October 28th, 2011
I don’t have much time for a real post today. Dave and I are going to see Matt Good tonight. We have front row tickets and backstage passes – I’m crazy excited!!
Dinner is left over borsch. I don’t have a recipe for you because this is one of the few soups that I actually use a recipe out of a cook book for. I just wanted to share my love of borsht. I’m not sure if it’s because I went to a Ukranian babysitter for a large chunk of my childhood or because borscht is the one of the few meals I can make with local produce all year round, but I love it!
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October 11th, 2011
I’ve been looking for a great pumpkin muffin recipe for a while now. Most of the recipes out there are loaded with sugar and white flour, but I like my muffin recipes to be fairly healthy – whole grains, low in sugar and oil. I decided to try and make a recipe using Dreena Burton’s Pumpkin Raisin Loaf as a starting point. I love how healthy her baking recipes are! I decided to add fresh cranberries and walnuts to make these muffins extra delicious.
This is also my recipe featuring cranberries for the Sweet or Savory Kitchen Challenge over at Diet Dessert and Dogs and Affairs of Living.
Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Muffins (Whole grain and low fat)
2 cups whole spelt flour
¼ cup unrefined sugar
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
pinch salt
1 tbs ground flax seeds
1 cup almond milk
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tbs oil
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup fresh cranberries
Topping – 2 tbs unrefined sugar mixed with ½ tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (except the flax). In another bowl, mix together the soy milk and the ground flax seed. Let the soy milk/flax mixture sit for 5 minutes then add the pumpkin, maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the walnuts and cranberries. Spoon into a muffin pan that has either been greased or lined. Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 350 F for 26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
You can use sweetened dried cranberries instead of fresh but omit the sugar topping or they will be too sweet.
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July 6th, 2011
I’ve been eating a lot of local food for a few years now but this is my first year trying out Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). I can be somewhat of a picky eater so the thought of just getting a mystery box of produce every week terrified me. But a few months ago a neighbour approached me about sharing a CSA bin with her. I figured this was a great way to ease into it.
Even though I’m quite familiar with local produce, the CSA does pose new challenges. For example, what the heck do you do with 3 huge bunches of radishes with greens? So I’m going to start doing some regular posts on things I make with my more challenging CSA items.
Back to radishes. Sure they’re yummy in a salad but that is only going to use up a few of them. I googled some recipes and decided to try cooking them and their greens. This was my first time cooking radishes and they were surprisingly delicious! Cooking really mellows the flavors. The greens were fairly bitter as far as dark leafy greens go. They might be too strong for those who are new to eating lots of greens, but I thought they were good.
I don’t even really have a recipe for this but it was inspired from this recipe. I just melted a small amount of vegan butter (Earth Balance) in a large sauce pan over medium heat and then added the thinly sliced radishes. When they were starting to get transparent I added the greens and sauteed until they were wilted. Then I seasoned with lots of salt and pepper. (Sorry for the terrible picture, I was too hungry to take a better one!)
Sauteed Radishes
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June 24th, 2011
This is my entry to the
Sweet or Savory Kitchen Challenge hosted by Ricki over at
Diet Dessert and Dogs. The ingredient for June is blueberries! I love the combo of blueberries with coconut and I have about 5 bags of shredded coconut that I bought on sale and need to use up! So I decided to make a blueberry chia seed pudding with homemade coconut milk. The coconut milk was amazing, and so was the pudding. I tried this two ways, straining the coconut milk, and leaving the fiber in. The end result is a lot creamier if you strain the coconut milk. If you don’t have a nut milk bag or you’re just too lazy to strain it, you’ll still get a yummy pudding, it will just be a little bit fibrous.
Blueberry Coconut Chia Pudding (yields 2 servings)
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 ½ cup water
Sweetener to taste (I used 2 drops of liquid stevia extract)
¾ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
¼ cup chia seeds
Blend coconut with water and sweetener until completely smooth. Strain through a nut milk bag or cheese cloth. Give your blender a rinse and add the coconut milk back to the blender. Discard the coconut pulp (it would probably be yummy in some sort of raw cookie). Add the blueberries to the blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and whisk in chia seeds. Transfer to the fridge to let the chia seeds absorb the liquid. Let sit for at least an hour, but 3-4 hours is preferable. Top with fresh blueberries and shredded coconut to serve.
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June 22nd, 2011
Is there a combo better than strawberry and rhubarb? I don’t think so. As I mentioned in my
Sloppy Joe post, I was an oddly picky eater as a child. I didn’t actually try the magical strawberry rhubarb combo until at my boyfriend’s house for Christmas Dinner a few years ago. I tried a piece of his mom’s strawberry rhubarb pie and fell in love. But truth be told, I’m more of a crisp gal. You still get all of the fruity goodness without having to bother with a pie crust. And they are usually a fair bit healthier, which means I get to eat them more often!
I harvested the rhubarb in my garden a few weeks ago and just tucked it in the back of the fridge waiting for the first of the local strawberries to ripen. Finally the strawberries were out in full force at the farmer’s market this weekend!
One of the downsides of a strawberry rhubarb crisp is that it usually requires a lot of sugar to counteract the tartness of the rhubarb. I decided to try making one sweetened mostly with stevia. This was a bit of a gamble because I couldn’t really tell if the sweetness level was OK until after it cooked. But this turned out perfectly for my tastes.
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Filling
2 cups chopped rhubarb
3 cups sliced strawberries
¼ tsp (scant) liquid stevia extract
1 tbs tapioca starch
Topping
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
½ cup flour (I used spelt, just about any type will work)
3 tbs agave or maple syrup
1 tbs coconut oil
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix together the filling ingredients in a square glass baking dish. Mix the topping ingredients together in a bowl until combined and crumbly. Spread the topping evenly over the filling. Cover with tin foil and bake for 20 min. Remove tin foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the filling is bubbling and the topping is browned.
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June 20th, 2011
Lentil Sloppy Joes
I’m not sure why but I never actually had sloppy joes as a kid. Come to think of it, it was probably due to my weird hatred of tomato sauce. I’m glad I decided to try a vegan version because these are now part of my regular dinner rotation!
There are a number of lentil sloppy joe recipes out there but a lot of them have a ton of sugar. I first tried Vegan Dad’s recipe and even without adding all the sugar called for in the recipe I found it way too sweet. I also wasn’t a fan of the huge amount of ketchup in the recipe so I decided to try making it with tomato paste instead of ketchup. This makes it a lot cheaper and means that you can control the sweetness level. The first time I made it with 2 tbs of sweetener and it was too tart, the second time I used 3 tbs and it was perfect for my taste. So feel free to adjust the sweetness to your liking. If you need to follow a very low sugar diet you could even try using stevia.
Red Lentil Sloppy Joes (Adapted from Vegan Dad)
1 tbs oil or water
1 onion, chopped
½ tsp oregano
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
½ cup tomato paste
2 ½ cup water
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tbs vegan Worcestershire sauce
3 tbs agave, maple syrup or cane sugar
fresh ground pepper
Tabasco sauce to taste
Heat oil or water in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion for 5-7 until soft. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and cover. Cook for 35-45 minutes until the water is absorbed and the lentils are soft but not mushy. Serve on a whole grain bun or open faced on toasted bread.
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June 1st, 2011
This is actually my first time making a meatless Loaf. I recently saw a recipe for an Easy Onion Meatless Loaf on Bryanna Clark Grogan’s blog. This one caught my eye because I had a package of Lipton onion soup mix in my cupboard left over from making a vegan ‘roast beef’ for Hanukkah dinner that I wanted to use up. The only catch is that I’m trying to avoid soy, so I needed to find a replacement for the TVP. I also prefer to use whole foods instead of anything processed so I decided to try using cooked brown lentils. I had to change the recipe quite a bit because the lentils don’t absorb water the same way the TVP does. But the result was tasty! This will definitely be my go to meatloaf recipe from now on. I served it with steamed broccoli topped with cashew Parmesan and baked Cajun fries.
Soy-free Meatless Loaf
1 ¾ cup cooked brown lentils
1 cup oat flakes (not quick-cook)
1 package onion soup mix (Lipton’s is vegan, see Bryanna’s post for more options)
1 ½ Tbs soy sauce
1 cup hot water
2 tbs dried parsley
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup + 1 Tbs vital wheat gluten
black pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Add the lentils, oats, soup mix and soy sauce to a large bowl. Add 1 cup of hot water (I use boiled water from the kettle). Give it a stir and then place in the fridge or freezer to cool. Once the mixture has reached room temperature add the remaining ingredients. Mix well and then press into a well greased pie place. Squirt a few tablespoons of ketchup or BBQ sauce on top and spread around, then bake for 45 minutes. Bake for an hour if using a loaf pan.
Notes: I added the extra tbs of wheat gluten because the mixture seemed to wet but the result was actually quite firm and if anything, a little on the dry side. So if you like a very moist meatloaf, try only using ⅓ cup gluten.
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