Wild Kitchen

Skinny omelette from 101Cookbooks.com

I have discovered that it pays to complain bitterly to your friends about dietary restrictions, because then they help you scout out good food!  The lovely and wonderful Elkit has been sending tips and recipes my way, and I got to make one of them for lunch today. 

The Skinny Omelette Recipe from 101Cookbooks sounded really great to me, and even though mine wasn't perfect it was very, very good.  I used chopped organic roma tomato and diced avocado for the filling, and put basil in the egg.  My problem was the pan I used must've been too small -- my omelette wasn't thin enough.  It was wonderful, though, and next time (like, tomorrow morning) I'll use a bigger pan or not quite all the eggs.  Sophie loved it, too, though her favorite breakfast is scrambled eggs with cheese rolled in a flour tortilla  (I miss that -- this was just as good in its own way).

Chilled avocado soup

I'm so ridiculously full right now.  Painful.  I've been craving avocado soup, and finally made it this afternoon.  I'd forgotten how simple and how good it is. 

Ingredients:

• 3 medium avocados (peeled, pitted, and diced)
• 1 tablespoon shallots (peeled and chopped)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (or butter)
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 cups veggie stock
• 1 cup soy milk (I use unsweetened)
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 medium tomato (diced)

In a blender or food processor, blend avos until smooth.  In a small skillet over medium heat, saute the shallots in the oil until tender and almost translucent but not browned.  Sprinkle with chili powder and set aside to cool.  In a large bowl, whisk together avocado with stock and soy milk.  Add shallot mixture and whisk until smooth.  Stir in sea salt and pepper to taste, maybe some hot sauce.  Chill for 45 minutes, garnish with tomato.

I doubled the recipe so we could have some tomorrow, too.  While the soup chilled, I baked some tofu and boiled a bunch of swiss chard.  I put some raw pinenuts in the oven to toast (those went into a mixed herb salad) while the tofu baked, and cut up enough tomato for the soup garnish and for the salad.  When the tofu was a couple minutes away from being done I microwaved some Trader Joe's precooked and frozen brown rice.  I didn't have room for the salad, and that photo of my plate was taken before I added an unholy amount of real mayo to dip the chard in.  (I don't wanna know if you use miracle whip.  Mayo must be real -- preferably homemade though I rarely make it --  and that is non-negotiable.)

Why Wild Kitchen? / Baked Tofu

Why did I call this blog Wild Kitchen?  Tonight while I was making supper/doing laundry (my washer and dryer are in a little closet in the kitchen) my daughters ran past me.  Willow (the younger one) was clothed and holding one end of a jumprope.  She was towing Sophie, who was only wearing her underpants.  Tied to the side of her underpants was the other end of the jumprope.  They tore past me, laughing and screaming about naked heinies. 

Wild enough?

John is working until at least 10 pm.  The boys went to a friend's house tonight; hopefully they will come home at 8pm fed.   The girls wanted toast and flat eggs.  If you order a flat egg around here, you'll get a fried egg white.  My kids won't eat egg yolks, unless it's scrambled eggs.  They call the yolk in hard boiled eggs "egg cheese" "egg pits"  "egg seeds" or "the gross part."  I eat a TON of egg yolks.  Tonight was no exception and I ate four scrambled egg yolks before I even made my own supper.  Healthy, no?

I wasn't too hungry (duh) an hour later when I finally had a moment to make something to eat.  I had cold broccoli rabe (leftovers from Sunday night) and baked some tofu. 

Ingredients:

• extra-firm tofu ( I always use the organic kind -- it's still cheap enough)
• honey
• sesame oil
• tamari
• fresh ground pepper

I start by slicing the tofu lengthways into two or three sections.  Then, I blot those dry with clean flour sack kitchen towels.  I chop them (the tofu pieces, not the towels) into cubes, put them in a bowl and add a mixture made from one part honey, one part sesame oil, and two parts tamari.  I don't measure, but I think that's roughly how I do it.  (If you've never used tamari before, it's very much like soy so you won't need to add salt.  Pepper is always a safe date, though.)  I let the tofu sit in the marinade in the fridge if I have time.  Or, you could just let it sit while the oven preheats to 400 degrees.  The tofu goes on a baking sheet, then into the oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

I prefer this with a little heat, but I thought Willow might eat some.  She had plain raw tofu instead.  You could add fresh grated ginger, red pepper flakes, your favorite hot sauce, or whatever heat you like.  Here's my supper, which I was happy to eat all alone.  Bliss.

Once again, I ended up with a pretty plate, but it really needed more color.  I was hoping to find some cherry tomatoes or red bell peppers in the fridge, but no luck.  I did finally find the perfect red compliment though.

Roasted zucchini, sauteed sugar snap peas, and brown rice

Every Friday a nice young man from Westside Organics shows up at my door with a box of fresh and (mostly) local organic produce.  Yesterday he brought sugar snap peas and zucchini, along with strawberries, white peaches, apricots, apples, bananas, an avocado, a lemon, spinach, and a mango. 

I didn't have much time to spend cooking tonight, and the kids just wanted pasta with butter.  I know that is a horrible supper, but I let them slide since they usually eat healthier because I was lazy. 

I can't eat pasta with butter, so I made brown rice with zucchini and peas.

Ingredients!

• brown rice (I use the frozen already cooked kind from Trader Joe's because sometimes I don't want to wait 40 minutes for brown rice)
• 3 or 4 zucchini
• sugar snap peas
• olive oil
• tamari
• sesame oil
• salt & pepper

I washed and stemmed the peas and put them in a bowl.

Then I washed the zucchini, cut off the ends, and sliced them lengthwise.  I brushed a baking sheet with olive oil, set the strips in a single layer, and then brushed them with more olive oil and sprinkled them with salt.  I put them in a 350 degree oven (probably could have been hotter) and set the timer for 15 minutes. 

While the zucchini cooked, I got the pasta going and set out a skillet (a wok would be better) for the peas.   When the 15 minutes were up, I turned the zucchini slices over and put them back in the oven for ten more minutes. 

Then I started the peas.  Just heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on high heat (watch out for the splat factor), add the peas and stir fry until they are shiny green.  Maybe until they start to brown, if you like.  When they are finished, put them in a bowl (I use a spatula instead of just pouring them all in so I don't end up with too much oil), and drizzle 2 tablespoons tamari and 1 teaspoon (I probably used three times that, though) sesame oil over the top.  Then I just mixed it up with the brown rice, which I doused in tamari and sesame oil. 

It desperately needed some red; if I could have a do-over, I'd add red bell peppers (stir fried) or tomatoes (roasted with the zucchini).  Red pepper flakes would have looked nice, too, but I wasn't feeling the hot. 

The kids ate their pasta.  I tried to feed them some veggies, but they were having none of it.  That's okay.  More for the grown-ups.