Tahini

There's just no substitute for soy sauce when you want a good stir-fry. But tonight I came close.

I mixed a cup of tahini, about 1/4 C oil (a mixture of corn and sesame oil), 1/2 C lemon juice, at least a good tablespoon of salt, a hearty dash of ginger, and a sprinkle of black pepper. Roughly. I don't actually measure anything when I cook, but that's approximate. It should be tangy and smooth.

It was really good on our barley and stir-fry.

Lentil salad

Inspired by a recipe I found over at Eat Air, I made lentil salad for dinner last night. Andy and I both really enjoyed it, but Jaxom gave it a hearty "Ewwww." Oh well. With a 20-month old, you just can't win them all.

In addition to yummy, this dish was pretty, too. I am kicking myself for not taking pictures. I didn't think about it until it was too late. Bummer.

My version went thusly:

While the lentils were cooking, I mixed up the dressing in a big bowl.

1/2 C each olive oil and balsamic vinegar
pinch of parsley
~1/2 tsp ground thyme
generous pinch dried tarragon
salt and pepper.

Then I cut up my veggies and threw them in with the dressing. Pretty much anything would work here, but I used:

1 carrot, grated
1 avocado, cut into chunks
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
generous handful broccoli florets, minced fine so Jax would eat them
1 rib celery, sliced thin
a handful of kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
a handful of sliced black olives. We love olives in this house, oh yes we do.

By this time I was out of room in the bowl I'd chosen, so I fudged a little and served the lentils separately, along with a big shaker of nutritional yeast to sprinkle on top.

The avocado was the dark horse of this dish. I was pleased with the creamy, smoky note it added. I also liked the contrast between smooth and crunchy, tangy and mellow. My only regret? I should have made more. Andy finished it off when I got up to take Jax to the bathroom.

Fruity

I do so love fruit salad. We haven't had any in a while. Where I come from, traditional fruit salad is made with sour cream. Obviously, we could leave it out and just have the actual fruit, but that wouldn't be much fun. So when the mood hit me yesterday for fruit salad, I thought about it, surveyed the contents of my pantry, and hit on it: pudding mix. As best I can tell, Jello pudding is mainly cornstarch and sugar. Perfect.

And it was. I could really have used two boxes, since I don't drain the fruit, but it was quite tasty. I'm enjoying a bowl of it right now. This is the combination I like best:

One 14-oz can each: mandarin oranges, sliced peaches, pineapple chunks or bits, all undrained
Handful shredded coconut
Handful jumbo raisins
Handful blueberries
Two small bananas, sliced
Maraschino cherries
Two boxes vanilla pudding mix

Dump it all in a bowl, mix, cover tightly, and soak for an hour or two till your raisins are plump.

Easy-peasy.

I prefer taco to sausage.

It only gets worse, sometimes. After more testing, we've found Jax has elevated antibodies to peas. PEAS. Who in the world is allergic to peas? Peas are a staple of our diet, so it makes sense that he would have antibodies to peas rather than, say, Brussels sprouts or pork. But still. This is crazy.

We can see a definite problem with dairy, garlic, and peanuts, but not so much with the other foods he has antibodies to. Even after a few weeks of a very strict diet, his skin is still not as clear as I'd like. That tells me that it's not entirely his diet. So, I'm giving up and moving to a rotation diet. Soy one day, wheat a couple days later, and so on. It's better than starving, and it's not really making much of a difference on his skin so far.

Over the weekend, we had to go to a business dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. It was delicious. We had yakisoba noodles (my favorite), and all other manner of uncleanness - garlic, soy, onions. I dosed him up on Benadryl beforehand, and - no hives! He did flare up a bit, but it was a good tradeoff nonetheless.

Last night we had a fairly good supper - tacos. Over the last few years, I've grown to love veggies in my tacos, courtesy of my local Mexican place. It's owned and operated by (probably illegal) Mexican immigrants, and the food is fairly good. They use a mixture of bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, potatoes (!), and mushrooms in nearly every dish. It's surprisingly good. My version involves broccoli, red bell pepper, corn kernels, mushrooms, and black beans. Toss in a baking dish with lime juice, corn oil, salt, pepper, and chile powder. Set as close as you can to the broiler and broil till the broccoli starts to char and the bean skins split. Eat in a taco shell with refried beans, salsa, olives, and whatever else strikes your fancy. Yum.

Wheat

It's looking like wheat is going to be a no-go, for a while anyway. After trying wheat for a couple days, Jax had a terrible allergic reaction last night. It's always the same: he wakes up with really itchy hives and begins to cry. I usually end up pacing around the house with him, trying to soothe him enough so he can go back to sleep and forget about his skin. I feel really bad for the little guy - I know it hurts as well as itches, and there's no way he can NOT scratch it, especially at night when there's only nursing to distract him.

Speaking of nursing, I am constantly so glad that he nurses. I never have to worry whether he's getting enough to eat, or whether I'm providing enough omega-3s or selenium or whatever.
Actually, I probably wouldn't worry anyway. He eats a very balanced diet. All in all, though, nursing is the best thing ever invented.

Traveling taco soup

Yup, tomorrow I'm traveling to see my parents, possibly without my spouse. It's always fun to visit them, in part because a common meal is nigh impossible. Jax and I have our list of foods to avoid, Andy is vegetarian, Adam is diabetic, Dad only eats fish, and Mom is just plain picky in her avoidance of all vegetables except white potatoes. She doesn't even eat marinara sauce, preferring instead to melt a slice of American cheese over her pasta. Anyway, if you Venn-diagrammed my family's dietary requirements, you would have about 5 distinctly non-overlapping circles. This would be why we don't go out to eat together.

Jax and I really eat a whole foods diet out of necessity as well as preference. In the past 2 months I have had almost no processed/refined food. Once again I'm so glad to be a vegetarian. Before all this started up, I already had developed both a taste for healthy foods and the ability to cook them. If I were one of those people who only eat items that come ready-made in a box, I'd be in trouble.

My contribution Saturday will be taco soup, a favorite in my house. It came to us from my mom's friend Juli, has been altered quite a bit over the years, and finally I have perfected it into the glorious meal it is today.

1 can each: kidney beans, northern beans, black beans, chile peppers, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, whole-kernel corn.
to taste: tiny pinch cumin, paprika, chile powder, tiny pinch sugar, splash of lime juice
splash liquid smoke or Bragg's liquid amino

Obviously, rinse the beans in a large colander, and don't drain the corn. Put in the Crock-Pot for a couple hours, or simmer in the stovetop, whatever your preference. Garnish with your preferred taco fixings, a heap of nutritional yeast, and lots of corn chips. I actually skip the spoon and eat it like chips and dip.

Formerly I added onion and garlic powder, and one jar of taco sauce. This is fine without them, though. Also, the original recipe called for a pound of ground beef, browned, but everyone I tried that on (back in the pre-veg days) agreed it was better without the meat. As is everything else I can think of.

Even though it's spring and I normally don't enjoy hot soups during warm weather, we usually eat taco soup all year long because it's just that good.

Barley baby

I'm discovering the joys of barley as a rice substitute. It's substantial, readily available, flavorful, and cooks in 10 minutes. Last night I made barley paella, and it was good despite the lack of garlic.

You take:

1 can veggie broth (I used one 1-pint jar of my homemade veggie broth)
a jar of roasted red peppers
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen baby limas
1 carrot, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
a large pinch of turmeric (roughly 1/4 teaspoon)
a good amount paprika (1/2 teaspoon?)
salt and pepper to taste

Dump it all into a saucepan, bring to a boil, add 1 cup quick-cooking barley, cover and simmer 10 minutes, and eat! Those without garlic allergies can saute a couple cloves in oil before adding everything else. If you're doing that, might as well soften your carrot and peppers at the same time.

I haven't tried other grains as a rice stand-in, in part because Jax turned out to like barley quite a lot. At first it reminded my spouse of the smell of beer, but aside from that it's been a nice find on my part.