Head over to the Decor and DIY section to get some inspiration for your Thanksgiving dinner parties. Bon Appetit!

I first learned of Mission Springs Brewery when we attended the Harrison Beer Festival in October 2014. I tried their Cherry Bomb Belgian Style Pale Ale and loved it. Earlier this week, my little family and I headed to Harrison Hot Springs for my husband Perry's birthday. We took the scenic route (Highway 7) and on the way back, we decided to stop at the brewery's restaurant in Mission for lunch since it is right along the highway...and cause we love beer. We were extremely pleased with the whole experience.

The restaurant is massive, in a building with lots of character, and the decor is really awesome with lots of antiques hanging here, there and everywhere. We were constantly looking around and noticing neat pieces from history and the decor sparked a lot of conversation. As you can see by all the photos below, it is also a great place to test out a new camera or practice your photography skills! The service was really exceptional as well and having worked in the service industry, I am constantly paying attention to service in restaurants. If I recall correctly, our server's name was Dave. We were not disappointed at all.

Growing up in my household, the food we ate very rarely came out of a box or a can. Everything was made from scratch and this stayed with me as I entered adulthood and I moved out on my own. Sure, there are times that I wish I had a box of KD or Zoodles in the pantry but there are always better alternatives. Entering motherhood, trying to make things "from scratch" is not as easy as I had hoped. I have definitely found it difficult to manage life in the kitchen with life with a newborn. Three months into it and I feel like I am finally just getting into some sort of routine which allows me to be in the kitchen (and actually eat) and refrain from anymore pizza slices or sushi rolls. I made an amazing Cottage Pie the other day and I am managing to make smoothies every morning. But there is still the occasional time where I want something warm, hearty, voluminous (for leftover purposes) and that is quick to make (cause lets face it, a cottage pie is all of the above but takes forever to prep). I always turn to this recipe that I learned from a mom I nannied for pre-Lennon. It's not from scratch, it uses ingredients from a can but it's darn delicious and is the quickest meal ever. One thing I have learned being a new mom is that you have to do what you can to get by, and if that means having the occasional recipe that is not from scratch - so be it! You'll be thanking me for this one!
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You Will Need:

- a pack of raw chicken breasts 
- 1 cup of BBQ sauce
- 1 cup of Root Beer

I usually use a large pack of 4-6 breasts but you can use the same amount of BBQ sauce and Root Beer for as much or as little chicken as your slow cooker will allow.

YES, you read that right. TWO ingredients! I saw a friend post a photo of her 2 ingredient creation last weekend and I immediately set out to make some for myself and the hubby. I was extremely happy with the results that I've already made them twice this week. So much more effortless than normal pancakes, very delicious, and the best part: guilt free! Even the hubby whose least favorite food is eggs devoured them. 

You Will Need:
- 2 eggs
- 1 large banana

Now these are the basic ingredients. You can make the pancakes using just the above
 2 or you can add a few more optional ingredients if you have them on hand, such as:
- baking powder (1/8 teaspoon) - highly recommended as it makes the pancakes fluffier
- ground cinnamon (1/4 teaspoon) - also recommended as it adds a nice flavor
- fruit (I tried them with frozen blueberries and pomegranates - yum!)
- chocolate chips
- whatever you like in your pancakes

Throw the eggs and banana (and baking powder and cinnamon if using them) into a food processor or blender and blend together. If you do not have one of these devices, just mash the banana and then add the eggs (and optional ingredients) and stir together.  If using fruit or chocolate chips, add while the pancake is cooking rather than mixing into the batter (see next step).

Lightly grease a griddle or non stick pan with oil or cooking spray and heat on medium heat (if you only have a stainless steel pan, read on). Pour a little bit of batter into the pan to form circles. These pancakes are best made small and thin. Add fruit and/or chocolate chips on the top of the pancake right after you pour the batter in, otherwise they will stick and burn to the pan (I learned this the hard way).

There really are endless possibilities when it comes to making pizza and now there also seem to be endless possibilities for the pizza crust as well. There are plenty more alternatives out there than the ones I have listed but these are just some of my favorites. What are some of your favorites and some that I should try out?! I'd love to hear your suggestions and also let me know if you try any of the above out!

I leave you with some more photos of my pizza crust alternative adventures. Click on the photos for a description. Bon Appetit!

Cannery Brewing (from Penticton, BC): Maple Stout and Blackberry Porter
These were just delicious!!! I wasn't going to even try the Maple Stout but someone else was raving about it so I gave it a try and I am glad I did!

More on Cannery Brewing 

Scandal Brewing (from somewhere in BC): Envy Triple IPA
Okay so the rep for this brewery offered me the IPA and I responded that I am not a fan of IPA. She went on to say that, funny enough, IPA lovers do not like this beer and that I might like it. So I tried it and BAM! IT WAS AMAZING! Crazy thing is it is an 8% and it tasted like juice. Talk about dangerous! I went back for seconds (and thirds) a little bit later but they were out (and because I was so sad, one of the reps gave me a cool stein shaped bottle opener to cheer me up - it did). I guess it was a favorite one amongst the other festival goers! That rep sure did a great job of selling it. Can't wait to get my hands on more of this juice..err, I mean beer.

More on Scandal Brewing

Phillips Brewing Company (from Victoria, BC): Octofox IPA
Again, I mentioned that I was not a fan of IPA when I was at the Phillips booth and the rep said that I may change my mind with the Octofox. I did. Yum! And with a name like Octofox, it is perfect for the Fall. It also helped that the reps went to the same high school as me and we totally bonded over this fact. NDSS pride!! 

More on Phillips Brewing Company

Stanley Park Brewery (from Delta, BC): Ice Breaker Winter Ale
I was more interested in trying beers from brewing companies that I wasn't familiar with. Beer from Stanley Park Brewery is well known in Vancouver but I have always wondered about the brewery itself as I have never seen it around Vancouver so I stopped by this booth to find out where it is. I was told that the beer is produced in Delta, in the industrial area of Annacis Island and that they do not have a tasting room. Since I had stopped at this booth, I figured I may as well try a beer and the rep completely sold me on the Winter Ale. She had me at "It tastes like black forest cake"! OH                                                                                               EM GEE! DID IT EVER?!   Winter is                                                                                         coming and this delicacy is definitely                                                                                    going to help get me through the season!

                                                                                          More on Stanley Park Brewery

The Tin Whistle Brewing Company (from Penticton, BC): Peach Cream Ale and Killer Bee Porter
Well Penticton is known for their Peach Festival so it only makes sense that there is a peach inspired beer coming from this part of the province! Both beers pleased my palate!

More on The Tin Whistle Brewing Company

Old Yale Brewing Company (from Chilliwack, BC): Outta Wack Mango Wheat
This brewery has had plenty of award winning beers. This beer is not officially one of those award winning beers...but it is in my books!

More on Old Yale Brewing Company

Canuck Empire Brewing Company (from Aldergrove, BC): Pumpkin Patch Ale
Pumpkin beer is like the new Pumpkin Spice Latte. It's a craze and everybody is doing it. Some do it well, others not so much. One of my favorites is Parallel 49's Schadenfreude but then I tried this one and it became another favorite. Very different from Schadenfreude, this one actually tastes like pumpkin pie and I can't say I have every tasted a pumpkin beer that resembled pumpkin pie so well! Perfect for the fall! I am also very intrigued by their Stargazer Chamomile Wheat and I am looking forward to trying that one next summer.

More on Canuck Empire Brewing Company

'Tis my favorite time of year as far as fruit is concerned. Actually, I really dislike this time of year mainly due to the weather (I honestly believe that I have SAD and living in a city that is nicknamed Raincity doesn't help). BUT, this time each year, the moment that I see the first pomegranate of the season sitting on a market shelf, I turn into a giddy school girl and I stock up. There could be a torrential downpour outside but those amazing fruits always have a tendency to turn my frown upside down. I felt it only right to dedicate an entire blog post to the fabulous fruit that is the apple of my eye (pun intended). 

Why am I so obsessed with this amazing, juicy, delicious fruit you ask? Besides the fact that it tastes like heaven, looks beautiful in a fruit bowl, has plenty of health benefits, and enhances my mood? I think it comes down to the fact that I had a pomegranate tree in my backyard when I was a wee lass growing up in Greece and just makes me extremely nostalgic for the Mediterranean. Also in Greece, and I believe many other countries and cultures, the pomegranate is a very symbolic fruit symbolizing fertility, abundance and good luck. Many families have pomegranate decorations throughout their home and it is a fruit that is used in various ceremonies. The fruit is also prominent in the ancient Greek myth of Persephone, goddess of the underworld which is associated to the aforementioned symbolism. That's it, my obsession purely comes down to nostalgia. And maybe the nostalgia it creates for a warmer climate makes me forget about the dreadful weather in Raincity. But lets not get carried away with over analyzing why I am obsessed with pomegranates and talk more about the fruit itself. 

Now I know what you are all thinking: "How could you love a fruit that is such a pain in the butt to consume? So much effort to clean for such a little amount!"...well, my friends, this too is how I felt prior to last year. I would buy 5 pomegranates at a time and I just couldn't find the time (or patience) to de-seed them all before they would go bad...that is until I saw THIS, and it changed my life for the better (watching this may make you pomegranate obsessed as well. You have been warned):

And ever since this magic came into my life, I get a joy out of de-seeding and devouring this wonderful fruit! I de-seed a bunch of them at a time and keep a container of them in my fridge (or freezer if I don't think I will eat them in time) and then they are readily available for me to throw in my yogurt, my oatmeal, in a smoothie, a salad, or just to eat as is. When we were in India in February 2013, we participated in a cooking class where we made a vegetable biryani that had pomegranate seeds inside! That was delicious! How do you like to use pomegranates? Do you have any recipes that you use pomegranate in? And as I sit here and write about my favorite fruit, while, not surprisingly, devouring some delicious pomegranate seeds, I wonder do you have a fruit that you obsess over or am I just a special case?

I leave you with a gallery of various pomegranate inspired photos I have taken in the past few years....click on the photos for a description! Enjoy!

2. Place the slices on a plate. Try to not layer them too much so that each slice gets a bit of honey and cinnamon on it (think of it like making nachos and cheese...you always go for the tortilla chips with cheese on it, don't you?! So make sure every apple has a bit of the honey and cinnamon on it!)

3. Drizzle honey on top of the sliced apples

4. Lick the spoon. You don 't want that honey to go to waste!

5. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of the apples with honey. There you go! A nice and simple treat or desert that takes 2 minutes to prepare!

Notes:

This is a great snack and/or desert for the summer. For the colder months, you can place the above recipe in the oven and roast the apples (with the honey and cinnamon on top). I tried this as well and it was also nice but I do prefer it colder. What I did like about the roasted recipe though, was that the honey turned syrupy which was nice to "mop up" with the apples . You can also drizzle some lemon juice on top of the apples when roasting for a sweeter taste. Also, a different variety of apples (besides Granny Smith) may taste nicer when roasted as we found they didn't work so well (because of the taste). If any of you try this recipe with a different variety, let me know how it turns out!

Enjoy and happy cooking!!


Click on the photos below for descriptions

Things you will need:

-Zucchini/Courgette (the amount depends on how many you want to feed and how big the zucchini is. If it is a big fat one, for lack of better description, I tend to use half of the whole zucchini per person. If it is relatively small, then one whole one per person should do.)

- Olive oil

- Crushed tomatoes (aka Tomato Passata, pureed or sieved tomatoes in the UK ), or plain 'ol pizza sauce

- Dried or fresh mixed herbs or oregano (this ingredient is key to giving it a pizza flavor)

- Your favorite pizza toppings (tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, peppers, onions, feta, cheese, olives, pineapple etc)

Steps (see photos for assistance):

1. Cut the zucchini in half. This makes it easier to slice as you will have a flat surface to stand it on for slicing. Also, it is easier to serve half a slice of zucchini as if the slices are the length of a whole large zucchini, they may end up being longer than the plate. If you have long/oval platter style plates, then feel free to leave it long.

2. Slice the zucchini in strips, roughly a 5mm thickness. Try and make all the slices the same thickness. When getting near the end of the zucchini, it may be easier (and safer) to place it down on the cutting surface and slice it that way (see photos)

3. Place zucchini slices in a lightly greased ovenproof dish/pan. Place about a teaspoon size amount of the tomato/pizza sauce on each slice. The amount of sauce depends on the area of the slice that needs covering and how much you really like tomato sauce. Use the curved bottom of the spoon to spread the sauce on the slice of zucchini.

4. Sprinkle dried or fresh mixed herbs or oregano on top of the sauce. I like to use a lot of this as I find it gives it a real pizza flavor.

5. Add cheese on top of the sauce. I find that adding cheese allows for the pizza toppings to stick to it so that they don't all fall off when eating. I have tried this recipe with both cheddar cheese AND mozzarella and both are good. Mozzarella tends to be a little bit lighter than cheddar cheese and also more authentic. You can easily find mozzarella balls in a grocery store and just slice them into small pieces to place on the zucchini slices (or just use grate mozzarella as well). The mozzarella melts quite nicely. I have also tried it with adding the cheese on top of the pizza toppings but the toppings don't stay on so well then.

6. Now, on top of the cheese, place your toppings. The surface area is not very large so you may want to put a couple toppings on each slice, or cut your toppings very small if you want a lot of flavors on there. You could also do one topping per slice and have a different topping on each slice. This is entirely up to you and your personal preference. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top of each slice.

7. Place in a preheated oven. About 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 170 degrees Celsius in a fan assisted oven). Allow to cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the toppings are cooked to your liking. You don't really need to worry about overcooking. Check back after about 10 minutes to see how it is coming along and if the toppings are cooked to your liking.

8. When it looks like it is done to your liking, take the dish out of the oven and use a flat spatula to transfer the zucchini slices onto a plate. Now you are ready to devour this relatively healthy and gluten free alternative to pizza! Bon Appetit!

Notes:
- Cooking it in this way makes the zucchini just slightly cooked and crunchy. If you prefer it to be more well done and crispy, then grill the zucchini slices to your liking prior to placing the sauce and toppings on top.
- I find the easiest way to enjoy this dish is to eat it with a fork and knife. It doesn't have the ease that pizza does of eating it with your hands.
- Zucchini and Courgette are two of my least favorite words to spell correctly. Why do both terms for this vegetable need to be so foreign and complicated?!

Hope you enjoyed this recipe. If you try it out, let me know how you like it! Feel free to contact me with any comments or questions.

Happy Cooking and Enjoy!

My notes and things I did differently:

First of all, I don't have a food processor so what I did is I used a blender (you can also use a magic bullet) to grind up/puree the chick peas. But you have to make sure to only do a little bit at a time as if you put in too many chick peas, the blade won't be able to grind them all. So out of the total amount of chick peas used, I divided them into about 4 portions to do the blending/grinding. When you blend them, the chick peas can tend to go to the side of the blender so shake the blender a little bit every so often to move them around and back in the area of the blade. Then, once each portion is grinded, I pour them out into a mixing bowl. You may not be able to get them perfectly ground up and may notice some bits of un-blended chick peas but I found that this provided a crunchiness to the finished product and wasn't bad at all.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients (the honey, peanut butter, baking powder, vanilla extract...all but the chocolate chips) into the chick pea mixture. I then used an electric mixer to mix all the ingredients (but the chocolate chips) together. And wow did it ever look like cookie dough! I then added dark chocolate chips and mixed the cookie dough around with a spoon. I only used about 70-80grams of chocolate chips. You can use as many as you think your batter may need but I thought 90g worth of chocolate chips would be too much for the amount of batter I had. Just a side note: make sure you use gluten free baking powder if you have a gluten intolerance.

Here is what the dough looked like:

Now, we have a fan assisted oven so I preheated the oven to 160 degrees for the fan oven.  The recipe also says to form the dough into balls but I decided to try shaping them like cookies for the first batch and dough balls for the second batch to see the difference (I was curious as to why the recipe said to make them as dough balls and not cookies).

Make sure when you are working with the dough and forming them that your hands are wet as it helps make it less sticky and form them easier.

I found that at 160 degrees (fan oven), they took about 20 minutes to bake rather than the 10 it says in the recipe. But if you have a regular oven then it may only take 10 minutes. I kept checking on them and they were still quite soft and didn't seem to be cooking but after about 20 minutes, I decided to take them out (both the cookies and dough balls) and let them sit for a couple of minutes and they became firmer. While they are cooking, you will notice that the cookies crack (similar to that of a ginger snap) but they still manage to stay together. I am pretty sure you don't need to worry about overcooking them as they don't seem to burn easily.

The cookies were a complete success and absolutely delicious and quite peanut-buttery(obviously). The recipe does not yield many cookies, but I assure you that they will fill you right up and you definitely do not need many. They are VERY rich (but maybe that is because I used dark chocolate chips) and I made these before making dinner. After eating 2, I was absolutely FULL without a need for dinner, so feel free to form them quite small. If I use dark chocolate chips again, I will probably put a smaller amount as they are very rich.

As you can see in the photo below, the cookies I made were average size so it may be a good idea to make them smaller. The dough ball size is actually perfect (and maybe that is why the recipe encourages the dough to be formed into a ball rather than a cookie) but I found that it doesn't affect the baking process if you flatten it out and shape it like a cookie.

I have become a big fan of this recipe and will definitely be making these cookies again in the future. Highly recommended! They also take very little time to make. It must have taken about 10 minutes at the most to prepare the batter. And the best part about this recipe: You can lick the beaters all you want as there is no raw egg in the mix!

Let me know if you try them and how they turn out or if you have any questions!

Photos and calorie count below. Click on the images for a description!

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!