Quick, easy, delicious: chick peas

For whatever reason, there's a never ending supply of chickpeas in my house. My mom refuses to let us buy canned ones so she we have gigantic bins of dried chickpeas in the basement which we then have to soak and boil. Personally, I'd rather my preparation of a chickpea meal include a can opener but it is what it is. Now it's already a well-known fact that these beans are amazing. Hello, hummus anyone? Definitely my number one favorite meal (yes, I can eat a bowl of it for dinner). Since they're easy to cook and fill me up fast, I love making dishes that involve them. Even if it means sprinkling them with cumin and salt and calling it a day.

Here's a list of some chickpea dishes I've put together over the last couple of weeks. And don't forget to check out my chickpea & fish stirfry!

Lunch: Mint & cinnamon chickpeas, grapes, carrots & cucumber with hummus, and greek yogurt with goji berries, raisins, walnuts & honey

Roasted pumpkin & acorn squash soup

Now that fall is almost over, I've decided to get my act together and post about this yummy fall soup I made. Because this morning I scraped ice off my car and it reminded me that this is happening soon:

And I want to enjoy as many pumpkin and squash recipes as I can until then!

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 small pumpkin
• 1 small acorn squash (I had a gigantic one so I had a lot of leftover roasted squash to eat)
• Dry or fresh rosemary, basil, oregano (I used dry rosemary and oregano but fresh basil)
• Pine nuts
• 1 apple
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Black rice & quinoa spinach salad

I love salads as meals in every way shape and form and they're even better when they include my two favourite ingredients: spinach and radish. Here's one that I threw together after another crazy Bulk Barn trip where I found some black rice. I wasn't really sure how to cook the black rice properly, it took me so much time because I'm the worst. But it worked out in the end and it turns out that black rice is actually really tasty and good for you (similar to brown rice but even BETTER). 

Ingredients: 
1/2 black rice
1/2 quinoa
3 green onions
5 radishes
2 small cucumbers
1/2 cup spinach (I used regular spinach but baby spinach works too)
crushed garlic (I used 4 cloves but I love a lot of garlic)
olive oil
lemon juice
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
feta cheese
olives

1. Prepare the quinoa and the rice.
2. Chop up the vegetables, crush the garlic.
3. Mix vegetables with lemon juice, balsamic, salt and pepper, olive oil, and garlic.
4. Add rice and quinoa, mix again. 
5. Add feta cheese and olives on top when you're ready to serve.

It made enough to feed 5 people with leftovers for lunch! And it still tasted great the next day.

Lunch: salad; Snacks: walnuts feta cheese, & olives; kiwi, banana, and guava with some Nutella

Baked brie goodness

I love cheese with a blinding passion, any type of cheese and yes that includes BLUE! I always try to find a way to include a cheese dish as an appetizer and this baked brie dish has always been a winner. Even better is that it takes no time at all and you can get really creative with it. I apologize in advance for the terrible photos lately. I just Instagram everything; I EVEN HAD MY GOOD CAMERA WITH ME!

One day soon I will stop using my iPhone to take photos of everything

Ingredients:

• 1 wheel or wedge of brie
• honey
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• fresh cranberries
• apples
• bread or crackers of your choice

Preheat the oven to 375 F

Place all the ingredients in a dish, smother the brie in honey and pour honey all over the other fruit

Put it in the oven and bake for around 25 minutes (be sure to only take it out once you're ready to eat, or it will harden)

You can do a lot of different things with this dish. In the past I've crushed the garlic and rubbed it all over the brie before putting honey on it or made a more savory dish by using tomatoes and fresh thyme. As long as there's cheese involved, it's heaven in my books.

Shrimp, cilantro & black pearl medley

One of my favourite things in the world is going to Bulk Barn and filling up bags and bags of food and candy that I want to try. Recently, I've discovered that they have some pretty amazing selections of rice, including a black pearl medley which is a mix of whole grain brown rice, black barely, and Daikon radish seeds. Sounds healthy, right? I was starving one night after a Bulk Barn trip and decided to throw something together using whatever we had in the fridge. Shrimp, cilantro, rice and ginger. What could be better?

P.S: I wrote this post is especially for Caroline at And Stay Sweet - check out her blog, it's awesome!

Ingredients:

• shrimp (mine were raw)
• 1 small onion
• crushed garlic
• crushed ginger
• 2 tomatoes
• cilantro
• black pearl medley rice mix (or any kind of rice)
• sesame oil
• lemon
• salt & pepper

1. Prepare the vegetables: Crush 2 heads of garlic, some fresh ginger, dice up an onion, chop the cilantro, and dice the tomatoes (be sure to add the tomatoes in a small bowl on their own so you hold on to their juice!)
2. Wash the shrimp and let it marinate in the lemon, oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and soy sauce.
3. Cook the rice (if you're using the black pearl medley rice, be sure to follow the directions. I didn't and it took me so long. I also can't cook rice for the life of me soo...)
4. Splash some oil in a pan and sautée the onions, garlic, and ginger. Add salt and pepper.
5. Once the onions are slightly carmelized, add in the shrimp and cook until it's pink. 
6. Throw in the tomatoes and parsley. Turn down the heat and let it simmer so that the tomato turns into a sauce. I added a lot of ginger at this point to give it more flavor.
7. When the rice is done cooking, mix it with the shrimp and enjoy!

Let me know if you try out the recipe, I'd love to know how it turns out!