Over Priced Much?

Since I failed to ration my granola, I've had to resort to stopping by the university's union to pick up light lunches and snacks. The prices are pretty ridiculous. Nothing like a $7.25 lunch consisting of a fruit cup and napkin full if nuts to inspire a weekend of baking. I foresee much food prep happening come Friday.

Seriously not worth the money. I bet I could have made at least a week's worth of munchies for that cost!

Holy burst of flavor, Batman!

As per my weekend goal, I tried out a gluten-free granola recipe that did not contain oats. The recipe was really easy and tastes ...

INCREDIBLE!

Good golly, this granola is the cat's pajamas. It is a perfect blend of sweet and salty with a satisfying crunch. I need to make another batch STAT since this one is nearly gone. Hello new go-to breakfast and snack.

I pulled this recipe from the 120+ recipes I have pinned on Pinterest right now. I happened to have most of the ingredients in my pantry, so it ended up being very affordable as well as delectable. The recipe needed some modifications to fit my diet plan, so the following is my altered version of Vegetarian Times' Quinoa-Rice Granola.

Ingredients
5 gluten free brown rice cakes
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup mixed nuts
1/3 cup agave nectar
5 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup dried fruit (I used dried mango)

First, crumble the rice cakes in a bowl.  The pieces should be fairly small, about 1/2 to 1/4 inch.

Next, stir in quinoa flakes and mixed nuts.



In a separate bowl, mix together the agave, oil and cinnamon.

Then pour it over the rice/quinoa mixture and stir until well coated.

 

Spread it onto a parchment paper lined pan (or two). I only lined one of my pans and that was a big mistake.



Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Stir the granola and then bake for another 10 minutes. It should be golden brown. Let it cool on the baking pans until completely cool and crispy.

 

Next brake it into clusters and mix in the dried fruit. Store in an air-tight container and try not to eat the entire batch in one sitting.

Et voilà! Scrumdiddlyumptious oat-free gluten-free goodness.

Adorable Eats

Golly gee I can't say this enough, I just adore my little pink crock buddy. Perfectly heated meals each and every time we dine together. It had been 48 days since I last microwaved food, a feat that would be excruciatingly difficult without this cute addition to my kitchen.

 

Look how yummy those fajita veggies look. Hot but not soggy and as delicious as when they were fresh off the pan.

 

 

I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT.

Antici................pation

Yesterday's appointment with the natural health doctor was via phone since I'm living the university life again.  I was really hoping he'd tell me my food allergy test results are in and then say those glorious words I'm dying to hear: "you aren't allergic to oats."

Alas, my food sensitivities blood work has not come back yet.  Perhaps next week, but likely the week after.  Two more weeks of living an oatless life. 

I'm trying to accept that I may not get the news I want when the time does come, but hey a girl can dream right? The past several weeks I've been cooking under the assumption that this no-oat diet is temporary. But, my goal this weekend is to make an oat-free and gluten-free granola snack. Maybe a few tasty non-oat snack recipes in my repertoire will soften the blow I'm anticipating any week now. Granola pics to come!

Flavorful Salad on a Budget

I've been in the mood for a salad dish that fits my teeny tiny college budget without bland flavor or time consuming instructions. My meals became quite monotonous this week and something had to be done, so Tuesday after work I headed over to the grocery store with ingredients for the recipe below in mind. Lucky me, all the ingredients were super cheap and I already had several stocked in my pantry.

Inexpensive? Check.

The recipe I used is from a collective cookbook that my natural health doctor put together after a patient potluck. I altered it a smidgen to fit my diet specifications, but I have the original at the end of this post.

The dressing needs to refrigerate for a few hours so I got that started first. In my trusty Magic Bullet I blended 1 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 2 Tbs low sodium soy sauce, and 3/4 cup sugar.

It looked weird.

I stuck the bullet of dressing in the fridge and let it chill for two hours.

Next I heated 1/4 cup of olive oil in a pan and browned 1/4 cup sunflower seeds with approximately 3oz gluten free rice noodles. The recipe called for a block of buckwheat ramen noodles, but those aren't gluten free so I estimated a weight equivalent in rice noodles. I'm resourceful like that.

The 1/4 cup of oil that the recipe called for was way to much as far as I'm concerned. Next time (and there will be a next time!) I will just drizzle oil over the pan.

I let the now lightly browned noodles and seeds cool while I combined 1 bag of cole slaw and 1 bag of broccoli slaw in a large mixing bowl.

Then I added the seeds and noodles to the cabbage and tossed it again.

 

The refrigerated dressing went on next, followed by one final toss. The original instructed to refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving, but I like my cabbage salads to sit for a day. Maybe I'm the only one, in which case go a head and eat it the same day you make it, but I love a slightly soggy cabbage.

 

The next day it looked like this and tasted awesome!! I foresee this salad making its way into my regular lunch lineup.

 

 

 

It was so tasty I had to have a bowl of it for supper too.

 

Easy? Check.

 

Delicious? Double check.



 

 

 

Original Recipe from Abi Stevens

Ramen/Cabbage Salad
1 bag cole slaw with shredded carrots, or equivalent amount of home-shredded cabbage/ vegetables
1 bag broccoli slaw with shredded carrots
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 square King Soba ramen noodles, broken into small pieces (these are made with buckwheat flour)

1/4 cup oil

Dressing

1 cup oil

1/4 cup vinegar

2 Tbs coconut aminos (or soy sauce, if you can have it)

3/4 cup sugar, or a blend of sugar and stevia

Blend dressing ingredients together in a blender and store in refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Brown noodles and sunflower seeds in oil, strain, and let cool. Ad to cole slaw mix. Toss in dressing and refrigerate for 20 minutes or so before serving.

Getting Steamy

Classes are one day away. One day before I enter school mode.

Eat. Learn. Eat. Work. Study. Eat. Study. Work. Sleep. Repeat.

I don't often have time to do serious cooking until the weekend, so I'm stocking my freezer with ready-to-bake meals for week night suppers and easy lunches. Yesterday's endeavor was foil steam pouches.

I laid out pieces of foil approximately 16 inches long. Then I folded them in half the short way, unfolded them, and turned up the edges on one half to make a bowl shape.
In each bowl I added chopped sweet potato, onion, carrots, celery, and green beans.

Then I put cooked lentils leftover from a meal the other night on top. I sprinkled herbs de Provence over the ensemble.

For the moisture I added 1/4 cup of frozen vegetable broth. It will melt around the vegetables and steam them in the oven. In my ice cube trays, 1/4 cup equals 3 cubes.

On a side note, freezing broth in ice cube trays is a fantastic way to preserve a whole carton of broth if you are like me and only cook with a little at a time. I just thaw as much as I need without wasting half a container.

Next fold over the other foil half and crimp the edges. I was careful to roll the edges several times to prevent leaks.

After that they are ready for the freezer! When I'm ready to eat one I heat the oven to 400 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

A word of caution: Be careful opening the cooked foil packets as steam will release and can easily burn you. I may be speaking from experience.

I couldn't wait until next week to have a packet, so I baked one for last night's dinner. It could have used more herbs and I think the next batch I will add a little garlic or curry for more flavor. The veggies were perfectly cooked though! One less thing I will have to worry about this week as yet another exciting semester kicks off.

Drive-In Treats

Last Friday was movie night. Specifically drive-in movie night. I adore the drive-in. It's much fun and fantastically affordable for the small budget student such as myself. The Starlite in Wichita is my theater of choice. I think it might be the only drive-in left in the state, but regardless it is definitely the only one left within 50 miles of my house. They charge $5 per person (or $10 per carload depending on the season) and you get to see three movies. If sitting in your car watching movies with the radio or outside in lawn chairs isn't awesome enough, it is one heck of a deal too.

The first movie usually starts around 9pm, aka. dusk, so I try to leave the house around 8. However, the movie night prep work begins much earlier in the day with snack preparations. Usually I spend the afternoon making granola bars and all sorts of yummy treats to munch on all night, but once again I got some sad food news from my doctor and I'm off oats for several weeks. Apparently feeling ill a few hours after I eat oats each day isn't a coincidence. We're hoping it's just the gluten in the oats and I'll be able to switch to gluten free and continue my oatmeal-centric lifestyle, but who knows, maybe I'm allergic to oats. I'll know for sure when my food sensitivities blood work comes back, but until then I am off oats.

Oats are my go-to snack ingredient, so for last week's drive-in I had to rack my brain for something tasty that did not contain oaty magical goodness. What I came up with was trail mix. Not very original or thrilling at all, but delicious nonetheless.

My treat of the night consisted of equal parts soy nuts, almonds, peanuts, dried cranberries, and cocoa roasted almonds. Pumpkin seeds and cashews would have been good to add too, but I was on a limited grocery budget.

With trail mix in hand, my family and I enjoyed a splendid Starlite triple feature of Total Recall, The Dark Night Rises, and The Amazing Spiderman. A fantastic way to spend my last Friday before I returned to school.

Not Even a Goodbye Nibble

Last week I took a big leap forward in my food venture and began seeing a natural health concierge to manage my health through lifestyle choices rather than prescriptions and medical bills. I've been quite thrilled about the whole thing. I knew it would mean some changes, but I'm ready to end my perpetual sickness and feel well. The doctor and I had an initial meeting to discuss my interest in the process and then a second to hash out my history, situation, and goals. I waited as patiently as possible for the third visit, but it was tough. It's all just so exciting! The third visit was when I received my initial seven page report he compiled on what to eat to accomplish both the goals I view most important and the ones he sees as pertinent.

Now I knew going into this appointment that I was going to be making some diet altercations afterwards. That was the whole point and I was ready, or so I thought.

No meat. Hey not a problem, I'm vegetarian!

No dairy. Eh, I've been avoiding that for a few months now anyways. No big deal.

No black teas. Well that's not fun, but okay. Green tea is just as lovely.

No wheat. Whoa what? Hold on there. Just sticking to 100% whole wheat doesn't cut it? NONE AT ALL?!

And the list went on.

Wheat is a staple ingredient in just about every meal I make. I love bread. LOVE it. It's so scrumptious. Fluffy and crunchy at the same time. A daily delight for my taste buds. Of all the things he outlined for me at that appointment, eliminating wheat was the biggest blow. There were many things he covered in those seven pages, so I suppose I should be grateful that I'm only hung up on one detail. But golly, I didn't even get a last taste! Not a goodbye sandwich or even a farewell tortilla chip.

To make matters worse, I had baked a new bread recipe the day before and still had half the loaf left. It taunted me all weekend. I seriously contemplated cutting off a slice (or five) and starting the new and improved diet the next day, but I resisted. That would've been wrong and a weak way to start the food plan. I haven't caved and I hope I don't because I am committed to this nutrition lifestyle plan. However, had I known that piece I sliced from the warm freshly baked loaf Friday night would be my last wheaty bite, I would have snarfed down the entire loaf.

I'll miss you, wheat.

Oh Pink Lunch Crock, You Had Me at "Flavorful Meals On-The-Go"

I'm mixing things up with a podcast post today. In this four minute and thirty second audio, the main focus is on the current star of my lunches. Wonderful Crock-Pot Lunch Crock Food Warmer, I don't know how I could get by without you at the office and in my kitchen each and every day.

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As promised in the audio, click here for the Crock-Pot web site's product details for the Lunch Crock.