Flexible Quinoa Salad - safe to bring to dinner parties!

This is one of our favourite naturopathic-friendly go-to recipes that can easily be altered to suit your tastes or pantry supplies. The bonus of this very healthy (and dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, vegan) recipe is that it is safe enough to bring to dinner parties (ie. not too weird-looking and enough flavour to appeal to everyone's tastebuds, even for those who aren't health-conscious). We have tested variations of this recipe out at a few potluck parties, and it always gets rave reviews.

Flexible Quinoa Salad

Ingredients
1 ½ cups quinoa
3 cups water
pinch of salt

½ cup dried apricots or cranberries, finely diced
½ cup red bell pepper
½ cup yellow bell pepper
¾ cup toasted pine nuts, cashews pecans or walnuts
¼ cup chopped cilantro or basil

Vinaigrette
grated lemon zest and lemon juice from one lemon
splash of balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup olive oil

Directions
1. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly in cold water then pour into a fine meshed strainer and rinse again under running water (if not rinsed well, quinoa tends to be bitter).
2. Bring water to boil and add salt, then stir in the quinoa.
3. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 15min. Taste the grain. There should be just a little resistance and the opaque spiraled ring of germ should show. If necessary continue cooking until done.
4. Pour into strainer and set it to drain over a bowl.
5. Toast all the nuts either in a dry pan or the mini oven works great too! Just put them on some foil in the mini oven, watch them carefully and stir often because they may burn.
6. Combine the apricots, peppers, nuts and cilantro in a large bowl.
7. Mix together the ingredients for the vinaigrette and add to the bowl of yummy apricots, peppers, nuts and cilantro.
8. Once the quinoa has cooled, add it to the bowl. Give it a good mix and ENJOY!

Bulk Barn Healthy Options & Gluten-Free Section

Aileen and I work and live in downtown Toronto, and as such we hardly encounter Bulk Barn, which always seems to be somewhere in a random plaza in the burbs. We happened to be out on the northwest end of Toronto this past weekend, and stumbled across a Bulk Barn.

We all have fond memories of Bulk Barn...pretending not to notice the "Do Not Sample" signs, and tasting - just a few - of every awesome snack available. We were quite impressed with the extensive gluten-free section. (Note that although these are labelled gluten-free, this is more applicable to gluten-sensitivities rather than celiac disease, in which case bulk sections are not recommended due to cross contamination with trace amounts of gluten).

The gluten-free options range from almost every type of whole grain (organic quinoa, amaranth, teff, millet, and a great variety of rices) to flours and pancake mixes to gluten-free pasta.

Of course, prices are reasonable as a result of being sold in bulk and use much less packaging...I think they would actually be even cheaper, but Bulk Barn must be taking into account the "snack factor" that we all have been guilty of.

Other awesome finds: Cassava chips, bulk almond and sunflower seed butter, apple butter, tamari almonds, honey-coated sunflower seeds, dried herbs, pinatas, and cool cake and pastry molds. And since this blog is all about healthy compromises and honesty, of course, we had to get a selection of some nostalgic childhood candies. Aileen loves her gummy green mint leaves and blue sharks, and I love my red lips and sour keys. Mm mmm.

Heard there is a Bulk Barn just at Leslie and Lakeshore, just a few minutes from downtown...I think we will be paying it a visit once our new stash of clear-bagged goodies starts to dwindle down.

Healthy Food Review: Sweets from the Earth Cashew Cookies

I've been loving the Sweets from the Earth treats lately.

They have a great selection of cakes, cookies, brownies and other sweets, that are not only free of refined sugar, but are dairy and egg-free as well. Many products are also gluten-free and use GMO-free plant-derived ingredients. The founder, Ilana, became vegetarian at a young age, and eventually vegan and studied to become a pastry chef.

Her lifestyle and training is evident in her products, which are not only healthy and use quality ingredients, but bonus is that they actually taste really really good!

These are desserts that I actually feel comfortable bringing with me when I visit friends' homes whose priority is taste over healthy ingredients. I show them the atypical ingredient list only after they have finished enjoying the dessert. Gotta love the reaction when they realize they just ate a dessert made with tofu and a few simple plant-based ingredients.

May is Mindful Money Month - Halfway Check In

I can't believe it's already the middle of May! So far, Makoto and I have been pretty darn good with cooking at home. The cooler weather has helped since we've been making some seriously awesome soups using organic chickens and veggies. We made everything from good old chicken (rice) noodle to our very own Pho Ga!!


Coffee - eek. This one was harder than we thought. The first week we made it through with a few deelish $2 (including tax!) soy lattes at Jet Fuel Cafe on Parliament Street. God Bless Johnny at Jet Fuel!! This was followed by a busy week at the clinic and we didn't have time to leave for coffee so we reaquainted ourselves with our French Press. Now we're actually loving our cup of black Swiss water decaf coffee. We have it with a piece of dark chocolate.


I've learned that a little planning goes a long way - it's amazing what spending 15min roughly planning our meals will do for our savings! We usually just wander the isles of the grocery store and grab whatever strikes our fancy but now we stick to our list and don't have wasted food at the end of the week. This also helps us from filling up our shelves with random items that we never eat.....seriously, why do we have Disney Princess Alphagettis in the pantry?