Yam, chickpea, and quinoa salad

We have had some glorious spring weather over the past week here in the Rockies. As always happens when spring arrives, my thoughts turn to salad. Specifically, grainy salads. I'm a little obsessed with quinoa and love the variety of salads that can be made with this one simple ingredient.

This current quinoa salad incarnation arose from the dried chickpeas that I bought at this month's 20% discount day at Nutter's. My friend Carrie talked me into trying dried chickpeas in an effort to reduce our grocery bills while on maternity leave. Using dried beans is very easy but to be honest, it is a bit of a pain. You need to plan ahead and start soaking your beans the day before you want to use them. Once you've soaked them for 24 hours, they need to be cooked on a slow boil for 40-60 minutes. (check out this website for more info on using dried chickpeas). Using dried chickpeas is MUCH cheaper than buying cans at the store and the sodium content is significantly reduced. I also found that the flavour was much better. Going forward, I think that I will use a mix of dried and canned beans as I don't think that I will always have the time needed to use dried.

Anyways, back to this salad…It's a hearty salad that stores really well in the fridge. It was adapted from  one of the Whitewater Cookbooks but I'm not sure which one. It's not a super fast salad to make but the effort is well worth the result.

Ingredients:

Dressing
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tsp honey
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/4 cup good olive or canola oil (I have been using Highwood Crossing lately)
Salt and pepper to taste

Salad
1/2 cup quinoa
1 large yam (about 1 1/2 cups), peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
2 x 14 oz cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds or pecans
1 cup spinach, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup feta, crumbled

Directions:
1. Whisk dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Toss chopped yams with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Spread on a cookie sheet and baked at 350F until just tender (about 30 mins).
3. Add quinoa and 3/4 cup cold water to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 mins on low. Fluff with a fork when done. Leave lid off to let cool.
3. Place chickpeas, red onion, sunflower seeds, spinach, parsley, and feta into a large bowl. Add cooled yams and quinoa.
4. Pour dressing over ingredients and mix gently until combined.
5. Store in fridge for up to a week.

The sesame seed search

A good friend (and my partner in crime when it comes to saving money on groceries!) is looking for help - she finds the price of sesame seeds in Canmore to be ridiculously high. I've tried to find sesame seeds for her at Costco and Superstore but I can never find them. Anyone know where to get a good deal on sesame seeds?!

The easiest way to save money at the grocery store

An alternate title for this post could be "The nerdiest thing that I know" because I'm going to tell you about the 'Scanning Code of Canada' (brace yourselves - this is exciting stuff!).

When I was a child, my mom was pretty diligent about managing our family's grocery budget. She would always check the receipt before she left the grocery store and she would often find errors on her bill. I have followed in my mom's footsteps, and like her, I often find that I have been overcharged on multiple food items (A rough guess would be that 25% of my grocery store bills have mistakes on them). And while both my mom and I would return to customer service to get the error corrected, I have since taken things a step further and found a way to make those mistakes work to my advantage. Enter, "Scanning Code of Canada".

The Scanning Code of Canada (as pictured above) states that when a customer is overcharged for an item, they are entitled to receive that item for free (up to a value of $10.00). Example:

Canned beans: Advertised price - $1.79/can
                      : Price you are charged - $1.99/can

Many cashiers will try to simply refund you the .20 cent difference. However, you are entitled to receive that can of beans for free. You will receive a refund for the price difference on any subsequent cans purchased.

Using the Scanning Code of Canada to your advantage requires a few techniques. 1) You must have some awareness of the cost of each item on your grocery bill. This can be difficult as it means remembering many prices. However, errors most commonly occur on sale items so, to start, pay closest attention to those. 2) You must check your receipt before you leave the store. It's easiest to get your money back if you act quickly as you are less likely to lose your receipt and/or forget the price of sale items. 3) You have to be willing to remind cashiers of their obligation to follow the Scanning Code. While the Code is voluntary, almost all stores in Canada adhere to it and often times, cashiers are simply not aware of the policy.

It may seem petty to use the Code to help save money on your grocery bill but groceries often take up a huge portion of a household budget and I'm a firm believer in saving money wherever I can!