morning lemon - easy peasy green tea lemonade

Another successful copycat beverage - green tea lemonade. The natural foods store around the corner from me is having an awesome sale on Santa Cruz lemonade (regular and raspberry which is highly addictive) $1.99 a bottle - you should check your local natural store!

I brewed up green tea (I like Yogi brand) - 2 tea bags in approx 2 cups just-before-boiling water - and put into an empty lemonade bottle, which filled it up about halfway. I topped it up with lemonade, gave it a good shake and popped it in the fridge. A bit later over ice it was perfect.

 

almo(st) mochaccino

It was big news when Starbucks opened in my neighborhood, which is made up of mostly small independent shops and cafes. Of course it had to open near the end of my pregnancy, when I was desperately craving chocolatey/milky things daily. My husband and I got a bit too used to the 2 minute walk around the corner and also chose to ignore the significant amount of money flying out of our wallets. Well, now that baby is out, we have cut back significantly. A big reason for me besides spending too much is that too much dairy consumption by me noticeably affects my boy - in a spit up way! Not that it is causing him discomfort, but I was getting a bit sick of changing my/his clothes a couple of times a day.

Taking all this into account, I decided I still needed a daily treat (trust me, when you are taking care of a newborn, you need this) but I didn’t want to spend lots of money, and I didn’t want to have dairy or soymilk. So, I decided to invest in a thermo-cup and create my own version of a mochaccino - 1/2 instant coffee, 1/2 chocolate almond milk. Of course it doesn’t taste like a Starbucks mocha, but more money in the bank and less laundry makes it worth it. Besides, I love almond milk, and it does taste pretty dang good.

If you don’t like to have too much dairy and you have never tried almond milk, I highly recommend it. It has a nice consistency - thinner than soy milk but not as thin as rice milk, and it tastes great (not too almondy like you would think). I use the original unsweetened on cereal, have used the vanilla for baking (makes cupcakes extra moist!) and the chocolate is good straight up in a glass.

Stay tuned for another faux Starbucks drink attempt soon - green tea lemonade!

 

a pregnant girl’s breakfast treat

Multigrain bagel toasted, spread with almond butter and a bit of nutella swirled in, generously sprinkled with ground flaxseeds. It’s all good.

 

perfectly pink smoothie

One banana, a handful of frozen raspberries, 4 spoonfuls of yogurt, a few splashes of pineapple juice, a sprinkling of flaxseeds. A perfectly pink drink to lift the spirits on a chilly, blustery day.

 

morning lemon - a soothing natural cold remedy

When I was young and had a cold, my Mom would fix me a simple drink of lemon, honey and hot water. Like always, Moms know best - why reach for something like NeoCitran which contains some nasty non-medicinal ingredients (here’s a little sample: D&C yellow No. 10, FD&C yellow No. 6, flavours) when all you may need is a vitamin C blast from the lemon, and some antibacterial goodness and energy from the honey to get you feeling better. Plus, it’s really the warm steamy liquid itself that goes a long way in soothing your body and soul.

What could be easier:
- slice up some lemon, squeeze and throw slices into cup
- add a generous squeeze of honey
- add just before boiled water and stir
- enjoy!

 

december views - everythings gone green

Bonus pic: shocking green smoothie!
recipe: two bananas, 1 cup vanilla almond milk, two handfuls chopped up kale, tablespoon flaxseed, squeeze of honey - whiz it up!

 

bake up a little comfort

Brrr… I definitely felt winter in the air this morning. This weekend, why not bake up a batch of comfort food (you don’ t have to eat it all yourself - people love to get homebaked gifts!) The other day I finally got around to trying a recipe from the foodtv.ca monthly cooking club, mainly because October’s recipe was something that I just could not resist - chocolate chip cookies. It is Anna Olson’s recipe, and I have to say, it is outstanding. Anna adds cornstarch to the recipe to make them chewy, but since I am sensitive to corn, I used arrowroot instead, and they turned out perfectly. I also used half whole wheat pastry flour, and dark chocolate chips. Other than that, I did follow the recipe, but next time will cut down the sugar, and try replacing some of the fat with applesauce (this first batch was to welcome my husband home from an overseas trip, and I wanted to treat him to the full effect of the fat and sugar this time). I bet this recipe would also work well with other flours (spelt, rice, amaranth).

If you like to try new recipes, you should check out the cooking club. There are savory and sweet recipes, and it’s fun to see how everyone else’s attempts turn out. Also, there is always the chance you may win a cookbook - that’s definitely motivation enough for me!

 

cranberry breakfast

I hope all my Canadian friends had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! Looking for a way to use up some of that leftover cranberry sauce (aside from making turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches - yum)? Why not try a breakfast of wholegrain bread topped with light cream cheese and cranberry sauce. Even better, you could swirl the cheese and cranberry sauce together, then spread it on. Who doesn’t want cranberry “cheesecake” for breakfast?

I bet you have some more cranberry-use-up ideas - let me know and I can post them here as a helpful list. Plenty of time to also give people in the US some ideas for their upcoming Thanksgiving in November!

 

how to make soup - a pictorial

As many of you now know, making soup is a new feat for me. I’m betting that there are a lot of you out there like me, who have never made soup. So, I wanted to show you a few of the main steps in pictures, so you can try it out - it is so easy! Soup is a great thing to make on the weekend, then keep in the fridge/ freezer for throughout the week. Depending on what kind you make, you are most likely looking at a big bowl of nutrition as well (whole grains, legumes, vegetables, herbs.)

The first step of making soup involves making a flavour base, which usually includes things like garlic, onion, carrots, celery. They are cooked first for a few minutes until soft, then herbs/spices are added and it is cooked another minute or two. Here is a picture of the base for my red lentil/rice soup (garlic, onions, carrots) before I added all the spices.

Then it’s time to add the rest of the ingredients which need to cook for the main portion of the cooking time - in this case the lentils and rice - plus liquid. Other examples of things which take a long time to cook would be potatoes, or other root vegetables, or meat. Tender vegetables like dark greens (spinach, kale) would be put in closer to the end since they cook very quickly. Here’s a pic of the lentils and rice, mixed with the base, before I added the liquid.

So once you add your liquid, you bring the whole thing to a boil, then turn it down to simmer for the time the recipe states. Things like fresh herbs (basil, cilantro) would be added at the end when the soup is cooked. Here is my finished product:

So for the most part, this seems to be the basic formula for making soup. Why not look up some recipes and experiment! For some great pictures and to get a ton of ideas, check out this soup challenge roundup at the blog running with tweezers which I participated in with my very first soup, kale and chickpea.

 

what I ate

Good morning, and welcome to my photos of three days of food! This was a great challenge and really got me paying more attention to what I was eating. But then again, being pregnant, there were a few indulgences and also some laziness. But overall, I think I did pretty well. Let me know what you think!

Day 1:

Breakfast was grapefruit juice, blueberry yogurt (sweetened with honey, not aspartame!) with bran flakes. I prefer kashi cereals, but this is what we had in the house. The apple was sort of a mid-morning snack.

Lunch was a yummy lentil/brown rice soup I made. It was so easy, and tasted amazing. If anyone would like the recipe, let me know - I also have some bonus pictures of the soup making process I will post another time.

Dinner was sheppard’s pie made with with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and salad with home-made balsamic/honey-mustard dressing. Sheppard’s pie is one of my husband’s favorite meals.

Day 2:

Breakfast was grapefruit juice, whole grain toast with almond butter and ground flaxseeds (lots of fiber here!), and yogurt was for mid-morning snack.

The lentil/rice soup makes another appearance for lunch (it’s great having soup available for days!) along with cucumber sticks, and I managed to get 10 minutes of sun outside for my vitamin D, before the bees came.

It was Friday, and we felt like a treat for dinner, so we tried a place near our house called Portugrill, which makes portuguese-style roasted chicken. I got 1/4 chicken white, with rice and roasted veggies. Was decent, but not as tasty as the downtown portuguese places.

Day 3:

The day before I had received some almost-too ripe fruit and veggies from a friend, and was going to spend the day making things out of them, so to get some energy, we decided to go to our favorite breakfast place. I had a fried egg and cheese on whole wheat sandwich, with a cup of decaf. Didn’t think that was really picture worthy, so took a pic of the strawberry banana muffin I ended up making instead (had as a snack!)

Lunch was home-made guacamole which used up my friend’s avocados and tomatoes, plus some of her goat yogurt. It was sooooo good. I also made baked garlic pita chips for dipping. I have the recipe if anyone is interested!

Well, I had big plans for this last dinner, I was going to make salmon and veggies in foil so people who haven’t done this before could see how to do it, but here some of the laziness set in. It was Sunday night, I had been shopping/baking/guacamoling all day, I was feeling big and fat, and I just couldn’t be bothered! So, I still did pretty well by whipping up this romaine, cucumber and broccoli salad with tuna, topped with my home-made dressing. The fish in foil trick will make an appearance on the blog at some point!

Hope you all enjoyed this little peek into my food world. Remember, please ask for recipes if you like - the muffins, guacamole and soup were all excellent!

Thanks again Sarah, for initiating this challenge!