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Cream of Mushroom Soup with Wild Rice

This is one of the many recipes filling my freezer to the brim right now. I have actually never filled my own freezer with food, despite having done it for many others, and I have to admit, it’s pretty awesome.

Having a tiny baby has made me a meal preparing ninja. I was always pretty fast but now, I know my time is limited and there are other things that need to get done too, so I am quick and stealth and usually wearing all black (because that’s what colour my sweatpants are).

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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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Creamy Cauliflower and Celery Gratin

This recipe is inspired by my grandmother. I’m sure a lot of people are inspired by their grandmother’s cooking but mine was a little different than what you’re probably picturing.

She was a really good cook, something I took for granted about all of the women in my family. She married my grandpa, whose parents were from Lebanon and so learned to cook all kinds of exotic (and incredibly delicious) Lebanese food.

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Massaman Thai Curry

I still don’t know how we got this lucky, but the first time I tried Massaman curry was in Thailand, on a beach, made especially for us by a Thai woman who was too modest to call herself a Chef but too passionate not to offer to cook for us once we started talking about food.

We had been frequenting her tiny bar that had only three tables setup on the beach, every night around sunset. Slowly we got to know her and her husband and learned that they had just given up their restaurant in another part of the country and were running this tiny bar until they could figure out where to open up a new one.

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