Mug Muffins! Fast, filling, low-glycemic, GF, and a whole healthy meal!

Muffins don't have a great reputation among those who would be healthy. They're usually full of both fat and sugar. They surely don't make a real meal.

This recipe provides all the nutrition of a meal. The main ingredient Shaklee Life Energizing Shake, makes it a complete meal. Here we use milk and/or egg, and fruit - just like a smoothie.

Here's Mug Muffin recipe! It's high in protein, low in sugar (none added), filling, fast, and delicious. And flexible when it comes to ingredients. It's a satisfying meal ready in less than 10 minutes.

I've included the basic Fruity Mug Muffin, and the Cocoa or Cocoa-PB Mug Muffin variation.

Fruity Mug Muffin

You'll need:
a small banana, or half a large one, speckled if possible
an egg
a few tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce, or milk or cream
2 scoops Shaklee Life Energizing Shake, vanilla (or strawberry might work)
a handful of frozen or fresh blueberries, or other berries (optional)

In a large mug, smoosh the banana until it's mostly smooth, beat in the egg, and stir in the applesauce (about 2 T - you want a damp mix, not soupy but not stiff).

Gently stir in the scoops of Energizing Shake one at a time, until it's smooth.

Add a handful of frozen or fresh berries and stir in lightly.

Put the mug in the microwave. In mine it takes 4-5 minutes to cook when I'm using frozen berries, 3-4 minutes otherwise. It may rise over the top of the mug but that's ok. It's done when the top loses its shine and looks cooked.

Take it out, let it cool a few moments or until it's room temperature, and eat it. You can dump it out, but I eat it out of the mug with a fork (so I don't compress it by digging at it with a spoon).

Variation: Cocoa (PB) Mug Muffin

You'll need
a small banana, as above
an egg
1 T smooth or chunky PB, optional
a few tablespoons of milk (or cream)
2 scoops Shaklee Life Energizing Shake, chocolate or Cafe Latte
1 T plain unsweetened cocoa (not chocolate drink mix)

Use the same method, stirring in the peanut butter before adding the egg. Then add the milk and follow the rest of the directions. Omit the berries. You could add some chocolate chips at the end for a triple-chocolate treat.

Put the mug in the microwave as before, but check after 3 minutes to see if the top looks cooked. Let it cool....

The cocoa makes this recipe almost brownie-like.

Today I made my lunch mug muffin with ripe raspberries in place of the applesauce. We have a lot in the garden just now. It's not quite as sweet as when I use applesauce, but it was full of flavor. Notice the pink color in the mug!

Broccoli-Mushroom Custard GF

This versatile one-dish meal is delicious, also easy to make ahead, or in quantity for planned-overs. I made the broccoli-mushroom version for supper for our 51st wedding anniversary: we wanted to spend time on a nice long walk, not sitting in a restaurant.

This recipe features a custard that surrounds both veggies and rice. The cheese adds richness, and if you choose the feta-cheese option, it also provides the salt.

Here's the recipe. It's helpful if you have some leftover cooked rice. I always make extra rice, 6 cups at a time in my rice cooker. The cooked rice keeps for several days in the fridge, or forever in the freezer. If you don't have leftover rice, cook some up right away!

This recipe makes about 6 servings.

Ingredients. All measures are approximate. This is a very flexible recipe! (see below for variations)

1 1/2 pounds broccoli
1 pound brown mushrooms
1 T butter
3 cups cooked rice. I think white is nicer in this recipe. I use short-grain.
1 cup feta cheese crumbles
3 extra large eggs or equivalent
1 cup whipping cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
Whole nutmeg (optional)

1. Pre-cook the broccoli by steaming it briefly in the microwave. Chop into bite-size pieces.
2. Coarsely chop the mushrooms, then saute in the butter until beginning to brown all over.
3. Heat the rice until soft in a 9x13 glass baking dish in the microwave, about 2 minutes.
4. Toss the broccoli, mushrooms, and rice together in the baking dish.
5. Sprinkle the feta cheese over the mixture. Use more if you'd like.
6. Beat the eggs well, then add the cream and milk and beat again. Pour over the contents of the baking dish.
7. Grate nutmeg over the top (optional)

Bake at 350 for nearly an hour. Check after 50 minutes to see if it's cooked to the center.

Variations:

• Use other vegetables. Sauteed greens, strips of pre-steamed carrots, sauteed onion, whole cloves of garlic, strips of sauteed pepper (red bell would be particularly nice, or if you want some zip, sauteed chilis).
• Use parmesan instead of feta. You'll probably want to sprinkle salt on the rice while warming it unless you use feta.
• Add meat, such as roasted chicken or pork; or add canned salmon. Increase the milk by 1/2 cup.
• Sprinkle the top with crumbs (no longer GF) or ground pecans or ground hazelnuts.
• Add 1/2 cup pumpkin or winter squash, cooked and pureed, to the custard before pouring it over the rice and vegetables. 
• For added piquancy, use sour cream instead of whipping cream. 
• Make in individual casseroles, adjusting cooking time. 
• Serve on a bed of sauteed greens. Or serve with a green salad, or fruit salad. 

Perfect Popcorn

This popcorn is perfect because as soon as it comes out of the pot, it is buttered, salted and flavored. It takes only one pan to pop it in, and one bowl to pour it into. The rest is up to the guests.

In our house we always choose peppery popcorn but this recipe should work for just about any flavor.

The relative ease of popping corn in coconut oil has transformed and simplified the already fairly easy process. Here is step by step what I've adapted from traditional procedures, and the reasons for each step.

1. Choose a good-sized pot with good heat-retaining properties. Mine are stainless over a conducting core. You want the heat to be distributed over the whole bottom of the pot. You'll need a lid, of course.

2. Pour about 1/4 cup melted coconut oil into the pan, or scoop some out of the container it's stored in. (When I purchase coconut oil, which I do in gallon tubs, I melt it and pour it into pint canning jars for ease of use. Then when I want it liquified I place the jar on a saucer and put the whole thing in the microwave for a minute or a bit longer. Or I can scoop out the solids from the wide-mouthed jar.)

3. Turn on the heat fairly high to start heating pan and oil. Add 5 kernels of popcorn to the pan and sprinkle 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt into the pan.

4. Have ready 1/2 cup popcorn and 2 tablespoons of butter, room-temperature if possible. Fridge-temp will do. Also have a sprinkling of cayenne ready, or about 1/2 teaspoon.

5. When 3 or 4 of the 5 kernels in the pot have popped, act fast. Add the butter, then pour in the popcorn, sprinkle on the cayenne, and close the lid fast. Then turn down the heat to medium.

6. Start shaking right away. You don't want any piece of popcorn in contact with the bottom too long. The popping should begin quickly.

7. Continue shaking back and forth, and let the top vent to get some of the steam out. (The steam is made when the water inside each kernel of popcorn super-heats, then is released when the kernel pops.)

8. When the popping has stopped for several seconds, take off the lid and pour the popped corn into the waiting bowl.

9. Eat! It will be buttered, salted, and flavored. If you want to use onion salt or other flavored salts, reduce the added salt or omit it. If you would like to have a caramel-flavored popcorn, add 1/2-1 tsp sugar in place of the cayenne. Be careful! Caramel is hot and sticky!

This recipe makes a very large batch for 2 people, and will disappear quickly with 4.

By heating the heat-tolerant coconut oil first, then adding butter and popcorn, the corn doesn't have a chance to burn before the whole potful is popped (with possibly the exception of a few kernels).

Questions? I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions! This recipe is of course naturally gluten-free.

Hummus - Basic recipe

I haven't made hummus for a while. I like to have some sort of beans soaking and noticed the bag of garbanzos someone gave me. So I put them in water a couple of days ago, and by yesterday they needed rinsing and cooking. I turned off the heat last night when I went to bed and just hoped they were done.

This morning I tested them and they were cooked enough, maybe not quite all the way to very soft but good enough for hummus.

I have a new food processor that would surely smooth them into a pleasant paste.

The food processor had a residue of green powder in it. This was left over from drying greens from the garden and pulverizing them for use in the winter. One pound of greens - enough to fill my picking basket - dried down enough to make less than a half-cup of powder. So what was sticking to the food-processor bowl was a significant amount, something I didn't want to waste. Green powder would make a perfect amendment to hummus, so after I got out all I could, I just whirred the cooked beans in the same bowl. (My food processor has 3 nesting bowls.)

Here's the recipe I use. If you like to measure precisely, this is probably not the recipe for you!

Basic Hummus

1. Soak a 1 pound bag of garbanzos for a day or 2, rinse thoroughly.
2. Put in a pot with a lid, cover with an inch or more of water, and cook until tender.
3. Scoop half the beans into a food processor (or less if yours handles only small batches), using a slotted spoon.
4. Let the processor work until the beans are mostly smooth, adding cooking liquid to get to the consistency you like.
5. While the processor is working, add several tablespoons of sesame tahini (made from raw sesame seeds). I prefer a hummus that tastes strongly of sesame. You may want to use less.
6. Toss several garlic cloves into the processor chute while the processor continues to work.
7. Add salt to taste, 1 tsp or more.
8. While the processor is still working, squeeze a lemon over a strainer and into the processor chute.
9. When everything looks homogeneous, stop the processor and taste. Adjust as needed.
10. When you are satisfied, scoop the contents out into a container with a lid, pour several tablespoons of tasty olive oil over the top, and refrigerate. Serve on salad or with raw or cooked veggies.
11. Refrigerate the cooked garbanzos and their liquid for another batch of hummus or to make another garbanzo-bean recipe.

This is a gluten-free recipe made only with real foods.

Quick cocoa cookies or portable breakfast food (GF)

(Warning: These cookies are gluten-free only if your oats are gluten-free. Oats don't have gluten but the places where they are processed might be used too for processing wheat and then your oats could have gluten. I am highly wheat-sensitive (and maybe gluten-sensitive) but I can eat all the oats I've tried, as long as it's in moderation. Oats themselves are known to be inflammatory, so they can cause problems  in some individuals regardless of their contamination level.)

Recipe.

This recipe has no added sugar, just what's naturally in the unsweetened applesauce and banana. It doesn't need more. The fat comes from the cocoa and nut butter. The protein comes from the oats and nut butter. Minerals come from good salt. Every ingredient adds something healthy. You could have these for breakfast with a hot beverage and consider it a good meal.

Vigorously mix together the following:

3 ripe bananas, smooshed with a fork
2 cups regular (non-instant, non-quick) rolled oat
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup nut butter (almond, peanut butter, any nut butter)
pinch of good salt (coarse salt is fun - it doesn't all blend in, so you might get some in any given bite)

You can do the mixing in a mixer or food processor. Hand-mixing also works.

Let the mixture sit for 20-30 minutes before baking.

Drop by tablespoonfuls on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Space closely: they don't spread. Flatten them a little for faster cooking and check after 10 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes. You want them cooked through but not dried out.

Let them cool. Can refrigerate or freeze.

Additions: Chocolate chips, nuts, bits of fruit.

Whole-chicken and garden soup

We've eaten this soup all winter. This is a small variation on Creamy Chicken Soup because when I got home with the cream I found it spoiled. Improvise! (I am not going to make an 8-mile 40-minute round trip for cream.) This soup takes days but very little labor.

Put the whole chicken into the crockpot, cover (or almost cover) with water, set the pot on low, cover with the lid, and plan something else for dinner for the next few days.

When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, after 24-30 hours more or less, lift out pieces of meat for immediate use or freeze them. Discard the skin. Leave the bones and more of the meat in the pot for this recipe. Cook them for one more day.

On the third day, discard the bones and skin. Return any meat to the pot. Add veggies, such as:

• leftover baked squash
• dried summer squash pieces
• dried mushrooms, or fresh
• leftover mashed potatoes
• roasted veggies (potatoes, onions, peppers, carrots, etc) - or they can be raw
• chopped celery, or freeze-dried celery
• fresh chopped onion
• good salt to taste

Add water to the rim and return the lid to the crockpot. Let everything cook on high until heated, or on low overnight if the veggies are fresh and need more cooking. 

Using a Vita-Mix, food processor, or wand, homogenize everything that's in the pot.

Serve steaming hot. Add cream (half cup?) just before serving, or at the table.

Serving idea: Heat up some red pepper flakes in a little dish of olive oil in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Using a teaspoon, drizzle this mixture over the soup in pleasing patterns. Don't mix it in - the variations in taste of hot soup, cold cream, and spicy oil make a nice little culinary adventure.  Serves about 8.

This soup can be the basis of many meals in the days to come, or can be frozen for eating at home or on the road.

No-fry refried beans

This week's Anasazi beans had a wonderful flavor that got better every day. I thought I'd make something similar to be the basis of several meals this week.

I'm out of Anasazi beans but I have plenty of pintos.

Since we're traveling soon, I want to freeze a couple of servings to heat up along the way. A quart of the Southwest Baked Beans are already frozen for the road.

Homemade refries next week means starting the beans now. We won't be able to eat them till at least Day 4. Here's how I make refries that are smooth, creamy, and full of flavor without frying even once!

Day 1 (today, 3 pm) - Measure out the beans (3 cups), rinse them, pick out the broken ones, then cover them with cold water in a big bowl. They're going to grow so they need space.

Day 2 (tomorrow afternoon sometime) - Pour off this water, add fresh, and make sure the beans are covered.

Day 3 (Monday afternoon sometime) - Check the beans to make sure they're beginning to ferment (little bubbles are forming). If not, let them go a while longer. Or if you want, let them go till the next day after rinsing them and making sure they're covered.

Let's say I'll find them fermenting on Monday afternoon and I have time for the next step. Then I'll go ahead and....

Cook them. Pour off the water, put them into a pot, cover them barely with fresh water and cook on low. Don't set the lid down on the pot, but you can tilt it to help keep the heat in.

OR

Cook them in a crock pot the same way, except that you will want to cover them completely.

Cook for about an hour. Check for softness. How quickly they cook will depend on how old the beans are, among other things. You want the cooked beans be creamy. (Some beans never soften that much, but pinto beans as well as others do.)

My old beans cooked for over 4 hours before they looked like good candidates for creamy refries.

Those are the basics. But what I'm going to do is add the same veggies I did with my wonderful Southwestern Baked Bean concoction. These included an onion, several cloves of garlic, and chopped chili peppers. This time I'm using ones I roasted earlier today. You can also add finely chopped carrot - but don't add celery: then you would have savory refried beans, which haven't been invented yet. The veggies should all be added when you begin cooking the beans.

Once the beans (and veggies) are soft and creamy, take the pot off the heat and let the mixture cool a little. Then mash it all up or run it through a food processor or use a wand mixer to homogenize the mixture. Then salt to taste w/ good salt. I used a wand mixer and in about 5 mess-free minutes I had delightfully creamy 'refried' pintos.

Variation: add side pork to the pot of beans when it starts to cook. The amount is up to you, maybe 1/4-1/2 cup, chopped. Or maybe more.

Serve these refries alone, or with cheese, on tacos or burritos or in a bowl with a spoon. 3 cups dry beans makes a lot of refries! You can cut the recipe in half but these are easy to freeze, so why not make enough for planned-overs?

PS - The fresh chilies I bought for this recipe were wimps. I could have used 5 or 6 instead of the two that should have given the beans a decided zest.

Wheat isn't what it used to be, and that means trouble

Every time a food we had a symbiotic relationship with over the millennia begins to cause problems, we find that someone has messed with it.

Wheat is a cornerstone of our civilization, but the wheat we eat today has had some serious chemistry done to it so it is better suited to mass production, harvesting etc. So says the following article.

The article then goes on to describe the savagery done by wheat and its breakdown compounds in our guts. This is an article every bread lover should read before taking another bite.

Because it's not just what is happening in the gut. Wheat has on of the highest glycemic index values of any of the foods we eat, right up there with candy. And that means it contributes to big bellies and the packing of fat into visceral cavities.

Here's the link to the article: You Should Probably Stop Eating Wheat.


Back in 2006 I had to stop eating wheat. It was hard but not as hard as enduring the pain and intestinal distress, even bleeding, I experienced every time I ate it. I have not had wheat (except by accident) since. I don't miss it. It is not tempting. I am over it.

So I found this article fascinating because now I realize I might have avoided all sorts of other ills, too, including diabetes.

Well, just read the article. And then leave a comment here or share this post with your friends. Peg

Pepitas - 2 recipes, several variations

Pepitas are a traditional food that has been eaten for at least the last 10,000 years. You can cook pepitas, which are the healthy seeds of squash and pumpkins, in the oven. But my favorite way uses a cast iron skillet and takes only about 5 minutes.

You can buy pumpkin seeds, which are very similar to squash seeds, in bulk at the store. Or you can wash the pulp from the seeds of a squash you are using in another recipe, dry them thoroughly, and proceed with the recipe.

Quick Pepitas

Start with 2 cups of pepitas (or you can make less but I warn you, these are addictive)
Pour them into a hot cast iron skillet and stir until they start to pop. Pour them out onto a plate, paper plate, or several layers of paper towels. They will be hot! Sprinkle them with salt, let them cool down, and enjoy them as a snack. Or run them through a spice mill as a coating or topping.

Quick Pepitas with Tamari (These are unbelievably tasty and satisfying.)

Start with Quick Pepitas. After they start popping, turn off the heat but leave them in the pan. Immediately add 2-3 tablespoons of tamari soy sauce and toss them around in the pan to coat them all. Before the tamari dries and burns, remove them from the pan onto a plate. Let them cool and serve.

Baked Pepitas

After cleaning the pepitas, toss them with a few tablespoons of olive oil and some salt, and roast them in a single layer on a cookie sheet for about 40 minutes in a 325 degree oven. Don't let them burn! Cool and eat.

Baked Pepitas variations.

Oil but don't salt the pepitas, but otherwise follow the recipe for Baked Pepitas. When the pepitas come out of the oven and are still hot, put them in a heat-safe bowl and sprinkle with ONE of these:

Cinnamon sugar (about 2 parts sugar to one part cinnamon)
Garlic salt
Chili powder, with or without salt. Or chili powder with a bit of sugar. Or chili powder with a bit of sweetened cocoa mix.

Or serve the Baked Pepitas mixed about half-and-half with raisins.

Recipe: Squash Custard and variations

This recipe is super-simple and amazingly healthy and satisfying. And I've included a few tempting variations. And by the way, I've tried them all.

Basic recipe. This recipe makes a lot of custard, because I find it disappears very fast. Good for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

4 cups cooked squash. (Make your own for the tastiest cooked squash. I LOVE buttercup squash for this.)
4 eggs
2 cans coconut cream or coconut milk, not light (You can make your own following this recipe)
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar

Stir the sugar into the squash. Beat up the eggs until frothy and stir them into the squash until it is well-blended. Add the coconut milk and blend it in. Butter a baking dish (13x9 will work for this recipe), pour in the custard mix, and bake at 325 for an hour, or until the center is just barely set.

Variations. You can combine any of these for even more variations:

Spicy: Mix 1 T (or more) pumpkin pie spice into the sugar before mixing the sugar with the squash. Or just use cinnamon. Or use cardamom.
Tropical: Stir the liquid in one can of crushed or chunk pineapple into the mix after adding the coconut milk. When blended, stir in the pineapple. This will take a bit longer to bake adequately.
Very Mainstream: Replace the coconut milk with whipping cream. Or whole milk. Or non-fat milk if you must.
Honey: Replace the sugar with honey. Don't replace the sugar with any artificial sweeteners!
Ginger: Chop candied ginger until it is about the size of a kernel of corn. Add up to half a cup before baking.
Chocolate chip: I don't actually like this much. I feel the chocolate is too indelicate for the squash. But I have made it and you might like it: Add 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate bits before baking.
Fake creme brulee: Sprinkle the top lightly with granulated sugar before baking.

Serve any of these with whipped cream or ice cream, warm or cold.

Gluten Sensitivity Article Link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_sensitivity#Asthma.2C_Anaphylaxis.2C_Nasal_Allergies

There are a lot of interesting insights in this article, and a lot of immunology that I don't understand. Several links from it are also of interest.

Here is one tidbit that might have broader appeal: the reason gliadin (another article worth reading at Wikipedia) formed in conjunction with the 'new wheat' that was easy to pick and store was to dissuade mammalian predators of it. In other words, it was an active defense mechanism that increased survivability.

To appreciate what this might mean, I recommend this article:

http://truewilderness.blogspot.com/2008/02/evolution-of-toxicity.html.

It turns out that early-onset and late-onset gluten sensitivies are different...

Even though the gluten article is highly technical, it's got a lot of interesting facts, too - I recommend it. Maybe someday I'll distill it....

Some Moms Talking About Their GS Kids

GS = Gluten-Sensitive

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=41344

It's a forum, brief, interesting, and possibly irrelevant - you decide!

Why Are So Many People Gluten-Sensitive?

http://www.celiac.com/articles/76/1/Why-So-Many-Intolerant-To-Gluten----by-Luigi-Greco-DCH-MScMCH-MD-Department-of-Pediatrics-University-of-Naples-06301995/Page1.html

This is fascinating! It talks about populations that can tolerate wheat, and others, like the Irish, who can't, and why. This makes the whole GS issue make so much sense!

JFK and Celiac?

http://www.celiac.com/articles/624/1/Was-JFK-the-Victim-of-an-Undiagnosed-Disease-Common-to-the-Irish/Page1.html

Remarkable History of Gluten Problems

Here's a great article from http://celiac.com on why gluten problems are so prevalent. Fascinating!

http://www.celiac.com/articles/76/1/Why-So-Many-Intolerant-To-Gluten----by-Luigi-Greco-DCH-MScMCH-MD-Department-of-Pediatrics-University-of-Naples-06301995/Page1.html

And one conclusion of the many is that those of us with this condition are related in a very interesting way! Wait till you read it...

The Many Issues Around Oats

I love oats, and miss them. I tried one batch of oats after I was gluten-free and got an inflammatory response not like a gluten reaction, but still inflammatory, so no good... But I haven't done a big study of oats to understand all the issues.

This article will help anyone wanting good solid RECENT information on the oat issue for celiacs and those with other types of gluten-intolerance:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/21520/1/Effects-of-Various-Kinds-of-Oats-on-Celiac-Disease/Page1.html.

As this article points out, the biggest issue is contamination, but it's not the only issue.... PL

Not Kidding: Gluten-Free Crepes!

I googled this subject, Gluten-Free Crepes, on a lark. How could they be? And up came 93,100 entries...

I picked this one: http://www.celiac.com/articles/614/1/Crepes-1-Gluten-Free/Page1.html.

This is a very sensible recipe. If you try it, please leave your comment about what you liked and didn't like about it.

Along the way, I discovered this whole gluten-free site, not just recipes: http://www.celiac.com. It just might be helpful! PL

Gluten Free 'Pasta'-- by Eloise

I miss pasta a lot(sa)...

So I grill eggplant on my George Foreman (usually from my own garden) and cut it into long thin strips before putting my special spaghetti sauce over it. Yum! It's like getting to eat pasta without the gluten-- and guilt! :)

Glorious Gluten-Free Snack!

What a great idea! Here's another recipe carefully gleaned from 101 Cookbooks. I think you'll enjoy reading the many serving suggestions she gives here.

The link: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001473.html.

It's going to take me forever to make 1% of the great recipes on this site! Let me know how you like it! PL

Meatless and Gluten-Free (maybe...): More Chix

This recipe also contains canned chickpeas or garbanzos, so you might as well buy a case. It's from 101 Cookbooks. Take a look at these delicious photos! I say 'maybe gluten-free' because she makes it with bulgur wheat, which has plenty of gluten, but then gives a GF alternative.

Here's the link: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/chickpea-hot-pot-recipe.html.

The orange juice ingredient isn't going to work for me, but tomato juice might work, or veggie broth, or of course just water. PL