So summer is here in almost full force! My ankles and feet are swollen and I feel like all I do is complain about being pregnant and hoping that the baby comes early. I need to stop. So if I have called or talked to you in the last month or so, I need to apologize for my complaining attitude. I am remembering that I asked for this baby, no let me rephrase that... I begged God for this pregnancy and I need to come back to that spot in my life when I didn't know whether it would be even possible to have another baby. So here is my confession of my horrible attitude. Please forgive me.

Now on to a more positive note... in 8 months of being pregnant I had gained 11 pounds and then turned around and lost 6 pounds this past month. I must say that it feels really good! I think I can contribute the loss to two specific things - Thetis Island BC and eating locally. A few weekends ago we spent a few days with our church family at a retreat center that was built on the side of a hill. I was definitely sore when I came home! But I believe the major reason is because of my food choices. As of today I still have local beef in the freezer and we were also able to add 4 local organic chickens to our freezer collection. I just need to plan my meals ahead before I can tell you how delicious the chickens tasted. Besides getting our local food box I have been running over to the Root Cellar to supplement our fruits and veggies. I also have been picking up eggs at a local farm for $6.75 for two and a half dozen. As an aside, that's the same price as our local Costco (where do they get their eggs from? I have no idea!).

Ok, so to keep this a bit shorter I will get to the amazing recipe I made tonight... thanks Nadine for calling and rubbing it in how good your supper was! I'm not sure where she found the recipe but this is my version of what she excitedly told me over the phone about an hour ago:

Ingredients:

Bunch of Kale - stems removed and chopped

1/2 tsp cumin and paprika

2 cloves of garlic

splash of lemon juice

olive oil

Directions:

Add olive oil and garlic to pan

Saute Kale with the spices

When wilted add a splash of lemon juice and serve.

I ate this with my improvised whats-in-the-fridge stirfry. Wow it was amazing!

So the moral of this post is don't forget to make the small changes in your food purchases to become a healthier you! I started by doing my best to buy only Canadian produce and meats, if you have mastered that then perhaps try to eat more food from your province and the last thing is trying to eat from your specific region. It does become easier over time once you can find the resources in your area!

Good luck and happy eating!

Wonderful new recipe!

So, many of you have been asking where we have been. Well, I haven't been in the kitchen for awhile. But this week I made bread for the first time since moving here in February. Can't believe it took me this long. It must have been a cooler day because the dough took FOREVER to rise. I finally was able to put the bread in the oven around 8:30pm, after the kids were in bed. We decided it would be a great time to watch a movie and call it a night...well lets just say the movie went on and the bread stayed in the oven a little longer than expected. But don't worry, nothing was lost.. just a little bit browner than usual. That was on Monday and we only have one loaf left out of four.

Anyways, on to the amazing recipe we had for supper tonight. I have been trying to figure out how to include more beans/legumes in my diet. I usually have chronic low milk supply when my kids are nursing so I'm starting early trying to find some good recipes. My friend in Ontario, you know who you are supermom! gave me a few suggestions - refried beans in the slow cooker (which I tried and loved, I'll post about that later) and this recipe for a vegan alternative to Sloppy Joes. I tweaked the recipe slightly by adding some homemade BBQ sauce, recipe to follow, I also used 3 Tbsp of chili powder and a yellow pepper instead of green because thats what I had on hand. I served them on homemade no-knead hamburger buns. Wow, was I ever impressed!! Even the hubby enjoyed them, which says a lot because first off there was no meat and secondly it was made out of lentils, which is not high on his preference list. I will definitely add this recipe to my collection for future meatless Thursdays, or whatever day of the week I feel like making them! Below is a copy of the BBQ sauce we had made earlier in the week, as well as the hamburger bun recipe.

BBQ Sauce:

1 Cup Ketchup

1/2 Cup white Vinegar

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Dry Mustard

garlic powder to taste

Worcestershire Sauce to taste

A few shakes of Liquid Smoke

Combine all ingredients.

Hamburger Bun Dough:

6 1/2 Cups flour

2 Tbsp INSTANT Yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp Salt

1 Cup Sugar

1 1/2 Cup Milk

1 1/2 Cup hot water

Measure out flour into large red tupperware bowl (my all-time favorite bowl for mixing bread doughs! - I like the old red colour the best but tupperware didn't agree with me). Add yeast and salt to flour. In a separate bowl combine sugar, milk and hot water. Pour into flour mixture. Stir mixture together until the dough forms a lumpy, sticky mass. Cover and let rise for 2 hours, or however long you have. Use right away or refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Forming the Buns:

Flour your hands generously, because the dough will be sticky. Cut/rip/pull off chunks of dough in the size of your preferred bun. The size all depends on the purpose of the bun I suppose. Form the lump into any bun shape you want, try not to play with it too much or it will turn out on the chewy side. Place buns on a prepared baking sheet, I use bacon grease that I have stored in my fridge in a wonderful mason jar.. but you can use parchment paper etc. Cover with tea towels and let rest for around 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F. Bake for around 15-17 minutes.

The yield for this dough recipe varies based on how big you want your buns...haha...that statement made me laugh...Tonight for instance I only made 6 buns for supper, but I have at least 1/2 to 3/4 of the dough left in the fridge. The recipe came from a great book that I rely on frequently for my no knead dough recipes. You can find it here. Or you can borrow it from my kitchen, with the knowledge that if you lose it you will replace it because I LOVE this book!

Let me know what you think of the recipe if you try it, and hey do you have any tried and true bean/legume recipes you would recommend to a nursing mom?

yours in the kitchen,

Alicia

ps. I just wanted to add that I didn't add the full recipe of BBQ sauce to the Snobby Joes, maybe 1/2 cup or so.

I like Pesto!!!

So, we got our boxes again this week, and they are AWESOME! I forgot to get a picture of everything in the box but I have something better for you.

This week we got:
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch red kale
1 pound strawberries (YUM)
1 bunch of swiss chard
1 bunch of daikon radishes
1 bunch of mustard greens
1 bunch of mizuna
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1 bunch of red beets

So, I am not a huge beet fan, but to be a good host I roasted them all for lunch. They were good, but not something I would jump about eating. I probably wouldn't even help myself to them unless I was really hungry.

This week, I didn't want any of my greens to go soggy, so I looked up proper storing and cutting techniques and started planning early what to do with everything. I got hung up on the daikon radishes though. Do you use radish tops? I had no idea...

So...as usual, when I don't know what to do, I got on the internet! I found a recipe for radish leaf pesto and decided to give it a try. Alicia came over and we made a batch together. I have had pesto before and again, am not a big fan, but thought i would give it a try rather than waste all those tops.



It was DELICIOUS! I would eat it again for sure! I would like to try making some pesto pasta, or a pizza with this pesto on it. It was more "green" tasting than herb.

Give it a try, let me know what you think, tell me what you put it in...
Happy eating :)
Nadine

Bread anyone?!

Okay, so I tried out a brand new spelt bread recipe this am! It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and it worked out fabulously! The recipe was to make 1 loaf, but using slightly smaller loaf pans, i made 2 loaves of bread and also added some oatmeal topping just to spice them up.

This recipe came from a random google search which led me here. I was really happy with the spelt bread (it was especially good right out of the oven with some butter and honey on it!).

Because I was already making bread I figured I'd do a few loaves of whole wheat and a few sub style buns as well. Take a look. This is my regular recipe (courtesy of Alicia) and it usually makes 4 loaves, but I used a few of my pans for the spelt bread so decided to try these buns instead. The boys haven't broken into those yet, so I will let you know when the reviews come back.


And here they are....




Happy Eating,
Nadine

Where does the time go!

I have to apologize! I can't believe it has been over a week since I last wrote. That just goes to show you how absorbed into my garden I have been. Anyone who has tried to call me will verify that because I don't answer the phone when I am working outside.

This morning was a teenage hormonal experience. (No offense to our teen readers.) After speaking to Alicia and finding out that her radishes had sprouted, I was very excited to see if anything had come up in my garden.




I was like a child at Christmas time, scanning everything for the best thing, then getting close and really checking everything out. My front box was full of sweet surprises! I have 2 full squares of arugula that have sprouted, 1 box with several spinach shoots, 2 red onions coming up, and musclen salad green coming through. I was so giddy it was almost embarrasing.




Then I looked up to check my back box only to find that the cat had been digging AGAIN! My sudden rush of excitement turned to a quick desire to strangle my cat. (Not really, i love her to bits, but stop messing with my garden cat!)



There have been several great things in the yard; my rhubarb is getting pretty big, the peas are sure growing and the strawberries have blossoms on them!!!









I mowed the front lawn and weed whacked this morning, and thanks to my extreme inaccuracy, I now have a beautiful vase of garden fresh flowers on my sill. (Isaac helped me rescue them after I mowed them down.)

Ah, so good to say spring in finally here! And just because gardening wasn't enough today, we also baked whole wheat bread, tried out a new spelt bread recipe, and made 3 sub style buns. Check it out! And try it out.... recipe to come (the family is waiting for dinner right now.)


Cheers,
Nadine