Garlic Basil Bites & Strawberry Feta Bruschetta

I have two fresh summer snack ideas for you today. One recipe is sweet, a great treat or appetizer, while the other is a savory revamped take on your classic garlic bread. They are quick and simple and delicious.

Strawberry Feta Bruschetta

1 Baguette
1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed and chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup feta cheese (goats cheese also works well) but let’s be honest with each other, you’re gonna use as much cheese as you want
Dash of salt
A liberal drizzling of balsamic reduction (balsamic vinegar does the trick if you’re not up to making the reduction)

Warm the whole baguette in a 350 degree oven. Meanwhile in a medium-sized bowl mix together all other ingredients. When the bread is warmed through, remove from oven, slice horizontally and spoon the strawberry mix onto each slice. Drizzle with more balsamic, serve and enjoy!

BASIL GARLIC BITES

1 Baguette
5 finely chopped basil leaves
2 finely minced garlic cloves
3 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmesan (optional)

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. When butter starts to bubble add minced garlic and basil. Sautée until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

There are a couple of ways to prepare this:
Warm the whole baguette in a 350 preheated oven. Slice and brush with basil butter, serve.
Or, if you have access to a BBQ, slice your bread diagonally and grill before brushing with garlic basil butter.
Or, slice open your baguette lengthwise. Brush either side with the garlic basil butter, top with grated cheese and broil until golden.

Nomnomnom! This goes great with a red sauce and of course, a bottle of wine. Happy Eating!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Most people eat cauliflower in veggie platters, or smothered in cheese and baked in the oven au gratin, or roasted, or steamed with carrots. Ugh, (about the carrots, not the cheese). I aim to inspire  you to think outside of the crisper, and try using cauliflower as the star ingredient in your meal, and not just as a supporting character.

It all starts with cauliflower rice. It really doesn’t get any simpler than this, and it is the foundation for so many cauliflowericious dishes (say that 3 times fast).

Grate one head of cauliflower: you should get about 2 1/2  to 3 cups. Put this into the microwave and nuke for 6-8 minutes. Microwaving cauliflower is a delicate art, be careful not to burn it! Even though grating uncooked cauliflower is messy, I prefer this method because the result is a texture very similar to rice.

If you steam cauliflower florets before grating it, the “rice” will be mushier as the florets will have absorbed a lot of water. When I’m feeling lazy I just steam and chop, but for this recipe I recommend grating.

Cauliflower pizza is a healthy gluten free alternative and great recipe to try out. I know the steps look daunting, but it really is very simple, don’t wuss out on trying something new! Be forewarned, this isn’t the type of pizza you can pick up with your hands, it’s unique and deserves to be savored with a fork and knife.

Cauliflower Pizza

You Will Need:

1 head of cauliflower, riced
1 small potato, grated
1/4 cup grated onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg

Optional: Fresh herbs like parsley, rosemary, cilantro or even Italian seasoning can be added if you wish.

Toppings:

This is not your average pizza crust, so step up your pizza game and add some gourmet toppings! I used prosciutto, goat cheese, arugula and whole olives.

This Is What  You Do:

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk one egg. Grate  your small potato and onion and wrap them in paper towel or a clean kitchen cloth and squeeze out as much moisture as you can.

Combine cooked riced cauliflower, potato,onion, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and fresh herbs with whisked egg.

On a large baking sheet, or pizza pan, spread out your cauliflower dough. I made two small pizzas about half an inch thick. I found making smaller pizzas works best for this type of dough.

Brush with olive oil or a bit of egg yolk to ensure a crispy crust, and then bake for 15 -20 minutes, or until firm and golden. Don’t add your toppings yet! The dough needs to firm up before you pile it high with tasty treats.

Dress That Pizza Up

Once the dough has firmed up, remove from oven and add your sauce, cheese, ham, pepperoni, mushrooms – whatever you like. I added homemade red sauce to one, and lightly brushed the other with olive oil . Next came the crumbled goat’s cheese and sliced prosciutto. I put it back in the oven until the cheese was melted and bubbly. Meanwhile I tossed my arugula in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. When the pizzas were ready, I added the arugula and finished it off with some olives. VOILA!

Meatless Monday

If, like me, you’ve woken from a meat-induced Superbowl coma this morning feeling groggy and still a little bloated from the night before, Meatless Monday might just be something that appeals to you. Not that I didn’t love those pulled pork nachos yesterday… but todays a new day.

Now, for all those Veggie-Fearing Folk: taking out the meat does not mean taking out the flavour – that’s what we have cheese for. Here is a vegetable substituted recipe for pizza snacks - quick, delicious, and easy to prepare.

Zucchini Pizza Rounds

You will need:
1 large zucchini
Homemade tomato sauce, which I have conveniently provided you with a recipe for! The Store bought stuff works too
Parmesan cheese, or the grated cheese of your choice
Any other pizza toppings you might enjoy. I used a finely cut red onion for a little sweetness, and finely cut spinach.

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 400

Slice zucchini into finger-width rounds (Look at those rounds, I found the zucchini at the produce store for like 50 cents! IGA… eat your heart out)

Add a dollop of tomato sauce to each round.
Finely chop whatever pizza toppings you want to include, and scatter over rounds.

Top each round off with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the parmesan is golden.
Let zucchini rounds cool for 5 minutes, serve and enjoy.

Alternatively, you can make a great non-pizza zucchini snack. Douse zucchini rounds in olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and top with parmesan cheese.

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Garlic Parmesan Kale Chips

So the Kale Chip bandwagon rolled by I thought why not jump on it and see what this rides all about?  Apart from how photogenic kale and kale chips are, it is an immensely healthy vegetable chock-a-block full of antioxidant properties, vitamins K,A,C and manganese (just to name a few).

I was so excited to finally make these! However they received mixed reviews after coming out of the oven. Kale chips have an interesting taste and texture; many bloggers describe them tasting  ”just like potato chips!”. This is absurd and absolutely not true.

Consistency wise these were awesome, very light and flaky in your mouth and you don’t feel heavy after eating them. Though Kale absorbs the flavours you season it with, it does retain somewhat of a nutty earthy flavour, like raw broccoli. Even though I wasn’t %100 sold on them, they were like Lays Chips – I couldn’t eat just one.

Phil said he would try them again, but it was like eating “spicy potpourri”. Emilie liked them ( I think, it’s so hard to tell when she’s lying, ha!) but she made a good point that Kale “isn’t a particularly delicious vegetable” on its own. The seasoning was a unanimous success, and I will use it again for Pita chips and yam fries, but no one was ecstatic about the kale.

I made my first batch with just olive oil, sea salt, vinegar, and pepper. They smelt amazing but flavour was a bit blah. I decided to kick it up a few notches with the recipe below, since everyone in our house likes food with a little spice.

Even after making the second batch something didn’t meet my expectations. Perhaps I’m being too harsh because my expectations were too high. Perhaps I just don’t like baked kale! I’d never baked it before, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Since I can’t pin point exactly what I didn’t like about these chips, I’ll have to make them again at a later date just to be fair.

Sea Salt and Vinegar ingredients

Garlic and Parmesan Kale Chips

1 bunch of Kale
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
Sea Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese to garnish

Directions:

Garlic Parmesan Seasoning Ingredients

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Wash kale and thoroughly dry. Separate kale leaves from the stem, then using a bowl or seasoning bag toss kale leaves in olive oil, garlic, and Frank’s. 2 tbsp wasn’t enough to make them spicy, but the flavours were nice.

On an oven tray evenly distribute kale leafy side up. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and season to taste with parmesan cheese ( I also sprinkled some paprika).

Return to oven and cook for 2 more minutes.

NOTE: Burnt kale tasted very bitter, so keep a watchful eye on your chips!!!

Beautiful. Don’t they look amazing? I’m so disappointed I didn’t fall head over heals for them… sigh.