Nomato Sauce St Louis Style Pizza

I found the dough recipe in a cookbook and it was labeled St Louis style pizza.  I liked the fact that the dough is not yeasted- so you can pull this dinner together in an hour on a weeknight (instead of having to plan ahead with the yeasted dough!).

I combined it with my version of Nomato sauce, which is tomato-free tomato sauce. On the pizza I really couldn't tell it wasn't pizza sauce! I haven't tasted it on pasta yet to know yet if it passes that test, but I suspect it might. It is really quite tasty.

DOUGH
Mix together:
1 C all purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt

Now add and knead a few times:
1/2 C + 2 TB water
2 TB olive oil

Cut into two balls and set aside.


NOMATO SAUCE
Saute in olive oil and cook with a lid on until softens:
1 diced onion
3-5 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 small or 1 medium beet, peeled and diced

Blend in a blender until smooth.

In the pan, saute mashed garlic briefly in a TB olive oil. Now add the blended sauce back in, along with italian seasonings like black pepper, oregano, parsley, basil etc.

Season with salt and lemon juice to taste. 

ASSEMBLY & TOPPINGS
Roll the dough out thin and place on a baking sheet. It will make two 12" pizzas.
Ladle sauce over the dough.
Top with cheese and your favorite toppings. I like thin sliced mushrooms.

Bake at 475 F for 9-12 minutes.

Right as the pizza comes out of the oven, I like to sprinkle it with a little bit of parmesan cheese and chopped herbs like parsley and basil.  The combination of toppings that are fresh and cooked is nice on pizza.

Pasties

I like the idea of portable lunches and started thinking about empanadas, tamales and pasties. I was inspired by a cookbook and some blog posts including this one for cheese onion and potato pasties. 

I figured this a good way to get the hubby to eat vegetables, since they will be warm and covered with starchy goodness once microwaved for lunch.  And they freeze well after being cooked. Just thaw in the microwave and eat.

If you make this with butter then it is vegetarian.  I'm not sure the best way to veganize it- I suppose most folks would try margarine but I don't keep that in the house.

I honestly ran out of butter that the original recipe called for, so I grabbed some leftover beef fat from the last batch of slow cooked beef (it was cooked simply without liquid added and no flavorings. Once the meat is done, I strained the liquid of any chunks and refrigerated. Once chilled, the fat rose to the top of the jar, and I saved it off figuring I'd find a use for it eventually). The result was dough that was more pliable and easy to work than the standard butter crust. So perhaps I will start doing it this way intentionally!

DOUGH
Prepare a cup with water and ice cubes. Set aside to chill the water.

In food processor, blitz:
2/3 C fat (butter, bacon grease or beef fat)
2 C all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Now slowly add the cold water while running the food processor until it comes togehter into a ball.

Fold into thirds, pressing the dough down on a cutting board.  Turn and repeat 4 more times. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

VEGETABLE FILLING
You could do just about anything here I suppose. Leftovers or simply cooked veggies? Just make sure they have some flavor

I cooked up 3 cubed potatoes and 1 diced onion with a little water in a covered pan, until the potato softened.  Then I added leftover grated zucchini shreds, salt, pepper, mustard powder and turmeric for color and stirred, leaving the lid off to evaporate some of the liquid. Once it was sufficiently soft, I took it off heat and put into a container to use later once the dough was ready.  At assembly I add cheddar and peas (noted in the instructions below). But if you are using your own filling omit those.

ASSEMBLY
Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each one out to an 8" circle using wax paper and a rolling pin.

Put filling into one half of the dough circle, leaving 1/2" of a clean edge.

Sprinkle diced cheddar and thawed green peas over the filling. Fold the other half of the dough circle over and crimp the edges shut.

Repeat for all 4 pasties. Set on a baking sheet.  Brush with egg wash (beaten egg white + 1 TB water).

Bake at 375 F for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Cooked Chicken Breast strips for the Freezer

I guess buying already cooked chicken breasts is becoming a thing these days?

I don't eat much meat but wanted some chicken on hand to top on my hubby's salads. I often do a salad for the two of us, and mine is topped with beans and his with meat.  This way I can pop some out of the freezer and warm it up just like I do with my frozen cooked black beans.

Brining is the secret to getting juicy and flavorful chicken breasts. If you just cook them plain they are kinda blah.  But the brine makes them taste like a restaurant cooked it, which in this case is a good thing.

UPDATE on 3/4/2014: I further reduced the salt and sugar in the brine. Skinless chicken breasts really soak it up (as compared to a whole chicken with the skin on). These new proportions are just right, and still allow for a little salt in the sauce or other ingredients paired with the chicken.

Method:
Pound chicken breasts with a meat mallet until they are even thickness.  This helps them cook evenly without getting overcooked in spots.

Marinate in a brine of salt and sugar water for 4 hours or overnight. I started with my standard brine for whole chickens which was much too strong and too salty.  So try this instead:
2 cups water
1 TB kosher salt
1/2 TB sugar

Cook.  I broiled the brined chicken breasts on a broiling tray in the oven - flipping over once and checking frequently to avoid overcooking (we check by slicing into thick part of chicken with a clean knife and looking at the color). You could alternatively grill these.

Slice.

Put in a freezer bag, seal and freeze.

Enjoy by warming up in microwave, then using on salad, in sandwiches, burritos or on top of rice with teriyaki sauce. It's great for making up quick work or school lunches.

Vegan Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

I found a recipe for a blueberry streusel cake in a vegan cookbook. But I didn't like the extra oil and almond milk (since I was making this for C who isn't currently eating nuts). And I absolutely had to decrease the sugar-- this version is perfectly sweet for our taste (which is more like the Japanese version of sweetness).   I've been cutting wheat flour with gluten-free flours in order to decrease the gluten load (C has a threshold after which he gets gluten headaches), so thus the rice flour in addition to the wheat flour. Rice flour is sandy and chewy which is a great fit for this cake.  This is vegan and nut-free (FYI- from reading around the internet, coconut is typically not considered a nut, but a drupel?).

CAKE

Dry:
155 g wheat flour
100 g brown rice flour
1/8 C sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Wet: blend in a blender:
1/2 banana
1 C water
1 TB white wine vinegar (or use apple cider vinegar)
vanilla extract

Topping: combine by mashing with a fork
1/4 C rice flour
1/8 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TB cold coconut oil
pinch salt


Combine dry and wet ingredients in a bowl. Add 1 C blueberries (I thawed frozen blueberries by soaking in hot water in a mug, then draining the water off).

Pour batter into an 11x7" pyrex baking pan.  Crumble the topping over, distributing evenly over the surface of the batter.

Bake at 350 F for 30-45 minutes (??) until it is done.  (sorry I didn't take good measurements of the time on this one).

Easy Meat Meal Prep for weeknight dinner and work lunches

I've been making plenty of elimination diet friendly lunches lately.   This one was:

• Cooked brown rice
• Roasted kabocha squash
• thin sliced red cabbage (I use a mandolin slicer which is really fast and gets a thin texture which makes raw cabbage much tastier)
• Slow cooked pork (see below)
• Avocado Goo: mash up half an avocado (I use a fork and mash it while it's in the avocado skin). Add salt, garlic powder, little bit of water and a tsp of white wine vinegar and mix.  It's a nightshade free sauce that my hubby likes on all sorts of dishes.  It's kind of like guacamole but super simple.

Easy Meal Meat Prep:  

I prep these meats by freezing the cooked meat in cupcake pans, then storing in a ziplock bag in the freezer. That way you have a small portion of meat you can thaw one at a time. And it's efficient with freezer space (instead of a container that takes up space no matter if it's full or half-full). I rely on these for quick meals when I don't feel like cooking.

• For lunch I can stick 1-2 of these "muffin puck" meats on top of rice or rice noodles with veggies and a sauce of some sort.
• For dinner, I thaw a couple in the microwave, then use to top green salad.

This is simple enough a college student, body builder, bachelor or working mom can do it. And it pays off!

Here's how you do it:

Grab cheap cuts of high quality meat (I like pork shoulder or roast, or sometimes the loin is on sale; or beef chuck or beef shoulder. Bone in or boneless both work). Stick in the slow cooker with salt and pepper (don't add any liquid, the meat will ooze its own liquids).  Cook on low until fall apart tender, usually 6 -8 hours.  This requires less than 5 minutes of hands-on time.  Then it goes into the muffin pans and frozen as described above.

Raspberry Spinach Salad Breakfast

This was a perfect autumn breakfast.

I've been eating salads for breakfast. I like how I get my greens in early in the day-- I get lots of nutrition without going through my calorie budget too much. And contrary to popular opinion, as long as you keep it sweet with fruit, it's really not a difficult thing to eat in the morning.

In fact, I've been doing this raspberry spinach salad nearly every day this week?  

Thaw frozen raspberries (I picked a bunch this summer and froze them. They thaw in a glass bowl in the fridge overnight).  Place over boxed organic baby spinach. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the top. Optionally, sprinkle hemp seeds over the top.

In the past I used to make a dressing (with medjool dates, or maole syrup)  but that's a bit too fussy for a fast breakfast. I can make this in the same amount of time it takes to set up cereal and a sliced banana.

I had this with my favorite California grown organic Japanese style green tea. And a slice of gluten free kabocha cake.

Gluten Free Kabocha Squash/Pumpkin Cake

This was really good!  Started with a recipe, and made some edits.  The starch in the squash does a good job hiding the fact that this is gluten free. This is also free of nightshades as I didn't use potato starch. 

METHOD

Mix the dry ingredients:
190 grams gluten free flour (mine was a mix of the following ration: 2 C brown rice flour, 1 C cornstarch & 1 C tapioca flour)
1 tsp psyllium husk powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
healthy quantities of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves 

Blend the wet ingredients:
55g of melted coconut oil (approx couple TB?)
50 grams sugar (approx 1/4 C)
2 eggs
1.5 to 2 C cooked pureed squash (I used leftover roasted kabocha squash/pumpkin, pureed with probably 1/2 - 1 C water in the blender)

 Mix the dry and wet together. Pour into an 8x8" glass baking pan. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes or until done.

Thanksgiving 2013

This was my second (or third?) Thanksgiving hosted at my house. It's finally getting easier.  I had 8 adults for dinner and surprisingly the amount of food was spot on (i.e. I don't have tons of leftovers- yay!!).

I served two salads this year, which was perfect. I was worried it would be "too much green" but it was perfect- helped folks eat more vegetables (and didn't force me to roast veggies in the oven already taken up by the turkey, or sear veggies at the last minute which is a timing nightmare with a group of people).  And both of the salads were vegan, so that gives some non-animal product dishes to the Thanksgiving table.

Lacinato kale salad with lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt and topped with hemp seeds.  It's a simpler version of this salad with rice and avocados.  The kale is sliced into thin ribbons. It gets better as it sits so you can prep it a day ahead and keep in glass in the fridge or prep an hour or 2 ahead and keep it on the table at room temp.  Just don't store in metal containers (like mixing bowls) so the acid in the lemon doesn't react with the metal.  Folks loved this dish, especially since it's raw (I guess most people's experience with kale is cooked?).

Raspberry Spinach Salad: I picked bunches of raspberries over the summer and froze them. They thaw quite nicely actually (just stick the frozen berries in a bowl and let thaw in the fridge overnight).  This salad was boxed organic baby spinach, a little bit of baby arugula, then spread the thawed raspberries around and drizzle with a mixture of balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, a sprinkle of salt and oil (I used hazelnut but olive oil works great too). I toasted pecans and served on the side for topping salads. For serving this large of a group, I put the dressing on the side so that any leftovers will last longer (dressed salads get soggy really fast and don't hold up overnight in the fridge).


Mashed Sweet Potatoes: this was the first time I've done this recipe. I used 2.5 lbs of sweet potatoes, which was just about the right amount for 8 adults, but I wonder if they would have liked more since the pan was nearly wiped clean by the end of the dinner.  These were super simple to make, just a bit of time on the stove. Made this early then reheated in slow cooker on hot for 1 hour which made sure these were the perfect temp at serving time (without having to deal with the oven or microwave at the last minute).  I really like using the slow cooker for entertaining b/c it's one less thing to worry about the temp and it can sit on the other side of the kitchen, far away from the drama of the oven and stove.

Rolls (gramma brought them! otherwise I had rolls baked up using the "healthy artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" basic dough recipe). I think having 10-12 rolls for 8 people is probably the right amount.


11.5 lb Diestel free range turkey: brined overnight in brining bag with an easy and effective brine solution (the same one I use for roasting chickens):
8 C water
1 C kosher salt
1/2 C sugar
The turkey cooked for approx 3 hours (until 170 F internal temperature), then let it rest covered with foil outside the oven for 20-25 minutes to redistribute juices before carving.


Condiments were all home made and delicious!

• cranberry jam 
• whole grain mustard
• fermented dill pickles from the summer
• vinegar pickled asparagus spears

Extras that were store bought:

• Himalayan pink salt
• Cracked black pepper
• Organic butter (or you could use cultured butter, or Kerry gold pastured butter). Maybe one of these years I will make butter from cream?

Pie is the typical dessert for Thanksgiving. I served blueberry pie (from blueberries I picked this past summer) in a whole wheat butter flax crust.   My mom brought pecan and pumpkin pies. And we whipped up some organic whipping cream with just a touch of organic sugar to finish it off.

What did I learn this Thanksgiving?

• Next year I need to have more coffee on hand! I'm not a big coffee drinker, and I make coffee using a Japanese one handled teapot using a friend's recipe (8 g ground coffee + 4 oz hot water, let sit for 4 minutes then strain) which is quite strong and delicious. But it's not typical coffee. 
• Taking orders for pie was a pain (people wanted one of this and one of that, or small slices or whipped cream/no whipped cream).  Not sure how to handle next year... maybe a buffet line to serve yourself?  
• I try to keep holiday meals at meal times.  Eating a "dinner" at 2pm drives me crazy.  It's either lunch or it's dinner. Doing anything else provokes 4 meals in a day, or snacking on unhealthy stuff to make up for the odd eating hours. However having a holiday meal at dinner time means folks are tired and it's dark outside by the time the meal is over. Lunch might be better, as long as you can get the food prepped and everyone there around 12noon. So I guess I need to think on this.
• Setting the table before folks arrived was a big load off my mind- got the silverware and plates out on the table. This makes sure you have enough clean silverware for everyone too. And filling water cups (with filtered water) mean less craziness getting folks liquids.  Then I got the condiments (mustard, butter, cranberry sauce, pickles) out on the table with their serving forks/knives
• On that note, I need to figure out table napkins. We typically don't use napkins (I get by with handkerchiefs or tissues). So next time I need to either purchase paper napkins (gah! the waste!) or get around to finally making some reusable cloth napkins.
• I think people were snacky and would have liked to nibble on something right when they arrived, not wait for the meal.  I guess I need to figure out a snack that isn't too calorie dense... maybe cut up apples/pears, or perhaps make popcorn? 
• Manage the dishes:  I ran the dishwasher and unloaded it before the guests arrived, this way there was space to load all the dirty stuff into the dishwasher. If you do this deliberately while the guests are chatting, by the time they leave you can put the dishwasher on and no more dishes everywhere!

DIY Dijon Mustard

I realized this has been sitting in my drafts folder for a while!  And all this time I've been enjoying my home made mustard. 

Why make mustard? It's pretty simple and inexpensive, but the biggest reason is that all the mustard I've seen in the supermarket has crazy additives.  Even the fancy Plochman's mustard which I loved uses "natural flavoring". Now that I've learned more about "natural flavoring" I am avoiding them.  And making my own mustard is just one way to do that!

This could easily be vegan by using maple syrup or agave instead of the honey. I use a local honey that is scrumptious!  I stopped buying mass produced grocery store honey and I like the taste better and it's better for the bees too (most commercial bee keeping operations take all the bees' honey and give them sugar water to eat, instead of the bees eating some of their own honey to sustain them over the winter).


METHOD 

Mix and let sit overnight:
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C mustard seeds
1/8 C beer (flat is fine)

Next day, pour the soaked solution into food processor. Add:
1/4 tea fine sea salt
2.5 to 3 teaspoons honey

Pulse until slightly blended but there are still some intact seeds left.

Store in a lidded glas container (squatty half pint canning jars are great for this) in the fridge for several months. I think mine's been in there for 6 months? As long as it's not moldy and smells and tastes ok I figure I'm good. Vinegar is a good natural preservative. 

Canned Cranberry Jelly

I was inspired by this post by Food in Jars. And what a great way to prepare for thanksgiving.  Not sure whether this is more jelly, sauce or jam. But looks good!

Canned Cranberry Jelly
Yields 1 pint (or 4 quarter pints, the itty bitty 4 oz jars)

Start your boiling water bath canner by heating the water. Get your jars and lids figured out.

Simmer until berries burst:
1 lb cranberries
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C apple cider vinegar

Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice if needed (original recipe ad 1.5 C sugar!)

Blend in vitamix blender or pass through food mill/strainer to break up skins.  I liked the thick texture achieved by the blender-- luscious!

Pack in sterilized jars with 1/2 inch headspace. Can in boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.