Spinach Not-A-Fritta-Ta

I really wanted a frittata. No eggs, no oil, what was I doing to myself? Until now I really haven't had any of those "oh I wish I could have..." feelings and I surely didn't want to cave in to that, or feel bad about it. So, as with my yoga and meditation practice, I turn to the sandpaper that is grating on me and I look at the surface that is emerging. It is the practice to use the hard parts and the easy parts. So when the fresh spinach looked good at the co-op, I thought, it's going to be a Spinach Not-A Fritta-Ta...  It turned out to be a light, filling lunch with good protein, fiber, calcium, vitamin c and other lovely attributes.  There are lots of possibilities to play with this format, and to mess around with crusts under or over it, thin tomato slice topping or even a different vegetable base. If you don't tolerate soy, you can even skip the tofu and use more of the chickpea flour "sauce" to bind it together.

Spinach Not-A Fritta-Ta

half a bunch of fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
medium onion chopped medium fine
half a block of tofu (7 oz)
10 Picholine green olives in bits (optional)
small zucchini, grated
1 tsp herbes de Provence
1.5 tsp tamari
handful sliced mushrooms
1/3 cup chick pea flour
1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
(nice with 1-2 Tblsp tahini)

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Chop spinach, parsley, onion, olives. Grate zucchini.
3. Mash tofu with all the chopped ingredients. Add herbes de Provence and tamari.
4. Put this in a large cast iron fry pan/skillet. Flatten it, mashing it in a little. Put the mushrooms in the top surface, pushing them in a bit. (I used whole little bunashemeji and another time, 3 cut up cremini.)
5. Mix the chick pea flour and soy milk into a medium thick sauce. Pour this onto the surface of the not-a fritta-ta.
6. Bake at the high heat about 10 minutes, then turn it down to 400F for 15-20 more minutes.

This went very well with a slightly spicy kimchee and some sweet grape tomatoes. A delightful lunch for any time. My husband and I immediately started dreaming up variations:  "This would be good with leeks." "Imagine this with a little chickpea flour crust under it, like a quiche." "Could work with broccoli too." etc.  Go ahead -- give it a try with anything you like!  If you leave it in a while longer it will crisp more. Forget the eggs, this is not-a fritta-ta and has its own place in the food pantheon!

Spinach Tofu Not-a-Fritta-ta

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 quarter not-a fritta-ta (161g)

Amount Per Serving		% Daily Value*
Calories	126	6%
Total Fat	6g	9%
Saturated Fat	1g	4%
Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0%
Sodium	313mg	13%
Total Carbohydrate	11g	4%
Dietary Fiber	4g	14%
Sugars	3g	0%
Protein	10g	21%

Vitamin A	11%	•	Vitamin C	39%
Calcium	35%	•	Iron	16%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Chick Pea Burgers (with secrets)

I haven't eaten hamburgers in years, accompanying my husband's occasional grilled beef burger with a companionable portobello mushroom on a roll. In times past I ate turkey burgers as well. So I know how easy and satisfying it is to pile up the pickles and relish, onion and sliced tomato on something filling, chewy and tasty between the bread slices. The black bean & beet patty was better on the plate, so today I wanted something to eat on bread that was crisp on the outside, dense and flavorful on the inside and could stand up to my husband's relish and chili sauce. I started with a can of chick peas and a handful of ... are you ready? peanuts! It ends with a coating of crushed Ryvita sesame rye cracker and all's well!  I broiled them on both sides before baking them for 20 minutes.

Chick Pea Burger (no oil)

1 can chick peas (about 1.75 cups, drained)
2 Tblsp peanuts (dry roasted low salt)
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium parsnip, grated
1/2 cup raw spinach, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp parsley
2 Ryvita Sesame Rye crackers

1. Smash the chick peas with the peanuts in a bowl. Chop the spinach, grate the carrot and parsnip and mix in with the chick pea mixture.
2. Combine all the spices and herbs in the bowl, mashing and stirring. If this feels too wet, add just a little flour of your choice (brown rice or chick pea flour) perhaps up to a tablespoon. You don't want this to feel dry though. Moist is good but not wet.

3. Crush the two crackers on a plate. Form 4 burgers, rolling their surfaces in the crumbs (this should just cover all four).
4. Place on a piece of tin foil on a baking sheet or pan and put under the broiler for about 5 minutes on each side, turning carefully with a spatula.  Turn down the stove to bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.
Serve as you wish! One was plenty for me on a piece of Ezekial sprouted whole grain bread with pickle slices, onion and lettuce and our fresh cole slaw. My husband had two, one with double bread and the works, the other more simply.  As always, put more spice or heat into these if you want them that way. Good nutritional content from the combination of legumes and vegetables for 170 calories!

Chickpea burgers Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (112g) 1 burger Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 169 8% Total Fat 5g 8% Saturated Fat 1g 3% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 400mg 17% Total Carbohydrate 25g 8% Dietary Fiber 3g 10% Sugars 2g 0% Protein 7g 14% Vitamin A 11% • Vitamin C 7% Calcium 5% • Iron 8% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

If you want to make up your own slaw, I recommend that you use what you have. Here's what I used.

Cleaning the Fridge Again Cole Slaw
leftover nub of cabbage
leftover nub of radicchio
one remaining stalk celery
1/4 of a red pepper, finely chopped
two slices dill pickle finely chopped
dash- 1/8 tsp celery seed
splash of pickle juice
squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Made about 3.5 cups - which disappeared between 2 of us. Very satisfying crisp, crunch, tart and sweet flavors, contrasting well with the warm, chewy textures of the chickpea burgers.

Morning Baking: Many Flours + Parchment Paper

What's for breakfast? Used to be, I'd whip up muffins or scones with whatever fruit was around. So why not try it today? This is when it matters to have the materials you need near to hand. I started with two bowls, one for wet, one for dry. (That felt normal enough.) Then I made the fruit choice - a Fuji apple and a handful of blueberries. Peeled and then slivered the apple (cut in quarters, cut the quarters into slices, sliced the quarters into slivers). Let the games begin. What to use for sweetner? Okay, maple syrup. What to use for substance and some nutrition? Here's what happened:

1 3.5" diameter apple, chopped
25 blueberries (you don't have to count 'em)
1/3 c brown rice flour
1/4 cup whole oats
1/6 cup chick pea flour (I filled the 1/3 scoop halfway)
2 Tblsp almond meal
1 Tblsp corn meal (medium fine)
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP real maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp ground ginger (how much do you like?)
dash of salt.

Put the dry together. Put the wet together. Put the dry into the wet.
Oven at 350 F. Spread parchment paper (I use "Beyond Gourmet unbleached) into a flat 9X12" pan and space out the blobs in two rows. I made 6 with this recipe. Baked 25-30 minutes to be sure the apples softened fully.  You could definitely use raisins, or cranberries, or dry tart cherries...and add walnuts!

My husband at his with plain coconut yogurt and fresh blueberries on them. I had mine straight up!

Apple Oat Sweet Morning Bites 

Nutrition Facts courtesy of cronometer.com based on my estimates

Serving Size: 1 Serving (88g)

Amount Per Serving		% Daily Value*
Calories	115	6%
Total Fat	1g	2%
Saturated Fat	0g	1%
Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0%
Sodium	45mg	2%
Total Carbohydrate	24g	8%
Dietary Fiber	2g	9%
Sugars	10g	0%
Protein	3g	5%

Vitamin A	1%	•	Vitamin C	3%
Calcium	6%	•	Iron	4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs.

Sun Dried Tomatoes & Polenta - Twice

It is wonderful to imagine a meal and then try to construct it. I had never made polenta from scratch before, and had a vision of a sun dried tomato concoction atop a platform of polenta. So I bought sun dried tomatoes from my food coop (www.foodcoop.com). They are imported from Italy and come dried with salt, not in olive oil. I began by soaking about 20 tomatoes, cut into long strips, in a wide saucepan with probably two cups of water. The water became pretty salty, but I added cremini mushrooms, (about 2.5 cups) to that, cut in quarters and simmered it for a while. This is when I added about a half a cup to 2/3 of a cup of plain organic canned chick peas.


The water turned into an amazing broth, and I poured a good bit of it off to save for later, adding more fresh water so that it wouldn't be so salty, but still had time to deepen the flavors.

Then I let that sit and made the polenta, boiling about 4 cups of lightly salted water and then slowing pouring in not quite a cup of coarse stone ground corn meal, whisking it as I poured. It took about 15 minutes of stirring and simmering for this to turn into a heavy glop, thickening and looking as though the corn meal had totally softened. I poured that out into a flat dish and let it cool. It was about 3/4 of an inch thick and maybe 9 inches square.


Then I boiled up the brussels sprouts until they were soft.

That's all the parts. Final construction was 10 minutes in a 400F oven for the polenta, then putting the Brussels sprouts over that in the oven for another 5 minutes so they got a little hotter and crisped up a bit. Finally I spread the tomato/mushroom/chick peas over the top with the juice from the pan. (I used the reserved broth in a mushroom soup the next day. Recipe to come on that.)

The second time I made this dish, I was cooking for 4 people instead of two. I made more polenta, 6 cups of water and 1.25 cup of corn meal so that it would be thicker (a full inch thick) and there would be leftover for the next day's lunch. I used a big pile of mushrooms, maybe 5 cups, and did not add in enough more sun dried tomatoes to have the same flavor impact. I'm going to try it a third time in another week or so and see if I can get the proportions right. My goodness it's good anyway!

Totally estimated nutrition facts: serving 325 g polenta & 250 g topping offers around 200 calories, 3 g fat, 186 g sodium, 37 g carbs, 9 g fiber, 13 g sugar, 14 g protein, 3% vita A, 126% C, 7% Calcium, 20% iron (RDAs) sourced through cronometer.com  Remember, the thickness of the polenta and the quantities of each ingredient will change these numbers. All in all, a great no meat, no dairy, no oil, whole grain, vegetable main dish!

And then there's the leftover recycled for Sunday lunch by adding regular sliced mushrooms, a couple more slivered sun dried tomatoes and what was left of a bag of organic frozen spinach.  Delicious. We even extended a bit of leftover salad with some chopped red leaf lettuce and the leftover lemon green beans!