super easy, super quick zucchini pie-quiche thing

my faaaavourite veggie of all time has to be zucchini. it's basically a must have in my fridge! its yummy, cooks quickly and pretty much can be used in anything. this is why i love it so much! anyways, this is a really quick and super delicious dish that i discovered this summer while staying at my yiayia's house. christina and i both ate massive, massive, massive amounts of this over the summer. it was an issue. buuut now i have the recipe.. which makes it a bigger issue. it's pretty healthy so that makes it a bit better i guess...?

mmm goldeny brown ooey-gooey bits

what you need:
2 large zucchini
6 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint and parsley
spring onion (i omitted this... not a fan!)
1.5 cups flour
1 cup low fat grated cheese

step 1:
pre-heat oven to 350. dice your zucchini into small, bite sized pieces. chop your parsley, mint, and spring onion.
step 2:
mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and pour into a baking dish. cook for ~35 minutes, or until nice and golden brown.

i had mine with avocado and sriracha sauce!

that's it! see how easy it was? you can eat it warm or cold (i personally prefer it cold) and made enough for 4-5 servings.

ingredient of the week: eggplant

ok folks! blog is seriously up and running again with a new installment of ingredient of the week! this time its eggplant. oh glorious, tender, buttery eggplant! i must admit, i wasn't a big fan of eggplant until quite recently. same with a lot of things though, which is good i guess! olives are still off the list of edible food in my mind though, and i'm positive they will stay there for a very, very long time. yuck. anyways, yes, back to eggplant. i really think it's one of the most attractive, yummy, i-want-to-eat-you-right-meow vegetable/fruit things out there. it helps that i love love love love the colour purple, especially aubergine!

before we get started on some health benefits, lets talk about a random fact. eggplant, as everyone knows, is quite bitter due to the little seeds. why? because - who woulda thought - eggplant is a close relative of tobacco, and the seeds contain nicotine! ... kind of gross!aaanyways, health stuff! yes! that's why we're here! eggplants are full of vitamins and minerals, such as potassium, manganese, copper, folate, niacin, vitamin B1 and B6, as well as having a high dose of good ol' dietary fiber. yum yum! it's also super low in calories, approximately 27 per cup! all that goodness in so little calories? oh count me in!

oooooh preeetttyyyyyy

on the larger scale, eggplant play a key role in living a healthy life. first off, it's great for your cardiovascular health. basically, compounds in eggplant lower the amount of cholesterol in the artery walls, allowing them to relax. this means better blood flow to the heart and to the body. and, as you may have guessed from it's colour, eggplant has lots and lots of antioxidants and phytonutrients, specifically nasunin, which is found in the skin of the fruit. this is a potent free-radical scavenger and protects cells from damage, as well as having antiangiogenic properties (YOU MUST WATCH THIS TEDTALK). basically, that means it can slow down/prevent cancer tumor growth by cutting off angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones)

earlier this week i made a slightly edited version of my yiayia's lebanese eggplant stew, called menazzaleh. her version was very simple, and i wanted to add a few more spices to give it some depth. i also have decided to change a few things in the recipe since making it. anyways, this is what i came up with!
(sidenote: i must apologize for the crap photos. the lighting in my basement apartment isn't very good. i swear, most of the stuff i post from now on will taste better than it looks!)

looks crap, tastes delicious!

what you need:
3 medium eggplant (dark purple variety)
1 can of chickpeas + some liquid
5 tomatoes (you can use canned as well)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, sliced thin
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon (even if you don't like cinnamon in savory food, just put a little sprinkle. it adds so much depth to the dish!)
pinch of nutmeg
2.5 cups chicken stock

step 1:
preheat oven to 300. cut eggplant into bite sized chunks. my yiayia cut them in rounds, but it made the cooking process so long that bite sized is definitely easier. lay on a sieve and sprinkle on some salt. add paper towel between the layers to soak up extra liquid. leave for 15 - 30 mins.
step 2:
while waiting for your eggplant, slice your onion thin and start sauteing in a large pan with some olive oil. i like my onion very caramelized, but you can take it as far as you like. by this point, you can wash off your eggplant, put them in an oven safe dish with a little olive oil and bake for ~30 minutes, depending on the size.
step 3:
once your onions are done, add in your chopped garlic and saute until fragrant, then add your tomatoes, stock and chickpea liquid. cook this down for ~10 minutes. add in your chickpeas, turmeric, nutmeg, paprika and cumin, and stir everything to combine and cook for another 15 minutes.
step 4: 
once your eggplant is done, add into the pan with the other ingredients and sprinkle your cinnamon on top. at this point, i layered eggplant, then chickpea mix into an oven safe dish to bake, buuut forgot to buy some kefalotyri so it was pointless. you can just leave it in the pan to finish stewing for another 20 minutes or until chickpeas are tender. then you're done! serve with brown rice.

yum yum yum

do you have any kin-oh-aaaahh?

i remember the first time i wanted to buy quinoa. i had watched countless dr. oz and the doctors episodes and new all the ridiculous nutrition info about the ancient, and quite hard to find, grain. so, my dad and i set out to the grocery store to search for some. we looked and looked, and couldn't find it anywhereee, even in the local healthy organic food store! eventually, my dad decided to ask an employee where we could get some.

  dad:  "hey, do you have any kin-oh-aaaaah?"

  guy:  "uuumm...... what is that?"

  me:   "a grain type thing?"

  guy:  "ok, let me ask someone"

  2 minutes later

  new guy:  "what are you looking for?"

  dad:   "kin-oh-aaaaah"

  new guy:  "you mean, keen-wah?"

  me:  "YES" 

  new guy: *walks 2 steps* "its right here!"

  dad + me:  *facepalm*

and that everyone, was the epic angelopoulos search for kin-oh-aaaaah. and now my dad knows how to pronounce it properly (i of course knew how to say it, but thought it was funnier watching my dad haha).

aaaanyways. yes. so i've already done an ingredient of the week on quinoa (here) so i'll save you all that boring health information. all you really need to know is that its awesome and it has lots of protein. i bought a massiiiveee bag of organic quinoa from costco, and finally put some of it to use! this may come as a surprise to many of you, but i've started to like new things. mushrooms are one of them! this was my very first time cooking them, which was quite exciting! so, this was ridiculously tasty considering i made it up off the top of my head. man, i'm good! anyways, here's my asian inspired vegetarian quinoa pilaf.

doesn't look like much, but man, it was awesome!

what you need:
2 cups of quinoa *pre-washed
1 package of extra firm tofu
olive oil for cooking
1 package of mushrooms
1 red pepper
1 package of snap or snow peas
1 onion
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tsp ginger
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cups low sodium chicken stock

step 1:
cut your tofu into small bite sized pieces. place in a dish with the soy sauce and ginger. set aside and let marinade for ~30 minutes, stirring occasionally. finely dice your onion and saute in a large saucepan on medium heat. while that's browning, slice your mushrooms into small bite sized pieces and saute in a separate pan until nice, brown and tender.
step 2:
chop your garlic and add to the onions, cook till aromatic and then add in your diced red pepper. let this cook down until the peppers are tender. when mushrooms are done, add to the pot along with chicken stock, cayenne pepper, tofu and any extra marinade and of course, the quinoa.
step 3:
the quinoa should take about 15 minutes to cook, so while that's going, whipe down the pan you used to cook the mushrooms in, and place on medium heat. slice the ends of the snap peas off, cut in half and put in the pan. add 1/2 cup water and steam them. when they reach a nice, bright green, strain and put in an ice bath.
step 4:
you'll know the quinoa is finished cooking cause it puffs up A LOT. add the snow peas to your dish, scoop on some pilaf, and enjoy!

yummy yummy! made ~6 servings

long time no see / macaron madness

ok, after getting nagged for the last few weeks from everyone, i've finally found a bit of time to start up my blog again after the summer. so, let's catch up on my life, and my random cooking shenanigans!

my summer started with a lovely 2 months of summer school. oh joy. i took 2 courses: introductory archaeology, and indian religions. kind of random. anyways, the kitchen in residence was kind of crap/scary/dirty all the time, so not too much exciting stuff went on there. starbucks + baguette + brie + wine pretty much sums up that part of the summer.
theeen i went back to montreal and ottawa to visit my famjam, where the real food happened. yemista, moussaka, pastitsio, steak x7, ribs, bagels, eggplant dip, la botega sandwiches from god, brown butter pasta, poutine, menazzaleh, cupcakes x4, bacon x923898230, the works, scary fish with teeth, beaver tails, brie and baguette and BACON FAT EVERYTHING. oh lord. now i know why i'm fat...

anyways. yes. i ate a alot. i also tried my hand at macarons. now, as you may have noticed, i don't really bake things that often. cooking is easy cause you just throw things together and somehow you come up with something. but with baking, everything has to be exact. it's scary. aaand queen of the exactness are macarons. why did i do this to myself? oh yeah, cause you can't get them like, anywhere in victoria. and when you can, they're super expensive. so, why not make a massive batch at home and save some money? yep, that's just what i did.

mmmm macarons!   : )

so, i will ring in the new year of blogging by starting with these delicious pistachio macarons! note: they weren't 100% perfect, but for a first attempt i think i did pretty well! the only thing was that they weren't very tall, but i'll let you know where i think i messed up. also, i was originally going to make pistachio filling but i ran out of icing sugar. i substituted nutella instead. who doesn't like nutella? it was still awesome.

what you need:
160 g of pistachios, unsalted
120 g egg whites (room temp)
200 g icing sugar
35 g granulated sugar
green food colouring
lots of nutella
an extra pair of hands? (thanks dad!)

step 1: 
peel the skin off your pistachios. this was soo time consuming, so if you can find them already skinned, or even in powdered form, then do it! if you can't, blanch them in hot water first. it will make it a lot easier to get the skins off. let them dry.
step 2: 
when you're waiting for them to dry, preheat oven to 350 and line your baking trays with parchment paper. sift through your icing sugar to get out any lumps. then add to your food processor, along with the dried, skinned pistachios and process until you get a fine powder. sift and set aside. (mistake #1: didn't process them long enough and still had some small-but-not-small-enough bits of pistachio in there).
step 3:
add in egg whites to your mixer and beat on medium until soft peaks start to form. then gradually beat in your granulated sugar, while increasing the speed, until thicker peaks form. i added in about 5 drops of food green food colouring, but if you want a bit more then go for it. once mixed in, add your pistachio/icing sugar powder and gently fold with the egg whites.
step 4:
spoon mixture into a piping bag with a round tip (mistake #2: we didn't have the right shape, and ended up squeezing the mix out of a smaller tip, which probably made the mix deflate a bit). try and pipe even, 1" circles onto the baking tray. as you can see, i basically used up all the baking trays in my house.... 3 were in the oven when i took this pic. yep.

my army of macarons!

step 5:
let sit for an hour to let the shells form. if you wanted to make a filling, now would be the time! if just sticking with nutella, bake for ~10 minutes. let cool before removing from parchment. try and slowly peel them off. if they start to stick, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes. pair similar sized ones together, and slather on the nutella!

om nom nom!

that's it! considering it was my first attempt, they were super good. crunchy on the outside, chewy goodness all around! this recipe probably made ~50 macarons, but i don't know for sure as my entire family was nibbling on them before i could put them all together!