Archive | Snack RSS feed for this section

Creamy Lemon and Dill Dip

Published on in Condiment, Keto-friendly, Nightshade-free, Nuts, Raw, Sauce, Seeds, Snack By |
2 Comments

When I first got into Personal Chef work I was cooking for celebrities, the kind of people who can afford to pay the very best people to work for them. As a Chef who had only cooked in restaurants, I totally knew this and it made me nervous. I was confidant in my cooking but this was a different kind of cooking. Many of my clients wanted healthy food that tasted like bad for you food. I mean, who doesn’t?

I had never even heard or raw or macrobiotic cuisine before I started in this line of work. It just happened that my Mom was diagnosed with cancer around the same time, so I had an extra big reason to pay attention to these new, exotic, interesting ways that people were eating to stay healthy (or skinny or like, a good actor or whatever).

I loved the new challenge of this somewhat uncharted territory. After years working in fine dining, I knew exactly what buttery dishes, braised meats and rich desserts tasted like. It was just about finding these flavours within these healthier new parameters.

(more…)

Red & Black Velvet Brownies

Published on in Freeze-able, Fruit, Legumes, Nightshade-free, Roots, Snack, Sweet-ish By |
2 Comments

I’ve never thought of Valentine’s Day as a particularly romantic holiday. Thanks to TV and Archie comics, I knew that it was supposed to be, but that’s not ever how it’s seemed to me. I think it’s because we celebrated it as a family my whole life, even back when boys were gross.

It represented love for sure, we all loved each other and had a special dinner together that night (fondue, most likely) (have I mentioned how much my Mom ruled?) and my Stepdad would bring us all home chocolate and cinnamon hearts. So it has always meant love and chocolate, not too far off what Hallmark is telling us, but I kind of love it.

(more…)

Navy Bean, Artichoke & Olive Tapenade Dip

Published on in Condiment, Legumes, Nightshade-free, Snack By |
4 Comments

One thing I spend far too much time thinking about is how to coax more vegetables into our/other people’s/people with temporarily strange palates lives. I could probably speak French and Italian by now if I were to have put in the same amount of time and effort. But who needs to be understood in the countries of love when you can….eat more veggies?

Anyway, this dip is my latest obsession. I am now in my last week (hopefully?) of pregnancy and have been making up for the all but complete lack of vegetables in the first half of my pregnancy. That stretch of time brought me a deeper understanding of my clients who were going through treatment who only wanted beige food, but it also meant this baby got a lot more beige food than I was happy with (thank goodness for smoothies).

(more…)

Warm Eggnog Chia Pudding (with Pear & Cranberry Compote)

Published on in Breakfast, Condiment, Fruit, Keto-friendly, Main course, Nightshade-free, Raw, Sauce, Seeds, Snack By |
2 Comments

Warm Eggnog Chia Pudding

My husband bought a scented candle a couple of weeks ago called ‘wood smoke’ (so manly). I think he was trying to compliment his favourite tv show, the channel that just has the burning fire log with the guy’s plaid arm stoking it once in a while. Anyway, (luckily?) it doesn’t smell like burning anything, but mysteriously, more like how you want Christmas to smell, which is just so awesome.

Warm Eggnog Chia Pudding

As much as I love the lights and decorations and the Peanuts Christmas soundtrack, by far my favourite thing about the holiday season are the smells. Everything from the fresh cut trees outside the grocery store, freshly peeled mandarin oranges, your neighbours up the hall getting a jump on their gingerbread baking, the way the air smells when its thinking about snowing, simmering mulling spices and warm roasty dinners all make this season so nostalgic and infectious. It’s hard not to jump on board with both feet, at least in the beginning.

(more…)