Change It Up!

Yep, another pasta dish, but of course you could make this so many different ways with either pasta, rice, quinoa, beans, a mixture of those, or whatever you like. I just find the rice pasta so easy. So this time I made brown rice shells, and here's what I put on it.

First I skinned, seasoned and cooked up some organic chicken thighs. Now, I got these 30% off, and at that they were really no more expensive than those hormone chicken thighs, and of course, they are the healthier and more responsible choice. Moreover, making dishes like this is a great way to make them go further. I cooked up 8 thighs, but I only used 4 to serve two people, putting the other four in the fridge for another day. The four nice, meaty thighs for this dish I deboned and cut up into pieces. (My pasta was cooking at this point.) Then I drained the juices from the pan, and put some g-free garlic and onion tomato sauce into it, bringing it to a simmer. Then I put some of the juices back just to make it a nice consistency, added some broccoli florets and put the chicken back in. Simmer.

When it's all warmed through and the broccoli is softened, add some soy sour cream. This is optional of course, but it's a great way to mellow out the sauce. This is sort of similar to a stroganoff. But I'll do that another day. :)

So add a couple of spoonfuls of the gluten and dairy free sour cream and mix it around well. Then serve on a bed of pasta, or whatever you like! Stretching the meat portion doesn't mean you have to skimp on a meal. There is no need for anyone to leave the table hungry, and believe me, they didn't. :)

De-Sugar Those Dried Crans!

I love dried cranberries. They're great in a dish of snack food, mixed with nuts, dried apricots and raisins, for instance. They also dress up a pasta/chic pea salad very nicely. But the commercial dried crans I get here are always coated with sugar. I don't want sugar on them. Sure, they're sour without the sugar. What's wrong with sour?? Sour puts a kick in the flavour sensors ~ aka taste buds! Sour is good!

So I dry my own. To do this, you need a dehydrator. It's an investment, but so far I've found it a really worthwhile one. As well as drying my own crans, I can dry other fruits ~ most notably tomatoes and apple slices or even apple chips with no sugar added, as well as veges and herbs. If you get the solid trays, you can also make your own no-sugar-added fruit leathers. (It can also be used to make jerky.)

Anyway, I'm all about the fruit, so to dry cranberries you need to slit them first, otherwise they blow up like little tiny balloons which "pop" in your mouth. (Kind of fun actually, but they dry better slit.) You can start with fresh crans or, as I discovered, you can buy a package of frozen crans, let them thaw, slit them, put them in the dehydrator overnight, and they dry beautifully. (See picture.)

I especially like them to change up that pasta/chic pea salad. I cook up about 1/4 to 1/3 cup brown rice small pasta, like macaroni, cook and drain it over about 1/4 cup chic peas. Then I put it all back in the empty pot and add: chopped green onion, celery, broccoli (yes, raw), 1/4 cup dried crans, a handful of chopped walnuts (great for lowering cholesterol, but don't overdo); dress with some fresh or dried dill weed, parsley, sweet basil, dash of olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice, sea salt and pepper to taste. If you're a meat-eater, you can also add strips of cooked chicken and some chopped fresh rosemary. Make it the way you like it!

But to keep some of that very unnecessary sugar out of your healthy diet, try drying your own cranberries and other fruits!

Creamed Salmon, Again

I've given this recipe before on another blog. It's a fave of my daughter's and it's so easy to make.

I gave the gluteny version before ~ where you make a roux with garlic butter and wheat flour. But it's crazy easy to make a gluten-free and more heart-healthy version. Instead of making a roux, just pour the milk or milk alternative into the pan, (I use soy milk. Haven't tried rice milk in this and I'm not sure almond milk would go, but hey....), add the salmon and seasonings, then thicken.

Now, the lump in the picture is a popover, and I haven't yet successfully made a gluten-free popover. But creamed salmon can be served on a bed of rice or gluten-free pasta just as well. If you're watching your blood sugar, remember to use brown rice, quinoa, or brown rice pasta, etc., as opposed to white, so you're getting complex carbs instead of simple carbs, which enter the blood stream as simple sugar. So here's the recipe for one serving:

Creamed Salmon
3/4 cup milk or milk alternative
1/2 can wild Pacific salmon
generous sprinkling of dried Tarragon leaves (a must.. makes the dish)
dash of sea salt, pepper, dried parsley and basil, to taste
2 good tsps. of tapioca starch (or arrowroot flour, or g-free corn starch)
peas, broccoli or vege of choice

Pour 1/2 cup of the milk in a small skillet and heat to a light boil. Add the salmon and seasonings and bring back to a light boil. Add peas and/or broccoli if you want them in the creamed salmon. Add starch to the remaining 1/4 cup milk, stirring to dissolve. Then add to the cooking mixture and stir till it all thickens. Serve over rice or pasta, and with any other veges you like.

It's asparagus season here and my daughter loves it fried in garlic butter. A little garlic olive oil is more heart-healthy though. The main thing is the garlic, because asparagus and garlic go together almost as well as kale and garlic. Avoid garlic powders though. I found out the hard way there's gluten in mine. Garlic salt adds unnecessary sodium to your food. And real garlic can burn, leaving a bitter taste. Garlic olive oil is best. After cooking the asparagus I threw in some mushrooms too. Once cooked, I placed the veges on a microwave safe plate ready to heat up again once the creamed salmon is done. Rice or pasta should be prepared ahead too. The creamed salmon doesn't take long, so it's always the last thing I prepare.

Quick, easy, heart-healthy, g-free, etc. Enjoy.

Bubble and Squeak Revisited

That was really, really good. {licks lips}

Ok, it's depressing when it doesn't seem to want to stop raining. There are things I need to get done, but doing anything out there is out of question. The potatoes we planted are probably rotting in the ground. Aaaarrrgh.

Oh well. *sigh* Maybe some tidying, eh? I mean, when we get lax and don't put things we've used back where they belong, they inevitably wind up just being put on the table. Yep. So before long, the dining table is pretty much just a mound of "stuff." So today I put the stuff away. In my travels around the table, I picked up a grocery bag hanging from a chair. What's in here, I wondered. Why, it's a big ol' cabbage. And then I remembered, focussing my post-menopausal mind on several days ago when I bought this cabbage, because the family said they'd like me to make cabbage rolls. I'd picked out a nice big cabbage at the grocery store, brought it home, hung it on the chair, and promptly forgot about the whole project.

Well, as luck would have it, I had a large package of naturally grown beef thawing in the refrigerator. I was thinking meatballs and pasta, but when I found the cabbage, I went into cabbage roll mode.

Ok, I made those for the family. They aren't anything unusual. Just your basic cabbage rolls. You blanche the cabbage leaves. In a large bowl you mix ground meat, a beaten egg, a 1/2 cup of milk (soy milk here), about a cup of cooked rice (Uncle Ben's brown rice at our house), some Worcestershire sauce, chopped onion, salt and pepper. Mix this all up. Cut the hard vein out of the cabbage leaves, fold and fill with meat mixture, then roll 'em up and place in a baking pan. The sauce is tomato soup or sauce with a little brown sugar and lemon juice. You pour that over them, then you put them in a 350 degree oven and cook for about an hour, remembering to "baste" now and then. The fam loved 'em. These ones are leftovers for Hubby's lunch.

But more to the point, at least for me, is the gluten-free, vegan meal I made for myself afterwards. I had some leftover blanched cabbage, some leftover boiled potato from another day, and some mushrooms that needed to be used up. Ok then. I remember my mom making patties out of leftover cabbage and potato. She fried this up and called it "bubble and squeak." She put an egg in with it though to bind the patties, and I can't have egg.

So a variation on the theme: I put the mushrooms and cut up potato in a lightly oiled pan and browned 'em up. Then I added chopped onion, zucchini, red pepper, celery, some chic peas, a bit of garlic and thin sliced cabbage. I sprinkled in some pepper, Tex/Mex spice, a couple squirts of Tamari sauce, stirred it around and lidded it for a bit. Served it up in a pasta bowl and my, was that ever good! :)

Didn't miss those cabbage rolls at all. Honestly. :)

NOTE: The cabbage rolls were dairy-free, but not gluten-free. But you could easily make this adjustment simply by using a gluten-free condensed tomato soup or tomato sauce and a g-free sauce, such as Tamari sauce, in place of the Worchestershire sauce. As long as you can have eggs and ground meat, you're laughin'. :)

No Sugar Added Spreads

Why did I finish the dandelion jelly post with the words "USE JAMS AND JELLIES RESPONSIBLY?" Ok, I was going for the humour, but it was also a serious warning too. In our world, Type 2 Diabetes is on the rise. I come from a family history liberally sprinkled with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Both of my parents were, at one point, diagnosed with Type 2, and both my siblings have Type 2 diabetes as well. I'm a hold-out, and just as I helped my mom control hers with diet while she was living, I'm doing my best to avoid the dx myself.

To that end, I came up with three flavours of no-sugar-added spreads. They are all sweet though. They are all sweetened with fruit juice concentrate that has no sugar added. They are also fruit combinations that complement each other. Now, I will say this: sugar is not the only culprit in diabetes, of course. Carbohydrates are an even bigger source of simple sugar in the blood. Of the fruits I use, pineapple has 19.6 grams of carbs per cup (2 grams of fiber); blueberries have 21 grams (3.5 gram of fiber); strawberries have 12.8 grams of carbs (3.3 of fiber); peaches 9.3 grams of carbs (1.5 of fiber); apples 19.1 grams of carbs (3.3 fiber); 5 dates = 32 grams of carbs (3.3 fiber). Carbs in the unsweetened, concentrated juice are even higher.

I put all these numbers here because I've heard a lot of opinion from people on how filled with carbs these spreads are. But opinion doesn't do it for me, so here are the facts. Moreover, both dates and cinnamon, despite any numbers, are very good for helping people control their blood sugar. Nevertheless, and obviously, all spreads should be used in moderation.

That said, here's how these spreads are made.


Wendy's "Brown Jam" (apple/cinnamon/date spread)

2 cans of frozen, unsweetened apple juice
2 cups chopped cooking apple
2 cups chopped dates
1 generous teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. lemon juice

Put all this into a large saucepan and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and cook until thickened. Doesn't take long with this one. Scoop into sterilized jars and lid.

Notes:
A cooking apple is a hard apple, like Royal Gala, not a soft apple, like MacIntosh.
Buy pitted whole dates to chop yourself; pre-chopped dates are often coated with sugar.
Instructions for preserving are to the right if you've never done it before.

Strawberry/Pineapple Spread

1 can unsweetened pineapple juice
2 cups fresh strawberries
1 can crushed pineapple canned in its own juice
2 tbsp. lemon juice

Again, place all ingredients into a large saucepan, bring to a boil, then cook until it's thickened to the consistency you like. (Bear in mind if will thicken more as it cools.) This one takes a little more cooking down than the brown jam. You may wish to put a drop or two of non-glycol red food colouring into this to help it keep an appetizing hue. Place in sterilized jars and lid.

Blueberry/Peach Spread

2 cups fresh blueberries
1 can of peaches canned in fruit juice, not sugar syrup ~ do not drain
1 can unsweetened apple juice
2 tbsp. lemon juice

Same as above... except with the blueberries in there, this needs no colouring.

One more important note: When you preserve properly, the jar lids should pop, creating a seal that will enable you to put these jars of spread in your pantry till you need them. After opening, you not only need to refrigerate them, you need to use them up within a couple of weeks. Without all the sugar that's usually in jam, these will not keep forever, the way jam does. So when you open it, enjoy it. These spreads can also be used in baking to use them up, if needed ~ like putting a fruity center into muffins, for instance, or the brown jam makes great "date" squares. The others are also great for drizzling over whole-grain pancakes or waffles in place of a sugary syrup. Enjoy. :)

The Pretty Little Flowers We Love to Hate

It still amazes me how many people buy into the propaganda that the dandelion is a bad thing, hook, line and stinker. There was a community employee on the news last night complaining that killing dandelions the old-fashioned way, without the aid of chemical pesticides, is so time-consuming. Chemicals, he said, are easier.

And EASE is apparently more important than health and environmental issues to this genius. Right. Funny thing is, like most natural plants, dandelions only blossom for a couple/few weeks, then they're done for the year. While some are stressing during this time about how to KILL KILL KILL those little yellow flowers, I'm stressing that there aren't enough on my lawn. I mean, it takes a quart and half of the little buds to make one small batch of dandelion jelly, and last year I couldn't make enough to satisfy demand.

This year too will no doubt see me running across the lawn, flapping my arms maniacally, all in an effort to save the dandelion blossoms from Hubby's lawn mowing efforts. It's ok. The neighbours already think I'm nuts. This year I'm going to try to get out there before he does and get those blossoms. In fact, I'd be doing it right now, but there just aren't enough yet. C'mon dandelions!

Dandelion Jelly

Pick about 1 and a half quarts of dandelion flowers. Then sit at your kitchen table and, with an insane smirk on your face that will scare your family, rip all the yellow petals out of the green bottom and put them into a 2 cup measure. You don't want any green in there... just the yellow petals. It's tedious, so you might as well have fun doing it by giggling and scaring your family. ;o)

Place 2 cups of petals into a saucepan and add 2 and 1/4 cups of water. Cover and bring this to a boil, then turn off burner and allow to cool, making sure all the petals are soaked. Keep the infusion, as is with cover on, in your fridge overnight. In the morning, strain this thru cheesecloth, squeezing to get all the liquid. You will need 2 cups of dandelion infusion.

Put infusion into large saucepan. Add the zest of 1 large lemon + the juice of same... should be 1/4 cup of lemon juice, so squeeze another half lemon if needed. Add 4 1/2 cups of refined sugar. Bring this to a boil, stirring constantly with a large wooden spoon. When it reaches a full rolling boil, add 1 package of Certo liquid pectin, then boil again for 1 full minute and remove from heat. At this point, I added 1 drop of glycol-free red food colouring to give it a pretty, rosy glow. Stir it for a few mins. whilst you pour boiling water over your jar lids, jam funnel and ladle. (Clean jars should be in the oven being sterilized ~ 250 degrees for 20 mins.) Ladle jelly into hot, sterilized jars thru funnel, wipe rim with hot, damp, sterilized cloth, and place hot sterilized lids on jars to fingertip tight. Place on counter to seal (when you hear the pop). Recipe makes 4 1/2 jars of dandelion jelly. It is good, all citrusy and earthy, great on crackers with sunflower seed or peanut butter.. a little dab of jelly will do it. Enjoy!

For instructions on preserving, go to:


http://quillingartandmore.blogspot.com/p/preparations-for-preserving.html

USE JAMS AND JELLIES RESPONSIBLY!

Hearty Homemade Soup for a Cool, Damp Spring Evening

Erg. Managed to avoid the cold/flu thing all winter long, but here it is, visiting at our house.

I needed something easy, yummy, hot, healthy and gluten~free for my supper. So I cooked up some red lentils, with salt and pepper. Cooked 'em that little bit longer than you need to if you want 'em whole. I mean, I wanted soup. Then I peeled and cut up a small potato, covered it with water, added salt, pepper, chopped onion and garlic, and a grated carrot. Not feeling well? Make that lots of garlic and onion. :) I cooked this till the potato was tender, then I mashed.

Sure, you could put everything into a food processor, but I just didn't want to have to wash it. A couple pots, ok... but gimme hot, yummy, filling soup ~ hold the unnecessary dishes. The last thing I need when I'm not feeling well is more chores. So I just used the potato masher, then stirred in the mushy lentils and warmed it all up again, adding some soy milk. Then I thickened the whole thing with a little tapioca starch dissolved first in soy milk, stirring it in till it was cooked and the soup was ... you know... soup. The garnish? Why that's fresh cut garlic greens, chives and oregano from out of the garden. It's May, afterall. :)

Yes! Use those garlic greens in your cooking. Serve with gluten-free crackers. Yum!! This is a soup fit to warm the cockles of your heart on a damp Spring evening and chase those bugs away!