Friday Favourites – healthy goodness
Okay, after last week’s emphasis on the sugary goodness in our lives, this week I will focus on my favourite healthy goodness that I cook regularly or have discovered.
1/ Bean and Vegetable soup
I recently created this soup thanks to having so many extra veggies in my fridge from my organic vegetables from a local sponsored farm. I just soak my beans (with barley, rice or quinoa) overnight and then toss them into a large pot and follow them with any and all the veggies I want and some garlic, salt and veggie stock. The soup is so simple and good Lillian loves it too. Yesterday she even ate my whole bowl of soup in addition to hers.
2/ Apples, Bananas and Carrots oh my
I am a big fan of raw fruits and veggies. I love apples, oranges, bananas, berries, mangoes, melons, and other yummies. I enjoy turning them into smoothies or mixing them with yogurt, nuts and granola. The same is true for raw veggies. I love my celery, carrots, avacado, cucumbers, tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, and other such wonders. With or without dip, they are so yummy and I find just keeping them around encourages me to eat healthy.
3/ Baked Falafels
I haven’t made these in a while (they didn’t agree with my third trimester and until this moment I forgot about them) but they are sooo good. My running BFF is also a fan, and she knows her falafels! They taste really yummy and even my toddler enjoys them. I enjoy vegetarian food that is not fried, so these are a big hit and are great because you can freeze them once cooked and reheat for dinner or lunch at work. I added a bit of dried chilis to mine to give them an extra bite, which my hubby enjoys.
4/ Roasted Brussel sprouts or squash
I have not eaten brussel sprouts for years, but decided to give them another chance since there are very few vegetables I won’t eat. I got some from my organic veggie pickup figuring that I should try local, fresh grown rather than who knows how old store bought if I was going to give them a fair chance. I roasted them, as per instructions from Cecilia, and honestly they were pretty good. I don’t think I’ll start eating them every week or love them to the extent that I love squash or potatoes, but for the two months that they are fresh and local we may enjoy them a few times.
5/ Spinach
Okay I will admit that I am a bit obsessed with spinach. It’s my grandmother’s fault. In Germany they have this frozen packaged creamed spinach, which my oma makes with potatos and scrambled eggs. So I ate it weekly when I would stay with her for the summer. (They live in Germany so a visit to them lasted 6 weeks) So when I got older I found out spinach was better for you than lettuce I slowed replaced lettuce with spinach on my hubby’s sandwiches. For me I just swapped it. He never noticed until one day the top of his sandwich and he asked me what it was. I told him and he couldn’t believe he’d been eating it like that for months without noticing, and it literally was like two or three months already. So now I put spinach on sandwiches, in salad, in omletes, under the cheese of my pizza, in soups, and more!
Yummy! I think I will try your soup idea and see if it goes here…my hubby likes meat in his soup but I am still going to try.