Polenta Mania!

We haven't had polenta for a while. It's such a quick and easy dish, and goes with practically anything. The kids can help, or do the whole thing.

I buy polenta in tubes, just slice it as thin as possible (use a cheese or boning knife if you have one), cover it with olive oil, sprinkle herbs from our garden and bake at about 400-450F. I cut it thin and cook it on a higher temperature because I love crispy slices. Some people prefer theirs sliced thicker, like a steak, but not me.

You can sprinkle it with cheese for a vegetarian delight, or serve it alongside meat for an omnivorous meal.  

Sunflowers!

One of my favourite plants—big, bright and in your face (or towering over you). Sunflowers celebrate life and encourage me to do the same. I love harvesting their over-heavy heads full of seeds. We roast them in the toaster oven and feast. Here's a pro tip: if you wait until the seeds are hot to salt them, the salt will stick to the seeds' oils, which are released by the heat. Super pro tip: try Hy's seasoning salt. (I put that #$*% on everything.)

Vegomania and crispy noodles

One of my favourite things is crispy noodles. It's hard to make them at home, if you don't have one of those crazy-hot wok rings they use in restaurants. But having the wrong equipment never stopped me before...

This was pretty easy to make and the family loved it. I fried cooked noodles on the highest temperature on my stove, which is electric but gets hotter than the gas stove we had a few years back. (Shh, don't tell the cooking snobs that I prefer electric over gas.) I used peanut oil, as it has a fairly high smoke point, although I think we passed it. Added soy sauce, so the sugars burnt a bit and added even more flavour.

The cauliflower and eggplant dish was super easy. I make this one a lot. It was inspired by the delicious Najib’s Special cauliflower dish at Nuba, which was the dish that made me appreciate cauliflower. My recipe is different than Najib's; in fact the only thing in common is probably the cauliflower, but hey, it's good. I just heat some masala in ghee and toss in the cauliflower (and in this case, eggplant). Cook down and stir to coat. Voila.

The peppers, onions and mushrooms were just quickly pan-fried in very hot peanut oil.

Another quick and satisfying evening meal with leftovers for lunch.

Dinner of Threes

For a family birthday celebration this weekend, I made three salads, each with three varieties of an ingredient. Each dish contained at least one ingredient from our garden. Lots of positive comments on the freshness and flavours!
Three-Tomato Salad
Cherry, grape and beefsteak tomatoes with homegrown basil, parsley, truffle oil, white balsamic, and green onions from our garden.


Green Beans and Nuts
I blanched long green beans, cooled them then tossed in a bit of olive oil and sea salt. Topped with toasted walnuts, almond slivers and sunflower seeds, which provided protein and a blast of crunchy goodness.
Three-Pepper Leafy Greens
Red and yellow bell peppers and long reds were diced and mixed in with three varieties of lettuce (Romaine, green leaf and red leaf). Garnished with homegrown green onions, and topped with a dressing of olive oil, pineapple vinegar with crushed homegrown rosemary, lavender and oregano.

Fabulous (almost-vegan) Dinner!

I feel so full of fresh vitamin goodness! Coming home from a run I stopped in the yard to harvest strawberries and tomatoes. We had a huge storm last night and I'm concerned that the tomatoes may split, so am picking even slightly underripe ones. We have a super-sunny windowsill behind the kitchen sink that's great for storing and ripening fruits and veggies.


Rosemary Croutons
Meanwhile I took the heal of an olive loaf I got at the market last weekend. It was old and dry so yesterday I put it in a plastic bag with a few drops of water to soften it. Today it was soft enough to work with, so I diced it. Meanwhile I sweated rosemary, herbes de provence, and finely-diced onion in butter. Heated some olive oil in a different pan (enough to cover the bread), added it to the onions, and then threw in the bread. Sprinkled salt over top. After cooking off the liquid, I put the mixture in the toaster oven for a toasty finish. Man those were good croutons. Unfortunately they were gone by the time I remembered to photograph them. This shot is the making of.

Tomato Vegetable Soup
For tonight's soup I used vegetable stock with ground herbes de provence, and threw in half an onion, some celery and the last of our bbq'd corn. After letting it combine over medium-low heat for a while, I added eighth'ed beefsteak tomatoes. We garnished with cilantro.

Tomato Basil Salad
Some people ate the croutons in their soup, and some with the tomato salad. I used grape tomatoes, sliced diagonally in thirds. Tossed them with salt, truffle oil, white balsamic, and fresh-picked basil (one of my favourite summer flavours). Those tomatoes are so sweet that you'd swear someone added sugar. They went perfectly with the rosemary croutons.

Baby Carrots and Herbs
I cooked our baby carrots in fresh-picked rosemary, which has loved this summer's dry heat. I sweated the rosemary along with some oregano and lavender (also just-picked) in butter, which was the only non-vegan part of the meal, then threw in the carrots for a slow steam.

Dessert was strawberries, just plain.

My daughter and I reflected as we ate. We're so grateful for the fresh goodness of our dinner, and so lucky to be living in a relatively stable and safe part of the world. Gratitude makes everything taste sweeter.

 

Carrot, celery and spinach soup

Super-quick to make; I just threw a container of frozen stock in the pot, added three carrots, five stalks of celery and some leftover spinach, then let it simmer on low for about ninety minutes. I added only salt – the strong flavours of the ingredients (especially celery) carried the soup.

It was good to make while I was working; ie didn’t need much attention – just a taste every half hour to see if it was done. And it was hearty and delicious.

My soup wasn’t vegetarian because I use chicken stock, but you could easily use vegetable or mushroom stock.

Beet broth soup

How revitalizing! Full of nutrients, easy to make and easy to eat while working. Pretty, too.

Crispy Fried Noodle

 

Chinese Pancake Spanakopita

I got creative with dinner the other day, and made a sort of Spanakopita, using chinese pancake, cheese, mushrooms and spinach.

I buy chinese pancake at the local grocery – the photo shows the brand I buy. They’re super useful as a pantry item; keep them frozen until you cook them. I usually broil them, flipping once. They are done in five to ten minutes. The kids eat them as after-school snacks, with soup or gyoza, or just on their own.

I thought they might be good for pre-taekwondo dinner – we need a lighter, easily digestible, nutritionally rich meal. I cleaned and stemmed a bunch of fresh spinach, while boiling the water for steaming it. While the spinach was steaming, I broiled the pancakes until they were almost done. Meanwhile, I chopped and sautéed oyster mushrooms.

Soba noodles in soup with mushroom onion and yellow pepper

I put soba noodles on to boil, while heating chicken stock, mushroom and fried onions. When the noodles were cooked and the broth was ready, I assembled it and topped it off with sliced yellow peppers and green onions.

It was delicious. The kids had it for after-school snack and finished it. We ate the rest of the noodles for dinner, with sauteed smoked tofu. Ice cream with vanilla yogurt and whipped cream for dessert.

Honey Roasted Almonds

I got a great deal on a bag of almonds last week. A huge bag for six bucks. I felt snacky so roasted them up in a teeny bit of grapeseed oil and coarse salt, then melted a tablespoon or two of honey over the nuts. After the honey melted, I plated it to cool and sprinkled white sugar on top. Yum.

My fabulous lunch - Tom Yum Goong (a la Lucinda)

I went for a spectacular run today – suddenly I’m running faster than I ever have for more than a block at a time.

Then I had an appointment and realised far too late I’d forgotten to eat breakfast. I was hungry.

On the way home I imagined what I would have for lunch. I need to be careful what I eat on an empty stomach, so I prefer light and easy to digest. Because my food is my health, and what I eat first sets the tone for the rest of the day, I like to keep it healthful and energizing.

Mushroom Burgers

Darn! I forgot to photograph them. I often do because they smell so good that we're always anxious to eat, then we get distracted with condimentization. (It is so a word)

We get those big mushrooms that are essentially overgrown button mushrooms, dab a bit of olive or grapeseed oil on, and broil them until juicy, about five or ten minutes.

Meanwhile, I sauteed half a large sweet onion. We ate our burgers in portuguese buns fresh from the local bakery. Sides included baby gherkins, calamata olives, raita, and a salad of celery apple carrot and roasted almonds.

What a great meal; easily digestible by our evening taekwondo workout, and pretty healthy.

Peanut brittle

Who knew peanut brittle was so easy to make? 2 cups of sugar, melted over low heat and stirred occasionally; 2 cups of peanuts stirred in. Then dump it on a greased cookie sheet, let cool and then smash and serve.

This year we made batches to give to friends along with shortbread, gingerbread men and christmas hippo cookies.

Tofu scramble with black beans and sour cream

I made a tofu & egg scramble with black beans for breakfast. Topped it with parmesan and a bit of sour cream. Holy protein batman. Good pre-run meal.

Polenta Chips

This was a hugely successful experiment. I used one of those store-bought tubes of polenta - another great pantry staple - and sliced it thin. I placed the slices on an oiled cookie sheet, brushed them with olive oil, and roasted them on 450f until they looked crispy, about twenty minutes. Flipped the slices and roasted until they were crispy on that side. Took them out, sprinkled sea salt on top and served. Delicious and another great kid-pleaser.

Vegetarian Butter Chicken

Cut up a bunch of different vegetables - whatever we had on hand - and some tofu. Dumped a bottle of Butter Chicken sauce over top and simmered for about twenty minutes. Delicious! Also easily digestible; good for pre-workout dinner.

Tofu, japanese eggplant & baby bok choy on noodles