Loving Chickpeas

A monkey full of Chickpeas

   In the past year I've started to really enjoy chickpeas. I've had them before, served cold in a salad and was not impressed. I've also had humus, which I did enjoy, but it seemed so different from chickpeas straight up. My husband, however, loves Indian food, especially Chana Masala, and has shared some with me at restaurants and I liked it! But I didn't really think about cooking with chickpeas myself until Theo started eating solid food and needing more protein. Theo (like everybody else, I guess) enjoys variety... and in true toddler style, what he likes one day he does not like the next.  While he usually enjoys different meats, sometimes he doesn't want any! So, we resort to peanut butter, almond butter, eggs, cheese, lentils, and chickpeas. 

Theo loves his chickpeas!

And he loves the camera...

   Here are two easy, healthy, and delicious chickpea recipes. They are not Indian or Moroccan, though they share a some flavours; they are more of a fusion cuisine (and by-the-way, if you enjoy Indian-fusion food and are in the Toronto area, you should check out 5th Elementt). Both recipes are vegan if you use olive oil instead of butter. Sorry, no recipe photos, as I wrote this after finishing eating the leftovers...

Tomato & Apple Chickpea Curry

Note: This first is loosely based off this Martha Stewart recipe, though the final product is very different, and much simpler. I've added cinnamon and omitted the yogurt, ginger, garlic, cilantro, lemon juice, and used less curry powder. I also prefer golden delicious apples.

Total prep and cook time is about half an hour

*Best if made in a large, shallow, sauce pan with a lid.

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

~1 TBS. butter or oil

2 large tomatoes, chopped

2 large apples, chopped (I use Golden Delicious)

1/2 onion, chopped

1 TBS. curry powder

1 Tsp. ground cinnamon

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.) Heat butter or oil in pan, fry chickpeas and onions until the latter golden

2.) Add tomatoes and apples, stir for a few minutes at medium heat.

3.) Stir in curry powder, cinnamon, and salt and pepper

4.) Put the lid on your pan and let the flavours merry, keeping at medium heat. Check and stir occasionally until the apples are tender.

Serve with rice or couscous; I like to serve it with Basmati rice prepared with spinach (boil half a package of frozen spinach in with your rice)

Cinnamon Coconut Chickpeas

Total prep and cook time is about twenty minutes- half an hour (depending on how long your rice or couscous takes).

*Any old frying pan will do.  

Ingredients:

1 TBS  butter or oil if using onions, 1-2 Tsp for just the chickpeas

1 can of chickpeas rinsed and drained

1 can of coconut milk 

1 cup of peas (fresh or frozen)

1/2 onion (optional)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2-1 tsp ground coriander 

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1.) Heat butter or oil in pan, fry chickpeas and onions (if desired) until onions are golden, or for ~3 minutes

2.) Pour in the coconut milk, and stir in the peas. Bring to a boil.

3.) While still bubbling, stir in the cinnamon, coriander, and salt. Turn the temperature to low, and keep warm, stirring occasionally until ready to serve.

Serve with rice or couscous. Works well with baked or sauteed cinnamon & brown sugar apples and pears as a side.

Enjoy!

-J.L.

Farewell Apartment Living

"Little Bird on Top of the World" c. J.L 2012

  We did it! We moved from our townhouse-style apartment to our new house with our 16 month old, and he settled in so easily! He had no night wake-ups during the transition period, and no extra tears or clinging while settling in. The packing, process, however, was hard for him. He managed well enough, but one day he clung to his favourite teddy bear, "Deedee," and walked mournfully chanting "bye-bye Deedee, bye-bye Deedee." So sweet and sad. He and I had a long heart to heart chat after that about how he'd be keeping Deedee with him, how all the other toys we'd packed away would be coming to the new "house home" (as opposed to the "apartment home") with us, and he would get to open the boxes there. 

   The move itself went smoothly, and we were fully unloaded by mid-afternoon, much earlier than expected! We felt so blessed by all the friends and family who helped, both with the move and with painting beforehand (David had seven or so guys helping move, and his parents came in from two hours out of town just to drive the truck and help with Theo! My parents were away that weekend, but they babysat a lot while we painted, my dad helped install some of our light fixtures, and they made meals for us. We are so loved and our families are amazing!).

   It has since been two and half weeks; after the first week almost everything was unpacked, artwork hung, lawn mowed, and house cleaned. We still have a long list of various housework items to do (paint touch-ups, more seemingly never-ending baby-proofing, etc...), but we are feeling settled. We are all loving our new home and I will share some photos later. But I wanted to reflect on a few of the things we'll miss about our apartment and apartment living in general.

   The biggest thing that I am sad to leave behind is a place so full of memories. I know that the memories come with us, but the place is so tied to them. That was our third apartment in 4 years of marriage, but the first where we lived for a year or longer (three years, in the end): a home full of visiting friends and alone-time as a couple. It is where I had all of my strange pregnant cravings and emotions, where I hid in bed out of unsolicited disgust at the hamburgers in the kitchen (I didn't go near ground beef for about three months), and where Theo would dance in my stomach to the sound of David's Mario Karting. It is where my water broke in the middle of the night, and where I laboured until mid-morning (I had a hospital birth, but was only in the hospital for about an hour before he was born and about three hours afterwards). It is where Theo spent his first night, and we as new parents unsure what to do with him took turns staying up that whole first night to watch over him. It is where Theo had his first few midwife visits and was first bathed in a tub in our living room. It is where Theo pulled off his own umbilical cord (quite happily!) after five days, and where he first smiled, babbled, scooted, crawled, sat-up. stood, walked, and talked.  So many memories! Such a happy home.

   There are also other, more tangible, things I'll miss about our apartment: the forest behind it that our patio walked out onto (full of squirrels that we all liked watching, and who'd cling to our screen if i cooked with peanuts), our giant bedroom, the convenience of the location (stores and food across the street, the library a five minute walk away), and the feeling of safety in numbers that apartments provide. I'm still getting used to the new sounds and night-time creaks of our house and the fact that we are alone in our building.

   Of course, there are many more things I love about this house and I infinitely prefer it to our apartment (otherwise, why move?). But I want to remember that home as the special place it was for us. It does not take a house to have a house to have a home.

-J.L.