food lately

I’ve learned a couple of things about myself over the last few years:

1. I like to make food

2. I dislike standing in the kitchen at 5:00 trying to figure out what to make for dinner!

Easy solution: meal plan!  I’ve known about this option for years, have read tons of blogs about it, and have even printed off some meal planning printables to get me started, but it’s taken me until just last week to actually do it!  I’m a person who likes to be organized, which is a good thing, because I’m discovering that it makes life a whole lot easier with a newborn.

Lately we’ve gone vegetarian(along with the standard gluten and dairy free) for a little experiment, which made coming up with meals even trickier!  So I went to the library and picked up a Vegetarian cookbook.  I went through the whole thing and marked the recipes I wanted to try.  Then I picked five for the week, made a shopping list, and now I’m a changed woman!  I’ve had such an easier time this week because I know what we’re having for dinner and I know that we have all of the ingredients.

This week we’ve made Vegetarian Chili Fries, Lentil and Barley Soup, Vegetable Biryani, Maple Baked Beans, and tonight we are having our new favourite dish, Thai Fried Quinoa!

On the sweeter side of things, I’ve been making some new healthy treats:

2 Ingredient Fudge (however mine was more like 7 ingredient… I added honey, almonds and raisins)

Gluten Free Banana Pancakes (seriously yummy, especially with chocolate chips)

Barbecued Banana Boats (ridiculously easy, we didn’t even use tinfoil, just slice them on their sides)

and my very own creation, “Little Monkey” popsicles!  Here’s my recipe:

a few frozen(or not) bananas

cocoa powder

unsweetened peanut butter

honey

plain yogurt

almond (or normal) milk

blend together and pour into popsicle moulds!  I have no idea how much of everything I used, just go with the flow(wow, I’m turning into Nuni… who by the way says these are the greatest things ever!)