Recipe: Cashew Milk

Since getting married, I've definitely let my diet go. I'm very sad to say, none of my dresses fit anymore. While I'm not on a path to get back to wedding skinny, I do want to feel better and have more energy. I did a three day DIY juice cleanse about a year ago, and I have been researching new recipes to try.

One juice cleanse drink I came across over and over again is cashew milk, specifically from Blueprint Cleanse. My version costs about $2.00 to make. The best part of using cashews is that you don't need to filter the milk like you do with almond milk. Just blend and drink.

Cashew Milk

Makes 4 cups

1 cup raw cashews

4 cups water (plus more for soaking)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 - 3 prunes

A pinch of cinnamon

Soak cashews for 2 - 3 hours. You can soak it for longer if you'd like.

Rinse soaked cashews under water until it runs clear.

Place drained cashews, and 4 cups of water, and the rest of the ingredients into the blender.

Depending on the type of blender you have, blend for 2 - 5 minutes until smooth.

DRINK!

I chose to use prunes as my sweetener. You can also use dates, figs, or syrups, such as agave and brown rice. You could also use different types of extracts, or use real spices.

What's your favourite nut milk?

xoxo

~meesh

Korean Pancake - Hoddeok

It's summer time in Vancouver, and that means night markets are in full swing! Chris and I were at the "old" night market, AKA The International Summer Night Market, when I first discovered hoddeok.

 It is Korea's version of Beaver Tails! I would say Hoddeok is BETTER than Beaver Tails! It has the chewy texture of Asian pancakes, like green onion pancake, but filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts!

Naturally, I wanted to learn how to make it. I turned to my newest obsession, YouTube, for a recipe. I came across this amazing channel, Maangchi. She has so many videos of her recipes, I can't wait to try them all. Her video for Hoddeok made it look so simple, I just had to try it out.

For the full recipe, head over to Vancity Buzz!

You need to cook and serve these right away. The first time I made Hoddeok, I got too excited, and cooked all 8 at once. Unfortunately, they get hard pretty quick. The filled dough can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days.

This dough is so easy to make! You can fill it with anything. I might try filling it with meat sauce next time.

What's your favourite Korean recipe?

~meesh

A Silpat Baking Dish!! OMG

If you've read some of my baking posts, you'll know that I swear by silpat liners. These are non-stick silicone liners that are easy to clean, and reusable. They are oven-safe (obviously) and microwave safe. These are honestly one of my baking must-have's.

Source

I was scrolling through my geek blogs today, and found a silpat baking dish!!! OMG!

Now I can bake my cookies without having to worry about them falling over the edge!

You can buy them at Amazon for $55.00. It's pretty expensive for a baking pan, but based on my experience with Silpats, I wouldn't hesitate buying this.

What's your favourite baking must-have?

Slow Cooker Failures :(

I never thought much about slow cookers, but when my co-worker talked about using one to make mulled-wine, I was intrigued!! She happened to have won a Crock Pot at a Christmas party, and brought it in for our mulling purposes. The Crock Pot comes with a little book of instructions and recipes, so I looked through it, and was surprised at how delicious the recipes looked. As you know, I get obsessed with things quite easily, so naturally, I asked for a Crock Pot for Christmas. So I received this beauty from my future MIL. It also came with the Little Dipper (the one on the right).

It hasn't been as great I had made it out to be unfortunately. My first attempt was a turkey breast. I threw in onions, peppers, carrots, garlic, and seasoned the turkey with herbs, salt, and pepper. I set it on low for 9 hours, and went to work. I was so excited when I got home, but alas, that excitement was short lived. The turkey was tender, but I thought it lacked flavour. The broth was delicious, the vegetables were good. I was hoping for a thicker broth though, so I was disappointed with that too. I ended up stir frying the leftover turkey with eggs and tomatoes, and lots of chili paste. That dish was pretty good.

Anyway, I didn't give up. The following week, I bought some stewing beef from Costco. I threw it in the Crock Pot with a can of tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper, and set off to work. Again, I was super excited. This HAS to taste better than the turkey. It just HAS TO!!!! But once again, disappointment set in. I found the beef to be flavourless, and chewy. The broth and veggies were good like last time, but it just wasn't stewy at all. After talking about this with a friend who also received a slow cooker for Christmas, it seems my problem is not browning the meat before putting it in the Crock Pot. But I just don't think browning will make that much of a difference. One thing to note too is that these two "recipes" I tried were from Martha Stewart (Stew). Well, I put recipes in quotations because I just read them, and then kind of did my own thing afterwards.

It's my third attempt now. This time it's pork chops. I looked up some recipes on All Recipes, and this time I made an effort to follow the recipe more closely. I decided to go with this one. In addition to the ingredients listed, I also added Worcestershire sauce, chicken broth, and a can of tomatoes. 

Here's the finished product!

The sauce was good. This would be the most successful outcome out of my 3 attempts, but I've definitely cooked better pork chops on the stove. I'm starting to think I don't like the texture of slow cooked foods. I think I'll make another dish with barbeque sauce and see how I like it.

Do you use a slow cooker?

xoxo

~meesh

Grain Free Almond Flour Waffles with Strawberry Compote

It's been a while since I posted. I've been busy making my engagement party invitations. I will share those once they're complete.

I've been trying out a grain free diet the last week or so because I noticed that I never feel very good after I had pasta. I haven't done much research in regards to the technical terms, so please forgive me. I just know how I feel after I eat, so I based my adjustments on that. It first started out as a no flour (I guess gluten-free?) diet, that was fine enough, I didn't crave pasta even though I used to have it about 4 times a week. Then I went for sushi one night, and I just felt soooo bloated and uncomfortable. I realized that I always felt like that after having sushi, and I had always put it off to me eating waaaay too much. I also looooooove sushi. It was after that dinner that I decided that I should try to go off all grains. It wasn't too difficult as I had done various "low-carb" diets before. However, the hardest meal for me to adjust to was breakfast. I used to eat a bowl of oatmeal everyday for breakfast, so now what can I eat?? I've been sustaining myself in the morning with various fruits and veggies, but it didn't really cut it for me.

So off I went to Google-land. I found great recipes for grain-free breakfasts. I found a lot of egg recipes, but what I was really after was the carby breakfast. I was super excited to see that there were also lots of options for waffles, scones, even PORRIDGE!!! My first recipe was the Almond Flour Waffles. All credit goes to Comfy Belly. I didn't change a thing on this recipe. It took me about 5 minutes to make the batter, and I made my strawberry compote while the waffles were cooking. We were eating within 20 minutes of me breaking the eggs.

Almond Flour Waffles with Strawberry Compote

Inspired by Comfy Belly

Yield: 2

4 eggs

1 cup Almond Flour

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste)

2 tablespoon honey (I used agave syrup)

Strawberry Compote

1 cup fresh strawberries - quartered

1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon agave syrup

Preheat waffle iron.

Beat the eggs, vanilla, and honey (agave) until smooth.

Mix in dry ingredients.

Cook in waffle iron.

How easy can it get??

The strawberry compote is just as easy.

Put the cut strawberries in a small pot.

Add agave syrup.

Add lemon juice.

Stir continuously, and cook until desired softness is achieved in the strawberries.

Here is the finished product!!

Chickpeas quest continued...

I've made another dish in my quest to diversify my love of chickpeas. Like many of my other recipes, I used what was available in my pantry. I had made plain quinoa last night as a side dish, and of course I made enough to last a couple days. So here it is:

Chickpea Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

2 cups COOKED quinoa

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 bunch mint, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 cup tomatoes, chopped (I used grape and roma tomatoes)

2 - 3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 lemon

1/4 extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

This is another simple recipe. Mix all the ingredients together, squeeze lemon over the salad, and drizzle the olive oil. You're set to go!

German Cucumber Salad

This is one of my favourite salads. It's so fast and easy to make. And guess what!!! I didn't get the idea from Pinterest! hahaha. This recipe is actually from Cal's mom. She makes it all the time when we go for family dinner.

German Cucumber Salad

Serves 2

1 cucumber

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of dried dill

In a bowl, combine vinegar and sugar.

Slice the cucumber thinly into the bowl. You can do this with a knife, or use a mandolin. Salt the cucumber. The salt will draw out some of the liquid from the cucumber.

Sprinkle dill over cucumber. You can also use fresh dill.

Let it marinate for 20 minutes before serving.

Easy peasy!

xoxo

~Meesh

Chickpea salad...AKA unblended hummus

When I was on vacation in Cuba with Cal and his family, the dishes we really enjoyed all had chickpeas. I didn't think much about it though, it was just really good and that was that. The only thing I ever made with chickpeas was hummus. My hummus is very delicious, if I say so myself! haha. I'll post the recipe next time I make it. But, what inspired this post, and the following recipe, was Pinterest (Follow ME!) of course. Hopefully, this will be the first of many things I try to make with chickpeas.

Here's the original inspiration:

(Source)

I followed this recipe pretty closely.

Cilantro Chickpea Salad

Inspired by Oh She Glows

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

2 cups of fresh spinach, chopped

1 cup of cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup of sweet onion, chopped

1 lime

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

dash of red chili flakes

2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk lime, mustard, olive oil, cumin, chili flakes, and garlic together until it comes together.

Toss with chickpeas, spinach, cilantro and onion.

I don't have a food processor, so I chopped everything by hand. If you have a processor, by all means, chop the spinach, onion, and cilantro with that.

Here's how it turned out:

Let me know if you like it!

xoxo

~Meesh

Clams!!!

I have always loved eating seafood. Everything from lobster, oysters, seabass, tilapia. EVERYTHING!! I started baking in my teens, and started really cooking, like following recipes and having it taste good, in my early twenties. I never cooked seafood at home. I'm not sure why not. Maybe it was because I loved it so much, I didn't want to mess it up. But anyway, I recently started making seafood dishes at home. Here is my first attempt at spaghetti alla vongole!

 It was so simple, I couldn't believe it! I sauteéd some garlic and onions, threw in a sprinkle of red chili flakes, then threw in 2 pounds of clams, and a cup of white wine. I steamed the clams until they're open, and tossed it with the pasta, and garnished with cilantro. I think the most time consuming part of this recipe was cutting the garlic and onion.

Last night, I decided to try making something else with clams. Here is the outcome:

It is clams in tomato broth. I first sauteéd garlic, onions, and celery. Really, it was just what I happened to have in the fridge. Once the onions softened, about 5 mins, I added a 28-once can of diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, and 1.5 cups of water. I threw in some worcestershire sauce too, since I had some in the fridge (see a trend here? lol). Oh, I also threw in red chili flakes. I brought the sauce to a boil, then simmered for about 30 mins. Then I added a handful of chopped parsley, and threw in the clams. I had 3 pounds of clams this time. I meant to buy 2 pounds, but the supermarket I was at was self-serve, and I thought I had scooped 2 pounds, but clearly I need help estimating weight. I let the pot simmer until the clams opened, and served. I had mine plain like the picture above, but I made some pasta for Cal's clams.

All in all, cooking clams was not as hard as I thought it would be. I think next time, I will substitute mussels, and make some garlic bread too!

xoxo
- Meesh