Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s to a happy healthy 2012! 

This was the first year that all 3 kids stayed awake until midnight. We played cards and munched on chestnuts, drank apple cider and when the clock struck we all stood outside on the porch and banged pots and pans.

Chestnuts

- Prick chestnuts with a fork and roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20-30 min. The skin should be splitting and the inside a golden brown colour . Do not roast  them for too long. They can EXPLODE!

- Boil chestnuts with fennel seed in a small amount of water for 15-20 min till you can pierce easily with a fork.

-After chestnuts are cooked, peel while still warm and blend until smooth with water and a pinch of sea salt to make a puree. You can add sweetener if you like, but I find chestnuts are nice and sweet on their own.

Homemade Holiday Granola!  

This is what I made and gave out as Christmas presents this year.

Remember to try to get organic ingredients

1 to 2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground ginger

1/2 tsp  Nutmeg

3 cups  Large-flake oats

1 cup  Oat bran or wheat germ

1 cup   Almonds, pumpkin seeds or walnuts

1 cup  Unsweetened coconut

3/4 tsp Sea salt

2/3 cup  maple syrup , rice syrup or honey

1/3 cup Sunflower oil or Olive oil

2 tsp  almond extract or Vanilla

1 cup Dried cranberries

1/2 cup Golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350F . Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. In a small bowl, stir cinnamon with ginger and nutmeg. In a large bowl, mix oats with oat bran, almonds, coconut and salt. In a small saucepan over low heat, stir syrup with oil until warm, 2 to 3 min. Remove from heat. Stir in almond extract and spice mix. Pour over oat mixture. Stir to coat. Turn onto baking sheet, spreading out as evenly as you can. Bake until golden for 25-35 minutes , stirring every 15 min. Remove from oven and stir in cranberries and raisins.

*NEWS! Kids Can Cook program will be held on Thursdays ONLY for the Fall Semester. Starting September 22 at 3 p.m  Hope to see you there! 

After School Program

Fun in the kitchen with macrobiotics and fresh local whole foods, sewing creations, crafts and dance!

I’m very excited to be spending time with your wonderful children. I hope they all enjoy the fall program with me. We will be dancing, making crafts and doing lots of cooking! All of our projects will be hands on, using local organic ingredients as much as possible and recycled goods for our craft projects.

September 16-December 14th 2010

All Elementary School kids -Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00-5:30

All Junior High students- 3rd Tuesday of the month from 6:00-8:00 p.m

$15.00/a day

Please contact me for further information. Sign up today!

Location:Charlottetown Prince Edward Island

Telephone: 902-367-9491

Miso Soup With Sauteed Greens

2-Inch piece wakame, soaked until tender

4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked until tender

Spring or filtered water

1/2 Yellow onion, cut into thin half-moon slices

1 Carrot, cut into thin oblong slices

2 teaspoons barley miso

3 to 4 leaves kale or collard greens, rinsed well

About 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 Red onion, finely minced

1/4 Red bell pepper, roasted over an open flame,peeled,seeded and sliced into thin ribbons

Drain the wakame, reserving the soaking water, and slice into bite-size pieces. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking water, and slice into bite-size pieces. Place the wakame, mushrooms and all the soaking water in a medium soup pot, along with enough additional water to equal 4 cups. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the yellow onion and carrot, cover and return to a boil. reduce heat to low and cook until carrot is tender, about 6 minutes. Remove a small amount of broth and use to dissolve the miso. Stir the miso mixture into the soup and simmer , uncovered, for 3 to 4 minutes to activate the enzymes in the miso.

While the soup  simmers, slice the greens into small pieces. Place the oil, red onion and bell pepper in a small saute pan and place over high heat. When the vegetables begin to sizzle, saute for 1 minute. Stir in the greens and saute until just wilted, about 2 minutes.

To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls and top with a  generous amount of sauteed greens. Serve immediately.

-This soup was my favorite so far!

This recipe is printed with permission from Christina Pirello

Tomorrow I will be starting the second annual spring challenge. Last year went great! I used Aveline Kushi’s book(The Complete Guide To macrobiotic Cooking). This year I have chosen Christina Cooks-Everything You Always Wanted to Know about WholeFoods but were afraid to ask. She is a wonderful chef with a great sense of humor and style. Soon you will be inspired by her as much as I am.Do not worry if you don’t own this book. I will be posting the recipes everyday with photo’s.Or, pick your favorite cookbook  or Chef to follow. The point is adding new recipes to our daily repertoire.

This first week all  recipes will be Soups!

1-Adzuki Bean And Farro Soup

2-Tuscan Kale Soup

3-Miso Soup With Sauteed Greens

4-Spicy Lentil Soup

5-Creamy Cauliflower Bisque With Pumpkin Seed Pesto

6-Kale And Black-Eyed Pea Soup

7-Noodles And Broth With Fried Tofu And Scallions

Please post comments and photo’s of what you are cooking!

All recipes are printed with permission from Christina Pirello

Please join me starting May 1st and enjoy a fresh new (or old favourite) recipe every day for a month..  Bring on the spring.

AN INTERACTIVE COOKING CLASS SERIES

WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER , FALL

Tasty whole foods supper club. Fun, interactive cooking classes. Monthly starting January 20th at 6:30p.m

After all the washing,sorting, chopping, slicing, sauteing, flipping and frying you get to sit down and enjoy our creations.

With humor and guidance we will collectively make the meal together.

We’ll make a party out of it!

EVERY THIRD THURSDAY EVENING AT THE ST PAUL’S CHURCH COMMUNITY KITCHEN ON THE CORNER OF PRINCE AND RICHMOND ST CHARLOTTETOWN 6:30 P.M  $25.00 PER PERSON CALL 902-367-9491 FOR MORE INFO

Whole foods cooking class CBC interview

Wow our second week! I would love for you to post pictures and recipes that  you have been making in my comments section. I hope that You are having fun adding a new recipe a day and if you are following Aveline’s recipes with me you are enjoying them as much as my family.

Week 2 recipes:

8-Basic miso soup

9-Clear soup

10-Red radishes with kuzu sauce

11-Boiled cabbage with sesame and ume sauce

12-Collard greens with tamari vinegar sauce

13- Dandelion greens and tempeh

14- Tofu  croquettes

Basic Miso Soup- by Aveline Kushi

1 3-inch piece dried wakame

1 Cup thinly sliced onions

1 Quart spring or filtered water

11/4-11/2 Tbsp miso

Chopped scallions, parsley,ginger or watercress for garnish

Rinse the wakame in cold water for 3-5 minutes and slice it into 1/2 inch pieces. Put wakame and onions in a pot and add water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10-20 minutes, or until tender. Reduce the heat to very low but not boiling or bubbling. Put the miso in a bowl or suribachi. Add 1/4 cup of the broth from the pot and puree until miso is completely dissolved  in the liquid. Add the pureed miso to the soup. Simmer for 3-5 minutes and serve. Garnish with scallions, parsley, ginger or watercress.

Buckwheat pancakes with strawberry kuzu sauce- by Aveline Kushi

Buckwheat flour in pancakes, waffles, and muffins is rich-tasting, light in texture, and very easy to digest. I am very fond of 100 % buckwheat pancakes, but most people prefer them combined with whole wheat.

Pancakes

1 Cup buckwheat flour

1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp light sesame oil

1 Cup amasake

1/4 tsp sea salt

Spring or filtered water

Combine the dry ingredients. Add the oil, amasake, and sea salt. (Amasake that has aged a few days and turned slightly sour is best). Add enough water to create the desired consistency for pancakes. Mix very well with a spoon or a whisk. Cover the batter with cheesecloth and let sit in a warm place overnight so that it begins to ferment. This will help the pancakes to rise and become lighter. In the morning, oil a pancake griddle or skillet lightly with light sesame oil. When the griddle is hot, spoon a small amount of batter to form a round cake. fry one side until small air bubbles start to form on the top side of the pancake. turn the pancake over and fry the other side until golden brown. Be careful not to cook over too high a heat or the pancakes will burn. Keep the pancakes warm in a slow oven until ready to serve with strawberry kuzu sauce below.

Strawberry kuzu sauce

3 Cups strawberries

3 Cups spring or filtered water

Pinch of sea salt

3-4 tbsp kuzu

Wash and hull the strawberries and slice them in half. Put the strawberries in the water and bring to a boil. reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the salt, cover, and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the strawberries are soft. Dilute the kuzu in a little cold water and add it to the strawberries. Stir constantly to avoid lumping. Simmer until thick, 3-5 minutes. Spoon over pancakes and serve hot.

Variations:

if the sauce is not sweet enough, a small amount of rice syrup or barley malt may be added. Other kinds of fresh fruit in season, such as apples, pears, cherries, peaches and blueberries, can be used instead of strawberries.  Dried fruit may be used , too, but it must be soaked, chopped, and cooked longer than fresh fruit. this batter may also be used to make waffles.

-I did have to add some rice syrup to the sauce, the strawberries were not that sweet.

- I didn’t have any amasake so I used a rice/soy blend instead

- Yes I burned some, not that it stopped the kids from eating them

Tomorrow I will be starting my spring cooking challenge.  If you don’t own Aveline Kushi’s book(The Complete Guide To macrobiotic Cooking) don’t fret, I will be posting all the recipes as well as photos and you can follow along. Or, pick your favorite cookbook  or Chef to follow. The point is adding new recipes to our daily repertoire.

As I look at my bookshelf I realize that I have many favorite cookbooks and admire many Chefs.  For instance Wendy Esko, Christina Pirello, Jessica Porter, Jack Bishop, Warren Wepman, Lima Ohsawa and Meredith McCarty to name a few.  For some reason when I travel I always end up finding room for “The Complete Guide To Macrobiotic Cooking ” by Aveline Kushi. I know that macrobiotic cooking has changed over the years,  There’s a little less salt a lot more variety, but my Father was healed from cancer by using the cookbooks of amazing women and their families  like Cornellia Aihara ,Lima Ohsawa, Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko. Those are my roots . My comfort foods. So let’s begin!

This first week all  recipes will be using Grains.

1-Summer style fried Rice

2-Maki sushi

3-Arepas

4-Noodles and broth

5-Fried noodles

6-Seitan Kinpira

7-Buckwheat pancakes with strawberry kuzu sauce

Please post comments and photo’s of what you are cooking!

…”You wouldn’t try and drive an empty car to work would you? So why drive an empty body?”

Breakfast -  (Literally breaking a fast ). It is the meal eaten after a long period of sleep. Eaten mostly in the morning, it is the most important meal of the day. Without breakfast you simply will not run as smoothly. Lack of energy, poor concentration, overeating later in the day, weight gain, irritability etc.. are associated with not eating breakfast. What you eat for breakfast sets the tone for the rest
of your day.

Felix’s granola

6 Cups Rolled oats

1/3 Cup brown sesame seeds

1/2 Cup almonds

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup of puffed organic grain cereal

a pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup of good quality vegetable oil

1/3 cup rice syrup or maple syrup

1/2 cup of raisins

6 dried unsulfured apricots sliced thin

Heat oven to 350′

Stir together the oats,sesame seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds and the sea salt. Mix in the wet ingredients and pour onto a cookie sheet(may take two sheets)  Bake in the oven until browned , stirring every five minutes. Pour into an large airtight container and mix in the raisins and apricots. Enjoy !

Poached Tofu

I like to jazz this breakfast up with lots of fun ingredients. For instance adding a shitake mushroom, slice of ginger ,daikon or a small piece of kombu to the cooking water adds a nice flavor.  When serving it can be really yummy to add a little dijon mustard to the bread, a miso-tahini spread, pesto etc.. Also some fresh greens, or onions. Below is the basic recipe.

2 Cups water

2 Tsp shoyu

1/2 lb tofu, cut into 4 slices

Bring water to a boil, add shoyu and tofu. Cook for 2-3 min. Drain tofu and serve as is or on toast.

Apricot rice cereal

1Cup cooked brown rice

1cup soy/rice milk ( we like Eden rice and soy)

2 cups water

5 dried unsulfured apricots, diced

Place all ingredients into a pot, place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cover pot with a lid and place and turn heat to low. Simmer for 25-30 min or until the rice is soft and creamy.

Miso soup

There are many versions of this amazing soup. this one is a favorite with my kids.

4 Cups water

1 small onion cut into quarter moons

2 cups green peas

1/4 cup thinly sliced daikon

1-2 inch piece of wakame , soaked and diced

1 1/2 tbsp of barley miso

1/2 lb tofu , cut into tiny cubes (optional)

Bring water , wakame and onions to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20 min. Dilute miso in a small amount of hot broth and add to soup along with the peas(and tofu) and simmer until peas turn bright green. Serve

Other breakfast suggestions

-Steamed veggies

-Whole grain pancakes/waffles

-Mochi

-perogies

-Cornmeal

-Oatmeal

-Scrambled tofu

-Muffins