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.

 

 

Recipe Books; Bolognese Sauce, Marinara & More

 

Over the past few years, I have prepared special cookbooks for a few family members. These cookbooks were a collection of recipes that were particularly enjoyed by the recipients and catered to fit their lifestyles. The first collection was given to my sister. I had gone to her house years ago to do a bunch of meal prep for her before her daughter was born. I spent an entire weekend cooking up a storm in her kitchen and freezing several months worth of dinners. She was thrilled with the meals I had prepared, and so for Christmas that year, I made my first recipe book gift. This book included all the recipes I had prepared for her, plus a few more that I thought she might enjoy. Each recipe page had special tips ranging from budget to preparation and substitution. I later made one for my oldest daughter. Her recipe book was geared to a student's life and had some of her family favourites; tips for shopping, staying on budget, substitutions and how to do some "make ahead" meals. In both cases, my recipe books were put together in such a way that I could add recipe pages down the road to reflect changes in preferences or life circumstances. A gift that keeps on giving and one that can only come from me. My latest Christmas recipe book gift was to my niece.  I put together a collection of budget friendly and easy meals that a young mom with a growing family could use plus some super healthy meals that reflects eating more plant-based.

Making homemade Christmas gifts like this lets me use my creativity, hone my desktop publishing skills, AND give a meaningful, heartfelt gifts, perhaps the closest thing I will get to being "published", HA HA HA! Today, I thought I would share a couple of pages from my recipe books. Let me know what you think!

Just as a heads up, this blog post looks best on your desktop or lap top or tablet.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Back After A Year Long Hiatus

Today is my first day back at blogging.  I haven't written for well over a year and it isn't because I don't enjoy doing it.  Sadly, life got busy, I took on a temporary job, I struggled with some difficulties and, in a nutshell, I just couldn't find the time. Today I have some time, or rather, I have decided take some to blog despite the fact that my house is upside down and there are a number of things I really should be doing. So, today I am sitting at my keyboard and making an attempt to write, proof, and post something worth sharing.  Wish me luck!

Just to catch you up, I have been busy practicing my passions... cooking and eating.  I have been working on my "eat more plant based journey" and have dabbled in a variety of food choices including "raw", "dairy free", and gluten free".  I have embraced the green smoothie as an almost daily breakfast of champions; I have been buying fewer made for me products like salad dressings, granola, and jams, opting to make them in my own kitchen from scratch (or as close to scratch) as possible.  I have tried a variety of meatless dishes that have incorporated more lentils and beans and have been met with a less than thrilled family... <sigh> BUT on a happier note, I have managed to re-create much healthier versions of my "traditional" desserts using less conventional/traditional ingredients (shhhhhhhh) with great success and cutting down on our refined sugar intake!  I am still working on my ever present task of "hidden healthy" to help my family eat better, even if unknowing.  I am also lucky to have sourced out cleaner and more ethically raised chicken, turkey and pork.  Hopefully soon, I will be able to find some grass fed beef and then I can feel better about eating meat when that is on our family meal menus.

I have spent much time perusing other wonderful food blogs such as Oh She Glows, Joyous Health, Pure Ella, The First Mess, and My New Roots, just to name a few.  I have spent a great deal of time reading about these ladies and have been busily getting to know them through the stories, food and recipes they share; not to mention salivating over the gorgeous pictures they post. YUM-YUM-YUM!  Food blogs like these provide me with great inspiration and help me to learn about a whole new way of cooking and eating.

I still regularly visit the more traditional food web sites like Canadian Living and Chef Michael when I am looking for particular recipe. Sometimes I make the recipes as written, while other times, I tinker with them subbing out some ingredients for healthier options or because of dietary requirements... just to practice. As a side note, I do find it interesting that even the more traditional cooking sites like Canadian Living and Chef Michael are providing recipes using less typical ingredients and even providing wonderful food for those with specialized dietary requirements (gluten free, dairy free, vegan, etcetera). At the end of the day, I do find one common thread within the pages of all that I have been reading and that is to use REAL food, fewer or no "made for you" ingredients, and to enjoy whatever it is you create.  With that said, I would like to share a few of my successes in the year of my hiatus.

Vegetarian Pizza

My vegetarian pizza made with a homemade whole wheat crust, my marinara sauce lovingly topped with diced bell peppers (organic only please), sliced mushrooms and zucchini, kale, sliced tomatoes and a few handfuls of mozzarella cheese. This pizza is perfect for our Friday pizza and a movie family night!

Beet Borcht

My beet borcht by Canadian Living.  A hot and hearty soup for dinner.  Topped with a healthy dollop of organic yogurt for a vegetarian option OR how about some Vegan Sour Cream by Oh She Glows?  Who could not love this soup with it's gorgeous crimson colour and the sweet and tart flavours? 

Macaroni & Cheese

Who would have thought to add butternut squash mac 'n cheese? Canadian Living, that's who! I was inspired by their recipe and decided to give my Mom's classic recipe an update and apply some hidden healthy. I opted to play with my Mom's recipe because it used real cheddar cheese instead of a cheese product. You can blitz the sauce with your immersion or regular blender and you will end up with a gorgeous cheese sauce and not a single sign of a vegetable. Can you see any squash? My family couldn't either. this mac & cheese was cheesy, comforting and creamy... just like my mom's traditional recip! I am still tweaking this recipe and will share it once it is perfected! 

Going forward, I hope to continue with some regular blogging. I miss the creative outlet! So until I come back, please check out some of my favourite foodie sites. Do try some of their recipes, but most importantly, cook for you and your family. Eat REAL food, lovingly prepared by YOU and feel better!

   

 
   

Gazpacho - A Lovely Summer Soup

When I was younger, my mom found this wonderful recipe for Gazpacho and we made it regularly during the summer. I LOVE this soup. It is a wonderful, cold soup - perfect for those hot days when you don't feel like heating up your kitchen. It is refreshing, light and full of all kinds of healthy! Serve it as an appetizer or as a light meal with a whole grain pita and a bean salad. YUM! All you need is a good knife, a peeler, a blender and a fridge. Sadly, our family recipe went missing so I set out to re-create the recipe of my childhood. I believe I have succeeded!

Start by preparing your veggies.  Peel your cucumber, halve and clean out the ribs and seeds from your peppers, trim your green onions and celery. Chop everything in a medium dice.

Throw the chopped vegetables into the blender. Add 3 cups of the tomato juice to start.

Peel and mince the garlic clove. Measure out your olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper. Add it to your blender.

Blitz everything until a uniform soup results. Depending on the size of your blender, you may have to do this in two batches. Transfer the gazpacho to a container to store in the refrigerator.  I prefer glass, but that's just me. Use whatever container you have on hand.  Add more tomato juice as necessary to get the soup consistency you enjoy. You can add the additional tomato juice to the soup in your storage container and shake or whisk it in. I like my gazpacho to be fairly "fluidic" so I have used as much as 5 cups of tomato juice, but I always start at 3 cups and add a little more at a time to get the best consistency. I like to chill this soup at least 3 hours or over night to let the flavours combine. The soup keeps well for several days too, so you can snack on the left overs.  I even found out that I could pour it into single servings (not the added veggies though - add those at serving time) and freeze the soup. Once thawed in the fridge, the gazpacho is as tasty as

 freshh! Who knew?

At serving time, finely dice the remaining cucumber, red and green peppers and a medium tomato of your choice. 

Pour the soup into your serving bowls and sprinkle the finely diced veggies into each of the bowls evenly. If you like, you can add one extra drizzle of olive oil too.



Gazpacho

A wonderful summer soup, refreshing yet substantial. This recipe serves 6-8 people.

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Ingredients

• 1 can of Roma tomatoes – 796 mL (in season Roma tomatoes , 5 or so fresh, skinned and seeded, could be substituted)   
• 1 sweet red pepper, halved and seeded                                    
• 1 green pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 stalk celery
• 2 green onions, green and white parts
• 1 English cucumber, peeled and cut in half
• 1 good sized garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
• 3 to 4 cups tomato juice (approximately)
• 1 generous pinch or 2 of a good quality salt                                    
• A few grinds of pepper
• 1 medium tomato (garnish)

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Instructions

• Reserve the other halves of the red, and green peppers, and cucumber for garnish at serving time.
• Roughly chop the cucumber, red and green peppers and green onions.
• Finely dice the celery.
• Add all chopped veggies, canned tomatoes, 2 cups of tomato juice, vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper to the blender. Blend on high. Do in 2 batches if necessary.
• Pour the soup into a large pitcher. Check the consistency of the soup, Add the remainder of the tomato juice, more if required; stir well and chill for several hours – minimally 3 hours, but preferably over night so the garlic mellows a bit!

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Serving

• Finely dice the reserved red and green peppers, cucumber and the tomato.
• Pour the soup into bowls, sprinkle with a generous serving of diced veggies.
• If you want, you can drink this soup as a quick snack, simply by pouring just the soup into a tall glass. Such a speedy way to get a whole bunch of goodness. Who needs V-8?

Father's Day Dinner - Salads - Part 2

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

 

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

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

 

 

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

 

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

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

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

Potato Salad

Serves 4-6

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

3 eggs, hard cooked from happy chickens

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

3 stalks celery, finely diced

1/2 lime, juiced thoroughly

1/2 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper

Dressing

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

1 cup organic yogurt

1/2 cup mayonaise

2 pinches of salt

1/8 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp garlic powder

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

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

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

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

Hard cook the eggs and let cool.

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

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

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

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

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

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

OOPS! I forgot the garnish for the picture.

Cabbage and Apple Salad - Supercharged
Serves 6-8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

This salad is SO pretty

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

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

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

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!