For Jay : Melanie's African Sweet Potatoes

This is a dish which we've made several times, to rave reviews. All of the ingredients are pictured here. This dish is actually a good example of playfulness and experimentation.

When doing some cooking lessons with Melanie and Jay, Mel and I came up with this absolutely fabulous baked sweet potato dish. It's like a French potato gratin, with African inspirations of fruit and coconut, and some cinnamon.

Peeled and sliced sweet potatoes are layered into a pan. In a sautee pan pour a can of coconut milk, some finely chopped onions, a finely chopped chili pepper, some sea salt, a quarter cup of peanut butter, and some dried fruit, chopped. Turn to a medium heat and stir for about 4 or 5 minutes.

When the coconut milk forms a sauce and mixes with the other ingredients, add some apple cider or water or vegetable stock to thin it out. The pour it over the potatoes, which you should layer in a pan in a spiral. The sauce will swim all around the sweets. Cover the dish with tin foil (or bake in a pan with a lid). This gorgeous copper tarte tatin pan is from my trip to Paris and was heavy as heck to carry back in my luggage, but well worth it for its even heat and nostalgic memories of Dehillerin.

Bake at 350 until you can smell this delicious dish wafting through your home, begging you to dive in.

I owe a huge thanks to both Melanie and Jay for letting me prepare their Christmas dinner this year for Jay's family. We did beautiful brined roast turkey breasts, roasted red, yellow and purple baby potatoes, stuffing, steamed broccoli with toasted squash seeds, this sweet potato bake and a delicious mushroom caesar salad with parmesan and proscuitto.

While I don't cook with meat at the house anymore, it was great to get back to some culinary roots and put a traditional turkey dinner together. Brining a turkey makes all the difference in the world in keeping it moist. You will need to do this overnight in a large "vessel" - I used my massive slow cooker. For every litre of water, add a half a cup of kosher salt, and a quarter cup of something sweet - either sugar, honey, agave. For Mel and Jay's I used Apple Cider. Add some fresh herbs (Rosemary / Thyme / Bay work wonders) and let it soak overnight. Use enough brine to cover the meat.

Of course, the best way to keep turkey breasts moist and tender is to serve stuffed portobello mushrooms and save a life.

Come on! You knew I was going to say that - didn't you? ;)

Friends are the family you choose:)

This week was fabulous but busy! I decided that last week would be "holiday entertaining week" at our place, and thought it might be fun to run a dinner party marathon just before the holidays. I was right, but a bit more tired than I thought I'd be!

My first evening (Tuesday night) was for my closest friend and her husband. They are always easy to be with and easy to feed. Conversation never stalls, wine never stops flowing, and laughter abounds. A great start to the week!

I decided that puff pastry would be my friend during this hectic week, and decided to open the evening with savoury palmiers. Palmiers are one of the prettiest and easiest things to make, since you simply spread a delicious filling of some sort over a sheet of frozen puff pastry, roll it up in a pinwheel and put it back in the fridge to re-set. Then, you cut the litle dears into slices and bake them at 375 until golden.

I decided to do a huge stuffed palmier with wild mushrooms, fresh thyme, shallot, garlic and rosemary and rolled the whole thing into a large loaf. Baked it off in individual parcels (without Dijon, for Anne Marie) but including it in the rest of ours. They baked up very pretty, like individual presents!


I served these with green beans and lemon, a red wine mushroom stock balsamic reduction, and a new roasted potato recipe I learned from Jamie Oliver. Delicious!

Mel and Jay are a very cool couple to hang out with, but on Thursday as I left work, I wasn't as prepared as I thought I should have been. Invited them for 6:30, but even as I left the store at 5:30, I still had very little idea of what I'd be making for dinner. So- relying on an old standby of fresh pasta, fresh ingredients, I pulled together a nice fettucini, with edamame beans, green beans, slices of zucchini and some roasted baby tomatoes still on the vine.

This is a great little trick to make something look really beautiful and properly garnished. The tomatoes (of course from Canada) are still on the green vine where they grew up, and poach beautifully drizzled with just a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a sprinkle of sea salt. Jay did comment, though, that the addition of shrimp was unnecessary to theirs, and that we should have just gone vegan for the night.

I 'll admit to being slightly more stressed than usual because of the vegan conflict. Maybe in time it will get easier? However, I am trying to lighten up on myself as much as possible, and just serve delicious food. I am confident I can do this, and I am equally confident that if someone is coming for dinner they will give us some leeway, open their minds just a bit, and just enjoy what's offered.


For both of these, I tried out a recipe for vegan caramel. Caramel's main ingredients are sugar, butter and cream, but I made this one with coconut milk to delicious result. I added some bananas, some cinnamon, some pecans and this caramel for a Foster-ish dessert. It was really great flamed with some rum!

Dinner party number 3 was quite delicious, and really represented the way we like to eat as often as possible. I decided that a rainbow of food would be suitable for the four couples we were getting together with.

Having said this, several of the group are serious meat eaters, and I find that offering something which tastes FAMILIAR can go a long way to getting a carnivore to eat more plants. For me, "stuffing" flavour is a great bridge.

In a pan, I sauteed yet another batch of chef's mix mushrooms. These mixes are really easy to find in the supermarket, full of variety, texture, flavour and shape. Mushrooms crave thyme and rosemary as much as I crave coffee at this hour of the morning, so it really is worth grabbing some fresh herbs if you are making a mushroom dish.


Added some chopped carrots, chopped celery and chopped onion (mirepoix) and sauteed those morsels until they were softened. The usual addition of fresh garlic and some finely chopped shallots rounded out this mixture.

In a large bowl, I added a package of stuffing mix (look for the trans-fat free kind), you would be shocked at the preservatives in some traditional mixes! The fewer ingredients the better and I always go for non-meat based ones.

Over the dry stuffing mix, I added the mushroom and veggie saute, and a can of (drained and rinsed) black beans. Then, I simply stirred until combined and let the steam of the mushroom mix soften the bread. I may have added some moisture depending on the texture. What I was going for was a stuffing that could be mounded up, wrapped in yet another sheet of puff pastry and baked off like a log or loaf.

I figured people would have a slice of something, and that would go a long way to relieving any need for meat. On the side were some balsamic roasted beets, a quick saute of fresh corn kernels, some finely chopped red pepper and cajun spice, sauteed in some coconut oil. I also steamed some heads of broccoli, and garnished with vegan parmesan and lemon zest. Finally, some BBQ sauced sweet potatoes rounded out the rainbow.

Aside from my friend Jay shouting out "I'll take mine medium rare" (ha ha) everyone ate, drank and was pretty merry if I may say so myself!

I'm glad I didn't cave to the huge pressure in my head to have done a side of beef tenderloin, or turkey breast. (And believe me, that voice was really aggessive that day). The final nudge came from the couple on Thursday who said they were disappointed that there was shrimp, and another friend at work who encouraged me to just stay the course. "They're not coming to your house expecting beef. If you serve it, you will just confuse everyone. You're a great cook, just do what you would normally eat, and it will be fine".

And it really was fine - my friend Maria (who is the single greatest gift basket giver on the planet) called recently for the recipe, which is really sweet.

That's what I love about the blog!

Thanks for reading, and have a very happy holiday season!!

Karen

FINALLY! A comment! plus, a great Chocolate Chili recipe...

Tonight, we are going to try to get the house set up for Christmas. My rice cooker is going with organic brown rice, some frozen edamame beans, a few slices of ginger, a garlic clove and a green onion.

Over the weekend I made some chili. I had a great weekend, but am keenly aware that most of the law students didn't get one. They are cramming for exams, finishing off papers due shortly, finalizing projects that they committed to months earlier and TO BE SURE wishing that they had done more, earlier in the term.

So. I thought I'd pull together a chili for some of them, even if just to take the dinner pressure off a meal or two, and rob Subway, Pizza Pizza or the dreaded Mc-Entity of some profits.

Having said this, the holidays are always a budget crunch, whether you're Faith Hill or Josh Groban, or just a regular person trying to survive until January 1st. So - even though my generous spirit is in full gear, the budget just doesn't magically expand to fit my heart's desire. Remember what happened to the Grinch!?? That's my budget right now.

So - as I have preached all year - I go to my cost saving measures once again. Veggie retrieval, a well stocked pantry, some time and some effort. To a delicious result, according to Andy.

Chocolate Chili:
"Some" (I just dumped a bunch in....) dried red kidney beans.

"Some" (ibid) dried black beans

1 diced green pepper

4 stalks diced celery

2 diced red onions

2 or 3 garlic cloves

Cumin, Garlic Powder, Cajun Spice, Paprika, Salt, Pepper, Mustard Powder and Thyme.

The beans boiled in separate pots (since they are different sizes, and cook for different times). For HOURS. This always takes much longer than I think it will.

Then I combined everything in a massive slow cooker and left it on overnight. I adjusted seasoning this morning, with a final addition of a whole grated sweet potato, a good handfull of chopped cilantro, the zest and juice of an entire lime, and about 12 dark chocolate squares.

Dark Chocolate ROCKS chili. It is a heavenly match of complex, deep, core deliciousness. Add it at the end, or you'll ruin this perfection.

Andy and a few others got the first batch. He's already eaten it, and thought it was delicious - and I live for compliments like that.

I have some of my favourite female students next on the list. We talked about something tropical, coconutty, and comforting.

Stay tuned.

THANKS JENN for finally commenting on the blog. It kills me to see so many readers and so few comments, but I am really glad that you are all checking out this cyberspace every once in a while.

K

Jitters...

After an exhaustively long "morning" (it is now 2:18, and I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch), I am taking a quick break to blog about a dinner I'm hosting tonight for some of my students. One of the shifts that has taken place for our house is the "vegan thing". I love having students out to the house - especially as they are getting more stressed as exams loom. Having said that, I am literally nervous because of the distintively non-meaty offerings tonight. I didn't want to completely abandon my ways of eating (which I will Zuber moot till the cows come home is healthier than any other way of eating, bar none!) but I don't want to impose them on everyone either.

In any event, tonight's dinner is stuffed baby peppers with a jalapeno corn polenta, a maquechoux (which is a delicious New-Orleanian corn tomato and green pepper dish, which I augmented with some brown rice for both heft and cost savings), an herb and garlic roasted filet of salmon, some sauteed lemon garlic rainbow swiss chard, and some carmellized sweet potato wedges with the most delicious sweet and spicy BBQ sauce imaginable. I may do an apple and pecan spinach salad if I get out of the office on time. To open, I'm serving a steaming bowl of coconut tomato soup, which I developed on the weekend and made a second batch of last night.

Finally, I'm making classic Beignets for dessert because - for all the health merits of 8-9 servings of veggies over the course of dinner, something deep fried SHOULD be a treat.

Photos to follow, and I sure hope everything comes out OK...

Creamy Coconut Tomato Lentil Soup

Here's another recipe where the title is the directions! I love those.

This soup was something that came together out of a weekend of fast and furious housecleaning. We are almost up on the holiday season, and there was some final cleaning and unpacking that just needed to get done.

I had a can of San Marzano tomatoes and was reaching to make a soup with some leftover leek stock that I had in the fridge. I didn't really want to slow down, but I was hungry. Right next to this can was some coconut milk.

If you've never tried coconut milk, or coconut oil in your cooking, you should. It is one of the most beautiful flavours, for sure! In addition, consuming it (in my experience) actually has a slimming effect. It is really quite amazing, since it is a saturated fat, but true. Plus, my skin always brightens, hydrates and clears within a day or two of coconutting.

So, feeling a bit too chunky from my work related indulgences recently, I dumped both cans into a soup pot with the leek stock (which is so mild that I really could have used water).

Did you know that tomato is a fruit? It made perfect sense as the lighter qualities were complimented by the coconut milk. It goes with pineapple, with mango, with everything tropical, really. So why not the fruity tomato?

I added salt and a bit of pepper, and a cup of red lentils for some body and their heartier flavour.

Not since I combined roasted beets with chocolate cupcakes have I felt such a zing of inspiration in the kitchen. I like being inspired by TV and cookbooks, but I really love coming up with something on my own that tastes this good. The coconut gave the soup that creamy texture that is often missing in vegan cuisine. The lentils steamed beautifully, added nice protein and heft, and the tomatoes were just gorgeous! I took them out once the cooking had started and pureed them in the magic bullet, but could just as easily have left them to mash up with a fork or potato masher for some chunks of tomato. Either way, this combo of ingredients was extraordinary!

Bob Blumer's Shredded Tomato

I've been out of town on business for the past two days, worked late into the evenings M T W of this week, and had business entertaining all last weekend. Suffice it to say that I am exhausted!

It is Saturday morning, and there will only be leftover bits of building blocks in my fridge. Today is one of those opportunities to plan meals for the week with a list, shop for what is in season and actually looks good in the store, and maybe do a little long-term preparation as I go about my Saturday to-do list.

I went to see Jamie Oliver in Toronto on Thursday night. He was nicely introduced by Bob Blumer (my culinary crush). What a fun evening! Bob is one of the only men who shows up in my dreams, but I am quite sure that it is probably because I've fallen asleep watching one of his shows! In any event, both men were really great to see live.

Bob did a cooking demo with a quick pasta, interestingly enough, something I often pull together at home. It takes a lot to surprise me, but he did it. He took a huge beefsteak tomato for a quick sauce and after sauteeing some garlic and shallots SHREDDED it into the pan! Now, I have grated and shredded a lot of things in my life - even a few hearts - but NEVER a tomato!!! Talk about a quick cooking trick. Seriously, it made me wonder - why didn't I think of that before!

I tried to download a number of photos of what's been cooking for the past month, but didn't quite make it. More soon.

Risotto Tuesday and Marilyn Monroe

I am really loving risottos right now, with the change in weather turning cooler. Even if you enjoy meat, or chicken or seafood, the basics are the basics - so add what you want.

Risotto Tuesdays have become a "thing" in our house. It is a great antedote to the proverbial question "what's for dinner".

Mushroom risotto was on the menu last week, but yesterday I had some beautiful red peppers and some red onions. Harrison wanted to help (mostly to make 'tofu calamari', but I talked him into helping with both) which was great.

I always find it cute to see newbies holding knives. Harrison has been able to hold a knife - and I mean a "that's a nIIIIIIfe" knife (insert Australian accent here) - since he was young. I want him to respect the sharpness and the safety issues for sure, but I also trust him and want him to be comfortable around cooking utensils. (A person I know actually locks up their cheese grater for fear that one of their little people in the house will scrape themselves. Really? When I was a kid, I didn't go around accidentally grating my fingers, but I digress...)

So he slowly took apart a red pepper, discarding the stem and seeds after slicing the whole thing in half. Then he took down the onion, taking off the top and bottom, peeling off the outer layer and cubing both into manageable chunks (the size of toonies). We added some olive oil to a big soup pot instead of a shallower pan.

When I cook with my son, I do like to build in some splatter protection when working with hot oil, hence the deeper pan.

We sauteed both till soft after salting them slightly, and then blended the mushy mixture in the magic bullet blender with some water.

Olive oil goes back in the pan, with some ARBORIO rice, enough oil to coat the kernels. Then add stock in batches, and stir with a flat utensil of some kind, slowly adding stock for about 18 minutes.

After the rice was getting nice and creamy, after approximately 10 minutes, I added the red pepper and onion mixture back into the pan.

Finished the cooking/stirring process for the next 8 muinutes, grabbed plates, some Frank's Red Hot and some sea salt.

Checked the risotto to see how it tasted, and as Julia Child would say "corrected" the seasoning. All this means is that you check to see if it needs more salt;)

When Bill walked in the door, I was on the couch, happily watching Chef At Home. Harrison was at the island nibbling his potato chip crusted fried tofu, which he thinks are better than Calamari, dunked in toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and hot sauce, and watching Spongebob.

I was able to hand him a red pepper risotto for dinner after a long hard day at the office...

Marilyn Monroe said once that she didn't mind being in a man's world, as long as she could be a woman in it. Truth be told, and as non-PC as this may sound, I LIKE being able to pull a satisfying dinner together for him, EVEN if I have worked as many hours as he has that day.

Whether dinner was easy or not is our little secret....

IKEA risotto in plain language instructions...

We are very close to finishing our IKEA closets - and MAN are they gorgeous. However, we've had to contend with two broken panels on the last door, and that means that the entire unfinished project is spread all over our closet. I literally had to move a hammer, a fat orange screwdriver and a set of IKEA instructions just to get to the keyboard.

And it makes me think again about tools.

You need the right tools to put things together, of course. But sometimes you just need some instructions that have easy to follow pictures. IKEA's instructions do not even have words. They are all visual instructions, with just arrows, guides and pictures. It is genius.

Why don't they make a cookbook for guys like this? Seriously - this is my inspired thought for the evening. IKEA needs to get into the cookbook business. Now that I think about it, it's not just the guys. We could ALL use a cookbook like this.

When I get into the office (that is if I remember, if I can still locate my other computer because I've never loaded the scanner info onto my new laptop, if I can find the magazine page, and IF I get in early....) I would like to scan in a magazine article that food network magazine runs. It isn't a recipe, actually but a collection of pictures! It will show a picture of 3 eggs, a picture of a tablespoon of oil, a picture of 15 spears of asparagus...

This idea is really smart for people who are just learning, because often the combinations of food and flavours are intimidating.

My friend Melanie said once that people always make a recipe look so easy because they LIE about what is in there. They say "Oh, I just added this, and this and a bit of that and some this" but what they don't tell you is that there are 10 other things that they added and don't tell you about. And she may be right.

Tonight, I just "threw together" a risotto for Harrison and I.

So here - in exhaustive detail - is his favourite mushroom risotto recipe. And I will try to put it into realistic terms for fun.

Take a saucepan (the size of a hubcap )
Turn one large burner onto the number 6 (already this is harder than I thought...)
Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil (one shot glass... yes, I just measured it:)
Take a half cup of ARBORIO rice
Cut up half an onion (the size of a baseball) into little pieces (about the size of dice?)
Pulverize one clove of garlic into tiny pieces (the size of a nail head).
MIx all this in the pan until the oil coats everything including the rice, garlic and onions and keep stirring everything around.

Get a FLAT spatula so that you can scrape the entire bottom of the pan or something is going to start burning (the very blackish brown colour... NOT GOOD!)

Once you have this oily coated oniony-garlicky-rice, you can add some vegetable stock.

Vegetable stock comes in tetra-paks in the soup aisle. It can also come in a can, but it can be concentrated, so read the directions on the can. It can also come in a cube, or a packet. Make the entire packaged recipe before you start. It does not need to be hot - you can leave it cold.

[The cheapest and best way to get vegetable stock is to make your own from a large chopped up carrot (the size of a big orange screwdriver) and an equal amount of chopped up celery and one chopped up (baseball sized) onion that you have peeled to get rid of the papery surrounding layers, and just keep the wet crisp part. Cut off the hairy bearded part and the pointy top too. Add 1 teaspoon of salt (1/4 of a shot glass) and some pepper. Add 4 cups of water and leave it on the stove with the burner on 4 for 40 minutes until the veggies are soft. Since I really believe in waste not, want not, I would put the whole thing into the blender to use all the veggies....]

OK - back to our risotto.....

You will need about 6 cups of the stock OR 6 cups of liquid of some kind. If you are adventurous, you could add 1/2 cup of wine. If you have a leftover soup from the day before, you could add that. OR you could just add water.

As the oily rice is sitting there frying, grab a soup ladle and add two ladlefuls of liquid. It will sizzle and steam up.

Use the flat spoon or spatula to keep stirring everything. You will need to keep stirring for the next 18 minutes.

IT IS WORTH IT.

Let everything keep evapourating as you stir every 30 seconds to a minute and a half.

Grab a pack of whole mushrooms. (The size of golf balls)

Rinse them in a clean sink.

Cut them into slices with a knife. (The slices should be the size of a head of a wrench that says 3/4 on the head....Yes, I just looked this up too.)

Add another two spoonfulls of liquid. Add however many mushrooms you have managed to cut up.

Keep doing this every 45 seconds - 1.5 minutes or until all the mushrooms are added to the risotto.

OK. This part is for Melanie.

Add some grainy dijon mustard. (To measure this, use a big spoon you would use to eat soup with.)

Add some fresh rosemary if you have it. (One twig)

If you have laughed at the thought of fresh rosemary being in your house, smack your forehead and do not pass go, because you really should. It is delicious.

However, you could use one half of a coffee spoon of dried rosemary from your cupboard.

Use one half of the same coffee spoon to add some steak spice because STEAK SPICE GOES BEAUTIFULLY WITH MUSHROOMS.

Are you still stirring? Stirring this way is what makes risotto, risotto. It is what encourages that creamy starchy deliciousness to come out and play!

By now (I'll assume you've had about 10-15 mushrooms and have added liquid and stirring about the same number of times...) it will be thickening up, smelling delicious and making you feel pretty darn proud of yourself now.

Almost done...

Take a bite of one of the rice kernels using the spoon you were using to measure out the spices. Is it smushy, or is is still hard? It should be smushy when you stop adding liquid.

If you have used up all the stock, water is just perfectly fine at this point. There is a lot of flavour in the pan, and you are just now trying to cook the rice through.

Grab a plate, not a bowl. I prefer a plate because of how hot this risotto will be when you try to eat it.

*Believe me on this one - it will be hot - you will want to start devouring it - so use a plate.*

Grab a ladle, and finally dunk it into the risotto. Give yourself 3 good scoops on your plate.

Grab some sea salt and pinch it between your fingers, and then sprinkle it over the risotto to finish it.

Grab the olive oil and another dessert spoon and pour some olive oil onto the spoon.

Spoon the olive oil over the salted risotto. This is the good, uncooked olive oil application which is good for your heart, and adds a delicious olive-y flavour. Don't skip this step because of the fat. There is no meat in this dish, so a bit of flavour and fat will make you feel rewarded, satisfied and full.

Eat what you made.
Congratulations!

A Quickie...and reincarnated veggies.

Quickly ran into the grocery store yesterday to grab a quick dinner. The fresh pasta (yesterday is was Spaghettini) is always such a time-saver for me. I also grabbed a can of San Marzano-Style (Canadian) tomatoes and a can of navy beans.

As many of you know, Harrison loves fresh tuna, so I also picked up some sushi for him as a treat. They actually had the spicy albacore tuna, so I was hoping to impress him.

In a pan on medium I put a bit of olive oil and chopped up a clove of garlic. I also chopped up about a quarter of a white onion into tiny pieces. Dumped the can of tomatoes in, dumped in the rinsed white beans, sprinkled some salt and pepper and finished it with a few splashes of white Balsamic vinegar, which is a trick I learned in Venice. Then I put the lid on, heated the pasta water and dinner was essentially D O N E.

Carissa and Abby were going to come by for a quick bite. I took the sauce and threw a few ladlefuls in the Magic Bullet to puree the white beans and tomatoes over her pasta.

There were a few sad veggies left over from Thanksgiving, a few red peppers, some yellow ones, and a bit of steamed bok choy. So, I chopped them into bite-size pieces and plopped them into the now bubbling sauce.

I do this veggie scouting a lot when I have a sauce or stew or chili on the go. I just eyeball what's in my fridge and then dump it in. Sometimes veggies have lost their youthful glow, but they can still make a wonderful counterpart to an accompanying sauce. Especially if they are already cooked. I almost never waste vegetables, preferring to just recycle them into a new form. Like reincarnation!

I even had enough to invite Carissa and Abby for dinner, fed the three of us, AND have a container of leftovers for lunch.

Harrison, on realizing that I got him tuna sushi, burst out with a version of a Katy Perry song:

California Rolls
They're unforgettable
Tasty treats
With rice on the top...

Love this kid.

A quick note about the Thanksgiving "Sweets"

If Thanksgiving is the Oscars, and the Turkey is best actor, then sweet potatoes have to rank as best supporting actress. They're sweet, colourful, healthy and irresistable.

But some people make them far too sweet (remember that kid who won best supporting with that hideous hat?- TOO SWEET to the point where it's a turn off). I feel the same way about that hat as I do when people douse their dinner sweet potatoes in marshmallows and sugar and maple syrup. It's too much!

So, instead of overstyling a cute kid, I think sweet potatoes belong on the savoury and spicy side. My sweet potatoes are more like Queen Latifah in Chicago.

I shredded them and then baked them in the oven with some water. Could have used a stock, but I didn't have any. When they were out, I mashed them slightly, added a generous cranking of Indian spices from a grinder, a tiny bit of brown sugar, some cinnamon and grated in some fresh ginger.

Scott - who is unabashed in his love of all meaty things - loved these. He also thought a lot of a chili I threw together so I thought I'd post it here too.

1 can of Bravo tomato sauce
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of white kidney beans
1-2 tablespoons chili powder. (Check out my Gold Medal Chili for a more complex version, February 2010)

Math, the Single Guy and Snakeskin...

Even though my blog is aimed mainly at women, I am excited to learn that quite a few of my readers are guys. And that is an extra challenge since some men have still been programmed with the "I can't really cook" messaging.

When I was a kid, I always told myself "I'm not good at math". I was also told this by one of the nuns who taught Math in grade school, as well as Mr. DiMaio who had to suffer through my attempts in high school. But even he used to say that I had it in me to be good at math, but I was just sabotaging myself by saying that I couldn't.

Fast forward to University where I just got sick of telling myself I was bad at math. So I took a stats course. I do believe in facing your fears... and I figured that I would take down the "FEAR OF MATH"...

I tried.

I practiced.

Eventually I relaxed and saw the patterns, the rythms, and the repetition.

My final grade was my only A+ in University.

One of my friends is newly single. So much of adjusting to a new lifestyle has to do with the LITTLE stuff, not the big issues. Of course this is made impossibly challenging because his female counterpart was responsible for daily dinners.

My response to this is SO WHAT?!?!

If you both are miserable, a daily salad and bad casserole is no reason to stay!

(Plus it probably came with dish duty and was capped off with some form of nagging about not loading the diswasher properly - so were you really farther ahead? My vote is NO.)

But what's a single guy to do when he finds himself on his own, and finally gets sick of the prepared roasted chickens at Zehrs?

Let's complicate the mix even more... Add in the fact that you're carrying around a lot of extra weight that is slowing you down, perhaps creating a health problem or two.

Add in the fact that you are probably eating a LOT more "convenience" food - which will never ever provide the smooth fuel your body craves to handle stress.

And finally, add in the extra financial pressure of the uncertainties of separating.

Hate to say it, because it just reveals my vegangelical self again, but there are some great options here for all of the above.

So, buddy, this is for you:

You NEED proper tools. Think of your motorcycle guys and your car-obsessed friends. Would you EVER go into a garage with one or two tools? NO! You need em' all!! (check out my older post Shop Talk, July 2009)

1. Get a slow cooker.

2. Get a rice cooker.

3. Get a good deep non-stick pan.

4. Have a "Date Night" - with yourself.

Even though you have to be repulsed by the idea of dating, you should make a date with yourself that is regular to grocery shop. One particularly lonely single man told me once that routine is comforting, and he was probably right.

5. Lose the inner dialogue that you can't do this. You can. Suck it up.

You may find yourself with some quiet nights that you either fill with TV or a book. One of those nights, think about your weekly "routine" from a food perspective.

Do you have breakfast with the guys after hockey? Do you grab something fast on Tuesdays? Where do you go? What do you order? And most of all... WHAT DO YOU SPEND? (eg: Ours used to be quarter chicken dinners at Swiss Chalet on Sundays.)

On one of these quiet nights, figure out what your REGULAR weekly routine costs. Also try to hone in on where some of your worst food choices happen. I'm willing to bet you a can of beans that it is also an expensive food choice for relatively little nutrition.

so 6. is Figure out what your weekly food budget has been.

Finally, 7. is to trust me. First, I can tell you I've been there. As a busy lawyer, who was single most of the time I was married anyway, I know what it's like to feel the quiet. To stare into a fridge thinking "what the heck am I supposed to eat tonight?" and decide it was easier just to make popcorn.

Cooking dinner for yourself is EXACTLY what you need right now.

You will be spending time with your own thoughts, but not the over complicated ones. The good ones. Like asking yourself "WHAT DO I LIKE?" What do I want to eat tonight? Maybe you were with someone who didn't like olives, or nuts or cinnamon. You are free from all of that stuff now - just eat what you love.

You will also be putting some good healthy fuel into your body, and in times of stress, you need it.

I promise you, you will be saving money too - and that is always a good thing.

You will also be saving truckloads of junky, weighty calories which will result in a sleeker, healthier boday and outlook. You can finally ditch that hideous XL sweater she made you buy (which you hated, even on the day YOU bought it) because it won't fit you in two months.

I'll tell you, there is nothing more satisfying like shedding your wardrobe, either. In 6 months, you will have a stronger, healthier happier body, maybe even a few new clothes that you look good in, and the old unhappy wardrobe will be lined up in garbage bags for St. Vincent de Paul. See? Even charities are going to benefit from this change!!!

If you've been through the dreaded separation, you've probably already been called a snake. But this isn't a bad thing. Think of snakes. They do what they do for a while, and then they move on.

They literally SHED their skin, and get back to their routine with a new skin.

So grab your slow cooker, your olives, that hideous sweater and a few garbage bags - because you have some cooking to get to...

Tangerine Countertop and Jalapeno Cornbread

We have a huge surprise for everyone in our new kitchen. It is being installed today, and most of the cupboards were in yesterday - enough to make my heart just pound with affection... It is a highly functional kitchen, and I have spent many hours just daydreaming about what it would be like to cook there.

I've thought about the way a pot would drip when pasta was done...

I've thought about where I want to grab plates when I'm ready to plate something from the stove...

Mused about what deliciousness would be served on what I hope will be a highly functional island (no sink, no cooktop, no raised areas - just smooth open prep space).

What everyone doesn't know is that, while the rest of the house has been kept supremely neutral, we have ordered a huge quartz countertop in tangerine!

The orange will give a gorgeous jumping off point for fabrics in the dining room, for accents in the kitchen space, and is the most obvious way Bill and I could think of to emphasize what everyone knows to be true.... The kitchen is where everyone gathers no matter how many rooms are in a house! Our kitchen even has seating for five within the space itself, three at the island and two in a window bench looking onto our gorgeous backyard.

It will be that beautiful citrus accent I am so fond of!!

We've been painting, and wiping, and sweeping to our heart's content this week, getting ready to move in. Harrison asked me on Wednesday, after helping with the second coat in the kitchen... "Mom, if our new house was a body, what would be its stomach?". I thought about it - stomach, digestion, processing.... and thought about the dishwashers? The laundry room, maybe?

He said "Mom, it's the kitchen!"

I said - "no, buddy, that's the heart!"

"You're soft!" was his immediate reply...

So this big, bold section of "tequila sunrise" quartz is going to be a true bullseye. It will be a beautiful conversation piece, and a nice spash of whimsical, fun, slightly-out-there wacky-ness.

Our first party there is going to celebrate our 100th birthday and our new home. The menu is going to be delicious, but did take a bit of extra time with the caterer to veganize most of it, while still keeping it highly edible for our non-vegan guests. It is funny to see foodies struggle with vegan - because we are so trained to do animal based food. It is so natural to just sprinkle cheese onto or into things. To grind up or shred or slice meat into the next thing... to crack eggs into other things... When you remove that as an option, it can flummox even the most ardent professor of food-loving.

I've relaxed a little and have some fish dishes on the menu, but am trying to stick with a delicious showcase of plant-based food. This time it's really not a big political statement of veganism... it's just how I really want to eat on our birthday! Next door, our neighbour is grilling burgers, etc...so that should take care of the carnivors - I hope. Actually, what I really hope is that no one even notices... they just taste the food and think it's great.

Now, on to FOOD.

Last week, I made an exceptional jalapeno cornbread. It went beautifully with a black bean chili, and I promised to put the recipe on here - so here it is...

6 - 8 ears of corn niblets (about 4 cups)
1 red pepper, cut up into 1/8 inch pieces
1 jalapeno, cut up even smaller than the red pepper!

Saute in some coconut oil or corn oil until the corn is lightly browned - this will bring out its natural sweetness to contrast with the spicy jalapeno.

1 can of coconut milk and 1/4 cup of cornstarch, whisked together until there are no lumps.

Add half of the corn mixture to a blender and pour the coconut/cornstarch on top. Pulse until blended. Pour into a bowl with the remaining corn/pepper mixture, and add half a cup of cornmeal (any colour) and a cup of chopped green onions, 2 tbsp of maple syrup and 2 tsp hot sauce or cayenne pepper. Salt to taste - probably about 1 tsp.

Pour it into a baking dish or pie plate, and bake for 40 minutes at 350. Let it cool and set up for about 10 minutes before serving, if you can wait that long!

Good Eating begins with Good Shopping

I say this all the time to anyone who will listen. You can not eat well when life throws you curve balls if you have not properly shopped for the week. The food just won't be in your house, and will leave you with fewer options.

We are getting quite busy on the home front, trying to juggle extremely busy work lives, with lots of family events, trying to spend time with our kids and friends, and trying to see a renovation project through the final stages of completion before a really big birthday party / summer fest / housewarming party at the end of the summer. So our evenings have been really busy lately with painting, cleaning and picking things up.

Yesterday I wanted to make sure we ate before our evening chores began, so I grabbed four soft whole wheat tortillas, added a handful of spinach leaves to each one, heated up some of the black bean chili mixture (which I intend to turn into burgers this weekend) and spooned it on top of the spinach leaves. A grate or two of lime zest and some hot sauce and sea salt made for some delicious, substantial soft tacos.

If you haven't checked out my recipe for pizza dough yet, you should. Talk about a money saver - I doubled the recipe and had pizza on the weekend, once during the week and gave one to my mom and dad.

Pizza sauce is an easy one, too. On the weekend, Harrison and I made some roasted tomatoes. Cubed tomatoes, an onion cut into eights, some olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar was all it needed. Well, that and a roasting pan at 375 for an hour or so. When it was done, I pureed it down to a thick sauce, adding some fresh oregano which I got as a bridal shower favor, some fresh garlic, some chives and some fresh basil.

I had mentioned to Harrison the day before (I think when I was assembling the corn chowder) that in a professional kitchen, the number of things you have to "do" to a dish to send it out is called a "move". So, for example, my black bean taco thing would have had 6 moves. Taco, spinach, black bean, lime, hot sauce, sea salt.

Harrison was enjoying last weekend, and will help me in the kitchen if I ask him to. So when he kept raving about the corn chowder, I wanted to show him how easy it was to make a tomato soup with the same principle.

So I call out "hey Buddy, want to see how to make an easy tomato soup?"

When he shouted back "How many moves?" I just grinned.

The truth is, whether you're a hungry but curious 10 year old trying to get back to watching Spongebob Squarepants, a busy woman trying to get to everything you need to cover off in life until you fall into bed, exhausted, or every option in between, if you can keep a handful of recipies or principles in your back pocket with only a few moves, you CAN find time to get through your day with some good food.

Here are a few quick "moves" that I think elevate a dish with minimal effort:

*Use lemon, lime or orange zest to top off your dish, with a finish of sea salt.

*Use a George Foreman grill to add some softness and crispiness to a taco or wrap. They heat up almost instantly, and leave cute but delicious grill marks. The other night, I even did this with a veggie hot dog when I needed a snack!

*A plate is like a blank canvas. Look at the colour of your plates as you're putting them together:

*If your plate is mostly red (a chili, a tomato sauced dish, a casserole), sprinkle some chopped green onion or fresh herbs if you have them.

*If your plate is mostly yellow (pasta, curry) add some chopped red pepper or even a fresh chili to the top with some lime zest.

*If your plate is mostly green (salads, stir frys) shred some carrots or beets(or even use a vegetable peeler for long strands!) to wake up the colour and add some additional flavour. Nuts or dried cranberries also provide a nice contrast in taste and texture.

*Desserts can be elevated with a sprinkle of coconut, or some dark chocolate shavings, or some fresh berries. Lemon zest also works wonders here.

So, YES, you might have to add the following to your regular grocery list, but it will be worth it...

Lemon, Lime, Orange
Coconut Flakes
Green Onions
Fresh Basil
Slivered Almonds
Dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries

These few additions to your shopping list can make all the difference in a gorgeous plate of food that you really want to dive into.

Two Roasted Vegetable Soups

One really great way to enjoy summer vegetables is to roast them and then puree everything into a heavy soup.

I've done this now two days in a row, to delicious results.

Day one I took five tomatoes, cut them in half. One onion, cut in eighths. Sprinkled with sea salt and fresh pepper, drizzled with about 2 tsp olive oil and 2 tsp black balsamic vinegar. I roasted them in the oven in a casserole (but a cookie sheet lined with parchment would do, too). When they were soft and mushy, I threw them in the blender with some hot water. It was gorgeous - almost like a bisque. It made two large bowls of soup, the equivalent of 2 1/2 vegetables in each.

Yesterday I thought I'd do the same thing, but with yellow peppers. So I cubed them, added another chopped onion, added the wilting celery (about a cup and a half) and drizzed with olive oil, and white balsamic, salt and pepper.

Same drill - roast till mushy, puree, and add water.

It was beautiful - fresh and bright - and looked fabulous in the bowl. I served the tomato soup beside a (vegan) grilled "cheese" whole wheat baguette, and served the pepper soup alongside some pre-made Indian appetizers with a spicy tamarind sauce.

Did you know that peppers have more vitamin C than an orange? We got our veggies both nights, and prep was barely 3 minutes before and a minute to puree the soup and pour.

Just realized that it's Friday morning, and I survived the grocery week with about $25 to spare.

What'd you eat instead?

I'm grabbing a quick bite at my desk since I'm on my own for lunch today. I wasn't in the mood for our usual lunch favourites : fattoush salad and lentil soup at our local middle-eastern restaurant or spicy black bean soup and a hefty salad at our usual bar-like lunch restaurant....so I went for a drive and found myself at the grocery store... starving!

At the prepared food counter, there are a myriad of glistening, fried, brown items, and a nice array of fresh salads, most of which are sprinkled with bits of cheese or globs of mayonnaise.... nothing I want to ruin today's 6:30 am 42 minute 6K for.

Over in the section containing macaroni and potato salads, I spot four "fresh" salads - and exhale in relief. There is a wild rice salad, a three lentil cranberry salad, a three bean salad and a couscous salad with olives. I decide on the cranberry lentil, and a vegetable samosa.

The kid ahead of me is ringing in two fried chicken breasts and a mound of cheesy potatoes...and almost $15. My order came in at $5.65.

It always gets me thinking when I'm eating out with nothing but time to think about food, or compare what I see around me. Today's question got me pondering "What do I eat instead?". It's not like the chicken or cheese tastes bad, but if you take it off the list of options, what you'll eat INSTEAD is invariably going to be better. Better for your body AND better for your budget.

I think that what I'm eating INSTEAD is what is fuelling my desire to keep eating this way. The vibrant colours, rich and exciting flavours, deep textures and inexpensive and easy variations are such a great alternative.

The fibre and protein and fat and complex carbohydrate mix was really delicious. Instead of packing back a quick fried (dead) chicken breast and some gloppy potatoes, I've eaten about 1 1/2 cups of colourful protein, fiber, nuts, cranberries, parsley, peas, potatoes and some hefty spices. In the time it took me to blog this, my stomach is now full, and I am no longer ravenous.

Being alone, I also had the chance to observe lots of little kids, shopping with their moms. It's interesting for me to see the little kids, their moms and their carts all in one place. Our daily habits sure do add up over the years...

I'll let Harrison have the last word on this blog...

On Sunday, he says to me in his usual, matter-of-fact tone... "Mom, I don't mean to sound "out there" or anything, but I think what parents give their kids when they are little trains taste buds for when you're grown up. Like if you just get fed junk food, your taste buds think that junk food is the way food is supposed to taste when you're grown up. And if your parents give you real food, you probably actually like real food when you're grown up...Right?"

Black Bean Sliders and Corn Chowder

Black bean sliders are my week's fave new discovery. Turns out, the same process for making meatballs can apply easily to black bean burgers.

1 can of drained black beans, salted and peppered
1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs (toasted, if you can)
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten (I got some at zehrs... holds the burgers together)
1 minced garlic clove
1/2 minced red onion (in really small pieces...)
1/4 cup of water

Ingredient cost?? $1.50

Mush everything together (I used a potato masher) and then my (clean) hands.

Golf ball sized patties on the George Foreman grill cooked up beautiful and brown in about 10 minutes.

Ina Garten, despite her very North American food emphasis is an amazing cook because she simplifies everything hard and fancies up everything that is easy, resulting in INCREDIBLE food. Like she'll make simple pancakes (which I did yesterday) and then fancy them up by adding a pattern of fresh raspberries and lemon zest. Delicious!

Today, she made a pot roast, and inspired me to do something in my casserole dish. I browned some onions, salt, pepper and olive oil and then waited for inspiration. I forgot to buy carrots, but I chopped up some celery and garlic.

In the back of my pantry was a box of Knorr soup called "Yellow" which I used for a risotto a while back, but only used one of the two containers I bought. The second has been patiently waiting in the pantry, and got poured over the carmelized onions, etc.

Bill walks by and asks what I'm making. My reply "I have no idea.>>"

I had bought 6 ears of fresh corn which (instead of Ina's hunk of chuck) went into the casserole. Suddenly, I think I'll just drop the ears of corn into the pot, let them braise while we're all at the pool, and then make a corn chowder.

11:58. Corn is beautifully tender, but not mushy. I shave the nibs off the ears into a bowl. The rest of the thick stewy soup was pureed in the blender. I add the liquid to the bowl of corn niblets and mix, adding some water to make it a bit more like chowder and less like a stew.

It is fresh, summery, and creamy - satisfying and simple.

Summer Corn Chowder

1 onion chopped thin in rings
4 stalks of celery
2 cloves of garlic
1 box of stock or 1 canned soup
6 ears of corn, salted and peppered

Ingredient Cost?? $5, not including the soup which was waiting in the pantry...

$62.62 + $5.25

Grocery shopping was a breeze today, as I had my list and checked off things as I went through the store. Splurged a little on raw cashews (since I'm in the mood for raspberry ice cream) and pine nuts (to add to our pasta salad), but otherwise pretty much stayed on track from the list.

Bill and I have Abby today so I wanted to make burgers. I have the day off work, and like to try new recipies on days when I have time to do it. Veganomicon has a black bean burger I have been dying to try, so I took a stab at it. 1 can of black beans, 1/2 cup of whatever "vital wheat gluten" is, a clove of minced garlic, 1/2 a red onion, and some s+p to taste, plus some of my new smoked sea salt from McEwan. I also added a half cup of bread crumbs and 1/4 cup of vegetable stock. I had a bit of leftover quinoa, so that went in too - about 1/8 cup. I mashed it all together and then grabbed the mixture and mush-mixed it by hand...

Made the patties and put them on the george foreman grill. About 10 minutes later, the most delicious smell was emanating from the kitchen. Turns out, the vital wheat gluten helped form a gorgeous brown crust on the outside of the burger, they looked very much like beef burgers and were delicious on the fresh buns we bought. In addition, Abby ate an entire burger!!! Totally cool.

One tip I learned when Harrison was small is that kids will eat lots of newer things if they are HUNGRY than if they are full. I was thrilled that she ate it!

Last, but certainly not least, the entire meal for all three of us (Bill had 2, I had 2 and Abby had 1, and I have 3 burgers left, was $3.38. There are 3 buns left and 3 burgers. So each burger was about 46 cents!!!!!

Summer Eats!!

Yesterday, I weeded my garden and pulled out a zucchini the size of my lower leg! A few feet over is a beautiful forest green gourd, destined to be a fall pumpkin. A few feet in the opposite direction is a bouquet of broccoli flowers (yes, you read that right - broccoli flowers!). I had no idea broccoli did this if left on the stem. The flowers are pretty and yellow - and smell like floral broccoli. Who knew?

Today is a payday, and as promised, I've pulled together a meal plan designed to keep a family grocery budget under $100 bucks, or 5 twenties. With the new HST, and if everything we bought was taxable, we would be dealing with $88.50.

I hope by now you have cleaned out your four corners! Your pantry should be organized, and hopefully stocked with some basics that we can work from. Your spice cupboard should have RECENT spices that you like using, and you have hopefully come across some ideas of what you like in the process.

If you have frozen "stuff", we are going to use it. If you have fresh "stuff" in the fridge, we are going to maximize use of those sauces, condiments, juices, exotic jars of stuff, and revive some old favourites too.

I haven't been shopping yet, since it's early morning, but I'll go on my way home from work. This week we are going to focus on things that are positively ABUNDANT during summer. Zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, lettuce, corn, beets, carrots, celery.

There are a number of staples that can and should form the foundation of any meal plan, plant-based or not. They are:

Grains
Breads
Pastas
Salads and
Soups

Great Grilling

1 package of jumbo hot dogs
1 package of whole grain hot dog buns
1 package of whole grain hamburger buns

I rarely make a stop at the grocery store that does not include hot dog buns, or hamburger buns - particularly in the summer. Grilling is easy, fun, and adds a smoky delicious flavour to everything! One of the nice perks of going vegan is that foods like burgers and hot dogs (the real versions of which I avoid due to nutritional, caloric and yuck factors) are quite fabulous when the veggie version is available. Having said this, they are such a convenience food - fast, tasty, and crowd-pleasing) that they are great for kids, in a pinch, or when you are tired, hungry and uninspired.

Don't overlook your condiments. Burgers and Dogs can be topped with a variety of tasty stuff that is delicious and great for you.

Throw some heirloom tomatoes on top (properly salted and peppered).
Mash an avocado and zest some lemon with a pinch of sea salt.
Grill a portobello mushroom cap whole and baste with BBQ sauce or steak spice
Grill a peach and sprinkle with some chopped rosemary
Grill a pineapple and add some smoked sea salt (tastes like a hawaiian pizza:)

*TIP* Serve this on a family night when you want to get the entire family involved in dinner.

I'm going to attempt to make homemade burgers this weekend, so stay tuned...

Perfect Pasta

Whole grain Fusili Pasta
1 Red Pepper
1/2 Red Onion
Fresh Basil
Tomatoes
Pine Nuts
1 bunch of asparagus

An oldie, but a goodie, pasta is a fabulous canvas for summer bounty. Slivered peppers, basil, nuts and red onion with a delicious garlicky dressing can make an ordinary pasta salad POP!

*Tip* - serve this on an evening when friends are coming over for a glass of wine on the patio.

Fresh Herbs, an oil & vinegar vinaigrete, and some bite-size veggies can make a great main course one night, with a delicious side dish or take-to-work lunch the next day.

Bean and Grain Casserole

1 Can of cannelini beans
1 can of black beans
1 Can of tomatoes
1 sweet potato
Quinoa or Brown Rice

This is a meal I can throw together in a number of different vessels. It's great stewed and baked in a casserole dish. It's easy to cook in a slow cooker, and it's equally easy to pour into a pot and simmer it on the stove. I'll often top it with chopped green onions or chives to freshen the flavours before serving.

*Tip* Serve this on an evening you know will be BUSY!

Citrus Black Bean Wraps

1 can of black beans
zest and juice of a lime or two
hot sauce
avocado
salsa
fresh tomato
fresh red, yellow or orange peppers
whole grain 8 inch tortilla shells

My new favourite technique is pulling together a delicious healthy filling for wraps, rolling it up in a tortilla and then grilling it, panini style, on the George Foreman grill to make the outside crisp and to heat up the inner filling. Fresh, fabulous and simple.

Vegetable Stock

1 bunch of carrots
1 head of celery, especially the tops
1 white or yellow onion
1-2 cloves of garlic

Peel and wash the carrots, wash the celery and discard the hairy parts of the onion. A trick I learned from my mom was to leave the yellow skins from the onion in the broth - they give a nice golden colour to the stock. Simmer on the stove and add black pepper and salt to taste.

You can either discard all the veggies once your broth is made or puree them and add them to some of your other dishes throughout the week (ie: I'dd add the mushy carrots to the bean dish, but would discard the celery and onion.

Store in jars, freeze half. Storebought stock is expensive, and can usually contain lots of other additions than what you read here. While I use it in a pinch, it is so easy to make your own that this is one weekly (even monthly) step you don't need to skip.

A Sweet Word about Desserts

Nothing is more delicious in the summer than fresh fruit
At home at least, use the opportunity to put some fresh berries, melon, peaches or apples.

I am in love with coconut recently, so am sprinking it on everything for that delicious tropical flavour, as well as some texture.

So? My grocery list this week will look like this:

Fresh Fruits and Veggies Section

2 Onions, 1 red, 1 yellow
Fresh Basil
6 Tomatoes
1 bunch of asparagus
1 sweet potato
Lime
2 Avocados
3 fresh red, yellow or orange peppers
1 bunch of carrots
1 head of celery, especially the tops
Bunch of green onions(scallions)
Clove of garlic

Breads and Tortillas Section

whole grain 8 inch tortilla shells
1 package of whole grain hot dog buns
1 package of whole grain hamburger buns

Deli Section

1 package of jumbo hot dogs

Pasta and Rice Aisle

Whole grain Fusili Pasta
Quinoa or Brown Rice

Canned Aisle

1 can of cannelini beans
1 cans of black beans
1 can of cubed tomatoes
Salsa

Baking Aisle

Pine Nuts
Coconut

Please keep in mind that this is only the start. We are going to be experimenting with stuff in your fridge, pantry, etc... using what is already there, and adding as we go. This is just our foundation!

Grab 5 20s and let's go! Don't forget to keep the receipt.

Countdown to Cash Flow:)

Inspired by my favourite personal finance show, Till Debt Do Us Part, and its fabulous host Gail Vaz Oxlade, I've wanted to do a month long blog about getting the grocery budget under $100 per week.

Before we get going, we have to cover the basics. If there is one thing that my blogging has taught me, it is that I need to think about food in an organized way, AND I need to plan for my own sponteneity.

I do not believe in some regimented MENU PLAN.

Life happens.
It gets BUSY!
Plans can change, and finally
MOOD can influence dinner more than any other factor.

So: How to stay on budget, roll with the craziness, and still eat fabulously well, while incorporating your food moods can be a challenge!

So here we go:

I would like to shoot for the time frame of July 15th (next payday) to begin. We can go for 4 weeks and spend no more than $400 bucks.

I'll post receipts and photos, and try to take my own advice in the process. We are going to eat as low on the food chain as we can, which is the first budget booster tip I have.

But before we start anything, there need to be some basics in place. You are going to need to have basic supplies on hand at all times to just get things together.

Yesterday I raided my pantry to see what I had, what I currently have on stock and don't use, and what I might need to stock up on.

Take an hour sometime between now and Thursday and COMPLETELY EMPTY your cupboards. Go through everything!!! If you haven't used it, or you bought it on a whim, this is gonna be your week! If things are bad, or useless, throw em out. If they're staying, get them organized.

Here are the basics, which I'd encourage you to gather and then have on a permanent shopping list for yourself to work from... You may have most of these on hand.

Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Coconut Oil
Dijon Mustard
Canned tomatoes
Canned Spaghetti Sauce
Steel cut oatmeal
Dried Red Lentils
Brown Rice
Baking Supplies (Baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, cornstarch)
Peanut Butter or Almond Butter
Agave Syrup, Brown Sugar, White Sugar
Whole wheat flour or spelt flour

Do the same thing for your fridge. EMPTY it... Check expiry dates, and either eat the leftovers or throw them out. We are going to get clear on all four corners of your fridge, pantry, spice cupboard and freezer.

If it's still there on Thursday, we're going to eat it.


The Basics of Meal Planning

Plan for fewer meals than you think. Nothing will fail faster than a 7 day meal plan. Your moods will change, your time available will change, and your schedule will change. Let's get used to having a meal in the house regardless of the schedule.

Get used to "making dinner"

Efficient household managers know that putting a meal on is a great budget buster. We have gotten so skewed with the "let's go out" phenomenon, and worse the "let's get take out" phenomenon that I believe many families have lost touch with how easy it is to do this, and how expensive it is to abandon the concept of a real dinner at home.

Budget for your food spending

This one is going to be taken care of for you this month. Grab 5 twenties out of the cash machine on payday, and let's go. Get an envelope where you keep the cash, and then the receipts. And if it goes in your mouth, you pay for it out of the hundred bucks AND you get a receipt. (You'll see how quickly you abandon the $4.42 per day Tim Horton's habit - which is $30.94 per week)

Summer is expensive. You're going to want to do things, enjoy all that this gorgeous weather has to offer. If you're one of those families who routinely spend $200 bucks a week on food, keep reading... you're in for a real surprise this month, and a raise.

Simple Dinners...and my "I had no idea" list...

I had NO IDEA my food would become better when I dramatically reduced my reliance on meat, eggs and dairy products and increased my reliance on plant-based foods.

I had no idea that a simple collection of photos from a few snapshots of meals over the last few weeks would look so very colourful and vibrant.

I had no idea that most of these dishes cost ridiculously little, and are very quick to prepare.

I had no idea how much easier it is to clean up dishes after vegetable based meals. No sticky, slicky, gooey, greasy pans.

I had no idea that my meals would actually fuel my happiness quotient, my budget, my spare time and my enjoyment of eating.

I had no idea I coud simply eat until I was full, with no restrictions whatsoever and stay thinner than I was in high school.

I had no idea that I wouldn't have to buy Kleenex or cold medication for an entire year, because I literally never catch a cold or get a "stomach flu".

I had no idea that there was an extra 10-12 pounds of weight that was put there by my daily food choices.

I had no idea that eating this many vegetables would not just feel like a chore, but be absolutely delicious.

I had no idea that the healthy eating we were doing was going to influence as many people as it has, and that my blog would be read all over the world by vegans and omnivores alike.

I had no idea I was adding about $7 grand back into my family's disposable income.

I had no idea that blogging about food would be THIS MUCH FUN!

Gail, Grandmothers and the Grocery Bill...

I've noticed a significant increase in readers ever since I listed my blog on gailvazoxlade.com/blog

I LOVE this blog, all about financial Q + A, life choices, forming good habits, etc. Many of Gail's shows follow the same budgets - between $100 - $150 per week for "food". Many of the couples on the show have gotten themselves into trouble because of restaurant overspending and none of us are immune to this.

About two years ago, I went through what I called my "grandmother phase". I started gardening, particularly with fresh herbs, I got heavily into using fresh local produce that was in season and I absolutely thrived on the satisfaction of feeding the extended family on nights when we would have everyone over, often sending them home with leftovers.

Stretching a grocery dollar sounds so retro... and when I was practicing law, it didn't seem like such an issue. I made great money doing what I loved, and paying extra for convenience was just something one did.

But my generation in particular has gone too far. Now, we don't pay for convenience once a month - we do it every week, sometimes every day.

Restaurants are convenient.
Pre-made dinners are convenient.
Take-out and delivery are convenient.

And they will KILL your food budget.

Yesterday, on a whim, Alicia and I were able to get the boys together for a swim. We were going to grab something at the pool, but they were closed on Mondays.

Power of advertising proves that the kid on the corner shaking the "Hot and Ready" Little Caesars sign works? I thought - OK, it's kids, it's pizza - lighten up Karen and grab an easy option. Her kids eat quite early, and at 6:15, and I wanted to keep everyone happy.

So two medium pizzas, THREE MINUTES and one free order of crazy bread later, I was BACK IN MY CAR! I was blown away with how fast they handed it to me, and it only cost $11.57. Convenient doesn't even begin to describe how fast this transaction happened.

No nutrition in the white bread pizza. Don't even get me started on the greasy cheese and slicky pepperoni. Having said that, there was a salad ready in the fridge, and I decided to enjoy the evening and the conversation rather than focusing on the food.

I was stunned still, as I put the boxes in the recycle bin. Eleven bucks, 3 minutes.

No wonder it is an easier option for many families.

Having said all this, my grandmother phase is still kicking in. Homemade pizza dough made in batches might cost only a dime or two, but it does take some time.

Meal planning to avoid that last-minute drive by feeding also takes time.

Erosion of our nutrition has long been justified by the convenience of these feeds. Moms and Dads work, drive, and run themselves crazy trying to do it all.

I feel that if anyone can put a roadmap together for a family to speed up the slowing down, it's me. If anyone can put a monthly shopping list together for meals that are healthy, fabulous and fit within the budget, it's me.

Give me a day or so to plan this, and I'm going to set aside Gail's budget of $125 per week for 4 weeks. Let's see if we can get to the end of the month without getting to the end of the money.

Kidding yourself about the grocery bill!

One of my absolute favourite blogs is by Gail Vaz Oxlade, of "Til Debt Do Us Part" fame. If you've never seen the show, she is a financial "tell it like it is", no BS gal and absolutely fabulous at helping families navigate their financial chaos.

Regular readers of my posts have to notice the financial undertones laden in the recipies I put on here, and my friends certainly have been open to a heartfelt and hearty suggestion or two whenever we talk about food.

Yesterday was a payday, and that used to mean that I would spend a huge percentage of my disposable income on food. I think back to posts from Gail's blog (gailvazoxlade.com/blog) where she talks about what our grandparents would have done. They did not buy rice cookers or glassware from the grocery store. They certainly did not by clothes! Yet our mega-store marketing allows the regular (stressed out, busy, many-irons-in-the-fire) person to do a heck of a lot of non-grocery shopping there.

Yesterday, with Canada day off, I was able to get the week's leftovers into a great meal, but found myself talking with Carissa about legumes and beans, supplementing any meat based dishes with some of this very cheap, very easy substitution for meat protein.

I must confess to often buying canned beans because of their convenience, and they are so cheap (most under $1) that soaking my own just never makes the list of things to do,

But yesterday, I soaked three kinds of beans - lentils, red kidney beans, and white cannelini beans. They have now swelled overnight in the fridge, and the whole thing cost less than a loonie.

Everyone in Ontario has been complaining about the the new HST. Keep in mind that the government can only tax you if you choose to spend. So pounds of convenience foods (like chicken breasts) for $9.99 will hit you much harder than if you add in pound for pound protein from lentils, or other legumes. $11.28 versus $1.11.

They're great for your body, they're cheap, and they're an efficient source of protein.

**by the way, you may have noticed a distinct lack of pictures on the blog lately** I had some camera issues, which I'm going to take care of today. Right after I make a great summer bean salad for lunch!

New readers should check out some old posts, namely:

"52.8% on Meat, Dairy and Eggs?" from November 2009"
"Getting Good at this $43 thing" from Feburary 2010
"Beans Three Ways and Home Equity Renovations" from January 2010
"Redefining Easy Cheap and Healthy" from January 2010
"Holiday Time and Budget Accellerator" from December 2009

Inspired African Lentil Stew and Clean Water

Marcus Samuelsson was declared the winner in this season's Top Chef Masters. Marcus is an intriguing story of an Ethiopian child, adopted by a Swedish family - ultimately rising to some serious fame in the USA and reknowned for his world cuisine.

He is bringing African cuisine to the plate, and this is a great thing given the spicy, hearty, rich, soulful and heartfelt dishes that eminate from such a vast continent.

I am new to African cuisine, but have loved any ventures I have taken there. A quick sweet potato soup, with vegetable stock, sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, cinnamon and cayenne, thickened with a bit of peanut butter and garnished with green onions and chopped peanuts instantly became a favourite in the house. (And as I write this, I am thinking "why don't I make that soup more often?").

Last month, a sweet potato and dried fruit sidedish at Jay and Melanie's met with serious approval from a table of 6. Again the prominent and simple flavours of peanut, coconut, garlic, sweet potato and cinnamon, with some apple juice, just transformed an ordinary sliced tuber.

Tonight, I got a bit bolder with the flavours of turmeric, cayenne, cinnamon, garlic and coconut powder, adding a 1:2 ratio of mixed lentils and water, some tiny 1/4 inch pieces of sweet potato and some leftover braised leeks with carrots and celery. My brazen application of turmeric had less to do with guts than it did with the top falling off, dumping a heaping tablespoon into the pot instead of the shakes I was intending. I have no peanut butter in the house, so I subbed in almond butter and some tahini (which is a ground up sesame paste)used in hummus.

Stirring the rich, yellow pot just screamed Africa - hot, alive, unusual and exciting. But I am in unfamiliar territory with how it should taste. SO I relied on the basics...striving for balance.

Salty - it's well salted
Spicy - it's BEAUTIFULLY seasoned
Sour - a nice dash of red hot adds a tangyness and an acidity that is delicious
Bitter - the lentils aren't sweeping me away, and offer just the right bit of pull back from the spice.

It is spicy enough. It's flavourful. It's got a nice acitity. Bill comes around the corner, right as a puzzled expression crosses my face, exclaiming "that smells really good" and then declaring the pot "great".

But it's not great yet. It's missing something.

SWEET.

Whenever I cook with a cuisine, my choice of spices, oils and additions should roughly correspond with the region I am cooking for. So a sweet, sticky agave syrup (from cactus) hits the pot, and mixes.

The next spoonful to my mouth actually prompts me to applaud out loud, and the song "Woom....there it is" rings out in my head.

This stew is spectacular. Creamy and rich, spicy and sweet, hearty and healthy. It was fast, inexpensive and simple to make. Harrison's only request while devouring the stew was "can I have a glass of water?".

I think of the children in Africa right now who will benefit from Marcus' victory on Top Chef - Unicef's clean water project, the new beneficiaries of $100 000.

I think of all the orphan children whose lives are being ravaged by starvation, and AIDS, and malaria. How many of them are the same age as Harrison? I think of the title of Marcus' book, which was sold out at the bookstore today, the Soul of a New Generation. The combination of flavours have soul and I can't wait to learn more about them.

I am intrigued, and inpired and impressed with these flavours. But I won't take my clean drinking water for granted tonight.

The King of Cheeses goes Vegan

Any good chef will tell you that the undisputed KING of cheese is Parmeggiano Reggiano. It's one of those things over which there is NO debate.

Like Frank Sinatra being the greatest singer who ever lived.

Wayne Gretzky.

Champagne.

Paris.

We all know of "the great ones".

When students used to want to say thank you for something nice, they would offer me chocolate. My friend Debbie would pipe up and say "Get her cheese".

So it is with great glee that I pass along the most delicious recipe my veganism has come across. More than cashew cream, vegan parmesan just blows me away.

The King of Vegan Parmesan Cheese
1/4 slivered almonds
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp nutritional yeast.

Pulse in a magic bullet or spice grinder or blender, and ANDIAMO! Molto Delicioso.

Nutritional yeast is the shocker here, because when you buy it it smells like the bottom of a hamster cage. But mixed in applications requiring a strong cheese (hey! didn't I discover this when I made caesar salad for our 30 day celebration dinner??)it is heavenly. The little bites of nutty almond are reminiscent of those delicious crystallized bits in the parmesan.

Today I hit one of those mental blocks. What the heck is for dinner???

I bought some canneloni, and stuffed them with a white bean mixture, and baked them in the oven for 30 minutes. Had LOTS left over, so I made two more batches for family.

Canneloni Stuffed with White Beans

Prep pasta according to package directions
In a large pot, I turned the heat onto medium.

One diced onion
Two cloves of minced garlic
One diced stalk of celery
Two medium chopped carrots
Two cans of white navy beans
Italian spices to taste
One can of Bravo spaghetti sauce

In a lasagna pan, I added:

One ladle-full of crushed tomatoes
1-2 tbsp of white balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup of white wine (I keep cubes in the freezer for sauces)
Fresh cracked pepper and sea salt
1/2 cup of water

Stuff the canneloni with the bean mixture. Liquid should just cover the tips of the pasta shells. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until the pasta swells. Top with vegan parmesan.

Also found myself with lots of French ingredients (quel surprise!) and made a white bean cassoulet, minus the limbs and things Julia suggests in Mastering.

All in all : a great day, save for the shocking reminder that I completely missed a friend's "we're having a baby" open house party yesterday. I feel terrible - but maybe bringing them a white bean cassoulet will make up for it?

Size-y Kids

A recently airing KFC commercial promotes it's meal deal as "very streetwise", featuring a mom bouncing a soccer ball in front of her kids, purportedly relishing all the time and cash she saved by picking up fried chicken on the way home.

Seriously?

Summer is upon us, and there are lots of school kids wearing their summer clothes. And the proliferation of 8 and 9 year old pot-bellied kids is really stunning to me. And it makes me quite sad.

I remember some of the stress I used to feel about body image as a kid. And I have a 5 8, slim body, with feminine curves where they should be! I remember stressing out about being cute and fit. Still do, occasionally, truth be told.

What must these young girls go through while eyeing the overflowing belly fat over their new summer shorts? How stressed must they be feeling as they are squeezing into a bathing suit for summer pool parties? How brutal is it to be buying dress sizes four or five "ages" older than you actually are?

Those sizes and numbers matter to kids - even if they are powerless to control what their parents are modelling, and eating as an example, and stocking in their fridges and cupboards.

While shopping in the US a couple months ago, I noticed a sign indicating that they had re-jigged all their children's sizes. Small would now be considered extra small. Medium would now be considered Small. L would now be M. XL = L and XXL now = XL.

Why? Cause' the kids are just too big now, and it's messing with their heads! They hate being LARGE at age 9. They hate being a SIZE 16 when they're 10. And who in their right mind can blame them?

I hate that so many people of every single age are abdicating their responsibility for their foods to massive companies, with staggering marketing budgets, and animal factories whose only job it is to sell you as much as they can. Moreover, if they can convince you that you are "doing it for your family" to "save time", so much the better.

Now...how did I get onto this soapbox again?

Manly Vegans

I did some research today on vegan male athletes. "Research "is my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Although many of our friends have taken quite an interest in our new eating habits, many of my female friends quickly exclaim that they could "NEVER" get their husbands to eat "like that".

Many of the female halves of these same couples rue the fact that their men are carrying around too much belly fat, costing them too much money at the grocery store, and that they don't have the time to cook every night.

So more money, weight loss and more time aren't a motivator?

I get quite frustrated that the prospect of savings, a hot summer frame and efficiencies in time aren't enough to motivate people to just give a vegan diet a try for a while. I suppose they prefer the pinnacle of convenience... a stressed-out, unhealthy husband needing a by-pass... because there's no stress there! OK - that's a bit extreme - but I am just warming up...

In any event, I was thinking about all of those "guy's guys" out there. You know - the kind that work out hard, have gorgeous lean muscles, play sports, and hang out with other guy's guys? How the heck is a woman supposed to feed a man like that?

Give Him Some Eye Candy: First, start out with the food being REALLY GOOD. If the food is bark-y, tasteless and boring, you'll probably not get anywhere. Think of pulling a dinner together for your guy the way you'd get dressed for a night out with him. Colour. Textures. Varying items of interest. Layers. Something tasty and intriguing. He might not even notice that there's no flesh around except yours!

Surprise Him With Your Savings: Secondly, and especially if you're part of a couple who cares where your money is going, treat yourselves to a ridiculously lower grocery bill every so often. The internet is full of creative ideas, and I promise you - NONE of them will cost as much as that barbequed rib-eye. If you absolutely must part with your money, why don't you get him a new tool for his toolbox for the price of what you would have spent on a steak?

Animal Behaviour. Just because you haven't eaten any animals, doesn't mean that there aren't certain instinctual behaviours which can't be borrowed from them.... While I like keeping the blog family friendly, let's just say that there are two other particular fringe benefits for vegan eating that transcend the kitchen, and I won't write about them here. If nothing else turned a manly guy eater into a vegan, I would venture a guess that these would if they only knew about them.... within about 4 minutes.

Bragging Rights. I am always blown away by male "locker room talk". What so many of my male friends have told me over a few beers about what they notice. Guys care about how they look naked as much as women do (maybe more?!). So if the last motivator for more frequent vegan eating is a leaner, stronger, meatier frame with less flab then the buck might just stop there.

Here are some snippets from guys posting what they actually eat as vegan weight lifters, football players, and hockey players. There are some easy, good ideas here, but none of them are mine...

One weight lifter eats this in a day:
Breakfast
3 tablespoons of Rice Protein Powder (nutribiotic brand) with 8oz of almond milk and 8oz of soy milk. I add ½ cup of frozen mango or strawberries to the mix and one tablespoon of coconut oil.

Mid afternoon snack
½ cup of almonds and ½ cup of raisins

Late afternoon snack
Two Veggie burgers with olive oil and some sprouted bread

Post Workout Shake
3 scoops of Rice Protein Powder with 8oz of oat or rice milk. Throw in
1 tablespoons of flaxseed oil and ½ cup of frozen fruit.

Dinner
Mixed Green Salad with 1 tablespoon of olive oil or one avocado.
One cup of lentils steamed with squash, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, and some tofu. One tablespoon of olive oil is added to the mix.
One cup of quinoa
A pear or apple
Some dark chocolate for dessert and some ginger cookies
Glass of red wine

Late Night snack
Peanut butter or almond butter sandwich and a cup of berries

Another guy had this on his web page:
Consume protein and good quality fat as part of each meal and snack.

*Tip: If you make bread, muffins, or any baked goods, leave out some of the flour and replace it with soy protein powder, hemp flour, or bean flour. Use hemp seed oil as a base for salad dressing or to mix with a soy drink to make it creamier. Use hemp seed oil on cereal and in baking.

Good quality protein sources:

Hemp seed nut and flour
tofu
beans (kidney, black, garbanzo, soy, adzuki)
legumes
soy protein powder
unsweetened soy drink

Good quality fat sources:

extra virgin olive oil
flax seed oil
hemp seed oil
avocado
non-roasted nuts and seeds

Breakfast: 1 cup Oatmeal 6
1 cup Soymilk 7
1 Bagel 9

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Lunch: 2 slices Whole Wheat Bread 5
1 cup Vegetarian Baked Beans 12

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Dinner: 5 oz firm Tofu 11
1 cup cooked Broccoli 4
1 cup cooked Brown Rice 5
2 Tbsp Almonds 4

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Snack: 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter 8
6 Crackers 2
TOTAL 73 grams

Finally, another guy posted this list of protein contents per serving, and it's a good list.

AMOUNT PROTEIN(gm)
Tempeh 1 cup / 41g
Seitan 3 ounces / 31 g
Soybeans, cooked 1 cup / 29g
Lentils, cooked 1 cup / 18 g
Black beans, cooked 1 cup / 15 g
Kidney beans, cooked 1 cup / 13 g
Veggie burger 1 patty / 13 g
Chickpeas, cooked 1 cup / 12 g
Veggie baked beans 1 cup / 12 g
Pinto beans, cooked 1 cup / 12 g
Black-eyed peas, cooked 1 cup / 11 g
Tofu, firm 4 ounces / 11 g
Lima beans, cooked 1 cup / 10 g
Quinoa, cooked 1 cup / 9g
Tofu, regular 4 ounces / 9 g
Bagel 1 med.(3 oz) / 9 g
Peas, cooked 1 cup / 9 g
Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), cooked 1/2 cup / 8 g
Peanut butter 2 Tbsp / 8 g
Veggie dog 1 link / 8g
Spaghetti, cooked 1 cup / 8 g
Almonds 1/4 cup / 8 g
Soy milk, commercial, plain 1 cup / 7 g
Soy yogurt, plain 6 ounces / 6 g
Bulgur, cooked 1 cup /6g
Sunflower seeds 1/4 cup / 6 g
Whole wheat bread 2 slices / 5 g
Cashews 1/4 cup / 5 g
Almond butter 2 Tbsp / 5 g
Brown rice, cooked 1 cup / 5 g
Spinach, cooked 1 cup / 5g
Broccoli, cooked 1 cup / 4 g
Potato 1 med.(6 oz) / 4 g