Gluten-Free Plus Plus

Cookie Dough Dip

2011-10-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had a girls' night. We gathered at a friend's house and played games. We've gotten together a couple of times and everyone brings a snack. Last time I just took a bag of pistachios. They were popular, but I was on facebook the other day and saw a link to "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip."

The "friends" on facebook said that it was healthy, so I took a minute to click over. There was also a sugar-free version.

So I made it for my friends.

I took the dip with a bunch of sliced apples. It was a hit. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Here is the original:

http://www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/05/23/want-to-eat-an-entire-bowl-of-cookie-dough/

Here is the sugar-free version:

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/09/27/new-recipe-sugar-free-cookie-dough-dip/

My changes:

I used slightly less than 1 Tbs vanilla. Because that was all I had. It was plenty vanilla-y.

I omitted the chocolate chips. No chocolate for me.

I used certified gluten-free oats.

I omitted the non-dairy milk. It was runny enough.

For next time, I will actually mix everything without the liquid from soaking the dates, and then add the date liquid as needed. I thought that with all the date liquid it was a little runnier than it needed to be. I was looking for a creamy hummus-like texture.

Despite the slightly more liquid-y than I wanted, it was delicious. Definitely worth doing again.

The Farmer's Market

2011-09-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

My friend and I went to the farmer's market this week. For a mere $20 I was able to get all this:

a bag of gala apples

2 cucumbers

3 zucchini

5 tomatoes

6 peaches

a butternut squash

a pumpkin

a bunch of kale

a bunch of sweet potato vine (the farmer said I could use it just like spinach)

Door to Door Organics

2011-09-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

There is a company here called Door to Door Organics. They actually deliver organic produce right to your door. I had heard about the company a while back, and then was super excited to see a Groupon for half off the small box (called a bitty box).

I decided to use my Groupon last week. (Obviously this is the moment to say how much I love Groupon).

Here's what I got:

2 apples

3 plums

2 nectarines

a bag of purple long beans

a bunch of carrots

a cucumber

a bunch of spinach

a head of green lettuce

Favorite Things

2011-09-04T16:30:00.001-07:00

It has still been 100 degrees around here. (Not today. Today is amazing. Today is gorgeous. Today is 80). So I have still been eating "summer food" = giant salads, whole produce, with maybe a little lentils and rice for fun.

But I thought I would share two things I am loving right now.

#1: Sun-dried Tomatoes

I bought them in a flat box, so they weren't packed in oil, and they were delicious. I sliced them and put them in a green salad, and I sliced them and put them in a bean salad.

#2: Garlic Sea Salt Grinder

Ok, it's the world's tiniest image, but the flavor packs a punch. It's delightful.

Tofu Marinade

2011-07-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I buy tofu. And then I cook it and eat it and I think... hm, I don't really like tofu. It's really just flavorless. But I know that I should marinate it or put a sauce on it or do something to make it a little more delicious. So today, even though I didn't plan well, I took the time to marinate the tofu.

First I was using extra firm tofu, so I pressed and drained it. I got out a big dinner plate and inverted a small bowl on top of it. I put the tofu on top of the bowl and then put a small plate on top of that. I put my two very heavy cookbooks on top of that (yes, it was a little precarious) and let it sit for a half hour to forty-five minutes.

While the tofu was pressing I whipped together the marinade. Then I checked the tofu and cubed it up. I dumped it in a bowl and covered it with the marinade.

I let that sit for forty-five minutes to an hour, and then I grilled the tofu.

It turned out great.

Tofu Marinade

1/4 onion, chopped

10-12 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbs olive oil + 2 more tbs olive oil

4 tbs lemon juice

1 tsp cumin

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium-low heat. Toss in the onion and garlic and cook them gently. In the meantime, squeeze the lemon juice into a deep bowl (or I just my liquid measuring cup). When the onions and garlic get soft and smell fragrant, drop in the cumin. Stir and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Then add the onions/garlic/oil mixture to the lemon juice. Add the extra olive oil and stir rapidly.

Pour the marinade over tofu and let it soak.

Summer Banana Treat

2011-07-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had a long meeting at work yesterday. When I left, the sign out in front of the building said 101 degrees. And as I proceeded down the road, the radio said the heat index was 110. And it felt every bit of it.

So I needed a little treat.

I had seen this recipe floating around on the internet. So I modified it a little and whipped it up in about two minutes. And enjoyed every bite.

Now, on the internet this has been called "Banana Ice Cream." Don't let that name fool you. It is not ice cream. And it doesn't taste like ice cream. But it is frozen and sweet and good.

Summer Banana Treat

1 frozen banana (I am the kind of person who buys a bunch of bananas and then freezes them when they are black. It's actually happening regularly these days, so I always have at least one in the freezer)

1 tsp carob powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped macademia nuts (I buy these from the baking aisle, they are meant for white chocolate chip macademia cookies)

Put the frozen banana in the food processor and pulse. The banana will break into small pieces (like dippin dots at the mall). When it gets to that state, dump it in a bowl and stir in the spices. Stirring will make the banana smooth and creamy. I like to add the macademia nuts on top, but you could stir them in as well.

Giant Salad

2011-07-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

I think I need a bigger bowl!

Salads are my go-to meal these days. I've definitely enjoyed a little bit of farmer's market bounty, and the warm days and good produce just make salads perfect.

I tend to make one-meal, single-serving salads in these enormous bowls that I have. The picture does not do the size of this bowl justice, but it is very large and is filled to overflowing. That's what makes salads the best.

Italian-style Rice Salad

2011-07-12T19:42:00.001-07:00

I lived in Italy for a few years. Italian summers are really hot and humid. It's rather like a North Carolina summer, except in Italy most places don't have any air-conditioning at all. This is true of places of business, but definitely true of houses. So all the Italian people change their eating habits in the summer so they don't have to heat up the kitchen (and the whole apartment). One of the common meals is a cold rice salad. This salad is meant to be served cold and is quite refreshing. You could heat up the rice a little before you toss the veggies in with it though. The other great thing about it is how quickly you can make it if you have leftover rice in the fridge.

As is typical with salad recipes, I totally just eyeball this, so this "recipe" doesn't contain real measurements.

Italian-style Rice Salad

Cooked brown rice

Cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half

Celery

Cucumber

Carrot

Onion or Leeks

Frozen green peas, warmed up

Olive oil, drizzled over the salad

Salt

Pepper

Directions: Chop up all the veggies into decently small pieces. Toss everything into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Farmer's Market and a Tomato

2011-06-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

My Farmer's Market haul on Saturday.

1 large bag of green and red lettuce

1 large box of ripe, delicious peaches

2 tomatoes (a lady walked up as I was purchasing my tomatoes, ate one of the free samples and said, "Wow! They taste like tomatoes! Hey, Susan, come try these, they taste like tomatoes!")

2 fatty cucumbers (and the peel on these is actually edible. No waxy build up)

1 bundle of spinach

1 bundle of kale

This is my favorite way to eat the tomatoes. Room temperature (because I stored them on the counter), sliced, with a tiny sprinkle of fleur de sel (my fancy salt).

Yeah, I'm the kind of person that would eat good tomatoes like an apple.

White Bean Salad and a Party Menu

2011-06-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Last week I hosted a farewell party for two of my coworkers. I asked people to bring a dish to share, but I knew I better have some food on hand.

I decided on a menu that would be quick and easy, that I could either purchase or make in advance, and that wouldn't be far off my "green" list, but that hopefully wouldn't look too weird either.

The menu:

Shrimp -- purchased frozen and served with a bowl of store-bought cocktail sauce.
Hummus with crudite and pita chips. The hummus and chips were store-bought, and I just chopped up carrots, celery, and a green pepper into convenient sticks.
White bean salad -- recipe to follow.
Watermelon -- cubed up by me.
Cream puffs -- store-bought from the freezer section.

Others brought meatballs, deviled eggs, and a fruit tray. I always worry, but there was plenty of food, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

White Bean Salad

This recipe is very flexible in size. For the party size, I used 3 cans of beans.

1 can navy beans (or any other white bean of your choice), drained and rinsed.

1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

4-5 tablespoons olive oil

5-6 tablespoons lemon juice (or the juice from one large, juicy lemon)

2 tsp dried oregano (parsley would also work here)

2 tsp salt

sprinkle of pepper

Put the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the olive oil and lemon juice until they emulsify and form and dressing. Add the salt, pepper, and oregano to the dressing. Whisk again vigorously.

Pour the dressing over the bean salad, stir, and refrigerate in a covered bowl for at least 2 hours so the flavors can get happy.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

This is also lovely served over a bed of greens.

Grilled Veggie Salad

2011-06-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

Summertime is a great time for salads. And here in the middle it is finally summer. We spent all of May at 60-65 degrees. June 1st hit 90. Woo hoo!! I love it!

I had some veggies that were looking a little sad. So this beauty is a grilled veggie salad, which cleans out the fridge so beautifully.

Grilled Veggie Salad

Romaine lettuce and spinach

Fresh parsley

Navy beans -- rinsed and drained really well

Grilled green bell pepper

Grilled yellow squash

Grilled carrot

Dressing -- olive oil, lemon juice, and a dash of salt.

Note: I like to fill the bowl with my lettuces and then dress the lettuces. Then I add everything else and pour a little more dressing over the top.

Birthday Dinner

2011-06-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Heather made me a special birthday dinner.

Main dish: Our main dish was veal using this recipe from Epicurious. I don't think our veal would actually be considered chops, because they didn't have bones. But they turned out delicious with the rosemary and garlic marinade/sauce.

Side dish: Fried Rice using this recipe from Epicurious. Yes, we did try to find duck, but the meat guy at the grocery store said they only sell whole duck, which we did not want to deal with. So we just left out the duck.

Salad: Basil and Tomato Salad using this recipe from Epicurious. We liked how this salad sounded the best. We replaced the arugula with romaine lettuce and spinach. Personally, I would change the proportions on the dressing. I like an even oil/lemon juice ratio.

Dessert: Plum, cherries, and blackberries. The cherries were delicious and perfectly ripe. I thought the blackberries were tasty, but Heather thought they were a little tart. The plums weren't ripe enough and were too hard for my liking. I realized the next day that I should have taken them out of the bowl and grilled them really quick. It only would have taken 5 minutes on my George Foreman.

Pasta with Pea Pesto

2011-06-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Heather and I tried a new recipe. I found this one through Tastespotting, and followed the recipe almost exactly.

Pasta with Pea Pesto

From the Sunny Vegan.

Ingredients:
1 pound linguine **I used Deboles Gluten Free Penne**
1/4 cup walnuts plus more for garnish
1 cup peas **I used frozen peas, that were slightly warmed in the microwave**
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs fresh basil plus more to garnish
3 tbs fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Method:
boil a large pot of generously salted water and cook pasta according to package directions.
in a food processor, finely grind walnuts then add peas. scraping the sides as needed. add the olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time and continue to blend until smooth. add basil and parsley and blend again, then add salt and pepper to taste. place finished pesto in a large bowl and add drained pasta, toss until blended and top with walnuts and fresh basil.

Restaurant Reviews

2011-06-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

Wow. That was a really long total food rut. I made the exact same things over and over, and when I wasn't cooking, I made the same salad over and over.

But my sister came to visit. So first, I planned a menu. Then I looked up a bunch of restaurants.

Let's do restaurant reviews first:

1. Siki -- a Japanese steak and sushi bar, where we had sushi.

Heather ordered her usual -- California roll and Spider roll, and I ordered my usual, Nigri tuna, nigri shrimp, a tuna roll and a cucumber roll.

It was all good, fairly priced, and the service was super fast. (A little too fast for us, I felt rushed).

2. Ingredient. This restaurant is focused on fresh organic food. They have a gluten-free menu and are able to cater to food allergies, vegetarians, vegans, etc. Perfect for me.

Heather and I both got a salad. I built my own salad, Heather chose the Cobb. They brought the salads out to us in the biggest salad bowls ever! They were awesome!

It was a great fun place to eat.

3. Nara -- a Japanese restaurant. I have to give a plug for Groupon here. If you aren't signed up for Groupon, click here, and get yourself signed up! I got a Groupon for Nara, pay $15 and get $30 worth of food. Totally worth it.

This was a lovely fancy upscale restaurant. It had a very nice ambiance. Heather decided to be adventurous and order their special -- the Corn Dog roll. She said it was delicious. I ordered my usual. Then we finished our first plates, and decided to order seconds. Yup, that's how we roll. I ordered yellowtail tuna, and it was fantastic.

Black Eyed Peas

2011-04-09T05:41:00.000-07:00

On one of the days in my rotation, the best source of some kind of protein is black eyed peas. I spent a couple of months wondering, "What the heck do you do with black eyed peas?"

I got some ideas from my Mark Bittman cookbook, and then I just started throwing stuff together.

Black Eyed Peas

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 tbs olive oil

1 can black eyed peas

1 tbs paprika

1 tsp salt

2 handfuls of spinach

How I do it:

In a saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until they are translucent. Add the paprika and stir it in. Drain and rinse the black eyed peas and add them to the pan. Cook until they are heated. Then add the handfuls of spinach and cover the pan. Cook only for 2-3 minutes until the spinach is wilted.

This can be eaten alone, over a grain like rice, or over a chopped salad.

Tuna Salad Dinner

2011-04-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

So what did I decide to put that delicious salsa on?

Salad of course.

This is the chopped salad that I posted a couple of days ago. I dressed it with olive oil and lemon juice, then topped it with salsa, and half a can of tuna fish, and just a sprinkling of salt.

Good dinner.

Salsa

2011-04-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

My favorite condiment in the world is salsa. I would happily put salsa on everything.

And so I decided on Friday night to make salsa. This picture is of my first version. I just made it with the stuff I had in the fridge. Then when I was grocery shopping I realized a couple of the things that would give it a little more color and pizazz. Because really, you might as well eat with pizazz.

Salsa

tomatoes -- half a box of cherry tomatoes or 2-3 roma tomatoes. Try to get some with some flavor.

1/4 red onion

1/4 green pepper

1 clove garlic

1/3 cucumber

the juice from 1/2 lime

small bunch of parsley or cilantro

salt

1 tbs olive oil

How I did it:

I chopped everything up in a small dice, as small as I could manage. I put it all in a bowl, squeeze the lime juice over it, added the salt and olive oil and then stirred it.

I let it sit in the fridge for a little while and it tasted even better.

Chopped Salad

2011-04-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

Isn't that beautiful and bright green?

I started feeling like I needed to eat more raw vegetables. I know it probably sounds completely ridiculous to say that I need to eat more vegetables, because that's practically all I eat. But it is almost, sort of, trying hard to become spring -- although here in the middle, we keep suffering setbacks to spring that always come in the form of snow -- and I have been feeling like the winter food I have been eating wasn't cutting it anymore.

So I started an experiment.

I read an article in the newspaper about how wonderful chopped salads are. Rather than large chunks of lettuce and other goodies, everything is chopped up really fine. According to the author this is absolutely the best.

So I went and bought all the types of greens I can eat -- romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, spinach, and kale. I got out my biggest bowl, and chopped everything up really small. I tossed the bowl in the bottom drawer of my fridge, and hoped that would keep everything inside pretty fresh.

It did. I ate this salad all week long.

Sometimes I dressed the salad with olive oil and lemon juice. A lot of the time I just poured/placed whatever I was having for lunch -- the heavy winter food -- on top. It was great with the black eyed peas, the lentils, and even the navy bean and rice soup.

It was an easy change for spring.

Microwaved Mug Muffins

2011-04-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Millet Mug Muffin

Buckwheat Mug Muffin

I came across the blog Edible Perspective a few weeks ago. I was surprised to find what Ashley calls "Buckwheat Bakes." I discovered that with just a few tweaks, I could eat these!

They are basically muffins, and so you can imagine how excited I was. It has been so long since I have made or eaten muffins.

And the other appealing feature is this makes one single serving that can be cooked in the microwave. And they taste good.

Mug Muffins

1 flax egg = 2 1/2 tbs boiling water + 1 tbs ground flax

1/2 banana, mashed

2 tbs water

1/4 buckwheat flour or millet flour

1 tbs carob powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp chia seeds

handful of raisins (optional)

Here's how I do it:

Put the 2 1/2 tbs water in a large mug and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the 1 tbs flax and let it gel for a minute.

Meanwhile, mash up the banana. (I do this on a plate -- yes, one more dish)

Then add everything to the mug and stir really well.

Cover the mug with a paper towel and microwave it for 1 min 45 sec or 2 full minutes.

Then I just eat it straight out of the mug with a spoon.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

2011-03-02T06:15:00.000-08:00

This is carrot soup. I've posted about it before here -- but I made a modification this time. I added ginger.

Roasted Carrot Soup

8 carrots

2 ribs of celery

1/2 onion

3 cloves of garlic

Safflower oil

5-6 cups of water

2 bay leaves

salt

1 inch ginger

cumin

paprika

Wash and chop the carrots into halves. Put them on a cookie sheet and drizzle with safflower oil. Bake at 400 until the carrots are tender. Check and flip them about halfway through.

In a stock pot, sautee the onion, garlic, and celery in a little safflower oil. Add the water, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to a boil and drop to a simmer.

Add the carrots and ginger. Simmer for just a little while. Puree everything (using your handy immersion blender -- or a real blender). Sprinkle in some cumin and paprika, and a little salt if needed.

Tomato, Rice and Bean Soup

2011-03-01T06:12:00.000-08:00

Back to my new cookbooks. This recipe comes from Veganomicon.

I didn't modify the recipe, so I won't post it. But this was my first time roasting garlic. Wow! It smelled fantastic (my hands still smell). It was really just lovely.

Cinnamon Raisin Bake

2011-02-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

I had a rough day on Friday, and on Saturday I decided to bake. I don't know if you have noticed this trend on my blog lately, but I haven't baked any baked goods in quite a while. The green diet, particularly the no corn, is making my love for muffins harder to fulfill.

I came across this recipe by Ashley at the Edible Perspective. I think I read through it two or three times before I really believed that this was a baked good with no milk -- or replacement/fake milk -- no eggs, and no baking powder.

This was something I had to try. ... With modifications.

I used Ashley's suggestion of millet flour in place of the chickpea flour. It was my first time working with millet flour, and it's good. It may have made this slightly more dry than the chickpea flour would, but it held together.

Cinnamon Raisin Bake

Adapted from the Edible Perspective

3/4 C millet flour

1/2 C buckwheat flour

1/2 t salt

1T sucanat or pure cane sugar (I left this out entirely. It would taste much better with it)

1 C water

1.5 t cinnamon

2 T safflower oil

1/2 C raisins

Preheat oven to 375.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well until fully combined.

Grease a 9×9 square pan [or 8-9” round pan].

If using the sq. pan bake for 35min.

Lebanese Lentil Salad

2011-02-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

I was looking at recipes and came across this recipe for Lebanese Lentil Salad. I modified it a little (of course), but totally loved it! I picked up all the ingredients so I can make it again this week.

Lebanese Lentil Salad

Adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

1 C brown lentils

1 C sprouted mung beans
2 T + 2 T extra-virgin olive oil
10-12 cloves garlic, very finely minced
finely chopped fresh parsley (I used dried last time, but will use fresh this week)
4 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Romaine Lettuce

I bought dehydrated sprouted mung beans. Cook them according to the package directions to rehydrate them.

Cook the lentils in about 3 cups of water.

While the beans are all cooking, mince the garlic. Then in a saucepan, heat 2 tbs oil over low heat and add the garlic. Keep the garlic over low heat so it doesn't get burned.

In a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice, add the other 2 tbs oil, cumin, salt and pepper. Then add the fragrant garlic and whisk everything together.

Add the mung beans and the lentils together and pour the dressing over everything, add the parsley, and combine.

Chop the romaine lettuce and spoon the lentils over top.

Parsnip, Turnip and White Bean Soup

2011-02-17T04:16:00.000-08:00

I bought some turnips a few weeks ago. Then I roasted them and stored them in the freezer. That wasn't a good idea. When I thawed and ate them, the turnips were incredibly mushy and -- let's be honest -- gross.

I bought some more turnips last week. They are on the list, and I'm not really sure what I thought I would do with them.

So I thought and thought. I knew I didn't want to just roast them again. Then I thought what if I combine it with parsnips. Then I thought, that might be a little overpowering. It needs something to tone down the flavors. So I came up with this soup.

Parsnip, Turnip and White Bean Soup

2 tbs sunflower oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

3 medium turnips, diced

4 parsnips, diced

4 cups (or more as needed) water

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

1 tbs dried sage

1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained

Start the sofrito. When the sofrito is softened, toss in the turnips and parsnips. Cook them just a little and then add the water and spices. Bring everything to a boil and then drop it to a simmer.

When the parsnips and turnips are soft, add the can of beans. Let everything cook for 5-7 minutes.

Then blend the soup with your immersion blender until it is smooth and creamy. Check for the seasonings and adjust as needed.

Black Eyed Peas and Kale Soup

2011-02-16T04:16:00.000-08:00

If you have read much of this site, you know I love soup. Especially this winter. It has been so cold around here that I have a really hard time eating raw veggies. Since veggies are most of what I eat, soups become perfect.

Black Eyed Peas and Kale Soup

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 rib celery, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

2 tbs safflower oil

4 cups water

1 can black eyed peas, drained

handful of fresh parsley, chopped

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

4-5 leaves of kale, destemmed and chopped

In Italy, the onion, garlic, carrot and celery is called a sofrito. So start your sofrito in the two tablespoons of oil. Once the onions are translucent and the celery and carrots are softening, add the water. Bring it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add the black eyed peas, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Bring back to a boil and lower the heat.

Simmer for a while so that the flavors begin to blend and the veggies soften. Then toss in the chopped parsley and kale and cover so they steam for a minute.

Remove from heat and serve.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

2011-02-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

I had some friends over for lunch this weekend. I haven't seen them in a while, so it was really nice to get together.

Sometimes when we get together we do a potluck. This always turns out fun because everyone will bring the veggies they have in the fridge and we turn it into a huge salad. But this time I decided to cook the meal.

First I made the Lima Bean Soup. I've made it before and really liked it and it was a big hit with my friends too. And secretly, it was the perfect way to use up that yellow squash that was looking a little sad.

Second, I made Stuffed Acorn Squash. I had an acorn squash sitting on the counter, which was where my idea came from. Then I looked in my Mark Bittman cookbook to see if he had any good ways to cook acorn squash. He had several, but none of them worked for me. But I liked the idea he included of stuffed acorn squash with a filling with rice and some other stuff. So with that idea in mind, I took to the internet.

I quickly found that most people stuff their acorn squash with a lot of very sweet stuff. I like my squash (and my sweet potatoes) a little more savory. They are sweet enough themselves, so I need balance.

After looking and looking, I decided what I wanted to put in my squash.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

3 acorn squash, halved and deseeded

1 cup wild rice blend

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, diced

1 celery rib, diced

1 apple, diced, but slightly larger

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

2 tbs olive oil, plus some more

1/2 tbs sage

salt and pepper

Start the rice. Check the package directions, because some wild rice blends are different, but mine was the usual 2 cups of water for one cup of rice. Salt the water and add some oil.

Prep the squash, then brush the flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place it cut-side down in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

While the rice is cooking and the squash is baking, prep the veggies. In a large frying pan, heat 2 tbs of olive oil. Toss in the onions and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add the carrots and celery. When those are starting to soften, add the apples and remove it from the heat.

In a large bowl, combine the rice with the veggies/apple mix. Add the chopped walnuts. Stir it gently. Add the sage and salt and pepper to taste. Go ahead and be liberal with the seasoning, because there isn't a lot of strong seasoning on the squash.

Pull the squash out of the oven. Flip each half over and fill it with the rice stuffing. I had enough of the mix to fill all 6 halves plus a little left over.

Return the squash to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Cinnamon Bananas

2011-02-14T03:46:00.000-08:00

I love to read food blogs, but I haven't actually been reading a variety of food blogs for that long. So I am fascinated to see the cycles that the entire food blog world seems to go through.

Right after Christmas, all the blogs started a "Healthy" or "Detox" kick. Everyone was posting soups, salads, smoothies, etc. Then, almost as quickly as that started, they moved into a "Superbowl Sunday" phase. All the food was chicken wings and pizza and all kinds of dips. And now, it is all Valentine's day. Everything is chocolate and red or pink.

Despite my super cute little hand towel up there that says "Love," this will not fit into the category of a Valentine's recipe. I just thought it was cute.

This was my dessert today and I ate it for breakfast.

I had a super super mushy banana. It was even beyond the point at which I would just eat it. Normally I would just throw it into the freezer and use it later in pancakes or a smoothie. But today I decided to do something a little different.

Sauteed Banana

1 overripe banana, sliced in large pieces

drizzle of oil

cinnamon

Heat a small sautee pan and put a very small drizzle of oil in. Barely enough to coat the bottom. Then put in the bananas and cover liberally with cinnamon. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side.

This makes the banana warm, super sweet, and a little caramel-y.

Red Lentils and Rice with Carmelized Onions

2011-02-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

I'm still having a lot of fun cooking out of my brand new cookbooks. The second book that I bought is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

I tried one of their recipes this week, and I quite enjoyed it. Although when I make it again I will be making a few little tweaks.

The Recipe is Red Lentils and Rice with Carmelized Onions.

The carmelized onions are absolutely the best part.

And this is the final dish.

It really is very tasty, but I have to be honest. I like red lentils so much plain that this is just not my favorite way to use red lentils. And of course, because I am slightly cheap, I would rather use cheaper regular old lentils because they would work perfectly here.

I'll post my adaptation when I make this dish again.

Sweet Potato and Leek Soup

2011-02-06T10:24:00.001-08:00

I was reading my Mark Bittman cookbook and kept looking at the recipe for Potato and Leek Soup.

It said "3 potatoes, any kind."

Does that really mean ANY kind? Would it work with sweet potatoes? I love soup. How bad could it be?

It is delicious. It's a little like a butternut squash soup. And absolutely the best kind of recipe.

Sweet Potato and Leek Soup

adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

2 tbs olive oil

3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into small pieces

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced (cut off the dark green parts)

2 cups homemade vegetable stock

water

salt and pepper

1 bay leaf

Heat the oil in a deep stock pot. Add the vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium high. Salt and pepper.

Add the stock and enough water to cover the vegetables. Toss in the bay leaf and another teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Simmer for about 30 minutes until the sweet potatoes are soft.

Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup. Taste and adjust seasoning.

This is linked to Simply Sugar and Gluten Free.

Cooking up a Storm

2011-02-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Last weekend two cookbooks that I ordered arrived. I was so excited! I spent Saturday reading, and Sunday cooking up a storm.

I got every pot and pan I own dirty.

This is book number one: How to Cook Everything -- Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. Now I love him.

Of course I couldn't cook all the recipes from the cookbooks at once. So here is what I did make.

Roasted Carrot Soup

Tuscan-Style White Beans -- from How to Cook Everything -- Vegetarian.

These are navy beans cooked with sage and garlic. They are very good.

Braised Lentils, Spanish Style -- from How to Cook Everything -- Vegetarian.

These are lentils with carrots, celery and onions and a whole lot of paprika.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Split Pea Soup

A Special Dinner Out

2011-02-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

While I was hanging out at my parents' house for Christmas, my older sister and her husband made us a fantastic meal as part of our special night to go see the Lion King.

They worked really hard to make the meal so that I could eat everything.

First course: Navy Bean Soup

Second course: Salad with cherries

Third course: Lamb with a minted Pea Puree

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse with Cherry Compote (I didn't eat that. I ate fresh cherries)

Lasagna

2011-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Have I ever shown you my lasagna?

I lived in Italy for a year and a half. I learned how to make magnificent lasagna. Over Christmas, Kim and I made our own homemade pasta, and then she helped me make lasagna.

Tuna Steak

2011-02-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

One of the things on my green list is tuna. I've eaten a lot of tuna from a can, and I love tuna sushi, but my sister has always told me to try tuna steak.

I was at the grocery store one day and found some frozen tuna steaks that were on sale. So I bought them.

This was the sweetest, most delicious piece of fish.

The package directions recommended broiling. So that is what I did. I wilted some spinach in a pan, with just a little olive oil and salt, and then plated everything.

It was delicious. And I should go buy some more tuna.

Ebelskivers

2011-02-01T03:08:00.000-08:00

As a family, we have a lot of Christmas traditions. One of those traditions is our Christmas morning breakfast.

This is the table as we are just getting ready for breakfast.

Our breakfast is a special meal called Ebelskivers. These are a Danish pancake ball. If you get the Williams Sonoma catalog, you have seen these as filled pancakes. But we did them before Williams Sonoma made them cool.

The history that gets told about ebelskivers is that the Vikings cooked little balls of dough in the divets on their shields. Our family history says that somehow an ancestor at some point passed the tradition down. We have always made them on Christmas morning and filled them with strawberries and whipped cream.

To make the ebelskivers, you need an ebelskiver pan. As you can sort of see, it just has half spheres. You fill each groove with batter, and then use a fork to keep turning it until all the batter is cooked and you have a little ball.

And voila! the finished product.

And these are gluten-free.

My mom used the Bisquick pancake mix. Instead of following the instructions exactly, she used whipped egg whites, one more than is called for (so if it's 3 eggs, use 4 whipped egg whites). She also added more milk than was called for.

My brother said they tasted fabulous.

Brussels Sprouts

2011-01-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

I spent the whole morning cooking yesterday. And today, we are battening down the hatches for some serious winter weather. At least that is what they are predicting. We'll see what happens.

And so it seems like the perfect time for some blog updating. Since I have left it alone for so long.

Last week I loaded some pictures off my camera, so now I can show you some holiday cooking.

I traveled to my parents' for Christmas. I think my diet was a major source of concern for my mom, and honestly I was worried about how it would go too. It's easy to do it when you live alone, but harder when there are actually other people around. My family was super supportive.

They picked me up at the airport and we got home at about midnight. We walked in and everyone just started heading up the stairs to go to bed. But my mom turned to me and said, "Oh, are you hungry? I got you something at Trader Joe's today."

She went to the fridge and pulled out:

Yes, that's right. An actual stalk of brussels sprouts.

I said I wasn't hungry, and we went to bed. But the brussels sprouts sure tasted good when we roasted them up a few days later.

Yellow Squash

2010-12-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

Simple food.

Yellow squash cooked in a pan with a dash of salt. I don't even put oil on these.

Soba Noodles and Sauce

2010-12-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

This meal is a little bit of a miracle. Do you know how much stuff they put in tomato sauce? By "they" I mean those companies that process tomato sauce and put it into jars. I make really good tomato sauce (I lived in Italy. I did learn a few things). But sometimes, especially now, I really need something simple that actually feels like a meal.

By doing some finagling on my daily rotation, I was able to eat this tomato sauce. It is the most basic tomato sauce I have ever seen in a jar. Just tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, onion, and basil. The brand is Monte Bene and it's the plain tomato and basil sauce. I found it in the gluten-free section of my local health food store.

I generally like a chunky tomato sauce. This isn't chunky, but it has really good flavor. And it has some chunks of garlic, which satisfies the desire for chunks a little bit.

The brightly colored noodles are a package of soba noodles that are 100% buckwheat. The brand is King Soba. Again, I found them in the gluten-free section of my health food store.

A note about soba noodles. The first time I made these, I realized that there is definitely a reason why they are used in Japanese preparations exclusively. They are not at all what you expect when you are thinking Italian pasta. And if you put tomato sauce on them, you can't help but think Italian pasta. Be sure to cook them long enough so they loose the little bit of slimy-ness. Also I wound up just cutting mine with my kitchen scissors. They were a little hard to bite through.

There isn't really a recipe here, but I am recommending both of these brands.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

2010-12-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

For most of my life I hated sweet potatoes. I wouldn't ever eat them. Then I had a friend in grad school who told me that marshmallows on top wasn't the only way to eat sweet potatoes. Really?

Now I love sweet potatoes. It got so bad last year, I started to turn orange. Does that memory stop me? No!

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Preheat the oven to 350. Wash and dry the sweet potato. Drizzle a little oil and rub it in. I think I used olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Cook until a fork easily pierces the potato.

Cut it up and sprinkle with a little more salt, paprika, cumin, and maybe some coriander.

Cranberry Millet

2010-12-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure that with this recipe I am adapting some things that I have read on the great internet. But I'm not sure who to attribute it to specifically.

Cranberry Millet

1/2 cup millet

1/2 cup (or more) fresh whole cranberries

cinnamon

Bring 1 cup of water to boil and add the millet. Slice the cranberries into pieces and add them to the millet, don't stir them in yet. Add a dash of cinnamon (or two). When the millet has absorbed almost all of the water, then stir in the cranberries.

I was surprised that this wasn't as tart as I was expecting it to be. But most of you would probably prefer this sweetened a little, so I'll recommend a drizzle of honey or maple syrup over top of your bowl.

Mashed Pumpkin

2010-12-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

Since I am going with simple food these days, I'm also going with simple pictures. Yes, I will show you that I do most of my cooking on my stovetop because it is flat. I will show you my cutting board where I chopped my toasted walnuts and the debris that is left on that. This is simple food and this is how I make it.

I was still using up the rest of my pumpkin, so this is another recipe for it.

Mashed Pumpkin

2 wedges of roasted pumpkin

walnuts, toasted

sunflower oil

dried sage

salt

I just chopped the pumpkin into a bowl. I toasted the walnuts in a pan on the stove. Be careful with that. Then I added those to the pumpkin, drizzled with oil and sprinkled in a little sage and salt and mashed everything together.

Rice with Pumpkin

2010-12-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking this weekend that maybe I should change the name of this blog (again) to "Simple Food." I won't, but simple food is all I eat these days. I'm pretty impressed with myself if I make a dish that has more than two ingredients in it (not counting oil and salt).

This dish came together because it was a Sunday evening and I opened the fridge and just tossed stuff in a bowl. It was delicious.

Rice with Pumpkin

2 wedges of roasted pumpkin

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

sunflower oil

dried sage

salt

I roasted a pumpkin a couple weeks ago by just cutting it into wedges and roasting it at 425. I think I had grand plans for the pumpkin, but they never materialized. I just froze the wedges instead.

So to make this, I cut up two of the pumpkin wedges, dropped them into a bowl with rice, heated that up in the microwave. Then before everything was completely warm, I took it out, drizzled it with oil, sprinkled salt and about a 1/2 teaspoon of sage, and heated it again. Then I stirred, and ate it.

Menu Plan

2010-12-12T08:17:00.001-08:00

Last week (the one right after Thanksgiving) I did not do a good job of planning. I had some unexpected meetings at work, and so all my planning time was taken up. It made it a harder week.

So for this week, I sat down and planned really well. I made a list of what I would eat on each day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Then I made a shopping list based on all of that. Then I realized there were only 12 days until I get to go home for Christmas, so I bought enough food for 3 rotations (it's a four day rotation).

Here's the plan:

Day 1

Breakfast: soymilk. banana.

Lunch: black eyed peas w/ rosemary. carrots

Dinner: cod. or tofu and sardines

Snack: pistachios. carrots. banana.

Day 2

Breakfast: millet with cranberries

Lunch: brussels sprouts

Dinner: lentils. tuna steak.

Snack: hazelnuts. apple. cucumber

Day 3

Breakfast: lima beans

Lunch: sweet potato

Dinner: buckwheat pasta and tomato sauce

Snack: brazil nuts. kiwi

Day 4

Breakfast: okra

Lunch: shrimp

Dinner: rice and pumpkin or other roasted veggies

Snack: walnut. sunflower seeds. orange

Split Pea Soup

2010-11-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

Over the past week or so, I've just been eating really simple food. A piece of fish, slow simmered. Vegetables either chopped and roasted, or just raw. Handfuls of nuts. Pieces of fruit.

I've discovered some interesting things. First, almost any vegetable is good roasted with salt. This works with fish too. I've never eaten a wide variety of fish, but I like the different flavors of all of them. But flounder is a little weird. On the downside, I've discovered that I don't like radishes. They are fine and crunchy when you stick them in your mouth, but then it starts burning. Yuck.

Moving on from things I've learned to things I've cooked, today, I decided to mix it up a little. And make yet another soup.

I know, you are probably thinking that soup is not really mixing it up for me. But I like it.

Split Pea Soup

1 1/2 cups dried split peas

3 cups water

salt

1 leek, sliced

3 small radishes, diced small

2 cups spinach

dried oregano

Bring the water to a boil. Add the split peas and reduce to a simmer. It will take about a half hour for the split peas to soften and get tender. Add the salt - 1 or 2 teaspoons, the leek, the radish and the oregano. Raise the temp to medium heat and cook the soup until the leek and radish are tender. Add the spinach, just to the top of the soup, don't stir it in yet. Cover the soup with a lid for 3-4 minutes until the spinach wilts. Then stir it in, adjust the seasoning, and serve.

Lentil Dahl

2010-11-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

On Day 2 of my rotation, I can have lentils and tomatoes. So I decided to try for the Lentil Dahl recipe that I have posted here.

Of course it needed some tweaking.

My portion is all ready to be taken to work for lunch.

Lentil Dahl

1 cup lentils

3 roma tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic

olive oil

salt

1-2 tsp ginger

dash of paprika

Boil 2 cups of water and add the lentils. Turn down to a simmer. Cook until the lentils have absorbed the water and are soft.

Add a 1/3 cup of water, the diced tomatoes, peeled and smashed garlic, olive oil and spices. Allow the mix to simmer until the tomatoes are tender.

Puree half of the mix (with an immersion blender) and stir everything together. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Note: this could be served over rice.

Tilapia and Cod

2010-11-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

I told you not too long ago, that I have adjusted my fish cooking technique.

I used this for all the fish I cooked this week, and it worked out beautifully. The fish was all moist and flaky and really quite delicious.

I had Tilapia

And Cod.

Roasted Carrot Soup

2010-11-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

A little wrench got thrown into my meals plans. I discovered that not only do I have to eat only from the green list, but I have to eat the foods in a rotation. This makes things a little harder.

To my surprise and relief, I still found good things to eat. And of course, I'm going to share them.

Roasted Carrot Soup

Inspired by this recipe

8 carrots

2 ribs of celery

Safflower oil

5-6 cups of water

3-4 bay leaves

salt

cumin

coriander

Wash and chop the carrots into halves. Put them on a cookie sheet and drizzle with safflower oil. Bake at 400 until the carrots are tender. Check and flip them about halfway through.

In a stock pot, sautee the celery in a little safflower oil. Add the water, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to a boil and drop to a simmer.

Add the carrots. Simmer for just a little while. Puree everything (using your handy immersion blender -- or a real blender). Sprinkle in some cumin and coriander, and a little salt if needed.

Acorn Squash

2010-11-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

I had a lovely acorn squash. I have seen a lot of recipes recently for stuffed acorn squash, so I altered the idea and did it how I can.

Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash. Cut it in half and bake it in a pyrex dish with about an inch of water at 350 until the flesh is tender.

Walnuts, toasted

Olive oil

Salt

Cumin

Coriander

Cinnamon

After the squash is cooked, scoop the flesh into a bowl. Add the toasted walnuts, oil, and spices and mash everything together.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2010-11-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a very busy week, so when I finished the soup from last week, I was left just eating salads. I had a few veggies still in the fridge though, so I roasted up the rest of the brussels sprouts. It was quick and easy on a cold, rainy night.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Washed brussels sprouts, sliced in half

Layer on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Halfway through cooking, turn the brussels sprouts.

Roasted Veggies

2010-11-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

I needed a simple weeknight meal. So I just chopped up a bunch of veggies that were in the fridge and roasted them.

My friend came over and looked closely, poked everything, asked me to identify all the veggies, and after being very uncertain, said everything tasted great.

Roasted Veggies

1 leek

1 beet

1 large carrot

1 turnip

3 cloves of garlic

10-15 small brussels sprouts

Cut everything into chunks about the same size. Put on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil and toss so everything is evenly coated. Spread in a thin layer. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Adzuki Bean Patties

2010-11-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

I was trying something a little different.

Adzuki Bean Patties

This recipe is slightly modified from Meghan Telpner's 5 Days Vegan.

2 cups cooked adzuki beans

1/2 cup brown rice

1 medium sweet potato, cut into chunks

1 leek

2 tbs olive oil

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1-2 tsp ground mustard seed

1 tbs dry oregano

sea salt to taste

Boil 1 cup of water. Add the rice and beans. About halfway through, add the sweet potato.

In a skillet, heat the oil, add the spices and sliced leek.

When the rice and beans mixture is done, add the leeks. Mash everything together.

Form into patties and bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 for 20 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 20-30 minutes until dry.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2010-11-15T16:00:00.000-08:00

I thought about these pancakes all weekend. I knew there had to be some way that I could eat some baked good.

I can't eat corn right now, so I can't use baking powder (if you have tips on that, let me know). That means that these are not fluffy light pancakes. Sometimes you see pictures of pancakes that double in height. That's just never going to happen here.

Now, some of you know that I live alone. The huge perk is that I can completely control what food is in my house and when I have to change stuff up, I don't have to worry about anyone else's preferences or likes. The downside is that I don't have anyone to be a second taster. So I thought these pancakes tasted good, but I don't know if they would pass for anyone else. But I'm sure with enough maple syrup, anyone would love these!

Pumpkin Pancakes

3/4 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp clove

1/2 tsp ground ginger

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup rice milk

2 tbs oil

1 flax egg = 3 tbs boiling water + 1 tbs ground flaxseed (add together and let sit for at least 2 minutes)

Mix your flax egg together first, so it has time to sit. Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients. Adjust liquids as needed.

As you cook this, there won't be air bubbles like normal pancakes. Watch carefully and you will see the edges start to firm up when the pancake is ready to flip.

Mahi Mahi

2010-11-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

I kept cooking salmon and other fish this summer, and thinking that I am really not good at cooking fish. When I went to a restaurant, the fish was really tender and smooth, and when I cooked it, it was generally pretty dry and not very tasty.

I read this post the other day, and thought, hm, I should really try that.

This is my Mahi Mahi

2 Mahi fillets

drizzle with olive oil

salt

Bake at 200 for about 30 minutes.

Lima Bean Soup

2010-11-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

And the day wouldn't be complete without a delicious bowl of soup.

It's called "Lima Bean, Zucchini, and Spinach Soup" from a cookbook called Seriously Simple.

Some of you may be thinking, "Lima beans. Ew..."

But look at how fast I finished it.

It's tasty.

Lima Bean Soup

2 tbs olive oil

2 leeks, sliced

2 yellow squash, sliced

2 cups frozen lima beans

6 cups water

2 bay leaves

1 tbs parsley

1 tbs oregano

1 tbs salt

2 cups fresh spinach

1 tbs lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot. Add the leeks and saute for a few minutes. Add the squash and saute for a few more minutes. Add the lima beans, water, and herbs. Bring to a boil. Then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft.

Add the spinach and cover for 2-3 minutes until the spinach is wilted.

Remove from the heat. Add the lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Use your fantastic immersion blender to puree.

***This is linked to Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday***

Split Pea Puree with Rice

2010-11-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

I said that I am eating off the "green" list. That doesn't really mean that all of my food has to be green.

But today that is what is happening.

This recipe is adapted from this site.

I'm going to give it a new name:

Split Pea Puree with Rice

2 cups dried green split peas
4 bay leaves
1 leek
1 cup rice
salt

parsley
extra-virgin olive oil

Bring 4 cups of salted water to a boil. Add the split peas and bay leaves. Bring it to a boil again and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 40 minutes until the peas are soft. When they are ready, there should be a little water left in the pan. Keep a small amount of water and add 2-3 tbs of olive oil, parsley and salt to taste. If the peas are soft enough, they will tall apart as you stir, or you can use an immersion blender to puree them.

While the peas are cooking, cook the rice.

For the leek, cut it into thick slices. Put them on an cookie sheet and coat them in oil and roast them in the oven at 400 degrees.

Serve a scoop of rice topped with peas and a few leeks.

Breakfast Smoothie

2010-11-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

At work I am part of a leadership group. One of our projects was taking the StrengthsQuest. This test tells you your 5 strengths so that you can begin to play to your strengths. One of mine is "Deliberative" which means I think very carefully about what information to share.

On a food blog that doesn't really play out as a strength!

So here I am disclosing more.

This is breakfast. It's a smoothie.

My morning smoothie required some adjustments after I got the results of my food allergy test.

Here is the recipe for now:

1 cup rice milk (this is feeling really watery to me, so next week I am trying regular soy milk)

1/4 cup walnuts

1 banana

1 leaf kale

1 leaf romaine lettuce

2 handfuls spinach

1 tbs chia seeds

1 tbs wheatgrass powder

dash of cinnamon

ice

According to my Runner's World magazine, this order that I have written the ingredients is the best order to put them in the blender. My blender is a little weak, so I load the food in and get it all ground up and then I add the ice. I also like my smoothies thick and milkshake-like, so I freeze the banana and then add a good amount of ice.

New Food

2010-11-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

This week I got results back from an extremely extensive food allergy test. It tests 200 common foods and gives you four categories. For the next three months, I am only eating foods from the "green" category.

After I got my results, I came home and cleared out the pantry and fridge.

All the unopened non-perishables, I donated to the food pantry at work. I bagged up the perishable stuff, but it's hard for me to throw it away. Especially the unopened stuff.

I also sat down and made a big list of recipes, stuff I already make and new stuff that I have seen that fits the requirements.

Thursday was a big grocery shopping day. I was going to take pictures of my haul, but I was too tired after class. My grocery cart looks different than everyone else's. Mine is full of all kinds of produce... and nothing else.

Food Collage

2010-10-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Look at all I've been eating!

Funny story, I'm actually packing on the pounds these days. It's how it rolls sometimes. But I was a little worried about my pants fitting because I get ready for the day at the gym. So I was at the gym one day, and pulled on a pair of jeans.

As I was easing in, I thought, oh geez, these are a little tight today. That sucks.

And then I looked down and realized that the fly was zipped up.

***

On to the food.

In the gorgeous picture above:

Top row: Adzuki bean chili, Red lentil lemon soup, and under that olive tapenade

Second row: Spiced and seasoned millet; Quinoa, broccoli and tofu salad

Third row: Minted carrot salad, Garbanzo and spinach

I've put links to my inspirations for these different meals. Those that I haven't highlighted are recipes from Meghan Telpner's 5 Days Vegan.

I'm still making adjustments and modifications, but all these things have tasted really good.

Mashed Cauliflower

2010-10-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Most people would consider this a side dish. I thought it was really good on the side of my salad...

This isn't a real recipe, because you just want to adjust the seasonings based on what you like.

Look at that. It's a great fake-out for mashed potatoes.

Mashed Cauliflower

1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped

olive oil

salt

pepper

oregano

Boil the cauliflower until it is fork tender.

Drain it.

Blend it, I used my immersion blender, which still left it a little chunky.

Add the spices to taste.

Tempeh and Broccoli

2010-10-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

One of the unusual things about my restrictive diet is the recommendation to eat more tofu. Since I basically never ate tofu before, any amount is "more." And it's also an adventure to try some different things.

I have read different recipes and articles and mostly tofu is stir-fried. I have also read about this stuff called tempeh. It is fermented soybeans and some contend that it is better for you than regular tofu. I decided to try it, and I like it because it is not as mushy as tofu is.

Tempeh and Broccoli

1 block of tempeh, cubed

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets

1 tbs oil

salt

Put a large frying pan on high heat. Get it really hot and pour in the oil. You want enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Add the tempeh, and cook until it starts browning and getting a little crispy around the edges.

Add the broccoli. You may need to add a little more oil. Cook the broccoli until it turns bright green and even gets some darkening.

Season with salt.

You could serve this over rice or on its own.

Lentil Soup

2010-10-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

I've been making some super easy recipes this week. And other than being easy, this soup doesn't need much introduction.

Lentil Soup

1 carrot, sliced

1 rib of celery, sliced

about 1/2 inch of leeks, sliced

1 cup brown lentils

3 tbs apple cider vinegar

2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tbs oil

2 bay leaves

4 cups water

Take all the ingredients and dump them in your crockpot. I cooked mine on high for about 3 and a half hours. You can do it for about 8 hours on low. When it is done, the lentils will be soft.

This is my favorite way to store things -- in reused glass jars. They don't leak!

This recipe is just enough to fill my little crockpot and yields 3 jars of soup -- which is 3 servings. It also freezes really well.

Pumpkin Muffins

2010-10-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

Since it's time for fall, I decided pumpkin muffins would be good. Now I know, I already have a pumpkin muffin recipe. But unfortunately that one is not working with my restrictive diet. So I just modified this zucchini muffin recipe slightly.

(Secretly, I think it's better with pumpkin).

As you saw in the last post, I bought a pie pumpkin and roasted and pureed it myself. I used that for this recipe. I can't find canned pumpkin in the stores yet.

Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup pureed pumpkin (this was my entire pie pumpkin)

1/4 cup oil

3 eggs

2 tbs almond milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 3 tbs almond flour

3 tbs coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Spiced squash

2010-09-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Somehow it is suddenly fall. I have been rejecting the whole back-to-school equals fall mentality. But it suddenly hit me this week that it is actually fall. Here are my indicators: Monday morning when I went to the gym it was 44 degrees. And when I went to the grocery story there were huge displays of all kinds of squash. The apples were on sale, and the peaches were pretty sad.

I bought a delicata squash and a small pumpkin (the kind they label a pie pumpkin.)

Here's how I cook my squash:
Step 1. Cut it in half lengthwise.
Step 2. Scoop out all of the seeds.
Step 3. Place flesh side down (or skin side up) in a 9x13 pyrex baking dish.
Step 4. Fill the dish with water until the water is up to the first knuckle of my index finger.
Step 5. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, until the flesh is tender.

When it is done it will look like this:

This is the pumpkin. I scooped it out of the shell (what do you call that really?) and dumped it in a bowl.

Then I pureed it with my immersion blender.

You can use the squash either before or after you puree it.

Spiced Delicata Squash

1 cooked delicata squash

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix the spices into the delicata squash. Serve warm or cooled.

I actually like this the best when the squash is kind of chunky. I just scooped the squash out of the shell and used a fork to mix in the spices.

Menu Plan and Squash

2010-09-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah! The restrictive diet now includes 3 pieces of fruit per day. I'm in heaven. I've had peaches, pears, honeycrisp apples (my fav type), bananas, and an orange. Not all today though.

Menu Plan:
Roasted delicata squash mashed with cumin, curry powder, tumeric and sea salt

Broccoli and Tempeh
Mashed cauliflower
Peas and rice
Lentils (Probably in soup)
Pumpkin muffins -- unexpectedly so good!
Mahi mahi
Salad

Weekend's Worth of Dinners

2010-08-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free.

I've been pretty impressed with myself this weekend. My grandparents were visiting, and after completely panicking about what to feed them, I think I have done pretty well. I managed to feed them well -- hopefully well enough that they didn't realize everything that was missing -- and stick to my diet and get my gut healing.

Dinner 1: Stir Fry
At first my plan was to do fried rice. But that didn't pan out because I didn't have time to cook the rice beforehand. This was actually fine. I stir fried a huge pan of vegetables, added shrimp, and had some good sushi rice.

Veggies:
Snow peas
Broccoli
Leeks
Celery
Carrots
Zucchini
All veggies were chopped and sauteed in a little canola oil. At the end of the cooking time I added a dash of gluten-free tamari.

Shrimp: pre-cooked, frozen shrimp. Thawed in cold running water (per package directions) and then tossed in with the veggies at the very end. Just to get a little warmer.

Sushi rice: cooked according to directions. What made this good was a hearty dash of rice vinegar after cooking.

Dinner 2: Pasta two ways
This time I tried the Deboles gluten-free multigrain spaghetti. I am NOT recommending this. I really liked the penne style and the taste is good. But somehow, in the process of cooking, the spaghetti-style broke into a million tiny pieces. Definitely not spaghetti.

Sauces: Parsley pesto and a tweaked tomato

Parsley Pesto
fill the bowl of the food processor at least half full of parsley. (I thought this was a fantastic use for my slightly wilted parsley).
1 clove garlic
2 handfuls of toasted pinenuts
1 tsp salt
olive oil
Just drizzle in the olive oil and pulse until everything blends and starts getting smooth.

Tweaked Tomato Sauce
I make good tomato sauce. I lived in Italy. I learned. However on my current diet, I can't have most of the things that you put in tomato sauce (I can't eat the tomatoes either). So when I planned this meal, I thought I had a jar of tomato sauce in my pantry. Turns out it is salsa.

Since I can't eat many of the "normal" things, like onions. I simply don't have them in my house any more. So here are the on-the-fly changes I made.

1 can diced tomatoes
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 rib of celery, sliced
1/4 leek, sliced
olive oil
basil
salt and pepper
Sautee the carrot, celery and leek in the olive oil. Add the tomatoes and seasoning. Bring to a boil and then simmer.

This dinner was served with a large salad.

Dinner 3: Salmon
For Sunday dinner, I got a little fancier. I made Salmon with cucumber relish, green beans, and brown rice.

The salmon. Hmmm... now that I look back at that original recipe, I realize that I cut my cucumber much larger. Perhaps next time I will try it smaller.

Green beans
Wash and trim the green beans. Fill a large frying pan with a little water, just enough to coat the bottom. Bring the water to a boil and add the zest of a lemon. Add the beans and steam until bright green.
This time I didn't bother zesting the lemon. I just used my peeler to slice off pieces of the peel. I added those and a little juice.

All in all it was a good and tasty weekend.

Zucchini Muffins

2010-07-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

In the movie Get Smart, Steve Carell's character figures out that there is a problem with some Russian because he ordered a muffin at a cafe. The comment Carell makes is, "Do you know how many calories that is? Why would he risk it?"

Well that's just not how I feel about muffins.

Everyone in the blogosphere is writing about summer produce and talking about how they have heaps of zucchini. I'm not growing zucchini (and frankly my plants are a little "Charlie Brown"-ish), but I thought that zucchini muffins would taste great.

I want to give credit where credit is due, so this recipe came about because I baked the cinnamon bun muffins that Elana has posted on her site. I needed to change them so there was absolutely no sweetener. As I kept thinking, it came to me. Zucchini.

On that note, this is a warning. There is absolutely no sweetener in these muffins. They are not sweet, so it is not the taste most of us expect from zucchini bread. They are working for me though. And they will be great to take on the plane.

Zucchini Muffins

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/4 cup oil

3 eggs

2 tbs almond milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 1 tbs almond flour

2 tbs coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix the wet ingredients (including the zucchini) together. Add the dry ingredients. Mix well. The mixture should be slightly wet looking. Scoop into muffin tray.

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

Yield 12 muffins

Road Trip Snacks

2010-07-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

I went on a road trip this weekend. I had to take a bunch of food with me, and I meant to take a picture of it. Unfortunately I forgot.

Usually road trip snacks look like this:

But of course I couldn't take anything like that. So here's my list:

Rice Snax crackers. These were actually pretty good.

Vegan "cheese." This was weird. And not at all cheese flavored.

Baby carrots

Celery sticks

Sliced cucumber sticks

Sliced zucchini sticks

Mixed nuts (I like the Archer Farms raw nuts blend. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, pistachios)

2 apples (Yay for being able to eat fruit!)

Almond butter (I had to explain to my friend that it is like peanut butter)

Hardboiled eggs

Rice salad

Bean salad

What makes this list so extensive is that I had to have food for breakfast and lunch when the rest of my group was having picnics. I knew they wouldn't provide anything that I could eat. So during the trip I ate the bean salad for lunch #1. I had an egg and apple for breakfast. Rice salad for lunch #2. And the rest just as we were driving.

Naturally this got a lot of attention. Sometimes that kind of attention gets annoying.

Breakfast, Crackers, and Flying Snacks

2010-07-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

On my menu plan I had Millet and Cinnamon for breakfast. So first I just cooked the millet with cinnamon. That's gross. Here's the new recipe.

Whole grain breakfast

1/2 cup whole grain of choice (millet, rice, quinoa, whatever)

"milk" - rice, soy, coconut, almond, hemp (I am using Unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk. It didn't have anything added that I can't have. Usually I use Blue Diamond Unsweeted Almond Milk, but it's got stuff in it).

Pumpkin seeds

Sunflower seeds

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Ginger

[dried fruit like raisins is an option here too if you can have that right now]

Cook the grain. Put a portion of the grain into your bowl or portable breakfast container. Pour milk over it until grain is covered. Add the seeds. Add the spices -- in a 2-1-1/2 ratio so that it is mostly cinnamon. Stir thoroughly.

This can be eaten with the grain warm or straight from the fridge. I cook a batch of the grain at night and then portion it out into individual serving sizes. Each night, I take one portion and add the rest of the stuff, so the grain only sits in liquid overnight.

***

I made Elana's cinnamon muffins without any sweetener of any kind. But that needs some tweaking -- good texture, no flavor -- so I'll get back to you with a new modification of that soon.

But in the success column, I made Elana's Rosemary Crackers and they turned out really well. I was able to make them by exactly following the recipe. My center could have been rolled a little thinner, but the thickness didn't hurt the taste, they just weren't crispy crackers.

***

Besides needing some snacks to get me through these days, I am getting a little concerned about my upcoming flight to Japan. It's a very long flight and I'm not sure what I will be able to eat.

Here's what I am packing so far:

Muffins

Crackers -- these Rosemary Crackers, but I also found two brands of rice crackers at my local whole foods store that I can eat.

Packets of peanut and almond butter

Rice cakes

Carrot sticks -- big question mark. Will security let me through with carrot or celery sticks?

If you have some suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Menu Plan

2010-07-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Once step harder with my new diet. So before I despair, I am writing a menu plan for the next two weeks.

This weekend:

Breakfast: Millet with Cinnamon

Lunch: Salmon with Cucumber Relish (I changed the Mahi Mahi to Salmon)

Lunch: Spinach Quinoa Salad

Dinner: Salad (My friend made me homemade citrus vinegar, it's quite good as salad dressing)

Snack: Hummus and veggies, nuts, Elana's muffins

Next week:

Breakfast: Millet or Quinoa with Cinnamon, Eggs

Lunch:Salmon with Lentils

Lunch:Bean Salad

Lunch: Rice and Peas Risotto

Dinner: Salad

Snacks: Same, with Veggie Hummus, sprouts

Week of the 18th:

Breakfast: Same

Lunch: Pesto over rice or quinoa

Lunch: Fried Rice

Lunch: Salmon or other fish

Lunch: Egg with Cilantro Pesto

Dinner: Salad

Snacks: Same, with Rosemary Crackers

Cooking with Elana's Pantry

2010-07-05T19:14:00.001-07:00

I mentioned last week that I stumbled across Elana's Pantry and was set to try two recipes.

First a note: In her FAQ section, Elana strongly discourages substituting ingredients. She recommends a particular brand of almond flour and repeats that the results will not be the same if you don't use the same ingredients that she uses.

I can respect that. She worked hard to create recipes that work in a specific way.

But of course, that's not how I roll. So naturally I modified.

Both recipes were still surprisingly good.

Recipe #1: Cinnamon Bun Muffins

My modification was to replace the agave nectar with applesauce in the muffin mixture. The muffins were really moist and lighter than I would have expected.

I took them on my road trip and made my friend eat one so I could get the opinion of someone not on a crazy diet. A few hours later she asked for another.

Recipe #2: Breakfast Bars

Once again in this recipe I replaced the agave nectar with applesauce. It gave good sweetness, however, the agave nectar would add some stickiness and binding to the bars. The applesauce doesn't, so my bars were very crumbly.

Instead of the raisins, I used a combo of dried figs and prunes, cut into small pieces. Simply because it's what I had in my pantry.

These were just crumbly and I discovered that all the seeds kind of bothered my poor sensitive system. So I froze most of the pan.

Fried Rice

2010-07-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by this post over at Ginger Lemon Girl. I decided that fried rice is easy and can totally work with my new diet.

My Fried Rice

Carrots

Broccoli

Zucchini

Celery

1-2 Eggs

Rice

Coconut oil

Olive oil

Tamari

Fried rice is really flexible, so I just used the sad looking vegetables that were in my fridge.

Snacks

2010-06-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

Amy of Simply Sugar and Gluten Free is doing a round up today of snacks. So I thought I would get this posted really quick, and link you over there.

I've decided I have two categories of snacks. Snacks that are for when I am away or traveling, and snacks for when I am at home or at work. Some things transfer of course, but some travel less well.

Away Snacks

Fruit - Apples travel really well

Dried fruit - raisins, dates, prunes, apricots, figs

Nuts - almonds and cashews are my favorites

Fruit Leather - I always get the Archer Farms/Target brand

LaraBars

NutThins - I only like the Almond and Pecan kind, although they keep coming out with more varieties

Home/Work Snacks

Hummus with crudite (secretly I have always wanted to use that word) or NutThins

Peanut or Almond butter on apples or celery or a spoon

Fruit or Veggies

Muffins - I am a huge fan of muffins, as you can see here, here, here, and here

Yogurt (this is a dessert for me)

Applesauce

Black Bean "Hummus" Dip

I'm on a new diet regime and I shouldn't be eating garbanzo beans. But I was feeling deprived, so I decided to invent a hummus with black beans. I couldn't decide if it would taste good with tahini, so I used an avocado instead (creaminess factor).

1 can rinsed black beans

1/2 ripe avocado

1 bunch cilantro

1 tbs lime juice

1 1/2 tbs olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

Dump everything in the food processor and pulse. If your hummus is too thick add a tablespoon of water.

Menu Plan

2010-06-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

I just sat down and put my head in my hands. Ugh, I need a menu plan.

I keep opening the fridge to find the same head of broccoli, single zucchini, and sad sad remnants of a bunch of celery staring back at me. Yeah, often when people complain there is nothing to eat, they simply mean there is nothing that they want to eat. Not me. When there is nothing to eat, there is literally no food in the fridge.

Plus, I feel like I've been eating nothing but prunes, dried figs and almonds for the past 3 days. Not doing wonders for me. Although, on a side note, dried figs taste just like Fig Newtons. So if you've been missing those, miss no more, just go buy some dried figs.

Menu Plan

Fried Rice -- Tonight's plan for those slightly sad veggies

Millet Pilaf

Salmon just tin-foil ovened with lemon juice

Quinoa with cinnamon and fruit for breakfast

This new "diet" has got me down in the dumps. Hence the figs and prunes. I know you can't tell this, but I've actually just spent over 45 minutes creating this menu plan and there's only 4 things on it. I'm trying to reassure myself that this will be ok.

I'm headed out of town for two days on Thursday, so it will be ok. But I was poking around the internet, trying to think of something snackable that I can take with me on this road trip. (Again trying to stay away from the dried fruit and nuts). I came across Elana's Pantry. I've heard of her before, and that all her recipes are based on almond flour. I've just never perused in depth.

Well, come to find out, she doesn't eat corn either. Corn is one of the new doctor's restrictions, and that actually cuts out crazy things like baking powder, xantham gum, and citric acid. Who knew?

Of course when you cut out those things, you cut out muffins.

But not according to Elana. So I'm off now to Nature's Pantry, where I hope to find some almond flour and coconut flour so that I can test out a muffin recipe from her site.

Fried Egg with Cilantro Pesto and Avocado

2010-06-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

I modified the menu plan and came up with this lovely concoction. I was told to eat more avocados (yeah, twist my arm, I love avocados) and fortunately for me avocados were on sale for 88 cents at Walmart last week.

Fried Egg with Cilantro Pesto and Avocado

2 eggs

1 bunch cilantro

1 tbs lime juice

1 tbs olive oil

dash of salt

sliced avocado

Fry the two eggs (I prefer mine hard but cook them to your taste).

In a food processor, chop the cilantro and add the lime juice, olive oil and salt, combining into a pesto consistency.

Plate the eggs, spread the pesto on top, and then layer a few slices of avocado on top.

A modification could be to put this on a slice of gluten-free bread.

Menu Plan and Bean Salad

2010-06-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

I sat down on Sunday night and made a menu plan for the week. I actually visited a new doctor and she gave me a new diet plan. Little did I know that this would be such an exercise in frustration. When she gave me the new plan, I thought, oh, that's not such a big deal. But as I was planning, I decided that I needed to rely on my tried and true favs rather than searching the whole wide internet for new recipes that met the requirements.

I began going through my blog archive. (Which is exactly the point of keeping a blog, no?)

Yeah, my new dietary plan eliminates almost 3/4 of the recipes on this site.

However, I did find plenty of good food to eat and (as usual) wound up totally overplanning for the week.

Menu Plan

Rice and Peas Risotto -- modifications: no cheese, no stock

Bean Salad

Mashed Cauliflower

Green Goddess Rice

Cilantro Pesto to serve over rice or quinoa

Muesili grains

And of course I have tons of greens and veggies to make salads

I made the bean salad last night, so I will go ahead and put that recipe here. I started with a good recipe and made some major modifications. It is still good.

Bean Salad

Adapted from Meghan Telpner

2 1/2 cups frozen green beans

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 can adzuki beans, rinsed and drained

3-4 tbs olive oil

Juice from 1 whole lemon

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a large bowl and let it chill overnight.

Pictures of food

2010-06-07T17:50:00.001-07:00

Just some food photos.

Cornbread -- using Shirley from Gluten-free Easily's recipe

Stir-fry -- using Karina of Karina's Kitchen's recipe

Quinoa Salad -- I modified it with salsa, and it was a little spicy.

My pre-blended hummus -- with cumin, garlic, sunflower seeds, cayenne pepper

My mom grew broccoli

Sweet Potato Pasta and Sweet Potato Pie

2010-05-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

I've been out of town for a while. And that means so much good food. Before I left I made lunch for a friend. Naturally it turns into a little bit of a story. I had visited the farmers market and bought a small basket of sweet potatoes, which I hadn't gotten around to eating. I decided I really needed to eat them before I left for a few weeks, but I wasn't interested in just baking them. So I surfed around for a little while and found a recipe for sweet potato and goat cheese pasta with sage brown butter.

Of course, I thought this was perfect because it has 5 ingredients and except for the goat chesse, I had all of them in my house.

Let me tell you some of the changes I made.

1. I used gluten-free penne pasta. I liked that a lot better than lasagna.

2. I mixed the sweet potatoes and goat cheese while the sweet potatoes were really still hot. I used my Kitchen Aid and they were really smooth and creamy.

3. I discovered that goat cheese tastes quite a bit like cream cheese, so when I made this for my family last week, I used half goat cheese and half cream cheese.

4. I added the sage to the brown butter after the butter was completely brown and slightly cool. This kept the sage from going crispy and I liked that better.

I did make this for my family and they really liked it as well (except for Kim who doesn't like sweet potatoes).

In all truth, I had so many sweet potatoes that I also decided to make the "Haitian Sweet Potato Bread." My thinking was that it would actually be a good snack to take on the airplane. Somehow with the description I thought that it would be bread, a nice sweet bread like muffins. Yeah, not at all.

My friend and I ate it and it was actually really good. It is sweet and creamy. But it is definitely not bread.

I decided to rename it "Crustless Sweet Potato Pie." Now I am from North Carolina and so I know that this is not at all like a sweet potato pie. But a pie filling is the closest thing I can think of to this.

Dressing and Bean Salad

2010-05-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

If you have been gluten-free for a while, you have probably already learned a trick. Take food with you everywhere.

I truly do this. Meeting someone for lunch, yeah, I bring something. No I don't bother asking, oh can I bring something? I just show up with food in hand -- and enough to share. I have had people say, "Oh you didn't have to do that!" But the truth is, they eat it anyway.

This is absolutely a necessity if the event is a potluck. There is absolutely no guarantee that there will be anything that is safe for you to eat at a potluck unless you bring it. Also, with most potlucks it is extremely difficult to find out the contents of most of the dishes. So you know what you bring yourself is safe.

I had two potlucks this weekend. The first was for work on Friday.

What this meant for me this week was that I was shopping for food on Thursday night at 9:30 pm. When I got home I tossed the pasta in the pot for Heather's pasta salad. Because I was shopping so late, I didn't feel like reading all of the salad dressing labels to find a gluten-free, sugar-free italian salad dressing that frankly would cost too much no matter how it fell out.

At home, with the pasta boiling away, I tossed together this dressing and whisked vigorously.

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbs tamari
1 Tbs oregano
1 Tbs basil
1 Tbs parsley
(all dried herbs)

The pasta salad got rave reviews from my coworkers.

For the second potluck I made bean salad. I told a friend this and she wrinkled her nose and said, "Um, ew. No one is going to eat that." To which I naturally responded, "I don't care if anyone else eats it. I am making it for me."

My mom makes a good bean salad with an oil and vinegar dressing that I have made several times as well. This time though, I decided to kick it up a notch. I found a different bean salad with a salsa dressing. In my world, everything is better with salsa.

Spicy Bean Salad

1 can black beans

1 can red beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can pinto beans

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen corn

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp lime juice

1 jar chunky salsa

1 pinch parsley

Drain and rinse all beans. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Serve cold.

Green Salad

2010-04-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

I have been eating a lot of salad lately. I like spring, because it is suddenly good to eat salad and I can shift away from soup. Well, a little bit.

I know no one needs a recipe for salad, but I am going to tell you what I like in my salad.

Salad

Romaine lettuce

Spinach

Collard greens, stem removed and chopped really small

Leeks

Beets

Garbanzo beans

Feta Cheese

And of course, my fav dressing is olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Split Pea Soup

2010-04-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

On the menu plan a week or so ago was Split Pea Soup. I looked up a quick vegetarian version on AllRecipes.com (because I don't have ham hock in the freezer. Go ahead and let me know if I should be keeping ham hock in the freezer.) It was just fine, but then I had to modify it of course.

Split Pea Soup

2 cups dried split peas

2 carrots, sliced

3 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 leek, sliced

1 clove of garlic

1/2 box vegetable broth, plus water as needed

1/2 tsp salt

2 bay leaves

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne powder

I made this in my crockpot, which means toss everything in, then pour in the liquid. I turned it on low and left it all night. When I got up in the morning, it smelled good, and I stirred it and the peas fell apart making it a nice creamy soup.

If you are serving it later, you may need to add some water as it tends to thicken up.

Quinoa Salad

2010-04-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

I took this pasta salad and changed it this week. So fun. It is now has a southwest/mexican flair

Mexican Quinoa Salad
Adapted from Meghan Telpner's Quinoa Tabouli
1/2 cup quinoa (I mixed red and white and it looked pretty)
4 roma tomatoes
3 carrots, grated
4-5 celery stalks, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions

Cook the quinoa. Meanwhile combine the other ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the cook quinoa and toss. Let it hang out so the flavors chill.

Stir Fry

2010-04-12T17:07:00.000-07:00

Don't you just want to eat something that is that brilliantly purple and green?

There was a commercial not too long ago for Sonic. They were advertising some big basket of food. It was entirely brown. I went out to dinner a couple of weeks ago with some friends, and all the waiters were carrying big plates of brown food. If you think about it, brown just doesn't look that appetizing. "What can brown do for you?" Well, probably feed you, but colors are pretty.

Red Cabbage and Bok Choy Stir Fry

Adapted from Meghan Telpner's Red Cabbage and Spinach Stir Fry

1/4 head of red cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons

2 stalks of bok choy, sliced into thin ribbons

2 tbs olive oil

1 tsp dill seeds

2 tsp ginger root, peeled and minced

2 tbs tamari

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the dill seeds and ginger and toast them. Add the cabbage and bok choy and sautee them. If you are adept at the tossing thing, go ahead. I think there is no shame in using a spoon though. When the cabbage and bok choy are almost cooked (about 5 minutes), add the tamari and cook for another minute or so.

You could serve this over any grain you like, pasta noodles, rice, quinoa. I ate it plain.

Menu Plan

2010-04-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I need to stop being a slacker. I haven't made a menu plan for a couple of weeks, and I have decided that as a consequence I have been eating junk. Now, yes, I'm like the people on the Intel commercial who say, "Our rockstars aren't like your rockstars." My junk is not like most people's junk. But it still makes me feel a little junky.

So here is the menu plan for the week:

Red cabbage and bok choy stir fry -- Already made and eaten for dinner on Sunday. Leftovers for lunch on Monday.

Lentil Dahl -- Already made. I have four portions, which should get me through lunch on Wednesday.

Red Lentil Lemon Soup

Quinoa Tabouli -- the original version of this pasta salad (although I will probably toss in the olives. Who can resist olives?)

Split Pea Soup -- I will probably tweak this recipe.

I made hummus for a snack yesterday. I was trying a different recipe and it was way too lemon juice-y for me. But it is still a good snack.

Speaking of junk food, have you seen this website? This is why you're fat? My first comment is clearly, I am not getting enough vittles (that's what my dad always says), and second, I am clearly not creative enough.

Pasta Salad

2010-04-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

I messed around with a recipe on Wednesday, and came up with something that I found quite tasty.

I'll include a short review here as well. I bought a box of DeBole's gluten-free pasta with golden flaxseeds.

I found it to be very tasty. Rice pasta is always a little different, but this didn't become gummy like some of them can, and walked the fine line between being too al dente and just falling apart quite well.

Pasta Salad
Adapted from Meghan Telpner's Quinoa Tabouli
1 box of gluten-free pasta
4 roma tomatoes
3 carrots, grated
4-5 celery stalks, chopped
1 can olives, halved
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
2 tsp parsley

Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
Dice the tomatoes and toss them in a large bowl, add the grated carrots, the chopped celery, the garbanzo beans and the olives.
Add the lemon juice, olive oil, tamari, and herbs.
Mix everything well so that all parts of the salad are coated with the olive oil and lemon juice.
Let the pasta salad chill and marinate for a while. An hour is good, overnight is better. If you let it hang out overnight, take it out of the fridge at least 15 minutes before serving, so that the pasta can come back up to around room temperature. Gluten-free pasta is generally not very good if it is very cold (although this new DeBole's kind is still good. I ate it straight out of the fridge for breakfast this morning).
Stir well before serving.

Apple Torta

2010-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

I sacrificed and tested the cake recipe several different times. I had my friends (gluten and sugar eating friends) try the cake, and it was a hit. They all thought it was great.

I'm going to link this to Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten-Free’s March Round-Up. Head over and check it out at Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free.UPDATE: Hey look! Here's my post linked up with all these other famous gluten-free bloggers. How cool is that?

Apple Torta

Adapted from Danica Pollard

Ingredients

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mixture

1 Tbs baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

The Flour Mixture

6 cups white rice flour

2 cups potato starch

1 cup tapioca flour/starch

3 Tbs xantham gum

Sift ingredients together well and store in an airtight container.

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth.

Pour into a sprayed 8x8 pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful and don't overcook or the bottom will burn quickly.

Once the cake is cool you can top it with anything you like, frosting, powdered sugar, but I thought it tasted great plain.