This blog is for every person who loves to eat but is living with their own dietary limitations or cooking for someone they love with dietary restrictions. I am living gluten free and dairy free. This is my journey to finding recipes that satisfy and delight everyone! It is my hope you leave here hungry and entertained!
Bless the hearts of every parent who goes out of their way to feed their children wholesome foods in a world full of packaged, processed deliciousness.
Most of my early years were filled with real cheese, whole grains, wheat bread, very little meat, and the kind of peanut butter that has to be vigorously stirred. I daydreamed of “junkie” products whose labels were decorated with the celebrities of my childhood, cartoon characters. Donald Duck would not appear on any old orange juice! Peter Pan would only endorse the best peanut butter on the market, I was sure of it! Alas, my mom did not agree, and I could only try these superior products at the houses of friends. Just down the street from my house was a family with a unique culinary genius. I was good friends with the youngest son from this family. I will call him Sammy Smith. Sammy’s family was not from Arizona and their cooking style was always of great interest to me. It was as if they came from a distant land. They possessed a knowlege of cooking styles and products that were completely foreign to me. Fry Bologna (what is Bologna)? You have cheese in a can, and you put that in a potato!? My favorite time to stay for dinner was spaghetti night. I never had spaghetti like this. Mrs. Smith would cook 1 onion in butter, add a tube of ground chuck, and a healthy serving of ketchup. That’s it! In retrospect I am sure that this recipe suggestion may have insulted my mother, a woman who actually incorporated non-liquid vegetables in her meals. I just loved it because it was different and I sensed it was totally unhealthy, or as my mother called it, “junk”. Please know I am not making fun of this family. I know now that this diet was a symptom of poverty and bad habits, but at the time I imagined they were master NASA chefs. These were all dishes I imagined astronauts dining on.
Though I eat meat, I do not eat beef and I wanted to try my hand at a vegan version of ragu. Ragu is typically a meat based sauce but today we go VEGAN!
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar.
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
(optional) 1/3 cup red or white wine for flavor.
3 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
¼ C. Chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 package or crumbled package of Tempeh
1 (28-ounce) can crushed, Italian seasoned tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste (4 oz)
1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a 6 quart pot add extra-virgin olive oil. When the pan is nice and hot (almost smoking), add onion, and the garlic. Stir for about 8 minutes until the onions become soft. Add the carrots, and celery. Stir for 5 minutes. Raise the heat slightly to the medium-high and add the tempeh. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking uo any large clumps, and cook 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, parsley, basil and cook over medium heat until sauce thickens. This can take about 30 minutes. For old times sake I added 3 tablespoons of ketchup.
I atop tofu shirataki noodles, or quinoa pasta with this sauce.
I grew up in the “Valley of The Sun”, and never truly knew cold until I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Until I was 21 I lived in Phoenix, and it was warm if not hot 9 ½ months out of the year. A hot dinner was not always the best way to end a day. Salad was a huge part of my dinners year-round. In talking to my friends I realized that most family do not eat salads with every meal. There are few children in this world that eat side salads every night except the nights salads were the main course, but I did. As I got older I went through more unhealthier phases, but deep down I loved salads. I was able to rekindle this love when I found that I could no longer eat gluten. I am now that girl that everyone sneers at as she orders a salad at the pizzeria, and on those oh, so rare things people call dates. Salads can make a meal whether it is a hot summer night, or a chilly, wet Spring evening. Those hot Arizona days are distant, and with the raining pouring outside I pour through the recipes that remind me of sunnier, warmer times. I trust that Spring is barreling towards us and I relish the idea of warmer temperatures, and all the foods that accompany it. When I make salads at home they are filling and satisfying, and they lack that pizza parlor iceberg lettuce. This is one of my favorite salads. It is flavorful, sweet and savory. Each bite allows you to pair tender buttery fish with sweet mango, fresh greens, creamy avocado, and a hint of wasabi dressing. Here is my take on a seared ahi salad. First things first, you will need a nice, sear, sashimi, or sushi grade piece of ahi. The piece should be ruby red, firm, and it should not smell super fishy. Here is the rest:
Light or fat free mayo (I prefer Best Foods)
Rice wine vinegar
4 Persian cucumber
2 Sliced Mango
Wasabi Powder (this can be found at any Asian market, or in the ethnic aisle of your local market)
Micro Greens
Mache (aka lambs lettuce), or butter lettuce.
2 Avocado
A squeeze of fresh lemon or lime
Slice cucumbers thin and combined with rice wine vinegar while you prepare the rest of the meal. Lightly dust ahi with sea salt and pepper. Place ½ tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Let the pan get nice and hot. Don’t let the oil burn! Lay the fish in the pan and let each side sear for 1 to 2 minutes. I prefer it super rare so I cook only 1 minute on each side. Serving someone who is terrified of delicious, rare or raw fish? Cook a little long for the faint of heart.
In a small bowl wisk 1 to 2 tablespoons of wasabi powder, a teaspoon of 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, and 4 tablespoons of mayo. The consistency should not be too watery. Make sure you taste a little. Add more wasabi if you like the heat!
Arrange a small bed of lettuce, lay the tuna on top, and drizzle the wasabi dressing on top, lay out the mango, cucumber, and micro greens.
Looking to make an appetizer? Try dressing a plate with the seared ahi, the marinated cucumbers, and the wasabi dressing. Place a bowl in the center with ponzi sauce. Here is the recipe for ponzu:
1/3 cup GF tamari sauce 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 Tbsp rice vinegar A pinch of fresh, grated ginger.
It is safe to say I am someone who is a fan of talking the talk. I am not a person who often walks the walk. I am a big baby, and I do not kill my own food. As a land locked child I (naturally) loved fish. I have always had unnatural, and expensive tastes, and my love for fish was part of this. My uncle loved fish as well, so much so he caught them himself. I was unsure of this practice. As much as I loved things like fish stick I imagined I would find them less tasty if I was distracted with the burden and guilt of killing them myself. I loved my uncle, and even as a child I wanted to be an outdoorsy gal. Everybody like an outdoorsy girl! So one blisteringly, hot, spring day we went to the local park lagoon to fish. This was no crystal, blue lagoon. This was the most frightening body of water you can imagine to pull your dinner out of. It was the murky equivalent to pulling a pork chop out of a steamy dumpster.
My concern grew when a shining hook appeared instead of a net. I clearly had no idea what this ordeal would entail. Upon that hook my uncle placed a piece of Ball Park Frank on the hook. All I could think is "That's not Kosher!”Fishing is not a good sport for those with A.D.D. I did not enjoy waiting for some fool fish to eat the soggy hot dog at the end of my hook.I did take this time to rehearse the excuse I would use should I catch a fish, so that I could release it back into the wild. My top two were: “ Eww, that fish is definitely cross-eyed.That can be a symptom of toxic waste exposure.” and “That fish is way too skinny.” Thankfully,I caught nothing that day. I never fished again and from now on I leave it to those who love to do it. I will stick to cooking and eating it. Despite my love for sweet treats I have a great, and almost obsessive love for healthy eating. This is one the most simple and lovely fish dishes I make. I have chosen salmon but you can use your fish of choice, or your most recent catch .Here is my recipe for steamed salmon.
Steamed Salmon with Leaks
2 large leaks chopped and cleaned 1 ½ C. dry white wine 1 to 1 ½ lbs of salmon salt and pepper to taste
Place salmon skin down on a cutting board. Run your fingers over the fish to feel for the thin hair/pin bones. These bones can be pucked out by hand or with tweezers. Salt and pepper the fish.
In a pan with a lid place the cleaned and chopped leaks in the bottom. Sprinkle with sea salt. Pour wine in the bottom of the pan, and bring to a simmer. Place fish skin up in the pan. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Check with a fork. When fish is slightly flaky it is ready. Serve with leaks.
As a child I always had a deep appreciation for the first meal of the day. This was the only meal in which I did not have to eat veggies to get to the good stuff. Gooie, sticky, sweet, syrupy, jelly jams adorned most of my favorite breakfast foods which just happened to be various incarnations of spongy, buttered breads designed to encase and absorb. Pancakes, waffles and French toast were merely the vessels that delivered the sweet delights. My favorite time in the world to explore this blessed meal was while we were traveling. This was the perfect opportunity to escape my mother valiant attempts at substituting the fat and sugar for whole grains and a variety of healthy alternatives. It was a special treat to be able to order fluffy, light and far from whole grain pancakes and receive what looked like a gravy boat of heavy, sweet amber maple syrup to do with as I pleased. So it never occurred to me to ever order anything from a menu that did not involve sugar.
One lovely summer we traveled to Palo Alto, California and stayed at one of the most magical hotels I had ever seen. Dinah’s Shack (as it was called) was not a shack at all! My young mind was blown by this magical hotel with jungle like grounds, winding paths with hopping baby tree frogs, a lagoon like pool, and a huge Koi pond that snaked through the entire property like a dwarfed Amazon River. As a child from Arizona my eyes were widened and amazed by the green plants and wildlife. I felt like Mary Ann from “Gilligan’s Island”, except my accommodations were far better. Dinah’s Shack had a lovely pool side restaurant with a remarkable menu. There were so many items I had never ever heard of. One morning as my family, and extended family sat by the sparkling blue pool we were served breakfast. I stretched and leaned in my seat to see each plate as it was laid in front of its beaming owner. With the recognition of each dish I became increasingly proud of my decision to order cinnamon French Toast. Just then I saw a dish I did not recognize. As I recall it was my Grammy’s plate. I asked her what it was and she replied, “Eggs Benedict.” I asked her, “What's an Eggs Benedict?”
My Grammy went on to describe a dish skillfully crafted from ingredients that were (undoubtedly) imported from sophisticated food cultures like Canada, England, and Holland. This is what I believed she told me about this exotic breakfast, “Well on the bottom is an English muffin, then a piece of Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and Holland-day sauce.” She then cut a piece for me and gave me a bite. My little mind was swimming with questions! What kind of bird does a poached egg come from? How did the Canadians get their bacon to look and taste just like ham? Holland-day sauce? This is so good I want to know what their “night sauce” is like!
Even after learning the true name of the ingredients I remained impressed with this dish. I never lost the feeling that this dish was complicated, and very high brow. It would always remind me of Dinah’s Shack. So when I needed to make a breakfast/brunch dish that was fancy, and refined I of course thought of Eggs Benedict. I looked into making this dish and found it to be rather simply and heart tremblingly fattening. The first time I made it I was still eating gluten and dairy. While I was not the picture of health, or healthy choices I did find it slightly disturbing that the recipe called for several egg yolks and more than a stick of butter. All the while knowing it would drown another egg and more yoke.
After many years of tinkering with the recipe and eventually becoming unable to eat half the ingredients, I came up with a slightly less deadly way of preparing it.
There are a couple ways of assembling this dish. You are more than welcome to keep with tradition and replace the English muffin with a gluten free counterpart, but I have been known to create a bed of avocados, heirloom tomatoes, or a baked portabello mushroom instead. This does reduce the carbs, and allows you to feel full but a little less stuffed. Again feel free to place these veggies on top of a bread alternative as well. To each his own.
This recipe can be customized to fit your tastes and dietary needs. Instead of meat you can use marinated tofu, or alternatively smoked salmon is lovely. Add whatever veggies you would like though today I have used sweet, plump heirloom tomatoes, and creamy ripe avocados. I have also chosen to use wild boar bacon as a garnish instead of Canadian bacon. Wild boar bacon is incredibly lean and flavorful, and I love to blacken it a bit and sprinkle it on top. I find this technique pretty, and helpful in cutting through the layers of this dish. I highly recommend turkey bacon as well. Here we go…
Eggs Bennies (serves 2 to 4)
½ lb of (raw) wild boar bacon (alternatively you can use turkey bacon)
1 to 2 poached eggs per person
2 Heirloom Tomatoes thinly sliced
1 to 2 avocados thinly sliced
A pinch of Sea Salt
1 tablespoon of white vinegar
Hollandaise (AKA Holland-Day) Sauce
1/4 cup Earth Balance Margarine
3 egg yolks
1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder
few grains of pepper
2 tablespoons of plain soy (or soy alternative) creamer
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Separate the yokes and whites. Save the whites for the benedicts. Squeeze the lemon, and set the juice aside.
Chop, and crisp the bacon at this time. Chopping it first will help it cook faster.
Fill a large pan with water, add vinegar and salt. Allow the water to boil. Take the bowl of egg whites you have saved and gently tip the lip of the bowl in to the water allowing the egg whites to slowly drift into the water. It will create one large pool. This is ok, because we are going to use pieces of this for the dish. Make sure the water is gently boiling. Reduce heat if needed.
If you are using “bread” lightly toast it at this time. Arrange veggies on toasted bread or in place of it.
Once the egg whites have set remove from water and place on a paper towel.
Melt the margarine in a sauce pan. (you can use a double boiler if you want). Add the pepper and garlic powder. Make sure the heat is low and then briskly whisk the yolks in to the butter. It will quickly thicken, add creamer and the sauce will be smooth and ready to serve immediately. Layer veggies, egg whites, sauce, and sprinkle with bacon.
