Hidden Healthy & Deconstructed Cottage (Shepherd's) Pie

I watched the Marilyn Denis show the other day which was about opening ourselves up to new things. I found it quite inspirational for both food and in life. One of her guests was Julie Daniluk RHN and is a leading nutritionist. I love her enthusiasm and her health conscious approach! Today she was talking about how to bump up the nutrition for those folks eat too much of one thing... those who gravitate primarily to fast food, or who eat mostly veggies (no proteins), or those folks who primarily eat meat (no veggies). The idea was to open up your taste buds to new things and balance out your nutrition at the same time. Her strategy of choice was to hide the goodness in things that people tend to gravitate to, or as she called it... use "stealth" to get the good things in.

Whether you call it "stealth" or hidden healthy, the idea is the same. On the show, Julie had some excellent ideas and you can see them here so that you can open up your taste buds to new tastes and flavours! Hidden healthy is a great way to bump up your plant based protein, improve your fiber, and sneak in some extra nutrition, especially for those uncooperative family members!

Some of my successful hidden healthy include chili, spaghetti sauce, sloppy Joes, tourtière, and even meatloaf. In these items, I have simply used cooked lentils with the ground meat. Sometimes I reduce the meat by as much as half and slip in 1 to 2 cups of green or brown cooked lentils. In other cases, I just "bulk" up the dish by adding a little amount, up to about half a cup. It all depends on how well the lentils can be hidden. Spaghetti sauce or chili are dishes that are quite forgiving and as long as there is a lot going on, like lots of chopped up veggies, then I can safely add a larger amount of these nutritious pulses. In dishes like sloppy Joes, tourtière and meatloaf, lentils are added, but with a lighter hand to preserve the integrity of the original dish but also because there is not as much ability to hide much in them! Red lentils are great in dishes that get puréed and so you can hide a lot in your marinara sauce, lasagna meat sauce, and even in your broccoli soup.

So now, without further adieu, I give you one of my tried and true, family approved, hidden healthy meals. It is tasty, satisfying and really bumps up our veggie intake. Cottage Pie is one of my fall and winter go-to meals. It is economical, satisfying, and pretty darn tasty. Sometimes when I am in a hurry, I don't bake my cottage pie in a casserole. I call this my Deconstructed Cottage Pie. If you have a favourite Cottage Pie recipe (on this side of the pond we also call it Shepherd's Pie), you can certainly deconstruct your recipe too. 

This would also be a great recipe to make ahead. You could prepare the meat filling and do the potatoes up fresh on the day. The other thing I discovered was that this was a perfect recipe in which to hide lentils. I discovered that I could make this recipe more economical and incorporate some plant based protein with ZERO family uprising! Wooooot! 

There is a lot going on in the filling providing the perfect camouflage for green or brown lentils, so now I cut my ground meat in half and save the other half for another recipe and add in a cup and a bit of cooked lentils. To further hide the lentils, I found that mashing half the lentils into a chunky puree works like a dream too. Out of sight, out of mind really works.

Cook up your lentils; 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 cups water.

Sauté your veggies. 

Mix in your flavourings. Remember my budget tip for extra tomato paste? The tomato paste balls are from my stash in the freezer!

Add your broth and simmer for 30 minutes 

While your meat and lentil sauce is simmering, prepare and cook your regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. I like slicing in 1/4 inch slices for quick even cooking. 

Thicken the meat and lentil sauce with a flour and water slurry. Whisk until smooth!

Mix in your frozen mixed veggies. 

Ladle a few spoonfuls onto a plate and add a dollop or two of both kinds of potatoes. 

Deconstructed Cottage Pie 

 

1 large onion, medium dice

1 tbsp grape seed oil, or cooking oil of choice

2 stalks celery, chopped in a fine dice (nice but optional)

2 parsnips, chopped in a 1/4" dice 

4 oz cremini or button mushrooms medium dice (nice but optional)

1 lb lean ground beef or pork, pasture raised if possible 

OR 1/2 lb plus 1/2 cup  green or brown lentils + 1 1/2 cups water 

1 tsp dried thyme

2 garlic cloves, finely minced or 2 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp heaped Dijon mustard

2 cups beef broth, or chicken broth, organic if you can

1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, depending on personal tastes

1 tbsp Tamari

1/4 tsp ground pepper, or to taste

3 tbsp flour

3 tbsp stock or water water

3 cups fresh frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, corn and beans)

3 large potatoes, I like Yukon Golds or Russets

1/4 cup milk of choice

a drizzle of olive oil or melted butter

A generous pinch of Himalayan pink salt or sea salt

3 large sweet potatoes

1/8-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

a pinch of nutmeg (I like to use a whole nutmeg and use my rasp to freshly grate it)

A generous pinch of Himalayan pink salt or sea salt

 

In a medium, heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the celery and parsnips and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook until the water has evaporated and the celery is tender, about 5 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl.

In the same pot, add a little bit more oil and then scramble fry the ground beef or pork and break the meat up with a wooden spoon. Add in the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook until the meat is browned, stirring regularly. Add the tomato paste, Dijon mustard, broth, Worcestershire sauce, tamari. If you are using the lentils, add them now with the cooked onion mixture. Add the stock and bring everything to a boil, stirring regularly. Lower heat to about medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. 

 

In a small bowl whisk together the flour and water. Make sure the slurry is lump free. Add this mixture to the meat mixture and stir until the sauce has thickened. If the meat mixture is not "saucy", add a little water or more stock so that the meat mixture is not dry and the sauce has a gravy like feel to it.

 

Stir in the frozen mixed vegetables and stir to combine. Bring back to the bubble, and simmer gently until the veggies have heated through, about 10 minutes.

 

While the meat mixture is simmering, get the potatoes going.  Peel the regular potatoes and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Place in a medium sized pot, cover with water and add about 1 teaspoon of salt.

Prepare the sweet potatoes in the same fashion except fill the pot about 1/4 full of water so the potatoes steam more than they are boiled. I skip the salt though. You can also cook them in a steamer if you prefer.

 

Cook the potatoes over medium heat until they are tender. 

 

Drain the white potatoes, mash and add about 1/4 cup of warm milk and a little olive oil or butter, salt and pepper to taste, and mash till light and creamy. Cover and set aside. Drain the sweet potatoes, mash and add cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste and a pinch of nutmeg. Cover and set aside.

 

When the meat  mixture is all ready and both kinds of potatoes are done, you are ready to plate!

 

I like to put a few spoonfuls of the meat mixture in the centre of a plate and a spoonful or two of sweet potatoes and then the white potatoes as shown! Tada, deconstructed Cottage Pie.

 

 

Old Fashioned Apple & Raisin Bread Pudding

Today is a glorious day. Although it's still a little chilly out there, the sun is shining brightly and my internal batteries are getting charged as I sit in this window absorbing those lovely sunbeams. Add a hot cup of my guilty pleasure and some time to work on another blog post, I couldn't ask for a better start to the day!

After sorting and organizing my freezer last week, my mission was to use up my freezer finds and older pantry items. I'm happy to report that my mission is going well. I've tested my creativity and ingenuity for a second week with great success as demonstrated with my family's happy and satisfied tummies. My bank account is happy too!

I turned a little leftover spaghetti sauce into nifty pita pizzas using the meat sauce instead of the traditional pizza sauce. Then I topped them with some chopped zucchini, red peppers, a little grated cheddar and baked till the cheese was bubbly, a yummy invention! 

I made some amazing white bean brownies from a can of white kidney beans I had in my pantry, and as you know from my last post, my husband really enjoyed them, even after he found out about the beans! These will be made again, for sure! 

I also made my Deconstructed Cottage Pie filling with a half pound of ground beef and the mixed veggies from some recently discovered freezer finds. I had all the ingredients for my meals this week pretty much in stock so I only had to pick up a few fresh veggies for the week. Yes, shopping my freezer, fridge and pantry saved me some more cash this week too. I am definitely a happy camper!

You might recall that I found a whole bunch of frozen bread in my freezer last week. I also had some apples and eggs that needed to be used up to as well. At the time of my post, I was thinking bread pudding, which of course, is exactly what our grandmothers and their mothers before them would have made too!

Today, I would like to share that bread pudding recipe with you. This recipe is not the rich, drenched in cream recipe that bread pudding has become in many modern chef repertoires, but a little more like what my great Grannie would have made. Although this recipe was a little more frugal, it was tasty, and even felt a little decadent. In the end, it still satisfied that call for a sweet ending after dinner and made use of on hand ingredients. 

Here is a pic of the odds and ends I had of frozen bread. I usually hang on to the bread to make bread crumbs, but apparently, I haven't been using a lot of bread crumbs lately!

Old Fashioned Apple Raisin Bread Pudding

Cube enough stale bread or your freezer finds. White, whole wheat, multigrain, sprouted or even buns all work well. There should be enough cubed bread to generously fill a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. It should be gently heaped. 

Originally, I thought I might have enough cubed bread to make a 9 x 13 and an 8 x 8 pan of bread pudding, but after completing the preparation, I only had enough for a 9 x 13 pan. Sometimes cooking is not an exact science!

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and milk whisking thoroughly. Add the cinnamon, grated nutmeg, both sugars and vanilla (extract or ground beans). 

Add all of the bread and stir to coat all cubes. Stir in melted butter, raisins, and diced apple. The bread will float for awhile but it will eventually soak up the custard and sink. This should take about 15 minutes. 

While the pudding is standing, preheat the oven to 350° F. 

Once the bread has soaked up most of the custard, gently stir the mixture to make sure the apples and raisins are distributed throughout the pudding. Then, scrape everything into a lightly greased 9 x 13 baking dish.

 

Bake for about an hour until the bread pudding is set, slightly puffed, and a golden brown colour. 

 

Remove from the oven and brush lightly with the maple syrup. 

Serve warm!

Old Fashioned Raisin and Apple Bread Pudding 

INGREDIENTS:

Stale bread; enough to generously fill a 9 x 13 inch baking pan when cubed. It should be gently heaped. If you are short stale bread, top up with lightly toasted bread. 

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 - 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

6 eggs

4 cups milk

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tbsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp ground vanilla bean

3/4 cup coconut palm sugar

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

1 cup raisins

4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped in a 1/2" dice

2 tbsp maple syrup

METHOD:

Cube your bread and generously fill a 9 x 13 inch baking pan so that the bread cubes are gently heaped. 

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and milk whisking thoroughly. Add the cinnamon, grated nutmeg, both sugars and vanilla (extract or ground beans). 

Add all of the bread and stir to coat all cubes. Stir in melted butter, raisins, and diced apple. The bread will float for awhile but it will eventually soak up the custard and sink. This should take about 15 minutes. 

While the pudding is standing, preheat the oven to 350° F. 

Once the bread has soaked up most of the custard, gently stir the mixture to make sure the apples and raisins are distributed throughout the pudding. Then, scrape everything into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. 

Bake for about an hour until the bread pudding is set, slightly puffed, and a golden brown colour. 

Remove from the oven and brush lightly with the maple syrup. 

Serve warm!

Eat In, Eat Real, On Budget & Ranch Dressing

I have always been quite frugal. As a child, I managed to keep my Christmas candy until almost Easter, my Easter candy till at least June, and my Halloween candy till Christmas. I managed this great feat not because we were given so much, but because I savoured each piece and wanted to make it last. Later, this saving thing extended to my piggy bank and ultimately to my bank account. I have always been budget conscious and not one to spend more than I made... I am a real saver, sadly, sometimes to a fault, but that is another story!

During my starving student days, I learned that cooking at home was far cheaper and better for me than eating out, despite the fact that my mom told me so, I had to discover it for myself. Stretching a dollar in the kitchen while not losing out on the quality of my meals became a badge of honour, even way back then. Now, while all grown up, with a family income far better than that of a starving student, my budget conscious self reigns supreme in my kitchen. I don't have to use a calculator while grocery shopping anymore for fear of spending more than the actual cash in my wallet, but I work diligently to stay within my budget while providing healthy meals and snack choices for my family.

Groceries are expensive and we have seen a drastic increase in the prices of real food. Sadly, a couple of red peppers, organic or not, cost more than the cardboard, sugar and chemical laden Pop Tarts in the breakfast aisle. Because my health and well being are important to me, I prefer to eat whole foods found in the perimeter of the grocery store. I buy very few processed, made for me foods, but when I do, I try to minimize the chemical additives and make sure these items have good nutrition profiles. Some of my go to products would include coconut, olive and grape seed oils, some breads, pitas and wraps, plain yogurt and a few condiments.

Given that food is becoming more expensive, I try very hard not to waste any of it. If I buy it, I want to make sure to eat it. Not wasting is one of my strategies for staying on budget. Buy it and use it, or just buy what you need. "Waste not; want not", I believe is the saying, and it is as relevant today as it was years ago when my parents used to say it to me. Mom and dad, I'm not rolling my eyes anymore!

Over the next few blog posts, I will share my favourite budget and time saving tips for eating real, not made in a factory kitchen, food. If you are the person in charge of meal making, and would like a glimpse into how I stretch a dollar in my kitchen and make time to prepare mostly real food, the next few posts are for you! Let me share my time saving and budget friendly tips with you.

My Top Tips To Eat Well and Stay on Budget - Part 1

ONE: Set A Budget
Set a monthly and weekly food budget. Your food budget is part of your variable household expenditures and the amount you set is dependant on how much of your family income is left after fixed costs like rent/mortgage, utilities, house insurance and car payment and insurance. The remainder of your monthly earnings is divided amongst variable expenses like transportation, groceries, medical/dental, clothing, entertainment/eating out and miscellaneous/other expenses like pets, charities, interests and hobbies. For more information on setting budgets, please visit my budgeting and family financial hero Gail VazOzlade. She has an excellent web site and some excellent books on balancing your budget, getting out of or staying out of debt!

While on the subject of budget, you should also get a feel for the cost of your usual grocery items. I know prices change, but getting a "feel" for how much your groceries cost will help with your budgeting process. Decide ahead of time what items need to be organic, or fair trade, or just conventionally grown/raised. Know that organic or fair trade will cost a little more, so it is important to take this into consideration. Realistically, a family of 6 will need a higher food budget than a family of 3. If you are dedicating most of your grocery dollars to real food, little to no money on take out or convenience items, you should be able to meet budget requirements if you work hard on getting the most bang for your buck by shopping the sale items, buying budget friendly foods (for example, ground beef instead of steak or house brand vs national brands for the occasional made for you products) and buying only what you need.

TWO: Know What's In Your Culinary Toolbox
Take some time to write down all the meals in your cooking repertoire. Prioritize them based on how much your family enjoys them and how long it takes to prepare. For example, the best loved and the speediest to make should be at the top of your list. You should also categorize these best loved meals based on weekend vs weekday meals, make ahead or make ahead components or super speedy (30-40 minutes, start to finish), and of course low, medium to high price points. It is also helpful to know which meals you can throw together off the top of your head. These are the meals you reserve for nights you need to be fast if you haven't got a made ahead meal or some of the components ready ahead of time and in the fridge. I have always found making a meal referencing a recipe takes a little longer to prepare than the ones I have committed to memory. If you have meals that you use a recipe for, I recommend that you copy them onto recipe cards or recipe binder and stored in one place. This will make your recipes easily accessible when you need them and assist in your planning process and during preparation time.

I do a general repertoire for breakfasts, lunches - both packed and stay at home lunches as well as snacks and desserts too. The better you know ALL the meals in your arsenal, we can call this your "culinary toolbox", the easier it will be to make your meal plans, prepare your meals and stay within budget.

THREE: Simple Can Be Better
When figuring out your meal repertoire, don't underestimate how simple meals can be satisfying and tasty. More importantly, cooking simple meals may also help keep you on point sot that you cook real food and are not tempted to order in because time is short. Healthy and satisfying meals don't have be fancy and all gourmet like on those cooking shows either, they just need to taste good and be nutritionally sound. Sometimes a simple meal of a roasted chicken leg or broiled pork chop served with two steamed veggies (at least half your plate for veggies) is all that you need. You can fancy it up a bit with a quick spice rub or condiment for the meat, perhaps some apple or cranberry sauce, or a dollop of pesto. Even some leftover gravy can make a bare bones meal feel like Sunday dinner! Don't forget, a hearty soup and sandwich or salad can be most satisfying too!

FOUR: Prepare A Weekly Meal Plan

Once you know what's in your culinary tool box, your next step is to make a meal plan for the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. Create a weekly meal plan based meals in your culinary tool box AND the whole food items on sale in your grocery flyer and the items you already have in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer (always shop your pantry first!). Choose your favourite store or the store offering the MOST deals that work with your menu plan. I know some folks visit a variety of stores but I think the extra gas to drive around and value of my time to shop in a number of stores just chew away any money saved.

Below, I have prepared a sample menu plan for a week that was based on the items on sale in my favourite grocery store and the items I already have in my pantry, fridge and freezer. This allows me to put only the items I need on my list. Also, remember that your meals can be warmed up versions of a previous meal.  For example, in my Sample Meal Plan, one of the breakfasts was warmed up pancakes from a previous Sunday breakfast. I am assuming that I made a really big batch and froze enough pancakes for a quick week morning breakfast. I can also do the same for the Sunday French toast breakfast on the Sample Meal Planner. You could also make a bunch of extra pita pizzas and freeze them for a future boxed lunch for the kids too.

FIVE: Weekend Prep
Spend some time on the weekend to prep your meals or some of the components. If you have something that requires lengthy simmering like a pasta sauce or some assembly like a lasagna, or even the sauce or marinade for a stir fry or slow cooker recipe, take care of some or all the prep on the weekend. The more organized you are for the week means that meals can be put together quickly and easily so you won't feel the need to do take out or eat factory made food to simplify your life.  

Some of my examples for weekend prep include:

Plan to make a batch of easy cookies, quick bread, muffins or granola bars for the week. These are excellent in lunches and freeze well. No need to buy the icky junk in the grocery store bakery or the boxed cookies.

When I have bananas that are really spotty, I will make banana bread to freeze for the upcoming week. My family loves banana bread for a lunch or anytime snack or dessert. In fact, I think my family ignores the fresh bananas on purpose, just so I will make it!

Making sauces, marinades and condiments like apple or cranberry sauces or pesto ahead is a great time saver. For instance, I like to make my stir fry sauce and store it in one of my many 500 mL mason jars. This way, all I need to do is give it a shake and pour it into my stir fry! Who needs bottled sauces? Sorry VH!

I often make a batch of my favourite spaghetti sauce and then transfer the finished sauce to a plastic container or a 750 mL mason jar. If refrigerator space is tight and spaghetti isn't on the menu until Thursday or so, I will often freeze my sauce. If you decide to do this kind of thing with your make ahead meals, make sure you allow for the appropriate head space in your freezer containers, especially if you are using jars. I generally leave at least 1.5 inches to prevent the jars from breaking.




My family loves a Canadian Living recipe for Slow Cooker Pulled Pork which I serve on top of brown rice instead of a bun. As an aside, slow cookers are another great way to make sure you eat home cooked meals. Is there anything better than coming home to the smell of dinner already cooking? Anyway, the recipe has a sauce which I prepare and refrigerate in a mason jar.  In the morning, I do a quick sear on the meat (if I have time, but it's not critical in my opinion), pour some sauce in the slow cooker, plop the meat in and smother with the rest of the sauce. I use wide mouth jars so I can get a rubber spatula in to scrape out every bit of sauce. 10 minutes in the morning, and dinner will almost be ready when I get home! Make the rice, chop the raw veggies garnish and prep my steamed green veggie and dinner is on the table in 30-40 minutes (faster if I've cooked the rice on the weekend!).

If a soup is on the menu, I make it on the weekend and store it in a glass jar. Then all I have to do is warm up the soup and whip up the side - maybe a sandwich or salad and biscuits! "Easy peasy, lemon squeezy"!

Pictured below is a sample dinner of broccoli soup (made in advance and warmed up) with a little cheddar cheese, a mixed green salad with strawberries, sliced almonds and a little goat cheese (I freeze smaller chunks of goat cheese to thaw and use as a salad garnish), and some seasoned cheese drop biscuits (measure the dry ingredients on the weekend and store in a sealed container for when you need it).








I try to have a salad at least twice a week with dinner. Greens, organic if you can, are so good for you! Add extras like red pepper, grated carrot or not! Even a handful of raisins, dried cranberries or some fresh fruit make the salad a little more special. I also find the addition of dried or fresh fruit helps to encourage the kids to eat their greens!

I haven't purchased bottled dressing in over a year now because I have found that with the right recipe, homemade is so much better. To make it a little more convenient, I make up a couple kinds and store them in my mason jars. It only takes about 5 minutes per dressing and then you have the convenience of ready made that tastes a whole lot better with fewer or no chemical additives. WIN-WIN-WIN, hurrah!

Homemade Ranch Recipe

My husband and youngest are big fans of Ranch Dressing. This being the case, Ranch Dressing was the first dressing I worked on. The catch was to make it "taste" as close as possible to the Kraft version to appease the taste buds of my fussy teen. I've come pretty darn close. You will see that I use store bought mayo in this recipe, but it is something I have not been brave enough to try, especially since it requires raw eggs. Perhaps one day I will give it a go. I also use plain organic 2% to 3.5% fat organic yogurt. I find it makes for a lovely dressing and also some amazing homemade fruit yogurt cups for lunch.

I store the dressing in my 500 mL mason jars and pour from them too at serving time. If you want to make serving time a little more pretty, use a little jug or a put a small ladle in the jar. In the picture, I made a half recipe of the Ranch Dressing and used a 250 mL mason jar.





Ingredients
1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise, regular fat is best
1 cup plain yogurt
2 pinches of onion powder
2 pinches of garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried dill or 1 tsp fresh***
1 tsp, heaped, dried parsley
1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
A few grinds of pepper
4 tsp water

Method
Put all the ingredients in a 500 mL wide mouth mason jar and whisk well. If necessary, add a few more drops of water to get a pourable consistency. It's THAT easy!

This dressing will need at least an hour for the flavours to develop. If you want a more pronounced flavour, add a little more of the seasonings after letting the dressing sit for a few hours. You can always add more onion powder, garlic, parsley or dill, but do so gradually. I learned the hard way not to add too much garlic or onion powder, because the dressing got stronger in flavour after chilling over night. Keep in mind that the shelf life of your homemade dressing will depend on how old your yogurt and mayonnaise are. If your yogurt and mayonnaise are fresh, your dressing will last for 7 days, but because it is homemade, try not to let it hang around too long. Make what you need for the week.

Feel free to play around with the quantities of seasonings. Make the flavours more pronounced by increasing the amounts of seasonings. You can make it yours. My recipe was designed to mimic the bottled stuff... A win for this mom, but perhaps not flavourful enough for your tastes.

***BUDGET TIP!***
Sometimes I have fresh herbs like thyme, parsley or dill in my fridge. If I don't think I'm going to use them before they spoil, I carefully dry them on a clean dish towel and then store them in a freezer bag in the freezer. I can grab what I need when ever I require that particular herb.

Burrito Bowls: Two or Three Ways!

On my recent food  journey, I found one of the largest stumbling blocks to eating more plant based and less refined sugar has been my family's resistance to embrace this healthier lifestyle. It has been a tricky juggling act but I have found that my favourite techniques have been "hidden healthy", learning just how much I can hide without getting caught and working diligently to modify my traditional recipes to closely replicate the originals while improving on the nutritional value. Some days, I've even resorted to cooking 2 separate meals which is a total pain in the you know where! So, when I come across a meal that requires very little finagling to provide a meal that makes both me AND my family happy, I can truly do the Happy Dance.

While I was "away", my daughter introduced me to burrito bowls, which we could also call "deconstructed burritos" in the foodie world... ooooo how fancy! This is such a simple meal and easy to customize based on what you have on hand. You can make it completely plant based and without much effort, provide the meat eaters in your family with the meat they want. Yes, you can satisfy the vegans, vegetarians and the  omnivores without cooking 3 completely different meals! Wahoo! 

The hardest part about the Burrito Bowl is the prep work, and certainly if you have a knife, a box grater, a blender, a pot and 2 fry pans, you've got this covered.

Basic Burrito Bowl Components (some or all of the veggies ROCK)

• Brown Rice
• Refried beans
• Kale, mixed greens, or romaine lettuce, sliced finely into ribbons
• Carrot, grated
• Zucchini, grated
• Bell peppers, yellow, red or orange, OR a combination finely diced
• Green onions, finely chopped
• Tomatoes, finely diced/chopped
• Seasoned ground meat - beef, chicken, or pork (pasture raised and organic if possible)
• Sour cream or dairy free sour cream (scroll down the page to find the recipe) or organic plain yogurt.
• Old cheddar cheese, grated
• Fresh limes

Seasoned Ground Meat

2 tablespoons oregano

1 tablespoon chile powder

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoon garlic powder (or 2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced)

2 teaspoons onion powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 lb ground beef, chicken or pork - pasture raised if possible

Mix all ingredients together.

Brown ground meat until well done.

Add 1/2 cup of water and seasonings and let simmer until liquid is absorbed.

Add additional salt if necessary. 

Refried Beans

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp chilli powder

2 cups black turtle beans or one 19 oz can, drained and rinsed 

2/3 cup chicken or veggie broth, plus more if needed (veggie broth for vegan or vegetarian)

Salt and pepper 

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves 

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender.
Stir in the garlic and chili powder and cook for a few minutes.
Stir in the beans and slowly add broth, cooking until the beans are warmed through, about 5-6 minutes.
Mash the beans coarsely with the back of a wooden spoon (I used a potato masher first), adding more broth to moisten, if needed. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

Stir in the cilantro** at the very end.

**Note:  If you don't have any fresh cilantro and IF you happen to have some cilantro pest cubes in the freezer, you can toss 2-3 thawed cubes in to the mix instead.

Assembly

In a large shallow bowl, I like to use a pasta bowl, put a scoop or two of  rice, meat (if using), refried beans, carrots, zucchini, greens, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Squeeze some fresh lime over the whole works; add a big dollop of sour cream, regular or non dairy and a sprinkle of cheese (if desired). 

There you have it... a meal for omnivores, vegans and vegetarians alike with not a lot of extra effort. For the vegans, HOLD all animal products. For the vegetarians, HOLD the meat, and for the omnivores, EVERYTHING into the bowl! This is the perfect meal to satisfy a variety of tastes - at the same time. I know I will need more of these kinds of meals to make meal preparation easier for me when I would prefer a plant based meal but my family would not. I will have to put my thinking cap on for that!

BUDGET TIP

Sometimes I mix a spoonful of mayonnaise in with about a 1/2 cup of yogurt to round out the flavour. It is almost a dead ringer for sour cream. Since I always have plain yogurt and mayo on hand, this is a great option because I don't always use sour cream in large quantities so the rest of the container usually spoils before I do. No tossing money in the green bin for this girl!

What To Do With Orange Peels: Part 2

It seems like forever since my last post.  Truth be known, I have had this post ready for some time now.  The catch being, I wanted to fine tune the attached video. I did a practice one when I first wrote this and had great intentions of doing a better instructional video.  Alas, this is not to be (for now).  The summer has been busy and I haven't been able to catch a family member to hold the camera; so until that happens, my experimental video will have to do. I will try to do better in the future... after all, Rome was not built in a day.

In my last post, you heard about my trials and tribulations as a child against my arch enemy the orange! I also shared one of my favourite green cleaners with you! I hope you have had a chance to make a batch of your own.  

Zesting & Freezing the Orange Peel

Another favourite use for the orange peels is to cook with them. Sometimes a recipe calls for just orange zest, but I have no need for the fruit and I am not hungry enough to eat it. In order to prepare myself for this eventuality, I will zest the oranges before peeling and sectioning the oranges. Then I put these fine shreds into a small wide mouth mason jar which is stored in the freezer. I make sure to put the new zest at the bottom if there is already zest in the jar (last in, first out). So the next time I need zest but no orange, I am prepared!

Sometimes, I already have two jars of cleaning solution in the fridge and have sectioned a number of oranges for a salad. Now what?  I don't want to waste that gorgeous peel so I remove the pith from the orange peel with a really sharp knife. Then toss it into, yes, a small wide mouth mason jar, and store it in the freezer until I need it.  When I use this orange peel, I will finely chop it as you will see later. 

I have prepared a short video tutorial to show you how I remove the pith. If you use a really sharp knife, you will be able to run it horizontally along the peel to remove the white pith. Mind your fingers!

Once I have removed the pith, I take the peels and pop into that glass mason jar to store in my freezer for another day.

Finely Chopping Orange Peel

 

Some recipes don't require the fine zest of orange (or lemon) peel and a finely chopped peel will do just fine.  When I need finely chopped orange peel,mi can grab whatever I need from my freezer.

I take each piece of peel and slice through the peel lengthwise, making very tiny ribbons.

Once the peel has been sliced into ribbons, I turn the pile and cit again in the opposing direction, creating a super tiny dice. If necessary, keeping chopping until your dice is as fine as you want it.

Keep in mind, that you can do this with lemons too. I have often used recipes that call for just the juice, so why not juice you lemons, remove the pith and save the peels for a rainy day!

Father's Day Dinner - Salads - Part 2

Of course we can't just have meat for Father's Day! What goes better with ribs than a potato salad and a cabbage and apple salad? The nice thing about both of these salads is they are make ahead. Perfect sides for entertaining because you can make them in advance! The other nice thing about salads is they make it easy to include MORE veggies into our daily meals. As an aside,  some folks might find having 2 "creamy" salads on the same dinner plate is a bit of overkill, but since my goal was to use up things in my fridge and take advantage of what was in season, slightly mis-matched meals happen. If I hadn't had a craving for potato salad, I might have been inclined to cook the baby potatoes and serve them with a little butter and chopped parsley to avoid "creamy dressing monotony". No one complained though, and the plates were empty, so I guess I'm golden!

 

Our local farmer's market has been on the go since May and I have been going every Saturday to take advantage of our local and fresh produce. Randy laughs at how excited I get over a bag of mixed greens... please go easy on the arugula Bea (FYI, for my taste buds, a LITTLE arugula goes a long way)!  Fortunately for me, my favourite vendor, provides us with a heads up on Facebook as to what goodies are going to be at the market on Saturday. This helps a lot with meal planning. I always shop the farmers market first, before going to the grocery store just in case they are out of some of the items I was planning to get. 

For my local Quinte West readers, I strongly urge you to visit Bea and Dan at the market. You can't go wrong with fresh, tasty and CHEMICAL FREE produce! Please visit their web site -->  Natural Themes Farms - Produce  And just in case you are interested, these folks also have a variety of indigenous plantings for your garden --> Natural Themes Farms - Native Plants  ... a well deserved shout because of the eco-holic in me!

 

 

This past Saturday, I was able to procure some beautiful baby potatoes, green onions, carrots, and spinach. The spinach was earmarked for breakfast smoothies and some side salads through the week; the carrots and the rest of the veggies for our Fathers Day feast, (oh, and the carrot tops ended up in a pesto for the carrot soup I made)! The baby potatoes and the green onions definitely rocked our potato salad and the carrots were great along side of the shredded green and purple cabbage (already in my fridge) in my supercharged cabbage and apple salad.

 

The following dressing recipe for the potato salad is actually a salad dressing I have been making as a substitute for the store bought variety which I no longer buy.  Now that I have fine tuned the seasoning, Erika doesn't mind it as much and has finally accepted the fact that Kraft Ranch Dressing will no longer be found in our fridge. My recipe is quite mild in flavour as I was mimicking the store bought version. 

If you would like a more flavourful dressing for your tossed green salads, feel free to increase the quantities to 1/4 tsp for the onion powder and the garlic powder; 3/4 tsp parsley and 3/4 tsp dill (fresh or fresh-frozen). Keep in mind, no matter which seasoning proportions you choose, the flavours will take at least 2-3 hours in the fridge to develop and intensify. I like to make my dressing the day before for best results. 

Since I already had a batch of my Ranch-like dressing in the refrigerator, I used it for dressing the potato salad. The only catch is, I had already used it some of it for salads and then I didn't measure how much was actually left before I poured it into the potato salad... DUH! If I had to GUESS, it was a little more than 1/2 a cup. Given this conundrum, I am providing you with the full recipe for my dressing. If you have any leftovers after dressing your potato salad, I strongly urge you to try it on your favourite mixed green salad! You might just be able to give up store bought Ranch dressing too.

Potato Salad

Serves 4-6

1.5  quarts of baby potatoes, mine were red skinned, purple and white 

3 eggs, hard cooked from happy chickens

4 green onions, whites finely chopped, greens thinly, sliced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

1/2 lime, juiced thoroughly

1/2 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper

Dressing

(Make ahead 2 hours or the day before is recommended)

1 cup organic yogurt

1/2 cup mayonaise

2 pinches of salt

1/8 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 heaped tsp dried parsley (fresh is you have it)

1/2 tsp dill (I had some fresh stuff in the freezer) If using dried, I would start off with 1/4 tsp or so, and after about an hour, check for flavour. I find dried herbs can be more intense in flavouring than fresh. You can always add more, it's hard to take it out!

Cook the potatoes in lightly salted water, until just tender. The time will depend on the size of your potatoes... but 6-10 minutes should do the trick.

Drain, and cool quickly in an ice bath. Drain again and pour out onto a cookie sheet lined with a tea towel. I like to make sure that there is no extra moisture on the potatoes.

Hard cook the eggs and let cool.

Peel the eggs, place them in a large mixing bowl and then mash with a fork. Make sure the egg white in small bits.

Add the baby potatoes to the eggs. For the small ones, cut them in half; for the ones that are bigger then single bite-size, cut them in quarters. Toss the eggs and potatoes. 

Add the salt, pepper, diced celery and green onions. Toss again to evenly distribute everything.

Add a 1/2 cup of the dressing and the juice of the lime, gently combine. If your salad still looks a little dry, add a few tablespoons more of the dressing and stir. Repeat as required until you get desired consistency... just make sure your salad is not drowning in the dressing, unless you like it that way of course! 

Scrape your salad into a sealed container and let stand in the refrigerator for at least two hours. You will want the dressing and potatoes to be very well acquainted and the salad nice and cold at serving time. 

Now on to my cabbage and apple salad (on steroids)... I assume it's a hit at every potluck I attend because I come home with an empty bowl!

OOPS! I forgot the garnish for the picture.

Cabbage and Apple Salad - Supercharged
Serves 6-8

***For shredding the cabbage, I like to use my knife, but feel free to use your food processor.  I use my box grater with the course shred size for the carrots.***

3 cups red cabbage, shredded
1/3 medium head green cabbage, shredded
3 medium carrots, grated
3 large leaves curly kale, stemmed and sliced chiffonade style (in RIBBONS)
3 tart/sweet apples like McIntosh or Empire, chopped with skins on.
1 cup dried cranberries

Dressing
1 cup organic yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1-2 tsp maple syrup (optional)
2 pinches salt

Garnish
3/4 cup toasted walnut pieces or
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds or
a combination of both

Combine the shredded green cabbage, carrots, and cranberries together in a large bowl. Put back into a large Ziploc bag or large sealed storage container.  This allows the cranberries to plump up with the moisture from the veggies. Store the shredded red cabbage separately, otherwise it will turn the salad pink.

About an hour before serving time, you can take the cabbage mix and red cabbage out of the fridge and combine together. Add in the chiffonade kale and chopped apple. 

 

This salad is SO pretty

Starting with about half of the dressing, pour into the salad and stir till combined.  Continue adding the dressing until the salad is well coated but not drowning.  Put back into the fridge to stay cold.

At serving time, sprinkle salad with the nuts/seeds for a garnish.  If there are nut and seed allergies, leave them out of the salad, put them on the table and let guests sprinkle there own garnishes themselves.

Yes, it was a super tasty Father's Day dinner. There was no family mutiny, I ended up with leftovers, and it was a nice family dinner. Randy's mom joined us too!