. So now that's I've sort-of acknowledged that I haven't blogged in over a week (*giant tear!), I will just move on. I promised myself I would remove all pressure surrounding blog posts and the social media life that follows suit. I also have a lot of blog posts from other awesome people to get caught up on! When your an adult, time just seems to fly by, doesn't it?

When you're having a non-stop week or a week where your brain just won't shut off, it's so important to at least stop for a moment in your day to enjoy moments like this ---->

Seriously. You can't stop to smell the roses in the winter, but you can get some furbaby (and hubby) love. Just as good, if not way better.

Side Note: The other day I tweeted about Gili eating a piece of artichoke and spinach and I think it's the most people-I-didn't-already-know have tweeted back! Funny how we all appreciate the little quirks of our wee little animals. It was a riot to see how many strange things our pets get into. I so want to set up a webcam in the house while we're not home to see what actually goes on. I assume it's mostly sleep, but who knows... I'm not a crazy cat lady (I swear!). I'm just a crazy animal lady. If I had a pet toad, I'd tell you about him, too.

This soup.

I didn't feel like spending a lot of time over the stove on Monday, but did have the time to lightly monitor something while I continued to work. I've had Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix in my pantry for eons. I've never tried it, although I felt it would be good to have on hand because the ingredients are all great. You can definitely eat the soup on it's own, without adding extra ingredients. You can also make a cream-based soup with this.

We had some swiss chard stems to use up (because all swiss chard recipes seem to only call for the leaves...) so I thought I would give this a go on my own.

Veggie Goodness Soup with a base of Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix
From Allie's Kitchen

2 cups of Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix (organic aisle, it comes in a clear bag)
1 cup of frozen corn
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 of a red onion, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, chopped in 1/2 inch cubes
2/3 to 1 cup of swiss chard stems, chopped in 1/2 inch cubes
8 tsp of vegetable bouillon powder (or the equivalent of whatever bouillon or broth you use to match water quantity)
8 cups of water
1 tbsp of mixed herbs (fresh, or squeezable fridge herbs)
Season with: Italian spices, salt and pepper

1. In a large soup pot, bring 2 cups of the soup mixture to boil with 8 cups of water + 8 tsp of bouillon (or just 8 cups of broth). Once it reaches boiling, let simmer.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the garlic, onion, swiss chard stems and sweet potato. Saute on high for approximately 8 minutes. (*Look at the color!!!*)
3. Once the soup has been simmering for approximately 30 minutes, add in corn and the sauteed mixture.
4. Continue to let simmer for another 30 minutes.
5, Season as you wish and enjoy!

Note:
-This made a lot of soup. If you divided this in half, you would still have leftovers. We wanted this to last for the week.
- As the soup contains lentils, barley and pasta, the water will absorb in the fridge and the color won't be the prettiest. Don't be shy, though, you can add a wee bit of water to your bowl before re-heating if to make it soup-y again OR just eat the mush like I've been doing. It is SO filling and delicious!

Print this recipe
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How has everyone been doing? It's nice to see that I've finally reached a point where I still get the odd page view on days when I don't blog. It used to be that I would not post anything and would receive ZERO views!

More updates to come soon.... Love, Allie