Juice

This morning's juice:

Carrots
Green Apple
1/2 a beet
a little ginger

Potato Famine or German Comfort casserole

This is a thing of beauty for a cold night.

Peal and cut about 6 potatoes (1-2 per person)
Boil and mash with 
-2 tbs cream cheese
-1/2 cup of dairy of choice (sour cream, milk, cream)
-pinch of parsley (to pretend you are having your vegetables 

While the potatoes are doing their thing:

Sweat one onion diced and as much garlic as you like (I like a lot and used 4 cloves)

Cut up your Kielbasa.  I used a beautiful organic, no antibiotic, uncured partially cooked Kielbasa.  (Not this one, but this is close.)

Shred 2 cups of white cheddar.  (Orange cheese is so wrong)

Once the potatoes are mashed add the potatoes and the onions, garlic and kielbasa, and 1 1/2 cup of cheese in a casserole dish of your choice.  Mix well.  Put the last of the cheese on top.

Bake for 35-40 min at 375 or until bubbly and impossible to ignore.
This would be perfect with roasted cabbage.


Eat like a German!  Have a beer.  Feel food love.

Here's some nice German music (Yes, angsty goes with any food.)

Menu or the Week

Poverty Casserole 

Chicken Breast Sandwiches with Fries and Corn

Spaghetti and Meatballs with Blanched Spinach

Savory Spaghetti Squash for the Gluten Free Cook (Recipe to Come)

Left Overs (Someone has to eat them)

Broccoli Chicken Supreme

Lemon Artichoke Chicken with Rice and Blanched Spinach

Brisket with 36 Cloves of Garlic with Potatoes and Cumin Carrots

Tortilla Soup

2 chicken breasts either baked or grilled.  Shred it up.

1 onion
3 cloves of garlic

Sweat in the soup pot

Add:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of whole tomatoes

Add:
1 cup of corn ( I used frozen)
1 1/2 quarts of chicken broth.

Add chicken.

Stir in:

2 tbs chili powder
1 tbs oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 adobo pepper (or more for more spice)

The heat is sneaky, so be careful with your peppers.

Serve with avo, sour cream, jack cheese, and a hand full of crushed up tortilla chips.

Yum.

Beef and Barley Soup

1 lb stew meat cut small
1/2 cup cooking sherry

Braise meat, then de-glaze pan with sherry.  Move to soup pot.

a bit of olive oil.
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
3 large carrots - diced or minced
3 stalks celery - minced

Sweat in the same pan as the meat, move to soup pot.

2 quarts beef broth
1 cup of pearl barley
1 cup copped celery

Add these things to soup pot.

1 cup of shredded cabbage

Pinches to taste:
Oregano
Rosemary
Parsley
Thyme
Salt
Pepper

Then these things too.

Cook at low to medium for 1 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is to your liking.

The barley sort of expands.  I did find I had to add a bit of water to the left overs.  This is an extremely filling soup.

No short cut crock pot stroganoff

When I found this recipe for crock pot stroganoff I knew it had promise.  Here is how I changed it up:

Ingredients:

2-3 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 small yellow onion - diced (or diced big if you like onion)
A little butter
A little olive oil
1 1/4 lb flank steak cubed
A little salt and pepper and flour (to dredge meat in)
1 lb baby portobello mushrooms - thickly sliced or just cut in half
cup of a water and 2 tsp bullion paste
a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Pinch of thyme
Pinch of parsley
1/2 cup of sour cream

Sweat onion and garlic in a pat of butter until a little see through

It is super easy to put the flower and salt and pepper in a zip log bag and throw the cubed meat in there and mix.  I do it in a bowl.  Coat the meat lightly in olive oil.  Dredge in flour.

Put the garlic and onion aside and braise the meat in a bit of olive oil until seared but not done.  It will cook plenty in the crock pot.  Put the meat in the pot.  Braise about half way and then throw in the mushrooms.  By this time there are some great pan bits,  deglaze the pan with a bit more water with the bullion stock in it.  Don't go nuts on the water.  (Wine would be good here too.)  Mushrooms are full of water.

In the crock pot combine onion, garlic, spices and hot water with the bullion paste in it.

Leave it all alone in the crock pot for 5-6 hours.
Right before serving, gently fold in 1/2 cup of sour cream.
or if it's too thin, make a roux of flour, and butter.  Add before the sour cream.

Serve with wide egg noodles, some sort of green veg, and a nice roll.

Food Quotes

"We have to convince the little housewife out there that the tomato that ate the family pet is not dangerous!" - Al Sklar in The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Food Quotes

"Annie, there's a big lobster behind the refrigerator. I can't get it out. This thing's heavy. Maybe if I put a little dish of butter sauce here with a nutcracker, it will run out the other side." - Woody Allen in Annie Hall

Food Quotes

"Sometimes the spaghetti likes to be alone." Stanley Tucci in Big Night

Food Quotes

"What's tiramisu? Some woman is going to ask me to do it to her and I'm not going to know what it is." - Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle

Juice!!!

Yeah for fresh fruit!!!!

Juice:

6 strawberries

1/2 cup blueberries

2 huge hunks of fresh pineapple

1 banana

cup of orange juice

Blend with or without ice.

Yummy and plenty for 2 people.  Fresh pineapple is amazing and easier to cut than one would think from it's slightly intimidating exterior.

Food Quotes

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti." - Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs.

QOTM

"Remind me to tell you about the time I looked deep into the heart of an artichoke." - Bette Davis in All About Eve

Juice!

Today's Juice:

1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup black berries
1/2 cup raspberries
1 banana
Hemp protein powder

Win!  Purple goodness.

Arsenic in Our Chicken?

What does all this mean for consumers? The study looked only at feathers, not meat, so we don’t know exactly what chemicals reach the plate, or at what levels. The uncertainties are enormous, but I asked Nachman about the food he buys for his own family. “I’ve been studying food-animal production for some time, and the more I study, the more I’m drawn to organic,” he said. “We buy organic.”


Read more here...

Juicing: A bloody mess

I am calling this one a bloody mess:

4 beets
4 carrots
1 inch of ginger

Masticate and put in the blender with

2 tangelos
4 oz of frozen pineapple
3 ice cubes
Protein powder.

Yields 32 oz of juicy wonder.

Boycot GMO Foods

-Photo source unknown.(Mostly because I can't read it.)

#OccupyOurFoodSupply

Growing your own food?

Watch out for the veggies on this list.

Beans: Aliconte, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema

Broccoli: Coronado Crown, Major, Packman

Cabbage: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty

Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III

Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman

Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76*, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel, Lavender Touch, Twinkle, White Lightening

Hot Pepper: Anaheim TMR 23, Ancho Saint Martin, Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Caribbean Red, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichen Itza, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Habanero, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierro, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot, Ixtapa X3R, Lapid, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Mucho Nacho brand of Grande, Nainari, Serrano del Sol brand of Tuxtlas, Super Chile, Tam Vera Cruz

Lettuce: Braveheart, Conquistador

Melon: Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno

Onion: Candy, Cannonball, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Vision

Pumpkin: Applachian, Harvest Moon, Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Phantom, Prize Winner, Rumbo, Snackface, Spirit, Spooktacular, Trickster

Spinach: Hellcat

Squash: Ambassador, Canesi, Clarita, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Papaya Pear, Peter Pan, Portofino, President, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM

Sweet Corn: Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obession, Passion, Temptation

Sweet Pepper: Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Biscayne, Blushing Beauty, Bounty, California Wonder 300, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Cubanelle W, Dumpling brand of Pritavit, Early Sunsation, Flexum, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West, King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight, Satsuma, Socrates, Super Heavyweight, Sweet Spot

Tomato: Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui

Watermelon: Apollo, Charleston Grey, Crimson Glory, Crimson Sweet, Eureka, Jade Star, Mickylee, Olympia

* Marketmore 76 is a very old cucumber-variety.  If you are ordering it from a seller of heirloom veggies,  check with the dealer to make sure the seeds were not purchased from  Seminis/Monsanto. If you buy the seeds from a big-box garden center, odds are they were purchased from the evil empire.

Know where your meat comes from!!!!!!

Listen, watch, learn.

Pun Hunting at the Grocery Store

Pulpy Pom Wonder

I am calling this one the Pulpy Pom Wonder!

1 16 oz Pom Wonderful
8 oz of frozen pineapple
2 giant navel oranges

Blend until smoothish.  I also added 1 scoop of Plantfusion.  I love this stuff.

Hopefully this will scare away the cold my husband and child have.

Fasting can help protect the brain..

This interesting article on brain health claims:

Cutting daily food intake to around 500 calories – which amounts to little more than a few vegetables and some tea – for two days out of seven had clear beneficial effects in their studies, claimed Mattson, who is also professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.


This is an easy(ish) challenge with juicing.  


Read the article here.

Booze is good.

My new favorite cocktail:

Ice
2 fingers of brandy
Fill the rest with high quality ginger beer, like Maine Root Organic Ginger Beer.
Twist of lime.

I think I will call it a Biting Stormy.

Pink is the new Green

This is a wonderfully healthy "green" juice.

4 small beets with greens
a bunch of spinach
5 carrots
6 or 7 pieces of frozen pineapple.


I ran out of ginger so I sub-ed in the pineapple




Ok, I admit it.  I am not always fond of green juices.  But this is a pretty good combo.

.

(No actual food photographers were used or harmed in this blog.  #phonephoto)

Sweet Juice

Today's sweet juice:

2 navel oranges
several carrots
1 bosc pear
1 green apple

All win!

Awesome Juice Combo

I cannot get enough of this:

2 oranges
1 green apple
6-7 carrots

Very good!!

A more complex tasting juice

This is a bit of a complex juice, but I like it.


One large orange
2 small clementines
several small carrots
3 stalks celery
one green apple
one big honkin' beet.





This is a fairly bright, complex juice.  Next time, I think that a bit of ginger would be nice in this.  I have been on a huge citrus kick lately.

Waiting not very patiently for spring, and more juicing options.

Love/Hate

My love/hate relationship with winter continues.  I love the soups and stews, hate the cold, sort days.  I came across this article:

11 Foods to Improve Your Mood.

I need to get some of this stuff into a juicer. STAT.

Eat Like a Cave Man

A very interesting article on the so-called Caveman Diet.  It says a lot about eating cleaner (organic) foods, and not cooking your meat to death.  Much of the article made very good sense to me.

From the article, copyright John Barron:

Recommendations:

As I said, just because the theory behind the diet may be questionable, does not mean that there is not much to take from the diet. I absolutely agree with the following:

• Cut way back or eliminate all grains. And if you eat grains, opt for hypoallergenic grains that have been soaked, sprouted, or well cooked.
• Eliminate all high omega-6 store bought oils from your diet. For low temperature cooking, use olive oil and coconut oil. For high temperature cooking, use avocado oil, grape seed oil, or rice bran oil. Supplement with omega-3 fatty acids.
• Eliminate all added sugars.
• When eating fruit, lean more towards berries than tree fruit; they're higher in antioxidants. But there's no need to be afraid of eating tree fruit, which tends to be higher in soluble fiber.
• Cut back or eliminate all beans, and if you eat them, make sure you soak them before cooking, and then cook them well before eating.
• Nuts are fine if you're not allergic. Use whole fresh nuts that have been soaked/sprouted. Do not use pasteurized or "roasted" nuts -- especially those roasted in oil.
• Cut way back on white potatoes, but yams and sweet potatoes are okay in moderation.
• Eliminate all commercial dairy from your diet. And if you do opt for some dairy, choose raw dairy despite what the government says -- or at the very least opt for organic, grass-fed dairy.
• If you eat meat, use only organic, grass-fed meat. And keep consumption to less than 4 oz a day. And don't overcook it. (And here you're faced with another conundrum if you eat commercial meat. If you undercook it, you face the risk of bacterial infection (see above). If you overcook it, you face the risk of cancer (see above). If you want to eat medium rare meat, you're going to have to buy organic, grass-fed meat from a supplier you trust.)

For when you want LOTS of Juice

Here is the juice of the day.  I will warn you that this makes 32 oz of juice.  I didn't calorie count this one.  Mostly because I wanted to just enjoy it.  Totally worth the effort.

With the masticating juicer:
4 carrots
1 large beet
2 navel oranges

When you have that done throw 2 clementines, and a cup of mangoes.  Blend together in the blender with the other juice.

I used frozen magoes, and added ice at the end.  This had a little bit more fiber and was in general kind of thick, so when I had it half finished I added some sprite.  I should have used just soda water, but I didn't.....because you can't be good all the time.  (And if you are, you are missing out on some yummy stuff!)

Juicing day....whatever.

At least I am still juicing at least once a day.  I added hummus.  I very much would love to add another protein but I haven't reached my goal yet.  Also, I have found that I like chewing.  Mastication is fun and good for you!  Green juice tonight because I have a lot of veg to get through.

Breakfast - Simply Orange Juice

Lunch - 2 cups of spinach, 3 tablespoons of hummus, one romma tomato

Juice:

1/2 a cabbage
1 cucumber
1/2 a lemon
1/4 inch of ginger
3 carrots
4 small beets
248 tiny calories

About 16 oz yield

Day 7 Juicing

I have had to add fat/protein sources.  I am still on it.  I just got tired of blogging.

So, in addition today, I have a lovely mixer juice for you!!  This is great for mixing with vodka.  Hater's can hate, it's my fast and it includes booze.  :-)

7 carrots
1 big beet
1 cucumber (this give it a fresh taste)
1/4 cup of raspberries
4 clementines.

OMG yummy juice.

Green juice tomorrow.  I may have to hold my nose to drink it, but it's worth it!

Fat/protein source:

Hummus and or avocado.  I feel ok about this and it makes me feel less weak, while keeping me at the lower calories that I have set goals for.

Day 4 Juicing/veg diet

Today's craving is a creamy delicious risotto.  Instead I had this:


5 dry Turkish Apricots. (Organic)

2 leaves of lettuce with a glob of hummus on them

Cabbage Soup

And a big ole' green juice.

Mia Culpa for missing a bit.  I am keeping track, I just fell off the blogger tread mill.

The Importance of Organic Food

....as told by a 10 year old.

Juicing/Fasting: Day 3

Got the good husband to go to the store to stock our shelves with lots of veg.  I feel better than I did yesterday.   This is not as hard as I thought I would be, and the soup seemed to help with the feeling of warmth.  Fasting in the winter is odd.  There are fewer fresh local choices.  Two things I am noticing is that I am not quite getting enough protein and almost no Vit. D.  I am going to supplement that. 

Coffee.  (Oh, I know...I should give it up, but there are only so many things I can work on at one time.)

One Green Apple, Raw

Cabbage Soup

Ginger Beer

Green V8 type juice:
I can honestly say this didn't taste like V8.  It was however very complex.  Almost too complex.  It was also thick.  VERY thick.  I strained it 3 times, and drank it on ice.  The taste was good.  Very fresh.  I added some lemon and old bay seasoning, and a bit of salt and pepper at the end.  The only other thing is that I think I might have blended (instead of masticating) the tomatoes, and added them at the end.

3 large tomatoes
4 ribs celery
1/4 cup of cabbage
4 carrots
2 cups spinach
3 ribs of kale
1/4 of an onion
1 clove of garlic

*no actual food photographers were injured or maimed in making this snapshot.

Broke down and had some incredibly garlicky hummus on lettuce leaves for the protein tonight.  I should probably have a protein source earlier in the evening.  This is one of the reason I never made it as a vegan.

Juice/Veg Fast Day The Second

Holy cow did I want to eat food today.  Well, not food, french fries.  I wanted grease soaked fries.  Instead, I had this:

Coffee

2 8oz glasses of Simply orange juice

Sweet juice:

One lemon

1 large beet

3 carrots

1 green apple

1/2 inch of ginger

1 1/2 cup of pineapple.

394 calories

Ginger Beer

I made this cabbage soup based on the cabbage soup diet, which is just weird.  6 bananas a day?  I don't think so.  This is very warming when garnished with hirachi sauce.  Very yummy and filling.

Cabbage Soup.

• 8 cups Organic Vegetable Stock
• 1 head Cabbage, Cooked
• 2 cups Carrots
• 1 cup Chopped Celery
• 4 Garlic Clove
• 1 Leek
• 1 medium raw Green-bell Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1/4 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 cups Italian Style Diced Tomatoes

DIRECTIONS

Sweat everything but cabbage in a large pot, in a very small portion of olive oil. Add Veg stock,and tomatoes then cabbage. Mix and then add spices to taste. I used what is mentioned plus a bit of thyme. Some salt and pepper. This isn't strictly a cabbage diet soup. It's a warming soup I am consuming during a juice fast.

Juicing Day One

Day one of my Juice/raw food vegi fast.

Cheating:  2 cups coffee

Breakfast:
1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
1/2 cup blue berries
1 cup frozen pineapple
191 calories

Ginger tea

Juice:
2 green apples
4 carrots
1 small cabbage
2 beets with greens
1 cucumber
365 calories in 16 oz of juice

2 cups green beans (cooked in water)
6 cloves garlic
76 calories

1 small avocado
161 calories

Cheating:  A bit of brandy


-----------------------------
Even with the brandy to take the edge off, still a little hungry, though I feel like I have been eating all day.  This all added up to just under 1300 calories with my cheating.  I am ok with that.  I am not positive I can give up coffee and booze.  


Tune in, and find out!

How My Ass Got This Way, a Foodies Back Story.

When I watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" towards the end of last year, I got really energized about juicing.  We got a middle end juicer ($250) and I juiced almost daily from July to October.  My back went out, unfortunately so I wasn't getting around enough to do the prep work involved for a while and I started to back slide on the juicing when our farm share went fallow for the winter..........