Hearty Winter Vegetable Stew

This is the perfect meal for a cold winter's night. Pair it with a thick slice of bread slathered in butter and you have a stick-to-your-ribs meal without a whole lot of calories and plenty of vitamins, minerals, fibre, and vegetables!

Prior to thickening with flour

Ingredients

serves 2 for at least 2 meals

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 large carrots, chopped

1 medium potato, cut into 2 cm pieces

3 cloves garlic, diced

several mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup frozen peas (or any green that needs to be used up)

3 cups vegetable stock

3 cups water 

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup pot barley or any other grain

salt and pepper, to taste

2-3 tbsp. flour (to thicken to desired consistency)

You can also add broccoli, cubed tofu, or any other vegetable you have on hand, and you can use all stock or all water.

Saute all veggies, except peas, until golden in a large soup pot. Deglaze pot with wine, making sure to scrape all the little brown bits off the bottom of it. Add stock, water, bay leaf, and peas and bring to a boil. Add barley and simmer until it is tender, about 30-40 mins. Season to taste. Mix flour with a bit of softened butter or water, whatever you prefer, and stir into soup. Add more flour if it doesn't thicken enough for your liking. Simmer for another 10 minutes or so. 

This is a lovely quick meal that is frugal and reheats beautifully. I hope you try it, as it is a huge hit in our household! It can never hurt to have a glass of wine with it as well...

Enjoy!

Brenna

Handmade Pasta and a Birthday Dinner

Earlier last month was my dad's 50th birthday. His request for a present? A home cooked meal in our new kitchen that included cupcakes. Done. I love to cook for family, and this was the first meal D and I have cooked for company since our new kitchen was installed. We had the dinner last weekend, and here are a few photos of the main dish being prepared.

The Menu


Handmade fettuccine with pesto sauce (frozen from last year's garden)
Handmade spaghetti with tomato sauce (tomatoes canned 2 summers ago)
Sauteed beet greens with garlic
Steamed broccoli with olive oil
Green Salad with radishes and cucumber
Strawberry Shortcake with vanilla cupcakes and ice cream

Unfortunately, I did not think to take photos of anything but the pasta making process. Trust me when I say it was delicious! All of the vegetables were from the market along with the strawberries. Everything was made and eaten with love.

Homemade pasta is one of my all time favourite meals. It truly tastes entirely different from store bought pasta, and is surprisingly easy to make. We received our pasta attachment for our mixer as a Christmas gift last year, but you could do this easily with a hand crank or by hand! I really encourage you to give it a try, it is delicious!

Pasta Dough

4 large eggs

1 tbsp. water

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Place eggs, water, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix all together using either a wooden spoon or the dough hook attachment if using an electric mixer. Beat for 2 minutes with mixer, a bit longer by hand, until smooth dough forms. Hand knead for an additional 2 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. Divide into 4 pieces and roll out to desired thickness. Cut into any size pasta. 

** We had to add a few more tablespoons of water to get it to come together, just do it by feel.

Cook the pasta in boiling water for about 2-3 minutes, until al dente. 

Enjoy! 

Brenna

Dreaming of the Farmer's Market...

So yesterday was gorgeous and warm outside, so we felt inspired to make this delicious summer salad, which has been a standby for hot summer nights in our home for a couple years now.  It was delicious, despite the fact that it did not contain any super fresh produce from our local farmer's market, and that it was by no means a hot summer night. But a girl can dream, right?

                                                                              Drool...


Here is the recipe:

Original recipe found in the June 2008 Vegetarian Times Magazine, online link found here.

Chilled Noodle Salad with Mango


**Vegan and Gluten Free!

Dressing


1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, diced

Salad


8 oz rice stick noodles
1 large carrot, cut into thin strips
1 1/2 cups sliced lettuce
1/2 cup chopped basil (we left this out last night, and it was still great)
1/2 cup chopped mint
1/2 cucumber, sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 green onion, sliced
1 large mango, sliced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

Make dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and heating through until sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool. Next, soak the noodles in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain, and set aside. Cook the carrot in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds. Scoop out with a slotted spoon, and then put in the noodles. Cook them for 5 minutes. Rinse both the carrot and the noodles under cold water once cooked. Put them into a large bowl, and chill while you cut up the rest of the vegetables. Toss the noodle mixture with lettuce, basil, mint, cilantro, cucumber, bean sprouts, green onion, and mango. Toss it all in the dressing, mixing well. When you are ready to serve it, garnish it with the peanuts.

This salad is wonderfully refreshing and light, but filling at the same time. We had it with homemade quinoa burgers on the buns I posted about earlier. It was delicious!

Enjoy!

Brenna

Enjoying the Food of Life

Whew, what a week! I am sorry for the long time away with no warning, but D's sister has been in town for a while and she ended up being stranded here for an extra few days because of the terrible road conditions. So we have been doing nothing but working and visiting. But, now I am back, and ready to start some new posts.

I just finished this great book, called French Women for All Seasons. It is a sequel to French Women Don't Get Fat, which I also enjoyed, but I think this one was a bit better. Now I know that they sound like unintelligent diet books, but they really aren't. The second book, especially, explains how French women (and men too, I am sure) manage to enjoy their lives, spend time in the moment, and in general are very happy people. They don't worry about rushing through life trying to get as many things done as possible throughout each and every day. They take time to eat, drink, talk, and in just enjoy themselves! They take great pride in what they eat, and take the time to prepare it and enjoy it together. I loved how the book went through each season and described how she gets pleasure from eating local, fresh food, and how you can incorporate her lifestyle into yours, however you please. She also touches on the North American lifestyle, and how it is all about quantity, not quality. I think that is an excellent point. Here, you have to search out good restaurants and quite often settle for subpar meals, not expecting greatness every time we eat. We do not take proper lunch breaks, or make time for breakfast or even dinner. We take no pride in making our own meals from scratch. In fact, it is considered a luxury to be able to make your own food. People who make their own bread or pasta are thought of as people who have nothing but time on their hands, and that their way of doing things is completely absurd. We no longer have family dinners together, everyone eating together and talking about their day. We all now eat in front of the TV, not even allowing our bodies to register that we are eating. We eat fast, cheap food, that has little or no nutritional value, and try to eat large amounts of it in record time so we can go back to whatever else we were doing. Fueling our bodies to be strong and healthy is not a priority anymore, and it truly is sad. We are the fattest continent, and our life expectancy is now lower than the generation before us.

Well, I say no more. Here at our house, we are all about the homemade, low salt, unprocessed food (most of the time), and I think that that should become the norm. No more fast food, packaged meals, or take out. I am making it a personal goal to try and make as much of our food from scratch as possible. And no, this is not a New Years Resolution. I hate those. I am not putting a number on this, or setting a standard for us to meet. I am simply going to incorporate this into our life as best I can. I am also going to sit down for every meal of the day and savour my food. No more breakfast on the go. I won't be perfect, and there will be the occasional night of pizza delivery. But that's what it is going to be: occasional. I challenge you all to look at your eating habits and try to incorporate more homemade, wholesome ingredients. How do you think you could get more pleasure out of eating? What changes would you like to make to your weekly meals? I would love to hear some feedback, and I will keep you posted on my progress!

Brenna