Jill's Delish Tangy Chick Pea Salad Recipe (Gluten-Free, Low Fat Vegan)

My friend Jill McKeever has a fantastic recipe for Tangy Chick Pea (Garbanzo Bean) Salad on her site at Simple Daily Recipes. My husband and I are eating Low Fat Vegan and trying to implement Dr. John McDougall's "Starch Solution" as well. I'm reading that book at present and am finding so many exciting facts that I didn't know-- such as you can eat tons of starches (potatoes, rice, corn, beans, quinoa, etc.) without gaining any weight IF you delete the fats and oils and too many processed foods from your recipe. Finding tasty recipes is key to keeping us "in" until we are over the period of fats withdrawal (whenever that happens!)

A delicious tangy chick pea salad open sandwich, thanks to the salad recipe from Jill McKeever at Simple Daily Recipes

Jill has made a great vid tutorial about the recipe that she gave me permission to use on here.  She will give you her recipe and I include my adapted recipe underneath it.  I have to say that this salad is every bit as much a hit in our house (there are only two of us who have sampled it so far) as it is in Jill's.  Just as she says, it is the kind of recipe that you can eat repeatedly and just enjoy it every time.  It actually reminds me of a cross between potato salad and egg salad in its flavour bursts and mouth appeal.  My husband is of German descent, so the combo of potato salad on an open face sandwich is irresistable.

Here is the video (look underneath for my recipe-- take notes for Jill's original of the recipe):

My adaptation of Jill's Tangy Chickpea Salad:

3-4 C. of Cooked Chickpeas (organic definitely work better/taste better to us)
2 T.         Dijon Mustard
2 T.         Bread and Butter Relish (check the labels for crap you don't want like fructose corn syrup)
6  drops   Liquid Smoke (we have Hickory, Jill used Mesquite... whatever smoke should be tasty)
1/2 C.      Yellow Onion, chopped fine (a fairly small onion-- best not to put leftover onion in fridge)*
1 T.         Tahini (sesame seed butter)
1/2          Lemon, squeezed (and mixed together with Tahini)
4             Celery Sticks, fine chopped
1 1/2 T.   Parsley, chopped

My Method:

1. Mix together the Tahini & Lemon Juice, set aside
2. Mash Chickpeas in a large pan or bowl OR put chickpeas, dijon mustard, relish, the tahini/lemon mix, smoke, and parsley in the bowl of a food processor and process until just homogenous (same throughout).
3. Dump contents of the food processor into a large bowl.  Work in the chopped onions and celery.  
4. Put a lid on (or plastic wrap) and let sit in fridge for about an hour to let flavours kick each other around a bit.

*A sliced onion will "draw" toxins from the air and from deep inside the body-- why it makes such a great poultice.  If you use a plastic baggie to store it in, it will draw toxins from the plastic, apparently.  Put it into a glass bowl with a glass saucer to cover.

Try this tangy, lovely  chick pea delight and see if your family doesn't take after it like Jill's and mine!

I think uber-health conscious Dr. Neal Barnard would also agree with this particular recipe.  You can hear him talk about his new book "Power Foods for the Brain" on July 8th.  You can register (free) by going HERE and then clicking on this same image in the right sidebar.  He will be interviewed by sparkling Lani Meulrath, the Plant-Based Fitness Expert.  Great information and Great Giveaways during this teleseminar-- tell others about it too!

Keeping the Deer Out of Your Garden

Traditional Landscape by Sterling Landscape Architects; Designers SURROUNDS Landscape Architecture + Construction
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 You may have deer trespassing into your yard, hoping to get a meal around your patio. Or, as in the case of our son, you might have bunnies chomping up your strawberries (leaving the lettuces intact-- there goes that myth)or neighborhood dogs-without-boundaries bouncing through your tomatoes. What to do? What to do?

Well, traditionally, an elegant fence (like the one above) is an adequate barrier to roaming, intrusive critters.

Here are some suggestions to keep other critters out of your garden area:

Cats are usually drawn to a veggie or flower garden because of the loose soil that is easy to dig up and dispose of their feces.  Cat feces are not suitable to compost or dig in as fertilizer because they are carnivores, and as such, may harbour pathogenic bacteria and viruses in their feces that can cause illness for humans.

Cats can climb up over fences, unless you cap the tops of your fences with something like gutter-covers OR rig up something like coyote rollers, PV pipe suspended on wires.  You can see more about that idea here.

Both cats and deer don't like the scent of plants like rosemary or lavender.  Planting small "hedges" of either would be pleasant for humans and deterrent to the deer and felines.  Cats also do not like the scent of rue, and pennyroyal.  In fact, cats steer clear of the coleus canin ("scaredy cat plant") and citrus or citrus-scented plants like lemon thyme and lemon grasses.  Also in the smell-and-deter family is a product called "ShakeAway" that uses a glandular mix of predator urine, including coyote and bobcat, that can be shaken over the garden area.  Not sure if humans can smell this or not.  Because cats tend to return to the same ("comfortable") spot to defecate often, it is useful to leverage their distaste for wet ground by watering plants often in that area, and/or by washing down the area of cat urine as much as possible.

Cats apparently do not like getting stuff between their toes, or materials that they sense they might get their nails snarled up in.  Simply laying down something like chickenwire or birdblock on the ground and fastening with U clips-- or laying it over mulch-- will keep them off that area.  You can cut pouches out to allow your plants to grow.  Similarly, other prickly or ridged "mulch" will generally keep them away-- including rose and holly clippings, pine cones, bamboo skewers planted upwards, and the shards of eggshells.  They generally do not favour larger gravel stones (in flowerbeds for example).  They apparently also do not like human hair (a place to compost after a haircut) and there is some divergence of success with using teabags and coffee grounds to deter.

A step-up from using a water pistol to spray them when you see them readying to make a deposit, is a motion-detecting "scarecrow sprinkler" that throws a blast of water when nearby motion is detected.

I know that a small barking, cat-chasing dog can keep cats out of the garden (as long as she is around).  The same goes for crows, some years.

I have tried to represent the most humane methods of keeping cats and deer out of the yard.  Please don't use cayenne pepper (may be harmful), moth balls (most definitely toxic to cats and small children AND the soil that you are growing your food crops in), electric fencing, or any number of other nasty ways of getting expelling critters from your yard.  The most creative suggestion I came across was to plant a patch of catnip in close proximity to a sandbox.  It is quite likely that the cats will loll in the catnip-- make it their own pleasure haven-- and then do their business in the nearby sandbox.  Yes, you will have to clean up the feces from the sandbox, but you won't have to clean them out of your garden.

To get some ideas on how to humanely rid your garden of moles go HERE.

 

A Make-Ahead Charcoal Poultice

When I was a young girl I seem to remember my grandmother talking about "a poultice". To my ear it sounded like something to do with the "milk toast" that was part of Grandma's comfort food outlay when children were sick.

 I have no idea where the association came from between 'poultice' (A soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material or flour, applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation)and 'milk toast' (a soft, milky mass of white toast and warm milk, butter, and sugar applied to sick children to relieve them of hunger and boredom). But just recently I began to be interested in the idea of poultices again.

 That is not to say that before this current interest I haven't read a little about poultices, seen some simple ones demonstrated, and even tried my hand a messy one or two myself. I have. The operative word has always been "messy".

 A friend has been suggesting that I watch some videos by Aussie Naturopath, Barbara O'Neill. I finally began looking at them this week and I am fascinated-- both by the strong, petite O'Neill with her vibrant method of presenting about natural health, and by the content of her lectures at her Misty Mountain Health Spa.

 The video that has spoken strongest to me so far is the one about Poultices.