No Sugar Added Dairy Free Fruit & Grain Muffins

I've been on this cleanse for the past little while.  It's divided into two phases, with the first ten days being the most brutal.  No fruit.  No raw veggies.  No dairy.  No a million other things I happen to enjoy.  But on day 11, the angels sing and the sky parts, and I can once again have a salad and limited fruit.  This is my second "day 11", thanks to having to start all over on the first day 8 because of someone accidentally serving me sugar and msg.  So the whole heavens were singing this morning.

In anticipation of today, I made some muffins out of two of the allowable grains and some fruit.  The males in my life tried them yesterday and passed their approval.  Neither of them had any clue there wasn't a drop of raw sugar, maple syrup, or honey to be found in there.  Nada.  Nothing.  And they loved it.  I tried it this morning.  And I loved it.  I may never go back to putting added
sweeteners in muffins again.

(NOTE: I am not a photographer.  At all.  I take pictures to record a memory.  That's about it.  But this picture gives you an idea of the texture and size to expect when using this rather unusual recipe.)

The following recipe makes 23-24 muffins.  They won't be huge coffee-shop muffins, but they will be tender bits of delectable sweetness.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup steel cut oats (you can pulse these a minute in a food processor if you like)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/4 cups sprouted spelt flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/16th tsp. (a tiny, tiny pinch) of Stevia Rebaudiana Leaf Extract (totally optional*)
4-5 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, beaten
4 T. coconut milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
scant 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
2 c. berries (I used a mix of frozen blackberries and blueberries from last summer's harvest)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  In large mixing bowl, stir dry ingredients together until well combined.

2. Add in the berries and toss well to coat.

3. Mash the bananas, and mix the eggs, coconut milk, and vanilla in with a fork until well combined.  Add in the melted coconut oil and mix in until fully combined.  (If your bananas were frozen previously, you might want to consider letting them warm up to room temperature.  Otherwise, they will probably cause the coconut oil to immediately seize back up in a solid state, and that will be a pain to combine thoroughly. Fresh, ripe bananas are your friend in this step.)

4. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry berry mixture, and gently fold together until all the grains are incorporated.

5. Scoop into two greased muffin tins.  Bake at 400 for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan and then carefully run a knife along the edges of each muffin and gently lift out onto a cooling rack.  These will be very tender muffins, so go slowly and gently.

6. Enjoy and revel in the fact that you get to enjoy the sweetness of fruit.

* About the Stevia.....Most of the stevia out there isn't actually stevia.  It's primarily got sugar alcohols and a tiny bit of stevia, and then they put "stevia" on the label so you think you are doing a good thing. You are not doing a good thing.  These muffins don't actually need the extra sweetness, but if you were going to add it in, you would want to only use a brand that contained ONLY stevia rebaudiana (leaf) extract.  New Roots has a white powder concentrate that is amazing and has none of the aftertaste I kept hearing about when researching it.  I just don't know if New Roots is widely available outside of Canada.  Our little natural foods store in town carries it in a 15g container for about $9.  It's a tiny tub, but when you realize it takes only a few grains to sweeten an entire bowl of oatmeal, suddenly it seems like a worthy investment of $9.  All the big box grocery stores carried over-priced crappy substitutes.

Vegetarian Quesadillas

So yesterday a friend posted a link about burgers made from beans and rice.  The picture was tempting enough to click on it, and I discovered a blog with some yummy recipes.  One that caught my eye was this one: Vegan Quesadillas from the Everyday Vegetarian.

I had most of the ingredients, and what I didn't have could easily be remedied with subsitutes, so I got busy making dinner.  As we are no longer buying tortillas due to the plethora of preservatives and unhealthy, modified oils in them (not to mention the high cost in our area), I had time to mix up enough dough to make six tortillas while the beans were cooking.  In the end, I made enough modifications to the original recipe that it seemed best to write it out here to share with you guys, and my version was no longer vegan.

 It's yummy, healthy, and filling.  The amount I made provided enough for my husband and I each to have our own quesadilla, for our son to have a cheese quesadilla, and to have half of a quesadilla for lunch today.  If I'd had the ingredients for a salad, it probably would have stretched even farther.

INGREDIENTS:
6 Tortillas (I'll share how I make mine at the end of this recipe.)
1 can Organic Pinto Beans, drained (I used Trader Joe's, and it provides about 1 and 3/4 cups of beans.)
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, diced
1 c. Water
1 can Fire Roasted Tomatoes that have been mostly drained (leave a few tablespoons of liquid)
1/2 tsp. Ancho Chili Pepper (Chipotle or Adobo would be good too)
1 Sweet Bell Pepper, sliced (they used red; I had yellow on hand)
4 Mushrooms, sliced
1 T. Oil
1 T. Balsamic Vinegar
1-2 Avocados
3 T. Lime Juice
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 c. Shredded Cheese

INSTRUCTIONS: (I followed the ones in the original recipe fairly closely.)
1. Place beans in a sauce pan with garlic and onion and 1 cup of water.  Cook, uncovered, over medium heat until water is evaporated.  Add tomato with its remaining liquid and the Ancho Chili Pepper.  Cook a few more minutes until liquid is evaporated, stirring occasionally.  Set aside to cool.

2. Saute mushrooms in oil of your choice for about 5 minutes.  Add in sweet bell pepper slices and saute another 5 minutes or so.  Add the balsamic vinegar at the end and stir to coat.

3. Mash bean mixture with a fork.  It doesn't have to be fully mashed, just a bit to provide some creamy texture as if they were refried beans.

4. Mash avocado and add lime juice and kosher salt to make a simple guacamole.

5. Take one tortilla and spread 1/3 bean mixture, 1/3 mushroom and peppers, 1/3 of the avocado, 1/3 of the cheese, and top with another tortilla.  Cook in a skillet over medium heat 1-2 minutes each side, flipping carefully one time.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas.  Serve with your favorite salsa and plain yogurt or sour cream.

Inkling's Tortillas That Would Never Pass Mexican Inspection But Are Tasty Recipe  =)
(Real Mexican tortillas would never be a mixture of corn and flour.  They would be either one or the other.  And they'd never have baking powder in them either.  Most of the time they would be made with lard instead of butter.  One day when I learn how to render ethically farmed, pastured lard, I may try it instead of butter.)

INGREDIENTS: (This is enough to make about 8 - 8-10"tortillas.)
1 c. Maseca (Corn treated with lime - different from cornmeal.)
1/2 c. Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
scant 1/4 c. cold Butter, cut into pieces
Room Temperature Water (maybe 2/3 - 1 cup)
Organic Cornmeal for rolling

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix maseca, flours, salt, and baking powder together with a mixing fork.

2. Add in butter pieces.  With clean hands, mix butter into the corn/flour mixture until completely combined and distributed evenly.

3. Adding in only a few tablespoonfuls at a time, pour water into flour mixture and mix with fork until dough begins to form.  You don't want it too dry, but you don't want it sticky.

4. When dough is moist enough to shape into a ball, bring it together with your hands and knead for at least five minutes up to ten minutes.  (It's important to do this by hand.  And quite frankly, it's kind of therapeutic.)

5. Divide dough into 8 even pieces and shape into balls.  Cover with a tea towel.

6. (At this point, I have a big dinner plate and several tea towels out.) Sprinkle work surface with cornmeal and flatten one ball onto cornmeal with hands.  Roll into a circle at least 8 inches in diameter. You want the tortilla to be less than 1/16th of an inch thick, but not so thin that it's tearing.  Put the first tortilla on the plate; cover with a tea towel, and continue layering them in between tea towels.

7. (When I make beans and rice, I cook these as needed so that they don't harden up.  And I cook them a bit longer so that they have a few tiny brown spots.  They can be stored uncooked and tightly covered in the refrigerator for a day or two if you have leftovers.)  For quesadillas, cook tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side.  Because you are going to cook them a second time once they are filled, you don't want to get them browned.  As each one is done cooking, put it on a plate and carefully cover it with a tea towel until they are all cooked and ready to assemble into quesadillas.  Now you are ready to pick up with step 5 on the quesadilla instructions.

Creamy Broccoli Lentil Soup

I found this recipe for "Creamy Broccoli Lentil Soup" on epicurious.com.  The changes I made are in blue.

Ingredients:
1 ½ tbsp (22.5 mL) extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp (10 mL) crushed garlic (3 cloves minced)
¾ cup (85 mL) chopped onion (closer to 1 c... about 1/2 a large yellow onion)
1 large carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 tbsp (15 mL) dried basil
3 cups (750 mL) chopped broccoli (1 large head)
¾ cup (85 mL) dried green lentils
4 cups (1 L) low sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp (30 mL) parmesan cheese, grated (2 tsp)
Optional: 2 green onions, chopped (for garnish)

Prep:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add onions and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes.
3. Add the carrots, celery and basil and cook for a few more minutes until the spices coat them nicely.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour covered, covered.
6. Using a wand blender, puree till smooth. Garnish with green onions if desired.
Makes three 2 cup (500 mL) servings. Freeze some portions for workdays on the run.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com:80/recipes/member/views/CREAMY-BROCCOLI-LENTIL-SOUP-50118326#ixzz1sRelFtAy

*****************

This soup is delicious.  It ended up a lot thicker than I expected, perhaps I left too much of the stalks on the broccoli, but why waste perfectly good broccoli?  I tried using a hand mixer because I don't own a wand blender, and it was still too chunky for my texture-finicky children.  So I pulled out the handy ninja blender and pureed it, adding about 2 more cups of water, then returning it to heat some more on the stove.  I think fresh basil would be even better than the dried.  We ate our soup with some oyster crackers, and my 3 1/2 year old apparently mistook it for "guacamole soup."  Nope, sorry son, it wasn't guacamole. (At least he liked it!)  It reminded me of a very rich split pea soup without the ham flavor.

Lentil Fare for Kork

Okay, Kork, awhile ago you asked for recipes using beans or lentils. I use them all the time, but kept forgetting to post. So now I'm making time to post...a new recipe tried just tonight. So that means it still needs tweaking, yet it's good enough to enjoy as-is now. If you like Indian food, this is a wonderful, flavorful combination of Indian and Iranian food. I scoured the internet for chicken dhansak recipes (my favorite thing to get when we eat at Indian restaurants), finding variety after variety that differed greatly in both ingredients and method. This is the one I am going with until my dream cookbook arrives. It is actually a combination of three different recipes. I made it in the crock pot so that we'd have dinner ready when we got back from a medical appointment in Vancouver, mainly so my hungry self wouldn't beg my husband to take us out for dinner. End result? Who needs to go out when food at home can be this good?

My only warning...you must have a good variety of spices in your kitchen. If not, you'll need to build up slowly. I only had to buy a couple, since I've slowly been adding to my collection. I currently use mainly ground spices, but you can use whole ones if you have a mortar and pestle.

Here goes....

INGREDIENTS:
1 large yam or sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in small cubes
1 c. red split lentils
1 c. brown or green lentils
1/4 c. split peas
1 T. sunflower oil or any groundnut oil
1 red onion, chopped in small pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced fine
2 T. fresh ginger, minced fine (I buy fresh ginger on sale and store it in a freezer bag in our deep freeze so it's there whenever I need it without necessitating a trip to the grocery)
2 T. Tamarind paste (I had Tamarind preserves from Guadelupe and used that instead)
5-6 dried red chillies (DanPak has some basic red chillies you can easily find.)
1 tsp. Turmeric
2 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp. Coriander
1/4 tsp. Cloves (ground, or 2 whole cloves otherwise)
2 tsp. Garam Masala
1/2 tsp. Cardamom
1 Cinnamon stick, broken in 2 or 3 pieces
1 tsp. Demerara sugar (a dark brown sugar)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
2 T. Malt Vinegar (I confess that I used another type since I didn't have that one in my pantry.)
1 small can diced tomatoes in liquid (maybe 1.5 c. size)
3 c. boiling chicken stock
2 T. Cilantro, chopped fresh
Rice
Naan Bread

Instructions:
1. In chicken stock, boil green/brown lentils and split peas for a few minutes. (do NOT add the red lentils to this!) Drain the lentils, reserving the stock.

2. Put sweet potato, chicken pieces, split peas and both types of lentils in crock pot and stir well.

3. Heat oil in separate pan and saute onion, garlic, and ginger for a 3 minutes over medium heat. Stir in dried chillies and dried spices and cook another minute.

4. Add sugar, tomatoes with their juices, vinegar, and chicken stock and bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Then pour carefully over chicken mixture in crock pot.

5. Stir; cover; and cook on low 6-7 hours. At the 6 hour mark, check liquid level. You will most likely have a thick mixture and will want to add about 2 cups of water and cook a few minutes longer. You want to have a slightly soupy mixture for the Naan bread to having something to soak up. The reason you don't add the water at the beginning is because it is easier to achieve a desired consistency by adding more water than trying to deal with something that is too soupy from the beginning.

6. Ladle into a large serving bowl, taking care to scoop out cinnamon pieces (which will have uncurled into woody rectangles) and red chillies. Sprinkle freshly chopped cilantro on top. Serve over rice with Naan bread on the side. (We cheated and bought rice when we picked up hot Naan bread and Samosas at the local Indian cafe on the way home, but normally we'd use brown Basmati rice.)

*We found this not too spicy at all for our toddler. The flavors will intensify the following day and meld even more. This served two, plus leftovers for both of us to have lunch, and enough to freeze a dinner's worth when we have Indian night with friends in a couple of weeks. If you want to adjust the heat of the spice more, you could add green chillies, or 1/4-1/2 tsp. of hot chili powder.

Fast, Fresh & Healthy Fish Tacos

I just made these tonight, and they were a hit. If you are looking for something really healthy and low-cal, this is it! If you are looking for something full of taste and protein, this is it! Give it a try. Here's to the first recipe of 2010.

INGREDIENTS:
2 Fresh (or frozen, thawed) cod fillets, small bones removed
1 T. Lime Juice
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
8 Hard Taco Shells
1 c. Frozen Peaches & Cream Corn, thawed in warm water and drained
scant 1 cup Black Beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. Salsa (we used hot and chunky)
1/4 c. Red Pepper, chopped
1/4 c. Cilantro, chopped
1 c. Lettuce, shredded (we used Romaine)

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat broiler. Arrange fillets in single layer on a foil topped baking sheet. Be sure to grease or spray the foil. Drizzle with lime juice. Sprinkle with cumin. Broil on center rack in oven for 8-10 minutes until fish flakes easily when tested with fork. Break into small chunks and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, toss the corn, beans, salsa, red pepper, and cilantro together and set aside in a small serving bowl ready for the table. Put the lettuce in a separate little serving bowl.

3. Arrange taco shells on a baking sheet and heat for one minute in hot oven.

4. Serve and eat! (We served this with fresh fruit and carrots.)

*I don't know the added caloric content from the beans and peppers, but do know that the other ingredients give you about 134 calories per taco with only 3.5 g of fat. Each taco is slightly more than 12-14 grams of protein.

***I should note that this recipe was inspired by a Canadian cook who puts out numerous cookbooks called Company's Coming. Her name is Jean Pare, and her recipe was the basis for this post. I added the peppers and black beans, and got a little heavy handed with the lime juice and cumin. You can thank my husband for the Mother's Day gift of a couple new cookbooks that motivated me to try fish tacos for the first time.