Chickweed Smoothie

This could probably be considered a general run-of-the-mill “green” smoothie if you substituted chard or spinach or other leafy green for the chickweed. Chickweed is just what we had an abundance of. 😀

– Kefir
– Banana
– Frozen fruits of your choice
– Alfalfa sprouts
– Chickweed (a large handful)
– Kombucha
-Coconut oil
– Honey

Toss all of the above in a blender (we don’t measure, just eyeball it or taste in the process) and whiz up. Yum! (Just make sure you soak the chickweed in some cold water before hand and then rinse well too. Otherwise, grit-city. 😛 )

‘Til next time,
Tamara

Red Radish & Cucumber Salad

Updated – 1/30/13

Taste of spring!

We made this salad this past weekend with ingredients from our CSA boxes. Light and refreshing! (I made some adaptations from the original source.)

Red Radish & Cucumber Salad

3 Tbs sugar (Rapadura is a more healthful choice. Raw honey, although it would alter flavor, could also be used in a lesser amount – probable about 1 Tbs.)

½ C rice wine vinegar (Raw ACV if you want it more tart – which is what we did.)

2 Tbs salad oil (Safflower, EVOO or flax.) *I’ve since learned that Safflower is not a good choice and would use Virgin/Raw Coconut Oil instead.

Juice from one lemon (Organic.)

1 ts of zest (That’s why it’s important to use organic!)

2 ts fresh dill, chopped (Again, organic.)

1 lb red radishes, thinly sliced in circles (Organic of course. We chopped ours.)

1 Tbs shallots, thinly sliced (We only had org. onion – chopped fine.)

1 English Cucumber or deseeded and skinned Garden cuc, thinly sliced (Org. of course. We skinned ours but didn’t bother deseeding. Again, we chopped not sliced.)

Salt and pepper (Celtic sea salt!)

In a bowl, combine sugar, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, zest and dill. Add radishes, shallots and cucumbers. Toss until evenly coated and salt and pepper to taste. Approx. servings 4-6.

Garnish with a snip of fresh cilantro. (Not part of the original recipe but the flavor blends beautifully!)

*I also sometimes add crushed red pepper flakes when we feel like having it a little spicy! 😀

We will definitely have to double or triple this for our family. We only had one bunch of radishes so we each ended up with a small helping wishing for more!

Tamara’s Cranbanana Bread (GF)

We had a wonderful breakfast the other day! Since going gluten-free (an update I haven’t mentioned here until now. 😉 ), we haven’t had much in the way of bread type products. Mostly corn tortillas which got old fast but I was too busy and too new (in the hands on dept.) to this way of feeding my family to change it as soon as I wanted.

I had made some biscuits and rolls from scratch and a cake. I also had made bread from a mix a couple of times. Oh, and of course, pancakes. But that’s not much considering we’ve been “in transition” seriously since August (?). (We had half-heartedly attempted it a few times before this as I’ve known my father is (officially) celiac for several years now and suspected it for me and a few of the children. The symptoms were just finally too overwhelming to ignore any more. 😦 )

Anyhow, I’m getting more and more familiar with using “alternative” flours and the bread I made this morning was so yummy that it just made the whole meal. It pretty much was the whole meal as we just had that and fruit salad (apples, oranges, pears, grapes and plums) and Kombucha – but it turned out to be just the change we need and was declared the “best breakfast” we’ve had in a while. I like our breakfast burritos…but, like I said above, tortillas had gotten kinda old. 😉

Tamara’s Cranbanana Bread (GF)

Ingredients
1 stick butter
½ C shortening (organic, non-hydrogenated such as Spectrum) *
6 medium very ripe bananas
2 C rice flour
2 C millet flour
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
½ C shredded coconut
½ C cranberries (wildcrafted from my parents homestead, also known as low bush cranberries or Lingonberries.)

Instructions
1) Cream butter, shortening and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
2) Beat in eggs, vanilla and bananas.
3) In a separate bowl, mix flours and baking powder together.
4) Combine dry ingredients with wet and beat until dry ingredients are moist.
5) Gently fold in coconut and cranberries.
6) Grease two 5 x 9 in. loaf pans and divide batter between them. (Or, use a muffin pan! We made one loaf of bread and the rest of the batter into muffins.)
7) Bake bread in a 325°F oven for 1 hr. 20 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not under bake! Muffins will take approx. ½ the time – sorry, I didn’t time it exactly. Just keep watch for a nice golden color on top and that each muffin is pulling away from the side of the cup.

* Note: So as not to be redundant, all ingredients are natural, raw, free range, pastured, and/or organic, gluten-free, etc. In other words, the best most healthful choice available for that product. Azure is my “store” of choice.

© 2008 Tamara Hunt

I may tweak this recipe in the future…I’m always tweaking things. May add nuts next time, may reduce it by one banana, may add orange peel, may reduce the sugar and/or leave out the brown sugar, etc. I love experimenting in the kitchen! 😀

Be sure to come back and tell me how they turned out for you! Enjoy!

This recipe was inspired by the one found here.

Milling Your Own Flour/Homemade Bread

Unbelievably, I had some extra time for another post. 😉

This post is looong overdue. About a year and a half ago, I began using the Nutrimill to grind wheat berries into fresh flour at home. (Can’t believe it’s been that long already – wow.) Anyhow, Rebekah asked me about the use of it and wanted pictures of the process. I’ve had these pictures nearly that whole time on my computer just waiting for me to type a decent post…I’ve fiinally gotten around to it! 😯 :embarassed: Sorry, Rebekah…

Without further ado, here is my photo demonstration for those who are curious/never used a grain mill before and would like to see the process. 🙂 (Updated 2/8/07: Commentary completed.)

Tamara’s Cranbanana Kefir Smoothie

2-3 cups kefir
1 banana
½ cup homecanned cranberry sauce (cranberry picking is a favorite fall activity 😉 )
¼ – ½ cup maple syrup (depending on the tartness of your kefir/cranberries or sweetness preference)

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Adjust ingredients to taste. Enjoy! 🙂

Bread Baker’s FYI

I shared this link with someone this morning and thought it may be of interest/help to others who like to “make and bake” (as opposed to “shake and bake” – sorry, inside joke!) their own bread. 🙂

Have you had your “good bugs” today?

A dear lady from an elist I’m on was so kind as to send me some Kefir grains recently! I checked the mail late in the evening on Tues. and they were nearly frozen. I let them sit out on the kitchen counter all night/day and this evening I opened them up to strain/restart them. I strained them into a large glass jar with a jelly filter and, not wanting to waste any good stuff, some water to rinse out the baggy. When it was nearly done straining, I used a plastic spoon to scoop out the mothers (3) and plopped them into another large glass jar that I had some fresh organic milk in waiting for them. Then, I scraped the curds from the jelly filter and stirred them back into the whey and restrained them to make sure I didn’t miss any. I stirred slowly to keep as much as the curds mixed with whey as I could. There were curds lining the filter despite this so I scooped them out a spoonful at a time and placed a spoonful each into a cup which I then mixed with some natural vanilla yogurt and gave one to each child. The whey made a wonderful smoothie with some frozen strawberries and honey.

The kefir starter that arrived was pretty sour and I read that it’s recommended that it be thrown out. I don’t like wasting anything if I can help it and I like “strong” things – spicy, sour, herbed-up…doesn’t matter – and I’ve trained my children’s palate to enjoy the same things. (They’ll readily eat my unsweetened homemade yogurt. 😉 ) So, we ate it! And, it was great! 🙂 Granted, the yogurt cut it some…but still, we thought it wonderful.

Our house is really on the chilly side now all the time so I’m not sure when the new kefir will be ready. It’s in my pantry at the moment (which is dark most of the time) as, the few cabinets available, are full. I think I’ll make room in my pots/pans cabinet though as it’s warmer and darker there more than the pantry.

Anyhoo…

This is going to be a fun new experiment! 😀

Flourless (GF) Peanut Butter Cookies

Mostly, I’m just putting this here to get it off my desk and archive it. (If I’d make it enough to have it memorized, I wouldn’t need to. 😉 ) A little treat my dad likes and he can actually eat without “cheating.” (He has Celiac disease.)

1 egg
1 c peanut butter
1 c sugar
1 ts vanilla

Mix together and drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet. Criscross with a fork. Bake @ 375° until slightly browned around the edges.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

I made this for refreshments at church this past weekend. I had forgotten how good they were until it was mentioned over at Carmon’s blog during her recent “Blogathon.” I had a recipe from an aunt that I made a long time ago but couldn’t find it so I used this one from a cookbook that same aunt gave me called _365 Great Chocolate Desserts_. Here it is:

1 c boiling water
½ c firmly paced unsweetened cocoa powder
1 c reduced-calorie mayonnaise
1 ¼ c sugar
1 ts almond extract
2 &#188 c flour
2 ts baking soda
¼ ts salt
Cocoa Mayo Icing (recipe follows)
¾ chopped roasted sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans. Dust with flour; tap out excess.

2. In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa; set aside to cool. In a large bowl, beat together mayonnaise and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in almond extract and dissolved cocoa. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat into chocolate mixture just until combined. Divide batter evenly between 2 prepared pans.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes, then unmold onto racks and let cool completely. Fill and frost cake with Cocoa Mayo Icing. Sprinkle almonds over top and gently press into sides of cake. Refridgerate until serving time.

My changes:
* Used “regular” mayonnaise.
* Quadrupled the recipe.
* Put into 2 rectanglur pans – didn’t make a “layered” cake.
* One cake I used the Mayo Icing, the other had Maple Icing.

Cocoa Mayo Icing

½ c reduced-calorie mayonnaise
½ c firmly packed unsweetened cocoa powder
½ ts almond extract
2 ½ to 3 c powdered sugar
1 tbs milk

In a medium bowl, beat together mayonnaise, cocoa, and almond extract with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add powdered sugar and milk and beat on high speed until smooth and fluffy.

For the Maple Icing, I “winged it” and beat together approx. 1 tbs butter, 1 ts maple extract, 1 tbs milk and 3 c powdered sugar until smooth and fluffy.

Yum, yum! 🙂

Salmon and Spinach Bake

I made this recipe this weekend and all, even those who suffer “salmon burnout”, liked it!

1 bag (6 oz) baby spinach
1 pkg (8.8 oz) fully cooked white rice OR 1 2/3 cooked white rice
½ ts salt
¾ cup reduced far sour cream
1 egg
3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
¼ ts black pepper
1 lb Salmon fillet

1. Place spinach in a glass pie plate along with 3 Tbs water. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Uncover and drain carefully. Coat a 1 ½ quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Heat oven to 350° F. In a large bowl, stir together the contents of the rice packet, spinach and ¼ ts of the salt.

3. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the sour cream, egg, 2 Tbs of the Parmesan, mustard, remaining ¼ ts salt and black pepper.

4. Set aside 2 Tbs of the sauce. Combine remaining sauce (a generous ¾ cup) with the rice-spinach mixture. Stir until well coated. Transfer to the prepared casserole, spreading level.

5. Place salmon, skin side up, on a cutting board. Peel off skin and flip over. Remove any bones with tweezers. Slice crosswise at an angle into ½ inch thick slices. Fan slices over the rice mixture.

6. Thin reserved sauce with ½ ts of water. Drizzle over salmon slices. Top with remaining tablespoon cheese. Bake in 350° F oven for 25-30 minutes or until casserole registers 150° F on an instant read thermometer. Let stand 5 minutes at room temperature before serving.

I forget where I copied this recipe down from…but I typed it up as it was. Here are my adaptations:

* Doubled for our large family.
* All ingredients organic.
* I did use white rice this time…we like basmati or jasmine. But, brown rice is common here too. Cooking time would be increased for about another 20 minutes for that though…and you might want to add an extra bit of H20…approx. a ¼ – ½ cup.
* Regular sour cream as opposed to non-fat.
* Used sea salt.
* Don’t use a microwave any more! Spinach can be thawed ahead of time on the counter or put into the oven while it’s heating.
* Don’t use nonstick cooking spray either. Used shortening.
* Didn’t use a seperate bowl to mix rice and spinach – why make more dishes to wash?! 😉 Just put both into the prepared casserole dish and mixed there.
* Didn’t set aside a portion of the sauce – again, why make more dishes to wash?! Just poured sauce into rice until recommend “set-aside” amount was left and then thinned with water in the same bowl.
* Didn’t use a thermometer. I cook salmon often enough that I know when it’s finished by sight…or a poke with a fork. 😉

That’s it! Simple, easy and yummy! Enjoy! 🙂