A Juicing Garden

Herb gardens, salad gardens, cutting gardens, butterfly gardens, knot gardens, rock gardens, water gardens, rose gardens, wildlife gardens, potagers.
What about a juicing garden?
I’ve reorganized and replotted my garden four times already.  The latest version includes a juicing garden, designed to ease my transition to an 80% raw foods diet.  Some of the best juicing choices are [...]

February 13th – Liberation Day

Today, Christine was liberated from her own mind.  Imagine the freedom!

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Savoury Broccoli Cheese Souffle

Here is a basic souffle recipe that has worked several times for me.  The broccoli can be substituted with spinach or any other vegetable, or any combination of vegetable and herbs.  The vegetables must be cooked and thoroughly drained - even squeezed – before using.  Just be sure that your final measurement is close to, but [...]

Better for the Butter

The fresh nut campaign continues:

In addition to fresh nuts, nut butters and other nut products need to be stored in the fridge.  It’s still a foreign concept to many, but it’s better for the butter and it’s better for you.

I grew up eating the classic brands of peanut butter, like everybody else, and storing it [...]

Freshly Nutty

The first time I made almond milk was eight years ago.  It was relatively easy, and satisfying to make, but it tasted like chalk.  It hadn’t occurred to me that my almonds were stale.  The maddening thing was, they had been organic almonds purchased, in bulk, at my local health food store.

From then on, I decided to [...]

It’s Never Too Early

Three weeks into the year and I’ve already received all of my seed catalogues.  I’ve spent the last few days laying out my garden plan on the computer.  Already the list of jobs to do (outside of planting, seeding, etc) is a mile long.  We usually begin with whatever jobs weren’t finished last year.  Makes [...]

Creamy Green Pasta

This is one of the easiest ways to get the kids to eat their greens.  They know it has spinach and they still devour it.

Creamy Green Pasta

1 lb of rotini or fusilli pasta (or any pasta with a lot of surface area)
1/2 bunch of spinach or other greens, roughly chopped
1-2 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp flour
1 cup [...]

Souffle Pre-School

I had never made a souffle until just last week.  Now I’ve made three.  Three different recipes, all savoury, using very different techniques produced three equally good and well-risen souffles; however, each required adjustments as I went, so unfortunately, I have no fool-proof souffle recipe to pass on at this time.

What I do have, after extensive [...]

Broiled Trout

My favourite basic fish recipe.

Broiled Trout

1 lb trout fillets
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat broiler.  Brush a baking pan or dish with oil.  Place the fish in the pan in a single layer.  Mix remaining ingredients in a glass jar and shake well.  Pour over fish.  [...]

Lasagne Rolls

I love eating lasagne, but I hate making it.  I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve made it – tonight was the fifth – because it’s simply too much work.  This recipe is a nice variation; it has the same basic components, but the assembly is much quicker.  My herbs are still [...]

Winter Fun

It is usually a struggle to get a decent rink made in time for Christmas.  We bought a rink kit a few years ago, but without the right kind of weather, it still won’t work.  Some years, winter arrives early with a huge dumping of snow in late November, but it’s often just a lot of [...]

Falafels

This was my first experience making falafels. I didn’t have any tahini, so I made a cucumber-yoghurt sauce, which worked quite well.

Cucumber-Yoghurt Sauce

1/2 cup yoghurt
2″ chunk of cucumber, grated and squeezed dry
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp each cilantro and mint
1 tbsp onion
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
splash of lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients and [...]

Vegan Baked Beans

This recipe is an amalgam of three other baked bean recipes I’ve tried.  It’s different every time, but it’s always very good.  I always use a mix of beans - navy, kidney, black-eyed peas, or anything else that will bring a variety of shape and colour to the dish.  I never use sugar; the molasses and maple [...]

Wombicus squishticum

Our first was born with what some health professionals may have called a “mild deformity”.  He had bruising across one side of his face (fine), a flattened ear (common), and a foot that was bent up to his shin.  Hmmm.  The midwives weren’t concerned; the baby had simply ‘maxed out’ the space given to him in the womb.  Within [...]

Kids

A friend of the family once told me:  Having one is like having none.  Having two is like having twenty.
We have three.

With our first, life didn’t really change much.  Our neighbours gave us this fabulous sling, so we took him everywhere with us.  We took him shopping, we took him to parties, we took him to karate [...]