Vegan Chickpea curry

It has been a busy December this year! I went into it with all the intentions of continuing to post every week. Then some of my recipes flopped, I didn't have the time nor the inclination to make them over to figure out what went wrong, though I do have some suspicions. We celebrated Orion's second birthday early in the month with extended family we see about once a year. We were lucky enough to be graced by the presence of the "Yuletide Flu" which ate up a little over a week of our month. Then preparations for Yule took over, 4 days later it was Christmas. Now it is Boxing day and we can settle back into our normal routine. We have had an overdose on all things white and refined this season, too much white flour, white sugar, white rice and too many treats for all of us (Too many "Fruit" snacks for Orion and too much dairy containing chocolate for me)  The inspiratation for this meal comes from my book club book, "The secret daughter" While it makes me cry regularly as I'm reading it, it also leaves me with a longing for curry, specifically vegetarian curry. So I got up last night at midnight to dig dried chickpeas out of the cold room to soak for today. I have taken my recipe for butter chicken and changed it bit to make a chickpea curry. If you are used to traditional Indian food this is by no means the recipe for you. If you just want something tasty that has curry flavour, yet is mild enough for kids you have found the right recipe. Enjoy!

2.5 cups dried chickpeas (Soaked over night)
1 onion diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
4 Tbsp coconut oil
4 tsp ground cardamom
6 tsp mild curry powder
6 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground ginger
2.5 cup coconut milk (I use coconut dream, if you use a canned milk leave out the cornstarch)
2 Tbsp corn starch (Feel free to substitute for any other type of thickening starch)
1 small can tomato paste


3 cups chopped fresh Baby spinach
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup plain Coconut milk yogurt plus 1 tbsp lemon juice (So nice makes a great one) (Reserve for just before serving)


Turn crockpot on high, put Chickpeas in, cover with coconut oil.
In a measuring cup whisk together, coconut milk, tomato paste, lemon juice and corn starch and spices. Pour over everything. Cook on high for 2-3 hours then turn down to low for another 4 or so, Stir occasionally.


15 minutes before serving stir in yogurt, lemon juice and spinach. Serve over rice with fresh Naan (I used this recipe and it was great!  I made it with 100% whole wheat pastry flour) on the side

Sloppy Joes with a twist

I haven't been feeling like cooking this week for some reason, we have Orions birthday party on the weekend and many things to do to get ready for it. I made up this easy recipe to just toss in the crockpot. The twist is that these contain carrots, but you barely know they are there.

Sloppy Joes (Marikas style)
1lb beef (Thawed, never use frozen beef in the crockpot)
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (About 3 medium)
1 tbsp 3 onion dip mix (Epicure)
1 Diced onion
1 400 ml can of tomato sauce
1 tbsp sucanet (or brown sugar)
1/2 tsp EACH salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar

Put everything except the liquid smoke in the crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 8 hours.
10 minutes before serving stir in the liquid smoke.
Serve over buns with a salad on the side.

Dairy free Butter Chicken

Sometimes I just get a craving for something that will not be satisfied until I make it. This time around it was butter chicken, Clay hates curry so I have to pick and choose which ones I make. He actually ate this one without complaining. Orion gobbled his up. I searched and searched for a dairy free butter chicken recipe. The ones I found just seemed to leave ingredients out instead of substituting them, so I found a normal recipe that got rave reviews and substituted items to make it allergen friendly.

Here is the original recipe at "Crockpot 365"


Here is my allergen friendly version:


2 chicken breasts with backs attached, deboned and diced (You could use other chicken this is just what I had in the freezer)
1 onion diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
4 Tbsp coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp mild curry powder
2 tsp garam masala (I only trust Mcormick brand)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 3/4 cup coconut milk (I use coconut dream, if you use a canned milk leave out the cornstarch)
1 Tbsp corn starch (Feel free to substitute for any other type of thickening starch)
1 small can tomato paste
2 T lemon juice
1 cup plain Coconut milk yogurt plus 1 tbsp lemon juice (So nice makes a great one) (Reserve for just before serving)


Turn crockpot on high, melt coconut oil in bottom.
Place garlic and onion in bottom of Crockpot.
Debone and dice chicken. Place in Crockpot.
Mix spices together and sprinkle over chicken stirring to coat evenly.
In a measuring cup whisk together, coconut milk, tomato paste, lemon juice and corn starch. Pour over everything. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8. Stir occasionally.
15 minutes before serving stir in yogurt and lemon juice. Serve over rice

Roasted garlic and red pepper hummus

It is Grey cup Sunday here in Canada. While I'm not much of a football fan I do love using it as a excuse to spend time with family and eat appetizers for dinner. Every year my mom asks me to make hummus, for some reason hers never turns out like mine. With her kids grown and flown the coop my moms food processor gets little use these days except for making hummus. Since she prefers my hummus she has passed on the food processor and the hummus making duty to me. I find that the key to a good hummus is using good beans. I have never had good hummus from no name brand beans. I will ONLY buy Scarpone canned beans. I have tried cooking the garbanzo beans myself and they just leave something lacking. Since Orion has a sesame allergy I substitute sunflower butter instead, you could leave it out but I find it lacks something in flavour without it. This year I am switching it up a little and making red pepper hummus.

Roasted Garlic and red pepper Hummus
1 medium pepper cut in half
1 head garlic peeled
Scant 2/3 cup lemon juice
2 little cans  (Just under 600ml total)Scarpone Garbanzo beans drained with 4 tbsp of liquid reserved
1/4 cup Sunflower butter (If you run the measuring cup under hot water before measuring the sunflower butter it will slide out easily)
1/4 cup EVOO
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
Paprika to garnish if you would like

Preheat oven to 400F
Take pepper halves and spray with Olive oil, Wrap head of garlic in foil. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Let cool.
Put beans, liquid, peppers and garlic in food processor and process until chopped,  Dump in Sunflower butter, lemon juice, blend again. while food processor is going drizzle in olive oil. Taste, then add salt and pepper (Some beans are saltier then others) (I find that  by not rinsing the beans you don't need much other flavourings.
Let sit at least an hour before serving

Vegan chocolate shortbread bars

I was reading the Presidents choice insiders report today, it always makes me crave all sorts of things. Since I already had supper in the crockpot, I decided to indulge my sweet tooth and bake. I have a sink load of dishes waiting to go in the dishwasher so I didn't really want to make a huge mess. I settled for something simple, quick and chocolately. This is in no way shape or form anything that resembles healthy. It is full of white flour, refined sugar and chocolate. Sometimes you have to live a little though, ;) Everything in moderation right?. I couldn't find any recipes that were vegan, so I just winged it and substituted it a bit.

Here is the original recipe "non vegan recipe" from About.com

Here is my version:

Vegan Chocolate chip shortbread bars

2-1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar,
1 cup Earth Balance shortening, cold and cut into cubes
1 cup Dairy free chocolate chips,  (I used 1/2 cup Enjoy life chocolate chips, 1/2 chopped Lindt Dark chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Place flour and sugar in large bowl. Mix with wire whisk. 

Add cut shortening. toss lightly with your hands or a fork to coat the cubes.

 Use a pastry cutter, to blend shortening into flour/sugar mixture until crumbly. 

Hand stir in the mini chocolate chips. 

Dump mixed ingredients into 9x13 pan. Press firmly with fingers and level-out.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly brown on top.

 Remove from oven.  Cool for 5 minutes then cut shortbread into squares, DO NOT REMOVE FROM PAN

Cool completely before serving.

Hot out of the oven!

Sour leaf lazy cabbage rolls

I grew up eating sour leaf cabbage rolls. I love them so much. Hand rolling cabbage rolls takes so much time. Last time I made cabbage rolls I froze the leftover filling and little bits of sour cabbage that were not suitable for rolling, I baked it like a casserole and it was so good! This time I am fine tuning the recipe to make it into lazy cabbage rolls. This recipe is sans tomatoes since that is the way my family eats sour cabbage rolls. You could use sauerkraut instead of the sour head if you like, just make sure that you use non pasteurized sauerkraut. You can fine it in the produce section or a good European deli/grocer , then stuff in jars is nothing compared to the real stuff. I really like Kissel Cabbage.  This is dairy free yet still has the richness of flavour that you expect from sour leaf cabbage rolls. This recipe makes enough for two casseroles.

Yield: 12 servings
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water

3 cups brown Calrose rice

Sourhead Cabbage

1 Sourhead cabbage diced into 1 inch pieces or 2 bags of sauerkraut (My favourite is made by Kissel Cabbage)
3 medium onions. diced
1 package of bacon, diced into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp pepper
1 cup Dairy free margarine (I like earth balance or vegan becel)
1/4 Coconut oil (Make sure it is descented, I like Omega  Organic coconut oil for this)
1/4 cup bacon fat (I always save my fat in the freezer, so I have or for recipes like this or frying perogies. If you don't have any just add another 1/4 cup of coconut oil instead)
1/4 cup water

Bring chicken stock and water to boil in a large pot on stove, add rice lower heat to just barely simmering. Cook for 55 minutes until all  the water is absorbed.

Bacon frying

Fry bacon until crispy, remove bacon (Leave the grease in the pan)

Add onions to pan, fry until just starting to turn translucent,
Turn heat down, add margarine, coconut oil, additional bacon fat and pepper to pan, cover, simmer for 15 min.
Place diced cabbage. bacon and cooked rice in a large bowl mix well,
Put rice mixture in two greased casserole dishes
Ladle onion mixture over top, add 1/8 of a cup of water to each casserole dish
Cook covered at 350F 45 minutues OR freeze.

To make from frozen, Thaw the casserole, then cook at 350 until the internal temp is 165.

Casseroles ready for the oven/ freezer

Cooked and ready to eat :)

Meal planning

Meal planning is pretty easy and quick once you get the hang of it, it takes the stress out of figuring out what you want for dinner every night. I meal plan for a week at a time, but you could do it for 2 weeks if you prefer. I like to go every week to get my fresh produce from Kingsland farmer's market. We have been going to the market almost weekly since it has opened. It is really nice to see the same vendors every week and to get a sense of where your food is coming from (The majority of them offer to let you visit the farms) Even they stands that buy the food directly from the farmers and sell it can tell you where it is coming from. I can trust them and they often give me awesome deals. It is really interesting to see how the market has changed since it has been opened, some vendors have left, others have opened. Stalls have moved around and grown or shrunk. The one thing that has stayed the same is the feeling of the market, it is cozy and always smells great, the produce is fresh and often organic or pesticide free. If you are local to Calgary I encourage you to go to Kingslands market.

Now back to the topic at hand, meal planning. Like I said I meal plan one week at a time. We almost never eat what I plan for that night, I never seem to want what I have planned. We will eat the planned meals on different days. I have a guideline for what to make on certain days, this is for ease of planning. It has been tailored to our eating habits and life situation. I encourage you to make a guideline like ours for your family, it makes life so much easier. Here is ours:

Monday is a crockpot meal (I do laundry and clean the house on Mondays, so I need something that I don't have to spend much time on)
Tuesday is a vegan meal (We do vegan because we don't eat eggs or dairy anyways)
Wednesday is beef 
Thursday is leftovers (My husband has a class, so we have to eat early)
Friday is Pork or chicken
Saturday is what I call a flex day, really it just means we have whatever I feel like making, if anything. In times of plenty it can mean eating out. In nice weather my husband barbecues.
Sunday we rotate between family dinners at my parents or here, so it will vary.

Something I also do is keep a list of meals we enjoy and take a look through those, the list is always changing. As I add more to the blog I will use this as a list to choose from. Orion and Clay really don't mind eating the same things often. I myself can not stand it, I need variety! So I take the list and apply what I want to the days, then write a grocery list of things I need to buy, often I will have multiple lists. One for Costco, one for the market, and one for other stores. I keep a very stocked pantry and cold room, I buy the majority of staples in large quantities at a time and store them. We buy meat every few months from a butcher in large enough quantities to get a good deal.
That is pretty much it, If I don't feel like making what I have planned, I don't but I do make sure to use the ingredients I have on hand.
I will start posting my meal plans for the week to give an idea of the things we eat. Eventually I will start calculating out how much each meal costs.

Happy meal planning!