Miso

I haven't been doing much lately. The head cold I got at the start of my time off, lead to bronchitis, it's getting better but not completely there yet. Still coughing but not as bad as before.

Yesterday I decided to pull out my slow cooker. I haven't taken it out in months, and it was nice putting together a stew. I put in some beef, along with a lot of vegetables. I used carrots, celery, onion, garlic, turnip, sweet potatoes, beets, and water chestnuts. For herbs I used oregano and basil, and of course some salt and pepper. For the sauce part, I used beef broth and some tomato paste. I used some spelt flour to thicken it. It turned out really good! And we have some left for some lunches this week.

Now I would like to discuss miso. It has a lot of great nutrition, and it's delicious!

Miso has a wonderful sweet/salty flavor that can be used in a wide variety of recipes. The color of miso can vary from light yellow, good to use in a sweet miso soup during warm weather, to a deep dark brown with earthy tones and hearty flavor.  And here are the benefits of miso:

1. Contains all essential amino acids, making it a complete protein.
2. Stimulates the secretion of digestive fluids in the stomach.
3. Restores beneficial probiotics to the intestines.
4. Aids in the digestion and assimilation of other foods in the intestines.
5. Is a good vegetable-quality source of B vitamins (especially B12).
6. Strengthens the quality of blood and lymph fluid.
7. Reduces risk for breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers.
8. Protects against radiation due to dipilocolonic acid, an alkaloid that chelates heavy metals and discharges them from the body.
9. Strengthens the immune system and helps to lower LDL cholesterol.
10. Is high in antioxidants that protect against free radicals.

Here's a great link with a video on how to make miso soup: http://skillet.lifehacker.com/a-video-guide-to-making-miso-soup-at-home-no-recipe-re-1694607730

It's really easy and delicious. You can add different vegetables to the soup if you want, and you can even add noodles. I found noodles at the T&T store near here, and they are mung bean noodles. They are a nice long thin noodle and take no time to cook and the ingredient listed is mung beans, that's it! If you don't like tofu, or if your unsure like me on how healthy it is, you can skip it.

If you have never tried miso, I suggest you give it a try. It adds wonderful flavor, and it's fermented, therefore it has great nutritional benefits.

Camping and fishing

My hubby and I spent a little over a week in Sudbury to visit our families. We first stopped near Noelville to spend 2 nights at his aunt and uncle's camp. We went out fishing but we didn't have any luck getting any. Well my hubby got one, but it was to small to keep so we let that one go, and his uncle almost caught a big one, but his fishing line snapped while he was trying to real it in. We were very close but ended up with nothing at the end, but it was still a fun day.

This is a view of the lake we were at. It was a really beautiful day, so we all got lots of sun. That night we joined the party, they had a huge cook out for the camp ground. The food was amazing!

Sunday we made our way to Sudbury, and went to my father in law's camp. I had time to say hi to everyone and talk a bit, then I left go to my cousin's. We chatted a while, then I was off again to meet our family for supper. My cousin didn't go to the supper but met up with us after at our uncle's place. It was nice spending time with them and my aunt from Quebec was down, so it was really great seeing her as well. At my uncle's we had really good dessert, and we talked. Didn't stay there to late, it was about 9 pm when I left, and went back to camp. Everyone was up and around a camp fire so I joined in.The rest of the week there, we got to see more family, sit by more camp fires, and go on another fishing trip. This one was with my hubby, his dad, and uncle. We left at 5:30 am to drive out to the middle of nowhere, to a spot that has a lot of fish. Took a long time to get there because of the rough roads. At one point we got to a spot where we parked the car, hooked up the trailer that had the boats to the 4 wheeler, and one drove that while the rest of us walked, here's the start of the trail.

It was a nice hike, and my favorite part!  When we finally reached the lake, it was beautiful

My hubby and I took the largest boat, and his dad and uncle took the smaller one. We wanted to do the opposite, but his dad insisted. We ended up with 8 bass, and his dad and uncle caught 12. It was a lot of fun, except for the end, it started to rain hard, so we were soaked! Plus it was cool outside. I caught a cold at the start of my vacation, so that really didn't help. My father in law was very kind in cleaning out our fish for us, and froze them up for us, so now we have some fresh fish on hand. One of their fish was a pike, so his dad cooked him up in foil with some butter, lemon and garlic, it was delicious!!

Last week on Friday, I went to my cousin's place, and we went out to do some shopping and of course had to stop at chapters. I got two new books, and enjoyed a chai tea latte. We then went to her place, ordered pizza for supper, and had a girls night. She has 3 daughters, and one of them brought over a friend, so we watched movies, and had some junk food. It was a lot of fun! I slept over, then left the next morning because we wanted to visit my hubby's grandfather, and then we were invited to a wedding, which was beautiful and we had a lot of fun.

We got back from Sudbury last weekend on Sunday, my hubby and I took the Monday off so it gave us the chance to unpack, get groceries, and do laundry. This weekend, well I haven't done very much because my cough is still lingering. I ended up going to see my family doctor Thursday morning, then my boss said I can just go home to rest. Friday I still wasn't feeling so great and coughing so much so I stayed home, and took a long nap, which I really needed. I felt so exhausted. Been relaxing most of the weekend, but I did make my own chicken soup, no noodles, but I did put in some quinoa. Here's my recipe:

1 carrot, cut in half, length wise, then sliced
1 celery stock, cut in half, length wise, then sliced
half a large red onion,chopped
1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
a handful of lentils
a handful of quinoa
homemade chicken stock, about 2 cups
2 cups of water

I sauteed the vegetables for a few minutes, then added in the chicken, stock, lentils, quinoa,  a touch of salt and some pepper, I let it come to a boil, then simmered for about 15-20 min. I had a bowl for my lunch, and stored the rest away in the freezer to have another time

It turned out really good, and helped calm my coughing. I'm still coughing quite a bit, but it has gotten a bit better. Really looking forward to the coughing to go away completely!  Other then that, I made a banana bread, and yesterday from my new clean eating magazine, I tried a new stir fry recipe for our supper, and it was really good! The sauce was rice wine vinegar, tamari, maple syrup, sesame oil, some vegetable stock, arrowroot (to thicken it) and some peanut butter. The vegetables, I put in carrot, celery, onion, snow peas, red pepper and mushrooms. They called for chickpeas, but I put in chicken instead, and instead of millet, I used Quinoa. It was really good! Today I think I'll chop up my broccoli, so that's ready to use, and I'm thinking to put together some oats, apple, cinnamon, nuts, flax seeds and hemp seeds, with some maple syrup and almond milk and let that thicken in the fridge to have a cold cereal for some breakfast this week.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!