Vegetarian Game Day Food

Whether you're a Broncos or a Seahawks fan, I know you're interested in Super Bowl food for this weekend. Sliders, wings, nachos, and beer probably come to mind when you think about game day food, but what about vegetarian options? And before you mention that celery and carrots come with the wings, that wasn't quite what I had in mind.

I want to make something that would make a carnivore happy today because most Super Bowl fans seem to like their meat. But, of course, my dish is going to meat free and I bet I could fool quite a few people into thinking their chowing down on something meaty.

Ready to trick people into thinking these Sloppy Joes aren't for a vegetarian? Read on for the recipe.

Chocolate Decadence

I know how people say that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but I think that chocolate is the real way to my heart. Chocolate is something that always makes me smile, always makes me feel loved, and always tastes delicious.

The first time I had dinner with my step dad, he baked a delicious chocolate torte made from ground almonds. It was a great treat, so rich and decadent, and I'd love to taste it again. But since he's yet to bake it a second time, I decided to bake my own version. 

My version wasn't quite the same as his, probably because I had to bake it myself, but I'll still bake it again. It was easy and delicious, so it can't be beat. 

Pop of Fun

This year's long winter stretch has had me dreaming of summer camping trips and s'mores. I just love sitting out by a campfire and roasting marshmallows until I've eaten way more than my fill of those sticky treats. 

So I decided that instead of waiting for summer to come to me, I'd make some s'mores today. I mean, why not? I won't have the campfire, but I could easily have a mug of hot chocolate with my s'mores. And I think double the chocolate sounds right up my alley!

Ready for the world's easiest indoor S'more Pop recipe?

Veggie and Potato Pie

When I was small, my mom actually had one of those dinner bells. I think it was more for decoration than for practicality, but she still rang it from time to time to get us home for dinner. I'm not sure why, but today's recipe reminds me about that dinner bell.

I think I'm reminded about the dinner bell because today's recipe is a homey kind of dish. It's a vegetarian pie topped with mashed potatoes and full of a delicious vegetarian gravy. I can almost picture my mom making this dish for me. 

Read in for my recipe for my Veggie and Potato Pie recipe.

Go Team Canada! #CheerForGold

Canada always seems to be known for winter fun. I have even seen an American car topped with skis and toboggans driving through Canada in August. I hope they weren't looking for a ski hill to be open, but if they were, at least they knew where to come back to in the winter.

Because Canada is so known for winter, I am always especially excited for the Winter Olympics. Our athletes are talented and they are going to be so much fun to cheer on!

Since I am so excited for the games next month, I want to learn a little more about our athletes and General Mills, a great supporter of Team Canada, has made that easy and fun to do. For a limited time, you can bring specially-marked boxes of Cheerios* Cereals, Oatmeal Crisp* Cereals, Lucky Charms*, Cinnamon Toast Crunch*, Reese® Puffs, Nature Valley*, Gushers* and Fruit by the Foot* to life on your Apple or Android smart phone or tablet with the help of the Blippar app.

What's Better than a Stuffin Muffin?

I know most of my posts this month have featured healthy recipes, but I still pine for hearty comfort food too. I love a good stick to your ribs, make you feel warm, or take you back to Mom's house kind of meal.

For me, that kind of meal almost always comes out of an oven. It almost always involves roasted veggies and hopefully some of kind of baked bread, bun, or bread pudding. Some of you might choose to serve a roast chicken with your meal and I think that today's recipe would go perfectly with one.

Today's recipe is a Stuffin. They are muffins made out of stuffing. I don't want to pretend that I made them up, I thought I might have but I looked up a stuffin on the Internet and found out that they sadly already existed, but the recipe I came up with is pretty darn delicious. They're quicker to make than a big casserole of dressing so they feel a little less thanksgiving and a little more weekend comfort food.

Read on for the recipe!

Falafel Fun

January is always a month where I take a trip down the memory lane of all the delicious cookies, desserts, cheese plates, and other holiday food I ate last month. Every year I swear that Christmas will be different the next year and I won't need to pull out my "fat pants" in Janaury, but every year the same old delicious goodies find their way into my mouth.

But this year I'm not making the same false promises. This year I am just trying my best to eat healthy in January and hoping that eating this way will carry me through the year so I can justify eating whatever I want during the holidays.

The dish I am sharing today is a baked falafel. It's truly easy to make, delicious, and goes perfectly with an abundance of salads like Life Made Delicious'  Fresh Tomato and Cucumber Salad or Spicy Jicama and Orange Salad. In fact, the next time I make these falafel, I might serve them on top of one of these salads instead of in a wrap!

Mexican Winter Food

I find that one of the best ways to deal with Christmas being over is to eat spicy food. Bright and spicy Mexican dishes with toppings galore always make me happy on a dreary evening in Janaury.

Today's recipe is one from Chatealine, but I've topped their Mexican Lentil Soup with a delicious medley of treats that I think would make even the darkest night fun. Toppings make this soup interactive and can also make eating the soup into a game of who-can-make-the-best-topped-soup? 

That's not just a game at my house, is it? If that's not the game for you, try your chance at my current giveaway for Team Canada 2014 Olympic Gear! 

New Year's Resolutions

For this month's Canadian Food Experience Project, we were asked to share a post on our resolutions. Every year I make resolutions, but I don't usually finish the year having kept them.

After spending a bit of time thinking about it, I think I know what my problem is. I think it's that my resolutions are usually too big and too difficult to keep. Or are something I just don't enjoying doing...

But I know this year will be different because I am only resolving to try one new food each month. That's just 12 new things and I can surely do that! I'll be posting about my new foodie finds each month and I hope that you'll be interested in trying a few of them along with me.

This month I am starting off by trying chia. I bet you once had a chia pet, one of those little terra cotta animals that you would scoop a little pile of seeds onto, water it, and then get to watch the plants grow? Well I had heard that chia seeds were really good for you and tasty too. Now I know that whoever said that was right!

Read on for my recipe for Chia Puddings, inspired by one from Giada's new cookbook, Giada's Feel Good Food.  I used fruit fitting for a Canadian winter and made a few other changes as well.

Delish Fish

If I was told I could choose one food to live on for the rest of my life, I think it might be potatoes. Potatoes are not my favourite food - that might be chocolate, cheese, or fresh berries - but potatoes are versatile, delicious, and healthy. I could never get bored of potatoes or feel sick from eating them.

One of my favourite ways to cook potatoes is to mash them and because I love them, I usually make way too much. If you're anything like me, you need new ways to use up leftover mashed potatoes and I have a perfect idea of what to create - my Potato Fish Cakes!

And, besides using up leftover mashed potatoes, one of the best parts of this dish is how easy it is to change up the ingredients and make something new. Just change the fish or the herb and you've got a whole new dish!

Italian Steak Sandwich

The name of this post might sound deceiving because I don't eat steak, but my sandwich is not made from an ordinary steak. It's made from a seitan steak! Seitan is a vegetarian protein alternative and it might be something fun to try if you've recently made a New Year's resolution to eat meat free more often.

Of course this recipe would also be great made with a regular steak. But they don't call seitan Wheat Meat for nothing, it really is the closest you'll get to vegetarian meat. So maybe giving it a try could be next year's resolution, if you're not ready to give it a go this year?