Category Archives: Favourite Products

First Strawberry U-Pick of the Year at Mariquita Farms

Posted on by
2

It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area today – perfect for the first strawberry u-pick at my favourite organic farm, Mariquita Farms. This is the same farm I get my tomatoes from every year, although their tomato fields are in Hollister. Today’s trip to their strawberry fields and apple orchards took us to Aromas.

I think I’m going to let the pictures do the talking at this point. It was such a fantastic day, and now I have to figure out what I’m going to do with 20 pounds of strawberries.

Beautiful view at the farm

Apple orchard

A field of strawberries

Every berry was more beautiful than the last – we tried to maintain composure and still ended up with 20 pounds

Our stash

Birthday Cookies and Brownies – Allison’s Gourmet Delivers!

Posted on by
3

I think that if we had a contest, my family would win at being the most awesomest in the whole wide world – mostly because I have peeps in my family who send me fabulous birthday treats like a box of cookies and brownies from Allison’s Gourmet.  I have been meaning to try out these delectable delights for well over a year now, and it is as if someone read my mind.

The box included a box full of organic, fair-trade, wheat-free delights:

  1. Pecan Brownie
  2. Original Brownie
  3. Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie
  4. Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie
  5. Butterscotch Pecan Cookie
  6. Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie
  7. Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
  8. Cinnamon Snickerdoodle

I can’t wait to dig into them – I’ll update this post with a review – but in the meantime, I’ll leave you with a picture so you can be jealous.

Foods I Want to Include in my Diet in 2012

Posted on by
1

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions because they seem to have a lifespan of approximately 31 days, if not shorter.  But this list below are things that I’d like to permanently incorporate into my diet, and I’m going to use the start of this year as motivation to find creative ways to use them.

  1. Chia seeds - yes, these are the same seeds that I spread across my turtle Chia Pet my BFF gave to me in elementary school.  Chia seeds are the highest plant based source of Omega 3s.  They are also high in dietary fiber and protein.  One benefit to chia seeds over flax seeds is that you don’t need to grind them – flax seeds are difficult for the body to digest, so they are best used ground.  I’ve added chia seeds into my granola recipe and have some great Lemon-Chia Seed muffins baking in the oven right now.
  2. Turmeric - you would think that being of Indian descent, that turmeric would be a part of my daily diet – think again. Turmeric has great anti-inflammatory benefits, is a natural pain killer and a great liver detoxifier.  Turmeric has also been found to be a great herb to assist in balancing hormones. I’ve seen folks buy turmeric in pill or tea form, but if I don’t manage to include turmeric in at least one of my meals during the day, I opt to mix 1/2 tsp in a bit of warm water, and drink that instead. You could probably opt for a much tastier alternative by trying out this Golden Milk recipe.
  3. Coconut Oil - even though this oil is extremely high in saturated fat, its structure does not raise cholesterol in the same manner other saturated fats may.  Coconut oil stimulates metabolism and improves thyroid function – both of these have shown to be an aid in reducing body fat. There is still a lot of research to be done on this fat, but in an almost vegan diet, I feel that it is essential to find quality fats to include in my every day meals.
  4. Dandelion - bitter greens are generally great liver detoxifiers.  Our liver has a pretty big job to do with regards to keeping our hormones balanced and in check.  I try to drink a dandelion tea at least three times per week – my favourite brand is Chartreuse Organic Dandelion Detox Tea.  I’ve also used dandelion greens in some salads and stir-frys, and also manage to get some dandelion into my diet from my favourite coffee substitute, Dandy Blend.
  5. Dried Legumes - I used to always have a supply of canned legumes in my pantry, but after I use up everything that is in my pantry now, I will make the switch to dried legumes only.  The recent research on BPA in the lining of canned items has had me wanting to make a change.  The change should really be quite simple – it is just a matter of being more organized in planning my evening meals so I remember to soak the legumes the night before (an important step to reduce the phytic acid in the beans – phytic acid reduces the body’s ability to absorb nutrients). I came across this article that describes how to freeze your own cooked beans – I’m not sure I’m organized enough to do this, but it is a great tip if you’re short on time.
  6. Nuts and Seeds - I have started packing a small pill box full of almonds to eat every afternoon at work (I choose not to keep a large jar of almonds at my desk in fear of finishing them all in one sitting).  I also include pepitas and almonds in my weekly batch of granola.  I love the taste of walnuts in my veggie burgers, and will try to incorporate that more often.  I think that between walnuts, almonds, pepitas, flax seed and chia seeds, I’ll have enough variety in my diet.
  7. Protein Shakes - I sometimes tend to get a bit sloppy about watching my protein intake, especially when I start working out.  I’ve decided to have a protein shake at least 4 to 5 times per week to make sure I’m covered.  My favourite vegan protein shake is the Nikken Kenzen Body Balance Meal Replacement, but it is quite pricey (but in my opinion, the only pea protein I can actually drink without gagging).  I’m also a fan of Tera’s Whey organic fair-trade protein powder, and they now offer a Goat’s Whey protein as well, which I’m planning on trying.

I’d love to hear from you on what changes you’re trying to make to your diet this year.  May 2012 be a year of health and happiness for you!

Leftover soup has a role in life – especially when paired with pasta

Posted on by
Reply

I really enjoy Pacific Natural Foods’ products – I like that the ingredients they use are foods that you can recognize and I also love that so many of their foods are organic.  Now that Costco carries their Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup in a multi-pack (vegetarian, not vegan), I usually stock up for a quick meal option when we’re short on time – in my opinion, warming this up is a much better choice than getting takeout from somewhere because at least you know when you’re eating. A quick salad or sandwich with a bowl of this soup makes a fantastic meal.

The only bad thing about the quart sized soup containers is that it is too much for two people to finish in a meal, but not enough for a second meal. I had an open carton leftover in the refrigerator, and decided to jazz it up and turn it into a pasta sauce.  Because the soup does contain some organic milk, the sauce turned into a creamy tomato sauce that was delicious.

I started by boiling whole wheat macaroni in a medium sized pot – I used to have a bad habit of making too much pasta, because it just didn’t look like there was enough when I boiled it in a larger pot.  I now control this problem by using a smaller pot.   As the pasta was cooking, I prepped 3 leeks, 2 cloves of garlic and a bunch of baby broccoli. I cooked the broccoli in my cast iron pan on low heat until it was tender. Once the pasta had finished cooking, I left the pasta to drain in a strainer, and in the same pot, cooked up three roughly chopped leeks with 3 cloves of garlic.  I seasoned the sauce with some white pepper and allowed it to cook down a bit to a thicker consistency. I added in the cooked pasta and allowed the mixture to cook for about 30 seconds longer.  If I hadn’t been in such a rush, I could have grabbed herbs from my garden, but the creamy texture of the soup was satisfying just on its own.

This whole process took me under 30 minutes (if I could figure out a way to make water boil instantly, it would be even faster).  I managed to use up my leftover soup and had only one pot to clean – now that’s an efficient dinner!

Grilled Summertime Veggies with Risotto

Posted on by
Reply

I know, I know, I just posted an article about fall soups…but when I got home last night, I realized I had a lot of veggies in the refrigerator along with some beautiful eggplant in the garden. What better way to serve them than to grill them up? I decided to serve the veggies with risotto, but I’m sure they would have tasted just as good with some quinoa, brown rice or even pasta – I just wanted the risotto :) .

When we were getting our kitchen renovated a few years ago, our contractor asked us if we really needed to have a six burner stove in the kitchen.  I should send him this picture, because five out of the six were going as I grilled up the last of the veggies and tofu (Hodo Soy, of course), sauteed sweet baby broccoli, kept the vegetable stock warm and cooked the risotto.  I love six burner stoves!

Because this was a last minute decision for dinner, I realized I didn’t have much to marinade the vegetables with. I usually have a bottle of Organic Italian Volcano Lemon Juice (courtesy of Costco) in the refrigerator, but I had used up the last of it making some green tea lemonade.  I ended up using some of the “juice” from a jar of green olives mixed with some olive oil, spicy mustard and red chili flakes to marinade the tofu and coat the veggies and it turned out great!

I grilled the veggies dry and once they were almost cooked, dunked them into the marinade and then returned them to the grill to keep warm.  This method worked well because I didn’t have to marinade the veggies in advance.

For the risotto, I made a quick stock out of dried chili peppers, carrots and celery – it didn’t have very long to simmer, but enough to provide an extra level of flavour. I sauteed up one red onion in some butter until it was well cooked and then added in the arborio rice, giving it all a good stir until the rice looked slightly toasted. Then came the exciting part of adding stock and stirring – I’m not quite sure if I follow all the rules here, but I usually just add 2 to 3 cups of the stock right away and let it simmer until absorbed and then follow up with one ladle of stock at a time and stirring and repeating until the rice is cooked. I topped it off with some shredded parmesan. This was probably not quite a traditional risotto, but who cares! It tasted good and I received a perfect compliment during dinner – “Why do we go out for dinner when we visit here?”.

Farewell Summer…Welcome Fall Soups

Posted on by
Reply

Even though I am sad to see the summer slipping away, there is nothing like coming home to one of my favourite winter-time meals – a simple dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I fancied up the ingredients in my sandwich to make it worthy of my dinner guests :) .

This meal was created out of various leftovers in my refrigerator (although it did require a quick stop to Whole Foods). I used the leftover pickled cabbage from our tacos, leftover cream from a batch of strawberry ice cream I had made the day before and a quick sauce I had put together out of the Black Prince Heirlooms that were starting to soften up after being on the counter for a week.

For the soup, I cooked down all of the tomatoes I had leftover and then ran them through the food mill to separate out the skins and seeds.  I had originally intended to use the tomatoes for a pasta sauce, but soup sounded like a better use of the delicious tomatoes.  I used a little bit of vinegar to cut the sweetness of the tomatoes (any acid would do if your tomato sauce is ever too sweet), seasoned it with some oregano, salt and pepper and then added enough cream to thicken the soup.  Once the soup was simmering, I added some green onions for an additional dash of flavour.  Cream of tomato soup is so easy to make, especially if you have a head start with cooked tomatoes already – no more high-sodium, packaged soups for me!

For the grilled cheese, I picked up a loaf of Acme’s Green Onion Slab which I sliced in half and placed on the griddle to crisp up the inside.  I then smeared on a generous serving of goat cheese on each side, topped it with the pickled cabbage and red onions (I sliced and sauteed them in my cast iron pan) and added some pepper jack cheese.  I then set the griddle pan on low heat and allowed the residual heat to melt all the cheeses together.  I cut the bread into fun-shaped triangles to serve (grilled cheese should always be cut into triangles in my opinion).

Vegan Pasta, Vegan Pesto and More Fun with the Mariquita Farms Tomatoes

Posted on by
2

We decided to make a basil pesto out of the remaining basil from my CSA delivery.  I never really follow a recipe for pesto and never worry about having pine nuts – I find them to be expensive and I always manage to burn them when I try to “toast lightly”.  I always have raw almonds in the pantry, and that is what I used for this recipe.

Ingredients

  • a bunch of fresh basil
  • 1/3 cup almonds
  • 3 small cloves of garlic (I get my garlic from my CSA and even the smallest clove packs a big punch)
  • 1 serrano chili
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • olive oil added while running the food processor until it is no longer dry

I picked up a package of Pasta Etc.’s vegan spinach fettuccine from Whole Foods to serve with the pesto.  I really enjoyed cooking with this fettuccine because it did not easily overcook, which I generally find to be a problem with fresh vegan pastas.

We also made a fresh caprese salad using the Black Prince tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella and some olive oil.  I love how fresh this salad always tastes, especially with the lightness of the fresh cheese.  One of these days, I’ll attempt making my own fresh mozza, but for now, a quick trip to Whole Foods always does the trick.  One of the best things about this salad was using the leftovers on some italian bread for breakfast the next morning – put it all in the toaster oven until it melted together and it was divine!

Why I Love Costco…

Posted on by
1

Every time I go to Costco, I find a new product that intrigues me – this time it was TruRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio. I guess I should sprout my own beans, but really, who has time for that with a full time job, a busy workout schedule and a food experiment to-do list as long as mine! I also think that I would never be able to use my own sprouted beans in a timely manner, which would always expose me to the risk of food poisoning or the beans going to waste. I haven’t been able to find much information about whether the nutritional of dried sprouted beans is diminished as opposed to freshly sprouted ones, so I’m going to go with the assumption that it is close enough.

My first experiment with these beans was to cook them (according to package directions which only took 15 minutes!) and mix the cooked beans with a very ripe avocado, lime juice, and cilantro. I served it over a bed of greens and it was great leftover the next day at lunch as well. I can’t wait to find more creative ways to incorporate this product into my diet.

I love that Costco continues to introduce new, healthy (and usually organic) options to the grocery aisle at a reasonable price point (unlike Whole Foods, which I love anyways). This makes loading up my pantry so much easier – I usually make one trip per month to stock up on ingredients and it’s nice to add such a great variety of grains and legumes in bulk sizes. Some of my recent favourites include farro and Pacific Foods’ organic soup. I always make sure to take that extra trip down the aisle to make sure I don’t miss out on any new additions.

Eating for Health vs Just Eating

Posted on by
Reply

One of the things I have been struggling with the most is balancing my calories throughout the day with foods I eat for enjoyment purposes versus those that I eat for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  I generally use Livestrong’s Daily Plate to track my calorie goals and based on my current weight and height, I should be consuming around 1850 calories a day to maintain my weight with a sedentary lifestyle.  That being said, I’m actually trying to drop a few pounds, so my real calorie goal is only 1350 calories a day (luckily, I manage to sneak in at least 3 to 4 workouts a week, which allows me to bump up that number).

Having an allowance of 1350 calories a day may seem like a lot, but it really isn’t, especially with all the foods I’m trying to include in my daily diet.  It becomes imperative that I include regular workouts to be able to enjoy all the crazy foods I love to cook and eat.  I think I have managed to figure out a solution for fitting in all the items I eat for health vs the meals that have a more social aspect to them.

In the morning, I start my day with a glass of kale, celery, carrot and apple juice.  I recently read an article about “responsible juicing” where it was mentioned that a cup of this juice is sufficient – the first few days I drank this juice, I did get a mild headache, but that is a known side effect of juicing, especially as your body detoxifies.  If you’re planning on juicing, make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day.  I feel great ever since I’ve added this juice into my diet – I no longer feel the need for caffeine (although I still love the taste of coffee and earl grey tea).  This juice adds about 175 calories to my day.

Once I get to work, I have my protein shake – this has been the most difficult item to incorporate into my day, especially since I don’t really enjoy the taste of it.  There are protein powders that taste better, but I’m determined to avoid soy and dairy in such a processed form – that leaves me with very few choices, but this “meal” is purely functional – to ensure I consume enough protein.  I pack my shake cup with a scoop of protein and mix it with water when I get to work.  The two options for protein powder I use are either Douglas Labs’ Protein Powder Plus or when I’m traveling, I pick up the convenient individual serving pouches of Vega Sport Plant-Based Protein.  Unfortunately, the Vega brand contains stevia leaf extract – I’m not convinced either way on the controversy over this ingredient, but it is banned in the European Union because there is not enough known about it.  I’d rather stick to good ol’ fructose that is found in the Douglas Labs’ product, but enjoy the convenience of Vega when necessary.  Be careful when picking out your protein powder – it is an additive magnet.  My protein powder adds another 100 calories to my day.

Other supplements I have throughout the day include Evening Primrose Oil (25 calories) and occasionally Amazing Grass Green Superfood (30 calories). That leaves me with 1020 calories to eat for lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner, if I’m not working out that day.  Trying not to exceed 1000 calories is no easy feat, especially when a serving of brown rice adds up to 200 calories (and let’s be real – who actually eats only a single serving of rice?) and half an avocado can add up to 150 calories.  One thousand calories may be quite a lot of calories if you’re trying to pack your meals with nutritious, fresh foods, but a single serving of cheese, eating out (even at a vegan restaurant), stopping for an afternoon latte or snacking before dinner can easily tip you over the top.

For now, I’m thrilled that I’ve actually been able to follow a routine that is achievable and does not require a significant amount of extra effort.  I’m meeting my requirements to eat for health (which should always be a primary focus), while still being able to enjoy a large variety of foods from a social standpoint.  Which reminds me…the weekend has begun! Have a great one!

Filling my CSA void with a blog post – Chili tofu on a bed of arugula

Posted on by
Reply

It’s Wednesday. And no CSA delivery. How sad. So instead of showing you a picture of my delivery, I’ll just share what I had for dinner tonight.

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg Hodo Soy Beanery tofu
  • 2 spring onions
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 2 thai chilis (of course, use at your own discretion)

Instructions

  1. Cut the tofu into smaller pieces and begin frying in a small amount of oil – add in the spring onions.
  2. Once the tofu has cooked, add the remaining ingredients.
  3. Add a bunch of chopped fresh cilantro before serving.

May I also mention my new handy-dandy rubber spatula I found in the clearance section at Macy’s? I love it because all of my other rubber spatulas have a wooden handle, which means I can’t put them in the dishwasher (the wood can warp in the high heat, which is also why your wooden cutting boards don’t belong there either).  This spatula has a stainless steel handle – so straight to the dishwasher after cooking!

I then served this tofu on a bed of arugula, with red radishes, green peppers and avocado.  My nose is still running from those thai chili peppers, but a cold refreshing glass of Santa Cruz Organics Limeade helped that situation (and was perfect for this warm summer night).