Last week, I made the most amazing quinoa loaf that heralded in the Spring that just won't show up perfectly. I got the recipe from a Whole Food app I have on my phone. The recipe can be found here. I will admit that I did not wait the recommended amount of time before turning it out of the pan and slicing and I ended up with quinoa pilaf. Sadness, but delicious sadness none the less.
With this, I made Ketchup Gravy. This is quite possibly the greatest invention I have ever devised. If I did not invent this, please let me know. I'm walking around with a big head here thinking this is all mine. The idea came to me because I wanted a gravy to go with the quinoa loaf as it's a little dry, but I kept thinking back in those taste memory receptors of my grandmother's meatloaf that she would cook basted in a liberal coating of ketchup. The solution satisfied both desires.
Ketchup Gravy
1 Tbsp vegan butter (Earth Balance Organic for me)
1 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour (who knew you could make gravy with whole wheat flour?)
1 cup veg broth
2 Tbsp ketchup
In a small pot over medium heat, melt the butter then add the flour and stir together. Add broth and bring to a boil. Once it starts to thicken, add ketchup and continue to stir constantly. Pepper to taste (I didn't need salt with the ketchup in it). Keep simmering until it's the desired thickness (it will thicken a bit more once it cools). It's so yummy as has that great ketchup-y flavor, but also tastes like gravy. Very good for a weirdo like me.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Split Pea Soup and Onion Bread Rolls
I WISH I had pictures, but unfortunately it disappeared as soon as it was done. The soup had a great rich buttery flavor from the Jerusalem artichokes and the rolls turned out fluffy and tasty. This meal is a great way to welcome Spring when it's still a bit chilly out. Here in Alaska, the sun is shining, but it's still 40 degrees or lower, so this satisfied my desire for beautiful Spring flavors while still soothing my soul from the falling snow.
Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
1/2 cup dry split peas soaked for 4-6 hours
1/2 cup dry green lentils soaked for 4-6 hours
1/2 yellow onion chopped finely
3 carrots chopped finely
4-5 small Jerusalem artichokes chopped finely
3 stalks celery chopped finely
1/2 cup frozen peas (or fresh)
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
Saute all veggies in oil until they start to soften over medium high heat in a large pot. Salt and pepper to taste, then add split peas and lentils and 2 1/2 cups water. Stir well to make sure nothing got stuck to the bottom of the pot, then bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, you can drop it down to a simmer and let simmer for about 1/2 hour- 45 minutes. You may need to add some more water, but base it on the consistency you like your soup.
Onion Bread Rolls
Ingredients
1/2 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp olive oil
Onion flakes for decoration on top of each roll
I use my mixer, so I'm not sure exactly how to exchange time in mixer for kneading.
In mixing bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water, then sprinkle in yeast. After about 3-5 minutes it should be foamy. If it's no foamy, you have bad yeast and will need to try a different packet. If it's foamy- you're ready. Add the rest of your ingredients and mix on medium with your dough hook until it gets elastic and is moving as one ball. Cover with a damp cloth or seran wrap and leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours. It should AT LEAST double in size, maybe more. Push it down so it deflates, and turn on the mixer for a minute or so just to get the bubbles mostly out. The dough will be a little sticky, so it helps to get your hands wet before handling it. Break the dough into 4 balls and place them spread out on a greased cookie sheet or on a silpat mat. Sprinkle with onion flakes if you want. Drizzle with a tiny bit more oil and cover with seran wrap for another 1/2 hour or so. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cook for about 10 minutes until golden brown (remove seran wrap before cooking).
Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
1/2 cup dry split peas soaked for 4-6 hours
1/2 cup dry green lentils soaked for 4-6 hours
1/2 yellow onion chopped finely
3 carrots chopped finely
4-5 small Jerusalem artichokes chopped finely
3 stalks celery chopped finely
1/2 cup frozen peas (or fresh)
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
Saute all veggies in oil until they start to soften over medium high heat in a large pot. Salt and pepper to taste, then add split peas and lentils and 2 1/2 cups water. Stir well to make sure nothing got stuck to the bottom of the pot, then bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, you can drop it down to a simmer and let simmer for about 1/2 hour- 45 minutes. You may need to add some more water, but base it on the consistency you like your soup.
Onion Bread Rolls
Ingredients
1/2 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp olive oil
Onion flakes for decoration on top of each roll
I use my mixer, so I'm not sure exactly how to exchange time in mixer for kneading.
In mixing bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water, then sprinkle in yeast. After about 3-5 minutes it should be foamy. If it's no foamy, you have bad yeast and will need to try a different packet. If it's foamy- you're ready. Add the rest of your ingredients and mix on medium with your dough hook until it gets elastic and is moving as one ball. Cover with a damp cloth or seran wrap and leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours. It should AT LEAST double in size, maybe more. Push it down so it deflates, and turn on the mixer for a minute or so just to get the bubbles mostly out. The dough will be a little sticky, so it helps to get your hands wet before handling it. Break the dough into 4 balls and place them spread out on a greased cookie sheet or on a silpat mat. Sprinkle with onion flakes if you want. Drizzle with a tiny bit more oil and cover with seran wrap for another 1/2 hour or so. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cook for about 10 minutes until golden brown (remove seran wrap before cooking).
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Roasted Beet and Horseradish Quinoa Risotto
My mom is visiting and I was so worried she'd feel like something was missing when I cooked for her. She's a freegan (though she didn't know that word until I said it) for the most part, and lately the dumpster she frequents has had prime rib. Hence, she has been eating prime rib quite often. I certainly wouldn't try to make a fake meat prime rib, but I did want to mirror some of the flavor, so I made this recipe using beets and horseradish for that great savory rich flavor, and quinoa to make sure she got all the protein she needed.
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
3 cloves garlic
4 small beets (or 2 large beets) with greens
2 Tbsp olive oil
5-6 cups veg broth
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 Tbsp horseradish to taste
2 Tbsp- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash the beets and beet greens thoroughly. Cut the tops off and half or quarter the beets and wrap them in aluminum foil with one of the garlic cloves, 1 Tbsp of oil, and salt and pepper. Place package on middle rack and roast for about an hour. Use the back of your knife to peel the beets and chop them into small cubes. Turn the oven up to 400. Chop the greens into small strips and toss with a bit of oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them out on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes, until crispy (thanks for the idea Christina).
Once beets are cooked, begin the risotto. Heat the veg broth to a simmer first and have a ladle ready. In a large nonstick pan, heat the other Tbsp of oil. Rough chop the garlic and saute quickly and add quinoa and stir to coat with oil. Stir constantly and ladle enough broth to cover the quinoa. Add broth as needed and stir in the horseradish and balsamic vinegar. Continue stirring and adding broth until the quinoa is soft, about 30-40 minutes. Stir in the beets and nutritional yeast until quinoa is all pretty red. This will be very hot, so you might want to let it cool a little before serving. Top with crispy greens and enjoy!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer pt. 1
I'm
I'm half way through this book and already I need to talk about it, write about it, get the images in my mind onto the screen and out of my head. I've never had a book that I hated reading so much, or that I felt was so important to read. It's like reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, but it's real and it's everywhere. I read The Jungle in high school AP class, and I can still remember the descriptions of the drain in the floor where everything from the animal leaked and ran out. It's a classic if anyone is interested in the meat packing industry of the 1930's.
I started reading Eating Animals while in bed one night (because I'm the mom of an infant and when the heck else would I have time to read). Anyway, I'm in bed and literally gagging through the first chapter when my husband had to tell me to stop gagging or stop reading. Fair enough. Here I am now half way through and I have hardened myself to it. I'm on the verge of tears and nausea with every page, but I push through. Reading this book you get a sense that what is being said is so important that you have to just plow through and get there... and it's not for a happy ending. The only happy ending for me is when I get up, open my refrigerator, and there aren't animals there. I find myself dreading my next trip to the grocery store because I'm afraid all I will see is "fecal soup" and beakless birds.
I had a similar experience, though not as gruesome, when I taught middle school in the central valley. Many of my students had parents working in the agricultural fields all through the valley. The parents would come to conferences and open house directly from the fields, still in their pesticide-soaked work clothes and hold their babies to their chests, hug their children, and cough. One student had an unexplained seizure in my class. She just fell out of her chair and started convulsing. I don't know the source of that seizure, but the doctors also couldn't figure it out. The worst thing was the coughing though. There always seemed to be coughing. Usually, the kids who lived in the workers' housing right next to the fields coughed the most. I had one student who had a persistent cough that shook my heart each time I heard it. It was the cough of an old man, and it just wouldn't go away. For months he coughed. I asked him what his parents did, and he said they worked in the fields. They both drove the sprayers. I thought of the stories we read about Caesar Chavez. I hear that cough when I see that conventional produce is cheaper and more readily available. I hear that cough and see the face of one of my 8th graders who had been held back a year, so he was 15 in 8th grade. He was so excited to go to work with his dad on the weekends. In 8th grade he began working in those fields. He said he liked working on the organic farms best, and brought me a bag of organic onions one Monday.
It's hard sometimes to put a face to the food on our plates. Things are so different from the idea of a farm like I grew up on, or like you see in the movies. Reading this book has taken me back to that place, made me long for the snow outside to melt so I can plant my garden, made me grateful for the CSA farm I am able to get fresh produce from each week, and made me sick. I have never felt a desire to push vegetarianism on others until I started reading this book. It's our country, our children, our future. I still don't want to push people or make anyone suffer, but I do want people to think about what they feed their families.
I'm half way through this book and already I need to talk about it, write about it, get the images in my mind onto the screen and out of my head. I've never had a book that I hated reading so much, or that I felt was so important to read. It's like reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, but it's real and it's everywhere. I read The Jungle in high school AP class, and I can still remember the descriptions of the drain in the floor where everything from the animal leaked and ran out. It's a classic if anyone is interested in the meat packing industry of the 1930's.
I started reading Eating Animals while in bed one night (because I'm the mom of an infant and when the heck else would I have time to read). Anyway, I'm in bed and literally gagging through the first chapter when my husband had to tell me to stop gagging or stop reading. Fair enough. Here I am now half way through and I have hardened myself to it. I'm on the verge of tears and nausea with every page, but I push through. Reading this book you get a sense that what is being said is so important that you have to just plow through and get there... and it's not for a happy ending. The only happy ending for me is when I get up, open my refrigerator, and there aren't animals there. I find myself dreading my next trip to the grocery store because I'm afraid all I will see is "fecal soup" and beakless birds.
I had a similar experience, though not as gruesome, when I taught middle school in the central valley. Many of my students had parents working in the agricultural fields all through the valley. The parents would come to conferences and open house directly from the fields, still in their pesticide-soaked work clothes and hold their babies to their chests, hug their children, and cough. One student had an unexplained seizure in my class. She just fell out of her chair and started convulsing. I don't know the source of that seizure, but the doctors also couldn't figure it out. The worst thing was the coughing though. There always seemed to be coughing. Usually, the kids who lived in the workers' housing right next to the fields coughed the most. I had one student who had a persistent cough that shook my heart each time I heard it. It was the cough of an old man, and it just wouldn't go away. For months he coughed. I asked him what his parents did, and he said they worked in the fields. They both drove the sprayers. I thought of the stories we read about Caesar Chavez. I hear that cough when I see that conventional produce is cheaper and more readily available. I hear that cough and see the face of one of my 8th graders who had been held back a year, so he was 15 in 8th grade. He was so excited to go to work with his dad on the weekends. In 8th grade he began working in those fields. He said he liked working on the organic farms best, and brought me a bag of organic onions one Monday.
It's hard sometimes to put a face to the food on our plates. Things are so different from the idea of a farm like I grew up on, or like you see in the movies. Reading this book has taken me back to that place, made me long for the snow outside to melt so I can plant my garden, made me grateful for the CSA farm I am able to get fresh produce from each week, and made me sick. I have never felt a desire to push vegetarianism on others until I started reading this book. It's our country, our children, our future. I still don't want to push people or make anyone suffer, but I do want people to think about what they feed their families.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Baby Food: Soy Yogurt
My daughter got her first yogurt today! I have been on the fence about giving yogurt, and I don't know why. I finally realized it's because of the warnings about not giving yogurt unless it is "Whole Milk Yogurt." Well, I just read my milk post, and I know that the whole milk thing is just about fat, so I decided to fatten up some soy yogurt.
Fatty Good Soy Yogurt for Baby
1/2 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon almond butter (she has shown no nut allergies, if you have nut allergies or worry about this with your baby, don't include it)
1 Tablespoon prune puree
1 Tablespoon flax meal
I stirred it all together really well and expected Violet to eat about half of it. She loved it and ate it all happily. I could tell she was getting full at the end, but that's the goal! This would be good with any sweet puree and I think I might make a date puree to add next time or maybe even a pea puree. What a great way to get so many nutrients!
Fatty Good Soy Yogurt for Baby
1/2 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon almond butter (she has shown no nut allergies, if you have nut allergies or worry about this with your baby, don't include it)
1 Tablespoon prune puree
1 Tablespoon flax meal
I stirred it all together really well and expected Violet to eat about half of it. She loved it and ate it all happily. I could tell she was getting full at the end, but that's the goal! This would be good with any sweet puree and I think I might make a date puree to add next time or maybe even a pea puree. What a great way to get so many nutrients!
Gluten and Sugar free Cowboy Cookies
I have been trying to make the perfect sugar free cookie, and for me this is it! This is a great cookie for people with allergies, excluding pecans of course. I love pecans so much though.
Makes about 10 cookies. I usually make small batches of cookies, so that I don't end up with a bunch of cookies just sitting around the house. I have a small family and don't need 2 dozen cookies in my house ever.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup hot water
6-10 dates (depending on size/sweetness/your taste)
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 vegan chocolate chips or chunks per cookie
In a food processor, pulse the pecans, coconut, and oats while the dates soak in the hot water. Once the items in the food processor are nice and sandy- textured, add the water and dates. Pulse until completely mixed. Add coconut oil, baking soda, and salt and pulse a few more times until completely combined. Use a tablespoon to scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat mat. Place 3-4 chocolate chips (I used Tropical Source, which have evaporated cane juice as a sweetener) on each cookie. Then press them down with your hand. They won't spread during cooking, so you can put them close together. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the sides are slightly browned.
These end up a bit cakey, but I am in love with them and so pleased with the great sweetness and texture without flour or sugar. They are a little crumbly, so I might add a tablespoon of flax meal next time.
Makes about 10 cookies. I usually make small batches of cookies, so that I don't end up with a bunch of cookies just sitting around the house. I have a small family and don't need 2 dozen cookies in my house ever.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup hot water
6-10 dates (depending on size/sweetness/your taste)
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 vegan chocolate chips or chunks per cookie
In a food processor, pulse the pecans, coconut, and oats while the dates soak in the hot water. Once the items in the food processor are nice and sandy- textured, add the water and dates. Pulse until completely mixed. Add coconut oil, baking soda, and salt and pulse a few more times until completely combined. Use a tablespoon to scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat mat. Place 3-4 chocolate chips (I used Tropical Source, which have evaporated cane juice as a sweetener) on each cookie. Then press them down with your hand. They won't spread during cooking, so you can put them close together. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the sides are slightly browned.
These end up a bit cakey, but I am in love with them and so pleased with the great sweetness and texture without flour or sugar. They are a little crumbly, so I might add a tablespoon of flax meal next time.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
My Daughter Isn't a Cow
I was asked to write about why I won't be giving my daughter milk, and I was ambivalent about writing this. There are three reasons for my ambivalence:
1. I don't see any reason TO give milk to a human child, she's not a cow.
2. I give my daughter cow's milk formula.
3. I don't like to be negative in terms of my diet, but prefer to focus on the things that I do enjoy eating.
So, you caught #2 huh. I put it that way because I think it's a poopy thing to do to a child. I could explain myself, but the gist of it is that I'm a hypocrite who won't give her milk in a sippy cup, but do give it to her from a bottle. The decision to give her formula was a very hard one, and when we broke down and did giver her formula, we had really done just that; broken down. As a mother, the hardest thing so far is to feed my daughter for 15 hours a day and still have her not gain an ounce, to know her brain needs to be developing and know that she's not getting the nutrition she needs from my ready and willing breasts, and to have tried everything all the professionals and moms around you suggest and still see no change. It's heart breaking and made me feel so discourage and helpless. For my husband, it was even harder, because as much as I felt like I couldn't do any more, he really felt like there was nothing he could do. We researched and took advice from a lactation consultant and were strongly discouraged from using soy formula (which isn't vegan anyway: see last week's article on Spawn Better). The point is we gave her some cow's milk formula and she grew. She has continued to grow and we've continued with cow's milk. I don't think it's what's best for her, but we were so fearful to stop the ONE thing that finally worked. I know now that she doesn't have a soy allergy because we share a bowl of oatmeal with soy milk in it every morning, and that seems to be the main concern from what I've read. There's also some questionable suggestions that an animal protein is better than a plant protein for babies. Who knows. I'm happy to report that I am writing this with a can of soy formula on the counter ready to try out. My daughter is the strongest, most active and adventurous baby I have ever seen at her age, and I have high hopes that she will continue to thrive with this formula.
Okay, so after formula and breast, what will I give her then? Well, when she turns one, she will not spontaneously turn into a cow (I hope) and so I will not spontaneously start giving her milk for a baby cow. I had been putting off this research because I couldn't imagine any argument for cow's milk that would make any sense. I knew the basic one would be calcium and protein, but our soy milk is enriched and she'll get her calcium from the same place I get mine. Her protein is not a concern seeing how this kid loves beans and rice and lentils and tofu and any other protein source I've given her. So instead of looking for why NOT to give a toddler milk, I looked up WHY to give a toddler milk. I think kellymom sums it up best in one word: convenience. I really see nothing to add as she gives great alternatives to cow's milk excluding only one that I can think of which is soy and coconut yogurts which are more readily available now.
If you are still thinking this whole convenience thing is more than you can give up, consider this. Yes, I agree some of these things sound extremist or exaggerated, just like claims that milk is "healthy" for children. While I might tend to agree that these are probably not all going to apply to you and your baby, I will say that more and more Americans are discovering that they have milk intolerance that is mild and has gone undiagnosed. People who just tend to be gassy or get stomach aches a lot are finding more and more that they have a dairy intolerance. And why wouldn't they? Humans are supposed to lose the ability to produce lactase in childhood because they are no longer nursing, so drinking the milk of another species should make us sick.
If these seem like biased opinions, consider where you usually get your information about milk and who is funding them. The USDA who is setting up the food guide doesn't have a lot to gain from its consumers choosing to boycott milk and milk products.
But, as LeVar Burton always said, "You don't have to take my word for it."
More resources:
The Harvard School of Public Health says that milk is not the best source of calcium.
The Cancer Project links milk consumption with prostate cancer.
Time ran a story about a possible connection between childhood diabetes and cow's milk.
There are also entire websites dedicated to the dangers of milk:
Not Milk
Milk Sucks
In the end, it is up to you to provide your child with what you feel is the healthiest and most beneficial nutrition you can. For me, that doesn't mean the most convenient, it means the best.
Related Reading:
Fiction: This story includes some harmful effects of the ethnocentric notion that all children need cow's milk.
1. I don't see any reason TO give milk to a human child, she's not a cow.
2. I give my daughter cow's milk formula.
3. I don't like to be negative in terms of my diet, but prefer to focus on the things that I do enjoy eating.
So, you caught #2 huh. I put it that way because I think it's a poopy thing to do to a child. I could explain myself, but the gist of it is that I'm a hypocrite who won't give her milk in a sippy cup, but do give it to her from a bottle. The decision to give her formula was a very hard one, and when we broke down and did giver her formula, we had really done just that; broken down. As a mother, the hardest thing so far is to feed my daughter for 15 hours a day and still have her not gain an ounce, to know her brain needs to be developing and know that she's not getting the nutrition she needs from my ready and willing breasts, and to have tried everything all the professionals and moms around you suggest and still see no change. It's heart breaking and made me feel so discourage and helpless. For my husband, it was even harder, because as much as I felt like I couldn't do any more, he really felt like there was nothing he could do. We researched and took advice from a lactation consultant and were strongly discouraged from using soy formula (which isn't vegan anyway: see last week's article on Spawn Better). The point is we gave her some cow's milk formula and she grew. She has continued to grow and we've continued with cow's milk. I don't think it's what's best for her, but we were so fearful to stop the ONE thing that finally worked. I know now that she doesn't have a soy allergy because we share a bowl of oatmeal with soy milk in it every morning, and that seems to be the main concern from what I've read. There's also some questionable suggestions that an animal protein is better than a plant protein for babies. Who knows. I'm happy to report that I am writing this with a can of soy formula on the counter ready to try out. My daughter is the strongest, most active and adventurous baby I have ever seen at her age, and I have high hopes that she will continue to thrive with this formula.
Okay, so after formula and breast, what will I give her then? Well, when she turns one, she will not spontaneously turn into a cow (I hope) and so I will not spontaneously start giving her milk for a baby cow. I had been putting off this research because I couldn't imagine any argument for cow's milk that would make any sense. I knew the basic one would be calcium and protein, but our soy milk is enriched and she'll get her calcium from the same place I get mine. Her protein is not a concern seeing how this kid loves beans and rice and lentils and tofu and any other protein source I've given her. So instead of looking for why NOT to give a toddler milk, I looked up WHY to give a toddler milk. I think kellymom sums it up best in one word: convenience. I really see nothing to add as she gives great alternatives to cow's milk excluding only one that I can think of which is soy and coconut yogurts which are more readily available now.
If you are still thinking this whole convenience thing is more than you can give up, consider this. Yes, I agree some of these things sound extremist or exaggerated, just like claims that milk is "healthy" for children. While I might tend to agree that these are probably not all going to apply to you and your baby, I will say that more and more Americans are discovering that they have milk intolerance that is mild and has gone undiagnosed. People who just tend to be gassy or get stomach aches a lot are finding more and more that they have a dairy intolerance. And why wouldn't they? Humans are supposed to lose the ability to produce lactase in childhood because they are no longer nursing, so drinking the milk of another species should make us sick.
If these seem like biased opinions, consider where you usually get your information about milk and who is funding them. The USDA who is setting up the food guide doesn't have a lot to gain from its consumers choosing to boycott milk and milk products.
But, as LeVar Burton always said, "You don't have to take my word for it."
More resources:
The Harvard School of Public Health says that milk is not the best source of calcium.
The Cancer Project links milk consumption with prostate cancer.
Time ran a story about a possible connection between childhood diabetes and cow's milk.
There are also entire websites dedicated to the dangers of milk:
Not Milk
Milk Sucks
In the end, it is up to you to provide your child with what you feel is the healthiest and most beneficial nutrition you can. For me, that doesn't mean the most convenient, it means the best.
Related Reading:
Fiction: This story includes some harmful effects of the ethnocentric notion that all children need cow's milk.
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