Cooler temperatures really do require comforting and hearty foods. Sometimes the simplest of ingredients can truly make the most satisfying of meals. Plus you don’t have to sacrifice good nutrition or big bucks in the process. Those are all qualities of a winning meal in my book!

I am a big fan of beans. I really could eat them everyday, they are so versatile and packed with nutrients. But, I know not everyone likes beans as much as I do…I had some leftover cooked Borlotti beans from Rancho Gordo that I got in San Francisco during the Foodbuzz Food Blogger’s Festival.  I needed to use them up, so I asked Roberto how he would like them to be prepared. He asked for “Cowboy Beans”. This comes from his growing up in Italy and watching old American Westerns on TV. In many of the movies, there were scenes of cowboys eating baked beans from a can. So as a child he always wanted to know what those cowboy beans tasted like. He tells me that he never imagined them tasting as good as when I make them. What a sweet husband I have.

I love baked beans, and we make them often at home. My grandmother was famous for her beans. I guess it is a family thing!

My most recent rendition of cowboy beans also included carrots, and potatoes, to stretch the recipe and make extra for leftovers. I slow cooked them with smoked polish sausage. A perfect winter time meal!

INGREDIENTS:

1 strip of bacon, chopped
½ a large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small potatoes, chopped
4 small carrots, chopped
1 cup of leftover beans
1 can of tomato paste
1 empty tomato paste can full of water
dash of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 TBS maple sugar or syrup
salt & pepper to taste
1 package of smoked Polish sausage (or any kind of sausage), cut into smaller chunks

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a dutch oven, or large oven proof pot add the bacon and brown. Add onion, garlic, potatoes and carrots, and sautee for about 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly. Once the veggies are getting browned, add the beans, tomato paste, water, BBQ sauce, maple and seasoning. Stir until veggies are coated with the sauce. Then add the sausage and put the lid on the pot. Cook at 350 for about an hour. Check to see if more liquid needs to be added. If so, add more water – and then check your seasoning. Cook for another 30 minutes. You can keep the pot simmering at a lower temperature, like 200 F, to keep warm until you are ready to serve. Just keep checking your liquid amounts.

Serves 4 big portions. Less than $3 per serving.

In my last post I talked about how you can eat organic and healthy on the cheap. If you missed that post, please check it out for some tips and links to some great recipes – that do not take a lot of effort in the kitchen, but will be much more nutritious, and less expensive for you than fast food or freezer meals!

Here is an awesome recipe for a lentil loaf – made with leftovers and pantry staples. This was a truly great meal, especially for this time of year, when we are yearning for comfort food, that “sticks to your ribs”. The flavors were really good in the loaf – bringing lentils to life with the addition of zing from sun-dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers. Adding a delicious and savory sauce for on top, takes this meal from humble to fantastic! I served it w/ sautéed dinosaur kale with onions, garlic and a sprinkle of fresh meyer lemon juice.

This is a great vegetarian meal for those who don’t normally eat vegetarian – or for your veggie friends! It is also gluten-free. So I hope you enjoy it! Here’s to great health and great food!

For the next few weeks I am going to be focusing on some other real life things and projects. I am still around, and plan to keep posting, but maybe not as regularly as usual.

Lentil Loaf with Sweet Tomato Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups red lentils, sprouted and cooked until tender
(why do I soak/sprout? )
½ small yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TBS olive oil
salt & pepper
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dried thyme
½ cup, shredded cheddar and parmesan, tightly packed
1 egg, scrambled
¼ cup jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
2 TBS sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil
1 TBS dijon or spicy mustard

For sauce:
½ can tomato paste
splash of red wine
1 TBS maple syrup or sugar
pinch of dried thyme
salt & pepper

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a skillet sauté onion, carrot and garlic in olive oil until tender. In a large bowl mix veggies with lentils and all the other loaf ingredients. Place in a lightly oiled (or buttered) loaf pan. Cook loaf for about 30-40 minutes, until heated through.
While the loaf is cooking, make the sauce. In a small saucepan, stir all ingredients together, and cook over medium heat until cooked through. Serve spooned over top of sliced pieces of the loaf. Serves 4 (large potions).

Well I have been up to a little kitchen experimentation, lately. First I wanted to tackle another batch of Fromage Blanc made with goat milk. The last time I made it , after draining it for 12 hours, I gave the cheese cloth a bit of a heavy handed squeeze which resulted in a dry and crumbly sort of cheese. I liked it. It was good for stirring in eggs and other dishes. However this time I was hoping to yield a softer more spreadable cheese. Basically I followed the same procedure as last time , except that I used pasteurized goat milk, instead of raw, let the cheese drain for about 15 hours (instead of 12) and did not squeeze the bag. It came out perfectly! Wonderful and creamy and perfect to spread on crackers…except there were no crackers!

That was an easy fix. I have been wanting to play with some of the recipes from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients. Jeff and Zoe, along with Monica from their publishing company, St. Martin’s Press, are generously hosting 2 months of giveaways of this book on Foodieblogroll.com! I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the book from Monica and really wanted to get baking. I was particularly interested in the gluten-free breads. So I was delighted to find a gluten free version of the Olive Oil bread, I use so often from their first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. The gluten free recipe called for soy flour, and I have a soy sensitivity and I didn’t have rice flour on hand either. So I decided to make a modified version, using what I had available – since I really wanted to enjoy some cheese & crackers.

These crackers are not gluten free, but what I call transitional crackers. Although you could make them gluten free by using rice flour in place of the WW flour. I used kefir and raw apple cider vinegar to soak local whole wheat Vermont flour – from a farm we visited in Vermont this fall and then used garbanzo bean flour to cut down on some of the grains in this cracker. The garbanzo bean flour had a very strong smell and so I really wasn’t sure how it would turn out if I used exclusively garbanzo flour. I used over half of the dough to make crackers, and then used the other part to make a small loaf of bread. The bread was not great, but the crackers were wonderful! The bean flavor in the flour really complimented the nice crispy crackers. Here is my recipe inspired by both Gluten- Free Olive Oil Bread and Gluten-Free Cheddar and Sesame Crackers from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

Seedy Garbanzo Crackers (NOT Gluten-free)

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ TBS yeast

1 TBS sea salt

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar

2 large organic eggs

½ cup of homemade kefir

2 cups filtered water

3 cups whole wheat flour

3 cups garbanzo bean flour

½ cup corn starch

Cracker toppings: seeds: white or black sesame, fennel, flax, etc, salt, za’atar spice or any other spices or dried herbs you like.

METHOD:

1) Whisk together flours, cornstarch, yeast and salt, and put in a large lidded bowl.

2) Combine all the liquid ingredients and gradually mix with the dry ingredients using a spoon, or 14 cup food processor.

3) Cover (not airtight) and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for at least2 hours, but better for those with grain intolerance, to let it rest for 12 hours and up to 24 hours.

4) The dough can be used immediately after its initial rise or you can refrigerate in the lidded container and use it over the next 7 days. The flavor will be better if you wait for at least 24 hours of refrigeration.

On Baking Day:

1) Thirty minutes before baking time preheat the oven to 400 F.

2) Cut off an orange sized piece of dough, place dough on a piece of parchment paper or a silicone mat. Then cover with more parchment paper or plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin and roll until you have a 1/16^th inch rectangle. Peel off the top layer or wrap or paper, and place the dough on top of the paper or mat onto baking sheet.

3) Using a pizza cutter gently score the dough into the shape you want the crackers (be careful not to cut the silicone mat, if that is what you are using).

4) Just before baking, using a pastry brush, paint the dough with water and sprinkle the top with black and toasted sesame seeds, salt and za’atar spice.

5) Bake for 15 minutes, or until crackers are golden brown. Allow them to cool before eating.

6) Serve with fromage blanc!

Happy Yuletide!

Today marks the day of the Winter Solstice, which means we are in the full swing of the winter holiday season! So if you are like me, you have been attending lots of holiday parties and gatherings. Some of you, like me, may also have some dietary restrictions that keep you from enjoying food at many parties. Or perhaps some of you are trying to watch what you eat during the holiday season or maybe you are tired of going to the grocery store everyday for more food! My advice for you, is when you are asked to bring a dish to a party – keep that in mind. Make sure that you make something you can enjoy from what you have on hand and if you are still worried you will be hungry at the party, have a little snack before you go!

For me, grains are my biggest battle. I can tolerate them if I soak them, but even at that, I try not to overdo it. Sometimes, I may risk the consequences and just go for it, but other times, I try to do the best I can to avoid those foods and with all the parties I have been attending as of late, I have already been overdoing it. Our friends Chris and Erin, who host a weekly community dinner, had a Christmas dress up party theme for last week. Of course, because of my love for reindeer, Roberto and I went sporting antlers and painted noses. I also brought along a nice layered dip – that was both grain free and veggie friendly – since there are a lot of vegetarians at these community dinners and made from stuff I had in the pantry and fridge.

My fridge is a disaster right now and I really didn’t want to go out and buy a huge list of ingredients for this dish. So I looked in the fridge and pantry. I had some canned beans (I am trying to get rid of those – kept on hand for this year’s Hurricane Season) and some salsa and guacamole from Wholly Guac which I received from a PR firm that is sponsoring a giveaway this month on Foodieblogroll.com (you still have until Friday for your chance to win an awesome prize package!!! ). So I ran out to the store just to get some shredded cheese and FAGE Greek yogurt (in place of sour cream), and tortilla chips and I was all set!

The dip was a huge hit and I thought it looked rather festive with all the reds and greens! I am wishing all my readers and fellow bloggers a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. Whatever holiday you celebrate – or even if you don’t celebrate, I hope you have a great week leading up to the New Year! I may not be blogging much between now and the new year. So have a happy, happy, jolly, jolly season!

Read the rest of this entry »

I got a comment recently from a new reader. She said she was enjoying my blog, but didn’t see many recipes for leftovers. That comment kind of surprised me, because most of the food I make uses some kind of leftover component. However, I don’t always specify that when writing my posts. So I want to make more of an effort to point out the leftover components I am using, and to talk about other ways that my food philosophy extends, but yet still encompasses “leftover qualities”. Things like making food from scratch using what it in your pantry or fridge, making things you eat often like bread, cheese and yogurt, or preserving seasonal vegetables and making your own condiments. This is all part of the Leftover Queen philosophy – use what you have on hand, make substitutions whenever necessary, to be able to focus on what using what is on hand, and make as much as you can from scratch using wholesome basics.

In this vein I want to talk about beans and rice. I love beans and rice, and it is certainly a meal that embraces leftovers. Beyond the basic components of beans and rice (and even within those two ingredients there are many varieties), you can throw anything you have lying around in the fridge that needs using up. As usual I always soak my rice and beans ahead of time. I generally take a day during the weekend, and do large batches of soaking – grains, flours and legumes, and then cooking til almost done, so I can just package them up and throw them in the freezer for quick yet nourishing meals later on.

The week before vacation is always a busy time, so I was happy to be greeted by beans, rice and other grains when I opened the freezer that I could throw together for a quick meal. For this particular batch of beans and rice I added some chopped up organic kielbasa and sauteed it with the rice. Then I added about 2 cups of chopped kale, some spices like New Mexico green chili powder, cumin and coriander, a few tablespoons of homemade tomato sauce (also from the freezer) and water. I let everything come to a boil, and cooked on low heat for about 25 minutes, adding more liquid as necessary.

Beans and rice is a combination dish that is eaten all over the world. It is frugal, healthy and delicious, and you can constantly change it up to suit your tastes! Make it with leftover meat, or keep it vegetarian – the choice is up to you! Top it with shredded cheese, yogurt (or sour cream), salsa or even guacamole!

So enjoy some beans and rice for lunch, dinner, or even breakfast, today!

Stay tuned for some posts about The Foodbuzz Food Bloggers Festival that I will be attending this weekend! Looking forward to meeting many of you there!

If you are like me, you know the joys of reading cookbooks cover to cover like a novel. Looking at the photos, skimming the recipes, planning future meals and letting the creativity flow is one of my favorite pastimes. I have an entire bookshelf full of cookbooks in my kitchen. I have made at least one or two recipes out of all of them, but I like to keep things interesting, and generally I use cookbooks as inspiration for my cooking, rather than a step-by-step guide. Now with all the wonderful food blogs I have at my fingertips, I find myself using them as creative fodder more often, so in the spirit of conservation I have really tried to limit my cookbook purchases.

However, sometimes, a cookbook will really speak to me and when I purchase it, it will get a place of honor on my counter-top cookbook stand. Generally that spot is reserved for Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day but now it has a roommate Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Several people over a short time period told me that I should check this book out. I remember several patients we had at the holistic healthcare office I used to work at talking about Weston Price and fermented and cultured foods, but I never really explored it back then. However, based on all these recommendations, I decided to buy the book. I spent several days reading the introduction which discusses at length the similarities of food preparation (not necessarily ingredients) from traditional cultures all over the world. It also discusses at length the major food groups and gives a lot of information to think about. Now I know some people might read this and be converted right away. I am a skeptical animal by nature, and so a firm believer in moderation as opposed to dogma of any kind. But I have found a lot of useful information in this book, as well as confirmation of a lot of clues and messages I have gotten from my own body when I choose various foods to eat. So for me, much of this book rings true. Then there are the recipes – all of which I want to eat! Well maybe not the organ meat section, I have had quite enough of that to last me a lifetime. But the emphasis here is on real, whole, traditional foods – not new fangled, or processed foods -and some of the foods that fall into that category might be surprising to people – yet it does ring true. It really explores some of the information we, as consumers accept as reality, but may not be the truth of the matter.

For the past 2 months I have been exploring a gluten free diet. But I am not convinced yet that gluten is my culprit. I think my culprit is grains in general and Nourishing Traditions gives lots of information for why that theory may be true. It also gives a lot of suggestions for fermenting grains (and legumes) or soaking them in vinegar, buttermilk, yogurt or kefir as our ancestors did. There are examples from all over the world in this book to support this claim. The soaking allows enzymes and other friendly organisms to break down the phytic acid, an organic acid found in all grains (and legumes) that may make the digestion of grains (and legumes) harder for some people. This sounded like an experiment I wanted to try – not only because I wanted to find a way to digest grains better, but because I really like kefir, yogurt, vinegar and buttermilk, and thought the flavor might actually enhance the grain dishes. I have to say I had a lot of success in the past few weeks with bulgur, lentils and even oatmeal – something I have been trying to learn to like for years. After learning to soak lentils in warm water and apple cider vinegar, they have become so much easier to digest and are becoming a mainstay of our diet. This book has given Roberto and I the opportunity to actually enjoy foods that were previously not on the tummy friendly list. So just for that I am loving this book.

My favorite grain on the planet is buckwheat also known as kasha (which is not actually a wheat – but a grass). So I started the soaking experiment with buckwheat and lentils for dinner one night – serving them together as a pilaf. I served it with a modified version of Nourishing Traditions’ Moroccan Style Chicken (see my recipe after the cut) and roasted sweet potatoes. It was such a delicious meal – so filling and satisfying…and well, a breeze in the digestion department! I was feeling so inspired that night I starting soaking some Irish oats for breakfast the next day, and it was my best experience with oatmeal ever. I am not a convert yet, but I can see myself eating it more often. With all these successes, and so many other delicious recipes to try, I will most likely be featuring more and more of the recipes and ideas from this book.

Yesterday I ordered a bunch of cultures and cheese making supplies from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company so that I can begin making my own kefir, yogurt, buttermilk as well as some soft cheeses. Also, for more Nourishing Food ideas, I have found a great blog – The Nourished Kitchen authored by Jenny who is really a wealth of knowledge on this way of eating. I came across her blog a few months ago when she was doing a giveaway for a Kimchi and Sauerkraut (some of my favorite foods) Maker! I never wanted to win something so bad. I didn’t win, but that maker is certainly on my wish list, along with the CIA version of the Vitamix! In fact, I think I may to buy that maker today…it is under $30 and the only pickles I can find at the store now without corn syrup and dyes are $8 a jar – and I eat A LOT of pickles! Anyway, as you can see I am really excited about all these new discoveries. So likely this will be a topic of discussion in the future.

As I told Hank Cardello, author of Stuffed Nation during a very enjoyable phone conversation yesterday, I am still on the road of discovery about what “healthy eating” means to me. I don’t have all the answers yet, but the learning process sure has been fun, tasty and eye opening so far, and I am already about 8 years into the discovery process with so much more to learn. Speaking of Mr. Cardello and Stuffed Nation, keep your eye out for an intriguing giveaway we will be doing together in September to help spread the message about food policy and the fight against obesity in the US.

*Update: I am really happy to see the responses and comments on this article. If definitely answers my question as to whether these kinds of posts are valuable/interesting to my readers! Your comments always help me to decide which kinds of articles to write, and although I get great responses to my recipes, it seems that I always get very thought provoking comments on these posts I do on food quality. So I am moved to do more of these in the future. For more articles on this topic, check out my “Health and Wellness” category (categories can be found on the left hand side bar). Thank you all for comments!

Read the rest of this entry »

As I have discussed a few posts ago, summertime is all about simple, laid back fare, getting together with friends and family and just relaxing. We live very close to the beach now. We could walk there, but sometimes it is fun to take the car so we can bring our big cooler, a blanket and other goodies for a beach picnic.

While Rachel and Gwen were here, we went with our friends Lela and Bubba to have a beach picnic. Everyone met at our house, we made sandwiches with whatever was in the fridge and both Lela and I brought something to share. She made a delicious pasta salad with asparagus and red peppers and I made what I called a “New World” veggie salad – it contained 2 ears of corn on the cob, a roasted sweet potato, black beans, tomatoes, red bell pepper and zucchini. I tossed all the veggies in a light mustard vinaigrette and sprinkled with lime salt, cilantro and a pinch of chili pepper.

I also baked a batch of gluten free blueberry muffins for dessert. I used a gf muffin mix I found at the health food store. I topped the muffins with some cream cheese icing I had in the fridge leftover from when I made Lela and Bubba’s wedding cake!

We all had a great time enjoying the food and keeping away the sea gulls who really were hell bent on joining our party! They were some serious party crashers! But we didn’t let them stop of from enjoying surf, sand and each other’s company!

I love Chile Rellenos, but I have never made real ones at home, mostly because I try to avoid frying things at home. But I really do love the flavors in this fantastic and flavorful dish, and so I created this quick and easy version to satisfy that taste. This is not authentic Chile Rellenos, this is not even authentic Mexican food. If you want that you can visit my friend Ben’s blog, What’s Cooking? This is just my way of getting the flavor combination that I love so much by using up pantry goods and leftovers. I have never posted this recipe, and I haven’t made this dish in a while, but I used to make it quite frequently, back in the day. It is good for families, or to bring as a potluck dish. I think it is going to come back as a regular feature to our menus, because it really is yummy. I mean who doesn’t LOVE the combination of cheese and beans, and a little bit of heat? Major comfort food.

To cool down the palettes, after the spicy main, I made Haupia for dessert. I saw this recipe on my buddy Adam’s blog, Baking with Dynamite and it looked so awesome I bookmarked it for later use! Almost a year later, I decided to make it. I have really started to love using coconut milk as a base for desserts, and am going to be using it a lot more often. Haupia is a coconut milk based dessert that is from Hawaii and is reminiscent of a pudding. My family loved this, and it is certainly something I will be making again. It is great for the summer when you want something for dessert that is not too heavy. The toasted coconut on top really makes this rich and creamy dessert all the better!
Read the rest of this entry »