Planning ahead: mushroom sauce with spinach

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating

I started planning meals for the first two weeks of January as my work schedule is completely crazy then and I know that finding even 20 min to prepare a meal is a luxury that I might not be able to afford on many days. During these days I want to make sure we have something healthy on hand, ready in a few minutes, so we do not need to resort to packaged food that we try to avoid as much as possible.

I made a batch of mushroom sauce with spinach, which can be served with potatoes, kasha, barley, pasta, or kopytka, to add some variety.

Ingredients:

680g fresh mushrooms

100g fresh spinach, you add more or less

1 onion, chopped finely

2-4 garlic cloves

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp dried majoram

3-4 tbsp whipping cream (you can use soft goat cheese instead)

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Salt, pepper

1. Melt the butter and cook onion and garlic on a low heat for about 5-7 minutes.

2. Add finely chopped mushrooms and spinach, cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

3. Add remaining ingredients, lower the heat to 1.8 and cook for another 40 minutes.

4. Enjoy!

Zucchini and lentil pancakes

To celebrate the Pancake day this year I decided to try something different. After all no one said that pancakes have to be sweet.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #pancakes #zucchini

Ingredients:
1c red lentils, washed and soaked for about 30 min
3 zucchini, grated
0.25 medium onion
1 tsp cumin seeds
0.5 tsp turmeric (you can use curry paste)
2 tbsp flax meal mixed with 5 tbsp water (you can use 2 eggs instead)
0.25 - 0.5c coconut milk
0.5 c oats
salt, pepper
oil for frying


1. Blend all ingredients together into a smooth consistency.
2. Fry over a medium heat.
3. After all pancakes are fried, place them in a dish with a lid and place in a preheated oven on 150-177c for about 20 minutes.
4. Serve warm.
5. Enjoy!

Nutritious Broccoli: Broccoli Tart

Here is another recipe I created with my broccoli supply obtained at $1 this week.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #broccoli

Tart:
1c unbleached white flour
0.5t salt
25g butter, softened
0.25c cold water

1. Mix all the ingredients and work them with you hand until smooth. It will take about 15 minutes.
2. Roll the dough with a rolling pin until fairly thin. If you worked the dough really well you will not need to add extra, else you may need to add some to help you roll.
3. Put the dough on the tart pan, press it to the bottom and then roll it will the rolling pin so any access dough cuts off.
4. Mark it with the fork, and place in the freezer for 10-20 min.

Tart toppings:
1c broccoli
1c of other veggies I used leftovers from making pizza - yellow pepper, spinach leaves, tomatoes. Also I had a little bit of tomato sauce left so I used it.
0.5 medium onion, chopped
1 egg
3/4c milk
1T cheese, grated

5. Preheat the oven to 177c.
6. Cook tomato sauce with onion for about 5 minutes.
7. Place cooled tart crust in the oven for 7 minutes.
8. Spread the tomato sauce, then add mixed remaining toppings other than milk and egg.
9. Beat an egg with milk until fluffy. Pour over the toppings. Sprinkle with cheese.
10. Bake for 40-50 minutes.
11. Enjoy!

Veggies time: Baked daikon

One of our grocery cost cutting strategies involves hunting for deals, which I am going to call "Food Deal of the Week" category.
During our last shopping we found daikon at a super low price. One smaller size daikon cost us $0.86, which is about 1/3 of the regular price. We also found leeks to be at 1/3 of their regular price, which is a great news however, we only managed to get one last bunch which won't be enough for experiments as we use a lot of leeks in soups.

I decided to try something new with daikon. Typically I would grate it or slice it and eat it raw in salads or on its own.

#easyfoodcreations #fooddealoftheweek #healthyeating

Preparation: 2 min
Cooking and baking: 25 min
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 small dikon, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces
2-3T soy sauce
1T sesame oil
1t green curry paste
1T grated cheese

1. Cook daikon for about 5 minutes in boiling water or broth.
2. Dry daikon, coat it in the mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, and curry paste. Heat the pan with some oil and fry on a high heat for about 2 minutes on each side, until lightly brown.
3. Transfer daikon to the baking pan, top it with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven to 177c for 15-20 minutes, until cheese gets slightly brown.
4. Serve on a bed of spinach leaves.
5. Enjoy!