I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking here. I got a little photography happy with these delicious meal. Also, I'm off to eat the leftovers for lunch. It is super super yummy.  Light, spicy, and filled with flavour. Enjoy!

Spiced Chickpea Fajitas
Time: 10 minutes!!

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1 lime
1-2 tsp cumin, chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
few shakes of black pepper and cilantro
1 red pepper, sliced into strips
1 onion, sliced into strips
1-3 mushrooms, chopped

Options:
Spiced Rice
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 cup water
tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, chili, paprika
sprinkle of salt
*Add spices to water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, add rice, cover and let sit for 20-40 minutes, or according to package. 

Enchilada Sauce
2 tbsp Earth Balance Butter
1 tbsp Flour
1 tsp-ish each: garlic powder, onion powder, chili, cumin, paprika
1/8 tsp each cayenne pepper, salt, pepper
1 3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 small can tomato paste
*Melt butter over medium heat, add flour. Whisk together, add spices until fragrant. Add broth and tomato paste and whisk until thoroughly combined. Reduce heat once it starts to thicken after a couple minutes. 

Fresh Corn or Flour Tortillas (Here's a recipe for the ones we make!)
Chopped fresh tomatoes, lettuce, green onion, salsa, avocado, guacamole

What to do:

1) Add chickpeas, spices, lime juice, and garlic to a pan over medium heat. Stir to combine and heat thoroughly until fragrant. 

2) Remove from heat and transfer to a dish, or leave on heat and add in onion, mushroom, and red pepper. Add just a splash of oil or water to loosen up the flavour left behind. Stir and cook over medium heat, until glistening and just a touch softer, but still with a crunch. Remove from heat.

3) Assemble fajitas! We put in ours tonight: spiced chickpeas, spiced rice, sauteed peppers/onion/mushroom, tomato, lettuce, green onion, and enchilada sauce. YUUUUM! 

Comfort food? Yes please!

I'll make this one short, I've been so backlogged with photos of delicious food to share but no time in my life to post them! The past couple months have felt like one continuously long day. Seriously, the school has been so busy this year. So many balls to keep up in the air that the food blog had to take a little rest. As much as I hate to let it rest, I always know I'll never let it sit too long. It's my hobby, my passion, my love.

Cooking and eating delicious home-cooked meals with my family - it's nostalgic, it's warm, it's friendly. It's, honestly, what I look forward to at the end of each day. It brings me back to my childhood, seeing the rush of the day in my father's face come to a calm once he decided what he was going to put on our plates for supper. His passion always showed in the kitchen, no matter how stressful his day had been earlier. Once the onions were sizzling, the veggies were chopped, and the pots were boiling, all the stresses were gone. He had completely transformed from the hustle of the day to the calm of being home again. I know I've adopted this tradition for myself, thanks to his influence in my life. Getting in the kitchen at the end of a busy day is the reward to the day. The phone goes down, the emails stop, everything stands still while the warmth of home cooked food awaits. Even with the challenge of an empty fridge mid-week and minutes to figure something out, there is no stress. The kitchen is my calm. 

This exact dinner came out of such a moment. Little to no time left in the day to think over what to make, limited groceries to go from, and leftover roasted red peppers to use up before they went bad. So, with a simple roasted red pepper cream sauce as my inspiration, I took the vegan route and turned out with this delicious mac n' cheese-tasting dish that honestly, was amazing! Creamy, cheesy, easy, peasy. Ready in 15 minutes. So good, enjoy! 

Cashew Mac n' Cheeze

Total time: 15 minutes + soaking time for cashews

Ingredients

• 2 roasted red peppers
• 2 Tbsp vegan butter or coconut oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp basil 
• sea salt/pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup cashews soaked in water for 30 minutes or even better, overnight!
• 1-2 tbsp. cup nutritional yeast

What to do:

1. Add the roasted red peppers to a food processor along. Purée until smooth, adding a tablespoon or two of water if needed to help it blend. 
2. Add garlic it to a skillet with the butter or oil. Sauté over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or just until the garlic is smelling good. Pour in the puréed peppers and add basil. Stir to combine.
3. Allow the sauce to simmer. Turn the heat down to low and let the sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring often, or until the mixture is thick.
4. Meanwhile, in your food processor, combine your cashews, soaking water, and nutritional yeast. Blend until very smooth. Add sea salt/pepper to taste. 
5. Add the cashew cream to the skillet, stir until the sauce is smooth, and allow to heat through. 
6. Add pasta to the sauce and stir to evenly combine. Tastes great with a little added greens, too! 

We make this often and it has never been posted! How is that possible?!?

Probably because the minute my life involved owning a school, I kissed every speck of spare quiet time good-bye! :) 

I'm so glad I snapped some pictures of it one night, in the hustle of getting home late from work, and whipping up a delicious meal that included leftovers for the lunch the next day.

In the hustle of a very busy school year start this year, I knew in the back of my mind I hadn't posted a recipe a over a month (sad to have broken my record) and it was slowly eating away at me that I had no time to do what I love - sharing recipes! So, to my delight, when I logged in today to attempt to pull together a post, I found a slew of drafted posts, waiting for finishing touches. I must have known my life would be wild this August/September and prepared ahead of time. Does it say anything about me that I completely forgot that I had did that? Eek.

So, lucky me! I have a recipe ready to share!

And lucky you, twice over, because not only do you get this EASY PEASY curry recipe that comes together in less than 20 minutes, you don't have to hear me talk forever about it! No more stories, just food. It's all about the food because that's the whole reason I have this food blog. For the love of healthy food. So, let's get to it. 

Enjoy!

Creamy Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
1 can coconut milk
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
tbsp ginger
2-3 tbsp curry powder, turmeric,  and curry paste (or your own concoction of flavour!)
tbsp honey
salt/pepper ro taste
1 can rinsed chickpeas
​Cooked brown rice or quinoa

What to do:

1) Heat diced onion and garlic over medium heat in a bit of oil or water. I used a cast iron pan for this dish. Stir around until smelling good.

2) Add in spices and can of tomatoes. Increase heat and add in coconut milk. Bring to a light boil. 

3) Add honey, reduce heat to simmer.  Add chickpeas and salt/pepper to taste.  Simmer for as little or as long as you wish. Serve over rice/quinoa. Yum!!!