Crab Cakes

I thought I'd try something I'd never cooked before with my new parameters. I found this Paula Deen crab cake recipe after googling several other crab-related recipes. Here are my modifications.

• Ingredients:
• 1 pound crabmeat, picked free of shells
• 1/3 cup brown rice bread crumbs
• 3 green onions (green and white parts), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon gluten free soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Dash red chile pepper
• Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour, for dusting
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Favorite dipping sauce, for serving

Paula's Directions: 

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, except for the flour and oil. Shape into patties and dust with flour.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve warm with preferred sauce.

My Additions:

Layer spinach, brown rice and crab cakes. So yummy!

Bacon Quinoa Salad

Instead of making just one serving per person per meal of quinoa, (or brown rice or couscous) I have started making twice the amount so that the leftovers can be used for another meal to save time. This is a time-saver meal and oh, so yummy! I only had half a pack of bacon and it wasn't nearly enough. So in my ingredients, I'm listing a whole pack of bacon to feed a family of 4.

Ingredients

2 cups leftover cooked quinoa (or 1 cup uncooked)

1 sweet red pepper

1 package of bacon

1/2 cup chopped mushroom

1 handful garlic chives

1/4 cup butter

Fresh spinach

Directions

1. Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add in quinoa, pepper, mushroom, and chives. Stir occasionally. 

2. In another skillet, cut up bacon in 1-1.5" pieces and fry up. When bacon is done how you like it, add it into the quinoa mix.

3. Layer your plate with spinach leaves. Top with bacon quinoa mix. 

This might be a hit or miss with little ones. Princess #1 (5) doesn't like mushrooms, but she liked everything else. And Princess #2 kept stealing Princess #1's spinach and bacon. 

Asparagus Casserole

I know this picture doesn't look the best. But I'm finding casseroles rarely look appetizing in photographs. Let me assure you, this was delicious! I made enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Yeah.

We didn't have any leftovers. 

My girls gave me and my husband a run for our money. 

Initially, I planned on making brown rice to pair with this. 

However, even the best laid plans fall through when you ruin pot after pot of rice. 

I have a personal vendetta against brown rice now. 

One day, I swear I will come out victorious. 

But for now, I admit defeat so the casserole stood alone.

No one cared though. 

In fact, I think rice might have ruined it.

This was our dinner, but I think it could be an excellent breakfast as well.

Ingredients:
2 bundles fresh asparagus (1.5-2 lbs. asparagus. Chopped in 1" pieces)
1 cup chopped spinach
1/4 cup chives
1/2 cup diced mushrooms
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
6 eggs
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Layer prepared asparagus on the bottom of a casserole dish. Layer mushrooms, chives, onion and cheese. If you use sharp cheddar, you can get away with using less cheese for the same amount of flavor. Cover with spinach.

2. Whisk eggs, milk, cream, and lemon juice in a bowl for 5 minutes. Pour on top of spinach layer. Smooth  the top so that egg mix and spinach is distributed evenly. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, or until casserole is not jiggly like uncooked eggs. Then add just a sprinkling of cheese and broil for 3-5 minutes.

3. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Meatloaf and Homemade Ketchup

One of my favorite foods, ever since I was a kid, is meatloaf. You just can't beat a great mix of bread crumbs, meat and ketchup. So I modified my favorite recipe, and it was so worth it. Who says gluten free and refined sugar free has to be hard?

Ingredients:

Meatloaf:

1 lb. ground turkey

1 cup chopped spinach (I've been sneaking it into as many meals as possible. Women are especially prone to anemia and spinach is an iron rich food that takes on the flavors of the other foods it is cooked with. Win!)

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 finely chopped white onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1 cup brown rice bread crumbs

Ketchup:

2/3 cup water

6 Tbsp tomato powder

4 Tbsp unrefined coconut palm sugar

2 Tbsp vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all the ingredients for the meatloaf except the meat and bread crumbs in your blender. I have a Ninja and it chopped them up to perfection.

2. Add veggie mix in with the meat and bread crumbs. Knead until well combined.

3. Mix ketchup ingredients well, (The coconut palm sugar is what I had. You can use your sweetener of choice.) and then add in 1 tsp of water until it has a ketchup-y consistency. Salt to taste. Pour half of the ketchup mix in with the meat mix and set the rest aside for the garnish.

4. Spray your loaf pans, or cupcake pans like I like to use, with olive oil and bake at 350 for one hour. Voila! You will love it.

Tip: Visit Shelf Reliance Website - Tomato Powder to get the tomato powder. I find it is very versatile (sauce, paste, ketchup,) and you don't have to worry about high fructose corn syrup in most store-bought brands. (Princeton University HFCS Findings)

Fresh Has a Whole New Meaning

I've become a believer in local farmer's markets. It only took one trip and I was convinced I would be adding a weekly visit to Main Street to my lifestyle. Ours is up and running from 8:30-12:30 every Wednesday and Saturday morning. I spoke with one of the farmers and she enlightened me to one of the greatest benefits, I think, of shopping locally.

A week before my first trip to the market, I went to the store with the best prices in the weekly ads and spent $80 on fresh produce, thinking I landed the jackpot. In four days, I repeat four days, most of what I purchased had gone rancid. I'd hardly had a chance to figure out what to do with all the squash, zucchini, artichokes, spinach and so much more before I had to toss it out. 

I was devastated. And broke. 

I rounded up all the change I had and headed down to the market after dropping my oldest off at school. I was at my first stand and the lady was so friendly I couldn't help but ask her all my questions. 

How long will your spinach and garlic chives last in the fridge?

Her answer? Two weeks. Maybe three. Two, maybe three weeks?? I was lucky to get my produce from the store to last a week.

How does it stay fresh so long?

She said her greens were cut the day before. And not to knock on the grocery store, because people gotta get their food, but after the produce is picked/cut, it then has to be packaged. And then it has to travel. By the time it gets to the commercial chain store, it's been several days. Add in rotation practices, and sometimes you have food that can barely be called "fresh" out on the floor. 

Curious, I went back to the store I spent that small fortune on and found that a lot of the stuff I bought came from Chile. South America. Not even our same continent! 

I'm guessing it came by boat. And then sat in the back of the store for another week until what was on the sales floor finally sold.

But these greens, cut the day before, were crisp and dark. And they were cheaper. Yay! The asparagus was $3 for a lb. Not necessarily cheaper. But definitely fresher. Free range chicken eggs were 2 dozen for $5. I haven't tried them yet. We are still using up the last purchase of a 5 dozen egg package from Alberston's. 

I don't know what the furthest distance is that farmers drive to get here to sell their goods, but I'm sure it's a heck of a lot closer than coming from South America! I have not been disappointed since I started shopping the local market. $20 a week seems to be enough to keep fresh produce in my meals. And to me, that's completely worth it.

Shredded Chicken Tacos

I've been watching the Food Network Channel this month. They kept talking about soul food being the foods that remind you of home and childhood. I have a couple foods that are my soul foods and tacos are right up at the top. I stopped eating beef after my first pregnancy left me with a red meat aversion I never fully got over, so I use chicken or pork whenever I can. You'll need to prepare ahead at least 4 hours for this one. 

Ingredients:

Chicken

Enough chicken to fill your crockpot.

2 cups free range chicken broth (Swanson's has soy in it.)

I can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/2 tsp basil

2 minced cloves of garlic

Tortillas

2 cups gluten free masa mix

1 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Fill your crockpot with chicken. Add in broth. Set on highest setting. Walk away. 

2. 3-4 hours later, or about an hour before you want to eat, shred the chicken. If it isn't easy to pull apart, you came back too soon. Do not drain broth. Add in garlic, basil, tomatoes and onions. Re-cover and start making your tortillas. 

3. The directions to making the tortillas are on the flour bag. But here are a couple hints. You want your dough a little more damp than dry. Make sure you have a few brown spots on the skillet side before you turn it over. Wrap finished tortillas tightly in a towel to trap in heat to make them pliable. 

4. Stuff tortillas with chicken mix, and top with cheese and your favorite taco toppings. Yum!

You can also use leftovers to make tostadas the next day for lunch.

Apple Turkey Pecan Salad

Have you ever tried really hard to make something and when you think you have it, you taste it and are so disappointed you throw your hands up and wail, "I can't do this anymore!"

I was having a small pity party. 

Mayonnaise, in particular Best Foods, is a difficult food for me to give up. 

It is a soy rich food. So I thought I'd try my hand at homemade mayo. 

It was a disaster. 

As a result, a can of tuna and three boiled eggs found their way in the trash along with the goopy mess I just concocted. 

The consolation prize was worth it, though. 

After getting a pep talk from my sweet husband, I tried again. And this was a great success!

Layer 1: Spinach

Layer 2: Dietz and Watson's Gluten Free Black Forest Turkey 

Layer 3: Chopped apple

Layer 4: Chopped muenster cheese

Layer 5: Halved cherry tomatoes

Layer 6: Fresh pecans

Drizzle with Drew's (soy free, gluten free) Greek Dressing. 

It was delish!

Green Eggs and Salsa

I'm starting to find that most of my meals are accidental. I try to find recipes to fit what I have in my fridge,  because I mainly just shop what's on sale. I find when I buy what's in season I can stretch my dollar further. So, I'm usually missing several ingredients for most recipes I can find. But this meal was truly accidental, because I set out to make fried eggs, over easy. Since I was using leftover bacon grease, I didn't take the gristle in the fat into account and broke two yolks before I gave up and decided to go for scrambled eggs. I'd just been to the farmer's market for the first time the day before, (more on that experience later) and decided to try the greens with it. After tasting the eggs, spinach, chives, and cheddar cheese, it was still missing something. The zing of salsa made this breakfast. I like El Pinto's salsa best. It is  made fresh daily and canned for the masses. It's not loaded with preservatives and thickeners which often have gluten. You have to use it within one week of opening. Anyways, my husband, daughter and I were all full after our first servings and still wanted more. I've never seen a two year-old ask for "more green stuff" in their eggs. But mine did.   

So next time you break your egg yolks, toss in some fresh spinach, chives and cheddar cheese. Top it with salsa and have fun enjoying your taste buds shake maracas and dance the samba across your tongue!

Soy- Yay Or Nay?

The soy debate is ongoing. It's been linked to slowing metabolism in livestock and rats. It's been known to attack an already low thyroid. Unlike gluten and sugar, it's effects don't seem to be well-documented or substantiated. What does exist, however, are compelling arguments. Is it a coincidence that soy, while relatively new to the American diet, has been touted as this "power food", yet hasn't seemed to slow the rising rates of obesity? Is it a coincidence that there are studies beginning to link the presence of soy in a nursing mother's diet to a child's development of endocrine related disease? Is it also a coincidence that the soy industry went from making $1 billion a year to $4 billion once it was endorsed as a "healthy" food in America? Who do you suppose paid for that endorsement? And their profits stand to increase by 11% every year. Natural Health News So, who stands to profit by me thinking soy is a "healthy" food?

Sugar and Hypothyroidism = Recipe for Diabetes

There is one disease I live in fear of - diabetes. I know that times have changed since 1989 and that a person today stands a much greater chance of living a full life with diabetes, but I can't ignore my family history of diabetes, or that my first mom died from diabetes. But what does diabetes have to do with hypothyroidism?

Everything.