Sweet Potato Salad

After a classic Greek Salad, this is one of my family's favourite salads to make. We make it for family get togethers and everyone loves it! It's also a good way to dress up sweet potatoes for someone who doesn't love them plain as chips. 

Ingredients:

3 Sweet potatoes

olive oil

1/2 pack low-fat feta cheese

1 package of spinach

3 tbsp pumpkin seeds (roasted)

1 lime

1/2 cup of sweet chilli sauce

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame seeds (roasted)

The recipe is not my own, I got it from Sarah Percy, a daughter of someone my mom worked for, and she published it in the Guardian. The only thing my family does differently is add less feta, she uses an entire package, whereas we only use half to reduce some of the sodium.  

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F and on a baking sheet, place peeled, sweet potatoes cut into discs

2. Drizzle with olive oil and cook for about 30 minutes or until soft

3. In a non-stick frying pan, roast the sesame seeds until they start to brown and then roast the pumpkin seeds until they brown and start to pop

4. In a small bowl, mix lime juice, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce. Mix in the roasted sesame seeds

5. The salad assembly is in layers. First, layer the bottom of the bowl with spinach, then place a few sweet potato slices on top, and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds and feta. On top of this layer, drizzle some dressing. Make another layer and drizzle again, until you have used up all of the ingredients.

Enjoy!

-A

Oatmeal To-Go!

I love to eat oatmeal in the morning, it's one of the only foods that keep me going until lunch. Sometimes I don't have the time to make it in the morning, so I decided to try making some baked oatmeal banana muffins. They are perfect to grab on the go in the morning. 

Ingredients: 

3 ripe bananas 

1 egg 

1 cup coconut milk 

1/4 cup maple syrup 

3 cups oats 

1 tsp baking powder 

Chia seeds 

Directions: 

Blend all wet ingredients in the blender, add to dry ingredients. Let the combination sit for 20-30 minutes. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Enjoy! 

-M

Mango Salsa Salmon

Everyone knows that in terms of meat, fish is healthy. It doesn't have the saturated fats of many of the other animal meats and contains higher content of omega-3's. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of fish, unless the flavour is completely masked, or is something like Tilapia, and there is no fishy taste.

This recipe that we got from a neighbour, (with some slight alterations) is one that allows me to eat salmon, with the yummy mango salsa and guava BBQ sauce.

This is by no means a quick recipe (there is a lot of slicing/dicing involved) and best with a sous-chef, like my mom, Patti ;). I will give an alternative to make it faster.

To start, preheat broiler.

Mango-Veggie Salsa:
1 red pepper, ribs and seeds removed, cut into small dices
1 yellow pepper, ribs and seeds removed, cut into small dices
1 green pepper, ribs and seeds removed, cut into small dices
2 firm, ripe mangoes, peeled and cut into small dices (I've even used a bag of frozen diced mangoes when they are not in season and cut them into smaller portions while frozen and they defrost by the time you are done the recipe)
1 large red onion, cut into small dices
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1/2 cup minced cilantro
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 juiced limes
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cans (8 oz each) black beans, drained and rinsed

Combine all the ingredients and gently toss.

Guava BBQ sauce:
*This is the step that could be eliminated if you are pressed for time and you could just use a maple syrup glaze on top of the salmon instead*

3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
8 oz. guava paste, cut in chunks (Many times we use apricot jam instead when this ingredient is not  available)
1½ tsp tomato paste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1½ tsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp dark rum

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté the onions over medium heat until soft (~5-7 minutes). Add guava paste, tomato paste, brown sugar, allspice, curry powder and vinegar. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes until the guava paste has melted
2. Remove from heat and blend the mixture with a hand blender (or transfer to blender). Add lime juice and rum, puree until smooth

Cooking the Salmon:

1. Place salmon skin side down on a large foil-lined broiler pan and pour the BBQ sauce over it
2. Broil for 10-12 minutes for well-done. The sauce will start to burn near the edges
3. Serve the salmon covered with the mango salsa

-A

Zucchini Pasta with a Creamy Avocado Sauce

Mel and I have both been wanting to make zucchini pasta for the longest time but since we don't have a spiralizer we never attempted it. Since we have so many zucchini's from the garden and I had a bit of time on my hands I decided to make it using just my vegetable peeler.

 The Pasta:
I used a medium sized zucchini and once it was peeled fried in about a tsp of olive oil for a few minutes, then added 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer. Once it was cooked (which only took about 5 minutes) I strained it and it was ready.

The Sauce:
-one avocado
-2 cloves of garlic
-squeezed the juice from 1/2 of a lemon
-1/4 cup of fresh basil
-salt and pepper to taste

Puree all the ingredients until it's smooth and then add it to the pasta and you are done!

I topped mine with a bit of freshly grated parmesan and one small tomato. I was surprised at how delicious this was, especially since I am a carb queen I thought I would really miss not having this sauce on pasta but I didn't at all and plan to make this often!

-A