Archive | December, 2014

New Years Black-eyed Peas and Greens

Published on in Freeze-able, Greens, Legumes, Main course, Nightshade-free By |
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New Years Black-eyed Peas

To many people, eating black-eyed peas on New Years Day is considered good luck. Even if you don’t consider yourself overly superstitious, a cancer diagnosis in the family can leave you suddenly making wishes on every fallen eyelash and picking up pennies off the sidewalk. So if you are feeling as though an injection of luck would be a good way to kick off your New Year, I have a delicious way for you to do so. There will also be kale.

Black-eyed Peas

I love black-eyed peas. They are nice and small so they don’t take forever to cook and they become very creamy once cooked through. They are also high in protein, and offer kidney and adrenal support. This is great news for anybody but is specifically useful for people with cancer because fear is known to affect the kidneys and stress is often responsible for squashing your adrenals. Fear and stress are obviously common emotions for those with cancer in their lives, whether directly or indirectly, making this dish a pretty deliciously supportive and grounding way to start the New Year.

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Festive Bitter Lettuce Salad

Published on in Greens, Keto-friendly, Nightshade-free, Nuts, Raw, Salad, Salad dressing By |
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Besides the simple fact that I’m being cooked for this Christmas–that never gets old -one of my favourite parts of going to my Aunt and Uncle’s for dinner is my Aunt’s veggie dishes. Vibrantly coloured salads, Brussels sprouts cooked in new and interesting ways, and often some underutilized non-potato root veg.

Bitter Greens Salad

I think there is always room for some new characters at the holiday table. I know that a rogue raisin in the stuffing has been known to ruin the night, but if it is a new, optional dish as opposed to a reinvented old favourite, there is less chance of upsetting the applecart.

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Creamy Swiss Chard & Sweet Potato Gratin

Published on in Greens, Nightshade-free, Nuts, Roots By |
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You know that ceramic dish that you have in your cupboard that is the perfect shape to make gratin potatoes in? We are going to fill it with two entire heads of rainbow chard and a giant sweet potato. Not only that, but it is going to taste so good you are going to want to make it again as part of your holiday dinner. Promise.

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This is holiday comfort food at its finest, and it’s coming from a girl who from the age of six, would circle the buffet eating as many scalloped/mashed/fried potatoes as I could, off of the mound I had scooped onto my plate before I sat down, so as to minimize the potato teasing. I know my comfort food, I now how to eat, and luckily, I also know how to make it comfortable for your insides too. Christmas on the outside and on the inside.

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Years ago, I made a version of this for a usually very health-conscious client who was pregnant and wanted only mac and cheese-style food for her last trimester. Understandable. I made it with full fat cream and gruyere cheese, which, let’s be honest, can make anything taste good. But guess what? This doesn’t taste too far off of that dairy-filled version despite its virginal, dairy-free status. If I had been smarter back then, she would have gotten this version.

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Chocolate Sunflower Seed Butter Balls

Published on in Freeze-able, Fruit, Grains, Nightshade-free, Seeds, Snack, Sweet-ish By |
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What I really wanted to make for you this week was peanut butter balls. Either a version of the creamy, sweet ones from your childhood, or the rich and perfect ones from The French Laundry cookbook. That was my jumping-off idea, and although the recipe I have created is indulgent in many ways, I could include close to zero of the ingredients from these original recipes and still keep it crushing-cancer appropriate.

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There is still chocolate, which we can all applaud for. Dark chocolate with 70% cacao or higher is a great source of antioxidants and magnesium, and is low in the other stuff, which includes sugar, cocoa butter and possibly other additives. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the lower percentage of other ingredients, which means the darker the chocolate the better, in the health department.

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