Broth and why I love/hate/love it.

Broth is awesome. You can make so much stuff with it. Soup without broth? You can pretty much forget about it. (I'm not talking about the fruity cold summer soups.) BUT, have you read the labels on the stuff at the store? It's ridiculous. Finding one that actually SAYS it is dairy free or vegan is difficult. Finding one that's gluten-free....I think there's one store that sells one brand in the city. And I'm talking about Las Cruces, not Silver City. SO, I've been making my broth for a while now. It's super delicious and is more nutrient dense than the boxed or canned stuff, too. And it's EASY. You literally throw stuff in boiling water and wait. And then if you're using bones, you can reuse them a few more times. That's like 4+quarts of broth for about $2. And you can freeze it! Yes, please!

Bone broth
Beef, chicken, or turkey bones (or whatever other kind)
Water

Vegetable broth
Onion
Celery (~3 stalks)
3-4 medium-large carrots
Bay leaf
Optional--fennel fronds
Salt and pepper to taste
Roughly chop all veggies

For both broths, boil water and add stuff. Wait a while. An hour is probably good, but to really break down the bones to get the micronutrients you can simmer up to 24 hours. Strain stuff back out and you have broth! Voila! Use it right away or freeze it in batches. If you boil it down too much you can just add more water and cook a little longer.

Paleo Nut Clusters

So, these are the delicious morsels of nutty goodness that I took to Santa Fe in a variety of favors. I got the original recipe here : http://betterwithbutter.com/a-little-nutty/. So far nobody has told me they're gross or anything and you can personalize them as much as you want. Here's the recipe with the changes I made.

1 cup walnuts
1 cup almonds
1 cup cashews
1-2 Tbsp ground flax
2-4 Tbsp chia seeds (because seriously, who couldn't use more chia seeds in their diet?)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crush/blend/grind nuts and set aside.
Add flax and chia seeds to the nuts and mix well.
Warm honey and vanilla over low heat until it gets more melty.
Pour honey mix into nuts and mix well.
Spread on a cookie sheet, preferably over a piece of parchment paper or a silpat. Mainly because I hate washing cookie sheets.
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes and cool. The fridge would probably work well, but I never have space. I have put a tray in the freezer before overnight after it had been out of the oven for a while and it worked well.

If you want to try different favors, add dry ingredients to the bowl of nuts and wet ingredients to the honey mix. Keep in mind that you might need to add a little more honey if you add something like coconut that will soak it up more than, say, cinnamon powder might.

Some of my favorites are:
Coconut curry: add lime juice, salt, curry powder, turmeric, unsweetened coconut shreds
Coconut chocolate chip: add chocolate chips and unsweetened coconut shreds
Double chocolate chip: add chocolate chips, a little unsweetened coconut shreds, and cacao powder
Red chile chocolate: add cayenne powder, chocolate chips, and cacao powder

Go nuts!

A new chapter begins...

So, I've been meaning to write this for a while, but here we are, November already. Around April or May Nadia started complaining that her stomach was hurting. This was nothing new. We've been giving her chamomile tea for that since she was about 1 here and there, and it always seemed to help. When she started complaining more frequently, I thought she just wanted more tea because she really likes it, but she would usually say "No, my tummy really hurts, I don't just want tea to drink". I started trying to figure out if it was something new she had eaten or if she had gotten dairy somewhere. I couldn't figure it out. Meanwhile, she had worked up to needing "tummy tea" every day. Then is was several times a day. Then it was all day every day and she didn't want the tea any more. I had asked a few people about their experiences with gluten intolerance and Celiac disease. It seemed like that COULD be the problem, but it  seemed strange that the symptoms would appear so suddenly. Finally one Friday afternoon, after the all day every day thing had been going on for about a week, I told Ricky I was going to put her on a gluten free diet over the weekend and if she wasn't better by Monday I was taking her to the doctor. Sunday morning she asked for tea because her tummy hurt--ONCE.

The rest of the week she got better and better. She stopped having borderline diarrhea all the time (literally). She was eating better. She was eating more. We decided to do GF for Aidan, too, just to make life easier since they eat all the same things. One day after being gluten-free for a few months, they both unintentionally had something that had gluten in it. They BOTH got sick. So, now we know both kids need to be gluten free. And we also know that I'm relearning how to cook.

The picture is Aidan eating gnocci (little pasta-like balls) with chopsticks, right before we started doing GF with him. I think this was his last meal before.

Gluten-free Cinnamon Raisin Granola

Mmmmm, granola...

 

 

Ok, so I'm totally cheating and posting the cinnamon raisin granola recipe I found at The Spunky Coconut blog. ( http://balancedplatter.com/cinnamon-raisin-granola-grain-free-sugar-free/ ) It's grain-free and sugar-free, AND dairy-free! Can you believe it? Oh, and it's AH-mazing!

 

Since we figured out that Nadia was having trouble with gluten we've had a challenge finding breakfast cereal options that work well. We don't eat cereal all that often, but when we do the kids almost ALWAYS want whatever Ricky is having. The challenge was to find something that everyone likes and that doesn't cost $8 for a 10oz package. I thought I'd try out a granola recipe or two and see what happened. The first couple of recipes we tried were ok, but they weren't great. This one has been my favorite by far and is very filling. Some days, Ricky isn't even famished by lunch time. Yeah, you read that right. This stuff has some staying power.

 

Here's my take on it:



Soak 4 cups of nuts for about 8 hours. (I used 1c cashews and 2 1/2c almonds. I added more stuff later to make up the last cup.) This is in bold because I always forget this is part of the process and start way too late. 
Rinse and strain.


Add to a bowl with:
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup almond meal flour
1 cup applesauce with no added sugar
1/4 tsp of vanilla liquid stevia (I used NuNaturals.)
1/4 c pumpkin seeds
1/4c flax seeds


In a separate bowl mix:
1/4 cup Chia Seed meal (I used the coffee grinder like the original author recommended.)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
Combine the two bowls.
Spread onto baking sheet or roasting pan.

The original post said to "dehydrate at 130 degrees overnight, or until it’s dry and crunchy", but I only have my totally unfancy oven. SO, (yes, this is tedious, but I usually forget there's something in the oven to begin with if there's no timer, so you can blame it on that--partially) what I did was turn the oven to 250, let it preheat, then turn it off and let the granola sit in there overnight. The next day I turned it to 350 with the granola still in the oven, let it preheat, then turned it off. There it sat, all day long. Then that night I turned the oven to 170, as low as mine goes, and left it for a couple hours, stirring pretty frequently to make sure it wasn't getting too crispy in one spot. As soon as it felt dry all over I took it out. (Well, Ricky did, but whatever.) I'm sure you could just put the oven at 170 and watch it really closely and stir frequently to make sure it doesn't overcook or prop the oven door open with a towel or something, but as I mentioned before, I forgot about the soaking part, so I got started a tad late and couldn't (wouldn't) stay up all night to watch granola bake. But anyway, now it's delicious. Nadia kept stealing pieces all the next morning until I got it put away. And Aidan's a big fan, too. And that picture up there is my bowl of yogurt--covered in granola! Yum!

Fried Rice

So this is one of the first actual meals I remember learning to cook. Connie Lin's mom told me how to make it when I was 11 or 12 and I still make it about once a month or so, sometimes adding things I never would have thought of putting in it when I was 12. I love it. Ricky loves it. And the kids love it--unless they're just in an eating strike kind of mood. And it's EASY! I'm wondering if you could make it Paleo by using cauliflower instead of rice. Might be worth a shot. The thing about this recipe is you can play with the ingredients to make it suit you better.

1 cup white (or brown) rice, cooked

sesame oil for frying

6-10 eggs

3-6 green onions, sliced

ham sandwich meat, chopped--or turkey, or chicken (optional)

1-2 carrots, shredded

soy sauce

Other stuff to add: broccoli, sugar snap peas, snow peas, asparagus, bell pepper strips

Cook 1 cup of rice in the morning. Let it sit out to dry all day, or at least for several hours.

Put a little sesame oil in wok on medium/low heat. Scramble eggs in the wok.

Add meat, cooking until slightly brown. Stir frequently. (***If you use raw meat, you should cook this before the eggs, so as not to burn the eggs.***)

Add green onions and carrots, cooking until they are to your desired texture. I like mine less raw, more cooked. (Add other veggies here, too)

Add the rice, stirring well to mix everything together. Add soy sauce to taste. Cook, stirring frequently, for another 5-10 minutes.

Eat.

Tzatziki Sauce

Wow, it's been a while since we've had any posts! I've been trying to find time to come post some things but life has been pretty hectic. Anywho, I've really been missing cheese on my sandwiches lately and have found that if I add something different I don't miss it as much. Common sense, I know, but for not having much time to make lunch and actually eat it, finding things that are quick and easy is key. The other day I came across this blog (www.100daysofrealfood.com) with this recipe for Tzatziki Sauce. They said it could be used as a ranch dressing substitute. I'm normally not huge on ranch or on cucumbers, a main ingredient, but figured I'd give it a try since Ricky likes both those things and Nadia is always wanting his ranch. It is GOOD! I've been making wraps with this, turkey, and lettuce all week.



Tzatziki Sauce

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (whole milk variety works best)

1/2 large cucumber, grated with cheese grater

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon dill, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried dill)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Mix all ingredients together. Can be eaten immediately, but is better if you let it sit together in the fridge for a few hours/overnight.

The only thing I did differently was use Silk soy yogurt. I made it 4-5 days ago and it's still really good and hasn't gotten watery or anything. I just give it a quick stir before using it in case there's any separation going on.

Shrimp with Mango salsa OMG this is FABULOUS!! John even liked it and said I could fix it anytime :) I got the recipie from CrossfitanaerobicInc (kids-I can't figure out how to put the link on here so I don't have to type this all out. lessons please)
Here it is typed out:

2 lemons
2 limes1 bunch cilantro
2 ripe mangos
1 red onion
1 jalapeno
1 small red bell pepper
2.5 lbs shrimp shelled and deveined (I'm lazy too, Les, and used the pre-cooked ready to go)
black pepper
cayenne pepper
Extra Virgin olive oil
Garlic
Nutmeg
dried oregano
paprika
sea salt

Preheat oven to 400
Zest the lemons and squeeze lemon juice through fingers into bowl.
Zest the limes and ditto
Peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic
Rinse cilantro and pat dry. Pluck 3/4 cup leaves
Peel and dice mangos and put in bowl.
Remove seeds/pith from red pepper and dace. Add to mango.
Peel and mince the red onion-add to mango bowl.
Rinse and trim jalepeno(remove seeds for no spicy--leave them in for spicy)Mince and add to mango bowl

Start cooking:
Whick together lemon juice, 2 1/2 Tbs olive oil, lemon zest, gar;lic, 2 Tbls oregano, 2 Tbs paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 2 tsp nutmeg, 2 tsp black pepper and season with salt to taste. Add shrimp and mix WELL.

Line sheet pan with parchment and lay shrimp on it in a single layer. Put shrimp in oven and bake till shrimp are pink and curled 5-8 minutes

While shrimp are baking, mince 3/4 cup cilantro leaves

MAKE SALSA--Add 2/3 cup minced cilantro and lime zest to mango(and red onion, red bell pepper and jalapeno) and mix. Drizzle lime juice all over and toss toss toss. Transfer salsa to a serving bowl.

When shrimp are done, transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with remaining cilantro.