Quinoa Chili

It was pure luck that I came across the cookbook called Feeding the Whole Family when my first child was born over a decade ago. It was the first time I'd come across such exotic grains as millet, quinoa and amaranth, and included step by step directions on how to cook them. I may have called it 'keen-wa' for the first few years, but I definitely developed a love affair with this grain from the moment I tried it! And this chili is a family favourite - all of the kids will devour it, it's easy to spice up with hot sauce after the fact, and such a nourishing meal to bring to new moms or sick families:-) And now that the cold weather has arrived, I find we're enjoying it about once a week - with garlic bread, tea biscuits, tortilla chips or on a bed of steamed kale, we love our chili!

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

No, I won't torture you by not giving you the actual recipe - that would just be CRUEL!!!!

Red Bean and Quinoa Chili

1 cup dried kidney beans, soaked
1 tsp cumin
3 cups water

Drain soaking water off beans. Place beans in a large pot with cumin and water; bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat, covered, until tender (50-60 minutes) or pressure-cook using 2 cups of water (45 minutes) OR.....for those who don't have a lot of time (me me me), buy one can of organic kidney beans.

2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tsp sea salt
1 large green pepper, chopped (I often use red or orange, and add carrots or cauliflower here)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed in warm water and drained
1 cup fresh or frozen corn (Ry is allergic, so I use peas instead)
1-2 cups organic tomato sauce
1 cup water

Heat oil in skillet on medium heat. Add onion, salt, garlic, pepper, and spices; saute for 5-10 minutes. Add rinsed quinoa and stir in. Add corn, tomato sauce, and water to onion/quinoa mixture. Simmer together 20 minutes. Add cooked beans to other ingredients; simmer another 10 minutes.

ENJOY!

Green Glow

Jamie and I did a great spring cleanse last month, inspired by the book, The Seven Day Cleanse. We felt like a million dollars during it (though the last day or two were definitely challenging, ESPECIALLY as I was still preparing food for the kids!) and we've found quite a few new recipes that we continue to use regularly. One of my favourites is this green smoothie called the Green Glow. I am completely addicted to the minty taste of it, and the incredible colour that is created when it is blended!!!! Enjoy:-)

1 lime, peeled (I never have limes and always have lemons, so that's usually what I use)
4 green apples
1-inch piece of gingerroot
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/8 avocado

(I usually add a bunch of fresh spinach leaves to the juicer as well, as it hardly adds anything to the taste but increases the green health factor!!! And I also tend to add 1/4-1/2 of an avocado, because more has got to be better, right?!!!)

Put everything but the avocado through your juicer. Then combine juice with the avocado in your blender and blend on high until smooth. Enjoy

White Bean and Kale Stew

Another chilly day, another soup!

This one is another favourite of Jamie's and mine - not so much with the kids, but that just means more for us:-) I think the apple cider vinegar REALLY makes all the difference, yum!

4 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5 cups (packed) thinly sliced kale (about 1 large bunch)
1 Tbl apple cider vinegar
2 cups soup stock
1 tsp dried basil (1 Tbl fresh)
1 tsp dried thyme (2 tsp fresh)
1 pound white beans (cannellini or white navy - I use one can)
1 pound finely diced tomatoes (I use one large can in the winter)

salt and pepper to taste

optional garnish: olive oil and grated Romano cheese

In a large heavy pot, heat olive oil and garlic over medium heat for one minute. Add kale, vinegar and broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; add basil and thyme. Cover and simmer until kale wilts, about seven minutes. Add beans and tomatoes with juice. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This recipe is from a well-worn issue of Natural Home magazine (May/June 2009)

Birthday Pumpkin Waffles

Recently we celebrated Ryland's 4th birthday, and as per his request I made Pumpkin Waffles for his celebratory breakfast!

2 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbl cornstarch (I use arrowroot)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbl melted butter (I've sometimes used oil)
3/4 cup chopped nuts

Combine flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger and nutmeg in a large bowl. Combine egg yolks, milk and pumpkin in a medium bowl and mix well. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Stir in the melted butter or oil. Beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks from. Gently fold them into the batter mix.

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions. Pour in batter and generously sprinkle with nuts (I've discovered that many kids do not like nuts in their waffles, so I do the first half of the batch without this step, then add the nuts to the second half).

Delicious served with yoghurt and pumpkin maple sauce - which I make by mixing pumpkin puree with cinnamon, adding maple syrup and heating on the stove top.

Ryland obviously THOROUGHLY enjoys these:-)

Butternut Squash Soup

Winter is hanging on, and with a recent round of long illnesses in our house, we've been eating soup non-stop. I absolutely love soup as a staple to my diet during the colder months, but find the challenge to be finding a recipe that all five members of the family will enjoy. This soup happens to fit that bill, so I thought I'd share the recipe in the hopes that your family will enjoy it too!!!!! I'm sure at one point I scribbled the exact measurements down from a magazine, but now I've made it so often that I just wing it each time.

Butternut Apple Soup

1 Tbl oil, or melted butter
1 small purple onion
1 medium butternut squash
4 Macintosh apples
1-2 tsp cumin
large pinch ground ginger
2 cups soup stock

Peel and chop the squash into small squares, set aside. Peel and chop the apples, and set aside. Heat oil or butter in pot, and cook onions on medium heat until they are soft. Add the squash and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the cumin and ginger and stir well. Add apples and cook for a minute, then add soup stock and enough water to cover. Partially cover the pot with a lid, and cook under medium heat until everything is soft. Blend soup together, and add salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy! One daughter loves this soup with cheese melted on a baked potato, another with a tea biscuit on the side.

Apple Rings

We are FOREVER trying to come up with healthy snack foods that everyone likes, in order to feed these bottomless pits we call children! I'm astounded by how many times they complain of being starving 15 minutes after we've eaten a huge meal, so my goal in life right now seems to be creating healthy and affordable snack foods that they can grab on their own!

We had a bag of apples that no one seemed willing to eat, and finally it came out that everyone thought they tasted gross. So one night Jamie had the brilliant idea of pulling out our dehydrator (something we use a tonne in the summer for camping meals) and dehydrating the apples into rings. Because they didn't like the taste of these specific apples, we put lemon juice and cinnamon on them before hand, but since then have done another batch up plain and the kids LOVED both of them. Pear rings are also a HUGE hit, and now I'm excited to try all sorts of other fruit - melons and blueberries and mangoes. Those will probably wait until the summer, though, when they're more readily available - for now we've included jars of dehydrated apples and pears to our snack list!

Granola

We're big granola eaters in this family - I love it as an evening snack when I'm feeling peckish, and now that Jamie has to get up so early on the days he drives into work, he likes a meal that he can bring along with him and eat once he arrives in the office. We haven't found a brand that we like in the grocery stores, so have been experimenting with homemade ones. We quickly discovered that we don't like granola made with molasses, so have scratched those recipes from our list - and then last weekend I tried out a combination of a few recipes I'd read and came up with a version we both really enjoyed. I still may tweek it a bit here and there, but since that's more to personal tastes, I thought I'd share the recipe so far. I'd love to hear other versions that you make, as it's fun to change up our breakfast foods every once in a while!

Homemade Granola

6 cups of oats (we use a combination of regular oats, quinoa flakes and barley flakes)
4 cups of seeds and nuts (things like sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, shredded coconut, raisins, cranberries, etc - essentially a combination that appeals to you!)
2 cups of flour (I tried adding a bit of wheat bran, but I think that made it more bitter)
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch sea salt
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup orange juice (we used mango juice as that's what we had)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

Mix all of the ingredients well, and place on a baking sheet or two. Bake in a 300 degree F oven for 45-60 min, turning the pans every 15 minutes or so to ensure even browning. Store in an airtight container.

I love to eat this with half yoghurt and half applesauce, while Jamie prefers his with a little milk. Enjoy!

Homemade Marshmallows

My daughter Tiegan was definitely born with a sweet tooth. I swear she has a sixth sense, and can smell a box of chocolates hidden a mile away. So I find we end up eating more 'junk' food than I'd like, and although I haven't managed to cut sugar completely out of our diet, I'm always trying to find ways to reduce it and also to cut out a lot of the dyes and chemicals. So when I heard about a blogging friend making homemade marshmallows, I knew I had to give it a go. We are serious s'more makers in the summer, and hot chocolate drinkers in the winter, so I could see making a few batches of these throughout the year, they were declared yummy by all. Most importantly, by Tiegan!

Homemade Marshmallows

2 tbsp Gelatin (I'm sure there's a vegan alternative, I'm just not sure it would be the same amount?)
1/2 cup Cold Water
1 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Water
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 Vanilla Bean
Butter and Icing Sugar for preparing dish

Butter baking dish very well and then dust evenly with icing sugar to prevent the marshmallows from sticking.

Pour gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water into large mixing bowl. Let sit 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour maple syrup, 1/4 cup water and sugar into saucepan. Split vanilla bean, scrape seeds into syrup mixture and then add vanilla bean pod.

Cook syrup mixture over medium low heat. When mixture begins to boil, set timer for 11 minutes and continue to cook without stirring. After 11 minutes, remove syrup mixture from heat and discard vanilla bean pod.

With a hand mixer or stand mixer, gently mix gelatin to break up for about 3 seconds. Then with mixer running on low, slowly add hot syrup. Mix on low for 1 minute, then increase to high and beat 10 minutes more.

Pour mixture into the prepared dish. I used a spatula to spread mixture evenly in dish, or you can also wet your hands and use those.

Lightly sprinkle powdered sugar on top of marshmallows and let sit for four hours or more. Once they are set, use a knife to cut them into squares, or use a cookie cutter to make shapes. We did some squares, but also made mini hearts for gifts - they're the perfect size to slip into a hot chocolate!





I'd still like to seek out a recipe using real marshmallow root to try on our next batch, and I also imagine it would be fun to flavour the marshmallows with peppermint extract, or a favourite liqueur.

Finally, a post from Erica, as in the 'Anja and Erica' Erica!

Anja and I decided to set up this blog AGES ago due to our shared passions of food and healthy living and photo taking and writing. And I was so excited at the thought, but then life got crazy and we built a house in the woods and lived for many months without phone or internet, and blogging seemed to take a back burner as it were. BUT, this is a new year, and I now happily have four walls around me, a solid roof over my head and a deliciously fast internet connection and so I thought I would start holding up my end of the bargain and post some of my favourite recipes alongside Anja!

So hello (wave)! I'm Erica and I live in Ontario with my husband Jamie and three kidlets - Kea (10 1/2), Tiegan (7 1/2) and Ryland (4 at the end of this month, gah!!!!) And although I will be including photos of food for future posts, I did not get a chance to photograph this first dish before it was INHALED by my family, so you'll all just have to suffer through a few photos of the kids instead:-)

This past week has brought snowy blizzards and vicious viruses to our neck of the woods, and thus I have spent much time inside and in my kitchen. However, we like to make sure everyone gets outside for at least a little while every day, so on this day we bundled everyone up against their wills and tried to convince them it would be fun to play in the crazy cold weather.

Kea put on her skis because we were originally going to go for a ski, but that quickly dissolved into tears by half the camp so we opted to stay closer to home.

Tiegan had a blast creating caves and snow mountains and holes, and amused herself in a snow hill forever.

And Ryland was plain old miserable. He was pretty sick with a brutal cold at this point, and pretty much everything was setting him off. But when he played with his bulldozer for about 2 seconds and broke into his 3rd round of tears in 10 minutes, we decided that this torture was enough.

Fresh air might be good for the health, but going inside and baking with mom is healthy for the soul. So that's what we did, and there weren't tears for at least an hour after that!


Black Bean Brownies (hand written on the back of an envelope by my good friend Lori in Vancouver - passed on to her by another friend)

1/2 can black beans
1/2 cup ground hazelnut (we ran out and used almonds instead, still yummy!)
1/2 cup coconut oil (I sit the jar in hot water for a bit, and pour melted oil in)
3 eggs
3 Tbl sunflower oil
4 Tbl cocoa (I like Camino's dark cocoa)
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar, but I'm sure many others would work too)

Mix ingredients together in a blender to puree.

Pour into a 8by8 pan

Add any nuts or other bits you like in your brownies, we tend to leave them plain and eat with fruit after they're baked.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.