Make Your Own Granola

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

My switch to eating local, whole, & organic foods has meant that I end up making things from scratch. Before I overhauled my eating habits, I would never have considered the possibility of making granola from scratch, but here I am with a giant container of this awaiting me for breakfast:

Honestly, this is far less difficult that in would appear. Basically you just melt some sugar in orange juice and honey on the stove, stir in some oats, almonds, walnuts, flax seed, vanilla, and oil. Then put it on a cookie sheet in the oven. When finished, stir in some cranberries.

Check out the recipe for Power Granola pictured above. I promise you, it's scrumptious. I made a double batch myself. The result wasn't as crunchy as most normal granola (in a good way), which I contributed to using only one cookie tray (resulting in a doubly thick layer while baking).

Give this a try for yourself, and post the results below.

Food Buzz: What the Foodies are Saying

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I just stumbled across the site foodbuzz where people submit posts and recipes, which are then voted up or down by readers so that the cream rises to the top.

For the full experience, I used foodbuzz to help me with breakfast, and settled on Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes, courtesy of Whole Grain Gourmet.

Generally I prefer thin pancakes, but with whole wheat you generally end up with a thick, dense stack that is a chore to finish by the end. These however, lived up to their billing, and were suprisingly fluffy, sweet, and generally fantastic. It's true, you can basically eat them without syrup. I added a little bit of Ela Family Farms Peach Butter here and there, which ends up tasting more like apricot than peach even though the only ingredients are peaches (?). I vastly prefer (and obsess about) their Peach/Apple, Peach/Pear, or Pear/Apple.

Take a look at foodbuzz, and if you sign up, befriend thereluctanteater!

Griddled Sesame and Garlic Tofu with Wilted Bok Choy

Thursday, October 2, 2008

We're almost at the two month mark since I've switched over to eating local, organic, and whole foods, so I thought I'd share the most successful meal to date. Honestly, almost everything I've prepared in the last two months has tasted better than anything I have cooked in the past, and so far this is the only meal I've made more than once.

Behold: Griddled Sesame and Garlic Tofu with Wilted Bok Choy, from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook

Its resume?

• Forced Janet to admit that tofu can be more than just a wet slippery block of mush
  
• Wooed non-vegetarian dinner guests
  
• After bringing this to a potluck, I received "thank you" emails from two strangers (now friends!). One even asked if he could buy some from me in the future!

Seriously, give this recipe a try, it's easier than it's name suggests. Depending on where you live, you still might be able to buy bok choy at your local farmers market. Two tips:

1. Don't forget to marinate the tofu beforehand
   
2. Using pineapple juice isn't any tastier than plain old water (which is far more local!)
   

If you decide to cook this, please share your results with everyone in the comments below (I'd love to get some pics and will take some myself next time I make it).

At Least PETA is Good for Something: Wild-Mushroom Stroganoff

Monday, September 1, 2008

Somehow (don't ask), I stumbled across PETA's Vegetarian Starter Kit. I really don't pay any attention to their organization, it's a bit too extreme for my tastes. So aside from a bizarre collage of celebrities and some disturbing images of mistreated animals, you get to some tasty looking recipes. That is, if you didn't just lose your appetite. [Aside: Pamela Anderson spends her life as a piece of meat, but doesn't eat any? Is that irony?]

So, aside from a good chuckle, the starter kit was good for this awesome recipe for Wild Mushroom Stroganoff:



My local farmers market has some pretty rockin' mushrooms this time of year, and basically we went to the store for just a few items: mushroom gravy (which interestingly is interchanged with 4 cups sauce (espagnole) and vegetable stock on the website recipe), sour cream, and pasta (although many farmers markets sell pasta, Boulder's does not for some reason [9/11/08 Edit: They do now, on Saturdays only] ). Everything else is stuff you should be able to get at a farmer's market or spices that you may already have on hand.

Diagnosis? Awesome! Having tasted it before the sour cream went in, I'm not convinced it's a necessary addition. Once again: using real ingredients makes you a better chef overnight!

I wasn't sure if anyone cared about the specific meals I've been eating, so you can thank loyal reader Jess for this post!