Simple light eats: Leafy greens dill-salad and curried greens

Deep in the Leafy Green Jungle, it's been weeks that I've been lost here. I have been hacking through spinach, kale, cabbage, chard, beet tops, turnip tops doing my tried and true concoctions (1)  Quick and flavorful steamed with fresh lemon juice and sesame seeds, inspired by Reegan's post-yoga workshop dinner last year (2) the garlic/greens tamales. I have not yet resorted to juicing. I am beginning to feel inspired again this week and made a couple easy weekday-friendly dishes (sorry vegetarian friends...I didn't get to test a veg version of these. Would love to know if you do!)

Simple Spinach & Dill Recharge Salad-mine own combo; refreshing after a work out and clean-tasting

Pre-Mixing: Tonight I added roasted turnips, spanish olives & radish sprouts ( last two not pictured)

For a single serving: 2 cups raw, rinsed Spinach or try steaming it if you prefer + (mixed cooked chicken this was 3.5 oz dry weight + 2 tbsp pine nut herb dressing*) + if you crave carbs or just need a bit more substance, I found 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice or roasted red potatoes tossed in is satisfying. The turnips tonight were ok. I think they are not my favorite veggie. Thinking a white bean or chickpea would be a nice non-meat substitute that lets the dill shine, but alas, I have none in the pantry and lots of kidney beans instead.

*Pine nut dressing: 1/3 to 1/2 cup pinenuts, two squeezes fresh lemon and 2-3 sprigs fresh dill in a blender or food processor. Enough water to blend into a mayo-like spread (start with a tablespoon). Pine nuts blend easily enough without soaking in liquid. Some other nuts suggest soaking for at least an hour or two. This made enough for 6 TBSP of dressing.

Danny Boome's Spiced Potatoes & Spinach-from Food Network; slightly modified (sans potatoes and dairy)

The ever-versatile taco.

1/2 tablespoon butter canola oil (since curry has enough flavor and doing this on high heat, don't need to "waste" expensive olive oil)

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 cups baby spinach Leafy green of choice, I used beet leaves and stems. (helpful note: rinse leafies submerged and multiple times, I was lazy and got some grit.)
1 large tomato, diced 1 overflowing- tablespoon of tomato paste

Heat the oil in a wok over med-high heat a few minutes

1. Add the onion and stems to cook a few minutes first. Add curry powder for last minute.

2. Add tomato paste and about 1/4 cup water, stirring to incorporate.

3. Stir in the leaves and cook until the leaves wilt and the water evaporates. 

I left out the potatoes and ate mine with sauteed scallops (rinse scallops in water, then pat dry before cooking. The large ones just about 3 minutes on each side over medium heat should do it, don't want them to be tough and chewy) and corn tortillas.

It looks like the weekend will be "cold", so me thinks I will fire up the oven. I'm feeling an Indian food vibe. My sister just sent me a recipe this week too that uses chard. Am sure I can make it through the wilderness with these beautiful ideas leading me.

Have you entered any cooking or baking competitions before? What happened?

Super Bowl Leftovers & Flu Menu

This last Sunday, after you felt so stuffed, after you lost money in your office pool, after you were grossed out by Go Daddy or chuckled at the whispering Oreo war...what did you do with your leftover food? Or this year did you go out?

As a host, your cleaning and lending a place often leads to having leftovers stay over.  Sunday I was graced with a big almost full raw veggie platter...and then Tuesday I came down with a flu. This isn't about foods or supplements that will help speed recovery (I already shared my cold remedies, suppose that is different from flu), but just things I found that kept my stomach balanced. My recovery for my unsettled stomach and headache just entailed the usual rest, fluids...and otherwise lazily entertained by Spaced and reading Game of Thrones.

The "meals" I found to be safe:
1. Bowl of oatmeal-some honey, cocoa powder...left off flax for first few days (no extra fiber for stomach to contend with)
2. Fresh fruit: cut up kiwis, apple and pear
3. Smoothie using frozen banana, brown rice protein, coconut water, and hemp milk with cinnamon
4. Plain toast with a little honey (I used Gluten-free Goddess' recipe, except had to use rice flour for sorghum and add extra liquid...it came out a bit gummy but happy enough with it for now for rising like real bread. It doesn't use eggs.)
5. Leftover veggie tray saute over leftover orange-quinoa salad  (recipe follows below). This salad had a fun blend of spices. Cinnamon and orange is golden!

Orange-Quinoa Salad from Kristina's CSA, JR Organics:

• 1 cup dry Quinoa (prepare according to package directions)
• Handful chopped fresh Basil + some for garnish
• 1/2 Lemon or 1 Tbs Lemon juice
• juice from 1/2 Navel Orange (any “orange” Orange) or a few tbs Orange Juice
• Olive Oil
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 Tbs chopped Sweet Onion
• A few pinches of the following spices:
• ground Black Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Tumeric
• Toasted nuts (walnuts, pecans,pine nuts, almonds, etc.)
• Cheese (Chevre, Feta, or sliced Parmesan, Romano, Gruyere, etc.)  left off dairy for my detox and it still had zip and pow.
• 3 Blood Oranges: cut into small pieces with pith and seeds removed

Combine ingredients and serve at chilled or room temp.


Veggie Tray Saute (single serving)-rinsed already!

• 1 cup broccoli/cauliflower
• 10 grape tomato 
• 7 baby carrots cut into sixths for quick cooking 
• Handful of chopped/rinsed leafy CSA veggie (I used chard and mustard frill)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh lemon juice to taste (I did two squeezes)

Heat pan on medium heat and add oil.

Let pan warm up then add veggies when  it sizzles (test piece or water drop). Add seasoning. Cook until desired crisp-tender ratio reached. Increase the heat to medium high for last 1-2 minutes to brown the veggies

Do you have any recipes that can be transformed into other recipes? Do you have any flu remedies you rely on?

Sunshine in a Peel: Lemon Muffins and long-term Saving Juice

More than 3 or 4 years ago, an old roommate of mine told me about a book called Ratio. This book shared the magic of being able to substitute any flours, oils and liquids as long as they were in the proper ratio to consistently make delicious baked goods. Before I could try this out with my baking, I learned from doing a month long food allergy detox that wheat made me break out with acne. If I were going wheat free, would the ratio would still work? You'd think after I'd had my share of coming out with gluten-free but rock hard bread and never setting muffins, I would really want to figure this out. But life happens and I never got around to getting my hands on the book or trying to test it otherwise. Lucky me, a Gluten Free Ratio Rally was done in 2011 and a community of food bloggers did the experimenting and reported on the successes.

Because my co-workers generously shared their lemon tree harvest this month, I chose to try out one recipe that didn't make waste of the any of the fruit used lemon peel AND 1/2 a cup of juice (and then I toss the rest of the lemon in the garbage disposal or to run with a load of dishes) and got a tip on how to store the rest of the fruits!

BAKED GOOD:
 Meyer Lemon Muffins from Eat The Love, tastes like sunshine and includes a dollop of jam. (while I didn't get to try making the author's strawberry basalmic jam, I had success with my September homemade freezer jam-followed the recipe for fruit on the pectin label as well as with store bought rapsberry jam.)

Notes on the results: My muffins don't have a fancy candied lemon. I was not sure they would stick without the frosting. The muffins don't have to have the frosting to taste good in my opinion but they are a nice flourish, especially since he did a charitable bake sale. Isn't his photography scrumptious? I thought the texture was cake-like (kind that makes crumbs when you bite it, maybe this is from using flax instead of eggs).  Someone else's blog that using cornflour makes a nice light bite but can have a chalky taste. I noticed that a little so I might try reducing the amount of cornflour next time, and pair with another starch like potato (makes denser, another blog tip) or tapioca.

Here is his recipe for the muffin with my ALCAT detox ingredient tweaks noted in blue. I made two versions. Any tweaks you make should also work as long as you keep the ratios of flour, starch (tapioca, corn, potato), liquids and fats! Easily adaptable recipes that avoid big shopping trips make my day.

100 g (1 cup + 1 tablespoon) oat flour [I made my own grinding Quaker oats in the magic bullet]
100 g (I forgot to measure non-metric equivalent) white rice flour and brown rice flour 50/50 blend
50 g (again forgot to measure non-metric) buckwheat flour or brown rice protein powder for extra nutrtition.
60 g (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) cornstarch
zest of 2 meyer lemons, finely grated
170 g (3/4 cup) white granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar (lower glycemic index)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
6 oz (170 g or 3/4 cup) of coconut milk (carton kind you drink like cow's milk) or hemp milk
2 oz (57 g or 1/4 cup) of meyer lemon juice
2 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp hot water (this is an egg replacer)
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
113 g (1 stick or 1/2 cup) of melted coconut oil or canola oil


1. Make your flax "eggs". Put flax in a mug, add hot water and cover with a plate for 10 minutes to allow it time to gel.

2. Preheat the oven to 350F.

3. Mix dry ingredients (includes lemon zest) together in a medium bowl.

4. Mix wet ingredients in a larger bowl.

5.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to incorporate.

4.  Line your muffin tin (I found parchment paper liners at Sprouts!) and fill the liners with about 2tbsp of batter. Add 1/2-1 tbsp of jam. Top with another tbsp of batter. Your liners should be 2/3-3/4 full. Adjust amount of batter depending on size of your tins.

5. Bake 18-20 minutes or until muffin tops are golden/browned lightly and stick in a knife tip or tooth pick to come out clean.


PRESERVING JUICE:
Co-worker recommended a great way to avoid waste when you have a trove of lemons. She boils the juice and skims off any foam. Then puts it into a very clean container (perhaps dip a glass jar and it's lid separately, in boiling water with tongs...that is what I end up doing for freezer jam). She reports that the juice will keep for months this way. I plan to try this out this weekend with my remaining fruits and will report back if I notice anything growing (if I don't use it up first...lemon bars are still tempting me!) *UPDATE: won't get to report on this afterall, Dave made some fresh squeezed lemonade for Super Bowl.*

What is your must have eats for the Super Bowl?