Happy new year from the girls

Dear friends and visitors,

We wish you an abundant, healthy, delicious, joyful, and transformational new year!  Happy 2011!

Love,

Candice, Marina, and Stella

Garlic-Balsamic Pan Fried Salmon with Almonds, Squash and Chard

I am taking a little break from the usual food choices and doing a lot of veggies, fruit, and protein.  Basically sugar, salt, and grains are out.  Tonight I made one of my favorite combinations: salmon, butternut squash, yam, and chard topped with toasted almonds and raw garlic. 

Garlic-Balsamic Pan Fried Salmon with Almonds, Squash and Chard
serves 2

1 pound of salmon
bunch of chard or beet greens
a few handfuls of almonds
small butternut squash
1 yam
5 cloves of garlic
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
fresh basil

Begin by preheating an oven to 350 F Bake.  Cut butternut squash in half and scoop seeds out.  Cut Yam in half or quarters, so it will cook in about the same amount of time as the squash.  Oil a cookie sheet or pan with olive oil and place the squash and yams on it and in the preheated oven.  When they are almost done cooking you can begin to cook the salmon and chard. 

For the salmon, heat a cast iron pan on medium and add equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar, whisk together with a fork.  Use a garlic press to add 3 cloves of garlic to the cooking marinade.  Place the salmon red side down in the pan and cover.  Cook for a few minutes or until it turns from red to pink.  At this point you can add the almonds to the pan and cook them in the garlic marinade for about 3 minutes, then remove and set aside.  Flip salmon and cook covered until it is almost done and flip again or turn the heat off and allow the salmon to cook slowly to your liking.  Salmon is usually best a little red in the middle so that it is not overcooked and stiff. 

In the meantime you can cook the chard/beet greens.  I cut the stems in to 1/2 inch pieces and add them to the pan first (with some olive oil), as they take a little longer to cook than the leaves.  After a few minutes add the leaves and cover with a lid.  Chard is done when the stems and leaves are soft, but still vibrant green. 

Dice the basil for garnish.  Use a garlic press to mince garlic and garnish squash and salmon with it and the basil.  Serve with chard and yams. 

Ith gu leòir!

Kale and Beet Salad with Mustard-Balsamic Dressing

So here I am cutting vegetables, boiling beets, toasting pumpkin seeds, and mixing dressing on Christmas Eve.  Aren't I supposed to be baking cookies or putting out a plate for Santa?  I did wrap presents while boiling the beets, does that count?

This recipe is so good that I had to put it in the fridge so I wouldn't eat it all before the Christmas dinner I'm bringing it to tomorrow.  Yep, just like a batch of cookies.  Only this is kale and beets.

Recipe adapted from: http://bastyrcenter.org/content/view/140/

Kale and Beet Salad with Mustard-Balsamic Dressing
Serves 5-6

5-6 small to medium beets, or the equivalent
1 bunch of kale
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1 carrot
4 scallions

Dressing:
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 small cloves of garlic, preferably use a garlic press to mince
handful of fresh basil, diced
1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
black pepper to taste

• Boil the beets for 1 hour or until soft.  Once they are cooked, cut them into bite size pieces.
• Bring a large pot of water to boil.  When it's boiling add kale for 30 seconds, remove from hot water and run under cold water.  Cut into bite size pieces. 
• To toast the pumpkin seeds spread them on a baking sheet in an oven at 350F Bake and check often, while turning them to avoid burning. 
• Finely dice scallions
• Peel carrot and cut into very thin rounds
• Mix beets, kale, carrots, and pumpkin seeds in a bowl
• To make the dressing, mix all the dressing ingredients with a whisk.  
• Combine the dressing with the salad ingredients carefully.  
• Serve chilled.

Prijatnovo appetita!

Making Nori Rolls

 One of the girls' favorites!

Miso for a cold winter morning

Marina enjoys her miso soup, rice noodles, hard boiled egg, and broccoli.

It's worth saying again: Miso is my favorite healthy breakfast (I have some favorite less-healthy ones too that involve ketchup). One reason I love it so much, it's very versatile.  You can use just about any vegetable from your fridge, a variety of proteins, and noodles or rice.  Here are some of my favorite things to add to miso soup:

rice noodles
wild rice
salmon
tofu
soft boiled eggs
wakame
hijiki
arame
edamame beans
broccoli, carrots, celery

You only need a few of the ingredients from the above list for your soup.  Simple is usually better.  I mix a tablespoon of aged miso paste with a few tablespoons of warm water until all the chunks are gone.  Then I bring a kettle of water to boil, letting it cool slightly so as to not kill the good bacteria in the miso paste when they are mixed.  Add the hot water to the miso mixture and your favorite precooked ingredients, and you have breakfast!

itadakimasu!

Believe it or not, this breakfast is a favorite of my kids.  They love it, especially when we have seaweed to add to it. 

Today's breakfast: red miso with fried potatoes, broccoli, and rice noodles.

My favorite Miso paste, aged red miso, also wheat and gluten free.

Here is a wild rice miso soup with edamame beans and broccoli I made last week.

Sweet Orange Chicken with Wild Rice and Baked Garlic

This recipe is funny because I was looking for some pineapple to marinate my chicken in (I was loosely planning to make teriyaki sauce) and all I had was orange juice, which sounded interesting.... next thing I know I made a pretty delicious meal.  To make teriyaki sauce I mix equal parts soy sauce, pineapple juice, and mirin with a few spoonfuls of brown sugar and a lot of garlic.  So for this recipe I substituted the pineapple juice for orange juice (I added extra orange juice), and I like it better!  Much better!  Here is the recipe. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Sweet Orange Chicken with Wild Rice and Baked Garlic
Serves 3-4

6-8 chicken thighs
1-2 cups uncooked wild rice
2 baby oranges
3-4 heads of garlic for baking (1 for each person you are serving, assuming they like garlic)
 
Sweet Orange Marinade:
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4-1/2 cup mirin
2 TBS brown sugar
6+ cloves of garlic, pressed

Follow directions on wild rice and begin cooking it, It will take roughly 45 minutes to cook.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all of the marinade ingredients thoroughly with a fork.  Add chicken to marinade, flipping chicken to make sure you have both sides covered in the sauce.  I like to cook it with the bumpy side up, as the smooth side tends to dry out faster.

Place chicken in oven. You can cover the chicken with aluminum foil if you like.  It will make it more tender, but it will also cook faster.  Cooking time will depending on the size of your chicken thighs (hehe) and the amount of marinade you have.  Assume it will take at least 20 minutes, and check every 5 minutes after that.

Cook the whole garlic heads at the same time you cook the chicken, although the garlic will probably be done sooner than the chicken.  Place garlic in a pie dish and cover it with olive oil.  Cook for 20-30 minutes.

Serve chicken on a bed of wild rice topped with chopped baby oranges.  Give each guest a baked garlic and green salad. 

Velbekomme!

Seafood Pesto Penne with Carmelized Onions

Alright, the recipe title is a mouthful!  It is also a yummy mouthful.  I finally made it to Trader Joe's over the weekend.  I say finally because living on an island without a TJs I don't usually make the trek to the mainland just to go there.  While I was on the other side of the water, I picked up some of my favorites: brown rice penne pasta, pesto, kalamata olives, and TJ's frozen seafood mix (shrimp, calamari rings, bay scallops).  This recipe was the result, something I thought that the kids would also enjoy.  And they did.  It would be especially delicious with homemade pesto or nettle pesto.


Seafood Pesto Penne with Carmelized Onions
Serves 4

Brown rice penne pasta (Trader Joe's) or any penne pasta
1/2 package of Trader Joe's Seafood Blend, or 1/2 pound of shrimp, Calamari, or Scallops
4 oz of pesto
1-2 heads of broccoli
1 large white onion
pitted Kalamata olives, a few handfuls
olive oil for cooking

Begin by heating a cast iron pan on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add a dash of olive oil and chopped onions, stir occasionally to evenly brown them.  Cover.  Begin to boil water for penne pasta.  Follow directions on package, set aside when done and mix pesto in with noodles.  Start adding pesto conservatively, and add more as needed.

When onions are browned and softened, add chopped broccoli stir and cover.  Stir occasionally to evenly cook.  When the broccoli is about halfway done add the seafood.  Stir occasionally until seafood and broccoli is done to your liking. The seafood cooks quickly.

Serve pesto noodles with stir fried onions, broccoli and seafood.  Top with some kalamata olives.

Buon appetito!

More Zucchini Pancakes

I've written about zucchini pancakes before, but I thought it was worth writing about again.  Can't hurt to have one more great zucchini recipe!  I originally got this idea from my friend Andrea who is full of great ideas, his just being one of many.  So credit to her!

Zucchini Pancakes
serves 3-4

3-4 cups grated zucchini, you can use a large zucchini for this recipe
salt
2 eggs
2 cloves of pressed garlic
olive oil or canola oil for frying

Grate zucchini and salt it.  Do not salt more than you would like to taste!  Let mixture sit for 5 minutes to pull out the water.  Squeeze excess liquid out of zucchini and put zucchini in a mixing bowl.  Add eggs and pressed garlic, mix all ingredients.  Preheat cast iron pan on medium heat, about the same as you would for regular pancakes, maybe a smidgen cooler.  Add oil to pan then spoon in zucchini mixture using a spoon or your hand to spread out the zucchini into a pancake-like form.  Allow to cook until you can easily flip pancakes without breaking them apart.  Pancakes can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I often make them for dinner.   

Verði þér að góðu!

A large zucchini from the garden

Blackberry Apple Pancakes with Vermont Maple Syrup

My friend Jim brought back some lovely maple syrup from his trip to Vermont for us.  Pancakes are a sure hit for breakfast in my house, so this morning I whipped up a batch of Blackberry apple pancakes. 

Blackberry Apple Pancakes with Vermont Maple Syrup
Serves 3-5, makes 10 medium sized pancakes

1 cup Namaste Perfect Flour Blend
1 and 1/2 cup almond milk
2 eggs
2 TBS olive oil
handful of frozen blackberries
1/2 apple diced small

Mix flour, almond milk, eggs, olive oil thoroughly.  Heat cast iron pan until it is sizzling.  Mix apples and blackberries in batter.  Oil pan and spoon pancakes in.  Allow pancakes to stiffen before attempting to flip them.  Serve with Pure Vermont Maple Syrup.

Little Stella Broke her Arm, again

 Stella post surgery

Stella fell off a small slide at Castle Park yesterday and broke her arm in the same bone (the humerus above the elbow), same complicated break.  Stella and I went to Whidbey General in Coupeville and they put her in a heavy splint until the swelling goes down.  She has two pins in her arm.  Our surgeon was Dr. Picco.  I was vewry impressed with the care that the doctor and his staff provided.  Despite how upsetting the event of her breaking her arm, we had the best possible hospital experience.  Thank you Dr. Picco, Tom, Kathy, Laura, Dorie, and the other Kathy! 

 Stella with Grandma Vicky, before surgery.  We almost had to go to Children's last night.  Happily the doctor on call felt confident about being about to pin her arm into place.  Also glad I brought a bunch of books for Stella!

 post surgery, recovery room

 

I took this photo a little before she fell off a different, smaller size slide she was climbing up.  Stella in the purple striped shirt.

Thank you all for your well wishes and offers to help out.  I feel blessed to have such a wonderful community!!

Playing

Community "Castle" Park

Skate park

Click "Read More" for full post

Some Yummy Ideas

Baba Ganoush!  An Arab dish made from baked eggplant with various seasonings.  Eggplant has a smokey flavor.  I added lemon juice, tahini (sesame seed butter), garlic, olive oil, parsley, and salt.  You can spread it on pita bread, or as I did, toasted tortillas. 

 Fresh garlic corn tortillas with hard boiled eggs, cheddar cheese and spinach.  Toast the tortillas in olive oil.  Flip them and use a garlic press to add 1 clove of garlic to tortilla.  Melt cheese over the top and add baby spinach.  Serve with quartered hard boiled eggs.  The fresh garlic will give the tortillas a spicy taste. 

while I've been away

I have been running, racing and having fun in general.  Recently I have had a lot of changes in my life and I hope to get back to posting more recipes.  My heart is really with my running right now though.  I have a running blog where you can see what I have been up to, visit http://www.runeatswim.blogspot.com

I am finding non-computer ways to expressing my creativity as well and find myself journaling a lot.  It seems so slow to write out every word in a notebook with a pen, but it feels right.  I find it easier to write via the computer, so it's an interesting challenge to write words rather than type.  It seems like it uses different parts of the brain and I have to work harder to get the words to flow.

Happy Autumn!

I'll leave you with this...

shopping in the hardware store

Fresh Basil, Corn and Green Bean Pasta with Spicy Soy Sauce

Fresh Basil, Corn and Green Bean Pasta with Spicy Soy Sauce
Serves 4

1 package of rice or wheat spaghetti noodles, cooked
1 pound fresh green beans, de-stemmed
3 ears of corn
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 can of black beans
a large handful of fresh basil, diced
olive oil for cooking green beans
optional: 2 cans of albacore tuna, drained

Sauce:
5 TBS soy sauce
1 to 2 TBS Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce, depending on how spicy you like it.
Mix soy sauce and Tabasco thoroughly.  I would have people pour desired amount over their food. 

Cook noodles, set aside.  Heat a cast iron pan on medium heat, when it's hot add olive oil and green beans.  The beans should really sizzle in the pan for a good 5 minutes, stir every minute or so.  After 5 minutes cover and cook them while stirring occasionally until they are tender, but firm.  Cut corn off cobs and add to green beans, stir, let sit covered with lid.  The corn will cook quickly from the retained heat in the pan. 

Chop tomatoes and dice basil.  Heat black beans.  Serve each plate with noodles then add tomatoes, green bean-corn stir fry, black beans and fresh basil.  For a little extra oomph add tuna.  This would be especially good with fresh tuna!  Serve with spicy soy sauce.   

Here is a picture of the meal with tuna and extra black beans....

Eggs and Avocado

on lettuce with shredded carrot and a light drizzle of seasoned rice vinegar and Tabasco's green pepper sauce.  Makes an amazing breakfast.

Breakfast Burritos with Cayenne Pepper

Fresh tomatoes, avocado, creamy scrambled eggs, and Tillamook cheese on a corn burrito sprinkled with cayenne pepper.  What more could you ask in a breakfast burrito?

Breakfast Burritos with Cayenne Pepper
serves 3

6 eggs
1 avocado, sliced thin
1 tomato sliced or diced
6 corn tortillas
1.5 cups grated Tillamook cheese
1 tsp cayenne pepper

The Soft Scrambled Eggs:
There is a special way to make very moist scrambled eggs without the slimy uncooked taste.  The key to this technique is heating the eggs slowly and evenly while stirring continuously.  I heat a cast iron pan on medium heat.  When it is hot enough to sizzle I add a tablespoon of butter then pour in the mixed eggs.  Using a wooden spoon I stir the eggs almost continuously, making sure to get all parts of the pan.  There is an art to this: you want to have the pan temperature hot enough that you aren't standing around stirring the eggs forever.  The heat should be hot enough that the eggs are solidifying visibly each time you stir it and the wet parts touch the heat, but not so fast that you have an egg cake.  The egg should solidify as more of a mashed potato consistency.  Confused yet?  It takes some practice. Salt and pepper to your liking.

Putting the Burrito Together:
Heat corn tortillas in a little butter on medium heat in a cast iron pan adding cheese so that it will melt.  Top with scrambled eggs, chopped fresh tomatoes, avocado, and sprinkle with cayenne pepper. 

Specially scrambled eggs

Drunk Mussels in Butter, Basil and Garlic Sauce

It's been a while since I cooked mussels, the kiddos were pretty excited about trying them, and I just bought some lovely purple garlic from the Port Townsend Farmer's Market. A nice convergence, including some inspiration for trying new shellfish recipes after some delicious barbequed oysters last weekend =).  Right here on Whidbey Island we have Penn Cove Shellfish a fresh-from-the-water shellfish growing operation in Coupeville.  Whidbey island is a great place to buy shellfish!

Drunk Mussels in Butter, Basil and Garlic Sauce
Serves 2 to 3 adults

1.5 pounds of mussels
1/2 cup butter
2 large or 4 small/medium garlic cloves, diced
1 cup white wine
2 TBS fresh chopped basil

Clean the mussels in water and pull out their beards.  Toss any that have broken shells.  Melt butter slowly on stove.  Once the butter has melted add garlic and basil, cook for several minutes on low temperature and set aside.  In a pan bring white wine to a simmer, add mussels and cook until the mussel shells open.  Serve with butter sauce drizzled over the mussels. Great served with noodles.  We combined mussels, noodles and edamame beans.  I think next time I would add fresh tomatoes and more fresh basil.

Coconut Rice with Broccoli Stir Fry

Here is a fun trick: replace some of the rice cooking water with coconut milk.  Simple and delicious!  For this recipe I replaced 1 cup of 3 cups rice cooking water with coconut milk.  If you replace too much of the water the taste is too strong.  Especially good with Jasmine rice and jalapenos (spicy is a nice taste to add to the coconut milk flavor).  Serve with stir fry.

Salad and Grilled Cheese on Dave's Killer Bread

I made grilled cheese sandwiches on Dave's Killer Bread (WOW!  Really good!) paired with a salad.  The girls love cukes so we brought some from a local farm for snacking on and for the salad.  Here is the recipe for the salad dressing we made that was great with the meal:

Spicy Garlic and Rice Vinaigrette
2 TBS Seasoned rice vinegar
1 TBS olive oil
1 small clove of garlic, minced
pepper and honey to your taste (the more pepper the spicier)

Mix all ingredients together and toss with salad.

 Stella with the kid version of lunch

Marina enjoys lunch

The free range Amerincana hens were eyeing the food I was taking pictures of... I had to shoo them away!

Adzuki Bean and Tuna Salad with Lemon Pepper and Pink Salt Vinaigrette

I just completed my second 50 mile race and I have been craving healthy food at all hours.  It is almost 11 PM and instead of snacking on something sweet (really doesn't sound good), I threw together a salad using some adzuki beans I slow cooked toady, canned tuna, romaine lettuce, and a white vinegar, sea salt, and lemon pepper dressing.  It is very satisfying and healthy, plus the pup is enjoying the tuna can right now.

Adzuki Bean and Tuna Salad with Lemon Pepper and Sea Salt Vinaigrette
Serves 2

Salad:
Six large romaine leaves, washed and chopped small
1 can of tuna
1 cup of adzuki beans, precooked (preferably at home)

Vinaigrette:
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS white wine vinegar
a few small pinches (or if from a grinder, a few twists) of Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals (or just plain sea salt)
a few generous pinches (better yet, grind it) of lemon pepper
1 teaspoon honey

To make the vinaigrette, mix all dressing ingredients thoroughly in the bottom of your serving bowl.  Place cut romaine on top and mix with the dressing until leaves are saturated.  Serve with tuna and adzuki beans on top and garnish with a little more lemon pepper and pink salt (or sea salt).