Quick and Easy Triple Berry Tart Recipe

Hello!!

Long time no post! I'm so very sorry. Seems like I'm failing on those new years resolutions already! *fail* But I *do* have a good reason! Kinda. Sorta. See back in late January I ended up taking a very last minute (I'm talking a few days notice) 3 week vacation, which made it really difficult to update regularly! Not for lack of trying though! I had even prepared a Valentine's day recipe and a DIY craft, and photographed it all the night before my departure and was planning on posting updates while on my vacation. Unfortunately I ran into some unforeseen problems with internet connection while I was there – I was promised high speed wifi and was left with internet that wouldn’t even connect!

Alas, after many, many, many frustrating attempts to connect to the interwebs I took it as a sign from the universe to just chill and actually *be* on vacation. So I did! However, when I got back I ended up getting really sick (caught something awful on the plane ride back), and then drowning in work (it happens when you take 3 weeks off). After all that, life caught up with me and things have been really busy, and before I knew it its been 3 months!

However, all this time away doesn’t mean I have been doing nothing worthy of blogging about! Oh contrer! If you follow me on Instagram you will see I have been preoccupied with starting up a garden and many other fun stuff. I've been trying lots of new things and new recipes and am excited to come back with lots of fun new content! :)

So in order to make it up to you, here's a recipe for a super easy and super delicious Triple Berry tart which really signals that summer has arrived!! If you have been super busy like me, but need a quick delicious dessert, that also makes a statement, then look no further! This is really great for when you want to make a great homemade dessert for a party or special event, but don’t have the time (or just feeling too lazy) to make anything too complex. And what with the crazy heat of summer well on its a way, its a great dessert to take to your neighbourhood bbq which has the added bonus of not needing to turn on your hot oven!

This tart can easily be changed and customized in endless ways to whatever fruit you have whether it be different types of berries, or perhaps banana slices, or kiwi, or even some peaches! You could even change the pudding flavours!

So make this super quick and easy Triple Berry Fruit Tart and let me know how it goes 😃

Triple Berry Tart

* 10 sheets of graham crackers, crumbled up (or roughly 1.5 cups)
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup of melted butter
* 1 pudding packet (I used Jello brand that serves four)
* Milk as required by pudding packet
* Fruit to Decorate

1. Break up your graham cracker cookies into smaller pieces by hand, and then place in to a ziplock bag. Seal firmly. And bang it with a rolling pin! (great therapy! lol) keep banging it until its nice and crumbly.Once completely crushed pour crumbs into a large bowl. If you don't have cookies but rather the crumbs, this should equally roughly 1.5 cups, so measure that and pour it into a bowl.

2. Add your sugar to the crumbs and mix until throughly incorporated. Then add in your melted butter and mix! Depending on a variety of things you may need a bit more cookies or a bit more butter. You want to be able to mix it to the point where it becomes like sand that will hold its shape when squished down.

3. Take your tart pan and press it all down in the pan to form a crust. Place in the fridge to set for a few hours. 

4. Prepare your fruit topping - wash and slice!

5. Once the crust has set in the fridge, prepare your pudding mix by mixing the required powder to milk mixture called for on the box. It will be liquidy at first but if you keep mixing it will thicken! Pour your thickened pudding mixture into the tart. Decorate with Fruit. Place in fridge to set until ready to be served!

Bon apetite! 😃 

Super Soft Thumbprint Butter Cookies

OH. EM. GEE. 

YA GUYS. These cookies. They are to die for. Not only are they super soft and just *melt* in your mouth, they are super, duper, easy to make. Like I'm talking ONLY 5 ingredients! It's so easy and has ingredients that any basic pantry would have. This may lead you to think "well it can't be so good if it's so basic". But you would be wrong, friend. Very wrong. 

I like to make a batch of these to take to work around the holidays and they are always a great hit. Its a very simple cookie and appeals to most palettes, and you would be hard pressed to find someone who 'hates' soft melt in your mouth butter cookies. In fact they were so good my health conscious boss even asked for seconds!

These cookies are thrown together real quick but make a really nice, smooth, easy to work with dough. I used my kitchen aid mixer, but you can of course use a regular mixer. Its just a basic 'mix your butter with sugar, beat, then add the rest' kind of recipe. The result is a super delicious butter cookie that melts in your mouth. They are great both warm and cooled. They aren't too sweet so its a great 'base' cookie - the cookie itself is soft and melt-y, but you can add other treats to make it sweet such as jam, chocolate, and icing sugar.

Its a great Christmas cookie recipe, but honestly I would have them all year round. Its a great base so I plan on trying different recipes in the next little while to see how they come along. So if you are looking for a great quick and easy Christmas cookie look no further than these soft butter cookies. Ok. I think I might have accidentally over hyped these cookies, thus causing extremely high expectations that no cookie could live up to. Forget what I said. They are just 'meh' cookies. 'Meh' cookies that I highly suggest you make ;)

Soft Thumbprint Butter Cookies

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup softened salted butter (BE SURE to use butter - no margarine here please!)
• ½ cup icing sugar, plus a little more for dusting the cookies at the end
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup jam (any flavour but I usually use Strawberry or Raspberry)

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Be sure to do this because unlike other cookies made with a high butter base these cookies stick to the pan!

2. In a bowl (or your kitchen aid mixer with the paddle attachment), beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and salt. Switch to low and gently mix in flour, just until combined - you don't want to over mix!

3. Roll balls of dough into 1-inch balls (about 1 tablespoon each). Place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets. Press down the center of each ball with your thumb (they are thumbprint cookies after all!). I have also used the back side of my teaspoon measuring spoon before too!

4. Fill centers with a teaspoonful of the jam of your choice. Bake 12-15 minutes, making sure to not over bake. The baking of these cookies is a bit special - when they are ready they wont look ready because they wont get golden brown on the tops. That's ok. We don't want them to! When it gets golden on the top it means its over baked and will result in a dry cookie. Instead, to check if the cookie are ready carefully check the undersides to see if they are golden. If the cookie lifts (it wont if its not baked) and is golden underneath you are good to go! Let them cool on the baking sheet, then transfer to cooling rack.

5. When cookies are completely cooled (otherwise it will melt into the cookies), dust with icing sugar. Cookies can be kept in a container for a few days (though they probably wont last that long!)

If you try the other flavours let me know how they turned out :)

My journey towards healthy eating and a Quick and Easy High Protein Low Carb Sauteed Mushrooms and Feta Spinach Recipe

So I have finally done it you guys.

I've taken the jump into the world of healthy eating, and healthy living. I'm officially a healthy eater!

Kinda.

Sorta.

Maybe....

Perhaps a more accurate description would be I have made the jump into the "I'm-actively-trying-to-make-healthier-food-choices-and-not-slowly-but-surely-killing-myself-with-the-immense-amounts-of-junk-food-and-calorie-laden-carbs-and-sugar-loaded-cakes-that-I-consumed-on-a-daily-basis-though-I-still-sometimes-cheat-and-stuff-my-fat-face-with-delicious-junk-food" bandwagon. But you see, to say I have become a "healthy eater" is just so much easier.

Perhaps an explanation is in order? You see I've never had the 'worst' diet in the world, due basically to the fact that I have a mother who has always emphasized using 'healthy' and 'whole' ingredients, and banned all forms of fast food and junk food in the house since I was a kid. She was able to successfully condition us as children to avoid junk food to the point where we would not even ask for it as we knew the answer was no. If 10 year old Zahra were to pick up a box of Dunk-a-roos in the grocery store, with the hopes of whining pleading my case enough for them (but MA! EVERYONE IS EATING THEM), I would then put it right back down without trying to argue because I knew the answer was not only "NO", but would also be followed up with a speech about how I would get cancer from eating these delicious cookies + dip combo. Chips? Nope. Coke? Don't even think about it. Fruit Roll ups? HAHAHA you mean chemically infused rubber that will give you cancer AND LITERALLY KILL YOU?

You get the idea.

It came to the point where the idea of "OMG LETS HAVE A YUMMY TREAT" was having an organic yogurt fruit cup.

So then fast forward to a few years ago when I finally became independent and in charge of what I ate in my university years. Having the cash and the opportunity, I started to eat whateverrrrr I wanted. And man. Did I make up for lost time. Pizza? Double cheese please! And a side of greasy fries please. And a Coke. XL. McDonald's? Superzie Me? SUPERSIZE YES!

And as a result....the weight started piling on.....Freshman 15? More like Freshman 20.

And things only got worse when I left school and joined the workforce. At least in school I had to *walk* to class. Not here friends, not here. My commute consisted of walking 10 meteres to the bus stop in the morning, sitting on the bus, getting off and walking 10 meteres to my building, sitting for 8 hours, and busing back home. Meanwhile my snack drawer at work (yes I had a snack drawer) consisted of a selection of cookies, brownies, poptarts, DUNKAROOS (FOR YOU 10 YEAR OLD ZAHRA! FOR YOOOOUUU!), chips, chocolate stuffed croissants (thanks Costco), and oatmeal. Cause, you know, oatmeal is healthy right?

As my weight crept up, and my energy levels fell, I was in denial. See the thing was, I was blessed with this wondrous rare gift that can be bestowed on any woman - a super high metabolism and good genetics. When I started University I weighed 100 pounds. 100 pounds! And at roughly 5'5' that put me at BELOW the average BMI! It was all thanks to great genetics - my sister was tiny, and even my mom had been teeny tiny when she was younger! It was the GREEN light I needed to stuff my face. And stuff my face I did friend. Stuff my face I did.

As the weight started to pile on I ignored it. Honestly I never even weighed myself. I noticed my clothes getting a tad tighter....but I figured I outgrew my high school clothes and that this was a chance to buy a new Uni wardrobe! wee! then I realized one day I was 115 pounds, and I wasn't even remotely worried. I was all "PSSH!! This is a GOOD thing. I need some extra meat on my bones. In fact...I need even MORE meat on my bones!" Before I knew it I went from a size XS to a M. "Pshh. Thats fine...."I would say, rather defensively. "I, uh, as a Medium, I am NORMAL, sized individual. I'm still a HEALTHY size!"  :D Then....it just kept coming....in the first year out of school I gained another 15 pounds. FIFTEEN POUNDS. In less than 8 months. Thats when it slowly started to hit me that eating junk every day may not be so 'ok' as I had previously convinced myself. Maybe my beloved mother was on to something when she said NO to the sugar packed junk foods I so deeply desired? I evaluated my diet and realized I was making some pretty poor choices. So I figured, huh.....maybe I should cut out having a coke every day with my meals? Maybe that will stop me from gaining all these pounds. Maybe I should make some healthier choices, like instead of heading to McDonalds for lunch, I will make a Subway Trip. Instead of having a chocolate chip muffin (or two) for breakfast I'll have a FRUIT muffin. Then I will go right back to the weight I was. Yeah. That will do it!

It didn't do it.

It kept coming on. Now those of you who are healthy eaters may be rolling your eyes at me like "NO? Really? You thought stopping having a coke a day and opting for a processed fruit muffins over chocolate flavoured ones would make you skinnier? Oh no. I wonder why it didn't work??" *eye roll* Well heed your sarcasm - I know NOW how wrong I was! But alas I had to wait until that winter to hit rock bottom before slapping myself awake into reality.

Oh God. So sometime this past January I had pulled out some winter clothes I had in storage. I had bought them BRAND NEW the previous year after some major sales in the early spring. Since it was the end of winter at that point I had packed them up, tags still attached, and put them in storage.  Keep in mind that when I had purchased them the previous year they were a tad large (that's the way I like my clothes - I prefer baggy rather than skin tight). So I take them out of storage, and put on these brand new clothes, with their tags still attached, and it.....wouldn't fit. IT JUST WOULDN'T FIT ME. Like sure, I could squeeze into them but it was really tight and uncomfortable and looked like I was wearing the completely wrong size of clothing . That was my slap-in-the-face-wake-up- call. In less than a year I had ballooned in size, and clothing that was very comfortable one year, simply  WOULDN'T FIT less than a year later.

That's when I decided I needed a change. I started googling. Started learning. Started understanding WHAT I was putting into my body and what it was doing. Turns out half the 'healthy choices' I thought I was making? WERE HORRIBLE for me! It soon became apparent why I was gaining so much weight in such a short duration of time.

So I decided, that starting January 2015, I would start *trying* to eat a healthier diet. I educated myself on what sorts of foods were good choices, and what were bad. And trust me, me and my sweet tooth cheated plenty. But despite this, I still managed to stop gaining weight, and even lose some of it too!

My experience these past 10 months has shown me that the biggest obstacle to healthy eating is the availability of it. If you come home for dinner and you're starving, chances are you will reach for unhealthy snacks to fill you up, rather than wait 2 hours to make a healthy meal. Since then I have come up with several different recipes that are fairly quick and easy to make (without complex ingredients) but are high in protein and fibre (the good stuff) and low in carbs (the bad stuff). I hope to be sharing more of them with you on the blog soon! :)

Now on to this recipe. I have found that the best type of diet to adapt is one that is high in protein and fibre and low in carbs. The reason for this is that protein and fibre tends to keep you full and satisfied much longer than carbs, and in turn leads to less feelings of wanting to stuff your face. :) Carbs, though good in moderation, can lead to problems in the long term including weight gain.

This is a really quick and easy recipe that comes together within minutes. Its a great side to a main meal or can even be the main attraction as a light lunch or dinner.

Sautéed Mushroom and Feta Spinach Side

(note that this recipe is more of a general guideline - that means the measurements for the ingridents REALLY doesn't matter! :) you can adjust based on the amount you have on hand or how much you want to make, or simply what you prefer to have more/less of. If you want more spinach, add more. If you don't like mushrooms, add less. Its very flexible :) )

* 1 pound of spinach
* 2 cup of chopped mushrooms
* 2-3 tablespoons of chopped feta cheese
* 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
* 1 medium onion + oil to fry with
* Garlic powder to taste
 

1. Slice your garlic cloves and onion up, and sauté it over medium heat with whichever oil you want to use (I prefer coconut) until the onions are slightly brown.

2. Add your chopped mushrooms and cook until slightly brown. When they are about 1-2 minutes to being cooked, throw in your spinach. It may seem like 'too much' spinach as you're throwing it in and it may seem to be overflowing but its OK! When spinach cooks it looses a LOT of volume!

3. Continue to fry until the mushrooms are cooked an the spinach has turned a dark green. Add some Garlic to taste. I like it garlicy so I tend to add a lot! (and add  salt and pepper if you wish).

4. Remove from heat and empty contents of pan into a bowl. Throw in your chopped feta cheese and combine.

5. That's it! You've made a really quick and easy (and HEALTHY) side (or meal) in minutes! Yay You :)

And heres a video I made of the quick process :)

Quick and Easy Homemade Guacamole Recipe

Well then….its been a while hasn’t it? ;)

Seasons have changed, and have so many other things in my life, ranging from my ever changing career to crazy family life, to finally changing my diet and lifestyle to a much more healthy one (yeah I still can't believe it either!). And though the experiences of the past few months have been really great life experiences, it has caused me to have to put this little wee blog on the backburner. But never fear I am back, and with this newly found concept called ' a little free time' and a whole lotta passion and ideas to get back to making some lovely things!

So without further ado, lets dive right into some good stuff. And believe you me….this is some good stuff! Riding along on the tails of the whole 'I'm going to eat healthy' thing, here's a super yummy, super healthy, and most importantly, super easy guacamole recipe to get us going. Before recently I had never had any 'fresh' or homemade guacamole. I lived a meaningless life filled with store brand, sat-in-a-grocery-store-refrigerator-for-weeks-before-I-bought-it, and preservative packed guacamole. However once you have some homemade guac there is really no going back. The best part about homemade guacamole is that you can control all the different flavours. Want more of a sour taste? Squeeze a bit more lime. Want more chunk in your guac? Add more tomatoes! More heat? Up your garlic and onion. It's all up to you baby. You're in control here.

But what's the best part about homemade guacamole? It's just how EASY it is. I never use a 'recipe' and usually just eyeball it – you can't really get it wrong. But just for you very special people, I have devised a set proportion of ingredients to help you get going – but by all means feel free to add or subtract to taste.

Easy Homemade Guacamole

(this recipe makes a small bowl portion (approx.. 2 cups) as I usually make it with, say, 2 avocados, but you can make more or less depending on how many avocados you have on hand)

* 2 avocados

* 1 lime

* 1 tomato (if you want it to be less chunky then probably ½ tomato)

* 2 tablespoons chopped onion

* 2 garlic cloves

* 1.5 tablespoons of cilantro

* Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Begin by pitting your avocados and scooping out all of the flesh. Place in a bowl and start mashing with the back of a fork. (Or do what I did and enlist your younger brother to mash the avocados for you :) )

2. Finely chop your garlic, onion, and cilantro. Chop up your tomatoes to desired consistency – I like my guacamole to be nice and chunky so I tend to cut tomatoes into slightly larger chunks.

3. Then throw everything in together and mix! Add in your lime juice, starting with half a lime first, and adding more as needed. I find that sometimes, some limes have a lot more kick, and other times they are a bit more watered down. This time I used only half. Add salt and pepper to taste.

* One thing to keep note of is that once you scoop out avocados they turn brown pretty quickly. Despite the added lime juice (which usually preserves cut fruits and veggies longer), the avocado part of the guacamole can go brown pretty fast so be sure to consume it within 24 hrs. And this fun fact is another reason why I will never buy store bought guacamole again. WHAT HAVE THEY ADDED TO IT THAT IT STAYS GREEN FOR WEEKS?!?!

And that’s it! You have some delicious and nutritious guacamole!

Strawberry Sunshine Tea Cake

Over the weekend I headed in to the kitchen with the intention of baking up some sort of cake. I was in the mood for something smooth, and fluffy, and, well, cakey. However, I didn’t have any specific recipe in mind as I kept opening and closing the same kitchen cabinets, trying to find something to inspire me. I knew I wanted cake, and I knew a nice Valentines Day theme would be cute, and I was also thinking about something ‘cheerful’. “What? How can cake be cheerful??” I hear you cry, very easily I reply, it has to make you smile. Or something like that. You know how a yummy berry fruit tart makes you think of lovely summer, or how a peach crumble pie makes you think of a sunny spring weekend? Well I wanted to feel me some sunshine cause the reality of -35C weather outside just wasn’t cutting it. That’s when I saw the bowl of strawberries in the back of our fridge and it hit me – strawberries! Sunshine! Oh joy! I will make a strawberry cake.

Then I set about on Pinterest looking for the perfect recipe – which turned out to be a bad idea. Not only did I not find the type of recipe I was looking for (think a soft summery strawberry tea cake), I ended up side tracked an hour later looking at an article on what my personality type was, and what career I am best suited for (apparently I would make a great Carpenter or Mechanic – which is surprising given that I can’t tell the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver half the time). Frustrated with the inability of the internet to tell me WHAT I SHOULD DO WITH MY LIFE, I went back to figuring out what on earth I was gonna make. I finally settled on making an old classic I had made before at my previous blog, a simple strawberry tea cake. However, taking note from my previous attempt, I decided to make some changes to make the cake more moist (it had turned out a tad dry previously).

I decided this would be a great opportunity to use some Greek yogurt to not only make this cake moist, but also somewhat healthier (hey every bit helps right?). I was pretty happy with the final result! I decided to give it a Valentines Day theme by being all classy and cutting the Strawberries into thin slices and decorating with borders around the cake. I also made a little strawberry heart in the center. How cuutttteeeee right?

How it turned out: This recipe turned out pretty great! If measuring by nothing but the fact that it was all gone about 20 minutes after I took these pics, I would say the family loved it! The Greek yogurt did a great job of adding the moisture I was looking for. This produces a really great rich and dense cake, which would be a great ‘tea cake’ in my opinion. So if you are looking for a summer strawberry tea cake recipe, give this one a go! Also, this produces a bit of a sweet cake, so if you would like you could probably cut out ¼ cup of the sugar and still be good.

Strawberry Tea Cake

Ingredients:

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup Greek Yogurt *or substitute the water + Greek yogurt for 1 cup of regular Yogurt

1/2 cup of water

1 teaspoon vanilla

 2 cups of strawberries (or less or more depending on what you like)

1 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling on top of the strawberries

Some Icing sugar to dust on the cake once its baked.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your cake pan with parchment paper. 

2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a separate bowl. Set aside.

3. Sprinkle some sugar over your strawberries if they aren’t naturally very sweet like mine, and set aside.

4. Mix your greek yogurt and water together in a bowl until the lumps have mostly dissolved. Set aside.

5. Beat your butter and 1 cup sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer. Mix until pale and fluffy. Add in egg, Greek yogurt/water mixture (or instead use 1 cup of regular yogurt), and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Now when you add your yogurt mixture to the batter it may make it look super gross. Like its curdled and gone bad or something. ITS OK. Just continue. Trust me on this.

6. Gradually mix in your flour mixture to the gross looking buttery mixture. (tada! It now looks like a really good thick cake batter).

7. Transfer the batter into your pan (It’s a really thick batter so its ok if it resembles something like a very soft bread dough). Arrange your strawberry slices on top of the batter.

8. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Be sure to adjust baking time for a hotter or cooler oven.  Bake the cake until a toothpick entered in the center of the cake comes out clean. This cake actually ends up with a pretty white top. If you prefer a golden topped cake, put it under the broiler for a few minutes like I did. (tastes great either way)

9. Once cake is COMPLETELY cooled, sprinkle on some icing sugar to make it extra special

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