One of my all-time favourite foods is butternut squash. I love it simply roasted in olive oil with some pepper and lots of sea salt! I got through a lot of squash throughout the fall and winter. While attending a local summer market that is held every couple of weeks, I found a vendor selling delicious thai sauces. Man, was he ever generous with the samples!!! I ended up buying a Sesame BBQ sauce and a Yellow Coconut Curry sauce, and my boyfriend bought one of our favourites- Green Coconut Curry Sauce. We ate the Sesame BBQ sauce over stir fried vegetables and tofu and it was wonderful. I had a butternut squash to use up and at the suggestion of the vendor, I tried the Yellow Curry sauce over it. It was DIVINE. The sauce had a nice kick to it and all the flavour from the roasted squash went perfectly- yet exotically with it. The sauces come from Thai Princess and they are available on Granville Island in Vancouver, or at Whole Foods in Vancouver. I really recommend picking some of their sauces up if you are in the area- they can be frozen for up to six months and are perfect for days when you are short on time around dinner.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel squash and cut up in small cubes, place on parchment-lined tray

Drizzle with olive oil and season with pepper and salt.

Cook for 40-45 minutes until squash is nicely carmelized. Toss once or twice throughout the process.

If you have a sauce, warm it up on the stove and pour over squash. Enjoy!!

One of my favourite memories from Thailand was when my boyfriend and I (as well as a bunch of other people) were feeding a group of monkeys on a beach. All of a sudden, one of the monkeys went running across the little river and climbed right up my leg and onto my HEAD! I absolutely adore animals so while I should have been scared, I was so excited! After getting plenty of peanut shells and banana in my hair (ick!!), he was coaxed back onto the ground.

I happen to love granola. I could probably eat it everyday without getting sick of it- with yogurt, almond milk, crumbly, or in bar form…. Unfortunately, almost all granola in stores is loaded with sugar and/or various kinds of corn syrup and even ingredients I cannot pronounce. I recently bought Ina Garten’s “Back to Basics” book which I am making the Cookbook of the Month for September. It has some really great recipes that all rely on fresh, good-quality ingredients. The first recipe I tried from the book happened to be Ina’s homemade granola bars. I was happy to see that there was no corn syrup in sight! I even adapted the recipe to make it slightly healthier than it was. I’ve enjoyed these granola bars for a couple days now and am very happy with the results- they just taste more….real than those storebought ones. This recipe is super adaptable and you can definitely change the add-ins such as the types of dried fruit and nuts.

On another note, I cannot believe it is September tomorrow. Shocking! Once again it feels weird not to be going ‘back to school’ yet. I’m only taking one cooking class right now and it’s food safety…no ACTUAL cooking yet. I won’t be getting out my new knives and my chef’s hat until about a month from now. So, without further ado, here is my recipe for Ina Garten’s homemade granola bars and a picture of me dressed up as an 80′s rock ‘n’ roll’er (for a costume party) just for kicks! Bahahah

Homemade Granola Bars (adapted from Ina Garten’s Back to Basics)

• 2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed
• 1/4 cup ground Salba or ground flaxseed (if you don’t have these, use an extra 1/4 cup of wheat germ)
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup honey (use 2/3 cup, if you don’t have Stevia, or you want less crumbly/more gooey bars)
• couple drops Stevia
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates (I used dried, but fresh would be better)
• 1 cup dried fruit (unsweetened is best) such as blueberries, cranberries, raisins, apricots

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 x 12-inch baking dish and line with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconuts together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the picture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the Salba/Flax and the wheat germ.

Reduce oven to 300 degrees.

Place the butter, honey, stevia, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Cook and stir for a minute, then pour into over the toasted oatmeal mixture.

Add the dates and dried fruit and stir.

Pour the mixture into the 8 x 12 pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 -3 hours before cutting into bars. Serve and enjoy!

Kaeng Khiaw-Waan Kai…or Green Curry with Chicken for those of us who are struggling with their Thai language skills is an absolute must-try meal. When I first arrived in Thailand, I ate a lot of Pad-Thai and stir-fried vegetables or seafood until I discovered this winner. I can’t count how many times I ate this dish over the course of my five weeks in Thailand- I couldn’t get enough! This curry varied from restaurant to restaurant and I tried some with purely vegetable ingredients, and others that had seafood from prawns and squid and fish to a combination of them all. The first time I made this recipe at home I replaced the chicken with prawns and squid, as I don’t eat meat. The second time I made it, I added zuchini, pineapple and pistachios and a couple of scallops. Serve this over rice and experience this divine dish from February’s Cookbook of the Month.

Green Curry with Chicken

• 60ml (1/4 cup) coconut cream
• 2 tablespoons green curry paste (**I always add extra!)
• 350g (12 oz) skinless chicken thigh fillets, sliced (** or an equal amount of prawns, squid, scallops, etc. If you want this dish to be vegan, add extra eggplant or some zuchini and pineapple. Tender steak can also be used.))
• 440ml (1 3/4 cups) coconut milk
• 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 350g (12 oz) mixed Thai eggplants (aubergines), cut into quarters, and pea eggplants (aubergines) (**When I don’t have these Thai eggplants on hand, I simply use regular or japanese eggplant, and zuchini. Adding pineapple is a wonderful touch and a handful of pistachios is great, too.)
• 50g (2 oz) galangal, julienned (** I have never had this ingredient on hand and therefore I just omit it. Galangal is a rhizome with a hot, peppery flavour.)
• 7 makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, torn in half (** This is so key in this dish that I often add several extra leaves.)
• a handful of Thai sweet basil leaves, for garnish (**As you can see, I used regular basil)
• 1 long red chilli, seeded and finely sliced, for garnish (**I added red pepper flakes for that extra spice as I didn’t have a hot chilli on hand this time)

Put the coconut cream in a wok or saucepan and simmer over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the cream seperates and a layer of oil forms on the surface. Stir the cream if it starts to brown around the edges. Add the curry paste, stir well to combine and cook until fragrant.

Add the chicken (or seafood) and stir for a few minutes. Add nearly all of the coconut milk, the fish sauce and palm sugar and simmer over a medium heat for another 5 minutes.

Add the eggplants (and zuchini, pineapple and pistachios) and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until the eggplants are cooked. Add the galangal and makrut lime leaves. Taste, then adjust the seasoning if necessary. Spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle with the last bit of coconut milk, as well as the basil leaves and chilli slices (or flakes). Serve over rice.