A Simple Meal Idea!

Made this for the kidlet one day for her lunch. Was simple and apparently yummy! Also gluten-free. I hadn't made these for a long time. Just one of those things I don't think of often. Maybe your mom made these and you haven't thought of 'em in a while either. Here's a reminder:

Fish Cakes

To make what's in the picture, I used one small - medium potato, nuked. I scooped the cooked potato out of its skin and put it in a small mixing bowl. Then I added half a can of wild Pacific salmon and 1 egg yolk. I seasoned this with a generous sprinkle of tarragon, and a bit of dried parsley and sweet basil, as well as a dash of sea salt and pepper.

Mix it all up with a fork, then dive in with your clean hands and form patties. I laid these in a fry pan lightly oiled with garlic olive oil, in which asparagus spears and a few sliced mushrooms were already started. Didn't take long for the patties to brown on both sides and cook through, and the veges were ready too. Serve.

Of course, they'd also be great with a green salad and g-free salad dressing, or coleslaw. You can dress the slaw in a g-free Italian vinegrette or make this creamy dressing: couple tablespoons g-free mayo, 2 tsp. brown sugar, 1 tablespoon milk or milk alternative; mix this up, then add a tablespoon vinegar and mix again. (It's important to mix it up before adding the vinegar or the milk will sour.) Add some celery seed and voila! A delicious creamy cole slaw to go with your fish cakes. An all together easy, yummy, healthy lunch or dinner. (And one of these patties might be enough for the smaller appetite!) :)

[Note: I buy packaged cole slaw veggies because we don't otherwise use a lot of cabbage, but if you do, you can always cut up or food process some cabbage and carrot on "pulse" for your coleslaw.]

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!

Fettucine La Wendakai

I get the feeling that some people really shy away from brown rice pasta, but while I have had some "glumphy" experiences with rice pasta, I have had some good luck and yummy results with Rizopia Brown Rice pastas. I don't know where all this is available, but I can say that this company continues to tweek their product and I have had little trouble with it in the past several years.

I didn't really use the fettucine that much though, because it was a little gloppy in the past. But I had a yen for some fettucine lately and bought some new stuff. All I can say is that they've been busy in the Rizopia food test lab, because this package of fettucine was fine, light and cooked quickly. I discovered this last week when I cooked a bunch of it for both hubby and me. With mine, I made a dressing of garlic olive oil, gluten-free dijon mustard, my own dried tomatoes, a little sea salt, fresh ground pepper and some dried herbs. I also added black olives, finely chopped onion, celery, red pepper and little broccoli florets.

(With Hubby's share, I made up a package of Alfredo mix using alternative milk, with some chopped up Black Forest ham. He loved it.) But I have to be gluten-free vegan, hence the different expressions of a fettucine dinner. So, what you see here is about ... oooohhh.. up to 400 calories worth of brown rice fettucine, 100 or so of garlic olive oil dressing, and some veges. So perhaps between 500 and 600 calorie gluten-free, vegan pasta dinner. It was yum. :)

*Now I want to point out something here for folks who may not realize this: brown rice pasta is complex carbohydrates. This metabolizes in a slower, much healthier way than white rice, in any form. IN FACT, almost all WHITE FOOD is simple carbohydrates. This includes white rice, white wheat flour (white breads, rolls, pitas, etc.), white wheat pasta, etc. White food enters the blood stream as simple sugar. This causes a spike in blood sugar, as well as cheap energy. (But what goes up must come down. The energy spikes in the other direction shortly after.) A continual diet that includes white food will result in high blood sugar, as well as digestive problems. So anyone with blood sugar issues should avoid ALL white food. (Yes, alas, this includes potatoes, despite it's other nutritional value.) Complex carbohydrates: good, at least for most people. Simple carbs: bad. Yep. Sorry. But if you care about your health, avoid white food.