Laura's Taco Salad

I just wanted to share this quickly before it escapes me... We had a mexican inspired meal last night with friends and had a lot of left overs..So when I saw Laura's recipe from http://heywhatsfordinnermom.blogspot.com/  I knew what I was going to do with some of those left overs. Here is my quick simple using all leftovers:

TACO SALAD

• About 3/4 cups of torn lettuce leaves
• 3/4 handfuls of tortilla chips lightly smashed
• 1/2 cup cooked black beans with onion and ground cumin 
• fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 cup grated mexican melting cheese
• salt & pepper
• 1 large heirloom tomato (those suckers are big!) chopped
• juice of one lime
• finely chopped chili

What I did: I keep bags of fresh mixed greens in my fridge. (I buy a couple different heads of lettuce, clean them, tear them up and store them in bags- So I always have my own mixed greens). I put a bag of greens in a bowl added the tortilla chips, chopped tomatoes,  black beans, lime juice, salt & pepper, fresh cilantro, and grated cheese. Toss. To serve add a bit more fresh cilantro, grated cheese and for those that can handle it fresh chili.

FYI- There will be a few more mexican inspired recipes- I observed so much on our vacation!

Here's a link to her recipe:

http://heywhatsfordinnermom.blogspot.com/2010/06/just-another-meatless-monday-15.html

A Day of Green. Pt 1: the healthy part.

Yesterday was all about the Leprechaun, the naughty little trickster character who is rumoured to keep a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. First he destroyed my living room by flinging blankets and pillows everywhere, then my kitchen by smearing green icing from wall to floor to ceiling and then by hiding the tots' numerous toys causing mayhem and panic through out the entire house! Tried as we might, we could not catch him. We even made a meal in his honor but he only teased us with a glimpse... Ahh... maybe next year.

Truth be told I think our meal was not glutenous enough for the little fellow. Instead it reflected the amazingly beautiful day we had, starting our feast with a sweet salad.

Green & Orange Fruity Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette

• head of curly lettuce, washed & torn up into small bite sized pieces 
• 1/2 of peas in the pods, cleaned and cut into on the diagonal in 1in pieces
• 1 each apple & pear, sliced thinly
• royal* one orange

Dressing

• 1tbsp minced shallot
• 1tbsp dijon mustard
• three to one olive oil and sherry vinegar
• pinch of salt and pepper

Combine lettuce, peas, apple, pear and orange in a serving bowl. For dressing, combine, shallot, mustard, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a blender and blend. 

Serve dressing on the side in cute kid friendly vessels or dress at the table for the adult crowd.

* To royal an orange cut top and bottom off, remove outer skin and pith and slice wedges out between the ribs. This gets easier with practice, but make sure you use a sharp paring knife.

And then a veggie rich soup.

Mr Potatohead Leek soup

• 1/2 cup peeled & chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 half diced medium onion
• 3 cloves lightly mashed garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter*, divided
• 1 tsp dried thyme, less if you use fresh.
• salt and pepper to taste (I very rarely give quantities for S&P unless it is for baking) 
• 1/4 cup vermouth
• 4 cups leeks, cleaned diced, light green and white parts only.
• 1 1/2 lbs of potatoes** cleaned & peeled (optional) and chopped into cubes.
• water or stock to cover, about 6 cups.

Sweat chopped vegetables thyme, salt and pepper, minus the potato,  in a large sauce pan on medium low heat with 2 tbsp of butter and olive oil until soft with lid on.

After about 15 minutes and vegetables are soft add 1/4 cup vermouth, stir and add potatoes. Cover with water (or stock) bring to a boil and then turn down to a low. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are completely soft and falling apart on their own. Blend with an immersion blender or in batches using blender or food processor, remembering to cool first. If using a blender or processor return to pot, reheat and check for seasoning. 

To serve add a knob of *butter to each bowl of soup if not using a fatty stock.

** I used starchy gnarly potatoes and had to remove the skins due to dirt and scars! Mr Potatohead was spared.

photos by me.... next up green bread and minty chocolate cupcakes!

MRE...gimme me, gimme me

Meal Ready to Eat. This was last night's dinner. In an attempt to be better about eating leftovers, I smartly stored my leftovers in separate containers to facilitate easy assembly for today's lunch. All that was missing was the convenient snack sized tabasco sauce.


For the pie I made a swiss chard quiche. I couldn't find any one recipe I like so I massed up my own. It was very tasty but not quite recipe worthy yet. I took ample notes and think I know how to tweak it so that it will be better next time. For one I will use a proper pie dish or find my large tart pan- it took too long to bake, but was surprisingly still moist. 


The salad was a riff on something I saw on the New York Times, Temporary Vegetarian (recipe here). I had the red cabbage but only a couple of the other ingredients so I improvised. Here is my version:

Dark Red Cabbage Salad 

• Roughly 1lb of red cabbage, shredded, either by hand or more efficiently by a food processor (I did not want to get another appliance dirty, so I did mine by hand. Both my husband and I agreed that texturally it would have been better finer)
• blackberry perserve or runny jam about 3 tbsp
• 6 Tbsp neutral oil
• 2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• One tart apple, cored, thinly sliced and cut into bits- save some for garnish or thinly slice some halves.
• crumbled blue cheese. There are so many out there, ours came from Oregon but there are awesome Washington and BC blues, just use your favourite.
• candied walnuts

Put the shredded cabbage in a serving bowl. Combine preserves, oil and sherry vinegar, pour as little or as much onto your cabbage as you like and toss. Starting off with less means you can add more if it isn't sufficiently coated. The dressing will make the cabbage very dark so taste and check for balance of oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper, taste the cabbage again. Add the chopped apple and toss. Crumble nuts and cheese on individual portions. 

• I like to let my kids add their own condiments, it gives them a sense of control over what they are eating, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

In the photo I added thinly sliced celery to lighten it up- and husband ate all of the cheese last night!

photo by me.

Raw Slaw and Ribbons

Each week my family gets a grocery delivery, not because we are lazy but because we have twins, it is one of those time saving strategies that we have come to depend on. Small Potatoes Urban Delivery or spud for short brings us our staples such as milk, bread, yoghurt , and an assortment of organic produce in a Fresh Harvest box.  Spud tries to include local seasonal veggies, organic fruits and some basics. At this time of year the two things we get a lot of are cabbage and carrots. At any given time I can open my fridge and find a head of cabbage in my crisper just waiting for the next braising. But the other thing that happens at this time of the year is, we get  caught up in harvest feasts and forget that many of these foods can be eaten raw. With that in mind I set out to make a simple raw salad of cabbage, carrots and raisins. A naked slaw. Then dressed with a nutritional salad dressing adapted from the Hollyhocks Cooks recipe book. 

Yeast Dressing

• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (brand such as Red Star)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup tamari (soy sauce)
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp crushed garlic (or if using a blender 1-2 whole cloves when mixing ingredients together)

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix for about a minute until everything comes together. With blender running add slowly,

• 1 1/2 cup canola or other light vegetable oil (avoid olive oil as the flavour is too strong).

This makes a large quantity but gets used up quickly.

Put in a squirt bottle the babies can do it themselves; and anything that they can do "me do" themselves is usually a hit. The dressing is a new family favourite as it can be used on salads, dip for plain raw veggies and a sauce on soba noodles or rice. 

One last thing- I have a new favourite tool called a Y peeler- it makes pretty transparently thin ribbons of most vegetables. To paraphrase Jamie Oliver "never a dull salad again".

photos by me