Photo Friday: German Potato Salad

roasted potatoes • carrots • onions • balsamic

The Perils of Giving up Processed Food

Tonight is one of those nights when I am mildly cranky and would like to sit down, watch some mindless t.v. that I won't retain and eat a bunch of really salty chips. There is big but here. I swore off of chips about two months ago. Occasionally, Mr. and I would give in to a craving and buy a bag of Honey Dijon Kettle Chips (swoon), but since I emphatically waved my finger one day and proclaimed "I shall not eat chips from this day forward!" (or something like that) there have not been any chips in the house. Or, much of any processed food for that matter. So, when I am feeling cranky and want some greasy-salty crap there is none to be found. These are the perils of giving up processed food. You've been warned. Give up processed food and you'll be healthy.

The Shameful Antics of KFC

As if using chicken sourced from the most revolting factory farms wasn't enough:

The KFC Double Down.

It is entirely shameful and revolting to push this type of artery-clogging, soul-crushing kind of "food". It makes me so angry that when Jamie Oliver is starting The Food Revolution in the US, the Slow Food movement is going strong, and people across the world are reclaiming their bodies and food that KFC would release a thing (can it be called a sandwich if there isn't bread?) like the Double Down.

Reclaim your food. Don't let a huge corporation tell you to eat crap.

Photo Friday

Pork Chops • Ginger Apple Chutney • Roasted Garlic Mashed • Crisp Asparagus

Thursday Basics: Perfect Gluten-free Bread

I was thinking that I would write about how the smell of this bread baking is simply intoxicating. The gentle scent of fresh baked bread that reminds you of your grandmother's home filters out of the oven and works its way into your memories and blooms all those memories of freshly baked chewy bread that was likely slathered in creamy butter and sweet jam.

The fact that this delicious bread is gluten-free makes it simply divine. It barely lasts in my house. Seriously. The crust is perfectly crumbly and crisp, the inside soft and airy. This recipe came out of poring over recipes and some very serious experimentation. I often find that gluten-free bread is basically compacted flour, meaning it crumbles into a dry little pile of what I thought was bread until I breathed next to it. This bread does not to do that. At. All. It's fabulous. You need to make this!

The Bread

160 g white rice flour

100 g brown rice flour

60 g soy flour

6 g guar gum (about 2 teaspoons)

4 g salt (1 teaspoon, there about)

120 ml warm water

15 ml liquid honey

15 ml quick rise yeast

20 ml olive oil

2 eggs

1. Bloom the yeast in the warm water and the honey. It is important that the water is warm, yeast iskind of like goldilocks: Not too hot, not too cold ... warm is juuuuuust right. If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast, too cold and nothing will happen.

2. Measure and sift the dry ingredients.

3. Mix the dry ingredients into the activated yeast. Add the eggs and olive oil.

4. Pour into a loaf pan. This is not your typical bread dough, there is no kneading involved and it is more like a batter than dough. I generally let it rise for almost an hour in the warm oven. To get the oven warm enough, turn on the oven light when you start getting everything together.

5. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. When it is finished the bread should sound hollow when you tap on it.

To store: Wrap in wax paper or wrap in a clean dish cloth. Generally gluten-free bread is frozen because it can turn rancid quite easily because of the flour. I'm sure you could pre-slice and freeze this bread like a commercially prepared loaf, but I don't know from personal experience since it simply won't last.

A Spring day to banish malaise

I've been cranky and lacking inspiration today and have spent most of the day obsessively updating twitter and dramatically flopping on the floor and sighing at which point the kids would jump all over me. To perk up out this general malaise I decided that I would share some signs of spring. These were taken two days ago when Mr. and I took Girly and Little Boy to a deliriously close pond for a picnic. Seriously, we have lived in this area for almost a year and we just figured out how to find this pond. Plus, it has ducks and that makes little people ecstatic.

A beautiful bouquet for Mommy.

Girly took this picture! She is over the top adorable walking around with the big Canon in her hands and she is a really instinctive photographer.

Cheap Family Meals: Spectacular Hummus

The Food Revolution started by Jamie Oliver is absolutely remarkable. I watched the British version and the child who had not eaten a single homemade meal in her entire young life saddened me beyond belief. It is terrifying to think that there are children in our midst who do not eat well and have no concept of fresh food.

I understand the rhetoric of "eat healthy! organic! whole grains!" is disheartening to a family with a limited income and poor access to fresh food. I know it seems inconceivable that in your town or city people are unable to actually find decent food (and once they do, do they know what to do with it?) but it is absolutely true. In Halifax, near one of the universities there is a large convenience store with "Food Store" emblazoned across its side. As you can imagine, lining the shelves are tins of over-processed pastas in "meat sauce" or sodium-laden soup, boxed crackers and potato chips and just maybe a few green bananas. This store is much like any other "convenience" store but there are a few considerations: It is owned by a large, chain grocer. This gives the impression there will be extra options such as the bananas so this convenience store is in some small way filling the needs of the local community; however, there is not a grocery store nearby that can adequately provide fresh fruits and vegetables instead of the usual unhealthy and expensive food alternatives. What is to happen to the families (and university students - they need good food, too!) that live in this area?

Proper food is not always available in some areas and while it is fine to encourage parents to feed their children with wholesome food it is problematic at a higher level. The healthy lives of our children depends on so many factors, so the next time that you see a child eating from a bag of potato chips and feel like condemning the parent, stop and think for a moment. That parent could really be trying to provide their child with healthy food and hitting any number of roadblocks such as transportation, income, or even something as simple as ignorance of nutrition. When so-called convenience food became the motto of the day, a fair amount of food knowledge flew out the window.

Take a look at this article from Canadian Living about school food programs and why they are vital. This is another article about a school for at-risk boys in Washinton, D.C. (thanks to Marisa from Food in Jars for tweeting this a bit ago!).

All of this being said, it is possible to have inexpensive and very healthy meals for a family. The other day at lunch we had creamed dandelion greens (I like it but everyone else found the dandelion greens a bit bitter - use spinach for a gentle flavour) with a poached egg and hummus with a bunch of dip-able veggies and baked tortillas. A fantastic, healthy and super cheap meal for the family.

The Hummus*

one can of chickpeas (garbanzo), drained

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp. white miso paste

60 ml soy milk

30 ml lemon juice

15 ml olive oil

1 tsp. Provençale mustard

salt, to taste

1. Put everything in a blender. Don't forget to peel and smash your garlic with the side of your chef's knife to release the oils. Mix until smooth.

2. Once in the serving bowl, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and a dash of Hungarian paprika. Start dipping.

* I am well aware this is not the usual recipe for hummus. It is nearing that time when we need to go grocery shopping. The basic ingredients for hummus are:

one can chickpeas, drained

3-4 cloves garlic

lemon juice

olive oil

salt

I use soy milk instead of olive oil because of the fat content and olive oil, while delicious it is fairly expensive. The mustard adds a beautiful sweet tanginess and that miso paste is instead of the usual smooth tahini. Be careful about the salt if you use miso as it tends to be fairly salty. The point of the tahini (or miso, I've even used peanut butter) is that it makes the hummus smoother and creamier.