babycakes plain cake donut w/vanilla icing
I used less sweetener, as I usually do, but will also experiment with using less oil. I did remember to oil the pan – there is something so appealing about the perfectly formed, pleasingly plump donut shapes dropping effortlessly out of the mold. While not exactly a health food, these donuts are gluten-free, dairy free, and baked – not fried.
If you’re new to fennel, or looking for a new twist, roasting is a great way of preparing this vegetable. It’s great as a salad topping or served on its own.
1 fennel bulb
1 tbsp olive oil or canola oil
sea salt
1.Remove the leafy green tops from the fennel bulb. Slice off the hard bottom section.
2.Slice the bulb into 1/4″ pieces, about 1/2″ long.
3.Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the fennel pieces on the parchment.
4.Drizzle a teaspoon of oil over the fennel and massage with your hands until the pieces are lightly coated, adding more oil as needed.
5.Lightly salt.
6.Cook in 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes, until fennel is browned.
Zucchini Pasta
The tomato sauce and pine nut ricotta are based on the recipes in Raw Food Real World. My Cuisinart blender gave up on the tomato sauce – it would spin but I couldn’t get it to make a real paste, so the sauce is rather lumpy but delicious – has the intense flavor I was hoping for from the sun dried tomatoes. I cut way back on the quantity for the ‘ricotta’ so it was a little runny at first – my liquid proportions were probably off a bit, but after chilling it was a perfect consistency.
Zucchini Pasta w/Sauce
The tomato sauce and ricotta were so good that I used the leftovers with a cooked pasta that needed a little extra kick. Next I tackle the mandoline – I expected that to be easy but I find it’s shredding everything!
I’ve signed up for the 2010 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Central Park. Any and all contributions woud be appreciated, and anyone who would like to join us in the walk is welcome.
Check out my page for a photo of this year’s mascot – the blue footed booby…. and for more details about donations and the work of the American Cancer Society.
Looking for support living a gluten-free lifestyle? Nicole Seitz will be leading a support group in the Philadelphia, PA area beginning in September 2010. more info
The Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center was not the best choice following a raw foods seminar. While my body was detoxing, the football field sized display of vendors showing products and offering samples of cheeses, salamis and other deli meats, chocolates, cookies, chips, crackers, ice creams, pates, pasta and sauces, olive oils and seasonings was beckoning to me. I had a brief celebrity moment – I was delighted to meet Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa of The Food Network.
It took a while to get myself oriented to seek out those offering gluten-free and healthier products – definitely in the minority but they were there. Bob’s Red Mill is an old favorite, with organic flours and grains, many gluten-free including their new offering – chia seeds. KIND healthier snack bar offerings are widely distributed, and they were showing their new offerings, not yet on the market – a dark chocolate peanut butter bar – and you heard it first here! RAAW Foods was showing some interesting natural juice blends such as cucumber pineapple – no sugar, no water, no preservatives – will be worth checking into further. Saintly Sins tempted me with their agave sweetened, vegan, gluten free chocolates – 29 calories each, and I was finally able to indulge when I came upon the Raw Ice Cream Company with their organic, dairy free, gluten free, raw nut based ice creams – creamy and delicious.
Snyder’s of Hanover is introducing their gluten-free pretzel sticks; Conte’s Pasta has a line of gluten-free pasta, pizza and microwaveable meals; Hale and Hearty Soups has extensive gluten-free offerings; Hodgson Mill showed a line of gluten-free products – brown rice pastas, bread and cake mixes.
My personal favorite of the show was the offerings of Culinary Collective – a line of gluten-free grains and flours from Peru. Just a sampling includes kaniwa (similar to quinoa but a smaller grain, high in protein), sweet potato flour, purple corn flour, maca flour, yacon flour (from the yacon root – used as a sweetener), and lucuma flour. I can’t wait to get baking with these! According to one of the trade newsletters, exotic grains are going mainstream, so there may be more interesting products on the horizon. Sustainably sourced and nutritious seems to be gathering clout in the retail marketplace.
Golden Beet Ravioli, Macadamia Ricotta, Wilted Arugula, w/Parsley Basil Oil & Grapefruit Foam
There’s lots of gadgets involved, which always piques my interest, and can be a pricey entree into this arena, but it’s possible to begin an exploration of raw foods with what you already have in your kitchen. Once committed, a Vitamix blender, food dehydrator, and juicer may find their way onto my countertop.
Blackberry Lemon Curd Tart w/Walnut Coconut Crust
Zucchini Pasta Primavera w/White Wine Cashew Sauce
Om Gardens Mushroom Pizza w/Truffle Oil
Dulse,Cucumber,Avocado & Hemp Seed Salad w/Spicy Almond Butter Dressing
Check out this post on the celiac chicks website. They report on the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago May 22 – May 25, and posted some great slides from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness presentation. Speakers from Rudi’s Gluten-free Bakery, P.F. Chang’s, and Savory Moment spoke of their real world experiences in offering gluten-free foods. They discussed strategies for preventing cross-contamination, keeping the gluten-free chain intact from preparation to service, labelling, staff training, and of course offering delicious food to an appreciative consumer!
Results of a routine lab test came back showing that I had a urinary tract infection. This was odd since I had no symptoms, so planned to have the test redone. After getting over being upset with the time wasted, cost of the doctor’s visit and lab work, I decided to drink cranberry juice, just in case. Cranberry juice is my mother’s remedy for preventing bladder infections. I don’t recall my mother having a large repertoire of home remedies – maybe chicken soup for whatever ails you – so the cranberry juice advice made a lasting impression. I drank cranberry juice and the second test came back negative.
I’m not drawing any conclusions here, since I don’t believe I had an infection in the first place, but it did inspire me to check into the credibility of this remedy. I came across a few small studies referenced in the Canadian Journal of Urology and the Cochrane Database System Review, as well as the Nutrition Action Newsletter, and from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which support the effectiveness of cranberry juice as a preventative measure, rather than a cure. The mechanism is not due to the acidifying effect of the juice, as was once thought, but the property it has to prevent the infection-causing bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall. It doesn’t seem to have a down side, other than the calories.
If you were tested on May 3 for a UTI, and the results came back negative but your symptoms persist, please get retested !!! just in case your results got mixed up with mine.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) publishes the Dirty Dozen – a list of foods most contaminated with pesticides. The intent is to provide consumers information so they can make informed decisions about when it is most important to buy organic. Given that organic tends to be more expensive than conventionally grown, it makes sense to spend money on organic where you gain more of a health benefit. Blueberries have long been considered relatively safe, as they weren’t showing significant pesticide residue. Blueberries are now appearing on the 2010 list, along with celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, and imported grapes.
