At this time of the year when it’s already dark when you get home from work, my husband and I don’t always feel like cooking. So we welcome easy, healthful and hearty meals that can be made in big batches and last for a few days!
This is one of our favourites.
I recently went shopping for a day planner in hopes of finding something a little more robust than what I currently have, and when I couldn’t find one that had everything I was looking for I decided to make my own! I basically combined my passions for design, eating well and the four seasons into this piece, and am so pleased and excited about how it turned out. So I added a few more features and am now selling it, too!
The theme of it is In Season and celebrates the foods that are in season (like the calendar I designed last year) and offers suggestions on when to grow what, how to enjoy each month and lists the farmers markets in Metro Vancouver, plus more…
While I designed it for myself, I think any local food lover, grower, farmers market shopper, stationary enthusiast – and anyone who wishes to live in harmony with the seasons – would enjoy it as well.
It’s that time of the year when farmers market shoppers stock up on as much fresh, local produce as they can and start saying goodbye to their favourite vendors as they pack up for Winter.
But it’s not all bad news. Winter farmers markets are popping up – and sticking around – more and more! They usually run until the following Spring, when the Summer markets tend to kick off again.
Here’s a list of Winter Farmers Markets in and around Vancouver:
One of the best things I learned in my year of nutrition school was how to make congee. Seriously. I’m kind of obsessed with it. This incredibly easy and warming food has brought me such comfort that I had to share it with you here…
Congee is a rice porridge that originated in China thousands of years ago. It is cooked over long hours and often enjoyed at breakfast. I eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
It is made up of rice, one onion and lots of water, and you can throw in whatever else you want to flavour it! I add fresh ginger, unrefined salt and a generous pinch of saffron. I’ll also throw in some jumbo prawns on the odd occasion, and sometimes drizzle it with sesame oil and green onions, once in a while I also add tamari. My favourite time to make congee is super early on a rainy stay-at-home weekend morning, where I can enjoy its aroma as it cooks for hours.
There’s this notion that at some point between moving from one extreme to another, you will land in the middle. For me – in the case of eating healthy and taking care of myself – that certainly hasn’t been the case.
I’ve lived most of my life in opposite extremes. Half the time, I ate super healthy, exercised daily and practiced mega discipline towards achieving my goals. But the other half of the time, I had the live a little attitude a little too often and sat idle all day, getting nothing purposeful done and eating whatever junk I wanted.
Never, did I land in the middle.
Despite the desire to find a happy, healthy medium – to make healthful choices and be at my best, while also enjoying treats from time to time – I never managed to do it.
But one day, my body stopped bouncing back as easily as it used to, and I ended up with food-related health issues. I realized that I couldn’t continue taking my body for granted. Luckily, I had an aha moment and decided to take a different approach. I took baby steps.