A Full Weekend and Some Market Photos

Archive: September 2012

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A Full Weekend and Some Market Photos

We were just talking today about the busy trap. You know those people who, when you ask how they’re doing their answer is always some variation of how busy they are? “Can’t hang out, crazy busy“. It’s too easy to get caught up in the chaos of the day to day and not take the time to slow down and enjoy all the fun things this life has to offer us.

This weekend was a legitimately busy weekend. Not a feel-sorry-for-me busy weekend, or a feel-envious-of-me weekend, just a full few days.

On Thursday, we had our good friend who’s leaving town over for dinner. He brought me raw pumpkin seeds as a hostess gift. He knows me so well.

Then on Friday I had a really inspiring picnic lunch with an old co-worker who I recently got back in touch with and am so thankful I did. It’s funny how people enter and re-enter your life just when it seems they’re meant to.

I danced my face off on Friday night and re-connected with some friends I haven’t seen in a few weeks. It had been much too long since I’d danced like that. I mean, I dance in my kitchen all the time, but this was a whole other level of dancing. Invigorating to the soul dancing. So good, so necessary.

On Saturday, I worked at the Farmer’s Market in the morning and then I took Reid and my Dad to a Meatless Meet-Up on the North Shore at Buddha-Full. It was so very cool to see my Dad, post-heart attack, totally enjoying a raw vegan meal. It warmed my heart in a way that words can’t explain. This is a different man than the one I grew up with. Nowadays he raves about his homemade hummus and how much he loves kale and salads. Keep it up Dad, you’re doing great and you will totally kick this Heart Disease! Now if we can just get him to tone down the 10 cups of tea a day… baby steps though, right?!

Saturday night was frantic realize-you-haven’t-done-any-schoolwork-yet-nose-in-the-books night, naturally. I can’t complain, I have the world’s best school schedule, but I do still need to put some pretty serious work in. It can’t be all fun I guess (even though I think learning is totally fun). I thought all weekend about how much I wanted to blog and all the cooking I wanted to do, but I just couldn’t make it work and fit it in without stress. I’m all for productivity, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out, and I’d rather have a good time doing what I can than try and cram too much stuff into too little time and stress out about it. We are too blessed to be stressed, remember? Sometimes I am my own biggest stressor, so it was good to remind myself that it is okay to just take a break once in a while.

This morning we went out for dim sum with a bunch of highschool friends. We recently reunited at a friend’s wedding and have been gathering for meals every so often. There’s something really comforting about being around people who have known you forever and who you still totally get along with. I guess it helps that they are all totally cool people.

More studying this afternoon, and then a majorly impromptu fancy dinner out (I am so spoiled!) at The Acorn, my (since 5 minutes ago) new favourite restaurant in Vancouver. It’s all locally sourced, fresh, mostly organic ingredients. Tons of vegan, raw, gluten-free options, and every dish we tried was just bursting with flavour. I’ve been waiting for a restaurant like this to open up, and in my hood nonetheless. Thanks Vancouver, just… thanks!

So now here I sit, thinking of all the ways I could squeeze a blog post out of the few moments left before I call it a night… and I realized I never really just write anything. It’s always about the food. And of course, I do love the food, but there is more to life than food. There’s the living life part. There’s having a weekend that is so full with rich and meaningful experiences that there are just no hours left in the day to work in cooking something for the blog. I looked at a recipe for raw cashew cheese about 34 times this weekend, just hoping that time would stop and I could make it happen for the Food Matters Project this week. I had a vision for raw nut cheeze balls instead of the tofu-centric vegan option that’s in the cookbook. At least I know for sure I will be making it, sooner or later.

But I am in no rush. Because sometimes it’s about slowing down and enjoying all the other things. Sometimes it’s about getting caught up, and sometimes it’s about agreeing with yourself that you’ll get caught up another time. This weekend was “busy”, but I prefer to think of it as full of life, which I’m loving right now, raw cashew cheese or not.

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Flourless Almond Ginger Molasses Cookies – Gluten-Free & Vegan

Alright. I did it. I made something gluten-free and vegan and it worked.

It worked!

Maybe it’s because it doesn’t have any flour, but that doesn’t matter. It worked. These are good cookies. Tasty cookies, crisp on the outside chewy on the inside cookies, cookies that make me feel sneaky for having a sweet treat… until I remember that they are about as healthy as a tasty cookie can get.

The healthier a cookie gets, the less tasty it tends to be. I’ve noticed this.

I’ve had lots of people ask me for the recipe since I made these and offered tasters to friends in return for their feedback. That is a good sign. These are not your buttery, gluteny, sugary ginger molasses cookies. Nope. But even so, people still want the recipe. Try them out for yourself, you won’t be disappointed. It’s as guilt-free as a cookie can get!

**RAW NOTE** – these can totally be made into RAW cookies. Just skip the oven and dehydrate the final product for 8 hours for a chewy cookie, longer for a little more crunch to the outside. I will absolutely be doing this next time!

FLOURLESS ALMOND GINGER MOLASSES COOKIES – GLUTEN-FREE & VEGAN
makes 12-16 small cookies
adapted from here and here

Before you start: these cookies are quite sweet and quite gingery. If you are concerned about that, you can add less sweetener and more almond butter and less ginger. Because it’s a vegan recipe, I encourage you to taste it and tweak it to your liking before you put it in the oven!

2 cups almond meal (I used coarse but it will totally work if you have a fine blend)
1/4 cup coconut sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of cardamom and cloves (optional, gives a stronger flavour)
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup almond butter (I ran out of almond butter and used a half-half mixture of almond and sunflower seed butter. See, this recipe is totally versatile!)
1/4 cup molasses (I used a mix of regular molasses and blackstrap molasses)
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix the dry ingredients: almond meal, coconut sugar, cinnamon, other spices if using, ground flaxseed, and ground ginger in one bowl. Mix the wet ingredients: almond butter, molasses, ginger, and vanilla in another bowl til combined.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until thoroughly combined and taste test it for sweetness and gingeriness. If it isn’t holding together well enough, you can drizzle some coconut oil over it and you should be able to form it into small balls that hold their shape.

I slightly flattened the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baked them at 350F for 7 minutes and 10 minutes. The 7 minute batch were soft and chewy all the way through and the 10 minute ones were soft in the middle and crispy on the outside.

*Note* You can replace the sweeteners for honey, maple syrup, or whatever other sweetener you have on hand. The addition of coconut sugar does ‘dry up’ the recipe so if you change it out, you may have to tweak the amounts of liquid sweetener a bit.

See this post on Wellness Weekend

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Veggie Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a popular Japanese dish sometimes translated to something like “Japanese Pizza”, but it’s really much closer to a potato pancake – yet with cabbage instead of potato. It’s typically loaded with toppings and covered in a sauce and mayo.

I have for you a healthier, veggie-friendly version. Cabbage, leeks, onions. Delicious.

Even with no potatoes, the taste is reminiscent of a potato latke… but full of cabbage, and with it a healthy dose of vitamin C, anti-inflammatory nutrients, and antioxidants. Cruciferous vegetables for the win!

VEGGIE OKONOMIYAKI
makes one 12 inch pancake or two 6 inchers

3 cups green cabbage, thinly sliced or shredded
1.5 cup leeks (I used one large leek), halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2/3 cup all purpose gluten-free flour (I used the same mix as in this recipe)
tsp sea salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp coconut oil
3 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup almonds, coarsely chopped
sesame seeds for garnish

Mix together the cabbage, leeks, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Add the eggs and combine until everything is coated. I used a touch of water just to get everything to come together better. Heat a large skillet to medium heat with half the coconut oil and put the cabbage mixture into the pan. Press it down flat, cover with the lid, and cook for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom.

I used some kitchen magic to flip this bad boy (flipped it onto the lid, then onto a large platter, then back into the pan + animated squeal of glee when it actually worked). If you’re making two smaller pancakes, you should be able to flip them with a couple spatulas or a cutting board (flip onto the board, then onto a large plate, then back into the pan), also, they will take a little less time to cook on each side, closer to 5 minutes each side.

I put the other tbsp of coconut oil in the pan before I flipped the pancake back in, but I’ve also made it where I’ve forgotten about the oil and just lifted up the edges and drizzled some underneath and it’s turned out just fine. Cover and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom and you’re done! Sprinkle green onions, almonds, and sesame seeds on top and enjoy!

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Nectarine Upside Down Polenta Tart

This was supposed to be a cake. I was supposed to use sugar and all purpose flour.

That didn’t happen.

This week for the Food Matters Project, Jen chose an Apricot Polenta Cake (You can see everyone’s creations here and the original recipe here).

I went in with the thought that I was going to make this recipe straight from the book, but make it gluten-free. And vegan. I had some of my gluten-free flour mix that I made for the tomato tart leftover in the fridge, I’d swap out the eggs for some flaxmeal or something, and I would switch out the refined sugar for coconut sugar.

HA! This is apparently how my brain works. “Oh, I’ll follow the recipe to a T, I’ll just change this and this and this…”

Well, it turns out I had used up the GF all-purpose flour in a cornmeal pancake recipe, but I did have some sprouted spelt flour kicking around. Okay, so that turned my ‘cake’ into non gluten-free. That’s fine. But once I had prepared the polenta and mixed everything but the flax eggs in… I panicked. This didn’t look anything like any cake batter I’d ever seen before. It was lumpy and wet, really wet.

I crumbled under the pressure and cracked two eggs into it. Then I added some more spelt flour and tossed it in the oven. Away with you, cake thing. Hopefully you magically bake into something edible.

I’m sort of a sketchy baker. There, I said it. Sometimes the fear of screwing up keeps me from trying with baking the way I might when cooking. It’s harder to adjust on the fly. It’s intimidating… especially when trying to substitute things to make healthier baked treats.

I’m that baker that, even though I don’t bake enough to know what cake batter looks like, is sure that this is not what it is supposed to look like. So I freak out and add stuff. What I need is to trust in the process. Maybe then I will develop that baker’s intuition that some of you bakers out there have.

Needless to say, what we have here is not a gluten-free vegan cake, but if you’re into it, it’s still pretty good. It ended up like a tart. Kind of the texture of a pecan tart. It’s just sweet enough and the nectarines are the best part.

If I had to make it again, I would use my gluten-free flour mix from this recipe here. I would also ditch the coarse cornmeal and use a finer blend, but less, and add it directly to the dry ingredients. Bear with me here, this is a science. Oh, and I also feel like the cooked polenta in this recipe made it a little too moist and dense… but it very well could also have been me. I’ll admit that. Straight up.

Either way. Next time I make this it will be more like this, but gluten free and with cornmeal. Because I really just can’t leave well enough alone!

NECTARINE UPSIDE DOWN POLENTA TART
adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup coarse cornmeal (aka polenta)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup spelt flour (use all purpose, GF if you have it)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp coconut sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp orange juice
3 nectarines, sliced

Preheat oven to 350F. I used a 10-inch pan because my smaller one ran away from home. Grease whatever pan you have. An 8 incher would be perfect. Cook your cornmeal in 1 1/4 cup water in a saucepan – bring it just to a boil and then stir and simmer on low heat until all the water is soaked up, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat to let it cool.

Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in one bowl. Whisk the eggs and sugar in another bowl. Bittman says to separate the eggs and whisk the yolks with the sugar (all except 2 tbsp) and beat the whites into peaks to fold in at the end. I don’t own a hand mixer and we already talked about what kind of baker I am. So. I then added the orange juice to the sugar and eggs and mixed that in with the polenta, which I then mixed with the dry ingredients.

Saute the nectarines on med-low heat in 2 tbsp coconut sugar and 2 tbsp water until they are a little tender, about 5 minutes.

Arrange the nectarines on the bottom of your greased baking pan and pour the batter over top. Bake at 350F for 35-45 mins (mine took 45 mins) and check that a toothpick comes out clean. Remove and cool, turn it over onto a tray or plate. Serve with some delicious vegan coconut ice cream!

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Roasted Root Veggies, Chard, and Lentils

After a summer of our fridge being stocked to the point overflowing from all our CSA and market pickups, this week was notably bare. I’m working at the gym on Main St. Market nights now so I’m no longer available to help out Klippers Farm with their stand.

So I went to a new grocery store today, one that was closer than the Co-op and it was totally bizarre. I’ve gotten quite used to eating what has been seasonally available and it was kind of strange to see asparagus staring back at me this afternoon. I was also intently looking for something to satisfy my craving for Korean food and I was disappointed to find nearly every ingredient label I read containing corn syrup or MSG or some other gnarly additives. I guess that means I’ll be doing some whole-food-down-home Korean cooking from scratch sometime soon. More to follow on that (!).

Back to this meal, which was the result of a nearly empty fridge. I did, thankfully, have a bag of TruRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio in the pantry.

Plus some chioggia beets.

And some rainbow carrots. Both roasted with love (and rosemary, and lazily applied still kind of solid-ish coconut oil).

Add some Swiss chard, tons of onions, garlic, and ginger… and you get a super fresh, tasty, healthy meal. The beets and the carrots bring an earthy sweetness to the mix, the bean trio adds some texture, and the chard just greens it all up. A quick weeknight dinner and loaded with veggies, just the way I like it.

You could most certainly make this with good old regular lentils. I’d stick with green, brown, French, or (my fave) beluga lentils which will hold their shape better than red lentils. If you’re using regular lentils, you’ll have to adjust the cooking time and liquid to allow for a 2:1 ratio of water and anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on how fresh your lentils are. As they get older, they lose moisture and will take longer to cook. Sometimes if I’m forward-thinking enough, I’ll soak mine first for an hour or so. They don’t need it, but I like to think it speeds up the cooking process and helps with digestion.

ROASTED ROOT VEGGIES, CHARD, AND LENTILS
serves 4-6

6 carrots. halved (quarter the really big ones if needed)
6 beets, chopped into 1-inch cubes
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic (they were small, so if yours are med-large, you could use 4), minced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (about an inch long), minced
1 1/2 cups bean trio mix
1 1/2 – 2 cups water (start with the smaller amount and add more as needed)
1 bunch Swiss chard, de-stemmed and cut into ribbons
pinch Himalayan sea salt

Preheat oven to 425F. Spread beets on a tray, brush with coconut oil, or if you’re lazy like me, spoon it on sloppily and wait til it melts in the oven and give everything a good stir to coat. Do the same with the carrots and lay a sprig of rosemary on top of each. Reserve some oil, about 1 tsp, for cooking the lentils. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until tender.

In a deep pan, saute onions in the remaining oil for about 5 minutes or until translucent. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 3 minutes more. Add the lentil mix and stir around to coat. Pour in the water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add the Swiss chard and stir to mix well. Continue to cook on low heat for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the roasted veggies. I crumbled some rosemary from the root veg in, about 1 tbsp, and seasoned to taste with a pinch of sea salt.

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Why You Should Kick Your Coffee Habit – And A Green Smoothie Recipe To Help You Do It

It’s back to school time for me (eek!). I just had my first day last Thursday – an orientation and the first session of Psychology of Disease. Can I just say, I love this school! I met so many enthusiastic people, centered on their paths. It feels warm and encouraging to be surrounded by so many like-minding people!

One thing that really stuck out to me is the amount of care put into the orientation lecture. What kind of learners were we and how could we ensure the greatest level of success? Not only study practices were addressed, but lifestyle practices (maybe this should have been obvious going in, seeing as it is a holistic school). I loved that emphasis was put on sleep, exercise, nutrition, and stress management, and positive affirmations. The favourite affirmation at the school is apparently “We are too blessed to be stressed”. I like it!

Shayna, the program director, spent 30 minutes lecturing about coffee (and caffeine) and it’s nasty side effects. As someone who survived on coffee and junk food through the first few years of undergrad – before catching on that it didn’t seem to be helping me – I really wished we had gotten this kind of holistic speech before our first years of college, or better yet, in highschool. How to take care of your body and mind together for the best learning outcomes.

The coffee talk snapped me out of some things. For one, I’ve slipped back into a pattern of sneaking the occasional coffee here and there a few times a week. This is going to stop. No more coffee for me!!

Here are some quick highlights of the lecture and some reasons I think you should kick your coffee/caffeine habit with me this fall for increased health and productivity:

1) Adrenal fatigue – Caffeine is a stimulant that ramps your body up into action, causing your adrenal glands to secrete the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. It puts your body effectively into a fight-or-flight state, increasing your heart rate and blood pressure, and sending blood sugar levels out of whack (watch out, diabetics!). Assaulting your adrenal glands daily with caffeine can hamper their ability to manage real stress situations and lead to health issues like chronic fatigue and exhaustion.

2) Deep sleep disruption – Caffeine has a long half-life, meaning it takes a long time to leave the body. It’s been shown to increase the time it takes you to get to sleep, decrease your total sleep time, increase nighttime awakenings, and decrease or eliminate stage 4 deep sleep, which is needed for physical healing and memory consolidation. A lack of deep sleep has been associated with chronic fatigue and Fibromyalgia.

4) Inflammation in the gut – Caffeine stimulates the production of gastric acid and relaxes smooth muscles (like the colon). We all know about the poops you have after you drink coffee, right?! Well, what’s happening there is that the caffeine is causing your stomach to prematurely forward it’s contents downward along the gastrointestinal tract. This is especially troubling when you have your coffee in the morning with breakfast, and can lead to your morning meal ending up as undigested food in the intestines. Undigested food particles cause inflammation in the gut which can then lead to decreased absorption of nutrients, irritable bowel and leaky gut syndromes, and heightened immune responses (think allergies).

I don’t know about you, but I’m sold. I’m choosing the vibrant health I feel when I’m caffeine-free over the coffee-buzz and it’s subsequent physiological fallout.

So how on Earth will you ever make it through a morning without a cup of coffee?! Well, first things first, the moment you rise you’ll have a glass of water with some real lemon squeezed in. Then, if you need something hot to soothe you, you’ll have a cup of herbal tea. And then, to wake up and nourish your brain and your body, you’ll make yourself a delicious green smoothie! Trust me on this one, if you’re not already hooked, just try it. Green smoothies are a great way to start your day, and after a week of drinking them, I’m willing to bet you won’t even be thinking coffee-thoughts. You’ll be able to thank yourself for the abounding energy, increase in alertness (more like a decrease in fuzzy-coffee-brain), deeper sleep, better digestion, and just an overall feeling of wellbeing. You can read more about green smoothies from a previous post I did or you can try out this Peach Blueberry Green Smoothie right now!!

We had so much romaine lettuce and kale from the market and our CSA early in the season that we blended it up with a bit of water and froze it in ice cube trays (we store the cubes in a large ziploc bag in the freezer). Now our morning routine is even easier! Just reach into the freezer, grab a few of these guys, and toss them in the blender with some fruit, homemade nut/seed milk, desired superfood extras, and you’re good to go.

BLUEBERRY PEACH GREEN SMOOTHIE
makes about 1L

4 green ice cubes
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 peach
2 cups nut milk or water
1 tbsp flax oil or half avocado
2-4 tbsp hemp seed hearts
2 tbsp chia seeds
optional – add a 1/4 cup of oatmeal if you like your smoothies thick, and add half a banana, a drop of stevia, or a tsp of honey if you want it a little sweeter

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Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

Welcome back from your long weekends, I hope they were as enjoyable as ours was! We spent the weekend up in Whistler at a cabin with good friends, food, and company. I’m feeling really fortunate right now that I’m not back at school until Thursday because I need a bit of time to prepare myself. This is a big deal for me! I have been out of school for 3 years now after finishing my undergrad, and it feels totally surreal to be heading back on Thursday. I’m so thankful that I’ve found something I’m so passionate about though (nutrition!), because this time around I am really looking forward to going back to school.

I’m a little late for this week’s Food Matter’s Project, but my excuse is too much fun on a long weekend. Our first night up in Whistler we made a great big communal dinner and this salad went perfectly! It was so fresh, light, and tangy – and loaded with veggies. You must know by now that I love when meals are loaded with veggies.

I can’t wait until I can report back on my first day of school! And I am also really excited for all the new material I’ll be learning about, which will hopefully inspire some blog posts here. If you are unaware, I am starting a 1 year program in Holistic Nutrition at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition in Vancouver. By the time I’m done, I’m hoping to be hosting cooking classes, grocery store tours, pantry cleanouts, consultations, and mostly just helping people improve their health through food! I can’t wait!!

Check out this week’s original recipe on Sara’s blog, and the rest of the gang’s interpretations here.

QUINOA TABBOULEH SALAD
inspired by Oh She Glows
serves 4-6

1 cup quinoa (dry)
1 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup parsley, coarsely chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 avocados, flesh cut into small cubes
5 skinny small green onions, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

for the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
2 cloves garlic, minced

Cook the quinoa – bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the quinoa, cover and lower heat, simmer for 15 mins, remove from heat and let cool. Toss with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.

Prepare the dressing by combining dressing ingredients and toss salad in the dressing. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

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The Goodness Life is all about eating well to feel your best. Here you'll find easy and delicious recipes, nutrition tidbits, and all sorts of other info. I hope you enjoy reading about my journey towards living a life full of goodness!

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