Back on the road to wellness

I haven't posted much of anything in while and it's been far too long. My hiatus also reflects my temporary abandonment of my gluten-free, vegetarian (almost vegan) diet in favor of being more of a "flexitarian" as my neighbor has called me. Well apparently "flexitarianism" hasn't been good for my health. Last week I had a little flare up of endometriosis resulting in a ruptured ovarian cyst. While I've had them before, before going on an anti-inflammatory, endometriosis diet four years ago, this was the first one I'd noticeably had in about 4 years. I feel fairly confident that this has to do with venturing off the healthy path in favor of being more pragmatic. Well now it's caught up and it was enough of a wake up call to go back to eating the way I know I should. So today I got started and back on my road to wellness and stocked up on all kinds of good things at Trader Joe's: kale, coconut oil, gluten-free pasta, coconut milk, dairy-free cheese, avocados, tomatoes, decaf green tea, organic fair trade Bolivian coffee (for the bulletproof coffee I've heard so much about with grass-fed butter and coconut oil), dry roasted, unsalted pistachios, and several other things.

I've just finished making my mid-day meal, which is a vegetarian pasta sauce over gluten-free pasta. For the sauce: heat up some coconut oil and sauté chopped garlic and onion. Add baby orange bell peppers, spinach, chopped fresh mushrooms, 1 large can of organic diced tomatoes, one peeled and chopped blood orange, a handful of walnuts, a handful of sun dried tomatoes (not the ones in oil, just dried in a bag) and sea salt. Simmer until ready to serve over GF pasta.

The finished dish - the cheese is a soy-free, dairy free
mozzarella alternative. 

Blueberry Sunday

An O'Neal bush at Creekside Farm
loaded with berries.

Just about 10 minutes from my house is a blueberry paradise - Creekside Farm is bursting with blueberry bliss from May through August - acres and acres of multiple varieties starting with the early sweet O'Neals to the amazing gumball sized, super sweet Powder Blue in late summer. I discovered the farm at the Clayton Farm and Community market last year, picked twice last summer and am absolutely hooked on these berries.

Washing the berries

Washed and ready to eat

Yesterday I drove over for my first pick of the season - O'Neals are in season right now - a sweet, average size berry that the farm owner says is a real challenge to grow because the bushes will die for no reason at all. More than other varieties, this bush is very sensitive to soil conditions, temperature, weather. Fortunately Creekside Farm seems to be doing it right as they have managed to keep several rows of the O'Neal variety alive - and they are loaded with sweet berries. I picked for about 45 minutes yesterday - naturally testing each bush before I picked - and got about 3.6 lbs of berries.

When I got home I washed and de-stemmed the berries and put them in the refrigerator to munch on at my convenience. Blueberries make for the perfect summer snack!

I had 1.5 pints of blueberries left from my Produce Box. They are good, but they can't beat the ones from Creekside Farm. I already had a plan in mind for my Produce Box blueberries - a delicious blueberry crisp! I got the recipe from Yankee Magazine (and halved it for 1.5 pints). The lemon juice and lemon zest along with the oats and cinnamon really give this crisp a great flavor. I used Bella Gluten-Free All-Purpose Mix instead of flour. Those sensitive to oats can substitute certified GF oats, but I just used regular ones. Needless to say, my Sunday started and ended with blueberries - delicious from start to finish!

**I should add that blueberry picking makes for a pretty good thigh workout - my thighs are so sore today from all the berry-picking squatting and knee-bending!**

Fresh out of the oven, blueberries still bubblin'.

A nice portion!

Bowl-cleanin' good!

Cool summer salads (vegan and gluten-free)

Napa Cabbage Salad and Shoepeg Corn Salad - both vegan and gluten-free

I met up with friend Andrew for a potluck picnic on the lawn while we watched the Béla Fleck concert at the NC Museum of Art last night. My contributions to the potluck were two cool summer salads: Napa Cabbage Salad and Shoepeg Corn Salad - delicious separately, but somehow they complement each other so well that they are even better when eaten together.

I got the basic recipe for Napa Cabbage Salad online (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/napa-cabbage-salad) - the Napa cabbage courtesy of the Produce Box - and embellished it with shredded yellow squash, shredded carrots and diced cucumber. I also added the juice of 1 lime to the sauce. Other than that I followed the directions. It was delicious!

The Shoepeg Corn Salad comes courtesy of my friend Brandi - who got it from her mother-in-law. This salad is to die for and I didn't change a thing about the recipe! The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I cut the sugar in half - the canned shoepeg corn already had sugar in it, so I figured it would be fine to cut back on the sugar for the sauce. I also highly suggest nibbling on it to check the taste before the recommended "overnight" period is up, because it is irresistible! I doubled the recipe.

2 cans of shoepeg corn
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used sweet Vidalia onion)
3 stalks of celery (chopped)
2 oz. of pimento (drained)
Marninate overnight in:
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider)
1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup sugar (I used half this amount)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used freshly ground sea salt)
1/4 teaspoon of pepper (I used freshly ground pepper)

Chipotle-inspired rice salad (vegan, gluten-free)

As I was driving back from my writing class tonight I had the urge to stop by Chipotle to grab a salad for dinner. I could almost taste their honey lime dressing in my mouth, but just as I envisioned my salad before me, my thoughts blurred and I missed the turn I would have had to make to head to the nearest Chipotle. Going back or trying to swing by the other location would have been out of my way and put me home later than I would have liked. Instead I decided to see what I had at home and whip up a quick dinner. As I drove home I could see the basic foundation of my salad coming together: brown rice, corn, black beans and chili powder. When I got home, it took less than 15 minutes to whip up what turned out to be an absolutely delicious meal. Thanks to Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, the rice was cooked in 3 minutes. To the rice I added half a can of corn and half a can of black beans. For fresh veggie crispness I chopped up some of the cabbage I had from my produce box, a spring onion, a third of a cucumber and a handful of grape tomatoes. I added half a chopped avocado and stirred everything together. To recreate the honey lime dressing, I squeezed the juice from one lime, added a spoonful of honey and a slosh of canola oil, whisked everything together and stirred it into the salad. For seasonings I used a couple dashes of organic chili powder, ground sea salt and Penzey's Mural of Flavor spice blend. I stirred everything together and had a delicious, filling meal in under 15 minutes.

The delicious and colorful result! Sooo yummy!

Vegetarian ginger curry

It's been a while since I did a food post, so here's what I had for dinner tonight: homemade ginger curry (vegan and gluten-free).


Heat about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok, add chunks of chopped onion and pressed garlic, then stir fry. Add sliced carrots, pieces of bell pepper (I used red), slices of yellow squash and zucchini, chopped shiitake and brown button mushrooms, about 1 tsp. of grated fresh ginger, baby spinach leaves, and pineapple chunks. These happened to be the vegetables I had on hand, but you can add or leave out whatever you like. Stir fry everything for about 10 minutes, add ginger curry powder or another curry powder of choice (mine is from 1001 Gewürze), coconut milk and some pineapple juice. If you don't have ginger curry powder and still want a ginger flavor, just add ginger powder to taste. Add a sprinkle of freshly ground sea salt. Make sure everything is well blended. Do not overcook, but make sure the carrots are still a little crunchy. Serve over rice (I used Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, which is ready to eat after microwaving for 3 minutes). Enjoy!

This week's Produce Box - and what I've done with it so far!

Homemade apple juice made
with 3 of the many apples
I've been collecting.
Delicious! My food
processor also has a juicer
attachment. Hot homemade
apple cider coming soon!

Contents of this week's Produce Box,
shiitake mushrooms in the brown bag.
Mixed hot peppers behind cabbage.

 This week's Produce Box contained several ingredients perfect for an Ethiopian feast! I chose Box C this week and got shiitake mushrooms, several bulbs of different garlic varieties (Chesnok, Music, Silver White), collard greens, a hot pepper mix, apples and green cabbage. Ethiopian happens to be one of my favorite cuisine and I finally happened to have essentially all the ingredients on hand (except for ginger root carrots and a couple of spices, which I got from the grocery across the street) to make two of my favorite dishes: Ethiopian collards and a cabbage-carrot-potato dish. I found a few recipes online and then used them to create my own dishes.

Here are the links to the collard recipes that I essentially combined:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Gomen-Wat/Detail.aspx
http://girliegirlarmy.com/blog/20100607/ethiopian-collards-on-mini-injeras/

Basically I started out following the directions in the second link.
I cooked down the collards, drained off and saved the liquid, then chopped the collards. Then I cooked the finely chopped red onion in oil. In the food processor I chopped 4 cloves of garlic 1.5 inches of peeled ginger root, 1.5 long green chilis and 1 green bell pepper and then added them to the onion and oil in the pot. Next I added the chopped collards to the pot along with about 1 cup of the collard cooking water. Then I added the spices from both recipes: freshly ground sea salt, freshly ground pepper, turmeric, paprika, allspice along with the juice of one small lemon. I let everything continue to cook and added a bit more of the collard cooking water. It tasted amazing. I was worried that it might be too spicy because I forgot to de-seed the chilis, but it had just the right amount of spiciness. I think combining the recipes made it all the better.

Almost simultaneously I was preparing the second dish. Here I basically followed this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ethiopian-Cabbage-Dish/Detail.aspx

The changes I made here were to double the spices (except for the salt) and I used 1 sweet potato and 3 white potatoes instead of only 5 white potatoes. I figured since there are already carrots in the recipe sweet potato would be an added bonus. It was a great choice - absolutely delicious!

I also tried making the injera bread (used the recipe on the 2nd collard recipe link), but since I didn't have teff flour (GF) I substituted sorghum flour (GF) and GF all-purpose mix and the results were ok, but not the way it is supposed to be. If I try it again I will make sure to get teff and hope it turns out right.

Homemade Ethiopian: cabbage-carrot-potato-sweet potato dish
and spicy Ethiopian collards served on my homemade attempt
at injera

The best part is that I now have tons of leftovers!

I've got a whole slew of other recipes I want to make soon, so keep posted - I'm in a cooking mood!

Blueberry what??

If you're not from the South, you may not have ever heard of grits - which is essentially boiled white cornmeal, similar to its Italian cousin polenta, which is made with yellow cornmeal. In the South, grits are usually served for breakfast with salt and pepper, though there are other savory varieties such as cheese grits. In the low country specialty, grits have made their way up to a dinner entree as the famous shrimp and grits served in any number of delicious ways. However, because grits are generally a savory dish, you've probably never even heard of much less had the pleasure to try blueberry grits, which is why I've decided to share my creation with you.

As a child (and even now), I was always a fan of sweet, hot breakfast cereals. I loved cream of wheat, cream of rice and oatmeal - always sweetened with brown sugar. When I would visit my grandparents and my grandmother would make grits, I just assumed they were similar to oatmeal even though they were generally served on a plate instead of a bowl, and asked for brown sugar to sweeten them up. Any true Southerner would frown upon such a defilement of grits, but my grandmother didn't seem to mind. I've been eating sweet grits ever since.

Today's breakfast is a variation on my sweet grits - adding ground flax seeds and blueberries for an antioxidant, omega-3 packed hot breakfast cereal. It's perfect for people who have a wheat or gluten intolerance (which for those with a severe intolerance even means omitting oatmeal). They're extremely simple to make and you're sure to love them! Enjoy!

The basic ingredients

Frozen blueberries that I picked this summer at Creekside Farm

For one serving, put 3 tablespoons of grits in a saucepan

Add 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds (for Omega 3s).
Add a dash of salt.

Add 1 cup of water

Bring to a boil

Stir as it thickens to prevent lumps

Add blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Stir in the blueberries

Stir as it continues to bubble

Grits will thicken up within 5 minutes and blueberries will begin
to pop, releasing dark purple blueberry juices

Put in bowl and top with a slice of butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Stir to blend flavors and enjoy!

Butternut Squash Risotto (and it's vegan and gluten-free!)

Butternut squash is one of the classic vegetables of fall. Its nutty flavor makes a perfect addition to risotto, an Italian favorite made with arborio rice also known for its slightly nutty flavor. This version is vegan, omitting butter (which is commonly used together with or instead of oil) and using almond cheese instead of dairy-based cheese. The secret ingredients are freshly ground cinnamon and coriander, which really bring out the delicious flavor of the butternut squash. Here's an easy, step-by-step guide for a perfect fall risotto. Buon appetito!

The main ingredients: Olive oil, onion, butternut squash,
risotto rice (Arborio), vegetable broth

 Prep: Dice the onion

Prep: Peel and cut the butternut
squash into small cubes

Add oil to a large pot and heat over medium heat

Add onion to the heated oil

Stir onion in oil while cooking

Cook until the onion becomes glassy as seen here

Add the arborio rice

Stir the rice in with the onion and oil to coat.

Add butternut squash to rice and onion,

Cook until the rice becomes slightly golden, stirring frequently

Add some of the broth, when most has soaked into the rice add more

Add salt and a touch of freshly ground pepper to season.

Continue stirring and adding broth as it absorbs into the rice

Coriander goes great with butternut squash.
Add some freshly ground or powdered coriander.

Continue adding broth and stirring.

The rice will start thickening and becoming more like risotto.

Cinnamon is another spice that goes incredibly well with butternut squash,
even in risotto. Add a dash. You won't be disappointed.

Now it's really looking like risotto!

The best cheese substitute on the market!
I use it for pizza and pasta. It's also incredibly low in fat:
only 1 g of fat per ounce

Grate...

See - looks just like real cheese (and you'll love the taste too!)

Risotto is often finished up with cheese, usually Gran Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano.
For this vegan variation, the grated almond mozzarella cheese works just fine.

Stir in.

Now you have it: nice, thick creamy vegan Risotto! Mmm!

Top with a some shredded almond cheese.

Enjoy in your favorite outdoor location!