This is the real Lebanese Tabouli which you will notice has little Bulgur in it. There are two kinds of Bulgur: fine or coarse, and for Tabouli we use fine. You can find fine Bulgur in Lebanese/Middle Eastern grocery stores. Lebanese like to eat their Tabouli with crisp hearts of romaine lettuce. It’s so refreshing, especially on a hot summer day! Try mixing the salt and pepper with the chopped onions before adding them to the other ingredients; it brings out the sweet juice of the onion.

Serves: 6 people

INGREDIENTS

• 3 bunches finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 cup chopped fresh mint
• 2-3 tablespoons fine bulgur
• 1 chopped firm tomato
• 1/2 onion or 2 scallions chopped
• 1/2 cup extra Virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon cayyene pepper (optional)

PREPARATION

1. Prepare the chopped parsley and mint and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix Bulgur, chopped tomatoes, chopped onions/scallions with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add to them the parsley and mint and olive oil and mix, adjusting seasoning by adding more oil and lemon if desired.
3. Serve cold garnished with romaine lettuce.

Invite friends and family over to enjoy your easy-to-make Lebanese dish!

Tabouli image from: www.themedgrill.com
Tabouli recipe from: www.epicurious.com

Here is a recipe for spanakopita as used by Kevin at Closet Cooking:

Ingredients:
1 pound spinach
5 ounces feta cheese (crumbled)
1/2 cup dill (chopped)
3 green onions (chopped)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
phyllo dough (thawed over night in the fridge)

Directions:
1. Steam the spinach until it wilts.
2. Run the spinach under cold water to stop the cooking process.
3. Squeeze the spinach and drain.
4. Mix the spinach, feta, dill, green onions, eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
5. Brush the bottom of an 8×8 inch baking pan with olive oil.
6. Brush the top of a sheet of phyllo dough with olive oil and place it in the pan. (You may have to cut the phyllo dough to fit the pan.)
7. Repeat until you have 6-8 layers depending on how thick you want the crust.
8. Place the spinach mixture on top of the phyllo dough.
9. Brush the top of a sheet of phyllo dough with olive oil and place it on the spinach.
10. Repeat until you have 6-8 layers depending on how thick you want the crust.
11. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown on top, about 30-50 minutes.

Enjoy!

Here are additional links for the rice and sauce recipes:
Spanakorizo (Greek Spinach Rice)
Tsatsiki/Tzatziki Sauce

I can’t wait to try this delicious-sounding soup for myself. I enjoy cooking with carrots; just this week I’ve sauteed carrots two different ways as well as served them raw with dinner. This vegan-friendly recipe gives new life to everyday carrots.

Recipe from Vegan Village

This makes a thick, creamy and tasty vegan soup. Our favourite!

Ingredients

25g/1oz vegan marg
500g/1lb carrots, sliced
1 medium potato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
900ml/1½ pints water
1 tsp ground coriander
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper
generous handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped (about 2 tbsp)

Method

Melt the vegan marg in a pan, add the carrots, potato, onion, celery and garlic and cook gently for 10 mins.

Add the ground coriander, sugar and water and season to taste. Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until the carrots are tender. Cool slightly.

Add the fresh coriander (including the stalks), reserving a few leaves for decoration. Whizz in a food processor until smooth. Add a little more water to loosen, if required, decorate the soup with coriander leaves and serve.

This vegan potato salad is just one of many interesting recipes included in the event’s literature. The main obstacle for creating a vegan-friendly version of the recipe is mayonnaise, which has been substituted for the vegan-friendly Veganaise.

Ingredients

• 8-10 medium potatoes (yellow or red are best)
• Dressing
• 1 C vegan mayonnaise (such as Veganaise)
• 2 T oil
• 2 T vinegar
• 2 T mustard
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• Pepper, to taste

Optional Ingredients

• ½ C diced celery, dill pickles, and/or carrots
• ¼ C chopped scallions and/or sliced black olives
• Garnishes
• ¼ C finely chopped parsley
• Dash of paprika

Boil the potatoes until tender (10-20 minutes, depending on type). While the potatoes are boiling, combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, and mix thoroughly.

When the potatoes are tender, run cold water over them and carefully peel with a knife. Cube the potatoes and place in a large bowl with any optional ingredients that are desired. Pour dressing over the potatoes and toss.

Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. Add garnishes if desired.

Enjoy this vegan take on a classic party dish!

“At first I thought that this would taste bad but once I made them, I fell in love with this recipe!”

-Miami, Florida

But what makes avocados such an attractive alternative?

Avocados contain nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and beneficial plant compounds that enrich the quality of your diet.

Avocados, due to their mono and polyunsaturated fat content, are a healthy substitution for foods rich in saturated fat.

One-fifth of a medium avocado (1 oz) has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals making it a good nutrient choice.

Avocados contain 76 milligrams beta-sitosterol in a 3-oz serving of avocado. Beta-sitosterol is a natural plant sterol which may help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Source: Avocado.org

Creamy Avocado Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Del Monte® Hass avocado
• 2 cans evaporated low fat 2% milk
• ¼ cup sugar
• Ice cubes

 Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

 I’d love to hear comments and opinions about this novel smoothie recipe!

A relatively unknown (to my friends, admirers, and enemies) hobby of mine happens to be cooking. Ever since we first got cable when I was in middle school and I first laid eyes on the Food Network, specifically Emeril Lagasse, I fell in love with cooking and I’ve done it ever since. I began diddling about with random cookie recipes and now I experiment with everything from my own hummus and fresh cooked pita bread to fried chicken or whatever fits my fancy at the time. My friends love me for this hobby because they can bring me things and they know I’ll cook it for them as long as I get to eat some too. It’s really just a win-win situation for everyone involved.

So for this entry, I thought I’d share with you a recipe I discovered a short while ago that worked out better than I could have imagined: homemade chicken fingers.

Homemade Chicken Fingers

For this recipe you will need:

• Peanut oil
• 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts of chicken tenders (either work, just with the breasts you will have to slice them into tenders)
• 3 Eggs
• 1 Cup of all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of standard store-bought bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

(I actually would recommend adding a bit more of the different seasonings to kick the flavor up a bit, I found that following the recipe exactly results in tasty, mild tenders)

Directions

1. Preheat the oil to hot in a large pot on the stove or in a fryer (whichever is available).
2.  Beat the 3 eggs in a separate bowl and measure the flower into a separate dish.
3. Measure the bread crumbs out into a shallow bowl and mix in the garlic powder, lemon-pepper, and cayenne.
4. Begin by dipping the chicken tenders in the flour, then the beaten egg, and then dredge them in the seasoned bread crumbs.
5. Fry the tenders in the peanut oil anywhere from 6-8 minutes or pretty much until they  are golden brown and you feel that they are cooked all the way through.
6. Remove the tenders to a tray lined with paper towels to absorb the excess grease.

Voila! You have your own delicious fried chicken fingers!

To go along with the tenders you may want to use this recipe for honey mustard that excellently complements the chicken.

Honey Mustard

• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

Mix all of these ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and refrigerate for at least a week. It is a delicious sauce that goes perfectly with the chicken.

This recipe is great! I made my chicken and served it alongside some fresh homemade biscuits and a fruit salad. It was a delicious treat. The recipe is relatively simple and highly rewarding. If you’re looking for a party tray, this may be your lucky day.

I enjoyed the whole process including the sticky, nasty mess of dredging the chicken through flour, eggs, and bread crumbs and I am looking forward to toying with new recipes in the future. I am currently considering trying Gyros next…

Until next time…Enjoy! Bon Appétit!

~Daniel

[via Kosnet]

From http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ the Not for Sale website:

“Did you know…. 70% of the world’s chocolate is produced in West Africa, where an estimated 12,000 children are currently in slavery. That’s right, over two-thirds of all of the chocolate we consume every day. Without a screening process that ensures child and/or forced labor was not used, we have no guarantee that the chocolate we buy is not promoting modern slavery. So, what can you do? 

This Valentine’s Day, we’re calling you to give love and spread justice by purchasing your chocolate Fair Trade.

“Here are two examples of the best Fair Trade Chocolate we’ve found! I encourage you to support these companies this Valentine’s Day when you do your chocolate shopping. And keep a look out for Not For Sale’s Conscious Consumer Campaign, coming soon! We’ll be offering you ways to get Fair Trade chocolate into your local stores. All part of Free2Work… launching in late February!”

-       Kilian Moote, NFS Program Director

THEO CHOCOLATE:

“Because Chocolate Grows on Trees!”

Theo Chocolate, the first and only organic and Fair Trade chocolate factory inside the United States, carefully screens all its ingredients to ensure they meet their standards for social and environmental responsibility. As a wholesale producers inside the United States Theo Chocolate offers competitive wholesale prices.

What Makes Theo Unique:

Using only pure ingredients that are grown sustainably. They source their ingredients locally whenever possible, and ensuring that their growers are earning a liveable wage and have access to education for their families.

Click HERE to find a Theo chocolate supplier near you, or click HERE to visit Theo’s online Chocolate store. Yum!

EQUAL EXCHANGE:

Equal Exchange’s organic fairly traded chocolates offer consumers a delicious way to support small-scale farmers and their communities. As a leading U.S. purveyor of organic Fair Trade chocolate, all of Equal Exchange’s bars and cocoas support a sustainable and just supply chain.

To be Fair Trade Certified, Equal Exchange has followed numerous regulations, including adhering to International Labor Organization Conventions 29, 105, and 138 on child labor and forced labor.”

To learn more about modern human slavery and what you can do about it, visit:

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

 I also encourage everyone to read the book Not for Sale by David Batstone. This book has literally shaped my life passions and inspired my educational and future career path. 

For delicious Fair Trade chocolate, click HERE to visit Equal Exchange’s online store! For information on purchasing wholesale, contact Equal Exchange at 774-776-7333 or email: orders@equalexchange.coop”

Pitas

For the pitas you will need:

• 3 Cups of flour
• 1 Teaspoon of salt (or more if you desire a saltier snack)
• 1 to 1.5 cups of warm water
• Vegetable oil or olive oil (whichever you have)

First you will want to mix together the flour and salt thoroughly until they are well combined. Next add in enough water to form a ball and stir it until smooth. (Beware, you will probably want to take off any jewelry that you like because this part can get messy and pretty sticky!) Proceed to knead the dough with your hands or whatever you like for about 5 minutes. After you do this, divide the dough into portions of anywhere from 6-12 lumps. Then take the lumps and roll them into smooth balls of dough. Next you will need to cover all of the balls of dough with a damp paper towel and let them rest for at least 10 minutes so it can relax. After the 10 minutes are up, press each piece of dough flat and get it fairly thin, but not so much so that it becomes transparent. (Note: You will need more flour in this stage to keep the dough from sticking to everything.) If you have a griddle, pull that out and lightly cover it with your oil of choice (vegetable, olive) and place your dough on the griddle. You will be able to tell when one side is done by the brown bubbles that form. As a rule of thumb, allow the pita to sit on the griddle for at least 1 minute on each side. This part may seem tedious, but it is well worth the work and wait. When the pitas come off the griddle they are delicious and fresh so have your hummus ready to go!

Hummus

For the hummus, you will need a few more ingredients.

• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 cup water (May substitute 1/2 cup of chickpea juices from can)
• 1/2 cup of tahini paste (you can substitute a little sesame oil if necessary)
• 5 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 clove of garlic
• 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil (Extra-Virgin)
• Fresh ground, black pepper
• 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

In a food processor or blender, combine the chickpeas, water/juice,  paste, 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, salt, and garlic and then puree the ingredients. While the ingredients are blending, pour in the olive oil and mix until it is fully incorporated. Season with pepper for taste. Then place the hummus in the refrigerator for 3-6 hours to allow the flavors to blend together. When you are ready to eat the dip, remove the hummus from the refrigerator and mix in the parsley and remaining lemon juice. Drizzle with olive oil for a garnish if you please. Any leftovers will be good if kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

This dish is fairly simple and a healthy, delicious afternoon snack! 

Feel free to leave your suggestions for improvement or your own findings!

Until the next time!

-Daniel