Paleo Spaghetti Bolognese

So let's just get one thing straight: I am not on the Paleo diet. Though I find the concept of eating like a caveman very intriguing, it's not in the cards for me.  Due to the fact that I'm a rower who trains 5-6 times a week, I need a relatively high-carb diet to be fuelling all the activity. No complaints here! When it comes to my love for bread, the limit does not exist.

That being said, I love the idea that Paleo is based off of : eat like our ancestors did. What does that mean? It means eat fresh stuff and don't buy things that have a longer shelf life than you do (lookin' at you, Twinkies). 

It also helps that tons of Paleo recipes seem absolutely delicious. So without further ado, I give you...

Paleo Spaghetti Bolognese

(I've made a couple small changes, but see the original recipe here)

Ingredients

- 1 tbsp butter or lard

- 1/2 lb ground beef (if you prefer a very meaty sauce, you can use a full pound)

- 1/2 onion diced

- 2 carrots peeled and diced 

- 2 cloves of garlic diced

- 1 tsp dried oregano

- 1 can of whole tomatoes

- 1 tbsp tomato paste

- 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

- 1 spaghetti squash

Directions

- In a large pot, melt butter or lard

- Add ground beef to pot, cooking on med-high for 5 minutes or until browned

- Using a slotted spoon, remove ground beef and set aside

- Add diced onion, carrot, garlic and oregano to the juices in the pot

- Cover and allow to cook until vegetables are soft

- Add ground beef, tomatoes (and juice in the can!), tomato paste and chilli flakes to the vegetables

- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes

- While waiting, preheat oven to 350 F

- Slice spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise, and remove seeds and what i like to refer to as the "stringy bits"

- Place squash halves on a baking sheet, cut side down, and bake for 25 minutes

- Remove squash from oven and thouroughly scrape the inside with a fork to form the spaghetti-like noodles

- Return squash to oven cut-side up (so your noodles don't fall out) for 5 minutes

- Serve in a bowl with generous serving of sauce, or, if you're feeling adventurous, pour the sauce directly into the squash and eat it like that!

My outburst of undying love for squash

I think it's official. Pumpkin spice lattes may be hogging all the spotlight, but fall is the season of the squash and I'm not letting anyone forget it!! #takebackfall #stopPSL2014

Just kidding. I love PSLs. BUT SQUASH RULES YAAAAAAS.

Kale Stamppot

For all you non Dutchies out there, a stamppot is essentially mashed potato with another vegetable mashed in to it. Though the most popular variety to my knowledge is kale stamppot, it can also be made with carrots, endives, and beets amongst other things.

When kale suddenly became the new fad superfood, I tried making kale chips, hated them, and promptly went on with my life thinking that kale was an awful thing that I wanted nothing to do with. Soon after, I discovered that I had been eating kale my entire life without knowing it because my grandmother only used the dutch word and called it boerenkool. So what did she know that I didn't? What was her secret?

Boiling the crap out of it. That was the secret.

If you boil kale, it seems that it loses that terrible bitterness it gives off when you eat it other ways and turns into a yummy hearty vegetable that happens to make potatoes delicious in the process. 

Kale Stamppot

Ingredients

- 5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

- 1 onion, diced

- 5 cups of washed and chopped kale

- 1 bay leaf

- 1/4 cup of milk

- 1 tbsp butter

- salt and pepper to taste

Directions

- Combine potatoes, onion, kale and bay leaf in a large pot

- Add enough water to cover the ingredients

- Bring to a boil

- Boil for 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender

- Remove bay leaf
- Drain

- Add milk and butter to pot

- Mash all ingredients together

- Serve topped with sausages if desired

This meal may be a little heavy for summertime, but I just got back from spending some time with the Dutchie side of the family and it made me feel morally obliged to cook something from the motherland. For the record, I also bought a big hunk of gouda and a loaf of rye bread that I've been devouring and I'm competing with my cousin Meghan to see who can learn Dutch the fastest, so there might be a slight trend here. Regardless, I regret nothing!! 

Doei! 

(Dutch for bye. See? I'm learning!! Eat my dust, Meghan.)

Arugula and Tomato Penne with Pesto

I'm going to go ahead and take full credit for this one : this is a Hillary original! I used to think I absolutely hated tomatoes (while loving ketchup and pizza, mind you) until I met my boyfriend. His mom's side of the family is very italian so needless to say when we met I had a choice before me : be polite and eat the tomatoes, or book a one way ticket to bad first impressionville.

I ate the tomatoes.

And they were delicious!!! I've been trying to eat twice as many to make up for lost years ever since I realized how wonderful they can be, and I've definitely become way more interested in italian cuisine. I do still like doing things my own way though, so this penne dish is what my brain came up with when I felt like creating something italian inspired. Someday I promise I'll learn how to make sauce and meatballs, stay tuned!

Arugula and Tomato Penne with Pesto  (2 servings)

Ingredients

- 2 tomatoes, diced

- 1 large onion, diced

- 1 large handful of arugula, chopped

- 1 large clove of garlic, minced

- olive oil

- 2 servings of penne (follow box serving size)

- 2 heaping tbsp of pesto

- grated parmesan (if desired)

Directions

- Boil a pot of water and put penne in to cook (12 minutes for al dente, I prefer 14)

- While pasta cooks, chop up the tomato, onion, arugula and garlic

- Toss all of these in a large pan or wok and sprinkle generously with olive oil, frying on medium heat

- Fry until onion begin to look more transparent and tomatoes have softened 

-Turn the heat down and continue to fry until pasta is done cooking, it will allow flavours to mix with each other

- Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the frying pan, along with pesto

- Mix all ingredients together on low heat

- Add a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese if desired, mixing in

- Serve

TIPS FOR QUICK EASY FOOD

1) Pick things you know go well together. In this case, pasta, tomatoes, garlic and pesto are all commonly used ingredients in italian food, so you already know you can throw them together and it'll all turn out fine. It doesn't matter if you don't know for sure, make educated guesses.

2) Don't use the oven. Anything that needs to be baked either takes forever or at the very least requires you to preheat the oven. Ovens are for long, thought out meals, not "I just got home from the gym, dear god I need sustenance NOW" meals.

3) Chop things in big chunks just because you can. It'll cook down anyway, no need to cut things into perfectly symmetrical tiny cubes. You just do you, no one's going to break out a ruler.

Heavenly Glazed Donuts

Donuts are the little fried dough balls that fell from heaven. Up until last night, it had never really occurred to me that these dreamy snacks could be made at home. However, as I was perusing the food corner of the web last night in search of inspiration, I came across this post {click here} from The Thirty Spot and decided to give it a whirl, adding in some of my own tips and tricks.

A couple observations before we start out...

Deep Fryer : Useful but not crucial to the process. I used a plain old pot half full of canola oil.

Candy thermometer : Again, useful but not necessary. Can be used to measure the temperature of your oil. I just watched the oil for when it started to look like it had what i call the "blown glass effect", when it starts to make shapes in the bottom of the pot, then i used a couple little pieces of dough that I had left as testers to make sure it was hot enough. If those are turning brown, you're golden.

Tools : DO NOT USE ANY PLASTIC SPATULAS, SLOTTED SPOONS OR OTHER INSTRUMENTS THAT WILL COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE OIL. Plastic melts, you have been warned. 

General tip : Donuts cook much faster than you'd imagine. There is no harm in continually flipping them in the oil to make sure they're not burning, it will give you a better sense of how much time they take.

When to eat :  Right away! The donuts do keep for a day or two, but because these are homemade and not stacked with preservatives, they do go stale quicker than you'd like, so don't make them too long in advance.

Heavenly Glazed Donuts (Makes approximately 24)

Ingredients:

Donuts:

- 2 packages of yeast (8g each)

- 1/4 cup of warm water

- 1 1/2 lukewarm milk (easiest way is to microwave it until it's hot then let it cool down)

- 1/2 cup of sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 eggs

- 1/3 cup shortening or unsalted butter

- 5 cups all purpose flour

- canola oil (make sure you have enough, as you will be frying with it and it requires a fair amount of oil)

Glaze:

- 1/3 cup butter (softened)

- 2 cups icing sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 4-6 tbsp hot water

Directions:

- Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl (feel free to mix it, mine didn't dissolve on it's own as fast as I wanted to and in this case, impatience didn't hurt my baking. So go ahead and beat it!)

- Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and 2 cups of the flour.

- Beat until it's all well mixed in

- Add remaining flour and beat until smooth

- Cover and leave to rise for 50-60 minutes. The dough is ready when you can make an indentation and it stays.

- Roll out on a floured surface until dough is 1/2 an inch thick

- Cut the donuts using a large cup for the outer circle and a shot glass for the inner circle. Obviously, you may use a donut cutter if you own one, but i'm assuming most people do not.

- Cut as many as you can, then set aside your donuts, roll out remaining dough again and repeat until you've used as much as possible

- Cover donuts with a tea towel and let them rise again for 30-40 minutes

- While donuts are rising, begin the glaze by beat the icing sugar and butter together

-Beat in vanilla extract

- Add hot water (as hot as your tap goes will do just fine, no need to boil) 1 teaspoon at a time

- Set aside

- If you have a deep fryer, set it to 350 degrees F, if not, fill a pot or a wok styled pan with canola oil and put on high heat

- Once oil is heated (starts making cool patterns, and test dough turns brown, see tips above), place donuts in the oil to fry two at a time, flipping them once you see golden brown creeping up the side

- Flip back to check that both sides are golden, then remove from oil. Easy way is to just slide a butter knife through the middle.

- Set on rack to dry

- Once all donuts are fried, remove oil from heat immediately (or shut fryer off)

- Carefully dip donuts in glaze. The easiest way is to dip it in and twist it. If you prefer, you can also glaze them with a butter knife, but the look may be different.

Grilled cheese with Tomato and Pesto

One last quick one for the day! This fancy lookin' grilled cheese is perfect for those nights when you're craving something delicious but don't particularly want to commit any more than ten minutes to making it.

Grilled Cheese with Tomato and Pesto (1 sandwich)

Ingredients

- 2 slices of bread

- sliced tomato

- mozzarella

- pesto

- butter

Instructions

- Layer tomato and mozzarella slices on one slice of bread

- Spread pesto on the other slice

- Assemble sandwich

- Melt some butter in a pan on medium heat

- When the butter begins to bubble, fry the sandwich in the pan

- Fry until both sides are golden brown

- Devour!

Asparagus and Swiss Cheese Frittata

Ok I lied. This frittata is technically an omelette because I decided to fold it, but it did maintain it's flatter look because I wasn't trying to make a fluffy omelette, so I guess you could call it a hybrid. However, if you follow this recipe and just flip the entire thing like a pancake instead of folding it, you will have a frittata that's true to it's name. I was just scared it would break!

This particular asparagus hails from the streets of the Byward Market here in Ottawa, which holds a pretty awesome farmer's market every morning (and Thursday nights!). Right now I find their fruit supply is rather low, but the veggies are excellent, and I can always hit the Byward Fruit Market if I need some. It's technically a store, but it resembles an indoor fruit stand and it's fantastic. And rainproof. Bonus! Plus, their apricots were looking particularly delectable yesterday.

Asparagus and Swiss Cheese Frittata

Ingredients

- 6 stalks of asparagus, washed and snapped in half
- 1 tsp of butter
- olive oil
- 3 eggs
- grated swiss cheese

Instructions

- On medium-high heat, melt the butter until it's bubbly
- Throw the asparagus in the pan
- Sprinkle asparagus with olive oil
- Cook, rolling them with a spatula, until the colour begins to change and the asparagus begins to shrivel slightly (if you're not sure, test one! Don't burn yourself.)
- Once cooked, removed from heat
- In a small bowl, beat 3 eggs
- Add as much grated cheese to the egg as you wish, mixing it in
- Pour the egg mixture over asparagus and put the pan back on medium heat

- Cook until you start to see the amount of liquid egg decreasing

- Check from the sides with a spatula if your frittata feels solid

- If it doesn't, leave it a little while longer and check again

- Once it feels ready, either flip it completely (frittata) or just fold one half over the other like I did to make it an omelette-frittata hybrid (this is much easier, especially if your frittata is rather thin and fragile looking)

- Flip your frittata or omelette to check that both sides are equally fried before serving

- Serve with seasonal fruit and enjoy!

Raspberry Cheesecake

Baking was my first love. Some kids liked Lego, I liked baking cakes and horrifying my mother with the outrageous amounts of dishes I could produce.
Now, there's cake, then there's the cheesecake. Cheesecake is the ultimate cake because it combines cheese and dessert. Who doesn't love cheese and dessert?! Nobody, that's who. This particular cheesecake was a special request from a friend for her sister's birthday, so it had to be as beautiful as possible!! There's just something so satisfactory about making pretty food and making people happy.


(Perfect?) Cheesecake

Ingredients

- 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
- 1/4 cup of melted butter
- 1/6 of a cup of granulated sugar (crust)
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 3x250g packs of cream cheese
- 1 cup of granulated sugar (cake)\
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice

Material

- 9 inch springform pan (I found mine for $1.99 at our local Dollar store, no need to spend big bucks!)


Instructions

- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Take cream cheese out of fridge to allow it to soften
- Mix the graham crackers crumbs and sugar
- Add melted butter to graham cracker mix
- Press mixture into the bottom of your springform pan, patting it down hard and evenly
- Place pan with crust in the freezer for 10 minutes
- In the meantime, beat the cream cheese with the 1 cup of sugar in a large bowl
- Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time
- Add vanilla extract and lemon juice
- Pour mixture over crust in pan and bake for 35 minutes
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then cool in the refrigerator for 3 hours or more
- Carefully open springform pan and slowly lift it off. Ta-da! Beautiful cheesecake!
- Top with Raspberry Topping or with any other delicious topping of your choice


Raspberry Topping

Ingredients
- 4x6oz packages of raspberries (or 1 1/3 cup per package)
- 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Instructions

1. - Puree half of the raspberries (2x6oz) in a blender or food processor until smooth (NutriBullet does this in seconds if you have one!

1.  - Press through a mesh sieve with a spoon to remove seeds until you have 1 cup of puree. You can place the sieve over a measuring cup and do it directly into it to save dishes.

1. - Mix raspberry puree, sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan until blended. 

1. - Bring to a boil over medium-high heat

1. - Once it has boiled, cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it thickens

1. - Remove from heat and cool

1. - Once it's warm (no longer hot, but not cold, it makes pouring easier), pour over cheesecake

1. - Refrigerate for 1 hour

1. - Top with remaining raspberries

1. - Serve and enjoy people's dropping jaws when they see your beautiful creation!!!

Official rules of cheesecake

1. If your cheesecake cracks while cooling, IT WILL STILL BE DELICIOUS DON'T FREAK OUT.

2. If the topping doesn't come out as beautiful as you'd hoped, refer to rule 1.

3. Never think of any form of diet while eating cheesecake. It's awesome. That's all that matters.