If At First You Don't Succeed - Make it Bigger

I came across a recipe for Crunchy Quinoa Sweet Potato Burgers the other day and could not get the look of the sweet potato patty out of my mind. Just looked so crunchy and good for you! The perfect food. So I attempted to make it.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup quinoa
• 2/3 cup filtered water
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 to 2 tablespoons tahini (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (or 2 cloves garlic, minced)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup panko
• 3 sprouted grain hamburger buns 

• For crunchy guacamole:
• 2 avocados, peeled and pitted
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons salsa or pico de gallo
• 2 tablespoons raw pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)

Directions:

1. In small pot, combine quinoa and water over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Let quinoa cook for 10 to 15 minutes until all water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let rest for at least 5 minutes.
2. While quinoa cooks, cook sweet potato in a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes until soft and mashable. When potatoes are finished cooking, combine with white beans in a mixing bowl and smash with a potato masher until well mashed but still retaining a little texture from beans. Add tahini (if using), salt, and spices. Mix well, then add quinoa and fold in with a spatula.
3. Heat a medium-sized pan on the stove to medium heat and drizzle with olive oil. Form quinoa-sweet potato mixture into three patties, coat with panko, and cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side until a nice crispy golden brown outer shell is reached.
4. While burgers cook, make guacamole by mashing all ingredients together.
5. To assemble, place burger patty on bottom half of bun and top with guacamole and bun top. 

Recipe provided by Jessica Smith of MadetoCreate

I of course made more of a basic patty with just sweet potato, quinoa, mixed beans and a few random spices from my bare spice cabinet.  I also did not make the guacamole that was to be paired with it due to a lack of ingredients and preparedness.

 My first attempt was a total fail. I made the patties too thin and they broke apart when flipped and then became one large mass. 

Crunchy, but not pretty.

So I got smart and made them bigger! Like actual burgers. Who would have thought??

Example of my first try.

Finished product. Success!

I made some pickled cabbage earlier in the day ..... I know, weird right? I mean who randomly makes pickled cabbage?

Lovely Friday night dinner for myself. 

 There you have it. I experimented with recipes and ended up with a decently healthy meal. And here's a secret ..... I totally pretended I was on Chopped Canada. How in the heck to they create those meals in just 30 minutes?! I guess none of them have a 3.5 year old child asking for their attention every 3.5 minutes.

And be thankful I am not around to kiss you tonight. Holy garlic! But so so good.

Vaguebooking

We all know at least one person on social media who has a habit of 'vaguebooking' or we have maybe even done it ourselves.

If you aren't sure what vaguebooking is - please refer to the image below:

You are probably saying "Oh yeah! So and so does that all the time!" You need to tell them to stop or you need to pay more attention.  

Something happened today over my facebook news feed that caused quite a stir, but not without a few "Have you been drinking lol" or "Your facebook was hacked" remarks by other people. Guess what? It was a serious cry for help, which if had gone just 10 minutes more not being believed, would have ended tragically. Luckily enough people were smart and took action. 

In honour of Bell Let's Talk Day which takes place tomorrow, I want to urge all of you to come out and say exactly what it is you have to say. If you are depressed, lonely and need attention - come right out and say it. Don't beat around the bush because that one time where you really do need help, no one will listen, or if they do, it may be too late. 

On the flip side, it's time to pay more attention and ask the hard questions. Don't be afraid to ask someone if they are okay. Don't be afraid to tell them that you notice their pain and are there for support. Sometimes that is all they really need.

Yeah vaquebooking is annoying. We all know that. But we need to work together and help those who do it, feel like they don't have to. Let's start Truthbooking. Bravebooking. Honestbooking. Even Supportbooking. Let's just start talking.

5 Ways to Say "I Love You" in a Book Made By You!

Want to make a real impression this Valentine's Day? Consider making a super quick, easy, and beautiful photo book with Blurb, my favourite online photo book company. After all, nothing says "love" like a thoughtfully made book of all your time together. 

I can attest to that after I received my wedding photo book created by our awesome photographer, Melissa R Styba. Not only is it something tangible that we can re-visit over and over, but it is easily shared with others. 

Here are 5 books you can make with Blurb:

1. Love Instagram? Use it to make a book of photos you've taken with your love. With Blurb, you can make a book with your Instagram photos in just about five minutes.
2. Turn "like" into "love." Using Blurb’s Facebook book-making tool, you can turn all yours, and your loved one's photos into a neat little book. It even pulls in the comments, so you can remember how cute everyone said you looked that one time…
3. Make it pretty (easy): Blurb has some really gorgeous templates in their Designer Collection that lets you pull in photos from your computer, Flickr, Instagram, or Facebook, for a slick, beautiful little Small Square book. You'll look like you spent hours—but really, you can be done in less.
4. Plan on love: Create a 2014 planner featuring their favourite photos and fill in the important dates from your past (they'll have no excuse to forget your anniversary now). There's a nice little blog post that explains it all.
5. Love notes: Does your love have a creative side? Make them a notebook filled with their favourite photos. Every time they go to jot down an idea they'll think of you.

There are even more ways! And you're only limited by your imagination. Of course, these are custom gifts that have to be printed and shipped, so you'll want to pay attention to the order deadlines below:

United States:
February 3 (Standard shipping)
February 6 (Priority shipping)
February 7 (Express shipping)

Canada:
January 31 (Standard shipping)
February 4 (Priority shipping)

I know if D took the time and put the thought into creating such a personal page by page experience for me - I would cherish it. Hint hint hunny!

Spread the love! Share this post and I will send you a code for 15% off a printed book for your Valentine! 

Top Secret Dinner

*Disclaimer: This recipe calls for onions (yuck) which I NEVER and also vowed to never use - ever. But I did this ONE TIME as it was a special occasion. Do not expect it to happen again.

D has a little side job as a guinea pig. He gets paid to test new food products, which if you think about it, is kinda cool. We won't become millionaires, but it's fun for him. Tonight was a take home test! The whole family got to eat!

The product is top secret so I can't tell you exactly what it is, but I can tell you it was YUMMY! And it had a Mexican twist.

Someone wasn't interested 

Not too bad for a gal like me, hey? The product got rave reviews - even from AJ. We hope to see it on store shelves in the near future. 

Now I have to go scrub the onion smell off my hands. The things I do for the people I love. 

My Little Firefighter

As AJ and I were driving home from her daycare the other day, we saw a fire truck. She thought it was so cool! Then she began talking about how she was going to be like Fireman Sam when she was not a kid anymore. I told that was a great idea.

Funny enough, I was making dinner tonight and the oven was smoking. Not because I was burning food - there was something on the bottom of the oven from the last time it almost smoked us out of the house. Pretty sure it is grease from the meat loaf I made last week.

Yes, I realize I need to clean it.

Anyways, I opened the oven and smoked poured out, which triggered our overly sensitive smoke detector. I grabbed a towel so I could wave it around under the detector to make it stop. Who was already there? My little firefighter. AJ was there flailing her blankie like a crazy kid to help her mommy.

Either her choice to be a firefighter is truly her calling - or I burn dinner too much.

Mini Muffin Tins VS Regular Muffin Tins - Does it Matter?

Did you know that there is a difference between mini muffin tins and regular muffin tins? Yes the size is an obvious answer, but did you know that using one instead of the other can totally ruin your dinner?  If you didn't, then you need to read this.

There has been a recipe for Mini Quinoa Pizza Bites floating around Facebook for a while now and they look so good! I decided to give them a try.

Big mistake. 

I took a glance at the recipe and came to the conclusion that I had everything I needed. My spice collection is not as fancy or complete as most, but I felt it would suffice. As the quinoa cooked, I grabbed a bowl and threw in a dash of dried oregano here, salt there, pepper and paprika all over. I also threw in some Wine & Garlic seasoning I "got" from The Melting Pot which is AMAZing. I add it to everything.

Next came the grated mozzarella cheese, two eggs and ..... no onions. Onions are gross and you will never read about me adding them to ANYTHING. I skipped the pepperoni as well, as I wanted to share my culinary masterpiece with a vegetarian friend at work. What can I say, I am an unselfish cook.

Once the quinoa was cooked, I mixed everything together and felt really confident that I had a good thing going. As I was filling my muffin tin with the mixture, it occurred to me that the recipe yielded 40 pizza bites. How could I make 40 when I have just used all of the quinoa in one muffin tin?

OH! I need a MINI muffin! Duh. How different can it be?

Very. It is very different. I promise you.

I put the pizza bites into the oven anyways and set the timer for a wee bit longer seeing as they were a wee bit bigger. After about 10 minutes I started to smell them. They smell like pizza! I win!

Not so much. I took them out and #1 - they stuck as I forgot to spray the tin and #2 - they were mushy and I wasn't 100% the egg was fully cooked. I dug in and sort of flipped them over to try and cook them all the way through. Put them back in the oven and waited.

Another 15 or so minutes went by and I checked on them. Should I flip them over again? Does it matter that half of each bite is now crusted and baked permanently into each muffin hole? Do we have a jackhammer?

No one, including me, got to enjoy the quinoa pizza bites. Well, unless you count the garbage can.

At least I got to smell them.