Making Love in the Kitchen

My name is Jen and I do not condone the use or consumption of packaged foods.

This is not because I have the “nutritionist” moniker associated with my name. It is just my food philosophy. I believe in eating whole unprocessed foods because I really want to be healthy and quite honestly, packaged foods are gross. The were made in some far off factory from strange ingredients and taste more like the cardboard box they come in than real food (I know this because I was once a university student and managed to somehow get by on lean cuisines and frozen burritos for dinner. I’ve since moved on).

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After the Vegetarian Food Festival last weekend, I was all soyed out. Seriously! Soy was served up in every little shape and size they could dream up. From icing on cupcakes, to dried out beans covered in sugar and cinnamon, they could almost change the name of the event to the Soy Food Festival.

What did I eat the weekend of the event? I kicked it BYOS- Bring Your Own Salad/Smoothie. Now it’s not that I hate soy… Okay, I do. I do hate it and all the ways it functions like plasticine- getting moulded and blended and cooked and baked into all kinds of things. Soy on it’s own, in it’s whole organic form is a-okay though. I will actually eat it, love it and feel okay after.

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I love kale chips as much as the next nutritionista and (kale chip lover). Hence my desire to continue creating new and ever more awesome town kale chip recipes that cause me to eat entire heads of kale in single sittings followed by the need to drink about 9 litres of water. And let me tell you- eating a full head of kale in one sitting followed by that much water- well, let’s just say that things will be moving and grooving in the colon cleansing department.

So if you just met me this past weekend at the veg festival welcome, and you have some catching up to do.

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We all have those veggies we don’t really like. The ones we know are great for us, but for whatever reason, they just aren’t the ones we would ever reach for when we are staying on our game and desiring a healthy snack.

For me, it’s carrots and celery. I wish to bits that a handful of carrots were a desirable snack for me but they just aren’t. Maybe it’s because they’re so freaking hard and I have wires cemented to the back side of my front and bottom teeth, a souvenir of the years of braces. Every time I bite into one of these shard-of-glass like veggies I am fairly sure they are going to crack off that cemented wire and I will find myself back in the orthodentist’s chair with one of those big plastic speculum type deals stretching my mouth unnaturally far from my face, all while surrounded by twelve year olds.

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Though I am not a massive fan of the BBQ, I felt I couldn’t let a whole summer go by without offering at least one recipe that actually goes on the Q. Why am I not a fan of BBQ’d food?

BBQs tend to cook food at very high temperatures. Additionally, most peeps are not grilling veggies on their BBQ but throwing on big hunks of fatty meat which can be become a wee toxic when that fat drips through, burns up and smokes back up. As well when fat that hangs on to the meat gets charred, I believe the word for that is carcinogenic. Lastly, from as early on as I can remember, my dad loved BBQing and never failed to show off how he singed the hair off his arm in the process. That’s just gross.

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When some people don’t want to consume hot dogs (and meat in general for that matter), they often turn to the vegetarian options. And what might these be? Veggie dogs! There are also veggie burgers, veggie deli meat, veggie turkey, veggie ground beef, veggie chicken pieces and the list goes on and on. From the looks of it, it seems that vegetarians have no problem replacing meat since there are so many options readily available for them. They can have some faux bacon for breakfast, followed by a mock salami sandwich for lunch, rounding things off with a chicken-less “chicken” stir fry for dinner. Oh, and don’t forget about soy pudding for dessert!

How easy was that? By consuming these fake meat items, vegans and vegetarians can pick up right where they left off with the real stuff. Can you tell yet that I’m joking?

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Today I would like to address this issue of soy. It’s a hotty tomale topic so feel free to disagree… just remember what Byron Katie says about defense so don’t expect me to battle you back.

If you are a vegan based on the principles outlined in such poppy culture books as Skinny Bitch (ugh) then you are likely inclined to think that eating a vegan ‘ burger’ is a wiser choice than eating a real burger. Not sure I would agree with that.

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A few weeks ago, we posed the question on Twitter asking what everyone’s fave comfort food was that they wish could be healthified. It sounded a lot like what I have created here for you.

Why do we all love mac and cheese? The answer is simple. We were raised on it. It was the go to convenience food of our childhood and likely landed itself as a staple in our cupboards when we first moved out on our own.

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Do I really even have to answer that? Really? Do I?

No. Because it’s obvious. The berries!

A standard breakfast, so commonly a go-to, is granola and yogurt (or your fave nut milk), and a splash of berries. Why not turn that equation upside down and inside out? Make the berries the main attraction!

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How it makes my heart sing when I can go to a regular restaurant and order my lover of a food, tempeh. Now, when I say regular restaurant, I’m not talking about nonsense places with names like “Wings and Things”, or “Deep Fry It So You’ll Try It”. I mean restaurants where their overall values- eat organic, local, seasonal etc.- make sweet love with my own.

So wasn’t I over the rainbow excited to see a veg menu with tempeh on it. And this wasn’t the kind of tempeh you might find at most veg/vegan restaurants where it’s kind of just cooked to a crisp and served over a bowl of rice. This tempeh was prepared as if it were the leanest cut of gold labeled cow (do cows come with with gold labels?).

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Pourquoi tout est mieux en français? And now I will ask in English? Why is everything better in french? Fries, bread, kisses, toast? Make’em french! (By the way, when I asked the man for words that started with french, he immediately volunteered ‘maid’- I stopped asking after that).

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Back in the day, before working and playing in this fine Kitchen, I used to work at an organic grocery store. I had loads of fun but apparently I was the only one who enjoyed that place because it went out of business shortly after I started working there (was it something I did?!)

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The summer is on faya! As we way too quickly approach the halfway mark of this sweet, sweet summer, I sit here thinking- where on earth has it gone? The last week, as I have been busy as ever riding this healing train after that accident last week (And thank you so, so, so much for your love and healing vibes- they’re working over time, let me tell you!), the last thing I’ve felt like doing is spending hours in the kitchen cooking. I know you hear me, my sweet outdoor sunshine lovers!

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As a kid, I was a huge cereal lover. I ate it every morning before school and on most weekends. To make matters worse, while I was munching on my sugar nuggets, I would watch all those cute little cartoon commericals on TV advertising new varieites of these marshmallow-filled boxes of joy. Of course, I proceeded to do what any child high on ridiculous amounts of sugar would do – I ran around the house asking for the newest cereal concoction. My wish was always granted. The only catch was that I had to finish off the old box first. I never did though; the new box got opened up the morning after it was purchased. I was sneaky like that.

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What a busy time of year this summer is! We rush, and rush, and rush so we can have weekends or even better, weeks free to max and relax, travel, go camping, whatever it may be.

So the timing was just about perfect when this amazing package arrived for me in the mail from one of our most amazing supporters, Navitas Naturals.

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