Since we’ve had our little guy, feeding ourselves has been a chore. Which is rather unfortunate because I love to cook and we both like to eat! I’ve managed to make a few meals and am currently on the hunt for fast, healthy and full-flavour meals so if you have any recipes or cookbooks to share, please do so!

Since we’re all in a sharing type of mood, I’d like to share a few favourite things that I’ve discovered lately.

Samurai Sushi on Fraser St.

I found Samurai Sushi on Yelp! while trolling about for cheap eats in Vancouver while we were still living in Smithers. This is our new sushi haunt since Kishu Island Sushi on Main St. burnt down a few months ago. It’s only two blocks from where we are currently living, ridiculously cheap and excellent value. It ain’t the most stellar sushi in the world and the menu isn’t a complete one that you would find at a larger restaurant (for example, they don’t make a lot of appetizer sort of things), but when it’s been a crazy day with the little tyke and you’re both starving, $30 will feed two people for two meals each (dinner and lunch the next day).

Pic from Samurai website

Gluten-Free Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake

This is for those who have a sweet tooth. I stumbled across this gem on All Recipes, a site I commonly peruse for different meals. I wanted a dessert that my husband could eat but was fast and simple to make. It doesn’t get any simpler than this. Five ingredients…..

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (for this, I used 9 tbsp of cocoa instead)
19 ounce can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
4 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp baking power
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 9″ round pan. If using the chocolate chips, melt them in a microwave. Combine the beans and eggs in a large bowl and process until smooth (I just used a hand blender). Add the sugar and baking powder and pulse to blend. This is when I added the sifted cocoa. Mix everything completely until smooth. Pour into pan and bake at 40 minutes. Check if it’s done by using a toothpick and empty to cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Dust with sugar before serving.

I think next time I’ll bake it for a little less for more of a brownie-like texture, but overall, the cake was great. It would make a really good layered birthday cake. You’d never know it was made with beans! A good way to fool your kids…

Fast Indian Food

We live in an area where ethnic foods are easy to come by and there are numerous mom and pop grocery stores that have cheap fruits, veggies and ethnic bulk products. We came across these at one of our local stores a few blocks away from our house and they are delicious! (Although I am trying to stay away from Indian food as much as possible right now since our son has been fussy and gassy lately.)

They are pre-packaged Indian meals but don’t taste one bit processed or fake ~ in fact, it’s fairly restaurant-quality. There are no preservatives, it’s 100% vegetarian, and gluten-free. All you do is pop the package into a pot of boiling water for 3-5 minutes or remove the contents from the package into a bowl and microwave it until piping hot. There are lots of varieties to choose from ~ we’ve had about 4 so far and they are always good. I just make a pot of rice to go along with it and lunch is done.

You can see more about these products here.