August » 2010 » Living Lou

Tomato Garlic Parmesan Couscous

The end of summer has really thrown off both my cooking and my blogging! I’ve been busy working, and just enjoying these last few remaining days until – gasp - my senior year of high school! Yes, my last year… oh man, please excuse me while I go hyperventilate. eek!

Whew.

I was in the mood for a quick snack, but something different then say my favourite crunchy snack – granola, or my favourite chocolate snack – brownies, or my favourite, super healthy snack – sweet potatoes. So after about 20 minutes of sifting around the kitchen for something to eat, I finally found it, the one and only couscous. And since we are currently running rather low on food, I didn’t have much choice as to what to use to transform my couscous from boring, to wow!

Tomato Garlic Parmesan Couscous
Ingredients
1 cup couscous
1 1/4 cup water
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1/8 tsp each of dried thyme, basil and parsley
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (plus extra for sprinkling)

Directions

Bring water to a boil and add the couscous, return to boil, cover, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

While couscous is sitting, heat olive oil in a pan and add the garlic, cook until fragrant (about 1 minute), add herbs and cook for another minute, then add the tomato paste and stir to combine.

Once the couscous is done cooking, fluff with a fork and add to the pan of garlic, herbs and tomato paste. Mix to combine and add Parmesan cheese. Mix well to make sure all the couscous is covered.

Remove from heat and serve with extra Parmesan cheese!

This makes a great quick snack and would also make the perfect side dish. It takes literally 10 minutes or less to make!

- Lou

Terrific Trout!

Mmmm, I really love seafood… salmon, octopus, calamari, shrimp, trout… the list goes on and on… So, when I saw that trout fillets were on sale for a ridiculously good price, I was ready to buy the whole stock. But, I realized that that may be a little extreme. Just a little. So I bought myself four fillets and off I was, running home to prepare my delicious dinner.

Terrific Trout

Ingredients
4 medium sized trout fillets
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp each of rosemary, thyme and parsley
3/4 tsp honey mustard
1/8 tsp each of chili flakes, garlic powder and chili powder
cracked pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together to create a marinate for the fish. Butter or oil your cooking dish and place trout fillets in the dish. Brush the marinate over the fish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

This dish, with the blend of flavors and the melt-in-your-mouth trout is seriously a winner. It takes mere minutes to prepare, and mere minutes to devour!

Happy eating!

- Lou

My Favourite Chocolate Mousse

Warning: This recipe requires self control.

Chocolate Mousse is my absolute favourite dessert. I could honestly eat this entire dessert in one serving.

When I was in Greece I decided it would be nice to share my favourite recipe with my Grandparents, so chocolate mousse it was! I’ve loved chocolate mousse for as long as I can remember and I’ve been making this recipe for as long as I can remember. It’s so easy to whip up and everyone loves it. Unlike many mousses (mousses… sounds so off?) this one does not contain raw eggs! This has the perfect balance of flavours, and it’s not too rich.

It tastes absolutely wonderful when you eat it plain, but it is also perfect for the chocolate cake I like to make for special occasions. Two layers of chocolate cake, sandwhiched together with chocolate mousse, and then as if there wasn’t enough chocolate, I cover the entire cake in chocolate mousse as well. It’s the best. cake. ever.

Ingredients

8 oz (250 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup ground almonds

Directions

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl. In a small saucepan, warm up the cream (be careful as it boils over very easily.) pour the heated cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla extract and stir in the ground almonds. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.

After 2 hours, using a hand mixer, beat the chocolate mixture until fluffy. Serve or refrigerate.

Well, after writing this post… I am definitely needing some chocolate mousse in my life.

- Lou

Homemade Granola

Mmmm, I love granola! I think everyone loves granola, don’t you think? You can eat it as cereal, you can add it to your yogurt, you can make granola bars… seriously, it’s such a delicious and healthy snack, you can even just grab a handful as you’re running out the door. It’s packed full of protein (in all of the nuts!) which will give you a protein kick as you begin (or carry on) your day. And it makes a seriously awesome gift. Since this recipe makes a ton, you don’t have to worry about not having enough delicious granola left over for yourself and your own family after gifting some for friends and family. I ended up giving a lot of it away to friends and I received a ton of positive feedback.

Basic Granola
recipe adapted from: La Belle Bride

Ingredients
3 cups toasted oats (toast for 15 minutes at 375 degrees)
½ cup milk Powder
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
½ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup cashews
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs Vanilla
½ cup canola oil
¾ cup maple syrup or honey
1/8 cup peanut butter

Directions

Toast the oats for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

While the oats are toasting combine the milk powder, chopped almonds, coconut, sunflower seeds, pecans, and cashews in a large bowl.

In a saucepan boil the canola oil, honey/syrup (I didn’t have enough of either honey or syrup for ¾ cup so I mixed about half honey and half maple syrup to have the right amount), peanut butter, vanilla and cinnamon for two minutes.

Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients you mixed together before, and then add your toasted oats once they’re done. Mix thoroughly.

Pour the contents of the bowl on a cookie sheet and cook in the oven at 250 for ½ an hour and then turn the heat down to 200 and cook for 2 hours.

Once done, let cool and store in any airtight container or mason jars.

So, try your hand at homemade granola! Your friends with love you forever – trust me!

- Lou

Home Sweet Home

No new recipe today… just a quick little update to say that I’m back! And to post a few pictures from my wonderful visit with family and friends! I’ll just sum it up in a few words: I did way more eating than cooking. (it was a vacation!)

With that said, I do have a few posts that I did whilst across the Atlantic, I decided that it would be nice (and an insanely delicious idea) to cook one of my favourite dishes and one of my family’s favourites for my Grandparents. So those will be up and coming in the next little while…

But until then, I’ll leave you with some pictures… while I go and mourn the end of my trip, and eat my feelings in Taco Salad.

It was such a windy day, and the waves crashing against the rocks was beautiful.

My Grandmother is an insanely dedicated and talented (is gardening a talent?) gardener. Her garden is absolutely beautiful… you should see the amount of vegetables she’s growing. It’s enough to feed the whole village!

This was a fluke picture, but I love the way it turned out… thanks to the random woman walking by!
How perfect does this look? Including both the beach and my sister!

A picture from the base of the Acropolis… can you imagine that the view was even more amazing from the top of the Acropolis?!

Night out on the town!

Whew! That was a fun two weeks…

- Lou