Spaghetti and Quinoa Beef Meatballs

As if I needed something else to do with quinoa, I found this recipe at Whole Foods and just had to try.

Instead of using all meat in the meatballs, these are a combo of beef and quinoa.

Red quinoa totally blends in with the red meat and is practically invisible.

These are my new favourite.

Seriously, not even in a crunchy and mind over matter health freaky way.

These are good.

Spaghetti and Meatballs, done right, is my favourite thing to eat.

Whole Foods got it just right with these!

Clara even gave these a high review. "I really love these meatballs, Mum. And I'm not just trying to be polite!"

A little note, this recipe calls for 3/4 of a cup of cooked quinoa. I had a little less than a pound of ground beef so used about 1 1/2 cups of quinoa and it was great.

Quinoa Beef Meatballs

(Wholefoods.com)

See bottom of recipe for how to cook quinoa.

1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup cooked quinoa **
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup grated zucchini
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 egg

Preheat oven to 500°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil then grease with cooking spray; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together beef, quinoa, onions, carrots, zucchini, ketchup, garlic, soy sauce, pepper, salt, oregano, thyme and egg until well combined. Shape beef mixture into 16 balls and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Roast until cooked through and golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.

**Note: To cook quinoa, bring 1 cup water to a boil in a small pot. Pour in ½ cup quinoa, cover and simmer until water is absorbed, 10 to 12 minutes. Set aside off of the heat for 10 minutes then fluff with a fork. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Apple Cake with Cream and Caramel Sauce

(Thanks for the photos Lau Merrick)

One of the most popular cakes on the Martha Stewart website is this delightfully easy and perfectly tasty Apple Cinnamon Cake.

I can't seem to stop making this cake.

I made it twice this week, shared it with a ton of people and everyone loved it.

My Gramma Dorothy is the queen of all things food. She loves to read about food, cook it and eat it.

She loves apple cake, so I made this one especially for her.

Though I'm sure Martha's recipe would have been great, I changed it a little.

The original recipe called for 3 cups of flour, 1 1/3 cups oil, 2 cups sugar... and that seemed a little intense to me.

I subbed in 1 1/2 cups spelt flour, 2/3 cup apple sauce in place of all the oil and reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup. It was lovely.

If you top the cake with a little maple-vanilla infused whipped cream and the caramel drizzle, I'm pretty sure it will blow your mind.

Apple Cake with Cream and Caramel Sauce

(adapted from Martastewart.com)

2/3 C oil

2/3 C applesauce

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

1 1/2 C spelt flour

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1tsp salt

1 1/2 C sugar

3 large eggs

3-4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (about 3-4Cups)

1/2 C pecans or walnuts (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

Grease a large bundt pan and preheat oven to 350*.

Sift together flours, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat together oil, applesauce, sugar and eggs until bright yellow.

Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just until combined.

Add apples and nuts, fold in.

Stir in vanilla.

Pour into bundt pan and cook 60-70 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake and then invert on a plate. Serve drizzled with sauce.

*I served this once with ice cream and once with Maple cream.

*For the maple cream I poured a medium container of heavy cream into a bowl. Mix until almost firm, add 2 Tbsp of Maple syrup and 1 tsp vanilla. Whisk again until firm.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup light-brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium

Quinoa Carrot Cake Muffins

For Christmas, I was given a new cookbook called Quinoa, The Everyday Superfood.

(I am always in the market for a new cookbook.)

A dear friend, who knows I love quinoa, got me this little number.

The only thing I have ever put quinoa in is a pilaf or salad.

This book has you coating chicken with it, eating it for breakfast and even baking with it.

I love the taste of baking with a variety of flours.

Spelt is my old standby. I do everything with spelt. It's often in cookies and cakes and always in my pizza dough.

These carrot cake muffins get their rich nutty flavour by using only quinoa flour.

I wasn't sure if I would like baking with quinoa flour. It seemed strange.

I bought (at the Bulk Barn) only what I needed for this recipe.

If buying 'weird-ish' ingredients scares you, do the same. Just buy a couple scoops of it to start.

My kids love these.

Of course, I didn't say, "Hey kids, come get a load of these ultra weird, low fat, quinoa muffins..." I called them "Carrot Cake", served them as dessert and they totally went for it.

I iced them with the same icing I used for the Red Velvet cupcakes and they're perfect together.

Quinoa Carrot Cake Muffins

From: Quinoa The Everyday Superfood

1 1/3 C quinoa flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground clove

2/3 C golden raisins (I did 1/3 C raisins and 1/3 C pecans)

2 large eggs

2/3 C plain or vanilla yogurt

1/2 C packed brown sugar

2 1/4 C grated carrot

Preheat the oven to 350*, line 12 muffin cups with liners or a coating of non-stick spray.In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, and clove.

Whisk until well blended. Mix in the raisins and pecans (if using) and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, sugar and carrot.

Using a spatula gently mix dry into wet and stir just until combined.

Scoop in to muffin cups and bake for 20-22 minutes or until tester stick comes out clean.

When cooled, top with cream cheese frosting.

Joy's Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 C butter, at room temperature

1 package of cream cheese, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp Milk

3 C sifted icing sugar

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.

Red Velvet for Christmas

Red Velvet Cakes and cupcakes made a bit of a comeback a couple years ago.

But somehow, to me, it has to be eaten at Christmas!

These are perfect. I have tried a few from bakeries and none compare to these.

Joy the Baker has a knack for getting baking just right. These are from her.

So delightfully festive...so celebratory...so right for a certain person's birthday 'cake' perhaps...

Red Velvet Cupcakes

(Joy the Baker)

Click here for the recipe.

Joy does such a good job of explaining the method.

Everyone's Favourite Joe

When I make Sloppy Joes, everyone is happy.

They never disappoint. Ground beef, tomato, vegetables and a bun - It's all there.

I found this recipe over at Simply Recipes. I always have all the ingredients for these and they are, hands down, the kids favourite thing to eat.

I throw together a green salad for Jim and I.

That's it.

Dinner.


Sloppy Joes
(Simply Recipes.com)

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup minced carrots (or chopped bell pepper)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium onion)
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
1 1/4 lb ground beef
1/2 cup ketchup (or tomato paste)
2 cups tomato sauce (or 1 15-ounce can whole tomatoes, puréed)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp vinegar (red wine or apple cider)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
Pinch ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch cayenne pepper
2 turns of freshly ground black pepper
4 hamburger buns

1 Heat olive oil in a large pan on med high heat. Add the carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. (If you are using bell pepper instead of carrots, add those at the same time as the onions.) Add the chopped onion and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent, about 5 more minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Remove from heat. Remove vegetables from the pan to a medium sized bowl, set aside.

2 Using the same pan cook ground beef. Season with ½ tsp salt. Strain off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat.

3 Return the cooked ground beef and vegetables to the pan. Add the ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and brown sugar to the pan. Stir to mix well. Add ground cloves, thyme, and cayenne pepper. Lower the heat to medium low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Serve with toasted hamburger buns. Serves 4.

Un-Brownies

So here you have some chocolaty, fudgy and not too fatty squares of something that is not a brownie.

I daren't call these brownies.

I served these to Jim under the title of Brownie...

"They're good." he said, "But they're not brownies!"

That said, I find these extremely hard to keep out of.

They're not too rich, not sickeningly sweet and a good base for a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream if you're in the mood for that.

I found this recipe on the silver flap of my Astro Original Yogurt container.

Give it a go.

The Un-Brownie
(Astro Original Yogurt Recipe)

1/2 C melted chocolate chips

1 C Plain yogurt

1/2 C sugar

3/4 C flour

1/2 C cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 C milk (soy or coconut milk work too)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave. Mix chocolate with yogurt and sugar. Sift in flour, cocoa and baking soda. Just until combined. Add milk. Stir

3. Pour into a greased 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.

4. Cook 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

5. Cook completely and cut into squares.

Curried Shrimp

We love shimp.

I thought Ina's Garlic Shrimp Scampi was my favourite way to eat it until I tried this.

This curry is so easy and, because shrimp cooks so quickly, it's ready in no time.

I know I've said it before, but in a recipe like this it will really pay to use a nice curry powder. I used Arvinda's here.

So to make this, you totally throw everything in a big frying pan, cook and finish with a huge squeeze of lime and a swirl of plain yogurt. Done.

Serve it over rice.

I threw some finely sliced green beans in at the end, but small green peas would be even better.

Curried Shrimp

(adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food Cookbook)

Serves at least 4

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 large onion finely chopped, or thinly sliced

pinch cayenne

Coarse Salt

2 Tbsp Tomato paste

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp heaped, ground ginger

Fresh pepper

1 1/2 C fish or vegetable stock

1.5 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 C chopped green beans or frozen peas

1/4 C plain yogurt (or sour cream)

1 lime, juiced (plus extra wedges for the table)

Cooked basmati or jasmine rice

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion 1/2 tsp salt and pinch of cayenne.

Cook 3-5 mins or until onion is soft. Add tomato paste, curry powder, ginger and a few times round with the pepper mill. Cook breaking up the tomato paste and stirring around the spices until fragrant, about 1 minute.

2. Add tomatoes and stock. Cook 5 minutes. Add shrimp, cook until pink and opaque. Remove from heat. Add peas.

3. Squeeze the lime over the top and add the yogurt. Stir again. Serve over rice with extra wedges of lime for the citrus fiends like me.