Chompbook

  We wanted to create a dressing similar to the one you get on that basic salad that comes in your bento box at your local sushi spot. You know the one with some iceberg lettuce, tomato wedges, and maybe a couple slices of cucumber. Oh and maybe even a carrot cut into some a flower shape or something impressive like that. This dressing has a nice little zing to it. Enjoy Ingredients: 1 cup vegetable oil 1⁄2 cup rice vinegar 1⁄2 cup soy sauce 1 tbsp. sugar 1 tbsp. finely grated ginger 2 medium carrots, grated 1⁄2 medium onion, roughly chopped Salt and Pepper, to taste Method: Place those lovely ingredients in a blender and give’r for 15-30 seconds or until your desired consistency is reached. Yum

  Several years ago, myself and a group of co-workers had an almost-tradition of going to Japanese Village most Fridays for a fun Teppanyaki lunch. It was a nice way to unwind after the work week and roll into the weekend. And I do mean “roll.” The restaurant would bring everyone a bowl of rice and sauce that would be quickly consumed as the steak was too good to resist. The Japanese Village restaurant seems to be pretty secretive over their sauce but the good people over at the ChowTown food blog claim to have tracked down the recipe from an employee of the restaurant. This dressing isn’t healthy but I wish it was because it tastes so dang good. Use it within a few days since it has raw egg and whipped cream in it. Do the right thing and make some Japanese style sticky rice to pour this sauce over. Ingredients: ¾ cup  Soy Sauce 1 cup  Vegetable Oil ½ cup Toasted Sesame Seeds 1 Egg yolk ½ tablespoon Dry Mustard 1 Clove Garlic, large (Minced) ½ cup Chopped Onion (One small...

We make pesto with different herbs/vegetable tops and then enjoy it in so many different dishes. It’s great on pasta or risotto, roasted vegetables or even as a spread in sandwiches. We have used basil, parsley, cilantro, carrot tops, fennel tops, arugula and even a combination of two of these greens. Ingredients small to medium bunch of herbs/greens (mostly leaf with some tender stems), roughly chopped 1-2 cloves garlic, minced 4 ounces of nuts, roughly chopped (almonds, pine nuts, walnuts…) 1/2 cup olive oil 2 - 4 ounces of Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast (vegan option) 1/2 of lemon squeezed (approx 1 tbsp) salt and pepper to taste Method Whiz together in blender or mixer until smooth. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed.

The tapenade at one our favourite local Italian restaurants, Il Terrazzo, is very good. It is served complimentary to all tables and accompanied with warm focaccia bread. The restaurant has an excellent mussels dish (think white wine and cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, banana peppers, red onions, cilantro, lime, and asiago). They are often busy; so, make a reservation if you plan to go. Or try to pull a fast one and see if there is room at the bar… Get a glass of wine, enjoy the tapenade with focaccia and tuck into those mussels. We wanted to recreate the tapenade at home and were able to find the recipe from the food blog, Port & Finn. They emailed the manager at Il Terrazzo who replied back with the ingredients list (but not quantities - oh my!). You shouldn’t care but my opinion is that you can add more or less of the ingredients you like. Anchovies are often in tapenade too and sometimes I like to add marinated artichokes. Ingredients: 1 cup pitted Kalamata...

 The Rootcellar is a local grocery store here in Victoria with a focus on organic and locally sourced foods. They make a sauce that they call their Green Sauce and it has become well known here over the last few years. Google tells us that the sauce has been around for a lot longer and is known as Aji Verde; many food blogs call it Peruvian Green Sauce. Anyways, it’s good and you should eat it. Play around with the ingredients to get the sauce to your liking. It’s probably kinda fine here to use vinegar if you don’t have lime. I’ve seen some recipes add mustard and a small amount of onion for this sauce. We also will often use yogurt instead of mayo; or a blend of yogurt and mayo. Ingredients: ½ cup mayonnaise (we like vegan mayo)* 1 cup packed cilantro leaves with tender stems 1-2 medium jalapeños seeds removed, roughly chopped 1-2 cloves garlic roughly chopped 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon lime juice ¼ teaspoon kosher salt *experiment with yogurt or sour cream or combinatio...

  These are our go to (somewhat healthy) pancakes. Normally, we make a batch, eat them fresh that day and then freeze the rest for later use. Once frozen, they take a quick re-heat and our kids devour them for breakfast (or a snack) with maple syrup! Ingredients: 1 cup white flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 2 1/2 tsps white sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 eggs (lightly beaten) 2 cup greek yogurt 2 tsp vanilla 1/2 to 1 cup unsweetened almond milk Method: In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate, medium sized bowl lightly beat eggs. Once eggs are beaten, add vanilla, yogurt and almond milk and mix thoroughly. Add the yogurt/wet mixture to the flour/dry mixture and whisk together until there are no lumps or dry ingredients. At this point, if you find the mixture to be too thick add 1/4 cup more almond milk at a time until you have the right consistency. I find that depending on the thickness of y...

  When Nana sends over a recipe for baking, it almost always never fails. This is no exception. This banana bread is quick to prepare and a good way to use up ripe or brown bananas. We often add dark chocolate chips to this, sometimes nuts and when we are feeling a bit guilty zucchini. The zucchini is to tell ourselves that we are making it healthier and also justifying the fact that the loaf almost always only lasts a day, maybe two, in our house. Plus vegetables are good for us, right?! Ingredients: 2 ripe bananas 2 eggs 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 cup of brown sugar 1 1/4 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda dash of table salt 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional) 1/2 cup of dark semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional) 1/2 cup - 1 cup grated zucchini with as much moisture pressed out and removed (optional) butter Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mash the bananas on a small plate with a fork. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs together until they are blended. Add oil, sugar and bananas ...