Comfort food

Cooking just got a little more complicated at our house.

You see, I grew up with dinners that were composed mostly of meat, potatoes, and vegetables.  Over time my tastes have changed and I enjoy food with a greater variety of ingredients and ethnicity.  But, in a pinch, my default go-to dinner is meat, potatoes, and vegetables.  It's something that I can make in my sleep, with my eyes closed. 

Having said that, though, we're not talking well-done beef and canned peas here. We eat a good variety of protein, yummy sauces, roasted veggies, beans - even vegetarian dishes.

(At this point I must confess that potatoes have lost their luster in my diet, except, of course, in the form of french fries.  I'd really rather have pasta or rice, especially brown rice, as my starch of choice.  In fact, I think I could be very happy living on nothing but brown rice, butter, and a little salt.)

And, as we've got older, we've cut down substantially on our portion sizes.  Good news, that.

But still, three more-or-less-equal servings of meat, potatoes and veggies.

Two things happened this week that shook my cooking world:

First, Health Canada just issued an updated Food Guide.  And that made me realize that, while we didn't need to cut down on the amount of meat we eat, we did need to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables. 

The second thing?  My sister, who has celiac disease, is coming to visit.

It's the perfect storm: time to revisit my favourite go-to recipes.  I checked out a host of online websites.  I went to the library and started going though vegetarian and gluten-free cookbooks.

(Please ... I'm not interested in hugely time-consuming and weird-ingredient recipes!  I want food that is yummy (#1), good for us (#2), and won't take up my entire life to cook (#3).)

Two success stories to report so far:

Garlicky Parmesan Salmon and Asparagus from Canadian Living.  Now this is a recipe I would have tried even without the aforementioned pushes.  The difference now is that I made more asparagus and less rice (sigh).  And, it's naturally gluten-free!

... and ...

Hearty Vegetarian Chili from the Food Network Canada.  It's, honestly, as good as the old hamburger-based chili I've been making for years and, boy, is it stuffed with veggies!  And love that "splash" of maple syrup.  (Hint: Use just one carton of vegetable broth.  Five cups is too many, in my opinion.)  Also gluten-free by the way ...

Tomorrow  I'm going to make Savoury Broccoli and Cheese Muffins, right from the Health Canada website. 

Could be the start of something great!