The healthy baked oatmeal

This amazing oatmeal recipe was a remarkable success at this morning breakfast. My spouse told me it tastes like rice pudding!

I love the fact that it can be adapted to anyone's taste. The version I made is the healthier version, feel free to modify.

Ingredient
- 1 cup of instant oatmeal
- 1 tablespoon of ground flax
- 1/3 cup of brown sugar
- 1/3 of cup slivered almond
- 1 1/2 cup of 1% milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon of melted butter
- 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
- salt ( just a pinch)

Recipe
1- Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
2- Mix all wet ingredients together.
3- pre-heat oven at 350•F
4- Slowly incorporate the dry ingredient to the wet (milk-eggs-vanilla-butter) mixture until fully combined, about 5 minutes.
5- Lightly butter 4 ramekins ( of 250 ml capacity) and pour the mixture equally in each ramekins.
6- Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes.
7- Serve with fresh fruits

Deep fried French Canadian wonton

I came up with the idea when I was making regular pork wonton. I realised that the filling could be the one of my tourtière and instead of a pie crust I would use the wonton. It's delicious in a soup or deep fried with some tomatoes chutney.

Ingredients
1 package of wonton wrapper
3/4 pound of lean pork
1/4 pound of lean ground beef
1 potatoes very finely diced
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon of sage
1/8 teaspoon of ground clove
1/4 teaspoon of ground thyme
1/8 teaspoon of ground black pepper
Salt to taste
Water

Recipe
1- Make sure all ingredients contain no chunks and are finely chopped.
2- Mix all ingredients together except for the water and wonton wrapper.
3- In a large pan cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Do not over cook.
4- To fill the wontons, lay one won ton skin in front of you. (Cover the remaining won ton skins with a damp towel to keep them from drying out). Moisten all the edges of the won ton wrapper with water. Place a heaping teaspoon of won ton filling in the center.
5- Fold the wonton wrapper in half lengthwise, making sure the ends meet. Press down firmly on the ends to seal. Use thumbs to push down on the edges of the filling to center it. Keeping thumbs in place, fold over the wonton wrapper one more time. Push the corners up and hold in place between your thumb and index finger. Wet the corners with your fingers. Bring the two ends together so that they overlap. Press to seal.

6- Deep-frying the wontons: Heat oil for deep-frying to 360 degrees. Add wonton in small batches and fry, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Serve with tomatoes chutney on the side!!

Freshly made Jamaican rum cake!

It's this time of the year for me. Not yet summer, no longer winter. I was looking for small presents to give around and though about the last time I had a rum cake and how much I love it. So here it is my adaptation of the rhum cake.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter melted
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package of vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup of Appleton run
1 cup of crumbled walnut
1 cup of shredded coconut
1/2 cup water

Sauce:
1/2 cup of rum
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup water

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch angel cake round pans or 12 mini angel cake pans.

Add the mixture of coconut and walnut to the bottom of the cake pan. Do the same to each cake pan if there is more than one. Even out by shaking it a couple of time.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, vanilla pudding powder and salt Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the melted butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated.

Add the 4 eggs and 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of rum to the mixture and mix well until smooth,

Pour batter into prepared pans. Do not fill more than 3/4 way has they will rise.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes for small cake and 60 for a large one or until tops spring back when lightly tapped.

Cool 15 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.

For the sauce mix all the ingredient together except the rum. Small boil for 7 minutes stirring constantly. Add the rum and stir for another minute.

Cover the counter with parchment paper. Place your rum cake on it and pour the sauce on the top of the cake, multiple time so that the cake absorb the liquid.

Dessert or snack? What about both!

I was recently walking in the bakery isle of Whole Foods when I noticed these beautiful looking candy-like coconut covered balls. If you ask me everything covered in coconut looked good but I drawn my attention to the sticker that said: no sugar added. What do you means no sugar added, what the heck is in these balls. Well they were made of date. Then I though to myself, Humm this look simple enough, I should be able to do it too. Well follow these step and I can promise you that you will have a winner snack/ dessert. Your kids won't know it's healthy because it looks like its not!
We will call them the coconealthy balls

Ingredients
- 1 cup of pitted melhool dates chopped.
- 1 cup of dried apricot cuts chopped
- 1 cup of sunflower seeds
- 1 cup of dried sugar free cranberry or blueberries.
- 1 cup of walnut
- 1 1/2 cup of grated coconut
- 1 cup of 70% dark chocolate morels
- 4 tablespoon of orange juice

Recipe
1-In a food processor mix well dates, apricots, cranberries and walnut.
2- Add 1 cup of the shedder coconut and 3 tablespoon of orange juice and pulse a few more time.
3- in the means time melt the chocolate
Morels in a double boiler. Add 1 tablespoon of water and mix well until fully melted, about 5 minutes.
4- With the help of a watermelon spoon , make small balls. Using a work gently dip half the ball in the dark chocolate and then the other half in the coconut.
5- Repeat this step for the remaining of the mixture adding orange juice to shape the ball if needed.
6- Cover airtight and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

5 minutes salsa soup

I am all about saving time when it is possible. I found a recipe last night that I modified and It was delicious. The best of all is that it took only 5 minutes to make. Here is my 5 minute salsa soup.

Ingredients
- 1 can of black beans, rinsed
- 2 cups of chunky salsa
- 1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
- 1/2 cup of frozen corn kernels
- 1 tablespoon of hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- dollop of sour cream
- shredded cheddar cheese

Recipe
1- Combine everything together in a large pot except for the cheese and sour cream.
2- Simmer for 10 minutes on medium heat.
3-Add the sour cream and cheese on the top of the soup in your serving bowl.

Crunchy chickpeas

This recipe is not specifically from Quebec or created by myself but I am honestly hooked on it. It's so simple you will love it too!


Ingredients
- 2 cans chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 3 tablespoon of olive oil
- smoked or himalayan sea salt
- paprika

Recipe
- Pre heat oven at 450 degree F.
- Lay a parchment sheet on a baking sheet.
- In a small bowl coat the chickpeas with the olive oil and seasoning.
- Lay the chickpeas uniformly on the baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes .
- Turn the chickpeas at the halfway mark.

Broccoli soup worth burning yourself over

I went to Costco last week and I thought It was a great idea to buy a 18 cups size of broccoli florets. I have to admit sometimes I get too excited when I see a good deal. I get often stuck with insane quantity of one ingredient! I decided to use all this left over broccoli and make a soup worth burning your finger over (which is what happened) No more going to Tim Hortons! This wy you know it wasn't made out of a frozen container! Here is my broccoli soup.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganfeast/

Ingredients
- 8 cups broccoli
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup minced onion
- 1 cup minced celery
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- sea salt
- 5 tablespoon butter
- 4 tablespoon flour
- 2 cups of 15% cream
- fresh ground pepper
- 1 cup grated Monterey jack

Recipe
1- Melt 2 tablespoon of butter and ad the onion, garlic and celery. Cook on medium heat until tender.
2- Add the chicken stock and the broccoli. Simmer on low-medium for 15 minutes.
3- In a separate pot, melt the remaining butter and add the flour. With a whisk or a mixing tool combine the butter and flour until smooth. This is called creating a roux. Add the cream and a pinch of onion and garlic powder.
4- Pulverize your broccoli with the help of a hand blended. When fully blended, add the cream and flour mix and pulse a few more times.
5- Place on the stove on low heat and slowly add the Monterey jack cheese mixing well in between until fully combined and smooth.
6- Add salt and pepper to taste.