Time flies!

Almost the end of September already! I had great intentions when I started this blog, but kind of let nights to for way too long!!! I’ve been snapping lots of pictures of our meals, but never seem to find the time to post them along with the recipes. Here are some of the highlights of the past few months! A green bean frittata turned out to be a late summer hit. We would throw in whatever happened to come in our CSA! Parsnips, carrots, broccoli, etc along with lots of garlic and onions.

I love using a slow cooker to get a healthy meal on the table, even when working full time. On our first day of school, we slow cooked a whole chicken. It was delicious!

Our friend, Monica introduced us to cooking with an Indian spice, fenugreek (kasoori methi). We have been throwing it into all of the dahls we have been making, whether with black-eyed peas or lentils. We just LOVE it!

Just had to put a photo in of Caelib holding our back-to-school muffins. No one knew they were kamut, spelt and hemp hearts with banana and blueberries! I am obsessed with using coconut oil for everything now and these muffins were no exception! 🙂

Anyway, hopefully I won’t wait months and months to post again! 🙂

Frittata

For lunch today I was feeling like eggs, but since it was a relaxing Sunday, I figured I might as well make something healthier than just scrambled eggs.

I chopped up broccoli, mushrooms, spinach and onion. I was VERY fine so no one would recognize the spinach!!! Although Cdub is a healthier eater, since he started school, he seems to have picked up an aversion to anything green!!! So with the spinach and broccoli hidden, I knew he would gobble it up! I stir-fried the vegetables until the spinach was wilted.

As the veggies were cooking, I whipped together 8 eggs, about 1 cup of almond milk, salt and pepper. I shredded a half a block of cheese and threw that into the mix. I then added the vegetables, quickly mixed it up and put in a muffin tray to bake. I baked them at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. I used a Pampered Chef stoneware muffin pan, so I generally find the cooking time is longer than in a metal pan.

The frittata muffins weds definitely a huge hit! Cdub even asked to have them for his school lunch! 🙂

It would have been quick and easy…but I managed to slice my finger when chopping the vegetables. It hurt and there was lots of blood, but luckily the food wasn’t contaminated! After some hypericum oil and band aids, my finger was well-enough to continue cooking! Yes, it was worth it! 🙂

On the Quest for the Perfect Carrot Muffin

I have been trying to find a good carrot muffin recipe for awhile! I have tried a few, but this one has potential! I found this recipe online:

http://livingwithgastroparesis.com/cupcake-bust-perfect-carrot-muffins/

I want a recipe that can be made in the Vitamix and this one met that requirement, although I guess I could do the wet ingredients from any recipe in the Vitamix! These turned out nice and moist. I will use this recipe again, but I would mix in some raisins, as I found myself wanting more texture in the muffins, but this goes against the whole purpose of the recipe judging from the site where from which I grabbed it. I liked how it used coconut oil and a banana! Very healthy and easy to digest!

You can see that Cdub thoroughly enjoyed the muffins which were more like cupcakes than muffins really! 🙂

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Green Smoothies

Since we got a Vitamix, our eating has dramatically changed. We always have seemingly huge around of greens, fruits and vegetables in our fridge…definitely not a bad thing! The Vitamix makes amazing smoothies out of pretty much anything! We rarely feel the need for sugary treats anymore! Omar has taken over coming up with interesting flavour combinations, while rotating the ingredients to ensure maximum nutritional benefit!

This week, he created an amazing smoothie! He used 1 bunch of baby spinach, 3 leaves of collard greens, 2 mineolas, 1 pear, 1/4 lime, 1 cup mango, 1 tsp local honey, 1 tsp coconut oil, 1 cup coconut water and 1 cup of water. The smoothie was such an amazing colour and the combination of coconut oil and honey, gave it a slightly sweet taste. We always use organic greens, fruits and vegetables to maximize the vitamins and minerals.

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Chicken Soup & Congee for a Sick Boy

Thursday night, Caelib woke up with a stomach bug which lasted the better part of Friday. This meant that our plan to eat our leftovers wouldn’t work. I decided to make a quick chicken soup…

I boiled 5 chicken legs in water until the meat was falling of the bone. I added a bit of apple cider vinegar in hopes of drawing out more minerals from the bones even though I wasn’t committed to boil it for too long like a bone broth.

I then added sliced carrots (we have an abundance from our CSA!), white radish and two potatoes. For flavour I added a cube of chicken soup base, as well as three cloves of fresh garlic, a red onion, thyme, basil and black pepper. I didn’t add salt since it was already in the cube, but we did add a bit while eating since there was no salt flavour at all. Caelib had a few sips of the broth, but it still felt like too much.

Today, I decided to make congee with the leftover soup. I rinsed and boiled about 1 cup of basmati rice with about 4-5 cups of water. When the rice was soft, I added in the leftover soup and turned it down to a simmer. The soup mixed in really well and Caelib loved the congee! 🙂

After some doses of arsenicum, a visit to our naturopath for Bowen therapy and a dose of pulsatilla, his appetite is back and this was a perfect back-to-eating food! 🙂

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Fun with our CSA share! :)

We absolutely love our weekly shares from Plan B Organic Farms! 🙂

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Pizza, Chicken & Casserole

Tuesday night, we made our own pizzas by using naan, pasta sauce, mushrooms and shredded cheese. This was quick and easy since Tuesday is skating night. Sorry… no time for pictures!

Wednesday, I made mashed potatoes, chicken with yellow peppers and mushrooms in an Asian sauce with a side of corn. There were no left-overs!!!! 🙂

The recipe for the sauce for the chicken and vegetables was Bragg’s liquid soy seasoning, a few drops of sesame oil and honey. I learned how to make this simple marinade at a Real Canadian Superstore cooking class and have used it several times in a variety of dishes. I have also mixed it with olive oil to make a slaw dressing. I cooked the veggies and chicken in the cast iron pan which gave it even more flavour.

Tonight, I used the cabbage delivered in our weekly CSA box to inspire the meal. I browned ground beef from Rowe Farms with garlic, added crushed tomatoes, sea salt, pepper, thyme and basil and half a head of cabbage. I boiled this for about 20 minutes until the cabbage wilted. I then mixed in some shredded cheese and added some on top before popping the whole pot into the oven for about 15 minutes.

The cabbage casserole was a hit, but next time I will add a bit of spice somehow! 🙂

Happy St Patrick’s Day

To celebrate St Patrick’s Day, I made Irish Stew! I combined beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage, parsnips, onions and beets. I added a bottle of Mill Street Organic lager, some water, thyme, salt and pepper. I baked it for 1 hour at 350 degrees and then 2 more hours at 275 degrees. I must admit it turned out perfectly! 🙂

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March 16

Thanks to our CSA share, every week we have loads of veggies to try. Since we’ve been visiting my family for the last three days, there were tonnes of vegetables just waiting to be stir-fried. Tonight I’ve combined cabbage, grape tomatoes with yellow and red peppers. I seasoned this with fresh garlic and fresh turmeric! 🙂 Towards the end of cooking, I added some sesame oil and hoisin sauce for a little flair.

We also had basmati rice to go with our mango chicken breasts.

Once again, I forgot to take a picture of the final outcome!

Time to Start

Since we have been trying to eat healthier, I’ve been experimenting with many different recipes I find online. I figured I should start a blog to track our adventures in food. There never seemed to be a good time to start, but I have have had it with wasting time browsing through my favourites looking for saved recipes! Now is the time to start! If I document wisely, I should be able to reuse some of these recipes…some that were so good that we said we must have them again! Let’s hope my plan works! 🙂