Channeling Betty

Crocker.  I know a lot of people say they were inspired by Julia Child, but I haven’t had much exposure to her.  In high school I was inspired by Sara Moulton’s show Cooking Live on the Food Network, and this cookbook.

Look, it includes microwave recipes. Fancy! (circa 1980)

 I made my first homemade cake and frosting from this cookbook.  When my mom upgraded to a new edition, I inherited this one.  (Incidentally Sara Moulton worked with Julia Child, so in a round-about way I guess I have been inspired by her.)

Anywho, I was channeling my inner Betty (or Julia) today.  I made vegetable stock (or broth, not sure which category it belongs in) in my crock pot today, and some crackers.

I saw these crackers on Diet, Dessert and Dogs this week and was instantly excited and intrigued.  I’ve tried making crackers before and have had mixed results.  Mostly because I never actually follow the recipes, so either flavor or texture comes out funky.

I decided to follow this recipe exactly, only omitting the curry powder (to have a more plain cracker) and sesame seeds.  I don’t think my batter came out the way it was supposed to – it was like a thick pancake batter.  I used a regular blender, not a high speed blender (a la Vita Mix or Blendtec), which I think makes all the difference.  Even blending in batches I still needed to use more water to get everything to come together.  I’m thinking next time I’ll try my food processor.  Not sure if the seeds would get chopped up enough, but my batter wouldn’t be so goopy.  I also thought of just making pancakes.  I think they would taste really yummy.  Or even adding a little more water and making a flat bread/wrap kind of thing.

The final product:

sticks & twigs?

They don’t exactly look like Ricki’s, but I used a little creative license.  (plus I was piping with a ziploc bag, not an actual piping bag, and I may have cut the hole a bit too big, so my control of the dough was a little iffy at times.)  I was looking at icing guns at Target to use for this, but a creepy guy was following me around Target and when he showed up in the cake decorating aisle I booked it to the check-out and got myself out of there.

These are really good!  The taste is kind of corn-ish, grainy.  I like the flavor combo of quinoa and millet.  I’ve never used (or eaten) amaranth before, so was happy to give it a try.  Try ‘em!

On another note – I won’t be eating steel-cut oats (or any oats) anytime soon.  I happily ate my adzuki beans and steel-cut oats for dinner last week, and woke up the next morning with hives all over my abdomen and behind my ears.  Then they spread to my arms and legs.  Hives + Florida heat = major discomfort.  My naturopath said it was probably a reaction to mold (b/c of how grains are stored).  That bag went into the trash, and the hives have very slowly been going away.

I’m going to see Julie & Julia with my sister tomorrow!  I’m super excited, hope it’s good. 

Adzuki heaven

I love little adzuki beans.  They are super cute, unassuming, delicious, and easy to digest.  They are my favorite red bean – winning by a landslide against the rough kidney bean.  (and who wants to eat a bean named for an internal organ?)

I remember a few years ago seeing something on PBS about ice cream favorites around the world.  One that has stayed with me is a sweetened adzuki bean mix on top of vanilla ice cream.  It’s very popular in Asia, and was compared to the US favorite: hot fudge.  I’ve always wanted to try it – something about sweet beans and ice cream intrigues me.

When I was looking at Katie’s round up of her Pancake Challenge, one popped out at me: Adzuki Stuffed Kabocha Pancakes with Green Tea syrup, and it brought up that interest in unconventional bean eating once again.

I’m not much into pancakes lately, but wanted to try this combo.  I’ve had a bag of GF steel cut oats in my pantry for about a month that I still haven’t used.  Hmmm…why not do a little adzuki action with my steel cut oats?

I have yet to find the famous kabocha, so I used steamed/roasted butternut squash.

presentation style

all mixed in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(sorry the pictures are so crummy; my camera doesn’t take good food pics)

This had:

3/4 cup cooked steel cut oats

3/4 cup smushed butternut squash pureed with 1/3 cup vanilla rice milk (unsweetened)

Mix it all together and add the beans.  So good!  This doesn’t have any added sugar, but I think it would have been super yum with some maple syrup, agave, or honey.  Maybe stevia, but that after taste just might ruin a good thing. 

Have you ever had beans and ice cream?

 

Hemp-Carrot thing

When I was a kid I was sometimes called Jabberjaw.  Did you ever watch it?

Today someone asked me one of my favorite things about my job.  Umm…talking to people (fellow employees, clients, the IT help desk, myself).  I happen to be part of the loudest department in my office, and there are only 2 of us (my boss and me), sometimes 3.  We’re a bunch of jabberjaws. 

I’ve been making a hemp/carrot milk(ish?) drink thing for the past few weeks to help in the requisite hemp intake that I’m supposed to have.  I don’t drink it everyday, but it certainly comes in handy when I have no interest in spooning hemp seeds into my mouth in between bites of lettuce.  I’d like to make hemp butter, but my attempts have proven unsuccessful.  Perhaps they’re too dry?

It isn't this orange, the lighting is bad.

Anywho, this ‘recipe’ is pretty simple and open to lots of variation, as you’ll see.  For the base, I use:

• 1/3 cup hemp seeds (shelled)
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 1 cup water (cold)
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla rice or almond (or other) milk
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 packet stevia

Since I don’t have a Vita-Mix I have to do this in stages using a regular blender.  I put the hemp seeds on the bottom, followed by the carrot, all dry ingredients (cinnamon, ginger, stevia), vanilla, then about 1/2 cup water.  Turn on the blender and let it all mix together (this helps to prevent chunks that develop when putting all the liquid in at once).  With blender running, add a little more liquid (keep the top on as much as possible when doing this!).  Turn off blender, scrap down sides, add remaining water and about 1/4 cup rice milk.  Blend away and add additional rice milk if you like.

This is very liquidy, not a HEAB smoothie at all.  However, here are a few things I’ve done to thicken it up and make it a bit more rich.

• add 1 – 2 TBS almond butter
• add 1/8 – 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (great for GF baking and smoothies!)
• 1-2 dates instead of stevia (I soak mine overnight and use the soak liquid too)
• add a pinch of cardamom – it’s strong, so be careful
• some greens – I put in about 2-3 cups romain on Sunday and couldn’t taste it at all
• 1 banana – could be frozen or fresh, or even 1/2 banana (still haven’t tried this one)

This makes about 2 cups (I think).  I usually just drink it straight from the blender container with a straw.  For me it makes a filling breakfast (or lunch).  My tum-tum gets full on liquids very easily, so it might just be a snack for you.

Enjoy!

I just got a shipment of books from my parents I’m going to rummage through.  Have a good night. 

Hi-ya!

It’s August 1st and I’m back from my hiatus.  No I’m not that fancy, like a Hollywood celeb going off to Martha’s Vineyard or my own private island off the coast of Italy (although if someone’s offering, I’m open ).  I was so tired at the end of June from a couple of months of not feeling well that I needed to have a month of R&R.  It would have been awesome to have a month off work too, but then I might be facing an eviction notice today.  No thanks.

I’ve been trying to figure out what direction I want to take with this blog, but still don’t have any ideas.  A whole month of pondering this and I come up with nada.  That’s a bit embarrassing.  So I’ll just plug along and hopefully something will evolve that’s interesting.

Ohhh…a hemp seed update: I bought that GINORMOUS bucket of hemp seeds at the end of June and didn’t know what to do with them.  I’ve been making this hemp seed & carrot milk/shake/drink thing.  It is fairly tasty.  I keep forgetting to take a picture, but once I remember I’ll post it and the ‘recipe’, if I can call it that.

In my quest to satisfy my starchy craving for spaghetti, tonight I tried a new (for me) product: gluten-free Tinkyada Rice Pasta. 

It was pretty good in texture and flavor when I started eating it.  Unfortunately I noticed a little funky after taste.  It’s not horrible, and I’ll finish the package. 

Personally, I much prefer zucchini noodles.  The texture really is similar to pasta and the flavor is much more clean.  (btw – I don’t have a spiralizer, I just use the shred blade plate on my food processor and it works perfectly)

Here’s my plate.  Apparently I’m addicted to curry powder and cumin b/c I’ve been putting it on everything, it even goes well with the Italian flavor.

Spaghetti w/homemade marinara, collards with avo smushed in, curried roasted cauliflower

 

Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce

1 Vidalia onion, chopped

1.5 TBS tomato paste

28 oz crushed tomatoes

14 oz diced tomatoes (drained)

20 basil leaves, chiffonade style

5 kalamata olives, diced

1/2 tsp seas salt (or more if you prefer)

1/4 – 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Saute onion in some oil until soft and has a little color.  Add tomato paste and about 1 TBS basil.  Mix into onion, stirring constantly for about 1 minute.  Mix in crushed tomatoes and (drained) diced tomatoes, kalamata olives, salt, red pepper flakes, and 1/2 of the remaining basil.  Keep on low heat and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add remaining basil, taste for extra seasoning if needed.  Cook an additional 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve.

Enjoy! 

Wrap it up

Ok, don’t know why but that title has me singing the Devo song “Whip It”.  Did you know that Devo was a pioneer of the music video?  Me neither, but Wikipedia said so, so it must be true.

Anywho…

I’ve been lovin my green juices more than ever this week.  I discovered that when I don’t put a gigantoid hunk of ginger in, I can actually taste the other flavors.  Who knew?  The sweet tartness of lemon shines through and it really does have that lemonade flavor.

 

I’ve wanted to make homemade sushi for some time, but not really interested in navigating stuffing a sheet of nori.  (I may or may not have a tendency toward over-stuffing.)  What to do?  I remembered Gena’s post on collard wraps and decided to do my “sushi” collard style.  (can it really be considered sushi if no fish or nori is involved?)

 
I used brown rice, carrot sticks, avocado, and asparagus spears.  Since I wasn’t using nori I sprinkled some dulse flakes in there, for some sea veg love.  I intended to put some ginger in there, but totally forgot.  I cut some collard ribbons and massaged a little avocado in them for a simple and delicious side salad.

Speaking of gigantiod, guess what just came from UPS…I HUGE tub of hemp seeds.

I’m supposed to eat a ton of these a day for protein, so I ordered a big 5 pounder to get me started.  I’m trying to find creative ways to eat them, b/c I’ve only just started using what I bought in bulk at Whole Foods last week and I’m already tired of them.  And now I have this big bucket to get through.  I want to try making hemp seed butter, but not so sure how that will work.  I tried making pumpkin/sunflower seed butter a few weeks ago and it never really buttered…

MIA

No posts this week mainly b/c I’ve been tired and have had some disasters in the food world.  I had some really good mental blogging going on with each thing I made, only to have them not turn out so good.
 
First we have a GF blueberry “cake” I made for my step-father in honor of father’s day.  I was going to make him regular (vegan) cookies, but my mom said make him something gluten-free.  (he should eat GF, but doesn’t much)  Every attempt I’ve made with gluten-free, vegan, baking has failed.  Cookies, cakes, biscuits…and this was no exception.  I have made corn bread, and it turned out good.

Looks good enough.

 In my defense, I did have to ship the cake to him (they are in Tennessee).  They couldn’t taste the blueberries; my step-father thought they were just weird purple spots.  He said it was a “me” kind of a cake – as in dense and healthy tasting.  It’s the thought that counts, right?
 
Next up we have a different version of Potato Leek Soup.  Inspired by this recipe, I used steamed butternut squash I had in my fridge instead of potatoes in my never-fail/go-to recipe. 

pic from website

I have to mention that I’ve been having problems with garlic and onions, but decided to give these veggies one more chance.  After all, at the beginning of the year I couldn’t get enough garlic and was to the point of roasting cloves and eating them straight-up.
 
That being said, the garlic, leek, and onion combo was enough to turn my stomach after only a few bites.  The idea was good, and it smelled nice, but my stomach just isn’t having any.
 
And finally, a guacamole gone wrong. 

I decided to up things a bit by adding a little red pepper flakes, and then just a little more.  That with the bell pepper (which I know isn’t a hot pepper) was enough to put my mouth on fire and give me heartburn for the next few hours.
 
A little wiser and armed with my meal plan for next week, I’m hoping for some better results.

No more nooch?!

Here’s how I got to where I am…

In February I felt drawn to go raw.  Not necessarily 100%, but at least 80% or higher.  I started in March and soon started experiencing problems.  Everything I read said that I should be feeling energized, revitalized, like a whole new person.  I was none of those.  I persisted and my digestive problems continued to get worse.  On the plus side, my skin did get more clear.

By the end of April I had lost a lot of weight (unintentionally) and couldn’t eat a lot of foods.  In May I decided to add more cooked foods back into my diet, but still no relief and more weight loss.  Incidentally on my birthday (June 1) I got a phone call giving me the opportunity to meet with a naturopath to help me figure out what’s going on with my body.

I had that meeting this afternoon.  It was enlightening and saddening.  I wanted to cry when I was talking to her.  I consider myself a healthy person who makes good food/lifestyle choices.  It just wasn’t enough.  I like to think I am connected to my body, but it was talking in a language I just couldn’t understand.

I’m getting more blood tests, but what she saw from some other blood work is I have iron deficiency anemia, B vitamin deficiency anemia, and a thyroid imbalance, among a few other things.  She’s putting me on a regime of several foods and supplements to get my numbers up/balanced.  My body is like a car in the breakdown lane, which was causing the food problems.

My “regular” general practitioner had all the same information, but never told me any of this.  She just said I needed to take a multivitamin with iron.  Yeah, that didn’t work.  I’m happy to finally have some help and answers.  The cool thing is that she is high raw vegan, so she isn’t telling me I’ll feel better if I eat steak.

The most depressing news is that she gave me a small list of foods to avoid.  Number one: nutritional yeast.    Oh, I just love the stuff!  But nope, no more.  Also included are fermented foods (miso, sauerkraut), kombucha, all yeasts, fungi, bacteria, and sugar (and soy and peanuts, but I haven’t been eating those anyway).  Also cucumbers, but that’s just for a little while b/c they’ve been causing problems.  I’ve got to eat very simple meals to heal.  I’m still working out a plan on how best to do that. 

She said it could take 4 months before I start to feel better, so I’m looking forward to that.  I’ve been soooo tired lately, spacey, and just weird.  Not myself at all. 

Boundless energy, I’m ready for it!  I’m just ready for any energy, and to eat almond butter.  It’s hard to look at Heather’s oats and not want some almond butter.    And if I’m being real adventurous, some almond butter with kabocha!

We are so beautiful

It’s been making it’s way around the blogosphere, and here I am spreading it a little more.

Catlin is spreading the message of self-love through the project Operation Beautiful.

With that message in mind, here is a little song to sing to yourself.  Stand in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye, and feel the words pouring into your heart.

I am so beautiful

I am wonderful

My heart if open WIDE to let love in

I am so beautiful

I am wonderful

And I do love me as I am

 

May you be filled with love and compassion.

Sunday – simple and delicious

I went to a farmer’s market of sorts yesterday where I load up on fresh romaine for juicing and salad. I’ve been going regularly for the past 6 weeks, so the guy who takes the money knows me. He let me have my romaine at $1 each yesterday, which was an awesome surprise.

I know a lot of people like their green monster in the morning (see here and here), but I’m a green juice girl all the way (hence all the lettuce).

no fancy glass, love the mason jar

Thanks Natalia Rose!

I cleared my day b/c I was supposed to go bowling with my Sunday school kids today, but no one signed up.    I’m not the best bowler anyway.  I think my highest score ever is a 67?

So I went home and made the best salad ever!  I think it was just the right touch of nooch mixed with the avocado.  Perfectly cheezy.  Now I just need to work on my presentation skills…

kale, romaine, sprouts, cuc, avocado, nooch

 

So instead of bowling, I went to Goodwill to drop some stuff off and decided to go poke around the housewares section.  I was hoping for a giant pretty salad bowl.  I didn’t find one, but there was an ice cream maker for only $6, which got me dreaming of homemade deliciousness.  I convinced myself to just walk away – how much ice cream would I make?  Probably none.

Who needs ice cream when you’ve got tender butternut?  Plain, simple, sweet.

 

My favorite (and famous) Green beans and Cabbage

• 1 small head cabbage (I use purple), shredded thicker than coleslaw
• 1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1 TBS tamari (I use this brand - unpasteurized, soy & gluten free, unfortunately they don’t ship in the summer )
• 2 – 3 tsp freshly grated ginger (depends on how much you like)
• 2 tsp herbs de Provence
• red pepper flakes, to taste

Steam green beans until tender.

Cook cabbage in a pot of boiling water until tender – between 8 – 10 minutes.  Drain.

Whisk remaining ingredients (olive oil thru red pepper flakes) in a small bowl.

Mix green beans, cabbage, and dressing in large bowl.  Serve.

It is good immediately, but tastes even better as leftovers.

Enjoy! 

Gratitude

• perfectly ripe banana I snacked on today
• waking up easy
• not feeling rushed
• click & clack (aka car talk) on npr – I learn so much from these guys and laugh while doing it
• clean feet (I love cleaning my feet after I’ve worn sandals all day, then rubbing lotion on them.  it’s super refreshing – try it!)

Like Bluegrass music?  Check out this gal I just saw featured on the npr site.

The heart of rockin roll

“The purpose of life is to enjoy every moment.”  -  Yogi tea (ginger)

Gratitude

1. retro. (like Huey Lewis and the News and Paul Abdul – the Cold Hearted Snake days)
2. support.
3. clean fingernails.
4. the smell of ripening bananas.

I’ve been loving the GT’s Kombucha.  I got sucked in when Whole Foods was having a 2 for $3 special a couple of months ago – and was instantly hooked.  WF my upscale dealer.

My favs are the plain ginger (spicy and makes my eyes water – PERFECT!) and this one – Trilogy (raspberry, lemon, and ginger). 

empty b/c it is so tasty

I got tested for food allergies yesterday in preparation for my visit with a naturopath next week.  Not a one.  I didn’t really think I had any, but wanted to be sure so that I can get to the bottom of the digestive troubles I’ve been having.  I saw a nurse practitioner, who was recommended by the naturopath, and let me just say she ROCKS!  She helped me get prepared for my visit next week and also gave me some good info to help me out until next week.

On thing she recommended is papaya enzymes, in addition to digestive enzymes.  I’ve taken digestive enzymes without much success, so I was a little uncertain about the papaya.

I picked some up at the HFS last night, nothing fancy just a brand I know that wasn’t peppermint flavored, and not too expensive (just enough to last for a week).  I had the papaya enzymes after dinner last night and wowza they actually worked!  I had some again today, and haven’t had a single solitary problem.  I actually felt hungry about 2 hours after lunch today, instead of cramps and a gurgly GI tract.

On that note, check out Diana’s post with “You Might Be a Health Blogger If …” for some fun & a give away.  My sure to read the comments too, they are just as entertaining.