Healthy Life Lessons

I know chili can be very controversial. Some people abhor beans in their chili. Some insist it must be spicy. Some like ground meat, some prefer chopped. Personally, I think chili should be thick, and some styles I have seen are thin and soupy, and look like ground meat in broth more than anything else. Ick! Nope, I like a good hearty chili, with either ground chicken or turkey, or vegan, but ALWAYS with beans, and a thick, rich sauce. That's exactly what this chili is and it is so good! I made it when friends came over for dinner because the wife doesn't eat meat. It is also mild because she can't eat spicy food, but you can add as much heat as you wish. It is so incredibly easy to make, which is an added bonus. I departed from tradition and did not do a mirepoix, skipping the celery and carrots, and instead just using sweet red and orange bell peppers and onion. I also used both sprouted bean mix and canned beans. The sprouted beans have a more toothsome consis...

Happy hump day! I have a festive recipe for you today. Its perfect when looking for an easy, cost-effective way to cook for a crowd. This is the chili I made for our family Thanksgiving meal and not only was it so much easier to make than a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but everyone loved it! I don't know why I lost my taste for the classic meal: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc., but I have, so this was a great alternative, and no one was disappointed. No, the kids didn't join us, we ordered pizza for them...but they wouldn't eat a traditional turkey dinner either! Of course, this recipe is healthy and delicious and great to make anytime, not just at Thanksgiving. If you love chili, give it a try for something different. This recipe makes a ton, so its perfect for entertaining, but feel free to halve if you want less. I think its worth making the whole recipe though, because leftovers freeze well. If you are a non-meat eater, replace the t...

Okay, this recipe isn't as weird or fusion as it sounds! Well maybe it is.  But I don't care because its delicious! Besides, there actually are some noodle dishes eaten in Africa. I decided to recreate my African Groundnut Stew , and then at the last minute decided to throw in Kanten noodles (made from agar agar, and carb/calorie free).  Really it was just because I had the noodles and had forgotten about them and was really curious to give them a try.  To be honest, they have no taste and in a hearty dish like this, not much of a discernable texture either, so you can leave them out.  This stew is yummy on its own or served over rice, quinoa or millet. I love the sweet, savoury, salty notes of this dish, and the different textures from the onion, collards, beans, and sweet potato.  So good! And it gets bonus marks for being packed with nutrition, protein, good fats and fibre.  Not to mention its free of sugar, gluten and completely vegan.  Af...

Okay, I know for sure I have a winning recipe when its vegan and Adam loves it.  That does not happen often!  As soon as we started eating this meal, he commented several times on how good it was, and wondered if the cauliflower was actually potato.  Ha! I've been dreaming up this one in my head for a while.  BBQ is one of the big food trends here in Toronto, and being the protein lover I am, its very tempting.  The only problem is...its far from healthy! It doesn't have to be, but its mostly red meat and the sauces are generally full of sugar.  Sure, a lot of them offer pulled chicken or BBQ chicken, but the sauces are still sugary, and they are usually served with white buns and not very healthy side dishes.  So I reimagined a BBQ meal that is both vegan and low-carb.  Oh, and also sugar-free too! Real meat provides so much unctuous flavour because of the fat and the carmelization you get when you cook it.  Because I was using a veg...

Its chilly outside finally, which means its the perfect time for chili inside. I love chili because its so hearty, comforting and versatile.  There are so many ways you can make it, whether its vegan or with meat, with beans or without, with a tomato base or a pumpkin one, etc. You can use a wide variety of different veggies and seasonings too. I decided to keep this one vegan and use tempeh as the protein.  You can add beans too, if you with, and/or add corn kernels, zucchini, or other veggies, but I wanted to keep it simple as I made this for a few of my lunches this week it had to be quick to make. I served it over cauliflower rice, but you can eat it alone, or over regular rice, quinoa, millet or other whole grain.  Don't be scared by the amount of chili powder used, most commercial brands pack no heat, which is why I also added jalapeno, but you can omit that if you don't like it spicy. It is perfect garnished with some diced avocado, and/or grated dairy/n...

Good morning!  Its ONLY -1 Celsius here right now, which relative to the extreme temps a few weeks ago, is positively balmy!  But I am still all in for hearty, warming food.  Cold salads just don't cut it. This is a delicious, comforting winter meal that's pretty easy to prepare.  If you want to make it vegan, just substitute vegan sausage or crumbled tempeh for the sausage. Portuguese Sausage and Bean Stew (Vegan option) 1 tsp olive oil 1 lb turkey sausage, sliced 2 onions, sliced 2-3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tbls sweet paprika 1/4 tsp smoked paprika (optional) 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1 can white beans, drained and rinsed (or 1.5 cups cooked) I head kale, chopped, tough stems removed 1 can tomato paste Crushed red chili flakes, to taste (optional) Saute sausage, onion, garlic and spices in oil over medium heat until onion is softened and sausage is cooked.  Add vinegar, beans and kale and continue cooking until kale is wilted...

This is a super yummy, comforting hot meal, perfect for chilly winter days.  Of course, besides being delicious, it is also packed with nutrition, guaranteed to fuel you for your busy life. Smokey Southern Bean and Bacon Stew (Vegan Option) 1 tsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced A few drops liquid smoke or 1/4 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp real maple extract or 2 tbls real maple syrup 2 lbs Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved 1 cauliflower, cut into florets 1 onion, sliced 2 slices turkey bacon, tempeh bacon or 1/2 cup coconut bacon 1 lb okra, trimmed and sliced 1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed (or 1.5 cups cooked) 1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed (or 1.5 cups cooked) 2 tbls creole seasoning, or chili powder 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1 can tomato paste Cayenne pepper or hot sauce, to taste (optional) Salt and pepper, to taste Toss sprouts, cauliflower, onion and bacon with oil, garlic smoke and maple.  Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet and roa...

It's chili season!  As soon as it gets chilly, is there anything more comforting?  Okay, forget the fact that it almost feels like summer this week... I am always trying to come up with variations on recipes...as they say, variety is the spice of life!  It took me a bit of thinking with this one but one meandering down the aisles of Fiesta Farms and it struck me like lightening.  Aha! Cactus, you say?  Yes, absolutely!  Now, I used the jarred kind, but maybe you could use fresh, if you can find it.  Don't worry, they aren't prickly, and the taste is quite mild. Serve this alone, or over brown rice, quinoa or millet, or stuff into a tortilla. Cactus Pineapple Chili 1 tsp avocado oil or olive oil 1 onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp salt 1 jalapeno pepper, diced (optional) 1 green pepper, diced 1 red pepper, diced 1 carrot, diced 2 zucchini, diced 1 cauliflower, cut into small ...

This recipe came from 150 Best Indian, Asian, Caribbean and More Diabetes Recipes and Adam and I both loved it.  The secret to getting Adam on board with vegan dishes is adding fruit, so I knew this one would be a winner with him...and I just love sweet/savoury combos. Admittedly, I didn't follow the exact recipe...because I never do...and I simplified it down a bit.  Khan's recipe would be a lot more time consuming as she uses dry lentils and Spanish Brava tomato sauce (another recipe in the book) made from scratch.  I also used brown lentils because that's what I had on hand.  Hey, even with all my shortcuts this still turned out great! If you want the original recipe, you'll have to buy the book! After taking the photo, I added in more veggies that weren't in the recipe (a whole whack of diced zucchini), but that isn't necessary. I kept it as a very thick stew and served it in whole grain tortillas, but you can add water to thin it o...

I generally eat a hot lunch everyday.  Adam makes fun of me, because while he ALWAYS eats a couple of sandwiches, apples and carrots for lunch at work, I concoct elaborate noodle dishes, stir fries, or platters of roasted fish, sweet potatoes and steamed veggies for myself.  Sorry, a cold sandwich - particularly in this weather - just doesn't cut it for me. This meal turned out very warm and comforting and just what I needed this week.  The picture gives you an idea of just how big my lunch usually is (I had a massive bowl of cole slaw on the side of those 2 tacos).  Yes yes, I know, it's unbelievable that someone as little as me eats so much.  I hear that all the time.  It's gotta be the weight lifting.  Although, considering that Little A ate more than her body weight in oatmeal this morning, maybe its a genetic thing. This whole recipe was devoured by moi over 2 lunches, but I'm guessing most people with puny normal appetites could stretch t...

Is it Monday again already?  Why do weekends go by so quickly?  After some relief from the cold temps, I hear they're coming back this week.  Grr! Well here is a hearty recipe to warm you up.  We enjoyed it for dinner Saturday night.  It is kind of a mash up of African-inspired dishes.  I found the Berbere spice blend I got in Kensington Market a few months ago and realized I hadn't yet opened it.  I started to think about what to make with it.  Traditionally its used to season chicken or meat, or to spice up a pulse stew made from lentils or split peas.  I kinda did both here.  But - maybe because it's winter - was looking for something a bit richer, so I threw in some peanut butter like I do when I make Nigerian Groundnut Stew.  Cabbage, peppers and sweet potato made their way in too because that's what I had in the fridge.  Best of all, I created a dish that is both healthy and delicious, containing meat for my carnivor...

I always say I'm a carb-a-holic, but the truth is, I am also a protein-a-holic...actually, I'm a fruit and vegetable-a-holic too...so maybe I'm just a food-a-holic.  A healthy food-a-holic, of course.  But seriously, I think I crave protein as much as I crave carbs, possibly even more so.  Protein is so satisfying.  It must be all that weight lifting I do! I love most proteins, but I do try to limit my animal-based sources.  I have admitted before that there are even a few mock meat products that I love, even though these are not particularly healthy (i.e. heavily processed and high in sodium).  I try to limit their use as much as possible so I am always looking for new vegetable-based protein ideas (aside from beans, which I love...but you can definitely get too much of...or so my husband reminds me frequently!).  Recently, I heard about Soy Curls and was instantly intrigued.  They are made from soybeans but much less processed than texturiz...

Oh yeah, that's no typo...Pineapple Chocolate Chili.  Wait!  Before I lose you, seriously this is SO GOOD!  I mean think about it.  There is chocolate in a mole sauce and if I said I'd made, say, chicken in mole sauce with a side of pineapple salsa, you'd probably think "Yummers!"  Well this is yummers too, I promise. The idea came to me because my mom bought this spicy chili chocolate bar and gave it to Adam because she found it too spicy.  Adam tried it and even HE found it too spicy so he suggested I cook with it.  I thought it would dress up what would otherwise be a pretty standard vegetarian chili and it worked magically, elevating it to out of this world.  The pineapple adds a lot of sweetness, the chocolate more of a complexity to the overall flavour.  A bit of cider vinegar, smoked paprika, cumin seed and chili powder round it out.  Adding additional cayenne pepper to boost the heat factor is optional.  By the wa...

  I have been dying to dry jackfruit since I learned you could simulate pulled meat with it.  A fruit that simulates pulled meat?  Um yes please! Unfortunately, most of the time when I was able to find it in cans, it was either in syrup or ridiculously expensive.  Then I finally found it for a really good price at...Shoppers Drug Mart of all places!  So I snatched up 2 cans to try. Jackfruit is cultivated in parts of Asia and Africa.  The flesh is a good source of vitamin C, and the seeds are a good source of protein.  When you get it in cans, there are only a few seeds, so I decided to add beans to this dish to bump up the protein content.  I was a little nervous about how it would taste...it does have a weird texture for a fruit, after all, but I was pleasantly surprised: I really like it!  It doesn't have a strong taste, so you could really flavour it anyway you want. I served this in whole grain wraps with melted cheese (you c...

Shana Tova!  Happy New Year to everyone celebrating Rosh Hashana today!  We are attending the new shul we joined today for the first time and we're all excited.  For me, it's just exciting to be part of a community. It's finally starting to cool down a wee bit, and I couldn't be happier.  Soon - hopefully - it will feel more like autumn, my favorite season, than summer.  And with the cooler temps comes lots of my favorite comfort foods.  One of my favorites is chili.  This is a new spin on a vegetarian chili I recently came up with and its a winner.  It's also super quick to make. I left everything chunky because I like it that way, but you can go the more traditional route and dice everything up in small pieces.  It's delicious on its own, but I love it best served over brown rice or quinoa. Speedy Pineapple, Roasted Veggie & Black Bean Chili 1 tsp olive oil 4 zucchini, cut into strips or di...

  I am so happy to have Adam home (like you have NO IDEA how happy!), I wanted to celebrate with some lovely dinners this weekend.  In order to be a treat for my husband, a meal better involve meat, if it isn't pizza.  So I did home made pizza one night, and this dish the other.  Traditional paellas are usually seafood and/or meat with both chicken and sausage.  I thought just using some spicy turkey sausage was enough meat, but you can also veganize this by subbing tempeh or beans for the meat, and using vegetable broth instead of chicken. I added in some non-tradition veggies, like cauliflower, to bump up the veg action of the dish, but that's entirely optional. This was definitely a winner. Funny thing, by the way, Adam and I actually have an authentic paella pan, however, this is the first time I've actually used it for paella!  If you don't have one, I am sure this will work in a large, deep skillet of cast iron pan, maybe? Paella 1-94...

It's a cold, cold Monday.  Spring officially starts Thursday but the weather report is calling for crappy weather all week.  Sigh!  See, this is why I hate March!  We'll have yucky, winter-like weather, about 2 minutes of spring, and then go right into the extreme heat and humidity of summer.  Hmmph! At least the cold is a good excuse to cook up some yummy comfort food. Rice ranks up there as one of my favorite foods.  So I've been trying to ignore reports about high levels of naturally occurring arsenic in rice for a while, but the piece about it in the most recent Nutrition Action Healthletter scared me enough to try to cut back.  They recommend no more than 2 cups of any kind of rice per week.  Gasp!  I can easy shovel down that much in a single sitting! Source So I grabbed some millet at the health food store the other day.  I've been meaning to try it for a while, and this gave me the perfect push.  Like quino...

All the parents at the girls' daycare have noticed an annoying trend: foods that the kids won't touch at home, they gobble down at daycare.  Perhaps it's peer pressure, I don't know, but the kids tell us they ONLY like  x, y or z   the way the daycare makes it and it drives us all mad.  I don't doubt the food is good, the daycare has their own cook who makes, fresh, homemade vegetarian meals each day.  But some of the parents have tried using her recipes and their kids STILL won't eat the food at home. Nevertheless, when the girls both came home last week and told me they like chili - as long as it's not spicy - I couldn't miss the opportunity to make something new.  Now, anytime I serve something new for the first time, it's ALWAYS a disaster.  Generally they will refuse to try it or say they hate it before they try it, or will try only a microscopic amount.  I end up furious, and Adam asks me why I even bother.  Fun stu...

  I love this combination of flavours, although if I'm honest, I would eat just about anything in a tahini sauce.  This meal went perfectly with Freekeh, but it is also perfect with brown rice, bulgur, or any other grain really. Moroccan Spiced Chickpeas and Veggies 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 1.5 cans cooked chickpeas) 2 red onions, thinly sliced 4-6 small zucchini, cut into 3 pieces, and then quartered 1-28oz can diced tomatoes 3-4 cloves garlic 1/4 cup red wine or pomegranate vinegar 1 tsp harissa Morroccan spice blend (optional) 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste Place everything in a large, skillet set over medium heat and simmer until onions and zucchini are tender (30-40 minutes).  Turn heat down to low if liquid is absorbed before veggies are done. Tahini Sauce 1/2 cup tahini Juice of 2 lemons 1/2 cup white wine vinegar 1-2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp ground cumin Assembly: Cooked grain of choice 1...

This was an experiment gone very right.  I love it.  Adam loves it.  You'll love it.  It was inspired by Little A.  No not because she'd ever eat it.  Not with 'bits' in it (i.e. detectable pieces of vegetable).  But because last weekend she became mesmerized by a bag of plump, garnet hued fresh cranberries and insisted Adam buy them for her.  He tried to explain that they would not taste terribly good raw, but she wouldn't listen and promised she would like them and would eat them.  As soon as they got home, however, I placed one in her eager hand, she popped it in her mouth, nodded her head for a second to indicate liking, then began shaking her head vigorously to indicate, no, she did not actually like it.  Sooo, I ended up with a big bag of fresh cranberries in the fridge. It never occurred to me to add cranberries to chili, but I was making chili and adding butternut squash, and since squash and cranberries ...