It's November...already!

A few excuse and then the truth.

~ I had a baby and I'm an attachment parenting mom, it means I get on the computer in 5 minute spurts...not much time for actual writing.

~ Our computer broke and I can't upload pictures which I am trying to overcome tonight by hooking up my laptop to the monitor etc. etc. etc.

~ My husband went on an anti-fungal diet which had me deeply immersed in research and recipes for him involving that, nothing I would dream of subjecting you to!

but the truth is, I'm a perfectionist. And with gorgeous witty and delicious blogs out there like, Smitten Kitchen, Pioneer Woman, The Vegan Dad, Go Dairy Free and many many more.
I feel unmotivated to write. If I can't be the best, which is obvious than I won't do it at all. That's the truth! But I am desperately trying to overcome that and a few of you have encouraged me and for that I am immensely grateful and I will try to post...more...often.

Let me share with you though an amazing recipe. It's from Vegetarian Times and you can do just the filling in tortillas or do the empanadas or whatever! I usually use my whole wheat pie crust (from back in that pot pie recipe) but I did make this crust as a sort of indulgence (lots of oil and fat in it) and it was superb! The filling is black beans and bananas which is just so very good!
I'm going to copy and paste but change what I changed or you can
Find the original recipe here

Black Bean and Banana Empanadas

Crust

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I've been experimenting with lots of flours lately so I will spare you the actual flours I used)
  
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 4 Tbs. cold butter
  
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (I think I actually split half coconut oil half canola, I can't remember sorry!)
  
• 1 Tbs. white wine vinegar

Filling

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 1 cup cooked black beans, as always this does not need to be exact, none of it does really
  
• Red (orange or yellow) bell pepper, chopped
  
• several cloves garlic, minced
  
• 2 bananas, peeled and diced
  
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp. red pepper sauce
• grated cheese
  

1. To make Crust: Mix flour, salt, and chili powder in bowl. Mix in butter with fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk together oil, vinegar, and 1/3 cup cold water in separate bowl. Stir wetmixture into flour mixture until textured dough forms, adding up to 1/4 cup more water, if necessary. Knead on lightly floured surface until dough comes together. Form into ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for a while

2. To make Filling, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté veggies. Add beans and garlic, reduce heat to medium, and cook 3 minutes. Stir in bananas, cumin, cayenne, and coriander, and cook 2 minutes, or until bananas begin to break down and spices are fragrant. Remove from heat, and stir in cilantro and red pepper sauce.

3. Preheat oven to 400°F. Divide dough into 12 balls. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Roll out each ball to whatever size the roll to without getting to thin to lift off the counter. Use more flour if you need to. Fill with some filling. Fold dough circle in half, press to close. I dip my fingers in a bit of water and sort of glue it shut my pressing on it.

Transfer to prepared baking sheet, and repeat with remaining dough balls and Filling. Bake empanadas 20 minutes, or until golden brown and crusty.

No picture...sorry I told you the computer...

My hiatus

This long delay can now be brought to a close! 6 weeks ago my sweet daughter was born, what fun it's been. Hopefully, and I know I have said this repeatedly, but hopefully I can post some recipes more often, I sure am finding good ones!
For now though I need to share this guiltless dessert with you. Desserts and me are having a grand time together lately, but this one I can actually boast as healthy (depending on one factor though!)
When I stopped drinking milk pudding left my life and what a very sad thing for me.
Guess what? It's back!

Chocolate Pudding
12 ounce package of silken tofu
1 banana
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (we buy the good stuff from the health food store, did you know that chocolate paired with the proper sweetener IS actually good for you!)

Alright, drain the tofu (carefully that stuff is soft) blend it up with a pinch of salt. Add the banana and the vanilla and blend some more. Melt the chocolate chips and add to the blender. Pour all of it into a bowl, lick the spoon but not the blender blades and put the bowl into the fridge for an hour.

Bean Patties

Making patties is a great way to use up beans. Even if they don't turn out just right you can smash them into a pita pocket and load up with avocado, sauteed veggies and some cheese.
This is a combo of two recipes I had, that I made tonight

Black Eyed Pea Patties

*approx. 2 cups black eyed peas (that measurement is after they are cooked. Tonight I used a couple handfuls and threw in the rest of the package of black beans)
*1 large carrot, grated (use any veggie you want, its just a filler - same goes for the mushrooms)
*4 or 5 mushrooms, finely chopped
*2 garlic cloves, minced
*1 tsp oregano
*1/2 tsp cumin
*1/4 cup rolled oats
*1/4 cup flour
*2 TBL tahini (or peanut butter or leave it out)
*1 tsp mustard

Mash the beans, saute the veggies and smash everything together! Form the patties and cook on a skillet with a bit of oil for a minute or so on each side.

Tortillas again

Tortilla experimentation finally paid off! I'm happy to report a more healthy version, I was okay with the other version so flour substitution success REALLY makes me happy.
Here is the original post

I'm over using dry milk powder. Lately I've been mixing a bit of yogurt with water to be milk like or using almond milk.
So anyway the flour. Tonight I used 1 cup flour and then 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup rice flour. They were still so good and perfectly pliable, bubbly and whatever else they should be. I have had trouble with garbanzo flour changing their flavor drastically and wheat flour changing their texture so this combo is going in the books until I feel like experimenting again.

Raw foods

Wow, raw foods are so amazing. A glimpse into the raw food world will really turn your thoughts about food upside down! Personally I don't believe that a complete raw food diet is naturally healthy but many many people do and those people pump out amazing recipes!
Incorporating raw food into your diet though is a MUST. Especially fruits and vegetables. We don't have a problem with raw fruits around here so I am always on the lookout for great raw food vegetable recipes (and dessert ones too but that is another story!)
Anyway, I stumbled upon this recipe that is the best raw food veggie recipe I have yet to find. I'll type out the recipe for you (since I have made a few changes) and attach the link (which sometimes works and sometimes not for some reason) to the original recipe. It's from Russell James' Raw Food Blog. He includes a cucumber raita (blah not a cucumber fan in this house!) and the wrappers which call for a dehydrator which we don't have, so I just made the filling and put it into pita bread.

1 cup chopped zucchini
3 Tbls water
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp nama shoyu (naturally fermented soy sauce)
1 Tbls lemon juice
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1/4 tsp ginger
2 Tbls garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp agave nectar
8 sun-dried tomato halves
1/2 tsp salt

• Grind all ingredients in a food processor

Add these next ingredients. My food processor couldn't handle this so I will just chop it all and stir it in next time.

1/2 cup tightly-packed spinach, chopped small
2 sliced spring onions (green onions) <--I used a bit of regular yellow onion)
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup peas

His picture... not mine!

Balsamic Vinegar

I have a new sister in law in love with the stuff. Guess what, you should be too! Balsamic vinegars (well vinegars in general actually) are good for your health. Balsamic vinegar has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, tons of antioxidants, promotes a healthy digestive system, reduces headaches, controlls blood sugar levels, is a natural appetite suppressant, and a whole bunch more things related to anti-aging, fatigue and your bones.
Some more reading: Click HERE and HERE and HERE

Here is a dressing or a dipping sauce. We used it tonight for our steamed broccoli. (some of us poured some right onto our lentil patties!)

5 cloves of roasted garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

Puree everything and start dipping!

Sweet Potato Fries

Lots of people I know have their favorite recipe for sweet potato fries. Here is mine.

Chop up your sweet potato - 1 large one
Place in a bowl with a mixture of:
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons cumin
3 teaspoons coriander
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, flip each of those little guys over and bake 15 minutes more
Just know, they aren't going to be crispy, try to get them crispy and they will burn... promise!
Before








After

Oops and Jam

That last post was supposed to be in my personal blog (the one about the Christmas Tree). It took me a while to notice it had happened! Here is a simple great recipe for fruit jam to make up for it!

Lacto-fermentation is a great way to get enzymes into your body that help to break down difficult foods, like grains for your body to use. This is a delicious recipe that includes this process.

Fermented Fruit Jam
*2 cups dried fruit (this one pictured is fig and raisen, try to find unsulphured fruit)
*1/2 TBL sea salt (why yes that is alot, it is needed in the fermentation process and the flavor disappears when the jam is done)
*1/8 cup whey (can be made from yogurt by draining)
*1/8-1/4 cup raw honey
Cook the fruit in filtered water until soft. Transfer fruit to processor and blend with the rest of the ingredients. Place into a jar and keep at room temp. for 2 days (3 if if its cold!) Move it to the fridge and devour within 2 months... I don't think that will be a problem!

Soup

Look at what I saw under the 6 weirdest, scariest processed foods article...condensed soup. Although eating them in my opinion is just plain bland and gross (as is incorporating them into dishes) they are terrifying little cans of who knows what! The article focuses on the sodium aspect, it says,

"Ah, soup. It’s the food mom used to feed us when we were sick. Every child has fond memories of being nursed back to health by sipping at the warm, nutritious broth of chicken noodle soup. Of course, mom probably didn’t realize at the time that she was setting you up for a future of high blood pressure and kidney failure. Because if she fed you condensed soup from a can, she was loading your young body up with insanely high amounts of sodium.

How insanely high, you ask? Well, consider that a mere half-cup of Campbell’s Vegetable Soup contains a heart-stopping 890 mg of sodium, or roughly 37 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. But wait, there’s more! The typical Campbell’s soup can contains one-and-a-half cups of soup, meaning that one can of soup contains more than 90 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake."

Here is the link to the original article

Next up on the recipe gifts... another soup one. Broccoli and White Bean (after I get a pic of it!)

Pot Pie

When I became a healthy eater I pretty much said goodbye to pot pies. It was a sad thing for me because I really loved those trans fat loaded frozen ones. Look at this ingredients list!! Homemade ones call for shortening, gravy, cream of such and such and so on so I never really attempted. The latest Vegetarian Times came to my mailbox with 2... yes 2 pot pie recipes. I searched online for a whole wheat pie crust and the adventure began. I made adaptions to the recipe since I didn't have some things on hand. First, here is the whole wheat crust recipe.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

½ cup unbleached flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ tsp salt
1 TBL sugar
5 TBL butter, cold and cut into a few pieces
4-5 TBL cold water
Pretty basic, mix dry cut in butter squash around and then add water, this is a good time to get your hands dirty with dough! Next time I'm putting rosemary and maybe sage in the recipe (that is what the veg. times recipe had)

The Filling
2 med. diced potatoes
2 Large carrots, chopped
1/4 cup raw soy sauce (I was nearly out so I added only 1 tsp!)
several garlic cloves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or chili powder)
1 onion
some red pepper
1 cup each chopped veggies: broccoli, peas, corn, zucchini, green beans... whatever you have
1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 cups veggie broth
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
some beans, literally i just dumped in some black and red I had leftover in the fridge
4 oz cream cheese, I actually used what was left of (2 TBL) of my yogurt cheese
salt/pepper
{The original recipe also had 1 tsp hoisn sauce and 3 TBL red wine}

Cook potatoes and carrots in large bot of boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Saute everything starting with onions and working up to more sensitive veggies (peas and garlic) all in one giant pan. Push veggies to the side and add a little oil or butter and the flour. Stir it up to make a roux, until smooth. Stir into veggies. Add the broth, potatoes, carrots, soy sauce, spices and everything else. Remove from heat.
This crust recipe (plus a tiny extra from another pie) covered the bottom and sides of my round casserole dish and another piece ontop. Construct your pot pie and place the filling inside. Cover with crust and poke or slice for air holes. Bake for 45 minutes at 350. Let it stand for 10 minutes after that. Try not to burn your fingers sneaking bits of crust before it cools.

Bread

You may not know this about me, actually i don't really know why you would, but I really love to bake bread. I love (and also sometimes hate) new recipes and I am always looking for a decent healthy alternative to what has been sitting on my grocery store shelf for who knows how long, high fructose corn syrup or not.
My love for baking bread in countered by the tremendous trouble I have baking it. I always do something wrong and my husband always ends up taking short little crumbly sandwhichs to work. Once I forgot the yeast, seriously, the yeast. Frugality sometimes overrides the common sense part of your brain so I just mixed in with water and tried to knead it in... I did that with an egg once too.
This recipe has been pretty good to me though.
It does have white flour and butter in it but im okay with that since it has so much fiber...
The original recipe is for "2 medium loaves" so I just make one loaf and it is nice and big!

High Fiber Loaf

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 tsp salt
2 cups hot water
1/4 cup butter (room temp) (I'm working on changing this one)
2 TBL honey
1/2 cup granola
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup bran flakes
2 cups flour

Combine the wheat flour, yeast, and salt. Add hot water. Stir. Add butter, honey, granola, germ, and bran flakes. Keep stiring. Mix in 1/2 cup flour at a time. Knead for 8 minutes. Rise in a covered bowl for 1 hour. Press down, form and place into bread pan. Rise again about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400. Baked for 20 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake 20 more minutes. Cover with foil if it is browning too fast.

Indian Fish

I'm positive that I don't have to tell you all the health benefits of fish, BUT I may still have to convince many of you to eat it. I don't particularly like fish, I don't hate it either. I have found many really great recipes that taste wonderfully and make me really enjoy fish. This recipe sounds really funky and even I, in all my funkiness nearly didn't try it. But, alas I did and it was great and several of my friends think so too (and even some self proclaimed fish haters)! So without further ado...

Indian Fish
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Fish fillets
2 TBL honey
2 TBL lemon juice
1/3 cup yogurt
1/8 cup oil
3 garlic cloves

1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 tsp dried mint

Combine in a small bowl the first 4 spices: coriander, nutmeg, chili powder and cinnamon. Add to that 1/2 tsp salt. Rub the fish with garlic cloves then with spices and oil, really in any order. Throw that onto the skillet (or the oven, your choice) and while it cooks blend up the rest of the ingredients in a food processor or blender (you can actually make the sauce up to 8 hours before you meal if you feel the need). The sauce can be adjusted (of course). I like less lemon and more garlic. After you have cooked your fish pour the sauce over it and serve it up. We always eat this meal with couscous because it soaks up the sauce too and its wonderful!

Pumpkins

Let me apologize profusely for neglecting this blog lately. The end of summer (moving, traveling and birthdays) left me in a spin. Things seem to be settling down now so I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite things about this season... pumpkins! I want to create a movement called "get your pumpkins off the porch and into your dinner".
I am chalk full of pumpkin recipes but here is one that we made tonight.

Black Bean and Pumpkin Quesadillas
1 jalapeno chile (I don't add this... I have a toddler!)
1 cup fresh pumpkin - peeled and grated
2 cups black beans
1 small onion - chopped
1/2 bell pepper - chopped
couple cloves of garlic
1/4 cup pumpkin - cooked and mashed
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
handful of cilantro
2 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
tortillas

Preheat the oven to 350 (if you want them toasty and the cheese melted)
Saute the onion, pepper and garlic for a couple minutes. Add the chili pepper and fresh pumpkin, saute about 5 minutes longer. Add the mashed pumpkin, beans and spices. After you remove from heat add the cilantro. Fill each tortilla with the mixture and some cheese. Bake for a couple minutes... I don't know 5-10! We like to top this with plain yogurt at the table.

Cauliflower Cilantro Soup

It was pretty chilly here today and soup seemed like the perfect dinner. Look out for more soup recipes as fall approaches. Sorry there is no picture, It really won't photograph very well, I mean its white and well uh white!

~Now I must say that a really great tasting and good quality stock is what makes this soup. I use Rapunzel's vegan vegetable bouillon cubes and I have NEVER tasted anything better.

Cauliflower Cilantro Soup
1/2 onion, chopped (I just use one small one)
3 or 4 garlic cloves
1 tsp coriander
1 small head of cauliflower
4 cups stock
1 - 2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 TBL cilantro

Saute onion, garlic and coriander in your soup pot with a bit of oil. Chop up the cauliflower and add it to the pot followed by the stock. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes. Add mustard and cilantro. Then put in the blender what percentage of the soup you don't want chunky, I usually do about half. But you could do all if you wanted, your choice. We love this with cheese on top, but then again we just really love cheese.

Cream of...

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I have shared a recipe with you. We have just moved and life has been up, down and all around for the past few months. Now that my family is back together in one household I am much more motivated for trying new recipes so I have lots of them on my mind... be ready!

Here is a recipe I ran across. In my opinion is is bland when eaten plain but once you add a bit of honey and a dollop of whatever butter you deem healthy....wow delicious.
You can make this recipe with barley, wheat berries, rice, millet, whatever you choose. We've tried them all but the rice. The accompanying picture is of cream of Barley so that is what I'll write in the recipe.

Cream of Barley
1 cup barley
pinch of salt
5 cups water

Toast the grain in a skillet for about 5 minutes. Cool. Grind into powder (or mostly powder or whatever you can accomplish) with a food processor or blender. Whisk the grain into the water and boil uncovered for 20 minutes.

Product Placement

So sorry it has been a long while since last posting. Our family is traveling alot this summer and I haven't been keeping up with new recipes... much less posting about them! I'm working with some new recipes this week and a couple I want to try. But for now I'd like to tell you about a couple of things that I have found as replacements for foods that periodically pop up in my recipes.

Soy sauce:
First of all, this is the most amazing tasting soy sauce I have ever had!
Commercial soy sauce is full of preservatives and as most commercially produced products are, it's lacking in nutrients. I have read that it's basically colored water and tons of salt... and smidgen of soybeans that have been defatted using chemicals... blah. I really haven't thoroughly researched it but I do know that this tastes alot better!

Salt:
Salt has become something that people really stress out over. Salt is actually very good for you. With tons of minerals that come with sea salt (calcium, potassium, sulphur, magnesium, iron...) you can't afford to ditch it from your diet. That bleached nutrient stripped table salt stuff is what you need to get rid of. With this stuff I never ever feel guilty about putting salt in my food, but truthfully you won't need much of it.



Mayonnaise: Now I have little use for mayo, especially since plain yogurt will do the trick. But I do have a husband who does like sandwiches and not always with avocado as its moistener! So I thought I'd venture to the fake stuff aisle at the natural food store. I'm not terribly fond of making or using fake stuff but occasionally I like it. It turns out that I really really love this stuff. Which has led me to dolloping a bit in my guacamole... don't tell anyone ;) Anyway, I love the ingredients in this, good fats and no eggs. Let me explain. I love eggs, I am an egg advocate. We eat eggs all the time, but I'm not so sure about such a large amount of processed eggs swirled into one jar topped with some soybean oil...frown. Regardless of what you believe about mayo, this still tastes better!

Sweetener:
Honey and agave nectar are my go-to sweeteners. But I do love to keep and occasionally use molasses. Molasses is the only form of sugar (besides malt) that has significant nutrients in it. Click here to see a chart. You've got manganese, copper, iron, calcium, potassium, B6 and Selenium. There are a whole slew of other benifits but you can research that on your own, that website its helpful for that too. Here is another one.

Stuffed Zucchini

There are a million great ways to stuff a zucchini. Here is one on the healthier side. First let me explain the pictures. We were visiting family in Oklahoma and one of my Aunt-in-laws gave me the biggest zucchini I have ever seen, we are talking 1st place in my made up county fair. So, no I don't normally cook this dish with insanely huge zucchinis and no I also don't normally put so much cheese on it. At home we use the block of cheese and since grating isn't as fun as it was when I was a kid, minimal cheese is the key. On vacation we had a bag of shredded cheese and I went crazy.

Olive, Tomato and Millet Stuffed Zucchini

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 TBL olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup millet
4 medium zucchini
1/2 tsp each: rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil and salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika
1 22 ounce can whole tomatoes (I use about 4 fresh Roma tomatoes)
2 cups broth
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

The recipe needs you to steam up your zucchinis, so I'd figure out how you intend to do that and get it going while you do the rest of this. In the case of the giant zuc, I did it in the oven covered with water in the bottom. You can do the same in the microwave I've heard, I use the steamer. You can boil them if none of those options appeal to you!
Saute the onions for 5-7 minutes, add the garlic for a few minutes. Add millet, herbs and spices, saute 3 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, crushing them as you put them in, throw in the broth (and tomato juice if you used canned ones). Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime, cut the zuccs in half lengthwise: steam or boil them until soft. Remove the pulp making a little boat and add it to the millet mixture with olives. Simmer about 5 more minutes. Place the zucchinis in a casserole dish and stuff them with mixture. (I top it with cheese). Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.

Pictures

A couple blogs back I posted a recipe for whole wheat pizza dough. (Click here to see the recipe) I wanted to add a couple pictures because I think pizzas are one of the most beautiful dishes to make and serve! My two year old is the best at rolling out the dough and pushing in the crust - it is really fun to make pizza with him. This pizza is one of our typical combos. Onions, peppers, garlic, mushrooms and spinach... oh yes and add the cheese.

Basil

I planned to post a great picture of the basil in my garden but searching through my garden pictures I find no basil cameos... poor herb. I'm sure there are 100 ways to use fresh basil in the kitchen but my top choice and the number one place all my grown basil goes to is pesto. Freezing it is awesome for winter (I have frozen it both with and without the cheese). If you were only going to grow one herb I vote basil! Pesto usually calls for pine nuts, but those little guys are pricey so I just ditch them, still tastes great to me. I have also heard of vegans axing the cheese, I haven't tried that though. Once I put one clove too many garlic... wowee that hurt, so I added about a cup or so of spinach and that really helped. My point is: mess around and see what you like.

Pesto

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups fresh basil leaves (okay I have never measured this, really its like a heaping handful)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
salt
pepper

I'd say cut about 3 inch tall pieces off your basil plant and gather as much as you can fit into your hand.
Wash them and pat dry.
Pick the leaves off the stems.
Mix all together in a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth.

After these messages...

I haven't forgotten my fellow eaters out there! I will be back soon with another great new recipe. I've been on somewhat of a vacation for the past week or so but we are headed home in a couple days. Keep on working your magic in the kitchen!