Lamb & Millet day!

In keeping with making this a manageable task for me, I just going to write down what we're eating when it seems interesting, posting actual recipes as appropriate.

Menu for Thursday 3/5

Breakfast: Blackberry millet scones

Lunch: Potatoes, turnips, parsnips, leeks, beet greens & mushrooms, stewed in lamb stock = instant stew.

Dinner: Braised "BBQ" lamb ribs, kale & leeks, millet & flax flatbread.

Millet Scones

1 1/4 C millet flour
1/4 C potato flour
1/2 C tapioca starch
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C succanat or brown sugar
1/4 C shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg equivalent (we used Ener-G egg replacer)
3/4 C water (or milk)
1/2 cup blackberries

Preheat Oven to 400*F.

Cream shortening & sugar. Add vanilla. Add egg equiv.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients into shortening mixture.

Add water. Gently mix in berries.

Knead and press into an 8in round flat shape on a greased baking pan.

Cut into 8 pieces, but don't separate.

Bake 20 or 25 minutes.

Millet & Flax Flatbread

1 C millet, fresh ground
2 T flaxseed, fresh ground
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
water

Mix dry ingredients. Pour in water until you get a thick gruel. Cook stovetop in small batches like little pancakes.

5 minute quinoa veggie soup

Everytime I roast a chicken or cook any chicken cuts with bones, I make homemade bone broth. I have 2 quart- and 6 pint-sized jars of stock in my freezer currently. And a chicken carcass in the fridge waiting to be turned into broth (should yield roughly 3 quarts, total). I put bone broth in everything I can, since it is such an easily assimilated source of calcium, gelatin and protein. It's great for healing a damaged gut, as well. Therefore, at any given moment, I have soup ingredients on hand. The other day, the kids were hungry and ready to mutiny. I felt like I had "nothing" in the house for lunch (translation: no left overs, or anything easy or ready-made). I pulled a jar of bone broth, grabbed some veggies & quinoa flakes and we had a lunch in 5 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pint of bone broth
• veggies - we had broccoli & cauliflower
• sea salt
• coconut oil
• 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
• juice of 1/2 lime
• fresh cilantro
• fresh minced ginger, about 1 tsp
• thinly sliced onion stalks
  
• coconut milk, a few tsps in each bowl

DIRECTIONS:

1. in a saute pan, saute ginger & veggies in coconut oil with sea salt.
2. add bone broth, bring to boil.
3. add cilantro leaves and steams.
4. add quinoa flakes, turn down heat and simmer for several minutes - quinoa will thicken.
5. add sliced onion stalks.
   
6. remove from heat and allow to cool.
7. pour in a little bit of coconut milk into each bowl and stir.
   

Yield: lunch for two hungry kiddos and their mama. obviously, very easy to double, triple, etc.

ALTERNATIVES:

• try onions or other aromatics in addition to or in place of ginger.
• add chicken meat.
  
• use pre-cooked grains (buckwheat, quinoa, millet, rice, etc) instaed of quinoa flakes.
• use pre-cooked rice noodles instead of quinoa flakes.
  
• try various veggie combinations.
• spice it up with cayenne pepper or minced hot peppers.
  

Roasted Chicken & Turnip Greens over Penne with Sweet Potato Fries

We had a potluck picnic to attend last night. Prior to our all consuming allergy situation, I would have brought hummus and pita, potato salad, tuna pasta salad, chips and salsa or cheese and crackers. Basically, your traditional summer picnic fare. Now, however, I have a bit of a challenge. I need to think of things that I can make in advance, that travel well and that are easy to eat in public. And are yummy and nutritious. Of course.

Yesterday, we settled on pasta, since my kids will eat it no matter what. I don't know about yours, but my children almost abjectly refuse to eat unless they are sitting in their chairs at home (or strapped into the carseat - something about the car makes them both suddenly starving). It doesn't help that the picnic was at a park with two fantastic play structures and a nice paved bike path. Lily is very into her big wheel right now, so she spent most of her time riding back and forth on one section of the loop. Here is the recipe that enticed her off of her big wheel, if only for 3 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

PASTA

• Roasted chicken - 1 breast, 1 thigh, 1 drumstick - chopped up
• Turnip Greens
• Brown Rice Noodles (Penne)
• 1/2 cup, approx, chicken bone broth (or water)
  
• Onion
• Parsley
• Olive oil
• Spices, several pinches of each, to taste: sea salt, pepper, sage, fennel, thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram*
  

*the idea here was to mimic the flavor of an italian sausage - hence the sage & fennel

FRIES

• one large sweet potato, cut into fries or wedges or chunks
  
• coconut oil (roughly 2 Tbsp)
• sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

PASTA

1. Saute onion in olive oil with sea salt.
   
2. When onions are translucent, add remaining spices (including parsley) and the bone broth. Simmer for a few minutes.
   
3. Add roasted chicken pieces.
   
4. Add rinsed & chopped greens.
5. Stir greens while sauteing. When they are ready, they will turn bright green and wilt slightly.
6. Stir in prepared pasta. Add more olive oil and sea salt if necessary.
   

Yield: Many. This would serve the four of us plus leftovers more than enough for lunch the next day. Perhaps 4-6 adults, depending on side(s) served?

FRIES

1. Cut sweet potato(es) into whatever type of small pieces to you like - traditional fries, wedges, or chunks.
   
2. Coat with melted (if not already liquid due to it being 80+ degrees outside) coconut oil & sea salt.
   
3. Place in a single row on two baking sheets.
   
4. Bake at 400*F for 10 minutes. Turn over and bake for an additional 7-10 minutes. You want them golden and slightly crispy, but not burnt.
   

Yield: 4-6 as a side dish. Obviously the more sweet potato you use, the more you can serve.

ALTERNATIVES:

PASTA

• Try different greens, or a mixture of greens.
  
• Try turkey or bacon or salmon, or actual sausage (then go easy on some of the sausage spices).
  
• Experiment with different noodle shapes.
  
• Serve over rice or buckwheat or millet or quinoa instead of noodles.
• Add other veggies - zucchini, broccoli, carrots, etc.
  

FRIES

• Try 1/2 sweet potatoes, 1/2 carrots.
• Try different oils.
  
• Add spices like cayenne pepper & paprika for cajun fries.
  

coconut-molasses stir fried veggies

We have hit harvest time, the time of abundance. Fresh veggies are coming out our ears, so it seems. What better way to enjoy lots of veggies at once than a quick & easy (and of course, delicious) stir fry.

We just had this for lunch. Lily just told me that she's "not really a big fan of this stir fry." When I asked her what didn't she like, she said the "taste of all of it." Well, then. Aevryn and I thought it was great. Aevryn is also currently eating a wedge of lemon. Make that, Aevryn is currently spitting out a wedge of lemon. So, perhaps her palette is suspect. Lily and I just had a conversation about when you don't like something, the cook isn't going to jump right up and make you a brand new meal. I offered to let her forage in the fridge for a meal or she could try her stir fry again. Guess who's decided the stir fry is good after all (once we took out the onions)? Gotta love my houseful of negative first responders.

INGREDIENTS:

• Whatever veggies you have on hand. We used: cauliflower, broccoli, onions, green onions, cilantro, left over shredded cabbage, left over shredded kolrabi
• roughly 1/2 cup or so of bone broth (we freeze ours in pint-sized jars so that we always have broth on hand). You can easily sub water.
• roughly 1/4 cup coconut milk
• coconut oil
• juice of half a lemon
• sea salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup or so nutritional yeast
• 1 TBSP molasses
• I would have added ginger, were it in the house. I thought it was when I started gathering my ingredients. Oh well. Blame it on the kitchen gnomes.
  

I feel compelled to make it known that I really don't measure out my ingredients. I do pinches and handfulls and drizzles and squeezes. My measurements here are really just approximations.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute onions (& ginger).
   
2. Add bone broth, veggies (including herbs), coconut oil. Season with salt & pepper.
3. Simmer until veggies are tender. (When the broccoli turns bright green, you know it's done!)
   
4. Add molasses, coconut milk, nutritional yeast. Stir well.
   
5. Simmer until liquid is mostly absorbed and a thick sauce remains.

Yield: lunch for one adult (with an admittedly healthy appetite) and two small children.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Serve over rice or rice noodles.
• Add seafood or chicken or beef.
• Try honey instead of molasses.

Three Bean Chili Casserole

Last summer, before we truly embarked on the elimination diet adventure, we loved one-pot meals. Especially meals I could cook bit by bit throughout the day - say, chop veggies in morning; cook beans/meat later; then just saute aromatics & stir in spices before dinner time- and still be tasty & fresh in the evening. We were tomato-free at the time, still eating legumes, and trying hard not to eat very much meat. This was a filling meal that really hit the spot at the end of a long summer day. It's also perfect to take to potlucks - i.e. it travels well.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup cooked chickpeas (1/2 cup dry)*
  
• 1 cup cooked kidney beans (1/2 cup dry)*
  
• 1 cup cooked green beans, chopped
• olive oil
• 1 onion
• a couple stalks of celery
• 1 jalapeno, minced (leave some seeds if you want spicy)
• 2 tsp cane sugar, maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 tsp clove
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 Tbsp paprika
  
• 1tsp coriander
  
• 1/2 tsp allspice
  
• 1 tsp oregano
  
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 cup bone broth (or water)
• juice of one lemon

*it's best to soak your beans overnight, then rinse them before cooking in fresh water. 1 cup of dry or soaked beans cooks in 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer covered for 45ish minutes (until the water has been absorbed and the beans are soft all the way through). Soaked beans will cook faster than dry beans. They are also much more easy for your body to digest.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute finely chopped onions & celery in olive oil
2. Add cooked beans, jalapeno, spices & sugar/sweetener
3. Add broth/water & lemon juice
4. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve with Guacamole & Sorghum Bread.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Add chopped, peeled, cored & seeded fresh tomatoes (or a can of tomatoes or tomato paste plus more broth)
• Add fresh cilantro
• If you can do corn chips, eat it like salsa/dip (this was our favorite way)
• Put it on brown rice tortillas or noodles
  
• Add green and red peppers, sauteed with the onions
• Add mushrooms
• Serve over rice, quinoa, or millet
• Replace beans with ground turkey or shredded chicken
• Add a 1/2 cup nutritional yeast

Grain-free Turkey Chili with Guacamole

We are big fans of Tex-Mex influenced cuisine. (We are fans of many cuisines, as you will learn.) This Chili is easy, fast and filling.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1lb free-range ground turkey
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 small green pepper, diced
• handful of mushrooms, diced
  
• 4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded & diced
• 1 large zucchini, diced (Apparently, I like dicing things!)
  
• homemade chicken bone broth (you can use water instead)
• spices: sea salt; pepper; ground cumin; clove; allspice; ground coriander; paprika; oregano
• fresh cilantro leaves, whole & diced
  
• lemon
  
• olive oil
• nutritional yeast
• medium avocado

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini in olive oil, sprinkled with salt. Set aside.
2. Brown ground turkey. Add bone broth as needed to keep meat from sticking to pan. Once meat is cooked, add reserved onion mixture. Stir.
3. Add diced tomatoes, chopped fresh cilantro and more bone broth. Simmer.
4. Add spices. I used: handful (well, a palmful, really) each of paprika & cumin. Liberal pinches of sea salt & pepper. Small pinch each of oregano & ground coriander. Dash each of clove and allspice. Stir well. Continue to simmer.
5. Add a couple handfuls of nutritional yeast. Stir well and continue to simmer bone broth down.
6. Once you've reached desired thickness, stir in the juice of most of one lemon, cover and let sit.
7. For guacamole, I just mash up avocado with oil oil, sea salt & lemon (or lime) juice, fresh squeezed (squeeze a bit of the lemon into the guac and then squeeze the remainder into the chili).
   

Serve the chili in a bowl with a dollop of guacamole in the middle, garnished with fresh, whole cilantro leaves.

The yield is hard to guess. This recipe easily fed all four of us for dinner with plenty left over for the girls and I for lunch the next day (and me for breakfast the following morning).

We like to make enough to have left overs. For lunch tomorrow, I will put the chili (sans gauc, because 1. it doesn't keep well & 2. my kids devour it so there's never any left) in on leafy greens - kale, lettuce, steamed cabbage - and eat like a taco. Yum!

Alternatives:

• instead of ground turkey, use free-range ground beef, buffalo, chicken, fish, whatever.

Vegetarian Alternative:

• The meat can be swapped for quinoa, millet, or rice & beans.
• Instead of swapping meat for grains, use as a meatless taco stuffing and put on brown rice tortillas - brushed with oil and nuked in the microwave or heated in the oven to soften.