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.