Making Love in the Kitchen: The Blog

And now for way three I wanted to combine a few of my favourite snack foods. I love Nori, I love a warm cup of miso soup. I think anything with sesame seeds tastes great and tamari can give almost anything a little flair. Oh, and I love kale chips.

That is how I came up with Way Three of my Kale Chips Adventure. I like to call these Macro-Japan Kale Chips. Sea veggies, miso, sesame oil, tamari, sesame seeds- if those are macrobiotic friendly and traditional Japanese foods than… Than nothing, because they are and either way- I make up the rules here.

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I’ve been known to work a lot. Yes. It does happen sometimes. And sometimes I will be working all morning, hop out for a little pre-lunch bike ride and come home absolutely famished. I am talking the kind of famished that doesn’t want a smoothie but famished for a chewable meal.

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These mushrooms look cooked, right? They really do don’t they? Well they’re not! Nope. They’re marinated raw and this is maybe the simplest recipe I have come up with in ages. It happened, as all my recipes have happened lately, as I was experimenting on things for the new tutorial (available Thursday!)

This one uses the delicious and meaty portobello mushrooms.

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Now who doesn’t love a good knish- an no the ‘k’ isn’t silent. It’s pronounced “Ke-Nish”.

Knishes, not to be confused with Kamish (which is a cookie) or Kanadalech (Jewish slang for testicles) Knishes are an Eastern European/Jewish dumpling kind of snack. Leave it to the Yigs to mix together white potato, white flour, fill it with cheese and onions fry it in chicken fat and top it with sour cream and call it a ‘snack’. The true definition of a knish is simply a filling covered with dough that is either baked, grilled, or deep fried.

Many cultures have variations on baked, grilled, or fried dough-covered snacks similar to the knish: the Cornish pasty, the Scottish Bridie, the Jamaican patty, the Spanish and Latin American empanada, the Portuguese rissole, the Italian calzone, the South Asian samosa, the Russian pirozhki, and the Middle Eastern fatayer to name a few.

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Before you ask, I will tell you: I am not talking about regular Sunday morning potato hash browns. No way potatay. There is a very good reason why my 5 Days Vegan meal plan (come play starting Sunday!) is potato free. It’s because when we change our diets, especially towards a plant based direction, certain things tend to creep in as staples. These things often include bread, pasta and potatoes. Why? Well, they satisfy that carb craving, they are sweet and starchy and man, oh, man are they filling.

I am not into pushing you towards veganism, towards smoothie drinking, towards eating low GI, towards eating more raw, towards cooking from scratch, or knowing where your food comes from as a way to help you support the environment, help you save money, or help save animals. Though for better or worse, all of those things may happen. I introduce you to these new ways of eating to help you get healthier.

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As I prepare for another deliciously delightful 5-Days Vegan that I hope you’ll join me for on February 21st, I have also been venturing into the land of new vegetables. I suppose that’s what travelling does to someone who is a nutrition nerdress like me (though I say that without judgment). Monday we talked eggplant, today, I am kicking it slimy style with okra.

This is okara:

Okra is a green vegetable that is mildly fuzzy on the outside and majorly slimy on the inside. As revolting as that unjust description may sound, don’t judge a vegetable by its furry/slimyness and instead trust that 1) it IS delicious and 2) that slimyness is a little health bonus.

Am I ever excited to share these little tidbits with you:

* The superior-powered stylings of fiber found in okra helps stabilize blood sugar by slowing the rate at which it is absorbed.
* Okra’s mucilage (the slimy part) binds with cholesterol and bile acid carrying toxins that get dumped by our hard working liver and gets that shyte out.

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I spent my formative years (from about the age of 11 to 23) taking family trips to Jamaica so I suppose the Caribbean spirit captured me pretty early on. I like to think that I understand a bit of the Jamaica patois after all this time, but the St. Lucian Creole blend is pretty much lost on me. There are three main reasons I think I was born into the wrong packaging.

1. I have a booty that was meant to be shaken
2. I have a laugh that bellows big from my little self
3. I love the food!

I also kind of feel the laid back vibe down here is just infectiously amazing and they look at little North American me and think I am wound up tighter than tourist braids.

Speaking of which…. we all make mistakes- and sadly I am clearly not 11 years old here.

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I love a good healing meal. My go to for the healing herbs always tend to be the ones used predominantly in Indian cooking. They just always do the trick with the perfect balance of warming, cooling, expanding, contracting and I am sure I have just about lost you. The thing about traditional Indian cooking [...]

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I don’t go out for sushi too often. Twice in the last six years to be precise, mainly because I am not a huge fan of the raw fish thing since my Crohn’s days and I also don’t feel too great when I get loaded down with so much rice.

One of those two times, the dinner was enjoyed while I was in Winnipeg with my grandma, cousin and my aunt. My aunt ordered, what she thought was a vegetarian roll and when it came, we all stared at it…

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A happy Chanuka all around. Tomorrow is the first day of the 8 day Jewish holiday Chanuka. I can’t say I am particularly observant when it comes to the Yiddness I was born with. Aside from my appearance and my penchant for chicken soup, I am not all that involved at all.  Chanuka however,  a [...]

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