Roasted Butternut Squash

Working with butternut squash can be quite a chore when you don’t have the right tools. First off you will want a sturdy vegetable peeler, that is comfortable to hold, is sharp and has a swivel blade that can easily run along the squash’s wide curves. If you tire, get blisters, peel off (your)skin, get frustrated or take more than 3 minutes to peel your squash, you need a new peeler.

Next would be a real knife that is made with German steel, properly maintained with a honing steel and regular sharpening. I like a 7 inch chef’s knife, mine is made by J. A. Henckels. If you have to exert a dangerous amount of force while slicing the squash in half or the metal flexes, creating a concave slice, it is time to get yourself a better tool.

I also like a grapefruit spoon to scrape the inners out. The serration and the curve of the spoon make the task of removing the stringy mess a breeze.

One of the main purposes for roasting vegetables (opposed to steaming) is to draw out moisture, which concentrates flavor. If you have a convection setting on your oven, this would be the perfect application to use it. Convection baking moves the air around more for even baking and browning.

2 lb butternut squash
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (convection if possible). Peel squash, cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Place one half on cutting board flat side down. Make one inch slices horizontally all the way down the length of the squash, then cut each slice into 1 inch cubes. Toss in oil to coat, arrange cut squash in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve as a side dish or snack.

Vote With Your Forks!

I have not read a book for pleasure in a long time. Finally, I figured out my ipod (who said Apple programs were user friendly?) and loaded the audio book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. It is so refreshing to hear a voice defending real food against the “edible food-like substances” of our time. Pollan advises a simple diet of eating high quality real food that consists mostly of plants. There are no restrictions in the way of real food; if you love potatoes, eat them every day. If you hate eggplant, you never have to eat one again and you can still be entirely healthy. The obvious issue with our society is HOW things are grown, raise, formulated and processed.

My favorite quote so far is “…a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it's not really food." This is referring to A) it is in a box/bag to advertise a claim and B) the claims are “low fat, no cholesterol, heart healthy, good source of whole grain, sugar free and high fiber. All of these latter claims are slapped on packages of fake food that can be synthetically altered to make such claims.

A great disservice has been done to food. Scientists create synthetic beta carotene and call it a carrot. Whether using this to create a vitamin or enriching an “edible food-like substance,” it is in direct violation of God’s creation and in turn our very bodies. Conspiring men believe and are good at making others believe that they can make foods better than nature. Our society is brainwashed into thinking fake foods are better than the real thing because they can formulate it and reformulate it to fit the fad of the season.

There was a really interesting section in the book where it talks about the evolution of food labeling. From 1938 to 1973 the term “imitation” was used on the product labels of fake foods posing as a real one. The FDA changed this law to one of broader interpretation; “as long as the new fake food were engineered to be nutritionally equivalent to the real article, they could no longer be considered fake.” This is when traditional grocery items like bread and yogurt were reformulated from a simple 2 to 5 ingredient lists to recipes containing 30 plus ingredients.

When I was growing up, my poor mother didn’t stand a chance, it was impossible to get foods grown without synthetic chemicals and pastured animals raised without pharmaceutical. Even most people growing/raising their own, had no idea it would be wise to avoid such mainstream practices. It is such a blessing in our day to be able to obtain real, high quality food. In Defense of Food reminds us that you can “Vote with your forks!” Support local, organic farmers and local, organic farmers will become more accessible.

Carmel Banana Pecan Topping

We were in need of a new syrup for Friday Morning Waffles. My last creation was a bomb; a goopy, grainy, bitter mess (I blame the peaches, anybody found a way to use up icky mushy peaches?) Usually fresh berries and whipped cream suffice, only one problem, berry season is gone. We have done syrups from frozen berries and those are nice too. But for this morning I came up with a nice buttery topping with bananas that was such a treat. I can see this going well on a lot of things… hot cereal, ice cream, brownies, vegetables.

For the waffles I used the same recipe as my soaked pancakes, sometimes changing up the grains to spelt and oats. Make sure you have a nice, clean, nonstick waffle iron that gets really hot to prevent sticking. Even with all that, I still spray the iron before the fist one goes on, just for good measure.

1/3 cup sucanat
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup soaked and dehydrated pecans
2 bananas, sliced

Melt sugar and salt in butter until smooth. Add vanilla, pecans and bananas. Heat through and serve.

Cinnamon Pizza

Another blast from my past of high school employment at The Pizza Ranch. There they called this dessert “Cactus Bread,” remember the western theme. Of coarse I had no recipe to work off of at this chain restaurant. The instructions included mixing this bag with water to make the dough, open this bucket for the preserved margarine stuff and that bucket for the strudel, then cut open a bag of frosting. I may have made the cinnamon sugar from scratch. Anyway, it was pretty darn yummy, so I did a little experimenting to recreate and here you have it; made with whole grains and all real food, from scratch, cinnamon pizza.

½ batch of multigrain pizza dough

parchment paper

2 tablespoons butter, melted

3 tablespoons sucanat

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Roll dough out to ½ inch, place on parchment paper. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Strudel

2 tablespoons butter, softened

3 tablespoons sucanat

3 tablespoons sprouted flour

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of salt

Cut butter into dry ingredients. Crumble the strudel on top of the dough and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 500 degrees for 5 minutes.

Glaze

1 teaspoon milk

1 tablespoon butter, melted

¼ teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup powdered sugar

Whisk until smooth. Let bread cool slightly and drizzle with glaze.

I have heard you can powder sucanat in the vitamix. I'll have to try it and let you know how it goes. I am really trying to avoid white sugar without sacrificing flavor, any tips?

Coconut Carrot-Ginger Soup

I’ve been jonesing for some soup for the last few weeks. On Tuesday, when it was 108 degrees outside, I gave in. I turned my thermostat down to 76 and downed a couple bowls of soupilicious. If I had been able to wait just one more day I could have had my first soup of the season on a more appropriate, under 90 degree day. I suppose it was the lack of groceries that pushed me into premature soup making.

Brilliant orange, sweet, creamy and a hint of spice. Eating vegetables is so dang easy! I serve this to my kids in a cup with a straw as a “warm vegetable smoothie.”

Don’t forget to adjust the seasonings at the end. There is no way to give you a good amount of salt to use as it depends on your stock. I add another good teaspoon because my stock is sodium free. Also important to heat the stock to boiling as it freshens it up a bit and kills some of the froth created by your blender. Do in batches if your blender is smaller than 8 cups. Sautéing in the case of onions improves the flavor of them, but the carrots could be easily steamed first to save time.

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 medium onion, diced
8 large carrots, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
pinch of cayenne (optional)
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable/ chicken stock
2 tablespoons grated ginger
1 can coconut milk

Sautee onions in coconut oil, add carrots and salt, cook through. Season and add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and remove from heat. Place vegetables in a blender with stock and ginger, blend well. Return to heat and bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in coconut milk. Add more salt to taste. Makes about 8 cups of soup, I can eat half of it in one sitting. Leftovers reheat well.

links; Whole Foods for the Holiday's

Good-Egg Salad Sandwich

Eggs are way, way, way unappreciated by people who eat ; ) They get a bad review from most every mainstream diet. The egg yolk is where all the amazing antioxidants, healthy fats and delectable flavor are found. Yet, low carb-ers and body builders use only whites for their high protein content. Low fat dieters are afraid the fat in the yolk means fat on their thighs. Worst of all medical doctors encourage less yoke-age because of cholesterol. Unbeknownst to most is that the conclusive studies on cholesterol were done on powdered eggs. Powdering anything with cholesterol begets oxidized cholesterol, which no doubt is entirely unhealthy! All of this has led to a low nutrient dense product that is held in high regard by the health savvy consumer--an eggs substitute made with egg whites, lovely.

I am highly bugged when people think they can make food healthier than our creator. There is a new-ish food system that was created to "help" consumers make healthier choices. Rating products points from 1 to 100, the higher the number the heathier the product. NuVal rates an egg subsitute 67 and real eggs only 33. No wonder consumers are confused, there are a contant stream of organizations conspiring against us.

Eggs are one of the only animal products that have not been completely adulterated by mass commercial farming techniques. Though a properly cared for chicken yields a far superior egg, a super food in fact, the average grocery store egg benefits your health more than anything in a box. Do something good for yourself, eat whole eggs.

A favorite, simple (that is if I have mayo made, bread baked and eggs boiled and cooled) lunch of mine is egg salad sandwiches. They bring me back to childhood; loved them then on my Wonder Bread with Miracle Whip and Frenches Yellow Mustard, love them now on my whole grain bread, olive oil mayo and stone ground mustard. Here is my formula for making a simple egg salad sandwich per person.

2 slices of bread

2 hard cooked eggs

1 tablespoon mayo

1 teaspoon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Multiply ingredients for number of people. Peel and mash eggs with a fork, combine with mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. Sandwich mixture in bread slices.

Feel-Good Granola

I have had a hard time finding the right granola. The bars of coarse have all the icky vegetable oils and high fructose corn syrup, tasty, conveniently packaged, deceptive health food. There are tons of “natural granolas” that use less refined oils and sweeteners, but still contain lower quality ingredients for a sky high price. Besides, I always feel yucky after eating any more than a handful. Come to find out, oats are SUPER high in this new common term “phytic acid.” Along with nuts that are heavy in enzyme inhibitors—this stuff is just plain hard to digest.

Granola is great to have on hand for a filling, shelf stable snack and a quick breakfast cereal. Commercial boxed breakfast cereals are dangerously toxic. It is so sad that so many people are eating these every day, sometimes twice a day, most of the time doubling or tripling the serving size. The media and FDA have pushed these boxes as health food. Sadly, even the low sugar, color-free, natural and organic brands are making us sick. The problem is with the way that the grain is processed; high temperature, high pressure. This process of extrusion destroys nutrients and fatty acids and renders the amino acids toxic.

This has been such a wonderful replacement for us. Same great sweetness, crunch and shelf life of the boxed variety with none of the awful effects. When I have this for breakfast I am so satisfied, for a long time. The food is easy to digest and the nutrients are easily absorbed because proper care is taken in the preparation. I love that I can keep this raw by dehydrating instead of baking. Do yourself a big favor and master the art of nourishing granola making.

4 cups rolled grains (I use oats, barley and rye) THE MUSH

1/2 cup whole flax seeds
1/2 cup whole millet
1/2 cup kefir (vinegar or lemon juice)
5 cups water
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup sucanat
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
1 cup raisins
1 cup previously soaked and dehydrated walnuts
1/2 cup sprouted kamut flour

In a large bowl, place rolled grains, flax seed and millet. Add kefir and water, mix, cover and let soak on counter for 12 to 24 hours. The mixture will become a bowl of mush. Place mixture in a mesh strainer and rinse well. In a large bowl combine oil, sugar, syrup, cinnamon and salt. Fold in rinsed mush, coconut, raisins, nuts and flour. Spread out in a thin layer on 3 lined baking sheets. Bake on lowest oven setting until dry, turning as needed. I used my oven’s dehydrating setting at 115 degrees to preserve the enzymes and turned about every 6 -8 hours for 24 hours. The higher the heat, the more you turn and the less time it takes to dry.

Nourishing Pizza Dough

I have edited my favorite pizza dough recipe to include the soaking method for a more nourishing whole grain meal. No more work really, just some forethought to get it going the day before. The flavor is slightly more sour and the flavors have more depth.

To learn more about soaking, Lindsay has a great post on Passionate Homemaking of the how's and why's.

Soy Story

I want to thank Jennifer for her question on my last post Vegetarian-ish. There are so many things I avoid in terms of food that I loose track of what I have covered.

When it comes to vegetarianism I believe soy to be the element that commonly gives this lifestyle a a downward spin. Soy is heavily relied on as a health food, especially where meat in avoided.

So here is why I avoid soy in a nutshell;

Almost all soy is GMO - they have this pesticide called "round -up" that is super toxic and kills everything in a field. They have genetically modified soy (and other crops) to withstand this harsh chemical. Aside from that gruesome fact, soy is super high in phytic acid, anti nutrients and inhibitors that create problems with mineral absorption and digestion, with longer term affects of cancer, infertility, thyroid problems, autoimmune diseases and stunted growth. When soy beans undergo processing, their fragile proteins are denatured. Toxins and carcinogens are formed along with MSG and aluminum.

There is tons of technical terms that I avoided that would add about 10 more reasons that it is bad for you. With fairytale marketers any food can appear to be an amazing super food. Do research, pay attention to your body, use new products in moderation and be skeptical of anything a company is pushing on you as they are in it for the money.

Vegetarian-ish

That's what I'm calling it. Not extreme like vegitarianism, but similar in principle. I make a conscious effort to generally center meals around whole grains/beans, vegetables and fruit. Good quality fish, eggs and dairy are all nourishing animal products that are often included. While the Lord gave us dominion over animals he also commanded that meat should be used sparingly and who knows how to nourish our bodies better than our own maker?

I took a trip back home to Iowa this month where hamburgers (grain fed beef) and sweet corn (GMO) is the meal of the season. We mixed it up a bit with a pork tenderloin or rotisserie chicken then ate fresh garden vegetables in between, but it sure was a lot of meat! And my body complained. Not good.

I make a conscious effort to avoid meat when possible, I use good quality meat in small amounts once a day or less. I am not fanatic, just conscious. Our society is so reliant on meat as a staple that it has become a disgusting industry all about producing the largest cow in the shortest amount of time. This is the kind of meat that adorns the dinner tables of most Americans and is best to be avoided when ever possible.

Be mindful on your journey not to compensate for lack of meat with more processed foods and soy replacements, this is a step in the wrong direction. TVP, tofu and soybean oil are all much, much worse than a juicy burger even though they are found in the health food section, health food they are not.

Check out my new link to the right to find recipes on my blog that are vegetarian-ish.