A Little Preoccupied

I know, I know. It's been a while. I am in the process of moving back to Copenhagen, Denmark and just need some time to settle in here. What would life be like if we couldn't stop and enjoy the view once in a while? Check back in a couple days...

In health and sanity,
Sarah B.

Scalloped Potatoes - Vegan + Dairy-Free

Creamy vegan scalloped potatoes

On a whim and out of nowhere (and at 2:54 AM, I'll have you know) I began conjuring images of creamy scalloped potatoes. Odd for someone who must avoid cheese and cream and butter and who- most days- is reconciled to her cheese-free life with a shrugging Lebowski-Zen detachment they write books about. Not to mention, it's been (literally) over a decade since I made this retro recipe, cream or no cream. Alas, I simply couldn't get the idea out of my sleepy Ewan McGregor-esque spiky head. 

The vegan scalloped potato challenge bit me. And refused to let go.

To make my pre-dawn vision a reality this classic recipe would need some serious tweaking. I mean, it's not just cheese you have to replace (and I'm no fan of plastic vegan cheeses, let me tell you). There is cream. And sweet moo-cow butter. Three key ingredients that make this comfy dish so melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Lucky for me I happened to have some dairy-free cream sauce left over from a vegan pasta I had tossed together the night before. A thick and silky hemp based sauce featuring artichokes and wine.

Accident? Destiny? Or simply the collective unconscious zeroing in on post-midnight potato cravings when your serotonin is dropping so fast your heart beat skips and triggers a hot flash?

You decide.

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Gluten-Free Ryeless Rye Bread

My gluten-free ryeless rye bread recipe makes delicious toast.

Call me crazy but one of the comfort foods I miss most after living gluten-free for years is not some fancy French cookie or triple layer ganache swathed cake. Nope. 

It's rye toast- piping hot and crunchy around the edges slathered with melting peanut butter. 

My favorite tea time snack. There's something about that fragrant rye tang with caraway paired with sweet creamy peanut butter that sends my little endorphins into all's right with the world childlike bliss.

I'm easy, I know.

The snag is- ever since my celiac disease epiphany gluten-free rye bread has been playing hard to get. Recipes for ryeless rye bread have proved petulant and elusive. Rice flour or chick pea flour does not taste like rye, I'm sorry to tell you. And now peanut butter has gotten itself into all kinds of trouble with the whole e-coli thing (through no inherent fault of it's own-- the peanut is innocent, I tell you).

So what's a gluten-free goddess to do? Live without one of life's simple pleasures? (Aren't I already doing that, living sans bagels?!) Dear Zen Universe- honestly now- for the sake of calm detachment and flow must I give up all dreams of deli?

Not today.

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Make Your Own Potato Chips

Make your own potato chips.

Before I get to how to cook your own potato chips and avoid the game we food allergic individuals refer to as Le Chip Roulette, I'd like to mention dreaming. Because I woke from some very strange dreams this morning. Dreams involving caveman chest hair and glistening inky fish and long distance songs on some radio left behind in an abandoned mining shack perfect for a David Lynch location shoot. Spandau Ballet, in fact- crooning, I know this much is tru-hoo.

It's day fifteen of the tenacious head cold I picked up in Los Angeles. And it's Friday the thirteenth. But I'm not so easily spooked. Old ghosts got nothing on this morning's weirdness. This is kindergarten stuff. Amateur hour. So I shook it off and brewed some tea.

I'm blaming high altitude and not enough fresh fruit.

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Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake

A dairy-free vegan flourless chocolate cake- no tofu.

A deep dark chocolate cake recipe. Just in time for Valentine's Day. And the best part? It's not only gluten-free, but vegan as well. And it's technically a flourless chocolate cake (which for some retro-fueled reason still conjures the term sexy thanks to Sarah Jessica Parker).

In full disclosure (hey, I vet my recipes okay?) I added a scant amount of buckwheat flour to help it set up without eggs, but buckwheat isn't technically a grain, is it? More of a groat, a fruit kernel. In fact, buckwheat is a cousin to sorrel and rhubarb. I could try to impress you with shout-outs to the Polygonaceae family, dropping botanical distinctions like actinomorphic and calyx as fast as Madonna drops post-Guy Ritchie boyfriends, but I'd rather leave all botany urges behind and get back to chocolate and celebrating the dream of true love. 

All in the nick of time for Valentine's Day.

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Do the Millet Mash

Ah, mashed potatoes. The very thought of the creamy, light, buttery mounds of white bring up found memories of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Sunday night dinners. Giving us the cozy comfort only rivaled by a feather duvet, mashed potatoes are the traditional side dish that seem to round out every meal.
So why would I be trying to find a replacement for a seemingly perfect food? Well, there are a couple reasons: my right knee is one reason and my left knee is the other.
Believe it or not, potatoes, and all other vegetables a part of the same family, contain a whole host of alkaloids (re: plant poisons) that can trigger problems in our bodies, like arthritis

Potatoes (not sweet potatoes), tomatoes, eggplants and peppers (just to name a common few) are part of the Solanaceae family, also called Nightshades, a group of plants named for their ability to grow at night. Nightshades vegetables contain high levels of glycoalkaloids, compounds known to be toxic at certain levels, causing gastrointestinal inflammation, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, and other symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization.

And as for my knees, they’ve been borderline arthritic for years now (don’t ask) and cutting back on all nightshades, but specifically, potatoes has seemed to help. What’s the connection? Glycoalkaloids like the solanine found in potatoes, not only exacerbate inflammatory conditions, but also can disrupt the metabolization of calcium in the body, by blocking its assimilation and therefore depleting already low calcium levels in people with arthritis.

Nightshade vegetables may also aggravate other conditions like eczema, cystitis, lupus and psoriasis. It can take up to six months of exclusion of nightshades from the diet to achieve a beneficial effect.
Surprisingly, tobacco is included in the nightshade family, and consequently all nightshades contain very small amounts of nicotine, explaining why these foods are so addictive. Some programs to help people give up cigarettes also recommend giving up nightshade foods in order to completely eliminate low level nicotine intake and consequent re-addiction.


Here is a recipe for mashed potatoes minus the potatoes! This is a great dish to serve even if you’re not trying to avoid nightshade vegetables. The main ingredient is millet, a nutty, quick-cooking grain similar to quinoa, only slightly drier. Millet can be used in place of rice, or any other grain. Aside from quinoa and amaranth, millet has the most complete protein of any grain, making it a great choice for vegetarians. It is naturally alkaline, which is beneficial to the spleen, pancreas and stomach. Its significant amounts of iron, lecithin and choline help keep cholesterol in check and stop the formation of certain types of gallstones.


Millet Mash
Ingredients:
1 cup millet
3 cups water
1 medium onion
1 small head cauliflower
2 Tbsp cold pressed oil (olive, flax, hemp, etc.)
2-3 cloves garlic (optional, but delicious)
¼ cup arame, soaked for 20 minutes (optional – a huge nutritional boost!)
Unrefined sea salt to taste

Directions:
1. Rinse millet well by covering with water and swishing it around, then draining. Do this 2-4 times until the water runs clear.
2. Chop cauliflower and onion into chunks.
3. Put rinsed millet and water in a large pot and cover with chopped vegetables and salt. Bring to a rapid boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and the millet is cooked.
4. Remove from heat, add the cold pressed oil (and arame is you’re using it), and mash with a large fork or potato masher. For an extra smooth consistency, use a hand blender or a food processor.

Millet is like a blank canvas - you can use any type of vegetable you and your family likes. For orange mash, use carrots; for green use broccoli, kale, or spinach; for pink use beets!
Happy Mashing!

info source: Balch, Phyllis, A. Prescription for Dietary Wellness. New York, NY: Avery, 2003.

Big Easy Chili- and some super recipes

Big easy soup with beans and spicy sausage.

I'm back from our jaunt to Los Angeles- an impromptu trip that was over far too quickly (where does time fly to, by the way? They say time flies but I always want to know, where?). I have a handful of juicy details to report, and I will, in an upcoming post, but today is apparently sort of a big deal.

There's a game goin' on? And rumor has it, today's a big chili day. So I am reprising a big easy chili recipe and sharing a link to Whole Foods- for healthy and tasty vegan and gluten-free menu ideas and recipes for pot lucks and Super Bowl parties. Me?

I'll be doing laundry. Lots of laundry.

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