Everyday Salad

Fresh Spinach, tomato, cukes, carrot.

Chickpeas, white beans.

Apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, black pepper dressing.

Nuff said.

This is my new favourite cookie

Maple melt in your mouth goodness

At it was the last one left....lol.

Remember those Zucchini Muffins?

Here they are with Chocolate chips!

Home Made Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Made with 35% cream and real vanilla bean...Hold up on the Ben& Jerry's... 

This one's a keeper! Loved the texture, I haven't made ice cream in about 10 years- this is going to be fun :) 

Banana bread cake

Classic. delicious. Gone too fast.

Fall Vegetable Stew

This is comforting and delicious!

I was in the mood for leek, and this is what I had in mind.

I used a hand blender in a deep set pot for a large can of whole tomatoes.

Cut red pepper, leek and zucchini into 1 inch pieces. Place in the pot and cover to cook on low heat..

Add Tumeric and chilli powder and chopped garlic or garlic stems (asian markets have this)

When the veggies are cooked, I added in frozen edamame, black beans and a bit of sesame oil. Turn the heat off and leave the cover on.

Eat it like that or on top of rice.

Saturday Brunch

This is something great to make when you have left overs.

All you need is bread, cheese and veggies. (optional protein)

I had a broiled Brie cheese on half a baguette with cooked Trout on top.. 

Made a stir fry from Kale, red and yellow peppers, red onions. 

Seasoning of oregano and basil and cracked black pepper.

Keep in mind that you can change this up. 

Use crispy sliced tofu or sunny side up eggs in place of fish.

Use other bread like Focaccia, Naan or just regularToast.

Saturday Night Stir Fry

Take the veggies you have left in the fridge and add in some protein of your choice. Get creative with your seasoning.

Tonight I chose to bake half a Trout only with cracked black pepper. 

Sautéed broccoli, celery, ginger, and red pepper using grape seed oil. 

Threw is some left over chick peas at the end too.   

For an 'Asian' flavour added in about a teaspoon of Fish sauce, Tamari and Sriracha sauces. 

I had Basmati rice ready in the rice cooker.

Simple- yet packed with flavour!!! 

Zucchini Muffins

Wow! I haven't posted in a long time.. but this doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. I'll often post pics of my food on Instagram or Twitter. You can follow me on both @TheCleverCook.

I'm so happy these muffins were a hit at work. This post is for you guys!

Don't cringe cuz there's something green in a muffin! You'll love them and won't even taste anything green- Promise!

Ingredients

• 3 cups Zucchini, grated
• 2/3 cup Butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp Almond extract
• 3 cups Flour
• 2 tsp Baking soda
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Ginger powder

Here we go:

1. Preheat oven to 350 C. Have 2 medium-large bowls ready.
2. In one bowl, place the zucchini, butter, sugar and mix. Then add the eggs and almond extract, mix well.
3. In the other bowl, add in the remaining 5 dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Begin adding about a cup or so at a time of the dry mix into the wet mix until well blended.
5. Once everything is mixed in, go ahead and start filling up your muffin pan. Should be ready in about 40-50 minutes when they're nice and golden.                                          

This recipe will yield about 12-14 muffins depending on how full you fill them up. Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup Flour
• 1/3 cup Bitter sweet Cocoa
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 2/3 cup Sugar
• pinch of Salt
• 1/4 cup I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, softened
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 Milk
• 1 1/4 ounce Creme de Menthe baking chips

These are the mint chips 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Blend with a whisk. Set aside.
• In a larger bowl, place butter and sugar. Mix with a spoon until sugar has blended well. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
• Add half the flour mix and stir. Alternate with adding half the milk. Stir.  
• Once all blended, stir in the mint chips.
• Spoon the mixture into 12 paper cups in a muffin pan.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until muffin bounces back to the touch.

Cranberry Jelly

This recipe was given to me by Haik's aunt. I changed it a little to make it my own- and based on what I had handy. This is full of spice and flavour, you'll quickly realize how you've been fooled by what's in that can of cranberry sauce! This is the real deal- well the original recipe is the real deal, this is a close second place.

Ingredients

• 24 ounces  Fresh Cranberries
• 1 cup Jack Daniel's Honey
• 1 cup Cranberry Juice
• 10 Cloves
• 1 tsp whole All Spice
• 1 whole Nutmeg, crushed
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 Peel of a Navel Orange
• 2 Tbsp Honey

This sweet liquor is part of my own twist

Freshly rinsed cranberries

This is everything in the pot ready to cook

Directions

• Rinse cranberries. With a handful at a time, place on a cutting board and squish them with the side of a Chef's knife. Then place in a medium sized sauce pot.
•  Pour the juice and whisky in the pot.
• Place the remaining ingredients in a Bouquet Garnie. Crush the nutmeg with the side of a Chef's knife You may choose to leave the orange peel out loose if you manage to have it a big piece.
• Simmer until liquid has reduced in half. 
• Remove from heat to let cool.
• Stir in the honey once it's cooled. 
• It's that easy.

Note that the texture will become more jelly-like once it's cooled down. This  sauce is tart, spicy, sweet and sour.

This is a Thanksgiving/Christmas staple, but you can enjoy this any time this season.

I like to have this on toast for breakfast. Although this can easily be added on top of any poultry too.

HAPPY 2012!

I thought I'd start off the year with a new look for TheCleverCook blog!

My goal this year is to keep this blog updated weekly!

This Sunday I've caught the cooking bug. I'll be posting my new recipes once they're done.

I wish happy baking and cooking for everyone, enjoy eating and share your awesome food with me too!