I like coming up with other foods to use in the place of bread or wraps. Using toasted nori sheets as a wrap is one of my favourites. In this case, though, I’m using big lettuce leaves to encase this yummy asian filling.

This is a great meal because you can use all your favourite veggies and your favourite protein, or use up all of those odds-n-ends you have sitting in your fridge. I decided to use prawns as my protein, but you could easily use chicken, beef, tofu, etc.

I made one large pan full of filling, but add in the vegetables and just eyeball how much you want to make.

Hoisin Lettuce Wraps

• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• button mushrooms, chopped
• red and yellow bell peppers, diced
• celery, diced
• 1 can baby corn, drained and chopped
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
• 3 green onions, chopped
• prawns (I used frozen, pre-cooked prawns, so that all I had to do was thaw, remove the tails, and chop. I used about 15 prawns in total.)
• red chili flakes
• tamari (maybe a tbsp for a big pan)
• rice wine vinegar (1/2 tbsp maybe)
• hoisin (a couple tbsp)
• sesame oil (a tsp maybe)
• 1 head iceberg lettuce, leaves seperated

Heat the oil in a skillet, add the onions and cooking, stirring, until translucent. Add the garlic, and cook until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and cook a minute or two more. Add the celery, bell peppers, ginger, and baby corn. Cook for a couple minutes, and then add the water chestnuts and green onions and chili flakes. Add the prawns, just to heat through. Add a splash of tamari, hoisin, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar. Just taste, and experiment!! Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

If you can remember back to this post, I made a meal inspired from the Middle East. This particular dish is a cumin- carrot salad. I used organic carrots and they were so fresh and sweet, it added an entire element of flavour compared to regular carrots. Yum! For those of you that don’t know, cumin is an extremely healthy spice. It has a unique flavour and wonderful properties that aid in digestion, help fight off colds, and cumin is actually very rich in iron. It’s also a powerful antioxidant, and has even been said to aid those suffering with insomnia. It’s used extensively in Ayurvedic healing, and you can see why! Try this salad, and experience the benefits of cumin.

Cumin-Carrot Salad (adapted from the NY Times)

• 1 lb of organic carrots, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• pinch of salt
• fresh ground pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup black olives, sliced

Place the carrots in a steamer above 1 inch of boiling water, cover and steam 5 to 8 minutes, until tender. Remove from the heat, rinse with cold water, and drain on paper towels. Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan and add the garlic and cumin. Stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in carrots, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice, remaining olive oil, parsley, and olives. Serve at room temperature. Serves 4.

I love eating salad….what could be better than a big pile of vegetables in a delicious dressing. A few weeks ago I made a roasted beet salad and it was absolutely divine. The roasted beets are matched up with aspargus and blue cheese and amazing candied walnuts, all tied together in a super citrus-y orange vinaigrette. This is one of the best salads I’ve had in a long time…I definitely went back for seconds! This would be great to make for company, instead of a boring ceasar salad or green salad with the all-too-typical (yet tasty, don’t get me wrong!) balsamic vinaigrette.

Roasted Beet Salad (adapted from KCTS Cooks Salads)

• 4 medium beets, tops trimmed
• 1tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 8 cups mixed baby greens (these can be left out in order to just make a side dish with aspargus/beets/walnuts/etc)
• 1 apple (I used Graventstein from my apple tree)
• 1/2 cups walnuts
• 3 tbsp sugar ( I used organic unrefined cane sugar)
• 6-8 asparagus spears
• 1/4 cup blue cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss beets with olive oil, salt, pepper. Place in shallow baking dish and bake for 40-60 minutes (until tender). Cool beets slightly and then remove skins and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Wash and drain greens and cut apple into small chunks. Place sugar in a frying pan and heat until melted. Add walnuts and stir to coat. Turn nuts onto a lightly oiled dish to cool, then coarsely chop.

Wash and trim asparagus, then cut into pieces and blanch 1-2 minutes and then plunge into cold water. Drain.

Combine all elements together, drizzle with orange vinaigrette and sprinkle with blue cheese.

Orange Vinaigrette

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1 shallot, peeled and minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients and whisk in oil.

On another note…I start my full-time cooking school experience on Monday!!!!! (Before I was only taking one class). Now I really get to step into the kitchen and learn and I couldn’t be more excited….and slightly nervous! You may have noticed a new tab at the top of my blog, entitled ‘culinary’. By clicking this tab, you will be located to posts purely about my cooking school experience. I will continue to blog about food + recipes (of course!!!) but I hope you also will enjoy reading about the mayhem I will create for myself in cooking school bahahah. They don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into!!

Yes…that is me as a young’n with who knows what on my face (let’s just hope it’s face paint). For some reason I always closed one eye in pictures when I was a kid….

I went through a phase that lasted about a year and a half….I despised soup. I couldn’t even look at it without getting a gross feeling. It came from a bad experience with soup during a hospital stay and it took quite a long time for me to even consider eating it again. But it’s been a long time now and I can say that once again, I love soup!! My favourite type is thick soup, like butternut squash or even better…pumpkin! I cannot wait to make pumpkin soup this year- if that does not sum up autumn in a bowl, I don’t know what does!

Yesterday I decided to make a different kind of soup though, something a little bit lighter. I decided on “Monkey Minestrone” from “Eat, Drink, Be Vegan”. It was my first time making this recipe (and minestrone, actually!) and it turned out really well. It’s full of beans (3 kinds!), yummy tomato flavour, veggies, herbs and whole wheat macaroni. Unfortunately, I cannot share the recipe with you because I really didn’t change anything about it, except that I added parmesan. I made it un-vegan but it is good without the cheese as well. I just love the salty flavour that parmesan adds!

This is a “recipe” for a dressing that can be used as a sauce over vegetables, a spread for sandwiches, a dip for crackers or veggies…whatever you want! The recipe comes from Staying Healthy with Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine but it’s all about throwing the ingredients together to create the taste and thickness that you desire. My favourite use of this is as a dip for steamed veggies- I love the super salty flavour the miso provides.

Miso-Tahini Dressing

Mix about equal parts of tahini and miso paste together, adjust to taste.

Add some dijon mustard, some tamari or soy sauce, or some balsamic vinegar and adjust the levels of liquid and solid until you get the texture you are after. It’s all up to you!

Coming Soon….my Iron Cupcake entry, and homemade peanut butter cups!

I wasn’t sure that this dish would be flavourful, considering the small number of ingredients and the dare I say it….lack of GARLIC! But after tasting this dish, I was very pleased. I have only had kale a few times and so far this is my favourite way to prepare it!

Kale is chock-full of calcium, so skip your glass of milk and eat this super dish! If you are a newcomer to kale or on the edge about it, this is a great dish for you to start with!

The recipe is from Giada’s Kitchen.

Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/4 lb cremini mushrooms, quartered and sliced (about 14 mushrooms)
• 1 1/2 lbs green beans, trimmed and sliced into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 bunch kale, rinsed, stemmed, and roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese

Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms, green beans, salt, and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add the wine and continue cooking until the green beans are almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and the kale and continue cooking until the kale has wilted, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and the Parmesan cheese. Toss to coat and serve immediately.

**I added some smoked tofu for extra protein, texture, and flavour- yum!