Category: Freezer Friendly

Tuna and Sweet Potato Cakes

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Hey guys! I’m like REALLY excited about this recipe- it’s a good one. I had the idea to make these Tuna and Sweet Potato Cakes a while ago and got all psyched up about it, but then I realized we didn’t have tuna! But now we have some so it’s all good, and I was able to whip up these super tasty cakes.

This recipe takes a little while to make, but I promise you it’s worth it. You’ve got the sweetness from the sweet potato and red onion, some garlic powder, and fresh herbs, which all totally transform that canned tuna into an AMAZING fish cake. I used an egg as a binder which I don’t normally do, but it helped these beauties bake up and get some nice colour on the outside.

I served up these cakes in a nice salad bowl, but they’re honestly SO versatile. Throw them in a wrap or sandwich, or just eat them by themselves for a quick protein-filled snack. That’s another great thing about these tuna cakes; they have lots of protein from both the tuna and the egg, plus some good complex carbs from the sweet potato. Healthy and delicious all in one! Hope you enjoy;))

Tuna and Sweet Potato Cakes

Serves: Makes about 9 cakes

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 a large sweet potato, peeled and diced into small cubes
  • 1 can of light chunk tuna, well drained
  • 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
  • 1/4 of a red onion, diced
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp oats
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 egg

Directions:

  1. In a medium sized pot, bring a little bit of water to a simmer and place a veggie steamer inside. Dump the chopped up sweet potatoes in there, cover, and steam for about 20-25 minutes, until they’re very soft and mashable.
  2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  3. Mash the cooked sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Add in the tuna, parsley, red onion, garlic powder, and oats, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  4. Add the egg to the sweet potato and tuna mixture and mix until combined. Scoop out heaping tablespoons, form into about 9 patties, and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.
  5. Bake the cakes for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and use a spatula to flip them over. Proceed to bake for another 10 minutes.
  6. Remove the cakes from the oven and use the spatula to flatten them even further. This will help to cook the insides. Place back into the oven to cook for 5 minutes, then remove, flip, and cook for a final five minutes. (total baking time: 30 minutes)
  7. Take the cakes out of the oven (finally) and let them cool before enjoying in bowls, salads, wraps, sandwiches, or just by themselves!

I love this recipe so much and I hope you love it too! These cakes have such a beautiful flavour, colour and texture. See you Wednesday!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Rhubarb Purée

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What the heck do you do with rhubarb other than making a pie or crisp out of it?!!?! This is the question that has faced me as I stared down the rhubarb I had in my fridge for the past while. We got it as a gift and I was kind of like, well I appreciate the sentiment but WHAT DO I DO. I made a crisp and it was delish but I needed some more options! So I poked around Pinterest and decided to purée it.

I came up with my own recipe and let me tell you, this purée came to PLAY. It has some homey spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, plus some maple syrup to sweeten it up (rhubarb can be kind of bitter) and some lemon juice as a flavour-enhancer. You just simmer everything together until it gets nice and soft, which surprisingly doesn’t take long at all, and then blend it up and you’ve got a smooth, delicious purée.

Ok, now you’re like “my question of what do I do with rhubarb has been answered, but WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS PURÉE?”. Valid question, my friend. But don’t worry, there are a gazillion different things you can use this for! Add it into muffins, quick breads, icing, cakes, smoothies or oats, make popsicles out of it, put it on nice cream, or just eat it with a spoon. Think of it as applesauce on steroids. And it tastes so good!!!!!! I froze mine in a freezer bag after so I can take it out when needed.

Hope you enjoy this rhubarb purée, and that you never have to waste any rhubarb again! There will definitely be some recipes that use this coming soon so keep your eyes open!

Rhubarb Purée

Serves: Makes about 4 1/2 cups

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 cups water

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a large pot and place over high heat on the stove. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until the rhubarb is soft. This should only take about 3-5 minutes.
  2. Pour the contents of the pot into a good blender, and blend until smooth.
  3. Let the purée cool, then store in an airtight container in the fridge, or pour into freezer bags and freeze until needed:)

So good and so easy!! See you on Wednesday:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Soul-Warming Chickpea Curry

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It’s been so rainy and blah where I live for the past while, and it really makes me feel like cooking, you know? I feel like I haven’t COOKED something in a while, and today it felt right. Also on days like this, I just want a nice bowl of something warm and comforting. Curry is this perfect comfort food, because it’s so flavourful and it warms your soul as well as your body. You can throw as many crazy vegetables as you want in a curry, but I wanted to keep it simple and let the flavour shine through. So I only used chickpeas.

Chickpeas and I go way back. They have protein and lots of fibre, and in this curry they add a bit of texture so everything isn’t just mush. The only other elements in here are onions, garlic, spices, tomatoes, and some basil leaves. I caramelized the onions for maximum flavour, and the spice blend is great! Everything stews together in the tomatoes and melds and becomes something amazing, that feels like a big hug. I served this with wild rice, but any grain works.

Today this curry really took me back to my love of coming up with recipes and slicing things up and stirring things on the stove and smelling and tasting and eating. It’s so fun and just takes me to a place of calm where I’m not worrying about anything but what I’m cooking. I really hope that you guys get to try out this recipe and feed your soul by making it and eating it! That’s my goal here, anyways;)) Enjoy!

Soul-Warming Chickpea Curry

Serves: 3-4

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium sized white onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp olive oil (plus more as needed)
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 4 small basil leaves
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Cooked grains for serving (optional)

Directions:

  1. In a medium sized pot, heat up the olive oil over low-medium heat and add in the onions. Cook them until they’re nice and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Stir often and add more oil if needed to prevent them from burning.
  2. Add the garlic and spices to the pot, and cook for another minute or two, again watching to make sure nothing burns.
  3. Dump the tomatoes, chickpeas, tomato paste, and leaves of basil into the pot and give everything a good stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a low simmer, cover and cook for 40 minutes.
  4. Remove the curry from the heat, season with salt and pepper to taste and remove the leaves of basil. Serve with a grain of choice and enjoy!

Hope you like this soul food! Have a great Canada Day;))

Yours Truly,

Olivia;))

Mini Berry Protein Muffins

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Hey guys! My phone broke down the other day and so I couldn’t really take and edit my pictures like I wanted, so I decided to just postpone this post for a bit. But don’t worry because the next week or so is STACKED with bullet journal stuff and new recipes (like this one) and a reading challenge update. Make sure that you’re checking in every day because I’ll have new posts going up daily until the end of the month!

To kick off this posting extravaganza, I’ve got these awesome Mini Berry Protein Muffins. I’ve been trying out some protein powder recently, and I actually really like it! I don’t just mix it with milk or water and drink it straight though, I usually throw a scoop into my smoothie bowl which makes it super creamy. I find that it’s a good way to incorporate some protein into my breakfast. The brand I use is Vega and I have their Protein and Greens powder in vanilla flavour. But if you decide to buy some powder to try out for yourself, do some research to find out what the ingredients are and where the protein is coming from. There are all kinds of protein powder; some are vegan, some get protein from animal collagen, and some have some artificial ingredients. Just make sure that your powder is right for you. If you don’t have any protein powder on hand, you can try and sub it out for whole wheat or all purpose flour, although I haven’t tested those out.

Anyways, I needed some new ways to use my protein powder. So why not make some muffins? And mini muffins, while I’m at it! Everything is cuter when it’s smaller. These muffins are naturally sweetened with maple syrup, and I find that the protein powder gives them a really nice flavour, like cake batter or something. There’s also an egg in here, which does give some extra protein and also acts as a binder. All of this protein and some whole grains from the oats, paired with a great taste, makes these muffins the perfect way to start your day! I used them to top a smoothie bowl, because, come on, mini muffins on a smoothie bowl? Does that not sound like the BEST THING EVER?

And I forgot to mention that these muffins have berries in them! I used saskatoons because I still have a whole ton frozen, but blueberries would be great as well. Now that it’s summer you might even be able to throw some fresh ones in there. So yeah, those are all of the delicious details of these cute lil’ muffins. Go find yourself a bowl (that’s right- this guy right here is a ONE BOWL recipe), mix some stuff up, pop these babes in the oven for like 15ish minutes and you’ve got yourself a snack that be lookin like a SNACK! Enjoy;)

Mini Berry Protein Muffins

Serves: Makes about 20 Mini Muffins

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup vanilla protein powder
  • 1 cup oats (I used quick-cooking steel cut oats, but rolled oats also work)
  • 2 tbsp melted coconut oil (mine was pre-melted by the summa heat lol)
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup fresh or frozen Saskatoon or blueberries

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line 20 holes in two mini muffin tins with paper liners, or grease with coconut oil.
  2. Mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl.
  3. Scoop the muffin batter by tablespoon into the lined or greased mini muffin tin. Bake the muffins for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out clean.
  4. Enjoy on smoothie bowls, oatmeal, as a snack, in cereal, or with yogurt!

Have fun with these mini muffins! Don’t forget about the army of blog posts coming your way. See you tomorrow!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia;)))

Chocolate Dipped Pumpkin Seed Cookies

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So, we have a lot of pumpkin seeds. Like A LOT. We got the 1.2 kilogram bag from Costco. I wanted to make some pumpkin seed butter out of them, because I don’t really like to eat them by themselves. But halfway through the blending process, my vitamix quit on me! This happens sometimes because it’s pretty old, and seeds are a pretty intense thing to blend. So I was like, now what? What can you make out of half-blended pumpkin seeds? It turns out that you can make something pretty fricking amazing.

I added some maple syrup to the seeds, pressed em into cookies, and TRIPLE DIPPED them in chocolate. That’s right. TRIPLE. DIPPED. These cookies are legit amazing. They’re so rich and nutty and sweet and just awesome! You only need four ingredients to whip them up, and if you have a really old blender no prob! It only needs to work for about two minutes.

My go-to chocolate dipping sauce is maple syrup, cocoa powder, and coconut oil. Super simple and so good. All you have to do is melt the ingredients together and you’re good. This sauce could also be used for pretty much anything else, like oatmeal, strawberries, other fruits, nice cream; the list goes on and on. On these cookies, it lends another hit of richness that is definitely welcome. If you’re not feeling the chocolate though, you can always omit and just eat the cookies by themselves. HA! That was a joke! DEFINITELY include the chocolate. I don’t know why you clicked on this post if you don’t like chocolate.

That’s my spiel for the day! I really hope you give these cookies a try because they will change your life. For the better.

Chocolate Dipped Pumpkin Seed Cookies

Serves: Makes 10-12 cookies

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups shelled and roasted pumpkin seeds (I used salted)
  • 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • I’m not kidding that’s it

Directions:

  1. In a STRONG blender or food processor, blend the seeds until they start releasing oil but aren’t too loose. You want the mixture to be something you could form a ball with.
  2. Transfer the blended seeds into a bowl and stir in 2 tbsp of the maple syrup.
  3. Scoop the pumpkin seed mixture by heaping tablespoons and form into balls. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet or pan, and press down to make cookies about a centimetre thick.
  4. Place the cookies in the freezer for at least half an hour. You want them to be pretty frozen so that they’re easy to dip.
  5. Make the chocolate sauce right after you pop the cookies in the freezer. Melt together the cocoa powder, coconut oil and maple syrup in a small pot over low heat. Remove from the burner and let stand until the cookies are ready.
  6. After thirty minutes has passed, take out the cookies and dip them one by one halfway into the chocolate mixture, placing them back on the baking sheet. By the time you’ve reached the last cookie, the chocolate on the first cookies should be hardened because of the cold. Dip all of the cookies halfway again, and then once more to ensure optimal coverage.
  7. Place the cookies back in the freezer for another 10 minutes before serving. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Enjoy these little bites of deliciousness!

Yours Truly,

Olivia