Does this post’s title make you hungry?
I know it’s a lot of food all in one place but we need serious comfort food around here.
It snowed last night.
Again!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate living in a climate where there are four seasons, but this year, I’ve had enough snow. I’m done with winter. I want the snow to melt, for the sun to warm the air, and for some buds to start forming on our trees.
Anyone that isn’t buying into global warming, and the fact that we may have gone too far damaging our Mother Earth, isn’t living my reality. Nor are they recognizing what’s going on all over our planet; sea levels are rising, there’s unusual flooding, the glaciers are melting, storms are raging, and then there are the droughts. In my part of the world winter is going on and on. We are ALL experiencing extreme weather conditions.
At least where we live, we only have to deal with snow storms and icy conditions in the winter, flooding in the spring, forest fires in the summer and then comes fall. That’s the season where we pull up our socks, so we can do it all over again.
Yeah, it’s much worse in other parts of the world so I shouldn’t complain. But watching this winter go on and on, when in the past I would be doing my spring garden clean up, just gets me thinking about how fast things are changing climate wise.
As I popped another chew-able Vitamin D, I picked up our local newspaper. Reading the article on the front page, made me smile and brought a tear to my eye.
I love living in a small community where the big story is “Men brave icy waters to save deer.” As it turned out a group of Okanagan men jumped into action just in time, to ensure a deer didn’t meet her demise in the icy waters of Okanagan Lake.
That story warmed my heart and while I’m still annoyed at the lingering winter weather, I’m happy that I live in a little town where first, a story like this makes front page, and second, there are good citizens who will risk their own lives to save a helpless animal.
I think I can endure winter a bit longer. Maybe this is yet another letting go moment. I mean there isn’t anything I can do about the weather conditions. I can either be grumpy about it, or find something good about it and today, I’m going to smile. It may be winter but there is goodness here.
With that perspective, I looked out at the snow gently falling, like soft angel feathers and I felt sheltered. I took a deep breath and relaxed a bit more into this season; a bit more into this moment.
Besides shifting my perspective, I also am choosing to make our family a warm meal so when they come home tonight we have some comfort food. Since it’s Friday, there’s not a lot in the fridge but with some creativity I can come up with something. (Lately, I like to stretch as far as I can before going shopping; to see how inventive I can become with what we have in our fridge and cupboards and you know what?–there is always something to make to feed our family.
Tonight, in an effort to eat Vegetarian, which helps our planet , I’m spinning our normal meat based, “Shepherd’s Pie,” and using some “Yves Veggie Ground Round.” This is a hamburger- like product and is a good source of protein and low in fat. It’s also really cheap compared to hamburger. I buy a large package, which has four small packages inside. We get three or four dinners for a total of ($10.00) which is amazing. The big news is that eating vegetarian meals helps our planet…see link above. It’s also been known to fool meat loving individuals in our family. When they have to ask me, “is this meat, or your soy thingy,” then you know it’s good.
If you are looking to drop hamburger from your family’s repertoire, but want to ease gently into a plant based, I’d recommend trying the Veggie Ground round.
Come on into my kitchen and we can whip up dinner tonight. I’m thinking the menu will be “Shepherds Pie, a spinach salad, and some cornbread muffins. And for dessert, a mixed berry coffee cake. My sister J brought a bag of frozen raspberries from her harvest last summer, and I have a few blueberries still in the freezer. Making comfort food in the winter, makes me happy.
Let’s get cooking….
Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
2 packages of Veggie Ground (The package I buy has four small packs and I use two small packs)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion chopped
4 tbsp of flour
1 cup of beef broth, (you can substitute this with a vegetable broth…I buy the organic jars from Costco)
11/2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables
Ground pepper
3 cups of mashed potatoes, (I make mine with lots of garlic and some dill)
Garnish with paprika
Directions
(Peel potatoes, cook them and mash them)
In an large iron skillet, sauté the onions in olive oil until lightly brown, add the veggie ground and break it up, cooking it well. You can season here with pepper and a bit of salt.
Add the flour and mix well, cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Add the beef broth, frozen vegetables and season again with ground pepper.
If your potatoes are mashed, don’t forget to add a nice seasoning…we like to add some dill or garlic to our potatoes.
Now fill a large casserole dish with the veggie ground round mixture and top with the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbling hot.
This recipe feeds 4 to 6 people but when I add salad, and cornbread it feeds eight. If our older kids are home, I would just add a bit more ground round and mashed potatoes.
Cornmeal Muffins
Ingredients and Directions
Mix 3/4 cup cornmeal with 1 cup of milk and set aside
Sift together, 11/4 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup sugar, set aside
Stir into the cornmeal/milk mixture, 2 beaten eggs, and ½ cup of melted butter(cooled) or vegetable oil and 2 tbsp of liquid honey. Now add the liquid to dry ingredients.
Don’t over mix, it’s okay if there are a few lumps.
Fill prepared muffin pan, filling each cup to ¾’s
Bake in preheated oven 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges
Eat immediately with some butter….yum….or later with some jam.
And now for dessert:
Berry Coffee Cake…this is a recipe that I’ve made for years and it’s always great but lately, I’ve been making it with coconut oil and I’ve noticed there are never any leftovers. It is a bit more dense but worth the flavour.
Ingredients
1 cup of frozen berries….blueberries or raspberries work best
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup butter…or coconut oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
11/2 tsp vanilla…or you can use some coconut extract and some vanilla…it’s great together
11/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup milk…I used some almond milk and it turned out great
Directions
Toss Blueberries with cinnamon and set aside
Mix coconut oil or butter with sugar until creamy, add eggs one at a time.
Mix dry ingredients
Add alternatively the milk and the dry ingredients to the oil and sugar mixture, then fold in the berries
Put in a prepared bundt pan
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden and toothpick comes out clean
Cool in the pan to allow the berries to set before removing from pan
Once cooled, flip the bundt pan onto a rack and allow it to cool further.
Finally, place it on a serving dish and sprinkle with some icing sugar, or a lemon glaze.
On Friday nights we like to watch “Planet Earth” episodes with our kids on Netflix but I’m thinking they might like to see the following video first. We can make a difference on this planet by the choices we make every day. Today, I’m choosing to settle into the season a bit deeper, to make a vegetarian meal for my family and to get our family talking about the ways we can walk the earth a bit more gently.
Check out the video below. Maybe you can share it with your family and it will generate some meaningful discussion.
Here’s the link to the video, “The diet that helps fight climate change.”
Until Spring comes, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope