Category: Food

Not actually daily.

Lately, it is more like weekly as I work on moderation in the bread department.

But after several weeks of severe moderation, I WANTED some crusty bread.

I had a mix of rye, whole wheat and Wheat Montana white in my no-knead crock. I had made one pizza crust and the rest had been in the crock for a week, souring nicely.

It was a perfect blend and age to make a nice boule in my little (3 quart) dutch oven.

My bread…today…my daily bread.

Gettin’ right back on the color detox horse!

Soba noodles in peanut sauce with carrots, scallions, red pepper, broccoli and chicken. AND Flathead cherries from the freezer!

I like options. I like to choose…most of the time. I will admit there have been times when I have wished that a decision was made for me or at the very least direction from the universe written on a blackboard in my head…something like that. But most of the time I am grateful that I get to choose.

I am not a New Year’s resolution maker but I saw an article in Prevention Magazine about a detox plan. Not the kind of detox the word probably brings to mind, but the suggestion of a 10 day eating plan with lots of color: colorful fruits and vegetables primarily. A plan to recover from holiday excesses with good, whole food.

I eat almost no processed food and while I have no intention of going vegetarian/vegan nor eliminating any food entirely, I do know that over the holidays I was making more dough and a few more sweets and drinking more alcohol. I think with the way I needed to take care of Bear, I increased excercise so I didn’t gain weight but I have been carrying more than I’d like and more than feels good for several years.

So…I seriously decreased alcohol, bread and sugar and I increased both quantity and variety of fruit and vegetables. Over the past year, I have gradually decreased the amount of meat I eat as I’ve added protein with a variety of nuts, seeds and beans. I enjoy the variety and the options.

Which brings me to Friday night…pizza night…pizza on the grill night.

Actually, I had a pizza night earlier in the week. I had seen a recipe for a cauliflower pizza crust and wanted to try it. That midweek pizza I made in the oven on a baking sheet per the recipe. (I did add 1-2 T of masa harina as I “riced” my cauliflower after blanching it and it seemed a bit moist)

But for Friday night pizza on the grill…and because the midweek pizza was very good…I tried the cauliflower crust on the grill.

My midweek pizza was fairly traditional. Tomato sauce, ground beef, onions and kalmata olives. But for Friday night, I went with a white sauce made with yogurt, goat cheese and chives – a sour cream/cream cheese substitute (option!). A light layer of shaved mozzerella with salmon, onion and capers for topping.

The cauliflower crust bakes with no toppings for 15-20 minutes.

Sauce, cheese and toppings are added at the end and given just enough time to melt the cheese so I warmed the toppings in a pan before adding.

The crust does not taste like cauliflower. It doesn’t taste exactly like a dough crust either, but especially on the grill…nice and crisp -a good flavor and overall a good option for dough pizza. I was very pleasantly surprised.

And…another salmon option. I love sockeye salmon and can usually get beautiful Alaskan salmon locally, but I’ve been buying canned salmon lately as it is part of what I feed both Bob and Bear. An entire can of salmon is more than any of us need but a can splits between us beautifully.

I have been making my portion into patties adding some cooked quinoa, fresh chives, scallion, an egg and just enough masa harina to hold it all together. The masa gives the salmon patties a fritter like flavor and texture and they go well with a little of the cashew red pepper “cheese” sauce. ( Cooking with Cashews)

Another option :) !!

Sunday morning – this morning. The kolache dough in the freezer was calling me. A sweet roll was calling me. I had roast hazelnuts and the thought of making hazelnut paste to go in a kolache dough sweet roll ala my Christmas morning sweet roll.

There is a lot of sugar in the hazelnut paste.

Earlier this week when my mother and I were talking about the bars I made with dates, she said she’d send me the family recipe for date nut bread pudding.

Hmmm…

Instead of the sugar-egg white-hazelnut paste, I whizzed dates and the roast hazelnuts together and made a date-nut paste. Dates naturally have a lot of sugar but at least it is unrefined and they also have a lot of fiber and some good vitamins and minerals.

Options!

Sunday breakfast.

I like options.

Perspective is a good thing too – and it goes with options.

It is gray and warmish and slushy and damp. My choice today is to see the gray weather with the perspective that it is a good day to cozy up inside in front of the fire.

Options.

**3 weeks on the “color” detox and I’ve lost some weight, sleeping MUCH better, more energy – I feel good! I am not counting anything, just eating more of the best things I was eating and a lot less of the things that are not top of the nutritional heap :)

I am still getting back in “the swing” from the holidays, although last week was much smoother on all fronts and a full work week got done leaving me the weekend to catch up on chores and even putter in the kitchen a bit.

I saw the recipe for these bars and liking absolutely everything in them and the fact that there is no refined sugar and no flour of any kind…they were first up on my fun list. Medjool dates provide the sweet as well as the stickiness for binding the rest of the ingredients: nuts, cocoa, coconut and a little salt. Fresh from California, Medjool dates are currently in my favorite natural food store and they are so plump and fresh that I skipped the soaking in water step in the recipe.

These are Mom’s Kitchen Handbook Chocolate Coconut Bars.

The bars are chewy and delicious. I used walnuts and almonds per the recipe. BUT, I was tempted to use the hazelnuts that I had just skinned and roasted in place of the walnuts and will try that next time.

What I did use some of the hazelnuts for was a try at hazelnut cream using the same process as for cashew cream. The cashew cream is made with raw cashews and has no taste of cashews. Making the hazelnut cream with roasted hazelnuts…good golly!! – the cream tastes like liquid, creamy hazelnuts.

I didn’t use the hazelnuts in the bars this time, but I did make a hazelnut cream egg nog this morning to go with a bar or two. YUM!

And not only is today, Monday, yet another sunny day … 5 or 6 in a row in mid-January in Montana – yowza!! …

A bit of California sunshine-in-a-box arrived on Saturday: Meyer Lemons from Lemon Ladies Orchard.

Happy Monday!