Okra with Kongo Peas and Rice

Rice with Kongo sauce and peas with Okra (Haitian) recipe:

Ingredients

-2 cups of Kongo peas
-2 cups of rice
-2 cups of Okra
-1 pack of water Cresson
-2 table spoon of tomato paste
-3 table spoon of olive oil
-2 leeks
-Parsley, salt, spice.
-1 onion
-2 table spoon of butter/margarine

Procedure:

Kongo sauce + peas

1. Boil the Kongo peas until cooked (it should take around 30 minutes);
2. Take half of the cooked peas and put it in a blender. Blend until it no peas are visible. Put the other half in a saucepan which contains the butter.
3. Pour the sauce into the saucepan by filtering it with a strainer. If needed, take the leftovers inside the strainer and put them back into the blender and filter it again.
4. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Then, salt to taste.

Rice

1. Boil 3 cups of water. Add 1 table spoon of oil and add 1 tea spoon of salt.
2. When the water boils, add 2 cups of rice.
3. When the water is almost evaporated, cover the rice and lower the heat.
4. Let the rice cool down for about 15 minutes.

Okra

1. Cut the Cresson and the onion into small bits.
2. Pour 2 table spoon of olive oil in a sauce pan.
3. Add 2 cups of Okra into the sauce pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add 2 table spoon of tomato paste, and then add the Cresson and onion bits.
5. Season to taste and whisk everything (5 minutes).

Serve hot.

Clarence

Russian Borsch Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized beets
• Red or Green bell peppers
• 2 - 2 ½ liters of water (note: for additional taste, you may want to boil that the water is boiled into a light bouillon)
• 2-3 medium sized potatoes
• 3 small carrots
• 1-2 small onions
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 medium sized tomato
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
• ½ head fresh green cabbage or 1 small fresh green cabbage
• 1 cup of red beans
• Personal choice, if you wish to add more taste to your soup, than include salt and freshly ground black pepper.

________________________________________

Step by step procedure:

1. Start boiling the water. (Or light chicken bouillon to add a little more taste).
2. Wash the beet and peel it. Cut the beet into long thin strips.
3. Add the beet into the water and cook for 15-20min.
4. While it is boiling, peel and cut the carrots into julienne.
5. After 15 min of boiling the beet, cook in medium heat the carrots for another 15 min.
6. While the soup is cooking, wash the pepper and cut into small pieces. Put it on the side for now.
7. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut it into small pieces.
8. Cut the tomato into small pieces.
9. Now, add the pepper, the tomato, the potato, the tomato paste and the red beans into the big pot.
10. Add ¾ of teaspoon of salt.
11. Let everything cook in medium heat for 15 min.
12. Clean the cabbage and cut it into long thin strips.
13. Wash and peel the onions and cut into small pieces.
14. Fry the pieces of onions with light vegetable oil for 5min with tomato paste.
15. Add the shredded cabbage into the soup and let it boil for 5min.
16. After, add the tomato paste with onions into the soup.
17. Cut the garlic into very small pieces and add it into the big pot. Let it boil for 5 min.
18. Turn the stove off and let everything sit for at least 30 min.
19. Enjoy your Russian Vegetable soup.

Borsch is a soup that is made with beetroot and many vegetables such as tomatoes and carrots. This recipe comes from my mother’s side. It’s a Russian dish. It is very popular in many European countries and each of those countries has their own special touch of ingredients added to the soup. The soup is quite easy to prepare, however it is long a very long process. It requires a lot of work done throughout the cooking process. The longest part of the process is cutting all the vegetables into small pieces. I shared the dish with my family. They enjoyed it very much. I felt very proud but scared at the same time when preparing the dish because I am not a person who is very good at cooking. My mom helped me a lot to prepare and cook this meal. I felt very good about sharing the dish because the final result of the dish was very good. It tasted and looked very good. The ingredients that were used have a lot of vitamins, fibers and proteins in them. Vegetables such as cabbage and beets have a lot of vitamins and proteins in them. There are a lot of environmental benefits because we are not using the processed food or factory farmed meat but fresh vegetables. These ingredients are available at any grocery stores or supermarkets.

By Fahad Syed

Very Interesting!

We found this post by Siyana to be indeed one of the most shocking. “Most shocking: According to statistics from Canadian Food Inspection Agency , between two and three million farm animals are found dead each year when trucks are unloaded at Canadian abattoirs.” http://www.vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca/issues/farm-animal-welfare/ Animals are frequently mistreated in factory farms, which is unacceptable.

However, we've determined that the Statscan website was in fact the most informative. It's reliable, an offers many intersting facts such as the estimated amount of antibiotics in our livestock, and the number of functionning farms today.http://www.statcan.gc.ca/ca-ra2001/first-premier/regions/farmque-fermeqc-eng.htm

So far in class we've learned about the health and environmental effects of what we eat. We now know that most of our meat isn't farmed in a sustainable manner, and that by buying imported vegetables we are in fact contributing to lowering water tables worldwide. It's inevitable that we will apply this knowledge to our lifestyle. We may reduce meat consumption, buy locally, use reusable water bottles, or even be encouraged to plant our own gardens one day. Ultimately, it's our actions that will make the difference.

Jonathan and Sabrina

Bulgarian Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers with rice - traditional Bulgarian dish.

Recipe:
1. Mix well fine chopped onion and carrot and 1/2 cup rice.
2. Add some salt, red pepper, and 1/2 cup water. Boil 5 min.
3. Stuff the peppers, put in the baking dish, add 2 cups water and bake for 30 min.
4. Cover during the baking, the last 5-10 min remove cover.


Ingredients:
• bigger peppers ( as much as you want)
• 1-1.5dl. oil
• carrot
• 2 onions
• 150g. rice
• salt and red pepper
• lukewarm water


Stuffed peppers with rice.

It is an Eastern European dish consisting of peppers filled with rice. The recipe is influenced by the Hungarian cuisine .There are many variations of stuffed peppers across Balkan countries but here is present the basic recipe that everyone can modify by taste. It is a really easy and fish and you don’t need any specific ingredients in order to cook it. If you even work with someone else like I did it, with the help of my mother, it could be ready for about 30 minutes. It was a great experience to prepare a dish because after, when you share it with your family or with someone else, you don’t need to worry about what kind of ingredients the meal consists. Moreover, the combination of non –meat protein as pepper and onion and rice is a very healthy because it is full of nutrition. Plus, it has also environmental benefits because there aren’t any natural resources used for producing meat and in this way and there is absolutely no cost to the animal life.

Siyana Kurteva ( i didn' t succeed to create my own account)

Stir-fry On-choy with Salted Soybean Sauce recipe

Ingredients
• 1 big buddle of On-Choy (can be find in the Asian market)
• 2 tbsp of sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• STIR FRY SAUCE: 2 tbsp of Salted Soybean Sauce
• 1 tbsp of sugar

How to make it:
1. Trim about 1 inch of stem from the bottom of the on-choy. Wash and dry On-choy, cut it into 2inch long, Separate stems from the leaves
2. Chop the garlic to a tiny piece.
3. In a frying pan, add sesame oil, heat over medium-high. When oil is hot, add the garlic and stir-fry until the garlic turn to golden brown.
4. Add in the ong-choy stems and stir-fry for about 2 minutes.
5. Add in the ong-choy leaves, and salted soybean sauce stir until the on-choy mixed with sauce.
6. Finally, place it on the plate and serve with steam rice


This recipe, Stir-fry On-choy with Salted Soybean Sauce, comes from East Asia. This recipe is very easy to prepare, the hard part of this recipe was, it’s not very easy to find On-choy in the market. For this recipe, we only need to cut the On-choy and stir it with the sauce, it takes about 10minutes to prepare. I shared this with my sister. I felt a bit nervous because I’m not good at cooking and I’m sure that she will like it too. It’s a very healthy food; as I heard from my parent that On-choy contain a lot of iron, and vitamin, and also soybean is contain more protein too. The ingredients can find in almost all the Asia grocery store.

By: Charya Mean

This is very interesting....

http://www.salon.com/food/2010/03/28/green_food_campaigns_debunked/slideshow.html

Did you know that plastic water bottles are one of the worst things you can buy?
They are horrible for the environment, and for our health because the toxins from the plastic leak into the water and then we drink it. These bottles are disposed of in landfills all around the world. "Did you know that plastics never actually 'decompose', they merely break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Being an inorganic material, it never will compost." If that wasn't enough, think about all that fossil fuel that is used to make and transport these bottles!!

BUT DON'T WORRY!!

The SOLUTION to this problem is EASY!!!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP BUYING PLASTIC BOTTLES AND YOU WILL SAVE MONEY AND THE ENVIRONMENT!!

You can buy stainless steel water bottles, or aluminum ones that you can reuse for years. By the way, do not be fooled by all these companies claims that they are doing good for the environment. This is why I thought this website was so interesting, because I had no idea these water bottle companies were telling so many lies to get us to buy their products.

Rice and chick peas in a tomato sauce

Ingredients:
2 cups of rice
1 tomato (cut)
1 can of chick peas
½ cup water for the chick peas
2½cup water for the rice
½ tsp turmeric powder (taste)
½ tsp chilli powder (taste)
½ tsp blend garlic & ginger (taste)
25 ml of oil
Salt (taste)
Coriander

Preparation:
(Rice)
-Add 2 cups of water and 1tbs of salt in the rice and cook them without covering the saucepan.
- When there is almost no water left, add the other ½ cup of water, cover the saucepan and let it cook at low flame until no more water is left.

(Chick peas in a tomato sauce)
-Take the oil and put it in the saucepan.
-Let it heat.
-Add the cut tomato.
-Add the chick peas (washed) into the saucepan along with the spices (turmeric powder, chilli powder, blend garlic & ginger, salt. Instead of all these spices you can use chana masala found in Indian stores, but you still have to add the blend garlic and ginger.)
- Cover, and let cook about 10 min.
-Add ½ cup water for the chick peas.
- Let cook for 20-25 min.
- Add coriander for some taste after it is ready.
(Stir constantly the rice and the chick peas so it doesn’t burn)


This recipe is from south Asia more precisely from India. It wasn’t really hard to prepare because I prepared it with my mother who knows how to cook it because she did it so many times. I had a few problems with the quantities of ingredients I had to add but it was pretty fun to prepare. I shared this meal with my family which means my parents and my sister. Like I said it was really fun to prepare it and it helped me spend some time with my mother which I didn’t do for long time. This meal is good for the health because the chick peas provide us with proteins, and it doesn’t pollute like factory farming. For the spices, you can usually find them in Indian grocery stores or even at Loblaws or Maxi, but I would suggest Indian stores because you are sure to find every spice you need there.

By: Pooja Patel

Mexican rice and beans

MEXICAN RICE AND BEANS
• 1 cup uncooked medium grain white rice
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes (Petite-cut)
• water (as needed)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste, I used about 1/2 of this)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 cup fresh oregano, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Directions:
1. In a one quart saucepan, combine rice with water.
2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and let the pan stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
4. While the rice stands, drain the tomatoes, reserving the juice.
5. Add enough water to the juice to equal one cup of liquid.
6. Heat a 10-12 inch skillet over medium-high heat; add in oil, garlic, and jalapeno.
7. Cook until the garlic is browned and the jalapeno is fragrant (one minute).
8. Add the black beans, salt, cumin, and chili powder; stir gently a few times to cook the spices and get beans mixed into the rice (30 seconds).
9. Stir in the tomato juice mixture and bring to a boil.
10. Adjust the heat as necessary to maintain a gentle boil; cook and occasionally stir until the beans have absorbed much of the liquid (5-7 minutes).
11. Add the tomatoes, oregano, cilantro, and cooked rice.
12. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is warmed (1-2 minutes).

After deciding that I wanted to cook my rice and beans with a Mexican twist, I consulted Food.com. I was impressed with the website and found a few good ideas. I finally decided on the recipe outlined above and set out to buy the ingredients I was missing; oregano, cilantro and chilli powder. After buying the items at the Provigo grocery store down the street I got started.

The dish was very easy to prepare and only took me about half an hour. While the rice was cooking, I had prepared the spices, beans and tomatoes and eventually combined them all together. After completing the preparation I served the meal (with wine) to my roommate and her boyfriend. They really enjoyed it and even had seconds. They were a bit disappointed with the absence of meat, but by the end of their second helping they seemed satisfied. It’s always very rewarding to be able to cook an enjoyable meal for others.

Since the meal I prepared didn't contain meat, the fat content was very low. Unfortunately, I found it a bit salty and so next time I will make sure to add only half the salt. Overall I considered the meal to be healthy since it contained a lot of vegetables and a good source of protein.

I was able to find most of the ingredients very easily. The majority were already in my pantry and the missing ingredients were found at my local grocery store. The recipe originally contained a jalapeno pepper, which I was unable to find so I added chili peppers instead.

The hidden truths:

Interesting site:

For our group, this is the most interesting site posted on the facebook group “food fight”. This particular site, talks about the facts about bottled water that were not usually aware of. This site tackled five important and relevant reasons why not to consume bottled water. Facts like, that is not healthier than the tap water which blew our minds. This site talks more about the hidden truth about bottled water. Review this site for your own knowledge and for your own good.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mnn.com%2Ffood%2Fhealthy-eating-recipes%2Fstories%2F5-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water&h=b27c9

Horrifying site:

We found this site to be the most terrorizing site out there by the way Canadian farmers raised and treated the animals. Animals such as cows, chickens and pigs are deprived of everything that is natural to them. They are deprived from the sunlight, the capability of moving and are treated very poorly by the farmers.

In the past couple of weeks, we learned many useful and wicked things in the class. Things like cow farts playing an important role in the Global warming process. All of this information helped us to be more conscious about the food that we eat, also the way we pick out the right food in the supermarkets. We will try to eat more organic food and try to make meat as our secondary dish. We will start to be practical and wiser about consuming bottled water that will give a better future for our planet and for the people of the next generation.

http://www.chooseveg.ca/animal-cruelty-canada.asp





By: Roy De Leon and Fahad Syed

Lentils Soup with lemon!

Protein replacement!

Ingredients:

- 1 Chopped onion
- 1/4 cup of Olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 Bay leaf
- 2 cups of dry lentils
- 8 cups of water
- Half a lemon ( chopped )
- 2 tablespoons of vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
- 2 sliced carrots
- 2 chopped celeries
- 1 can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 can of chick peas

Seasoning:

- A hint of salt
- A good amount of pepper
- A touch of paprika
- A touch of cumin
- A touch of Coriandre

Origin:

This is a recipe my grandmother used to make in Morocco, beans are typical in Moroccan cuisine.

Difficulty:

This recipe includes many ingredients, however, once you acquire them all, it is pretty simple.

Directions:

- Pre rinse and boil the lentils and chick peas. Marinate with cumin and paprika.
- In a big hot pan heat olive oil and start to simmer with garlic and onion
- Add the carrots and celery to the pan.
- Once the garlic and onion becomes golden, add the crushed tomatoes , the bay leaf and some corriandre.
- While the ingredients are warming up, add the lemon and lentils.
- Mix and heat all the ingredients together.
- Add the salt, pepper.
- The recipe is ready for you to enjoy.