Challenging!

So...I am finding things a bit challenging lately. #1 - I cannot seem to find a really good store in Barrie to get organic fruits and veg...The farmer's market here is only on Saturday mornings and so far, I have been SWAMPED on Saturdays...I am also having a really really really hard time finding 'whole' meat with no antibiotics or hormones and that comes from humanely treated animals....I found some wild mahi mahi, I found some chicken, and I found some eggs (HOLY CRAP are the 'good' eggs here SO EXPENSIVE - like $7.00/carton!That's how much they cost in Bermuda!!!!!)

#2 - I'm also at a loss because my cookbooks are 'in transit' with the stuff that I shipped (which is apparently somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle as no one seems to know where it is) so, I haven't been making bread etc. (Thank goodness for my Clean Eating magazine subscription!)

On the flip side, I have been cooking up some stuff, and on Sunday I made hummus for my niece's party and people LOVED it. I made ALOT of it, and my sister took it to work and it was GONE - so that made me feel really good! (Secret for good humus - put TAHINI in it....sheesh!Some people omit the tahini.)

I don't really have a 'recipe' for hummus, but this is what I do:

Cook up some chickpeas (no cheating and using cans! :D)
Put about a large can's worth of beans (about 2 1/3 cups)into a food processor and pulse a bit so it's chopped up.
Add some water (1/2 cup to start) olive oil (1/2 cup to start) lemon juice (1/2 cup to start) 4-5 cloves of garlic (to start) maybe a teaspoon of sea salt and a teaspoon of cracked black pepper, 4 tablespoons of tahini (which is ground up sesame seeds - most places will carry this with their ethnic food, some health food stores carry it with their nut butters - I had to buy a HUGE jar of it, so look forward to some suggestions on what the heck to do with tahini other than using it for hummus soon!) and plop on the food processor to mash it all up.

If it is dry, add more water and a little more oil...mash again....taste it - if it tastes too 'bean-like' add another tablespoon of tahini. If it tastes too bland, add more lemon juice and garlic. Blend it up....now (and this is seriously my secret ingredient) add about 1 tablespoon of paprika....and turn on the food processor until the whole concoction is nice and smooth...then plop it in a dish and cover it with paprika - serve with pitas (whole wheat) toasted or plain, crackers, vegetables, whatever you want to dip in here is fine!

Notice how little salt is added...if you used canned beans, you would have a TON OF SALT already so don't add any more unless you like high blood pressure!

This was lunch yesterday - just a plate of leftovers and some boiled eggs (note the hummus sitting on top of the pita?):


And, I finally got my act together and have pics for you guys (with another yummy recipe idea for the YUMMIEST soup I have made to date!)

Yummy pork stirfry:


This tomato and bean soup was TO DIE FOR! And it was totally off the cuff! I was going to make tomato sauce and make a vegetable casserole with beans, but then my sister asked me to make the stir fry above instead...soooo, as I already had the tomatoes (about 5 of them) stewing on the stove and a TON OF BEANS cooked, I decided to make something up. So - stewing tomatoes is easy as I've said before - chop 'em up, rinse off the seeds, throw 'em in a pot of boiling water (not too much water, just enough to cover the tops of them)and simmer - I like to add some Italian seasoning to the mix right away...and some garlic too...this time, instead of straining the water after the tomatoes cooled, I plopped everything into a blender and pureed it, then I added about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup each of black beans and chickpeas and pureed it again...then I poured some in a bowl and threw some fresh parmesan on the top et voila - YUMMY soup - or gazpacho (because it was yummy cold too!)

Speaking of which, I don't even really know what Gazpacho is, so I looked it up - and now I have a ton of more ideas for what to make!

And this is a lunch that I made a few days ago - a ground pork patty with havarti cheese, garlic navy beans, and tomatoes....


I have been looking through my pics of my meals and I noticed that I am slightly tomato obsessed :) Just wanted everyone to know that I have eaten TONS of corn since I've been back (which is in season and is SUPER CHEAP at $0.25-$0.60/ ear!!!! and Strawberries......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!