We’ve found a sinful new way to use our versatile Prep Bowls: for desserts! These little bowls are perfect for storing, cooking, and yes, baking! And most of all, use them for sharing… one Prep Bowl dessert easily serves two.

Here are three Prep Bowl desserts to please your palate….

Prep Bowl Crème Caramel

Makes the perfect sized crème caramel.

Get the recipe: Prep Bowl Crème Caramel

Saucy Lemon Sponge Pudding

This is the English-style pudding, not the American style. Light sponge on top with a delicious custardy sauce underneath.

Get the recipe: Saucy Lemon Sponge Pudding

Sherbet Bombes

Our Prep Bowls are the perfect shape for fun summery sherbet bombes. These are large servings so be generous and share!

Get the recipe: Sherbet Bombes

Save your stove this Earth Day and go raw at the dinner table. It’s good for Mother Nature and good for your body, too. Raw food tends to be lower in calories and fat, and higher in fibre and nutrients than a typical cooked dinner.

So… what’s the deal with raw food?

Basically it’s uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic (or really wild scavenged-yourself-food). A raw food diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, eggs, fish, and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (raw milk plus raw milk yogurt).

Find raw goodness in our own version of a noodle bowl this Earth Day. So get to the market, grab the necessary ingredients, and dig in!

Get the recipe: Earth Day Noodle Bowl

Show your fridge some tough love and give it a thorough once-over. Pitch those bottles of condiments long passed their expiration dates, wipe out drawers where strange bits always seem to accumulate, and deal with those odd food ends languishing.
You know the ones—last dregs of yogurt in the container nobody will eat, a few starting-to-wilt lettuce leaves, and maybe even that heel of bread hiding behind all those pickle jars!

Use Up…

Yogurt. That last little bit is desperately clinging to the container and wants to be used up, not chucked out!

2 fast tips:

1. Blitz with fresh herbs and pinches of Guacamole Dip Mix to drizzle over tacos.
2. Stir into your favourite Epicure Salad Dressing to make it creamy.

1 great recipe: Frozen Yogurt Pie

Get the recipe: Frozen Yogurt Pie

Lettuce leaves (or bunch of spinach!). Whether it’s a whole head needing to be used or the few last leaves, try:

2 fast tips:

1. Stack leaves. Roll up. Thinly slice, then separate shreds. Use to add leafy crunch to sandwiches.
2. Stir-fry it. Traditional Chinese stir-fries use ice berg lettuce. Romaine or leafy greens work too. Throw in a handful of shredded leaves at end of cooking.

1 great recipe: Lettuce Cups with Bacon Blue Cheese Dip

Get the recipe: Lettuce Cups with Bacon Blue Cheese Dip

Loaf of Bread. (Or what remains of it!)

2 fast tips:

1. Make French toast! Simply add Summer Berry Dip Mix to egg mixture.
2. Toast whole slices. Discard crusts. Tear bread into small pieces and place them in a food processor with pinches of Herb & Garlic Dip Mix. Pulse to form fresh bread crumbs.

1 great recipe: Bread and Butter Pudding

Get the recipe: Bread and Butter Pudding

Cleaning out your fridge has never been so delicious!

Italy is fiercely proud of its world-renowned cuisine and while we generalize (and rhapsodize) about “Italian Food”, the style of cooking, ingredients and dishes themselves vary from region to region. On the map and in the kitchen, it is easy to divide the country into three distinct food zones: north, central, and south.

Northern Italy: Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-A lot Adige, and Veneto.

Due to shared geography with France and parts of Germany, northern Italy is noted for its rich cuisine. Ingredients are luxe and hearty; chefs are not afraid to be generous with lashings of butter and olive oil. Pastas are often stuffed with flavourful fillings, rice dishes are made with flavourful stocks and meat drippings.

Northern chefs cook less with tomatoes and more with wine and heady broths. Fresh seafood, infamous black truffles, and gourmet hazelnuts are grown in this region. This is also the home of Italy’s most famous holy trio: parmesan cheese, prosciutto, and balsamic vinegar.

Famous food: polenta, risotto, gnocchi, minestrone, osso bucco (slow cooked veal shanks), pesto, parmesan cheese, prosciutto, agnolotti, tortellini, ravioli, Bolognese sauce, and balsamic vinegar.

Looking to be inspired by northern Italy’s cuisine? Make Sylvie’s Authentic Italian Gnocchi!

Get the recipe: Sylvie’s Authentic Italian Gnocchi

Give it a spring makeover and gently toss warm gnocchi with fresh peas, baby spinach or tender asparagus spears.

Central Italy: Tuscany, Umbria, Latzio, and Marche.

Central Italy enjoys long hot summers, the perfect condition for growing every kind of vegetable under the sun, from lettuce to artichokes, tons of herbs and of course, tomatoes. So it’s no surprise that there’s more tomato dishes in this region than any other: think panzanella (tomato and bread salad), pappa al pomodoro (tomato and bread soup), and of course, herby Tuscan-style tomato sauce.

The winters are heartier too – so much of the cuisine is steeped in robust comfort foods. Central Italy is rich in farmland, growing lots of grain (faro) and beans, as well as chestnuts. Cured meats are well known here too – this is the home of “Salato”, prosciutto’s saltier cousin as well as other dried salamis perfumed with “finicchiono” (fennel).

Famous food: olive oil, cannellini beans, minestrone, ribollita, bistecca alla fiorentina (a big slab o’ meat made from indigenous Chianina cattle), caciucco (Tuscan fish soup), panzanella, pecorino cheese, fontina cheese, chestnuts, and truffles.

Feeling the central Italy vibe? Make Fagioli e Tonno!

Get the recipe: Fagioli e Tonno

Southern Italy: Abruzzo, Puglia, Campania, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia.

Southern Italy doesn’t have the abundant farmlands and richness of its northern neighbours; however, this is the land of pasta (wheat based, not egg), pizza, and fantastic bread. The coastal regions are rich in fish and seafood and with some grazing land, sheep is a mainstay. The southern regions enjoy long, hot dry summers, so tomatoes and eggplant are hot weather staples and in the winter, cauliflower and dark bitter greens do very well.

Famous food: mozzarella di buffalo, pizza, olive oil, San Marzano tomatoes, figs, dried sausage, orecchiette pasta (“little ears”), lasagna, meatballs, cannelloni, Sicilian bread, and provolone cheese.

Want to submerge yourself in the flavours of southern Italy? Make Spicy Eggplant Caponata!

Get the recipe: Spicy Eggplant Caponata

Use up eggplant and tomatoes in this Spicy Eggplant Caponata. Serve with roasted or grilled meats or fish, or use as a crostini topper over toasted slices of baguette.

Enjoy!

Easter crafts are deliciously fun…especially when you can eat them later! Colouring eggs are deceptively easy and fun for the whole family. Even an adult-only family! For the basics, follow these steps:

1. Hard-cook eggs, then cool.

2. Stencil or draw on shells (if you wish). A white crayon works best. Write “Happy Easter” or draw polka dots, squiggly lines, stripes, or whatever captures your fancy. For a tie-dyed effect, wrap eggs with rubber bands. Use different sizes and widths. Be sure to leave some egg shell exposed.

3. Fill small jars or bowls (think Prep Bowls!) with boiling water and add a good splash of white vinegar. Estimate about 1 Tbsp (15 ml) vinegar for each ½ cup (125 ml) water.

4. Add a few drops of food colouring.

5. Add eggs – one at a time works best – and steep until shell reaches desired colour. This may take up to 5 minutes depending on strength of colouring agent and desired depth of colour.

6. Remove eggs with a spoon. Pat dry with paper and remove rubber bands, if using. Now go show them off!

Want to eat those glorious eggs?

Then don’t be an egg head! Keep them refrigerated; or if using them as a centrepiece, keep in mind you have 2–3 hours before they start to spoil. Hard cooked eggs in the shell can be refrigerated up to 1 week. Donate Easter eggs that have been decorating your counter for longer than that to the compost.

Peel Easter eggs and use to make Epicure’s Egg English Tea Sandwiches…

Get the recipe: Egg English Tea Sandwiches

For more Easter meal ideas, check out our Pinterest board!