The Finest Falafels

When faced with a dilemma, such as arriving home, starving, after a 5k running race with no dinner prepared and no tempting left-overs, nothing beats FALAFELS! These nifty little patties are scrumptious, easy and you probably have all the ingredients in your cupboard already. Plus with a team effort, we had these prepared cooked and on the plate in under 35minutes. And probably eaten in 40.

Here's what you need:

1 15oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed (unless you like being gassy all night)

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

salt and pepper

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1/2 cup plain fine bread crumbs

Here's how you make them:

Preheat oven to 425 degress F

Use a food processor or hand blender to mash the chick peas, oil and spices into a chunky paste. Add the onions and breadcrumbs and blend until the texture can be easily formed into a patty. Add more bread crumbs if you need to. 

Form the mush into 1/2 inch thick patties and pan sear in oil over medium heat until nicely browned (2 ish minutes). Flip and do it again. Transfer falafels to a baking sheet and bake until heated through, about 5 minutes.

*Note: We used pre-Italian-spiced bread crumbs. The extra flavouring was nice but they were maybe a bit salty. We'd leave out the extra salt if using these crumbs again.

Falafel is Middle Eastern and is often eaten in schwarmas (an Ottawa fav) but we didn't have that stuff so we made in into a kind of Indian-Middle-Eastern fusion meal, by eating the falafels with naan and raita (yogurt dip that is eerily similar to tzatziki). As long as you're not an foreign food purist, you should love this combo!

Bradele.

Reviving your bread maker

Everyone has one, and its sitting in your basement, neglected and shrouded in guilt for being just another unused appliance. Go get it! If you don't own one, ask your neighbour for their unused machine. I've acquired all three of my bread makers this way.

Bread makers really as easy and fast as grabbing a loaf at the grocery store, and far more delicious, cheaper and free of preservatives or mystery ingredients. Lack of time is not an excuse to avoid your bread maker since once you are familiar with a recipe, it takes under 4 minutes to toss in all the ingredients and press start. I've been using my bread machine for 3 years and the novelty of even plain bread hot out of the machine has never worn off! And there are endless possibilities of things to make with your bread machine. Stay posted for blogs on Montreal-style bagels, pizza dough, sourdough soon.

Today I switched it up from my usual multi-grain loaf and tried a lemony-molasses loaf. I also added raisins and pecans.

This loaf was not overwhelmed by any particular flavour but was perfect for a slightly sweet breakfast toast. Mr. 3-Yr-Old chose concord grape jam as his topping.

The recipe came from the book The Complete Guide to Bread Machine Baking:

3/4 cup mild
1 egg
2 Tbsp water (I replaced one of these with fresh lemon juice)
2 Tbsp margarine or butter
2 Tbsp molasses
3 Cups bread flour
1 Tsp finely shredded lemon peel
3/4 Tsp salt
1 1/4 Tsp bread machine yeast

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
* If you do add nuts or fruit, make sure you wait until part way through the mixing cycle. My machine beeps about 40min after I start. This ensures that the nuts and fruit don't get too mangled and stay as visible pieces.

That's it for now folks! Bread makers rule.

A.

The perfect way to start your blog - With a well balanced breakfast

Here's a preview of what our readers will be seeing frequently, the wacky, wild, fabulous, fruity, crazy, creamy, nutty... and nutty (haha, pun) world of oatmeal.

Us gals are what some might call Oataholics. Oats have to be the most versatile, delicious, comforting, and filling way to start the day. Apparently they're pretty great for you as well eh? This morning I was feeling both tropical and creative. The barbeque we hosted this past weekend (left over coconut milk from pina colada's) and the large box of mangoes sitting on my counter may have contributed to my inspiration.

Anywho, here's the mix:

Tropical Oats

• 1/3 cup quick oats

• pinch cinnamon

• pinch cardamom

• 1 tbs coconut milk

• 1 tbs shredded unsweetened coconut

• 1/2 banana

• fresh mango chunks

• water/milk (to desired consistency)

• 1/2 tbs of peanut butter

Thanks for your time blogosphere :-) I hope to see you around,

B.