Chickpea Tomato and Vegetable Soup -- A delicious variation on a theme -- but no ginger!

This soup rocks. It was easy to make, and quick, too. And like all soups of this ilk, improves with age as the flavours mellow and blend in a palate pleasing way. Chock full of vegetables, it's a meal in a bowl, and goes well with a hunk of freshly baked bread, or some of the tasty poppy seed crackers/biscuits I will post later on ...  I went a little spicy this time, but you can easily mitigate this by reducing the quantity of chili powder in the soup. The tomato 'base' has enough acidity that it helps bring out all the other flavour, and the whole thing is warming and perfect for a cold and wintery day.

You can probably tell that I really like soup on the winter, and you can probably tell I'm lazy, and like soups that comprise the meal all by themselves. True story. I find a hearty soup to be very satisfying, as well as a comfortable meal to eat in the evening.

ingredients:

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 tbsp garlic, finely minced (1 large clove)

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

3/4 cup finely diced carrot

1/2 cup finely diced celery

125 g cauliflower, cut into florets (about 1 heaping cup)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp sea salt

black pepper

375 g finely chopped tomato (1 1/2 cups or so)

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or canned)

1 cup diced sweet potato (asian)

3 cups water

1/2 tbsp marjoram

1 cup of frozen green peas, defrosted

125 g broccoli florets (defrosted, if using frozen) (about 1 heaping cup)

directions:

1. saute the garlic, onion, celery, and carrot with the cumin, turmeric, sea salt, pepper, and chili powder in the coconut oil in a large pot until translucent

2. add the tomatoes and cook for 30-60 minutes covered until tomatoes are cooked into submission.

3. add the chickpeas, sweet potato, water, and marjoram, and cook for 60 minutes

4. turn off the heat and add the peas and broccoli. Let the soup sit for at least 30 minutes.

The soup is now ready, and can be eaten right away. However, as I've mentioned, soups like this are great the next day. So, if your schedule allows, you can make it ahead. This soup will also freeze well. Just make sure you leave an inch at the top of the jar for expansion. I've left inadequate space more than once, and the expanding soup pushes the bottom off of the jar. Kind of messy, and a little disappointing!

Hot Lemon and Ginger -- A great drink for a cold day or for a cold

I mentioned this beverage in my post on ginger, but I'll lay the recipe out for you here, because I like it that much. Ginger is a great digestive, can help settle nausea, has quite potent anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-microbial properties, and is warming and soothing. I love this drink on a cold day because it makes me feel warm for a long time afterward, more than just the effect of drinking a hot tea. I do go a little over-board with the ginger, but it's easy enough to add more water if it's too much for you.

ingredients:

1 tbsp ginger root, freshly grated (some people peel it but I confess I'm lazy)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp honey (or your favourite sweetener, but honey too has anti-viral etc properties)

500 ml boiling water

teensy pinch of sea salt (just a few grains, really)

directions:

1. combine all the ingredients

2. let sit for 10 minutes

3. divide into 2 mugs and share with someone you love or pour it into one large mug and keep it all for yourself ;)

Now, I know some people will make this but will boil the ginger in the water etc, but I think there is something to be said for  keeping it all raw, and enjoying the maximum power of the ingredients.

I forgot to mention something else very important -- this tastes great!!

Ginger Baby Cakes -- An old favourite updated

A number of years ago I came up with a ginger cake recipe. It was one of my first wholly invented recipes, and was well received by ginger lovers and non-lovers alike. The cake is amazingly moist, and deliciously flavoured.

Although my first recipe was using whole grain flour, it also used cane sugar.

So, I have updated the recipe to use a bit of clear agave and a bit of coconut sugar, and almond flour in addition to a little bit of kamut flour.

I hope you like it as much as we do!

ingredients:

3/4 cup water

2 tbsp clear agave

2 tbsp coconut sugar

6 pitted honey dates (smallish ones)

6 pitted prunes (small ones)

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

2 inches or more of fresh ginger root

1 egg

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ceylon cinnamon

dash black pepper

1 tsp ground vanilla (or 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract)

1 cup almond flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup kamut flour

coconut sugar and sesame seeds for sprinkling on top

directions:

preheat oven to 345

1. pour warm water over the prunes and dates and allow to soak for about 10 minutes

2. add the ginger, coconut oil, and sesame oil, agave, and coconut sugar, and puree all together until smooth

3. add the lemon juice, and then beat in the egg (after ensuring the mixture is not too hot)

4. mix in the sea salt and vanilla

5. add the almond flour

6. add the baking soda

7. stir in the kamut flour gently

8. scoop the batter into 12 prepared muffin cups

9. sprinkle a little coconut sugar and some sesame seeds on top of each one (optional)

8. bake at 345 for 30 minutes

Broccoli with Ginger -- a new friend for the king mushrooms

I know I mentioned I was on a ginger kick. Well, this is a kick with kick. Two things I  like about ginger: it tastes great and doesn't have to be well cooked. (My chief problem with onions and garlic is for me they are undigestible unless very well cooked. Basically, cooked into utter submission. Bad experience. True story.) Ginger is also great for you, and seems to be helpful for any number of small ailments. It shows potent anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties, as well as helping with congestion, and of course tummy trouble. 

But we cook with it because we really like the way it tastes.

In my house, we eat a lot of broccoli because it is a vegetable we can all agree on, and both my husband and son love it. There is more controversy and less accord with many other vegetables, including cauliflower, kale, swiss chard, spinach. Actually, with pretty much every other vegetables, except perhaps sweet peas in the pod. So, we eat A LOT of broccoli.

My favourite way of preparing broccoli is to saute it over low heat in a little coconut oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Brilliant and delicious. Adding a little ginger gives a yummy change of pace while still keeping to the comfort zone of sauteed broccoli.

I use frozen organic broccoli a lot in the winter because the fresh organic broccoli looks tired and smells bad a lot of the time. Loblaws carries a line of organic frozen vegetables that are reasonable in price, and pretty much always in stock. I believe it's called 'Green Organics'. This frozen broccoli tastes fantastic -- it has that ideal and elusive sweet broccoli taste -- and keeps a tender crisp texture provided you don't over cook it, of course). You can use fresh broccoli, if you would like. Just clean it, trim the woody sheath off the stalk, and cut the stalk and crown into bite sized pieces.

ingredients:

2 tbsp coconut oil

500 g package of frozen broccoli, defrosted and cut into bite sized pieces

3/8 - 1/2 tsp sea salt

a touch of black pepper

freshly grated ginger to taste

directions:

1. heat the coconut oil in a pan on low heat

2. add the broccoli and toss with the oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper

3. saute the broccoli until it is done to your liking

4. add the ginger, and toss until evenly distributed

5. serve as a side whenever you need a little green in your life

King Mushrooms with Ginger -- A dish fit for a king

Actually, I have no idea if Martin Luther had any use for mushrooms or not. But, if you like 'em, this dish will knock your socks off.

If you live in Toronto, there's a really great Asian food store called T&T. I've only been to the location on Cherry Street, so I can't speak to the other locations. I do know the market is owned by Loblaws, which isn't owned by Big Tobacco or Big Pharma. They cater primarily to the Chinese community, although they sell some Japanese and Korean staples like nori and kimchee. They also sell prepared foods which are ostensibly sans msg. Unfortunately, a lot of their produce comes all the way from China (or Mexico), especially in the winter. However, you can sometimes get locally grown 'Chinese' green  vegetables.

I was quite excited to find they carry a line of mushrooms  all grown in Burlington, called 'Enviro-Mushrooms'. Although the Enviro-Mushroom folks do not have their organic accreditation, they very strictly use no pesticides, no chemicals, and no irradiation.

I chose some king mushrooms. I'll confess they were already cleaned and sliced, and that appealed to me, because sometimes the prep takes the longest when cooking.

I sauteed these babies up, and couldn't believe how fantastically delicious they are. Suddenly, they are my favourite mushroom. Even my husband thought they were delicious, and he hates mushrooms.


ingredients:

1 package (284 g) of sliced king mushrooms
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt
black pepper
freshly grated ginger to taste

directions:

1. heat the coconut oil in a large pan until melted over low heat
2. add the mushrooms, and toss in the oil until well coated
3. add the sea salt and black pepper
4. cook the mushrooms until pleasingly browned in places
5. add the ginger, and toss well until evenly distributed
6. divide onto plates and eat with many happy grunts of pleasure

I think this would make a lovely soup -- perhaps with some cashews ground up to act as a cream soup. I'll try it and let you know.

Otherwise, this can act as a side dish, as a topping for pasta -- toss the noodles with the cooked mushrooms in the pan until well combined -- although you might have to increase the seasoning for that, or just stand on it's own, perhaps with a heel of freshly baked bread. Yum.

Ginger!

Maybe it's because it's winter, and ginger is very warming to the body, but I've been on a ginger kick these past weeks. Hot lemon ginger to drink, ginger in my seaweed salad, ginger in my sauteed vegetables. Back before I joined the cult of 'sugar is evil', I used to make a killer ginger cake, which I think I'll have to revisit, but with updated ingredients ... Hmmm. I think that will be this weekend's baking project, baking mojo in abeyance or not.

Ginger not only tastes good itself, but it brings out the good in other flavours, too. And you can use just a little of it, so that your young child will find it appealing, or you can load it up so it blows the top off your head and creates great heat in your body.

Whenever my husband has a cold, I like to make him a hot lemon ginger drink. If I were the type of person to have fresh lemons lying around at all times, I would use fresh lemons. However, I am the type of person who keeps a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge instead. True story. So, I finely grate a tablespoon or so of fresh ginger, throw in about a tablespoon of lemon juice, the teensiest pinch of sea salt (just a couple of grains, really), and add a generous couple tea spoons of raw honey to a large mug. Into the mug goes boiling water. Stir, and let sit for a few minutes until cool enough to drink. This tastes a bit like hot and spicy lemonade, but it's very good for your cold. You get a little vitamin c from the lemon juice (as well as some anti-viral effects, although the quantity of juice is quite small), you get good anti-viral effects from the honey, and it's supposedly soothing on the throat. You get the chest warming effects of the ginger, as well as yet more potent anti-viral (and anti-inflammatory) effects from this fantastic root.

I love hot drinks in the winter, but limit myself to one cup of caffeinated tea in the morning. After that, it's sans caff all the way. So, this is a great beverage to warm you up on a winter day. And if you are sensitive to fructose and glucose (both of which are in honey), or just need something that's a little lower on the glycemic index, you can try other sweeteners such as coconut nectar, coconut sugar, clear agave, or xylitol. I know a lot of people like stevia too, and if you can get it in an unprocessed form, cool. But the taste of it won't work well with lemon and ginger in my opinion. Most of the stevia you can buy in stores is very processed and has all the benefits taken out of it. If you can by the powdered wild crafted herb itself (organic), you will be reaping some of the benefits of this plant.

Well, the ginger kick seems to be alive and kicking yet, so please prepare yourself for some posts that involve ginger.

Lemon Baby Cakes -- Lemony Lusciousness for All My Friends

On the weekend I baked a banana bread that didn't quite achieve lift off, carrot baby cakes that marched to the beat of their own drummer in an unfortunately uncoordinated fashion, and these naughty little Lemon Baby Cakes that succeeded against all odds. Maybe I haven't completely lost my baking mojo.

We had the pleasure of tea with our neighbours Marla and Oliver, and my mother-in-law Kathryn and her charming husband Hendrik.

Now, this was not without complications, and I'll tell you why. Marla and Oliver don't like their tea snacks terribly sweet, and Kathryn cannot eat dairy. So, the banana bread and carrot baby cakes were to fit that bill. And while my son is very much enjoying both the banana bread and the carrot cakes, I didn't feel they were good enough to offer guests with tea.

Well, I got lucky,  because in this case third try was indeed the charm.

The lemon cakes are light and delicate while being moist. The flavour is both sweet and tart, with the lemon enhanced with some orange zest (from organic oranges, of course). And they were a resounding success, enjoyed very much by all in attendance, especially when they were revealed to be free of dairy for Kathryn, and free of sugar for Marla and Oliver.

Now, I will state that these baby cakes did require a little more sweetner than others that I've made, because not only is lemon not sweet, it is the anti-sweet. And in order to make a cake that tasted like a cake instead of like a punishment, I used about 50% more sweetner than I usually add to my baked confections. However, they are often sweetened additionally by sweet things like dates, raisins, and apples. And the sweeteners in this cake are all quite low on the glycemic index, won't spike your blood sugar, and seem to be tolerated well by most people who have difficulty with sugar. And are much more nutritionally rich than sugar is.


ingredients:

2 eggs
1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup clear agave
1/4 cup coconut nectar
1/4 cup coconut sugar

zest of an organic orange (or lemon)

1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon (I used ceylon cinnamon)
1 tsp ground vanilla bean
black pepper (a touch)
1 tsp sea salt

2 cups almond flour (I used JK Gourmet)
1/2 tsp  baking soda
1 cup kamut flour (whole grain and finely ground pasty flour)


directions:

preheat the oven to 345

1. warm the water a little, and add it to the coconut oil to melt it. Add the sweeteners, the lemon juice, and the zest
2. add the eggs, and mix well
3. add the ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, sea salt, and pepper
4. add the almond flour
5. add the baking soda
6. add the kamut flour
7. scoop batter into prepared muffin cups
8. sprinkle the top of each muffin with a tiny bit of coconut sugar
9. bake at 345 for 30 minutes
10. remove from the oven, and allow to sit for a couple of minutes before removing from muffin cups
11. serve with a big smile and some yummy tea

I've lost my baking mojo ...

Greetings, dear readers. We just enjoyed a huge blizzard, shoveled tonnes of snow, and built a snow fort. That's the good news. The bad news is I had yet another baking 'not quite success'. I won't say 'failure', because the results are still good. They just aren't  blog worthy. They aren't worthy of your time and attention, dear readers. Have I lost my cooking super powers? I certainly hope not.

The Hall of Shame:

I'm going to wax philosophical about food instead of sharing a not-quite-successful recipe for banana bread with you.

If you start researching what's healthy and what's not, you are not only opening a can of worms within a pandora's box, you are diving head first into it. In my opinion, that's not really as bad as it sounds, but it can take a while to wade through all the studies, opinions, agendas, and information.

In the end, one of the important things to realize, in my opinion, is that different people really do have different nutritional requirements. And the biggest favour you can do yourself is to listen to your body when you eat, and eat what makes you feel good. Now, I'm not talking feel good in a caffein and sugar buzz kind of way. I'm talking feel good in a running like a well-oiled, well-maintained machine kind of way.

One of the simplest ways to get in touch with what your body needs to eat is to cut out absolutely all processed foods, and eat only whole foods that still resemble something found in nature. If you can do that, your body will start to tell you what it wants. If your body is telling you it wants brownies, then this method doesn't work for you. But if you have managed to quell your sugar and white food habit, you will start to receive messages like: I want to eat seaweed. I want to eat avocado. I want to eat tamari roasted almonds. True story. And not nearly as gross as it sounds ;)

Something really interesting for me about little kids is that they won't eat what they don't need and don't have room for, if they've been on a whole foods regime that doesn't have them addicted to sugar and processed foods. Unfortunately, many little ones have highly refined carbs as their first food. By the time my son finished his bowl of tomato and chickpea soup with a side of sauteed broccoli last night, he was very very eager for his brownie. Vegan brownies are his idea of living the high life. He had about 2 little tiny bites, and then, despite how much he loves the taste, he completely lost interest in it because he was already nutritionally satisfied, and his belly was full. I would go as far as to say that my son is a true chocolate lover -- to him it's a miraculous substance, even in the unsweetened form of raw cacao nibs that taste just like dirt to me -- so I find it fascinating that he has no interest in eating something he loves beyond all other foods (except perhaps for cheese) when he is no longer hungry. I bet most of us wish we could lose interest in something that tastes that good to us just because our bellies are satiated ... I know I do. And aside from very young children, I don't think I've met too many people who don't eat for reasons other than hunger. I can only think of one adult who falls into that category -- effortlessly -- because almost everyone will indulge for various reasons besides actual physical need (not all of them bad reasons.)

When it comes to health, I think there is virtue in examining the reasons we eat what we eat.

I think this blog is proof that it is entirely possible to eat in a way that is at the same time healthy, lavish, and delicious. With the occasional side trip into frivolous.

Tomato and Chickpea Soup -- Another Heavenly Winter Soup

We've been on a soup kick lately, and I've got another fabulous soup for you that is chock full of fabulosity.  We all enjoy a hearty winter soup with a slice off a freshly baked loaf of bread, and perhaps a side of grape tomatoes or sauteed broccoli. Or both.

When I give my son soup, I tend to give it to him without much broth. He doesn't seem to enjoy the broth part of soup, although he enjoys the rest of it. Definitely not a candidate for consomme, even if we weren't vegetarians. So you can probably guess that his is the bowl that doesn't have the vegetables submerged. I personally think this broth is fantastic, and judging by the number of slices of bread my husband used to mop his up, I think he thought it was good to the last drop too. (And then he finished the little broth that had been at the bottom of our son's bowl, too.)

This is not a crockpot soup, although you could probably cook it in a crockpot if you are so inclined.

ingredients:

2 tbsp coconut oil

5/8 cup red onion, finely chopped (10 tbsp, or 1/2 a cup + 1/2 of a 1/4 cup, in case your 5/8 measure has gone missing ...

1 tbsp garlic, finely minced

3/4 cup carrot, finely diced

3/4 cup celery, finely diced

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 cups sweet potato, diced

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas

275 g cocktail, cherry, or grape tomatoes, chopped (approx 1 1/2  or 2 cups)

125 g cauliflower, defrosted if frozen (approx one heaping cup)

3 cups water

1 1/2 tsp marjoram

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

black pepper at will

directions:

1. saute the garlic, onion, carrot, and celery in the coconut oil in a medium or large dutch oven along with 1 tsp sea salt, cumin, and chili powder

2. when the onions and garlic are fully cooked, add the tomatoes, and cook them down just a little

3. add the cauliflower and sweet potato, and the chickpeas, along with the water, and the rest of the seasonings.

4. bring your concoction to a simmer and allow to simmer happily for 1 hour, covered.

The other vegetable ingredients make a very rich tasting, flavourful broth, which provides a wonderful back drop to the tomato.

Happy New Year ... And a few thoughts on food.

Hello Everybody, and Happy New Year. I wish for you all good health, happiness, and the attainment of dreams ...

An interesting thing happened to me, food-speaking, over the holidays. I did something I don't usually do. I ate more than a teensy nibble of cane-sugar-rich foods -- I actually ate a rather unexpected quantity of chocolate. I am not generally much of a chocolate eater, so more than a couple of chocolate chips is pretty much a lot for me. This is not the interesting part. The interesting part is that I not only immediately started to crave snacks in the evening, I also fell into a depression. One or two days of less than ideal sugar consumption, and I was truly a mess, feeling hopeless, bereft, and deeply deeply sad. It made me wonder how much of depression in general is linked to sugar consumption ... How much of the holiday related depressions are actually because people usually eat terribly during the holidays.

As you probably know, exercise is good for depression, so I started doing a daily 'peak' or 'interval' exercise session on my husband's water rower (I'm really not a gym person) in addition to my usual 20 minutes of yoga or pilates. In addition, I ran far far away from all sugar, even eating less fruit than usual, and absolutely cut out all after-dinner eating. Within a few days, I was definitely feeling much more like my pre-holiday self. No longer addicted to sugar, no longer depressed, and no longer interested in evening snacks. But holy mackeral I've been craving seaweed!

Okay, that's probably not a sentence you read all the time.

I've been making seaweed salad from wakame. Rehydrating it with hot water, draining it, then tossing it with coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, a touch of sea salt, and a few drops of sesame oil while still warm. I'm the only person in my house who wants much to do with it. My husband's interest in seaweed is limited to the nori that wraps our sushi, and my son is only good for a single piece or two. However, I could eat this from dawn to dusk, and still enjoy it.

Right now, at a time of year that it's hard to find good quality organic green vegetables in good condition, it's nice to know that I can go to my pantry and find something that not only is good for me and tastes great, the total prep time takes less than 5 minutes.

But maybe I'm just weird.

I've been reading more and more about the wisdom of limiting grain in diet. Apparently, for most people,  even whole grain contributes to systemic inflammation along with sugar and refined carbohydrates. I've found it easy to decrease the quantity of grain used in our diets by baking with almond flour, pecan meal, and coconut flour.

I've also found new and interesting superfoods to add to our diets, such as maca, acai, green barley, raw cacao, goji, hemp, chia, and mesquite ... Not that any of these are new, but it's been fun experimenting with them. I have to admit that the superfood powerbars are still among my favourite quick nibble.

Something that I find interesting right now is old school vs new school ideas on nutrition. When I read the column by the registered dietician in the Globe and Mail giving people advice on health and nutrition, almost everything she says seems ridiculous to me. Up there with the belief we had back in the 1980's that dietary fat was a four letter word, and carbs were king, even if they were refined. Up there with the man-made fats of the 50's -- margarine! Up there with the belief that sugar is good energy food. I know I must have lost some of you with these statements, but the amazing thing is that fat in your diet helps you burn fat and absorb vitamins, and is necessary for all the functions of your body. Some fats like coconut oil go as far as to rev up your metabolism, clear out your arteries, and feed your brain. Among other things. Whereas sugar is stored as fat, feeds cancer cells, and now is credited with causing heart disease, and weakening the immune system.

Anyway, I wish you wonderful good health in this coming year, (and all the years to come), and I encourage you to do as much research as you can into healthy eating, no longer accepting the 'food guides' we've been coasting with since the invention of man-made oil products to spread on our white bread ... Or just keep cooking from my blog, and you'll do fine ;)

And by the way, I apologize for not posting more since New Year's soup. Which truly was delicious. We just finished it off tonight. As a break from the utterly fantastic Tomato and Chickpea soup I made a couple of days ago but haven't managed to photograph yet, thus haven't posted yet. I've made a number of things that were ... not terribly successful. They were good, but not good enough to share. I've been a little too experimental lately. Or I just need a second or third go. Or maybe I've lost my cooking mojo. Stay tuned and I'll let you know!

Finally, I thank you for reading my blog. I really am delighted that you are here -- delighted, amazed, grateful, and thrilled.

xo

-stacey

Lentil Vegetable Soup -- Trotting out the crockpot again

I have been working on an apple crisp recipe. I've made 2 versions, and although I liked them both, I'm not quite ready to share. I think version 3 will be the winner. I've also been working on a lime sugar cookie recipe. Totally delicious, but not quite right. I'll post version 2 when I make them.

Apple Crisp courtesy of Nemesis

One thing I have been completely happy with is another fabulously delicious crockpot soup. You don't need a crock pot to make it, but it sure is handy being able to throw the ingredients in, and then let it do it's thing.

This soup, along with a freshly baked loaf of bread and a tomato, avocado, parsley, and swiss chard salad, was our New Year's Eve meal with friends.

Like most soups of this nature, although tasty the first day, reached its prime a day later. So, I made it on the Thursday for our Friday evening meal.

Delicious Lentil and Vegetable Soup

Really Good Bread ...

ingredients:

2 tsp finely minced garlic

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1/3 cup finely diced carrot

1/3 cup finely diced celery

2 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp sea salt

1/6 tsp cumin

1/6 tsp chili powder

1/6 tsp turmeric

125 g cauliflower (2/3 cup)

2/3 cup du puys lentils

1 tsp sea salt

3 cups water

1 cup diced asian sweet potato

1 tsp marjoram

a little black pepper

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup green peas (frozen defrosted)

2/3 cup (125g) broccoli, steamed if raw, defrosted if frozen. Cut into small florets.

directions:

1. saute garlic, onion, carrot, and celery with coconut oil, sea salt, and spices
2. when veggies are thoroughly sauteed, put them in the crock pot along with the lentils, cauliflower, sweet potato, coconut oil, water, apple cider vinegar, and sea salt. Throw in the marjoram and black pepper. Close the lid.
3.  Allow the soup to cook in the crockpot (or stove top in a covered pot) until lentils are soft and the cauliflower has fallen apart. (It takes about 1 hour on stove top, and 4-6 hours in a crockpot (maybe 5 hours) on high.)
4. Turn off the heat, and add the green peas and broccoli.
5. Serve with fresh bread, with a handful of rotini, or with a side salad.

And finally, a photo essay called :

My Rockin' New Year's Eve

Scenery -- a frozen waterfall

Towards the DVP

Two cuties

On the space ship

O.M.'s 'Anniken Skywalker Pose'

A fierce Space Squirrel

My boys

More posing :)

Ringing in the New Year

Eating the soup

New Year's Tickle-fest

Apple Crisp Numero 2

Yummmmmm :)

Sushi!-- Makizushi Nori Rolls

Two nights of sushi. We're big fans of sushi here. My son loves sushi, but I cut his in half. My husband loves sushi, even if it's avocado. I love sushi because I don't have to try to encourage anyone to eat their dinner. It disappears in just a few minutes. We are currently enjoying our sushi with leftover vegetable soup, and a spinach salad with baby tomatoes and a mild yogurt dressing. (A few tbsp of whole milk organic yogurt, a dash of apple cider vinegar, some salt and pepper, and a 1/2 tsp of honey.)

Sushi is very easy to make at home. I'll confess that my Japanese boyfriend's mother taught me how to make sushi rolls back in their home in Tokushima during the New Year's holiday of 1994/1995. (domo arigato gozaimasu, Hirose San!)  And I don't really remember what she taught me. So I just make it up as I go along.

It's important to have rice that will hold together, or else your sushi will just fall apart. Many people use sushi rice to this end, but I just use a very short grain brown rice, cooked of course without any oil,  because that reduces the stickiness.

Seasoning your sushi rice is a matter of preference. I used to use rice vinegar with a little organic cane sugar, and some sea salt. These days, I use a little apple cider vinegar, and skip the sweetener altogether. You can buy commercial preparations of 'sushi seasoning', that already have the salt, sugar, and rice vinegar combined, by authentic companies such as Marukan. However, it's okay to make your own, or just add a little this and that until it tastes right to you.

You need to have some sheets of nori for making makizushi (literally 'rolled sushi'), as well as your choice of fillings cut into strips. Avocado is a perennial favourite around here, although we've used rehydrated marinated dried mushrooms, sweet potato, strips of egg, carrot, cucumber, squash, and even spinach (cooked and squeezed out).

Sushi rice ingredients:

1 cup of uncooked (very short) short grain brown rice

2 cups of water

1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or rice vinegar)

1 -2 tsp sugar or honey (optional)

directions:

1. put the rice, salt, and water in a pot, and bring to a boil.

2. Turn the heat down, and cook for about 40 minutes.

3. add the vinegar (and optional sweetener if using) and stir to combine

4. set aside to cool

sushi ingredients:

6 sheet of nori

1 avocado cut into long strips

1 mini cucumber cut into long strips

1 small carrot

cooked rice

directions:

1. Spread approximated 1/2 cup of rice on a sheet of nori, on the upper 2/3 or 3/4 only

2. Lay your ingredients of choice across the nori, just towards the bottom of the rice

3. If you like, you can spread a little wasabi across the rice before putting your ingredients on.

4. Roll up the nori, using a piece of parchment paper or a proper bamboo roller (I don't have one), squeezing gently as you go, from the bottom.

5. Cut the rolls into discs using a very sharp chef's knife or a bread knife (I prefer a bread knife -- the serrated edge really helps)

6. Place the pieces on a plate, a serve with soy sauce and wasabi

7. For children, it can be helpful to cut each disc in half, because nori can be a little chewy.

Let me know what crazy fillings you come up with. The sky is the limit!

Sometimes it's hard to wait for dinner to be ready ... 

Just like mama used to make :)