It’s incredible what we can manage to pack into a work week; between commute time, errands, working out, and family, there’s barely any time to think about what to eat. The key to healthy eating is to be prepared. We know that cooking at home and planning ahead leads to better dietary habits and overall health, but meal-prep also saves you valuable free time and money. Last minute take-out or drive-through trips will be no more! Don’t get us wrong, we love pizza and eating out too. But since we probably already indulged in those things over the weekend, the work week is a good time to get into some healthier eating habits. Think about it like this: all week, you’re eating your way to a healthy lifestyle and setting yourself up to enjoy the perks of weekend life absolutely guilt-free. What we have in store for you today is easy to do, will make sure you avoid that “sad desk lunch” and will provide you with a healthy solution when you’re stomachs grumbling (and you’ll love every bite of it!).

Today, with the help of recipe developer, chef and blogger Emma Cerulli, we have two quinoa-based recipes to get you through your work week. They are so tasty that they will have the whole office feeling envious! The first is a salad that will have you eating a fresh, filling, and nutritious lunch all week, and the other is a snack that will make sure you’re staying true to your new lifestyle by keeping cravings at bay and giving you the boost you need to keep productivity up. Emma’s Greek-style quinoa salad is bursting with colours and flavour. What’s even better is that it’s full of manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, and iron! These vitamins will keep you going all day long thanks to the little gluten-free quinoa seeds that are packed with them. And if that somehow doesn’t get you all the way to dinner (don’t worry, we all have afternoon cravings!), Emma has the remedy: her delicious sweet and sour energy bites crammed with a symphony of fruits, nuts, and seeds that will perk you right up and get you through the last few hours of your work day. The best part? There won’t be any chips or chocolate bar regrets thanks to the trusty office vending machine.

Part of making sure you have a delicious prepped meal is to have the right container to take it on the go, such as a mason jar, plastic storage container or a nifty gadget. It’s important to keep in mind which ingredients you should keep apart, so that when you have lunch hours or days later, you aren’t digging into a soggy mess. For today’s delicious lunch time meal, we suggest the thinkkitchen Chill Container. Though it was designed for yogurt, it is a versatile container that’s easy to transport and that can keep food cool for hours on end thanks to its built-in freezable wall. You can fill it with your salad, put some of your delicious toppings or vinaigrette in the lid, and be all set to take on your day! Plus, there’s a silicone band that stores your utensil, making sure you’ll never go to dig into a lunch without everything you need. Talk about practical!

A lifestyle change doesn’t happen overnight, but starting with a one week recipe will get you well on your way. Maybe you’ll only meal prep every other week, or once a month! Whatever it is, having this delicious Greek-style quinoa salad is definitely a step in the right direction. So roll up your sleeves, pick up your grocery list and set aside an hour to get you on the road towards the best week you’ve had in a while.

Tip: These can be made two weeks in advance. Use a baking dish with a tight-fitting lid to preserve freshness and store at room temperature.

Here to help you stick to your lunch time goals,

At the ripe old age of thirteen, I started cooking in restaurants. After attending the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver B.C. and much traveling, I pursued my career by cooking my way through some of the top restaurants in a city known for its culinary scene, Montreal.

Having been raised in a multicultural household, the urge to explore different foods came to me very young. I started researching international cuisine and focusing on what I call “the anthropology of food” to find stories, myths and legends surrounding the popular dishes of today. 

I am now putting my knowledge to good use as a head chef, culinary instructor and coordinator of the President’s Choice Cooking School at Provigo in Lasalle. I am currently focusing on teaching children as young as two, to adults in their golden years, how to find their way around the kitchen and appreciate flavours and techniques from days of old. 

This New Year satisfy your taste buds, be inspired, and get healthy with these innovative and creative developments in the cooking and food world!

Bowls are the new plate!

Bowls, a more casual and easy way to assemble and enjoy our meals. There’s no denying it with popular trends from the past couple of years that Acai bowls and Buddha bowls are taking up permanent residence on restaurant menus, in our kitchens, and with upcoming trends such as the Poke Bowl and Smoothie bowl creating buzz. Bowls are becoming a regular staple not only in nutrition and health guru diets, but with everyday foodies who are simply looking to try something new and delicious! All you need to do is make sure you have a big enough bowl!   And we have lots of them with whimsical patterns that go perfectly with this playful trend.

Our favorite right now is the Poke Bowl. A traditional Hawaiian dish which consists of fresh raw fish, shredded veggies, edamame beans, avocado, sesame seeds and soy sauce… it is refreshing and healthy. Sushi lovers rejoice: Poke bowls have all the tastiness of your favorite Asian style meal without the heavy carb-filled rice. Check out the poke bowl recipe next week we are doing in collaboration with one of our favorite food bloggers!

Hello alternative pasta options!

A creative way to bring flavor and innovation to a classic staple in our North American diets is using alternatives to pasta.  Chefs and home-cooks alike are swapping out doughy noodles for more nutrition enriched alternatives. Whether it’s trying out vegetable replacements, or using a blender to infuse pasta dough with pureed veggies, or sticking with carb based alternatives  like quinoa, chickpeas, lentils, barley or chia seeds that offer us more nutrition, pasta lovers are looking to add a healthy and palatable twist to their experience.

One of the easiest ways to try this one out is to spiralize some zucchini! Once, you have the ribbon all you need to do is cook it up in a bit of oil for 5 min and you can season it however you want! Check out how we tried out this trend with our Asparagus and Feta Tagliatelle recipe – with a healthy twist!

Vegetable Revolution

We’ve started giving our vegetables the time and attention they’ve always deserved! Vegetables have taken over the plate. Food bloggers and amateur home cooks play an important role in this trend by getting more creative and innovating the way we prepare our veggies. Their recipes prove vegetables can be the main part of our meal, taste great, and satisfy our appetite. This year, the experimentation that we’ve been doing with adding vegetables to meals and recipes they are not traditionally included in will become common practice and restaurateurs will be incorporating these ideas into their menus.

Whether it’s a sweet potato patty in your burger, replacing pasta and noodles with spaghetti squash, or adding kale or spinach into your morning smoothie, no meal will be considered complete without a vegetable making an appearance! So get out your mandoline, food processor or juicer  and join the revolution! Try out our Green Juice and our Post Work Out juice recipes!

Serious Snacking

Eating smaller and more frequent meals is becoming more habitual for the average person, and we’re not talking about the snacks we had as kids, or the late night covert trips to the fridge. From foodies to your average Joe or Jane, the way people want to eat is changing. We want to be able to try new things, taste more and have variety without overdoing it. Sharing appetizers, ordering Tapas, and charcuterie boards are ways that this trend materializes. What’s more is that there may well be some nutritional perks to this new form snacking! At all times of day, dehydrated or baked vegetables, rather than oily chips, and exotic dried fruit for sweet offer us new tastes from around the world and are healthier!

For an example of how you can prepare yourself a healthy snack at home, check out our veggie chips recipe on our blog.

Craving Authentic Cuisine

In North America, we are a melee of cultures and this has always been reflected in our food! After years of combining, mixing, sharing and borrowing from here and there to invent our own fusion creations, there is a turn towards more traditional takes on the recipes from our roots.  Whether it be genuine Korean Bashan, or “new-ish jew-ish cuisine”, third and fourth generation chefs are looking back to their heritage for inspiration, and we love the authenticity of it.

Check out our blog for authentic cuisine from Spain, a Catalan Fideua dish which is similar to paella, and a traditional pork dish from Vietnam, a THIT Kho Trung recipe.

Keeping you up to date in all the latest cooking innovations and food trends,

What You’ll Need

• Apple Corer
• Voodoo Ice Bucket
• Harvest Pumpkin
• Voodoo Martini Glass
• Slate Tray
• Tahiti Dinnerware Set

Apple Bites: 1 Apple makes 4 treats!

• Apples
• Almond Slivers/ sunflower seeds
• (Option: Peanut Butter/ Jam/ Strawberry)

Directions

Core and quarter the apples then carefully cut the middle of the quarters to create the opening for the mouth. Place slivered almonds/ sunflower seeds into apples as teeth.

Variations: You can add peanut butter inside for added protein, jam for added gooeyness and a sliced strawberry for a tongue.

Banana Ghosts: (serves 4)

This one is very easy no skills are necessary and it’s a great healthy snack before all those sweets are collected.

• 4 Bananas
• 24 Chocolate Chips (can get regular size or mini)

Directions

Peel bananas and cut them in half. Place the cut side down so the banana halves stand up. Use small chocolate chips to make ghost eyes and large chocolate chips to make ghost mouths. It’s that easy!

Pizza Mummy Bites:  4 mini bites

This is the perfect lunch to get into the spirit on Halloween day.

• 2 English muffins (can also use mini bagels or 4 mini pitas)
• ¼ cup pizza sauce
• 2-4 stuffed green olives or pitted black olive slices
• Mozzarella String Cheese

Directions

Slice and toast the English muffins/ mini bagels. Preheat oven to 350. Lay 4 muffin halves on baking sheet. Spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce on each muffin half. Set 2 olive slices in place for eyes on each muffin half. Pull string cheese into pieces and lay on muffins above and under “eyes”, layering them to look like mummy wrappings. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Download Step by Step

By making your own veggie chips you can choose which vegetables and seasoning to use. It doesn’t take long and they are quite simple to make once you have the right equipment. Slicing the vegetables becomes a really easy task thanks to a mandolin, also be sure to use a peeler to remove the skin. It’s also a little bit easier if you have a wire rack that can be placed on your baking sheet because then you won’t need to flip the chips over halfway through cooking. You also need a cooling rack to place your chips once they are baked.

These recipes are just to cook the chips but you can add any seasoning you want. You can pretty much use any type of vegetable for this recipe; we suggest trying eggplant, zucchini, and carrots! Seasoning suggestions are salt, pepper, paprika and rosemary … etc.

Beet: Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Wash 2 medium sized beets and slice as thin as possible on mandolin. In a mixing bowl, toss them with 1½ tbsp and seasoning of choice to evenly coat, then bake in the oven on the middle rack for 30-35 minutes; don’t forget without a wire rack check to flip them over after about 15 minutes. Once they are done baking, let them cool before tasting. Beets are a great source of nutrients and fiber; they help fight inflammation, lower blood pressure, have anti-cancer properties and boost your stamina.

Taro Chips – heat oven to 400 degrees
Taro Root is not the most common vegetable, but they taste great as a crisped chip and are a great source of Vitamin C and Potassium. Taro root works better if you peel the skin off, and slice them as thinly as possible. Once again, toss 1 sliced taro root with 1½ tablespoons olive oil and any other seasoning you wish to add. Place the slices on a baking sheet, they can be touching but make sure they do not overlap. Bake them for 12 minutes before flipping them over for another 12 minutes. Give them about 3 more minutes to cool down and crisp a little bit more before eating. Be sure to watch them carefully so they don’t burn.

Sweet Potato: heat oven to 450 degrees
Sweet potatoes are great when baked and even better when turned into a healthy alternative snack choice! They are high in potassium, dietary fiber and Vitamin A and have countless health benefits. It’s the same steps as the other two but this one cook 2 medium sized potatoes, thinly sliced, on a higher temperature (450) and start with 10 minutes on one side before flipping them over for another 10. You want to pull them out when they are crunchy on the edges but tender in the middle.

You might have to wait a bit longer for some of them to fully crisp as every oven is different. A good trick if you have the time is to cook for the specified amount of time, then turn off the oven but keep your chips in there for about an hour. Because these chips are sliced so thinly they can burn very quickly or if they’re not thin enough they won’t crisp or just take longer. A lot can go wrong so don’t be disappointment if it doesn’t come out perfectly your first try, it takes some practice!