Sprouted Spelt Pancakes

Every once and a while I am in the mood for pancakes but I hardly ever eat them.  I avoid them because I always feel gross and super crampy afterwards. I decided to experiment with a few ingredients this morning and these were really great! They were the perfect consistency and I know that I am getting nutrients and beneficial fats and carbs from my breakfast. Here are my all vegan pancakes:

1 cup organic sprouted spelt flour
1 cup organic almond milk unsweetened
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp of aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp cold pressed organic sunflower seed oil

Mix ingredients together and beat with a whisk. Use a small amount of coconut oil to line your pan and on a medium to high heat, pour your batter in large spoon fulls to the size you like your pancakes. When bubbling through, flip and cook on other side. About 3 minutes per side.

For topping:

Real deal Maple syrup. The real stuff that came out of the tree, not a corn syrup product.
add fruit ( optional)

 Delicious!!!!! And you don't have to feel gross.

Cooking for a 19 hour road trip

We are leaving for Nova Scotia early in the morning and the drive is long. We love the drive, it doesn't bother us. In fact, it's a part of the vacation and there is a great joy over driving past endless trees in northern Maine and New Brunswick. Joe and I don't eat fast food. We used to, but that was years ago and eating it now is impossible when we think about where the meat comes from and all of the food is genetically modified. When we plan for a long road trip, we cook everything we are going to need the day before. This saves money, ensures that we are eating healthy while we sit on our butts without movement for more than a day, and saves time. I try to make things that will still taste good if they are cold. Here is the menu for tomorrow's trip:

Roasted chicken drumsticks with baked garnet yams, gluten-free pasta with soft boiled duck eggs, sun gold tomatoes and pesto, balsamic roasted carrots and beets, eggplant and olive tapenade, celery sticks and fruit. 

It looks like a lot but only took about 1 hour total to make including prep time.  We will also be eating fruit as a snack during the ride.  I will pack some unsweetened applesauce too. The yams were still cooking when I took this shot. We usually find a nice little picnic spot to pull over at in Maine or NB and eat there. We bring our picnic bag with us which contains dishes, silverware and glasses. We are good to go and this is going to be yummy! 

The pesto and tapenade I usually cover with plastic wrap so that there is no oxidation, particularly with the pesto.  It is still fine if it turns brown, but is just visually unappealing to me. You can either cover with an inch of olive oil or do it this way.  The plastic wrap must touch the top of the pesto. I don't add the pesto to the pasta until we are about to eat it, because then I will have not way of preventing oxidation. So you will not see it on the pasta in the photos.

 

 

This all stacks up well in our large tote cooler back that I bought from Marshall's.  We throw a few ice packs in there and it stays nice and cold. Here is everything in it's final packing stage. Not bad!

GlGluten-free spiral pasta salad with sun gold tomatoes, duck eggs and pesto

 

1 package of fresh ( if you can find it) rice pasta.

1 bunch of some kind of cherry or grape tomato. 

2 duck, goose or chicken eggs soft boiled

1 cup of pesto ( see pesto recipe)

Boil 2 duck eggs and set aside to cool, then peel and halve. 

Boil salted water and add pasta.  Cook as per instructions. Strain and rinse with cold water, set aside. 

Mix pasta with tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with pesto, mix well. Serve cold or skip the cold water rinse and serve hot. 

Pesto

2 cups of fresh basil leaves

1 oz. chopped raw milk cheese ( you can omit if you don't consume dairy)

1/4 cup of pine nuts

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

1 clove raw garlic

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Blend all of the above in a food processor until mostly smooth and use immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Balsamic Roasted Carrots and Beets

5 Carrots

5 Beets

Extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Cut veggies to size you like. Preheat over to 375 degrees and place peeled vegetables on a foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle oil and vinegar over veggies. Add salt and pepper. Cook for 45 minutes. 

Eggplant and Olive Tapenade

 

2 of the long and small eggplant varieties

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp capers

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 pitted green olives

Salt and pepper

Juice of half a lemon

In a 360 degree preheated oven, roast the eggplants and garlic cloves on a foil lined baking dish for 35 minutes. Drizzle with oil and some salt first. 

Once eggplant and garlic is done, mix with all other ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

It's that easy! This is great with bread, crackers, veggies, you name it! I especially love it with falafel.

Broiled Egglplant with Cilantro Tahini Sauce YUM!

This really easy dish is so good, so so good.  In about 30 minutes it's done and the prep time is almost nothing. 

You will need: ( for 2 people)

1 Eggplant cut in half. Experiment here and try different kinds of eggplants. There is a huge variety at our Farmer's Market.
1 cup of fresh cilantro. Smell it in the store, if you don't get that fresh cilantro smell right away, get it somewhere else.
1 cup of fresh mint leaves
5 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp honey
Kosher salt and pepper


To make the absolutely yummy sauce ( do not make this on a date night.  It is really garlicky. It also has a little kick to it so if you don't like a lot of garlic, cut back to 3 cloves).

In a food processor, puree the cilantro, oil, mint, garlic, lemon, tahini, honey, salt and pepper until mostly smooth.  It should be a pesto consistency. If it's too thick, add more oil

Put this aside in the fridge.

Cut an eggplant in half  and lightly salt them. Place on foil in a 400 degree pre-heated oven on broil.
 ( Alternatively you can grill the halves outdoors). 
After about 15 minutes, flip the eggplant halves over and cook the other sides for another 14 minutes.
After removing from oven, make sure they are cooked all the way through by inserting a fork into the middle to check for softness.

Spoon the sauce over the top and enjoy!!!!!

Tomato Mozzarella Caprese at it's simplest!

I am Italian in case you didn't know. Mozzarella and tomato salad took precedence over normal salads growing up. Over the years it has appeared on all kinds of restaurant menus but I have to say that it is mostly always overdone.  It's like trying to reinvent the wheel. It is a simple dish and really should stay simple.  There is room for creativity of course, but all of the renditions I have tasted just take away from the delicious simplicity which requires almost nothing. This is it! Simple, basic, at it's best. The important thing here really is the kinds of tomato, cheese and basil that you use. If you use sub-par ingredients, the dish will just be blah. I recommend Heirloom or Roma tomatoes as ripe as you can get them. You want them to be red and sweet. For the mozzarella, buffalo is best. Buffalo mozzarella is creamy and silky and lends much more flavor to this salad.  If you are using regular mozzarella, make sure its the fresh kind that is soaked in water. There are so many varieties of basil out there.  We get several kinds from our CSA and I always use which ever is the most aromatic.  Some have more of an anise smell and some are more lemony. I tend to go with less lemony varieties for this. The vinegar is a matter of personal preference.  Some like Balsamic and some like red wine vinegars for this.  I personally like a nice red wine for this but most restaurants will use balsamic.  It's your choice but whatever you use, make sure it's of high quality.

Caprese Salad

One ripe tomato
bunch of fresh basil leaves chopped
One fresh mozzarella
Kosher or sea salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil drizzle
Balsamic or red wine vinegar 1 tbsp

Slice your mozzarella and tomatoes and arrange on a plate. Sprinkle over salt and pepper, oil and vinegar and chopped basil. You are ready to eat!

Skate Wing for dinner! A delicious dish and overlooked fish.

I remember eating skate wing as a kid.  My mother used to get it at a Brooklyn fish market and I remember loving it.  I don't think I've seen it since and on Sunday at the Chester, CT farmer's market, we found some. Locally caught skate from Point Judith, RI. I couldn't wait to make this for Joe. Here is what I did with it for tonight's dinner:

 Skate Wing with Sweet pepper and Caper Sauce

For the fish:

One skate wing ( for 2 people)

Spelt flour

Pacific Organic Unsweetened Almond Milk

salt and pepper

2 tbsp canola oil

For the sauce:

2 sweet peppers

3 Roma tomatoes

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 green chile

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

fresh parsley chopped

creamed organic honey

large capers

2 tbsp EVOO ( extra virgin olive oil)

Food process your peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, chile and honey until mostly smooth. 

Dip the skate in almond milk and then dredge in flour. Salt and pepper should be added to flour before hand.  In a hot saute pan or skillet, pan fry your skate in the canola oil.  Make sure the oil is very hot and wait about 2 minutes before turning over your wing. Wait for the release of the fish from the pan. Lightly brown both sides ( about 5 min per side) and remove onto a clean plate. 

Make your sauce by heating your EVOO in a sauce pan. When hot, add  capers.  Add your food processed peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, chile and honey. bring to a boil then add vinegar and boil for another 4  minutes.  Add fresh parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook for another 5 minutes. 

Plate your fish and spoon the sauce over the top. Totally delicious!!!!! I promise! Let me know how you like it. 

A different kind of chicken salad : Lite and healthy low-cal yumminess

 I am always experimenting with dishes that traditionally use mayo and love finding ways to make them taste just as satisfying but with far less calories and unique preparations.  This chicken salad is so easy and fast to make and packs a good amount of protein.  Use it as a side dish at a summer BBQ, over a bed of raw kale or mixed greens or as is.

What you'll need:

Skinless cooked chicken- you can use any part of the chicken you like. This was a whole chicken roasted on our Big Green Egg the night before.  I used the meat left on the carcass after carving.  It is mostly breast and thigh meat. You can purchase chicken breasts and grill them or roast them in the oven and shred apart after cooling. We purchased this whole chicken from an organic chicken farmer we found at the Chester, CT Farmer's Market on Sunday.

2 Heirloom Tomatoes- You don't have to use heirlooms but I love the taste of them. You can use any kind of tomato you like, organic or home grown is always preferable.

4 Radishes
 1/2 Medium sized red onion
 Bunch of chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped celery 1 stick (optional)
1 tbsp of an organic homemade jam of your choice

I know adding jam sounds weird, but it's a great alternative to mayo or yogurt. Preferably,  use a jam made with a natural sugar such as pure cane sugar, stevia, coconut sugar or agave.  I used a mango-habanero jam that gave this dish a little kick. Use a jam that contains vegetables or fruits you would use in a salad dressing. This is where your personal taste can make this an interesting and creative dish. Experiment with different jams to completely change the essence of this salad every time.

Other jam flavor ideas: raspberry, hot pepper, red pepper, mango, peach, lemon, orange, garlic.


 How to make it:



Shred chicken and place in a bowl. Remove seeds from tomatoes and dice. Finely chop your parsley. Slice your radishes  and red onion thinly. Mix all together and add Worcestershire , oil and vinegar.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Add jam and stir it all up. that's it! Super easy, low cal and delicious. Enjoy!

Hot lunches making your kids pudgy? Healthy ideas that even picky kids will like.

I am the step-mom of two wonderful girls.  One is a tween at age 12 and the other is 9. They don't live with us full time. We have them once per week and every other weekend and other times too, but that is the general arrangement. It is really difficult to monitor what your kids eat when they don't live with you. All we can do is ensure that when they are with us, we set a good example for healthy living and expose them to foods they wouldn't ordinarily try.  Emmy is a very adventurous eater and loves spicy foods, sashimi, raw oysters, anything. We can take her to a chef's tasting at a high end restaurant, and she will enjoy every meal and the mystery of what will be served next. Our 9 year old is the total opposite. Pizza, pasta, bread, butter, soda and *gasp* diet soda and it stops there. Introducing new foods has been a challenge with Ava. She will taste things, but will give you disgusting face. They usually eat the school lunches during the year which are brought in from a caterer.  They are things like: fettuccine alfredo, pizza, mac n cheese, you know, all the junk. Well, childhood obesity is an epidemic and following this trend is the shocking prevalence of Type II diabetes in children. There are the obvious culprits: Soda, baked goods, junk food, chips, basically anything with high fructose corn syrup including all your simple carbs.  On the day following their stays with us, we send them to school with a bagged lunch.  It has taken some tweaking and experimentation to find what they will be excited about eating that doesn't "smell like farts" when they open their Tupperware. Emily jokingly said that sometimes what I pack smells that way, mostly because it's broccoli or eggs. I still think it's funny.  These are some great alternatives to packing " a sandwich" which can get boring after a while.
All of these are nut free as per school rules. I am the only one in our house that is totally dairy free. I just make sure that the cheese eating is in moderation for the kids. You will notice that none of the lunches involve bread. I make sure they have a protein, a complex carb ( can be veggies, fruit or ancient grain) and a healthier fat ( drizzle of olive oil, avocado, egg, fish)

Emmy's Favorites (adventurous palette girl) avocado added to almost everything below.

1. Chickpea salad ( red onion, olive oil, squeezed lemon, fresh parsley, red bell pepper, salt and pepper)
2. Black bean, corn and mango salsa with avocado ( same as chickpea salad)
3. Egg salad
4. Caponata
5. Smoked trout with mixed greens
6. Smoked salmon with mixed greens
7. Mozzarella and tomato caprese with fresh basil
8. Quinoa salad with red kidney beans
9.Cucumber tomato salad

Ava's Favorites ( non-adventurous palette girl)

1. Steamed broccoli and beet salad ( lightly steamed, olive oil, fresh lemon or vinegar, red onion, quinoa spiral pasta, salt, pepper, red onion, roasted beets)
2. Egg salad
3. Mozzarella and tomato caprese with fresh basil
4. Mixed green salad with oil and balsamic
5. Cucumber and tomato salad ( Cucumber, tomato, olive oil, olives, fresh basil, sprinkle of fresh goat cheese or feta)

As I make them, I will post full recipes for all of these.

I also include snacks for them. Here are some of the snacks they love:

1. Melon
2. Berries or any fruit
3. Homemade hummus and celery or carrots
4. Olives
5. Boiled egg
6. Homemade guacamole with celery or carrots
7. Dried chickpeas

All of these foods only contain natural sugars. They each have a very large and insulated lunch bag for all of these goodies and they each have a thermos filled with WATER. Just eliminating fruit drinks alone, is a huge step in the right direction.

Please share some healthy lunches that your kids love!

Eggcellent Egg Salad and more: All about Eggs.

© Michalzajac | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

I don't know if you experience this, but every time I go to the supermarket for eggs,  I am overwhelmed by the boasting selection. Besides white and brown, there are some carton labels that are full of information and others say nothing. Some are cage free, vegetarian fed, B Vitamins added, 25% less saturated fat, double Omega 3 and ten times more Vitamin E. None of this sounds natural or appealing to me. These claims are made based on the feed that is given to the hens. So many commercial farms are trying to fortify eggs as if eggs themselves are not nutritious enough.
If you are picky about what you are eating  down the food chain line, be careful.  Vegetarian feed often means GMO feed. Corn after all is vegetarian and so is soy. Corn and soy are both the top GMO crops in this country.   There are farmers who have moved away from corn and soy based chicken feed and mix their own whole grains. You may have to ask around to find this. Some backyard farmers are making their own grain mixes and using alternatives such as milo and oats. If you are really lucky, you may find a local home or farm that has free range,  all natural hens eating nothing but grass, insects, worms and seeds.
We are lucky to get our eggs from one of Joe's co-workers who raises his own chickens on a natural diet. Besides the fact that these eggs are so fresh and delicious, I worry less about exposure to Salmonella than I do with commercially farmed eggs. It's also really adorable to see Joe leave for work with his cooler tote bag for picking up our eggs.
When I lived on my farm in Nova Scotia, I owned several hens and one rooster. I really enjoyed my hens. They were kind and almost affectionate. For those of you who don't know, I will backtrack for a second. I used to live in Nova Scotia.  I moved there on a whim and bought a farm on 100 acres. I had goats, sheep, chickens, a horse, peacocks, geese, rabbits and of course dogs and cats. I learned a lot about everything during that time, but mostly about animals and land. During my six years there, I had lots of eggs. I never fed my hens anything except oats in the winter when they could not forage. I didn't know what to do with all my eggs, so my dogs enjoyed many of them and the rest I sold out of my home. These reddish-yolked beauties were the best ever. I had one rooster because I wanted chicks as well as eggs. His name was Rodney. He became my abuser over time and the sweet little Rodney turned into a monster over the years. He turned into a real egghole. I could not walk outside without being spurred, pecked and bleeding through my pants. Rodney had to be relocated when the beatings became too severe for me to withstand as I didn't have the heart to cage him.

Below were some of my hens.  I can't find a single photo of Rodney. I must have erased him totally from my hard drive.

It has been long thought that the high cholesterol content of egg yolks can  negatively affect blood cholesterol levels and increase the incidence or level of heart disease. In a study released in JAMA in 2008, it was shown that eggs may also lower risk of cardiovascular disease due to their amounts of Vitamin B12, riboflavin and folate. This only suggested that perhaps one egg a day would be fine to consume without increasing risk.  While I do enjoy the occasional boiled egg, I limit my consumption purely based on the high fat and caloric content they carry. Joe eats more eggs than I do but his caloric requirement is much larger than mine.  I will share my recipe for really delicious egg salad that even our kids love, and no one misses the mayo.

Super Delicious Mayo-Free Egg Salad

Boiled farm fresh free range all naturally fed hen eggs! As many as you want to make
Fresh parsley chopped
Juice of a lemon
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix together when eggs are cool

You can remove the yolks and devil them in this way also.

You can use any herb you like. Lemon thyme, sage or cilantro work well as substitues. If you need a creamier egg salad, add a tspn of mashed avocado. A whole avocado and an egg or two will make for a high calorie meal. This recipe shown below was made with sage, 4 eggs and one tspn of oil. It is approximately 300 calories in total but can be shared by two, as is  or on a slice of homemade whole grain bread.

Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB et al. A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. JAMA. 1999;281: 1387-94.

Delicious Caponata

If you are looking for a way to use up a bunch of veggies that are about to spoil or just want to fill your tummy with lots of yummy ( corny, I know) this is it! Caponata is a traditional Sicilian dish that I have modified a little. I added a little heat and use a lot less oil than you will usually find in a canned variety or in a restaurant. This dish is very special. It's a amazing with Joe's Spelt bread ( recipe another time) and with cheese if you eat cheese. We do on rare occasions but we normally don't consume dairy. It does not agree with my body. I will talk about dairy another time as well. When I cook I don't measure anything. I also make things differently every time. So the recipe here is all estimation, but you can tweak it however you like and it will still be good. All the veggies here were from the Old Lyme Farmers Market except for the really cool tiger Roma tomatoes which we found at the Coventry Farmers Market. Both markets are worth the trip but you will sit in traffic for an hour for Coventry unless you get there early.
These are the beautiful tomatoes. You can use any kind of ripe Roma.

Now here is the rest.

Ignore the red cabbage in the photo. This dish does not use cabbage. This is a lot of garlic. I actually used almost a whole bulb but not two.

You will need:

Several ripened Roma tomatoes ( at least 6 and really soft and ripe)
Several peppers of any variety. Sweet peppers of any color. Half a  green Chile or Poblano ( optional)
Two baby eggplants ( I used purple and white)
Fresh garlic at least 4 cloves
Olives of any kind, I used green
Capers
White Vinegar
Raw cane sugar 1 tspn
Salt and pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 onion
Several large fresh basil leaves

This dish is also great with celery, I just didn't have any.

Coarsely chop all the veggies and either crush or finely dice the garlic. Keep tomatoes separate.

In a deep saute pan, add a little oil. When hot,  add the onion and peppers. When onions are translucent, add the garlic and being careful not to burn it, add the tomatoes after about 20 seconds. Once these ingredients are bubbling and the tomatoes has fallen apart, add about 1 tbsp of vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Let the vinegar burn off for a few minutes on a higher heat. Add the olives and capers. Add the eggplant. ( No need to salt and sweat baby eggplant ). Add the chopped basil. Mix well. keep on high heat for a few minutes then reduce to simmer and cover.

Cook until all vegetables are tender but not mushy, about 15-20 minutes.

This can be eaten hot or cold. The flavors will be bolder when cold.

This is amazing with bread, over Quinoa or Quinoa pasta, with cheese, with wine.