I remember when I was in my late teens/early twenties, being vegetarian wasn't as easy as it is today. Not many restaurants catered to vegetarians or had many (or any!) vegetarian options on the menu. Back then, whenever I dined out with friends, I'd end up eating a baked potato and a salad. Every time.

Have I ever told you about the time I asked if I could have soy milk and the server told me I'd have to grind my own soy beans?! Ummm...Thanks.

Now, there are so many amazing dishes to tempt the taste buds. Yes, admittedly, we do live on a beef farm and my husband is very much a meat and potatoes man. This said, I do make sure we incorporate lots of vegetable dishes into our diet and we also have days when we have vegetarian dishes.

I had heard about The Island Chill from friends, but every time I passed by, it happened to be a day when they were closed. The Island Chill is a vegetarian eatery that offers a variety of mouthwatering items on their menu.

The Island Chill is a take-out place, but there are a few tables available should you wish to dine on location. The atmosphere is casual and the service is friendly. Take your pick from fruit smoothies, veggie burgers, paninis, chili, burritos, wraps, and more!


Since we had friends visiting, we took them to the Bridal Veil Falls and Manitoulin Chocolate Works. While there, we decided to get a bite to eat. Not wanting anything deep fried, I suggested we try The Island Chill. I was so excited to finally get the chance to try out their food! I have been wanting to try their Sunflower Hemp Burger for a while now!



If you're in Kagawong, Ontario, pop by The Island Chill!

The Island Chill is located on Hwy 540 around the corner from downtown Kagawong on the way to Gore Bay, right beside Rock Island Mini-Golf. Open July and August. Open Sun-Fri 11.30am-7.30pm, Sat closed.

Since we do live on beautiful Manitoulin Island, I thought it would be wonderful to incorporate a bit of the local flavour and share some Island gems with you. Every week, I'll be showcasing a different Island "must see"!

My very first Island spotlight is the amazing Gypsy Family Farm.

If you've ever visited Manitoulin Island and have stopped by the Farmers' Markets, undoubtedly you'll have met Farmer Ted.

He's the guy with copious amounts of fresh local produce, smiling and always ready to offer suggestions and recommendations of what to buy and how to prepare it! I always love bumping into him at Farmers' Markets. Honestly, his produce is beyond compare! I've bought everything from lipstick red peppers to assorted squash from him. You can tell how much hard work and dedication he puts into his farming!

The group description on Gypsy Family Farm's Facebook page reads:

Put a face on your food. Welcome to Gypsy Family Farm where everything has a story. We are located on pristine Manitoulin Island, Canada and are dedicated to food production through ethical farming practices.

What I love about Gypsy Family Farm and Farmer Ted is that they work tirelessly to provide people with real food. Real, fresh, local food! Farmer Ted posts regular photos of what he's growing and he also offers farm shares to Island residents. Farm share members can get a glimpse of what they are about to receive every week.

Gypsy Family Farm also makes jellies and other good things!  Last year, I picked up some of Farmer Ted's Royal Pain jelly! It is perfect served on top of stone-milled crackers with melted Brie! Oh, so good!

Next time you're at the Farmers' Markets on Manitoulin Island, make sure you stop by and say hello to Farmer Ted. Oh, and make sure to pick up some delicious lettuce, peppers, lettuce, and other Gypsy Family Farm items for a mouthwatering salad made with all local produce! Farmer Ted is fabulous at introducing people to new, interesting, and unusual edible masterpieces (like the "lipstick" red pepper I mentioned earlier or the "crayon carrots" he has).

Photo credits: Gypsy Family Farm and Farmer Ted photos via Google Images. Royal Pain image courtesy of yours truly.

• "What on earth is Quinoa?!"
• "Man, you guys eat weird stuff!"
• "I feel sorry for  your husband. You always cook weird food."
• "Sushi? Gross! I hate fish!"
• "Blech! Couscous?! Tofu?!? What is that?!"
• "I can't believe your 3 year old eats that stuff!"

These are all things I've grown accustomed to hearing from friends over the past few years.  Constantly in awe of why I don't feed my family "normal" food like chicken fingers and fries or Mac 'n Cheese, I get a lot of disgusted looks when I feed my family things like Quinoa salad, Pad Thai,  sushi, or Pho. To me, these are "normal" foods. These are things I'm accustomed to eating.

It's not like I never feed my family chicken fingers or Mac 'n Cheese. I do on occasion.  Mostly, I don't deprive my child of foods common to her peers, because I don't want her to be ostracized in school as being "the kid who eats weird food" and I don't want her to feel she needs to hide in a corner and eat these "treats" in the closet. I want her to have a healthy relationship with food.  Everything in moderation.

Though we try not to give her too much sugar, she does get treats every now and then.  I've even bribed her with chocolate when she was potty training! Hey, stickers didn't work on her because they weren't a treat. She gets to play with stickers all the time. She rarely gets candy or junk food, so potty incentives that include things that she rarely gets were very effective!

This said, I'm not so secretly elated that my 3 year old isn't a junk food fan.  She absolutely loves food of all kinds, but doesn't like fried, greasy, overly sweet/sugary foods. I know! What 3 year old doesn't love French Fries?!? Mine!!! Yes, the kid will not eat fries.  "They're yucky and greasy!"  I totally plead innocence on that one.  She came up with that on her own! She does love chicken strips though.

Anyway, I wanted to share a fabulous recipe that my little one and I both love, love, love!  Hubby says "It's pretty good for something that doesn't have any meat in it."

Hubby is still getting used to Quinoa. He is a veritable meat and potatoes farm boy.  When I received that package of President's Choice Blue Menu and PC Organics items, I noticed a box of golden and black Quinoa.  I normally buy the regular Quinoa, but this one looked really interesting with the variety of colour.

Yet another reason I love President's Choice products! They offer a huge variety of healthy items from their Blue Menu and PC Organics lines! I love that President's Choice has launched their Live Life Well campaign too.
C's Quinoa Salad with Tofu, Mushrooms & Carrots
Ingredients:
1 box of PC Organics golden and black Quinoa
mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves or garlic, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 pkg of firm tofu, diced
a little bit of oil
freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook Quinoa as per package directions (bring water to boil, add Quinoa, cover, simmer for 25 minutes).
2. In a pan, heat oil and sautee onion and garlic. Add tofu and mushrooms. Season as desired.
3. Once Quinoa is cooked, fluff it with a fork (as you would with couscous). Put cooked Quinoa into a large serving bowl. 
4. Add browned tofu and cooked mushroom, onion, and garlic to the bowl of Quinoa. Add grated carrot. Gently mix so that ingredients so that each serving has an even distribution of ingredients. 
5. *Optional* I love President's Choice Memories of Thailand Fiery Thai Chili Pepper Sauce. I sometimes add some to the dish to give it a little bit of kick. LOVE IT!

 Little One loves her Quinoa salad.  She shocked us when she had three helpings!



Serve as a side dish or as your main. We often have seasonal veggies with this. Sometimes I include a meat dish as well.

Disclosure - To help spread the word about President's Choice's healthy food items and the Live Life Well program, we received a variety of President's Choice Blue Menu and PC Organics products to try. The opinions on this blog are honest and my own.

One of the things I love the most about my 3 year old is that she will eat anything and everything I serve her. I love that she doesn't think twice about eating a Tilapia or a bowl of curried lentil soup!

We just got hit with a pile of snow a few days ago. Though it's a Winter wonderland and we've been having fun outdoors in the snow, there's nothing like coming in to a nice bowl of hot soup!

Here's my curried red lentil soup recipe.

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 inches of ginger root, grated
1 large carrot, diced
2 cups of red lentils
1 can diced tomato
1-2 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
black pepper (and if you want, salt to taste)
a little oil to sautee onions, garlic and "burn" the curry/make curry paste

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven,  heat a bit of oil. Add curry powder and cumin and cook it for a bit (make a paste). Add onions and garlic, and sautee.

2. Add carrots, lentil, and diced tomato.  Add seasonings (to your taste). Add 6 cups of water. Cook covered for an hour or more.

Truth be known, my husband has an aversion to any recipe that does not contain meat. Oh, he'll eat whatever I serve him, if he knows what's good for him! Just kidding. He's pretty open-minded and will try anything and everything I serve him. Tofu just isn't one of those things. Though he likes how I season them and infuse certain flavours in the tofu dishes, he claims that that palatability is just not for him. Fair enough.

I grew up eating tofu on a somewhat regular basis. Since my Dad is Chinese Caribbean, we are no strangers to tofu. Tofu is a common ingredient in many Asian dishes. Also as a vegetarian for most of my adult life, tofu was a mainstay in my diet.

Tonight, I was craving tofu for supper. A friend of mine from university (we were both vegetarian and involved in some environmental groups together) had this amazing tofu recipe that called for chili flakes and other ingredients I cannot remember. It was a sweet yet spicy tofu dish. Since I couldn't recall the exact recipe, I had to improvise.

First, I poured over some of my favourite cookbooks in hopes of finding something similar to the recipe I had in mind.
So many tempting recipes, but not exactly what I had in mind. I was left up to my own devices for this one.

For supper, we had Tofu Satay on rice noodles with steamed Bok Choy drizzled with sesame oil and Lychee milkshakes and chilled Lychee for dessert.

Please keep in mind that I rarely measure ingredients when it comes to cooking dishes (except for baking, where exact measurements are a must).

C's Tofu Satay on Rice Noodles
Ingredients:
1 or 2 packages of firm tofu, cubed (depending on how many people you're feeding)
1 sweet red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 onion, chopped
cooking oil
Cilantro, chopped (to garnish)

Sauce -
vinegar
soy sauce
chili flakes
dash chili powder
onion powder
garlic powder
3 Tbsp peanut butter
After you've prepared your tofu and your veg, cook tofu in a pan with a little oil until slightly browned. Add your veggies and cook with sauce.

While you do this, you can steam your Bok Choy and rice noodles. This whole meal takes less than 30 minutes to make from prep to finish.

My non-tofu-eating husband said this was the best tofu dish he's had so far. He really liked the combination of sweet and spicy (sweetness from the peanut butter and heat from the chili).

On bed of rice noodles, place tofu satay. Sprinkle with chopped coriander to garnish. Drizzle sesame oil over Bok Choy and serve.

"Mmmmm! What is this, Hon?", inquired Hubby. "It's really good!"

"It's Bannock Hazelnut Pie. I got the chance to make the winning recipe for Wednesday's Recipe to Riches show and blog about it."

"Oooh!" said Hubby with a note of surprise in his voice. "I'd actually highly recommend it. It's got lots of flavour in there. It's very good, considering there's no meat in it!"

Did he just say "It's very good, considering there's no meat in it"? My beef farmer husband makes me laugh.

I  have to say that when I saw the winning Recipe to Riches "Savoury Pie" recipe, I got really, really nervous. First off, I'm terrible at making pie crusts! They almost never turn out the way I want them to. However, when I realized that this recipe had bannock instead of pie crust, I sighed with relief. The other reason I was nervous was...well, this is Recipe to Riches! This is the Food Network! Eeeeek!

I just didn't want to mess up Recipe to Riches contestant, Melaney Gleeson-Lyall's winning recipe!

For those who don't know what bannock is, it's "any variety of flat quick breads". (According to Wikipedia). In Canada, it's known as "frybread", "scone", or "Indian bread". I remember learning about bannock in school when we studied Canadian culture/history. It wasn't until I moved to Manitoulin Island that I had a chance to try bannock for the first time at a Pow Wow. I didn't realize that some of my friends on "the Island" made scone/bannock at home, at their hunt camps, at parties, etc.

For this recipe, I first washed and prepped the veggies. Onion, celery, carrots, butternut squash...chop, chop, chop.
I grated the sweet potato.
I also set aside sweet potato to boil and then make the mashed sweet potato for the bannock.
 I finely chopped the fresh rosemary.

Chopped roasted hazelnuts. Okay, you have no idea how difficult it is to find hazelnuts in Northern Ontario. No. I'm not kidding. I drove all the way to Sudbury (over 2 hrs by car each way) in search of the one ingredient I didn't have on hand. Hazelnuts! I scoured three stores in Sudbury. No hazelnuts. They had every other possible nut available, but no hazelnuts!

None of the stores on the Island had hazelnuts either.

"Yikes! This is hazelnut pie! Not walnut pie or macadamia nut pie!"

Fortunately for me, a friend who was in Toronto not too long ago, happened to have hazelnuts at her house. I know. What are the odds, right?

In a pot, I cooked up the vegetables, vegetable stock, and crushed hazelnut to make the stew. I just happened to have made homemade vegetable stock the other day. How handy.
The aroma throughout the house with the stewing vegetables and the fresh rosemary was mouthwatering!
I transferred the stew into a glass baking dish and proceeded to make the bannock.
In a bowl, I mixed the mashed sweet potato, flour, and other ingredients together.
Then I made the bannock to go on top of the vegetable mixture.

While this was happening, my toddler was yelling that she needed my "help". When I got to her, she had stuffed an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Great! Note to self: Keep bathroom door closed when executing very important Recipe to Riches task!
Okay, I sprinkled chopped hazelnuts on top of the bannock and placed bannock on top of veggie mixture and baked in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes.

Little One devoured her food! Not only is this dish loaded with veggies (even in the bannock!), but it's toddler approved!
The recipe was not as difficult as I led myself to believe. It sounded a bit daunting, but was actually do-able and not overly complicated. The only part that was a little labour intensive was the chopping of the vegetables. I was afraid of making the bannock, because I  had never made it before, but it turned out well! What a terrific recipe! The house smelled fantastic and the Bannock Hazelnut Pie was DELICIOUS!

Hubby is onto his third serving as I type this. He can't stop saying how delicious it is...even without meat! Can you tell he's a beef farmer?

I would definitely serve this at a dinner party. It would be great for Meatless Mondays or for when  you're having dinner guests over who are vegetarian. I would definitely buy this at the Superstore though. Why? We don't have hazelnuts in this part of Northern Ontario! Well, maybe in hazelnut coffee or hazelnut chocolate bars!

For the complete recipe, visit Recipe to Riches on the Food Network and view Bannock Hazelnut Pie.

Congratulations to Melaney Gleeson-Lyall for her winning recipe!

Recipe to Riches airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm on Food Network, and Saturdays at 8pm on Global TV.
Find them on Facebook and on Twitter to join in on the fun!

Disclosure: Recipe to Riches is compensating official Recipe to Riches bloggers with Loblaws gift cards for recreating the winning recipe and writing a review post. All opinions on this blog are honest and my own.

I'm sure it comes to no surprise that many children are not fans of veggies. According to a survey commissioned by VH Sauces, households across Canada have some moms trying to find clever new tactics to get their kids to eat their veggies.


Many of our friends have children who refuse to eat anything that does not come in the form of chicken fingers and french fries.  Finding ways to get veggies into kids can be a challenge sometimes.

One great way to bump up the veggie intake in children can be to introduce a little excitement with some cultural and flavour diversity! Think of it - we can teach our children about other cultures and food at the same time!

{Excerpt from survey findings}



You're probably going to hate me for saying this - and, I am totally not trying to be smug here, but our toddler actually likes her veggies. Well, love is a more appropriate word.  She loves chickpeas, spinach, okra, tofu, squash, cucumber, seaweed...and she eats hummus and babaganouj by the spoonful and right out of the bowl.

I know. She's a weird kid, right?

When I read that a not surprisingly high percentage of children have a strong dislike for their veggies, I smiled. Why? This reminded me of my husband!  He actually loves veggies, but only raw veggies. He absolutely abhors cooked veggies! He is also new-ish to culturally diverse foods, but welcomes them wholeheartedly. He's a beef farmer. A real meat and potatoes kind of guy. Having married someone of Filipina/Chinese/Caribbean roots, he has been introduced to food from all over the world.

My husband now loves cooked veggies when they're in dishes that are made with VH Indian Market Sauces. His favourites are VH Indian Market Vindaloo, Korma, Butter Chicken, Tikka Masala, and Tandoori.

Here are some delicious recipes you can try out with your family for your Diwali dinner night!
Sweet Potato and Corn Vindaloo with Spinach

To find out more about the VH Sauces product line, visit their website: www.vhsauces.com
For more information about the survey, visit VH at www.conagrafoods.ca .

Disclosure - Information for this post was provided by survey findings at the ConAgraFoods website. I was sent some VH Sauce samples for writing this post.