Reality Bites

Daily Vegetable Soup

2010-07-08T19:56:00.001-06:00

Soups are simple to make, yet so many recipes want you to think it's complicated. Seriously, it's water, salt and whatever else you happen to have on hand. How hard can it be?

Of course, water plus salt just makes for something to boil spaghetti in. It doesn't have much nuance. So the next step is to throw stuff in the water and boil it until it gives up. You can eat it all, or sieve it and drink the broth.

The step after that is to brown some of the things you are going to add to your water and salt. You can also roast things, dice things, ferment things and generally cavort with all and sundry. Some of these steps add flavor, some are questionable.

The flavor profiles can be very simple. Carrots, salt and pepper. Chicken boiled with celery and onion. Cream and broccoli. As long as there's enough salt, you are fine.

Of course, we are all being admonished to watch our salt intake. I think about it every time I inhale a bag of Doritos. Nacho Cheese. Homemade broth recipes usually ask for about 1 teaspoon per quart of liquid. The more vegetables and herbs you use, the less salt you can get away with. Lemon juice, wine and sherries or ports can also help you add flavor when you cut sodium.

The recipe following cuts the salt a bit by diluting the broth with water. The carrots and yam are sweet and only need a bit of salt to satisfy. Coriander and pepper add another flavor dimension and fresh parsley strewn on top can add even more flavor. Plus, the amount of vegetables in this get a couple of servings in by lunchtime.

Yam and Coriander Soup
Makes 2 servings
Takes 30-40 minutes to make

1/2 onion, about 1/2 cup diced
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 yam, about 1 cup diced
1 carrot, about 3/4 cup diced
1 stalk celery, about 1/2 cup diced
1 c. broth
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. crushed coriander
1 tsp. freshly grated ginger
Fresh, ground pepper
1 Bay leaf
1/4 tsp. salt
Protein product, such as meatballs or Morningstar patty (optional)
Fresh parsley or cilantro as wanted for garnish

Sauté the onion in the oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan. Add the diced vegetables and stir until coated. Sauté a few minutes, then add the broth, water and all the spices. Simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove Bay leaf and blend, with an immersion blender. Taste and add salt as necessary.

Cut protein product into bite-sized pieces and add to soup. Warm through. Put soup in Thermos container or serve with garnish.

P.S. Serve this soup without meatballs as an accompaniment to a half a sandwich or as a first course. Two and 1/4 vegetable servings per person.

The other half of the yam was grated, cooked in 2 teaspoons of butter like hashbrowns until soft and a little caramelized. Then I added two, beaten eggs and some cheese on top and had incredible, sweet/salty scrambled eggs (not pictured). How to make yam or sweet potato hashbrowns here.

Baked Chicken Fingers - Lowfat but still Breaded

2010-06-30T12:03:00.000-06:00

If you followed Jamie Oliver's reality show, Food Revolution, you saw in one segment how Jamie made chicken patties for the kids out of nasty bits and bones of chicken all blended together and then fried like a hamburger. Even after seeing the gross stuff go into the mixture, the kids wanted the patties. Breaded, fried foods are now programmed into our culture and our deep needs. Curse you, McDonald's!

These Baked Chicken Fingers are so different from the processed, deep fried kind that it's hard to imagine that they taste better, but they do. Breading the outside of the white meat keeps them moist, even when baked, and the curry is a nice addition.

As with any restaurant knock-off, they take a little time to prepare, but you can make a big batch and freeze them for later. We use them, sliced, on top of salad or dipped in peanut or teriyaki sauce. The mango catchup they included in the recipe works great, too.

Our recipe is a little different than the one in Shape Magazine. Rick likes coconut, so we threw in some of that, and omitted the brown sugar with very little problem.

Baked Chicken Fingers

1 1/2 c. crushed corn flakes
1/2 c. dried, shredded, unsweetened coconut
Dash salt
Ground black pepper
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 - 2 eggs, beaten
1 to 2 pounds chicken breast tenders or boneless breasts, cut into 1–inch strips

Directions

Note: I am always vague on the amount of salt, because many people are on sodium restricted diet. Adding salt isn't always necessary, for instance, the corn flakes already have salt added and the curry powder and black pepper add a lot of flavor. Also, I use the crushed Kellogg's corn flake crumbs you can buy at the store. They have some added sugar, but not a lot (3 grams per 6 tablespoons).

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix together cereal, coconut, salt and pepper, curry powder and oil.

Arrange three shallow containers, one with the brown rice flour, one with the beaten eggs, and one with the crumb mixture.

Individually dip chicken tenders into flour, then eggs (letting excess run off), then breading mixture.

Place the chicken fingers on a cake rack to dry for about 15 minutes while you finish the rest. Arrange breaded chicken pieces on the cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until crisp and brown all over.

Serve while hot, cool and freeze the leftovers (they don't stick together in the bag).

No-Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

2010-06-08T16:07:00.000-06:00

Rick's B-day was on Friday and I baked him a batch of his favorite cookies*. His mom had the recipe from somewhere and gave it to me and I've modified it a bit since then. I didn't like them the first time I tried them, but this time I thought they were pretty tasty. That just goes to show that you should try a food many times over many years before you give up on it.

I left out a few (like for Santa Claus) on a plate and froze the rest so he can have dessert for the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, we keep the pantry stocked with HeavenScent Windmill Cookies, which are pretty good, if a bit dry.

The sweetness comes from the fructose in the orange juice, but you might want to add some Stevia, which keeps its sweetness when baked, if you are used to more sugar. Fructose is used a little differently in the body than sucrose even though they are both "sugars", but the main advantage here is that there is not very much fructose (only about 30 grams from the O.J., less than 1 gram per cookie) in the batch of cookies.

Of course, there's also the coconut (about 30 grams sugars in 1/2 cup) and the raisins (60 grams sugars in 1/2 cup) which bring the sugar content of each cookie to about 4-5 grams. That's as much as in one (sucrose) sugar packet. Contrast that to a regular oatmeal cookie recipe with at least 1 1/4 cup of sucrose (table sugar), which weighs 250 grams plus 1 cup of raisins (120 grams). About 3:1.

No-Sugar Cookies

1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unsweetened, dried coconut
1 c. uncooked rolled oats
1/2 c. pecans or walnuts
1/2 c. raisins
1 c. orange juice
1/2 c. oil
1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Beat the orange juice, oil and egg together, then mix into the dry ingredients. Let the mix sit for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken up.

Use about 2 teaspoons of dough for each cookie and bake at 350°F for 10 - 15 minutes.

*He also got a burger and fries (from the Deli) and a set of tires for the Taurus.

Quick and Easy Meatballs

2010-05-26T15:57:00.001-06:00

Rick asked this morning, "And what are we having on top of our salad?" Meaning what protein product would keep us from being grouchy all afternoon. Of course, it's the meatballs I baked and froze a couple days ago and I watched a smile spread over his face.

This is a new discovery for Rick. It was with trepidation that I started adding cold meatballs to the salad at all, thinking that he would object because they were new and therefore "uncouth." I underestimated him. They are the nuggets of heaven and can be broken up, sliced or served whole on salads or warmed in the soup. As a matter of fact, a couple meatballs added to the "Vegetarian Pea Soup" last week made the soup very acceptable to the family carnivore.

I made the meatballs at first when I did not have enough meatloaf mix for another mini-meatloaf. I baked them in a 8 x 8 inch dish, not touching each other, for about 25 minutes, then packed them in a ZipLock when they were cool. Six meatballs were enough for two lunches. I have now graduated to making 40 meatballs at a time on two cookie sheets using about 4 pounds of ground round.

Because I bake them and don't fry them, the cook time is hands off and the fat runs off. I don't put them in a sauce, so far we've used them up quickly and no freezer burn. They are discreet portions, too, good for a diet.

As you can see, I'm a big fan of oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs to stretch the beef and help it stay together. I also like the Worcestershire sauce but like to stay away from catchup, so here is my tasty recipe. Any meatloaf recipe will do, though.

Meat-a-balls-ah

Makes 40, 20 lunch servings

1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 c. water
8 oz. tomato sauce
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
4 eggs
1 tsp. dried basil and oregano total
1 T. dried parsley
1/2 - 1 tsp. salt
Ground black pepper
4 lb. ground beef

Mix the oatmeal and water in a bowl and microwave for 1 - 2 minutes. Cool slightly. Place in a 6 quart bowl. Add the tomato sauce and the other ingredients through pepper. Mix well. Add the hamburger and mix until all ingredient are well distributed.

Line a cookie sheet with non-stick foil or spray or grease lightly. Form 2 ounce meatballs and place evenly spaced on the cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes or until brown.

Cool completely, then freeze in a plastic bag.

Vegetarian Pea Soup

2010-05-21T20:24:00.001-06:00

This vegetarian pea and lentil soup recipe is lifted straight from 101 Cookbooks blog. Heidi has many lovely soup ideas and, I am always curious to see if the food shown actually tastes good, too. The Coconut Red Lentil Soup recipe she made is certainly a winner. I made half the recipe shown and will show you my changes below but be sure to take a look at her original recipe for more direction.

What I found interesting about this vegetarian pea soup is that it is nothing without the coconut milk. I tasted it along the way. Ginger, salt and curry powder weren't making my heart sing, but I finally added the coconut and everything started to make sense. I don't know if it is the fat in the coconut milk that solubilises more of the flavor components but it is an indispensable ingredient.

I also liked the color scheme. Yellow peas, red lentils, orange carrot, red tomato paste, golden raisins, with a little green to make sure you noticed the oranges. Somehow that grouping just made me happy thinking about it. Not to mention that orange vegetables are full of lycopenes and other wonderful nutrients.

Since this soup must simmer for more than an hour, it is not a lunch soup, unless reheated. I don't know how it freezes yet, either.

Vegetarian Pea Soup with Lentils and Coconut Milk

Makes 4 bowls

1/2 c. yellow split peas
1/2 c. red lentils
3 1/2 c. water
1 carrot, diced
1 T. grated ginger, divided
1 tsp. - 1 T. curry powder (depends on taste and how hot the curry is)
3 - 4 green onions (or onions thinned from the garden), sliced thin
2 T. golden raisins
2 1/2 T. tomato paste
1 5 oz. can of coconut milk
1 tsp. salt

Rinse the peas and lentils. Place in a pan and add the water, carrot and half the ginger. Bring to a boil and simmer 1 - 2 hours (Note: Heidi writes 30 minutes, but at my elevation and with older peas, no way) until peas are soft.

Saute the onions a few minutes in the butter. Add the rest of the ginger and the raisins and sprinkle the curry over it and brown a little. Stir in the tomato paste. Add to the soup along with the coconut milk and salt and cook for at least 20 minutes or until ready to serve.

Dipping into Lunch

2010-04-27T13:25:00.000-06:00

Driving home last night I saw a new, handwritten sign, "Gourmet Greens and Fresh Eggs for Sale". I gathered up my pennies and planned on stopping at Fresh and Wyld on the way back into town but I didn't have to. Out by the road one of those old, large ice chests was hiding behind the sign with a price list taped to its lid. Inside, bags of washed baby greens, a couple dozen eggs and some bok choy were hanging out, keeping cool. A coffee can with "Pay Here" on the lid completed the system.

I chose some mixed greens ($3 for 4-5 ounces) and a cabbage ($1 a piece) and we had a very fine salad last night instead of the FMVs (frozen, mixed vegetables) we usually have on Mondays. This morning I decided I needed another vegetable in my lunch bucket and washed and chopped some of the outer leaves of the bok choy and sauteed them. Dressed in an Asian-sesame sauce, they cooled off nicely in time for lunch. I packed them separately, so it wouldn't wilt the greens.

It looks like a spicy mesclun mix with red leaf, mizuna, some bok choy and red speckled lettuce.

Bok Choi Sauté
Makes about 1 cup

2 c. chopped bok choi (or other cabbage) keep stem and leaf cuts separate (1/2 head of bok choi)
1/2 c. chopped celery
1 T. walnut oil or canola oil
1 tsp. agave syrup
1 T. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. shoyu soy sauce
A few drops of toasted sesame oil
1 T. toasted sesame seeds

Heat oil in a pan and add chopped stems of cabbage and celery. Sauté for two or three minutes, then add the chopped leaves.

Mix the agave, vinegar, ginger and soy sauce and add to the pan. Cook until almost dry. Drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with seeds.

You can eat this hot or cold, it tastes great either way.

Basic, Wholegrain Muffin Recipe

2010-04-02T10:37:00.000-06:00

I started by making the St. Lucia Muffins from 101 Cookbooks but, since I shy away from white flour and sugar (in this blog) I changed it up a bit. I have never worked much with saffron, so I am not sure what they contributed to the muffins I made. The whole grains are a bit brown and overshadow the yellow quite a bit. The taste was nice, but what part of the taste was the saffron? I dunno.

What I did end up making was a really good textured muffin that I think could be adapted to a wide variety of flavors and add-ins. So leave out the saffron, if you like. It's a bit of an extra step anyway. And enjoy a recipe that makes an even dozen, with brown rice and whole wheat pastry flours and very little sweetener - just like muffins used to be!

Basic, Wholegrain Muffin Recipe
makes one dozen muffins

(1 tsp. saffron threads, toasted and ground with 1 tsp. cane sugar) - optional

3 T. (unsalted) butter, melted and cooled
1 c. soured milk or buttermilk, lukewarm
2 medium eggs (108 grams)
2 T. water

1 c. whole wheat pastry flour (125 grams)
3/4 c. brown rice flour (100 grams)
2 T. date sugar
1 T. evaporated cane sugar or coconut sugar (or more date sugar)
1 1/2 tsp. Clabber Girl baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 (or more) T. chopped almonds

1/2 c. raisins (60 grams)

Mix the liquids together well. (Make soured milk by placing 4 tsp. white vinegar in a measuring cup and filling to the 1 cup mark with milk)

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Add the wet to the dry and mix with 20 to 30 strokes. Add the raisins in right at the end and incorporate.

Fill 12, buttered muffin cups. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

New Lunch Recipe from Laurel's Kitchen

2010-04-01T16:59:00.001-06:00

I am not a fanatic by any means, but every now and then I go through my vegetarian cookbooks to see if there is anything I can make. Most of the recipes look disappointing or, as Rick puts it, have too much garlic powder in them. That was old school: the 70s and 80s when I was first dabbling in "Diet for a Small Planet" and the "Deaf Smith Country Cookbook" used far fewer fresh ingredients and didn't have any pizazz. You really had to want to be a vegetarian back then. Anyway, "Diet" is flat out awful as a cookbook and "Deaf Smith" has only yielded one rice and egg casserole so far.

But I am becoming more experimental in my old age and so I look at these recipes now as jumping off spots. They never seem quite complete without at least a little tweaking.

I was home today and able to make a hot lunch instead of a cold salad. I chose a quinoa recipe from Laurel's Kitchen because 1) I know Rick will eat quinoa and 2) I had all the ingredients.

It turned out well, even though I had to add several spices to the mix. I used some frozen, mixed peppers and onions, too, making this a 20 minute dish if your quinoa is cooked already. I didn't have any packages frozen, so I made the amount she suggested, but only used two cups and froze the rest.

I divided it between two thermoses to keep warm, because I still had to go to work and get payroll done before I had lunch with Rick. It stayed warm for almost two hours, although something as fluffy as this does not hold the heat like soup will.

Laurel's Quinoa
2 servings

1 T. oil
6 oz. (1/2 bag) of Kroger's frozen Pepper and Onion Mix
2 c. cooked quinoa (2/3 c. dry, cooked in 1 1/3 c. water)
Ground, black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 c. toasted, slivered almonds
Cilantro or parsley leaves
Salt to taste or a mirin/soy sauce mix to sprinkle on the quinoa right before eating

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the frozen vegetables (you can use 1 to 2 cups of fresh, chopped vegetables instead) and cook until soft and fragrant. Add the quinoa, then spice to taste. Cook and brown the contents for 5 minutes or more. Add the toasted almonds, stir and pack into lunch containers.

Chop the cilantro or parsley and pack along separately.

Mix 1 tablespoon mirin with 1 teaspoon shoyu or regular soy sauce and pack separately for more flavor.

Rick really liked the smell and taste of this little lunch (with muffin). Not too filling, just enough.

My Salad Rules - How to Build a Salad for Work

2010-03-31T15:12:00.000-06:00

Sounds a bit militant, doesn't it? I'm actually not. In fact, I break these rules (the "Salad Rules") all the time, even in this photo. Rules can help, though, if you are feeling stuck. Or if you are just starting to take your lunch to work. Bleary-eyed at 6 am is a bad time to be making autonomous decisions. You need a routine and to stick to it. So I start with these simple standards:

3 cup container
5 plus 3
2 ounces of protein
something fun
salad dressing on the side

I like the GladWare rectangular containers, which hold about three cups (24 ounces). They can be washed in the dishwasher and used many times before they break. They are also inexpensive.

Five plus three are the numbers of things I want in my salad, five raw things and three cooked/pickled or dried things. For instance: lettuce, radish, carrot, spinach and tomato plus chicken, sunflower seeds and marinated artichoke hearts.

The chicken is also my protein, I aim for 2 to 3 ounces, and the artichoke hearts are my fun thing - something I look forward to eating. I don't always look forward to eating Swiss chard, but I love olives, raisins, feta cheese, those sorts of things. Your fun things will be different.

The numbers 5 plus 3 were meant to create interest. You can make an interesting salad on 3 plus 2, too, but fewer than that and all you have is lettuce and tomato.

Today's lunch has seven plus two: lettuce, spinach, carrot, beet, jicama, green onions and parsley. You don't have to have equal amounts, not all things loan themselves to a full serving (like parsley). The two cooked things are chicken and cottage cheese (not shown).

I pack them all in an Igloo cooler (cheap) with a real fork, a snack and a dessert, if I have one on hand. I like to bake cakes and wrap individual pieces in plastic and freeze. Snack puddings are another stand-by.

I try not to fill more than half the container with lettuce or leafy stuff. There's only so much of that you can tolerate in one sitting. Quarter cup to half cup portions of the other vegetables are a good idea on top of that. A half a tomato or celery stick, chopped, and an ounce of cheese (or 1/4 cup of grated cheese). A tablespoon of seeds or raisins, one or two artichoke hearts or five olives. Keeping the numbers realistically small helps you enjoy your lunch, because nothing overwhelms completely. It also helps those food dollars stretch if you don't dump the whole can of olives in the box.

If your lettuce is washed, a practiced lunch-maker can have the lunches ready in 10 minutes. If you are grating or chopping many things, or making a fancy salad dressing, it can take up to 30 minutes, especially with the washing up. It is worth it, though, to not have to resort to a fast food meal and to have eaten several vegetable servings before dinner!

Making Soup for Lunch

2010-03-17T16:05:00.000-06:00

There have been many people writing many words on why soup for lunch is a good idea. I do get tired of salad all the time and soup is a great way to eat vegetables in large amounts. Another reason is that if you don't have a lunch you're really looking forward to eating, chances are you will be swayed by the group that is going out to a restaurant. And that stinks - it hurts your waist, your wallet and your productivity. By the time the group is assembled, drives there, waits and drives back, you could be back at your desk and leaving work in time for Oprah (kidding).

So to be strong, the food for lunch has to be as tempting as something you would buy at a restaurant. - Or almost.

I'm lucky because I can't leave my station. So, if I am hungry, I have to eat what I brought. But I still like it to be appetizing. I've had good luck with homemade:

Rice bowls with teriyaki or peanut sauce.
Vegetarian sushi wraps (yes, really!)
Frozen casseroles, packaged for work - chili and rice or smothered burritos, for instance
Fresh soups with crackers
Salads with thinly sliced meat on top

I also like the idea of Bento, although I haven't had time (organization) to try it. Note that I never do sandwiches. They are soggy, uninspiring messes by the time they spend a few hours in the lunchbox. I used to make my own veggie fillings and carry them separately, but I haven't done that since I left Germany.

Today's picture is of my favorite way to carry soup. I've tried a number of thermoses, but the stainless steel Thermax (by thermos) keeps my food hot. That way I don't have to microwave (less smell), no worries about plastic seeping into the hot food and they are leak proof. Keep their edges clean by using a canning funnel when filling.

Tomato Hamburger Soup
a simple soup made with the vegetables on hand
Serves 2, 32 ounces

1 tsp. butter
1/4 c. chopped onions
1 c. small dice carrots
1/2 c. diced celery (1 stalk)
1 T. diced, fresh jalapeno
2 c. broth
1 eight oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 c. cooked quinoa
1/2 c. cooked and crumbled hamburger
1/8 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. dried basil
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion and carrots in the butter until onion is fragrant and limp. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until vegetables are soft, 20 to 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. You could add a little sweetener (about a teaspoon) to round out the flavor.

I make my quinoa and hamburger in large batches and freeze them in zip-lock bags. You can break off approximately 1/2 cup and let it thaw in the soup, if you wish.

Divide hot soup between two, 16 oz. thermoses.

Food for Thought

2010-03-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

Just talked to a friend who told me about this experience:
He stopped drinking entirely for a month to see if his cholesterol numbers would drop. At the end of the month, he had his fasting blood checked at a health fair.

His total cholesterol dropped from over 120 to 90. His LDL stayed almost the same.
His serum (?) cholesterol dropped 50 points.
His fasting glucose was down too.

Just saying...

Cabbage and Potato - How About This Soup?

2010-03-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

I posted this Cabbage Potato Soup on my German Food site because it has cabbage, leeks and caraway in it. It also happens to be vegetarian and healthy and takes only 30 to 40 minutes to make. This is a great way to use the other part of the cabbage after you are sick of coleslaw for lunch.

Chicken Wings - Eat In, Not Out

2010-03-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

I always disliked the chicken wings Rick would buy in the frozen food section at the store or, on occasion, order in a restaurant. Greasy blobs of fatty skin and lots of strings. And breading. Breading can be delicious, but this stuff was repulsive. And where was the meat?

But Rick kept pining for them and I found raw wings on sale one day for 79 cents a pound so I brought them home. I had to be educated on how to prepare them (cut off the spiny tip - discard - then cut remainder at the joint to create a drum and flat piece) and looked for a recipe on the internet. I found one close to home. American Food chef John at americanfood.about.com has several, but I chose the plain recipe for Buffalo Chicken Wings with his amazing step by step instructions.

These wings are baked and you make three dozen at a time. I bagged and froze them in portions (reheat in oven) and the first time through, I would have cottage cheese or some other leftovers while Rick ate his beloved wings. No skin off my teeth. Then I tried one of the homemade ones that I had cooked and I was hooked.

They had much more meat than the grocery store kind, the skin was slightly crispy and the coating was minimal but tasty. They probably have less salt and fat than the manufactured kind, although they are certainly not the healthiest food ever.

I like that you can make them and freeze them, so, although they are a bit fiddly, you can enjoy several times from one cooking session. Yesterday we bought 10 pounds of wings, which stretched over three cookie sheets. We had to bake them in batches. If you keep with 5 pounds of wings (much more manageable), you will end up with about 3 1/2 dozen wings, or three meals for two people. Save the wing tips and use them to make broth.

I also used brown rice flour instead of regular flour with good results.

Serve these wings with oven fries or Tater Tots, or to complement the vegetarian soup here.

See John's recipe for Buffalo Chicken Wings here.

Green Soup with Ginger

2010-02-25T20:05:00.001-07:00

When I saw this recipe I thought, "There's no way this can taste good. I have to try it." Well, that's just who I am. I do like ginger and I do really want to improve my intake of dark greens, so why not?

101 cookbooks is a very nice blog and the only gripe I have with it is its take on time. As in, everyone has enough of it. I don't. I'm also not a vegetarian and would really like to cook for two people. Especially if I think I might have to throw it out (;-) So I wasn't sure that this recipe would be workable. But it took just over thirty minutes, even with caramelizing the onions.

Ginger is supposed to be very good for the digestion and relieve nausea. Now, I don't know if a nauseous person could eat this soup, but maybe you can eat it to lower your cholesterol or reduce inflammation or help a cold, all things that fresh ginger might help with.

So today, a day before I left town, I went shopping for all the ingredients, fresh chard, fresh spinach and the like. That way I knew I needed to cook it today or it would all be garbage on my return. Ginger, I keep on hand in the freezer, and peel and grate as necessary. It's very easy to grate frozen ginger and results in a nice pile of thin shavings. Either peel before with a sharp knife, or let the grater peel it (most of the peel stays behind and doesn't grate).

Then, I made half the recipe, so I wouldn't have to pretend I was going to eat the leftovers.

Green Soup with Ginger

Two large servings, 40 minutes from start to finish

1/2 to 1 c. chopped onion, about 1/2 medium
1 T. olive oil
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. (1/2 diced) sweet potato
1 c. chopped leek (1/2 large leek, white and part of the green)
1-2 c. chopped spinach
1-2 c. chopped chard
2-3 T. chopped, fresh ginger
1 c. broth
2-4 tsp. lemon juice
Ground black pepper

In a saute pan, caramelize the onion in the oil (about 1/2 hour). At the same time, dice the sweet potato small and place it in a pan with 2 cups of water. Add the other chopped veggies and the ginger and simmer for 1/2 hour or until all is soft.

Add the onions, broth and pepper and heat through. Squeeze lemon juice over and stir in to taste. Or add lemon to each bowl as you like.

Eat. Preferably with some homemade bread. As a non-greens eater, I thought this soup tasted good. Very good, even. Plus, you could add some chickpeas (cooked) for more protein or (gasp) some cooked meat.

A shaving of Parmesan wouldn't hurt, either.

Beef Stew in Red Wine

2009-11-14T18:55:00.002-07:00

The fog is rolling in, there's nowhere I have to be so I'm doing some chores and started a brilliant stew for supper. That is, I hope it's brilliant.

Stew is a funny thing. You don't usually think of serving it to guests, but Beef Daube and Oxtail Stew make it onto the menu at nice restaurants. Stew is a homey food. It can be just ok, or just outstanding.

What makes a stew outstanding? Perhaps the cut of meat. If you cook meat for hours, it better be flavorful, otherwise there won't be any flavor left. Choose a highly marbled roast such as a cross rib or rump roast and cut it into chunks yourself. The butcher never does anyone any favors when they unlovingly chop stew or goulash meat. They use the end pieces with the toughest membranes and you have to recut them anyway.

Or the mix of spices. Stew flavors can go in many directions. Everything should be finely chopped, to release as much flavor into the liquid as possible.

Time is another factor, long cooking blends the flavors, softens the meat and lets the onions and other vegetables dissolve into a magical sauce.

Stew is not a quick fix meal, but leftovers do freeze well. Make sure the liquid covers the meat completely before freezing in quart bags.

Beef Stew in Red Wine

2 1/2 lb. beef roast, such as blade, rump or cross rib

1/2 c. brown rice flour (or regular flour)

1 tsp. salt

Freshly ground pepper

5 T. oil

1 c. finely chopped onion

2 carrots, peeled and chopped fine

1 T. dried parsley or 3 T. fresh

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

1 c. red wine

3 c. stewed tomatoes

1/2 c. chicken broth

With a sharp knife, cut the roast into 1 inch pieces, trimming any fat or connective tissue that disturbs you. Stir together flour, salt and pepper. Coat the meat in the flour mixture.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Brown the meat in several batches, removing the cooked meat to a bowl. Tip: Deglaze the pan between batches if necessary, so that the flour does not burn. Collect in a bowl and add back to the stew before the long braise.

Add the last oil and brown the onions and carrots, adding the parsley and garlic after the onions have some color.

Add the meat back in with the rest of the spices. Deglaze with the wine and broth. Add the tomatoes and bring it all to a boil.

Place a lid on the pan and place in the oven at 325F for 3-4 hours.

Soft Chili Tacos

2009-09-29T16:26:00.001-06:00

A week ago we went to a party in an old factory-turned-house in town. It was a chili roasting party. Some people had contributed from their gardens and when we got there, a pile of chilis was being skinned and more were roasting over the coals. Together with a juniper fire in the pit (it was nippy) the smell of the chilis roasting was intoxicating. Sweet caramelization, pungent chili, sharp juniper. I could have inhaled all night.

Because we we a bit late, the hostess scraped together some potatoes, warmed a few corn tortillas in
butter and served us soft tacos, draped with a chili and sprinkled with cotija cheese, a mild, salty cheese from Mexico.

They were delicious. The tortillas weren't from the grocery store. They were softer and fresh. I asked her where they came from. Carbondale (an hour away), I was told. Next to Family Dollar on the highway. A family-owned carniceria and tortilla factory makes them.

Well, we bought some on Sunday, on the way back from Denver. We were the only English speaking people in the place and they were making flour tortillas at the time. They also had a small bakery section with pan dulce and fresh cheeses in a case. It smelled great in there, too. The corn tortillas weren't fresh, probably a day old. That's so much better than the mass production-type, however, that we aren't complaining.

Soft Tacos with Freshly Roasted Chili Peppers

As with most simple recipes, the quality of the ingredients becomes very important. Fresh or fresh-frozen chilies are great and are sold in the fall in the Southwest.

per taco

1-2 tsp. butter
1 6 inch corn tortilla
1 fire roasted chili pepper
2 T. potato chunks cooked in broth*
1 T. crumbled cotija cheese

Warm tortilla in melted butter on both sides in a frying pan. Arrange chili, potatoes and cheese over the tortilla. Serve.

*Potatoes in Broth

Makes several cups

5 medium potatoes
1 14 oz. can broth or 1 1/2 c. homemade broth

Peel and cut potatoes in 1 inch chunks. Place in a pan, pour broth over the potatoes (the broth should be about 1/2 way up the potatoes).

Bring to a boil and cook until done. When potatoes are soft, remove lid and cook until liquid is gone and potatoes are a little mushy around the edges. Add pepper or other spices, if you like.

Really Good BBQ Sauce

2009-09-21T05:00:00.001-06:00

I don't like the way everyone writes BBQ - as barbecue. Not only can I not spell it, why would I when something just as understandable is right there in front of my face? Inspired by a Better Homes and Garden recipe, we made oven BBQ'd chicken last night. It was spicy-hot, red and it omitted the 3/4 c. brown sugar (!) in the original.

Rick says this recipe is a keeper. As a matter of fact, we froze an extra cup of the sauce. It will be a great addition to a quick grilled chicken or pork fillet after karate workout.

Better BBQ Chicken
Makes 3-4 servings

1 onion, chopped fine
2 T. oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 T Hungarian paprika
1 T. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 c. apple juice or apple cider
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. molasses
6 oz. tomato paste (1 can)
2 carrots, grated
1 roasting chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 more tablespoons oil

Saute onion in oil for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and cook for about two more minutes. Add pepper, paprika, chili powder and crushed red pepper and saute one minute, stirring constantly. (Cut back on these spices to make it less hot/spicy.)

Add apple juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, tomato paste and grated carrots. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, letting it cook down and thicken.

Puree (for smooth sauce) if you like.

While sauce is simmering, brown chicken parts in a large frying pan in the extra oil. Lay the browned chicken in a 9x13 inch pan and brush with BBQ sauce. Cover with a piece of parchment paper and then with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 350F.

Remove foil and paper, brush with more sauce and bake for another 15 minutes or until done.

Potato Cheese Soup for One

2009-09-20T10:48:00.000-06:00

Cooking for one person can be a daunting task. Either you end up with a ton of leftovers, which is ok if you adore the recipe and have storage space, or you end up making nothing. Some people feel demoralized when they are faced with a dinner or breakfast for themselves. Frozen dinners look good on the outside, but leave much to be desired on the inside.

Faced with a day alone and no quick products in the freezer or pantry, I made a cheese and potato soup for myself which is very simple, has few ingredients, but
is the basis for a nice meal with no leftovers. Add a half a sandwich made with deli meats or peanut butter and you should be just fine for a few hours.

The soup does take a half hour to make, but since you can spend the simmering time browsing the internet, looking for a date, or vacation or reading these posts, the wait isn't too bad.

It has fresh ingredients which you likely have in your pantry everyday, so let's go look at what I made!

Potato Cheese Soup for One

1/2 tsp. oil
1-2 T. onion chopped fine
1 medium potato (4-5 oz.) peeled
1 carrot, peeled
1 c. broth
Ground pepper to taste
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. shredded cheese
1/8 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 slice deli ham (optional)

Heat oil and saute onion for a few minutes. Grate potato and carrot into pan (or grate separately and add to pan) and saute for 2 more minutes. Add broth and pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until both vegetables are soft and do not taste raw. During this time you can make a salad or sandwich.

Remove from heat and add milk. Using an immersion blender or regular blender, puree the veggies in the liquids. Return to pan if necessary. Add cheese and Worcestershire sauce and heat gently until cheese melts. Do not boil or the milk will curdle.

Serve in a soup bowl and sprinkle with julienned ham, if desired.

This soup is not completely smooth, like the canned variety. You may want to put the vegetables through a sieve for a smoother texture, but I like it the way it is.

For two people, double all amounts.

Coconut Cake

2009-09-14T14:22:00.007-06:00

My project this weekend was to make special guests in our house feel welcomed, relaxed and happy to be there. Friday was a busy day of cleaning, cooking and baking. I like to have a fresh cake (or coffee cake) around as a pick-me up. If it isn't eaten that day, fine, it wasn't the center of attention. But it's so much nicer that packaged cookies when you want a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

I couldn't use my usual date sugar in this recipe because it had moths in it and I had to throw it out. Message: Keep date sugar in the refrigerator.

I had purchased some coconut sugar some time ago. This was the granulated kind, made from "the sweet watery sap of the cut flower buds of organic coconut". It is evaporated, which means concentrated and, after some poking around on the internet I found that it consists of 70%-80% sucrose and 30% monosaccharides (glucose and fructose mainly).

We generally avoid sucrose in our house because Rick has a bad reaction (headaches) to it. True, date sugar has up to 50% sucrose, but it is bound up in the fiber and other starches that make dates. It's really just ground up dates and I postulate that the sucrose is released slowly.

But although coconut (or palm) sugar has little fiber, it is known for having a low glycemic index of between 35 and 54. It is also high in some vitamins and minerals, for what it's worth.

Also, my recipe calls for 1/4 cup. Four tablespoons, or 1.3 teaspoons coconut sugar per serving (assuming 9 pieces from an 8x8 inch pan).

So I thought I'd risk it. It tasted very sweet, it's almost sweeter than sugar, in my opinion.

The cake turned out very tasty. It fell a little, a problem at 6000 feet elevation. I would omit the baking soda the next time. The cake held together, it wasn't crumbly. It also happens to be gluten free. As a bonus, seven people tried it (including Rick) and they all liked it without my being present.

Coconut Coffee Cake

3/4 c. brown rice flour
3/4 c. rolled oats ground into flour in a food processor
1/4 c. coconut sugar
1/4 c. shredded, dried coconut
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 T. coconut oil

1/2 c. yogurt
1/4 c. orange juice
2 eggs

Mix the flours, sugar, coconut and the baking powder, soda and xanthan gum in a bowl. Cut in the coconut oil like you would cut shortening into a pie crust. You will have wet-looking crumbs.

Mix the wet ingredients separately. In the photo below I show that I mix them with a immersion blender. I do this with all my muffins and cakes since the dispersion is so much better that way.

Then pour the wet into the dry and mix only to blend. Don't over mix.

Bake in a greased 8 by 8 inch pan at 350F for 30 minutes. Cool and serve.

Fresh Poblano Sauce

2009-09-08T10:43:00.006-06:00

Today's recipe is not Green Goddess Dressing, although perhaps there is room for a look alike in the world. This recipe came from a tamale workshop I once attended. The lady teaching had very definite ideas about how to make the masa (with butter, not lard - it's very good with butter, light and fluffy) and how you can vary the fillings.

The tamales I liked the most, although I've made them only once since, were yam-filled. Mash boiled yams with butter, pepper and salt, fill the masa with a tablespoon of the stuff, wrap and steam. Serve it with a green poblano sauce, shown here. Fantastic.

The sauce is a type of vinaigrette, almost a mayonnaise, but the fruit takes front stage. The sweet-sharp aroma and taste is great on chicken, steak and as a salad dressing, too. Heck, used as a dip for corn chips is a plebeian but acceptable way of eating this stuff.

To make this sauce, you need fresh poblanos which makes it what I call a serendipity recipe. You find fresh poblanos by accident, they never seem to be for sale when you go looking for them. This weekend, we found them at Jeff Schwarz's "Delicious Orchards" in Paonia. They smelled so strong in the car on the way home, they almost made my eyes water. Not all poblanos are as strong or hot as these. Most have a tang, and are not really hot.

Once at home, you have to roast them and remove the bitter skin. This sounds difficult, but once you learn how to do it, it's easy. Turn on the broiler and set your chilies on an old cookie sheet, on the second rung from the top in the oven. Check them after a few minutes and turn them over once they show signs of blistering. You can usually turn them over with your fingers, they are not very hot. I try to blister at least four sides, so keep turning.

After about 10 minutes, take out the chilies and place them in a plastic bag and close it. This sounds very unhealthy, but I don't know any other options. Let them cool off in the bag for about 30 minutes.

When you take them out, the chilies are lukewarm and the skins are all shriveled. Now you can peel back the skin, pull out the mid-section and discard the membranes and seeds.

A tip from me: If the chilies are hot, rub your hands first with some cooking oil, massaging the oil into your cuticles and thumbs. After working with the chilies, wash your hands with soap and water. This keeps most of the killer, sharp, hot stuff off your skin. It also works for foods that stain, such as beets and plums, and for garlic and onions.

Now for the recipe.

Poblano Sauce (aka Poblano Vinaigrette, aka Green Goodness)

Makes one cup.

2 poblano chilies, roasted
1 tsp. dry roasted cumin seed
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
3 T. sherry vinegar (try rice vinegar or other mild vinegar if you can't get a good sherry vinegar)
4 - 8 T. neutral oil

Remove skin and seeds from the poblanos and place in a blender container. Add sherry vinegar and blend. Add cumin seeds (you can roast in a few minutes in a dry pan) and salt.

Once the mixture is relatively smooth, add the oil in a thin stream through the hole in the blender cover while the blender is on. Please be careful with this step. The sauce will go from a dark green to a lighter green color and become thick. Use as much oil as you want. Normal vinaigrettes have a ratio of 3:1 oil to vinegar. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Deconstructing Funeral Potatoes

2009-09-02T13:53:00.007-06:00

I am in love with Velveeta. Others, too, have succumbed to its power. My friend tells of cleaning up her dad's room after his passing, only to find a Velveeta cookbook on his nightstand. Kevin, at Seriously Good, uses it to recapture his twenties.

We never had it growing up. Mom'd buy blocks of Velveeta ersatz. I remember it well in its blue box and generic lettering. It tasted nasty, nothing like real Velveeta, and was not good in grilled cheese sandwiches. Therefore, I didn't discover the famous, melting cheese until a year ago.

But is it bad for you? What's in Velveeta, anyway? If you are at all holding your breath, you will find some of the answers on this Squidoo page.

It has 6 grams of fat (4 of them saturated fat) and 5 grams of protein in 28 grams (one serving). It also has 410 mg of sodium per serving, a high number but I would argue that you need to look at the whole recipe before deciding if it's too much. While saturated fat was vilified in the 80s and 90s, now we are looking at trans-fats as being the bad-er guys. Lard, coconut oil and palm oils are actually considered healthy again in some circles.

So it's a question of the recipe, really. And here is a recipe I really like. Well, I don't like the Ritz crackers on top, but it's the typical cheesy potato recipe made with hash browns, cream of condensed soup and shredded cheese (I often use Velveeta instead). The recipe my friend has named "Funeral Potatoes". Apparantly, she goes to a lot of pot lucks honoring the deceased.

The problem with the recipe is that it makes so much. And the flour-based (read gluten) condensed soup is always high in sodium too. And expensive. So I decided to design some funeral potatoes for two, but without the soup mix.

This being the first run, there are a few things I would add/subtract in the next go-round, but they turned out pretty good. Read the recipe and then look at what I would add. Maybe you have your own ideas for spiffing this up.

Cheesy Hash Browns for Two

4 c. Simply Shreds or other frozen hash browns (1320 mg sodium), partly thawed
1 T. toasted and dried, minced onion
2 oz. Velveeta, cubed (820 mg sodium)
1/4 c. milk, divided
1/4 c. broth (142 mg sodium)
2 tsp. brown rice flour
1 tsp. lemon juice

Mix hash browns and minced, dehydrated onion in a large bowl.

In a small saucepan, melt cheese with the broth and half the milk, stirring to combine. Mix the flour with the rest of the milk into a slurry, then add it to the cheese sauce and stir. Bring to a boil to thicken. Flavor with lemon juice.

Pour the cheese sauce over the hash browns and mix until evenly distributed. Spread in a casserole dish (7 inch by 7 inch or 8x8) and bake for 30 minutes at 350F or until brown on top and hot.
(I love this casserole dish from Villeroy and Boch, BTW. It has a non-stick surface and cleans up easily. You can bake cheese in it and it will peel out cleanly. They are not cheap and you can't use sharp utensils on them so they aren't great for families where you have to educate everyone over and over again, but I like my small square one for the two of us.)

Notes on the casserole: I would use 1/4 sour cream instead of the lemon juice to make the casserole "saftiger". I would also throw in a few dried herbs, maybe a pinch of oregano or thyme. Ground pepper too. I might also be inclined to throw some shredded cheese on top next time, to keep the potatoes from drying out and becoming chewy. Otherwise, it didn't take me long to finish the whole dish!

PS - If you like Velveeta too, you might want to try this Cheeseburger Soup.

Egg Rolls

2009-09-01T17:00:00.005-06:00

I know it may come as a shock to you but some people (me) don't really like eggs for breakfast. Unfortunately, the stuff I like, cereal, smoothies and bread, don't provide a lot of protein. Couple high carb foods with 3 (or 5 or 8) cups of coffee and there are times I can't walk straight, I'm shaking so bad (for mom-badly). Many people are into tofu, but there's been a lot of talk about too much soy in the diet and I'm not fond of tofu (a duty food) so that's out. That's why I end up eating eggs, usually dressed up with something so I can't taste them.

I've experimented breaking up the egg days with noodles and peanut butter, granola and yogurt and hot cereals with yogurt. These are good foods, although my theory is, when plants are ground up fine, they don't stay long in the stomach, it's almost like they are predigested. Eggs, on the other hand, for some strange reason, give the stomach something to do besides growl.

Due to my research on crepes and pancakes for the German Food site, I came upon the idea of making a pancake that is mostly egg, but doesn't taste like egg. Since it's made sweet, you can spread marmalade or sugar on it, roll it up and even eat it out of hand on the way out the door. It's actually tastier if it has cooled off a bit. I use brown rice flour and agave syrup for taste and texture. One egg makes one pancake.

Egg Pancake

Makes 1, 8 inch pancake

1 egg
1 1/2 tsp water
1 tsp. agave nectar
2 tsp. brown rice flour
Dash salt
1 tsp. oil for pan

Wipe out an 8 inch, non-stick saute pan with the oil and set over medium heat.

Whisk together egg, water, agave syrup, flour and salt. When pan is hot, pour in egg and tilt batter to cover the bottom. Let this set up until you can flip the pancake with a spatula.

Turn pancake over and lightly brown the other side.

Serve with marmalade, chocolate spread or other favorite.

Breakfast Enchiladas

2009-08-30T12:14:00.003-06:00

We were making breakfast fritattas (basically a quiche without a crust) for a long time, until we couldn't look at them any more. Then one day, DH made me scrambled eggs, wrapped in a corn tortilla and smothered in some leftover enchilada sauce. It was quick, it had good texture and it was, easy to say, a winner. This breakfast is done in 10 minutes and consumed in five. Add some cut up fruit and you can feel good about starting your day this way.

Corn tortillas have fewer calories than wheat (even when they are the same diameter) and they should be gluten free (if you eat GF), although my package boasts 0 grams trans fats and says nothing about GF (UPDATE: Mission Tortillas claim "Gluten Free" on the package, so there you have it). The other gluten to look out for is in the enchilada sauce and the breakfast potatoes. Kroger's Tater Bites say they are GF but most enchilada sauce has modified vegetable protein from wheat. You can make your own sauce (example here) or use salsa on top for the quick meal I am talking about.

As you can see, this is a basic, no frills way to eat breakfast. You can doll it up with sausage or bell peppers or all sorts of things, but it's also good just the way it is.

Breakfast Enchiladas

Makes 2 servings about 400 calories each.

3 eggs
1 tsp. butter or oil
A dash of salt and some ground pepper
1 frozen potato patty or six tater tots (don't judge me-God loves tater tots too)
4 corn tortillas
1/2 cup enchilada sauce (red or green) or salsa
2 T. shredded cheese (optional)
2 or more tablespoons sour cream (full fat or fat free)(optional)
1/2 to 1 tsp. sambal oelek or hot sauce

Heat a small frying pan with the butter. Whisk the eggs together with 2 tablespoons water, a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour into hot pan and scramble using your favorite method.

Meanwhile, heat the potato patty or tater tots in the microwave 45-60 seconds total (on a plate). Break up the potatoes with a fork. Wrap the stacked corn tortillas in a paper towel and heat in the microwave about 35 seconds. Open the can of enchilada sauce.

Here are assembly variations: You can sprinkle the cheese on the eggs or on finished product. You can mix the sour cream with the sauce (or salsa) or serve it separately. You can also add the sambal oelek or other hot sauce to the enchilada sauce and sour cream. It gives it more pep.

Place a warm corn tortilla on a plate. Put 1/4 of the eggs on the tortilla, divide the potatoes evenly and roll the tortilla around everything. Arrange seam side down. Make another one for the same person. Pour your sauce over the tortillas (you can warm it, we don't) and garnish as you wish. You can add additional hot sauce, hot pepper flakes, cooked vegetables (to the eggs, maybe), or anything else you can think of that makes you think, "Yum!". If you like the whole dish warmer, heat in microwave for about 30 seconds.

If you like this recipe, you might also like Poached Eggs Ranchera.

Potato and Sweet Potato

2009-08-30T11:41:00.000-06:00

I used to avoid sweet potatoes because they were too sweet and funny tasting. Mom never did the marshmallow-brown sugar thing at holiday time, anyway, so my only exposure was friend's holidays in college. Maybe it's this growing older that changes taste buds. a couple of years ago I started eating them and liking them. I like them baked in the oven the most, although mashed with butter tastes fine too. I don't add sugar to them, though.

What I can't do is make myself eat the skins. You just don't know where they've been!

These blue potatoes and orange sweet potatoes were baked in the oven with a little oil, salt and pepper. When you spread them on the baking sheet, they should not rub shoulders or swim in oil. Both of those mistakes steam them and they won't become crispy and caramelize on the bottom.

Sweet Potato Nutrient Data

Rice and Cheese Patties

2009-08-28T14:29:00.002-06:00

As an accompaniement to many soups or salads, I found that using leftover rice mixed with cheese and baked, can be very satisfying.

Rice and Cheese Toasties

1 1/2 cups leftover, brown rice
2 T. chopped chives
Freshly grated pepper
2 oz. Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese, shredded (about 3/4 cup)

Mix rice with chives, a few grinds of pepper and cheese (you may use cheese of your choice). Form patties with wet hands and place on cookie sheet. You may wish to use some non-stick spray or tin foil to keep clean up easy.

Bake rice cakes at 350°F until cheese is melted and underside crisp, about 25 minutes. You may also broil the patties if they are not crisp or brown enough for you. They will still be a little gooey and will harden as they cool.

Serve this with Zucchini Tomato Soup.

Also, you want to use the amount of rice and cheese that works for you. If you are limiting your carb intake, plan on 1/2 cup rice per person.

Variations: Add any of the following - nutmeg, red pepper flakes, dried onions, dried garlic, other herbs such as oregano.

Picture shown: Sauteed Leeks in Cream Sauce

Zucchini Tomato Soup for Two

2009-08-27T13:56:00.006-06:00

Cooking for two is something you learn. Scaling down after you leave your parents, or the commune or the kids leave home doesn't have to be tragic. You don't have to eat cold cereal for dinner the rest of your life (except when you cook a five course Valentine's feast - and that doesn't even happen after you've been together for awhile: "Happy Valentine's Day, Honey", "Really? I'm sorry.").

What you do have to do is put in a little tiny bit of effort to eat right and not eat out all the time. Besides the cost, you never know what they are really feeding you, how much oil or sugar they are adding to an otherwise innocuous plate of fried rice.

Cooking for two can be easy and does not have to involve a lot of leftovers (although leftovers can be important for simplifying a meal). Easy to make, delicious and even good for you, this soup wins on all counts. It is also proportioned for two people, making it less daunting for small households.

Zucchini Tomato Soup for Two

Takes about 1/2 hour to cook

1 tsp. oil
1/4 onion, chopped small, about 1/3 cup
1 small zucchini, diced small, about 1 1/2 cups
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1, 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice
1+ cup chicken broth
1 bay leaf
Fresh ground pepper
2-4 oz. previously cooked meat, diced small, 1/2-1 cup
1 T. whiskey or brandy (optional)
Parmesan cheese for garnish
Basil leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a heavy, 2 or 3 quart saucepan. Saute the onions until translucent, then add the zucchini dice and saute a few minutes longer, until a little brown appears on the zucchini. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir. Pour in the can of tomatoes, the broth and bay leaf. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Pour the hot soup into a blender or food processor with care. Holding the top on with a hotpad, blend until smooth. Return to pan.

Add pepper to taste and the meat. In the picture, I used 1/2 cup diced turkey cutlets left over from last night. You might also like left over roast chicken or even cooked, ground meat or sweet, Italian sausage. Heat until meat is hot. Add broth or water to thin as desired. You may even want to add salt to taste, but I find it unnecessary. Add a tablespoon of whiskey or brandy, if desired.

Serve with cheese and basil as a garnish.

If you don't have fresh basil, you might add 1/8 tsp. (a pinch) of dried basil, oregano, or Italian seasoning to the soup before you simmer it.

Serve it with Rice and Cheese Toasties.

If you like this soup, you may like Chicken Soup with Rice.

Meatloaves

2009-05-25T17:17:00.005-06:00

This weekend was an orgy of Mormon-style food preparation. When you come home from karate class at 9 pm three nights a week, there's nothing more calming than knowing what you will be making and eating for supper.

This earlier post tells you about my style of pre-cooking and designing meals is like and what I like to freeze but I didn't mention meatloaf in that post. Don's Supermarket, in Paonia, actually cuts their own meat. It's like the supermarkets of 30 years ago. Don, himself, butchers and packages the meat so you know it's fresh. In addition to the ground round, I love the boneless pork ribs cut out of the loin, the boneless pork chops and the chicken.

Anyway, back to the meatloaves. I buy the supersaver packages of meat, between 2.3 and 2.7 pounds and mix up a batch of meatloaf. Because there's just 2 of us at home, I make them in small loaf sizes. When they are out of the oven and cooled, I can pop them into the Glad 3-cup rectangular containers and freeze. After that, dinner is easy, with a starch and FMVs (frozen, mixed vegetables) rounding out the meal.

Does it sound boring? Or life saving? Homemade food which can survive the freezer is not as easy as it sounds. I've thrown out plenty of packages of soup and tortilla casserole that just didn't make it. After six months (or two years) I had to admit to myself that I didn't like them the first time and I'm not eating those things.

I could buy Boca burgers and roasted chickens on the way home from work for all those lovely Cooking Light 20 minute dinner recipes except for two things:

I live out in the boondocks and the store closes at 8 pm (9pm in summer - Whoo-hoo!) and doesn't have a rotisserie.
The salt content in those foods is off the charts. For a serving of Uncle Ben's heat-and-eat rice per serving the sodium is around 800 mg! When I cook at home, the sodium stays under control.

So meatloaf it is. Monday night rituals. For some it's football, for others it's frozen dinners.

Best Meatloaf

1/2 c. oatmeal cooked in 3/4 c. water (1 minute on high in microwave) and cooled
OR 1/2 c. rice cereal cooked in 1/2 c. water
1/2 - 1 c. onion, finely chopped
3 T. fresh or 1 T. dried parsley, chopped
1 tsp. chili powder
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. oregano and 1/2 tsp thyme (dried) OR 1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 eggs
2-3T. Worcestershire sauce (can substitute good balsamic vinegar)
1/2 can tomato paste (3 oz. can)

approx. 2 1/2 lb. ground round

Mix all ingredients except meat until well blended (I mix in the KitchenAid mixer). Add meat and mix until blended, 1-2 minutes. Form 3 - 4 oblongs of 12 - 16 oz apiece and place in small bread mold or in 9x13 inch casserole as pictured. You may also make meatballs and bake or boil them.

Glaze:
1/2 can tomato paste (3 oz. can)
1 T. honey or other sweetener
1 T. Worcestershire
1 1/2 T. cider vinegar
Freshly ground pepper

Mix glaze until smooth and spread over loaves.

Bake at 350F until interior registers 180 degrees F, about 50 minutes.

Yes, Exactly!

2009-03-26T12:09:00.000-06:00

Check out this article about what's healthy.

Herbs and Spices are Rich in Antioxidants

2009-03-26T11:30:00.003-06:00

In April's Prevention magazine (I told you, it was a gift subscription from someone who thinks I've aged into it) McCormick spices were advertised as being full of antioxidants. Ha ha. So I look it up and find that Eating Well reports that unspecified "recent studies" have shown that 1/2 teaspoon of cloves has as much antioxidant as 1/2 cup of blueberries. Except that a whole cookie recipe usually asks for 1/4 teaspoon, but I suppose that every little bit helps.

McCormick's site with info, spicesforhealth.com does have some sources listed, which I have not researched. Their top 7 list:

Tea is also mentioned as a way to receive benefits of antioxidants. I guess we accept them as soluble, after all green tea has been touted as having antioxidants for a few years. My questions are how stable are they, how tea compares to eating them and how many antioxidants you should aim for in your day.

Lunch Bucket

2009-03-12T12:35:00.003-06:00

What's in my Glad, 3-cup rectangular container today?

Mixed greens, chopped red bell pepper, leftover coleslaw from yesterday, sliced-leftover pork roast. It had whole almonds, too, since Rick put it together, but I removed those to eat separately. I like pecans on my salad, but whole almonds are better alone.

The salad was dressed with balsamic and walnut oil at lunchtime.

Yesterday, I made a salad melange consisting of homemade coleslaw (recipe follows), 3-bean salad from the night before, roasted-marinated beets cut in slices, tomato, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, red onion sliced thin and sliced-baked chicken leftovers. A little rice vinegar was added over the meat and 3-bean, because the beans were a little bland.

The meat portion of these salads is usually around 2 ounces.

Coleslaw - another version here

3 c. shredded cabbage
1-2 carrots, shredded
1 T. cider vinegar
1-2 tsp. honey
2-3 T. plain yogurt
2-3 T. mayonnaise
Freshly ground pepper

I shred the vegetables with my little Cuisinart, 3 cup processor and it works great and is easy to clean up under running water. I put them in a large (6-8 cup capacity) bowl.

In a separate bowl, I mix approximate amounts of the sauce ingredients. You want to dress this with about 1/2 cup sauce, maybe more. Mix the vinegar and honey first, to dissolve the honey. Otherwise, when you add the cold yogurt and mayonnaise, you will just get lumps of honey which won't dissolve.

Pour mixed up dressing over cabbage and carrots and toss to coat. This will keep for several days in your refrigerator.

You can also add any fruit you like.

3-Bean Salad

1 1/2 c. Cooked green beans (left from dinner)
1 can drained and rinsed garbanzo beans
1 can drained and rinsed red kidney beans
1/2 red onion, chopped very fine
2-3 T. oil
2-3 T. vinegar (red wine, rice wine or mixture of almost any in the cupboard)
Fresh ground pepper

Toss the veggies together. Whisk the vinaigrette to an emulsion and toss over veggies to coat.

This makes a lot, but lasts several days in the refrigerator.

About Salt in my Recipes
I almost never include salt in these salads because either the ingredients have enough (yogurt, mayo, canned beans) or the vinegar substitutes for "salty". I always feel it's better to sprinkle at the table, if necessary.

Salt is a funny flavor enhancer. One day you crave a lot, another day everything is too salty. This depends on your exercise level and hydration, as well as outside temperature. There are also some foods I love salt on (potatoes), but Rick doesn't, so I add mine at the table. Salt is important in baked goods, but the amount between 1/4 teaspoon and 1 teaspoon doesn't make a big difference, except in bread.

I also leave out salt in my cereal and rice. Once you get used to it, it's not a bad option and eliminates hidden sodium. Making beans and rice from scratch also eliminates sodium. This leaves me the opportunity to destroy all the good things I do to my body by eating things like Nacho-flavored Doritos. But at least I'm not compounding the problem.

Why We Eat What We Eat

2009-03-11T10:56:00.005-06:00

Here is an interesting article in Slate about dietary fiber and the use of maltodextrin, polydextrose and inulin, written by Jacob Gershman. Apparently, due to some new FDA rulings, these are now classified as dietary fiber and can be listed as such on labels. This lumps these tasteless, white powders together with oat bran and other "natural" fiber, without showing direct benefits to humans.

While this can be frustrating, if I eat inulin-containing yogurt I will not get the same physical effects of eating the same amount of bran nor has it been shown to lower cholesterol or improve any other modern measurement of human health, there is something else we should consider. Why don't we like whole foods as much as we like pre-packaged, highly processed foods?

Have we trained ourselves to enjoy packaged food because of convenience, taste (more sugar and salt), and fun factor? Or is advertising so powerful, we have no choice but to buy and eat these foods? How do we help others get away from these foods and eat more whole and unprocessed food?

Processed foods can be shipped and sold almost anywhere. They are self-contained and often require no cooking skills. The government puts many restrictions on unprocessed foods, such as the sale of raw milk (forbidden) or grass-fed beef (high costs for small farms), so that these foods are not available to many consumers, but the processed food industry is so large that they easily pay for all the added oversight.

Also, the best-tasting unprocessed or minimally processed foods have been turned into scapegoats. Cream, coconut oil, honey and other ingredients which carry or enhance the taste of the healthiest food have been made into scary, bad monsters. These foods have been maligned for ages, even after the science behind the health-scares is debunked or new findings show lower risks of these foods. Meanwhile, the fun of cooking diminishes when we deny ourselves these kinds of ingredients, even in small amounts. The result is, we fall off the wagon and buy foods that we don't have to cook and thus fool ourselves into not knowing what we are eating.

Cleaning food, cooking and washing up afterwards takes time and is not high on many people's "fun" scale. It has also been downgraded from a highly regarded skill and a service to the family to be proud of, to something that only a minimum wage worker should do. We are so busy "making money" or spending it, that we don't see that this kind of housework is a way to "save money", making it less important to "make" it.

I am very fortunate. My husband tells me often that my making lunch 4-6 times a week has saved us enough for a house down payment. Also, my cooking has some flavor, unlike some people, who show no knack for it even after instruction.

So how do we talk ourselves into cooking more often and eating more whole foods?

KISS - don't make it unnecessarily complicated. Don't banish any food (unless you are allergic). Good cooking doesn't have to take a long time or have 6 feet of ingredients. Don't hate yourself for eating "something you shouldn't".
Test yourself - See how much money you can save. Keep all Starbuck's and dining-out receipts for a week plus your grocery bill. The next week, eat at home entirely (bag lunch, make your own coffee - it's just one week) and save that grocery receipt.
Keep trying those whole foods - It takes many introductions (about 30) before a child accepts a new food. Adults aren't much different. If you don't like whole grain pasta, try another brand, try it again in a few weeks. Cut up your fruit and eat it with a fork instead of out of hand. Keep trying.
Make goodies from scratch - even with white flour or sugar. You still miss out on all the preservatives and a lot of added ingredients. Plus, when you put effort into making something, consuming it means something: consuming oreos on the other hand is mindless.
Just say no - quit your most meaningless, after-work activity and go home. Make time to prepare your own food instead of having a runny-nosed teenager do it.

Experimental Breakfast Porridge

2009-02-26T12:55:00.004-07:00

Even the word sounds bad: Porridge. Thick and gloppy, distasteful. It certainly makes you think of bitter, cold Scotland and the poor Irish of the 1930s. So when I found this recipe on culinate while looking through a post on rice and beans, I thought that this couldn't be good. Wouldn't be good.

But I have a problem deciding between "Yuck" and "Hmm, let's try it". Since I started cooking and experimenting for About.com - German Food, I found out that many things that seem weird on paper really aren't.

This recipe had a lot of things going for it: brown rice, oats, quinoa and lentils, all thrown together in a slow cooker for several hours, refrigerated and doled out (reheated in microwave) in the mornings before work with regular cereal toppings. It adds protein and beans to the diet in a novel way - at breakfast.

So it's "Hmm, let's try it"- time.

First, let me say that letting it cook in a slow-cooker is not ideal. It works, but all the ingredients become mushy, except the wheat berries. Still, I have not tried any other way and don't know how long to cook it on the stove top or what it looks like when you do. I do know that it was very palatable with milk, sweetener and raisins.

Slow-Cooker Porridge (Original Recipe here) by Bonnie Powell

Makes 4-6 servings

1/2 c. brown rice (I used Lundberg's Sweet Short Brown Rice)
1/4 c. rolled oats
1/4 c. wheat berries (I used Kamut)
1/4 c. quinoa
1/4 c. red lentils
2 T. steel-cut oats
2 T. amaranth
2 T. barley
1 T. sesame seeds
1-2 tsp. ground cinnamon

These ingredients went into my 1 1/2 quart crockpot with about 4 cups of water. I turned it on high and cooked it about 4 hours. (I would start with boiling water next time and cook for a little less time as an experiment.)

It was mushy and tasted like - Hmmm- not much. I put it into the refrigerator. The next morning I heated a bit in the microwave, poured some milk and raisins over it and it turned out to be very nice. Certainly a change from the Bob's Red Mill 8-grain that we've been making. And because you make it ahead (it keeps for several days) you save time in the morning without compromising on food value.

But the real fun came next: Rick was willing to try it, but he doesn't like just cereal in the morning because he gets hungry so soon afterward. Yes, these complex cereals don't let you crash as if you ate pure sugar but they don't seem to stick around too long, either. (Actually, nothing seems to in the morning - I'm starving by 10 am.)

He put 2 spoonfuls in the pan, warmed the cereal and then scrambled eggs with it. It was very tasty so he made it for me the next day. Definitely a winner.

Whole Grain Waffles and Fruit Salad

2009-02-24T17:28:00.004-07:00

There's nothing nicer for breakfast than a fruit salad. This picture was taken in the summer so we had lovely cantelope, blueberries and strawberries. Starting the day with fruit or vegetables makes me feel virtuous, since I have a head start on my "5-a-day" and no one can stop me from trampling all previous fruit and vegetable consumption records into the ground.

Hey, combine that with fiber and complex carbohydrates as well as a little yogurt for slippage (slip down the gullet) and you have yourself a feast.

It's daring for me, actually, to forgo syrup or marmalade on my waffle, but these looked so good when made that I didn't want to mess it up with sticky stuff. It was very easy to eat, even with the sour yogurt, and I felt satisfied.

It takes a little preparation to cut up a fruit salad, but that's why you do it on a Saturday morning. The waffles take their time, too. Not only do you have to beat the egg whites separately, you have to find a recipe which does not call for white flours but is not as dense as cardboard. This is what Rick and I have been working on, he as the taster, I as the creator. That sounds nice: Jennifer, the Creator.

Waffles I

2 eggs, separated
1 1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. melted margarine
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. gluten free flour or more brown rice flour (or cornmeal - very nice and crunchy)
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat the egg whites into stiff peaks and set aside. Melt the butter and heat the milk slightly to lukewarm (so the butter doesn't congeal on contact). Beat egg yolks with margarine and incorporate the milk. Mix the flours with the baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, then stir into the liquids. until just combined. Fold in the egg whites.

Bake on a pre-heated waffle iron. Bake all waffles and freeze leftovers.

I was out for a bit...

2009-02-17T15:26:00.005-07:00

and have not posted. Last two weeks I caught every cold in the area, plus I was getting ready for a major karate test. I took it last Saturday and now feel much better. It's amazing how worked up you can get over something like a test with no real meaning. It doesn't go on your permanent school records, it's not a qualification for employment. But you still get worked up inside, picking fights with your loved ones and hissing at the world.

Me with my testing-mates doing our endurance test.

Ura mawashi geri, hook kick - stomach level.
The beginning of Kanku dai, which means "Looking at the sky"

More here

Parsley, Collards and Greens

2009-02-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

(Picture of arugula, not chard. Copyright J.McGavin)
I brought a bunch of collards home from the store. Shaped like large elephant ears, I wasn't sure what to do with them, but finally cut them into strips like I do with Swiss chard, washed and dried them and used them to brighten up lettuce salad. Their bitter taste gave a nice dimension to the greens.

In the summer, the chard and arugula from the garden are handy. I decided that growing full heads of lettuce was a waste of time when they're so cheap to buy during warm weather, but that a medley of darker, loose leaf greens could be harvested in just a minute with a pair of scissors, over and over again. To grow enough for 2 people you only need a few square feet, so pick your seeds now.

My husband hates cilantro, but loves parsley. Cilantro apparently tastes soapy to a subset of the human population and there's no fixing them. I was not a fan of parsley, but started including a few leaves in the salad or on top to appease him. Gradually I began to like the taste.

Then I started my About.com job, which called for pretty pictures and many German recipes with parsley. Parsley is one of the best ways to perk up a food picture or a plate of food, so I started buying a bunch every time I did the shopping. Left in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel, or placed in a glass of water, it can be used for a week or sometimes more.

Parsley is also winter hardy to about 32F. When planted near a house or wall, it can survive lower temperatures, too. So a few sprigs now and then don't have to be hard to come by. Italian parsley is supposed to be more bitter than curly, but I like both tastes. The Italian kind just seems more elegant, though, while the curly kind seems IHOPish.
Nutritional data:
Parsley
Collards
Cilantro
Arugula

I'm bringing this all up to illustrate a point. Spicing up food does not have to be costly. Yes, basil or truffles are expensive, but even in winter a bunch of parsley or cilantro costs less than a dollar. The organic collards cost $2.00 and there was enough to cook like spinach for one meal, or for several salads. A piece of ginger root in the freezer, a couple of fresh jalapenos which weigh next to nothing, a head of garlic on the counter. These fresh spices do wonders to your cooking without busting your budget. Try buying some parsley next time you are at the store. Sprinkle it on top of your next casserole or stew. You might find out you like it.

Dreaming of Summer

2009-02-05T15:51:00.004-07:00

I've been going through my pictures and dreaming about the warm, mellow days of summer. Of course, I am also conveniently forgetting the insects, the weeds and the mowing chores. Here are a few of the beautiful tomatoes from the garden last summer.

In winter there is just not much of this going on, but you may be able to get some cherry tomatoes that will make a super salsa. The wonder of salsa is that with a few ingredients you can transform a humble meal into something special. Fresh jalapenos cost only a few pennies in my neck of the woods.

For this tomato relish over poached eggs I used green onions, jalapeno, a little salt, pepper and a touch of olive oil. In the background, a fresh-baked blueberry muffin, split and layered with butter. Check out the Eggs Ranchera post from the summer, too.

Whole Wheat Bread

2009-02-02T14:33:00.005-07:00

I don't go for that wimpy, half and half, whole wheat and white flour dough. I always thought it was a cop out. Unfortunately, the results for homemade bread are much more rewarding when only some of the flour is whole wheat. Take the first picture (above) of a 50%/50% boule made from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Baking Book and compare that to the sourdough loaf I made with 100% whole wheat flour (below). An unrisen, sodden brick. We are, of course, comparing apples to oranges here, baker's yeast vs. San Fransisco sourdough strain passed just once, but many of my whole wheat breads turned out that way, dense and unappetizing.

That is, until I started using Reinhart's formulas and methods. Here is another 100% whole wheat sourdough loaf made from the same starter culture, using Reinhart's book.
I have started applying his methodology to other recipes, namely cutting down on the yeast and giving the dough a long rise. So far, I haven't been scientific about writing down the results, but they have improved my breads.

To make the substitutions to whole wheat from a half and half recipe, I cut the yeast from 2 1/4 teaspoons to 1/2 teaspoon. The first rise then takes at least 4 hours. I have made a sponge and added more flour/yeast before the second rise or made the bread dough in the usual way, but with less yeast. After the first rise and shaping, it takes about two hours before the dough is ready to be baked. Start heating the oven (and bread stone, if you have it) after one hour, or your loaf may get away from you.

I find the nicest presentation is to dust the loaf with flour and score it deeply an hour (for slow rises) before you bake it.

Tracking my Veggie Intake, Last Installment

2009-01-26T13:31:00.004-07:00

I tracked my veggies for a week to see if the Prevention article was a useful tool and here is the rest of the analysis.

Thus. night through Monday lunch
7/8 cup beans/legumes (specifically peanuts and pintos) (1 1/8 cups weekly total)
2 3/4 cup orange (4 cups weekly total)
1/4 cup greens (2 cups weekly total)
1 1/2 cup starchy (2 1/2 cups weekly total)
1 1/2 cup wildcard (3 cups weekly total)

My goal: 14 cups, achieved 12 5/8 cups, with one meal to go.

I still have Monday night to go, so if I eat 2 1/2 cups of wildcards with 1 1/8 cup of beans tonight, I'm all set for the week.

I only manage half the legumes when I added peanuts as a "legume", even though the magazine didn't mention it. In fact, it didn't mention a lot of things I eat on a regular basis that have good nutrition; brown rice, peanuts, whole grain cereals, nuts, fresh herbs, fruit, etc.

The article also doesn't say how to measure the vegetables, cooked or raw. I arbitrarily decided that either way counted the same. It was too much trouble otherwise.

On the good side, it showed me where I can place my attention. Wildcards in winter are not easy, since they seem to be the watery, summery kinds of vegetables, and I suppose I could try to add more beans, especially later in the week when I don't have classes. I also purchased fresh collards for the first time, but haven't used them yet. Maybe later.

Some of their suggestions for increasing your intake of each kind of food sounded yummy, but it does take some shopping and management skill, which I did not have this week. In fact, we ate out three times (we usually eat out once) and skipped lunch on Saturday, due to karate training. Altogether, I think it's worthwhile looking at what you eat and assessing the deficiencies.

Wrap up- "The Veggie Factor" is not a totally useless concept but incomplete and a lot of work to follow. The grouping of vegetables was not intuitive. And one question left - is ketchup a wildcard?

Peanut Sauce

2009-01-25T18:12:00.004-07:00

Taking time out of the week-long veggie count to showcase one of my favorite recipes, Peanut Sauce, or "I would eat cardboard if it was underneath this" Sauce. Quick, simple, with many variations, I eat it on rice and veggies, pour it over ground hamburger for a gravy, eat it with chicken, turkey, you name it. Peanuts are high in protein (24 grams per 100 grams of peanut butter).

Peanut Sauce

1/4 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
1/4 cup water (plus more for thinning)
1T. soy sauce
1-2 T. frozen apple juice concentrate
1 clove garlic, grated
1 T. grated fresh ginger
Zest from 1 lime
1 tsp. sambal olec
1 5 1/2 oz can of Thai Kitchen Coconut milk
1 T. lime juice

Mix together in a small pan and heat and stir until smooth. Taste and add apple juice or lime juice to taste. Thin with water if desired. Serve warm over meat, rice or vegetables.

My Week of Veggies So Far

2009-01-21T12:48:00.005-07:00

Tuesday:
Arrived home from karate famished, as usual. I ate Doritos as I waited for the leftovers to heat up.
Final tally: Lunch 1 cup orange plus 3/8 cup wildcard.
Dinner 1/2 cup wild card (tomatoes and onions in the leftover lasagna).
I'm also going to tack on 1/4 cup "greens" for the lettuce. I looked up iceberg on the USDA food calculator and found that it wasn't totally devoid of nutrients, it carried about 1/3 of the nutrients of fresh spinach and 1/4 of collards or turnip greens.

Wednesday:
Breakfast was mashed potatoes and eggs with cheese. Not bad for a husband rooting in the fridge. 3/4 cup starchy
Lunch - Subway chicken footlong with spinach, tomato and lettuce. 1/2 cup greens 1/8 cup wildcard
Dinner - precooked chicken from freezer, thawed and warmed over brown rice with 1 1/2 cup of FMVs. 1/4 cup lima beans, 1/4 cup orange, 1/4 cup starchy (peas and corn).

Thursday:
Cereal with banana for breakfast, Subway salad for lunch (we ran out of time to make lunch) 1 cup greens (spinach, lettuce), 1/2 cup wildcard (cucumber, tomato, green bell pepper).

So, so far, I'm way off on beans and a little low on wildcard (tomatoes, onions, cabbage, etc.) I'm surprisingly ok on greens, but I am counting lettuce as a percentage.

Prevention Magazine

2009-01-20T14:54:00.003-07:00

I was reading a copy of Prevention (for us over 40!?-disclaimer, I don't buy it, I get it used from my 78 year old MIL) and came across an "easy way" to getting the right amount of vegetables. The article is called "The Veggie Factor" and divides the vegetables into categories with set amounts as goals. It even gives you a chart to make it easy to incorporate enough vegetables into the week. (See chart below)

They figure that you should eat 14 cups of mixed vegetables a week. Ok, that's not so bad, I average quite a few cups: salads for lunch and FMV (Frozen, Mixed Vegetables) are always on the plate at night, if fresh ones aren't available. Plus, we even have them for breakfast sometimes.

One Week at a Glance
	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
Lunch	1 c greens	1/2 c orange veggies	1 c greens & 1/2 c beans	1 c wildcard	1 c wildcard	1 c wildcard	1/2 c beans
Dinner	3/4 c starchy veggies	1/2 c beans	1 1/2 c wildcard	1 c beans	3/4 c starchy veggies	1 c orange veggies	1 c starchy veggies & 1 c wildcard

Not so fast. Lettuce doesn't count as greens right there in the first column, first row. Spinach, collards, brocolli or turnip greens. Hmmm. I can buy them at the store but will we eat them?

Starchy vegetables includes green beans (?) whereas winter squash is packed into the orange veggies with carrots.

Beans are vegetables but 2 1/2 cups per week? That's doable if you don't worry about strange sounds in karate class. There's Beano and charcoal tablets, but I have never been able to do a lot of beans.

Wildcard means tomatoes, artichokes, eggplant, bell peppers, etc.

How did I do?
Today in my lunch salad I packed 1 cup of lettuce (doesn't count), 1 cup of carrot salad (that's a lot of carrots to eat), 1/4 cup bell pepper and 1/2 Roma tomato (1/8 cup). Cottage cheese for a little protein, raisins, olives and sunflower seeds. 1 cup orange plus 3/8 cup wildcard.

I thought I could track what we ate for a week and see how close we come or how far away we are from Prevention's ideal. I could also see how eating these vegetables affects me physically. The magazine says eating the right mix will help my immune system, fight cancer and get my heart healthy. So check for updates on this post. It will be interesting to see just how unbelievable these articles are.

Chicken Soup with Rice

2009-01-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

In January
it's so nice
while slipping
on the sliding ice
to sip hot chicken soup
with rice -Maurice Sendak, "Chicken Soup with Rice"

Try this Chicken Soup, adapted from a Cooking Light recipe. Easy to find the ingredients, simple to make and very tasty. We had this soup after karate, which means it can only take 40 minutes from start to finish.

Chicken and Zucchini Soup

Serves 2 for dinner over brown rice

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 cups chopped zucchini (1 medium)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground chicken
2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese

Cook minced or ground chicken in a little oil. Move to the edge and add onions. Saute for a few minutes and add garlic and zucchini. After a few more minutes, add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 20 minutes or until ready to eat.

Lunch Today

2009-01-14T12:20:00.006-07:00

Since I run a retail store by myself during the day, I can't lock up and go get a bite to eat. I know people who do that but the consistency suffers when that happens and consistency is the key to a business, a blog, new skill acquisition, just about everything.

So I must bring my lunch and eat it between customers.

Today's lunch is made up of two salads I threw together this morning while waiting for the eggs to cook. I have a quinoa salad in the front and the last of a head of cabbage in the back. These two salads illustrate my methods well. They are easy, the ingredients are easy to have on hand and taste as good or better than more complicated dishes. Also, 1 cup of quinoa has about 7 grams of complete protein, 3 grams of fiber and 2.5 grams of fat.

The Mediterranean Quinoa Salad has a lemon vinaigrette, while the slaw boasts a mayonnaise-yogurt dressing that has many variations that I will show you.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Serves 2

2 c. cooked quinoa
1 c. chopped, crisp vegetables such as celery, carrots, green onions, cucumber
1/4 c. chopped, fresh herbs or greens such as parsley, basil, chard, spinach
10 black olives, chopped
2 oz. feta, crumbled
Optional - 2 artichoke hearts or sun dried tomatoes, chopped
2 T. lemon juice
1-2 tsp. honey
3-4 T. olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Mix salad ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk lemon juice, honey and pepper together and then beat in olive oil to form an emulsion. Pour over quinoa and vegetables and toss to coat. Divide into 2 lunch containers and chill for 1 or more hours.

Simple Slaw

Serves 2

2 c. shredded, green cabbage
2 T. raisins or other dried fruit
1 T. chopped jalapeno pepper
Optional - fruit such as canned or fresh pineapple, chopped apple, etc.
1 T cider vinegar
1 tsp. honey or agave nectar
2 T. yogurt
2 T. safflower oil mayonnaise or regular or reduced fat
Freshly ground pepper

Mix cider vinegar with honey. Microwave for 5 seconds if needed, to dissolve. Add pepper, yogurt and mayo and whisk until no lumps are left. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking. You can add curry powder, vindaloo (another curry), paprika or cayenne pepper as you wish to vary the taste.

Pour the dressing over the vegetables and fruit and mix until coated. Chill before serving, or add to salad container and take for lunch. Can be made the night before.

Lunch Box

2009-01-13T16:36:00.007-07:00

I've developed a theory about lunch maintenance. That's when you plan your lunches so that you don't either die at your desk or go out and spend more than is in your wallet.

We like salads for lunch because they require no microwave, don't smell much, and can be a nutritious boost for people like us whose favorite food at night is Tater Tots in front of the TV. Salad seems like such an imposition to me after a whole day at work and an evening training and teaching karate.

But how do you start to make salads that you will actually eat?

I start with a 3-cup container and 1 cup of greens. I like to grow lettuce in the summer, but due to the amount of salad we eat, I now prefer to grow rucola and other greens you can't buy at the store to supplement the spinach and lettuce that we buy.

I don't put much more than that cup because greens are not very nutritious. They have fiber and a bit of minerals or vitamins, I forget which, but there are veggies with a lot more flavor and punch to add.

I go for 5. That is 3 live, raw things and two cooked or dried add-ons. So I might put shredded carrots, green pepper and tomatoes on the salad and top it with cottage cheese and raisins.

Or, as in the picture, sliced steak from last night's dinner.

Naturally, the sky's the limit as to toppers. Dried fruit, nuts, seeds, oil packed or pickled things, cheeses, deli meat (about an ounce per person). You can also do themed salads - Chef salad - Greek salad. Just don't get hung up on a "recipe". If you do, you'll never take a salad to work.

I also do salads on salads. So I make a carrot salad to go on the side, or fresh beet salad, apple salad, coleslaw. Or I make two dressed salads and put them together with a little cheese or other protein. If it's been a long time between shopping trips, sometimes it's just carrot and slaw with nuts and raisins on top. Carrots and cabbage last the longest in the fridge.

I bring dressing in a separate container. Our favorite homemade salad dressing is just Napa Valley balsamic, olive oil and fresh ground pepper. Here's a picture:

If your ingredients are made the night before, you can get a salad made in 10 minutes. If not, 20 minutes for regular salad, 25 for a dressed salad.

Cereal for Breakfast

2009-01-12T15:37:00.004-07:00

A few years ago I was confronted for the first time in my adult life with cooked cereal for breakfast. Prior to that I ate the usual Instant Oatmeal with Maple and Brown Sugar without enthusiasm and switched to bread and marmalade as soon as I could.

Because I wanted to make a good impression on this gentleman who served it to me (now my husband) I ate his concoction with plain yogurt and cut fruit. It was surprisingly good.

Nowadays we have this meal often in the winter. We started using the frozen nectarines cooked in the microwave when we didn't have fresh apples or bananas. If I feel like I need it, I throw a little Stevia on top. I think it would be even better if I had access to Greek-style yogurt, but I can personally vouch for cream. It almost tastes like dessert for breakfast with real cream.

We use Mighty Tasty Gluten Free cereal or 8 or 10 grain cereal, all from Bob's Red Mill. These are cracked, not rolled grains, and yield a nice consistency and taste. I've also used these cereals in meatloafs, instead of bread crumbs or oatmeal. They are complex carbs. Combine them with the protein in the yogurt and the fiber in the fruit and it has good staying power, too.

I boil 2 cups of water and add 1/2 cup of the dry cereal for two people. You can let it cook until it's as thick as you want. It's an easy way to start your fruit and vegetable intake early.

Agave Syrup - Good or Bad?

2009-01-08T15:02:00.004-07:00

Agave syrup is a relatively new sweetener on the market and, along with stevia and brown rice syrup, is a new tool for our cooking and baking. Early whole foods cookbooks used honey almost exclusively, and lots of it. Agave nectar reacts differently in the body, making it a good adjunct to honey.

Through its lower Glycemic Index (GI), which is a controversy for another day, of 11, it is a good sweetener for diabetics because it doesn't stress insulin producing cells or cause blood sugar surges with corresponding drops. I like the idea of eating baked goods without getting the shakes.

It consists of 70-90% fructose and 10-30% glucose (reports vary), and is made by evaporating agave sap (like maple syrup - which is almost 100% sucrose) and using enzymes to convert a majority of the inulin (a complex sugar which the body can't digest) to those two simple sugars.

Agave syrup is thinner than honey, which makes it a little easier to use, and has less taste, even the unfiltered, darker variety. I like to mix honey with brown rice syrup and now I'll try mixing it with agave syrup, because it cuts the strong honey flavor and both add the benefit of having sugars which are metabolised more slowly than honey (which has a GI of about 75).

But not everyone is a friend of agave syrup or nectar (I wonder what they are trying to sell). Here is a paper just published: Agave Nectar, the High Fructose Health Food FraudMonday, November 24, 2008 by: Rami Nagel

And its rebuttal:Agave Nectar: A Rebuttal to Misinformed Attacks on this Natural Sweetener Thursday, December 11, 2008 by: Mike Adams

So what should we believe? I am drawn to the side that doesn't use gross generalizations or extrapolations like the one in which lab rats fed purified fructose had health problems or that inulin is like cornstarch, so I favor the second paper. I also like papers which have references so that you can look up the research and see for yourself. That would favor the first paper. Except that I've already seen the research on fructose causing heart disease and find it flawed, the subject group too small and the statistics exagerated.

The final analysis, though, is that a fructose/glucose combination is something that won't make my husband sick (sucrose causes headaches in him), and in small amounts I agree that sweeteners of all kinds are good for you because they make things palatable that you wouldn't eat otherwise.

Germinated Brown Rice

2009-01-07T15:10:00.003-07:00

I just came across this article on GBR yesterday and found it fascinating. I would like to try it, but I first must find a hot plate to make the rice with. It is also not clear which kind of brown rice will sprout, but I will try Lundberg, which I have on hand, first.

This is not new news. It has been reported on since the 1990s. But purchasing sprouted brown rice, like AnnieChungs is expensive and I don't want to throw money around for what is a cheap resource.

Also, a cool link to rice art in the field here.

Carb Feasting

2008-12-30T15:27:00.004-07:00

You do not want to know how many carbs are in this breakfast. Really.

Sweet potato shredded and browned in olive oil with salt and pepper and eggs poached on top of cooked winter squash. Add a dollop of blender Hollandaise sauce and some chile rojo powder and you've got yourself quite a weekend feast for two.

The hash browns take about 30 minutes to cook. I used 1 sweet potato (1 lb.) grated, 2 tablespoons olive oil (1 T. to start and 1 T. after 15 minutes), about 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper fresh out of the grinder. All in a non-stick skillet (Swiss Diamond)

For the poached eggs take 1 cup of cooked winter squash (we have some in the freezer or it comes in the freezer section of the supermarket or cook some the night before) and heat it in a non stick skillet with a little butter. Salt and pepper the top and drop 3-4 eggs on it. Cover and cook until eggs are done. Serve with:

Blender Hollandaise Sauce
1 stick butter
3-4 T. lemon juice
2 egg yolks
several drops of Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper or nothing

Melt butter until bubbly.
Mix lemon juice and egg yolks and Tabasco with an immersion blender, whisk or in a blender. Slowly pour hot, melted butter into container while blending.

If mix is too thin you can microwave for 5-10 seconds and blend again. It sets up a lot as the butter cools down.

This sauce is very tart, some people will think it's not a good substitute for the real thing, but it's so easy to make that it's worth a shot.

You may want to try and cut the recipe in half for 2 people. You really only need a tablespoon or two per serving.

Orange French Toast

2008-12-27T09:06:00.004-07:00

Rick is out hunting for elk with his friend Paul today. Paul is an avid hunter and the December/January hunt is essential to fill their freezer. He's also an excellent butcher. It's a big job, but it results in better meat than when you take it to a processor. Anyway, it's one of the coldest mornings in the valley and they are over at a friend's place, standing outside and watching for the large beasts to roam by. It's not something I would do.

What I would do is try out a new recipe for French Toast. I wasn't sure it would taste good, so I didn't want to inflict it on Rick until I knew. Very filling and tasty, although I have ideas for tweaking the recipe next time.

Fruity from the OJ, I would pump up the orange taste by including fresh or dried orange zest. I would also omit the almond extract, since I couldn't detect it in the final product. The oats brown nicely, but could be left out, as well. So the only innovation in this recipe was to make it with orange juice instead of milk, and I liked that. Now if I could only find homemade bread that would yield a nice, sponge-y consistency...

Original recipe post

Orange French Toast
Serves 2

3 large eggs
3 T. frozen OJ concentrate, plus water to make 1/2 cup
2-3 T. rolled oats
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
4 slices of (whole wheat) bread

Mix the eggs and orange juice (I use an immersion blender for best mixing). Add the oats, cinnamon and flavorings and blend again. Let sit 20 minutes (for old-fashioned rolled oats). Pour egg mixture into shallow dish and soak bread until soggy. Melt butter in a skillet and brown the bread over medium heat.

Quinoa and Honey Bread

2008-10-26T11:22:00.007-06:00

My friend on the About.com channel posted a recipe for Quinoa and Honey bread on her site: South American Food. I had to try it because husband likes quinoa and I like the idea of more fiber and protein in my bread. I couldn't leave well enough alone, however, and had to substitute more whole wheat flour for the bread flour. Specifically, all the flour is whole wheat flour.

This made a denser loaf than most white-food-eating people like, but if I left the second rise a little longer, I could see it giving me more lift. My husband liked it, fresh and for breakfast, toasted with butter.

Quinoa Honey Bread, new version
See here for original version with white flour.

1 cup raw quinoa
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons yeast
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons powdered milk
2 tablespoons sourdough starter (optional)
3 1/2 -4 cups whole wheat white flour (King Arthur)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Rinse quinoa under running water for 30 seconds, swishing your fingers in it to wash off the bitter coating. I bought a special strainer for the task, one that has holes small enough to keep the quinoa in the sieve. Simmer the quinoa on the top of the stove in two cups of water until all the water has been absorbed. This takes about 20 minutes. Cook the oatmeal in 1/4 milk plus 1/4 cup water. Let both grains cool to warm.

Proof your yeast by dissolving the yeast in 3/4 cup warm water and a pinch of sugar. Let stand until bubbles form, about 10 minutes.

Stir honey, oil, powdered milk, and sourdough starter into the proofed yeast until combined.

Add one cup of flour and stir or mix with a dough hook until combined.

Add the cooked grains and mix well.

Keep adding flour until a medium stiff dough is formed, then knead for 5 to 7 minutes. I use a dough hook on my Kitchen Aide, because it's so much more comfortable to use than kneading by hand and I don't incorporate too much flour. The dough should be more homogeneous (you will still have bits of quinoa showing) and not too sticky.

Form dough into a ball, oil surface and place in a bowl or dough doubler, cover and let rise until double.

Remove from bowl and try not to degas too much. Pat into a rectangle and fold into thirds, creating a loaf shape and stretching the surface smooth (video about shaping a sandwich loaf). Pinch the seam and place into a large, greased loaf pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and let rise until loaf rises above the edge of the pan (I didn't do that because I was in too much of a hurry to get two different breads done). Slash top at least 1/4 inch deep with a sharp razor blade (called scoring). Let it go another 1/2 hour while oven heats.

Heat oven to 400 F and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until loaf sounds hollow and internal temperature reaches 190-200 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from oven and cool before slicing.

I have found that heating even our home ovens for a half hour to an hour will improve your bread product. I am still experimenting with my new baking stone, but I think it gives a consistent and superior product, too.

Here is a tutorial on bread doughs if you need a little more information about beginning bread making.

Quinoa Sides

2008-10-23T19:56:00.004-06:00

Despite the fact that Cooking Light uses too much sugar and white flour in their recipes, they have a bunch of good recipes and great ideas which can be tweaked.We found a quinoa recipe in Cooking Light, that called itself dressing, as for turkey. To get away from bread stuffing, which is yummy, but only if made with white bread, we gave it a try and it was wonderful, with a few modifications due to family preference (less garlic). It called for leeks, dried cherries and walnuts, perfect for a fall dinner.

We have made it several times since but used onions (leeks are expensive) and pecans, and this summer fresh cherries and herbs. Mixing the cooked quinoa with fruit, anything onion and nuts seems to be a winner.

Here is my rendition of quinoa with onions, pecans, parsley and peaches, served with Hoisin Chicken and grilled peppers.

Quinoa Side Dish

2 cups chicken broth
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 tablespoon butter
Cooking spray
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 cups chopped, fresh peaches
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Rinse quinoa under running water to remove bitter saponins. Cook quinoa in the chicken broth until liquid is absorbed (20-30 minutes).
Melt butter in large pan, brown onion, garlic and celery, add the quinoa, nuts and pepper and stir-fry for a few minutes. Add the peaches and parsley and warm through. Serve.

You can substitute fresh cherries and you can use frozen quinoa for a quick, weekday dinner.

Chocolate Malted Banana Cake

2008-10-03T13:42:00.002-06:00

Create a special occasion treat out of a simple chocolate cake.

I was intrigued by the malted milk powder being sold by King Arthur baking site so I added it to my purchase. It does not contain any sugar other than malt, which is primarily maltose and more complex carbs. When it arrived, I decided to try it as a sweetener in a chocolate cake, because I liked chocolate malted milk as a kid.

The sweeteners in this cake are malted milk powder and banana. Because I like it sweet, I would add a package of Stevia next time to the batter, as the malt and cocoa powder lend a distinct bitterness to the cake. Some people will find this pleasant, but you should use your own discretion as to how much sweetener and what kind to add.

I thought about adding a frosting, to increase the sweetness, but settled for a "sauce" so that I wouldn't have to refrigerate the cake afterwards. The sauce is cream cheese sweetened with malted milk powder (I had to try), agave nectar and Stevia, with a little milk to thin. This is a work in progress, but the sour cream cheese did offset the cocoa nicely.

Chocolate Malted Banana Cake

1 banana, mashed
1/2 c. malted milk powder from KA
2 eggs
1/4 c. melted coconut oil (cool enough to touch)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
3/4 c. brown rice flour
3/4 c. white whole wheat flour (KA)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. milk

Mix banana with malted milk, eggs, oil and cocoa until well blended. Mix the flours with the leaveners and add to the batter. Stir in milk until smooth. Pour into 8 inch x 8 inch pan which has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, until batter is set and cake is pulling away from the sides.

Mix 4 oz. of cream cheese with 1 tbsp. milk until smooth. Add 1 tbsp. agave nectar, 2 tbsp. malted milk powder and a few drops of liquid Stevia. Beat with a mixer for 2-3 minutes. Serve with cake.

Pepita Gremolata as a Salad Topper

2008-09-29T09:54:00.000-06:00

Gremolata is a chopped herb condiment made of garlic, parsley and lemon peel and traditionally served with beef shanks or "Ossobucco". I used these flavors and added pumpkin seeds (pepita), dried tomatoes and feta and topped our daily salad with it. Its flavor is very intense and gives the salad a peppy side, without using garlic or onions.

Pepita Gremolata
Serves 2

1/4 c. pepitas, toasted and ground (use old coffee grinder)
2 dried tomato halves, chopped
1/4 c. parsley leaves, chopped
1 tsp. oil
1/4 tsp. lemon zest
2 tsp. lemon juice
Black pepper, ground

Mix everything together until clumps form. Sprinkle on salad fixings.

Salad
Serve with spinach, 1 oz. feta, orange and yellow bell pepper, tomatoes and slices of red onions.

Frankfurter Pot Roast or Stew

2008-09-27T19:40:00.000-06:00

Far from being vegetarian, we use elk, venison or whatever else we can butcher. This stew was put in the crockpot on the back porch and I sat here and kept smelling BBQ beans and frankfurters. I thought it was our neighbors, but it was our food! This can be made as a pot roast or as a stew. Browning the meat adds dimension.
Last night we made it in a pressure cooker and although it had more broth than normal, the broth tasted incredible over a wild rice and rice mixture. So:

Crockpot
Pressure cooker
Stew
Pot roast

It's the spices that are special here.

Beef Frankfurter Stew
Serves 2-4
1-2 lb. beef roast
1 small cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
7 whole allspice
10-15 whole peppercorns
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 celery stalks
1-2 carrots
1/2 c. dry red wine
2 large tomatoes chopped, fresh or 1 small can of diced tomatoes
Salt to taste

Brown beef. Add onion, then celery and carrots to brown. Place whole spices in old coffee grinder and grind small. Add to beef with a little salt and cook a few minutes. Place mixture in slow cooker, add tomatoes and wine. Cook 8 hrs on low.

Pressure cooker: Brown in pressure cooker, add all ingredients, cover and bring up to pressure for 40 minutes. Let the pressure reduce on its own.

Gingerbread

2008-09-26T16:15:00.000-06:00

We are seriously into this coffee cake thing lately. It's easy to get good results in whole grain mode when you aren't trying to have a finished product like a wedding cake. Plus, they are simple to put together and by far the type of cake I am most likely to bake. Lately, I've been improving on the texture as well as the taste and am going for moist, non-crumbly results.

A gingerbread was requested and here is the second attempt. It was good, but I had to buy fresher ginger powder, mine finally became bitter.

Gingerbread
Makes an 8 inch by 8 inch pan
Please go to germanfood.About.com where I posted this recipe.

Lemon Coffee Cake

2008-09-12T12:09:00.000-06:00

I am showing you this first run of Lemon Coffee Cake because, although it didn't rise much in the middle, the texture was good and the taste was very good. First bite "Oh, it's not sweet enough", but by the last bite it was plenty sweet.
Reasons cakes don't rise:

I knocked the air out of the batter, somehow.
I need a little more flour.
I need xanthan gum or guar gum, to help it trap air.
The oven temperature was too high and the outside set up before the inside.

Lemon Coffee Cake
Makes 9 pieces, one 8x8 inch pan
1 ripe banana
1/4 c. date sugar
1/4 c. virgin coconut oil (it behaves like shortening)
2 large eggs
3 T. lemon juice
Zest from 1 lemon
1 pkg vanilla Stevia
2/3 c. yogurt
1/4 c. milk
1 c. whole wheat white flour
3/4 c. brown rice flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Topping: 1 tsp. granulated, dried lemon rind plus 1 pkg. Stevia powder

Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Take 2 mixing bowls. In the first, mash the banana with a fork. Add date sugar and mix well. Add coconut oil and mix well. Add the eggs and mix well. Repeat for all the wet ingredients plus Stevia, mixing well before the next one, so that the lemon juice doesn't curdle anything.

Start to heat the oven to 350F and grease and dust flour in an 8 inch x 8 inch pan.

In the second bowl mix the flours and leaveners. Pour the wet ingredients over the top and mix with a spatula until all ingredients are wet. Pour into pan and smooth top. Sprinkle topping over batter and bake for 35 minutes at 350F or until brown and sides are coming away from the pan.

Prepared Foods That Make Mealtime Easier

2008-09-10T17:03:00.000-06:00

Precooked ground beef- I buy 3 pounds at a time, brown it, sometimes with onions and sometimes with Mexican spices, ladle off the grease and liquid, then freeze in quart size freezer bags. I usually freeze in about 2 cup amounts (11 oz.) pressed 1 inch flat. That way, if you want to break it up and use it for a solo dinner or in combination with other proteins, it can be separated.

Making a with beef that is already browned eliminates one step and about 20 minutes of cooking time (to brown the ground round).

Rice - Freezer rice seems odd, like freezer noodles. It really can become important if you are trying to cook and eat brown rice, which takes 40 minutes to cook at sea level. Up at 6000 feet elevation, it takes about 1 hour. When we cook rice (in the rice cooker) we cook 3-4 cups, enough for 3 of our meals, pack the leftovers 1-2 cups each in a zip-lock freezer bag, press to 1 inch thickness, cool and freeze flat. We do the same for Quinoa, which makes a great substitute for rice or pasta in lunchtime cold salads.

Nectarines and peaches - Because we have access to fresh peaches and nectarines, as well as cherries and apricots, we slice and freeze these for wintertime toppings on cereal mornings. You can thaw and serve cold, or in smoothies, or you can cook for several minutes in the microwave and eat them hot. If their texture is funny, I puree them with a hand blender and eat as a fruit sauce. If you go to any pick-your-own orchard and come home with too much fruit, try freezing. Make apple or pear sauce to serve with pork or in baked goods.

Pre-cooked grilled chicken - If you are going to marinate and grill chicken, you might as well do a huge batch. Freeze the extras and you have instant chicken for chicken salads, or all those Cooking Light recipes that call for cooked, cubed chicken.

I freeze extra tomato paste. If I open a can and don't use it all, I place it by the tablespoon on Saran Wrap, cover it with another layer of plastic, press flat and freeze.

Frozen Ginger - Place the whole root in the freezer and grate it into your food while it's frozen. You don't have to peel it, most of the peel stays behind on the grater. Throw the rest back in the freezer.

Muffins and other quick breads. In order to eat healthy, I freeze muffins and bread for quick breakfasts and snacks. Muffins go well with lunch salads.

The point is, not to freeze whole dinners, but to get dinner making time down to a minimum when you are most vulnerable, at 7 or 8 pm at night. Even if you have easy access to restaurants, you want to fortify yourself with the idea that dinner can be on the table in 20 minutes, without resorting to packages or frozen dinners.

Cheeseburger Soup

2008-09-09T16:34:00.002-06:00

A considerably slimmed down version of this popular soup. It still has Velveeta in it though, so it's only an occasional treat.

I make it with precooked ground beef which I buy 3 pounds at a time, cook, sometimes with onions, ladle off the grease and liquid, then freeze in quart size freezer bags. I usually freeze in about 2 cup amounts (11 oz.) pressed 1 inch flat. That way, if you want to break it up and use it for a solo dinner or in combination with other proteins, it can be separated.

Making it with beef that is cooked eliminates one step and about 20 minutes of cooking time (to brown the ground round). This soup takes about 35 minutes to cook, including peeling potatoes.

Cheeseburger Soup

Serves 2 very hungry people or 3-4 moderately hungry people, or when there's a second course.

4 potatoes, cubed small
3-4 carrots, sliced
1/2 bell pepper chopped OR 1/2 celery chopped OR both
1 fresh jalapeno, chopped fine (integral ingredient)
10 oz. - 1 pound ground round, browned and drained (add more for more people- 1 lb. raw makes about 10 oz. browned)
2 cubes boullion (plus 2 c. water) or 2 cups broth
2 c. milk
4-8 oz. Velveeta, cubed

Optional: 2 T. brown rice flour stirred into 2 T. milk for a little thicker soup.

Cook potatoes and carrots in broth for 10 minutes. Add bell pepper and jalapeno and cook until potatoes are done. Add beef and milk and heat through.

Add cubed Velveeta and stir until melted. Add thickener, if you wish and bring to a short boil, stirring constantly. Salt and pepper to taste. Don't add more salt until after the cheese product is melted, because it's very salty.

Also, do not boil after adding milk and cheese, simmer only - or your soup will curdle

Sunday Brunch - Poached Eggs Ranchera and Strawberry Sorbet

2008-09-08T16:17:00.000-06:00

We are always looking for nice ways to have Sunday brunch. I like it out on the patio whenever possible. Food that takes a little while to make but not all morning is what we aim for. Lots of vegetables and lots of fruit, too.

Poached Eggs Ranchera

Serves 2

2 T. minced onion
1/2 c. chopped bell pepper, mixed colors
1 tsp. walnut oil
1/2 can of red enchilada sauce (5 oz.) or 1/2 cup homemade
3 - 4 eggs
Corn tortillas
Sliced tomatoes

Brown the onion, add the bell pepper and saute a few minutes. Add the sauce and heat through.
Serve over poached eggs and with warm, buttered tortillas and tomato slices.

We also had Strawberry Sorbet with this, which is an easy way to eat more fruit than you would otherwise.

Instant Strawberry Sorbet

2 c. frozen whole strawberries
1/4. c. Pineapple-orange concentrate
1 c. water

Blend until smooth, which takes a little patience, since frozen fruit really doesn't like to be blended. Let it rest a few minutes if there is no movement. If you make it ahead of time, place in freezer until you serve it. Serve with a spoon.

Blueberry Muffins

2008-09-07T16:04:00.000-06:00

After working on muffin recipes for years, this one is a real winner. No white flour and no refined sugar make them healthy, but they rise and have a texture like real, homemade muffins (not like those giant "muffins" you buy at CostCo).

Blueberry-Applesauce Muffins
1 c. applesauce
1/4 c. oil
1 lg. egg
1/4 c. date sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. brown rice flour
1 c. white whole wheat (or whole wheat pastry) flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. fresh blueberries, washed

Mix applesauce, oil, egg, date sugar, vanilla and milk together in one bowl well.
Mix dry ingredients together in another bowl well.
Set up 12 muffin cups and turn the oven to 350 degrees F.
Pour liquids over dry and mix with as few strokes as possible.
Mix in blueberries with a few strokes.
Fill 1/4 c. batter into each muffin cup (regular size). I use a gravy ladle and a small spatula to accomplish this.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Let them cool for awhile, or they stick to the muffin papers.

These muffins freeze well.

A few notes:
I haven't tried other, healthier flours in this. Brown rice flour is certainly better than white flour, but you could try chickpea flour, sorghum or other.
We could try to get the oil down to 1/8 cup.
Also, you could try frozen blueberries. I tried fresh peaches, but it lacked a citrus bite to the muffin.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

2008-09-04T16:25:00.000-06:00

The garden is wonderful, but having all come on at once can be overwhelming. I have about 10 different types of tomatoes in it, from Brandywines to Stupice to SunGold cherry tomatoes. I have made the following tomato sauce twice now and prefer it over other recipes because it has such a deep flavor. A couple of pounds of tomatoes makes 1-2 cups of sauce, but you can make small batches as the tomatoes ripen.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

2 - 3 lb any tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 onion, cut into pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped
several sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 T. olive oil
A sprinkle of salt and some freshly ground pepper

Lay out the tomatoes on a cookie sheet and divide onions and garlic evenly over tomatoes. Lay the thyme on top and drizzle oil over all. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast at 400F for 25 minutes. I roasted the second batch on the grill outside.

Remove the vegetables to the food processor and puree until smooth. Pour into a sieve that's been placed over a bowl and force the liquids through the sieve, leaving the skins and hard parts in the sieve. Place the liquids in ziplock bags and refrigerate. Freeze flat, then you can break off pieces if you just need a little. Perfect as ready-made pizza topping or noodle base.

Sun Dried Tomatoes

2008-09-03T15:58:00.000-06:00

The bush: Principe Borghese tomatoes.
An heirloom tomato that spilled out of the raised bed and onto the pathway. Despite being a "determinant" vine, the tomatoes are not ripening all at once, but that makes it possible to try different methods of drying tomatoes.

These tomatoes were dried by cutting in half and laying on 2 layers of cheesecloth. Then I wrapped the cheesecloth around them to keep bugs out and laid the small package (about 10 tomatoes) on top of the vegetable grilling basket on top of the grill in full sun. The grilling basket, a great tool in its own right, let air circulate all around the tomatoes. It took about 3 days in low humidity to dry. They are very sweet and tasty.

The next batch didn't do too well, since it rained halfway through the drying process. We took them inside, still on top of the grill basket, and placed them on top of the electric stove at the lowest setting for several hours. Then we turned off the stove and went to bed. I haven't tried the second batch yet.

Banana Bread

2008-08-30T13:08:00.001-06:00

Makes 3 mini loafs (the size you give away at Christmas)

3 very ripe bananas
1/2 c sour cream (yogurt or soured milk works, too)
1/8-1/4 c canola oil
1/2 c date sugar
2 eggs
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c gluten free flour
1/2 c other flour (I've tried amaranth and brown rice flours successfully)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c chopped nuts

Mash bananas well in mixing bowl. Add sour cream, oil and sugar and mix with a spoon or spatula. Add the eggs and mix well. Measure flours by spooning them into the cup and put them in the bowl on top of wet mixture. Place leaveners and salt on top of the dry ingredients and then mix in a few strokes (20-30). The soda reacts with the sour cream and starts looking spongy. Quickly add nuts and incorporate. Put into three pans sprayed with oil and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until done (the usual skewer or knife stick test). Cool. Can be frozen. Good breakfast and snack material. I have not tried one large loaf, but have read that consistencey of baked goods made with these flours is better in small size containers.

Reality Bites

Daily Vegetable Soup

Baked Chicken Fingers - Lowfat but still Breaded

Directions

No-Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

Quick and Easy Meatballs

Vegetarian Pea Soup

Dipping into Lunch

Basic, Wholegrain Muffin Recipe

New Lunch Recipe from Laurel's Kitchen

My Salad Rules - How to Build a Salad for Work

Making Soup for Lunch

Food for Thought

Cabbage and Potato - How About This Soup?

Chicken Wings - Eat In, Not Out

Green Soup with Ginger

Beef Stew in Red Wine

Soft Chili Tacos

Really Good BBQ Sauce

Potato Cheese Soup for One

Coconut Cake

Fresh Poblano Sauce

Deconstructing Funeral Potatoes

Egg Rolls

Breakfast Enchiladas

Potato and Sweet Potato

Rice and Cheese Patties

Zucchini Tomato Soup for Two

Meatloaves

Yes, Exactly!

Herbs and Spices are Rich in Antioxidants

Lunch Bucket

Why We Eat What We Eat

Experimental Breakfast Porridge

Whole Grain Waffles and Fruit Salad

I was out for a bit...

Parsley, Collards and Greens

Dreaming of Summer

Whole Wheat Bread

Tracking my Veggie Intake, Last Installment

Peanut Sauce

My Week of Veggies So Far

Prevention Magazine

One Week at a Glance

Chicken Soup with Rice

Lunch Today

Lunch Box

Cereal for Breakfast

Agave Syrup - Good or Bad?

Germinated Brown Rice

Carb Feasting

Orange French Toast

Quinoa and Honey Bread

Quinoa Sides

Chocolate Malted Banana Cake

Pepita Gremolata as a Salad Topper

Frankfurter Pot Roast or Stew

Gingerbread

Lemon Coffee Cake

Prepared Foods That Make Mealtime Easier

Cheeseburger Soup

Sunday Brunch - Poached Eggs Ranchera and Strawberry Sorbet

Blueberry Muffins

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Banana Bread