Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

1 x 28-oz can (whole or diced) plum tomatoes, with their juices
5 tablespoons (75 g) unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
salt, to taste


Mush tomatoes with your hand into med saucepan. Do not drain out juices. Add butter, and onion halves in a medium saucepan. Add a pinch or two of sugar. Place over a medium heat and bring to a simmer, mashing up the tomatoes gently with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook, uncovered, at a very slow but steady simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free from the tomato and the sauce has reduced and thickened. Stir occasionally, continuing to mash any large pieces of tomato with the wooden spoon. Taste and salt as needed. Discard the onion.




From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

Polenta

•  7 cups water
•  2 tsp sea salt
• 1 3/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Polenta 
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil 

Bring water and salt to boil. Add polenta and flax slowly. Add oil. Don’t worry when it separates immediately—it will come together once it sets.
Bring back to boiling, then reduce heat to low simmer. Stir constantly; continue cooking over low heat for 30 mins. Polenta will become very bubbly and thick.
Spoon cooked polenta into desired mold. Let set for a minimum of ten mins. Turn mold upside down on flat surface. Slice about 1/2 inch thick.

Fry polenta in med-high heat skillet with small amount of olive oil for approx. 4 mins per side. Top with tomato sauce.

Salmon Patties

1 lb smoked salmon
1 lb mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons coarse grain mustard
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopeed
1/2 lemon, juice and rind of, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups gluten-free breadcrumbs



Flake salmon with a fork and place in a large bowl with potatoes, butter, and mustard and mix well.
Add dill, parsley, chives, lemon rind and juice, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Divide mixture into eight portions and form into balls.
Flatten each ball to about 1 inch thick.
Dip each cake in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs thoroughly coating with each.
Fry fish cakes in oil over medium high heat until golden brown and crispy about 5-8 minutes on each side.
You can serve with a tartar sauce or some other condiment but really they are great just with a squeeze of lemon or a dash of tabasco.

Gluten-free 'Breadcrumbs'

Toast 2-3 gluten-free, plain waffles

Break them apart waffles then process in food processor, pulsing on and off until they resemble classic breadcrumbs (not too fine).
Add dried Italian herb mix, or dried basil, parsley and marjoram, to taste.

To make a classic pan-fried crumb topping, I pour a tablespoon or so of good olive oil in a medium- not too hot- skillet and toss in the processed waffle crumbs. I add dried Italian herbs to taste and stir, shake the pan and brown them for a minute, then add the crumbs to the recipe.

Recipe from Gluten-Free Goddess

Picky, picky

I once made a list of foods that my children, as individuals, will or will not eat.
I would like to post that here, now. It helps me to plan meals and grocery lists.
Also, I would like to post a list containing edibles that are gluten and casein free to make it easier to cross reference what everyone can, cannot or will not eat. I'll make a separate entry for it.

Veggie Burger

 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/4 cups chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cups black beans, drained
• 3/4 cups chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 ounces white beans, drained
• 2 1/4 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 tablespoons diced red bell peppers
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground sage
• 2 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 egg

    oil for frying



Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic; cook and stir for a few minutes, continue cooking until tender. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Pour in the beans, rice and bread crumbs. Season with salt, paprika, oregano, chili powder, sage and celery salt. Mix thoroughly using your hands. Form into 6 patties. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat (you can use the same one). Fry the patties until golden on each side, about 10 minutes total.

Chewing It Over

Today Lucky's bento was packed with two egg crepes, rice noodles cooked with kombu and a tiny bit of miso
(on the dry side); top tier was grapes, broccoli and the rice pudding.
The whole top layer came back, though the broccoli was gnawed at. His teacher wrote in his notebook about how 'impressed' they were with the variety of foods he eats. It gave me a laugh! I secretly think it's just because it looks different.
I, not so secretly, feel really good when there's not much of his food coming home. I also get really pleased when the bento and snack is all packed. If Lucky enjoys it half as much as I do, then, GREAT! :D


Lucky ate rice and egg for dinner. Ducky and Blue had potato and eggs. Boring. There were no veggies.
I need to go shopping!

Bebes had rice pudding after dinner! I added minced apple and  made blueberry compote. The little ones had about a 1/4 cup vanilla ice cream on top.

I use dairy products a lot more than I really thought. Have been looking into cheese substitutes. Thinking about what I use cheese in and why.
Also been thinking about 'binders' a lot!

I need to make shorter posts! I'll just post recipes for the rest of the week. I need some time to focus all this information into something edible!

Blueberry Rice Pudding

1 cup cooked jasmine or basmati rice
1 cup cooked Bob's Red Mill Mighty Hearty Cereal
2 1/2 cups (625 ml/213/4 fl oz) low-fat milk
3 tablespoons raw organic honey
2 large ripe banana, small dices
2 eggs
1 vanilla bean (or 2tsp vanilla extract)
1 cup (150 g/5 1/4 oz) blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons almond flakes


Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly spray an ovenproof baking dish with olive oil.
Using a sharp knife slice vanilla bean in half, lengthwise. Scrape out the vanilla seeds with the tip of the knife.
Place eggs, milk, honey and vanilla seeds in a blender and mix until well combined.
Place rice, banana and blueberries in baking dish and cover with milk mixture.
Bake in oven for 15 min. Take out of oven and gently stir until rice and berries are evenly mixed through pudding. Sprinkle with cinnamon and almond flakes and return to oven for 30-35 minutes, until pudding is set. Cover with foil if pudding is becoming too brown.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm or cold.
Serves 4-6.

Cheesy Rice Bake

3 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups Mozzarella cheese, grated
½ teaspoon oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup onion, minced
¼ teaspoon thyme and/or marjoram
15 ½ ounce can tomato sauce





Directions:
Mix rice, eggs, and 1 cup cheese together. Spread thinly with raised outer edge into greased cast iron skillet. Bake at 450 F 15-20 minutes or until lightly brown.
Simmer tomato sauce and herbs together for 15 minutes (for oregano and thyme/marjoram, I have used 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning instead.). Spread over rice crust. Sprinkle with the rest of cheese and bake at 450 F until cheese is bubbly.
Possible additions before cheese: Ripe olives, green olives, green peppers, onion, pepperoni, precooked drained sausage, ham, Canadian bacon, precooked drained hamburger. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of mozzarella cheese or combine mozzarella cheese with cheddar cheese if you wish.

Easy Egg Pancake

 3 eggs
2 TBS heavy cream
oil for pan



 Blend all ingredients together with a blender.
Heat small pan with tiny amount of oil. (I used peanut oil).
Pour 1/8cup mixture in the pan. When it starts to come away from the edges, carefully turn over with a spatula.
Slide the finished crepe onto a plate and repeat until your mixture is finished.
Season with ground cinnamon.




*Note: I used regular milk with these. I got about four crepes from it.
And I'm a huge fan of apricot jam! Dman suggested wrapping sausages in them and covering them with syrup. Lucky will only eat them plain.

Filler

I have written  a lot but haven't posted any of it.
I'm having a hard time not letting my posts center around me crying about how hard this is and how ridiculously expensive it is. Don't forget to mention how utterly time consuming.
Only to wind up serving the same food over and over.

I'm concerned about how I can't just feed one person in the family a certain way. About how I'm going to reach a point where keeping foods of a certain type in the house isn't going to work.
I think about how this might get easier as he gets older and starts to accept more foods. But for now there isn't much he will eat; and it's amazing how many things are to be cut out.

I worry about how many vegetables I can really hide in everything.

Baby steps.


I have to embrace how much effort this is going to take. Look at the positives.
I LOVE FOOD! This is going to be a great opportunity to really get in touch with what is going into our bodies. Also, I'll be pleased to be trying new recipes.
Ducky loves trying new foods, and it is really important to me for her to have a really healthy foundation for her food choices later in life. Blue needs more excitement in his diet as well. I want him to want to eat more than just pasta, bread, milk and meat. Same goes for Dman, to tell the truth.
And Lucky, who knows? Maybe the only thing he'll get out of this is a more healthy diet foundation. And that alone is worth it to me. But, maybe. . . just maybe this will help clear out his body and brain and make him feel more connected. Maybe.



I splurged on custom cereal, today. I would love to do that again! It was fun! Probably won't happen, though! I also bought Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal.

I'm also going to Whole Foods tomorrow to check out flours. I found some recipes for flatbread that seem easy and versatile.

Blueberries are buy one get two free! Going to put them in everything this week!



Lucky starts his new school tomorrow. Hello, nerves!
I bought a super adorable bento box for his lunches. It's beautiful green lacquer on the outside with two giraffes, plain black inside. There's a curious saying printed on the top "Around the year when we would wish to stand on tiptoe". It's microwavable and dishwasher safe. Bonus!
I thought it was probably the most suitable option, considering how much rice he eats. Plus, how nice to be able to microwave only one tier, leaving the other cold or room temp.
Besides, aren't all first lunchboxes supposed to be extra special?

There's graham crackers, oranges and V-8 fusion strawberry juice for snack. Cheesy rice bake, egg crepes and apple for lunch. All in all, quite easy.
Yes, I know cheese isn't casein-free. Nor is milk. I'm trying to not explode before the end of the week.



Note: I didn't make the rice bake according to directions. I added italian seasoning, thyme, and pepper to the rice (which was made in veggie broth) and put the tomato paste directly in half of the rice mix. I didn't put cheese on top. They were bake in cast iron skillets in the oven.
They turned out nice. The tomato one would have been better if I had spread it thinner and used less paste.

confusion is nothing new

I am reading conflicting information.
Is tofu and miso gluten free or not?
From what I gather miso and tofu are both acceptable because the soy bean has been fermented.

Anyone able to enlighten me?

Note* I need to look for chickpea miso

Possibly soy is fine, but it's when the ingredient in question is made in combination with a wheat product?
Still don't know...

Miso with Tofu and Green Onions

4 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons instant dashi granules
1/2 cup miso paste
1 tablespoon dried seaweed (for miso soup), soaked in water
1/2 cup cubed tofu
2 tablespoons chopped green onion


1. Pour the water into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the instant dashi and whisk to dissolve. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the tofu. Drain the seaweed and add the seaweed to the pot. Simmer for 2 minutes.
2. In the meatime, Spoon the miso paste into a bowl. Ladle about 1/2 cup of the hot dashi broth into a bowl and whisk with chopsticks or a whisk to mix and melt the miso paste so that it becomes a smooth mixture.
3. Turn the heat off, add the miso paste to the pot and stir well. Do not bring miso to a boil!
Top with green onions and serve immediately.


 *Note: The miso makes this soup not gluten-free.




(This is not the recipe I use, but the comment about kelp fortified with Prozac makes me laugh. And this is a very easy version.)

Simple Fried Rice For One

1 cup cold, cooked rice
1 egg
3 baby carrots, shredded
1/4 inch ginger root, shredded

Heat drop of peanut oil in small frying pan. Lightly saute rice over high heat for 2 mins. Add carrot, sauteing another minute.
Mound rice in center of pan. Make an open hole in middle of rice mound and crack egg into it. Quickly scramble egg into rice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cook until egg is cooked to desired temp. approx 5 mins.



Chicken, broccoli, peas and other veggies are all quick easy additions if you prefer more ingredients!

Don't Overthink It

Just fed the smallest ones tonight.
Thank goodness for leftover white rice. Hide a little shredded vegetable in it, add an egg and voila. Most common food in my house.
Tonight there was shredded carrot, ginger, three eggs and about two cups of rice.
Easy, breezy.

I am making sushi -style brown rice for myself and Dman. I have some smoked salmon, imitation crab, cucumber, carrots, and cream cheese; going to attempt inari. I have the stuff for miso soup, which can be quite simple to prepare. And, there's salad ingredients if anyone is still peckish.
We're to have a super late dinner after the babes go to sleep. I can't tell you how much I appreciate being able to have a meal without children present.

Imitation crab: $2.00
Smoked salmon: $6.00
English cucumber: $1.50
Cream cheese: $2:00
Avocado: 2@ $2.00
Roasted Nori Sheets: $3.00

Twenty dollars. It's cheaper than a movie. Plus, it's bound to be a good laugh trying to roll it!
If it isn't a total wreck, I can try different types in the future. A superb dinner treat for me!

I'm going to eat it and be happy. Not worry about how I'm going to make this gluten/casein free thing work for us without making Lucky separate meals for the rest of my life!

I'll post the recipe I used for the brown rice sushi tomorrow, providing it turns out!

Baked Sweet Potato Disks

2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled, sliced 1/2 thick rounds
cooking spray
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 TB molasses
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/8 cayenne
Salt & pepper


Preheat oven to 425°

Place potato rounds in large bowl and coat lightly with oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix seasonings thoroughly, then add syrup and molasses. Marinating them ahead of time is great.
Cover baking sheet with wax paper to prevent sticking. Place rounds on sheet, being careful not to crowd (overcrowding leads to steamed potatoes). It's best to bake similar sized rounds per batch to prevent burning.
Bake 15 mins, then flip and continue baking another 10 mins. Place in broiler for 1-2 mins per side, for crispier fries. Serve hot.






(Sweet potato fries are trickier than you may expect. It's hard to get them crispy without deep-frying them. Also, you can cut them into strips if that's what you prefer, but I've found that it's harder to get them to cook uniformly this way, and much harder to flip. You can also do wedges. Adjust baking times accordingly.
I also recommend playing around with the seasonings until you find one that suits your tastes.)

Finnish Egg Pancakes

3 eggs

2 cups milk
1/4 cup honey (or sugar)
3/4 cup amaranth flour
1/4 tsp salt 

4 Tbs butter

Preheat oven to 425°.

Sift flour. Beat eggs and milk together. Beat in honey or sugar, then add flour and salt. 

Melt butter in a 9" frying pan until it sizzles and immediately pour the batter into the hot pan in a circle around the center so butter will not be pushed to the tops and sides. 
Bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the pancake is set and puffed and golden brown on top. 

Serve with maple syrup or homemade jam. Serves four. 



(I made these for dinner last night. They were surprisingly good! I burnt the first batch, so be careful! They turn golden very fast! We topped them with apricot jam and ate them with sweet potato fries.)

I'm hungry. . .

There's no way I can afford to start feeding a family of five the way I would ideally like to.
How nice it would be, to only buy organic foods. How proud I would be to serve my children only free-range chicken and eggs.
But that isn't realistic for me right now. So, I have to start with little changes.

Truthfully, I don't really know where to start.

The two younger bebes don't really drink milk or eat cheese; or really even consume dairy, for that matter. Blue does, but if I don't keep it in the house it doesn't seem to bother him. But, Dman (the little guys' daddy) could easily go through a gallon of milk a day. He isn't so big on raw cheese, so that's something.
I used to buy only Rice Dream or Almond Breeze for cereals and cooking, but it became a huge drain on us. We simply cannot afford to supply to amount we would need.

And then there's the issue of gluten.
Oh, sweet heavens. I feel doomed.

On the bright side, Lucky tends to naturally gravitate towards foods that are gluten-free. He favors rice noodles, plain steamed rice (white or brown) and potatoes over other carbs.
However, he still loves crackers, oatmeal, flour breading.

And of course, there's the matter of protein.
Lucky doesn't eat meat, with the occasional exception for white fish. And eggs, which isn't a 'meat' but in my family we say it is. He likes to eat nuts and some seeds, but these aren't allowed at his school as there is another child with a severe nut allergy. And, again, the cost issue with buying large amounts of nuts is a major factor.
The other two children eat meat without any inhibitions. Personally, I could live as a vegetarian and be happy. But, Dman is very much a meat and potatoes kind of person. I could have a very hearty mushroom pasta thing on the table and he would still worry that he wasn't getting enough food. It's really a mental thing with him, but pointing that out doesn't do any good.


So, I am going to wind this post down by saying this is what I'm working with. Finding a balance that nourishes and satisfies everyone isn't going to be easy.
I'm always open for suggestions and advice!

Does not come standard with model

"Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, and any derivatives of these grains, including, but not limited to malt grain-starches, malt wash, hydrolyzed vegetable/plant proteins, grain vinegar, soy sauce, and natural flavorings. Casein is found in milk and milk products from mammals....Gluten is in even in Play-Doh, adhesive on stamps and stickers, and many hygiene products. Soy, another common food allergen, is in many foods and hand lotions, make-up, etc." - Nutritionist, Carol Ann Brannon


This simple statement is so overwhelming. 
This is probably the most impractical way of living I can think of. It's like a recipe for neuroticism.
But I'm not trying to build Rome. Not today, at least.