Good to Go Easy Seaweed and Bean salad along with product reviews for Indian Market's Priya Dosa Mix and MTR Sambar(soup) Curry Paste + "The Good Bean" dried chickpeas + Daiya Cheddar Cheese

Apologies for my lapse in weekly posts, I have been overwhelmed with end of year at work and having exams and class projects. I will do my best to make up for that by posting more consistently, possibly about:

• A bread machine gluten free recipe that rose! (this one isn't soy free however, I want to play around with using other types of non-dairy milk)
• San Diego Night Market visit
• Executing the book recipes on a bi-weekly basis (minimum)

It's been a huge morale damper to have my clients and teammates on furlough this week. In food related news, I have yet to come across any food (or other) deals for San Diegans who are furloughed except for popcorn at AMC movie theaters (not required to purchase a movie ticket). D.C. has a whole slew of places offering free meals, cupcakes, sandwiches, burgers...where's the San Diego love? We have so many military bases here!

GOOD TO GO -EASY SEAWEED-BEAN SALAD

Combo of beans and rice, something so satisfying.

School doesn't have a microwave that's easily accessible...if I heat it before I leave work it will get too cold by the time I am hungry (did not bother looking for the lunch-bag thermos type kit yet). Enter the tasty meal that does not require heating. The Seaweed Bean Salad uses Hijiki Seaweed (found it at Marukai market and love it because it doesn't have a strong ocean flavor...recall it from July with sprouted lentils?) Good source of iron (40% of daily value according to the nutrition label!), top it off with some citrus or strawberries for dessert to help absorb that non-heme iron. The recipe makes four servings at a time:

INGREDIENTS:
40 g  of dried hijiki, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes and then drained)
1 large avocado (1/4 per serving) or 2 small (1/2 per serving) sliced
1 cup dried Adzuki Beans (soak overnight and cook until tender 45mins-1 hour, or give a can of rinsed kidney beans a try or pinto beans)
1 fresh lime's juice
Fresh rice 1 cup cooked

Mix ingredients together and for best taste let it marinate for a few hours. For individual portions-make up 3/4 cup combination of rice and beans, 1/4 of the seaweed, 1/4 of the avocado and 1/4 of the lime juice.


Because it's been so busy I have started stocking time-saving foodstuffs. Here's what I have tested over the last few weeks: 

WHAT: Priya Dosas Mix
WHERE I GOT IT: Namaste Market, Mira Mesa
RESULTS: Although I have a crepe pan that worked well, I should have watched this video to know that the batter needs to have more liquid (than what the package called for), use a ladle to spread it and know that it's ready to turn when the edges curl up! My dosas turned out very thick and the batter itself seemed very salty (sodium listed at 120 mg for a single dosa, but since mine were so thick, it was probably heaps more!)

WHAT: MTR Sambar Curry Paste
WHERE I GOT IT: Namaste Market, Mira Mesa
RESULTS: I'm used to a more salty/savory sambar from Annapurna restaurant. However given that I paired this with the salty Priya dosas, the sour spicy flavor worked very well. It also paired well with something a little sweet (roasted sweet potatoes)

WHAT: The Good Bean snack pouches (dried chickpea)
WHERE I GOT IT: Marshalls, Mira Mesa, check out the manufacturer's website
RESULTS: I bought the chili lime and cracked pepper flavors. It's nice to find a snack that has 6 g protein that I can take to class or could travel well for a hike. Given it was at Marshall's, I probably won't see it again (and not at $1.89 per pouch). The website lists them at $2.88 when you buy a multi-pack and free shipping over $25 order. They are a Berkeley, CA business. If you have nut allergies they also have no-nut snack bars!

WHAT:Daiya Cheddar Cheese shreds (dairy free, soy free)
WHERE I GOT IT: Fresh and Easy, Mira Mesa,
RESULTS: I had only seen the mozarella flavor before (which to me tastes nothing like real mozarella, but adds a nice buttery, salty flavor-worked great in my salmon-potato patties). This tasted exactly like mozarella to me though.

What new projects are you working on for fall?

Vegetarian Summer Series #6: Spiced Cucumbers with Coco-nutty Sweetness

Not as much prep space as I used to have (an island) but there is still more on either side of the stove. I like being able to see into the living room.

I broke in the kitchen this past week making tons of salads and spicy noodle soup to combat my summer cold. I even tried baking some pumpkin-oatmeal muffins (they were ok, maybe the type of oats I used). Happily, I hung up some pictures over the weekend, got the shoes out of the garbage bag and into the rack and placed a few boxes into the laundry closet. Decided I would finally try organizing my bookshelves by color. I see it in the decorating magazines so much. Hopefully I remember what color the books are when I look for them!

Taste that rainbow :) 

Our front porch has its welcome mat and plants wave howdy. We'll see how they do with less sun. The tomato plant gave me just enough to make dinner Sunday night. What else inspired my dinner? Over the previous weekend we went to celebrate with Dave's nieces for their birthdays-they twirled and frolicked in the white "princess" dresses. So cute, creative with their playing and always energetic. But as soon as we got there, no time to kick it with the kids, we got put to work making mashed potatoes while his sister went to the store for the cake. The man of the house was out of sight, prepping one of the 5 dishes he was going to be making that day. He eventually emerged briefly with handing one of the girls and I supplies to cover the tables in pink. And then I was also told I could pick some extra tomatoes, cucumber and peppers from their family's garden as they weren't going to be able to eat them all. With cucumber from the party and wee guy from my box I thought I had better get crackin'. Pickles alone aren't going to cut it.

The CSA list provided a Spiced Cucumbers with Coconut Milk recipe from Bon Appetit. How perfect! And it's a cooked cuke recipe...I really liked the sauteed cucumber with black bean sauce and fish that my co-worker (Mr. Tony!) turned me onto so this recipe made me very hopeful.

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups 1/4 inch thick of cucumber peeled (although I left the peel on mine no issues)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (left seeds in and had no problems)
4 scallions, thinly sliced (I used about 1/2 cup of spring bunching onion tops instead)
2 red Thai chiles (with seeds), thinly sliced (or other hot peppers)*
1 garlic clove, smashed*
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk ( I used vanilla coconut milk and just omitted honey below)
1.5 tsp honey
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves*

*I substituted my leftover 2tbsp of Cilantro Chutney from earlier in the week.

STEPS

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add cucumber. Saute until beginning to soften, about 1 minute. Season with the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Add tomatoes, scallions, chiles and garlic. Saute until vegetables are soft, 2-3 minutes.

3. Add coconut milk and honey; simmer until vegetables are cooked through 2-3 minutes. Stir in cilantro leaves and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired

4. Suggestion to serve with rice or something to soak up the delicious sauce!

It filled the kitchen with the slightly sweet coco-nutty scent. Mmmmm. It tasted so nice and clean too. I'd love to throw in some chickpeas to give it some protein next time and make it a vegetarian main. For Sunday, I ate it as a side with my leftover taco-seasoned chicken. Monday at lunch it was with half cup of quinoa and 2 hard boiled egg whites.

Have you re-organized something lately? 

ROUND UP OF CUCUMBER RECIPES:
Cucumber-rice flour pancakes 
Mystery Ginormica Squash Gratin 
In the Savory Salad of Spunky Grapefruit Dressing 
Cantalope-Cucumber-Carrot Juice
Cucumber-Melon Salad
Add into the Seaweed Salad

Vegetarian Summer Series #5: Indian Potluck Inspired Jalepeno Dal (Red Lentils) and Cilantro Chutney

The move happened! We spent 2 hours Thursday night with the help of a friend and 6 hours Saturday moving all our things over.  I'm climbing around mountains of boxes and digging in various backpacks and suitcases for what to wear to yoga practice and to work, but what's the first room I get in order? The kitchen of course!  I can only indulge in Dominoes gluten-free vegetarian pizza and Chipotle so long.

TOP 5 NEW THINGS THIS MONTH:
1) Going out to eat Vietnamese food unexpectedly-got to try Banh Xeo! a rice flour based crepe. The restaurant only had seafood/meat based but I am eager to try out mushrooms instead at home. Vietca says they even sell pre-measured flour with the tumeric portioned out at the markets. I got lots of lettuce in my box right now so this would be great! Want to grow herbs or pick up some mint and shiso (aka perilla, tia to, beefstake leaf, or Gee So according to the seed catalogue for evergreen seeds)

2) Bought sea snail from Marukai .................to eat (not a pet!) Gonna say I'm not a fan of the cartilege like texture.

3) Not food related, but I have had three people offer to pay me for helping to care, cook or make a product in the last week! Really weird...but it times well with the furlough...if I can make the time to do it.

4) Bought a hybrid nectarine plum from one of my favorite farms (I think it's Maciel Farms) at La Jolla. They don't have a name for it yet...any ideas? Fellow yogi Sara-squared says "nums" -which is my favorite so far. Dave says "nectum" which I thought was kind of gross since it sounds very similar to another word.

5) Got a vacation planned for the Denver, CO area for next month-I have never been! Anyone have recommendations for things to do or places to eat? Also hoping to visit the Rocky Mountains park for a day trip.

I broke the streak of raw food, to bring you spicy jalepeno red lentils. I was supposed to have a potluck with a few co-workers last week but they wiggled out of it on me the day before.  I still made the dish since I needed vegetarian Tuesday food anyhow. The recipe comes from Food Network (actually Wolfgang Puck) with very minor modifications.

Dal on the left and variation on Aloo Gobi on the right

 DAL WITH JALEPENOS
Makes 4-6 Servings
~40-50 minutes for making spice, prepping and cooking.

• 1/4 cup ghee or clarified butter  substitute red palm oil or coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups diced onions
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded and minced
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
• 2 cups orange lentils
• 2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons Garam Masala, (food network provides one if you visit their website or see what I used below)
• 1/2 tablespoon salt  (or to your taste)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 3/4 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 8 cups chicken stock veggie stock (I used 4 cups stock and 4 cups water and it came out ok)

1. In a large pot, heat the oil and stir-fry the onions just until wilted, do not brown.

2. Add the garlic, jalapeno, cumin, lentils, ginger, garam masala, salt, pepper, sugar and bay leaf. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes, until the herbs and spices bloom (aromatic).

2. Add the tomatoes and deglaze with the vinegar.

3. Add the stock, bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook until lentils are tender (about 30 minutes), stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning with cumin, salt, pepper and sugar.

 My sister provided me a garam masala recipe and you don't need to do any toasting or grating (not sure how much a difference it makes, but I'm short on time these days).

GARAM MASALA (I think it was the first one that I used for the dal recipe, but it was a bottle of spice she made for me):

Garam Masala #1
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tsp ground cardomom
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 ground nutmeg

We have just ground cumin and coriander so I don't do the following steps. I
also used a pepper grinder or just used black ground pepper. but if you have
the whole seeds here's what to do:
On medium heat, shake cumin and coriander seed for 3-5 till they pop and brown.
remove from heat and let cool. place all ingridients in a coffee grinder or
food processor and grind till smooth. store in an airtight container.

Kitchen Cupboard Garam Masala
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp coriander
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cardomom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice

Also, because my CSA "boxmate" said she doesn't make a lot of spicy things, thought I would share this recipe that uses one spicy pepper and just makes enough for a few servings (not overwhelming for someone cooking just for one).

CILANTRO-CHUTNEY-inspired by my brief few months working at a Persian inspired restaurant after college. Just grab your blender/food processor and let's make this 4 ingredient peppy sauce. Top it on your breakfast tacos like me, have a go with it on salad or maybe as a dipper for your grilled veggies (or chicken or beef).

Ingredients
1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and stems
2 cloves of garlic 
3 tbsp white vinegar
1 jalepeno, de-stemmed and cut

Put all ingredients in the blender/processor. Blend until uniform sauce forms. All done!

I think I asked enough questions above, so nothing here this week!

New set up for the blog? + Refreshing Southwestern Vegan Salad Recipe from the Road

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHAAAANGES! 

I just learned on May 31st that it's time to pack up and move to another rental in July! That means purging, start saving money to pay for overlapping rent/the new deposit/first and/or last month's rent (GOOD GRAVY Dave reminded me we could be paying up to 3 months worth of rent. Ouch, this hurts with the furloughs coming), and stop buying so much foodstuff (less to move). Here I was feeling a little bored with life the last few months, but excited/nervous to start the time-intensive yoga teacher training this month and an eager beaver to start planning my annual reunion with the Glasses Girls. But now those aren't the only things that will occupy my summer. So, I will apologize in advance if I don't end up meeting my goal to go to the Indian market this month. I will plan to go once I settle in-I do have my grocery list made up. Maybe Indian food theme dinner party with a few friends could be my motivation!

It also makes me think I should try to work through more recipes in my paper cookbooks (and that's not any books from bloggers)-I tend to rely on the internet since blogs and cooking/homemaking websites are so plentiful. With the anniversary of the blog coming up in August, it may just be my new theme for the 12 months of year 2 to do a certain # of recipes from each book each month. (another dinner theme party, make a dish from a paper cookbook!) 

I recently returned from a 6 day Southwest National Parks vacation with my high school chum, Lisa. We started in LA and drove to AZ and UT. We were wondering what defines a road trip, is it # of places you stop or # of days? Merriam Webster says an extended vacation using a vehicle...while Urban Dictionary expands with the most popular definition includes going cross country in a van using drugs and alcohol. Hm, so is extended just mean longer than a long (3 day weekend?)...not sure what we should call it (Scenic vacation?) but we had a blast soaking in the beauty and still learning new things about each other after 14 years of friendship.

Most days we ate out (happily the parks and surrounding businesses must get enough people requiring/preferring gluten free), but one night at Lake Powell Motel (formerly Bashful Bob's) in Page, AZ included a kitchenette.  They even have a BBQ grill (which we did not use.)

We were just warned not to cook curry or fish indoors. The owner worried I might have felt picked on with my last name and those food exclusions...but I know how much those smell. I told him he should add "stinky tofu" to that list as that would linger also, but then inquired "are there Asian markets around here?" His reply was no.

Decided that we were up for cooking something simple that could double for dinner and would be portable for lunch when we were out and about. We needed to use ingredients that we wouldn't have to necessarily keep ice cold since the cooler would just sit in the car all day while we were exploring Lake Powell and then Bryce Canyon until we could get to the next lodging (which might not have a fridge). I did bring some versatile supplies from home (indicated below) knowing we had a kitchenette.

Packing/Shopping list for Summer Southwest Vegan Salad (4 servings-2 servings of pasta version and 2 servings of quinoa version):

1 small can of chopped olives (one that looks like it is 1/4 cup big)
1/2 cup of quinoa (I brought from home) and half a box of quinoa/corn pasta (Ancient Harvest brand is good)
1/2 cup of sundried tomato (brought from home, if you buy they should keep without refrigeration though)
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (brought from home, keeps without refrigeration)
2/3 package of fajita mix (used Fresh and Easy brand)
2 ears of fresh corn (one cereal bowl piled high, we didn't have measuring cups)
3 small squash (was one cereal bowl piled high)
1 can of cannelini beans

 

Making the salads-we had two small pots and two mixing bowls. We used the lid and slotted spoon to drain since we had no colanders. Used a can opener (important to make sure you have!)

1. Get at least two small pots of water boiling. One for the veggies and one for the quinoa or pasta (whichever you want to eat first)

2. Shuck the corn and cut off the kernels. A serrated steak knife worked for us.

3. Rinse and cut the squash into bite-sized circles or half-circles if the squash is larger.

4. When water is boiling add the corn-cook about 5-6 minutes for crisp tender. And add your pasta to the other pot-cook according to directions (pasta was 7-10 minutes).  Drain when cooked to desired doneness and put half the corn and all your pasta in a large mixing bowl. Reserve other half of corn for the quinoa salad in another mixing bowl.

5. Start boiling water in  your now empty pots. Add the squash and cook 4-5 minutes for crisp tender. To your other pot, add the quinoa. Again drain when they are cooked to desired level (quinoa is normally 10 minutes). Add the half squash to the first mixing bowl and half to the second. Reserve the rest for your quinoa salad.

6. Mix in 1/3 package of the fajita mix and half of the nutritional yeast, olives, beans and sundried tomatoes to the pasta mixture. Toss in the bowl. Then serve warm or cooled (gluten free pastas usually have the best texture warm)

7. After you're nice and full from that, mix the remaining half of the ingredients with the quinoa to make your meal for tomorrow.

Sorry, hope that's not too convoluted.

Being out in National Parks meant a hike each day!

1st Hike at Grand Canyon: 6 miles Bright Angel to the 3 Mi. Rest house

2nd Hike at Grand Canyon: 3.6 miles of South Kaibab to Cedar Breaks

3rd Hike at Bryce: 3.5 miles of Queen's Garden + Navajo Loop

4th Hike at Zion: 3 hours of The Narrows

 Sometimes we didn't have time to eat with all the hours logged driving or it was just too dang roasting (between 85-107F during our hikes). We kept it light and ate these snacks throughout the day and one big meal each day.

Favorite Trail Snacks:

• Tuna pouches to avoid carrying a can opener (bring a disposable/re-usable plastic spoon from Yogurtland to scoop...or get messy)
• For you vegetarians, Sunwarrior Protein powder (pre-measured in baggies) to mix with juice or gatorade.
• Crunch Master brand-multi-seed gluten free rice based crackers (does contain soy and will break if not on top of your pack or in a rigid container). They have a $1 coupon right now on their website. Very tasty.
• Apples
• Fruit "leathers" (found a 48 pack of strawberry, cherry, raspberry and apricot at Costco
• Popcorn made with coconut oil (and using Nordic Brand microwavable popper from Amazon, fit perfectly in tiny motel microwaves..another snack to keep on top of your pack to avoid excessive crumbs...but watch out for the squirrels-one reached in my bag when I turned to apply sunscreen and started to drag the snack away)
• Sprouts grocery: bulk bin trail mix with coconut, papaya, figs and other fruits
• Baby carrots
• Candied Ginger in case of stomach irritation
• powdered Gatorade to mix in with the water bottles
• Avocado halves and a spoon to scoop it out with (put in a plastic container so it won't get smushed)
• Gu or other gel energy to get you up out of the canyon-we had strawberry banana flavor

Anything you want to see regularly if I change how I do this blog? Has a vacation given you inspiration for a meal?   (we also watched an episode of Diners and Drive-ins and one place featured this stuffed pepper with chicken cooked in red wine with apples, pears, shallots, cranberries and served with a cream-nut sauce---looked fab and unique...and fit with the southwest theme of our trip).