Vegetarian Lessons

It seems that lately all I think about is food. I admit I'm a little compulsive since declaring us a flexitarian family. At lunch yesterday, I realised I had an overwhelming choice of delicious options in my kitchen - leftover butternut squash lasagna*, vegetable samosas, split pea soup, masala hummus (thank you Julie for introducing me to this!), green smoothie, etc. I chose a samosa, some sweet potato fries (my 2yo's choice), followed by a green smoothie. Learning to eat vegetarian is an adventure! Bonus: in over a week, I've started to look at vegetables differently.

Strawberry banana green smoothie

For example, DH and I had ordered  vegetarian versions of our fave Thai meals (me: coconut curry, DH: pad thai). When looking at the leftovers the following day, he asked, "are you going to finish your curry, or is it all vegetables?" I laughed and said, "it's all vegetables and yes!" In the past, I would have eaten some of the veggies, but focused on the chicken. This time, everything (except for the huge chunks of onion) had an equal chance of being eaten and enjoyed. We loved our vegetarian dishes, perhaps even more than the chicken versions. I was very happily surprised by that.

Valentine's Day was Monday and I learned a few things...

1. I already can't consume as much sugar as I used to without feeling pretty sick. (I also am convinced that the eczema on my hands is linked to refined sugar, since it starts to burn after I eat something sweet.)
2. My craving for sweets is more psychological than physical. My body doesn't want the sweets now, my brain does. I'm working on changing that.
3. Missing my green smoothie - which I did that day because of all the food being consumed - causes me to feel not only guilty, but also incomplete.
4. My husband is wonderful. (Okay, to be fair, that one I knew already.) He came home with dinner - something he never does unannounced - vegetable samosas, Indian split pea soup, 6 california rolls, hemp hermit cookies, and some incredible Green & Black's Carmel chocolate. He wanted to show his support for how hard I've been working to get our family eating better. I was in tears.

And the quinoa obsession continues... We've made two cookie recipes from Quinoa 365: Healthy Cookies and Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Here are some of the ingredients for Healthy Cookies:

Dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds, rolled oats, flax seeds, coconut

Cooked quinoa

Before baking

Yummy Healthy Cookies

Everyone who has tried these cookies, young and old, loves them. They're not too sweet (1 1/4 cups brown sugar for 56 cookies) and are full of good things.

When I made the Oatmeal Raisin cookies, I had only a 1/2 cup raisins and so I used chopped medjool dates to make up the other cup. These are also really tasty and I prefer the dates - which are a new experience for me - to the raisins. Dates are very sweet, however, and next time I'll reduce the sugar to compensate. These cookies are gluten free as they use quinoa flour.

I've been doing some homework to make sure I'm covering my nutritional bases and to get some suggestions for a veggie newbie. I'm currently picking my way through the Vegetarian Starter Kit from Vegetarian Times. While I don't agree with everything (I'm not convinced of the safety of consuming non-fermented soy products, i.e. soymilk), here are some things that stand out for me:

• eating a variety of plant protein sources over an entire as a way of getting a "complete protein" rather than focusing on having it in each meal (the older way of thinking)
  
• better to focus on dairy-free sources of calcium and limit animal protein, a high intake of which encourages calcium loss from bones
• there is a link between type 1 (juvenile) diabetes and milk protein allergy
  
• using sliken tofu instead of sour cream in dips - can't wait to try this

 One of the best things to happen this week: I think drinking green smoothies prevented K (2yo) and I from getting F's stomach flu. Hurray!

Are you eating meat less or even never? Please share any lessons, tips, resources, or recipes you find helpful.

* I modified the linked recipe by using a combo of butternut squash and pumpkin that I had frozen and then mixing in some cooked quinoa. If you choose to do this, I'd say cook up about 1/2 cup dried quinoa and reduce the squash to 3 cups, otherwise it won't all fit in the baking dish (as I found out). I also used spinach lasagna noodles to give the meal some colour.

Feeding the family during "Snowmageddon"

We'd expected anywhere from 30 to 45cm of snow in Hamilton yesterday, but didn't get it. What we did get was enough to shut down the city and we all got a snow day - yay! There was something about all the snow outside, the sound of snowblowers and shoveling, and being snug and warm inside that made me want to cook. I'd heard of people stockpiling groceries in the days leading up to the storm, but I was happy that we had more than enough to sustain us for several days (but probably more). We'd run out of raisin bread - the boys' favourite - and so I made a new recipe in the bread machine. It turned out great and so much better than storebought.

I still felt like baking - and honestly, bread machine bread can't really be called "baking" - so upon a suggestion from my sister-in-law to check my freezer for summer fruit, I settled on a berry buckle. It uses a handful of basic ingredients, plus frozen berries. The boys helped and it was fresh out of the oven when they and DH returned from shoveling the driveway.

For dinner, I'd already planned on making loaded baked potato chowder in my new Pampered Chef Covered Baker. (Aside: I recently had a party and stocked up on some stoneware and necessary cooking tools for next to nothing. I got $258 worth of stuff for about $19. I was thrilled.) The chowder is made in the microwave - I almost never "cook" in the microwave, just heat - and takes about 30min from start to finish, including prep. It tasted fabulous and was really easy - not to mention frugal!

So today, the bread is almost gone and I may just be making another loaf for tomorrow. The chowder probably has about 2 servings left and the berry buckle is about half gone. So what's for dinner tonight? Hmmmm... I'm on a quinoa kick after purchasing Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood (more in a post to follow) and am thinking of trying the "Outrageously Quick and Easy Pizza Crust". However, I only have bread machine yeast, not quick rise yeast and am trying to figure out how to successfully substitute. Fingers crossed, we'll have a yummy pizza for dinner.

Irresistible Zucchini Bread

Last night I dug out some frozen shredded zucchini. It was from our garden. In 2009! I thawed it, rinsed it, drained it, squeezed it (to remove some of the extra water), and it was just fine.

I used it to make a family favourite: Zucchini Bread. It's from my beloved Betty Crocker cookbook. I've had the book since about 1998 and it has so many good recipes.

Photo from BettyCrocker.com

You can see the recipe here. Modifications I make: reduce sugar by 1/3 cup to 1 1/3 cups; reduce cloves to 1/4 tsp (I'm not a huge fan of cloves); for flour, I use a blend (see below); skip the nuts (my boys don't like them).

My sons helped me make the bread (which they prefer to call "cake") and love to eat it. What an easy way to get some veggies into them.

I've made the pumpkin variation before and am considering trying it with butternut squash.

When I harvest the zucchini from the garden (you can also buy it in season from a farmer's market), I wash and shred it right away. If you've got really picky eaters who will balk at a little green in their bread, you can peel the green off before shredding. I prefer to leave it on to keep the vitamins. I put three cups into a bag, mark it and pop it in the freezer. This way I can make a zucchini bread whenever the mood strikes. Even over 1.5 years later!

Flour Blend (from "The Sneaky Chef" by Missy Chase Lapine): Mix together 1 cup unbleached white flour, 1 cup wheat germ, and 1 cup whole wheat or whole grain flour. Once blended evenly, use instead of white flour in recipes. I keep mine in a glass jar in the freezer (so the whole wheat flour doesn't go rancid) and then measure out what I need for a recipe.