claire.she.goes

Tag: cooking

  • Mind Your (Fake) Meat

    Mind Your (Fake) Meat

    I’m not a vegan, but I’ve bought meat alternatives before. I remember the first time I purchased some Beyond Meat Burgers, I googled every unrecognizable ingredient.

    People made comments about these foods being highly processed, but I ignored them. I’ve gotten a kick out of how closely some pretend meats resemble the real thing. And I still know which of my grocery store’s nuggets contain the best chicken-less chicken.

    I’ve never had Daily Harvest’s products, but this article about an ingredient found in some of their recalled items provided a real wake up call.

    In my experience, if you’re really craving meat’s taste and texture, there are plenty of recipes for suitable substitutes containing natural ingredients. They may not taste exactly like the real thing. But some are hearty enough that you won’t miss much.

    A part of me feels like there’s a lesson in here about craving a counterfeit version of something so badly that you ignore the most important risk of all: Fakes can have flaws. And some of them can be quite serious.

    One of the most satisfying faux meat recipes I’ve ever tasted involved lentils that had been boiled, and then sautéed with spices. It wasn’t anything complicated. But it was delicious. And ultimately, I think it’s important to know that the food you eat is safe.

    When in doubt, make your own fake meat.

    Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.

  • Freestyle Food: Applesauce

    This is, without a doubt, one of the simplest recipes ever.

    A few days ago I decided to do some baking. So I went to the store. After I came back, I realized that there was one ingredient that I forgot.

    Applesauce.

    mckayla-maroney
    source

    “But Claire,” said my Inner Voice. “You have apples.”

    And so it began. Here are some instructions:

    Peel, core and dice some apples. I can’t give you a set number. Figure out how many it might take to yield the amount of sauce that you want.

    I needed 1/4 cup of sauce. I thought about using only 1 apple, but just to be safe, I prepped 2.

    Put the apples in a pot with a little water or juice. (We didn’t have apple juice, so I used some white grape…)

    Let your ingredients boil.

    Be sure to let your mixture simmer for a few minutes. Add liquid depending on how dry the apples are.

    Once your apples are soft, take them out of the pot and put them in your food processor.

    Process them for a few seconds, et voilà.

    Along the way you can add sugar. It’s up to you.

    Like almond butter, once you make your own apple sauce you may find yourself thinking, “And I buy this because…?”

    Indeed, DIY apple sauce is fun and easy to make.

    Eat it up!

  • 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! 😉