Get Rid of Toxins

I added a new blog to my side bar Kitchen Stewardship. I did a post about it here. I just wanted to post here what I'm learning and changing.

The first thing I start reading about was plastic. She tells you which are considered safe and which are not. I found out my water bottles are not. I don't use my tap water because it doesn't taste good so I've been filling 2 gal. water bottles at the store with filtered water. I've also bought small bottles of water for my emergency supplies. Both are in the bad plastic, so what to do. I would put a filter on my faucet, but mine has a pull out sprayer on it and I can't afford to buy a new faucet right now, so I decided to try the Brita Pitcher. I haven't tried it before because I though it would be too expensive, but it really isn't and the water tastes great.

I also bought a stainless steel water bottle to take with me when I go out instead of the plastic one I had. I'm also going to start replacing my plastics with glass, but I still need plastic for some things like the freezer. I recently bought a Food Safer to help with the freezer burn on meats. So I won't be giving up all my plastics, but where I can. You can use glass in the freezer but it's a lot bulkier and I'm not ready to make that sacrifice yet.

I also read all her posts on fat and I learned a lot about the subject. Changes I'm making are I'm not going to buy my EVOO in large economical bottle anymore, but buy small bottles I can use up in a timely manner and they should be in opaque containers. I'm going to get virgin olive oil for sautes and use coconut oil more in my cooking. I don't use the polys, corn oil and other seed oils.
The big thing with oils is how stable are they and coconut oil is very stable, olive oil need proper storage. The virgin olive oil not the extra virgin is better for high temps. You can read all about it on her site. I always wondered exactly why everyone was so excited about coconut oil until I started reading about how good it is for you, not just in the kitchen but on your skin too. It's worth looking into and learning about. I have some and just need to use it. I was for awhile and then went back to the EVOO. I don't know why, but I did so I'm going to start using it again not just for cooking and learn more about it.

My next thing I was interested in was the super foods and so I'm working on the ones that I particularly need and many of them are already in my diet, but I'm just going to try and increase them like salmon, walnuts and flax.

Good Kitchen Habit-Clean As You Go

I've been waiting until I was done to clean up, but I'm going to go back to starting with a dish pan of soapy water and cleaning as I go when I cook, especially when I know there is going to be a lot of dishes. I don't use the dishwasher. I wash by hand and recently got a red plastic dish pan and drainer. I find it uses less water than filling up the sink and having the drainer frees up one sink for rinsing and the disposal. Washing dishes was always one of those chores I didn't mind and my dishwasher never seemed to get the dishes that clean. I just try to watch how much water I use.

Linda

Menu 4/24-5/1

Those baby artichokes I made last week were nice and tender, it's a good recipe.

Baking Day- Muesli Bread

Sunday-Leek and Carrot Soup

Spinach Salad

Monday-Chicken Fingers

Slaw

Tuesday-Baby Artichoke Heart Quinoa Risotto with Shrimp and Meyer Lemon Pesto

Wednesday- same as Sunday

Thursday- same as Monday

Friday- same as Tuesday

Saturday-Asparagus Omelet

The Muesli Bread and Chicken Fingers are from Elana's Pantry's book. Here is her web site although these recipes are not on it. After getting her book from the library I decided to buy it, so I'll be cooking from it for a few weeks.

Linda

Menu- 4/18-4/24

I want to start eating more raw food. At least one raw thing at each meal. I found these vinaigrette's that sound interesting.

Artichokes are suppose to be in season. I never cook those baby ones, these sound delicious. I think they would be good with the salmon I want to have this week. I'm trying to up my Omega 3's. It was on sale last week so I got 2 pieces and put one in the freezer.

Sun-Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Leftover Quinoa Salad

Mon-Black Bean Soup (from the freezer)
Salad with Baked Goat Cheese

Tues-Grilled Pork Chops with Rub
Cauliflower Puree
Slaw

Thurs-Same as Mon

Fri-Same as Tues

Sat-Salmon Grilled
Baby Artichokes
Salad

No Desserts for a while, maybe some fruit.

Linda

Kitchen Notes- Quinoa Salad with Cannelini Beans

Yesterday I made the Quinoa Salad. It turned out really good. I did change a few things in the original recipe. Instead of chickpeas I use Cannelini beans, I didn't have the red pepper or red onion, I used scallions. I switched out the almonds for pine nuts. The link to the recipe was posted here.

I've been eating out of my freezer quite a bit this week. The Pesto for the above recipe I had in my freezer. I also had meat balls with a tomato sauce that I had frozen they tasted really good. I took out some Black Bean Soup that I'm having next week. I also had some Cheesy Tuna with Peas in the freezer and that was good. So I'm learning for this season what works in the freezer and what doesn't.

Linda

Kitchen Habit- Dish Towels and Dish Cloths

This may seem obvious, but most of these habits are. Just because they are obvious doesn't mean they get done. This one is putting out a clean dish towel each day and changing your wash cloth or sponge often.

Some Veggie Links

Veg Stuffed Quinoa Salad with Pesto Dressing Now that's what I'm talking about, I love Quinoa Salad

Vegtable Rice This sounds interesting but I would probably change a few of the ingredients, but I think it is a good recipe to play with.

Add Cream Cheese to Your Sandwich Lots of inspiration here. I've been wanting to do some sprouting.

I decided to not do a menu this week, but may make some or all of the above.

Linda

Menu

I didn't get mine done yet. Tonight I'm having Chicken Catcatory that was in my freezer and slaw with a lot of veggies in it. I still hope to find time to do the menu. I'm feeling like I'm getting in the salad fresh veggies mode, so hope to have some recipes for veggies and salads.

Linda

Kitchen Notes-Bulgogi Wraps (Korean Marinated Beef)

I made this yesterday. It had been marinating in my frig for several days. It good, I wish I had made more, but the meat was expensive. I couldn't find rib-eye and so I used top round. The only problem I had was the marinade burned onto my pan and I'm having a hard time getting it clean. Sorry I wasn't able to link a recipe because it came from a cookbook, but it is basically strips of beef marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic and scallions. It's stir fried and served wrapped with lettuce. Hope that helps. I'm sure there are probably similar recipes on line. I found the lettuce wrap hard to do and messy, the meat kept falling out. It tasted good though.

Edit-I decided to look myself and there are a lot of different recipes for this with different fillings and different wraps, so if you want this particular recipe you would have to ge this book. I got it out of the library and it is the one I've mentioned at the bottom of menu post.

Yesterday was the first day of the Farmer's Mkt and I forgot about it. I was busy cleaning my kitchen. I'm glad it's back.

Linda

Kitchen Notes- Shortbread

Made shortbread from the almond flour. It is so easy to make things with the almond flour. I realized they have a web site and I found the recipe on it except mine didn't have the glaze which would have been good. I just noticed mine had 2 c. almond flour otherwise the same.

My dd and gd came over and we enjoyed the shortbread with tea.

I'm having left overs for dinner.

Kitchen Notes-French Lentil Soup

I made the soup yesterday. I made a few changes. It called for a lot of roasted tomatoes and I cut the amount in half and used some of the whole frozen tomatoes I had in the freezer. The roasted tomatoes I had were also from my freezer. The recipe had you precook your lentils and I eliminated that step, because the lentils I used are those small ones and they cook pretty fast. I also left out the cayenne because I don't like things hot. I use the chard that I'm growing and didn't have as much as the recipe called for, but used what I had.

I had it for dinner today and it was pretty good. I also made another custard out of all whip cream that I bought on sale. It is yummy, but almost too rich. I think I like using 1/2 and 1/2 better.

Linda

Menu 4-5 to 4-11

Monday-left overs

Tuesday-French Green Lentil Soup

Wensday- out

Thursday-Maggies Turkey and Prosciotto (these are turkey burgers wrapped in prosciotto)
Zucchini Canoes (these are stuffed zucchini halves)

Friday-Turkey

Saturday-Rulgogi Wraps (these are pieces of steak wrapped in a lettuce leaf)
Stuffed Mushrooms



Sunday-Pasta-less Lasagna (these use spaghetti squash instead of pasta)

Except for Soup all these recipes are from Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, by Raman Prasad. I have to take it back to the library soon and wanted to try some first. I think I'm going to buy this book, even though I'm not doing this diet it has good recipes for my diabetic low carb diet.

Dessert- Baked Honey Custard served with Strawberries

Linda

Kitchen Notes-Expresso Brownies

Yesterday I made these delicious Expresso Brownies for our celebration today. They are made with almond butter, no flour and they are very moist.

Kitchen Notes-Asparagus andCashew Chicken Stir Fry

I made the Asparagus and Cashew Chicken Stir Fry today. Link on menu. It was a really good recipe. I decided I didn't like the Chick Pea Soup after all. It just has an odd taste.