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
So last night was the first Super Secret Tuesday and here's the result:
The only store bought, premade item was the Barfi. It's made locally by an Indian Catering company and sold in our local Indian Market. I went there trying to find fresh lemongrass as I could not find it ANYWHERE after seeing it in one of our local Asian markets every other time I went but now. I felt a little odd walking in and not buying anything so I bought myself a treat of Naan bread to have for lunch today (it has no eggs and no dairy) with the left overs, and the Barfi.
The cakes on the left are from a recipe in Fresh, Fast Vegan by Amanda Grant. The recipe is Peach and Lemongrass Chutney with Potato Cakes. However her recipe is not Gluten Free. I modified it by using Brown Rice Breadcrumbs. One cup was far more than I needed, though next time I will make the rounds a bit smaller. The way I made the recipe I ended up with eight patties.
The cakes were made with farmer's market purchased Red Potatoes, two small farmer's market onions (about golf ball sized), and half of one Serrano chili as I could not find fresh red chili to use. Otherwise I purchased Organic ingredients where I could find them and used the Gluten Free crumbs.
For the Peach chutney I used local peaches, two organic med/large white onions, dried organic currants we had lurking in the pantry, and about half the recipe suggested amount of cilantro (Logician doesn't love it as much as I do). Also since I could not find the lemongrass, despite venturing all over town I had to use dried which we simply removed at the table. I put it in very hot water for two hours to allow it to reconstitute itself. I also feel like the vinegar amount was a bit much and next time I think I will try the raw coconut sugar we found in place of the brown sugar. But it was very tasty.
The green is Chilled Cucumber Soup I found on this blog. I used three (sadly conventional) cucumbers and unsweetened unflavored almond milk. I did not know it but I was out of fresh garlic so I used our backup minced in water in the fridge, without remembering it's double strength. So the soup was a bit more garlic that I would have liked. I also think I will likely try to use Coconut creamer next time to make the soup richer. Otherwise it was quite good with the addition of fresh dill, pepper, and a little salt.
The dessert was an inspiration after reading about Vegan Coffee Mousse at The Tasty Alternative. I really love Amber's blog, though I only stumbled upon it a short while ago. In fact she was one of the inspirations behind starting this blog! I followed her recipe almost exactly, save we only had Grade A maple syrup. The resulting mousse was not as sweet as I would have liked but was quite tasty when paired with the locally grown organic blueberries.
In fact this mousse will likely make another appearance in a short while as icing for Logician's birthday cake towards the end of the month. But more on that later!
All in all it was a very tasty adventure. I really enjoyed making it, and because I wasn't sure on amounts I have another can of Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk already separated and ready for use! I also found out that purchasing that brands organic version is cheaper than the conventional one I purchased at my local Natural Food Store. Talk about a score!
Now to start plotting for What's On Hand Thursday #1.....
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
So last night was the first Super Secret Tuesday and here's the result:
The only store bought, premade item was the Barfi. It's made locally by an Indian Catering company and sold in our local Indian Market. I went there trying to find fresh lemongrass as I could not find it ANYWHERE after seeing it in one of our local Asian markets every other time I went but now. I felt a little odd walking in and not buying anything so I bought myself a treat of Naan bread to have for lunch today (it has no eggs and no dairy) with the left overs, and the Barfi.
The cakes on the left are from a recipe in Fresh, Fast Vegan by Amanda Grant. The recipe is Peach and Lemongrass Chutney with Potato Cakes. However her recipe is not Gluten Free. I modified it by using Brown Rice Breadcrumbs. One cup was far more than I needed, though next time I will make the rounds a bit smaller. The way I made the recipe I ended up with eight patties.
The cakes were made with farmer's market purchased Red Potatoes, two small farmer's market onions (about golf ball sized), and half of one Serrano chili as I could not find fresh red chili to use. Otherwise I purchased Organic ingredients where I could find them and used the Gluten Free crumbs.
For the Peach chutney I used local peaches, two organic med/large white onions, dried organic currants we had lurking in the pantry, and about half the recipe suggested amount of cilantro (Logician doesn't love it as much as I do). Also since I could not find the lemongrass, despite venturing all over town I had to use dried which we simply removed at the table. I put it in very hot water for two hours to allow it to reconstitute itself. I also feel like the vinegar amount was a bit much and next time I think I will try the raw coconut sugar we found in place of the brown sugar. But it was very tasty.
The green is Chilled Cucumber Soup I found on this blog. I used three (sadly conventional) cucumbers and unsweetened unflavored almond milk. I did not know it but I was out of fresh garlic so I used our backup minced in water in the fridge, without remembering it's double strength. So the soup was a bit more garlic that I would have liked. I also think I will likely try to use Coconut creamer next time to make the soup richer. Otherwise it was quite good with the addition of fresh dill, pepper, and a little salt.
The dessert was an inspiration after reading about Vegan Coffee Mousse at The Tasty Alternative. I really love Amber's blog, though I only stumbled upon it a short while ago. In fact she was one of the inspirations behind starting this blog! I followed her recipe almost exactly, save we only had Grade A maple syrup. The resulting mousse was not as sweet as I would have liked but was quite tasty when paired with the locally grown organic blueberries.
In fact this mousse will likely make another appearance in a short while as icing for Logician's birthday cake towards the end of the month. But more on that later!
All in all it was a very tasty adventure. I really enjoyed making it, and because I wasn't sure on amounts I have another can of Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk already separated and ready for use! I also found out that purchasing that brands organic version is cheaper than the conventional one I purchased at my local Natural Food Store. Talk about a score!
Now to start plotting for What's On Hand Thursday #1.....
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