Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili

I went overboard grocery shopping last week and bought too much vegetables. I hate throwing food out so I came up with this brilliant idea of chili. I thought, maybe I can just toss all these vegetables in a slow cooker and I won't feel bad about tossing anything out. I used textured vegetable protein chunks but you can omit it all together. I seasoned it with Alton Brown's diy taco seasoning. I love my slow cooker and I just clap with glee whenever I get to use it. You can use any combinations of vegetables for this chili.

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients

4 zucchinis
2 carrots
1 onion
2 tbsp. garlic
1/2 cup TVP
2 bay leaves
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1/2 cup canned kidney beans

Alton Brown's Taco seasoning

2 tablespoons  chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

 

Directions

1)Cut all vegetables. Place in crockpot and add crushed tomatoes,stock,kidney beans.

2)Combine all taco seasoning ingredients. Add seasoning to vegetables in crockpot.

3)Slow cook on low for 6 hrs or high on 4.

 

 

Sweet Potato Salmon Burger

This recipe came about because I had some extra sweet potato mash and a can of salmon. The salmon can easily be substituted with tuna. I like mine extra spicy so season according to your taste. You don't even need to pan fry the burger, you can create the mixture and eat it in a bun or on top of salad. It is economical and a great way to eat fish.

Sweet Potato Salmon Burger

Ingredients
1 cup of sweet potato mash
1 can of salmon or tuna
1/4 of an onion
1 tsp garlic
5 chili leaves
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp coconut oil

Directions
1)Heat 1 tsp coconut oil in a pan and add onions,garlic and all spices. Mix for 1 minute.
2)Combine sweet potato mash and salmon. Add onion mixture.
3)Mix all ingredients together and form into burgers.
4)Heat another teaspoon of coconut oil. Gently place burgers on pan. Heat and brown both sides. Enjoy with some Sriracha "mayo" by mixing  1tbsp Sriracha hot sauce and 3tbsp greek yogurt.

Makes 4 delicious burgers.

Turmeric Egg Salad Spread Recipe

I created this spread so that I can keep it in the fridge for those days where we are in a rush in the morning and we want to eat eggs. Eating breakfast in the morning is so important and I really like eating eggs because it can keep me full until my morning snack comes around. I make this spread with a little bit of mayonnaise to bind it together and I add a dash of turmeric. Turmeric is a yellow spice often use in Chinese and Indian cooking. It is a powerful antioxidant said to fight cancer causing radicals in your body. It has a slightly curry flavor and it just adds little bit of extra flavour to this spread. This recipe can be kept in a tight container in the fridge for one week, if it lasts that long.

Turmeric Egg Salad Spread

Ingredients
7 eggs
1 tbsp. baking soda
3 cups of water
1 tbsp. fat free mayonnaise
1 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1)Place the eggs with baking soda and water in pot and heat to boil. When water reaches boiling point, continue for 4 minutes.
2)Turn off heat but keep eggs in the water.
3)When cooled off, remove eggs from water and peel shell off. The baking soda helps the shell come off easily.
4)Using a grater, grate all the eggs.
5)Add mayo,turmeric,salt and pepper. Mix all ingredients
6)Place in a container with lid and keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Coconut Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

In my baking adventure today, I tried using coconut flour for the first time.  It is a nice alternative for wheat flour and it is high in fibre and low in carbs.  Since I had no idea how this was going to turn out, I searched for a recipe that didn't require too much ingredients and had chocolate. This recipe is a combination of Detoxinista's Recipe for Coconut flour chocolate chip cookie and Ditchthewheat's recipe. I didn't add any other sugars to the recipe and it was sweet enough for me. The cookie is grainy and crumbly. Next batch I am going to use less coconut flour and see if it's more of a crispy cookie but I still like how this one turned out.

Coconut Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

1 ripe mashed banana 

1 large egg

3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted

3 tbsp. melted coconut oil

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup of chocolate chips

1)Mash banana
2)Add beaten egg to banana
3)Combine rest of ingredients except for chocolate chips.
4)Add banana mixture
5)Add chocolate chips and place in fridge for 30 minutes.
6)Remove cookie dough and form into 1/2 inch balls, place on cookie sheet. Press down with fork and bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. **
7)Keep on cookie sheet for 10 minutes and let cool on a rack completely . Keep in tight container or fridge for 1 week.

**Oven times vary and you might have to keep cookies in the oven longer depending on how you like them.
Makes 18 mini cookies.

Preschool Shape and Color Recognition activity

Teaching the toddlers and preschoolers colors and shapes is not a daunting task. Their little minds are like sponges. So take every chance you get to teach them colors and shapes through activities and daily tasks. For instance, I point out things and ask, "What color is that?" or "Can you bring me a red car?" They might not know how to say their shapes and colors but the first step is recognition. Today's shape and color recognition activity was such a success I am giving myself a pat on the back. It was so simple to set up and it turned into multiple opportunities to learn.

First I got some bristle board and cut out different shapes. I used square, circle, triangle, rectangle and star. I got the kids to color the shapes in with different colors. That was activity #1. Then I proceeded to cut out the shapes. At the back, I wrote in French the shape and color of the cutout. My daughter is learning French so why not let her in on the fun. Woot for activity #2.

 

 

 



Then I used masking tape and made different shapes on our floor. I yelled out a shape and they had to stand on the shape. Activity #3 was a lot of fun. When my daughter gets home from school, I'll yell it out in francais.

 

 

After we used the colored in shapes to ask the kids where each shape goes, "Where does this yellow circle go" and they proceeded to place it on the floor where the circle is. Activity #4 was so successful. Rectangles and squares can be confusing but in time they will recognize the difference.



 

 

And finally, I got some colored blocks and lined them up and handed out the cutouts so they can place it with the proper colored block. Activity#5 was another fun color activity.

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we have these little cutouts, we can play everyday and learn at the same time. Have fun kids!

 

 

 

 

 



Hainanese Steamed Chicken and Broccoli Rice

You wouldn't believe that I thought of this meal because I was too lazy to do too much cooking. Most of this meal is prep work and very simple ingredients. Steamed chicken by itself is tasty but with ginger scallion sauce, it is mouth watering. These are the ingredients I used, it might not be authentic Singaporean Hainanese chicken but it tastes fantastic.

Hainanese Steamed Chicken
1 1/2 lbs of chicken cleaned and dried *
1/3 cup sliced ginger
1/3 cup green onions
3 tbsp Shaoxing Chinese cooking wine **
salt and pepper to taste

*you can use any part of the chicken, with or without bone
**if you don't have this, it can be omitted

1)Rub salt and pepper to clean dried chicken.
2)Pour Shaoxing cooking wine over chicken pieces.
3)Add ginger and garlic on top of chicken.
4)Cover and steam for 1 hr on high until juices run clear.

Enjoy with Ginger Scallion Sauce

Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe

1 cups thinly sliced scallions (green and whites)
1/4 cup finely minced fresh ginger
 3tbsp  corn oil  or other neutral oil
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt or Himalayan sea salt, more to taste

1)Heat oil with ginger and scallions for 5 minutes until aromatic.
2)Add salt
3)Use on steamed chicken or store in tight container for 1 week and can be used on rice,noodles,vegetables and meat.

Broccoli Rice

2 cups parboiled or brown rice
3 1/2 cups water
1 cup broccoli pieces
1tsp each of garlic and ginger minced

1)Rinse rice over cold water. Add water and place in rice cooker.
2)Add broccoli,garlic,and ginger to rice.
3)Add salt to taste.Turn on and cook
4)Fluff rice when done.

Parsley Coconut Salad

My mother makes this delicious simple salad and I always ask her to make it. It's a very light and flavourful salad that goes well with chicken, fish and pork. It keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days. The only hard part is grating your coconut. And I mean buy the real coconut, crack shell, pour juice out and grate the flesh. You can't use frozen grated coconut because it's too watery and you can't use dried coconut that is usually for baking because the texture and flavor won't be the same. It's the extra work but so worth it for this salad.

Parsley Coconut Salad

1 bunch curly parsley
1 cup grated fresh coconut
1/2 diced red onion
1 juice of a lime

1)Finely chop your parsley
2)Add your grated coconut, diced onion and lime juice.
3)Stir and refrigerate.


Here I'm enjoying my jerk chicken legs with some rice and parsley coconut salad. Yum indeed!