Garlic & Veggie Risotto

Risotto is a well-loved dish in my household and I'm always looking for ways to change it up.
I recently saw a post by Lidia Bastianich for a garlic risotto which sounded interesting but I was hesitant about the amount of garlic and lack of other veggies.  I made a few modifications, but I now have no doubt the original would have been wonderful the way it was!  You could easily pick any vegetable or combination of veggies for this risotto.

Needless to say, this risotto was a huge success!  The kids ate it up and the husband was very impressed.  This served our family of four with a protein and salad, with leftovers for another day. 

Ingredients:
7-8 cups chicken stock
2 cups arborio rice
1 head of garlic (approx. 14 cloves), peeled and crushed
1 cup white wine
olive oil
salt to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped green beans
1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 - 1 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Directions:

1. Bring the chicken stock to simmer over medium heat and season with salt.

2. In a frying pan over medium heat, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.   Toss the green beans red peppers and cook until tender.

3. Puree the garlic and white wine in a blender or food processor.

4. In a large, shallow pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until they are tender, but not starting to brown, about 5 minutes. 

5. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the rice, stirring constantly until the grains are coated in oil and translucent, about 2 minutes.  Add the wine-garlic puree and cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed.

6. Ladle in about 2-3  ladlefuls of stock, stir and cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed.  Repeat this process, adding in a couple of ladlefuls of stock each time the liquid is mostly absorbed, until the rice is al dente, about 20 minutes.  With about 5 minutes left, add the green beans and red peppers.

7. When the rice is al dente, turn off the heat and stir in the butter and Parmesan cheese.  Season with salt and pepper if necessary.  Serve immediately (with more cheese if you like!)

Banana Buckwheat Muffins

Banana Buckwheat Muffins

Being home during the pandemic has allowed for a lot more time to bake.  This is evident for many people it seems as it is getting increasingly difficult to find flour and yeast. 

So I decided to try a recipe I have never tried with some other flours I had in the house.  This is a slight adaptation from the original recipe found in Nourishing Meals by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre.

Banana muffins are a staple in my house, so I thought this would be a easy recipe to try and especially test out on the kids to see if they would notice a difference.  These muffins are dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free and refined sugar-free.  They are great for anyone who has allergies to any of these ingredients.

I've never used buckwheat flour before, but I had recently picked up a small bag by Bob's Red Mill to try out.    The muffins smelled amazing - just like any other banana muffin I've made before.  They had a much darker colour, almost like I had mixed cocoa in it.  The muffins were a little denser than I'm used to, but they still had a very texture.  The flavour is distinct; I'm assuming it is the buckwheat flour.  It was not subtle and the kids definitely picked up on the flavour and of course for them it was "not a banana muffin" anymore.  That is not to say that it was still not good.  My husband and I enjoyed the muffins, but it is definitely different from what I was used to.

So without further ado.....here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
Dry:
2-1/4 cups buckwheat flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet:
2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 bananas)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup avocado oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. In another (medium) bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.  Begin with about 1/2 cup of the milk.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together.  If the batter is too thick, add more milk up to the other 1/2 cup.  The batter should come off the whisk, but not so much that it is thin and runny.

4. Fill each cup all the way.  If you fill 3/4 of the way, you will get about 18 muffins instead.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Quick & Easy Creamy Lemon-Garlic Ravioli

Has anyone else been struggling to find inspiration for 3 meals a day every day during this COVID-19 pandemic?  I've come to realize how often we ate out or even just picked up snacks out.  Now we are basically enjoying all meals inside.

I'm a PC Insiders member and I didn't even realize we had exclusive access to something called the Insiders Project until I received an email saying they were giving free access to everyone during the pandemic! 

Well of course I had to go on and browse what they have on there - and wow! Lots of variety and lots of great looking recipes.  So of course I had to try one of them out.

I've always loved a cream sauce on my pasta, even though my kids are not big fans.  And no matter what I do, I can never really replicate my mom's cream sauce, and any that I've found online are not what I would consider keepers.  Well tonight the pasta was enjoyed by all and my husband actually said "Wow! This is a keeper!" Now that's saying a lot because I'm pretty sure my kids inherited their dislike for cream sauces from him.  He started talking about all the different ways we could use this sauce in other dishes.

This amount was perfect for our family of 4, and it came together very quickly.  Once I popped the frozen ravioli in the boiling water, I got started on the sauce.  It has very little prep involved as well - grate the cheese, mince the garlic and zest the lemon.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, but I never measure and always use till I think it looks good. Of course, you could use any pasta you want, but for some reason I love ravioli in a cream sauce.

Ingredients:

400g bag frozen cheese ravioli
2 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup cream
zest of one lemon
sea salt to taste
1 tsp dried parsley
(1 cup) Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place frozen ravioli in a salted (large) pot of boiling water. Cook until the ravioli is al dente (approx. 8-10 minutes).  Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water, and drain the ravioli.

2. While ravioli is cooking, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Be careful not to brown or burn the garlic.  Stir in cream, lemon zest, dried parsley and salt.  Simmer until the sauce is reduced by half, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add drained ravioli and 1/2 cup pasta water.  Increase heat to medium-high, then cook, stirring often until the sauce thickens and coats the pasta, approx. 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and gradually grate the Parmesan cheese over top, stirring occasionally.  Stir in lemon juice and season with black pepper.  Serve.

Makes 4 servings.