Delicious Foods from this Week

It has been a while since I've posted about food I made I think.  This blog used to be overpowered with food posts but somehow I've gotten away from those... so if you cared at all about those kinds of posts you will enjoy this one.  If you hate food and recipes skip over it.

On the plane on the way home from Montreal a few weeks ago I discovered that The Food Network has a whole channel on Air Canada flights!  What!!  I think it has been there forever but I never knew about it because it was on the second page.  Also there is an HBO channel too, but I am always so worried about what I should watch on Air Canada flights because they don't sensor anything so sometimes you sit beside kids and all of a sudden there are boobs or peeners on the screen and it is very awkward and you don't know if you should just shut it off so no one thinks you are a perv, or if there aren't going to be anymore naked butts for the rest of the movie and you can finish watching it.  But warning:  THERE USUALLY ARE.

ANYWAY so the Food Network is pretty okay and doesn't have any penises as far as I know.  So I decided to watch Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals and watched him make a delicious looking ragu.  This link is about all I could find on the internet to recreate it, but here's how I made it (which is pretty much how Jamie Oliver prepared it too, but you could follow either recipe and get the same taste probs):

2 stalks celery
1 large carrot
A bunch of green onions
3 cloves garlic
~ 1 foot long Mennonite farmers' sausage (or a package of good quality sausages)
Splash of olive oil
1 box penne
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 can crushed tomatoes
Chili flakes or red chilis

Heat the olive oil in a pan.  Put the carrot, celery, onions, and garlic in a food processor until it is very finely chopped (consistency of ground meat).  Start frying it in the olive oil.  Then put the sausage into the food processor until it is the same consistency as the vegetables.  Add to the vegetables.  When the sausage is almost cooked, add the balsamic vinegar.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta.  Add the tomatoes to the vegetable/meat mixture.  Add chili flakes to your taste.  Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup or so of the pasta water.  Mix everything together.  Serve with parmesan, basil, and extra chili flakes if desired.

SO SIMPLE and so delicious.  I did not take a picture and I apologize, but it was awesome.  Will make again.

FOOD NUMBER 2:

I saw this recipe linked on my favourite food blog, The Kitchn, the other day.  Full credit goes to food + words. for the recipe but the pictures are mine (but if you want to see more deliciouser looking pictures of these babies go to the link!!).  Zucchini brownies - I had to try them since I am convinced basically everything out there that's bad for you can be made much healthier.  I'm not going to repost the recipe because I followed it exactly as linked, but here are some pictures and highlights:

There is more zucchini than flour in this recipe, as you can see from this unappetizing picture of the batter.  At this point I was a little worried but all the commenters on food + words. were raving so I decided to trust them.  And I'm glad I did...

 The finished product!  Forgive the bad lighting, it looks a little yellowy-green but that's just from the fluorescent lights in my kitchen.

How delicious and chocolatey does that look!

The best part:  they're basically healthy!  If you don't add chocolate chips, it can be made completely fat free.  It's also made with whole wheat flour.  If you grate the zucchini small, you can't even notice it when it's cooked.  I used blueberry flavoured applesauce because that's what I had lying around the house and I'm not sure if that did anything to the flavour, but mostly all I can taste is chocolate.

I wouldn't necessarily call these brownies though.  They are not quite dense and rich enough to be classified that way.  This is a bit of a downside because with regular brownies, usually one is enough because of the richness... but I could eat a whole pan of these.  (I didn't though.)  I'd say it's more like an insanely moist, slightly denser than average chocolate cake.

I think you could really take it over the top and make it actually healthier by cutting out the chocolate chips and making a chocolate sauce with sweetened greek yogurt or sour cream and cocoa - I have never attempted this but I've tasted one before and it was amazing.