Cell Phone and other Cells

The World Health Organization recently released a report that significant cell phone usage causes cancer. I paid attention. I am SO much more conscious about using it - holding it near my face. Shortening my calls. Worrying about my past usage. Determined to do something about my future usage.

I assume you've also heard this? Scary.

Oh... By the way...

The WHO also implicated animal food consumption to the same thing.

And said it was a greater cause of global warming than transportation industry.

Vegan meal on VIA rail was excellent today. Great salad, soba noodles with lots of veggies and a fruit dessert.

I'd better put my cell phone away now. You know - they say those things are linked to disease and I take those warnings pretty seriously.

p.s. First blog done from my cell phone.

Ironic.

In Love...

yeah, yeah, Bill's great and everything... but that is so not where I'm going with this.

I'm totally head over heels in love with Kale.

Thin, with gorgeous, wavy edges, and an emerald green colour that's great for my heart... Goes perfect with my favourite pair, too - lemon and garlic. It's great when your love actually gets along with the others in your life!

Here's a cell phone shot from about 10 minutes ago - before it hit a hot pan, some olive oil and about a 1/8 cup of water to get it all hot and steamy.

(Or is that me?)

Kale is strong and will take care of you, too. It's such a powerhouse of nutrition - the oxygen and chlorophyll are excellent for everything a body needs.

It's environmentally responsible too - very low on the fuel usage scale, easy to grow and hard to mess up.

It's also sturdy and very low maintenance. Keeps for ages, it's not fussy or precious like its cousins. You get it, you can just take it out when you want. The green equivalent of "no complaints". The strong, silent type but always there when you need it.

Since I am one of those few people who ALWAYS keep their new years' resolution I am very proud to tell you that I have kept this year's in spades, adding greens to chilis, stews, soups and everything under the sun. I add it in its raw form to preserve as many enzymes as possible.

Harrison saw me chopping, and said "Wow, that looks good!". It's awesome when a new love gets along with your kid too, and the kid likes him back.

So - powerful, handsome, caring, easy to be around, socially responsible, patient and just fits effortlessly into your life. What an amazing start to June!

Now... speaking of effortless, when does Bill get home? I have something to feed him!

Easy Tortilla Torta

A great easy weekday meal is a mexican torte, which is essentially a layered lasagna-like dish heavy on flavour, and short on labour.

Mix some leftover salsa with some tomato sauce. I used my final jar made last fall.

In the bottom of a casserole dish, spread some sauce, and layer a whole wheat tortilla. Next, layer:

A can of whole-kernel corn and put another tortilla on top.
A layer of cheddar cheese (Daiya makes a great vegan cheese) and another tortilla
A layer of black beans, some more sauce, and another tortilla

Keep layering, until you've added some great healthy layers. USE ANYTHING IN THE FRIDGE! Veggies, leftovers - the salsa will tie everything together. Search the pantry and freezer too.

I used a can of southwest style baked beans for smoky flavour, and some vegan meatballs (President's Choice Worlds Best Meatless Meatballs. Use a spoon of sauce for each layer - without making it too wet.

Bake at 375 covered in tin foil until hot. I like to leave the top tortilla un-cheesed (I realize this is not a word) so it gets toasted and crispy for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Use the broiler if you want to speed this up. I also topped it with some olive oil, salt and pepper - with lime zest.

Our friend came by last night - missing abot 30 pounds of his former self! Bill gave him a copy of "The China Study" last month - a life changing book about plant-based cuisine - and are THRILLED to see him applying some of it to his own life. It is amazing to see how a few dietary changes can put life back in your years.

Buffalo Chickpea Pizza with Ranch

It's been raining so much around here that we need a canoe to get out of the driveway. After a long day at work, I was more inclined to face up to an empty fridge than run into the grocery store and get wet again.

Delisio is advertising for a Buffalo Chicken Pizza lately, and Boston Pizza's new chicken wing menu is also running heavily. I love wing sauces, and especially hot ones - they're just craving inducers!!

So - rather than give into eating those fowl limbs just for the sauces, I thought I'd throw together a version of a buffalo chicken wing pizza for us...

Before even changing out of my work clothes, I made a quick pizza crust.

3 cups of whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 scant tablespoonfull of quick rise yeast
1 teaspoon each of salt and garlic powder.

Turned the mixer on, and added 1 1/4 cup of warm water. Mixed until a ball formed (about 4 minutes) and then let it rise while I got to the lentils.

I thought the lentils would make a hefty thick "sauce". Vegan pizzas can slide like crazy without the gluey cheese to hold everything together, and one of my cookbooks suggested thickening them with beans. It's a great tip, which adds protein, fibre and flavour.

I took 2 cups of water, a cup and a half of red lentils (which smell like chicken soup!) and a half a cup of hot sauce in a pan, bringing them to a boil. I added a clove or two of garlic, with hefty salt and pepper to taste.

Daiya makes a mozzarella cheese which is now available in mainstream locations like Zehrs and Loblaws. To make it taste like Ranch, I added some more fresh chopped garlic, some chives, some rosemary and some pepper.

Finally, I put some whole chickpeas in a pan (rinse them well!) with more hot sauce and Earth Balance and a tablespoon of dijon - my signature wing sauce.

I baked the pizza crust without any toppings to make sure the crust was cooked through. Added the lentil sauce topping, the herby cheese and topped with the saucy chickpeas.

I told Harrison at the outset that I was attempting a vegan buffalo chicken pizza. At first he hesitated, and then said "I'm sure it'll be good". When I asked why, he replied "Cause you're Mom!"

K

Royal Wedding Menu, Recent Catering and Survivor Finale!

A rare moment just for the halibut! Harrison, Bill and I were addicted to Survivor this season - here is Halibut three ways on finale night. One with lemon, asparagus and capers, the second with a hearty Indian curry spice, and the third with Lime and fresh red chili.











Another variation on the bread / pizza crust recipie. Here is a focaccia dough, stuffed with corn, black beans, tomatoes and salsa. Folded over top like a big perogy!




I love to do double batches of food we are already eating and pass it on to friends! Here is a catering I did recently for a friend's busy weeknights. A double of our focaccia, some curried chickpea and lentils with lemon-poached cauliflower, and in the back is a white bean cassoulet with braised celery.


I have been loving the addition of fresh chopped greens to any saucy dish. Here, an indian curry gets mixed with fresh green onions - and they turn a vibrant emerald! Lots of active enzymes, oxygen and chlorophyll.












Two words - ROYAL WEDDING! I just couldn't get enough. Here is a lunch sandwich, with some avodaco, fresh tomato pureed with garlic and some veggie bacon.
















William's fave dessert is reportedly Eton Mess - a layered dessert of vanilla whipped cream, fresh berries, raspberry sauce and meringue. NOT VEGAN, but delicious. Served in my great grandmother's teacups. Berries only for Bill in the background.













Oeufs en Cocotte, with cream and watercress, served with crumpets and lemon. Didn't this dish just layer beautifully!!!??? This was absolutely SPECTACULAR - especially when eaten during the wedding of the century - and especially when it is obvious that those two really GET each other.

Smoked salmon puffs, poached asparagus and hollandaise rounded out the April 29th menu.

Culinary Gallery

Feeling Good about Walking Out!

Yesterday was a busy day. Harrison came down with strep throat, which meant we lost 1 1/2 hours to waiting at the clinic, and filling a prescription. Add to that the foot of snow we got yesterday (shovelling is great exercise though) and the "unforseen" subtracted about 4 hours from my day's plans.

Getting Harrison to drink a green juice was hilarious - made from apples and wheatgrass, and coconut milk. I figured it would help his immune system fight off the infection, but it was really him fighting off my insistence that was the real battle! (I loved it though - it was delicious!)

When we finally did get home, I was starving, and ready for a green lunch (more fighters...) so I chopped three crowns of broccoli and the remaining collard greens I had in the fridge into small pieces - almost as small as grains of rice. Heated these quickly in a pan over medium heat with some garlic and olive oil, and of course, lemon zest and juice. We happened to have some crispy "chicken" (made of plant protein Gardein) from Whole Foods, and tossed that up in a separate pan. Added a few generous handfulls of the brown rice from Friday night, and we were eating a green bowlful of healthy vegetables, and whole grains.

Interesting that one of the signs at whole foods lists the relative POWERS of the various foods you should have in your cart. And, not surprisingly, the TOP TEN were all green.

We really didn't eat that many greens, but I have made it my new years' resolution to demystify those little items, so we have been eating quite a lot since January 1st.

So - needless to say by day end, I wanted to just grab a bite to eat that someone else had prepared. We stopped in to Tablouli, the new restaurant in our former beloved Teka. I got there about 10 minutes to 6, the guys shortly thereafter. We ordered just after a table of four, within 5 minutes of the guys getting there.

As we were waiting, a group of about 10 (obviously family or friends of the owners) showed up, and food kept pouring out to their table. The table of four got theirs about 1/2 hour in. We had only ordered 3 wraps and a lentil soup, so after about 40 minutes we were feeling pretty hungry. There were, however, three large empty plates displayed on our table. The "family table" had one woman who kept walking in and out of the kitchen quite comfortably, bringing various items as she came and went.

At 6:45 I asked the waitress about our order. She very politely explained that the table was the sister of a manager (or something like that) and she couldn't bring food that the chef hadn't put out.

10 more minutes later (and three MORE plates to the next table) I asked the guys if they were comfortable walking out. They all agreed.

So we walked to the bar, where the young woman from family table was also standing, and said. "We are leaving. It has been an hour's wait for three sandwiches, but I would like to pay for the wine I had". She again apologized, and said not to worry about it. Harrison caught a glimpse of the other woman's face (aghast!) and told me about it later.

So - we hopped in the car, surprisingly not hungry at all anymore. Sometimes the ONLY VOTE YOU HAVE with what you will put up with is with your money. We dropped into Kelsey's, politely explained to the young lady who seated us that we had just walked out of another restaurant after an hour with no food, and that we'd like three veggie burgers with fries. She said "well, we're glad you're here! I'll put the order in right away."

And she did! We were eating within 18 minutes, and had a great discussion about bad service.

They say that every satisfied customer might tell one or two people about their experience. They also say that a dissatisfied customer will tell 20 than that!

The funny thing was that when a restaurant chooses to prioritize their moochers over their paying customers, it says a lot about the management and the chef. Katie, at Teka, would NEVER have done such a thing.

While we're only one family, I am quite certain that they will never see any of our money again.

Thanks April and Kelsey's for a great dinner last night!