Hearty Tomato Sauce with Dried Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

1 package Dried Mushroom Medley
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion or shallot
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp fresh basil leaves, chopped, or 1/2 tsp dried basil
Freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with hot water. Let soak for 15 to 30 minutes, until completely soft. Line a strainer or colander with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Drain the mushrooms into the cheesecloth. Squeeze the mushrooms to get out the access soaking liquid. Set aside 1/4 cup of the mushroom soaking liquid. Rinse the mushrooms in several changes of water and chop coarsely.

Heat a large, heavy nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil. When hot, add the onion or shallot and cook, stirring, until tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir together for 1 minute, until fragrant, then add the mushrooms and stir together for another minute or two, until fragrant.

Add the tomatoes and their juice, the mushroom soaking liquid, the basil, the salt to the mushrooms. Turn up heat to medium-high and stir well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until thick and fragrant, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add pepper and more salt to taste.

When ready to serve, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water to the sauce to thin it as desired. Delicious on penne with grated Parmesan.

Mushroom Cream Sauce

INGREDIENTS

2 packages Dried Mushroom Medley
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup cream
Sea salt and ground pepper to taste
1 Tbsp flour

DIRECTIONS

Put dried mushrooms in a colander and rinse with cool running water to remove any sand.

In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add 2 tablespoons of water and the mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes, until the mushroom caps are soft, adding more water if necessary. Add the cream and salt and pepper. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. In a glass or small bowl, blend the flour with 3 tablespoons of water and then slowly stir into the sauce. Cook and stir 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Serve over pasta, chicken breasts, or hot buttered toast.

Lakewood Lye Handmade Soaps

Green Earth Organics is thrilled to be carrying Lakewood Lye Handmade Soaps. Lakewood Lye is a small artisan company based in Vancouver and focused on making 100% natural, vegetable based soap.

Their soap is made from a combination of the highest quality, food grade, vegetable, coconut, and olive oils, and contains no artificial ingredients. Lakewood Lye does not use palm oil, which is harvested in an unsustainable manner.

All the colours in the soaps come from natural earth clays, which are extremely high in minerals such as magnesium and iron that are very beneficial for the skin, while giving a beautiful natural colour to the bars. Other natural soapmakers use natural colours/oxides in their soaps, and although they are not harmful or bad, they do not add any benefit to the soap the way this natural clay does.

The soap is scented with only 100% pure and natural essential oils. They are chosen for their aromatherapy qualities.

The bars are hand cut, so they vary in shape and size. Since they are not milled, they retain much of the natural glycerin. This make the bars very moisturizing and soft to the skin.

There are four varieties of this wonderful soap available:

Lavender Oatmeal: A pure bar scented with lavender and coloured with pink clay from France. The oatmeal is added for its calming properties to the skin.

Peppermint Green Clay: A very refreshing and stimulating bar loaded with peppermint oil and coloured with natural green clay. This is my partner's favourite. After trying it for the first time, he asked me: "Where did the peppermint soap of awesomeness come from?"

Cinnamon Red Clay: A spicy and cleansing bar coloured with red clay.

Moroccan Vanilla: Benzoin essential oil gives this bar a warm rich vanilla scent while the Moroccan lava clay promotes skin health through mineralization and detoxification.

Unscented Goat Milk: Goat's milk is known as a hydrating and therapeutic ingredient in quality soaps due to its high fat and protein content, as well as its vitamin A, D, E, and K levels. Shea butter is also added to this special bar to form a fantastic all natural soap for sensitive skin.

Lakewood Lye Handmade Soaps is working on more varieties, so we look forward to introducing even more scents soon!

Spring Time Vegan Coleslaw

Contributed by Leigh, Green Earth Organics member and The Tasty Vegan blogger. Check out her website for more delicious vegan recipes.

Did you get a huge head of cabbage in your veg-box and now can't figure out how to convince the kids to eat it? Coleslaw has the magic ability to hide all kinds of nutritious things without anyone even noticing so whip up some of this springtime vegan coleslaw and, voila! that cabbage, bag of carrots, and plethora of apples will be gobbled up in no time.

A food processor with a shredder, or a mandolin or grater will make things a lot easier when making coleslaw so dig yours out of the back of the cupboard now if necessary.

15 minutes preparation (if you have a food processor it's so simple!).

INGREDIENTS

1/2 head of cabbage
3 reasonably sized carrots, topped and tailed
2 small apples or one large one, cored
4 Tbsp Earth Island Organic Vegenaise
Raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
1 1/2 tsp Simply Natural Dijon Mustard
Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon (or 1 tsp lemon juice)
Sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Feed the cabbage, carrots, and apples into the food processor until shredded or sliced to desired thickness. Test a little first to make sure your blade won't just turn them to mush... change the chopping setting if that happens!

Transfer the shredded vegetables and fruit to a large bowl and throw in the raisins or cranberries if using along with the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add a dash of salt to taste.

Easy! Now serve with freshly baked bread, piled high on baked potatoes, or use as a sandwich filling for the kids' lunches.

Breadcrumbed Barbeque Tofu Nuggets

Contributed by Leigh, Green Earth Organics member and The Tasty Vegan blogger. Check out her website for more delicious vegan recipes.

Perfect for a spring-time salad accompaniment with crunchy french bread, these breadcrumbed barbeque tofu nuggets are easy to make and all of the ingredients are available in your delivery!

15 minutes preparation; 30 minutes cooking time.

INGREDIENTS

1 package Soyganic Extra-Firm Tofu
3 Tbsp Organicville Original BBQ Sauce
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup breadcrumbs

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and have a large, shallow pyrex dish ready to place the nuggets in - use a light coating of olive oil to grease the dish.

Cut the tofu in half lengthwise, then into triangles to make about twenty isosceles 'nuggets'.

Mix the barbeque sauce and olive oil in a small dish. In a separate shallow dish, pour the breadcrumbs (to make your own, either blitz up a few slices of bread in a blender or make your own with fat, flour, salt, and herbs). Prepare to get a little messy.

Dip a tofu nugget into the sauce until coated and then roll it in the breadcrumbs until covered, then place it flat in the pyrex dish. Repeat with all other nuggets making sure to give them space in the dish so they brown nicely on all sides.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, flipping once halfway through baking to make the nuggets extra crispy.

Serve immediately and make extra for late night nibbles when you think no one's looking... Or, skewer the tofu nuggets, once coated, along with seasonal vegetables and barbeque for a crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside kebab.

Canada Water Week

A press release from the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, WWF, and Living Lakes Network Canada:

Canada Water Week challenges us to discover our water footprint

Good news: reducing water use is easier than you think

Canada Water Week is a celebration of water from coast-to-coast-to-coast, taking place from March 19 to 25, 2012 with special events for UN World Water Day on March 22. This year's theme is "Discover Your Water Footprint".

What is a water footprint? Well, the food we eat, the clothes we buy and the products we use are all embedded with something called virtual water (for example, the water used to grow the cotton for our jeans and t-shirts). When combined with the water we use in our homes, it adds up to create our entire water footprint.

So how big is your water footprint? According to a 2011 RBC/Unilever poll, Canadians consistently rank water as the country's most precious resource, yet we are among the highest consumers of water in the world. The average Canadian consumes nearly 6,400 litres of water every day, which, to put it in context, is more water than a daily 10-minute shower produces in two months. More than 90 per cent of that falls in the embedded water category, and the numbers may surprise you:

Coffee: It takes 1,100 drops of water to produce a single drop of coffee.

Car: It takes 400,000 litres of water to produce a new car. That's enough to ice eight NHL regulation-sized rinks.

Gardening: In the summer, municipal water use doubles. A typical lawn sprinkler running for one hour uses about the same amount of water as two five-minute showers, one load of laundry, two dishwasher cycles, and ten toilet flushes combined!

Wine: About 120 litres of water are used to create one 125-millilitre glass of wine. Most of this usage comes from grape production. Canada's Okanagan Valley uses about 13 billion litres of water a year to bring the region's wine to your table.

Hamburger: Take one all-beef patty from Alberta, one whole-wheat bun from the prairies, lettuce grown in Quebec, and tomatoes and cheese from Ontario, and you're looking at a recipe with a water footprint of about 2,400 litres.

So have we convinced you to give up your car, wine, and fast food? Don't worry, we're not asking you to. The good news is that there are lots of other ways you can reduce your water footprint and most are easier than you think.

"Everyone has a water footprint. There's no getting around that. What's important is that we become more aware of our whole water footprint," said Eric Mysak, Freshwater Conservation Analyst at WWF-Canada, "That way, we're better equipped to make choices about our consumption patterns that can have a positive impact on our rivers and lakes."

If you're thinking about renovating your bathroom, Tim Morris, Fresh Water Program Manager at the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, has this tip: "Make sure to look for the WaterSense label on toilets and fixtures. This will ensure you get a quality product that uses at least 20 per cent less water. Since toilets can account for almost 30 per cent of your indoor water use, switching to something more efficient can make a real difference."

Okay, so it sounds easy enough to conserve water but why is it important? If you think about it, water is a renewable resource, which means the water we're using now is the same water we'll be using a generation from now.

"Water may be a renewable resource but we still need to conserve it; reducing your household water use helps reduce the energy required to treat and supply water," said Kat Hartwig, Executive Director of Living Lakes Network Canada, "Getting involved in Canada Water Week is a great way to learn about what you can do to make a difference today and for decades to come."

In Canada, we have a lot to be thankful for. Our breathtaking rivers and lakes are the envy of the world. And now we have a week-long celebration called Canada Water Week during which we can pay tribute to this precious resource. To find out more, visit the Canada water week website.

Crisp Cornmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
Optional: 1/2 cup raisins, dried currants, or dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS

Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy. Add egg and vanilla or almond extract and beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, stirring to combine thoroughly. Stir in the optional raisins or other dried fruit.

Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Form the dough into one-inch balls and flatten each one with a fork. Place one inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are golden. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

Vegetarian Savory Cobbler

INGREDIENTS

For the biscuits:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp sea salt
5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup cream

For the collards:
2 Tbsp butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
3-4 pounds collard greens, thick stems removed and sliced into 1-inch ribbons
1/2 cup milk or cream
2 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water
One package smoked tofu, sliced lengthwise in three equal pieces and then sliced about 1/2-inch thick
Sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and red pepper flakes, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Make the biscuit dough: In a food processor, pulse flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, honey, and butter until the butter is in pieces about the size of small peas. Add the cream and pulse until it comes together in a dough. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough a few times until completely consistent and smooth. Roll the dough out to about 1-inch thick. Slice into square biscuits or use a round cookie cutter to make the biscuits. Place them on parchment paper on a baking sheet and refrigerate.

In a big, thick-bottomed pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions and garlic and saute, stirring constantly, until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant, about 8 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil.

Add the collard greens to the boiling broth in batches, stirring after each addition. Lower the heat and simmer for about thirty minutes, until the mixture is a bit reduced and collards are very tender.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir the milk or cream and the cornstarch slurry into the collard mixture, then allow it to simmer uncovered for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken up. Add the sliced tofu and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.

Pour the entire mixture into a large glass or ceramic baking dish. Lay the biscuits on top, with the corners overlapping if possible. Bake the dish in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes, until biscuits are deep golden brown and the collard mixture is bubbly.

Let the cobbler rest for 10 to 20 minutes before serving it up in warm bowls.