French Bread

I love it when people come for supper because it causes me to make things that I don't usually make but I really like making. Bread and bread products are probably my favourite thing to make but also are the least made in my house. Why you ask? For the simple fact that I would eat all of it. I love making bread because its so warm and it just begs you to put your hands in it and knead it. Needless to say I had company tonight hence the inspiration for French bread.

French Bread

Ingredients
2 C warm water
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
5-5 1/2 C bread flour

Directions
In a large bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water, allow the yeast to proof, this should take no longer than 5 minutes or else your yeast is too old or your water was too hot. Add salt, oil, 3 cups of flour mix it all together. Stir in the other 2 cups flour to make a stiff dough. Knead until smooth and elastic approximately 10 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, turn the dough to coat all the sides, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch the dough back and divide in half, shape the dough into 2 slender loaves. Place loaves on a long cookie sheet, cut diagonal gashes on the top of each loaf, cover and let rise til doubled. Bake at 375 for about 30-35 minutes (when you knock on the bottom of them they should sound hollow and be a golden brown)

*You can sprinkle or spray your loaves with water while they're baking to get a very crunchy crust*

Oven Rice

In our family, comfort food was more associated with oven rice over mac n cheese and today was so disgusting out that I had make it for supper. Much to my dismay I found I could not because I don't have onion soup mix. Don't worry your pretty little hearts though because I was talking to my sister and she told me to put in coconut milk and spices instead. I am very pleased to say that this version is almost just as excellent as the original. So thank you Sara for making my supper delicious.

Oven Rice

2 c uncooked rice
1 can coconut milk
1-2 c water
1/4 c Bragg or soy sauce
Spoonful of coconut oil or 3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp beef stock
1tbsp pepper
A few shakes of cayenne pepper
1 small onion diced small
1 c chopped mushrooms

Put the rice in an oven safe container that you can cover. Measure out the coconut milk from the can and add enough water so that the total liquid between water and coconut milk is 3 cups, pour over the rice along with everything else, stir the rice well so that there is no dry patches and cover. Cook at 350 for 60-65 minutes until there is no liquid left you can also uncover and brown the rice for the last few minutes if you like your rice a bit crispy. Play with this recipe yourself and let me know how yours turns out.

Fake and Bake Chicken

It would appear that I haven't been following through on my promise. Hopefully it can be forgiven when you see the what I had for supper. Tonight I was going for ease and little to no prep work. I had broccoli with garlic and Bragg (it's recipe is the post call vibrant greens) steamed carrots with dill, cucumber, tomato and fake and bake chicken. Really the only recipe I can give you is the fake and bake chicken so here it is.

Fake and Bake Chicken

6 fresh chicken drumsticks
3/4 c spelt or wheat flour
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp seasoning salt or salt
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Egg wash
2 eggs
1tbsp sriracha
1/2 tbsp honey

Mix the flour and spices in a bowl and mix the egg wash ingredients in another bowl. Dip the drumsticks in the egg wash then roll them in the flour, back into the egg wash and flour again for a second coat. It may seem like you have too much flour mixture but I like you have too much then to have to make more in the middle of making this. Lay the drumsticks on a parchment lined baking sheet and cook at 375 for 35-45 minutes or until done and golden brown.

Macaroni and Cheese

Tonight my sister wanted me to kick it old school with some mac and cheese and so i obligingly said yes.  This meal may not be too high on the health meter but it definitely lives up to your childhood memories of the perfect meal.  I got this recipe off the website fortheloveofthesouth.com I would highly recommend checking them out, they have some good recipes, you should also check out food 52.  Right now on food 52 cookbooks are going head to head in a heated battle called the piglet, if you want to check that out it is fun for the cookbook lovers.  Also if you are in the foodie niche you may recognize some big names on the judging panel, so what I'm trying to say is, a. the 16 cookbooks that made it onto the list are really good ones and b. the cookbook that brings home the bacon (wins the piglet) is a must buy and no I do not work for or am affiliated in any way to food 52, I just really enjoy their blog.  Anyway I have blathered on quite enough so here is the recipe, keep in mind that I did alter the recipe to suit my fancy and if you want the original recipe you will have to go to fortheloveofthesouth.com

Mac and Cheese

3/4 of a pound of rice pasta shells (you could use any type of pasta, wheat, spelt...)
4 tbsp Butter
4 tbsp Spelt Flour (you can also use wheat flour)
2 C Almond Milk (you can also use cows, soy or rice milk)
2 C Freshly Grated Cheddar
1 Jalapeno Seeded and Diced

Cook the pasta in salted water (the saltier your water, the better your final pasta will taste so make sure it tastes like the ocean) until it is al dente.  Once it is cooked keep 1 cup of pasta water, strain the pasta and keep warm.  For the sauce, in a medium saucepan on medium-low heat, melt butter and add flour to pan. Cook for 1 minute to cook out the “flour” taste. Add milk and whisk out any lumps. The mixture will begin to thicken after a few minutes. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne. The sauce should be taken off the heat whenever the sauce can coat the back of a spoon. Take off heat and whisk in the cheese. and the jalapeno Add the pasta with a little bit of pasta water. Mix to combine. Enjoy :)

Vibrant Greens

I know I know, I haven't put a recipe up all weekend but I decided I would make this a Monday to Friday thing since weekends are very unpredictable.  Tonight I made a supper that revolved around the fact that I didn't really feel like cooking meat.  I made the rice and yogurt dish from last week which was called Just Rice along with sautéed broccoli.  The only thing I changed from the rice last week was that I used brown rice instead of white.  As for the broccoli the general idea is that I sautéed half a red onion in coconut oil until the onion had just begun to brown and added, 2 cloves of garlic and 2 crowns of broccoli.  I sautéed them until the broccoli was a vibrant green.  I took the pan off the heat added a sprinkling of bragg, soy sauce could be used instead and that my friends was my supper in a nutshell.

Biscuits and Vegetable Soup

Tonight I made the never ending meal, in our house that is soup. I always end up with way more than what I first intended. Also, there isn't a recipe I can really give you to recreate this soup because soup is probably the least measured thing I make. I just keep adding to it until it tastes right. What I did though was I boiled a package of uncooked sausage and once it was cooked I took it out and saved the water for the base of my broth. In the soup I put one chopped butternut squash, the flesh of 1/2 a pumpkin, 1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic and about 5 chopped beets. I boiled those all together in the sausage water until they were soft enough to blend and blended them. While the soup was boiling I sautéed carrots, celery and an onion. Once the soup was blended i added in my sautéed vegetables, at this point I also added the cooked sausage back into the pot. For seasonings I just used pepper, fresh dill, marjoram, beef stock and celery seed. I put all these in to taste and my soup was made. I served it with a savoury onion dill biscuit, which I have a recipe for.

Biscuit recipe

2 C Spelt Flour
4 tsp Baking Powder
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp salt
1/3 C Butter
3/4 C Almond Milk
1 chopped onion, caramelized and cooled
Handful of chopped fresh dill

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl. Cut in the butter until it's crumbly. Add milk and mix it in either with a fork or your hands. Mix in the onion and dill then form the dough into balls, place on a cookie sheet and place in the oven at 425 for 8-10 minutes or until they're risen and browned.

*With spelt flour you still want the dough to be quite moist unlike traditional biscuits where you can cut them, these will only be able to be shaped into balls with your hands. If you get the dough too dry your biscuits will be a bit crumblier than normal. Also if you want to make this with normal milk and wheat flour again you can use the same proportions that I have laid out for the spelt flour and almond milk.

Just Rice?

Tonight I was at home alone and there was no one for me to cook for so I didn't really feel like cooking. Usually on these nights I would make an egg and be done with it but since I made a promise to give you a supper for 30 days, I decided to put a little effort into it. The credit goes out to my sister for this recipe. This is a super easy, super fast recipe that takes only as long as it takes for rice to cook. It may sound weird at first but please give it the benefit of the doubt because it is possibly the best rice dish ever. That's saying a lot coming from me since rice is my favourite food, if I was on a desert island all I would need is, rice.

Recipe

1 Avocado
2 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 a Cucumber
1 Red Pepper
1/2 a Container of Plain Yogurt
Cilantro
Steamed Rice

Chop all of the vegetables and mix them in a bowl with the yogurt. You want the mixture to be a little soupy but not too much, this may require more or less than half a container depending on the size of your vegetables. Put rice on a plate, spoon the vegetable mixture over top, top with seasoned seafood soy sauce (it doesn't have to be this but it's the one I like the best for this recipe, I also use Bragg but you can use plain soy sauce if you want) and cilantro. Voila you have a completed meal that's incredibly fast and simple. Just a side note I use the astro Balkan style yogurt, you could use any, just make sure it's plain.

Positively Peachy Waffles

Everybody loves breakfast for supper. Or at least that's true for me. Either way if you don't like breakfast for supper then just make this for breakfast instead. I made a healthier spelt waffle with peach yogurt on top. If you want to make this recipe without spelt flour and almond milk you can substitute normal milk and white flour straight across without any troubles.

Waffle Recipe:

2 C Spelt Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1/3 C Butter
1 2/3 C Almond Milk

Mix the dry ingredients together. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Beat the egg yolks, add in the almond milk and melted butter. Combine liquid and dry ingredients. Fold in egg whites then cook in a preheated waffle iron.

For the peach yogurt I took some canned peaches and mixed half a mason jar of peaches with half a large Balkan style yogurt. You can also mix yogurt and raspberries or really any fruit, those two are my favourites though.

Day Number Two

Welcome to day number two of my 30 day blog challenge.  Lucky for you my supper was a success and is definitely worth making again.  I would like to thank instagrammer, fitmencook for the vegetable inspiration.  Tonight's supper was spicy honey mustard chicken drumsticks with a sweet potato hash.  As always if you would like to see pictures of the process follow my instagram, stringbeanela.

Spicy Honey Mustard Drumsticks

1/2 C Honey Mustard Sauce
1 - 1 1/2 tsp Crushed Red Chilies
Dash of turmeric and cayenne pepper
4 Chicken Drumsticks

Mix the chilies, turmeric and cayenne pepper into the honey mustard sauce and separate the sauce into two containers, one that is used for raw chicken and the other that is used for cooked chicken.  Spread the sauce from on of the bowls over the drumsticks and put the drumsticks onto the bbq to cook.  Once cooked brush the drumsticks with sauce from the other bowl (the one for cooked chicken only).  If you don't like saucy drumsticks you can skip this step.

Sweet Potato Hash

1/2 a Red Onion Diced
1 Sweet Potato Diced
1 Purple Sweet Potato Diced
2-3 Broccoli Crowns Chopped
Chopped Cilantro
Pepper
Beef Stock
Cumin
2 Tbsp Coconut oil or 1 Tbsp Olive oil

Put the oil in a pan and heat it up a bit, then add in your red onion and cook it until it starts to look softened.  Add the diced purple sweet potato and put a lid on the pan, cook it until it starts to turn tender.  Put the diced sweet potato into the pan, put the lid back on and allow it to cook until it turns tender.  Finally add in the broccoli crowns for about the last 3-5 minutes, I like my broccoli crisp which is why I save it until the end, if you like yours more cooked I would recommend putting it in when you add the sweet potato to the pan.  Once everything is all cooked season with pepper, beef stock (I know it sounds weird but it adds really good flavour to hash) and cumin.  Top with chopped cilantro and enjoy :).  All in all it takes about 20 minutes for the vegetables to cook from start to finish.

30 Day Challenge

To start my promise off right I am posting my supper tonight along with all the suppers I make for the next 30 days.  Tonight's supper was a healthy margherita pizza drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

Margherita Pizza

1 Rye Crispbread
Handful of chopped basil
Grated mozzarella cheese
Tomato Sauce
1 Garlic clove
1/4-1/3 C balsamic vinegar

Recipe:
The rye crispbread I used was round (about as big as a small pizza) and the brand was Leksands.  For those of you who might not want this or don't know where to find it I have also made this on rice cakes and small plain ryvita or wasa as well as gluten free pizza crust or there is also the option of following the recipe but using a traditional pizza crust.  Out of all of the versions of healthy pizzas (sans wheat flour) I've made this type of crust is by far my favourite.  I have found this rye crispbread at Save on Foods and Superstore for those of you who are Canadians this may help.  Onto the recipe, I took my one garlic clove and cut it in half then rubbed both of the halves cut side down on the crust.  Following that I spread approximately a quarter cup of tomato sauce all over the crust, then topped it with the grated mozzarella cheese approximately 3/4 cup.  (I left the amounts of sauce and cheese up to you since everyone likes different amounts so put on however little or much you want these amounts are just how much I like on my pizza)  Sprinkle the chopped basil over the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden then remove from the oven and drizzle with the balsamic reduction. 

Balsamic Reduction
How to make the balsamic reduction, put between 1/4-1/3 cup balsamic vinegar in a pot and put it on medium heat then let it bubble away til it has just begun to thicken then take it off the heat.  Make sure to watch the balsamic as it reduces so that it doesn't reduce too much and burn.  The balsamic only takes between 3-5 minutes to reduce so make sure to watch it.  I always make the balsamic reduction while the pizza is cooking.  Also if you are new to reduction I would recommend keeping the heat a bit lower (medium low) and use a larger amount since it allows more leeway but once it starts reducing it will reduce quickly so the best thing to do is to keep an eye on it.  Once you've mastered the balsamic reduction you will find yourself putting it on everything since it is sweeter than balsamic vinegar and I find it a very universal flavour.  If reducing vinegar seems too daunting to you you can either buy it reduced from the store or just omit it completely from the recipe.  Either way you make this pizza it will be amazing since homemade is always better than store bought.  If you have any questions feel free to ask and don't forget to check out my instagram, stringbeanela to see a picture of the pizza.

A Late Start to the New Year

Hello...  I know it has been awhile, at this point I can't even apologize for not posting anything recently.  How about we wipe the slate clean and start over fresh?  I figured out why I had such a hard time putting up posts before, it's because it would take me so long to get the pictures onto my computer that I was no longer excited about the recipe.  I recently made an investment to rid myself of my archaic dinosaur of a phone and purchase a phone that shall we say brought me up to speed with the rest of the world... Anyway with this phone I have decided that the pictures of my food will go up on instagram so that I don't have to fiddle with importing them and all that jazz and I will just post the recipes on the blog.  Et Voila I have solved all my problems since I won't get complaints from the peanut gallery that there is no pictures and I will still be excited enough about the recipe to want to post it. At this point if you're wondering what my instagram is so that you can see the pictures it is, stringbeanela.  I will get the pictures up onto the blog as well it just probably won't all happen in one evening.  Again I apologize and hopefully this time everyone can get as excited as me about food. :)