Strawberry Heaven (Vegan Yogurt-Pudding)

I love berries. Summer is ending and I will seriously miss the fresh local berries.

Janies Uber Peanut Butter Blondies

This took some patience, and work, but I got it, I think. Since here we couldn’t have any dairy, I couldn’t actually use the ingredient she challenged me with (peanut butter chips do not seem to come in dairy-free form around here). Thankfully I know what they taste like and I believe these would be delectable using half and half chocolate and peanut butter chips, so that is how I wrote the recipe. You could off course go all peanut butter, which would be more up my alley, but I also said this would be kid-approved, so we have chocolate in here.

I thought of making peanut butter chip brownies, but the blondie, especially with the peanut butter in the batter seemed more fitting. This blondie is what one would call a “healthy” dessert.

However, I made these with beans not because of health but because this can be made quickly and with nearly no mess (so easy for the trial and error that ensued). Its all made in one “bowl” of your food processor and if you bake in parchment paper, even the baking pan has minimal clean up! The kids really enjoyed dumping everything and hiding when I turned on the processor. After first making with real peanut butter, I made it with a soy butter for the daycare. Worked just as well, but a slightly more earthy taste, because of the soy nut butter. I actually really liked that version.

And you can eat it right out of the bowl too:

 

 

 

Serves: 1-16                      Prep time: 10 min                                 Bake time: 40 min

Ingredients:

1 19 oz can white beans (drained and rinsed)
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp applesauce (I used a sweetened apple-cinnamon one)
3 tbsp peanut butter or soy “nut” butter (tried both, both work fine)
130g brown sugar (For a less sweet blondie use 110g)
50g quick rolled oats
1/2tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (more if using unsalted pb)
50g chocolate and/or peanut butter chips.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 Put everything but chips in food processor, process until smooth (some oats will still be visible), scoop mixture into lined or greased 8×8 or 9×9 pan add chips, mix to distribute the chips and fill the pan, level the top and bake for 35-40 minutes (check that toothpick comes out clean and top is golden and nicely cracked) allow to cool in pan for at least 20 minute before trying to cut.

I use Enjoy life chocolate chips (the minis) because the other brands I have tried I have not liked, but I am not super in love with these either. Anyone have wonderful suggestions for dairy free allergy safe chocolate chip options?!

Whats your favourite flavour of chocolate chip? (Mine is white chocolate, another one I would love to find dairy-free)

Behind the curtain (Chickpea Tabbouleh)

 There has been a lot on the news ever since Robin Williams death about suicide and depression.  We often hear about people “going off the deep end” (where did this expression come from anyway?). In general however, mental illness is a secret illness, one that does not garner the attention of ALS, with people dumping ice over their heads;  the elite esthetic of breast cancer; or the macho bravismo of a month of facial hair for prostate cancer. But that is fine, fundraising campaigns wont erase the stigma that is attached to a mental illness and that is where I have a bone to pick.

Don’t ask, Don’t tell. It is amazing how different medical and psychiatric illnesses get treated, not just in the workplace. I think some of the problem is that all too often because it’s an invisible illness and people tend to the stoic, its hard for people to believe that so and so could be suffering in such a way, and often its seen as escapism or a weakness. 1 in 4 people experience mental health problems in their lifetime, not everyone needs to miss work, not everyone finds themselves in a hospital and some never even find their way into treatment but regardless, suffering is suffering. And chances are that person you are whispering about feels worse about their illness than you do about them try to be nice, supportive and recognize that their stay for depression, bipolar, eating disorder, schizophrenia, is the same as if they had appendicitis. You would be surprised how many top employees suffer, their resiliency keeps them going but does not make it easier.

As a manager, I know that there is a good chance I have employees and colleagues who have dealt with mental illness and in fact in the past tense people do tend to be fairly open about it. Current tense, as in “my job performance is suffering, it is because I am dealing with clinical depression” is more rare, the person suffering is liable to say something more along the lines of “I am so sorry I am falling behind in my work, I haven’t been sleeping well, my kids are exhausting, so I am really tired, I am going to get back on track” This is entirely plausible so why dig deeper? I could but I have learned that in my role I cannot be both someones boss and their therapist, despite my clinical background.  We have an EAP, and I regularly refer people to it. The service is there, but that does not mean that the attitude is, or that stigma doesn’t exist. I have heard lots of derogatory terms tossed about in regards to psychiatry. Negative implicit attitudes towards people who are or have been off for psychiatric reasons. I will be the first to admit, I do not think that psychiatric conditions, true mental illnesses rather than a stress reaction, with the exception of PTSD should be workers comp claims, but not everyone on sick leave is paid by workers comp.

What people do not often realize is that the best and the brightest often have traits that make them extremely susceptible to mental health problems. But it is also what makes them good at their jobs. It is also what keeps them from admitting to the problem, sometimes until it is too late.

What about parents, particularly parents of older children, there is so much information and resources about postpartum depression and some about postpartum psychosis. But there is very little about depression in a parent of an older child, and what is available from academia anyway is very discouraging, all of a sudden not only does the parents whole world seem black and dark and hopeless, they feel like they have doomed their children to the same life because research seems to indicate the child of someone with a mental illness, the offspring of depressed mothers, are at higher risk of depression and mental health problems. This is scary stuff.

Yet, mental illness is still taboo. It is still stigmatized, even within the health care community. No one wants to hear about it. They will bring flowers, cards, gifts and loving attention when your heart, lungs or other vital organs are compromised, but the psychological, which does FYI come from an organ, the brain, a pretty essential one too, that well that just gets a quick uncomfortable “get well soon” and to get back to the workplace the risk of losing ones job.

What/whom do you think of when you hear Mental Illness?

I am sure you are not picturing your role model, favourite celebrity, childhood hero, boss, employee or best friend. But it’s entirely possible that they have or are suffering from one of the many mental illnesses that lurk invisibly among us.

It is time to change your perceptions.

As a thank you for listening to my views on a very serious problem, here is a delicious recipe of sunshine and happiness. Tabbouleh is my happy food.  I am still trying to mimic the tabbouleh of my childhood, true Lebanese tabbouleh, the kind I can still only get in sit down expensive Lebanese restaurants Daou and Ezo. This recipe is not part of that process however, it was an attempt to make a quick lunchbox for the kids that would be fresh and delightful. It turned out wonderfully, took only 15min to toss together, and the fresh ingredients photograph beautifully so here you are:

And its another allergen-free special.

Chickpea Tabbouleh

Serves: 4-6                     Prep time: 15min                             Cook time: NONE

1 bunch parsley (just the leaves, remove all stems)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1 small red onion (for milder taste use a green onion)
1 19oz can of no-salt added chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
pinch pepper
pinch allspice

Remove the leaves from the parsley and mint, discard the stems. wash and dry well. Put in food processor with the red onion (roughly chopped) and pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped. put in bowl and add the chickpeas.

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and allspice together and pour over the salad, mix well.

I love this the next day, when the flavours have all intermingled.

Lentil Tomato Soup – “soup for all my friends”

A couple of weeks ago my son started begging for soup, why in the heat wave we were in he wanted soup is beyond me. I finally had time to make this soup just in time for a sabbath dinner, and he couldn’t have been happier, especially since that day he came home from daycare proudly informing me I would be making soup for all his friends. Oh really? Little does this little man know but I actually have a recipe for this soup that serve his entire class.

Not-a-Pasta and Sauce in under 20min

I am still in love with my spiralizer and I needed to try this new zucchini pasta thing everyone seems to be eating. How on earth can a vegetable compare to semolina pasta? I should add the disclaimer that pasta is not one of my preferred foods, so feel free to discredit my review based on this. Zucchini really does make a good pasta, it fooled no one, but it didn’t elicit the “I do not like this mommy” or the more typical “I SAID I wanted PASTA, not this” or worse the picking of food out of a dish and dumping on table (really?!)

Pizza Fajita Sandwich, and the beauty of quick to cook dishes.

I was going to call these fajitas, but my children won the naming war. Son said “its pizza wraps!” My daughter said “its a sandwich”. It is most accurately a soft taco or burrito and fajita hybrid. Regardless, they were good, and super quick and easy to make.

Inspired by a twitter channel on vegan tacos, I made this simple (and not totally from scratch) meal in fairly short order after getting home from daycare at 5:30. I would say from start to finish these took 45min, most of that being time spent debating what exactly I was making (I started out with the idea of a stir fry with kale… then decided I wasn’t up for a battle with green-fleckaphobia).

Since I am often alone at meal prep time, its important to me to have a repertoire of dishes that I can throw together quickly. And the ingredients and equipment to do so. the food processor saves me so much time in prep when I can use it. I keep at least 1 can of every type of bean in the house and I keep a ton of spices, flours, etc. I do not normally have taco seasoning, but I make my own which allows me to control spice level for my kids. I keep canned no-salt added tomatoes and I try to always have onions, carrots, and peppers in my fridge as this allows for a quick and easy stir fry, soup, chili without having to take hungry kids to a grocery store. I mentioned in another post why I have no problem with canned legumes and tomatoes.  I do use fresh tomatoes when I have them,  like this recipe but the tomatoes here could probably easily be replaced with a cup or so of canned diced or pureed tomatoes

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Kids can cook too: We had SO MUCH FUN with these. My daughter helped stir fry the veggies, and my son helped stir the beans. They chose what they wanted except everyone had to have beans. It made me smile to see them scarf down this really healthy meal. So well in fact that I have no pictures of the finished product. I loved Taco night as a kid, I hope my kids like Pizza Fajita Sandwich night just as much!

Serves: 4                                      Prep time:15 min                             Cook time: 20min

Veggies:

3 peppers (I used 1 green, 1 yellow, 1/2 orange and 1/2 red), sliced or chopped
1 sweet onion chopped
1/2 head cauliflower dash of herbamare or salt
1-2 tsp olive oil

Beans:
1 can no-salt added black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Italian (Roma) tomatoes
1 clove garlic
taco seasoning (about 1 tbsp)

Assembly:

4 large or 8 small Whole wheat or other tortillas (we had whole wheat and Kamut to choose from)
non-dairy sour cream (we like and honestly can only find the Toffuti brand)
salsa (diced fresh tomatoes if your kids are the spice-free kind)
non-dairy cheese (I made this soy cheese)

“Cheese”

 

Instructions:

Start by sauteing the onion in the olive oil, over medium heat when softened add the other veggies and saute until tender.

while they are cooking, roughly puree the garlic and tomatoes together (I do this in the single serve size of my Ninja Blender), it will make a disturbingly frothy pink mixture, this is OK. put the beans and this mixture in a small pot over medium heat, when hot add the taco seasoning and stir. the mixture will seem soupy but will  thicken up as it cooks.

Assemble at table with the toppings and enjoy!

Leftovers: The leftovers keep well in the fridge for up to a week. I have not tried freezing this but my guess would be if you put the veggies through a quick pulse in the food processor and then assemble them into burritos you could freeze.