One Simple Sauce – Several Tasty Meals

Some of my favorite meals are simple.  They are often not the meals that I choose to serve to guests, I guess the show off comes out in all of us sometimes…. or lots of times, however, simple is so important to a majority of what I cooked when I first started cooking…. and before I started trying to show off in a blog .  As Little Sis and I have been writing the Baby Steps series, we have discussed that there are recipes that are ideal for people just getting into cooking.  These are SO important, because biting off more than you can chew can discourage further cooking… but hopefully not further eating.  I have written about sauces in the past because they are the difference between Blah and Bingo!  And Bingo will help you and your family stick with some healthier recipes.I much prefer “Bingo!” to “Do I really have to eat all of this?”

So while preparing a delicious, but not overly simple recipe from Amanda at Good Clean Food I was so impressed with the tofu marinade that I knew it was destined for other uses besides the Gingered Greens with Tofu that she shared.  And if I lost you at the tofu, fear not…. what you choose to marinade or stir fry is between you, your doctor and the animals in your life   Although I will say that tofu gets a bad rap with folks who’ve never tried it, the truth is that it takes on the flavor of what it is cooked in, AND there are ways to change it’s texture if you don’t like it as is (see notes at the bottom).

So do check out the recipe above…. and do check out this marinade because it is very simple and I’m going to add just afew ingredients to it the second (or third time around to make a VERY easy stir-fry.

The marinade is (from Amanda as mentioned above and based on a Moosewood recipe):
Tofu Marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry or mirin (I used sherry)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbs brown sugar or agave nectar (I used brown sugar)

Mix the ingredients and bring to a boil.  You might make extra because it is very useful!
You can use it to marinate and then cook meat or tofu and you can used it as a simple stir-fry sauce with or without one or more of the following ingredients:
almond butter or peanut butter
grated ginger
minced or pressed garlic
oil for cooking

Here’s what I did.
 I made Amanda’s recipe.  To the left are little baked tofu squares.

Sauteed the greens according to directions and we had a fabulous meal one night.  One so good that I am serving it to my family on vacation on one of my nights to cook.

Several nights later I put a little sesame oil, 1 clove of minced garlic and about 2 tsp of grated ginger in a pan, sauteed the veggies I had on hand, added some of the marinade sauce – add 1/4 cup and then taste, (people can always add more as a condiment), cooked rice noodles and voila meal number 2.

 Sorry, lousy photo, but you get the idea and can see that I had sugar snap peas, peppers and onions on hand that night.

Lastly, I wondered if the sauce could stand on it’s own for a stir fry.  Of course I couldn’t quite leave well enough alone, so I added about 2 Tbsp. of almond butter to the next batch of stir fry veggies and the sauce.  I started with a little safflower oil, sauteed, added almond butter and again about 1/4 cup of sauce… give or take – it depends on how many veggies you are using.

Unfortunately, our camera broke and I don’t have a picture of this last variant in the bowl, just in the pan, but the combo of peppers (I do love my peppers), cabbage, broccoli and carrots worked with the sauce.  It was very tasty and some of us added a little more sauce to our bowl, and some did not.  Preparing this took only a little longer than it took to chop the vegetables.  I didn’t even use rice…. just lots of cabbage, a versatile but easy sauce…and we had a rootin’ tootin’ good time around here!

Now for the tofu challenged.  I buy extra firm tofu, freeze it, thaw it the day of and squeeze out the excess water.  This can be done over the sink by hand or by placing the tofu in a colander, over a plate (for the drainage) and placing a small plate and a heavy can on top of the tofu and letting it sit.  Freezing and squeezing gives the tofu a heartier texture and makes it a little more porous so it can absorb sauce.

And if you’ve never used fresh ginger – it also can be frozen and then easily grated.  I have a microplane that I love – but any small grater will do.

Enjoy!

Rockin’ Gluten Free Falafel

That’s right Sis, I got you.  In the weird world of cooking for my family, I have made some surprising discoveries.  First, my children don’t like ALL sweet things (and I am so glad). Secondly, my kids usually accept my food dicta without significant complaint and finally (drumroll) my kids will eat anything that has anything to do with chickpeas.  Errrrrrrh….. what what WHAT?  Yes, that’s right chickpeas.  I have no explanation for you.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the little buggers myself, but that discovery certainly had not happened by age 6.  There was not significant trickery to get them to try the little beans, although I admit to calling them tushies and pointing out that they look like a little pile of baby bums.  Some people might not want to eat that, but it worked for my kids… go figure.  So when trying to decide what to make for dinner the other night, and since I was feeling kind of summery and listening to great music, I thought falafel made a lot of sense (if you don’t get the connection you probably wasted less of your 20s than I did).

When I found a falafel recipe, however, I noticed that it had wheat flour and breadcrumbs in it.  Not surprising – most pattie type foods have one or both of these, but thought, I couldn’t possibly serve these to my sister’s family as written, and so I began my usual alteration dance with gluten free falafel as the goal.  And guess what? Gluten free falafel is awesome, regardless of whether or not you’re in the parking lot of a large concert venue.  Gluten free falafel rocked this suburban (okay exurban for the geography geeks – holla!) momma and Ms. Picky Pants?  She had thirds.  Yep. Thirds.  Enough said. If Ms. Picky Pants has thirds, I’m pretty convinced everyone should give this one a go.

Rockin’ Gluten Free Falafel – adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’ falafel found in Vegan with a Vengeance (Grrrrr. Sorry, just being vengeful)

• 1/3 c gluten free rolled oats
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas (canned is fine, just drain and rinse)
• 2 T chickpea flour
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3/4 t garlic powder ( I usually use fresh garlic, but had a garlic emergency – AAAAGH!)
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t ground cumin (more for folks with cumin love – unlike Ms. PP)
• 1 t ground coriander
• 1/4 t of cayenne (I replaced with 1/8 t white pepper – yeah, you get the drill)
• 1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 t salt
• vegetable oil for frying (I used olive oil, but will use safflower next time)
• large leaf lettuce
• falafel fixings (chopped tomato, cukes, whatever floats your boat)
• tahini dressing

Put the oats in a food processor and pulse until the oats look more like bread crumbs than oats.  Add chickpeas and pulse until chickpeas are chopped.  Add ingredients through the salt and process until you have a cohesive, but somewhat coarse mixture.  It will be a little green from the parsley – it’s okay.  You may want to stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. Remove bowl of food processor (with blade inside) and put in the fridge (with the cover on) for at least 1/2 an hour.

When the time is right, form the batter into 2 inch patties about 1/2 inch thick (no, again, I didn’t and won’t any time soon measure).  Warm oil in the bottom of a pan (I used my cast iron and it worked supah).  How much oil?  More than a low fat cook would normally use, but i avoided the 1/2 inch recommended in the original because I thought that was gross.  I know falafel are traditionally deep fried – my shallow fried falafel were fab.  When oil is warm (shimmery and bubbles up a little when a little batter is added), place patties in pan.  Flip after a couple of minutes, watching for browning.  Remove to drain on paper towels or paper bag you wish to reuse.

Tahini Dressing – this one was also from VWAV, and I strayed less, which is to say only because of what was on hand rather than some dietary goal…

• 8 t olive oil
• 1 1/2 garlic powder (or 3 cloves garlic)
• 1/2 c tahini (or realize you don’t have that much and sub out almond butter for half)
• 2 t balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t paprika
• 1/4 c parsley
• 1/2 c water

Throw it all in a blender and go.  Yep, that’s it and it’s tremendously good.

Serve the falafel wrapped in a lettuce leaf or your favorite gluten free bread product.  If you aren’t so concerned about gluten, try the traditional pita arrangement.  Add fresh veg and some tahini and you’ve got yourself a little party.  I have to admit.  I ate too many.  They were just so freaking good. Delish.

 

 

This post was shared on Wildcrafting Wednesday.

Pumpkin French Toast

Okay, so it’s springtime and I’m still talking about pumpkin.  So sue me.  Well, please don’t… instead admit that you too love pumpkin, and perhaps even have a few cans in the pantry from when they were on sale, or when you didn’t get to that pie you were going to make.  Or like me, you bought a whole case of pumpkin from Amazon because you could get organic there for just a bit more than for non-organic in the store and then you had a whole case of pumpkin to use up!  Happily use up, I might add.

Rarely does a recipe call for the actual 2 cups of pumpkin available in these little cans, so what does one do with the little bits / 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup, 3/4 cup of pureed pumpkin left over.  Makes a nice science experiment if left in the back of the refrigerator too long, but I try very hard to not lose precious pumpkin i this way.

Call it synchronicity, call it confluence of errors, call it poor planning, …but there I was having promised french toast to my son last weekend and I didn’t have enough eggs.  I usually make a large batch of french toast to freeze for easy school and work morning meals using 10 or 12 eggs, almond milk, vanilla and cinnamon.  I had 7 eggs and I hate to not produce my full compliment of leftovers for later use.  Truly, making enough for leftovers is the key for me being able to providing healthy meals.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, even if my story is a combination of cartoons and obscure haiku!

So I combined (beat the heck out of) my:
7 small eggs, plus
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup of flaxseed eggs.  (see below)
1 – 2 tsp. vanilla
oil to rub on skillet or griddle
cinnamon for sprinkling.  (I sprinkle cinnamon on each piece after laying down to cook because I hate the way the cinnamon clumps in the mixture with egg.  Okay, so now you know my story is a combination of rather orderly and anal cartoons and obscure haiku.)

If you’ve never made a flaxseed egg, it is:
1 Tbsp. of ground flaxseed
mixed with 3 Tbsp. water.
The mixture is stirred and then allowed to sit for about 5 minutes to gel up.
And it does thicken and become gelatinous…. in a nice way  So my 1/2 cup of flaxseed in the Pumpkin French toast is about 2 eggs which = 2 Tbsp. flaxseed (which can be purchased ground or whole which you grind in our blender or grinder) plus 6 Tbsp water.

“Flaxseeds are rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an essential fatty acid that appears to be beneficial for heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and a variety of other health conditions. They also contains a group of chemicals called lignans that may play a role in the prevention of cancer.”  This info courtesy of Care2.com

I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which these cooked and flipped.  I recommend stirring before each new piece of bread is dunked because the heavier stuff did start to settle out at the bottom.  And if you use cast iron – Little Sis has great ideas for perfect pancake and French toast making here.

So you’ve now added a little bit of vegetable to your breakfast plate, and a twist on French toast.  If you’d like to include more veggies in your breakfast we have some Veggie-ful ideas for you here.   We also have ideas for alternatives to syrup – Apple drizzle and Date cream.

Now you wouldn’t necessarily want to scramble a bunch of flaxseed eggs, but they made a healthy expander to my low egg count.   This also got me thinking about ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into the french toast concept and also ways for vegans to enjoy French toast.  Our friend Somer has a vegan french toast that Little Sis says is awesome.  Hmmm I’m thinking about experimenting with some ground walnuts with pumpkin and the garbanzo bean flour mentioned in Somer’s version with milk…. Anybody out there have some interesting french toast recipes to share?

PS – I apologize for only one mediocre pic – our camera broke and this was the best I could get out of my phone.  Better pics next time.

This post was shared on Wildcrafting Wednesday.

Caribbean Flair – Cheap, Easy, Delicious

I can’t count the number of posts that I’ve started by way of saying that I was running late and hadn’t planned dinner well…  Well, I guess I could, but honestly I don’t really want to.  The simple fact is that planning is not my strong suit.  So how do I eat healthy food without breaking the bank? I keep a healthy pantry and that pantry allows me to start with the ingredients that I have and cobble together something that works for most of us most of the time.  (Learn more about our real food pantries here.)  So last night, running on about 3 hours of sleep and a miserable day of contract work I stood in front of my magic pantry and waited for inspiration.

And then it happened.  Oooh, sweet potatoes.  Oh right, I just got some quinoa!  Black beans, hot dog!  Chipotle, garlic, cumin, salt, coconut oil… oh and cilantro!  Oh yes, life is good.  Dinner for four in about 35 minutes featuring:

A Cookie By Any Other Name

A cookie is a cookie is a cookie, right?

I’ve known that is not true since I was very young.  Not to brag, but my mother baked when I was a kid.  Her cookies were better than any store bought cookie…. but not as good as bakery cookies (sorry Mom).  I preferred a good cookie.  Who wouldn’t?

Once she started working she didn’t bake as much but still being budget conscious, she bought the cheapest cookies available.  I thought they were really lame…. until my best friend would come over and be delighted to break into the cellophane wrapped goodies.  She didn’t get cookies at all, so she thought even the cheap-o, 3 dozen for $1, lame ones from the store were okay.  It’s what you get used to, isn’t it?

I also like to bake and I have always been a cookie person as opposed to a cake person.  Many of our friends can tell you that they looked forward to dessert at our house because they knew it would be really good.  Every person’s good.  Plain old good.  Good old good – sweet – good.  What you get used to good.

Sometimes It’s Not That Complicated

I am a member of an online Mom’s group.  I don’t necessarily participate all that much, but when the twins were infants and we had just moved here, it was a lifesaver.  There was always someone around to “talk” to.  I still check in from time to time, to chat with my book club friends, get advice on a restaurant, or help a new Mom know it’s going to be okay.  While I was visiting with my online ladies yesterday, an interesting question caught my eye.

Savory Refrigerator Pancakes

What the heck is that you say?  A savory pancake is one make with whole grains (GF version a little later in the post) without vanilla, cinnamon or sugar in the actual pancake which you then top with sauteed or fresh vegetables and sauces or cheeses or even pumpkin sauce that was in the freezer  Admittedly, the pumpkin sauce was in the freezer because it was meant to be an alternative masc & cheese sauce, but nobody liked it that way.  I kept thinking there would be some other use for it.  But you don’t have to use pumpkin sauce!  You can use frozen macaroni and cheese sauce, or salsa, or a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Really any leftovers that would be good with bread would be good on a pancake…. and sauce makes everything nice.

Leftovers Transformed – Pot Pie Palooza

I’ve had this idea brewing for a little while… a pot pie that I could eat (given my dietary predilections). Well, okay, I’ve been thinking about pot pie generally for a VERY long time. When I was in high school my Mom would occasionally offer up a Mrs. Budd’s pot pie from the grocery store. High times indeed. I have long been smitten with the pot pie.  I was reminded by my husband that while pregnant with the twins pot pie was one of a very few foods I actually made him go procure for me at strange times (pineapple and watermelon were some of the others). Even now that I don’t eat a lot of what goes into most pot pies, I can still be brought to a slow drool (attractive, right?) with a picture of a pot pie (as a good friend in Boston who can attest to – she unknowingly tortured me with a photo from Harrow’s Chicken Pies, but I digress).

The lovely thing about being somewhat obsessive about pot pies is that a passable pie crust is not nearly as hard as everyone would have you believe, and let’s face it, the crust is really a good part of what awesome pot pie is all about. So yesterday I decided to throw Ms. Picky Pants a bone and construct the perfect pot pie for my daughter with the delicate palate – pre-appproved foods only in this baby. A quick look around the fridge provided the ingredients list (the benefits of cooking extra felt once again). So here it is, my leftovers pot pie!

The Sweet Beast and Morning Decadence

It’s been a while since we specifically talked about sugar. But really it’s a discussion you just kind of keep having.  I have it with myself all the time.  I’m having it right now, in fact, because I’m sitting here wondering why I don’t keep more dessert in the house.  The fact that I’ve been thinking about this for an hour explains why I don’t keep more dessert in the house…  So, maybe it’s time to talk about sugar again.  For those of you who were lured in by the Morning Decadence part of the title – it’s there, recipe included, waiting for you below.

Walnut Crust Apple Pie – GF, DF

Although my whole wheat crusts were never beautiful to look at, they were tasty and I always loved the heartier texture of a whole wheat crust.  My husband requests an apple pie in lieu of cake for his birthday every year, and I was always happy to oblige.

Now that he has been told by his doctor to do away with gluten for awhile to address some health problems (although he is not celiac), what I am supposed to make for the poor man on his birthday?  I know – it’s all about me isn’t it?  ;-)

I have tried a number of gluten free crusts, but as with most gluten free baking, (IMHO), the inclusion of white flours and starches such as potato starch and tapioca flour run afoul of my desire to use whole grains whenever possible, and since they don’t taste very good anyway, I’ve not stuck been very persistent in my search for a solution.

Enter the walnut crust.  Yes, the humble, nutritious, crumbly, bumbly walnut.  I had a friend who used to call me walnut – so I’m allowed to humbly call them crumbly and bumbly.