garlic, rice, and everything nice.

yet another way to use the wonderful invention that is roasted garlic. This is a good side dish that you can make in advance of a party and is more interesting that just plain old rice.

Garlic, Mushroom and Wild Rice Pilaf (serves 6)

1 cup wild rice

2 tsp olive oil

2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/2 cup roasted garlic cloves

1/2 tsp salt

(1) Boil or steam rice until fully cooked (about 40 minutes), drain and set aside. (2) Heat oil in a skillet. Add onions and cook until translucent. (3) Add mushrooms to pan and saute, covered (stirring occasionally), until fully cooked. (4) Stir in roasted garlic and salt. (5) Pour mushroom picture over rice and toss to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve, or serve warm.

the long-awaited salad recipe

Ok, I finally post this recipe, after many promises to do so. This is my favorite salad to make because it is addictive, a great way to eat any kind of leafy greens, and doesn’t use any oil so it doesn’t have that texture. Also you could use it as a marinade for grilling, as a dip for vegetables, and you can really throw whatever you want into the veggie mix in the salad and it will work wonderfully!

This is a very large recipe (served probably about 12), so adjust accordingly (you can save extra dressing in a jar in the fridge, so if you make this amount it isn’t the end of the world).

Kale and Cashew Butter Salad (serves a crowd)

for the dressing:

1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp creamy, unsalted cashew butter

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp tamari

2 Tbsp whole grain dijon mustard

3-4 Tbsp water, to reach desired consistency

for the salad:

3 bunches curly kale, chopped

2 cups lettuce, chopped

5 cups sugar snap peas, halved (or chopped carrots, or whatever else you want)

(1) In a jar or bowl, stir together dressing ingredients until well combined and smooth. (2) Place all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with dressing. Ta-da!

woo party!

Epic cooking day yesterday for a dinner party. Many salads and desserts and sides (although I ordered catering for the meat products, I will be honest there). Here are a couple pictures of desserts, for which I cannot claim recipe credit, but they were delicious and go over quite well:

Raw Key Lime Pie (from the Cafe Gratitude Cookbook – asking what the secret ingredient is and seeing if people can guess is a great party trick…)

Raw Strawberry Shortcake (also from Cafe Gratitude):

 

Also included (recipes to follow) was some citrus asparagus salad, a mushroom-garlic-wild rice pilaf and my favorite cashew butter salad (which I keep forgetting to post despite multiple requests for the recipe). It was basically a me/Northwest spin on smorgasbord (yes, there was salmon, never fear), so it it was pretty stress-free to serve (although for a while I was worried I wouldn’t finish making everything with time to set the table!)

Anyway, look for more recipes in coming days. That would be a very long post to include them all here…

more veggies, less stakes

If I need to explain that, you need to read up on your vampire self-defense.

But seriously: garlic. food of the gods. fights vampires. good for your digestion. delicious in just about everything. especially with a huge heaping plate of vegetables. I think I’ve been consuming about 2 cups of garlic a week (which is a lot, considering how small garlic cloves are). No mosquito bites, as of yet, so I guess there is that added benefit…

But really, garlic should be more of a main ingredient – roasted garlic is a wonderful way to do that. You can make it yourself (just wrap a whole head of garlic in foil and bake for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees) or buy it (I get it from the marinated olive bar when I’m too lazy to make it myself).

Vegetable Sautee with Roasted Garlic (serves 4 as a side, 2 as a main)

 

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, cut into half moons

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms

1 bunch broccoli raab

3 cups chopped curly kale

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/3 cup roasted garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup packed basil, shredded

(1) Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onions, cover, and cook stirring occasionally until they begin to become translucent. (2) Add minced garlic and mushrooms and cook, covered, until mushroom s begin to soften. (3) Add broccoli raab and continue to cook (cover again) until mushrooms are almost done. (4) Add kale, cook until wilted. (5) Stir in garlic cloves and tomato halves. Cook until tomatoes are nice and hot and starting to break down – it might be helpful to recover the skillet again. (6) Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with shredded basil on top of each serving – you can serve this as a side, over pasta or a grain, or just on its own.

bulk shopping much?

I have a lot of peanut butter. And chocolate. And really this is a good (delicious) thing, even if it makes for slightly boring blog reading….hopefully it just proves that peanut butter is the greatest food in the world, considering how much you can do with it. I used amaranth flour in this recipe to make them especially nutty flavored, so they’re a distinctly different cookie than a plain peanut butter one.

Nutty, Crispy Peanut-Chocolate Cookies (~3 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp peanut butter

1 2/3 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup soy or other nondairy milk (+ more if needed to moisten dough)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup amaranth flour

1 Tbsp tapioca or corn starch

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

(1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment. (2) In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, soymilk and oil. (3) In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients and mix until well combined, adding extra soy milk if needed to make dough stick together (it should not be as crumbly as typical peanut butter cookie dough, but not super wet either). (4) Stir in chocolate chips. (5) Drop rounded spoonfuls onto the baking sheets. Bake 15-20 minutes, depending on how large you make the cookies – they should be golden around the edges. (6) Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

getting big…or small…or something like that

I am not entirely sure what the goal of eating protein bars is. But in any case it seems that they have become quite popular in my household in the recent past (in part thanks to that fitness guy that seems to be all over the place…including the New York Times…). Well I will say that I am a fan of bars of various kinds (you can convince yourself that a piece of candy is healthy), and also protein is a filling thing, or at least my brain is convinced it is thanks to all the nutrition hype it is filled with. BUT looking at the ingredients list, one starts to wonder: how is each of those (~20) ingredients made, then transferred to the place to make the bars, then put into the bars. It’s a little overwhelming to imagine that process. (to be fair, not all brands are like that). So basically I decided to make a protein bar with far fewer ingredients, and that probably end up costing less (and you can be sure you know what quality ingredients you’re using). I know it seems like there is a lot of sugar in there, but there is actually less than in a typical protein bar, which gives you a sense of why it’s nice to have some say in how you make them…

Honey-Peanut and Chocolate Protein Bars (18 bars)

2 1/2 cups rice protein powder

1 2/3 cups smooth peanutbutter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

(1) Grease a 9″x13″ baking dish and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (2) In a large bowl, stir together peanutbutter, honey, brown sugar and vanilla. (3) Stir in protein powder until well mixed. (4) Pour mixture into the baking dish and smooth/press down with your hands evenly. (5) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges just start to appear golden.

(6) When completely cool, cut the bars into 18 even pieces (I did 6 across by 3 wide). (7) Melt chocolate in the microwave, and use a knife to coat each side. (best done when chocolate is not so melted that it is liquid) (8) refrigerate bars until chocolate is solid.

Store in an airtight container, preferably in the refrigerator (unless you have a fancy way of sealing them individually)

two things that can never be wrong.

Yes, that’s right. Peanutbutter and chocolate. So, so right.

I’ve been wanting to attempt making my own version (eg. vegan and less expensive and organic and whole wheat, etc.) of these peanutbutter bars I used to LOVE at a pasta shop (which also makes a delicious chinese noodle salad, by the way). This is attempt one, as I was going to a party to which I could bring desserts. I can’t say I hit the cookie base spot on, but they turned out really well nonetheless, so for those of you who enjoy a good crumbly peanutbutter cookie, this should hit the spot. Also, Adrian says: “It’s like a butterfinger! A really good butterfinger!”, and with such high praise, how can you resist?

Peanutbutter Bars (makes 1 – 9×14 inch pan)

 

2 cups smooth peanutbutter

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup almond milk

1/4 cup peanut oil

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 tsp baking powder

for the topping

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanutbutter, softened

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9×14 inch baking pan. (2) In a large bowl, beat together peanutbutter, sugar, vanilla, almond milk and oil. (3) Stir in flour, oats and baking powder until well mixed. (4) Spread batter evenly in the baking pan, pressing down with your fingers. (5) Bake for ~25 minutes, until edges begin to be golden. Let cool completely. (6) When crust is completely cool, melt chocolate until smooth (microwave or double boiler). (7) Spread melted chocolate evenly across cookie base. (8) Drop peanutbutter onto chocolate (splotches of peanutbutter spread evenly works well). Use a knife to swirl peanutbutter and chocolate together, without completely blending. (9) Let cool in the fridge so that the chocolate hardens. Remove from the fridge and cut into bars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

put ‘em up

It’s jam making party time (the name of my solo-dance-while-making-jam-party playlist, by the way). Sadly, I will not be around in time for the blackberries, loganberries, boysenberries, marionberries and blueberries of the summer months, so I will have to forgo those for a year. And it’s so wet still that I wonder whether there are any strawberries at all this season.

In order to fulfill my (self-imposed) jam quota, I used grocery-bought fruit, but it all turned out well, although not nearly as delicious (or socially satisfying) as fresh farmer’s market berries. Next summer.

So far: peach, rasperry and tangerine

I will not lie, though. I don’t think my jam will ever live up to my grandma’s strawberry and raspberry freezer jams. An ode:

spaghetti of the sea

ah, the kelp noodle. a wonderful creation. these things are uber-health foods, and I love them (partly because eating them makes you feel good about yourself, but I promise they are great). I know that a good portion of my friends will see the words “kelp noodle” and remind themselves that I’m absolutely insane, but seriously, if you have a natural foods store or a japanese grocery nearby, you should try them in some form (also a lot of raw food restaurants serve them). They’re basically like those “glass” rice noodles you get at thai restaurants, but sort of crunchy, and way better for you (only made of vegetable!)

One thing, though. I can’t figure out how one actually turns kelp into a noodle. This says they are  basically just seaweed, but kelp is definitely not a clear noodle shape. And I can’t find a wikipedia article…mystery abounds. I’d be interested to know…I wonder how much processing goes into these things.

But anyway, if you want to know what I did with them, here is an idea:

Kelp Noodle Vegetable Stir Fry (serves 1)

2 cups kelp noodles

1/2 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp tamari

1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp brown rice vinegar

1/2 cup chopped broccoli

1 carrot, sliced into matchsticks

1 head baby bok choy, sliced.

1 scallion, chopped

1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

(1) Stir together sesame oil, tamari, ginger and vinegar. Set aside. (2) Lightly oil a nonstick pan and place over medium heat. (3) Add broccoli and carrots. Cover and cook until bright (cooking, but still crunchy). (4) Add bok choy stems. Stir, cover and cook until vegetables are crisp-tender. (5) Add bok choy leaves, scallions and sauce. Stir and cook until bok choy is wilted. (6) Stir in kelp noodles until coated with sauce and vegetables are mixed in. (7) Toss with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

neglectful blog parenting…

Sorry, I’ve been being lazy about posting anything. The reason is this:

 

a good deal of a good thing.

I’ll try to mix it up a bit for the sake of everyone’s entertainment, I promise.