Power Up

Behold the main reason I went to Rainbow Grocery last week. I wanted to get all of the ingredients for Heidi Swanson's Power Bars recipe, a recipe I have been wanting to make for years, but have never bothered to attempt because it's too hard to find all of those ingredients at just one store - Rainbow is the only place where I would be guaranteed to hit everything on my list. Well, it was totally worth it. These are delicious bars, very similar in texture to a sweet, sticky rice crispie treat, and just as enjoyable, without any of the guilt. I think it would be easy to make substitutions, too - dried cherry and pistachio, apricot and pecan - you could go on and on.

One suggestion that I would make is not to make them in the 9 X 13 pan - that was how I made them the first time, and while delicious, they were much too "loose", totally falling apart at the touch and not really bars. Go for the 8 X 8 size. But other than that, a great recipe.

DO-IT-YOURSELF POWER BARS
- makes 16 to 24 bars -

Ingredients
1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

1 1/4 cups chopped toasted walnuts

1/2 cup oat bran

1 1/2 cups unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal

1 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

1 cup brown rice syrup*

1/2 cup natural cane sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

Procedure
1. Grease a baking pan with the coconut oil. If you like thick power bars, opt for an 8 by 8-inch pan; for thinner bars, use a 9 by 13-inch pan.

2. Mix the oats, walnuts, oat bran, cereal, cranberries, and ginger together in a large bowl and set aside.

3. Combine the rice syrup, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly as it comes to a boil and thickens just a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour over the oat mixture and stir until the syrup is evenly incorporated.

4. Spread into the prepared pan and cool to room temperature before cutting into whatever size bars you desire.

*The second time I made these bars, I decreased the brown rice syrup to 2/3 cup and it was far less gooey and easier to manage.

Otsu-per Food

Otsu is a word that means many things, including stylish, chic, tasty, and spicy. And this salad definitely lives up to that - it is chock full of wonderful things like soba noodles, cilantro, green onion, cucumber, and tofu - with a wonderfully spicy dressing.

The recipe calls for 3/4 t. of cayenne which is way too much, imho - try it with 1/4 or 1/2 t., or if you are bold, just go with the original recipe.

Another great one from Heidi Swanson and her treasure trove of great-tasting, easy vegetarian and vegan recipes from her cookbook Super Natural Cooking, a book that I always pick up again in the New Year when I want healthy meal ideas.

It travels well, tastes great, and is not expensive or difficult to make - definitely a keeper.

The Raw & the Cooked

I'm pretty proud of this lunch because it is representative of the way I am eating now.

What you are looking at is a bowl of carrot soup, risotto-style barley with toasted walnuts, and a shaved asparagus salad, with a glass of pineapple juice.

The carrot soup and barley dish are both from "Super-Natural Cooking", and I have to thank Heidi Swanson for the thousanth time for writing it. The carrot soup is wonderfully rich and creamy, with no cream added. It uses whole organic carrots, skin-on, and lots of vegetable broth. The key is the extra-virgin olive oil drizzled on top - mine is from Stonehouse, and it adds a beautiful green flavor and velvety texture.

The barley dish is really interesting - the methodology in preparation is the same as for a classic risotto, but instead of arborio rice, the grain is barley. It's simmered and stirred for about 30-40 minutes, then you add in winter citrus (lemon & orange zest, and orange segments), chopped arugula, and equal parts sour cream & parmesean. It tastes a lot like risotto but isn't nearly as heavy, and the flavors are both bright and earthy. The barley has a certain chewy quality that I really like. The added touch of toasted walnuts adds great texture and crunch.

I made both of these dishes on Sunday so I would have them to eat during the week.

I LOVE this shaved asparagus salad, which I learned to make today from "the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market Cookbook".


As a lot of people know, I love asparagus, and finding a new way to use this vegetable is exciting to me. This recipe is unique because the asparagus is raw, shaved thinly using a peeler or mandoline, dressed in a simple lemon vinaigrette, and topped with shaved Parmesan. The flavor of raw asparagus is much more delicate that when it is cooked, and it gives a very satisfying crunch. Hooray, yet another not-boring salad! This one would travel well for a picnic, so that is another plus.

Lastly, I am drinking pineapple juice because my aesthetician said that it's good for my skin.

Yeah, it's just lunch on a rainy Tuesday, but it's what it represents that is important to me. Change, growth, consciousness, and choice. Doing good things for my body and loving it.

Another Not-Boring Salad

Kumquats are one of those items that I would see in the produce section, but never buy because I didn't know what to do with them. My grandmother had 2 big kumquat trees in her dining room and I always thought that they were really cool - like citrus fruit sized for your stuffed animals. I never ate them, though. Well, that's a lie, I probably snuck one or two. Anyway, this salad is an easy way to use this cute fruit.

I wanted a healthy but filling, and of course non-boring, salad for lunch today, as well as something to bring on the field trip tomorrow. This recipe fit the bill nicely. I added diced, cooked chicken for extra protein. I skipped a few labor-intensive instructions and it turned out fine.


From "Super Natural Cooking" by Heidi Swanson (with a little interpretation from me).

Clemenquat Salad

• 6 or 7 clementines (my note: I used Satsumas)
• 7 stalks celery, stripped of strings (my note: I left in the strings. Who has time to strip celery strings?)
• 10 kumquats
• 3 big handfuls walnut halves, toasted & cooled
  
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2-3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt & pepper
• block of Parmesan cheese (my note: I used leftover aged Provelone)

- Peel clementines and separate segments. (my note: you can peel the individual segments, but I don't mind the membrane). Place in a large bowl.
- Slice the celery 1/8 in thin on a slight diagonal. Add to the bowl.
- Using a serrated knife, slice the kumquats into 1/8 in. rounds. Remove seeds with the tip of your knife. Add to the bowl.
- Add the walnuts to the bowl.
- In a small bowl, whick together the lemon juice, olive oil, a few pinches of salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss with clean hands. (I added the diced chicken, wrapped Saran Wrap over the bowl and gave it a good shake).
- Make Parmesan curls by running a vegetable peeler along the long side of the block of cheese and top each serving with a few curls.


One last note from me and then I'll shut up: the dressing for this salad is very light both in amount and flavor. It was fine for me, but if you want a more heavily-dressed salad, increase the measurements for the dressing by 1/2.

Comfort Food Without the Guilt

From "Super Natural Cooking" by Heidi Swanson

Winter Rainbow Gratin

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 small purple or red potatoes, unpeeled and cut into wedges
• 4 small shallots, peeled
• 1 large red-fleshed sweet potato, peeled & cut into 1-in. chunks
• 4 young yellow or orange carrots, cut in half lenghtwise if thicker than your thumb
• 4 green onions, trimmed
• Sea salt & pepper
• 1 apple or pear, unpeeled, cored, and cut into 6 wedges
• 1/2 c. whole-grain bread crumbs (my note: I used regular bread crumbs)
• 2/3 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Heat the olive oil in your largest ovenproof skillet over med-high heat. In a single layer, add the potatoes, shallots, sweet potato, carrots, and green onions and toss to coat.


- Saute over med-high heat for about 15 min, shaking the pan a couple of times along the way. The vegetables should start to brown and be tender but not mushy.
- Remove from the heat and sprinkle with a generous dose of salt & pepper.
- Stir in the apple or pear wedges.
- Sprinkle with all of the breadcrumbs and half of the Parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 40 min, tossing about halfway through.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesean.

Have You Had Your Phytonutrients Today?

As I have really been trying to stick to eating more vegetables in my diet, I have been looking through all of my cookbooks for ideas (boredom in food, for me, is the kiss of death and will send me right back to grilled-cheese sandwiches and chocolate cake).

One of the food blogs that I read is 101 Cookbooks by San Francisco local Heidi Swanson. She also published a cookbook last year called "Super Natural Cooking", which I own, but until recently had not tried.


The inspiration behind 101 Cookbooks is near and dear to my heart:

The premise this site was built on is best summed up in two sentences: When you own over 100 cookbooks, it is time to stop buying, and start cooking. This site chronicles a cookbook collection, one recipe at a time.

101 Cookbooks started in early 2003 when I looked up at my huge cookbook collection one afternoon and realized that instead of exploring the different books in my collection - I was cooking the same recipes over and over. I seemed to buy a new cookbook every time I stepped out the front door - always with good intentions. I would regularly go through my collection of books and magazines and carefully tag each recipe that piqued my interest. I ended up with shelves full of books brimming with Post-it notes and drawers full of recipes clipped from my favorite magazines - neatly organized by course, flavor, region, or ingredient.

Those two paragraphs could have easily been written by me - I have at least that many cookbooks, but can never resist buying more. It really is no different than being addicted to porn - I pour over the glossy pictures of beautiful dishes in bed and sigh with pleasure over paragraphs describing the origin of food. And I need more, more, more!

Turning to "Super Natural Cooking", I picked a few recipes and stocked up on groceries. I like that each one does not have too many ingredients, the prep time is reasonable, and the skill level required is minimal. She also loves walnuts as much as I do, so I can use them in multiple recipes. The photographs are gorgeous (Heidi is also a photographer), and the the text is very down to earth. Both the blog and the book feel like they could have been written by a friend, not by some celebrity chef who is out to prove himself. This is truly a book for the home cook who wants to explore the a more healthy lifestyle and incorporate whole grains and fresh produce into an everyday diet.

The following two posts are from the chapter entitled "Cooking by Color", which explores phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are basically plant nutrients which are meant to stave off disease and promote health, many of which are found in the vegetation with the richest and most vibrant color. (think of "beta-carotene" in carrots).

I'm looking forward to trying out many more recipes in this book - and, strangely enough, I feel like I have a new friend in the kitchen.