Tag Archives: Vegan

Quick as Brunch Scall-yinz Pancakes

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Brunch: the green light meal on the weekend to mix and match anything you want to eat in one meal without worrying about the service order.  Pain-au-chocolat treat with an espresso to start, sure that makes sense, because it’s basically breakfast.  Followed immediately by cheese “en aperitif”,  then a green salad with carrot ginger dressing.  Why, yes, totally ok, we’re now at lunch!  And maybe a coupe of champagne during the meal, because hey, this is brunch, so why the f not!

If I ever get back to posting regularly, there will be a lot of brunch entries, because it’s easily my favorite meal to prepare and to eat.

So here’s a good one to start: Savory Scallion Pancakes.  Totally easy, totally fast, and a big hit among kids and adults alike.  As a lil’ shout-out to my Pittsburgher sister and her fam, I’ll call them Savory Scall-yinz Pancakes.  Because yinz is gonna like ’em.

I also have to admit that I snagged this recipe from Gwyneth’s cookbook (don’t judge me), and actually didn’t tweak it much because it’s pretty good as is.

Fry for about 3 minutes on each side

Fry for about 3 minutes on each side

Drizzle with some tamari !

Drizzle with some tamari !

 

Savory Scall-yinz Pancakes

1 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup brown rice flour

1 1/4 cups ice water

1 tablespoon grilled sesame seed oil

1 to 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced scallions

Pinch of sea salt

Oil for frying (I’ve used canola and olive… the canola seems to turn out the best pancakes)

In a large bowl combine the flours and the ice water and whisk to get a nice looking batter with no lumps.  Add the sesame seed oil and incorporate the scallions.

Heat a large pan for frying and cover the bottom lightly with a layer of cooking oil.  I use my iron pan for this and it’s the bomb (even if I don’t have the Eiffel Tower handle version).  Really, totally and completely worth the investment.

There are a couple of ways to fry these babies.  I tend to make smaller pancakes as opposed to one big pancake for each person.  I find most people have a hard time committing to “bigger”, and experiment more easily with little portions.  And let’s be honest, it takes a leap of faith to accept pancakes based around something from the onion family.  I use my 1/4 measuring cup and make batches of 3 small pancakes at a time, frying lightly on each side for 2-5 minutes depending on the heat of the pan. Between each batch I add a bit more oil so the bottom of the pan is covered very lightly.

Sprinkle with some salt, or drizzle with a bit of tamari and serve warm!

Stick a Fourchette in It, ‘Cause You’re Done!

 

 

Goes Down Smoothie

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Navigating the ins and outs of healthy eating with kids is tricky.  It’s hard to explain to a 7 year old exactly why some of the foodstuff she loves are totally ok: apples, grapes, tomatoes, salad, lentils etc. but others, like Coke, are total shit.  “But Moooooooom, it tastes SO good, and I feel FINE after I drink it.  Really, I don’t think it’s so bad for me, I don’t even feel sick!” 

To try and clarify which things are which,  we use two categories for things we like: “tastes good /good for you” and “tastes good /not so good for you”.  The latter category is reserved for treats and exceptions and the former is mostly open bar (sadly, the real bar beverages fall into the tastes good/not so good for you category, so no open bar at the real bar. Grrrrrrrrr.)

So.  Fruit juice.  An alternative to soda, more fun than water… many people categorize this as a tastes good/good for you option.  This would be seem to be a logical conclusion because it’s derived from fruit, a real, whole food.  I’m not convinced; here’s the low down.

Lots of fruit juice is loaded with extra sugar, and other additives to preserve its shelf life at the grocery store.  Often the extra sugar is added in the form of high fructose corn syrup.  And just to no that.  But even if it’s not the really evil kind of added sugar, any kind of refined sugar isn’t a good idea.

Suppose you buy 100% organic juice: totally safe, yes?  Hmmmmm, not so sure.  The 100% organic stuff is definitely better than the mega processed aforementioned kind, but it’s still processed.  While there are still some of the vitamins in the juice of the fruit, many of the other important nutrients found in the whole fruit are eliminated; fiber, for example.  And even if the sugar is naturally occurring so not technically a processed food, you can certainly drink lots more “sugar” in the juice shortcut than if you have to eat 10 oranges to get the equivalent quantity.

I don’t mean to say that juice is BAD.  But it’s not a replacement or an equivalent for whole fruits that have a natural nutrient/vitamin balance.  I don’t offer it to the kids on a regular basis. I guess I would put it in the good/not so good for you category.  That same category where I put my wine.  As much as I would like to, I can’t credibly convince myself that I’m drinking it for the grapes.

Wait, whaaaa?!  No more juice?  Little Jimmie loves juice!  He’s going to flip a lid if I cut back. 

I hear ‘ya.  Here’s a good alternative for a fruity beverage treat, because seriously, who doesn’t like a smoothie.  (Use the 2 banana version in the beginning, the extra sweetness is appreciated by the young-inz.)  And the added veggies are a bonus!  The whole Fam gets on board for this one.

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Going Down Smoothie

4 cups raw spinach leaves

1 cup other greens (I used kale)

Cold water (as needed)

1 apple washed and chopped into large chunks

1 pear washed and chopped into large chunks

I banana, peeled

Small bunch of cilantro

Juice from one lemon

Start by making the green base: put the spinach, kale and water in the blender.  If you have a serious blender like a Vitamix, I’m totally jealous and you should invite me over to use it.  Just kidding.  Serious blender owners won’t need much water.  The rest of us have to add water and push the greens down until the mixture “takes”.  This will vary.

After you’re set on the green base, put the blender on high, and add the fruit so it mixes in with your base.  If you want to up the sweetness factor, add another banana.

Last step: the herbs (cilantro in my case) and the lemon juice are added last.

Serve cold.  Preferably in fancy glasses.  All things taste better in fancy glasses.

You Can’t Stick a Fourchette in This One (obviously!), but You’re Done!

 

Crazy is as Crazy Does

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IMG_0297IMG_0293We started the kids’ swimming class on Wednesday night, and I’d forgotten that 20+ children in any space can totally be a crazy-inducing experience, but 20+ kids in a space with an echo and full of water, can only be described as fresh hell.  I was of course running late, thus became that person who parks in the no parking zone to get the kids inside and changed on time (I’ll come move the car as soon as they’re in their class, no evil eyes pleeeeeease!) only to realize I’d forgotten Mister Mister’s trunks, and had to run barefoot back outside to aforementioned badly parked car with naked Mister Mister in my arms to find his cotton underwear (he had a diaper on because he hasn’t quite mastered the potty yet) because once he’d seen the pool, getting dressed without getting in the pool was NOT an option.  The other parents and kids who had finished the previous class and were filtering out to the parking lot mostly stared at the hot mess that was Mister Mister and I screaming and running to the car, the contents of our bag strewn across the tiny changing room…  Sweet Yummy pretended she didn’t know us and calmly went to her class.  Then Mister Mister, suited up in his cotton underwear, ran out of my arms and jumps head first into the pool.  Everyone turned around to see who the owner of the crazy kid was, and it was me, looking totally the part with various pieces of clothing and towels in my hands, dirty (now muddied) feet from running barefoot through the dirt to the car, and hair matted to my sweaty forehead.  I checked my phone, and we been at the pool for a total of 7 minutes.  

Needless to say, by the time we arrived home an hour later, I could barely string together a coherent sentence. I had to remind myself why extracurricular actives are so important: they make the monsters tired so they go to bed early, leaving the evening free for a glass (or three) of wine and Orange is the New Black episodes.they develop and hone the physical and creative skills of our youth.

Dinner turned out to be a mix of two dishes I normally have on heavy rotation, one a pasta dish, the other a rice dish.  The mix was because I literally kept forgetting which one I was making and started mixing up the recipes.

So here it is.

Cray-Cray Something

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

1 knob fresh ginger chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp. turmeric

4 Tbsp. Tamari (additive free soy sauce – also gluten free)  I buy mine at the organic store.

250 ml (8.5 ounces) crushed or puréed tomatoes (JUST tomatoes, nothing else!  Also try organic store for this one if you have doubts)

100 ml coconut milk (careful on this one too, many brands sneak additives in to make the texture consistent.  Non-additive coconut milk has a thick layer on top and the water on the bottom.  That’s normal… equal parts of both translate nicely into the milk when you’re cooking.)

1 block fermented tofu (non GMO, and no unnecessary additives) chopped into cubes

I package Somen noodles

Bunch of cilantro

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add the coconut oil. Once oil is hot, add the chopped onion, and a few minutes later the pressed garlic and the ginger.  Let cook for 10 minutes or so, until the onions are transparent.  Then add the chopped Tofu and cook long enough to brown the sides of the Tofu (5-10 min-ish).  Then add the turmeric.

One mixture is cooked to your liking, add the sauces (tomato and coconut) and 2 tbsp of Tamari.  Let simmer while you make the Somen noodles.  These are my FAVORITE quick dinner noodles because they take THREE minutes to cook.  Literally.  In this recipe it’s even faster because you want them to be a bit al dente.  I cooked about 2.5 min for this recipe.

Cook drain noodles and add them to your saucepan and mix everything together.

Taste and check the salt… if you still need add some more Tamari (2 tbsp) or so.  Mix together so the tastes mix.

Just before serving add pepper and chop the cilantro.

Stick a Fourchette in It, ‘Cause You’re Done!

 

 

A Word About Dairy

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One of the things that changed my awareness about the kinds of “food” we eat was a book called “Sugar, Salt, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked US by Michael Moss.

It’s an eye opening read.

One of the things that shocked me the most, was the cray cray truth about the recommendations made by the government concerning what constitutes a healthy balanced diet.  Making a long and somewhat complex story short for the purpose of the blog (but seriously, read the book for the long more complex version, it’s totally incredible – and not in the good sense), the dairy industry has long been subsidized by the US government.  Because at one time milk was considered a necessary food for the American population, the government took the dairy industry under its wing. The dairy business is not subject to the same laws of supply and demand as other markets: whatever isn’t bought by the consumer is bought by the government.  At one point there was such a surplus of dairy, the US government stored nearly 1.9 BILLION pounds of it in underground bunkers in Kansas City.  WTF?!  And these numbers are from NINETEEN EIGHTY ONE!

So then the government tried to figure out ways to better MARKET dairy so that people would consomme more.  For example: Got Milk?  Those milk mustache ads with a slew of easily recognizable celebrities and athletes.   Extra cheese everything : double stuffed crust pizza anyone?  It really was a double whammy marketing ploy,  one part of the campaign appealed to our taste-buds and sense of gustative adventure.  The other more insidious strategy was geared toward encouraging people to eat dairy in all its forms: milk, cheese, yogurt, etc for its nutritional benefits.  (And this despite the fact that these are major sources of fat in the American diet.  Which as we all know, is a problem.)

Which brings us to the question of dairy and nutrition.  Is dairy really necessary?  The tide sure is changing on what experts say about including dairy as an integral part of our diets.

Here’s what some smarty pants people at Harvard say about milk…

Again, making a long story short, many experts agree that dairy isn’t necessarily bad in small quantities, but it isn’t really necessary for our diets either.  Even though it remains very ingrained in our culture.

I remember being really surprised when my second baby, Mister Mister, weaned, his pediatrician who I mostly like was pressuring me to give him what in French is called “lait de croissance”.  This essentially means growth milk, and it’s a type of vitamin fortified milk that is for children under the age of 3.  I explained that I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of cow’s milk, but what really bothered me about the “lait de croissance” were all the sugar additives.  And she said, “oh yes that’s normal, the iron fortification gives the milk a terrible metallic taste, so they add chocolate or vanilla to cover that up.”  Wait, really ?!  I’m giving my kid extra sugar so he can drink milk to help his IRON intake??  Cow’s milk is THAT omnipresent it the lives of babies and young children.

I’m not sure where I first heard/read this, I think it might have been in the documentary Forks Over Knives.  But someone said, “what other species do you know other than humans, that consume a MAJOR amount of milk and derivative products from ANOTHER species”.  And I couldn’t think of any.  And then of course there is the famous: cow’s milk is nature’s perfect food… for baby calves.  And something about that makes perfect, logical sense.  We humans probably really don’t NEED dairy all that much.  We CERTAINLY don’t need it in the quantities with which it is being produced, which has brought on a whole host of other issues that figure into the question: the health of the animals producing the milk (hello hormones and antibiotics), the humane treatment of said animals (nothing humane about it in fact), the economic and ecologic consequences of the dairy industry, to name the big ones.  But more, lots more, on this “host of other issues” at a later time.

I f’ing LOVE cheese.  A creamy bleu, a soft chèvre, or perhaps an aged comté, or all three together, paired with a glass of red wine might be one of my favorite things in the entire universe.  I still use dairy when I cook, but I also use quite a few alternatives: almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk,  olive oil, etc.  To “substitute” for cheese it all its umami, creamy goodness, I use a variety of cashew cheese/dip recipes.  Totally multifunctional, they are lovely aperitif dips for veggies, lovely spreads for breads, yummy fillers rolled up in collard greens or lettuce, thinned out with a bit of rice milk or water they can be used as sauces in pasta, rice or quinoa.   Here is one of our favorites!

Spice Cashew Cheese

I cup of cashews

1/4 cup plus a couple glugs of olive oil

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Juice from about two large juicy limes

Pinch of sea salt

Pepper to taste

For full disclosure I first ran into this recipe in Gwyneth’s cookbook (don’t judge!) It’s All Good which I’ve found to be helpful for plant-based recipe ideas (I SAID, don’t judge).

Glug the olive oil into a pan and heat to medium heat.  Dump the cashews in the heated oil in the pan and stir around a bit so the cashews get a nice coating of the olive oil.  The idea here is to roast the cashews a bit, but not too much.  While they are goldening up (it should take five minutes or so) add the spices (cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika) and mix in with the cashews.  I mix everything a lot during this stage so the spices don’t get burnt.  When they are roasted to your liking, remove from heat.

Transfer the spice-covered cashews to the food processor.  Add the lime (I don’t give exact measurements for the lime, we like it tangy, others prefer it less acidic so you really have to adapt to your personal taste), 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 water and mix everything together.  I usually let it mix for about a full minute and a half so that some of the cashew oils are released, this helps the creaminess of the texture…

It has a tendency to explode at the beginning, so after it’s been mixing for a full minute or so scrape down the sides of the processor.  This is when I add a pinch of sea salt and grind some pepper in.

The texture should start looking quite creamy.  You can adjust the thickness by adding more water (or rice milk) to thin the mixture out.

Stick a fourchette in it, ’cause you’re done!