Foodie Formulas

 I like rules that always work.  I am a person who needs consistency. A recipe is like a formula; that is part of its appeal to me. However, since recipes were first created, the foodie world has grown and expanded in leaps and bounds. Absolutely anything can be customized, substituted, tailored and altered to the palate, values, and nutritional needs of any person. Recipes are a dime a dozen. So here is my challenge: To have one formula, made up of variables, which is able to create a consistent product. Take chocolate chip cookies for example: Pick your flour, sweetener, binder, leavener, and moisturizer. Use the formula to calculate your proportions and thus your measurements and viola, cookies for anyone and everyone.

 Life is not consistent. You will not always have exactly what you need to be able to make what you are trying to create. But if the end product is ALWAYS equal to the sum of its parts, then the parts can be substituted interchangeably. So, this is not your traditional foodie blog. There will be tons of recipes, tons of trial and error, but the end result is not meant to be strictly recipes. The end result I’m searching for is a formula.

Leaveners, moisteners, binders etc are not in categories of their own. Your leavener could be a wet OR a dry ingredient. If you choose to switch which side of the spectrum it falls into by which ingredient you are using toward your end result, you have to compensate to balance the recipe. For instance, if you choose to substitute honey or agave nectar for white sugar, you suddenly have a greater ratio of wet ingredients to dry, and your product will become much more dense. Or, if you want to substitute stevia/erithritol/xanthan gum/(or heaven forbid) aspartame, all products which are several hundred times sweeter than sugar, all of a sudden you have to compensate for having much less dry ingredients. And let us not forget that sugar adds a serious moisture kick to a product, so you may have to add some type of fat. Enough rambling for this post.

Sunshine Muffins

(vegan)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup oat bran

1/3 cup sugar (organic)

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½  tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp cinnamon

¾ cup carrot juice

½ cup apple sauce (unsweetened)

2 TBL maple syrup

2 TBL virgin coconut oil

1 cup chopped peach

2 TBL agave or maple syrup

½ cup walnuts

½ cup rolled oats

1.       Chop or grind walnuts. Combine with agave or maple syrup and oats until crumbly. This is your topping.

2.       Whisk together dry ingredients

3.       Pulse wet ingredients in blender to ensure they are well combined.

4.       Combine wet and dry ingredients; gently fold in peaches. DO NOT OVERMIX.

5.       Portion into muffin tin, or loaf pan. Sprinkle with topping.

6.       Bake at 375 until light and fluffy (12-15 minutes).

I really liked these, next time though I would add a tsp or two of erithritol, and probably another 1/3 cup of carrot juice for sweetening and moisture.

Spinach-Mushroom Stroganof

8 ounces fettuccini or spaghetti pasta

½ cup chopped onion

1-1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

Large handful of fresh spinach =)

2 TBL minced garlic

I cup beef stock

2 TBL Dijon mustard

1 TBL soy sauce (or Worscheshire)

Splash of red wine* optional

2 TBL flour by itself OR

1 TBL corn starch mixed with:

 ½ cup cold (plain) soy milk

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp cumin

1.       Cook pasta according to package directions

2.       Saute onion and mushrooms until caramelized. Add spinach and let wilt. Deglaze with wine.

3.       Add flour and stir constantly for about a minute. Don’t let it scorch!

(Skip this step if you are using corn starch.)

4.       Add garlic, stock mustard, and soy sauce. Bring to a simmer. Add soy milk (and thus the corn starch) and let thicken. Add more milk if too thick. Season to taste. Serve over noodles.

Enough with Labels.

Well, here goes, yet another foodie blog. As if cyberspace needs another one to further confuse it about food quality. You can find blogs about everything these days: vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free-vegans, almost-but-I-can’t-give-up-eggs-vegans, gluten-free foodies, sugar-free-health-nuts, kosher-flourless, organic-cruelty-free, raw foodies, food-network-addicts, blah, blah, blah. Everyone has a different aspect on quality food. Every person has a different reason that they are looking for “healthy”. For people with allergies or intolerances, “healthy” takes on a different definition entirely. If you try and follow all of the different opinions, lifestyles, exclusionary diets and LABELS out there, you will end up  just drinking water, because as far as I know there has not been a trend started against that. Yet. But you probably would call yourself “water-free”. It would be something like vegan-nonfat-gluten free- kosher-raw-sugar free-low carb-all organic “foodie”.

For me, food is a journey. Food has been a healing process. Food is something that the more I get into, the more I feel I am in over my head. I am a self proclaimed health nut. Because of all the different definitions of “health” on the market today, sometimes it gets confusing doing research for my own kitchen. From my point of view though, food should not be exclusionary. I should not be constantly trying to rid my palate of certain elements of cuisine. Food should be inclusionary. In every dish that I prepare, I would like to know that it is doing my body the most good that it possibly can. Granted, I have no allergies, I can digest just about anything my palate desires. But that is why this blog is not to benefit anyone carrying a label. If it can help you in your own quest for health, great; but these recipes are being tailored explicitly for the kitchen of Brenna Cliver, and her quest for health. If you keep reading I hope you come to understand how this blog functions as a band aid, as therapy, as education, and most of all, a battle.

Nutty Banana Bread (Take 1)

(Gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan, no added fat)

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds

1 cup raw walnuts

½ cup whole, rolled oats

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 TBL erithritol (4 packets Truvia)

2 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

2 TBL ground flaxseed + 6 TBL water

2 aged bananas

1 cup plain soymilk (or non-dairy milk of choice)

1 tsp vanilla

1.       First, grind your flaxseed. You can buy ground flax, but I prefer to grind them as I need them, it keeps the omega-3’s from being destroyed or going rancid. (I keep my flax seed in the freezer, and my walnuts) Mix your flax meal with water, stir, set aside to thicken. This is your binder, since there are no eggs in this recipe.

2.       Next, make your flour from the almonds, walnuts and oats. You can do this in your blender or food processer, just remember to clear around the blade frequently or it will bind up. Whisk together with rest of dry ingredients.

3.       Puree together the bananas and soymilk.

4.       Fold together the dry, the wet and the binder. Pour into well greased loaf pan. (If you flour your pan, remember that adds a minimal amount of gluten.)

5.       Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 for another hour.

Okay..If I was attempting to make a delicious custard-style banana bread with a nutty crust, I would have been extremely successful. Tomorrow I’ll adjust the moisture content and I have a few ideas on how to make fluff-not-fudge. We shall see. Other than the obvious flaws, this recipe is a powerhouse of good-for-you-stuff. Fiber, Omega-3’s, potassium, natural sugar, metabolism boosting cinnamon, lean protein..there’s really not much to not love.

Forever Letters.

You can call and say I love you8
You can play me pretty notes7
Leave flowers on my window sill 8
Or to your friends can boast. 6

You can take me out to dinner
But the things that mean the post
Is not the box of chocolates
But what comes with the post.

A missive in your scribbley hand
My name scrawled on the front
A rumpled, folded piece of you
A letter to my heart.

You say I'm often on your mind
So send these thoughts my way
What is expressed when you take the time
Is more than words to me.

Twenty, thirty years from now
All else may be gone
Memories fade and roses droop
Letters linger on.