Thursday, September 24, 2009

Cherry Tomato Marinara With Zucchini Noodles

Such a long title for such a simple easy dish. This is more raw food and oh so simple and quick to make. I found this in a Delicious Living Magazine. For cool and light for a summers dinner here in Florida.

2 pints cherry tomatoes
2t dried oregano
1t dried rosemary
2T lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil
1 t salt
2 zucchini, cut into very thin strips (we used our cheese grater and made them into long thin strips)
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Place all ingredients except zucchini in blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. (Makes 3 cups.) Place zucchini noodles in a serving bowl; pour marinara over and toss gently.

I did put the tomato marinara into a small mesh strainer so I cold strain off some of the liquid. That worked out perfectly, for if not, it would have been way too liquidy. So strain at least half of the liquid off or it will definitely be to runny.

This dish was perfect and I will most definitely make this one again FOR SURE!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Scrambled Eggless Eggs

I have been toying with the idea of heading in the direction of veganism. And thus far I am not doing so bad. And we may have another push in that direction, thanks to my husband. We think he 'may' be lactose intolerant. But we won't know for sure until he eliminates it form his diet for the next few days, gets himself better then adds dairy and see what happens.

But I have been trying to lose eggs for a while now, and not doing all that bad I might add. But it was breakfast that had stumped me. Many a morning here, we would have home fries and eggs. And now that I sit here and think about it, I always added something to the scrambled eggs, because I had been forced to eat eggs as a child and had some seriously bad experiences connected to eggs. So for me to lose eggs in my diet was not a far reach for me. Good riddance I say. Hello tofu scramble.

With the help from Sarah Kramer, How It All Vegan. Yeah, it's her again, but look, I haven't use done of her recipes in a while, so it is her turn again. This was a wonderful comfort dish for me. The textures was nearly 100% dead on. the spices form this recipe were good, but now I have a base to experiment with. Variety is the spice of life. Don't be shy, for I will definitely be making this one again.

1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
splash of olive oil
1 pkg medium tofu(we used firm) crumbled
1/2 t turmeric
1/8 t cumin
2T Braggs (we used tamari)
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In a large saucepan, add the onions and garlic to a splash of olive oil and saute on medium-high heat until onions are translucent. Add tofu, turmeric, cumin, and Braggs and mix together. Saute on high heat for 5-10 minutes until tofu is slightly seared on one side. Stir and simmer on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until moisture has evaporated. Makes 2 or more servings. We got 3-4 servings. This one is a keeper!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

What can bring us back to our childhood quicker than anything? The smell of homemade cookies. And I'm not talking about those that you can get in the refrigerated section. Those are not real cookies. If you can't pronounce all thee ingredients, it ain't real food...end of discussion.

With that said, I found a lovely recipe that I just had to make. I made so many different dishes today and two of them being brand new. I will post the other new dishes later on, so get ready. I saw these cookies a while back, but just never got around to making them. Well today was that day. I had a little difficulty with the batter, but finally got it right. None of the cookies burned, but my oven time was off from thee original recipe. So I will post an approximate time and let your oven tell you what is best. Try them, eat them, enjoy them.

1&1/2 cups coconut oil (or 3/4 cup coconut oil and 3/4 cup pureed white beans)
2&2/3 cups honey
3 cups natural peanut butter
6 cups unbleached flour
2 t baking soda
1 t salt

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, beat oil (beans), honey, and peanut butter. In another medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt then add to the oil mixture.

Scoop spoonfuls (I used a tablespoon measure) and drop onto baking sheet and press flat with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Be careful not to let them get too brown or they will be crunchy.

I took nearly all of Tammie's post and copied it here. But go visit Simple, Healthy, Tasty and see what else you can find there.

Wheat Berry Salad

I thought I had posted this one, but I cannot seem to find it. This recipe I found just by searching thee Internet and did not bookmark where I found it. As I have said before I try to give credit where credit is due, but this is one of those times that I completely goofed. With that said, I would like to post this salad for all those who do use whole grains, but think you can only grind them in to flour. Oh no no no, my little darlings. What we have here is another way to use those lovely little jewels. We made this salad only once and classified it as a tweaker, but alas we have not tweaked it since that day. This could be the push I need to retry this salad.

It is not a raw salad, but definitely a whole food salad and that my dear friends is second best. Why buy pre-packaged salads when it only takes a few moments to chop up a green, toss it in a bowl and add your own homemade dressing. Brilliant I say (insert evil scientist laugh here). I am one for using ingredients that are not all freaky and whacky, so this salad fits into that category. Try this one, and let me know what you think.

1 cup hard winter wheat berries (wheat kernels/grain)
Kosher salt (we used sea salt)
1 cup finely diced red onion (this adds such great color, that we now make sure red onion is on every produce list)
6T good olive oil, divided
2T balsamic vinegar
3 scallions, minced, white and green parts
1/2 red bell pepper, small diced
1 carrot, small diced
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
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Place the wheat berries and 3 cups of boiling water in a sauce pan and cook, uncovered over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, or until the wheat berries are soft. Drain.

Saute the red onion in 2 T olive oil over medium-low heat until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Turn off heat and add the remaining 4 T of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar.

In a large bowl, combine the warm wheat berries, sauteed onions, scallions, red bell pepper, carrot, 1/2 t salt and the pepper. Allow the salad to sit for at least 30 minutes (very important!) for the wheat berries to absorb the sauce. Season to taste and serve at room temperature.

I have always loved room temperature salads over chilled ones. I personalty think it is better for the digestive tract, but that is my opinion. Try this and see what you think.

I Love My Grains

I just got me delivery of grains. And for me it is like Christmas morning. This order I got an entire bucket of soft white and split a bucket of garbanzo beans and a bucket of brown rice with Denise Punger . She got other items that I will definitely be putting on my next order. The one thing that caught my eye was the unsweetened coconut flakes. I know what I purchase In the store is loaded with sugar and I needed coconut, due to the fact that we were 100% out of it and the fact that we go through so much of it due to our homemade granola. So when I saw Denise's package of unsweetened coconut, I was very tempted to, yes, steal it.

And when I go to pick up our grains I get to see what others order and then my wheels begin to turn. The group we go through is Bread Beckers and all you have to do is find the group that is local to you and contact them, find out their schedule and you are in business. I like this group because it has quarterly deliveries and that is a good thing. But there is another group to go through that does not have deliveries as often and their order is usually on a semi rig. I know they need at least a 10,000 pound order before they can schedule a delivery and trust me that is not that difficult to get done. I had no idea there were that many of us out there...healthy folks I mean, who knew. I believe the company that hosts the big delivery is Montana Flour and Grains .

I will find out more information about Montana so you folks can look into hooking up to get in on a bigger order. I helped host one of their deliveries and it was thee most fun I had had in a long time. When that semi pulled up to the street where the delivery was taking place I felt like a school girl on her first day of school. I would love to be a part of that once again.

Buying bulk is definitely the way to go. I buy bulk whenever possible. Whether it be via a co-op or in the local health food store, bulk is cheaper and better for thee environment. Less packaging and less shopping miles, for if I have it I don't run out to get it on a whim.

So check out these places and I will give updates on Montana to make sure I put in the correct link.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Raw Baba Ganoush

I am always in transition with my eating lifestyle. Notice how I did not say diet. Why do I no longer use that word? Well. for the only reason I can think of, no one should ever have to diet. If you eat whole foods and lose all your processed foods then you will never have to diet. It's when people adopt the SAD diet that things go awry.

I found this lovely blog dealing with raw food and she said something in a past post. She claims, as do I, that we do not count calories, fat grams, carbs or points. We in this family eat anything our heart desires and that includes sweets. Please remember, that we use whole grains for our cookies/pastries and such and raw sugar and or agave as our sweetener. So for us it is very different. I believe that the minute you begin to deprive yourself of the things you love in the food world, that is when you will fall off the wagon...in a manner of speaking. No need for that here.

My husband and I also exercise regularly. He is more of a gym type of guy, I am more of a do it home type of gal. I walk, bike ride, do free weights and mild stretching here at home. Do I exercise every day? No, but I try my darnedest. I also walk the dog when I do get to walk. It does our bodies good.

So, on to this post. We are trying to add more raw food to our diets, but it can be quite pricey. But again, I try to add at least one new recipe whether it be raw or cooked to our menu every single week. And so far we are not doing so bad. People always ask us what we eat since there is no meat there to fill that spot on our dinner plate. And I tell them that are are tons of things to fill the void and fill the void we do.

I stumbled on to this raw baba ganoush quite by accident. The blog I frequent, but was not necessarily searching for a specific dish. But out of nowhere, this recipe caught my eye. I made it and it turned out great. But be warned, the raw garlic can be a bit overpowering if you are not use to it. But other than that, I say go for it and enjoy the joys of being raw.

2-3 Cloves of garlic
1/2 C Cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
1 Large Eggplant, diced frozen and thawed
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 T Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt
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Advanced preparation: Peel, dice and freeze the eggplant. Thaw before you prepare the eggplant. Soak cashews.
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Start food processor and drop garlic, clove by clove into the spinning blade. It will fine dice it and throw it on the wall of the processor. Add the cashews and process until smooth. Add diced eggplant, lemon juice, olive oil and pinch of salt. Process until smooth. Enjoy with your choice of flat breads.


Here is a great recipe Rawmazing

Friday, September 11, 2009

Homemade Rice Milk

We are slowly but surely losing dairy products and processed foods in our home. The processed foods have been about 95% gone from our home for a while. But there are some products we still purchase, only due to the fact that we do not have recipes for them. I have one more to scratch off my list. Rice Milk.

Since entering the working world again, I have fallen behind on many things I use to do on a daily basis, like reading blogs. But when I do get a moment, I try to see what all you folks are cooking and see if they would fit into our diet and or lifestyle. Well this recipe came along at the right time. Heather, over at McDougalling with Chile & Friends posted this ever so simple recipe for rice milk. A whim recipe here is determined mostly by the fact of whether or not I have all thee ingredients. So, I set out to make this recipe and it came out fantastic.

I am going to post it here, but go take a look at Chile's blog, she has some really great recipes there. I recently tried one of her dressing recipes and it was great as well...another processed food I no longer purchase.


-Cook 1/2 cup of brown rice per package directions (typically 1 cup water and a dash of salt).
-Allow rice to cool.
-Fill blender with 4 cups of water, then add rice.
-Blend until water turns white and mixture is smooth (a minute or two).
-Pour into jars and refrigerate.
-Shake before using.
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I did filter the pulp and I used it the next morning as a warmed/hot cereal. It was delicious. I added a touch of raw sugar along with some cinnamon and raisins and all was well at our breakfast table.

I think next time I will make more, save the pulp again and make either rice pudding or throw it in a soup. You can freeze the pulp as well and keep on freezing until you reach thee amount you need for said recipe. Make this recipe and use the milk. To this day I am not a milk drinker, but this will definitely go into many recipes we make. Enjoy, and thank you Heather!!!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

"Anything Goes" Fruit-Filled Muffins

Well, I am gliding into my new working schedule. I am learning to semi-bulk cook on my days off. And I am dabbling into menu planning. But thus far, the menu planning only goes so far on the days that I work. I take stock of what we have in the frig and then write out a little paper with what we can make for dinner. Most of the time my daughter is prepping or even making dinner, but on rare occasions I can come home and make things myself. It is definitely a joint effort. Now on to this recipe.

When my daughter gets bored, she has a tendency to cook. And for us that is a good thing, for must of the time it is a sweet treat. This one she got from How it all Vegan. And to date, Sarah Kramer has not disappointed us yet. And this keeps the record going. This is definitely a fruit filled muffin. We used frozen fruit and they were very delicious. Try them, you of course will not regret it.

2 cups flour (we used unbleached all-purpose)
1/2 t salt
3t baking powder
1/2 cup sweetener
egg replacer (to equal 2 eggs)(We used cornstarch)
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sour soy milk (we used almond milk)(added 1 t vinegar to sour the milk)
1&1/2 cups** "Anything Goes" fresh or frozen fruit(your choice)
**Apple, raisin
banana, chocolate chip
raspberry, blackberry
strawberry, apricot
ginger, apple, apricot
pear, apple
***The batter is going to be veryt thick, but that is what you want.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the sweetener, egg replacer, oil, sour milk, and fruit. Stir together until "just mixed." Scoop into lightly oiled muffin tins and bake for 35-45 minutes (use fork to see if done).

This were to die for, OK, we didn't die, but there were slap-up delicious. Try them eat them and make them again.