June, 2012 | Real Food. Real Deals.

Dinner with Ming Tsai

June 29, 2012 by Annemarie 6 Comments

Doesn’t this look yummy? It’s called, “Wok-Stirred Vegetables and Rice Noodle Salad,” and it’s delicious. I had it for dinner tonight, and the best part is that I didn’t have to make it. This dish came compliments of celebrity chef Ming Tsai. I was fortunate to meet Ming this evening and watch the taping of a new cooking show that will air on PBS this fall. Several Boston-area bloggers and their guests were in attendance at the taping of the show, which is a collaboration of Macy’s Culinary Council and several celebrity chefs around the country. The show teaches people how to prepare recipes using locally sourced ingredients.

Ming was great with the crowd, and I loved seeing him prepare the noodle salad as well as a batch of spring rolls. I forgot to take a picture of the spring roll before I ate it because I just couldn’t wait. My favorite part of the evening was when Ming answered a question about why he became a chef. He had two answers. The first was that he is always hungry. I love it – I’m always hungry too, Ming! The second was that he learned at an early age that giving people food can bring them happiness. I hadn’t really thought about that before, but I realized that’s true for me too. I love putting fresh-baked muffins in my children’s lunch boxes because I can imagine the smiles on their faces when they open their lunches at school. While so much of my cooking revolves about being practical, economical, and nutritious, I really do like it when people feel happy after eating something I’ve made for them.

Disclosure: I received a Macy’s gift card for attending this event.

Filed Under: Off Topic Tagged With: cooking, food, Macy's, Ming Tsai

Berry Lemon Verbena Pie

June 28, 2012 by Annemarie 10 Comments

My daughter went on a field trip last month to a local market. They had rows and rows of plants, and she was drawn to the herb table. She discovered a lemon verbena plant, and she was so excited about the lemony smell of the leaves. After school, she begged me to bring her back to the market so she could buy the plant. With four dollars of her own money in hand, she bought herself a lemon verbena plant that afternoon.

It smelled pretty, but we weren’t sure what to do with it. I search the blogosphere and came across this pie recipe. We worked off this recipe to come up with our own version, which had to include raspberries, of course, since our little crop continues to yield a few cups of raspberries every day. The gluten-free crust is based on this recipe from Lisa at 100 Days of Real Food. If you’re looking for a whole-wheat crust, I recommend you try hers. It’s simple and delicious.

Ingredients for the Filling:
2 ½ cups blueberries
2 cups raspberries
Zest and juice of one lemon
10 lemon verbena leaves, chopped
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tbs. tapioca (or other) starch

Ingredients for the Crust:
2 ¼ cups gluten-free flour*
½ cup melted ghee
½ tsp. salt
1/3 cup rice milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Stir together the filling ingredients in a large bowl and set aside while you prepare the crust.
Mix the crust ingredients in a medium bowl with a fork until you have a uniform dough.
Split the dough into 2 balls. One ball should be 2/3 of the dough and the other ball should be 1/3 of the dough.
Roll out the larger ball of dough on a floured work surface. (Alternately, you can roll it out between 2 pieces of plastic wrap.)
Place the crust in an 8-inch pie dish. Spoon the filling into the uncooked crust.
Roll out the other portion of dough and cut it into ½-inch wide strips. Place the strips in a lattice pattern on top of the filling.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the crust begins to turn brown.

Price Breakdown
This pie costs a total of $5.27, or $.66 per piece. The raspberries were free from my garden, so that helped! Pie takes a bit of work to make, but this one is definitely worth the effort.

Note: My gluten-free flour mix is 4 parts brown rice flour, 2 parts tapioca flour, 1 part potato starch, and ½ tsp. xanthan gum for every cup of flour. Also, if you can’t get your hands on some lemon verbena, this pie will taste great with just the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Linking to Ingredient Spotlight, Fit and Fabulous Friday, Fresh Bites Friday, Farm Girl Friday, Fight Back Friday, Mix It Up Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How to Make Ghee

June 27, 2012 by Annemarie 6 Comments

Butter is something I missed a lot after my doctor suggested I stop eating dairy products. I never liked all the fake butter alternatives, but I found that when I ate real butter I didn’t feel well afterwards. I was so happy to discover ghee, which is basically butter fat (or oil) separated from the milk solids and water that make up a stick of butter. The milk solids are where the casein resides, and butter without casein doesn’t cause digestive issues for people with casein sensitivity. Ghee has a very high burning point, unlike regular butter, so it’s ideal for cooking or frying at high temperatures. It has a wonderful buttery flavor and it’s a perfect substitute for other oils in many recipes. I bought a small jar of ghee from Whole Foods for $5.99 so I could give it a try. When I realized what a great product it is, I decided to make it myself. I was happy to discover that the homemade version costs a quarter of what the store-bought version costs, and it’s simple to make.

I looked at several recipes for making ghee before I made my first batch, including this one by the Nourishing Gourmet and this one by Deliciously Organic. My experience was a little different from theirs, but their pictures and suggestions were very valuable as I fully expected to burn the first batch. Somehow, I didn’t burn it! All I had to do was keep an eye on the melted butter simmering on the stove for about 30 minutes. I got a big stack of dishes done and I cleaned the counters while the ghee was cooking. Here is the process I used with a few photos along the way.

Ingredients:
2-4 sticks of butter

1. In a pot with a heavy bottom, melt the butter on medium-low heat.

2. Let the butter simmer over low or medium-low heat until it starts to foam.

3. After 20 to 30 minutes, the foam will turn golden and there will be little brown bits of the milk solids at the bottom of the pan. This is when the ghee is done.
4. Strain the ghee over a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheese cloth. (Note: My cheese cloth had holes that were too big and the milk solids were going right through. I had to strain it about 10 times to get all the milk solids out. I will be looking for a finer cheese cloth for the future.)

5. Store the ghee in the refrigerator or in a cool place in a cabinet. It will last for several months.

Price Breakdown
I poured the ghee into the very same 7.5 ounce jar that I had bought full of ghee at Whole Foods for $5.99. Three sticks of butter, which cost $1.50, will generate the same amount of ghee that costs $5.99 at Whole Foods. For that kind of savings, I will be making my own ghee all the time now!

Linking to Traditional Tuesdays, Simple Lives Thursday, Frugal Fridays, Show and Tell Saturdays.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: casein-free, cooking, food, ghee, gluten free, Recipe

Mediterranean Potato Salad

June 26, 2012 by Annemarie 22 Comments

I don’t know if it’s my Irish heritage, but potatoes are one of my favorite foods. Nutritionally speaking, potatoes get a bad rap. But they’re not just a starchy food that ends up in the fryer at a fast food joint. If you eat a medium potato with the skin on, you get 45 percent of your recommended daily supply of vitamin C and more potassium than a banana. With its neutral, adaptable flavor, a potato can fit in with just about any kind of meal.

As a member of the Recipe Redux, I’ve been invited to develop a healthy potato salad recipe for the summer barbecue season. My family loves potato salad, but it’s not the healthiest food when it’s laced with mayonnaise. This version is much more nutritious, consisting of a delicious mix of vegetables and a light Greek dressing.

Ingredients for Salad:
2 lbs. red potatoes
½ cup Kalamata olives, chopped
1 small cucumber, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 tbs. diced red onion
1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
4 leaves of basil for garnish

Ingredients for Dressing:
3 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs. red wine vinegar
¼ tsp. dried oregano
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

Boil the potatoes until tender but not mushy.
Prepare the other salad ingredients and stir them together in a large bowl (except the basil).
Stir together the dressing ingredients to combine well.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle but still warm, cut them into bite-sized pieces and add them to the large bowl.
Pour the dressing onto the potato salad and stir gently. Garnish the salad with chopped fresh basil. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Price Breakdown
This recipe cost me a total of $7.40 to make. It makes 12 servings (2/3 cup each), and the cost per serving is $.62. This is such a great way to enjoy potatoes during the summer!

Disclosure: By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the United States Potato Board and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.

Linking to Real Food Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesdays, Whole Foods Wednesday, Gluten-Free Wednesday, Fight Back Friday, Wellness Weekend, Allergy-Friendly Friday, Summer Salad Sunday, My Meatless Monday.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, dairy free, food, gluten free, potato salad, Recipe

A Raspberry Miracle

June 24, 2012 by Annemarie 6 Comments

I returned home from a short vacation yesterday to a beautiful sight. Four years ago, a friend gave me two little raspberry shoots for my garden. They were ever-bearing raspberries, she told me, which meant that they would keep bearing fruit throughout the summer and into the fall. I fell in love with the idea of a never-ending flow of free raspberries growing right outside my window.

The first year we got a handful or two of raspberries as the plants were getting established. The second year, we got three or four handfuls of berries. I was expecting the big harvest to come in the third summer. I waited and watched anxiously as the little green berries started to show up on the stalks last summer. Sadly, I wasn’t the only one eagerly awaiting those little gems. A parade of squirrels, chipmunks, bunnies, and birds were all in the game too. The most infuriating were the squirrels, who shamelessly climbed along the fence and jumped off the trees right onto the branches of the raspberry plants. I helplessly watched their aggressive antics through the window as they snapped the fragile branches and chowed down on my raspberries. I banged on the windows to try to scare them away, and my children told me to stop yelling at the squirrels. “They need to eat, too!” my children pleaded. But did they really need to eat my raspberries? I had been waiting three years for those berries, with visions of a closet full of raspberry jam to last through the winter.

Thankfully, I married a handyman. He can build or fix just about anything. This summer is year four, and my husband came up with a system to foil the backyard critters. He put chicken wire around the perimeter to keep the chipmunks and rabbits away. Bird netting rests on stakes around the raspberry patch to keep the birds in their place. And as for the squirrels, he had to get creative. We couldn’t take away the fence or the trees, so he got his hands on some free Plexiglas that was being thrown away and put it along the fence so the squirrels wouldn’t be able to walk alongside the berries. He spent hours putting it all together. Again, we waited and watched as the green berries emerged a few weeks ago.

Today, after being away for five days, we came home to a raspberry patch that was bursting with raspberries. My daughter jumped out of the car and started picking berries before even going in the house. She picked this:

A pound of raspberries! After she came in, I went out and picked a couple more handfuls. Later, my husband went out and picked another handful. I’m so excited, and I don’t even know where to begin. Muffins or raspberry cookie bars or jam? Berry sauce to mix into our yogurt? Raspberry mint iced tea? This is going to be a berry good week around here.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Strategies for Saving Money Tagged With: food, gardening, raspberries

Chocolate Zucchini Bites

June 21, 2012 by Annemarie 28 Comments

When I start getting zucchini in my farm share, this recipe jumps to mind. It’s a delicious little snack, and it’s a fun way for my children to eat zucchini. It’s one vegetable that they don’t like in any other form, so I make this recipe a lot!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup gluten-free flour*
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup maple syrup
1/3 cup mashed banana or 1/3 cup applesauce
¼ cup coconut oil
1 egg
1 cup shredded zucchini

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 24-mini-muffin pan and a mini-loaf pan.
Sift the dry ingredients into a small bowl.
In a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients together and then add the dry ingredients. Stir together to combine, and then fold in the zucchini.
Bake the mini-muffins for 20-25 minutes and the mini-loaf for 45 minutes. Alternately, if you have 2 mini-muffin pans, bake the whole batch in mini-muffin form.
Cool on a wire rack.

Price Breakdown
This recipe costs $3.96 to make, or $.33 per serving. A serving is made up of 3 mini-muffins or ¼ of the small loaf. This is a delicious, nutritious, affordable snack that you can feel good about giving to your children (if you don’t eat them all yourself first).

*My gluten-free flour mix is 4 parts brown rice flour, 2 parts tapioca flour, 1 part potato starch, and ½ tsp. xanthan gum for every cup of flour.

Linking to Ingredient Spotlight, Fresh Bites Friday, Farm Girl Friday, Monday Mania, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Fat Tuesday, Allergy Free Wednesday, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, What’s in the Box?

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, dairy free, food, gluten free, Recipe, zucchini muffin

Rainbow Salad in a Mason Jar

June 18, 2012 by Annemarie 23 Comments

This delicious salad covers several food groups in one little jar. I love how pretty it looks, and it tastes so good even the kids love it. It’s a great way to bring a salad to school, work, or on a picnic. Putting the dressing at the bottom of the jar keeps it away from the lettuce at the top so it doesn’t get soggy. You just shake it up when you’re ready to eat.

Ingredients for the Dressing:
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs. lime juice
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. honey
½ tsp. salt

Contents of the Salad:
1 cup carrot, sliced
1 cup red pepper, chopped
2/3 cup blueberries
4 hard-boiled eggs, cooled and chopped
1 cup croutons, cooled
2 cups lettuce, chopped

To make the croutons:
2 slices of whole grain bread (wheat bread or gluten-free bread)
2 tsp. olive oil
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. paprika

To Make the Croutons:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the bread into small, bite-sized cubes and place them in a medium bowl.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika.
4. Pour the contents of the small bowl over the bread cubes and stir to coat evenly.
5. Spread the bread cubes in an 8 x 8 inch pan and bake for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Assembling the Salad:
1. You will need four pint-sized mason jars to hold the salads.
2. In the bottom of each jar, place 1/4 of the dressing.
3. On top of the dressing in each jar, place 1/4 cup of carrots, followed by 1/4 cup of red peppers, then 1/4 of the blueberries, then one chopped hard-boiled egg, then 1/4 cup of croutons, and finally 1/2 cup of lettuce on top.
4. Place the lids on the jars and store in the refrigerator.
5. To serve the salad, shake the jar so the dressing is well-distributed and the contents are mixed.

Price Breakdown
This recipe costs a total of $4.83 to make. This comes out to $1.21 per serving for a wonderful, colorful salad that the adults and children in my house love.

Linking to Summer Salad Sundays, My Meatless Mondays, Make Your Own Monday, Mix It Up Monday, Monday Mania, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Traditional Tuesdays, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesday, Fight Back Friday.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, dairy free, food, mason jar salad, Recipe

Ice Cream Sandwiches (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)

June 16, 2012 by Annemarie 4 Comments

I recently posted a recipe for ice cream sandwiches that included gluten and dairy. As promised, this is my gluten-free, dairy-free version. You can substitute any dairy-free ice cream or sorbet, but I do love the combination of cherries and chocolate. I personally think the gluten-free sandwiches taste better than the wheat version, but they’re both delicious.

Ingredients for the Ice Cream:
1 ½ cups cherries, chopped fine
1 13.5 oz. can full-fat coconut milk (not light)
1/3 cup maple syrup
½ ripe banana, mashed

Combine ingredients in a large bowl. Once they are well-combined, transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker and mix according to the manufacturer’s directions. I use the ice cream attachment that goes with my Kitchen Aid mixer. After churning the ice cream, place it in the freezer to solidify it. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, just mix it all up in a food processor or blender and then freeze.

Ingredients for the Sandwich Base:
½ cup melted coconut oil
½ cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup gluten-free flour*
¼ cup cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 8×8 inch pans.
Combine the wet ingredients in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine well.
Transfer the mixture to the greased pans.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the sandwich base is set and the edges are pulling away from the sides a bit.
Cool completely on a wire rack.

To assemble:

Soften the ice cream slightly so that you can spread it. Don’t let it get runny.
Place one of the sandwich bases (top side down) on a piece of plastic wrap and spread the ice cream evenly on it.
Put the other sandwich base on top of the ice cream (top side up) and wrap the whole thing with plastic wrap.
Freeze for at least 2 hours to let it solidify. Remove from the freezer and cut it in half. Then, cut each section into 6 sandwiches for a total of 12 sandwiches. Enjoy immediately or wrap the sandwiches individually and return them to the freezer.

Price Breakdown
The total cost of this recipe is $8.49, with the ice cream costing $4.57 and the sandwich base costing $3.92. I don’t know of any real food, gluten-free, dairy-free ice cream sandwiches for sale at a store, so I can’t make a comparison. At $.70 a sandwich, this is a great summer treat for anyone with gluten and dairy allergies.

*My gluten-free flour mix is 4 parts brown rice flour, 2 parts tapioca flour, 1 part potato starch, and ½ tsp. xanthan gum for every cup of flour.

Linking to Show and Tell Saturday, Made from Scratch Monday, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Allergy-free Wednesday, Allergy Friendly Friday.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, dairy free, food, gluten free, ice cream sandwich, Recipe

Strawberry Pesto Salad

June 14, 2012 by Annemarie 6 Comments

I know, I know – enough with the strawberries already. I will move in another direction soon, I promise. This salad is a unique way to use strawberries, and it makes a simple, quick, flavorful dinner. This pesto also goes well with pasta.

Ingredients:
½ cup sliced strawberries
¼ cup walnuts
¼ cup basil
¼ tsp. diced garlic
1 red pepper, chopped
½ tsp. salt
1 tbs. olive oil
1 medium head butter lettuce, chopped
4 scallions, diced

In a food processor, make the pesto by combining 1 tablespoon of strawberries, the walnuts, the basil, the garlic, 1 tablespoon of red pepper, salt, and olive oil.
In a large salad bowl, toss together the lettuce, scallions, remaining strawberries, and remaining red pepper.
Divide the salad among four salad bowls, and top each salad with a tablespoon of pesto.

Price breakdown
The total cost of this salad is $4.93, making it $1.23 per serving. What’s better than a unique summery salad for just over a dollar a bowl?

Linking to Fight Back Friday, Wellness Weekend, Summer Salad Sundays, Meatless Monday.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, dairy free, food, gluten free, Recipe, strawberry

Strawberry Spinach Crepes

June 13, 2012 by Annemarie 2 Comments

I posted a fruity breakfast crepe recipe a few days ago, and today I have a more savory version. I love the combination of savory and sweet, and these crepes are a great way to enjoy that combination. Strawberries and spinach are in season at the same time here in Massachusetts, so this is a great dish to serve in June. The lemon-lime dressing is a perfect complement to the flavor of the strawberries. If you double the crepe recipe, you will have a dozen extra crepes to put in the freezer for a day when you want something special to eat but you don’t feel like cooking!

Ingredients for the crepes:
2/3 cups gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 eggs
1 ½ cups rice milk or cow’s milk
2 tablespoons melted ghee or butter

To make the crepes, mix together the batter the night before you plan to make them. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the first three ingredients. Slowly add the milk and ghee until combined.
Refrigerate the batter overnight.
In the morning, stir the batter and heat a bit of ghee in your crepe pan over medium heat. Pour enough batter into the pan to make a thin crepe, swirling the pan around to cover evenly. When the bottom is beginning to brown (after about 2 minutes), carefully flip the crepe and cook the other side for about 10 seconds. If it’s difficult to flip, you may need to cook it a little longer. Once both sides are lightly browned, carefully remove the crepe from the pan and continue with the rest of the batter. This makes about 12 crepes.

Ingredients for the filling:
3 cups fresh spinach leaves
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
3 scallions, sliced thin
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs. lime juice
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. honey
½ tsp. salt

Prepare the spinach, strawberries, and scallions, and stir them together in a large bowl.
Mix the remaining 5 ingredients in a small bowl, and add the dressing to the large bowl.
Stir well to coat the spinach and strawberries with the dressing.
Distribute the filling among the crepes and serve immediately.

Price Breakdown
This batch of 12 crepes costs a total of $4.04 to make. It makes four generous servings of three crepes each, with each plate of 3 crepes coming in at $1.01. This brings me again to the $8.00 crepes that I encountered throughout the streets of Montreal last summer. I’m so happy that I can make a whole batch of wonderful crepes for such an affordable price.

Note: Crepe batter recipe adapted from Bette Hagman’s book, The Gluten-free Gourmet.