Chili

This was a very delicious meal that was used for a couple of days of left overs and is now stored away in lunch containers for Micah to take to work.

Here is the basics of what I did.

Fry up onion, garlic, peppers, and celery

In a crock pot put in some crushed tomatoes, water, bbq sauce, chili powder, taco seasoning, a little brown sugar and add your fried stuff. Then add a can of rinsed black beans, kidney beans (really any kind of beans you would like) . Also I cooked up 1 cup of green lentils according to the package and added them into the chili to give it some thickness.

Towards the end of cooking I added some frozen corn.

This was very yummy served with my favorite corn bread recipe

Taco night

Ok so here we go week three. We are still doing great on my no meat cooking we are enjoying lots of new recipes that will be added to our monthly meal plans. Let me know by leaving a comment what recipe you and your family have enjoyed the most that you made!!!

Here is a special post from my friend Kristi. Its her version of veggie taco night at their house!

All the yummy fixing you and your family like. Here is Kristi's list

Yellow Peppers

Green Peppers

Tomatoes

Cucumbers (our kids love those on tacos)

Lettuce

Corn

Sour Cream

Cheese

Mild Salsa

The "meat" part of these taco's is black beans. To cook them you can drain them (if you are using canned and make sure you rinse them to get some of the added salt off) and fry them up in a frying pan with onions and garlic. For the taco seasoning if you aren't using packaged stuff you can make your own taco flavoring mix with this recipe. When the beans are a little soft mash them up a bit.

Add your meat mixture to warmed tortilla shells and let the family serve up their own! If you aren't eating grains simply make a taco salad with all the fixing.

:

Thanks Kristi for the idea we will be serving these up at the Peterson house this week!

broccoli quiche

Last night we enjoyed a delicious broccoli quiche. You can make this without a crust as well.

Here is a basic recipe that I used

stir fry
onion
green peppers
sweet peppers

Whisk together 4 eggs and 1 cup of milk ( I used skim milk and some cold water mixed together) and 1 tbsp flour*. Add stir fried vegetables (once cooled) and cooked broccoli. Pour mixture into pie plate and bake at 350-375 for 50 minutes or until egg is set.

* When you add the flour it looks clumpy but don't worry it will turn out yummy!

Tonight's supper is one of our favorite breakfast foods. Baked Oatmeal with yogurt and blueberries!!

Week 2

So here we go week two into our vegetarian life style. So far we are enjoying the meals I have been making. We do feel a lot fuller (from all the vegetables and beans) and a lot more musical! hehehe

Yeserday I cooked a crock pot of beans for supper that we enjoyed with scalloped potatoes. Now tonight I will use the left overs to make rice and bean quesadillas.

So how is everyone else making out?? Any one want to share a delicious recipe for me to guest post. Let me know I will put it up for ya!

Red Lentil Soup

Last night we attended an international pot luck so I thought since we loved the BBQ lentils so much that I would double the recipe and take them. My doubling lentils attempt failed and I was left with a pot of mushy looking red lentils and I quickly remembered a recipe my dear friend Mel gave me so it quickly turned into red lentil soup.

This is a fast and delicious recipes. As we were finishing up the last of this today for lunch hubby said..."this is so good I would buy it at a restaurant"

Red Lentil soup
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup dry red lentils
1 cup butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups veggie stock or water
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro for garnish

Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion, ginger, garlic, until onion is tender.
Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro into the pot. Stir in the stock, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry powder, cumin,cayenne pepper, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until lentils and squash are tender.

Garnish with cilantro and enjoy.

Pad Thai Noodles

So no picture of last nights meal but it was very very delicious. We stir fried some vegetables (carrots, ginger, garlic, onions, spinach and peppers) then we added some ingredients to make a sauce (natural peanut butter, lemon juice, ketchup, soya sauce, sesame oil, red curry paste and crushed peanuts) and finally throw in some rice noodles that have been soaked in water!!

Quick, easy and delicious.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fast

Marbled stuff potatoes

Here is our delicious supper from last night. These potatoes were SOOOOOOO yummy I can't wait to make them again. They are called Marbled stuffed potatoes. They are orange colored because you mix sweet potatoes with the white potatoe. Also we enjoyed BBQ lentils. Both recipes are posted at the bottom! These two things will go into our menu planning.

Marbled Stuffed Potatoes

Large baking potatoes

large sweet potato

1/4 sour cream (due to fast we used natural yogurt)

3 Tbsp margarine or butter

2 scallions, thinly sliced (we didn't use these either; not due to fast though! hehe)

3/4 cup shredded cheese

pinch of nutmeg

salt

olive oil

1. Bake potatoes and sweet potatoes until done

2. Peel sweet potato and transfer to a bowl. Mash lightly with fork until smooth

3. Trim a thin slice off the tops of the potatoes and hallow out the inside (leaving the skin intact) and place into larger bowl.

4. Add yogurt, margarine, scallions, cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper

5. Gradually fold in sweet potato

6. Brush the potato skins with oil and salt and place on cookie sheet

7. Generously fill with the marbled potato mixture

8. Bake at 375 until golden brown, 25-30 minutes

BBQ Lentils

Cook 1 cup of lentils (we used green) according to the package directions. In a small bowl mix together 1/4 cup BBQ sauce with 1-2 tsp brown sugar. Add to lentils when they are done cooking and enjoy!!!!

So let me know how you are making out and some delicious recipes your making!

Spring rolls

Ok so last nights supper of spring rolls was so yummy and fun to do. This recipe is for sure going to be added to our meal plans (cause you can add meat to them) once we are done our fasting.
We started off by chopping up lots of fresh vegetables and even some fruit. Our platter consist of carrots, onions, green peppers, orange peppers, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, apples, eggs and the center is pineapple. Then when we were ready to eat we took rice paper (which you can find in the ethic food section at the grocery store; also its dairy free and gluten free) and dipped it in water to make it soft. When the rice paper is soft you carefully put it on your plate and add whatever combination of vegetables and fruit you would like. You need to be careful not to add too much stuff cause it doesn't roll up properly and will fall apart, right Micah! hehehe


Here is one of my creations. Egg, spinach, carrots, peppers, and avocado. Also we made a delicious peanut sauce to dip them in. It was made from natural peanut butter, sweet chili sauce, and lemon juice.

They were so delicious I ate 6 of them!!! If you are looking for a recipe you can Google Vietnamese french spring rolls. Here is a recipe I found for anyone who would like to try. Also remember those yummy rice cakes I was telling you about yesterday while they got heated up and we enjoyed them for supper! I really love these and will be adding them to the menu as well. Its such a great way to clean out the fridge of left overs!

Also with our fasting we have decided to join up with CBC's Life right now campaign.and do some of their family challenges to stay in shape. So after supper we got up and danced around the house (yes country dancing!) with the kids for 15 minutes! It was so much fun and great exercise for all of us.



Keep the comments coming I love to hear your recipes. Also if you have ever used rice paper before let me know what you stuff yours with!!!

rice cakes anyone

So we are having a lot of fun this week on our Daniel fast because a good friend of ours from Korea is living with us and is pretty much doing all the cooking!!! She has made so much delicious food for us we will be sad to see her go. Sunday when we got home from church she whipped up this rice dish for us (and to answer Kristi's comment we are using a white Korean rice for now). This dish was like fried rice minus the meat, additives and loads of sodium.

She fried up (you don't always have to use oil to "fry" you can put in some vegetable stock or even just a little bit of water and lemon juice) some garlic, onions, carrots, and a potato. Then she added some rice, sesame seeds, and peas. Once it was fried up she cooked some eggs like thin omelets; loaded them with the rice mixture and flipped them onto plates!! Yummy they were very good and a great way to use up the left overs in the fridge.

Now this morning when I got home form mothers club she was cooking away using up the left over rice from Micah's birthday. In this bowl she put rice, carrots, peas, sesame oil, egg, garlic and a little bit of cheese and she was frying them up in the cast iron pan.
They were the best rice cake I have ever had!! I can't wait to eat more of them at supper time and to enjoy some yummy spring rolls that she has made for us! Check back tomorrow to see what spring roll creations we have made.

Hey readers please feel free to leave comments and some recipes that you have been trying. I would LOVE to hear from you!!!

day 1

So yesterday we started our fast of no meat and no junk food. We did really well but the Christmas season sure left us feeling very snacking last night. But we pushed through and had some fruit instead of junk food.

Here is what our menu looked like yesterday

Breakfast: whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter (so proud of hubby that he didn't put any butter on it first!)

Lunch we had rice with vegetables (garlic, onions, carrots, peas and peppers)

For supper I made Eben home made mac and cheese and we ate potato cakes I made out of some left over potatoes we had in the fridge.

Now today we are starting the day off with baked oatmeal, blueberries and yogurt. And for supper we will have crock pot falafels in home made pita bread with lots of vegetables.

Tips for the fast

Ok so this weekend starts our fast of no meat (along with lots of other junk food) for the rest of the month. So here are a few tips that will help us succeed.

First I just went through the flyers to see what fruits and vegetables are on sale for the week. Use that to put together a menu for the week. Without a menu its hard to be organized to know what to cook and will cause a lot of back slide. Go grocery shopping with a list of ingredients needed to make your meal plan.

Now when you get home from the grocery store its time to get to work. Because I stay home and have lots of time on my hands I buy large bags of vegetables and cut them into sticks myself. If you are working or too busy to do that then get snack size ones that are already cut up. Have these in the fridge ready to eat makes us want to eat them when we need a snack. Also have you ever found that you eat more vegetables then normal when you are out and there is a vegetable tray??? Thats cause we eat what we see so be sure to put out a large fruit bowl on the table and even in the afternoon make up a nice vegetable tray to leave on the table. You will be surprised how much gets eaten when left out like this....cause lets face it no one is sitting around thinking ~ wow I could really go for some cauliflower right now~ oh and one more thing because we are trying to cut out processed foods we will use either yogurt or hummus to dip our veggies into!

And the last thing we will do on Saturday night is box up all the junk food left in the house; pop, chips and chocolate and hide them in the basement until next month!!

Stay tuned for our first recipe coming this weekend. Its falalefs and homemade pita bread on Monday!

Going Vegetarian for 1 month

Hello readers and welcome to the New YEAR!! As a family we have decided to fast meat for the month to go along with our Church's annual 21 day fast. Along with cutting out meat from our diets we will also not be eating sweets, cookies, chocolate, chips, pop, ice cream and any other really good junk food. Also for the month to get the noise out of my head I will be fasting from face book in hopes to use that time (aka children's nap time) to listen to a series called the Agape Road by Bob Mumford; in hopes to go deeper with God finding new strength and vision from Him.

So starting Sunday this family is going all Veggie!!! Being a Dietitian I of course have read a lot on the subject and here are a few good things to prepare for our fast. (Hope this is helpful for our church family reading this)

The food guide principles we will be following is as follows:

Eat Most

Grains: such as wheat, rice, barley, corn, oats, rye, millet and buckwheat

Food made from Grains: pasta and bread

Fruits and Vegetables

Eat Moderately

Dairy: Milk, yogurt and cheese

Pulses: peas, beans of all kinds and lentils

Nuts

Eggs

Eat Less

Sugar, Honey, butter, cream, margarine and oils

Just like meal planning and making things from scratch on our regular diet I will do the same on our new fast diet. This will help make it easier for me to shop and stay on our budget. We haven't set a new grocery budget for this year but until we do our year end budgeting I will say that we will eat as vegetarians for $62.50/ week.

So today when I was out shopping I stocked up on clearance items such as breads (only whole grain. When we say whole grain it means that when you look at the 1st ingredient on the label it should ready whole grain), buns, flat bread. I also picked up some Balkan style yogurt which is filled with probiotics and is all natural. Remember if you are cutting back on sugar all those yogurts that are no fat are full of sugars. Now for the pantry I picked up pasta, canned beans, dried beans, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and a few different sauces to add flavor such as sweet chili sauce.

* A side note for Moncton shoppers: the Co-op had some great sales on veggies and dried beans this week and don't forget if we are starting the fast on Sunday to check the market this week to get some other great deals on local produce!

So with all that said this week will be a slow start to our fast cause I am not sure how well the guts are going to handle going on just beans!! heheheh.....So we will integrate that stuff slowly. Here are some meal ideas that I am thinking for the fast. I will post recipes every couple of days and Micah has agreed to be the food critic on them! hehehe.. Let me know if you have more foods to add to the list.

Meal ideas for 21 days of no meat!

Veggie chili

Falafel with homemade pita bread

Honey baked lentils

BBQ lentils

Nacho salad in tortilla bowl

Chef Salad

Omelets

Quiche

Vegetable soup

Lentil soup

Veggie pot pie with sweet potato crust

Rice and bean Quesadilla's

Minestrone soup

Veggie pizza (for Eben)

Vegetable stir fry

Sweet and Sour Noodles with veggies

Winter Vegetable casserole

Greek Salad

Quinoa pilaf with cranberries and almonds

Tomato soup with pasta and basil

Spaghetti Primavera

Veggies Nachos (using baked tortillas for chips)

Weeknight Dinner

Crockpot pineapple beans

Potato and Pea curry

Bean salad

Carrot soup

Red lentil soup

Baked beans on toast

Hummus sandwiches

Tomato and Basil salad

Potato salad (no mayo)

Sesame spinach salad

Avocado egg salad

So there is a list of some of the ideas I have gotten from many friends. I will post the recipes as well try them out!! Hopefully you can enjoy along with us as we fast to get closer to God and hopefully shed off some of the excess weight we are carrying around.