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

If you can recall my last post, I made pita bread as part of a Middle Eastern meal…well, I still had a ton of light whole wheat dough leftover from that. I decided to make a pizza/flatbread, using whatever I could find in the fridge! I had recently seen a pizza that used caramelized onions as a base, and I thought that was great, flavourful idea. My onions were burnt extra caramelized! It still turned out fantastic, and like my mom said ‘it’s like a fiesta in your mouth!’ *hides head in shame* Just so corny! Regardless, the comment is true. Try it for yourself!

Light Whole Wheat Dough (adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day)

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packs)
• 1 1/2 tbsp Kosher salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the yeast and salt with the water in a stand mixer bowl. Mix in the remaining ingredients, without kneading, using the dough hook on your mixer. Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature approximately 2 hours. Use the dough immediately after this, or, refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container for up to 14 days.

I made one batch of this dough, and got some pita bread, and 3 pizzas out of it. Each pizza will take one grapefruit sized piece of dough.

Fiesta Flatbread

• 1 grapefruit sized piece of light whole wheat dough
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup corn
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/3 cup salsa
• chilli powder
• dried basil
• mozzarella cheese
• cheddar cheese

With a baking stone in your oven, preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. Dust your table surface, rolling pin, and the top of your dough with flour. Stretch your dough into a round ball. Roll out your dough to 1/4 inch thick. Grease a pizza peel, and place your dough on top.

Drizzle olive oil in frying pan and heat, toss in onions and balsamic vinegar and caramelize. Put the onions onto the dough, add the other ingredients on top. Top with a sprinkle of chilli powder, dried basil, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. *Keep in mind that I estimated the amounts that I used, and if you make your pizza larger, add more toppings! If you want this to be vegan, simply exclude the cheese and it will still taste delicious! I was making this with my cheese-eating family in mind.

Bake on the pizza peel on top of the baking stone for 10 minutes, until crust no longer feels doughy.

When I went to Mexico, one of my favourite meals was at a Mexican restaurant in the resort. There was a great salad bar and one of my favourite salads was a corn salad. It had a mystery flavour to it, but it made it fantastic. After a couple bites, I realized that the flavour was cinnamon! A strong cinnamon flavour. I knew that when I got home I would be making a salad with corn and cinnamon. Instead of stopping at a corn salad, I decided to add the cinnamon flavour to quinoa, and make that the base of my salad. I added black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, and feta cheese and it made a truly beautiful, healthful salad. I took the flavour up another notch by making a roasted red pepper vinaigrette to top the salad.

Mexican Quinoa Salad

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• pinch of salt and pepper
• zest of one lime
• juice of one lime
• tobasco, to taste
• 1 avocado
• 3-4 tomatoes
• 3/4 cup canned or frozen corn kernals
• 1 can black beans
• 1/2 cup cubed feta cheese
• 2-3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Rinse the quinoa thoroughly and put in a pot with cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, salt and pepper, lime zest and juice, tobasco, and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from stove and let sit for 5 more minutes. Fluff with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients and toss. Enjoy!