Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

It has been so gosh gram long since my last post! I have no excuse other than my time revolving around a certain 21 month old who's now WELL into the terrible twos stage (oh joy) and when I finally get some down time, I usually find myself spending a lot of time on the couch...that's another post! This space has never been far from my mind and I wanted to get active again...in more ways that one!

We LOVE fish tacos and have been making them for a while now and I have to say the version I've been making lately has to be my favorite so far. They are so damn good! You get sweet, you get spice and everything nice! It's a MUST share! In previous versions I've used cabbage in the tacos, as well as coleslaw mix, but for these ones I serve coleslaw on the side. Now, I usually just throw the ingredients together without measuring, but I'll do my best to gauge the measurements and quantity.

So, without further ado...

Eggnog Cupcakes

Christmas Eve...where has the time gone?!

I knew it had been quite some time since I've written anything...basically since I've been back to work. But, quite frankly, I was shocked that it hasn't been since the middle of July and the last post being the Pina Colada Pops! Oh summer...I miss you!

I also seem to have developed quite the Angry Birds addiction...that's a whole other post on its own - ha!

It's been kind of interesting leading up to Christmas for me this year having an EXTREMELY active 1 year old...into everything, all the time, a mile a minute! The last month was pretty brutal as well as she's been a slow teether...until the last month! From the middle of November until now she has cut her 4th bottom front tooth, her two bottom eye teeth, her two bottom first molars and I have not been able to get a good look at the top. I'm not quite sure how I functioned during the day at work with very little sleep. A few nights, no sleep at all. I did though. Somehow! A few nights there I was starting to think I was crazy for wanting more (kids). But then the next morning when I'd have her in bed with me and she'd roll over and reach her little arms out to hug and cuddle into me, those thoughts quickly disappated! I was beginning to wonder how I was going to get it all done. At least, what I would normally get done for Christmas. I think I was stressing myself out even further with such high expectations with trying to achieve what I used to and I just had to accept reality - I couldn't. So I decided that this year, I would sacrifice my baking. GASP! Really?! Really. So, I bought a flat of Nanaimo Bars...I figured as long as I had my Nanaimo Bars, all would be right in the world. Well, that flat is already half gone. I was like, "GET IN MY BELLY!" And oh...they did!

D is working night shift Christmas Eve night and Christmas night. If he's on night shift at Christmas, they usually do a potluck and I usually make Magic Bars. Well this year, I wasn't planning on anything. I thought maybe he'd just take in some wings or something. But I don't know what got into me the other day...must have been the Christmas Spirit! But I offered to make Eggnog Cupcakes for him to take! Then Little Miss and I were invited for Christmas dinner and I decided I would just make more and bring them for dessert! I was all of a sudden ready to get to it!

When I was pulling out my ingredients this morning, it felt so good! It honestly did! There's a feeling that comes over me when I start to bake. I feel so relaxed. Like I could take on the world! Little Miss had gone down for a nap and D went out for some last minute shopping. So I turned on the monitor (thank god for a visual monitor), put my earbuds in and cranked up my music. IN MY ELEMENT! I was ready to rock these Eggnog Cupcakes!

I've made these before a couple years ago and they are so delicious! You know how sometimes a flavour doesn't quite translate into a baked good - it just doesn't taste exactly like it, or you only have a slight hint of the flavour...this is NOT the case here! When you take a bite, the flavour is so dead on, you may as well be taking a sip of eggnog...with rum! YUM!

So let's get to it!

Sunday Sweets: Piña Colada Pops

Oh summer, you are just the jam to my pb! You never cease to wow me...when you show up! And so far...you have!

I was really starting to get a complex thinking that maybe the lack of summer was my fault. I saved up vacation time prior to my mat leave so I had a full summer off last year. And this year, well I don't go back until August 7th and up until last Sunday...summer was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like we had skipped forward to fall! It was THAT cold and dreary! So I was starting to get a complex thinking that maybe because I was on leave that maybe, just maybe, this horrible weather was my fault. That maybe I wasn't allowed to take leave during the summer months. But look at us now! Basking in all of summer's glory!! (Thank you summer! Now I don't have to worry about taking time off and have all your doom and gloom weather fall on my shoulders. We'll leave that up to Mother Nature. I'm sure her shoulders are a little broader than mine...one can hope at least!)

Since we've been having such hot weather, there was no way I was turning on my oven. Last week's Sunday Sweets was the Chocolate Banana Cream Cheese Pie which only had the oven on for a few minutes, but now that we're well into our lovely hot weather that oven was not getting turned on! And what better time than now to introduce boozy pops to Terracotta Café!

Sunday Sweets: Chocolate Banana Cream Cheese Pie

This is going to be short and oh so sweet! Summer has finally arrived!!! So instead of baking and writing away at the laptop, I was outside with Little Miss soaking up the glorious sunshine! We even had a couple friends over to hang out in the frigid pool! We didn't care!! Summer's here!! Hearing and reading about all of these 100°F+ temperatures in the eastern parts of the continent, was really starting to get annoying (sorry to those of you who live there...no, not really!) because we had SUCH a crappy summer last year. Wait...we DIDN'T have summer last year. It was almost a full week of warm temps, that was about it. I kept hearing, "Oh, but this must be so nice for you while being pregnant!" Noooo! It wasn't nice! I felt if just one more person said that to me, I would scream at them. Remember, don't piss off a pregnant woman! I'm a summer girl. So not a winter girl. I love the heat! Bring it on! I sometimes wonder why I live here in Northwest BC. An area with really crappy weather. Harsh winters and a ton of gloomy, rainy days. But when the sun does shine. Ohh, it's so beautiful! I guess just has to be that the sunny days, however far and few between they are, just far outweigh the overwhelming number of fugly days. We get really invested in our weather here, as you can tell, ha! So, there was no way I was going waste my day away. It was going to be enjoyed outdoors, doing summery things!

So, I've had these bananas that went pretty ripe quite quickly. They definitely needed to be used up in something more than my usual go-to breakfast of toast with pb & b (add a sprinkle of cinnamon on the banana....mon favori!!) The other day I also spotted a bag of graham crumbs in the cupboard so I knew I wanted to make sometime with a graham crust. Hmmm...what else did I have. Chocolate pudding...cream cheese.... Everything was just kinda falling into place for a nice no-bake pie! Perfect for a nice, summery day. Something quick and easy, so we could get the most out of the day! I also just kinda slapped it together while D was grilling the steaks! Then by the time I got around to photographing, it was dark and my camera wasn't within arms reach...but my iPhone was! So I'm kinda lazy....so what.....hehe! To take the laziness even further, I didn't follow a recipe, again, I just kinda slapped this together, so I'll do my best at writing out the recipe...

Chocolate Banana Cream Cheese Pie

2+ cups Graham Crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 pkg Instant Chocolate Pudding

1 1/4 cup Milk (I use skim)

8oz Cream Cheese (I used light), softened

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1 medium Banana

Combine the graham crumbs and melted butter. I said 2+ cups because I just kept adding more crumbs until I found a consistency for the crust that I liked. I actually think it ended up being more like 3 cups. Press the mixture into a 9" pie plate and bake in a 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on it! When it's done, remove from the oven and cool. (I waited about 5 minutes once out of the oven and then I threw it in the freezer to cool even faster!)

While the crust is in the oven, combine the pudding and milk and beat with an electric mixtur on slow for 2 minutes. Then increase the speed and beat until you get your desired texture. I decreased the amount of milk than what the pudding package calls for so that the pudding would be thicker. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat the cream cheese with the electric mixer until smooth. Be sure to scrape down the sides as you go along! Add the vanilla and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix. Set aside

Once the crust is cooled enough, spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom. Then, spread the pudding on top of that. Put in the fridge to chill for a couple hours or until ready to serve. Just before serving, slice up the banana and place on the top of the pie. Serve. Enjoy!

Sunday Sweets: O Canada

Haul out the toques, maple syrup and throw as many "ehs" into sentences we can! It's Canada Day! Every year we head to Kitimat to take in the festivities since it's the best Canada Day party in the northwest! They have the parade, the international food fair, all the activities happening at Riverlodge, entertainment and the night wraps up with fireworks...which we'll of course have to miss this year. And, it's also one of the biggest social events of the year. If there's someone you haven't seen in ages, you're bound to run into them! Walk a few feet..."Oh heyyy! How have you been?? Haven't seen you in ages!!" Walk another few feet..."Oh heyy! How have you been?? Haven't seen you in in ages!!" Walk another few feet...you get the picture! Our weather has been so miserable, rainy and cold. Zero summer so far. But, when does miserable weather ever stop us? I guess if it did, we wouldn't live here (we just stay to keep complaining about it! Ha!) So Little Miss was put into her "Canadian Cutie" t-shirt (can't quite see it in the photos I took), flags were attached to her stroller and we were off! With all of the hub bub of development going on in the area, we figured the parade was going to be quite long. It was. One of the largest parades in years! I grew up in Kitimat, so it was nice to go down for the day, see some familiar faces and partake in one of our favorite events of the year!

Lately, I've been seeing over the top flavour combinations all over Pinterest like crazy! Peanut butter cup, cookie dough, oreo cupcakes. Peanut butter, pretzel brownies. Chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake bars. Just to name a few. So I thought I would partake in some of this madness to celebrate our nation's birthday....something red and white? Add a little richness. A dash huge amount of deliciousness. Et voila! Happy Birthday, Canada!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Brownies:

1/2 cup butter
1cup sugar
1tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
pinch of salt

2-3 tsp red food colouring (gel)

1 tsp white vinegar

2 eggs

3/4 cup flour

Cheesecake:

8oz. cream cheese, softened (VERY important to be softened! I wasn't patient and it turned out lumpy!)

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/8 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 pan.

Melt the butter. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the next six ingredients. Stir to combine. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs. Add to the mixture and stir. Fold in the flour, being careful to not over-mix.

 Reserve 1/4 cup of the mixture. Pour the remainder of the batter into the pan.

Beat the cream cheese until soft using a stand or hand mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined. Spread the cream cheese mixture overtop of the brownie batter in the pan. Drop spoonfuls of the reserved brownie batter on top of the cream cheese. Using a toothpick or knife, drag it through the batter to create the swirls. (I was really rushing and ended up with more of marbled effect than swirls)

Bake for 30 minutes or until the cream cheese is set. Once done, place on a cooling rack and allow to completely cool before cutting. Serve. Enjoy!

I cut mine into 9, so they were a hefty size. I then individually wrapped them and threw them in the freezer. I of course ate one two before they made it in. Actually I think I'll go get one now...

Happy Canada Day!!

Mango-licious

The other day there was a great sale on cases of Mangoes at Wholesale. I saw these beauties and thought of the deliciousness that could lay ahead should I put them in my cart. So I did.

I had been craving a crisp or a cobbler, so I knew that some of those would definitely become that. As for the rest, well around here don't let the clouds, rain and just plain cold fool you. It's summer! And that means slushy cocktails! They all won't go towards those....or will they??

So, I got peeling and chopping! Some went into the blender to be puréed and some just remained in chunks to be used in my dessert and for smoothies!

I poured the purée into ice cube trays so that we can grab a couple frozen cubes to mix into delicious margaritas and daiquiris! I bagged the chunks up into 1 cup portions, which could be used for smoothies or baking or curry, even salads!

Leftover purée went into a baggie for one of those days when I need a VERY large margarita!

Those chunks sitting there patiently in the green bowl were used for this..

Sunday Sweets: Lemon Loaf

When we went away on our holiday, we had our next door neighbor look after our place. On our way back, just before we were about to board our flight in Vancouver, I all of sudden realized we had forgotten our keys at my parents' place. YIKES! So I called up our neighbor - luckily he was home! He would meet us at the airport with our second set of keys. So I knew I had to do something nice for him. I would bake him something! Of course when we brought it over to him with a thank you card, he told us we really shouldn't have - as he always does. But in my books, you should always try to show your appreciation. This time it was with this tangy, moist, delicious lemon loaf!

The great thing about lemons is that you can use them any time of year! These Coconut Lemon Squares are one of my go to recipes when you need something sweet, quick and easy! Lemon is right up there in my favorite baking flavours. LOVE it - especially in this loaf! And, the glaze just tops it off perfectly. I did a whole bunch of freezer baking prior to Little Miss' arrival and two of those were those squares and this lemon loaf. I actually cut them both up and individually wrapped the pieces so that you could just one at a time out of the freezer instead of hauling out the whole thing and having to eat it right away. It's an awesome thing to do! Portion control!!

LEMON LOAF

Makes 1 loaf

2/3 cup margarine or butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp lemon zest, grated

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

GLAZE

1/3 cup lemon juice

3 tbsp sugar

Cream the margarine and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each one. Add in the milk and beat well.

Combine the dry ingredients and lemon zest.

Stir until just moistened.

Pour into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan and spread evenly.

Bake in a pre-heated 350°F for 60min until an inserted skewer in the centre comes out clean. Poke holes all over the top (careful not to poke through to the bottom) of the hot loaf with the skewer.

For the glaze, stir the lemon juice into the sugar until dissolved. Drizzle over the warm loaf and then let stand in pan for about 10 minutes. Use a knife around the edges to loosen the loaf and then remove from the pan
and let it cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Skinny Super Bowl

We're having a Super Bowl party today and I decided to make lighter versions of popular Super Bowl party foods. Below are the links to the recipes I made:

1) Skinny Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe from Skinnytaste.com (1/2 cup - 3+pts) (I will be replacing the crumbled blue cheese with light cheddar - will update if points affected)
2) Skinny Baked Jalapeno Poppers recipe from Skinnytaste.com (2 poppers - 2+pts)
3) Tara's Guacamole (1/4 cup - 4+pts)
4) Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing (1 mini - 2+pts) (I am replacing the sugar with Splenda +1/2 cup skimmed milk powder and an extra 1/2 tsp baking soda. (I actually halved the icing ingredients and sprinkled each cupcake with shredded sweetened coconut (1/2 cup for recipe))

So that's 12 pts for a serving of each of the above. To cut down on the pts to go with the dip, I will be having celery/carrot sticks instead of crackers or chips. As for the guacamole...we'll see. Guests are bringing chili, wings, tortilla chips and hummus. I think I'll stick to my dishes. Oh, I may also have to make a punch! I will probably do that with club soda, crystal light and fruit.

I'm excited for the party! I think this is the first time ever where I've planned ahead to make sure I provided options which fit in with my new lifestyle, but are still delicious and who am I kidding - fun!

Breakfast of Champions

So, I've decided to start my day with oatmeal. It's a great start to the day. It fills you up and really leaves you feeling satisfied. Since I am nursing little miss and working out more, I was concerned with drying up too soon. I read that oatmeal helps with lactation. So, daily oatmeal it's been! Now, just plain oatmeal every single morning can get so boring, so the foodie in me started to play around with the flavours. So far this week I have made four different variations. I thought I would share with you since they have been so delicious!

Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal

1/3 cup quick oats

1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 tsp splenda

3/4 water (I've also made with skim milk, just adjust the pts)

1 tbsp light peanut butter

Combine the first 3 ingredients and stir. Add the water and stir. Then stir in the peanut butter. Microwave for 2 minutes. Remove, stir, enjoy!

WW+pts: 7

Almond Joy Oatmeal

1/3 quick oats

1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 tsp splenda

1/2 tbsp medium unsweetened desiccated coconut

1 tbsp slivered almonds

3/4 cup water

1/2 tsp coconut extract

Combine the first 3 ingredients and stir. Mix in the coconut and almonds. Add the water and stir. Then stir in the coconut extract. Microwave for 2 minutes. Remove, stir, enjoy!

WW+pts: 7

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal

1/3 cup quick oats

1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder

3/4 cup skim milk

2 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp dried cranberries

pinch of cinnamon

Combine the first 2 ingredients and then stir in the milk and orange juice. Mix in the cranberries. Microwave for 2 minutes. Remove, stir, sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy!

WW+pts: 7

Tropical Oatmeal

1/3 cup quick oats

1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 tsp splenda

3/4 cup water

1/2 pineapple, diced

1/2 medium banana, diced

1 tbsp unsweetened, medium desiccated coconut

Combine the first 3 ingredients. Stir in the water then mix in the last 3 ingredients. Microwave for 2 minutes, stir, and enjoy!

WW+pts: 8

Are you an oatmeal eater? Do you like yours the good ol' fashioned way? Or do you like to spruce it up. If so, what's your favorite?

Green Monster Smoothie

So I came across this recipe on Pinterest last night and it's from a great blog, Skinnytaste. I've actually been seeing this "Green Monster" around in a few different places, so I thought I may as well give it a go. Am I ever glad I did! It is DELICIOUS! Seriously...aside from it's vibrant green colour, you would never know there's spinach in it! I had to adapt the recipe as I didn't have quite exactly the ingredients specified and I also added a bit of vanilla protein powder. Nontheless, DELISH! This one will definitely be added into my breakfast rotation...or any time of day rotation to be honest!

So here it is sitting in the blender awaiting a whirl.

And here it is all blended up into sweet, satisfying deliciousness ready to go in my belly!

Green Monster Smoothie (adapted from here)

1 medium banana, frozen

3/4 cup skim milk

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (only had Oikos honey cups, so just scooped the plain yogurt off the top!)

1 tbsp light peanut butter

2 cups spinach

1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder

2 cups spinach

Place all in a blender. Blend! Pour into a glass and ENJOY!

Nutrition Info:

Calories 552.3

Fat 10.9g

Carbs 76.9

Fibre 5.1

Protein 42.4

WW+Pts: 13

Note: Next time I'm going to try and use some different ingredients to try and get those numbers down. Nonethess, this is a great choice to start off your day!

Chickpea Salad

I love chickpeas. I love summer. You put these two together and you have a fantastic salad with fresh ingredients ready to enjoy on the deck at lunch. Well actually, I'll enjoy this salad any time of year, in any location, any time of day. It's just THAT delicious! This salad just screams FRESH! The grape tomatoes, the fresh basil, the balsamic vinegar - the flavours just dance on your tongue!

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) also really pack a health punch! One serving of chickpeas is a great source of both protein and fibre. I've checked different sources and the general consensus is that they have about 15g of prot1ein and 12g of fibre per 1 cup serving. Not too shabby I'd say! Serve me up some chickpeas please!

This recipe is super easy and usually I just throw the ingredients into a bowl and just go by taste. I have yet to encounter a time when this has not worked. It's that easy. You can also add chopped onion (red or yellow) and bocconcini, however as you can see from my photo, I didn't have any. The salad works just fine without. As long as you have the chickpeas, grape (cherry) tomatoes, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar, you're in business!

Chickpea Salad

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved
5 basil leaves, fresh, chiffonade
1/4 onion, chopped
1 cup of mini bocconcini, halved
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice,
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir. Chill. Can be served immediately.

Simple, fresh and delicious!

Zucchini Scones

Last summer, I grew zucchini in my garden. I had some still frozen in my freezer and I had been wanting to use it up. I thought scones would be a great way to do that! They're not that sweet, perfect to have for breakfast or a nice snack (love the grab-and-go!). It's a really simple recipe as well!

Zucchini Scones

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon orange peel
1 teaspoon lemon peel
1/4 cup butter
1 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup zucchini, grated

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon, peels and grated zucchini.


Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse cornmeal.


Mix the egg with milk and add to the zucchini mixture. Stir until a soft dough forms. Using either a 1/4 dry measure or a scoop of equivalent measure, drop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.


Bake 12-15 minutes at 425 degrees. Makes 12.




Mmmm...I love scones!

Apple Black Currant Squares

The other day, Dave came home with some black currants from his mom's. I don't think I've ever actually had fresh black currants, so I was trying to think of what I could do with them. First thing that popped into my mind was jam, but there was only about a cup and a bit, so
I decided against that idea. Last weekend I had made a Blueberry Apple Crisp using apples I had frozen from our tree last year. I still had some apples leftover so I thought hmmm...black currants...apples....crumbly.....squares!

So these are what I made:

Apple Black Currant Squares

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup rolled oats

1 lb cooking (tart) apples, peeled, cored and sliced

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1 cup blackcurrants

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Cut in the butter (should resemble coarse meal). Stir in the sugar and oats.

Spoon half the mixture into the bottom of a lined cake pan (9x13)

Mix the apples, cornstarch and oats. Spread over the top and top with the currants.

Spoon the remaining mixture over top, levelling the top.

Bake 30 minutes, until springy.
Leave to cool, then cut into bars.

A Love Affair

I am in love with avocados! So much so, in fact, that the paint colour in our rec room is 'Guacamole'! Well we didn't do that on purpose. I'm also in love with green and the shade we wanted just so happened to be that - a match made in heaven!

Yes avocados are high in fat, but it's good fat - monounsaturated. They have also been shown to decrease both LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels by 22% and raise HDL levels (good cholesterol) by 11%. Avocados have 60% more potassium than bananas, are rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and K and they have the highest fibre content of any fruit. I could go on forever about the health benefits of this gem, but I have to finish painting my bedroom...not guacamole, though it is green.

If you're not that familiar with avocados, when you're buying them, Haas avocados are most readily available in grocery stores. A ripe avocado is relatively firm, but will yield to gentle pressure when you give it a slight squeeze. Color cannot always be trusted to determine whether or not an avocado is ripe. The squeeze test is the way to go. If you plan to use the avocados right away, then buy the ripe ones. But if you want to buy them a few days before you plan to use them, get them when they are hard and do not yield to squeezing. Then just leave them out on the counter and wait for them to get ripe.

So how do you you cut the avocado? There's not really any wrong way to do it, but there a couple of quicker, easier ways to do it: Grip the avocado gently on one side with one hand. With a large, sharp knife in the other hand, cut the avocado lengthwise around the seed. Open the two halves to expose the pit.

Now, there are a few ways you can proceed to remove the pit from the avocado half that has the pit. One way is to make another cut, lengthwise on the avocado half that has the pit, cutting around the pit, exposing it so that it is easier to remove. You can also use a spoon to scoop out the pit.

Another way to do it is a bit trickier and if you're a bit nervous, fold up a kitchen towel and use that to hold the avocado half with the pit. Gently tap the pit with a knife with enough force so that the knife edge wedges into the pit, but not so hard that you cut all the way through it. Tap it very gently a few times, with increasing pressure each time, until a cut is made in the pit sufficiently to twist the pit out. Getting the pressure just right takes a little practice. With the edge of the knife, twist the pit out of the avocado and discard. Then just tap the handle of the knife on the edge of the sink once or twice and the pit will come off the knife.

Then you can either scoop out the flesh with a spoon or you can cut the chunks into the flesh while still in the peel, then scoop out with a spoon.

I love to put avocado on sandwhiches, in salad, burgers and my most favorite of all...Guacamole!! This is one of my signature dishes. Now I usually just throw all the ingredients together and go by taste, but I've put it into a recipe to share with you. Enjoy!

Tara's Guacamole

5 avocados, cut into small chunks
1/2 medium red onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup cilantro, chopped

1-2 tsp lime juice

salt & pepper to taste

Chop the avocado and put into a bowl. Sprinkle with 1 tsp of the lime juice to prevent it from going brown. Chop the onion, tomato and cilantro and add to the bowl. Combine until mixed, but still chunky. Add salt and pepper to taste and remainder of the lime juice, if needed. Chill. Serve.

Coconut Lemon Squares

I love lemon! Well except for lemon-flavoured hard candy - not a huge fan. But yes, I'm really beginning to develop a love for lemon! Lemon tarts, lemon squares, lemon muffins, lemon loaf! Lemon! Lemon! Lemon! I love how lemons just exude freshness! You smell lemon and you instantly think fresh, clean! But I also love the tartness. When you take a bite of something with lemon in it and you get that tart taste in your mouth and then it just makes you pucker...MMM!

At Christmas, I made Lemon-Cranberry Scones which were simply delish, so those will make an appearance at Terracotta Cafe at some point. Since then I've been wanting to do another lemon recipe and I've had lemon squares in the back of my mind. It doesn't help that I had an absolutely delicious lemon tart at Don Diego's on my birthday, so I've had lemon on my mind since.

So the other night, I whipped these up and they were super easy. The combination of the lemon and coconut was just magnificent!

Lemon Coconut Squares (16 squares)

1 cup flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 lemon, juice and rind

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, icing sugar and butter together thoroughly. Press crumb mixture evenly into an 8-inch square pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Then sprinkle with coconut.

Beat remaining ingredients together. Pour over the top. Bake for another 20 minutes. Cool and mark into squares with wet knife. Chill. When cold, cut completely and remove from pan. Serve.