Archive | December, 2015

Squash & Black-eyed Pea Chili

Published on in Freeze-able, Greens, Legumes, Main course, Soup By |
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Squash and Black-eyed Pea Chili

If you are like me and have had more chili in your life than anyone probably needs (thanks to plenty of time spent skiing in the mountains, and a recipe that my sisters and I knew how to make, growing up), you probably don’t get crazy excited over the idea of a nice, warm bowl of chili for dinner. This one is different though. It’s the perfect recipe for possibly the first thing you eat this year.

Squash and Black-eyed Pea Chili

I have made it with black-eyed peas, because some say that eating black-eyed peas on January 1st brings us good luck. I am willing to buy into anything that may bring some luck, especially if it will definitely bring the delicious (and feed a crowd/freeze well). I have another lucky black-eyed pea recipe here if you’re looking for options.

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Quinoa Salad with Sweet Potato Salad, Dandelion Greens and Dill Dressing

Published on in Grains, Greens, Main course, Nightshade-free, Nuts, Roots, Salad, Salad dressing By |
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Quinoa Salad with Dandelion Greens and Dill

This salad was the all time favourite of a client who I cooked for for many years. She was very low maintenance thanks to the fact that she really loved all food and also because she wanted this same salad at least once a week. I haven’t been able to look at it for years (I got pretty sick of it) but I was thinking about it the other day and thought I’d give it another try.

Quinoa Salad with Dandelion Greens and Dill

It brought back lots of memories (as food can really do) and I remembered why it got so much love in the first place. Its flavours are well balanced (bitter greens with sweet potatoes and fresh, grassy dill), it is hearty (protein-rich quinoa, beefy broccoli and fatty almonds) and it’s easy to take with you as a snack or lunch on your way out the door, or wrap up in a collard with some avocado (how I judge the merits of all grain-based salads).

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Gingerbread Men (and tips for healthier holiday baking)

Published on in Freeze-able, Fruit, Nightshade-free, Raw, Seeds, Snack, Sweet-ish, Tips By |
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Almost Raw Gingerbread Men
There are certain foods that we don’t consider good for our bodies, which are actually very good for our souls. They are different for everybody, they are the foods that give us warm, nostalgic feelings. They are the foods whose aromas waft out from the kitchen and immediately make us feel safe and loved. Those are the feelings we all need to feel more often and are just as important as healthy food and clean air.

Almost Raw Gingerbread Men

The not-so-great part of this equation is that those same foods that give us all of the deep and delicious soul food are often the same foods that are full of sugar and refined carbs. What’s worse is that the more we learn about which foods we ‘should’ be eating (or when, let’s say your daughter obsessively researches the foods you should be eating based on your recent cancer diagnosis), we begin to feel guilty about these comforting soul food experiences, an emotion that cancels out all of the health benefits of the good stuff that you may have been feeling from those old familiar smells and tastes.

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Nut-based Cream Cheese with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Pesto & Pine Nuts

Published on in Condiment, Fermented, Keto-friendly, Nuts, Raw, Snack By |
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Plant-based Cream Cheese with Pesto, Sundried Tomatoes and Red onion

I can’t tell you how happy I am that this recipe translates so well to dairy-free. It’s a dish that my cousin (trained Chef and so much more) created and would put out as an appetizer around Christmas time when all of our families would get together. My Mom then started making it because we all loved it so much, so it now tastes, to me, like every fun family occasion.

Plant-based Cream Cheese with Pesto, Sundried Tomatoes and Red onion

I hadn’t thought about it in years, but suddenly it’s all I could think about. It’s a little bit retro now, it was born back when pine nuts were cool and sundried tomatoes were sort of new and fancy and everyone had a jar of those Costco ones in their fridge.

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