The Way Forward in Health is Better Food

Today I am preparing a few dishes for our Easter celebration – and other family events we have coming up soon after I finish my parasite cleanse. It keeps me busy as well as helps to exercise my creative side.

Of course one cannot help but be creative when all the food we eat is made from basics – homegrown and fresh. I am conscious of a couple of things here with eating this way – I want to keep our food interesting, but I also want to enjoy it’s other qualities.

I have been having some great conversations of late with friends and colleagues regarding our spiritual connection to food and exactly what this has come to mean to me over the years of following these sacred paths.

It seems there are far more elements and dimensions to our food when we produce as much as we can our selves (it doesn’t go through a factory to have it’s life force systematically removed). And certainly when we prepare it with our own hands – these energies become a part of our bodies.

Eating this way should and does enhance our relationship with food, health and family relationships – and also with ourselves. Our spirituality is not separate from the earth – she delivers it to us – on a silver platter as it turns out.

We cannot expect to grow, develop and reconnect on the deeper layers of our inner beings when our diets consist of food many times removed from the earth and her energy.

Life force, once depleted will not be breathed back into something that is long dead – no matter how much we bless it. And it does a body no good whatsoever.

Learning to prepare a few dishes from scratch, expecting more and better from your food for your body, this is the only way forward - in health.

April

Lentil Pot Pie with Pumpkin

My children love pies – and they ask for them all the time. However, these are not sweet pies or desserts they are hoping for – they are wanting a savory pie made with lentils, beans, vegetables and anything else on the go.

With all my years spent being either vegetarian or vegan, this was not a dish I had ever taken to much. I wonder if I had always associated pot pie with those little dishes that come from a factory with bits of chicken in them….

Having trained in those factories during my time as a Food Hygiene Inspector and again while completing my degrees in food and packaging – I would never have been drawn to eating them, making them or buying them. They kind of creeped me out....

But of course now when I am creating, making and cooking all our food from scratch, I know I can make pot pie with anything (and everything!) with some wonderfully delicious results.

Yesterday I had a huge pot of lentil stew ready – it kind of got away from me – as I had vegetables to use up and just kept loading them into the stock pot. After everyone had been well fed, I decided to use up the rest of the stew and make some pot pies – as a surprise.

After taking some of the liquid off – but not too much – I cooked even more vegetables (pumpkin and sautéd onions) to create a thicker filling. These were added to the deep dishes ready to be filled, I also buttered the inside of each dish a little before filling.

Next I covered the pumpkin mixture with scoops of the lentil stew until each dish was nearly full. After liberally salting and peppering over the top of the vegetables, it was ready for a crust. A thicker topping is something that seems to go very well with this type of dish as well. 

I was a bit dubious about how to go about this – I wanted it to lend a very savory flavour to each dish – mainly because the lentils are so earthy, so I made a bread with spelt flour, goat’s milk and water, lots of rosemary, thyme, baking soda and my homemade cinnamon mustard.

This was spooned over the top – and spread it out a little around the middle of the lentils – leaving room at the edges for the pie filling to bubble up.

I think it turned out very well – there’s nothing left!

April

Lentil Pot Pie with Pumpkin

Roast Pheasant, Gravy & Haricot Beans

This dish doesn't look like much in the photo - but my children loved it! And it smelled so good...

At a loss for what to make one day (not really, but it sounds nice) I decided to try something a little different - we all like beans, we love sautéd vegetables and I actually had a roasted pheasant on hand. Something else I had - was a lovely gravy made from the meat.

I soaked and cooked the haricots, they are such a versatile bean and we don't eat enough of them. Perhaps because they are mostly associated with baked beans and that's all. However, they lend an earthy, full bodied flavour to any dish as well as make it that much more hearty.

Next I sautéd a few vegetables - onion, garlic, leek, grated carrot, broccoli etc. and added these to the beans. The gravy and meat were warmed up - all of this was added together to make a little stew. It was thickened because of the gravy...

Steaming hot - I just seasoned it with a little salt and pepper (there were lots of seasonings already in the roasted pheasant) and served it with some thick crusty herbed spelt bread. The children loved it - what I liked about it is that it was fully balanced - so simple yet tasty and filling.

I am planning on making this again - perhaps with a different meat, a different type of bean (maybe chickpeas) and sweet potato or something similar. This is endlessly versatile - and when spiced up, it's also warming and seasonal.

April

Beans are so versatile!

Cheap Food & Getting Cheaper....

With the recent horse sh**, sorry, I mean horse meat, found in the prepackaged, prepared, highly processed, ready meals for sale at rock bottom prices in so many of these Big Supermarkets – is anyone really surprised?

Well, for one thing – you cannot possibly buy, cook, prepare and serve any wholesome, nutritious meal for that little money. Unless you are skimping on something or other….

Now, at least, we all know what was being skimped on. Or do we? Will there be yet more revelations about these dishes (or fodder, I can’t resist) where perhaps we find out sawdust was used instead of flour or that additives have been added to the already chemical flavourings (read; toxic)….

We all know that cheaper is not better – and when it comes to the food we eat, this holds truer than anything. Unfortunately, the more squeezed people become, the worse their diets seem to get.

When our spirits hit rock bottom – so too does the food we eat. We crave sweets, rubbish and make numerous poor food choices – perhaps to match our moods. But also because we have so little left over to buy anything better.

So, where does the ‘better’ food end up? Who on earth is not skimping on their meals, is still able to feed themselves organic, quality, high end nutritious meals without a thought given to cost?

Hmmmmm…..I’ll let you ponder and answer that question.

I am one who believes where there is a will, there is a way, of course there is. If you want to eat better, knowing that this better food will make you feel better, lift you up, improve your mood and generally keep body and soul together during even the toughest times – grow, raise and prepare your own food.

I have long said to anyone who will listen – do not under any circumstances eat the food (prepared rubbish) or drink the poison water. It is part of the problem and just might be the main way we are kept down .

April

Doing what I love to do - cook!

Pea Soup - with Smoked Haddock

Pea soup is something very familiar to me – I have made more then my share of huge pots of this lovely soup over the years – and all of them good in their own way.

It is also such an easy meal to make – basic in fact – but so ancient, wholesome and worthy of making again and again, especially during cold winter days. This is indeed a welcome meal at the end of the week.

Where I come from, in Newfoundland, this type of meal would have been made at the weekends, with salted beef usually and then some lovely dumplings cooked into the bubbling pot when the soup was ready to serve.

Of course my own recipe is a little different (go figure) because I don’t eat beef – but I have since discovered, there are so many other ways to make this dish. One of my favourite being with smoked fish of some kind.

I like it with a nice smoked haddock, but it can be made with anything you have on hand such as smoked salmon, smoked trout, or even oysters. The smoky flavour goes so well with the earthy flavour of the yellow split peas.

Perhaps, like nothing else.

To make pea soup first you need to soak your peas overnight in plenty of water. Then in the morning, place them on a slow boil in a large pot of water with a couple pieces of seaweed. I will use about 2 cups of peas for a 2 litre pot that is less then half full of water.

Next, once this is cooking start adding some ingredients – nearly anything will do. I like to add lots of carrots, turnip, sautéd onions, garlic, a sweet potato, a little celery, fennel, leek – what ever is around can go in the pot.

Then I add a heaping teaspoon each of cumin, turmeric, coriander – salt and pepper to taste and a little allspice or nutmeg. I have been known to also put in some (not much) celery seed, caraway, fennel and so forth as well. Just to give some rich flavours that go well with the peas.

In the meantime, this all cooks away in the pot until the peas become soft and the mixture starts to look creamy and soupy. On a low heat, cooking gently like this it could take up to 4 hours to get this desired consistency.

Once you have your soup ready – take off the heat and blend a little to mostly smooth out the peas, but with a few veggies still intact. Then add your boned, cooked smoked haddock.

Allow this to now sit in the very hot soup for more then an hour – actually this tastes far better the next day – and will be good even a few days later if kept in the fridge.

This soup is lovely served with any bread but we do like Socca or Rosemary Sea salt spelt bread to dip into this rich and tasty meal.

April

Pea soup - ready for haddock!

Chickpea Flat Bread - Oven Fried

This is a recipe you have got to try! 

If you are anything like me, you have things in your cupboards you use seldom - or go through little phases of using them and then forgetting about them for awhile. For me there are several items, some of which I have mentioned on here.

Well, another one is gram flour or chickpea flour. Not so long ago I did use this far more often but it fell out in favour of spelt flour for breads and baking. This week I decided to bring it back and redo some of my favourite recipes with it.

I ended up making a gram flour bread type of pancake - often called Socca - of course my recipe is a little different (what else is new!) but we think it's even better with a few tweaks...

Here it is:

Oven Fried Bread

2 cups of gram flour

400 ml water

finely diced onion

fresh and dried Rosemary

Olive oil or coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

salt

cumin

pepper

Mix the gram flour and water together - blend really well to get out any lumps - then allow to sit for at least 2 hours or even over night. 

Once the flour is ready - add your spices and baking soda, except the fresh rosemary, and blend lightly again to make sure everything is evening distributed. 

In the meantime, set your oven at 190C and prepare a round tin or deep pizza pan by covering with parchment paper. Pour about 1 tablespoon of olive oil on the parchment, add the onion to the batter and then gently pour the batter on top of the oil. 

Once the batter is in the pan - carefully mix or draw the oil through the mixture (it will float to the top) and then sprinkle with a little more salt, pepper and the fresh rosemary. 

Place in a hot oven for about 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Take out and allow to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes, then serve with a meal.

This is lovely with anything or on it's own.

April

Lovely!!

Fritters - Yellow Split Peas

So, remember all those yellow split peas we all have sitting in our cupboards? Well, I have the recipe for at least some of them...these look, smell and apparently taste very good - if the children eating them all in one go is any indication! 

They were also very easy to make (and quick) which is also a bonus. The only thing is I would recommend you soak the peas at least overnight because anything soaked for awhile is more digestible and we all want to go easy on our hard working guts.

I soaked a bowl full of peas overnight in cold water - adding more water as it was soaked up by the peas. Then today I took about 2 cups of the peas and ground them in the food processor even though these are often made with dry peas.

Once ground, I put the pea mixture into a separate bowl and added finely chopped onion, garlic and fresh parsley. Next I added a generous teaspoon (or a bit more) of ground cumin, a little salt and pepper and some coconut flakes (in place of oil).

This was all mixed thoroughly - but here is where I did something a little different. Instead of frying them in hot oil I dropped tablespoonfuls onto a parchment covered baking pan and placed them into a hot oven (about 180C).

Once they were in the oven for about 10 minutes I lightly brushed some olive oil over top of each fritter and put them back in for another 10 minutes or so, until starting to brown on top and very fragrant. Then out they came....

I don't think they even had a chance to cool down - they were gone! 

April

Yellow Split Pea Fritters