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Steamed Veggie & Quinoa Bowl with Garlic ‘Butter’

Steamed Veggie & Quinoa Bowl with Garlic 'Butter'

This recipe may win the prize for the simplest one on this site so far. It is simply steamed veggies with quinoa and melted coconut oil with garlic. Maybe this is why it took so long to make it onto the blog, I don’t know, do you really need a recipe for this? But then someone pointed out to me it’s not always about the recipe but the inspiration to make something. So I hope this inspires you, it really is worth the effort.

Steamed Veggie & Quinoa Bowl with Garlic 'Butter'

I have to admit, this isn’t something I make for us very often. I guess it’s humble enough to forget about by grocery list/dinner-making time. It’s inspired by a stall at the Granville Island Food Court that always sold salad rolls that my sisters and I would get for lunch when we were little (to go with our donut holes and pizza pretzels).

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Millet & Butternut Squash Polenta with Roasted Beets

I was picking up my husband from work one of those very icy nights in January when you wonder why you’re anywhere but home. I left early (because Vancouver + snow = unpredictable everything) and got there a bit early. I was parked and listening to the CBC and they had one of those calm-voiced announcers on talking about a Danish word/concept called ‘Hygge’.

I had never heard of it before, but sitting in my chilly car, around dinnertime at about 40 weeks pregnant, they had my full attention. As it turns out I want to live in Denmark. Hygge is something that we don’t have a direct translation for let alone a word for in the English language. Roughly, it means ‘cozy’ but it’s more than that.

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High Fiber ‘Jam’ (& Thumbprint Cookies!)

Whether your digestion is on the sluggish side thanks to painkillers or chemo drugs or whether you’re pregnant and your digestion has become a shadow of its former self, this jam is here to the rescue.

Lovingly referred to as poo jam in my family, this is always on the menu for my cancer thriving clients (and was a staple in my house throughout my pregnancy). Sometimes I even make it for fun, just because it tastes so good (it reminds me of fig newtons).

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Spiced Pear Baked Steel-cut Oatmeal

I know I’ve mentioned it here before, but I don’t have the warmest feelings towards traditional oatmeal. I think it is because I was ruined by those instant packs as a kid. You know, the ones you rip open, pour into a bowl, observe with excitement all of the sugar mixed in with the oats and add tepid water to? Bonus points if there were pictures of cute animals on the pouches.

As a semi-adult making my own oatmeal and realizing how much actual sugar I needed to add to make it taste like the stuff I was familiar with was sort of embarrassing and so I just lay off it altogether.

My husband loves it though and will order it any time we go out for breakfast and even make it when he’s feeling inspired. So when we went surfing a few months ago (baby belly and I were surf-watching/walking/reading), I knew we were staying in a place with a questionable kitchen situation (a kettle) so I decided to try something. I filled a big mason jar with instant (not ideal) oats, chia, hemp hearts, dried fruit and lots of warming spices (as seen in this recipe) and shook it up.

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