Zucchini Candy

Zucchini Candy.....wait what?

I love farm markets. You can get the best deals on great produce. However, just because its a great deal, does not mean you always have a plan for it. I stumbled upon some baseball size zucchini for 1.00 each. I am not sure what I was thinking. I got them home and stared at them for a bit. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for zucchini gummy candies.  I was a bit worried as to how they would turn out because zucchini is not normally something I associate with candy, but they are DELICIOUS and really easy to make.

I had three of these giant Zucchini. So I decided to try 3 different kinds of candy.

All that is needed to do this is roughly 7-8 cups of diced Zucchini and one container of frozen juice concentrate. 

I tried three different kinds Bacardi Strawberry Daquari, Pineapple coconut and Natural Apple Cherry juice. I will say that the natural fruit juice worked much better flavor wise, in the finished product. The other two were Bacardi mixers and though good, did not stand out as much on the taste buds.

 First Dice the Zucchini.....

Then put it in a pot with the juice concentrate and one can of water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to simmer until zucchini is translucent. add some food coloring if you want a more exotic color (i turned the pineapple coconut one blue)

Then, spread out your cooked zucchini on dehydrator trays and dehydrate over night. Store in containers in the fridge and eat at will. These are great little bites of sweet fruit flavor.

Pot Stickers

Chicken and Leek Pot Stickers

The make ahead meal everyone likes.

Pot stickers are an easy, cheap way to make a lot of food with just a little meat. You can fill them with anything you like. I chose chicken and leeks because it is what I had on hand, but pork, shrimp, vegetables, tofu, beef....anything goes.

Once frozen made you have a large amount of grab and go food that takes less than 15 minutes to cook.

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 large leeks

3 cloves of garlic

1 tbs sesame oil

2 tbs Shoyu

1.5 tbs fresh minced ginger

1 package dimsum or wonton wrappers. 

1 egg

1 tbs water

Process:

Place the chicken, leeks, shoyu, sesame oil, garlic and ginger in a blender and puree. (I grind my own meats, so I rarely have ground chicken on hand. This is also a great way to make sure everything is mixed well.)

Mix the water and egg to make an egg wash. Take a wrapper and dampen the edge with egg wash. Place about 1 tbs of meat mixture into each wrapper. Crimp the wrapper closed making sure there are no air pockets.

This is the long part of the process. I usually watch a movie while filling my pot stickers.

Place each pot sticker on a baking sheet. When the sheet is full place in freezer for 2 hours. Then take them out and put them in a baggie for easier storage. 

BONUS ROUND-

There is always extra meat mixture when making pot stickers. You can freeze this for a later date, roll them into balls and steam them to make "nude" wontons or.....

 Chicken and Leek Meatballs

Pour the leftover egg wash into the leftover meat mixture and add in one cup of leftover rice. 

Form into balls and pan fry. Serve with some wasabi laced shoyu.

Collard Greens, the other vegetable

Collard Greens

I had never eaten a Collard Green. I had always just assumed they cooked up like some sort of elongated cousin of spinach. I have never been a cooked spinach fan (outside of a quiche that is, but add enough egg and cheese to anything and it makes it better). Throughout the years I have wandered through the market and pretended that these leafy greens were just shelf decoration, until one day when I felt the bravery well up in me and I decided to try something new. 

The best way to try new foods is fried....let’s face it everything is better fried. Batter dip and fry anything to look like a chicken nugget and it automatically becomes less scary.  However, fried really does not fit with the healthy image. The second best way to get people to eat food is to add bacon. Bacon goes with everything.  I added bacon and cheese and amazingly the result was delicious and not nearly as daunting as I had thought. Like spinach, Collards have that earthy taste to them, but it is oddly pleasant and I found it to be less sharp than Spinach. So be daring, give it a try, add bacon.

Ingredients-

1.     4 strips of thick cut bacon diced (i have also used lardons of salt pork if I am out of bacon)

2.     1/2 cup Feta cheese crumbles

3.     8 oz. Diced canned tomato

4.     1 tsps. garlic powder

5.     1 clove garlic, minced

6.     1 small onion diced

7.     Salt

8.     Pepper

9.     1 large bunch of collard Greens, Washed with ribs removed and cut into 2" ribbons

Directions-

Dice the bacon into small cubes.  In a large frying pan crisp the bacon cubes. At this point you have a choice to make...pour off the bacon fat/grease for a healthier meal (this is what I did) or keep all that piggy goodness and cook the remainder of the meal in it.  Reserve the bacon and over medium heat cook the onion until becomes translucent. Add in the minced garlic and continue to cook while stirring for about 2 minutes. Drain the diced canned tomato and add it to the onions and garlic and continue cooking on medium heat about 3 minutes. Add the greens and cover. It looks like it will not all fit in the pan, but it will, trust me. In about 5 minutes the collard greens will wilt down. At this point stir, sprinkle with some garlic powder, salt and pepper and leave them alone for a few minutes to stew in their own juices.  Taste, adjust and season as needed and after about 5-8 minutes turn off the heat, drain the juice and toss with the bacon and feta. Serve. (Goes GREAT with pork chops)

Lasagna

A Healthier (slightly) Lasagna

That heavy, fattening but oh so delicious dinner. It has the tri-fecta of pasta, cheesy goodness and meat. In essence perfection on a plate. And like most things delicious, its not really all that good for you. So how to make it better without loosing all that makes it so delicious? a few substitutions, a tweak here and there and you can cut calories and fat, but not corners. This lets you feel better about eating it, and maybe even go back for seconds.

Ingredients:

8oz Low Fat Ricotta
1 pkg spinach flavored no cook lasagna noodles
1tbs granulated garlic
1 tbs Italian seasoning








1lb sausage of choice (I used a homemade venison sausage, it is low fat and my father made it so I know there are no weird ingredients.)

1 tbs chicken bullion- low sodium, msg free
1/2 tbs salt
1/2 tbs pepper
1/2 tbs stevia- sugar substitute
2 cups shredded low fat, skim milk Mozzarella
1 eggplant
1 red onion
1/2 cup Low Fat Shredded Parmesan 
Pasta Sauce (I use home made)

And-
8 oz  drained Plain fat free Yogurt 

This is simple to make ahead, has multiple uses (click the link to find out more) and is so much healthier than even the low fat ricotta.

I make my lasagna with half drained yogurt and half ricotta. It keeps the flavor but cuts the fat and calories.


How to-

In a bowl mix together the ricotta, yogurt and seasonings. Once mixed fold in the shredded Parmesan and set aside. Tip- a potato masher is great for mixing without spilling ingredients all over the place.

Slice the eggplant and the onion thinly and set aside.

Pre heat your oven to 300. This is a dish best cooked low and slow.











In a large baking dish layer the noodles, egg plant, sausage, onion, mozzarella and ricotta mixture.

Pour a small amount of pasta sauce onto each layer.

Repeat until you have 4-5 layers.

Reserve remaining mozzarella cheese. Cover the lasagna, bake for 1.5 hours, remove cover and put the remaining cheese on top. Continue baking uncovered for 20 minutes or until cheese is browned. Remove from heat, let sit for 10 minutes and serve with a bit more sauce if desired.

When Life Gives you Lemon’s…get zesty!

When Life Gives you Lemon’s…get zesty!

I think I have mentioned before that I am cheap. I hate paying full price if I can get an item somewhere cheaper. Yes I am one of those people who will travel to 4 different stores to get what I want and save money.  I always start my veggie shopping at the discount rack. You know the one, the place where old bruised tomatoes go to hang out with slightly dented eggplants. These seldom loved, mostly overlooked fruits are aging but far from useless.  Often they are great finds for cooking immediately, canning or dehydrating and at a fraction of the normal cost.

This week I hit the mother load. Lemons! Lots of Lemons…for $2.00.  Why am I happy about slightly aged sour fruits in bulk?... Because zest is expensive. How often does this scenario happen to you? You find that perfect recipe, you pull out the ingredients only to find your last orange, and lemon or other citrus is long gone to dust? Well my friends this does not ever need to happen to you. All you need is a potato peeler and a jar.

I had 2 dozen slightly soft lemons. It turned into a jar of zest, dehydrated slices and some great Lemon, Garlic and Pepper Seasoning.

How To-

Homemade Lemon Zest

 

With a potato peeler, remove the zest from each lemon. Place it in a single layer in a food dehydrator. Or if you do not have a dehydrator you can do this in the oven. Place in a single layer on a pan or cookie sheet and stick in the oven for a few days. (Don’t forget turn it on or you will have cooked lemon zest)

Don’t throw out the rest of the lemons! Slice them and dehydrate them also. I use mine for ice tea, canning, and potpourri. One of my favorite things is to put a pot of water on the stove while I am cleaning, throw in a cinnamon stick, some dehydrated citrus or a bit of vanilla extract and let it simmer away. It makes the house smell good without all the chemicals of sprays.

This time around I decided to turn all of that lemony goodness into Lemon Garlic Pepper Seasoning.

Homemade Lemon Garlic Pepper Seasoning:

 

How to-

Ingredients:

8-12 dehydrated lemons

3 tbs granulated garlic

3 tbs black pepper

¼ cup raw sugar

1 tbs salt

Dig out your handy magic bullet, grinder or food processor and add in the dehydrated lemon slices.  You want it to be ground down finely.

Then grind the raw sugar. The granules I have around the house are a bit too big for a spice mix.  Add the lemon powder and all other ingredients and mix together. Taste a bit of it! Some times it needs a bit more sugar to counter act the bitter. Remember the pith of the lemon I ground in there too and it can be pretty bitter a bit of sugar goes a long way. Not to mention some people prefer more garlic, some more pepper…make sure it is to your taste. Put it into whatever jar or container you have handy. It’s great on fish, chicken, asparagus or anything you can think of.

Bean Sprout Chicken

Sprouting Dinner

Bored, broke, and dead tired. This has been me for the past few days. No money, no ambition.and few ingredients. Whats a girl to do.

Picture it, my refrigerator, a barren waste land, strewn with half empty bottles of random condiments. A vast emptiness in an enclosed space containing one lonely bulb of garlic, a bag of bean sprouts just a hair short of reaching their shelf life, leftover dried out rice and some boneless chicken breast. The only sign of life is the scallions growing on the counter top. What on earth can you do with that?

You can make deliciousness that's what. This is a true fusion style dish. I tend to have all sorts of spices in my cabinet. Japanese 7 spice powder and kefir lime powder among them. If you are like me and enjoy the more exotic spices but live no where near a spice shop or Asian market, give Season with Spice a try. I buy all my more exotic spices here. They have a great selection, the spices are fresh, ground well and reasonably priced.

Bean Sprout Chicken

1 lb chicken sliced into thin small strips

2 cups bean sprouts

½ cup scallions, just the greens

1 tbs sesame seeds

1 tbs crushed garlic

1 tsp Japanese 7 spice powder

½ tsp kefir lime power (optional)

1 tbs Shoyu

1 tbs Mirin

½ tbs lemon grass (I have the sliced kind in a jar. You can get it in the international foods isle of the grocery store.)

1 tsp corn starch

2 tbs olive oil

Heat wok or sauté pan over medium heat, add oil.  Let the oil heat, and then add the chicken and 7 spice powder.  Once the chicken is ½ cooked add in garlic and lemon grass and ½ Shoyu. Cook the chicken through and add in the bean sprouts. Cook and stir for 3 minutes. Add in remaining scallion tops, Shoyu, Mirin and kefir powder. Cook, stirring constantly for another 2 minutes. Add corn starch to liquid on bottom of the pan to thicken the sauce. Remove from heat, toss with sesame seeds and serve with rice.

Broiled Mushrooms

Fun-gus

I have never been a fan of mushrooms, as previously stated, but I have been slowly rectifying that issue. Lately I found a simple way to make mushrooms that I absolutely adore. For once its not in pickle form.

If you are low on time, energy, ambition or vegetables...this is the dish for you.

Marinated Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 bottle Italian dressing (the cheapest you can find)
1 large package  Portobello or button mushrooms sliced thickly

Items needed:

Container
Tin foil
Pan spray
Cookie sheet

How to:

Wash the mushrooms and slice them. Put in a container and dump Italian dressing on them. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes to over night. I often make these the night before or even two days before I am going to cook them. They do get a bit acidic in flavor the longer you leave them marinating so keep that in mind.

Place oven on 500 degree broil.

Put tin foil over your cookie sheet and spray it with pan spray. Place, do not dump, the mushrooms on the pan. SAVE THE REMAINING DRESSING. I usually chop up a new batch of mushrooms for a day or two later and use the same dressing. Its still good, it just had a mushroom taking a bath for a bit.





Place on the pan farthest from the broiler heat for about 10-15 minutes. Then flip each mushroom over and place closer to heat for another 5 minutes or until edges start to darken. May take a few more minutes depending on your oven.


I love these as an easy side dish or as an addition to a lettuce wrap, burger, salad....they can do no wrong. Since first making these I have eaten them at least twice a week.

Wrap Pizza

Fast Food

 How many of you have had this day. You get up late, forget to take out something for dinner, run through the day at full speed breaking yourself on a wall of exhaustion. You get home only to realize that there is NOTHING to eat, no left overs, no snacks, not even a can of tuna. All you have is frozen and takes to much of your already depleted energy to make. Whats the solution? Pizza Delivery.... Yes, you are saved. You go to your wallet and realize it is growing dust bunnies. /sigh, too poor for take out. This is my life story.

When the above paragraph describes my life, I make what I call fast "thin" crust pizza. Most people have the ingredients on a shelf. Pizza sauce, tortilla wrap, cheese and random veggies.

My freezer always has shredded cheese of some sort. I normally have random fresh or frozen veggies and I always keep wraps on a shelf...the things last forever.

What and How-
Heat the oven to 350
Spread about 3-4 tbs of pasta sauce on your wrap
Sprinkle with cheese
garlic powder if you have it or what ever other spices and topping you have laying around
and random veggies.

Bake for about 10 min until cheese bubbles.
Then place under broiler for about 2 minutes. (WATCH CLOSELY or you will burn.)
just to brown the cheese a bit.

Slice and eat. Its a customizable, fast, cheap and easy dinner.

 

Ramen Girl...

DIY Ramen Seasoning

The story of  one girls search for the perfect bowl of Ramen,

No I am not THAT Ramen Girl, obviously....I am the home sick, to tired to cook, need to feed children quickly kind of Ramen girl.

Who doesn’t remember coming home from school, grabbing that individual red and white packet, popping a bowl of water in the “nuker” and fighting with the little foil packet of overly salted flavor goodness for a quick meal.  It was the food for when mom and dad where not home to make dinner, the cheap eats that got us through college, and the warm winter meal when we were sick or in my case, just to lazy to cook dinner. Ramen Noodles.

I love ramen in just about every flavor. And there were lots of flavors. There was chicken, shrimp, beef, kimchi and hot and spicy varieties. In my youth I ate it right out of the package, uncooked sprinkling the packet O'flavor on the crunchy noodles. In college it was the food of necessity. Now, I add sliced steak, shredded veggies and some hard boiled or even shoyu pickled eggs. If you have had bad experiences with certain brands and unidentifiable "ingredients" but still like ramen type soups this is the recipe for you. Or you can shoot over and give my fish based more "grown up" recipe a try-(check it out). 

Unfortunately, anyone who has stumble onto this blog and actually read it will know that I have gone from carefree food girl, to (semi) gluten free girl because of a combination of old age and digestive problems.

This meant Ramen's traditional yellow curly noodle and gluten laden flavor packets was out. What’s a girl to do. I could cry in my empty bowl, pay the ridiculous price for gluten free (and tasteless) ramen type noodles, OR make my own.We all know option number 3 is my style. I googled a ton of DIY ramen seasoning recipes. Tried many of them, and then decided to mix and match to find the perfect taste. Here is what I came up with.Your tastes may differ, so I recommend playing with the amounts until you get your perfect Ramen!

Basic “Chicken” Ramen Seasoning

3 tablespoons cayenne

3 tablespoons Truvia

5 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger (i like heavy ginger, this may need adjusting for others)
6 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoons ground black pepper

8 tablespoons chicken bullion
1 tablespoon Parsley

Mix it in a bowl and place in a container for storage 2 tbs to 3 cups of water (give or take on each of the spices depending on your taste)

Now as mentioned above, you can make various types of ramenesque seasoning by adjusting the ingredient list ever so slightly.

DIY “Beef” Ramen Seasoning

3 tablespoons cayenne

3 tablespoons Truvia

5 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
6 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoons ground black pepper

8 tablespoons BEEF bullion
1 tablespoon Parsley

DIY “Spicy” Ramen Seasoning

5 tablespoons cayenne

3 tablespoons Truvia

5 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
6 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoons ground black pepper

8 tablespoons chicken or beef bullion (you get the idea on changing the base “flavor” by now. Chicken, Beef, fish bullion, even vegetable works fine)
1 tablespoon Parsley

DIY “Kimchi” Ramen Seasoning

2 tablespoons cayenne

3 tablespoons ground dried Kimchi (see below)

3 tablespoons Truvia

5 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
6 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoons ground black pepper

8 tablespoons chicken bullion
1 tablespoon Parsley

This one takes a bit more effort to make. If you are a Kimchi fan, as I am, and you make your own, set a jar in the back of the fridge and forget it for 2 months or so. Then remove it, drain and dehydrate until it turns into kimchi chips. Throw those in the blender or in my case my magic bullet and turn into powder. Voila!! Kimchi powder. All the unctuous, spicy, cabbagie goodness in dust form.

If you don’t make your own kimchi there are two other ways to do this. One- go to the grocery story and buy already made kimchi, then dehydrate and grind or if you live near an Asian market you can often find already dehydrated kimchi “chips” in the junk food isle. Grind those up and off you go.

Customize and adapt: 

These DIY recipes are infinitely customizable.  Mix and match as you see fit! In my trials I used gluten free bullion, low sodium bullion and Truvia instead of sugar. Yes, one bullion brand even had….MSG. GASP! But it did not really matter one way or the other. The taste was similar whether I used low sodium, non msg or regular. I prefer the low sodium, gluten free variety myself. But that's just me.

The only thing I have not been able to overcome is the noodle issue. The type of noodle used in classic ramen is a gluten based noodle. That can normally be found in the international isle of your grocery store if you want to buy just the dried noodle. I have experimented with bean thread noodles and they were not bad. I also have tried the Korean glass noodles, made with sweet potato starch, chewy, also not bad, but I have not yet found that PERFECT gluten free noodle that screams I AM RAMEN.  If you have found my missing noodles, let me know where and what brand, I will will be a happy girl. 

Until then, enjoy with your favorite noodle. 

 

The Great Fermentation Experiment: SAUERKRAUT

The Great Fermentation Experiment

SAUERKRAUT

I

I love any type of fermented or pickled food. Being of polish heritage this means I grew up eating sauerkraut. This year I decided to make my own. I was a little worried. Oddly I have been making Kimchi for years. It is Kraut's spicy Asian cousin but I found sauerkraut intimidating. Could I do it? Was it hard? How many ingredients did it take?  Questions galore ran through my head.

Not being one to do anything half way, I made 15 liters of it. I was very surprised at how easy it was. 2 ingredients, 2 crocks, a knife and a potato masher are all you need. I watched all sorts of How To videos and read instructions and it seems some people overcomplicated the process. Any way you start the basics are the same.

I had 2 batches a 5 ltr. starting batch that I let ferment exactly as the instructions said and a 10 ltr batch that I let ferment an extra 3 weeks. They were both yummy, but for that little extra punch, the added time was needed.  Turns out I had no need to be wary. It was easy and very few ingredients. Not to mention economic. I bought 4 large (we are talking basketball sized) heads of cabbage for $5.00 at the local farm market and spent $1.00 on a box of salt. So all total I spent $6.00 and I made 15 liters. This is about 20 jars packed full. You have to figure a bag of Sauerkraut at the store runs a minimum of $3.50 (and that is on the low side, the large can at Weis is about 4.00) so....20 jars x $3.50 = $70.00  So I saved about 64.00 total making it myself.

So how do you make it? 

3-4 Large (mine were like soccer balls) heads of cabbage

1 box kosher salt (I used the kind that is slightly bigger grain than table salt)

Fermentation crocks or buckets with lids 

potato masher

knife

cutting board

I sliced my cabbages in roughly 1cm slices (I need to get a cabbage slicer for next year). Put it into the crock a bit at a time and tamp it down really well with the masher. After each 2" layer of cabbage, Sprinkle some salt and build layers of mashed cabbage and salt. It will produce it's own liquid in time. Keep doing this until your crocks are full. Put the weights on top, cover and leave in a cool dry place for 9 weeks. 

NOTE: fermentation crocks are designed to let escaping gasses out. Buckets are not. If you are using plastic buckets you will have to lift the lid every few days or else you are not making

sauerkraut, you are making a KRAUT BOMB. and you don't want that to go off.......

After the Kraut is fermented it is ready to eat (do not be alarmed if there is a bit of mold on the top layer...scrape that off. I did not have any mold, but I took the top layer off anyway. I found it to be a bit mushier than what was underneath. At this point you can cook it with pork, can it for later use or freeze it.  Easy, healthy, no added nonsense. Note: once canned or frozen the fermentation process stops.

I canned most of mine in Pint Jars (you will be surprised at how much sauerkraut fits into a pint jar.) It is enough for a meal for four people in my house.

Asian Style Braised Pork....bits

Asian Style Braised Pork....bits

What is not to love about pork. In particular, pork belly. It may sound unappealing, but essentially it is just bacon that has not reached maturity.  Pork tongue on the other hand may be off-putting for some. Many people have issue with it. After all, it is the only food that can taste you back, but it isn't that scary. Really, its not! I swear! You can trust me.  It's a muscle, like any other cut of meat. Cooked right it is tender, delicious and you cannot tell it apart from other cuts. If you are still not going for it....a small pork roast will work in it's stead. 

This is a weekend fix it and forget  it meal. It takes a lot of time and very little effort. If you want to make a dish that looks like you have slaved all day, tastes like a fancy restaurant made it and took you a total of 10 minutes to prep and get on the stove. Then this is the dish for you.

Even serving this is simple. This is a great dish for making lettuce wraps with. I serve it with a bit of homemade kimchi (see recipe here) and rice.Wrap it in a lettuce leaf and off you go.

Ingredients:

Mirin, 1c

Sake ½ c

Shoyu (Soy Sauce) ½ c

Garlic 2tbs pureed

Ginger 1 tbs pureed

Honey 1 tbs

Gochujang 1.5 tbs (optional spice element. This is a Korean Fermented Chili Paste)

Raw sugar 2 tbs

Water ½ cup

Pork belly (replace with pork roast if preferable but I am telling you, its nothing but un-cured bacon!)

Pork Tongue (replace with pork roast if preferable)

Directions:

Place all ingredients except the meat in a medium pot, whisk together. Add meat, cover and cook on low for 2-3 hours. Check and baste whenever you think about it. You might need to add a bit of water now and then to keep the liquid level up. Remove from heat and let rest 10 min. in cooking liquid.  Slice thin and serve. Simple huh?