Ketchup Cake

I just found this recipe and I can't imagine it being good, but apparently it's tasty! I'll have to try it. But here is the recipe if you're so inclined:

Great Canadian Ketchup Cake
Heinz's delicious cake was created in honour of their 100th anniversary!

2 cups (500 ml) all purpose flour
2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
1 1/2 tsp (7 ml) ground cinnamon
1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
1/2 tsp (2 ml) each ground nutmeg and ginger
1/2 cup (125 ml) each ketchup and water
2 tbsp (30 ml) red food colouring
3/4 cup (175 ml) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs

Frosting:
6 oz (175 g) brick-style cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup (175 ml) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups (1 L) icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
Grease two 9-inch (23 cm) round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper
Stir flour with baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and ginger into a bowl
Stir ketchup, water, and colouring in a separate bowl. Set aside.

Beat butter and blend sugar in a large bowl until smooth.
Beat in Eggs
Add flour mixture and ketchup mixture
Beat on low, scraping down bowl as needed, until combined

Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans
Bake for 30 minutes or until centre springs back when touched lightly
Cool cakes for 15 minutes before turning onto a rack to cool completely

Frosting:
Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla on medium speed for 2 minutes or until smooth
Gradually beat in sugar on low, scraping bowl as needed
Beat on high until fluffy
Frost between cake layers and over sides and top of cake

Serves 12

Lentil Salad

The other night for supper I made a lentil soup and a salad. Both turned out great! I tried something new with the salad. I took an idea I got from my cooking class and changed it up a bit. Here’s what I used:

• ½ sprouted lentils
• 3 carrots (cut matchstick style with a mandoline)
• ½ cup sauerkraut
• ½ cup chopped parsley
• 1 tsp dulse flakes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp agave syrup

Lentils
I put the lentils to soak 2 nights before and drained the soaking water the next morning. I covered the bowl with a towel and left it on the counter for the day. When sprouting you need to rinse the lentils twice a day to keep them moist and prevent mould from forming. Just rinse and drain. The first night the lentils had started sprouting and by the 2nd day they had grown quite a bit. You don’t want them to sprout too much more than ¼ inch because it’s then that they run out of nutrition and begin to die.

Sauerkraut
The sauerkraut came from the health food store, but I plan to start making my own once I get the proper bacteria purchased. This sauerkraut does not contain vinegar as is usually done but was fermented naturally using proper bacteria. This is much healthier for you as it contains probiotics and prebiotics.

Dulse Flakes
For those who have never heard of them, dulse flakes are the dried flakes of a seaweed found in the Atlantic. It is very high in protein and many other vitamins and minerals. I do not find they have a strong flavour when added sparingly to salads but it dresses it up and adds a lot of nutrition!

Agave Syrup
Agave syrup is a sweetener that is made from the blue agave cactus-like plant Agave tequilana. It is sometimes called agave nectar. This is a good alternative to cane sugar as it does not affect your blood sugar as severely as cane sugar can. It can be found in many grocery stores and also in health food stores.

Toss all these items together and eat! It was very tasty! I've added a picture of my salad below!

Have a great day!

My Weekend- Part 2

On Sunday I baked 6 braid Challah bread. I was inspired by another blog that I read. Apparently it’s a Jewish bread although I didn’t find it tasted much different than any other bread I’ve made before. I was having some trouble with the step by step instructions though on how to do a 6 braid so I looked up a video on YouTube. What a wonderful thing! I found a video of someone making her braid and she laid it out. So I set my laptop on the kitchen counter and followed the video. My bread came out beautifully! I may do this on a regular basis. It’s not much more work and it looks fantastic! To see the You Tube video I used click here.

I also made another batch of laundry soap. I was running low so I got that “cooking”. I’ve read up on many different recipes and what works for different people and have settled on what I like best. The reason I started doing this was because I started reading up on some of the toxins in regular laundry soap as well as what was in the fabric softener and the dryer sheets. Our skin is very absorbent and we absorb so much junk into our systems. I especially don’t want my daughter wearing these chemicals day in and day out. But I was afraid there was no way that I could make something that could do as good of a job as the regular detergents. But I decided to jump in and was pleasantly surprised.

I started by first just making the laundry soap. But I was still using Downy and Bounce sheets in the dryer. But then I decided to cut out both of those and instead of Downy I started using plain white vinegar as the rinse agent. Now yes vinegar may smell, but as soon as the clothes are dry the smell is gone. So it’s not bad. But I decided to add a few drops of lavender oil into my bottle of vinegar. The vinegar not only softened the clothes, but it also cut out the need for dryer sheets as it also cuts static. Vinegar is also efficient for holding color so you don’t have to worry about colors fading or running. I didn’t tell my husband about the vinegar at first because I knew he’s look at me as though I was crazy. So I ran a few loads and asked him what he thought about their softness and smell. He noticed the clothes were softer and he liked the smell. He thought I had just bought a new rinse agent. I then told him about my vinegar and lavender oil. He gave me a funny look but now tells people how nice it is. The other night I went to sleep in fresh sheets with a fresh-from-the-dryer nightgown and was so excited that they smelled & felt so wonderful and I did it all without harsh chemicals! Okay, you may not get as excited as me, but these things excite me.

I’ve also started using vinegar in the dishwasher in place of Jet Dry. Again, I decided not to mention it to my husband for fear he would think I was crazy. But shortly after I started doing it he asked me if I changed something in the dishwasher. I got worried, thinking that I had wrecked something with my experimental rinse, but he was pointing at his stainless steel water bottle. Neither of us had ever seen it so shiny! Since putting in the vinegar our dishes have become so much shinier!

Well I started this post to discuss my weekend and I’ve wandered off, but I think it’s still full of good stuff. If you’d like the recipe for the laundry soap please click here. I’m also thinking of maybe selling little kits of the ingredients, but I guess we’ll see how that goes.

Have a great day!

My Weekend- Part 1

This past weekend was a good one! I desperately needed some rest as I had completely wore myself out the week before. My husband Sam had a bachelor party to go to that evening so my daughter Daniella & I stayed home and watched movies. It was nice to just sit and relax. It felt like it had been too long since I’d been able to do that.

Saturday was a little crazy again. I had a cooking class on Saturday for 4 hours. It was great. We learned some more about sprouting, and we made sprouted lentil patties, sprouted kamut buns, we made a power smoothie, sprout salad and a few other things. After all the foods were made we sat around the table and ate all the new creations. It was a good time.

The weather was so beautiful that day so I had ridden my bike to the class. I was amazed at how gorgeous it was! Well that didn’t last.... When I got home, Daniella & I left to go to the Good Food Show in Mississauga (Sam was working on rebuilding the motor for his boat and couldn’t come). When we pulled out of the driveway the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. Just shortly after I got on the freeway, black clouds started to fill the sky and the wind picked up. Suddenly the wind picked up every piece of litter and whipped it against the side of my van. Lightning filled the sky and you could feel the cracks of thunder. I had to be careful as the wind was trying to push me off the road. The wind had blown several big business signs into the road so the cars were carefully dodging them.

We finally got to the show and I was debating whether I still wanted to go in. I was going to have to push a stroller, hold my purse and my daughter and carry an umbrella as the rain pelted hard. The stroller tried to blow away and my umbrella flipped out while Daniella started to scream from the rain pelting against her. It was crazy! We finally made it inside. AH!

The show was good. There were booths from different food makers. Some big names like Jell-O, Lipton and Beatrice, and other local small named business trying to get some recognition. Almost every place had samples so we filled up on pieces of cheese, sausage, rice, curry, ice cream, freezies, coffee, chocolate milk, etc. It was wonderful! Most of the booths were selling their products for MUCH cheaper than you would find the same item in the sore. So I bought some tea, butter chicken sauce, beans, Himalayan salt, and a few other things. We came home with our bags loaded right up from the samples. I actually had to turn away some samples as I had run out of room in my bags. All in all it was a good time.

I was worried about the weather as we headed toward the door but the wind seemed to have stopped and it was just drizzling lightly. When we got home Sam was in the garage with his cousin just finishing up his boat with a light on overhead. So when they told me the power was out I was a little confused. It turned out Sam had hooked up the light to his boat battery so he could finish working in the garage.

Since there was no power in the house we sat on the back step and visited with some neighbours for awhile and then headed inside when it started to get late. We lit candles in the living room and watched a show we had saved on Sam’s laptop. Thankfully his battery lasted the whole show! :) Then we all sat and read books by candlelight until it was bedtime. Just as we were falling asleep the power came back on and we realized all the lights had been on before so we had to run around and shut off all the lights. The overhead light in Daniella’s room was shining but thankfully it didn’t wake her up.

And that was my Saturday! Tomorrow I will share about my Sunday! Hope you have a great day!

Cosmic Cookies

Last night I decided to bake some cookies. I needed some comfort food! ☺ I decided to make a recipe out of my organic cookbook. It was delicious! I'd seen them for sale before at Planet Organic but had never bought any (I try hard to avoid the baking section as I get sucked in too easily!) So I thought I'd share the recipe:

Ingredients
2 ¼ cups - Quick cooking oats
2 cups - Spelt flour
1 cup - Sunflower seeds
¾ cup - Pumpkin seeds
½ cup - Shredded coconut, unsweetened
¼ cup - Flax seeds
1 cup - Granulated cane sugar
1 tbsp - Cinnamon, ground
2 ¼ tsp - Sea salt
1 ¾ cups - Dark chocolate chips
1 ¼ cups - Raisins
¼ cup - Water
¼ cup - Molasses
¾ cup Oil
1 cup - Milk

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line baking trays with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, everything from oats to raisins. In a separate large bowl, combine wet ingredients, everything from water to soy milk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix slow at a low speed (or by hand) until just combined. Do not over mix.

3. Portion cookie dough using a ⅓ cup measure and place onto lined baking tray. Gently flatten cookies before baking. Bake for 24 minutes or until lightly browned. Yields 24 cookies.

One of the things I did was I added about ¼ cup of sliced almonds. It was fabulous! These cookies are so good! You get the taste of your traditional chocolate oatmeal cookie but the seeds add a nice flavor. If you try these let me know what you think!

Have a great day!

I got this in an email from my mom today. I think this is so cool and wanted to share it with you!

Real Estate? Check out this little pad!

KITCHEN:

BEDROOM:

ENTRY:

BATHROOM:

This place seems very modern, BUT…
HERE’S THE INNOVATIVE PART!!...
This 1 bedroom loft apartment was built inside a grain silo.

It was renovated into this upscale unit after it was purchased and relocated
to the grounds of an Old Homestead in Saskatchewan in 2007.
If that’s not creative craftmanship, then I don’t know what is!
I wanted to share this because it is so cool!

This weekend I made a several items out of my new raw cookbooks. Saturday we were invited to a friends for dinner so I made a Strawberry “Cheesecake” to bring for dessert. It was really more like a nut pie. The “cheese” was made or puréed cashews with coconut oil, lemon juice and vanilla. It went over quite well. But to call it cheesecake I think took something away from it because it wasn't nearly as rich as cheesecake would have been. But it was still good! For the recipe see page 18 in the dessert cookbook.

I also made something called a PLT. I guess it is supposed to mimic a BLT, but uses Portobello Mushrooms instead of a bun. It was pretty good. My husband didn't like it too much but he still ate it. Even my girls ate it. We spread Hemp Seed Mayo on the mushrooms, filled it with a Kale & Sundried Tomato filling and layered some thin carrot and daikon radish slices on it. I quite enjoyed it. This recipe is on page 12 on the entrées cookbook.

Another thing I decided to try was the Raw Rye Bread. I made this in my dehydrator. It's definitely a strong flavor and probably not the tastiest. I think maybe I'd try again but dehydrate it further to have a cracker effect. The bread recipes are found on pages 41-44 of the entrées cookbook

It's a little difficult getting into the raw thing when I'm the only one wanting to do it. My husband (a self proclaimed meatatarian) is not interested in anything raw other than a salad. But I know he's willing to eat a few things for me so that's nice. I will keep trying and hopefully I will find some items that I really enjoy.

Last week I went on eBay. I try not to ever do this because I always manage to get suckered into something. Well I've been eyeing an Excalibur dehydrator and a Vita mix for a while now but they are both dreadfully expensive so I figured I would just "lust" after them for awhile until one magical day I could afford them. Well someone was selling the Excalibur dehydrator for WAY below regular asking price. And generally if it's sold in Canada you can get it cheaper since it seems the Americans aren't as interested in out of country items. I still wasn't going to get it but at the last minute I threw in a bid and managed to win it. I got it for about ¼ of the price. The shipping was included too! That rarely ever happens in Canada. So I got my dehydrator and she's a beauty! Now to save for that Vita mix!

This Wednesday is Earth Day and I'm seeing everyone advertising about going green. I've also seen contests for green items as well as emails from Toys R Us for their organic lines. It's nice to see other companies starting to get on the bandwagon. If you live in Canada be sure to check out a Starbucks with a refillable mug. You will get a free regular coffee. Also, if you are anywhere near a Planet Organic, they are giving out free organic coffee and organic cake. I'll be there!

Well that's all for today! Have a great day!

Live Falafels

Last night was a busy one. Daniella & I are flying to Saskatchewan for the Easter weekend so I had to pack our suitcases as well as make my Live Falafels since my Chickpea sprouts were ready. I was so excited at how my chickpeas were looking. I probably could have left them for one more day but since I was going to be away I chopped them up probably a little early. It’s amazing how tasty they are once sprouted! They taste just like fresh garden peas! Previously I had only ever had canned chickpeas which have obviously been cooked. Raw is good! My husband Sam thought it was quite strange to have a bowl of chickpeas “growing” on the counter for the last few days and didn’t look too excited when I told him what I was making. But once I had it done I made him try it and he was quite surprised. He loved it and even asked me to put some in his lunch for the next day. I even brought some for lunch for myself and shared some with a co-worker who is also interested in healthier eating. He liked it too! How fun! My falafels turned out a little greener than the ones I made in my cooking class since I think I used a little too much cilantro. But it’s still yummy! I encourage you to try this recipe! (Pictures below)

I am flying out with my daughter tonight and we will be away until Monday night so I likely will not post anything until Tuesday at the earliest. Unfortunately my husband is staying home so he’ll be a little lonely. But he’ll be getting together with some family on his side so all will be well.

I was sure there was something else I had wanted to post here today but I’ve forgotten. I hope everyone has a great long weekend and a happy Easter. And remember, while bunnies and chocolate eggs are fun, let’s remember the “reason for the season”. Jesus died for you and for me and rose from the dead so we can have eternal life. I’d say that’s a lot better than chocolate and bunnies!

Happy Easter!

*********************************

Here are my chickpeas on Tuesday- almost ready to sprout.

Here they are on Wednesday

Here's a look at the chopped chickpeas, ground sunflower seeds and ground flax seeds.

My finished product! They sort of blend together but I made small patties. Delish!

Maple Syrup, Soaking Nuts & Raw Foods

I apologize for not having written on here for over a week. Last week was a very busy week! My husband Sam was asked to put in extra hours almost every day last week. It was a blessing to get some extra income at a time when he’s often not even able to get the full 40 hours a week, but it also meant more work for me around the house. Since we both work full time we’ve divided up the chores around the house so I took most of them on last week. But I am back!

This past weekend we took in a Maple Syrup Festival. This was my first experience. I remember as a kid learning about Maple Syrup and how they made it. We actually learned about it in French class since a lot of Maple Syrup is made in Quebec. But a lot of it is made in Ontario as well. And since I’ve lived in Ontario for almost 5 years, I figured it was time to take it in already! At the park they had horse pulled wagon rides, and pony rides for the kids. My daughter Daniella was so excited to ride on a pony (She's with my step-daughter Emmily in this picture). For weeks she’s been asking to go to a farm to see ponies, horses and unicorns (she hasn’t quite grasped that unicorns are pretend). We also walked through the woods and came upon a fire where they were making the maple syrup. The women there were in pioneer outfits and explained to us how the syrup was made in the pioneer days. They explained the differences in the colors of syrup (the first sap of the year is sweeter so it doesn’t need to be cooked down as much; therefore lighter in color. As the season progresses the sap gets less sweet and needs to be cooked down much more, causing the darker colors), and they explained the nutritional benefits as well as how to know when the season is ready and when to stop tapping the tree. We had samples there. After we left them, we continued walking and came upon a hut. In the hut is where they showed how to make syrup today. They had plastic lines in the trees and it all poured into the hut and into a boiler. It was very interesting.

Back at the main area they had a little café where they sold pancakes & maple syrup and they had a store where you could buy the syrup, maple sugar, maple candies, etc. It was a great time! Before the festival I could not convince my daughter to try maple syrup and since then she’s been asking for pancakes and maple syrup everyday!

*****
Since my cooking class a couple weeks ago I’ve been looking more into raw foods. Mostly vegans are into raw foods and I am definitely NOT a vegan or vegetarian! One of my favourite’s billboards I’ve ever seen sums up my motto quite clearly, “There’s plenty of room for all God’s creatures. Right next to the mashed potatoes.” But I am interested in the health benefits of raw food. And no, this doesn’t just mean munching on carrot and celery sticks. There are cookbooks out there that make “burgers”, “pasta”, “pizza” etc. I’m sure it doesn’t taste like the real thing but I sure am interested in it. I’ve gotten a couple e-cookbooks and have “flipped” through them and am excited to try some of the recipes. After making the raw falafel in my cooking class and realizing how yummy it was, I am realizing that raw foods don’t have to be boring. I would like to be able to balance raw foods, cooked foods, vegetarian dishes, as well as meat dishes. I think there are benefits to all of the above.

One recipe I came across in my searches is a meatless raw taco. It sounds weird, but some people swear it’s tasty. Here’s the recipe for anyone wanting to try it.

http://happyfoody.com/2008/05/06/walnut-meat-taco-salad/

Another thing I saw in all these cookbooks was about soaking nuts. I knew about grains and beans but apparently nuts need to be soaked as well. They don’t have as much phytic acid to worry about but they do have enzyme inhibitors that dissolve when soaked. There is a book called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon that is supposed to be incredible. I first heard about it from someone’s blog that I read daily, and then my sister-in-law told me that I shouldn’t be without it. Well I’m still without it, but I’m more and more interested in getting it all the time. Anyhow, Sally discussed soaking nuts in her book. I have an excerpt of it that I found on someone else’s blog. Click here. Here's a little more info as well.

***
Last week I tried making Chili Con Kale. I soaked the beans for 24 hours and then put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and left for work. Well it turns out you need more liquid for the slow cooker. I came home to a lovely smell, but the beans were all burnt and thick. I threw it out and ordered pizza. Maybe next time I’ll make it right on the stove. :)

I currently have chickpeas soaking right now. I started them on Friday night and have been rinsing them twice a day. This morning as I went to rinse them I saw them starting to sprout. My first sprouts! It was very exciting! I’m looking forward to seeing how they are when I get home tonight! As soon as the sprouts are about ¼ inch I will make the live falafels. Let’s hope I don’t mess these up!

Here are links to pdf's of the raw cookbooks I have:

- Entrees

- Desserts

- Drinks & Brunch

Well I think that’s all for today. Have a great day!