These little fungi are great for soaking up the flavour of marinades and adding some additional nutrition to your meal.
While mushrooms often are included as an addition to meals, one of my favourite mushroom meals actually allows this huge mushroom to be the focal point of the meal: portobello mushroom burgers. I love portobello burgers because they were really my first introduction to “meatless meals,” and their delicious, juicy flavour helped to push away my inner (meat-loving) cynic to eventually come to realize that vegetarian meals are really a delicious option for my breakfast, lunch or dinner.
The Mayo Clinic offers a variety of fresh ideas for healthy cooking, including a great portobello mushroom burger.
Usually I try to highlight a locally grown food for the Food of the Month column. However, there are many of us (myself included) who aren’t able to limit their diets to locally available foods, so this month I am breaking from tradition to acknowledge a healthy fruit (albeit not growing locally) which is readily available this time of year: the mandarin orange. Available at grocers’ around town in small boxes, these little orange bundles of vitamin C make it easy to quickly boost our fruit intake. They are great for quick snacking – you don’t even have to find a place to wash them!
Growing up, I knew that I needed to eat carrots to improve my eyesight. Much to my grown-up surprise, my family was not lying the consumption of carrots benefiting eye health is actually shown in evidenced-based research. In fact, I have discovered that carrots have
My friend Amy makes the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. Since she lives in Vermont and I now live in BC, it is no surprise that I miss her…but around this time of year, I have to admit that I miss her pie more than anything! (Sorry, Amy, but it really is that good!) Before I moved to BC, leaving behind her beloved pie contribution to my Thanksgivings, I asked her to tell me her secret. She shocked me with her answer: her pumpkin pie was more butternut squash than pumpkin! I never got more than that single detail from her, otherwise I might share the recipe.
Over a year ago, my colleague was eating her lunch and it smelled amazing. She showed me her Tupperware container and I remarked, “Oh, I love garlic mashed potatoes!” It turned out that she was not eating mashed potatoes; she had “fauxtatoes”: cauliflower disguised as mashed potatoes. From that day forward, I began a new love for cauliflower.
Recently, I was on the 
When I was a little girl, my mother’s garden had a huge leafy bush that seemed to take over the back half of the yard. That rhubarb became my first taste of the fruits of my mother’s garden. After the rhubarb of spring, I knew my life would soon be filled with fresh green beans and strawberries (often snatched and snacked upon while standing in amongst the plants).