Roasted cabbage

I made this recipe the other day, and it's really good! I added chopped Maui onions on top, lemon juice, and paprika.

Kitchen adventures

I tried pickling for the first time several weeks ago, and I've been on a pickling kick ever since. It started when I got some cucumbers in my CSA box (Lucy and I ate the first ones today--delicious!).



I've also tried radishes (easy recipe here--SO good), green beans (also delicious, recipe in the same place), and garlic (ask me if it's good in 3 months when it's ready--I think it will turn out sweet! It's supposed to be a treat to take when you're getting sick with a cold).

Here's the pickled garlic recipe. Making it this way preserves the raw garlic benefits (mostly from allicin, which is formed from garlic when a compound called alliin in garlic comes into contact with the garlic enzyme alliinase when raw garlic is cut, crushed or chewed. When you heat or cook garlic, alliinase becomes inactivated, preventing the production of allicin).

Fresh garlic cloves (several bulbs worth)
Tamari or soy sauce or apple cider vinegar
Honey, raw if possible
Jar with lid
Wax paper

Carefully peel the cloves of garlic without nicking them. (If you nick them, they will look funny but are still usable). Peel enough to fill a jar. You can use any size jar.

Fill the jar with either tamari or apple cider vinegar. Not sure which you'd like the best? Make a jar of each to compare! If the jar's lid is metal, cover the mouth of the jar with wax paper and then screw on the lid. Place a label on the jar. Shake daily for 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks, pour off half the vinegar or tamari. (Save this for using in cooking). Add honey to fill to top. Recover and shake. Shake daily for another 6 weeks.

The garlic is now ready to eat! You can eat them as a treat or take at the first sign of illness. Delicious! The liquid can be used in cooking. It makes a great marinade for meat.

A new recipe: GFCFSF peanut butter fudge

I saw this recipe and could barely wait to try it. I made some alterations so that it is now GFCFSF! Coconut oil in its solid form can be used as a straight substitution for butter, and it's also extremely healthy. And instead of milk, I used almond milk, which I thought would work OK since this is a nut butter recipe anyway. (Oh, and I definitely can't take credit for the picture. It's from Julie at Joy's Hope.)

The verdict after we all tried the fudge tonight after dinner: it's a little too coconutty. If I make it again, I'll cut the coconut oil (maybe to 4 T) and add more peanut butter, and hopefully that won't mess up the consistency too much.

Ingredients
3-½ cups powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup almond milk
¾ cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour the powdered sugar into a large bowl & set aside.

Melt coconut oil in saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add in brown sugar and almond milk; stir to combine.

Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring the whole time.

Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter & vanilla extract.

Pour the hot, peanut butter mixture over the powdered sugar.

Beat until smooth.

Pour into an 8×8″ dish and put in the fridge for at least 5 minutes to firm.

Once it's cool, cut it into squares. Enjoy!

Here's Nate with the beater:

Recipe: Cabbage & bacon over rice

This is one of those recipes where the combination of ingredients sounds a bit strange. But the results are really delicious! I love that there are so few ingredients, and I love that cabbage is really good for you. Another bonus for our family: this recipe is already gluten-, casein-, and soy free.

Cabbage & Bacon over Rice, originally from Jon’s Grandma Capps (his dad’s mom)
1 large head cabbage
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
½ lb. bacon
8 oz. can tomato sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

Slice bacon into ½” pieces and put into large skillet with onion. Chop cabbage into bite-size pieces. Cook bacon & onion over low/medium heat until onion begins to get tender. Add 3 cloves garlic, crushed. Stir, adding small amount of water (maybe ¼ cup). Add cabbage over top, pouring 1 can tomato sauce on top of it (swishing a little water in can & pouring it in). Cook, stirring until cabbage cooks down & is tender over low heat (can cover the skillet to make cooking go faster if necessary). Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve over rice.

Easy dinner: orange mango chicken

I made this recipe last night. It was very easy and used all ingredients I always have on hand (except the mango, which is easy enough to get).

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/8 teaspoon ground thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 lemon, juiced
1 cup orange juice
1 mango - peeled, seeded and sliced
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place chicken breast halves in the skillet, and cook 5 to 10 minutes on each side, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Season both sides with thyme, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Heat the lemon juice in the skillet over medium heat, and scrape up browned bits. Mix in orange juice, mango, ginger, and cinnamon. Over high heat, cook and continuously stir 4 to 5 minutes, until thickened. Spoon over the cooked chicken breast halves (and rice) to serve.

P.S. This recipe is GFCFSF!

The wonder of the smoothie

I often feel like my greatest physical responsibility for my kids is feeding them properly, and I felt like a big failure in this area when Nate turned out to be such a finicky eater. I didn't do anything drastically different with Lucy, and she has turned out to be an eat-everything-offered-and-then-more kind of child. Case in point: today at lunch she ate broccoli, chicken, carrots, water chestnuts, cheese, tomatoes, and toast (meanwhile, Nate ate a corn tortilla, 3 walnuts with encouragement, and applesauce). This has relieved a lot of the guilt I had before, because I've realized that I did my best under the circumstances with Nate.

To get good fruits and vegetables into Nate, I've started making smoothies every night at dinner. It is amazing what kinds of things you can put into a smoothie and still have it taste good. Can you believe that banana covers up the taste of fresh spinach or frozen broccoli? It does. I've found, though, that nothing covers up the taste of peas. That smoothie was yucky.

Here is how I make my favorite gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free versions of smoothies (makes 2 generous servings):

One half to a whole banana
Half an avocado
Handful Trader Joe's (TJ's) frozen berries (blue, rasp, black)
4-5 fresh strawberries or TJ's frozen strawberries
Handful fresh, washed spinach leaves or handful frozen broccoli
About 3/4 cup apple juice
6-7 ice cubes

Blend and serve!

I always include whatever fresh fruit I have on hand (today was kiwi). I also sometimes throw in some TJ's frozen mango, which has become a favorite purchase.

After I blend, I reserve a little bit for Lucy (she loves them too), then I add Nate's special multivitamin powder (we just started it this week, and it's powdery, crunchy, and kind of yucky) and blend his some more.

Favorite meal: Torta di Pasta

This is one of Giada's recipes, and I've made it five or six times. It turns out like a pasta-quiche-pie sort of thing that you cut into wedges. (It isn't as mushy as a quiche; the noodles stay intact and stick together to form the tort.) I just love it!

Giada's Torta di Pasta

8 ounces spaghetti
1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
4 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
3/4 cup grated fontina (a soft cheese I get from Trader Joe's)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
I also add 1/2 to 1 tsp Italian seasoning with the egg mixture

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain. Toss with the sun-dried tomatoes. Set aside to cool completely (otherwise, the hot pasta could curdle the eggs when you add them later on). It helps to spread the noodle-tomato mix onto a cookie sheet; this helps it cool faster.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, salt, pepper, Parmesan, fontina, and Italian seasoning to blend. Add the cooled spaghetti mixture; toss to coat.

Preheat the broiler. Melt the butter and oil in a 9 1/2-inch-diameter nonstick* skillet over medium heat. Transfer the spaghetti mixture to the skillet, pressing to form an even layer. Cook until the bottom is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the broiler. Broil until the top is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Cool in the skillet for at least a few minutes.

Invert the torta onto a platter. Cut into wedges. Giada says to serve at room temperature, but I like it a little warmer.

*My nonstick skillets do not tolerate the broiler's heat, so I use my regular stainless steel skillet.

Other recommendations: Jon doesn't love sundried tomatoes, so I pick them out of one part of the torta before I put the skillet in the broiler. Other good things to add in addition to or instead of the tomatoes are chopped mushrooms, peppers (haven't done these but would work well), black olives, or most anything you can think of!

Favorite meal: taco soup

This taco soup recipe has been a mainstay in the Varela household (though I haven't made it lately). It is so easy and so good, and I often have nearly all of the ingredients on hand.



Taco soup (modified from a crock pot recipe book)

1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey (I use the entire 1.25 lb. package of 99% lean ground turkey from the grocery store)
1/2 cup chopped onion (sometimes I use more)
28-oz. can whole tomatoes with juice
14-oz. can kidney beans with juice
14-oz. can black beans with juice
17-oz. can corn with juice (not creamed corn... I made that mistake once)
8-oz. can tomato sauce (I use the larger size can tomato sauce to make up for the extra meat)
2 packages dry taco seasoning (one hot envelope and one mild envelope, but you may vary this)

Brown beef (turkey) and onions in skillet. Toward end of browning, mix in a packet of hot taco seasoning. Drain if needed. Combine all ingredients (including second seasoning packet) in large pot. Cover and heat to bubbling, then uncover, turn heat super low, and let simmer for as long as desired (sometimes I cook for 20 minutes, sometimes a couple of hours). Stir occasionally.

Notes: Sometimes I stir in an 8-oz. can of tomato paste to thicken it a bit and add some zest. I serve with shredded cheese, tortilla chips to break on top (Jon uses Fritos), sour cream, avocado, etc. The soup saves and reheats really well too. I've made the soup lots of different ways and it always turns out great--sometimes I don't have one of the beans on hand or I add in a different kind of bean like garbanzo.

Favorite meal: lemon poppy chicken

I just have to share one of my new favorite recipes with you. I love one-dish meals, and though this one is a little bit more labor-intensive than some of the other ones I make, it is definitely worth it.



Rachel Ray's Lemon Poppy Chicken with Mint and Green Pea Couscous

Serves 4

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (4 times around the pan)
1.5 pounds thin chicken breast cutlets, cut into bite-size dice (I use my regular Costco chicken breasts)
Flour, for dredging
Salt and black pepper
Zest of 2 lemons
2 T poppy seeds (this always seems a little much to me, so I do about 1 to 1.5 T)
3 cups chicken stock
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T butter
1.5 cups couscous
1 (10-ounce) package frozen petite peas
1/2 cup fresh basil, 10 to 12 leaves, chopped or torn
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, a generous handful, chopped

Heat the olive oil in large shallow skillet over medium-high heat until the oil ripples. Dredge the chicken lightly in the flour, add to the skillet, and season liberally with salt and pepper. Brown for a couple of minutes on one side, then turn the chicken pieces and add the lemon zest to the skillet and sprinkle in the poppy seeds. Continue to cook until the chicken is evenly golden brown in color, 6 to 7 minutes. In the last minute or two of cooking, stir in 1.5 cups of the chicken stock, the lemon juice, and 1 T of the butter.

While the chicken cooks, bring the remaining 1.5 cups of chicken stock and 1 T of butter to a boil in a saucepot. Add the couscous and peas, stir, cover the pot, and turn off the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork and mix in the basil and mint. Serve the lemon poppy chicken on a bed of the couscous.

(My notes: sometimes the frozen peas don't warm up all the way in the couscous, causing it all to be cold. I think it works best to let the peas thaw a bit first. This meal also makes great leftovers.)

(This meal can be made GFCF by making the following changes: use rice flour or another GF flour instead of regular flour; use CF butter substitute instead of butter--at least for the chicken portion; cook a separate portion of rice and peas to be eaten in place of the couscous mixture.)