Spicy Soup!

Please forgive the less than steller photo in this post, because this is a really stellar soup! I finally got a new camera but have yet figured out how to get a good macro out of it. And since when I made this it was dark, the little bit of lighting I do have in my apartment really didn't do much to help the situation.

It all started when I set out to make this white bean kale recipe from 101 cook books. I started out making the tomato sauce (with a few adaptions) until I realized that I had to be at work in less than an hour, and since this recipe had a 45 min baking time that was just not going to work. (I really need to plan these things better.) So I decided to take the same ingredients and make a soup out of it!

This is an incredibly easy, healthy and hearty stewish soup that would be great on a chilly day. Or any ol' day will do!



Spicy Tomato Kale and White Bean Soup
makes one super serving, or two smaller ones

14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp red chili flakes
1 tbsp italian herbs
1 tbsp chili paste
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp lemon juice
few tbsp of sriracha, to taste (optional, throw in if you like things spicy)


1/2 can white beans
2 stalks of kale, washed and chopped well

Simmer the garlic and oil in a small pot until fragrant. Add the can of tomatoes, as well as the spices and other sauces. Let simmer 5 mins. Next add the beans and kale and let simmer another 10-15 mins.


I'm really looking forward to the little bit of this I had left over for tomorrow's lunch. I think I will enjoy it with some sauteed mushrooms thrown in and some crumbled feta on top.

In a Hurry Coconut Curry

Oh, how I love when things rhyme!
But what I love even more is fast, tasty meals. I have been crazy busy these past few months (hence the lack of posts...)so I have been focusing even more on food that doesn't take a lot of effort in order to properly feed myself.
This one fits the bill perfectly. All you need is a block of tofu, some veg, a can of coconut milk, and curry paste. Combine them all in a pan for about 10 mins and you've got a yummy curry that took little to no time or effort. My kind of meal!


Green Coconut Curry

1 can of coconut milk
1/2 brick of extra firm tofu
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/4 can of baby corn, rinsed
1-2 tsp of oil
3-6 tbsp green curry paste (depending on your taste)
red chili flakes (optional)

First rinse the tofu, and pat dry. Try to drain out as much liquid as you can with a paper towel without crushing the tofu to bits. Cut into cubes. Heat up the oil in a pan, and add tofu when pan is heated. Fry all sides for about a minuete or so, until golden brown. Next add the can of coconut milk and a few tablespoons of curry paste.* Cover and lower heat to medium. After about 5 mins add the sliced peppers and baby corn (or whatever vegetables are on hand) and cook another 5 mins or so, until the coconut milk has reduced to nothing.

Serve over rice if you have time, or rice noodles if you don't. Garnish with red chili flakes, soy sauce, hot sauce, or whatever your heart desires.



*I like to numb my mouth with spice and flavor, so I'm not sure what to suggest here for the average person. I say just add a tablespoon or two at the start then taste as you go. If you want more curry flavor, add a few more scoops.

Summer Salad

Last week I noticed some peaches at the market. Not thinking much other then "a peach would be nice" I bought myself two blushed beauties and thought that was that. The following day of the peach purchase, I decided to bake one of the two in a batch of muffins. But as I was cutting up the first peach, I couldn't help but pop a slice of it in my mouth. It just looked so juicy, so colourful, so appetizing. After the first slice, there went another, and another-until before I knew it the peach had vanished. Now I'm not sure if it's because I hadn't had a fresh peach since last summer, or if It was just a damn good peach, but I felt it was the best peach I had ever had. The experience was euphoric.

So today as I was passing by the same market, I felt the need to buy myself some pretty peaches again. Fate was smiling down upon me because while I found some beautiful looking peaches, an inspiration for what to do with them also hit. I acted on my instincts, grabbing a pack of baby spinach and some peppered goat cheese, then walked back to my apartment and set to work on a spinach salad. It's another hot hot day in Vancouver, which made this salad oh-so appropriate for tonights dinner. With the addition of only a few minor ingredients, this was a truly tasty salad.




Peach Perfection on a Plate

few handfuls of baby spinach
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 fresh peach, sliced
crumbled goat cheese (i used pepper infused goat cheese, herbed or plain would also work)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp raspberry white wine vinegar
dash of salt & pepper
1/4 cup crumbled walnuts

Place the spinach on a plate. Mix the olive oil with vinegar, salt and pepper, and whisk until incorporated. Drizzle spinach with dressing. Slice the pepper, and peach, then lay atop the spinach. Top with crumbled goat cheese (flavored if desired) and crumbled walnuts.

Saute'd Soy'd Asparagus

After my first trip to Granville Island, I was sitting pretty with a beautiful bounty of affordable, fresh, quality fruit and veg. One of my favorite things I got was kale. It was a new green that I had always read about but had never tried. (couldn't ever find it back home!) I really loved the soup I made using Kale from that trip, but I also really enjoyed it in this simple and tasty dish when I added it to asparagus. I had never bought kale prior to moving here, but it seems to be a usual at the farmers market, and I plan on taking advantage of it's accessibility from now on.

I also struck gold with the asparagus there that first day. It was pencil thin and beautiful. The best part was that it tasted even better than it looked! Vancouver has been stuck in a heat wave since my arrival, deeming it too hot to turn on my oven, so I opted to enjoy my asparagus in a new method-pan frying.



This recipe is almost too simple, and extremely versatile. Expieriment with whatever you like, or have on hand.

Almond and soy Asparagus with Kale

1/2 bunch asparagus
1/2 head of kale
1/3 cup natural almonds
2 tsp oil
3-5 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove of garlic
2 tsp red chili flakes

Take the asparagus and wash well. Trim the ends and chop into one inch pieces. Heat up a small pan with oil and add the garlic. Let saute' for about a min. Add the asparagus and soy sauce. Stir over medium high heat until asparagus starts to cook. Roughly chop the almonds and add them to the pan. Tear up your washed kale and throw it in there. Allow to sit for about a minuete or so. Just until the kale starts to soften a bit, but not so long that the asparagus gets over cooked. Sprinkle with some chili flakes if spicyness is desired.



Since I haven't built up a pantry for myself quite yet I didn't get to add everything I would've liked to this dish. Had I had it on hand, I would've tossed in some fresh ginger, sesame oil, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Apartment Soup v.1

First some exciting news:
I have moved to Vancouver! Woo-hoo! I have always had an admiration for this city, and I am so happy to finally be living here! I love it so much, except for one factor.
The heat.

I've been here a little over a week and every day it has been sunny, hot, and muggy. Not at all what I expected from a city in the pacific northwest that is known for rain and overcast skies! I love the rain, and have been very sad that I have not had any to enjoy. There has only been one overcast day so far, and it only sprinkled then.

But through all this heat I am craving one thing and one thing only. SOUP! Why? My only guess is that maybe I am trying to make my new apartment and my new city feel "homey" and I guess soup does that for me? I don't know any other reason why making soup in almost 30 degree weather seems like a good idea.


But alas, since I moved in a little over a week ago, all I could think of was making a big pot of lentil soup. It's just something I had to do. So on my first (and so far, only) overcast rainy day last week, I decided to take a walk to Granville Island to check out the farmers market. I ended up with a pretty bounty of fresh and cheap vegetables, all begging to be put in a soup.

So with a combonation of farmers market loot, and some kitchen staples I bought at a swanky Save-On downtown, my first Apartment Soup was born.




My biggest problem with making this soup was only one thing-I have no blender! As I was doing my apartment shopping back in Alberta, I kept telling myself I have no need for a blender. I told myself, "It's just so big and bulky, and all i'd need it for is to make smoothies, which I can do much easier in my Magic Bullet." Of course the one thing that a blender is good for that a bullet isn't would be BLENDING SOUPS. I stupidly realized this when I really wanted this soup blended, and so in a haze of hunger and impatience did a few quick blitz of the soup serving by serving in my magic bullet. It was a bit scary, since the bullet is plastic and I had hot soup in a little container. But all turned out fine. There were a few remaining chunks as seen in the picture, but that's okay since it adds more of a rustic feel.
The point of all this is that if you have a blender, feel free to chop the peppers and veg to any size you like. If you are like me and are sans-blender, I'd reccomend chopping them very small, unless you like big chunks in your soup.


Red Lentil, Pepper, and Kale soup.

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 small yellow pepper, chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp curry power
1 tsp paprika
a few generous cracks of black pepper
1 tsp salt
16 oz can of chopped tomatoes, with juice
1 cup of water
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1/2 bunch of kale (no idea how to measure this really, just throw in a few handfuls.)
hot sauce (optional)

Finely chop the onion and add to a medium sized pot with the olive oil. After the onions begin to soften*, add the salt, pepper and spices. After about a min, add the red and yellow peppers and a little more olive oil if needed. Add the canned tomatoes, water, and lentils. Cover over medium heat about 20 mins, or until lentils are ready. Chop up the kale, and throw into the soup during the last few mins. Blend if desired. For added heat, add a few squirts of hot sauce.

I have made this soup similar to this in the past with all different sorts of veggies added-carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. Feel free to play around with what goes in here.

*A lot of lentil soup recipes advise to put a tbsp or so of tomato paste in this step. I would be all for it if i could get my hands on tomato paste in a tube. But since I cannot, and I have no other use for a can of tomato paste, I omit this step.

Granola "Muffins"

For some time now, I've been on a quest for a healthy homemade granola bar. For the past few years I've relied on store bought granola bars for a quick breakfast option I could eat on the go. But as I've grown more health conscious , I've grown to realize that most of these conveinent bars are not a healthy choice. A while ago I tried a recipe for baked granola bars, using peanut butter and egg white as a binder. The bars ended up tasting fine, but they didn't have the chewy texture I was looking for like the store bought bars.

I gave up on the quest for some time until finding this 'power bar' recipe at 101 Cookbooks. This post set a whirl of frenzy in the ol' mind grapes. These power bars sounded exactly like what I had been dreaming of making all this time!
So I set to work immedietly on my own version. I based it all on what I had kicking around the kitchen, so It ended up being a fruit version-using peanut butter and blueberry syrup as the base, with mixed nuts, coconut, raisins, dried cranberries, and apricots. I liked them fine enough, but I knew there was a better version waiting to be discovered.

This version is what I like to call "Healthy Decadance" Yes there is peanut butter, but it's organic natual peanut butter, with no added sugar or salt. It's got plenty of protein from all the nuts used, and I've snuck in some healthy ingridents that don't effect the taste negetively. I even let myself use (dark) chocolate chips! (because dark chocolate is good for you!)

One thing that most excites me about this recipe is the muffin shape they recieved. This idea occurred out of pure laziness, when I found that our only decent size square pan was dirty, and I was in no mood to clean it. I instead decided to form these in a muffin tin. Taking away an extra dish to wash and making even more convienient sized granola bars? Yes please!



But since I hate dishes and won't dirty a dish unless I need it-that includes measuring cups! I didn't measure any of these ingredients. The following is just an approximation of what I used.

Granola "Muffins"

1/2 cup rice cereal (I used Special K)
1/2 cup oats
2 cups of nuts, roasted (whatever variety you desire!)
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tbsp flax meal
2 tbsp wheat germ
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1-1 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (smooth and chunky both work, I prefer chunky)
1/4-1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (coconut or almond would also work)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp espresso powder

Preheat oven to 350. Scatter the nuts and coconut on a flat pan, and roast until the nuts are slightly browned and the coconut is golden. About 5-7 mins. Stir once half way through. Keep an eye on them, make sure they don't burn!
While the nuts are roasting, combine the rice cereal, oats, flax, wheat germ, and chocolate chips. Once the nuts have cooled a bit, add to the oat/cereal mixture.
While the nuts are cooling, combine PB, syrup, and honey until fluid. Add the salt, extract, cinnamon, espresso, and mix well.
Add the saucy mixture to the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. Using a spoon, place a small ammount of the mixture in a greased muffin tin. Spritz your hands with some pam, or roll around some butter and press down firmly on each muffin. Let cool to room temp.


The possibilities here are really endless. Try playing around with different flavored syrups, nut combinations, or even cereals. It's an easy recipe to adapt to the ingredients you have on hand and like!

Falafel Salad

So I really suck at this food blog thing. Lately i've either been too busy to cook, to lazy to cook something special, or too hungry to take a picture of what I make.

That isn't the case today though! I made a really easy and tasty falafel salad.



Since were running low on groceries, this is another one of those dishes that is made in hunger and desperation, using the only edible (and vegetarian) things on hand. I find these situations almost always to yield one of two results: either I come up with something tasty and delicious that I might not have thought of otherwise, or I microwave a frozen dinner. Luckily the first scenario is what went down today.


I knew I had some frozen falafel in my freezer, so I decided to do something with those. And since I didn't have any pitas, I decided to throw them in a salad.

I won't bother with a recipe, since all this salad took was some chopped lettuce, cucumber, green onions, and carrot ribbons tossed in a lemon vinegarete with some grated parmesan and falafel crumbled on top. Now doesn't that sound easy? I suggest giving this a try. Putting the falafel atop the greens was a great way to turn a side salad into a more substantial meal.