I didn't fall off a cliff, well not physically

Another big gap in blogging. I could say a lot about intention and how I intend to update this more regularly starting in January but I can't promise that will happen.

What I can say is that eating properly is becoming something that NEEDS to happen in my life. I have been eating pretty poorly (not all the time but I have been consuming far too much dairy) and I have gained back a lot of the weight I lost during the three Reboots I did last year.

Starting in January we're planning on Rebooting again. It will likely start on the sixth as we will be out of town a bit before that and it would be really difficult for us to haul everything we would need to do so.

I've been really happy with some changes we have made however - like joining a CSA. We joined Swallowtail Farms, a local CSA that is relatively new (this is their second year I believe). So far we have had  a lot of greens (perfect for juicing), some amazing jewel yams, and all sorts of interesting things happening in every weekly pickup. This has also encouraged us to purchase hormone and antibiotic free, free range chicken and pork, along with whole hog sausage, free range eggs, and for him some goats milk fudge (it has butter in it so I didn't venture to try it).

I've been getting back on the wagon this week as far as working to cut out dairy again. I have made up my mind that next year will be the year I kick Cow based dairy for good. I still need to experiment with Sheep and Goat based dairy items to see if I have issues with them but as far as Cow based dairy goes, I'm done. I simply cannot stand to continue to consume something that makes me so ill.

I'm hoping once we've done the juicing fast/Reboot in January I will be able to test some other possible food allergies/sensitivities by using an elimination style diet. It may be that next year is the year I go commercial meat free if I can avoid it. It's a lofty goal, so we will see where I end up.

I can't wait to juice it up, as such I am already working on preparing my body to hit the ground running! We're starting tomorrow with Mean Green made with organic apples and carrots, and CSA greens. Woo!

Happy Holidays!

A Missing Blogger

So it's been ages again since I updated. Things have been crazy with work, the war on cleaning the house, and Logician starting Acupuncture School (yep a massage therapist and a acupuncturist in the same house!).

I made him a few Bento for the first few days of school, but it became so much easier to pack a bag of instant Vietnamese Soup (ramen but with rice noodles) and send him to school with that and a Lara bar. But not exceptionally healthy...

So now we're trying an alternate plan of making things in the slow cooker (or on the stove) which we can eat for several days in a row. We made a quick chili last week that took us three days to finish, followed by a beef stew/pot roast contraption that took two or three more days. We sort of fell off the wagon a bit this weekend as I was on vacation from work for a few days, but today we're getting back in the grove with some homemade veggie broth which will become chicken soup.

I checked out Cybele Pascale's Allergy Free Baking cookbook from the library and tried several different recipes from it over the course of the last month. The Red Velvet cake is always wonderful, though the second time I made it I attempted to make homemade powdered sugar out of coconut sugar.

It turned out moderately well, though the icing was a soft toffee brown from the sugar rather than white. It also tasted a bit maple syrup like. Next time I will leave out the vanilla in the icing. Using the coconut sugar however allowed me to make a white sugar free version of the cake, which was amazing!

We also made the Vanilla Scones, though we did not like the way those turned out as much. We're a bit low on the baking flour at this point, so I had to stop while I was ahead. But I did use her recipe for Matzoh as an inspiration to make homemade Matzoh and Matzoh ball soup (GF, DF, Soy Free, but contained egg). It was just as deliciously wonderful.

Vanilla Scones, while cooling

So all in all, fun adventures in cooking are still happening just not making it to press. The Farmer's Market we go to has been dwindling down as summer pressed on. We're hoping it will start to pick up again now that the cooler (supposedly cooler) weather is coming. I leave you with some Bento and Onigiri pictures!

A friend asked for Onigiri instead of Birthday Cake. She also got homemade Kimchi!

This was for school one day, steamed carrots, pork sung filled onigiri, and homemade kimchi.

More pork filled onigiri, plain rice balls, cherries, raisins, snow peas... Oh my.

I am hoping to get back into the Super Secret and What's on Hand challenges, so check back soon!

Update

It's been awhile since I was able to sit down and write up the many things that have happened lately. I have pictures and the like to post and will hopefully get to sit down on Friday and write up a big long thing.

I have checked out Allergy Free Baking from the library and have been having a lot of fun playing around with it. Since the last update I have made an Allergy Free Red Velvet Cake, Allergy Free Vanilla Scones, and GF and DF Matzoh and Matzoh ball soup!

I look forward to getting the pictures, thoughts, and musings up!

It is currently the Jewish New Year, so happy new year to those who celebrate the Jewish faith.

See you soon!

Howdy Y'all

It's been a while since I posted last for many reasons. We've been really bad about our eating lately (well up until about three days ago) and were going out to eat far more than we should have been. We have since realized our folly (putting back on all the weight we lost was a good indication) and have gone back to a more mindful, local, and organic way of eating again.

It's such a battle to maintain your way of eating in today's world (especially here in America). Fast food signs light up the night, quick and easy options that are neither prepared with love or attention are around every bend, and it's easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of life.

So today we made the decision to stop! (Or at least try to)

Today we went to the farmer's market as we always do but due to the time of year the pickings are growing more limited. Last week we didn't buy much of anything, and this week we only bought eggs and onions. We then went to the local organic market and were surprised to see that they didn't have much in stock either! It seems we have finally stumbled into Florida's less productive growing season (not sure though, have one more store to try tomorrow). We initially had plans to meet friends at CYM Coffee Co for a coffee morning, but had to rain check those plans for now. So we were left trying to figure out what to do about breakfast.

Now the more we look at it, the more it is truly impossible for us to go out to eat at most places in town. Either they are great dairy free options for me, or there are wheat free options for him, but hardly anywhere in between for standard breakfast fare. Plus as we've discovered, those two ingredients hide in an array of things you might not expect them to be in. So what should we do?

Well the easiest answer was eat breakfast at home! Take time to lovingly prepare the food we already had purchased or were going to purchase and to enjoy them at our own pace. So we went to our local market and picked up a few things. One of which was Udi's Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. These are GF, DF, and SF and they are delicious! In fact they are better than the local ones we had previously, and slightly cheaper.

We also found Teechino - an herbal coffee replacement with no caffeine. So we came home, cracked open the can of Bay Harbor Maple Syrup Flavored Smoked Boneless Sardine Fillets, toasted the bagels in the oven (we are currently sans toaster), and I cooked myself some of the delicious farmer's market eggs. Add a touch of EarthBalance spread and the Dreamin' Berry Strawberry Lavender jelly and it was a breakfast in heaven!

It was so nice to be able to sit at the table, eat mindfully, and enjoy each others company. This is a new treat as until two weeks ago Logician worked Saturday mornings. What a great start to the day!

I am still trying to get back to Super Secret Tuesdays and will even have an extra person to cook for this week (maybe). So that should be fun!

Be mindful, enjoy life, and bring gratitude to all you do!

Lessons Learned: Juicing/Rebooting Guide Pt 2 Tips and Tricks

Without further ado - the second of my Juicing/Rebooting posts to share the lessons we've learned:

Alright so you sat down, did some calculating and planning and now you're all set and ready to juice; right? Wrong!

The first and most crucial of all next steps is: To buy a juicer!

There are so many on the market and I will be the first to admit I did no research on the one we bought. I left that to my technophile Logician. We ended up getting one similar to the one Joe Cross used in Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I know this documentary and website are mentioned eighty four billion times on this blog, I promise one day that will all stop.

So we got a Breville Juicer and ended up getting the Juice Fountain Plus from a department store near us and were able to start juicing right away. The only thing we're sad about with our juicer is it's lack of ability to juice grasses (Wheat, Barley, etc).

I won't go into a long post about the types of juicer but keep in mind that you will be using soft fruits and veggies as well as tough ones. Keeping the pulp or using puree is up to you, but even our juicer lets us collect the pulp should we wish to keep it.

So I've got a juicer, now what?

Good question. So now you have to decide what fruits and vegetables you are going to juice. There are many websites online with recipes, boards on pinterest, books from the library, and recipes on the Reboot site. But even those can get a little tedious at time.

So here are some tips/tricks we found on our juicing journey:

• Organic vs Conventional - I will be the first to admit that even a few months ago I really didn't see the difference. I worked in two different grocery stores, both of which sold many Organic varieties but did not yet understand just how much better Organic and/or Locally grown items are. When we began our first Reboot we bought bags of pre-sliced, conventional Kale and found that it barely provided any juice at all. We switched to actual Kale leaves, but did not get the best juicing results until we switched to Locally or Organically grown (usually our Local is also Organic). Then came cucumbers. Our farmer's nearby are some sort of magicians - we used one medium sized cucumber and got almost 16 ounces of juice! That's almost a whole serving!! Sadly cucumber season is over for us for now, so if we have to buy them at the grocery we choose organically grown. We have found that really all Organically/Locally grown items seem to be better than conventional but especially: Cucumbers, Carrots, Greens, Mushrooms, Apples, Pears, Lemons, Limes, really any citrus, tomatoes, and ginger.

• Strong Flavors - I cannot stress this enough to people new to juicing. This was the very first lesson we learned the hard way. Beets, Garlic, Ginger, and Onion are super strong! A little goes a long, long way! The only time that isn't entirely true is with Ginger. Depending on your other flavors it can get overpowered, but the others will stand up and and dominate if you are not careful. We found that for two sixteen to twenty ounce servings of juice (which we made at one time) a ping pong ball sized beet was just small enough to not overpower. Logician says no small amount of onion is tolerable, same with garlic - but I have found one small clove of garlic for two juices, or about 1/8th or less of a small (tennis ball sized) onion seems to be okay.

• Peeling - ALWAYS PEEL CITRUS! Another lesson I cannot stress enough. You do not have to peel all of the pith off, but do peel the rinds. Logician loves to put citrus rinds down the garbage disposal to freshen up the kitchen (make sure you see the bit about flies for more on this). You could also save them to make zest for cooking or garnishing.

• Variety - During our first Reboot we tried to expand our recipes by creating some of our own. However we got too focused on making enough juice that we didn't put in enough nutrients. This time we did two things to help combat this problem. The first was that whenever we invented a juice we tried to have at least four different colored items and at least one type of leafy green. Most lettuces, spinach, and kale do not seem to have very strong flavors but provide a lot of nutrient value. The second way we did this was to use a green "Super Foods" powder. We tried to do this sparingly, but when we were in a hurry it was a good way to give ourselves some nutrients.

• What Speed do I use? This is a very good question, most juicers come with a manual that explains most of that. We have found the ginger is best juiced wrapped in leafy greens; soft skinned cucumbers (or peeled), tomatoes, grapes, greens, etc are best juiced on low; you can juice a banana with some success if you place it with a harder veggie (Logician used carrots); and lastly do the greens in between other veggies for maximum juicing.

• Go slow! Putting too much in the juicer at once tends to flick bits all over.

• Flies - we have had an overwhelming influx of little flies that seem to enjoy annoying us when we juice. There is nothing like having a clean house that suddenly seems overwhelmed by the little buggers. We tend to use a varied approach that still doesn't seem to eliminate the entire problem but helps keep it down.

1. Pour boiling water down the drain at least once a day
2. Keep fruit fresh, covered if needed, and away from the sink.
3. Place fly traps such as fly paper near the drain.
4. If you have a garbage disposal: once a month (or more frequently) place a large quantity of ice into the disposal side of the sink. Turn the water on to a steady, but light stream. Add a small amount of dish soap and push the ice into the disposal. Likely some greyish muck will eventually rise into the sink, let the disposal continue to run until all the water clears.
5. Bag up all pulp and trimmings that you're not keeping or place it in an airtight composting container.
6. Promptly remove the garbage when it is full.

• Above all else have fun with your recipes. See what's in season and local. Our bodied do best when we are eating in line with the area we're living in. If you tend to live in a colder region, tropical fruits might not be best for your body. Especially in the dead of winter. By following the seasons and doing what you can to support your local agricultural community you can help bring your body back in line with nature.

• Stay hydrated! This is a very, very, very important step. The Reboot site recommends a certain amount of water, but find what keeps you feeling your best. For me it's at least 1.5 L of water a day, but I am best when I have 3L or more. Logician tends to drink AT LEAST 3L on a good day. Water is good for you - that's not just a myth!

This is what our fridge looked like after our first Rebooting shopping trip. As you can see it has some of the bad things we've now cut out (soda), and things we have now changed (conventional store bought eggs).

• It's a good idea shop ahead but don't shop too far in advance or else you'll end up tossing out far more than you use. It seems to work for us if we shop for about 2.5 to 3 days at a time. Especially when Rebooting. We sit down, drink our morning juice and plot out several days worth of juices/meals. Then we leave room for one or two "Make it up" juices to use up whatever we have left. This seems to keep our fridge full of goodness without causing waste.

So now you've got some tricks, tips, and lessons to use! The only thing left to do is starting adding delicious fresh juices to your diet and enjoy!

Baked Zucchini

As mentioned in yesterday's post we had intentions of turning that forearm sized zucchini (courgette) into a delicious contraption, which happened today with awesome results! But first I must begin with breakfast.

So we have decided (I think I mentioned it before) that there is nothing quite like farmer's market eggs. I will never buy store bought eggs again unless I absolutely have to... The picture isn't so good but this is four eggs (they were the smaller variety, so four is equivalent to two large eggs), a GFDF Sourdough bagel with EarthBalance spread and two of the other types of jellies. One side has Strawberry Lavender, the other has a Strawberry Basil. I rounded that all off with my delicious Tetley British Tea blend with some coconut creamer and honey. It was really delicious and gave us more ideas on how to use some of the other jellies we purchased. Though in the long run we have decided the Strawberry Lavender is the best "toast" jelly of the ones we got. But we still love them all!

The picture isn't so good this go round, my camera seems to have ate the one I edited better.

So then came preparations for dinner. When we began planning this endeavor we had two things to start with - an awesome zucchini and several delicious jams and jellies (The Root Cellar Jonesville made the jellies, as mentioned yesterday). So Logician put his thinking cap on and decided we needed Crab Meat. 

In the end we ended up using the following:

**** This Recipe Includes Mussels and Crab! Otherwise it is GF, DF, and Egg Free ****

Which includes:

1) Left over Paprika Gluten Free Bread Crumbs (which were mixed and used sans egg or other wet ingredients on the Potato Cakes I made for SST #1)

2) A Red Bell Pepper

3) One can lumped crab meat

4) One can sustainably harvested Bay Harbor mussels

5) Vegan Gourmet Cheddar style non-dairy cheese (we ended up using just over 1/3 of the block)

6) The Root Cellar's "Smart Tart" Hibiscus Jelly

7) One small can mushrooms (as we have these on hand, use fresh if you prefer)

8) An one inch piece of organically grown ginger

9) One very large Zucchini/Courgette purchased at the farmers market.

That's it, that's all we put in this delicious meal aside from the spices. Which we used: Course Sea Salt, Black Pepper, Cumin, Ground Gloves, Smoked Paprika, Savory Leaves, Ginger Powder, Minced Garlic in water, Tumeric, and One Black Cardamom Pod (which was removed prior to baking).

To make: 

1) Carefully trim the ends off the zucchini and slice in half. Remove seeds and discard, then using a melon baller or ice cream scoop gently scrape out the innards until a small layer remains. They should resemble boats. 

2) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, put skillet on over medium heat and warm about a 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil in the pan. Slice the onion into strips and sautee with the garlic and ginger until caramelized. Add the smashed zucchini innards and salt, pepper, tumeric, the cardamom pod, savory, and cumin. 

3) Cook for several minutes until warmed through (we added three to five tablespoons of the strained mussel juice from the can). Add the red pepper cut into one inch long strips. Cook till warmed.

4) Add the crab meat (strained), mussels (strained), and canned mushrooms (strained). Then add the liquid from the crab meat. Cook until warmed through and add the remaining spices and any additional amounts of the others as needed. 

5) Put into a heat safe bowl and mix in about 1/4 a cup GF bread crumbs and 1/4 cup shredded non-dairy cheese. Add just enough bread crumbs and cheese for the mixture to bind together well. 

** You can stop here and turn this into delicious crab cakes. We had that thought but already had the zucchini prepared. Next time - crab cakes! **

6) Place the two halves of the zucchini on aluminum foil (which we didn't do, would have been smarter to do first), and fill with the stuffing. Slightly overfill one side and under fill the other. 

7) Make small indentations in the stuffing in the under filled half and alternate with 1 teaspoon of jelly and a pinch of cheese. On the other half add a line of jelly and a line of cheese (both of these are optional but tasty).

8) Gently place the two halves back together (the stuffing was very compact for us so we didn't have any spillage). Then roll in aluminum foil and try to have it sit so the seam is horizontal. 

9) Bake in the oven at 325 degrees for 25 minutes, then  flip the zucchini and increase the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for another 20 minutes. 

10) Remove from oven, using tongs remove the aluminum foil and slice with a sharp knife. Plate and enjoy!

This is what it looked like when we plated it. We ended up splashing some Tabasco Sauce on it at the table but it was quite delicious! We did decide however that it would be better with less cheese and a sharper flavored variety. But all in all it was very good. The jelly gave it a nice hint of tartness that really made the crab and mussel flavors pop. 

We ended up only eating about half of the zucchini and look forward to having it as left overs for lunches tomorrow. But I couldn't let the evening go without trying out another one of our jelly ideas. Using the jelly as a tea concentrate. I used about a 1/2 tablespoon of the Smart Tart Jelly and 1 teaspoon locally produced honey, added boiling water and voila!

It was quite tasty, though in the long run the honey over powered the jelly a bit. What was neat was the hibiscus sank to the bottom and would swish up whenever I took a sip. It was a nice compliment to the dinner. We are really excited about continuing our use of these awesome jellies in the next few days. Here's what's to come:

Super Secret Tuesday #2 (for real) - I plan on using the Strawberry Basil jelly for some highjinks, we'll see how it turns out!

July 4th BBQ - We are going to grill some white fish (cod, tilapia, or mahi mahi haven't selected yet) with the Jalapeno jelly, add in some delicious bicolored corn, and finish off with some GFDF crepes with an augmented version of the Vegan Coconut Creme using the blueberry jelly (oh yea, my mind is drooling over this one!). 

What's on Hand Thursday #2 - I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen here, it will likely amount to what leftovers we have going from the other two days and what sort of mood I am in. But I am thinking this will be another night for the Jalapeno to feature. We'll see how the week progresses!

Thanks for stopping by and here's to another delicious adventure in eating! I am really glad that we are sticking to our weekly Farmer's Market trips. They really have made a huge difference in how and what we eat, and it's really interesting as we learn the ebb and flow of the growing season around us!

Juicing/Rebooting Post #2 should be up tomorrow! Then look forward to Super Secret Tuesday #2 - because I am!

Namaste!

Deliciousness at Every Turn

Hello there! Sorry I've been gone for a few days, this week was just a bit crazy. As I said in my last update Logician's family was briefly affected by the storm, though for the moment things seem to be okay. Things have calmed down a bit this morning and we are returning to our regular schedule.

This post is going to be a bit long as I have several things I want to post. The first thing I must remind you of is that though I often link to a lot of things (I like to show the love) I am in no way compensated for my opinion and that it is just that - MY opinion. I can't even be entirely sure that Logician agrees with me on most things, so please take what you like and leave the rest.

One of the first things I want to do in this post is let anyone who is anyone who wants to eat something tasty in Gainesville know about Falafel King. This is a tiny restaurant/Middle Eastern Grocer that we must have passed every day for the entire time we've lived in Gainesville. We'd often discuss going in and then just drive on by to some other less delicious place before finally giving in just before we began our second Reboot. We were very sad we had waited so long. The couple that seem to run the restaurant are really friendly and seem to flow seamlessly around each other as they work. The food is always delicious, handmade, and even though it varies because it is handmade we have yet to be disappointed. They sell their own tahinni, tabbouleh, and hummus - as well as kosher meats, domestic and imported feta, olives, etc. It's an amazing little place and we love to eat there. Though we also like to watch what they do as they work and I worry we're starting to creep them out a bit! But seriously if you're looking for homemade authentic Middle Eastern food - go there. It's good.

Now to get to the main part of today's post - today is Saturday which means Farmer's Market! Currently due to our schedules we can go to only one of the in town market's a week, so we choose the Haile Plantation Farmer's Market. This is our first time going every week, so we don't have as much experience with the ebb and flow. But we have resolved to go each day and take time to walk the length before we purchase anything. We have come to know several of the families that bring their items and are always intrigued when a new stand pops up.

Today was one of those days. Today we met the family behind The Root Cellar. What initially intrigued us was their banner which spoke of jams with flowers involved. We see the words flowers, herbs, jams, jellies, or honey and immediately must investigate. We were astonished to be provided an excellent tour through the five offerings - A hibiscus with orange/raspberry flavors, Strawberry Basil, Strawberry Lavender, a blueberry with an anise back flavor, and a jalapeno (which I let Logician try). We ended up buying one of each and the promptly delegated two of them to breakfast duty.

We went to our local Earth Origin's market where we picked up some Gluten (and Dairy) Free Sourdough Bagels made by a relatively local company, Sami's Bakery, and some Vegan Cream Cheese Alternative (this was after a suggestion of eating some of these tasty jams on Sourdough bread). We then stopped by Gainesville's newest coffee shop (which - thank goodness - is on our side of town. FINALLY!) CYM Coffee Co. The name is from the Sister Hazel Song Change Your Mind. Sister Hazel is a Gainesville, Fl band and this coffee shop ties right into the idea of Cymplfy. Seriously - I am very much in love with this place right now.

In fact, with no offense meant to our other wonderful coffee establishments, this one is definitely becoming my favorite. It's got a nice cozy, curl up and read with a cup of coffee feel. The first day we went Tropical Storm Debby was drenching us and I could have sworn we some how teleported to the Pacific Northwest. It was amazing. So far I have tried their Mint Mocha Latte, an iced White Chocolate Mocha, and an iced Caramel Mocha. Logician has tried their Chai (which I just found out today is the powder form of my most favorite Chai ever) as an iced Latte, their Chemex blend, and really likes the way that the owner (Brad) and their awesome Barista (Tom) make their espresso.

They have so many great things going on that if I don't get to my point here I'll bore you to death. One of the cool things that we've found pulls us in each morning is that they sell travel mugs ($2.49 plus tax, their really decent mugs for being plastic) and a refill for the mug only costs $1.00. Logician likes to get a straight up espresso and add it to his mix. The coffee's have been really tasty and enjoyable.

So we stopped there and refilled our mugs. Then took our haul of jams, bagels, not cream cheese, and coffee and went to Logician's work where we had a breakfast picnic - and now for the best part, pictures.

So here's the spread. Each of us put each type of jam on one half of our bagel over the vegan cream cheese and then drank our coffee.

The names of everything aren't as clear as I would like them to be here but oh well. The Vegan cream cheese was not very good in my opinion as I didn't really like the heaviness from the oil. But it worked enough to provide a contrast in flavor and make the jams pop out more.

So after devouring all this tastiness we came to several conclusions:

1) The Hibiscus Jam could double as a tea concentrate - seriously. A cup of hot water, a dash more honey, and a spoon full of that deliciousness would make one heck of a cup of tea. An idea I got from the numerous Asian inspired tea concentrates we've seen at our local Asian markets.

2) The Hibiscus Jam is going to go into a tasty dinner I am making for tomorrow night (that Logician came up with on the spot as we drove from the market to the grocery). It is going to be a stuffed Zuccini/Courgette that is about as big as my forearm (we got it for $3.00!!! at the Farmer's Market, seriously... Insane). More on that when I post it's delicious pictures tomorrow!

3) We cannot wait to feature the Jalapeno Jelly on some delicious fish for our 4th of July dinner. Seriously - the very thought of it's deliciousness makes me want to just stay home a cook today.

4) Gluten Free and Dairy Free Sourdough bagels might just be one of the best inventions ever. I can't wait to learn to make them on my own.

5) Breakfast Picnics rock.

6) Our kitchen is about to see more cooking than it has in awhile.

And lastly we live in such an awesomely inspired local culture here. I am so glad we're exploring so many different things these days. I think that by sticking to the Farmer's Market each week we're going to find new and exciting things that will lead to all sorts of awesome adventures.

I promise the Reboot/Juicing Post has been started, and it will eventually make it up. I have a little more free time this week due to the holiday so I am hoping to get it up in the next few days. Tomorrow I will make myself take pictures of the process as we make the Stuffed Zucchini, and I will try to get it up ASAP. Until then, eat well!

Hello!

It's been a little crazy here the last few days with Tropical Storm Debby lurking off the coast near us. Some of our family was affected by the winds, rains, and a tornado so we haven't been as focused on food as before! But that's okay because tomorrow will be a chance to really get into What's on Hand Thursday. I am really looking forward to digging through the pantry to see what I can find!

I will also try to get my next Juicing/Rebooting post up soon!

What's on Hand Thursday #1

Well to be honest, I did not make this challenge happen yesterday but for good reason. There was a lot of running about town yesterday and we ended up stopping by one of our favorite more health inclined restaurants for lunch fairly late. So when it came to dinner time, we simply weren't hungry. I wasn't going to cook just to see the food sit - so no dinner.

Instead while trying to decide what to eat for breakfast this morning we came across a slight conundrum. Logician really wanted muffins. None of the places we have previously explored around us sell Gluten and Dairy Free muffins, and we are trying to save money by cooking at home. So we started thinking about what we could do, and I turned to Google for help.

Alas we only had limited baking supplies on hand. We only had one full stick and just under half of another of EarthBalance Butter, we only had two eggs... We have brown rice flour and xanthan gum but weren't sure how to use them together.... So I looked and looked until it occurred to me that really I should look for a Vegan Muffin recipe. I found a list of several recipes and chose the one here. 


I was quite happy to find it because suddenly we had a recipe that fit what we had in the house, though the recipe only says to use flour -Which now that I am thinking about it, is likely regular flour - and does not specify type we decided to use it. We did make some alterations/adjustments as follows:

Flour: We combined the remaining bits of Bisquick Gluten Free (also Dairy Free) Pancake mix with what we had left of Bob's Red Mill Gluten and Dairy Free Pancake mix. This was just enough flour to meet the recipes requirements (ideas for next time - add some applesauce or change the flour mixture).

Sugar: We are trying to do away with white and refined sugars and to switch to more natural and organic sweeteners. This is especially important as we're trying to avoid family history of diabetes. So instead of white refined or other misleading sugars we used a new find, Madhava Oranic Coconut Sugar (Blonde). It tastes like evaporated molasses and looks a bit like rough crystals or finely shredded coconut. In the final product we didn't even know the difference.

Eggs: We didn't have any egg replacer on hand, and honestly we are not trying to become an egg free household. Instead we're trying to be more conscious about the eggs we buy. So we used cage free, antibiotic free, vegetarian fed organic brown eggs (store bought as our Farmer's Market eggs didn't last long).

Other than that we stuck to the recipe using Almond milk and the other ingredients stated. Here's the result:

They were delicious, especially with a little bit of Earth Balance whipped buttery spread on top. Logician even decided to be nice and take a few to his coworkers.

My thoughts - change the flour. Both of the flours we used were based solely on brown rice flour and so these had a drier, grainy texture that I want to experiment with. Next time I will either try to make and use our own all purpose flour mix, or I will add some applesauce (unsweetened) to see if that will give them a bit more moisture. They came out of the pain really well, thanks to a nice spritz of baking spray and held together fairly well so I don't want to up the moisture content too much or else that will negate the result.

They also needed to bake only about 12 minutes not the full 20-25. I put them on a timer for 25 with the light on so we could keep an eye on them as they cooked. I'm glad I did!

All in all these were a tasty breakfast, that was indulgent but also made from more wholesome and healthy ingredients without setting off our allergies. I would definitely make them again just as we did and it was fun to stretch our pantry to see what we could bake with!

My Reboot/Juicing Post #2 should be up in the next day or two! Tomorrow is the Farmer's Market, I can't wait to see what's fresh!

Lessons Learned: A Juicing/Rebooting Guide Pt 1 Getting Started

Since Logician and I decided to begin Juicing or as we prefer to call it Rebooting our life, many people around me have asked for more information, tips, and tricks we have learned along the way. In fact that was the reason I initially started posting pictures and recipes of the juices we made on my other blog. But I've realized that while some of our juicing ideas are there, there was no real post that pulled together all the things we have learned. So here it is, from me to you, what I learned about Rebooting.

Again the inspiration for our Juicing Fast came from Join the Reboot.

This is a long post, so feel free to scamper off and enjoy the outside and come back to it from time to time!

Super Secret Tuesday #1

So this is a hodgepodge post catching up from where The Adjacent Shelf Rebooting Days 3-5 left off and including my new Tuesday blog: Super Secret Tuesday.

We have gotten a bit off track with the Reboot, substituting too many store bought juices and green super food powder for freshly made juices, and eating more non-Reboot foods such as eggs and chicken. We're on the path back away from that, but were still more mindful of our choices as we made them.

I don't have as many juicing pictures as I would like but we've recently tried some new ingredients:

Fennel - new to use this go round, it's nice in small quantities.
Jalapenos - Very tasty, but easily overpowered as a strong flavor.
Sprite Melon - we were told it's the taste of a pear with the crunch of an apple, but all we got was honeydew.
Fresh Herbs - this wasn't entirely new as we have used mint before, but this time we branched out and have added Dill and Rosemary, as well as the Fennel
Mango - we added some fresh mango to a juice we made for our friends this past weekend, and it was very tasty.

Tomorrow afternoon I plan on sitting down and typing up a Reboot post that will help those who have asked me, learn from the many things we have learned in this process. But for today this posts main focus is my new adventure in allergy free cooking:

Super Secret Tuesday and What's on Hand Thursday

Not very catch names, I know but that's not the point. The point is to expand my chef-i-ness (yes I just made that up) and my overall culinary skill around allergy free eating since this house is made of foodie gourmands. So here's the parameters:

Super Secret Tuesday:
1 - New ingredients may be purchased within monthly food budget.
2- Recipes from the Web or cookbooks may be used.
3 - Food must be Dairy, Gluten, and if possible Soy Free. Preference is for Vegan or Fish based dishes only.
4 - Try to use only whole grains if necessary, staying away from processed grains and using Quinoa, Brown Rice, Wild Rice, etc. if needed. If necessary white rice may be used sparingly.
5 - Smaller portions!!!!
6 - Dessert included, but see Rule #5

The idea for Tuesday is to allow myself to find recipes and explore, which I did (you will see below) - learning from the many other Vegan and Allergy Free pioneers that have come before me. This will give me new techniques and tricks to use for Thursdays.

Why is it called Super Secret you ask?

Because Logician, my food guinea pig, who must suffer through my cooking will not know what dinner is until it happens. He had no idea what dinner truly was until it was set before him last night. It was a lot of fun.

What's on Hand Thursday:

1 - Only necessity based ingredients that will be used for more than one meal may be purchased (i.e. if I've run out of Quinoa, Brown Rice Syrup, Vinegar, etc).
2 - No cookbooks or web based recipes may be used unless recalled from memory. Cookbooks and Web are only allowed to be used for measurement conversions or substitution tips (i.e. dried herb for fresh)
3 - Food must be Dairy, Gluten, and if possible Soy Free. Preference is for Vegetarian, Fish, or Free Range Local Farmer purchased Chicken or Eggs.
4 - Only whole grains may be used and are limited to Quinoa and Brown Rice.
5 - Smaller portions!!!!
6 - Dessert may be included but is not necessary. Refer to Rule #5.

The idea of Thursday is to really use the food we're bringing into this house. We have a pantry full of stuff and too often find ourselves going out to eat because we're too (Insert status here) to cook. NO MORE! In our move to a conscious kitchen it's time to be in the kitchen more.

Super Secret Tuesday #1: 06/19/2012

Crackers and Hummus

So yesterday I tried out some new crackers - Back to Nature Multi-Seed Crackers. They contain Sesame, but do not have soy, wheat, eggs, or dairy. I had them with some locally made hummus that was organic and contained no soy, wheat, etc.

These crackers were quite tasty. They are very crunchy and solid and went well with the hummus. It would be very easy to eat a whole box without a thought, so be careful!

We haven't been so good about juicing lately (he's been better than me), in that we've had breakfast juice but then lunch for me has been V8 (processed, I know) and then salad for dinner. I should have some tasty treats to follow tomorrow night!

Hello and Welcome to a Food Adventure

Hello there and welcome to a new blogging adventure for me. Earlier this year my companion Logician and I joined the "Reboot Nation" after watching the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. We did a fifteen day juice and veggie diet consisting of only juice, raw veggies, fruit, beans, and nuts. Afterwards we discovered that both of us have an intolerance or allergy to certain food. We had suspected, following a serious bout of heart burn, that Logician might have a gluten intolerance. After rebooting his reactions began to be more severe now that the general tolerance he'd built up his whole life was reset!

The same thing happened to me, with dairy. I am still working out whether or not my allergy is to all lactose ever, to cows milk, or to casein. It seems to be leaning towards lactose in general (which makes me very sad because I LOVE cheese, seriously love) so I am looking forward to expanding our kitchen into a more allergy free, Earth conscious, and health loving space.

We have been in the process of switching to gluten and dairy free for awhile, but it wasn't until after rebooting that we really began to understand just how much our bodies needed to not have to fight to process the things that make it sick. Part of that switch included me developing a love of all things Bento Box (check out Just Bento or Adventures in Bento Making for my original inspirations), something that still sticks with me though I got out of the habit of making Bento for awhile. I have some Bento box recipes and posts up on My Other Blog, which also has a lot of our Reboot juices from our first Reboot and some of our second (we are on day 15 of hopefully 30 days juicing and eating).

A lot change has come into our food life because of the reset our bodies went through during the Rebooting process. This time around we're trying to switch to mostly organic or locally grown fruits and veggies, most of which we pick up at a local independent grocer or the Saturday Farmer's Market. We've also been toying with veggie recipes to have at night. So far they've been good but nothing to really write down and record. But I do have some that are just awesome, that I have gotten from the internet and tweaked slightly.

The most recent experiment included the following three recipes:

GF, DF, SoyFree Crepes (one version of the recipe is here) Makes approximately 6-8 Crepes

Dessert Version:
1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Non-dairy Plain Flavored Unsweetened Milk (I used Almond Milk, but any milk would work)
1 teaspoon Vegetable or Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Savory Version:


1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Non-dairy Plain Flavored Unsweetened Milk
1 teaspoon Vegetable or Canola Oil
1-2 teaspoons dried herbs and spices

1) Mix flour and sugar. Add milk, eggs, and vanilla (or spices). If batter is too runny add flour 1 Tablespoon at a time.

2) Oil skillet or crepe pan, cook 1-2 minutes, flip when bubbles pop. Cook another minute. Remove and cover with paper towel to cool.

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Cow's Milk Free Tzatski Sauce: Made Approximately 1 1/2 cups


I paired these crepes with a Tzatziki sauce recipe I found online, but for the life of my I cannot find the website. I will keep looking so that blogger can get the credit due to them!

6 oz Goat's milk yogurt, Plain Flavor (the original recipe used regular yogurt I believe)
1 Clove Garlic
2 Sprigs Fresh Dill
1 Large Cucumber
1-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Salt
Pepper to taste

1) Peel and seed cucumber. Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place in colander over a bowl. Toss with salt, gently massaging the salt into the cucumbers. Let stand 30 or more minutes to drain excess moisture.

2) Place a yogurt filter or two basket style coffee filters into a colander over a bowl. Place yogurt in the filter(s) and let stand for 20 or more minutes to drain off excess moisture and thicken the yogurt.

3) Place cucumbers, garlic, dill, and pepper into a blender or food processor. Mix while adding just enough oil to blend well. Mix yogurt and cucumber mixture together in a fridge safe container. Cover and chill at least two hours.

** I used Goat's milk yogurt but seemed to still have a reaction to it, next time I will try nondairy yogurt. **
** I also placed the plastic wrap down over the sauce when covering, just in case it decided to try to make a skin **

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And both of those were served with a Veggie Hash I whipped up myself:

Veggie Hash: Makes 4-6 large servings

1/2 Spring or White Onion cut into strings
3 Cloves Garlic, cut into sticks
2 Carrots, cut into sticks approximately no more than 1 inch long
1/2 Green Bell Pepper, cut into sticks
2 Medium Russet Potatoes, grated with a large hole grater
1/2 12-14oz Can Spicy Diced Tomatoes, drained with liquid reserved
1 Small Can Mushrooms (or 4-5 fresh mushrooms, I just used what was on hand)
Salt, Pepper, Rosemary to taste
Nondairy Butter Stick (I use EarthBalance)

1) Sautee garlic and onions until onions are translucent.

2) Add carrot, bell pepper, and if using fresh mushrooms, cooking 3-5 minutes to soften carrots.

3) Add salt, pepper, rosemary and tomatoes. Cook another two minutes to allow flavors to meld.

4) Add potatoes, a pat of nondairy butter, and tomato liquid. Stir to mix then let brown before carefully flipping in quarters. Cook until most of the potato has crisped/browned.

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We ate this by putting a crepe down on our plates, putting some hash over it, and the sauce on top. Then eating with a fork. The Hash made A LOT of food, so be prepared to get inventive with leftovers if you're only feeding two people!

I am pulling together several recipes for the next cooking adventure night, which I will post about soon. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all!

Till next time!