Month: September 2012

Posted on

Breakfast cups

image

Breakfast cups or what to do with those leftover fajitas… You know how everything always seems to come in boxes and quantities for a church group? Or at least a family of 8. Well in my case, we currently are a family of 2, sometimes even a family of 1 and most of the packaged things are just too much. I guess we could just resign ourselves to eating the same thing for the next week, twice a day…  Are we just that spoiled? Anyone like to eat the same all week? If you have an answer, please do share. As for myself since I don’t like to waste things, I am always looking for different uses for the ‘rest’of the package. Fajita “wraps” are great for just that, you can turn them into desert (brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon), or breakfast, they don’t mind one bit 😉

imageI promise that after this, I will try and not just post breakfast recipes. Actually, I got an awesome one coming up next. Nelson offered to make dinner the other night. And not by buying it at a restaurant (the usual path of this) OMG I can hardly believe it! And he made one of the best soups ever! In fact I had it for breakfast this morning, it was THAT good. But even better than the soup? Shhhht! Don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to break the spell, but Nelson started to want to cook!!!! So now maybe I can stop worrying that I might starve when I am sick sometime or when we have kids down the road, they’ll eat only frozen pizza when I am out. Can’t say it enough, I am so thrilled! So Ladies (and fellas) 😉 there IS hope. And there can be more than one good cook in one household 🙂

image

But enough gushing, on with the show, just stay tuned for the Pepper & Mushroom Soup, coming up …

image

Ingredients

per person

  • 2 fajita size tortillas
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 slices of prosciutto or ham (leave out to keep vegetarian)
  • 1/4 cup shredded cheddar
  • 1/4 cup (packed) baby spinach leaves
  • (optional: a couple of pieces of tomato)

imagePeppered ham is wonderful too!

Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 375ºF
    2. Using a muffin pan or fluted Madeleine cups on a cookie sheet, form the fajita into it. It is easiest by ‘pleating’ the sides as you go around.
    3. Place the prosciutto into the created cup, followed by the spinach and the cheese. (If you are making the vegetarian option, the cheese goes on the bottom, below the spinach)image
  1. Carefully crack one egg into each cup (add a couple of pieces of tomato, if you like), and place in the middle of the pre heated ovenimage
  2. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until eggs are set. ( The ones below I turned the broiler on for a couple of minutes at the end, but wasn’t careful enough=blackened)

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Sweet & Spicy Pretzel Mix

image

I admit, I did not make the pretzels. I only made them into something. Something better, or so I like to think.
I started out with no salt added pretzels. Why? Because there is so much sodium in and ON regular pretzels that I’d rather just add some myself. At least then I know how much and I can use my RealSalt or Himalayan salt. This is a super easy snack mix that looks and tastes a lot more expensive than it is to make. Make a double quantity and serve it up for cocktail hour at your next dinner party.

image

Ingredients

  • 2 cups salt free pretzels
  • 1/2 cup pecans or almonds
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
  • salt shaker with salt of choice

image

Directions

  1. Pre heat oven to 300ºF
  2. In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar and stir until dissolved.
  3. Add the cayenne and chipotle, adjust the spice level down if necessary (start with just 1/2 teaspoon cayenne and omit the chipotle, if you are sensitive to heat) and mix well
  4. Add the pretzels and toss until evenly coated, then add the nuts and mix until they are coated too.
  5. Spread in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake 15 to 20 minutes.
  6. Let cool completely before serving.

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Better-for-you Gluten Free Brownies

imagebrownie and sunshine 🙂

imagebrownie, no sunshine. Oh yeah, the thing in the middle there? A overly cooked white chocolate chip…

I wanted to do something a bit special, celebratory for our 1 year anniversary and how better to celebrate than with something sweet and chocolatey? Yes, it is true, today my little blog turns one!

Therefore today’s recipe had to be a little special, so ‘common’ brownies were not going to cut it and since I don’t like things that are very sweet anyway, a standard recipe would not have been my thing. I have often felt that there are too many products and recipes out there that are, for example, gluten free, but now there are 18 eggs in them, or they are low fat but have twice as much sugar. So I challenged myself, why not combine some of the restrictions people face into one recipe without adding extra “bad stuff”?  A lot of folks have issues digesting gluten + diabetics should be real careful eating sugar (and I don’t like lots of it, + it’s really not good for you) + most people watch the amount of fat they consume: I was setting out with quite a lofty goal. Can’t be done, you say? Well, I just think I might have nailed it! Best of all, if you just happen to be vegan, you can make this too 🙂

And since the weather looked a good deal like fall today I added another good for you ingredient: Pumpkin, to make it moist (also packs vitamin E, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Iron, Manganese and is a good source of fiber) and chick pea flour to keep it gluten free. I did have a whole big bag of chickpea flour, from who knows what recipe originally that I just rediscovered last week in making Socca.

By the way, get Besan from the Indian grocer, much cheaper than other healthfood store brands. As a matter of fact, anything you can buy at an ethnic store will be cheaper. If it is considered a specialty or an exotic item the grocery store will a) buy less of it, making it more expensive, and b) they can get away with charging premium dollar for ‘delicacies’ and ‘gourmet food’.For example, if you have a Asian grocer nearby, get your shallots there, also rice and rice noodles, dried or fresh will be a lot cheaper, so is Tofu, if you have that on your meal plan. Indian grocers usually carry various beans, peas and lentils, spices and almonds are usually less as well. And of course they have Besan, which is the chick pea flour we just talked about. But since it is not sold as a ‘gluten free’ flour… fraction of the cost!

But I digress, back to today’s topic: The gluten free, virtually fat free, low sugar, vegan anniversary BROWNIES! Yes, I am a tad exited about them, can you tell? 😉

image

Ingredients

  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/2 cup millet flour
  • 1/2 cup chick pea flour/besan
  • 1/2 cup sorghum flour
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup mixed chocolate chips (dairy free, or it’s no longer vegan) or 1/2 nuts 1/2 chips
  • 3/4 cups water
  • 1/4 cup raw sugar (turbinado)

image

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF
  2. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ baking dish (lasagna dish) with coconut oil
  3. In a large bowl mash the bananas and mix in the pumpkin puree, then stir in the cocoa powder.
  4. Add the brown rice syrup and the water and stir until well mixed
  5. Combine the three flours, the xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda
  6. Add the flours and 2 tablespoons of the raw sugar to the cocoa mixture and stir until well blended, then add the chocolate chips or nuts.
  7. Spread into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar
  8. Bake in the middle of the pre heated oven for 45-50 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  9. Let cool completely before cutting, or you’ll have fudge brownies

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Rosemary Black Pepper Socca

image

Socca, a delicious street food from the south of France, more exactly Nice (in Switzerland, Nizza as the city is known in italian) is something I just recently discovered. I know, right? not while travelling in France, mind you, but living on the good old East Coast of the US. Which just goes to show that good food knows no boundaries.

image

“La socca de Nice, ou socca caouda, est un des plats les plus populaires de Nice semblable à une grande crêpe mais à base de farine de pois chiches et cuite au feu de bois.
A l’origine, c’était le plat du pauvre, bon marché et consistante.”

Basically saying: Nice’s ‘Socca’ is one of the most popular dishes from that region, resembling a big crêpe but made from chickpea flour and cooked over wood fire. Originating as poor folk’s dish, cheap and filling

Today, it is as much casual as it can be sophisticated, and a crowd pleaser at any dinner invite or potluck. Plus since it is naturally gluten free and vegan, can be served to most anyone. Best of all it is super easy to make but tastes incredible! Use a cast iron skillet for best results but I have also come across folks making it in a  pie dish, during my internet research. Traditionally it is made on a large copper disk, over very high heat and in a very hot oven. As with most street food (I was going to say any, but the Malaysian Roti Canai might be the exception to the rule) it is easy to prepare and therefore I figured must be a good candidate for outdoor cooking.

I have even had success making this directly on the  camp fire (since traditionally it is cuite au feu de bois, I had to) while camping but there are no pictures to prove it, so in this day and age, it never happened, lol. The one I did manage to get pictures of was made on my camp stove. And maybe here would be a good spot to apologize for the quality of some of the pics in this post, it was quite dark when I took them. Though I have to say, my headlamp functioned quite well as a backup flash for my cell phone, no?

image

You can make this easily in the oven at home, but since I had a little weekend away at a campfire planned, I decided to hone my socca making skills on a real fire. Maybe not entirely traditional, since much thicker than usual, but entirely too yummy not to share 🙂  I might post a more traditional version at some later time, we’ll see, but for camp fire cooking, this is taking it out of the hot dogs and smores category that often comes to mind when hearing ‘camping’. To make things extra easy, combine the flour, salt and pepper in a zip top bag before leaving and all you have to do is add the oil, water and rosemary at cooking time!

imageHere shown with beef and red pepper kebabs, a match made in heaven!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chick pea flour*
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 onion diced
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary

*chickpea flour can be found at many health food stores or the gluten free section of your grocery store. But the cheapest way is to find an Indian grocer and get it there, it’s called ‘Besan’image

Directions

  1. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a 8″ cast iron skillet*, cook the onions until soft, turn down the heat and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes until starting to brown and caramelize. Set aside return the skillet to the heat, and keep heating on medium high.
  2. Mix chick pea flour, water and 1 tsp salt, stirring with a whisk or fork until all lumps are gone. Set aside (you can make this and use it right away or set it aside for several hours, it’s all good)
  3. Over high heat, in the same skillet, heat the remaining oil, then pour in the batter. After cooking for one minute, sprinkle the top evenly with the cooked onions and rosemary, and remaining 1/2 tsp salt, then cover with a lid until cooked through and the top is set about 5-7 minutes. Serve hot as a side to roasted meat or eat on its own.

* If you have a 10″ or larger skillet, the result will be thinner and take less time cooking.

The setting during the day…

image© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Apple Ring Pancakes

It’s fall and with that: Apple season!
And with an abundance of fresh apples the kitchen is beckoning  to turn them into… I don’t know… stuff. Yummy stuff  😉

image

The idea for this was partially inspired by my memories of Basel (my hometown) and the 2 week long autumn fair ‘Herbschtmäss’ that happens every year in, I wanna say late October. I am not certain on the exact timing all I know it is usually when you get cold toes for the first time that fall and you might want to dig out your gloves. The fair which is all over town has rides (like any good fair, I guess) but the best part are the places that have artist displaying their crafts and the food. It is traditionally the start of the colder weather, people start thinking about presents and the winter holidays coming up. But my fondest memory is of the hot apple fritters with cinnamon that one place (and one place only) was offering during those two weeks. You would get them and huff and puff for a while so you don’t completely burn yourself, but I wanna say, a little pain was often involved, it is just so hard to resist that tempting smell…   However, to bring this story full circle, the fried apple rings are maybe not the most health conscious treat out there, plus making anything deep fried is a lot of work, so abundance of apple was not going to equal fried food for this girl. And while this train of though could lead to many an end, the one my brain spat out was ‘breakfast!’ Right, what better way to use an apple than making them into breakfast?

image

This is also a good way to add some fruit into your child’s breakfast, all while making it fun! If you’re really good, you might be able to preserve the hole in the middle that filled in with batter in my case. But I did also not try very hard to keep it, if that makes sense, since to me the shape was not as important as it might be to a 5 year old 🙂

image

Ingredients

  • 1-2 larger apples (I used a gala apple) cut cross wise into 1/4″ slices
  • 1 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp oil or melted butter
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp turbinado sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • cinnamon-sugar and maple syrup as toppings
  • some oil for the pan

image

Directions

  1. Cut apple into 1/4″ sliced crosswise, then using a small round cookie cutter or glass, cut out the core of the apple from each slice. (You can also use an apple corer, then slice the apple)
  2. Make the batter: Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar until combined, then add the milk, oil and egg.
  3. Mix with a fork until just combined, some lumps are fine
  4. Preheat a skillet over medium heat, rub the interior with an oiled paper towel.
  5. Using a toothpick, dip the apple rings into the batter, turn to coat both sides and place in skillet to cook, about three at a time.
  6. Turn when they are golden brown and finish cooking on the second side, being careful to turn the heat down if necessary. (You want to make sure the apple gets mostly cooked before the pancake burns) Set aside, cover and keep warm on a pre-warmed plate or in the oven. Cook the remainder of the apple slices.
  7. Serve sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar or syrup and be happy you did not just have plain carbs for breakfast.

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Coconut Super-Power Bars

image

Here shown with chocolate drizzles…

I was reorganizing my kitchen cabinets the other day, (can you associate with this?) and found that the recesses of the cabinet used as pantry hold much more than can be readily found by me on any given day. Some needed to be tossed 🙁 had been lost in the depths too long, there were things I didn’t know I had anymore but had been looking for and then of course there are the quadruplicates , I mean, duplicates.

Several (open) bags of extra dark chocolate chips, about 4 different ‘grinds’ of unsweetened coconut, all opened too, of course, and several jars with 3 or 4 tablespoons of honey or brown rice syrup were retrieved from the depths of my cabinet. I did promise myself to not get so ahead of myself again, let’s see if it holds next time I face a sale at the store…

So after my botched attempt at making coconut butter (I think the very fine Indian store coconut I had, was a just a bit too dry) I came up with plan B, and a fine plan it turned out to be. My boyfriend who is training to run the NY City Marathon this year, swears it’s those bars that made him finish the last couple of 15 mile training runs with ease. He swears they gave him super-powers, hence the name, they previously were ‘just’ power bars 🙂 And I’ll let you in on a secret, he doesn’t even like coconut ;P but if you bake it until the bars get brown, careful it’s right before the ‘too much’ stage, the coconut gets a taste similar to dark chocolate, add a handful of morsels and the deal is fixed. Just to calm your conscience, yes, he does know there’s coconut in there.

image

Vegan, gluten free and grain free and if you don’t count the coconut as nut (they really are considered one of the largest seeds, or technically a drupe, says Wiki) it’s nut free as well 🙂 Oh and don’t forget the power of the sprouted lentils.

image See the little sprout poking out? And I think I spot a lentil too…

And please don’t be discouraged by the seemingly long ingredient list, it is totally worth making and there really isn’t that much effort required.

Since the sprouting takes some time, you want to start this several days before you want to make the bars. In the summer it only takes 2 days in my kitchen, but in the colder months, it could be three or four. Or if your kitchen is highly air-conditioned

image

Ingredients

  • 4 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 3/4 cups red lentils, sprouted, divided (makes about 2-2 1/2 cups sprouted)
  • 3/4 cups date pieces
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/2 cup tapioca flour*
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips (make sure they are vegan or the recipe is not…)
  • (optional: 1/2 cup sliced almonds: not nut free anymore, but super yummy)
  •  1/4 cup chia seed
  • 1/4 cup flax seed meal
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • (optional: a handful of chocolate chips to melt and drizzle over top)

*I am sure other gluten free flour would work as well

Directions

  1. Sprout the lentils until the little shoot is about 1/2″ to 3/4″ long (more details on sprouting here), reserve 1 cup,image
  2. Preheat oven to 350ºF
  3. Mix the chia seed and the flax seed meal in a medium bowl with 1 1/2 cups water, set aside for 10 minutes
  4. Blend the coconut and dates until finely mixed, then add all but the reserved 1 cup of lentils, blend until you have a sticky mass (or mess)
  5. Add the chia mix and the brown rice syrup, pulse until mixed in
  6. In  a large bowl,  combine tapioca flour and 1/2 cup water, the reserved sprouted lentils, and scrape the mixture from the blender into it, stir until incorporated.
  7. Add the oats, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips (and almonds if using) and evenly spread on a silicon mat lined baking sheet (Make sure you use a baking sheet with sides)
  8. Bake in the 350ºF oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Or until nicely browned. Remove from oven, let cool for about 1 hour then cut into bars. Spread the bars onto two (2) baking sheets, preheat the oven to 250ºF and bake for an additional hour, I sheet on the lower rack, the other on top, switching position after half an hour. This step is more to firm up the bars and kinda make them drier and more portable.
  9. Cool on wire rack and enjoy! I store mine in the freezer so I can just grab a couple at a  time.

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Bircher Müesli

image

You may know versions of it as ‘musli ‘, but this cereal based dish has its roots firmly planted in Switzerland. Dr. Bircher decided, at a time when everything was cooked due to germs, that there were benefits to real and raw foods.

Per my research, for those who care to dive a bit deeper: Dr. Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner  (or in german) (August 22, 1867, Aarau – January 24, 1939) was a Swiss physician and a pioneer in nutritional research. At his sanatorium in Zürich, a balanced diet of raw vegetables and fruit was used as a means to heal patients, contrary to the beliefs commonly held at the end of the 19th century.image

Bircher-Benner changed the eating habits of the late 19th century. He believed eating raw and whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, grains and nuts was healthier than cooked, he also rejected the use of refined products such as white flour and white sugar. His ideas may not all have been correct, he believed solar energy stored in food (in a not strictly defined or explained way) was what made them better and not the quantity or quality of nutrients. His theory of life was based on harmony between people and nature. Some of his ideas originated from observing the daily life of shepherds in the Swiss Alps, who lived a simple and healthy life.

image

By now this recipe has as many variations as there are days in a week, multiplied by the number of people in Switzerland (my Dad says we Swiss people are born with the Bircher Müesli recipe attached to the umbilical cord 😉 this is my basic recipe and it’s variations.

 

Walking though the aisles in a grocery store, you will find commercially made musli mixes, including everything from dried fruit to chocolate chips. This is the commercially available basic Swiss version I found at the store the other day!

 

image

 

It’s quite a popular food these days, it seems to me. But here I am taking you back to the roots, the origins of where this all came from. (using my important voice)

 

And let’s face it, why waste money on prepackaged stuff when you can make a better and healthier-for-you version easily at home? No cooking required and easy to make, this recipe is very versatile and adapts through the seasons depending on your fridge or gardens content of fruits and berries.

A great summer meal, I love it anytime of day, but in Switzerland, it is not considered a breakfast food. It is eaten as alight lunch or dinner with a buttered slice of crusty bread. (We love our bread) …And sometimes some whipped cream on top…

image

I always put it up to my Dad being a foreigner, him never being super exited about Bircher Müesli, but now I am wondering if it is a guy thing. Let me explain. The other morning over breakfast, Nelson kept talking about ‘having some ‘Beatle Music’ and pssssshhhh totally over my ehad. Well, I figured it out Beatle Music = Bircher Müesli, hahaha. Of course I thought he meant ‘beetle music’ and was utterly confused, imagining a line of beetles tapping their little feet (or legs?) rhythmically, so sadly I was left with the impression that maybe he did not like my ‘Beatle Music’ turns out he does, it’s after all juts a better version of oatmeal, cold and with fruit!

image

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup rolled wheat, barley, millet, and/or rye flakes (you can use all oats instead)
  • 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
  • 2 tablespoons raisins
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 yogurt (optional)
  • 1 apple
  • 1 banana
  • 1 1/2 cup mixed fruits and berries (plums, peaches, apples, pears, oranges, grapes, strawberries or even frozen blueberries, the possibilities are endless)

optional: you can also add chopped roasted hazelnuts, pieces of dried fruit or banana)

image

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cereal flakes (or just the rolled oats), raisins, almonds and hazelnuts and 1 1/2 cups of the milk.
  2. Grate an apple on the large holes of a grater, stir to combine.
  3. Cover and let stand 1 hour or until the oats are softened.
  4. Slice the banana, chop the peach and the berries (used in the picture are peach, plum, strawberry, banana and apple) or whatever other fruit you have on hand.
  5. Uncover the bowl, stir in the yogurt (if using) and the rest of the milk (You can add more if it looks dry) then add all the fruit, gently mix so one person doesn’t get all the fruit and serve.
  6. Store any leftovers in the fridge and eat within 2 or 3 days

image

Healthy Breakfast!

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

Campfire Chili

imageCooking under the stars always makes things have a special taste. Whether cooked over the fire or on a camp stove does not seem to matter. I guess you could even get ok good results at home, IF you really have to 😉 but I strongly believe the view and therefore the mood you’re in while cooking influences the result and how could anything not be fantastic, having a view like that?  ‘Cooked with love’ as my Peruvian friend likes to say. Or maybe ‘with peace in your heart’ would be more fitting.image

For this easy and quick dinner I am using a variety of beans, to add some visual as well as textural interest, and you can certainly substitute your favorite beans for what was used here. Making this at home I would totally use frozen beans (I cook dried beans and freeze them in portions) but since this was going to be one of our optional meals, I brought some cans along so it wouldn’t spoil if we decided against it. If using cans just make sure you rinse them really well, they usually pack quite a punch of sodium. To get ‘the look’ below, use 3 different types of beans and some corn (the regular size can, US 15.5 oz) just understand that variety comes at a price: This dish feeds half an army (6 people) And since it was just the two of us, we ate it three times, with a side of cheddar corn muffins. The really awesome part about the quantity is we had leftovers (stored on the ice in the cooler) to take home and have for dinner after our trip. Nothing like coming back from an active vacation and dinner is ready 🙂

image

You may have notices that there is no onion in this recipe, and you could certainly add onion. We wanted to. Sadly for us however, the onion sat safely back at home in a bag with the extra cucumbers from the market, in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. But as I learned, with the right (rest of the) ingredients, that isn’t a problem at all and we could not even tell it was missing at all. Use a big can of San Marzano tomatoes if available, they are awesome for Chili. Yes, I am aware that they are Italian :), but trust me, makes all the difference. That and my secret ingredient, the steak seasoning.

imagecooking with wind guard and view of the lake

Ingredients

  • 1 can dark red kidney beans (15,5 oz)
  • 1 can butter beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can small red beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can no salt added corn (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can San Marzano tomatoes whole peeled (or stewed, chopped tomatoes) 28 oz (big can)
  • 2 lb mixed ground meat (half venison, half beef is fab)
  • 4-6 tablespoons medium to hot chili powder (Penzey’s makes an awesome one)
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder
  • 2 tsp steak seasoning (such as the one from La Cense or  Chicago Steak Seasoning)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Heat some oil in a pot over medium, add the ground meat, and proceed to cook and break apart using a spatula until the meat is cooked and not pink anymore.
  2. Add the spices and the tomatoes, then stir in the rinsed beans and corn (don’t open all the cans before hand, in case you run out of space, you can pass on one of the cans, bug make sure the ones you use are well rinsed)
  3. Cook until slightly thickened, taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. The longer you stew it the more the flavors will blend (or heat, cook 10 minutes, and wait for the leftovers to do that)
  4. Serve with some Cheddar Corn Muffins and maybe a glass of full bodied red…

By the way, this is soooo easy to make, even a novice cook can whip it up in no time!

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

English Muffin Breakfast Eggs

Breakfast is a very important meal and can start your day right or set you up for hunger bangs by 10 am. And as anyone knows, when you are outdoors a lot hiking, kayaking or even just relaxing by the water, food tastes twice as good. Or maybe you get twice as hungry? Who knows. In order to fill our bellies and give us some energy for the hiking and whatever else we could come up with to fill the day ahead, we dug through the cooler and found some of our yummy supplies that had lived through my boyfriend’s searches for snacks. Okay, we planned a bit better than that, but you never know with hungry guys, they can mess up meal plans 😉 Eggs keep pretty well in a cooler, so we had ourselves some of those for breakfast on day three of our last camping trip. Prosciutto and cheese are also stuff that keeps rather well and luckily were not all gone from snacking or making our Campfire Chili.

Ingredients

(per person)

  • 1 english muffin, split
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 slices of prosciutto (or sliced ham)
  • 1 oz of cheddar*, thinly sliced

*it works with other types of cheese that melt as well, and we have even tried feta with good results

Directions

  1. Place a skillet over medium high heat, add a little oil, then carefully crack the eggs into the skillet.
  2. When the eggs are near ready, place the english muffin pieces face down next to the egg to heat up, then turn over and layer the prosciutto and cheese onto of the bread and slide the eggs on top.
  3. Enjoy by a waterfall (optional, but recommended)

and if the egg white gets out of hand, just flip it over like we did!

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Posted on

making Butter

A while back I discovered that my farmers market offers raw milk, and I started drinking raw milk again. I switch back and forth between regular (cow) milk and goat milk. I have made goat cheese and fromage blanc and mozzarella, and butter. You’d be surprised to find just how easy this is, using modern convenience tools like a blender. No shaking a barrel for hours and NO, nononono, you do not get one of these: 

         or 

To me, raw milk is the only milk worth drinking, hands down, and not just due to the taste (more here). Not only are my food decisions based on how any given food tastes, but also how it is raised. And raw milk dairies are (at least in this country) organic, my milk is from pastured, grass fed cows (you know, happy out on the pasture vs. in a dark stable tied up somewhere), so far all the raw milk diaries I have visited care a great deal about their animals and take care of them like you and I would. From a regulatory stand point, raw dairies are generally under much more scrutiny, for cleanliness, safety etc. The cows have names. Ok that part might not make the milk taste better, but wouldn’t you agree that if you name your animals, they are closer to your heart than if they just have a number? 🙂

04_23-AntVollon-MndOfButter

Mound of butter, by painter Antoine Vollon

Ever read the label of supermarket butter? One of the most surprising ingredients often is coloring. Now why would there be food coloring in your butter making it, presumably prettier, more buttery looking maybe, that is more yellow? Do we and if so why do we think it’s better if it’s yellow? If butter isn’t yellow after it’s made, then why would we think it needs to be? Complex questions you are asking, or then again not. Butter USED to be more yellow, at least in 1875 (see the painting above) when the cows where still out on the field, eating what they were meant to eat : Grass. Since most of your generic super market cows here in the US are kept indoors and fed a mixture of corn and cornstalks fortified with vitamins and minerals, the color doesn’t turn out quite the same. And it seems that people are smarter than we give ourselves credit for and somehow remember that butter is supposed to be yellow and it is more nutritious that way and this is where we get duped: color is added and our little  minds are happily appeased into thinking yummy healthy butter. A little sad, I know. BUT since it is soooo easy to make your own, from good fresh cream, you can have great butter again in less than 15 minutes of work. When you start making butter you will notice that the color of the resulting product changes throughout the season, in the spring when the cows are out on the lush, fast growing spring pasture, the butter is a sunflower yellow, almost orange! But no matter what time of  year, there still is more color in it than the regular stuff from the store. And taste!

First off, you do need cow milk to start. Goat milk is higher in fat,but naturally homogenized, so that the cream does not separate and rise to the top.

  vs 

Brown Swiss (Cow)                                           Domestic Goat

Juuuuust in case you were doubting your animal knowledge 😉

After bringing the milk home (it comes in half-gallon glass bottles) I pour it into a wide mouth glass container that I keep for just that purpose and stick it in the fridge. It needs to sit overnight since the transport home and the pouring it from on e in to another container mixes up the milk, like I do by shaking it before pouring a glass, if I am not going for butter. Wide mouth because the next morning, I can easily scoop the cream off the top using my silver gravy ladle from the thrift store.

Gently skim the top layer off the milk, it will appear a bit darker, cream colored instead of white (no pun intended) and put it right into the blender bowl.

After that all that’s left to do is whirl the cream until the fat particles start clumping together.

image

The process goes in stages, at first the cream is liquid and gets sloshed around, then it becomes thicker and has a creamy consistency (In my blender it never get’s whipped like when using egg beaters, but noticeably thicker, but if you use egg beaters, it becomes whipped cream first, the kind Grandma used to make, thick and rich, juts keep going you’re not there yet)

image

keep blending on low, if you have that setting and the cream will start to get liquid again, separating into lumps of yellow goodness and buttermilk.

image

it’s just starting…

image

here you can see from the side, how it separates

image

image

You can rinse the butter in a bowl with ice water, using your hands to ‘knead out’ the rest of the buttermilk but I find the automated way a tad easier and since the blender needs to be washed anyways…image

just make sure you rinse all the butter milk out, or it will go rancid.

 My lump of butter!
image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade