Cooking in Real Life

Cooking in real life on www.marianamcdougall.com; Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Cooking in Real Life isn’t as pretty as on the Internet, folks—especially when there’s little ones involved.

It’s crossed my mind once or twice to start a cooking blog. And then I realize that I have three homeschooled children 8 and under. The beautiful photography required for a food blog and the thoughtful, lengthy posts about how a recipe came to be are somewhat of an unrealistic goal in this household (and I imagine most households like mine).

But I do love cooking and involving my kiddos in the process (sometimes). Making meals here is messy, and the food doesn’t always look magazine-worthy (who am I kidding? It never does). But the food’s almost always pretty yummy.

So I thought, “why not share some of this stuff with my readers?”

I’m sure if I share what the state of the kitchen is really like when we cook here, many mamas (and daddies) could relate.

So here’s my not-so-secret half-arsed attempt at a “cooking in real life” blog. Don’t expect fancy pictures. I already eat my dinners cold as it is.

Posts about Cooking in Real Life

Vegan Red Lentil Soup

Mariana

A delicious vegan soup even veggie snobs will love

My son is a very particular eater. There is very little he is happy to eat, and  he does justice to his Italian name: carbs, carbs, and more carbs, please. Give him pasta and fruit and he’s happy. But there is one thing I make that he eats and asks for more. The best part? It’s healthy, delicious, and vegan to boot. And the rest of the family loves it, too. This Vegan Red Lentil Soup freezes well and is a great thing to pull out of the freezer on a busy night to save your money and your time.

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How to make Brazilian Rice

Mariana

Delicious Brazilian Rice Is Good Any Time

A staple of my childhood was rice and beans. I’m sometimes asked about traditional Brazilian foods. While the national dish is feijoada, it’s not something most people eat every single day. Rice and beans, however, make an appearance at almost every lunch and dinner.

Brazilian rice is much different than the rice most Canadians experience in Chinese or Japanese dishes, and I figured today I’d teach you how to make it. But first, a quick tidbit about why I eat a lot of rice even though I grew up eating foods that aren’t necessarily Brazilian.

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Cooking in Real Life – Mexican-Inspired Vegetarian Enchiladas

Mariana

Ha ha, fooled you with that picture of Mexican-Inspired Enchiladas, didn’t I? I was just kidding. I’ve got 3 kids 8 and under, people. And they want to help cook. So here’s what enchiladas actually look like in a house like this:

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Raw Kale Salad Recipe

Mariana

Kale is the poster vegetable for healthy eating these days, and no wonder—a mere 100 grams provides nearly 200% of your daily recommended intake of Vitamin A, 100% of your daily intake of Vitamin C, 15% calcium, 8% iron, 15% Vitamin B-6, and 11% magnesium. Oh, it happens to be delicious, too, if you prepare it right. What’s not to like?

Here’s a great kale salad recipe that has become a staple in our household. Pretty much any time we want salad, this comes out. My kids even eat it!

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High Protein, High Iron Peanut Butter Pancakes

Mariana

Everybody asks you where you get your protein if you’re a vegetarian. It’s a really silly question, since protein is in everything, and if you eat a varied enough diet, even without meat, you’ll be just fine. It’s also a silly question because what most vegetarians might be lacking, if they’re lacking anything, is iron, not protein.

I was a vegetarian for 4 years without any issue. But during my last two pregnancies, I was anemic. Since my last pregnancy, it’s been very difficult to raise my iron. To try to avoid supplements, I’m trying to raise the iron in my blood by tweaking my diet. For now, I still have to take iron tablets, but the hope is that if I’m good with planning what I eat, I’ll be able to go off them eventually.

This breakfast is one of the ways you can wake up to an iron boost (and it’s a high protein breakfast, too!)

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Slow Cooker Pasta Primavera

Mariana

Pasta Primavera (Vegan)

Adapted from The Simple Little Vegan Slow Cooker by Michelle A. Rivera

This delicious dish is full of vegetables and whole wheat deliciousness. If you add cauliflower to the mix, you get an extra boost of iron (the vitamin C in the cauliflower improves absorption of the non-heme iron in the whole wheat pasta).

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Meal Planning Helps You Save Money, Time, and Sanity – and It’s Healthy, Too!

Mariana

Meal Planning is one of the best ways to maintain a healthy diet (and save your sanity). It also happens to save money and waste, too. What’s not to like?

In the interest of reaching the best health of my life, I’m done with eating cereal for dinner (OK, maybe I’ll still do that sometimes) and arriving at dinner time frazzled because I don’t know what I’m going to make today.

So, for the next few weeks, I’ll be creating meal plans, and I hope you join me in trying to do some meal planning of your own.

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