The other day I hankerin’ for cornbread. (Did I just say hankerin’…?) The fact that I felt like cornbread is pretty weird considering I’ve eaten it about twice in my life, and the most recent time was several years ago. I told my mom, and she was down. I searched for a few recipes, looking for one that might use a healthier flour than white flour, and I settled on Heidi’s recipe for ‘Firecracker Cornbread’. I didn’t change too much in her recipe, but I baked the bread in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet, and it took about half the time. I topped it with butter and drizzled it with plenty of honey and my mom and I both enjoyed it. I really liked that it had fresh corn in it, and I loved the subtle spicyness from the red pepper flakes.

Also, please check out my latest Examiner article. It’s a review on this really great asian vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver called Whole Vegetarian Restaurant. My mom and I went for lunch and we ordered so much food that they moved us to a bigger table LOL. It was delicious, though. Unfortunately I was an extremely bad food blogger and didn’t have my camera on me!! Talk about unprepared….I guess you’ll just have to trust me on this one

I’ve been looking to try a brown rice protein powder for some time now. In the past I’ve tried whey (ew, never again) and hemp (yummy, but I find it quite chalky). This is by far the best protein powder I have tried. I got the vanilla flavour and was pleased to see that it only came in with 0.2g of sugar per serving. There is also 16g of protein per serving.

It is organic, non- GMO, sprouted brown rice that is hypo-allergenic (gluten, soy, and lactose free).

I had this is in a smoothie today and it literally tasted like I was eating cake-flavoured sorbet. My smoothie was made with frozen fruit and a bit of 100% pure cranberry juice diluted with a little bit of grapefruit juice. It was so divine. I ate it with a spoon, and felt like I was eating dessert! I can’t wait to have this again. To me, there is only the slightest chalky taste- a major improvement to previous protein powders I have tried. I feel like this one is could be quite versatile and I would like to try it stirred into oatmeal, or in some healthy truffles.

On another note, check out this major hike I did with my brother and his friend. We hiked “The Chief” in Squamish, B.C., and it was just epic! It was so much more difficult than I expected (if you’re picturing a dirt trail…forget about it. This was like climbing up rocks!) I was so proud of myself for being able to do it and man, was the view at the top ever worth it! It took a few hours and afterwards we took a short drive and jumped into a lake. It was soo necessary. I was covered in sweat, dirt, and bananas (don’t ask). Normally one would plan for a hike like this, prepping with snacks and water and getting a good sleep the night before. We on the otherhand, all woke up after a night of probably a few too many drinks, and decided to do this spur of the moment at 1pm. We raced to the grocery store to buy a pack of water and we each brought a sandwich. Our hike began at 3pm on the hottest day of the entire summer- brilliant.

Several months ago my cousin asked me if I would be interested in making the cake for their wedding, along with some cupcakes- of course I jumped at the chance! I had never made a wedding cake before and was looking forward to figuring it out, and hopefully building something beautiful! It was a huge undertaking, and much of the last couple weeks have been spent deciding on flavours, baking, baking, baking, cutting out fondant flowers and of course, decorating. They really gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted- no flavour suggestions (except no fruit!), and one picture of a cake that they liked but didn’t want a replica of. I came up with something that I think is simple, modern, and pretty.

I made 3 white cakes, and layered each one with dark chocolate ganache and the richest vanilla bean Italian buttercream. I also added….Oreo cookies! I thought a cookies n’ creme wedding cake would be so unique and fun for this young couple.I cut out ribbon from fondant and painted it aubergine, just like their wedding colour. Lastly, I added more fondant flowers to the cake to tie in with the cupcakes. Here is the cake smothered in buttercream before I added the fondant.

Here’s a picture from the cake-cutting. They both look amazing!

I also made 100+ cupcakes- some vanilla, some chocolate, but all with a subtle caramel flavour and the fluffiest pillows of vanilla Italian buttercream. For added decoration, I topped them with a light dusting of purple sanding sugar, and a pearled fondant flower.

Check out all these flowers!

This was a great learning process for me, especially because I love to figure things out on my own! I’m proud of my cake and I’m soo happy that Spencer and Gen were pleased with the cake!!

I had been debating what to do with the beautiful and GIGANTIC rhubarb growing in my garden for several weeks now. It got to the point where it had to be picked, before it turned hard and stringy. I settled on scones, because I had never made them with rhubarb before- usually I stick to sauces and such. Although I did make a rhubarb sauce to top them with! I had just found a giant bag of spelt flour (which I love!) at Costco, and took advantage of the opportunity to use it.

Check out the size of just one leaf! To me it looks prehistoric…like something you’d see with dinosaurs around it…but then again I was always a huge fan of Land Before Time as a child.

Rhubarb Spelt Scones

• 1 3/4 cup spelt flour
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup unrefined sugar
• 6 tbsp butter, cubed and cold
• 1/2 cup rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar and let stand a few minutes, until curdled. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the butter, and cut it in with a pastry cutter, until only pea-sized pieces remain. Add the rhubarb and the curdled almond milk. Mix until it just comes together. If it is too crumbly, just add a bit more almond milk little by little until you can form a ball with the dough. On a lightly floured surface, make the dough into a circle, about an inch thick, and cut into 8 pieces, brush tops with almond milk and sprinkle with a bit of sugar. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Rhubarb Topping (adapted from here)

• 4 stalks rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• sprinkle of nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine rhubarb and water in a saucepan, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for about 5 minutes- until rhubarb begins to soften. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, salt. Continue to simmer until rhubarb is completely softened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in honey and vanilla extract. Let cool.

Serve the scones smothered in rhubarb sauce, with clotted cream or whipped cream, or of course with some nice, cold butter. Enjoy!

I thought I would also share some of my favourite pics from the summer so far, because I know my blogging hasn’t exactly been regular. At least you can see a bit of what I’ve been up to!

Kayaking in Whistler

Attending a concert- Trace Adkins & Toby Keith! Any excuse to wear my cowboy boots!

Ummm...stealing Yoshi's head

Forcing my brother to take a picture with me

Drinking bellinis...possibly after a beer garden...tough work to say the least!

And there you go!

One last thing I have been doing is writing for Examiner.com as their Vancouver Vegetarian Restaurant Examiner. Please check out my first couple of articles, and feel free to subscribe, comment or share on Facebook or Twitter!

I can honestly say that dill pickles are literally one of my favourite things in the entire world, and they always have been. I have been known to polish off a jar in a day or two the odd time, and it’s mandatory that they are always in my fridge. They are essential after a night of a few too many drinks, and I have always said that they cure any stomach ache I may have. I also used to drink the pickle juice when I was little but that’s a different story….

My mom found a recipe for ‘overnight’ pickles, and we were super stoked to try this recipe out. Neither of us have any idea of how to can or preserve anything, so this seemed like the best solution for us to try homemade pickles! We picked up some pickling cucumbers at the grocery store, found a couple of mason jars, and began our pickling mission.

It literally took ten minutes to make these pickles, and we were patient enough to wait 2 or 3 days before eating them. Not going to lie- jar one was gone in a matter of minutes. They were delicious and they have a great crunch to them! My dad loved them, too, and hinted that we better go by some more cucumbers! You can play around with the vinegar that you use, and experiment with leaving the cucumbers whole, or slicing them. I liked sliced better!

Easy Overnight Dill Pickles

• pickling cucumbers, washed, and sliced or left whole
• enough jars for the pickles to fit in
• fresh dill
• garlic, thickly sliced
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup salt
• 1/2 cup sugar

Fill jar with fresh dill, garlic, and pickles. Boil the remaining ingredients in a saucepan, until sugar and salt are dissolved. Pour mixture over pickles and close jars. Place in the fridge for a day before eating.

I had the pleasure of going to Vancouver’s longest running natural foods restaurant with a few friends. The Naam is located on 2724 West 4th Avenue and has been serving delicious vegetarian food 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for over 30 years. There are live bands every night, too!

It’s super casual and cute inside and there is also a patio if you’d like to eat outside. The portions are just huge, and for an entree that was under $10, I had enough food leftover for 1-2 meals. Their menu is huge, and there is something for everyone- vegetarian/vegan or not. Everything with cheese can be substituted with vegan cheese, and there are plenty of other substitutions that can be made as well. They have a great drink menu as well- so many delicious sounding teas and shakes! The service was super casual, but friendly, and it does get busy around lunch time so you may have to wait for a few minutes.

We were starving and started off with the “Chips & Both” (taco chips with guacomole and salsa).

My friend had the Thai Noodles- “zippy sauce, green & red peppers, onions, tofu, mung sprouts, red cabbage, garlic, ginger, peanuts, and stir-fried rice noodles”. This was so delicious, it was like pad thai. I would definitely order this.

My other friend and I both got dragon bowls (they look the same so there is only one picture). She had the Thai Dragon Bowl which is “a coconut curry sauce on steamed veggies & rice with deep-fried tofu, sprouts, grated carrots, beets, and fresh cilantro”. This was spicy, and she really enjoyed it.

I had the Naam Dragon Bowl which is a “macrobiotic special with steamed veggies on organic brown rice with miso gravy, tofu, peanut sauce, organic alfalfa sprouts, and wakame”. I absolutely loved this. The peanut sauce and miso gravy were delicious and I loved the wakame (I wish there had been a bit more, as there was only a couple of strips!).

Although entering food comas, we decided to share the Shakti Cake because it sounded waaay too interesting too resist!!

The Shakti Cake is a “vegan chocolate carrot cake with hemp protein, pumpkin, sunflower, and flax seeds, smothered in a vegan hemp cream icing”. It was really different, and quite good. To me it tasted more like zucchini cake, with a molasses-y flavour and I’m dying to know how to make the hemp icing. With all the seeds and grated veg in this cake, you could tell it was healthier, but it made for a great ending to our meal.

I really enjoyed The Naam and I will absolutely be back. There are so many amazing things on the menu that I would like to try- enchiladas, their veggie ‘steak’, their burgers and sesame fries. Yum!!

I was at Costco and saw these cute little small eggplants and I had to buy them. I was cruising Tastespotting, as I so often do, and I stumbled across these miso-glazed eggplant. If you all know me, you know my obsession with miso- I made these that night for dinner! It was delicious.

I cooked these on a sil-pat on a baking tray, and the glaze that ran off the eggplant and on to the sil-pat was just pure candy- it was soo sweet and delicious. I think that when I make these again, I might slice the eggplant, roast it, and then at the last minute or so, add the glaze and give it a quick broil.

Miso Glazed Eggplant (from Momofuku for 2, originally from fatfreevegan)

1 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons shiro miso
3 tablespoons sugar
2 Japanese eggplants, cut in half lengthwise*
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
sliced green onions, for garnish

Place the mirin and sake in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for about 2 minutes to allow some of the alcohol to cook off. Then add the miso and stir until smooth. Stir in the sugar, reduce the heat to very low, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, while you broil the eggplants:

Brush the cut sides of the eggplants with the sesame oil. Put the eggplants cut-side down on a baking sheet and place under the broiler of your oven for about 3 minutes, checking often to make sure that they do not burn. Turn them over, and cook for another 3 minutes or until the tops are a light to medium brown. Do not burn! (If your eggplant still isn’t tender all the way through, turn the broil function to bake at 375˚ for a few more minutes; then proceed with the recipe.)

When the eggplants are tender, top each one with the miso sauce and put them back under the broiler until the sauce bubbles up–this should take less than a minute, so watch them closely. Enjoy hot, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and green onions.

After months of preparation, this weekend we held a surprise wedding shower for my cousin’s wife-to-be. There was plenty of decorating, and of course, FOOD involved. I also made a wedding shower cake, and I will be making their wedding cake in a few weeks time, as well. I thought I would share with you a little of what was served that night.

The spread: curried asparagus bites, tapenade tomatoes, prosciutto-fig roll ups, stuffed mushrooms, goat cheese-peppercorn potatoes, asian noodle salad, mexican salad, spinach salad, orzo salad, roast beef bunwiches, tortellini skewers, chicken wings, smoked salmon crackers, shrimp on melba toast, tomato tart, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, and a big veggie platter

The cake was a white cake layered with raspberry curd and chocolate ganache, with plenty of white chocolate Italian Buttercream.

Inside shot:

Look how surprised the bride was when she turned that corner and we all shouted surprise! (She thought she was coming over for a BBQ with my brother and I)

And my mama and I:

Corny post title…..but the drummer in my favourite band ever (Travis Barker of Blink-182) owns a taco place called Wahoo’s Fish Tacos. One day I will eat a fish taco at one of the 50+ locations they have throughout the states….but in the mean time I will make them at home. This was my first time making a fish taco and it was fun, and taaaaasty! In the meantime I will also stare longingly at this picture and reminisce of the day I actually got to meet him many years ago…

I look different and weird in this pic….moving on!

Back to the tacos! I used halibut but I’m sure any white fish would do, and I really don’t have exact measurements for this recipe, as I was just making one taco, but I trust with a little ingredient guidance you can all get this right! I also used a wrap because I didn’t have any soft flour tortillas (story of my life- I use wraps for everything!).

Koko’s Fish Tacos

• white fish fillet, such as halibut
• lettuce
• cilantro
• avocado
• lime juice
• salsa
• cheese, I used regular cheddar but I think a nice white cheddar would be better. If vegan, just skip it!
• caramelized onions (don’t worry I’ll tell ya how to make them!)
• wrap, or soft flour tortillas
• cumin
• coriander
• chili powder
• chipotle powder
• garlic salt
• salt

To caramelize onions:

Drizzle a pan with olive oil and heat on medium high. Slice up an onion and add to the hot pan. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir, to coat the onions. Turn the heat to low and keep stirring, as the onions slowly begin to caramelize. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn! When they are brown, and soft, and smell delicious, they are done!

For the ‘guacamole’:

Mash up an avocado and add some lime juice and a pinch of salt. Stir in a scoop of salsa.

For the fish:

Pat the fish fillet dry, and slice into small pieces- about an inch wide and as long as the fillet is. Sprinkle evenly with cumin, coriander, chili powder, chipotle powder, and garlic salt. Turn pieces over and do the same to the other side. Drizzle a pan with olive oil and heat to medium-high. Add the fish and cook until done on each side (it took about a minute on each side for me, but it depends on the thickness of the fish).

Constructing the taco:

Spread the bottom of your wrap/tortilla with our lovely avocado/salsa mixture. Add a layer of cheese, add the lettuc, cilantro, caramelized onions, and finally the fish. Drizzle everything with lots of lime juice! Fold up like a wrap, and enjoy! Please yell wahoo! as you eat it.

Click here for a special guest post with a bit of info on fish-eating vegetarians vs. non-fish-eating vegetarians.

This is a special guest post, the opinions expressed are those of the author’s.

Give me five mins and I’ll provide you 1 great reason to become vegetarian.

While fish is the major dietary source of the long-chain omega-3s eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, which were shown to be crucial in supporting brain health, low intake of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid in vegetarians does not adversely affect mood, as stated by a new study (Nutr J. 2010;9:26. DOI:10.1186/1475-2891-9-26).

A research team from Arizona State University conducted a cross-sectional study to match the mood of vegetarians who never eat fish with the mood of healthy omnivorous adults.

A total of 138 healthy Seventh Day Adventist adults living in Arizona and California (64 vegetarians and 79 non-vegetarians) were enrolled in the study and completed a health history questionnaire, food frequency questionnaire and two psychometric tests, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale and the Profile of Mood States.

Vegetarians had significantly lower mean intakes of eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and the omega-6 arachidonic acid; they had higher intakes of the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid and the omega-6 linoleic acid.

“Seed oils are the richest sources of α-linolenic acid, notably those of rapeseed (canola), soybeans, walnuts, flaxseed (Linseed oil), clary sage seeds, perilla, chia, and hemp.”

However, the vegetarians also reported even less negative emotion than omnivores in psychometric tests. Mean total psychometric scores were positively in connection with the mean intakes of eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid , and inversely in connection with alpha-linolenic acid and linolenic acid intake.

The study team noted there is also the possibility that vegetarians may make smarter dietary choices and may generally be healthier and happier.

If you’d like to try it out, here’s a good example of vegetarian recipe according to Italian cuisine

Italian Spaghetti with Zucchini

Ingredients:

* 17 oz. Spaghetti

* 24 oz. Of thin sliced zucchini

* A half cup of walnuts oil

* Some basil leaves

* 2 tablespoons of yeast flakes

* Salt and pepper

In a large skillet heat the oil and when hot, add garlic and zucchini. Raise heat and stir often to finish their cooking. They need to be golden and crispy outside and tender inside. Cook the pasta, drain and sauté in pan with zucchini, basil and yeast. Serve immediately.

Zucchini contain fewer calories and have no fat. But they are a good source of potassium, vitamin e, ascorbic acid, folate, lutein and zeaxanthin.

Most of these nutrients are very sensitive to heat and to enjoy their benefits you need to look for a quick way to cook or even eat raw in salads.

From the therapeutic point of view, zucchini have laxative, refreshing, anti-inflammatory, diuretic and detoxifying action.

About the writer – Louise Infante writes for the vegetarian daily menu blog , her personal hobby blog focused entirely on vegetarian food preparation tips to help individuals live better.