Recipes

Have you ever wondered what’s in those store bought popsicles? I’ll skip the secrets and just go ahead and tell you that besides water, the only other real ingredient is sugar. Not just one type of sugar either – the last box I picked up had both sugar syrup and corn syrup, not to mention other artificial ingredients to give them colour and flavour. That’s why the Zoku Quick Pop Maker is one small kitchen gadget I don’t want to be without this summer.

 If you haven’t tried alcohol flavoured ice cream, this just might your weekend to experiment with your ice cream maker. Just a few tablespoons of scotch, rum, or Bailey’s can add a lot of flavour to a classic dessert.

Good Chinese food or Chinese takeout can be hard to come by. So what to do when you get a craving for Chinese food but you don’t know where to order from? You can jump online and hit up Yelp or other review sites, looking for a recommendation. Or, you can do what I finally started to do – make it yourself. Creating Chinese food at home isn’t hard at all, and if you have the right tools it’s a fast, easy way to get your Chinese food fix. Here are a few of my favourite make-at-home Chinese food recipes:

The reason summer salads are called ‘summer salads’ is because they’re chock full of fresh-from-the-garden vegetables. But if you haven’t tried mixing things up and adding a few chunks of fruit, you’re really missing out on a mind-blowing meal.

As a child, I was confused when someone of Persian descent claimed to be a vegetarian. It just didn’t make sense to me. Growing up, we survived on BBQed kebobs, from grilled bite-sized steak (barg), to ground meat (kobedeh), to saffron-marinated chicken (joojeh). What else would Persian people eat? So when Best Buy approached me to write a piece on Vegan Persian dishes, I immediately said it was impossible. After all, the cuisine is pretty meat focused. But my Mama Pej knocked some sense into me by asking, “This entire time, you never noticed the vegetarian options at our parties?” I had to admit they existed. But could these dishes be veganized? They sure can. Here are some Persian vegan recipes.  

For many of us, salad is what’s for dinner. It’s not a side dish that goes with something heavier, it’s the actual meal itself. Just start with your basic green leaf, add some protein, toss with dressing and you have an instant, filling dinner.   Thankfully having a salad for dinner is not something you can easily get bored of, and that’s because there are so many different types of salads, salad recipes, and salad dressing recipes to try.    

If you’ve already run through your favourite backyard BBQ steak, burger, and hot dog recipes, it’s time to spice things up a bit. Fresh seafood is amazing on the grill, and I’ve got 3 great recipes you can try this weekend.