• HOME
• ABOUT
• BLOGROLL
• ARCHIVES

I think it is becoming increasingly common for people to be vegetarians these days.  Not only is it a "trend" but it is people who are becoming aware of what is healthy, the need to stay away from chemicals in meat, and of course the age-old reason of the inhumane treatment of animals.  I fully respect all reasons (except for the trend one…if you’re only a vegetarian because it’s "cool", get over it.). 

As such, I’ve met quite a few families who have the struggle of making meals for both the herbivores and carnivores in the family!  Life is busy, and it can be a challenge to make special meals for one or the other each night.  So how can you strike a balance?

We don’t have this particular issue in our home, but we do have friends who come over for dinner and we do our best to prepare meals that everyone can enjoy.  I thought that I would share some of those options to you as you consider how to feed everyone!

Option #1: Middle Eastern Food

Middle Eastern food has a ton of different dishes that incorporate both meat and vegetables.  Middle Eastern food makes for a great meal for vegetarians and non-vegetarians.  I made a meal a couple of weeks ago that consisted of channa masala (a chickpea based dish), masoor daal (a lentil based dish), beef keftas (meat), naan bread, couscous, and fresh veggies.  This satisfied the need for starch, protein and vegetables, and gave both vegetarians and non-vegetarians food they could enjoy.

Option #2: Mexican Food

Mexican food is also a great option for vegetarians and non-vegetarians.  One of the simplest meals to incorporate this is burritos.  In separate bowls lay out shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, chopped onions, salsa and sour cream.  And then do up a bowl of rice, a bowl of Mexican-flavoured ground beef, and Mexican-flavoured black beans.  I did up both the beef and black beans with the same spice mix and some onions and garlic.  Everyone got tortillas and could pile on what they wanted!  It was easy and it pleased everyone’s dietary needs.  You could also do the same thing with taco shells.

Option #3: Pasta

Everyone loves spaghetti or other types of pasta.  It’s a pretty safe option when you have company coming and you’re rushed, or when you need to whip something up for your family at night.  However, it can be an issue if you’re used to ground-beef based spaghetti sauce!  An easy solution for this is to cook your pasta like regular, and then cook two pots of the same sauce.  In one pot, add ground beef like usual, and in the other pot add a cup of lentils (or more, depending on the amount of people).  Lentils add protein and will give vegetarians the same nourishment as those eating the sauce with the ground beef.  Serve the pasta on the table and the two separate sauces so people can choose.  Add a side of salad, and garlic bread, and everyone can enjoy this meal!

Option #4: Pizza

Pizza is always a classic for parties, gatherings, and busy nights!  I make up a batch of pizza dough every so often and since there’s only the two of us I divide it in half and freeze one.  You could easily either split one pizza to have half vegetarian, and half with meat.  Or, if there’s more than two of you, you could have one vegetarian pizza and one meat pizza.  Of course the toppings can be endless, and it can suit your tastes!  Easy solution, and always a hit! 

Do you have any tips?

 

I was half-tempted to title this blog "Totally Junky and Fattening Granola Bars" because I thought it might attract more of you!  But, it’s true, these granola bars are HEALTHY!  And not only are they healthy, they’re DELICIOUS!  

I was scanning Passionate Homemaking’s blog, and Lindsay posted this recipe for granola bars.  Boy are they amazing!  I made mine with pumpkin seeds, peanut butter, raisins and maple syrup (there are a few variations for some ingredients).  I also added about less than a 1/4 cup of granola as well.  They are so good!  You should check out the link and make them!  Both my husband and I love them.  And the best part is that we know that we’re not eating any crazy chemicals or other preservatives that most granola bars have! (That’s my granola bar featured above!)

Not only are they great for snacks, but they’re great for company.  They could even be used as a treat at a holiday dinner!  If you cut them into squares instead of rectangles you can put them out on a plate and enjoy them at a potluck this party season!  

Happy healthy treat eating!   

Posts coming up this week include:

-how to make meals for vegetarians and non-vegetarians living in the same house

-a delicious granola bar recipe that can be used as a Christmas treat

 

Monday: Strawberry Chicken, Rice, Veggies

Tuesday: Steak, Fries, Veggies

Wednesday: Homemade Potato Soup, Homemade bread

Thursday: Pasta with tomato meat sauce and tomato lentil sauce (vegetarians and non-vegetarians for dinner!), garlic bread, and salad.

Friday: Sausages, Mashed Potatoes, Veggies

Saturday: Christmas Party - out for dinner

Sunday: It’s St. Nikolaus Day!  Roast, Yorkshires, Carrots, Potatoes, Peas 

 

What are you cooking for dinner this week? 

Since we’ve been married, we have been striving to make the holiday season more Christ-centred rather than commerically-centred.

It’s hard.

We live in a culture that teaches us that the more gifts, the merrier, and if we don’t "obey" that we’re bad people!

But I refuse to give in!  Well, at least completely.  So we have been doing some creative work over the last 3 and a half years to bring Christmas back to Christ in our home.  Here are some of the ways we’ve changed things…

1.) We don’t give gifts on Christmas Day.  I know, I know, this is a hard one to change.  But hear me out!  We realized that we were over-giving.  We were spending too much, and sometimes buying things that we didn’t really need all in a effort to make someone else feel appreciated.  All of this was taking away our focus from Christ’s birth.  Which, just so happens to be the point of Christmas!  Instead, we decided to focus our gift-giving on good ol’ Saint Nick.  So we exchange gifts on St. Nikolaus Day which is December 6th.  My husband is of European roots and also grew up partially in Europe.  As such he was used to getting his shoe filled on the eve of St. Nikolaus Day.  So we have combined this tradition with our North American one.  Instead of shoes, we put out our stockings.  Our stockings get filled up with our presents, and we open them up on December 6th!  If it doesn’t fit in the stocking, we don’t buy it!  Simple as that.  This has worked REALLY well in reminding us that Christmas is about CHRIST, thus leaving the 25th for that celebration.

2.) We have a Nativity Set.  This might seem basic, but we own a really nice Nativity Set that we love and cherish, and we place it directly under the Christmas tree where everyone can see it!

 

3.) We don’t buy gifts for anyone else.  At first I think our family members were a little bit surprised.  But instead of mailing gifts far away (most of our family is spread out across the world), we chose to purchase "Gifts of Hope" in their honour.  We designate an amount for what we personally want to spend as a whole, and we split that amongst our family and close friends and send them a "postcard"-type picture that describes what we bought in their honour, and how it is helping someone in need.  My husband is handy with photoshop and so he makes the postcards himself and then we print them through Walmart as 4x6 pictures. 

4.) We celebrate Advent at home.  There are two ways that we do this, so I’ll outline the first one.  Normally at Church you’ll have your typical advent wreath and each Sunday leading up to Christmas a candle is lit, and some Scripture is read.  This is a special tradition that we love.  We decided that we wanted to include that in our home.  So I purchased a simple wreath, and some ribbon and some candles (we went with "Christmas-colours" but you can buy the real advent colours) and made it a centrepiece on our dining room table.  As we share in our Sunday meal, we read our advent material and light the appropriate candles.  This is what our advent display looks like:

 

5.) The Jesse Tree: For the second part of our advent celebration, we use our Christmas tree as a reminder of Jesus’ heritage by considering the Jesse Tree.  It takes place throughout the entire month of advent.  This is a new concept for us, but one that we love.  Of course we have all kinds of sentimental and beautiful ornaments on our Christmas tree, but we also use some of those ornaments to tell the lineage of Jesus and how God’s love and faithfulness has transpired over time leading us to the birth of Christ.  It really connects us with our Old Testament roots.  It is inspired from Isaiah 11:1-2 "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD." 

Some people only use small trees and just add ornaments as they go throughout advent.  However, we place all of our ornaments on the tree as soon as we put it up, and then we remove the specific ornament for that day and add it symoblically after the reading.  You can do it however you like!

Here are some specific links so you can understand more about the Jesse Tree, and what that could look like in your home:

*Summary of one family’s experience with a Jesse Tree, and their ornaments.

*A free summary of Scripture and daily readings and ideas for symbolic ornaments.

*A detailed description of the Jesse Tree and an easy-to-read chart with Scripture, themes & ornament ideas.

*You can purchase an e-book quite reasonably with 40 pages of material and information on the Jesse Tree.

So, now that some of you are inspired and others of you think I’m absolutely crazy…what are some ways that you promote CHRIST in Christmas?

This is part 3 of a series on my love for tea!  You can check out part 1 and part 2 if you’re interested in some household tips for using tea, as well as some ways of brewing your tea and some of my favourite helpers in the kitchen for making tea!

This week I want to talk about keeping your tea available as a means of hospitality.  As we all know, tea is a wonderful beverage to serve after dinner and any other time of entertaining.  It’s a social thing, and it’s one that we enjoy sharing with our guests.  

In our home, we don’t just have guests over for dinner though…they’re over at all times of the day, invited and uninvited, and for days at a time!  Our house is always busy and some people refer to it as a "hostel"!  As such, it’s good for us to have our tea out and available for people to use so they can help themselves.  We’ve turned our kitchen table in a beverage station permanently, and this is what it looks like:

  <– Full table display   <– Up close of one box, sugar, honey and cups.

It was especially useful this past weekend when we had 14 people coming through our doors!  In one box I have Twinings tea (my favourite brand) and in another I have Stash tea (another one of my favourites).  In the basket is an assortment of green teas someone gave me, and I also keep the sugar, some honey and a couple of mugs ready and available.  The fruit is a nice touch too, but has nothing to do with tea.  :)

If I know people are coming over, I usually boil the water just ahead of time and put it in my carafe and leave it on the table as well so people don’t even have to worry about boiling their water! 

It’s just a nice way to let people know they’re welcome in our home, and that they can make themselves at home.  

"Tea pot is on, the cups are waiting, favourite chairs anticipating, no matter what I have to do, my friend there’s always time for you." (Unknown)

Monday: Vegetarian Stir-fry

Tuesday: Perogy Casserole

Wednesday: German-style Chicken Sandwich (see below for recipe)

Thursday: Bean Burritos & Ground Beef Burritos with all the toppings: cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa…

Friday: Potluck @ My House with some ladies!  

Saturday: Leftover Chili from the freezer

Sunday: Leftovers

 

Perogy Casserole: 

16-20 perogies, 1 onion chopped, 1/4 cup milk (or water), 1/2 cup cooked ham/bacon/pepperoni or sausage diced, 1 tbsp. butter, 1 green pepper diced, 10 oz. can condensed mushroom soup, paprika to sprinkle, shredded cheese to sprinkle.

In a small skillet, melt butter; saute onion and green pepper for 5 minutes.  In a medium casserole dish, lay out perogies in a single layer.  In a medium bowl mix together onion, green pepper, meat, mil, and mushroom soup.  Pour over perogies.  Top with a layer of shredded cheese.  Sprinkle with paprika.  Bake for 35 minutes at 375F.  

German-style Chicken Sandwich:

1/4 cup oil, 1 onion sliced, 2 chicken breasts, 4 thick slices of bread lightly toasted, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp. bbq. sauce, 1 tomato sliced.

Heat half the oil in a big heavy fry pan on low heat.  Fry onions until brown.  Take out of pan, drain on absorbent paper.  Keep warm.  Pour the rest of the oil into the fry pan.  Cook breaded chicken breasts until cooked through.  Put chicken on toast.  Top with onions.  Fry eggs.  Put the cooked eggs on top of the onions.  Pour on bbq. sauce and put tomato on top.  Top with toast and serve hot.

 

What are you cooking this week?