6 Friday, February 17, 2017 brooklintowncrier.com Plant-Based Eating by Sheree Nicholson In love with easy I love easy, I love simple, and I love homemade food. But cooking for a family can challenge all those loves. We need to find the right balance between homemade dinners, rushing to children's activities, and knowing when to just eat take out. Keeping your meals simple and planning in advance can go a long way to reducing your "what's for dinner" stress. Some of my favourite simple meals are rice bowls. On the weekend, I steam a big pot of white or brown rice and then store it for the week. When you come home at night, it's easy to heat up the rice and then top the bowls with whatever you're in the mood for. For example, you can steam veggies, sauté some organic extra firm tofu cubes in a bit of coconut oil, or chop up a bit of kale. I sometimes buy the pre-made kale salad mix at Costco but skip the dressing. I drop handfuls of the salad mix into rice bowls or on pasta. It's a super simple meal because the rice is already cooked so I'm basically just adding whatever I have on hand. I top my rice bowls with mashed avocado for the good fats, a flavoured hummus or maybe an easy homemade sauce. Rice bowls are great because they can be topped with different things. You can place a big bowl of rice in the centre of the table and surround it with the toppings and sauces so that everyone can make their own bowl. If you have a diehard meat eater, they can top theirs with meat. You can also substitute the rice for any grain, including quinoa. The possibilities are endless. I would just follow these rules: a base grain, a protein topping such as tofu or beans, a raw and/or cooked green, something yummy like hummus or guacamole, and sauces such tamari or the peanut sauce below. The final sauce really adds the flavor to the bowl and this is one of my favourites. You can easily substitute almond butter if there is a peanut allergy in your family. It whips up quickly and doesn't need to be heated. And if you're rushing and looking for great healthy take out in Brooklin, my new hang out is the Copper Branch on Baldwin, wholesome plant-based foods that you can eat in or take out. Ginger Peanut Sauce 1/2 cup salted natural peanut or almond butter 1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce (GF for gluten free eaters) 2-3 Tbsp brown sugar or maple syrup (add to taste) 1/2 lime, juiced 1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger (optional) hot water to thin Instructions: Prepare peanut sauce by adding all ingredients, except water, to a mixing bowl and whisking. Add hot water 1 Tbsp at a time and whisk until desired consistency is reached (should be pourable but thick). Set aside. Sheree's Hack: Busy? It's okay to buy pre-chopped kale or veggies to save some time. 412 Petition Sent to Minister As reported in our Jan. 20 issue, Adrian Piccolo was collecting signatures on an online petition to remove the tolls on the new Highway 412. Last week, he did indeed send it to Minister of Transportation Steven del Luca and copied MPPs Lorne Coe (Whitby-Oshawa), Joe Dickson (Ajax-Pickering) and Jennifer French (Oshawa). The petition had 5906 signatures collected from July 10, 2016, to Feb. 7, 2017. Piccolo's email to the Minister included a 74-page PDF of comments from Durham residents explaining their reasons, and in some cases expressing anger, for the route to be toll-free. The only Whitby councillor to sign the petition was Ward One's Rhonda Mulcahy although Whitby council as a whole has expressed to the Minister its support of the removal of tolls. Last December, the Town of Whitby passed a motion to send the Minister a request to keep the road toll-free.