Category: Gluten Free

Homemade Veggie Broth

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I’m going to be making lots of soups this coming season because they’re so cozy and warming🥰 But guess what, WE NEED A FREAKING AWESOME BROTH FIRST! Prior to this I’ve never made homemade broth and I was shocked at how easy it is and how good it turns out😋

You could go to the store and buy some broth from there, but this homemade one is so darn good, and you can make as much as you want of it. And unless you’re buying organic broth (which I’m going to guess is pretty dang expensive), there can be all sorts of unwanted ingredients in there. If you’re wanting a broth that is all natural and super flavourful, make your own. Using this recipe, preferably😂

Broth is one of the simplest things you can make, so I’m not sure why most people don’t. Basically you just roughly chop a bunch of veg, then simmer it all in some water for a couple of hours, and you’re good. No fancy techniques or whatever. I made a nice veggie soup with this after👌 You could also use it in curries, casseroles, stews, quinoa dishes, or whatever you need broth for!

Hope you enjoy this simple and easy recipe that’s so versatile and delish!

Homemade Veggie Broth

Serves: Makes about 14 cups of broth

Total Time: 180 minutes (3 hours)

Ingredients:

  • 14 cups of water
  • 2 small yellow onions, chopped into wedges with the skins removed
  • 3 large carrots, roughly chopped into large pieces
  • 1 small portobello mushroom, thickly sliced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, smashed
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Bring the water to boil in a large pot. Add in all of the veggies, then lower the heat and reduce to a simmer.
  2. Simmer the veggies in the water for about two and a half hours, until the stock is a nice golden colour and has great veggie flavour.
  3. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then remove from the heat. Pour the stock through a fine strainer into a large bowl to remove the veggies and any smaller veggie pieces.
  4. Now your stock is ready for use! Place back in the pot and immediately make soup, or use in any other dish that calls for stock. This can also be frozen or kept in the fridge.

Can’t wait to see what awesome recipes you guys use this broth in! Have a great week:)

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Fall Harvest Bowls

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A part of shifting into fall mode for me is roasting all of those awesome fall veggies and making some hearty bowls. And of course I had to throw some sweet potatoes into this one- you know me and my sweet potatoes. Bowls are just a simple, healthy dinner idea that are quick to make and great for meal prep and busy evenings. Today I’m featuring a bunch of delicious fall ingredients, tied together with an apple cider vinegar dressing. Yum!

You guys like Brussels sprouts, right? I love them, and so I roasted a bunch of them up with my sweet potatoes till they were nice and crispy. I also got out my frozen corn. Frozen corn is like the most underrated thing. It’s so tasty and it’s ready in less than five minutes! Sometimes I just eat it as a snack. So so far we’ve got Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, corn, and some delicious dressing.

Next is quinoa, some avocado, and a soft boiled egg. I’ve been big on eggs lately too. They’re fast to cook and are a great source of protein.When you’ve got that golden yolk just bringing everything together in your bowl it’s just perfection😍 On top of all that I sprinkled some pumpkin seeds for an extra touch of fall, and then voila! You’ve got the perfect fall bowl that’s simple, healthy and so yum.

Hope you enjoy!

Fall Harvest Bowl

Serves: 2

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Bowl:

  • 1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes a couple of centimetres big
  • 8 Brussels sprouts, washed with the outer leaves removed, and cut in half
  • 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup quinoa
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 cups frozen corn, defrosted
  • 1 avocado
  • 2 eggs
  • Handful of pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

For the Dressing:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Toss the cubed sweet potatoes and halved Brussels sprouts in a bowl with the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Dump them on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes, until soft and caramelized.
  3. While the veggies are roasting, bring the quinoa and water to boil in a small pot. Lower the heat for a simmer, then cover and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit until needed.
  4. In another pot, bring water to a boil and add in the eggs. Depending on the egg size, I boil my eggs for 7-8 minutes for a runny yolk. If you have small eggs I would do 5-6 minutes. Transfer the eggs to a boil of cold water after boiling to prevent them from continuing to cook.
  5. In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients, then set aside.
  6. Build your bowls! To each bowl, add in half the quinoa, corn, roasted veggies, avocado, and an egg. Drizzle with the dressing and then sprinkle with pumpkin seeds to finish.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)

Pumpkin Oat Cookies

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Yay I finally got my hands on some canned pumpkin! You get a break from the apple recipes for a while. These Pumpkin Oat Cookies are the first thing that I made when I cracked open that can, and I gotta say, they’re pretty good. All that pumpkin-y goodness mixed up with maple syrup and a bunch of spices- mmmmm!

This recipe is super versatile too, because it’s nice and healthy. No refined flour or sugar, plus it’s dairy free! So you can munch on these for breakfast, dessert, as a snack, or any other time that you’re craving that pumpkin spice:)

To whip these babies up, I just stirred everything together in a bowl, then formed the cookies on a baking sheet and baked them for 15-20 minutes. It doesn’t get much simpler than that! I topped mine with some pumpkin seeds, but you could use chocolate chips, raisins, or coconut, or even mix some of that stuff directly into the batter. Anyway you make em, these cookies are delicious and need to be on your TBB list! (To Be Baked). Hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Oat Cookies

Serves: Makes about 12 Cookies

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 1/2 cups oat flour
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • A handful of pumpkin seeds for topping, optional

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together all of the cookie ingredients until combined.
  3. Scoop out about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll it into a ball. It might be pretty sticky, but that’s ok. Place it on a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten into a cookie shape. Repeat until you have about 12 cookies.
  4. Press about 3 pumpkin seeds onto the top of each cookie and place the pan into the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown.

I’ll see you guys on Friday! Until then, enjoy these awesome cookies:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Baba Ghanoush

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you’re all spending a great day with your families🥰 Surprisingly I don’t have a super fall recipe today, but this Baba Ghanoush might go well with you’re turkey😂 You never know.

I feel like lots of people have heard about Baba Ghanoush but they probably don’t know what it is- when I found out it was an eggplant dip I was like oh. Ok. But then I made a version of it a while back and I was like. OH. OK. It’s pretty darn delicious. So I got my mom to by me an eggplant the next time she was at the store so I could make an even more luxurious Ghanoush, now that I have tahini.

The first step to this dip is roasting the eggplant and the garlic. I cut my eggplant in to four wedges, rubbed em with a bit of oil, and threw them in the oven in a pan with a packet of garlic. You want to get the inside of the eggplant nice and soft, because you’re going to scoop it out and blend it with the garlic, some tahini, lemon juice and salt and pepper to make a REALLY creamy dip/spread. The eggplant skin gets kind of tough and fibrous when you roast it but I ate most of it after anyways😂 Can’t waste food, you know?

This Baba Ghanoush is great with salads, veggies, crackers, bowls, everything. I like to spread it on my toast and then mash some avocado on top- heaven😍 Make sure to try it out ASAP! Might be the new cranberry sauce🙌 (Jk I love cranberry sauce but maybe you can do a combo).

Baba Ghanoush

Serves: 4

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 large eggplant
  • About 4 tsp + 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, skins on
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Cut off the top of the egg plant and cut it vertically into quarters. Place the wedges on a parchment and rub 1 tsp of olive oil onto each.
  3. Grab a small square of tinfoil and place the cloves of garlic in the centre, as well as the 1/2 tsp of olive oil. Fold it into a little packet, making sure the shiny side is facing in, and place it on the baking sheet.
  4. Put the baking sheet in the oven and let the eggplant and garlic roast for 20 minutes.
  5. Remove the pan from the oven, and take off the garlic packet. Poke some holes in each eggplant wedge with a fork and then place the pan back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes, until soft and slightly caramelized.
  6. Take out the pan, and scoop out the inside of the eggplant from the skins using a spoon or fork. Place it into a blender or food processor, along with the tahini, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. Blend until smooth and creamy.
  7. Enjoy!

Hope you love this Mediterranean dip! Have a great day and an awesome week🥰🥰

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Sautéed Figs and Apples

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It’s just an apple extravaganza over here right now😂 I love making fall desserts and I don’t have any pumpkin right now so apple is my go-to. Today I’m cooking them up with dried figs to make a delicious topping for nice cream, oats, and yogurt!

Figs are one of my new found loves- fresh ones are so good when they’re ripe, but I got a big bag of dried ones from Costco and OH MY GOD. They’re so sweet and sticky and delicious. Even though figs are a summer fruit, dried figs definitely give me fall vibes. They pair really well with cinnamon, and with apples🙌

This simple desserty topping takes like 5 minutes to cook up, and is soooo tasty. The apples and figs are sautéed in a bit of coconut oil; then some cinnamon and water are added to help everything come together. It adds such a nice fall touch to your breakfasts or snacks:) Hope you enjoy!!

Sautéed Figs and Apples

Serves: 2

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 large apples, sliced
  • 5 dried Smyrna figs, sliced
  • 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat. Add in the apples and figs, and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add the water and cinnamon to the pan and stir to combine. Let the water cook off and the apples and figs cook down a bit more together, about 2 more minutes.
  3. Remove the apples and figs from the heat and serve warm over oats, nice cream or yogurt!

This is a simple recipe but it’s one I’ll keep coming back to!! See you guys tomorrow;)

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))