Roasted Chickpeas Recipe and Win a Copy of Vegan Beans Book

I made this crunchy roasted chickpeas with 1 container of canned chickpeas. First drain, rinse and remove the moisture of the chickpeas with a paper towel. Add chillie powder, cumin, salt and 2 tbsp olive oil to the chickpeas. Spread the coated chickpeas on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake until crispy on the middle rack of the oven for about 40 minutes in a 400F oven. Check on the chickpeas to make sure it does not burn.

Food Network Star Season 10 Starts in June

Food Network’s long-running competition series Food Network Star is back for a tenth season. The season premiere will be on Sunday, June 1st at 9pm ET/PT. Culinary icons Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay are back as mentors/judges leading the charge to discover the next promising face in food television.

Flower Birthday Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

flower cupcake cake
I made this flower birthday cake with 12 cupcakes for my daughter's birthday. I used the following buttercream icing to decorate, which was easy to work with and tasted delicious. 

For the buttercream icing you will need
4 oz butter unsalted
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp milk*

North Indian Meal: Rice, Tandoori Chicken, Dal and Raita

I tried and enjoyed using four North Indian spices blends from Jaswant's Kitchen to prepare this meal. The blends are made with 100% natural ingredients. We can make delicious Indian meals without buying a variety of spices using the spice blends from Jaswant's Kitchen and following the recipes on their site. These blends make cooking Indian meals easy for those new to Indian cuisine. 

Making Aromatic Rice in the Rice Cooker

1/2 tbsp ghee
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
2" cinnamon
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
2 cardamom
1/2 tsp salt to taste
1/4 tsp saffron
water

Baked Chocolate Doughnuts

1 cup flour
1/2 cup vanilla infused sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
6 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Tagine of Lamb with Prunes

I made half the portion of this sweet, delicious Tagine of Lamb with Prunes recipe is from Cooking at the Kasbah cookbook. It was a little unusal for our taste becuase I usually cook meat as a spicy dish and not sweet.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
2 lbs lamb 2" chunks
2 onions

Planning on Travelling Then Check out this site

With good weather around the corner, I am sure we are all thinking of travelling :) AARP Travel a new travel website offers a one-stop online experience that helps users take their travel ideas from dream to destination. AARP Travel’s range of travel tools and features include: Trip Finder, Map Explorer, My Trips, Articles and Destinations and Book Trips. 

Manti Turkish Dumplings

This recipe for Manti or Turkish Dumplings recipe is similar to ravioli is from the Turkey book. I made the filling and sauce to suit our taste. I cooked and cooled down the filling before placing it inside the dough and boiling the manti.

Celebrating Nutrition Month with Salad and Giveaway

March is Nutrition Month, which reminds us to refocus on our diet and make sure we are getting the nutrients our body needs. Canada’s Food Guide recommends that we eat 5 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Since it is more costly to eat fresh fruits when it is out of season, and some fruits like peaches are hard to find in winter we can get the nutrients we need by having canned fruit like California peaches.