Category: recipe

Up Your Grill Game This Summer With Vegetables and Fruits #CelebrateCanada

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Weber Grills Canada for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Canada Day marked not only our 148th birthday but also the start of the Canadian outdoor summer season (which let’s be honest, isn’t near long enough!). Summer is the perfect time to get outside, get active and spend quality time together as a family. Our weekends are usually spent by the pool in the backyard, relaxing and just enjoying each others company. Our weekend time together is very important to us and we use this time to remind us what is most important in life, family.

Up Your Grill Game with Fruits and Vegetables #CelebrateCanada

And what better way to top off this quality time with, then with delicious food straight off the grill (spoken like a true Italian Canadian girl, eh!).

The days of traditional grilling are long gone and there is pretty much nothing you can not cook on your Weber grill. While hamburgers and hot dogs are still fun, why not try to spice up your grill a bit by giving your recipes flavour and variety.

While my husband tends to lean towards steak, chicken and pork (he could live off this combination of food everyday), I like to balance out our meals with veggies and fruits (yes, you can grill fruits and they even taste great!). Some of the best fruits to grill include: watermelon, pineapple and pears. Just make sure your grill is clean and on a low temperature before grilling your fruits.

Up Your Grill Game with Fruits and Vegetables #CelebrateCanada

Creating mouth-watering vegetables that are not overdone or dry, is easy when you grill them in tin foil. Follow these easy steps for delicious vegetables that are perfect on the side or added on top of a steak or chicken sandwich:

Up Your Grill Game with Fruits and Vegetables #CelebrateCanada

For this recipe you need:

  • large rectangular shaped piece of tin foil
  • vegetables of your choice (I used mushrooms, onions, red peppers and zucchini) cut up in small slices
  • one tbsp of olive oil
  • garlic powder and Montreal steak spice to taste

Make a tray with your tin foil and line the inside of the tray with olive oil. Place your vegetables and mix the vegetables together to coat them with the olive oil. Add your spices to taste.

Up Your Grill Game with Fruits and Vegetables #CelebrateCanada

Use the remainder of the tin foil to create a lid for your vegetables. Place the tin foil directly onto the grill at medium to low heat and cook until done.

If you really want to shake things up a bit, why not try naan vegetable pizza on the grill? Using some of the leftover zucchini from above and tomatoes, you can create a nutritious appetizer that will please any picky eater.

Up Your Grill Game with Fruits and Vegetables #CelebrateCanada

Just lightly coat one side of the naan bread with olive oil, add the zucchini, diced tomatoes and some ricotta cheese. When you place this on the grill make sure you are doing so at a low temperature so you do not burn the bottom of the bread. Remove the pizza when the bottom is golden.

Up Your Grill Game with Fruits and Vegetables #CelebrateCanada

Grilling up nutritious fare is an important part of outdoor fun and can be made that much more exciting when you experiment outside of the box.

What is your favourite recipe for the grill?

If you are looking for more grilling fun, check out Weber Grills You Tube Channel, full of helpful tips, recipes (Sangria – yes please!) and more.

WeberGrillsCA YouTube

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Naturally Flavoured Water Plus Giveaway!

Naturally Flavoured Water

Patio time is back!

I can not wait to sit back, enjoy the warmth and relax on the patio with a cold drink in hand. One of my favourite drinks to enjoy on a hot day is naturally flavoured water. We all know water is so important for us but it can become boring having plain water over and over again.

So why not shake it up?!

Naturally Flavoured Water

My favourite way to drink my water is with lemons, limes and oranges. I try to always start my morning with a warm lemon water as it is supposed to aid with digestion. I am not too sure if that is the truth but it definitely makes me feel better starting my day with this drink.

Another great mixture is strawberries, lemon and mint. We set up a ‘hydration station’ at work and this is a common mixture we provide for staff to enjoy.

Preparing your drink is easy; just cut up your fruit, add ice, water and chill!

Naturally Flavoured Water

To celebrate summer, I am giving you the chance to enter my giveaway to kick off summer! My Canadian residents, 18 years of age and older can enter to win a $50 Shoppers Drug Mart gift card using the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

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Italian Amaretti Cookies

Amaretti Cookies

In the past few weeks, I have been trying to cook and bake more traditional recipes. Recipes that remind me of my childhood and recipes that I want to pass on to my own children to cherish just as much as I do.

Amaretti cookies are one of those recipes that I want my children to know and love just as much as I do. They are a soft cookie which is a must for my children. They are also prepared with ground almonds so no flour! Which is perfect if you are trying to stay away from gluten. With only five ingredients to prepare you can have these delicious cookies ready in under twenty minutes from start to finish.

Amaretti Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup of sugar
  • spare sugar to sprinkle on top of cookies prior to baking
  • one egg white
  • 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp of ground almonds
  • 1/4 tsp of almond extract
  • pinch of salt

Amaretti Cookies

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 390F (200C).

Beat the egg white until it is almost double in size. Add in the sugar and whisk until it is fully combined.

Amaretti Cookies

Add in the ground almonds, almond extract and salt.

Amaretti Cookies

Mix the ingredients until the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients are mixed together fully.

Amaretti Cookies

Line a baking sheet with two layers of parchment paper. Create small balls with the dough and place them in rows on the baking sheet. Lightly cover each ball of cookie dough with sugar.

Bake for ten minutes in the oven or until golden brown. Check the cookies at the seven minute mark to see how they are baking.

Amaretti Cookies

Do you have a favourite traditional recipe that reminds you of your childhood?

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Creating A Piece of French History: Cannelés #ActsOfSweetness

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

Have you ever heard of Cannelés? I can honestly say I had never heard of these delicious pastries prior to working on this recipe.

Cannelés are little speciality pastry from the Bordeaux region of France. These little cakes have a crisp, caramelised coating with a slightly chewy and soft inside. They are small enough to eat out of your hand and have a divine taste that will leave you craving for more (we are the whole batch before we realized how many calories were in one but honestly felt no regret at eating so many they were that good!).

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

Cannelés have a very rich history that spans over the last three hundred years. One of the oldest stories tells of the nuns in a convenant in the Bordeaux region who used to make these special little cakes using leftover egg yolks from the local wine makers. Another tale tells of the residents of Bordeaux using spilled flour from loading docks to make these pastries for poor children. This video from Redpath shows the wonderful history of Cannelés:

I love to bake and when I received the challenge to create these delicious pastries I could not wait to get started!

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

For this recipe you will need:

  • two cups of milk
  • 50 gm of butter
  • one vanilla pod
  • 7/8 cup of flour
  • 1 cup and 1 tbsp of Redpath sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • two eggs and two egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup of dark rum
  • silicone cannelés mould

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

Directions:

1. Place the two cups of milk, 50 gm of butter and one vanilla pod in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once it has begun to boil, remove the pan and allow to cool.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

2. Mix together 7/8 cup of flour, one cup and one tbsp of sugar along with one tsp of salt into a large mixing bowl.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

3. Place the two eggs and two egg yolks in a small bowl and beat lightly.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

4. Combine the warm milk (remove the vanilla pod) along with the eggs into the large mixing bowl. Whisk it together until the batter is smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup of dark rum and place the vanilla pod back into the bowl.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

5. Cover the mixture and leave in your fridge for 24-48 hours.

6. Pre-heat oven to 240C or 460F. Prepare your silicone moulds by placing them on a baking sheet and heating them in the oven for four to five minutes.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

7. Remove your mixture from the fridge and spoon in the batter into each mould. You want to leave roughly 0.5-1cm room from the top to prevent your cannelés from overflowing.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

8. Cook the cannelés at 240C/460F for fifteen minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 190C/375F and bake for another 50-60 minutes or until the cakes have a golden bronze colour. Remove the cakes immediately from the moulds (they shake out so well!) and let them cool on a wire rack. They are best eaten when warm so don’t be shy to eat them within an hour of baking.

Cannelés Acts of Sweetness

Have you ever tried a cannelé before? Do you have a special pastry that you just love to make?

Disclosure: I received some of the above mentioned materials in order to create this recipe. All opinions expressed are my own.

 

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Tomato and Sausage Slow Cooker Soup Recipe

Tomato and Sausage Soup

While I *thought* the weather was perking up we are suddenly in the midst of a flash snowstorm. As if Mother Nature hasn’t given us enough snow this year? She surprises us with just one more!

With all this cooler weather I decided to make my favourite meal – soup. I love how hearty, warm and feel good soup is and wanted to share this simple recipe with you. And when I say simple you can’t get any easier than this! Plus the slow cooker gets to do the majority of the work, a win win right?

Tomato and Sausage Soup

This super simple soup recipe can be thrown in the slow cooker and is ready to eat in four to six hours. It uses up leftover sausages as well as any vegetables you have sitting in your fridge, you can add more vegetables in to suit your preference.

Ingredients

  • can of diced tomatoes
  • carton of chicken broth
  • can of kidney beans (washed)
  • one cup of spinach
  • one medium onion
  • two precooked sausages cut up into 1/2 inch slices
  • one tbsp each of garlic powder, black pepper and rosemary

Tomato and Sausage Soup

Directions

Empty the carton of chicken broth, diced tomatoes and washed kidney beans into the slow cooker.

Add in onions (cut to desired size), spinach and pre-cut sausages. Mix together.

Add your spices: garlic powder, rosemary and black pepper and stir again.

Tomato and Sausage Soup

Set your slow cooker to cook on high for four to six hours. Watch the soup as it nears the five-hour mark. If it looks fully cooked and the onions are soft, turn it off.

You can store the leftovers in the fridge for up to three days or freeze unused portions.

What is your favourite soup to make in the slow cooker?

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