Hummus... My Favourite Summer Spread and Greens

Warmer weather is upon us, and I hope it's here to stay. With warmer weather comes a whole new way of eating for this kid! I love the lighter foods during the spring and summer months.  Seasonal greens, the huge variety of salads, veggies and dip are the bomb, and of course, we can't forget the barbecue. The barbecue may be a little tricky for me this season because of my choice to cut down on my meat consumption, but that is for another post. 

I have been taking advantage of our local farmers market. One of the vendors there runs a chemical free farm. All of their produce is grown free of pesticides, herbicides and all things nasty. They aren't certified organic (that adds a lot to the overhead and the end cost of organic food), but I am confident that they are truly providing me with superior produce.  I have been enjoying a variety of mixed greens, Swiss chard, Russian kale (new to me this year), baby spinach, green onions, asparagus and fiddleheads. I tried fiddleheads for the first time but I can't say that they knocked my socks off. Maybe I didn't prepare them correctly. I will try them again next spring when they are in season.

 

Russian Kale - SO good in salads and green smoothies!

***Environmental Blurb*** As an aside, this farm also grows indigenous species of plants to sell to the public. Many plants in our gardens, are not from this country or area, and subsequently they "get away from us" because they are especially invasive, and are unleashed into nature. They take over our forests by choking out our indigenous species of greenery and trees.  For all you gardeners... this is NOT a pretty sight and something to be cautious about!

As I mentioned, I love eating dips in the warmer months.  One of my favourites is hummus. I have enjoyed hummus, even before my more plant based food journey. In fact, it was my preferred way to eat legumes... Well at least chickpeas!  On one of my grocery store trips, I decided to go all out and pick up a small sized bag of dried chickpeas, just to try. Traditionally, I have always opted to canned beans.  They are convenient, but as of late, I have been concerned about the BPA in canned goods. In addition, when you look at the price of 1 can of beans and look at the price of a bag of uncooked beans, the money saved is so worth a little prep and cooking time! Essentially I got 3 cans of cooked beans for the price of 1 can! I LOVE budget friendly food.

So, for the very first time, I prepared my own freshly prepared chickpeas. I soaked them overnight, drained them and cooked them till tender. Cooking soaked beans take 60 to 90 minutes. Not a hard process at all. I can't recall exactly how long I cooked mine, but I started doing "taste tests" around the 60 minute mark.  Once they were tender, I drained and rinsed them in colander. When they were drained, I poured them onto a tea towel lined baking sheet to remove all excess water. From this point, I poured 4 cups of the cooked beans into a container to be put into the refrigerator. I had plans for them (hummus and chickpea patties). For the remainder of the beans (conveniently, 2 more cups), I put into a mason jar to freeze them for a future use. I didn't know you could freeze them... I will let you know how my future chickpea recipe turns out using the frozen ones. As an added note about dried beans, my hummus and chickpea patties made from freshly cooked chickpeas were such a success, and now that I know that cooking them is SO easy, I decided to buy the HUGE bag pictured below.  Whoot... 2 Kilos of chickpeas and oh, so many more servings of hummus and a variety of MUST TRY new recipes! I can't wait.

 

And now... onto Hummus!  My favourite spread for snacks, lunches and light dinners.

 

Tada! Hummus so darn good, I think I could ice a cake with it.  This recipe is essentially Michael Bonacini's recipe that I have been using over the years. It is the recipe he provided from a City Line episode so many years ago.  Today, I ramped it up with the zest of half a lemon.  It was a perfect choice. The flavour of the hummus was raised to levels unknown to the run of the mill hummus'. I highly recommend it! Besides, since you need the freshly squeezed lemon, <BUDGET TIP> you might as well use the zest! 

 

I enjoy hummus with whole grain pitas, or "Thinbuns" (by Dempsters), or crackers; with veggies; or spread on a soft tortilla loaded with fresh greens and vegies, rolled up for a lunch. Oh the possibilities for this amazing Middle Eastern spread!

 

 

Hummus

 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups canned chickpeas (1 16-oz can)  (I used my freshly cooked one) 

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 tbsp tahini

1/2 tsp cumin

2 cloves lightly, finely minced 

Zest of 1/2 lemon (I added this component and I really like it 

Salt to taste

Water, as required, approx. 1/4 cup

 

(at serving time, optional, but quite lovely)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

 

NOTE:

When I made my hummus today, I used 1 teaspoon of good quality, large grind salt. If I were using canned chickpeas as I have done in the past, I use much less because the canned beans are generally salted. Note of caution, add your salt in small increments, tasting as you go, so as not to over salt the hummus.

                               

METHOD

Rinse and drain chickpeas in a small colander. (If using home prepared beans, you don't need to rinse and drain because you already did it!) Place in a food processor or blender, and add the lemon juice, tahini, cumin, garlic and if using, the lemon zest. Puree until almost smooth with a little texture, adding a little water if necessary. Adjust seasoning to taste. Once desired consistency is reached, remove to a shallow serving dish.

 

TO SERVE

Many people prefer this dip at room temperature. Yes, the flavours seem to brighten and intensify as the spread warms up a bit. For me, I am too impatient to wait that long!  If you like, you can drizzle with olive oil, and garnish with paprika and parsley, it does look really pretty.  I usually do this when entertaining.  But at the end of the day, I would be happy eating hummus standing in front of the refrigerator, door open, spoon in hand, and eating it straight out of the container!

 

Hummus with veggies and a mixed greens salad for dinner

 

Hummus with snap peas, red peppers and whole grain pita

The store bought hummus is not too bad; just fine in a pinch. Yes, it is convenient but when you have made homemade hummus ONCE, you will never want to go back there again. It is an easy and economical dish! 

No Breakfast Skipping For Me (Anymore)

Lately I have opted for liquid breakfasts.  I like to start my day with a big glass of not so cold filtered water; a good way to get the insides working followed by a cup of green tea to get my mini caffeine fix.  Since starting my food journey, I try really hard to start my day with breakfast. Lately, I have become quite taken with  my homemade juices, orange and green and of course my green smoothies.  My new Breville juicer gets plenty of work and as I mentioned in my last blog post, my blender has seen more mileage in the past few months that it has seen in the last 20 years.

Despite the fact that I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I have never been big on it as I find it hard to face food until around 10 or 11 in the morning. Subsequently, I have forever been a breakfast skipper, traditionally opting for a large double double to give me that get up and go! I have found that my juices and smoothies are the perfect start to the day for this kid. These liquid breakfasts provide quick access nutrients for my body.  I feel better, think better and am better prepared for the day. 

 

Often, if I have opted to start my day with a juice, I am a little peckish around 10 so I have found that a whole grain pita bread is a welcomed mid morning snack. Other snack options might also be a homemade sweet potatoe muffin or a breakfast cookie (recipe below).  I have recently discovered that a natural organic peanut butter sprinkled with chia seeds is really good and certainly gets me to lunch! The other day, I also had a little leftover dairy free chocolate pudding kicking around, so I thought I would try it on my pita toast sprinkled with some almond slices. YUM YUM YUM!   A bite of one and then a bite of the other. A match made in heaven!  Next time, I will make it easier to eat by actually spreading the peanut butter first, then spreading the chocolate pudding on top of that and finishing off with a sprinkle the almonds and chia seeds. 

 

If I have started my day with a green smoothie, I am usually good till lunch.  Smoothies tend to be more filling and long lasting. My favourite green smoothie contains a frozen, ripe banana, kale, spinach, almond butter, a little honey or maple syrup for some sweetness and some almond milk to blend. YUM! Green smoothies are an excellent way to get more raw greens into me quickly and easily! 

I have also discovered Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie are amazing and even though they do contain added sugar, they are certainly a MUCH better choice to those crappy made for you oatmeal bars. They even freeze well so you can make sure you have plenty on hand!These kid friendly cookies are tasty AND healthy.  Shhhh don't tell the kids!  They work as a quick sit down breakfast or because of their portability, these little morsels can be taken for breakfast on the go!   Who wouldn't say "Yes please" to a cookie or two for beakfast?  They also make a nice addition to a boxed lunch for a healthy dessert or snack.

The recipe I use does contain butter and eggs plus some added sugar. In the spirit of my food journey, I have started making some tweeks to the recipe to take this recipe from good to great. In the meantime, until I have tested my tweeks, the recipe as I have posted is lovely.  As a note,  I would definitely drop the sugar down a bit more, especially if your bananas are super ripe.  Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies (W.I.P.)

 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter (I used 1/4 cup coconut oil; 1/4 cup butter this time)

3 ripe bananas, mashed (mine were medium in size)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I added 1/2 a cup]

2 whole eggs (next time I will try flax eggs; 2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water)

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 tbsp flour (I made 2 tablespoons of oat flour by processing large flake oats in my food processor)

1/4 cup almond milk

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup dried cranberries, nuts or a combination (I used 1/2 cup pecans, 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds, topped up to 1 cup with cranberries)

 

As a special treat, I tossed in 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, but you can omit this if you prefer!

DIRECTIONS

Mix first 3 ingredients together in a bowl.

Add eggs and mix.

Add remaining ingredients except nuts and/or dried cranberries

After dough is mixed add nuts and or cranberries.

Batter will seem too wet, but don't worry  

Drop by heaped and packed tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheet.  

Flatten with fork to about 1/2" thick, patting edges to keep the cookie together and rounded.

Bake at 350° F. for 12 to 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool for one or two minutes on the baking tray, then transfer to cooling rack.

Cool completely. 

 

Yes sir-ee.  No more skipping breakfast for this kid!  My next goal is to try out some home made granola.  I have a few recipes I want to try.  I will keep you posted. 

Re-organising My Kitchen and Chocolate Chip Cookies

When we put in our new kitchen, I chose to have 36" upper cabinets as opposed to the standard ones which left that goofy gap at the top.  My cupboards basically go the ceiling (I have a standard 8' ceiling) with a lovely crown moulding at the top.

I also have pantries that almost go to the ceiling.  Above these, my husband made a custom light box for bright general lighting.

I am a practical person and my home decor is no different.  I do enjoy beautiful things, but they need to be practical, and functional, and easy to clean as well a pretty.  My cupboard doors are Shaker style, because I love the simplicity, but I also think the doors themselves are easy to clean.  The cupboards go to the ceiling because I hated cleaning  the tops of my old cupboards which gathered grease and dust and a whole lot of ICK! Now, I have more space to store all my wonderful kitchen things and I don't have to worry about cleaning the tops of my cupboards again. BONUS!

So I bet you are wondering why this little blurb about my kitchen reno and what does this have to do with healthy food choices? Don't worry, I am getting to that.  When I first organised my kitchen after the renovation 2 years ago, I put the "sometimes" used things way up on the very top shelves as I required a little step stool to reach.  Makes sense, right?  So way up on the top shelves lived my blender, my food processor, and my salad spinner.  

Fast forward 2 years and my new food journey, these items have found their ways down to the everyday "reachable" parts of my cupboards.  In addition, the coveted place on my counter where my coffee maker once lived has been given to my juicer! My how things change.

The other day, I decided to make some cookies from one of my go to vegan sites. These particular cookies are gluten free too.  This was my first foray into baking vegan treats other than muffins. I had been thinking about these chocolate oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for several weeks and finally decided to give them a try.  But wait, the recipe calls for ground flax seed and water for the "egg" in this recipe, and I only have whole seeds.  Whew, thank goodness I have a coffee grinder which I typically use to grind whole spices.  Grab the stool and way up on the VERY top shelf lives my 25 year old coffee grinder!  Long story short, I use the grinder for my flax seeds, use the food processor on the large flake oats to make it flour, make my cookies and then clean up.  Yes, I think my little coffee grinder will have to take its place in the accessible cupboard with my blender and food processor! 

Over the years in the kitchen, I have acquired decent knife skills and I was always quite able to prepare fabulous meals with just my box grater, chef knife and my paring knife. Now, I feel that with the change in how I eat and what I prepare for family meals, I will concede that I need to take a little help in the food prep gadget department!  I think in the past 4 months, I have used my food processor and blender more than I have in the past 20 years and will probably keep on doing so.  In addition, I think I will experiment a whole lot more with eggless baking too.  I bet my ancient coffee grinder and I will be getting much more acquainted!

Here are my wonderful gluten free and dairy free chocolate oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Oh She Glows.  By the way, this lovely Canadian girl has a gorgeous cookbook out that is doing really well.  I strongly encourage you to check out her site and her book!

Tada... My cookies!

My unwilling participant in my food journey enjoying her healthier option cookies!

Pancakes For Dinner, Chia Seed Jams, And A New Smoothie

For dinner on "Meatless Monday", we had my daughter's favourite breakfast...pancakes! Ok, I know my goal is to eat fewer meat based meals, but as it turns out, our meatless meal night fell on Monday and I was wanting to make do with pantry and fridge items already on hand!  Not to mention, I really had a craving for pancakes!  I took my "go to" pancake recipe and tinkered with it, yet again.  

It is essentially a half and half white flour and whole wheat flour recipe, with a little wheat germ tossed in for good measure. This time, I cut the white flour back by half and subbed in some quick cooking oats.  I also used almond milk instead of dairy milk. The pancakes were just as tasty, a little more dense than usual, and the batter didn't brown as well as usual.  Recently, I learned that I can make oat flour by whizzing large flake oats in my food processor with the S-blade.  I think I will give this a try next time and substitute the white flour with the oat flour instead. Perhaps this will lighten the texture a bit and allow the pancakes to brown better.  I will let you know. 

To make our pancake supper a little more special (and sneak in a little more nutrition), I made a raw chia seed strawberry jam out of my frozen strawberries and tried the Oh She Glows recipe for a cooked vanilla blueberry Chia seed jam.  Both jams were fabulous!  

Basic Pancakes

 

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup almond milk

2 tbsp canola oil

1 egg

1/4 cup white flour

1/4 cup quick cooking oats  (next time try oat flour)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tbs wheat germ

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbs sugar (I used organic evaporated cane juice)

1/2 tsp salt

 

DIRECTIONS

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together

In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients together

Preheat cast iron frying pan over medium heat

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just blended. Do not over mix.

Wipe fry pan with a light layer of cooking oil

Ladle batter into pan, cook until golden brown on the bottom and there are bubbles on the surface of the pancake. Flip and continue cooking until light brown on other side.

Keep warm in a 200°F oven.

Since our dinner was breakfast, I thought it would be fun to make smoothies to drink with our pancakes.  I used some fresh pineapple, a frozen organic banana and then decided to be adventurous and tossed in half a red pepper and 1/4 of a yellow pepper, organic of course.  The peppers were sweet and turned our smoothie into a pretty pinky-orange concoction.  I added just a touch of honey for a little extra sweetness and used a combination of almond milk and water to blend.  I thought it was yummy... The kid, not so much!  The only down side was that the peppers did not blend as smoothly as the pineapple and banana so there were teeny chunks through out the smoothie.  Perhaps, if I get a Vitamix one day, this won't happen?  Anyway, a good experiment and the smoothie was lovely with the pancakes!

It was a real treat to have breakfast for dinner.  We even ended up with 2 extra pancakes for a mid week instant breakfast for Erika!  


TIME SAVING TIP!
If you like making pancakes for weekend breakfasts, I highly recommend that you make a double batch.  Then you can take the extra pancakes and cool them on a baking rack. Once they are cooled, leave them on a cookii sheet in a single layer and freeze.  Once the pancakes are frozen,  put them into a large Rubbermaid container or a freezer bag. This  makes it easy to grab one, two or more pancakes in the morning.  The pancakes can be reheated in the microwave or thawed first and then put into your toaster.  Serve your favourite fruit topping or with maple syrup, Yum!

Easter Feast and Cleaning Up Traditional Recipes

The week following Easter was super busy and even with my best intentions, I could not get my blog posted before we had a little weekend get away. So here it is Monday, 2 weeks after Easter, and I am finally posting some tasty tidbits about the Easter Feast I promised a while back.

We got a lot of mileage out of our Easter dinner... and that is good for my budget!  We had "ditto" one night; the hubby and the kid had turkey while I reheated 2 of my meatless Salisbury steaks to serve with the mashed potatoes, dressing, and all the rest of the feast. YUM!  

 

Speaking of my Salisbury steaks, I had  2 left so I served them as hamburger patties with all the traditional fixings, homemade fries and a side spinach salad.  I a thrilled to have found a veggie based option for the upcoming BBQ season.  I will, however, be trying out a few other veggie burgers, including one from my favourite celebrity chef - Michael Smith.

So, as a promised, I was going to tell you about my Hot Cross Buns.  These buns have been a Good Friday tradition for the past 18 years.  My tried and true recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens Desserts Collection circa 1967 with a few substitutions, namely butter for the salad oil, and adding some candied mixed fruit and peel to the currents or raisins (depending on what I have on hand).  Given my recent food journey, my tried and true recipe has undergone a few more transformations, and successfully I might add!
 

Traditional HC Buns        Cleaned Up HC Buns

White flour                      1 cup white flour substituted for whole wheat

White sugar                      substituted organic evaporated cane  juice 

Butter                              substituted butter for equal amount coconut oil

Next time, I am going to try a half and half ratio of white flour for whole wheat. If that works out well, the final recipe upgrade will be to try a flax seed egg!

Now on to my Easter Feast!
 

Pan Dressing
My dressing is made up of sautéed diced onion and celery, organic this time. Then a healthy teaspoon of thyme a tablespoon of sage and several grinds of pepper and a teaspoon of salt.  Then sliced dried apricots, Thompson's raisins and dried cranberries are sautéed with the onion/celery mix until everything is fragrant and heated through.  This wonderful mix was tossed with half a loaf whole wheat and a half loaf whole grain bread, cubed, 3 Macintosh apples, cubed and a little olive oil and mayonnaise.  I will have to work on a plant based option, but we will get there!  An oval roasting pan was lightly greased with some olive oil and covered with foil and then tossed into a 375 F oven for 45 minutes.

Cranberry Sauce

This year I substituted honey for the white sugar. Not a vegan option, but certainly a better option to the refined white sugar.  It was lovely.  Next time I am going to try the maple syrup sweetening. 

Sweet Potato Mash

When I first started making sweet potatoes to go with my celebration feasts, I used to gently simmer in a little orange juice or water.  Now I have opted for baking them at 350 F till soft.  When they cool enough to handle, I cut them open and scrape the flesh into a bowl.  Traditionally, I add a little butter, some whipping cream, the zest of an orange, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  This year I was going to sub out the butter for a little coconut oil and sub the cream out for some almond milk. This was not do-able because one of my guests has a nut allergy, so I will try these at Thanksgiving!

Jello Fruit Salad
My husband Randy grew up with a Jello fruit salad served with his celebration dinners, raspberry Jello is his favourite. Typically this salad was made with Jello and tinned fruit cocktail.  This year, I cleaned up the traditional recipe by using fresh fruit instead of the tinned stuff with BPA liners.  I chose green grapes, apples, and pears because these fruits are reminiscent to the fruit cocktail I have always used. Next time I want to try my hand at a home made jelly using homemade raspberry juice and agar, assuming I can find it!Then, it will be a totally cleaned up!  Ultimately, my main goal is to have a plant based alternative but to have a "jello" that is free from fake flavours and to cut back on the sugar is a definite PLUS!

Angel Food Cake

I had 11 egg whites left over from some egg yolk intensive recipes from Christmas.  I froze these in my mason jars and waited patiently to find a use for them.  Obviously, if you are egg free, there is not much that can be done to "clean up" Angel Food Cake.  The main thing for me is, that I am stretching my food budget by using up my saved leftovers.  Frozen, then thawed egg whites beat up perfectly for any egg white recipe - meringues, cakes, etc.  I even keep adding egg whites on top of others in the freezer and change my label as I go.  This way, I can save my egg whites till I have enough for the next Angel Food Cake I want to make.  Next time I make an Angel Food Cake, I plan on changing my white granulated sugar to organic evaporated cane juice to see if the results are the same.  I see no reason for there to be any problems!
 

Lemon Curd
This time, I made 2 kinds of lemon curd.  For my traditional one, I used egg yolks (saved the whites in the freezer), lemon juice from organic lemons, regular white sugar, and of course butter.  The result was a smooth and lemony spread. Very good.  Next time, I will see how Earth Balance Vegan Spread works, and organic cane juice, just to clean up the traditional version a little.

I also prepared a vegan lemon curd inspired by a recipe I found at lunchboxbunch with a few modifications and I was pleased with the end results!  I only use almond milk so I used that instead of the soy milk.  I didn't think the vegan curd was going to be as yellow as I would like (with the absence of egg yolks for colour), so I threw in a few pinches of Turmeric.  It was a smashing success!  Also, since I didn't have any Earth Balance Vegan Spread, I used coconut oil.  Finally, after I let the curd cool, I decided it was a little too thick for my personal liking so I heated it back up to whisk in a little water.  When it cooled for the second time, it was the perfect consistency.  All in all, it was a really tasty alternative to the traditional lemon curd, a little more tart perhaps, but a very good replacement.  You couldn't taste the coconut oil either because the bright taste of the lemons shone through.  Next time I make it, I will try making it with the Earth Balance which I think might smooth out the flavour a little, just like butter does in the traditional lemon curd.

For both versions of the curd, I didn't bother straining to remove the lemon zest.  I don't mind it, but if you are looking for a perfectly smooth product, press through a fine mesh strainer.

 

Vegan Lemon Curd On the LEFT; Traditional on the RIGHT

Vegan (Plant Based) Lemon Curd

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1/2 cup organic evaporated cane juice 
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest                                                           
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 5 tbsp dairy free spread (I used coconut oil)
• 3 to 6 pinches of turmeric for colour (optional) 

Instructions

• Dissolve the cornstarch in the water
• Put almond milk into saucepan.
• Whisk in the starch/water slurry and turmeric if using.
• Cook on medium for around 2 minutes.
• Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar.
• Stir constantly until the mixture starts to bubble.
• Remove from heat and stir in non-dairy spread.
• Cool in the fridge and enjoy.

Our yummy Easter dessert!

 

 

So as you can see, there are all kinds of baby steps to improving your every day diets.  Even the fancy feasts can still be mouthwatering AND still reflect better food choices.  It just takes a little planning and experimenting.

Salisbury Steaks with Cauliflower/Potato Mash & Leftovers

Welcome to Tuesday!  I am feeling rested, rejuvenated and accomplished.  We had 4 glorious days together as a family.  We enjoyed a wonderful Easter and birthday feast with some extended family on Saturday night.  We even managed to do some clean up in the front yard; YES, there IS a garden bed under all the leaves from the fall! Yes sir-ee, things are starting to take shape!

I am pleased to say, that I tried some new and wonderful plant based recipes last week and I even found a way to make some of my traditional recipes more plant based. My repertoire is getting bigger and I think I am well under way to "clean up" our traditional Christmas Season feasts as well! 

As I have so much to tell you about my food exploits of last week, I think I will have to break my blog up into bite size pieces.  But just to give you a taste of what is in store, I would like to share a few of the menu items I made.  Some of these are NEW to me while others are my tried and true traditional recipes which I have made a little healthier without compromising on taste. 

A Good Old Fashioned Comfort Meal

Vegetarian Salisbury Steaks with Mushroom Gravy

Cauliflower & Potato Mash

Mixed veggies

 

 

 

Hot Cross Buns - CLEANED UP

 

 

 

 

Easter Dinner - CLEANED UP

Roasted Turkey with Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Mash 

Steamed Broccoli, Dried Fruit Dressing, Jellied Fruit Salad 

Cranberry Sauce, and Gravy

Angel Food Cake with Lemon Curd - Traditional and Vegan 

served with a dollop of Whipped Cream

 

 

Left Overs BUDGET FRIENDLY

Vegetarian Salisbury Steaks for me/Turkey for the family

Cauliflower & Potato Mash

Plus all the fixings from Easter Dinner

 

In addition to trying out some vegetarian Salisbury Steaks, my daughter, Sara, sent me a link to Oh She Glows for some festive Christmas "Meatballs" to be served with cranberry sauce.  I am looking forward to doing a test run with this recipe so that we can also have a meatless entrée for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners!  If they are as tasty as the Salisbury Steaks, I am so STOKED!

As my family knows, I am a stickler for making sure my leftovers are used up.  I HATE wasting food.  It is  the best way I know to stretch your meal-time budget especially when I heard just how much folks waste.  On average, Canadian families throw out $1000.00 of food a year. In Toronto, a single-family is said to waste 275 kilos of food per year.  The figures are just as bad in the US.  Yes, we can compost it which is a more environmentally appealing solution to putting it in the landfill, but that does not help my budget much.  Bottom line, it is much better to EAT the food you buy.

When I plan my meals, I plan to send them for a hot lunch the next day or sometimes I plan on how to use the leftovers in a second meal... either "ditto" which is just a reheat of the meal OR I transform the components of my leftovers into a brand new dish.  That being said, sometimes even the best laid out plans go awry and I still end up with single serving of this and that.

If we can't finish these single servings before they will spoil, I will generally move them to the freezer.  I have had great success in dicing up left over meats and poultry to be later used in stir fries or in lunch wraps.  I freeze single servings of soups, stews, pasta sauces.  I even freeze gravy and cheese sauce, even though the experts say you can't.  I label and date the freezer containers, and keep a running list of what is in my freezer so I don't lose track.  I have also learned that HOW you thaw and re-heat your leftovers is crucial to enjoying them... but that is for another blog!

With all that being said, you are wondering why the little detour into food waste and leftovers? First, because I want to share a kitchen tip to save you money and stretch your food budgets!  Second, I thought I should explain why I have a 500 ml mason jar of gravy in my freezer and that it was the need to use up this left over gravy that gave me the inspiration to find a recipe for a meatless Salisbury Steak!  Since I already had gravy in my freezer, I only made the Salisbury Steak recipe which I followed to the letter, with a minor change.  Subsequently, I cannot comment on the tastiness of the mushroom gravy on the blog post, but it does look yummy.  I will definitely be trying it with these Salisbury Steaks next time, IF I don't have any gravy in my freezer.

As promised on the Oh My Veggies site, these vegetarian Salisbury steaks were meaty, tasty and satisfying.  I would think you could make them vegan by whipping up a flaxseed egg to substitute for the chicken egg.  As I said, I followed the recipe from the site with one minor change... I had already sautéed the finely diced onion before realizing that it was actually for the mushroom gravy which I wasn't making.  So, not wishing to waste anything, a threw the cooked onion into the "meat mix" and continued with the recipe.  I think the onion addition is brilliant, so it is staying!  I ended up sautéing the 4 ounces of mushrooms (as per the recipe) and seasoning my gravy similarly to the gravy in the posted recipe and adding the Tamari too. It was a huge success!

I also tried out a cauliflower & potato mash.  I peeled and cooked a few Yukon potatoes.  I drained and mashed them in my usual way... a little almond milk, and butter since I didn't have any Earth Balance Spread, with some salt, and pepper to taste.  I set it aside.  I also steamed about 1/4 of a large head of cauliflower until tender.  I dropped the large pieces into my food processor, and whizzed it till it was coarsely mashed.  I added some butter, almond milk, salt, pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, and a generous pinch of thyme.  Whizzed it all together until it was smooth and resembled traditional mashed potatoes.  Then I folded the potatoes and the cauliflower mash together into the serving dish,  Man oh man; it was SO good on it's own, and even better with a slug of the mushroom gravy!  The "meat", "potatoes" and mushroom gravy were so comforting and tasty, that even the plain Jane fresh frozen mixed veggies rocked the plate!

Salisbury Steaks BEFORE Baking

Salisbury Steaks AFTER Baking

Salisbury Steaks with Cauliflower/Potato Mash, Mushroom Gravy and Mixed Veggies

Next on the blog docket... Hot Cross Buns and Easter Dinner! 

My Plant Based Successes, A Blog Theme & Ethical Meat

It has been a while since I have blogged, but I just haven't found time to sit down and write... so I will make a serious attempt today.  The last I blogged, I had shared the menu for the week.  Some of my meals were a combination of animal and plant based items and others were entirely plant based.  Yes, a menu that reflects my journey to attain  my personal goal of 75% plant based meals. I'm not there yet, but as my family approved recipe repertoire increases, I will get there soon. 

Over the past few months, I have been in the process of cleaning up my pantry.  Although it was not a huge disaster, nutritionally speaking, there was certainly a little tweaking required to make sure my pantry staples were clean and better options.  My pantry is now filled rice and pastas that are brown; my jars are filling up with nuts (raw, roasted and unsalted), lentils, dried beans and various seeds including my favourite, Chia seeds!   I am slowly weaning the family off white refined sugar and introducing them to better choices like honey, maple syrup, agave and organic evaporated cane juice.

I am thrilled to report that my COMPLETELY plant based Bolognese sauce was a HUGE success.  The family ate it all up and didn't seem to notice that the texture of the sauce was just a little different than my regular meat sauce.  The lentil and mushroom sloppy Joes hit the spot for my 14 year old.  I even had enough left over to send home with my eldest daughter who LOVED it too.  I made my veggie pizza with 3/4 marinara and 1/4 cilantro pesto.  I really enjoyed the change.  I will definitely be doing this again.  The family didn't try the pizza with the cilantro, but were quite happy with the usual tomato based veggie pizza - I won't complain, more for me!  I cut back the shredded mozzarella cheese for this pizza too, and no one seemed to mind; yes... baby steps.  Finally, the broccoli salad with the completely dairy free dressing was a big winner too.  My husband thought it was super tasty, so I will be making this again for sure!  I think this dressing will be a great substitute for the store bought poppy seed dressing I use on my kale, Brussels sprouts, purple cabbage, & broccoli salad; an unexpected PLUS!

So as I spend my evenings periodically perusing other blogs I come across, I have noticed that each writer typically has a theme of some sort.  Food bloggers are plant based, gluten free, traditional meat based, etc.  Other bloggers write about their family's exploits and adventures.  As I have gone back and re-read my posts, I have come to the conclusion that my "theme", if you will, is basically how I try to improve my family's diet by incorporating more plant based choices in our daily diets; and how I "hide" these plant based choices while we transition from a fairly decent diet to an extraordinary one!  Certainly, I can't be the only person who wants to eat better and drag her family along with her, even if it is on the down low! 

So low and behold, this blog is for you, if you want

• to join me on a similar food journey by adding more plant based foods to your diet
• to be introduced to tasty meals that will keep your meat eaters happy and satisfied
• to take advantage of my learning curve on transforming your tried and true family favourites to more plant based meals 
• to learn how to "hide your healthy" while minimizing your animal based products
• to learn about my budget tips for feeding your family

Since I am not ready or willing to commit myself to a completely plant based lifestyle, I have decided that I am going to eat the most ethical and clean sources of meat, eggs, and dairy as possible .  All of this plus attempting to stay as local as I can.  I have discovered that this is not so easy to do, especially if I want to stay within a 30 minute drive. This being said, I am thrilled to have found a local farm that does everything "right" but is not certified organic.  In my books, if you do everything right but don't have the papers, it is still so much better than factory farmed for sure. Yesterday, I sent my paperwork in  for my first half side of pork that is ethically raised and organically fed.  I also had myself put on the waiting list for any extra ethical chickens for June and July.  This ethical and clean meat is more expensive for sure, but since I have drastically reduced our meat consumption, I think the extra expense of the ethical meat should balance out in our overall food budget.

Now I am in search of some local, ethical eggs.  I have a few phone numbers but I think I will need to take a visit to the farms to decide about the living conditions and find out what the feed is.  In the meantime, I think my local supermarket carries Burnbrae Natureggs which are organic. When I was researching Burnbrae Farms eggs, I visited their site.  I found virtual tours of the various ways chickens are raised.  It helped me decide that I wanted to buy the organic free range eggs based on living conditions.  Yes, these are large scale farms, kind of industrial, but the barn looked clean and the chickens looked like they were happy.  Perhaps, not as happy as the ones on the little organic farm with only a dozen of these guys running around, but still, happy enough.  Not the perfect situation, but since we can't all have a few chickens running around our yards, it is the better than the cages for sure.

So what is on tap for the next few days?  Some slicing and dicing for my ginger, orange and garlic veggie stir fry. Still tweaking my recipe.  Just for a change, I think I will  hide some green lentils in it as well.  On Thursday, I am going to try out a lentil/mushroom Salisbury Steak recipe. I have some roast chicken gravy in the freezer that will be lovely ladled over the steaks and with the mashed potatoes or maybe a cauliflower mash or maybe a combination?  Hopefully the gravy will distract them from the "meatlessness" of the Salisbury Steaks.  I am hoping they will be well received because I just realized that we have a Summer season coming (I hope).  With Summer comes barbecue and barbecue means burgers and grilled everything.  If I can win them over with a meatless Salisbury Steak, there is a chance that the grilled lentil veggie burgers I want to try might be met with less resistance!   

BUDGET TIP: 
Don't throw out your extra gravy.  Save it in the freezer. I had some extra roast chicken gravy left over from my husband's birthday dinner earlier this month.  I put it in a two 500 ml mason jars and popped them in my freezer.  I let the gravy thaw in the fridge.  I will put a 1/4 cup of water into a  saucepan.  Bring it to a boil and whisk in the thawed gravy, a little at a time until it is smooth and heated through.  It will be as good as it was the first time around. Waste not; want not!

See you soon with my next round of updates.  Perhaps I will have a new recipe to share or a favourite new discovery!

Eat well... be well!