I went to my friends Maryam, Ramin and Justin’s house a few nights ago because Raphael is gone hunting with my dad and uncles in the Yukon for a week. I think I have mentioned in a previous post that I don’t like fish but we live in Vancouver so I really need to take advantage of eating what is from here. On a side note, I just wrote a paper for school about the importance of eating fresh and locally. Anyways, Maryam had made Salmon, which is the lesser of the fish evils. She made it with the following recipe and it was really delish! So if you’re like me and don’t like fish but know you should eat more because it’s good for you; you’ll like this recipe. Hope you like!

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This recipe is a super easy one that my mom used to make when my dad was out of town. My dad doesn’t think pasta is food. Well actually he doesn’t think that it’s dinner without rice. Anyways, I make this once in a while for dinner and then it’s great for lunch the next day. Also, I try to do a couple nights a week of no meat so this is a good one for those nights. Hope you guys enjoy!

• 1 medium head of cabbage – green or red
• 1 large onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 bag egg noodle pasta
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

Chop the cabbage in long thin strips.
Cut your onions in thin rounds.
In a pot boil water with salt. The water of the pasta should taste like the ocean. Add your pasta and cook to the package directions.
In a large pan heat oil and turn stove down to medium-low.
Sauté onions until they starts to caramelize then add the cabbage.
Stir and cover. Let cook for 5 minutes and then stir again. Repeat until cabbage has wilted and gotten some color.
Remove lid and let it cook until all liquids have reduced.
Drain water from pasta and put back into pot.
Add cabbage mixture to pasta and add soy sauce and teriyaki sauce.
Stir on medium until everything is mixed and all liquids have reduced.

Notes and Tips: You can use whole-wheat pasta too. I wouldn’t use normal pasta because it will be too heavy for the cabbage. Stick to the egg noodle.

So the first time I had Stroganoff I hated it. I know some of you in Brazil may be reading this and I apologize for my next comments. I was serving at the School of the Nations in 2005 for 6 months and one day a week on the lunch menu was stroganoff. Let’s just say I only ate Guava for those lunches. Anyways, I tried it again a few years later at a Cafe close to our house in Calgary called Ladybug Cafe. They put the stroganoff in a crepe and it was the most delicious thing ever. A few nights ago we had a friend staying with us, Fabiana, who with my husband made me crepes after I came home from a long say of school. The Nutella and strawberry crepe was amazing but all I could think about was that crepe from Ladybug. So that’s what inspired me to make it my way.

Once I made it, Raphael said that he knew it one way and Fabiana said she grew up with it another way and I’m sure you know it yet another way, well this is my way. It’s relatively low fat because I used low fat and low sodium mushroom soup and added water instead of sour cream but again you can do it however you like. Hope you like it as much as we did.

• 2 cups slices mushrooms – I like crimini
• 2 chicken breasts – cubed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion – cut in rings
• 1 small can of mushroom soup
• 1 can of hot water
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pan and add chicken.
Season with salt, pepper and turmeric.
Saute chicken until a little brown then add onions.
Once onions have started to brown add mushrooms and sauté until they are brown.
Add mushroom soup and water.
Add sprig of rosemary.
Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer.
Stir and let simmer until sauce thickens (about 15 mins)
Remove Rosemary.

Serve with rice and hickory sticks or in a crepe!

Notes and tips: To make a creamier sauce you can add heavy milk instead of the one can of water.

So this is one of my favorite recipes to make. I think this is the one recipe that made me want to cook. Even if I don’t want to look at the stove, I will always want to make pea soup. There is something about pea soup that makes you feel like putting on your sweats and curling up on the couch with a good book.

I know most creamy soups have a cream base but Raphael is lactose intolerant and personally I don’t like milk in my soup. This is a low fat and very simple soup.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy this one as much as I do. Hope it comes in handy now that winter is soon upon us. (Sooner if you live in Alberta… suckers!)

• 1 ½ cup dried green bean
• 6-8 cups vegetable broth – or chicken
• 2 carrot sticks – diced
• 2 celery sticks – diced
• 1 large onion – diced
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 4 to 5 pieces of bacon
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons dill
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Pour your peas in a bowl and cover with boiling water. This will rehydrate your peas and speed up cooking.
Bring broth to a boil and set aside simmering on the stove.
Meanwhile in a large pot, fry bacon.
Remove bacon and add carrots, celery, onions and 3 cloves of garlic in the bacon fat.
Sauté until everything is golden brown.
Chop bacon in small bits and add to veggies.
Drain peas and add to veggies.
Add broth to mixture.
Add remaining minced garlic and bay leaves.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Add boiling water if the consistence is more stew like.
Add dill and simmer for another half an hour or until peas are soft.
Remove bay leaves and blend soup with hand blender.
Add fresh dill and salt and pepper.

Notes and Tips: When cooking soups or stews try to make your vegetables the same size. It will help cook everything evenly and it looks nicer too.

Notes and Tips: When cooking with dried peas and beans never add anything cold to it because it was stop cooking and never get soft no matter how much you cook it.

Notes and Tips: Instead of bacon you can use turkey bacon or nothing at all. Just use olive oil when sautéing your veggies.

So this recipe comes from having a lot of left over chili and after you have eaten chili for a couple meals, it’s the last thing you want to eat. So I took my husbands VERY yummy and flavorful left over chili, added left over rice and stuffed all of this in peppers. It turned out so good the first time that I made it with pretty much anything I had around.

This is a fantastic recipe to clean out your fridge and get rid of any canned vegetables that you don’t want anymore. You can be as creative as you want but the base of it is rice and tomato sauce to make sure everything combines well. You can also make it as spicy as you want. I like to use a lot of garlic and onions. Adds flavor without adding calories. This is an excellent left over lunch because it comes already put together. You just heat it up in a microwave and enjoy!

• 4-5 Peppers
• 2 cups cooked rice – Left over rice works the best
• Veggies – Combination of whatever you have in your fridge
  (Carrots, Celery, Onion, Garlic, Corn, Zucchini, Potatoes, Broccoli, Tomatoes, Jalapeños)
• 1 cup beans – I used canned Kidney Beans
• 1 pound cooked ground meat – I like ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 2 caps tomato sauce
• ½ cup fresh parsley – or whatever fresh herbs you have
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine everything in a pan and sauté.
Core peppers by removing the “lid” and removing the seeds.
Stuff peppers with vegetable mixture insuring you stuff it full to the top.
Put pepper lid back on the stuffed pepper.
Put peppers in an oven safe dish and add half inch of water around them. (This will enable the peppers to steam)
Bake at 350° for half an hour or until peppers are medium soft

Notes and Tips: You can use brown rice, just make sure it’s fully cooked and remember that brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice.

Notes and Tips: You can use left over chili and just add rice and stuff the peppers. This is SUPER yum!

Yes Yes, I know I haven’t given you guys a recipe in a little while but meh I didn’t feel like it. Don’t worry, Raphael is not withering away from starvation – I have been cooking, just not writing about it.

Anyways, this recipe is one of Raph’s favorite. I know some of you self-proclaimed Persian food connoisseurs may not agree with my recipe but this is how I make it and it’s yummy and it’s low fat. Now that I have defended my chicken, lets move on…

So as I’m sitting hear at a coffee shop in beautiful Vancouver (Yaletown to be more specific), I would like to let you know that I hate writing the recipes. Not so much what is in the recipe (I actually love that) but how much of each ingredient. I pretty much never measure much of anything. All of my measurements are guesses so if something seems wrong when you are making them, it probably is wrong. I just put however much of one thing I think will taste good. I taste my food and adjust the seasoning to what Raph and I like. So you will never see me with a measuring cup, which works great for Raph because it’s one less thing he has to wash.

So for the chicken part, I gave you my lecture about never eating uncooked chicken, so that’s done. You can use any cut of meat you want, just make sure it’s skinless and boneless. Chicken thighs work pretty good as long you put the work into cleaning it. For the mushrooms you can use any kind, as long as it can be skewered. The salad. So why is it called Israeli/Shirazi? Because growing up, in my house we called it Shirazi – Shiraz being a beautiful city in Iran. No clue if it actually comes from there but that’s what we called it. Raphael’s house called it Israeli salad. We went to Israel this spring and I never saw this salad anywhere… just saying… (I put a picture under the recipe of what we mostly ate in Israel).

Well I hope you enjoy this one!

Serves two
Cooking time: About 30 minutes

Joojeh Kabob Recipe

1 skinless/boneless chicken breast – cut into strips (or cubes)
1 cup yogurt (I used 2%)
3 cloves garlic – grated
½ medium onion – grated
1 teaspoon saffron
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Mix all ingredients together and before adding chicken, put ¼ cup of marinade aside.
Add chicken in a container and pour marinade over.
I left mine in the fridge for 3 hours, but the longer you leave it to marinade, the more flavorful it will be. You can leave it marinating for up to 24 hours.
Once you are ready to BBQ, thread your strips of chicken on skewers.
Note and Tips: I recommend using stainless steel skewers but bamboo would work too. Just make sure you soak them in water for at least an hour before using or you will burn them on the BBQ.
Grill on the BBQ on medium heat for about 6-10 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of your chicken.
Make sure your chicken is cooked. NEVER EVER eat chicken that is still pink inside or juices coming from it are pink.

Grilled Mushroom Recipe

8 white or brown mushrooms
1 tablespoon dried herbs (I used Italian seasoning)

Spray your mushrooms with a cooking spray and add seasoning. Pretty much any dried herbs will work. (I don’t like nor do I like use dried herbs but for this purpose this recipe it works the best)
Skewer mushrooms and grill on BBQ for 4-5 minutes on high or until you get char marks.

Israeli/Shirazi Salad

½ large cucumber – cut into cubes
1 cup diced tomatoes – I used cherry tomatoes
¼ cup onions – finally chopped
1 juice of lemon
1 tablespoon mint – dried works too…
2 tablespoons good olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix it together and you have yourself a yummy, good for you salad!

Remember that 1/4 cup marinade that you saved? Drizzle the marinade on the side or on top of your chicken once you are ready to eat. Oh and I forgot that I had grilled yellow bell pepper with my mushrooms. It’s the same deal with the mushroom.