Meal Plan for the Week

I prefer fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning.

Finally, Thursday's Meal Plan For Ya'!

I've made the meal plan, done most of the shopping, and I'm wiped. Now I'll share with you all what I'll be cooking up this week.

One of the meals this week will be made for the Tried and Tasted Blog Event happening over at Fat Free Vegan. I'm going to make one of her meals, with my own modifications. Tried and Tasted was created by Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen. I'm excited to finally participate in a blog event, especially since I love the recipes over at Fat Free Vegan. The meal I'm making from her is the Double Mushroom Miso Soup and Sesame Broccoli. Instead of using white mushrooms and buying dried shiitake mushrooms, I'm going to go pick up a bunch of locally grown mushrooms at Costco. The mushrooms come in a variety pack, and are somewhat expensive. However, they will be worth it. I don't buy mushrooms often, so I might as well go for the good local stuff.

Have I told you all yet how important it is to me to buy as much locally grown and produced food as possible? Well, it is an important part of my cooking philosophy. In fact, I just gave a presentation on eating locally and organically to help mitigate the climate crisis. If anyone would like to see the powerpoint and/or read my notes on this please feel free to e-mail me. I can also point you in the direction of some really great resources on the topic.

One great way to buy locally is to go to a farmers market. I've got an interview in front of me, from Parade Magazine, with Tom Wilsack the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and former governor of Iowa. He said that he is working to make sure "that food stamps an be used at farmers' markets." (Parade, May 3 2009).

If there aren't any farmers markets near you, look for farm stands, roadside produce stands with honor boxes, and of course check your nearby grocery stores for locally grown produce and locally raised meat products. Even buying locally processed products is a good idea because they don't have to have as much packaging or refrigeration to get to the store as do products that come from half way across the country or globe.

I also promote eating fewer meat based meals each week. Last week was a bit meat heavy for us, with a lot of chicken in our meals. So, this week we're cutting back.

I'm sure you've been wondering when I'd get off my soap box and finally show you the meal plan, and since I've set it up so nicely now:

Thursday Dinner: Local Style Chili (contains local green bell peppers, local onions, and local ground beef, local Portuguese sausage, and all organic canned beans)

This is a chili based on the chili sold at Zippy's restaurants and in the grocery stores here in Hawaii. This makes a ton, and will be good for the meat eaters who are dining here tonight. Plus, the leftovers will help restock the freezer.

Sunday Brunch: Mother's Day

• Scrambled Local Eggs
• Buttermilk Biscuits (gluten-free of course)
• Roasted Local Zucchini with Local Onions
• Local Strawberry, Local Blueberry, Local Banana and Organic Yogurt Parfaits (no granola)

Friday-Wednesday (minus Saturday as we'll be out and about)

• Double Mushroom Miso Soup, Sesame Broccoli, Brown Rice
• Channa Masala (didn't get eaten this week)
• Crockpot Honey Lentil Soup (I'm bulking this out to refill the freezer)
• Gim-Bahp Korean Sushi
• Crispy Sweet and Sour Tofu

Shopping:

6--Onions*

1lb--Spinach*

4--Zucchini (yellow and green)*

16oz--Strawberries*

1 pint--Blueberries*

2 small bunches-Bananas*

1 bag--Organic Carrots

2--Green Bell Pepper*

1lb--Ground Beef

2 bags--Lentils

12oz--Tofu*

2--Portuguese Sausage*

1 carton--Pasture Raised Eggs*

2 cans--Organic Kidney Beans

2 cans--Organic Chili Beans

1 can-- Organic Garbanzo Beans

1/2 gal--Organic Milk

1 qt--Organic Nonfat Vanilla Yogurt

1 1/2 qt--Organic Ice Cream

2 bars--Chocolate

1 Toblerone (impulse buy)

Total=$89

* indicates locally grown, produced, or raised

I still need to buy the mushroom, and I'm not sure how much they'll cost. I'm also doing my Costco trip early this month and getting some tomato paste, laundry soap, and salsa. Although, I am considering making my own salsa. It will be more expensive, but it will cut back on snacking on tortilla chips.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday Cooking Projects

Kula Country Farms Strawberries

I feel like I do a lot more cooking on the weekends than during the week. Basically I just cook one more meal, but I do tend to plan the more complicated cooking for the weekend.

This morning I made Strawberry Buckwheat Pancakes. I used the Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes from The Gluten-Free Vegan as a guide, but I made my own changes to the recipe.The strawberry flavor isn't extremely strong, so if you'd like more strawberry flavor, try pureeing some strawberries and replace the apple sauce with the puree. The strawberries were locally grown. Here's the recipe, they're definitely worth making.

Strawberry Pancake Breakfast

Strawberry Buckwheat Pancakes

adapted from The Gluten-Free Vegan

• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 tbsp strawberry guava syrup
• 1 egg or substitute for 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup milk or non-dairy milk alternative
• 7 medium strawberries, hulled and chopped into 1/8 inch pieces

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Combine the rest of the ingredients, including the strawberries, in large bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until it is thoroughly combined and smooth.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add oil or butter to prevent sticking, if necessary. Ladle 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and heat until bubbles form and pop. Flip the pancake over, and cook until the pancake is cooked through. The pancakes should be a nice brown color.

Serve with more strawberry guava syrup, and if you love peanut butter and jellies use peanut butter instead of butter on the pancakes.

For dinner we had Grilled Chicken Tostadas. These were pretty healthy, and very delicious. We like our Mexican food spicy, so if you don't like too much spice you should use half of the jalapeno and less of the cayenne pepper if you use either at all. The tomatoes and lettuce were locally grown. We didn't have sour cream or yogurt, so we left that out. You could replace that with avocado if you have them readily available.

Grilled Chicken Tostadas

Grilled Chicken Tostadas

AmandaonMaui

• 1 1/2 tsp goya adobo seasoning
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 can refried beans
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and minced
• 2 cups tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
• 4 cups crisp lettuce, chopped
• 9 corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 2 grilled chicken breasts
• Cilantro, minced
• Green onions, sliced
• Salsa
• Sour cream, dairy or non, or plain yogurt (optional)

Grill 2 chicken breasts either on an indoor or outdoor grill. Chop into small pieces.

Empty the refried beans into a pan and add the adobo seasoning, red pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and jalapeno pepper. Stir well, and keep over low heat until the rest of the food is prepared.

Heat the oil over medium low heat and add one or two tortillas at a time (depending on the size of the pan) and heat until they are crispy and partially browned.

Remove the tortillas and place onto a platter with paper towels to help absorb some of the oil from the tostadas.

When everything is ready, top the tostadas with beans, lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, cilantro, green onions, salsa and sour cream/yogurt.

Coming Soon: The beauty of pasture raised, not uniform, local eggs.

I'm Back

I'm back for your reading pleasure. I actually had a dream last night that one of my posts had over 300 responses, and that this blog suddenly did extremely well in the couple of days I was away. A girl can dream can't she?

I was away because I had a house guest visiting for a few days. The first meal the Nerd and I shared with her was the gluten-free matzoh ball soup(aka gluten-free kneidlach). This was a simple, yet very delicious meal. I am thinking that I'll follow the recipe for the kneidlach again for making gluten-free chicken and dumplings. That's something I've had difficulty in faking since going gluten-free. I grew up with them being made from bisquick pancake mix, and it might be possible to use a gluten-free pancake mix as a substitute, but this recipe may be a tasty and cheap alternative. It's cheap because potatoes are cheap, and so is potato starch. They're tasty because they're not as hard as rocks and they have a neutral flavor which could be jazzed up anyway I like. Our guest brought me a piece of gluten-free vegan pumpkin bread from Mana Foods. I'm glad they are baking up gluten-free goodies now, but I have yet to find out wether or not they are baking them in a gluten-free kitchen or not. So, if you're on the island and are super sensitive, I'd stay away from them unless you find out how they're made and find out they're safe for you.

The second day she and I went grocery shopping. Our first stop was at the adorable farm stand in Kula. They have the best fresh produce, and the stock rotates so I get a variety of produce based on what is in season and available. I picked up three medium sized romaine lettuce heads for 75 cents a piece. I also bought two bags of beans (green and yellow) for a dollar a piece. I picked up a cherimoya as well. If you've never had a cherimoya, please treat yourself to one the next time you see them at a grocery store or produce stand. I was hoping the cherimoya would be ripe before our guest left, but it wasn't. I was bummed. The stand also didn't have the beautiful carrots I had seen the week before, but I was able to pick up a bag of carrots for 69 cents at the superette. The carrots at the farm stand would have been $2.00, but I was willing to pay that considering their level of freshness and the fact that they still had the carrot tops (they are the best way to determine how fresh the carrots actually are: do they stand up well, are they bright green, or do they look wilted and sad?).

Thursday evening, after all of the shopping, she and I cooked up a gigantic pot of my Vegan Indian Curry. I use Patak's mild curry paste, coconut milk, canned diced tomatoes, a wide array of vegetables, and some apple juice (the secret ingredient, and I always use the organic juice that is still cloudy from the pulp). I can't give away all of the secrets to it here because it's so good. Yes, I'll be self-centered and think someone might steal the recipe and sell it and leave me in the dust. It is that good.

I will say that the vegetable that makes it the most beautiful is the Okinawan Sweet Potato. They're so beautiful and purple. They secrete a milky white substance when they are cut, and they do oxidize, so I place them in a bowl of ice cold water to help them retain that purple color until they're cooked. You've never seen beautiful mashed potatoes until you've seen these mashed (unless you have made mashed potatoes from the other varieties of blue or purple potatoes).

Last night we shared some crockpot goodness. In the morning I threw all of the ingredients into the pot so that we'd have a delicious dinner waiting for us after our day out. I made up the Honey Lentil Stew from Crockpot365. I served it over brown rice, with a salad from some leftover romaine lettuce from the week before, cherry tomatoes in red and yellow from the farm stand, carrots grated on my new box grater, and raw yellow beans. I topped it with the basic vinaigrette from Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. So simple, and so delicious. For dessert we shared some fresh Kula strawberries, and I had a little bit of gluten-free, dairy-free mint chocolate by Sunspire from their line called Tropical Source. We munched on these delicious treats while we watched Kinsey.

For our picnic lunch yesterday we stopped by Down to Earth, a health food store in Kahului. While they do have an impressive hot bar, I was a little nervous to eat from it. The ingredients are listed on a name tag above the item, but cross contamination can be worrisome. However, I decided to give it a try and I had some mock chicken tofu, classic mustard potato salad, and a green salad with a multitude of toppings. I forgot to get some salad dressing, so I had to use one of the sample packets of Braggs I had in my purse. I was slightly bummed that I could no longer order any sandwiches or wraps from their deli counter, but I did eat well and I didn't get sick. I noticed that Down to Earth is now using wheat-free soy sauce in their prepared foods now, instead of sticking with the regular shoyu (soy-sauce). That pleased me, but I was still nervous. It had been a while since I'd tried to eat there. Down to Earth is an okay source of buying gluten-free products, but they shelve gluten containing products right next to the gluten-free products which irks me at all health food stores, especially in the bulk bin sections.

Here's something hilarious I discovered in the world of food and gluten-free yesterday. Our guest was drinking a probiotic beverage called Good Belly. It's supposed to be very good for the digestive system and it is dairy, soy, and wheat free. However, it is not gluten-free. It contains barley malt at the end of the list of ingredients. They seem to be forgetting a whole lot of people when they add that particular ingredient. It's made from many juices and has added probiotics, but the barley malt is a silly add-in. Their yogurt cups contain oat flour. Our guest offered me a taste, but I declined. I am glad I read ingredient lists like a fanatic these days. I wasn't so good about it when I first started.

I'm not sure what dinner will be tonight, but I'll do my best to get a photograph.