Feed The Hope

Photo courtesy of Catelli

Did you know summer is the slowest time for donations to food banks?  In Canada, 850,000 people use food banks each month and more than 36% of them are children and youth.  To help food banks during this shortage, 15 of Canada's leading chefs have gotten together to participate in Catelli's Feed The Hope campaign.  Each chef has contributed a recipe to the cookbook Catelli^® Pasta Plus Five: Five-ingredient summer pasta dishes by some of Canada’s top chefs.

Kiymali Borek {Turkish Ground Beef and Phyllo Pie} {SRC}

Today is my post for The Secret Recipe Club.  I really enjoyed this month's assignment.  I was assigned Tara's Multicultural Table.  The day I found out which blog I would cooking from, my blogging buddy Henna posted a recipe for Shish Taouk.  When I looked at where she got the recipe it was Tara's blog (small world!).  Tara's Shish Taouk recipe is originally from An Edible Mosaic.  A cookbook I have and absolutely love.  I've made this Shish Taouk recipe several times and always receive great reviews for it.  I definitely suggest you give the Shish Taouk recipe a try!

Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats {No Gelatin}

I know there are tons of Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats recipes out there but I had to share these because my kids absolutely loved them with the browned butter!  I have another recipe for Rice Krispies Treats on the blog where you simply just melt the butter or margarine.  Those are totally yummy but browning the butter just takes it to a whole other level!  I first tried this technique in my Oreo Rice Krispies Treats and those are always a huge hit.  Hasan took the Oreo Rice Krispies Treats last year to share with his classmates to celebrate getting 1st place in his speech competition.  When I went to pick him up I had a swarm of little kids telling me how amazing they were!  

Sesame Chicken with Fennel and Orange Salad {CLBN}

Today I am recreating Canadian Living's May cover recipe.  May's cover recipe is a Sesame Chicken with Fennel and Orange Salad.  When I received this month's recipe I was excited to try something that was totally different from what I would normally make.  I've never worked with fennel bulbs before although we always have fennel seeds (saunf) in the house.  I was nervous because fennel bulbs have a licorice taste and I'm not a fan of licorice.  Also cabbage is not my most favourite vegetable.  I've never been a fan of coleslaw.  But I thought this was a great opportunity to try something new and out of my comfort zone.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Cookies are one treat all kids jump for.  I find cookies take so much more time to make then a cake because you have to keep putting batches into the oven.  Also lately I've been having them end up flat.  I love the idea of cookie bars where you spread the batter into a pan, bake and then cut them into squares.  These cookies are a bit on the salty side so if you would like a sweeter cookie then reduce the salt.  They also use oil instead of butter so no creaming butter and sugar which for me is a timesaver.  The first time I made them we thought they were very tasty but a little greasy.  So I reduced the oil.  Less oil meant they required a little more effort to spread in the pan but we enjoyed more this way.

Chickpea Avocado Salad with Lime and Chilli Dressing

This is one of our favourite chickpea salads.  We love to crumble pita chips or crackers on top for nice little crunch.  I saw this recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen but made a few changes.  I left out the tomato.  It adds great colour but I preferred to leave it out.  I also left out the green onion since I usually don't have any and I wanted to reduce the chopping.   For Kalyn's recipe the avocado is optional but for me it's a must.  I love the creamy texture it adds.

Kidoodle.TV {Review & Giveaway}

Today I am sharing a non food related post.  For the last 2 weeks we have been using Kidoodle.TV.  Kidoodle.TV is an ad-free streaming video service aimed towards kids.

Our kids have time limits for watching TV and they are not allowed to watch shows with any violence.  Kidoodle.TV allows you to set up to 5 custom profiles where you can select which shows your kids have access to.  I find one of the hardest thing about having kids watch TV is getting them to turn it off.  With Kidoodle.TV you enter a time limits for how long they can watch.  This is a feature that I really liked.

Medjool Dates and Tamarind Chutney with Natural Delights {Kajoor Imli Ki Chutney}

Back in October I had reviewed Natural Delights Medjool Dates.  These are the best dates we've ever had.  Medjool Dates are a wonderful snack especially if you have a sweet tooth!  They are a great source of fibre.  A couple of Medjool dates accounts for 11% of your daily fibre requirement.  They are also full of antioxidants.