Chia balls are a great solution to a need for an easy snack. They combine nut butter, chia seeds, and rolled oats to provide a variety of nutrients. Because the chia seeds in this recipe aren’t exposed to much liquid, they’ll expand in your stomach to keep you feeling full longer. For that reason, make sure to drink enough water after eating these chia balls.

It feels weird to say that at this time tomorrow, I will have sat through the last class of my undergrad. I think I was a little worried I wouldn’t make it. My final exam will be next Monday, and then I’m really actually done. Last week, I officially got my spot in nutrition school. Things are finally coming together. It feels good! I decided to ride the “high” and make the chia balls after work. These really don’t require too much work and are loaded with nutrients.

 

Chocolate Nut Butter Chia Balls

Ingredients
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup nut or seed butter of choice
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then roll into 1 inch balls with your hands. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

If you’re wondering just how dedicated I am to following my posting schedule these days, here’s how much. I had class scheduled from 1pm to 4pm, and dinner plans for 5:30. Having not had time to cook anything in advance, between the usual demands (full time work, school, you know the gist), I had to make a decision. Was I, once again, going to post late? I missed the second half of my class in order to run home before my dinner plans to make dinner rolls for you folks.

Now, before you frown at me for missing half of my class, let me say this. Today was the first lecture for that particular course. We were only going to cover the introduction for those who had never studied the topic. I have a minor in that subject, so I figured I could miss half of the introduction. You’re probably thinking, “You’re a stranger, why would I care?” so I feel the need to mention that my mom reads my blog (or used to, at least).

Now, about the actual dinner rolls. This recipe comes from my early gluten free days. I was really badly missing bread, but I didn’t feel courageous enough to attack an actual loaf of bread (if you picture that literally, it’s actually quite a funny image). I figured dinner rolls would suit my craving, but I couldn’t find a recipe that fit all of my dietary concerns and which was also yeast free. I just didn’t want to bother with the yeast. Thus, this recipe was born. I’ve brought these rolls to many a potluck, since.

Dinner Rolls

Ingredients
3/4 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp corn free baking powder
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp water)
1 cup water
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 375F. Grease 6 cups of a standard sized muffin pan. I use the 6-muffin aluminum pans you can get at the grocery store.

In a small bowl, prepare your flax egg and set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl or a larger measuring cup, combine all the wet ingredients. Mix everything together and spoon out evenly into the muffin pan.

Cook for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and remove the rolls as soon as you can possibly handle them. Otherwise, they’ll get soggy. Makes 6 rolls so multiply recipe as needed.

I wasn’t able to come up with a better name for this meal. It would be easy to put the word “Southern” in front of the dish name, but that would be false advertising. It is a black bean meal. It has brown rice. You serve it in a bowl. It is a complete protein, though, so eat up! The thing I like about this meal is that it can be eaten hot or cold. If you let it sit overnight in the fridge before serving, the flavours blend together for extra tastiness.

It looks like this summer will give me a hard time blog-wise. My apartment is on the warmer side. It’s 24C outside right now, and it already feels too warm indoors to use the oven or the stove. I guess that’s what happens when you live on the 5th floor with massive windows but only a small window opening. Let’s wait and see what happens when it’s 45 degrees in July. I do have plans to do a mostly raw detox at some point when I have more time to cook, so maybe this summer will be more about no-cook recipes.

I rushed home yesterday after work to cook this and write this post. My schedule’s been so packed. I’m still working full time (and beyond) while taking summer courses, with the hope of finishing my bachelor’s degree in July.

Black Bean and Brown Rice Bowl

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups water
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, finely chopped
Approximately 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (or salsa)
1 can black beans, drained
Salt to taste

Directions
Combine rice, water, and chili powder in a small to medium pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until all the water has been absorbed.

In the meantime, chop the bell pepper and the onion and slice the mushrooms. Cook in a skillet or a frying pan with a bit of oil over medium low heat until the onion is translucent, then remove from heat. When the rice is done cooking, combine all the ingredients together and serve.

Today is probably the hottest day we’ve had so far this year in Ottawa. Like, carrot salad for dinner hot. While I was running around town getting a bunch of stuff done, I stopped into Starbucks to get hydrated. The barista commented that I was a in earlier than usual. When I told her I was just stopping in and that I didn’t have a blog post for today, she said, “But what about your fans?”

So, for my readers, I went home and I made something that didn’t require the oven. My apartment is on the 5th floor, so it’s even hotter in there than outside. I seem to always have carrots and apples in the fridge, no matter how long it’s been since I’ve done groceries. In the winter, when I just couldn’t get to the grocery store, I made a raw carrot salad for dinner out of desperation a few times. It tastes good, but it won’t make a full meal if you’re looking for something protein packed.

I julienne the carrots using my trust Jamie Oliver Julienne Peeler, but you can use a mandoline or buy bagged julienne carrots. If you’re really committed, you can also just chop the carrots into juliennes slices. Let me know if you do that, because that’s pretty hardcore.

No Cook Carrot Salad

Ingredients
3 large carrots, peeled and julienned
1/2 granny smith apple, chopped (and peeled, if not organic)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp raw honey

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Serve immediately or refrigerate for no more than a couple of hours. If you plan to prepare the salad ahead of time, add the sliced almonds when you’re ready to serve it. If kept longer, the almonds will soften.

I eat potato wedges to forget… Have you ever gotten to the grocery store, only to realize that you didn’t have your wallet? I did yesterday. I only realized it after having put all the items on the conveyor belt, so I couldn’t just discretely put everything back and pretend it never happened. So, I decided to do my groceries at a different store today. Since yesterday, every time I’m about to step out, I check my purse about five times to make sure I have my wallet on me.

A good way to forget about these kinds of problems is to eat black pepper and lime potato wedges. I almost always make them using yellow potatoes, but for some reason, this time, I decided I’d go for red potatoes. It didn’t turn out as nicely as the yellow potatoes usually do, so I definitely recommend sticking to yellow potatoes.

Black Pepper and Lime Potato Wedges

Ingredients
1 package yellow baby potatoes (About 680g/24oz)
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lime
Loads of ground black pepper
Olive oil to coat
Salt to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut potatoes into wedges. To do so, cut them in half. Lay the flat side down and make three wedges out of each half. Mix the potato wedges with just enough olive oil to coat them, salt to taste, and loads of black pepper. And I mean LOADS. Lay them out evenly on a baking sheet and cook for about 40 minutes, or until cooked to your liking, taking them out halfway through to toss them.

While the potatoes cook, zest the lime.

When the potatoes are done, toss in the zest and squeeze half of the lime over the potato wedges. You can add more lime if the lime is small or if you simply like extra lime.

One of my dear friends recently moved a few hours away. We talk food a lot, and she gives me all kinds of recipe suggestions and requests to post on here. Her list of dietary restrictions is worse than mine, but includes most of my dietary restrictions.  Her latest request was for popsicles. She’s a big fan of coconut, so I went for straight-up coconut popsicles this time. If you’re wondering what I mean by “straight-up coconut”, check out this recipe for raspberry cream popsicles I posted last year. It’s a coconut based recipe, but the popsicles aren’t coconut flavoured.

Last week, I mentioned that it was finally warming up in Canada. I know it’s technically still only Spring, but one never knows how long to expect the nice weather to last. We didn’t really get much of a summer last year, and then Winter was exceptionally long. For this reason, I’m jumping right into Summer-mode, lest Summer be over in the blink of an eye.

So, Nic, this one’s for you. And for anyone who enjoys coconut, summer, popsicles, or any combination of those.

Coconut Popsicles

Ingredients
1 can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut shreds

Directions
Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge. Slowly turn it upside down and open it. That way, the thicker part of the coconut milk will be at the bottom and the liquid qill be at the top. Drain the liquid, or save it for something else (try adding it to smoothies).

Scoop out the fatty part of the coconut milk into a bowl. Mix all ingredients well and pour into popsicle moulds. Freeze for at least 4-6 hours (depending on your freezer).

Makes about 3 popsicles (depending on the moulds you use) so multiply as needed.

Well, friends, it is finally starting to look like spring in Canada. It sure took Mother Nature long enough! It’s just about popsicle season! Speaking of popsicles, last year, I was planning to post a chocolate popsicle recipe. There was a little problem with my freezer at the time, though. The popsicles I made kept the consistency of pudding. So, I ate some very cold chocolate pudding. I did end up figuring out how to adjust the settings on my freezer so that it froze properly, and made raspberry cream popsicles a few weeks later.

Avocado-based chocolate pudding is nothing new in the vegan and food sensitivities world. However, I find that most recipes complicate things by adding ingredients that don’t need to be in the pudding. For example, milk (cow’s or non-dairy) will do nothing but water down the perfect creaminess of the avocado. I also find that adding vanilla extract takes away from the richness of the cocoa, rather than complementing it. So, I like to keep my chocolate pudding recipe nice and simple. Let’s say it becomes a “dark chocolate pudding”.

P.S. If you want to make this into popsicles, all you need to do is place the mixture into popsicle moulds. It works well, provided that your freezer is actually functional.

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients
1 large ripe avocado
1 tbsp cocoa powder or raw cacao
Maple syrup to taste (a couple tablespoons should do)

Directions
With a large spoon, scoop the avocado out of its skin. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Put it into function until you have pudding. Eat the pudding. That was complicated, wasn’t it?

If you want to turn it into chocolate mint pudding, add a splash of peppermint extract.

Makes only 1 serving, so multiply as needed.

When I was younger, when I went to Calgary with my mom, we would go to the Eau Claire market and get the best cinnamon raisin bread ever. The memory of that bread stayed with me. Since I can no longer buy amazing raisin bread, I took it upon myself to make beauty happen.

I’ve officially lived in four different apartments in the last year. I moved again last week, hopefully for the last time in a looong while. I decided to downsize because my last place was costing me more than I could afford. I found a nice roomy studio with a great kitchen. This one will save me a few hundred dollars a month. Plus, now I live in my favourite neighbourhood in town.

I finally got settled in yesterday. I spent several hours unpacking box after box. I do still have a few boxes to unpack, but all the important stuff has been taken care of. I’m glad, because I ate pre-made meals for a week straight, while all my pans and utensils were held hostage in cardboard. It was too late yesterday to make bread by the time I was done working on the apartment, but I set to it when I woke up this morning.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ingredients
2 cups water (room temperature for bread machine, slightly warm for oven)
3 tbsp flax meal or chia meal – this will be part of the wet ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp maple syrup (or try honey)
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup teff flour
1/2 cup starch (tapioca, potato, arrowroot, or a combination)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
2 tbsp sorghum flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp xanthan gum
2 tsp cinnamon
1 package regular yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 cup sultana raisins

Directions
In the bread machine:
Add all the ingredients in the order listed, except for raisins. If your bread machine has a gluten free function, use that one. Otherwise, a regular function will do. This recipe will make a 2 lb loaf.

When the first mix cycle is finished, check on the dough to make sure there are no lumps left.

Remove the loaf from the bread machine immediately when it is done. Otherwise, it will become soggy. Wait at least ten minutes before cutting it.

In the oven:
In a small bowl, combine water, maple syrup, and yeast. It should take about ten minutes to proof the yeast (foam will form at the top). If the yeast doesn’t proof, it’s no longer good. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. When the yeast has proofed, add in the rest of the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones and mix well.

Transfer the dough to a greased loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let the yeast rise for an hour in a warm place (try over the fridge).

Heat the oven to 350F degrees. Once it reaches that temperature, put the loaf in the oven and bake for one hour. Let the loaf cool down before cutting.

I know it’s so cliché, but pasta salad is honestly the easiest thing to bring to a potluck. When I worked in an office, half the potluck dishes were pasta salads. With my food sensitivities, I usually only get to feast on these dishes with my eyes.

In theory, going vegan sounds really great to me. I don’t like the thought of eating all sorts of antibiotics and hormones. I can’t afford organic meat. Also, it helps to take into consideration the ethical and environmental aspects of going vegan. However, every time I go vegan, I find myself losing too much weight. Because my metabolism works extra hard, I need to eat a lot of protein to keep weight on.

…Oh, the joys of my belly monsters. I would love to eat tons of legumes. However, those little buggers seem to run my life, and I find myself having to avoid lots of decent sources of protein. I manage to sneak all kinds of inoffensive protein into my morning smoothies, but what about the other meals? That’s something for me to ponder for a while.

While brainstorming for weight-gaining ideas with friends and family, the idea of pasta salad came up. I know it’s not as high protein as some other items, but it’s a start. I find that most vegan pasta salad recipes online are rather disappointing. They mostly just use pasta as a replacement for lettuce. I decided to give my pasta salad a different burst of flavour. The fennel seed really complements the mushroom flavour.

Mushroom and Fennel Seed Pasta Salad

Ingredients
150g/5oz pasta of your choice (I used brown rice fusilli)
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp fennel seed
Olive oil to coat pasta (the amount will depend on the type of pasta you use)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Directions
Cook pasta according to package directions. When finished, drain and rinse in cold water. Drain well and add just enough olive oil to coat completely without having it swimming in oil. Set aside to cool.

In the meantime, heat a bit of oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the mushrooms and the fennel seed and keep tossing them around. The idea is not the make the mushroom toasty. You just want to cook it a bit and have it pick up the fennel seed’s flavour.

When everything has cooled down, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Makes 2 servings, so multiply as needed.

This comfort food chicken meal is the kind of dish I make when I don’t feel like making anything fancy. Those who have tried it rave about how good it is, though.  What’s great about it is that it’s a one pot meal. You can leave it on the stove and come back and check on it every 10-15 minutes to make sure it hasn’t caught fire.

In other news, I finished my exams for the semester today. This means that I have two consecutive compressed courses left, and then I will have completed my undergrad. It’s taken me extra long to complete this degree, so it definitely feels like a relief to be getting to the end of it, finally.

Comfort Food Chicken and Veggies (paleo)

Ingredients
4-6 bone-in, skin on chicken legs/backs/thighs/breasts (choose your favourite)
2 large carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 cups butternut squash cubes
1/2-1 cup green beans
1 cup button mushrooms
1 small or medium onion, cut in half and sliced
1/4-1/3 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp oil

Directions
In a large “cooker” (like a deeper frying pan with a lid), heat the oil over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the chicken. Place skin down into the cooker and brown for about 5 minutes, then flip it over and brown for another few minutes. Add in the butternut squash, carrots, broth and about half of the rosemary. Salt and pepper some more. Lower heat to medium high and cover for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients. You can add a bit more salt and pepper. Make sure that there is still a bit of broth in the cooker. If not, add just a bit more. It will make the chicken nice and tender, and will give you a nice gravy-like sauce at the end. Cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes.