If You Bake It, They Will Hum…

Posted on April 12, 2012
I don’t mean to imply that food is a panacea for all the world’s (or even my) problems, but sometimes there’s just no escaping a simple truth:  A piece of homemade chocolate cake tends to imbue life with an undeniable zip. Even better: pulling off a creation that’s dense and decadent and not being all that talented a baker to begin with.  What I mean is, I made this lovely work of art from a mix.  
For a while now, I’ve heard the growing buzz from the g-free community about Namaste products. My mentor and friend, Diamond Dallas Page (www.dddpyoga.com) swears by them.  He’s been eating gluten and cow-dairy free for years and got me to convert three years ago. Our reasons for doing it may be different:  his body was battered by a decade long career as a professional wrestler; mine was battered by several decades of the American way of eating.  By eating clean he gets to walk across the room pain-free without hobbling and I get to walk across the room minus the burden of 185 unwanted pounds. Dallas has one unbendable rule though, about g-free eating:  it must taste good or he won’t eat it.  Naturally he values his health, but he also knows the value of pleasure, and blandness, no matter how healthy, usually doesn’t spell out a lifelong habit. 
In spite of Dallas’s endorsement, I admit to being initially skeptical about Namaste. Their baking mixes and pastas aren’t just gluten-free, they address a multitude of allergies. In other words, the products are made in a dedicated facility which eliminates any chance of cross contamination, and are free of wheat, gluten, corn, soy, potato, dairy, casein, tree nuts, and peanuts. How in God’s name, I wondered, would cookies or cake taste good under such circumstances?  Curiosity ultimately won in the end and this week, as I realized it had been several long months since a piece of chocolate cake had passed my lips, I set about putting their mix to the test.  It turned out to be astonishingly easy since all that was required was the addition of water, eggs, and oil. The frosting was equally breezy:  a few tablespoons of margerine and warm water was all it took.  An hour later (30 to bake, 30 to cool), I presented my significant other and his teenaged son with a glistening, two-layer chocolate wonder.  Neither eats gluten-free, both said it was better than any cake mix they’d ever tried. 
The reason for this can be traced back to Daphne Taylor, who founded the business more than a decade ago when she decided to give a young family friend saddled with food allergies the treat of a lifetime:  a batch of brownies he could actually eat.  That maiden tray of brownies born out of pure concern ultimately gave way to a homespun but burgeoning business that cranks out bags of mixes like chocolate and vanilla cake, pizza crust, cookie mix, all-purpose baking mix, muffin mix, pancake and waffle mix, bread mix, and flavored pastas. 
 I swooned at the denseness of the chocolate cake and the glossy decadence of the chocolate fudge frosting. The cake was sweet. It was moist. It was ultra-chocolatey. And it didn’t take a wrecking ball to my health.  I pretty much eat according to my body’s wisdom (and that includes honoring the cravings) but yes, Virginia, quantity DOES matter. So I had a nice, generous piece, but not a quarter of the cake as I would have easily done back in the day. But the good news is, I can have my cake and eat it too, in more ways than one.  And birthday celebrations just got a whole lot more intriguing.

www.namastefoods.com 
2 comments

Sweet Comfort: Cherry-Coconut Cobbler

Posted on March 17, 2012

Since March is entering like a bit of a lamb in my region, I decided to transmute the lemons of a cold, rainy day into a healing tonic of a concoction.  In today’s case it was a piping hot tray of gluten-free cherry cobbler.  Yes Virginia, sometimes I just want a little steamy, creamy comfort food and regular readers know my policy:  when I really want it and I’m not using the food as an escape hatch to elude reality, I indulge, enjoy, and move on. And the best part is when I keep it gluten and dairy-free, I indulge without taking a wrecking ball to my health and balance.

Since the day was damp and cold, what called to me was something cheery and bright…and somehow I knew cornmeal would be involved (I keep an inexhaustible supply in the cupboards). This recipe was inspired by a cobbler I saw in Bon Appetit that called for a mix of cherries and cranberries and was topped with a cornbread crust. Unable to lay my hands on the issue, I winged it, which is the eternal beauty of cooking comfort foods at home.  Unless you’re dealing with fried chicken (where proper oil temperature is crucial for palatable results), comfort food prep is pretty screw-up-proof.

This recipe also proves out the benefits of having a well-stocked cupboard because I was able to indulge the sudden urge to add dried coconut to the equation. Also on hand was a 22 ounce jar of Clearbrook Farms Cherry Fruit Tart, basically a ready-to-go cherry filling for tarts and pies.  You could use canned pie filling or frozen berries at room temperature with a bit of sugar added. The 22 ounces of cherries didn’t go as far as I thought it would and since corn bread can easily turn Sahara-dry in the oven, I thought fast and mixed the cherries with half a cup of grapefruit juice and a tablespoon of lemon juice.  The extra liquid was just what the cornmeal needed to make a plush, juicy-on-the-bottom of the crust topping.  When I gave the bubbling results to a somewhat picky eater of a teen, the consensus was two thumbs up.

This cobbler’s great on its own, but today, I served it with a dollop of So Delicious Vanilla Ice Cream, making it officially dairy-free.  A clean comfort food recipe if there ever was one – Bon Appetit!

Cherry-Coconut Cobbler

Filling

1 22-ounce jar or can of cherry pie filling or the frozen berry equivalent

1/2 cup grapefruit juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Crust

2 1/2 cups water

1 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup coconut powder or unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 330

Spray an 8 x 10 baking pan with cooking spray and set aside

Bring water to a boil and add cornmeal, salt, sugar, vanilla, and oil and whisk vigorously. Reduce heat to low and continue whisking until mixture is thick.  Turn heat off and whisk in coconut. The cornmeal should be porridge consistency but not runny. If too thick, add a bit of hot water.

Pour fruit into baking pan. Drizzle the two juices over the fruit and mix slightly so it’s evenly distributed. With a rubber spatula, drop cornmeal bit by bit on top of the fruit and spread slightly so it’s an even crust.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Serve hot.

Emotional Eating Disclaimer:
With something this delicious, the fact that it’s a ‘clean’ gluten and dairy-free recipe could delude the eater into believing eating half or perhaps the entire tray may not be such a bad idea (trust me, I’ve been there).  So I corral my portions into small dishes like this pyrex glass dish (about 3/4 cup). So HANDY!
2 comments

Decadent Liver Pate

Posted on February 22, 2012

So here it is…my favorite way to get more iron in my diet.  Believe it or not chicken liver is one of my favorite things in the world but nowhere is it more enjoyable than in pate form. Pate, I’ve discovered, is a lot like meatloaf or chicken soup.  It’s one of those home-cooked classics that comes out a little different each time, depending on which spices are prevalent in the cupboard and what wine or sherry is on hand.

This pate was made with Madeira wine but it’s also great with sherry, cognac, and red wine. I’ve also made it with butter but today’s batch was sauteed with grapeseed oil, my frying oil of choice for its healthiness (throw your canola oil OUT, ok?) and high smoking point.  Crowned with a glorious slathering of caramelized onions and served with a relish tray of baby sweet gherkins, grainy mustard, capers, fresh chopped red onions, and caramelized onions. To continue properly in the Jewish tradition, the pate would be spread on toasted rye bread slices or matzoh crackers, but for tonight’s dinner, I went with rice cakes.  And they actually handled all that decadent action pretty well.  Liver pate is one of those loaded foods that’ll hold you over for hours.  Sometimes I have it in the morning instead of eggs, for lunch instead of chicken, or right after a hard DDPYOGA workout when I’m ravenous.  Making  your own is also inexpensive compared to the prepared varieties and its loaded with protein and iron.

Decadent Liver Pate

1 16-ounce tub of chicken livers

2 large onions, sliced or diced

6-10 cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 cup butter or oil

1/2 cup wine or sherry

1 tsp. celery or regular salt

2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

1 sprig fresh rosemary

Saute the onions and garlic in the oil or butter until slightly caramelized. Add the liver and mix thoroughly as it’s sauteed over medium heat.  After two minutes, add wine, salt, seasoning, and rosemary. Sautee for 15 minutes uncovered. Let cool until lukewarm or room temperature and process in a food processor until smooth.  Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.  Keeps refrigerated for about a week.

Bon Appetit!

0 comments

Flavor Vs. Freedom: What’s It Worth?

Posted on February 19, 2012
There I was at the dinner table, ladeling Turkey Tetrazzini into white ceramic bowls – mine and theirs.  I don’t inflict my clean-eating ways on others, unless, of course, they choose to go willingly. And so, for this particular dinner, I made two versions of one of the most creamy and classic ways to enjoy leftover turkey. Theirs (‘they’ being my significant other and his teen-aged son): chopped turkey breast, minced pimentos, spices, and copious amounts of sour cream. The only difference in my version of the Tetrazzini was the sour cream was replaced by goat yogurt. 


Both versions were tossed with al dente gluten-free rigatoni.  That’s because Significant Other & Son like g-free pasta, so we all cook with it. What they don’t dig, however, is the pungent taste and comparatively runny texture of goat yogurt vs. sour cream. 


As they both raved about the Tetrazzini and how flavorful and creamy it was, they asked me point blank if I really like the taste of goat yogurt and the honest answer is….Yes. But truthfully, I like sour cream better.  There’s nothing like the richness of it and I’ve yet to find an equal in the world of goat, sheep, or soy alternatives. 


And that’s just the way it is.  It’s the trade I’ve chosen to make when three years ago, I traded in 185 pounds of unwanted fat and trapped fluid. The price wasn’t as high as you might imagine.  There was no dieting, surgery, or drugs involved. But some fine-tuning of the food I consumed was in order, and I decided the best way to make the trade is by doing it honestly and not kidding myself. 


We all know there’s no shortage of weight loss philosophies and gurus out there who build their premise on deceit.  The smoke-and-mirrors-trickery of “this bone-dry, oven-baked ‘fried chicken’ tastes just as good as the real thing.” Or ‘Try this alfredo sauce made with fat-free half and half…you’ll never know the difference.”


Uh, yeah I will.  I’ve tried all the tricks.  All the ways to keep some of my favorite binge foods in the equation while erasing the calories and ensuing physical damage.  Doesn’t work.  Not by a long shot. 


Three years ago, I stepped on the scale at my doctor’s office and stood there in silent horror as the digits scrolled to 345. The time had finally come to reverse the tide.  I was 44 and battered by a lifetime of yo-yo dieting, so let’s just say I’d become an expert at what didn’t work.


Dieting and severe deprivation were out of the question. So where was I go to?  The middle road.  At long last, after a lifetime of swinging like a deranged Tarazn between the extremes of gluttony and starvation, I realized that freedom and long-term success would involve the two extremes integrating into a way of life that spelled the end of drastic and unrealistic measures. 


Pleasure was an immutable part of the equation.  But the destruction had to go…and it couldn’t be ejected forcibly.  I’d tried and tried so many times to eliminate binge-eating by sheer will, by becoming a harsh drill sergeant and screaming ‘STOP!’ as if such a simple command could bring an addiction to its knees.  Each attempt only got me further in the hole. Here’s the other awakening I had three years ago:   the binge-eating would only be eliminated when I faced the reasons I was knocking myself semi-unconscious with food in the first place. Admittedly easier said than done, but worth walking through the fire for.  


So here’s a rough outline of my relationship with food now.  It stems from honoring my particular likes and dislikes.  I’m realistic enough now to accept that I won’t eat a food I’m not into, no matter how healthy Dr. Oz says it is. But it can’t all be a pleasure ride or else how could I drop 185 pounds without dieting?  I’m mindful that my body requires certain amounts of protein, fat, vegetables, and carbohydrates to function properly.  So now I listen hard to my body…and NOT a magazine or diet that tells me what and how much to eat. I also want those combinations to be as interesting and enticing as possible.  Sometimes on days I workout hard, I’ll augment the protein intake with an egg-white protein drink (I actually love them now, especially when super-charged with a heaping spoonful of cocoa powder). And then there are the days when a Turkey Tetrazzini casserole, buttered gluten-free bagel, or a slice of flourless chocolate cake are the only things that’ll fill the bill. 


Thanks to the advice of the mentors who led me out of the woods, Diamond Dallas Page ( WWW.DDPYOGA.COM ) and Terri Lange, I was handed priceless advice on a silver platter:  eliminate gluten and cow-dairy from my repertoire and watch what happens.  I have tremendous respect for them both so I listened, even though I doubted I could live without cheese longterm.  Guess what?  After the initial month-long period of withdrawal, I felt better than I ever thought possible, so I kept running with it.  And began to enjoy the undiscovered world of goat gouda, truffle-infused chevre, and peccorinio. 


Sometimes, goat and sheep cheese is comparable or actually better than its cow counterparts and other times, as with sour cream, the substitute doesn’t quite float my boat. When I began eating clean, I wanted to go about it honestly so I did the requesite mourning for the fat-injected flavor of cream cheese, the cottony texture of wonder bread squeezing a tuna sandwich together, but in a post 9-11 world, how can I really view such a loss as tragic? Even more so when I  saw the amazing return on my investment: down 12 sizes, feelin’ groovy, and able to do things I’ve never done before…like:






*  Spring myself from a chaise lounge without back-up
*  Shop for clothing anywhere but Lane Bryant
*  Cross my legs
*  Gracefully eject myself from ’68 Corvette Coupe
*  Navigate a crowded restaurant without knocking chairs over, Godzilla-style, with my hips





The short-list of freedoms may sound like small potatoes, but to anyone who’s been in bondage for any reason or length of time, I don’t have to spell out how valuable it is. There’s nothing like it.  The physical freedom is probably the most obvious to those who have known me for years.  I love looking and feeling free.  But what I love hearing most is when someone says to me my eyes have life in them again.


It’s true…I’ve returned from the underground of a 20- year slumber.  It’s good to be back.  And if sour cream has to take a back seat, do you think I really mind?





7 comments

Lentil & Rice Soup: Warm Up and Fill Up

Posted on January 7, 2012

One of the longstanding traditions in our family was pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day.  I’m not sure what the ritual was supposed to usher in, but in our house it was an unshakable cooking odor that seemed to seep into the molecular level of the carpeting and drapes and hover like a semi-hostile ghost for weeks.

Nowadays, my New Year’s Day Tradition is a little cleaner…in more ways than one.  I still have days when I’m nothing but carnivorous, but the frequency is less.  I’ve discovered it’s just a natural change that occured during the past three years as I’ve dropped 185 through clean eating (specifically no gluten or cow-dairy) and being physcially engaged (DDPYOGA, long distance walking, weight-lifting).  Oh yeah, and feeling with awareness.  What, did you think it was all about calories and exercise?  No one gets to where I was on the scale without doing some serious sprinting away from feelings, and if you’re looking for similar freedom from bondage, you’d better learn to make friends with feeling what you’re avoiding most, or it’s gong to be a long and bumpy ride through the valley of dieting snakeoil salesmen.

But back to the subject.  I’ve still gotta eat.  Heck, I still love it; I mean REALLY love it and always will, only now, I zero in on food that enhances everything:  my mood, the way my vital organs function, and my metabolism.  Firm rule of thumb:  it’s got to taste good or why bother.  I spent too many years in purgatory pretending bone-dry ‘oven fried’ chicken was just as good as the real thing.  No more of that.  When I want fried chicken, I go to Hattie’s.  And when it’s a cold, gloomy January day, I often want some version of lentil soup.  There are endless varieties of them and not just because of the dozens of varieties of lentils out there.  They adapt beautifully to any spice palate. Lentils are also astoundingly inexpensive, and loaded with nutrition.  And when blended with a simple carb like rice or potatoes, equate to a complete protein…no meat or cheese necessary to round out the meal.

Here’s a version I did on New Year’s Day. To be honest, when I do soup, I just rummage through the spice cabinet and shake whatever strikes my fancy that day into the pot.  For this batch it was something like paprika, onion salt, rosemary, and cayenne pepper. Soups are very forgiving and hard to screw up completely.  If you’re a novice, don’t be afraid to play with flavors.  You’ll probably end up savoring the results.

New Year’s Day Lentil Soup

1 bag lentils (for this I used split orange lentils)*

2 large to medium onions, sliced or diced**

1 head garlic, cloves smashed

Olive or grapeseed oil for sauteeing the vegetables

Two tablespoons of seasoning:  whatever’s in the cupboard. Paprika, garlic or onion powder, thyme, sage, rosemary.  Whatever blend you choose should total about two tablespoons.

1/4 cup powdered chicken stock or 4 boullion cubes

Note:

* If using whole lentils, like pinto beans or black-eyed peas, you’ll need to soak them in water overnight

**You can add chopped carrots, celery, leeks to the onions and garlic.  No rules with this soup!

Pour split lentils into a large stock pot and add about a quart of purified drinking water. Let soak for two hours. Water will absorb into the lentils. After two hours of soaking, place lentils over medium heat and add more water until they’re submerged by about 3 inches.

In a large frying pan, add chopped vegetables and enough oil to coat them well. Sautee over medium heat until at least soft and translucent. It’s OK if some of them brown, it enhances the soup’s flavor. Setcooked vegetables aside as lentils continue to cook. After about an hour, do a texture check to see if lentil are soft enough to eat.  They should somewhere in between hard pellets and mush.  A bit al dente, but with some give. Once they’re cooked to desired texture, add the boullion, spices, and vegetables and simmer on low heat for aboutr 15 minutes.

As we all know, soup’s better the next day, but you may want to dig into this immediately.  I served this version with a sticky-wild rice blend, but you can go with potatoes or gluten-free pasta.  A little Peccorino cheese (a sheep’s milk cheese that’s similar to Parmasean) sprinkled over each bowl makes it extra Divine.

Bon Appetit!

0 comments