Archive for June, 2008

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Menu plan Monday June 30th

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Gluten Free Menu Swap Monday

I thoroughly planned to sit this one out, I’ve been posting so much lately.  And then I saw watercress at the market.  What I’m going to do with it is still a mystery, but I’m sure I’ll get thoughts from M-Elle’s roundup!  All I know about watercress is that Lewis the trumpeter swan from EB White’s book used to order watercress sandwiches.  Which doesn’t do much for me at this point.

Anyhow, on to the food. I’m sticking to the basics and recycling a lot of quick and easy dishes.

Monday:
East Indian-ish
Garam Masala rubbed turkey breast with panch phoron roasted broccoli

Tuesday:
Leftovers with steamed asparagus in a lemony sauce. Or perhaps watercress when I figure out what the heck to do with it…I haven’t done my research yet!

Weds:
Quick and easy
Baked tilapia with tomatoes and herbs, topped with avocado

Thurs:
CELEBRATION!!!! my 30 days of grain free living is up. Yahoo!
Quinoa with garlic scrape pesto and roasted asparagus
yes, I know I’m a wild child with these crazy celebrations!

Friday:
Grillin’
Probably grilled salmon with rosemary, grilled peppers and spring onions sprinkled with thyme and herbs, and corn for DH

Harvest from my garden:
a bunch of baby tomatoes
ground cherries (more on these later!)
Raspberries
blueberries
basil, marjoram, thyme
Garlic scrapes and garlic, too!
spring onions
parsley

From the Farmer’s Market
Serrano peppers
cherries

Baked good of the week:
Still working on the last of the Brazil nut brownie, largely because I won’t let DH have any more. Mine! All mine!!! (Cheryl growls menacingly)
I will be making the Gluten Free Hippie’s Chocolate Rose Parfait for Adopt a GF blogger sometime this week, too!

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Go Ahead, Honey–July UNCOOKING edition

Monday, June 30th, 2008

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen??  Nah.  Stay in the kitchen, honey, just turn off that stove an oven and we’ll have some yummy, summery, home un-cooking.

Un-cooking can be anything, from pineapple salsa or black bean salad to a your favorite smoothie…maybe a super yum pesto sauce, a fresh melon soup or maybe you’re a raw food kinda person and have favorites to share!  Hungry yet?  I am! I’m thinking of making banana ice cream, but will likely change my mind a few times (as usual).

I’m  the happy host for July’s edition of Go Ahead Honey, it’s GF as started by the Naomi of the drool worthy Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried.  You can send your entries to Cheryl (at) eharrishome (dot) com by July 27thJuly 31st. Let the fun begin!

Posted in go ahead honey | 11 Comments »

Brazil Nut Brownies

Monday, June 30th, 2008


I’ve got a few names for these brownies: Mayan brownies, Brazil nut brownies, and (dare I say it?) Black bean brownies.  Are you still there?  Please don’t run away!  I know the idea sounds wrong, but I can say, for sure, black bean brownies are really quite yummy.

I heard about black bean brownies years ago, in my pre-gf life, and never got around to trying them.  Then when Heidi posted them on 101 cookbooks and I kept seeing them in different places, like Diet Dessert and Dogs and Have Cake Will Travel.  I was intrigued, but there were so many eggs, and/or more sugar (or succant) than my body can handle.  So I adapted the general spirit, threw caution to the wind and hoped for the best.  It took a few tries.  I dabbled with a carob version, had one with coconut flour, etc. and finally, success!  Fudgy, yummy, moist and light brownies, which were promptly gobbled by a group of folks used to a “normal” diet.   And dare I say they’re even healthy?  They’re not low calorie (well, maybe compared to normal brownies!), but the ingredients are nutrient rich, with good-for-you fats, not empty calories.   I don’t even feel guilty that I had one for breakfast.  In the interests of full disclosure, black bean brownies are tasty and very moist, but not over the top decadent.  So they’re great for an every day treat, but not so much when you’re craving a total chocolate/sugar bomb.

The magic ingredient (besides the beans, of course!) is the Brazil nut butter.  I’ve had a long term, enduring love affair with nut butter.  Peanuts and I parted ways years ago, and I truly missed sticky creamy goodness of peanut butter until I ventured out into the wild world of nut butter   It’s great that you can get almond butter easily, but if you’ve never had hazelnut, pecan or brazil nut butter, baby…get your food processor and let’s get cracking! I’ve been known to creep into the kitchen in the wee hours and eat it by the spoon.

Oh, and the Mayan part of the name?  That’s a tribute to the beans, cinnamon, cayenne, Salba and the mesquite, all common South of the border ingredients.  The cayenne adds a nice zing, and I’ve used anywhere from a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon.  Each level of heat is yummy, and is a matter of personal preference.  If you’ve never mixed chocolate and cayenne, do give it a go.

As an added bonus, your food processor does pretty much all the work, you only need one bowl, and they’re vegan, gluten free, egg free, dairy free, corn free, soy free, sugar free, grain free and delicious.

Mayan brownies

1 can black beans, well washed (1 ¾ cup)
1 ½ cup of toasted brazil nuts, divided (or 2/3 cup chopped nuts and 6T nut butter de jour)
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2 teaspoons whole salba or chia seeds
½ cup agave (or 1/4 cup agave, 1/4 cup honey)
generous 2/3 cup fresh or frozen cherries
2 Tablespoons carob powder
¼ cup plus 2 T cocoa powder
1 t mesquite (optional)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
pinch of cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons almond extract
3 or 4 drops oil of orange (optional)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

Line an 8X8 pan with parchment and set aside.  Preheat oven to 325.

Toast about 1.5 cups of brazil nuts for 10-15 min at 350.  Pulse in the processor to grind very coarsely, and reserve 3/4 cup of chopped brazils (somehow, by the point where I add them to the recipe, there’s only 2/3 a cup left).  Grind the rest until they become nut butter, which takes a minute or two.  Scoop out and reserve.  Put chopped unsweetened chocolate in the processor, and grind until you’ve got fine pieces.  Add the rinsed beans, Salba, sweetener and cherries and let it run 3-4 minutes.  Add back the nut butter and everything except the reserved brazil nuts and chips (optional) and process until smooth.

Mix in brazil nut chunks into the batter.  (If you’re feeling really lazy, you can mix within the processor bowl, but it’s a tight squeeze.  Put the batter into a prepared pan and smooth out.  Bake 30 min at 325, then cover loosely with foil and continue to bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes.

This lovely brazil nut butter treat is a part of the Peanut Butter Boy’s PB exhibition. It’s not quite peanut butter, it’s not quite a cake, but it’s along those lines and hey, it’s all in good fun. If I could try it with PB, I would, and I bet it would be awesome!

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

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Posted in baked goods, dessert, recipe | 6 Comments »

A GF Cookout and Blueberry Squares

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

One of my husband’s kung fu students is shipping off to Afghanistan, so we had a small cookout to send him off with warm wishes for safe and entirely uneventful tour. He and his wife are fabulous people, and it was just a small reminder of all of the men and women who are serving every day while we go about our merry ways, totally insulated from the sacrifices they make.

I was a bit stumped at first, since cookouts usually mean hamburgers and hotdogs, and I just didn’t want glutenous crumbs all over the place. DH was a little uncertain about doing things GF, but I promised things would be yummy, so he went along with it. So…we had a gluten free cookout, and people didn’t really notice or miss the wheat in any way!

Generally, if I’m making food I’m going to eat, I have to adapt or create my own recipes, since I can’t do gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, eggs, yadda yadda. So since many of the things I was making were for other people this was a great opportunity for me to make recipes from other GF bloggers!

We had:

  • Freshly squeezed mint lemonade

  • Guacamole
  • 3 bean salad
  • Speidie chicken and spice rubbed chicken
  • Herb-alicious veggies skewers
  • Sweet Potato Cornbread
  • Chocolate chip pecan pie (with a nice flaky pie crust)
  • Mayan brownies (recipe posted soon)
  • Blueberry squares (see below!!)

What can I say, I’m full, and so were all of my guests. Yum.

The first 4 were done freestyle, so I can’t offer much in terms of a recipe. The cornbread was amazing. Despite being hideously seasonally inappropriate, I couldn’t resist making the GF Goddess’ sweet potato cornbread. As usual, she didn’t disappoint! The pie crust was from the Gluten free girl, and my husband asked if there was gluten in it. Um, hello? Have I made anything with gluten for the last 4 years? The brownies are delish AND healthy, a wonderful combo, and I will be posting the recipe soon for the PB exhibition.  They’re chock full of brazil nut butter, which is just luscious.

And here are the blueberry squares, a gluten, dairy, corn, soy, egg, sugar and grain free creation of my very own. I was just so inspired by the beauty of the berries at the Farmer’s Market that I just couldn’t resist. They’re light, moist and a quick, easy, vegan-licous seasonal treat.

Blueberry Squares

1/2 cup buckwheat flour OR quinoa flour*
1/2 cup finely ground blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 cup oil
3 Tablespoons apple sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice or 1 teaspoon water with vitamin c powder for citrus allergic
1/2 cup agave* (or 1/4 agave, 1/4 honey)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8X8 with parchment paper. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix wet ingredients together thoroughly in a separate bowl.  Add wet to dry and mix until combined, then add in the berries. Spoon out into prepared pan and smooth down. Bake for 18-20 min or until browning on top (I don’t remember exactly, sorry)

I will also be posting for the Virtual GF BBQ soon and bringing my ‘nana Skillet bread, which is one of my personal all time faves. I just couldn’t make it today because I’m grain free for the month of June (long story, it’s an exercise for a nutrition conference I’m attending. I’m on day 28 of 30 and I can’t wait!!!)

* for a no amylose version, use agave, quinoa flour and unsweetened apple sauce.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

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Posted in baked goods, dessert, recipe | 5 Comments »

Garlic Scape Pesto

Friday, June 27th, 2008

My hardneck garlics had scapes a few weeks ago, and now the soft necks are doing their thing. So it’s the perfect time for garden pesto. The scapes and tops are much milder but still have the garlicky zing that I love.

I’ve used both hazelnuts and brazil nuts depending on my mood, and I must say they’re both yummy. I leave the nuts a little chunky, but you can blend, depending on taste. I like it thick. Not A thick sauce does it give flavor, but it keeps the fish from drying out. You use the pesto on pasta, on quinoa, on veggies, or pesto any thick fish. We used halibut, and the leftover sauce went on broccoli, carrots, and (in the interests of honesty) straight into my mouth.

And, of course, you can eliminate the water and do more oil for a more traditional pesto.  But with water it has a fresher taste about it, you’re not missing out at all on the flavor, and of course, it’s a bit kinder to your waistline, too.

1 cup garlic scapes or tops, pushed down
1 3/4 cups fresh parsley, packed down
2/3 cup brazil nuts or hazelnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
squeeze of lemon (optional)
handful of chopped Kalamatas (optional)
sea salt and pepper

Using a food processor, grind nuts very coarsely. Toast at 300 until starting to brown, about 10-15 minutes. Blend parsley, garlic scapes and olive oil, scraping down the sides as needed. Add water (or broth) and other seasonings if desired. Add in nuts and pulse until it is the desired consistency.

Marvelous on veggies, fish, or anything that needs a little jazzing..

This is my submission for weekend herb blogging, which is hosted by none other than the lovely Kalyn herself from Kayln’s Kitchen!  She is also the originator of WHB, and I’m quite grateful, because it encourages me to post about by garden babies.

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Posted in main meal, recipe, weekend herb blogging | 9 Comments »

Nightshade skillet meal: Go ahead, honey!

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Everyone has that go-to meal for long days and times when there’s just no time.  This is one of my favorite last minute standbys.  It is ready in less than 20 minutes, and it’s a healthy, tasty, simple meal. I really enjoy it, there’s something that’s very ‘comfort food’ about its simplicity for me.  And it’s easy enough that my husband has made it, too.

I tend to be a very “cook it from scratch” kind of gal, but there’s a time and place for canned and frozen foods, too.  Especially when paired with herbs from my garden, you never know the difference.  For the protein, I have used ground chicken, turkey, or beef, though I’m sure soy crumbles would work too.  When DH is out of town, I half the amount of protein, the same amount of veggies and cut back a bit on the herbs.

In the summer months, the peppers are usually from my garden, and it’s a good way to use up those green peppers that are too harshly flavored to eat on their own.  One of the peppers for this one was this summer’s first (sorry, I forgot to take his picture).

We serve this with steamed broccoli, brown rice (thawed from frozen) or avocado, which is my personal fave. Also, for variety, sometimes we add black olives, sometimes garlic powder, sometimes a little parsley, etc. It mostly depends on my mood.

1 lb ground turkey, chicken, beef, etc.
1 14 oz can of Eden or other diced tomatoes (if you are using tomatoes with chilis, leave out the cayenne)
2 medium sized green peppers, torn coarsely
1/3 cup fresh herbs–combo of thyme, oregano and a little marjoram, rosemary, and basil
OR
2 Tablespoons of mixed dried spices
1/4-1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, to taste
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1 can sliced black olives (optional)
Parm cheese or almond slivers (optional)

This is my entry for this month’s “Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free” blogging event, started by Naomi at Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried. This month’s host is Carrie over at Ginger Lemon Girl, and the theme is one pot meals.

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Posted in go ahead honey, main meal, recipe, welcome! | No Comments »

Menu Plan Monday June 23rd

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Gluten Free Menu Swap Monday
I can’t believe how the summer is flying by! It seems unbelievable that it’s the end of June but here we are. This week’s flavor is oregano, as chosen by our kind host, Gluten Free Sox Fan. It is very convenient, as I’ve got more than my share of it. I have a lot growing as you can see, but have just begun to use it more in my meals. I’m looking forward to seeing the other oregano recipes! I’ll be posting an oregano-heavy meal for “Go Ahead Honey, It’s GF” which is hosted by Ginger Lemon Girl. It’s not too late to submit yours!

Monday:
Dinner: Nightshade stew, featuring oregano with avocado

Tuesday:
Here fishy fishy
Garlic scrape pesto halibut with steamed broccoli

Wednesday:
Leftovers! Something from my freezer (maybe turkey?) with red pepper sauce and caramelized cabbage

Thursday:
Rotisserie grilled chicken rubbed with oregano and other herbs and caramelized spring onions (finishing up my harvest for this year)

Friday:
most likely, munching while prepping for Saturday’s cookout

Saturday:
GF Cookout!
Speidie marinated chicken, bbq chicken, veggie skewers, cornbread, freshly squeezed mint lemonade, fresh guac and chips, 3 bean salad, chocolate almond balls (maybe), black bean brownies (still tinkering with the recipe), pecan pie and…well, if I get inspired, who knows.
All GF, though not all dairy/egg/soy/corn/sugar free…but I’ll have plenty to eat.

Garden roundup:
My garden:
gobs of raspberries and some blueberries–that picture is the berries from one day, and I get those daily. it’s awesome!
one peach
garlic scrapes
a pepper!
oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, etc.
mint
spring onions
And the first tomato, unless some little critter gets to it first! *update: I got it and it was super yummy. Nothing like your first home grown tomato of the season!!!

From the Farmer’s Market:
Cabbage
cherries
cilantro
tomatoes
apples

Posted in menu plan | 4 Comments »

A meme for me?

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Brenda at Book of Yum was sweet enough to tag me for a meme. I’m honored! So what is a meme, you may ask? Here are the rules: 1. i must link the tagger to my blog and list the rules; 2. i must share 7 weird bits about myself 3. 7 new bloggerites must be tagged and must be made aware with a comment in their blog. Well, it took me a while to think of a few strange and interesting bits of personal trivia, but here goes:

  1. I LOVE chocolate, but for me, it’s all about melted chocolate. Sure, I’ll eat a piece of good chocolate, but melted chocolate makes me swoon. It’s something about the mouth feel of melted chocolate that just makes it so much better! Oh, and the darker the better. I’ve been known to eat baking (unsweetened) chocolate.
  2. Due to a variety of reasons, at 25, I found myself totally unable to stand or walk for 4 months. Talk about a life changing experience. Many years later, I’m still actively working on regaining my health and mobility and it’s taught me a lot about humility and appreciation for the many everyday gifts in my life.
  3. My taste in music is all about the classics. My favorites are classic rock and classical music.
  4. I love nut butter, and I’ll eat it by the spoon. It’s one of my guilty pleasures, and my husband teases me about it on a regular basis. But I figure if that’s my worst nutritional habit, I’m doing fine, thanks much.  Somehow people assume that because I’m a nutritionist, that I must eat a perfect diet.
  5. I am very, very messy. I always have been. I’ve tried to break that habit and not met much success…but I’m working on it!
  6. My garden is one of my favorite places to be. I love it, it’s such a healing, nurturing place. I’ve got a huge variety, from the normal stuff, like tomatoes and peppers, to a peach tree and artichokes. I’ve got ground cherries, carrots, garlic, blueberries, raspberries, and a wide variety of herbs, too. Most are grown from seed, though I hope to buy a few melons, too.

  7. My husband and I co-habitate with two of the coolest cats around, Genghis and Houdini. Boy am I glad that Genghis adopted us, because I can’t imagine our lives without them.

Ok, that’s 7!  And now I get to tag 7 other bloggers, if they’re interested in playing, too.  I’ve tried to choose a few folks that aren’t necessarily part of the GF blogging “usual suspects” in the interest of all of us expanding our horizons.

  1. Carrie at Ginger Lemon Girl
  2. Kay from Gluten Free Kay
  3. Elana at Elana’s Pantry
  4. Tori from Tori’s GFCF blog
  5. Rodger and Lyndsay at Gluten Free Food Freak
  6. Bureka Boy at Is that my bureka?
  7. Rachael, of The Crispy Cook

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Roasted Spring Onions

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008


I’m a pretty free spirited gardener. So when I plant things, (like onions for example) I don’t label them because I can tell the difference between carrots and onions, right? I also (apparently) tend to forget what I planted from season to season. So when these big plants came up, I thought, great! Garlic. I’ve never seen them so big. Awesome!

Then I went groping around, and realized there was no bulb. I know, where are my manners. And then I thought, oh no! A bed of leeks. I don’t even like leeks that much! And then when I pulled them up, there was a bulb, and they looked just like spring onions at the Farmer’s Market. Here’s a pic. impostors! these are hard neck garlic

It’s important to me to find something exciting to do with everything from my garden. And so I tried them creamed, and the results were a little boring. Then I figured, I really can’t go wrong roasting, I think the only veggie I haven’t ever roasted is rhubarb.

And so I did. The results were good, not great. Yet when I cut them open, bulbs looked strangely like garlic…because they were. Hard and soft neck garlic really don’t look much alike, and that really threw me All I have to say is that vampires ran at my approach for a few days.

these are spring onions...for realBut I did have spring onions, too, and I roasted them on the second round. They are absolutely, plate-lickingly, sugary sweet and delicious when roasted. Next year, I think I’ll only be planting spring onions.

So the moral of the story is that spring onions are, indeed, yummy when roasted, and time spent labeling is probably a good idea. ;-) I figured I’d share these pearls of knowledge with Weekend Herb Blogging, the brainchild of Kalyn’s Kitchen. Our kind host this week is
Joanna, of Joanna’s Food.

Oh…and if you’re a garden lover, please check out my “Cute Fruit” round-up. for what’s growing this week.
Roasted Spring Onions

6-8 spring onions
2-3 tablespoons oil
sea salt and pepper, to taste

Line a rimmed cookie sheet or 9X13 pan with parchment paper. Trim the spring onions, leaving 4 or 5 inches of the green parts if desired. Coat onions with oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 350, turning every 15 minutes or so, until well browned and oozing yummy juices.

Very simple, but very yum.
Enjoy!

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Posted in recipe, side dish, vegetables, weekend herb blogging | 2 Comments »

Menu Plan Monday and a cute fruit roundup

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

Our lovely host this week is Gluten Free Mommy, and she’s chosen cherries. Cherries just hit the Farmer’s Market today, but quite honestly, weren’t great. So I may hold out a week or two before I go overboard with cherries, though I do hope to bake with them. Baking has been a bit dicey lately, because I’m doing a challenge for a nutrition conference I’m attending and going grain-free for a month (in addition to normally being gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and egg free, too.) No, I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea, but I’m 15 days in, and not giving up now!

However, first I need to brag about my babies. If fruit pics just aren’t your thing, you may want to skip down to my menu plan…

Here’s my peach tree! What a cutie she is. She was my birthday present to myself last year. I didn’t know much about peach trees, and like all children, she came with no instructions, so I figured we’d wing it. Well, if a peach tree is inside, it’s up to you to be momma pollinator. It took me a while to figure that out, and though I dutifully played with a paintbrush to move pollen, I didn’t do a stellar job. There were 4 peaches total, most didn’t do too well, but look! One left, and I’ll know better next year. But actually, it’s best for the tree’s health to have few fruit the first year, so let’s just pretend I planned that, shall we?

These are my blueberry bushes–we have 4, all in pots. If you want to actually eat the blueberries you grow, netting is a must. The first year the birds ate them all before they ripened…and then pooped blueberry blue all over my car. Lesson learned.

And these are my raspberries, large and in charge. I get a big handful each day, and always keep them covered, too.

On to the menu!

Monday:
Grilled rotisserie Chicken with collards and sauteed onions
Caramelized cabbage
Leftover almond rosewater cookies...yum!

Tuesday:
Roasted turkey breast with celery and carrots
Roasted Asparagus–last of the season

Wednesday:
Grill:
Grilled salmon with roasted mixed peppers
Cherries for dessert!

Thursday:
Quick and easy:
Nighshade skillet meal–for Carrie’s One Pot meals “Go ahead, honey”

Friday:
Vegan
Caramelized spring onions, avocado, and whatever leftovers I can scrounge up

Baked good: (maybe) a black bean brownie concoction featuring cherry

Weekly Harvest:
From my garden:
green pepper! (first of the season)
spring onions
basil
rosemary
thyme
marjoram

From the Farmer’s Market
Collards
Onions
Cabbage
Asparagus
Cherries

Posted in menu plan | 3 Comments »

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