Vegg Salad

One thing I've figured out quickly on a plant-based diet is that minimizing processed food is not only good for you, it is actually cheaper. I had my month or so with buying up fake cheese and fake frozen meats, only to realize that these manufactured substitutes are more expensive than the product they purport to be, and that they represent the processed food that I've tried so hard to stay away from. The idea behind "vibrant health" (as Morris Hicks calls it in his audio book that I'm currently enjoying, "Healthy Eating, Healthy Planet") isn't simply to eliminate meat - though many people make this choice for ethical reasons alone and subsist on Diet Coke and Fritos - but to eat whole foods (plants). The third point about manufactured vegan products (behind cost and less than optimal health benefit) is that a lot of it tastes like cow puckey.

For example, one of my first attempts was aimed at "fooling" Chris. In my mind, I would present the husband with a vegan lasagna roll, made with lots of gooey, store-bought vegan cheese. He would be amazed at the finished result, exclaiming, "I defy anyone to tell me that this isn't cheese!" He would be whole-heartedly won over to the vegan lifestyle! And then it came out of the oven! And look at it! Doesn't it look delicious?

What I got from Chris, instead, was the statement, "It tastes funky." Well, he was right. It wasn't all-out disgusting, just... Strange. The texture was close. The taste was even close. But it wasn't cheese. I decided to stop trying so hard to make things taste like meat or dairy. Because they aren't. Therefore, they are destined to fail. (And, Chris is no longer allowed to say things, like, "Well, it's good, but it doesn't taste like beef." No, it tastes like seitan. Which is tasty in its own right, if you give it a chance...)

So now, when I make lasagna rolls or pizza, I use some home-made "parmezano sprinkles," (though I like to use raw cashews in my mix) which have a delicious salty, nutty flavor and actually thicken pasta or sauce the way parmesan does - but I don't use a lot. I use tiny amounts of the fake cheese, but only a small amount, in combination with other ingredients. Then they are a reasonable stand-in, adding a little necessary creaminess or binding. But in place of an inch-deep layer of cheese like I used to have on my Lou Malnati's, I've learned to add more plants (such as spinach and garlic), to change the preparation method (roasting makes everything tastier), or to season things differently. I find that the food I'm eating now is more hearty and complex in flavor (no, seriously) instead of simply rich and decadent. Instead of the versions of some things that I used to love, I have different versions of most items now, which I also sincerely love (and love me back a bit more). And I love and even crave them in their own right.

There are a handful of products that I've been impressed with in this moderate to light use, even some that I like better than the original. One of these is Vegenaise, by "Follow Your Heart," which is a company that has my full respect. I've tried their vegan cheddar, and it's my favorite of the fakes. Vegenaise has and incredible, rich, full mayo flavor without eggs. I like it better than regular mayonnaise. I use it in what my brother named my "v-egg" salad. It's a great stand-in for egg or chicken salad. I like it on my favorite new bread, "Ezekiel 4:9" by Food for Life.

Vegg Salad Base

1 block tofu, pressed and crumbled *
2-6 Tblesp. Vegenaise
3-4 Tblesp. nutritional yeast flakes
2 stalks celery, diced small
2-3 Tblesp. fresh parsley, chopped fine
2-3 Tblesp. sliced almonds or chopped walnuts or pecans
1 tsp. ground mustard
1-2 tsp. celery salt
salt and pepper to taste

You really have to add the mayo slowly, and add more just until it holds together. Then just keep tasting. To this, you can create variations by adding things such as halved grapes, dried blueberries and rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes and toasted pignoli in place of the nuts, fresh dill, or just about anything you can think up that you like in chicken salad or egg salad.

I like it with a good amount of greens on the sandwich, but you can also have it in a pita, or a scoop atop a salad.

*Tofu has to have the water pressed out of it before using. I like to wrap mine in a clean tea towel and use one of these, but you can also wrap it and press it under something heavy for 20 minutes, like a cast iron dutch oven. Then crumble it with your fingers into a mixing bowl.

Open-Faced Chicken Cordon Bleu with Dill and Wine Sauce

Okay, if my efforts hit the mark, that sounds fancy - but it only took me about twenty minutes to make this dish.

I started with some pre-pounded chicken breasts (the Perdue Fit & Easy). I browned them (and cooked them through, because really, they're so thin) in a pan with a little olive oil, and seasoned them with salt and pepper. Then I removed them to a cookie sheet on some aluminum foil, and made the sauce in the same pan.

I started with a roux, with just a little butter and some flour added to the pan until it is combined (when it balls up and smells a little nutty. Can't wait to see what searches bring up THAT phrase).



Then I added some wine (nothing measured, of course), about enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Remember the salmon with dill sauce? Well, I had some leftover sauce, and I added it to the pan (or you could just add butter, dill, sour cream or milk, lemon juice and chicken stock to taste). If your sauce is too thick, you can thin it out with some chicken stock. If it is too thin, you can put some flour in a Pyrex cup, add some of the warm sauce (a few tablespoons) to the mix, whisk it, then add that back to the pan. But let your sauce come to a full, gentle boil before you judge the thickness: that's when the flour roux really kicks in.

Separately, I put the chicken breasts in the oven with some prosciutto and sliced ham (you can use either, I just happened to have both since we'd had company that week, and I was stocked up on pork products. Because when you come to my house? You generally get meat). Then I topped it with swiss cheese and melted it all together. You can do this while you're making the sauce, if you're super efficient.



Take the chicken out of the oven, pour the sauce on top and serve with asparagus and French bread. Why? Because it's "Frenchy." (Then, if you're a fan of "Better Off Dead," you can serve it at your holiday dinner with "Franch fries... AND, Franch dressing... AND, Franch bread. AND, to drink... PERU!")

Steaks, plus Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce

Ah, summer, we hardly knew ye. Between morning sickness, and later on, simple intolerance of the summer heat in my huge-anic condition, I didn't get outside much this past summer. But we did manage to purchase a nice Weber gas grill. We spent a little extra just to get the Weber, and boy do we loves it.



The first thing we grilled were some simple steaks. I marinated some strip steaks in a plastic bag with soy sauce, olive oil, and some herbs from our garden. (And by garden, I mean two herb pots.) I salted and peppered them, and cooked them to a perfect medium as per the Weber instructions. I even let Chris turn them once. For the photo, of course.



They came out perfectly done, and with lots of flavor. Lets grill some more stuff, I shouted!



Over the summer we grilled chicken (several times), tri-color turkey burgers, and bratwurst. Every single one came out wonderfully well. But I think the salmon we grilled was my favorite.



I seasoned the fish very simply with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Then I made an easy dill sauce that I sort of just made up on the fly. I squeezed the juice of two lemons into a Pyrex glass cup, and put a half-stick of butter into that, and melted it in the microwave in less than a minute. I added chopped dill, a smidge of sugar, and about two heaping tablespoons of sour cream and whisked it all together right in the Pyrex. I served the fish with cooked grains and steamed broccoli, and poured that sauce over everything.



Now that there is snow on the ground, I think we'll keep bundling up and going outside to grill. For four to eight minutes of freezing half to death, it's totally worth it!

Salad Week: Herbed Chicken Salad

These salads are so simple, honestly, I had to post a week's worth just to avoid feeling guilty.

This one came out quite well, and made me feel just a little French. (And since I'm not a redneck, I'm okay with that.)



I pulled some chicken off a grocery store rotisserie chicken (or use leftover chicken), combined it with several diced and boiled Yukon Gold potatoes, and added lowfat mayonnaise (or regular) until it looked right to me. I diced and added scallions, parsley, and dill, then salt and pepper. You could really use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand, because the rest of the dish is "tabula rasa."

I like to serve a few big scoops of it on top of some greens, and drizzle dressing around the outside. Keeps in the fridge for over a week!

Deviled Eggs

What's spring or summer without a deviled egg? Answer, "a sad one, indeed."



I made these awhile ago -- on Easter, I believe -- and neglected to post them. But in going through my files, they looked so yummy I didn't want to forget about them.

I had boiled the eggs, and had a dickens of a time getting the shells off, even under cold running water. In "Googling" a solution to this, I found a patent for a shell ripper, (which I assume has become the "Eggstractor" you see on TV), but who wants to buy a new item? I don't have the room for that in my tiny kitchen. Not when the unused waffle-maker is collecting enough dust for everyone. Then I read several threads which had such useful recommendations as "crack the shell all over," and "cool off the eggs." Really? You mean the egg is INSIDE that shell thing..? And I shouldn't peel them boiling hot? Wow, I didn't know that. Sheesh.

Some did say not to overcook the eggs (10 minutes only), to simmer in salt and vinegar, and to use older eggs (because gas has permeated the shell). Guess I'll try those next time... Anyone else know any tricks?

Anyway, I used a hand mixer for the yolks. I added:

• a dollop of Just Too Good! mayo


• about a tablespoon of vinegar


• a little sugar


• a couple shots of hot sauce


• garlic and onion powder


• a little dijon mustard


• salt and pepper

That's pretty much it... I just kept playing with it until I liked the taste. I used a hand-mixer, and then a pastry bag to pipe it on all pretty-like. However, even the smallest unbroken piece of yolk clogged up the whole works and required extraction... So I think next time I will put the whole deal into the food processor, whir it up, and break up the yolks very well before I add the mayo and liquids. Or find a bigger nozzle...

Even with the poor peeling, and the nozzle problems, they came out quite pretty and very tasty. They were a little zippy, just how I like them. I dusted them with paprika. I could have added some fresh dill to the inside, but this batch was destined for a family affair, and I decided to just put little sprigs on the top so that anyone who didn't like it could just take it off.

How do you like your deviled eggs (with more, or less "devil")?

Hebrew National Hot Dogs

A hot dog is not something your typical gourmet indulges in on a regular basis, if ever. Luckily for me, I'm no gourmet. Still, other than the occasional turkey or soy dog (I like Morning Star Farms dogs and corn dogs the best), I didn't purchase hot dogs as a general rule. What other meat is so famous for being so grossly mysterious? For one thing, they are not a healthy food (duh). Most have lots of fat, or lots of preservatives, carcinogens, and other chemical ick (yes, even some of the veggie ones.) Also, I've seen the process of making a typical hot dog on Discovery, or say, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. When you watch a hot dog go from raw product, to yellowy extrusion, to the addition of smoky flavors and nitrites, the temptation to eat one is lessened considerably. Now add these other factors to an unfortunate incident I experienced as a teenager, in which I pulled a largish piece of coiled plastic sheeting out from within a cheap frankfurter. You'll see that my odds of ordering the grilled chicken sandwich instead of the mystery dog at Wrigley become very high indeed.

But while at the ol' Trader Joe's, I had a summertime craving for a really good hot dog. And I saw the Hebrew Nationals, a 100% kosher beef frank (I don't eat pork, either, my Jewish brothers) that contains nothing artificial. I remembered how much I liked them when they gave them away once a year at the office building in Skokie I used to work in. I got the Reduced Fat, and so far I like those the best. The 97% Fat Free variety, sadly, didn't have nearly as good a flavor.



Of course, even while eating hot dogs, I'm trying to "up" the nutritional value and minimize the damage... So I paired the dogs with TJ's sweet potato oven fries (cook 'em high and hot, or they'll sog out on you), and dipped those in a little low-fat ranch mixed with BBQ sauce (my two current favorites are Sweet Baby Ray's and Famous Dave's Texas Pit.) And, of course, whole wheat buns. I put Dijon mustard and relish on mine, and tried not to look when C-Dub added ketchup to his. I just kept reminding myself, "He's a good man, he's a good man..."

For my money, these are the best and the only dogs out there. But I could be suffering from inexperience, since I haven't tried them all... Would you sooner die than eat one? Or do you eat several every week? How do they fix 'em where you live?

What's your favorite hot dog?

Wilson's Grill

Now and then, when I go to visit Ma, we will make a pilgrimage to Fairfield, IL to go to the Farmer's Store. Don't know where that is? What if I told you it was in front of "CDC's New 2 U Resale Shop" and across the street from Buehler's Buy Low? Ah, thought that might help.



I don't know where the Farmer's Store gets their merchandise, but it is the greatest. They have cheap fabric and sewing notions, clothing stocks so old you can get stuff from the sixties with the tags still on, shoes, earrings, belts... You can shop until you drop for less than forty bucks.



They don't have food there, but we of course had to stop on the way to eat. She suggested Wendy's, which I like, but I wanted to go somewhere more local. We found Wilson's Grill and it seemed to be just what I wanted.



Everyone kind of stared at us for a second when we walked in, but I'm pretty used to that in southern Illinois. Even as kids, my brother and I would get just a little too tan and provoke questions as to our heritage. As teenagers, we looked worse than foreign -- we looked like delinquents. And foreign. We'd routinely get followed around stores by worried managers.

Anyway, once inside, everyone was really friendly. Clearly, they just recognized out-of-towners. Of course, I also realized that I had forgotten my camera. I looked up and saw this sign, and I knew I was going to have to document the experience:



I sprinted across the street and purchased a disposable camera. They only had one variety at the gas station. I want you to know, that the pictures in this post may not be top quality -- but they cost me ten bucks. Appreciate that fully.

I ordered the pickles, and a burger with cottage cheese. I don't do french fries with my burgers, you may remember. Especially not when I'm eating deep fried pickles, anyway.



The burger was fresh and tasty. Certainly as good as Wendy's. Okay, better. And the pickles?



Pretty good, too, I must say. No surprises there -- imagine a deep fried dill pickle, and you'd be fairly accurate at predicting the taste. And the experience, for me, was well worth the ten-spot. Especially since Ma treated me to lunch!

Tuna Salad Niçoise

This is a recipe that I made up, after being inspired by a tuna salad niçoise that I had ordered at a restaurant that had boiled potatoes in it. The tuna I ordered up was fresh tuna, done medium rare, but I used canned tuna... and it still tastes very fancy. Really, the traditional salad is served room temperature, but this modification is great ice cold out of the fridge for up to a week -- when all of the flavors have married together.



3/4 sack of Yukon Gold potatoes
1 large can albacore tuna, drained
large bunch fresh green beans, ends trimmed and cut in half
1/2 finely diced red onion
two handfuls rough chopped arugula
3 cloves minced garlic
handful minced fresh dill
1/2 bottle of champagne vinaigrette, or Newman's Light Honey Mustard dressing
juice of 1 lemon, plus plenty of grated lemon zest
plenty of salt, and pepper

Dice and boil the potatoes, steam the beans briefly and rinse all with cold water. Then just combine the rest to taste. I used some of that fancy champagne vinaigrette dressing the first time, but at 20 grams of fat per serving, I tried the Newman's light dressing (honey mustard) the second time, and I think I liked it even better. Also, if you don't want your salad to bite you back (although the flavors mellow a lot in the fridge) quite so much, you can use less garlic -- or substitute garlic powder. But I'm convinced that anything so potent has to have magical powers (and not just the power to make your date disappear,) so of course I'll stick with the raw garlic.

And I wouldn't skimp on the lemon or zest -- that's what makes this such a refreshingly crisp summer salad.

The Low-Carb Experiment (2 of 3)

Okay, let the suspense end. I don't want to get back to studying for my National Board Exam tomorrow, anyway. (I'll be crying in my coffee tonight.)

There was a recipe for salmon cakes on Epicurious or one of those... I took a quick look and then ran with it. I used a couple of pouches of salmon, seasoned them (garlic powder, salt and pepper), chopped some bell pepper, dill, and parsely, and some scallions. I added just a few tablespoons of light mayo, one egg, and a TON of parmesan cheese (don't know how much, just weigh out "one ton.") I figured if parmesan made those nice little crusts on my Saganaki Chicken, it could do the same in this recipe, instead of the carb-offensive breadcrumb. I balanced the mayo/parm until it just nicely hung together and was still a little wet.

I pan-fried the cakes in just a little oil. It was a bit of a trick, experimenting with oil vs. no oil. I think they worked better with less oil, but don't expect them to ever flip flapjack-style as a nice cohesive unit. Wait a couple of minutes before you move the sucker at all, then just shove the spatula under, check underneath for toastiness, say a little prayer, and turn. (Multiple flipping isn't really an option, so just be patient before you flip the first time.) I removed them from the pan and let them drain on paper towels.

I squeezed plenty of lemon juice over the whole thing, served it with avocado, and slathered it in the Yogurt Dip as I chowed down. Holy moly, it was good. So good that I don't think I'll stick with the parmesan as my "official" recipe. It's a keeper! They also re-heated really well, as Chris found out when he got home, and mom and I had been making and eating lunch for most of the afternoon.



Also thought I'd take this opportunity to post a sad little "retro pic" (taken with the old junior-high camera) of a salmon log I made a long time ago with the Kraft Southbeach Book. I gave it to Ma, so I can't check... But it is basically low or nonfat cream cheese, a couple of drops of liquid smoke, S & P, diced onion, and flaked salmon (drained well and paper towel-patted). I mixed well, formed it into a log shape with plastic wrap, and rolled it in sliced almonds and parsely. I served it with crudite for a nice summery meal (and whole-wheat crackers, because I've never really been on the Diet per se). Kept nicely in the fridge for a couple of days!

The Low-Carb Experiment (Part 1 of 3)

My sainted mother Mary Ann (don't get me wrong, she's still alive) is coming up this week, and she's doing me the favor of bringing not only herself, but her college-hood best friend, Mary Fran (I'm not making this up) as a body in need of dental hygiene help that I might prey upon. I mean, treat. That I might treat.

The last time Ma came up from southern Illinois, she told me ahead of time that she was on the South Beach Diet, and not to go to any trouble, she said. Just buy her some lean meats, string cheese, and some veggies, she said. Oh, and some sugar-free Jello. But what, I say? Go the easy route you say? NOT ACCEPT THE GLOVE CAST DOWN IN A CHALLENGE, YOU SAY? Oh, no. One large shopping trip to Joe Caputo's, a consult with my freebie Kraft South Beach recipe book, and it was game on, Mary Ann!

My first meal was a lunch for the two of us. I chopped some veggies crudite (still can't make the accent in this font, too lazy to try) and made a dip. I used an idea from the Kraft book, and made it, well... better. I used some home-made Greek yogurt from Caputo's as a base (you could use lowfat mayo and fat-free sour cream, instead), and added some fat-free yogurt to thin it out a bit. I added chopped cucumber, fresh dill, scallions, tahini paste, and a little Splenda (we're talking Phase I, people) and salt. Oh, and lemon juice.



It was thick, creamy and refreshing. We were scooping it by the quarter cupful. I readied the platter for a photo in my favorite spot-lite above the dishwasher, and as I did so, I realized Ma was not yet trained as my husband is. Where he would have waited patiently with fork in hand, she picked up a carrot and totally plunged into my PERFECT SWIRL. "My swirl!!" I cried, re-forming with the back of a spoon. This lady had a lot to learn!

The dip also went really well with the main protein attraction... And WHAT IS IT, you slobber on your keyboard? Oh HO! My four readers will have to wait in eager anticipation.

Tomorrow, probably. Or Wednesday. I am a master of suspense.