dairy free – OwlCat Designs

October 14, 2011December 16, 2017

Grilled Mediterranean Eggplant with Hummus Spread

Yep, I am still clinging on to summer, end of summer denial? Maybe juuust a bit… In my defense, I have embraced fall at least as far a pumpkins go, so think I am alright. But with how the weather was this past week end and the beginning of the week, it was grillin’ time, baby! And farmers markets and road stand are all still loaded with eggplant and zucchini, and other late summer crops, it be a shame to not grill up some yummies!

Ingredients

2 md eggplant
salt
extra virgin olive oil
3-4 tbs Hummus

cut eggplant into 1/4″ thick slices lengthwise, salt on both sides and place in a colander in your sink to drain for 20 minutes (you will remove the excess salt in the next step, so no worries)
Preheat gas grill or light the charcoals!
pat or wipe dry with paper towel, and spray with olive oil (using your ‘Misto’) alternately, you can also use a brush to lightly brush oil onto both sides of the eggplant
Grill on medium until grill marks appear, turn over and grill, with the cover down, until tender
Place on platter and serve drizzled with Hummus Spread
For Humus Spread: In a small bowl mix together the hummus with 2-3 tbsp water, stir until smooth.

Goes well with ‘Roasted Salmon with Coriander-Paprika Glaze’ or a nice Bison steak.

And guess what’s for desert… Pumpkin Cheesecake Minis! (recipe soon)

October 14, 2011December 16, 2017

Roasted Salmon with Coriander-Paprika Glaze

Our Sunday night ‘still hanging on to summer’ dinner 😉

Salmon is one of those cold water fish, high in Omega-3’s, we all know by now we’re supposed to have more of ‘those ones’ in our diet, but how to go about it?

Last Weekend I created this quick and easy recipe that can be whipped up in a minute with minimal effort. And let’s face it, I haven’t met anyone that could not use another 10 minutes recipe! That’s how simple this roasted salmon is to make, although it tastes and looks like you labored in the kitchen for a lot longer 😉 And who doesn’t like to get some easy earned praise?

Ingredients

2 pieces of salmon, about 3-4 oz each
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp whole coriander seeds, crushed in a mortar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp paprika (sweet)
1/8 tsp salt

Directions

Crush the coriander seeds in a mortar or use a spice mill
Combine lemon juice, olive oil and honey in a small bowl
Add coriander, paprika, and salt, and stir well until incorporated
brush the salmon fillets all over with the glaze and bake in the middle of the preheated oven at 400F for 10 minutes, or until opaque through, brushing tops one time at 7 minutes (10 minutes should be all it takes, unless you have an exceptionally fat pieces of fish)

You could use any extra glaze as seasoning for roasting red bell pepper slices alongside the salmon like we did here…

or just have the salmon with some grilled eggplant and hummus spread!

either way: make it. It’s super yummy!

September 28, 2011December 16, 2017

Pumpkin Muffin Bites

Alright, i admit it: I am suffering from a pumpkin addiction at the moment, and while were at it, I have an obsession with bananas. It all started with trying to use up all those severely ripe bananas in the summer. I would buy bananas, thinking:’ good snack, conveniently packaged’ and then have an apple instead.
So I have come up with countless ways of using up those ‘end of the week, less than pretty, by themselves inedible’ (I prefer them just a bit green) bananas without having to whip up banana bread every time. Now it’s gotten to the point where I purposely buy extra bananas to let ripen fully. They are cheap, readily available and much better for you than sugar. And get quite sweet when they get to ‘really ripe’ status. So I started using bananas as natural sweetener. (Using alternates to sugar has become more and more important to me since my boyfriend was diagnoses with diabetes last year.

And telling everyone about my quest for the perfect pumpkin latte (recipe to come soon) and my woes in finding canned pumpkin, I had several friends donate cans they found at stores. Soooo… Now I have lots of seasonal pumpkin and once a can is open, well you better use it up 🙂
That’s where these come in:

Pumpkin Muffin Bites!

Ingredients

1 Mashed very ripe banana
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tblsp cashew butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 -1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8-1/4 tsp Pumpkin pie spice
1-3 tblsp Sucanat*, Rapadura or date sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 cup Ground almonds/ almond flour
1/2 cup Chickpea flour
Pecan halves for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F and line mini muffin pan with muffin cup liners.
Mash up the ripe banana, add the pumpkin and the nut butter and stir until no lumps remain. Add Sucanat, stir.
Stir in vanilla and spices, then add the chickpea and almond flours along with the baking powder and mix until combined
drop into mini muffin pan lined with paper muffin cups by the teaspoon full and garnish each one with a pecan half.
Bake in middle of preheated oven at 350F for 10-15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on rack.

* Sucanat and Rapadura are dried sugar cane juice, not bleached, not refined

Super yummy, but the color before they are baked is rather questionable…just saying