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Homemade Barbecue Sauce

I can hardly believe that I’ve been on “summer vacation” for 2 months. Time is flying. But in the best way possible. Weekends are filled with warm weather, barbecues, dog walks, gelato and swimming. All the best things about summer. That said, barbecues are probably one of my favourite things about the summer, such good company, music and food. I just love the atmosphere. Mind you, I feel the same way about pool parties. Put them together and I will be at your house in 2 minutes.

A few snapshots from my summer from my iPhone and Instagram!

Barbecue sauce is something I’ve always had a bit of a problem with. The store bought sauces are just so overwhelmingly sweet. It kind of feels like eating liquid sugar; you can almost feel the sugar on your teeth afterwards. So not for me! I’ve challenged myself to try my hand at making lots of different types of homemade barbecue sauce this summer – the combinations are almost endless! This first version is more of your basic homemade barbecue sauce. Not too sweet with just enough tang.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce (makes about 2 cups)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, chopped*
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp steak spice
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup crushed tomatoes
1/4 cider vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp honey

* Can use less or more jalapeno depending on what level of heat you want.

Directions

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno to the pan, saute for 4 minutes.

Add garlic and spices, cook for another minute.

Next, add the crushed tomatoes, ketchup, cider vinegar, molasses and honey.

Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Allow to cool, and then puree in a blender.

For a healthier alternative to store bought barbecue sauce, give this Homemade Barbecue Sauce a try.

- Lou

Scrambled Eggs with Kale and Prosciutto

This dish was a complete fluke. Scrambled eggs with kale and prosciutto you say? Weird combination, right? Wrong. This started out as one of those, throw whatever you have into the pan kind of breakfasts, something that was not destined for the blog. And then it worked, and tasted magical. And I knew I had to share it, plus, sharing it required making it a few more times to get it just right, and that I could do. Food blogging can be pretty time consuming, but it’s amazing when you can recipe test a dish in the morning before work and have a delicious breakfast.

You may have seen me post this on Instagram earlier this week – I like to top mine with lots of hot sauce. Yum.

Scrambled Eggs with Kale and Prosciutto (Serves 4)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
4 slices of prosciutto, diced
4 cups chopped kale
8 eggs
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
hot sauce for serving (Optional, but highly recommended!)

Directions

In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.

Add prosciutto and cook for 4-5 minutes or until starting to crisp, stirring occasionally.

Add chopped kale to pan. Turn down heat to low. Stir kale and prosciutto together. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Turn heat back up to medium. Crack eggs into pan, stir with kale and prosciutto.

When eggs begin cooking (layer of cooked egg on bottom of pan) add in cheddar cheese. Scramble until fully cooked and cheese has melted.

Serve with lots of hot sauce.

Scrambled Eggs with Kale and Prosciutto is a simple breakfast made with 5 ingredients and the recipe can easily be reduced or doubled,

- Lou

Baked Lentils on Toast

May is Love Your Lentils Month and because of that I was planning on posting this recipe for Baked Lentils on Toast a few weeks ago, but then May just happened. In a good way. It’s like you blink and suddenly there are leaves on the trees and flowers blooming everywhere. It’s not quite summer yet, but finally that cold spring breeze is gone and you can almost feel summer. I love May.

My mom is from England, and while I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat baked beans on toast, or enjoy tea and crumpets on a daily basis, we do love the Royal Family. The last time I was in England, a couple of years ago, I remember out hotel would serve baked beans on toast with every breakfast. I thought it was such an odd combination, but I obviously became obsessed. When I saw Lentils Canada was hosting a recipe contest for Love Your Lentils Month I knew I would participate, the question was what to make. I don’t cook with lentils too often, and when I do it’s always Lentil Soup but one day I had a brain wave. What about a take on baked beans on toast, using lentils instead? And voila, an hour or so later I had my first version of Baked Lentils on Toast. Which was much too onion-y. I finally got it right though, and this recipe is a great alternative to a classic.

Baked Lentils on Toast (serves 4-6)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

6 rashers/slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 cups dried green lentils
4 cups water
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

In an oven safe large pot, cook bacon and yellow onion over medium heat for 4 minutes. Add garlic, cook for another minute.

Remove bacon, onion and garlic from pot and set aside.

Add lentils and water to pot. Bring to a boil, partly cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in bacon, onion, garlic, crushed tomatoes, maple syrup, molasses, Dijon and salt. Cover with lid.

Cook for 20-25 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Once finished, stir in lemon juice and serve.

This recipe for Baked Lentils on Toast will be sure to impress even your most British of house guests.

- Lou

Quinoa Bowl

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen developing recipes. There are meticulous notes involved, multiple drafts and different coloured pens – the whole nine yards. But there is something magical about being in the kitchen and just throwing whatever you have together. While most of my time in the kitchen is spent working on recipes, I try to carve out a few times a month where I just go in there with nothing in mind and just throw whatever together. There are definitely some pretty big failures, but also some great successful dishes.

That’s how this Quinoa Bowl came together. It was 11:30 at night and I needed something to bring to work for lunch the next day. I wasn’t looking to create a “blog worthy” dish, or follow a recipe, I was literally just throwing ingredients together. I had leftover zucchini, broccoli and kale in my fridge that needed to be used up. With the addition of a little Italian sausage, I had a meal ready to go in 15 minutes. Plus, I love when things are monochrome, so the idea of this dish having all green vegetables pleases my nerdy, uniform side. This Quinoa Bowl is the kind of thing that works well for a quick dinner, but I love to make a batch at the beginning of the week and bring it for lunch.

Quinoa Bowl (serves 2-4)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 1/4 cups water
1 link hot Italian sausage, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 zucchini, sliced in semi-circles
1 cup chopped broccoli florets
1 cup chopped kale
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and cover. Reduce heat and cook for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook sausage over medium-high heat, about five minutes or until fully cooked. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, cooking for a minute or until fragrant.

Next, add zucchini and broccoli. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until beginning to soften.

Add kale. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until kale has wilted.

Finely, season with lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Toss vegetables with sausage and cooked quinoa.

This Quinoa Bowl will quickly become a lunch staple.

- Lou

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette

With warm weather comes cravings for healthy, fresh salads. The thing is, salads can get a little boring if you’re eating the same old dressing and vegetable combination every day. I know this first hand because that’s exactly what I did with this dressing. I’m surprised I haven’t posted this recipe for Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette because I would bring this salad dressing for lunch every single day of my senior year of high school.

Ever since I graduated from high school, (almost two years ago…wow) I haven’t been making this salad dressing nearly as often. The truth is, I don’t think I’ve been eating as many salads as I used to. I think that’s one of the side effects of university – healthy eating habits go right out the window. Recently, I’ve been making more of a conscious effort to eat healthy foods and snacks and I can tell you that I feel so much better. Is anyone else planning a health kick this month? Mine’s been going pretty well so far, I mean, I didn’t buy any chocolate covered pretzels last time I was at the grocery store.

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette (makes 3/4 cup)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
1/8 tsp salt and pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper.

Next, while continuously whisking, pour in olive oil in a light, steady stream. Continue to whisk until olive oil is incorporated into vinegar and dressing has thickened, about 30 seconds. The dressing should be thick enough to coat a spoon (as seen in photo above). The oil and vinegar should not be separate.

Are you on a healthy kick too? What kinds of recipes are you looking for? Let me know. Give this Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette a try for your next lunch.

- Lou