Jasper’s Turkey Meatballs

A few weeks ago we celebrated my mom’s birthday and I decided to make meatballs with polenta. Half of it went according to plan.

I had never tried to cook polenta before so I didn’t know how long I was supposed to cook it for since it never seemed to thicken. This resulted in a very thick polenta cooked for over an hour with me stirring frequently. I had also never tasted polenta so I didn’t realize how tasteless it was!

The meatballs, however, where much better. My brother made them and they tasted amazing. (The sauce was able to cover the bland taste of polenta).

I also made some matcha tarts for dessert. It tasted okay, but I believe it would’ve been better if I hadn’t accidentally boiled the cashew nuts…

• Servings: 4-5
• Print

My brother made these meatballs and they are delicious! Please look at the ingredients for the meatballs and the sauce since some come up for both of them.
Ingredients:
Meatballs
1 pound minced turkey
1/2 onion, finely diced (keep the other half for the sauce)
5 garlic cloves, minced
Handful of parsley, chopped
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
Sauce
1 1/2 large onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cloves, smashed
2 tbsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves, rinsed
Pepper and salt

Instructions:

1. Meatballs: Mix all the meatball ingredients together, then press them into round balls. Refrigerate.
2. Sauce: Brown the onions and garlic in a large pot over medium heat, stirring constantly. Add in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, cloves, oregano, bay leaves, pepper and salt. When the sauce starts to boil, add in the meatballs. Cover with a lid and then mix after a few minutes, carefully pushing the meatballs in the sauce.
3. Cook for 20 minutes on medium heat with the lid on, then simmer for an hour.
4. This is best served with pasta.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Figs and Pistachios

The Crossroads Cookbook has been sitting in my shelves for quite a while now and I decided to take a look at it recently. It’s a vegan cookbook with lovely recipes such as homemade pasta, soups, and this decadent chocolate cake. I did modify the recipe a bit because I was too lazy to make all those different components at once. The figs and pistachios add an extra flair to the once simple chocolate dessert, and it tastes wonderful.

Banana Açai Smoothie Bowl

Açai has been everywhere on Instagram so when I saw a packet of açai puree at Trader Joe’s, I jumped at the chance to finally make my own açai bowl. First of all, for those of you who wonder what açai is, it’s a berry that comes from Brazil and it contains a lot of antioxidants. I’m not sure about the rest of the claims, such as preventing diseases and weight loss, but açai sure is delicious.

I always thought it was pronounced a-KAY, but it’s not! The real spelling is açai, with a c-cedilla, so that means the ‘c’ is said softly and the ‘i’ is not silent. The correct pronunciation is ah-sah-EE. You’ll thank me in the future when you’re faced with the prospect of ordering something with açai and don’t want to embarrass yourself pronouncing it.

I added 1/2 cup almond milk in my açai bowl, which was a bit too much because it doesn’t have the consistency of scoop-able ice cream, so I revised the recipe and cut the milk down to 1/3 cup to make it thicker.

• Servings: 2
• Time: 10 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
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A smooth and delicious bowl of creamy goodness. Made with bananas, blueberries, açai and spinach, this is sure to subside the sweet cravings for the day.
Ingredients:
2 bananas, peeled
1 packet of Trader Joe’s açai puree, put under warm water for 5 seconds
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup spinach, washed
1/3 cup almond milk

Instructions:

1. Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth and thick. It should have the consistency of ice cream. Divide smoothie into two bowls and enjoy right away with toppings such as berries, granola and coconut flakes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Almond Cake

I made this cake to clear out the very ripe strawberries in our fridge and use up the last stalks of rhubarb. This is a gluten-free almond cake with strawberry and rhubarb and it is so delicious. It’s also healthy because it has fruit, coconut sugar (which is better for you than white sugar), and almond flour. I have to admit, the cake won’t win any beauty contests, but I have high regards for the taste.

This recipe comes from a combination of an almond cake recipe from Well Plated by Erin and my own mixture of fruit on the bottom. The most famous upside down cake is probably the colourful pineapple one, but I would choose this one over the pineapple one any day.

Healthy Coconut Lavender Ice Cream

Okay, I promise my vacation post will be up soon, but while I finish it up, I’m leaving you guys with an ice cream recipe. And it’s not just any ice cream recipe. This one is:

• Dairy-free
• Vegan
• Healthy
• Naturally sweetened
• Flavoured with lavender and blackberry
• No churn

When summer is hot, ice cream is the perfect way to cool yourself down. I really wanted to make something healthier than the normal ones, so I did! We have a bunch of lavender in the garden which dried out due to the heat, so it was perfect for the recipe. There’s also a lot of wild blackberries around our neighbourhood, so my brother and I always go out with a container in hand to pick them all. Well, all that we can take. There’s always this annoying little group of perfectly ripe blackberries just a bit too high and deep in the bush for us to pick.

Kohlrabi and Zucchini Fritters with Wasabi Mayo

I didn’t even know kohlrabi existed until a few months ago. It was my brother’s birthday, and someone decided to give him seeds to plant in the garden. I looked at the package, frowning at the foreign name, and that was my first encounter with kohlrabi. Fast forward to the present, and the seeds have transformed into lovely green bulbs with leaves on top. These fritters are the first time I used the vegetable, so I was quite surprised by how hard of an effort it took to cut into it! I also recognized a smell but couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Of course, my mind needed to know, so one online search later and I came up with Martha Stewart’s definition of kohlrabi: it’s like a cross between a radish, jicama, broccoli, and collard greens. And that was it! My nose had detected the radish smell. But when the kohlrabi’s cooked, it doesn’t really taste like radish but more of a mixture between broccoli, zucchini and potato. Strange, huh?

These fritters are a wondrous combination of the strange veggie named kohlrabi, zucchini, egg, breadcrumbs and spices. It’s crunchy and soft (oxymoron point in English class!) plus the fritters smell so good when they’re cooking in the pan. It’s excellent with the wasabi mayo, which gives it an extra pop that I love.

Fig, Banana and Peach Smoothie

After a 6-week long holiday in Europe, I’m finally back home. It was a beautiful trip, which I will post about later, but for now, you’ll have to content with a smoothie recipe. One thing about traveling is that you can’t always find the healthiest foods all the time, so I’m trying even harder to eat healthy now that I’m home. For example, this was my first smoothie in 6 weeks!!! And I think I passed my monthly quota of meat and potatoes by a mile. Whoops.

This smoothie is the sweetest smoothie I’ve ever tasted, and this is without any additional sugars. The sweetness mainly comes from the figs, which came from our own fig tree! The rest of our garden exploded as well, including the lettuce and zucchini. The only thing that kinda turned for worse was the grass. Brown grass is not that nice… Anyways, I’ll try to finish up the vacation post soon (hopefully), and make more food!

Avocado, Spinach and Brie Sandwiches

We’re approaching finals again and I’m relieved that provincials have been removed. I still need to do a few final exams, but I think it’ll be okay. I predict that food will become my best friend during those stressful times, which is why I’m trying to eat really healthy now so I’ll be prepared for those food urges later on.

Last week, I made Style Sweet CA’s lemon mousse cake with raspberries and it was so good! There were a lot of eggs in it, but the result was mouth-watering. I changed a few things to make it healthier, and I was very pleased with the cake. Probably going to post it on Instagram soon since it looked so good.

Gluten-Free Cranberry Scones

My mom makes the best scones ever. No kidding. Every time she makes them people always ask for the recipe. Recently, we’ve had some gluten-free people ask for a modified scone, so she provided! And it tastes (well to my opinion) even better than her original scones.

There is still butter in it, but sometimes you have to embrace it. I love how these scones melt in my mouth and the cranberries give it some extra sweetness.

Breakfast Overnight Rolls

Last week, for mother’s day, I made Sweet Potato, Avocado and Eggs Hash for breakfast, and I also made bread! These rolls are really easy to make and have a bit of a crunchy crust with a soft interior.

They might just look like potatoes, but I assure you it tastes much better than a raw potato. I like how they’re single portions because it makes it so much cuter and easier to serve because you don’t need to cut out a slice from a big loaf.