Deli-Style Imitation Crab Salad

TWe had some imitation crab left over from making sushi.  I decided to make some crab salad, and adapted this recipe http://app.cookeatshare.com/recipes/deli-style-imitation-crab-seafood-salad-695978#CES.  The main change I made was to use soy-free Vegenaise instead of mayo.

This can be used as a topper to a bed of salad greens, as a sandwich spread, as a chunky dip, or as an appetizer cracker topping.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound imitation crab, chopped or flaked

1 cup sweet onion, finely chopped

1/4  cup sweet pickle relish

2/3 cup soy-free Vegenaise or Earth Balance Mindful Mayo

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (or to taste)

1/8 tsp dill weed

Salt and pepper to taste

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Mix all the ingredients together.

Thai Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango

I decided to try to make Thai sweet sticky rice with mango for dessert tonight.  I followed this AllRecipes recipe pretty much as is http://allrecipes.com/recipe/thai-sweet-sticky-rice-with-mango-khao-neeo-mamuang/.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups uncooked sushi rice

2 cups water

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 mangoes, peeled and cut up

Toasted sesame seeds

For sauce:

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp tapiocca starch, corn starch, or arrowroot powder

1/4 tsp salt

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse rice until water runs clear.  Put in saucepan with water.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook until water is absorbed and rice cooked (15-20 minutes).  While rice is cooking, mix together coconut milk and sugar in another saucepan, bring to boil, and remove from heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Once rice is done cooking, add rice to sweet coconut milk, stir and set aside to cool.  The sauce is made by whisking together coconut milk, sugar, salt, and thickener.  Bring to boil, then immediately remove from heat.

To serve, plate sweet sticky rice, put mango pieces with, pour sauce over, and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top.

Sushi - Maki Rolls

Something Jean misses very much when she is away at school is sushi.  Grinnell has no restaurants or grocery stores that sell sushi, and it is not something the school dining services provides.  So she eats lots of sushi when she is home.  We don't usually make our own, but decided to serve homemade sushi at our Wednesday night dinner with company this week.

Our supplies included a bamboo mat, plastic wrap, a wooden bowl, a sharp knife, sushi rice, rice vinegar, toasted sesame seeds, nori sheets, and our ingredients for fillings - Imitation crab, avocado, carrots, cucumbers, sweet potato.  We also made a couple of sauces to use with our maki - one using coconut aminos (instead of soy sauce) and a sweet cooking wine (mirin or dry sherry), then reduced over heat to consistency desired; the other a spicy mayo sauce made by whisking together Vegenaise, siracha, and fresh lime juice.

Here are links to a couple of blogs I found helpful for the sauces, sweet potato sushi, and how to roll the sushi.  http://myfamilydish.com/sweet-potato-sushi/  and http://www.davesbigblueplate.com/2012/02/sweet-potato-sushi.html

Dinner was butternut squash soup, crusty bread, California rolls, sweet potato rolls, and some other sushi combos, steamed green beans, and Thai sweet sticky rice with mango for dessert (separate blog post).

Alpine Chicken Casserole

This is a recipe we first had at Nancy's sister Linda's house.  Even though there is no pineapple in the recipe, Linda's husband called it Pineapple Chicken Casserole.  Somehow the celery took on that flavor for him, I think.  I make a couple of major substitutions to turn it into something I can eat these days.  The original recipe uses Swiss cheese (which is probably why "Alpine" is part of the name, but I used goat's milk cheddar cheese instead - Jean doesn't like Swiss cheese, and I have not found a goat's or sheep's milk Swiss cheese yet.  Daiya does make a no-dairy, no-soy Swiss cheese, so I could use that.  The other substitution I use is soy-free Vegan mayo (Vegenaise or Earth Balance Mindful Mayo) instead of Miracle Whip Light.

We stopped at Bloomingfoods in Bloomington on Sunday, and I bought an Amish chicken.  I cooked it overnight in our crockpot.  And saved the resulting broth for making soup later this week.  My brother cooked a chicken in their pressure cooker while we were visiting last month.  That was a pretty darn quick and impressive way to cook it.  We don't have a working pressure cooker, tho, and I like driving the cats nuts with the smells overnight with the crockpot method.

UPDATE, 9/15/16

I decided to see if 'Pineapple Chicken Casserole' actually tastes good with pineapple in it.  It does. This morning I put a whole fryer chicken in the slow cooker with 2 cups of water. I left it on Low for 8 hours. Then I took it out of the slow cooker and let it cool enough I didn't totally burn my fingers getting the meat and tearing it into bite-sized pieces. Instead of 2 cups of diced celery, I used 1 cup of diced celery and one cup of drained pineapple tidbits. The 'cheese' I used was Daiya Gouda. I think I'll probably include pineapple in this recipe most of the time from now on!

INGREDIENTS

4 cups cut/torn up chicken pieces (basically 1 chicken)

2 cups celery, diced (or 1 cup diced celery and 1 cup drained pineapple tidbits)

2 cups bread cubes (basically two slices of bread cut into cubes)

1/4 cup onion, diced

1 cup soy-free Vegenaise

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups shredded cheese (original recipe uses Swiss, I use non-dairy or goats milk cheese)

1/4 cup slivered or sliced almonds

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together chicken, celery, bread cubes, onion,  Vegenaise, salt & pepper, and cheese.  Transfer to 2 1/2 qt casserole dish.  Top with almonds.  Bake 25-35 minutes, until heated through and cheese melted.

Sautéed Greens with Pine Nuts and Craisins

We got lots of greens at our Seton Harvest pickup yesterday.  So I went looking for recipes.  I found this one on the Kitchenista blog http://thekitchenista.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=128:sauteed-greens-with-pine-nuts-and-raisins&catid=54:general&Itemid=91.  Nancy cooked them, adding additional craisins and pine nuts.  The recipe is for 1 bunch of greens - we actually used about 3 bunches, and adapted the recipe to accommodate the additional greens.

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch greens (whatever kinds you want - we used a mixture of kale, mustard greens, vita greens, and Yukina savoy)

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Extra virgin olive oil

2-3 Tbsp pine nuts

Salt and pepper to taste

2-3 Tbsp craisins

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Cut off and discard bottom few inches of the stems of the greens,  Wash and dry the remaining greens.  Separate the stems from the leaves.  Chop up the stems and set aside.  Coarsely chop the leaves and set aside.

Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add about 1 Tbsp olive oil.  Add the chopped up stems and let them cook 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the pine nuts to the pan and cook 1-2 minutes, until begin to brown.  Stir frequently.  Add the garlic, continuing to stir, and cook a minute or so before adding salt, pepper, and craisins.  Mix together well, then remove from heat and transfer this stem mixture to a bowl and set aside.

Return the frying pan to medium-high heat on the stove.  Add about 1 Tbsp olive oil, and tilt pan to coat evenly.

Add the leaves to the pan.  Do not stir, and let them cook 2-3 minutes until wilted.  Some might get crunchy, which is okay.  Once the leaves have wilted, stir them around the pan and add a little salt.

Add the stem mixture back to the pan and stir to combine.  Serve.  You can add a little lemon juice before serving.

Mango Tahini Smoothie

This is a recipe that was part of the detox diet I did a year and a half ago when I discovered my pain trigger foods.  I used the Whole Living 2013 Action Plan.  The link is for the Mango-Tahini Smoothie recipe, but one can get to the entire plan from there.  http://www.wholeliving.com/216565/mango-tahini-smoothie

INGREDIENTS

1 cup slightly thawed frozen mango chunks

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp tahini

1/2 cup water

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Put ingredients into blender and blend till smooth.  Pour into glass and serve with a wide diameter straw.

Pecan Pie Bars

It's getting to be that holiday time of year when it is a challenge for me to find treats and good things to take to potlucks that I can eat.  This is a recipe I found last year and ended up making several times.  http://www.food.com/recipe/pecan-pie-bars-paleo-gluten-free-512670

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cups almond flour/meal

1 Tbsp coconut oil

3 eggs, divided

1/2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 oz pitted dates

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup pecans, chopped

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Combine almond flour, 1 egg, oil, arrowrooot powder, and salt in a bowl.  Use a mixer to blend - dough will be very stiff.  Press by hand into greased 9"x9" or 13"x9" pan (I sometimes use the larger pan because it makes then thinner).  Bake 17 minutes.  Remove from oven to cool.

Blend dates in food processor on high about 1 minute, until paste-like. Add 2 eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Process until smooth.

Pour date mixture over warm crust and sprinkle pecans evenly over top, pressing in slightly.

Bake 30-35 additional minutes.  Cool before serving.

Green Beans and Feta

The green beans from our CSA 1/2 share looked a little mature, so I decided I needed to do something more than just steaming them.  I used my goat cheese feta and a red pepper that was also from our Seton Harvest haul.  I didn't eat any of the pepper (nightshade), but we had company for dinner so I included it.

INGREDIENTS

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound green beans, washed and with ends removed, cut into 1" pieces

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the peppers, garlic, salt & pepper and saute 5-7 minutes, or until peppers are tender.  Add the green beans and wine to the peppers.  Cover and cook about 10 minutes, until beans are tender.  Stir the green bean mixture.  Add the feta cheese, cover, and cook an additional 3 minutes, or until the feta is soft.

Baked Squash Rings

Our haul from Seton Havest included an acorn squash.  I found this recipe for baked squash rings.  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/baked-squash-rings-recipe.html. The original recipe uses both an acorn squash and a butternut squash.  I only had the one, so that is what I used.  

Other items from our CSA 1/2 share I used in dinner tonight included a yellow squash I used in my turkey meatloaf, lettuce I used in a salad, and green beans.

INGREDIENTS

1 acorn squash

(1 butternut squash)

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

You can either peel the squash or leave the rind on - I left it on.  Half the squash length-wise and remove the seeds.  Slice into half-moon pieces, about 1/4" thick.  Lightly coat with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake 25-30 minutes, flipping once halfway through the cooking time.