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?

Stuffed Mushroom Pickles

 Stuffed Mushroom Pickles

I have always hated mushrooms. They are nasty things whose cousins can grow on your feet. They taste like a sponge and are, all around, not a food ingredient. I believed all of this for 36 years because my mother told me so. Turns out the woman lied. Ok, not totally. I am still am not a huge fan, but they are growing on me. No pun intended. To date there are only two ways I will eat a mushroom. One is ground up in a meatball or ravioli. The other is as a pickle. 

I love pickles. I will try just about anything in pickle form. I am not sure why but I found picked, stuffed mushrooms appealing.  I was watching Barefoot Friends (a cheesy, Korean, reality TV show complete with subtitles) and one of the episodes had mushroom pickles.... Stuffed, Mushroom Pickles. This changed the ball game. They looked appealing; this is a first for me. I normally look at a recipe and try to figure out how to remove or replace the mushrooms. But these were different. They were visually stunning.  Unfortunately, this was not a cooking show, there was no recipe. All I knew was that the guy cooking used King Oyster Mushrooms, scallion and peppers….no idea what the pickling spice was. So after a long, drawn out search I found something similar I could adapt to my experiment.

Turns out when all is said and done, these are some delicious pickles, wonderful sliced and thrown in a kimchi soup or a nice ramen soup. I was shocked I liked them since I am texturally handicapped with some foods.They still have a bit of the spongy mushroom texture but the scallion and pepper in the middle give the needed crunch.

I have to admit they look a bit better when stuffed with multiple colors and then sliced after pickling. But either way they are delish. 

So how are they made?

Ingredients:

1lb Package King Oyster Mushrooms

½ cup canola oil

1 tbs sesame oil

1 bunch scallion

1 Orange and yellow Pepper

1 red hot pepper of choice (I skipped the hot pepper in the first batch because I was out, but they are defiantly well worth adding in the second batch)

1 cup Rice wine vinegar

¼ cup Shoyu (soy sauce)

2 cloves garlic

¼ cup sugar

½ cup cider vinegar

Water

Cut the heads off of each mushroom. In a pan heat the oils. Place the mushroom into the hot oil and watch carefully. Turn over as each side gets to a golden brown. When all sides are brown removed and place on a paper towel to drain.

Poke a spoon handle, chopstick or your finger through the stem of the mushroom and stuff with a piece of scallion and a thin slice of all types of pepper. Place into a container and cover with vinegar/sugar/shoyu solution, drop in the cloves of garlic and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 days then eat. I like to slice mine into rounds and add them to all sorts of dishes.

Yes I realize I said they look visually stunning, they did on the show, there were multiple colors inside and they were sliced really pretty. Mine look like the ugly step sisters. Don't let that stop you though. They taste amazing. The pickled bell of the ball. 

Cold Weather Kimchi Three Ways

Cold Weather Kimchi Three Ways

I love Kimchi, just about every type I have tried. Granted, there are over 200 variations and I have tasted about 10, to date the only type I am not fond of is the Pumpkin Kimchi...but then i detest almost everything pumpkin other than jack-o-lanterns.  So I decided to make a few to complement my standard cabbage kimchi. The nice thing is that kimchi lasts a while in the refrigerator, its healthy and great for a grab and go side, a nice fried rice, garnish or addition to soup.

Baby Bok Choy Kimchi

Ingredients

1.5 lb Baby Bok-choy

1/3 cup coarse sea salt

1 large onion, sliced thinly

5-6 garlic cloves, minced

1/4" slice ginger, minced

1 tbs raw sugar

3-4 fresh chili’s

3 tablespoon Fish sauce

2 tbs Gochujang (Korean fermented chili paste)

1/2 cup Korean chili flakes

Directions

1. Rinse the Bok Choy to remove any dirt. Drain well.
2. In a large shallow bowl spread Bok Choy and sprinkle sea salt evenly over. Cover and let it sit for 40 minutes.
3. Rinse the Bok Choy in cold water and drain.
4. Mix ½ the onion, garlic, ginger, sugar, fish sauce, and chili paste in a blender until smooth. Chop the fresh chili into rings and mix with paste. Place the mixture in a mixing bowl and add Korean chili flakes, mix well.
5. In a large bowl combine Bok Choy and the sliced onion together. Spread the chili mix through all of the Bok Choy leaves and onion making sure to coat inside and out.
6. Eat as is or let sit for 24 hours on the counter in a covered dish then move to refrigerator.
7. Consume within 2 weeks or so. This is one of those kimchi best served fresh.

Dongchimi (radish water kimchi)

This is literally winter kimchi. It is great stuff, served cold with noodles or some rice. 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 small palm-sized Korean radishes, about 5 pounds’ worth
• ⅓ cup salt
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 ts worth of ginger, minced
• 2-3 green chili peppers, stemmed
• 1 cup worth of Korean pear, cut into chunks (can be replaced with 2 sweet pears)
• 3 scallions  washed and drained
• 1 red onion, sliced into pieces ¼ inch thick
• 2 liters (9 cups) of water
• a large glass jar that can hold 6 quarts (6 liters), or 24 cups.

Directions:

1. Wash the radishes thoroughly to remove any dirt. Slice the ends off and peel the radishes.
2. Place ½ cup course salt in a bowl of water and mix until dissolved. Add whole radishes and let sit for 3 hours then remove the radishes and reserve the salt water.
3.  Layer ginger, garlic onion, pear slices, whole chili and other vegetable with radishes inside a large jar. Make a few holes in red and green chili peppers with a fork before you add them for extra heat and flavor or as I did, slice them into rounds
4. Pour in the brine mixture.
5. Close the lid and let it sit at room temperature for 2-3 days until it ferments. When it ferments, the brine will get a little milky and it will taste a little sour. It will also smell sour and some bubbles will float to the surface. At that point, always store it in the refrigerator and take some out whenever want it.

Radish Top Kimchi

This was one of my favorites. I even took it to school and a few of my students were gutsy enough to try it. It went over well. It is spicy, but not overpowering and retains a great crunch.

 

Ingredients

1lbs radish stems

1 tbs sugar

1 cup onion sliced thin

1” ginger, minced

2 tbs garlic minced

2 chili peppers (green or red) sliced into rings

2 tbs Korean chili flakes

4 tbs fish sauce

Glass jar

Water

3/4 cup salt

Prepare the radish leaves

1.      Cut the stems off of Young radish

2.      Cut into pieces about 3 inches long and put them into a big bowl. Rinse well, remove any dirt or grit.

3.      Sprinkle ½ cup of salt over the stems and mix with your hands. Let it sit for 60 minutes (drain and add salt as needed).

4.      Rinse and drain the salted stems thoroughly. Drain in a colander and set aside.

5.      In a bowl dissolve ¼ cup salt with 4 cups of water and set aside.

6.      Combine the remaining ingredients with the drained stems, pack into a glass jar and pour the salt water over top until just covered.

7.      Let sit out on the counter (covered) for 24 hours then move to refrigerator and eat at leisure. It is delicious with rice or soup.

Cheater's Ravioli Two ways:

Cheater's Ravioli Two ways:

 I love ravioli, unfortunately most of the ingredients on the pre-made, frozen variety found in the local super market are unpronounceable. This means my very unpredictable constitution cannot handle such diversity of ingredients. In plain terms, I like to know what is in my food.

What's that you say? Ravioli's are to difficult to make? To time consuming? To much work?  Not when you cheat. There are three wonderful items that make creating a ravioli dinner simpler than you thought. 

1. A cookie dough scoop
2. A blender of some sort
3. A package of Dim sum wrappers (you can use wonton wrappers but they cook a bit translucent)

 I made two kinds, and I made a lot. The dim sum wrappers come in 100 count packages and I made 2 packs worth (they freeze wonderfully for later use, so make a lot).

The first was a vegetarian version stuffed with eggplant tapenade (recipe below) that I had canned over the summer. The second was a pork and smoked apple-wood Gouda stuffed ravioli.  I also made two separate sauces to complement each kind.

 Eggplant Tapenande Filling:

Preheat your oven to 350°

Take the eggplant and cut the ends off. Then slice each in half.

Onions - one large onion per 4 eggplants. 

I used a variety of different types of eggplants for this. What ever you have on hand works.

One head of garlic per two onions

Cut the onions into quarters and just cut the tops off of the garlic heads.

All of this to a baking dish and add some salt and drizzle with olive oil

Place your baking pans in the preheated oven and bake until all vegetables are very soft about 30-40 minutes.

Put the soft vegetables in a food processor and process until you have a paste. Keep going until all of the vegetables have been processed.

Add salt to taste.

Add about a tsp of hot pepper flakes (or more if you like)

Prepare your jars for pressure canning.

Put the "tapenade" in half pint jars leaving 1/2" head space.

Follow the directions of your pressure canner, processing the jars for 85 minutes at 10lbs pressure

When I open the jars I squeeze a bit of fresh lemon juice in and stir it in. It really brightens the flavor.

This is not the prettiest food you will ever can but it is tasty.

 To Fill the Ravioli

Thaw the dim sum wrappers and place on a plate. Get your trusty cookie scoop and a paint brush. (A clean, never touched actual paint, brush)

Line a baking pan with wax paper. Have a small bowl of warm water and egg white mixed and ready.

Place one scoop of the tapenade in each dimsum wrapper. Use the brush to put a thin layer of water/egg onto one half of the wrapper edge. Fold the wrapper over carefully pressing to make sure there are no air bubbles. Air bubbles lead to exploding ravioli.

Place in a single layer on the wax paper. At this point they are ready to cook or freeze. I recommend freezing them flat. Then placing them into a baggie for storage. To cook them place into salted boiling water for about 8 minutes. Top with sauce and off you go.

I usually make these while watching a movie. It goes faster. It is a bit time consuming but at least there is no dough to make and when you are finished you have many meals worth.

I served these with my home made pasta sauce.

Pork and Gouda Ravioli

Ingredients:

1lb pork loin, fat removed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbs parmesean
salt/pepper to taste
1 egg
1 scallion
1/2 cup riccotta
1 block of smoked apple-wood Gouda, chunked. 

Reserve the Gouda, then throw all the remaining ingredients in a blender and make a nice pink paste.

To Fill the Ravioli:

Thaw the dim sum wrappers and place on a plate. Get your trusty cookie scoop and a paint brush.

Line a baking pan with wax paper. Have a small bowl of warm water and egg white mixed and ready.

Place one scoop of the pinkish goop in each dim sum wrapper. Add a slice of Gouda about the size of a quarter. Try to not have to many edges or you could poke a hole in your ravioli. (If your really feeling lazy you could just shred and add the Gouda in with the rest of the ingredients.) Use the brush to put a thin layer of water/egg onto one half of the wrapper edge. Fold the wrapper over carefully pressing to make sure there are no air bubbles. Air bubbles lead to exploding ravioli.

Place in a single layer on the wax paper. At this point they are ready to cook or freeze. I recommend freezing them flat. Then placing them into a baggie for storage. To cook them place into salted boiling water for about 8 minutes. Top with sauce and off you go.

I usually make these while watching a movie. It goes faster. It is a bit time consuming but at least there is no dough to make.

I served this with a lemon Parmesan sauce. I would love to share but I honestly don't have a recipe. It involves a lot of butter, a little lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and some parsley. But I have also eaten them with strait up pasta sauce. Or just a bit of melted butter and lemon. Its good no matter what.

As tasty as most of my posts are (at least to me) I thought I would share a 2 year experiment.  I am all about saving money. I started making everything from scratch for two reasons, one...my intestinal issues cannot take the processed foods, and two....I am cheap. Homemade is often much more economic, especially in bulk. Over time I have made everything from my own version of spices and rubs to dish soap and body wash. Even toilet bombs.  But there were so many different recipes for laundry detergents that I had to work through a few to find the one that worked.

It had to be powder form, liquid is just a storage nightmare.
It could not be scented, I break out in hives.
It had to be cost saving.

Over time this is the recipe I found. It is from Being Creative's site

Now her version lasted 9 months and cost about $20.00, mine lasted about 24 months (but at the time I was the only one using it).

I did tweek the recipe a bit, I suggest you check out the original and try what works for you. 

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

 

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

5 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (if you use Zote bars use 2 bars instead, Zote can be found at Home Depot)

1 huge container of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (5 lbs total )

Sam's Club was great for finding huge amounts. 

or 

You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store.

I grated the naptha soap, and in a large bucket combined all the other ingredients until completely mixed. I use a 2 tbs scoop.

Stuffed Swiss Chard

The farm market by my house never fails to have great produce. This time around they had huge bundles of Swiss chard. This is an under rated green. Beautiful in color, tastes a bit like a mild spinach. It is easy to cook, earthy in taste and versatile. Beautiful, green and fresh. So after looking up about 100 recipes on what to do with it I decided to throw together my own. Turns out my instincts were spot on.

 (yes, this is only ONE stuffed leaf)

Fresh is always best and this recipe is no different. I used non-gmo, fresh ingredients.

1 bunch (about 9 huge leaves) swiss chard.
1 cup rice, raw (I use a mix of sweet short grain and brown rice)
1 cup adzuki beans (canned or pre-soaked)
1 cup diced tomato
1/2 cup feta cheese
2 tbs crushed garlic
3 tsp italian seasonong
1/2 tbs seasoning salt
1/2 lb raw shrimp, pealed, De-veined and minced.
2 cups pasta sauce (I used home made Fra Diavolo)

Remove the leaves from the stems of the Chard. I saved the stems for a nice stir fry later in the week. 
I soaked the beans for roughly 5 hours in water then boiled them for another 40 minutes until tender. While that was cooking I then got out the trusty rice cooker (i cannot cook rice on the stove without burning it). I cooked the rice with the garlic and steamed the chard until pliable at the same time using the handy steamer basket on my rice cooker.

Combine the cooked rice, spices, feta, tomato and beans. Place about 3/4 cup into each large Chard leaf and roll much like you would a stuffed cabbage.

Place into a casserole dish, cover with pasta sauce and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.  Serve.

Tofu...fresh made

TOFU from scratch?

If you have read this blog you will have found that I have a relatively new love of tofu. However, I  have an old love of making food from scratch. Going back to basic ingredients is not only healthier, but it tastes better too. I prefer foods that are not overly processed with chemicals or grown by GMO farmers and are certified organic. Because of this I have discovered that many ingredients that I used to purchase to "save time" are simple to make.(it is usually cheaper too) At the end of the time well spent is usually a great reward. Making tofu from scratch was no different.

The hardest part was finding non GMO soy beans. Go on, give it a try. Just about every soy based product seems to be GMO. After an effort I found some and it was well worth the effort. It is much better than the store bought and every part of the process is useful. Nothing goes to waste.

 Where do I get these magic beans you ask? Insert shameless promotion here:

Bob's Red Mill is certified organic, this means NO GMO soy.

Now to the good stuff...

Tofu

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of dry soy beans and 2 TBSP of Epsom Salt.
• Instead of Epsom Salt, you can use 3tbs of lemon juice.

Equipment:

• Food processor or blender,
•  2 large pots, 
• 1 colander, 
• 1 strainer, 
•  cheesecloth. 

Process:

• Soak the dry soy beans over night in the refrigerator. They will expand so make sure to give the plenty of room and water.
• Rinse the soaked beans and discard any discolored ones if you spot any.
• Blend a little at a time with enough water to cover the beans. 
• Add the processed beans to your largest pot with 12 additional cups of water.
• Stir frequently and simmer for about 20 minutes. This will foam up a bit so be careful not to let it boil over. 
• Strain into your second pot. Use a spoon to press out as much of the milk as you can. The liquid is soy milk. The solids are okara. (Don't toss this! Its good. Hang on till the end to find out more about Okara.)
  
  (I took out a jar of soy milk for drinking and cooking at this point and continue making the rest into tofu.)
• heat the soy milk back up to around 180 degrees. 
• Dissolve 2 TBSP of Epsom Salt in 1 and 1/2 cups of warm water.
  (Alternatively you could use 75ml of lemon juice.)
• Remove from heat and gently stir together.
• In about 5 to 10 minutes the curds will separate.
• Use your cheese cloth and place in a mold. Skim out curds and pour into mold.
• Press down with a small plate and heavy object.
• Leave for about 20 minutes. Refrigerate and eat.

Okara:

Now...what is Okara you ask? No it is not a miss spelling of Okra. It is a useful byproduct of making tofu. Why should I keep it? Okara is the left over soy bean that did not dissolve into the water. It is great stuff. Want a healthier cookie? Replace 1/2 the flour with okara. Bread? sure why not. Out of bread crumbs for your meat balls? Okara will work. Get the idea? You can freeze it as is, or do like I do and stick it in your dehydrator. It will form into a bark that you can then grind up into a course powder.

The great thing about this recipe is that nothing goes to waste. It is a definite kitchen winner.