It's just about summer time once again! Time to go out, spend time with friends and family, go camping, fishing, have time to do whatever your heart desires; but best of all, it's time to cook! Amazing, gourmet, delicious meals everyday because you finally have time for it! My most favorite part of summer is the cooking, I love that I can go out to the farmers market, I can get fresh fruits and veggies, I'm able to grow them myself again and I can use them to make my own homemade creations, or I can improvise onto somebody else's recipe. I also love the barbecue, because I'm not a vegetarian, I love my meat; lamb, deer, moose, beef.... Mm mm... In this blog post I'll share some of my favorite recipes for this summer's menu, and I'll share the recipes or links to a few of them!
The above photo is of a recipe that I found called, "Pea and Broad Bean Hummus With Goat's Cheese and Sourdough". Does that not sound like one of the most delicious things you've ever heard of? It does to me and I just had to look into it more when I found it. Though I've never made this before, I definitely plan on it for this summer. I feel like this recipe would be perfect for a day spent with family around the pool, we could have it for a nice light lunch. Anyway, I looked into the ingredients in this recipe and found that peas actually have some great health benefits, as do broad beans and of course hummus altogether is a great healthy choice. Peas, small green vegetables? I think they're vegetables at least... They are actually full of protein, meaning that they can be a substitute for some fattier meats that you may find a lesser amount of protein in; peas have many other health benefits, but you'll have to find them yourself. You most likely have never heard of broad beans because that is just one of their many names; broad beans, aka fava beans also have a few health benefits, even just a small handful will provide a boost of protein, fiber, potassium and energy filled B vitamins. This is a wonderful recipe and I suggest trying it sometime this upcoming summer!
The above photo is of avocados, a Mexican fruit that is quite high in fat, great for vegetarian diets, and other diets that lack fatty meats. Most people use these fruits to make things like avocado dip for chips and some smoothies, but my absolute favorite thing to that I like to think I created, is using avocados to make a spread to put on my pizza! So, probably my most favorite food for the summer time that is quick and easy is homemade pizza. I could eat it every night if I was able to. It's great for dinner, especially if you want to get together with your family, it's something that everybody can get into. I have my own specific recipe for pizza that is pretty delicious, and I'm going to share it with you! First off, I start by making the dough, I use a basic yeast free recipe that takes five minutes to make, and about 20 to bake. This link: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,2341,156177-235205,00.html is to a simple dough recipe that I just found. The next thing I do is I make the sauce that I'll put on top of the crust, I mix avocado, garlic, onion, tomato, lemon juice and pepper. I mix it and spread it on the pizza shaped dough... I next put tomato sauce on top of that, then mozzarella cheese, and any other type of cheese that I can find, I cook chicken, add that to the pizza, put on tomato's, mushrooms, peppers, fresh parsley and broccoli. Anyway, this is the best pizza recipe that I've ever created, I really suggest trying this one!
Okay, last of my favorite foods here! My last favorite summer food is crepes! They can be breakfast, dinner, lunch or even a snack, they are amazing... I like to make them for breakfast especially because I'm able to use a lot of fruits. I use the simplest crepe recipe that I can find that normally includes flour, water and butter, something like that, but I like to add vanilla, cinnamon and other spices that give the food a "warm" feeling. I do like to make my own crepes because of the special sauce that I make to put on top, I mix blueberries, strawberries, peaces, and raspberries in a pan with sugar and water and I melt them, I then put that on top of the crepes with whipped cream. It's delicious, probably one of the best things that you'll ever taste, you've got to try it! And if you don't want to make your own, I have been to one creperie in Elora, called the Elora Creperie and they make the best crepes for dinner or lunch! I am very excited for this upcoming summer and for all of the yummy foods that I'll be eating, I hope you'll try some of my recipes and that you'll find time to make them with your families and spend some much needed time together! Happy spring.