Chicken Pesto Prosciutto with asparagus and cheese rosemary scones

Remember to make each dish your own.  Improvise if you do not have all of the ingredients!

Ingredients (prep 10 minutes, (cooking time 25-35)
4 chicken breasts or thighs
6 slices of prosciutto
pesto (we make homemade- see sauces)
asparagus
olive oil
salt and pepper

Scones (prep 10 minutes, cooking time 20-25)
2 cups of flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
6 Tbsp of butter
1 Tbsp honey or sugar ( don't be afraid to make substitutions if you do not have the ingredients!!)
1 egg
3/4- 1 Milk
3 Tbsp Rosemary
Sea Salt and pepper
1 cup of grated cheese
Feel free to skip the cheese or add other herbs and spices. Make it your own!

Instructions  (read all of the instructions first!)

1. Pre-heat oven to 425

2. Make pesto or buy Pesto.

3. Make an incision in the chicken breast or spread out the chicken thighs and insert pesto.  Place on the prosciutto and wrap as if it were a roll. Place in a clear glass cooking pan.  Repeat 4 times.  Place in oven for 25- 30 minutes.

4. Time to make the scones!  Mix flour, baking power and salt into a bowl. Add rosemary.  Add butter and mix with a fork until it is evenly distributed.  Beat one egg and add the milk. Pour into the mixture with the grated cheese. Mix well.  Put some flour on your hands and make the mixture into a Big Pancake.  It will be about 1 inch high and 5 inches wide. Place in over for 20 minutes.













5. Wrap the asparagus into prosciutto. Season with salt and pepper I usually wrap about 4-5 into one prosciutto. Pre heat pan for minutes with grape seed oil.  Cook each side for about 4 minutes.

Favourite Restaurants

Favourite Restaurants

Sushi
Naigomi

Steak
Hys and The Keg

Tapas
21 steps

Fine Dining
Le Gros (best value)
Rim Rock
La Trattoria
Quattros

Best place to Apres
Brandys
Dustys
Milestones

Best Pizza
Creek Bread

Best Place for Hangover Cure
Southside
Wildwood

Wine

Wine

Recently, my boyfriend and I went to the Osoyoos/Oliver region and sampled many wines.  We found most of the wineries to be tasty and affordable.  We enjoyed all of them.  We even camped at a beautiful site called Haynes Point.  I recommend making reservations at this camp ground if you are travelling during peak season. Here are some of the highlights:

Hester Creek
Gehringers Brothers
See Ya Later Ranch
Road 13
Golden Beaver
Inniskillin
Rustica
Burrowing Owl
Stone Boat
Desert Hills
Quinta Ferreira
Stag's Hallow
La Vieux Pin
La Stella
Silver Sage
Jackson Triggs

More descriptions to follow.

Wolly Pocket

My Boyfriend gave me a Woolly Pocket.  It is a living wall planter that can be used inside.  Once it is installed I will blog about my process.   Hope it goes better then my normal gardening adventures!

See this website for more details:

http://www.woollypocket.com/

Chocolate Almond Macaroons (raw)

This one is on my to do list to make!

Chocolate Almond Macaroons

• 2 cups raw almonds (ground in food processor)
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup raw honey
• 4 heaping Tbsp raw cocao powder
• pinch sea salt
  
  After grinding the almonds, add the remaining ingredients and blend. Form into 1-inch balls and refridgerate. Makes about 24.

Sarah's Raw Organic Chocolate Bars

My friend introduced to these little bites of heaven.  This treat is creamy and decadent. You must love coconut to like this recipe.  It is really rich, so a few small pieces can fix any intense chocolate craving.  I haven't made this recipe yet, but I had to share it!  Please enjoy......

Sarah’s Raw Organic Chocolate Bars

This recipe happened by accident. I went to Eating Well Organically, the best natural food market in Waterloo , ON to buy some raw cocao butter to make the bars, but they were sold out. So, Eileen, the owner suggested that I try using raw organic coconut butter instead. The rest is chocolate heaven history!

 

Note: These bars taste like chocolate macaroons, so you need to like coconut to enjoy this flavor.

 

 2 454g jars of raw organic coconut butter(or one 1 jar of coconut butter and one jar of coconut oil)

4 Tbsp raw cocao powder

4 Tbsp carob powder

10 Tbsp raw honey

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Soften the coconut butter by placing the jars in a large bowl of warm water for 30 minutes. Water must cover the whole jar. When soft, pour the coconut butter into a large mixing bowl. Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Pour chocolate batter onto a baking tray lined with saran wrap, or a Teflex sheet. Set in fridge to harden. When hard, let the chocolate sit out for 20 minutes to return to room temperature. Gently place on a large cutting board and cut into bars.  Makes approximately 16 2X6 inch bars

*** you could also put them in mini cupcake holders and give them to other people. (that is if you feel like sharing***

Fresh Thai Style Spring Rolls

Ingredients

3 grated carrots
1 red pepper cut into match sticks
1 cucumber peeled and cut into match sticks
Your favourite kind of lettuce
asian rice vermicelli noodles
round rice sheets -(these can be tricky to work with)
cilantro, mint and basil
optional - sweet onion
optional- shrimp

Peanut sauce

1 stick of lemon grass
1-2 tablespoons of finely chopped ginger
a dash of sesame oil
1 cup of water
2/3 cup of hoisin sauce
4 table spoons of good quality peanut butter (a lot of peanut butter has way to much sugar)
- a pinch of sugar if needed
***add more PB if needed***

Directions

1.  Boil water and cook noodles as per package instructions. Cool and set aside.

2. Prepare all the veggies and chop up the herbs. Organize nicely on a plate.

3. Here is the tricky bit!!! This was my first time working with rice paper.  When you first pull out a sheet they are hard and look like plastic! Briefly soak one piece of rice paper and lay on a piece of cloth. It will quickly become soft and get sticky. On one side of the rice paper put the veggies, noodle and herbs.  Then roll it up and put on a plate.  Repeat until the veggies are gone. Set aside.

4. Now you need to make the Peanut sauce.  Oh and make sure you drink some wine to stay hydrated.  You are probably getting tired.  Boil one cup of water. Chop up the lemon grass into one inch pieces and put into the pot.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Use tongs to remove the lemon grass or use a sieve with a bowl underneath to drain the water.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the water at a medium heat.  Whisk until it becomes think. Taste the sauce.  Does it need more PB?  Does it need more hoisin? Use your taste buds to get the desired result.

5. Cut the spring rolls and place them on a plate.  Drizzle some sauce on top.

6. Repeat because your guests will want more!

Any other suggestions for ingredients???

Pure Bread Review

Food for Thought

Sometimes there are no substitutions

I like to eat healthy food and I think this lifestyle can be really tasty.  I am pretty good at making modifications.  For example, last night instead of using regular ground beef I used bison to make a burger.  I also incorporated lots of yummy toppings so I didn't need to had cheese.  All of the little substitutions add up to keeping my waste line from stretching horizontally.

Today, I decide I am going to checkout Purebread.  It is a new bakery based in Whistler.  There are many healthy options and the bread is all handmade.  The storefront has a great presentation and the people inside are very welcoming.  First, I am looking for a nice healthy loaf of bread.  I immediately see the seriously seedy bread and I think this is going to really good.  Second, I see these almond croissants staring at me.  They say "eat me now."  Unless I am in Europe I usually stay away from pastries because often in north american coffee shops they are rarely handmade.  I am not going to sacrifice my waistline on dry croissants.  Needless to say I leave Purebread with 2 croissants and the seedy bread.

Instantly when I can home I cut into the Seriously Seedy bread and I am very impressed. There are seeds throughout the bread and the bread is so fresh and most.  Even the crust is perfection.  It is the perfect mixture of health as well as taste!  The seriously seedy bread could satisfy seriously anyone. I leave the croissants to the side with the intent on saving them for breakfast with my boyfriend.

Two hours pass by and I am into the croissants.  I am even more pleasantly surprised than I could ever imagine.  This is worth every bite of indulgence.  For anyone wanting to try the best croissant of your life this is the one.  I do not want to divulge the entire experience of this croissant, but I must say this treat will impress the toughest critic  As I write this I have another sample just to make sure I can describe just right; yes it is a small bite of a foodie's heaven.  This croissant will leave you wanting more.

My final remark is that there are no substitutions for this decadent treat.  Even while watching your waistline it is good for the soul to take the time to enjoy great food.  This is worth every calorie.

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame chicken

Ingredients:
4-6 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup of honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
5 garlic gloves (or as much as you like)
a couple pinches of cayenne
1-2 table spoons of sesame oil
2 table spoons of butter
2 table spoons of flour


Directions.

1. Make the sauce. In a bowl mix honey, soy sauce, ketchup, minced garlic, cayenne, and sesame oil.  Poor a small portion of the mixture into the pot of your slow cooker.
2. Cut of the chicken into bite size pieces and season with salt and pepper.  Put into slow cooker.
3. Add the rest of the sauce and chopped onions.
4. I put the slow cook on high for about 2 hours and then on low for 2 hours.  Alternatively 5 hours on low would do the trick!
5. Make long Grain Basmati rice.  Follow the instructions on the rice package.  I usually saute butter and garlic and then I add the rice.  I use chicken stock to add flavour as well.  For this recipe I also added coconut to the rice...Yummy!

Possible starter:
- My fresh Thai Spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce!

Wine Paring:

Wild Goose Gewurztramminer