The juicer is here.....

The juicer is here, the juicer is here.  As you can tell I am very excited and so is our son.  He was the first one to have it out of the box, unfortunately I had no fruit in the house to juice, so off to the grocery store I go.


Now it's unpacked, washed and waiting to be used.  The juicer came with a disc of e-booklet's, they are funny.  First off there is four booklets, three are almost identical and then one on beauty treatments.  The pictures are from the 70's and the juicing recipes are almost all the same. 


So now starts the job of making sure that our picky eating son gets some good nutrients into him.  Not sure if you can survive on bread, butter, plain pasta, pizza and apples.  I bought him chocolate flavoured Ensure, to help him put on some weight and some added nutrients, he said it tasted yucky.  Tasted like chocolate milk to me, sigh!  Hopefully all my efforts and money, will be rewarded, probably not, being a mom is sometimes frustrating.


I am going to start out plain, apple juice, maybe try carrot, watermelon and grape.  I might need to get a second job to supply us with all the fruits and vegetables I will need to buy.


A recap on dinners this week, the Green Curry Deep fried tofu was a bomb.  I had never used green curry before and when I added it to the coconut milk it didn't turn any shade of green.  So I added another spoonful and then another.  Yikes, it was so hot we couldn't eat it, we had to throw it out.  Bless my husband who made a good effort at it.  I made french bread to go with the Guoda and Lentil soup and it was a big hit.  Well, except for the son of course, who just ate the bread. 


It's the company christmas party tonight, so will let you know what "vegetarian" dish I get served.  I will be trying the Sesame crepes with mushroom cream sauce tomorrow night.  Also Christmas decorating will be taking place over the weekend.


Have an excellent weekend everyone.  (my two followers)

Holiday meals

My blog today is about food served at holiday parties.  This past weekend we were at the Zoo for my husband's company Children's Christmas party.  Granted it was for kids and probably a huge majority of them weren't vegetarians, but there was no vegetarian options.  Oh, sorry, there was a veggie platter, BORING.  So try as I might to fill up on carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, I had to resort to the dessert tray to feel full.  Which was not good for my waistline and I don't have a sweet tooth.

 I know I live in a very meat oriented city, "Cowtown", but I am sure there are a few different vegetarian options other then a veggie tray.  How about vegetarian spring rolls, pita wraps stuffed with falafel's and tahini sauce, veggie quesadillas, there are numerous options.  Hey, maybe I should start a vegetarian catering company?  No, but I will be serving a few vegetarian options when company comes over during the holidays.  I will not have a veggie tray.


My husband's company Christmas party is on Friday, he has requested a vegetarian dinner for me and I am quite curious as to what I am going to get served.  I will keep you posted.


My menu for the upcoming week is this:

• Green curry deep fried tofu with zucchini (adapted from "Quick and Easy Thai" by Nanci McDermott, she used chicken)
• Gouda and Lentil Soup (from a "All you need is cheese" flyer that I got in the mail)
• Sesame crepes with Portobello Mushrooms in cream sauce (my new cookbook "3 Bowls: Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery")

In no particular order, as I am not sure what I feel like making on any given day. 


Well that is it for today.  My brain is tired today, life with a toddler.  Hope everyone has a great day.

Snack Time

The daughter and I just had a snack before her nap time, guacamole and chips, I love avocado.  Such a good for you food, a bit on the fatty side, but in moderation, yum.  We are big snackers in this house, I always have crackers of varying kind, cheeses, dips, popcorn, almonds, etc.  Costco sells these great Tamari flavoured almonds that we love, even our very picky son.  We also love almond butter, cashew butter and regular old peanut butter, as long as you don't buy the sugar filled crap, they are all good for you.


Other options for snacks I make sure to I have on hand is fruits.  I always have apples, bananas, pears, strawberries and blueberries.  The latter I have to wait until they are in season or they are very expensive.  I do buy frozen strawberries and blueberries for smoothies and freeze bananas that are about to turn bad.  I need to work on getting more vegetables into our family diet, for some reason that always seems to be a challenge.


Also, my mushroom risotto turned out fantastic, I think my husband even liked it.  I paired that with roasted root vegetables, sweet potatoes and carrots (all that was in the fridge).  Last night we had pasta with a cream sauce (I'm a sucker for cream sauces, much to my husband's dismay).  Tonight it's pizza night, I have some roasted red peppers, veggie salami, mushrooms, veggie chicken strips and cheese.  Load 'er up!


Here is a quick list of what we like to snack on:

• Almonds, regular and Tamari flavoured
• chips and dip (usually guacamole)
• cheese and crackers
• popcorn
• fruit
• sometimes veggies, I'm going to get on increasing that
• almond, cashew and peanut butter on crackers, apples, pears, wraps rolled up

Not too exciting, but if anyone has any suggestions for different, quick and easy snacks, please send them along.


Have a great day!

What's up for this week...maybe

Well here we are, another week. Time is going by so fast and it's almost Christmas. I wanted to write today about grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping; we are a one income family now, so I have had to really pay attention to what I buy, how much and if we really eat it. I have done a lot of trimming in that department and now that I am vegetarian our meat purchases are significantly down. I do serve vegetarian dishes to the family about 3 times a week, and then the husband complains that he needs his meat.

I try to comparison shop, but sometimes going to one grocery store is more convenient then going to three to get a deal on bananas, but it must be done. A couple of things I have noticed is that Superstore, which everyone thinks is quite cheap, is not always the case. I add vital wheat gluten to my bread, at Superstore, Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten is $10.99, Safeway $9.99. Yes a $1.00, but when on a budget that makes a difference. I also don't mind spending more on my produce if I know it's going to last. I have found that Superstore produce does not last. Safeway and Sobey's produce lasts longer and is better quality. Numerous times I have bought produce at Superstore (the last thing grapes) only to have them go bad in a couple of days, maybe, maybe last a week. I also find their dairy even with an expiry date, doesn't always last as long.

One thing Superstore does have is a great natural food section and vegetarian choices. I have found numerous great vegetarian foods with their Blue Label product. They carry great tofu choices and I always buy their Blue Label Teriyaki Marinated Tofu, as well as it's the only place I can find deep fried tofu.


On the menu so far this week is, in no particular order as some nights when I plan on having one thing, if it's been a busy day I'll make something else that is quick and easy.

Mushroom Risotto with roasted vegetables

Pizza, this will probably be on Wednesday night as it's just the kids and I


Vegetable Lasagna, my new favourite dish, there are so many varieties.


I am also experimenting with some different home made breads. Will keep you updated on how they turn out. And waiting impatiently for my juicer.


Have a great day, any comments, suggestions or questions, fire away.

A few bits about getting all my vitamins

Good morning everyone, thank goodness it's Friday. Our 18 month old daughter is going through a phase of clingy, whininess and night waking, it's exhausting, so I need to make sure that I get proper nutrition. This was one of my concerns when turning vegetarian. Chatting with a friend while picking up our son yesterday, she mentioned that a good friend of hers was debating becoming a vegetarian but was always anemic. There are lots of ways I have learned to make sure you get your iron, especially for us women, while being a vegetarian.


The one thing I learned is that when you are eating a food with iron, always have it with something with Vitamin C, it increases the absorption. Spinach salad (tons of iron) with a citrus dressing, oatmeal with orange juice, etc. For me, I also take an extra iron supplement during a certain time of the month. Although I don't always keep up on my iron, I can always tell when I am lacking, when I have good sleep but still feel very tired and no energy, that is when I take some extra iron supplements.


Another vitamin I was concerned about was B12; I do take a B12 supplement, but have also discovered Nutritional Yeast. Full of B vitamins and a complete protein, I try to add this to one of my meals a day (it has a cheesy flavour).  I usually add it to my pasta, pizza, anything that would taste good with a cheese flavour.  


Here is a great looking broccoli and cheese soup that uses nutritional yeast, again from Vegetarian Times...

Of course, I am not an expert and you should read up on all the nutrients and where to get them yourself if considering becoming a vegetarian.  Also talk to your doctor or a nutritionist, hopefully I have offered some insight into what you need.  I always consult the vegetarian food pyramid for my daily food choices.