Strawberry Amaranth Corn Cake

 We ran into a special on strawberries, two quarts for $5, and with this began my thinking about how to bake something that wouldn't turn the berries inside into squish yet had that strawberry flavor. I'd been wanting something that might double as a breakfast food and a possible dessert, and then I saw the jar of amaranth on my kitchen shelf. The innovation in this came from pureeing a banana and some of the strawberries and adding this to the soy milk and maple syrup. It was like making a little cake with a fruit smoothie! It had to have enough nutrition to make a good breakfast, and enough sweetness and texture to make a nice dessert, perhaps under some coconut yogurt.

Strawberry Amaranth Corn Cake (6 servings)

1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup oats
2 Tblsp amaranth
1 Tblsp flax seed

1 cup soy milk (unsweetened)
2 Tblsp maple syrup
1 medium banana
8 strawberries
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix all the dry ingredients.
2. Mix the soy milk and syrup, cut the banana and two or three strawberries into small bits and puree them with the soy milk.
3. Mix the wet into the dry, spread on a silicone baking sheet in about a 9" circle an inch thick.
4. Slice the remaining strawberries and cover the surface.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375F. Cool just a little before slicing.

Amaranth adds a little crunch to the moist texture. Excellent with a dollop of any kind of yogurt as a dessert. Terrific with a dab of honey for breakfast. Nice as a mid-afternoon snack with a cup of tea too.

Strawberry Amaranth Corn Cake Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 sixth slice (127g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 231 12% Total Fat 6g 9% Saturated Fat 1g 3% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 216mg 9% Total Carbohydrate 41g 14% Dietary Fiber 5g 19% Sugars 9g 0% Protein 7g 13% Vitamin A 2% • Vitamin C 17% Calcium 9% • Iron 12% * 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.

Poblano and Tofu filled TACOS

Inspiration comes from various places, and lately it has been in the form of very small local shops in my Prospect Heights neighborhood that are being inventive with tacos as a medium for yummy vegan options. There are some work days when it is just hard to figure out how to find energy to cook and I am truly grateful to these little enterprises that have given me a way out. Then I crave that tasty morsel at home, and just have to give it a try! Here is a way to start on this path that I hope will inspire you to wander to your own delight. I took simple ingredients: 2 poblano peppers, 2 little onions, a small handful of mushrooms, a block of tofu, a dab of miso and a few teaspoons of spices, plus 5 corn tortillas and we had a taco dinner that was out of the ordinary, really fun, and left us conjuring up a "next time" with all sorts of additional options.  Here's what I did.

You will need over an hour of prep time as the tofu has to soak in the paprika sauce, and then most of the ingredients need to roast half an hour or so in the oven.  The good news is you can roast the peppers and at some point put the tofu in the oven too, easily getting everything ready to eat at the same time. Honestly, this first effort I complicated matters by forgetting to get the corn tortillas ... so I tried to invent them too... which was really fun and gave a nice grainy bottom layer, but no way could we wrap. I am definitely going to get the necessary fine-grind corn meal (harina) and try the tortilla project again. When I get it to work, I'll blog it because I really liked having a thick grainy corn plate under these, and eating with a fork was fine. For now, though, just buy the tortillas!

Paprika Tofu Tacos (3 big helpings)

1 block firm or extra firm tofu
3 teaspoons (or more) paprika
1-2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano (crush it into a fine powder)
.5 teaspoon or less salt
1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce (or sweet/sour sauce or salad dressing)
1.5 cups water

for topping:
1-2 chopped up dill pickles
4 scallions, chopped


1. Compress slabs of tofu, about 6 using the whole block, by placing a dish towel on a baking sheet, spread the slabs on the dish towel then fold the dish towel over the slabs, and place another baking sheet on top with a solid weight on it -- like a pile of books, or cutting board with a kettle on top, or something weighing a couple pounds.  Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. After compressing for at least an hour, cut the tofu slabs into 1.5" long rectangles (slice the shorter way and then in half again). Put these carefully in a shallow bowl and cover in the sauce. Soak a while, an hour or so, carefully rearranging so that the sauce covers all the facets of the little rectangles. Spread on a tin foil covered baking sheet, drizzling the sauce over the surfaces, reserving a little to add after turning.
3. Heat oven to 400 F, and bake about 15 minutes, turn, drizzle, and bake another 10 minutes. These will be dry and coated red.
4. Chop the pickles and scallions -- about a tablespoon per serving -- to add to the taco. You could add fresh cilantro to this if you have some!
5. Heat corn tortillas one at a time over a hot burner, lay on plate and cover with tofu with chopped pickle mixture on top.


Poblano Peppers & Onion Tacos (3 big helpings)

2 good sized poblano peppers
2 small onions (I used Cippolinis)
1-2 teaspoons red miso
1 teaspoon crushed basil
3/4 cup water
.5 cup mushrooms (I used bunashemeji but enoki or button would be fine)

1. Cut peppers lengthwise into about 5 pieces each, and onions into 8 wedges each (quarter and slice again).
2. Mix red miso and herbs with water in a bowl. spread tin foil on a baking sheet and spread out the vegetables, lightly drizzling the miso mixture on each piece. bake (roast) in oven at 400F for a total of about half an hour, adding a little more miso moisture and separating the onion layers, de-sticking the peppers from the foil a couple times.
3. Remove from oven and slice into 1/4 inch strips (I cut across the whole pile of stuff, not separating onions from peppers), so that this will be easily bite-sized.  put mushrooms in a microwave save bowl and heat for less than a minute. this will soften and bring out the juices of the mushrooms.
4.  Heat the tortillas, spread the pepper-onion mix, top with mushrooms, and drizzle a little miso sauce on top.

Paprika Tofu Tacos (makes 3) Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 taco (383g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 329 16% Total Fat 16g 25% Saturated Fat 3g 15% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 410mg 17% Total Carbohydrate 21g 7% Dietary Fiber 5g 18% Sugars 2g 0% Protein 27g 55% Vitamin A 5% • Vitamin C 10% Calcium 26% • Iron 37% * 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.

Roasted Poblano Onion Taco (makes 3) Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 taco (218g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 99 5% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 68mg 3% Total Carbohydrate 21g 7% Dietary Fiber 4g 16% Sugars 5g 0% Protein 3g 6% Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 76% Calcium 5% • Iron 7% * 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.

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup

Solid nutrition, definitely comfort food, and easily spiced up or sopped up, this soup evolved as the early spring temperature dropped and the rain became ice.  It is so simple, and the only attention required is stirring.

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup
serves 6

1 cup red lentils
1 medium large sweet potato
2 medium onions (I used homegrown Cippolini onions at the edge of sprouting greens)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground dried rosemary
1 dash cumin
1 tsp salt


Cook everything together, puree and eat!

Sweet Potato Lentil Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (300g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 156 8% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 417mg 17% Total Carbohydrate 29g 10% Dietary Fiber 5g 21% Sugars 3g 0% Protein 9g 18% Vitamin A 16% • Vitamin C 7% Calcium 4% • Iron 15% * 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.

Planning Meals: Beautiful & Bountiful Dinners with Grains & Veggies

I haven't been blogging our food lately, but there have been many delicious meals made with whatever looked good at the co-op and what I had time to fix between teaching and other commitments. The beauty of the plate is one thing that I continue to enjoy immensely about our meals.  The colors and textures definitely influence my meal planning. I think of the plate, the textures, the flavors. Any of these elements can run the show when it comes to planning a meal based on what I have in the house, or what I am buying in order to have in the house.  Weather can influence me too -- is it a "comfort food" day or a cool temperature meal we need to heal the day's energies and seal in the benefits of nurturing ourselves?

So I thought I'd put up a few photos of how things come together, even though I haven't blogged the recipes for these meals. Most of them are very simple sequences of cutting, cooking and putting together... and I'll try to give enough information so that you could give it a go... or let me know that you really want directions and I'll blog 'em out.

As an experimental, temperamental, spontaneous and intuitive cook, I find it amusing that I am now trying to routinize anything about my kitchen activities and write things down, document what works, and imagine that anyone is following along.  The idea of the eat2thrive blog is truly to inspire you to go ahead and explore this marvelous feast of possibilities. If these meal ideas spark something -- light it and go with it! I'd love to know if your results thrilled you and would be happy to put them up on the blog for others if they are replicable.

A blend of vegetables, joined with a flavorful sauce or spice, and served on a plain grain can be a marvelous anchor for a meal. These medleys of flavors can be combinations. Here I combined in a water saute with bits of ginger and garlic:  carrots, onions, olives, Cremini mushrooms, and fennel on plain millet. The  sides are fresh spinach cooked with small bites of tofu and garlic, and a salad of enoki, Asian watermelon radishes, arugula and grape tomatoes treated with a splash of Mirin.









This blend is slivered lacinato (dinosaur) kale sauteed with bits of onion, and then mixed together with the white quinoa that I cooked separately in the gingery water I used to steam the carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips that make up the side dish finalized with roasted sunflower seeds and a tablespoon of dried currants. The salad is a simple chopped endive, radicchio, cucumber and quartered red grapes with a splash of pomegranate balsamic vinegar.  The sriracha hot sauce turned the quinoa into a wonderful complement to the sweet of the root veggies and slightly bittersweet crunch of salad.

Here is a stir-fry model (in water of course, not oil), with sugar snap peas, shiitakes and pea shoots thrown in at the end. The binder is tamari with a splash of ume plum vinegar plus water. Plain long-grain brown basmati rice was the base under it, and then the fun started with the sliced steamed zucchini cooked with fresh cilantro, a little salt and lemon! This added a flavor bite to the salty familiarity of the stir fry.

 Here the rice is the border keeper to separate the veggie medley of sauteed snow peas, carrots, broccoli, and garlic with a light peanut sauce, and the pressed, soaked, and then broiled tofu slabs ... soaked in ginger/tamari/tomatillo/sesame seed. I'm still working on how to get that crispness without oil... and this was a pretty good outcome, broiled on tin foil, and reserving a little of the sauce to continue putting a little moisture on as the tofu began crisping.

Here the rice is transformed into Asian rice noodles, soaked in boiling hot water, and then rinsed. The black eyed peas were cooked with garlic, salt, pepper and lemon, and snuggled up to steamed fresh spinach with a dash of seaweed gomasio. I wanted a distinctly different texture/shape and went for the fresh green beans, steamed plain and served with a squeeze of lemon.  Using the noodles changes the nature of the meal and makes today's dinner vastly different from the rice-based meal of yesterday or tomorrow.

Another way to totally change the rice experience is to play with special heirloom rice grains now available in so many places. This black rice is packed with nutrition, stays a beautiful deep color and has a nutty marvelous flavor. So all I did was add bits of chopped mushroom and garlic to the rice as it cooked, served it with plain steamed broccoli, a leafy salad with scallions, pea shoots and sliced strawberries treated with tarragon vinegar, and then I experimented with the side dish.  This one was a delicious surprise of black grapes, jicama, fresh tomatillo chopped up like tomatoes, bits of scallion and a splash of mirin.





Pasta! I use brown rice pasta to avoid gluten, and because it can be served either soft or al dente.  This variation was served at room temperature on the first hot day... partly because I had no time to cook dinner at dinner time, and made this in its parts before heading out to teach an evening yoga class. Steamed Brussels sprouts were rinsed in cool water and quartered, then mixed together with quartered grape tomatoes, sliced parsnip, bits of green and black olives, and two beautiful fresh scallions chopped. The glue was a red miso sauce -- a heaping tablespoon of red miso mixed with about 1 cup of hot water, a splash of balsamic vinegar and stirred well. I poured this over the whole thing, cooked noodles and all, and let it sit out until I got home later. Simple salad - radicchio, chopped romaine, last of the endive and a little pomegranate balsamic, salt and garlic.



Another quick meal using brown rice pasta and a side salad! This one was garlic sauteed chard with bits of sun dried tomatoes, stirred into the brown rice spirals, and then a quick steam of fresh asparagus spears to cut and toss on top. Beautiful and tasty! Boston lettuce with cucumber, red pepper, bits of chopped celery and tarragon vinegar with garlic to dress it up.

None of these meals were planned ahead more than the day-of. The most important aspect of all these meals was having beautiful fresh ingredients on hand, and a stock of grains/pasta to put in place to round things out.

Desserts are usually sharing a cut up apple, perhaps a perfect pear, a naval orange ... or when the mood strikes, a little container of soy yogurt with granola and fresh strawberries!

Give it a try -- play around with these ideas ... and let me know if you find something marvelous to share or want a more detailed instruction about how to make any of these.  One thing is for sure you will be eating well!

Pear Walnut Kamut Need-A-Sweet-Balls

So hard to go without that sweet treat. Subtracting brown sugar, butter, oils, wheat flours, even molasses, I have been hard pressed to do a dessert without resorting to soy yogurt and fruit. But what if you really want something that is not a muffin, not a yogurt, has a chew to it and that cookie-on-the-side feeling?  There was a nearly-too-ripe-to-eat Bosc pear clamoring for my attention, and this is what happened to it! It is heading down the road towards a granola bar, but if I had not used the silicone muffin cups, and had put small spoonfuls on parchment paper (bake 15 minutes), these would really be bite-sized treats. You can use apple, or probably dried apricots or any other fruit/nut combination and if you are going gluten free, you can either use gluten-free oats, or substitute a bit more almond meal and rice puffs. I cannot claim this is the be-all and end-all of Need-A-Sweet-Balls, so experiment and share your discoveries and success!

Pear Walnut Kamut Puff Need-A-Sweet-Balls (makes 6 silicone muffin cups/half full)

1/2  ripe Bosc pear, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 cup Kamut puffs (you could use rice puffs or any other "grain filler")
1 TBLSP almond meal
3 TBLSP  raisins
1 TBLSP maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
dash salt
sprinkle of flax seeds (on top)

1. Peel and chop pear, putting it into a mixing bowl, with chopped walnuts and oats.
2. Add everything else except the flax seeds, spooning this not-quite-sticking-together mixture into silicone muffin cups, half full.
3. Press gently with fingers into a mounded shape, sprinkle sparingly with flax seeds, and bake 20-25 minutes at 350F. Let them cool before trying to pull off the cups.  You can DEFINITELY use a tablespoon onto parchment paper in a baking pan and make bite-sized crisp sweet snack treats!

Pear Walnut Oat Need-A-Sweet-Ball Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (44g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 139 7% Total Fat 8g 12% Saturated Fat 1g 4% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 28mg 1% Total Carbohydrate 16g 5% Dietary Fiber 3g 10% Sugars 7g 0% Protein 3g 7% Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 1% Calcium 3% • Iron 5% * 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.

Savory Cornbread Muffins

Still on the search for that tasty cornmeal bite to go along with chili or kidney bean tomato soup (see separate post), I decided to try using frozen corn inside the muffin to add moisture and sweetness.  It is a simple matter, and you can add bits of hot peppers, onion or anything else you want! The texture came out surprisingly coherent though dry between the kernels, just the way I hoped it would. None of that too-mushy, stick to the teeth stuff here! My efforts produced 5 muffin cups worth, an odd number, but turned out fine. After years of avoiding using these silicone muffin cups, I now praise their flexibility. It used to be that when I ran out of batter on the fifth muffin, I had a dilemma with that 6th empty cup, but no more. I'm thinking that if you really want 6 muffins, you can figure out how to add just a little more of each grain, and a dash more water.

Savory Cornbread Muffins (mades 5)

1/2 cup organic whole grain cornmeal
1/2 cup organic brown rice flour
1 Tblsp almond meal
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup frozen (or fresh) corn kernels
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp chili powder (to sprinkle on top)
1/4 tsp kosher salt (rough not fine for tops)
1/8 cup (a handful) sunflower seeds

1. Mix dry ingredients, all except seeds, rough kosher salt and chili powder.
2.  Measure and mix wet ingredients.
4. Preheat oven to 350F. Mix wet into dry. This will be a crumbly soft dough, not a batter feel. Spoon clumps into silicone muffin cups, shaping gently with fingers into a mound.
5. Press a few sunflower seeds into the tops of each muffin, sprinkle just a little kosher salt and chili powder on tops.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, testing with a toothpick. Some will eat this with honey, others might dip 'em in their soup!

savory cornbread muffins Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 muffin (65g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 134 7% Total Fat 3g 5% Saturated Fat 0g 2% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0% Sodium 103mg 4% Total Carbohydrate 24g 8% Dietary Fiber 2g 9% Sugars 1g 0% Protein 3g 7% Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 1% Calcium 1% • Iron 6% * 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.

Addendum:  Made these without almond flour, substituted 2 tblsp sorghum flour and added 2 tblsp coconut water... stretched nicely into 6 muffins with just a little encouragement. 8/16/13