Spicy Sausage Cabbage Soup

Sometimes it seems to me that life is a bunch of befores and afters. Often little befores, before I bought my first real purse (a satchel!) and after, where nothing else compares and the canvas bags of yore are used for grocery shopping. I think we have a habit (the royal 'we', were I include everyone and no one all at once) of over emphasizing some befores & afters. We fantasize about how different life will be after we ____ (fill in the blank: start that new diet, buy that new car, move out, move in, start dating). Sometimes rightfully so, but more often the resulting 'after' is remarkably similar to the life before. And often again, we go through a before and after, a transition of sorts, without even recognizing it! How crazy is life? So. Crazy.

Here is my example. I have fantasized much about life's transitions and what a fabulous new thing is waiting for me as soon as I make my way from before to after. Most of the time though, I end up in nearly the same patterns and life doesn't change too much. It can be disappointing. Can't it?

I've spent a lot of time focusing on what's next, I just purchased a fabulous juicer and expect life to change very dramatically from here on out, but I seem to have missed a transition I didn't even know was occurring. I've gone from someone who buys pre-made soups to someone who can whip one up with what's on hand.

Hollah!

No, really though. How and when did this happen? Also, please tell me there is a soup boon occurring because I swear I see homemade soup recipes all around me.

I made this soup recently, I've made about a half dozen times, and Dylan asked me where I got the recipe from. I looked at him and thought long and hard about it. Where did this recipe come from? I looked around. No cookbook, no printout. Just the ordinary mess of prep work gone mad; casings of sausage on the meat cutting board, ends of chopped cabbage rolling about and mingling with carrot bits and pieces. I didn't have a recipe. How quaint.




Now, I can see how those of you who rock this kind of thing all the time may not be amazed. That's fine, I accept that. But I just realized you can make pretzels and wheat thins at home if I wanted to. And somewhere in the past six months I learned how to make soups from scratch with and without a recipe. What, what? Seriously. I did that.



It's all a part of this big transition I'm finding myself going through. My unprocessed food love affair. This recipe does include sausage, spicy delicious Italian sausage, and while I go all organic and buy the good stuff, you can use whatever type of sausage you are comfortable with. I am sure some guru's of unprocessed foods may not be fond of sausage, but the flavors- oh the flavors. Read the ingredients: avoid additives  like nitrates, flavorings, etc. to keep it unprocessed.

This soup is adored in this household. Adored. It's not the prettiest thing to hit the plate, but who the heck cares.



Spicy Sausage Cabbage Soup
serves 4

ingredients

1 lb organic spicy Italian sausage
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped (or more or less depending on your preference)
2 carrots, chopped into 1/4 inch rounds
4 cups vegetable stock

1 tablespoon chopped chives (garnish)



Warm a large soup pot at medium high heat. Start prepping by removing the casings on the sausage (if it came in casings). I make a cut down the inside curve of the sausage and peel back the casing very gently. Then, crumble the sausage into the warm pot and brown for 4-5 minutes. I prefer a good browning, cook to your desired doneness as the sausage will finish cooking in the soup later. Remove the sausage from the pot, but leave the fat in the pan.

Toss in the cabbage and carrots and stir it up to coat the veggies with the fat. Let the flavors combine for 1-2 minutes, then pour the vegetable stock in and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the vegetables are a bit tender, about 5-6 minutes, and then toss gently place the sausage back in. Let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the sausage has cooked through. 

The soup is ready to go after the vegetables and sausage are cooked through. I often let it simmer for a bit longer to let all the flavors really combine or serve it the next day as it just gets better after a day. The spicy sausage creates a mild kick and if you are sensitive to spicy foods, substitute any other type of sausage you prefer.

Enjoy!
-m

Pan Fried Cod

Mmm.. lovely! Except that watery mashed cauliflower in the top right, ignore that mess. :)

How much do I love this pan fried cod? Let me count the ways..

1) Almond flour, oh so fabulous and hearty and nutty and..well, fabulous. Don't be afraid of almond flour.

2) Butter! You can't go wrong with butter. Good, wholesome butter. 

3) You can adjust the flavors to meet your particular fancy, I just love that.

4) Did I mention that I'm in awe of the almond flour? Because I was feeling mild trepidation towards covering some fish with ground up almonds, but fear not, it was delicious and more than holds a candle to a covered in white flour substitute. The almond flour has so much more substance, texture and flavor, I can hardly imagine using anything else at this point.

5) Did I mention the butter? because it deserves to be mentioned.

6) Guess what I will always have on hand from this point forward? Everything needed for this recipe.


Pan Fried Cod
adapted from Nourished Kitchen
serves 4

ingredients

3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if desired)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 lbs cod filets
1 egg, beaten
butter, for frying (1/4-1/2 cup)

Mix together all the dry ingredients and put them in a bowl, big enough to dredge the filets in. You can use any seasonings you desire, I loved the cayenne pepper but you might not.

Dip the cod filets in the egg, then cover in the filet with the seasoned almond flour. Cover the whole thing, you'll want it all on every surface.

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed skillet and fry the cod in the butter until cooked through and golden on both sides. Flip it once. This should take about 4 minutes per side, about.

Enjoy! 

Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

A few years ago, I was telling a friend about a whole wheat pasta dish I had enjoyed and their remark took me by surprise. They asked why I would eat such a horrible tasting thing as whole wheat pasta. I tried to defend my desire for more whole grains but, while I knew there were countless health benefits, nothing other than "I need more fiber in my diet" came to mind.
They lamented that fact but suggested I just eat smaller portions of the 'good stuff'. The conversation has stuck in my mind and I have ruminated over this question since- Why eat whole grains if they supposedly taste worse? Why not simply eat less of the processed grains? I believe it boils down to your intended goal, lose weight or overall health? (The teacher in me really wants to type 'loose weight' and see who catches it, but the teacher in me also just can't type that on purpose)



I was only beginning my food explorations at the point that this conversation was held and I didn't know why, but I was already drawn to the unprocessed side of life. After the past year, I feel much more confident in my eating habits. While I'm no supermodel and that is not my purpose, I do strongly feel that the addition of whole grains to my meals was for the better.

There is research behind this as well, of course. Do you know the history of white flour? You might find this article interesting. Or the reason white flour has become so present in our daily eating lives? Shelf life seems to be the answer to so many of my over-processed food questions. Wheat flour has too many good things (vitamins and nutrients) that go bad much quicker than it's processed counterpart. Which seems to be one way that white flour became the norm.

Ease.
Convenience.

Seems like holding ease and convenience near and dear to our hearts has cost us dearly. If you are trying to eat healthier, then you are familiar with this struggle. It's so much easier to eat the processed foods, the pre-made dinners and the packaged cake mixes. I guess it's a struggle for a value you can't readily see, or that's how I view it. Time is valuable and while health is as well, it is a long haul and time is instantly gratifying. Does that make any sense?

I spend an hour every Sunday night chopping vegetables, making smoothies, getting food stuff ready for the week. A year ago, I spent that hour in other ways. Sometimes, when I'm beat and feeling lethargic, I lament my change in eating habits and crave that extra hour of laziness. But then I think ahead, what path will I be on if I take this step forward and change lanes from what I know is good for my body and mind overall, for what seems ok for my body and mind in the moment?

http://wallblank.com/products/food-with-thought

I feel like I'm still learning quite a bit when it comes to my food choices. Reading this book last summer, In Defense of Food, and participating in the October Unprocessed challenge have really guided me in what I believe to be the right direction. Have you heard of the pendulum swing as it relates to ideas and thoughts? In education, people are often referring the pendulum and how it affects our teaching. I can see this though, with our food choices now. I found the poster above, which is from World War 1, and thought it was something you'd see in a new foodie cookbook. How's that for things coming back around?

Anyway, that leads me to my recipe to share. As I do every year around this time, I made carrot cake. Last year the cake was all kinds of messed up and I made a trifle instead with the broken cake. I decided to make carrot cake sandwich cookies this year, sounded like fun!

The dough is sticky but firm after an hour cooling in the fridge.

But, as I was baking them I felt wracked with guilt. All that sugar. All that flour. While this is special occasion, there would be other deliicous meals to celebrate this special birthday, and this was the only one where I had control over the ingredients.

So, I did it. I swapped half the flour for whole wheat flour. I use raw sugar. And I used the recipe that called for 2 cups of oats. Whole grain-y! And I didn't tell a soul. Until they were eaten, then I spilled the beans because A) I can't keep secrets and B) I'm a horrible liar. I giggle like crazy. It's nothing too nutty, I get that, but I feel confident in my decision to attempt to make everything I create in my kitchen a bit better, anyway I can. (I do understand that I'm saying this as I share a cake recipe with a sugary crazy frosting. So be it! It's on my mind!)

I just love the look of these, excuse the abundance of similar photos. I could not resist.

I promise that I'll share more non-baking related recipes soon. I've got a pan fried cod I'm digging and a broiled salmon that is simply rocking my socks, but for now, enjoy this little ditty.

Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies with Whole Wheat Flour
adapted from Martha Stewart

ingredients

1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots, (about 3 large carrots)

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine sugars and butter in a medium sized bowl (you can use a mixer or do this by hand) and beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until combined.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger and stir to combine. Slowly add flour to butter mixture and continue to mix on a low speed until just blended. Mix in the oats and carrots and then chill dough in refrigerator for about an hour, or until it is firm.

Before you bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or grease with butter. These are sticky!

Using a ice-cream scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets. It's a good idea to leave 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 11 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Prepare the frosting by mixing the cream cheese with the butter, followed by the sugar and vanilla. Adjust the sugar to your tastes/desired thickness.

Once cooled, spread about 2 teaspoons of cream-cheese filling onto a cookie. Squish this onto another cookie and repeat with the rest of the cookies. You can store them in an airtight container for a few days, but good luck with that! 

Enjoy!

-m

Food for thought

I feel like saying "What a week!" but that seems a bit dramatic seeing as how I took yesterday off to celebrate a certain someone's 30th birthday. We spent the day running seaside (me) and mountain biking (him), napping on the beach and watching the dog chase countless birds through the sandy shore (and flopping comically into deeper than she predicted waves and puddles).

Maybe I should say, I'm a bit physically tired. I've run almost 12 miles in the last three days, which is more than usual by Thursday. And Monday's yoga class completely obliterated my muscles, in a good way. My legs and my poor feet just need a day to sit and relax, and I'm planning on doing just that for a good portion of my Saturday.

For now, as I dream of my lazy Saturday, my hearty shepherd's pie is in the oven and I'm busy perusing the internet. I thought this might be just the perfect time to share some of my favorite things, links and otherwise. 

1. I sincerely enjoy chopping mushrooms. I don't always love them in a dish, but preparing them is one of my favorite things. These shitake mushrooms were a pain to stem, but a joy to slice. They are firm and fresh feeling and way more fun than chopping chocolate. Bleh.

2. My apple corer/chopper has a new use- potato slicer! This works wonders and I just slice that weird core piece into two pieces and voila, homemade fries are done and ready to be baked! Or today, I peeled some potatoes and then ran them through the apple corer/chopper and then quickly chopped them for boiling. I love finding things like this to make my prep work easier!

I'm much more likely to cook wholesome foods if I can make the prep work more enjoyable and easier too. (But, as a note, don't be like me and chop your potatoes a day or two in advance and put them in a plastic baggie, yuck! I thought I was being so clever, but alas, I was not. Just chop before use or put them in a bowl with some water, they oxidize quite oddly- meaning- they turn a nasty brown color all over).

3. Speaking of saving time, I have been googling tips for storing my iphone headphoes for what feels like eternity, but has in fact only been a year or so. I get so frustrated trying to get them out of my bag all wound up around my sunglasses and pens. I have found a few ideas, but nothing I love as much as this one! I can't wait to give a try.

4. While I'm on the subject of iphones, (look at me segwaying like a pro! what what. Pro segway-er right here) I'm so very enthralled with this company's iphone cases. I want want want them all, especially their movie ones. This one is my all time favorite, I'm trying to convince myself to spend $35 dollars on it.. and not having much luck. Maybe next month!

5. Combining both the iphone stuff and the photos above comes my latest love, the app Snapseed. I got it for free a while back during one of those crazy 'get it while you can!' things and  I love it. It's such fun for editing pictures I take on my phone. I'm considering using it for other fun photo editing on my laptop as well. We shall see!

Enjoy the rest of the week!
-m

Roasted Carrots

These roasted carrots are simply delightful.

Delightful and easy and sensationally tasty. If you'll indulge me, they smell vaguely tropical and have a kick of spice with each bite.

I don't have much of an anecdote to go with this post, other than to show you my new favorite blog/website Nourished Kitchen. 

It fits so well with my latest obsession: unprocessed, whole, natural foods.

Trying to plan before the meal plans

I even signed up (and paid the measly $10 a month) for their weekly meal plans. Seriously, I did that. It's so easy. They email me three great dinner meals (meat + veggies+ a salad usually, or so it seems) and a few other tasty things like baked fruit or soups.

So far we have eaten pot roast, broiled salmon, roasted chicken, pan fried cod and steak (I see that is all the meat, but whoa, it's good meat and easy). I've roasted broccoli, carrots and all manner of veggies. I've made countless (well, 5) salad dressings that were easy and delicious. I feel like I'm being spoiled and I'm the one doing all the cooking.

This is how I used to meal plan for the week. Now, I just open an email and print.

Maybe this seems nutty, paying someone to send you a weeks worth of recipes. I can see that. But, I spend so much time each week planning the next weeks meals and with trying to slowly stop eating processed, foods finding recipes has been more and more challenging. This was such a great, easy, delicious solution.

These roasted carrots are just one of the reasons I feel this website was a great discovery. I've made them three times now, and the first time I made them we ate them all before dinner was even served.

Roasted Carrots
from Nourished Kitchen

ingredients

8 carrots, scraped and sliced
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon honey
zest of 1 orange
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or more, if you are crazy like me)

Preheat your oven to 425.

Toss the carrots with the oil, honey, orange zest and red pepper flakes. Spread onto a baking sheet (lined with foil or parchment paper for easy cleaning) and roast for about 30 minutes, stirring once. 

Enjoy!
-m

Sweet Potato Muffins

About two years ago, I fell in love with roasted sweet potatoes. I had been avoiding eating them ever since every single health related magazine article said I just had to try this 'super food'. I prefer to come to ideas on my own, or at least convince myself that I did.

What a goof, I know. I used to tell my high school tennis coach that I enjoyed doing my backhand wrong. Yes, enjoyed. He would come over and try to correct my form and I would resist. I'd tell him to go away. And I wonder why I never did as well as I wanted to...

I firmly believed that eventually the right way would just miraculously come to me with one swing and I would forever be relieved of my wrongness. I see the error of my ways.. kind of. I'm still guilty of this stubbornness on occasion. Case in point, I probably should have tried sweet potatoes sooner.

Dates, dates, lovely dates. They add so much to these muffins!

I roast up a big bag of sweet potatoes fairly regularly, about once or twice a month. I eat them sometimes with my smoothie for breakfast, as an afternoon snack or with dinner. I just adore them. Their flavor is amazing to me- the wonderful not-quite-potato-more-like-squash texture and the natural sweetness. They are incredibly satisfying.

So aesthetically pleasing, no?

I've done all this roasting, but rarely do anything else with them. That's why this recipe has knocked my socks off something crazy. I've made it three times. I love it, but at first I thought I'd be the only one.

Do you see the chunks of sweet potato? The little bits of orange there at the bottom and top? No? Trust me, it's the best part.

I made mini versions of it the first time I made them, to share with some friends. They were gone so fast! Even when I said "whole wheat sweet potato muffins with dates".

Seriously.

People didn't run away screaming "What's wrong with you!?". I thought they might; the ingredients can sound a tad bit strange on their own, but just imagine each of those flavors mixed together and baked. Heavenly, eh? Well, so far, everyone I share these with just loves them.

These are great right out of the oven, but I usually make them for breakfast/morning snacks for the week. Even my picky husband gobbles them up, though I need to solve the 'sticks to the wrapper' problem as it really drives him bonkers.

Sweet Potato Muffins

adapted from Good to the Grain 


ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon all spice
2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted cold butter
2 large roasted sweet potatoes, about 3/4 lb (I sometimes use 4 small ones if that's what I bought)
1/4 cup sugar (or raw sugar)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup plain yogurt or kefir
6 large medjool dates, pitted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roast sweet potatoes on a baking sheet covered with parchment or foil. Roast for 1-1.5 hours, depending on their size. The bottoms should be dark and almost burnt looking and the juices should be caramelizing. After they have cooled, peel them and leave them in tact.

Lower the oven to 350 and grease your muffin pan. Use muffin liners if you wish, though they stick sometimes to the paper cups.

Sift the dry ingredients together. In a small bowl, mix the buttermilk and yogurt.

Add the butters and the sugars to a medium sized bowl and mix either with a standing mixer or by hand. Mix until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and just half of the sweet potatoes (yes! just half!) and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. On low speed, add the dry ingredients until they are just partly combined. Follow this up by adding in the buttermilk mixture and mix until combined.

Add the dates and separate them over the surface so they don't all clump together. You want them spread throughout the batter. Next (my favorite part!), add the remaining sweet potatoes and mix until only barely combined- you want pockets of sweet potato in the batter. Scoop the batter into 10 muffin tins, skipping every other muffin cup if you want to keep the tops from touching as they bake.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the bottoms are dark and tops are springy to the touch. The author of the cookbook suggests placing the muffins on their sides to cool, as pictured above. They can be stored for 3 days or frozen for future enjoyment.

Enjoy!
-m

Smoothies Again!

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of a morning smoothie. Over the past eight months or so  I have had a smoothie for most of my breakfasts. You may also know that I'm a sucker for a good time saver. In fact, if you are holding out some great time saving secret you better tell me because if I discover it and find out you knew about it all along, well I will be mighty disgruntled for at least three whole minutes.

I have evidence to support that claim, I truly do. When I was about 20, just trying to make everything work as a preschool teacher and a full time college student, I felt so overwhelmed by household duties. All that cleaning and cooking and bill paying was just dreadful. Cleaning was especially awful because of our horrible hard water. The ring in the bathtub was so incredibly disgusting. I had never seen anything like that nasty bathtub ring. At first I was sure something was wrong with the bathtub, not with my cleaning routine. When it finally dawned on me that the filthy, white and yet brown, rough ring around the tub was caused by my water and my washing, well I was infinitely grossed out.

I resolved to clean it up right quick and be done with it forever. I would be a preventative cleaner, proactive not reactive. I tried every cleaner I could reasonably afford. I used lemon juice and baking soda and all manner of household combinations. I even resorted to scrapping it with a soup spoon. In the end, that spoon was the only thing that left a dent- and that was more literal than figurative. I was near my wits end, almost a year of trying fruitlessly to clean this stubborn ring, when one of my coworkers just happened to mention her undying love for the mr. clean magic eraser. She proudly mentioned its wonderful ability to clean her bathroom to a sprightly shimmer. I could hardly believe her, I was so skeptical of the commercial's claims. I realize now that I should have been happy to hear this. Thrilled. Ecstatic. Enthralled. But my very first thought was that she had been holding out on me. She had this amazing secret and was scrubbing away her bathtub ring within minutes while I grabbed my trusty soup spoon and spent what felt like hours chipping away at those hard water deposits. About three minutes later, after much brooding and begrudgingly nodding as the conversation moved forward, I decided I had to try this thing out. I did and it was awesome and although I now buy the target version of this wondrous scrubber, I'm grateful for that conversation but now I know to ask in advance.

Speaking of asking, any ideas on how to get a floor to sweep itself? Or how to get Shelby to wipe her own paws after running through the muddy backyard?

Well, this is my newest trick and I'm here to share. My morning smoothie revamped. About a month or so ago I was tempted by the idea of buying a large case of Odwalla premade smoothies from Costco. I saw the big box of them and thought of all the time I would save each morning (about 3 minutes, yeah, seriously, three whole minutes my friend). Then I took one look at the ingredients (sugar! yikes!) and put that thought out of my mind. Instead, I decided to make an entire batch of smoothies for the week on that Sunday night. And I did just that. But by friday the top of my smoothie had a brown tint and tasted vaguely of bad bananas. Um. gross. You should have seen the look on my students' faces as I tried to swallow that initial Friday-old-banana-yuckiness. I must have had quite a look on my face too, it was a priceless moment. We laughed. I threw the smoothie away.

For the past few weeks I have been trying to figure out how to make the smoothies ahead of time but retain their fresh Monday/Tuesday look and taste. The answer was in my backyard: lemons. So simple!

That's my freshly squeezed lemon juice in the jar up front. So many lemons, so little time..

Here's how I work it:
1) Fill up your blender with an assortment of fruit and maybe some greens. I prefer 3 fairly fresh bananas, about one bag of frozen berries, 1/3 bag of frozen spinach and some blueberries.
2) Pour in some liquid, about halfway filling up the blender. I used some beet/carrot juice and some pomegranate juice and a little citrus juice of your choice. 
3) Let it sit for a bit, an hour or two, to make it easier to blend.
4) Get your jars ready!
5) Blend up the smoothie and pour equal amounts in each jar.
6) Pour about a tablespoon of lemon juice on the top of each smoothie before placing the lid on top.
7) Place them all in the fridge and enjoy three more minutes of blissful coffee sipping in the morning!

Tips:
1) I have found that using fresher bananas results in a fresher taste come Friday
2) Orange juice seems to work well in place of the lemon juice
3) Wash out the jar as soon as you get home, wooowweee does mold grow fast in those suckers

I have been making my smoothies each Sunday night this way for about three weeks and so far, so good. I added apples and pineapples and loved it. I also added coconut oil and did not love it. Live and learn!

Enjoy!
-m