Tasty Thursday: Green Beans

Recently part of our CSA share was pick your own beans.  There were green, wax and broad, flat beans.  We mostly picked the broad, flat ones but did take a few green beans as you can see in the photo.  Having a lot of business travel the next few weeks I didn't want to leave much sitting around for the rest of the family to forget about until it went bad so while I simmered the tomatoes from this week's share into gravy that will be frozen for use during the winter I set out to take care of the beans.  I cut the stem ends off then cut the beans in half.  Tossed them into a pan with a little bit of water, covered and let cook on high for four minutes, stirred, then cooked for another three.  I like my beans to have a little crunch to them so I don't want to cook too long.

After seven minutes I drained the water, added about 1/4 cup of coconut aminos and let cook for another three minutes, for ten minutes total cooking time.  Next I sprinkled the beans with some sesame seeds and recovered the pan, removed it from the heat and let sit for five minutes before plating.  They were quite tasty and had that nice bit of crunch that I love.

Easy enough for a hectic day when you feel like you have no time to cook.  Enjoy!

Tasty Thursday: Baba Ghanouj

Since about a month after my surgery I have had a yen for eggplant.  I may have eaten more baba ghanouj in the last few months than I did in the past five years so of course I wanted to try my hand at making it myself.  I've tried it two ways - baking the eggplant in the oven and roasting it on the barbecue.  I think I prefer the taste of the barbecue method and plan to use it until the part of the winter when it is so darned cold outside that I can't possibly imagine being out there for half an hour while I roast eggplants.  First, I have to ask, how gorgeous are these CSA eggplants roasting on my grill?

The roasting part is really easy, just turn your grill onto high, place the eggplants directly on the rack and grill on each side until charred.  The skin will break and change color.  The juice that drips out onto the grill will smell nice too.  Once you've charred your eggplant, remove it from the grill, allow to cool, then peel and discard the skin.  I'm not ashamed to say it smelled so good I tasted a bit of the skin before I discarded it.  Yummy.

I'm getting hungry just looking at the photo.  So glad there is a tasty jar of the finished product in my fridge waiting for me to dig in.  Here's a peek:

Ingredients:


2 eggplant, roasted, skin removed
3 tablespoons tahini
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon good cider vinegar (I like Bragg's)
3/4 teaspoon smoked salt
1/2 teaspoon of oil from the tahini jar


I tried mashing it together with a fork, however it didn't break up small enough so I dumped it into the chopper attachment of the stick blender and gave it a good spin to get it to the texture I wanted.  This is so yummy, I love the little bite the vinegar gives it.  I hope you'll give it a try and tell me what you think.

Enjoy!

Tasty Thursday: Baby Eggplant with Sprouted Red Lentils

This eggplant and lentil dish is what resulted from me not being able to resist a pint of gorgeous little organic baby eggplants and a failed experiment with sprouting red lentils.

You see, I sprout green lentils every week.  We use them in everything from salads to hummus.  I decided this week to see what would happen if I used red instead.  What I learned is that although they will sprout, the beans are so delicate that when you rinse them, as I do every two hours while I am awake, the sprouts come off. So with the lentils not suitable for further sprouting and the sweet little baby eggplants needing to be used ASAP, I set out to make something yummy and while it might not be attractive in the photo we sure did enjoy eating it.

Ingredients:

Half a Vidalia onion, chopped
Pint of adorable organic baby eggplant, cubed with stems removed
Four cloves of gorgeous CSA garlic, chopped
One cup of red lentils, soaked overnight, then rinsed every two (waking) hours for a day and a half
Water
sea salt and ground pepper to taste
1/3 tsp turmeric

In your largest cast iron pan brown the onion.  When the kitchen smells heavenly and the onion is done, deglaze the pan with some water.  Lower flame, add eggplant and garlic, cover for five minutes to soften.  Make sure you've got enough water that it steams and doesn't burn.  Next, add lentils, salt, pepper, turmeric and more water if the pan has gone dry.  Give a good stir then cover and cook for a few minutes to allow lentils to come to the same temperature as the vegetables.  Enjoy!

Serve over bed of rice, if desired.  My spouse had it with thick slices of toasted sourdough bread topped with soy-free Earth Balance, I had it with some nutritional yeast on top.  It got two thumbs up from everyone who ate it.

Tasty Thursday: Sauerkraut!

I love, love, love fermented food and am expanding my horizons and beginning to make it myself.  This is my second batch of sauerkraut, curing in a gallon canning jar on the counter.  I wish I'd researched sooner because now that I have discovered how insanely easy it is to make I'll never purchase it again. 

The ingredients are 2lbs. cabbage to one tablespoon sea salt.  That's it!  You can of course adjust to whatever quantity of cabbage you have to work with.   I used beautiful heirloom conical heads from our organic farm share and decided to add a little dehydrated organic dill to this batch.  We are all crazy for dill in this house so I think we'll like it.  Next batch I'm going to experiment with adding some finely shredded carrot.

Remove the tough outer leaves and reserve, then simply slice the cabbage into thin strips, place it in a large bowl and add the salt.  Knead and massage the cabbage with your hands, working the salt into it.  The mixture will become very wet and the cabbage will begin to shrink as it releases its fluids.  Once it is nice and mixed, transfer to a jar or crock by the handful, tamping it down with your fist every now and then.  Push it down enough so that the fluid rises to cover the shredded cabbage.  When you have added all of the cabbage to the vessel and tamped it down firmly cover with the leaves.  This is important because the leaves will help keep the shredded cabbage fully submerged and prevent mold growth.  In order to keep the mixture firmly held down place a water-filled jar or zipper bag on top of the hard outer leaves.

Tamp down daily.  I began tasting the first batch at five days out.  My family began eating it at seven days out so I placed it in the fridge at that time.  I can't say how long it lasts because around here it was consumed in a week.

Have you ever made sauerkraut?  Did you add anything besides salt and cabbage to it?  I'd love to hear your ideas and experiences.

Tasty Thursday: Vegan, Gluten-Free, Soy-Free Purslane Frittata

Yes, that's a knife in it.  I was so excited to try it I was already cutting myself a slice when I realized I needed to take a photo to post here.  Oops.

Inspired by Eco Lesbo Vego's recipe, I created a delicious frittata.  On the gastric-sleeve side what I am learning from my experiments with chickpea flour is that it is a slider food and does not fill me up.  I'm finding that fact a little frustrating since it is good for me protein-wise.  This frittata was quite tasty and very easy to make.

First, use your choice of item to grease a favorite pie plate.  I used a ceramic pie plate and coconut oil. Next add the veggies, then the egg substitute and bake.

Veggies:
Fill your pie plate with the veggies of your choice.  I used a bunch of chopped purslane and two scallions, sliced thin.  I sprinkled a bit of Trader Joe's almond meal on the top of the veggies for a little more protein before pouring the liquid mixture over them.

Vegan egg substitute:
3TB nutritional yeast
1tsp Herbamare
1 cup chickpea flour
1.5 cups water
1 tsp granulated garlic
Mix ingredients together in a bowl until smooth, then pour over veggies in pie plate.

Bake at 400F for 30 minutes or until done to your liking.  I found the center a little moist but it resolved after I let it sit for a few minutes.

Really tasty.  I plan to try this with lots of other veggies.

Tasty Thursday: Penniless Parenting's Swiss Chard with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I love Penny's recipes.  She's not afraid to use something 'past prime' so I was very happy to find this recipe on her blog for the once-beautiful bunch of chard that was now a week old in my fridge and beginning to wilt.  I modified her original recipe very little which was also a very happy surprise.  I usually have to modify out so many things that I find it hard to achieve the same level of spice as in the original recipe when I have to modify out a bunch of different peppers.  It was nice that the only peppers in this spicy dish were a 'sprinkle of pepper flakes'.  The spice in this yummy meal comes from garlic and ginger, both of which we use often in our home.  I encourage you to enjoy this very tasty and easy to make dish.

1-2 Tbsp. oil (I used some olive oil, realized I didn't have enough and added some coconut oil.  Don't cringe, it tastes great.  Next time I'll use all coconut oil.)
1 onion, sliced thin (I used a large Vidalia)
2 organic farm carrots, sliced thin
1 bunch organic farm swiss chard, stems and leaves separated and sliced
1/3 cup water
2 Tbsp. peanut butter (I used  organic smooth but in the future I'm going to use crunchy.  I think the little bits of nuts would be a great addition but I'm not cleared to eat nuts yet.)
2 Tbsp. soy sauce (I used coconut aminos because we recently learned that soy is my daughter's migraine trigger)
1 Tbsp. honey or sugar (I used a teaspoon of local honey)
1 tsp. garlic powder (I used a tablespoon of dried shaved garlic)
1 tsp. ginger powder (I used organic purchased from my local HFS' bulk jar)
1 tsp. salt (I used sea salt)

Cook onion and carrot in oil until onion is translucent, stirring as needed.  Add chard stems, continue to stir as needed for about four minutes until stems are softening.  Add chard leaves, cook another four minutes in the same manner.  Add all other ingredients, stir well to mix, cook until peanut butter and honey are melted and all items are well blended and veggies are coated.

I ate the three tablespoons of food my sleeve can hold without any other accompaniments and served this to my family over a bed of rice and lentils.  It got good reviews all around.  I plan to try this sauce on other vegetable combinations very, very soon!

Tasty Thursday: 86 Lemons' Vegan Carrot Cake and Zucchini Bread Oatmeal

Carrot Cake Zucchini Bread Oatmeal, what could be nicer to wake up to on a Saturday morning?  This was my first foray into eating oatmeal post-sleeve, despite having been told quite a few times that it was an option.  Oatmeal, prior to surgery, was giving me stomach bubbles and pushing my blood sugar up and it's a grain, why eat a grain post-surgery?  But it looked so good and I planned to boost the protein so I gave it a try.  I measured four tablespoons into my bowl, added a little extra 5X protein almond milk and a couple of drops more vanilla stevia then mixed a half scoop of unflavored protein powder into it.  I was able to eat two and a half tablespoons.  It filled me up but didn't give me the uncomfortable feeling I sometimes get.  Three hours later I took a little spoonful of it for a snack and did get that uncomfortable feeling so I know it was still in my stomach.  It kept me pretty much full from 7am until 1pm when I had a low blood sugar and needed to have something to bring my number up.  I think that a two and a half tablespoon serving that keeps me full for hours and hours, even if it is a grain is ok now and then and will plan to make this recipe again.  Here is how I modified from 86 Lemons' recipe.

I did not oil my crockpot.  There was a little bit crisped on the top edge on one side but I mixed things up before serving anyway and it mixed right in.  I'll note that I made a double batch, not realizing how much the steel cut oats would puff up.  Even feeding three of us full portions we have some left over.  I plan to freeze two and a half tablespoon servings and hopefully they'll do ok defrosted and popped in the microwave.

1 cup organic steel cut oats
3 cups 5X protein almond milk
2 small farm carrots, grated
1 small farm zucchini, grated
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground clove
1 teaspoon cinnamon
splash of Grade B maple syrup
2 droppersful vanilla stevia

We like vanilla and I would have wanted to use the optional vanilla extract but at 9pm last night when I put it together I discovered my choices were whole vanilla beans, vanilla sugar or vanilla stevia.  It was too late to get to Trader Joe's to get alcohol-free vanilla so I made do with what I had, reduced the maple syrup and subbed the vanilla stevia.  Next time I plan to use vanilla extract and maple syrup.  I used no nuts because I'm not at the stage where I can have whole nuts yet and I didn't think adding nut butter would work for this.  If you try it with nut butter won't you please share your results with me?

I cooked this on low overnight and we were very happy to wake up to it.

Tasty Thursday: My Version of GF/Vegan Cholent

Reading about Cholent on one of the blogs I follow, Frugal and Kosher, got me curious about a vegan version.  I found a recipe to get started with, then modified it with what I had on hand in the kitchen.

I put the following into the crockpot:

4 cups water
2 cups TJ's hearty vegetable broth
9 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. caraway seed
1 tsp. applewood smoked salt
4 twists on the pepper mill
2 bay leaves
2 cups red lentils
1/2 lb. bag of matchstick carrots
3 large organic russet potatoes, cut into chunks
1 jar TJ's pizza sauce
1/2 can black beans

The black beans were leftover from last night's meal.  I had planned to add another can of red kidney beans but the crock pot is so full I'm thinking if it needs something more I will toss more beans in at the end.

While this is cooking we tossed a batch of these molasses cornbread muffins into the oven to serve with the soup.  The batter filled my Lodge cornbread pan, mini muffin pan and small loaf pans.   I use blackstrap molasses so we get a little extra iron from that plus the benefit of cooking them in the cast iron pans.  The sub for whole wheat flour was my favorite, most convenient GF blend, Bob's Red Mill.

Tasty Thursday: Oven Baked 'Fried' Rice

I found this recipe today and just couldn't wait to try it.  This is one of those recipes that you can throw in just about whatever your taste dictates and you'll enjoy it.

I used:
white rice
can of pineapple chunks, drained (it was in juice and nothing else, so I drank the juice for dessert)
bunch of scallions, sliced
Bragg's Liquid Aminos
oil
bag of frozen peas
bag of broccoli florets, thawed

Mix your items together in a large bowl, coat your cookie sheet or glass casserole with vegetable spray, place in 350F oven.  Stir every 20 minutes until done, mine was in about an hour and twenty minutes.

I served this with edamame pods on the side.  Next time I'm planning to shell the edamame and put them in the mix.  Have fun with it!

Lesson Learned: Tomato Sauce

I would have liked for this to be a Tasty Thursday feature, but instead it is a lesson learned.  These beautiful tomatoes are some of the last of the season's bounty from our CSA.  I decided to make some more tomato sauce before we left on vacation for five days.  I cut all the large red tomatoes, then thought I might throw in a few of the yellow cherry tomatoes.  Now, I've made sauce with red cherry tomatoes, red and yellow heirloom, red plum tomatoes, you name it.  But I've never used the yellow cherries.  For some reason they made the sauce taste 'off'.  We did eat it, but it wasn't the best.  Next CSA season I will know better. 

Tasty Thursday: Roasted Carrots

Set oven to 425F. Coat pan with Olive Oil spray. I used a 9x13 Corningware. Wash and quarter carrots vertically, then cut in roughly 2" chunks horizontally. Lay in single layer in pan. Sprinkle with organic dried onion flake and salt, or whatever seasonings delight you.

Place in oven, stir periodically and bake until browned and deliciously carmelized. For my batch, that took 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tasty Thursday: Italian Casserole

Recently I ordered five pounds of spinach powder.  The price was right and I had been under the impression it could be subbed out directly for flour in recipes.  This is my first attempt at cooking with it and I have to admit the results were delicious.

3/4 cup Bob's Red mill GF blend
1/2 cup spinach powder
1/2 a purple CSA onion, chopped
a couple of generous handfuls of fresh spinach from the farmer's market
egg replacer to equal 3 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond milk
a sprinkle of minced garlic
2 gorgeous CSA tomatoes, sliced
2 cups Daiya shreds
3 Tbsp Earth Balance
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350, coat 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Mix together all ingredients except for fresh spinach and tomato.

Line bottom of pan with spinach, top with tomato slices. 

Pour mixture over veggies in pan, spreading it out to all the edges.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  Cut into squares and enjoy!

Have you ever cooked with spinach powder?  Do you have any ideas you can share with me? I promise to play around with whatever I can and post about the results.

Gorgeous CSA Eggplant

How can you not love something that looks like that?

I baked a few slices until they were nice and crunchy chips - SO good!

Gorgeous Farmer's Market Onions and French Breakfast Radishes

Are these veggies beautiful or what?  Just thinking about the fact that the Farmer's Market and CSA seasons are half over is making me sad.  I recognize that I enjoy being in the environment of our CSA farm and the local Farmer's Market as much as I enjoy eating the fruits of the farmers' labor.  It is such a blessing to have access to healthy food and the diversity of what you find at a CSA or Farmer's Market is so much more interesting than going to the local big box grocery chain for the same old, same old.

Tasty Thursday: Zucchini Corn Fritters

A bonus item at the farm last week was a HUGE zucchini. It reminded me of the gigantic ones my grandpa used to grow. Miss you, Grandpa! Wish you could have tried our fritters with us.

So, it seems that after grating up one cup of zucchini for the zucchini bread recipe my daughter and I modded to make GF/vegan we still had three cups of zucchini left over. I searched our CSA's website and found a recipe for zucchini corn fritters. Here is our modified version:

Egg replacer to equal 3 eggs
3 cups zucchini
2 cups corn
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped purplette onions
1 cup all purpose GF flour mix
1 1/2 cups Daiya mozzarella (we had planned to use Daiya cheddar but when I got the bag out I saw mold. :( )
A little freshly grated pepper


We rarely fry anything so the thought of a fried treat was really appealing to my daughter. But I also wanted to try them baked in my cast iron corn bread pan.

Don't they look yummy all ready to go in the oven? Our zucchini bread was already baking at 350F so we just popped this in alongside it.

The finished product -

Baked version.

Fried version.

We had a little taste test and to my surprise, she preferred the baked ones! We plan to make another - double - batch of baked fritters today since they only lasted through dinner and the next day's lunch. She went to the farm yesterday and picked up another Grandpa sized zucchini. There was also fresh corn this week so we will have the added deliciousness of that instead of frozen corn. I can't wait to share these tasty treats with my coworkers!

Tasty Thursday: Farm Rainbow Chard and Scallions

A small bunch of beautiful Rainbow chard from our CSA.  I chopped up a few scallions and tossed it all in a cast iron frying pan with a little tap water. 

Yummy!

Tasty Thursday: Organic Chinese Cabbage and Scallions

The HUGE head of Chinese Cabbage I picked up with our CSA share this week has my pot overflowing!  I combined it with a couple of CSA scallions, added a little Simply Organic dried ground ginger and a bit of tap water. 

I have to confess that I rarely use fresh ginger - I can't buy a small enough piece for it to get used before it goes to waste.  Has anyone reading here dehydrated ginger?  Can you tell me about your experience?

Tasty Thursday: Rutabaga

Just enjoyed some delicious rutabaga and so easy to make.

Cut off the waxy outside layer then slice or cube it.
Boil until soft.
Drain, return to pot.
Drizzle on blackstrap molasses in quantity of your liking.
Shake on a little sea salt.
Toss in some margarine.
Cover pot and let items melt together for a few minutes.
Mash.

Yum.

Tasty Thursday: Another Variation on Chickpea Salad

I've decided not to call this 'Mock Tuna Salad' any more. First, because there's nothing mocking about it, the stuff tastes great. And second because why promote the eating of fish in any way, even if just using the name of a fish dish to describe a delicious, vegan dish.

This variation has the usual can of TJ's chick peas and Vegenaise. The greens are CSA salad mix. I'm trying to go easy on the salt lately because I'm so darned addicted to it so I used granulated onion instead. And the new ingredient?

Flor de Izote in brine. Yum. Adds a nice tang and just a bit of crunch. I saw a big jar of it in the International section of our little local market and thought it looked interesting. At $5.49 the jar is a bit pricey but I thought it was large enough to last quite a few meals so I gave it a try. I'm glad I did!

Tasty Thursday: Spaghetti Squash

Delicious for any time of the day, this is CSA share spaghetti squash, topped with TJ's edamame hummus and a couple of shakes of San-J Peanut Sauce. Yum.