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Aiden’s Gouda Fruit Salad

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My kids love to get into the kitchen and create things. More often then not they announce what they want to make without checking on ingredients first. This salad was the exception as we just so happened to have all the fruit available. Aiden’s Fruit Salad is made by my son Aiden and on this night accompanied quick sandwiches before a busy activity evening.

A fruit salad can include any fruit you want. We never add a dressing or drizzle of honey to our fruit salads as we let the sweetness of the fruit speak for itself.

Aiden's Gouda Fruit Salad
Aiden’s Gouda Fruit Salad

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Aiden's Gouda Fruit Salad
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Recipe type: salad, side, lunch
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup strawberries, rough chop
  • 2 cups grapes
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 cup green apple, rough chop
  • 1 cup fresh pineapple, rough chop
  • 2 cups watermelon, rough chop
  • 1 tbsp fresh mint
  • ½ cup cubed Gouda, Monterery Jack or grilled Halloom cheese
Instructions
  1. Add all fruit to a bowl. Light stir to combine.
  2. Tear off pieces of mint. Pour cubed cheese on top and serve.

 

 

White Chocolate Lavender Brownies

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Every summer we visit Kelowna and the Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm. We love to wander the gardens and stop in the cafe to enjoy a lavender infused treat before we leave. We also drop into the little store they have and I always pick up some cooking lavender (or food grade culinary lavender) to play with at home. This is how this recipe came to be. Rummaging through my baking box in the pantry for white chocolate, I discovered the lavender. Having never heard of lavender brownies before I thought dang this could be good. The flavour is very subtle, but 3 out of 4 of us can detect the lavender in the brownies however next time I might try adding a little more. If you can’t get your hands on lavender, just leave it out.

White Chocolate Lavender Brownies
White Chocolate Lavender Brownies

These brownies are simple to make and easy to eat.

5.0 from 1 reviews
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White Chocolate Lavender Brownies
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Recipe type: snack, picnic, dessert
Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup butter
  • 6 oz semisweet chocolate
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup white chocolate morsels (Bernard Callebaut)
  • 1 tbsp Culinary Lavender buds
  • 1 cup flour
  • ¼ tsp Salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. In a double boiler or bowl over pot with simmering water melt butter and semisweet chocolate. Remove from heat and let cool 5-10 minutes. With a mortar and pestle or spice grinder grind your lavender until fine.
  3. In a second bowl mix together your sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the white chocolate and lavender. Add your flour and salt.
  4. Line an 8 inch greased baking pan with parchment or foil and ensure it extends over opposite edges. Add batter and bake for 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Let cool in pan.

 

White Chocolate Lavender Brownies
White Chocolate Lavender Brownies

Infused Water

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About four years ago I hosted one of our annual Mom’s Who Needs Wine Evenings. One of the ladies was pregnant so for her I filled a lovely jug with spring water and added cucumber and fresh mint. She loved it so much that when we went camping together that summer it was all she drank! We experimented more in summer with fruit and the kids loved it.

I try to encourage the kids to drink lots of water during the day. We don’t drink much juice here and rarely pop so infusing their water with good stuff encourages them to keep at it, and eat the good stuff!

There are so many combinations of infused waters the variations are endless. Put out a variety of ingredients and let the kids make up their own. It will encourage family bonding time and them to drink the water. We made three infused waters for these photos and re-used water bottles from a local juice store. Mason jars or any other easy to carry and pretty jar with a lid would also be ideal.

In these photos we made three variations. Here’s how we did it.

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Infused Water
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Serves: 3
 
Ingredients
  • 3-4 slices thinly sliced orange
  • 3-4 slices thinly sliced lemon
  • 3-4 slices thinly sliced lime
  • 4-6 strawberries, hulled and sliced thin
  • 6-10 slices cucumber
  • 6 fresh mint leaves
  • water
  • 3 bottles
Instructions
  1. To first bottle add orange, lemon and lime. Pop in some ice and fill with water.
  2. To second bottle add strawberries. Add ice and fill with water.
  3. To third bottle add cucumber and mint. Add ice and fill with water.

Infused-Water-v2

Infused Waters
Infused Waters

 

 

Grain Salad with Edamame

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Several big family gatherings in July called for lots of great potluck, and easy to assemble type food. We had Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan represented in our house over the course of several days, leaving many mouths to feed. So I made big salads and big food. This super grain salad with quinoa was one of them. So delicious and serves 10-12 with the possibility of leftovers. It’s one of my new favourite salads loaded with goodness and easy to take camping or to a BBQ.

I first discovered the PC grain blends a couple years ago when they launched them. Always loved them but it seems they’ve changed the packaging and keep relocating them in their stores. This makes it a challenge every time we go to find the item on the shelves. I love the 5 grains that are in this mix [spelt, barley, rice, wheat berries & oats] which really is a powerhouse in itself, but being a confessed quinoa addict, um fan, I have to be different and add a handful of quinoa into the mix as well. Just because. It’s one of those salads you could change up entirely based on your likes. This one was a hit at our potluck, and a keeper.

 

Grain Salad with Edamame
Grain Salad with Edamame

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Grain Salad with Edamame
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Serves: 10-12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pkg [225g] PC Brand 5-Grain Blend, cooked & cooled
  • 1 cup quinoa, cooked & cooled
  • 2-3 cups arugula
  • 1 cup edamame, cooked
  • 2 carrots, peeled & diced small
  • ½ red onion, chopped into small dice
  • ½ pepper (red, orange, or yellow), diced
  • ¾ cup zucchini, diced (we used yellow)
  • ½ cup radishes, sliced thin
  • ½ cup pepitas, [pumpkin seeds] toasted
  • handful fresh chives, chopped
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tbsp orange juice
Instructions
  1. Pour all grains into a large serving bowl.
  2. Add arugula, edamame, carrots, onion, pepper, zucchini, and radishes. Season with salt and pepper, toss to combine.
  3. Make your dressing by whisking together olive oil, vinegar, orange juice and a pinch of salt & pepper. Pour on salad and toss.
  4. Sprinkle on chives and pepitas.

 

Grilled Peanut Butter & Banana Panini

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As you can tell by the original date, this grilled peanut butter & banana panini recipe has been around awhile.  More often than not when I make it for myself I use a crunchy almond nut butter.  For the kids its peanut butter since that is their nut butter of choice.

If you’re anything like me you have too many small appliances to count.   So a great way to make a panini style sandwich is to use 2 heavy bottom pans (cast iron works). One to put the sandwich in and a heavy one to put on top and “press” the sandwich down. Sometimes it takes a couple of times to get it figured out but when you do…presto you will have a panini style sandwich without the panini maker.  Easy, right?

In the past I have added honey or cinnamon honey and nutella to this sandwich.   Quick, easy and no complaints = my kind of cooking.

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Grilled Peanut Butter & Banana Panini
Recipe type: Lunch, snack
Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • 4 slices bread (your favourite bread)
  • ¼ cup peanut butter (or any nut butter)
  • 2 ripe bananas, peeled & sliced
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 2 tsp brown sugar
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp vanilla
  • Pam
Instructions
  1. Preheat grill or fry pan. Spray with a little Pam.
  2. Spread peanut butter evenly over all 4 slices of bread. Top 2 of the bread slices with banana and place remaining bread slices on top.
  3. Whisk together eggs, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Dip the sandwiches into the egg mixture (french toast style) until coated on both sides. Place in pan and top with heavy pot/pan.
  4. Grill a couple of minutes per side pending your grill/fry pan. Remove to cutting board, let sit for a minute or two, slice and serve.