Farmers market Saturday

Everybody loves the summer but I love it most for the farmers markets.  Last Saturday Steve and I tried to attend out first one here in Edmonton but it was 3 degrees and snowing!  It snowed all day right into the night and left a nasty inch of coating for us to look at on Sunday.

First it rained

 Then it snowed.....almost June 1st!    It was nice and cozy in the Starbucks though and I brought my breakfast cookie with coconut butter on it.  

But today it was beautiful and 18 degrees!  We went to the Strathcona market in the trendy part of town. The market was indoors and runs all year round so I found it less of a 'farmers' market and more of an artisans selling place.   There were jewellery, purse, jam/jelly, cheese and wood art stands and a few organic sellers which was nice to see.  Locally there's still obviously not much available being only June 5th but I did find some gorgeous tomatoes.

While at the market there was a vendor selling all kinds of flavored mustard's and one that caught my eye was the sweet Habanero.  It was really good but he wanted $12 for 3 tiny bottles (think spice bottles).  So I decided to pick up some habs and make my own....how hard can it be?

I only picked up 3 knowing the amount of heat these babies can produce!  Then in a sauce pan, I added about 3/4 cups of prepared mustard
1 large sweet onion
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric (for color)
1/4 cup of vinegar
1/4 cup raisins
8 dried apricots

Simmer this on low until onions are soft and then process until smooth.  Place in a jar and refrigerate.

So word of warning....this is HOT stuff!!!  3 Habaneros ended up being too much for the normal human being.  I on the other hand find it perfect  :)  anyone that knows me also knows my love for anything spicy especially habs.    Unfortunately I made this stuff for some fresh bison burgers I found at the market for Steve so I'll update you on all of the grunting, sweating and complaining that will probably be going on tonight during dinner.......tomorrow.             Some other mustard's I'm going to try are Wasabi mustard and I was thinking that a mustard combining fresh and dried cranberries might be interesting....

blog apologies

When it comes to blogging...lazy people lose.    Dedicated Bloggers never miss a day and when they do it was planned and you were either already notified days in advance or if not then they will present a Dr's note along with an apology letter.   I am a lazy blogger.   I feel somewhat dedicated and can honestly say that the guilt was there each day that I missed but obviously not enough to follow thru.     I did however, consistently take pictures of everything I cooked/prepared and ate (mostly).    I am also in the process of changing web editors and making my blog look different in order to 'spice' things up a bit!  So enough with the excuses and on with the cookin!

 I calculate that I'm sitting right around the 50% raw diet mark now.  Lunch and dinner are almost always completely raw, breakfast is not (yet) and snacks are mostly.   Coffee is not raw and I can't see ever giving that up, wine, many condiments, and dinner out on the  weekends bring me to that 50% guess.   I've never had any intention of going 100% but I think I'll give myself a 75% goal to shoot for.     I'm also sitting on the vegan fence with only yogurt really stopping me, meat has seemed to go away on it's own and I pretty much gave up all other dairy products over the last year in an attempt to alleviate stomach issues.   All of this is is minor and not an issue at all since I really hate to label myself any ways, Vegan, Vegetarian, Lac to-vegan, Raw foodie.....it doesn't matter and I don't believe in cutting out a food that you love if it is not detrimental to your health and you have no ethical issues with it.    If for example I went all raw and at a dinner party the hostess/host served lasagna.....I would be polite and eat it (just as I've taught my kids).        I respect other peoples choices but I find being too strict puts me in a box and takes away my creativeness for trying new things.   So for now I'm cooking everything for 4 different people with 4 different ideas about food which is just how I like it!

Right now I constantly have 'butters' on the brain.  I can't wait to finish one jar before I experiment with another.

This is already my 2nd jar of coconut butter.  This stuff is my new obsession and it takes everything not to eat it with every meal.

This cashew butter didn't last long.....amazing!

Pecan butter is what we're finishing off right now.  It's not my favorite but I wouldn't say no to a 2nd serving!      This weekend I will be making the always favorite almond butter and a batch of peanut butter from raw peanuts I found at a specialty store.    Steve is always waiting for the next batch for his famous banana hot dogs.

Looks like we're finally going to have a nice weekend here in Edmonton so I am DEFINITELY planting my garden tomorrow and I'm very excited about checking out a farmers market as well!   Happy Friday!

Almond milk

Finally I've gotten around to making almond milk.   I love almond milk and I made the switch over from cow's milk almost a year ago in an attempt to cure my annoying tummy problems.    I was having the typical stomach ailments that so many women complain about to me like bloating, gas, diarrhea and cramps  and wanted to eliminate food slowly to find the culprit.      It actually took a long time to figure it out because I was never a big milk drinker so first I started with diet sodas.   That wasn't it but I never went back!  Then I tried yogurt but that didn't help and missed my homemade yogurt more than anything so thank goodness!   Next.....dare I say....I cut out broccoli and Brussels sprouts for 1 whole month!!     I'm happy to say that I continued to have incredibly uncomfortable symptoms and knew that these veggies weren't the the culprit.    Now, after cutting out cow's milk completely for almost a year I can honestly say that tummy problems are rare and bloating has almost been nonexistent.    Making it on my own is so easy that I can't believe I waited this long.

Soak 1 cup of almonds in enough water to cover them for about 6 hrs and refridgerate.   I actually did it for about 12 which also worked fine.   Drain the water and using a food processor or Vitamix, process almonds with 3-4 cups of water until smooth.  To this you could add a sweetener of your choice or some vanilla but I like it unsweetened.   Using a nut milk bag (which I ordered online) or you can just use cheesecloth, drain the liquid and squeeze the pulp until no more remains.    That's it!

I used 4 cups of water which made it quiet thin and not sweet at all but I prefer this because I really get the almond taste.

 I like it ice cold and next time I'm going to try chocolate!

This is the leftover almond meal which I dehydrated and froze.  I am going to save it up and then grind it into a flour once I have 4 cups or so.   This should be great in cookies or maybe crackers....or bread or.........any ideas?

Steve's birthday dinner

This is a meal I've been making a very long time for Steve's birthday.  Lasagna and cheesecake.  It has changed ever so slightly...I now make the lasagna with whole wheat pasta and use extra lean ground beef.   That's it!  no other changes which I will admit has been a challenge.   Today I was very tempted to use ground turkey in the  lasagna, low fat mozzarella and nonfat cottage cheese but I decided to leave it as authentic as possible and I'm glad I did because it's the way he likes it.     I also stuck to my original pumpkin cheesecake which I make only once a year.     You wouldn't guess it but lasagna and cheesecake on the same day = a long day in the kitchen.  These are two relatively easy dishes to prepare but both have many steps including. shopping, chopping, cleaning, baking and serving.   I find that I spend a ton of time washing dishes and clearing the kitchen for the next step (especially with out new tiny space).    I'm really having to practice my organizational skills coming from my old kitchen to this new 'compact' space.

This is a 2nd one I made in a 9X9 tinfoil pan and froze without cooking for a day I don't feel like cooking (I do have those sometimes;)

I had some cracking on top from being too impatient and opening the oven door  :(

 Happy 44th Steve!

I was hoping to finish the garden after this but it will have to wait another couple of days because of the cold, they've been in the shed in an attempt to protect them from 'freezing' temperatures....May 23rd!!     Crazy stuff, but I hear that this is normal for Alberta.  :)    Patience I'm told.     So instead of gardening this weekend we did a lot of relaxing and trying to avoid the rain, I did a lot of shopping and cooking which is all good!  I gathered a bunch of greens which I then chopped and washed for a week of green smoothies and even made some YOPS for the girls and used the left overs for frozen yogurt popsicles.       I'm so happy and feel like I should whisper that Alex had a shake today with tons of fruit in it!.      She even knows this and I didn't have to be 'deceptive' about it.      I'll never forget the time that I bought the book "Deceptively delicious' by Jerry Seinfeld's wife in my desperate attempt to get veggies and fruit into Alex without her knowing.   Apparently she saw the book right away and kept a close eye on it's every move because the 1st day that I made a recipe from it she noted that it had changed position on my recipe book shelf.     Really!   I made brownies with spinach hidden in it and she would not touch it!     When I tried to get her to take a piece, she told me that I was very 'deceptive'.   I had to leave the room so I could laugh without her seeing  :)   she is a smart kid.         I'm loving my shakes and can't wait to try celery and cucumbers in it with a lime tomorrow.  

 I picked up some beets to make a 'beet and goat cheese salad" and washed the beet tops to add to my shake.

This is all of the veggie cuttings that I don't use.  I add some water and pulverize it before adding to the compost - it just decomposes a lot quicker in liquid form.    Now I just need some warm weather and get my garden done!

Butters Oh my!

I've had a bit of an epiphany today.....butters can be made from something other than nuts!    really.. yes it's true and it's amazing!    Thanks to http://heathereatsalmondbutter.com/recipes/coconut-butter/ I have discovered the most delicious, sinful, creamy and healthy new condiment ever!   I am a huge coconut fan and cook with it regularly so when I saw this recipe I knew instantly that it must be awsome!      it was....
Go to Heathers site for the recipe but here is my beautiful little jar that I mistakingly put in the fridge today...it went rock hard so now it's in the cupboard which is fine because it will not last long.    

I put this on my breakfast cookie warm this morning and it was YUM.    So yum in fact that I wanted it for lunch and dinner today because I couldn't stop thinking about it.    Coconut butter is my new favorite find fo sho!
We eat a lot of nut butter in my house, always have and I don't know what I would have done without peanut butter when the kids were growing up.  Peanut butter and toast for breakfast, peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch and when dinner wasn't a hit (especially with Alex :)) then it was back to pb and toast.  I think of all those years of worrying and stressing about my picky eater surviving on whole wheat  bread, peanut butter and milk and today she stands at almost 5'9" and wears an 11 shoe!!         Maybe it was the peanut butter?     Today I finished off the almond butter so I  made Steve's favorite,  cashew butter.  

This is heaven on a spoon.  Note*  I use salted cashews and nothing else but you can use unsalted and you can also add a bit of oil to make it thinner and creamier.   

sprout burgers

Remember those mixed grains I sprouted in the bag?

Well they've been sitting in the fridge waiting for me for 3 days and that's just about as long as sprouts can wait so tonight we eat burgers!   First they need to be ground down in the food processor.  I had close to 3 cups of sprouts. and then added 1 cup of cooked black beans which I mixed in whole.

 Next I added 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup flax meal, 2 tsp salt and pepper, 1/4 cup egg whites, 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (or 3 tsp dried), 1 tsp garlic powder (or 3 cloves fresh) and 1 chopped Serrano pepper (or 1 tsp cayenne).     Mix well.

I used an ice cream scoop and refrigerated the burgers to firm them up a bit (they're very sticky)

About an hour later I flattened and fried them in a tiny bit of olive oil until crispy.

I'm using my grill fry pan which is sooo much easier to clean then the George Foreman!

This is Steve's dinner with baked sweet potato fries, mine was the same but without the bun.

I've saved the rest of the burgers raw and tomorrow I will try dehydrating them.   So final conclusion??? These burgers were good and held together well but needed some BAM! (like Emeril would so annoyingly yell).   I will definitely be making these again soon but next time I will be adding one of these ingredients to up the wow factor.
Crumbled blue cheese  (Goat would work well too)
Curry paste (something nice and strong and hot)
Raisins or chopped apricots and pumpkin seeds
corn, cilantro instead of basil and lots of chili powder and cumin
chick peas instead of black beans with oregano and feta
I think this could go on and on and I have found a veggie burger that will become a new family favorite.

Garden ready

After searching for tomato plants unsuccessfully since Saturday, tonight I finally hit the jackpot!  My garden is dug, compost and soil are purchased and 5 tomato plants, 4 yellow pepper plants, 3 cucumbers, 4 yellow squash, cilantro, parsley and thyme are sitting in their pots ready to go.     Now I need to get digging and hope the weather stays so beautiful.         A bit of bad news for my garden though......this morning while driving the girls to school we past a soccer field that must have had 15 rabbits running around on it!  Looks like I'll be be dealing with a bit of a challenge and a maybe a net fence?      it's not cheap to start a garden (even though mine is just little) and I would be none to happy to wake up to it half eaten and some fat bunnies waiting for more.     I also picked up a compost bin for the backyard and feel a weird sense of relief having it because I was feeling so guilty throwing my scraps in the garbage having been so diligent about composting in Quebec.    Now that the garden is on it's way and my veggie scraps are working to eventually feed it, I've decided to really go green and experiment with making my own everyday products. To start with.....shaving cream for the girls and shaving oil for Steve.  I've already gone green with dish soap and today made window cleaner using 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol, 1/2 cup white vinegar and 3 1/2 cups water.     I put it into a spray bottle and it works great!!   I know that vinegar and windows is nothing new but the rubbing alcohol really makes a difference.  I'll never use Windex again!!

I just picked up 3 spray bottles from the Dollar store and made sure the write the directions on 1 bottle for next time.

This is left over toner that I made for Steve (he uses tons of this stuff but don't tell anyone  :) )  It's just lemon juice, witch hazel and distilled water.

Unfortunately it ended up raining and I couldn't finish the garden today but it was actually a blessing because apparently it's supposed to go down to -4!      29 degrees to -4.....this is Alberta I'm told.

I'll be bringing these babies into the house tonight!

Seems as though these big guys are like gold here since it took me 3 days to find them.  I've not had good luck with my veggies because of sandy soil and too many trees (not enough sun) in the past 8 yrs so I can't wait to finally harvest a successful garden!        unless evil bunnies stand in my way....