Chia Pudding with Granola Clusters

Hello! This morning my breakfast was pretty spot on, so I thought I'd whip out the old camera and document it. My roommate Sara and I are totally crushing on Angela Liddon from Oh She Glows and we have been tearing up her cookbook on the daily recently so I thought I'd share how we have been combining a couple of her recipes. 

I have started getting in the habit of preparing my breakfast the night before because it makes for such relaxing morning. Chia pudding to the rescue!! I usually prepare a jar of it at night and a batch of granola clusters for the week and then combine the two in the morning with some fresh fruit... pure heaven.

I know that I mentioned my visit to the naturopath recently, and I wanted to share another little tip I got: CHIA SEEDS. With five times more calcium than milk, and seven times more vitamin C than oranges, chia seeds are small but mighty. I'm here to give you a delicious recipe because it can be hard to figure out how to actually sneak these little devils into your diet.

Ingredients

CHIA PUDDING (1 serving)
- 1 to 3 Tbsp chia seeds - I like my chia pudding really milky, but you can add up to 3 Tbsp of chia seeds to make it thicker and more pudding-like.
- 1 cup of almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

GRANOLA CLUSTERS (6 cups)
- 1½ cup whole raw almonds
- 1¼ cup rolled oats
- ⅔ cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, chopped dates)
- ½ raw pepita seeds (shelled pumpkin seeds)
- ¼ raw sunflower seeds
- ⅓ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener like agave or honey)
- ¼ melted coconut oil
- 2 tsp vanilla

Directions

CHIA PUDDING
- Measure out the almond milk and the vanilla into a mason jar.
- Add in the chia seeds after the wet ingredients.
- Add a lid and mix well.
- Refrigerate overnight, and stir before eating in the morning.

GRANOLA CLUSTERS
✿ Preheat oven to 275ºF.
✿ Process ½ cup of almonds into a fine meal in a food processor (about 10 seconds). Transfer to a mixing bowl.
✿ Pulse the rest of the almonds, 1 cup, for a couple of seconds till the almonds are chopped but not made into a meal. Gotta love that chunnnnky granola.
✿ Add the oats, dried fruit, pepita seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, cinnamon, and salt to the almond mixture and mix until combined.
✿ Next, add in the maple syrup, melted oil, and vanilla and stir together.
✿ Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat and spread the granola over the surface. Pack it down with a spatula so that it is compact.
✿ Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the granola is golden and firm.
✿ Let the granola cool for at least an hour and then break it into piece and store it in an airtight jar.

Serve the two together for a magical morning!

// both recipes slightly adapted from Oh She Glows

Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup

Hello! I made a really really great soup yesterday and I wanted to share. Over the holidays I went to see a naturopath to learn more about how I can get nutrients out of all of da foodz since I am now calling myself a vegetarian. My doctor was super great and we really bonded over all things running, vegetables, and iron deficiencies. He gave me tons of great resources and tips, which I will be sneaking into my upcoming posts. One of the things he mentioned was becoming friendly with the cruciferous family of vegetables. This includes cauliflower, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and many more. 

So here I am, pouncing on all recipes that involve those ingredients because they are apparently extremely rich in all good things, such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A, folic acid, and fibre  These superstars are also great anti-inflamatory agents and have loads of protein... I know what you're thinking, protein in vegetables?? I know, pretty great.

After a quick Pinterest search I came up with tons of great recipes including this roasted red pepper & cauliflower soup topped with kale pesto. Delicious and nutritious!!

Ingredients

SOUP
- 4 medium red bell peppers
- 1 head of cauliflower, diced into florets (roughly 4 cups)
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp chili powder
- dash of salt and pepper

PESTO
- 2 cups of kale
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 clove of garlic
- juice of one lemon (roughly 3 Tbsp)
- 1/2 cup raw almonds

Directions

SOUP
✿ First, you need to do some roasting! Cut the peppers in half and take out the seeds. Then place them cut side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Broil the peppers till they are black on the outside and soft on the inside, about 20 minutes depending on the size.

When the peppers are done roasting put them in a sealed container to let them steam a bit, so it's easier to peel the skin off.

✿ Then broil the cauliflower florets for about 20-25 minutes.

✿ While this is all happening you can start the base of the soup. In a pot set to medium-low heat, add in the oil, diced onion, and garlic. Let that sauté till the onions are tender.

✿ Next add the spices and veggie stock and let simmer on medium heat.

✿ Now you can remove the skins from the peppers and chop them up. Then, add the roasted peppers and cauliflower to the pot. Let everything simmer for about 20 minutes to let all the ingredients get to know each other.

✿ Using either an immersion blender or in parts in a regular blender, puree the bejeebers out of the soup.



You can now make this amazing pesto to top your soup, or to add into anything you eat!! I've been putting in sandwiches, on sweet potatoes, pizza, and pasta for the last little while and it's THE TASTIEST, CREAMIEST thing ever. And hello kale!

PESTO
✿ In a food processor pulse together the kale, oil, salt, garlic, and lemon. 

✿ Next, add in the almonds and process some more until it all comes together.

✿ Keep refrigerated.


Yum yum yum! I hope you aren't too scared off by all the roasting involved in this recipe because the end product is sooooo worth it.

xox


// original recipes from Gal on a Mission and Pinch of Yum

Decorated Sugar Cookies

Hello! It's time for the fourth and final recipe of my 2015 Christmas Treat Guide!! This year when I made my holiday goodie bags I decided to go full on Martha Stewart and make sugar cookies. I'm not going to lie I was totally inspired by this beautiful post I saw cruising through Instagram and the rest is history...

Hours later I found myself elbow deep in flour and forrest green frosting on my cat's paws and as a result splattered on surfaces all over the house. It was all worth it though because I have found THE PERFECT sugar cookie for decorating. And although I do have a little experience baking, I certainly didn't think I would be capable of whipping up beautiful iced cookies that require time and effort.

So I bring to you the best sugar cookie that a) keeps it shape when baked, b) is delicious and soft, c) makes a shit ton of dough that can be split into two and frozen for last minute times when your mother-in-law, neighbour, or coworker stops in to say hello. Oh and I also can't forget if you don't want to go all Julia Child during the busy Christmas months because you have better things to do (e.g. criminal minds marathon) then don't fret because these cookies are equally as good without the icing. I made some when we had people over watching Love Actually and I think I stuffed about 10 in my mouth during the intense scene where Colin Firth is searching for the Portuguese women in her home town...... #stresseater

The original recipe comes from Rose Bakes but I omitted the almond extract for two reasons, the first time I made these cookies I was oblivious to the fact that I owned almond extract and the second time when I added almond extract my roommates and I agreed that we liked it better without.

Ingredients

- 1 cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk (KEEP the egg white for the icing)
- ¾ tsp vanilla
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted


Directions
✿ Cream together the butter, sugar, and salt in a mixer until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
✿ Next, add the egg yolk, mix a little and then add in the other whole egg. Mix in the vanilla.
✿ Add the sifted flour and mix until well-combined.
✿ Now the next step is really important!! Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour. I often do it the night before and then make the cookies the next morning to break up the baking process (cause I'm an old lady and sometimes I get tired baking). Or if you're in a big rush just pop the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes.
✿ When you're ready to bake the cookies let the dough come to room temperature for at least 10 minutes, then knead it to make it smooth.
✿ Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Sprinkle some flour on your rolling surface and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness.
✿ Use cookie cutters to cut out your desired holiday shapes! Then place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
✿ This next step is also really important, place the cookies on the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will make sure that the cookies keep their shape.
✿ Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on the size and shape of your cookies, but keep checking to make sure they haven't started to brown around the edges.
✿ Let them cool for a while before starting to ice them!!

Now for the icing I put on my lab coat and started coming up with royal icing recipes. 

Ingredients

- 3 tsp water

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- 1 egg white

- 2 cups of sifted powdered icing sugar

Directions

You have a couple of different icing options depending on how much time and effort you want to commit to these cookies. I have tried all three options and they are all tasty, so no judgement if you're opting for the easy way out.  

Option 1

The easiest option would be to say forget it and eat the cookies without any icing. 

Option 2
The other option would be to make one batch of white edging icing with the ingredients above, which makes a stiff consistency that is pictured in the snowflake cookies I have pictured here. I then got some coloured sugar at Bulk Barn, sprinkled it on, and called it a day!

Option 3
The most time consuming option is to make two different icing consistencies: One thicker batch for the contour of the cookie and a thinner batch  to "flood" the interior. This is if you want your cookies to look really snazzy like the one's you'd see in a bakery around Christmas.

✿ Edging
With an electric mixer beat together the lemon juice and egg white, and then add in the icing sugar. Then, one teaspoon at a time, add in the water. This icing should be fairly thick because it is going to be the walls that keep the runnier icing from flooding over the sides of the cookies.

You can add colouring to the icing now. My favourite icing colouring are the Wilton gel icing colours because a little goes a long way. Once you have added your colours beat away to incorporate one consistent colour!

Now you're ready to pipe the outline of the cookie. I used this tutorial to guide me through and it helped a lot!

✿ Flooding
Next, keep adding water to the leftover coloured icing to thin it out. This should be a couple extra teaspoons and it should be runny.

Then fill a squirt bottle with the flooding icing and fill in the edges of your edging. Tap the cookie a couple times to pop any air bottles and then let the icing set before adding any detailing.

And there you go! Perfect cookies.

If you have any questions about this process just comment below because it can be quite finicky but once you've got the hang of it, it's super easy.

You can check out the rest of my cookie guide here.

Merry Christmas lovelies!!

The Best Brownies

Hello! I just got back from a jam packed weekend celebrating Christmas with my mom's side of the family and after playing games, eating amazing food, and being around the people I love all weekend I'm a pretty happy camper. Now that I am back home, I am totally ready to share the next recipe on my 2015 Christmas Treat Guide: my favourite brownies. My mom found this recipe many years ago in a magazine and we have been making them ever since because they are just so good!
After baking cookie after cookie during my 2k15 Christmas baking spree I was so happy to whip up this batch of brownies in less than ten minutes (excluding baking time).

Ingredients

¾ cup unsalted butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1¼ cups flour

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

2 cups of chocolate chips

Directions

✿ Preheat oven to 350ºF.

✿ Heat butter and chopped chocolate in the microwave for two minutes and then stir until smooth. Let stand for a five minutes to cool.

✿ Whisk in sugar, eggs, flour, and vanilla to the cooled chocolate mixture. 

✿ Then stir in pecans and half of the chocolate chips (1 cup).

✿ Transfer the batter to a 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper, then sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips.

✿ Bake at 350ºF for 35 minutes until the top is dry to touch.

So easy!! And the crisp top coat is so tasty.

Enjoy.

Chocolate Crinkles and Choco Oatmeal Cookies

Up first in this year's Christmas Treat Guide are chocolate crinkles and choco oatmeal cookies!

Oh boy! There's so much to be said about chocolate crinkles. One, they're vegan. Two, they're delicious. Three, they're hella easy to make. Four, they make the perfect chocolate filling to stuff into other cookies to make the cookie of all vegan cookies! I almost didn't want to advertise these cookies as vegan because some non-vegans will turn their noses at the very thought of A COOKIE WITH NO EGGS OR BUTTER???? (I'm looking at you, Dad). But I swear that these cookies just happen to be vegan, it's not like I purposely substituted ingredients to make them vegan. Oh and they're also nut free :)

First things first, ingredients!

- 1¾ cups sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla
-2¼ cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup icing sugar (for topping the cookies)

Directions

✿ Combine the first five ingredients (sugar, cocoa, applesauce, oil, and vanilla) together with an electric mixer, or determination and a quick hand.

✿ In a separate bowl, whisk flour with baking powder and salt.

✿ Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture in three parts to allow the wet mixture to soak up all the flour.

✿ This step is crucial: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours. You want the dough to chill up so that it's easier to scoop into cookies. I have even made the dough at night and then baked them the next morning.

✿ Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a baking mat.

✿ Sift icing sugar into a shallow bowl. Scoop spoonfuls of dough and roll in your hands to make balls. Roll them in the icing sugar to get them nice and coated. This will give them that beautiful crinkled look!

✿ Place on the baking sheets a couple inches a part (you will need two baking sheets cause this recipes make A LOT of cookies) and bake for 10 minutes or until they have a soft brownie-like texture. Cool for a long while before manipulating.

You thought I was done right? Well think again!! Last summer, when I surprised my roommate Sara at her boyfriend Jimmy's (hey Jim, I told you I'd give you a blog shoutout!) cottage, I made a batch of chocolate crinkles to bring and I had SO MUCH dough left over that I had the brilliant idea of using it as a filling in vegan oatmeal cookies! And it worked!! Beautifully might I add :)

So here are the deets for these oatmeal cookies pictured on the left hand side of the above photo.

Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ cup quick oats
- ½ cup coconut oil (NOT MELTED)
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp of ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbsp water... let sit for five minutes)
- ¾ cups shredded coconut

Directions

✿ Preheat the oven at 350ºF
✿ In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Set aside.

✿ In another bowl, cream the sugars and the coconut oil, then add the flax egg and vanilla.

✿ Add in the flour mixture and once combined, add in the coconut.

✿ Let the dough chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then when it has chilled create a sort of patty with the oatmeal dough and then place a ball of the chocolate crinkle dough in the centre of said patty. In the palm of your hand roll the two cookies into one. Place on a lined baking sheet.

✿ Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

In other news, I hope every single one of you has listened to the first episode of Serial Season 2!!! When I was studying in France, a bunch of my friends would pile into one of our tiny (I mean TINY) residence rooms and drink tea and not move an inch or blink an eye as we listened ever so intently to what Sarah Koenig found out that week about Adnan Syed, a high school student in Baltimore that she suspected to have been wrongly convicted of murder fifteen years ago. The podcast EXPLODED and soon everybody and their brother was listening in! So flash forward a year, my friends and I are no longer cuddled up listening to a podcast on a crisp fall day in France, but thanks to good ol' Facebook the tradition continues, as we are all weighing in on the new season that is exploring Bowe Bergdahl's case.... I'm so excited I can hardly wait for the next episode this Thursday.

(Picture of girls listening to radio from Tumblr)

Christmas Treat Guide

Hello! I am super excited to share my favourite christmas treats with you guys. Before I travelled home for the holidays, I did some heavy duty searching and compiling and after many hours spent on blogs and Pinterest as well as looking through family cookbooks and my camera roll, I came up with four of my favourite cookie (slash one brownie) recipes that I haven't already posted here on Breakfast at Midnight. My top picks are great on their own, or thrown together to make a goodie bag. The outcome will have people praising your glory and kissing your feet... you can thank me later. 

I just happened to make the batch of baked goodies pictured in this post in the midst of exams because there's nothing that soothes my exam jitters better than a little baking with a cup of tea, some huge slippers, and dancing around the kitchen listening to Pascale's alterna Christmas playlist (yes, my bff is 8tracks famous). For those of you that are still in exams, or that need a little pick me up, I strongly suggest you head out the door this instance to grab your weight in butter and sugar and start preheating the oven!!

I also put my Martha Stewart-ness to good use to make these cute gift bags with little mittens drawn on cards. It was so easy to do and cheap too! I picked up the red bags at the dollar store and you can get the boxes at any bakery (for a small price) or at a papery/card store.

In the next couple of days I will be posting the recipe for each of the goodies in the pictures, and eventually they will all be linked to their corresponding pictures below. Happy baking!!

Appie Hack

Hello! I am home for the holidays and ready to get cooking, baking, eating, and photographing up a storm. One of my favourite food brands, President's Choice, just came out with their holiday collection and I'm so excited!! When I was in studying in France last year, I did a project and presentation on President's Choice for my brand marketing class and fell even more in love with this trusted Canadian brand. I love how all their products are always of excellent quality and so on point with food trends, as well as being affordable for a starving student. Plus their new website design includes tons of recipes and analytics on trending foods around the country... basically my dream come true! So when I was on their Instagram page the other day and saw that they were looking for people to try out their new collection I jumped at the opportunity faster than you can say "the PC cookie butter is on sale for three dollars!".

The post was making a call for appie hacks and recently I've been obsessed with pomegranates so I figured my recent cooking motto, "when in doubt, add pomegranate seeds" would apply to appetizers too!



I then headed into the nearest store that sells President's Choice products and went ham on buying fresh fruits and veggies to make the tastiest appie for the holidays. I settled on this mango salsa recipe I posted a little while ago but with a little twist... I added pomegranate seeds!! They're honestly the best way to spice up any dish, whether its dressing up a cheese plate, topping your yogurt and smoothies, or tossing a few into dips and on hors d'oeuvres.



Another food hack?? Using President's Choice products! For this recipe I used PC Market Trio Tomatoes for the salsa and then threw some PC Appetizer Flatbreads topped with PC Soft Unripened Goat's Milk Cheese into the oven. I then loaded the fresh juicy salsa onto the crisp cheesy flatbread and cut it into strips for a quick and easy appetizer. It was refreshing to have something that wasn't dripping with grease, when the holidays are definitely a time for heavy foods.

The recipe is posted in my Crostini with Mango Salsa post, but I snapped some pictures today for fun  to show just how good PC products can make any classic family recipe.

Enjoy!