Walk Widely. Eat Wisely. Live Gratefully.
This weekend I tried pumpernickel from Jean Paré’s classic cookbook, “Breads”.
It turned out so well I kept looking for excuses to eat it. So lunch had to be a sandwich! Albacore tuna mixed with tomato, dill, grainy mustard and light mayo made the filling tasty enough to hold up to the robust flavour of the bread. And with the whole grain rye flour, the loaf has enough fibre to enjoy without regrets.
Long day! The bathroom reno revealed that we have been sitting on the upstairs toilet on a wing and a prayer. Weather made us late for an important appointment. It’s payday and we haven’t shopped but have leftovers from the last meal plan. What to do?
We cooked some long whole wheat pasta. Meanwhile, we used a tiny bit of olive oil and sautéed a shallot and half a bulb of fennel. When the pasta was nearly done, we added a can of wild-caught salmon, a diced tomato, and some red pepper pesto to the pan. Then we tipped in the cooked pasta and let it sit for 5 minutes to gain flavour.
When it was ready we stirred, served, and sprinkled with some chopped dill.
Now…off to the couch to forget the day. (Thanks East Dell, we’re sure you’ll help with that).
What do you do when you want fish and chips but you know it’s just not the healthiest option? We made these great oven fillets and chips.
Preheat the oven to 400F. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into “fries” and toss with just a little olive oil and salt. Put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Then julienne the carrots. Again, just a little oil, and a grating of ginger. Wrap these in a foil packet so they’ll steam and stay moist.
Next, in two shallow dishes (pie plates work well) prepare the dipping ingredients. In the first, a whole egg beaten with a little milk. In the second, a mix of cornmeal and whole wheat flour, some dried dill, and chili powder. Dip the fish fillets in the egg mix, then in the cornmeal mix, to coat. Put on the sheet with the “fries”.
Put the baking sheet as well as the foil packet in the oven. Bake about 15 minutes, flip the potatoes, and then leave for another 5 or 10, until fish flakes with a fork.
An easy weeknight supper, when you don’t feel much like cooking: pasta. But spaghetti with meat sauce can get old, really fast. So can red sauce from a jar.
So instead, put some whole-grain vegetable pasta on to cook. Meanwhile, quickly stir-cook some fresh veggies in a large skillet with a lid (we had peppers, broccoli, celery, onions, and mushrooms). Stir in a chopped tomato and turn the heat to low, and cover it.
When the pasta’s cooked, toss it all together (use a little pasta water if it needs moisure; ours didn’t). Then stir in some herbs (we had a little basil), pepper, and pop the lid on again. Let it stand with the heat on very low, about 4 minutes, for the flavours to combine.
Sometimes certain foods have a “season place” in our minds. We always think of swordfish as a summer food, cooked on the grill, with a fresh salad, some tomatoes, or avocado.
But with fall arriving full-force, we weren’t willing to give up swordfish for the season. This version was grilled, but on a tabletop grill. We served it with some blue fingerlings and steamed carrots, topped with a peach-pear salsa tossed in a mustard vinaigrette.
A couple of weeks ago we were down at Hooked and they had a delicious-looking slab of sustainably-caught albacore tuna. It was just the thing we were looking for, to be tossed with some homemade marinara and whole-wheat spaghettini. Tasty, fast, and healthy – the perfect Friday night supper.
We made this tasty dish earlier in the week: Salmon Pasta Pesto Toss. It all started with some basil and walnut pesto, made from basil we grew here on our urban farm. So many good things to make!
We cooked some whole grain pasta from Better Bulk. In the meantime, we tossed some veggies together with a little EVOO and cooked them until they were tender-crisp. In this case, we used celery, broccoli, yellow peppers, red onions, mushrooms, and carrot, all from the East York Farmer’s Market. Then we stirred in a large chopped tomato from Larry’s garden (not for sale – neighbour-ness has its privileges). We put the lid on and let it simmer while the pasta finished cooking.
Then at the end, we stirred in the drained pasta, a heaping tablespoon or two of the pesto, and a can of wild salmon. We popped on the lid and let it sit for 3 or 4 minutes for the flavours to develop. Quick comfort in a bowl. (For cold comfort, you could easily refrigerate this and serve it as a salad!)
We love veggies. But one of the things we learned when we lost weight was: eat less, move more. The second thing we learned was: eat more fibre. And finally: eat veggies with everything. So we’re always looking for ways to tuck in a few more vegetable servings.
Take the humble tuna sandwich, for example. We made it on 100% whole wheat bread, just the regular old grocery store kind. We didn’t spread it with anything, to keep the fat content down. For the tuna filling, we used a can of tuna (makes 2 sandwiches), plus a diced yellow tomato (we hear you, it’s a fruit!), a tablespoon (15ml) of light mayo and a tablespoon (15ml) of Dijon mustard. We put it on the bread, then added a few leaves of mixed lettuce and arugula we’re growing out back on the urban farm.
Sound good? It tastes even better.
Friday we popped into Hooked on Queen Street to see what they had on offer. As usual there was a tremendous selection, making it difficult to choose.
The photo doesn’t do it justice – I’m no expert with phone photography, but we settled on these tasty Red Drum fillets from Nova Scotia. Pan-fried in a little butter, we then swirled a little chardonnay in the butter and pan drippings to make a sauce. On the side, we served steamed beans with carrot dice, and a boiled potato – all from the farmer’s market. Dee-lish!
Dinner in a hurry! We had a long day yesterday, and needed dinner, fast. In the freezer were a package of perch fillets we had picked up earlier this summer.
There were a couple of potatoes in the bin, and some yellow and green beans we found at the farmer’s market. Here’s what we did:
We peeled the potatoes and put them to boil in the bottom of a steamer pot. Then we put the zest and juice of a lemon, with half a cup (125ml) of water in another pot, and set it to boil. We snipped the beans and added them to the top of the steamer. Finally, we put the frozen fillets in the pot with the lemon, and turned it down to a point where just the occasioal bubble arose from the pot. Within 10 minutes, it was all done. Deliciously!