cheese » Living Lou

Cheese Garlic Bread

You know it’s the holidays when in the middle of baking cookies, your doorbell unexpectedly rings and you’re left standing there with a big (fake) smile on your face, but really you’re thinking “Oh no. I have nothing for them to eat!”

Well don’t worry, I’ve come to your rescue! This is something which can be whipped up in 15 minutes: 7 minutes (yes, very precise) to prep your ingredients, and another 7 minutes in the oven and then a minute to slice and serve! And this is sure to be a crowd pleaser, I can’t even begin to tell you how many times people ask me to make this garlic bread.

Cheese Garlic Bread
Recipe adapted from: One Lovely Life

Ingredients

1 loaf of bread, can be a french loaf, but I find that ciabatta has the best results
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
5 tbsp softened butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups grated cheese (I use the store bought, pre-grated mixture of cheddar, Colby and Monterrey Jack)
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Half your load lengthwise. Roughly slice your green onions. Soften butter in the microwave for 10-20 seconds.

Now that all the ingredients are prepared, combine the green onions, butter, mayonnaise, crushed garlic, pepper and cheese in a bowl. Make sure it’s fully combined.

Spread evenly over both halves of bread, and pop in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. Or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Allow to cool for a minute or so, and slice bread into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Serve immediately!

This is seriously the best garlic bread, and whoever you serve it to will be completely smitten!

Hope this holiday season is treating you all well,

- Lou

Gluten Free Vegetarian Quiche

Ah, another Monday and you know what that means? Time for another one of Lou’s Meatless Monday vegetarian dishes… on today’s menu: quiche! And guess what, not only is this a vegetarian quiche, but it also has a gluten-free crust! And want to know something even better? It tastes amazing. This quiche has the perfect balance of hearty veggies, cheese and delicious eggs, some milk and maybe a smidgen of cream… yum! This is a fun and unusual take on Meatless Monday, usually a nice soup or stew or pasta dish would be a Meatless Monday dinner, but not today!

I’m sure that everyone in your house will enjoy this quiche, it’s a big hit here! And the gluten-free crust is made with ingredients available at practically every grocery store!

Note: If you don’t want/need a gluten free crust, this can be made in literally an instant, it’s the crust that takes a little bit longer. You can use either a store bought crust, or your own recipe!

Vegetarian Quiche

Gluten-Free Crust
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Pulse ingredients together in a food processor until it forms into a ball. Remove from food processor onto a well flour surface and knead lightly. Press dough into pie dish.

Quiche Filling
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cream
1 cup broccoli chopped
1 cup white button mushrooms sliced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated
1/2 tsp onion powder
pinch of nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Firstly, prep the ingredients, chop the veggies and grate the cheese. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour into pastry lined dish.

Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until center of the quiche has just barely set. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes prior to serving.

Hope you all have a great Monday, that’s meatless and delicious! Plus, how fun is this post? Two recipes for the price of one… woo!

- 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

A Meatless Monday Appetizer!

I haven’t been feeling very well today so I had to skip out on my usual “Meatless Monday” dinner post, but I’ve come up with the next best thing… a Meatless Monday appetizer!! So here’s a super easy and tasty recipe for Parmesan straws! The good thing about this recipe is that you can change up the fillings to be basically any flavour you want! This was my second time making these Parmesan straws and both times they have been an absolute hit; these will definitely be on the menu for all future dinner parties!

Ingredients
2 sheets of frozen puff pastry (thawed)
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
All-purpose flour, for rolling

Directions
Thaw the pastry and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a small bowl create an egg wash by whisking the egg and 1 tablespoon water together. In another small bowl, combine Parmesan, mustard powder, salt, and cayenne; set aside. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the first sheet of dough. Brush with the egg wash onto the dough and then liberally sprinkle the cheese mixture over the egg wash. Roll out the second piece of dough and brush one side with the egg wash. Place the second piece (egg wash side down) on top of the first piece and press down to adhere the two sheets together.

Using a pizza cutter cut the dough into 24 strips about 1/2 inch to an inch wide. Twist the strips and place them onto a baking sheet, pressing down on the tips to adhere them to the baking sheet. (You press the tips down in order for them not to loose their shape.) Bake until golden and puffed about 8-10 minutes.

These are seriously so tasty! They are wonderful straight out of the oven but they are also amazing when they’ve cooled down.

- Lou

Recipe adapted from: Martha Stewart’s Parmesan Straws

Bite Sized Stuffed Mushrooms

Here’s another one of my promised appetizer recipes; stuffed button mushrooms! These bite sized babies are scrumptious, and I actually got a round of applause from the guests! Now that is success. I usually find stuffed button mushrooms to be a little too rich and cheesy for me. This recipe has the perfect balance of flavors. And they are perfect for a dinner party because you can prepare the filling in advance and fill the mushrooms and leave them in the fridge and pop them in the oven when your guests arrive. Twenty minutes later, when the kitchen is smelling heavenly voila, stuffed mushrooms fit for a King!

Ingredients
24 whole fresh button mushrooms
3-4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tsp canola oil
1/3 cup fresh cream cheese
1/8 Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (the added cayenne gives the mushrooms a nice bite!)
1 cup small peeled cooked shrimp

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean the mushrooms (using a damp cloth or paper towel.) Remove the stems from the mushrooms (sometimes this can be a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it all goes well!) Set aside the caps and stems. Add the stems and garlic to a food processor and pulse in brief bursts until finely chopped.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushroom caps and garlic and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until all the moisture has disappeared. Add in the shrimp and turn heat down to medium-low. Stir in the cheeses and spices. Mix together until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Spoon the mixture into the mushroom caps and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.