It’s well known amongst our friends that we love a celebration. Today’s breakfast is a salute to Cinco de Mayo. One of the great things about having a multicultural family is more excuses to get together, reconnect, and of course, eat delicious food. Our whole wheat tortilla is topped with salsa, black beans, avocado, tomato and a scrambled egg. This will get us off to a running start, for sure!
Category: beans
For a Warm Winter Breakfast, go Left (overs)
The régime is going well and we are eating healthfully every day. That doesn’t mean we don’t crave flavour! To eat healthily and lose weight, in fact, flavour is critical. So is fibre. Today’s breakfast has lots of each – and after an invigorating workout, it will keep us fueled no matter what Mother Nature throws at us.
The toast is old fashioned porridge bread – you can find the recipe in the recipes tab. Scroll waaaaaay down…it’s an old favourite. On the side, homemade molasses (veg/vegan) baked beans and Mark Bittman’s fennel gratin, topped off with a poached egg. Life is what you make of it. We made this.
As shown, 367 calories, 10g fat, 9g fibre.
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!
Beans and Cheese? That's a Wrap.
We’re having a great time figuring out interesting ways to use all the produce from our garden these days…lots of spinach and onion are on the menu. Our self challenge is also to be sure we get some protein in every meal. Today’s lunch consists of these tasty bean and cheese burritos.
On a whole wheat tortilla, layer several spinach leaves, 1/2 cup (125ml) cooked beans (these are Jacob’s Cattle beans, grown in NS and cooked here at home), an ounce (30g) of cheddar. Microwave about 2 minutes to melt and heat (or in the oven, if you prefer…just keep an eye on the cheese until it barely melts). Add a dollop of salsa (ours was canned last fall from our own produce) and plain, nonfat yogurt. Chopped green onions from the garden add extra flavour. Wrap and enjoy!
Kitchen Sink Salad 2014
We make variations of this salad all summer long, as various vegetables come into season, either in our own garden or the Farmers Market. Start with a good glug of olive oil and vinegar, and a couple of tablespoons of Dijon. Whisk those together to make a dressing.
Next, add some cooked beans or chickpeas (we made Jacob’s Cattle beans a couple of days ago) and some chopped onion (here, baby red and white ones). We had some sliced radishes as well.
Next, two or three chopped hothouse tomatoes and a good handful of chopped greens (we had spinach, baby Romaine, and Swiss chard). Toss on a few olives or anchovies and some sharp cheese or Feta for tangy goodness.
Stir together and let rest at least 10 minutes. It will keep in the fridge for two or three days, flavour improving each day.
This leaves the kitchen cool on a hot day and is quick and easy to prepare if you are busy watching the World Cup!
Go-for-Gold Breakfast
We’re joining the rest of Canada for a little breakfast time hockey, before we head off to church. The eggs in our golden spicy scramble are combined with a red onion, a habanero pepper, a handful of mushrooms, some diced pancetta, and sage. On the side, molasses-baked kidney beans and some grilled polenta.
If this doesn’t get us going for the day, nothing will!
We Grew Our Lunch…and Have All These Veggies Left Over!
Spoiler alert! We grew neither the tuna nor the ingredients for the dressing ourselves. But we did grow everything else (All seeds from Vesey’s or Halifax Seed) – a satisfying lunch after a morning of post-vacation weeding and laundry! Any combination of veggies would do, but we used:
Simpson lettuce
Vulcan lettuce
Green and yellow beans, blanched
Black Chinese radish, blanched
Golden beets, cooked and chilled
Thinly-sliced red onion
For two, top each plate of veggies with 1/2 can solid tuna in water
Drizzle w lime maple dressing (recipe for 2 – mix all together)
10ml/2 t mayo
5ml/1 t Dijon
Zest and juice of one lime
5ml/1 t maple syrup (we get ours from our neighbours at Acadian Maple)
Now to check the larder and get a few staples before settling in to enjoy what’s left of our long weekend. Happy Natal Day, Simcoe Day, or anything else you’re celebrating!
We're in a Hot Soup!
What do you make on a hot day? Soup! (Well, at least when your garden is producing more Swiss Chard than you’ve ever seen!)
We started with onions and chard from our organic garden, some white beans cooked earlier in the season and frozen, potatoes from the local market, and a chorizo from Ratinaudhfx on Gottingen (merci beaucoup!)
The chorizo was poached in some veg broth, then set to cool. Meanwhile we sautéed the white parts of the onion, the garlic, and the potato in a little olive oil. Next, the broth.
After about 5 minutes simmering, the beans, until heated through.
Next, we sliced the chorizo thin and chopped the green parts of the onion and the chard. Into the pot!
The smell was marvelously overwhelming at this point:
5 more minutes to simmer, and it was ready to serve. Isn’t it good that the weather has started to cool down?
Making a Hash of Breakfast
This time of year, it gets easier and easier to eat local food, even on the chilly windswept coast. Greens and hardy veg are growing in the garden in our cold frames, and hothouse peppers are making an appearance. With all the beauty and deliciousness of the garden, it is work (and lots of it), especially a first year garden like ours. So we feel fully justified in eating a breakfast that has too many calories for a regular workday.
For two:
Half a small orange pepper
1 stalk celery
1 small diced onion
2 diced potatoes
4 Cremini mushrooms
2 Cavicchi’s sausage patties, made into tiny meatballs
2 large eggs
Cook the vegetables in a nonstick or cast iron skillet with about 5ml/1 tsp olive oil. Lidding the pan will help the potatoes soften. Stir once or twice. When the potatoes are nearly tender, sprinkle the sausage balls on top and cover, allow them to sit on low heat until the sausage are cooked (2-3 minutes). Stir. Crack the eggs on top, cover, and cook until the eggs are done as you like.enjoy. We did!
Peppery Goodness
Last night we were craving comfort food after a day of digging – preparing the garden for a first year’s veggie-growing in the new house. It was chilly out, so stuffed peppers fit the bill.
The oven was set to 350F.
We started by hollowing out two peppers and taking a tiny slice as necessary to make them sit straight. Then we sautéed the chopped pepper tops and a couple of stalks of celery, as well as an onion, in chili garlic oil. Next we added some frozen corn til it was a bit toasted. Lastly, we stirred in black beans (home cooked and frozen until needed – defrosted in the microwave) and some cooked brown rice (same story).
We filled the pepper shells and poured 60ml or 1/4 c of marinara on top. They were baked in a lidded, foil-lined casserole for 45 minutes. Then, removing the lid, we grated some extra old cheddar on each. 10-15 more minutes to melt, and they were ready, along with a fresh salad.
