Fruit On The Bottom Yogurt

My family has always enjoyed yogurt, particularly, the fruit on the bottom kind. For the past year or so, I have made a conscious choice to buy organic (would love to find grass fed too, but that is not to be). Sadly, the organic yogurt carried at my grocery store offers only a few flavours, of which, only one is liked by my daughter and it is the already stirred kind.  In order to stop the yogurt flavour boredom from which my family is suffering, I decided to try my hand at my own fruit on the bottom yogurt, and I must say, I am pleased with the results.

So why should I make my own fruit on the bottom yogurt?

• I can serve organic yogurt
• I can guarantee that the fruit on the bottom is more fruit than fruit flavoured "gel"
• I can eliminate the refined sugar 
• I can control the amount of sugar
• I can prepare the flavours that my family loves, so nothing goes to waste 
• I can minimize the single serving waste because I use 125 ml canning jars and reusable lids.

I think this is a win-win especially since it is easy to do and doesn't take much time.

When I started thinking about how to make this, I knew I didn't want to use the refined white sugar to sweeten the fruit or the yogurt. This meant, I would have to use honey or maple syrup resulting in a thinned down the yogurt. In the past, I have made a cornstarch or arrowroot thickened fruit sauces and sweetened with a little maple syrup which was excellent on pancakes or spread on toast.  Sadly, the starch method would not be an option to thicken the yogurt. Hmmm! Thinking cap back on and then the AHA moment!

Drumroll please... Enter my favourite plant based thickener... Chia seeds - weird, wonderful, are amazing!  They thicken milk for chia seed pudding; when mixed with water, they can be substituted for eggs in baking; they can thicken fruits to create chia seed jams. With all this thickening power, I decided they would be a perfect ingredient; and let's not forget the nutritional punch chia seeds bring to the party.  Yes, we have chia seeds for the win!

So far I have made 2 flavours: blueberry and mixed fruit.  For my blueberry flavour, I used fresh blueberries because we had just been picking. For the mixed berry version, I used frozen berries that came in a raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, and blueberry mix from the grocery store. I also varied the preparation of the fruit jams to see how they would perform with the yogurt. My blueberry jam was cooked and my mixed fruit jam was a raw chia seed jam.  Spoiler alert... BOTH methods worked perfectly!

Today I am going to share my blueberry flavour. I will post the mixed fruit recipe next time!

For the blueberry jam, I used an excellent recipe for Magical Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam by Oh She Glows. I mentioned that I used fresh berries this time, but I've made this before using frozen ones. The jam turns out beautifully both ways. I let the jam sit overnight because I actually made the jam to have on hand for toast. It was serendipitous that I had it in the fridge when I got the brainstorm to use it in my fruit on the bottom yogurt!

1 recipe  Magical Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam (save the leftovers for toast or pancakes!)

Yogurt

2 cups plain organic yogurt, I prefer a 2.5% fat content for creaminess. 

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp chia seeds** 

Mix the plain yogurt with the maple syrup and chia seeds well.

Put 1 tablespoon of the blueberry jam  in the bottom of the jar.  I used 6 each 125 ml canning jam jars (1/2 cup) with the canning lids and screw bands. Spread it to cover the bottom evenly.  If you like a little more fruit filling, you can add a little more. Cover the fruit with the prepared yogurt and put the canning lids on and store in the fridge for at least 2 hours so that the yogurt thickens up.

**NOTE:  If you use more maple syrup in your yogurt, you may need to add a few more chia seeds.

These are the perfect size for a packed lunch or snack. The containers are reusable and inexpensive to buy. I like to make a bunch up on the weekend for the upcoming week. Please let me know what you think. If blueberry isn't your thing, watch for my next post to get the mixed fruit recipe!  

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!

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!

After the #FixFood Conference

Last week I attended a Virtual Food Conference.  I know it sounds kind of weird, but it was truly a learning experience and timely for me because I am on this food journey. This conference, organized by Alexandra Jamieson was called the Fix Food Conference which was to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the documentary Super Size Me (a documentary that followed the health issues of a man who ate McDonalds for a month - ew!).  The goal of this conference was to look 3 areas to "Fix Food":

1. Fix more of your own simple meals that will get you the energy and body you crave.
2. Fix your relationship with food and emotional eating.
3. Fix the food culture we all live in. 

There was a TON of information offered by a variety of speakers. One of my BIG takeaways from this experience was that even though there is a wide range of beliefs of HOW and WHAT we should eat, I now know that we must do what is right for us as an individual.  Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, paleo or whatever, the most important thing is that you do what feels right to you from a health perspective, from an environmental perspective, and from and ethical perspective.  I shouldn't feel bad because I still enjoy the occasional steak or I shouldn't feel bad because I don't. 

I also learned that it is important to take how our food system works away from big business and put it back into the hands of the people.  As a side, I believe that in the our current economic platform, that means encouraging the masses to make better choices for themselves and their families so that DEMAND can dictate what business supplies. Obviously, there are inroads being made.  Some people are thinking about what they put in the mouths... people are looking for better choices. There is more organic food on the market and you don't have to go to a specialty store for it. Being vegan or vegetarian or grain free is easier than ever because of product availability.  There are healthier and more eco-friendly choices available in the produce, meat and dairy aisles in mainstay supermarkets. In fact, organic and sustainable choices are easier to find locally too!

Now all we need is for producers PRETENDING to offer healthier choices to ACTUALLY provide healthier choices and not hide behind their labels of lies.  But that is for another blog.  Long and short; we need to embrace whole foods again.  We need to use our kitchens EVERYDAY.  We need to get off our assess and get organized... plan our meals, shop for the best and healthiest ingredients possible and COOK for ourselves and families.  Do it for your health.  Do it for your pocket book.  Do it because it tastes better.  Do it for our farmers. Do it because you are tired of big business telling you what to eat, where to get it and most of all, tell big business you are SICK AND TIRED of eating that slop they call food!

Finally, I also learned that we need to teach the masses how to get back into the kitchen, especially the impoverished and low income families.  We need to get the crap food, including those convenience foods that PRETEND to be healthy out of the schools (granola bars, breakfast bars, Gatorade and the like), especially in the cafeterias, vending machines and the special breakfast and snack programs. We need to re-vamp our food banks and INCLUDE fresh foods and teach the people who depend on food banks how to cook from scratch.

After this amazing conference I felt better about the choices I have been making over the past few months and have concluded that my dietary evolution plan is just fine and I am on the right track for me and over the course of time,  I will continue to tweak my "Dietary Manifesto". 


YES:

• I do want to eat plant based meals at least 3/4 of the time. I will have to get on that internet and research some fabulous recipes to appease my family!
• I do want to minimize our refined sugar intake by eating more natural products like honey and maple syrup or less refined products such as evaporated sugar cane, stevia and agave.  We do love our desserts, but I feel that at least homemade treats like cookies, cakes and pies etcetera, are better for you than the crap the corporates try to sell me!
• I want to make more of my own salad dressings to avoid the chemicals in the store bought ones... sorry Kraft!
• I want to find plant based ways to reduce my eggs and dairy intake because we need to consume less of it.
• I do want to source out and eat as much organic produce as possible and due to budget constrains, I will use the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen wherever possible.
• When I do buy animal products, I will try to buy organic and humanely raised.
• I would like to find local farms and buy from them.
• I would like to find a CSA in my area.

If you live on take out or restaurants or eat mostly canned or boxed food, remember that all it takes is ONE baby step to move forward in a positive direction.  All you need to do, is find a recipe or 2, plan one meal, pick up the ingredients at the supermarket, and get cooking.  If you can read, you can cook!

If you are interested in finding out more about Alexandra, the organizer of the Fix Food Conference, click here.