Hemp Seed Butter, Green Onion, and Garlic Dip: It IS easy being green ;)

April is always a busy time for me. I have projects to mark. Exams to concoct. Panicky statistics students to soothe. Exams to mark.

And this year there's the garden :)

The weather earlier this week was up to 15 degrees celsius. So out came the shovel. After about 1/2 an hour I waffled. This was challenging me physically and I feared slinking back into overwhelming helplessness. I went back to the safety of my kitchen and took a long drink of water. I contemplated the realism of what I was undertaking. Between the last slurp of my water and my short walk back to my abandoned shovel something else was planted....my own inner resolve to just try my best. I parcelled out my garden in my head and asked myself if I could just dig a small enough patch for the onion and garlic bulbs. Some of the bulbs were from the remnants of my garden of 2 years ago and some from my fridge - purchased last year but never planted -they will keep for two years I was told when I purchased them.

In about 4 hours work (2 hours each day it was warm) I managed to turn over and weed about 1/5 of my small 'farm' in my backyard. The yard was completely neglected last year so there is a lot of clearing out of old weeds and roots.

And here are a few of my babies in their freshly turned earth :)

All of this planting of onions had me hankering for a taste of 'fresh' spring onions. So I headed out to the local grocery store and got me some. This dip is very simple and absolutely delicious with the cucumbers, organic baby spinach and organic blue corn chips I had with it.

I can't wait to make it with REALLY fresh and completely local spring onions ;) Perhaps those cucumbers and spinach seeds will make it out there too. The perfect locavore-ish lunch!

Hemp Seed Butter, Green Onion, and Garlic Dip
The ingredients are given per serving. Adjust accordingly - you can make extra and keep it in the fridge.
2 - 3 Tbsp hemp nut butter $22.00/kg MB ManitobaHarvest
1 minced clove organic garlic $11.15/kg ON Karma
1 finely chopped spring onion, green part only $0.59/bunch USA local grocery store
Hot chili pepper/cayenne to taste
Sea salt to taste $1.06/kg ? Karma
splash of organic cider vinegar (Filsinger's ) $2.90/L ON Karma

Alexandra's 6 layer Lasagna: Gluten/Dairy/Legume/Tomato Free

One of my core food groups used to be pasta.

Strangely...it has not been something I've really missed although from this blog you might see that I have attempted to recreate a few of my past favourites in accordance with my new food life. There are many varieties of rice pasta available but I don't like to overdo it (a hard task when you are gluten free).

Lasagna is one of my daughter's favourites. She regularly moans about not having it at our house and requests it at her dad's a lot (but he buys frozen stuff so it's just not the same she says).

I found gluten free rice lasagna pasta at the local grocery store recently and have been mulling what to do with it (no tomatoes? no dairy? yikes).

Seeing Karina's Uncheese Sauce Fit for a Goddess inspired me to whip up this creamy lasagna (with a slightly altered version of her recipe below). I served it with roasted sweet potatoes.

According to my daughter and a friend that was over for dinner last night....it was a perfect success. I am delighted and so grateful for Karina....she truly is a goddess :)

Karina the Goddess' Uncheese Sauce (my version...mostly the same)

4 tablespoons organic sunflower oil $2.09/L ON Karma
5 tablespoons sweet rice flour $1.67/kg THAILAND Chinatown, Toronto
2 1/2 cups organic plain rice milk (warm or room temperature is best) $2.09/L QC Karma
2 rounded tablespoons nutritional yeast $11.77/kg ? Ambrosia's
1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste $1.06/kg ? Karma
1/2 tsp organic yellow mustard seed or to taste ? ? Karma
1 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar or to taste (Filsinger's ) $2.90/L ON Karma
1/4 tsp organic nutmeg ? ? Karma
1/2 teaspoon organic turmeric for color $23.85/kg ? Karma


In a saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat, and stir in the rice flour using a whisk. Cook and stir the flour - making a thick paste. Stir for a few minutes to cook the raw flour taste out of it.

Slowly add in the rice milk, whisking to blend the flour paste and rice milk.

Bring the mixture to a bubble (it will thicken as it heats) then reduce the heat to low. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk to blend.

Continue heating and stirring the sauce over low heat for about five to ten minutes. Adjust seasonings if required (I used the exact measurements above).

This sauce is DELICIOUS and quite versatile and of course, I used it for the below lasagna. I'm looking forward to using it in other ways too.


Alexandra's 6 layer Lasagna

Layer 1:
The above sauce.

Layer 2:
1 cooked package brown rice lasagna noodles about $17.85/kg ON local grocery store health food section

Layer 3:
1 pound organic ground turkey $16.95/kg ON Beretta
1 medium lightly chopped organic onion $3.25/kg ON Karma
3 chopped cloves organic garlic $11.15/kg ON Karma
1/4 cup turkey stock (I make my own and freeze it).
Cook all of the above until turkey is thoroughly cooked.

Layer 4:
2 stalks chopped organic celery$2.90/bunch CA Karma
1/4 head of cauliflower florets $3.85/head CA Karma

Layer 5:
10 sliced organic crimini mushrooms $9.90/kg VA Karma

Layer 6:
1 bunch organic large spinach leaves washed with thick ribs removed $1.98/bunch CA Karma


I made two lasagnas with the above ingredients and each lasagna had two layers of all the ingredients (one 9"x13" pan and one smaller casserole pan). I added sauce on the top of both of them and also the leftover mushrooms.

Bake the lasagna at 375 F for approximately 30 minutes and then remove and cool by placing in the dishes in your fridge for at least 1 hour.

Alternatively, you could reduce the temperature to 350F and cook for an additional 20 minutes or so but allow the lasagna to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

Reheat a completely cooled lasagna at 350 F for about 40 minutes and roast additional vegetables to serve with this dish.

I'm craving celery: Warm chicken salad with hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette

I've been trying to eat *mostly* local during this seeming-to-never-end winter (and fyi: winter is due to end at Mar 20 2008, 05:48 UT - phew).

Throughout my life...my nearly 41 years...I have experienced strange cravings for celery. The stranger thing about my current craving is that I've been eating celery regularly for at least 3 years. I like celery but I don't love it - but I love it if I have a craving ;)

So celery was a food item I only incorporated into my regular diet with reluctance before moving to a mostly fresh produce lifestyle completely about 3 years ago after fits and spurts of healthy food phases throughout my late 20s/early 30s. I am now very fond of celery but still don't love it.

Now...for me, eating any item regularly means that it is in my fridge (but not necessarily consumed daily) about 50% of the time.

A bunch of celery, for me and my teenage daughter, lasts about 2 weeks or maybe a bit less. She is not crazy about celery but will eat it...especially when it is hidden in blenderized sauces ;). I wait for at least 2 weeks before buying another bunch of celery and throughout this winter it has been less often due to the locavore diet I am trying to pursue. I also think that the regular rotation of our diet is important for digestive purposes i.e. not only ecological purposes.

So what's with this current craving I'm having for celery?

Methinks it is because my body is crying out for the abundance of fresh produce about to 'spring' from our land...and by fresh I mean LOCAL. Fresh is something that is within days of being harvested. Root vegetables and apples are the closest thing to 'fresh' that is available to us Ontarians at the moment.

So tonight I offer you my California grown organic celery with local hydroponic fresh greens chicken salad.

The hemp oil vinaigrette is quite yummy and I've been putting it on my salads for a few months now - but again, not all the time. I take breaks from all foods regularly so that my body is not constantly processing a limited number of food items. I happen to think that the abundance of a few type of foods in the current modern diet is a large part of the health issues that are arising in our modern world. I am not alone in that thinking either.

I was gonna call this salad: "I've fallen on the ice again so leftovers are a godsend" salad but I thought the celery craving aspect was a worthier title. I am mostly fully recovered from the fall. Nothing broke except maybe a little of my spirit. But, the spirit mends too. Sometimes much more quickly than our bodies.

Warm chicken salad with hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette
2/3 cup reheated previously cooked organic long grain brown rice $4.45/kg USA Karma
2/3 cup reheated previously cooked pieces of diced organic chicken $16.09/kg ON Beretta
1 medium raw organic carrot $2.09/kg ON Karma
2 stalks organic celery$2.90/bunch CA Karma
1 cup raw organic baby arugula$2.55/bunch ON Karma
2 tbsp raw organic sunflower seeds$22.66/kg ON Karma
2 tbsp hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette (see below for recipe)
hot chili pepper/hot cayenne and sea salt and pepper to taste

Hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette (this is for a 1 cup batch which can be kept in the refridgerator)
1/2 cup hemp oil $15.00/L MB Manitoba Harvest
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (Filsinger's ) $2.90/L ON Karma
1/2 tsp organic yellow mustard seed ? ? Karma
1/2 tsp organic ginger $36.17/kg ? Karma
1/2 tsp sea salt $1.06/kg ? Karma

and P.S. I took the below pic yesterday at Karma. 33 locally produced items in the fruits and vegetables section of the store on March 14th, 2008. That number will climb very shortly.....YEAH!!

Gluten Free Caribbean Lunch with Hemp Slaw

I live in an area that has about an equal ratio of late night barber shops and jerk chicken outlets (and money cashing outlets....). I have yet to determine if any of the jerk chickens are suitable for my tomato free/gluten free diet so, in the past year or so, I've missed the quick and easy take out jerk chicken meals of some of the finer establishments close to me.

I was also imprinted as an infant/toddler by exposure to a couple of foreign born housekeeping nannies that expanded my parent's irish born food palate - think boiled and bland - considerably. One of my dearest memories was of my paternal grandfather gobbling up the spaghetti I'd made for him when I visited Ireland when I was 12 years old. I remember the quest I had to make through the irish markets to find suitable ingredients. That was in 1979 and Ireland, especially Cork city, had yet to be penetrated by global food influences. I remember also my grandmother telling me that it was called spaghetti bolognese, thank you very much. I wonder now what all of my grandparents would think of the global food plate. I don't think any of them would have stopped gardening and that's a legacy I hold onto.


This simple lunch used a couple of locally pre-made products that I enjoy.





Open Faced HOT(!) Turkey Sandwich
Little Stream produces an amazing gluten free buckwheat sourdough loaf (no yeast added) and Mado's Caribbean(mentioned in this thread but it is available at Karma co-op) produces yummy tomato free hot pepper sauce. I topped the bread with pre-cooked ground organic turkey(with thyme and sage added) from Beretta farms. I warmed this up in the toaster oven and note how little of the sauce I used. The sauce is quite hot yet very tasty.


Hemp Slaw
Chopped Organic Red Cabbage
Chopped Organic Carrots
Organic Greens
Dressing
2 tbsp pure pureed cranberries (available frozen)
1 tsp hemp oil
1 tsp Filsinger's raw un-filtered organic apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp ground mustard seed

All of the above were purchased at Karma Co-op ;)

Creamy Sweet Salty and Spicy Chicken Salad (could be warmed)

Organic Beet (raw or cooked) - 1 medium sized root per person, I used raw finely chopped.
Organic Chicken (cooked) - one handful per person, I used leftover cold chicken.
Organic Squash (cooked) - 1/4-1/3 per person, I used leftover so it was cold but previously baked.
Regular Avocado (raw)- 1/2 per person, finely sliced after scooping out entire half
Regular Olive tapenade from Quebec (no tomatoes only olives and oil) - about 1 tbsp per person (at centre for garnish)
Apple Cider Vinegar, Cayenne, Hemp Oil, Sea Salt and Dulse to taste.

The dish could be warmed or slightly grilled. I've been enjoying the crunchy taste of raw beets this season so I didn't want to heat this salad. I like to eat all salads at room temperature so taking the ingredients out 1 hour before eating accommodates this.

Did you notice the creamy reference again? I'm only about 2 months completely off of dairy - I quit goat's milk/cheese @ Dec 1/2007 - so it's no wonder I'm seeking out ways to incorporate the creamy goodness of avocados into my diet more often!