Food and Other Life Lessons

Just some notes on the things I cook and create and perhaps what I learn along the way

[ashleyridley]

Bulletproof coffee to break the fast

[ashleyridley]

Spicy Slow Carb Tuna Cakes

Fish cakes have never been a favorite food of mine. Usually I find them to be dry, fish-flavored pucks. This recipe was conceived through laziness on a cold Sunday afternoon when neither my fiance nor myself could be compelled to leave the house. Even for food. geez.

I can proudly tell you that these aren’t dry, they aren’t fish flavored and they resemble pucks only in shape. They are full of flavor and just on that cusp of not even needing any sauce. A lemon aioli would complement this quite nicely. Or maybe a garlic aioli. A garlicky lemon aioli. So many options! 

I love an quick and easy lunch and that’s exactly what this is. 

Possible changes: It could easily be made paleo by omitting the beans but I like that it’s packed with protein and perfect for the slow carb diet. I make the mayo from scratch and keep it in the fridge but you don’t have to do that. You could probably use cottage cheese (more protein!) instead though, the goal is to keep them from becoming too dried out. I pan fried in palm oil (organic and sustainably sourced) but you could bake them instead. However, I didn’t do that so I couldn’t yet tell you for sure how long. If you do bake them though, give them a quick spray with some sort of cooking oil spray. I like to throw turmeric in anything that is packed with flavor and will be okay looking quite yellow, just because it has so many health benefits.

As always, I very rarely measure, so feel free to tweak as feels right for you. 

So, here ya go:

(4 servings)

2 cans tuna fish

juice from 1/2 lime

1 egg

1 tablespoon mayo

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 cup black beans, partially cooked

3 cloves garlic

1/2 onion, diced small

1 cup almond flour- adjust to bind mix together

Oil for pan frying, I used palm

Spices- 1/2-1 teaspoon each 

salt

pepper

garlic powder

cayenne (adjust to your spiciness liking)

paprika

smoked paprika

turmeric 

coriander

Throw it all in a bowl together, mix it up. You want to have a consistency of wetness but not so much that they won’t stay together. 

 Heat your pan on medium heat and melt oil. Form patties that are about 3″ in diameter and 3/4″ thick. Place in pan, cook for 4 minutes on each side, cover while cooking. 

[ashleyridley]

Some photos I've been working on after a quick trip up to Maine. 

[ashleyridley]

MEATLOAF! WITH BEANS! IN IT! AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW! *now with a slow cooker option!

      Depending if you've read the drivel I included with the posts, you either do or do not know that I've started a new diet of sorts, a whole new lifestyle perhaps. Those of you paying very close attention (you'll know you're one because you'll have figured out that I don't give my writing more than a quick one-over before posting) will know that it's Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Body diet called the Slow Carb Diet. In a nutshell - 6 out of 7 days, no white foods (except white vegetables), no carbs, no dairy, no sugars including no fruit. Sounds like a lot but he's proven that this is using the Effective Minimum Dose to burn fat and gain muscle very quickly. The best part is day 7 which is cheat day, no holds bar, we partake in the things we are missing the most. We're in Week 3 and I feel really really fabulous. Each meal consists of meat/legume/vegetables, a mix of the three. I feel full and satisfied and I am dropping the LBS! It's working wonders for me.

      However! I'm working a lot lately, sometimes from first thing in the morning until late at night with very little break and absolutely no time to prepare a meal. So I've been brainstorming meals that are easy to make up for the week. I've revamped my little quiches to pack them full of protein to get my morning started, this is a meatloaf that is packed full of legumes, meat and veg so I can just grab and go. Easy. 

     So before you get too excited, I'll let you know that I've never had meatloaf before and certainly I've never made it. It seems the country is so split on whether it's a delicious comfort food that brings them straight back to their childhood or a method of culinary torture that brings them straight back to their childhood. Either way, I sit on neither side. Somehow meatloaf wasn't part of the dinner rotation, probably because my parents were still dealing with issues surrounding the latter scenario. In any case, I decided that I love meatBALLS, so why wouldn't meatLOAF be the best thing ever?

(Getting nervous, wondering if I'm really all that qualified to make meatloaf? Don’t be, I had my very special man, who has many years of meatloaf eating experience, taste testing to make sure I was still allowed to call my creation meatloaf.) 

      Ok, enough rambling. Here's why my meatloaf is special and how it came out: It's made with a mix of ground beef and ground turkey to keep it healthy.

It has lots and lots of cannelini beans which add the legumes I am trying to get in my diet. They also make the texture softer and keep the loaf nice and moist. 

There's a bunch of spinach tossed in there. 

It's totally grain free. 

And here it is: (This recipe made A LOT, 3 loaves to be precise)

2 lbs grass fed ground beef

1 lb ground turkey

4 eggs

1 large onion, grated

2 carrots, grated

2 cups spinach, frozen

4 cups cannellini beans

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon oregano

2 teaspoons dried rosemary

1/2-3/4 cup almond flour

optional: bacon

Also optional: Sugar free tomato sauce for the top. I made mine by mixing a little balsamic vinegar and tomato paste, then put it on top of the loaves before it went in the oven. I left one loaf without it, just to see, it was also good that way. 

Directions:

     Preheat that oven to 375 degrees. Throw everything into a big mixing bowl and stir. I used my KitchenAid because it makes life better but mixing it by hand will help you to gain arm muscle, it's all up to you. I then used some cooking spray to grease up the baking pans, 9x5 loaf pans. Next I just split up the mixture into the three pans. If you're going for it, now's the time to layer some bacon across the top or slather that tomato sauce on. It's lovely just as is should you decide to do it that way. Mine baked for an hour and 10 minutes until the thermometer read 160 for the poultry in there.  Let it sit for at least 10-15 minutes and then go crazy. 

Slow cooker option!: Freeze 1/2 of the recipe for later and put 1/2 in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours on low or high for 4 hours ( you’re looking for an internal temp of 160). 

Getting all tucked in for the baking process:

I roasted up a little cauliflower in macadamia nut oil with some salt and pepper and then sauteed green beans in ghee with salt. The flavors of the dishes together were awesome. I loved the softness that the beans added to the meatloaf, giving it a really nice texture. My taste tester said that it was the best meatloaf he'd had (he's hated all others so I don't know exactly how that makes mine stack up). 

     In closing, I'd like to add that I don't measure while I cook because it takes too long and requires too much extra washing, I can never find the measuring unit I need and I have unit estimation hubris. This means that I encourage you to adjust spices as you might like them. I go for what I know I will like. Make it, love it, let me know!

[ashleyridley]

Long Overdue...A Splurge Night Meal

Well, it's been a while. I can't believe it's been this long though. I need to cook more again. And then write about it! It just makes me so happy! On an old blog of mine I came across a pizza recipe that I came up with about seven years ago. It's so good, a total splurge. One winter, I lived in a log cabin in Maine, it was so quiet and removed. It left me with so much time to cook, it's all I did. Well, that and gain some winter pounds. Yikes. Maybe not the best opening for this recipe but let me tell you, it's good, really good. The flavors of ricotta and pesto mix together and make a smooth base for the toppings. My favorite part is that I take the pizza crust and fold it over the toppings, making it almost like a stuffed crust pizza. The toppings are zucchini, summer squash, and green onions. I like to make a homemade dough with spelt dough and I add a bunch of dried herbs to give it lots of flavor. It would work just as well to buy a dough ball at the store for ease. 

1 Herb Pizza Dough

2 Cups Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

1/2 Cup Pesto

1 Bunch Chopped Green Onions

1 package Italian Sausage, Browned

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Zucchini, Sauteed

1 Summer Squash, Sauteed

Preheat Oven to 415 degrees. Saute sliced Zucchini and Summer Squash in a pan with olive oil, set aside.  Brown Sausage, set aside. Spread dough on pizza pan, spread ricotta on dough in an even layer then spread pesto on top. Evenly spread the zucchini, summer squash and sausage on top. Here's the trick that I like, you can leave it just like this though, if you'd prefer a normal(ish) pizza. Pull the crust out and wrap it around the edges of the filling. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, check the bottom of the crust to see that it's brown and crusty. There's a lot of weight in the toppings so it's nice to let this crust get pretty crusty. Not too much, you know, just right. 

     Soooo, I know that this would be a lot better with pics. I also know that I've said that before. I am feeling bad that there is nothing to pretty up this post. I just really wanted to post something, get back out there. I'm going to make this and take pictures at some point, I promise. I really do! Until then, bare with me. Make the pizza with your best abilities, I know you can do it!  

     One last thing...I will post the herb spelt pizza dough recipe soon, just getting it perfect...or at the very least, edible. 

[ashleyridley]

My very first whole roasted chicken! It turned out great. I used a mix of an herb oil and a dry rub with smoked paprika and a little spice and cooked it in a cast iron pan for about 50 minutes. Served up with mashed cauliflower, oh my. What a good rainy day dish!

[ashleyridley]

So this was a really great experiment dinner. I love fish sticks and chicken nuggets (some of my many guilty pleasures) but they can tend to be heavy meals with too much oil that leave my belly hurting. After a totally hectic and stressful day, which is unusual for me, really, it was 8pm and I had only eaten two banana muffins for the day. Tsk tsk. I had, rather serendipitously, defrosted a pound of fish early in the day when I thought I'd have time to cook lunch. Since I was wrong about lunch, I was fortunate for dinner. I had just a bit of Glutino brand gluten free pretzels left in the bag and by crushing them up and mixing them with a bunch of spices, I discovered my new all time fave coating for fish sticks and chicken nuggets, ohmygoodness!

You could pan fry them if you were feeling so inclined, I tried it out with a couple of pieces. I fried them in refined coconut oil and they turned out great. But I wanted something that felt better to eat, so I baked the rest and it was glorious. I've been crazy greens a lot lately, next time I'll do greens instead of the baked sweet potato fries and then this meal will be totally guilt free. 

So, you'll need:

1 lb white fish (I used cod)

2 cups Glutino brand gluten free pretzles, crushed into a meal consistency

A dash of each of the following spices: salt, pepper, coriander, garlic powder, chili pepper, mustard powder and paprika.

2 eggs, beaten

So. In one bowl, beat the eggs, this will henceforth be called, egg wash. In another mix the crushed up pretzel bits with the spices, this will henceforth be called, dry mix. (CAUTION: You may want to go pretty light on the salt since the pretzels are already salted.)

 I like to rinse and dry my fish, especially if it's frozen, I don't know why, it just makes me feel better. If you do this, just make sure you pat it dry and then sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper OR read on for my super awesome secret shortcut. 

Ah, you've hung in there to learn my shortcut, I love shortcuts! Well, Trader Joe's has this grinder with all of those spices in it called Everyday Seasoning and it's only a dolla ninty nine.

So, if you've decided to get the Everyday Seasoning, I like to grind it over the fish before coating it. I like a lot of flavor. And salt. I get that from my mom. We also both like butter. 

WAY off topic, woah. 

Cut the fish up into the size piece you like. Dip the fish in the egg wash. Transfer to dry mix and then to greased oven pan (I like to spray mine down). 

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Pull out the pan and quickly flip them all over, then return pan to oven and let it cook for 2 more minutes. At this point, I just got for it. There's a lot of pain and open mouth eating and hah hah hah's as I try to cool it down, mid bite. You may choose to wait, I'm still learning that skill. Well really, Josh and I both are, we like to be steam breathing dragons together. That's love. 

One last thing, these are super with this super simple tartar sauce... mayo (homemade or store) and Woodstock Farms Organic Sweet Relish.

[ashleyridley]

Caramelized Onion and Roasted Red Pepper Quiche or Quichettes (now with pictures!)

This will be a boring post, by that I mean there will be no pictures. Now at this point, if I were reading someone else's blog, I'd probably leave, or scroll down to the next picture. I have a short attention span. But I was asked to share my quiche recipe and I don't currently have the ingredients to make it so this will have to do for the time being. This quiche is gluten and dairy free. Also, here's my turkey sausage recipe. So here goes:

2-3T Olive oil

1 Onion, sliced into 1/2 moons

8oz sliced Crimini Mushrooms

1 Red Pepper, opened up and cleaned out

3 Tablespoons Chopped Basil

1/2 lb Turkey Sausage

10 eggs

The best plan is to roast the red pepper at some point before hand, however if you don't, it's okay! To roast the red pepper, set the oven at 350 degrees. Open and clean out all the seeds in the red pepper. I cut off the top and bottom and then cut the main piece in half, making it easy to take out the inside pieces. Brush with olive oil and put in oven for 45 minutes.  

In the meantime, slice the onions into 1/2 moons and heat about 1-2 T of the oil in a pan on a med low heat. Put onions in pan and cook slowly to caramelize.   

Chop mushrooms and saute over medium heat until golden brownish. 

Cook turkey sausage like a ground meat, stirring frequently so you get small pieces. 

In a large bowl, crack 10 eggs and mix 'em up. Add all ingredients and stir everything together. 

At this point, you have a choice. Depending on my mood, I'll either cook these in a large glass baking pan, a couple of pie plates or make little quiche-ettes (in a muffin pan!). Whatever you're using, make sure you it's oiled. If you're using the muffin pan, I highly recommend using either muffin wrappers or squares of parchment paper to line the pan. It'll just save you on the clean up, I've found it a bit of a challenge to clean the muffin pan. 

Put in the oven and cook for:

Glass Baking Pan or Pie Plates: 30mins

Muffin Pan: 25mins

Or thereabouts, just keep your eye on this. One time I forgot it in the oven for an extra 20 minutes and it was completely fine, the top was a bit more brown but that's it. 

It last in the fridge for quite a few days, I'm not exactly sure how many because we eat it so quickly, it's such an easy breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack! Yum. 

BOOM! UPDATE: Pictures! 

Now, these are a little different. I started a new diet, the 4 Hour Body, I modified my recipe to fit that diet. I love it, it's awesome, I'll do another post.

[ashleyridley]

Turkey Sausage

My turkey sausage is a work in progress. I have made it with both ground turkey breast and ground dark meat turkey, also a mix of the two. I've used just about every spice in the cabinet as well as fresh herbs. I've tried minced apples and applesauce. So far I haven't disappointed my crowd, although this week we did learn that we don't like marjoram in a very large quantity. So marjoram is out, unless you love it, then you should use some, but not much. Usually I use the turkey sausage for my quiche but it only requires 1/2 of the recipe so that leaves some leftover. I form the leftovers into small patties and put them in the freezer since I don't like to have poultry in the fridge for more than 3 days. The smaller the patty, the easier to defrost later. The apple is present for the moisture content that it provides for the sausage. I used to like it chopped up really small but you would still know of it's presence but recently I've been using apple sauce and that has provided the moisture without adding another texture. I'm letting you choose here. 

Since I grew up a vegetarian I am learning as I go about cooking meat. Thank goodness the butchers at Whole Foods are patient with my questions such as "what is the difference between the light and dark ground turkey meats?" and "how do I cook that?". What I have learned is that there is 1 gram of fat per serving in the breast meat and 14 grams of fat per serving in the dark meat. So, that usually shapes my decision. Honesty, no matter which way I've made it, it comes out tasty because of the spices. If you want something that tastes closer to pork sausage, you may want to use the dark meat or some combination of the two. Also, this is fun, I never measure my spices, I just throw them in. So feel free to adjust as you like, I like spicy so mine may have more cayenne than yours!

Here's what you'll need:

1lb Ground Turkey, light or dark

About a 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Powder

1 teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/8 t nutmeg

1 Tablespoon Fresh Sage, chopped very fine (can be dried, use 1 teaspoon)

2 teaspoons Fresh Thyme, chopped very fine (can be dried, use 1/2 teaspoon)

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce or finely chopped apple 

Mix everything together in a big bowl and if possible, let sit for many hours, the spices will start to come together in the turkey. Sometimes I just pull out a little if I haven't thought to make it before hand and then let the rest sit. 

Form in to patties and use or freeze. Can also be cooked as a ground meat for dinners or in my quiche recipe!

[ashleyridley]

I just made these gluten free banana muffins with pecan strudel topping. Oh my! @againstallgrain you are a wonder!

[ashleyridley]

Making "pasta". 

Omg. Tonight I made this for dinner Creamy Pesto "Pasta".

It was magical. Really, really, really.

Usually I make one discover at a time but tonight I learned about using zucchini for pasta and using cashews to make a creamy sauce. And, as a bonus, I learned that if I boil the cashews for 30 minutes, I don't have to soak them for at least 12 hours, that kind of planning can sometimes be beyond me. 

This dish was like a warm, delicious alfredo pasta. But better. Because I kept thinking that I should make a salad or something to offset the "bad". Then I'd remember it was practically all vegetables. That feels good. So go try this, you will be happy like me. Thanks @Againstallgrain

[ashleyridley]

Mixed green salad with sun gold tomatoes and then some roasted things, white carrots, red onions and apples. Drizzled with 18 year balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. This was a great dinner. I also made salmon pecan cakes with a mint peach chutney. After a day of browsing various beautiful and creative gluten-free, scd, dairy-free and so on websites, this is made of the last few ingredients left in the house. Time to go shopping...This week I'm going to try some recipes with smoked paprika. 

[ashleyridley]

Friday night-style ramblings on recipes

Ugh, today I made vegan strawberry frozen yogurt out of almond milk yogurt and fresh strawberries. Then I made a vegan walnut pesto as a topping for the gluten free and vegan cauliflower crust pizza and I forgot to take pictures of any of it to make this post pretty (or at least, entertaining) Well, mostly I forgot, there was also a small part of me that was feeling rushed and guilty for not having dinner done earlier (in our attempt to be healthy, we try not to eat past 7ish. This usually manifests itself by having dinner around 6 and than my lovely boyfriend, Josh, getting hungry again around 8 or 9 or 10 and finding something to snack that is too enticing for me to pass up, dammit self control). But the good news, I can report, was that it was all delicious, especially the pesto. I used Daiya mozzarella cheese because we are three weeks into a six week gluten and dairy and (again, ugh) sugar free detox (torture) diet. I selected sugar at this moment to be my emphasized weakness but really, it could be any of those categories at any given moment. Sometimes Josh puts the cooking channel on and I have to leave the room. That perfectly golden baked bread with soft butter melting into the steaming crevasses. oh god. It's been a long three weeks.

But getting back to tonight's dinner. I'd be lying if I said it was my favorite. My favorite is normal pizza, the real thing with a thin chewy crust and fresh toppings that melt into the cheese. I have to stop this, switch the channel. However, even though it wasn't my fav. and there are some things I need to tweak, like next time maybe I'll follow an actual cauliflower crust recipe (there are a bunch out there), it was a tasty treat. Daiya cheese is so delicious in it's melty-ness, mixed with the cauliflower, an egg or two and some herbs. Then I formed that into my crust and baked it at 450 for around 15 minutes. Next time I think I'll bake it a little longer, it ended up being pretty mushy. Now I know I'm not in a plating competition but I think the presentation left something to be desired because of the pizza's delicateness. However we ate in the living room, Friday night-style (I'm not sure who I'm trying to fool, we eat in the living room "Friday night-style" most nights of the week) and by the light of the tv, the presentation was hardly noticeable. I topped the pizza crust with half tomato sauce and half vegan walnut pesto (walnuts, olive oil, salt and basil), Daiya mozz (just a tad, there was a lot in the crust) and little sun gold cherry tomatoes and just a bit of fresh chopped basil on the tomato sauce side.

The vegan fro-yo was literally just three ((im sure)genetically modified monstrosities, we shop organic but somehow these slipped in) strawberries chopped up tiny with about 14oz of vanilla almond milk vogurt and 6oz of strawberry almond milk yogurt. I mixed it all together and then put it in the ice cream maker for about 5 minutes, it didn't really need longer than that. It was a big hit with Josh, he's been really missing the ice cream at night. There was a debacle with using the ice cream machine (the kitchen's simplest electric appliance) that I'm not going to get into but just bring it up to iterate my inability to follow directions or even just pay attention.

Finally, I get to my point. I'm no vegan, I love meat. I would rather give up wheat and dairy than meat, which, apparently I have committed to for six weeks. I don't see being this strict as a forever thing but I have made some changes that I do see as a forever thing to get healthy and that's what I'd like to write about and share. It's hard to find sites with a clear gluten and dairy free recipes and I'd also like to help with that. So I'll just write about the interesting things that I come up with or try for the fun of it all. And hopefully we'll all find the debacles of my inability to pay attention and follow direction be a fun path for this venue. 

[ashleyridley]