Surrounded by my mother’s garden I got contemplating to myself about seasonal ingredients.  I love the summer months for the fresh produce that they bring.  Strawberries, nectarines, peaches, corn; I am so excited to eat you in the upcoming months!

We have a huge amount of rhubarb in our garden right now, so I needed to think of some ways to put it to good use while it’s in its prime.

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Last week I made some stewed rhubarb with honey and put it on top of greek yogurt (Yum) and the other day I whipped up some yummy oatmeal rhubarb muffins (recipe to follow) and tonight I am going to bake up a dish of rhubarb crumble.

I love rhubarb.  I love it for it’s tartness and all the things that you can do with it.  I had lots of leftover stewed rhubarb, which was great on top of my morning oats.

If you have some rhubarb  kicking around in your garden (or your Mom’s in my case), nab some up and create something delicious.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal “Pie Plant” Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped, fresh or frozen rhubarb
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 salt

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, lemon juice, apple sauce and the vegetable oil.

In another, large bowl, with a fork, mix together the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Make a “well” in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the egg mixture in, and stir just until combined.

Gently stir in the chopped rhubarb and let batter rest for about 10 mins.

Spoon the batter into muffin cups or paper lined muffin cups.

Bake in center of oven at 350° F for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool muffins in the pan for about 5 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack.

Makes about 16-18 muffins

Interestingly enough, rhubarb is actually a vegetable, who knew?!

Eat it up (minus the leaves) as rhubarb provides a good source of vitamin C, fiber, and calcium.  Since rhubarb is primarily used for pie, it is also referred to by it’s nickname the “pie plant,” which I think is a cute nickname

What is your most favorite summer fruit or vegetable??

Hope you are having a marvelous weekend.

Love C

What a beautiful day it is.  Sunny and about 35 degrees Celsius; I think I brought the Thailand warmth home with me.

I have been home in Ontario for about a week now and I am loving it (beside the fact that I have to unpack…I HATE unpacking).  There is something about being in a familiar environment that is so comforting.

I have conquered my jet lag and the flu and am back to my normal self.  I felt like I had been lying/ sitting for a week straight, so it feels amazing to be able to be active again.   My body definitely needed the healing time, but I felt so Bleh having to be so inactive.

None of that anymore, I have whipped out my jumping rope and have been doing lots of hopping around.  If you are bored of your cardio routine, try skipping, it’s super fun!  Makes me feel like a kiddo again.  I like to do different intervals of intensity with my jump rope as well as different jumping styles.  I still trip all over myself, but it’s a great workout!

Once I regained my strength I plowed into the kitchen on a mission to make anything and everything .  I was up for baking, cooking, BBQ-ing; anything that I could make myself..  Traveling is great, but having to eat at restaurants almost three meals a day for 2 months can be trying at times.  I am  not a picky person, but I do like to have some control of my diet, which is tricky with constant restaurant eating.

So being back at home, in my mother’s lovely stocked kitchen, is a dream.

I have gotten back into eating oatmeal for breakie.  It had been a while! Boy how I missed a good bowl of oats.

And Green Monsters of course.

I may have chosen the wrong bowl for this.  I ended up having to sip it from the edges so that it would not volcano onto the table.

Yummy Quinoa salad.

And Cookies!

My first baking endeavor and it was a success.  The recipe I used was inspired by Angela.  Check out her recipe.  The only changes I made were not adding the banana and I added in some chocolate chips.  These cookies are so soft and moist; a winner indeed. As the resident baker in my family, everyone was quite happy to have me back after biting into a couple of these.

I have concocted a bunch of other things as well and have either been too lazy to take a picture or have completely forgot…sorry!  But rest assured  there will be lots more yummy things to come.

I am off to watch The Bachelorette.  I am a little embarrassed to admit that, but a girl has to have her guilty pleasures, right?!  Hopefully you can still love me despite my love for trashy TV.

Take Care,

C

]]> http://carascravings.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/home/feed/ 8 carascravings IMG_7889 IMG_7907 IMG_7909 IMG_7899 IMG_7894 http://carascravings.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/vietnam/ http://carascravings.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/vietnam/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 18:55:43 +0000 Cara Craves... http://carascravings.wordpress.com/?p=1663 ]]> We finally made it home!

A 14 hour night train, a 14 hour flight, another 5 hour flight and a 2 hour drive…Man alive!

And boy does it feel good to be here.

I love the comforts of home…sitting with the fam in the kitchen, cooking a meal together, lazing around etc.  Nothing can beat it.

Any guesses on what I have been craving the most to get home to?

Maybe chocolate, cheese, bread…

I have been dying to get myself into the kitchen and start creating things.  I have lived without an oven for two years and it has been way toooo long.  This baking chick is ready to get back in their and create some yummy treats.  I think I will start with some cookies and muffins…I’ll keep you posted on that one.

I have lots of recipe perusing before I decide.  Recommendations are quite welcome!

You may be bored of my travel pics by now, but I am going to share some pics from Vietnam with you.

Vietnam is a great country.  Very busy and lively, but a fun place to be.  We began in the south and traveled all the way to the top.  Vietnam is a very skinny, but VERY long country, so traveling around took a long time.  We used a bunch of night buses to get us up the coast….double duty; accommodation for the night and travel in one!

Vietnam has a lot to offer; good food, cheap accommodation, great sights, cheap clothes etc.  We definitely could have spent more time their.  We only had about 12 days or so to get from bottom to top, which did feel a little rushed at times.  We enjoyed it thoroughly nonetheless.

A lot of houses down in the south are on stilts.  It always makes me laugh when I see all the TV antennas.

Water markets! They are so much fun.  You just pull your boat up to any of the boats and buy whatever fresh fruit you are craving.  We got a couple huge watermelon, which were divine.

The traditional Vietnamese hat.

This woman was making incense; such a cool process to watch.

Mmmmmm!  Need I say more?

Huge jackfruit.

More markets

Cooking class

Fresh spring rolls.  We even made the rice paper from scratch.

Savory pancake

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

Fish Stew

Cooling off with  a lemon lassi.

I thought I would like Vietnam the most, out of the three countries we visited, but some places left me wanting more.  I liked the food, but didn’t love it, the people we nice, but not as nice as Thai’s and Cambodian’s and the tourist scamming was awful! Every time we ventured into a taxi or a tuk-tuk we had to hold onto our bags with dear life and keep a constant eye on the meter.  Many of the meters are rigged, which is super annoying. One thing I was definitely not sad to leave. If only we could travels freely with no worries…but I guess that’s all part of traveling, eh?

I am off to surround myself in cookbooks…Oh yeah!

Love C

I am back in the homeland and I am loving it.  Adrian and I are spending a couple days here in Vancouver to visit my oldest brother and his family and then are carrying on to Ontario.

Our bodies are slowly adjusting to the time change…14 hours is a big change!  I have been able to sleep through the night, mostly, just waking up around 5:00am, which isn’t too too bad.  It just means that I am craving a nap mid-day.

I am going to continue my trip re-cap by touching a bit on Cambodia.

After we left Korea with my parents, we hung out with them for a bit in Thailand (I’ll share that later) and then Adrian and I carried on by ourselves to Cambodia.

Cambodia is a fascinating country with a rich history.

  The sights are so amazing.  I was blown away by the temples in Siem Reap.  I still cannot fathom how these temples were actually built.  The pictures don’t really do them justice, but it gives you a glimpse.  The temples are out of this world.  They were built in the 11th century and they are still solidly standing; pretty cool!

Recognize this one from anywhere? This was them temple used in Tomb Raider.  I actually have not seen the movie or really care about it, but many people venture to this temple for that reason…to channel their inner Lara Croft, or something like that.

Adrian at the top and me at the bottom.  The stairs were soooo steep.  I sort of think that these people from the past were giants, as it was quite difficult for my little legs to climb to the top.

Inside of Angkor Wat; one of the biggest temples.

Precious little girl sitting outside of the temple.

Little guy selling post cards and bracelets.

The one thing that struck me the most about Cambodia is how poor it is.  I was overwhelmed at first by the number of children begging everywhere!  On the street, in the temples, at restaurants; there was a constant barrage of begging children.

It’s hard because you want to help them, but you can’t help everyone.  Also, it’s not always good to support the street children as they (or their parents) are making the choice not to be in school, which is definitely not a good thing.

There are tons of NGOs and other missionaries doing a lot of good things in Cambodia, which is great to see. Rebuilding things one step at a time.

Lots of these guys hanging around the temples…they really like to eat lotus flowers.

Cambodia is one of my favorite countries that we visited, but it was also the saddest.  We took lots of pictures of the killing fields and prisons, but I did not want to share them here.  It was honestly one of the most awful things I have ever seen.  The war and killing that went on in the 1970s and ended in the 80s still rocks the country to this day.

I cannot comprehend how people are capable of such horrific acts.  The images and sights that we witnessed were disgusting, it made me sick to my stomach.  Despite this, it was a good thing to learn about and understand more about the country and why it’s in the state it is now.  I pray for these poor people that they will be able to overcome this awful past.

On a lighter note…

I hope you have all been having a lovely weekend.  Happy long weekend to all you Canadian folks out there.

Love C

Oh how I’ve missed thee. 

Being absent from the blogging world for over a month is a weird thing; I feel so disconnected.  Though I am not back to my blogging routine full-time yet, as I am still in Thailand at the moment, I thought that I would start getting back into the swing of things with a little trip re-cap.

I won’t bore you with all the little details, mostly I  just want  to share some pics and fun stories.

Adrian and I have been traveling through four countries over the course of this past month (April/May) and have been having a rockin’ time.  It’s too much to tell you about all countries in one post, so I will start with where our trip began. 

Our great voyage started in South Korea with my parents coming to visit. 

We had a fabulous time showing my parents around Korea, doing our best to squeeze all of our favorite things and food into one week. From the East to West coast we traveled and then South to North; lucky for us Korea is quite small! It was a great opportunity for us to show my parents where we have been doing, where we having been living, what we have been eating etc. 

Not many people know that much about South Korea, but it sure has a lot to offer.  From the most delicious cuisine, to gorgeous beaches, to huge mountains; it’s a beautiful place to live. Lucky for my parents, they arrived right as the cherry blossoms were popping.

Look at this spread!

We had dinner one night in this great lodge on the side of the mountain; a delicious feast.  All the veggies and greens were picked from the mountainside.

From the mountainous coastline…

to the beautiful beach.

(You should see this beach in the summer; it’s crazy.  This beach still holds the world record for the most amount of sun umbrellas on a beach…Koreans are quite terrified of the sun and darkened skin. So many umbrellas are scattered that you can’t see any sand!)

A lunch break of spicy seafood stew; one of our favorite meals.  The base of the broth is similar to Japanese miso, but it’s extra spicy with the addition of Korean hot peppers…Mmmm!

Fish stew…this was at the end of the meal, we didn’t eat the heads!  We saw these guys swimming around in the tank before our meal; doesn’t really get any fresher than that.

They look a little scary, but they tasted great!

More seafood! This fish market on the south coast of Korea, in Busan, is one of the biggest in all of Asia. Lots of interesting underwater creatures to gawk at.

Lots and lots of temples to see.

Guess where we went next?

North Korea!

Well, not exactly, cause I don’t want to die, but we did do a tour of the DMZ.  This North Korea soldier stands there looking through his binoculars at the South Korean side, making sure we were keeping in line.

Adrian blends right in, eh?

A few pictures from a great journey.

Sorry for the length and the amount of pictures…I just like to share what I can.

Today is our last day in Chiang Mai and we are taking an overnight train to Bangkok.  We fly out of Bangkok on Saturday to Vancouver…making a little pit stop to visit my oldest brother….then we will be venturing on to Ontario.  I am so excited to be back at home. Boy am I ready for the comforts of home again. Just a long train ride and an extremely long flight to endure…We can do it!

See you again soon.

My next post will be dedicated to our time in Cambodia.  A amazingly beautiful an extremely sad country.

Take Care.

C

Good day to you all.

I am currently surrounded by piles of boxes and bags of garbage.  Adrian and I are in the midst of moving out of our apartment. (I hate packing and moving)  We have done multiple trips to the post office already and maybe have one more trip to go.  It is crazy the amount of things you can accumulate over the course of 2 years.  Where does all this stuff come from?

Luckily shipping things home via boat is fairly inexpensive.

Funny Story:

Speaking of the post office; Adrian and I were there probably 4 times yesterday in total, each time bringing another two boxes.  Since we were such “loyal” customers to the post office, each time we went we were given a present for using the postal service   On our first trip we were given coffee, our next some pens, our third some shampoo and soap and our last some more shampoo, soap, toothpaste and three boxes of kleenex.  How random eh? Korea is a very big gift giving culture, which explains it.  We just thought it was extra funny as we are currently trying to rid our selves of everything we own and now we have a whole lot of toiletries to give out to our friends.

As we move out of our apartment today and  across the road to a little hotel, I am also moving away from my internet source.  So my posts may be infrequent or may not happen at all.  I’ll do what I can.

My parents are flying into Korea next week!!! Yippee! I am so excited.  It will be amazing to show them what we have been experiencing over the last two years. There is only so much you can describe over the phone, seeing it first hand is so so much better.  I think they are going to love it here, especially the food!

After traveling with my parents (one week in Korea and one week in Thailand) Adrian and I are going to do a little bit of this…

Exploring!

Find some more of these…

Beaches!!

And drink some more of these…

Fresh Mango shakes!

So if I am MIA from my blog for quite some time, just know that I will be having an adventure of a lifetime.  Maybe I will pop by to say hello, maybe I won’t, but I still love you all either way.

I love traveling so much.  I think you can learn so much about yourself, other people, other cultures etc.  Nothing else compares.  I feel that each traveling adventure enriches my life in some respect, and I love that!

So take good care and hopefully I will see your beautiful faces sooner than later.

Love C

What enriches your life?

Is being obsessed with healthy eating a virtuous act? or an unhealthy preoccupation?

Source

I am currently reading Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, and it has really got me thinking about health, food and eating in general.

In a section of his book In Defense of Food Pollan describes a newly diagnosed eating disorder termed Orthorexia.  This disorder is characterized by an obsession with healthy eating.  While other eating disorders focus on quantity of food, orthorexia is focused more on the quality of food that one puts in their body; refining and restricting one’s diet according to their personal understanding of which foods are truly ‘pure’.

source

Some examples cited are the restriction of sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy; or any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out.

Doctors who diagnose this disorder say that orthorexia is more about restriction than it is about “health,” but where does the distinction lie between obsession and a the real desire to eat what we deem to be healthy for our bodies?

I don’t have an answer for this, for me it’s an ongoing thought process.

Upon first reading about this disorder I thought, “how could this be a bad thing?” but then a thought more and questioned what could define “going too far.”  I guess, like other eating disorders, an obsession with healthy eating could go too far if one is anxious and insecure about eating situations that they can’t control or feeling guilty after eating foods that are not “pure.”

But I’m still unsure.

The majority of food blogs that I read are focused on healthy eating, eating clean, exercise etc. (a positive health obsession) and I see this as a good thing.

We are constantly bombarded with books, tv shows, and dvds that promote that next “best” diet, which only helps to encourage our anxieties about food and eating.   Since when did only drinking lemon juice and maple syrup or eating foods that are determined healthy because of my blood type become normal. Our culture’s perception on food and health can be so skewed sometimes, so I am thankful to be a part of a blogging community that strives for “real” health.

What are your thoughts?

How far is too far when it some to healthy eating? Do you think that this disorder is definable?

Is being obsessed with the quality of your food and health a bad thing?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Take Care,

C

We finished our teaching contract this past Thursday and have been celebrating our newly found freedom.  It still feels quite unreal that we are finished and that we must move onto the next thing; it is definitely a bittersweet adjustment.

Adrian and I celebrated together on Friday night at a delicious restaurant that had a huge salad bar.  I was in heaven.  When a salad bar is in sight, I dominate it with all my might

I consumed an array of veggies, smoked salmon, (I probably ate a whole fish myself), tofu, fruit etc.  It was joyous!

Green tea and vanilla yogurt swirl for dessert. Yes, self serve fro-yo was part of the buffet! How dangerous is that?!

Other eats that I consumed over the course of the weekend:

Veggie stuffed omelette with a side of sweet potatoes.

Leftover chili from the freezer (re-heated) and put on top of some salad greens.

Cinnamon barley oats topped with coconut jam.

Sweet potato and squash salad topped with a poached egg.  Dressed with a couple of spices and fresh lemon.

Mmmm…

I love weekends and the freedom I have with my cooking and eating.

I have only 3 more days in my apartment and then it’s no more cooking for me for about 2 months; how crazy is that?  We will be living our of cheap hotels and hostels till we get home, so I will most likely be eating a lot of cereal, fruit and salads till we leave Korea, and then lots of yummy South East Asian cuisine, which I can’t complain about.

Another eating adventure awaits.

Enjoy the finale of your weekend.

C.

And a  happy weekend it is.

I only have one more week of teaching here in Korea, so there are lots of festivities going on. A big group of foreign English teachers will be out on the town  tonight celebrating together.  Should be a grand ol’ time.

Ya know what I love about weekends?

I adore waking up on Saturday mornings not having to rush around and get ready for work. Being lazy sometimes is a great feeling.  I started my day off with a strawberry banana green monster.

Though it’s still quite chilly in the mornings, I can no longer resist; green monsters are back in my breakfast rotation. Mmmm!

For lunch I was able to use up my leftover colcannon and turned it into colcannon pancakes with fried eggs on top. I love leftovers.

Dinner was some leftover spicy chickpea curry on top of salad.

We have sold the majority of our kitchenware to other foreigners, so  I worked very hard to stuff this  salad and curry into this little bowl (the only dish I have left).  It worked.

The best thing about leftovers is that, most of the time, they taste a lot better than when you first served them.  A day or two in the fridge gives the flavors in your leftovers lots of times to mingle around. Love it!

What’s your favorite leftover dish?

On another random note; I went to the coolest bar last night that I have ever been to.  It had the coolest atmosphere;  so chill.  I can’t believe that I have lived here for a year and have never been before.  Man I have been missing out.  I will have to go again before we leave.

It felt like a little dream-like world. A sort of “Midsummer Nights” vibe.

We went with a couple of our good friends and were seated in a raised cozy nook.  Seated on tons of fluffy pillows, it’s  the perfect place to relax and have a drink. I love finding unique places like this.

I am going to get ready for my night out.

Have a fabulous Saturday and take time to truly enjoy the day.

xo

C.

Are you celebrating?

I have no green beer chugging plans, just a quite night at home with some yummy Irish inspired food.

I love holidays like this as they make me think out of my menu box and come up with something I would not normally think of.

Tonight’s menu consisted of a fortified colcannon and a Guinness stew.

I decided to let Adrian indulge in his meaty tendencies and made one portion with meat and the other portion sans meat for me.

For the colcannon I used a couple white and sweet potatoes, garlic, onions, cabbage and spinach. An excellent flavour combination and it fun to look at!

Sweet Potato Colcannon:

• 2 white potatoes
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small head of white cabbage
• 1 bunch of spinach
• salt and pepper to taste.
• Milk of your choice

Cook potatoes in a pot of boiling water as you normally would to make mashed potatoes.

Heat a tad of oil or butter in a pan and cook onions and garlic.  Add the cabbage and spinach. (you could blanch the cabbage and spinach in the potato pot, but I wanted mine to be garlicy)

Drain potatoes and mash. Add milk of your choice along with the cabbage mixture and salt and pepper.  Mix until smooth and serve. Mmmm!  I could not keep my spoon out of the pot.  I kept testing it and testing it and testing it some more

Guinness Stew: (inspiration)

• 3 celery sticks
• 3 small onions
• mushrooms

Cook these in a pot until softened.

• potatoes
• 3 carrots
• turnip

Chop these into large chunks.

• 1 tbsp. of flour

Add the flour to the pot and coat the onion mixture. Cook for 2 mins. and then pour in the Guinness.

• 1 bottle Guinness

Add the remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 40 mins or so.

• 1 tsp. mustard
• 2 cups veggie stock
• 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 tsp salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 3-4 cups water
• 1 tsp. sugar

Serve with a good Irish soda bread, on top of mashed potatoes or on the side with a big green salad.

Enjoy!

Did you know…

The shamrock was used to represent the Trinity by St. Patrick.  St. Patrick used this to symbolize how The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit can be separate but also part of the same entity.

Who knew?  I didn’t…I love learning new random facts.

Happy Irish Day