Today’s lunch is a new twist on an old favourite: rice and beans. Veggie bowls like these are a cheap and cheerful way to get your five to ten servings of fruit and vegetables, too. We started with reheated leftover brown rice and cooked beans. Then we topped this with grilled pattypan and orange bell pepper, and some diced avocado. Finally, a dressing (for two) with 1 T (15ml) each lemon juice, soy sauce, maple syrup, sesame oil and 1 t (5ml) wasabi paste for just the right fusion of flavour.
Category: Recipes
Squeezing in some Summer Salads
The nights are cooling and everyone’s talking about back to school…so we are making it a priority to enjoy the harvest, and especially salads! Today’s included lots of homegrown veg, supplemented by other not so local favourites.
For two:
4-6c chopped mixed greens
2 diced peaches
1 diced avocado
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small cucumber, diced
Dress with (shaken):
2 T Dijon
Zest and juice of half a lemon
1 T olive oil
Top with:
1 oz feta
1 T toasted no salt shelled sunflower seeds
Enjoy!
Smooth move!
We had an amazing weekend, including dinner with some good friends from Montreal. Of course the weekend hi jinks take their toll, so Monday’s a great opportunity to get back on track with healthier choices. That included an early morning workout and this fabulous smoothie (for 2):
1 stalk celery
2 nectarines
1 Clementine
2 small bananas
500 ml/2c almond milk, unsweetened
125ml/1/2c plain fat free yogurt
15ml/1T sunflower seeds, unsalted
30ml/2T peanut butter
Blend until smooth and enjoy!
We really tarted up breakfast this morning…
A sure sign of the spring food garden is an abundance of rhubarb. In fact we had so much last year, that a whole bag went undiscovered in the back of the freezer and we found it when tidying up to prepare for this year’s harvest. This delicious tart is one of the results.
Stew at least 4 cups (1l) of chopped rhubarb with sugar to taste (we like ours tart, no pun intended) and cool. Eat as is, or to make this tasty tart, preheat oven to 375F . On a sheet of parchment, roll out one sheet of puff pastry to about 12″/30cm. Place on cookie sheet. Put rhubarb in the centre and turn in edges to lap over filling and contain it, leaving top open. Brush pastry with a beaten egg and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden. We served ours with a spoonful of plain fat free yogurt, sprinkled with a little cinnamon.
Love the coffee mug? It’s from Krysta Oland’s Morning Sun Pottery.
Salmon Chanted "Veggies!"
One of our good health mantras is, “Eat Less. Move more.” In truth, it might be closer to “Eat more fresh, plant-based foods and less animal-based and processed foods. Move more.” Somehow that’s just more complicated for folks to understand, accept, and stick with. One thing is for certain, we’ve looked at all sorts of diets and eating styles, and we know that making vegetables the main course of any meal is vital to getting the fibre and nutrients a body needs. So instead of a salmon sandwich, we knew our Friday fish was calling out for a salad.
Today’s lunch includes greens, tomato, carrot, cucumber, and mushrooms. It could just as easily be a combo of the veg you like best. The rules are, strive for colour, things that can be eaten raw, and be sure to get the leafy stuff in there. We split a 7.5 oz can of water-packed wild caught salmon between two of us, and topped the salad with (for two) 2t/10ml each of Dijon, fat free plain yogurt, and pesto whisked together with 3T/45ml lemon juice.
How will you get more veg in your diet today?
You Light up my Lunch…
Leftovers can be a great start to lunch, and using them up while they are top-of-mind is key to preventing them from becoming a science experiment at the back of your fridge. This is a salmon loaf from the classic Anne Lindsay cookbook, Lighthearted Everyday Cooking. Ours is an ancient dogeared copy, but it is still a wealth of easy, practical healthy recipes.
We paired it with a slaw of grated carrot and shaved celery, dressed with a mix of equal parts Dijon, light mayo, and rice vinegar.
Bake on Saturday, Loaf Around Sunday
After a quick trip to the T-Dot to visit the kids and the in-laws, life is getting back to normal, food wise, at least. Yesterday I baked an updated version of English muffin loaf, with multigrain flour instead of white. It’s a fast mix, no kneading, and you can ignore it and do other chores during the rising. Here’s the recipe:
2c plus 1 T/265 ml multigrain flour (make your own or try a mix including bran, rye, oat, spelt, kamut, or cracked wheat, and flax or sesame seeds if you like)
1T/15 ml or 1 packet active dry yeast
2t/10ml brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup)
1c/250ml lukewarm 1% milk (any milk will work, including nut milk)
1/4t/2 ml baking soda
Mix dry ingredients (except soda) in a large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a thick batter, then for 15-20 seconds more until it looks stretchy.
Cover with a tea towel in a warm place and let rise for about 45 minutes til double.
Dissolve soda in 1T/15ml water and stir vigorously into batter, continuing just until it looks stretchy again.
Grease or spray an 8″ loaf pan. Scrape batter in, cover with towel and allow to rise again about 40 minutes.
Bake in a 375 oven 45-55 minutes until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from pan right away.
Tastes best when toasted.
We had ours with a pepper and mushroom omelette. The sun is finally doing its work and the snow is beginning to recede. Thankfully, we just might see spring after all.
Turkey Avocado Salad
310 calories per serving
Serves two
Divide 1 litre spinach leaves between two plates. Slice two large mushrooms on top.
Mix in a bowl:
15ml each Dijon, light mayo, salsa and fat free plain yogurt
Stir in 1 diced avocado and 180g diced turkey breast.
Put the turkey salad on the bed of spinach and mushrooms, and top with 1/2 bell pepper, diced.
Enjoy!
What's a "Goatmeal"?
Glorious oatmeal! Somehow this delicious breakfast treat gained the nickname “Goatmeal” in our house…but whatever you call it, it is a warm, wonderful way to start the day. We’ve been to the gym and are safe inside observing the trees dance to another “weather event”. Hopefully Kid Two and his gal are safely ensconced in their home after a trip to Brazil.
Here’s how you make it:
In a micro-safe casserole (for two): 3/4c large flake rolled oats, 1T each raisins and walnuts, a good sprinkling of cinnamon, and a large Apple, diced. (Wash well and leave the skin on; we all need the fibre!). Microwave on your machine’s oatmeal cycle or 3 mins on high, 5 on medium. Stir and serve with milk and a little brown sugar (you won’t need much, and if you don’t want any, it is still delicious). Have a great day!
Gardens Gone Wild: Harvest Niçoise
We’ve been traveling, attending a couple of family weddings and doing a little business along the way. It didn’t seem realistic to ask them to postpone their special events on account of our vegetable patch, so the consequences when we got home were, well, interesting…
First, beans were just nicely coming into bloom when we left. Which means Jack’s beanstalk had nothing on us when we arrived back. Beets are still growing, and we’ve already harvested potatoes. A few tomatoes were spared the post tropical storm blight that has attacked local crops.
All in all, we had the makings of a lovely salad (and roasted veg are in our future). The eggs, olives, and tuna are not our own, but the rest is absolutely home grown.
For two:
Cook 2 small red potatoes and 1 large golden beet (reserve the greens for the salad). Throw the beans in to blanch, just at the end of cooking.
Hard boil 2 eggs.
Chill all of this (we cooked ours at breakfast time).
Arrange the chopped greens on a plate. Top with the cooked, cooled veggies, some sliced tomato, olives, and good quality water packed tuna.
For the dressing, mix 1T/15ml each of Dijon, olive oil, and vinegar (your choice).
Enjoy!