claire.she.goes

Category: Food

  • Freestyle Food: Super Salad + An Important Tip

    I don’t plan on becomming a food blogger. But until I get back to love, life, and the pursuit of Jesus, I figure it can’t hurt to share a meal I made a few minutes ago, along with a vital note regarding yesterday’s recipe.

    First, the salad:

    The dressing was made of
    balsalmic vinegar
    sea salt
    and olive oil.
     
    As always, I mixed everything to taste.

    The salad itself contains

    1 can of tuna
    1 bunch of romaine lettuce
    2 tomatoes
    Finely chopped red onion – about 1/4 cup
    1/2 a cucumber
    and white kidney beans left over from the Deep-Dish Cookie Pie that I made over the weekend.

    Which brings me to my helpful hint. For some cooks, I’ll be stating the obvious. But bear with me…

    When you read a recipe, pay careful attention to the measurements for the ingredients. Especially when a cook speaks in generalities concerning numbers of cans, bottles, etc.

    For instance, the first item listed under the pie recipe was

    2 cans white beans or garbanzos (drained and rinsed) (500g total, once drained)

    (emphasis added)

    When I went to the store, I grabbed two cans of beans from the shelf. However what I really should’ve watched was the more precise measurement of 500 grams.

    Due to the size of my cans, I wound up Googling a gram-to-ounce/cups converter. Although Katie mentioned “2 cans” of beans, 500 grams in my universe amounted to just under ONE full can of beans.

    That sort of thing is easy to overlook. But I think it’s important to save yourself from a ton of culinary heartache.

    Measure carefully my friends! 😉

  • My Latest Semi-Healthy Treat

    I know that recently I wrote about wanting to keep off of sugar. Well…I finally gave in to temptation.

    Last night I made this:

    If it looks like a giant cookie, that’s pretty much what it is. But it’s vegan.  And made with beans.

    Except for not adding salt, I followed this recipe to the letter.

    (Note: Chocolate-Covered Katie is the blog I turn to when I feel like lusting after healthy-but-sinful sweets. Her Deep-Dish Cookie Pie did not disappoint.)

    I made mine with white kidney beans.  Now…If you’re afraid of baking with beans, please don’t be. Just be sure to have realistic expectations. I’ve made black bean brownies exactly two times. Hence, when I blended the ingredients for this pie, I remembered a saying I came up with during my brownie adventures:

    “This’ll taste better in the morning.”

    I don’t know what it is. But in my opinion bean-based desserts taste 1000 times better the day after they’re made.

    Otherwise, if you try to eat them a few minutes out of the oven, they tend to taste…Bleh…Healthy.

    As I write this, it’s been nearly 24 hours, and there’s only one piece of my dessert left. Maybe it was the chocolate chips that pulled everything together. But I swear on everything I own, it tastes exactly like a large chocolate chip cookie.

  • Edible Awesome: Sugar-Free Cranberries

    Edible Awesome: Sugar-Free Cranberries

    Do you know how hard it is to find cranberries ’round these parts that don’t have sugar in them?

    Well, let me tell you. It’s a journey that’s been fraught with false promises.

    A few months ago I asked about a bag of c-berries at a health food store. I was told they didn’t contain any sugar. I trusted in what I was told. There was no list of ingredients on the package.

    And then, I took them home.

    They tasted like red sugar cubes.

    I tried to lie to myself, but I knew what was up from the first bite.

    Major grocery stores offer brands made with sugar and variants ending in “ose”.

    And then there are the healthy brands. One Brand That Shall Not Be Named sweetens their berries with “cane sugar”. These are the same folks who make dried mangoes with “mangoes” as their sole ingredient. I wondered what their problem was.

    Imagine my delight when I found these in the health section of a local store:


    They’re sweetened with APPLE JUICE. I picked up more than one package. I figured I had to. In my mind, they’re like unicorns–I don’t know when I’ll see them again.

  • Freestyle Food: The Oats’ Accompaniment

    Have you ever made something and thought, “Lord, if I’m gonna keep eating this, I’m going to need help”?

    That was me with steel cut oats.

    I should have known something was amiss when I used water instead of milk. (I never make porridge with water.)

    And then to top it all off…I didn’t useg my head and divide the recipe. Like a good little zombie, I followed the instructions on the side of the package to the letter.

    This would have worked if I was feeding a family of five. However, it’s kind of bad if you only want one serving for yourself.

    On the plus side, my main breakfast dish for the week is DONE.

    So, yeah…

    After I made my oats, I knew I wanted to sweeten them up. But I didn’t want to add any sugar. Immediately, my mind went to a healthy compromise. I found myself wishing that I’d picked up some date sugar.

    And then it occurred to me. We had dates.

    BOOM

    2 apples
    Cinnamon to taste
    Water – Maybe about scant ¼ cup
    3 pitted dates
    2 tablespoons of dried cranberries*

    This is my before photo:

    This is my mixture after about 10-15 minutes:

    Afterthoughts:

    1. The dates dissolved completely.
    2. I put in way, WAY too much cinnamon. I kind of eyeballed it. If I had to guess, I figure there was at least 1½-2 teaspoons in there.
    3. Forget apple sauce. On its own, my dish tasted like I was biting into apple-tinged cinnamon sauce.

    And with the oats?

    Meh.

    Nevertheless, the kitchen smelled phenomenal. 😀

    If you’re not trying to forgo sweets, have at it. I’m confident that my sauce would be better with brown sugar, but I’m really not trying to go there. For now I’ll say that I think I’ve come up with an excellent healthy option for breakfast.

    *More on those later

  • Freestyle Food: Chocolate Greek Yogurt…Something.

    Confession: One of the reasons that I’m suddenly on an exercise kick is that I’ve decided once and for all to eliminate my muffin top. Every now and then for inspiration I look up different images on Pinterest.

    This morning I found a photo featuring a comment that mentioned Muffin-Topless. I don’t know if it was her site, or her Tumblr page, but I could’ve sworn that somewhere along the line, I saw a picture of Greek yogurt, stevia, and cocoa powder. (Mind you, from what I’ve seen of her, in hindsight I realize it was probably chocolate protein powder.)

    I got excited. I thought to myself,”OMG, is that a THING?!? Because I could totally go for some chocolate yogurt pudding!”

    Fact: I used to bake almost every week, but I haven’t in ages. And after I recently won* a box of cookies, I started to eat them, but decided to throw them out.

    Anyways. Moments ago I went to the store.

    I bought my ingredients.

    And I decided to see what I could create.

    I used

    1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
    2 heaping tablespoons of raw cacao powder
    3 packets of stevia

    I mixed these items together in a small bowl.

    At this point, my mother was present.

    Mom: What is it that you’re making?

    Me: I. don’t. know.

    I tasted my treat. Then, I furrowed my brow and added 2 tablespoons of agave nectar.

    Still…Meh.

    Fact: Healthy alterna-foods almost never taste as good as their sinful counterparts.

    According to this web page, Greek yogurt “pudding” really is a thing.

    But my gosh. This might just take some getting used to.

    Back to the kitchen…

    *Last week at a store I spent over a certain amount on groceries. My reward was a box of cookies.

  • The Injustice Continues

    I recently realized that I live in a town that has two Tim Hortons locations, yet no Swiss Chalet.

  • Bodacious Banana Bread

    Hey Readers!

    I’m busy. I hate love my life. I miss writing, and in particular, blogging.

    Here’s something I scratched up a while ago…

    Enjoy!

    I keep scratching up notes for entries on my transition into small-town living. But I’m lazy too busy to develop them thoroughly…In the meantime, let’s talk about food!!!

    For health reasons, I’m trying to keep off of sugar. Nevertheless, urges for my favorite banana bread keep coming.

    mybananabread
    Shortly after this photo was taken, my subject was eliminated.

    Banana bread…There are ample ingredients in the pantry. The bananas are getting spotty….

    *sigh*

    Incidentally, how do you like your bananas? I’m only willing to eat them when they’re golden, with barely-there-green tips. After that, somehow, it’s funny…Once the spots start to come in, they are dead to me. Well…At least as far as eating is concerned. Meanwhile, in my head, the first thing that comes to mind is, “Banana bread!!”

    In my book, there are two keys to making a good banana bread. Butter and sugar. Yesterday I was watching Oprah. (Oh. Shut. Up.) The show was all about food. Ms. O played a clip featuring Paula Deen. At one point she asked Ms. Deen what she would tell her health-conscious critics. If I remember right, she said, “I’m a cook, not a doctor!”

    Dangit, Jim!!

    Now, I’ve never posted a recipe. And to this day, I can’t remember who gave me this one. But I’ll tell you something. I thank the Lord and Baby Jesus* every time I make it.

    Bodacious Banana Bread
    1 cup butter
    1 cup sugar
    4 eggs
    3 cups flour
    3 ripe bananas, mashed
    1 tspn vanilla
    1 teaspoon allspice
    6 teaspoons baking powder

    Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans and set them aside.

    As for your ingredients…

    First, grab a large bowl. Use a mixer. Whip your butter and sugar into a frenzy. Add the eggs and bananas. Then, add the flour and baking powder.

    Next, add the vanilla. And at last…

    The time has come for you to have some fun. Here’s your chance to…Improvise.

    I know the ingredient list says “allspice”. But I don’t have any allspice. Haven’t for years.

    Instead, I use a combination of cinnamon and a cloves. And to be honest…I don’t actually measure the spices. But I do shake in enough cinnamon to season an entire box of Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios. I also add a dash of cloves.

    Now…You can do what you want at this point, but if you’re messing with cloves, I should warn you–if you use more than a dash, you’re playing with fire. Cloves are kind of like love dancing nutmeg. Under the right circumstances, their powers can be used for good. But too much of that good thing can turn into evil. If you don’t keep an eye out when you’re shaking the cloves over your batter, it’ll be overpowered faster than you can say “haberdashery”.

    And I suggest omitting the ginger inthe this recipe. Unless you really want to. Ginger does nothing for it.

    *ahem*

    So your mix is all together, yes?

    Pour your banana bread batter into your loaf pans. Put ’em in the oven. They’re going to stay there for about a half hour. Be sure to give them a glance and poke them towards the end of their journey. Your banana bread should be golden brown.

    Please don’t worry if your loaves come out with a crack on top.

    If all goes well, your Bodacious Bread will be fluffy and moist.

    And gone within minutes of leaving your oven.

    *Once upon a time during my teachers’ college practicum, I met a fellow student named Nick. One day when he was overjoyed about something, instead of letting out a “Cool” or a sugar-laced expletive, he said, “Thank the Lord and Baby Jesus”. I never forgot the phrase, and use it whenever it fits.

  • True that.

    From Heather B. Armstrong a few days ago, via Twitter:

    “Drive-thru” and “sushi” are words I do not want to see together when considering options for dinner.