Friday Inspiration - Eating well

As the weather gets warmer (eventually) I think most people start thinking about eating lighter. Now, for me, eating lighter started well before the weather warmed up, but I am continuously looking for new things to cook that are good for you too.

You might have noticed the new badge on the left sidebar tracking my weight loss to date, but more on that another time. Let's just concentrate on tastiness for now.

I've been slowly gathering some interesting looking recipes on my "Tastyness" Pinboard. I've tried a few and others I'm very excited to test out.

Source: mynewroots.org via Katri on Pinterest

This looks absolutely incredible! I haven't tried it yet, but will for sure.

Source: mynewroots.org via Katri on Pinterest

This one I did try already. I like it, but I also feel it needs a bit of tweaking. Once I get it just right, I'll share my version with you guys.

Source: skinnytaste.com via Katri on Pinterest

I haven't tried this exact one, but I pinned it for new ideas for my quinoa salad.

Source: slenderkitchen.com via Katri on Pinterest

I'm continuously looking for some new breakfast recipes. I'm not one for toast or anything like that.

Do you have some awesome, healthy recipes you'd like to share? Do you have a go-to good-for-you yummyness? Please share your favorites in the comments!

Easy dinner - potato gnocci with balsamic mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes

I haven't posted any interesting recipes here recently, for the simple reason that I've started some corrective measures in my diet. I am more than happy to talk about eating healthier and loosing a few pounds in the process if anyone's interested, but for now, there is one recipe I tried and absolutely loved.

 

Potato Gnocchi (salad) with balsamic mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes

It's again a recipe that looks and sounds rather impressive, but is super easy to make. This one, I'm proud to say, I came up with myself. Often I find recipes online that I like and make my own version of them, but this one came from to fruition simply I really felt like having gnocchi but didn't want to do my usual recipe of gnocchi in tomato sauce. To make this version, you'll need

Package of potato gnocchi
Sun-dried tomatoes (to make them at home, try this recipe)
Mushrooms (balsamic vinegar and salt for cooking)
Green onion

Dressing
Lemon juice
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Please note that you could add anything you like in the dish. I'm thinking fresh tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese would be amazing.

Start by frying the mushrooms. I have one specific way of cooking mushrooms and I use it all the time.


Basically quarter the mushrooms and start frying them on medium heat with a little bit of oil. After a while the mushrooms start releasing the liquid. Sprinkle them with a little bit of salt and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, then drizzle them with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Cook for a few more minutes so that all of the vinegar has been absorbed by the mushrooms. The results are amazing and so much better than plain ol' mushrooms. I fry up mushrooms like this for a lot of different recipes, I just find it adds a little extra.

While the mushrooms are frying, cook the gnocchi. It's very easy. Bring a pot of well-salted water to boil. Dump in gnocchi. They are ready once they gnocchi floats to the surface. This won't take more than 5 minutes. Prepare the dressing by combining equal amounts lemon juice and balsamic vinegar, half of that of olive oil (for example, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of olive oil), add a little salt and fresh pepper.

Combine the gnocchi, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and dressing. Mix together and sprinkle with finely chopped green onion.

I actually served this room temperature as a posh-sounding potato salad, instead of hot, but it works both ways.

Enjoy!

How to look good in the kitchen - Quinoa

Due to popular demand* here's finally a great recipe for impressive looking but really easy to make meals!

Man, I love quinoa. I know it sounds totally hippie and all, but it's seriously such an awesome ingredient. I know, I know, I'm really late on the quinoa bandwagon (foodie-fail), but better late than never, right?

So, let me tell you first why it is so awesome. Yeah sure, it's healthy, sustainable, supports the small farmers in Bolivia... All super-great things, but you can find all that stuff elsewhere, written by people who know what they are talking about. What I know as the 'queen of laziness in the kitchen', is that you need to do the work once and you can get several different meals out of this one. Let's say at least a dinner and a couple of lunches. Minimum. Also, I like making things that SEEM impressive and like it took me forever to make. But it didn't. HA! I should totally write a cookbook. It would be called "Let's make impressive looking food that requires hardly any effort**". (Publishers!!! You can find my contact info on the sidebar!)

 

Anyhow, quinoa. You've heard about it surely, and figure it's going to be difficult to make and where the hell am I even going to find it?! Answers: it's not difficult at all and you can find it practically any grocery store. (Well, here in Montreal at least. Go to a health food store if you can't find it. They'll have it for sure)

I like to make a huge pot of it and then throw in different things to make separate interesting meals out of basically the same thing. It's like using a base and then masking it with a whole bunch of other stuff. Like the LBD of cooking.

[I did not get off topic at all there by the way]

To make quinoa you'll need:

Quinoa (Duh! And yeah, I know, it looks like seeds)
Liquid to cook it in. I use veggie broth, but any broth or even water will be just fine
Perhaps a little salt or a bullion cube if you're using water

So, this is one of those really easy recipes.

1 unit of dry quinoa needs 2 units of liquid and makes 3 units of cooked quinoa

1 dry Q + 2 liquid = 3 ready Q  (<-- math for the engineers reading this)

I used cups for the measurements as I am in North America after all, but use the same formula whatever your unit of measure is. It could be an actual mug, you know. Just use the same one for both measurements.

First, put the liquid of choice in a large pot (remember, quinoa swells quite a bit) and put the broth/water to boil. Like said, you can use any kind of a broth or water. If you use water, drop in a bullion cube or a dash of salt.

While the liquid heats up, rinse your quinoa. I've read from various places it can be bitter tasting if you don't. Now, I've never tasted bitter quinoa, so I don't know, but better safe than sorry. If you have a mesh strainer, you're already ahead of me. I have one but the holes are too big. (You might want to check before you pour the quinoa in, otherwise you'll get a drain full of quinoa. Those little buggers are tiny.) If you don't have a strainer, just use a tupperware container. Dump in quinoa, add water and swirl around for a bit. Drain water and repeat.

Once the liquid is boiling add in the quinoa and turn the heat to low. Let boil for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes is up, check how much liquid is left. There should be a little bit, but the grain should not be floating. if it looks completely dry, add a little water. Then set aside for 5-10 minutes.

The quinoa is ready once the grains seem plump and all the liquid has been absorbed. I read somewhere you can actually make quinoa in a rice cooker as well. I haven't tried this, but the 1-to-2 ratio should work here too. Let the quinoa cool before mixing in the ingredients if you're making a salad.

So, now you have a whole lot of quinoa. What now? I always make a little dressing to mix in at this point. I'm just making sure it won't go clumpy, not sure if it's necessary, but I like it this way. The basic dressing is

2 parts lime juice
2 parts balsamic vinegar
1 part olive oil
dash of salt

Obviously, you can use any dressing you'd like, just mix it in the cooked quinoa. Super-tip: ready salad dressing, like Italian dressing, cuts down at least 5 minutes! I'd be careful with a creamy one, pick a vinegar/oil based one to make sure it stays good.

Super-pro tip: Keep the quinoa at this stage in the fridge until you want to eat it. You can make several meals with this base and just change the ingredients! It's really easy to make into lunch by adding a little extra dressing and a few varied ingredients. That way it'll taste different for the different meals. You could even divide it into smaller containers for extra fast lunch.

Then, the fun part. Add a bunch of tasty ingredients. My favourite combo is cherry tomatoes, avocado, bocconccini (mini mozzarella) and cilantro. I've also tried tomato-fresh spinach-feta cheese. Basically you could put in anything you'd put in a salad. Next one I'm thinking of is pear and feta cheese.

Keep in mind that these are just the salad-y ideas. There's a whole lot of different things you can use quinoa for, including warm dishes. I'm pretty sure it would taste awesome with curries and stews.

This recipe was put together by trial and error and by combining instructions from all over the interwebs, for example theKitchn and FamilyFreshCooking. Once you have the basic idea down, the possibilities are endless.

What would you add to quinoa? I'd love to try your ideas, so please leave a comment!

*popular demand = my sister
** working title

What's up Montreal - Poutine Week

I am a convert! I wasn't impressed at first, but it just sneaks up on you. The second time I tried it, I was hooked. It's Poutine.

Source: poutineweekmtl.com via Katri on Pinterest

And what's better than poutine? An entire week of cheesy goodness. It's Montreal Semaine de la Poutine! Poutine week!

Going on right now, February 1st to the 7th. Check the website for full details and participating restaurants.

What can we do indoors?

Today is cold. Being born and raised in the north -5 Celsius is not cold, even if you're not a wintery kind of a person. The -26 Celsius we have today, however, could constitute as a 'tad nippy'. Just kidding, it's freezing cold out and I am not going to voluntarily go outside unless I absolutely have to.

Good news is, I have a ton of stuff to do today and luckily (or at least so far) seem to have everything I need to do those said things. I ran a ton of errands yesterday, which I deemed a stupid idea when I was outside with -21 degrees, but in hindsight might not have been such a bad idea after all.

The only thing though was that I wanted to go back to a thrift store I was in yesterday. I wasn't sleeping well last night, so while I was tossing and turning in bed, I came up with a brilliant idea for a small table I saw at the shop yesterday. I am tempted to go back, but haven't convinced myself yet. We'll see.

Anyhow, while I'm thinking about braving the arctic outside, I haven't been idle. I've been testing some new options for easy and cheap dinners/lunches and so far the results have been quite tasty. Assuming the rest goes to plan, I have a couple of nifty ideas for you lazy and stingy cooks (like myself) out there. See the photo; doesn't look half bad, right? (Tastes pretty good too)

Despite the ridiculously cold weather outside, it's absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining full force and the light is stunning. Which means I need to take as many photos as possible. And I have some other projects I'm trying out too, currently involving vintage ledger paper. Again, I'll post tutorials as I get things tried and tested.

How's your Wednesday going?

The Year in Review - part 2 of 2012

You can see the first half of 2012 in the post below. Here's the recap of the second half:

July

In July we had visitors staying with us and we were wandering around town all times of the day. We went to see fireworks and spent a lot of time at Jean Talon Market. Brinner made an appearance at the McGill university and I made some great finds at the thrift stores again.

July was a month of bridal showers, I attended one and helped organizing another. I made shower favors for the second one. I suffered an identity crisis and saw the Muppets live.

August

In August I spent a lot more time with wedding related activities. I was asked to photograph a Nikkah ceremony, I showed some details from the shower I helped organize, a few of us girls took the bride to be to a relaxing spa getaway in lieu of a bachelorette party and I went dress shopping, but came home with the most beautiful shoes in the world.

Chris and I spend a weekend in Quebec City, walking around and eating well. I fell in love with books (again!), learned how to make granola bars and went bonkers ordering Korean stickers from eBay.

September

September felt long and scattered. There were exciting things like being featured in 365 magazine and finally finding that one elusive item I've been looking for a long time. It was also the month were George got sick and I lost my creative groove. I tried different approaches to creating, starting from painting the bedroom and trying my hand at collages. I baked cookies, killed zombies, watched an amazing documentary and talked about books. A lot.

When September was coming to a close I geeked out with friends and finally started getting creative again.

October

October was a month of big days. It started right off the bat with my nephew Ryan being born on October 1st. Then the second of the weddings for this year got under way on Thanksgiving weekend, this is the one where both Chris and I were in the wedding party. And the party just continued on October 10th where Hipstercurious turned 1. I also discovered some ancient Egyptian artifacts and started employing complex vernacular to substantiate my intelligence.

As all the celebrations were done, I started preparing for Halloween. We carved a pumpkin that became Evil-Bob, I discussed costumes and made a bat card tutorial.

November

 [I think this is my favourite photo of the year]

I started November with a better plan for the blog, followed by an unsuccesful hunt for discounted Halloween candy. I was over the moon to be featured in the Discover Paper Holiday guide and that fueled my creative endeavors. I started making a ton of one of a kind ornaments for the December fairs. I found some beautiful vintage ornaments and made a DIY advent calendar tutorial that I know at least one person found inspiring.

I enjoyed the dark nights, said goodbye to fall and welcomed winter.

Chris and I set a new high score and celebrated the second anniversary of getting hitched in Vegas.

December

December was awesome in more ways than one. Obviously because of Christmas, but also because of two crafts fairs, Old Skool Crafts and Puces Pop. Besides that, my work was featured in two major places; Urban Expressions and my first print magazine feature, Koto Living.

We got a bit of snow first and then a whole lot more, which really allowed me to stay in and make some awesome DIY projects, such as a vintage ornament wreath, a winter scene complete with a plastic deer and of course some marshmallow chocolate pops, all with tutorials of course.  I shared some details about my tree and a peek at my home.

2012 was an awesome year. On a more personal note, it was unexpected in many ways, but definitely fulfilling in others. Thanks to my blog, I learned new skills and made some new friends in Laura, Jess and Mary. I had a successful year with Brinner and developed in leaps and bounds when it come to running my own business.

I'm still not quite done with finishing off this year and I have tons and tons of ideas and plan for the next. Stay tuned!

What were the highlights of your 2012?

The Year in Review - part 1 of 2012

As 2012 draws to a close, it's the perfect time to look back and see all the wonderful things that happened this year.

I wanted to make a top 10 list, but I then started reading through the blog... Top 10 is not going to work. There's just too many awesome things that happened this year. Looking back makes me so happy I started writing Hipstercurious! All those little things I forgot about. So, instead of a list, I decided to pick a few highlights from each month. I also decided to break this into two parts, so here's part one, January to June:

January

We rented a cabin and spent a long weekend doing all sorts of winter activities like snowshoeing, skiing and skating, not to forget soaking in the hot tub. After this weekend I decided that skating was the least offensive of the wintery activities and Chris and I started thinking about buying skates so we could do this again. It worked as I now have brand new skates! more on that later.

In January I also thought about perfectionism, I introduced the small notebooks as the newest product for Brinner and made some awesome vintage finds.

 February

In February I was finding my creative groove that had gone missing for a bit. I made one of my favourite tutorials, the DIY stamps from erasers. It was so much fun and I've used the same method so many times since then. In my creative mode I also talked about what to do with old magazines and tried my hand in the kitchen too, where I ended making a true crowd pleaser, the Cilantro pesto.

I also spent a weekend in the suburbs of Toronto for a long overdue girls weekend. The secret we found out about that weekend, was born this fall! I celebrated my 2 year Etsy Anniversary and thought my cats were being real brats.

March

In March I thought a lot about my blog that I had been writing for 6 months or so. I realized it didn't look the right way and changed the look much closer to the current one. I turned 32 and continued my escapades in the kitchen. This was a successful month in that department as I came up with two successful recipes that are still in use, the tortilla soup and DIY "sun" dried tomatoes.

I also made mini notice boards and wrote a tutorial, expressed my true feelings about healthy living and finally observed the encounter of the great hunter George and his nemesis.

April

April was all about shoes. I bought a few (Marni) new pairs (glitter) and started my dream shoe closet project. I made some fantastic thrifty finds and talked about Batman. A lot (and even found a way to combine Batman and shoes).

In April I also finally bought a new lens for my camera and started learning how to use it. Friday the 13th happened in April and I was not superstitious.

May

May was a busy month for me. I started preparing for the first craft fair of the year, it took a lot of planning, crafting and I wasn't immune to craft-related injuries either. But, I was fueled well! Even though I was busy, I took the time to walk around my neighborhood and snap photos.

In May I also took the time to bake brownies, answer 10 random questions and finish the shoe closet. I found one of my all time favorite thrift store finds, a vintage globe. I also spent a weekend in Ottawa, where I ate well and started the journey toward my friends wedding by making prototypes of her invites.

June

June was very hot and humid. It was also the month of the Puces Pop craft show. I made a whole lot of products and tried to improve from the previous show. I even practiced my table setup at home. I really got into snail mail, even though I had been sending more mail earlier in the year as well. It was the transparent mail that really sparked the creativity with snail mail.

I really put a lot of thought and effort into my mini balcony and ended up extending my living room to the gorgeous outside. I was thinking about cultural differences and schedules, started working on my friends wedding invites and found a treasure in the thrift store that still results into purchase requests from strangers.

Part two of 2012 recap will follow soon!

Chocolate Marshmallow pops - Easy candy-making

Since I've had candy on the brain since Friday, I gave in yesterday and decided to make some. Well, "make" is maybe an overstatement. I more like combined a few things and thought they came up pretty impressive. I decided to make marshmallow-chocolate pops.


These are really easy and fast to make. The only part that takes a while is the cooling down phase afterwards. So, I recommend making them a few hours before you're serving them. I made mine in the afternoon and then went to dinner. They were perfect by the time I got back home.

Here's what you need:
1 bag of large marshmallows
Chocolate, I used three different kind; 200g milk, 200g 70% cocoa dark, and 100g 70% cocoa dark with orange peel. The amounts are not too specific, but I found the chocolate in 100g bars, so I used 5 bars for the entire batch.
a few peppermint candies, these go a long way crushed. I think I used 4 or 5.
and wooden skewers

For equipment you'll need a small cooking pot and a small bowl that fits on top of the cooking pot as well as some glasses or mugs to stand the pops up in. Make sure your bowl can stand the heat (or tell it to leave the kitchen. heheheee. I think I'm hilarious).

Melt your chocolate in the bowl, placed over the pot filled with water. Once the water starts to boil, it'll slowly heat the bowl and melt the chocolate. While that is melting, prepare your marshmallows by putting them on the sticks. I used regular wooden skewers that I cut in half (and by "I" I mean Chris). If they splinter easily, make sure you only insert the non-cut end into the marshmallow. Prepare your topping by crushing peppermint candy (I used the traditional round ones, but if you have some candy canes, that works great too) into small pieces.

You could use a whole lot of different toppings. Maybe some more chocolate, finely grated. Different candies, like M&Ms or other colorful candy drops. I'm sure different kinds of nuts would work really well. The point is to just add another texture and some color on to the pops.

Once the chocolate has melted, dip the marshmallow into the chocolate, twirl it around and gently knock the skewer onto the side of the bowl to get rid of the excess chocolate (if you don't, there's going to be a whole lot more cleaning to do afterwards. Add your topping while the chocolate is still warm and place the pop into a drinking glass or a mug. I placed 6 of the pops into one glass, that way there's enough room for them to cool down without touching the others. (They stick to each other if the chocolate is still soft) Once you're done, I'd recommend placing them in the fridge. The chocolate shell hardens better in the cold.

And you're done!

You can eat them as they are or use them as hot chocolate stirrers.

Friday Inspiration - Holiday Candy

I woke up this morning thinking about candy. This is not as rare of an occurrence as I would like to say it is, but today was special. I wanted to make candy.

Source: marthastewart.com via Katri on Pinterest

A number of years ago I made candy myself as part of my Christmas presents that year. I made a selection of chocolates. It's been a while since I've done that for Christmas, but I did make some for Chris earlier this year.

Source: playinwithmyfood.com via Diana on Pinterest

I just find the holidays the prime time for candy. Well, I suppose most people do. I've been thinking about making something fun myself, but I don't have any fancy equipment like a candy thermometer or candy molds or other stuff like that. I leave the more delicate operations to people who know what they are doing in the kitchen. (Like my sister-in-law, she made this delicious fudge last time I was over there. Holy cow, man. It was amazing)

Source: bhg.com via Hen House on Pinterest

Anyhow, point being, I'm really tempted to make something fun but fairly straightforward. I have a busy day ahead, so not sure how much time I'll have, but let's keep our fingers crossed...

Do you make candy yourself? What's your go-to recipe?

Friday Inspiration - Gingerbread Cookies

I'm thinking about cookies. Gingerbread cookies specifically. I'm preparing for the show, but here I am, wishing I'd have gingerbread cookies.

Source: shaunayounge.blogspot.com via Cindy on Pinterest

I used to love baking them, I'd do it every year for Christmas, but not so much now that I'm in Canada. In Finland every grocery store sells gingerbread dough, but I haven't seen it here. I could obviously make some myself, but I haven't exactly had the time recently.

Source: marthastewart.com via Megan on Pinterest

I think I'll need to go spend more time in the store after the show is done... Or, assuming I have the time next week, I could look into making the dough myself. I think that would be awesome.

Do you have a good, and preferably easy, recipe for gingerbread cookies you could share with me?

Source: flickr.com via Linda on Pinterest

On an interesting side note, I've come to realize a fundamental difference between Finnish and North American gingerbread cookies. I'm not talking about taste or consistency (although the North American are much thicker), but about the frosting. In Finland IF (not mandatory) you frost your cookies, they have a few decorative lines here and there. Like the face of a gingerbread man (two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth) or the buttons on his jacket (it so seems that globally the official gingerbread man attire is some sort of a coat or a jacket). Where as in North America the entire cookie seems to be covered in frosting. Ok, I get it, it's not like so everywhere, but in Finland I think that unless you are 5 or younger, covering your entire cookie with frosting is some kind of a faux pas.

Source: sugarswings.blogspot.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

I think I need to make these one day...

Cookies!

I love those extra goopy, chewy cookies. I will always have a special place in my belly for oatmeal cookies. They are not like the ones I had when I was growing up, but buttery soft. It's been a really, really long time since I've actually baked any kinds of cookies. Years, I think. Then one day after all that all-out health food shopping spree I realized not only do I have all the ingredients at home, but also a definite cookie-fitting gap in my diet.

I don't have a family recipe for the perfect cookie. Not the north American kind at least. So, what is a girl to do? Steal Google someone else's. Obviously getting thousands of hits, picking the right one is not only hard, but crucial. I'm not doing all this measuring and whatnot again. But I can tell you a surefire way to pick a recipe off the interwebs. There are really only two rules*; either it A) only needs ingredients you already have at home or, and this is really the important one, B) it's from Smitten Kitchen. When you get A and B... well... that's magic, baby!

All of this really only lead to one thing: amazing oatmeal cookies

Naturally, I must stay true to myself and tweak this recipe going forward. I'll keep you in the loop with what I come up with. This of course means I need to bake and therefore eat a lot more cookies. I'll call it... research. For the blog. You know, journalistic integrity.

*) third optional rule is to know a diligent Pinterest user who does all the research for you and then just go to her recipe board and pick whatever it is you feel like having. Thanks Ali!

I really recommend following this board, especially if you have some vegetarian tendencies or are openly vegan-curious. I often try to cook vegetarian during the week, but will openly admit I've de-veganized a few recipes that sounded good. (I love cheese, what can I say)

Oatmeal raisin cookies

I don't bake very often. It's kind of a shame, since I used to all the time. Anyhow, I decided to bake yesterday (mainly because I was craving sugar) and chose oatmeal raisin cookies (mainly because we had all the ingredients at home.

They turned out great. I used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and made the half batter. I got 12 large cookies out of it. I recommend trying this.

Do you have a super simple cookie recipe to recommend? I'd love to hear about it!

Breakfast of champions

We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We also hear how we should always eat breakfast. Yup, makes sense. No, I don't have time for that!

So, in my effort to eat better (I'm still at it, believe it or not) I tried hard to eat breakfast. But, since I felt like *making* something was too much work, I ended eating a lot of cereal bars. I was all happy doing that for a while, until I mistakingly read what's in them... With that much sugar I might have been eating pancakes or something else yummy instead of something "healthy". (Ok, there's still a lot of good things for you in them, but wanting to drop a few pounds, the bad things were not helping)

So, all this resulted into an odd moment of hippiness from my part and I bought a ton of ingredients to make my own. I did a lot of research, read tons and tons of recipes and a lot of them seemed somewhat complicated. Until I saw once sentence in one of the recipes (I can't remember which one, I'll add the link if I find it again):

1 cup of "glue" to 3 cups of dry ingredients

That was the one that made the most sense to me (honestly, it was the easiest), so I decided to try it out. Lo and behold, it worked! And it keeps working! Fantastic!

Let me explain; "glue" in this case is what binds the bars together. I've used unsweetened applesauce, either with just apple or apple-strawberry, apple-mixed berry or any other combo with a few tablespoons of honey.

Here's what you need:

3.5 cups of rolled oats
2.5 cups other ingredients
- dried fruit
- nuts
- seeds
- dark chocolate
- flax seed / wheat germ (only a few tablespoons if you use either one of these)
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
honey to taste
pinch of salt
pinch of cinnamon

First measure the rolled oats into a bowl. Start adding your other ingredients. This is not an exact science, so use what you like in amount you like. I basically just started filling a measuring cup with different things, first a few tablespoons of wheat germ, then a few crushed pieces of dark chocolate (I used organic 70% chocolate) and top off the cup with sunflower seeds. Then I added 1/2 cup of raisins. Finally I added 1 cup of finely chopped dried fruit. I love dried peaches, so I added those, but whichever you like will surely do just fine (not sure about dried banana, since it's hard, I'd use any soft fruit/berries). I've used apricots, kiwi and cranberries. Just test out what works.

Then throw in a pinch of salt and some cinnamon. Finally mix the honey into the applesauce and mix everything together. To make sure your bars stick together, make sure you pack the mixture tightly into a pan lined with parchment paper. (The parchment paper is there to make it easier to remove the granola block from the pan after)

Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes. Once it's cooled, cut into bars (squares, whatever shape you like).

Score! You're done!

Have you tried making granola bars yourself? What's your favourite combination?

Eating healthier

Believe it or not, I've been experimenting with making granola bars. This is why I bought all the super healthy stuff the other day.

I'm still testing this out, but already the first try was not half bad. Second will for sure be better. I'm trying to come up with interesting things to put in it. The first time I put in dried apricots, raisins, dried apple and some dark chocolate chips. Any good suggestions? I'm trying to cut down my sugar intake as much as possible, so nothing that has any added sugar, please.

Have you ever tried making your own? Do you have any tips or tricks?

If you haven't tried making them, would you be interested in a recipe and tried and tested tricks?

Identity crisis!

Remember all those times I've talked about how I love food? I still do, but recently what I'm eating is becoming healthier and healthier... Nothing wrong with that, but just look:

This is what I came home with from the grocery store.

Rolled oats, wheat germ, dried fruit, friggin' sunflower seeds!!!

Please keep in mind this is coming from a person who absolutely thinks poutine should be a national dish and could live on cheeseburgers. Oh, and beer! I love beer! Mmm, Guinness...

Where did she go? (Maybe I'm getting sick? I have been feeling a bit odd... Or... maybe it's just all the fibre I'm getting!)

Did I mention I go running (somewhat) voluntarily 3 times a week?

Who am I?

*off to have an identity crisis*

Disclaimer: this post is intentionally overly dramatic! However, I was in a bit of a shock once I unpacked all of this from the grocery bag. When did I become so... you know... healthy and stuff?

Jean Talon market

I've been making a genuine effort to eat better. I don't mean in a dieting kind of a way, but eating more fresh veggies and making sure I enjoy what I eat. This isn't to say I couldn't afford to lose a few pounds... I will happily admit I really like eating, so it's time to be at least conscious what I put into my body. Also, I'm no longer 20 and can't eat (or drink) like I used to. (Somehow eating fast food at 4 o'clock in the morning did seem like a great idea on numerous occasions)

Anyhow, before I get too distracted, let me get to the point. Summer is an easy time to eat healthier. With the kind of heat we've had recently (at least I don't feel eating anything too heavy then) and with the selection of fresh veggies there's really no excuse. We recently went to a local market to really add to the experience. Jean Talon Market is about 20 minute bike ride from our place (yeah, I biked for the first time in about a decade! That's another story though).

Photo from Marches Publics

We went there for some ingredients for dinner and I have to say I always love going there. I think we need to go back soon, there's some really great places to have lunch as well. This time we just went shopping.

Do you have a marketplace like this close to your home? Do you go there often?

On plants and balconies

I'm a city kid all the way through. I don't feel the urge to escape to the country nor do I feel like I need a backyard to be happy. I'm notoriously bad when it comes to taking care of plants, and have, admittedly, managed to kill a cactus.

However, there's one type of plant I have learned how to take care of; edible ones. It so seems that fresh herbs do tend to survive even in my care and are often used all through the summer. After thinking more about this, I've come to the conclusion that there are two reasons for this. The first and more obvious one is that these plants are outside and therefore infinitely easier to take care of than indoor plants. (There's sunshine and sometimes they get watered by the rain, my job is half done)

Secondly, and this is the important one, I love being able to use fresh ingredients in cooking. So fresh, that I just walk to the balcony and pick what I need. Now, I'm not going so far that I would dream of a place to plant a lot more veggies or something, just not my thing. I'm perfectly happy with what I have.

I grow herbs and have a tomato plant or a few. And there's only a few herbs I really want. I've had others, but in all honesty didn't really use them much. So, I have three herbs, basil (for pesto and salads), cilantro (for absolutely everything) and mint (for mojitos). 

It's an oddly satisfying feeling to know that I've grown some of the ingredients we're using in the kitchen, even if it's only a few small things. To be absolutely honest, I think this is just about the right amount of plant tending for me.

Right now I only have basil, a little bit of cilantro and one tomato plant. I'm probably getting a few more things, including that mint. I'm also thinking of getting a few more tomato plants, since there's space for a couple more.

The additional benefit to having those plants out there on the balcony is the added privacy. Even though we don't live on a busy street, it would still be nice to block at least the direct views to our place. So, more photos and info to come as I finish the set up.

Do you plants like these? Or something else? if so, what?

Oh, the last two photos can be found on my Instagram (like you couldn't tell)

Bits and pieces

My days have seemed a bit disjointed recently. I've done and accomplished quite a bit, yet somehow it feels like there's so much still to do in a very short period of time. I have several ideas of what to make prototypes of. I also have a lot of things to talk to you guys about. And, most of all, I have a whole lot of things to make for the show. When I look at the photos I've taken recently, I know I've done a lot.

I've walked around the neighbourhood and noticed a lot of vespas. I mean, I know where I live, so it is to be expected (for those of you who have not been to Montreal, the Plateau area is quite hipster-tastic. hipster-centric. Definitely hipster-curious (hence the blog name)), but somehow I really started paying attention this time. There's a ridiculous amount of vespas around.

Chris and I went out for Korean barbecue last Friday. We were actually supposed to go try out Grumman '78 (a.k.a the Montreal taco truck), but it wasn't open once we got there. So, we ended up at an all you can eat Korean restaurant called Seoul Chako and it was a pleasant surprise. I'd go again.

If you go, get the lamb and the spareribs. I was trying to figure out what to recommend on the menu if you're a vegetarian and even though you do have a decent amount of veggie options, I do think the price is a bit high if you're not having any of the meat/shellfish/fish dishes (~$24 on weekend evenings).

I've also tested out some crafting ideas that I've been turning over in my head for a while. There's some more testing to be done, but I will have at least one tutorial coming up. It'll have to wait until after the Puces Pop show, but afterwards there will be other types of crafting here as well. I did learn, however, that taking photos of uber-blingy costume jewelry is really hard. The photos turned out horrible. I need to figure that out too before I can post any instructions...

I'm off to make more notebooks... What are your plans for the week?