18

May. ’12

Breakfast Spinach Egg Cups


I have two different breakfast moods.  Sometimes my body just craves something really light and healthy feeling, like yogurt with granola and a sliced banana, or Raisin Bran with walnuts and almond milk.  This is about half the time.  The other half, I finish Workday #1 (enjoying my coffee while I transcribe for a couple of hours before Workday #2) really craving some serious protein, like eggs or cottage cheese or something like that.

And I do let myself indulge in that when I need to, because usually my body tells me these things for a reason.  But making and eating an egg in the morning adds like at least 10 minutes to my routine (plus a dirty pan that I’ll have to clean later…for a single egg?).  Whenever I hear myself say that out loud I always have to stop and be like, really?  You can’t spare an extra 10 minutes from anywhere else to make this happen?  But the answer is, seriously, no.  I run 3 businesses, write two blogs, send out 4 newsletters a week to a cumulative 5,000+ customers, bike for transportation, work out three times a week, have social engagements almost every night, and am in a relationship with someone I don’t live with.  So no, there really is not an extra 10 minutes to spare.

So, here’s one of my newfound favorite quickie breakfasts, which has entered my life by way of the ramekin, a recent addition to my kitchen.

Frying an egg to put on toast is time consuming and needs more of a watchful eye than I can afford while I’m getting ready (though, admittedly, I am fortunate that my bedroom is nearly in the kitchen and I really can multi-task these two parts of my morning); add some sort of vegetable into this and it’s turned into a full-fledged cooking endeavor.  But baking an egg?  Whoa…things just got efficient.

I start with a handful of spinach, and toss it with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Put this into the bottom of a ramekin (no worries if it seems like it’s filled to the brim; this will cook down easily), and crack an egg over top.  Grate a little bit of sharp cheddar on top…

And put it in the oven at 350 along with two slices of homemade bread (this week: rosemary jalapeno!).

How long does it take to bake?  Exactly as long as it takes me to shower and put on clothes (14 minutes).  That way, I pull it out of the oven, and it feels like someone else just made breakfast for me.  Plus, because I can get fresh local eggs for less than $3/dozen, and make my bread from scratch each week, the total cost of this meal probably amounts to somewhere around 75 cents!

This Week’s Groceries

Trader Joe’s 5/14

  • 1/2 gallon milk: $3.29
  • Mayonnaise: $3.99
  • Whole wheat fusilli pasta: $1.39
  • Red pepper spread: $2.29
  • Sharp cheddar cheese: $3.13
  • Cottage cheese: $1.99
  • Olive oil: $5.99
  • Crumbled feta: $2.99
  • Pear champagne salad dressing: $2.99 – I usually am a die-hard homemade dressing advocate, but this is going to be so great to keep in my fridge at work so in the mornings all I have to do is put all the salad ingredients together in a Tupperware with some sort of protein for a easy healthy work lunch

TOTAL: $28.05

REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: $31.21

 

New Seasons 5/15

  • Whole wheat couscous: $4.31
  • Pinto beans: $2.33
  • Chickpeas: $2.30
  • Granola: $2.63
  • Cucumber: $0.99
  • Celery: $3.22
  • Garnet yams: $1.31
  • Corn: $0.99
  • Sweet onion: $0.97
  • Shallot: $0.72
  • Radish bunch: $1.49
  • Salad greens: $3.15
  • Roma tomatoes: $0.86

TOTAL: $25.17

REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: $6.04

Posted by . Categories: breakfast, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

10

May. ’12

Chicken Soft Tacos with Buttermilk Cilantro Slaw

Tuesday I had one of those days where I feel like I’m living someone else’s life.  I spent all day doing things that my schedule doesn’t usually consist of — things like going to yoga, and meeting with an SEO consultant, and then driving to Beaverton to meet my real estate agent for the first time(!).

 

All these things have been creeping into my life slowly, like a few weeks ago when my friend Erika texted me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to join her at this yoga class she goes to every week at the gym we share, but never cross paths at.  It was my first time ever doing yoga (am I the last person on the planet?  Or at least in Portland?), and admittedly, it does feel pretty zen.  I don’t think it’s zen in the way that yoga is supposed to make you feel zen though, because I’d much rather bask in the 1,000 things zooming through my mind than clear it, and I’m pretty bad at remembering to breathe in my daily life as it is, so it’s not the meditative aspect of it that appeals to me.  Honestly, I just really love being sore the next day, which I have been all three weeks that I’ve gone.  No, the zen I get from it is the weird kick in the pants of, for the rest of the day, thinking, I am one of those people who goes to yoga at 10:15 on Tuesday mornings.  I ordered my own mat yesterday on Amazon, NBD.

And the SEO thing, that’s been in the works for awhile.  It’s one of the perks (or in my opinion, most awesomely exciting aspect) of this 8-month business class series that I landed a scholarship for through the SBDC, which essentially grants me free access to all of these rad consultants through the organization, everything from accountants to inventory management specialists to all sorts of other helpful one-on-one consulting for my business.  But still, it feels really exciting to have a totally free hour-long meeting right in the middle of my Tuesday afternoon to breeze in and work on some exciting projects we have in the works for the online shop and migrating the Yarnia blog over to CustomYarn.com.

And then — a real estate agent!  Because I’m buying a house!  This was the cherry on top that really made me have to stop and be like…WTF, who am I?  How did I end up in this person’s sunny, 70-degree Tuesday?  We talked about what I’m looking for in a dream house, all the factors that need to be there from the get-go, and what can be amended after the fact, and then I drove back to Portland in horrible Tuesday afternoon traffic (is this what everyone’s been talking about?) while I finished my iced Americano and listened to hard rock really loud.

And in between all that, I found the perfect little window to swing by New Seasons and pick up groceries for the week.  I had these shrimp tacos on the brain — an easy, leftover-friendly dinner that I could whip up for me and Jesse without much effort, since my “day off” of appointments and errands left me working on that day’s transcription until almost 7:00 p.m. once I got home.

I didn’t actually go for the shrimp — they had some at New Seasons, but I also had a few portions worth of roasted shredded chicken in the freezer, and I’m in super-frugal mode these days, saving up for a down payment, and the shrimp seemed like an unnecessary luxury this week.

I threw these into the skillet and defosted them on medium-high heat with about a cup of homemade chicken stock.  Once the stock had melted and the chicken had started to break apart, I added some cayenne pepper, salt, cumin seeds, and about a cup of V8 to the mix, and let it all simmer for about 45 minutes, adding more V8 as the stock cooked down and absorbed.

I wanted to bulk up the protein part of this meal so I’d have a couple days of lunches left over, so I also made some of my favorite black beans; I’d started a cup of these soaking earlier that morning.

These get fresh water, and boil on medium-high heat for a good hour, along with a big dried ancho chile, cumin seeds, salt, nutritional yeast, and a bit of brown sugar.

Once the beans are soft enough to eat, I start thickening the broth with some corn starch.  Here’s what I do to avoid the gross clumps that form when you just sprinkle corn starch or flour in: take a little cupful of the broth, and mix a spoonful of corn starch into just that small amount, using a fork against the sides to work out any of the clumps that may form.

This will make a pretty thick, creamed-up-coffee-colored concoction.  Then pour that back into the pot, give it a stir, and it will work its thickening magic evenly and without clumps!

I like doing this way more than straining the beans, because as the sauce continues to reduce and thicken, you’ll be left with a delicious, flavorful, syrupy pot of black beans with the consistency of Boston baked beans, but waaaaay healthier!  These are so yummy I could eat them just by themselves with some brown rice and pico de gallo and be perfectly content.

But, I also like to outdo myself.

So in addition to this, I whipped up a delicious multicolored buttermilk slaw to accompany the tacos with a fresh, spicy crunch.

I bought not one but two heads of cabbage for the occasion (and hey, cabbage is cheap and lasts forever in the fridge), and chopped up enough to fill the bowl.

I shook up a little buttermilk dressing in a jar, consisting of mayo, buttermilk, cayenne pepper, white vinegar, a little white sugar, and salt, and tossed it all together.

Then I added half a chopped jalapeno, and about half a bunch of chopped cilantro, and stuck it back in the fridge to mingle for a bit until dinner was ready — this also included warmed corn tortillas, some red-and-brown rice, sliced avocado with lime, and fresh pico de gallo.

Dinner was so delicious, in fact, that I completely spaced on taking pictures, but here’s the lunch I’ve been enjoying these past few sunny days at work as leftovers — heated up in my makeshift double-boiler, and wrapped up in warm corn tortillas.  Delish.

This Week’s Groceries

New Seasons 5/8

  • Corn tortillas: $1.49
  • Cayenne pepper: $0.90
  • Buttermilk: $1.79
  • Dozen eggs: $2.89
  • Pico de gallo: $2.99
  • Spinach: $3.50
  • Green cabbage: $2.07
  • Red cabbage: $3.74
  • Cauliflower: $4.67 — for cauliflower leek soup later this week!
  • Limes: $0.38
  • Avocado: $1.50
  • Bunch cilantro: $1.49
  • Leeks: $3.23
  • Jalapeno: $0.35

TOTAL: $30.94

REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: $59.26

Posted by . Categories: beans, cabbage, gluten-free, salad. Leave a comment

03

May. ’12

Simple Lentil Stew with Couscous and Sauteed Asparagus

I think the coming months will involve a lot of beans.  Why, you ask? Well, here’s the thing. I want to buy a house. Like a real, actual house. And it’s not going to be a total fixer-upper, and I’m going to do it all by myself. So even though my grocery budget it obviously one of the facets of my life that’s already super frugal and monitored by a watchful eye, I feel like I’m on a mission now, with this semi-arbitrary timeline I’ve concocted, of having a new house to move into by the end of the summer. (Yay for arbitrary timlines! Remember Yarnia’s grand opening?! Totally arbitrary.)

So even though I don’t actually plan on paring my food budget down below six dollars a day, I do feel like I’m entering into this more extreme version of frugality in the rest of my life — curbing the blase Amazon Prime purchases (free shipping can turn a rational person insane), really buttoning down going out (i.e. burritos instead of brewery sandwiches, cashing in on all my Groupons, and making better use of my flask when we go out to shows) — which just sort of makes me feel like I should also be eating beans and rice for most of my meals, so that I can eke out enough money within the next five months for a serious down payment.

Lucky for me, beans are awesome and I know how to cook them. I didn’t even really have to buy that many groceries this week — most of my haul was replacing staples that I’d run out of and needed to wait for my monthly budget to replenish, like an expensive jar of tahini, grains and spices from the bulk aisle, and coconut oil, as air popped popcorn with this magical ingredient has become somehwat of a nightly ritual for me.

In fact, this entire meal was concocted out of what I already had in my fridge, starting with a chopped onion, a few sliced carrots, and some minced garlic.

That got sauteed up over medium-high heat (in my new cast iron skillet!  LOVE!).  After about ten minutes, when everything was nice and shiny and translucent, I added a cup of dried grey lentils, a cup of homemade chicken broth, a few teaspoons of curry powder, two teaspoons of salt, and a few big glugs of V8 juice.

This is my new favorite way to make tomato broth.  I used to try to keep tomato paste on hand, but could never make use of it (or remember it was there, since tomato paste is packaged in ludicrously small quantities that allow it to get nestled in the back of my fridge), before it got moldy.  Canned diced tomatoes can be awesome when you want some texture in your dish, but sometimes the aluminum taste of canned food makes me nauseous.

But a few weeks ago when I was making some crock pot collard green rolls, I found a recipe that called for the rolls to be submerged in V8, which led me to purchase my very first bottle of the stuff — a huge, 2-liter bottle that seems to keep in the fridge for (so far) at least a month, and is comprised of nothing but yummy tomato-and-other-veggie juices.  I think I’ve found my perfect solution to the tomato base problem.

The lentil stew now gets covered, and simmers for about 45 minutes, while you make the couscous.  And then do whatever you want for 43 minutes, because couscous is the easiest grain you could choose to accompany a stew.

I wanted to have some leftovers, so I poured two cups of water into the pot, along with two teaspoons of my Penzeys Tandoori seasoning, a teaspoon of salt, a handful of raisins, and some pine nuts, and brought this all to a boil.  As soon as it had reached a boil, I added two cups of whole wheat couscous, gave it a stir, removed it from the heat, and let it sit with the lid on for five minutes before fluffing with a fork.

While I was doing all this, Jesse was busy making some stuffed mushrooms that we were prepping ahead of time for a dinner party at our friend’s house this Thursday night (and of course, a bunch of extra ones that we got to eat ourselves tonight, so we wouldn’t be anxiously hoarding them at the party).

These stuffed mushrooms — which I’m warning you, will disappear instantly — feature a perfect harmony of spinach, feta, and onion.

Leave it to a carpenter to be able to dice an onion smaller than I'd ever have patience for. What can I say? The man has precision.

 

Oh…and bacon.

And what’s great about these stuffed mushrooms is that you actually don’t chop up the stems and add them to the stuffing, they’re just discarded…which in our case meant halved, and sauteed up with some fresh, local, on-sale asparagus in garlic butter and fresh ground salt and pepper.

Quite a meal, if I do say so myself.  I’ve been doing yummy, crunchy vegetable salads at work all week, with hard boiled eggs and alfalfa sprouts, all wrapped up in some multigrain tortillas.  So that means I get to save my leftovers for at least 2 dinners this week.  So between that, our dinner party on Thursday, and a memorial for our friend on Friday (in which there will be copious amounts of food as usual, if I know anything about this crew of friends, as well as rumors of 100 delicious wings donated by what was our friend’s favorite restaurant, Fire On The Mountain), I think I’m pretty well set for this week.  T minus five months.  Let the games begin!

This Week’s Groceries

New Seasons 5/1

  • Coconut oil: $6.99
  • Tahini: $8.99
  • Yellow popcorn: $2.51
  • Whole allspice: $2.10
  • Cardamom cinnamon tea: $4.84
  • Mango Ceylon tea: $2.50
  • Nutritional yeast (small flake): $2.97
  • Almond flour: $4.15 – I’m still not done trying to make gluten-free crackers!
  • Soy Bacos: $0.88 – I love putting these in my salad dressings
  • Neufchatel cheese: $2.39 — For the stuffed mushrooms
  • Half gallon milk: $3.39
  • Half & Half: $2.29
  • Plain yogurt: $2.99
  • Mixed greens: $3.50
  • Cucumber: $0.99
  • Asparagus: $3.10
  • Bunch radishes: $1.49
  • Yellow onion: $0.94
  • Shallots: $1.20
  • Garlic: $0.96
  • Ginger: $0.63

TOTAL: $59.80

REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: $90.20

How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do?

Posted by . Categories: asparagus, beans, couscous, curry, dairy-free, lentils, mushrooms, stew. Leave a comment

27

Apr. ’12

Spices

I don’t have a traditional spice rack, and come to think of it, I don’t even have a particularly organized way of managing my spices.  Most of them sit on top of the microwave in various caper and bullion jars that have been emptied over time.  The major players like cumin, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, dill, and Italian herbs sit on top of a little ledge above my oven; the ones who come out only every so often, like allspice and Chinese five spice, are in a different cupboard, with my backstock teas and big empty jars.

Which is why the Hanukkah present I got from my dad and his girlfriend a few months ago was one of the most useful gifts I’ve ever received.  They pretty much had a heyday at Penzeys, and my meals are now all the more flavorful for it.

I’ve always been about using fresh bulk spices, never the ones that sit in plastic containers on the grocery store shelves for years.  I usually fill little baggies at the New Seasons bulk area and bring them home and put them in cute little mismatched jars, or even order online at The Spice House for the harder-to-find stuff like nigella and saffron.

So, here’s my loot, and what I’ve been using it for these past few months:

A whole box devoted to curry!  I actually rarely use powders to make actual curries — for that, I’ll usually go with some good paste and coconut milk.  But, I do love to sprinkle any of these on roasting veggies, on a lentil salad, or in dressings.  I also love using a teaspoon of the Tandoori seasoning in my rice while it’s cooking.  It has just enough saffron to make the entire pot taste like it, but without having to use up my valuable saffron threads!

The green herbs.  These are great in just about anything, and they’re right when they say the Pasta Sprinkle is really all you need with some yummy pasta, a good olive oil, and some salt or Parmesan.  In fact, one of my favorite quickie lunches on my day off is to cook a cup of macaroni elbows, and toss it in a bowl with some homemade cultured creme fraiche (I make this every few months and it keeps in the fridge seemingly indefinitely, always ready to be used as a creamy, tangy butter substitute), salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, some TJ’s red pepper spread, and the Pasta Sprinkle.  It takes about seven minutes and is the best faux mac’n'cheese you’ll ever eat.

I’m totally in love with having high quality powdered ginger on hand.  I do try to keep fresh ginger in the fridge all the time too, but sometimes it’s just so much work.  To be able to add a pinch or two of this to an Asian salad dressing or stir-fry is luxurious.  I haven’t gotten to try the nutmeg yet, because these boxes all came nestled in beds of bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and whole nutmeg, so I’ve been using the latter ground fresh whenever I need it.  But, this box is just screaming out for me to make some sort of delicious coffee cake, I know it.

The title on this box was “Pepper Lover’s Assortment,” and that couldn’t be more right on.  I put pepper on everything, and now for the first time ever, I own a super snazzy pepper mill (that I’ve already had to refill twice, if that gives you any indication) instead of the grocery store one I’ve been using and refilling for five years.  Damn, it makes a big difference.  This pepper lover just got seriously upgraded.

And finally, I think it’s time to take up baking.

What do I use lemon extract for?  Lemon poppyseed bread?  I’m hosting a clothing swap at my house on Sunday and I think I just decided what I’m going to have to make for a sweet treat to go with my coconut vanilla iced coffee cocktails…

So, needless to say, I haven’t had to spend any money on spices yet this year!  There’s certainly enough here to last me for awhile, so this was a nice little bonus to kick off my grocery budget.

What are you favorite spices to experiment with?  What are your go-tos?  Do you have a good spice store in your neighborhood that you love?

How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do?

 

 

 

Posted by . Categories: Uncategorized. 4 Comments

19

Apr. ’12

Moroccan Chicken and Fragrant Rice

This week warranted a big quick-and-easy meal for dinner, because not only did I need a few days’ worth of hearty lunches and dinners to bring with me to work (Knit Night on Thursday, and an after-work meeting on Wednesday), but I was simultaneously prepping two lasagnas to freeze for a few days and bring with us down to Bend this weekend, where we’re renting out a house with about 15 of our friends, and going to see Yonder Mountain String Band.

Between these, Jesse’s famous curry for dinner on Friday night, his French-toast-croque-monsieurs in the morning, and Kate’s truffle salted caramel dark chocolate brownies (truffle as in truffle truffles, not chocolate truffles), and whatever the rest of the crew arrives with, we’re gonna be set.

So for actual dinner on Tuesday, after assembling these beauties of white creamy garlicky goodness, and before curling up in bed to watch The Wonder Years on Netflix, I whipped up a go-to that I’ve been making since high school, back when I thought all meals had titles.  What makes this dish Moroccan I’m not entirely sure, except that I usually use those wrinkly black Moroccan olives instead of the ones I used here today, but that’s what my mom always called it, so that’s what it was.

In the past when I’ve made this I’ve bought whole chicken breasts and cubed them, but since it was my day off and I had a few hours of homey stuff to do like laundry and dishes and packing for this weekend, I bought a whole chicken and roasted it, saving portions to be frozen for later in the month, and shredding a good deal of it for tonight.

I started by sauteeing this in some olive oil, with a few cloves of minced garlic, before adding some fresh ground cumin, berbere (which I always use instead of paprika, but the latter would be fine to sub in here), a whole cinnamon stick, and half a bag of frozen pearl onions.  This is one of the only times I ever buy frozen vegetables, but these little pearl onions are totally perfect for this dish.  I took 2 cups’ worth of my homemade chicken stock out of the freezer, and let them simmer in with all of this until they were completely melted.

I sliced up some big meaty green and black olives, added those in, and let this all stew together for about 45 minutes.  At that point, I tossed in a handful of slivered almonds, and sliced up a lemon and laid the slices on top of all this with the lid on, releasing just enough juice to make the dish a little tangy.

In the meantime, I made a big pot of fragrant rice: 1.5 cups basmati rice to 3 cups of water, all simmered together with: 1.5 tsp salt, 1 carrot cut up into slivers, a handful of raisins, and this super yummy Tandoori seasoning (saffron is the key component in here — you could also just add a pinch of that and be good to go).

Paired the stew and the rice with a delicious green salad, topped with olive oil and my new favorite fig balsamic vinegar.  A delicious dinner, and lunches for the rest of the week!

Grocery Time!

Trader Joe’s 4/12

  • orange peach mango juice: $2.99
  • organic dark truffle bar: $1.99
  • chocolate bar w/almonds: $1.99
  • sparkling water: $2.08
  • half and half: $0.99 – already thinking ahead to coffee after my cleanse was over!
  • jumbo scallops: $12.99 – Hollis, Kate, and I made some delicious Tom Kha coconut soup last week with these

TOTAL: $23.03
REMAINING FOR MONTH: $59.41

New Seasons 4/18

  • lasagna noodles: $2.99
  • garlic powder: $0.72
  • organic milk: $3.39
  • strawberry yogurt: $3.69
  • dozen eggs: $2.89
  • crimini mushrooms: $11.23
  • fresh spinach: $5.45
  • bananas: $1.21
  • fresh herbs: $0.95
  • lemon: $0.52
  • blood orange: $1.00
  • free range chicken: $14.34
  • shredded Parmesan: $4.05
  • olives: $2.80

TOTAL: $55.18
REMAINING FOR MONTH: $4.23

How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do?

Posted by . Categories: chicken, dairy-free, gluten-free, rice. 2 Comments

13

Apr. ’12

Gluten-Free Sprouted Amaranth Sesame Crackers

Sorry, guys, not too much to report this week.  Though it’s been a cooking-heavy week full of delicious, non-inflammatory food as the Great Cleanse of 2012 continues, not much of it was photographed, as my main focus is on some technical behind-the-scenes stuff right now as I transfer this blog over to WordPress and move everything over to our own domain.

Back on track next week, I promise, when I’ll be cooking up a big mushroom lasagna for a weekend down in Bend to see Yonder Mountain String Band with a house full of friends.

In the meantime, I will take you on another gluten-free cracker adventure, this one bearing a surprisingly happy ending.

I recently gave in and admitted that no, in fact, I just can’t handle the woodsiness of amaranth hot cereal while I’m in this gluten-free phase of things.  I would opt for a fresh fruit smoothie, or the gluten-free granola from New Seasons with almond milk, any day.

So, faced with a glut of leftover amaranth grains, I decided to try out another go at gluten-free crackers.  To start with, I sprouted the amaranth for three days by soaking it in water, draining it in a jar with a mesh top, and then rinsing it daily so the grains stayed moist.

  • Then last night, I gave it a final rinse, and tossed it in the blender with the following:
  • a handful of sesame seeds
  • some rehydrated wakame seaweed
  • a dash of coconut aminos
  • garlic powder
  • Italian seasoning herbs
  • and enough rice flour to thicken it up into a nice wet paste
I spread it all out on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet…


Scored it, sprinkled some finishing salt on top…


And baked it at 200 degrees for about an hour and a half, checking it every 20 minutes and taking it out right when the thickest pieces were no longer pliable.

The verdict?  ”Not too bad…considering.”  


Grocery Time!
New Seasons 4/8
Erewhon brown rice cocoa crispies: $4.49
Theo chocolate bar: $3.59 – no soy lecithin or dairy!  Too good to be true!
hazelnuts: $6.89 – I grind these up in my morning smoothies
medjool dates: $2.45 – I had a grand plan to make gluten-free dessert bars out of these, but ended up just eating them whole
brown rice flour: $3.79
chickpeas: $2.97
red quinoa: $6.23
white quinoa: $4.11
salmon lox: $5.29 – my indulgence for this week!  Gotta have some salty treat to keep me happy during my cleanse…
cucumbers: $3.96
red kale: $2.49
radish bunch: $1.49
mixed greens: $3.50
red onion: $0.91
bananas: $1.92
whole free range chicken: $10.47
olives: $5.79
TOTAL: $70.34
REMAINING FOR MONTH: $12.44
***MOVED FROM “DINING/DRINKING” TO “GROCERY” BUDGET FOR 2 WEEKS OF MY CLEANSE: $70.00***
REMAINING FOR MONTH: $82.44
A new look for the blog, next week!

How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do?


Posted by . Categories: amaranth, gluten-free. 3 Comments

05

Apr. ’12

Gluten-Free Brown Rice Crackers

Well guys, it’s that time of the year again — the annual Cleanse.  No, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t one of those 10-day master cleanses comprised of lemon tea and cayenne pepper.  In fact, my cleanse doesn’t even come close to being a fast, of any sort.  It’s an anti-inflammatory diet that I do every year around springtime for a few weeks, and it feels awesome.



I have a handful of random little maladies that flare up throughout the course of the year — nothing that on its own feels like anything that serious, but right around April is when they all start to converge at once, and start to make me feel a little debilitated.  These maladies cover the range of all my systems, from skin to circulation to energy to digestion, and I’d venture to guess that they’re all somewhat connected, and most likely linked to something I’m eating that maybe I shouldn’t be.


So far I’ve been lucky, and by doing these elimination diets and then “challenging” my body as I add the forbidden foods back in, I haven’t found any glaring red flags that would urge me to, say, swear off gluten for the rest of my life.  For the past few years I’ve been able to use this cleanse as a reset button of sorts, like a spring detox to clear all the lurking toxins out of my body that I probably do have at least some mild sensitivities to, and that pretty much keeps me going for the rest of the year, able to eat and drink whatever I want.


So here we go, here’s what I’m not putting in my body for these 3 weeks:

  • gluten
  • dairy
  • eggs
  • soy
  • corn
  • nightshades (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, etc.)
  • red meat
  • alcohol
  • coffee
  • sugar



Sounds like just about everything, doesn’t it?  Well, if you’re accustomed to eating out a lot or relying on processed foods, then yes, it’s pretty limiting.  But in fact, cooking at home with simple, fresh ingredients, there are still a bajillion things I can eat.


And since I tend to lay pretty low these few weeks that I do my cleanse, not going out to eat or drink, cooking all my meals at home, I like to really get into it.  Clearly, I love the challenge of food constraints.  This just raises the bar a little higher.  What fantastic meals can I make within these limitations?


Well believe you me, I have some ideas up my sleeve.  In fact, here’s my meal plan brainstorm from last year, and now that I’m going on year three, I have even more ideas to throw in the mix.



So on Monday I went to New Seasons and Trader Joe’s and stocked up — lots of fruit and veggies, nuts, dried fruit, gluten-free grains and flours, herbs, chicken and fish, juice, and my favorite: brown rice pasta.


Here’s the thing, though.  The one thing I crave and go kind of crazy without (aside from, of course, the coffee.  Let’s not even talk about that right now.  I’m relying on loads of green tea so I can still get up in the morning and run my businesses, but truly, it is no substitute) is crunchy, salty, bready snacks.  Rice cakes just don’t cut it for me, and while I have wild aspirations to make rice-and-teff flour enjeras to hold lunch roll-ups, and while I do love me a good dragon bowl full of quinoa and seaweed and roasted veggies, I just really miss the crunchy snacks.


Sure, there are rice snacks in the gluten-free aisle, but almost all of them have either corn or soy in their ingredients (if only because they are all tamari-flavored), and the rare few that don’t are crazy expensive.  And while, yes, I do bump up my grocery budget a little during my cleanse month since I won’t be going out to eat or drink at all, I just can’t swallow paying $4 for three little rows of round rice snaps.


And I figured, if they exist…there’s got to be a way to make them right?





Sure enough, some online trolling brought up a couple ideas, and most important for me is, these can be simple.  Simple as in:


1) Fully cook 1/3 cup brown rice (yielding about a cup when fully cooked)


2) Mix in a bowl with 1.5 cups brown rice flour


3) Add 1 tsp salt, some olive oil, a handful of flax seeds, and water until a pasty dough has formed


4) Roll into little balls and press onto an oiled baking sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until they’ve browned





Verdict: I’m stoked.  I need to work on the texture a little bit, maybe rolling them out with a pin next time, so they’re a little thinner (these definitely could be used as teething rings, which perhaps is why I found the inspiring recipe on a mommy blog), but this pretty much made my week.  This yielded about 20 huge crackers, and I’ve been eating them with everything — dipped in hummus for an afternoon snack, covered in mashed avocado and sea salt for a savory breakfast, as the bookends to a faux PB&J sandwich, and as a crunchy accompaniment to my uber-salad for dinner last night.


mixed greens, fresh spinach, chopped carrot, radish, and cucumber, sunflower seeds, fresh dill, and browned chicken breast topped with a sweet balsamic fennel dressing.

Oh, and I think I may have discovered the solution to the other massive roadblock I encounter every year on this cleanse: no soy sauce.  Asian cuisine is definitely the route to go for these few weeks, since so much of the dishes naturally omit the foods I’m avoiding, but there’s just no way to get around soy sauce, providing that certain kind of tangy saltiness that nothing else can!


Until this?





I’ve been using it when I brown chicken for salads, along with olive oil, some oregano, and nutritional yeast.  My friend Kate, who tried a dab straight up on her finger, recommended against me doing the same if I feel like it’s doing the trick.  I believe her exact words were, “Keep the dream alive.”  


Groceries


Like I said, I do give myself a bit of leeway this month, since I have to stock up on some ingredients to make this cleanse work that are more expensive than I usually spring for — lots of nuts and dried fruit, exotic flours, fresh fish and chicken.  I usually set aside some cash for going out during the month — $20 each week for food, and $15 for drinks, so I’m giving myself an extra $70 in cash to spend on groceries this month if I need to.


I also give myself some wiggle room on the local produce rule.  Breakfast smoothies necessitate bananas, and I usually need a little more avocado than usual just to stay sane, even if they are coming from Ecuador.


New Seasons 4/2
Coconut aminos: $5.49
Thompson raisins: $1.32
brown rice flour: $2.74
amaranth: $2.03 — for hot cereal in the mornings, cooked with dried fruit, nuts, maple syrup, and almond milk
almonds: $3.44
dried peaches: $4.10
mixed nuts: $8.31
gluten-free bulk granola: $4.29 — for when I’m really craving the cereal
mission figs: $2.14
dried hummus mix: $1.68 — add water and olive oil.  The perfect emergency snack to keep at work!
bananas: $2.33
lemongrass: $0.54
grapefruit: $1.96
pineapple: $3.62
fuji apples: $2.51
avocado: $2.50
broccoli: $2.77
crimini mushrooms: $5.79
mixed greens: $3.60
yellow onions: $1.48
fresh dill: $2.99
5 lb. bag carrots: $4.99
fresh ginger: $0.56
garlic: $2.34
radishes: $1.49
kiwi: $0.60
cucumber: $1.29
gold beet: $3.20
ground chicken: $3.23
TOTAL: $84.17
REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: $135.83


Trader Joe’s 4/2
orange peach mango juice: $2.99
fresh basil: $2.79
almond milk: $1.99
brown rice fusilli: $5.97
coconut milk: $1.98
frozen berry medley: $3.29
soprasetta salami: $3.99
cashews: $6.99 — cashew cream sauce coming up!
fresh limes: $1.17
frozen pearl onions: $1.69
frozen salmon fillets: $7.54
toasted sesame oil: $2.29
canned tuna: $3.38
chicken breast tenderloins: $6.99
TOTAL: $53.05
REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: $82.78


How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do?
Posted by . Categories: gluten-free. 3 Comments

29

Mar. ’12

Black Bean Fajitas, Sans Tortillas

As I mentioned last week, I’m down to the wire for my March budget ($6 left!) so I knew this week I’d be keeping it simple.  I did come in $4 over (spent about $10 on groceries this week).  But given that I’ll be eating this delicious meal for the rest of the week, along with a roasted veggie & chickpea Mediterranean couscous salad that I’m whipping up tonight, I’m feeling okay about dipping a few dollars into my April budget.



(It also helped that I got to use my Groupon last night to try out Hana sushi up on Alberta, and that Jesse treated us to the difference, after four super complex specialty rolls, miso soup, wakame salad, and two IPAs.)


So given that I knew my meager allowance for this week would be spent 100% on produce, I knew that meant beans were destined to be my protein.  And hey, it’s been awhile since black beans and I had dinner together.


I love to cook my black beans down into a thick, syrupy sauce, so after soaking them for a few hours, I boiled them in a pot of water, along with some sundried tomatoes, cumin, salt, diced fresh jalapeno, and a few spoonfuls of molasses.





Towards the end, once the beans are nice and soft, I add some corn starch and salt to taste, and then let them cool a little until they thicken up.  


I didn’t have any tortillas on hand, but to be honest, tacos and fajitas kind of stress me out, so I was just as happy eating this dinner bowl-style, with some brown and red rice.





On the side?  A smorgasbord of sliced red onion, cheddar cheese, and diced tomatoes.





And a green bell pepper (my splurge of the day!) sauteed along with a not-so-fresh leek that’s been sitting in my fridge for awhile, but is still acceptable for this purpose.





Oh, and some buttermilk poppyseed cabbage slaw.





I also have had a recent compulsion to roast entire poblano peppers in the oven, coated with olive oil and salt and then wrapped in tinfoil, at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, and then eat them while they’re steaming hot.  





That seemed an appropriate accompaniment to tonight’s dinner, and since a long loaf of whole wheat buttermilk nigella bread had just come out of the oven, I also threw a few cloves of garlic into the package so that I could layer the two on and make this delicious appetizer.





As planned: cheap and delicious!


Grocery time.


Fred Meyer 3/27
cabbage: $1.14
eggplant: $1.00
zucchini: $0.57
green bell pepper: $0.79
jalapeno pepper: $0.08
avocado: $1.25
vine tomatoes: $0.89
red onion: $0.58
poblano pepper: $0.39
deli turkey meat: $3.00
neufchatel cheese brick: $0.99
TOTAL: $10.68
REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: -$4.18 – Taking this out of April’s budget :(


How did my fellow Project: Food Budget-ers do?


Posted by . Categories: beans. Leave a comment

22

Mar. ’12

Tofu Broccoli Yakisoba

This is one of those weeks where there needs to be a variety of ready-to-eat food at the forefront of my fridge, so I don’t have to even make any food choices once my Monday/Tuesday is over and my work week begins.  

Not only am I still making up for having taken last weekend off to go up to Seattle for a family weekend, but I had Knit Night after work last night until 9:30, am teaching a Continental Knitting class after work tonight, and am manning the shop all on my own this weekend while my employee is out of town (which means getting there early and staying late so I can still get all my work done while juggling customers).



Plus, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks trying out Crossfit, which I bought a Groupon for last fall that’s about to expire.  Crossfit actually takes the least amount of elapsed time than any workout I’ve ever pursued, so this shouldn’t be such a hardship on my schedule, but just adds another element of advanced planning, given that I bike to work and everything I have to carry for a workout is now just additional weight to juggle on my ride along with whatever food and layers I’m bringing with me for the day.  Sometimes when I leave the house I feel like I should be sporting a frame pack and heading out into the woods for all the supplies I have packed on hand.


BTW, the outcome of dabbling in Crossfit is that it’s had the unintended (and ironic) consequence of making me want to join a gym.  More on that later.


So as a result, my lunches this week feature hard boiled eggs (on bagels left over from family weekend) and soft cheeses, a tofu broccoli yakisoba, a chickpea salad, and a huge pot of the easiest and yummiest soup ever — this time adding little slices of sweet apple chicken sausage.


Also, given that this past weekend was also a faux birthday celebration, I got to bring this home with me, for a little afternoon treat before this week’s classes (or dessert to eat in bed while I watch Parks & Recreation before passing out from exhaustion, whichever the case may be).


 

Key lime pie from The Hardware Store on Vashon Island

I also treated myself to this, which I will chop up and bring to work in Tupperwares once it ripens.  


 

I usually stick to a pretty strict rule of “my produce can only come from the west coast corridor,” but make an exception for tropical fruits.  It’s one thing to buy bagged spinach from Mexico when you can grow it bountifully in your own back yard; it’s another to appreciate an explosively delicious fruit that could never make it through the New Seasons door without transport.  I’m not wholeheartedly against commercial transport, I just like to keep it logical.


So, for the winning trifecta of volume + protein + veggies, I whipped up a quick and easy yakisoba.


A chopped brick of tofu, browned in the wok with salt to draw out the liquid, and a little bit of vegetable oil…


 

a huge head of broccoli sauteed in coconut oil…


 

and some Chinese egg noodles (not technically soba, but I was craving the ramen-like texture of these for some reason).  I tossed this all with a simple dressing of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and sweet chili sauce, topped with some sesame seeds, and finish it off with Sriracha whenever I’m ready to eat it.  Delicious hot or cold.


 

Oh, totally unrelated, but you know when you buy beans in bulk and bring them home to fill a jar you randomly grab from the shelf, and then sometimes the bag you’ve randomly filled with whatever amount of beans fills that jar just perfectly to the top?


 

Yeah, it’s like the universe is in order.



On to this week’s groceries…


New Seasons 3/20
split peas: $2.38
1 brick firm tofu: $1.99
dozen eggs: $2.89
pint whipping cream: $3.69 – for making butter next week
bunch of kale: $2.49
1 pineapple: $3.78
celery stalk: $0.92
head of broccoli: $2.71
large sweet potato: $2.20
grapefruit: $1.97
bunch of parsley: $1.49
sharp cheddar cheese: $2.05
TOTAL: $28.56
REMAINING FOR THE MONTH: -$0.48 — bummer!  Half a dollar over for the month.  Okay, I can live with that.  I came out $7 ahead in February, so let’s see if I can make it on just $6.50 worth of veggies next week to last me through the rest of the month!


How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do?

Posted by . Categories: Asian, broccoli, tofu. Leave a comment

15

Mar. ’12

Fresh Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce & Tom Kah Cocktails

You know how there are certain dishes you always order, every time you go out for Thai food?  They are the control variables by which you can judge a new restaurant, leaving only ambiance, service, and price up for judgment.  Typically when Jesse and I go out for Thai food, we never even open the menus.  Pad kee mao for me, beef massaman curry for him, and tom kah soup and salad rolls to share.

 

So when I got an email last month about our monthly rotating “family dinner” that we do with our group of friends, announcing that the theme for February would be “Asian,” our contribution seemed like a no-brainer.





Salad rolls, when equipped with the proper fresh ingredients, really don’t require too much talent or planning.  The accompanying peanut sauce, on the other hand, would be the focus of our evening prep. 



When I’m looking for a good recipe, I often will let the Internet do the dirty work for me, and Google something like “best alfredo sauce I’ve ever had,” or “the most incredible mushroom soup of my life.”  Via this strategy, I discovered a recipe for “The best fucking peanut sauce you’ll ever eat.”  And decided to give it a go.
 
 

I won’t rehash the recipe for you here, because in very un-Lindsey style I followed it precisely, so I’ll let you follow that link and help cut down on Internet clutter.


 

 
Unfortunately, this was not the best fucking peanut sauce I’d ever eaten, and required a bit of doctoring up to get to dinner party presentable form.  


 

I added some toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, and ginger powder until it tasted more like the tangy dipping sauce I was going for; this made enough to almost fill an entire large Adam’s peanut butter jar.


 

Rumor has it that Jesse used the leftovers a few days later to make Pad Thai with his bowling league buddies and it was just as fantastic in that form.


Okay, part two of this post is where the serendipity comes in.  So I mentioned above that Tom Kah Soup is one of my go-tos.  What I did not mention is that it is also among my top five favorite foods, along with olives, popcorn, and cereal.  It is in fact the only one of my favorite foods that has more than 2 ingredients.


One day back in January, soon after I’d received this email announcing the Asian theme, I had biked to work with a full carton of leftover Tom Kah Soup in my bag; I had woken up that morning thinking of nothing but how excited I was for lunch.  Lo and behold, that had to be the day that my Tupperware exploded and I arrived at work with soup all over the inside of my bag.


I was so devastated about this, I was still talking about it that night at dinner, while we were waiting for a table on a busy Friday night at The Observatory.  After being seated, I opened up the cocktail menu to find this:

Do you see what I see?  

I knew immediately that not only was this a token cosmic reimbursement for my earlier lunch debacle, but clearly the cocktail we’d be making rounds of at the dinner party.  I even bought a shaker for the occasion.


 

All right.  Chili infused vodka?  Check.



Lemongrass cilantro simple syrup?  Check.  We brought along a can of coconut cream and a few fresh limes, set up shop on Josh and Sarah’s kitchen counter, teamed up with one of our genius friends who had brought starfruit, and these were the hit of the party.



Okay, how are we doing over in budget-land?  

New Seasons 3/13
shredded wheat: $3.49
jug of V8: $3.99
lemon juice: $3.99
2 boxes Pacific almond milk: $5.38
huge jar Adams peanut butter: $7.99
Braggs apple cider vinegar: $3.99
can tomato sauce: $0.69
red quinoa: $4.07
white quinoa: $2.15
Israeli couscous: $2.60
red lentils: $2.99
half & half: $2.59
yams: $2.94
collard greens: $2.49
yellow onion: $1.15
grapefruit: $1.75
garlic: $0.84
braising greens: $3.00
aged cheddar: $4.23
ground turkey: $5.50 – if you guessed slow cooker cabbage (collard) rolls with ground turkey, Asiago, and Israeli couscous cooked in tomato broth, you’re right!!
TOTAL: $65.82
REMAINING FOR MONTH: $28.08

How did the rest of my Project: Food Budget-ers do??

Posted by . Categories: Uncategorized. Leave a comment