eazy peezy tuna salad

I was so hungry for tuna salad but I didn't feel like eating the mayo or ranch dressing depending on who's making the salad...

I remembered a friend of mine used avocado to bring her tuna together... It tasted so good!!


2 cans of tuna, drained
1 whole avocado
1 t. lemon juice
celery salt to taste

scoop out one cup and settle on some baby spinach and drizzle with hemp oil vinaigrette

2 spoonfuls hemp oil
2 spoonfuls balsamic vinegar or lemon juice depending on taste
stevia
salt



You can add a side of grapefruit salad...

3 grapefruits, just meat, no pulp or membrane... makes for a bitter salad
2 cara cara oranges or 5 cuties
strawberries
halved grapes
cantalope
stevia or honey
a dusting of cinnamon or 1 T mint leaves, finely chopped

Mango vinaigrette with hemp oil

I am on this detox diet based on the book Clean by Alejandro Junger, M.D.  and it's HARD!!  There are recipes in the back of the book for you to follow and they are wonderful but I am all about coloring the sky pink or orange or anything other than what is normal.  I will follow basic concepts in cooking, but given a recipe, I WILL NOT FOLLOW IT.  I don't know what it is.  I squirm when I have to use measuring tools...

...oh never mind...


anyways.. the vinaigrette...

I have found a wonderful dressing that is very good for you... salads have awoken again...anything vegetable even fruit salad can bathe in this and be good for you...

6 spoons of hemp oil
1 cup mango (I used frozen mango pieces that may or may not have included pineapple and peaches)
2 spoons of balsamic or red wine vinegar
1/2 c. lemon juice
1 minced clove of garlic
1 T minced ginger root
1 pkt stevia or to taste... some like it sweeter
salt
pepper

Put all the ingredients in a pint jar... the blender blades will fit over any small mouth jar.  Blend until creamy.  My mango pieces were frozen so the process took a little longer.

I plan to use on my salad tonight along with my chicken breast.

(caution:  do not use hemp in cooking when it calls for cooking above 325 degrees... you loose the quality.)

Enjoy!!

palates, plates and pâtes

I was going through all of my cookbooks to purge, combine and reminisce when I came upon my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook.  I grew up with this as my only viable cookbook.  Even at age 6, I knew Mrs. Crocker knew what she was doing.

Now, as an adult, I have taken to the computer to glean advice from Giada, Alton Brown, Taste of Home, Allrecipes.com, etc., etc. etc.

Is there still room for Mrs. Crocker and her gooseliver bonbons?

warming the kitchen with chicken and wild rice casserole

So, I've been frozen for the past month and just now crawled out of my cryogenic phase to warm my kitchen for some much needed warmth...

My aunt had an awesome casserole she always made which included beef.  I'm not much of a beef casserole type person.. so I used my ground chicken instead....

Pour 4 cups of water over 1/2 cup of  uncooked wild rice and 1/2 cup of uncooked brown rice ( or 1 cup wild rice).   Let stand 15 minutes.

Drain

In a 9 x 13 baking dish with the drained rice...

add 1 package of french onion soup mix
2 cans of mushrooms
2 cups of  chicken stock
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 or 1/2 cups ...peas, corn, diced carrots, cabbage, broccoli (opt.)

Saute until translucent :
3/4 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. red onion
1 T minced garlic

Add to the above mixture in the baking dish.

Brown 1 lb of ground chicken or turkey, season with
season salt
pepper
celery salt

Add to above mixture.

In the same pan as you cooked the meat add 3 T butter and 3 T. of flour, white or wheat and blend in to make a rue over med low heat.

Add 1 cup of chicken or beef stock slowly, whisking all the while.

Add in 1 cup of milk and turn up heat to med high.  When mixture come to a simmer, let cook for 2 minutes then add to the mixture in the baking dish.  Mix all ingredients well.

Put in 300 degree oven for 2 hours if you need the heat or 350 for 1 hour if you're hungry.  Add more chicken stock if it becomes dry.
 

It's great warmed over several times... actually, it gets better.  You can also use leftover rotisserie chicken instead of ground chicken.  I had some leftover smoked chicken from a neighborhood Texas BBQ restaurant.. AMAZING!!

It's great also to freeze in smaller containers to take to work, which is where the remaining casserole went this morning ....  so no pictures to post... Sorry!

Almond Toffee

Here's one for you candy makers... a non-thermometer toffee recipe.  It's my husband's grandfather's recipe.  I ALWAYS make it for Christmas and it makes the house smell so yummy.  I have tried to make it in the summer and it was a flop, literally.  You need to flash cool the toffee otherwise it doesn't taste at all the same.  Don't get me wrong.  You can never screw this up.  There's a quick fix called ice cream.

    Good luck!



1 lb butter
2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup whole almonds

Make sure you have your equipment handy... the process goes fast.

2 cookie sheets with sides, oven mitt, hand blender or mixer and a wooden spoon.

Put the butter and sugar into a non-teflon sauce pan. Slowly melt the butter and sugar while mixing them with a hand blender

Mix on on high over high heat until the butter disappears.

Mix with your wooden spoon continuously until it turns a light caramel.

Add the almonds.  You will start smelling a little burning.... don't panic.  It's the caramelized butter smell.  Keep mixing.  Your arm will get tired.  Keep mixing.

When it gets to the point you start freaking out.. "AM I BURNING IT!!"  stage, it's time to pour onto your cookie sheets.

See the puffs of "steam"... it's done.   Don't try to take pictures and cook toffee...dangerous and  just those few seconds can make the toffee a little too "toffee-ish"

The bottom of your sauce pan will be burnt, that only means you did it right.  Don't freak out... it's sugar.. it will come off.   There will be small ribbons of darker toffee throughout your last cookie sheet.

And yes, you can put chocolate chips over the toffee before you take it outside.... let the chocolate chips melt (won't take long) and spread over the toffee.  Then take it outside to cool.

Carefully transfer the cookie sheets with the toffee out into a nearby snowbank or on your deck to cool.  When the bottoms are cooled, bring them indoors.

Taking a knife, point down, break it into pieces.

My advice is to bag it all up save for a handful and give it away.  When it's all out of the house, eat the pieces you have saved.




You're welcome.

Bailey's Irish Creammmmmmmmm

I am a happy person when I get to make this...

1 c. light cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 2/3 c. Irish whiskey (or that bottle of Jack that someone got you instead of Captain Morgan)
1 t. instant coffee
2 T chocolate syrup
1 t. vanilla
1 t. almond extract

1 pinch of fairy dust to remove the calories (optional )  Never tastes the same after that, though.. Kinda ruins the whole experience.

Blend for 20 seconds on high.  Chill or pour over ice and enjoy!!!

light rye protein bread - for bread machines

2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. rye flour
2 T olive oil
2 T honey or molasses
2 T chocolate milk
1 1/2 t. bread machine yeast
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/4 c. water
1/3 c. whey protein isolate (https://www.nutrabio.com)

Put all ingredients into the mixer and select dough.  When it's finished mixing then rising.  Knead on a floured counter. Spray a bread pan with cooking spray and place kneaded dough in the pan.  Let rise until 1 inch above the bread pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

My kids love this bread for breakfast with butter and brown sugar.  Mmmmmmm.