Congee or Jook

When traveling around asia, i found that a lot of train stations and other places that sold breakfasts sold a thing called congee in a little metal pop can almost that had a spoon on top. Well, i wanted to make some for a breakfast and found a recipe, tweaked it and added my own toppings. Here is my recipe.
1 cup long grain white rice
9 cups water
1/2 t. salt
put all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil about 5 minutes and then lower the heat to medium or low (just so it won't boil over) and boil it about an hour and a half and then start checking it more often during the last half hour so it won't stick. I had to turn up the heat in the last half hour. Just make sure there isn't any water on the top that hasn't had rice in it (or something like that) so it's all the way through. You're done! Super easy and a great breakfast food.
toppings:
peanuts
shiitake mushrooms
chopped button mushrooms sauteed with onions
kimchee
soy sauce
hoisin sauce

Almond cheese

 

Here are my selection of ingredients. I have my measuring cup with warm water, the almonds in the tin, salt, agar powder, (frozen) red pepper, nutritional yeast and onion powder. I put the water and the agar in the blender together and they made a gel and then i added in the rest of the ingredients. 

 

make sure you blend it long enough to make sure it has a nice consistancy. this one came out fairly gritty but i have some that comes out much better. I'll post some pictures about that. 

I stuck it in a molding dish and put it in the refrigerator. It turned out fairly nice. I  added some more agar the next time that i made it and put it in a mini bundt pan. It came out in a nice mold and it worked great on the crackers with soup.

Recipe:
1 c. hot water
2 T. granulated Agar
1 C. almonds, slivered, blanched

1 t. salt
1/2 t. garlic powder
2 T. nutritional yeast flakes
1 t. onion powder
1 1/2 T. lemon juice
1/4 bell peper, red, chopped

This is the cheese when it's in my refrigerator. :D

1. blend together the hot water and granulated agar for a few seconds. Add all the ingredients except for the almonds and blend for a bit. Then add the almonds to get a nice smooth texture. Blend for a while to make sure it's nice and smooth and not chunky. Pour into a container or mold (i used a mini bundt pan a) refrigerate until it's firm.

Note: blend the cashews with the other ingredients and make sure the cashews are smooth. it really itsn't nice to have chunky cashews....

Gnocci

Gnocci is like a pasta almost but not really... it's a combo between a potato dish and a pasta. Fortunately this pasta is super simple to make.

3 medium (1 lb) potatoes washed
1 t. salt
1/4 t. seasoning of choice
1/4 c. soy yogurt or milk
1/2 c. plus 1-2 Tbs flour

1.wash the potatoes super well and put them in a pot. Cover it with water and add the salt. Boil the poatoes about 30-40 minutes until they're cooked all the way through. Poke them with knife to check. Put them on a surface and pull the skins off them. You can wait for them to cool, pull the water off under some running water of you can do it like i did and suck it up. :p
2. The recipe that i used said to put them through a potato ricer. A potato ricer is like a big press that will press the potato super fine. I didn't have that and i couldn't press it though my seive, it was too small. So what i did was mashed it with a fork and then beat it with a baking beater thing. It made it nice and fluffy so i think i got what was wanted.
2.5 boil a big pot of water for cooking the "pasta"
3. Add the seasoning and yogurt to the potato and then put in the flour. you might need to add some more flour to be able to knead it. Knead out the potato mixture on a floured surface for a few minutes. Add flour when needed. Divide into small parts and make about 3/4 inch thick and 18 inches long. Cut into about 1/2 inch long pieces. Roll them into nice little balls ish.... After you've cut about half to 1/4th of the gnocci, put them into the lightly boiling water. If the water is  boiling to hard, it will break the gnocci. The gnocci will go to the bottom and when they float, they'll be done. When they're done, take them out with a strainer spoon and put them in a dish.
4. You can eat gnocci with stuff on it, i prefer to eat it like a little side dish with tons of veggies. :D

Sorry about no pictures but they were eaten before i could get any pictures... usually i have left over of these kinds of things... not this time!!

Dehydrating Apples

I used red delicious apples. They're a very nice and pretty apple. Also one of the cheeper in the store.... lol

This is my trusty food dehydrator. In this picture, it doesn't have all its layers on it buti think it has about 3 more?

So slice the apples into 4ths and core them. Then slice them into thin slices and lay them on the dehydrator. Dehydrate them over night is what i do or until all of them are nice and dry. You don't want to go too thick or too thin. If you want them to keep from getting brown looking, you can dip them in lemon before they dry.  

Layered Bean Dip.

My apologies for the late post on this blog. It has fallen to the side when i traveled to Hawaii. We at amazingly good papaya and mangoes there and ice cream bananas! They're a greyish green when they're not totally ripe. I think the reason why they call them ice cream bananas is because they have a creamier texture than regular bananas. It's also called the Blue Java Banana.
anyway. here is a recipe for a quick and easy taco salad. it's a nice thing to take to a tailgate party or to eat as a one dish meal.

1 c. baked tortilla chips
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 jar of salsa (whatever heat you want)
1 c. pressed tofu shredded with 1 T. nutritional yeast (like cheese)
1-2 c. shredded romaine lettuce
1 small onion diced
2 dollops (being very exact here!) of sunflower sour cream


In a mixing or serving bowl, put the baked tortilla chips at the bottom of the bowl to cover the bottom. Then put in the black beans to cover the chips and pour in the salsa to cover that, not too thick though. Depending on the bowl, the measurements might be different. Sprinkle in the pressed shredded tofu and the shredded romaine lettuce. Dice up the onion and sprinkle that in there to and put some (2) dollops or spoonfulls of sunflower sour cream on the top to top it off. Eat it like a regular salad but don't toss. If you have it in a clear bowl, besure to have the layers nice and neat.

Dole's PB Cookies

I was looking through the dole cookbook and actually found a fairly healthy recipe! Check it out! It uses Adam's natural peanut butter!  I did a few changes but here it is!

1 banana
1/3 c. peanut butter
2 T. apple sauce
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 fake egg
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 T. granulated sugar

Set the oven to 350. Mix banana, peanut butter and apple sauce in a bowl. Mix it up really good. Might help to warm the peanut butter. Add sugar, egg and mix. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Drop by teaspoon fulls onto a baking sheet.. Sprinkle with sugar and press with a fork to make a criss-cross pattern. Bake 10-12 minutes.

makes about 36 cookies
for one cookie
54 calories
1.2 g fat

Biscotti #1

 It's hard to find a vegan biscotti recipe, but i did find one and made some changes to it. I can't find the recipe any more but here it is.

2 c. flour
3/4 c. ground almonds
3/4 c. whole almonds
3/4 c. sugar or 1/2 c. sugar, depending on what you like
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/3 c. honey
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/3 c. water
1/4 t. almond extract.
Set the oven 350.
Mix together flour, sugar, whole almonds, fine ground almonds baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl blend honey, water and almond extract and add to the dry. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Divide into half and make into logs. Place logs on a greased sheet (i used airbake) and bake for 30 minutes. Take out and let cool 10 minutes. Then cut with a serated knife into slices. Put back on sheet and bake 15 more minutes. Put on racks to cool.

Nutrition Info
83 calories
2.7g fat

Note!! I am going to experiment with a recipe that is low in calories to see if i can get this low in calories!

Camping meal plan

during the summer, we went camping, and i mean camping, not backpacking. I did the meal plan so i thought i would share with you what i did for the meals.

Friday Supper - i chose to have some pea soup, with cornbread muffins, and cornbread muffins. We had some melon and bananas for our fruit.
Saturday Breakfast - I was lazy and had us eat the good old oatmeal packets for breakfast. We had some bread with it.
Saturday Lunch - when we got back into camp from our 8 mile hike, we were exhausted, so we sat down to some polenta with black beans, lettuce, salsa, olives,  Guacamole , and basicly taco toppings. We had biscotti for our dessert.
Saturday Supper - We had some lettuce wraps with hamburgers filled with the Gardenburger's Black Bean Chipolte burger inside. It was an amazing supper!
Sunday Breakfast - We had pancakes with the normal pancake toppings and some random fruit. we also decided we'd eat up what ever would be acceptable on pancakes that meal too. :D

Guacamole

 1 large ripe avocado
1-2 T. lemon juice
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. salt

Mash the avocado, stir in lemon, garlic powder and salt. Tip: lemon can help the guac from turning brown, and it keeps it nice and green.

homemade fig newtons

I made some home made fig newtons from the recipe from seriouseats.com
Homemade Fig Newtons 
it worked so well and i was excited! I made some different kind of fillings like
blueberry sauce
peanut butter and jelly
pumpkin
blackberry jelly

Oh and you will need a kitchen scale. It makes the measurements more accurate to use weight than cups and more universial all together. I veganized the recipe so here is my version, vegan!

8 oz all purpose flour
4 oz apple sauce
3 1/2 oz. sugar
1 oz maple syrup or honey
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
2 t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. cinnamon
1 t. orange zest
3 servings of energ egg replacer
1 oz. orange juice

for the filling (from serious eats)
12 oz dried black Mission Figs
2 oz. unsweetened apple sauce
1 1/2 oz honey (for non vegans) or maple syrup
1/4 t. cinnamon

1. to make the newton dough:
sift he flour and set aside.e Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the apple sauce and sugar, honey or maple syrup, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and orange zest on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the fake egg.
Turn the mixer on low and the sifted flour along with orange juice. Shut of the mixer, the dough will be very soft and wet. Prepare a large shet of plastic wrap and use a rubber spatula to transfer the dough from the bowl to the center of the plastic. Fold the plastic over the dough and flatten into a disc. Wrap with remaining plastic and refrigerate for four hours to overnight.

2. make the filling.
Combine the figs, apple sauce, maple syrup or honey and cinnamon in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. You can either put this in a pastry bag fitted with a large plain basket weave tip or in a ziplock back with the corner snipped off. Set filling aside until needed.

3. Making the cookies. Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit
have a tray ready.
Warning, the dough will be very soft and hard to work with but hang in there and use flour when rolling it out. Roll to about 1/4 " thickness. Frequently lift and move dough, flipping it to make sure it doesn't stick. Cut strips about 4 1/4" wide. Have no longer than 6" or it will be a pain to work with. Pipe a strip of filling down the center. You want it to be about 1" wide and about 1/4" thick.
Lift one end of the long, exposed dough strips up and over filling.Take hold of the other side and fold it over. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Bake for about 12 minutes, they will look slightly brown.
4. cutting the cookies:
As soon as they are removed from the oven, use a sharp knife to trim each bar into several 1" long cookies. While the cookies are still warm, transfer them into a plastic container with a lid or large zip top bag. Seal bag tightly. This step will slightly steam the cookies, ensuring they will remain soft and cake like from end to end. Skipping this step will result in Newtons with a slightly drier texture, more like a cookie and less like a cake.

My fillings

Peanut butter Jelly - pipe down peanut butter, and ontop pipe down jelly

Pumpkin - take pumpkin from can, sweeten to desired and pipe down the center.

Have fun!  

Jiao Zi Dough

Today i made Jiao Zi, or Dumplings. We had some guests over so i decided to make some Jiao Zi. I made some golden dumpling wrappers. That's what i am going to tell you about in this recipe.

I used
2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. boiling water
3/4 t. turmeric powder

Put flour and turmeric powder in a bowl, pour in boiling water. After mixing and kneading, let it sit in a plastic bag with flour in it, for about 30 minutes. It will make it warm and like super soft and easy to work with.

for filling it

divide this up into about 32 pieces and with a light weight chinese bamboo rolling pin, roll them with some flour to make it non-sticky into a circle. Then put about a teaspoon, maybe a little more, into the wrapper and put some water around the edge to make it stick better. Have fun! I'll post some jiao zi filling recipes later. :D

Tofu Egg Salad

 From the Deihl cookbook Optimal Diet

1 package of light tofu
1 T. lemon juice
1 t. seasoning, fake chicken, meat rubs, whatever you season egg salad with
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. onion powder
1 T. nutritional yeast
1 t. turmeric
1/4 t. paprika
2 T. mayo (optional) or corn butter ( i suggest this since it makes it more yellow... like eggs!!)

Drain and rise the tofu (i do this because the tofu can have a stale water taste to it after sitting in the water for a while. Mash it so it looks like mashed egg. Add other ingredients. Chill 1 hr before serving.

granola 1

Here is my recipe for perfect and good granola. It makes quite a bit. I fill my two 'towers' of granola. It's nice to put ontop of cereals, frozen yogurt, or soy ice cream.I got it from the November 2010 Family Fun and did a few twists to it to make it healthier and this is what i came up with.

4 cup rolled oats (also called old fashioned oats)
1 cup wheat germ (optional, you can replace with 1 c. rolled or quick oats)
1 cup. chopped walnuts or silvered almonds
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt

1/3 c. apple sauce (or apple concentrate)
1/3 c. honey                  or for all three of the 1/3 liquid ingredients, you can
1/3 c. water                  put in about 2/3 c. to 1 cup of apple concentrate. it also counts as the sugar


Heat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together oats, wheat germ, nuts, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the apple sauce, honey water (apple concentrate if choose to). Toss the mixture until it is well combined, then spread it evenly on a cookie sheet or high rimmed casserole dish. I find it easier to do it in a casserole dish because when you stir it, it won't go over the sides.
Bake the granola until lightly browned, about 1 hr, stirring every 15 minutes. Keep the granola away from the sides of the pan because that makes them burn. If you want to, you can add some dried fruit like:
cranbereries
blueberries
raisins
cheeries
pineapple
papaya
mango