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.

 

 

Lasagna Roll Ups 2 Ways

In my last post, I shared my favourite lasagna recipe. It was from a Better Homes & Garden recipe book circa 1950's-ish. I mentioned that this was my go to recipe. While poking around on Pinterest, I came across the idea of deconstructing the traditional lasagna and rolling it up. Some recipe authors suggested that it takes less time, but in the end, I discovered there is very little time saved, except for 15 minutes of standing time. That being said, it is a lovely presentation and a refreshing change from the typical squares of lasagna, plus these rolls make portion control easier!

I knew last week that I wanted to do a post on the vegetarian lasagna rolls that I made, but because I made my lasagna rolls were made from some odd and ends in my freezer, I wanted my readers to have both a meat option and a vegetarian option. Hence the reason for posting my Mom's Lasagna recipe first!

I had almost 2 cups of my vegan Bolegnese sauce in the freezer, of course in a 500 ml mason jar. (BTW, this sauce freezes beautifully too.) This was the "meat" filling in my lasagna rolls. Unfortunately, I did not have enough Bolognese sauce to ladle under and over the lasagna rolls before baking, so I needed on additional sauce. Fortunately, I also had about 3 cups of my marinara sauce in the freezer.  Since my marinara sauce is also flavoured with similar herbs as the Bolognese sauce, it would pair nicely.

I thawed both sauces (over night in the refrigerator) and brought them to a simmer in order to make sure that there was no excess liquids in the sauces, about 20 minutes or so did the trick. Since I wanted the marinara sauce to be fairly thick, I added 4 teaspoons of chia seeds so soak up an extra liquids - shhhhh "hidden healthy"!

Cook 8 lasagna noodles as per package directions – I used whole wheat.

I then mixed together

2 1/2 cups cottage cheese (about 3/4 of a standard container)

1 egg

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 

2 Tbsp. parsley, chopped (fresh if you have it, but dried works just fine)

Several grinds of pepper

I grated a 3 inch piece of Mozzarella cheese (from an 460 gram bar)

Take 9x13" baking pan and ladle enough marinara sauce onto the bottom. My pictures show and 8x8", which only fit 6 rolls. I had to use an small one for the extra 2 rolls. Oops! Learning curve alert... 

ASSEMBLY:  

Following my tried and true rhyme, with the crazy beat and a dance if you like --> Noodles, Cheese, Mozzarella, Meat ...

and then roll up and place the roll in the baking dish, seam side down.

Continue until all 8 rolls are done.  

Pour the remaining marinara sauce over the rolls so they don't dry out while baking.  

I covered with foil and baked at 375° F for 25-30 minutes. If you make ahead and take out of the refrigerator, I would probably bake it for an additional 15 minutes to make sure everything is cooked through. You should see the sauce bubbling.  Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes or so, while you get any side dishes finished off.

As you can see my first run through with lasagna rolls was essentially made with leftovers from my freezer.  If you don't have these leftovers available, I would recommend using my favourite meatless Bolognese recipe from the Veggieful.com blog for the filling and the topping if you want a vegetarian version. I would add 1 more heaped teaspoon of dried basil to the sauce though if you don't have any fresh. If you want a meat filling (all meat or lightened up with the green lentils and mushrooms) I highly recommend the meat filling from my Mom's Lasagna. For either recipe, I would be happy to answer any questions about measurements or techniques.

Feel free to freeze any extra sauce in a mason jar or two. Don't forget to leave at least 1 inch of headspace. Save the extra sauce for lasagna rolls for 2 or add to your favourite pasta for a quick meal. I have a sneaky suspicion that the full recipes for either sauce will end up leaving you with quite a bit of leftovers. Waste not want not!   

 

PS. If you use the Bolognese recipe, you will see that it calls for 120 grams of the extra firm tofu, which is about half a brick for the brands that I buy in my grocery store (these are 350 gram bars). As this is the case, I always double the recipe, freeze the extras so that I can have almost ready meals when I'm pressed for time.  Who needs takeout?

Petit Pan Squash or Zucchini & Potato Latkes

 

The promise of summer comes and goes.  One day we are melting, the next we are making a dash for the warm clothes we finally put into storage.  Yikes!  What is a girl to do? On those warm weather days, I love the lighter foods, but when the mercury plummets for this time of year, I crave warm comfort food, like these sumptuous squash and potato latkes.  Crisp on the outside with a soft and delectable inside. How can you go wrong? In addition to how satisfying these tasty bites are is the fact that they are SO budget friendly and made from basic pantry and freezer items - for me, a match made in heaven... Tasty, affordable AND made from around the house ingredients!

My recipe is my adaption of a Canadian Living recipe for Mini Zucchini & Potato Latkes for appetizers.

 

INGREDIENTS
2 cups grated zucchinis, about 3 or 4 small (I used frozen petit pan squash that was grated and in my freezer from last fall)
1 tsp. salt
Several grinds of black pepper (to taste)
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled (about 1 lb)
3 green onions; green parts too, white parts finely diced, and green parts thinly sliced
1 egg from happy chickens, lightly beaten (next time I will try a Flax egg)
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour or oat flour for gluten free
Keep 1/4" vegetable/olive oil combination in pan for frying (add more as required)

INSTRUCTIONS
With a box grater, coarsely grate zucchini. Transfer to fine meshed sieve and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. of the salt and toss; let stand for 30 minutes. Using tea towel squeeze out liquid.

 

Because I used 2 cups of grated petit pan squash I had in the freezer, I thawed it over night in fine mesh sieve to drain the excess water. Then I put it into the tea towel to squeeze out the moisture.  

 

Transfer to large bowl.

 

Coarsely grate potatoes. Using tea towel, thoroughly squeeze out liquid; add to zucchini.

 

With fork, stir in onion, egg, flour, pepper and remaining salt to combine. (Since I used frozen squash, I added the full amount of salt to the mix.)

 

 

 

In large skillet (I LOVE my cast iron fry pan!), heat enough vegetable oil to cover bottom of pan over medium-high heat.

 

Add a scant 1/4 cup measure of the  potato mixture per latke, leaving at least 1 inch  between each; flatten slightly.

 

Cook latkes, in batches, adding more oil as needed and turning halfway through, until golden and edges are crisp, about 5 minutes.

 

Drain latkes on paper towel-lined racks.

 

To Make-ahead: Remove paper. Let stand for up to 4 hours or cover and refrigerate on rack for up to 24 hours. You can also freeze which will allow you to make ahead longer.  Just remember to thaw before reheating.

 

Reheat on a baking sheet in 400°F oven (375°F for convection), 6 to 8 minutes.

 

 

 

I made these ahead as an experiment.  I froze them in a single layer on a baking sheet and then popped them into a storage container and returned them to the freezer. When I was ready to use them, I set them out on a baking sheet to thaw.  Once they were thawed, I was ready to reheat them.  Leave yourself about 1 to 1 1/2 hours for counter top thawing. 

 

To Reheat:

I preheated the oven to 375° F. While the oven was preheating, I placed my baking sheet in to preheat as well.  Once the oven came to temperature, I let the baking pan continue heating for a few more minutes. I wanted the pan to be super hot. 

 

I, then, quickly took the pan out of the oven, placed the thawed latkes on the baking pan in a single layer. I let the latkes reheat for 4 minute, then carefully turned them, and continued re-heating for another 4 minutes or so. I watched to make sure they didn't start to darken too much.

 

I was very pleased at this reheating method. I would have to say, they were as good as freshly cooked.

 

My favourite way to eat latkes is to serve them with my homemade applesauce and a dollop of sour cream.  Tonight, I used a non-dairy sour cream substitute made from cashews, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and a pinch of salt. I got my recipe from Oh She Glows, one of my go-to vegan recipe sites.  This stuff is guilt free, has good fat, and is really tasty!  I highly recommend this condiment substitute. You could even flavour it up with herbs, or garlic and a little Dijon and use it as a creamy dressing or when I am eating my occasional "chippies for the hippies", a dip.

Zucchini and Potato Latkes

 

INGREDIENTS
2 cups grated zucchinis, about 3 or 4 small (I used frozen petit pan squash that was grated and in my freezer from last fall)
1 tsp. salt
Several grinds of black pepper (to taste)
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled (about 1 lb)
3 green onions; green parts too, white parts finely diced, and green parts thinly sliced
1 egg from happy chickens, lightly beaten (Next time I want to try a Flax Egg!)
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour or oat flour for gluten free
Keep 1/4" vegetable/olive oil combination in pan for frying (add more as required)

INSTRUCTIONS
With a box grater, coarsely grate zucchini. Transfer to colander and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp (1 mL) of the salt and toss; let stand for 30 minutes. Using tea towel squeeze out liquid.

 

Because I used grated petit pan squash that I had in the freezer, I thawed it over night in colander to drain the excess water.  Then I put it into the tea towel to squeeze out the moisture.  

 

Transfer to large bowl.

 

Coarsely grate potatoes. Using tea towel, thoroughly squeeze out liquid; add to zucchini. 

 

With fork, stir in onion, egg, flour pepper and remaining salt to combine. (Since I used frozen squash, I added the full amount of salt to the mix).

 

In large skillet, heat enough vegetable oil to cover bottom of pan over medium-high heat. Add a scant 1/4 cup measure of the  potato mixture per latke, leaving at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) between each; flatten slightly.

 

Cook latkes, in batches, adding more oil as needed and turning halfway through, until golden and edges are crisp, about 5 minutes.

 

Drain latkes on paper towel-lined racks. (Make-ahead: Remove paper. Let stand for up to 4 hours or cover and refrigerate on rack for up to 24 hours or freeze.

 

To Make-ahead: Remove paper. Let stand for up to 4 hours or cover and refrigerate on rack for up to 24 hours. You can also freeze which will allow you to make ahead longer.  Just remember to thaw before reheating.

 

Reheat on a baking sheet in 400°F oven (375°F for convection), 6 to 8 minutes as described above!

 

 

Non-Dairy Sour Cream

by Oh She Glows

 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup raw cashews, soaked at least 4 hours, or overnight

1/2 - 3/4 cup water, add as required
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4-1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS
Place cashews in a bowl and cover with water.  Soak for a minimum of 2 hours preferably over night or 8 hours if you have time.

Drain and rinse the cashews and place in the blender

Add the lemon, vinegar, salt, and about half the water. Blend on HIGH until smooth.  You may need to scrape down the sides. 

Continue adding the water a little at a time until it is thick and smooth.

Transfer to a small container and store in the refrigerator until read to you use.  It will thicken a little more as it sits.

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! 

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.