Well, this writing a blog post a day for the month of November is proving to be quite the task. With deadlines to be met, running after wayward cattle, trying to teach a toddler that pushing her friends is not nice and that she needs to remember to go to the toilet when she feels like peeing, I'm having difficulty coming up with quality writing material.

All you get today is...

Sweet Potato Chips and Kale Chips


Little One had a friend over yesterday and for a snack, I made baked sweet potato and kale chips. My friend came over the other day with her two boys and brought me some kale from their garden. Yes, it's November and they still have kale! Fabulous!!
Ingredients
A bunch of kale
olive oil
sea salt

* Remove kale leaves from stem and cut/tear into bite sized pieces. Wash carefully and dry leaves.
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
* In a baking dish/cookie sheet, spread kale and drizzle olive oil, season with salt, and cook for 10-12 minutes. I do it for 10 min. Depending on how hot your oven runs, 12 min can sometimes make the kale chips too crunchy/crispy.


Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
olive oil
sea salt

* Wash, clean, and peel sweet potato.
* Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
* Slice sweet potato in thin slices.
* Place on cookie sheet, drizzle olive oil, and sprinkle salt.
* Bake for 25 minutes

My toddler LOVES kale chips! She and her friend had "tea" with their kale and sweet potato chips and homemade hand-pressed apple juice.

Mommy loves how healthy these snacks are!

My old college and university buddy from my Montreal days is up visiting with his wife and baby.  Crazy to think that we've known each other since we were 17 and now we are both married and with kids!






Back in the day, I was hardcore vegetarian. The funny thing is that I married a beef farmer and I eat a bit of meat now.

My buddy is still veg, and in keeping with our Meatless Mondays, I decided to make Veggie Quinoa burgers. My buddy and I both agree that it's hard to find a good veggie burger. Licks' Nature Burgers are pretty good, but a good homemade veggie burger is like striking gold!

I'm happy to say that this recipe I concocted is a keeper. Even my beef farming husband agrees! That says a lot, people! My husband loves his steak and potatoes!


I have to apologize first for not including any measurements. I don't really use measurements when I cook, but mostly just go by taste. Also, please note that because of the nature and consistency of these burgers, you will have (like with pancakes), the first two sacrificial patties! After the first patties are cooked, the rest should come out flawlessly!

Ingredients:

Quinoa
Brown rice
Lentils
Chickpeas
Kidney beans
Black beans
Corn
Red pepper, diced (small)
Green pepper, diced (small)
Green onion/scallions, chopped
Cumin
Curry
Cinnamon (just a touch!)
Black pepper and sea salt
Garlic and celery powder
Eggs

Cooking instructions:
In a large bowl, add ALL ingredients. I used two cans of assorted beans/legumes because I didn't  have my regular beans in stock. I drained the beans and rinsed them. I cooked some Quinoa and brown rice (just enough to keep all the other ingredients "together". The eggs also help "bind" the ingredients. This time, I used 3 eggs as my binding agent. (I didn't have red or green pepper today, so they were omitted from the recipe)

You can either mash or puree the ingredients so that it forms a paste, but I kept them all in their original form. I don't like the way the mixture looks if it's pureed or mashed. With a serving spoon, I spooned some of the mixture, formed into patties, and placed into a heated pan (with oil already heated). Place no more than 4 patties in the pan at one time.

Sadly, it's difficult to grill or BBQ veggie burgers because of their consistency. You'll have to cook these veggie burgers some light oil. Lightly brown/cook in olive oil until firm and toasty brown. Very carefully, flip patty over with spatula and cook until firm. It only takes a few minutes on each side.

Serve on good quality buns or bread, topped with your favourite condiments.
I wanted to roast some garlic scapes to add as a topping, but ran out of time.

Great news!!! Little One passed the Northeast Infant Hearing Program and there are no concerns regarding her hearing! Despite being high risk at birth (for her prematurity), she has been discharged from the program! Yippeeeee! :) BTW, the kid's got super hearing...although she clearly has selective hearing! She seems to be unable to hear the words "Please don't do that" or "Come here, please"!

We've been busy with students, life on the farm, life with the toddler, family, friends, birthday parties, work, work, work, and getting stuff done around the house (which seems to be a never ending affair). Life has been very busy, very full, but also very rewarding and enjoyable. 

 You can't really tell from the photo, but I painted our front entrance a very bright blue. It's more of a turquoise/aqua than blue. It is really bright and quite the adjustment for Hubby. The walls in the front entrance used to be a stone gray colour. Usually, I'm Little Miss Play-It-Safe with the colours on our walls. I tend to stick with creams and neutrals. I just felt something drastic, bright, and cheerful was in order. I hope I made the right decision!

 Little One and her buddy on a lunch date. We checked out a chip stand on our way to "the city" for some spur of the moment shopping.
 I love Lowes because I can spend the entire day there, checking out new ways to beautify my home and add to all the renovations.  A girl can dream, right?  Okay, who am I kidding? I love Lowes because their buggies are so cool that even the toddlers wanted to ride in them and not run around the store like maniacs, touching everything and getting into trouble, causing embarrassment for moms and dads alike. Nah, our toddlers would never do that! ;)

 Our first time at Coldstone Creamery.  We met up with my lovely and talented friend (Ahem! Need a photographer? Look no further) there.  She had mentioned the place to me before, but I had never been there.  One would think that I've been living under a rock or in a cave for all these years, since I had even heard of Coldstone Creamery until this year! All my city friends raved about the place, claiming it to be the ultimate ice cream experience. We were in "the city" and had to check it out. Little One and I shared some key lime ice cream. Little One's friend and her mom shared an Oreo something or other, but Little One's friend preferred the key lime. As you can tell from the above photo, Little One did not want to part with her ice cream. I guess she liked it.

 Little One attended a birthday party on the weekend.  Judging from the balloons, I think these were supposed to be for another kind of party and not a 4 year old's party! Kidding. They were supposed to be giant worms with happy faces on them and not ginormous condoms.
 Our budding photographer, taking photos of everything.
 Wearing her tuxedo dress from my Korean student.  South Koreans have excellent taste in clothes :)

 Near the end of the weekend, Mommy needed some time out...
 The adorable Muskoka chair herb garden was Little One's Mother's Day present for me. I love it!
 After I made my bed, I noticed a little lump on my side of the bed. Look closely on the right side of the bed. See that little bump?

 If you like pina coladas...

 Apple crumble for Hubby, Little One and the students.
3 c diced tomatoes
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 or 2 c okra, cut into bite sized pieces
lots and lots of beans/legumes (I used a combo of lentil, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc)
salt and black pepper
curry, cumin, and a few other spices
a little bit of oil for cooking

Sautee onion and garlic. Add spices. Add veggies and legumes/beans. Cook until everything is tender. Enjoy!


 Guacamole! I used 4 avocados, and the guac was inhaled within minutes! Easiest guacamole recipe ever!

4 avocados
1 tbsp minced garlic
a few splashes of lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste ( I also used a secret mix of spices, but I'm not sharing)
1 tomato, diced
parsley, chopped (I didn't have cilantro)

Mash avocados in a bowl, add all other ingredients, mix together until smooth, and eat with Tostitos! Yup, it's that easy!

We have been doing our Meatless Mondays, but I've been so slack about posting on the blog busy that I  haven't updated our Meatless Monday posts. Since I'm also doing NaBloPoMo this month, Meatless Mondays make for great fillers! 

Today's recipe is a fresh spring roll dish. I had some rice paper that my lovely friend, CanineCologne gave me when she visited us on the Island.

 I  have to confess that I have never made fresh spring rolls before. I've eaten them countless times. I love them. I love it when other people make them for me. I figured that since I had them on hand and since I was in the mood for eating them...and it was a Meatless Monday, that I should make them.

I soaked the rice paper in water to soften them. I cut up some lettuce, and very thinly, sliced up some red pepper, carrots and whatever other crisp veggies I had in the fridge. Granted, these weren't going to be "authentic" spring rolls, I used what we had in our kitchen.

I also sliced some firm tofu and seared them in a pan. I placed a bit of each ingredient on rice paper and rolled them.

For the sauce, I heated up minced garlic, soy sauce, a bit of water, and a bit of sesame oil and dash of maple syrup. For a bit of kick, I added a few drops of hot sauce.
As you can tell from the photo, it was a hit. Even my 23 month old LOVED it! Amazing. What toddler actually LOVES eating tons of veggies and tofu? Crazy!

We also had a sweet and sour soup with tofu in it and a salad, but the spring rolls filled us up (surprisingly)!

Okay, so it's Meatless Monday on a Thursday.

With zucchini and tomatoes being in abundance at this time of the year, I had to try to figure out what to do with all those veggies!

I was going to make Ratatouille, but decided on making a Frittata.
I was going to post a photo of the Frittata I made, but it was devoured before I had a chance to find the camera. You'll have to settle for a photo found via Google Images. Photo borrowed from here.

INGREDIENTS

1 onion, sliced
garlic, minced
oil
1 Tomato, diced (I used 2 tomatoes)
1 zucchini, halved and sliced
2 or 3 potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
6 eggs
parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

In large nonstick ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook until lightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add potatoes; cook until potatoes are golden.

In small bowl, beat eggs with salt and zucchini. Add to skillet; reduce heat to medium and cook until bottom is brown and crusty, about 5 minutes, occasionally lifting edges so uncooked eggs can flow underneath. (If skillet handle is not ovenproof, wrap in foil.)

Add tomatoes on top. Broil until eggs are set- 1 to 2 minutes. Cut into wedges to serve. Garnish with parsley.

******************************************************************************

I served the Frittata with a salad. Yes, that is a lot of veggies! The Student, Hubby, Little One and I enjoyed it immensely.

At the end of the meal, my husband (the beef farmer) said, "That was great Honey. It would have been even more perfect with meat!"

Will my husband survive Meatless Mondays? We shall soon find out.

It's been a while since I last posted a Meatless Monday recipe. I'm still trying to convince my husband that we don't need to have meat for a meal to be "substantial". He LOVES veggies, but he's a farmer. He's a meat and potatoes guy...and he loves meat. He's been pretty good with the Meatless Mondays though.

One of our favourites (okay, one of my favourites) is Zucchini Pizza. I began making Zucchini Pizza a few years ago when we had some massive zucchinis from the garden. I didn't know what to do with all that zucchini that my friend, Rosie suggested one of her family's favourite zucchini recipes.

• 1 medium zucchini sliced (not too thinly)
  
• tomato paste or pizza sauce
  
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Italian Seasoning
• S & P
  
• Mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
  

First, turn broiler on high. Next, line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and drizzle with EVOO.

Slice zucchini. Slather each zucchini slice with about a teaspoon of tomato paste/pizza sauce and place on the cookie sheet paste side up. Sprinkle with spices. Top with cheese.

Broil for 2 minutes. The cheese should start to get golden. Simple. Easy. Delicious.

I serve these pizzas with a salad on the side.

I don't know why, but I've been wanting CORN! I have no idea where I got the idea of making these little corn bake thingies. I've never made them before.

I thought they'd pair well with a crisp, refreshing salad.

They were delicious!!! Little One had TWO corn bake thingymabobs. Unfortunately, I don't think they made a substantial meal for Hubby. I keep forgetting that just because I don't eat as much as Hubby does, he NEEDS the extra calories since he works it off on the farm every day.

I bet he's wondering how long he'll be able to survive these Meatless Mondays! I bet he can't wait for the next meat-filled meal. Ahhhh...to be married to a beef farmer!

C's Corn Bake Thingies
Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 c milk
1 c cooked corn kernels, drained
1 can creamed corn
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 eggs, well beaten

Instructions:
In a pot on low heat, melt butter.
Add flour to melted butter. Mix well.
Gradually mix in milk. Keep stirring until the mixture boils.
Add corn kernels and creamed corn. Add salt and pepper. Cook until mixture is heated through.
Beat eggs and then add to mixture.
Pour into a greased baking dish (I used a muffin tray).
Bake 1t 350 degrees for 25 minutes (or until firm).

I served this with a salad. I think Hubby would enjoy this more as a side dish...with his meat and potatoes!!! :)

Well, it's that day of the week again!

My Mom gets upset when I say that I don't always feed my husband and daughter meat. "[Insert Hubby's real name here] is a farmer! He needs meat and carbs! He works hard and uses that energy. You can't not give him meat!"

It's true. Hubby is a farm boy and he does work very hard on the farm. He is also a meat and potatoes guy. It seems that many people in the countryside have a diet that consists of meat, potatoes, homemade bread, and sometimes two veg choices. Usually that's corn (which I don't count as a "vegetable" vegetable) and either peas or carrots. Meals in Hubby's family are usually followed by dessert. This is something I don't do unless it's a special occasion. If we have dinner guests or if it's a party, I'll make something for dessert. Other than that, it's fruit or yogurt.

In theory, eating a hearty meal like Hubby is used to is good...if you're going to be working it all off.

Hubby and I were talking and discussed the expression:

"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."

We're going to try to adopt this practice. It seems that in my family's background, breakfast is often overlooked, lunch is skimmed or ignored, and supper is the biggest (if not, the only) meal of the day. This is sooooooooo bad! It's so hard on the body, organs, metabolism, etc. Being in the age group we're in, Hubby and I are trying to shed a few pounds.

Hubby and I make sure we eat breakfast, lunch and supper and we make sure none of our meals are too heavy. This is what's for lunch!
Asparagus and Zucchini Crudi
Recipe from one of my favourite Food Network chefs, Giada De Laurentiis!

Ingredients

• 2 zucchini, trimmed
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ounce shaved Pecorino Romano, for garnish

Directions

Using a vegetable peeler, shave the zucchini into long thin strips. Thinly slice the asparagus on a diagonal. Toss the slices together and place the salad in a serving bowl.

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and drizzle over the vegetables. Toss to coat. Garnish with the pecorino shavings. Serve.

C's Easy Lentil Soup

INGREDIENTS:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of chick peas
1 can of lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups baby spinach
1 or 2 cups water
*optional* 4 or 5 slices of bacon cut into small pieces

1. In a large soup pot, cook bacon pieces.
2. Sautee onions with the bacon once bacon has started to turn golden brown (if you are making this a vegetarian meal or do not eat bacon, omit the bacon and use a bit of extra virgin olive oil).
3. Add tomatoes.
4. Drain and rinse lentils and chick peas and then add them to the pot.
5. Add a bit of water (depending on how chunky or how 'liquidy' (another made up word!) you like it.
6. Let cook for 30-40 min. Add spinach at last minute.
**Since this is Meatless Monday, do not use bacon in this recipe.**

Funny how Mondays have a way of creeping up on us! Not that weekends are much different from weekdays around here, since the farm is a 24-7 job. No days off. No holidays. No rest for the wicked.

Inspired by my friend (Maria), I started participating in Meatless Mondays. I didn't really start it because I wanted to take part of a new food revolution or to kibosh meat all together. I am, after all, married to a beef farmer and raising cattle is part of our livelihood.

No, I decided to join because I feel as North Americans, we consume far too much meat. Portion sizes have gotten out of control. I know my husband loves a good burger (double patty with bacon) or a good steak. Meat is fine and all, but like anything else, in moderation.

I guess that in essence, I joined Meatless Monday just because I wanted to make a conscious and concerted effort to make sure my family eats properly. It fits into the "barely any processed-boxed-canned-frozen-pre made-convenience foods" idea that we believe in.

Today, I made a variation of my Mediterranean salad. This time, I didn't have any feta cheese. I also added baby spinach just for some extra vitamins.

C's Chickpea Salad
1 can chickpeas
1 c quartered or halved grape tomatoes
1 c black olives, sliced
1 c cucumber (I cut each round into quarters)
1 c baby spinach
whole wheat macaroni noodles, cooked
olive oil and balsamic vinegar as the dressing

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss. Add cooked macaroni, toss and make sure to coat all ingredients with dressing.

This recipe was insanely easy to make. How could you go wrong with a recipe that calls for only seven or eight ingredients?! You can add herbs, salt, black pepper, etc. I find it tastes great on its own like that though. I sometimes add more tomatoes, since I really want Hubby to eat lots and lots of tomatoes.

Tomatoes are an excellent source of Lycopene, which is said to be a major agent in preventing certain cancers. In the past few years, both Hubby and I have lost loved ones to cancer (of different types). I'm hoping that if we continue to eat a healthy, balanced diet like the one we currently have and continue to do manual/physical labour (we live on a farm, remember?), this will all help. Of course, sometimes even if one does everything possible to prevent cancer, that's not even enough. At least we can try though.

A friend of mine recently gave me a few packages of "meatless meat". When I was vegetarian, I used to use soy ground "beef" in lasagnas, Shepherd's Pie, spaghetti, etc. After a while, I realized that I'd rather be using more natural and unprocessed ingredients in my vegetarian dishes. Though meatless meat is made from soy protein, pressed tofu, rice, gluten, and legumes, I wanted something not as processed. Au lieu of meatless ground beef, I used an assortment of veggies and spices. I also ate A LOT of beans and legumes. Chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, lentils...You name it, I ate it.

I found that a lot of my favourite cuisine didn't even have much meat in all their dishes anyway. Japanese, Lebanese, Thai, Vietnamese...There are so many dishes from different countries that don't include meat.

Middle Eastern cuisine with its falafel, tabouleh salad, Babaganouj, and hummus was always one of my favourite options. Indonesian food was also a go-to choice for me. A little bit of spicy kick and many recipes that don't include meat = the perfect dinner for me! A trip to Bali almost a decade ago, only reinforced what a vegetarian paradise Bali is!

Today's Meatless Monday dish (much to my beef farmer husband's chagrin) has meatless ground beef in it. I made my version of Vegetarian Black Bean Chili.
I sauteed some meatless ground beef with diced onions and minced garlic. I added diced tomatoes and homemade tomato sauce, black beans, corn kernels, and chickpeas. To add a bit of colour, I chopped up some spinach (I don't usually put spinach in chili, but I wanted to clean out our veggie compartment in our fridge) and let everything cook in a large pot.

I hadn't cooked with meatless meat in YEARS, so I was praying that the recipe would turn out. Hubby kind of cringed at the mere thought of "meatless meat". He really enjoyed the chili and said it was "very good". I know that secretly, he'd prefer it to have real ground beef in it, or just no meatless meat.

Little One thoroughly enjoyed her meal. Then again, our 17 month old will eat anything and everything right now. We couldn't get over how much she LOVED the meatless ground beef! Crazy girl! TWO bowls of vegetarian chili...and then she wanted mango for dessert!