Fellow Foodie Bites #6

Heya foodies! The lazy monster has me by the seat of the pants! I have to be at the bakery at 8am, and then in for my second shift at 9:30pm. Ouch, those double shifters are brutal! So, enough complaining and excuses. I did have a 4 day weekend, after all.

Here are some more things that I am stockpiling for a rainy day. Things I must make! Things that maybe you should make too!

Fellow Foodie Bites #6
- I made these pumpkin chocolate chip bars at work last week. Other than extending the baking time by about 10 minutes they were fantastic!!!
-This one sounds like an amazingly easy and tasty dinner. Soba noodles with almond butter and curry sauce.
-Balsamic portabello salad is definitely on my list! I really want to try eating more mushrooms (I usually loathe them).
-More dessert that I don't need, and want anyway. Chocolate dulce de leche flan. drool.
-Fried apple cakes would be a great way to kick off apple season!
-I actually already made this chai mix! It's great! I like mine pretty intense, so I pretty much doubled the measurements of spices. I've been enjoying it with a splash of vanilla rice milk and a drizzle of local honey! I love you Fall!
-I finally found a recipe for yeasted waffles! My dad used to make these for me. Cant wait to make them!
-This isn't a recipe, but I love sprouts, and am interested in sprouting at home. This is a great beginners guide!
-Break this one out for the holidays! Who doesn't enjoy nibbling on a little dish of candied nuts?!
-More pumpkin love! Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! Hurray!
-I plan on making this one this weekend! It's a great way to incorporate a root vegetable that I am unfamiliar with, while trying a new Fall-y recipe! Parsnip and apple soup.
-Here's a different way to eat your kale! Tuscan kale salad!
-My new goal is to try to make sauces more often. They really liven up any meal. Chimmichurri sauce seems like a good starting place!
-This is the fate of the tofu I have in the fridge. Baked tofu!
-Because you can never have too much dessert in you life! Lavender creme brule! Oh my goodness!
-More tasty apple treats! And this one is for lazy people. Very appropriate for this post! Lazy girl apple crisp.
-I love naan. Enough said.
-This looks like something different, but worth a try. Plus, I sure need a way to sneak more veggies into my diet! There's a veggie in my cheesecake. Raw dessert!

Holy cow, that was a lot of food lovin'! Did you guys survive it, or are you in a yummy food coma? I realize these posts aren't as exciting without pics and all, but I did warn you about my current state of laziness!

I think it's time for a divine bite of chocolate and a movie!

Oh, before I go...have you entered my Larabar giveaway yet? You have until this Sunday to enter, and because I have so many cases of Larabars to get rid of you have a darn good chance of winning! Sooo...enter now! It's easy, I promise!

Night all!

Larabar Review and a Giveaway!

Hi guys! So, remember the other day with all the excitement of packages arriving and being ripped open? Well, I have had some time to nibble my way through all three flavors of Larabars that were so generously sent to me. I have also been distributing them to my friends and family, and have gotten their responses as well. Now it's time to tell you all about it!

First off, Larabar is a company that focuses on filling the body with only good-for-you, nutritious things. They believe that "food is most satisfying in its simplest form". These nut and fruit bars contain high quality ingredients for a simple and delicious product. I was VERY impressed upon reading the ingredients lists for these three flavors. The cashew bar has only two ingredients, and it happens to be my favorite! Score! No hidden, scary additives. No bizarre preservatives. I can even pronounce every ingredient! To top it all off, they are gluten, dairy and soy free, vegan, and kosher! Not too shabby!

Now, on to the flavors! As I said, the Cashew is my favorite, and Ben's favorite as well. All it has in it are dates and cashews! The thing I really like about this flavor is that it doesn't just taste date-y. Lots of date based bars lack much interest, and just taste like dates. Not the best. The cashew flavor really comes out in these, and although they are a bit plain, they are the perfect tasty snack.

The cocoa coconut chew bars were second in line. I had hoped that these would taste a bit more chocolatey than they did, given the name. It could use a bit more coconut for my taste buds, too, but it's otherwise a very good flavor. I do get more of a date flavor from this bar though. Containing dates, almonds, walnuts, cocoa powder and dried coconut it's another healthy choice!

Key lime was our least favorite, although I have different feelings about it each time I eat one. The lime and coconut flavors come through very strongly, which I liked a lot, but the sweetness from the dates just doesn't seem to meld well. I don't know why. This bar also seems to be a bit softer than the others. I think you just have to be in the mood for this flavor. I had one yesterday, and didn't really like it at all. But I just ate one, to refresh my memory before writing this review, and I found it to be very full flavored and refreshing, with a lot tangy interest in my mouth. Pretty darn good! I am so indecisive! This one contains dates, cashews, almonds, dried coconut, and lime juice concentrate.

Each time I eat one of these I have to re-read the ingredients to convince myself that they are so healthy. The sweetness really makes these bars feel like a treat. Plus, they are really handy to keep in a car, purse or backpack as they don't melt! After trying these I really want to try their other flavors, there are so many!

If these bars are something you'd like to try, then all you need to do is enter my giveaway! I'll be sending out cases of 12 bars, with 4 of each of the above flavors for your sampling pleasure!

How do you enter?
-You must be a "follower" of the Ravenous Rowie blog
Then choose one of the following three actions: 
- leave me a comment on this post, telling me which Larabar flavor is your favorite.
-Or, if you have never tried one, which flavor are you most interested in trying?
-Or what do you think the next new Larabar flavor should be?

I will do the drawing for the winners a week from today, on Sunday, September 26th. I have a lot of these to give away, so your chances of winning are pretty good! Good luck!

Delicious kale and Garbanzos

Hey there friends! Congratulations on making it to the weekend! The weather is warm and muggy, very overcast and foggy with showers. Perfect!

Needless to say I am currently living in my slippers.

We are all preparing for my Father-in-laws birthday tomorrow. He will be participating in the Terry Fox run, so he'll need some good recovery birthday food. Ben and I made a cake for him, and I have some dark chocolate ice cream that I'm about to churn. Oooh, it's gonna be good! Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it later.

The other night I made one of our favorite side dishes to go with the chicken Ben was poaching it white wine. Usually we use spinach in this dish, but I had kale on hand that needed to be used. I think I actually prefer it because it holds up better than the spinach does. Chard or collards would probably work well too.

Here's what you need to make this dish.
Kale and Garbanzos
1 can garbanzo beans
1 bunch kale
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp lemon juice
s&p
olive oil for pan

Start out by getting everything all chopped up. Dice your onion, mince your garlic, rinse your beans. Wash your kale, strip out the center stem, and chop into 1" strips (or torn chunks if you're lazy like me).

Heat a large skillet on medium (or medium high if you're willing to keep a close eye on it), and add your olive oil. Just enough to coat the pan. Toss in the onions and cook until they are softened and just beginning to caramelize.

Add in the garlic and saute for about one minute, then add the beans and cumin. Cook together for another couple of minutes. Add the kale and lemon juice. It looks like a lot of kale to start with, but it will really shrink down. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once everything is hot, about 5 minutes,  you're all done! This is a very flavorful dish. You could use any herb or spice that sounds good, it doesn't have to be cumin. Vary the type of greens, and the type of beans to keep it interesting each time you make it. This is definitely one of our kitchen standbys!

Served with the chicken and some fresh sourdough bread it was so filling and tasty! I realize that it looks like something explicit dribbled all over the top of my kale and beans, but it's just the sauce from the chicken (Sorry, was that too gross?).

...Awkward silence...

To change the subject completely...I actually remembered to take some pictures of my sugar cookie pumpkins last night at work!

Here they are!

I though they turned out pretty well!

Hurray for Fall and the upcoming holidays! I know, just a little bit early for that sort of thing, but Canadian Thanksgiving is really just right around the corner!

Do you feel like I'm taunting you with pictures of things without giving you the recipe? Kind of like this cat is taunting this dog?

Well, if I post pics of something without a recipe, and you'd really like to have that recipe, just let me know! I'll be happy to post it for you! There are just so many things out there to make, I have a hard time choosing what to share!

What is your favorite way to eat kale?

Pigs Crunch Apples

Happy Friday everyone! Isn't it a great feeling? Knowing that the weekend is just around the corner?!

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me, so I thought I'd let you know how it all went down. I started off the morning (well, my morning, on baker's hours, which means about 1pm) with a foodie blogger favorite that I had never tried: OIAJ. Or oats in a jar as they are also known. I have oatmeal about half of the time for breakfast, but this time I made it in a mostly empty almond butter jar. I've been seeing this on other blogs for a long time now, and only just jumped on the bandwagon. It was so good, and a great way to use the last scrapin's  from the nut butter jar! Perfect for a misty, rainy morning. YUM!

As Ben and I were waking up and taking our morning stroll around the drippy yard a delivery truck came up the driveway with some packages for me! I knew Larabar was sending me some samples, but I was not prepared for this!

I can't believe it! So, now you know what my upcoming giveaway will be! You're just gonna have to wait for it though, cuz I need to taste all the flavors and come up with a review for you first! But, I have to say, after tasting one bar so far, I may have a hard time letting go of many of these! ;)

After the package excitement (which I went on about all day, much to Ben's dismay) we went down the hill in the rain to feed our pigs, Rufus and Dorothy. A friend had brought over a load of apples and pears that had fallen from his tree, and fruit is like candy for pigs! As you can see, the deer thought the apples were pretty good too, although we hadn't intended to host a buffet.

Uh, just a heads up...that is not my arm!

Dorothy gave the apples a sniff,

and started chowing down! She loved them.

Happy pig!

Rufus was pretty pleased as well.

 He gets so manic for food, and sugary things send him over the moon! His apples and pears were gone almost instantaneously! What a pig! hehe

The fruit had a lot of blemishes, but looked so Fall-y that I had to snap some pics.

It's a bad habit.

I love what all the rain is doing around our property. Little mushrooms

and big ones,

are popping up all over.

Everything is washed off and green.

So pretty!

Uh, and pretty damp! Guess who's gonna be smelling like wet dog!

When my Father-in-law came home from work he brought me ANOTHER package that he had picked up at the post office! Sa-weet! Two packages in one day! You'll have to wait for a full report on this as well, but here's a little teaser. Marx foods sent me some palm leaf plates, as well as a few other goodies! Can't wait to try all of it!

In the evening my MIL's cousin arrived from So-Cal for a visit, so we'll be enjoying her company for about a week. We didn't have much time with her, however, as Ben and I had to scoot off to work. Last night I officially started making Fall cookies, nice pumpkins and maple leaves that I'll be decorating tonight. I love working at a bakery! I just have so much fun! I'll be sure to snap some shots of my cookies tonight.

I am aware that you are all waiting to see what the exciting part of my day was, but that's it! That was the whole day. I'm just easily amused and excited. Rain, packages and a ravenous Rufus are all I need to make my day!

Here's to simplicity and being content! I'll just leave you with these pretty pictures of the misty islands. Have a good weekend!

Last Ode to Summer: Caprese Salad

Hi everyone! I am so excited, because it is feeling like FALL! Fall is my absolute favorite...the changing leaves, the cooler weather, and the produce! I do realize that it is not officially Fall until later this month, so as a last ode to Summer I made a Caprese salad.

There is no recipe here, I just gathered ingredients and tossed them together in a bowl.

I started with mini Bocconcini from the market. I love fresh mozzarella! I admittedly popped a few of these into my mouth as I sliced them in half.

The basil I used was from our yard, and the little tomatoes were from the Saanich fall fair. They were very acidic and flavorful, and showed off their color beautifully when I cut them in half.

I put it all in a bowl together, making sure that there were about equal parts cheese and tomato, and enough basil that you would get a little with each bite. I poured a bit of plain balsamic salad dressing over it and let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours.

There is nothing original about this Italian recipe, but it is such a beautiful blend of bright colors and fresh flavors. My family and I really enjoyed this. Ben doesn't even like tomatoes very much, and he loved this salad!

I used all small ingredients because my tomatoes were tiny, but you can make a large plate with slices of big tomatoes and large fresh mozzarella too. It's worth trying at least once!

While on a walk in our yard the next day Ben and I discovered a little surprise. Tiny bright green tree frogs living in the plants along the side of our house! They were out sunning themselves on the big leaves, and were just SO cute!

We obviously spent WAY too much time taking pictures of them.

It's nice to have little neighbors like these. They sing to us from under our bedroom window in the evenings.

Perhaps they are saying goodbye to Summer too.

Nectarine Gelato

Hello friends! Sorry it's been a while!

Remember my post about the Saanich fair, and all of the wonderful produce I bought there? Well, following through with my addiction to creamy frozen desserts, I decided to try making gelato. By they time I got all of my produce home some of it was the worse of wear. The skins on my very-ripe nectarines had split, and the juices were gathering in the bag! I knew I had to use these right away! What better way to get the flavor of ripe fruit, and not worry about it being a little soft? Puree it!

Here is Cathy Burgett's recipe from culinary school for fruit gelato!

Basic mixture for fruit gelato
1 1/2 cups whole milk (I actually used 1% and it worked fine)
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/3 cup dry nonfat milk powder (1oz.)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp granulated gelatin

2 cups fruit puree, strained (berry, mango, peach, nectarine etc.) I used nectarines
or
1 Tbsp citrus zest and 1 1/2 cups strained citrus juice

Combine milk, cream and corn syrup in a saucepan. Combine dry milk, sugar and gelatin in a small bowl and stir to mix.

Add the dry mixture to the milk in saucepan and whisk to prevent lumps. Place saucepan over low heat, bring mixture to a simmer, whisking occasionally. Remove from the heat and cool.

While the gelato base is cooling, puree your fruit.

Stir in fruit puree before freezing in an ice cream maker.

This turned out so amazingly creamy, without freezing too hard or becoming icy. The flavor was beyond what I would have hoped for! The ripe, fresh, full flavor of the nectarines came through beautifully, without any competition! I wanted to eat the whole batch immediately! It was so so so so sooo good!

But then I remembered my little jewel box of currants, also from the fair. I had been undecided as to what to do with them. I was so impressed by this gelato recipe that I figured, hey, why not? I'll try currant gelato too!

I know that currants are very tart, so when I pureed them I added an extra 1/3 cup sugar into the blender.

The seeds in these currants were rather large, so I strained them out.

I mixed it all together when cooled,

And froze it in the ice cream maker,

then put it into the freezer.

When it was ready the texture was just as creamy and luscious as the nectarine gelato, but the flavor was not quite what I was hoping for. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, other than "funky". Not bad, just very different. I have been using it in smoothies. It's just not up to par. So, when wondering what to do with your glistening bunches of fresh currants, do NOT make it into gelato! Now I'm wishing I'd made a sauce out of them instead.

Le sigh.

It sure turned out a pretty color though!

Be creative with this recipe! Make lime gelato, or lemon vanilla! Try Mango, strawberry, or boysenberry! The possibilities are endless! After making ice cream, gelato, sherbet and sorbet I have to say that gelato gives me the texture I really want in a frozen dessert. It stays creamy and light in the freezer. The fruit is uncooked, so the flavor is fresh and intense. There are no eggs, so you don't end up with that cooked egg flavor you sometimes get with ice cream. There is also only a 1/2 cup of cream, and I used 1% milk, so your mouth doesn't feel coated in fat! Next time I want a failsafe recipe for deliciousness, this is what I'll reach for!

What is your favorite version of frozen desserts?