Healthy No-Bake Hemp Seed Peanut Butter Balls

This recipe comes from my good friend Heather.  I've been in a bit of a snack rut lately and this is my new favourite afternoon snack.  Along with a glass of iced chai.  Remember my chai latté addiction?  Well it has now morphed into an iced chai latte addiction.  I've just started buying the Tazo chai concentrate and making myself iced chai at home.  Next on my to-do list?  Figure out how to make a homemade version that tastes just as good.  Stay tuned.

This is super, super quick to make, is no bake and is fully of all things good and healthy.  A perfect snack or treat anytime.

6 tbsp. of any nut butter (I've used chocolate soy butter and sunbutter, though I'm dying to try them with natural peanut butter)
3 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. hemp seed
1 C quick-cook oatmeal or quinoa flakes (be sure to use quinoa flakes and not quinoa itself - you can get this in any health food store in the hot cereal section)
1/8 C mini chocolate chips

1.  Mix all ingredients together.  Press into balls.  Eat.
 

Then eat some more.

Then just one last one.  Before you hide them away.  For 10 minutes later.

And yup.  Logan likes these guys too.

Makes 16-18 balls.

For a bigger batch (about 4 times the original recipe):

1 1/2 C of any nut butter (I used chocolate soy butter) 
3/4 C maple syrup
1/2 C hemp seed
4 C quick-cook oatmeal or quinoa flakes
1/2 C mini chocolate chips

Difficulty level: easy 

Gluten-free if you use certified gf oats or quinoa flakes for added protein.  If you use certified gf oats, you may want to pulse them briefly in a food processor if they are not quick-cook oats.
Dairy-free if made with dairy-free chocolate chips

Vegan Red Lentil and Squash Curry Stew

This recipe also comes from the wonderful Oh She Glows blog. I particularly love that if your squash is already cooked, this literally only takes minutes to whip together.  So it's perfect for those nights when you realize you've forgotten to pull a pre-made homemade meal out of the freezer.

Jérôme and I both quite liked this.  Logan, on the other hand, turned his nose up at it instantaneously.  The minute I put it down in front of him, he passed it right back to me, saying "all done".  And then "fini", just in case I hadn't fully gotten it when he said it to me in English.  I got it kid.  I'm bilingual too.  In fact, we're the ones teaching you to be bilingual.  I just thought that if I ignored you, you might actually try to put some of this in your mouth. 

Now here's the thing.  I have recently become increasingly aware of the crap that Logan is fed day in and day out at daycare.  Like how they've told me that he refuses to eat whole-wheat bread there, so they just give him white.  Which just knocked my socks off because I do not ever, ever, ever buy white bread and he eats whole-wheat just fine at home.  In fact, he eats dense whole-grain breads, with added flax, sunflower seeds, etc. etc. at home.  But little monkey has figured out how to get himself some white bread when I'm not around.

And I've been told over the past two weeks how well he now eating, all of a sudden: "He ate a whole hot dog!", "he ate two chicken fingers and some fries!!", "he loves his chocolate muffins!!!", "he ate some meat pie!!!!".  The only comment I was even slightly satisfied with was "he ate his chicken and rice stir fry and even ate his broccoli".  Now that one deserves an exclamation mark!

My personal favourite was the time that I picked him up, his face covered in sugar, as he was snacking on Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  And his daycare provider went on to tell me how healthy it was, given that it was whole-grain (insert expletive here).  What just turned 21 month old needs hot dogs, chicken fingers, fries, chocolate muffins and Cinnamon Toast Crunch????  

Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not against him ever having any treats.  We gave him birthday cake on his first birthday.  And I occasionally give him pudding (sometimes this avocado pudding), or some baby cookies.  And on the odd occasion, maybe even a little taste of something sweet we're having.  But I don't feel that it needs to be a part of his everyday (or even, every week) experience.  No wonder he turns his nose up when I give him this lentil and squash stew or South American black bean soup for dinner.  What kid would eat that when he can shove himself full of Cinnamon Toast Crunch mid-afternoon???

Grrr.... that's just my little rant.  Although this definitely does bother me, I am choosing to just let it be for now.  We'll continue to offer him mostly healthy options and I hope that he will eventually learn to eat (and even like!) them.  And really, at some point, I'll be the one making both his lunches and dinners, so he'll have the option of eating or starving himself to death.  Which I guess means he'll eventually eat some of this healthier stuff...

That being said, when I served this as leftovers (picking all of the spinach out of his, just in case), he did take two bites of it before declaring he was "fini".  One step at a time...

1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. good quality curry powder (or more to taste)
1 carton broth (4 C) (I used low-sodium)
1 C red lentils
3 C cooked butternut squash
1 C greens of choice
fresh grated ginger, to taste (optional)
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

This recipe calls for the squash to already be cooked.  I cooked mine in a veggie steamer.  Simple as can be.  Just cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, and threw it in the veggie steamer until cooked (maybe 20-30 minutes??).  Then I let it cool and scooped out the flesh.  You've just gotta remember to put some water in the veggie steamer, which seems to be a bit of a challenge for me these days.  

What to do if you don't have a veggie steamer?  Well, you should get one.  It's the easiest way to prepare healthy veggie side-dishes with essentially no effort.  But if you don't want to get one, check out this link here on how to cook butternut squash in the oven.  You can get going on the rest of the recipe while your squash cooks.

My sister also suggested I use much more than the suggested 1 C of spinach, as she found that wasn't enough.  So I just dumped in all of the spinach I had left in my fridge.  And it didn't seem like too much (well, perhaps in Logan's opinion in was too much!!).

1.  In a large pot, add olive oil, chopped onion and minced garlic.  Sauté for about 5 minutes over low-medium heat.

2.  Stir in curry powder and cook another couple minutes.  Add broth and lentils and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes.

3.  Stir in cooked butternut squash and greens of choice.  Cook over medium heat for 5-8 minutes.  Season with salt, pepper, and add some freshly grated ginger to taste. 

We served this with quinoa, to increase the protein content of the recipe.

Red Quinoa and Black Bean Vegetable Salad

I feel like I've been running all week.  Probably because I have been.  

It's crazy how once you have kids, popping out for groceries turns into an all-day affair.  It takes twice as long to actually get out of the house to go to the grocery store.  And then it takes you pretty much the rest of the day to put them away. That is, if you actually manage to get them away before you pass out in bed, exhausted. 

With kids, it's probably never possible to say that you haven't had a crazy week. There are just shades of craziness.  Ranging from the only slightly crazy, 'my house is a little upside down and I'm still in my p.j.'s at 5pm on Saturday' crazy day to the 'I can't find a single frickin' thing in my house, it's such a mess, and I haven't showered in... wait... when was my last shower????' kinda day.

Thankfully, I can still remember my last shower, which means that this past week wasn't full blown crazy, as it can sometimes get.  But it's been busy nonetheless.  And yes, I am still in my pyjamas at 5pm!  And just realized that I don't even remember if I brushed my teeth this morning...

Logan's ear infection came back again earlier this week.  And Chloé has been showing signs that she's following in Logan's footsteps and likely has reflux.  Complete with the wanting to be held 24/7.  Thankfully, she's at least a great sleeper at night (count it - 8 hours straight last night!!), so that makes it still manageable.  But nevertheless, with all of this going on, and the related doctors appointments and the like, the week has flown by and I haven't had a moment to sit down.

So I decided that yesterday would be an 'at home' day so that I could feel a bit renewed before the weekend.  That idea lasted about 10 minutes.  After dropping Logan at daycare, I decided to just pop by the grocery store to pick up some cilantro for this recipe, since I knew that I wanted to make this today.  Which somehow morphed into a full grocery load, a visit to Toys 'R Us, the health food store and a purchase of some gorgeous new winter boots that I am super excited about.  

And all of this by 11 a.m.

Whew!  And somehow my day of relaxation got hijacked, as by the time I'd put everything away and had lunch, it was already time to pick up Logan at daycare.  How is it that time seems to go by twice as fast once you have kids??   

Much like many women, I am afflicted by bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew-itis.  The severity of my condition varies over time, though I've gotten much better at managing my symptoms.  But it flares up every now and then.  Today it was out in full force.

This morning I found myself with this self-imposed mountain-high list of recipes I wanted to make this weekend, including this salad that I'm about to post here, raspberry truffle brownies, grilled cilantro shrimp skewers, another (no) cream of vegetable soup and some homemade granola bars that I will post shortly.  Clearly a case of bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew-itis when you have two kids under 20 months.  In my previous life, I would have been able to get all of this done before noon, throw in a 2 hour workout at the gym and still had the rest of the day to myself.  But with kids, its a whole different story.  Apparently, I'm still adjusting to new expectations of what you can actually accomplish in a day.

Hence why my kitchen now looks like this:

  At least my freezer is now stocked with soup for the week.

(No) cream of vegetable soup, simmering away

(No) cream of vegetable soup

In the end, I managed to finish all of the recipes.  And this salad was delicious at lunch.  And dinner.

And I still had enough time left to hang out lots with Logan and cuddle on the couch with Chloé.  So I guess that's all that matters.   

I got this recipe from the Oh She Glows blog.  My sister had tried a couple other recipes from this blog and said they were all good.  And though my intention was to try the same one Ash had first tried, I got side-tracked by this delicious-looking quinoa salad on Angela's blog. It actually reminds me a lot of my tabouleh salad.  I particularly love the red quinoa and the different coloured veggies, as it makes it all look so beautiful.  Perfect for entertaining or potlucks.
 
For the salad:

1 C uncooked red quinoa
1 (14 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
 1 red pepper, chopped
1/4 C fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 C fresh corn
1 small avocado, chopped into 1 inch pieces 

cooked red quinoa in the rice cooker

rinsed black beans and canned corn

chopped red pepper, avocado, green onions and cilantro

For the dressing:

4-5 tbsp. of fresh lime juice (juice from 2 small limes)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 C fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 C extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground cumin, or more to taste

1.  Cook 1 cup red quinoa according to package directions (in my rice cooker, I use 2 C water for 1 C of quinoa).

2.  While quinoa is cooking, prepare the chopped vegetables and whisk together the dressing.

3.  Allow quinoa to cool after cooking for about 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.  Add the beans and vegetables and toss well.

4.  Drizzle dressing over salad and toss well with salt and pepper to taste.  Bring salad to room temperature before serving.  Keep fresh in a sealed container for 1-2 days.  

Makes about 5 cups.

Enjoy|

I love, love, loved the avocado in this salad and threw in 3 instead of 1.  Angela also suggested to only use fresh corn in the recipe, as she found the frozen corn she had used became rubbery.  I used canned corn and found it worked fine.

And on that note, I am off to enjoy a glass of my favourite wine.  Happy weekend everyone! 

Difficulty rating: easy

Tabouleh Salad

This recipe comes from Lyne at work from a potluck a few years back. As I've told her before, she's given me some of my favourite recipes. I miss working with her if only to steal great recipes off of her (just kidding Lyne!). I just made this for lunch and it is great and is a nice salad to bring camping.

I often make this with quinoa instead of bulgur to increase the protein content of it. I also tend to make it without the chicken (because I'm too lazy to actually cook any) and sometimes throw in a 2nd can of chickpeas depending on how much bulgur/quinoa I've made, as I usually end up with way more than the recipe called for. I'll also often toss in some diced peppers as well.

Tabouleh Salad

· 1 C bulgur (medium or coarse)
· 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
· 2 chicken breasts (optional)
· 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
· 1 C diced English cucumber
· 1 C minced fresh Italian parsley
· 1/2 C chopped green onions / red onion
· ¼ C chopped fresh mint

Dressing:
· ¼ C lemon juice
· 2 tbsp. olive oil
· 2 cloves garlic, minced
· 1 tsp. salt
· ½ tsp. pepper



1. In saucepan, bring 1 ¾ C water (or chicken broth) to boil; stir in bulgur. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook for 10 minutes or until no liquid remains. Transfer to large bowl, fluffing with fork. (For quinoa, you use a quantity of 2 parts water to 1 part grain).

2. Add chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, parlsey, onions and mint.

3. For the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt and pepper; pour over bulgur mixture and toss to combine.

Note: Use 1 lb. peeled and deveined grilled large shrimp instead of the chickpeas.

Makes 4 servings.