The MacEwan Apple Project

Good morning lovely readers!

I have a very interesting and exciting initiative to share with you this morning! My business class at MacEwan is partaking in a project to raise food donations for the MacEwan Food Bank. There were several criteria that had to be met: The idea had to be sustainable, innovative and interesting. For our project, we decided to donate local apples. With the help of Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton, we organized picks of local apples that would have otherwise gone to waste.

We were also asked to raise awareness of hunger in Edmonton, as well as our project, through a YouTube video. Check it out! I think it turned out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves. At the end of the project, we are judged on the amount of food raised (in lbs.), and on the number of YouTube video views we receive. I don’t normally tout projects on my blog, but since this issue is near and dear to my heart, as well as a lot of foodies in the local Edmonton community, I thought I’d ask, just this once: Please share this video with your friends and family and help us raise awareness of this awesome initiative!

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your support and interest in this really cool project.

Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Have you ever perfected a recipe and wanted everyone you love to try it? Well, this is one of those…

I was lucky enough to be able to use mostly local ingredients for this recipe, except for the chocolate chips, of course! I used organic eggs from sunworks farms, delicious soft white wheat from none other than Gold Forest Grains, and the zucchini I grew in my own back yard!

Here’s the batter, all mixed and ready to be baked!

These beauties came straight out of the oven!

Here they are, on the cooling rack.

Close up! This one is for the record books, folks.

Jacquie’s Awesome Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins (Courtesy of Simply Recipes)

You will need:

• 3 cups grated  zucchini
• 2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 cups whole grain flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1.5 cups of milk chocolate chips

Melt butter and set aside to cool slightly. Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Sit in chocolate chips.

Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown about 20 to 25 minutes minutes. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Enjoy, a lot!

Note on my 100th post

*Hello Dear Readers!

I realized just recently that I am nearing my 100th post at Garneau Home Kitchen, and I was thinking about doing an introspective blog post, reflecting on my adventures since I started this post almost 2 years ago. If you have any questions that you’d like to ask, please ask them in the comments below and I will incorporate them into the blog post! Thanks for being such awesome readers.
Cheers!

Jacquie 🙂

Peanut Butter Flax Oat Energy Balls

Hello dear readers! My apologies for going off the grid for a few weeks. I have been super sick with continuous colds since school has started, and between that and having school ramp it up a few notches, I just haven’t had the time to post. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you! I have a nice stock pile of recipes that I plan on posting once I have time.

This week’s post came inspired from pinterest. Yes, I admit it, I have used a recipe or two from pinterest and they have turned out pretty rad. Take these little bites of awesome, for instance. They take 5 simple ingredients (I am not kidding you, that is it!), and they taste AMAZING! I served them as samples at the market this past weekend, and decided that this recipe needs to be shared. Here it is!

I’ve made these twice since I last posted, so I though I’d combine the posting. On the first attempt, I didn’t have any peanut butter lying around the house, but I did have some tasty delicious peanuts, and healthy Mighty Trio oil, so I decided to branch out and make my own peanut butter.

Because I only had skin-on Spanish peanuts, I had to pick off the skins. It wasn’t too bad. I shook them in a strainer and most of the skins came off!

Into the food processor they all went, with a little bit of oil.

This was the result: really creamy, delicious peanut butter. It was not too sweet, and honestly, I liked it better this way. The flavour allowed for you to focus on the nut taste, rather than the conventional thick additive taste that you get with traditional peanut butter. It was delicious!

I mixed in the flax, oats, honey and chocolate chips to the peanut butter and let it cool so that it would be easier to roll into balls.

Here they are! These little beauties lasted less than a day in our house. They were honestly delicious, so easy to make, and soooooo good for you!

Another shot of the all naturals.

When I made them a second time, I used conventional ingredients, and they were a hit all the same! I would make them slightly less sweet, when I do it again, but these turned out really great too!

Here’s a close up of the oaty, flaxy goodness!

Jacquie’s Awesome Peanut Butter Flax Oat Energy Balls (Courtesy of Gimmie Some Oven)

For the homemade peanut butter, you will need:

2 cups of raw skin-off shelled peanuts

2 tbsp oil (preferably peanut oil, but any oil will do, really!)

2 tablespoons of honey

Combine peanuts and oil in the food processor until coarse. Pause, add oil. Process again. When almost entirely smooth, pause again and add honey, process again to combine. There is a good tutorial online here. Enjoy on toast, or transfer to a bowl to add to your peanut butter flax oat energy balls.

For the energy balls, you will need:

1 cup quick oats (From Gold Forest Grains)

1 cup whole golden flax seed (From Gold Forest Grains)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat the peanut butter and honey in microwave for 10 seconds (it’s easier to stir that way!). Add to dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Refrigerate for at least a half hour (up to 2 hrs). Roll into balls. Keep in an airtight container on the counter for a week (if they last that long), or store in the freezer for several months (again if they last that long!) Enjoy, a LOT!

Honey Mustard Salmon Burgers with Smoky Asado Aioli

Hello Readers! Sorry I’ve been AWOL for a little while. School is definitely starting to catch up to me. As a way to cap off summer and BBQ season, I decided to make one last burger-type item.

I had this large salmon filet in the freezer from our last Costco run; it was a great way to end a fantastic summer of BBQ favorites.

My food processor has definitely seen it’s fair share of goodies since I got it. This one was no exception. I diced the salmon, added honey, mustard, rosemary and whole mustard seeds.

Then I blended it up nice and fine.

Next, I added breadcrumbs until the burgers stayed together nicely.

I formed them into patties and brushed each side with Mighty Trio Organic‘s canola oil.

Onto the grill they went, until nice and crispy.

I served them with a fantastic smoky asado aioli that I made using Elaine Wilson‘s Smoky Asado spice blend, mayo and lemon juice. It sent so well with these burgers!

I also served them on my savoury whole wheat flatbread, (which turned out GREAT, btw!)

Yep, this may have turned into a new favourite. BBQ, I am going to miss you…

Jacquie’s Awesome Honey Mustard Salmon Burgers with Smoky Asado Aioli

For the Salmon Burgers, you will need:

1 large salmon filet (approx 1 pound)

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp garlic

2 tsbp fresh rosemary

2 tbsp whole mustard seeds

1 cup breadcrumbs

salt and pepper to taste

For the Smoky Asado Aioli, you will need:

2 tbsp smoky asado spice blend (Contact Elaine to see where she’s selling, now that the 124 st market is done for the season!)

1/2 cup mayo

4 tbsp lemon juice

For the burgers:

Cube the salmon and add to a food processor. Add all other ingredients, except breadcrumbs and salt and pepper, to food processor and blend until smooth. When smooth, transfer to a bowl and add breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, combining until it begins to stick together. Form into patties and brush each side with canola oil before grilling. Grill until both sides of the patties are golden brown.

For the Aioli:

Combine all ingredients with a fork until smooth. Serve on salmon burgers.