Red Lentil Soup with Roasted Garlic Chard + Awesome Vegan Soups

Hi! Long time no write. As you may have noticed, I have had less time for blogging. With our active BNT (baby not toddler), he doesn’t let me access my computer unless he is asleep. And when he is sleeping, I’d like to relax, too. Or finish chores. Not that I like doing chores, but they need to get done and emptying the dishwasher is also difficult when he is awake and trying to help.

Slow Cooker Vegetable and Barley Stew + Boost Your Breastmilk GIVEAWAY

We didn’t want to be those parents. But only parents of premies might understand why we wanted to celebrate our son turning one year old, at his corrected age. We celebrated his actual birthdate a couple months ago but also invited people over two months later. We just didn’t tell anyone it was because we were celebrating on the inside.

Slow Cooker Creamy Coconut Lentils

I have scaled down the number of blogs I read. My RSS feeder is still full yet I rarely open it. My friends shared Lindsay and Bjork’s post from Pinch of Yum where they shared openly about the death of their son born at 23 weeks gestation. Twenty five weeks is usually the point where a baby might survive. This hit me dear to my heart as I went into labour at 26 weeks. Thankfully, I was able to keep my guy cooking for another 7 weeks, but they experienced my worst fears.

Root Cellar Medley Soup + Complete Root Cellar Book GIVEAWAY

You know it is a great soup when I make it two weeks in a row. It is not often that I repeat recipes in such rapid succession, but I only ate 2 servings and had planned to share it with our baby. I thought it was ok for him until I realized I used broth powder with salt in it.

Round two was solidified. Without any vegetable broth. The necessary salt was added after we removed baby P’s portion.

Winter One Pot Lentils & Rice + Ultimate Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook review

I am starting to  look at food in a different way now that we’re starting to feed our baby. I’ve been using my Instant Pot to cook lots of vegetables before I blitz them into purees. At first, we started with simple, single ingredients. Then we moved to combinations and eventually I started making our own meals without salt and then throwing them into the blender for a new puree. Lentils, rice and rutabaga with some spices sounds like an awesome baby puree!

Turns out he loved it! Win!

Slow Cooker Black Bean and Plantain Chili

Who else is a fan of plantains? They might seem like an exotic ingredient, but even here in Toronto, they are usually very reasonably priced and less expensive than sweet potatoes. However, unlike sweet potatoes, their shelf life is not as stable, as they can only last a few weeks until they turn all brown. I never buy them with a plan, other than panfry in coconut oil, but this recipe was excellent, and I’ll probably buy more plantains just to make it again, it was that good.

Sassy Sesame Tofu with Sweet Potato, Carrots and Sugar Snap Peas & Vegan Under Pressure GIVEAWAY

I have had my Instant Pot almost one year and it wasn’t until I stumbled upon Jill Nussinow‘s Vegan Under Pressure that it really clicked. I knew it didn’t have to only be rice and beans, but I finally took the leap to other meals with the cookbook. Quick and easy orange-scented beet salad, maple mustard brussels sprouts, potato salad, and this delicious Sassy Sesame Tofu. There are so many more recipes I still want to try: Lemon Cashew Cheesecake! (in a pressure cooker!) Red Lentil, Sweet Potato Hemp Burgers!

Slow Cooker Creamy Sweet Potato & Peanut Stew + Plant Pure Nation Cookbook giveaway

I always loved eating peanut butter, but I ate even more of it while pregnant. Breastfeeding brought a whole new level of hunger as I build a new human and possibly even higher levels of consumption. It is usually limited to breakfasts and desserts, and even though I had stirred it into stews before (hello, African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew), this version is easily made in a slow cooker, simplifies the spices with curry powder, swaps chickpeas for kidney beans and I love how effortless the frozen spinach brings another layer of goodness. The coconut milk and peanut butter make for a creamy base that is deliciously paired with the sweet potatoes and carrots. I added some peanuts for garnish, but the crunch was a fun treat when they were immersed in the stew, too.

Chickpea Chile Verde

Our tomato consumption is still going strong but I would hate to bore you with so many consecutive tomato recipes. Another garden winner this year were the boisterous tomatillo plants. I have given away more tomatillos than I have eaten myself. Most of my friends have made and canned salsa verde. I don’t have the time or equipment to can this year, so I looked for less traditional ways to use tomatillos. When I spotted Alissa’s chickpea chile verde, I knew we had a winner!

Beet Balls and Roasted Potato Salad with a Thousand Island Dressing

It has been a while since I flipped through Terry’s Salad Samurai. I know salads are not just for the summer, but I smiled pleasantly as I looked through the chapters aimed at the colder months. I bookmarked the Beet Balls and Fries Salad after reading Nicole’s raving review, and felt now, during the winter, was a perfect time to whip up a salad featuring root vegetables.

Creamy Cheezy Vegan Polenta + Great Vegan Grains Cookbook GIVEAWAY

Continuing with the easy comfort foods, how about baked grits? Or creamy cheezy baked polenta?  I am no stranger to the elaborate, creamy, stovetop polenta but sometimes, you want to eat something a little less laborious with all the flavour.

This dish uses a creamy concoction including sauerkraut, cashews, nutritional yeast and miso to simmer with the cornmeal for a few minutes. Next, you pop it into the oven to complete the easy side dish. Here, I paired the polenta with the Hemp Crusted Tofu with Garlic Collards in Superfoods 24/7 which I was compelled to make after seeing Cadry’s raving review and Andrea’s spin on it. Neither dish disappointed and both worked well together for a complete meal. I even snuck a few pieces of the baked grits for breakfast, too.

Creamy Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry

I remember someone told me they didn’t like curry because it always tastes like curry powder. Well, if you always use the same curry powder, of course they will be similar. Most of the time, I don’t use curry powder and try to use the individual spices to create new concoctions each time.

Examples: Martinique Sweet Potato Coconut Curry, A Riff on Massaman Curry, Cauliflower and Chickpea Balti, Cauliflower Dal with Panch Poran, and our favourite Nepalese Dal Bhat.  

Soldadera Beans + Decolonize Your Diet cookbook GIVEAWAY

While I may end up apologizing for too many cabbage recipes, I shall not apologize for too many bean recipes! With the United Nations declaring 2016 The Year of the Pulse, it is exciting to see people discovering (or re-discovering) their love of such a humble nutritious super star.

Mexican Cabbage Soup

I am not sure if other Canadians will agree with me, but while the exporters should be rejoicing that our loonie is quite low, all I notice are the expensive veggies at the store. Now that the local farmer market has shuttered for winter, we’re back at the regular grocers. We took a special trip to a Polish grocer and came home, with…. wait for it… CABBAGE!  Two monster heads came to a handful of pennies per pound. 

Mighty Migas + Taco Cleanse GIVEAWAY!

 

If you are trying to pick a January cleanse, I finally found one I fully endorse: The Taco Cleanse. Created and then executed by Wes Allison, Stephanie Bogdanich, Molly R. Frisinger, and Jessica Morris, The Taco Cleanse celebrates delicious vegan tacos and is anything but a deprivation diet.

Instead, you are instructed how to eat a taco for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You are acquainted with the newest superfoods (corn tortillas AND flour tortillas!) and learn how to integrate them into delicious meals.