Green Apple Guacamole

A problem I have with a lot of prepared raw food is that it's often heavy on the nuts. I love nuts, very much, but my stomach reacts negatively when I eat large quantities of them. So, I've been looking for more vegetable based meal ideas.

Raw Corn Chips

Last summer I worked for a local farmer, whose primary crop was sweet corn. Wonder of wonders, the farmer gave me and the other employees permission to bring home any unsold vegetables and as much corn as our families wanted, which, for us (dad), was a lot.

Hummus

My full days of school and work have forced me back into packed lunches. It took my a while to settle on what I wanted, but hummus seems to have won out. It's easy to pack and I like being able to make a large batch on the weekend, and not have to worry for the rest of the week. Also, it allows me to use the vegetables from my garden.

Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing

As promised, here is the salad dressing I made for the Raw Food Dinner I had with James and friends. My goal was to mimic the salad dressing from WOW (as usual...).

I had a pretty decent start, since I asked my server once what was in their salad dressing. Unfortunately, the only ingredients he could remember were celery and olive oil, though I was pretty sure there was lemon in it too. To fill in the gaps, I searched one of my favourite food blogs, Rawmazing, and used her Maple Tahini Dressing as a base recipe.

Sunsets & Sandwiches

Allow me to pick up where I left off...After leaving Sheafe's, we spent a night in Williamstown, home to James' university. On our way there, and in accordance with my new obsession with learning about varieties of strawberries, we stopped to buy strawberries from a man on the side of the road.

Salem and Salads

As I was saying, James and I drove to Salem, in Eastern New York to meet and stay with a professor and friend of his. Although we were technically there to help paint a fence, James also wanted to show me the professor's property and the surrounding area.

Poutine: I Probably Miss Canada By Now

Ok, I swear, this is the last surprise blog post. I'll be flying home today anyways.

Way back in April, when James was visiting to say goodbye, I finally got around to making poutine for him. He's American and had never had it..so sad. I wanted it to be different from normal poutine though...and maybe a little healthier, so I used mushroom gravy and sweet potatoes fries.

Raw Almond Burger with Cashew Cheese

SURPRISE! I scheduled one last post to be published post-departure. By the time you are reading this, I should be living it up in Europe...let's hope. Unfortunately, this is as far ahead as I could get...see you in less than 6 weeks.

Frittata For Mama and Papa

I have been struggling to find things to bake lately....I have already posted most of the recipes I use regularly, and I just don't have enough mouths in my house to consume a new baked good every second day.

So, last night I decided to try something different...cooking (well, half cooking...).

Sweet Potato, Peanut and Moving Out Stew

I am officially finished my undergraduate degree...assuming I don't fail any of my exams...

I submitted my final essay, the lingering symbol of my status as a student, 6 minutes ago. I am already growing anxious... I'm really going to miss being in an academic setting and it's freaking me out a bit.

More depressing, I am leaving Guelph tomorrow and...moving back in with my parents... I will become one of those university graduates who is living at home and working a job I could've had straight out of high school. This kind of thinking almost makes me wish I did fail a course, so I could cling to my student status for just a little bit longer...almost.

Anyways, this is leading somewhere, I promise.

Peanut, Peanut Butter! (and Chili?)

Every time I go home, I ask my mom to make this Peanut Butter Chili Recipe. The tradition started this past summer, after I had been away from home for 7 months. For two of those months, I was working in a hotel in Jasper National Park and, every day, I had to serve chili to people...chili full of meat. One day, a strong wif of the chili hit me and I thought "that would go well with peanut butter."

Tomato Soup

I have always wanted to make tomato soup...so I did. I didn't want it to be a very time consuming event, or to have to buy many additional ingredients, so I used this recipe for Simple Tomato Soup and it was super easy and quick. The recipe is so basic and neutral that I am sure much can be done with it, so I am especially excited to make it again, when I have more time and money. The resulting soup tastes like you'd expect...like tomatoes. I love tomatoes and I loved this soup.

Spiced Apple & Sweet Potato Soup

What's this? A soup recipe so soon after making vegetable broth? What a surprise!

Homemade Vegetable Broth

I have been longing for soup all winter. Until this weekend, I've been too lazy to make broth and I could never bring myself to buy broth from a store...I feel like need to make it so I know exactly what goes into it. Also, I think it's romantic to make your own broth and terribly satisfying! I love seeing the product of my labour sitting in my freezer...ready for whenever I need it.

Baked Beans

Maple Baked Beans

I've made baked beans before, but not since giving up cane sugar. I like my baked beans sweet and thought it would be easy to find a recipe that just used maple syrup, but everything also called for molasses!

First Post...

This is a sweet potato crisp I made over American Thanksgiving... I got the recipe from this website. It was so good! I used a half cup of walnuts instead of raisins, greek yogurt instead of sour cream and baked it in one large dish. I also think I added some vanilla and a little extra honey to the crisp? I actually thought it tasted better cold--it kind of took on the texture of almost a cheesecake, I guess once the greek yogurt was able to reform.

MY FIRST POST...haha