Chocolate Lavender

Last Monday was the 3rd installment of Heather’s Meatless Monday round-up.  It was for the letter D and in this case, D stood for dark chocolate.

And we missed it.

How could we miss the week that was using chocolate as the main ingredient?!?

We knew we had to make up for it this week, so we called out to our facebook friends to give us a little inspiration as to what we should make.  After all, we knew we had to do something pretty spectacular to make up for missing dark chocolate week!

One very devoted follower found a recipe for a dark chocolate tart that looked incredible, and so we set to work make our own Saucy Sister (aka-healthy) version.  We decided while we were at it, we might as well make it with gluten-free and vegan options because nobody is going to want to be left out of this one!

On top of that, the weather is warming up quickly over here (woohoo!) so we decided in the spirit of summer, we would make this a no-bake creation, becuase who really wants to turn on their oven when it’s hot outside?

You also might notice the sprigs of lavender on the top- that is no accident!  You see, we are in the midst of preparing our vegetable garden for another season, and we have purchased a number of herbs to plant in pots on the back porch.  One that we are particularly excited about is our lavender plant, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to incorporate some fresh summer herbs into our dishes!

So we give you a No-Bake Chocolate Lavender tart.  The perfect way to start off a summer of baking dessert-making.  And yes, we realize that we failed to follow the rules and make something from one of the participants last week.  Heather, we are very sorry, but we just had to share this recipe!  And I guess we sort of used Laura’s chocolate-avocado idea, didn’t we?  That must count for something, right?

If you don’t have lavender, you can leave it out and just add a little more water or sweetener, but it really makes this unique, so we highly recommend trying to get your hands on some!

And of course, head over to visit Heather at Better with Veggies to see what everyone else made this week!

No-Bake Chocolate Lavender Tart

Time: 20 minutes
Makes: 1 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

2 c. rolled oats (use gluten-free oats for a gluten-free version)
1/2 c. raw almonds
1/2 c. raw walnuts
1 c. chopped dates
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water

1 large avocado
1/2 c. plain greek yogurt (use dairy-free yogurt for vegan version)
1/4 c. + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 c. + 2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 c. hot water + 2 sprigs of lavender
dash of salt

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the oats and nuts and cocoa powder.  Blend for a couple of minutes until the oats and nuts are finely chopped.  Add the dates and pulse until the mixture is crumbly and there are no large pieces of dates left.  Add the water and maple syrup and pulse until the mixture comes together and sticks together when punched between the fingers.

Line a 9-inch pie plate with wax paper.  Dump the crust mixture into the plate and press firmly, making sure to press some of the mixture up the sides as well.  Set aside.

Place the lavender in the 1/4 c. of hot water and allow to steep for several minutes.

In your food processor, combine the avocado, yogurt, cocoa powder, maple syrup, salt and 2 tbsp of the lavender water.  The rest can either be discarded or kept used in something else.  Blend all ingredients until smooth.  Pour the chocolate filling into the crust and smooth with a spatula.  Allow to set in the fridge for at least a couple hours before cutting.

Garnish with fresh sprigs of lavender if you wish.

~twosaucysisters

Have you ever had chocolate and lavender together?  What are some of your favourite chocolate desserts?  Are you planting a vegetable garden this year?

Simple Sunday: The Half-time Snack

Today is a big day in our household: aka it’s Sir Alex Ferguson’s last game as manager of Manchester United! What an incredible man who has done so much for not just United but for soccer and the English Premier League in general. Alex, we will miss you!

Yesterday was also a big day in the game of soccer, because it was David Beckham’s last game of his 20 year career! Not only did he have an incredible career, being the only english player to win major league titles in 4 different countries, but he’s probably the most famous and celebrated players of all-time. We wonder why…?

Oh, David, how we will miss watching you run around on the soccer pitch!

As you can imagine, there has been a lot of soccer watching here lately, and with games being at least 90 minutes long, half-time snacks are a requirement. After all, to cheering takes a lot of energy, right?

A few weeks back, we posted a recipe for salsa and mentioned how we would do a Simple Sunday post about our home-made tortilla chips – well, here they are!

These are about as simple as they get, people! There are only 4 ingredients, and they take 15 minutes tops to make. All you need are some tortillas (we like to use the small ones best), lemon or lime juice, course salt (sea or kosher) and pepper. That’s it!

These are great for when you want chips and salsa (or nachos) but don’t have any on-hand, or if you want chips that are full of flavour but much lower in sodium than their store-bought counterpart.

So whatever your sport, grab some salsa and get snackin’!

Home-made tortilla Chips

Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 12-15min

Ingredients:

Your favourite tortillas
Lemon or Lime Juice
Sea salt (or kosher)
Ground black pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
Spread the tortillas across a baking sheet and sprinkle both sides with lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, slice the tortillas into triangles. You don’t have to cut all the way through them, just enough to draw lines so that they will easily snap once baked.
Put in the oven and bake for 8min, then flip the tortillas over and bake for another 3-5min, until golden and crispy.
Serve with your favourite salsa and enjoy!

~twosaucysisters

What’s your favourite game-time snack?

Pizza Party

We grew up in a busy household.  With four kids, all of whom were involved in sports, music lessons, clubs, etc., and two full-time working parents, you can imagine things got a little hectic once in a while!

But our mom was a real champ, and always made sure we had a healthy, home-cooked dinner on the table for us.  You can probably all understand, though, that by the end of the week she was pretty tired of thinking up of something for dinner.  So she started a tradition that made Friday night pizza night!  Obviously this idea was not met with any resistance from us kids, because lets be real- who doesn’t love pizza?

Of course, the pizza we had on these nights were of the store-bought variety since making pizza from scratch would kind of defeat the whole purpose of not having to cook that night, but that didn’t bother us one bit.  Heck, if our mom wanted us to eat pizza every Friday night we sure weren’t going to complain about it!

This tradition has continued over the years, and while we don’t have pizza every Friday, we still like to bring it back once in a while.  But we like to do it with a little bit of flair

We consider ourselves pretty lucky because our family isn’t stuck on classic pepperoni and cheese- they like to get a little more adventurous with their pizza, which is much more fun for us!  So for our pizza night, we made not one, but two pizzas!

 

For the first of these two pizzas, we capitalized on our family’s love of Thai food, and made a Chicken Satay Pizza.

When we told our brothers what it was, they shrugged and said “We don’t know what ‘satay’ means, but it tastes like Thai food on a pizza!”. Well said, bros, well said.

This particular pizza is also a bit of a “rebel pizza”, because it breaks pizza rule #1: Cheese! This pizza has no cheese whatsoever. We know, we know, what’s a pizza without cheese? Normally, we’d agree, but you’re just going to have to trust us on this one – this pie doesn’t need it! In fact, we don’t think our brothers even noticed it was missing.

Chicken Satay Pizza

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Makes: 1 large pizza (8-12 slices)

Ingredients:

1.5-2 lbs whole wheat pizza dough
1-2 tsp olive oil
1 large chicken breast, cooked and diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 tomato, diced
2 green onions, sliced
parsley

1/3 c. all-natural (no salt or sugar added) peanut butter*
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp siracha (or other hot sauce)
1/4 c. water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Spray a large pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Roll out the pizza dough until it fits the size of the pan.  Brush with olive oil.

In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice and siracha.  Stir until smooth.  Slowly add the water, stirring until the sauce becomes smooth and drippy.  Spoon about 2-3 tbsp of the sauce onto the pizza crust.  Top with chicken and vegetables.

Bake the pizza for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and drizzle with remaining sauce.  Return to the oven and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and the bottom of the pizza is firm.  Top with parsley.

*You can use whatever peanut butter you have on hand, however it might change the consistency of the sauce a bit, and your sauce will probably taste a little sweeter.

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And now on to pizza #2: Caramelized Onion BBQ Chicken Pizza!

We really can’t say enough about this pizza!  It is a little more work than the satay pizza, but oh man it is 100% worth the effort!

In fact, this was probably the favourite of the two if you asked our brothers.  Us? We’re still on the fence, but that’s not really surprising, now is it?

Caramelized Onion BBQ Chicken Pizza

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Makes: 1 large pizza (8-12 slices)

Ingredients:

1/2 large white onion
1.5 tbsp olive oil

1.5-2 lbs whole wheat pizza dough
1-2 tsp olive oil

1 large chicken breast, cooked and diced
1 c. extra-old cheddar cheese
Cilantro

1/2 c. diced pineapple
1/2 c. tomato paste
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
4 drops liquid smoke
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp molasses
1 tsp worchestershire sauce
1 tsp prepared yellow mustard
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Heat 1.5 tbsp olive oil in a medium-sized pan over medium heat.  Slice the onion into thin strips and add to the pan.  Cook, stirring frequently, for about 20-25 minutes, until the onions are browned.  Remove from heat and set aside.

While the onions are caramelizing, prepare your sauce.  Add all sauce ingredients (pineapple, tomato paste, etc.) to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Spray a large pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Roll the dough into a large circle to fit the pan.  Brush with a little olive oil.  Spread the sauce over the pizza, top with chicken, caramelized onions and cheese.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned and is firm on the bottom.  Top with cilantro.

—————————————————————-

As you can see, we didn’t include a recipe for pizza dough.  Truth is, we did in fact make our own dough, but it didn’t turn out exactly the way we wanted it to, so you’ll have to wait for the perfect whole wheat pizza crust  For now, feast on pizza made with store-bought dough! It’s all about the toppings anyways, right?

 

So the question is… creamy, peanut-lime taste-of-Thailand?

 

Or sweet-and smokey back yard barbecue?

You decide.

~twosaucysisters

Word Play

When it comes to food, the term “blackened” is not a descriptor you would typically want to use to describe your dish.  To us, anyways, the word blackened is kind of synonymous with other words like “burnt” or “charred”- doesn’t exactly get your mouth watering, does it?  No, it sort of just leads us to think of another word… “inedible”.

Think about it- blackened cookies, blackened toast, blackened pizza… suddenly you don’t feel well and you’re (cough, cough) “not hungry”, right?

In fact, the term blackened is right up there with words like “wilted”, “fermented” and “sapid” (who knew that word means something tastes good?!?)

Yes, for the most part if your dish is blackened, you probably burnt it and it probably isn’t going to be very, well… sapid.  (There.  We tried using it and we were right- it just sounds weird.)  But there is a time when the term blackened is a good thing.

A very good thing.

If you hear the word blackened in front of the word salmon, you can forget all of your preconceived notions of what you thought the word meant, erase the images swirling in your mind of charred, dried-out fish, and dive in fork-first!

Because this salmon is slammin’! (Sorry- we couldn’t resist!)

But in all seriousness, we may never eat salmon any other way ever again- it was that good.

There are 2 simple steps to creating this mouth-watering dish, and only about 25 minutes until it is on your plate! The secret to perfectly-done blackened salmon (aka-not burnt) is to sear it in the pan and then finish it off in the oven!  That way you get a crispy outer-layer, but a flaky, succulent inside.

Succulent. Now there’s a word we want to hear more of!  Or how about delectable, exquisite, or tantalizing? 

Actually, if there was a word that combines all of those we’d have a dead-ringer!

Delecquitalizing? Tantaquitable? Hmm… maybe we’ll just let the pictures do the talking

Blackened Salmon

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

1 lb. salmon (you can also use fillets)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt (or garlic powder + a dash of salt)
1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

In a small dish, combine all the spices.  Generously coat both sides of the salmon with the spices and gently rub into the flesh.

Preheat the oven to 350F

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat.  Once the pan is hot, place the salmon in the pan.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the spices are blackened, then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes to blacken the other side.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and move fish from the pan onto the baking sheet.  Bake in the centre of the oven for another 10-15 minutes, or until the salmon is no longer dark pink in the middle and flakes easily with a fork.  Serve with avocado-corn salsa (recipe below).

Avocado-Corn Salsa

Prep: 10 minutes
Makes: ~1 cup

Ingredients:

1/2 a large avocado
3/4 c. frozen corn, thawed
1 tomato, diced
1 green onion, diced
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a small dish and serve.

~twosaucysisters

Have you ever had anything that’s been “blackened”? What are your favourite food-descriptor words? (We’re always looking to expand our repertoire )

Party Pleaser

What’s creamy with spice and all kinds of things nice?

Salsa-chipotle Hummus, of course!

We made this hummus a few weeks back when we went to Toronto for two of our good friend’s birthdays, and it was a huge hit! So naturally, 3 weeks later, we’re finally getting around to giving you the recipe!

We’re certain that you’ll love it just as much as everyone did at the party!

p.s. This hummus is FABULOUS made with black beans instead of chickpeas!

Salsa Chipotle Hummus

Prep time: 10min
Makes: ~2cups

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. tahini
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. salsa
1 or 2 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce
1 clove of garlic
hot pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
ground black pepper, to taste

Directions: 

Put olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, water, salsa, chilis, garlic and spices into a food processor and blend until creamy, about 1 min. Add chickpeas and blend until smooth.

~twosaucysisters

Why we Love Mother’s Day

We know today is normally Simple Sunday, but this week we’re doing things a little differently.  We’ve had a pretty crazy weekend so far, having had quite possibly the largest garage sale in the history of garage sales yesterday plus a good 9-hour shift at work followed by an over-night baby sitting job.  Yes, we’re a little tired.

But today is not about us- today is all about our mother!  Because seriously, folks, we have the best mother out there!

Ok ok, we know what you’re thinking- everyone says that about their mother, so there’s no way you have the best mother in the world.

And you’re right. But the thing is, we have the best mother we’ve ever had, and it may sound cliche, but even if we had been given our choice of all the mothers in the world, we couldn’t have chosen anyone better than the one we were lucky enough to get.  She truly is a marvelous women who has been an inspiration to us our whole lives.  She has loved us more than we can really comprehend, and has done so much for us that is above and beyond what a mother is required to do for her children.

And that is why we love to celebrate Mother’s Day.

Yes, we understand that some people don’t have mothers.  We understand that some people have mothers who did not show them the love that our mother has shown to us, and we also realize that there are women out there who wanted to be mothers but who were unable to so.  We understand that for these people mother’s day might be a sad day for them, and if you are in that position we want you to know how incredibly sorry we are for you- we can’t imagine what life would be like without having our mother by our side the entire time, supporting us, loving us, and helping us along.

But it is for those reasons that we celebrate Mother’s Day.  We both feel incredibly blessed to have such an incredible women in our lives who loves us so unconditionally, and we feel that it is our privilege to take a special day every year to show our mother how much we love her, and we believe that she deserves this day.  Not that Mother’s day is the only day when we should do something special for our mothers to show them we love them, but this day is an extra-special day for us to celebrate these amazing women.

So today, instead of spending a whole bunch of time on a computer editing photos and writing out recipes, we are going to step back from everything and spend some time celebrating our beautiful mother.

We hope that for everyone who has a mother (or mother-figure) in their lives that they take the time to thank her today and do something special for her, too.

Happy Mother’s day, mom- we love you!

~twosaucysisters 

 

The Grand Finale

Are you tired of seeing this picture yet?  We hope not, but if you are never fear!  Because today is the third and final day of our pulled pork feast trilogy, and of course we are ending with the grand finale, the pièce de résistance, the big kahuna…

The pulled pork!

Now, we told you yesterday about the inspiration behind this meal, but we have not actually explained the circumstances with which it came about.  To give you the full story, we have to go all the way back to ancient times to last summer when we made these pulled chicken tacos:

You see, neither of us are very big pork fans, so last summer we thought we’d cheat a little and use chicken instead.  They turned out to be delicious, so we thought “who needs pork anyways, when you can just make these?”  But after that meal the idea of making real pulled pork started marinating (pun intended) in our minds.  Fast-forward several months to our family raving about this Memphis Barbecue place and the whole idea was brought back to us again.  The only problem was that since our family doesn’t really eat a whole lot of pork, we never really it in our freezer.  But when we arrived home from school for the summer and found a giant pork rib roast sitting in the bottom of our big freezer, it was like a sign from the universe!

And you know what?  We’re pretty certain that if pork always tasted like this, we would have no problem eating it on a regular basis, because it was a-maz-ing!

A little sweet, a little salty, and so tender we couldn’t even lift it out of the crock pot without it falling apart!  And you know what the best part is?  You hardly have to do anything- just throw it all in the slow-cooker and walk away.  No muss, no fuss!  And with all that extra time, you can make some delicious pumpkin corn bread to go along with it (trust us, it is the perfect final addition to this meal!)

So there you have it, folks!  A pulled-pork feast for a crowd!  Great for a Sunday dinner, but if you make the coleslaw and corn bread in advance, you could even have this on the table in 20 minutes for an easy weeknight meal, too!

Enjoy!

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6-8 hours
Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

1 4-5lb pork rib roast
1/2 large white onion, diced

1c. tomato paste
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp worchestershire sauce
1 c. diced pineapple
3/4 c. water
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin and paprika
1/2 tsp salt
4 drops liquid smoke

Directions:

Trim most of the excess fat off the roast (if you can’t get it all off don’t worry, a little is ok).  Place the pork into the bottom of the slow cooker and sprinkle the onion over top.

In a separate dish, combine all of the sauce ingredients and pour over top of the pork and onions.

Cook on high for 6-8 hours, until the pork tears easily with a fork.

When the pork is done, remove it from the slow-cooker and shred with two forks.  Return the meat to the pot and stir so that the sauce is evenly coating all of the pork.  Turn the pot to low or the “keep-warm” setting if you have one, and allow to sit with the lid on until you are ready to serve.

~twosaucysisters

Do you like pork?  Have you ever had pulled pork before or tried to make it yourself?