Food Revolution Potluck Healthy Brunch

One of my fellow Food Revolution Ambassadors organized a Healthy Potluck Brunch at the Centre of Social Innovation in the Annex where she is a member.  It's a great meeting space and pretty easy to get to when the TTC is cooperating.

l to r.  Susan, me, Ilona, Jessica & Hema - photo by Susan

There was a small group of 5 of us and 3 out of the 5 of us were Food Revolution Ambassadors.  Since 2 of us don't have any kids it's hard to work with schools to do Food Revolution activities so it was great to just have a Potluck for anyone that wanted to join.  We were joined by 2 other food bloggers.  Although we are all Food Bloggers we hadn't all met before so it was a great way to meet and share food under the Food Revolution umbrella.

We enjoyed a nice variety of dishes from Susan's Healthy Devilled Eggs to a Roasted almond vinaigrette dressing salad with Fennel and Avocado.  Hema made a healthy bread and Ilona made Sweet Potato muffins that tasted like pumpkin pie.  Jessica made Crepes from scratch with Chia strawberry Jam.  I made an Asparagus Tart and an Asparagus simple salad with the rest of the Asparagus.

I know Hema (NomadicNutritionist)  will do a follow up blog post on her blog but I wanted to do a post to put the recipe up for the Asparagus Tart that I made as my Potluck dish.

When it comes to Potluck recipes I usually decide kind of at the last minute to see how much time and ingredients I have.   This recipe came from the fact that I had a bunch of Asparagus that I knew I couldn't eat all by myself unless I ate it everyday for  a few days and because it's a fresh spring vegetable that you think of when you think Healthy Spring Brunch Dishes.

I turned my fresh Asparagus into an Asparagus Spring Tart.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 bunch of Fresh Asparagus
2 eggs
1/2 cup of grated Gruyere Cheese
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp Mayonnaise or you can use Greek Yoghurt
1/2 Tbsp milk, cream or half and half.  I used milk because that's what I had.
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Freezer Puff Pastry - I used Presidents Choice because it's in a roll easy to use.


DIRECTIONS:

Blanch the Asparagus in boiling salted water for about a minute or until it turns bright green and then remove the asparagus and shock it to stop the cooking by placing it in a iced water.  Remove and drain and set aside

Make sure the Puff Pastry has thawed over night in the fridge or at least a few hours as per package instructions.  I used Presidents Choice Puff Pastry with you just un roll in one piece.  It's so much easier than rolling out one solid block of puff pastry which is what I used to do.

Place the puff pastry on a cookie sheet lined with Parchment paper and poke holes into the pastry using a fork  so that it doesn't puff up all the way when you bake it.   Place the puff pastry dough in a 450 degree oven and bake for about 10 minutes.  If it puffs up you can poke holes in it.

Remove it from the oven and let it cook while making the custard mix.

In a small bowl mix the 2 eggs and add the milk, mayonnaise, mustard and seasonings and add 3/4 of the Grated Gruyere cheese.  You can use any size grated but I used the larger holes when I did it.
I spread the custard mix over the puff pastry in a thin layer and left a but uncovered at the edge.
Place the asparagus spears over the custard mix in a row filling up all of the puff pastry surface.

Sprinkle the rest of the Gruyere cheese on top and bake in the same 450 degree oven for another 15 to 20 minutes until the egg custard mix has set and the pastry is golden brown.

It may be soft because of the cheese but will set up when the cheese cools.   Serve warm or room temperature.

Serves 4-6 people as an appetizer or side dish.  Goes great with a salad or even a Steak.

December Food Revolution Toronto Challenge - Oaty Fruity Cookies

I am one of a group of many Food Revolution Ambassadors in Toronto and around the World a group of people that believe in Jamie Oliver's mission to educate people to eat better food and currently on a mission to fight childhood obesity.

Each month we get Challenges that are sent to us by the team in the U.K. that manage the Ambassadors around the world.  I try and participate in the ones I am able to do.  I wasn't able to do November's because it was a pasta dish although somewhat simple I had a bit of a fall and haven't been able to lift my right arm to make it on my own.  I even purchased the ingredients before I got hurt and hope to make the recipe at some point.

The Toronto Team have decided to select monthly recipes for us to make and to share with out social streams for a chance for people to win a cookbook each month.

December's recipe is Jools' Oaty Fruity Cookies but I wasn't sure if I would be able to make this recipe because of my injured shoulder,  but my friend came over to visit me and bring me a few things and I told him about the challenge and asked if he would help me do it and he provided the reaching, mixing and all the physical things that it took to complete this recipe.  He did most of the work but we did it in my very tiny kitchen as you can see there isn't much prep space.

The reason I wouldn't have been able to do it myself was because of the ingredients and tools were either stored very high and out of my reach or too heavy for me to access.  This recipe requires a lot of ingredients that you may or may not use everyday.  Luckily I got help and together we worked our way through this recipe.

The link to the recipe is below.  For my cookies I used Pumpkin seeds, flax and sesame seeds.  I used coconut sugar and white sugar and I used raisins, golden berries and some dried cherries.  That's what I had. You can adjust for what you might have.  For the spices I used cinnamon, ginger and cloves for that winter spice flavour.  It's not difficult once you have organized all of the ingredients.  They bake very quickly too.

If you would like to try this recipe and get a chance to Win a Jamie Oliver cookbook you can see the link and the details below this photo.

This recipe might be great to make with kids that can gather the ingredients and dump and stir and form the cookies because you just need an ice cream scoop to measure equal portions.  Give it a try and let me know what you added to yours.

Hey #Canada - we want to get you BAKING! Starting today, December 1st 2016 until December 31st 2016, bake up a batch of Jools Oliver's Easy Oaty Fruity Cookies for your chance to win one of four Jamie Oliver cookbooks thanks to HarperCollins Canada!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/…/fruit-recipes/jools-easy-oaty…/

How to enter:

Bake Jools' Easy Oaty Fruity Cookies with your family, snap a picture and share it on social media using the hashtag #CookwithFoodRevTOand tag us here on FB, or at @FoodRevToronto on Twitter or Instagram and you'll be entered to win a cookbook!

Eligibility and contest rules:

– Contest begins on December 1st 2016 at10am EST on and closes December 31st 2016 at 6pm EST.
– Prize consists of one (1) Jamie Oliver cookbook (various titles)
– There are four (4) prizes in total.
– Open to readers or the age of majority with a Canadian mailing address.
– No purchase of any product necessary for entry.
– Winners will be chosen randomly (using random.org) from all qualified entries on December 31st 2016 after 6pm EST.
– Winners will be notified via email January 1st 2017 and will have 48 hours to respond to the email.
– Winners will be required to answer a skill testing question.

Food Revolution 2016 - Chef's Plate Contest

WIN 1 of 2 $25 Gift Certificates for Chef's Plate

I have been a Food Revolution Ambassador for  over 5 years now.  When I started there were just a handful of Ambassadors and now there are thousands all over the world and about a dozen in Toronto.
We all do different things but it all falls under the umbrella of FOOD REVOLUTION.
This year they have changed the website to JamiesFoodRevolution
Jamie Oliver created the Food Revolution movement over 5 years ago to get people all around the world involved in taking control of their food, whether it's learning how to cook or growing your own food or getting involved in the food system in whatever way you can.  In the past it was focused on ONE DAY.  Usually the 3rd Friday in May or if you are in Canada the day leading up to the May 24 long weekend.

This year the Jamie Oliver Foundation want to change the focus from one day to YEAR ROUND.

I joined because I was inspired by Jamie's Food Revolution series and when they sent out a call for Ambassadors I applied to see what I could do.  Over the past 5 years I have had a dinner party at home, a Mexican Fiesta at Aphrodite Cooks,  Cooking Italian food from Scratch at the Depanneur and last year a Middle Eastern food demo at Hendrix Restaurant Supplies

This year due to time I wasn't able to do a public event, so I am going to do something completely different this time.   I want to get you into the kitchen but I am not going to do a demo, YOU are going to try and teach yourself how to cook.

Jamie Oliver has provided 10 RECIPES to get you started in the kitchen if you want to DIY it.  Download them and try them and then make them your own and don't forget to tag them with #FoodRevolution so that we can all see how you did.

If you think that might be a bit of a challenge if you really are a beginner or you can't even "boil water" as they say then I have a GIVEAWAY for you to get you started in the kitchen.

You can WIN (1) of 2-  $25 gift certificate towards the purchase of your first Chef's Plate order.  
Their mission is to put real food back into people's diets.
They are a meal-kit delivery services based in Toronto that delivers pre prepped portioned ingredients and recipe cards for meals that you put together fresh yourself.  It saves you time gathering the ingredients and measuring the quantities.  Real, whole meals don't have to be boring, difficult or expensive and we want people to fall in love with cooking again.

To WIN (1) of (2) gift certificates you need to:

1.  Follow Chef's Plate on Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chefsplateca
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefsplate/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/chefsplatecanada

2.  Follow me on my social media:
  Twitter  & Instagram @lindamatarasso
  Join my facebook page www.facebook.com/starvingfoodie

3.  Tweet the following message:
"@lindamatarasso I want to be a #FRD16Chef & Join the #foodrevolution & start with +Chef's Plate"

Eligibility and contest rules:

– Contest begins on Monday May 16th 2016 at 9.00am EST on and closes on Food Revolution Day on Friday May 20th 2016 at 12pm EST.
– Prize consists of one (1) gift certificate towards a Chef's Plate meal (Value $25CAD each)
– Open to readers or the age of majority with a Toronto mailing address.
– Winners will be chosen randomly from all qualified entries and notified on Friday May 20th 2016 after 1pm EST.

*Only 1 entry per person is eligible to win.
You will receive the prize by email after being notified and an email address provided by you.

Good luck

You can also JOIN the REVOLUTION at www.jamiesfoodrevolution.org

You can also see what other Toronto Ambassadors have planned by joining the Facebook Group:
Food Revolution Day Toronto