Trying to Live in a Place where I Avoid Processed Food
Posted by Oracle of Eating | Tags: Healthy Eating
Over the past year, I have been trying to avoid eating any type of processed foods. This means anything that has ingredients that I would not find in my kitchen. This is hard when life gets busy, but it makes all the difference. I usually try to avoid food that comes out of a bag, can or box as well (since most of these food products are processed). The one thing I gave up because I thought it would be too difficult to make because of my busy schedule was ranch dressing. Boy was I wrong, this is so simple and I promise you, you will never use the stuff in a bottle again.
The recipe is really simple: make a base with mayonnaise (the real stuff, not sandwich spread or fat free stuff), sour cream and buttermilk and then throw in garlic and a bunch or herbs. It really is that easy. Here is my recipe:
Ranch Dressing
1/3 cup Mayonaise
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup buttermilk (add more to your liking to the consistency you want)
2 cloves of garlic (if you are not a garlic fan like I am, use only 1 clove)
1/2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Add dill, parsley, chives, salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika.
Blend the first 6 ingredients together; then add the herbs (for me good dried spices are fine). I add about 2 tbsp dill and chives and about 1 tbsp of parsley. Add the salt, pepper, cayenne, and paprika to taste. Blend everything together and let the dressing chill for a few hours before you serve.
Voila, it is as simple as that. A homemade ranch dressing that is so much better than the stuff you buy. With spring vegetables starting to make an appearance here in the Mid-Atlantic, you will have many uses for this dressing.
Until next time, enjoy experimenting with fresh ingredients.
"Ben-Hur" Themed Dinner - Part II
Posted by Oracle of Eating | Tags: Themed Meals
In the second part of the movie is the famous chariot race scene. This is what I used to base the theme of my dinner.
What says chariot race better than wagon wheels. First up, pasta salad using wagon wheels. Pasta salad is a fantastic food to make because you can use anything you want. The one I make uses the pasta, tomatoes, onions, orange sweet peppers, black olives, cucumbers, and pepperoni. My trick to pasta salad is: once the pasta is cooked put it in a bowl with onions. This allows some of the strong onion taste to disappear. I also put some of the dressing (I use a balsamic vinaigrette) on the hot pasta. The pasta absorbs the dressing. Once the pasta has cooled, I put in the rest of the vegetables and the pepperoni. I add salt and pepper to taste and more dressing if needed.
The other part of this meal was based on the chariot scene as well. Ben-Hur raced a Roman, Messala, who believed in the glory of Rome. To go with this sort of Roman theme, I made Italian Meatball Burgers which are based on a Cooking Light recipe. These are one of our favorites because I make them one night for burgers and another night during the week I use the burgers in a spaghetti sauce. With life being busy, this meals gives us lots of leftovers. The only addition to this recipe is I put in chopped onion in with the meat mixture as well as add a little steak sauce for a binder. If you enjoy sausage sandwiches or meatball sandwiches, you will enjoy these burgers.
I am still on my crusade to stop using processed foods, and this is one meal where I can accomplish that. One thing I have found that helps is freezing fruits and vegetables in the summer. I still have a ton of blueberries, tomatoes and jalapenos in the freezer, which helps. Next week is Fat Tuesday, so I most likely will be using some of my frozen tomatoes to make a meal.
Chow for Now,
The Oracle of Eating
"Ben-Hur" Themed Dinner – Part I
Posted by Oracle of Eating | Tags: Themed Meals
The winter in Pennsylvania brings tasteless fruits and vegetables, and it is about this time of the year I begin counting the days down until asparagus and strawberry seasons start. Probably about eight more weeks until I will get any type of local-ish produce. Therefore, since I cannot blog about the wonderful things coming out of my garden, I decided to make some theme meals. First up – "Ben Hur".
I am sure many of my readers are asking what possessed me to choose "Ben Hur" to do a themed meal about. Honestly, it is based on AFI’s top 100 movies from 2007. My husband and I decided to try to watch all the movies we have not seen and ones we have not watched for a long time. Number 100 on the list is "Ben-Hur" and that is how I have a two part themed meal for this movie. The move is a little over four hours, so we watched it over two nights and I have two meals to write about.
Part one of this themed meal is based on where the meal takes place. The film takes place is Judea, which is in current day Israel. I based all the food for this meal on Israeli food (I cannot promise the food is authentic to Israel). First, I made an Israeli couscous salad. This recipe I altered from Smitten Kitchen. It was easy, a little time consuming because of roasting tomatoes and waiting for the couscous to cool, but I did things in between. This recipe was really nice because even though tomatoes are tasteless this time of year, roasting them gave the tomatoes tons of flavor. I would recommend this recipe to anyone looking for something to make for a family dinner or to take to a party. It is really flavorful.
Secondly, I rubbed chicken with a bunch of different spices and grilled it. I combined half-sharp paprika, salt, cumin, coriander, oregano, and sweet paprika. I mixed the spices, rubbed it into the chicken, and grilled the meat. It was a wonderful meal for a cold winter night.
During these cold days of winter, it is nice to use creativity in the kitchen to create wholesome, comfort food. The nice thing about these two dishes is nothing was processed, it was all fresh and natural.
A Taste of Summer
Posted by Oracle of Eating | Tags: Healthy Eating
There is nothing like homegrown tomatoes in the summer, especially heirloom tomatoes. I am lucky enough to have some room to grow my own, and we grow about seven different types of heirloom tomatoes. There are a few things that we always make with these tomatoes: tomato sandwiches, bruschetta and caprese salad. There is nothing that says summer more to me than caprese salad.
Summer allows us to have meals from fresh seasonal ingredients. Caprese salad has few ingredients and is simple to make. Once you have made this, it will become one of your favorite dishes to eat in the summer. The first time I actually had this I was in Italy; and when I came home from Italy I wanted to recreate it. With five simple ingredients I did.
This is how I make caprese salad: I slice tomatoes ( I like to use different colored ones), Sliced Mozzarella cheese (you must use fresh), fresh basil, good balsamic vinegar and good olive oil. I first put a splash of balsamic on the plate, and then layer tomato, mozzarella, basil, repeat this once, and put one more slice of tomato on the top. I top it off with another drizzle of balsamic and a splash of olive oil. You then season with salt and pepper to taste. And voila you have a caprese salad. It takes about five minutes to make and it is delicious. There is nothing that tastes as fresh as this simple salad.
In these last days of summer I wanted to post something that reminds me that good and fresh ingredients makes the best food. For those of you who try this, enjoy!
A Day of Canning
Posted by Oracle of Eating | Tags: Canning
When I was younger, my grandmother used to can. Although I do not have memories of her canning, I do however remember her making pies out of the fruit she canned. One of my goals this summer was to figure out how to can some of the produce that is available during the summer. Luckily, I found a class where I learned how to can using the hot water bath method. My first undertaking: making blueberry jam.
I first had to purchase 10 pounds of blueberries. Not all the berries were for the jam, some I froze to use later for cobblers, muffins or pancakes. I then mashed ¾ of what I had and then the boiling process began. For my first time it only took about 2 hours, and I have to say that this is the best jam I ever tasted. There is nothing like making something yourself for your family. The jam tastes completely different from what we get in the grocery store. I don’t think I will ever eat store bought jam again.
We use the jam to spread on toast or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we also mix some in with cream cheese to make flavored cream cheese. I am thrilled that I learned how to make my own jam. For any of you out there reading this, who are interested in making your own jam, I would advise you to try canning. Hot water bath canning is not as intimidating as it looks. In addition, the product you make is the most delicious thing you will ever taste.