Tag: real food (Page 6 of 20)

Cranberry-Pumpkin Muffins

January 24, 2012 / Lindsey / 3 Comments

I had a recipe request for these muffins after their photo appeared in a post a few days ago. When I made them I was going off two separate recipes, but I do remember what I did, so I wrote it out and am posting it here. Normally my rule is to make a recipe at least twice before posting it here, but I’m throwing caution to the wind today. It’s a pretty basic muffin recipe and hopefully there’s not much that could go wrong! Let me know how you go with it!

Also, the above photo shows these muffins with homemade cranberry sauce on the tops, which is not in the recipe. (With the sauce, they were maybe a little too cranberry — but feel free to add it!)

Cranberry-Pumpkin Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar (I like rapadura)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 – 1/2 tsp allspice

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/4 cup butter or coconut oil, melted

1 cup whole cranberries (fresh or frozen)

***

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in another bowl, except for the cranberries. (If you’re using coconut oil it helps to have the rest of the wet stuff at room temperature so that the melted coconut oil won’t solidify when it comes into contact with the other stuff.)

Combine dry and wet, taking care not to over-mix. Then when they’re incorporated, mix in the cranberries.

Fill muffin cups nearly all the way to the top.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes OR until a toothpick stuck into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

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Make Your Own Sushi

January 17, 2012 / Lindsey / 4 Comments

We love sushi at our house, though we don’t often go out for it. Actually though, I prefer to make my own — because then I know the source of the fish (which I think is important if you’re eating it raw). And of course it’s also much cheaper to make your own at home. It’s simple and fun, too!

Let’s begin!

To make one batch of sushi rolls, you’ll need the following. This can easily be multiplied. Today we’ll be making a Raw Salmon-Avocado Roll. But you can fill your sushi roll with anything! That’s part of the fun!

***

You’ll need:

1 sheet of toasted nori seaweed

1/4 cup raw sushi rice or short-grain rice + 1/3 cup water. (This will make enough rice to fill one sheet of nori. To fill about 4 sheets of nori, use 1 cup rice + 1 1/4 cups water.)

half an avocado

about 2 ounces of raw salmon from a company you trust (I always use Lars Larson Trophy Salmon — they’re a Colorado company selling wild, line-caught Alaskan salmon that they process and freeze right on their boat.)

soy sauce to serve with sushi (Nama Shoyu raw soy sauce is our hands-down favorite)

***

1. Cook your sushi rice. You do want to get the actual sushi rice/short-grain rice because you need that sticky texture for your sushi to turn out right. Combine the 1/4 cup rice with 1/3 cup water in a saucepan. Salt the water. Bring to a boil and cover the saucepan. Turn to a very low simmer and cook for 25 minutes. Don’t lift the lid at all during that time.

It’s best to cook the rice right before you plan to make the sushi. Fresh rice gives the best results.

2. While the rice is cooking, slice your avocado and salmon.

Make Your Own Sushi, (c) The Herbangardener

Halve the avocado, then cut into slices

Peel the slices

Toasted Nori seaweed, (c) The Herbangardener

I like to buy the pre-toasted Nori sheets

3. Let the rice cool a little and then spread it all out onto your sheet of nori, except for 1″ at the end.

4. Arrange your salmon and avocado down the middle.

5. Wet your fingers with water, and moisten the entire 1″ strip of nori that you didn’t cover with rice. This will be your glue and will hold your roll together.

6. Beginning at the opposite end (not the moistened strip), roll your sushi up. It’s effortless; you don’t need any fancy bamboo sushi rollers or plastic wrap or any other tool. Just your hands! (I threw away my sushi roller many years ago; I found that it just got in the way.)

7. Your roll will end up seam side down, and while you slice it, the gentle pressure will help glue the seam shut.

8. Slice the roll. To get nice clean slices without squashing the roll, work with a nice sharp knife. Wetting it first also helps, as does cleaning it off under running water after every couple of slices.

9. Arrange on a plate and eat it up!

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Avocado-Quinoa-Scallion Salad!

January 14, 2012 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

I have to share with you this totally awesome little salad I made up the other day! So good!!! Everything is to taste; I use roughly equal quantities of quinoa and avocado (though a little heavier on the quinoa). And we use Nama Shoyu because in our opinion it’s so much better tasting than any other soy sauce or tamari out there!

***

cooked quinoa

chopped avocado

sliced scallions

Nama Shoyu raw soy sauce

red wine vinegar

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“Make” Your Own Brown Rice Chips or Crackers

January 10, 2012 / Lindsey / 3 Comments

Have you ever bought brown rice crackers? They’re surprisingly expensive, and often have unnecessary ingredients and are wastefully packaged.

So I’ve devised a very easy way to make my own. We love them! They’re nice and crunchy — great for dipping, or just eating plain.

1. Purchase a package of Food for Life Brown Rice Tortillas from your local health food store. (The above 12 oz. package of 6 large tortillas was $2 at my local store.)

2. Cut the tortillas into triangular wedges or rectangular strips.

3. Arrange them on a cookie sheet.

4. They’re yummy just plain like this, but if you’d like to add salt (or any type of fun seasoning blend — Penzeys Spices is my favorite place to go crazy with seasonings!), just brush the top of each strip lightly with water and sprinkle with salt. (The salt will adhere surprisingly well after baking.)

5. Bake at 275°F for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden and crispy-crunchy (and no longer leathery). You’ll probably need to add another 5-10 minutes to that bake time if you brushed them with water first.

6. Let them cool, and then store in an air-tight container (at room temperature is fine). Done!

***

Make your own brown rice crackers, (c) The Herbangardener

Three perfectly baked brown rice chips, against a raw brown rice tortilla, so you can see the color difference.

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How to Juice a Pomegranate (without a juicer)

December 2, 2011 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

Have you ever tried fresh, raw pomegranate juice? It’s incredible! Pomegranates are in season now, so give it a try sometime!

You can easily juice a pomegranate without a juicer; in fact, even though we have a juicer, I prefer to do it this way. And it’s only a little more effort above and beyond the task of separating the seeds from the pith. One large pomegranate will yield roughly 1 cup of juice.

Now when you’re doing this, I suggest wearing black — or at least a big apron. The distance a juice splatter will travel seems to be directly proportionate to how much you love the shirt you’re wearing; this phenomenon also appears to be heavily influenced by the color of the shirt — with white inducing bigger and more far-reaching splatters than any other color.

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1. To peel your pomegranate, make perpendicular cuts (both going all the way around the fruit) — deep enough to cut through the skin, but not through the seeds underneath: