A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Eat Clean Diet: Cole Slaw

I'm crediting this recipe to Eat Clean Diet. I could have sworn I found it, or something very similar, in either one of the ECD books/cookbooks or on the ECD web site, but going back, I can't for the life of me find it again.  Wherever in my brain, on the net, or in an ECD book it came from, this is what I wrote down so I know wherever the original recipe came from, this is how I ended up making it.

Let me give a caveat. This is not your grandmother's cole slaw but it is very good, much cleaner and crisper tasting, but you have to go into it not expecting the same mayo-tongue feel.  The bite of the yogurt is a perfect match with the other ingredients and it was wonderful on top of a pulled pork sandwich and as a side to meatloaf. It's lightness and bite worked in its favor with the heavier meat entrees I ate it with.

Chilled and Dilled: Cucumber & Fresh Corn Soup

 

The perfect soup for a perfectly hot and humid day here in the Ozarks.  My inspiration was the fresh dill that came with our CSA this week and the heat.  Something about long hot days makes me crave cucumbers. They're like the Tylenol of the vegetable world--they'll reduce that summer day feverishness quickly.

Homemade Refried Anasazi Beans

The menu theme for niece Jordan and nephew Isaac's birthday party last week was Tex-Mex, with build-your-own taco bar, refried beans, white queso & chips, 7 Layer Dip, and then the snack food cake for dessert.  One of my adventures for the party was making refried beans from scratch.

I learned some interesting things in my research. Although most people do "fry" or recook the cooked beans in a skillet in lard, shortening, or oil, smashing them down as they go, the term "refried" is actually a mistranslation of Spanish "refritos" meaning "well fried", the "re" in Spanish meaning "well", not "again, like in English.  Also, with more research, I found out that the point of frying isn't to make anything crispy, it's not about being fried at all.  The point is to mix some fat into the beans to create a creamier texture and mouth feel.

Keeping all of that in mind, I created a healthier refried bean recipe that got rave reviews at the party and, even better, from Gene who (isn't a huge legume fan) asked me to prepare them this way more often because he liked them so much. 

On a delicate note, I chose the anasazi beans not only for the slightly sweeter taste than pintos but also because they have less of what generally produces, ahem, odorousness in folks after consuming.  Listen, I knew I'd be hanging out with these people all afternoon.  I may be many things but I am not a stupid woman. 

For more information on the Anasazi beans, please click here: Anasazi Beans

Lemon Cream Dressing

 

A friend who is on a low oxalate diet for kidney stones gave me this salad dressing recipe to try out and it's a winner. I like that it has the richness of a creamy dressing without being heavy and the brightness of a vinaigrette, which makes it perfect over the wonderful assorted greens I brought home from the CSA Tuesday.

Click for the Honey-Mustard Curry Chicken recipe, one of Gene's all-time favorites.

Millsap Farms CSA: Sauteed Japanese Turnips

 

I was never a turnip lover until Gene surprised me with a birthday getaway at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis.  We love historic hotels and The Peabody is one of our favorites.  For my birthday dinner, Gene made reservations at the hotel's Chez Philippe, the only Forbes Four-Star restaurant in Memphis and a winner of AAA's Four-Diamond Award.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that out of something like five courses, the one that I remember the most was the vegetables served with the lamb entree:  sauteed turnips.  I think I remember them because, although they were sweet/savory and vaguely familiar, I nearly fell out of my chair when the waiter told me they were turnips.  Turnips?  As of that dinner I am proudly on the turnip truck...as long as they're sauteed in this manner.

At our first CSA (community sponsored agriculture) pick up Tuesday, I was delighted to find Japanese turnips in our share.  The small tender bulbs begged me to prepare them in their most splendiferousness. The idea was gleaned from Chez Philippe but the recipe is my rendition:

Kitchen Tip: Easy Peasy Butternut Squash Cooking

I love all winter squashes with all their sweet little yellow and orange interiors to scrape out and chow down on. What I do not like is scraping and/or cooking them. The first is a pain in the caboose and the second takes too long for my instant gratification problem.  Sure, cutting them in half, scooping out the insides, oiling or buttering them, and turning them upside down on a cooking sheet and baking for 40 minutes isn't HARD but it's not quick and it's messy.

Behold your microwave.  The squash problem solver. 

This is my new method, as easy as 10 minutes and 1, 2, 3:

Clementine (Orange) Olive Oil Cake

I've seen several recipes for olive oil cake and they've intrigued me.  There are many different recipes, some with only orange, some with a ctrus mix, some with nuts, some without, some with a few Tbsp of oil, some with a full cup....a full cup of olive oil in cake?  Usually for cakes and other baked goods, you'd switch over to expeller-pressed canola or maybe even walnut oil, something healthy but with a less persistent flavor but mixed with citrus it sort of made sense that the olive oil would work....  It does.  The cake is delicious.  Gene even made a point of saying he liked it, and that was with knowing it was good for him. 

Does this save you calories as far as diet? No.  The counts are similar to a regular piece of cake, although in this one, because of the olive oil, the fat content is higher. However, does this save your health?  You decide.  Here are the ingredients in a standard boxed cake mix: bleached flour, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonsee oil, corn syrup, modified corn starch, leavening, popylene glycol monoesters of fatty acids, corn starch, dextose, salt, distilled monoglycerides, dicalcium phosphate, maltodextrin, xantham gum, natural and artificial flavor, dye, nonfat milk.  Here are the ingredients in my cake:  whole wheat flour, honey, eggs, olive oil, orange zest, leavening, salt. It's not always all about calories. BUT if we want to look at those too, here they are side by side:

Boxed cake mix:  Cal: 170, Protein: 2, Carbs: 34, Fat: 3, Fiber: 0

Olive oil cake: Cal: 185, Protein: 3, Carbs: 21, Fat: 10, Fiber: 1

I'm still liking the all natural cake. I see a trade out between white sugar and olive oil, as far as calories.  Olive oil wins.

As far as flavor, we all know what an average cake tastes like. This one is more of what I call I country style cake. The crumb is coarsier and the heft weightier, more like a banana or zucchini bread, and the flavor is phenomenal. Nothing fake or artificial here.  The Tbsp of orange zest, I used Clementines, is powerfully enticing and the olive oil completely complements and enhances the citrus.

Did You Eat Your New Year's Day Black-eyed Peas? Cowboy Caviar

I love traditions and so for years I've tried to be a good little New Year's girl and eat my black-eyed peas but the truth is I don't really like 'em.  Until now. I finally found a recipe that I feel like enhances the taste so that I'm willing to down them not only on New Year's Day but on other days of the year as well.

The recipe is called Cowboy Caviar and there are a million variations. This is mine. I tailored the idea of a cold bean salad to accommodate my personal tastes and to incorporate some of my new eating principles.  There are beans, veggies, and olive oil, a trifecta of good for the body and a treat for the tastebuds.  I served this as a side dish on New Year's Eve but we also played around with it as a salsa-type appetizer eaten with tortilla chips, and I mixed some with some cooked brown rice I had in the fridge that I'll be taking in my lunch box at times this year as an entree and eating for lunch on New Year's Day today.  Yummy and versatile.

Cucumber, Tomato, and Fresh Corn Salad with Boiled Dressing

 

Had a lovely dinner with cousin Ann and Aunti Miranda the other night.  We originally were supposed to meet at a restaurant but without remembering that fact, I started a pot of Anasazi beans in the crockpot AND THEN Gene said "Weren't you going out to dinner tonight?" Crap!  You know how it is. Memory's the second thing to go with age and who knows what the first thing is.  So that prompted a quick couple of emails... "Uh...wanna free meal?"

I really enjoy spending time with them and it was fun to have a little girls' dinner and hang out in the sunroom without a noisy restaurant of folks all around us. And yes, btw, we did let Gene eat but he had business in Marshfield and didn't get back until after we'd finished.

Creamy Cucumber Dip

 

So simple and yet so rewarding, this is a summer constant in my work lunchbox and snack around the house. Only three ingredients that pack an all-out taste power punch:  creamy for the tongue, crunch for the teeth, and salty herby for the psyche pleasure zone.

It's also one of my favorite orders at Parlor 88, a local pub with two locations in Springfield, where they also serve nummies like curried chicken salad lettuce wraps, jalapeno popper dip, and pulled pork nachos.

Parlor 88 serves the cucumber dip with lavosh (cracker bread) but at home we eat this primarily on good fibrous tough stuff crackers or I love it as a sandwich on wheat or rye bread. Middle-of-the-night Afternoon Tea, anyone?

An added pleasure is anytime the cukes come from your own garden. Sigh.  The best part of summer is the garden!