the week's eatings in review

* Tri-colored rotini with currants and green peas cooked in a coconut broth p. 100 - The flavours here were good. I thought the somewhat unusual combination of peas, red bell pepper & currants with coconut milk would be yummy to my palate and not to Ryan's, but I think he actually liked it more than I did! Quel surprise! Overall, the impression this recipe made was hampered by two things: I used brown rice pasta (tri-colored rotini that I had kicking around in the pantry forever) and the texture was a bit off, and secondly, I made it the night before to eat for lunch the next day. This wasn't a good recipe to eat the next day - pretty sure it would have been much tastier freshly made. Therefore, I would give it another try and correct these two things, perhaps, to give it a better chance.

* Tuscan-style tuna and white bean salad p. 37 - Yummy. And great to make a day ahead for lunch. It's Granda's tuna 'n beans scaled way up. I used a bit of red onion since I didn't have any green, and it tasted good, but that, along with some potent garlic, made for quite the intense breath. Ryan and Maelle both gave it the thumbs up (the salad, not the bad breath).

* Curried lentils and quinoa with spinach and warm Indian spices p. 91 - Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Could this dish be any healthier? Lentils. Quinoa. Spinach. Carrots. Onions. Mushrooms. Garlic. Ginger. Yummier and yummier as the days go by. And the 1.5 yo gobbled it up! The husband wasn't into it (too healthy, I think) but I will make this again and again, even if it's just for Maelle and I. Easy to make. Skipped the curry with sour cream cuz I forgot it. Didn't miss it.

* Vegetable potpie with a pumpkin biscuit crust p. 104 - The tables were turned with this one: Ryan liked it a lot, but I wasn't crazy about it. Next time I would change up the spices, omit the red bell pepper, and form the dough into round biscuits on top instead of laying it over the whole thing as a crust.

* Spinach salad with crumbled bacon, mushrooms, mandarins, and sliced eggs in a warm and tangy maple-Dijon vinaigrette p. 46 - This is a great salad that definitely eats like a meal. Trish made it for us when we were visiting her in Chilliwack and, of course, she made it better than I did, haha! Where I went wrong was that I tried to make it with turkey bacon. The problem was that it didn't crisp up enough to be crumbly, really, and it is so lean that there were no drippings to contribute to the dressing, which meant that the dressing was not as great. Do it again and do it right- with REAL bacon :)

* Slow-cooked peanut ginger chicken thighs in the Crock-Pot p. 152 - Easy and good. Goes well with brown rice. Although it was completely edible, I have a feeling that there is a very similar, but somehow superior recipe out there somewhere. But still, throw it in the crock-pot and let it rip - oh, yeah.

* Slow-cooked beef cubes with mushrooms and onions in a zesty tomato sauce p. 114 - This was really tasty. It took a lot longer in the slow-cooker than the recipe called for - more like 4 hours on high, I think. We ate it with whole-wheat penne because the recipe called for rigatoni and there was no whole-wheat option for that, however, we both think it would actually be better with rice, or even mashed potatoes. Yeah, mashed potatoes, yum. Another easy, throw it in the crock-pot, meal.

* Muesli - A high-fiber breakfast blend of oats, yogurt and fresh fruit p. 341 - So great. I think I'd like to make this every weekend. Keys are making it the night before and the grated apple. I don't think it needs to be quite as sweet though. Next time I will try it with plain yogurt.

* Pumpkin pancakes (adapted from allrecipes.com) - I wanted to use up the pumpkin puree left over from the veggie potpie crust and thought I'd make muffins for Saturday morning. However, they were going to take about an hour to make, all told, and Lord knows I wasn't getting up early on a Saturday to do them ahead of time, so I ended up looking for something quicker and decided on pancakes. I really did adapt the original recipe. Here's what I ended up with- they were really thick and cakey (in fact, it was best to spread them out a bit when put on the griddle, they didn't spread much on their own and the center remained a bit uncooked when they were too thick). Also, not very sweet. Who needs 'em sweet when you're going to put syrup on them anyway? No oil in these either, quite healthy, all in all. Definitely one to make again. Here's the recipe:

1 c a.p. flour
1 c whole-wheat flour (next time I'll try upping the w.w. again and see how they are)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl

1 c pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 1/2 c milk
2 tbs maple syrup
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice

Mix together remaining ingredients and then add to dry, stirring just to combine. Grill 'em up.

And that's it for my week in review. Hopefully I'll be back soon, with pictures!

looneytoons for looneyspoons

All of the recipes I made this week were from The Looneyspoons Collection, by Janet & Greta Podleski, which I picked up at Costco during boxing week. A bit of an impulse buy, but it turns out that so far it has been a good purchase, since I'm using it (to justify the purchase a bit, I have used their cookbooks before, when I worked with Jenna, so I knew I liked using their recipes)! I sat down with it to start planning last week's meals and ended up picking every recipe from it. Why not? One resource to consult, and they're all healthy recipes. The only drawback, perhaps, is that this is not an entirely cost-effective, nor environmentally sound way to plan a menu, especially with the abundance of fresh ingredients called for. I'm giving myself leeway there for the moment, since I will be hard pressed to spend more on groceries than we have been on eating out, and groceries are much less wasteful than fast food, that's for sure! Also, we are cutting waaaaay back on the meat consumption here and that is something that has a BIG environmental impact (not to mention how much healthier it is!).

I'm not an expert on copyright infringement, but I'm thinking it's probably not kosher to copy published recipes, word for word (or even 'adapt' them) and post them on your blog. However, if some one ate something I made and wanted the recipe, and asked me if I had one for something in particular, I would gladly write it out for them or email it, so... what's the difference? I guess the difference is that when you post something publicly on the internet anybody can google it. So, I am not going to post the actual recipes, but if you read this and want one, let me know.

I didn't take any pictures: bor-ing! I will try to whip the camera out next week, at least for the finished product.

2012... the year of learning to cook (and eat!) healthfully

Ok, so regular posts are yet to become a habit. Oi.

I've made a pile of well-intentioned goals for the new year, and so far some of them are coming along, and some of them are yet to be kick-started. The one that I am nailing so far is menu planning and cooking. I have much to learn and improve on, but already we have probably eaten more healthful home-cooked meals in the last week than we did in the year 2011 in total. Yeah, we were eating that poorly - eating out multiple times a week, at a range of restaurants with all kinds of price points (wasting so much $!), and none of them with a particular focus on balanced nutrition, that's for sure. I was just pure lazy - plus, I craved the bad stuff, plus I didn't relish spending time in the kitchen, plus it has often been shamefully easy to mooch off of my mom since I'm there so much. And what do you know? I am over 30 lbs overweight, heavier than I've ever been... it's not cool at all.

Also, I'm already discovering that much more than just contributing to physical health, there are all kinds of benefits to making and eating regular home-cooked meals. Home cooking really does a home make. I struggle so much with routine and productivity and focus, and what do you know? Three square meals a day sure helps provide a framework to hang everything else on!

So, I'm gonna throw down some of the successful recipes I'm using (and probably review some fails too) here, so I can keep track of what I'm doing, find recipes later (with notes and adjustments), and maybe even provide some recommendations for family and friends who might be reading.

{Sidebar: Maelle is 1.5 yo. She is sitting beside me on the couch and has picked up my iPhone and successfully navigated her way to the Netflix app and started watching Dora. I swear I have never even used the Netflix app with her before, she's figured this out entirely on her own. It is frightening how intuitive these things are...}