dairy-less sauce

I have nothing against cows and milk products. Gelato puts a big smile on my face as does some cheeses, and during my pregnancy I drank half a litre of milk every day. I couldn’t get enough of it. But when it comes to cooking, I prefer sauces that don’t have cream and have a lighter taste.

Sauces don’t need cream for good taste. I’ve found the combination of tasty veggies, white wine and stock to be more than enough for a light, delicious sauce that tastes great with pasta or rice. This dinner is as basic and easy as it gets. It’s a good choice for a mid-week supper, and we usually toss it with pasta. Lots of other veggies could be added to it, but I like this combination (and Small One does, too).

• Easy Chicken    Cube chicken breast and brown in a pan with olive oil until all pieces are sealed and then set aside. Add some oil to the pan and put in sliced mushrooms with crushed garlic (if I had an onion, I would have fried that in the oil first). After a few minutes, add some vegetable stock (I always add white wine at this point, but we were out, so I went straight to the stock), and add the chicken back to the pan and let it all bubble together. This is where  I would add herbs and spices depending on which direction you want to go with the dish. Yesterday I added a chopped chili for heat, but I kept it simple and left it at that. At the very end, I put in a cube of frozen spinach and let it dissolve and mixed the whole thing together.

fiesta salsa

It’s a short and sweet day for me on this blog, much like this bowl of lovely salsa. It’s sweet, soft, tart, crunchy and leaves my mouth feeling sparkly and clean. It’s the little things in life that always give us the most joy.

• Fiesta Salsa    To say that this is an easy salsa to throw together is an understatement – it takes minutes to chop everything up. My ingredients: one mango, one red capsicum, half a red onion, one spring onion (green parts only), lime juice and a bit of salt at the end. That’s it. So easy. I think it would taste wonderful with chopped coriander and chili, but I didn’t have any on hand. My bowl of salsa is sitting in the fridge right now waiting for its date with pan-fried salmon this evening.

a new year

The beginning of every year is one of my most-anticipated moments. I’m the sort of woman who will wait until Monday to start an idea because starting it on Thursday doesn’t make sense. Starting any sort of activity in October is fine, but there is usually a slightly disappointed feeling in the pit of my stomach because it’s October. A January start counts for so much more.

A woman whom I admire greatly challenged me once to think of myself as a tripod – body, soul and spirit. Cutting off one area or neglecting its importance means the tripod can’t stand, she used to say, and in the same way, when I ignore one part of my life, I will face the consequences of a life out of balance. The best way for me to focus on all three areas has been to set specific goals for each one. In the past few years of doing this, I’ve run a 15 kilometer race (a body goal), read a classical novel and tried to learn Tamil (soul goals), and taken a day each month as a personal retreat with God (a spirit goal).

It goes without saying that my life held more than a normal share of change in the past two years. Marriage. Move. Baby. In the mix of these significant life events I have struggled – and am still struggling – to regain a sense of identity and purpose. Who am I now? What is important to me? Where am I going? I don’t know what 2012 holds for me and for my family, but I am settled in knowing that I have time, and this year is for exploration, to give myself time to understand and grow and to give the people I love time and space.

One of my goals is a small attempt at finding what I have lost, and I am putting it here as a means of accountability for myself. As one of my soul goals, I will set aside 30 minutes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to write on this blog. I am not allowed to edit what I have written after I press publish, I only have 30 minutes to write and I will write about whatever I want. Pre-writing and saving is not an option (I might still do it, but then it will have to be two posts for the day), and no blogging on the weekends. Most of this blog will probably be related to food, after all eating is one thing I have to do every day. And if I run out of food things to write about, tackling the realm of pureed baby food will always be a possibility.

• Special Rice – In an effort to eat better and cheaper, I’ve been thinking more simply about the majority of our meals. We had left over brown rice from a few nights ago, ground beef was on sale at Coop, and this was so easy to make, a must when there’s a baby who needs my attention.
• For the beef    fry an onion in oil, add the beef and brown, add whatever flavours and spices you want – ours had Chinese five spice, dark soy sauce and fish sauce. I added spring onions to it at the end.
• For the rest of it    Put veggie stock on the stove – whatever amount you want (more means it will be a soupier dish, less means it will be more like a rice dish), chop up carrots and toss it in, add the cooked rice to it. Can I just offer a small ad break for brown rice? It’s great for you and will give you lots of more energy for longer than its white counterpart. Add the cooked beef and some frozen peas, and you’re done.

drinking spring

It’s been a long, six-week absence from writing. I didn’t spend the winter in hibernation, swallowing down comfort foods and drinking hot chocolate. We had visitors every few weeks it seemed, which made for lots of talking, cooking, eating and walking but not a lot of energy for writing. What can I say, Small One has been consuming more of my physical and emotional reserves lately. When I started this blog, I made one small internal vow – I didn’t want blogging to get in the way of cooking and meal time, so if I don’t feel like taking a photo, I don’t take one, and there is no blog entry about beef stroganoff. The eating has been good this winter, the cooking continues to become more natural, and maybe one day writing will also be more of a normal part of my life.

In the mean time, spring seems to be seducing us in Geneva. The past few weeks have been sunny and even warm during the day. Today I was out in capris, running shoes, a t-shirt and fleece jacket. I wasn’t planning on inventing a spring drink, but at my last doctor’s appointment, I was slightly anemic. Enter the plan to get more iron into my diet without going overboard on red meat.

I have read about spinach smoothies and was intrigued by the idea, so I tried making one of my own with ingredients that sounded good to me. I now drink one every day. Today I am on my second. Husband was disturbed by the idea at first and told me nicely that he hoped I enjoy it, but it wasn’t going to become a part of his life. But even he was won over in the end. I think it has to do with three special ingredients. (Spinach is not one of them.)

• Spinach Smoothie put into a blender any combination of fruit that you like (warning: even a bit of banana goes a long way). Mine usually have strawberries and oranges. In this one (you can see it in the blender at the top) there is: spinach, strawberries, frozen berries – a cheaper alternative to fresh ones and orange juice. If you like it to be more like a juice with more liquid, just add more juice or water. Now for the three special ingredients that change everything – ginger, mint and honey. Be generous with the ginger and mint; it gives the smoothie life and a wonderful freshness. Half a lime has also been tasty with it. Lots of people put yogurt in smoothies, but I don’t in this one because calcium inhibits the absorption of iron, which is what I need from this smoothie (although the vitamins and minerals don’t hurt)
• Another warning: spinach smoothies tend to not look very appetising. The only reason why this one looks half decent is because of the frozen berries. Normally it’s a puke shade of brown.

a complete lentil: food inspired by advent

Peace makes me think of relaxation, calm, a wide open space and harmony. When I want to be “at peace,” typically that means an escape involving travel, alone time or a quiet nook in a cafe.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid, promises the Prince of Peace.  I do not give as the world gives. I am always searching for my completion, my peace, in what someone else offers – a soothing candle, exercise and diet, relationships, social media and entertainment.

My peace I give to you. If peace is something that he gives, if he is peace, then peace is wholeness and completion, something that only comes with the presence of the Prince of Peace in our lives. Peace is not the escape from our circumstances, but it is the embrace of someone, him.

He gives himself as our peace, and he asks me to surrender to his peace.

This week’s advent meal happened by accident, and turned out to be a dual effort by Husband and I. Lentils have been on my mind more and more as a good source of protein instead of relying constantly on red meat, and I love lentils in almost anything. There is something complete, hearty and nourishing about this humble…I don’t know what it is. Vegetable? Grain? Pulse? Last weekend I tried making Sri Lankan dahl for the first time in my life. It turned out well, so well that I wanted to eat it again on Monday as my advent food.

I made a big pot of it, and when I returned after eight in the evening, Husband already had a portion of it. But he re-invented it per German standards. It turns out that his grandmother used to make a lentil dish almost exactly like this particular pot of what I thought was Sri Lankan dahl, only the German version has sausage and – promise – red wine vinegar. Very strange to think of vinegar in dahl, yes? It soothed my taste buds and satisfied my hunger.

• Gerlankan Dahl sautee in oil chopped onion, crushed garlic and finely chopped ginger. Add a few cinnamon sticks, some cumin powder and a bit of garam masala and keep sauteeing. After a minute or two add red lentils. Fry for another minute or so then add water. It is hard for me to know how much water to add – I started with double the amount, but  as it soaked up the liquid, I added more. After the lentils are cooked and it’s a good consistency, chop some sausage into it (the better quality the sausage, the better it will be; we had the cheapest kind of smoked sausage available and it was still good). Add red wine vinegar at the end – go easy, add bit by by and taste as you go.