Category: Healthy Eating

Good Friday Fish: Poached Salmon

Salmon Salad and Boiled PotatoFor some folks, Good Friday is just another day off work. But for us, it’s a busy day, filled with opportunities to come together with our community at St. Brigid’s.

Fortunately fresh ingredients are easy to find in our neighbourhood. Red peppers, cucumbers, and lettuce from Ontario hothouses are available at Kelly’s, or Plank Road, or Jerry’s Supermarket now. We had the salmon in our freezer, but we can usually get a great selection of fish at the supermarkets on our walking route, like Sobey’s or Valu-Mart.

This dinner starts with boiling the potatoes. While they’re cooking, we’ll bring the water up to a boil for the salmon, and then turn it down to a low simmer, flavouring it with a little citrus pepper and a few slices of lemon. (On another day, white wine would also work nicely). Then we’ll pop in the fish and keep it just gently simmering along while we make the salad.

All that’s left is to give thanks for good food and the latest steps in our Lenten journey, and eat.

Magic Beans!

Easy vegetarian meals often call for canned beans. But in our efforts to watch our weight, we started to learn a lot more about label reading. One thing we’re really careful about is sodium – it makes a huge difference! A rule of thumb we learned was to read the calories per serving on the nutrition label. Then, if the milligrams of sodium per serving is higher than the calorie count, avoid it! Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately it’s the dirty secret of lots of canned foods – they have a lot of sodium. Even healthy choices like beans or soups are a problem. So we make our own beans now, on days when we’re busy working around the house, doing chores, laundry, or whatever. A few weeks ago we made some black-eyed peas…and they’re the star of today’s recipe. We grabbed a one-cup tub out of the freezer at breakfast time and let it thaw for the day…

Then we started dinner by putting some whole wheat pasta on to cook in a big pot of unsalted water. (Two ounces or 60g of dried whole wheat pasta per person is plenty!)

Then, while the past cooks…start a little onion (one small one) and garlic (two cloves) in a couple of teaspoons (10ml) of chili oil. We also chopped in a sweet, sweet pepper we picked up at Plank Road, around the corner. Next, some sliced mushrooms for texture, just rinsed and sliced. Keep stirring as you add the veg.

After the pepper, a good big handful of spinach, washed and chopped, and a diced fresh  tomato go in the pot. Put the lid on, and turn heat to low for about 5 minutes to wilt the spinach.

Finally, it’s time for the beans. Dump them into the pan, along with about a tablespoon (15 ml) of pesto (check the types and buy the one with the least sodium!) . Pop the lid back on and simmer all of this until it is bubbling hot and ready to receive the pasta – just a few minutes should do. Then tip in the pasta, stir, sprinkle with a little cayenne, and lid the pan again. Let it simmer over very low heat for the flavours to meld.

Finally, when the flavours have had a chance to come together, serve! If you want, shave a little sharp cheddar on top, but you won’t need too much. An ounce or so should do between the two plates (that’s about 30 grams). Happy eating!

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables are A Secret

One secret to success are fresh fruits and vegetables when you’re trying to lose weight and keep in shape. If you combine that with a desire to eat local, and you live in a climate where those things don’t grow all year round, it’s a challenge. We like local. We like farmer’s markets. But let’s face it, some things just don’t grow around here at the best of times. So unlike some locavores, we’re not giving up lemons, or oranges, or coffee, because they come from somewhere else. Our compromise? We compare the ones that are available within a reasonable walk from our house (for us, that’s probably about 30 minutes each way), and buy the ones that come from the closest locale. What we get in return is an opportunity to get to know our local shopkeepers, still have a variety of foods, and to offset our carbon footprint by using…well…our feet!

Hot off the Grill

So the chops are marinated and the grill is ready. While they’re cooking, a salad is definitely in order. This one has some red and green bell peppers (greenhouse grown, here in Canada), butter lettuce (same) and celery. The purple is a gorgeous shaved artisanal carrot. All of this will be topped with a Dijon vinaigrette.

At the same time, I pre-started some red potatoes in the microwave. This is an easy way to get a consistently cooked potato on the barbecue, without using a lot of fuel to do it. These delicious red-skinned ones are awesome!

Then, pop the potatoes on the grill with the chops and dress the salad. Even though the temperature has dropped and spring feels barely here, we’re getting a real taste of summer with tonight’s dinner.

One of the great things about menu planning is not having to worry about whether you’ll have the ingredients to pull a meal together. It’s also easier on the budget to not make impulse purchases. But we’ve also learned that sometimes we have to be willing to turn great ingredients into something different, or switch up a day’s dinner for another one – which is what we did when the need for a spring-like dinner hit!

Searching for Spring

As we go around the neighbourhood searching for spring, it’s almost as if we’re wishing away the time. On the upside, Carter’s is open for the season (hurray)! Still no Farmer’s Market action, but we’re hopeful.

In the meantime we have some lamb chops and salad stuff, and we’re planning on grilling. That can make us feel like spring, anytime! The lamb chops are marinating in a little olive oil (we’re blessed with lots of great EVOO sources that are walkable), some red wine vinegar, a few spring onions from the urban farm (or backyard, to the uninitiated), some chopped garlic, and a tablespoon or so of dried oregano…

These are just some discount grocery store chops we got down the street…not beautifully-trimmed butcher chops. But with a little TLC, they’re gonna taste great!

There's Never Enough Bread

This week’s bread: multigrain!

When I posted the recipe for whole wheat bread, I mentioned that you can dress it up, or dress it down. You can also turn it into a completely different kind of bread…and suddenly it’s not just whole wheat any more.

This one’s multi-grain. (Don’t worry…those dark brown spots are a couple of stowaway raisins that got into the recipe!)

Instead of the six cups of whole wheat flour, for this batch I used two of whole wheat, two of rolled oats, and two of cornmeal. I also tossed in half a cup of flax seeds that needed to get used up. The recipe takes the same amount of white flour as in the original recipe, and all the other instructions are exactly the same.

Make Yourself Comfortable

Sometimes comfort food is what you need. I’d put tuna sandwiches on the menu plan, but it was a cold day. There were too many things on my plate.

Earlier in the week we had picked up some delicious Black River Cheddar at Better Bulk. It is creamy, crumbly, sharp, and completely awesome. It’s the kind of cheddar that makes anything better!

The melts started with some toasted whole wheat bread. For the topping (makes enough for four slices): 1 can of water-pack tuna, 1 tomato, diced, and a tablespoon or 15ml each of Dijon and light mayo. If you have some herbs, by all means, chop them in. I used dill. Mix this and put on the bread, on a broiler-proof pan. Grate on some cheddar. Under the broiler til bubbly, and you’re set. Don’t forget the pickle!

Mmm…Yeasty Goodness

My bread obsession knows no bounds. This batch, just getting ready for the second rising, is whole wheat. When I was a kid, my grandmother would make most of our bread – sometimes every day. I would have preferred the squishy white bread that some of the other kids had in their lunches. I didn’t know how good I had it!

On the left is my “fancy loaf”. Most of the recipes I make yield four loaves, allowing a more energy-efficient use of the oven (and the bread-making hands). So I always do something special with at least one. In this case, when shaping the loaf, I sprinkled in oregano and snippets of sundried tomato. Then I also sprinkled a little oregano on top. Perfect for a savory accompaniment to some cold-day food.

Sure, the bread-making tends to fall off a little in the summer when it gets too hot. But as much as possible, I prefer to make my own rather than buy it in a store. I guess my grandmother was a pretty smart cookie after all! (And speaking of cookies…naw, let’s save that for another time).

Leftovers for Lunch

Chili Braised Beef and Kitchen Sink SaladOne of the things about shopping and eating as locally as possible is (1) you need to learn to menu plan and (2) you have to be willing to adjust the menu plan.

We were all set to have a nice big Kitchen Sink Salad (more on this later!) for lunch today, because we’re working in the home office. But we had this great Chili Braised Beef  last night, and there was some left over. You can’t just let a batch of slow-cooked deliciousness go to waste, so we halved the salad and used up the reheated beef. I admit it isn’t quite as pretty as yesterday…but like chili, it sure tastes great on the second day.

Now as for the Kitchen Sink Salad, it’s just what it sounds like – a big bowl of vegetable yumminess. Here’s what we featured today:

Start with the dressing – an acid, some mustard, and oil. In our case, the zest and juice of 1/2 an orange, 15ml/1 tbsp. sesame oil, and 15ml / 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard. Whisk this together. Then I grated in 1/2 a red and 1/2 a yellow heritage carrot I bought at Kelly’s. Next, some artisanal lettuce – curly endive and a bit of butter lettuce. There was a bit of broccoli – not enough for two, but enough for salad. I steamed it for a minute to take the edge off the crunch, but when I’m in a hurry I’ll just chop it a bit more. Peel and dice the remainder of the orange, and throw in a few black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and almonds for good measure.

Toss it all together and start imagining – you can change the ingredients every time. Beans instead of nuts – sure! Vinegar instead of orange? Why not? Olive oil, or canola…yum!

When The Weather Outside is Frightful…

A few days ago we were meandering down the street, coming up with new walkable feasts. The weather was mild, though windy. It seemed like spring was finally on its way. When we arrived home we raked up the garden and started prepping for the day when our urban farm will be ready for transplanting.

Then, overnight, pow! Cold, gray drizzle. Bitter winds. Wetness all around. The walkable part didn’t seem quite so tempting. On top of that, we had a meeting to attend, so we needed dinner in a hurry! When that happens, Piperade to the rescue. Whether you need a quick meal with ingredients you probably have on hand, something to feed unexpected brunch guests, or a substitute for your meal plan when it’s suddenly no longer barbecue weather, Piperade is a great choice.

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