Since I’ve been teaching music I’ve sung all kinds of crazy little kiddo songs.  As much as I love the kids, I must admit, that at the end of the week I’m grateful for 2 days where I don’t have to sing kiddie songs allllll day long.

One of the song I have sung lately is called “Dipidu” which really doesn’t have much point to it lyrically other than to get the kids thinking about short and long sounds.  But we sing the words “dip” and “dipidu” a ton of times, and sometimes it makes me think of dip…as in, the yummy thing we eat veggies and such with.  Yup, food on my brain…

Anyway, the other night I was in the mood for a warm, creamy dip and I whipped this up and it hit the spot!

Creamy Dip:

• 4 tbsp. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tsp. hummus
• 2 tsp. cream cheese
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. mustard

Mix, pour into two small ramekins and bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with pita bread for dipping.

This also doubles as an awesome pizza sauce! I made my yeast-less pizza dough and covered it with the leftover dip, and then topped it with roasted vegetables (butternut squash, potatoes and green pepper), and a few more dabs of cheese and baked it at 400F for about 10 minutes until the crust was golden on the bottom. It’s a delicious way to use the dip in multiple ways!

You’ve seen what we have been eating around town, but I haven’t told you about what we’re eating in our own home! To be honest, there haven’t been too many huge changes. We typically ate “differently” than most North Americans anyway, so now I think we fit in, haha.

We eat breakfast at 5:00 a.m. each day – well, slightly after that when we get up – and it’s either yogurt (the equivalent to Greek yogurt) and fruit, or oatmeal with raisins (Peter) or oatmeal with peanut butter and date syrup (me!). I know that for myself the oatmeal is fantastic and it tides me over for about 5 hours, which is great, especially since I’m up so early.

As I mentioned in our school post, we don’t have a “lunch time”, so we both eat whenever it’s convenient in our schedules, so we bring munchie food to keep us going. So far this includes, flat bread and hummus, fruit, raw veggies, almonds, 1.5 litres of water each (no joke, it’s so warm that I finish one during each work day). This keeps us going until we get home and then we usually dive into our dates…

There is honestly no better food in the entire world than fresh dates. I’m soooooooo addicted to them. Since coming to Kuwait 2 years ago I’ve been DREAMING of these dates FOREVER, and no that I have them I can’t get enough. SO delicious.

We eat dinner around 5:00 p.m. every day and it’s vegetarian. It’s not that we’re vegetarians, but honestly, the type of meat we like to eat is easily ordered from any restaurant nearby for very cheap, so when we do eat meat, we eat it out. It’s just easier for us this way, and also cheaper. Plus, we don’t eat meat that much. So, we stick to lentils, chickpeas, and I’m experimenting with other legumes that I find locally. This means we eat quite a bit of curry (both “Indian” and “Thai”…and I say that loosely because I’m not an expert in those styles of cooking) and it’s usually a one-dish kind of meal. So rice with a chickpea curry, noodles with coconut milk curry, baked sweet potatoes topped with a sloppy lentil type dish… you get the idea.

Here’s a quick peek into our cupboards and fridge. They might look bare to you, but they’re just full enough for us.

Where do we get our groceries? There’s lots of options throughout the city, but right now, for where we’re living, we use the bakala, which is a small convenience store that sells minimal produce, but lots of spices, legumes, etc. We also use a few larger shopping centres that require a taxi. But essentially there’s nothing we can’t get. If anything there’s lots more here that we want to try than when we were in Canada! Not just that, but the cost of food here is MUCH cheaper, for which we’re grateful.

So there you have it! A little look into our daily food lives.

On a whim I whipped up this delicious Peach and Blueberry Salsa.  It was so simple, so fresh and I polished it off in one sitting.  It was healthy…don’t judge me.

Peach + Blueberry Salsa:

• 1 peach, diced
• 1/2 large tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup blueberries, slightly mashed
• 1 tsp. garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. onion, minced
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. chili powder
• Dash of cayenne powder

Mix together.  Allow the flavours to blend together in the fridge for 1/2 an hour, and then serve at room temperature, preferably.

I love pinning recipes on pinterest, but I love testing them out even more!  I searched through my recipes the other day to see what was in there and I ended up finding two delicious recipes that we just loved!  I altered one a little to accommodate what we had on hand, but they were both so successful I wanted to share them with you guys!

Black Bean “Meatballs” with Lemon-Kale Pesto Sauce: Adapted from Sprouted Kitchen’s Lentil “Meatballs”

“Meatballs”:

• 2 cups cooked black beans
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 
1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese
• 
1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp. dried parsley
• 1 tsp. each sea salt and pepper
• 
2/3 cup breadcrumbs



Lemon Kale Pesto Sauce



• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 cup unsalted, slivered almonds
• 4 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 
1 cup packed kale leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp. water

In a big bowl, using a hand masher, mash the black beans into mush. Add in the rest of the ingredients and let the mix sit for 20 minutes.

For the pesto sauce, put the garlic, almonds, lemon juice nd salt in a blender and run until smooth. Add in the kale and olive oil until you get a smooth, sauce-like consistency. Add water, oil or lemon juice to thin as desired. Stir in the parmesan and set aside. The sauce will keep covered in the fridge for about a week.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Roll the black bean mixture into balls and line them on a baking sheet. Bake on the middle rack for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Remove to cool slightly. 
Serve with noodles and the lemon kale pesto sauce.

Garlic-Roasted Tomatoes: Adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 large tomato, cored and halved crosswise (use the largest tomato you can find!)
• 1 tablespoons butter, divded and sliced thinly
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• Sea salt and ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400F. Place tomato halves, cut side up, on a large rimmed baking sheet. Dividing evenly, top with butter and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Bake tomatoes until tender, 40 to 45 minutes.

This was a delicious meal, and we both remarked how it didn’t even feel meatless at all.  If you’re serving someone who really loves meat and is skeptical about going meatless, give this meal a try!!

For more recipes that I’ve pinned and tried, you can check out my “Successful Pinned Recipes” section on pinterest!

When I lived at home growing up, it was pretty much a given that each Sunday we’d have a roast beef dinner.  Usually, early on Sunday morning, before we left for Church, my parents would be peeling potatoes and carrots in preparation to go with the roast.  It was such a comfort knowing what to expect each week.

But you know what was my favourite part?  The horseradish to dip my roast beef in.  Seriously.  I was that weird kid that LOVED it.  Occasionally though I’d get just a little bit too much and my nose would burn.  To which my dad would commonly respond with, “It’ll clear out your sinuses!”  To this day, I prefer to eat my roast beef with some horseradish on the side.  Perhaps it’s nostalgia, but I also think it’s delicious.

So you can imagine my delight when I was in a local European superstore last week faced with and entire row of various types of horseradish!!!  There were so many types – mild, strong, hot, spicy, and tons of flavours.  I knew that I didn’t really need horseradish, but I wanted some…and for $1.29 you can’t say “no”.

So in the end I picked up this cranberry horseradish.  I’m definitely stoked to give it a try!

The only question is: what will I have it with?  Should I just eat it plain?  Should I try it as a sandwich spread?  I need your ideas!  I need your help to break me out of my roast beef ‘n’ horseradish comfort zone.

What would you do with cranberry horseradish?

One of my favourite things about the summer is the plentiful amount of fresh berries!!  I love them all.  I really miss having raspberry, blueberry and strawberry plants this year.  But I still enjoy eating the berries regardless of where they come from.

Despite how much I enjoy them, there has been occasions where the berries were going to go a little mushier than desired if we left them in the fridge any longer.  So one of those times I decided to whip up a simple berry jam that we could enjoy on toast, yogurt, waffles, pancakes or ice cream.  It was nice and easy and very delicious.

Berry Jam:

3 c. of berries (strawberries, black berries, raspberries, etc.)
1 3/4 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. unflavored gelatin
1 c. apple juice

Bring berries and lemon juice to a boil, mashing the berries to cook in the juices.  Reduce the heat and cook 5 minutes. Meanwhile, dissolve gelatin in apple juice (either cold or room temperature) and allow to stand 1 minute. Add gelatin mixture to berries. Stir thoroughly and cook 3 minutes. Pour into jars. Allow them to come to room temperature, then refrigerate.  Fills 3 half-pint jars.

My recipe isn’t super sweet as there is no added sugar, so if you like it sweeter you might need to adjust the recipe.

What’s your favourite flavour of jam?

This recipe is a total winner.  Seriously.  SO GOOD.  I believe that when I made it, I immediately updated my twitter status to read: “Just made the BEST stuffed chicken EVER.  Seriously.  I’m not even going to be humble about it.”

Yah…I still stand by that statement.  It was easy, delicious, and it looks impressive.

Strawberry & Feta Stuffed Chicken:

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1.5 cups diced red onion
• 1 cup diced strawberries
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• Dash each of salt & pepper
• 4 chicken breasts

In a small frying pan heat the oil and onion together until the onion is nearly translucent.  Meanwhile, in a bowl combined the strawberries, garlic, feta, basil, salt and pepper.  Add the onions to the mix.  Slice each chicken breast length-wise to create a “pocket”.  Stuff each breast with the strawberry mixture and lay them filling side up on a greased baking dish.  If you still have more filling leftover top off each breast with the rest of the filling.  Bake at 375F uncovered for 25-30 minutes until the chicken is no longer pink.  Serve over greens (spinach) and pasta (or rice) and top with the optional sweet sauce (see below).  Serves 4.

Sweet Sauce:

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 tbsp. honey mustard
• 2 tbsp. cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• Dash each of salt and pepper

Combine them all in a small saucepan and warm through.  Pour over pasta or rice to serve with the strawberry & feta stuffed chicken.