Rice with Spice

If you’re not sure what to make for dinner, try this easy recipe. I grew up with this dish and it has become a family favorite. It’s perfect for a dinner party because it can be left as a vegetarian main or have meat/fish added for extra protein.

Yields two servings.

Boil enough brown rice for two people (approximately 1/2 cup of uncooked rice per person).

1 tsp each of  cumin, chili powder and black pepper.

On a separate plate, arrange sides such as raw, cut-up vegetables like peas, red and yellow pepper, carrots etc.

On another plate, serve protein such as chicken, shrimp and/or sliced hard-boiled egg.  For vegetarians, raw nuts like almonds are a great alternative. Serve with a generous slice of lemon to squeeze over rice.

The picture below was taken at my mum’s place where I had spiced rice for dinner!  (We had hard-boiled egg and almonds for protein and sliced, raw peppers, orange, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots and celery).

Friday Food Face Off: Restaurant vs. Vegetarian Restaurant

Thanks to Breanna, my friend Nicki and I went to Cafe 668 to beat the cold weather.

While the location of this restaurant is a bit odd (885 Dundas St., West), it’s worth visiting. The atmosphere is relaxed and while the waiter wore jeans, a dress would not be out of place (for me, not the waiter).

Let me tell you how great it is to go to a restaurant where I can eat almost anything off the menu. Everything looked so good, but we finally settled on soup, some black bean eggplant and taro wrapped yam.  Things were a little bit pricey (we paid $50), but for the sake of this post, we did order more than we usually would. Normally, the soup alone would suffice as the portions are very generous.

I have only two criticisms:

First, the bathrooms–while clean–have very low ceilings and I bumped by head. I’m tall-ish for a girl, but I was wearing flats.

Second, there were a lot of foods in quotes on the menu. You know, brown rice and assorted vegetables with your choice of  ”beef”, “chicken”, or “salmon”.  I hate it when vegetarian food is made into “meat.” I may be wrong, but for the most part, I’m assuming that since vegetarians have chosen to give up meat, they would not want to eat things that look and feel like meat, but don’t taste like meat.

While I normally prefer to head out to restaurants that serve meat, fish and vegetarian entrees, Cafe 668 is an excellent vegetarian/vegan alternative. The food is well-flavoured, fresh and they offer a lot of choice–including vegetable sides that can be steamed or stir-fried (Meghan would be so proud!)

Normally, vegetarian restaurants get a bit of a thumbs-down from me, especially when they serve “meat”, but the final verdict for Cafe 668 is Four Thumbs Up–two from me and two more from Nicki.

Not into restaurants and prefer to cook at home? No problem! Check out these courses from Meghan Telpner:

Cooking Party Program

February 17th (Tuesday) marks the start of my 4-week cooking program. If you can’t commit to four Tuesday, you are free and welcome to choose just one that fits with your schedule or split it with a friend where you can each come to two. How awesome is that?  $210.00 for four classes, $60.00 for a single. Book it! or  Click here for more info.

Weekly Healthy Meal Prep

March 1st or April 5th, (Sunday) 2:00-4:00m. A splendid afternoon full of yummy food and lifestyle altering information. Get easy, simple and quick ways to healthyify your life every day of the week with minimal time and effort. Learn the secrets to my ridiculously healthy way of life and how you can apply them to your own.  $55.00 Book it! or  Click here for more info.

Lentils – Dinner under Ten Bucks

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been losing some steam.  I can easily live without meat, but I’m really missing my dairy and wheat.

I wanted to try something new for dinner and Meghan suggested dahl.

Suddenly, I remembered that I had a really easy recipe from my aunt and I’m going to share it with you.

One onion chopped.
Two tomatoes chopped.
One to two cloves of garlic chopped
One tsp. each of cumin, chile and turmeric.
4 ounces of red lentils rinsed
 1.5-2 cups of vegetable stock (or water).

I put all of the ingredients into my slow cooker and let it simmer until the lentils appeared swollen (about one hour). The prep time is about 10 minutes.