cheesy krabby appetizers

We're not doing much wheat or dairy lately, but when we go out, I'm not religious about it. Plus, we were sharing this with quite a few other folks and not downing it all ourselves.

Recently we had a Japanese homestay student staying with us and the leaving party for her group was potluck. Luckily I have a quick and easy appetizer to pull out of my hat! I got it from a 2001 or 2002 Taste of Home magazine that I had a year's subscription to, and this is one recipe from that year that I've kept and adapted (I found the original recipe online, too, if you're interested). It's basically wheat tortillas rolled up with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, krab, and baked. Of course I add my own flair!

You'll need:

• 1 package tortillas (I think this pack had 10 medium-sized ones)
• grated cheddar cheese
• 1 block cream cheese
• krab, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• black olives, chopped
• cilantro, chopped
• salsa for dipping

Do this:

Mix the cheddar, cream cheese, krab, onions, black olives, and cilantro in a bowl. Spread a bit on each tortilla and roll up. Place them next to each other on a cookie sheet, bake at 350 for 12 minutes or so (until melted in the middle and a bit crispy on the outside), let cool a few minutes, then chop into rounds. Serve with salsa and if you're so inclined, do the salsa.

purple "green" smoothie

I make green smoothies every day and we have them with our lunch. I guess they really are green sometimes but mostly end up being a bright shade of purple because we all love berries. A recent favorite:

• big bunch of organic spring mix greens
• one organic avocado
• key lime juice
• 2 organic Granny Smith apples, cored but unpeeled
• 2 organic bananas
• frozen unsweetened cranberries
• mixed frozen berries: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries
• a bit of water
• fresh cilantro leaves

The cranberries and key lime juice add such a wonderful tang and I've repeated this one a couple of times already.

turkey-bacon fried rice and quinoa

It all started with this lovely sprouted rice and quinoa blend (first heard about it from college friend Jen at her blog, Gluten-Free Gluttons, and then saw at Costco and had to have)...

The brainstorming set in and I sauteed a chopped onion and two sliced garlic cloves in quite a bit of olive oil...

I had cooked one cup of the rice and quinoa blend and then added that to the cast iron skillet, then cracked in two eggs and stirred till cooked. We had two strips of leftover cooked bacon that I crumbled in along with two thick slices of roasted turkey breast I had defrosted.

With a sprinkling of seasoned salt, we were ready to dive in.

Don't forget your greens for the side: mixed lettuces, cilantro leaves, cucumber, avocado, and black olives.


And the leftover fried rice the next day was great with a few squirts of Worcestershire sauce. Mamatouille's verdict? Mamayummy.

You'll need:

• 1 cup sprouted brown rice and quinoa blend (cook according to directions, and at some point I'll try it in my rice cooker and let you know how it turns out)
• generous splashes of organic olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 pieces thickly sliced leftover cooked turkey breast, nitrate and nitrite free, chopped
• 2 pieces leftover cooked chemical-free uncured bacon, torn into small pieces
• seasoning salt
• Worcestershire sauce, if desired (good on leftover fried rice)

Do this:

Saute your onions (if you remember and love Justin Wilson, pronounce them onYONS like I do, please) and garlic in olive oil, adding the onions first until they're soft, then throwing in the garlic a bit later to prevent burning. Add in your cooked rice and quinoa blend, then crack in the eggs and stir it all up. Next come the proteins and seasoned salt, and then bowl it up! (Don't forget your chopsticks.)

This makes enough for two adults and one kiddiewink-bean who had two helpings, plus it made some leftovers for a one-adult lunch the next day.

pear, cranberry, and gingersnap crumble

OK, I must confess that I haven't done any real baking in ages, and this recipe was actually in my archives, waiting patiently to be posted. (My just-turned-six-year-old did request key lime pies for his birthday party yesterday, but that's so easy--just 3 or 4 ingredients!) We've cut way back on sugar, dairy, and grain-carbs, and instead are focusing on meat, fish, eggs, beans, veggies, and fruits (not as a diet, just for health reasons). We're feeling good! (We're not saying no to anything when we're out at friends' homes, though.)

Anyway, I wish I had a box of these gingersnaps right now...I could eat a whole box of these puppies. They're what I used for the crust of this pear, cranberry, and gingersnap crumble from Smitten Kitchen.



I actually didn't have any lemon zest or white pepper on hand, but with these snappy cookies in the crust, I didn't feel it needed either.

Maybe I did add a wee bit of chopped crystallized ginger...I can never resist, and neither can the kiddiewinks. They'll eat a mouthful, guzzle water, and then beg for more ginger. Crazy beans! (I think they might just take after their mother. Maybe a teensy bit.)

fish croquettes and purple slaw

Crispity crunchity outside with warm soft salmony insides. Yum!

You'll need:

• panko, for the crust
• 1 16-oz. can wild-caught salmon (I sometimes use mackerel)
  
• garlic salt
• celery salt
  
• seasoned salt
• pepper
  
• 2 beaten eggs
• enough self-rising flour for binding

Do this:

Mix everything together except for the panko in a big bowl, shape into patties, and roll each one in panko. Fry in bacon fat in a cast iron skillet for maximum crispiness.

And don't forget the pretty purple slaw...

Adapted from this recipe.

You'll need:

• 1/2 head purple cabbage, shredded
• 1/4 c. finely minced onion (or less)
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
  
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 1 c. mayo
• 1/2 t. salt and 1/8 t. pepper
• 2 t. sugar
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 2 T. milk (I used almond milk)

Do this:

Whisk the dressing ingredients together and then pour over the cabbage, onion, apples, and raisins. Mix gently and chill before serving.

Enjoy the warm crunchy fishy cakes and the cold snappy slaw--a perfect pair.

snack and green smoothie

A little healthy snacky I enjoyed recently: sliced organic bananas smothered in organic soy yogurt and dappled with honey and toasted pine nuts. (I've adored Nigella Lawson's simple dessert of vanilla ice cream, honey, and pine nuts, and it works well as a midmorning yogurt snackilicous with bananas thrown in.)


Green smoothie: 2 bananas, 4 carrots, mixed greens, flaxseed meal, 1 apple, 1 avocado, 2 navel oranges, mint leaves, almond milk, a bit of agua. Blend, slurp, and be well.

2 raw avocado puddings

So yummy, but rich enough that you could easily cut this recipe in half and still have plenty! This was Gillian McKeith's raw lemon pudding, and though she touts it for weight-loss reasons, we're just really trying to stay away from dairy and raw puddings are a great stand-in dessert (and so much healthier!). With avocados, lemon (you can cut the amount of lemon flesh in half!), fresh orange juice, dates, and maple syrup, this was one delicious treat.


I'd made cooked avocado/chocolate pudding before, but it was cooked, and had sugar, but this version from The Leftover Queen was raw, sweetened with a bit of maple syrup, and was so easy to just chuck in the blender. And it was pretty yummy (though I could still taste the avocado a bit). I'm thinking of trying three new versions in the future: mocha, cayenne pepper, and rum (this last one would just be a mommy and daddy treat).


Nothing to do with raw avocado puddings, but we do have a green-smoothie lover--the moustache gives it away.

rosemary-garlic steak

I didn't grow up eating red meat, and in fact, had never cooked steak (or eaten it, hardly) till last week.

And now I'm a sucker for a rosemary-garlic steak.

I used Marcella Hazan's recipe (via Steamy Kitchen) and the only thing I changed was substituting a sirloin steak for the ribeye the recipe called for. I was only going to buy good grass-fed meat (no hormones or antibiotics, either), and the sirloin is what our local market had on offer that fit those criteria.

It was easy to make and tasted great with roasted potatoes and green and wax beans with lemon.

creamy avocado smoothie

Almost gone...

Yum yum yum: 1 avocado, 1 apple, 2 navel oranges, 2 bananas, almond milk, water, and a ginormous bunch of mixed greens.

brie and figgy snackies

We've been trying to avoid dairy as much as possible but for appetizers for our Christmas dinner, I served brie, fig jam, and Carr's multigrain crackers. I first had the brie and fig jam combo in Florida when my aunt served it to us, and I've been dreaming about it ever since.

The beans wanted some for their snacktime yesterday, and though we were out of the lovely Carr's crackers, some multigrain Saltines stood in nicely.

Nobody complained.

savory french toast

For a different breakfast, this'll do you good! Beat eggs, almond milk, Nature's Seasons seasoned salt, and Worcestershire sauce together, dip your bread in, and fry on both sides in Earth Balance (like margarine). Excellent with chemical-free, flavor-laden Black Forest ham. (Hubby has his like a sandwich with the French toast, ham, and ketchup.)

purple smoothie

Still snowing and haven't been to the store yet so no greens in the house. This yummy smoothie had carrot juice, frozen mixed berries, two navel oranges, two bananas, and flaxseed meal. Mmmmmm.

snow salad (with apples, carrots, raisins, and ginger)

I did a version of this here on Mamatouille back in the summer of '08, but hey, it's danged good in winter, too.

This salad is what you make when you don't have any greens in the house for a green smoothie but you want something fresh and as raw as possible--I usually add pineapple but had none, and this time threw in some freshly grated ginger, which was absolutely superb and was a perfect complement to the rest of the ingredients.

You'll need:

• 6 shredded carrots
• 2 Braeburn apples, peeled and chopped (or your favorite apple breed)
• 1/2 c. raisins (Why do organic raisins say to refrigerate? Poo on that.)
  
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 c. mayo (I buy the kind made with olive oil)
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
• few squeezes of honey

Do this:

Mix all together and enjoy!

Speaking of which, I'm about to go have myself another little snacky bowl of this stuff while I read more of The Cookbook Collector and wait for the Seattle-snowstorm-of-a-generation.

christmas in january (+ green smoothies)

Because our kiddiewinks were not well for Christmas and New Year's, we had to postpone our Christmas dinner until last night! I didn't have a chance to take loads of photos but I'll let you in on our menu: a 7-pound nitrate- and nitrite-free boneless ham (from our local butcher, Better Meat) that I baked with a clove, brown sugar, maple syrup, and Dijon mustard sauce, roasted green beans with slivered almonds, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and kosher salt, rolls, homemade cranberry sauce (to which I added plum wine and freshly grated ginger), and my friend Angela inspired me to try baking mashed sweet potatoes in oranges (and I had just read Appetite for Life, the biography of Julia Child, and noted that Julia made something very similar in the 50s). I used Angela's mother-in-law's version of the recipe as a jumping-off point and changed it just a wee bit: I used maple syrup instead of white sugar, I used organic white sweet potatoes instead of orange ones, for the topping I substituted raisins for the mini marshmallows in the butter-brown sugar sauce, and plus I added ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. They were so yummy!

Remember the British Christmas puddings my mother-in-law and I made 1.5 years ago? Well, we still had one left, well preserved in brandy. I steamed it all day and served it lit up with rum (Matthew said it looked like the aurora borealis!), and had plenty of rum-sugar-butter to spread on top (my mother-in-law's recipe: Blend 4 oz. sugar, 4 oz. butter, and 2-3 T. brandy, or in this case, rum).

What did I do with all the sweet, gorgeous navel orange insides after I scooped them out to make room for sweet potatoes? Made a green smoothie this morning, of course! I added a bunch of organic kale, two organic bananas, and the oranges were organic as well. Blend and really enjoy--this was one of the simplest but best smoothies I've had (it was five oranges so it added quite a bit of fresh flavor + vitamin C). Very more-ish!


And another green smoothie I made the other day: kale, spinach, cilantro, clover sprouts, flaxseed meal, wheat germ, apples, and almond milk.

banana-cashew smoothie

Happy 2012! May it be a year of health and blessings.

Speaking of health and blessings, this smoothie is full of both (recipe from Real Simple and adapted by little ol' moi--I doubled it, too).

You'll need:

• 1/2 c. raw unsalted cashews
• 2 c. ice
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• I also added some almond milk for more calcium, and dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg

Do this:

Soak the cashews in 1 cup of water overnight in the fridge, then chuck the softened cashews and liquid into a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients, blitz till smooth, pour into a new Christmas-present mug, sprinkle on some extra nutmeg, and drink to your heart's content.

I actually thought it was a bit sweet and next time don't think I'll add the maple syrup at all--bananas add plenty of their own sugar. Cashews tend to be one of the sweeter nuts, anyway.

Definitely going on my make-again smoothie list--so yummy, creamy, and with the spices I added, holiday-full (but don't get me wrong, I could drink this any time of year).

Cheers!