The Search for Supper

Supper. That time of the evening when we are to gather with our loved ones to share a meal; share our day; share time together. At least that's the Hallmark card version. Reality is a last minute headache because the one necessary ingredient you need for the only meat you have thawed and losing nutrients by the nanosecond is, of course, missing from your fridge or pantry. It is the sudden realization that you have given no thought during the day of what you are going to serve that night that sends you scrambling to the takeout menu side of the fridge door. We all have one fall-back number to call. Admit it. But do you really want to call for take out? Of course not. You WANT to be able to throw something together and have your family or friends kissing your feet in gratitude....right? Yeah, me too.

I tend to follow the same rules that Chef Michael Smith and Jamie Oliver do in regards to meal planning and execution. Michael stresses "gazing" into your pantry or fridge and letting an ingredient or mood dictate the whole meal. If he can't get tomatoes out of his mind, he gives in and lets his culinary juices flow. Jamie encourages a similar effort and his enthusiasm for that method of exploratory cooking is part of the meal itself! I do the same almost every day. I have a meat in mind or maybe I am craving a pasta dish and I create a meal around that. Supper creating should be an enjoyable event not a time to be stressed or feeding yourself or your family inferior food because you are out of time.

It does happen to us all and because of that, there are a multitude of tricks of the trade discovered by others that you can rely upon in case it does happen. Some tips include making large batches of dishes on the weekend and freezing in portion-sized baggies and having the ingredients in your pantry and freezer at all times to pull together a particular quick and nutritious casserole.

Well, today I had as usual left it a bit late to gather the necessary ingredients for supper and as I had already had my idea of baked Blueberry French toast vetoed, I was thinking hard. As I drove to Loblaw, (which I don't usually do as they are rather pricey on the regular products I buy but I needed some specialty items they don't carry at my local NoFrills store) I realized I had no idea. I knew I wanted something easy that did not require me to buy alot of ingredients which led me to doing that mental inventory women have a knack for doing. Mmmm, goats milk cheese, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives.... I entered the store and wandered through the produce aisle and there they were right in front of me-glossy, deep-green poblano chilies! Every where I looked, chilies! Red, orange, yellow and three shades of delectable green to choose from and I stood there in my eureka moment, grabbed a bag and started shoveling. I like peppers. Just FYI in case you couldn't tell by the previous sentences. I like them a lot.

So, I came up with this throw together light supper, appetizer, or part of a lunch on the fly and we'll see how it goes.  Happy cooking everyone!

   Greek-style Peppers with Lemon-tossed Arugula

Use the freshest, firmest peppers you can get your hands on and remember to wash those same hands after dealing with the peppers! They aren't very hot but will still sting sensitive tissues.

Ingredients:

3 large poblano peppers, washed, tops cut off and membrane removed
150g goats cheese, softened
150g grated hard cheese, cheddar, monterey jack, colby etc
100g seasoned artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
5 roasted red peppers, drained of oil and chopped
1 anaheim pepper, washed, minced
4 slices worth of smoked bacon lardons*, divided
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 c Kalamata olives, pitted and rough chopped
Blend: salt, pepper, oregano, dried garlic
1 lemon
EVOO
300g washed baby arugula

Cook lardons thoroughly, drain and put in large bowl. Saute scallions and anaheim peppers until softened. Add to bowl along with cheeses, olives, red peppers and the herb blend. Mix well. Stuff peppers with mixture and secure tops with toothpicks in three places (or more if you are paranoid). Brush peppers with EVOO and either broil in oven, turning once, or fry in cast iron pan until crispy and insides have heated.

Toss arugula with lemon juice, EVOO, salt and pepper. Arrange on plate and serve with one pepper each person. Makes 3 servings. 

Makes a great lunch when served with a nice crusty peasant bread and whipped butter or eat it as an appetizer or late afternoon snack.

*lardons are small cut strips of bacon 

text ©michelle levasseur The Groaning Board 2014

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The Anti-Diet Lifestyle

This Saturday May 19th was Food Revolution Day, a worthy cause started and spurred on by Jamie Oliver. I have thrown myself into the concept as I agree with the idea of eating right and teaching others about eating right. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to do that. No matter your thoughts on Jamie, the message of the Food Revolution is one that is timely, important and necessary.


Mom, any more H_t P_ckets?
Humans, being what they are, have made convenience foods-  frozen, dried pre-made foods- extremely popular. Some are high in sodium and flavour enhancing chemicals so that we actually crave inferior macaroni and cheese and turn down the real gooey, cheesy, crunchy homemade dish! Many of us are 'brainwashed' for lack of a better word into living a dependent lifestyle for the sake of convenience. What I mean by that is if you are hungry and out of the home? Then take-out is your answer. Getting take-out? Well then one of the big three drive-thrus is your answer. We spare no thought as to why we make these decisions because a lot of us have been raised in an atmosphere that embraced the new and convenient without the necessary consideration as to health benefits or harm.

We enter the grocery store and fall prey to the same temptations there as when driving down restaurant row no matter what good intentions we started out with when we made our grocery list. Just walk down the frozen foods aisle and you will see a meal for everyday of the week. While frozen vegetables can be just as nutritious as grabbing something from the produce department, many frozen convenience dinners are so high in fats, sodium and enhancing chemicals that  you are better off eating the box. As to the hamburger helper and powdered sauces aisle...don't go there. Take my word for it-you're not missing anything. We won't even discuss wieners, bologna or the chicken nuggets in the yellow box.


Keep that up, you'll go blind
There are many of us who have a genuine desire to eat and be healthier but are scared off by the fanatics who do their best to convince us that only through superhuman effort and sacrifice will we ever meet our goals. We research, buy cookbooks by the dozen, subscribe to at least two magazine newsletters about food and have a radar always on the go picking up tidbits of conversations of strangers around us. We read labels, compare sodium levels and wonder if living forever is worth eating plain yogurt. Blech.  I have a lot of cookbooks myself...hang on, I'll go count....Yep, 132 is a lot of books about food and not a one is a diet cookbook. Have I read them all? Almost. Well over half resemble porcupines there are so many post-its sticking out. I may not have read all of them cover to cover but I flip through all as soon as I get them. I can't help it. I do not obsess about calories, or what number value is assigned to that particular food or worry about weighing every morsel to pass my dainty lips. The most I do is calculate the carbs (simple mainly) as they are my personal weight gainers. 


We want to be healthier and there are plenty of people willing to tell us how to achieve that and just as many so-called solutions. So many of us tie ourselves up in knots trying to decide who to believe in the anti-food wars. There are simply too many cookbook authors trying to make money off of the concerns of your body, too many doctors with agendas and kick backs,  too many gov't groups trying to force feed you a line...Who to believe? 


Uphill both ways, in the snow
I say, look to the past. Before the advent of convenience foods, BigFood, and their industrial farm suppliers we actually knew how to eat without sitting down with a calculator tallying up the calories and fibre intake. We were quite able to remain slim and healthy without thinking about it, obsessing about it and tracking down web articles to find out how others manage to be healthy and lived to blog about it. They somehow got through their day without staring down at a scale, peeping through their toes and lamenting the fact they weigh more than a six month old baby.


Most of our predecessors came from a culture that defined shopping as something you did once or twice per month for the things you could not make or grow yourself. You travelled into town and visited the one or two stores (more and you were citified) and you then picked out your items. Sometimes you had time to chat about what was new in...(choose your own topic) or to glance quickly through a catalogue for things you wanted but needed ordering and a patient wait of six weeks.


 Whether done in a horse and cart or an old jalopy, our fore parents made of the shopping trip something special and something rare enough to remain special. Ladies would dress in Sunday best and the menfolk were made to put on their cleaner pair of pants and the children sported shirts with sleeves and slicked back rooster tails. Pride showed through-pride in self, family, community and the products of the toil of their bare hands. You were going into town because you made some money and you could afford to spend some. They nodded at passers-by that were familiar faces from market day where one of your grandmothers sold her surplus in-season vegetables and homemade jams put up that spring.


The values that are obtained and fostered by living off the land are ones found in the recipes that our ancestors lovingly used and re-used over a lifetime. Is it any wonder that at one time recipe collections were deemed heirlooms and were viciously fought over? 


That foam in the corner of my mouth is from my latte
If you are ever fortunate enough to peruse a family heirloom cookbook, try to find the word diet any where in  it. I was going to include a list of popular fad diets here but we'd be here all night. The only time the word diet should be used is pertaining to a medically prescribed food regime. It should never be used in conjunction with a weight loss goal, in normal circumstances. Trying to lose weight by restrictions, rules or other complications will only lead to ultimate failure in reaching your goals, no matter how modest they may be. 


Every day it seems that there is a new and improved way to fail at losing weight and becoming healthier. Yes, there will be some temporary successes simply by virtue of the fact we all fall into differing categories of weight gain. Some of us gain in the belly and benefit from one type of balanced food regime while others gain in their posterior and will not benefit from the same regime. Eventually however, because the necessary food learning was not accomplished, failure will result. 


Bottom Line
If you educate yourself on how food works for you, which work best for what you want to gain (or lose!), how our food is grown or is raised, while learning to ignore the latest fads then you will have a greater chance of developing a better food relationship which will always lead to a healthier food lifestyle.

by Chelle Elle
all images from Google Images

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Why should you care?

                 

             

 

As Canadians we are extremely lucky to live in such an agriculturally prosperous country with ample space in which to stretch our mental and physical wings, breathe in clean air, grow our own food and maintain a healthy and active outdoor lifestyle. Unfortunately, a lot of us dwell in overcrowded, overstimulated and overweight cities where space, time and motivation to be healthy and stay healthy are limited. We are riding in cars or buses, taking elevators, sitting at desks at work and the couch or computer chair at home. We eat at BigFood dispensaries, shop in warehouse sized grocery stores and make choices there based upon convenience and expense.

You are what you eat

Statistics coming out of government sources are definitely discouraging in terms of health vs longevity; we're living longer but we are living sicker. It seems counter intuitive to have ninety to a hundred years of life if half that time is spent ill. Quality of life is a phrase often bandied about but rarely when concerning the food we eat and how it is grown in the factory conditions of industrial farming. Our foodstuffs garnered at the grocery store are uniform, glossy specimens of visual "health" but are sadly lacking in nutrition and flavour. I believe the common consensus is that todays fruits and vegetables have about half the nutrients of unaltered heirloom specimens from the past.  Exotic foods imported from far away paradise are irradiated and more often than not underripe-I don't know which is worse!

People- groups, government, individuals- have come to the realization that something has to be done beyond the availability of "farm markets" on Saturdays and Sundays in some larger towns. They are all well and good if you can find one but certainly not a standard amongst all communities. Concerned individuals and health conscious restaurants have taken to shopping at these markets but there are pitfalls that will catch the unwary. I have seem some inferior product on display at some markets. Organic or home grown foods will not have the same uniform shape or glossy condition as grocery stores but they should still look and feel fresh, ripe and in good condition. To confuse matters more, plenty of markets carry foods that are out-of-season purchases from the same suppliers as the grocery stores. Are you getting full-nutrient foods if they are force grown under chemical conditions out of season? Why are they for sale at these markets?

                                           

Picking and Choosing

                Southern Ontario Seasonal Guide

• Rhubarb             May 10
• Strawberries       June 10
• Peas                   June 15
• Beans                 July 10
• Raspberries        July 10
• Cucumbers         July 10
• Pickling Cukes    July 10
• Zucchini             July 10
• Corn                   July 25
• Tomatoes           August 10
• Peppers, 

      sweet and hot  August 10

• Eggplant            August 10
• Squash               August 25
• Cabbage            August 25
• Gourds, Indian   September 1
• Corn, Pumpkins September 1

Knowing which vegetables are in season will go a long way to helping you avoid foods that are available in markets but are not necessarily forming a good nutrient value to dollar expense ratio. For example, buying cauliflower in May regardless of location will not result in a purchase that is home grown on the farm and freshly harvested but greenhouse grown and harvested a few days ago. It may be "on special" but in terms of nutrient value it will be less than ideal. Getting to know your community is essential for building trust when you are handing over your hard earned money for their goods so the character of the market sellers is vital knowledge to have.

So, there you are wanting to be a part of Slow Food and feed your family healthier foods, shopping responsibly at farm markets, bringing your cloth bag, and expanding your culinary skills and I am telling you you're doing it wrong. Not true. Your intentions are perfect; execution is where the flaws are apparent.  You are told to eat healthier but are not told how to accomplish this feat in todays Good Food vs Industrial Food environment. 

Well, you could grow your own food, provided you have adequate space, light, ease of maintenance (important!) and dedication (goes with ease of maintenance). Adequate growing space can be anything from a balcony/patio with pots for a one or two person household to an acre of raised beds for a suburbanite family of four. We could lump time, ease of maintenance and dedication into one as each can influence the others and it can vary immensely from a simple watering to an afternoon spent weeding, cultivating and watering and an evening spent pampering your aching back and wimpering. Depending on your circumstances,  growing your own food can be rewarding and challenging, demanding and profitable. Profitable? Yes, in terms of money saved on daily groceries as well as gift giving of preserved or "canned" goods. Nothing beats a hostess basket or mother-in-law gift of preserved goodies (especially when it's last minute because you forgot!)

Esprit de Corps

You probably spend a lot of time perusing labels in the grocery aisle, trying to remember the good and the bad, proportions, daily intake, whether or not you need more fibre and on and on and on. Can you really see your self hunting down organically grown, pasture raised, mumbled over by a hedge witch perfect foods? That seems to be the only advice coming from fresh food fanatics of which I am not one. I am more pragmatic than that. I say, shop seasonally at trusted farm gate stand or community farm markets where you know the eggs you buy are not from battery or enclosed lay-ers but lay-ers that eat bugs under the sun;the meat is pastured raised on nutritious grasses and not grain fed in a feedlot;the vegetables you buy are in season, locally grown, and with as little of chemical use as possible ideally certified organic. If you get to know the owners you can quiz them on their growing practices politely and more than likely you will get the truth. It helps if you are also a customer.

Pragmatism Rules!

Sometimes compromises must be made in the name of a healthy diet; compromises between fresh and not so fresh(canned), butcher shop or supermarket meat counter. Sometime the recipe you are dying to try is made up of all exotic ingredients. Sometimes making your own bread or churning your own butter is not going to be a feasible option. There are going to be numerous times you have to choose supermarket over farm market and that is just life. The point is to be aware of the opportunities to make better choices and exercise those options as often as you can.

There are pantry staples that can be home canned, for the most part easily but relying on store bought, Ontario/Canada grown and processed goods are a fine substitute. Off season, frozen vegetables can have the same level of nutrients as fresh so are a wonderful option for a veggie dish that is quick and easy. You may not be able to visit a butcher shop that supplies pasture fed meats but choosing as close to it as possible such as no hormones, antibiotics and limited confinement of the animals is a good choice. Check with your butcher if you do go to one, for Heritage breeds and inquire about their aging process and the availablility of ordering pastured animals. Purchasing Heritage breeds ensures the continuation of the breed ::supply and demand. 

Do you often go for Sunday drives in the country, drive back roads on the way to the beach or to visit the Grandparents? Why not stop off at a farm stand to pick up in season veg or farm fresh, farmyard-raised eggs? In the winter months, shopping for eggs and veg at the grocery store is a needful thing not a shameful thing. In the summer months, the availablility of farm stands negates this necessity. I know that sounds preachy but really, a fact is a fact.

Canning Like a Grandma

Canning or preserving can stretch a food budget more than elastic on a pair of track pants after Thanksgiving dinner. Canning acidic foods is cheap, easy and consists of many re-usable components that makes it a cheap investment as well. Canning non-acidic foods requires more expensive equipment and more knowledge but expands the variety of foods available to you over the winter and early spring months.

You may feel some trepidation about canning, either water or pressure canning, but it is not as difficult as you may believe. There is such a delicious incentive as well; think crunchy pickles made in one afternoon, from buying to cleaning to wiping the jars and applying the labels; think spicy, aromatic tomato sauce bubbling on the stove in February that only took a couple of days to put up the August before. A little bit of effort goes a long way to improving your food budget and culinary masterpieces during the winter months.

                                                              and it does make for a pretty pantry...

An alternative to pressure canning your non-acidic dishes is freezing which is an easy and inexpensive way of capturing summer sunniness to enjoy in the darkness later on. Grean beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, tomatoes and tomato sauce, fresh soups etc are just some of the delicious food ideas that you can utilize in your freezing-to-preserve adventures.

The Bottom Line

So what does all this mean? How are you supposed to incorporate healthy, inexpensive foods into your diet instead of relying upon processed and packaged foods? Does this mean you have to give up you Kraft Dinner? Hell no! Don't even think it! But how about adding some in season green and red vegetable and some locally sourced meat sizzling alongside? Sound do-able?

I am of the opinion that to be a responsible shopper you have to include whether or not your food is locally sourced, humanely grown and financially feasible to purchase as well as what the calories and nutrients may be. I don't think it is necessary to be a vegan, or a hair shirt wearing hermit, or an environmentalist, animal rights fanatic and tree hugger to be a responsible shopper. There is a middle ground where most people would be comfortable living in and I firmly believe in it. I also enjoy giving this knowledge away so that more people support their local food growers and really become aware of the lifespan and quality of life of both themselves and the food they eat. I strongly encourage people to take drives in the surrounding countryside where they live and find those farm stands. Only by voting with our wallets will availablility and price become more comfortable for everyone. Humans crave habit and routine and if you accept these ideas into your routine, your good habits, you will find they incorporate themselves seamlessly and are easy to live with.

                                                         

text: Chelle Elle

all photographs found on Google Images

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