Funky Thai Salad

I made something for lunch today that I feared would be just TOO fusion cuisine. But I made it anyway and then looked up some of the ingredients and, lo and behold, I made something akin to this recipe for Thai summer rolls!

I started with the inspiration of the  Thai basil  in our garden. This herb is much like regular basil but has smaller leaves, purple stems, and an anise-type flavor note.

FUNKY THAI SALAD

3 cups tender salad greens (we have butter lettuce from the garden)
1/2 cup cooked beet chunks (julienned would have been more Thai-summer-roll)
1/2 cup blanched broccoli (we have baby broccoli sprouts from the garden)
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
scattering of roasted edamame
(I also had a couple of tablespoons of green peas that escaped into the strainer in which I was blanching the broccoli, and they made a nice addition.)

THAI BASIL DRESSING (what I intended, anyway)

Tablespoon of tahini (peanut butter or crushed peanuts would be more authentic)
Tablespoon of fresh Thai basil, crushed or minced
Tablespoon of rice vinegar (either the sweetened kind or plain with a dash of sugar)

THAI BASIL DRESSING (what I made do with)

Tablespoon of tahini
Tablespoon of fresh Thai basil, crushed
Tablespoon of saki
Teaspoon of tarragon vinegar
Sprinkle of sugar

Verdict?  Very good.  I really like the way the beets, basil, and tahini meld together. It makes a beautiful salad, too, more composed and accented with the dressing than tossed and drenched.

Super Foods

How many Super Foods do you eat in a week's time?

Read more here, at Wise Bread. 

Blueberries
Beans
Broccoli
Oats
Oranges
Pumpkin
Wild Salmon
Soy
Spinach
Tea (Green or Black)
Tomatoes
Turkey
Walnuts
Yogurt

This week I've had all the ones in bold. I usually have lots of dark leafy greens, but since we have so much fresh salad in the garden I haven't had spinach or kale or turnip/collard/mustard greens in the last couple of weeks. I've just finished a course of Cipro (antibiotic) and am having plain yogurt to try to build up my friendly organisms, but I don't usually have yogurt regularly.

Sassy Salad

For lunch today I'm enjoying an intensely satisfying salad I want to share. It fills a small serving bowl and comes in under 350 calories.

3-4 cups tender butter lettuce and mesclun from the garden
1/2 cup carrot slices
half a can of beet chunks
half a package of Tasty Bite Chunky Chickpeas
2 teaspoons or so ranch dressing

This salad has a nice mix of earthy colors, sweetness, and spiciness.

I'll finish up with some watermelon, I think.

Zucchini Harvest Has Begun

Hubby brought in about 25 pounds of zucchini today from the garden, so I need to start using it creatively. I want to start with my new Excalibur Food Dehydrator, and this blog post from Walnut Spinney has some great ideas for that and for other uses.

Traditionally we use a recipe I once found in Farm Woman Magazine, which in the late 80s changed its name to Country Woman, and actually started out as Farm Wife! Here's where I figured that out.

These ladies knew what to do with a lot of extra zucchini. Though this recipe starts with sausage you could use something vegan if you wanted to, or otherwise add flavor as desired. The real bonus is that it uses up a LOT of zucchini:

In the biggest skillet you have, brown about one-half to one pound of sliced sausage (kielbasa, smoked sausage, Italian sausage, etc.) Add to the skillet a couple of chopped onions and a couple of cloves of garlic, smashed. When the onion has softened, add a huge pile of shredded zucchini and cook down until the zucchini has softened and some of the liquid has evaporated. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, or fresh, and just before serving add some oregano, basil, salt and pepper, and the secret ingredient, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. You may add parmesan at the end if you like and eat like a stew in a bowl, with or without a side of crusty bread, or on top of pasta or our favorite, rice. Depending on how you steer the seasonings, you can go more Italian, Creole, Middle Eastern, Indian, or in another direction entirely.

Tonight I'm making a variation on this, starting with chunks from a giant zucchini, olive oil (not much), onion, garlic, a jarred roasted red pepper, a can of diced tomatoes, several marinated green olives, a dash of balsamic vinegar, fresh oregano and basil, and several turkey meatballs (the nutritarians can leave these behind in the skillet :-) ). I'm making whole-wheat spaghetti to serve it over.

And now to go start making some of those zucchini chips for the dehydrator!

Thrifty-Wonderful Exotic Fruit Soda

Warning: non-nutritarian content below, though the main concept is pretty sound :-)

Being the miserly mom I am, it just kills me to "discard" valuable things in recipes. So I have a container of ten egg whites in the fridge right now, waiting to have something done with them, for instance. But even more valuable are the products of our garden, especially our fruits, which have uncertain yields from year to year and are usually available for only a short time.


So in the process of making Raspberry Ripple ice cream for Father's Day, using two to three cups of fresh-picked raspberries that grow wild by the old barn that adjoins our property, I wound up with a good cup or more of slightly sweetened raspberry seed pulp that wasn't going into the ice cream but should NOT have been wasted. So I grabbed a handy bottle of seltzer and slowly poured it over the pulp in the sieve, "rinsing" it through with additional seltzer a couple of times more. The resulting jeweled raspberry soda over ice was a kingly pre-Father's Day treat for the dad (and tasting family members). What a treat!

Now I have plans for the similar seedy-but-flavorful "discards" of our summer processing of elderberries and blackberries, when those are ripe. I think this technique could easily be adapted to ginger ale, tonic water, Sprite, club soda, and even plain/filtered/reverse-osmosis/certified-elite WATER. I'll let you know how it goes.

Exercise is Good, But Food Makes the Difference

Just read a post at "Weighty Matters" on an interesting study. Here's the relevant commentary:

The folks who reported a marked increase in exercise over a decade found themselves a whole 1.2lbs lighter ten years later than the folks who didn't and had waist circumferences half a centimetre (roughly a fifth of an inch) smaller.

Huzzah?

This of course leads me to conclude that this study is in fact consistent with the bulk of the evidence which suggests that in the absence of dietary interventions exercise does not dramatically impact on weight over time. It also leads me once again to beg researchers to stop focusing on weight as an exercise study's primary endpoint and instead focus on those things more likely to demonstrate the incredible benefits of exercise - things such as high blood pressure, cholesterol levels, arthritis, cardiovascular fitness and overall quality of life.

This is a good reminder to me of what I (and Dr. Freedhoff) know by experience is true!

Lentils and Leftovers Lunch

I visited a cultured grocery store, McGinnis Sisters, with friends on Saturday, and I got some treats, including red lentils. Today for lunch I wanted to start with those and add things as the inspiration (and inspection of the fridge and pantry) came to me. I post the ingredients first, but I really only added things as I went along.

RED LENTIL LUNCH

1/2 cup chopped canned tomatoes and their juice
1/3 cup dry red lentils
About 2/3 cup water
Tablespoon of dehydrated minced onion
Salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of Garam Masala
Tablespoon or two of raisins
2-3 big leaves of kale, snipped into ribbons with scissors

Put tomatoes, lentils, water, and onion into a small pot and bring to a boil, then a quiet simmer. Add seasonings and stir in raisins to soften. Top the simmering mixture with kale and cover to steam the kale on top. When the kale is done, stir all together and serve with a topping of your choice.

TOPPINGS

I think diced cucumber and mint or a full-fledged raita would be good on this.
Or sauteed zucchini and onion
Or chopped cooked green beans (cold) and walnuts with raspberry vinaigrette
Or any of a number of things
But I cubed up cold leftover potato and baby carrots from a pot roast last week

VERDICT? Very Good. I wanted something healthy and flavorful and filling, and this fit the bill all around. I have enough left that I can have a smaller serving tomorrow, maybe with the raita, or I can treat hubby with it when he comes home for lunch.

Speaking of hubby, he bravely and happily ate my leftover Emerald Tofu from Thai Place Restaurant. I had the vegetarian Tom Yum, Emerald Tofu, and brown rice. Delicious and very healthy!

Sweet Success

Last evening my 12yo son and I were the only ones at home after his school program, and he asked if I could make him some kind of dessert. (I think others may have been going to a local ice cream shop.) I considered what I had around the house and then asked if a smoothie sounded good, and he said yes!

So we discussed what kinds of fruits I had to make one--bananas, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, pineapple, oranges, pears, etc., and I suggested some of the more "treat-like" ingredients, like coconut and peanut butter, proposing some interesting combos. Finally he decided that banana, strawberry, and blueberry sounded the best, and no, he didn't want any milk or yogurt in it.

So I filled the blender with about two cups of frozen blueberries, one banana, and eight or so big frozen strawberries, adding water to get a good consistency. I asked him to taste it to see if he wanted me to add any sugar or Crystal Light, as I feared it might not seem enough like a dessert. But he tasted it, thought a moment, and said, "That's just right!" I smiled, handed him his, added some flax seed meal to mine, and we both lived happily ever after. :-)

Very Veggie Lasagne

Today I needed to clean out some items in the fridge, and I decided to make a lasagne, though without a ricotta-like filling I don't know whether it can be called that. Does the noodle make the difference? Anyway, here goes:

VERY VEGGIE LASAGNE

--The Filling--
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped (chunky, and the same below)
3-5 cloves garlic, sliced
4 medium zucchini, chopped
1 large eggplant, chopped
1 pound mushrooms, chopped
1/4-1/3 cup pesto (I used the jarred russo type from Aldi)
1/4 cup or so white wine (I used the last of a bottle of homemade mead)
a few shakes each Italian herbs and garlic powder, salt to taste

--The Other Stuff--
Large Costco-sized jar of Ragu
1/2-1 cup canned chopped tomatoes (what was leftover in my fridge)
1-1/2 boxes whole wheat lasagne noodles, not cooked (you need about 22 noodles)
1-pound bag shredded Italian cheeses (You're welcome to substitute "cheez" if desired, but my recipe yields about one ounce of cheese per generous serving.)

--The Method--
Heat the olive oil and add first the onions, then the garlic, then the other ingredients in the order listed, according to needed cooking time (you don't want the eggplant a complete mush), with the seasonings last and to taste. Total simmering time should be about a half hour.

In each of two 9x13 glass pans, pour enough Ragu or other sauce to just cover the bottoms, then arrange three DRY noodles lengthwise and break another to fill up the remaining space at the end of each pan. Top the noodles in each pan with a bit more than a quarter of the veggie filling, then sprinkle about three ounces of cheese into each pan.

Add a thin layer of Ragu over the cheese in each pan and top with another layer of noodles, pressing down to even the filling. Distribute the last of the veggie filling over the noodles and add three more ounces of cheese to each pan.

Finally, place another layer of noodles directly onto the last layer of cheese and press down lightly, then add the chopped tomatoes to the Ragu jar and shake it up, distributing the contents over the two pans to moisten the top noodles thoroughly.

Cover each pan with foil, oiled or sprayed with cooking spray if the filling will touch the foil. I baked one and refrigerated one for later.

To bake, put foil-covered pan (at room temperature) into a cold oven and bake at 375 for about ninety minutes. Near the end of baking time, remove the foil and test for softness of the noodles, then sprinkle with remaining two ounces of cheese (for each pan) and bake until melted.

Verdict? Excellent. We didn't miss the ricotta much at all--this was quite satisfying, though improved by a nice crusty roll on the side. :-) My lasagne sometimes fails with hard noodle bits on top, too-dry a result, or slight burning, especially of the top. But this was just right, and cuts up nicely, too, for neat leftovers in microwaved lunches.

Notes: This recipe is definitely a bit skimpy on the cheese, so be advised. The veggies can be water-sauteed, too, especially if you're adding pesto with oil/nuts. One eighth of a pan is a generous serving and includes an ounce of cheese, less than 1-1/2 noodles, half a cup of sauce and tomatoes, half a zucchini, an ounce of mushrooms, 1/16 of a big eggplant, and some onion and garlic as well. I have nothing against ricotta, or a mixture of ricotta and cottage cheese, or even a tofu replacement, but I just didn't have any on hand. The trick to baking lasagne with dry noodles is to make sure they're touching wet ingredients and that the casserole is baked closed for most of its time in the oven.

Vegan Epicurean: Our Favorite Foods

Vegan Epicurean: Our Favorite Foods

View the amazing inspirations of my blog-friend Alicia. Her creations take a special genius and the time and diligence my own life and inclination do not allow. :-)