My Favorite Bars - Made With Local

Granola bars make for a really good nutritious energizing snack. It's really too bad that most bars (even 'healthy' whole grain ones) have a million ingredients listed and just aren't much better than eating a chocolate bar.

Here are some ingredients for popular 'healthy' packaged granola bars at the grocery store:

Cranberry & Almond Trail Mix Quaker Bar - Granola (Quaker Rolled Oats, rolled whole wheat, brown sugar, sunflower oil, fructose-glucose, dried unsweetened coconut, honey, sodium bicarbonate, natural flavour, modified milk ingredients), glucose, crisp rice (rice flour, sugar, malt extract, salt), almonds, raisins coated with hydrogenated cottonseed and/or soybean and/or canola oil, honey,  peanuts, dried sweetened cranberry pieces (cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil), sunflower oil, fructose-glucose, fructose, glucose solids, invert sugar, glycerin, sorbitool, soy lecithin, salt, natural flavours (wheat gluten), caramel colour (sulphites), mixed tocopherols.

Cherry & Dark Chocolate Kashi Bar - Rolled grain blend (hard red wheat, oats, rye, triticale, barley), brown rice syrup, cherries (red tart cherries, apple juice concentrate, vegetable oil), semi-sweet chocolate (evaporated cane juice, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavour, milk ingredients), soy protein isolate, soy grits, evaporated cane juice crystals, chicory root (inulin), evaporated cane juice syrup, honey, corn flour, expeller pressed canola oil, rice starch, glycerin, oat hull fibre, salt, seven whole grains & sesame blend (whole: oats, hard red wheat, rye, long grain brown rice, triticale, barley, buckwheat, sesame seeds), natural flavour, cane juice molasses, soy lecithin, milk ingredients, almond flour, peanut flour.

Wow! That's a lot of ingredients! And a LOT of sugar!!

I don't ever buy granola bars and try to make them myself instead. That is, before I started buying Made With Local Bars. Made With Local is a great local company here in the Halifax area. The 'company' is made up of two lovely ladies, Sheena and Kathy, who make and package every single bar themselves. The company has really grown and although they started off selling the bars at the local markets they also have them available throughout the city and now in other parts of the province too. Pretty soon they'll be opening an online store, which will allow them to ship their bars throughout the country.

So what's in the Made With Local Bars? 100% REAL FOOD! Their bars don't contain any wheat, any dairy, any eggs, any corn and any soy.

They have 4 different bars available:

Cranberry Apple Crisp - organic oats, almond butter, dried apple and cranberries, honey, flax flour, vanilla, walnuts, cinnamon

Choco Berry Bliss - organic oats, almond butter, dried cranberries, 70% dark chocolate, honey, walnuts, vanilla, cinnamon

Sticky Squirrel - organic oats, peanut butter, molasses, honey, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice

Bluberry Grunt - organic oats, almond butter, dried blueberries, honey, flax flour, vanilla, walnuts, spices

Every single one of them are delicious! I don't really have a favorite. Over the holidays they also came out with special 'holiday' flavours like gingerbread and peanut butter chocolate (this one tasted like a peanut butter chocolate ball). I especially liked the gingerbread. Totally tasted like Christmas.

You know what's even better than the short list of recognizable ingredients in the Made With Local Bars? 90% of the ingredients are local maritime ingredients (either grown or processed here in the Maritimes)! That's a major plus for me!

Here's what they have to say about it:

"We believe that the Made with Local flavours are not just scrumptiously delicious and so very good for you, they serve a purpose! They come together to tell the story of the many talented farmers and producers located in Atlantic Canada. Right now, more than ever we need to support the farms and businesses of our neighbors and these snack bars make that simple"

Here are the local suppliers used to make the bars:

• Molasses - Crosby Molasses in Saint John, New Brunswick
• Organic Oats - Speerville Flour Mill in Speerville, New Brunswick
• Almond Butter/Peanut Butter - Nutsmith Nut Butters in Windsor, Nova Scotia (no added salt, sugar or fats in any butters, just roasted, ground nuts
• Honey - Cosman and Whidden Honey in Greenwich, Nova Scotia (pure and unpasteurized)
• Dried apples, cranberries, blueberries - Terra Beata Cranberry Farm in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (they use 50% less sugar in their dried fruits and don't add sulphites or oils)
• Dark Chocolate - from Just Us! Coffee in Nova Scotia (chocolate is fair-trade)
• Flax Flour - Valley Flax Flour in Middleton, Nova Scotia

For more great info about the suppliers check them out here on the Made With Local website: http://www.madewithlocal.ca/local-suppliers-support/

The only ingredients from elsewhere are the walnuts, vanilla and spices.

If you're in the area make sure to visit them at the Halifax Seaport Market and Aldnerney Market on Saturdays or pick up some bars at the following locations:

• Pete's Frootique (Halifax)
• Just Us! Coffee (Barrington and Spring Garden Rd.)
• Uncommon Grounds
• World Tea House
• Cafe Brea
• The Trail Shop
• The Summit Shop
• Coburg Coffee House
• The Grainery Co-op
• Edible Matters Pantry
• Noggins Farm Markets (Alderney Landing and Annapolis Valley)
• P'lovers

Website: www.madewithlocal.ca

Facebook: www.facebook.com/madewithlocal

Twitter: @madewithlocal

Chocolate Mint Smoothie

I have been experimenting with a lot of different smoothies lately, from using avocados, to various seeds, nut butter, greens, etc.. There's a lot more to great smoothies than your typical fruit and yogurt varieties. There are fruit smoothies, green smoothies, dessert smoothies...the options are endless.

 

One of my favorites these days has been a refreshing chocolate-mint smoothie.

 

Ingredients:

 

- 2 cups chocolate almond milk (unsweetened)

- 1 banana

- 1 scoop of chocolate plant-based protein powder (I really like Vega) - optional

- small handful of fresh mint leaves

- 2 handfuls spinach

- 1/4 tsp peppermint extract

- small handful of raw cacao nibs

- 3-4 ice cubes

 

Place ingredients in a blender and mix!

 

Yummy! Yummy!

Mexican Dinner - Hot Bean Dip and Mexican Salad

I don't know why but I really wanted something 'Mexican' for dinner tonight. Perhaps it's the frigid temperatures and snow outside this week, but I needed some spice and warmth; and I just happened to have all of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry too. Perfect!

 

Hot Bean Dip

• 1 medium red onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can black beans
• 1 cup diced tomatoes (or salsa if you like things spicy)
• 3/4 cup shredded goat cheese
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• salt and pepper

In a pan, melt 1 tbsp coconut oil or butter. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add the cumin, chili powder and beans. After a couple of minutes mash the beans with a fork or potato masher. Add the tomatoes and cheese. Mix until combined and heat until cheese is melted. Season with salt and pepper.

The dip was enjoyed with sprouted black bean and quinoa tortilla chips

Mexican Salad

• Romaine Lettuce
• handful of black beans
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup fresh or frozen corn
• 1/2 red pepper sliced
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 avocado diced (I had meant to add this in but was waiting to put it in at the last minute and completely forgot about it)
• red onion, radish or green onions would be really good too

Honey-Lime Dressing

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 large clove garlic, minced

Mix the ingredients for the dressing and whisk until combined. Add to the salad.

Along with our bean dip, tortilla chips and salad we also had leftover butternut squash soup.

Delicious meal (and warming!)

Honey Cinnamon (Non-Microwaved) Popcorn

If you've got a hankering for some popcorn do you go to the pre-packaged microwavable bags of garbage? Or do you pop it the old fashioned way in a pot on the stove? Perhaps you have an air popper?

 

For me, it's popcorn made in a pot on the stove. It's the easiest and most convenient in my opinion. More convenient? Yes! Popcorn made in the microwave has a tendency to burn very quickly and often there are many kernals that just don't pop and then get stuck in your teeth (or crack your teeth). In a pot, there is no burnt popcorn and you're only left with a few un-popped kernels.

 

I'm not even going to get into what's wrong with microwavable pre-packaged popcorn. The bags, the plastic, the chemicals, the ingredients, the microwave itself... Blech!

 

Making stove-top popcorn is super simple:

 

1) Melt 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a large pot on medium-high heat

2) Throw in 2-3 popcorn kernels

3) Put a lid on the pot

4) Wait until you hear those few kernels pop - the oil is hot and ready to go

5) Put 1/3 cup of kernels into the pot and place the lid back on

6) Shake the pot a little to cover the kernels with the oil

7) Listen to the popcorn pop

8) Shake the pot every so often to make sure the unpopped kernels get to the bottom and have a chance to pop

9) When you don't hear any more pops - it's done!

10) Season as you wish

 

On Saturday we had a family movie night and we felt like a bowl of popcorn to snack on. Honey and Cinnamon sounded like something that could work.

 

All I did was warm up 1 tbsp of honey and mixed in 1 tsp of cinnamon and drizzled it over the popcorn. Mix until combined and add a little sea salt and mix again.

 

 

The popcorn can be eaten as is or baked in the oven at 325F for 10 minutes to reduce the stickiness factor.

The Importance of Buying Local - Buy Canadian Quinoa

This past week there has been a lot being said about quinoa and ethical eating on Facebook, Twitter and in the media. So what's the big deal? Well, due to the increasing popularity of quinoa in 'rich' countries such as ours it has, in turn, increased farmers' incomes in Bolivia and Peru which has led it to be too expensive for the local folks to afford this important staple.

Here are some exerpts from the article in question (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa)

"...quinoa was, in marketing speak, the "miracle grain of the Andes", a healthy, right-on, ethical addition to the meat avoider's larder (no dead animals, just a crop that doesn't feel pain). Consequently, the price shot up – it has tripled since 2006 – with more rarified black, red and "royal" types commanding particularly handsome premiums."

"But there is an unpalatable truth to face for those of us with a bag of quinoa in the larder. The appetite of countries such as ours for this grain has pushed up prices to such an extent that poorer people in Peru and Bolivia, for whom it was once a nourishing staple food, can no longer afford to eat it. Imported junk food is cheaper. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken. Outside the cities, and fuelled by overseas demand, the pressure is on to turn land that once produced a portfolio of diverse crops into quinoa monoculture."

This leads, once again, to the fact that eating locally grown foods is so important. The problem with the response to the article is that many folks are saying that people should stop eating quinoa. That's not the solution. The solution in my opinion is to look at the alternatives. Did you know that there IS quinoa being grown in Canada? Yes, there is! And because of its popularity there will likely be more and more growers (hopefully).

So where is it grown? In Saskatchewan!

Northern Quinoa Corporation is a specialty grain and food processing company located in Kamsack, Saskatchewan Canada. Although quinoa is indigenous to the Andes Mountains of South America, where the climate is quite similar to Northeastern Saskatchewan, the area is suitable for its cultivation. For more information or to order from their online store check out their website at www.quinoa.com. In addition to quinoa, they also grow and distribute other grains and seeds as well.

Here's another exerpt from the article mentioned earlier in my post:

"..the quinoa trade is yet another troubling example of a damaging north-south exchange, with well-intentioned health and ethics-led consumers here unwittingly driving poverty there. It's beginning to look like a cautionary tale of how a focus on exporting premium foods can damage the producer country's food security. Feeding our apparently insatiable 365-day-a-year hunger for this luxury vegetable, Peru has also cornered the world market in asparagus. Result? In the arid Ica region where Peruvian asparagus production is concentrated, this thirsty export vegetable has depleted the water resources on which local people depend."

So what does asparagus have to do with quinoa? Well, like quinoa, it relates to our continuous demand for foods with complete disregard of how it affects the countries exporting the large quanities of these foods to us (which, by the way, 40-50% of foods end up in the trash...but that's for another post).  Because of our refusal to eat seasonally we expect asparagus to be available at the grocery store year-round which, in turn, depletes resources in other countries (or raises food prices like that of quinoa).

With 2013 being deemed the International Year of Quinoa food by the United Nations I think it's important that some thought is put into where we buy our food and what impact it has on those who grown them. Whenever possible eat seasonally and locally - support our Canadian farmers and producers.

Now that I'm done with my rant, here's a great cookbook I recently purchased: Quinoa Revolution

I can't wait to make some of the recipes inside. This morning I tried the Creamy Banana Breakfast Cereal and last week I made the Chocolate Cream Cupcakes with Avocado Icing for my daughter's birthday party. Other recipes that I really want to try are the Chocolate Hazelnut Breakfast Bars, Sweet Potato Salad, Baked Roasted Red Pepper Dip, Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Soup, Mini Mexian Meat Loaves, Almond Cinnamon Cookies, Double Chocolate Mint Cookies, and Orange Gingerbread. They all sound so yummy!

January Walk at Shubie Park

The temperature this winter has been quite mild and lovely (and not much snow). So far this year it has only really snowed once. Would you believe that even in January I have still been hanging my laundry on the line? Yup! Awesome!!

 

On Sunday the temperature was forecasted as mild so I thought I'd go for a little hike. I wanted to try a new trail and decided to check out Shubie Park in Dartmouth.

 

 

Shubie Park is a 40 acre park next to Hwy 118 on the way toward Truro and the airport between Lake Micmac and Lake Charles. So many times I would be driving on the highway on my way to Dartmouth Crossing and I would see the trail next to the highway and kept 'meaning' to check it out.

 

 

I didn't want to wait any longer so I went for a little hike on this mild Sunday morning. What I forgot though was that although there may not be any snow in the 'Passage', there tends to still be a little bit in Dartmouth (even though it's only 10 minutes away). I didn't really consider the fact that the trails would be so snowy and icy. It made for a much slower walk than I am used to.

 

 

Shubie Park is definitely an area that I'll go back to again and again. The trails are beautiful, heavily treed, and lots of views of the lakes and streams/canals. I can't wait to get the bikes out to bike the trails with the family. What's great too is that since it connects to Dartmouth Crossing via an over-the-highway bridge we could easily park at Empire Theatres, do some biking, and go back for some lunch or a cool drink at one of the many restaurants/cafes. Watch for a future blog post later this year!

 

One of the things that I absolutely love about Nova Scotia is the volume of hiking trails and outdoor activities available. There are still so many trails that I have not yet been to (and likely haven't even been told about). It really is Canada's Ocean Playground, no matter what the season!

 

 

Isn't it funny that in the picture above the water is not frozen and in the picture below the water is completely frozen solid? Interesting...

 

Watching the ducks walk around the ice entertained me for quite a while.

 

 

Something else that caught my eye was this lone red fire hydrant in the middle of nowhere. Are hydrants typically installed in the middle of a trail in a wooded area? If there was a forest fire would they actually hook up a hose to this thing? I think not! Weird!

 

 

I didn't walk through all of the trails on this trip due to the many icy areas but will venture through further next time. I did, however, get to see the sports field, the picnic area, the tennis courts and part of the campground. At one point I tried to walk down to the beach area but didn't quite make it. I soon realized that I would end up sliding down the small hill and may not make it back up. Again, next time!

 

I can't wait to go back. I was a bit sad to see my car sitting there at the end of it.

 

 

Okay not too sad...I was hungry and had a snack waiting for me in the car. Snack was a pear, some trail mix and water. Yummy!

 

 

Mushroom Stroganoff with Soba Noodles

I made a great mushroom stroganoff the other day.

It was one of those days that I didn't really know what to make for dinner, but knew that I wanted something with mushrooms. I had originally planned to roast some cauliflower and make a mushroom sauce to go over it but I just wasn't super excited about it. What I really wanted was beef stroganoff but alas, I didn't have any beef available. Didn't matter...I was going to make a stroganoff without the beef. Just mushrooms and pasta. Great idea - it hit the spot.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 cremini mushrooms
• Package of dried Porcini mushrooms
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock (+ more as required)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• soba noodles (buckwheat noodles)
• chopped green onions or chives

To make the sauce I cooked down the mushrooms with some butter in a pan until they were browned and softened. Meanwhile, I soaked some dried porcini mushrooms in a mixture of white wine and chicken stock. When the mushrooms were cooked I poured in the porcini mushroom and wine mixture into the pan, brought it to a boil and let it reduce. Once the liquid was reduced I added a little more stock and some parmesan cheese until I got the consistency I was looking for.

While I made the sauce I boiled some water and cooked the pasta for 5 minutes or so. When the noodles were ready I simply mixed the sauce and pasta together, added some chopped green onions as garnish, and voila! Mushroom Stroganoff. On the side we enjoyed a Kamut Baguette toasted with some garlic.

Delicious!

I love when you have no idea what to make for dinner and then suddenly a light goes off and you end up with a great dish.

New Year = Time to Get Real

Happy New Year everyone!

Another year has come and gone. Like most folks I've been thinking about the last year and what I did and didn't do. 2012 was a hectic year for me. If you had told me last January that I would be living in Nova Scotia a few months later I never would have believed you. Yet, here I am.

Most of the year was consumed with packing, selling stuff, buying and selling a home, moving, unpacking, renovating and most of all, worrying and stressing about EVERYTHING! Now that the holidays are over and I had the opportunity to enjoy a few days off at home I finally feel at ease and ready to take on the new year (as long as there are no more major life-changing events ahead).

Although I don't typically make resolutions per se, I do make myself a sort of bucket list of things that I hope to do or accomplish. Here is my list for 2013:

• Finish my Holistic Nutrition course - if I keep up with the schedule that I've made myself I should have it completed by this time next year and then have lots of BIG plans for 2014
• Spend more time hiking and biking
• Go tidal bore rafting on the Bay of Fundy
• Go see the Cabot Trail (no, I have not made it to that end of the province yet)
• Visit PEI (no, have not been there yet either)
• Go to Cape Cod for our 10th wedding anniversary (on our honeymoon we agreed to go back every 5 years so we're due for a visit this year)
• Finish our home renovations
• Rent a cottage for a weekend
• Grow an indoor herb garden and use more fresh herbs in my cooking
• Plant a garden in the Spring (I really miss my old garden and when we moved it was already the end of June so it was too late)
• Visit more farms and keep finding local food sources in my new province
• Try to stay within my weekly grocery budget by planning ahead and making better use of leftovers
• Buy a new camera - mine has a cracked screen from being dropped on a gravel road and lens doesn't always open due to taking pictures at windy beaches and getting sand stuck in small crevices. Oops! Don't ask my husband how many cameras I've had in the last few years...
• De-stress
• Learn meditation
• Start doing Yoga
• Breathe!!
• Make everyday the best it can be
• Be happy
• And most of all - stop worrying/stressing about every single thing and learn to just enjoy life as it comes

There.

Today was a great start to the new year. When we woke up we enjoyed some freshly baked cinnamon/cranberry scones and a green smoothie for breakfast. Later we made our way out to Rainbow Haven beach to get some fresh air, absorb some Vitamin D from the sun, and walk by the ocean. The afternoon was then spent sitting on the couch watching TV. Wait,...we did try and do some prep on our hallway for painting but then realized we lost the scrapper to apply the plaster on the holes and since the hardware store is closed today we couldn't go any further. Tomorrow we will continue.

Wasn't the beach so pretty today? Others thought so too - it was quite busy!

Do you have any goals/resolutions or a bucket list to fill this year? Is there anything you hope to accomplish?