‘Tis the season to do some baking! In a few days I’ll be turning off my computer, turning on my oven and baking a bunch of family favourites for the holiday festivities next week.
Dessert, in my opinion, is extra sweet when it’s homemade. I love to bake for my family, even though I have far from mastered the craft. I especially look forward to the warm and sweet aroma emitting from the oven, and filling the home with the smell of… home.
It looks like wetter, colder weather is finally upon us! Now’s the time to feed our bodies with warm, cooked grounding foods which Mother Nature is supplying in abundance. All the lovely squash and root vegetables will spend a great deal of time in the oven before entering our bellies.
Now’s also the time of transition. The fresh local greens, herbs, veggies, garlic, and – if you’re lucky – even ginger, are still available to nourish us with the nutrients we need to build our immune systems and prepare us for the winter days ahead.
For the past year, I’ve got into the habit of preparing specific meals on specific days of the week. I find it helps me stay organized, requires less thinking on the spot, and keeps my favourite meals on constant rotation.
On Mondays, I make a big pot of our favourite lentil stew (a version of this) so it’s something I can easily warm up from the fridge in a pinch. On Saturdays, we often pull out a recipe book and make something new.
Since Spring, I’ve been making kookoo sabzi (like a Persian-style frittata) every Sunday night. It’s the perfect light and delicious meal that’s super simple to make, so there isn’t much fussing during the last few hours we have left of the weekend.
When I was younger, my mom, sister and I would go shopping and get super excited about having frozen yoghurt as a “healthy” treat from the food court. I absolutely loved it, but now learning about how much sugar and chemicals are in there, I definitely don’t consider it to be a healthy option anymore.
So when I accidentally made a smoothie that tasted just like these frozen yoghurts, I went nuts! It was so reminiscent of the taste that I immediately jotted down my recipe and am sharing it with you here.
The more I learn about the world around me, the more I realize how important it is to become as self-sufficient as possible. I’ve been making more things from scratch, and one that I make on a regular basis is yoghurt.
When I first started making yoghurt at home, I was absolutely terrified. The idea of creating “good” bacteria rather than the “bad” seemed like something best left to the professionals. But when I learned how non-healthy the store-bought versions are and I watched my brother-in-law making it, I immediately wanted to try my hand at it, too. And so, he taught me!
Yoghurt is super nutritious because it is fermented, and therefore feeds our gut with a lot of probiotics (good bacteria). Good bacteria play many roles in the body, and one of its essential roles is to take up space so that there isn’t room for the bad guys to move in.
Imagine that you want your gut to be inhabited by a beautiful garden, rather than overgrown with a bunch of weeds…