Lentil Salad, and soak your beans

So do you remember me saying that I usually skip the step where you are supposed to soak your beans and lentils and some grains before you start cooking them? I just recently found out why it is that you should do that and it makes total sense. If you soak them, because the are seeds, you start to "wake them up". They get ready to sprout which releases more nutrients and also makes them more digestible. Now I know, I'll be soaking my beans from now on.

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I made this tasty salad for the first time last weekend to use up some leftover lentils, IT tasted reaaly good so I'm passing it on.

Lentil Salad

4-5 cups cooked black organic lentils (These should be soft enough to chew without tasting chalky, but still firm)

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chili powder or cajun seasoning

2-3 celery stacks finely sliced

Large handful of cilantro, chopped fine, stems and all.

1/2 red bell pepper thinly sliced

4-5 jumbo garlic stuffed green olives, sliced

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup of lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and serve.

This tasted so good I had it for breakfast the next day too.

Yay!

I was starting to feel depressed about this losing weight thing because I didn't feel like I was making much progress. Until today when I tried on my jeans, my comfy jeans from before I was pregnant, and I can do them up, and zip, with out even sucking in! They still feel too tight compared to how they used to fit, but two months ago the buttons had a 5 inch gap that I could not close because of the belly in the way. Maybe in another month or two I'll fit into my skinny jeans. I'd guess I'm an 8 now, still a ways to go to get back to 4.

I'm thinking about your questions, Becca gave me a tricky one, I"ll post when I have something.

In the meantime, here is a link to one of my favorite ways to serve vegetables, year round but especially in the summer. Roast them.

Okay, I admit it. I'm in a food slump. We've been sick and sleep deprived and I'm just making food and serving it while trying to stay ahead of the laundry and the pee on the toilet rim. I know it's such a glamorous job this mommy thing isn't it?

I think to myself, "I could post the recipe for beef dip that I invented last week", and then I think, "That that seems kind of lame", but really you're here for recipes and cooking ideas aren't you? So here you go.

Crock Pot Beef Dip

In the morning take a raw london broil brown it a little in a skillet and place it in the crock pot. Season with thyme, onion flakes, garlic, pepper, oregano, and a little bit of salt. Add about 3 tbsps soy sauce, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp red wine, and a splash of hot sauce. Cook on the low setting for 6 or more hours, until the meat pulls apart with a fork.

At dinner time take enough whole grain rolls for your family, slice in half and place on a flat cookie sheet. Add two slices of Monterey Jack cheese to one side of each bun. Toast under the broiler in your oven, or toaster oven, until cheese is melted. Pull apart the beef with a fork and place inside each bun to form a sandwich. From the crock pot take the juices, they taste delish, and give everyone at the table their own bowl of the "au jus". Let them dip their sandwiches in the juice before every bite. Serve them vegetables too.

Some things to add for grown-up palates are horseradish, whole seed mustard, and chopped pepperoncinis.

If anyone is still reading after my almost two week hiatus, what do you want to know? Ask and I will answer.

So it's passover tonight and I'm again making Charoset because we all agree that mine tastes the best. This is a special food that is specifically for the passover Seder and is meant to resemble the mortar used by the children of Israel during their period of slavery in Egypt, it is eaten in remembrance.

However, I always make a massive batch of Charoset because once the meal is over it is rapidly consumed by everyone on Matzos until it runs out. I just realized as I was making it that not only is it tasty, it's a pretty healthy snack to serve at any time of year, so here is my recipe.

Charoset

6 or 7 apples cored and peeled and then finely pureed, or a 14 oz jar of sugar free organic apple sauce.

1-2 cups of almonds, walnuts, pecans, combined, or just one kind of nut.

1 cup raisins or dates

the seeds from 10-15 cardamom pods

1 tsp cinnamon

(Tradition calls for the ingredients to be held together and sweetened with wine or honey so I add a little bit of each in honor of this, but you don't need it for every day snacking.)

In a blender grind the nuts and cardamom until they are a fine powder, pour out and combine with the pureed apples. Next puree the raisins until they are in small pieces also, add to the apples nuts and cardamom. Stir in the cinnamon and serve on matzo crackers, or any cracker.

Store in the fridge. Eat within a couple of days.

This recipe tastes great and is full of fiber protein and nutrients.

all about ice cream

A few weeks ago I went to Dairy Queen for dessert after my SIL's birthday party. I decided I may as well go all out and ordered the brownie mudslide something or other, not expecting to finish it, but thinking to enjoy a taste. I ended up throwing almost all of it out. The brownies didn't even taste like chocolate, more like corn syrup, ditto on the chocolate sauce. I was disappointed, but I also realize that I've been spoiled in the ice cream department. So here for your enjoyment this weekend are several ways to top your ice cream that you can make at home, simply, and are full of REAL FOOD.

My husband is a creative dessert genius so many of these are his specialties. He consistently makes blackberries taste better than anyone else I have known.

Blackberry Ginger Sauce

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan place:

12 oz of blackberries fresh or frozen. (One bag of frozen berries from Trader Joe's is the perfect size)

1/2 cup of honey

2-3 tsp minced ginger

Simmer over medium heat stirring occasionally. The berries will start to break down and turn into a syrup. It is quite alright if it is lumpy. Spoon over good quality vanilla ice cream and eat immediately. Any leftover can be stored in a jar in the fridge and keeps for at least two weeks. (It's never lasted longer than that around here so I don't know past that.)

If it's not sweet enough for you, add some more honey.

Raspberry Sauce

Repeat the steps above only leave out the ginger. Feel free to add cinnamon, to help your blood sugar stay stable. Remember, you are pouring this over sweet ice cream, so it doesn't have to be all that sweet itself, go for a nice balance once the two are combined. You can go on and do this with strawberries, I recommend less honey, and blueberries, and Saskatoons (but only if you are in Canada or somewhere far enough north to pick them.) You get the general idea.

My mother used to make home made chocolate sauce all the time when I was growing up. I've adapted her recipe somewhat as she added more sugar than I like.

Hot Fudge Sauce

In a double boiler melt some dark or bittersweet chocolate, once the chocolate has melted stir in cream until it is of a runny enough consistency to pour, or dollop over ice cream. Be careful not to over heat it or work it as it will become grainy. It will harden once on the ice cream and make a sort of crackle shell.

This will also keep in the fridge indefinitely but will need to be warmed again to reserve.

For less expensive versions of this you can start with butter and icing sugar and add cocoa powder and cream until it is smooth and fudgy. Or you can start with baker's chocolate and add sugar and cream. In both of these options you are in complete control of the sugar content, remember it is going with something already sweet. Serve it alone, or add strawberries, bananas, peanuts, etc. and make your own ice cream creations.

Finally we come to caramel sauce. There is a creamery in Bakersfield California that makes the best Caramel sauce I have ever tasted, it's called Rosemarie's and they also make their own ice cream. But since I don't live there and have only stopped through a few times on road trips, we have attempted to make our own, and it's as good I think. Caramel is really just caramelized sugar and butter. I've never tried to make it from scratch completely because real caramel is easy to find. So I start with caramels and a double boiler. Melt the caramels in the double boiler, add a bit more butter (unsalted) for a runnier consistency, and stir in a lot of cinnamon.
WARNING: This is highly addictive and you with find yourself wanting to lick the spoon, your fingers and anything else that gets some on it. This can be poured into a jar while warm and keeps in the cupboard indefinitely. It also needs to be reheated before you can pour it again.

So, if you plan to indulge this weekend, try some of these. They taste way better than anything you can find at the store, I promise. One final word about ice cream. Don't get the yucky fake stuff just because it's cheaper, there's a reason for it being cheaper, get some good quality ice cream and enjoy less of it, you don't need extra servings anyway. If the ingredients contain something other than milk, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla, chocolate, or other natural flavors, especially if they have added oil, do not buy it. Brands that I can recommend are the Breyer's Original, (Not the new and improved creamy kind, it's not an improvement at all and not all natural anymore.) and Double Rainbow Vanilla and Chocolate Fudge available at Trader Joe's.

flour

Whole grains are better for you. They contain many more nutrients than more refined flours because most of the nutrient content is in the germ and the bran. The best kind of flour you can eat is flour that was ground less than 24 hours ago. After 24 hours the nutrients start to die off due to oxidation, (exposure to air) and the longer a flour sits on the shelf the more it resembles glue paste and the less it resembles food. I know a lot of families who have a grain grinder and bulk order buckets of whole grains that they grind in small batches so they always have fresh flour for baking. Not everyone can afford to buy a grinder, like me. (I can borrow my MIL's though, and do often.)

What the rest of us can do is this. Check the dates on the whole wheat flour you buy at the market. Try to get it as recent as possible. Keep your flour in the freezer to keep the oils in the germ from going rancid. If you can't find whole wheat flour at your local store, you can either talk to the manager and request that they keep some in stock, or you can start looking around online and order in bulk. If you live anywhere near where grain is grown, find out where the grain is milled and stored and buy it straight from there. (My grandpa is a farmer so we got all of our flour this way, from his fields.)

One flour that I like to use is King Arthur Flour white whole wheat flour.
Not only is it free from bleaches, bromates, and chemicals, it's a very light whole wheat flour because it is made from winter wheat instead of regular wheat. This flour adapts very well to recipes that call for white flour. Trader Joe's carries it, but so do Albertson's and Von's, so I imagine that if you live in the US it is readily accessible.

One other thing that I have done that is fairly simple to do is to sprout my own wheat berries and add them to bread. This of course assumes that you are making your own bread. Sprouts significantly increase the nutrient content in the grain and make the bread fairly sweet.

To learn how to sprout wheat go here.

I have made bread by just adding the sprouts to the bread recipe, it comes out with a very strong texture and a few hard bits. I prefer to dry the sprouts in the oven for a few hours on its lowest setting and then grind them in the blender before adding them to my flour.

Granola and kid snacks

I forgot a few thing in that last post that make snacks funner.

Spread nut butter and jam, or hummus and cucumbers, or melt some cheese onto a tortilla and then roll it tightly and cut into one inch sections. Kids are usually excited by these little roll ups.

Use a cookie cutter to cut out sandwiches into interesting shapes.

Slice oranges, or kiwi, etc. into circles, or half circles for short people, and arrange in a flower around the outside of a plate. In the center of the flower put a small bowl of dip, or some berries, or both. Presentation is everything with children.

Take a whole carrot and with a sharp knife cut out 3 or four little wedges length wise. Thinly slice the carrot and you end up with a whole bunch of little flower shapes.

Those are just a few more ideas to help you make snacks exciting for your children.

Here is a simple granola recipe.

5 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1cup chopped almonds or whatever else you like
1/2 cup chopped pumpkin seeds (optional)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger
1tsp vanilla extract

preheat oven to 350 F. In a 9"by 13" pan spread out oats and heat for 10 minutes.
In a saucepan melt the butter and add the honey, almonds, coconut, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla. Mix into the pan with the oatmeal and bake for 30 minutes. You have to stir it often to get everything toasted evenly.
When it has cooled add 1-2 cups dried fruit (raisins, chopped dates, dried apples, blueberries, cranberries, etc. Sometimes I just cheat and add a bag of trail mix from Trader Joe's, my favorite is the Nuts about Antioxidants blend.)
You can also add 1/2cup of sunflower seeds.
Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.

This recipe has no clusters in it, to get that kind of consistency you need to use sugar and bake it more like a bar and then break it up after.