Herbed almond flax flat bread

I've been flirting with gluten-free cooking recently. There seems to be mounting evidence that gluten can cause ill health effects, and the elimination of wheat gluten can improve health in everything from obesity and diabetes to migraines to female infertility (reference: google.com, sorry I'm feeling lazy right now). Whether or not these health effects are directly related to wheat gluten the protein or the multitudes of American foods that are based primarily on wheat is impossible to tell, since you cannot have non-gluten wheat (yet). My gut feeling, and the general sentiment it seems, is that elimination of wheat gluten leads to eating habit changes that improve health. It's also somewhat interesting and refreshing to cook with different ingredients like flax meal and almond flour. Thus, today's flirting took the form of an herbed almond flax flat bread with quick pickled radish for garnish. The bread was really flavorful and had a nice bready texture, and it is amazing how well quick-pickling works to add that special pickly something to vegetables in just about 20 minutes. If nothing else, it's a quick, easy, and tasty snack.

For flatbread

2/3 c golden flax meal
1/3 c almond flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 T dried sage
1 T grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 t salt
3 T olive oil
2 eggs
approx. 1/3 c water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Grease a 5x9 bread pan with olive oil *
3. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Combine olive oil and eggs in separate bowl, whisk to mix
5. The batter will be too thick to pour - add a little water at a time and mix, repeating if necessary until batter can be poured into the bread pan without much scraping. I had to add about 1/3 c of water.
6. Pour batter into pan, place in oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

Adapted from http://glutenfreeeasily.com/golden-flax-bread-grainfree-gf/.

For quick pickled radishes

2 small radishes, sliced into thin disks

1 t salt

1/2 t apple cider vinegar

1/4 t honey

dried dill weed to taste

1. Rinse sliced radishes in a bowl/colander, drain
2. Coat slices with salt, make sure all sides are completely covered
3. Let rest for 15-20 minutes
4. Rinse off salt with cold water - radishes should be limp now - and drain
5. In a small prep bowl, add vinegar, honey, and dill, and mix
6. Add radishes to the vinegar mixture, coat, and let sit for a few minutes

Quick pickle method taken from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, which I highly recommend.

Mo' Egg Cups

This time with tasty cheese from central bottle (Andrew picked it out when I said I needed it to go with eggs!)

1.5 cups cooked brown rice
3 eggs, gently scrambled
~6 oz of the awesome cheese
a splash of milk (we used almond milk)

~1 teaspoon dried paprika
sprinkle of dried tarragon
dash of fresh ground pepper
dash of salt

Bake in foil+paper muffin wrappers @ 400 for 23 minutes (the extra cheese took longer to cook). Makes 8 muffins.
(per muffin)
Cals: 147
Carbs: 9 grams
Fat: 8 grams
Protein: 8 grams
Fiber: 1
Iron: 3%

Coconut hemp heart granola

Jen and I were at the grocery store looking for granola. The 'good' stuff (organic yada yada) is really expensive - $6-7 for 8 oz or something. It got me wondering why granola is so expensive? Maybe it's hard to make? Maybe the raw materials are expensive? Maybe you need expensive granola certification from the National Granola Council to make it, or the Granola Police come and rain granola justice down on you and your extended family? I decided to risk it.

We liked the sound of an online recipe we found and adapted it so we didn't have to cook any quinoa. Warning: this stuff is pretty calorie dense (700/cup ≈ a chipotle burrito), so don't go nuts, no pun intended, speaking of which, I would probably use fewer walnuts next time, they're everyhwar).

So, ok, we used a lot of expensive ingredients to make it (nuts, dried fruit, etc). I'm going to ignore that and not do the full cost calculation for this recipe per ounce, and complain again that I still don't know why granola is so expensive. I plan on making it regularly from now on.

Coconut hemp heart granola

1/2 cup hemp hearts
1 cup raw walnut halves, chopped
1/2 cup raw sliced almonds
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup golden flax meal*
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup agave nectar

* The original recipe calls for whole flax seeds. The nutrients in whole flax seeds are not easily accessible to our bodies because the seed shell protects them, using flax meal makes the full nutrient content available. If you have whole flax seeds, and a spice grinder (or a mortar and pestle if you have lots of arm and time available), you can just grind them.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together
3. I mixed the wet ingredients in a liquid measuring cup, whisked to mix
4. Pour wet ingredients on dry ingredients, mix well
5. Spread on an ungreased rimmed baking sheet in an even layer
6. Bake for 30 minutes
7. Take out of oven, eat some because it's delicious warm
8. Let dry completely before storing in an airtight container

The granola after it's out of the oven, use a spatula to break it up after it dries a bit

Adapted from http://www.loveandzest.com/2014/01/coconut-quinoa-granola.html.

Pseudo-stuffed chard

We've recently been enjoying some of the recipes on the Vega website (mostly resulting from Jen's curiosity). While we're not trying to go gluten or dairy free, the vegetarian, nutrient dense recipes have been tasty, and interesting in their uses of new ingredients. Many of which are 'counter-intuitive'.

The grocery store didn't have kale stocked, so we opted for rainbow chard. We chopped up the stems and added them to the filling for texture. Jen also used her Italian heritage to justify the addition of various dried spices to the sauce (oregano, parsley...) and just threw in ~ heaping teaspoon. Jen also omitted the garlic from the filling because she can't handle too much of it.

In the future, we think we'd double the amount of crushed tomatoes in the sauce (our sauce was a bit too chunky to fill in all around the stuffed leaves and they dried out a bit) and also would opt for a layered approach, more like lasagna, instead of the rolls (ours fell apart). We wouldn't change anything about the filling though, it was really delicious.

Original recipe: http://myvega.com/vega-life/recipe-center/kale-cabbage-rolls/

Tomato Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. coconut oil or olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• Splash of white wine
• 1 (28oz/ 822g) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15oz / 425g) can crushed tomatoes
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Tomato Sauce Instructions:

1.  Melt oil in a saucepan. Sauté onion until translucent. Add garlic and sauté 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add a splash of wine and cook until most of the liquid is evaporated. Add both kinds of tomatoes. Simmer 30 minutes.
3. Add salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Set aside.

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. coconut oil or olive oil
• 1 onion, cut into quarters
• 2 carrots, cut into 4
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 4
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup hemp seeds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 Bunches Kale, stems removed (for wrapping)

Filling Instructions:

1.     In a food processor, add onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Process to a coarse consistency.
2.     In a large sauté pan, melt oil. Add vegetable mixture. Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, or until tender.
3.     In the food processor, add hemp, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds. Process to a coarse consistency.
4.     In a large bowl, combine cooked vegetable mixture, seed mixture, brown rice, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Mix. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Assembly Instructions:

1.     Preheat oven to 375 ° F.
2.     Cut all the kale leaves in half lengthwise, and then in half widthwise. You should have a rectangle about 4-inches by 2 or 3 inches. (It does not need to be exact and they do not all need to be the same size.) Keep any kale scraps.
3.     In a rectangle cake pan or casserole dish, pour 1/3 of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan.
4.     Take 2 to 3 tablespoons of the filling and line the bottom of each kale rectangle with it. Roll into a kale tube.
5.     Place each roll on the tomato sauce in the pan. Line the whole pan with rolls, making a second layer of rolls if needed.
6.     Chop any kale scraps up into bite size pieces and layer them on top of the kale rolls.
7.     Pour the rest of the tomato sauce on the kale rolls, spreading it around to cover everything.
8.     Bake for 1 hour. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Pumpkin Quinoa Chili

This winter has been interleaving extreme-cold chili weather and reasonably-temperate chili weather, swinging from low 10s to high 50s every week or so. On this particular Saturday it was particularly somewhere-in-between-extreme-cold-and-reasonably-temperate chili weather, so we seized the opportunity and made chili. The recipe we used was a little different than canonical chili in that it had pumpkin and quinoa added. Pumpkin has a pretty mild taste, and quinoa has no taste, so these additions were mostly for adding nutrient value and texture. Still, the whole thing was easy and delicious.

1 pound ground beef
½ cup diced celery
1 large onion (diced)
1-14 ounce can pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
1-14 ounce can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1-14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1-16 ounce jar salsa (whatever you like)
1-6 ounce can tomato sauce

2 cups canned pumpkin

½ cup uncooked quinoa

1 T chili powder
1 1/2 t ground cumin

1 t salt

1/4 t onion powder

1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t dried oregano
1/4 t red pepper flakes

1. In the slow cooker, combine all ingredients, except the quinoa. Cook on high for 4-6 hours, or low for 6-8 hours.
2. In the last half hour of cooking, add the uncooked quinoa.
3. Serve topped with Greek yogurt, cheddar cheese, and cilantro.

Nutrition per serving (does not include toppings): 431 calories, 9g fat, 53g carbs, 36g protein

Adapted from http://blog.anytimefitness.com/395459-recipe-slow-cooker-pumpkin-quinoa-chili/.

Tomato Soup + Cheese Toast

Tomato Soup and Cheese Toast
because it was too cold outside tonight

Tomato Soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large onion, sliced or diced (cut to a size you want to eat in soup)
1 large carrot
0.5 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups tomato, peeled, seeded and diced
2-3 cups vegetable stock (I used 3 cups boiling water + 1 knorr vegetable boullion cube)
parsley for garnish

Heat olive oil on medium heat, add tomato paste and cook for about a minute. Add carrot and onion, saute until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the tomato and thyme and cook for 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes fall apart. Add the vegetable broth and cook for about 5 more minutes to bring the whole pot to temperature. Garnish with parsley.

(3 servings of soup, info per serving)
cals: 101
carbs: 15 grams
fat: 1 grams
protein: 2 grams
fiber: 5 grams
iron: 4%

For the cheese toast, I stopped by Central Bottle and taste-tested some cheese until I decided on the gruyere (label says Gruyere Reserve Raw Milk, Switzerland). Slice it then, put it on some Iggy's bread and pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes. Dunk with the soup.

The second-time turkey leftovers

Jen loves turkey and so my mom not only made turkey (for the second time this year), but sent me home with leftovers :-) Just an excuse for another left-over invention.

8 oz cooked turkey (we had a mix of white and dark meat from the last bird)
0.5 cup almond meal (you can easily use a spice grinder to chop up raw nuts)
0.5-0.75 cup pumpkin puree (start w/0.5 and add more if the mixture is too dry)
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
0.5 teaspoon salt
*** 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon (I didn't add this but would have if I could have re-done them)

Throw items in the food processor, pulse until mixed (but not too much, you don't want a paste exactly). Shape into patties and fry in a frying pan with ~2 teaspoons of oil until warm and browned. There isn't anything raw in them, so you don't have to worry about cooking it all the way through. Serve with ketchup (sorry, there's been a theme the past few days).

We made 6 burgers, info per burger:
cals: 119
carbs: 5 grams
fat: 5 grams
protein: 13 grams
fiber: 2 grams
iron: 6%

Egg + Rice Breakfast Cups

Monday January 6th, 2014

All the things that you need for breakfast in a to-go cup. The recipe's inspired from the 'portables' section of the feedzone cookbook, but has a few Jen touches (smoked paprika...).

3 cups cooked white rice
4 eggs, gently scrambled
1 cup chopped ham (we had some leftover from Christmas, it could easily be bacon)
1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
1/3 cup milk (we used almond milk)

2 tablespoons chopped dill
0.5 teaspoon smoked paprika
sprinkle of hot paprika
dash of salt

Bake in foil+paper muffin wrappers @ 400 for 18 minutes.
(per muffin)
Cals: 144
Carbs: 13 grams
Fat: 6 grams
Protein: 10 grams
Fiber: 0
Iron: 6%

Little lentil loaf

My mom makes great meatloaf, and I loved it growing up. I know this is definitely not the same, but given my curiosity about iron-rich foods, I was curious about this lentil-laden version. The recipe is originally adapted from the Vega website, but I made a few modifications and would do a few things differently in the future.

Original recipe:
http://myvega.com/vega-life/recipe-center/cranberry-maple-glazed-lentil-loaf/

Lentil Loaf Ingredients:

• 1 tsp Coconut oil
• 1 medium Onion, diced
• 2 stalks Celery, diced
• 2 Carrots, shredded
• ½ tsp Dried sage
• 1 tsp Thyme
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• ½ cup Red Lentils, soaked and rinsed
• ½ cup Green Lentils, soaked and rinsed
• 2 ½ cups Water
• ½ cup Ground Oats
• ¾ cup Oats

Cranberry-Maple Glaze Ingredients:

• 2 cups Cranberries, frozen or fresh
• ½ cup Orange Juice
• 2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• ½ cup Maple Syrup

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. In a medium saucepan, heat oil and sauté onion and celery. Add in carrots, sage, thyme, red lentils, green lentils and water. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 35 minutes or until lentils are soft.
3. While the lentils are cooking, combine cranberries, orange juice, balsamic vinegar and maple syrup. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until thick.
4. Once lentils are cooked mix in ground oats and oats. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
5. Press into a loaf pan and pour cranberry sauce on top.

1. Bake for 45 minutes. Let sit for a few minutes before cutting into.

We skipped the glaze and just ate it with ketchup (nope, we're not actually going vegan or eliminating anything special). A few notes:
- I cooked the carrots with the onions and celery, a little sear sounded like a good idea.
- I added the spices to the vegetables about a minute before I added the water + lentils, just to get the flavors mixed better

Things I would change:
- I would use vegetable stock instead of water
- I would put a glaze (maybe ketchup) on top before baking. The top layer of our loaf was a little dry, still tasty, but dry!

If you cut the loaf into 6 slices, nutrition per slice:
cal: 316
carbs: 55 grams
fat: 2 grams
protein: 20 grams
fiber: 13 grams
iron: 16 %

Barley stir fry

Saturday January 5th, 2014

After coming home from the two week long holiday tour of the middle Atlantic, we realized we had "no" food in the apartment. After deciding a grocery store trip wasn't in our immediate future, and after a little digging, we found some odds and ends to cobble together. This was the reasonably tasty result. I was hoping it would taste more like fried rice, but the barley was a bit too mushy. I'd make it again if the only food in the apartment was barley, frozen vegetables, shrimp, soy sauce, sesame oil, and delicious Japanese ginger sauce with black sesame seeds you can apparently only buy in Kyoto, Japan (sorry).

• 1/2 bag frozen vegetables (ours had onions, carrots, and broccoli)
• 1 1/4 cup dry barley
• 1/2 bag (about 2 dozen) frozen peeled shrimp
• 4 T soy sauce
• 1 t delicious Japanese ginger spice with black sesame seeds you can apparently only buy in Kyoto, Japan (sorry)
• 1 T toasted sesame oil
• 1 T regular sesame oil

Directions

1. Prepare barley according to directions on package, we had to boil 1 cup barley in 3 cups water for 1.5 hours.
2. 10 minutes before the barley is done, heat regular sesame oil in a saute pan. Add frozen vegetables and shrimp and saute for 5 minutes until cooked.
3. Mix soy sauce, delicious Japanese ginger spice with black sesame seeds you can apparently only buy in Kyoto, Japan (sorry), and toasted sesame oil in a small dish. Set aside.
4. When barley is finished cooking, add it to the saute pan, pour on soy sauce mixture, and stir with shrimp and veggies until well mixed. Saute further until barley starts to brown slightly. Remove from heat and serve.

Notes on delicious Japanese ginger spice with black sesame seeds you can apparently only buy in Kyoto, Japan (sorry)

I went to a conference in Kyoto, Japan in August 2013 which, for the record, may be the worst time to visit Kyoto on account of the extreme heat and humidity. I stayed after the conference for a few days to check the place out, and the last day was my shopping for gifts day. After renting a bicycle, I found myself in the eastern part of the city called Gion, which is "one of the most exclusive and well-known geisha districts in all of Japan" thank you wikipedia though I didn't see any. I wandered into a little spice shop that had two nice Japanese ladies working, and we were able to communicate well enough for me to buy some spices for my friends.

Travel note: oh-ki-ni means "thank you" in Kyoto (and only Kyoto - the rest of Japan doesn't say that)

I still can't read the jar, but it's really delicious. One of the Japanese ladies and I developed a rapport after I said oh-ki-ni. She even gave me an umbrella when she noticed I looked like a scared lost puppy after the sky opened up with torrential rain and thunder (which made the prospect of riding my bike anywhere rather unattractive).

Greek Spinach Pie

A spanikopita recipe taken from allrecipes.com we made at my parent's place in CT after New Year's. We followed the directions almost exactly and it turned out delicious. The original instructions are copied here, with some alterations and comments of our experiences interspersed.

• 3 T olive oil
• 1  large onion, chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 lbs raw spinach, rinsed and chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 8 sheets phyllo (fillo) dough
• olive oil for brushing

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9x13 inch baking dish.
   The original recipe calls for a 9x9 baking pan, but we didn't have one, so we went with a 9x13 pyrex dish. Worked fine.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, green onion, and garlic until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach and parsley, and continue to saute until spinach is limp.
   In case it hasn't occurred to you already, like it didn't occur to me, 2 lbs of spinach is actually a very large volume of spinach. We used a 4" deep saute pan and ended up having to saute it in batches of 1/2 lb each and then push the wilted spinach aside for the next batch. It worked fine, but took quite a while to cook it all down. I would use a deeper stock pot next time so it can all get in there at once and then stir it frequently.
   Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
   Since the sauteing took so long I prepared the cheese mixture at the same time.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, ricotta, and feta. Stir in spinach mixture. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking dish, and brush lightly with olive oil. Lay another sheet of phyllo dough on top, brush with olive oil, and repeat process with two more sheets of phyllo. Cut phyllo dough if necessary to make single-thickness layers each iteration. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold dough over any dough overhanging the side of the dish (we didn't have any overhanging). Layer remaining 4 layers of phyllo dough, brushing each with oil.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cut into squares and serve while hot.